Say Goodbye to 2007

Just came back from dinner with my ex-boss and his wife. That's how i like to celebrate my last day of 2007. A nice dinner with some good friends, eat, talk and laugh, in stead of drinking, partying and dancing all night long.

My 2007 was not as great as 2006. In 2006, i got my green card in November and passed my Professional Engineer exam in December. In 2007, hmmmm.....

January

I had all four of my wisdom teeth extracted in one dental visit. I survided the ordeal and recoved the next day without any problem. I am glad that i decided to have them removed. Used to be i will have gum infection every other month even with proper flossing, brushing and rinsing. Two of them have to be cut into smaller pieces in order to be removed because they only broke partway through my gums and i have had them since 15 y.o. I don't know why but i kept the teeth. want to see them? (Eww...... Alrigh, alrigh, i won't post that.)

February

I went back home to celebrate CNY with my family. That was the first CNY with my family in nine years since 1998. Come to think about it is till owe some of my cousins the photos that we took at the main house. I am going to post them here and you guys can download it here. But, i need to find them first.

March

The first project that i worked on after i return from my CNY break was to help my boss to sort and to “clean up” a project for my boss (that project is still a mess). For the rest of the year is pretty much just work, work and more work. Let's not talk about work.

Fast forward to October

I turned 30 in October. (Woopy!) Of course 2 days later is the Halloween. My coworker had order this cake for her family dinner from a local bakery and it smells SOOOOOO good. Nope i didn't get to taste the cake. I sure tried, but no.

November was Turkey month. On Thanksgivings, i went to my friend's house, as always, to have some turkey and dressing and Snoozzzzzzz.......

December - AH Fall Colors! We had some very severe drought this year and we though we won't get much fall color for 2007 and we were wrong. The fall color display didn't start till December and the display was splendid. Click on the photos and see it for yourself. These photos were taken just outside of my apartment.

Quick Update

It has been a while since i last login to my blog and i almost forgot my login name.

Life is very busy as usual over here. I was joking with my boss this afternonn telling him that i will be taking off the rest of this month and he asked me if he can come with me? I am in the office finishing up some reports and he is out on the filed doing field work. Yeap, we are that busy.

I sat down last week and wrote down the projects that i am working on. Guess how many of them. 8 at the same time! People at work have been taking off left and right and i have been filling in for other people who are doing field work and i have no time to finish my reports. I finally sat down with my Big Big boss and let him know my situation and the client just have to wait to get their report.

We have been in the process of finding a senior engineer and haven't found any suitable candidate. The office manager have hired the job recruiter to come up with resumes and they cannot provide a single resume that fits our requirements.

about 615pm today, my phone rang and i picked up the phone. My cleint was actually surprise to know that i am still in the office. He was planning to call and leave me a message on my voice mail and got me instead. The first thing that came out of him month was Voon, do you have a life? why are you still working after 5pm? yeah, i would like to be somewhere else too but i figured sooner or later i will have to finished my reports might as well use some of the after work hours where the office is quite and have less interuptions from my co-workers and phone calls................................................i need a break from work........................help!

Happy Birthday to Me.

I have been very busy the past few weeks. Last week itself i worked 60 hours and this week i think is going to push for 70 hours. Yikes!

Anyway, just want to wish myself Happy 30th Birthday. Like my 30th look? I know i looked really tired. I have been up since 5am this morning and it was 8:40pm when i took this picture.

More updates will follow soon, i hope.

Wat Tan Hor 滑蛋河

逸敏I-po has been sharing her favorite recipe blog with me and this particular one called Lily's Wai Sek Hong has a lot of recipes. There are a couple recipes that I would like to try but haven’t got time yet. However, there is one particular dish that I have been tempted to try but at the same time feeling intimidated. No, the recipe was not too complicated. You know, that is one of my favorite dish at home and I am just afraid that the result may not live up to my expectation.

