======= May 2008

05.01.08

iGoogle now has a Fenway Panaorama theme. How cool is that?

The office felt really strange this morning. So many new faces, from new hires, candidates, to visitors. Some one yelled out "Walk on your right guys. Damn it, this is not the UK." There is only one guy from the UK left at my company, so there wasn't much of an ambiguity there.

05.09.08

Got pulled over yesterday for missing the front license plate.  Probably costs me half a day to get it cleared.  Oh, well...

I've been actively recruiting for my company.  Hitting up professors at MIT, USC, and Caltech for recommendations.  Hopefully we'll get a couple good ones.

05.29.08

Just got back to work today since last Friday.  Stu and Maria visited for three days, and I took Tue and Wed off to stay home with the family.  We spent Saturday in Napa and had a great time.  Good food, great wine, and the best of friends always make me happy.  Sunday, we went to Monterey.  It was a little cloudy and windy, nevertheless the trip was pleasant.

A longtime friend back from highschool was in town for business, and our highschool circle of friends had a sort of reunion dinner.  It's been 20 years.

======= June 2008

06.01.08

I somehow ended up at home with Zoey by myself for about 1 hour.  I took her out for a little walk.  She always has a curious borderline intense look on her face whenever we go somewhere new.  It was fun to watch.

We'll put her on bottles next week to prepare for Ha getting back to work next month.  It's going to be fun .....

06.12.08

I kept the car in pristine condition for two and a half years.  Then within a span of two days I put a 6 inch gash on the door, courtesy of a wheel barrel handle, and messed up the front alloy wheel by jumping a curb.  It's both maddening and embarrassing.

On the other hand, Zoey's transition to bottles has been very smooth.  She feeds about twice as much, sleeps better at night, and laughs more when she's awake.  Needless to say, everyone is happy.  Her smile is so bright and sweet, it's hard for me to leave for work every morning.

06.16.08

The weekend was fun.  We took Zoey to dimsum with a friend on Saturday and to Costco on Sunday.  She's been more and more adorable every day if that's possible.  Couldn't wait till she can talk and run around.

A few weeks ago, I got a ticket for missing the front license plate.  I finally got around to put it on over the weekend.  Conveniently enough, the cops were out in force this morning to catch stop sign runners around the corner of my house.  I made sure that I made a complete and legal stop at the stop sign, then pulled over and walked over to the cop.  He gave me this look of "what the hell are you doing here, I didn't pull you over".  So I just politely said "I had this fix-it ticket for missing the front license plate, could you sign it off for me?"  He gave me a smile and signed it.  I love cops ...  I plan to take the front plate off again though.

Well, I doubt the Lakers have any chances after going down 3-1 in the final, but it's fun to trash talk with the guys over in Boston anyway.

Speaking of Boston, I have a Redsox cap on the back windshield of the car.  This morning, I saw an SUV with a "REDSOOX" California vanity plate on the way to work (Take that, Hank!).  I pulled up and waved at the guy.  Not sure what I would do if it were a woman driving that car.  On the other hand, maybe I should not have waved at the guy, I live in California after all.

06.21.08

The outside thermometer on my car read 105F on my way home from work today.  I don't remember seeing triple digit reading on my car since I bought it almost 3 years ago.

I was in the lab most of the day, helping the guys assembling test boards.  It took me a while before getting in the soldering groove.  Soldering regular through holes on a multilayer quarter inch thick board is not easy.

06.23.08

Zoey has a tendency to sudden move her arms and legs when she sleeps, especially when we put her in the crib.  Lately, I've let her sleep on her tummy on top of me.  She seems to sleep better that way.  Not sure if I'll spoil her doing that but I think I'll keep doing that from now on.

06.24.08

There was a leak in my water filter system for a few weeks.  It was one of those leak that I could soak it up with a large towel every other day and wouldn't do much damage except it bothered the heck out of me.  Anyhow, I was fed up with it and decided to fix it over the weekend.  I used a large pipe wrench for the job.  At one point when I was searching for the best leverage to put my whole strength into turning a pipe.  Right the split second when I applied the most force, it hit me that I had picked a very bad position to exert the force because if the wrench slipped I would hurt myself really bad.  My next thought immediately turned toward how I would be hurt.  That was when it happened, the wrench slipped.  I planted my right cheek squarely onto the kitchen counter top.  A light bulb went off in my head "ah ha, that's how I would hurt myself."  Luckily, I had enough braincells to ease off my muscles during this whole process (which lasted about 1 second) that my cheek was only a little numb for the last 24 hours.

Well, the above story is a tribute to George Carlin, my favorite comedian of all time.

======= July 2008

07.08.08

Ha gets back to work today, so I had to drop Zoey off to her grandma this morning.  She has a little fever from the vaccines yesterday.  To make the timing even better, we have a heatwave over much of the Bay Area for the whole week.

(I can hear Adrian screams: It's a 100 elephants!!!!!!!!)

On the positive note, Zoey is at 95% tile in both weight and height.  "She's a big fat girl", said the doc, "... in a good way."

We are glad you clear that out doc!

07.22.08

Our back yard work is almost completed.  It looks so nice already.  I am taking a week off next week to clean up the garage then it's time for some b.b.q.  Well, our anniversary, Zoey's five month, and my birthday are all coming up.

======= August 2008

08.15.08

Time really flies, it has been almost a month since I last blogged.  Zoey is growing up nicely, although never big and tall enough for her mom liking.  For anyone who has been around her or seen her photos, the first remark has always been "she smiles a lot."  She has all the love and care from our families that every parent wish for, but really, her smile is so bright that you just have to drop whatever you do to play with her.

Rory visited for a few days a couple weeks ago.  It was great to see him.  The poor guy had to spend half a day on my roof to clean out the gutters.

Don't work too hard Rory.

We were already running late for a dimsum date with a couple friends, when Zoey  pooped in the car.  So as we pulled in the parking lot of the restaurant, I called my friends.

me: Hey, we are here in the parking lot, but Zoey just pooped so we have to change her diaper first, go ahead and we'll be right in.

ha: do you really have to say "poop" to the people who are about to have breakfast?

We had another bbq over the weekend, with people from work and the mit crowd.  It was a lot of fun.  We always go out of our way to be a good host.  It felt great that everyone had a good time and were really appreciative.  But throwing parties are getting harder now that we have Zoey. 

This morning while Zoey was lying half asleep and half awake, I noticed some ear wax in her ear.  I couldn't resist the temptation to clean it for her, although I knew doing that would probably wake her up cranky.  Anyhow, as I was cleaning it, she kept twisting and turning irritatingly to dislodge the Q-tip.  After a while, she finally woke up.  I was fully expected her to be in a cranky mood.   Who would have known, as soon as she opened her eyes, she gave me the brightest and sweetest smile ever.  Could not ask for anything more.