Friday, November 30th, 2007
Today’s post marks the 300th post since I started blogging, coinciding with the last day of this year’s Nablopomo. How cool is that! (the song “I’m too sexy for..” suddenly starts in my head)
And I have completed the challenge, again. Hooray!
In these previous 299 posts contain lots of sad events and recordings, because that’s when I feel most vulnerable and need a place to make sense of it all, or at least to write it down so my head won’t burst spontaneously. There are also lots of happy posts as well but somehow I tend to have so much fun until I forget to write them down here. I’ll definitely try harder to capture the happy moments in bytes simply because I don’t want to forget about them when I’m 80 years old. I want my kids and grandkids to read what silly things I wrote, and what was mom/grandma like… Maybe by then there will be some new technology that allows one to read books and blogs or journals or whatever simply by wearing a pair of “glasses” and scroll by pushing a small tiny remote button/controller.
In the last 3+ years I have made lots of wonderful friends via sweetisu.com. I may not know what you look like, or how tall you are, or how you like your coffee, but I know your heart is good and your soul is beautiful. I’m so glad you’ve decided to hang out here time and again. Thank you!
Thursday, November 29th, 2007
Wow. Only one more day of Nablopomo left. What am I going to do??? I still have so much to say! I’ll be going through Nablo withdrawal!
Seriously though, this has been a fun month. I heart Eden for starting this last year, and I still heart her. Because of this Nablo thing, I’ve met so many cool people I wouldn’t have otherwise! And I’ve learned a lot about myself, and those around me, and those in the Internet. Thank you Eden!
Although I have so much to say, I’m not going to continue this daily blogging, maybe more like every other day?? We’ll see, no promises though.
Thursday, November 29th, 2007
There are discussion threads on whether not commenting on posts is rude and bad netiquette behavior.
My personal take on it is, it is absolutely impossible to comment on every post that I read. I wouldn’t even have time to blink if I commented on everything I read. Or ya’ll would get only a one-word comment from me. I try to comment as much as I can, but sometimes I’m just not in the right frame of mind, or there’s not enough time to write a decent comment, or I had nothing to say regarding the post. That said, if I comment on someone’s blog multiple times and don’t see any response or acknowledgment whatsoever, or reciprocating comments in my own blog, then it is more likely I will stop reading it sooner or later. The exception to that is if the blog is extremely high traffic and I’m just a nobody to them.
When I get comments, if I have the time or I feel I should respond to it, I do so by replying via email. It is easier for me, and faster as my email client is much faster than a web hosting site with so many requirements (name, email address, URL, captcha, moderation etc). In my opinion, it is also easier and better for the commenter, as they wouldn’t have to keep checking the post for possible replies/updates in the comment section. Certainly one can RSS to most comments now, but I don’t want to fill up the RSS reader just to check for that.
I hardly engage in the comment sections, aside from using it to leave comments. Occasionally I do scroll back to see what others have said, but don’t check it much at all. It’s not intentional if I missed your replies in the comment sections of blogs other than my own. Sorry!
Wednesday, November 28th, 2007
I got tagged by the pretty Goofy Andie. I spent some time reading back in the archives… lots of weird things and weird writing.
*** INSTRUCTIONS: ***
1. Post 5 links to 5 of your previously written posts. The posts have to relate to the 5 key words given below.
2. Tag 5 other friends to do this meme. Try to tag at least 2 new acquaintances (if not, your current blog buddies will do) so that you get to know them each a little bit better.
3. Don’t forget to read the archived post and leave comments.
************************
Link 1 is a little bit of FAMILY: How about a little something about a growing new family member?
Link 2 is a little bit of FRIEND: Amie, after she found out she’s having a girl!
Link 3 is a little bit of YOURSELF: Wow I talk about myself a lot. How do I limit to just one link… Here are two that I wrote during last year’s Nablopomo: Part I and Part II.
Link 4 should be YOUR LOVE: How we met.
Link 5 can be ANYTHING YOU LIKE: Dos & Don’ts that I wrote nearly 2 years ago. Cancer, baby that I linked in that post has since passed away. She was 33 (if I remembered right).
As far as tagging others… who to tag?! I’m going to leave this open to everyone again. If you do wanna play along, let me know when you’re done so I can go read 
Tuesday, November 27th, 2007
Can’t read the highlighted section? Here’s a bigger version. So these are not just any dots, these glow in the dark! Woo!
Updated: Wall Street Journal also mentioned this.
Tuesday, November 27th, 2007
This post is all about our son Seb, who is a couple of months short of 4.5 years old.
