Day 344 - Homeless Man

Thought of the day: I flew into Chicago today for a 20-year class reunion. Even though I missed my family already, it was liberating to be able to do something on my own once in a while. There was a great many things that I took for granted before having a family - reading a book without interruptions, wandering about in a strange place without any particular direction, falling into sleep without any thoughts for tomorrow - simple, yet not insignificant, things that you noticed only after you didn't have them any more. When I had them back, at least for this short while, I found that I still missed them after all these years. So, after all, I really haven't changed much, have I? Do people ever change over time? When the opportunities arise, do we fall back into our old behaviors and habits as readily as snow flakes drift effortlessly onto the ground? Are we the drops of water in an ocean that evaporate, form a cloud, come down in a shower, flow into a river, return to the sea after a long journey and end up being exactly the same drops of water that we were many years ago and many continents away? I guess I shall find out in the next few days - a reunion after 20 years of absence shall at least shed some lights to these questions.

Photo of the day:

A homeless man near Chicago's Magnificent Mile. On his left lies a bible and on his right sits a cardboard that says "God Is Good". Amid buzz of the city, he seems remarkably calm. He is one of the fascinating characters I ran into while wandering aimlessly in Chicago downtown.

Day 342 - Lila

Thought of the day: The best time of my day was when I picked up Lila from preschool in the afternoon. Other kids had already left so we were the only ones there. The ground of the preschool was small but it was nice and peaceful so we hung out a bit outside. Lila showed me a collection of painted rocks in the garden, climbed the trees and relished in the opportunity to run about freely. We watched the moving shadows casted by the late afternoon sun while devouring delicious apples Lila collected from the trees. It was fun for Lila and relaxing for me. With two active kids, I have come to enjoy and appreciate these slow and simple moments more ever day.

Photo of the day:

Lila basking in the afternoon sun.

Day 311 - Woman at Cafe

Thought of the day: I observed a bunch of outlandishly dressed people on west end Pearl today. It's not uncommon to see colorfully dressed people in this segment of downtown, but I can't recall another time when I saw a man dressed in a bright pink ballet dress with tutus. Something is going on. Sure enough, it's the weekend of tbe Boulder Fringe Festival!  The festival not only brings eccentric artists in town, it also brings out the fringe elements in the local populace. Other than that, it also brings in comedians to do family friendly shows. It’s one of the quaint events that makes up the cultural fabric of Boulder - an event not to be missed if you're ready for something that is not so mainstream.


Photo of the day:

A very nice woman in Trident Cafe and Bookstore.  I was there with Jasmine for one of our regular Saturday afternoon outings and we had the fortune of sitting at the table next to her and her husband.  I talked with them a bit - both were long term Boulder residents concerned about the rapid speed of change in Boulder. Small cafes and local shops were being gradually bought up and refitted into more luxurious and trendy restaurants and stores.  That's a concern for long term residents and newcomers like me alike. We sure hope that the city will keep its character and charm and be welcoming to people of all backgrounds. An old cafe like Trident and a festival like the Fringe Festival will hopefully both be part of the vibrant local scenes for a long time to come.

Day 282 - Juggler

Thought of the day: Each day seems to bring along with it such moments - a moment of drowsiness when I feel lost in the ocean of movements or non-movements, a moment of angst when I feel irritable, and (thankfully) a moment of happiness when I feel quite at ease. At the moment of happiness, life is all good and everything is just the way it should be. And that's how I felt when I left Alfalfa's this morning and that's how I usually feel when I leave Alfalfa's every time.  Perhaps it's the power of caffeine but most of the time I only got herbal tea in their cafe.  Perhaps it's the friendly staff but I don't feel the same way when I leave Wholefoods and they are friendly there too.  Perhaps it's the yummy and healthy food.  Perhaps it's the cozy atmosphere. Perhaps it's the absence of ripped-off feeling because the food is reasonably priced here.  Perhaps it's the bike rides to and from the store which put me in a more relaxed mood.  In any case, it usually feels good when I leave that place.  There's always somebody asking for help next to the store and when you are in a good mood, it's hard to resist offering them something - a loaf of bread, a snack, or even some cash if there's nothing more appropriate.  If I were to ask for help from strangers, I would pick a corner just like this where people are in a good mood instead of the intersections of major streets. This guy standing at the corner today had certainly picked his place wisely.

