Family

DC with my dc

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As some of you may or may not know I addressed my OLDER sister as dua cheh, 大姐, a term of respect, from a younger sibling. She has become dc, in short, during conversations. And just this evening, we returned from DC aka District of Columbia, the nation’s capital, Obama land.

After reading Dan Brown’s Lost Symbol (earlier this year), we were moved to visit the city to see the sites mentioned in his novel. That valiant idea was flushed down the drain as quickly as it was born. Too much work. Too much walking. Too little time. Too many excuses.

We left for DC with dc on a road trip that took only 3.5 hours there on Thursday morning. But we doubled that time on the return, thanks to heavy traffic compounded by road works and accidents. One would imagine that the driver and navigator/map reader/exact change provider/road watcher would be the most exhausted of them lot (the back-seat driver was just entertaining herself at the back). But our four-legged critter, Jessie, was the most fatigued of us all, even though she slept the ENTIRE journey back. She crashed the moment we reached home. Must be hard work sleeping, getting waited on hand and foot, fanned, and relieved.
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Living life to the fullest

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OF WRITERS, WATERFRONTS & WITCHES

Our trip started with a stop in the city for a “quick” errand, which then took an hour. After battling the traffic, 30 minutes later, we were off. I though it was going to take 4 hours++ to get into Boston, MA. But we made it in 3 hours. No, we were not speeding. But tomtom took us on a “scenic route” with less traffic – 87 to 91 North to 84 to 95. Not too shabby.

Pulling into our hotel, Doubletree Bedford/Glen, 44 Middlesex Turnpike, Bedford MA, we were pleasantly surprised by the sprawling lawn of flowers and greenery that welcomed us. Located in a quiet little turn of Middlesex Turnpike, this will definitely be a return hotel, if we ever came back again. Not only did they have a gorgeous garden (great for weddings and walking dogs), but they also have two tennis courts! Next time, if we have nothing to do around Boston, we will bring our racquets, and pick up balls for the rest of the trip.
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Fair-Weathered Fan

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I am surprising myself by actually watching football with hubs. It is, after all, the World Cup. It happens only once in four years. The last time the World Cup was on, my Netherland Dwarf rabbit, Bobo passed away. Hubs didn’t even notice.

Saturday, May 12, 2010. England vs. USA.

The choice is obvious. Hub’s man, Steven Gerrard aka Stevie G aka Gerrard of Liverpool is the captain of the English team. I can’t help by showing my alliance.
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The Next Best Thing

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Instead of Niagara Falls in New York, eight hours away from Jersey, we went to the Paterson Great Falls State Park in Jersey, just a mere 30 minutes away. The view wasn’t as spectacular, but I still got the spray of mist from the falls and the fear of heights came rushing back too. I did see a few people making out in the small park in front of children too, mind you. Joisey. It’s gone to the trash of Jersey Shore.
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Asians in Amish Land

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Fri, May 7, 2010: Road trip

Tardiness and holidays always go hand-in-hand. Whenever we get time off, we always end up late and off schedule. We were supposed to leave early for our trip and I even woke up at 6 for it. But hubs didn’t budge from bed until close to 8, and even insisted on taking the car out for a wash before we left. We didn’t leave the house until 11-ish. Lucky for him, patience is my middle name, or so it seem just for that day.

By the time we reached our hotel in Lititz PA, a new Holiday Inn Express (HIE) on Crosswinds Drive, it was past 2 pm. After checking-in, and dropping off our bags, we drove straight into Lancaster, which was 15 minutes away. Even Jessie, our Cocker Spaniel, has her own travel bag, filled with her own food, bowl, brush, poop bags, shoes and rubber band. That’s my little princess for you. First stop, Central Market (downtown Lancaster) on Market Street. Jess came with us; she was excited but very confused with her new surrounding and probably the new smells. Seeing as most places didn’t allow dogs indoors, we had to take turns in going in and out of the stores.
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Window Pet-adopting

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After much convincing, last-minute pull outs, and 11th hour okays, we finally decided to drive all the way from Joisey to Long Island just to look at dogs (and hopefully Cesar Milan) and my sister. After picking my sister up in Queens, we headed straight to the shelter with Jessie in tow.

