Back at'er

Since we last met over 10 days ago, my Yehyeh, Gai Doi, and I have been busy...

Let's see, the rain finally stopped on the Victoria Day weekend. So on Saturday, we invited some friends and their kids to the house for a barbecue...nothing fancy - burgers(buffalo, beef, or chicken) with the fixings(lettuce, tomato, onion, ketchup, mustard, relish, and cheese), BYOB, and friends were asked to bring either salad or dessert. It was a really fun and relaxing time...lazing around the yard with beer in hand, kids throwing around a frisbee (that is until it was stepped on and broke! Good thing I picked up that football at the yardsale!), Gai Doi's first experience bbq'ing burgers (we lost 2 to the flames - those suckers seem to slide right through the grill!), eating lots of great food outside for the first time this year, ice cream sandwiches (yummy!), and then retiring indoors for a round of Cranium (one of the most fun boardgames around!). GD and I don't have children, but we do love having them around. They fill the house with a great energy which makes me smile.

On Sunday & Monday, we put in our little four foot by four foot garden. Nothing fancy and very tiny. There's two tomato plants (one grape, one beefeater), 3 cucumber plants, 4 green pepper plants, 2 different lettuces (buttercrunch and red leaf), and some basil. This is our first foray into vegetable gardening, actually, into any sort of gardening really! It was very exciting and scary. I didn't think that I could ever feel so protective about a four by four piece of earth...but I am - Is it getting enough sun and water? Is that a weed? Is that an evil ant gnawing on a tender leaf?. I am drawn to it everyday, rain or shine. My Yehyeh planted some cilantro and green onions in the flower beds (as there wasn't enough room in the wee garden). He also planted some seeds of a red-leafed plant that I don't know the name of, but Chinese people make a great soup with it. Yeh is a bit disappointed that the squash seeds he planted haven't sprouted...oh well, he says we'll try again next year. Gai Doi and I are a bit pessimistic...if we harvest one small tomato, a gherkin-sized cuke, and a lettuce leaf, we'll be happy. It is, afterall, our very first garden.

The rest of last week went by quickly...some highlights were:

1. I finally finished unpacking and organizing the computer room - there is so much space and we know where everything is - Yay! So, now it's just the "little yellow room," a small upstairs bedroom that we've used as the "storeroom" since we moved in, to unpack and organize. Originally, it was meant to be for me, my office/sewing room/whatever. However, since it was a "storeroom," both GD and I have set up shop in the "big yellow room" with my sewing area and his beer making area. So, I've now decided the "little yellow room" will now be a single bedroom. I told Yeh my idea and he said he would move into it instead of the "big green room" that he currently has. This is great because we'll get a double bed and set up the "big green room" as a guest bedroom. I love it when a plan comes together!

2. GD had to buy a new burner for the stove...during his last beer making session, the burner basically melted because of the high heat and the length of time it was on. I discovered this the next day when I was making char siu bao. The steamer pot was not level on the burner...I took the pot off and saw that the "legs" of the burner were all twisted and askew. So, this provided GD with the excuse of purchasing an outdoor burner(a la turkey fryer) and larger pot(32 quarts).

3. Yeh and I made char siu bao again - it went very well and the bao turned out pretty good. We made sure we waited for the dough to rise, I used more filling and less dough, and I also made a chicken & mushroom filling to use. In the end we were able to freeze 2 dozen char siu bao and 1.5 dozen gai bao.

4. With my mom, we were able to finalize plans for a trip to Calgary. After Nanny died, Yeh talked about how much he liked to travel and how many people he would like to see. One of these people is an old lady in Calgary who has kept in touch with my grandparents through the years. And since my youngest sister also lives in Calgary, Mom thought it would be a great idea to take Yeh out there to visit both. Then, Mom wanted me to go too because she worries that she can't take care of Yeh like I do. Hmmm, I love to travel but a couple of problems...I don't have the money and I don't feel right about going to Calgary without Gai Doi because he has family there which he hasn't seen since Christmas 2004. Finally, it was decided that all four of us would go, so look out Calgary, we'll be seeing you in a month!

5. More on the home improvement front...we bought a heat gun to assist in the stripping of our dining room set and the front hall banister, which GD began by using paint stripper & only got the top of the newel post done. I've stripped the top half of one chair (only 3 left, plus a huge buffet, a dining table, and a china cabinet - yikes! This may turn out to be a life-long project). We also bought a dremmel set and I sharpened (I think) the blades on our manual push mower, in the hopes that when next we use it, we will actually be cutting the grass and not flattening it!

As you can see, the past ten days have been fairly eventful. Upcoming...I am going to begin my second sewing project, a black skirt. I need to finish my sister's table decorations for her wedding in September. Clean out the "little yellow room." Continue stripping...furniture and the banister, that is. Get ready for the trip to Calgary. And continuing the ongoing struggle to finish my resume and to apply for jobs.

Fun.