The Arrival of Baby Atticus

Please join us to welcome our new family member.  Baby Atticus arrived Dec 9, 2010, Thursday, weighing 7 lbs 12 oz. 

Happy Birthday to Daddy-to-be!

Happy Birthday to you, dear hubby & daddy-to-be!  Had a great day and enjoyed a romantic dinner (perhaps the last one we could have before Lam BB jam in : >) 

Expecting our first kid

Thanks for all the blessings and support throughout my pregnancy. It's only 1-month from the due date now...we're so excited and expecting to meet our first kid.

It's time to transform our romantic 2-ppl household to a harmonious 3-ppl family. We'll be buying baby-clothes or baby-food instead of movie-tickets or fashion items.

Interesting quotes:

There comes a time when a woman needs to stop thinking about her looks and focus her energies on raising her children. This time comes at the moment of conception. A child needs a role model, not a supermodel.
~Astrid Alauda



Your children need your presence more than your presents. ~Jesse Jackson

Children are a great comfort in your old age - and they help you reach it faster, too. ~Lionel Kauffman

If I had my child to raise all over again,
I'd build self-esteem first, and the house later.
I'd finger-paint more, and point the finger less.
I would do less correcting and more connecting.
I'd take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes.
I'd take more hikes and fly more kites.
I'd stop playing serious, and seriously play.
I would run through more fields and gaze at more stars.
I'd do more hugging and less tugging.
~Diane Loomans, from "If I Had My Child To Raise Over Again"

I guess Parenting is not that easy. We are ready to take the challenge. Stay tuned.

Our 3rd Anniversary

3 + 3  on Aug 1, 2010

We had a great time on our third Anniversary. This time, we have 3 parties together....Hugo+Me+Baby-in-my-tummy.  It's not easy for Hugo to think of an activity that is surprising yet I can handle with my growing tummy.
In fact, both of us understand that when the baby comes out, it will got our full attention and people said...there will be no more cinema-going, no more late-night drinks etc. So we are encouraged to enjoy ourselves when we're still expecting :P

We had a wonderful time on the first time cruise-dining trip held by the Hornblower. The dining cruise departs at Pier 3 of Fisherman's Wharf. It's a 2-hr cruise. The pros is no need to take any flight and afterall the cost is reasonable and good for parents-to-be who spent most of their pennies on baby stuff  : >

The food is quite good though it's not with huge variety. Consider that it's a brunch..of course, we would not expect Lobster or Oyster. They offer fillet and cut ham and steak as main course which are really up-to-standard. They also provide endless champagne and fresh orange juice.

There is a small dance floor and a 'singing' guide, Kelly, who will introduce those island (Alcatraz & Angel Island) ’s history and natural features and also entertain guests with her beautiful live music. She will also announce names of birthday stars and celebrate anniversaries and even graduation of the guests.

 

We went on spending the afternoon at Fisherman's Wharf and visited the Postcard Row, a row of Victorian houses situated along Steiner Street on Alamo Square in San Francisco.  Followed by a great Hong Kong style dinner at ABC Cafe (my current favorite restaurant). 

 

Happy 3rd Anniversary! 

and many more to come ~~

Arriving at CA

Dear Friends,

After 25 days, we've pretty much settled in our new home. The city we reside now is called Mountain View, about 45 minutes drive from San Francisco. 

With God's grace, we managed to find our new apartment in 7 days.  It's really quite challenging to get a place that you're comfortable with in a limited time under a tight budget.  Glad that we have friends living in the area for some time and they've given us valuable advice in the searching process and that makes life much easier!   The rent here is really high compared to New Haven. People said it's because you got to pay for the token of nice weather. Maybe it's true. So far, we experienced clear blue sky most of the time and the community around is  peaceful and nice.  Here it's also easy to find delicious Asian food which is the credit I like most.  So far so good.

Hugo has kicked off his new 'career' as well starting from June 1. His office is about 10 minutes drive from home and it's right next to Facebook headquater.  The projects ahead sounds fun and I guess he will be fully engaged very soon after warm-up.

Last but not least,  we are so excited to tell you that a new member will soon be joining our family near end of November. Yes, a baby is on the way. We're too busy for the relocation in the past two months so we did not have chance to notify our beloved family and friends individually. Stay tuned. 

Get set, Go!

Thanks to Cheryl, Lap, Siegfried & Sun.......we managed to ship all the things at last minute!!!  As we only have 1 labor worker at home (ie Hugo) it's impossible to complete this mission without their help.

We still have couple of challenges in the coming days. Got to settle in west coast, find an apartment, search for a good car, sort out for a good insurance plan, unpack all the things and arrange all the logistics........almost everything from the scratch!   Pray for us.

Really a busy May and hopefully we could manage to deliver good news to you all after settling in CA.

California Trip - Napa Valley

I have done some research on Napa before the trip.  It's actually quite ironic as I am not
a alcohol fan (in fact, allergic to wine 8 out of 10 times), I shouldn't spend much time in the wine region. However, I do think wine-tasting is a fun activity and visiting wineries to learn how they deal with grapes sounds very interesting. At last, I selected the following spots to go for my first Napa visit:

We drove from San Franciso to St. Helena and had a great lunch at The Martini House.

The food was great. We sat next to the fireplace and enjoyed the renowned 'Cream of Mushroom'.















