Car Battery

Sorry I forgot to take pictures of the snow storm in our city : ( but I have a reason:
The day after the snow storm, I tried to unlock my car but my car didn't open - so I had to open it manually. I noticed that I forgot to turn off the headlight :( :(
My class started at 9 AM - it took me 45 minutes to get there, so I used my free time to jump start my car but it still didnt work : (

I am so bad - this was not the first one. Two days ago I also took V's car and forgot to turn off his car headlight : ( We had to jump start his car - Fortunely his car started immideately unlike mine, otherwise we won't have any car last Friday.

Maybe it is time to replace my car battery - or attach a postit on my stearing wheel so I remember to turn off the headlight

Bye bye Kurv

After the second chance, I decided to return Kurv to Amazon, I packed and sent it out ... bye bye Kurv ... I won't miss you ( Ouchhhhh )

Snow back with a vengeance.

Bad weather today in MN ... it has been snowing since 1 pm today . I parked my car around 12.30 and when I left my training around 2.30 PM - the snow was about 2-3 inches already. The worst part - I was sitting in the traffic for 3 hours :(

I will take some pictures tomorrow morning to show you guys .....

Dirt Devil KURV

I hate cleaning our apartment and always try to find the best way to sweep all the dust around the furniture and my manga collection. Wish I had a magic spell to make the dust disappear instantly... hmm.

So a couple days ago I read an article/blog regarding the "Dirt Devil KURV" and from the article, the author was pretty satisfied with this small vacuum. The author also mentioned how fast this vacuum helps cleaning the dust around the house - so on Monday morning I decided to buy it from Amazon and today we received it (Waooo really fast delivery - I used free delivery which usually takes 5 -10 business days, but it took only 2).

I tried it and this vacuum sucks so far (in the bad way, not the good way). It does not really work - too small and it could not suck very much dust and scratched my furniture. I will give it a chance again this weekend - its last chance before I will return it to Amazon.

Do any of you have a good way/method to clean the dust other than using a sweeper/cloth????? ANY easy and fast way??? [Heh, "get the Russian slave boy to do it" is not the right answer.]

Cute Library I mentioned before

Inside ......






Really bright inside




















Kids' section






Huge Dinos near kids' reading area

Book shelves













Another huge Dino (book shelf)















Kids' computer area - most of them were watching anime









Really cute, right?!!!

Valentine

Funny, right? Yup yup yup, I found this street intersection last year when I was googling my name through google maps. Just out of curiosity, to see if there were streets based on my name "Lili" not "Lily". So I found 4 of them, and when I zoomed onto the one nearest us (in Wisconsin), I was shocked to notice it actually intersected V's last name. WHAT A COINCIDENCE!!!!

I told him that one day we would have to take some pictures over there. Through google maps we could see only one house near there, and it seemed to be in the middle of nowhere -- but so close to where we live (3 hours only).

So this Valentine's Day, I asked my hubby to go there together, just to check it out and see if one day we could build a house in that intersection or buy the only house standing there.

So we had to ditch the road trip to Chicago.

The trip started with our usual road trip ritual - no fixed schedule and breakfast from McD's and a mocha joe (NO ICE!!!) from BK. We left around 10 AM but did not actually get out of the city until 11.30AM. That was one of the good things about going only the two of us -- we basically stopped everywhere I wanted mmhahaha (Target to get my new lens/glasses, my workplace to get tripod (I left it inside my cabinet), BK for Mocha Joe, CubFood for V'sbreakfast, Chipotle for mine - we were planning to stop by Costco but didn't see one on our way).

Eventually after 2.5 hours drive, we got there - and at first the place was depressing, because we took a wrong turn at the exit and ended up at a tree cemetary (big big yard full of lumber), and some sort of steel refinery with clouds of steam coming out of it... very ugly and industrial area.

But it turns out we were supposed to turn the other way, and that little area was a place/town which exceeded my expectations. It was a small town and had a big ski hill hanging over it, and a couple of Asian restaurants. many houses and townhomes near our streets, a couple of them brand new houses (totally NOT the middle of nowhere ). Google really needs to update their maps.

