Poppin' the question....

One of the toughest question a man has to ask is none other than...THE question. 

More often than not... we know the answer to the question.  And not quite as often... the person we're asking is half-expecting the question anyways.  Yet, it's not just the question... it's the situation, the location, the timing, the position...and of course, the accompanying hardware.

Here are some insights/advice accumulated throughout the years: (some of these are mine... most of these are from others)
-don't memorize a speech, the other person won't hear a thing when realizing what you're doing
-don't get the real deal...get a fake one in case the answer isn't what you expect
-don't do it at a restaurant cuz it's not private
-don't do it at a ballpark /jumbo tron cuz it's old hat
-pick the most romantic restaurant because she'll want everyone to see how lucky she is
-there's nothing more romantic than doing it in front of 40,000 people
-tie it to the dog's collar if she's an animal lover
-don't tell the reporter what you're gonna do after the interview cuz he'll ruin the surprise
-don't tie it to a dog...cuz the dog might run away
-get the father's blessing (not permission) cuz unknowingly... and ultimately... she's daddy's little girl and daddy is always her first prince charming
-2 months salary
-3 months salary
-one knee, not two.  two knees are for much later when you're begging for forgiveness
-pray
-make sure you have a way out... in case her answer is not what you expected... and you're in the middle of a half-time show at a basketball game dressed up as the mascot
-left hand, fourth finger if you're American
-right hand, fourth finger if you're European
-middle finger, either hand if you drive in LA
-prepare 2 speeches... be prepare to forget the Speech A and go with Speech B
-write a song.... but only if your last name is McCartney, Lennon, Harrison or Starr. And I guess Clapton.
-if you're doing it while sky diving, make sure you tie a strong knot on a strong string with a GPS locator
-flowers are a good touch, but not necessary
-lots and lots of flowers.  chicks dig floral
-don't try too hard to make it memorable/romantic... the event itself is memorable and romantic
-IKEA is actually very memorable/romantic
-you get one chance to say it....so don't stutter!
-keep it simple cuz your heart rate will be 1000 bps!
-other than her....you know her best.  you'll know what she wants.
-and if you're wrong... tough!  she's getting the hardware! tell her to suck it up!
 
And ultimately... there's no right or wrong.  It's just a question, right....? What's the worst that can happen?
 
 
(Inspired by Michael Scott -- You will be missed!)

What to do... What not to do...

Nui-nui's curiosity has moved into 4th gear as of late especially on the dining table.  She'll want to eat whatever we eat... drink whatever we drink.  This morning, I was enjoying my cup of morning coffee when,  Nui-nui, as usual, wanted a drink!

What to do...
   ...let her take a sip... as she'll taste coffee, realize it tastes horrible and never want to drink again.

What not to do...
   ...let her take a sip... as she'll taste coffee, realize it tastes horrible and never want to drink again - but have her FLYING OFF THE WALLS DUE TO THE CAFFEINE!!!!!!

Lesson Learned... 
   ...it's okay to have fun... it's okay to experiment... it's okay to explore.  But be ready to accept the consequence and reap the fruit that you sow!

..excerpt from my soon to be published book.. "We All Make Mistakes... the Do's and Don'ts of Child Raising" by H. H. Leung

Croup

Nui-nui started coughing unceasingly on Friday.  When the coughing turned into wheezing...we didn't hestiate to take her into the doctors.  The on-call physician immediately diagnosed her with "croup."  It's a viral infection that causes laryngitis in adults and cold/flu like symptoms in children.  Not fun to have to put Nui-nui on steroids to help with her breathing. 

The cool part is... instead of "croup", I got nui-nui to say "poop." 

So when I ask her... "What do you have Nui-nui?"
She'll smile and say... "Poop!"

With Bah-bee training her sense of humor... she's gonna grow up juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust fine. 

Sometimes you just can't win...

Incredibly pleased that potty training (or potty learning as Montessori calls it) is going oh so well!  The amount of diapers we're using have exponentially gone down.  But strangely enough... as the diaper expense goes down... the rate at which we're using toilet paper is climbing!  Sometimes... you just can't win. 

What to do...what not to do...

Last night... Nui-nui spilled some milk on the living room floor right next to her pretty pink chair.  She innocently sits on the chair like a choir-girl and drinks her milk.  Mommy and Daddy come out and sees the puddle of milk.

