Nestle

My niece is going to be the next big baby model!! I'm telling you, she's a STAR!

Beauty

Ferrari 360 Modena

Nature creates beauty so subtly and with ease every day. It is seldom that the work of man can compete as beauty is not often found in objects of function. Yet when form is considered, the result can be breathtaking.

突然覺得幸福

老是說﹐時間過的真快﹐但這句話的確沒有錯。沒想到二十三歲就當阿姨了。
妹妹中文名字都還沒取呢。嘿﹐家裡又多了一個姓張的。真好﹗

快要一年沒交男朋友了。其實過單身的生活也不錯﹐沒有為另一個他所謂的煩
惱。當然有時也會感到寂寞﹐但凡事都有好有壞。改天再說吧﹗晚安﹗

Day One

So, the general consensus amongst the family is that baby Rachael Ann above and beyond all looks most like yours truly. Why? I don't know. They said it's because of the expressions she has. That utter look of disdain, the rolling of the eyes, the yawning and the boredom... Wow. I didn't know my family thought so highly of me. Well, at least there's two of us now. It's just you and me Rae!

Yes, I've decided to call her Rae. None of this Rachael Ann business. And since daddy can't pronounce Rachael (apparently he keeps calling her Richard), Misa suggested he just call her Chio Chio (as in 'ball-ball' in Mandarin) which is a cute baby name I suppose.

Hello World!

Rachael Ann - Born June 22, 2004 - 6 lbs. 5 oz.


Proud parents


Proud Auntie


Prouder Auntie

Sandy

-- AIM CHAT SESSION --
friend 1: hi sandra
friend 1: ppl dont call you sandy do they?
psycho babble: no i might have to pull out my machete
friend 1: good good
friend 1: just checking
friend 1: cause i couldnt do it
psycho babble: i just don' t look like one or act like one
friend 1: uhm
friend 1: yeah well
friend 1: the only sandy i know was our irish setter
psycho babble: well in that case, my prognosis is still correct.... i think
friend 1: so no, you dont look like a bitch that wont listen ;-)
psycho babble: gee thanks
friend 1: lol no sorry just fond memories of her
friend 1: she was a fun dog
psycho babble: ok.
-- END --

White Oak

06/13/04 - Doug, Sharyn, Sandra - White Oak Winery, Alexander Valley

I had one of the best weekends ever. I guess I've never used this blog to talk about things that are happening in my life, at least not in a direct sense. But, this past weekend was just too wonderful to not mention. I met my girl friend Sharyn in Sonoma Square on Saturday and we just had a blast "wining" all day. Saturday consisted of tasting and tour at Buena Vista, then tastings at Sebastiani (Yay! I miss those guys!)and finally Gundlach Bundschu where we had a wonderful picnic. The weather was just right, a little warm with a little breeze.

Sunday continued our great little tour with Santa Rosa native Doug being Mr. Tour Guide starting at White Oak in the Alexander Valley. Oh, the wines there were fabulous! I must remember to go back! Then on to Sausal, Ridge Lytton Springs, Chateau Souverain (where of course I had to pick up a few bottles of my favorite Chenin Blanc), deLorimier and Murphy-Goode. The Alexander Valley is such a beautiful place. C'est tres jolie!

Sometimes I wonder if I should have stayed in the wine industry. It's not a bad life to live... Lots of great wine, great food, easy life. Ah, maybe something to retire into. We'll see.

Delusion and Redemption

Facets of complex situations between two people are not easily identified nor defined. Perspective is key as no two objects can occupy the same space at the same time. Reflection also brings new dimension as realization sets of memories which may not be accurate. Most dangerous of all, assumption is the unknown skew as bias results in the presumed.

Why do some use assumption as truth in deduction? There is no foundation for such a claim thus rendering it worthless. Perhaps it is not the truth we seek but security and comfort from within a fabrication of our feeble minds.

