The Senakams | Corgi + 3

Memorial Day Extravaganza!

For some reason, 3-day weekends always feel shorter than a normal one.

I think it's because we always start out being overly ambitious, planning to do too much that at the end, we completely exhaust ourselves and feel like we didn't even have any time off.

Such is the case this Memorial Day weekend (some people just never learn). To recount events, we'll have to start from that gloomy Saturday morning...

It had rained all night and the morning was still sprinkly. We were disappointed coz we thought we might have to cancel plans to meet up at Point Isabel with Bryson's corgi half-brother, Wally.

Oh no, you forgot? It's Wally! Recall that we met this handsome boy at the SF corgi meet up last year, and one look told us him and Bryson are related- and upon chatting with his people, we realized they are indeed half-brothers, sharing the same mommy and probably just one litter apart! Remember this?

Anyway, the day eventually cleared up, and we were able to hang out and let the brothers reunite. You can tell from the photos (all taken by the very talented mrjoro) that they had a fantastic time!

It's pretty funny that even though Wally is younger and smaller, he's the more outgoing one that often end up "protecting" Bryson when doggie brawls break out around them. What a great brother!

And you won't believe who we ran into halfway into the walk... Picasso! The day just keeps getting better :)

We ended our day with a yummy brunch at Sunnyside Cafe on Solano in Albany. Their breakfast sampler menu changes every week, and they give you 1/2-orders of 4 of their specials + 2 mimosas + fruit cup for 2 to share, AND they're uber dog-friendly. You don't get a breakfast place better than this :)

 
Left: Peanut butter caramelized banana french toast, yummmmm!!
Right: Wally or Bryson waiting for scraps? (Try to resist clicking on it and cheat...)

And after laboring for 5 hours at the letterpress studio on Sunday, we headed out for another short day trip to old town Benicia on Monday. 

Benicia is small town fairly close to us (30 min. to the northeast), but for some reason, we never head that way and thus have never been there. But after reading a few articles about this charming little town, we decided it's time to hop into the car with Bryson and go check it out.

And Benicia is just as advertised- quaint, historic, and smells like the ocean.

We greatly enjoy a stroll on the main drag- First Street, having lunch at a streetside cafe, browsing the ubiquitous antique shop (some closed due to the holiday though), and snapping some pix of our boy (these Benicia photos are taken by moi).

And that's what we love about where we live, it doesn't matter how long we've lived here, there always seems to be an unlimited supply of little coastal towns waiting for us to discover- and plenty of unspoiled hydrants for Bryson to lift his leg at.

  

See our Flickr album for more pictures from our Benicia day.

The 80's Rock!!

Watching this last week's American Idol finale, I was shocked to see an almost-elderly George Michael perform... But... but wait... George Michael should always look like he did in Wake Me Up Before You Go Go! Was the 80's really that long ago?

The sad truth is, of course, it really was THAT long ago. Big round glasses, high-waisted tapered-leg pants are out- AND back in again.

When you see a trend in a magazine that makes you go "Hey, look, I used to wear that when I was in high school!"- you know you're officially OLD.

Sigh. Guess I might as well embrace it. To start, this is a picture of me "graduating" from my Outward Bound class in the summer of 1989. I hate to admit that nerdy, discheveled, disproportionate chick with zero fashion sense was me. But alas, it was.

And now, to celebrate my teenage years (LATE 80's/early 90's, may I clarify), I've put together this mixed tape (kudos to Heather Future) as a tribute to the years when you were allowed to and often do completely reckless and stupid things that you'll later regret. (You know you and I are in the same age group if you recognize any of these songs!)

And here are some more snap shots from these carefree yet moronic years:

 
Above left: Contrary to the photographer's intent, I was not picking my nose, uh hmm. This is our classroom in our secondary school, SPCC in Hong Kong. We just came back from lunch and waiting for class to resume. I haven't even changed out of my sneakers (our basketball team practiced during lunch). It is a funny combo with our traditional Chinese dress (cheung sam) uniform. But somehow we thought it was cool then.

