Dear Ying,

Ok, so I can't sing very well. But that didn't keep me from trying :)

So this is what happened... one day while at work, I was listening to a CD I happened to have at my desk. It was a Vivian Hsu CD I bought a long time ago. Then track 8 comes up; it's "I Miss You" and for some reason, I could actually catch 90% of the lyrics! And hearing that song for the first time again, this time, understanding what the song was about, I got all emotional about it. Here I am sitting in my cubicle hoping no one happens to stroll by to talk to me. Maybe it's because I had (my self-diagnosed) teflon flu that day or something. I dunno. But that really made me think of you and miss you. So here we are, a week and half later, I have something to show you. Hope you like it, even though my singing is ... pretty lame :)

Love you!!! -Your NT1

Last Sunday, I ran into an old friend. Hadn't seen her in a few years.

She said I got old! So when I got home that day I looked in the mirror and realized I hadn't shaven all weekend. Yeah, that must have been it.... Wait, what are these lines under my eyes? Dirt? No, maybe it's the light ... Waitnoooo those are wrinkles! Sonofa...! So tonight I asked Ying to apply some of her fancy face product to my wrinkles. The geek in me reads this product's name as "Lamer" ... What the? Who? Me?

Sigh... :)

 

 

I'm in THREE DEE!!!

Man I'm so proud of Ying.... she knows what a walkthrough is and has searched and used them on three occasions: My Sims, My Sims Kingdom and recently, Animal Crossing City Folk. Today, we bought Animal Crossing for real (we mostly rent games). And while in the car on the way home, she was reading the back of the cover like a kid. So awesome! She's fishing right now. (in the game). Nice.

 

Bonnie is either really lucky or really UNLucky to have a dad that just bought a new HP all-in-one printer....  Tonight we bring to you, the deanying parade of homes cardboard housing project spotlight!!!

Here we see the front entry way to Bonnie's new home:

 

 

Here, on the left side of the house, we discover Roman inspired archways for a classical, timeless, not-all-that-cheaply-made elegance only an infant can truly appreciate:

 

Our "Light and Bright" floorplan features whimsical skylighting and an entire wall of shuttered windows. Desireable end-unit with easy access to living room and mom.

 

Finishing off our parade of homes spotlight, we are treated to views of a custom designed wrap-around window inset into our sweeping 2 ft. vaulted ceilings. A secret back exit adds that extra safety element for quick escape in any emergency.

Beds: 0
Baths: 0
Sq Ft: 4
Lot Size: -
Stories: 1
View: Living room
Year Built: 2009
Association Dues: $0
County: Orange
MLS#:1234567
Days On Market: 0
Last Sale: $0
Asking Price: FREEEEEE!

Testing the email to blog post functionality. Seems like it's not picking up iphone image attachments! :(

P.S. - this is my new wallpaper. Inside joke.

Ying's cousin and her husband brought these supercute and awesome tasty chocolate covered fruit snacks. Check out the wrapping. Kawaii!!

Haven't you ever wanted to know how many days there are until some date?  A computer can do it easily, but it takes some effort to do it yourself. Well now you don't have to! I discovered that http://www.datecountdown.com was available. So I got it and put some datediff code on that .com .. You can even embed it into your own web pages! See?

I was listening to this on the way to work this morning :)

Ok, so I've been on my own for the past month or so. (Ying and Bonnie come back on July 1st. Yay!) Anyway, I've been able to eat pretty well. Quick is the key. But I didn't want to eat a frozen lean cuisine every night so I had no choice but to learn to make some edible stuff .... Here's what I made tonight:

Yay! Yam Leaves and dumplings.  You can't get more Asian than that.  Ok, so I need to work on the presentation part. But it sure tasted good!

I said quick was the key. Those were frozen dumplings from Ranch 99. While the dumplings were boiling, I cooked the veggies. They were ready at the same time. Total time in kitchen was under 20 minutes. Not bad eh?

And a few weeks ago I made steak:

I followed this tip on salting the steak, covering it all over with a thick layer of salt and letting it sit for 15 minutes.  Then I washed off the salt and pan fried it. Turned out just right! I've had steak this way at least once a week for the past few weeks.

So yeah, I'm starting to get the hang of this cooking thing. Even so, I'm glad that Ying will be back in a week :)

Ying's outta town, so all you readers that like reading her posts are just outta luck! Too bad!

Next up in our dorky, nerdy, Dean posting series is a video on how I mount my iPhone in the car so I can listen to music/podcasts, use the GPS functionality, check email, sent txt msgs, and watch movies while driving down the freeway on the way to work.

Umm. Ok, so music and GPS stuff is true. Everything else is very, very, VERY, sparingly used if used at all. It's dangerous to use anything on the iPhone that takes more than a split second of focus.  On the way to work, any time I see a car driving slower than the flow of traffic, drifting inside their lane, or braking for no apparent reason, I guarantee you, that person is either putting on make up or typing something on their phone.  So don't do it! Just drive, dang it.  </rant>

Oh, before I get to the post. I notice that women who don't pay attention while driving are the drifters and brakers, while men seem to be more prone to driving slower than the flow of traffic (in the fast lane usually). </scientific observation>

Aaaaaannd, now; The moment you've all been waiting for, the video of me being a nerd!!!!eleven!1

 

So in part 1, I brought home a sad little lamp from our trashroom.

This is the post where this sad little lamp is sad no more! Now it's a graceful fancypants lamp!

I went to IKEA and picked up the parts: $4.99 for a GRUNDTON (table lamp kit) and $8.99 for two SPARSAM flourescent bulbs. I'm only going to count this fix as costing $4.99+$4.50=$9.50 because I only use one of the bulbs. We have another IKEA lamp that takes this size bulb so the extra will just be a household spare.

Anyway, I happened to be meeting someone to sell some old laptop RAM for $10 today. So today's net dollar spend is zero!

On to the pictures!

 

 

Make sure the lamp isn't DOA before I get my grubby mitts on it...

 

It took almost 2 hours to get to this far... the grundton wire was thicker than the original and it was really tough getting it through the neck. Oh! And I took a break to get my 10 bucks....

