October 16, 2008

Well, I confess: I’m not a very brave person.  The good news is that I know my own shortcomings.  So, I avoid occasions that will scare myself.  For example, I do not watch horror films.

But some horror is hard to avoid.  One that has been bothering me a lot is bugs.  OK.  Let me get one thing straight first.  I’m not brave but I’m not a coward either.  I love animals in most cases.  I adore dogs and most other none creepy creatures.  But I hate insects.  All right, I’m kind a bit scared of them.  Unfortunately, once in a while, I will find one or two bugs in the house.  Since screaming and shivering in front of them won’t solve the problem and I dread the squeaky feeling of stepping on them or squash them with a fly catcher to kill them, I have to find a creative way to get rid of them.  After tried a couple of options, I found the best one. :)  

I got a dozen or so small plastic cups.  When I see a bug in the house, I take a cup and put it on top of the bug.  This way, the bug will be contained inside the cup and I don’t need to worry stepping on them accidently.  If the bug is big, I’ll put a book on top of the cup to make sure it does not get out.  Then I’ll leave the cup there for a couple of days.  The bug will be died by then, maybe because dehydration?  At that time, I can take the cup away and vacuum the bug body away too. :)  See, a no mess way of getting rid of bugs. :)  The only problem here is that nobody is allowed to visit without a phone call 15 minutes prior to arrival.  Otherwise, you may find cups all over the floor. :)

October 12, 2008

Well, this was an uneventful weekend.  I did not do anything special or exciting.  But spend time to catch up on a few things.  Since I was sick last weekend, I did not clean the house.  So, first thing on Saturday, I put in the laundry and then started dusting and vacuuming.  When the laundry was done, the house was clean as well. J  It feels so much better looking around. J

Went out and had dim sum for lunch since I was a bit tired after all the cleaning work and didn’t feel like cooking.  Went to the gym after lunch.  Got home and took a babble bath and then a short nap. J

When I woke up, it was already pass 3pm.  Brewed a cup of green tea and scanned through one of my all time favorite old movie again: Gone with the wind. J  (Watched my other all time favorite old movie: the God Father a couple of weeks ago.)  While watching the movie, I did take another try at the “bing pi moon cake”.  I used very small portions of the material: only enough for a couple moon cakes this time.  And guess what?  It turned out pretty successful this time!  Reported my “big accomplishment” to my father when I called home in the evening.   He seemed happy about it. J

Sunday was another sunny and pleasant day.  :)  It was perfect for some gardening.  I have some day lilies, some corn flowers and a couple of roses around my small patio.  (Yeah, all hearty flowers. :)  In normal years, the day lilies and corn flowers should already be all dead by now and need to be removed.  Since this year has been unusually warm until now, a couple flowers keep spring out.  So, I have not taken them out yet.  But by now, most of them are brown already.  I decided to take advantage of the good weather and spend a couple hours in the garden to remove all the dead stems.  It was kind hard work, but the patio looks so much cleaner and better after I am done.  :)

Baked a roll of the Pillsbury golden layers biscuits.  Just while I’m crushing on the couch and enjoying the first biscuit, a cup of soy milk and some red grapes, Clair called and wanted to go shopping.  I told her that I was too tired to go shopping.  She suggested just go out to the mall and have a cup of coffee, which sounds fun.  I took the biscuits with me and she loved them.  I told her that it only takes 15 minutes and no prep work to make.  From the reaction I got, I guess she doesn’t believe it and has no intention to try.  Well, it works for me.  If this kind of low tech, none time consuming and low cost snack can get a friend happy, I don’t mind making them for her. J  We sat there and did some people watching and chatting.  All in all, a perfect way to waste a Sunday afternoon after a morning of hard work. :)

Well, another peaceful weekend has passed.  I did nothing but feel that get a lot done too. J  At least, I feel relaxed and ready for another week of work. :) 

