Month: January 2007

It’s been a quietly unhappy week chez Doris. It’s mainly driven by my monthly swing in hormones. This week things seem not as shiny as when the new year started.

Edda’s school has lost a few teachers. None of Edda’s teachers left, but a few on her floor and I didn’t notice until 3 weeks into the term when I saw that one of the classrooms was quiet. I opened the door – the lights were off, chairs scattered and all the artwork down. And then I found out through the grapevine that another teacher left and a few students I was fond of also went away. I didn’t know these people well, I don’t know where they went, but I’m sad just the same. Arg, why do things have to change?

Jeremy is preparing for our eventual move back to the US. The company that we’ve rented the car from has been notified, Ruby’s vet is readying the paperwork, air travel is being considered (Jeremy did have an idea that we’d take the Queen Mary so we wouldn’t be jet lagged, but we’d have to dress in a tux and gown for dinner and god knows that we aren’t good for that..). I am a little snappish when Jeremy asks me detailed travel questions. I think I’m still in la la land, thinking that I can procrastinate on planning and maybe it will never happen, or that it will happen so slowly that I won’t notice too much and then one day I’ll look up and there will be a mug of hot tea in my hand and snow falling outside and I’ll think, that’s funny, where did the pool and palm trees go? Ha ha ha!

Vince is alternating being excited to look at real estate online with Jeremy (another task that Jeremy is enjoying and I’m sort of avoiding – Hello, my name is Doris and I like to avoid things) and saying that he wants to stay in Singapore forever.

Tonight is the first class. No flirting allowed!

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Scientific name: Allamanda cathartica
Common name: Golden trumpet
Location: Singapore

I think I finally figured out why women carry purses. It’s actually quite practical … in a way. Like guys, girls have to carry stuff. Things like cash and ID and key and a phone. Of course, most women carry more stuff than guys. Things like possibly make-up or other things.

Now guys just carry stuff in their pockets and are done with it. The trouble is that if you’re a girl, and you want to wear those sexy, ass-hugging, $200 pair of designer jeans to show your booty off, well that’s all well and good for showing your smackable butt, but it ain’t no good for shoving your iPod in your pocket when your jeans are skin tight. It’s just not practical or comfortable to have things in your pockets. So then? Of course, women have to create another fashion item, the purse, to carry their junk in, so they can still show off their butts to the guys.

Ronnie just pointed out to me that purse is actually from the latin, puris savus, for “satchel for carrying bits of your dinner that you didn’t finish but want to take home”. It’s funny how the word has evolved…

It’s been a cabbage kind of day.

Do you see the Joy of Cooking in the background? It was the only cookbook that I brought to Singapore. I love this cookbook, so classically American, it just is a pain that a lot of the ingredients can’t be found at our local supermarket. I heard that they came out with a new edition that is more of a homage to the original, more folksy tone. The edition I have (early 90s) is the more worldly one – more ethnic recipes and culinary tips and I think they got rid of the game section. I wonder if they brought it back for the newer edition – you know recipes for rabbit and squirrel. (Have I ever eaten a rabbit? I can’t remember.)

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Look at this terrible join I did a bazillion rows ago. I just knit the two yarns together for 20 stitches and then dropped the yarn from the first cone. Somehow it’s gotten itself tangled in a lifeline and now it’s a bunched up mess. There is no way in hell I’m going to rip back a bazillion rows, so this is what it’s going to be.

But! I used the internet to figure out how to do it better! A Russian join.

Lookie here (I apologize for the photos, I was using natural light, but these are just ugly):

Two ends, in love:

They intertwine:

You thread the first end onto itself:

Go a few inches:

Do the other side:

Trim!

It looks like one!

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I have no idea what this is, but it’s so cool!
Location: Singapore

That’s right, I’m sticking my tongue out at you!

11. My favorite personal hygiene procedure is flossing.
12. I can tell I’m off kilter when I don’t bother to floss before bed.
13. I can take a 30 second shower to get ready in the morning (soap the dirtiest areas and wash hair and face.)
14. I have never: had a perm, tweezed my eyebrows, colored my hair or gotten a pedicure.
15. I don’t like getting haircuts.
16. I don’t shave because I have very little body hair.
17. I don’t use deodorant because I think I don’t smell.
18. I like keeping my nails trimmed and unpolished.
19. I love baths. A hot bath and a good paperback book is all I need to waste a few hours.
20. I wear a mouth guard at night because I grind my teeth terribly when I sleep.

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I’m almost out of yarn on this cone. I wonder how I’m going to attach it to the next cone? Hmmm..

I was again at the library looking at stitch patterns. Normally I’m not into bobbles, but look how cute!

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Scientific name: Tabernaemontana
Common name: Pinwheel Jasmine
Location: Singapore

I guess it’s always a busy weekend, but this weekend was fairly busy.

Friday night I skipped out on having dinner with Arif and the gang, cause I needed to cook for a potluck on Sunday night. (More on that later.) But I didn’t end up doing much cooking at all since my roommate had some folks over for a dinner party and I didn’t want to interrupt their fine dining.

