On being 25: Princess cake, Nicolaus Copernicus, and Lost&Found

February 19th. I used to hate my birthday date. 02/19. Number 19 is just not proportional to number 2, I thought. But I have learned not to care about that, but to care about the meaning. Yesterday, I put on The Beatles - 1 CD. It reminded me of my 17th birthday, it was a gift from my mom.

Back story: Growing up, I got birthday gifts until I was 6 or so. Mostly toys. But, the tradition changed. My parents would give me money in the red envelope (Chinese's red envelope). They said, This is for you, but let's save it for your college fund. I am grateful for that. So, presents on birthday are not a big deal for me. But when I was 17, it was different. I saw something wrapped for me from my mom. The Beatles - 1 CD. Ah, she knows I like The Beatles. This would be the last year before I went to the US for college. The last year I celebrated birthday in a warm weather. Since then, it's been 8 birthdays I celebrated without them.

From Monday until today, it was reaffirmed what I looked for on a birthday. Monday was my dear husband's birthday. One day before me. I made him a strawberry cake. I tried to re-create our wedding cake, but it did not come close. Cake was OK, but the frosting was surprisingly delish! It felt warm and fuzzy as we watched The Bachelorette (Ha!). The following day was my birthday. He got back from work and I asked for my birthday dance :) Some spins and dips later, I was smiling from ear to ear. We went to Buffalo Wild Wings! Tuesday's Wings Night! I could not wait for my ice cream cake! At home, he brought it up and there it was! My Disney Princess Birthday Cake. I laughed, as I though he did a good joke! No, I'm not a fan of Disney Princess, but I'm a fan of Hello Kitty. But he genuinely thought I was a fan of the princesses, so I laughed even harder. How I love my husband. He put 2 candles on left side and 5 candles on the right, dimmed the light, and sang happy birthday to me. Too cute.

What I did for the first time after a long time today was to re-connect with my friend by actually using facebook properly. I replied each message one by one and asked about them too. Some have been replying back and it's wonderful. This is a true meaning of birthday, for me at least. So thank you dear family and friends.

And you know what the best part is - I share the same birthday as Nicolaus Copernicus. 'Nuff said!

Lost&Found - St. Anthony of Padua
I have been a fan of St. Anthony of Padua. If someone asks me who my favorite saint is, it would be him!  (Second will be St. Christopher - for another time) Fransiscans are my fav. too.

Back story: I have been praying to him since 3rd grade. I lost my Winnie The Pooh wallet. Somebody stole it! (Not sure though). My mom told me that I should pray to him, He's the patron saint of lost stuffs. I still did not find my Pooh wallet until this day. But, it does not deter my beliefs. Anyway, in high school, I expanded my prayers to St. Anthony not only for lost things, but also for everything else. I mean, each year my parents and I attended the big St. Anthony of Padua's novena in July-August for 9 Tuesdays in a row. Each time after school, still wearing my uniform. Each time, we got there 30 min earlier. Each time, it was crazily packed. Each time, it was super hot. Each time, I fell asleep. The people's intention part last about 30 min itself. It's like 2 pages long, single-spaced intentions. For example (not in order), 350 prayers for world peace, Lord hear our prayer. 589 prayers for reaching our dreams, Lord hear our prayer, 234 prayers to be able to travel out of the country, Lord hear...wait what? I do no remember if any of my prayers came true, but I remember my devotions (while falling asleep) and others' as well.

So, it was only natural that I prayed to him when my dear husband lost his wedding ring. It was December, when we were moving stuffs from the storage back to the house. Where's my ring?! We looked for it in the house, in his Jeep, and outside. We went back to the storage with flashlight. Nothing. St. Anthony of Padua, the patron saint of lost thing, please help us find the wedding ring.....................Please, please, please, please, please. (I definitely need to learn how to pray). But, again we did not find it. We gave up....

Until.......about 2 weeks ago. Someone knocked on the door. The mailman. He had his palm out. Is this yours? There it was! The lost wedding ring, which was now found (Amazing Grace is playing in the background...I once was lost but now am found......oh! and Hallelujah too) I was screaming OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! How did you find this?! Well, he said that he was feeling lucky that week, he found his lost car key in the middle of the road and now he found this ring too. The ring has an engraving 'AAG' inside. So he tried to figure out who had that initial. Bingo! It was followed by me saying Thank you for 1000x Thanks, Mr. Mailman. I should have invited you for a hot cocoa inside and tried to convince you to go to Vegas that week.

I decided not to inform my husband about this great afternoon (I informed my mother-in-law, who was also surprised) I waited for his birthday and have it as his gift (Smart cookie!) On Monday, he just could not believe it when he opened it. It was awesome. But of course, it was followed by It's been run by cars, I think stuff (Mr. critique).

I'm spreading the good news of St. Anthony of Padua. My favorite saint. Like probably would have fallen in love with him if I had lived 800 years ago......

What a loooooong post!

On what I'm reading

Tears tears tears. I will make sure the next time I'm blogging, I know why a person cries and why one person tends to cry easier. But anyway, I cried at the end of 'The fault in our stars - John Green'. Like suffocated, puffy-eyed type of crying. Silly, I know.

Without further ado, I have listed the books that I've read up to today. I am also writing them in order from which I like the best until which I like the least (I may read good books at the same time and I'll number all of them '1').

1. The sense of an ending - Julian Barnes (Kindle)
I borrowed it from online library and  read it on my Kindle (Its name is Lucky Charm). I love it. It was only 150 pages, so I read it pretty fast, but it left me wanting more. I will definitely try to catch up with his other works.

