Day 364 - Kids Theater

Thought of the day: Jasmine loves her Wednesday afternoon theater class. The kids act and improvise on the stage with the help of a professional. While Jasmine is busy in her class, Lila loves to dance around and around in a room annexed to the theater fitted with walls of mirrors. I like the special ambience of a theater, perhaps any theater. The elevated stage, dark interior, sparse and interesting lighting make it a challenging yet fascinating place to photograph. I can't help feeling that this place has a sense of gravity. And people and movements bring life to it. It's a simple place but I feel drawn to it in a mysterious way.

Photo of the day:

Jasmine and her friends doing an improv while a boy watched on.

Day 362 - Knitter

Thought of the day: Jasmine had been practicing piano duets for an upcoming multi-piano festival. Her teacher made a CD with all her songs so she could practice with the music at home. One song was particularly challenging for her and she had been struggling with it for days. Today she finally got it through without making a single mistake. She was ecstatic! It was certainly a good thing that she could finally play this song as her audition was coming up soon. But a more important lesson she learned was that with persistent effort she could improve and achieve what might seem impossible just a moment ago. It was a lesson worth learning at any age.

Photo of the day:

I ran into a group of women outside of a cafe knitting and chatting under the sun. Apparently they do this every week. What a wonderful tradition to have! They all seemed to be pretty good at knitting - I guess it is one of those things you get better at with a lot of practice too.

Day 361 - Jasmine

Thought of the day: We had an easy day today - family hike, long naps, movies.  It was good to have a day in the week to have no obligations no schedules and simply relax and enjoy some down time with the family.

Photo of the day: 

Jasmine was very happy during the hike. We saw a lot of beautiful fall colors along the way as the season was at the peak. Both girls collected colorful leaves to decorate their rooms.

Day 358 - Sisters

Thought of the day: I stayed up very late last night and the consequence of that was clear - I was shrouded in drowsiness and had a minor headache all morning. In addition, I missed a morning bike ride and a hike with a group of friends, both of which I regretted a great deal and regretted even more as the day marched on. Indeed, it's not smart to walk through life half awake when there are so many experiences to be had and so many expectations to meet, both of which require one to be present and alert.  Arguably, self enforced sleep deprivation may not be as dangerous as drug or alcohol additions, but it does bring similar consequences and is definitely detrimental to one’s long term health. It's time for me to figure out a way to keep a better control of my schedule - however challenging it may be - and make it stick. 

Photo of the day:

Jasmine making a drawing as Lila watched on. I owed it to my girls, and myself, to maintain a healthy schedule.

Day 356 - Magician

Thought of the day: I finally got around to organize the books I was reading this afternoon. It made such an impressive pile that I decided not to get any more books until I finished up the current pile. I was frequently irritated by the fact that Jasmine read multiple books at the same time and scattered them all around the house. Now I know where she got her habit from. Time and again, when I observe puzzling behaviors of my kids, I can often find the clue by merely looking in the mirror.

Photo of the day:

A magician playing fascinating tricks in a local restaurant. It's easier to uncover the secrets behind his tricks in books than watching his moves carefully as he is really good.

Day 350 - Dinner

Thought of the day: Today I played a game called "24" with Jasmine.  She loved it.  It's a fun mental math game that really gets you to exercise the brain for additions, subtractions, multiplications and divisions. The game has different levels and Jasmine is currently playing at the easiest level while I play at the most difficult level. Jasmine enjoys getting through her challenges faster than me. We make a rule for the winner to gradually move up on the levels and for the loser to gradually move down.  Since Jasmine is so into this game, it won't surprise me if she will eventually pass me on the difficulty level. The question is only when.

Photo of the day:

Dinner in my favorite restaurant called "home". As in the past few Wednesdays, Jasmine stayed home with me to work on subjects including math, science, music, Chinese. Playing games and taking several "recesses" helped her stay focused and engaged. We spent a happy yet productive day together.

Day 349 - Jasmine

Thought of the day: Today was Jasmine’s birthday. We celebrated at the Med followed by birthday cake and presents at home. I couldn't believe that she was already nine and I got emotional when I realized that this would be her last birthday in the single digits! She is growing up soooo fast. Every day that we get to spend with her is precious and her birthday just reminded me of that.

