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??
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
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!!!
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!
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!
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!
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
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...
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.
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.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
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.
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.
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