 

 

Me and electricity understand each other perfectly. I remain scared of it, and I remain alive.  If I really did mess up the wire while pushing and pulling through the lamp neck... I was wondering if those rubber tipped stanleys would really insulate me from 1.21 jiggawatts of instant teeth clenching....?

 

 

And now some glamour shots! Old Lamp, this is YOUR time to SHINE!!!!!1

 

"Why's that sticker there," you ask? Well, it's because.... Old Lamp is sitting on top of DialupPC's case!  DialupPC is now our Windows Home Server (simply the awesomest backup/fileshare OS. Ever.)

 

That's all, folks!

-Dean :)

I really need to stop bringing stuff home...

With Ying and Bonnie out of town, there's just no stopping me!

I found this today. It looked kind of sad in the trashroom. And I felt bad thinking that it might end up at the dump. The cord is frayed and it's all tarnished. The light part is easy... just go to ikea and get a little light set for a few bucks. 

But the metal part of the lamp... is it brass? How do I polish this up?

Does anyone know?

Read Part 2 - Old Lamp is fixed!

I just took out the trash and what do I find in our beloved trashroom? A couple of old empty digital camera boxes with manuals and other misc things. Sorry no cameras (I wish!).  But there were some things among the instruction manuals and bubble wrap that caught my eye...

Woohoo!!! Scored again. Ok, not as great as the TV I scored last month, but still! Man I love our trashroom.

 

Here's a picture of if unwrapped. Yes, it was brand new. I haven't bothered opening the universal screen protector package yet. I don't think I'll have a use for that... I'll probably just bring it to the office and put it in my junk drawer.

Until next time... :)

Bonnie making lots of noise!

This past weekend was the best ever for trash room treasure finding! I don't think we'll be able to top this find the rest of our residency here...

The other night I was taking out the trash and inside the trash room was an empty box for a brand new 37" LCD tv. And right next to that empty box was a 26" LCD TV.  Needless to say, I didn't even bother asking Ying for permission to bring it home. (After bringing that cool hat home, she made a new rule that I have to ask her before bringing anything home from the trash room).

I didn't skip a beat; I dropped my trash bag down the chute, turned around, leaned down and picked up the LCD TV with my right hand and opened the trash room door with my left hand and made my way home. Triumphant. GRUNT GRUNT GRUNT!! ME MAN. BRING HOME TV. GRUNT GRUNT!

"Stoopid! It was probably broken," you say.  Well yes, it was kind of broken. The picture turned on, but within a minute, the display got all staticky and weird. So off to the Internets I go to search for, "Maxent 26 inch LCD TV fuzzy picture" and what is this I see??? ----> Maxent MX-26X3 picture problem Wow! The very same problem reported by many people about the very same TV! Figures.

But before trying the DIY method, I called Maxent to see if they would warranty the tv. I was going to just say, "I *ahem* got it as a ...uhhh... gift. Yeah, a gift!"  But it turns out that the tv was manufactured back in April 2005 which means it's out of warranty anyway. A 4 year old tv going bad huh? Well according to that link above, I (nor the previous owner that threw this tv away) am not the only one with the problem.  I asked their tech support how much it would cost to fix the tv with a bad heatsink... The support tech said, $90 examination fee, $150 materials for a new board (they weren't going to just fix the heatsink) and $90 labor for installing a bad board.  He wanted almost $400 to fix this thing!!!  Ok, time out-- YOUR company makes tvs that die in 4 years and you want someone to shell out $400 to fix it? You do realize that a new 37" TV costs about that much these days?.... What kind of company policy is this? Ok, so I got it from the trash, but what about everyone else stuck with a non working tv?  I won't bother looking at Maxent the next time we go shopping for a TV.

So anyway, I took it apart myself and adjusted the heatsink and the tv is working now!  If it gets loose again, I'll actually go through the trouble of re-applying some real thermal epoxy. But for now, it's working and I'm happy! (So is Ying actually, but her rule still stands -- I'm not supposed to bring back anything else from the trash room. Bah!)

Here's a picture of it turned on -- great colors!

 

Here is a bigger picture of it sitting on our bedroom dresser. It has replaced an old 20" tube tv that we had there.

Talk about major score! Say what you want about taking stuff home from the trash... I'm already ahead by a TV!

Ying asked me, "Why would anyone throw away a tv if it's so easy to fix?" Here are my thoughts about the person who threw it away. 
1. They purposely left it right inside the door of the trash room, which meant they knew someone would take it home.  Very nice of them. 
2. The TV was out of warranty
3. They might not have been very handy with a screwdriver
and 4. They weren't comfortable around high voltage electronics.  I think they were all valid reasons for leaving the TV in the trash room. After all, look; it ended up in a good home!

Bonnie makes noises with a little help!

This is how you take care of the kid and surf the web at the same time. GOSH, what a lazy daddy.... No good parent!

 

Ying says she feels like a cow. A milk cow.

Dean says he feels like a janitor. A poop wiping janitor.

We both feel like flight attendants. Before our passenger awakes, we have to warm her milk bottle and ready the changing station. How's that for customer service?

Bonnie is fine. She is healthy and sooooo cute!! Pics later. I'm still posting via phone.

Ying is 7cm dialated! Even though she can't feel pain from the contractions we were still practicing the deep breathing excercises. And we think it actually helped!! That was an hour ago. Right now she feels like she could be close to pushing!!

Ying has been reaaaallly good!! We checked into the hospital on we checked into the hospital to get induced on Friday morning at 7am. It's 9:40am right now. So yes, we have been here for over 24hrs!! Yesterday the doctor broke her water at 1:30pm and he says we need to go into active labor soon or he'll have to do a c-section. Ying waited until 3am last night before getting her epidural. And the whole time she was good and did her breathing excercises like we were instructed in birthing class. I really am very proud of her! As of about 2 hrs ago she was only 4cm dialated so we need to hope the pitocin they are giving her starts working again. They did the same thing last night to get her to 3cm.

I found this in our trash room today....

Apparently someone in the complex is moving out because there's a LOT of just-throw-it-away-because-we're-moving-and-don't-have-time-to-pack-it stuff in the trash room right now.

There were other, less practical items in the trash room like almost-new dust pans, designer paper waste baskets and brooms, suitcases... but I went for the most useful thing in there -- THE HAT!

