What I've been doing

Working -- to be specific, every other Friday or Saturday night. Not many extra hours really, but cranking out reports in the middle of the night makes me feel like I'm working 24x7. As Cris said "you wanted a job right? now you got one." so watch out what you wish for.

Listening -- My Life in France by Julia Child; and Who Moved My Blackberry by Lucy Kellaway. You have to love food to enjoy the first, and you have to know the rotten corporate live to appreciate the second.

Stitches! -- Only spent an afternoon in the market, but thoroughly enjoyed showing off my De Colores. It's utterly thrilling to be stopped by strangers and be told "you've done a marvelous job with this jacket." I told at least five people about the Student Fashion Show that night, hope Fae got some good cheering for her few minutes on the runway.

Tahoe -- Took the family to the snow for a weekend, for Henry's birthday. The guys really enjoyed it and I managed to suck in enough air. The dry cold air did a number on me and I'm just feeling back to normal after three weeks. Reminds me why I moved out of Beijing.

Knitting -- Coat is coming along, very slowly. It took me a good part of a week to reorganize my stash to incorporate the purchases from Stitches. After hearing me mutter over and over again -- "where am I going to put all this yarn" -- the wise husband wondered aloud, "well, you might want to start knitting some of them ... " Wishful thinking on both sides.

Family -- Some of you already know that Bill's parents' got into a car accident on Sunday. Their car was totaled, my father-in-law suffered a broken wrist and they are both quite shaken. My mother-in-law is still recovering from her hip replacement surgery a few months ago. They damaged a nerve during the surgery and she cannot walk on her own. They will have to go through a serious lifestyle change, have to count on other people to do most of their caretaking. Something much easier said than done.

Another Tag -- Six strange things about me

You know, when it rains, it pours :-) Just as I finally got around to do the 10 things for Lesley, before I was done I got tagged by Monica to do six strange things about me. I'm happy to oblige.

1. I can wiggle my ears. It's said that this is quite uncommon since the muscles that control the ear wiggling are not active in most people. (by the way, Monica, my son is eight and his blog link is the second on the right -- Otter World. There isn't much going on there since he doesn't write a whole lot yet, but if he knows there is an audience I'm sure he'll be much more motivated to update more often.)

2. Given the opportunity, I can be completely addicted to romance novels, and I always cry buckets at the sad part of the story (there is always at least one).

3. I read old newspaper and magazines. The oldest paper in my current stack is from September, and I have New Yorkers from the late 90s that are still waiting in queue to be read one day.

4. I have close to 9,000 unread emails in one of my accounts, down from over 12,000. I will eventually go through all of them and delete most.

5. I'm completely anal about things going to the right place, especially in my kitchen. Just last night I was brewing over my inlaws putting dishes in the wrong places. I should be glad that they spend time with Henry and even wash dishes for me, but it bugs me to no end to find lids on the wrong pot and soup spoons stacked with tea spoons.

6. I can only talk about my work in English but if I need to memorize numbers they are in Chinese.

Ten things I say to my kids all the time

Are you getting ready for school? The signature of our morning routine, or morning battle. What on earth can you do to get a kid moving in the morning without losing it? Henry gets up very early, mind you, he reads for at least half an hour before getting out of bed, then wonders around, plays, hugs the dogs, then starts changing only when I nag him. I'd find him fooling around downstairs five minutes before leaving, still hasn't packed his lunch, nor eaten breakfast, nor collected jacket and shoes. Does it look like I'm busy? Say it when Henry bugs me to do something I don't think is very important, such as helping him locate something in the garage while I'm cooking dinner. Occasionally he'd catch me saying that when I play on the computer, but let's hope he doesn't read this. Right, Henry? The correct answer is, Yes Mother, You are absolutely right. In a small family like ours, sometimes we have two against one, and more often than not I'm the One and I'd use my motherly authority to recruit Henry to my side. Works especially well when Henry can't make up his mind which side he should be on, and Bill is too much a gentleman to argue with me. Mommy's not home. Another thing to say when Henry bugs me. Eat you dinner! Anything that doesn't look and taste like mac & cheese requires this sentence repeated at least ten times during the meal. Try a bite, it's not going to kill you. See above. Applies to any meat product (except for chicken nuggets and hot dog) and vegetable (except for green beans and carrots). Go ahead and do it. Henry is a very cautious person. He has to be absolutely sure about what's going on and what's expected of him before taking actions. He requires constant encouragement and patience of a saint from his mentors. Give me a reason why .... He has to convince me if he wants something, good practice for his logical and verbal skills. What's your dad doing? They know they are both in trouble. (This last one is for the dogs since they are my kids too) Take care of the house, take care of each other, be nice to Kat (or Grandpa and Grandma, depending on who's going to pick up Henry later in the day), have a good nap, see you guys later ... It's a big ramble I say to the dogs when I leave the house in the morning, as I'm usually the last to leave and have to close the door in front of the little black noses. The guys think I'm nuts, but I feel better having the last chat with the pups before seeing them again in ten hours.

Recent Reads

I'm on a Bill Bryson spree, a run down of what I have listened to and what's coming:

1. The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, read by the author. I liked this book so much that I'm making everyone in the book club read it for our February meeting. Wonder if guys still wonder around the house bottomless in middle America?