Saturday, was ski day. My other roommate, Frank, had his first snowboard day! He just bought a snowboard in December, but never got a chance to use it, that is until Saturday. We went to a small place, Dodge Ridge near Yosemite. When I mean small, I’m talking small. JT and I, who are intermediate skiiers, basically skied the entire mountain in about an hour, 15. Of course, the conditions were crap. 12 inches of base snow. I think I gougedd my skis on some rocks. Sigh. Frank did really well tho. We hung out with him in the afternoon. He could turn heel side and toe side, but like any beginner tooks some tumbles. It was worse cause either he couldn’t slow himself down, or he just liked going fast, so all those tumbles were at a fairly good clip. He’s sore today. 🙂

Sunday was just some shopping in Gilroy. I got some bib tights (biking shorts that have suspenders and go down to your ankles) for 25% off. And then we found a coupon for the store and went back and got another 15% off. That paid for lunch. I’m finding that you can stillget pretty good deals not even working at the shop. 🙂

Sunday night was Yi-Ling’s monthly potluck. January’s theme was “starters”. Get it? 😛 Heh. I made some bacon wrapped scallops and a dessert of lemon squares. Dean made a yummy stuffed mushroom, with garlic and turkey stuffing. It was pretty yummy. Tho now I have to start training for this triathlon… Need…. to… lose… weight…

Jen was my colleague in Singer Simulation. His two kids played with Doris & Donald occasional back in the 70s.

Unfortunately or fortunately, he has had lung cancer for almost 5 years. Last Thanksgiving, we invited Jen, his wife and many other friends to our house. He was fine and we enjoyed our food, conversation and gathering a lot.

However, on Thurday last week, I received a phone call with a very bad news to tell that Jen’s wife was in coma right after brain surgery on Jan 22nd at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

She was perfectly healthy just about one month ago. It happened so suddenly that right after Christmas, she lost her short term memory. Then she was diagnosed brain tumors. It was later found to be cancerous and also was the most aggressive kind.

Today, I received words that she is still in coma. Doctors and people around her realize it is really very bad indeed.

One more sad thing, the kid, across the U street, has some kind of illness that he can not move around easily. I asked his father yesterday about his situation. He is not improving at all, just hanging there. And his father said “That Is Life”. Life? Very unpredictable…

This weekend was a bit strange. Jeremy’s been a bit off – he’s over caffeinated and therefore doesn’t sleep well. There is a lot to think about and do over the next few months – moving back to the US, starting up a new job and setting up stuff for the kids. We’ve moved so many times before, I’m hoping this will be the last one for a little while (and when I say little while – I’m hoping for at least 3 years!)

None of us are sleeping that well. Vince, Jeremy and I all get up at least once in the night to switch beds, Edda wakes up at least twice asking for a parent, none of the wakings last long (usually), but they are disruptive. We all wake up in different rooms than when we started.

Today, Jeremy met up with Zeng-Gang, his adviser from graduate school. He was doing an eight hour layover in Singapore on his way to India and he managed to squeeze in a visit with Jeremy. We waited for him at the Esplanade – downtown along the waterfront. I asked Jeremy to take the quintessential Singapore tourist photo.

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I love lifelines. I haven’t needed to use one yet on this project, thank goodness, but they are all still there. Does this mean I am afraid of risk? Perhaps.

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Scientific name: Cordyline terminalis
Common name: Ti Tree
Location: Singapore

In an interesting announcement, Intel and IBM have developed the supposed “biggest change in semiconductors in over 40 years”. I’m a little dubious about that claim, however, when looking at the diagram, I notice that they use a high K dialectric for their gate material. I thought everyone was all hyped up on low K stuff. Or am I getting my transistor structure totally confused here. Perhaps someone from a highly respected competitor would care to chime in?

Ah I see. I just need to do some research on wikipedia. High-K good for transistor gate material. Low-K good for interconnect material. Hrm, but really? 40 years?

Mom is having trouble logging into her account, so I’m posting this for her..

I have moved into my two bedrooms apartment and last night, I cooked my first meal at apartment. I have soup, fish and green beams. Cleanup lady comes once a week. But I still want wash my cloth by myself. The washer works very well. The dryer is very very small. I use cloth line and dry naturally.

The air is not clean so I closed windows. Some items are not cheap. I bought some CD. The average price is $6 each. One is about $12. Food is relatively cheap. Some fruits are not cheap.

I had allergy reaction the first day I moved into apartment due to dust. I had swallow eyes. They toke me to the company’s healthy clinic. The lady doctor is very nice and she gave me some eye drop and some medicine.

First week was bit rough. Now I am settle down. Yesterday, I took subway, and went to TEEMall. It is a very nice mall and the lady’s room is very clean. I like that.

I think, this is my last job and ready to retire and run MiniSystems leisurely.

Today Vince and I went out on a date. He took me to our neighborhood mall for some sushi. Decorations for Chinese New Year are all up and they are playing terrible, terrible Chinese new year songs in all the retail stores. Blech!

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My Icarus is continuing smoothly. I put in some good knitting time today and I’m almost done with Chart 2, the first section of the border. The feathers of Icarus are starting to form!

I mentioned that when I was doing the paired yarn overs that one seemed to use a lot more yarn than the other and it did result in lopsided eyelets. The one on the right is larger than the one on the left because I had to go further around the needle to reach the next purl stitch. I guess the blocking will take care of it.

I was in the library today when I looked at 50 New Milanese Lace Patterns by Patricia Read. I know this isn’t knitting, but I loved looking at these lace projects.

Maybe something like this can be incorporated into a lace knitting project? Hmmm.

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Scientific name: Oxalys
Common name: Wood Sorrel
Location: Austin, TX