Ally's English Board

It has been a month since papa passed away. For the last month, we attended papa's funeral. It's the first time that I found out that the loss is forever. It's the first time I found that my two brothers are also devastated by this loss. I came back from Taiwan after staying there for a month. I spent most my time with papa in the hospital for the first 17 days. These are the days I remember forever. Even papa was at the hospital, I am so happy that I could see him talk and chat with me. Even then, papa was thinking about me and my two brothers all the time. He cares about our life and our future and I know he loves me always and will love me forever.  I will love him and remember him forever. Among our three brothers, I am the one who spend the less time with papa. After high school, Iwent to Chung-li for college and my master. Didn't spend much time at home with him, after that are 2 years of military service, a year of research assistant at Chung-li again. I went to caltech in US immediately after and spent the last 6-7 years in US. After phD, my postdoc ends up at Carnegie in Washington DC.  It's about 18 years since my college and I am not sure if I spent more than 2 years within him during the span. `It's half of my life and the last 18 years of papa's life. The first time when I knew that papa's was diagnosed left-lung cancer less than 2 years ago. I recalled papa told me this through the phone. I JUST COULD"T BELIEVE IT! I can't stop crying! I think I felt so terrible and I am afraid of losing papa. We flied back immediately. Be with him during the initial examination and oral chemotherapy, it gives me hope that papa might be able to get away with this. I guess I was too optimistic. Papa's left-lung tumor kept growing and chemotherapy didn't help.
In april, papa's underwent surgery and I went back to see him. I felt so bad that papa's condition was getting much worse. Everyday, I kept encouraging him. But at the same time, I know he was struggling. I felt so helpless everyday on the way back to Taipei. I don't know what I can do to make him feel better. He kept saying that he would like to just give up. I could see he was so weak. After 10 days with him, I came back to US and had a interview with people at UT austin. Soon after that, my father's condition was getting worse and we flied back again. In my mind, I am afraid that it's the last chance I could be with papa. And yes, it's the last 2 weeks I could be with him ! When we saw papa cremated after the funeral, I didn't cry, but my heart was so devastated ! I know it's forever, Even though I always feel he is still around, I also recognize he is gone. He spent a huge chunk of  his life taking care of us. I know that he will love us even he passed away.  I MISS PAPA SO MUCH !!!

After around 1 month stay in Taiwan, finally we went back home in D.C.
The horrible jet lag let us start our morning long walking around our neighborhood Chevy Chase, man I love here so much especially compared with Taipei's hot and crowded.
It's so easy to see lots green here even without taking a car or bus, in back side of our apartment, we can go hiking anytime and soon back to lots great restaurants and malls only by walk.

After reading the latest Bethesda magazine, of course I decided to give it a try about how exactly Booeymonger is.
The article is about interviewing a totally foodie in Bethesda, he already tried all over restaurants around Bethesda area, no kidding!
There are over a thousand stores, how he made it? Anyway the guy who was born in NYC and extremely love eating outside, now is talking all about foods in Bethesda.

This morning BuBu is out of town for a meeting, someone just called me and woke me up...
Who's it?
It's from Clement in Malaysia?!!! I told Clement that my Skype has some problems so we then chatted via MSN for a while.

After I know one of Pixar's cartoon movies would be launched on June 27, I feel so excited!!!
Just right after my BuBu's B-day and 10 more days later, we can watch another BIG movie for this year!
Wall-E is all about a cute machine, he's previous generation and the old style one.

The weather becomes more and more hot, and our roof swimming pool also starts to re-opening from last Friday with ice cream party.

But, I just heard a bad news last night. Kenny was heart broken again..., after around 2 years, again....

Just saw this photo I took at SoCo (South Congress Ave.), Austin, I cannot help but write something about my new toy - Thick-Lips-Bu from Austin, Texas.
Thick-Lips-Bu is a cute blue stuffed toy I found at one store in SoCo, he might be an ugly small guy from others' point of view but I really love him at the very  first seeing. Since he's the only one at the store and a bit mass, I was wondering if I should take him home.
The boss knows my concern thus he decided to give me a great discount, that's why Thick-Lips-Bu was able to come back D.C. with us.

