I went shopping on Monday with Nadine over at Circuit City. Circuit City is having a close down sale. I bought some memory cards and a headphone with a microphone for Skype. The memory cards are selling at a good price. Bought an 8 GB card for $40. Nadine, of course, splurged quite a bit on a HDTV for her bedroom, a Sony video camera and a Canon Rebel XTi. she checked out this electronics blog before she decided on the video camera. The shelves are getting empty and I’m hoping to get there next week just to look for a webcam. Will have to play it by ear.
- Blogging on my life events & whatever that comes to my mind!
Monthly Archives: January 2009
Happy Chinese New Year
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Another Chinese New Year away from my family in Malaysia/Spore. I told DB I will not be sighing so much this year and I just did. I don’t know why every time I think of my parents, sister and her family and my brother, I sigh. I know this sighing thing is becoming a habit of mine. Oone new year resolution to work on is less sighing from now onwards! Will see if I succeed.
Yesterday, January 26 was first day of Chinese New Year. As usual I made my CNY call to my parents on Sunday night my time which was Monday morning for them. Mom was busy cooking the usual vegetarian dish on the first day of CNY. Mhmmm, I told her I can virtually smell it. She laughed! This CNY my sis and her family remained in Spore which I guess because of her kids’ school days. However, my brother is back in Ipoh with my parents for CNY. At least it’s nice for them that one of us are there celebrating the new year with them “loh yan kah” (old folks). I didn’t get to speak to her for too long, so I called my sister in Spore which woke her butt up.
When I called her it was 8:45 a.m. her time and she was still sleeping. I thought she would be up by that hour. Nephew #1 answered the phone and I thought I dialed the wrong number. I can’t recognize his voice coz his voice changed so much since the last I heard it. Think that fella didn’t recognize my voice either. When I told him it’s “Dawn Yee Yee”, he said, “Oh Yee Yee” then we exchanged our CNY greetings Don’t have much to yak with him but asked if his mom was awake. Think someone must have already went into the room to wake the mom up coz there were silence and a lot of “Wait ah”. It’s funny and nice listening to them talk.
Yeah, so, this CNY is just another day for me. I cleaned the house during the weekend partly because we were sitting Ally and on Sunday, a major clean for the bathrooms. Didn’t clean the windows la, coz it’s -5 F degrees out. I wanted to vacumm yesterday (trying to vacumm the house every four days) but thought about it’s first day of CNY, all the CNY pantang larang (superstitions) popped into my head. So I didn’t vacumm, didn’t wash my hair, and wore bright pinkish sweater, too!. It’s weird, I’m not celebrating and yet all these pantang larang are so vivid in my memory. Guess they are already ingrained in my head.
Filed under Festivals, In the new world
Jan 27, 2009
Kung Hei Fatt Choi
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Here’s wishing all my Chinese reader Happy Chinese New Year. Kung Hei Fatt Choi! May the year of Ox brings in abundance of prosperity and happiness.
ox by ~k-hots on deviantART
Filed under Festivals
Jan 25, 2009
12th anniversary coincides with inauguration of 44th President
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Today is the 12th year I have been in Minnesota, calling this place my home. And since I came here, I have seen 4 inaugurations already: Prez Clinton, Bush, Bush and now Obama. I came here when Prez Clinton was into his second term. Though I’m not a citizen of America yet, I still find it inspiring to watch the inauguration. So does that mean I’m going to be a US citizen soon? Hah, I don’t think so.
Currently, I’m watching the inauguration live on CNN. I’m at work now which I think the company should have at least put more TVs in the company’s facilities for employess to watch this historic day. I’m guessing a lot of employees are streaming into CNN to watch the inauguration live. Yes, even tho I’m no fan of Obama, but it is still a historic day to watch history unfold since he will be the first black president. Watching the other videos on CNN like the Sidwels kids choir singing “America”. Don’t know why this song is very moving to me. For now, I’m back to watching or more like listening to CNN.
Filed under In the new world
Jan 20, 2009
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It h as been 4 days since the boys had their walks in. They are driving me up the wall. The temperature today was still 20 below and it actually went up to 5 below which actually feels like 24 below with windchill. It is windy, windy the whole day since this morning. I wanted to walk them this afternoon but when I saw them walking with one of their leg hanging in the air, I knew it’s too cold for them too. No walks or runs for them. Even going out to throw the frisbee for Chase is not working. The frisbee is buried in snow! Plus DB won’t allow us to go out for our walks anyways. The weather station sent out a windchill advisory. Meaning, it’s not advisable to go out if it can be avoided. In the next 24 hours we will have a heat wave. There will be snow tomorrow. When it snows, we know it is warming up. It won’t snow when it is this darn cold.
