An inconspicuous winter afternoon @ Half Moon Bay

Half Moon Bay under the sun was unusually warm and exceptionally radiant. I started my day at the charming Caffe Mezza Luna in Harbor Village for a cup of cappuccino. While waiting for my coffee, I browsed their CD collections with a big mission in my mind: Christmas shopping! As I picked up a HMB magazine and sat down, the nice young man with a big wide smile brought me the coffee. I smiled back and said thanks.

My next stop was at HMB board shop. When I turned into their modest parking lot, the only blue truck in there made it look unusually smaller. The door was closed tight, and all the windows were covered by posters. I wondered if the shop was opened, and double checked to make sure the neon "Open" light was on. I turned the door knob and sure enough, they were doing business alright. The husky fellow behind the counter looked exactly like a stereotypical California surfer, sun tanned with light color hair. He said hi and asked me to be sure to let him know if there was anything he could help. This kind of friendliness was a bit unusual to me coming from such a tough looking guy.

With my expert-shopper level precision, I picked up a few items and landed them on the counter. It obviously made our shopkeeper's day! He praised me for coming in early for Christmas shopping , "not like us guys, always waiting until the last minute." He even told me about his new-born baby and his dog, judging from my dog hair covered polartec about the dog. As I said goodbye and walked out, he thanked me again for stopping by.

My next stop was Half Moon Bay downtown. My favorite store there is Posh Moon. It is small shop full of nice French inspired clothing and cute gifts. This time they didn't have anything new for me, though I carefully examined all of the racks throughout the store. Carol is this super friendly older lady who likes to wear her hats. If you catch her in a good day, she could give you 20% discount on your total bill.

Next I headed to Toque just at the corner. I followed a group of 4 or 5 leisurely walked in the store. Toque is a high-end kitchenware store. I enjoyed shopping there, but I was a little uneasy about the possibility of my bulky tote touching breakable items, which were displayed carefully everywhere. So I picked up a few things and left.

I then checked out a few other stores, but since I already got my catch of the day, and I was feeling my wallet fatigue, I slowed down considerably. I finally bought something for myself in a clothing store, which happen to have all full-priced clothing 50% off. As I paid, the seemingly young and quiet shopkeeper showed a very friendly smile.

With one side of my mind bubbling with excitement for all that I got in 2 hours, and the other equivalently prepping me for the pain I would unavoidably endure come January, I strolled back to my car, where I found another pleasant surprise. I parked right in front of a bakery, and they were still open! I rushed in and spent my last dollars on cookies. Then I left downtown with no guilt nor reservations.

I had no expectations when I left home, didn't dress up like when I was going to the mall, and got free parking without any hassle. I had a great day shopping with my friendly neighborhood retailers!

Now I can put my credit cards in the freezer and be content.

A thing or Two About Chinese Love Songs

China is such an ancient country with billions of people cultivated by lots of old philosophies as well as radical new changes coming with the political system.

It maybe hard for others to fathom the contemporary Chinese romance. But from these love songs, you can see the Chinese vulnerability regarding love. Maybe even get some insight into the generation grew up with such influences.

These songs have melodramatic and romantic lyrics like:

"Don't tell him that you are afraid in the dark; that you like the roses he gave you the most; that you like him to wait in the rain ... because those are my most precious memories."

"I used my happiness as a wager (for you) ... losing you, I lost everything."

"I am a playful and free kite, everyday making you worry. If one day, you become a kite, how do I get back to you? ... Because I know you are a worrying little girl, so before the rain cloud comes, I come back to your arms ..."

What Melodramatic

If Shakespeare tragedies are dramatic, then Chinese contemporary dramas are melodramatic. My definition of melodramatic is, the story has a bad ending, but it is so depressing that you feel like you fell into the mud and stuck there forever, until you stop thinking about it.

I'm not saying only the Chinese dramas has the capability to be melodramatic, because I'm sure Japanese literature and art has the potential well exceed the Chinese. But my statement was just merely my observation of a couple Chinese contemporary dramas.

Don't Read News

One thing that's hard to bear about the work week for me is the fact that I work at the computer all day, and it gives me plenty of opportunities to go on the online news media to check daily news. To me, most news are toxic in different ways.

Is news reality or reality check or distraction? Most news are negative. Someone's misfortune or misconduct stirred up interests of the mess, and every news agency starts chiming in on the latest development as well as detail breakdown analysis. The media grows on others' misfortune.

How about the readers like me. Am I encouraging the media? I would have to say guilty as charged. However, bad news is so draining and depressing. Why do I take it upon myself to endure such negativity?

