[Love] Valentine's Day

It's our first Valentine's Day. I was a little bit nervous what was gonna happen. He ordered Iris and Tulip bouquet and sent it to office. The flowers are so fresh that they haven't even opened yet. As usual, it is a busy work day. However there is a pleasure atmosphere because you can catch girls walking around happily with flowers. In our layout group, which is 90% ladies, everyone has fresh flowers on their desk. It is truly a festival.
We decided not to spent big money on this occasion. Instead, we had quality dry steak from Whole Food market. With my cast iron skillet, the steak surface was sealed perfectly, juicy inside and crispy outside. You can't find a better deal than this ($12 each) from a restaurant. We also had sauteed mushroom with Origano and Lemon pepper, mixed greens salad and mixed fruit pie, all from Whole Food.
I got him a pair of "boy and girl sitting on a log" Nyform Trolls from Norway. He has a "dreamer" at his desk that he really got when he visited Norway. I know that he loves them. He did origami flowers for me, with papers from Taiwan. I can tell that he is talented in origami, partly from his anul-retentive nature. I also got a bear and a pair of furry wool boots. I wore those boots to work the next day :-)
The article gets too long now, so I'd better stop. I just wanna share with you some small heart warming things that we have, that everyday is Valentine's Day.
(http://scandinaviantouch.com/smallnyformtrolls.htm)

Something about Biking

記得以前X情人裡面梅格萊恩酷酷的騎自行車上班, 今天我第一次做到了
早上九點整裝出發, 和 Eugene 兩台鐵馬混在通勤的車陣中, 剛好這兩天天氣很溫暖, 有華氏七十多度吧, 早晨的風雖涼, 騎不到五分鐘還是流了一身汗. Tasman Drive 又大又寬, 但是來往的車還是相當多, 加上又過公路又過鐵路還過了個小河, 每座橋都是考驗. 上坡不是問題, 問題是下坡能不能避開右轉的車輛
其實這種車多的路, 路面鋪得再好也是會裂加上車子帶來的垃圾和砂石, 可憐我的美麗小車車, 一個一個輾過去, 彈得我痛在屁股, 疼在心裡 .
到了公司先去健身房洗個澡, 就牽著車上樓越過長廊, 其實並沒有引起多大的注意. 不過一整天倒是有不少人到我的小隔間來, 隔壁的韓國同事看了我的車, 也想買兩台和他老婆騎著玩 .
另一個同事文鑫之前買了一輛通勤用腳踏車, 也是很有興趣又摸又看, 不過最令人感動的是我老闆七點半的時候來關心我要怎麼回家, 雖然我很希望他說, 以後你騎車來上班的話, 就趁天黑前回家吧! 那我每天騎車來上班也願意, 不過我還是很硬漢的說，沒關係， 我有頭燈跟閃光燈, 而且 Eugene跟我一起騎, 兩個人比較引人注意加上Tasman路燈很亮, 沒關係的!
所以還是做到八點半才離開....
回家的路說驚險也不會, 說漫長也不會, 唯一的心得就是想要花錢買更好的配備. 首先所有的垃圾跟砂石都看不見了, 坑洞也看不見. 就像 Sine wave有波峰跟波谷, 路燈雖然亮也是有照不到的地方. 這時候真是希望自己會發光
騎回家差不多也半小時, 一天就結束了. 感覺早上這樣大口的呼吸流一身汗到公司, 精神比灌下一大杯星巴克還好. 晚上和 Eugene 兩人相依為命騎回家, 心裡想, 有沒有一起去自行車自助旅行的可能呢?
我們報名了這個 Sierra to the Sea 七天六夜420miles的旅行http://stts.actc.org/tour_overview.htm現在每個週末都去騎車訓練. 目前是一星期增加五英哩距離, 最遠騎到30 miles, 如果沒有大上坡, 時速平均15mph...不斷進步中啦, 呵呵, 小肚子也在變平中

Letter from Home

My mom sent me a package with two calendar planners. I could not find one that I like here in the States.
The company address envelope, my sister's hand writing, Taiwan Post Office stamp, reminded me of old days in Taipei.

Thank you Mom, I will cherish it. Also I know what you mean by sending me empty "red envelopes".

Happy Chinese New Year! It's about 15th in Lunar calendar. Time to eat 湯圓 (rice ball) :) 

SuperBowl & Pizza party

Last sunday we had a superbowl and pizza party. I think people are more interested in pizza than football. We had toppins like sausage, bell pepper, pepperoni, mushroom, sun dried tomato, archichoke heart, onion, anchovy, olive and mozaarella and cheddar cheese.
We bought pizza dough from local pizza store. Had to expand it on our own though. Gee, that was hard work. My first try turned out to be a mask with 3 holes. My coworker Jun did a professional job. She used to live in Beijing where people make noodles on their own.
試寫中文看看...麵團還有剩所以今天我跟Eugene又做了一次. 右上角的那包就是我明天的早午晚餐囉~ The Lord of the Rings裡面的精靈口糧大概就長這樣吧...