Blog Archives

Mar

I wished I had a picture to show you. But I was too busy holding my stomach and laughing to think to snap one…

Last weekend, my teen and I drove to a popular Chinese shopping center for a late lunch. As expected, the shopping center was packed. I was resigned to drive in circles a few times in order to find a parking spot.

But I was lucky! As soon as I pulled into the parking lot, a car further up was spotted to be pulling out. Even better, it had no stalker car following it! Mine!

Just as I drove to the open stall, a middle aged lady wearing a flowery dress stepped right into the middle of it, and was yapping away on her cell phone.

I flipped on my turn signal to let her know that I wanted to park where she was standing.

She glared at me. Shook her head. Pointed at the ground with her index finger, then padded her chest.

WHAT?! But you are not a car!

I glared right back at her, aided by a deep frown, then waved at her to get out of my way.

She stood her ground, and refused further eye contact with me.

I decided against mowing her down, only because I don’t want to go to jail. I drove off.

So I started to patrol the the large parking lot looking for an open spot. Just as I feared, I was driving in circles looking for people to leave.

I came around her aisle two more times. She was still standing her ground there. And she was pissing off other drivers who also thought that they could park there. I even saw a closed fist waving at her out of a rolled down window.

This lady must have skin thick as a hippopotamus to be guarding a parking spot like that for an extended period of time, with many cars circling the shopping center for parking spaces.

Finally, I found a parking stall somewhere in the middle of the shopping center. As I exited my car, I saw in the distance a small crowd had gathered where that lady was standing, and a black car was clearly trying to get into her standing spot.

Uh…I would love to see someone finally chase this obnoxious witch out of “her” stall. I quicken my pace to go see the big show down, dragging my teen behind me.

After walking around the shops, I finally got to where this lady was. I quickly noted that the crowded has dispersed by then.

The lady was still standing there, looking angry, but more wide eyed and stunned!!!

Then I held my stomach and laughed out loud. This was the funniest thing I ever saw.

The driver of that black car had parked his car horizontally in front of “her” parking stall, and left.

Ha, ha, haa….

Category: Humor Leave a Comment

Feb

Riding Whistler

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We came home late Saturday night, and found our home phone answer machine blinking like crazy. I have been offline and unreachable for a whole week.

We took the kids on a snowboarding trip to Whistler, Canada, last week. Although Canada does not feel very foreign from the US, it is indeed another country, so AT&T wanted to charge me a hefty roaming charge, plus international calling and text rates. I decided to shut my phone off for a whole week. I am cheap like that.

So, how was Whistler?

Spectacular!

Whistler Mountain Ski Resort

It’s majestic duo mountains were the home of the 2010 Winter Olympic.

It has a huge village, with an extensive number of restaurants, bakeries, coffee shops (the village had two Starbucks!), grocery stores, and endless shops throughout.

Whistler Village at night

We spent 5 glorious days on the slopes.

The kids riding down the slopes

It was never boring. In addition to a massive number to trails to choose from, the mountain was ever changing.

Which run??

You could have clear blue sky, and find yourself floating on top of the clouds one moment,

My baby on top of the clouds

to dense fog on a different section of the mountain,

Seriously foggy, can't see the trail ahead

to punishing whiteout condition,

Braving the whiteout condition

to warmer slushy conditions near the base.

It is so nice of the schools to offer a ski week off in the middle of the February every year.

The cool one.

Category: Family Travel Blogs Leave a Comment

Jan

Life with a Type 1 Diabetic

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“Dinner is ready!” I shouted upstairs to the kids.

I heard them running down the stairs. My teen plopped down at her usual chair at the dining table, while the baby ran to the corner that contained all the diabetic medical devices.

“Carbs please.” 12 year-old.

I leaned over to the kitchen island, and looked over my notepad that detailed all her meals and carbohydrate information, and reported, “85.”

Daily carb count notepad

A few minutes later, the baby walked over with her insulin pump in hand. I could hear the very faint clicking sound the pump was making, indicating that it is delivering insulin into her body.

“What’s your number?” me.

“100.” baby.

“100! What a nice round number!” me.

It always hurts a little whenever my baby has to prick her finger to check her blood glucose level. The poor child has to do this several times a day.