The solution? Stop dwelling into news, and focus on the now and what's around me.

My Meditation

How do you meditate? How do you learn to do it? I have some Yoga and relaxation books that talk about meditation, but I don't think you can learn how to meditate by reading books. Just like it's hard to learn how to dance by reading a book, eventually you have to do it.

I've been to Yoga classes where the teacher teaches meditation. The idea is to keep the mind focus on one thing, one phrase or one idea. When you realize your mind drifts away, you catch yourself and put the mind back to the original thing. Slowly over time, your mind is calm and peaceful focusing on the one idea, without drifting away.

One night I was awake until late, because I played on the computer until late and had some strong tea at dinner. It kept my mind restless. I was tossing and turning thinking about many random things. When the clock showed 2 AM, I decided it was time to try falling asleep, so that I could have a normal work day tomorrow.

To calm down my mind, I lied on my back with Savasana pose, and started breathing deeply. In my mind I wrote the Chinese character date - 日 - and I breathed slowly once with every stroke. Every time when I finished writing the character in my head, my thought would already be wondered away from the writing, and thinking about plans or fantasies. So When I started writing the character again, I intentionally brought my thought back to the character. The first ten to fifteen times when I wrote the character 日, my mind continued to wonder away somewhere in the middle of the writing. However after a while, my mind slowed down, and I was able to stay with the character. Slowly, the character morphed into a donuts, then it morphed again into a piece of cloud. All the ideas became irrelevant for the moment, and I eventually fell asleep.

The Importance of Shoes

Are you a shoe person or a purse person? It's very sad but true, shoes and purses are my guilty pleasures. It's comforting to know, however, I'm not the only woman who possesses such obsession. In fact, it's probably quite normal for our population, except for a few outstanding individuals I know and admire, who have unsurpassed self discipline and self control to disregard material things. I continue to strive to become one of those exceptional people.

I try hard to reject the temptation of those things, but in my weaker moments, finding good pairs of shoes and a nice purse brighten my day. Until the next good find comes along, which haunts me at night.

Creepy Things

#1 The two Tans
Jack's 3rd Ave. kiteboarding webcam was down for close to half a year now, because someone dropped it when moving it. As the kiteboarding season started this year, more and more people were noticing the absence of the webcam, and emails inquiries came to Jack's mailbox.

One day Jack told me Tan offered to donate his home computer to host the webcam server, so we wouldn't have to rely on the company hosting the webcam. Jack refused it a few times, because the hosting server was not the root cause of the problem. Jack just needed to get the webcam fixed and get it back on line. After a few times of unsuccessful engagement and many technical suggestions, Tan stopped emailing Jack with further offerings. Both Jack and I were quite amazed what a persistent person our friend Tan was.

Last week Jack came home and told me, "this guy walked up to me and said: it's good to finally meet you." It turned out it was the Tan who was emailing Jack, who was a different guy from our friend Tan.

#2 Confused about the singer
Finding out my favorite love song from high school was sung by a man rather than a woman.

#3 Are you alright?
One day I found Jack in the bed room lying on his belly. I was startled thinking he was fainting.

I screamed: "Are you alright?"

He looked up and said, "yes, I'm fine."

It turned out he was trying to deflate an inflated globe, and he was lying on it to squeeze the last bit of the air out of it.

What Happened in the Car

One day Jack and I drove to 3rd Ave. I was holding a coffee, because there was no cup holder available in the car. As we talked, I made all kinds of hand gestures as my usual animated self.

At the red light, I turned to look into the blue truck next to us, and the driver was also looking at me. I looked away as Jack and I were still talking about an exciting topic. All of a sudden I lost grip of my coffee and it almost flew out of my hands. I spilled coffee all over me. In a hurry, I wiped myself and from the seat belt. I turned to look at the guy in the blue truck again, he was looking straight ahead, bouncing his head with the music from his radio, while shaving his mustache with an electric razor in a nonchalant kind of way.

Just the other day in the car, I saw the driver of an SUV pouring coffee from one Starbucks cup to another.

You'll be surprise what you found people doing in the car nowadays, and it is ever so amusing.

Uke Lesson

During my Kauai trip, I made an appointment to take a beginner's Ukulele lesson from an accomplished Slack Key Guitar and Ukulele player. I can't tell you his name until I become a good uke player myself.

My teacher was very good and he was very serious about teaching, so Jack and I were very serious too. He said Jack could sit in the room while I was taking the lesson, as long as he stayed quiet.