This is what our kitchen windows looked like this afternoon. The glass is those cheap single panel glass. I’m surprised it is still in one piece. It does not block the heat or cold. Yes, majority of the sidings and the windows are the originals. What is good about this damn arctic cold is it’s a free icebox for us to freeze our extra food and meat. Just leave them in the garage, and they will be hard like a rock the next day.
Jan 15, 2009
When is my vacation?
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Corrine and her family are going to Malaysia next week. Can’t believe it it is that close already. She is still hunting for a luggage, and extra one. I still wish I could go with them. I guess I can’t since my boss moved all the heavy duty work to the first part of the year. And yes, I have to do all the cleaning up of the reports. Simple, easy, no problem. So the only time I can go on a long vacation now is summer because she scheduled all her vacations from May through September. Maybe my next trip to Malaysia would be June from this year on.
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Ms M, a colleague of mine came over to ask about some reports. We started chatting away about work for a while and the conversation went on to our personal lives. She is kicking her own butt to agreeing with her hubby and kids to get a puppy. I told her at least the puppy will keep her in shape since she, like me, has to walk the pup every day to burn its energy. She agreed with me especially if she does not need weight loss pills to lose her baby fat from her third pregnancy.
Gifts for V’Day
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Valentine’s Day is a month away. Nadine and I had a chat on what to get for our spouses. I am not getting anything for DB for Valentine’s Day. Our wedding anniversary is only 6 days before V’Day. So I would just get one gift for him. Nadine invited me to go shopping with her this Sunday which I have to decline. She is hoping to get something for Mark and on the other hand, she wishes he does not get her those cheap lingerie he got her last year. Whatever DB gets me, I don’t care. Is the gift that counts but these past few years we told each other not to get each other anything.
It’s an icebox
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It’s -20 F (-29 C) right now. If only there is no wind at all, I will not feel the bite. With -36 F (-38 C) windchill, it definitely took my breath away while walking from the parking lot to the office building. Not too bad of a brisk walk but this morning was just “lovely”. This is what the morning talk show said “Good old Minnesota winter”.
The snow storm rolled in yesterday morning and ended in the evening. The roads were pretty bad. Took me an hour plust to get home which normally takes 20 minutes. There were 5 cars spun out. The slow traffic was because drivers need to slow down to an almost complete halt to see what, who landed on the snow banks. Plus there were some samaritan stopped to dig out those landed in the ditches. Tow truckers were in good business yesterday.
Filed under MN Weather
Jan 13, 2009
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I can’t believe the amount of money I have to pay for auto insurance. I always thought it would not go up since we neither of us had an accident or any kind of ticket from the cops for speeding or DWI. I checked my auto pay on my checking account last week, t went up. I have to speak to DB coz he might have received some kind of notice from our insurance company but didn’t tell me about it.
A day at the restaurant
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Saturday I was at Satay2Go. It was quiet day. Not too busy. Folks are really tightening their belts. Yeah, business has gone down a little. But I’m still there every Saturday.
Of course with the a slow going day, David and I (David is the owner’s kid) had a go with our “kungfu” fighting. This little fella is so used to me carrying him. I told him he weighs like 5 25-pound bags of rice. Sort of exaggerating a little but he is really heavy. The thing is he will wrap his leg round me. So, on Saturday I was doing my usual pick him up and swing him down and then kind of got him halfway upside down. He was doing the “I can walk upside down with my hands” thing. I told him I will have to let him go quick coz I was getting tired. He said ok, so I put down. He laid on the floor (yucks!) and he started to pull both my hands. I lost my balance, stumbled and to get my balance back, I took a step forward and guess what???? There was silence and then “Whaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!” I accidentally kicked his nuggets. Holy crap! His dad came out checked out what happened, I told him what happened and he smiled. The mom said wants to play and wants to cry. (Direct Cantonese translation.)
Was he manja-ing me then. He was really crying, too, with tears rolling down, but thank goodness it was for a while. have to “sayang” him more and said sorry to him. He said “OK”. Told him to get up and not play anymore.
