pork fun

Happy New Year

i can't believe its already been 3 months since I last blogged. many of my friends have noticed and have asked why i haven't been blogging as much, etc. thanks everyone who have showed concern. i've just been really busy with a whole bunch of things. being unemployed since september really gave me alot of time to: think about things, gather projects i've been wanting to finish, spend more mommy and me time with babypork, write more emails, learn new things, find new hobbies, exercise more, catch-up with old friends and much much more.

so let's put the last couple months behind us and move on to happenings these past couple of weeks. well, first of all, it was chinese new year and it was papapork's bday as well that same day. we spent papapork's bday very low-key this year and spent a nice family day together doing everything we loved - eating the yummiest sushi and did some fun shopping.

we celebrated chinese new year with my parents and brother's family at my parents place having the traditional chinese dinner we do each year. this year i've realized that i really do enjoy those very traditional dinners we have over chinese new years. the traditional chinese dishes that all have meaning to the new year... the fish for good luck, the "faat choi" (hair looking vermicelli) which symbolizes "wealth"... the mushrooms, the "no meat" (jai) dish we always eat with taro roots and vermicelli in it plus many others more that i don't even know how to describe. i'm really glad that my mother knows how to make all those fancy asian dishes and sometimes when i sit here to think about it, i get a bit sad to know that the tradition and this culture might slowly get drifted away generations after generations. although i am not born here and i am not an ABC (American Born Chinese), i still can't consider myself 100% true chinese either. the amount of time i spent growing up in the US, the amount of chinese i can actually read and now when i think about the cultural chinese cooking, i am no expert at that at all.

i want to be able to bring down the chinese tradition to my little babypork someday. i want to be able to cook those traditional authentic new year dishes my own mother could do for my own family someday. i must learn it from my mom. i don't want to be the one who ends this tradition that my mother and grandmother and great grandmother have passed down through their generation. i need to continue this tradition for my family.

but i know someday, my little babypork... who is the 1st chinese-american born here (1st generation), i will have to accept that this tradition might slowly get drifted away. i just hope someday, my babypork(s) will at least want to come home to celebrate this special holiday called "chinese new year" with his parents back home enjoying traditional cultural food and have great conversations altogether. and in order for me to continue this tradition for my own family, i will put my heart to learn how to make all those traditional dishes my mother have made for us all these years. (and with the help of papapork who is much better than me in this chinese cultural thing and all the chinese funky ingredients, i think i might just be okay).

and someday i just hope my own babypork(s) will want to continue this tradition for themselves and their families as well. 

Another Milestone.

You should never allow your own child to walk down the street looking like this in public. Fashion Police, please excuse me for doing this to my child. I know he is in his underwear and for a 2 year old to be using a bottle too, I know, what a no-no. I even had a stranger laugh at him too when they saw me strip him down to this. Alright, he had his Halloween costume on and he was hot, I had to do this to him. I can just wait till my little babypork grows up and see this picture someday.  He's gonna wanna kill me.

So another milestone for my babypork this past month, he finally moved into his big boy bed. I think I was more worried and unready than he was. You know, it IS a big step... he's no longer a baby anymore, he's a toddler now and he's out of his crib. Its like another milestone for me too, having to let go that he is no longer a little baby or infant but a toddler boy now. So I had to get my camera and got a shot of that sweet moment when babypork fell asleep for the 1st time on his own BIG boy bed.

Now, people, does his new duvet cover really look girlie to you too? I though it was unisex... till my sister-in-law also comment on it about it being girlie too. Great, another person to back papapork's girlie comment about it. Someone, back me up, tell me its UNISEX. I mean, you have to see the cute illustrations on this design! No, I am NOT returning it.

Does your Pumpkin have legs?

Last night as I sat there and watched reruns of Sex and the City on TV, this commercial comes on and it shows polaroids of happy couples together, some engaged, some married, etc. and then this voice over goes "Learn How to Find the Right Person in 90 days". Umm... okay, now, is it just me or do you think that's odd too? I mean, like, are we in a hurry these days that we need to put a deadline to dating? and we need to read a book on "how to" find the right person too? I mean, does love no longer come natural to us anymore in 2005? what's with the advertisements these days? I don't mind about the whole online dating, I mean, its great and I'm all for it, so don't get me wrong. I think it might even be better than just meeting a random person at a nightclub if you ask me - at least you can learn more about them thru their writing, their profiles, background etc. I do believe in physical attraction, yes and that's important but I also believe that an ugly personality will make someone really ugly too even if he's the hottest man alive.

