29 March 2009

Went to church this morning and as I look at the congregation and get used to the loud music they play, I am beginning to feel "at home" at FCC. Worship was splendid and the message today is about being overloaded and overworked and talking about finances and how we manage it in these difficult times.

The gist of the message is this:

1. We must trust God for courage to face our problems (Ecc 7:14)
2. We must have wisdom to plan our spending (James 1:5). And how do we do that? We have to:

• prioritize our needs and goals
• prepare a workable plan
• practice keeping good records

3. We must trust God to give of our tithes (Lev 27:30)
4. We must reduce our debt and increase our savings (Prov 22:7) - Fundamentally, one should live by the 10-10-80 formula which is, 10% of your salary goes to GOD, 10% for savings and 80% to live off ie. fixed expenses, hobbies etc
5. We must trust God to have time to check our heart (Matt 6:21)

Well, I am sure this message brought home to many who's in some form of financial crisis one way or the other. And if you are one of them, I hope that you'll find Pastor Bill's message appropriate and will use it as a tool towards the future of your financial freedom.

After church, we came home to fetch Sam to her youth service which is at 11am. Then, Ed cooked kung pao frog legs for me (my favorite dish) and broccoli and I had 2 plates of rice for lunch. The food was so yummy, thank you dear.

In the midst of Ed's cooking, he saw a butterfly that was struggling in our swimming pool. Yeah, 1st the birds, then the mass suicide worms (I totally forgot to mention that), then the mallards, frog and now butterfly. Hmmm.. our pool sure attracts all kinds of species doesn't it?

So, I went outside to help it out by scooping it with the net. Then, I allowed it to rest on the palm of my hand. Told Ed to go get the camera but he was too busy cooking so, with the butterfly resting on my palm for its wings to dry, I went back into the house, went upstairs to retrieve the camera and Ed took a shot of it. And all these time, it was still resting on the palm of my hand. How cool is that? It didn't attempt to fly away although I assumed its wings was dry enough already. Once the photo was taken, I transferred it to the flower and oh, what a beautiful sight it is that the butterfly is once again, in an environment where it can feel safe and flutter away when it's all ready to spread its wings again. Ed says this is a monarch butterfly but I think it's not. Anyone out there who's a butterfly enthusiast that can attest to it based on the pictures below? Well, if you know.... let me know by placing a comment. Thanks.

Here's the pic:

28 March 2009

It was bowling league day again at Homestead. Sam didn't have quite a good start with a 150 score but she picked herself up, learn from her 1st game mistakes and went on to hit 196 and 195 for an average of 180 today. See, what I mean Sam when I say, you've learnt and that's all that matters.

After bowling, we went to Gulzaar for our lunch and we had the chicken samosa, chicken briyani rice, jebneh (like pizza with cheese) and rice pudding and baklava for desert. The food here is excellent and the briyani rice is one of the "best-est" I've ever had.

Then, we went to Fry's Electronics at Sunnyvale to look for Sam's birthday present. She wanted an ear bud headset for her MP4 and MP3 players and after browsing rows after rows of headsets and skull candy, we finally decided upon a Sony for $39.99. Well, this one is quite "canggih" as it has noise canceling although we're not sure if it's a good idea when she sticks one of these into her ears to tune us off when we are in a nagging mood, hahaha.

As for me, I bought her 2 Nancy Drew games (Haunting of Adventure & The Legend of Adventure) as her birthday present. Hope she'll enjoy solving all the mysteries but gotta remember that studies still comes 1st ya, Sam. I know you'll make a good decision and I trust you *winks*.

After Fry's, went on to Costco and bought all the stuff on my shopping list. The car was filled to the brim in the trunk and the back seat. If you all don't know what Costco is, this is a place where you buy stuff in wholesale quantity (just like our Cosmart in Penang). I had 19 items to buy but came home with 28 items. Hmmmm... talk about consumerism... this epitomizes it, hahaha. Well, I call that distraction and itchy fingers coz as we browse, we pick things up without realizing. Guess how much was the bill????

27 March 2009

Went to the club super early today. Arrived at 8am coz Emily said she would like to stroke with me at 8.30am. Although court was booked for 9am, I told her that if there's no indoor courts available, we will go to the outdoor courts coz it's a beautiful day. But, at 7.54am, she called to say that she'll be super late coz her son, Christopher is still sleeping and she couldn't get him to wake up. I told her it's ok, take her time and I'll be there.

As there was no indoor court when I arrived at 8am, I went outdoor to practice my serves and hit on the backboard hoping to get warmed up. By 8.30am, I went back in coz I figured I better let Yodi and Christine know that I am outside in case Emily shows up and she doesn't know where I am. So, I sit down and drank some water and then Cecile came in and we all decided to play doubles against Yodi/Christine. We won 6-4 and by then, it was 9.05am and still, no sign of Emily. Colleen came in with her left thumb all bandaged up coz she cut herself and had stitches on it. I told her she better not play at all. So, she volleyed with Xiao Lu while I stroked with Ritu from the baseline. Then, I hit Colleen on the back of her head and both Ritu and I decided that it's better for us to go play on another court to avoid any further injuries to anyone coz it's not like we can control our shots very well, hahaha. I then played singles with Ritu and was just going on to deuce when Jaya called out to inform us that their doubles group is done with 1 set of match play so, it's time to rotate. I told Ritu she should go play with them coz she needs the practice as she has a match on Sat. Then, Jaya came by and stroked singles with me and when Jennifer came for her ball machine practice at 10am on court 13, Jaya and me moved back to court 12 and I continued to stroke with Xiao Lu until 10.30am and then went home.

Fetch Sam from school and went home for lunch and then head out to Homestead for Sam's bowling lessons with Ty. Explained to Ty what Sam did that was wrong at Pepsi tournament and Ty understood and said he will correct her accordingly. Sam didn't look too happy when I was telling Ty about how her bowling went awry. Sigh... that's the price I have to pay to be the "bad" mom to be the "tell-it-all". Well, Sam, if you're reading this, I was doing that for your own good. It's ok not to win or play good (we all good and bad days) but, what's important is what we have learnt from bowling bad on a given day. And if you learn from it, the losss will be all the more worthwhile.