October 7, 2008

Well, I am on an airplane right now, going to CT for our plan meeting.  Caught a cold the past weekend. L  I feel much better now but still have a sore throat and minor sinus.  It is definitely not fun traveling when you are not 100% healthy.  Now I kind regret that I booked the connection flight instead the direct one to save money for the company.  It just makes the travel so much longer.  :(  Well, I guess it is what a gal needs to do for her job. L  I’m trying my best to stay hydrated, which makes my throat feels better.  I’m staying at the hotel at the airport and the meeting will be held there too.  Normally, I’m not fond of this kind of in and out meetings since all you see is the airport of the city.  But this time I’m so happy about the arrangement since it will save a lot of energy after I landed.  :)  I can’t wait to get there.  The plan for the whole evening will be a hot shower, maybe some light room service and crash.

Don’t get me wrong.  I like my job and I love travel.  I just feel tiring for this trip since I just got a cold and a fever for a couple of days.  Lying in bed by yourself when you are sick is not fun at all.  It made me miss home so much.  When I called my parents during the weekend, I didn’t tell them I was sick though.  It wouldn’t help anyway and would only make them worry.  Plus, it was my own fault.  Friday, after went to the gym, I got out with wet hair after shower.  It was quite chilly and I ignored it. L  Anyway, thank God, I’m mostly recovered by now already.  Hopefully, I’ll have a nice sleep tonight and be ready for the “negotiations” for tomorrow’s plan meeting.  It is very important to set the expectations right for the next year.  You don’t want to accept whatever top down number is, which most likely is next to impossible to reach and be beat up for a whole year for not meeting the goal.  Meanwhile, you don’t want to sell a plan that is too easy and be called sand bagger. :)  Well, the art of negotiation is needed in all facets of our lives.  I need to work on it. :)

I tried to make “Bing Pi” moon cake around the time of Moon Festival.  I even bought a moon cake mold for it.  Unfortunately, the “pi” I made was a bit too dry so it could not contain the red bean paste filling very well and form a pretty moon cake form in the mold. L  I was very disappointed after a couple hours work and only got ugly moon cakes.  (They were still very delicious though.  Just ugly. )  I told my father about the disaster when I called home at that time.  At the beginning, my father was not sure what is “Bing Pi” moon cake.  He is a “lao Bejing” and only used to either northern style moon cake or Cantonese style moon cake.  I think Bing Pi moon cake probably originated from the long river area.  Anyway, I explained what it is to him a bit and the reason I choose to make them was because they were easier to make and I was lazy. :)  Then we dropped the topic and talked about other stuffs in life.

To my surprise, my father never forgot my moon cake making failure.  When I called home this past weekend, he told me that he did some research and got me a recipe for making “Bing Pi” moon cake.  I told him I had recipe, but he insisted to tell me the one he found.  Then he said, try this recipe and you should be able to make pretty moon cakes.  I told him maybe next year.  I don’t really care much about moon cake any way.  I was just making them a couple weeks ago to suit the occasion.  But he did not want to drop the topic, saying that it should be good desert any time.  After a couple minutes back and forth on the topic, I realized that it was not about moon cake.  It was about that “you got to do things right and don’t quit easily.”  Well, he did not say it this time.  But I had ears full of it while I was little.  I guess it doesn’t matter how old I am or whether it is school work or making moon cakes, to a father, what he believes for his children never changes.  I found this moon cake discussion was a bit frustrating and a bit amusing.  But more importantly, it brings a warm feeling and precious memories to me.  My father can be a bit stubborn, but he will always care me.  I guess I’m going to make moon cakes again next weekend.  It will be worthy just to make him happy. J

