Vancouver

Spent a whole week in Vancouver, mobilizing teams for a large project we are about to launch at the beginning of the new year. I have to say I was very impressed by the Westin Grand hotel experience: taking the taxi from the airport to the hotel, the driver said he could not take my credit card because his machine is broken, the door man immediately offered to help, he ran in to the lobby and 1 min later came back with some Canadian cash and paid the taxi driver off. He was very efficient and knew exactly what to do, unlike many other hotels I have been where they just ask me to find the nearest ATM machine. Instead, he paid and easily added the bill to my room, win win for everybody, think about how dreadful it would be to get to a ATM machine after many hours on the road as is.

Vancouver is nice city, buzzing with activities and 2011 winter Olympic game preparation activities. Lots of restaurants to choose from, very international. I enjoyed it. It looks like I will be coming here quite a bit in the next few months, the only thing not so attractive is the freezing wind and late sunrise and early sunset.

Skpe

My mom and dad got the skpe up and running last night, we successfully connected and Ellie was the movie star the whole time. She was fascinated by the screens and all the talking and movements. We showed mom and dad Ellie's newly decorated nursery, her new mobile, and shelf and the little table and chair set. Grandparents even bought a little bed set for the baby doll, Ellie will soon enjoy the little doll's company. I saw Guanwen on the video too, she is 14 now and talk and skinny, short hair and glasses. She looks very much like my big sis, she was translating for my parents what Dan was saying. Very helpful. Dan has a great idea, in the future, we will just stick the videocam in Ellie's room and my parents can see her any time they want, and can even talk Chinese to her however they want, free Chinese lessons over the Internet, now that's priceless. Beats the $250K telepresence.

We went out to the newly opened restaurant Villa 08 for lunch today. Had full load of crayfish, lobster, Atlantic oyster, crab, tuna sashimi, frog legs, and many kinds of dessert. Had to take a big nap afterwards.

Giving Thanks

We have much to thank for this year,
Thankful for the sweet little girl Ellie, the new addition to our family, she brighten up my sky;
Thankful for a wonderful husband, the most loving and supportive, he is my bedrock;
Thankful for opportunity to spend two full months with my parents, re-live the feeling of being unconditionally loved and spoiled;
Thankful for surviving on the road, despite the forgetfulness, meeting so many wonderful flight attendants helping with dry ice, cooler, water, etc;
Thankful for the Orlando police who stopped me at 5am in the morning going at 81 miles an hour, warned me about the fog coming in and let me rush to the airport without giving me a ticket;
Thankful for the nice young man from Burma working in Publix of City of Lakeland, searched all his wallet to find the Chinese restaurant card, so sincere;
Thankful for the wonderful friends we have, offer continuous support, no judgement, no jealousy, no bragging,
Thankful for another wonderful year, memorable events and people, the journey continues.

Holidays are here

Ellie is a busy social flower now, we had friends over for Sunday brunch last weekend and this weekend Ellie made her first trip to San Francisco attending a friend's b-day. All the toddlers at the party were mesmerized by this little baby and of course wanted to touch Ellie, only to be told by their parents they can only touch Ellie's feet. Nice, princess treatment.

I took Ellie on a shopping spree today, breaking my own promise that I won't take her shopping before she is 6 months old. But we went to Standford shopping mall and I figure as long as we stay in the open space we should be fine. She was fascinated as usual by the shopping, jingle bell music and the people and the noises they make. When we came home she was completely wiped out and went to sleep right away. Too much stimulation for the day I guess.

I had an interesting week, Monday and Tuesday in New York, had a nice sushi lunch on Tuesday, and brain stormed very good ideas for the next phase of work. Yum. Spent Wed and Thursday in Denver, had a few productive meetings. My client interestingly had only $25 as travel budget this quarter, so I took him for a free coffee on me on Wed, but Thursday he ordered working lunch for us out of his own pocket. Denver is too cold, already had a 5 inch snow. As much I like the city, the weather is too harsh. We keep our house at 72 degree constant, day and night, for the baby. I reminded Dan when I grew up I had no new clothes, no toys and no heater, freezing my butt off every winter and clinging to my sister for warmth, and hated to go to bed because it is too cold to get under the covers. Mom used the warm water bottles to warm us up.