As soon as I saw that hat, 50 images flashed through my mind of all the great poses I could make with this thing.  The above picture highlights some of the more glamorous of the bunch.  This was such a great find!!

Ying had a good laugh at my expense tonight. :)

Our other great find: http://www.deanying.com/PermaLink,guid,5e7b5968-1313-4a5c-8e5b-430b7eb06f6c.aspx and http://www.deanying.com/PermaLink,guid,da325696-9571-41a3-877d-c2422767eb67.aspx

Man, I love our trash room.

***************************************

老爺愛撿垃圾已經不是新聞.偏偏我們又跟全世界最浪費的民族住在一起,所以偶爾還真的會從垃圾間裡面撿回一些寶.

昨晚老爺倒完垃圾回來,他站在門口不停的對我喊:"我不管.我不管.不管." 我因為在跟我娘講話,眼睛也沒有往他的方向看,只是覺得很奇怪,為什麼老爺一個勁兒地喊我不管,到底是不管什麼.待我轉頭過去看到老爺帶著這個越南帽時,我開始狂笑,大笑,爆笑.....然後因為太激動,腳就抽筋了..........

你馬好了,撿那個回來幹麻啦!!!!

 

 

---

Hey Folks!

I'm at it again.  And yet again, thanks goes to Ying for filming me being a big nerd.  Yes, I'm a nerd, get over it; I have :)

So I was wanting to watch Napoleon Dynamite. But I didn't have a way to prop up my iPhone.  I went online to look for instructions on creating any kind of make-shift stand but all I came up with was some triangle thing made out of a dollar bill and also a retail item called the Bat Rest. The Bat Rest is a great idea... but I wanted something NOW. (Kids these days; they always want instant gratification!).  So I tried to make my own bat rest out of scrap cardboard... it was ... full of fail.
:( Cardboard was too soft.

After all this work, I could have seriously just gotten two strips of scotch tape and taped the damn iphone to the wall or something. But that would've been too easy!  So I look around my desk for other options... oooh PAPERCLIP!

Watch the Video!

Anyway, long story short, after a couple of failures, I came up with this shape:
Download the bend-marks pdf template here  (Scroll down to learn how to use the template)

 

Cool huh?

With the iPhone:

 

From the side:

Back View

 

How to use the Template:

Get the template here. Print it out with your favorite PDF reader. Be sure not to stretch the document. If you have a ruler, do a reality check to make sure the document didn't get resized when printed.  When the paper clip is straightened out, it should be the same length as the grey line in the template.  A pair of pliers will make your job a lot easier.

1. Take a jumbo paper clip and straighten it out. Use a fine tip sharpie to mark all the bend points:

 

2. Bend the 7.25 and 8.25cm points. Let's call this the "V"

 

3. Next, Bend the 4.25cm point. You need to make the bend perpendicular and angled a bit outwards from the "V"  Also notice that the bend is an "acute" angle.

 

4. Bend the 1.0cm point for the tip.

 

5. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for the other side and you're done! Here's a pic of 2 stands from different positions:

I'd like to point out the importance of the bend angles. Acute-angled bends from step 3 give the stand the correct support to prop up your iphone without falling over. The obtuse-angled bend in step 4 needs to stick out far enough so the tips of the paper clip won't rub against your iPhone and scratch it.  You can play with the width of the stand and/or the green angles to adjust how much your iPhone tilts.

Here's a video of just the stand without all the jabber

 

That's it! Thanks for reading~!

 

****************************

老娘的眉批:

這到底是什麼了不起的發明????  不過就是一根彎起來迴紋針而已啊....勞駕老娘爬高爬低的幫你攝影就算了,還千叮嚀萬交代的要我拍的時候要有當導演的sense,要懂得適時zoom in跟zoom out.啥屁啊!!!!

我左想右想,這種把戲能吸引到的觀眾恐怕只有豆媽家那顆小二的豆子,人家還有去上自然教室,懂的東西應該也比你這個cool吧!

呀!呀!呀! 烏鴉從天空飛過去,我不知道要再講些什麼好了......

Hi Readers!

I'm such a geek...

Ok, so now we got that part out of the way; pay attention!  I went online and ordered this part from Meritline:

http://www.meritline.com/earphone-adapter-iphone-3-5mm-mic-666.html

Read the description and you'll get it...

So that allows you to plug your iPhone's stereo output into the auxiliary input of your car stereo. No big deal right?  Even better is you can clip the microphone to your collar and call people and play their voice through your car stereo too!

Except for one problem... The cable is about 3 feet long.  Where are you going to put your iPhone? Hold it in your hand? So much for hands free!  So I also got this:

 

http://www.meritline.com/iphone-car-mount-holder-643.html

Now for the FUN part! The Modding....

I found an old telephone cable (yes, land line) and gave it a glorious future; a new chance at life!  It was to become the wire that I'd be using to relocate the handsfree microphone to an acceptable place in my car.  I had to do a little soldering.

 

Close up pic...

 

Car mount in the car... it's awesome... very sturdy and it even swivels so I can rotate it to the passenger side to let them control the iPhone..

Here's the mic.  I hadn't put heatshrink around it since it was getting late... It looks nice with the heatshrink! I'll take better pics tomorrow and update this post...

And... watch the video! ... because I didn't take any more pictures (it was late).

Near the end of the video, you hear the infamous cell phone buzzing.... stupid buzzing! I'm going to try tackling that problem this weekend with some ferrite cores. (google it).  Anyway, the buzzing only lasts for a few seconds when you start dailing or when the internet kicks in for the first time.  Still, I'm gonna try getting rid of it altogether.

 

 

Should I make a few of these and sell them?

-Dean

In case you missed it, read part one (and watch the video too!)

 

The camerawoman gets to enjoy the result:

 

 

Here's a pic of the tender meat inside. Some call it "copra" but it seems like that refers more to the dried, processed version of the meat.

#1. Be careful! Don't be stupid and hurt yourself.

#2. Don't be a chicken!

#3. You have to use enough force to get through the skin and strike the shell.

