Even though it’s a Saturday, it isn’t the best of time to celebrate her birthday.  Benny just got sick a couple of days ago (after a long streak of no-sickness of perhaps 3 or 4 months, I can’t remember exactly).  He’s having some bad coughs and runny nose, and have been extra clingy these past few days.  Dez hasn’t been sleeping well.  I haven’t slept well either, but kind of making up the lack of quality with extra quantity (meaning I’ve been sleeping a bit more, which means doing less non-infant activities).

There have been quite a few times when I actually had thoughts I wanted to blog about, but then the thoughts came and went, as there was no opportunity to really sit down in front of a computer and blog.

I’ve been really busy.  I don’t know if I am at my limit…  But man, I really don’t like having so many things going on at once.  I’ve been taking it one day at a time, but there just seems to be no end to this.  We’re still in the very early stages of planning for a vacation for November.  With Benny, of course, which makes things just so much more difficult.

Being a parent is a really humbling experience…  I remember before getting married, people were jokingly saying how it’s gonna be different.  Sure, other than getting yelled at more often for being messy, everything was pretty much the same before and after marriage.  Honestly, no one said much about having kids, other than “Oh enjoy your sleep now because you won’t be getting any after!”  No, turns out having kids completely changed my life.  Like a caterpillar morphing into a butterfly, there is no semblance between the before and after.  Almost everything changed.

Lets hope we’ll get some uninterrupted sleep in the near future!  Benny was just napping, now he’s awake…  Guess where I have to go now.

I don’t remember the last time I slept 8 hours without waking up at least once.  Actually, make that 6 hours.  The fatigue is almost perpetual.  I think even though I’ve heard about how new parents don’t get enough sleep, I was still unprepared of what was to come.

I think the toughest part about being a parent, for me, was my inability to truly multitask.  I can only have my attention fully focused on 1 thing.  If my attention was split, my enjoyment of whatever I was doing was lowered.  For example, I can’t be happily enjoying my time cleaning up the desk while tending to Benny, neither can I happily enjoying my time with Benny while watching the oven.

But of course, when I did have moments to pay full attention to Benny, it was awesome.  He’s grown so much, so fast.  Lots of first times for everything.  A baby’s laugh just melts the heart.  It’s like an addictive drug that you just can’t get enough of.

Ever since Benny was born, I’ve suddenly noticed all the dads and moms with their babies everywhere.  It’s like they were invisible to my non-parent eyes before.  That was interesting.

I don’t know if I am a little more patient than when I was a year ago, but this year has certainly been a growing opportunity.

Anyway, I think the worst for me is over.  I think the first couple of months of endlessly worrying about a helpless baby falling or suffocating or snapping his neck was the worst days.  Even though now Benny can be a terror sometimes, I definitely prefer this state more.

We survived!

For most of us there are always 2 times in a year when we reflect on how the past year has been.  There’s new year’s eve when we go, “wow, a whole year has gone by”, and then there’s the birthday when we think the same thing.

I haven’t actually felt like I was 28.  I think I was too busy and tired to feel like anything.  I just sort of remember being 27, and then now here I am.  Never imagined I would be a dad before turning 28.

Work has been quite busy.  Not yet too stressful, but now it seems like there is an endless amount work to do.  Still haven’t needed to do overtime to finish before deadlines, but it’s getting closer to that point.

Went out for golf a total of 3 times so far this year.  Just changed my golf grip (like, the way I hold the clubs) from interlocking to just plain old standard non-overlapping (almost like a baseball grip), and saw major improvements.  I had to change because the way I was holding the clubs was really hurting my fingers (especially when I shank the ball or hit the on the ground).  The interlocking grip was the grip that was taught to me back in high school, and I always felt it was more natural.  But now using a standard grip seems just as natural.  After doing some practices, my hands and fingers no longer hurt, and saw major improvements in my driver.  Like, so major that the first few times I hit the driver with it, I had to stand back and watch my own shot in amazement.  I had never seen such nice shots coming out of my drives.  Of course there are still bad shots, but they are day and night compared to how I was hitting them before.  The distance can still use improvements, but now I can actually use the driver on a course and have a decent chance of it being on the fairway.

There’s always something new happening to Benny every week.  It’s pretty cool to see all the changes.  Still not used to his crying though, even though I’ve heard it for almost a year now.  His birthday party is coming up.

Hm, I really have to blog more often.  I realized that the main obstacle to my blogging is actually the formatting for that picture per blog post.  Without it I would be able to do it faster, and have shorter posts…

Thanks to the digital cameras and large hard drives, we have many thousands of photos and a few hundred short video clips.  I wonder what it will be like 20 years later when people go through his photo albums…  It would be so different from the old days.  I think I have like, a total of 1 album.  There are probably more photos scattered in different places, but I probably have less than 1000 photos of my entire childhood.