I remember very clearly that it was a Match.com commercial ... man, I thought they could've done better than that. 90 days? I mean, they makes it sound like we're running out of time and we're about to die soon so I've only got 90 days before I'm doomed. Or is it that in our society today, we are all just WAY TOO busy and don't even have time to date and take things slowly anymore. 90 days? Maybe I'm being too judgemental here but heck, I thought it was pretty lame to be advertising their product this way. I couldn't stop laughing every time it came on. And I swear, I must've saw that commercial 4 times during every commercial break of just one episode of Sex and the City.

On another random note - so yesterday afternoon as I pulled up to my drive-way I noticed that one out of my 3 little pumpkin that was sitting nicely on my front porch is ...MISSING! yes, missing, it's gone, dissappeared, and there's only 2 left! I swear I had 3, I'm not pulling a Dory here. I purposely bought 3 little ones since we've got a family of 3 here in this household. Okay, now I don't want to be questioning this but - DID MY NEIGHBOR STEAL MY PUMPKIN? I mean, of all things to steal, a pumpkin? I can't imagine where else it could have gone, I went nuts looking behind bushes outside near where I placed it, nothing. Could it have been a very strong cat that just came and took it away? Was it my Gardener? or did the mail delivery guy just decide to take it home with him? I'm still wondering where my little pumpkin went.

Each day I drive down my own street, I look at neighbor's front porch to see if I see a familar pumpkin. I wish I wrote a name on it or drew something on it so I can identify it, I didn't so I can't. Even if I did see it at my neighbor's porch, I have no evidence of it being mine. Argh. Where did it go? Its not about the pumpkin anymore, its about the stealing... its about the mystery of the missing pumpkin now.

Maybe tomorrow morning, I'll see my pumpkin walk back on my porch. Maybe someone took it home and decide to carve it for me and will put it back up there before Halloween. Or maybe my Pumpkin grew legs by sitting outside in the sun the past 2 weeks.

Has anyone seen my pumpkin?

Great sites.

Recent links I found interesting... just sharing the love.

Etsy - www.etsy.com  A place where you can buy and sell hand-crafted things. Finally a place where other people would appreciate what you've made by hand and you can make a profit for it! Hm... I do have some sock dolls that I've made in the past... but I think I'm too ashame to sell those or even show to ANYONE. I especially like their "Color" section... pretty cool effect, you can find an item by color! Now THAT's cool.

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Paper-doll - www.paper-doll.com I believe this is a clothing store. The clothes are cute but I was more interested in their "artist project" section. Alot of eye candy for those who also appreciate photography as much as I do. Check out this page here: http://www.paper-doll.com/artist_project They have a featured artist each month.

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You Tube - www.youtube.com I can finally upload those silly little babypork clips and share that with my friends online publicly thru a public URL. My friends upload awesome asian MV and share those with me, oh, I love it! I can sit there and watch asian music videos ALL day long, I swear. Man... you should check out my friend Dorky's Friendster page... he's got ALL the cool videos on there. You can spend like over an hour just sitting there watching all his videos. (Thanks Dorky for the entertainment!)

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FlipClips - www.flipclips.com  Finally, you can do something with your short clips... such as making that into a FLIP BOOK! what a brilliant idea. It's so cute as a little gift for someone. I think its great for a wedding clip where the bride and groom kisses. Cute idea.

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I'll leave you all with a few of my favorite videos here to share. Enjoy!

+ The First Time

+ Babypork Turns 2!

+ Fairytale

One regular day.

Things I've learned when I'm not busy working full-time ...

+ That kids ride their BMX bikes in little gangs to school together (with their funny skater helmets) and as they wait for the crosswalk on the side, they try to spit on cars that drive pass them. They take turns. One BIG loogie after another.

+ That you forget what day of the week it is as I rushed myself to my 9am kickboxing class, then realized that the studio said "Closed"... and then I finally figured out that its already Wednesday today, not Tuesday. Wrong time, wrong day for class.

+ That the public library doesn't open till 12pm during the weekday!? And then on a random Wednesday it decides to opens 2 hours earlier... at 10am. Whoopie. But still I was there too early. So I just dropped off my books at the bin outside.

+ That getting around in the morning to places should really take about 10 mins to my final destination - not an hour and shouldn't have to go through bummer to bummer traffic seeing brake lights go on and off.

+ That Baskin Robins doesn't open till like 11am? Gee, I guess no one goes for ice-cream that early in the AM, huh? I'm just the nutty one out at 9:20am. Okay, I wasn't looking for ice-cream, I had to order babypork's birthday cake for his party.

+ That a whole day is easily spent doing whatever. Especially if you've got hobbies to keep you busy and that you've always been itching to keep up with. An hour of kickboxing and 10 miles on my bike yesterday - all feels reeeally good.

+ That the most stressful thing for a toddler is when their trains fall apart and are off the track and they get extremely frustrated that they can't get them to stick back together.