After I saw KA in MGM, I was impressed by Cirque de Soleil and decided to go to see another show from them.  Checked on O first but could not get good ticket.  I wasn’t in the mood for a musical from Beatles at the time, so I decided to see the other Cirque de Soleil show left: Zumanity.  The ad picture is a bit intriguing, from which I knew the show would be a bit provocative.  But since I did not have time to read any review before I purchased the ticket and Cirque de Soleil had the reputation of providing spectacular family entertainment and I remembered that one of my colleagues told me that she watched the show and liked it, I was surprised to realize that it was a topless show right after the show started.  Well, I know I’m giving a lot of excuses that I went to see a provocative show, but all of these excuses are true. :)  Anyway, although I was surprised, I have to say I still enjoyed the show.  I mean this was my second Cirque de Soleil show and my first provocative show.  I think at least it was done tastefully.  It still has CdS’s trade mark elements: the aerobics, the dances, the color and the sounds.  It just put all these into a sexy setting.

As the host said the show was an exploration of sex and sexuality. The range and depth of this exploration surprised me though. Their investigation of sexuality is quite frank. I personally can appreciate the fact that they broke down all kinds of boundaries, such as race, appearance and sexual preference.  But I don’t think everyone is going to be comfortable seeing strapped women or two men lovingly wrestling with each other.
The show tries to present love, sensuality and eroticism, in all its forms.  It is ultimately a story of human emotion, the nature of beauty, and the acceptance of differences.

As I said, I was surprised at the beginning of the show with the topless but beautiful “love of the wind” lady and two really exotic and exciting African American dancers.  Their dance seemed to come from the ancient time and those incredible, almost violent moves arouse the deepest senses from inside your body.  Most of the acts are brilliant and amazing, such as the girl with hoops, the young lovers in the “fish tank", the dance on TV and the lady strapped in ropes.  The show excited us and allowed us to exploring human sensuality.

Well, I know being somebody who had no experience with exotic shows, my opinion may not be the most reliable one. But at least to me, the show is sexy, provocative and challenging. It awakens the most primal urges of eroticism that blends movement, acrobatics and beautiful bodies with the sensual caress of the human voice and the insistent pulse of exotic rhythms.  It contains nudity, both implied and actual, but used tastefully to celebrate the beauty of human body and love.  The subject matter of sexuality is approached from an entertaining viewpoint.  It is arousing but not offensive.  It makes you wanting more. :)

I went to Las Vegas for a conference last week.  I really like the city, although I am not a gambler. :)  You can find a lot to do even if you are not a gambler there: great restaurants, fantastic shopping malls and of course shows.  This is only my second time to Vegas and I didn’t have a chance to watch a show last time I went.  So, I really hoped to have time to see a couple of shows during this visit, which I did. 

The first show I went to see was KÀ by Cirque de Soleil playing at the KA Theatre inside the MGM hotel and Casino. I heard that it was the latest show from Cirque du Soleil to hit the Strip. It is an amazing technical achievement. KÀ combines martial arts, acrobatics, puppetry, interactive video projections, technology and pyrotechnics to tell the story of Imperial Twins, who embark on an adventurous journey to fulfill their destinies.  Well, the story line was simple and not too impressive but overall, the show was an amazing achievement of human ability and mechanical technologies.  It was beautiful and awe-inspiring.  The most amazing two scenes for me are:

1. The Pillars scene, in which the artists perform daring acrobatic maneuvers while leaping on and over multiple pillars.

2. The wheel scene, in which a couple of artists running and jumping on two huge turning wheels.

The theatre and the stage are astonishing. We got seats up front, which gave us great views of the whole stage.  Overall, KÀ is a wonderful experience.  I’ve heard so many good words about Cirque de Soleil shows and this was my first experience with their shows.  I have to say that all the good words are true. :)

I subsequently learned that the show's title, KÀ, is inspired by the ancient Egyptian belief in the "ka," an invisible spiritual duplicate of the body that accompanies every human being throughout this life and into the next.  Isn’t that a beautiful concept? :)  It seems every religion has some similar concept, which makes me wonder maybe it is true. :)