Last week when I made oatmeal for breakfast, he protested and said, “Mama, I don’t want to eat oatmeal. It looks like poop.”
* * *
A song for your enjoyment. Sung to the tunes of… I have no idea what the official song title is. He was eating apples at the time, and started being silly:
“Apple apple what do you see?
I see a booboo* looking at me.
Booboo booboo what do you see?
I see a poopie** looking at me.
Poopie poopie what do you see?
I see a deedoo* looking at me.
Deedoo deedoo what do you see?
I see a peep looking at me.”
I’m not sure if he knows the actual meaning of peep, or if that’s just a coincidental word that he thinks rhymes. He LOVES rhyming; they have been doing a lot of that at preschool.
Speaking of rhyming… we were in the van (yes I have a van, and I love driving it), when he blurted out “truck… duck… muck… puck…” Luckily he didn’t say the F word.
* He likes to make up silly, funny, nonsense words. Oh may you always find humor in life and be happy.
** The boy is obsessed with potty mouth words, and thinks these types of words are absolutely hilarious. I suppose it is normal for his age?!
Monday, November 26th, 2007
We decided in February this year to sell our first home, move across the state line, and start our business. That seemed simple enough, but selling a house in a down market while you’re still living in it, with two children under 4 who also live there, is definitely not a walk in the park.
When people go look at houses, they want to see it like houses would appear on magazines. With all the pretty pillows arranged, the towels all folded in the bathroom, beds made, no laundry baskets laying around, no toys anywhere except in a hidden basket or nicely showcased on the coffee table, dishes must be washed and put away, driveways shoveled, floors dusted and or vacuumed, mirrors windexed, (and on the list goes). And they want to see it 15 minutes after they make the call to you / your real estate agent.
How is that possible with TWO kids who normally act like tornadoes tearing through things?! It’s not. That’s how. During the day we practically lived at the library or the mall or the park weather permitted and the kids nap in the car, so that the house doesn’t get messed up just in case someone decides to come see it. But it gets old after a while, and the kids get cranky and tired of not having any of their favorite things out.
For the whole 6 weeks that the house was on the market, we were on a roller coaster ride of emotions. Did they like the house? Why did these people come for a second showing but didn’t make an offer, any offer? No one called for showings again? What are they saying about our house? What can we do to get them to come back? It was worth it at the end though. We were fortunate and we got out of there just in time. And things all fell into the right places with time.
I don’t particularly miss the house. But I do miss having hardwood floorings, a super sized nice deck, and the private yard. It has an 1 acre yard, right smack in the middle of suburbia. It was a beautiful house. We have so many memories there as a family, good and bad. I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s less than a week after we moved our boxes in there. Both of our kids were born and we endured so many sleepless nights walking up and down the hall. Our family visits and gatherings. We humans are the only species who carry and treasure our memories in the way we do.
Look at the house. Wouldn’t you have fallen in love too?
However, I do like living in a newer house too. The maintenance cost is lower, the insulation and electrical work is much better, and the bathrooms/bedrooms are more updated to suit today’s lifestyle. I LOVE the new code requirement for electrical outlets - there’s one everywhere I need it - I haven’t needed to use any extension cords!
Do you prefer old style homes, with charm and character, and likely lots privacy and land? Or do you prefer newer homes with all the modern updates?
Sunday, November 25th, 2007
How was your Thanksgiving? Good I hope, and didn’t burn the turkey like I did. Did you pull out your big pants afterwards so you can lounge more comfortably? Me? I just wore the fat pants the whole time so I wouldn’t have to change’em.
Anyway. I thought you might enjoy another meme. I think it was Sandy who tagged me, eons ago, and I’m only now getting to it.
So I’ve done the Crazy 8. Now half of that…
4 Places I’ve lived:
* Canton, China
* Davenport, Iowa
* Chattanooga, Tennessee
* Eden Prairie, Minnesota
4 Jobs I’ve had:
* Waitress/Cook/Cashier/Whatever else my family’s business demanded (now closed)
* R&D Intern
* Lab Assistant
* Process Engineer
4 Jobs I wish I had
* One where I get to taste all kinds of foods, like a food critic (problem is, I won’t be able to try some of the more squeamish things..)