Sigh, the philosophy of life is hard to learn isn't it? Well, it's the same for all of us... That's called life's lesson and we will all go through it regardless of whether we like it or not....

26 March 2009

I went out to service my car today at Magnussen's Lexus at Fremont. Morning breakfast was rushed coz everyone came down late and I left the house at 7.45am but thank goodness, traffic wasn't bad coz I managed to arrive on time for my appointment at 8.30am. Asked the service personnel if my car can be done by 10.30am and she said, "no problem." I then went to the Business Center and started to reply my emails and they finally was done by 10.34am which means, I was LATE for lessons with Larry which was supposed to be at 10.30am. I hate it when I am late coz my mind is not focus and everything's a blur. Today, Larry had his computer and camera on and he's going to take a shot of our serves and show us where our flaws are and correct us from there. When it came to my turn, I was nervous coz being assessed is not something I look forward to although I know it'll be for my own good. Also, what happens if I look like a clown when I serve? Oh dear....But I took it all in and tried to relax as the camera captured the serve and Larry showed it to me. Actually, if I may say so myself, I do look like I served pretty well (perasan case, hahaha) with a very high propelling kickback as high as my right shoulder on my right leg. Wilson commented that it must be due to some kung fu fighting background I may have and told me that in future, he will stay clear of my path whenever I serve, hahaha. Anyway, Larry corrected my swing coz he said that I am waiting too long for the ball toss to drop thus, losing momentum and oomph when I finally hit it. Well, as usual, with change, the service game was tough when we finally had match play and I didn't play well coz my mind was still focused on the serve and how to do it correctly. Class was done by 12pm and I vowed to come by early on Friday morning to practice my new serve before I play with the Friday's group of ladies. Will see how it goes... I can betcha the serve's going to go awry b4 it helps, sigh....

Came home, cooked lunch, fetch Sam from school and then tried to figure out how to instal the Acronis Back up software for my computer and laptop coz the Conficker Worm C which was supposed to infect all the PCs on 1 April sounds scary and I am not taking chances esp when I have gone through the pains of starting from scratch when Sam's laptop crashed on her recently. Then, watched American Idol with Ed which saw Michael Sarver being eliminated....

25 March 2009

Sam had her 3rd dose of Gardasil jab today at Evergreen Pediatrics. Gardasil is another name for HPV. After sending Sam to school, I went to Lion Market and bought groceries. Today am trying to cook beef with ginger. That's a new dish for me coz I've always cooked black pepper beef so, for a change, or well, worth giving it a shot. The dish turned out well and although I couldn't find the Korean lean beef, the sirloin top cut came out just as well, if not better.

After cooking, went out and fetch Sam from school and took her to Homestead Lanes for her bowling practice. Today, the focus was on not twisting her wrist when she releases the ball and she had some extra tutoring from Don Paulson, the resident Homestead coach with regards how to plot her targets etc.

Guess today is an uneventful day as everything went well. Weather's warming up though and I am kinda sad coz I loved the cold and the thought of seeing the hills turn brown again in spring and summer is something I don't look forward to. Ah, but God always have a better plan, as always. HIS ways are higher than my ways....

24 March 2009

I had a free day without tennis today. Was good to just sit around, read and reply my emails. And whenever I do that, I get carried away and can't seem to get my butt off the chair. I procrastinated with washing the bathroom today and as the clock ticked away, my mind was still active on the computer and I kept saying to myself, "one more hour" and that dragged on till 1pm when I could finally "released" myself and go wash the bathroom. And as a result, I didn't cook lunch coz got lazy but the main reason was I didn't go out and buy groceries so, there wasn't anything to cook, hahaha. Cleaning the bathroom took longer than expected and I didn't finish till 2.45pm. By then, I was running late to go out and fetch Sam at 3.15pm (she said she wanted to stay back to do her Bio corrections which will carry 1/2 credits) and texted her that I will be there at 3.30pm. Turned out to be 3.53pm by the time I reached her school. She decided not to go bowling coz she wants to go home and do her Math revision as she has a test tomorrow. So, we went out for a nice noodle lunch at Pho Tau Bay and then I went out to buy water, pump gas b4 going home. By the time we reached home, it was 5.15pm. At night, we all just ate leftovers from previous day.

Yawn...boring day... but was somewhat productive with the emails etc....

23 March 2009

First, we have the birds. Then, we have the mallards. Now, it is a frog swimming in my pool. Maybe mother nature is trying to tell me something. Perhaps I should convert my pool into a pond!

This little froggy must've fallen inside by accident coz it's been in there for 2 days swimming breast stroke from one end to the other. I wonder if it ever gets tired and die from exhaustion. We shall see what happens. I think Kevin, our pool maintenance guy will probably help it out and set it free again tomorrow whe he comes to clean the pool.

Today is housekeeping day again but I promised Emily to go play ball machine with her at 9am so, I went. I also committed to practicing with the 3.0 team which I've just signed up for with CH Shek's group. Ball machine practice was ok. Emily was kinda teethering on being sick coz she's got a bad sore throat. Let's pray with some exercise and sweat, she'll feel better. I had a good time hitting the ball as hard as I could and it feels good. Now that I am nicely warmed up, I moved on to play with the 3.0 ladies. They were Sylvia, Elizabeth and Xiao Lu.

First, I partnered with Sylvia and we won 6-2. Then, I partnered with Xiao Lu and won 6-2. Finally, partnered with Elizabeth and won by the skin of our teeth. It was an interesting last game as we traded lots of shots and ran all over the court. But I was dead tired and was hoping to close out the match while we were leading 5-4 with Elizabeth serving. But they broke back and we leveled at 5-5 before we broke Sylvia's serve to go up 6-5 and holding my own and win it 7-5. It was exhausting by the time I was through with 3 sets of tennis.

Coming home to face housekeeping, oh my gosh, it's a grim day..... and a long grim day..... what more can I say, sigh.....