We took some pictures and poses after setting up the camera on a tripod right in the middle of the intersection (it was not a busy intersection). After a few shots, there was a car with an old couple which drove up and parked in front of our car and just sat there waiting. We did not know why they were stalking us, but I was sure they must have wondering why the heck these two people were hanging out near the intersection and taking so many pictures of themselves and the street signs -- hheheheheheh, we were both SILLY.

Then we drove back, a bit tired. Ended up going to see 2 cheesy girly movies ("Confessions of a Shopaholic" and "He's Just NOT That Into You"). I really wanted to see the shopaholic movie ever since I read the book 3 years ago -- it was funny and silly. The movie was not as good or funny as the book -- a bit upset about that. But I was blown away by the *other* movie, I didn't expect it movie would be good actually -- turned out it was a great mix of stories, except I didn't really like the ending -- a bit too fairytale.

Overall we had fun during this Valentine day - drove to see our streets and enjoyed all day only the two of us! : )

On our way there, we made fun of Wisconsin for having weird street names and highways. At first we saw "X" street, that time V thought there would be "Y" and "Z" (geeeeeek) but 10 minutes later, we say "XX" and we laughed -- this made us think that the next one would be "XXX", but we never found that one.

The first "X" we saw

XX picture was a bit blurry because the camera was not ready when we saw the sign.

970St ...... it will take awhile to get to 1st... we saw highways "E", "F", then "E" again, then M, T, then ANOTHER E, (that's three highway E's, good luck telling people which highway E you live on, if you live there...) and highways "G", "J", "NN", T, S, O (good luck telling the difference between O and 0 zero), and none of these was in any kind of alphabetical order or anything. Wisconsin highways were named by people choosing letters out of a Scrabble bag! Seriously.

We both felt so guilty polluting the earth for our own silliness - so no more unnecessary drive other than going to work for 2 weeks to repay this weekend...

Warm weather

Last week (the last weekend of January) was the first weekend where the weather was above the freezing point. We decided to try our sled which we bought 2 months ago from Target and has been sitting in the trunk ever since.

We went to Elm Park and found a sledding hill where we could take our sled and try it for the first time. It was my first time - I always saw it on TV and always wanted to try it but got lazy to be outside since it has never been above freezing lately.

The hill was not too steep, but it was still a bit scary for me. Hear me screaming ....



We tried it several times and decided to check the rest of the activities in the park by getting to the bus. It drove us to the main area of the activities such as snow boarding, tubing and cross-country skiing. We saw our friends dragging their tubes but the line was long and we thought it was not fun enough to wait -- besides, the tube is almost the same as the sled. So we decided to try the cross-country skiing (which later we regretted). It was hard, we could not do it like the professional people - we walked most of time and I fell and went backward when going up hill. V was on the plain road, while I was using specil training tracks they have made, which keep your skis in line.

On Sunday, I decided to learn C# which now is a primary programming language at my work. We went to visit the Hennepin library - V saw the a library couple of years ago and always wanted to check it out since the outside looks like the new CoC Klaus building (now you know who is geeker). The inside impressed both me and V, we didn't expect it would be nice and clean. It is better than GT library and the kid section is waaay better than borders -- there was a giant purple dragon instead of a bookshelf.

The computer stations were every where and everyone was using them to watch YouTube videos. The library was not empty at all, so many people were there. For the first time I felt the government has spent my tax money the right way! : ) Too bad we don't live in Hennepin County.

We will check out the library again and get some pictures so you can judge it.

Winter Carnival

January 24-25:

We froze our butts off to check out the ice and snow sculptures at the St. Paul Winter Carnival. This time we were not too smart. On Saturday we went to the ice sculptures without finding the location and did not wear proper clothing to be outside (it was - 30 F). We thought it would be a good time to test our camera and get some good pictures.

After 10 minutes of being outside, we ran back to our car. The pictures were not that good either, because we were not able to review them after we took them -- way too cold to take pictures without gloves...

Sunday, we went back again to check out the snow sculptures -- very different from ice sculptures. Ice sculptures are sculptures that are sculpted out of ice, while snow sculptures are sculpted out of... [are you sitting down for this?] SNOW.