Photo of the day:

A juggler juggling some letter blocks to form different words.  He performed in Jasmine's end-of-the-camp party today. Thorne Ecological Institute surely knows how to put together a fun camp and to top it off with a happy finale for all.

Day 233 - Port

Thought of the day: Today we walked down to the port and had lunch at a popular tavern called Ammoudi. We met the restaurant's owner, a friendly Canadian woman who came here for vacation 23 years ago and never left. After settling down on the island, she fell in love with a cook called Dimitris. They got married and opened the restaurant together. Judging from their reputation and the size of the lunch crowd, they must be doing just fine. The owners of another local favorite, Atlantis Bookstore, are an American and a British who came as tourists 9 years ago and decided to open a multilingual used-book store for tourists. They have a good, tasty collection of English books and the bookstore feels more like a cozy college library than your normal run-of-the-mill bookstore. On a pedestrian street filled with glittering, colorful souvenir shops, this bookstore was a rare find. I spent a good hour there this afternoon browsing the books and took home a few with me. Oia is primarily a tourist town but the tourists are not merely the source of income here, they contribute to the local culture as well, as amply demonstrated by the owners of Ammoudi and Atlantis.

Photo of the day:

The village of Oia is built on top of the cliff.  At the bottom, it's the port which is accessible by a path with a lot of steps and a paved road for cars and tour buses.  We walked, of course.  It was fun to walk and the view was spectacular along the way.

Day 218 - Smile

Thought of the day: Today I bought a new lens from Mike's Camera, our local camera store.  I was looking for a telephoto lens and it came down to basically two choices: 70-200mm f/2.8 or 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6.  I tried out the first lens at Mike's Camera's Denver Zoo event a little while back and really liked it.  It's a fast lens, great for portraits or landscapes, indoors or outdoors.  Unfortunately it's large and super-heavy - not something that I can take with me everywhere.  The 70-300mm lens is slower but it has some extra reach (200-300mm).  And most importantly, it's relatively small and light weight.  That's a deciding factor for me because, if the past tells me anything, I won't use a lens unless I can carry it with me all the time.  So why waste money on a great lens that would just sit at home when I can get a good lens that will be used often?  I think I have made the right choice and I look forward to using my new lens often in the next few weeks.

Photo of the day:

This Mike's Camera employee kindly let me try out a lens on him (it's a prime lens - not the zoom lens I bought). The poor guy must be shot at many times a day!  The picture is a little soft.  I like this other prime lens much better - see this picture.  I think there's a good reason that 85mm f/1.4 is selling for so much more than 85mm f/1.8!

Day 216 - Tree Climbing

Thought of the day: A switch must have been turned on in Lila's brain right after her birthday.  She had been more difficult in the past two days - had the dreaded "terrible three" arrived?  Just like Jasmine, Lila didn't show any classical signs of "terrible two" - albeit being a little stubborn at times, in general she was a really sweet and easygoing two year old.  Friends and babysitters alike had claimed that she was an angel.  Well, it had been different in the past two days.  Even her preschool teacher noticed that and gave me a few words of caution today, which had never happened before.  I remember a similar phase that Jasmine went through after she turned three.  Is the same thing happening again?  Well, I guess the good news is, we have been through this before so we know what to expect (well, sort of).  And we know that this too shall pass.

Photo of the day:

Girls on a tree.  Jasmine is into tree climbing these days.  I think this phase, too, shall pass!