My appointment was at 10. Jack drove me to find his place, and we were 30 minutes early, so we parked the rental car in the neighborhood community center parking lot. About 5 minutes before 10'clock, Jack said: "Did you clip your nails?" I showed him my left hand's finger nails, and he said they weren't short enough to play a Ukulele. I didn't bring my nail clipper, so we had to drive across the street to a convenient store to buy a nail clipper.

I bought a Ms. Manicure brand pink nail clipper. We only had 2 minutes left, so Jack drove straight to the class, while I carefully clipped my nails.

"This is a good nail clipper. Look, my nail is so smooth now." I said, as I was carefully clipping methodically starting from my thumb.

Jack took a look at my hand and started laughing: "You don't have to clip your thumb nail!"

Yoga home practice

When I first met Jack's mother, Sue, who was in her 70s and a retired Yoga teacher, I was amazed at how straight her back was and how strong she was, because at the time I was in my early 30s, I was already slouching and bothered by back pain.

I determined to revert the pain and prevent premature aging, I started to practice Yoga. I go to Yoga and Pilates class weekly, and a third day in the week I do cardio exercise plus extensive stretching. It is funny, when I was younger, I never had the patience to stretch before or after exercises, as I didn't see it any use. I actually feel that my body a living organism, like a machine, all the moving parts need proper care, and stretching of the muscles is to prevent stiffness so that they don't have to remind me their existence. I have done this exercise routine for over three years. After a good Yoga or Pilates class, I would fell that my body was "lubricated". Now as I walk around, I can proudly feel my back is straight, my abs tight and most of the time my muscles are OK.

I have always wanted to add home practice to my normal routine. It can be challenging to do, when you don't have the right frame of mind or the discipline. It's not impossible, but it is hard for someone like me, who have been avoiding order and organization in life. But I never stop trying despite multiple failures over a long time.

During our Spring Kauai trip, I actually had a breakthrough and possibly found the tricks to building my own Yoga home practice.

To have a good home Yoga practice, the first thing is to give in to your normal lifestyle, if it is the stressful kind - rushing from home to the office; rushing to finish the email at the same time responding to multiple chat windows; rushing to head to the gym or make an appointment on time; rushing to go home and make dinner and feed the dogs. Like learning new things after you already know quite a lot of other stuff. You have to give up certain things on your plate so that there is room for the new stuff.

Try to give up the need of meeting all the deadlines and obligations, you will find that you and others which demand your time will survive, then you can find some space and energy to do this wonderful practice. Yoga is rejuvenating because it gives you a chance to empty your mind; to breathe deep into your heart and lungs, send all the much needed oxygen - the life source - to your whole body, your limbs and your brain. At the same time, your muscles from head to toe got properly stretched, building strong muscles and joints.

Removing the obligations from life? Easier said than done, right? Yes, that's why I could only get a breakthrough during my vacation, when I dropped everything from my work and life, went to a remote island and have plans of doing nothing. Then I could quiet down and figure out my needs and design a program that fits that need.

Namaste.

My Yoga Retreat Day 2

Day 2 I did Yoga in the early morning, and it was very nice, as I got to stretch out my calve and legs as needed. Then we lingered at home doing this and that: I wasted a little time online, and Jack was reading from his ipet - the name I gave to his iPad.

At around 11, we left home and drove toward Poipu beach to see the Shrimp Lady, Susan. We ordered two Bahia (coconut garlic shrimp), and Susan asked if we live here on the island. We said, no, but we came every year, and the last time we came was December 2010. She said you were lucky to be able to come every year. As she was quite busy, we didn't stay to offer our sympathy about the not readiness of her new shop.

We took our food and went to spouting horn to have a picnic. A bold rooster drew by the smell of the food, and he paced around our picnic table, crowing proudly responding to another rooster's challenge. Jack gave him a bit of rice, and he took it with his beak. He got bolder with the simple invitation. He jumped up on the picnic table came next to my food.

Jack told him: "My wife is very stingy."

"That's because I am very hungry." I enjoyed my shrimp slowly, sucking all the coconut and garlic flavor out of the shells.

Jack said: "how come you always get more shrimp than I do?" Looking at his own plate with what became more of a pile of shells, and the reduced number of shrimps.

I said: "It does look like that way, doesn't it? I think we each got 10 pieces and I think she told you how many pieces there were in each plate on the menu. I just ate slowly."

Jack finished his food and left me alone with the rooster friend - who was standing on the picnic table inches away from my plate, starring at my food with interest - when I still had 3 pieces of shrimp left. The rooster was very valorous.

