Chinese New Year

On Jan 26th we had an awesome family time together to celebrate Chinese New Year. Here is a link to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_new_year .














I grew up having the same family meal every Chinese New Year. Unlike American fondue, broth is used to boil food such as meat, vegetable, and noodle. It is a slow process of eating and allowing people to spend time together. I always believe happy family starts in the kitchen.

Back when I was growing up in Indonesia, my school had unofficial two days holiday. Usually most of us took four days off and got into trouble. It was not so bad when it involved 80-90% of students. We spent four days visiting relatives and friends, the best thing was food. It wasn't until late 1990's the government finally declared it as a national holiday. I left the country in 1988 (I can't believe I have spent more than half of my life out of the country).

Interesting experience in Georgia

You would probably have heard it over and over again, another wonderful Christmas season (gifts, get together, etc). So here I've decided to omit it, part of it because I am not a routine blogger so I'd better utilize my blogging time.

After staying 3 days in Lake Crystal, MN, right after the Sunday church service around noon I hit the road and drove to the airport to catch my 3:45 PM flight to Georgia on the mission to help my brother move to his new house. He paid for the tickets and surely he put me to work.

On the next morning, Dec 29, we went to finalize the paper work for closing. We got together with the realtor and had breakfast at a waffle restaurant. The realtor made an extra stop to pick up rental payment from a family. He said it was a hassle to chase those low income African American families down. They often late in payment but always pay eventually. But he also felt sorry for their lives. They are often in between jobs and difficult to meet their ends. According to him dealing with real estate is complicated with segregated society. Once an African American family moves to a neighborhood it is very difficult to sell or rent a house to a Caucasian family in that area. He showed me another neighborhood where it's used to be white residents just several years ago and now all African Americans. It's something I've never heard in Minnesota. I believe the problem is more complicated than just simply blaming it on racism alone in Georgia. From what I heard you don't see it between Asian and Caucasian for example. There are deeper cultural division between black and white, frankly they can't stand each other. Obama wouldn't have been elected just because he is (half) black but because he was raised by white family. (One could argue most blacks voted for him but many people voted against him just because he is black and probably it evened out). Cultural assimilation and tolerance may be a solution.

After the house closing my brother and I went to get a Uhaul. To my surprise he said we were going to pick-up a couple able men from the street. He said it's not uncommon especially by construction companies. I wasn't sure what to think but went along with it. There were quite a number of people in some gas station looking for work. As soon as he made a signal probably 20 people rushing to get into the back of his car and he made it clear only two were needed. He said people could pay as low as $5/hour but he was generous enough to offer them $10/hour. I made a suggestion to offer them something to eat and he made a stop at a McDonalds. At least they would have energy to do all the lifting.

Even though we had big language barrier, by using gesture we manage to have them follow our instructions. As we started moving stuff out of my brother's first house, I was so impressed by how diligent those workers were. They worked so fast, running as they carried boxes and stuff. On each carry they kept asking for extra box or other stuff to save the trip. They were so efficient and working non-stop, remarkable.

We were done for the day around 8 PM and my brother offered them to go to an Indonesian restaurant. I didn't know they liked Indonesian food and thought probably we should go to a Mexican restaurant. My brother said they loved Indonesian food, Indonesian restaurants in Georgia had many hispanic customers. Then I thought about it and realized that Mexican and Indonesian food actually have many similarities.

We arranged to pick them up the next morning close to 9. After stopping by a McDonalds for breakfast, again they worked so efficiently through out the day. For lunch my brother took them to a Chinese buffet, I have to say it's a great food. We were done moving by 6 PM. My brother gave them $100 each even though they worked less than 10 hours. He pointed out that they had work very hard and probably didn't have a job the next day. We made five trips, it has been long two days !!! I have never done that much move before. After shower and dinner in Chinatown my brother dropped me off at the airport to catch my flight at 9 PM.

I was home shortly after mid night. It was snowing, a drastic change from 70s F summer-like weather in Georgia. My experience working with those hispanic workers still stick in my head for many days. For actually sitting next to them in the car and Uhaul truck, eating at the same table in restaurants, and smelling their smelly bodies gave me an up close and personal experience. I wish I could communicate with them and learn their stories.

