Planting

And more pics of the backyard. Blogger is flaky with photo placements. Hence the break. Notice the fruit "trees" recently bought from Lowe's in Pleasanton. We have hopes of having our own cherries and plums before too long.

Yesterday was a bit of a surprise. The rains came back. As I was driving into Berkeley approaching Caldecott Tunnel on CA 24, the first drops fell and by the time I reached Nic's apartment, it was drenching everyone in sight. The heaviest I have ever seen in California. Could have been one of the afternoon downpour in Singapore.

We went to pick up some of those Beard Papa's, touted to be the world's best cream puffs. Not cheap at all for just cream puffs. At $2.25 a piece, I could never bring myself to buy them. But then Lay Keow had asked Nic to get them for her and bring them to San Ramon, assuming Nic would show for her dental. But with mid-terms at their peak, I could not bring myself to drag her from her books so I went to her instead. Picked up some for Nik as well since Nik has always been generous to a fault, 6 for the exam-stressed one and 6 for the half man (maybe three quarter, depending on the maturity of his behavior). Cheaper to buy by the half dozen. But still cost me a small fortune. We spent quite a bit of time in the little shop because they did not have the coffee and had run out of chocolate flavors and I had to spend time explaining to LK on the phone and offering the limited choices available. All were sold out except Vanilla Beans and Cookie Crunch, vanilla or caramel.

Lay Keow was so sweet. Wrote a real emo thank you email. And Nik who was expecting her mahjong kakis did not even notice it was me at her door at 7:30 pm with a box of cream puffs. She opened the door, mutter somethings, went to her kitchen talking to herself and left me at the door with the box. I had to follow her and called her by name before she realized it was me. I could have been the chain saw murderer and she won't have been any the wiser. She thought she needed only two puffs but one look at them, and she accepted the whole box :).

Had one of them Beard Papa's at night. They are good! But at that kind of price, I think I need only try them once. Thank you very much.

After the heavy rains, today turned out to be just beautiful. The sun is out. Flowers are blooming everywhere. Spring is definitely around the corner. Took some pictures with the camcorder.

But here are some from our own little backyard.

Taxing Times

Wah, income tax is very painful to do. One would think that it gets easier as the years go by because of familiarity and past documentation. But each year seems to be just as much work as the previous. Principally because one has to track every single piece of document that is necessary for what may be no more than a single line item in the final income tax form. And having "foreign" bank accounts even if the amount of interest is miniscule just adds to the complexity especially since Singapore banks don't issue interest statements. One literally has to download and keep every single month's bank statement for eSavers accounts and then use a spreadsheet to track and add up the monthly interest payment. Not even enough to pay me for the time but never mind, you need to report so there is no suspicion of money laundering.

And as I do this year's tax questionnaire, it dawns on me that my previous years' submissions must have been confusing to the tax accountants here because my Singapore mind interpretes the terms that mean totally different things to the Americans. A home equity loan is not your house mortgage. It could be your renovation loan or what they call a HELOC, a second loan like what I am being provided by the company. HELOCs are popular here but until two months ago, I had no concept of a HELOC. Sounded so strange to my ears. And so in my naivete, I replied in prior years to Yes, I have Home Equity Loans when all I had was a home mortgage loan. I wonder if the tax accountants had done my taxes right.

Ah America! Too many flavors of financial instruments, too many choices. No wonder Wall Street pays out such great bonuses.

And so passes this wet Sunday. As the rain pelts down on the Bay Area, I squint over my computer screen and pour through all the forms and receipts and statements that I have been faithfully scanning, downloading and collating into neat little folders on my laptop hard disk. Tax filing is a year long affair in US of A.

Mehmet on Meditation

This is especially for my children.



Meditation is a-religious. It is healthy and can prolong your life and has no religious bearing of any kind. Try it. It works.

Fresh Flowers

Walked to CVS in Market Place from the house. Getting out of the house, for a moment, I was tempted to turn back to the safety of the house. The wind and gray clouds did not seem welcoming. Shrugging off the thought, I ploughed on. It turned out to be just a wonderful walk. Fresh air, beautiful blooms, Bose headset playing my favorites, what could be better? San Ramon is like the perfect suburb. I passed hardly anyone and the cars give way to you, the pedestrain and drivers wave to you in the neighborhood.