Getting old is pretty cool for a baby, but not so cool for the dad.  The body just doesn’t feel as great due to a variety of things.  Ever since I had my teeth fillings replaced (from silver to white) at the end of April, I could not eat off my right side because it hurts when I bite anything moderately hard.  I’ve gone back to get some adjustments, but they simply did not help much.  So it takes twice as long to eat the same amount of food, and I have to do it very carefully.  Food just doesn’t taste as good when you have to watch every bite.  I still have to go back for more adjustments, and possibly replacing the fillings in that 1 or 2 molars.

So in addition to not being able to eat much, my right hip still doesn’t feel right after the sun run.  It wasn’t caused by the sun run, since it was my fault I injured it 2 weeks before the sun run.  I haven’t run for about 2 weeks now hoping that it would heal.  It has gotten better, then regressed, then better, then regressed again.  So I don’t really know what’s up with that.

Dez and I are doing this experiment of eating organic/homemade as much as we could for the entire month of May.  That also means our food has less grease than before.  So the combination of these 3 factors have made me lose a lot of weight.  I now weigh 10 pounds less than before Benny was born.  And for those who know me, I already didn’t have much to lose to begin with.  And, once again, I exercise in order to gain weight, not to lose weight.  If I don’t do lots of cardio like running, I can’t gain much weight.  I know this apparently shocks everyone I know who wants to lose weight, but that’s the way it is.

So, my body ain’t feeling so great, and neither is the car.  My Toyota Corolla is now 11 years old.  Not too long ago the brakes start to make high pitch squeaking sounds when I brake.  Then some dashboard lights burned out.  Then I was driving on Knight bridge (not even fast, about 50 km/h) when something flew from the opposing traffic, through the inner lane, and hit my windshield on the outer lane and chipped the windshield where it sort of impairs the driver’s vision.  I can still drive and see OK, but the chip really is quite big.  Like a big water drop that never goes away.  And then the seat belt warning light was behaving weird (always flashing ON even when I already put on the seat belt), which was actually more annoying than the chip on the windshield.  I managed to make it so that it’s always OFF, so at least I don’t have a flashing light on my dashboard.

Anyway, I think most of these health / mechanical issues are fixable.  But they’ll take some time.  In the meantime, I just gotta get used to it…

On May 9th, I was as prepared as I could be.  There were some factors benefiting my run, but there were also some hindering factors.  The weather was awesome – warm and sunny.  I did not have any stomach cramps during the run, which happens about 15% of the time.  I did not have to dodge too many slow runners / walkers because I am placed in the yellow – slightly faster – group compared to years past.  I wasn’t too tired as I slept around 13 hours two nights prior.  However, I was sort of sick (sore throat and runny nose), and only got around 6 hours of sleep the night before.  My right hip also wasn’t feeling the greatest as I pulled a muscle or something during a training run.  So all in all, it was an OK run.  It could’ve been worse, and it could’ve been better.

Anyway, my goal was to beat 50 minutes.  It wasn’t easy, but I did it.  It was a decent improvement over last year’s time.  I don’t have a goal for next year yet.

Because our company got amalgamated into the mothership, we doubled our corporate team from the typical 20+ people to 39 total for this year (basically Richmond office + Burnaby office).  This also meant that for our high tech division, we were placed #13 out of 65!  Not bad.  Our previous record was #28.

Of course, we were mostly watching the Canada vs South Korea game, not just because we’re Canadians, but because they put the Sweden vs USA game on the sheet closest to where we sit, so we can’t actually see much of it since too many heads were blocking our view.

There are a total of 8 ends (as opposed to 10 ends in regular curling).  The Canadians was demolishing the Koreans by the halfway point, 8-1.  7 point difference.  Pretty hard to come back on.

And then Koreans scored 2… then another 2… then another 1…  Oh man, it was nerve-wrecking.  Deja vu all over again as we compare the parallels to our women’s gold medal game.  Women led… until the last end, where they led by 2 points.  Yup.  And then overtime… then lost.  Well, the game was a nailbiter for sure.  Good thing the outcome was different.

Too bad USA lost again, so they got nada.

Anyway, on a separate topic, for those who didn’t click on any of my previous links: Those links are actually a subset of all (or nearly all) the photo highlights we have of Benny.  We have thousands of photos, and Dez selects the good ones, as well as ones that tell a story.  I post them using a free and great simple php-script gallery that I found on the web that did exactly what I wanted my gallery to do, except doing it better than if I were to code it myself.  I even donated $10 because I was so impressed.

Benny’s gallery is mostly for the grandparents who are not computer savvy, but also for people who would like to have a glimpse of what have been happening to us.  It’s categorized by months, with subcategories of special events.