The North Shore Animal League America (NSAL) were launching a Pet Adopt-a-thon together with spokesperson Cesar Millan. The shelter is located at 25 Davis Avenue, Port Washington NY. The event officially kicked off on Saturday, May 1 at 9:00 AM and will continue through Sunday, May 2, 9:00 PM. It is said that they were over 700 dogs, cats, puppies and kittens available for adoption at this largest no-kill animal rescue and adoption organization. National Geographic’s own Dog Whisperer, Cesar Millan was on hand for the opening ceremony and took on interviews later on.

The shelter wasn’t too far away, but the crowd was amazing. It’s good that the event drew that many potential adopters, but hopefully the adoptions will give these animals a second chance in life. The line was amazingly long, wrapping around the block. On our way to stand in line to get into the facility, we got a quick glimpse of Cesar who was doing interviews with local media. Lucky for us, we knew how to entertain ourselves to pass time. Many people who saw Jess was enamored with her. One family even asked me if I were putting Jessie up for adoption, as they looked at her longingly. I told them, “No,” but what I felt like saying was dream on. They look like the kind who if you gave gold to, it will quickly turn to sand.

Because the facility didn’t allow “outside” dogs to be in it, hubs stood outside with Jess while I went in with my sister first. As expected, the larger and older breeds were all ignored. Everyone clamored towards the smaller breed and puppies, which there weren’t much selection and the puppies were all the same mixed lab breed. Those forgotten, were sadly crouched at the corner of their cages, or asleep, oblivious to the noise and excitement around them. We did, however, see a terrier that interest us but who was asleep. My sister kept saying, “Loli (which is the dog’s name) wake up. Let us see your pretty face. Loli.  Loli.”

Nothing. Must have had a long night the day before.

We made our rounds, and finally got hubs in while we watched over Jess. Of course, the first thing that my sister does after coming out of the facility is to zero in on “The Strawberry Guy,” who she has eyed and quickly grabbed FREE strawberry dipped in chocolate to eat. After she was done with her strawberry, she started attacking her little cup filled with chocolate. Waste not want not is her motto. Of course, she ended up with chocolate on her face.

After that, instead of standing around, we decided to see if we can get into to camp Cesar. As we approached the tent, we asked a shelter worker if we could enter. He said yes. When we reached the tent, we saw a hurly-burly man standing guard at the make-shift door and asked if we can get in. He gruffly said, “VIP ONLY!” Ok then mister high-and-mighty. As we were about to head back to the facility and meet up with hubs, we happen upon a chocolate Cocker Spaniel. That dog was amazingly rotund and from the top, looked like a turtle with no legs. Then we looked up at the owner and we understood why. The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. The owner was equally portly and had a belly the size of a pregnant woman about to pop!

Yeah, we are mean like that. That is how we entertain ourselves.

After a disappointing day, we just left Long Island and headed back to Queens, where we got Malaysian food in Elmhurst. Food wasn’t very good, but we got to have a meal together. It ended with black sesame ice cream for dessert that made our teeth look like we were avid smokers. Ah! What a day of doing absolutely nothing!

Doing nothing was absolutely tiring.

Stench Kissing

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I have been brought up in a house where dirt, dust and general smelliness is equivalent to laziness and utter lack of hygiene. Eighteen years of watching my mom clean, scrub, polish, and meticulously scrap dirt off minuscule holes has done nothing but make me feel guilty…sometimes. Nowadays, I clean when I have to, wash when I run out of clean utensils, throw when I run out of space. Ok, I’m exaggerating here, but I’m not that far off.

