Life with the Two Crazy Dogs

Woohoo, I passed my HRM class with an A. Three more credits added on to my total credits. 11 credits out of 60…whew, long ways to go to achieve the 60-credit goal, but 11 credits is 11 credits. My next class starts January 23 for spring semester is an evening class to be held at the college. I have yet to figure out a schedule how I should do this – go to work, come home, get my running in, shower, dinner and zoom over to school, which is about 15 miles (30 minutes) from my home. If not, I will have to bring my backpack to work, get my run in, and then head to school from work (10 minutes).

Keeping my fingers crossed that this class will be as smooth as the previous one and teams are more cooperative. During the last day of my HRM class, I had to complete a peer review of one of my team member. Good thing the instructor picked that person. I really “hantam” the lack of support from this team member. In addition, there were several questions I have answer how the team was. Again, I poured my disgusted feelings out. To me was so unfair I have to get the ball rolling and kept asking the team for their opinion. KNB, no response from them till the last two weeks all of them were panicking coz we had to finish our final paper plus the presentation and our team paper. Igiots!!! Anyway, guess I’m done ranting. Let bygones be bygones. Let’s look toward the future. What the heck 2007 is just round the corner.

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I was so surprised to receive a call from Samm. We chatted till my cellphone ran out of juice! It was a lovely conversation we had. Chatted about every thing kids, family, blogs, organic life, food, former classmates, and then “blank”….duh, I forgot to charge my phone. Learned a lot from Samm on how to blog since I’m a rookie on this blogging thing. I think we were on the phone for about an hour plus. Thanks Samm for the call.

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It’s Christmas day, I called my sister in Singapore. Actually I wanted to call my parents in Ipoh but the lines were busy. So, I talked to my sis for 3 hours plus. I really had a wonderful time chatting with her. There was so much to chat about. We wanted to chat more but gotta save my minutes to call my parents tonight. By the time I was done with my sister, it was 11:15 a.m. Kinda late to call my parents. Each time I call my sis, we can just go on and on. Must be the sister thing. So much to update about family and what’s going on kinda thingy, it’s like I have not talked to her for ages. The last we chatted was about 2 weeks ago.

I am so glad to hear that our parents are doing very well. Dad got out from a surgery a month ago and he recovered speedily. His daughter, who’s a doctor, said he is as strong as an ox, which my sis said is so true especially for his age (dad is 77 years old). I really missed my parents a lot. Now that they are getting old, I want to make plans of visiting them more often. My last visit was this CNY and the trip to Spore where my parents were spending their CNYs now, was so short, 12 days. When you are having fun, time goes by so quick. I spent a lot of quality time with them, but it’s just not enough.

Picture #1: My 2006 CNY trip family picture. My brother, BIL, sis, the blogger, mom and dad. (Please excuse our sweat and oil filled faces - it was frigging hot and humid.)

Picture #2: Another family picture taken the eve of my departure at my sis’s apartment.

Picture #3: Picture of my worn out nephews: Tallest to shortest:- Kane, Ian, Nigel, Rhys and Kelvin.

The 5 boys have grown so much. Makes me think how much older I got!! I told my sis I am planning on a trip to Spore/Ipoh/Spore next November during the Thanksgiving week. Hopefully my boss will allow me to take 3 weeks of vacation during that time of the year (it’s usually not busy during the months of November and December).

Also, I have not met my school mates since 2000, my last trip to Ipoh. The last I saw Samm, she was not married yet, now….married and two kids! It’s time to “balik kampung” (back to homeland) for a trip to visit them and eat Ipoh food!

DB’s daughter called this evening and told him she was on her way to her aunt’s house in Rochester. She him her mom bought her a digital camera with a printer and docking station. I thought the couch her mom bought her this week was her Christmas present. Well, guess not. You think she’s spoil or is the mom playing mind games with her? Well, she is only getting a winter jacket from us. Think that’s all she’s getting from us. Money is short, so that’s all for this year. I’m actually glad she can go to her mom to get all these big stuff. I would like to buy a couch, too, and DB and I are working on it. Mom, can you help?

I’m busy downloading music from emusic.com. DB has 50 free downloads from this site compliments from Directv. I wish there is a way I can attach MP3 files on my blog. I have no frigging clue how to attach files besides URLs. Anyone knows how to attach MP3 files to blogs?