An idea popped into my head, “Hey! How about I give you a dollar whenever your BG is exactly 100. That would be kind of fun, huh?”

“No. You should give me one hundred dollars when my BG is 100.” the baby.

So bloody greedy.

“If I give you one hundred dollars, then you will be spending hours doing math with your carbohydrate and insulin ratio counting to try to hit 100, you will go crazy.” me.

“Actually, if you give me $100 for a 100 BG reading, then I will spend hours doing complicated algebra, and eating a mad amount of carbs to reach ONE THOUSAND!” said the young genius.

I stared at my baby, speechless.

My 15 year-old chimed in, “Knowing how rude your disease is. After doing all that math and eating, you are more likely to end up with a BG of 999. You will get no money, except a helicopter ride to the nearest Emergency room.”

“I will take that dollar, mom.” the baby.

Category: Humor, Kids, Parents Leave a Comment

Jan

The Workout

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“So, how was your workout this morning?” my teen.

What?! The kid never asks about my day. But this was not an ideal time for the teen to start maturing on me.

It was the first day of school in the new year. I made a huge production about me going to hit the gym, devoured a huge pastry for fuel, and shipped the kids off to school extra early in the morning in the drenching rain.

I had blabbered to them enthusiastically about how I was going to hit the stair climbing machine for 30 minutes, then the bike machine for 30 minutes.

So, there I was, on the stair machine.

ARGH!! Walking endlessly on the stair machine is not fun at all. Really tiring too. I constantly eye the uncooperative timer on the machine, cursing it for ticking away so slowly.

The constant stepping felt like forever, but the digital timer was only showing 18 minutes.

This stair climbing machine must not be for me, I eyed the bike machine. That machine has a seat!

I am NOT a hamster, I can stop when I want to. As soon as the stair machine hit 20 minutes, I hopped off of it.

I started to spin the wheels on the bike machine.

3 minutes into it, a thought came to me…My problem wasn’t with the stair machine. It was just my lazy behind.

I didn’t feel like biking either. As the timer ticked at 4 minutes and some seconds, I hopped off.

I am NOT a hamster, I can stop when I want to.

So, how is your New Year’s resolution going?

Previous related posts:
Desperate New Year Resolution
The Mile Run

Category: Humor, Parents One Comment

Dec

Ready for Christmas?

admin

No, I did not fall off the earth, just super swamped with the holiday fares on the business and the home front.

Christmas 2015

Christmas is only 2 days away, I hope you all have your presents under the trees, holiday meals and parties all under wrap. I sort of do.

I did carve out some time and hosted a Christmas party for my kids and their friends. We had lots of kids over, all teens and tweens.

They are old enough to entertain themselves. I just had to prepare food and order pizza. The only activity I provided was a gingerbread house competition.

The night before the party, I put together 4 gingerbread houses, and loaded the table with all kinds of candies, sprinkles, and frosting in red, green, blue, and white.

These gingerbread houses are ready to decorate

In honor of my celiac child, these gingerbread houses are all gluten free!!

Gluten free!

The kids broke into teams of 3 or 4, and set to design and decorate their gingerbread house. They were creative and competitive, and came up with 4 uniquely designed delicious homes.

4 finished GF gingerbread houses.

As the parents came to pick up their children, they were invited into our home and got to judge these beautiful decorated edible houses.

Guess which of these is the winner?

Is this the winning gingerbread house?

This one?

Or this one?

Merry Christmas! Wish all of you a blessed 2016.

Category: Kids, Parents Leave a Comment

Nov

The Incredible Gluten-Free Edible Cell

admin

I suffered an epic failure in a baking project recently and severely damaged my reputation in the kitchen.

See this puddle of sadness…

Nutella Tart soup

It was supposed to be a Nutella Tart! It’s main purpose wasn’t to be food, it was aiming to be my baby’s science project.

The science project was called “The Incredible Edible Cell,” where my 12 year-old was tasked to make a model of a cell using only things that can be eaten.

Since the baby has celiac disease, we decided that her edible cell must be gluten-free.

The Nutella Tart sounded like a winner, because it is the baby’s favorite food. But soon we discovered a flaw. This tart needed to be refrigerated. In just 90 minutes at room temperature, the tart turned into soup and allowed our cell particle representatives and toothpick labels to swim or drown in the liquid.