* One where I make all the final decisions
* One where I have assistant galore to delegate tasks to
* One where I get 2 months off every year, like my French and Swedish friends, and 18 months of fully paid maternity leave
4 places I’ve holidayed: (my favorites. Notice they are all on the warmer side, little or no snow)
* Vancouver, BC, Canada
* San Francisco, California
* Tempe/Phoenix, Arizona
* Yosemite, California
4 Favorite foods:
* Sushi
* Dimsum
* Seafood
* Pea Tips (real Chinese restaurants will have this)
4 Places I’d rather be:
This is hard. I’d go anywhere as long as my husband and our kids are with us. Bonus if the place has internet, running water / indoor plumbing, warm and lots of sunshine, fabulous food. I don’t ask for too much 
4 Bloggers I like to pass this meme onto:
Just 4??? I’m tagging everyone who reads this. I challenge you!
Saturday, November 24th, 2007
I’m embarrassed to say that, after more than 3 years of blogging, I’ve gotten off my lazy butt gotten over my intimidated self and finally putting up a blogroll. Hey these gadgets can be scary/daunting like programming a VCR or VOD. So I’ve started it already, but I have so many more to add. And with Nablopomo, I can’t remember all the cool sites I’ve visited and commented on, and all the profiles I’ve read.
Please leave a comment and your blog URL and I’ll be sure to give some linky love. There’s enough for everybody so no pushing or shoving, ok?
Friday, November 23rd, 2007
We’re having a big Black Friday sale at KangarooBoo. For today only, take 20% off of your entire purchase!
Go to KangarooBoo.com for more details.
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Thursday, November 22nd, 2007
… of staring into the oven, checking over and over and over again to see whether our 16-lb turkey was done yet.
The top of it got burnt before it reached the appropriate temperature.
Last year I made a scrumptious turkey with fantastic cranberry sauce and gravy. Alas, I lost all 3 recipes. #$%^#%&* So I looked up some online and just went with those. I don’t know if it’s the recipes themselves, or the oven (different house, different oven), or the turkey. But something didn’t go right and now we have a half-burnt turkey. And the cranberry sauce? It’s more like cranberry JAM. Ha.
Do you have a sure-fire turkey recipe that you would share with me? How about Cranberry sauce? I want to try turkey again for Christmas and I sure don’t want to burn another one.
This is Thanksgiving night, and I’m thankful for many things.
I’m thankful to be alive. To have a roof over my head. To have my family safe and sound with me under said roof. To be able to put food on the table. To be able to walk. To skip. To talk. To see. To all of our friends (and new friends!) who’ve helped with spreading the word about KangarooBoo and its mission. To be able to love what I do.
Wednesday, November 21st, 2007
We had the first snow of the season!!! It started snowing early in the morning around 8 or 9 a.m. And it did not stop until at least 5 p.m. I took this picture around 2p.m.
Guess what the kids did all day long? We have a trail of snow pants, gloves, hats, snow boots etc all lying around the kitchen floor. I’m too lazy tired to put them away, as they will probably be out playing in the snow again tomorrow. Yep, I win both the Housewife and Mama Awards.
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007
Yesterday:
“Mama, I made a turkey at school! My turkey says gobble gobble!” — 26 month old Fiona, proudly showing me her creation immediately upon arriving home from preschool.
Today:
“We’re going to the grocery store. Who wants to go?” is met with silence.
“We’re going to buy a turkey!” I said with a tone of excitement.
“For meeeeeeee?” Fiona grinned and asked.
I hope she’s as enthused when the turkey is actually cooked and ready to be eaten, coz guess who’s the picky eater around here.
Monday, November 19th, 2007
I put a lot of thought into this and took at least 2 hours to complete it. Very crazy.
I was recently tagged by the beautiful Sandy at momisodes AND the gorgeous Michelle at Fabricated Goddess to do the Crazy 8. It’s been DAYS.. wait, maybe even more than a week.. Yikes. So I better get on with it. So here goes the crazies. Thanks for the tags.
8 things I’m passionate about.
1. My kids. I love them to bits and pieces and will do anything and everything to keep them safe. And I know Karate, mama style, and beyatch style. So don’t mess with me.
2. My husband. He carried me through the toughest times of my life: fighting my cancer alongside me just 10 weeks after our wedding, and picked me up and pieced me together for the second time 4 years later, after we lost our 2nd baby. He deserves Husband of the Century Award.
3. My family. Some are too nice and some not so nice, some makes me run the other way and pretend I don’t know them. But I do, and I still love them all the same.
4. Our business. This KangarooBoo is consuming my days and nights and nearly every waking moment I have.
5. Food. I LOVE to eat. If I were to list my favorite foods, it would take an entire page, and more. But at the top would be sushi and dimsum — both unfortunately cost an arm and two legs for ONE meal. There’s no dimsum here anyway..