22 March 2009

Today is Pepsi Qualifying at Diablo Lanes in Concord. We knew that the lanes would be difficult to handle coz it's been notoriously known for that and every pro hates that place. We made an effort to go try out the lanes on Friday to check it out and true enough, it was a horrible practice so, we kinda set our hearts out that we wouldn't expect too much today when Sam actually go play on it.

Match was at 3pm and we arrived at about 1.45pm and had time to go check-in and get our lane assignments. Sam was on lane #33/34. Guess what? She's the only girl in that pair of lanes with 7 boys surrounding her *raised eyebrows*. During warm-ups, one is only allowed 2 throws per lane. Not a very good start I would say coz knowing Sam, she takes a lot of practice throws to warm herself up. 2ndly, no coaching allowed. So, we told her to just go do her best and leave the rest to God.

During warm-ups, she had 2 strikes and she also practised 2 pin 10 spares. But when the game started, I guess it's nerves and she started twisting upon release causing the ball to go way Brooklyn. She missed many spares in that game coz she panicked and didn't realized that it's her twisting that's causing the ball to go awry. She thought it was the lane conditions that's dry. So, after every 3 frames or so, she will change her ball. When we saw her doing that, we knew she was in trouble coz obviously, she's not thinking and not looking at how the ball react. As a result, disastrous opener at 129 pinfalls. In the second game, same scenario except she's twisting less but the habit of wanting to control the ball kicked in so, that leaves her with lots of sparing that's undone and came in 159. Obviously, hope has ran out the door coz the qualifying cut off is 606 pinfalls with handicap. Even if she gets a 300 perfect game in her 3rd, she won't be able to cover (her handicap points was 126). In the 3rd, she bowled much better. Missed 2 spares and came in 188. After the game, she came running to me, hugged me and cried saying, "I've never bowled so badly." She was right, since coming here in July 2008 until now, her game has never reached below 160. So, I told her, it's ok, it's a bad day and she needs to look to the future and not look back at what's done and cannot be undone anymore. Driving home after the tournament was a quiet and grim affair as all of us are disappointed. Not so much in not getting into the state finals or having low scores but because she didn't learn from past mistakes. Well, it's back to the drawing board for Sam coming Friday and hoped that Ty will be able to fine tune her again to her bowling best. Good luck Sam...

21 March 2009

Sam had a horrible day at bowling today. Scores - 168, 180, 150. Average 166. Ouch! that hurts! She tried to loop the ball but came out short. Tried talking to her that this is not the right pattern to loop when the lanes are so dry but would she listen? No. But thank goodness for Marty being around coz he taught Sam how to overcome the lanes and she picked up her score in the 2nd but fell short again in the 3rd. Well, can't do well all the time. This is a bad day at bowling for sure! Just hope it won't carry forward to tomorrow when she goes for Pepsi.

Send Sam home with Burger King for lunch while Ed and me went out for Thai Food at Thai Elephant at Lexann Avenue. Food was not too bad and I had tamarind fish while Ed had pad ee-mow. Don't ask me what that is but it's basically noodles fried with meat, basil and bean sprouts. It actually was quite nice and spicy enough. U shud have seen Ed sweating away after he was done with his meal. It was that spicy! After that, wash it all down with pulut mango rice. That was yummy and costs $26 with tips.

Tonight, Sam will be watching Les Miserables with her friends and the venue's at VCS. It will be from 7.30-11pm tonight. So, it'll be a long night for us too...

20 March 2009

I had tennis lessons with Dan today. There was just the 2 of us ie. Taemi and me. Incidentally, Taemi is a wonderful friend and she's from Indonesia. Close enough to home, hahaha. Today, we worked on positioning of our volleys and how we should hit to the doubles alley out wide. He also corrected my serves. At the tailend of our lesson, he made both of us play a singles match and I am most happy to report that I won it 4-0. I think I was just lucky coz all the difficult wide shots I tried today landed in the singles side line. So, ya, today's a good day at tennis.

Ed's on annual leave today. Had to take compulsory 5 days off this quarter. So, today's the 1st of the 5. He cooked lunch for me (fried rice) and we went to fetch Sam from school at 2.35pm and then, straight off to Concord (about 1 hour's drive away) to Diablo Bowl for Sam's bowling practice. Traffic on a Friday afternoon was bad and it took us about 1h15m to reach. Thank goodness for certain stretches that had carpool lanes which we could take so, that did help to cut off the traveling jam. We arrived at Diablo at 4pm and Sam bowled 5 games. Lane was horrible, as usual. Diablo's notorious for having difficult lanes but she tried all her balls to find out which one would be best suited for that lane condition that day. Natalia, one of the bowlers from Diablo came over to say "hi" to Sam and she, too, complained about the lane conditions altho she said her lanes was oily but Sam's complain was that the lane was dry mostly and oil patchy at certain spots. Well, we shall see how she copes with the lane conditions for Pepsi's tournament this coming Sun, 3/22. Hope she will be able to adapt quickly and praying hard that she will do well there.

After practice session was over at 5.45pm, we went for dinner at Mountain View and had a nice Italian dinner consisting of vongole starter, minestrone soup, pasta and fillet mignon steak and finished off with tiramisu and cheese cake. That came to $120 total for the 3 of us. Food at Don Giovanni has always been good but more on the high side. What do you expect. This is Mountain View man! Prices hiked up due to all the rich Chinese living there. After dinner, Sam and Ed had gelato. For me, I passed coz too full to eat anything else. Tonight was fun and we all enjoyed ourselves very much. Thanks too to Ed for driving to and from Diablo and what a perfect end to a day with such a nice dinner. Love you Ed.

19 March 2009

Today is quite uneventful but I love it coz it's been so restful. I hardly have the opportunity to just sit back and do what I want. I had the privilege of catching up on my reading of my Tennis Magazine which is like 2 months late. Did you all know that Roger Federer's gonna be a daddy soon this summer? Congrats to him altho I don't quite agree with how he approaches this issue about not being married 1st. But then again, who am I to judge. I am not GOD, sigh....

