Hunting for Shoes

Biz trip to the South East.... Tennesee / Alabama / Louisiana.  Got to SFO only to realize I forgot to pack my black dress shoes. 

Have no fret... I'm flying into a metropolitan area.  There's bound to be shoes.  I land around 6:30PM CST.  And instead of hitting up a DSW, I decide to have dinner at Downtown Nashville.   By the time I was done, a lot of the stores were closed.  D'oh!!

Have no fret... trusty Target closes at 11PM.  I go to Target and all they have are women's shoes!!  D'oh!!!

Have no fret... there's a Kohl's about 0.5 mile away that closes in 20 minutes. I race over there and find there are shelves and shelves of men's shoes.  But geez louise... they're all size 9 and below!!  Do everyone in Nashville have big feet?!?!  And I ain't gonna spend $80 on an ugly pair of shoes... I'm not fashiony, but I am thrifty!!   D'oh!!

Have no fret... there's old reliable Walmart next door.  Haha..... and at Walmart, I find a pair of decent black shoes for $25!!!! WOOHOO!!! 

Vacation is tiring!!

Kids had Winter Break last week - so we took at trip to So Cal and went to the Great Wolf Lodge - an indoor water park.  I can't say enough about how I hate LA traffic.  Both NYC and LA traffic makes Bay Area traffic look like a walk in the park.

Some highlights from this trip:

1. Indoor water park is consistently set at 84 deg F.  NICE!!!
2. The water slides are very high... which meant we had to lug those tubs u many many flights of stairs many many times.  Kids don't get tired. Adults do.
3. The water in the water park was.... salty.  Ugh....
4. The hotel had this electronic scavenger hunt that lasted the kids 8-9 hours (in aggregate).  Great idea - whoever thought of and marketed this.  Served as great downtime.
5. There was a $9.99 Unlimited Dunkin Donuts coffee cup.  I got my money's worth - seeing how I drink coffee like water.
6. We had dinner at Hataka Ramen (again).  Still have pictures of 2012, 2014 when we went.  It's nice to go back in time and see how the kids have changed and grown.
7. The weather was too cold for the beach - kids was really looking forward to it.  But on the last day, it got warm enough where we can build some sand castles.  YEAH!!!
8. Stopped by Firestones on the way down. BOOM!! And hit up Black Bear Diner on the way up.  BOOM BOOM!!
9. Kids had a huge skin reaction to the massive chlorine so they're skin really broke out.
10. SW had a huge reaction to pollen when we pulled over by, what I think is, an Almond Tree Orchard.  Luckily we had benadryl in the car.

Next family trip.... road trip to San Diego!!!

Pathetic... absolutely pathetic

I was sick the other night and didn't want to do anything but lie in bed.  So I go on hoopla and found the documentary on the 2015 Warriors Championship season.  Re-watching history and re-watching one of the greatest season of my life... I was absolutely sick to the stomach.

It's sacrilege for me to say this....

Watching the fans scream and yell out the names of the players is absolutely pathetic!  Do the fans really think yelling out "Go Steph!!" or "Let's go Klay!!" will really help the cause of winning a championship?? Especially if you pay $200 to sit in nosebleeds??

Geez.... watching them is watching me.  I'm pathetic.  Ugh.....

F.I.R.E.

FIRE - Financial Independence Retire Early

Here's a Rule of Thumb I just learned.  Nothing earth shattering or ground breaking -- the "25x Rule."

Take your annual spendings (food, gas, mortgage, insurance, etc...) and x 25.  That's how much money you need to retire.

If I spend $10k a month. 
That means I spend $120k a year. 
$120k x 25 = $3M.

甦醒吧!

千里馬! 甦醒吧!

Growing kids

(Following a melancholic post on aging parents.... )

SW ate two Sausage McMuffins by himself this morning.  A few common phrases that always comes out of his mouth now are:

"Prove it!"

