Die Hard

Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko, the former Russian secret agent, who had worked for KGB and then FSB (the domestic successor organization to the KGB), fled to Turkey in 1999 and emmigrated to the UK on 11/1/2000. He suddenly fell ill on Nov. 1st, 2006, attributed to the radionuclide polonium-210 and died on Nov. 23rd, 2006.

What a way to go. British Airways is under government investigation now for possible radioactive substance on three of their Boeing 767 airplanes. Mr. Vladimir Putin himself had made the following comment, "It is a pity that tragic events like death have been used for political provocations. Those who did it [concocted the note] are not God, and Mr. Litvinenko is unfortunately not Lazarus."

Being a spy or a drug dealer are probably the worst jobs in the whole world because they generally don't end up quite well. It is not as romantic as what the movie shows. As much as I like James Bond, I don't want to know one in real life or have anything to do with a person of that nature.

No Bath

It was snowing last night when we got home. Arnold was only wearing a pajama under the coat. I got mad at Biajee for not dressing him up in layers when he picked up the baby. Arnold screamed and cried ever since he entered the house. I was having a severe fever myself so I took Arnold to our bed and nursed him.

Every piece of my muscle was sore and I was shivering under the quilts. Biajee put Arnold to bed without giving him a bath. Better me sick than Arnold getting anything. I drank a lot of hot water and Biajee fed me some oranges in between. He baked some salmon, stir fried some Chinese Bok Choi and squid and steamed some Chinese Yam for dinner. I didn't get a chance to sample all the gourmet dishes at all. I was lucky that I was still alive and made it through without taking aspirin or tylenol.

We car pooled this morning. Nobody ploughed the snow on the road so we slid and missed the first entrance to my company. Fortunately we were able to make the 2nd one so that Biajee could drop me off at work. High temperature is 22 today while low is 8. I decided to skip gym because I'm still weak.

24 Hour Fitness

It dawned on me yesterday that I had been a member of 24 Hour Fitness for 5 years already. I signed up in Florida when they offered me a deal to prepay for 3 years' membership fee of $650 and then $99/year. I've been paying $104.95 every year since I moved to Colorado.

Biajee has been an add-on family member for $20/month since last August. He hasn't been using it too much since Arnold was born.

When I was at the gym yesterday, the sales manager said it was their friends and family day when family members and friends could receive the same deal as us. I immediately asked him whether Biajee could get my deal. It ended up last night Biajee had to prepay for 3 years membership of $549 and from the 4th year it'll be $49/year. The prepay also includes 5 free personal training program that will help him lose 15 lbs in 6 weeks so that he'll be the "Biggest Loser".

I went ahead and called to cancel Biajee's current add-on membership. The lady tried to persuade me to let him stay.

"Why are you canceling his membership?"

"He never goes. And I've been paying it from my credit card every month for over a year."

"In that case, we could offer him a free personal training program that'll help motivate him to exercise. Do you think this is something that could stimulate him to work out?"

"No. Absolutely not. Can you please just cancel it?"

"Well, I see you're currently paying $20/month for him. We could offer you a better program that you only have to pay $15/month for him. Does this sound like something that's attractive?"

"No. Not at all. I'd appreciate it if you'd just cancel his membership and stop charging my credit card."

"You know. We could hold his membership for a few months just in case he decides that he will start to work out again. You think this might work?"

"No. He doesn't like the gym. He'd rather play soccer outdoors. Can you just go ahead and cancel it?"

"All right then. Your credit card will still be charged for another month, plus you've prepaid one month when you signed him up. He could still work out at the gym till Feb. 24th, 2007."

Gosh. Why is it so hard to cancel something?? Anyway, we're all set now.

The main reason Biajee could not go to the gym is because of Arnold. One of us had to stay home with the baby. Gyms here won't watch our kids till they're over 6 months old. We couldn't wait till Arnold turns 6 months. Then we can leave him at the Kid's Club in the gym for $2/each workout.

I think gym is a good business, especially when the location is next to a McDonald's or an icecream store. People can fatten up first and then go work out.

Our Arnold cannot have any sugar, icecream, cake, cookie, McDonald's, BK, etc. till he is 5 years old. I want to make sure he is healthy. There was a report written by a person who eats McDonald's for breakfast, lunch and dinner and his face is full of acnes. Something that tasty cannot be good for anyone at all. The rule is: Biajee and I won't be the people who introduce junk food to Arnold. His baby fat will all have to come to breast milk and organic baby food.

Thanksgiving Weekend

We hiked 3 days during the 4 days off except black Friday when we rushed to the stores like everyone else.

BestBuy had a crazy deal of a Toshiba 50" plasma LCD TV for $479, $1,300 instant savings. Each store had to carry minimum of 5 in stock. We arrived there 3 hours too late and everything was gone. The store looked like it had just been robbed. We were able to pick up a few $2.99 and $4.99 DVDs though, among them were My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Nine Months and Big Fish. I've seen MBFGW and Big Fish before, but I watched them again with Biajee over the weekend. We like patent protected DVDs. The effect is the same as going to the cinema, judging that we have a Bose home theatre system.

We had a roast duck instead of Turkey for the big feast. We put up the Christmas tree for Arnold and bought him an electronic caterpillar that can walk, talk and sing yesterday. Having a baby is an incredible experience. We were able to find excuses to buy toys all the time.