Then we drove to Rutherford- RoundPond and joined the Olive Oil Tasting Tour which we reserved in advance.

The staff explained how Olive oil was made and told us the differences between Italian Olive Oil and Spanish Olive Oil.  She said Good olive oil should be those who could make you cough.  My favorite part is tasting the red wine vinegar. It's amazingly good to taste it on a sugar cube.

 

We stayed in Napa at the Veno Bello Resort, it's a rather new hotel, adjacent to The Meritage.  The facilities are great. I did my laundry there and it's very thoughtful for them to provide the machine wash powder for 1 load.












The next day, we visited the Domaine Carnero. As we got limited time and very tiny quota for 'Wine' - one is a driver and one got wine-allergic, this is a great place. The building itself is beautiful and it has a great place for you to enjoy the winery scenery and sip a dip.

 

The Napa day was fun and I am sure that we'll be back in the future. Though I only visited one winery this time, I did learn a lot through the 'research' and I could now tell you at least 10 big names in Napa with a brief history of their wine.  :P 

Reference:
http://www.winecountrygetaways.com/

http://www.martinihouse.com/
http://www.domainecarneros.com
http://www.roundpond.com/index.cfm?method=pages.showPage&pageid=a4c96c93-d924-1a60-7136-0b11e4e49b8a

California Trip ~ Meeting Yun

We've traveled to Northern California during CNY.  It's been really lucky that we managed to escape from the snow storm and catch the flight on time. (8 out of 10 flights were canceled! )

We only had one-week but there's so many things we wanna do. For me, the top priority is to meet Yun ~ as I gotta clear my bad record ....Yun is my 'old' Ho-tung hall mate. She was an exchange student from Davis, probably when I was in Year 3 -- (In fact, I have no idea about the time now) We spent not very long time together but I really like this girl. :P  I have missed my appointments with her for the last two times because I simply 'fall asleep'.  So I disappointed her again and again...haha..so this time, I gotta meet her when I'm "awake". And Finally, I made it!

We had a wonderful night at Cafe Claude. For more details about the food. See Dolphinicious.

Festive Home

Thanks to my best friend, Tracy. She sent me a box of Doraemon(ssss) of different chinese zodiac.
I hanged those cute dolls to the 'Pile tree' - the ever lasting and never fallen down tree in my dining room and let it be a Fortune tree.  It's the first year we get together during the Chinese Lunar New Year.

To view more, please visit my photo album: Click here

Driving in U.S

I have obtained my driving license in Hong Kong last Summer.  In fact, I should have done this at 18 with the fact that my father is a driving instructor. (My elder sister got the license about 8 years ago.)  I thought I'm not good at directions and also not a 'Machines-friendly' person, so , I do not have motivation to take the driving exams at the time.  Another point is that it is not convenient to own a car in Hong Kong, you could get to every corner by trains or all kinds of public transport while it is very hard to find a parking lot.   Driving is  actually a fun sports. It requires concentration and good coordination. You need to have a plan and think fast to react to the road traffic. I see it as a serious sports. Maybe I'm bit exaggerated but I do think that we must drive carefully. Coz we need to be responsible to ourselves as well as other road users. 

Thanks to my dad's great teaching and God's blessings, I got the driving licence in one take.  I drove several times in Hong Kong under my Dad's supervision and it all looks so okay.  That pampers me to think that I may try Driving in the U.S.  However, it didn't turn out to be a very smooth experience. Maybe it takes time for me to get used to the right-left switching and the different road rules. I think I better rely on Hugo until I am fully confident to be a good driver in U.S. I am so happy to be a passenger so far.

Walking around the Campus under the Chill Weather

Haven't walked around the Yale campus since I 'returned'. So today, I decided to hang around and take some photos for my blog. I was fully geared up with my lovely grey gloves and scarf (sponsored by Ro & Mic) and thought that it would be good enough to cope with the chill weather. However, I just keep sneezing and my fingers got frozen. So I just hopped from different buildings and took a few photos along the path.

One great thing I did today is to renew my library card. The New Haven Public library was the most visited place I went (besides those supermarkets) last time when I was here. Of coz, it won't be missed out. There were even Chinese and Korea Movies available, though the choices are limited but you still feel acquainted.

I checked out a cookbook called 'Cooking From Above' with 60 classic recipes (mainly French cuisine) which are accompanied by an aerial-shot photo for every step. I'll try some of the Recipes and the first thing on my list is 'Presto' sauce.

Plan for 2010

It's been two weeks already....Some catch-up for you, I have left my busy life in Hong Kong (temporarily until further notice) and resided in New Haven now since last Xmas. Thanks God for all the blessings. I never imagine that the 'Reunion' could happen so fast in the best scenario. So now, I am here with Hugo and have some work-free months ahead.

Honestly, I do not have any plans so far. I still hold mixed feelings.....not very much get back on track yet. I haven't done any remarkable things in the last two weeks, in fact, I'm simply having a very peaceful life here. Following my biological clock to sleep, wake up, eat and play. This is actually a luxurious life. Of course, as you know, I won't just let time flies. I will set some 'light' goals very soon. In my head, I have 'cooking' & 'kniting' and 'photographing'. I am now searching a good photo-sharing protocol (I hope to find a better one outraged Picassa..maybe Flickr)