+ That you automatically became really popular among the kids when you're usually not around enough to hang out with them during a regular week. All of a sudden, one constantly wants you to hold his hand walking around the mall and the other wants you to give him a piggy back. I felt like a monkey tree for a minute as both kids climbed on me for attention. For some reason, neither one wants to go to grandma or grandpa anymore. Poor grandma. But it feels nice to know you've got a little fanclub.

+ That the best conversation you can have for the day would actually be with someone that's only 3 feet tall and the it can make absolutely no sense at all but yet you know it was the best conversation you've had the whole day 'cuz it made you laugh out loud. The other favorite part is getting to sing "Eee-I-Eee-I-Oooooo" real loud in the car together and no one else has to hear us. (until babypork wants you to play it over and over and over again for at least 5+ times continuously, then its not so fun anymore)

And finally, I've also learned that ...if you're happy and you know it, you should really clap your hands.

What Age Do You Act?

You Are 23 Years Old

23 Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

This is what I found today. I took the test and it says I'm 23. Well, that's better than it telling me that I am like 40+. Ha!

Now go take your own quiz here and tell me whether you're as immature as I am: Take Your Quiz Here

My New Toy.

As I've mentioned some weeks ago, I finally got myself a brand new toy. Nope, it's not a new cell phone, nor a PDA and no, not new shoes or purse either. Or any other geek gadgets. I've decided to go down the healthier route of living (as I see myself age each day). So I finally got myself a brand spanking new road bike! Now I'm reminding myself that its my "early" birthday present to myself for this year. (Heck, I am turning the Big 3-0 so why not, right?)

So I finally took the first photo of my bike yesterday with my camera phone though. I couldn't take it with me besides it since I was alone out riding. So instead, I took 2 photos separately. Ha. I love camera phones.

Some people have asked whether Its a men's bike but it's not, its a Trek Women's Specific Design (WSD) one. I love how well it fits for me except the seat, its kinda hard. I think perhaps I just need some more butt fat to cushion it up. Ouch.

So yesterday's top speed turned out to be 33mph going downhill. I rode about 10 miles in total. And 33 mph is pretty damn fast to me, quite scary. I wonder what the genius record is for riding on a bike top speed?!

I'm gonna get you!

Maaan... I want this in my garage. What a cuuute bumper car!? Yes, I'm still crazy about Hello Kitty. Will it go away? Probably not. All you boys who like to make fun of me, go ahead, I'll still love Hello Kitty even when I'm 50 years old. Someday I will go to that SanrioLand in Japan. But then again, I heard its not all that great. I still have to see for myself though.

So over the weekend, I lost my turtle. That thing grew so big that it climbed out of the tank again 'cuz Papapork forgot to cover up the lid (Good one there Porker). So I think the turtle was roaming around for like 2 hours because right when I got home from my bike ride, I hear "Oh my god, he really escaped!". So in search of the missing turtle, it took us about 15-20 minutes to search for him. All around the place, I looked on the floor, turtles eye view... I see nothing. Under the couch, I see nothing. Out in the living room, under the table, the crack under my fridge, the hole by my dishwasher, nothing. Then there is one last place... the big gap besides the refrigerator. I tell Papapork, "He's probably behind that fridge". Papapork goes "Yeh, I bet you he's in there too but I'm not moving the fridge." Oh my god... what a punk... so I made him move it ... and guess what we found?! Ta-da... the turtle way behind the fridge with his head hidden in his shell. He must be hot behind that thing. Hot and dirty full of dust. I slide myself in the small crack and rescued him out. What a brave mom I am. I saved the lost turtle and I don't even like this thing anymore. I think turtles are ugly. I love animals and I do like turtles, I just think they're not a pretty pet. Don't get me wrong, I'm nice to them, I feed them, I just don't wash their stinky tank - that's Papapork's job.

So early this morning, I found something really gross. I found mice poop in my pantry!... yes, mice POOP. YUCK! I'm still grossed out by it. All those droppings lead me to this tiny crack inside the pantry corner. Now I know what that sound is that's coming out from my wall when I'm sitting by my garage door. I thought I heard a mice one time... but I thought it was stuck between my walls. Uggh, I haaate pest problems. Yellow jackets in my backyard and frontyard... now mice in my pantry. I feel so disgusted. Like my house is dirty now or something. I mean, its one thing when you know they're in your garage... but they invaded my pantry!? And those stupid mice ate thru HALF a pack of my ramen noodles too. Can you believe that? ate thru a bag of tea I got from Japan too. Ohhh... I'm sooo gonna get you OUT of my pantry. You just watch it you little mickey mouse. You will NOT invade into MY space. So I stopped by and picked up some mice traps already... so that's my little project for tonight, I just gotta put some bait on it ... and the chase begins. Muuuuaaah.

Hot summer day, hot little head.

