The Prodigal Laptop

A couple weekends ago, I lost my work laptop. It was a brand spanking new Powerbook, and I had just spent the prior month painstakingly moving my data over and configuring it. Then, I decided to do some work (performance reviews) in a cafe while Edward took the kids shopping. When I was done, I walked over to Target and put my laptop in the shopping cart. (Y'all know where this is going.) Since the kids were in the cart, I shoved the laptop in the folded seat section, and, of course, totally forgot about it until hours later. We rushed back to the store, but no one had turned in a laptop. At that point, we figured that it was long gone and most likely making its way to eBay.

Then, two days later, I got an IM from a co-worker. If one could giggle over IM, he was doing exactly that as he informed me that he had located my laptop. Apparently, an Apple employee who was his customer from a previous life had found the laptop at Target, checked with the Apple store, and figured out it was registered to Google. She then called a few people she knew at Google, one of whom was my co-worker who said, "Yes, yes I do know an Ellen Lee!" And just like that, I was able to be re-united with my laptop. Hooray!!

So, I was certainly relieved and happy to have found my laptop. But more than that, I was extremely moved to see that people out there do care about doing the right thing. The woman who found my laptop could have just turned the laptop over to some lost and found and been done with it. But instead, she really went out of her way, made a real effort to hunt me down, and then personally returned the laptop into my hands. How cool is that?

Spring Break in Maui

Friend: "What are you guys doing for Spring Break?"
Ellen: "Uh, we're going to Maui."
Friend: "Wow, how fun!"
Ellen: "Uh, really?"
Suffice it to say that in the weeks leading up Spring Break, I was not particularly excited about our trip to Maui. I can't swim and dislike being in the sun, and Griffin is Mr. "I-don't-want-to-get-wet".

The good news is that we had a great vacation. We went with our close friends, the Chius. A+G had a blast playing with Ian. And Edward and I really enjoyed hanging out and experiencing Maui together with Anthony and Elaine.

Some highlights:

- Good Eats -- We enjoyed several great meals, ranging from local food (deep fried musubi and loco moco at Da Kitchen) to shave ice to ritzy (excellent meal at Banyan Tree in the Ritz).

- Hiking -- Yes, yes, it's true. We actually went on a *gasp* hike. This guided waterfall hike actually turned out to be pretty hard-core. It was rainy and slippery, and we had to walk single file so as not to slide down the mountain. Pretty hard-core. But the kids did great, and it was really quite beautiful.

- Snorkeling -- Believe it or not, I snorkeled! It was pretty crazy, being way out in the ocean and not knowing how to swim. But I had an awesome guide who pulled me around on a boogie board, and it was really a fantastic experience. Except after I got back to land, I was totally nauseated and sat with my head in my lap for half an hour. Ally was super brave and snorkeled too, and she will proudly tell you that she saw 2 goat fish and a butterfly fish.

- Surfing -- No, not me. My studly hubby Edward took a surfing class and did awesome. Does he look like a surfer or what? (You should see the action shots of him wiping out, hehe.)

- Swimming -- Griffin had a real breakthrough. The first day, he freaked out when I dipped him into the ocean. He kept yelling, "You got me wet!!!" Then, the first day at the kiddie pool, he got as far as putting his feet in the water, and that was only after I bribed him with letting him watch Cars. The next day, he agreed to go in the pool if I bought him a floatie. He picked a fish shaped boat that had no hole in it, so he was pretty confident he wouldn't get wet. Once in the pool, he had fun and was more ok with getting wet. Ally and Ian tried to coax him into the water, but he still refused. Finally, I bribed him again with Cars -- he could watch the whole movie if he sat in my lap in the pool. I said, "It's the same as the tub at home. You like being wet there!" To which he replied, "I only like being wet with no clothes on." Hmm, that's a pretty good response. Still, I pulled him into the water, and once he realized he could simply stand up in the water, he smiled and started walking around in the water. Breakthrough!!!

It was a great trip, and the kids have been asking to go back already. So I made a deal with Ally -- after she learns how to swim, we'll go back. Is that good motivation or what?

More Maui pix here.

Trippin' in Asia (part II: Hong Kong)

Here is my (quite) delayed part two recap of our Asia Trip.
 
Hong Kong was a blast. We stayed at a very nice, roomy apartment in Kowloon, right in the middle of everything (on Nathan Rd.). Edward was in heaven, eating Chinese breakfasts in the morning and Chinese desserts after the kids went down. The kids had a great time with their cousins, Janice and Jason. I think the highlight for them was playing at the Clubhouse at their cousins' place.
 
