One Thursday afternoon with Elizabeth and Joshua

Yesterday I went to visit Elizabeth and Joshua.  What a lovely afternoon and I truly enjoyed it.  I made some egg rolls for Elizabeth and Dan.  I hope that they reheat the rolls with some dry heat so that the skins do not taste too soggy.  We took a walk in the neighborhood.  Elizabeth is so beautiful as a young mother. How I remember her as a baby and a young girl seems not too long ago at all!

Wednesday Breakfast Club

For the past several years, a few of us at the QA Group always go down stairs to have breakfast together.  It's a special for just Wednesday.  I really developed a liking for the cooks and the kitchen aids .  Bobby has such a wonderful memory that he not only remembers every one's name, but also his or her food preferences.  Brenda is always friendly to me.  James a lot of times does not seem to know what he is doing, just shows his big smile with many teeth missing.  Lawrence is new, and is from TaiShan.  He is supporting not only his wife and kids, but also both his Mom and his wife's Mom.  One is 80 something, and the other is 60 something.  And the two Moms do not get along.  They all are simple people but are very hard working.

Bill is a co-worker with whom I talk about life and philosophy.  He teased a lot about my pre-retirement grin, showing too much happiness!

Here is Bill in a tie:

Some other breakfast club members: Lyny, Ken, and Earl:

Here is Lawrence, Bobby, Branda, and James in sequence:

Cherry Blossom at Kenwood

Julia Lee invited a few Class 68 friends to see the echerry blossom at Kenwood, then stopped by her home for a chat. So seven of us (Shan Shan, Joan,Yvonne, Kathy, Joan, Shu-jen, Julia, and me) first met at the Mongamory Mall for a simple lunch (at the Food Court).  We then car pooled to the Whole Food parking lot to leave the two cars.  We walked unto the Kenwood community, where homes are in the millions dollars.  The flowers were still in their early blossom, but quite pretty. 

At Julia's home, we tasted the 16 grains and beans sweet soup she prepared for us.  There were also gigantic strawberries from COSCO, nuts, baked flexseed chips, etc.  We chated well into 7 PM.  It was still light, and was time for us to part as originally planned.  Yvonne and the ladies gave me a bunch of lovely balloons for my retirement.  What a pleasant surprise!  Bowtie enjoyed them too after I took them home.

Flat Belly Solution

I made a pledge to my self: lose some fat and stay healthy!  So a new scale which can show fat percentage besides weight was newly acquired for my kitchen.  My current weight is between 116-118, and fat percentage is around 30.5 - 34%.  So the first goal is to drop the fat percentage to below 30.  The first change to make is to stop eating cereals for breakfast to avoid taking in excess carbohydrates.  So I switched to one boiled egg and some fruits (an apple for example).  Down the road I can try some vegetable and fruit smoothies for breakfast too.  Two days on the new diet, I seem to have dropped one pound.  :-)  Although it might be just water, but it's a good sign.

The next thing is to exercise more, especially aerobic exercise.  Now that's a bit more challenging for me.  I just have to remind myself "be consistent, be consistent".  Persistence is the mother of success!  Good luck to myself.

Birthday Celebration on The Road

For the past several years, I have always spent my birthday on a business trip in Asia.  This year was not an exception.  But this one was the last business trip!   I actually had a few pleasant surprises for my birthday this year.  Dan (my succesor) and I were suppose to fly from Shanghai to Bangkok first thing in the morning, but was delayed by heavy fog.  Fortunately Dan is such a nice fellow, and is very considerate and fun to travel with.  So at the lounge of Thai Airway, we had some noodle to celebrate my birthday.  Once we finally arrived Bangkok, and checked into the hotel, I was presented by the Hotel with a lovely piece of birthday cake.  Then Dan and I went to have a lovely Thai meal in this very interesting restaurant near the hotel.  Both the food and music were very authentic.

The New Singapore

I was in Asia from Feb 18 to March 18 for my last business trip before retirement.  Singapore turned out to be my last stop as I had to cancel my trip to Japan from Singapore, due to the horrible earth quake happened to Japen on March 11.  The tourist attractions built by Singapore over the past two years have been quite impressive.  It surely changed my previous view of Singapore being a concrete jungle.  My colleague Ron Shieh took some real good pictures:

https://picasaweb.google.com/rshieh2009/2011316Singapore?authkey=Gv1sRgCOuylYzE5bHrgQE#

The Last Work Week

Today marked the last "normal" work week for my career.  It's a strange feeling.  I wondered what I should do to make this last week "meaningful", but came up with nothing.  I am no longer being invited to any meetings and seldom receive any work-related phone calls.  Today I spent time talking to a few co-workers.  At lunch time, I stopped by McDonald for a McFish and one cup of senior coffee.  The whole meal cost me $1.68.  A couple of times last week I woke up in the middle of the night and found myself dreaming about work.   I guess it will take some time to really unwind from the "work life".  So it might have been a real good idea that I decided to take April as a "vacation" month prior to starting the real "full" retirement.