Day 215 - Girls

Thought of the day: Today I met a woman who was going to spend some 2-3 years in China.  She was excited but also nervous at the same time.  It's more than a few people's dream to travel and live in a foreign culture for an extended period of time. However, when you are lucky and the dream is actually turning into the reality, it's not uncommon that you may be facing some daunting challenges and logistics and feeling some level of uncertainty and anxiety.  That's particularly true when there're children or babies involved. It takes a lot of courage to leave your comfort zone and plunge yourself into the unknown. However, if you just let yourself go and keep a keen and open mind, in return you may be rewarded with a special period of your life when you are most alert and alive, an enriching experience that will broaden your perspective, and a precious memory that will last a lifetime.  Yes, I must admit that I am a bit envious of her.  And I wish her a happy adventure.

Photo of the day:

Lila and her friend on Pearl St.  These girls are lucky to grow up in Boulder.  And I think they will be even luckier if they get a chance to experience life in a different culture at some point in the future.

Day 213 - Lila

Thought of the day: Today was Lila's birthday.  We got lucky with the weather as it cleared up and it was green everywhere after all these rain.  We took a bus to downtown, met some friends there, and had lunch at the teahouse.  After some rest in the afternoon, we had cake and Lila opened her presents and they kept the girls busy for the rest of the day.  It was a nice, low-key celebration of Lila's special day.  The party will come next weekend and I am glad that we had today all to ourselves.

Photo of the day:

Lila outside of the Dushanbe Teahouse.

Day 212 - Self

Thought of the day: The wet weather had definitely outlived its charm, if there was any to begin with.  Not a single person I talked to liked the rainy days of the past few weeks.  It's about time for the warm and sunny weather to come visit Boulder.

Photo of the day:

What else to take a picture of today?  I am tired of those rainy day pictures.

Day 208 - Lila

Thought of the day: May is statistically the wettest month here and the past few days really showed it.  By this morning, my friend and I were so ready to get out and take a break in the sun that we did it even though we both had a long list of things to do.  I think we made the right decision as the girls couldn't be happier.  Yes, a happy smile is worth much more than a checkmark on the todo list.  A list can be postponed but life can't.

Photo of the day:

Lila playing with her friend in downtown.

Day 206 - Happy Pair

Thought of the day: It was the first day of Boulder Spring Festival - there're many weekend festivals and fairs at this time of the year.  I took Lila out to downtown in the early morning so the rest of the family can take a break.  There were musicians, painters, photographers, craftsmen and vendors setting up booths along Pearl St.  A woman was transporting an orphanage girl's photo onto a canvas and she did an amazing job of capturing the poignant expression of sadness on her face.  Her almost-finished oil painting stood out in the merriness of the festival crowd and it served as a reminder that there were very different lives going on elsewhere when we were out celebrating spring.

Photo of the day:

Happy pair - a daughter and father in Pearl St's rock park.  It's one of the most popular places in downtown.

Day 199 - Jasmine

Thought of the day: This afternoon, when Jasmine and I were having lunch at Zhou Mama's, I saw Zhou Mama outside of her restaurant.  She was sitting on a bench along the side walk and taking a break.  And then I saw a cleanly dressed man walked over to her, gave her a kiss and handed her a beautiful bouquet.  I could sense a gentle, loving connection between these two and it turned out that he was her son and the bouquet was for Mother's Day, which would be tomorrow.  Zhou Mama has always been very warm and welcoming to guests in her restaurant.  She often offers me special treats like freshly made Chinese sausage, Goji berry rice cake, scallion cake, etc.  She is always alert and attentive and it's hard to believe that she is actually quite a bit older than my own mother.  I have a lot of respect for her and feel a certain affinity with her.  After watching the touching gesture by her son, I decided to get her a Mother's Day gift too.  Jasmine and I found it in a fair trade store on Pearl - a metal watering can hand-painted by a Bangladesh rickshaw driver with a beautiful sunflower on a green background.  It's now sitting in her restaurant serving as a vase for her son's bouquet - I couldn't be happier with the arrangement.

Photo of the day:

Jasmine got a new hat today.  It's a perfect hat for the spring!