Onto another unrelated topic, there has been much changes at work.  It’s still too early to tell if it will be good or bad in the long run, but changes are certainly happening.  Adapting to changes is never as easy as staying in a status quo.  I’m handed with more responsibilities, which is both welcoming and challenging.  I always like a good challenge, but sometimes I reflect on whether I really want to be committed to this line of work.  I know for certain that I enjoy software development, but I do feel that it’s a “top 3″ rather than a “top 1″.  It’s in the “I enjoy it but I don’t have a fiery passion for it” category.

Benny is now 7 months old.  Time seems to be accelerating, and the world is changing so fast.

We lined up in the cold, along with thousands of other people, for stuff.  Some stuff was a waste of time, while others were worth the wait.

We attended a few events.  3 curling events:
1) Men’s curling round robin #1, and saw Canada vs Norway, which was great because it was also Canada vs Norway in the gold medal game, but we didn’t have tickets for that one.
2) Men’s ice hockey, qualifier round Norway vs. Slovakia.  It was my first live hockey game ever.  We sat in the lower bowl, category A seats.  Yup, we sort of splurged, since the tickets weren’t too costly.  Not like it was a semi-final or gold medal game.
3) Women’s gold medal curling, and saw Canada vs. Sweden.  Extremely unfortunate that our Canadian team didn’t win gold.  Of the 4 big team sports medals (men and women’s hockey, and men and women’s curling), this is the only one that didn’t get gold…  It was a very exciting game though.  And we can say that we were there!
4) Men’s bronze medal curling, and saw Sweden vs. Switzerland.  Another great game.  Unfortunately for us (but fortunately for Canada!) that the Canadian men went undefeated and didn’t end up in the bronze medal game, so we didn’t get to see them.

So, what were some of the free venues that we lined up for? (By the way, Benny was with us in all of these!)
1) Torch relay.  Dez and Benny got photos with some athletes and saw some politicians.
2) Downtown Olympic cauldron.  Heavily fortified!
3) Live City Yaletown.  Went to the Coca-Cola pavilion to get pics with torch (no flames)…
4) Vancouver Art Museum.  Saw lots of Leonardo Da Vinci stuff, as well as local art.  Didn’t have to wait too long.  Not many pics because photography was not allowed in most areas.
5) Royal Canadian Mint.  The highlight of our line-ups!  5 hours wait in the rain.  Dez and I sort of did a relay, so it wasn’t as bad.  Got to hold the Olympic medals with our (gloved) hands!  And saw the million dollar 100kg gold coin!  Didn’t know coins can look so good…
6) Sochi World.  Saw the IOC president Jacques Rogge and figure skating phenom Evgeni Plushenko.
7) Richmond O-Zone.  No wait!  Saw Yu-Na Kim’s performance live on big screen, as well as Mao Asada and Joannie Rochette.
Men’s gold medal curling and gold medal hockey!  OK, we were actually home for those, but watching it on TV was great!  Canada beat Norway in another great curling game, and Canada beat USA in hockey overtime and claimed the title of most gold medals ever in a winter Olympic game.  Not too shabby.

It was certainly one of those events that we may never see in Vancouver again in our lifetimes.

We caught the stomach flu.  “Gastroenteritis” is the proper term.  “Norovirus” is the name of the group of virus that induces Norwalk-like symptoms.  Vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue, etc, for 3 to 5 days.  For me, it was basically a mild flu + food poisoning.  I had sore throat, and couldn’t eat much for 4 days.  Benny was also sick, although we didn’t realize until he was kinda done being sick.  Dez got sick last, and although her stomach problem went away in about 4 to 5 days, she has been coughing and coughing since.  Oh, and we passed it to my dad and grandma.

Didn’t go to Fitness World very much due to the illness.  After I recovered, I had to spend more time taking care of Dez and Benny.  I can feel my muscles withering away.

I spent about 2 to 3 weeks looking for good computer component deals to build a budget computer for Dez’s cousin.  Once in a while I have to learn about the latest and greatest in the computer world, and then decide what is the “best value”.  The budget was $500, and with the help of a Microsoft insider friend, I was able to put together the computer for under $500, and it’s a computer with pretty good parts, too.  Something I would be proud of owning.  I really pushed the limit as to what $500 could buy, while accounting for future upgrade capability, etc.

Even though I have PS3 now, I have hardly used it, except to watch a couple of non-BluRay movies.

At work, the table tennis tournament has become more demanding of my time.  Regular season ended in January, and we’re now into playoffs.  I ended up being a team captain because I was a top 8 players among the participants.  But due to bad luck, I ended up on the same team with the weakest player.  So in this double elimination format, we’ll be a 2-game team.  I’m looking forward to the end of the season so I can get a break at lunch without all the table tennis obligations.

Oh wow, that previous post isn’t my last post of the year…

So, I had a very interesting 2 minutes.

