2013 misc

1/23/2013-2/17/2013: Chinese New Year Taipei visit.  Flew Evergreen airway, the plane was surprisingly not crowed, almost all three-seat rows has one seat unoccupied, my next seat passenger moved to one row with only one other passenger - this made me very happy since I was in a 2-seat row, felt like in business class :-)  Had blood, urine, and stool examined, stool examine return positive, recommended 大腸鏡 but they could not find an open for me before I left, had to do it next time.  Blood sugar a little high but within boarder line, cholesterols are OK, blood pressure has been OK during the one-week test(except sometimes it went over the 135/85 mark but most retests are below).  Met big brother/sister Chou at 三四味屋.  Had lunch at Anita's brother's home, 14 dishes total - the most I've ever seen there.

2/26/2013: Start trimming the Wisteria, selected the heavy ones that were causing the trellis to lean toward the brick pavement, used one of the old oak floor leftover to help straighten the trellis, I think it can serve its pur[ose for at least another year, need to trim off one of the larger branches close to the back of the right side trellis as it is pressing the old and fragile fence.

2/27/2013: Start trimming the defunct Cherry, cutting off the smaller branches first to clear up access space for handling larger branches; realized that the saw blade may be a bit dull when cutting larger branches, need to get a new one before continuing with other larger branches.  Played ping pong at Dynamic Foundation at 1:00.

2/28/2013: Got a new saw blade for the reciprocal saw at Lowes - ~$3.00.  Cut off the vertical branch that was blocking our bedroom view.  Cut branches small and big into short and manageable pieces took the most time.

3/1/2013: Went to Chi/Willis' dinner party in Los Gato, even though I studied the map over and over before driving, I still made several wrong turns but safely arrived and parked on the street.  Nick's Next Door is a small but popular place, our appointment was 7:45PM, but we didn't get seated until 8:10, food was different but not bad, I had Chilean Seabass, fairly tasting, oh, their bread was very good, I could just eat the bread and be satisfied.  Played ping pong at Dynamic Foundation at 1:00.

3/2/2013: Went to California Badminton Academy and played table tennis with Ching Lee - he and his partner joined the table tennis club of this academy because their memberships with Top Spin expired plus the new place charged the same without any play time restriction, oh it is only 5 minutes from Ching Lee's house; this place has 10 tables on one side of the building, granted, badminton is their major event, it was filled with mostly young people learning and playing games, we were the only serious table tennis players there.

3/3/2013: Decided to vist the Chinese supermarket near City Sports, the last we were looing something else and did not spend much time there.  I wanted to see if it is competitive to Ranch 99 as their price is going out of hand.  Turned out it has a lot more stuff and I liked their price, they even carris the stinky tofu cake(臭豆腐乳).

3/4/2013: Cut down the horizontal center branches - cut a 2-foot piece first, but realized it is too slow since it's not easy to cut it up there, so I decided to use the shorter power cord as rope to hold the branches so they won't fall on the flower plants below, worked well.  Kept the thicker part of the branches to serve as fence bottom blocker.  Played ping pong at Dynamic Foundation at 3:00 (1:00 canceled due to their meeting).

3/5/2013: After struggling to deal with the hard to reach larger vertical branch, I finally managed to place the ladder next to the deck and trimmed off it piece by piece.  Went to play ping pong at Dynamic Foundation, but was cut short half way through, because Kung got a phone call from his sister Teresa, apparently their mother once again is acting up due to Alzheimer disease, sigh.
Cutting the trimmed off branches to smaller pieces in 80 minutes, backyard tree trimming project completed.

3/7/2013: No ping pong today, my neck is acting up, need to rest it nicely.  Started to rain around 5:30PM, took out all ~8 empty buckets.  Went back in the yard to fill them until all are done - around ~11:30PM.

3/8/2013: Still pondering how to solve the heavy 3-leg table support problem.  Refilled Anita's T-mobile cell phone with $10 - (408)627-9458, expiring 3/8/2014.
Paid LS400 DMV registration fee $120 at 11:21:58 AM, authorization number 184800.

3/9/2013: Drove with Jason to hike in Saratoga.  Finished the 3-leg table installation - after some modification to original design - except the legs, I'll leave them on the floor for a few days before taking off the top parts for final installation.

3/13/2013: Called Jihua and cancel dinner with them.