Day 194 - Lila

Thought of the day: We have out-of-town visitors staying with us for a couple of days.  Today was their last full day so we took them to Chautauqua as a trip to Boulder seems incomplete without at least a brief stop at Chautauqua.  Lila and I were both a little under the weather but we tagged along anyway (why waste a day inside when you can be out and about?).  We had a good time.  The part I particularly enjoyed was when Lila and I made our way slowly, I mean slowly, from the ranger cottage to the playground.  If you ever take pictures of kids, you may have noticed that coming down to their eye level is often the most important first step.  That's when you can establish rapport and see things the way they're seeing them.  It's exactly the same when you play with them.  You need to first bring yourself to their level and into their world.  In that world, a stick is not just a stick - it's a magic wand; a stone is not just a stone - it's a priceless jewel; a pine cone is not just a pine cone - it's a sea shell from far away; and of course, it's so silly to rush from one place to the other when you can have so much fun just exactly where you are.  Bringing yourself to their level is so important for developing your understanding, compassion and patience towards kids.  It's equally important for developing your relationship with adults who are different from you, which includes pretty much everybody in the world.  I love spending time with my kids.  In a way, they teach me more than I can ever hope to teach them just by being who they are.

Photo of the day:

Lila at Chautauqua - it was a little chilly today and even snowed a bit when we were there.

Day 192 - Wedding

Thought of the day: It was a perfect day in Estes Park.  In the morning, we drove to Rocky Mountain National Park and hiked on a short trail to Bear Lake, which was still completely frozen and covered by snow at this time of the year.  And then we hiked on Lumpy Ridge trail in town. The first trail was surrounded by a forest and it was covered by snow and slippery.  It was even snowing when we did the hike.  The second trail was snow-free and dry and ran through some pretty interesting rock formations.  It was nice and sunny when we did that hike.   The two hikes couldn't be more different even though they were just within a short drive from each other.  We literally drove from one climate zone to another in a matter of minutes.  Jasmine and Lila were very excited by the adventure and they both enjoyed climbing up and down the rocks along the Lumpy Ridge Trail.  In the evening, we checked out Rock Inn Restaurant which is a steak house and a popular music venue in Estes Park.  The girls danced an evening away to the merry tunes played by a local musician.

Photo of the day:

A wedding party in Stanley Hotel where we are staying at.  Today must be an auspicious day to get married as we spotted at least 3 wedding parties in the hotel.  Other than weddings, we also counted a lot of elks in RMNP and in town, including a dozen or so munching on the grass right outside of our hotel room.  However, I took a lot more photos of wedding parties  than elks, so the elks would have to wait until our next trip to get on the blog!

Day 191 - Happy Music

Thought of the day: We're staying in Estes Park for the weekend.  It's much chillier here than in Boulder but it's good to do something different.  Jasmine loved the coziness of the hotel room and declared that she would not mind staying here forever.  I think that might be a little exaggerated and a spur of the moment declaration, but she is always the happiest when she gets to spend time with us.  It's yet another proof that kids, at least the young ones, crave for the quality time with parents more than anything else.  Watching movies or playing with new toys may provide them with temporary excitements, but there's nothing like the parents' unconditional love and undivided attention to make them genuinely happy.

Photo of the day:

Students of Kutandara Center performing African music on the Pearl St.  Today was the Colorado Children's Day in Boulder where there were fun activities for the kids and all events were free (even the balloon man refused to accept tips).  Looking at this photo reminded me just how warm it was a couple of hours ago!

Day 185 - Smiling Boy

Thought of the day: Mike's Camera hosted an event in Denver Zoo today with Canon and Nikon.  They provided many different cameras and lenses for people to try out for free.  I spent a couple of hours there trying out different lenses.  The event was really fun as you got to try out some exotic and not-so-exotic lenses on animals and visitors. 

Photo of the day:

I knew that it was going to be my favorite photo of the day right after I shot it.  I used a mid-range telephoto prime lens for this picture - this lens was absolutely amazing and I don't think I will be able to get a photo like this with my current lens(es).  Time for an upgrade?

