Spent a whole week in Kronberg, very productive sessions with Fishbowl presentation ending on a very high note. Eager to come back home though to my family and see Ellie. It took a little while for Ellie to re-recognize me, I think this time I was gone for too long, a whole 5 days. I need to do a better job at spending more time with my precious little baby.
We went to Napa Valley on Saturday, had a nice picnic, Ellie had a bit of Gouda cheese and milk, she seems to be really satisfied. We visited my friend in Marin on the way home, it is so nice to be able to drop by friends' house without pre-arrangement, it is spontaneous and I wish people do it more often.
2/27/2010
2/21/2010
Commisary and Frankfurt
It is Sunday today, I am on my way to Kronberg. Spent a whole day with Ellie and grandma yesterday, we went to the Commisary and bought a ton of stuff for everyone, Grandma also got a nice haircut from the same place that I go to, she liked my style and wanted to experiment on herself :)
Dan and I had two date nights this week, or more accurately, a date night that was executed in 2 parts: Friday we went out for a nice Korean BBQ dinner, and Saturday night we went to see Avatar in 3D. I have to say I was really impressed by the movie, they did not overdo the 3D effect, rather did it whenever it makes the most sense, the storyline was good and the acting was very nature. It is sad so many good people died but overall the good defeated the evil, the tree of the souls stood tall and the loved ones were united.
Dan and I took Ellie to friends' house last weekend to celebrate Chinese New Year of the Tiger. We had probably the most festival feast throughout the year, home made dumplings, Chicken soup stew, pork short ribs, grilled lamb, a whole salmon, mushrooms, and lots of little side dishes. Ellie had her first Durian, honestly, it was the first time for Dan and myself too. It smells funny but tastes really nice. It is full of nutrients and supposedly very good for babies and kids.
Dan and I had two date nights this week, or more accurately, a date night that was executed in 2 parts: Friday we went out for a nice Korean BBQ dinner, and Saturday night we went to see Avatar in 3D. I have to say I was really impressed by the movie, they did not overdo the 3D effect, rather did it whenever it makes the most sense, the storyline was good and the acting was very nature. It is sad so many good people died but overall the good defeated the evil, the tree of the souls stood tall and the loved ones were united.
Dan and I took Ellie to friends' house last weekend to celebrate Chinese New Year of the Tiger. We had probably the most festival feast throughout the year, home made dumplings, Chicken soup stew, pork short ribs, grilled lamb, a whole salmon, mushrooms, and lots of little side dishes. Ellie had her first Durian, honestly, it was the first time for Dan and myself too. It smells funny but tastes really nice. It is full of nutrients and supposedly very good for babies and kids.
2/16/2010
Learning
Client made an interesting statement that got me thinking, she said after all the intensive amount of work for the past few weeks, she learned many things including team work, methodology, etc, but most of it all, she learned about herself. I asked what was it, she said it is about her own limits, for stress, for managing ambiguity and her threshold for frustration. She did not know she could stretch herself so much until she did it during this project.
What an amazing statement, we often think the most learnings come from the subject matter at hand, the content and domain knowledge, and the "hard" stuff around this issue at hand. But it is the "soft" matter that truly inspire and inherently motivate people to push the envelop and defy their own limits. And companies either retain talent or lose them depend on if they provide these type of learning opportunities that allow employees to learn and excel.
What an amazing statement, we often think the most learnings come from the subject matter at hand, the content and domain knowledge, and the "hard" stuff around this issue at hand. But it is the "soft" matter that truly inspire and inherently motivate people to push the envelop and defy their own limits. And companies either retain talent or lose them depend on if they provide these type of learning opportunities that allow employees to learn and excel.
2/13/2010
Vancouver Olympic 2010
My co-workers and I sat at the high rise office building looking out the window on Thursday and observed the Olympic torch relay in Burnaby. Crowd was there, policy cars were there and what's most moving was that the torch was carried by a paraolympic athlete sitting in a wheel chair, no motor, just by her bare hands, rolling the chair for the 3 miles while carrying the torch. I missed watching the opening ceremony on Friday, need to catch up on the Internet some time, I heard it was wonderful.
One of my clients is going through tough personal issues, I can see how those things are getting through to her, wearing and tearing her down. She is a brave lady who survived cancer, a divorce and over ten years of a significantly handicapped child, so she said she can get through anything but still it takes toll on her. We chatted from time to time, I think women communicates different, we appreciate a pair of sympathetic ears and just someone who is willing to listen, and things feel better that way.
One of my clients is going through tough personal issues, I can see how those things are getting through to her, wearing and tearing her down. She is a brave lady who survived cancer, a divorce and over ten years of a significantly handicapped child, so she said she can get through anything but still it takes toll on her. We chatted from time to time, I think women communicates different, we appreciate a pair of sympathetic ears and just someone who is willing to listen, and things feel better that way.
2/05/2010
Bebepod
We bought Ellie another new thing: a shiny, soft, watermelon red Bebe pod. She loved it so much that she insisted on sitting in it the all night, played with the rattle that sit on the top of the table incessantly. Way past bedtime and there was no sign of sleepiness.