#4. You have to hold the coconut in your hand (See #2).  If you put the coconut on the counter or somewhere else, it will most likely roll away, the cleaver will slip from your hands and fall on your foot and cause some sort of medical emergency. (See #1).

#5. You don't have to draw it, but map out a square with lines halfway between the pointy part of the coconut to the outer circle.

#6. Chop away!  Make ONE, clean, solid, chop for each side of your square.  You have to hold the coconut in your hand or you won't get good strikes. If you have two left hands, then you should just give up right now. Don't blame me!  Use enough force to get through the skin and strike the shell.  If you don't, a couple of things will happen: 1. you won't be able to peel off the skin and 2. the shell won't crack open.

Tip: Don't be afraid! You're not the hulk; It's not like you're going to cut straight through the coconut and lop off your hand!  And uhh... just be sure to aim right. Good luck!

#7.  With good, solid chops you'll have cut out a square from the top of the coconut.

#8. Drop in a bendy straw and a teaspoon and you're done! Sip out the milk and use the spoon to dig out the tender meat.

 

Here's a video:

Credits: Thanks Ying for filming the video! And thanks for not laughing TOO hard and shaking the camera :P

老娘註:老爺"盧"我幫他錄影開椰子把戲已經很久了.今天終於完成他的心願.你們看的時候會覺得鏡頭有點晃,是的,我忍的很辛苦,因為真的很想笑.而且在錄影之前,他特地交代我說,如果他開的時候不小心切到砍到自己流血了,千萬不可以中途暫停,一定要繼續錄下去,因為這樣才是搞笑的最高境界.呼!還好過程順利,要真的切到流血,我這個攝影師還不知道怎麼反應咧....

再看一次錄影之後,我突然驚覺老爺好像有天份可以在大賣場賣那種很好用的拖把抹布清潔用品之類.

 

Also, see part 2 where the camerawoman poses with the coconut.

Brussels sprouts have always been the poster child of nasty vegetables. We were at Whole Foods today and they were selling a stalk of brussels sprouts for $4.99

And a closeup:

It was quick work for Ying to take off the sprouts.  Later on in the evening, I noticed the bare stalk sitting on the counter.

I actually don't have anything personal against brussels sprouts myself. But man, the stalk of a brussels sprout is pretty massive. You could use it as a bat and threaten people with it!  Consider yourself warned!

This is a message to all you men out there.  Dishes, pots and pans are difficult to wash. Not only that, scrubbing the pots and using that abrasive dish soap gets your hands rough and dry.  So why make your woman do the dishes?  Do you want a woman with rough, manly hands? I don't.

Also, pots are heavy. We have cast iron Le Creuset pots.  It takes muscles to wash these things (and do a good job).  Cowboy up and do some scrubbing!  In our home; she cooks. Because I can't.  I can make (in no particular order) grits and ramen and cook eggs, but that only gets a man so far. It's only fair that I clean up after her.  Oh, and vacuuming and scrubbing toilets and taking out the trash is also a man's job.  That's dirty work; and if you're a real man, you won't let your woman do those things. Let her focus on the creative stuff like cooking and buying you clothes (because I have no fashion sense).  Hmm, maybe I'm a true male chauvinist, since I've disqualified Ying from doing The Man's Work.  Although in this case, I don't think she minds :)

Even though we were far away from the Santiago Canyon fires, the smoke and ash covered our patio. Here I am, getting ready to use our vacuum on our patio furniture. Hook 'em! Ying turned that handkerchief into a face mask for me so I dont get choke on ash or get sars while I'm out cleaning.

 

 

So what was YING doing while I was cleaning? Playing Wii of course!!! :)

MySims is a game on the Wii.  It's like The Sims, except all you do in MySims is build houses and furnish them for the townpeople.  You don't have to worry about feeding your Sims or taking them to the bathroom like the original game. MySims is really cute. Definitely a girl's game.  It's funny, they even have goth chick/boy characters in the game! You have to build those Sims a goth house or they won't be happy.

Ying actually went online and PRINTED OUT A WALKTHROUGH FOR THE GAME! Uhhh... Since when would she even KNOW what a walkthrough is??!?!?!!  She must be a real woman ^_^

Here's a pic of the walkthrough in its natural habitat. Notice the highlighter and red pen:

GOSH. She's a SERIOUS gamer. The walkthrough is 31 pages.  If I didn't say so, you would have thought that was MY walkthrough and MY gaming setup.  Nintendo's really got it figured out.

Don't believe me? Check out the TIME Played.  YES, that's 56 Hours on one slot. YES, that's 37 Hours on the 2nd slot.


There's a sad story about the town of Dinding.... There's a bug in the game. :(  If you invite a character to live in your town, you have to build them a house SOON.  If they leave the town hotel, you won't be able to move them in, and you won't be able to move anyone else in. Basically, Ying's Dinding town is stuck on 4 Stars because she can't advance anymore.

Oh. Ying would like everyone to know that her town of XiaoBai is now 5 stars and that she's working on getting the uber characters to move in next.  Don't worry if you don't know what that means; I had to read the walkthrough to know what that means too!

Here she is playing. She's got that addicted-to-a-video-game-posture thing going on:

She didn't want me to post this pic, but since she's busy playing right now, she can't stop me!

 

Finally cleaned, sorted and uploaded pictures from all 3 of our cameras! Will post videos and pics taken in Taiwan tomorrow. Enjoy!

2007-09-21 Kyoto, Japan	We flew from LAX to Japan while the others flew from Taiwan to Japan. We met up with them later on that night. Pictures are combined from cameras and give an interesting perspective on what both groups were doing in relative time to each other.
2007-09-22 Kyoto, Japan	On this day, Dean and Ying went to visit 4th Great Aunt in Kobe while the others spent the day in Kyoto visiting places like the Ginkakuji golden temple. Pictures are combined in chronological order.
2007-09-23 Kyoto, Japan	We visited the Fushimi-inari Taisha Shrine and then stayed the night at the Oohara-No-Sato Hot Springs bed and breakfast.
2007-09-24 Kyoto, Japan	The morning after the Hot Springs, we went back into town and 曉瑩, 小妏 and 容 got dressed in kimonos for a stroll around the town.
2007-09-25 Kyoto, Japan	Today was the guys' turn to get some "idol" pictures taken... It was also a day of SUPER GOOD food - Green tea shaved ice and also great Sushi at a great price.
2007-09-26 Kyoto, Japan	Travelling back to Taiwan

... two drinks in a basket like two peas in a pod ...