2. Peace like a river - Leif Enger (Hardcover)
I was frustrated when every book that I wanted was checked out at that time. Then, I tried to increase the probability by going back several years to see if any books interested me. You know, new books get checked out pretty fast. I found Peace like a river. I love the stories and the characters which were set back in 1960s. The title also somewhat made me feel peaceful when reading the book. Like, even when reading the height of the story, I kept calm and really believed that everything was going to be alright.

2. The fault in our stars - John Green (Hardcover)
It's a young adult novel. It was an easy read, but I think it was more than that. It was also written well. Though I can not relate to the characters' feelings about their sickness (cancer), I kind of want to befriend these people. They were not over the top made-up 'it' characters (you know, like in a movie where a girl is just like super cool and happy all the freaking time or like a guy who impresses people with his clever remarks). This book made me cry at the end (FYI: A lot of things make me cry, so it's not like everybody will cry reading this book).

4. Paper town - John Green (Hardcover)
I like The fault in our stars better, but I still like this book. The book follows the story of a young teenage boy solving clues left by his crush which lead to her whereabouts. So, it's somewhat feel like reading a detective book with a better writing style.

5. Snow child - Eowyn Ivy (Kindle)
See, it got like 4.5 starts from Amazon and that's why I bought it. But, I thought it would be a better story. I am still kind of confused if the child is a miracle child made out of the snowman child or a real child. I am not sure if the writer tries to set it straight or just to make it up to the readers which one to believe. I am not sure what the difference between her story and the Russian folktale on which it is loosely based (Snegurochka). I know it's different, but it feels the same except for the setting. Maybe I need to reread it?

6. The weird sisters - Eleanor Brown (Kindle)
I waited for the online version to become available from the library for a long time. I was disappointed. I like the idea for the story, but I can not help but to compare it with something like 'In her shoes'. Both books tell a story about the weird relationship among (between) sisters. But, the bottom line is that they love each other. I did not feel the pain that the sisters go through in this book. I may even have to pick 'In her shoes' between these. On the other hand, I do like the Shakespeare's references.

Currently starting to read: A discovery of witches - Deborah Harkness

*Writing this post makes me realize that I haven't read a non-fiction lately. I'm planning to read 'The Swerve' soon.

On my latest obsession

Nope, I am not obsessed with fall riding boots or trench coats,* but I'm obsessed with these:

1. Revenge - abc

Been waiting for this show all summer long. A little bit disappointed with the first episode of the second season, but I'm still obsesses with Emily Thorne. I may or may not like the time slot change. I like that it's on a Sunday, but I don't like it because I thought I could start watching The Good Wife again. Oh well

2. Concrete Mixer - Culver's

A little bit weird obsession coming into fall season, but here I am getting this almost once every week. I found my new 2 toppings which I could have probably thought about it before. Cookie dough and Kit Kat! I still haven't got enough of it yet, so I still count it as my obsession.

3. Flipboard

Yaay to this app! I highly recommend this app. You pick what you like (news, science, design, photography, etc) and there you have it. It gathers everything from all around the web. It sounds sooo simple, but I like the design of this flipboard app. I don't really have to go to a specific news website. I also like the category 'flipboard picks', it features interesting thing. I find myself open this Flipboard app the first thing in the morning. From my Samsung S3, the flipboard has grids of each category you chose. This is actually what I'd like to see with facebook news feed. For example a 2x3 grid; photo upload, status update, gaming stuff, etc. If I click 'photo upload' category, it will tell me which friends just upload pictures. So it's not too cluttered like what it is now.

4. Cocoa Puff

First time I have this cereal. Love it! I can have this cereal more than once a day. I also love how in the end, I'm drinking chocolate milk ;)

5. Horizontal Railing

Ever since my mom-in-law gave us the idea of having horizontal railing, I can't stay away from it. The modern look, the clean and simple feel. We will have brushed nickel for everything else (windows and door hardware, bathroom faucet and shower), so the metal feel fits well. The one thing that I found is that little kids will try to climb it as a ladder. But, we are so obsessed with this metal horizontal railing, my mommy genes just disappeared (scientist found that there might be a mommy gene which can make a woman to be more motherly, so to speak). We have to also see about the price. Railing system from wood will be cheaper.

Happy Fall!

*Note: I am not because I have been avoiding them. I don't look at them yet. I hope the time will come soon for me to be obsessed with them :)

Engineering Saturday

He put his arm around me and said, "Do you still remember 395* class?" "Yeah," I said. "Well then, we're mixing some concrete tomorrow."

I did not know what I got myself into. A little back story: The places where they put cribbing needed to be filled in. Concrete guys won't be able to come until next Monday. But, the carpenter needed to put the joists in. Solution: We filled in ourselves!

All I can remember is bagels, back pain, Menards, back pain, kiddie pool, back pain. We went to Menards to get supplies; 6-60 lbs sand mix, 2-90 lbs cement, 1-5 gal bucket. We used the kiddie pool that we bought Lucky that one time. 

1. We filled in the 5'x5' (we had to do 2 of them) with more crushed rocks, so we needed less mix.

2. Then we mix 3-60 lbs sand, 1-90 lbs cement, 20 gal of aggregate (the crushed rocks), and 1.5 gal of water for each 5'x5'. It was so hard to mix. And according to my friend, I did not do it right if my back is in pain. Well, tracing back my memory to 395*, I remember mixing much less of a mix in a group, a group of 4-5 people. Those 4-5 people would usually consists of 3-4 males and 1 female. We took turn and by 'we', I meant the male students. But I did the mixing too this time. (Picture shows John mixing)

3. We then poured the material, spread, and smoothed it out. Oh, we did not forget to put our hand prints.

They all sound pretty straightforward and easy. But, it left me pretty beat up. And yes, my lower back is still sore, but it's much better.

Looking forward to another. Engineering Saturday!


*CEE 395: Material for constructed facilities.

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.