Walloped.

We are all sick (well except for Ruby, Jeremy and Eliana - but really, it's only a matter of time). I knew we were going to be sick this week because on the last day of our vacation we snuggled and played with our snuffly, coughing and slightly feverish cousins Felix and Ruben. There was really no way to reschedule the visit, nor did I want to cancel since it is so hard to see them, so here we are, all a bit ill.



In addition to being sick, it's been kind of a crazy week. On Tuesday, I went with my friend Jane to the Alexandria Animal Shelter to put down her pet cat that she adopted four days earlier. It was a pretty emotionally draining experience, Jane is very tender-hearted when it comes to animals and it was very difficult for her to realize and come to the decision that Walter had health issues that were rapidly becoming worse and should be put to sleep and once she had decided that that was the right thing to do, she didn't want to go to the shelter alone. Needless to say, I did not go to work on Tuesday thinking that at the end of the day, I would be hold a cat paw in one hand and a friend's hand in the other.



Jeremy's been doing a lot of the night-time sick childcare, and he's stayed home 2 days this week and he's feverishly working on an important report. I've been dragging myself to work because I'm taking this intensive Patent Law and Evidence Course which is hard to make-up.

Anyhow - it's just how it goes.

Sick day.

I took today off to tend to Edda's teeth which involved physical strength on my part and some hearty yelling on Edda's part. She needed to get a tooth removed which had died (long story) and the dentist did with with a shot of novacaine and just 20 minutes in the chair. I don't think the actual extraction bothered Edda at all, she just hated to be held down so tightly in a burrito roll. I did many other errands today which were not very interesting - however, I managed to get Vince a new 20 inch bike with hand brakes, gears and shocks for the impressive price of $25 at the Goodwill! Hooray for me :).



Finally, I get to go back to work tomorrow for some peace and quiet. ;)

Dulles.

We made it home last night - started the laundry and cleaned up a little. On our last day, we went to San Francisco and met up with Ben, Johanna, Felix and Ruben. I failed to get any photos, I'm sorry, it will have to wait for the next trip. Their new place is fabulously cute as are the kiddos (of course).

Back to the grind, we've got dental appointments, therapy, ESY, science camp all starting today. Edda is apparently all over jet lag. Vince is still sleeping on the couch, he needs to leave in 30 minutes. Ack.

BB Gun & Oil Country

Today, it was a nice day and we drove out to the east and right into a California oil country.

On our way back, while we were driving in a bi-directional two-lane highway on route 166, a BB gun shot from an approaching car hit our wind shield and broke the glass. It hit with such a loud bang. Fortunately, our car windows were all shut and no one was hurt.

Today, we started our driving along routes 58. In this area, along routes 58, 5, 119, 33 and 166, it is an oil country in California. Oil extracting machines were everywhere. Oil pipes and tanks dotted the landscape. The Elk Hills Petroleum Oil Reserve is here too. I guess the oil company doesn't do this job with "GREEN" in mind. The landscape is pretty ugly and litters with rusty junks.

When going out on route 58 east bound, there noticed that there had no service place for the next 82 miles. By that time, we had traveled 40 miles already. So, we had to make an emergent pit stop just along the road. Luckily, no one was around. After that, about a-minute-of-driving later, Mom said with a big grin on her face "Boy, your bladder is big and inside is all black".

Guess what, we found an oil spill which formed a small steady stream along the road side. We had to stop few miles away at a local hotel and alert those people. They suggested us to talk to the local Fire Station just a couple of miles away. However, we never found that Fire Station and, hopefully, they will call the oil company or Government Officials (???).

It is pretty amazing that it can let this happen under the beautiful Californian Sun with nobody noticing it. I believe, Nukes have never had this type of problems before. And it will not have in the future either.

Family Re-union, Southern & Central California Coast

Jeremy & Doris decided to have their summer vacation in Southern California and Central California Coast. Donald, Rena and I were very glad to join them to have a Lee's family re-union in California. During their stay in Los Angeles, they hosted a Lee's Dinner gathering in Arcadia, CA.

Together, we visited Los Angeles, Lego Land north of San Diego, San Luis Obispo and its surrounding areas. Here are several pictures to share:

1) Doris chatted with my niece (Carrie) and two sisters (Jane and Liz) during Lee's Dinner.

2) & 3) Family BBQ picnic at Shell Beach, CA. Rena and I live nearby. Maybe, fifteen blocks away. Diablo Canyon Power Plant is on the other side of the mountain on the upper left.

4) Two big boys [i.e., Jeremy and Donald] at play, Lego Land

5) Grand mom, Rena, Daughter, Doris and granddaughter, Edda in front of Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument made of Legos at Lego Land.

6) Roses, my Mom & Dad at Rose Hills Memorial Park, Los Angeles. I believe, my Mom loves red roses.

In short, we had much fun together. Donald and Doris left today for San Francisco.

Being outside.

We've gone to a million and a half beaches this week - all of them with pretty cold water, all of them very sandy. Going to the beach with kids is way more fun than going with just other adults. Vince and Donald sunburned a little bit. Jeremy managed to protect his delicate skin with enough gloopy sunscreen so he still looks like he spends all of his days inside a windowless office.

Bubblegum alley.

After Legoland, we drove to San Luis Obispo. Visited a place called Bubblegum Alley where people have been leaving their ABC gum for over 45 years. It's both fun and totally disgusting. We added our own gum contributions.

Legoland!

Edda climbed on the jungle gym (don't look too hard at my lovely backside)



And rode one ride, which scared the living daylights out of her.



Finally, Barack's inauguration rendered in Lego bricks.

Griffith park and Ding Tai Fung.

