New Toy - Nikon D50

We finally shelled out the big bucks last month for a digital SLR, an entry level one. Thanks to Citi Bank's rebate program, I saved up thousands of points from my years of paying college tuition with credit card (Note: If you are a US Citizen or resident, FAFSA gave you a lot better deal than Citibank does.) and cashed in gift certificated with Amazon to buy our (ok, mine) new toy.

Obviously, we used our usual electronic equipment shopping tactic. Go to Best Buy and Circuit City to touch, hold, try, caress, kiss, all the models availabe, pick out one we like, politely say 'Thanks' to the knowledgeable sales people and then shop online for the cheapest way and also to evade sales tax.

So....... here's the result. Love it! Look at the clarity and the depth of the image. Can never take a picture like that with our point-and-shoot. It does have downsides - it is a lot more bulky than a point-and-shoot, and my arms are actually sore after holding it up for a while.

Woman's Husband Stolen by Lawn Work

It is official....... Steve has abandoned me to spend all his free time with his lawn. It has possessed him, like a the devil who possessed Emily in the Exorcist. His only concern after work is 'how's my lawn looking?'. He's obssessed, like a teenanger being in love for the first time.

Our marriage is a little crowded - Me, Steve and the Lawn.

Here's how it all started..... All our neighbours, on left and right side, across the street, 318 degree from us, 79.65 degree from us... have great looking lawns. (After living in the neighbourhood for more than 2 years now, i observed that these men keep their lawn on top shape for selfish reasons - it's their second home when the wives threw them out and it happens quite often.) Jerry* on our left is a lawn manian who mows, rake, blows, etc, twice a day in the summer, 7am and 7pm.

So, Steve decided it was only a dutiful thing to do to bring our lawn to their pars to maintain property value. We rented a grass overseeder to overseed our lawn. Then, we spread some new seeds, fertilizers and sort on the ground, install sprinkler, water, and...... wait.

Alas, the neigbourhood birds heard the news and decided our lawn was the place to lounge and dine on our grass seeds. So, Steve went to get some hays to put on top of the lawn to keep the moisture in and the birds out. We also found a BB gun in our closet to shoot at the birds. It's now an all our war between Steve and the birds!

I can't wait till winter comes so i can have my husband back!

(* name has been altered to protect neighbour's identity)

Day Dream........

I have been day dreaming at work a lot lately........ counting down to the day of our 3-week long vacation. We will be spending two weeks in M'sia and a week in Mauritius. Geography lesson: It is a volcanic (a dormant one, of course) island in the Indian Ocean to the east of Madagascar. I look forward to seeing families and friends in M'sia too, but it is Mauritius that I can't wait to visit! I have to constantly caution myself not to put too much anticipation in the trip so i don't get disappointed in case everything is not the way i imagine it to be. But it is hard to resist!!!!!

But deep down, I know I have a bigger problem than not being able to focus at work because of an upcoming vacation. It had been very difficult to come to work since early 2005. Work feelt like a prison to me all the times. I thought maybe it was the company (well, let's just say that the shop is not going to make Forbes' list of best place to work for anytime soon.), so I went to work for somebody else doing different thing in a similar industry. The new stint managed to keep my attention for about 10 minutes, and now I'm back to usual boredom 6 monnths into it. And this is definitely a better place to work for than the former one. I'm not half as motivated as I used to be; and I can't concentrate. I simply .... don't care anymore. I find my work dry, boring, stressful, meaningless and spend most of my work hours dreaming about doing something else. And at the end of the day, i felt beaten up no less. It is sucking all the life force out of me. I do understand one needs to make a living, so I hang on, but for how much longer?

Is this what they call the quater life crisis? Should I be doing something about it? Or is it just a temporary crisis? Maybe I should call Dr. Melfi.

When Will Ian Decide to Walk?

Ian will be 16 months old pretty soon. And he’s not walking independently yet. Judging from family history, it is really not surprising. I didn’t walk till well over 17 months old. My mom said my maternal grandma and her used to make me lots of frog leg porridge because Chinese believe that eating the body parts of the animal will improve the ability of our own body parts. Maybe I need to go catch some frogs for Ian’s dinner. While I’m at it, maybe monkey brain too, and perhaps also tiger’s ahem…. Oh wait, not so soon for that.

So, I’m thinking maybe we could start a pool for friends and families to bet on when Ian will decide to walk. He’s very very close. He just needs to learn to be brave and let go of either our hands or the baby walker. Half of the proceeds will go to the winner and the other half will go to Ian’s college fund………..