 

NT1 ♥ BL1

Hi Folks!

The new Harry Potter book came out today. We went to the Farmer's Market at UCI this morning and happened to walk by a local bookstore... and they had 2 copies left.  At first we considered waiting and going to some big place like Barnes and Noble or Costco to pick up a discounted copy of the new book... but then we thought, "hey, we need to support these local places more!"  So we bought the book; paid $30 for it. Anyway, later on at the Target in the Spectrum, they had it on sale for $17. Still, I find consolation knowing that we supported a local bookstore!

 

The store owner gave me a few temporary Harry Potter tatoos. So I HAD to put it on:

 

Can't see it clearly? Here's a closeup:

 

So anyway, we walked to the Spectrum and spent a few hours there walking around, picking up some stuff.  Ying was embarassed! Hah! It didn't bother me. Why? Because I didn't have to look at myself anyway. ho ho ho!

When we got home I was hungry.  Armed with my new Harry Potter tatoo, I used a makeshift wand (chopstick) to cook some "lo po gau" ... hmm there's nothing to describe this in English. It's yummy; trust me!

 

Warming up....

 

COOKUS-MY-LO-PO-GAO-AND-MAKE-IT-TASTY-MAXIMUSLEORMUS-SOMETHING-OR-OTHER-MUS --->

 

The spell worked...

 

And while we were at the Farmer's Market, we got some roasted corn.  Ying was eating it and sitting in the car. She looked like a Taiwan gangster. So I took a picture:

 

 

Until next time, Potter fans...

I saw the Transformers movie yesterday night. I really enjoyed it!

Ying and I got a storage unit downstairs in the parking garage of our apartments.  While we were moving stuff from our closets down to storage, I found a box of old toys.  "Toys?" you say...  Yes, toys! I didn't keep a lot; just a few SELECT favorites.  Among the 1980's toys were 3 stuffed animals, 3 Transformers, and one small Voltron.

I was going to move them to storage, but then Ying says she feels sorry for the toys because in the movie Toy Story, storage is like the graveyard for toys.  I didn't want that on my conscience, so no storage units for these gems!  The stuffed animals can stay somewhere at home in the closet while the Transformers can go with me to work.

So here are my Generation 1 Transformers in their new home! Priceless!

From Left to Right: Decepticon Shockwave, Autobot Jetfire, and a plastic mini-Voltron. Oh, and that's Bumblebee down in the front.

Do you notice a yellow-ish tint on Jetfire? No that's not poor picture-taking. The plastic USED to be white, but now it's yellow. I think sometime during his lifetime (maybe in the early 90's) Jetfire was assigned to a window sill that got way too much afternoon sun (sorry Jetfire!). Also, for some reason, one of his fists won't retract. Sigh... poor arthritic Transformers... Oh and I lost all their guns.  I looked on ebay for some prices of Generation 1 Transformers... they're selling mint Jetfire for $200!! I'd probably get $2.00 for mine.  So yes, these old toys really are price-less.

 

And for those of you that don't think toys have a soul...

 

v----- I have proof they're alive!!!!! -----v

See?! They're dancing for the camera!!!  Except for Jetfire; he's still mad that I abandoned him on the window sill back then.

If you haven't heard, I recently got nasal surgery.

Here's my one shot to prove my manliness: As a bachelor, I never owned any mirrors; just had access to 2 mirrors. Can you guess the two? Correct! In whatever apartment I was renting at the time, it would be (1) The bathroom mirror and (2) the medicine cabinet mirror next to it!

.... On to the castration!

So, when I needed a mirror to bring to work to inspect my bloody nose to make sure there were no trails of blood running down my cheeks, guess who I went to for a portable mirror? Yup! "Yinnggg... do you have a mirror I can bring to work?"

I was sure she'd have some generic-drug-store flavored mirror for me to bring to the office. Something I could just keep at work forever and maybe bring back home with me if "they" one day decide to send me packing with a cardboard box of my belongings.

... But noooOOoo I couldn't be that painless.

This is what Ying gave me to bring to work:

 

*sigh* ..... it's .... hello .... kitty ...

 

Opened up, there's even a comb for me to comb my hair!!!!!! *squeals delightfuly*

So there you have it folks -- I am a proud Hello-Kitty-Mirror-Compact-With-Built-In-Comb-Carrying citizen. I know all you girls are jealous! Even some of you guys.  I bet Ariel is green with envy too. (obscure alusion to The Little Mermaid combing her hair with a fork)

 

Considering the other alternatives Ying offered me, I think Hello Kitty was a good choice.

Presenting an assortment of Chanel, Bobbi Brown, Shiseido, Dior and MAC
(Even knowing these labels puts me dangerously close to the castration chopping block)

 

Sarcasm aside, I did crack a grin today as I casually put Hello Kitty back in my drawer and quietly slid the drawer closed.

-Dean :)

I guess my nose is still kinda big. Too bad because I think it's always been like that. Hehe At least I can breathe!

 

I got the packings removed from my nostrils today!!!!

It would have been done in the morning, but the doc had a surgery and rescheduled me to the afternoon.

Ying was there for the "event" ...

Her reaction was "EWWWWWW!"

The doc literally extracted a 3-inch-long, 1cm round rectangular foam tube from each of my nostrils.  It felt like he was pulling something out of my brain.  I wouldn't say that pulling it out hurt; but it was definitely a strange feeling I've never felt before.

The instant he pulled out the packings I could breathe through both nostrils. The difference was night and day!!  I can breathe!!!

I still have a week to go I think before total healing... My left nostril that got the most work is still very very tender, sore and bleeding a little bit. And I have a LOT of leftover snot that I can't blow out for risk of opening the surgery wounds.  So I've resigned to snorting and hocking a lot.  Doc prescribed an off-the-shelf saline nasal spray (brand: Ocean) to use 4 times a day to help recovery.

Nose is normal sized now too! Too late to take pics, but I'll update Tuesday afternoon.