Then the little boy, Alex, from the nail salon came over. They both played Bagukan (think I spelled it right) and then had our lunch and they started to play more after food. And yes, the restaurant was that quiet. They found some small rubber ball, they started bouncing it off the floor. This one time it rolled under the counters. David laid on his stomach to get it from under the counters. Alex thought he would get the mini hockey stick to help David. Well, low and behold, wham! Another “Whaaaaaaaa!!!!!” What the hell happened? Alex accidentally hit David on his right cheek and again on his right eye. Boy, this time around the “Whaaaa” was even louder. He got slammed twice around his eye and the most sensitive area on our face. Dang, I bet that hurts even more than getting his nuggets kicked! Poor kid.
David’s cousin was then, so he helped him up and soothed him. The parents came out and took him in to the back of the kitchen. Checked him out. All’s well. The mom walked him out to his recliner and lay there. Put on his Loh Fu Chi DVD with Alex sitting next to David. Alex knew it was an accident. He even said that to us. But we told him to say sorry to David.
Both incidents were funny after all the commotions. Visited them yesterday and David was running around playing. No blue black eye which I thought he would get one.
Filed under My Weekend
Jan 12, 2009
Winter bulge
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These days I’m just a slacker. I do not feel like doing much. Is it the weather that is making me so lazy? All I wanna do sit home, hoping I don’t have to go to work. The weather is actually not too bad. It was kinda crappy the past few days but I was still lazy to go for my walks. I hope I don’t have to rely on some sort of diet pills to lose my extra winter weight. I have not taken any sort of dieting remedies for the longest time. Base on some of the reviews I read, the .Hydroxycut reviews is the most effecting one. Ha, I guess I better get back to my walks, hikes and portion control.
Vacation homes
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Ms E is out on a vacation this week. Yep just a few more weeks she will pop, she is due next month, actually the first of February. Her hubby rented a vacation home in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. How nice is that. I was telling DB hopefully one day we will be able to rent a vacation home somewhere and go on our own vacation, get out of dodge for a while. Yes, some day.
Cooper’s awwee evaluated
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DB took Cooper in this morning. Yes, Rita, you were right, it is acrolick granuloma and his lymph nodes were swollen, too. The vet prescribed a bunch of anti-biotics (heavier dosages) and Amitriptyline (heavy dosage,t oo), an anti depressant for him. Plus he was given two shots of anti-biotics on his awwees. The Amitriptyline is to sorta calm him down so he will not lick the awwees. The vet said the awwees are like magnets to dogs. They have to lick it and especially when you see they are healing, your buddy will lick them.
As I am typing this post, Cooper is out, flat out. He looks a lot more mellower. I came home from Satay2Go around 4:30ish, he came to greet me, wanted attention a bit and then was down. Yeah, the meds are definitely kicking in good. I can see the surroundings of the awwees are already drying up.
We have bring him back to the vet at the end of the month for an eval. I tell you, these vets sure knows how to make money. Now they are charging ($39) for a recheck/evaluation. This clinic we go to usually does not charge for rechecks. Times must be bad for them, too?
Oh and the Elizabethan collar we bought him? He had it on a few days and that fella found a way around it to lick his awwees. So, now, it’s just sitting somewhere waiting to be put away.
Filed under Pets
Jan 10, 2009
Cooper’s awwees
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Remember Cooper’s awwees? They actually sort of healed up a little but since DB started work and no one’s home, he started licking the bad paws which the vet said is out of boredom. The float looking collar we got him made him so miserable. He does not sleep much when he has that collar on because it makes his head hangs over the collar, like he kena choked. So obviously with his neck obstructed, he snores a lot and he will sit up and sometimes leans against the wall to sleep. I felt so bad for him. This is what the awwees look like now on one paw. It is getting bigger.
DB and I surfed the web last week and we think we found the perfect collar, we hope. Not the cone looking thing but this.
I know, he looks like the collar of Queen Elizabeth 1′s dresses. That is exactly what the collar is call, Soft E-Collar (Elizabethan Collar Alternative). DB said Cooper looks like a flower with this new collar on. We got him the XL collar. It arrived this afternoon and I put it on right away.
So far he has not lick his wounds coz he can’t get to them. This neck of the collar is very soft, unlike the float looking thing. With this new collar he is actually sleeping good. He is laying down right now and he looks very comfortable to us. We know he is comfortable because he will not come over to sit next to us, giving us the very pitiful look when he has that blue floating collar on. With this soft collar he has not done that since I put it on him.
Of course we take it off when he gets out the house or when he went to the dog park this late afternoon. I am praying this new collar would be the cure for his awwees.
Filed under Pets
Jan 2, 2009