I was chatting with 逸敏I-po this morning wondering what to have for dinner. When dinner time came, I went to Lili’s blog and found the recipe. The whole process began with soaking the dried “Hor-Fun”. I then figured out to substitute the shrimps/prawns and squid/calimary with pan fried tofu with soy sauce and vegetarian chicken strips. So I started cooking. First, I stir fried the “Hor-Fun” with oil, light soy sauce and black soy sauce. The wok that I have is a modified non stick pan (not actually a wok but shaped like one) and the stove in my apartment is an electric range so the “wok-hei” is not there. Still, the stir fried turned out pretty good.

Then is the sauce: water, some vegetable bouillon, vegetarian chicken strips, choi-sum and some flour to thicken the sauce. Finally, I added the pan friend tofu with soy sauce and two eggs and I had a pot of sauce. I also added some fresh grinded black peppers and salt to season the sauce and Walla! The sauce was ready.


I married them together and I think they looked pretty good together. Don’t you think? Yep, it sure looked like I may have invited some friend over for dinner but no I did not invite anyone over. Although I have to agree, it was a big bowl of wat-tan-hor. No, I did not finish all of them. Yes, I have a big appetite but… just too much for one person. The rest of them are in a plastic container chilling in my refrigerator. I will be eating it for the next few days. Did I mention they were delicious? I am very happy with the taste of the noodle. Yum-yum……my belly is still full after typing this message, haha. I am going to go sit down and read some magazines. Most important - thank you Lily for her wonderful recipes.

Penguin Humidifier

The weather in Birmingham has gotten cooler. Day time high is about 30°C and last Saturday night, it actually went down to 13°C! Yep, autumn (we call it fall) is coming. Actually, the first day of fall is September 23, 2007 (this coming Saturday). In the Lunar calendar is called 秋分, where the length of the day time and night time the same. In the summer time, the day time is longer and during the winter time, the day time is shorter.

I am getting myself and my apartment ready for the cooler weather and the cold weathers that follow. I sent my thick blanket to wash on Saturday. I bought me a humidifier (喷雾器) yesterday. What is it or? The heating and cooling of the apartment reduces the humidity in the air, to replenish the humidity in the air, you use a humidifier. I used to have a humidifier that uses a filter. The filter will get moldy for constantly being wet and can cause all kind of health related problem. The new one that I bought doesn’t need any filter and looks kinda cute too. Don’t you think?

分尸了以后的喷雾器

2008 Accord - NICE!!!

Two weeks ago, i was bored staying at home. So, i called a buddy of mine (lee) and we went out to dinner. He told me he was shopping for new vehicle. I asked him what he had in his mind. He told me the new Honda CR-V. I thought hmm good choice. He went on to tell me the dealer on the west side of Birmingham offered him 7 percent interest rate on the CR-V that he tests drive. He didn't buy it because he thinks the interest was too high and the dealer doesn't sound very sincere. Personally, I thought 7% interest was kinda high. I bought my Accord in 04 with 2.9% interest. Since I am a big Honda fans, I told him I will bring him to another Honda dealer in South Birmingham near where I live and see if they can give him a better bargain. There are 3 Honda dealers in Metro Birmingham with population of about 1.1 million.

Last Saturday, I called him up and I suggested that we try the Honda dealer that is closer to where he lives. He agreed but before that, he wanted to get lunch first. That's fine with me. I never turn down any food. Anyway, after lunch, we arrive at the Honda dealer. We found a sale associate and we started walking down to the car lot. The sale person told me they just received the new 2008 Accord 4 days ago and while they were heading towards the CR-V, I wandered off to check out the 2008 Accord. They are really nice. Same 2.4 L engine but this time, it is a 190 horse power engine instead of 160 hp with a little compromise in fuel efficiency, which is still in the acceptable fuel efficiency range. After a few minutes, I though I better go back and regroup with Lee and the sale person. As I turned around, they were walking towards me with a key in the sale person's hand.

