My Life at September 2008
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September 30, 2008(Tuesday)
We went to Chinatown briefly today so that Carmen can visit her ex-co-worker at SUCCESS. Then at night I cooked (one of the very few time) for parents and Carmen. I cooked steam shrimp and steak. First I have to cut the leg of shrimp; I think that if I have to kill a chicken or cow, I would become a vegetarian because I don't think that I can do this kind of thing (even though I like to eat). Anyway, the food tastes fine.
September 29, 2008(Monday)
Today is our dating day. We dropped off Cailyn to Carmen's parents to take care from 2 to 8. We went to play driving range, then did some shopping and had dinner together as well. We rarely have chance to have two-people-world when we were at Bloomington and this is a great chance.
September 28, 2008(Sunday)
We went to Knight Street church for worship and this is a great time to see long time friends. They are all crazy about Cailyn; so many people went to "meet" her. In fact, when we were at Crystal Mall today taking the elevator, even a male stranger touches Cailyn's face!
Then Carmen's parents took care Cailyn for an hour while Carmen and I went to Central Park for about 58 mins jogging. Carmen was amazingly good at running; I have been playing sports with many church friends and most of them get tired easily. Judging from that, I am sure that they can't run as much as I can. However, Carmen was amazingly good, even have more stamina than most friends I know!
At night we had dinner with Auntie 1, Peter and Anna. Then we went to their home to visit Tiffany and Megan. Tiffany is about 2.3 years old while Megan is about 11 months old. Megan got tired so Tiffany spent more time with Cailyn. Cailyn was very happy to see other babies and that is great for the cousins to see each other! We are now living in US by ourselves so we are distant from relatives; therefore, we cherish each time we visit Vancouver and our relatives.
September 27, 2008(Saturday)
At night we had dinner with our long time (some are 15+ years) church friends. That is such a great time to meet the long time friends; now we have our next generation! We had a great time and Cailyn had a great time too! She behaved well and all the uncles and aunties had great fun with her. They all said that Cailyn look much like my dad!
September 26, 2008(Friday)
We went out for some shopping at Costco; however since we don't need anything in bulk volume, we did not buy anything. At night, we went to Carmen's old house for dinner; the grandparents had a great time with Cailyn and we took lots of photo too. This is a great family reunion.
September 25, 2008(Thursday)
We left home at 6:20am and took 1.5 hours flight to Toronto and 5 hours flight to Vancouver and arrived there at 2:30pm local time. This is the first time that Cailyn took a flight and she is surprisingly well behave. Originally we thought that she may have a tough time adjusting to the air pressure when the flight is leaving or arriving to the airport. However she smiled all the way through! During the flight ride, she only cried a bit whenever she got really bored at the car seat. However when we took her out, then she is fine again. However, we cannot get as much sleep as we would like during the flight.
We arrived to parents' home and then started to settle down. Carmen's parents and Carol also visited us. Dad cooked a lot of dishes, as usual. This is a great family dinner and gathering time! Everyone is focusing on Cailyn and she is enjoying all the attention! We are glad that she get used to the environment easily.
Happy 4th year anniversary to my honey!!!
September 24, 2008(Wednesday)
I had the last meeting this morning with professors before leaving Bloomington. The data doesn't show what they want to show but then they are not happy about this; I am glad that I can leave Bloomington because otherwise they will keep on working on this forever. It is good that the deadline of this submission is Dec 1 so that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
We are packing and cleaning up the rest of the day; it is because we are traveling tomorrow and there is a pastor staying at our house. And Cailyn as usual doesn't want to sleep. She doesn't have enough afternoon nap, so she was very tired and fall asleep during the last meal (around 9pm). However this is a power nap and she woke up in 5 mins. Then she is all charge up and very energetic! We tried to calm her down from 9:30 and finally she went to sleep at 11:20. We tried all sort of thing to sooth her, such as carrying her or give her pacifier. However whenever we put her to bed, she cried. And whenever we give her the pacifier, she sucks but then has a tendency of spiting it out. Therefore I have to stand there and push the pacifier back or else the pacifier constantly falling out. This is a very frustration process. We just let her cried and exhaust her energy for the first hour and only act after an hour.
September 23, 2008(Tuesday)
There is a pastor coming to visit us three weeks from now; I won't be here at that time so I have to spend lots of time now to coordinate and make sure everything will be smooth.
I also have another meeting with professors and also "manipulating" the data. However after several months of hard work, we still cannot find what we want; so we may have to go back to ground zero.