I cooked beef ball soup with tang hoon today and guess what? The stupid tang hoon soaked up all my soup although I did soak it from 8am until about 12.30pm when I started cooking. Aiyah, the tang hoon here not good quality lah.... In the evening, had to cook the stock all over again.... What a TWOT! When you have nothing else to report but tang hoon, it shows that I have had a relaxing day, hahaha! Yippee, yabba dabba doo!

18 March 2009

"OK, Houston, we have a mallard of a problem." Guess what? This morning, we heard duck quacks (again?) and I always thought they were afraid of lights or human beings coz I turned on the floodlight at 6.47am and they weren't the least perturbed by it. Then I ran outside and they were playing with me as I ran to one corner and they swam to the other corner. Argghhhhh.... Here's what they look like. I really ought to seriously consider going out to buy a gun and have them for dinner, hahaha, just kidding.

If they only swim in there, I am ok with it but they leave such a mess after them that it bugs the heck out of me and poor Kevin, my pool maintenance guy, he's having a hard time cleaning up after them week after week. I just have to make sure this pool is sanitized before summer comes along and we swim in it.

And interestingly enough, I went to google on how to get rid of mallards in swimming pool and there's actually answers in there. Looks like this is a common problem. So, I guess I'll know what to do this weekend. Pay a visit to Leslie's Pool Supply and spend some $$ and get some kind of contraption to scare the ducks away. Sigh, I have never ending problems don't I? Well, life's a learning process they say. How true.... How true....

17 March 2009

I went to play ball machine with Emily this morning at 9.30am and it was fun to be able to hit the ball with all my might and strength and not worry that it goes out. This is what I call real tennis. In doubles, somehow, there's always less oomph. At least in singles, I get to do a lot of running and it's a good workout but in playing doubles, I hardly break a sweat. Hmmm.. maybe it's time to switch but am too scared lah, in case my stamina runs out b4 I am done with my game, hahaha!

After the ball machine ended at 10.30am, hit a little with Cuong as he was waiting for his partner, Shawn to come and play. Shawn was obviously late and didn't show till 11.15am. So, I had a good hit with Cuong and was proud that there were a couple of winners I hit that was incredible but I guessed by then, I am all nice and warmed up and the feet was moving and the shots more penetrating.

Went to Lion Market for my weekly grocery shopping. Total damage today is $36.29. Not too bad for a week's worth of food that I can cook for the family. If I don't convert, it's actually cheaper than in Malaysia, dollar for dollar.

As I was driving home, just remembered that Sam can't go for bowling practice today as her balls are in Ed's car. So, I texted her and told her about it and came home and cooked lunch and fetch her from school. I shall have a nice and relaxing afternoon at home, yipee! And finally, can reply some emails coz the whole of last week, I have not been sitting for the longest time in front of this idiot box. Frankly, don't know where all my time went.... Ahhh... can now smell the roses, so to speak.

16 March 2009

Was hoping to hear a quack and got my camera all ready to take a snapshot of those stupid idiotic ducks to post them on my blog and guess what? They decide not to show up. I think it's because it's a weekday and they have taken the week off and will only make a comeback on weekends. Either way, I hate them for dirtying my pool.

Today is housekeeping day again. Man! how the week have gone by so fast. It felt like I did housekeeping not too long ago and today, it's due again. Told myself that I should take it slow today coz I don't want to tire myself out as I have a singles practice tonight with Hoai from 6-7pm. I decided to take a shortcut to my housekeeping and not wipe all the furniture but ended up, I still house cleaned from 8am till 4.30pm. I guess there's never going to be a shortcut in my life. What a drag....

Took my bath at 4.30pm after cleaning my bathroom, changed and sped off to CSF at 5.10pm. Arrived at 5.45pm and ate a K Bar (energy bar) to refuel and met Hoai at 6pm sharp. She's a good 4.0 player and this is my 1st time playing singles. Am sure I am not going to be good but hey, that's what I am there for. To get a beating and learn something from it. So, we played and it was most challenging as she made me run all over the court. Whenever I go up, I get lobbed (not surprised coz I am so short and that's probably the most popular shot for people who play against me) and lost 2 points there. I eventually lost to her 3-7 but I take comfort that my serve was good, tho not penetrating. Most of our games went to deuces and we only played 1 set and it took us a whole hour to finish. She was tired out by then and I was dead too. But she definitely won it hands down with a wealth of experience behind her as she could find the loophole while I couldn't. Guess I'll have to take more beating before I learn some more. Her feedback to me at the end of the set was, I should mix up my shots coz after a while, I became too predictable. OK, point taken Hoai and I will do that the next time. But for now, back to drawing board to sharpen those skills (or lack of) hahaha.

15 March 2009

Again, I was awoken by duck calls at 6.45am. I ran downstairs and chased them out of the pool but too late, they already poop in there. I really should go out and buy a gun to shoot them down. Hubby says they are creatures of habit and our pool is probably one of their transit stops during their migration process.

Well, spring is definitely in the air as more pseudo cherry blossom trees are in full bloom in pink and white. And the rain has stopped, sob! sob! Temperature is definitely soaring during the day as it breaks into the 70'sF today. Sam and Ed are already wearing their spring jackets but I am still holding on to my winter jacket and still wearing my fleece socks. I love to be warm and comfortable and not try to be a hero (or heroine, in my case).

Today is D day as I play my 2nd match in the mixed 7.0 league. Our opponent today is CSP (Club Sport Pleasanton) and guess what? I have been placed to play 1st line which means, I play with the opponent's best pair and that scare the heck out of me. I am all nerves but trying not to let it show.

I went to church in the morning from 9-11am and Ed fetched Sam to her Travel League bowling tournament in Dublin at 9.45am. This is Sam's 1st bowling tournament I have missed coz I have a tennis match at 4pm and won't be able to come back on time if I had followed her. So, I will miss her bowling but will be with her in mind and soul and thank goodness for text messaging, hahaha where I can get updated on her scores. She did well today, scoring an average of 191 with scorelines of 160, 163, 192, 221, 234 and 177. She won 4 out of her 6 match play so, that's good for their team. Great job Sam and I am so proud that she held up altho she didn't have a good start. But she buckled up and woke up after that....

