Friday Five

1. What was your first job?
I worked as a hostess in a Chinese restaurant in Northridge.

2. How much did you make?
I think I made $4.25/hour which was the minimum wage for California at that time. I also get free dinner there.

3. Describe your least favorite co-worker of all time.
Hmm, mainly people who like to gossip and don't do their jobs properly.

4. What is your dream job?
Honestly I hate to work. So currently this SAHM gig is working out great for me.

5. What do you currently do and do you like it?
I'm a SAHM and I am enjoying every minute of it.

Apple a day takes the doctor away

I love Amber's expressions everytime I give her a new food to try. She wrinkles her forehead, gives me a "this is totally gross. what are you feeding me woman?" look. Then she gets used to the taste, and can't chow down fast enough.

Thursday Forum

1] You are given $1,000,000, but here's the catch: You must either a) donate it anonymously to a charity or b) give it to a stranger. Which option would you choose, and why? How would you dispose of the money?
I will donate it to American Heart Association. I have family members who have died of heart attack and diagnoised with a heart condition. I know a good charity will put good use the money.

2] If you could have free, unlimited service for the rest of your life from an extremely good chef, chauffeur, landscaper/gardener, housekeeper, masseuse, or personal assistant, which would you choose? Why?
Housekeeper of course. No question about it. I hate to clean.

3] Do your close friends tend to be older or younger than you? Do you feel that you relate better to people who are older than you, younger than you, or the same age? Why?
They are around my age. I can relate better with people older than me. I think I'm an old soul. :)

4] Would you generally rather be overdressed or underdressed at a party?
Overdressed. Underdressed just feels werid, especially everyone around you is dressed up.

5] If you could magically project yourself into the future but NEVER return, would you do it? How about if you could take someone along?
Who would you take? How far into the future would you go?
If I can take my husband and my kids, I will do it. Maybe 20 years into the future.

9-month

Amber turned 9-month on July 22nd. Today I took her to her doctor for a check-up. She weighs 22lbs, is 30" long. Her pediatrician told me that her height is equivalent to a 14-month old. She's going to be a tall one.

I've had it!

***Warning: The following entry is me whining, if you don't want to read it, you can leave right now.

I don't know what's with people. First they like to touch your tummy when you are pregnant, without asking for permission of course. If they have asked, I would not have minded so much. At least I had the option to say no.

Then when the kids are born, they like to touch them. One thing to praise them how cute they are, but it's a whole new story when they use their hands. Get your germy hands away from my kids.

And it isn't just the germs I'm freaking out about. Here is a really good example. We were at In-N-Out one day, it was a sit-in one. The kids and I were seated while John went to order food. JE was whinning about being hungry. This old guy came over and put his hands around his shoulder and was telling him things. I guess he was trying to comfort him. But I was totally focused on his hands, TOUCHING MY SON! He went back to his seat. Then he started to come over again, but before he even reached our table, I told him to go away. I didn't know what his intention was, could be he was just being nice. But when you started putting your hands on my kids, I had to put a stop to it. In this case, it was an old man. But it could be anyone. I don't care if you are old, young, man or woman.

Last and foremost, some of them just love to give you parenting advices. Most of the time I just nodded and smiled. But yesterday I lost it. I was at the mall with Amber, savering the a/c. Amber started to whine and wanted food, so I went to the food court and started to make a bottle for her. This woman came over and said to me:"Maybe your child is hungry, you should feed her." I wanted to throw the bottle at her. I was so pisssed off. Instead I said the following to her,
Me: First of all are you her mother?
Her: No.
Me: Then how do you know what she wants and don't want? Second, you must be blind, I'm making a bottle even before you came over. If you haven't interferred, I would have finished a long time. Go away and mind your own business.

She sulked away. Well, too bad lady. Maybe next time you will think twice before you give unwanted advice to someone else. At least I felt better after I told her off.

***End of whinning.

PS: I'm talking about strangers here, not people I know.

