Saturday, February 8, 2025

Recent happenings

Some recent happenings - nothing like a fun few nights of Scrabble.  Geez, how many vowels can you have at one go??! 6, apparently!
And oh. my. gosh... I think I just made the highest point for a 2-letter word!
An "X" on a Double Word Score which made the word "Ox" two times. So, here's the math. 
(8+1)x2 = 18; And then, 18x2 = 36!!

I think I bought this mirror like within the first 6 months of moving in.  And I only just put it up. Only like 2 years later.  LOL!!
The boys started walking the neighbor's dog lately.  Isn't he a cutie??!
And we finally had our septic tank cleaned again. And the poor guy had to dig in multiple areas and finally after the 3rd try, we found it! Well, I mean he found it :-)
Some refreshing at the school's planters. Just in time for Valentine's!
Getting up there with the club head speed. I'm been struggling to get over 90 mph for the longest time and it's getting easier each trip to the golf simulator:
Finally signed up the boys for some swim lessons.  Charlie especially was really against it, but I'm sure he will thank me for it when he's older:
Graham's form looks good!

And Charlie's butterfly kicks are a lot more impressive than I remember. Nice job!
These 2 boys were generating so much heat in the car after the swim, that they were fogging up the inside of the car while I was pumping gas.  Too funny!!
I love my dumplings - boiled or pan-fried. With ketchup, which a lot of friends (and family) may or may not approve. LOL!!
How sweet is this - one of my golf students gave this to me for Chinese New Year:
Good Fortune Blood Orange Caramel Marshmallows. Definitely some interesting flavors!
I went to visit a dome recently, to shadow another golf professional (i.e. watch her teach):
I remember being in these domes for the boys' soccer when they were toddlers.  Somehow it's so much more impressive when it's a golf driving range!
I may have to bring the boys in here to hit some balls. It's about 150 yards - that would be a good target for them to try and hit it to the end of the dome! ;-)

Sunday, February 2, 2025

Chinatown

I managed to drag Bobby and the boys to Chinatown yesterday.  This is one of the reasons it's so difficult to get anyone out the door! Boys and their phones... Aiyo! (an expression they would say in Chinese):
Bobby did make me drive, of course. It was going to take over an hour to get there.  I wish we lived just a bit closer to downtown Chicago! But then again, I really love that we are out in the suburbs - still with just single lane roads in each direction.  There's a piece of land in a corner not too far from where we are - a nice horse farm, but unfortunately it's up for sale. I hope they don't put apartments or businesses over there!

Anyway, I digress. Over an hour later we make it to Chinatown. Parking was a bit tricky.  The lot was quite full so we had to wait a bit and go around in circles a few times. Once parked, we decided to hit the basement of a building, which had a food court. Bobby said we were transported back to China. Haha!

Our food took forever!! But then again, there were just 2 older ladies making everything by hand!
We had some Chinese pancakes, which was folded almost into like a burrito style.  That definitely works for Graham!
The buns and dumplings took so long that Bobby ended up putting an order for Kung Pao chicken at another food stall.  He just couldn't help himself - it's one of his favorite and he loves this!  Maybe because it reminds him of his time in China:
After all that food and lots of take-away, we walk towards Chinatown.  The main drag is not too long, but nicely decorated with lanterns:
We went up and down the street - popped into a few stores and didn't really buy too much.  We did come across this - Duck Poop Oolong Tea.  I had to do a double take - like is there really duck poop in this??! Or was it lost in translation?! Well, I'm definitely not going to find out.  LOL!
Quick photo op - here's to the Year of the Snake!
I did end up buying a couple of these crochet dragonflies. Aren't they so cute!??  Will use it with my kokedama:
Although, I haven't been making any kokedamas lately.  Maybe when Spring hits or for my friend's market again this summer perhaps. I've yet to also try and sell it in a store somewhere. Still waiting to find the right one!

The drive home as usual is a bit longer, but still not too bad. I wish we could figure out how to use the train system better, but until then - it will just be driving our own vehicle. Parking ended up being $14 for like 3 hours I think.  Sheesh!  But definitely worth getting the boys downtown to Chinatown again. I think everyone had a good time :-)

Friday, January 31, 2025

Happy Lunar New Year!

It's the Year of the Snake! Hopefully it's a good one? Weirdly enough, I had to take care of a couple of "uninvited guest" in the attic.  Oh yeah, I thought there was only 1, but there were actually 2 of them! We had been hearing them in the walls. Sheesh!