The truth is not easy to find. The truth is often not easy to appreciate once found. But admittance to oneself, if not to anyone else, the entirety of what is known to be true is at least one step ahead of those who rather live in an illusion.

Leafing

So my girl friend Sharyn and I were talking about favorite cartoons, both new and old. She mentions a series called "The Family Guy" because they did an episode about New Yorkers invading Rhode Island to see peak foliage.

Me, the LA girl, mind reeling. What the *&%$! is peak foliage?

Sharyn, in reminiscence, "Oh, it's so wonderful to see all the leaves turn yellow and bright orange. It truly is a beautiful sight."

Oh, alright, leaves changing color... Wait...

"And sometimes I like to collect the really spectacular ones, put them in ziploc bags with orange zests and mail them off to my girl friends."

Isn't Rhode Island quite a distance from New York? That doesn't make sense...

"Aren't there trees in New York?"

"Of course, Central Park is beautiful during peak foliage."

"So why do you have to drive to Rhode Island?"

"Oh! Because you can see it two weeks earlier!"

Clutching my stomach in sheer pain due to insane bouts of laughter attempting to escape. Sharyn slips out a slight grin, not quite understanding the hilarity of the moment which in turn propels my uncontrollable laughing fit.

"Ah, thanks Sharyn. I needed a good laugh."

No Tea Today

So I waited and now the water is ready. But looking in the cabinet, as hard as I looked, I couldn't find the tea leaves. I swear I had some. I guess there will be no tea for me today. Who knows when I'll go to the tea store again. Maybe not for a while.

...but sometimes it does.

So, that damn pot has finally boiled. And gosh, you know you really shouldn't be expecting anything else but you still do. Why is that? Heck if I know. I watched Donnie Darko a couple days ago. It almost makes me want to think a large demonic bunny is going to appear out of the steam rising from the damn pot. But no, no demonic bunny. Kind of sucks, you know? A demonic bunny would be very entertaining. Well, at least now I can make my tea. Still have to wait for it to seep...

Eat Shit

So I was driving down the street in a part of LA where there are many many many Asians. Most of the business signs are in Chinese or Vietnamese. Chinese characters are completely indecipherable to those who don't know the language. Vietnamese, however, is made up of roman letters. Sometimes these letters happen to mean something in English. Oops.



Yes, come to my restaurant and eat my shit.

You're ugly... and that's sad.

Happy bunny has got to be one of my favorite cartoon characters (slow down Stitch, I said one of my favorites).

"Would you like to suck on a mint? Because you suck all the time."

"Run along and die now." (Cute smiling bunny looking at you and pointing to the left)

Why do we find pleasure in humility? Oh, 'cause it's so much fun.

It's just those little things in life... laugh a little!

In my little office, you can hear everything. You always pick up tidbits of conversation here and there. So, I'm slaving away and I hear, "So this is coming from China? I heard there is a faster boat and a slower boat. Can we put it on the faster boat?"

Two tiny little boats, cruising across the Grand Pacific, but one goes just a little faster than the other one. Both carrying too many containers, huff and puff, all the way to California.

A watched pot never boils...

...okay, so it does eventually. But it feels like an awfully long time. It's hardly worth it, really. Time is much better spent doing something else. Washing the dishes, watering the plants... Anything. And when it does finally boil, gosh, were you expecting anything else?

hrm.

Geez, I didn't know that you needed a court order to change your name. I guess it's a big deal. But, the good news is, since I don't have a middle name, amending a birth certificate is much easier. Gosh, with so many people getting divorced nowadays, the court must be busy simply changing names all the time. Hrm.

In search of...

03/13/2004 - Paris, France

"The same process makes me look for the noise hidden in silence, the movement in immobility, life in inanimate things, the infinite in the finite, forms in a void, and myself in anonymity." Joan Miro. Feburary 15, 1959.

