体操课

Biajee终于参加了阿诺的一节体操课，对他儿子的懒惰有了新的认识。实际上，阿诺不但懒惰，还很胆小，坚决不肯从高台上跳进有海绵的大池子里。看来我们不必为他的安全担心了，这么惜命的孩子应该不会作出太出格的事。

我终于在两个星期前被裁员了。我在公司的最后一个工作日为1月2日。之后就可以拿遣散费了。这些日程好像还是比较合理的，正好在生孩子之前把工作告一段落就可以仔细将养身体了。

中午去Costco买了《雪球》，是爱丽丝施罗德新写的关于巴非特生平的书，这是唯一一部经巴非特授权的关于其生平的著作，在出版之前施罗德就拿到了700万美元。今天是首推日，在波德书店卖35.95美元，在Costco只卖18。89美元。沃尔马居然没得卖，我们非常失望。这是一部800多页的大部头，纸张裁的参差不齐，像狗啃的一样。Biajee说这是故意访古，这品位也太差了吧。

国会否决了7000亿美元的救市行动，致使股市狂跌700多点，创了纪录。我们真是生活在一个奇妙的时代。大选之后股市会更加疯狂的。美国将会有一半的银行破产。投资银行这个可怜的行业将不复存在了。不由得暗自庆幸当年没有去华尔街。当时这些投资银行的分析师全都需要有经验的，所以自然没有我的份，现在看来这并不是一件坏事。谁愿意去分析一堆垃圾呢？

Starbucks

I'm meeting a former Corporate Express employee for coffee today. I think this is a great way to spend my morning. Rumors from multiple sources say that Doug Woodwards, the VP of Contract Merchandising in Staples, will fly into Denver tonight and clean up our department tomorrow. He'll leave at 4 pm tomorrow for Boston.

I'm still amazed at the fact that Staples will send a VP here to lay us all off. Do they think this will make us feel better? What a waste of resources and money. I don't think anyone is working hard today in the company. People are chatting with each other all over the place. Well, this has been the case for the past few months.

It'll be interesting to see how many people in my group will get an offer and move to Boston tomorrow. I bet nobody will work tomorrow either. My schedule is busy tomorrow: I have a training for how to do expense reports on the new website scheduled for 2 hours in the morning and then I'll have lunch with my previous boss who got laid off back in May. He offered to buy me lunch tomorrow. Maybe I could cry on his shoulders after getting my precious severance package and retention plan if there is any.

银荒

今天加州的朋友打来了电话，说加州现在人心惶惶，大家全都去银行取钱了。尤其是华盛顿互惠银行的客户，凡是存款超过10万的人都应该尽快将钱取出。联邦储蓄保险制保证每个人在每个银行最高10万元的限额。所以如果你有超过10万元的现金，就应该分别放在不同的银行里。联邦储蓄保险公司只有500亿美元的资产，要用来保证1万亿的存款，实在是力有不逮。

幸亏我们的银行是大通银行。我早在几年以前就把华盛顿互惠银行的账号关闭了。这是在我做房屋按揭的时候决定的，当时华盛顿互惠银行的口碑极差，并且它们的电脑从中西部到东岸都不联网，以致我在佛罗里达存的钱根本显示不出来。我一怒之下将钱转到了大通银行，然后去华盛顿互惠银行关账号，当时账上还有一万多块钱，我要求他们立刻兑现金给我。银行职员却说这么大的数目还是现金支票方便，我说好，那就现金支票。可他们立刻要求我支付7.50元的手续费。我当然不干了，这是我的钱，我要现金，不要现金支票，也不要交手续费。后来支行经理出来说他们银行根本没有1万元现金，所以决定免掉现金支票的手续费，还是给我开了现金支票。真庆幸离开了这家烂银行。

现在美国的很多银行都面临各种问题。今天里曼兄弟投资银行宣告破产了。接踵而来的将会使更大的金融危机，更多的银行破产。许多银行几乎已不受理房屋按揭贷款，因为他们的资产负债表上的债务不能太多。如果那天联邦储蓄保险公司破产了，这场金融危机就会一发不可收拾。今天道指跌了504点，是9/11以来最糟糕的一天。

Mini

Arnold is a Mini boy now. He just graduated from Toddler class and got moved to the Mini Room. Well, I'd have to say that he should have graduated 3 months ago if Biajee had asked the teacher. I urged the teacher and the director last Friday while Biajee was in surgery and questinoed them why they still hadn't moved Arnold. The result was that he got moved this Monday permanently without any transition period.

I cannot tell the difference between Mini and Toddler yet, but it looks like the kids are between 2 and 3 and some of them were already potty trained. We keep forgetting bring Arnold's pictures to school to be put on the door of his cabinet. Arnold seems to be in a high spirit every minute as long as he sees mom and dad every day. He probably still has no idea that he'll be a big brother in a few months.

