Unseen Corners

I had a chance to check some unseen corners of our building. Pictures from top down are: the roof, emergency diesel generator, fire fighting pump room.

Eel Rice

DSC02452, originally uploaded by rwcutter.

DSC02456, originally uploaded by rwcutter.

Last night I had a eel rice dinner with my colleagues. Surprisingly it was very crowded on Thursday night, so we waited for one hour before we finally get our meals. However, it was really delicious. The restaurant also has other items on the menu that looks worth trying, and their wine list also looks good.

Andersen Married

Congratulations to Anderson and Yuvien! Andersen is my cousin, who grew up with me until he was six. We used to met every year when we were students. Gradually as we grew older, our lives went separate ways and rarely see each other again. Nevertheless, I'm so happy to attend his wedding this July. Wish you a happy new life!

Happy Saturday

DSC02283, originally uploaded by rwcutter.

Today we took Yoshi and Summer to Miramar. We had delicious Dim Sum. Yoshi rode merry-g-round three times and ferry wheel, had his favorite black sesame cereal, and bought a big Squidward Tentacles stuffie. He even picked a Gary the Snail for his sister. Both kids and their mom has been sick for one week. I hope they get well soon.

Happy First Birthday to Summer

DSC02083, originally uploaded by rwcutter.

I was to busy to post this earlier. Last Sunday was baby Summer's first birthday.Suddenly she is one year old! Now she can say many words (although most of the words I doubt that people other than us can understand). She is gradually learning to walk, and she likes to dance with music. And she often shouts and fights with her older brother. I think it has been a tough year for Yoshi.

Summer video

In a few weeks Summer will be one year old. Compared to her brother, Summer has less photos and videos because she needs to fight for our time with her brother. I shot this video in a morning when my son went to the market with Allie and my mom. Summer stayed home with me, so I grab my phone and took this rare chance.

Lovely Son

DSC02038, originally uploaded by rwcutter.

This story is a little long, so I need to explain some background info first. Recently I have a lot of late-night conference calls, so I have very little time with my son before he goes to bed. Most of the time Allie plays with him to distract him, and he became very insecure and often rushes into our room at nights to find Allie.

This morning Allie went to work early. When my son rushed into our room and found that mom was not home, he began to cry out loud in anger and frustration. I talked to him and played with him for about 30 minutes until finally he was cheered up.

Then, I told him that I need to drive my car for maintenance, he begged me to wait until he finished his morning bottle of milk, which I agreed. When I picked up my bag after he finished his milk, he begged to go with me. I said the car was too dangerous until it is repaired, and then I left.

in the evening, he called my cell phone and asked me if my car was repaired already. He asked me to drive home quickly. I said I will try to get home early but I could not drive too fast because there were many cars on the road. He said, "But I miss you so much! Please drive faster!" He is so sweet when he is not angry! I hope these late calls will stop soon.

Summer 11 months old

DSC02056, originally uploaded by rwcutter.

Little Summer is now 11 months old. She has five teeth, learning to speak and walk. I'm sorry that I did not take as such pictures for her as for her brother, and she needs to fight for attention since she was born. However, I think she will soon enjoy playing with her brother once she can walk and talk better.

Happy Birthday

DSC01959, originally uploaded by rwcutter.

Yoshi is three years old today. It feels like a long time already but also so fast. Sometimes I forget that he is just a "baby" if you consider someone younger than three years old. In these three years he physically grew up to almost 100 cm tall, learned to speaks fluent Mandarin and some English and Taiwanese, can count to 29 (and then need to ask which "ten" comes next), and likes reading, singing and playing a lot of games he invented. He also like to help on houseworks. Happy birthday, son!

Little Helper

another firefly today in my bathroom

another firefly today in my bathroom

firefly found in my home

firefly

Stieg and Scanners

I finished reading "Girl with Dragon Ratio". In the book Stieg Larsson wrote the handsome jounalist brought a Microtek scanner with him when he came to the island, and he used an Agfa film scanner to scan films in his research. Back in 2001, compared to other gears he used such as an iBook, the two scanners were also a symbol of his taste and profession. I happened to be quite familiar with scanners, especially these two brands. Now Agfa is no longer selling scanners, and Microtek is almost not found anywhere. If Larsson is still alive, I wonder if he can still find someone to repair his scanners -- and it's just less then ten years ago when they were big names in the industry.

Life is Beautiful

A good friend C is starting a new life in another country. He just finished a grand tour after years of working, and now he's ready to begin a new journey to unknown frontiers. Wish everything goes well and he will find happiness at the end of the road.

This photo is irrelevant, just want to show my beautiful girl. :D

Vegas

Had a biz trip to Vegas last week. No a penny spent on slot machine. Not watched a single show.

First time driving in USA. Driving was not a problem, but without a GPS was. I got too dependent on a GPS so suddenly I can't drive without one. It was especially hard at nights when it's hard to see the signs, and I often drove onto wrong lane so had to turn or could not turn, and thus needed to find another way.

New Year Trip

This Chinese New Year holidays we had a family trip to my home town Kaohsiung. It is strange to call it a trip because we need to go there every year on the Chinese New Year to see my father and grandparents. However, since my two brother-in-laws all need to go to southern Taiwan because they both married Southern Taiwanese girls, my mother-in-law will be left in Tamshui alone so we need to hurry back on the second day of the new year in the past. This year we managed to make some changes. My brother-in-law drove his mom to meet us in Kaohsiung on his way to Ping Dong, and then we can spend a few more days in Kaohsiung. My son and daughter finally have a chance to know my home town. Sully went with us the whole time.

Happy New Year

Today I received a hand-written greeting card from Rex. It's been years I don't see real paper cards since e-cards replaced them. Thank you, Rex!

Before and After

The screen saver of my notebook showed the photo above and then the bottom one accidentally. It was a great combination of "before and after" scenario. The first photo was taken when Allie was 37-week pregnant, and the second one was taken when Summer was 3 months old.