6. My friends. I know a lot of people, but I have very few good friends. I could probably count my very good friends with one hand and still have spots left. But the ones that I do have, I love them dearly. I live far away from all of them. But if we did not talk for months or even years, we’d pick up where we left off and no one would feel one bit awkward. And they wouldn’t mind that I listed them after “food”..
7. Cancer research / charity. In a retelling of the Aesop fable of the Lion and the Mouse by Mark White, at the end there is a line where the mouse says to the lion, “You didn’t think I could help you, but an act of kindness is never wasted.” There is no amount that is too small when it comes to charity. It might be small to you, but it is not for the one you helped.
8. My computer/internet. It connects me to (way too many) things and people that I would otherwise not able to. Like you yourself! Did you know it also connected me to my husband?
8 Things I want to do before I die…
1. Travel the world with my husband. By flight, by sea, by train. The list is very long, and I hope we will have the funds and energy to do it all. The type of travel we want to do is self-guided. No tours, no cruises. Well maybe a cruise just once to see what the big wah-hoo is about.
2. See all the Great Wonders. I would be happy if I only saw half.
3. See my kids have kids, and possibly grandkids. I was practically raised by my great-grandmother, who passed away when she was 92. I want to experience that, having great grandkids. Probably not carrying them on my back like my great-grandmother did though We didn’t have strollers.
4. Learn how to swim. I know! Can you believe I don’t know how to swim!
5. Live in another state/country.
6. Learn to speed read. I read very slow. My brain doesn’t seem to want to cooperate and translate the data, so I have to read things 2 or 3 times. Sometimes more. It’s a wonder I get anything done, and this is precisely the reason why I don’t comment much on blogs or read that many blogs or read any books. Also if/when I read books, I need to know what happened at the end, RIGHT NOW. So I read as many pages as I can in one sitting..
7. Learn how to be a better public speaker. Sure I can talk for hours and hours and hours… (just ask my friends who had to endure it over the phone with me!) but put me in front of a few people, I freeze.
8. Build an orphanage. Or a few. One summer day when I was a young child, I was at the river doing some washings with my aunt. A box floated by.. my aunt brought it closer to see what was inside. She opened it and saw… a dead infant girl. I saw it too. She said a prayer and sent the box away. I was no more than 6 years old and that memory has haunted me since.
8 Things I say often….
1. Oh shit.
2. You guys, Stop it! What can I say, the kids get on each other’s nerves. They like to play with each other but they both have strong personalities and the result is, mama ends up shouting.
3. What happened? Again, kids-related.
4. What did you do? Yep, you guessed it.
5. What are you doing? OK this is getting old.
6. What’s for dinner? Hubby now cooks some of the meals and I’m not very good with surprise food.
7. Good job!
8. I love you.
8 Books I’ve read recently…
1. Mr. Doodle had a poodle.
2. The Lion and the Mouse
3. Tell Me Why (a science sort of book, toddler level, in Chinese)
4. Chicka Chicka ABC
5. Down by the Station
6. Parents Magazine (does that count??)
7. The Bisquits Collection
8. Fiona’s Magic Fairytale.
* After I finished this and the previous section, I realize just how rooted the kids are in everyday things, in everything.
8 Songs I could listen to over and over…
I’m going to be the only person who will leave this blank. I prefer silence. There aren’t any songs in the world that I could listen to over and over and over. None. Zilch.
Whew. That was the easiest one.
8 Things that attract me to my best friends….
1. Reliability. This has to be the most important thing for me. If I can’t rely on you when I need you, then fergettabout it. Sadly (fortunately depending on how you look at it), my traumatic experiences has shown me which ones I couldn’t rely on.
2. Honesty. If I’m being a jerk, tell me. If I’m making your day, tell me, too.
3. Common interests. If we don’t like to do anything together, then fergettabout it too.
4. Humor. Everything is better when there’s laughter.
5. Rich. (just kidding! I was testing if you’re still awake)
6. Kind.
7. Love/big heart.
8. Shared viewpoints / morals / “Same wavelength” about things.
8 People who should do this Crazy Eights meme:
1. Amie
2. Andie
3. Lisa
4. Elaine
5. Mary Mia
6. Lotus
7. Mumsgather
8. Aimee.
Sunday, November 18th, 2007
It was from a fwd thing (so I don’t know who to credit it to). I usually delete them after I read them, even if they say things like “if you don’t do THIS exactly as it states here you will die of excruciating death.” But this one was so funny that I wanted to share it with you.
Enjoy.