It's one of those nights where every parent dreads to hear... my little babypork is sick and has a fever of around 102 tonight. He woke up from his nap feeling like a little walking heater this afternoon. I thought it might've been him just hot from napping, but the burning on his red cheeks didn't go away after half an hour. I didn't need my thermometer to know he has a fever. By now, I already know what a fever feels like just from touching his little forehead.

So he ate half his dinner which was surprisingly good already. My babypork was extremely clingy and that tells me too that he is definitely not feeling good. Shortly after dinner, we tried to find ways to take his temperature and my little babypork just freaked out seeing that ear thermometer in papapork's hand. So we barely got to take his temperature. We tried real fast and did it for like 3 seconds before he went bazerk and it read 102. Its probably incorrect but from what I can feel from his head, it did seem that high.

We tried to find ways to get him to take his Motrin to lower his fever down. We had no choice but one to hold him down and one to force it down his throat. Its only for his own good. I felt terrible bad as a mom, I had to remind myself its for his own good. It was horrible, the screaming, the struggling, the whining, the crying, oh, I hate doing this, then the coughing, the choking, oh, I want to just hit myself now. 3 minutes later, the worst thing we could expect happened, babypork just barfed all over me, once, twice, then some more. I could do nothing but try to catch it with my hand before it hit the floor. No use, I just let it all go (at least it was hardwood floor and not carpet this time). It was gross, it smelled disgusting. More crying, he became even more attached to me, more whining, more crying. My poor baby, I could do nothing but to just comfort him that it's okay.

Upstairs we go, poor papapork cleaned up the mess while I give the barf boy his shower. Nothing would stop his crying so I whipped out his favorite book - "Yummy Yucky" and he participated and was better then. Washed up, PJs on, brushed teeth (oh...gotta get rid of that barf smell) and downstairs again we go (for more medication since it all came up and nothing is left in his system).

We tried more food later. Yummy, its watermelon time! So watermelon + Motrin in one teaspoon did the trick. One whole dose of Motrin took 3 teaspoon + 3 pieces of watermelon to finish. I think we got in 2 and a half spoonful of it down him without him really noticing (from the distraction of having Elmo on DVD). The last half of spoon, well, he got smart and realized it was something that tasted weird, he knew it wasn't JUST watermelon and so spit it back out. Darn!

Babypork is asleep now, let's hope he won't wake up several times during the night, cross my fingers, but I'm prepared for that already. I wish I was the one with the fever instead of him. That's the kind of love you have when its your own child. You would give up anything to take their pain away right this very second if you could. And that's exactly how I feel right now.

Share the Love.

Sites to share...

+ I came across this cool panoramic site of the Tour de France... Check it out (Note: Its all in French, just click around. Warning: The pop-up windows that launch might crash your browser, it did to me several times -Dammit!). But its worth checking out, the panoramic view makes you feel like you're RIGHT THERE with those people, pretty neat stuff.

+ Anyone else out there, trying to plan the best birthday party ever for their baby? I'm struggling with what theme I should do for my babypork's birthday party this year. My favorite store, Target, was a little helpful for my brainstorming though, oh... how I looove Target. Check out their Birthday Central. Does anyone have a great theme idea they can suggest? Last year, we had a Pool Party Luau theme for his 1st bday. This year, my babypork's got preference and will actually know its his birthday.

+ I recently came across this young actress I once saw before in a movie (I think it was "40 days and 40 nights")... and I simply just admire her beauty. She's not a hot mama but I admire her natural beauty, she looks so simple. Plus I also really like her short hair-do. Check her out. Her name is pretty unique too - Shannyn Sossamon. (*sometimes I still feel like a teenager knowing how much I really enjoy browsing thru galleries of celebrity photos online for pleasure). Other female celebrities I find beautiful...Charlize Theron, Gweneth Paltrow, Faith Hill, Lin ChiLing.

+ If you like to browse thru photographs online as much as I do, you'll enjoy browsing thru this new site from SAAB, its all about 'maintaining your identity' - check out: http://www.maintainyouridentity.net/ I love photographs and quotes together. And I just love looking at the beauty of photographs of 'Everyday Life'.

+ Dreaming about my next big vacation in the middle of the day is fun. I often think back to my trip to Europe (London, Amsterdam, France and Brussel in 10 days) and hope to go back there again someday. That trip was one of the last big family trip we all had before my babypork and Cboy was born. Looking back at my photos, I want to go to Europe again. But this time, my next destination spot - Italy. Someday. Soon enough.

+ Last but not least, if you don't have time to shop at the mall and is in need of cool and fun t-shirts... you should check out www.threadless.com, you can submit your design, vote and buy t-shirts there. Some of those shirts are pretty neato. I like their site design. Then again, I just love Polaroids.