Day 182 - Lila

Thought of the day: This morning I read a political column by Paul Krugman recently published on NY Times.  It's titled "Let's Not Be Civil" in which he wrote about the ideological differences between the two parties as manifested by their different proposals for deficit reduction.  He asserted that the differences were so stark that it's hopeless to try to reconcile the proposals through civil discussions and the only hope of reconciliation lied in the upcoming election in 2012.  He made an interesting observation that "...the two parties don’t just live in different moral universes, they also live in different intellectual universes".  How true!  In the past few years, I have found myself to be in agreement with almost everything one party represents and in disagreement (sometimes in disgust) with almost everything the other party represents.  That includes everything from the role of the government, universal health care, the distribution of wealth, gun control to environmental policies, abortion and gay rights.  I think this is not a healthy situation.  It can be partly attributed to the fact that the US Congress is getting increasingly polarized.  Moderates have been gradually replaced by those closer to their ideological homes and that's especially true for the republican party.  Perhaps I am also, alas, getting more narrow-minded.  It's easy to happen as, over time, you tend to gravitate towards like-minded friends, read books and articles by like-minded authors and watch programs narrated by like-minded reporters.  Perhaps I should try to expand my horizon and reach deeper into "the other side" with more sincerity and open-mindedness.  However, as long as my moral values and the facts don't change, I doubt I will change many of my opinions as a result.  But perhaps I will gain a better understanding of where the other opinions come from and why some genuine and intelligent people would embrace a world view that is so completely different from mine.

Photo of the day:

Lila standing outside of the Med (nick name for Mediterranean Restaurant) in downtown Boulder. This place has been voted  as the best restaurant for tapas year after year and it's easy to see why. Food unites people like nothing else. All the political differences dissipates in the air after a good glass of margarita!

Day 180 - Jayden

Thought of the day: It has been difficult to put Lila down for an afternoon nap lately.  On some days she didn't need a nap, but on the days when she really needed one she often refused to nap anyway and ended up with a dinner time meltdown.  Today I found a solution which may not be recommended by a pediatrician but it worked out well, at least for one day.  I took her on a bike ride around nap time and she fell into sleep on the way.  I parked the bike securely and made her more comfortable by lowering the bike seat.  She continued napping on the bike for another hour or so before waking up happy.  So this might just be the solution: take her on a bike ride and let her decide whether to fall into sleep or not.  That way I will get in some exercise and she will get some outdoor air, do a little sightseeing, and maybe even get in some sleep once in a while.  Difficult time calls for desperate measures and this is one that I am willing, or maybe even happy, to try.

Photo of the day:

Little boy Jayden in Zhou Mama's restaurant.  He was not tall enough for the table and his chin barely rose above it.  I don't know if he was amused by the sitting situation but it was really cute to watch. Lucky for his mom, he is still too little to let go of the precious daily nap.

Day 178 - Baby Zoe

Thought of the day: We attended a kid's birthday party in a park today.  It was a beautiful day to have an outdoor party.  Adults talked while the kids played and everybody had a blast.  The only problem was that the wind made it challenging to light the birthday candles!  A birthday party provides a nice opportunity for the parents to socialize, especially since the same group of parents tend to meet in several birthday parties in a year and sometimes year after year.  Unfortunately as the kids get older, these parties  turn more and more into kids only parties and most parents would just drop off the kids and come back when the party is almost over.  It's a pity when a party morphs from a social event into a free day care.  If you have been to a packaged birthday party, you'll find that the hosting facility doesn't usually try very hard to accommodate the adults - oftentimes the parents are just expected to stand around when the kids sit down to have cake and such.  It often feels awkward to be there as an adult and maybe that's why most parents decide not to stay.  I wonder if this is a common way of doing things in all cultures or if it's just another symptom of our kid-centric society.

Photo of the day:

Meet baby Zoe - this birthday party gave us the opportunity to finally meet her.