Photo of the day:

Jasmine opening one of her birthday presents at home while Lila watched on.

Day 336 - Making Cake

Thought of the day: I spent some time in the climbing gym today and watched the climbers working their magic on the walls. There were many talented climbers there, but none of them impressed me as much as a young boy who was probably not much older than eight. He moved with such ease and agility that it was hard to take my eyes off him. It was a pure joy to watch him. Everybody is gifted with certain talents and this boy clearly has a gift and he is lucky to have found it so early in life.

Photo of the day:

Jasmine and Lila helped make a zucchini cake in preparation for the arrival of a few house guests.  In the background, the girls watched on in a photo taken on Pearl St. There are many things that Jasmine is good at but it's still too early for her to settle down on any one particular thing yet.

Day 333 - Bikes

Thought of the day: The caliber of photographers on Google+ is simply amazing. Indeed, many of them are professionals doing that for a living. I am following a number of them and the photos showing up in my stream really made me pause before I dared to post anything of my own. My past experience on Facebook was the exact opposite - the quality of most of the photos there were so poor that I felt out of place to post anything with an artistic touch. Similar things may be happening to the non-photo posts as well - the posts on Google+ are often thought provoking and interesting while most posts on Facebook are none of that. It can become self-enforcing after a while - Google+ gets the great shots and profound thoughts while Facebook gets the average, mom-and-pop style shots and random posts. In an ideal world, people would move to one social network - Google+, of course:-), because it's open and less sinister - and use Circles to maintain separate public and private images. You can share your great shots and interesting thoughts with the public and your fuzzy shots and not-so-inspiring thoughts with family and friends as they are the ones who would welcome anything from you. Sadly, the real world doesn't work like that as it's easier not to struggle with something new and it's far less work to just share whatever comes into your mind with whoever is listening and most people would probably do just that. Unless Facebook messes up badly, I'm not seeing people migrate en-masse to Google+ in the near future.

Photo of the day:

Ready to leave - this is not an interesting photo for the public consumption, but this is one of the only photos I took today...

Day 327 - Climbing

Thought of the day: Jasmine has recently started doing her piano practices in the morning instead of in the evening.  It's amazing how much difference such a small change in her schedule makes.  Practicing piano in the evening had always been a bit of a struggle for us because she was already pretty tired after a day of school and was really not eager to do more stuff. Now that there's no more piano practice after dinner, everybody can relax and rewind during the quiet time in the evening. Of course, getting up early every morning to help Jasmine with her practice is by no means an easy task for a night owl like me, but it's a small price to pay for more peace and harmony in the house. Change is not always good, but sometimes it can be. In fact, I believe that not being afraid of making changes is a secret ingredient for happiness and the change of Jasmine's practice time proved it!

Photo of the day:

Lila in the climbing gym getting her first climbing lesson today. Jasmine didn't start climbing until she was quite a bit older, but we are doing it differently for Lila because I think she is ready for it. I hope this change will work out well.

Day 326 - Brunch

Thought of the day: Today is the mid-autumn festival in China. That's an important festival when the families are supposed to sit together at a round table in a quiet courtyard under the brightest moon of the year and appreciate the delicacy of moon cakes. With my immediate family scattered across the globe, I can't recall the last time when we spent the festival together. Indeed, other than my parents, I don't think any of us even celebrates the festival any more. This is one of the lost traditions that I do miss. It makes me sad to realize that some of the special things that I grew up with will probably never be experienced by my children or at least not be experienced in the same way. Of course, they will grow up with their own set of experiences that I would not even have dreamed of as a child. They will be shaped by their own environment and memories just like I was shaped by mine.

Photo of the day:

We had Sunday brunch with a friend at the Teahouse again - it's one of our favorite spots for brunch. I wonder how Jasmine and Lila will remember our many visits to the Teahouse many years from now.