The night we arrived, we went to Sai Kung for incredibly fresh seafood. The next day, we went to Ocean Park, where we saw (at close proximity and with zero lines) 2 super cute, super hungry pandas. We had 2 superb Shanghainese meals -- 1 with the hairy crabs, and 1 with the river shrimp. Yum!



While in Hong Kong, we got to see some of Edward's good friends. We met up with Rico, Sally, and Aidan, who had visited us before in SF. I don't think the kids remembered each other, but they got along great. They made these hilarious little video snippets. We also saw Nerissa and Rex, and I was inspired to hear about Nerissa's decision to change careers. Lastly, we got to spend some time with Helen, Ruud, Alex, and Kaitlyn. The kids chased each other around the Elements mall for quite awhile -- we thought it would tire them out, but that didn't really happen.
 
It was certainly nice to spend time with Edward's family. His parents flew in from Shanghai to see us, and his sister, Eva, and bro-in-law, CY, took time off to spend with us. Our last evening together, they took us to the Intercontinental for a scrumptious brunch that served 5 types of crab and cooked-to-order foie gras! And it had an incredible view of the HKG skyline. It was really a fantastic ending to a wonderful trip.
 

More Hong Kong trip pix are here.

Trippin' in Asia (part I: Taiwan)

So we survived our first ever Asia trip with the kids.  The flights were mostly fine (thankfully our kids don't get air-sick, although I had my moments), and jet-lag meant early mornings (and yummy breakfasts) for 3 days. We spent most of the trip focused on eating great food and meeting up with family and friends.

 We stayed with my parents in Taipei (4 flights of stairs up and down everyday!). We had a packed schedule, meeting with relatives (aunts, uncles, cousins) for pretty much every meal. We had a couple fantastic meals at Din Tai Fong (hsiao long bao, pai gu mien, yum!), a great Taiwanese style dinner at Shin Yeh (my favorite gium la-ah, aka clams), and amazing pigs feet off of Si Ping St.. The chicken in Taiwan simply has more flavor, and even a simple lunch we had at home tasted better than most Chinese food in the states.

We also took a 2 day trip to Sun Moon Lake with our relatives (23 of us in total).
 Unfortunately, it was rainy and very foggy, so we didn't get to enjoy the views of the scenery when we took our boat tour of the lake. The next day though, it was clear and sunny, and the view for our very nice hotel was spectacular. But I wasn't able to enjoy it much, since I got food poisoning that night. After the bus dropped off everyone else at a local tourist spot, the driver and tour guide took my mom and me to a hospital 30 min away so that I could get looked at by a dr. Fortunately, I pretty much recovered a day or so later, but I was much more careful about not overeating.

 The hotel at Sun Moon Lake was very nice, and the kids really had a great time on the trip. Ally made fast friends of Chi-Yuan's girls, and they (including Griffin) all played nicely together at this very nice kids play area in the hotel. It was great to see Ally interacting with them and speaking Chinese to them. In fact, it was pretty cool to see that Ally could communicate with all of my relatives quite comfortably. Griffin was a completely different story -- that boy needs to work on his Mandarin!! Probably partly because of the language barrier, Griffin was pretty clingy to us and my parents.

The kids did bond nicely with Chi-chung, Nako, and Han-Ting. When Ally left, Ah-gong asked her who she liked the most in Taiwan, and she didn't mention the little kids. Instead, she said Han-Ting Ge-ge and Ah-diong Ah-gu!! Very cute. (Although I think it was mainly because Han-Ting would carry her around, and Ah-diong was plying her with gummy candies non-stop!)

All in all, it was a great visit (minus the food-poisoning), and I am already looking forward to a future visit with the kiddies!

More Taiwan trip pix are here.

Happy Holidays!

 
Happy holidays everyone!

Happy 4th Little G!

Tuesday was Griffin's 4th birthday. Irene brought the boys over for cake, and Griffin was pretty excited to have company over on a weekday. He was also pleased that he had "2 birthdays" since he'd also had a party at school. And after he got his new Mack, he told me, "I'm very very VERY lucky!" Yes you are, and so are we. Happy Birthday little guy!

Girls and Cars

Alicia was a princess (again), and Griffin was his faaaaavorite character -- Lightening McQueen. They had a blast trick-or-treating with Auntie Thao's kids and their cousins, and Ally has a new found addiction to Snickers bars. I'm so not looking forward to her next dentist appointment!

More Halloween pics here.

 
 
 
 

the kidz

here's a rare picture of the 5 cousins goofing around.
















this past weekend, we went to the peninsula creamery for lunch with mark, irene, and the boys. we had to split into 2 booths because there were just so many of us. here they are, just hanging out and enjoying their independence. looking at this pic, i can just imagine what they'll be like as teenagers!