I have to admit I was intimidated by this rooster, because I had this unpleasant image of being pecked by chickens in my mind. It would be very stupid to be pecked by a good looking, colorful rooster on my annual visit to the island. Since I already finished my rice, I had nothing else to give him but some pieces of shells and bits of coleslaw. I gave him bits of those while I quickly finished my shrimp and felt a bit ripped off. I wished Jack stayed with me when I ate!

After lunch we went watch the spouting horn for a while - it was windy and wavy, and there were big spouts. We then walked passed the souvenir vendors on the way back to the car. I am proud to say I didn't spend a penny there this time - so far. When we got back to the parking lot, Jack stood in front of two identical looking white Nissan Sentra and asked: "Which one is ours?" Before I could answer, he recognized the hotel parking permit on the dashboard, and jumped into the right car.

After we left spouting horn, we wondered where we should go next. We didn't want to go to the botanical garden, which was on the way back, because it would be very troublesome to have to put on bug spray aka deet on our skins. I always felt that I was poisoning my skin when I used that stuff. So we decided to go to check out the Ukulele shop at Old Kaloa Town - Larry's Music.

We walked into the small shop, where a middle age man was playing his Ukulele. We looked around and find different sizes of Ukuleles made of different kind of woods and in different size shapes hung on the walls. After a while the man stopped playing and asked us: "Can I help you?"

SO the conversation began. Jack walked toward him and said: "We don't know squat about Ukuleles. Can you tell us something about it?" He first told us the different kind of Ukuleles - concert, soprano, and tenor. Then he explained different kind of wood, and how their Ukuleles were made. He also went on to tell us how his son had to work with the Chinese manufacturer and make their 3rd rate product become top of the line - "The trick is all on quality control, now we know it, but it sure was painful when it first started." He also told us about his friends who were famous Ukulele makers or players. He went over all the local famous players, and their stories. He told us about his wife, his son's wife, and his grandson who also plays Ukulele with his own style. This guy was so friendly, if we didn't inch our way toward the door, for we got bitten by bugs so badly, we would probably stay there for dinner. Anyway, three hours later we left the shop with no Ukulele. But feeling like soaked sponges full of knowledge about this miniature guitar looking instrument.

This was a guy who entrusted his life's story to two stranger, tourists from the States, who just happened to stepped into his store when he had no other customers. He called this season the newly weds or nearly deads ... Which we didn't appreciate, but he quickly added: "of course you guys are exceptions."

It was a full day for us. We went home, and I made BBQ chicken fried rice and stir-fried bok choy for dinner. Then we fell asleep while watching "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".

My Kauai Yoga Retreat Day 1

My Thursday night Yoga teacher Jean is on a Yoga Retreat in Mexico. She advertised it many months ago, but it happened to be on the same week I would be in Kauai. So I didn't have to debate whether to join her retreat.

On this annual Kauai trip, we didn't have anything planned. We thought maybe if we were super bored of doing nothing, we could go hiking and try out paddle boarding, but we didn't have any specific plans as to when to do what in what order. After the second time here, we gave up scheduling many exciting events to fill up everyday of the week. We just want to lounge and enjoy doing nothing for a week for a change.

Inspired by Jean's Mexico Yoga Retreat, I thought I would try it on my own too. So on Tuesday - the day after we got here - after I got up at 7 AM, I did my Yoga. I played New Age musics from Pandora, and it put me in the right mood. Usually when I tried to do Yoga at home, I found it difficult to focus, and I never felt like I stretched enough. With the music, it was so much easier for me to focus on my practice, and it slowed my mind down a lot. I didn't try to rush from one pose to another, but rather flowed from one pose to another with ease. The sound of the waves and the breeze for sure helped calm me down too.

After Yoga, we got out of the hotel at around 10:30 AM. Went to Kapaa to have breakfast at our favorite breakfast place - Kountry Style Kitchen. We en-routed to get some local fruit and vegetable at the Sunshine Market in the Coconut Market Place. I bought 2 papayas, some tomatoes, a small bunch of fragrant basil, a bunch of big bok choy. When I saw the bok choy, my eyes lit up, and the woman said immediately: "it's $2 each" - hitting the iron when it's still hot, so to speak. Jack got 3 packages of home-made coconut powder. People there were so friendly. One woman asked if I was a Japanese, and another guy asked if I was a Chinese. The day started to be really fun already. But it was also too warm, so we left and head over to breakfast.