As for me, I reached CSF at 3.10pm and got myself all ready to warm up with Shawn. When I was warming up, I didn't feel comfortable and couldn't hit the ball clean like I used to. The feet wasn't moving very well and all my smashes was way out of the court, ugh! My serves was the only thing that worked but the FH and BH during warm-ups was horrendous. I told myself that it's too early to tell coz I still have 45 mins to warm up and maybe, I'll get better. But, trust me, it didn't get better. At 4.15pm, we started our match. Our opponent was Kevin a 3.0 player and his partner was Kathy, a 4.0 player. My partner was Trent. It's never fun playing with him coz he's very vocal and I hate it but I try not to let anything affect my concentration. And that Kevin is a real A_ _hole as he wins points by hitting the ball flat at volley position at ME, his target of the day. When he did that the 1st time, my 1st reaction was to duck coz I definitely don't want to be killed on the tennis court. Subsequently, he still did that a couple of times but all his shots sailed out coz he hit it so dang hard.... Serve him right! At one point, I was literally saying a prayer out loud to the Lord telling HIM to protect me and get the game over and done with. I was that desperate. And God is always good as we walked away with a win over them with scorelines of 7-6 (won on tiebreak 7-3) and 6-2. The 2nd set was much easier coz Kevin went crazy with his shots and most of it was out. Padan muka!!!!

So, that's the story of my life.... And the best part was, our team won 3-0 against CSP. We are now team #1 to advance to local league playoffs which is scheduled for April 17-19 and 24-26, 2009. What's in store, frankly, I don't know coz I am just living 1 day at a time. Will cross the bridge when I come to it.

14 March 2009

Today, I got woken up with a quack literally. Last week, my pool servicing guy asked me the most peculiar question when I apologized to him that the pool was very dirty than usual (I thought it was dirty from the wind that was howling carrying the wood debris from the garden into the pool). He asked, "Have you seen any ducks in the pool?" To my amazement, I answered "no, why?" Well, he said all the supposed debris is actually duck poop and I was in shock and horror. How can that be coz I haven't seen any ducks in there b4 apart from the toy ones sitting in there. So, he told me to be on the lookout for them. And so I did. Ed was the 1st to notice them yesterday evening when he was watching tv and heard them quacking happily in the pool. Well, obviously, yes, he did chased them out from the pool. These are actually mallards and what a nuisance they are. First, we have bird issues. Birds that pecked at our air vents and nest in there, birds that was persistent and pecked into the woodblock to rest in there and now ducks in the pool. Gosh, I wonder what's next. And it's frightening that the birds are getting bigger (get the picture? from a bird to now, a duck??).

This morning, at 6.52am, I heard a quack and that opened up my eyes. I peeped through my bedroom window and true enough, I see 2 mallards happily swimming in my pool. I quickly run downstairs, opened the door and chased them out from the pool. They flew away and I hope they won't come back coz if they do, I may consider catching them and making them into PEKING DUCK for dinner. Now, maybe, that's not such a bad idea, hahaha.

13 March 2009

Yay, Khin Mien's coming home today and I look forward to seeing him again. Have missed him for 2 weeks as he was away on biz "tour" of Asia. Life isn't the same without the better half around coz everything's too simple and mundane. With him, there's more color to life and variety and someone to share everything with. Ah.... how I've missed him.

Cooked fried char choi today as that's one of KM's favorite dish. I also cooked "koo lou yok". After that, went to fetch Sam from school which turned out to be one horrendous ride as traffic's always so bad on Fridays, grrr. Came home, had lunch and off we went at 4.30pm for Sam's bowling lessons in Cupertino at 5pm.

I am not sitting in the bowling alley with my laptop and writing away this blog.... Go figure!

12 March 2009

Oh, I love Thursdays coz it's my rest day. No tennis, no housekeeping and usually, that's the day I answer all my emails which has been long overdue sitting in my inbox being marked "unread". Ah... but everything changed from this week onwards coz Larry, my tennis coach have invited me to join a group of 3.5 players for lessons on doubles strategy. So, I jumped at the opportunity coz I love playing with Shawn, Mary and Wilson (unfortunately, he couldn't come today coz he has to lay off tennis for a while due to tennis elbow). I played from 10.30am till 12.30pm and had lots of fun in the drills Larry had for us and Shawn hit me in the stomach with one of his BH shots, ouch!

After tennis, went home to cook lunch and I tried my hand in cooking lemon chicken which turned out ok, not spectacular but the lemon sauce somehow reminded me of shampoo. But Sam liked it and that's all that matters, hahaha.

Was supposed to go back to CSF for drop-in tennis tonight but at 4.30pm, I was too lazy to budge from the sofa so, I didn't go. Should've coz I wanted to practice playing mixed doubles but laziness got the best of me today, sigh.... Maybe next week.

11 March 2009

OMG, last night did a 5.5 hours marathon on my ironing. How come? Well, not that a dozen people stays with me or I have decided to open a laundromat or be an ironer???? (is there such a word) for the rest of my life, hahaha! No, it was just 3 shirts and 2 long cotton pants and 2 sets of bed sheets and comforter covers. I ironed from 6pm and didn't finish past 11.30pm but in between, managed to squeeze in 20 mins of dinner with Sam. The good part is, I managed to catch up on all my DVR recordings and watched everything on TV including 2 hour marathon of American Idol, 10 o'clock news, Seinfeld and Frasier. So, yesterday was a marathon day, hahaha!

Today, I went crazy and played 3 hours of tennis at CSP (Club Sport Pleasanton). I carpooled with Richard to CSP and we played from 11am-2pm and there was no rest at all as we played set after set after set. By the time I played the last set against Dave/Mildred, my legs was like jelly, stomach was growling from hunger and all I want to do is just SIT. Due to lack of sleep last night, I didn't play too well today and somehow, all my shots are flying everywhere out of the court instead of staying inside it. Either I am not used to the court or the lighting coz the court seems shorter than usual or just my stupid mind playing tricks on me. But Richard did well and covered like 70% of the court and I didn't have to do much. But still, playing 3 hours of non-stop tennis is no joke. Must be trying to play catch-up coz I haven't played since Sat last week.