September 22, 2008(Monday)
This morning I had a meeting with professors about the healthcare paper. We are still in the process of finding the probability that each of the stages are full, and also the length-of-stay at each unit if the next stage is not full (hence not blocking the patients moving to the next step). I have to work at the professor's laptop because he doesn't want to leak out his data. And in the middle of that I got locked out from the computer because I was talking to another professor for more than 5 mins. I have to wait for 1.5 hours (while doing workout at that time). Anyway I think that working with data has the advantage that this is a real-life problem. However my experience with working with data in this project is not positive. My major research methodology is "sitting at the ivory tower and creating with formula". Sometimes it is not real-life but I don't have to go through all these troubles.
September 21, 2008(Sunday)
Whenever Cailyn is hungry, she gets really fuzzy and wants to eat desperately ("want it now"). This is sometimes very annoying and her cry easily makes us "mum". For other time, I like to play with her and like to let her to "meet" my face. (I still remember when I was young I like to let Hansel hit my back too)
September 20, 2008(Saturday)
We went for grocery shopping in the morning, then at night Jacky and Effie came to our house for dinner. We have some good chitchatting and it is good to have dinner with them before we leave US.
September 19, 2008(Friday)
I had meeting this morning with professor. Since we have been working on this for a while and I am going out of town for the next month, he worked on a lot today, on the derivation and proofs. It is good because it is finally moving. I also played badminton for 3 hours today; at night it was Bible Study at fellowship.
September 18, 2008(Thursday)
Ever since she learnt how to sit up by herself (around 2 or 3 days ago), Cailyn is not willing to sleep at night! When she was born, when we put her to bed, she slept. Then ever since she knows how to roll over, whenever we put her to bed, she rolls over. Now whenever we put her to bed, she first roll over then sit up by herself, and smile at us! I think that when she knows how to stand by herself, she will first roll over, then sit up then stand up! That would be tough! Today I also lower the baby crib to the bottom level so that she won't climb over the gate.
September 17, 2008(Wednesday)
I continued to input data for 2 hours in the morning. One day when I become a professor I will ask my student to do the same thing!
I had a golf lesson today; I am bad on the driving range, but I putt pretty good.
September 16, 2008(Tuesday)
Today Cailyn is able to sit up by herself! Previously we have to fix her in the sitting position, but now she knows how to transform from lying down to sitting up!
I had meeting with professors today. Since I am leaving Bloomington end of next week, I have to do as much as I can now. And I spent 2.5 hours today entering data; this is for the healthcare project. We need to estimate the patients' length of stay at the hospital and also the probability that each stage is full. The data that my professor has is in paper format. Therefore I need to manually entering it into Excel. Moreover the professor does not want to leak the data outside therefore I can't do it at home. I have to use his computer and do it at his office too! I am glad that I am good at entering data and working with Excel! Therefore I can find some shortcut to do thing quick.
September 15, 2008(Monday)
I had another normal workout session today. Probably because there are too many people working out at the gym, my condition is not as good. But nevertheless, I will see how much I have so that when I go back to HK, I can have a workout session or running session with Hansel.
September 14, 2008(Sunday)
This morning I had deacon board meeting. There were lots of serving for different people going on at church and the deacon board's mission is to encourage these front-line people to serve faithfully! Lately I have sent lots of "encouragement" email. I am glad that I also received one, which is from Carmen. However I hope that more people will be encouraging one another.
September 13, 2008(Saturday)
I went to play badminton/basketball this afternoon. It usually is a Friday afternoon activity; however yesterday we had a big church event, so I moved this fun time to this afternoon. At night, the Macedonia (Cantonese) group had a mid-autumn gathering at the shelter space outside of our apartment building. There were almost 30 Cantonese people showed up, which is quite a lot. Even though lately Carmen and I are not as involved in the Cantonese group as we used to be, we are pleased to see that people stepped up to serve God. This makes us happy because we see that there are people to continue the ministry!
September 12, 2008(Friday)
I went for a full workout today. For the past several weeks I spent some of the workout time for playing badminton, or running outdoor, or swimming. That is not as tired as a full workout. My routine is first run 14mins at speed 7.5 and incline 3.5. Then weight lifting for 10 mins, then run second time 14mins speed 7.5 and incline 3.5. Then second weight lifting 10 mins. Lastly I ran one mile (about 4 laps) at indoor trek, which takes about 7.5 mins. My speed is not fast, when comparing to Hansel running 6 laps for 9.5 mins. (For my speed, it takes almost 12 mins for 6 laps). However, I am running at an incline, and I have to save energy for other running session. Therefore I think that I am doing fine.