Last minute, we needed a plan B!!!

I found this in the pantry.

Gluten Free Sugar Cookie Mix

Hmmm…what if I could use the entire package and bake it into one giant round cookie??

Yippee!! It came out of the oven beautifully; completely intact with not even a crack.

Our Big Big Cookie

I turned the big cookie over to the baby. It was her project, so she got to design and build the edible cell.

She took out the bag of gluten-free candies we bought earlier, along with colorful icings, and set to work.

Jaw Breaker for the nucleus & Gummy Snake body for the membrane

The kid had a blast!!!

Icing to glue the candies to the cookie

Who wouldn’t? This project was fun.

Go ahead, play with your food

Best of all, when she brought the project to school, after presenting the project, she got to eat it with her classmates and friends.

The Incredible Gluten-free Edible Cell

Previous related posts: The Mile Run
The School Project
Beautiful Sugar Cookies

Category: Kids, Parents Leave a Comment

Oct

The F.O.B.

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Every day this week, I have suffered a sporadic sense of regret for having my hair cut too short.

Last Thursday, I went to a new salon to get a haircut. I have sported the same boring hair style for almost 20 years, when it grew long, I cut it shorter, always to about shoulder length. But my young stylist suggested to cut shorter, to the neck line. I carelessly said, “Yes.” Why not? It grows back!

My stylist cut and snipped at my hair very swiftly and confidently. I was impressed. She then spent a very generous amount of time to blow dry and style my hair. When they charge you a great deal of money just to cut your hair shorter, they always spend a lot of time brushing it to justify the cost.

I looked good! I beamed into the mirrors as she positioned me to look all around my head.

See, I never bother to blow dry my hair. It is not that I don’t care to look good, but that my laziness trumps my desire to look pretty on a daily basis.

That late afternoon, I went to pick up my 15 year-old from school.

“Wow! Your hair is so short.” teen.

“What do you think?” me, turning my head this way and that for her.

“I like it!” 15 year-old.

“Really?! I am so glad you like it. I was kind of worried. It is so short.” I said happily.

“You look VERY Asian.” the teen.

“What do you mean? I look very Asian everyday, even without this haircut.” me.

“Well. I usually see you as a white Asian, but today, you look like a F.O.B. Asian.” 15 year-old.

I was STUNNED!!! How could I ever be considered a white Asian?!! I am fluent in Chinese, versed in Chinese home cooking, I love stinky tofu, and for crying out loud, I own a business called AsianParent.com!!

I glared at the teen, whose charm was taking a nose dive right before my eyes. I am even less happy to be called a F.O.B. Asian.

“What??” 15 year-old asked weakly, sensing maternal displeasure.

“I thought you said that you like my new hair cut!” me.

“I do. You look good, in a very Asian kind of way.” 15 year-old.

“You called me a F.O.B.!! It is generally considered an insult, in a name calling kind of way” me.

“I don’t mean it as an insult. You look like people in China, Taipei, Hong Kong.” 15 year-old.

“You never even been to Hong Kong!” me.

“I was in their airport once.” the teen.

I turned to stare her down.

My teen stared back at me, then broke into a big smile, “Now, if you just dye your hair reddish color and walk around wearing a mask, you would perfect that look.”

Reddish haired Asian woman wearing a face mask...

Previous related posts: Scissor & Hair

The Spirit of Gift Giving

Category: Humor, Kids, Parents Leave a Comment

Oct

WTH is This!?

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Arriving home yesterday, I had a good laugh when I found a brand new Yellow Page phone book sitting on our porch.

A new Yellow Pages arrived at our door

I contemplated taking it directly to our recycle bin… What a waste!

I decided to offer it as a history lesson to my kids, like I did a few months ago when we found a lonesome phone booth.

“Hey kids, check this out. Someone left it outside of our door for us.” I dropped the heavy book onto our kitchen island.

“What is it?” kids. The kids eyed the free book suspiciously.

“Open it and see for yourself.” me.

They opened the book and flipped to a few random sections of it. Clearly, pages after pages of perfectly serious lists of phone numbers had them puzzled.

