A day out with parents

Talked about it for the longest time, did it once or twice, for the third time I took my parents out for some family time together with the nature.

I picked them up at 8:20am to have a morning stroll along the seawall at Stanley Park. Weather was very nice today. No clouds, just limitless blue skies - the typical kind of summer weather in Vancouver. We arrived and parked on the side of the road that goes around the park. The time was 9am.

It's still a little chilly this year round. Mom started talking about their vacation in HK. They spent 6 months there and just returned 2 weeks ago. She gave an update of my cousins, aunt, uncle, brother and his wife... Dad liked shopping there for the prices, sizes, and varieties. He also found out where to get those almond shortcakes that he hasn't tasted since he moved here.

We walked for an hour, past the Lady in a wet suit, Totem's place, water park, and decided to head back for a dim sum lunch. Dad was a bit slow and had to eat some snacks to charge up, but we managed to hop back on the car at 11:15am.

Dim sum at Golden Harvest (Main & 32th) was ok. The dried scallop with egg white fried rice was still a little greasy although we asked them use less oil. Anyway, food is not the main theme here... it's more about spending the time together.

Jury Duty I

I received a call for duty from the Sheriff Services couple weeks ago. Heard from friends of their experience, but this is the first time for me. Hope it's not the last time.

It's an honor for me to serve the jury. I believe in justice and as a citizen and tax payer, it's my duty to help maintain a just environment in the society. Having seen a lot of criminal trials on TV and movies, it's gonna be very interesting at last to see how it all works first person - not from the criminal stand of course, but as a juror.

As much as I would like to participate, there are a couple of reasons why I applied for exemption. One is work related, one is kind of personal. Anyway, I don't want to be away during a critical phase of the project. I have no choice but to decline the duty this time.

Hope I won't be blacklisted for subsequent summons, I would actually do it everyday when I am retired.

How many dudes does it take to change a light bulb?

Electricity charges have been unusually high after moving to our current townhouse. Could it be the long running computers, the refrigerator, or the new washer/dryer? Or could it be the energy inefficient halogen lamps? Or the regular light bulbs? I am going to try eliminate one possibility at a time to solve this mystery. First, the light bulbs.

I bought some energy-saving light bulbs from Home Hardware today, plus a few given by our cousin, I changed a total of 9 light bulbs in the house. To my surprise, the bulbs supposedly use only 1/5 of the electricity to produce the same amount of energy. In fact, I think they are even brighter than the older ones.

Am I going to save 4/5 of the bill? Of course not, but it's an enlightening feeling.

Answer (read upside down):
˙ʎɐp ɐ uı sqןnq ʇɥƃıן ǝuıu sǝƃuɐɥɔ ǝpnp ǝɔuıs ˙ǝpnp ɥʇuıu/1

Dude's Enneagram (九型人格分析)

九型人格分析

第八型	領袖型、能力型、挑戰者、保護者、權威型 16%
第三型	成就者、事業型、成就型、實踐型 14%
第七型	快樂主義型、豐富型、活躍型、創造可能者、享樂型 12%
第二型	助人者、全愛型、助人型、成就他人者、博愛型 11%
第九型	和平型、和平者、和諧型、維持和諧者 10%
第四型	藝術型、浪漫者、自我型、憑感覺者 10%
第一型	完美主義者、完美型、改革者、改進型、秩序大使 10%
第五型	智慧型、觀察者、思想型、理性分析者、思考型 9%
第六型	忠誠型、忠誠型、尋找安全者、謹慎型 8%

我的九型人格分析？

Wii Fit is in the house

Wii Fit is finally here in Canada. Thanks to Charleston who managed to get up early for us, we got our share of fitness today.

Can $80 some dollars really buy us health? We quickly set it up after dinner and were eager to play the first game. TT was pretty excited about it. It's good for her coz she can do more exercise and be more healthy.

Anyway, the setup seems too boring.. it takes some time to enter all information, weight you, test your balance and everything.. You can then choose an instructor. Boys normally choose lady instructor and vice versa. We tried a little bit of yoga and a little bit of soccer. It's not very fun, coz after all no pain no gain.. the fun will only come after the pain.

Let's see if we'll have the perseverance to play regularly coz fitness will only come if you exercise regularly. The game has a calendar to keep track of your progress. It's another thing that discourages those without strong discipline.

First golf game in 2008

Mike and I have been talking about playing golf together some day, and finally we played for the first time today. Mike's friend Doug and TT's cousin Charleston joined us for a foursome. Since Charleston and I are not experienced golfers, we played Mylora today. It's a par 57 executive course.

Tee time was 830am. The weather was really nice; very sunny and dry. A perfect day for a day out. First hole was usually a little more stressful as people are watching. As expected, I drove the ball a little to the right, missing the fairway by 20 yards. Fore!!