"How dare you."

"點解啊?"

and

"我重好肚餓啊!"

Aging Parents

Spent over an hour this morning trying to unravel a Fraud Alert on mom's credit card account.  On the phone, mom is adamant she doesn't recognize the charge... so the credit card company blocked the charge and issued mom a new card. 

After hanging up, I had the chance to sit down and unravel the entire mystery behind it.  And lo and behold... I don't think it a Fraud charge.... but mom was tricked into signing up for some subscription when she did her online purchasing.  Those websites can be so tricky... even for a seasoned user like myself.  An old lady that barely knows English doesn't stand a chance.

I didn't want to rip into mom.... she is just know venturing into online purchasing.  There's so much she doesn't know.  And with the world moving away from brick-n-mortar... she's gotta learn some day.  And this is what we're dealing with now.  Aging parents. 

Technology is moving so fast... how do they keep up??  And on the darker side... I have so many friends who's parents visit the clinic and hospital more frequent than I visit Costco.  My team seems like they take turn asking for personal time off to take their folks to this appointment or that appointment.  It's so surreal.....

Having a daughter... having a son

A daughter is one of the sweetest being in the world.  She'll come up to you for no reason and give you a hug, or a little kiss on the nose, or just curl up by your side, stick her cold, icy feet in between your thighs and read.

A son... on the other hand.... will climb onto your lap.  Sit down.  Fart.  Laugh.  Then run away.

No one teaches them these things.  And I'm so blessed to have both.

Looking back at 2017

I love writing this post.  It gives me a chance to look back at my posts and re-live the entire year.  Looking back at 2017.... here they are... as customary, Nuuuuuuuuuuuumber 10.........

10. Snow Trip Vindication -  Back in 2015, we took Nn and Sw to Palm Springs, hoping to play in snow.  We got all our gear...we dressed up... we bought the tram tickets.  Only to find out, due to the drought, there was no snow.  When we broke the bad news to Nn... all I can remember hearing was, "Awwww......"  That knife in the heart has been pulled, but the wound is slowly healing.

9. End Times are near - Irma, Harvey, wild fires in NorCal, SoCal, earthquakes... not to mention flooding right here in San Jose (1 mile from my church).  Not to mention a full solar eclipse where the sun turned to darkness.  Not to mention re-establishing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel (oh yes... that's coming).  Jonah got Nineveh to repent, not cuz of the words he uttered, but cuz of the signs that preceded him. 

8. End Times are here...? - "Covfefe?" "Fake News?" Record breaking attendance at the Inauguration? Only to be bested by REAL record breaking attendance for March on Washington. Trial and failure to repeal ObamaCare (God bless you Senator McCain) only to see the beginnings of Reaganomics 2.0.  Members of the Cabinet rotating like a revolving door.  I still can't figure out 51% of the country.... 

7. CNY2017 - it never turns out the way you imagine.  And it never goes as bad as you would think.  But the fact of the matter is... CS attendance was highest in 2017, the day AFTER CNY Night Market.  A resounding uproar to keep this format.... but little do they know.... 

6. Ep 8 - The Last Jedi - waited 2 whole years.  And the week it comes out, the family gets hit with a stomach virus.  I famously lost 7 lbs in one day from diarrhea, and I still went out to the city to watch it with Geoff and Anderson.  In the end, it really wasn't about the movie... it was about making and keeping a promise with my best buds.

5.  Redemption - 2016 Father's Day goes down as the one of the worst ones ever.  That pain (like the pain of 2002, or the pain I still have from SB47) will never be healed.  But this one helped.  It would've helped more if we could've gone 16-0.  But that's being too selfish now, aren't we?

4.  Departure from Eden - Two months since the handover... and I love it!!!  I should've handed this over years ago!! Sometimes the biggest act of love...is learning to let go.  