Just names and phone numbers

“Look, it says plumbers here. It has all their names and phone numbers. What is it for?” 12 year-old.

“Wow, it’s just a list of people’s phone numbers. Is this a phone book?” teen.

“Right. This is the Yellow Pages, a phone book of local businesses. So if you ever need a plumber you can call one of them.” me.

“How do you know which one to call? And where is the review?” teen.

“No reviews! You just pick a name and a number to call when you need service or a product.” me.

“You had no idea and just had to make a call?” teen, frowning.

“The old days were tough on us.” me, sad faced. “Although, miraculously, when we needed a plumber and called someone off of that book, you could expect a plumber to show up and fix your pipe.”

That’s right, I used to get my plumbing fixed without learning how my plumber had previously replaced a family’s old water-heater with superhero speed, or how this same plumber had previously liberated a minor water leak into an all out flood.

I asked my children what we should do with our Yellow Pages. They told me to recycle it. We have Google and Yelp now.

I felt bad for the brand new book, and especially for the poor tree that had to be sacrificed for such a needless purpose. I guess it’s better to recycle it, so it can reincarnate quickly into a more useful existence.

Previous related posts: The Nook Color, the iPad, and the Way Things Used To Be

A Blast to the Past

Category: Kids, Parents Leave a Comment

Sep

What’s for Dinner, Mom?

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Do you just not feel like making dinner on some days?

I do! I did not feel like making dinner yesterday.

I had a 3 course meal all planned out in my head, then by the early afternoon, a sudden wave of laziness washed over me. I threw the defrosted meats back into the freezer.

I was going to pull my VISA card trick for takeout.

Except, it is not that easy to be me these days… My baby can’t eat gluten. You may not know this, but gluten and fast food are best friends, and they don’t like to be separated.

It is every parent’s duty to feed their offspring, right?

So, by 6PM, I found myself looking frantically into the refrigerator and seeing what could be put together for my celiac child.

That fresh loaf of gluten free bread I made on Sunday came in handy when I found butter and cheese.

Homemade gluten free bread

I can make a mean gluten free grilled cheese sandwich, assisted by two thin slices of low fat, low sodium spam.

Buttered GF bread with cheese and ham

The key is to generously butter the bread on both sides, lightly toast both sides of the bread, add high quality cheese, add spam or ham, and toast the sandwich on both sides on low heat until the cheese melts in the center.

Pan grilled on low heat

Dinner is served!

Gluten free grill cheese sandwich with a side of fruit and milk

The baby clapped her hands approvingly at the sight of her dinner.

Previous related posts: A Rendezvous with Gluten Free
Death by Salad

Category: Parents Leave a Comment

Sep

Sports…Here, There, and Everywhere

admin

Four tickets to a football game at the Levi’s Stadium!!! Woohoo!

Levi Stadium Tickets

No, it is not the 9ers game, and it is so not the NFL! It is to watch my teen’s high school’s varsity football game!!!

That’s right, our high school football team got to play at the 49ers new stadium. What a splendid opportunity to go see the much talked about new stadium without all the crowd and their notorious game day traffic. Inexpensive tickets, too!

Even though the stadium was only half full, the food services were still open. So, we loaded up on unhealthy football food.

Garlic Fries

My dinner

Families were out in school gears and cheered for their teams. It was a fun night.

Cheering fans

So the final score really wasn’t important.

Since we had the late game that started at 8PM, we did not get home until around midnight.

Did I get to sleep in on my weekend morning? NO! My alarm clock jolted my eyes wide open at 7AM on Saturday morning.

I had to take my 15-year-old to her Water Polo tournament on Saturday. She had two games that day, but of course, one had to be an early morning game, and the second one in the mid afternoon. Who needs a whole Saturday anyway.

Water Polo game

On a positive note, Water Polo is a fast paced, thrilling, and fun game to watch. I am surprised that it isn’t more popular in the US. It is way more exciting than soccer or baseball.

On Sunday, I got to watch my 12-year-old play Volleyball for 2 hours.

2 hours of Volleyball on Sunday

I watched a lot of games this past weekend, and it really tired me out.

Thank goodness for Mondays!

Previous related posts: The Lazy vs. the Pampered
The Time Has Come…

Category: Parents Leave a Comment

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