Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas of 2010!

We didn't buy and decorate the tree until past mid-December. The rainy days were the major reason. Well, we were still able to get it done. I started half the decoration first, then Brittany helped me finished it. She took some photos afterwards.

We hope everyone has a great holiday season.

I can't even count how many ornaments there are on the tree. There are way too many! But I love it.

I haven't made homemade cards for a long time. This year I decided to make 2 kinds and send them only to out-of-country friends. Sorry! I started late and couldn't find much supplies to make more. I hope you enjoyed the cards; I wish everyone a happy holiday season.

Kristina's insects collection

Kristina took a biological class about insects during the fall semester. One of the class projects is to collect 18 (I think) different types, species, or families of insects and then label them. They are very cool to look at. Some are so tiny, you can't see them with your bare eyes; I wondered how she actually caught them and pinned them down.

more friends

It is always great to see some friends you haven't seen for a while. I used to live with 2 Chinese girls while I was in the grad school. Everyone is busy now and hardly have any chance to visit one another. Tina (on the Left) was one of my roommates during those years. Her daughter, Sarah(on the right), is a UCLA graduate. Sarah is trying to get in the Law school and I wish her all the luck.

From L to R: Tina, Sarah, myself, Alexandria (my other roommate who now is working in Taiwan) and Alex's cousin. Alex has been in Taiwan for years and she visits USA whenever she can. It was fun to talk about the old time. There were some fun and good memories of 3 single girls.

Here are some Alex's relatives who are really nice and fun.

Halloween 2010

Hope everyone had a fun Halloween. This was the 4th year for us to be on "Safe Street" in our city. It gets "crazy" every year. The weather was really nice for trick-or-treating this time. I like to try new things a lot and this year I made these small pumpkin bread cupcakes. Thanks to my photographer, Brittany, it looks very delicious.

Since we live on one of the "Safe Streets", we feel that it is mandatory to decorate the house. This is our homemade tombstone for the front yard.

If you know Brittany enough, then you'll probably know what "H.W." stands for. Here's a hint: something teachers give students everyday.

The scarecrow and the giant spider are the usual occupants in the attic until October 15th. Then they go back up to the attic to rest for another 11 1/2 months. We usually carve and light up the pumpkins, but this year I didn't have time to do that.

Our homemade spiders crawl on the garage door.

We made a fresh brain with blood. Later, we arranged some dry ice around the brain to make it more spooky. Trick-or-treaters always like to stop by and touch the brain, saying "ewwww!" If you also feel that this brain is disgusting, then thank Brittany for successfully making it look more gross with photo touch ups.

These are the window decorations in Kristina's room.

These are the window decorations in the living room.

Here are all ages and sizes of goblins coming to get treats before it gets really busy and crazy. The 40-50 lbs of candy from the Rotary Club were gone by 8PM. That is the time I ate my yummy dinner. This year some parents passing by were able to keep me updated about the Giants game.

We estimated about 3,000-4,000 people (including parents) on "Safe Street" this year. It was tiring but TONS of fun. Every year some of my friends would come over to give out candy. There were some moments that we couldn't hand out candy quickly enough and the goblins crowded around us with their bags. I had a feeling if we were TOO slow, we might just get some tricks from them. :)

Good pancakes, finally!

For a long time, I always have wondered why my pancakes were so flat and non-appetizing. Kristina told me that her boyfriend's dad makes great fluffy pancake and posted the recipe on line. So, I googled the recipe and wanted to give it a good try. After I mixed the ingredient just a little (not over stirring), then I can see the work.

After I spread on the cooking pan, I can tell it was gonna be fluffy and yummy.

Hmmm, looks wonderful already. Let's give it a taste and see. So I asked Brittany (the pancake expert) to try.

She buttered the pancakes. She poured the syrup, added the whipped cream and decorated it with strawberries. Her final judgement was---SO GOOD and FLUFFY.

Zach, thank your dad for us.

runaway weekend

Lately I felt emotionally low and drained, so I ran away to Claremont to visit Kristina for a weekend. It was definitely a good choice. She and her friends are fun to be with. This year Kristina took her car so she was able to pick me up.

This bakery (SomeCrust) is quite popular in the Claremont Village. Their stuff is almost all gone at 1pm. Luckily we were able to buy some for visiting Miranda's brother and his family.

I think this cheese store (cheese cave) is a new store in the village.

They have a lot of flavors. We bought some Gouda, Sharp Cheddar, and Lavender goat cheese. Everyone went "Ahhhh~so good!" when they took a little to taste first.

This pretty French style store sells a lot of nice European style stuffs. I bought some tea cozy for my friends there.

Every time I visited, I always end up buying a couple of cute and pretty dishtowels for myself.

There are some walls for the students to have freedom of speech. I think Oct.11 is National Coming Out Day, so the students expressed their own thoughts on the wall.

This is another panel of walls.

I invited Krisitna and her friends for a dinner together. We had great Italian food. Annie, thanks for the great choice of restaurant.

Kristina and her boyfriend Zach.

Zach, someday you will see the goofy book and I will see you two soon in November.

Kristina's friend Annie and her boyfriend Nathaniel.

Nice to meet you, Nathaniel.

Annie, you two look cute together.

(from L to R) Zach, Kristina, Jasmine, Annie, Nathaniel, Kendra.

I don't know what happened to the picture of 3 girls inside of the restaurant. Sorry.

They are really good friends. The other girl, Claire, who was gone to East coast for the weekend. She is very fun too. See you next time, Claire.

Thank you all for making my weekend fun and young.

When I checked in the hotel so late, they upgraded me from a regular room to an Executive Suite. What a surprise. The whole place to myself. It WAS a nice runaway.

Kristina's farallon islands 2

This is the entire crew for seabird research during the summer on the islands. Most of the time one or two people would take 2 weeks off before going back for another 8 weeks. Those 2 weeks are for recharging, visiting families, and keeping themselves sane without listening birds.

Kristina likes to take picture of birds life. Here is a baby cracking eggshell.

Here is the new Gull baby. Sort of wet.

Now the baby's feathers are all fluffed up.

Some baby chicks are still protected by the parents until they are ready to face the whole crowd of thousands. On the islands, there are 12 different species and about 300,000 populations.

Some young birds get bullied by the neighbor adult birds.

Sometimes Kristina is lucky to stay inside to observe the birds. No attacking! No pooping on the clothes! Hooray!

She learned to band the birds.

Look at the color of this birds. So black and red.

Most of the time the birds try to catch fish for their diet. For this one, she found a tiny rock fish.

When they don't have enough food, then they might even try to eat their neighbor young chick. So sad!

Lucky for this bird. I think it's got a squid in her mouth. Ocean delicacy.

Kristina said that she saw whales, sea lions, and elephant seals. Occasionally her job was to observe their flipper and record some kind of data. If you click on the ocean picture, you might see two whales in the ocean and one was sprouting the water.

Wow! The mouth is UGLY.