My parents did another 3 hours of Skye with Ellie, they got so good at baby sitting over the Internet that I could even go downstairs to cook a quick meal.
Today is cloudy and rainy, we stayed at home mostly and played with Ellie. Rolling over is so easy for her that she doesn't even bother to grunt about it. She just raise her hip, pull her hands forward and tilt, and there she goes. Dan and I think she will be crawling soon.
My parents did another 3 hours of Skye with Ellie, they got so good at baby sitting over the Internet that I could even go downstairs to cook a quick meal.
Today is cloudy and rainy, we stayed at home mostly and played with Ellie. Rolling over is so easy for her that she doesn't even bother to grunt about it. She just raise her hip, pull her hands forward and tilt, and there she goes. Dan and I think she will be crawling soon.
Milk, Planes and Airports
I feel like I can write a book about milk and travel now. Although I brag about being a pumping master, I really can't handle it very well when things don't go well. Let me tell you why.
United mis-delivered my checked luggage twice in a month: the first time the bag was on the plane that came in 3 hours later after mine original flight, I had to sit at the airport waiting for it, ruined the first part of my night; second time, the luggage somehow went all the way down to LA and made its way back to SFO around midnight, then they informed me that they will deliver the bag to my house between 1-3am, of course I believed them and waited up, and of course nothing and nobody showed up, not between 1-3am, not between 3-5am and not between 5-7am, when I finally got hold of someone at 7am, they said the delivery crew never picked it up from SFO therefore the bag had been sitting there the whole night, and finally it made its way to my house around 9am. Now, the funny part. Last night I got on the plane and made such a big complaint to the United agent that they sent the general manager of the airport to get on the plane and made sure my luggage IS really on that plane. They also made a very nice gesture of upgraded me to first class for free. Oh, so I thought my night would finally go fine. Of course it didn't: first of all, we sit on the runway for over an hour due to the heavy rain and gust in SFO, then we took off, got to SFO, but could not land due to the weather, circled for another 2 hours in the air until the caption said he could not hold it any longer due to fuel and safety reasons. We landed you know where, SJC airport. Of course they could not let the passenger off because they said this was international flight and had to clear customs in a port of entry which SJC wasn't. This is complete nonsense for anyone with common sense. So, after an hour they worked it out with SJC airport police department, by that time many passengers were so upset or uncomfortable that they insisted to get off at the risk of being arrested. So I made my case of getting off the plane, and talked to the caption about the need to having to pull my bag out of the plane, etc. Surprisingly he understood what I was going through and let my bag be pulled as an exception - he announced to all the other passenger that he can let people off the plane but ALL checked luggage had to go back to SFO.
Oh well, I consider myself very lucky that night, after 4 hours of delay I got home WITH my precious bag of breast milk. And I kept wondering about those passengers who had chosen not to get off the plane at SJC, waited for someone to refuel the plane, waited again for someone to push the plane out, waited for the arrival approval from SFO and waited for their luggage, hoping it would come out ok. I hope no one has to go through this experience again, just reading it is exhausting enough.
United mis-delivered my checked luggage twice in a month: the first time the bag was on the plane that came in 3 hours later after mine original flight, I had to sit at the airport waiting for it, ruined the first part of my night; second time, the luggage somehow went all the way down to LA and made its way back to SFO around midnight, then they informed me that they will deliver the bag to my house between 1-3am, of course I believed them and waited up, and of course nothing and nobody showed up, not between 1-3am, not between 3-5am and not between 5-7am, when I finally got hold of someone at 7am, they said the delivery crew never picked it up from SFO therefore the bag had been sitting there the whole night, and finally it made its way to my house around 9am. Now, the funny part. Last night I got on the plane and made such a big complaint to the United agent that they sent the general manager of the airport to get on the plane and made sure my luggage IS really on that plane. They also made a very nice gesture of upgraded me to first class for free. Oh, so I thought my night would finally go fine. Of course it didn't: first of all, we sit on the runway for over an hour due to the heavy rain and gust in SFO, then we took off, got to SFO, but could not land due to the weather, circled for another 2 hours in the air until the caption said he could not hold it any longer due to fuel and safety reasons. We landed you know where, SJC airport. Of course they could not let the passenger off because they said this was international flight and had to clear customs in a port of entry which SJC wasn't. This is complete nonsense for anyone with common sense. So, after an hour they worked it out with SJC airport police department, by that time many passengers were so upset or uncomfortable that they insisted to get off at the risk of being arrested. So I made my case of getting off the plane, and talked to the caption about the need to having to pull my bag out of the plane, etc. Surprisingly he understood what I was going through and let my bag be pulled as an exception - he announced to all the other passenger that he can let people off the plane but ALL checked luggage had to go back to SFO.
Oh well, I consider myself very lucky that night, after 4 hours of delay I got home WITH my precious bag of breast milk. And I kept wondering about those passengers who had chosen not to get off the plane at SJC, waited for someone to refuel the plane, waited again for someone to push the plane out, waited for the arrival approval from SFO and waited for their luggage, hoping it would come out ok. I hope no one has to go through this experience again, just reading it is exhausting enough.
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