I downloaded Ave Maria (Franz Schumann) and DB is just immitating the solo. Ave Maria is one my favorite ever since I first heard it when I was in my early teens. I’m now back to classical music. Have not been listening to them for almost 8 years. I’m even playing the piano again. Trying to master Chopin’s Prelude No 15 (Raindrop). I’m glad I can email my step-brother in Boston and we chat about music most of the time. When he was in Stanford, he studied music on Chopin and Beethoven, so he is an expert in Chopin. Chopin’s music is fairly difficult to master. I have been playing Mozart’s pieces since Grade 4. Light and very soothing. DB says classical music puts him to sleep. With my new speakers, damn, every piece of instrument can be heard clearly. Right now I’m listening to Clarinet Concerto in A Major Adagio by Mozart. It’s so peaceful and totally calm me down.

It’s Christmas eve and what happen to the little snow we had on Thursday? They were practically all gone. Took the boys to the dog park and what’s left of the snow were mostly melted and turned to ice overnight. Hopefully we’ll get some tonight, according to the local forecasters. We are suppose to get some flurries. Ranger is still itching (he has skin allergies) because the weather has been so crazy. Usually by November he is done itching. Today was his last day for his predisone (steroids). The pred quits his itching. He is definitely a different dog when he is on the pred…much greedier, has a mind of his own and a little aggressive. I have to see how he will do tomorrow.

Brought Cooper to the vet yesterday for his rabies shot. The vet is happy to see him as he gained 2 pounds compared to the last time he was under (83lbs). He is eating now and back to his normal self. Once I see him begging for his carrots and apples, I know he is himself. Last month, I took him to the hiking trails and he ate something that made him threw up after we got back. He threw up again and again several times that day and didn’t want to eat.

He refused to eat his dry food and we saw him losing weight, so much that the ribs were showing.

It went on for a week and eventually DB took him to the vet. Did blood work for parasite, and results came back negative. The vet put him on a special diet on Presciption Diet can food. Cooper ate only once a day for about 3 days and on the fourth day he ate about a can plus, but he still didn’t want his carrots, apples and rawhides. Another week went by and he was better, at least he ate some carrots and a biscuit. The following week, we gave him his regular dry food and he chowed them down. Well, atta boy. We knew he was better. It was funny when he had no appetite to eat, he still had the energy to fetch frisbees. Weird. Now he is just a greedy pig as usual. The vet asked me are the boys getting anything special for Christmas. I told the vet everyday is Christmas for them! They are spoilt rotten by DB and I.

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My favorite Christmas carol is O Holy Night. I have been listening to a lot of Christmas carols this afternoon while driving to the dog park. O Holy Night just stucked to my head the rest of the day.

O Holy Night

O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Saviour’s birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the Spirit felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!
O night, O Holy Night , O night divine!

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
O’er the world a star is sweetly gleaming,
Now come the wisemen from out of the Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our friends.
He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger,
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!

Santa came early this year…yeehah!

The UPS guy banged on the door on Thursday evening while we were prepping for dinner. Boys went wild, two minutes later came back to the kitchen. I asked DB who was that, he told me the Santa brought me my gift. I asked him what did Santa bring. DB said he don’t know. Santa said I can’t open it till Christmas - 5 days to wait. So, I kept asking DB what is it. He refused to tell me…kept saying gotta wait till Christmas. Went out to the entry way where the parcel is still sitting. Big parcel and heavy, too, plus it’s from Tiger Direct, a bunch of codes, labels, and Made in China on the box. I kept pestering him to tell me the entire evening what the heck is in the box. Told him to give me hint…he said “You might not like it at first, but you will later”. Asked him is it a printer, a scanner, monitor….he said “No. You might not like it, but you might like it later or you might not at all “. So, yesterday, Friday morning, he said I can open it.

Friday Evening came I asked DB how come Santa had to bring the truck to deliver the gift. He said the reindeers are Union, they don’t work on Christmas weekend! After dinner, I opened it…and in the box were Logitech SPEAKERS for my office. Beautiful speakers with the big-ass woofer and all the surround sound thingys. Damn exciting about it coz I wanted to know how good it will be when I listen to my music when I’m in the office compare to the two little ibdy POS speakers that came with the computer.

DB asked if I want to install them, I told him, “you can set them up”. No problem, he went ahead and set them up….and the results were awesome. Good job. Listened to Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #3….nice. Sounded so much better.

Right now, I’m listening to Malt Shop Memories, you know all the oldies from the 60’s and 70’s. There’s umph to the music now. Yes, thanks Santa. I have been good this year! Thank again Santa!