Well, the first mouse trap didn't work. The mice actually chewed through the plastic to get to the food. And the second mouse trap, the food was gone without the trap being snapped. What?! So of course, I had to snap it - with a pencil. That force is amazing! I'm almost glad the mice didn't die that way:
But then again, the disposal of the glue trap was not a pretty one either. I suppose that's our offering to the Year of the Snake!

Found my red bracelet that was a gift from my cousin in Malaysia.  I actually didn't get to wear it last year because we are not allowed to wear red or celebrate CNY due to the passing of my dad:
Wearing red on the first day of CNY:
It was an easy one as Graham's favorite color is red.  Charlie on the other hand, couldn't find a single red shirt in his dresser! This cheeky kid, I tell you:
Tonight's meal - not very presentable but we have some long noodles to eat:
Long noodles for long life!
And tonight, as Bobby is home from his travels, we are finally able to make dumplings:
I'm so glad Charlie is still so willing to make dumplings with me:
Graham took a little bit more convincing, but once he got to it - he was actually very helpful :-)

Tonight's dipping sauce - minced garlic with soy sauce and I really think the secret recipe here is black vinegar:
Yay for dumpling night! It was a good batch tonight. Yuummm!!
Looking pretty professional here. And we didn't even have one single dumpling break while cooking. Boys have definitely improved on their dumpling-wrapping skill:
And as per usual, every year we would  give the boys their red packets or Ang Pows. Charlie had the giggles for whatever reason. Probably because he had to wish us in Chinese:
I hope these traditions stay in our family as long as we can.  Obviously, having money in the red packets help.  Ha ha! 

Monday, January 27, 2025

Thanksgiving 2024

For Thanksgiving this year, I decided to set up a little project for my "girls" in the golf program at work.  The leftover little pumpkins from Halloween came in handy!
Here's the setup at work - what cute games for the kids!
Working with some training aids after I'm done setting up :-)
This year, I was able to get some money donated by local businesses for our neighborhood Youth Committee.  And then we had some socks embroidered with the winning logo drawn by a kid in the neighborhood.  

Quite the successful sock delivery!
Aren't these too cute for Turkey Trot?!
There were some issues in getting the sponsors' logo into the newsletter for the neighborhood.  Yikes, too much drama!!  Well, as much as I was trying to stay out of it, I was in the thick of it because it was me that wanted to get the sponsors' logos recognized.  Anyway... story for another time!

For whatever reason, I can't find my electric circular saw! So I'm down to a hand-saw. And I had to get a new one as well because I couldn't find our old one.  Sheesh!
Glad the boys were being helpful in getting all the signs up for the neighborhood Turkey Trot:
If we live here long enough, the boys will probably be running the show in the next few years! That's a scary thought. LOL!!

As usual, we go to our favorite restaurant for Thanksgiving.  It's been too hectic to cook anything :-P
It's a busy night as usual, so there's some waiting.  Daddy is always on his phone! I'm guessing this is why the boys are always on theirs too:
Yummy and Happy Thanksgiving!
Did I already say yummy???
The price of the meal has gone up though, which was too bad. It was a rather expensive dinner. But just look how happy these boys are with dessert!
Yup, priceless:
I'm debating if maybe this year we will go to a different restaurant.  Well, good thing we don't have to decide now! :-)

Kokedama for sale

During the holidays last year, I was trying to finish up selling some of the kokedama that were leftover from the summer's market.

This one finally was sold to one of the golf instructors at work :-)
I gave this self-watering aloe away to a "sponsor" for our Thankgivings sock fundraiser:
Someone in the neighborhood bought this one.  I stuck a turkey decor on the kokedama.  It looks so cute!
Some Christmas decor for a few others:
Not too shabby?
Although this one didn't sell so I have it by my window sill now.  I sort of like the silver sparkles!

This little gnome went home with an employee at X-Golf :-)
And unfortunately, this one didn't last. I'm thinking I may have overwatered it!
I'll have to save the owl for next Christmas :-)  And hopefully all the ones that went to a new home are surviving.  I still have a couple of the kokedama at home and they seem to be doing pretty well.  And no one has approached me yet about the ones they bought. Should I ask when I see them??! At some point, the kokedama might need a new "moss ball".  Maybe at some point, I'll bring it up :-)

And oh, I had to buy some merchandise with my new logo on it. Looks pretty good!
Which also reminds me... where is my Plants & Paint hoodie/sweater??!  Charlie must have snagged it too