Lucky Week

This week is my luckiest week.

We had a training class of The Art of War (孙子兵法）yesterday. At the end of the class, all students were asked to vote for the person who contributed most to the class. The winner will win 2 books, a Best Buy Gift Card, a Starbucks Gift Card and an iPod.

I happened to win the most votes in the classroom and was able to pack the iPod home to Biajee. He was simply thrilled.

Today we had a lucky draw for airline tickets because our company signed up with Andavo. I won 2 domestic Southwest Airline tickets with a travel document holder. Biajee and I could use it to take a short trip somewhere that Southwest goes to. We should plan for that.

"You should buy a lotto ticket." My coworker told me.

"Nah, I may have a car accident if I do that." I winked back.

Desktop

Ordered.

Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6700 (2.66 GHz, 4M, 1066 MHZ FSB)
OptiPlex 745 Desktop
Memory:　4 GB DDR2 Non-ECC SDRAM, 667 MHZ

Benihana

We went to Benihana for lunch as Terisa's farewell party. She found a job in General Steel in South Denver. Normally I never can have enough food when I go to a company lunch because I dare not order too much and dare not eat too much. People would look at me with interesting expressions if they know my true appetite.

Today, however, I even felt full after lunch. We ordered sushi platter, sashimi platter, tempura and California Rolls for appetizer. Then I ordered Combo Three for lunch, including Beef, Shrimps and Scallops. I can sense that Thanksgiving is knocking on the door.

The temperature dropped sharply. Tonight it's going to be in the teens and snowing. Tomorrow's high will be 20 degrees, perfect for a holiday. Biajee and I are still planning on skiing on Turkey Day. There will be no traffic on the road and no restaurant to shop for food. But we can play with snow.

I may go to the gym and run some errands tomorrow afternoon before picking up Arnold since I don't want to disrupt his nap schedule. This is a perfect holiday year.

Egg Tart

Egg Tart is Arnold's favorite snack. Every time we go to Pacific Ocean Chinese Super Market, we would buy 4 fresh baked egg tarts. Arnold would devour two of them in no time while Biajee and I chew on ours. We think he is still a Chinese baby in his blood, although he holds an American passport.

The newspaper says that the population in the US is growing by 1.25 million every year. Based on this speed, there'll be over 500 million people in the United States by 2060. I will definitely retire by then, but maybe Arnold needs to find another country to live in.

Both Biajee and Arnold are taking their favorite 2 hour Sunday nap now. I am wondering how this can continue next week because we'll be in Winter Park for skiing. I have bought four four passes this year: two for Winter Park, two for Copper Mountain. We can go 8 times together and we can take turns to watch Arnold.

Day care facility in the ski resorts are VERY expensive. It's $95 for a whole day and $75 for half a day. But I think we can use the Kids Adventure Center if one of us stays with Arnold.

Japanese Consulate

We went to the Japanese Consulate in Denver yesterday. It's on 17th street. Parking is very expensive. $2 for 15 minutes. Fortunately we got it done in 30 minutes.

I forgot to bring employment letter or pay check. The visa officer told me to fax it to him that afternoon. We'll pick up our passports on November 26th. It'll be $26 per person.

Then we had McRibs and milk shakes from McDonald's. Biajee had been eating McDonald's for so long, yet he didn't know that McRid sandwich existed. It is definitely better than Big Mac. We did takeouts and grabbed the doggie bags to work.

"My Gosh, Pei, I cannot believe you're eating this junk." My coworker said to me when he saw me devouring the French Fries. "You've been in America for too long."

I jumped on the scale this morning and found that I had lost 1 lb. Maybe I should keep eating the Big M.

Plan for Visas

We don't look at stock market these days. I've been checking into a Japan trip for our whole family in the past week. February sounds like a good and cold month for a family holiday. It's better spend money on family fun than watch it shrink in the stock market.