Above right: Our Form 5 (equivalent to 11th grade) graduation. It was a big deal, coz having spent every school hour (in Hong Kong you stick to the same group of people for every single class) together for 2 whole years, some of us will be leaving to study abroad, and this would be the last day some of us would ever be standing together in a photo (but I'm very glad to say that 4 of these folks were at our wedding just a few years ago :>).

 
Every summer, our group of friends would ride an inter-island ferry and go "camping" (staying in a rental village cottage) in the "countryside" for a week or so. We relished these days away from our parents, when we'd play poker until 2 in the morning, then rise at the crack of dawn and ride our rental bikes out to watch the sun rise at the beach and lay there all morning.

OK, I have to admit, for each photo I posted here, there're probably 100 more that's too embarrassing to let in the public domain. For those of you who knew me back then and possess some of these black-mail material- well... Try me :P

Graduating Magna Cum Laude is...

Bryson in his advanced beginning agility class this past weekend. Woohoo!

Here's a video of his graduating run:

He's still at the slow-and-steady-wins-the-race stage as you can see, and at this early stage, he's taught to pause at the end of each contact equipment (teeter, a-frame and dog walk) as we're still practicing "contact" (touching his nose to the ground and getting a treat for it). The purpose is so that he'll know to finish off the equipment till the end, and not to jump off mid-way and risk getting hurt.

We mostly just enjoy watching his butts wiggle :D

Paper Elixir = Luxury Goods

Does "4" in the editorial spread below look familiar to you?

Yep! It's my black feather card! I was so psyched to see the card being featured on the uber-chic tha Hotness blog (for the second time), this time as a "perfect thank you gift for your bridesmaid and maid of honor". (Thanks, My!)

I like the Louis Vuitton Change Holder strategically positioned above my card. They do look like they go together, don't they?

In fact, I think I'm going to send this to LV's headquarter, and propose that they consider giving one of these cards out as a complimentary gift to every customer who purchased this change holder. Of course I'll give Louis a bulk discount for purchasing a bizillion of my cards. I hate to gloat but somtimes I'm such a marketing genius.

Joe Cool

I felt soooo lazy today... I couldn barely raise one finger after another to type right now, coz that will generate so much body heat I might just melt like a tub o' lard.

This unusual heat wave hit the Bay Area yesterday on a May day that should have been nice and springy. I think the news says that we reached a high of 96 today. 96!! And we live right by the Bay! Something's wrong with the world's thermostat...

All we could do was to dust off the fan, jack it all the way up to "HI", aim it straight at ourselves, sprawl all out on the cool concrete floor to maximize heat transfer, and try to stay as motionless as possible and get into reverse hibernation.

Bryson and Picasso seem to think they have better ideas on how to stay cooool

Birth Announcements- They're Here!

I've finally recovered from the shock of losing a little piece of myself from last week, and was able to enjoy quite a lovely Mother's Day with hubby and Bryson.

By the way, I'm still patiently awaiting my Mother's Day gift from Bryson (size 39... uh hmm).

And I bet it's an extra special Mother's Day for one mom- my cousin, Irene, in Boston- not only because she gave birth to my beautiful niece, Mia, last month, but probably also coz she finally received the slightly overdue but still fabulous baby announcements I letterpressed for her! Woo hoo!

 
   

Overall, I like the way they came out. They're kinda like the invites I did for my sister's baby shower last year before taking this letterpress class.

I think these are sweet and playful without being too frou-frou. Well, fact is girls in our family just don't do frou-frou, we can't even if we try. But it does kinda coordinate with the thank you cards I gocco'd for her. OK, maybe it's just a little frou-frou.

