I'm in love with Henri.

Glad that Mr. Mud and I could both take the Friday off at a last minute's notice. With the rain pending as well as friend's plan to climb at Pinnacles for the weekend, this looked to be our only chance to get a ride in, so we made good use of it. It was a gorgeous day. …more…

Our friends Jeanne and Iztok invited a few friends to join them at Courtright for 4th of July, and friends invited friends… when the day arrived, we apparently got an Occupy Movement going — okay, not quite, but we got 15+ who showed up taking up four campsites along with the hardcore …more…

Created on May 3.
Updated on May 5 with my Taj Mahal trip report. Please scroll down.
Updated on May 7 with some random observations and thoughts.
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Wow, where do I start?! I remember asking my manager in the US what it was like when he visited India. …more…

Newly updated on May 1! (Please scroll down.)
It's been a few days since I arrived in China, but I just realized that I had not taken many photos. I'm posting below a few that I found in my phone. Not something you see everyday from else where in the world.
 
Breakfast buffet at the hotel in Beijing. …more…

 
 
What??? You started dinner without me??? (Note: she looks like our very own Roxy.)

 
A dog in a bar.

 
For more cuteness, see my post here.
 
 
 

Ok, now, I'm tired.

 
Did you just rob a bank, sweetie?

 
I dare you touch any of this.

 
How do you sing "do-re-mi" in meows?

 
A training buddy

 
Why does the dog always lose?

 
What? …more…

 
Thanks Charlie for the balloon!

It seems that I have not officially introduced Roxie, who has been with us since last May, although I did talk about her in this post.  After she came home that time, she stayed. On average, I let the kitties outside to play two to three times a week. …more…

A collection of old photos.

I'm having a Déjà vu… Oh yeah, I said the same thing back in 2006. But that was when I took a long break from rock climbing and before I started mountain biking. This time though, it was after a long break from my extensive riding (mainly mountain biking) in 2010. I guess I just went cold turkey. …more…

Tsinghua University — in Chinglish, I should call her my "mother school" — is where I did my undergrad. She just celebrated her 100th anniversary. The Northern American Tsinghua Alumni Association put together a Variety Show on May 24, 2011 in Flint Center, Cupertino. …more…

This video was from Friday, May 6, 2011. I haven't seen Roxie since that day. I like to think that the mole was Mother's Day present from Roxie.
To Roxie,
Baby, I know you are an outdoor kitty and you are born to explore. Or, maybe because you are such a cute cuddler that someone else has claimed …more…

I know I haven't been posting for quite a while. We haven't been getting out much — Erik's shoulder is injured and he was advised to stay away from climbing and mountain biking; plus, I have been quite absorbed in our research and preparation for our kitchen and living room remodeling. …more…

Little One and Mange wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Four years later, finally. I've wanted to post the photos for a long time because the photos brought back fond memories. And Erik looked so handsome in the tux!

I'll be honest. "Go with the flow." That was not a profound discovery through four years of marriage. It just summed up how this 3-day Labor Day weekend went for us… There were lots of plan changes, which I call "go with the flow". Here are just a few to illustrate the case:
Plan #1: Drive up …more…

For a while, it did not look like we would ever get away for this two week long vacation. Our last time taking such a vacation was two years ago when we visited Whistler, British Columbia in Canada. The fond memories lasted us for a long time — Erik was telling anyone who cares, or does not …more…

Little One's Report: Daddy did not come home this weekend…
听妈咪说爹地这个周末去和老朋友攀岩，所以这两个晚上是我们女人的世界，我们真高兴呀。我们其实很喜欢和爹地妈咪一起温馨，可是经常我和他们一起跳上床后 过一会，爹地就会突然坐起来冲着我瞪眼，吓得我一个激灵就 …more…

Normally, I don't re-post. But I just can't resist this one — the men are too cool and the cats are too cute. The post (already a re-post) did not provide the original source of the photos (shame!), so I apologize to the original composer of the collection. …more…