The circus is in town

This morning after dropping Amber at the free babysitter my Mom's, JE and us headed to downtown Staples Center to see the Ringlings Brothers. It was the first for JE and my first after God knows how many years ago I saw one. It was a fabulous and fun-filled, almost two and half show. JE totally enjoyed it. And we did too. The tigers freaked me out somewhat, even though they were locked in a cage only with trainer. I was not scared that they would come out and went on a rampage, but rather they would take a bite of the trainer. As one of them kept growling at him.

After the show we took the Dash back to the downtown library and had lunch at a CPK near by. You see we parked our car in the library, then took the Dash which dropped us right in front of the Staples Center. There was no way I would have paid $15 for an uncovered parking in this heat. Parking in the library was less than half that amount and it was underground parking. The library's parking system also changed. Now you pay the parking at an automatic machine before heading out, instead of paying to a parking attendant like they used to do. Making leaving so much faster, not that there were that much traffic on a Sunday. It really helped that we work in downtown, I used to, knowing all the little tricks of where to park cheap, where all the one-way streets go, and where to eat.

Friday Five

You're stranded on a deserted island. Somehow, magically, you knew to bring the following five things to make being stranded somehow bearable.

1. What form of entertainment would bring with you (eg: a certain book or a badmitton set)?
Ipod.

2. What tools would you bring with you?
Knife, saw, and ax.

3. Who would you bring with you?
Jason Statham.

4. Name one grab bag item you would have with you (anything you want).
A fishing rod.

5. Name one thing you simply couldn't live without on the island.
Drinking water.

I can see dead people

Well, not really. Thankfully. Prism's entry about scary movie reminded me a TV documentary I was watching a few nights ago on the Travel channel, for all of five minutes: Most Haunted: Croxteth Hall. This is the show's description: A forgotten manor house in the center of Liverpool awaits the Most Haunted crew in a place that time forgot. The team become lost and disorientated in this massive haunted building.

The crew was going through the house in dark with UV light, I think, whatever the special camera, goggle they use to see in dark. At one point, they pointed to a chair, there was an actual "person" sitting in it, covered in white. I literally gasped and changed channel right away. It was so freaky.

It's so bloody hot

Actually this entry has nothing to do with the weather. Just in case you are wondering, currently it is 90F°/31C°.

I had about 4 hours sleep last night. What was I doing? Playing computer games. heh. I should have gone to bed earlier, especailly knowing this morning I had to go to LAX to pick up golf clubs and a suitcase of goodies from Australia. I think the people from Oz has already been out for at least half and hour. But who knows traffic could be so bad still at 9am? Luckily I had Amber with me, I was able to carpool.

Tomorrow we are getting our Cal King bed frame and nightstands. Squirl. We bought a Cal King mattress when we first moved in here, more than two years ago. Wow, we have been here for two years already??? Anyway, we never got a bed frame for it. I have been looking forever, but could never find a perfect one. Last week we finally found. One both John and I like. We also got a queen size frame for JE's bed. Everything is getting delivered tomorrow. Woohoo.

I am going to re-do JE's room. Moving his train table to the garage, new curtains, new bed frame, new nightstands, and most important a new desk. It will be more a big kid room. If I feel up to it, I might change the wall color too, to a lighter one. We will see about the last part.

10 Countries You'd Like to Visit

In no particular order.
1) England
2) Germany
3) Scotland
4) Russia
5) India
6) Italy
7) Switzerland
8) Africa
9) New Zealand
10)Egypt

MUHAHAH

You scored as Goofy. Your alter ego is Goofy! You are fun and great to be around, and you are always willing to help others. You arn't worried about embarrassing yourself, so you are one who is more willing to try new things. Goofy 75% Sleeping Beauty 44% The Beast 44% Cinderella 44% Pinocchio 44% Donald Duck 38% Ariel 31% Snow White 31% Peter Pan 19% Cruella De Ville 19% Which Disney Character is your Alter Ego? created with QuizFarm.com

So cool!

I saw this on Tertia's blog. I have been having a lot of fun with it.

Harry Potter

I pre-ordered "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" from Barnes and Noble a few months ago. I just received a confirmation email from them stating that the book has been shipped out.