The floors are swept once a week. That too, I don’t sweep under the couch or the table. What I don’t see or feel doesn’t exist. The newspapers and magazines are kept because you never know when I would need that article from three years back. At least hubs has found a use for the day-old papers now – part of a wee wee pad. Did I mention that I still keep notes and textbooks from my college and university years? You never know. Each passing of the season is a changing of the guards. Clothes are switched from woolen winter sweaters to skimpy cotton tops, and then there are those that never get worn, but all the same are kept in the pile. New pieces come in, but the old remains. Just like that, the empire is built. The dishes are never washed immediately after a meal – ONLY when my parents are around is this dutifully done. The dishes can wait until the next day, or maybe the day after. I’ve got enough dishes and utensils to go a while without washing. But that would be just disgusting.
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Photosynthesizing

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I’m going to vegetate for the next few days – living off nothing but on the graces of God – fresh air, sunshine and water.

With that in mind, I tried to stuff my face the weekend before, unsuccessfully. Dim Sum on Saturday was a let down, maybe because we didn’t have trays upon trays of dumplings on our table. Pizza for dinner was a slap in the face. We ordered WHITE pizza, but burnt cheddar cheese showed up at our door. We had Chinese take out for the last supper, but everything from the ginger chicken to the walnut chicken were either too salty or too sour. The only saving grace was lunch on Sunday of leftover noodles mixed with Japanese curry that I made earlier during the week. The mango/vanilla sorbet after dinner wasn’t too shabby either.

As I sit here, thinking about the food that I had, and am not having, suddenly, the weekend fare doesn’t sound so bad after all. Now you wonder, why I insist on going through this torture? I am not masochistic. Neither am I that vain. It’s my health.

I have Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), and since the medical world do not know the cause and cure for it, I have to rely on the one fact that I know is true. Food hurts. The food in the market today has been biologically altered so much, that it no longer resembles what it used to be. Because of this, the human body reacts very differently to it and in turn, new diseases / pain and aches occur. Different foods cause different reaction for different people. By going for a quarterly all-out cleansing, I can begin anew and reprogram my body. My detox doesn’t seem as painful when I realize the painlessness I am gaining in return for a few days of not eating.

Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE eating. I eat when I’m stressed. I eat when I’m relaxed. I eat when I’m happy. I eat (a little) when I’m sad. I eat when I’m watching TV (I LOVE watching TV, as much as I love to eat). And according to hubs, he thinks that, I eat when I’m in bed too.

Not eating, then, is a big deal. But, when you have been where I have been, you never want to be back. Not with that kind of pain. Pain that is so unbearable, it makes you feel useless. Pain that is so unbearable, it makes you feel defeated. Pain that is so unbearable, it makes the day go on forever. Pain that is so unbearable, it makes even crawling in bed no respite.

So, as the day comes to an end with my stomach quietly rumbling, I feel my prize is within my grasp.

Days before the detox, my skin started drying up and itching. I have only just realized that I must have a bout with eczema. As I press on to day three of my cleansing, I skin has slowly been revitalized. The peeling, itching and redness has lessened considerably.

As they say, no pain no gain. In this case, I’m cleaning out the system to end the pain. Vegetating can be good.

Art & the Art of Buying

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The trip to Providence late last weekend / early this week wasn’t satisfying at all – artistically and acquisition wise. Food wasn’t to die for, as we had normal chain-store fare and mediocre Asian cuisine. It is worsened by horrible traffic and a lifeless town.

So, after realizing we had a day off for Good Friday, we began planning for the three day-week. It began with my morning trip to the dentist in Secaucus. After a quick filling, hubs dropped me off at Loehmann’s while he got an oil change for the Acura. The oil change turned into a transmission fluid change and more, as it always does, and my 1 hour at the store became 2.5 hours of flipping through EVERY rack, including the men’s non-sale items. In case you didn’t know, my philosophy in shopping is – why buy retail when you can buy bargain at SALE price.
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Get-a-way

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What do you do when you owe yourself a little time off… three months ago? You take it three months later. Three hours away from home. For three days.

As we worked our way through the work week, we were looking forward to our much-needed time off in Providence, RI. What’s in Providence? Nothing. Well, almost nothing.

The city is called the “Creative Capital.” That means lots of museum, parks and artsy-fartsy makings. (Cheh says, “That just means gay town.”) Nice relaxing time. OR we can always head to Foxwoods or Mohegan Suns in CT, or New London for seafood. Or sit in our hotel room with Jess and just veg out. There are endless possibilities.
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