Day 322 - Climbing Gym

Thought of the day: It is one of those rare rainy days in Colorado. It has been wet and cold all morning. After a warm and dry summer, I have gotten so used to the sun that I am having a hard time adjusting to this new weather condition. Afternoon thunderstorms are not uncommon in the summer but they tend to come and go really fast. The stormy weather is both dramatic and interesting unless you happen to be caught unprepared on the road or on hiking trails. What we have today is none of that. A couple of year ago we made the decision to move to Boulder instead of Portland despite the many similarities between the two cities. My sense of weariness today confirm for me that we made the right choice.

Photo of the day:

Lila and a new friend in the climbing gym.A day like today is perfect for indoor climbing.

Day 315 - Three Girls

Thought of the day: Disasters on the news are overwhelming.  Sad stories among friends and acquaintances are overwhelming. I don’t know if something is wrong with this world we live in or if it’s just a natural shift of awareness as we get older. Perhaps it's both. Resilient as we are, our capacity for pain and suffering is not boundless. On some days it seems so overwhelming and hopeless. In a way, it’s a relief to bear in mind that we walk on this earth for but a blink of time. As such, we will only accumulate a limited amount of burden and carried it over a limited distance. My friend also kindly reminded me today that what we suffer in life we treasure in arts. Arts can transform pain into beauty and make it more tolerable. Being so busy with life lately, I haven't been able to read or appreciate music or other forms of arts as much as I would like to and perhaps that contributes to the problem. The well of life needs to be constantly replenished lest it will dry up. Conscious of it or not, this is the struggle that we fight every single day.  Today is not my day but tomorrow it will surely be better.

Photo of the day:

My girls and Jasmine's friend playing in our front yard.  The well of life is naturally strong in early life. The most important  and formidable task of a parent is to help it stay that way, nurture it and make it even stronger over time.

Day 308 - Apple Tree

Thought of the day: I had my car washed today and I was not very happy with the result.  It's so often the case when it comes to the quality of work performed by a third party.  The third party certainly doesn't care about the outcome as much as we do.  When the third party needs to serve a large number of customers, quality suffers even more. Every customer is not the same and they may have different demands and expectations. It's difficult to provide a customized solution for everybody. When you work under pressure - either time-wise or financially or both, you do the minimal work necessary to satisfy the majority of your customers instead of doing your best work to satisfy those with high expectations.  This is true for car wash, and is also true for so many other services like housekeeping, cooking, construction and, sadly, public education.  Sometimes there is a good reason to do things ourselves, but we all have limited amount of time and resources to do things in our own way to our satisfaction, so eventually it all comes down to a matter of choice.  What can we put up with and what can we not?  Sometimes we don't even realize that we are making such choices everyday, and when we do, some choices can be hard to make.

Photo of the day:

Girls climbing up an apple tree.  This tree is situated outside of Lila's preschool and has been there for a while.  Jasmine used to climb it when she was little and now they both love to climb it.  As parents, we're making many choices for them on a daily basis, including whether to allow them to climb a tree, whether to send them to school, what to pack for lunch, what activities to do, etc.  Some choices are made subconsciously but they may nonetheless have an impact on their lives.

Day 306 - Jasmine

Thought of the day: Now that college has officially started, the sidewalks and cafes are getting noticeably busier.  It's harder to get a seat in your favorite local hangouts. However, when you do get a seat, you have the opportunity to eavesdrop on some pretty interesting conversations. Here are a few examples from the past hour... A guy dressed in work clothes was talking over the cell phone on the sidewalk about a solar installation deal. A small group of people were talking about something political. A young man in his early twenties, perhaps a new college graduate, was lamenting to his friend about the difficulty of finding a job. A middle-aged woman was asking a man sitting next to her who claimed to be an engineering professor at CU why he decided to move to Boulder and he replied with a big grin on his face: "You got sunshine and mountains - what else do you need?" Concise and to the point. I am often asked that same question and sometimes struggle to give a short answer that makes sense. From now on I'm going to borrow his line.  Of course, being able to eavesdrop on a wide range of conversations is another good one but I am not ready to quote that as a reason yet.

Photo of the day:

Fall semester has started but it's still summer here in Boulder.  We had dinner out on the patio tonight.  It was hot in the day but warm and comfortable at dusk. A thunderstorm came and passed when we had dinner outside. Jasmine snapped a few photos of the after-storm rainbow and the sunset and was happily reviewing them on her camera.