At night the church has welcome-new-student dinner. This is the most major event of our church. During summer time our church has around 40 to 50 people. And during school time our fellowship has 70-80 people. However today there were 160+ people came for dinner, 110 stayed for the program afterward and 100+ stayed for the group sharing afterward. Carmen was the MC and one of the worship team. And being the church's president, I introduced church and also have to do the lucky draw. It felt so weird to do the lucky draw because it is usually reserved for those elder or people in the high-level. I certainly don't want to position myself as one of these people. I would rather be a humble servant.
September 11, 2008(Thursday)
I had meeting with professors about the healthcare paper that I am working on. We are trying our very best to fine-tune the algorithm; however, there are lots of "big picture" that we are missing and we made lots of "major" assumption as well. But then, since the professors suggest me to work on that algorithm, I have to work on that.
At night, after prayer meeting, the worship team is practicing for tomorrow's performance. It is always great to have a worship team. I have been to this church for 3+ years and finally there is one coming out! I thank God for that!
September 10, 2008(Wednesday)
I had a baptismal class today with Zach. Then I went out to have a jogging. It is a great day for jogging because the temperature is just right (about 22 degree) and I am neither tired nor hungry. At night we went to play golf together. We took turn playing putting, hitting from one hole to the other hold Cailyn. It is certainly a very good family event. (Playing a full 9-hole may be hard because Carmen doesn't know how to drive the golf ball).
September 09, 2008(Tuesday)
I had a meeting with professor today, and he said that the proof is not using the format that he likes. Therefore he only read 3 (out of 16) pages of proof and asked me to redo. This is the advantage of being a professor.
Afterward I went to play golf. Carmen and Cailyn also went to see me play driving range and putting too. This is a good family event.
September 08, 2008(Monday)
The workout gym is full of people. I think that the oxygen level is a bit low and therefore I had a hard time running on treadmill.
September 07, 2008(Sunday)
I was the worship leader today at church; then the Cantonese group has a meeting at my house.
September 06, 2008(Saturday)
Nothing special happened today
September 05, 2008(Friday)
I had some badminton again today; seems like lately I am playing too much. I found that my HK friends are not good at badminton, but my Taiwan/China friends are really good. I am still improving.
We had the pastoral search committee today; then at night fellowship we played the "Kings and Queens" game. First we divide to male vs. female. Then each male are assigned a number (which is only known to the female) and the male thinks about 10 to 15 questions. Then the male asks the female these questions one-by-one, and each female vote one male (through using a number). For example, the questions are "who is the most naughty", "who is a good husband", "who will likely retire at the age of 40", "who is most hardworking" etc. Then for each question, each female votes someone. Then by these results the male must guess what number corresponding to whom. There are some newcomers but they can still vote according to their first impression. Some of the questions are really revealing, such as "who is the best husband", because people see Carmen votes for #6, then everyone knows that I should be #6. Nevertheless, this is a fun game.
September 04, 2008(Thursday)
Today we brought Cailyn to do a six-month check up (She is 6.5 months already). Her height is 26.5 inches (75 percentile); her weight is 16lb8oz (75 percentile) and her head circumference is 43.5 (75-90 percentile). Her developmentally progress is around 7.5 months. So she is doing great. She also took some oral medicine and three vaccine shots. Once again it is a very painful experience (see my video/photo). Going through this once again remind us about the great love of Heavenly Father, because He witnessed His Son going through crucifixion.
At night we went to prayer meeting, but only we showed up. Therefore we only spent 30mins there and went home afterward.
September 03, 2008(Wednesday)
This morning we went to the public library because there is a monthly activity "bouncing baby". Basically about 10+ babies (plus their parents) gather around, and the instructor sang some songs. This is a good chance for Cailyn to get to know some other babies.
We also went to Indianapolis to eat Japanese all-you-can-eat, and we are very full. Then we walked around Babies R Us and purchased many safety housing stuff, such as safety gates, wire guard, electric plug guard, etc. As Cailyn getting bigger, there are more things that we need to be prepared for!
September 02, 2008(Tuesday)
This is a normal day, with some meeting with professors and working out at gym.
September 01, 2008(Monday)
This morning I played basketball (5-on-5) with church friends and also badminton with church friends too. Lots of people came, around 25 church people come. This is certainly a good way to socialize. Afterward while Carmen is taking care the baby, I un-assemble the computer desk at the living room, and also pack the DVD player. This is the one of the many steps that we are doing to prepare some spaces for Cailyn to play. It is certainly very tiring.