-Dean :^)

           ^-regular sized nose again!

Looks like I overdid it yesterday (Sunday Night).

Around 9pm, I took my 2nd dose of antibiotics for the day.  Shortly after I felt my bloodpressure go through the roof. I had been sitting in front of the computer troubleshooting some server problems.

How could I tell? Because my sinuses were THROBBING and I could feel the tissue really squeezing the packing with every heartbeat. Not good! :( 

I went to lie down right away, but it was too late... room spinning, sinuses swelling in protest.

It was a pretty restless night too -- lots of snot and blood leaking through the gauze.

Today I get my packings removed, but I've learned my lesson; I'm going to Mister Take-It-Easy for the next week and beyond.

 

-Dean  :o|

            ^Solemn big-nosed me.

See? I told you I'd go!

 

Looks like if you want to view the video, you have to be our youtube friend... just log on to youtube and add 'deanying' as your friend. Once we approve it, you'll be able to watch the video.

-Dean :o)

Note to Self:

DO NOT LAUGH at any time when packings are in nose. Pain, nasal stretching, almost choking on sushi will ensue.

 

The Situation

Ying brought back some sushi today. Not real sushi for me; I just ate the tofu pouches and the california rolls. Ok, I cheated and ate a piece of yellowtail too.  It's just that the thought of raw fish festering somewhere in my nasal cavity was a turn off so I held back.

Midway through the meal..

Ying: "Aw, I forgot to return this Wii game to Blockbuster. Hey do you want to go with me?"

Me: "No way, I don't want to go with out outside like this." (Earlier, I already asked Ying to go down and check the mail for me so I didn't have to go outside my Phantom of the Opera mask)

Ying: "So? Who cares?"

Me: "Hey I could wear sunglasses! That'll disguise me!"

And for whatever reason, the mental image of me in my gauze and a pair of shades set off a chain reaction of laughter, stretching nostrils and near-choking on rice and wasabi. Not fun.

Me: <Laughing><grimacing>"ow, stop don't make me laugh"<laughing><holding hands to face to offset stretching of already-stretched nose>"ow, it hurts. Sschttoppp"<tears running down cheeks, soaked up by gauze>

Aw the hell with this, i'm going to Blockbuster. At least I can say, "yeah I went to Blockbuster in gauze this one time."

Stay posted for videos...

-Dean   :o)

            ^--That's me and my big nose

Friday I slept most of the day, Saturday, same thing.

Today, Sunday, I've been up and about, watching some TV, reading a book (Day Watch, 2nd in a series, translated from Russian author Sergei Lukyanenko).

Today I also took my first shower since Wednesday night.  It really is a milestone on the road to recovery when you're standing in the shower rubbing the surgical tape residue off your hand from where the IV was taped.

My left front tooth is still kind of numb! And I found a vertical crack in the enamel running all the way up the middle of the tooth :( That's bad news... maybe the trauma was too great to my tooth when they put the breathing tube down my throat.  The first thing I did was get online and read everything I could about cracked teeth. Seems like I could be ok, as it looks very similar to a "craze line" -- a technical term that means hairline crack.  I think the numbness is the different pressure being put on my gums behind my teeth. I'm guessing my gums will adjust and the numbness will go away.  But having odd pressure worries me since my teeth are already crooked enough! More odd pressure is sure to make them even more British comedy worthy. (think Austin Powers)

Looks like I won't be making it back to work on Monday after all. My appointment to remove the packings got moved to the afternoon because the doctor has a surgery in the morning. BELIEVE me, I'd rather be at work, slouching in a computer chair and programming than have this packing jammed in my nose for another day.

Ying's taking really good care of me! She's made me the most DEEELICIOUS get-well food. Chicken soup made from a whole chicken (organic, from Mitsuwa). And a beef soup made from scratch as well. Then she took some of the soup stock and made rice porridge. And a secret to make the rice porridge taste REALLY good, she put in a raw egg yolk and let the heat from the porridge cook the yolk. You folks are missing out. (the food, not the surgery)

No new pics; I look pretty much the same as last post.

-Dean :)

I'm HoooooOOoooome!!

O ... M ... G...  I thought it was going to be a walk in the park, a piece of cake, no sweat.

Boy was I wrong!

Background

I have a deviated septum. What does that mean? It means the cartilage in my nose is crooked -- Enough the point where it blocks my left nostril from breathing.  Also, the tissue inside both my nostrils is always swollen.  The combination of those two pretty much makes me breathe through my mouth 90% of the time.  On really good, allergy-free days, I could breath out of my right nostril and a little bit of my left nostril.  I saw an Ear Nose Throat doctor last month and he recommended nasal septoplasty (fixing the cartilage) and interior turbinate reduction (cutting away some of the overgrown tissue inside my nose).  I had done some reading online a while back and read really positive stories about it.

 

The day of the surgery

Here's a play-by-play version I wrote in an email to a friend:

I just woke up. Been sleeping most of today.

Yesterday I arrived at 1pm, got wheeled in on a bed at 3pm, feeling pretty nice. Everyone was super nice!

Got past the IV-in-my-hand jitters sometime around 330. Woke up at (I think) 530... That's when things got bad!! I had severe nausea, the room was spinning. Nothing like the anesthesia experience I had when I got my wisdom teeth taken out in '99!!

Ying dropped me off at 1, but had come back at 5 to pick me up. I slept/threw up for a few hours after the surgery. They suggested I stay the night, but I didn't want to sleep there. At 9pm I said I was well enough to go home so they got me a wheelchair and someone to push me to the car... then I threw up in the elevator (I rule!). Good thing I had made friends with the half-circle throw up tub and it was readily by my side. Now I know why they don't want you to eat before the surgery! Threw up in the car once. Got home threw up again! Man I was weak. All this time it's near midnight (Ying stopped by CVS to pick up my antibiotics and pain killers). I realized my last meal was 8pm the previous night; I hadn't eaten in nearly 28 hours.