The sale person: "let's go for a ride" and they were heading to the new Accord.
I asked: "Lee, you've changed your mind?"
The sale person: "No, we are going to the other storage lot. The LX model is on that car lot, not this one."

So, I got to ride in the new Accord (EX-L) with Navigation System - the very top of the line priced at about USD29,800. Don't worry mom and dad, as much as I love the new Accord, I am five payments away to paying off my 04 Accord and I am not trading it in. I am saving money to get a house.

Yep, Lee got a brand new CR-V imported from Japan. He got a slightly better interest rate. I think he drove his new CR-V home on Monday morning after transferring his auto insurance from his old car to the new CR-V. The 2.9% was a special promotion rate. Honda rotates the special rate to different Honda models from time to time. I need to call Lee and see how his new CR-V is doing.

Actually, on my way home from Lee’s place, I took sometime to feel the steering wheel and I though - I already have a good car. I am happy with what I have. I have had a lot of fun driving it. We moved together from Arkansas 4 years ago. We have been to Dallas, TX for Chun Yen and Tiong Ee’s wedding and to the BLIA temple, to Fayetteville, AR to visit friends and to attend Tran and Chin Fong’s wedding, to Kansas City, MO with Tai Long, Lay See, Chee Wei and Ah Long, to Saint Louis, MO to help out the BLIA Concert, to Cape Girardeau, MO to attend Ying Hua's graduation and had great time there with Ying Yu and Jack (Ying Hua's husband), to Memphis, TN to visit Tai Long and Lay See, to Sumner, IA (actually fought with Ah Long when we were lost in the maze of Iowa county roads on our way to Sumner for Thanksgiving with his host family last year. Haha , good memories), to panama city beach, Destin and Fort Walton Beach, FL when I was working there for a month the first year I moved to Alabama, to Jackson, MS to pick up Shou Jiang on my way to Dallas… I told my Accord: “You are a keeper”.

possible Blogger Terms of Service violations

"E-B Ipo" sent me an IM asking what had happened to my blog? Since I just came back from my workout, I have no clue. Fine, I will just go to my blog and see what had happened. To my surprise, I got this message:

"This blog is under review due to possible Blogger Terms of Service violations and is currently unpublished. You can view your blog's posts here in Blogger, but you may not make any changes."

Then we started trouble shooting:
1) PORNOGRAPHY AND OBSCENITY: If you guys found any pornographic stuff on my blog, please let me know. I am going to start charging you guys for viewing.
2) HATEFUL CONTENT: Was it the choice of word that I used? I believe we have seen something more hateful than my MOAB post.
3) VIOLENT CONTENT: yeah, pine cone maybe a little too prickly but I didn’t create it.
4) COPYRIGHT: All I can say is so far, no copyright infringement yet. All of the photos are original.
5) IMPERSONATION:……….

So, I contacted The Blogger Team. I wanted to find out what I have done that would put me in a position of possible violation of Terms of Service. After the email, I walked away from my blog and went to get something to eat. You bet I was hungry after my workout and kinda angry too after finding out my blog is under review. 15 Minutes later, I rechecked my blog and it was working again, and I received an email in my gmail inbox that said:

Your blog has been reviewed, verified, and cleared for regular use so that it will no longer appear as potential spam. If you sign out of Blogger and sign back in again, you should be able to post as normal. Thanks for your patience, and we apologize for any inconvenience this has caused.

Sincerely,
The Blogger Team

I am speechless………..I think they can do better than locking up my blog.

Does MOAB Sounded Like A Pornographic SPAM?

E-B Ipo said MOAB sounded like a spam mail. I might start using chinese words for my post. then it should not raise any red flag.

MOAB

Long story.....