The socket and bit set on the right is for the Park Took Torque Wrench I recently purchased.
Now, I'd better go take my bike apart and give a thorough wipe down.
(Look, what Erik Got me for birthday last year!)
P.S. I just realized that this probably looked more like a Father's Day present than a …more…

My 12 year old nephew, Xin Ran, from China was on a tour in the U.S. A group of 34 middle school and high school students came to participate in a couple of robot competitions. Besides the two days in the competitions, a pan-America tour was arranged for them. …more…

愿更多的人能够加入关爱小动物的队伍里来。愿天下狗狗猫猫有吃有喝有人爱。愿天下有情人/猫/狗终成眷属。
笨嘴拙舌，直接上片吧。

有猫猫爱的日子真幸福呀。


That is if you move at all.
I normally do not advocate for any company or organization because I believe people are capable of making their own choices. But this time, I'd like to bring to everyone's attention this simple method of supporting good causes of your choice by just being alive. …more…

My post to Mud 'n Crud forum:
I just had an epiphany: A picture is worth a thousand words. So forget about a longer report. Here are the pictures. But first, thanks F4 for hosting the delicious hotpot dinner and the one of a kind birthday gift! …more…

Despite knowing that it would be a long drive, we didn't push for too early of a start. As a result, we did not get out of the house until 8am. It would be a very long day ahead of us.
We had four audio books in the car. Erik got those from the library and had been listening to some of them. …more…

After a full year of being home bound, we decided to take a road trip to Tucson, AZ for the holidays. We'll be gone for a week. Can we all survive? I am already missing them even though we have not left yet! Feeling anxious about the separation, I wrote following post (in Chinese) to the pet forum. …more…

Why does it bug me? Can't believe you have to ask —  Don't you see what's wrong here? It's asymmetric! Can that be even legal???
I even paused on my Henry Coe ride just so I can fix this messy situation:

There! This is better!

Haha… Just my rambling when it's raining outside.

I don't know!!! Argh!
I think the rheumatologist likes me to think not, but he has asked me to go back to see him in four weeks so he can run some blood tests on me. See, he can't know for sure!
The ankle so far has been getting better everyday. …more…

Initial report on Oct 27 (one day after onset):
Hmmm…First time using the crutches. First time wearing a cast boot. Will be getting an MRI the first time. I think the horizon of my life has just expanded.
Let's see… what happened? NOTHING happened, literally. …more…

Gone was this one:
Came this one:
The Cash For Clunkers (C4C) program was pushed out by the government on July 27th. The intention of the program was to remove some gas guzzlers off the road (thus the clunkers are destroyed instead of being reused) and replace them with the new gas efficient cars. …more…

A month ago, Erik built this for my birthday:

This time, he was gone for three weeks paying a visit to WA. I wanted to do something to surprise him. My eyes set on the vegetable garden. It grew very well when we moved in, but it had some plants that I would not use in my cooking, such as jalapeno, …more…

A Harmonious Society （家里的和谐社会） (I)

今天我开门放她们出去玩。两个丫头玩得一身土回来。只好给她们洗了生平第一次澡。不容易呀。Today, I let them out to play. They had lots of fun in the dirt, but a bath was in order when they returned home. It …more…

今天在家，天好。打开纱门留个缝，两个丫头就可以自由出入。小家伙玩的兴起，在土地里打滚，不亦乐乎。两个半天玩下来，自己回家了。我动了念头要给她们洗澡。这可是她们生平第一次呀。本来是想等着猫爸回来请他动手的。主要是我在家一直扮演慈母角色，丫头很亲 …more…

In two months, we'll probably be on our way up to Whistler again, and this time, I want to be better prepared. I must have thought to myself out loud because Erik started building these structures in our backyard and put them together on my birthday. …more…

They were just sleeping neck in neck. Don't you let your imagination run wild. 脖脖相扣而已，不要瞎想。

She fell off the tree in our front yard this morning right in front of Erik. In the beginning, he thought it was a big leaf… until he saw four cats — our neighbors' cats — suddenly all showed up out of nowhere. In the center was this tiny little chick. …more…

