So I am watching what I eat. After reading “You on a Diet”, I resolved to eat better and stay off foods that is high in sugar and fat. Then today my mother in law unpacked her luggage, and there, laying before me - container after container of Chinese New Year goodies! Pineapple Tarts, Love Letters, Sambal Crackers, OMG, all my favorite, and frankly I don’t know how I’m going to resist the temptation. Just today I think I ate a total of 8 sticks of sambal crackers, and like 5 pineapple tarts. I feel so guilty! What’s more, it had been raining for the past two days, and I haven’t got the chance to get out to skate at all since Saturday. I hope to get some done tomorrow.

For dinner today we had a Chinese New Year dish called “Yu Sang“, which simplay translates to “Raw Fish” in English. What it is is a plate filled with a mixture of raw fish, shredded carrots, radish, dried fruit, fried wonton skins, pickled vegetables, sesame seed, sweet sauce, and seasoning. In Singapore we eat this once every year during Chinese New Year. Sort of like having Turkey for Thanksgiving. It symbolizes abundance, and relatives and friends would gather round the big plate of Yu Sang and start mixing up the ingredients with chopsticks, and shouting out well wishes for everybody, such as good health, wealth, and prosperity, while lifting the ingredients high up in the air.

Rebecca spent her first day back sleeping. She’s recovering from flu, and jetlag. Poor girl. This morning she woke up at about 9am, had her milk, breakfast, then slept again at 11:30am, right up to 5pm, had her dinner and desert at around 6pm, and then played for a bit, then slept again at 9pm. The last time she was back it took her one week to recover from jetlag, and I’m expecting this time to be similar.

Rebecca, Doug, and his Mom arrived safely yesterday evening. I was worried that she might not recognize me anymore (yes it’s only been two weeks but I’m super possessive like that), but the minute I carried her in my arms, it was like she never left. Aww … I am just so happy that she’s back. Weeee!

Today Namco released Ms. Pacman game for the iPod, available now from the iTunes Store. I’ll probably get it later tonight.

2 weeks ago if someone asks me if I can live two weeks without my little girl Rebecca, I would say “why not?” Well, today is two weeks later, and I can tell you right now, it was hard. Those were the longest 2 weeks I have every experienced. So, let me summarize - two weeks ago Doug and Rebecca left for Singapore to celebrate Chinese New Year with friends and family. Yours truly here didn’t go because of work, and also, the dogs. It was Rebecca’s first Chinese New Year and I know that our relatives would love for her to be present to share the joyous celebrations. So I said “go, go, I’ll be ok by myself.”

I was ok, physically. Thank God nothing major happened (did someone say burst pipe?), and I spent most of the time working, skating, cooking, shopping, and taking the dogs out for walks. The hours of the day seemed so long, but it wasn’t so much about how much time I had, it was the motivation to spend it. I was planning to go to yoga class, but I didn’t, I was planning to do a lot of tidying around the house, but I didn’t, I was planning to read up on a new web framework (Ruby on Rails), but I didn’t. I was distracted, aimless. The only thing I pushed myself to really do was skating. I had resolved to learn the skill and improve in these two weeks, and lucky for that, or I wouldn’t have anything to show for.

So that brings us back to today. Doug and Rebecca will be arriving this evening and I’m just trying to find stuff to do to keep myself busy. Working helps, and blogging about it helps too. I need to keep my mind off it. The minutes are ticking by so slowly …

It was a fine day today. My friend and I drove to San Francisco in the morning. We brought our skates with us hoping we could do some rolling at the Golden Gate Park. On our way there, the skies were overcast and it was even raining on some parts of the bay. We first had our lunch at Sapporo-ya, and the Miso Ramen was so good. The texture of the noodles was perfect, and the broth was thick and tasty. I loved it.

Next we headed off to the Golden Gate Park. Ok I totally wimped out when I saw the uneven surface at the park, so we went on in search for flatter grounds. We drove till the end of the park to the Great Highway Beach. There was a stretch of rather smooth but not so even surface, so I had another go. The winds were very strong, and it was hard skating against it, and harder to stop with the wind pushing me along. I suck. I need more practice.

Yes every year I have some kind of obsession, usually triggered by a particulr event, or a series of events. For example, last year, when we moved to a new place we have a really cool backyard, and I got obsessed with gardening, and keeping carnivorous plants. A few years back I got hooked on the trails in the Bay Area, and was totally into mountain biking. This year, after our trip back from Singapore, I revisited my obsession for inline skating. Why do I say “revisit”? I’ve been trying to master this skill since I put my first skates on when I was a teenager. Everytime, I just skated for a few days, and that’s it. Then when I start to pick it up again, I had to re-learn it again.

This time, I had the opportunity to skate everyday, and since I bought myself a new pair of Rollerblade skates, I am loving every minute of it. Even though the soles of my feet ached, my shins hurt, and I skate like a baby learning how to walk, I still come back for more. I love it that I’m improving, though slowly, but I do get a little better each day. Now I need to keep up with this, and soon I will be able to participate in the skate events here. That’s my goal.

A few days ago someone from my Ratlover.net community emailed me and told me that I had naked pictures in the photo link I sent in the forum. GASP! My first thought was that my site had been hacked, but upon further investigation, it turned out that the site he was referring to was Flickr, and not Ratlover.net - I had placed a link to Flickr which had pictures of my doggies enjoying their time at Sealpoint Park.

Whew, so its Flickr’s problem. Well that didn’t solve the mystery on why there are naked pictures in my set. Then I got a message on the Flickr page to click Shift+Refresh if I see weird pictures. Turned out, there was a cache issue and other people’s pictures were appearing where they weren’t supposed to. Well that explains it. Good thing Flickr got on it quickly, and everything’s back to normal again.

Alright, today is day 4 of my “single” life. 8 more days to go.

Rebecca and Daddy are in Singapore celebrating Chinese New Year. I decided not to follow because of work. So, I’m currently living “the single life”, if you will.

Today’s a good day - I started the day practicing my skating at Shoreline, then came back, took the dogs to the dog park for a Ratty Playdate. It was great to see all the ratty owners after a few months, catch up on what’s going on. One of our members are leaving the Bay Area and moving out of state, so I had a farewell dinner with them.

I think my doggies are really happy since I’m focusing more attention on them again, taking them for long walks, visits to parks, explore new places.

Here’s wishing everyone a wonderful Chinese New Year! Piggy Year!

I’m absolutely in love with the new 2007 Infiniti G Sedan. My ideal setup would be the 6MT with Navigation, in Ivory Pearl. Ahh, one can only dream.

First, Rebecca’s 13 months old today, and second, Cayenne turns 2. Today’s a special day. Our little girl has grown quite a fair bit this past month - she’s now great pals with our two dogs. Before, when she was a little younger, she would just ignore them, but now she pets them, plays with their feet, ears, tails, and when she’s on the floor with them, they would give her wet doggy kisses, to which she responds with a loud scream and wince. They look so funny and cute together. The doggies are great with food messes made by Rebecca, they just lick all of it right up! It’s no wonder why Rebecca’s lunch and dinner times are the most exciting times for them.