If I have a twitter..

Note: I think it's hard to find a title that always start with 'on'. All these title posts, either they're right on or they're a bit weird. So I may have let that go...

I have a twitter account that I don't use. I don't believe in that anymore. But, I have some things in my mind that I need to say:

It is hard to fall asleep when your husband is snoring, but it's even harder to do when your dog's snoring at the same time.

I always feel bad when I end up buying something that I have previously bought for someone as a gift  just because I like it a lot.

Anyway, today is Fridee. Just to give an update, we have found our flooring for the house. We love it so much. 

1. Natural Hickory

We are using hardwood floors for the bedrooms and living rooms (downstairs and upstairs). Both of us do not like oak feel. The grain. Just a preference, not judging. But surprisingly, we both like the natural character hickory. We like the different tone color.

2. Daltile - San Michele and Heathland

We will have 12"x24" tiles throughout most of the first floor and bathroom. I love the rectangular tiles and the vein cut and that travertine feel. Love it! We'll also staggered them when they're laid out. We'll have mosaic tiles (2"x2") Heathland - Sunrise for the shower floor and a 9"x12" wall tile Heathland - White Rock with one accent wall Heathland - Sage in the master bath :)

Note: Nobody likes my Hello Kitty tiles! If I have a baby girl, I'm going to tell her to ask daddy to install Hello Kitty tiles in her bathroom :p Who could resist a little girl asking for a Hello Kitty tile?? 

Next step is to get cabinets for the bathroom as we need running water before we're moving back in :)

Originally, we were going with quartz. And I love this Bianco River for the clean bathroom feel and Chrome for the more upbeat bar feel. But, you know the price is not as friendly esp. the one that I picked out :( So we're looking at granite remnants where we know we can get a better deal. 

We'll see. Happy Fridee, though!

On what I'm reading

What I've read:

The Cost of Hope - Amanda Bennett

I like this book and I think it's well written. Of course I'm crying when I'm reading it. But it shows her perseverance and how much she loved her husband. It also makes me question our existing healthcare industry. The book covers the actual cost that the family spent, so the title is being up front at the same time, the cost of hope.

Abundance - Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler

Again, it makes me realize how great our world is and how great the power of the people. The book is filled with positive energy which is needed in this sometimes negative world. I think we need positive reinforcement in every problem we're facing. Yes, the world has a problem such as clean water availability and world hunger. Let's not sit down and be doomed, but put our thinking cap instead because we may live in abundance one day!

These following books are classic books which I have not read previously. They were not assigned readings in my high school.

Of Mice and Men - John Steinback

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger. I really love this book. 

What I'm currently reading:

Snow child - Eowyn Ivey

I haven't actually read a single word, but I'm going to start today. I hope it's going to be good :)

From Amazon.com:

Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart--he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone--but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.

This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.

On our Minneapolis trip

This past weekend, we (with Lucky!) went to Minneapolis for a friend's wedding. We arrived at about 10:00pm. Lucky was looking super cute checking out this big reception hall at Hyatt Regency (thanks to Priceline). You know like a amazed and all. Wait, who in the world complimenting their own dog? It's like I'm saying to people: "My (future) daughter looks beautiful." It sounds wrong. Also, I want to comment on the hotel. I felt like it was a very pretentious hotel. This "fancy" hotel will charge for internet. I mean, nowadays they have free wi-fi in every other 3-star hotel you know.

Anyway, every time I go to a city, there will be a buffering time. It's like my brain forgets that I grew up in a city. (World ranking for Jakarta: 13th by population, 6th by population density, and 2nd by population with the official metropolitan area, according to Wikipedia - please don't judge my source). So naturally, I should not be wowed by tall buildings or should not feel uneasy about seeing more cars and more people. But I was......not for long, though......

On Saturday, we decided to take a walk around Lake Harriet. I'm gonna say upfront that I don't like walking that much. I'd prefer biking. But for that, we needed to rent it. So yeah, we made lots of  a couple stops as I needed to rest my legs (By the end of the walk, I had cramps). We took pictures along the way too and my fav. one was the shadow pictures. From left to right: Lucky, Mr. and me. Or as I said to Mr.: "Yeah this picture from left to right represents who likes to pass gas the most and whose gas is the stinkiest. I'm just kidding.......NOT!" I'm not kidding, Lucky's fart is toxic.

We then had lunch with my brother and his girlfriend at French Meadow. It was delish! I ordered grass-fed beef burger (I have always thought that it's obvious for a cow to eat grass????) Then time to get ready.

The wedding was awesome, we (my brother and I) danced and caught up with old friends. The next morning we had dim sum at Pagoda restaurant. Mr. did not eat, I'm sure because he never had one before and he found it weird. But I have not had dim sum in a while (spare ribs and chicken feet!). I still like Phoenix in Chicago better.

Anyway, we had fun, but it's just too little amount of time and a bit harder to bring Lucky.

On the bright side ...

On the bright side...my brother received Microscopy Society of America Presidential Student Award for 2012. So proud of his past, present, and future achievements!

We may somewhat still live out of our suitcases. But, on the bright side ... Lucky seems to be settling in just fine. Note: do you notice that she puts her paws underneath her head when sleeping?