Today Bubu didn't go to DTM but chose to staying home, so we can get together in weekday at a super beautiful sunny Wed.
After eating my homemade ketchup shrimp fried rice, we decided to re-pick up our outdoor activity - go neighborhood to play basketball.
The weather is extremely good, a bit cooler around 70F with big sunny, so suitable for outdoors sports.

Today is great day and the weather is so nice, temperature is just right. I could not remember when is the last time I play basketball. So I grab my basketball with babe to a nearby basketball court. Although a bit rusty, it takes only a few shot to pick up my shooting. Babe was also jogging around, where this court is sitting in the middle of greens and trees. We end up in Panera to have some drinks after light exercise. Babe mentioned about their special lemonade probably worth to try. Yes, it is great! and actually it's probably the best I had so far. The taste is great, no too sweat and I can taste fresh lemon favor. This just makes me wonder: is the lemonade so difficult to make ? I guess it will just take some "beautiful mind" if people really care about the quality of their food, not just about making money.

just pick up a random conservation with babe earlier yesterday during our dinner, we talked about Mike and Ana and their plan to move back to Taiwan. Babe mentioned to Ana that their life will become very different if they decide to return. Of course, I know her thought probably more than anyone. I asked babe if she will return with me if we have to. Of course, she said yes, which is not so surprise. And she said the life will be very different. She will have to become a business woman again. I know this all along as we have discussed before. But I felt so heart-broken when she said that she will never write her blog anymore. I can't stand but my tears almost come out. I know her blog is so important to her and she spent so much time writing these, her life. I think going back to Taiwan is not an option and I want her happy more than anything.

It has been a long time I haven't studied into others' recipes or create my own unique recipes.

It has been a long time since i like a team as much as this year's Los Angeles lakers. When i was at Caltech, the Lakers have Shaq and Kobe and they won three championships in a row. I like the team ? NO, I don't. Recall I was an anti-lakers. But this year, I start to like the lakers and Kobe is more like Michael. Of course, there is no one like Michael, but Kobe is closest. He is better and more mature now. More importantly, this Laker team reminds me of the Bull in the 90's. Of course, they ran the same triangle under the same coach staffs. The flow, the passing and cutting are nice to watch. Although I like Chris Paul, but I am not sure I like the Hornets. Spurs and Pistons are also great, but this year, I root for tthe Lakers !

Yesterday babe mentioned about the choice of balancing eating and healthy organic food. Organic food is certainly healthier, no artificial ingredients, no fast-growth . But it's so expensive ! It's scary when thinking about digesting those food from H-Mart. The chicken has no taste, but looks fluffy. But we still have to go to the supermarket! I can't stop thinking: maybe there is a way to get out of this in some way, where we can buy organic food with a more affordable price. After surveying the internet, I found the localharvest.com which has lots of information about where are the farms, farmer's market and etc. There is also a new concept called CSA, community support agriculture. In this way, ideally, we can pay in advanced for a box of vege and fruit for 15-20 weeks. The cost will be around $400-$600. That's not bad. But it's difficult to buy organic meat. Usually, the price is low if we buy a large quantity. But that's kind of difficult. Or, another choice is to go to the farm and check everything out, but it is not close. We might try to go the some farmer's market and be a member of CSA. Maybe sometime in the future we can go check it out and go to nearby farm (which is interesting !).

We went to this kabob house this weekend. Before we went to Austin, the taxi driver said this kabob is No. 1 as his recommendation,
and then I saw Washingtonian recommends Ravi as cheap great eat again?! How can we miss this restaurant?

today Ana and Mike come visit our apartment and babe prepared some of her nice dishes. This couple is special since they are just like us. Ana was a business women and Mike is a research scientist doing astronomy. We had a long chat for the whole afternoon. The topics  can span from cooking, housing, green's activity and stocks. Mike seems have a strong and clear mind about his life would be. Ana is just like babe, very outgoing. I think they had a great time and so do we. Apparently, Mike can eat a lot of stuffs as long as we keep feeding :). Ana is actually thin and she is still complaining about her weight.  I guess we might catch up more in the future. Today we should have taken their photo. Maybe next time when we get a chance to go out !! It's fun !