I will be staying in bed reading until I finish the book. I will not be available to cook, clean, and take care of the kids. Just so you know you have been warned, my dear husband. :)

That was close

This morning I took JE and Amber to McD for breaky before taking him to summer school. When we approached the car after breaky, I noticed the back door on JE's side was wide open. Yep, my son forgot to close the car door and at the haste, I didn't check either. Thank God the car was still there, but it sure gave me a minor heart attack when I saw the open car door.

10 People Who Inspire You

1) My husband John, who left his families and country behind to live and work in a foreign country.
2) My Mom, who basically raised my by herself until I was 10.
3) My junior year high school English teacher, whom taught me so much and made me feel in love with reading.
4) Arnold Schwarzenegger. It is not about wheather I support his policies or not, but the fact that he, a foreigner, ran for Governer and successfully became one.
5) Nancy Regan. She is just an amazing and strong woman.
6) My ex-co-worker Lily, who lived here by herself, going to school and work, lived apart from her husband and son who stayed in a different country.
7) Rachel Ray. I rarely cooked until I started watching her show "30 minutes meal" on Food Network last year.
8) My Uncle Bobby.
I'm stomped on the last two.

Heat

It has been quite hot recently here. It's extra hot to me after coming back from holiday in winter.

On Sunday, we went to Jim & Prue's to drop off some Aussie goodies for them. Then we stayed for an hour to catch up while JE played in the pool with their daughter. Afterwards we decided to go to a local restaurant because JE was whining about being hungry. We waited for about 10 minutes until we were seated, but it felt like eternity, because I was very very hungry. But when the food actually arrived, I had no desire to eat them. I felt dizzy, was sweating profusly. I had some ice-tea trying to calm myself down, but two minutes later I had to run into the restroom to throw up. John and JE were still eating, but I had to ask them to pack everything and pay the check. I needed to lie down badly. Before leaving, I threw up again in the parking lot. I took a two-hour nap when we got home, even though it was past 7 at night already. I felt better afterwards. If I didn't know better, I would have thought I was pregnant. But I think it was a case of heat exhaustion.

hmm, cheesecake

We had an early dinner with Xinh tonight at the Pasadena Cheesecake Factory. Good thing we got there early (even though we arrived ten minutes later than scheduled due to accident near our exit), when we were leaving, a crowd has formed in and outside of the door. Waiting time probably would be 30 minutes and more. Hmm, chocolate mousse cheesecake. So yummy. But of course we can never finish any food from Cheesecake, entrée or dessert.

Talking about the word "entrée", I have a question to ask all the people who has been and are still in Scottland or UK. Do you say entrée there? Or something else? Because when we were in Australia, American's appertizer is called entrée, and the actual dinner is called main course. I wonder if in England and Scottland it is called the same as in Australia? It's all part of a culture, and in no way should be judged or laughed at. Just like if someone from Australia comes here and they want to order an entrée, the waiter/waitress will certainly be confused and thinks they want to order an actual dinner plate.

Since I am on the topic of different saying at different country, I think my MIL, SILs and BILs will be very happy to hear that ever since we came back Australia, JE has been prouncing Z as zed and referring to swimming wear as bathers. But I think all this will change once he goes to kinder.

Words I have learned while in Australia that are different than America: (first one is Australian, second is American)
Nappie=Diaper
Boot=Trunk (as car's)
shopping Trolley=shopping Cart
Entrée=Appertizer
Cot=Crib
Bathers=Swimming suit
Capsicium=Bell Pepper
Sultana=Raisin

I am sure there are more, but those are what I can come up so far.

Trip photos

Australia trip photos are here.

Friday Five

1. How much money is in your wallet right now?
Around US$ 12

2. How much money would you need in the bank to feel secure? Rich?
Three months salaries. It's also a recommended saving, just in case. To feel rich? Hmm, where do I start? :)

3. If someone gave you $100, no strings attached, what would you do with it?
Go shopping.

4. If someone gave you $1 Million, no strings attached, what would you do with it?
Buy an actual house and a new car/SUV/van. Pay off my parents' mortgage. Put the rest in a trust account.

5. How much does something have to cost before it starts counting as "real" money, as a purchase to be considered and evaluated, but below which you'll buy without really thinking about it?
Anything over $100.

New beginning

I have decided to move my blogs to here. Pitas sucks.