Finally get the headcount approved and converted a temp in our team to full time employees.  I’ve decided to take the team out for lunch to celebrate and to discuss a few projects in a casual environment.  The team chose to go to one of my favorite restaurants: Papadeaux.  It is a Cajun seafood restaurant.  I’ve never been to New Orleans or that area but it Papadeaux food is a fair representation of Cajun food, then I’m a fan. :)

We ordered a few appetizers, including my favorites: sautéed crab figures and Cajun frog leg.  The crab figure was perfect.  The frog leg was a bit too salty.  A few Americans tried the frog legs and liked it.  A couple more conservative colleagues skip the dish. :)  The spinach dip and calamari were nice too.  Since we are in a Cajun seafood restaurant, I couldn’t pass a cup of seafood sausage gamble, which was very delicious.  By then I’m almost full.  Then my lunch portion pasta marti grass came, which is a huge bowl of pasta cooked with prawns, crawfish, clams, sausage and mushroom in a creamy source.  Well, delicious!  But like every time I came to this restaurant, I only finished probably a quarter of the pasta and had the rest boxed. 

Bravo to a couple of my team members, who after all these food, had room to order desert!  Well, it is not all their fault.  The restaurant has this tempting approach to bring a desert tray with various deserts instead of a desert menu for you to look at and order. :)  Who can resist that!  As a result, key lime pies, cheese cakes, chocolate trophies and ice creams flush the table again.  Thank God, I had enough discipline not to order any.  But did end up share a bit of a key lime pie. :)

Everybody was satisfied with the food and we did discussed a few projects going on over desert.  Since everybody was in a very good mood, I got multiple volunteers to speed up a couple of the projects.

I love travel, especially to places that have splendid natural beauty or rich history.  I’ve heard that the Upper Peninsula (UP) of Michigan is beautiful in the past.  Finally decided to take a week off and visit there.  The trip was absolutely a delight filled with breath taking sceneries. 

We started driving north on Sunday.  The ride through OH is uneventful.  We stopped at Anne Arbor for lunch.  Wondered around down town Anne Arbor a while.  It is a small but chic town with boutiques and ethnic restaurants along the main street.  The college town influence shows up in the many book stores and theaters sprinkled among the shops.  Over all, it gives you a very delightful first impression.  Since we were afraid that we wouldn’t be able to find any desirable Chinese food in the rest of the trip, we chose a Chinese restaurant on the main street and had lunch there.  The owner was a Taiwanese and was very friendly.  We chatted with him while ordering.  He talked about how he started the restaurant and how good a cook he is, but he does not cook himself any more normally.  We asked him to cook for us and he accepted.  Well, let’s just say he was a good dish and we enjoyed it. :)  (BTW, you could tell that he did cook in the restaurant too often now since when he finished and came out, he directly went to the bar and poured himself a glass of chilled whiskey, while the water brought out the dishes. :)

We kept going north from Anne Arbor and arrived at Travis City around 5pm.  Travis City is a tourist town on the shore of Lake Michigan.  There are many hotels and rental condos along the lake shore.  The water in the lake was crystal clear and I was surprised by the superior quality of the beach there.  Actually, all the beaches we visited during the trip along Lake Michigan and Lake Superior are very nice, with fine sands, much better than many of the beaches in FL in my opinion.  Travis City is not in UP yet.  We stayed there for two days. 

First day, we visited the Sleeping Bear Dune National Lake Shore.  We drove through the scenic drive, which as its name indicates offered superb scenic views along the way.  Below are some pictures I took along the scenic drive.  This is the first time, I saw a covered bridge.  The irony red color gives it a rustic but romantic flair.  The most impressive view is still Lake Michigan.  Due to the different depth of the water close to the shore, it has different colors: from bright torque to jade green to dark green.  When the sun light bouncing on top of all these beautiful colors, it feels almost magical. 

