Baby Plant - 事事如意

I have never been much of a plant/flowers person. Since young, I never quite appreciated them as most girls would. (I.e. Squealing with delight and taking a big whiff of them roses - eeeyuck SO NOT ME!!!).

In fact, I remember valentine's day in college: I very ungratefully gave away my flowers -stalk by stalk - to anyone who wanted them. I know I know...talk about being unappreciative. If I can turn back the clock, I would say:" Dear XXX, I'm sorry for being so insensitive." However, since I can't turn back the clock so oh well :p

Recently I find myself a changed person. I now have 3 plants to my name. One in the office and two at home.

One of my plant, I grew from a bean. When I first bought the bean, Mum said that I would never make it.

"Girl ah, it is not so easy to grow from scratch and take care of it...you know?!?"

"Mum, thanks for the vote of confidence but see how tall my plant has grown!"

The bean has an engraving on it...and you can actually still see the engraving on the plant. The words are "事事如意" which means "May things go smoothly as planned". INDEED!!!

Thanksgiving 2007 - Turkey

Here is a picture of the yummy turkey that I had for Thanksgiving at Steve's place! (fresh out of the stove)

Deb, Steve's wife, is a fantastic cook. Normally turkey meat tastes rather dry but this turkey tasted excellent. We even had it accompanied with fresh cranberry sauce! It was really an enjoyable dinner. Thanks for inviting me!

Flooding and a new lesson learnt!

I'm going to share with you something funny that happened to me last night. (Actually it was quite horrible through out the entire ordeal)

Prelude: I was at Steve's place for Thanksgiving dinner. We had a traditional American thanksgiving dinner with the turkey, pumpkin pie...whole affair. During dinner, we were telling stories about experiences during Thanksgiving dinner. One of the stories shared was about how a pipe had burst in this Canadian couple's place during Thanksgiving and water started flooding the entire place and they had to call for help. As they continued on their dinner, every where wet as it can be, they had maintenance people punching holes in the wall to find the leak. The way that the story was told had the whole table roaring with laughter.

Anyway, by the time I got home, I was so stuffed and happy, so I decided to just have a relaxing evening, do my laundry and lie back on the couch to channel surf.

I must have fallen asleep but was then awoken by the sound of dripping water.
"Damn the bloody washing machine" I thought as I got up.
**My nonsense washing machine sometimes leaks...but only a little...just enough to be a nuisance. **

So I got up from the couch and put my feet on the ground and found myself in ankle deep water.

HORRORS!!!

"I must be dreaming" I said to myself...Too much food and funny stories...(the first thought that came to my mind was the story that the Canadian couple shared). And then I realize that I wasn't dreaming and the house was indeed flooded.

Shit!! I got up and went over to the washing machine and saw water pouring out from this little contraption which Mum was meddling with just before she left for Taipei. I switched off the washing machine, the water stopped pouring out and it was then that I looked around and saw the damage that had happened. Picture this....little furnitures floating around in the water. My house looked like it had just been hit by hurricane katrina.

My guitar, my carpet, my boxes, shoes, food, all.....WET!!!

Armed with a small rag and my dustbin, I started scooping the water up. There was no other way. I damn well gave up a few times....and did stop a couple of times to see who I could blame this misfortune on. Perhaps, I also had thought, I should just give up and call for help downstairs. Let this be somebody else's problem....I thought...out of pure frustration. But each time such negative thoughts came into my head...I took a deep breathe and pushed on.

After 7 hours of cleaning, it was finally done. The washing machine is fixed, the soapy water ..all mopped up, the floor re-cleaned, the laundry hang out to dry, all wet things...hanging out to dry...what an experience that I don't want EVER to happen again!

But as I sit here, blogging my little sob story to you...don't be mistaken that I've found myself beaten. On the contrary, I find myself coming out all the more stronger and convinced of the things that I can do if I just perservere.

It was a lesson well learnt and although I still don't wish for it to happen, I've just got this sense of satisfaction and confidence that I can do things, no matter how tedious as long as I put my mind and soul into it. And I believe this to be true for you too.....

My new pair of Puma shoes says hi!!

Okay, I'm not really a shoe person. Compared to a friend of mine who moved from New York to Taipei with 4 BIG boxes of shoes, buying ONE pair of new puma shoes is nothing. But I LOVE IT and just gotta share with the world................that's me! Proud pair of puma shoes owner. P/s: I'm starting to get so hooked on this particular series from puma.

Baseball Heaven Joke! Hehe.

Two old guys, Abe and Sol, are sitting on a park bench feeding pigeons and talking about baseball, like they do every day. Abe turns to Sol and says, "Do you think there's baseball in heaven?"

Sol thinks about it for a minute and replies, "I dunno. But let's make a deal: if I die first, I'll come back and tell you if there's baseball in heaven, and if you die first, you do the same."
They shake on it and sadly, a few months later, poor Abe passes on.

One day soon afterward, Sol is sitting there feeding the pigeons by himself when he hears a voice whisper, "Sol... Sol..."
Sol responds, "Abe! Is that you?"
"Yes it is, Sol," whispers Abe's ghost.
Sol, still amazed, asks, "So, is there baseball in heaven?"
"Well," says Abe, "I've got good news and bad news."
"Gimme the good news first," says Sol.

Abe says, "Well... there is baseball in heaven."
Sol says, "That's great! What news could be bad enough to ruin that!?"
Abe sighs and whispers, "You're pitching on Friday."