This little piggy

Yesterday was Chinese New Year. Happy Year of the Pig! To celebrate, I made jiao-tse (dumplings). I remember making these with my mom and a-mah (grandmother) at our kitchen table in Ulm, and I enjoy making them on my own. I've always aspired to being as quick and skilled as they were at folding them, but I'm just not. Ah well...at least they still taste good!

The first time I invited Chris to do something was for Chinese New Year. I was staffed at Microsoft and I was staying at the Oakwood corporate apartments in Bellevue during the week (this is when I still lived in SF). I usually make jiao-tse with a group of friends for Chinese New Year, so I decided to do it at the Oakwood. I invited a few friends over and we made (and ate) a ton of dumplings.

That was when I still thought Chris was a "cool kid" who'd never want to hang out with someone like me. I used Chinese New Year as an excuse to ask him to do something, and I was surprised when he accepted. But that night he brought over a CD he'd just bought and was so excited to hear. It was "The Best of Huey Lewis and the News". That's when his illusion of coolness was forever shattered...and the rest, they say, is history.

I've added a few pictures of this year's jiao-tse and of the Oakwood jiao-tse night to Flickr. You can see four thumbnails under "Recent Pics" and you can view the rest by clicking on one of the thumbnails. You'll be taken to my photostream on the Flickr site, where you can see all of the pictures that I've posted recently.

My favorite Valentine

Valentine's Day was really nice this year. In addition to the beautiful jasmine that Chris brought to my office (yes, he actually brought them himself...but dropped them off at the receptionist instead of calling me to tell me he was there), he also cooked me a wonderful dinner. He asked his colleague Loren for a recipe (Loren is an amazing chef) and picked up all of the ingredients at Pike Place Market. He made a delicious dinner of butternut squash and spicy prawns over whole grain pasta. Yum!

I learned one interesting thing while watching Chris prepare dinner. I often complain that he doesn't listen to me, and not just the standard "I'm talking and he's not paying attention" scenario. He'll ask me a specific question and then stop listening before I've finished answering. And then he'll ask again. And again. But while watching him follow the recipe, I discovered something.

He was reading the recipe out loud and repeating it to himself while he followed it. I watched him read, very clearly, "Now add the shallots to the saucepan...add the shallots to the sauce pan...shallots, saucepan..." He then picked up the prawns and, very purposefully, added them to the saucepan. "Shallots...saucepan..."

...

"OH CRAP!"

And that's when I realized that it's not just me he doesn't listen to. He doesn't even listen to himself. I laughed for a long time over that.

He's my (ADHD) sweetheart.

He's legal

Whoops, Cowboy is actually 21 in dog years. Apparently, the story that 1 year = 7 dog years is wrong since dogs mature quickly in their first two years. 1 year = 10.5 dog years for the first two years, and then it's 1:4 after that. No wonder Cowboy went on a pub crawl last night to celebrate. I thought that was a bit much for a teenager but it makes more sense now.

I think it's about time for him to get a job.

14 in dog years

h a p p y b i r t h d a y
c o w b o y

Mmmmmmmmm bop

I'm still at work and I just received the most beautiful jasmine flowers from my wonderful husband. When I got to reception to pick them up, I saw masses of red and pink roses, tulips and carnations covering the back table. In the midst of it all stood a very large green and white wreath-like plant. I thought immediately, "I bet that's mine." And I was right!

It's amazing. Most of the flowers haven't bloomed yet, but there are a few that have and their scent is strong enough to fill my entire cube. I can't stop smelling them. Mmmmmmmmm.

And to top it off, it's a potted plant so I can keep it here and enjoy the lovely scent of jasmine for years to come! OK, years might be pushing it. But at least I'll have them for more than a week! Mmmmmmm.

Thank you Chris. You make me happy.

Mmmmmmmm...

Some days you're the pigeon

I was in a meeting yesterday with a woman who was not completely fluent in English. The content of the meeting was rather complicated, but it was clear that she was understanding the vast majority of what was discussed. Every once in awhile, however, she'd ask the meeting facilitator to clarify something. The facilitator would repeat herself very slowly, very loudly, and in pidgin English. I'd think, "Huh?" How exactly does broken language help with comprehension? Wouldn't that make it even more confusing?

Do all cultures do this? I thought of times when I've had trouble understanding something in another language. Not once do I remember having the phrase repeated back to me using broken language. More slowly or loudly, perhaps. But in pidgin? Das glaube ich nicht. (For you non-German speakers: ICH! GLAUBEN! ES! NEIN!)

A couple pics for this week

• Cowboy annoys us
• Friends & food
  
• We annoy Cowboy
• I'm a copy-coat
• Megastars think outside the bun

Stickr with Flickr

Even though the picture captions aren't displayed in the slideshow, Flickr has the best options and functionality of all the slideshow and photo-sharing sites I tried. I've added an area in my blog sidebar which displays the 4 most recent pictures I've loaded on Flickr, and I will continue to post slideshows regularly.

If you click on one of the pictures in the sidebar, you will be taken to the Flickr site. Once there, you will be able to see all of my public photos.

If you're wondering why there are so many pictures of hats -- no, I don't have a hat fetish. I just got a little over-excited about finally knitting hats that fit. So I knitted a lot of them.