This is up in grouse mountain. I actually walked up the mountain via THE Grouse Grind. Didn’t need my jacket at all.

I am going to cram that chaise into my car. Yes I am serious.

See?

I can even close the trunk.

Tada!

Since the registration started at 7 AM and the race actually started at 7:45 AM. We were both way too sleepy to realize what is happening to chicken out. So here we are!

This is of course the pre-race photos. We still have smiles.

I occasionally bike to work, but haven’t went jogging for a while. In my mind I thought “a while” meant like 2-3 weeks ago. Looking at my records (yes I log every physical activity I do), the last time I ran was in April. I finished in exactly 30 minutes. I had randomly picked that out as a goal and thought it was possible. When I rounded the corner and saw the clock, I had exactly 16 seconds left to get to the finish line and still make my 30 minute goal. I sprinted the last few feet as hard as I could. I could feel pain in my muscles, but I was so close. I even made the conscious effort to kick my right food forward at the finish line, which is the foot where the timing chip is. I saw out of the corner of my eye that I had finished at 30:00.4. Just enough so the official time rounds down the 30 minutes. Sweet.

Due to some registration mix up, I was listed as a female runner named MUNG. Urgh! We had registered online but our records didn’t reach the actual race. We were penciled in and apparently the person penciling us in couldn’t read her own writing! But whatever, I finished and without dropping dead. You can see toward the bottom I am 53rd.

Now that I was done. I knew I had some time to wait for Michelle. I went around getting free water and bananas. Knowing her usual pace, I had about 10-15 minutes to kill before she is close to the finish line.

Since I have pretty good vision I saw that she was just walking before she was close enough to see me, then she resumed running. Here she comes.

Look at her flying towards the finish line.

Good thing about being in a official race is that everyone who sees you will shout encouragements. That is certainly better than just me yelling at Michelle to go faster.

You can kind of see her time at the bottom. 43:27. Considering that she just rolled out of bed and ran this and the last time she did any jogging was at least 6 months ago, I’d say that is pretty good.

We are quite glad we did this, although we are still sore days after the race. We had the home course advantage in that the race course was somewhere we usually run anyway. 5K is a bit of a challenge but not a far-fetched idea. If we can roll out of bed and finish it, I think anyone can. Guess we’ll be looking out for more races in the neighborhood from now on.

The new year started with the purchase of our new home. Home improvement projects persisted throughout the year.

While going through major renovations at our place, we happen to have a gap in the remodeling schedule that allowed us to attend the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. It is very interesting and exciting to attend a major world event right in your “yard”. I have never seen Vancouver so crowded and so alive.

My dad’s health took a turn for the worse and we were able to go back and see him in April. We didn’t know at the time that it would be the last time we saw him. We are very glad we did make the trip.

Subsequently we went back to Taiwan two more times for the memorial service and burial. The whole event gave me a new perspective on life. Growing old is not a right but a privilege. Makes me appreciate more of the here and now.

The rest of the year was littered with more home improvement projects. Weekends were filled with shopping trips to accessorize and furnish our new place. Mostly just window shopping but we are simply amaze at all the different style and eccentric selection available if you just simply step out of the big Orange or Blue box store. Of course, we ate and tried many different restaurants. LA is a very large city and has plenty to offer. Ethic food can be very authentic if you find the right place. We are often the only two people in the restaurant that do not speak the “native” language. Being the big melting pot that it is, fusion food can be very cutting edge. This being California, fruit and vegetables are fresh and fragrant. We tried to take advantage of what the city has to offer and were handsomely rewarded. LA feels more and more like home.

Time to bid farewell to 2010. Hopefully 2011 will be better! Happy New Year!

Since this is our first year in our new place and don’t feel like spending the big bucks to get it into “Holiday Mode”, I’ll just throw in a festive photo from my “other living room”. Hopefully we’ll do better next year after we stock up on holiday decoration supplies after it goes on steep discount after Xmas.

This blog entry feels naked. Here. To complete the blog.
Hope good eats finds YOU this Holiday season.

This time is different. We have finally accumulated enough miles to upgrade. We finally get to see what the “other people” get to enjoy. My first and probably the only way I’ll get to business class.

So this is what Business Class looks like. Before this, the only time I get close to Business class is on my walking of shame to the POW class in the back of the plane.

Check out all the room that I got. The cabin has a 2-3-2 configuration. Instead of the 3-4-3 at the back. Not to mention the crazy amount of leg room.

Here is Michelle completely spread out in her seat. There is about 1.5 ft to space between the bottom of her feet to the chair infront of her.

She is downright giddy.

So I’ve always wonder if good food can be had on a plane. Answer? YES! Some sort of cold cut and shrimp mousse.

Even with my table, I still have about 2-3 feet of leg room. It is just not fair.

This is appetizer number 2. Salad, shrimp and rolls.

Look, the vegetables are not wilted and is actually fresh. I didn’t know it was possible!

Finally the main course. I have the salmon. It was quite good.

Michelle has the lamb, also quite good.

Next is the fruit course. We have had Farmer’s market fruits for more than a year now so our fruit standards are extremely high. Let’s just say these are edible and better than nothing.

Now the cheese cake. WOW. If it was sold in stores I would actually buy it.

This is the breakfast spread. Actually pretty good.

I was quite surprised at the quality and quantity of food. We actually didn’t finish any of the dishes since there was more than enough food.