What not to do...
         ...don't yell at her or give her an irate look for spilling milk.  She knows she did something wrong.  That's why she's quietly sitting there drinking the milk.  Why make her feel any worse?

What to do...
         ...go over and gently ask if she spilled the milk.  Nui-nui nods.  Then tell her to be more careful next time. Give her a kiss and wipe up the mess together.

Lesson Learned...
          Let her know from a young age that she can trust us if she makes a mistake.  She'll come to us and together we can make things better.  If we enforce fear in her when she's 20 months... what's gonna happen when she turns 20? 


..excerpt from my soon to be published book.. "We All Make Mistakes... the Do's and Don'ts of Child Raising" by H. H. Leung

The problem is... there are no problems.

Had a strong conviction the other day that the biggest problem with church nowadays (and particular my church) is that everyone there is too "perfect." Church oughta be filled with prostitutes... single moms or single dads... criminals out on parole... recovering drug addicts... etc...

If anyone of the aforementioned people were to walk into our church...they would immediately turn around and leave cuz they will feel exactly what society wants them to feel... like outcasts. It's no wonder why people like visiting our church, but choose not to stay.

All in a day's work...

Got a request from the VP of Engineering to take a trip out to Philly right away.  I can never sleep on the first night of East Coast trip anyways... so I flew red-eye. 

Originally I was set to fly back Sunday morning.  But we finished our work by 3PM.. so we quickly made arrangements to fly out of Philly at 6PM.  Landed at SFO at 9:15PM PST.

In summary...
Depart SFO - 10PM PST
Land PHL - 5AM EST
Depart PHL - 6PM EST
Land SFO - 9PM PST

All in a day's work...

Famous dinners

Not since this dinner... has any dinner generated this much buzz.

President Obama had dinner with a bunch of Tech/Business honchos last night...

Here's the guest list...

• John Doerr, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
• Carol Bartz, President and CEO, Yahoo Inc.
• John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco Systems Inc.
• Marissa Mayer, Google VP
• Dick Costolo, CEO, Twitter Inc.
• Larry Ellison, Co-Founder and CEO, Oracle Corp.
• Reed Hastings, CEO, Netflix Inc.
• John Hennessy, President, Stanford University
• Steve Jobs, Chairman and CEO, Apple Inc.
• Art Levinson, Chairman and former CEO, Genentech Inc.
• Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO, Google Inc.
• Steve Westly, Managing Partner and Founder, The Westly Group
• Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO, Facebook Inc.

Who's missing from this list....? Intel? HP? IBM? Hank?

Forgetting my roots...

Recent events have transpired at Day Care that's led us to start looking for alternatives.  You never want to be the frog at the bottom of the well. 

And as we're touring all the typical daycares... I'm astounded by how picky I've become. 
The place can't be too small.  Nui-nui has to run around. 
The teacher can't have a heavy accent.  Nui-nui needs to learn straight English. 
The gender balance of the kids need to be 50/50.  Nui-nui needs both boy and girl friends.
The place needs to be clean.  If I'm paying $1400/mo, it better be a palace!
The place should have a balance of races. Nui-nui shouldn't only have Chinese / Indian friends.

Since when did I become an elitest? Am I that much above everyone else that I can point out everyone's mistakes?  Didn't I grow up in those environments? Did I turn out that bad? 

After a few weeks of researching... we realize that the current Day Care place is actually pretty good... all things considered.

Happy Nui Year!!

So Nui-nui recently reached another nui-stone, or stones, I should say.

She can now count to "10" in English. And can almost count to "10" in Chinese... leaving out a number here or there.   Big deal... name one kid who can't do that once they're in pre-school.  But this is MY daughter.... and if I say she rocks...she rocks! 

More excitingly... she added another word to her vocabulary! The word... "good." 
The other day... I made her some noodles and when she sampled it... she looked at me, smiled and said, "good!"  Then that night... I made her some soup.  I put it in her little cup.  She took a sip, smiled and said, "good!"   And on the 7th day... her father rested.

Thank you Dunder Mifflin

Nui nui has a cold for some reason... And the whole family suffers. Thank goodness for Hulu and the semi-watchable episodes of The Office. Ricky Gervais cameo! Please don't replace Carrell with him... I don't understand his accent.

Sooooo sleepy.... I guess this is training for Bebe...