This time we were smarter. We wore enough layers, gloves and hats. Got some pictures and were impressed on how skilled the artists were. Winter photography is not as easy as I thought. The contrast for a completely white scene is a bit challenging - most of my pictures were too bright because of the reflection of the snow.

After seeing the snow sculptures, we visited another winter carnival event: an orchid show. We were there for almost 2 hours -- it was ridiculously crowded, and the greenhouse only has aisles wide enough for one or two people, so everyone had to view the exhibits *one at a time*. We took many orchid pictures and they were soooooo cuuuute. I also taught V about starfruit and citrus fuit leaves. We even broke a leaf and smelled the juices in it, which totally smelled like lemon or lime. Don't tell the greenhouse keepers...

Pictures: Winners of snow and ice sculpture contests:











































Some of the orchid pictures I took:

Skiing and Curling

Some of the activities during January month:

January 18th:

We went to try out ice skating after yet another Indian Palace dinner -- found a place which has an indoor ice skating rink and also an outdoor rink (which we regretted for not trying, because it looked so romantic to skate outside with all the Christmas lights).

It was a bit pricey to skate only for 1 hour, since we came late -- but I don't think I could handle more than 1 hour after falling several times. A week prior, I already fell twice during rollerblading. Really not a good month for my back! : (



January 19th:
I volunteered my Martin Luther holiday to paint the Second Harvest building - when I signed up, I thought I was going to pack some foods to hand to the families who are not able to provide food to their children. But they needed people to paint their warehouse so they could be qualified as food banks.

This was my second time volunteering at this place - last year at the same time and same place, I was putting labels on each can and packing them for each family.

At the beginning Pra and I were painting, but after 30 minutes we realized painting was not easy at all -- we got all the paint on our shoes, hair, faces and clothes. So we decided to switch our jobs to packing food. The packing was fun, they assemble a line where each person places different bags of cereal or flour in each box.

January 22nd:
My group at work was having a celebration - we had a half day off where we ate lunch and played curling. I saw curling on TV before (those crazy Canadians...) but never knew how to play it.

We got the lesson from the owner of the club, then we were divided into 8 groups where each group consisted of 4 people. Each group had a captain who would stand near the bull's eye and would try to ensure that the opponent's curling pins would not stay inside the bull's eye.

I had fun during the games -- actually I was not so bad, but most of the time my throws were too weak. I fell once (another bad day for my back) because I tried to chase the curling pin. They already warned us prior to playing NOT to run. Hehehhe most likely I missed that warning.

Our team lost the first 3 games but won the last game - we placed 7 out of 8.

If you want to know more about curling check out wikipedia, and my photos.

Another surprise adventure for the new Toyota

January 14

V's car got towed.

Again.

AGAIN!!!

YES, another courtesy ride from our apartment directly to the car-prison, since V was too late to move his car out of our parking lot after a snow storm. Our apartment sometimes is kind enough to post a schedule of when they will plow the snow (usually 1-2 days notice, not more) and during that time if your car is still in the parking lot AT 9AM SHARP they *will* tow it.

V has some words to say about this policy:

@#(*@ *#$&&($#@ )#@)@#$(***%%%* APARTMENTS @#$)#@$)*&%$ IDIOTS!!!

I have masked out the parts of that comment that are inappropriate for ages 8-32.

So V had actually been nice enough to pick me up from the airport late at night (around midnight) the night before. That, you might say was the root cause of all of this trouble, really [V says so, I impolitely disagree]. It was so very late already when we got to our apartment parking lot and so very cold, and we could not find any alternate parking spot except in the area where we knew that they would plow the snow the next morning. But we [V] thought we would have time to move the car since they just start at 9. But the stup... I mean, my brave and dedicated hubby, after being tired from all the driving, forgot to set his alarm on his phone. What a total moro... er, I mean, wow, he sacrificed all his energy to pick me up, so devoted and such a ridic... I mean a caring dude.

We woke up at 9.10 AM. I suddenly remembered, and told V he better move his car. So he ran out without even showering or getting ready for work, and found out at 9:12am his car was already gone! My car was still there since I had left mine in the non-towed area.