In case you're curious, these are the steps involved in producing these announcements-

1. Sketch out the design on paper, do a mock-up (inspired by the pink chiyogami "ball" paper and lemongrass Midori ribbons to match, both from Flax, a art/craft megastore that has sucked my wallet dry over the years)
2. Scan in the chiyogami paper, extract and process the "balls" on PhotoShop, gouge eyeballs out repeatedly when I couldn't get PS to do what I want it to do
3. Lay the text and balls out on InDesign, which involves moving each ball by a few microns obsessively over and over again to get the right composition until eyeballs finally fell out
4. Send the completed InDesign file out to a vendor to produce the film (same as a photo negative)
5. When film comes back, make photopolymer plate from which the announcement will be printed off of (this process requires a lot of zen to get right. Say my Omm...)
6. Cut the paper (and some finger nail) on the guillotine, mix ink
7. Set up the Vandercook press, print (finally!), pray that the press doesn't fall apart half way
8. Admire the "naked" letterpressed announcements, cry a few tears of joy
9. Cut the chiyogami paper and ribbons
10. Select photo, process, print (but not before printing a thousand trial prints with wrong shade/ wrong size/ wrong resolution, etc)
11. Pour myself a generous glass of choya plum wine
12. Assemble the chiyogami strips, tie ribbons, affix photo, repeat 80 times or till fingers start bleeding, whichever occurs first (or, chug down the glass of plum wine and scream like a crazy woman so your husband is forced to help out)

And voila! You've got a set of lovely Japanese-themed letterpress birth announcement! Piece of cake.

Let me know if you're having a baby (or wedding, or any other momentous occasions) coming up, love to tackle it all over again! (And don't forget to send some plum wine along with your order)

Ghetto mouth

When you've grown to be a responsible adult, you've generally learned to avoid doing stupid things that will disfigure yourself accidentally.

Well, I've accomplished one such feat today.

I chipped my frigging front tooth.

With a fork.

I was frantically trying to chew an olive's flesh off of its pit, while totally absorbed in this stupid reality show and yakking at the TV and dishing out comments that no one can hear. I thought the fork was out of my mouth. It wasn't. I heard a loud "CRUNCH" and felt shock waves from the top of my head to my its-bitsy little toes.

OWWWWWW......

I guess there's a reason why your parents tell you not to eat and talk at the same time. And yet another reason why reality TV is bad for you.

It doesn't hurt as bad as it looks (I can still use your sympathy though)!. All I can see in the mirror now is this ghetto mouth. I can't stop staring and laughing at this pitiful sight. It's like watching someone in a comical accident on America's Funniest Home Video.

Or, maybe it's a sign that I should go get myself a nice set of grill...

Corgi-ators

It's been almost a year since Bryson and Picasso's wholesome boy band "New PWCs on the Block" received a crushing rejection on American Idol.

With their singing career not being particularly successful (thanks, David Archuleta!), they've switched gear and are now practicing to audition for American Corgi Gladiators:

Picasso's special weapon is the Watch-out-I'm-gonna-punch-you-with-my-stubby-arms move and trash talking. Bryson doesn't have a special move yet (unless you count the I'm-running-away-AND-stealing-your-toy-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah move).

What to Give for Mother's Day?

Since my parents moved back to Hong Kong a couple years ago, it's been quite a challenge shopping for birthday/ Christmas/ Mother's/ Father's Day presents for them.

First of all, taking them out to shop is kinda difficult when they live some 6,000 miles away. And there's the whole mailability factor (try packing a birthday cake).

And even if you do find something you like, chances are it's made in China, which means they can probably find the same thing 10 times cheaper somewhere down the street from where they live.

So, after dragging myself around 4th Street in Berkeley for hours this weekend and got a couple of knick-knacks (all sporting "Made in China" stickers on the back), I gave up.

I ran home, rubbed my sore feet, made myself a cup of tea, and decided that I'm just gonna throw something together, call it a piece of "heartfelt" "artwork", and hope my mom won't despise it (she's a hard critic, that one).