I have a big planter on my patio where my favorite Japanese maple "stays". This year we have a hot summer and the maple started shedding all its leaves. I am not sure if that is normal, so I did a quick search online. The information that i gathered all mentioned (1) watering - keep the potting soil moist all the time, (2) salt concentration from watering using tap water could kill the plant, and the most important thing (3) is perfectly fine to grow Japanese maple in a pot or planter. At that time, I have added some soil moist granules (some cellulous fibers that absorb water and swell and slowly releasing the moisture over time). I suspected the culprit may be the granules because the plant was doing fine until I added the granules. So, I bought some new potting mix and repotted the Japanese maple. Then, the plant slowly came back to life. Almost all of the branch tips have died off. I will have to do some pruning when the plant goes to hibernation mode this winter or I might just wait another year to prune the plant just to make sure that it is healthy enough to take the shock.

Lately, I have spotted some potting mix on the patio floor. At first I thought no big deal, just the squirrels hiding their food and I am not going to sweat over that. Monday evening, I watered the plant and I smelled something stinky (I think in Malay is called berbau hancing? Please correct me if I am wrong). Something is not right. Could it be the stray cats have volunteered my planter to become a litter box? Don’t know. I have seen cat hangout on my patio before. Hmm….. A few minutes later, while I was coming out of my kitchen, I saw a cat on the patio drinking the runoff from the planter off the patio floor............

I have been observing the planter on the patio the past two days and my planter was indeed a cat’s litter box. @$#%$sfdxxx#@$xgs##%$....... I said “it was” because I have covered the planter with pine cones and big rocks. You see, pine cones are quite prickly. I figured that will make the pooping experience very unpleasant and hopefully the cat will go some place else to do its business.

By the way, want to know where I got the MOAB idea? My friend had an old cat. I addressed her as the MOC (Mean old Cat) and in return, I am the MOAB (mean old asian boy). MOC had to be put to sleep last month because the tumors in her body had taken over and her quality of life was gone. C'est la vie (that's life).

Late Tabitha Hill

Work Work Work

Well, i have one report due tomorrow and two more on Tursday and today i have to go to a construction site. I spent all day at the job site and needless to say i didn't get any report done. Both our technicians have to attend classes to help them prepare for their ACI (American Concrete Institute) certification on Wednesday.

After all these geotechnical reports, the next in-line are slope stability related site-work/analyses with follow up recommendation reports. Summer is almost over but not quite yet. I can sure use some of the cooler weather to do my field works. By the way, i don't think any of you guys besides my coworkers has seen me in my hard hat. I used some of my down time today to snap some pictures. It is 9pm central time and i am going to start working on a report for an hour and then go to bed. I am going to need all the rest i can get to handle the work load at the office tomorrow. My boss and I have a meeting with a client tomorrow afternoon and i wonder how long it will take. I will be lucky if i can finish A report tomorrow.

Reading/computer glasses

I went to my annual eye examination few weeks ago and guess what? my optometrist said i needed a pair of reading/computer glasses or a bi-focal. Yup, mom and dad, your son is getting old! 终于还是得了老花眼。。。。

I have been very busy since June. My doctor said my eyes overshot (basically crossed eyed) when my eyes are tired. A pair of reading glasses will help to relieve the stress on the eyes and prevent it from getting worst. So far, it works. Last Friday i was looking at some lab results (a bunch of graphs) for a project and i was having headache. Then i thought about the reading glasses. I put it on and went back to work and everything was fine. Some of my co-worker already warned me that our "parts" will start falling apart after 30. What to do? At the same time, i will remind myself to go workout regularly. Going to my yoga class every Thursday is not enough!

Welcome Note

Dear relatives and friends,

Some of you might know, I have planned to create this blog since the beginning of 2007. However, i wasn't serious about it until now. To be honest, i am not sure how regularly will i update my blog. I will sure try.

Okay, I have been receiving complains from some of my relatives and mostly friends that they never hear from me and i don't reply to their emails.... and becareful of what you guys have asked for..... here is my blog. I think this will be a good way to keep in touch with family and friends. So, feel free to drop by my blog when you have time. I can already see people sending me emails requesting me to update my blog, yikes!

Anyway, good luck and take care everyone.