Took my time browsing the shelves at CVS and finally left with my eye lubricating drops and night gels. This lasik thing is giving me pretty dry eyes.

I was wrong about struggling blooms. The cherry blossoms are out in force. The trees that bare white blossoms are heavy with them. You can barely see any branches through the white flowers. Just a heavy cloud of white starting a few feet from the ground where the truck emerge from the earth. And the pink blossoms - just the beauties. Spring is truly on the way. Every year, I continue to be amaze at the beautiful sights. How I wish my far flung families could all be here so we can experience this together. Maybe some day...

Wrinkles

Spring is but a month away and you can already see the buds on the trees and the uncountable numbers of tiny white blossoms on the plum tree that sits squarely on the lawn in front of our main door. Beautiful. Glad that tree will stay. It was at mortal risk from sitting squarely in front of our main door.

The furniture and stuff from the warehouse in Singapore arrived yesterday. The large sofa set that cost a small fortune when we bought it for Li Hwan was at the living room when I came home from work. Large wrinkles criss cross the expanse of the seats - reminds one of a new born babe. Let's hope like a new born babe, the wrinkles will gradually give way to smooth soft skin.

So we switched it around. Now the Nautilius 3-seater from Macy's and the rosewood seats and side table face the beautiful fireplace in the living room and the Nautilius from Li Hwan is in the family room. I am still trying to get used to the black leather. It jars with my memory of the beautiful unique dark maroon that graced the living room of Li Hwan. After a while, the wrinkles don't look so bad. Maybe it is growing familiar.

I know I should be out there walking. Need the exercise. Enjoy the crisp air of late winter and admire the struggling buds of the cherry blossoms.

Fascinating

Interesting documentary series from Honda. Here is one on robots.

CNY2010

To all my family near and far, Happy New Year! May the Year of the Tiger bring you lots of courage, power to change your lives to reach greater heights, and good health. Tiger years are notoriously eventful so I wish you all the wisdom to make good decisions and the foresight to take the right paths for yourselves.

Live long and prosper!

BYY Birthday

Happy Birthday, BYY. May this be the year all your wishes come true and happiness is your constant companion.

LLL2

Oh and I failed to mention that yesterday's science lecture was very interesting. About space and searching for planets. By a cute Canadian born researcher graduated from Western Ontario and doctorate from the US who was quite witty (with a very shiny pate - bald at such a young age, poor thing) and a very clever young lady with a very very impressive string of credentials. Top MIT engineering graduate, Rhodes scholar to Oxford where she did her masters and PhD from UC Davis where her doctoral thesis won the prize for being most innovative. Or something like that. He is a astronomy expert and she does adaptive optics.

The half man thought it was better than last week's lecture. In a way, I think he is right but that may be because space always intrigued. Super bugs which are always trying to kill you are a little less attractive than mystical space where the search for another Earth which may have life similar to ours always pulls at the imagination.

And by the by, LLL podcasts are on iTunes although not the Science on Saturday lectures :(.

Blood

And I touched the part of the head that hurts and my fingers are red. Searched through my scalp in the mirror and yes, that hidden among the thinning hair streaked with some grey, a small angry spot just above the temple and my birth mark. It could have been worse. The sharp pointy end could have pierced my delicate birth mark and obliterated the right side of my temple. I am being melodramatic. I will survive this as I have survived an etopic, a mitral valve prolapse, an appendicitis, the half man's birth that nearly bled me to death and myriad other adventures. Or rather mis-adventures.

Life goes on.

Pain

A little breather. Before launching into heavy lifting. Today is Roomba's rest day. Muscles will take over. Not that he has worked that hard. All week long, he has sat at the base station waiting patiently with the green light signalling he is ready to go if pressed. That last word is a pun in case you didnt get it.

Tried to take a peek at the top of my built in wardrobe to see if it was dusty and needed some cleaning. Instead crashed my head into the beautiful designer wall lights above the built in granite counter top dressing table and it hurts like the be-... Fill in the blanks here. The pointy end nearly stabbed into my temple as I was clambering up. Apologized to the beauty and felt to see if mayhaps I had dislodged it. Now my head is taking its revenge on me. Ouch.

Time to start.