Looking forward to more tennis tomorrow and the day after....

10 March 2009

Today, I feel cheeky. Cheng Im (our financial advisor from Penang) sent me an email bragging about the beautiful cherry blossom trees that aligned the streets at Pesiaran Mahsuri n Jln Mahsuri (opposite Pisa) in Bayan Lepas and I couldn't help but marvel at how beautiful it is. Never noticed those trees coz I hardly pass by that road but nevertheless, it was without a doubt, a beautiful picture.

So, I have decided not to be outdone and have taken pictures of the flowers in my backyard coz many a times, we all fail to stop to smell the roses along life's journey. So, do me a favor today. STOP TO SMELL THE ROSES today and you'll be all the more thankful when you start the day. The weather these days are beginning to smell like spring is in the air and rain has stopped falling (what a pity coz I LOVED the rain and wished it would rain some more). I have a tree that looked like a rose but it is not so, I shall call it a pseudo-rose and it has buds just waiting to burst out into full bloom. I am attaching herewith all the pictures. I know I am not a good photographer but I want you to picture this as if I am a good one, hahaha! May you have a great day today, God bless...

9 March 2009

Oh, I hate Mondays coz it means house cleaning day. You know, it is strange coz house cleaning is like a love-hate relationship. One minute I love it coz there's satisfaction when one walks on that floor and it squeaks but the other, I hate it coz my bones will be aching everywhere by the time I am through with the day. And it usually takes me from morning till evening. No kidding.... this house is a killer.....

And guess what? I didn't finish till 11.5pm just because in the morning hours, instead of starting my house cleaning early, I was stuck in front of the computer trying to figure out Sam's bowling tournament results coz she's applying for a bowling scholarship which is being offered to all the youth bowlers at Homestead Lanes. Sam's going for the Rookie of the Year Award and she'll get $100 if she wins. Although it is not much but it is an incentive and motivator for Sam to continue to do her best in her bowling. Had to compile all the results from her Fall and Winter League and print it out so that I can have Barbara, the coordinator at the league help me out with filling in the form. And if she wins this award, the ceremony will be held at Reno, Nevada and she has to go there. I was just thinking that the $100 is not worth winning coz going to Reno itself would have cost us a bomb with accommodation, gas and food. But, again, back to the crux about motivating Sam.... That's what I call, sacrifice....

After that, I tried to redeem free flights on UA to go to Washington DC from June 12-22, 2009 for Sam's NYLC but guess what? All flights are full for summer. Looks like I've learnt my lesson. Gotta start planning next year's summer hols this year coz it's IMPOSSIBLE to get any free flights. The only seat available around that time was June 6 from SFO/IAD (Washington Dulles) and the only time available for return leg from IAD/SFO is June 16. What a drag..... In the end, had no choice but to go looking for cheap airfares. People here tell me Jetblue is likened to our AirAsia but it wasn't the cheapest. Must be another one of those myths. JetBlue was charging $185 from SFO/IAD and $245 from IAD/SFO and their connection times sucks! In the end, booked a flight from Priceline.com and it costs me $345 for return journey (without taxes and fees) on American Airlines. This is not a direct flight as it goes via Dallas but heck, some flight is better than none!

Then, had to go out and buy groceries for the week. Went out at 11.56am to Lion Market nearby and didn't come home till 1.15pm. Started cooking "char kiam chye" with tomyam soup. Fetch Sam from school and then, house cleaning begins.....

And the rest, you don't wanna hear it..... coz it's all groans along the way ......

8 March 2009

Went to church this morning with Sam and guess what? Today's the 1st day of daylight savings which means we're back to being 15 hours behind Malaysia. Don't know whether to be happy or sad about it ????

Church service was good as Pastor Bill delivered his message on Sex Sense and again, he captivated the crowd with his teachings and his jokes. He's so natural. I like him. At one point, he was using the sheep soft toy to illustrate that we are likened to sheeps (altho that's not the most flattering comment coz sheeps are known to be dumb/stupid/fools) in God's mind. He says that when we make a mistake in our lives, do we: 1) cower and hope that a hole swallows us up or 2) we face the problem and try to seek a solution ourselves or 3) we think that God will yell at us and punish us severely or 4) God will coax us back to a straight path if only we allow him in. And he was demonstrating point #3 by beating at the soft toy with his golf club, which he said to pretend that it's a shepherd's staff. After he had "severely" scolded/beaten the poor soft toy sheep, in the quietness of the sanctuary, a cry broke out and it sounded like poor Pastor Bill must've traumatized the baby girl with his "anger". As the mother carried the poor crying child out, Pastor Bill said, "sorry, did I frightened you? God loves you" and the whole church burst out in laughter.

After church, Sam wanted sushi so, we went to Sato Sushi and I don't want to go back there anymore coz the food is expensive. One regular sushi set lunch for Sam and a spider roll for me came to $30 with taxes and tips. Expensive hor?

Came home from church and managed to squeeze in 1/2 an hour's afternoon nap and then we went out for an early dinner at 6.15pm. Went to Red Lobster coz I have this sudden yearning for lobster. Anyway, don't get too carried away that it's those huge lobster. Over here, it's more like a lobster tail the size of a crayfish. Dinner was good as Sam and me split a set dinner consisting of caesar salad (oh! we had a mushroom with cheese appetizer - that was yummy with lots of parmesan on it - Sam's favorite cheese), steak, 2 lobster tail, baked potato on the side together with rice pilaf. Sam had the steak and baked potato while I had the lobster tail and both of us were stuffed by the time we were through. We paid $45 with taxes and tips and at least it was more worthwhile and more filling than lunch itself.

So, it's been a great and relaxing weekend.... Back to the grind tomorrow.....

7 March 2009

Today was pretty restful as we went for Sam's bowling league at Homestead Lanes. She did pretty ok today in spite of the very difficult lane conditions (very dry on some spots and breakpoint very erratic) scoring lines of 182, 202 and 185 with an average of 190.