Biajee and I are planning on going to the Japanese Consulate in downtown Denver tomorrow. Denver is sister city of Takayama. Most places in Colorado have sister cities in Japan.

We're planning on going to Osaka this time, mainly because I've been to Tokyo and the surrounding areas. We could go to Kobe, Nara, Nagoya, Himeji - all the places I'd never been to after my 100th visit to Japan.

The American Consulate in Osaka generally has 2 working days in processing visa to US, which is convenient for Biajee. We just need to bring a lot of money.

周末

我全身的每一个细胞都在期盼周末的来临。股市低迷的我都懒得察看了，看了之后还得计算损失多少，真麻烦。反正现在不能卖，得挺住，拿出“为有牺牲多壮志，敢教日月换新天”的精神。或者套用一句巴菲特的话：“你一生之中只要做对几件事， 而不做错太多事就可以了。”

总有一天，我们都会停止工作。如果计划得好，那一天来临的时候，你已经有足够的实力退休与亲人和爱人度过余生。如果计划得不是很恰当，你很有可能在刚刚来上班的时候猝死在通往天堂的办公室里。

今天的选择决定明天的命运。百分之十的回报率就能在7.2年之内使资产翻两倍。如果工作43年退休，资产就可以翻6倍。

众所周知，投资股市之要诀在于选最好的公司，出最低的价格。时机很难掌握的。去年我买了石油股之后，价格一度继续下跌。BIAJEE说：“你抓不住最低点的，只要是个好公司就可以了。”果然几个月之后的回报就是25%。选对公司可以使投资回报周期大大缩短。

极短的时间里股市是很难预测的。一般的走势都要看5年或10年。如果买了DRYS, 一年里资产就能翻8倍，可是如果不幸选中了ODP, 资产就一下子缩水56%。

还是想想明天给BIAJEE 的老板做什么菜吧，要不又要挨骂了。

US Dollars

I had a dream about inflation early this morning. I walked into the book store and bought a novel by John Hahn ( I don't even know if such person exists ) for $11,389.00. I woke up in horror and kicked Biajee.

"Inflation is getting worse and I had to spend $11,389 on a book. When I wrote that check, I was almost in tears." I told him.

"Really?" He murmured and started snoring again.

I couldn't fall back to sleep any more so I dressed up for the gym and went working out at 5:15 am. My muscles were aching with joy and I was in a dandy mood soon.

"We should convert all our cash to silver and gold." I suggested enthusiastically after getting home.

All this was because Chinese government decided to toss $1.3 trillion US dollars from the Federal Reserve. And US Dollars is at historical low these days.

Trash Can

Our trash can is broken. Biajee took it back to Costco for exchange during lunch. It's an ultra-red beam controlled trash can with a lid. We bought it for Arnold so that he cannot paw through all the garbages in the house. However, Arnold figured out how to open and close it very soon.

I made wonton soup for Biajee as supper last night. He enjoyed it so much. It's been a while since he had traditional Chinese style wonton soup. I told him the most important thing is to keep me in a good mood. I cook well when I'm happy.

We've invited Biajee's boss over to our house for dinner this Saturday. I have to think of some really unique dishes now. They've had us over their place multiple times, but we haven't had the luxury of returning the hospitality every since Arnold was born.

The stock market keeps looking pathetic. We should have put all our money in silver and gold.

Icecream

Arnold had the first taste of icecream last Saturday in the zoo. Biajee and I bought two soft cones and Arnold started to lick them. The flavor really motivated him. He started to talk immediately.

"Mama, more." He kept saying. We were both amazed at how incentives can help kids' development.

"He still cannot have any icecream at home." I told Biajee. "It's bad for him." Arnold walked around the zoo all by himself and had a great time watching different animals.

He even asked me to teach him the names of the animals in his picture book after we went home.

We bought some onesies for him from Children's Place on Sunday. Commodities there are a lot cheaper than those in Gymboree.