Day 305 - Costume Shop

Thought of the day: This afternoon, Lila rode down to the neighborhood shopping center with us on a tag-along we recently acquired through an advertisement on Google Plus.  She was not tall enough to use the pedals effectively yet and sometimes her body looked off-balanced from the back.  However, she was holding on tight and was clearly enjoying the ride.  We are glad that we have now one more thing to do as a family in the weekend - a bike ride that everybody pedals!

Photo of the day:

Jasmine putting on a mask in the costume shop.  We often stop by this place after having lunch or dinner in the shopping center.  Jasmine and Lila loved to check out all the colorful costumes and toys in the store.

Day 298 - Jasmine

Thought of the day: This is the last day of the summer break. Looking back, I think we have had a pretty good summer. We spent time with grandparents in June and August. We stayed in Boulder in July when the summer activities had reached its peak. I didn't sign Jasmine up for any academic activities. I hope that the trips we made and the camps she did has helped her develop her personality and increase her appreciation in people, animals and nature. To me, that's more important than developing academic skills which she will have the entire school year for. And, of course, she has had a lot of fun and she can't wait for the school to start again.

Photo of the day:

Jasmine happy at the Teahouse - she is enjoying the last day of summer break before returning to school tomorrow.

Day 296 - Garden Bench

Thought of the day: It's our last day in the bay area and I am already starting to miss it.  I miss the ocean breeze, the soft light, the green and winding paths, the cool mist hung in the forests and above beach towns and, of course, the long list of things to check out in this area. I can imagine spending a couple of weeks here with the kids without getting bored.  With some advance planning and sensible pacing, we should be able to have a relaxing yet engaging vacation here. To tell the truth, when I visited the bay area in the past, sometimes I felt pretty bored. But not this time. I think what made the different was that I was more proactive during this trip. I approached the neighbors, met old friends, try out new activities and go out often. I even sent in a couple of comments and suggestions to several city departments which made me feel more relevant and involved. In any case, all these things combined had made a world of difference.  Indeed, there is much to be experienced wherever you are and sometimes the biggest barrier between a dull life and a satisfying one is just the attitude.

Photo of the day: 

My dad taking a break on a bench with his grandkids in Woodside's Filoli Garden. The kids are playing a game of Harry Potter. A trip to the beautiful garden and spending some quality time with the cousin really made Jasmine's day.

Day 294 - Beach

Thought of the day: Today we did one of the things we like to do when we visit the Bay Area - go to the beach!  Palo Alto was sunny but Half Moon Bay was shrouded in a mist as usual.  The water was cold but the girls didn't mind a bit and had a fun time playing with the waves and digging in the sand.  Jasmine and I also took a guided horseback riding tour while we were there.  The most exciting part of the tour was to ride through a small stream and the most relaxing part was to trot slowly on the beach.  We were lucky to ride with a few experienced and very friendly people in the trip and I learned a few tips from them on horseback riding. It was an interesting day spent on the beach with the family.

Photo of the day:

Jasmine and Lila on Half Moon Bay's Venice Beach.

Day 292 - Sisters

Thought of the day: We spent a couple of hours in Palo Alto's Rinconada Park this morning. The kids had a fun time playing in the shallow outdoor pool. The air was a bit chilly but the water was pretty warm.  The pool facility was sufficient but outdated.  I was surprised that it didn't have solar water heater installed as Palo Alto prides itself on being a green city.  When I walk around the neighborhood, I can see a few green initiatives with my own eyes.  Quite a few neighbors have a "Palo Alto Green" yard sign installed which indicates that they have signed up for using renewable energy for their electricity.  A few major streets, including a segment of Arastradero Road, have been modified into one lane streets to discourage motor traffic and make room for bikers and pedestrians. Unfortunately much of the extra space on Arastradero has been taken over by parked cars which is unfortunate.  Palo Alto has bike paths but they are not well connected yet.  It looks like the city is moving toward the right direction and hopefully we will be able to bike around the city with ease in the near future.

Photo of the day:

Jasmine carrying Lila to the swimming pool.  Lila loves to be carried by her big sister - it's a rare treat for her!