After bowling, we went for lunch at Amici's (again? went there just last week) together with Anna, Marty and Sveta. I bought them lunch coz Marty was nice for trying to fix Sam's PC last Sat and although he didn't fix the problem, his willingness to try was what I was thankful for.

After lunch, Sam and me went to Costco and we came home with only things on my shopping list. That was quite an accomplishment coz half the time, at Costco, we tend to overbuy. Finally found the macadamia nuts at this Costco at Lawrence Station coz the usual Costco that I go to which is at Senter Road, they don't carry it at all. So, mom, very soon, you can savor some of your favorite macadamia nuts.

After Costco, we came home, I took a nap from 3-4pm to recharge myself. Woke up at 4pm and washed both our cars. Ed's car was so covered in layers after layers of dirt, it took more effort than usual. Ed better thank me when he comes home coz now his car is gleaming and so is mine, yippee. That took me almost 2.5 hours.

Went for dinner at Pho Tau Bay and came home to watch more TV with Sam n eat ice cream with blackberries and strawberries (I went crazy yday buying 4 pints of Haagen-Dazs ice cream coz it was on sale - 2 for $7 - that was a steal of a price). Aren't you jealous that I have all the berries I can lay my hands??

6 March 2009

Went for tennis lesson with Dan Leon. He's a nice coach and I like the way he teaches coz he demonstrates to us what he wants us to do and tells us about racquet handling and technical stuff which really reminded me of my coach Danny back in Pg. Oh! and what a coincidence that both are called DAN. Must be all the Dan's are good in tennis, hahaha!

Had lessons from 9.30am-11am and there was Lynn, Mark, Taemi, Colleen Tang and myself. Colleen is such a great player. She's a 4.5 and she kicks the butts of the guys at CSF and thus far, all the guys that has challenged her to play have lost in straight sets to her except for Shawn. So, u can just imagine how good she is. I really do admire her shots and can only hope one day, I can be like her too. But somehow, will age catch up with me 1st b4 my game do, sigh.... I can only wait and see don't I?

Sam had no school today coz it's teacher-in-service. Don't ask me what that means coz I have no clue. Came home and cooked lunch and then rested a bit and sent Sam to bowling lessons at 3.45pm only to find out that her coach changed the time to 5pm but forgot to tell us. I dropped her off at the alley and she practised a little b4 Ty came while I went out for grocery shopping at Safeway nearby.

Sam finished at 6.15pm and guess what, Ty took off Sam's handguard and today is the 1st day she bowled without it. I think Sam's about ready to remove that handguard and I know that without it, she'll do much better in the future. But for now, there will be adjustments that she needs to get used to, patience and perseverance that will see her through.

Came home after bowling and watched American Idol wildcard round. Man! that Tatiana is such a cry baby. I hate her and thank goodness, she didn't make it to the top 13. Otherwise, I will strangle her, she's so annoying!!!

5 March 2009

Morning was fun and non stressful. Answered many of my emails which has been sitting in my inbox unreplied since early Feb. Frankly, don't know where all my time went??? Cooked tomyam beehoon today but it wasn't as good as the last time. Must be losing the magic touch, haiyah!

In the evening, went for drop-in tennis at CSF coz was hoping to get to practice with my partner Trent in mixed doubles. But Nala, the coordinator, only paired me up with the ladies. Played 3 sets at 6.30pm partnering Daisy against Malini/Chinese girl (don't know her name) and won, played with Hana (man, she's good and hits really hard) against Letha/Yodi and won that one too - this was a great match coz everyone hits hard n I had lots of fun and we're lucky to have won coz Letha is a really really good player and I think she's a 4.0 and so is Hana. Sit out the 7.30pm match and at 8pm, partnered Malini against Vanessa/Daisy and won that match too. So, overall, I had a good nite of doubles play with the ladies and I had fun. Not because I won, but because I hit the ball pretty clean and my serve was also working, yipee!

4 March 2009

I tried to be a smart aleck on traffic conditions today but end up being "defeated". I sent Sam to school as usual and was on the ramp from Blossom Hill exit to 101N when I got caught in a traffic jam and that time was only 8.05am. As I chugged along at 15mph and not getting anywhere, as I approached the Hellyer exit, I thought that since my tennis won't start till 9.30am, I have time still to go home, prepare the ingredients for what I want to cook for lunch and come out at 8.45am when traffic's not too heavy, which should give me ample time to get to CSF by 9.30am. So, I went home and did my stuff and came out as scheduled. But lo and behold, hey, the traffic's still bad. Lesson to be learnt here: ALWAYS CHECK TRAFFIC REPORT prior to leaving home! So, in a panic mood I turned on the radio only to find out that there was an accident (few car pile up) at Tully exit. Man! I hate that exit. I called Richard to tell him I will be late but he didn't turn on his phone. Now, Richard, tell me... why do u have a phone that u don't bother turning on? Anyway, I calmed myself down and told myself to be patient and that this jam will be over in a short while. It actually wasn't that bad as I had envisioned it to be coz I cleared that jam in 15 mins and reached CSF at 9.50am. Was late but hey, I made it. At first when I heard abt the accident I thot, "Dang, that's the end of my tennis." But, praise God, I made it there and as usual, had a fun time hitting with Richard. After we're done at 10.30am, went over to play with some 3.0 ladies (XiaoLu/Gary vs Sylvia/myself) and we lost that match. Despite the loss, I had fun, no complains. As I walking out to go home, I saw another group of 3.0 ladies and asked if they needed 1 more player and they said, "yes" and made me promise them that I will play at 3.0 level and not 3.5. So, I had to held back my serve and my ground strokes. Man, it wasn't easy coz I had to slow down and kept reminding myself not to hit so hard. I had fun and only finished playing at 12pm. I think the tennis courts at CSF has some kind of magnetism on me coz these days, I kept staying back for more, hahaha.

Came home and cooked lunch and fetch Sam and went for bowling only to find out that there were no lanes available due to a league and birthday party. So, as a consolation, both of us went to Baskin Robbins (yes, we're crazy to eat ice cream in the dead of winter cold) and bought rainbow and strawberry shertbet home. It was on sale for 2 quarts @ US$10.69 after tax. U can't get that kind of deal in Penang for sure!

