So we rent movies at Blockbuster. Yes, the actual store. While I might not be in the majority crowd when I say this, I actually like Blockbuster! I like walking around the store, looking at the DVD covers, picking one up, having it in my hand while I walk around looking for something better. We have a subscription to the dvd-in-the-mail thing like Netflix, except it's with Blockbuster and we are also allowed to take in our mail DVDs into the store and exchange it right there for a DVD. I like that, so does Ying, because that means we can have a movie right now if we want it. Comes with the plan.

So a bit of background on how we choose DVDs. I like action flicks; Ying likes chick flicks:

Anyway, this post is about how I was tricked into watching a movie with Substance. This is how I chose the movie "The Solist" as my action flick:

So later that night after Bonnie's asleep, I go and pop in the DVD and start it up. I'm doing other things like picking up toys, checking email etc, and 20 minutes into the movie and I'm thinking to myself, "When's someone gonna get killed or beat up or something?"

I start to get suspicious and think maybe they put the wrong DVD in the box, so I look on the coffee table for the DVD cover and to my surprise, that shotgun barrel... WTF? is actually the neck of a ... WTF? That's a cello. SONOFA...!

So anyway, that's how I ended up watching a movie with Substance. The acting was great, good topic, etc. But damn! I was tricked.

什麼東西這麼好看????

啊?!被媽媽發現了.趕快傻笑裝沒事.

是粉圓,是她叫我看的.

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!

這位爸爸,你的小傘是在遮你自己還是你女兒?!虧她還這麼認真自己拿傘,豈不是白拿了.....

這是七個月的粉圓

這是七個月的老爺

然後,一起睡午覺可以睡成這樣......

媽媽,這顆白菜會不會太大了一點.......

這張照片讓我想起幾年前有位女星拍寫真集,其中一張很有名的照片好像是她全身脫光抱著一隻小豹還是小狗之類的,重要的三點就這樣很巧妙地被遮了起來.那粉圓如果用這顆白菜來依樣畫葫蘆的話.......哇哈哈哈哈哈!!!!!!

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.

block.jpg

最近本人忙著與粉圓小姐不停地奮戰中.....

小姐拼命想扶著東西站起來,奴才我拼命不想讓她扶到東西站起來,偏偏家裡家具很多,空間又很小,稍不留意,粉圓小姐就伺機而動,於是...老娘的日子就在搞這種"偷站與不給站"的心機中度過,真是有點鬼打牆啊...

po張飆車的照片讓大家開心點!

同場加映,粉圓古椎的樣子

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?

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 :)

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... :)

諧星就是這樣造就出來的!真的沒有枉費她爹娘的一番苦心啊...

http://picasaweb.google.com/deanying/20090421BonnieFacialExpressions?authkey=Gv1sRgCInnurKp69STSw&feat=directlink#

粉圓小姐如果能變成女版豬哥亮,相信大家也覺得與有榮焉吧.

先用這個表情練習一下......"冷涼卡好"咧.........

週末老爺與我和粉圓造訪海邊,逛著逛著,看到有人在碼頭旁的餐廳牆上畫壁畫,沒有照片沒有風景,全憑那人腦袋裡的想像,顏色有深有淺有暗有明,真的是很厲害.

老爺與我讚嘆之餘,也討論起關於"天份"這東西......

老爺:每個人多少都有某方面的天份,像我就覺得會畫畫的人真的好厲害,你看剛剛那個人,你畫得出那樣的東西嗎?

老娘:當然不可能啊!是啊!有人就是很厲害修機械的東西,有人很會認路,有人對音樂很敏銳,有人對繪畫在行..還有好多.

老爺:我也覺得我一點都沒有畫畫方面的天份.

老娘:ㄟ.....那你看得出來我們粉圓小姐將來長大會有什麼天份嗎?

老爺:(靜思了三秒鐘,然後緩緩說出)嗯,我覺得她的天份應該是...................................................

............................................................................................

............................................................................................

說笑話............!

老娘:........................................(冏好大.這種天份是像誰????)

劉粉圓小姐,你可以再像妳爸一點沒關係.....

我跟老爺抱怨說,因為他女兒跟他太相似的關係,害得我身心俱疲.為什麼捏?

