2014 Sochi Olympics

Quotes of today:
** Jack: he can't be proud of that (ski cross competitor fell, and slide across the finish line, but excited to qualify).

** Ying: you don't score until you score (quote from American Pie) referring to ski cross importance of winning across the finish line instead of leading at the beginning of the race.

** Ski cross announcer: here comes the Russian.

Jack: ohhh
Ying: what happened?
Jack: the French is going to sweep the podium (for ski cross).
Ying: what's wrong with that?
Jack: but i don't want them to.
Ying: the Americans swept the podium two days ago.
Jack: well that's ok.

Rosemary Jake

Jack is proud of his five year old male dog, Jake. I'm the one who adore Jake the most.

I gave him a few nick names such as goofy Jake, bouncy Jake, handsome Jake.

My favorite one is -

Rosemary Jake: after playing at the front yard, he would come back happy with the smell of rosemary. That's because he ran around and pee'd around rosemary bushes and the smell stayed with him for a while. I like it because it sounds like the name of a KongFu legend.

My other favorite - zigzag Jake, which refers to the way he walks on a wheel leash.

Dirty shoes and muddy dogs

I have this pair of white gym shoes, which I have been wearing for years and kept really clean, since I wouldn't wear them outside of the gym. They got dirty after one day With the dogs at the beach. The white shoes became grey and dirty. I refused to wear them to the gym again out of common courtesy. I had no issue wearing them to the beach again, as I felt the shoes blend in with the path and the beach.

Our dogs love the weekend as they get to go to the beach to run around and swim in the water. They are always the first to be ready to go, while I am last, since I have things to pack.

One of Jake's favorite is rubbing himself in the mud. Sometimes he would give up going after the ball to rub in the mud. He looks so very happy and content when he does that. Neither of the dog think twice treading mud in low tide, not until they got exhausted, anyway.

Muddy dogs are happy dogs. Dirty shoes, happy life.

Judging

As we are here enjoying the special entertainment: 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, I picked up one bad habit. Or I should say, this habit was magnified during these twenty plus days.

I am judging. I credit it to the NBC commentators. The figure skater's turn was too slow causing deductions; the ice dancers were not synchronized; the snowboarder crash-landed because his body shifted too far back; the speed skating team was too slow because of poor uniform design.

Bad influences. Here I go: her dress is too sparkley, and her eye makeup is too smokey; the guy is too cute. Davis and White are too synchronized and too effortless. The judges are unfair. This doesn't make sense... That's harsh...

We all have our favorites. We are only human.

My shop

Whenever I talk of opening my own restaurant or coffee shop, Jack always plays the devil's advocate and tells me numerous reasons why I should not think or talk about it. But I am my father's daughter, and he had this dream of having his own business. I still remember him walking the neighborhood looking into shops for rent surveying the spaces, and like the memory of him, it became my dream too.

In reality, I don't think I can run my own shop, and I don't think I will give up my day job. Maybe like the game second life or farmville, I can build my shop in a game or I can dream about it in my blog.

So here is what I'll have in my shop, for my own entertainment.

I'll offer the following food and beverages on the menu:

• special home-made chai with ginger and spices, choices of green tea or black tea;
• coffee and various espresso;
• ginger and honey water;
• banana muffins;
• thai green curry, red lentil curry, vegetable curry;
• quinoa side dish;
• stir-fried vegetables such as spinach, broccoli, brussels sprouts, mushrooms and seasonal vegetables;
• shave ice, home-made icecream of different flavors;
• cookies (peanut butter, chocolate chip, etc);
• cakes;
• baked sweet potato frieds;
• sorry no meat or unhealthy food

Welcome to my shop. :)

This is for me

I was frustrated about myself one day, and I found this from a book "Celebrating Silence":

"Desire kills joy yet the goal of all desires is joy. Whenever happiness has disappeared from your life, look deep within and you will see it is because of desire.

yet all that we desire is happiness. No creature desiring unhappiness is ever born; never has it happened before and never will it happen in the future.

When your small mind gets tired of running here and there, of wandering everywhere, it reaches the conclusion, "My desires have killed my happiness."

Then I felt more at ease. Thanks Sri Sri Ravi Shankar!