3/14/2013: Played ping pong with Ching Lee at CBA from 10:30 to 12:15.  Qualified for $5 senior price.

3/15/2013:  Started working on final phase of the 3-leg table, manually cut off the lower part of the legs, keep only the decor.  Sand off the excess and stained them, reinstall them with their original screws and voila - done.

3/16/2013: Went hiking in Saratoga hill - Jason's turn to drive - in the morning, 9 people were in the  hiking trail - me, Jason, Yung, Jerry, Ruby, John, Allen, Steve, and Ching.
Went to Po's 60th birthday party at Chef Chu - by myself - took 101 N., Middlefield rd, San Antonio rd and El Camino.  It is still very popular, a lot of people waiting to pick up takeouts, almost all tables were occupied, parking, of course, is a challenge, I got a spot at lot 2 - second to the last one.
The dishes selected by Po and CC are fabulous prepared by the chef - the best dishes I had for as long as I can remember.

Menu:
                Appetizer: 核桃, 素雞, 捲黃瓜，小魚乾
                金瓜濃湯
                北京烤鴉
                龍蝦拼盤(蝦，龍蝦，墨魚，干貝）
                Lamb lollipop(thick and juicy)
                湖南豆腐
                壽麵
                米素雪魚
                杏仁茶(with  )芝麻球
                {XO醬: 辣椒，小蝦米，火腿,...- excellent}
                Interesting waiter

3/18/2013: Heading to SFO at 10:10 to pick up Anita, flight status indicated that it will be 16 minutes late - 10:26, I did a nice estimate and arrived at gate G, took a leak at the restroom at ther end of the building and got a call from Anita as I came back to the gate, turned out she just came out, almost perfect timing.  Parking was $4.

3/20/2013: Got the following from Costco
             Bagel, croissant, seaweed salad, spring mix, sweet bell pepper, grape tomatoes,
             smoked  gouda cheese, and California Mandarins.

4/7/2013: Ordered Sony DSC-HX20V fro walmart.com for $299 plus tax - the loest price seen, most other places ask for over $380 for it.  Used free shipping instead store pickup, estimated delivery date is 4/15/2013.

4/11/2013: Received SONY DSC-HX20V camera ordered from Walmart.com, similar look as the SONY DSC-HX7V except the hidden flash, 20X zoom, and a little heavier body, oh plus a smaller micro USB charger connecter - the same as Nexus 7.

4/12/2013: Received twin-pack NP-BG1 batteries and charger ordered from Amazon.com, the batteries and charger are tested and appeared to work well - the two replacement batteries also allowed the cameras to show percentage of battery level instead simply the battery bars - a better indicator.

5/9/2013 - 5/23/2013: Turkey trip

5/24/2013: First weight measurement after trip to Turkey - 150.2

5/28/2013: Second time weight measurement after trip to Turkey, expecting to gain some but got 148.8 - a low record in recent years (15?)

6/8/2013: Dinner at Sushi Mizu, ordered
        - Calamari (OK)
        - Cajun Tuna Sashimi (OK)
        - Spicy Tuna Salad (OK)
        - Pink Godzilla Roll (OK)
        - Butterfly Roll (not OK)
        - Mizu Margarita
        - Dragon's Hurricane

        Bill plus tip = $109 ($94.57+$14.43)

7/21/2013: Discovered my new bike has a flat front tire, determined it was caused by thorn covered 果實 after careful examination.  Pumped air in the tire.

7/22/2013: The front tire is completely flat.  Got a bottle of sealant and air pump from Walmart.  Reinserted the front tire inner tube and reinstalled the tire/wheel.  Followed the directions on the sealant bottle: 1. Remove tire valve core (with tool included) and deflate tire, 2. Inject sealant (4 OZ) into the tire,. 3. Reinstall valve core, 4. Inflate tire, 5. Rotate tire to distribute sealant.
Also did the same to the rear tire, will examine the result tomorrow.

8/25/2013: Found a way to include more photos in the same MyPublisher photobook page - collage:
        - CollageIt 3 Free version, not easy to use as it does not have enough templates to accommodate different photo formats (number and orientation).
        - Use CollageIt to create new photos - large size file, usually the total memory used by all the original photos. save photos.
        - Open each collaged photo and crop properly (command+shift+4), it will be saved on desktop.
        - Rename the cropped files, remove collaged photos
        - Launch iPhoto and import these photos as MyPublisher can only get them from iPhoto.