<..some parts snipped...>

Anyway I'm better now! My nose is hideous -- they have it PACKED with gauze, then I have this big gauze square rolled up into 3rds taped across my [face] to catch any leakage. I can't breathe out of my nose of course. It makes swallowing hard. Lips are way dry and should start cracking soon... I can't feel my left front tooth (all I want for xmas is..?) Nurse says to ask my doctor about that, she thinks it was because of the breathing pipe they had to stick down my throat in the OR and that feeling should come back eventually.

Ok this is turning into a blog post. Maybe I should put this online! I took some pictures of me in a OR gown (if only I had known what was in store for me that night!) I think Ying stealthily took some pictures of me after the surgery too (heh heh heh, she said I looked soooooo bad) I knew she was taking pictures of me. She said she felt bad taking pics but knew I'd wanna see. And I'm glad she did! It'll be cellphone pics, but I'll doctor them up (no pun intended) with photoshop.

I'm in high spirits now though! Ying made awesome chicken soup with an entire whole chicken! And there's a beef soup waiting for me right now too. Oh and I had the most delicious bowl of cheerios this morning too. I let them get soggy so I wouldn't have to chew too much, which on any other day would have made them into a bad bowl of cheerios... But not today!

So there you have it!

Here's me around 1pm in good spirits!

My feet in booties!! hahahah so cool.

No pants!! No boxers! ho ho ho!

 

AFTER the surgery... I'm totally PWND. The anesthesia really got to me. The pink thing near my right hand was my new best buddy -- the puke pan.

 

Close up of me in my anesthesia-induced stupor:

 

WARNING ... For those of you that don't like to see blood, you can stop reading here..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

... really, if you dont want to see blood then go somewhere else...

 

 

 

..

 

.

 

. Last Chance!....

 

 

 

So you saw me with the gauze after the surgery... this is what the gauze looked like the morning after... you can see my nostril markings!:

 

This morning there was a trail of dried blood running down my face onto my neck. And me, in my infinite wisdom, chose to wear a nice (at least soft, comfy cotton) A&F off-white t-shirt to sleep last night. It's got blood stains on it now. Go me!

24 hrs after the surgery, the gauze isn't too bad:

 

Here's my face without the gauze. My nose is HUGE! Don't worry, it's just packed with packing inside my nostrils. It'll go back to my normal Dean-size after it's removed (I HOPE!)

 

The black thing is string. I don't know if that's a stitch or if it's to help make packing removal easier...

 

 

I'm trying to smile for the camera...

 

 

I am the Phantom of the Operrrrraaa!!!

 

So at least I'm well enough to post long blog postings!

-Dean :)

Saturday I sold our old lounge chair for $120. Today we went out and bought a $99 table and a $99 mirror. I like our newly-decorated dining/living area... check it out!

This is what our living room looked like before: http://www.deanying.com/PermaLink,guid,3df12f34-86d2-46f8-8dab-5662f250100b.aspx

We got a new mirror! The living room feels bigger without the lounge chair:

 

 

Looking into the kitchen... we used to eat at the bar, but now we have a real table... how romantic!

 

Oh yeah... Ying made crab cakes this morning too! (We had fresh crab at home on Friday night, but saved the claw meat for the crab cakes)

 

 

 

 

Sorry, no pics of the cooked crab cakes... Ying cooked 2 and I forgot to take pics ... too busy eating them. Yes, they were gooooood.

 

-Dean :)

Hi Readers!

Today Ying made a YUMMY lunch for us!!! She prepared the chicken the night before.  Don't ask me how she made it because I have no idea. My only job is to "cut this," "wash that," "open this" etc... Yes, I'm the minimum-wage kitchen labor.  :)

We ate it on our balcony:

 

A close-up:

 

All done. I ate everything --- even the cilantro!

 

-Dean :)

Dear Readers,

As soon as I can figure out how to do it, we will be implementing security on our blog.  This will do two things: 1) keep out spammers 2) keep the blog private.

Challenges:

Adding security is relatively straightforward with .net 2.0's membership provider -- unfortunately, this blog engine is written in .net 1.1!! I can either convert the code or find another security engine.

There is built-in site security, but it doesn't protect the site 100%

In an ideal situation, any person not logged in will be redirected to a log in page.  If you don't have an account, you can request an account (no, it won't be given to you automatically, you will have to let us know we know who you are of course!)

-Dean

Dear Readers,

Happy Valentine's Day!  I didn't buy anything fancy for Ying this year.  Instead, I used a piece of cardboard to make her a puzzle.  I got the idea from another friend who sent puzzles with a note written on them for Christmas cards.  So here is my version....

1. In the morning, when Ying wakes up, she'll certainly go to the bathroom right?

 

2. After following the arrows, she'll see the note!

 

3. Here's the note:

(Good Morning Baby! Your clue: It can show a lot of pictures! Find it and you will have another clue!)

 

4. The clue refers to the LCDTouchFrame!

 

5. The "thing" we bought was at an antique shop in the Orange Circle was the phone that I used for Dialup PC... and look what's beside it!

It's a puzzle piece! Tada!

(Good job Sweetie! Only 2 more to go! I think there is something in "ma ma sad"!)

Here's the front:

 

6. What is "ma ma sad?".... There is the Taiwanese brand of stove exhaust called "ma ma happy" and it's really good.  I gave our stove exhaust fan the name "ma ma sad" because it sucks at sucking air...

 

 

7. There's a plate in the microwave! With ... quarters?? And a Note!

(Baby, I know sometimes I like to hooling around too much! I am making you play a game in the morning before you are fully awake! I will have to make sure I "make my skin tight"! Happy Valentine's day BB.  P.S. - Please feed these to Doraemon!)

 

8. Aha! So the quarters are for our Doraemon (kitty bank). Hey there's the last piece!

 

 

9. The final piece...

(Baby you found all the pieces of my heart! Truely, without you, I am not whole. You took all of my pieces and made me a 100% person. Thank you fore being there for me and caring and loving me so much! I love you baby! Happy Valentine's Day!)

 

And the puzzle put together:

 

 

 

Ying made me lots of delicious food to eat while she's out of town.... I have enough to last me 2 weeks!!  Half of this food is in the freezer while the other half is in the fridge.  If I get tired of chinese food, there's also Trader Joe's pizza in case I'm feeling... adventurous...?