We got to Kountry Kitchen at a little before 11 AM. Wanting to have some local food, I ordered 2 scramble eggs with rice and Kalua pork. Jack ordered his usual, 2 eggs breakfast with hash brown and toasts. I love Kalua pork!! It was moist, nicely roasted, spiced just right and very well made. I love to have Hawaiian food, which just means some kind of meat with rice instead of potatoes and some veggies. It's so Asian in that way. :)

After the delicious breakfast, we headed north toward Hanalei/Princeville. We stopped by the lighthouse to visit the bird sanctuary. We stayed there when I tried to take pictures of the birds. We also made a detour to stop by Anini beach, which was one of the kiting spots on the island. The beach was surrounded by reefs, and it was made like a big protected pool. It was windy and cross shore. The water was clear and beautifully blue or turquoise in different spots. I made a tree pose in the water, and actually looks pretty good.

We went northbound, passing Hanalei's famous tourist village. We didn't make another stops until we got to the dry cave and wet cave. At 2 PM, we got to the end of the road, which was also the trial head of a famous north shore hike. We made an impromptu decision to go for a short hike since we were already there and we had time. The whole hike would be 11 miles one way, but we decided to just go for a couple of hours. Luckily, we both had our new hiking boots with us. They were truly my best friend on this hike, because it was challenging all the way. There were rocks of different sizes paved the path, and you had to be very careful not to mis-step, as it would have been easy to twist an angle or slip. We went up and we went down. There were places where we were among lush forest, and there were places where we were at the ridge looking out the beautifully blue ocean and sky. After we got to 1.5 miles, Na Pali Coast was right in front of us, and it was breathtaking. We stopped there to admire the view for a while before we decided to turn around and face the challenging way back. This hike made us all sticky, sweaty and tired, but it was worth it!

At night, we made BBQ chicken and had rice and caesar salad. It was a wonderful day already, and the best part was we didn't even plan anything.

Golden Retrievers

Golden Retrievers

Valentine's Day Dinner

This Valentine's day was on a Monday, some people chose to celebrate it early over the weekend. Since I spent Sunday with my mom, leaving Jack alone all Sunday, and I had to work all day on Monday, I decided to ditch yoga and went out for dinner with Jack.

Usually I would have to reserve a table at some fancy restaurant many weeks in advance, and expected to spend lots of money, and ended up super stressed out because of the great expectations. But this year, I put that worry behind me, and decided to take the risk of not planning at all.

So after a long and stressful day, I quickly wrapped up my work at around 5:30, and we left home to head out to the Peninsula. Before we left, we quickly talked over what we wanted to eat for this special night. Since we enjoyed similar foods, it was not a big problem coming to an agreement. The key was to go to a place we both we like, so we wouldn't be disappointed.

Jack wanted to have Indian since the weekend, so we went to one of our local favorite in Foster City, Tabla. The name of this restaurant already changed twice since we started going there 3 years ago, but it was basically the same place and waiters, so we prefer to keep its old name, at least between the two of us.

I was a little reluctant about going for spicy food, because I secretly promised myself to reduce the amount of spicy food to see if it's better for my skin and health. Oh well, I could always change my diet after Valentine's dinner.

We were the first customers there at 6 PM. The waiter was very happy to see us, as he put on his best friendly smile. He even 'reserved' the only window seat in the house for us. He said he especially saved us this nice seat with a view.

They were playing American romantic love songs from the 60's, 70's and 80's. Most of them I was very familiar with and they were my favorites, because I used to listen to romantic love songs all the time when I first came to San Francisco from China some 20 years ago. It helped me learning English. Tho recently, I was very shocked to see in a music video that one of the songs was sung by a man, when I used to think the singer was a woman. That was a little creepy.

We ordered all of our favorite dishes and some plain yogurt on the side. The food was a little on the salty side, but right then I had a discovery. I put yogurt in the salty and spicy food, it blend in really well and gave a special milder balanced taste that added more flavor to the food. It was the epiphany of the day, and I was very delighted with this finding.

As we enjoyed our food very much, we were also amused that someone kept adjusting the volume of the music, high and low. As if he was the DJ trying to bring the best romantic atmosphere to the guests.

More people came in after us.

The waiter gave us 5% discount on the food - by this time, I wasn't sure if he was just a waiter or the boss.

When we left, he smile beautifully and kept repeating: "See you soon, see you soon." What a nice guy, what a nice dinner.

A haircut

The Chinese New Year was on Thursday, Feb. 3. Chinese believes getting a haircut before Chinese New Year brings good luck for the rest of the year. Something along the line of getting rid of the old and welcoming the new. This year, getting a good haircut is not easy as it used to be, ever since my hair dresser moved back home to Ventura County.