After coming home to get the pick up slip for my PS3, I drove to Sony Style (on Broadway), parked on Broadway and walked into the store at around 5:07.  The sales guy saw me, and said, “Ah, you’re lucky we’re still open…”  To which I asked, “Why?  I thought it opens until 5:30?”  Then he said, “No, actually at 5 today.”

Well, he was the same guy who said 5:30pm when I asked him on the phone earlier.  I think he knew he made a mistake, so he kept the store opened a little bit longer to wait for me in case I was coming.  So, no harm done.  He double checked the receipts and gave me the boxed PS3.

Sales rep: “I’m surprised it came so quickly.”
Me: “Yeah, me too.”
Sales rep: “Well, have a great new year!” *pat on my shoulder*
Me: “Yeah, you too!” *with a big smile on my face as I walked out of the door*

As I was walking out with my PS3 in hand, I saw a patrol standing by my car… holding a ticket printer thingie… printing a ticket as I stood beside her.

Patrol: “You know why you got ticketed?”
Me: “Um… no.” *I know there was money in the parking meter…*
Patrol: “See here.  No parking from 3pm to 6pm, Monday to Friday.”
Me: *a dumb look*

So, here’s what happened.  When I parked there, there was a car in front of me, just above to leave.  There was a car parked behind me.  I saw that of the two available spots I was going to park, one of them had money in it.  After getting out of the car to check, it said 20 minutes.  So, based on the observation that other cars were parked and there was money in this particular meter, I didn’t bother to check whether it was OK to park or not.  I got duped.  And now thinking back, she (the patrol) must have been within range, probably ticketing the car behind me.  No, she didn’t stop me.

So my lucky moment turned rather unlucky 2 minutes later.  And on New Year’s eve no less.  Who’s working so hard on New Year’s eve?

I checked the parking ticket.  $50 if paid by Feb 3rd.  $100 if paid afterwards.

$50.  $50.  $50 is the amount of the gift certificate that I was able to use to purchase from the Sony Store.  Yup, the only reason I bought it from the Sony Store was because it had a $50 off certificate, therefore making it cheaper than buying it tax-free from superstore.  So…

I think back…  If I had my pick up slip with me, I wouldn’t have had to go home first to pick it up, then the patrol wouldn’t be there in that 2 minute window.  If the Sony Store actually closed on me, then I wouldn’t have spent 2 minutes in there.  If the PS3 didn’t arrive today (I wouldn’t care), I would just pick it up a different day.  If I hadn’t had to remove the golf clubs from my car trunk in anticipation that I will need the room for stroller this weekend prior to coming home from work, I would’ve been to the Sony Store 4 minutes beforehand.  Ah… 2 minutes.

The universe is telling me something.  But what?

Yup, I got baited.  Parking meter with money + other parked cars.  Nope.  Still no parking…  Well, at least it didn’t get towed in 2 minutes…

So, this ends my PS3-getting tale.

Um, happy new year again!  (The $50 is sure a bucket of cold water over my lucky head)

Ok, I tell myself that I must do another post before the end of the year!

So, what’s been happening?  Perhaps I should do it in reverse chronological order…

Lots of get-togethers over the holidays.  Dinners with friends and family, and more friends and family.  I enjoy most (if not all) of them, but it is indeed draining especially when little Ben sucks up all the recovery time that we would’ve had.

Boxing day was a bust!  Nah, not really.  There was nothing much I really wanted to buy.  The one thing I really wanted to buy was the Sony MEX-BT2700 car deck that supports Bluetooth for wireless music streaming and handsfree talk, all for $120 + tax.  Oh, I also ordered a PS3 from Sony Style because of their $50 off certificate, which means I pay $280 including tax for a 120GB Blu Ray player / console.  I also have a $5 GT5:Prologue game, $20 Metal Gear Solid 4, $20 Street Fighter 4.

I will be upgrading Dez’s cousin’s PC (just a little bit).  And I already spent time moving my parents’ PC to Windows 7 Ultimate, which supports Chinese localization.  It was a lot of work to try to get video capture and audio drivers to work.

Did not go to the gym for nearly 2 weeks because of the busy schedule.  I will try before the 2 weeks is up.

After 2 months of stalling and 1 month of research, we’ve finally decided on which RESP companies to go with.  It was definitely a load off my back.

Benny had his first “mild fever” after his 2nd immunization shots.   We monitored and monitored and good thing it never went up too much.  In fact, after we turned down the temperature in our room at night so that he could cool down, he woke up chilly.  Turns out he got cold.  It took a day or two for his temperature to rise back up to typical range.

Benny has been rolling infrequently, back to front.  He’s also been “singing” all of a sudden.  He used to make bursts of consonants with different intonation, but now he has very long vowels.  Occasionally he would put the two skills together.  It’s very cute.

Anyway, happy new year!  I should make a goal of posting at least once a week next year…  Speaking of resolutions… uh oh, I don’t want to review my 2009 resolutions…