For you "uncultured" readers, let me explain what we have here. Starting from the bottom-left corner we have tofu noodles with celery, carrots and cilantro... served chilled.  Above that we have two round containers of beef stir fried with pickled radishes.  To the right of that in the rectangular container is spicey mapo tofu (ground meat with tofu). There's a smaller round container above it with the same thing. To the right of the small mapo tofu is sliced bean curd. Below the bean curd we have 3 containers of sliced pig ears. The bottom-right corner is seaweed.  Yum Yum Yum!!!  I love you babe :) Thanks for making sure I'm well-fed while you're away!

 

Woah. ... has it already been 2 whole months??!?!

We had originally... "adopted" a poor, unwanted piece of art from the trash room 2 months ago to the day. You can read about TRT Part 1 (that's Trash Room Treasure for those of you not-in-the-know) for a refresher course :) And aaaactually, our faithful reader,  eagle-eye Caroline, was sharp enough to catch a glimpse of TRT Part 1.5 in this post.

Well, we didn't end up getting a tree this year.  So Ying thought it would be fun to do a play off of the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree ... except with our Trash Room Treasure.

Isn't it beautiful??????

 

In-The-Making:
So how did we go about making our tree?  All it took was a pair of scissors, some tape, a sacrificial Saks Fifth Avenue shopping bag, and of course our Trash Room Treasure:

 

Oh! And I would like to emphasize that this was all YING'S idea!!! She really likes that Trash Room Treasure -- she also likes scissors and shopping (bags) ...  I think some of my bad habits are rubbing off on her.

-Dean :)

Today we stayed home ALL day. I am definitely a lucky man!!

Brunch

This morning we had a deeeelicious Sunday brunch.  Ying made blueberry muffins(沒錯!藍莓瑪分是我早上現烤的,快點拍手), a scrambled egg quiche, potatoes, cabbage, apples(蘋果是老爺切的) and coffee(咖啡也是老爺泡的) ... and it was all ready by 10:30am!!! 

A closeup:

 

YUMMMMMMM!!

 

Supper

Then for an early dinner, Ying made stir fried rice noodles(就是炒米粉啦!我們都喜歡吃那種埔里粗米粉):

We have leftovers, so I get to bring them for lunch tomorrow too!!

In the kitchen, Ying is the boss and I am just the helper :)  .... so I follow orders like "wash this" .. and "cut this" ... and "the pot is too heavy; can you pour this into that?"  hehehe ... uh oh! Ying is looking over my shoulder so I have to go now. Take care!!

-Dean :)

Dear Faithful Readers:

Ying says she promised to post pictures of our new apartment... well here are some of our Living Room (our bedroom and bathroom were too messy so we'll have to take pictures of those places some other time :)  Our kitchen was messy too, but you'll get to see some of the stuff on our countertop... as they say in chinese "low4 troo ma2 jiao3!"  ... (the horse's leg has been spotted!)

An overall picture of our living room area:

 

 

Picture taken from behind our kitchen counter:

 

Our "Office"

 

Taken from our office area, looking at our kitchen; That's our front door.

 

Beside our office area is the door to our balcony:

 

We put a rug in our balcony; It makes it feel almost like another room!

 

You might have noticed some weird white spots in the photos.  It's because our camera is 5 years old and some dust has gotten inside the lense. (But don't worry, that's a GOOD thing!) Now we can get a new camera yay!

 

-Dean :)

You know in the movies where the clumsy (but really hot) actress is walking through the house and runs right into the sliding glass door?  And you think, "haaam gah!" (that's Taiwanese; it means ridiculous). That kind of stuff only happens in the movies!!!  Well.... I guess we must be making movies!

I was standing in the kitchen getting some water when I heard a LOUD crash....

 

Yes, that's right; Ying walked straight through the screen door at full speed.  She said she didn't even slow down and was confused for a moment when she hit the screen.  Don't worry, she's ok.  I took this picture after I made sure she was ok :) ... And this picture turned out really cool!  The camera's flash was off so the exposure was really long and Ying was still walking around looking at the destruction she caused.

 

Here's a closer picture:

You better not mess with my wife; see what she did to this door? She'll do it to YOU. My wife is the Incredible She-Hulk ... She walks through doors as if they didn't exist.

 

 

I brought the screen door back into our kitchen to survey the damage:

 

The damage wasn't too bad. I was able to bend it back and stuff the mesh back into the frame:

 

After I put the screen door back on the tracks, it just wasn't the same any more... the door doesn't close all the way, it's bent in a few places, the lock doesn't work any more and it doesn't slide very smooth.  (Before our little accident, closing the screen door was like sliding it on a stick of butter) Yes folks, we've lived here less than a month and we've begun wrecking the place. Thank you very much. 

By the way, Ying says "hi" and to be sure to write that she's baking me some banana bread right now.  I'm thinking... she's pretty good at breaking down doors. Baking something with FIRE??? She'll be FINE!!!!!! :)

And I used to wonder why screen doors never close properly...

 

 

[Update 10/29/2006]
I installed a safety device guaranteed to protect our screen door from damage... err I mean... guaranteed to protect Ying's safety!!!

Tonight I was taking out the trash... most of you know that we just recently moved to a new apartment. :)

Well -- haha, tonight I went to take out the trash to the trash room and found something very funny!  Ying is always making fun of me how I have weird stuff that is pointless and doesn't even look good. 

I came home and remaining calm said, "Dearest baby, there is something I want to show you.  Please put on your slippers and let's go see it."

She looked suspicious but put on her shoes and followed me out.  The trash room is only a few steps diagonally across our hallway (don't worry; it's not THAT close -- we don't smell it, they're trash chutes anyway).  This is what I wanted to show her:

 

Here's another artistic-angle shot:

Ying laughed so hard that she started choking because she was trying to be quiet (it was midnight).

 

 

Here's the best part -- she said, "LET'S TAKE IT HOME!" .... so we did:

 

Don't worry, we'll probably drag it back out to the trash room tomorrow.  In case you're curious, the "treasure" had a label on it [Tony Almén/Peter Gest].  Ying did a google search and found this: http://www.almengest.com/ram.html  I think they make stuff for Ikea... yeah it definitely looks like Ikea stuff too.

-Dean :)