Having a good hair cut, like having a good massage or facial, is a very personal business. I have learn not to choose a new beautician lightly, or I would end up being upset for a long time. So I did plenty of research before calling for any appointment, and once I picked a beautician that I like, I wouldn't let go unless he/she let me go.

The weekend before Chinese New Year, I was so desperate that I called all the hair-dressers close to home, to see who could give me a haircut on Sunday. Most of the spa/salons nowadays don't have any receptionist and the professionals are independent contractors to the salons. This is either something to do with the economy, or it is just a new way people do business now, I am not sure. So instead of calling the salon to make an appointment, you have to call the hair-dressers' phone number, leave them messages indicating your need and the time you want, then wait for them to call you back.

I did that on Saturday when I was waiting in the theater to watch The King's Speech, which turned out to be an absolute delight. I must have called 5 different ladies. A couple of them called back saying they didn't work on Sundays and suggested someone else or suggested a time during the week. I reluctantly made an appointment for Wednesday, which would be New Years Eve just in case.

Sunday was absolutely miserable with rainy weather, so we stayed home instead of taking the dogs out for their runs. Around 3 PM, after I finished all of my house chores, I bit the bullet and called a salon in Half Moon Bay downtown to see if anyone was working there. I was pleasantly surprised that I got an appointment for 5 PM with the owner of the salon. I was excited.

I had a good hair cut, but I am not sure if I would go back to her. The salon was nice, and I was offered tea when I got in. The people there were way too chatty. There were totally 3 hair dressers working at the time, and they were having so much fun making 'smart' remarks about people. The other two stylists seemed to kiss up to the salon owner a lot, and the owner surely enjoyed the attention. After all, she did own two upscale salons around the neighborhood. As for me, I am just happy that nobody messed up my hair.

The search for my stylist shall continue.

The magical ice

During my snowboarding trip to Lake Tahoe over the MLK holiday weekend, I jammed my thumb twice, and was saved by ice!

The first time was on Saturday. When I pushed myself off the lift chair, somehow my left thumb got caught on the edge of the chair and it hurt! It was the beginning of the day and I was already injured. It wasn't fun, because the rest of the day I fell many times on my arms or my butt, and I needed to be careful not to hurt my thumb any more.

It was definitely a workout. Since I haven't gone snowboarding for two years, I started to realize what I "missed". In this regard, I much prefer kiteboarding, as in kiting, I fall into water. Not that kiteboarding didn't have its moments.

That day when we got back to our hotel, both of us were so exhausted we didn't want to move a muscle. Jack told me I should ice my thumb to see if it helped. I was like: "Do I really have to?"

"For all I know, you might have broken your thumb." The scare tactic works on me every time.

Reluctantly I dragged my aching body out of bed and went to get ice from the ice maker on the other end of the building. I put some ice in a towel, and wrapped it around my left thumb.

"How long does it take?" I asked.

"Until your hand freezes." Jack said.

"Oh bugger. My hand is already freezing after 1 minute." I grumbled.

"Then hold it for 7 minutes and rest, then do it again."

It actually worked!! I was totally amazed how this simple, annoying treatment worked like magic.

The second day we went back to the mountain. Toward the end of our day when we got off the last chair lift to go back to the gondola, I fell on my left thumb again, ouch! I boarded down the mild slope and got out of my snowboard. This time I just picked up some snow and put it around my twice injured thumb. One the way down the mountain, I was relieved to feel that I survive this snowboarding trip, and I very much enjoyed the view of Lake Tahoe from the gondola.

The next morning we got up early to pack for home. Jack slipped on the ice by the car and he screamed. He hit his shine on the car while balancing himself on it. We got back to the room, and put some ice on his shine for 10 minutes.

In fact, everyone should always remember the rule of thumb for treating muscle injuries: ice within 48 hours and heat therapy thereafter.

Yogurt is the new rice

Yogurt just beat rice to become my new number one comfort food, at least for now. For a southern Chinese girl, that means a lot. It is our habit to eat rice in every meal, and it is a part of our lives.

Recently I started to have frequent upset stomach. No matter what I ate - home-made or otherwise - my stomach would be unsettled afterwards especially after lunches. Other than that my health was fine: I kept exercising, had normal sleep, and no other abnormal problems.

I pondered about it for a while, read some books about healthy-whole food diet, but couldn't find any answers there. I even thought about seeing medical help.

Last weekend we went shop at the local Indian market. I looked at the pint size plain yogurt in the refrigerator and wondered if that would help to calm my stomach. Well, yogurt is basic, so it can't be any harm. So I bought a pine of plain yogurt and just to try it out.