那天天很热，可是我们一点都不觉得。

哟，被妈妈看见了，肯定要拿我们到坛子上去笑话。

算了算了，午觉也不让猫家睡个安稳。分了吧。

芒果：那我醒了，干点啥呢？

芒果：哟，这好像难度大了点。

芒果：还是走正道吧。

小家伙：可是我还是困呀。

小家伙：妈妈 …more…

I posted this on a pet forum in response to a question whether a cat needs a companion.
以前讲过我收留小家伙的经过。她曾经是街对过邻居的猫之一，后来因为没有及时计划生育的原因，一度和将近十只猫共处。开始看他们同出同进，和谐的很。后来 …more…

Like this muddy…

It's Erik's birthday again. I think the last time it happened was a year ago, but I'm not sure. Ever since two years ago I surprised him with a trip to Hawaii (he did not even know we were flying until I dug out the suit cases buried under camping gear when we arrived at the …more…

We've had Mango for almost two weeks. She is a beautiful red tabby. She was born on May 15, 2008, so, still a kitty. As a matter of fact, she was born to Little One. It didn't look that way when we first got her into our house, because Little One, who had been our resident cat for a month, hissed at her. …more…

We sent following newsletter to our friends as a summary of our year 2008. Click on the image to access the PDF file. (To activate a hyperlink in the PDF file, place the cursor at the start of the link.)
 

小家伙呀，你来家已经一个半星期了。我们的生活就在这一个半星期了发生了很大的变化。多了一份牵挂，多了一点点烦恼，但是更多的是欢乐。
你本来是对门邻居的猫，和你的小姐妹一起长大。本来生活质量挺好的。可是后来你们两个年幼无知平白被占了便宜，一不留神 …more…

Yesterday, I sent Erik a text message in the morning who left for work before I did:
     Me: Little One was playing with one of her toy mice when I left.
     Erik: Holy Cow! Is she all right?
Yep, that pretty sums up our Little One. She is sweet, she is cuddly, but she does not play. …more…

I'm sleep deprived. That is because Little One meowed all night last night, first time we did not confine her to her own room, our bathroom. There is nothing wrong with her. She just wanted someone to play with her. When we went to bathroom in the middle of the night, she would run up to us and start …more…

Her name is Little One, that's the calling she responded to when she first time came into our house sniffing around last weekend. She was our neighbors' cat and grew up with her sister, both about one year old now. I've posted their story before, in Chinese. …more…

It would be my father's 70th birthday. A month ago, plans were made that we would all meet in Shanghai, where my sister and her family are based. My father grew up in a village just outside of Shanghai (now all part of the big city) before he went to Beijing for college, so he treasures every chance …more…

This is the third weekend in a row that we have gear piled up on the floor: on Thursday night, Mud throws climbing gear and camping gear in the middle of the room. We talk about going away for the weekend and climb. On Friday, we come home realizing we can't really just go away, so we spend both days …more…

前文讲过小奶猫的来历了。不罗嗦了。
星期一长周末出游回来天还亮，心中大喜。鼓足勇气到邻居家问，“我可不可以和小猫们玩儿会儿？”（这岁数一大把，问这样的问题，没有勇气是不行的。）好心热情的邻居欣然同意，并说，“在这儿玩儿，你带回家玩儿，随便你！ …more…

我没猫没狗，所以只能望别人的止渴。常在这里(宠物乐园)偷窥，看久了没贡献觉得惭愧，就拿别人家的猫来讲故事。这次也不例外。最近天灾国难，让大家都很揪心。今天我讲的就是生命的延续。
将近五个月前，我讲过邻家三只土猫–两个小姐妹和一只老黄毛–的故 …more…

[Note: This is a short post I wrote about Ron and Liz's cat, Purr. He is the mellowest cat I've ever met and he is beautiful too. Oh, I love him. I wrote it up and posted on a Pets Forum I visit from time to time.]