平常白天老爺明明去上班了,只有我跟粉圓在家,可是因為長的太像她老爹,讓我老是有老爺還在家裡的錯覺.

晚上,明明粉圓已經上床睡覺去,因為長的太像,老爺在旁邊上網時,我總覺得粉圓也還在.....

好累啊....這兩個父女的臉龐很像背後靈,到哪裡都散不去....

Bonnie making lots of noise!

從小就加強抓握的菁英訓練,培養長大後進馬戲團表演吊環的潛力,要不然至少站在公車或捷運上補眠應該不成問題.

這麼喜感的照片,不拿出來分享給大家實在太說不過去了.由這張照片我們可以知道,有沒有牙齒很重要啊!

好啦!諧星也是有美的一面

手上的小熊癡情的望著粉圓.帽子上的維尼熊姿勢很好笑,像是試著在遮他的第三點....(跟下面那張照片裡的老爺一樣)

請對照老爺與粉圓帽子的維尼熊

老爺這次又從垃圾間撿了啥回家?

答案是26吋平面液晶電視.你沒有看錯,是真的.那天他倒完垃圾回家的時候,很神秘的說,你看我撿了什麼,我正眼都沒有瞧,正準備開唸時,眼角一瞄....液晶電視??? 液晶電視!!!!!! 有沒有搞錯?!是誰說美國景氣不好的?!一整個傻眼.

我鐵口直斷,這電視一定是壞的,而且壞到一碰就會散開,一插電就會爆炸的地步,要不然就是一個空殼子來虛晃老爺這種喜歡拾荒的個性.(我的腦海中不停的閃過新聞畫面....房子裡一整間的垃圾,鄰居向環保局告發太臭了..)

我猜對也猜錯了,電視當然是壞掉的,可是竟然被老爺神奇的修好了,我實在是.........我無言了我!

p.s.雖然說平白無故"撿"了這麼一個好康的東西,如果修不好就算了,可是畢竟是修好了,害我有一種當小偷的感覺.

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!

警告:此文內容頗不衛生,有潔癖之人請自行退散,無顧此警告者,後果一概自負.

看了看時間,該餵粉圓了,突然間,一股屎意湧上,告訴老爺,不行,我得小出恭一下.老爺回,那你動作快點,我先幫她換尿布.ok.

五分鐘後,一切"通暢",我不忘洗手,備妥雙奶,準備當乳牛.

老爺從房裡抱著小姐走出來交給我,說,我也想大便.我笑著,又不是打哈欠,便意還會傳染喔?此時,粉圓小姐已經大口大口吸了起來.

老爺一腳踏進浴室,粉圓同一時間放了個響屁,老爺探頭問,誰?我說,你女兒.半秒後,我大叫,聞到了,粉圓的屁好臭啊!!!!老爺又從浴室探頭,緩緩說道,你剛剛留下來的餘味還在,聞起來也不差啊....

去!!!!!有屎快拉,別廢話!

老爺那廂門才一關,粉圓這廂緊跟著一陣嘩啦嘩啦聲,隔著剛換好的尿布,那股"暖意"直衝我大腿.

五分鐘後,老爺從浴室出來.我喊他,ㄟ,你女兒大便了,你要不要先幫她換?

老爺一臉驚訝的看我,接著,我們一陣大笑!十五分鐘內,一家大小連續拉屎....

咱家,還真是屎屁無間啊!!!!!

粉圓小姐僅以一身勁裝向豚哥致敬.沒想到,"恩客"豚哥馬上就回禮了.

還是猴媽有辦法,幫我把兩張照片併在一起,看起來更富趣味.只不過,我想請問粉圓小姐,平平都是三個月(而且妳嚴格算起來根本只有兩個半月),為啥人家一臉天真無邪嬰兒樣,而你長的好像已經準備上幼稚園的樣子了?有沒有這麼老氣啊?!萬一恩客將來真的變你ㄤ,我不就得準備給你"整形美容外科"禮券之類的當嫁妝,免得站在豚旁邊看起來像他阿姨似的,能看嗎?!(是說老娘這張毒嘴,要當貓頭鷹媽媽可能還要修...)