And going through my boxes of spare fabric and bits of paper and various ephemera for ideas, I came across this lovely pack of cherry blossom stickers my mom got for me while visiting Japan years ago that I had forgotten about...

They're these cutesy little things that I imagine Japanese school kids stick on their bento lunch boxes. And since working on my friend's wedding thank you card this past month, I've been having cherry blossoms on my mind... 

And about an hour (and many stains that ruined another pair of pants) later, this is what I got:

And yes, it was so much fun I actually made 2! I'm gonna mail my mom the smaller one on wood (in the upper right photo), and I might put the canvas one up in my etsy store. But I kinda like it, hmm... maybe I'll keep this one.

(P.S. Daddy- if you're reading this before you receive it in the mail, please don't show this to her- it's meant to be a SURPRISE...)

On Modern Day Anesthesia and Surgical Procedures

I had a minor procedure where I had to go under general anesthesia a few weeks ago (don't freak, I'm fine, everything's fine. Really. I'm OK.)

I've always thought that since I was trained as a pharmacist, that I'd be the most prepared patient in the world. I'll know what questions to ask ("is that propofol in a 70% fatty emulsion in that glass bottle hanging on my IV pole?").

I naively thought the whole thing will go without a hitch.

Well, what I didn't expect is how vulnerable you become as soon as you change into that hideous bottom-baring hospital gown.

Nothing makes much sense when you're in that semi-sedated state, and a million people try to poke your arm and draw funny lines on your body and ask you questions you don't understand all at the same time.

So, as your cyber pharmacist friend (and someone who learned by their own mistake), I've got a few advices for you if you don't want to come out of your future surgery with your colon mistakenly removed when you went in for an ingrown toenail (or something equally tragic):

(1) READ UP about the procedure AND about anesthesia (yes, the "fun" part).

Now I assume that if you're reading this blog, you're fairly proficient with finding stuff to read on the internet. Good. Keep doing that. And if it means you'll have to miss reading my blog for a few days, it's OK, you're forgiven.

The field of anesthesiology is greatly advanced since the day of laughing gas. These days, the meds are mostly safe but invariably POTENT.

I made the rookie mistake of underestimating its power (and yes, it's even stronger than Starbucks French Roast. Pix's stolen from someone else's blog).

After being told "OK, the first injection of Versed is going in, say whatever you're going to say to your husband now, dear", and I responded with a stupid "Yeah, right, whatev....vvveeer..rrrrr...errrrr......" I was out in 5 seconds flat. (But according to my husband, I was still yakking unintelligibly the whole time. God knows what embarrassing things I said to the nurses who wheeled me into the OR...)

(2) ASK ad nauseum about anything you don't understand until you get a satisfactory answer (preferably at your pre-op appt since on the day of, you'll probably feel like you've had one too many martinis most of the time. Not a bad feeling, just not the best time to keep information straight in your head).

Remember, someone's CUTTING you open while you're UNCONSCIOUS. Ruminate on that one.

I, for one, failed to ask one vital question... it wasn't until I woke up from the surgery and felt a soreness in my throat when I realized I was intubated during the procedure (which was optional as I understood it). I mean, someone just kinda NEGLECTED to tell me that there's a chance they're gonna stick a tube down my throat in case I stop breathing?!

(3) ASK for a second opinion when the first nurse/doctor don't seem to understand what you're asking for.

I would have received an antibiotic I was violently allergic to if I didn't keep asking the anesthesiologist (one of the few who actually listened to me) why the nurse insisted it's "OK" for that bag of antibiotoic to be hanging on my IV pole. Be prepared to wrestle anyone who's about to stick you with a substance that you know may kill you (OK, I hope you don't come to that, but seriously, do double check).

I figure 3 things are probably about all that one can remember at one sitting. So, there you are! Now armed with these pearls of wisdom I've imparted on you, go forth and be the smartest patient in any future surgery ward you may find yourself in!