Gullible Parents Overspent on Portraits

Meredith portrait 2 Jan 2008, originally uploaded by Meredith Sugar Land.

Meredith's Portrait Jan 08

Meredith Portrait Jan 08, originally uploaded by Meredith Sugar Land.

Confinement Helper Needed

There is a high demand for confinement helper and nanny in the chinese community in Houston area. Boon Hong started looking for a confinement helper since a few months ago. We thought that we found one good candidate. She was recommended by a number of our friends that used her service before. Unfortunately, there's a baby boom going on. There's another Malaysian couple from Penang that's also interested in this candidate. This friend's due date is only two to three weeks before Boon Hong's due date. Some compromise/agreement was reached so that both parties can have the service of this sought after confinement helper. Anyway, as a back up, we decided to run an advertisement (highlighted in green in attached photo) in local chinese newspaper. There are many people (at least ten) that responded to our advertisement. Right now we shortlisted to four candidates. We went to visit several "auntie" at their home just to see how it is. Anyway, some at stay at home housewife looking for a short term part time job, some are actually running professional confinement center from their home. For about $2,500 to $3,500, they will let you go stay at their house for one month after the baby is deliver. Then they will take care of you, the baby and also cook confinement food for seven days a week for one month. One person that responded is a professional confinement auntie from Los Angeles, she is asking for return air ticket to LA on top of the confinement pay. Anyway, we will probably stick to a local candidate who will stay at our house for 5-6 days each week to help out. But still, this will be a back up and the preference is still to have the candidate that our friend used before.

Amsterdam photos

Windmill near Amsterdam city limit

Amsterdam has so many canals. It is different from Venice because there are roads parallel to the canals. In Venice, the canals pretty much hug the buildings.

Toilet in Anne Frank House.

Ice skating rink near Leidseplein

Middle eastern market in Amsterdam

They also call this Tut Tut like in Thailand but I think in Amsterdam it is more of a novelty for tourist vs. real transporation.

Amsterdam- so many bicycles!

I went to Amsterdam in the first week of December. I was shocked to see many bicycles. Everyone rides a bike no matter rich or poor or big or small. The weather was in the low 30F range and it rained almost the entire week. But yet, people still get around their business riding bicycles. I saw some mum bundled up their toddlers and just placed them in the wooden carriage in her bike and then ride around the entire town. Amsterdam is also very dense and compact. It is well suited to bike commuting with abundance of bike lanes on every street. I wished we can do that here in Houston and not get run down by a car or pick up truck.

Parcel from Malaysia

Boon Hong received a parcel from Malaysia today from her parents and sister. We were about to leave for Hsing's bridal shower when a pick up truck dropped off the parcel. The postage from Malaysia shocked me. It costs RM 379 to send this parcel from Johor to here. With this amount, one can fly from Kuching to KL and back. But Boon Hong and I are very happy to receive this parcel. Boon Hong was kind of down because her parents couldn't be here last time and this time when she gives birth. She was happy to see the parcel. After all, it took quite a bit of effort to buy everything and then the put together the parcel to mail it. We opened the parcel and there are various mushroom, dried fish, and herbs inside.

Meredith playing "Little Pirate". We went to race go-kart today for Joseph's bachelor party and we got the black hoodie to line the rental helmet.

Meredith at Hsing's bridal shower. She borrowed the head decoration and the bouquet from Hsing. She can't wait to get marry!

Colorado trip

I traveled to Colorado in December to my project site. It's very remote. With the snow storm in Denver area, it took me one full day to get to the site. The area is call Piceance Creek. The natural beauty of the winter landscape posed a nice contrast with the various industrial activities taking shape in the area due to the oil and gas boom.

Dressed by father or dressed by mother

You can tell quite easily whether Meredith is being dressed by me or by Boon Hong on a particular day. I tend to dress her quite casually or actually sometimes in a more sloppy manner. In this first three photos in this posting, I took Meredith to Sugar Land city square to see the Christmas tree and the toy soldiers on display. This was back in 3rd week of December. Boon Hong wasn't feeling well so I put on a sweater for Meredith and took her out to see the Christmas display. You can see a tissue paper tucked into Meredith shirt, her shirt got wet before we went out. I taught her how to layer it with a tissue paper underneath so we can avoid changing cloth at the last minute.

Several days later, we went Christmas shopping in Galleria. Boon Hong dressed Meredith in the same sweater this time but with slightly different outcome (the last three photos in this posting). She looked less sloppy.