Two Little Stinkers

Several weeks ago I was playing with my first and second daughters. At one point they were asking for something (I can't remember what it was) and I said "No". The oldest one asked the 2nd one whether she wanted it and she said yes. I said "No" again, then the oldest one said, "Well, two is stronger than one." And of course the younger one agreed with her. I couldn't help myself from laughing hard. After I settled down I said, "Democracy doesn't work here. I am the dictator in this house." They deserve the names I call them occasionally, "Stinkers" :) :)

Taking bus/train to work

Recently, starting from July 30th, I have become one of those growing number of people who commute to work using public transportation. Yes, last July 30th was my very first time. I read about the trend but the idea of doing it myself never occurred to me until I saw my coworker biked to work. It's one of those things that you know in the back of your head until something triggers it. I started with research such as using internet, went to the transportation office, my coworker, my company's resources, and analysis. Having lived in Sydney, Australia, learning about public transportation is a familiar territory to me.

The growing number of people using public transportation is the result of the rise of the gas price. Part of my research was on the cost benefit. The following is my analysis.

Driving to work cost analysis:
1. Driving to work is 26 miles (round trip) which cost about 1 gallon of gas, let's say $3.50.
2. On average the value of a car goes down between 10 to 20 cents/mile depends on the model of the car (and other factors). Newer car would be even more. Suppose we go by 10 cents/mile, let's say you drive 12000 miles a year, the value of your car would go down by about $1200. 26 miles driving to work cost me $2.6 in lost value.
3. Let's say I spend about $500/year for car maintainance and repair. $500 x 26 / 12000 = $1.08
The total cost for driving 26 miles to work is about $7.18.

Taking a bus to work cost analysis:
1. I purchase bus Super Saver from my company with pre-tax benefit. For example when I purchase $100 bus/train Super Saver, after pre-tax I end up paying only $60. When I transfer the $100 Super Saver to the bus/train card (called GoTo card), it adds 10% value to the card. Essentially I pay $60 for $110 bus/train card, only pay 55% of the nominal cost.
2. The bus ticket is $4 round trip. Since I only pay 55% of the nominal cost, essentially I pay only $4 x 55% = $2.18.
The total cost for taking public transportation is $2.18. That's a $5.00 saving for each trip to work.

Additional benefits:
1. There is a bus stop three blocks away from my house therefore it's pretty accessible.
2. There is a bus stop and train (Light Rail) just across the street from my company.
3. At least before winter hits, instead of going to the nearest bus stop, I choose to roller-blade to a bus stop more 5 miles away (10 miles round trip) to get some exercise.
4. Peace and quiet time while sitting on a bus/train. Even when I have a bad day, it allows me to calm and settle down. I often meditate spiritually including prayer and reflect my day and treasuring my past. A few weeks ago one of my best friends in elementary school (and we still kept in touch until a few weeks before his death) committed suicide. Sitting in a bus helped me to cope and treasured all of those great years with him. Sometimes your days can get very saturated. You get up in the morning and immediately hit the road and deal with traffic. Then comes a long day of work. By the end of the day you get back to the traffic, back at home and dealing with your family. The routine is just going and going. My mood has been better at home since I started taking bus/train to work. It takes 45 minutes instead of about 30 minutes driving (with moderate traffic and could be worse) but the extra time is well worth it.

Our "baby" is all grown up, hick... hick... hick....

It doesn't feel like a long time ago since she was born. Now our "baby" is in kindergarten.

She was super excited to get into the bus for the very first time. Two hours before the bus scheduled arrival she was all awake in the morning and never stopped moving around the house while constantly watching the clock.

The bus driver was kind enough to allow us the time to take pictures and video. We couldn't help ourselves from shedding tears as the bus was leaving. Our "baby" is all grown up...... Then we just realized there was a long line of cars being held up ..... ooouppps.

New Baby !!!

For our family's safety reasons the baby's name is not revealed in this blog. Nevertheless we'll say a few other things about our new addition to the family. See the picture time stamps (click those pictures to zoom in) for the dates to tell how old the baby is.














She was born on Aug 27, at 9:35 AM, weight 7 lbs 6.5 oz (and yes, every half oz counts), 20 inches for length, and 14 inches for head. She was urinating on her way out of her mommy's tummy, I suppose she already knew how to mark her territory. Thank God she and her mommy have been healthy, we couldn't feel more blessing than that.













As parents we have been adjusting during the first week. Daddy has been taking care of the older kids. Putting them to sleep by having a "sleeping party", throwing a bunch of blankets and pillows on the floor in the kid's play room. They seem to enjoy it. That way Mommy can focus on the baby at night and also get more rest, especially since she had a C-section and is a little slow moving.

Hometown Zoo (click on the pictures)