We may have very warm weather this summer and our plants are not as fruitful, but on the bright side... we are able to work our magic and make our homemade salsa. Ingredients include varieties of peppers, tomatoes, red onion, lemon juice, and cilantro. That's it. Oh! and lots of love ;)

Life can be full of surprises. But at the end of the day, I know he (and my family too) will be there for me. I don't want to dwell in the hardships, but I want to look at the bright side...

the bright back side of our new tree fort 

Much much love goes to Rebecca G. who is currently in Uganda. If you read this, I'd like to tell you that I keep my calendar open, just in case...You know what I mean ;p

On keeping the chandelier

The chandelier was there the first time we took a look at the house. It might be the prettiest thing that came originally with the place (except for the lake, of course). I can't afford to throw it out just like that. So, we keep the chandelier. I will refinish it with new coat of paint and hang it in the new office room. That way, I still have a piece of memory from when the first period we lived in the house. I am that kind of person who is always trying to preserve memories* 

Even better, if we get a sofa sleeper for that room, I can get this cute chandelier-ish pillow!!

*Hopefully it does not turn into compulsive hoarding.

**I created this post yesterday morning. Previously, Mr. informed me that the tree will not be removed yet during the first phase of demolition. So, I was super excited to find this side table idea. I could not wait to tell him and maaaaayybe I could convince him to keep the tree trunk. But, yesterday evening when we visited the house for the first day of demolition, the tree was gone :'( I just can't get the tree side table idea out of my mind, though.

On harvesting the pepa!

Every summer, we grow peppers and tomatoes. This summer, the tomatoes are not doing good due to the excessive heat that we've been experiencing. But, the peppers are doing ok. We grow them 2 ways; in a hanging planter (L) and in the ground (R). We are testing which way grows more peppers. So far, we have concluded that growing them in the ground will produce more peppers. I don't know if this is the case for everybody, but we plan on growing them just in the ground next summer.

We grow more varieties this year and we have picked some of them. From left to right: Garden Salsa, Sweet Banana, Giant Marconi, Hot Banana, and UFO (Unidentified Familiar Object - We know it's pepper (and hence 'Familiar') but the name tag was missing, so we could not tell what it was (and hence 'Unidentified').  We haven't picked the jalapeño, habanero, and fajita bells yet.

We used the Sweet Banana and the UFO as topping on frozen pizza (sometimes too tired to cook and to eat outside). They were delicious. We can't wait to make salsa with this. I'm guessing we want to buy some tomatoes from Farmer's Market or somewhere since our home grown tomatoes are not growing.

Happy Harvest Day!

On winning that Olympic medal

Thus far, Indonesia has won 1 silver and 1 bronze in London 2012. The silver medal is contributed by Triyatno in Men’s 69kg Weightlifting. The bronze is from Eko Yuli Irawan in Men’s 62kg Weightlifting. I’m proud. These events may not gain too much attention (if any), but I remember Weightlifting always contributes something to Indonesia’s medal counts in Olympics. Congratulations again J

Triyatno's story (L) on The Jakarta Post
Eko Yuli Irawan's story (R) on The Jakarta Post

Now, the real disappointment for me must come from Badminton. This has been the sport other than football (soccer) that my family follows religiously (I guess my dad also likes Boxing on a late Sunday morning). My dad, brother, uncles, and cousins used to play for hours on Sundays (or table tennis which is very Asian I realize). It was a good time.

Badminton was first introduced as an official Olympic sport in 1992. That year, Indonesia won Gold and Bronze medals in Men’s Singles (Alan Budikusuma), Gold in Women’s Singles (Susi Susanti), and Silver in Men’s Doubles (Eddy Hartono and Rudy Gunawan). The Olympics after that (1996 – 2008), we won 4 Gold, 4 Silver, and 4 Bronze Medals. I think it’s pretty awesome. But I know our achievement has been slowly declining. (Total medal count is 30 for China and 18 for Indonesia)

I’m also aware that the competition is FIERCE. Players from China (i.e. Lin Dan) and Malaysia (i.e. Chong Wei Lee) have been really great (They won Gold and Silver in Men’s Singles – Beijing ‘08). In London 2012, they beat Taufik Hidayat (Gold – Athens ’04) and Simon Santoso, respectively.  Prior to their matches, my dad and I already felt that they are going to be tough matches and we would most likely lose. I think it’s great to be the other position, to be feared or to be the favorite. But, time after time after time in any competitions, there have been moments where the least favorite one, the “weaker” one, comes through and becomes the champion. It’s not this year for Indonesia.

I feel that we don’t have that regeneration where talented young men and women should be properly trained. Well, I’m not even sure how they train for tournament nowadays. I won’t say much, especially with the disqualification of our Women’s Doubles (here from NPR). It’s embarrassing, but then again I have never represented Indonesia in the Olympics, so no place to judge. There is still one more game though, Mixed Doubles, for Bronze. We just have to wait and see.

Taufik Hidayat (L) and Simon Santoso (R)
London 2012 - Badminton

I don't want to look at things pessimistically (one thing from the book that I'm currently reading: Abundace - The Future is Better Than You Think, but it's for another post) and I still do believe that we have the potential and the urge to be #1 again (if we ever did?). So let’s go! Let’s get better!

“Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” - Samuel Beckett