The greatest thing I took back from this trip to Paris was perhaps that quote above. It was the last quote in a series of seventeen from a Joan Miro exhibit at the Georges Pompidou Centre, posted in the gallery next to Miro I, Miro II, and Miro III. I don't know why, but it speaks to me. To find something in nothing. We all search for something, different things, yet they are desires nonetheless. We believe that in the sea of so many things which is life, there must be something. But why is it so difficult? Perhaps the argument in itself is incorrect. Perhaps the things that we know as life is nothing. Our search, then, is understandably difficult. As what is something in nothing?

Saturday, 3pm, Sogo Department Store

Do you ever hear something or think of something that reminds you of a place you love? At work, it's noisy sometimes, so I listen to this Taiwanese radio station online. They often mention local events going on at certain places. And more than once , I've caught myself wondering if I was free that day, wanting to go there....on Saturday....at Sogo.... Oh, I live in California. Oops. It's weird. I miss the place a lot sometimes, but at the same time, I wonder if I have idealized the place. That all I remember are the goods things about the place and perhaps I have forgotten all the bad things. Or that perhaps I only remember the place because of my memories with the people there. So is it the people I miss? Although I'd give anything to go back, I know I will never find that I am looking for. Life is funny like that. I've lived the happiest times of my life without ever realizing it when I was living it. And now, I can only look back.

A,B,C,D,...X,Y, and Zing!

People always say that they are looking for a significant other who is 'A,B,C,D,...X,Y,Z'. Does such a person exist? And if there is such a person, if you could precisely illustrate every detail you desired in an ideal mate, would these attributes really add up to the perfect other?

Heck, no. As humans, we are invariably inconsistent creatures. We never really know what we want and we change our minds all the time. I can hardly decide what I want to eat for dinner on a daily basis, let alone the qualities of the man I think I should spend the rest of my life with. No, I don't think I should be left to make that decision.

So what is it, really? Rewind.

December 31st 2002. In an attempt to justify our lack of male company...
"It's the Zing, I tell you," says Lily.
"The 'Zing'?" I ask.
"Yeah, the Zing," she replies.

What the heck is a 'Zing'? Think of it this way-- Remember back in elementary or junior high, that girl/boy you had a crush on? You didn't like them because they were going to have a great career, they were patient, they liked sushi, they had a great sense of fashion or they could tear up the dance floor. No, it was something much simpler than that. There was something about the way that person moved, or spoke, that sparkle in their eyes... Yes, you remember now. The graceful way her hair moved in the wind and the way the sand kicked up behind her while she was on the swings. Ok, a little cheesy, but you know what I mean. Love, back then, was entirely based on the Zing. There is no rhyme or reason to the Zing. There is either a Zing or there isn't. That pure, raw, hormonal, pheromonal, instinctual sense of just knowing...or knowing not, for that matter.

Ah, but as our heads get clouded with rational thought, our ability to recognize and accept the Zing fades. As adults slowly descending toward the social norm of marriage and procreation, we have certain expectations of our mate where a simple Zing can no longer suffice. And thus we spin in our silly little webs of perceived perfection this fantastic ideal of a mate.

Living in a world of expectations, it is nearly impossible not to have any. But as Valentine's Day draws near, I urge everyone to reconsider the possibilities. Perhaps it is the romantic in me that believes in love beyond all preconceived notions. As expecations can raise the bar, expectations in love can create only boundaries.

twothirds

"Live life to the fullest". Is that really possible? Everyday, people spend hours sitting in traffic, waiting in lines, riding the bus... Does living life to the fullest mean spending each and every second to the max? Damn, I'd spend most of time figuring out how to spend my time which, in turn, would be a waste of time. Two thirds is a good median. If you're happy two thirds of the time, that's plenty. No one can be happy all the time. It isn't normal. But then again, who's to judge what is and isn't normal? (Back away from that argument.) The point is, to know what happiness is, you must have experienced pain. The age old argument, is the glass half empty or is the glass half full? My choice: two thirds. The glass is two thirds full and one third empty. It leaves a little room for improvement and a shot of vodka when needed.