这是朋友的猫，名字叫Purr。它是我生平见过的最友好的猫。以前我提过，尽管我非常想养猫，但是不能给猫提供一个稳定的环境，所以不能如愿以偿。正因为此，我就更加珍惜和 …more…

The "Brits" are known among climbers here (in the US) to be bold and tough. Then I heard my MTB riding partner Bryn referred to himself as an English man. I decided to ask, "what is the difference between a British man and an English man?" Following is his answer, which I thought was very to the …more…

Erik's friend pretty much summed it up. It was his birthday yesterday. We went to Gochi, a Japanese restaurant in Cupertino, with our friends Erik and Jenny. We all loved the food there. My favorite were bbq eel on thin crust pizza, braised pork in cripy rice clay pot, and all the desserts. …more…

Erik and I watched Seducing Dr. Lewis recently and we both enjoyed it.  This movie is about a tiny fishing village in Canada (I thought it was France because it's in French).  I'm not good at writing movie reviews, so I won't even try. Just wanted to put it out there because I like the movie so much …more…

(Text Messaging Inbox)
Message 22: Happy Halloween!
Message 23: Er uh, Valentine's.
From? Oh, who else!
We did not go out to a nice dinner. We did not buy each other expensive presents. Instead, we went to the climbing gym tonight. He and I do not always climb in the same gym. …more…

February 7, 2007 is the first day of Chinese New Year on the lunar calendar. It's the Year of the Rat. A simple search can lead you to a lot of resources on Chinese astrology and traditions such as this one.
When I was little (maybe twenty something years ag0), materials were not abundant. …more…

Yesterday I was in my chiropractor's office for my knee problem. We started talking about pronation. In my case, I have low arches in my feet, which has caused some problems in my moving around. Anyway, two points he made I thought were quite interesting:

Parents should keep babies out of shoes as …more…

[Note: This is a short post I wrote about our neighbors' cats. I enjoyed feeding them when our neighbors went on a trip. I wrote it up and posted on a Pets Forum I visit from time to time.]
好喜欢猫。但是我和LG都常不招家，周末总是也一走就是两天，所以不忍心养。正因为这样，每当我有机会和别人家的猫相处，就格外珍惜。对门邻居出门几天，让我帮忙喂猫，我好高兴。这三只猫都是散养在户外的。在我们这个被森林溪流包围的小山镇，到处有bobcats，raccoons,甚至mountain …more…

I wrote this trip report in the air plane back. Partly, this is to document our activities and my observations; and partly, I hope this TR serves as some kind of beta for others who are interested in visiting China. I will include links and resources wherever I can. …more…

Simple. Strong. Sturdy. Not pretentious. Low maintenance. Everytime I look at the ring on my finger, it reminds me of the man who presented the ring to me. And it brings a smile to my face.I admit, it was not love at first sight. To me, an engagement ring has always been nothing but an anouncement …more…

It only took me seven months.
Last time I updated this website was mid November, 2005, when the Pinnacles season started. Well, for Erik at least. I managed to trick him into going to Joshua Tree on Thanksgiving, but not for long — we returned earlier just so that he could climb at Pinnacles …more…

I'm sorry.

For a month! Boring…

2005
Well, for sure, I will still be climbing. Besides Yosemite, Pinnacles, and Table Mountain, I hope to go to other different places in this new year in front of me. It's always fun to explore.
It has been a pretty good start so far. I went to Pinnacles with Debby on Jan 16, Sunday– a rare …more…

It's been a while since last time I put up a trip report. I did climb, but only got too lazy to type. We went to Gold Wall a few times and Jailhouse once — all were short trips. Sometimes, we went to Gold Wall with friends and there was lots of chatting and socializing; but sometimes we had …more…

It is a beautiful day. Allen and I decide to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium with his friends Jacob and Angie, Nathan, and Abrea. I am not a fish person, but I am very impressed with the beauty of the underwater world.
Do you like seafood? Well, I do. …more…

Following are my old photo reports. These were from the early days of my website when I didn't write much.  But they marked the beginning of my outdoor adventures.

May 24-26, 2003
Climbing: Lover's Leap

Apr 5 and 6, 2003
Climbing: Gold Wall and the Grotto

Feb 16, 2003
Snowshoeing: …more…