3 March 2009

I am always late with my blog dates and it is starting to confuse the heck out of me. Anyway, last night, I played another match for Malini's team. In the morning, went for my singles tennis lessons with Larry. Emily Sah joined me too but we're only doing this like once a month coz it's very expensive as it costs US$40 for an hour's lesson per person. After the lesson was done with at 10.30am, I couldn't resist joining another class coz this group is fun and all of us, namely, Shawn, Wilson and Mary have more or less the same standard. Larry said it's ok for me to join them so, I did. I played till 12.05pm and was really exhausted by then. Shawn asked me to stick around and play some more singles but I couldn't coz I had grocery shopping to do, have to cook lunch and fetch Sam from school. So, off I went to do my stuff.

After fetching Sam from school, ate lunch with her, put the laundry to wash, vacuumed the house a little (Monday's house cleaning day), took my bath and off I went to Club Sport Pleasanton at 5.45pm for my match which was scheduled for 8pm. The reason I started off early was to avoid the peak hour traffic jam which is notorious from Fremont to Pleasanton but surprisingly, traffic was very smooth that day (because I prayed) and I arrived at CSP at 6.30pm. Ate my dinner in the car and even managed to snooze a little till 7.10pm b4 I head down to the tennis courts. Malini arrived at 7.20pm but found out that there were no practice courts available for us to warm up. What a drag... The captain was supposed to book the courts so that the opposing team can warm up but looks like we'll have to make do with just the official 5 mins warm up. So, Graham Golder and me went on the court and warmed up together with our opponent Chee & KK. We lost the match eventually 6-7, 3-6. I was probably too tired that night coz like I said, probably still recovering from my lack of sleep on Sat nite coupled with the fact that I have been playing Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon so, my body's given up on me. I was impatient that night with my shots and my best just wasn't good enough to carry us through. Graham tried his best that night but his BH didn't work very well. It's just one of those BAD days we have on the tennis courts. Well, if there's any consolation, we didn't lose that badly and the best thing is, the team won in spite of our loss. We won 2-1 against CSP. For that, Malini's team climbed from a rank of 9, to 6 to 5 and now, her team is #4 and the top 4 teams will advance to league playoffs which is scheduled for April 17-19 & 24-26, 2009. Altho Malini's team has a few more matches to go, I am confident that the rest of her team members will see her through this season. Good luck Malini.

As for today, 3 March, we ate leftovers from yesterday coz Sam didn't finish the food as she wasn't in the mood to eat. She had a "not-so-good-day" with her friends at school but refused to divulge details so, I shall leave her with it and honor her privacy to stew in her self misery.

After sending Sam to school, I came home and took a short nap but was interrupted by phone calls, one of which was a wrong number (argh!) and the other, called and hung up. Urgh, so irritating. Then I received another call from my 7.0 captain, Al Marquez and we spoke in length and after that, I couldn't sleep anymore. Got up and decided to remove the bed frame in my office coz the mattresses was slipping through the frame as it was a smaller size than the frame itself. And sleeping on it this morning was very uncomfortable as I get a sinking feeling. After that, folded the clothes in the dryer, bathe, ate lunch and went out to fetch Sam from school and head straight off to the bowling alley. Today's lane condition was very dry and Sam hit scorelines of 177, 168 and 171 with average of 172.

And best of all, it rained the whole day today, yipee! Hopefully, the reservoir will be filled and San Jose won't have to go through the pains of water rationing anytime soon. Good nite for now...

2 March 2009

OK, gotta stop complaining and start counting my blessings. Well, today, didn't do much coz still suffering from lack of sleep in trying to restore Sam's laptop. But all's well that ends well, praise God..

I played my 2nd 6.0 mixed doubles match yesterday (1 Mar) at 12 noon @ CSF for Malini's team. This time around, partnered Atul and I was substituting for Ritu who called in sick at the last minute. There's a flu bug going around so, I am not surprised. We played against our own sister team and won in 3 sets with scorelines of 3-6, 6-3, 1-0 (super tiebreak 10-6). It was a tough match coz in the 1st set, Atul wasn't very comfortable returning our opponents' topspin shots but slowly, he pulled himself together and that made all the difference in the 2nd and 3rd set. He deserves the credit coz he hung in there altho at one point in the 2nd set, when we were down 0-3, he said he felt very small. But I told him, it's only a game, no big deal whether we win or lose. Of course winning is better lah but if cannot win, that's ok by me. From then on, he buckled up and just kept returning all the shots that was fired at him and won many points and indeed, victory and credit goes to him for his effort.

After my tennis, came home and caught up with my email replies and had a slow and leisurely evening watching American Idol result show with Sam.

1 March 2009

Not a very good way to start the month coz guess what? Sam's notebook got sicker and sicker and now, we can't even log onto the users. Desperate, I called HP Technical support and spoke to Navneet for an hour before I could convince him that I could not do a system recovery without a boot disk. Finally, he said in 12 hours, someone will call me to verify (again?) that I need a boot disk and then, they'll send it to me with 48 hours.

Parallel-ly, I called up my bro-in-law, Chong Khing in Pg on skype. He's a real computer genius and is the most helpful person on earth I've ever met. Hoon, you're lucky to have such a wonderful husband. He did the process of making a boot disk for me via Teamviewer. This is another cool program that one can remotely access another person's computer and with that, he created the boot disk which I used it to reformat the hard disk. Then, CK managed to recover the system by looking for the drivers on the internet. This was a real pain-in-the-you-know-where coz since Sam's laptop is a low-end model, they don't have a list of all the required drivers in 1 website and poor CK had to search all over the web just to get the correct ones. To CK, I just want to acknowledge my appreciation and thanks to you for all that you've done for us in restoring Sam's notebook. Without you, it would not have worked. And he did all these without any complaints. I am just so thankful for all that he has done.

Again, THANK YOU VERY MUCH CHONG KHING. Sam and me appreciate you very much.