Sunday, we went to Griffith Park with Ruth.



We went on the train.



Griffith Park has a fully accessible playground.



In the evening, we went to Ding Tai Fung, a great dumpling house and met up with Aunt Liz and Aunt Jane and Carrie who we last saw at our wedding! She's going to be a urologist.

Los Angeles.

We spent the weekend at Charlotte's house. Charlotte was the officiant at our wedding so many years ago. Julia also showed up and we had a nice dinner outside in the backyard.



We got to line dry some laundry (something that I imagine I could do in real life if I had time and if it also wasn't so rainy and humid where I normally live).



Vince and Edda had some pool time. This weekend, in Charlotte's pool, Vince has learned to swim which means that he can breath without having to stand up on the floor of the pool. He was very proud of himself.

California.

We are on vacation this week. Here we are near the Santa Monica pier. We are having a wonderful time at the beach, but we are totally inappropriately dressed. Jeremy's wearing a belt and a backpack, looking like he is ready for a mountain hike. Edda's wearing a sun dress and a fleece sweatshirt and Vince is fully clothed. What you can't see is that I'm wearing a pair of velvet-like pants and a sweatshirt.

Extreme Acro Gymnastics.

This first week of summer, Vince went to gymnastics camp. Today was the last day and they wanted to show off in a little performance. There was suppose to be a video - but our video camera is on the fritz - so you just get some fuzzy pictures.



After the performance, Edda got a turn on some of the trampolines and had a nice time.

Rattlesnake Again !

We saw a rattlesnake again at the same spot as last time during our noon time walk. I went to the upper-level parking lot to get my camera in our car. But, when I came back, the snake was gone. As a side show, we saw a deer in the parking lot eating grasses.

Yesterday, we saw several whales playing along the Shell Beach, just half block away from our duplex apartment. And, of course, Mom picked more loquat fruits of our neighbor's. They are really happy to see us show up almost every other evening to pick the fruits.

Commuting.

It has been kind of a mess on the Red Line this week. It's been a few days since the accident, and they are running tests and trying to figure out what went wrong. Empty trains pass stations and full trains announce that you have to offload. It's been slow going for me back and forth to work this week.

Today was the first day that trains were going past the point of the accident, although only on one of the two tracks. It's slow going because like a two lane street that has one lane blocked off, the trains have to take turns going through the choke point. And everything is running slower because the trains are run manually and so the trains are spaced further apart and also, for whatever reason, a lot of the trains I've been on have broken down. So I've easily spent about 4 hours on the Metro today, mostly packed shoulder to shoulder with other of my fellow Washingtonians.

Washington DC.

This past Sunday, Vince and I headed downtown to meet with a friend of mine from work, Jane. Jane is young, single and doesn't spend a lot of time with little kids, I think Vince amused her with his rather manic rate of going through the Air and Space and the Natural History museum. Also, I think that it was the first time in a long time that she ate at McDonald's (Vince's choice for lunch).

Vince and I rode to the metro.



Yeah, baby, we rule the Mall.



It was a nice day to be at the Mall, usually during the summer, it is so hot and humid and there is practically no shade on the mall, it's really unpleasant. But on Sunday, it was cool enough for a sweatshirt and also, they shut down a lot of the streets for a triatholon.

Being an adult.

Being a grown up means that you have to spend money on things that you can't see. Dental surgery, for one. House repairs for two. This weekend we had our gutters cleaned because rain was just pouring straight down the side of the house. Today we had the plumber, the appliance repair guy for the stove and the HVAC guy come to do work or maintenance on the house. The HVAC guy just came to do the summer check up which gave Jeremy another opportunity to talk about a geothermal system. The plumber came to look at a leak in our ceiling coming from an upstairs bathroom (not the best picture ever, but the leak in the ceiling is at least 4 feet long).



After I scheduled all these appointments to miraculously happen on one day, thus maximizing the use of time, I discovered during a recent wet car ride, that my car's roof is also leaking somehow. Sigh.

Coyotes and Rattlesnakes

Several weeks ago, Rena & I saw a coyote in the park lot. Yesterday, after drove home with Mom, I came back to office to retrieve my personal computer and brief case, I saw another coyote crossing the road.

Today, during our regular noon time walking, Rena and I encountered a rattlesnake on a semi-paved space for parking trailers & power plant equipment. The snake wasn't in the coiled position and, therefore, not ready to strike. No danger at all. Mom just walked away and walking back. I walked forward a litter and studied the snake more and the snake turned his head and headed back to brown grassy areas slowly.

People working in the plant told me that we may encounter mountain lions. Therefore, there are a lot of wild land animals around our office (ie., Diablo Canyon Power Station.) beside the ones in the sea. Some of them are pretty innocent and doing no harm. Some of them, will cause a lot of trouble if one let down one's vigilance while doing their daily routines here.

Red line and accidents.

Both Jeremy and I were on different Red Line trains when the accident occurred, but we were going in the opposite direction from the collision - ironically, I had been stuck on the Metro for over 2 hours for a completely separate reason (a train broke down in my direction) when over the loudspeaker, our train operator said that there was now an emergency in both directions. Just so shocking that people died in the accident - my thoughts are with their family and friends.

Happy Father's Day.

We started our Father's day celebration last night, Jeremy opened his gift after dinner - what did we get him?



The $10 waffle iron from Target (I was willing to buy the pricier model, but he specifically asked for the cheapest model).



This morning, I went to the Joy of Cooking and almost fainted after I read how much butter to use for the most delicious waffles (2 whole sticks!).



Happy Father's Day!

Wide angle noses.

Vince and Edda being silly at breakfast today.