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…

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…

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…

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。

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 …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, …more…

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 …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 …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…

(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…

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 …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…