I never really like yogurts, because most of them were too sweet. The plain yogurt wasn't very bad. I ate 3-5 table spoons of plain yogurt everyday for the last few days, and amazingly, my stomach was fine ever since! I could even eat at restaurants and no problem. It worked like magic.

Indian buffets always include some kind of yogurt side dishes, and as a habit, my Indian friends always eat it to to accompany their food. Now I know the reason for it and I will eat yogurt everyday religiously.

There is a reason why people say yogurt is a super food.

Guru

Ask me what Jack has been up to last month.

He has been setting up a home media server. He used PLEX as the media server software running on a Mac Mini, Drobo as a data storage (a fancy disk drive), a new A/V receiver to connect these pieces together along with our TV set, DVD player and speakers. In addition there are totally 3 Ethernet hubs having physical connections to various hardware, and 5 2 terra-byte internal hard drives to the Drobo. He went under the house a couple of times to drill holes into the bedrooms, office and living room to hard wire the ethernet cables to the equipments.

After the hardwares and software were setup, he loaded movies to the hard drive - we have over 400 DVDs, and he was done with half. He has been troubleshooting the quality of the streamed movies, so he went online to join the PLEX user's forum. He had so many problems streaming movies onto the TV. First the video was OK, but the audio didn't come up, then both the video and audio were normal, but they were out of sync. Then the video quality had to be improved. Those were the most frustrating problems, so he often said he had to consult the "Gurus".

Up to last Monday, he posted 15 questions and (self) answers to the forum. So on Monday morning when we were having our coffee, he proudly announced that he was promoted from a "Newbie" to a "Member" on the forum.

"You mean they label your seniority on your posts?" I asked. I think it sounded very much like geeks would do.

"Yes." He explained that after "members", there were "dedicated members", and "developers" and then the "Gurus".

A compliment

Jack gave me the best compliment on Monday night when we drove to the gym. He said, "one of the most attractive things about living in the Bay Area is there are so many different good restaurants where we can go for good food. Now that your cooking is so good, it is not much of a concern anymore, because you can always cook good food anywhere you go."

The Blog Name

I have to change the name of my blog "My state of chaos", or at least qualify it, as my life is not at all chaos comparing to what is happening at work, in the city, state, and the country in which I live, or the rest of this world. I can only compare my state with myself, or with the state I prefer to be in, which is such a smaller scale comparatively.

I'd like to keep the peace within myself, and cherish what I have at this moment.

What is a satisfying life?

I felt that I wrote about food and eating too much, so I must add a new non-food related posting on the top of my blog. This is just a rhetorical question.

Emotionally and intellectually fulfilled

Around good friends and lover

Eating and entertaining well

Continue to explore the unknown

Grow emotionally

Maintain good health and a flexible, pain-free body

Be productive and creative

Yummy Kung Pao Chicken

I made kung pao chicken last night, and it was the best ever. Here are some tricks I found.

My version of Kung Pao has a lot of vegetables - why not take advantage of cooking at home and put all of our favorite things in one dish?

Cube the following veggies:

1 green pepper,

1 red pepper,

1 jalapeno,

some celeries,

some mushrooms,

1 onion,

mince garlic (as always),

Cube some chicken, making sure to trim the fat.

Cooking steps:

1. (Trick #1) Stir-fried the vegetables with peanut oil, but don't cook them too well. Place the cooked vegetables in a bowl, then clean the wok.
2. (Trick #2) Stir-fried the chicken meat, making sure the chicken is well done.
3. Mix the vegetables and chicken together and spice with salt, pepper, kung pao sauce (Lee Kum Kee brand), and spicy sauce to taste.
4. (Trick #3) Heat some hot oil in a small frying pan in medium heat, then add some chilly flakes and a handful of peanuts to the frying pan. Cook the peanuts for 5 seconds.
5. Mix the peanuts with the chicken.

The good thing about cooking this way is, the vegetable is not over cook, and adding the spiced peanuts would add extra spice to the dish. Also, don't cook the garlic for too long, add it in on step 3.

Since Jack helped on the peanuts and he enjoyed the food a lot, he insisted it was our kung pao. I think it is good for him to have a sense of ownership to this dish.

Jake's 2nd birthday

Yesterday it was sunny, and we took the opportunity to take the doggies out for a walk at 3rd even though the temperature was in the 40's. It was Jake's 2nd birthday, so we bought a double cheeseburger for Jake and a cheeseburger for Amy from Burger King. The doggies enjoyed the burgers at the parking lot. I let Amy lick the mustard off my fingers, but she wasn't interested. After the burgers, we all went to the north end where we launched the kites. They were so happy, because they didn't go there for a long time.