Free Fall

Arnold fell yesterday from the swing to the floor. It's about a foot high. I opened his tray table on the swing and was about to pick him up and nurse him while asking Biajee where his schedule sheet was. As we were talking, there was a big THUMP. I looked down and found Arnold on floor, face down like a froggy.

It was dead silence in the house for a while and then he started crying for less than a minute. Then he forgot what he had been through and started eating with tremendous effort. We figured he was probably all right so we didn't call the doctor or take him to the hospital.

We need to be really careful from now on. Arnold can roll over on the floor these days. He has a hard time sitting though. Any time he was put in a sitting position, he would fall to the front and bend his head between his legs like what we do in Yoga.

Biajee locked the upper bars of his crib last night in case he decided to jump outside. He is so big now and so ready for Thanksgiving.

Casino Royale

Biajee and I went to watch this movie last night, the first movie we saw together after Arnold was born. Thanks to Susan. She offered to baby sit for us last night after dining with us on Friday and winning 2 Scrabble games.

It was a good movie. With the change in focus on the character of Bond, Daniel Craig was a good choice. It is not the dashing and handsome Bond...he is a rough and tumble devil be damned kind of Bond. Vesper is amazingly beautiful. Too bad she committed suicide after she betrayed Bond. This movie focused more on characters than gadgets and sex. In many of the Bond movies the Bond Women are mainly for show. This one's character was well developed.

We purchased two tickets for Borat though and didn't contribute to the ticket count of 007. Borat was the only movie that was about to open when we arrived at the theatre. It was an English movie made to parody Khazikstan and poke fun at misconceptions by others. We sat in Borat for 30 minutes, watched the preview of Casino Royale and decided that 007 was what we really wanted to see. So we sneaked into the 4:25 pm Casino Royale for the 2nd half of the movie and finished the first half at the 7:00 pm opening. This is what you end up with when you have a baby.

Arnold had a rough time with Susan because he didn't really know her. He refused to eat or sleep so Susan had to hold him on her laps. It was so nice to spend some time alone with Biajee though. We're doing this next month when we attend company parties of Corporate Express and Merchandising Department. The baby sitting projects have been arranged already.

Game Night

We're having Susan over for dinner, Scrabble and Monopoly tonight. We haven't been able to play Monopoly for a while because I've always been winning. A lot of my friends refused to play with me any more.

Susan is my coworker and a member of the National Scrabble Club. I think we're going to play Scrabble first because she'll kill us on that one. She said the national champion can score 832 in one game and 234 per word. We couldn't even imagine. We could only get to 300 in one of our better games. And we have never bingoed once. Susan can bingo in every game so it'll be a fun night. We'll let her win the scrabble and then lure her to play Monopoly with us.

We're going to have baked lamb chops and salmon for dinner tonight. Biajee and I bought some organic salad from Wal-mart and we could use the leftover asparagus we cooked yesterday. Dinner will be nutritious and fat-free if Biajee hadn't bought a jar of Baily Irish Cream Icecream.

A lot of people will be leaving work early today since holidays start today for some of them. I think I may be able to sneak out at a decent time as well, maybe even to pick up Arnold. This is some benefit of working for a big company. The secret is not to take vacation days during holiday season because nobody will be working and work days are generally shortened than usual. It'll be a waste if you take a vacation day because not a lot of work will be done anyway.

Grandpa and Grandson

Dad came to US for a business meeting in Milwaukee, WI 2 weeks ago. He was able to stop by Denver for five nights and get a glimpse of what our lives look like after we had Arnold.

He brought all of us food, clothes and goodies from China. He bought four stainless pots for us for cooking use, took us out to lunch and dinner and cooked a whole week's worth of food consumption for us before he left. I feel so guilty that he never got enough rest while he was here. I am his top one priority to take care of and then comes Biajee and Arnold. He didn't want to eat a lot of food he cooked because he knew that we'd not have enough time to do gourmet cooking after he left.

A father's love to his kid is unconditional and endless. My dad has never ever asked for anything back from me all my life. I don't know if other parents in this world are similar to him or not, but I constantly have this soft feeling whenever I think of him. Yet, I lost my temper a few times while he was with us. I've never even raised my voice at Biajee, but I did this to Dad. And he was never mad at me. His life has been giving, giving, giving to his only daughter, the person he loves most in this world.

I didn't realize how much I rely on him emotionally until he left. It's like a solid firm support that I could turn to any time I get hurt and shattered in life. It follows me wherever I am and whenever I need it.

Thank you, dad, from the bottom of my heart, for my life and for everything you've done for us....

Halloween

This is Arnold's Halloween picture. He was a Nuggets fan that day and participated in the school costume parade. So many things has happened since then. Arnold officially started to eat solid food now. He hates rice cereal and apple sauce. His favorites are oatmeal cereal and meshed bananas so far. Marie thinks he likes sweet potatoes, but we need to add either water or breastmilk to make it like a thick liquid.

He's had a skin rash for 3 days now. Biajee thinks it's hives and he did some research on it. There is really nothing we could do but wait for it to heal. We did launder all his clothes, linens and sheets though.

I still pump every night at 2 am and it is really hard for me to go back to sleep after pumping so I went to the gym at 3:15 am today. My coworkers think I'm insane, but this is really the best way to spend my time.

Biajee will go to parent's night tomorrow where they'll discuss nutrition for babies. I hope he'll learn a lot.