Other than that, my tee offs were pretty straight, and consistent, hitting the ball high and far. Short games were played modestly better than last year, but still have a lot of room for improvement. I guess the course is not tricky at all, there were bunkers and waters, but they were not hard to miss. I wish I could reduce 1 stroke for short games per hole.

Putting was not my best part of the game, largely because I haven't been practicing that at all. Mike told me that I should spend more time practicing putting than hitting the balls. I should do that from now on. But I guess I putt okay today.

Overall it was a pretty fast game, we finished 18-hole in 3 hours. Well, considering the length and the number of balls left, it was not that bad. In fact, this is definitely the best game I've had so far this year... 8)

Mom's Birthday Dinner

It is mom's birthday today. We celebrated with her in the Prince restaurant followed by birthday cake cutting at her place.

Although there's not a lot of feelings expressed, I know she was happy. I hope I will be more expressive in the future, and then perhaps she'll be even happier.

Mom's spent some much time taking care of us and her grand children. She made us soup, and always ready to sacrifice for us. I always feel and I know that I've never returned favor enough. That's how bad I am as a son. I should spend more time with her, in person or even on the phone.

She has been saying that her memory is deteriorating. I don't want to wait until she couldn't recognize me to return the favor. I should do that while she still remembers. I'll find time, I promise.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

First coffee making

I was never a coffee drinker until this year. Never liked the taste and felt the need of it. But stress from work had demanded dude to seek something stronger than tea.

It works, a cup of coffee does refresh dude's mind and tune up the thinking engine. Two cups are even better. Three would definitely overclock dude, and make him restless too.

At this point, dude is still a coffee novice. Don't know much about it, only know what it can do. Liked the ones from Macdonald's. Not so much about Starbucks. Not so much about instants. And certainly not those from the office.

For economic reasons, dude tried to look for an espresso machine. Went across the border couple months ago, but couldn't find anything that is nice and affordable. A month ago I bought this stove top espresso pot recommended by Kenneth as a starter. It's cheap... $30, and quite convenient. Stainless steel for easy cleaning too. It looks traditional, made in Italy and stuff... It's worth a try for a caffeine addicted newbie.

Dude made his own coffee for the very first time in history using this pot. Coffee turned out a little watery than expected. Not bad for the first time. Dude is going to get a milk frother soon.

Blue mountain coffee bean courtesy of Kenneth.

Rabbit Ears

Time flies, we've been living at our new home for 8 months now. That means the discount period for our cable service ends. It's time for the breadwinner to do something about it.

Struggling with the question: Am I willing to pay 3 times over what I've been paying to get the same service?, the wise guy in the house decided to challenge the status quo, challenge himself, and challenge his boss (wife) to live a life without cable. But what do we do with the TV? Do we use it as a computer monitor or just a home decor? A TV without cable is like a head without brain. Or a rabbit without ears...

Luckily I found an old rabbit ear TV antenna from the storage and was able to hook it up with little effort. To my surprise, it can receive around 10 channels, 4 of which are digital too. There's E!, CTV, CityTV, CBC, Global, and Channel M. But there's also the Shopping Channel...

The quality of the analog channels has yet to improve, but a rabbit with a longer pair of ears that points to the North should help... the hunt continues!

MJ with Michael and Donna

Couple months ago, we turned the gym room into an entertainment room. We placed a sofa bed and a tv there for some light entertainment, but it's only until today that we tried to play mahjong in that room.

We had so much fun last time we played with Michael and Donna that we talked about playing more often. But it's been a few months now. Either we are too busy with work or study, or they need to take care of their little girl.

Anyway, they were able to send her to Chinese school today. We played immediately after Sunday Mass from 1 to 6pm.

MJ is not just about the game, but it's also a chance to catch up with one another, make a few jokes, and perhaps make fun of one another. It's fun.

Wii night with May, Ivan, and Sidney

It's been another hectic week emotionally; some game playing is much needed to recoup my energy. We kicked off our weekend with some Wii gaming tonight.

First thing first, we've got to take care of our stomach. For this we went to Mui's Garden in Richmond. The chinese restaurant was famous for its curry, and squid balls a few years ago. To our dismay, the food is now terrible, with matching service; totally not going to recommend to anyone.

We started playing Wii at 930pm with the orchestra game. May was particularly good at conducting. Some of the classical pieces were really good to listen. We then played the Deca Sporta game. Badminton, volleyball, figure-skating, car racing, etc. But the most fun I found was the curling game, coz it requires skills and strategies.

Ivan brought along the dancing mat, so we also played Dancing Revolution a bit too.

We played until 2am.