I was NOT happy about this. You can ask V about it. We called the place for directions and drove my car to pick up his car. Same as last time, they only accept cash and this time TWO HUNDRED BUCKS, again. But they had no ATM, so we had to leave and go find an ATM to take out money and free his poor imprisoned car.


We were only 10 minutes late moving our car and it cost us $200. Sucks!!! &^^$%$%%@^&@
[edited again for a family audience]

Return to my school

January 13

I went to ATL for the GT career fair and it was an interesting experience. It was my first time and it has been a while since I went back to my old campus. The flight was delayed because of the crappy weather in MN, so I got there around midnight. Stayed at E's place - they are nice enough to let me disturb their "looooove nest" for a night without charging any fee heheheh. Too afraid to stay at the hotel by myself :( No Russian with me this time.


I got to catch up with E regarding her pregnancy and learned a lot (I really mean that). Then I woke up in the morning - immediately jumped out of bed (literally) when I saw the time was 9 am. I should have been at school by 9 am, but my phone was still showing 8 am - but I didnt know whether my phone was showing MN time or ATL time. I called my hubby - also wanted him to get up early - and he informed me that it was actually 8 AM in ATL. So I was not late phew.

I showered and headed to GT. Totally forgot how crappy the morning commute in ATL is, got stuck on I-75 but was happy to listen to the Bert show for the first time since I graduated. Every time I went to ATL, I always was there during the holiday or long weekends. This totally reminds me of my old time going to school, listening to the Bert show and eating breakfast in the car while stuck in the traffic. My car must miss this old time - warm weather, good radio and smelling food in the morning.

So I did find a different street to exit to avoid all the traffic, I totally forgot how to get to GT from that street though. Took me a while to realize that I knew this street and found my way out. Luckily I was only late for 30 minutes and I still had another 30 minutes to get ready.


Once I got there, I helped my partner setup everything and people started lining up. Then I realized, they were all lined up for Microsoft (our neighbor). But 15 minutes before the career fair started, people are started lining up for our company. We were looking for CS/EE majors but we only got mostly BioMed majors. I did not know what to tell them about their careers :(

At the beginning, it was fun - talking and asking questions to each student, but after 15 students, I started losing my mind and voice.

I let the students describe themselves and proceeded from that point to ask them more questions. If I realized they did not say enough and waited for me to ask them, I wouldn't say much either.

Things that I learned from this experience are (If you are students):

1. Sell yourself and ask about the product and what I do every day.

2. Try to make yourself different from others because at the end of the day I will have talked to hundreds of students, and I won't remember you at all even though I have your resume. But if you are unique, I can recall you and send a good impression email about you to my HR.

3. In your resume, please place your best points on top because I won't be able to read the whole resume while talking to you. I just glance at your resume and try to see why I should call you back or pick you.

4. Know what you want to do. Do not ask your interviewer. Tell me what you want to learn and describe it. Stop saying you want to utilize your knowledge - if I am not the same major as you, I won't know what you can or can't do.

5. Talk to me instead of waiting for me to ask you. Be aggressive.


I knew everyone said these, but I did not understand them before. Now I am on the other side of the coin and everything makes sense.

New baby

I got a new baby last month - I have not decided on the gender yet but I am pretty sure it is a she. We have not decided on the name yet also - most likely we call her "Big Canon".

Yes, I spoiled myself again by getting a new camera last month. I did this almost every year, I will try to reward myself for working all year by getting something from my wish list (items that cost more than 500 bucks).

I am a bit stingy when coming to buy an expensive gadget - usually I wait until my hubby gets it for me (after I gave him sooooo many hints). But this time I could not hold back to get a new DSLR camera - really want to take more pictures and learn more about photography.

I had been gone forward backward regarding which camera to get either: XSI, 40D and 50 D. The reasons I chose XSI:
1. cheaper so I can spend more money on lens.
2. Lighter than 40D and 50D.

THe only drawback is that the 40D has a shutter speed that is twice as fast. But I'm thinking that's OK because I don't need to take so many high-speed photos. We'll see if I was right about that.


Welcome to our new baby!!!!!