Jake was bouncing around on the path, jumping up and down trying to get his favorite orange ball from Jack. Amy swam which was her favorite. Sometimes she quietly swam after the ducks, and when she crept up to them, they smartly flew away a few feet just to tease her. When we got to the north end, we let the doggies ran and swam to their hearts content. It was my favorite to watch the doggies having fun.

The pups slept in the car on the way back home. Jake put his head on Amy's back, and he took up most of the back seat. We gave them each a piece of dog bone when we got home, and they were very quiet the rest of the evening.

This morning we heard sirens from Highway 1, and we heard Jake howling at the patio. I sneaked out to the kitchen and saw Jake standing in the patio doing his howling thing. Instead of howling at the moon, he was howling at the ambulance. Even though he was doing this adult and masculine thing, he still looked very cute like a puppy. I still remember a 6 pound fuzzy puppy who wiggles and kicks around when I tickle him on the belly, who nip me with his pointy puppy teeth and slept for hours afterwards.

How to make tasty beef

After many trial and error, disappointment, and research, I finally stumbled upon a recipe that makes a tasty beef. From none other than the Essential Asian Cookbook, under the Chinese food section.

• To make tasty beef, you have to buy good quality and fresh beef.

Good beef doesn't have to be expensive, an if you cook it well and eat it when it's fresh, it's well worth the money, right? I buy beef for stir-fried in Asian markets, e.g. Ranch 99, for around $4 - $5 per lb. The important thing is cook the meat when it's still fresh - within 5 days if you refrigerate it! The color of the beef should be reddish pink; it should not have any foul smell, and when you hold it, it should not be sticky or greasy.

• Also make sure to allocate at least 1 hour to marinate the meat.
  

• Ingredients for marinating 1 lb of beef:

1. 2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed
2. 1/2 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
3. 1/2 tablespoon hoisin sause (this will give sweet taste to the meat, if you don't like your food too sweet, put less, or counter it with more soy sause)
4. 1/2 tablespoon sesame oil
5. 1/2 tablespoon peanut oil
6. 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
   

• Cutting beef

Trim the meat of any excess fat. Slice it across the grain (this is very important), into thin slices, let's said 2 inches long and 1/4 inch thick.

• Combine the marinate and the beef in a bowl, stir to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

• Cooking

1. First stir-fried half of an onion with 2 cloves of crushed garlic until the onion is soft and golden. Remove the onion and put it aside.
2. Clean the wok!
3. Put some peanut oil in a hot wok, cook the meat in batches over high heat until browned but not cooked through. Return all the meat to the wok and add onion.
4. Add soy sauce and sherry (or Chinese cooking wine). If the dish looks too watery, mix some cornstarch in water and slowly add the mixture into the wok in high heat until it is thickened.
5. (Optional) Add threaded green onion at last to add color and freshness to the dish.
   

Hong Kong Style Milk Tea

One of the irresistible pleasures to me is to go to the Hong Kong bistro to have a cup of Hong Kong style milk tea.

You mix strong black tea with milk and sugar to taste. At bistros, you can get it with sweetened condensed milk, and it is very smooth, sweet and yummy. The bistros use a special kind of black tea powder, which makes the tea very dark and strong. A cup of that during lunch would wake you up for the rest of the afternoon.

My mom makes her variation of HK style milk tea. She uses Lipton black tea, 1 tea bag per cup; some warmed up evaporated milk, and some sugar. It is very tasty too, and is perfect for afternoon tea with some biscuits.

I never really liked the milk tea I made, because it was either not strong enough or not rich enough.

Today after lunch, Jack was comfortably seating in his reading sofa reading his favorite Bourne book. When I cleared the tables, I asked him what I could get for him to drink. He said: "something hot, maybe I'll have what you have."

I just made myself a milk tea with sweetened condensed milk, and it was seating at the kitchen counter waiting for me. OK, I thought to myself, I would just make him a cup.

I put 1 Lipton tea bag in 1 cup of boiling water, I took care not to put too much water as I usually do for making regular hot tea, because it would dilute the black tea too much. I then added 1 tablespoon of sweetened condensed milk to the tea. I took the tea bag out, stirred the milk so it dissolved, and gave it to Jack. He loved it and asked for a second cup.

So that's the Jack-approved Hong Kong style milk tea for you.

Enjoy!