The next must stop at Sleeping Bear Dune National Lake Shore is the Sleeping Bear Dune. :)  It is a huge dune built by sands blowing over by the strong winds from Lake Michigan.  When I say it is huge, it is huge.  You can tell that by the relative small size of people in the pictures below. :)  Without hesitation, I joined those brave people who set off to conquer the dune. :)   The climbing was not too bad except that I made a mistake to leave my sandals at the bottom of the dune.  It was easier to climb without shoes, but with bright sun shine directly heating up the dune, those sands were burning!  I mean BURNing!  Well, finally, I thought I got to the top of the dune and was panting.  I looked up and realized that there was another dune on top of this one!  Well, since I’m not somebody to quit mid way, I took a deep breath and kept climbing without stopping at all.  (All right, a confession: it is not that I didn’t want to stop and took a rest.  It was really because the sands were so hot, I couldn’t rest either of my feet long on it. :)  When I finally got the top of this dune, I was astonished by the view I saw.  Lake Michigan laying beneath the dune quietly, like a piece of giant jade.  It was so calm that I could not imagine the wild days during which it blew all the sands off shore to firm these giant dunes.  Amazed by the view, I did stood there still for a while until I got over the scenery shock and the burning heat beneath my feet brought back to reality.  I climbed back, admiring a few pretty girls in their bikinis playing volleyball.  Even more impressive are the children running around, laughing, playing with the sand, throwing themselves in the sands … All in all, it was a very happy picture with artistically shaped snow white clouds floating in the blue sky.  I know I must have a smile on my face all the time.  :)

We spent the second day in Travis City to visit a few unique towns in the surrounding area.  We drove alone the lake all the way.  The water along with some very impressive vacation lake houses made the drove very enjoyable.  The first couple towns we passed through were winery towns.  We stopped along the way and did some wine tasting.  The wines were all right but not superb.  The settings in most of the tasting venues were very pleasant though.  I was more impressed by some of those delicious cherry products.  I also bought a lot of cherries, which is one of my favorite fruits. J  It was my main snack for the next few days. :)  By the end of the trip, I was more convinced that I should plant a cherry tree. :)  The town that made the best impression on me is , which is a fishing town.  It is a very small town, the kind of town that you can drive through in ten minutes. :)  But it has a very cute main street and a pretty harbor.  Coffee shops, restaurants, boutique shops selling hand made crafts, candy shops and ice cream shops fill the area.  We arrived there around 2pm and there were not many people on the street.  A few tourists bouncing from one shop to the next.  More people were resting on rocking chairs on the patios outside coffee shops and the ice cream shops.  :)  We had lunch at a restaurant on the harbor and sat outside on the deck, which over looked the harbor.  I ordered clam chowder and local white fish.  The chowder was not bad.  The white fish was just OK.  I don’t think I had white fish before.  It seems to be a rather unfloverable fish though. :)   What made the lunch more enjoyable were the two teenager waitresses: one blond and one dark hair.  Both are absolute beauties.  I wonder whether girls there are all this pretty.  If so and if I’m a guy, I’m moving here!  Well, at least for the summer while the weather is constantly in the perfect high 70s and low 80s.  I’m not sure the natural beauty and the splendid smiles of local girls will be enough to warm me up during the brutal winter here.  Well, luckily I’m not a guy so I don’t need to figure this complicated dilemma out. :)  There were many boats in the harbor.  Some are for local fishing industry and some are charter boats for tourists.  I’ve never done deep sea fishing.  Before the trip, my colleagues were telling me about their pleasant experience of fishing on the great lakes.  I asked the captain of a fishing charter boat how much it would cost to charter a boat for deep lake fishing.  He told me $700 for a day trip.  He also showed me pictures of huge fishes that his clients caught and promised that I would definitely caught some big fishes even though I had no clue of how to fish.  He even explained how they would help me clean the fish, cut them into pieces, seal them into bags with no airs and proved ice box to take them with me at the end of the day. :)  I thanked his hospitality but told him it probably better for me to practice fishing a small pond first before I jump on his boat and spend $700 to embark the big fishes.  He laughed and told me to come back after my practice. :)  He was kind enough to even went on and talking about what fishing rob I should get first etc.  I wish I wrote it down now because I couldn’t remember a thing now. L  Sorry, Capitan. The rest of the day was spent here and there between beaches and small towns, between a bit swimming, laying on the sand, window shopping and watching sun set on the lake.  :)

(To be continued.)