Emergency Shopping

I packed everything, pump, tubes, charger, wipes, extra battery, vitamins, cooler, ice packs, you name it, except for my pair of black dress pants. I found myself having nothing to wear the next day the night I flew to Boston, Hmmm, emergency shopping seems to be in the order.

Fortunately the hotel is connected to one of the biggest and best shopping mall in downtown Boston, the prudential mall. I went to Express, found a pair of nice black Editor pants, only $89. Trying it on, it was just a bit too long for my pair of slacks...on well, might as well buy a new pair of shoes with heels while I was at it. So I went to Aldo, got the clerk finding me what's in fashion but not too uncomfortable (if you know what I mean), tried it on, walked around the store, thinking I should be able to handle running through airports with these. It was $129 and not on sale. I don't understand why the things I like are always not on sale. Well, my mom always told me the way I shop, I will never get good deals - I buy, and I don't shop. In fact, I probably bought all my coats, suits, shoes, shirts, dresses, and even the Calvin Klein leather belt via emergency shopping...the belt was from Macy's in Bellevue, Washington while I was working with Microsoft.

But, it is all worth it. I wore my new pants and new shoes, and the jacket (god bless I did not have to buy a new jacket) to see my clients, and the retirement dinner at Clios in the Elliott Hotel for one of the partners. Felt great. Now, that's priceless.

Sleep Deprivation

High performance delivered, IF you are sleeping enough. Many things went wrong this week, I left the custom made ice pack in London, had to ask them to mail it back to me; same with the Madela pump charger in St. Charles, it is also in the mail, will see which one gets to me first; Spilled the milk in the bathroom during flight from NY to SFO; and flushed the toilet during the contractor drug test when the staff told me not to just 5 seconds ago. Worst is I had to wait for another hour to collect the sample and chugged down what feels like gallons of water. All due to sleep deprivation induced lost of concentration!

They speculated that the Northwest flight pilots who over shot the destination by 150 miles were sleeping at the wheels. Although the official explanation now is that they were on their laptop. I find the sleep deprivation story to be a bit more believable, I am there. The frequent time zone changes, the 4 hour cycles of pumping, and taxing work schedules. I tell myself to really learn to nap, anytime, anywhere. This is the only to pace myself and cope with the new life.

Spent lots of time with Ellie today, took her out on a stroller to my daily hiking trail. She had her eyes wide open all the way, staring at the blue sky, green trees, squires, soccer fields and kids playing in the park. All very fascinating to this little person. We then took a big nap together before lunch, daddy made nice lunch and called us downstairs when everything was ready. Way to go to spend a relaxing Saturday.

Back on the road

Now I am back on the road, have been to Denver, Seattle, New York and London in the past 3 weeks. Taking red eye, cross country and international flights, while pumping every 3-4 hours. Getting mixed reactions on the fact that I am still nursing, some say it is the best thing I can do for my baby, some say "oh my gosh, are you out of your mind", and some say "I feel sorry for you". Oh, well, it is ONE thing I have decided to do for little Ellie and I am sticking to it. When I was Ellie's age, my mom unfortunately could not breastfeed me because she was quite sick at the time, I would do all within my powers to provide for my baby.

The $400 Medela pump I have bought is also saving my life - I can pump in the airport, on the plane, at work and in the hotels with complete mobility. Perhaps I will try pump in the car next time I drive up to the city. I can read, listen to music and watch TV while pumping, quite helpful since it could be so boring listen to the machine humming away every few hours.

Last night was Halloween, quite a few kids came knock on the door for trick or treats, but Dan said the traffic is far less than prior years. We think it is because the wide spread swine flu or the fear of it. So we kept Ellie at home, next year perhaps we will take her out in a costume and get on her first trick or treats.