Overall we very much enjoyed the flight on business class. I got good 6-7 hours of sleep. We can go to the bathroom pretty much anytime we want. We weren’t dog tired after the flight and dare I say it, the flight was somewhat enjoyable. What a difference!

As always, the lesson is, I need to make a lot more money.

我希望藉這個機會跟大家分享一下在我們小孩眼裡爸爸是怎麼樣的一個人。我想所有認識爸爸的人都記得他的笑聲跟幽默感.
他在家裡時也不例外。我們洛杉磯家裡有一棵檸檬樹。有時候爸爸就會摘幾顆檸檬下來吃。他會咬一大口，然後笑着跟我媽說＂喔，這一次 的很甜” 然後拿一些給我媽媽吃。當然我媽也會依樣的咬一大口。然後我們就會看到我媽的整個臉變形。五官皺再一起。我媽又受騙了。當然我們小孩們那時候一定已經笑的東倒西歪。那時候覺得，爸爸真厲害。為了要開我媽一個玩笑。可以大口的咬下一顆又酸又苦的檸檬，臉不 變色的說好吃。

從小到大也從來不記得有缺過什麼。想吃的，穿的，想玩的，想去的地方，樣樣不缺。但是我們最感激的是爸爸給我們三個小孩的自由。爸爸很少跟我們說＂這樣不好，那麼不行， 這樣危險，你還太小＂ 那一類的話。他讓我們去做自己想做的事。雖然有時候我們會學到什麼叫＂自不量力＂，但大多部份的時候我們學到什麼叫＂只要我盡力，我什麼都做的到＂。爸爸給我們三個小孩無限的空間和自由讓我們能找到自己的方向,走自己想走的路，找到自己的快樂。

爸爸也一直很信任我們。我上大學的時候才了解爸爸的信任。報到那一天，爸爸，媽媽，跟阿媽開了七個小時的車載我去。東西搬完，校園逛了一圈了以後爸媽跟阿媽就掉頭回家。第二天起來，發現校園裡都是新鮮人跟他們的父母。父母不放心所以來幫他們的孩子買書，買衣服，買家具，看宿舍，開戶頭。後來跟同學聊天才發現，這些不放心的父母其實是不信任他們自己的小孩。小孩要有小孩自己的戶頭才不會亂用到爸媽的錢。爸媽幫小孩買東西是因為他們覺得小孩還小沒辦法自己做最好的決定。我爸媽不一樣，他們老早就把我直接加進他們的戶頭。我需要多少就自己領。因為他們信任我，不擔心我會亂花。對一個剛進大學的我，這是一個很大的肯定。

在我們的心目中，爸爸永遠是一位偉大的父親。我們看著父母孝順阿媽，學到什麼叫孝順。我們跟著爸爸去釣魚，學到什麼叫恆心跟耐心。爸爸總是以身作則讓我們了解做人的道理。雖然我已經跟他說過但我想要在這麼再重復一次＂爸爸， 謝謝您的養育之恩。我們會帶著媽媽過快樂的生活。因為你對我們一直是有信心的，所以我們知道你不會， 也不需要擔心。＂一路好走

I guess I should attempt to translate it too:

I would like to take this opportunity to share with everyone how us kids see our dad. I think everyone who knows my dad would remember his laughter and sense of humor. In our home in LA, we have a lemon tree. Once in a while my dad would pick some lemons from the tree. He would take a large bite and with a smile say to my mom “wow, this year’s crop is very sweet”. He would share some with my mom. My mom would do the same and take a large bite from the lemon my dad just ate. This is when we’ll see my mom’s face contort. All her facial feature would be squished together. Once again my mom has fell for one of my dad’s pranks. Of course us kids would be rolling on the floor laughing by then. At that time, we would think dad is very special. In order to play a prank on my mom, he can take a huge bite from a super sour and bitter lemon without showing any sign of its true taste and declare how delicious it is.

Growing up, we don’t remember missing anything. Anything we want to eat, wear, play with, places we want to go to, my dad was able to provide. But what us kids appreciate of my dad is the freedom he gave us. Dad rarely say things like “you can’t do this, you can’t do that, that’s dangerous, or you are too young”. He has always allowed us to do whatever we wanted to do. Although sometimes we end up learning our own limitations, but most of the time, we learn that if we put our mind to it, we can do almost anything. Dad gave us unlimited space and freedom to grow. He allowed us to find out own direction, find our own path, find our own happiness.

Dad has always trusted us. I realized that when I went to college. On move-in day, mom, dad and grandma drove 7 hours to take me to my school. After moving my things and quick tour of the campus, they went straight home. The next day, I found the campus with lots of Freshman and their parents. The parents are worried, so they are there to open bank accounts, checking out the dorm, buy books, clothing etc. Talking to some classmate, I found out these parents are doing all this because they don’t quite trust their own kids. The kids need their own bank account so they can’t access parent’s money. Parents need to buy things for the kids since they don’t quite trust the kids to make the decisions. My parents are different. They simply added to me their own bank account. I just take what I need. Because they trust me not to spend more than I need. To a person who just started college life, this is a big sign of trust.

In our hearts, dad is a great dad. We saw how my parents treated my grandma, and learned how to respect our elders. We went fishing with our dad, learning patience and persistence. Dad taught us what the right thing to do is by showing us and doing it himself.

Although I already told my dad, but I would like to repeat this here again. “Dad, thank you for raising us. We will take care of mom and continue living our happy lives. Because you have always trusted us, I know you don’t need to, and won’t have to worry.” Pleasant journey.