We went canoeing this past weekend.  It was the first time for me and it was fun. :)  We went to a place alone the Little Miami river where there is a small business to rent canoes.  It was a hot summer day and the canoe rental business was bustling. J  We went in and the clerk was very helpful to help us pick a 5 mile route.  We made payment, took paddles and life jackets and then got on a school bus that the company rented to take customers upstream to the canoe release point.  It took about 20 minutes bus ride to get to the release point.  Canoes and kayaks are already prepared.  Since there were five of us, we jumped in two canoes and started paddling down streams.  That part of the river was very sallow and you can see cleared the bottom of the river.  At the beginning, we had some trouble to steering the canoe to the right direction and the canoe went straight to the other side of the river.  Then I was distracted since I saw a turtle swim to the surface of the water and stacked his neck above the water surface briefly.  I was over excited and tried to lean over to the side of the boat to catch the turtle.  Well, I didn’t catch the turtle but scared others on the canoe.  J  After this short unexpected episode, I drew my attention back to canoeing and quickly got the gist of paddling.  We started to paddle down stream.  People from another boat are in bathing suits and already jump into the water swimming.  Then we saw a bunch of teenagers stopped their boats alone the bank, where there was a huge tree with branches reaching over the water.  There was a rope hanging from the branch of the tree.  The boys and some girls climbed onto the tree, hang on to the rope and the performed various diving act to get into the water.  It looks so fun.  I guess it is good to be young. :)  After a while, I get tired and stopped the paddling.  Since we are going down streams any way, even without paddling, the canoe is floating to the right direction by itself.  We were just hanging out on the boat, chatting.  I put my feet into the water, taking in the sceneries along the way. :)  There were only a couple spots that the water are rather rustling and we needed to use our paddles to steer the way, otherwise the canoe would be thrown on the rocks in the river.  I noted that the rustling water was because the depth of the river was changing in those couple spots.  After the “white water” area, the water got much deeper. 

All together it took about 2 and half hours for us to complete the five mile down stream journey.  It definitely felt much cooler and pleasant on the water in such a hot summer afternoon.  All in all, it is a good activity during the summer. :)

Well, Saturday, four girls went out to see the chick flick movie: “Sex and the City”.  Yeah, I know it is a bit “cheesy” to get four girls to see the “four girl show”.  The truth is that I asked four girls to go but one couldn’t make it, so here we are four women at the movie theater.  Actually, four women and one husband: yeah, Ellen’s husband was so nice that he would like to join us for the chick flick movie.  Jennifer’s husband on the other hand went to say Indiana Jones.  The audience is definitely heavily skewed to females. J 

If you like the TV series, you would like the movie as well.  It is the same style with a happy ending. J  Thanks God, it is a happy ending.  If Mr. Big doesn’t marry Cherry, I think half of the women in the theater will cry. :)  For me, the highlight is still the fashion in the show, especially the shoes.  Yeah, I am a bit shoe freak as well.  But no way near to Cherry’s level. :)  I admit that I did shred a few tears along the way, which is an evidence that this is a successful chick flick movie. :)  After the movie, I was thinking if I have a choice to be one of the women in the show, who I’d want to be?  Without too much thought, I knew I’d want to be Challette, the lucky girl who gets all without too much drama. :)  Let’s prey that I’ll be as lucky as she is. J

The whole gang went to a Chinese restaurant nearby and had dinner after the movie.  It was a lot of fun.  After dinner, Ellen and Jennifer couples went to the casino for a night of games.  Since I’m not a gambler, I went home. J