3. SW lands in the ER - In 2015, Nn landing in the ER took first place.  Why does SW only get 3rd? Probably cuz I was the one who cut up NN's finger.  But it was mom who fed him that cashew? Or deep down, we knew that SW was going to be fine.... praise God for His protection. 

2. 塞翁失馬焉知非福 - 3 separate full day on-sites. Not to mention the countless phone / pre-on-site interviews.  Every time... I feel like I creamed it.  And each time, I'm met with disappointment and depression.  I still can't come to grips that there are people who don't want to hire me.  It makes me feel a bit better if I tell myself, "I'm overqualified" But there's that one side of me that says, "You're a failure."   

1. NY/DC vacation with Dad - There are too many moments in the East Coast trip that caps off 2017.  But the one moment that takes the crown of the vacation, the one moment that stands head and shoulders above all other moments has gotta be the night we land at NYC and have dinner with the Leung family.  As Dom Toretto says in Fast and Furious, "It's all about family.........."  

Onto 2018.....  

Counting down the days...

As the days, hours, minutes, seconds tick by... we slowly bid 2017 farewell.  But not before the whole family gets hit with the flu.  Since the stomach virus a couple of weeks ago, our family has been sick for one thing after another.   This week, it couldn't escape us. 

When life gives you lemon, make lemonade.  Though we've been home during the entire shutdown, we've completely made the most out of everything.

• We finished three 500 piece puzzles... on our way to completing the fourth one.
• I bought SW Lego-Star Wars on the Wii... supposedly so I can have some father/son time going through mindless missions.  Turns out Mom/SW are enjoying it more than me.
• We've eaten very light...cuz none of us have much of an appetite.
• Nn and I have read a couple of books together. 
• Nn finished her Christmas Lego set (600+ pieces!!)
• We played with some of their Christmas presents, like making slime...just to see it get all over their clothes
• We finally got basic cable TV, so Bah-B can watch some sports on TV....
• We're completely entrenched in Puzzle Fighter on the iOS

Great family bonding time.... Thank you Jesus!!! 

Mission is in my DNA

My Christian denomination since 2005 is C&MA - Christian and Missionary Alliance.   Without even realizing it, I was raised to be mission minded my entire life. 

Wednesday night was Fr. Mario Rosso's Memorial Service.  Fr. Mario (aka 朱神父) was my spiritual overseer for almost 18 years.

I thought I knew this man... but on the night of his memorial service, did I come to realize what he's done as a servant of Jesus.  Born in Italy... he left to be a missionary in China in 1938 at the ripe age of 14.  Before World War II.... he already had a heart for the missions, a heart for China.  Starting at age 14, he went to China to learn Chinese, Cantonese, Shanghainese.  Not just to speak, but to read and write.  And not just write... but write elegantly.  

As a Catholic missionary, he survived World War II.  He survived the rise of Communism, the expulsion of organized religion, and survived the trials and tribulations of being a white man in a yellow country.  

"An egg" is how he characterizes himself.  White on the outside, yellow on the inside.  Conversely, I call myself a banana... yellow on the outside, white on the inside.  

One of my most vivid memory of 朱神父, unfortunately, was when he came into the sacristy and scolded me for not being solemn enough as an altar boy.  He was so pissed... he said if I didn't change my ways, "Don't come and serve on Sundays."   I never acted up ever again....  

His Resurrection Mass was beautiful.  The first reading was from Isaiah 61:1-3.... the passage for a missionary... as the priest would describe it.  Responsorial Psalm was Psalm 23.... very fitting.  And the 2nd reading was from Philippians 1:3-11.... as it was Paul's letter to the Philippians, it was also a letter from 朱神父 to all of us.  The choir was amazing... for the most part.  And even the altar boys (or altar servers) evoked a smile on my face with their tiniest little motions of bowing and turning.  

朱神父 never had much in his life.  But he legacy he leaves behind... is more than most people can ever imagine.  Rest In Peace.... you are in a much better place now.