2. A Walk in the Woods -- a perfect companion for highway 17 commute. I listened to this book a few years ago and it always brings me a great deal of interest in the Smokey Mountains, the Blue Ridge Mountains, the Carolinas, Maine, and of course the Appalachian Trail itself. Bill's family is from South Carolina, but something about visiting relatives makes me hesitate a trip east; and Henry is not quite ready for a hike in the woods yet.

3. Neither Here Nor There, read by the author. His tour in Europe as an adult, with many reference to his earlier travels and his travel companion and high school buddy, Stephen Katz, who was also in the other two books above.

4. Sunburned Country, have the book in the car and yet to be listened to. Another one I listened to a few years ago, a fun travel log of Aussie land. (Larrisa, I'd love to hear what you think of this book.)

5. Notes from a Small Island. Waiting to get the book from the library.

Also listened to recently:

1. Marley and Me, by John Grogan. A memoir about a dog and his people. Every dog person has a book like this, and it's always a sad ending. Interesting enough Grogan's favorite author is Bill Bryson.

2. The Jane Austen Book Club. Just finished it this morning, a fiction about a Jane Austen book club (what else!). Not terribly well written, but I might just start reading Austen again. I've read some of them in high school, in Chinese, so it's worthwhile to do it over in English.

Which brings me to some books waiting to be listened to:
1. Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey
2. Dean and Me, by Jerry Lewis. Bill took me to see Rat Pack over the holidays so I picked up this book in the library the other day, good chance to get to know a bit about Dean Martin and his days.

Quick Update

Henry's eyes are OK. Everything checked out just fine, no glasses, no therapy, no surgery (my biggest fear). My knitting is updated on Coat Knit Along. Pictures to come. See Henry's blog for the latest with him. The crabs' dad (that's my husband, not Henry) did an amazing job setting up the new crab house. Feels like Trinket's first night home, we didn't sleep for a week! Work is busy, pulling some twelve hour days. Not complaining, it's what I asked for. The commute time gives me a great chance catching up on audio books. Love it.

New Year, New Worry

I'm not good at making new year's resolutions, largely because I can't seem to keep them. A few weeks down the road I look back and know I haven't done anything that I made up my mind to do on January 1st -- be it walking every day, spend less money, get more work done -- it just makes me feel like a big failure. Not exactly the best thing to do to oneself. Henry has been complaining about double vision. Given the history of the eye problems in my family, I'm very concerned of course. He's been reading a lot in the past year, sometimes getting up very early in the morning and read in the dark for an hour before we beg him to get ready for school. I made an appointment for him to see my eye doctor in couple of weeks. In the mean time we'll just stick with Mad-eye Moody jokes and pretend Henry has a magic eye as well. He doesn't seem to have a "weaker eye" like mine, so that's a blessing.

Recently Finished Knitting

Stuffed bear from a kit that someone gave me at the last knitting retreat. Originally kitted and sold by Monarch Knitting in Pacific Grove. Yarn is some mint green textured acrylic baby yarn and pattern is written by the owner of Monarch Knitting, Joan Williams. I over stuffed it so it looks more bearish, with the full belly and all. There was embroidery thread to stitch on the eyes, mouth and nose, but I'm too lazy for that. Plus Teddy looks like a pretty good match with Ms. Black. Maybe one day I'll find good looking eyes for both of them together.



An angel pillow top, my first major intarsia project. I don't usually do color work, still don't like it. Texture and structure are more of my type.

The pattern is from Nicky Epstein's Knitting for Your Home . Her angel is a blonde and mine has a full head of gray hair (gray mohair left over from an afghan. I'm dreaming my own will one day grow that long again). The wing is Fun Fur, and skirt is two shades of purple from Black Water Abbey Yarns.

A Decade of Trying

Bucky the pug dog is eleven years old. We have been taking him to Pugtacular, put up by the Northern California Pug Club, almost every year of his life. It used to be held at the Santa Clara County Fair Ground in San Jose, then it was moved San Mateo, and the recent years we've been trekking up to Antioch for our annual pug fit.


Every year Bucky enters the pug race, and every year there was always a spiffy little girl pug beat him by a fraction of a nose. We all thought Bucky was going to go down the history like Michelle Kwon, a permanent second place holder.


Then again sometimes in the deepest of my heart, I know if Bucky lives long enough he's going to win the race some day, even if he's the last one left standing.


This year was finally the time. The judge gave him a five-foot "disability advantage" along with another eleven-year-old (the rest of the pack were all seven and eight year-olds). Bucky ran with all his might to the cookie.


Fifteen minutes later Mom and Pug won the third place in "Pug and Owner Look Alike". We won second place when Bucky was a year old. The gray hair didn't help much.

The retired champion resting at home.

Knitterly Gifts

Through Knittalk gift exchange, I received this wonderful package from Anne. They are:

1. Felted oven mitten in a lovely neutural colorway, nice and thick and comfortable. Even has a loop to hang it up.

2. About 500m of hand dyed fingering weight alpaca, enough for a very nice lace scarf. It's heavenly soft. I'm digging in my pattern books and magazines for just the perfect pattern.

3. A chocolate box from Schakolad Chocolate Factory . It's a box made of chocolate, with truffles inside. Absolutely cute and delicious!

Don't you just love gift exchange? Especially with someone far away, you never know what kinds of yummy stuff will show up at your front door.

I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus

She didn't see me creep

down the stairs to have a peep

Merry Christmas everyone!