We haven't prepared anything yet. It's still too early and Biajee is still limping every day. He still has minor bleedings. The doctor will remove all the threads next Monday though. We just hope everything goes fine and he can walk normally soon.

男孩

今天去看了超声波，是一个男孩。正如Biajee几个星期前看到的那样。真是太好了。我就要统治三个男人了。换言之，我就要做女王了。很爽。

医生说婴儿的输尿管在与膀胱相接的地方很窄，有可能卡住，导致肾里积液体量稍微偏高，所以我28周时还要再做一次超声波以确定没有问题。

Biajee的腿还是一瘸一拐的，切皮的面积太大，伤口有时还渗出血滴来，看来还得过一段时间才能好。我们公司的职员已经纷纷在与订书器眉来眼去了，看来不少人就要拿到波士顿的工作了。我不禁为自己的懒惰而感到汗颜。实际上我已经连续两天没有看电视连续剧了，这简直使我觉得自己神圣崇高了。我坚决不在订书器工作，想到终于可以不与这些弱智的人天天见面而且又有遣散费拿，不由得心花怒放。所谓“士可杀不可辱”，决不能与订书器的人同流合污。

最近上班简直没有心情做任何事情， 连书也读不下去。我觉得自己的道行还是不够深，没有能够做到“不以物喜，不以己悲”。我现在应该关心肚里的宝宝，而不是公司里杂七杂八的琐事。

下个星期就要考试了，我还没什么时间读书。老师说有40道选择题，要背很多概念，真麻烦。昨天我的老板还问我愿不愿意去管理订书器的数据库。我告诉他这个职位听上去水平太低了，不过如果他告诉我年薪是多少，我才会决定是否考虑。实际上我才不想考虑呢。这种烂公司不去也罢，这些烂人永远见不到才好。

Surgery

We got up at 5 this morning. Arnold woke up as soon as the alarm rang. The building door of the surgery center was closed when we got there so we had to follow some employees into it.

The doctor decided to sedate Biajee, which meant they gave him drug through IV and knocked him out. I drove Arnold to school while Biajee was having surgery.

The operation took over an hour. Then Dr. Ma came out and talked to me. Basically everything went well. She took some skins around the mole to patch it up so Biajee's cut would look weird in shape.

What I don't like about this place is that they don't let me see him immediately after the surgery. I have to wait outside till he gets over his soreness and dress himself up. Then the nurse will come out to tell me to pull the car to the front door and discharge us.

So glad I have the blackberry so that I can work on the blog while waiting. This is my first blog written with the blackberry. I think it's better than iPhone. I may get one for myself if I get laid off.

黑梅

今天终于学会了如何将黑梅里的所有信息下载到电脑的可读文件里。这是个很重要的过程，因为我目前没有自己的手机，一切都是公司财产，连这个号码都不能带走。一旦公司决定遣散我了，就得带上这些重要信息逃之夭夭。原本说9月2日宣布大家的命运的决定被推迟到9月15日了。我觉得越晚通知越好，反正我对这些决定也没什么兴趣。

订书器公司第二季度的净收益比去年同期下降了16%。这就意味着他们得尽快把我们遣散才能缩减开支。已经有很多人打电话询问我有没有消息了，真好玩。为什么我会知道呢？我什么也不想知道呀。拜托千万别告诉我。我的老板试图在上星期五早上7：30召开组会，我一气之下干脆请假不来上班了。现在公司里没有任何部门这么早开会了。而且也没有任何重要的事需要在7：30通知大家。这简直是权力欲望的极端表现。

刚刚听说订书器的人把我们香港办公室的人得罪了，结果那些香港同事拒绝接受订书器的培训，并不愿向他们提供交接数据。所以现在虽然订书器的人在香港，但好多数据都得通过我向香港索要，再转给订书器，简直是多此一举。大概他们不知道香港的工作非常好找，雇员往往可以在一两个星期内找到工作，之后就可以炒老板的鱿鱼了。简直想不到会有这种事情。

老板让我全力与订书器合作，我心想，我要是不合作，他们哪能这么快就把所有进口产品全搞定。当年如果不是这个组的两个老板忌惮我，不让我掌握亚洲方面的某些数据，现在我一个人就可以完成所有数据交接，而且早就交接完毕了，我们也早就没工作了。

Shabu-Shabu

We went to the downtown aquarium yesterday. There are tigers and snakes raised there as well so it's more like a mini-size zoo. Parking was $7. Then we decided to go to Aurora for lunch. I was craving for Shabu-shabu, the Japanese hotpot. I saw an ad in the newspaper once, but was totally clueless where the restaurant was.

Biajee took advantage of my blackberry and googled for the restaurant. It's very close to H Mart and the name is J Shabu.

The soup reminded us of Osaka. The food in Osaka was so cheap and delicious. I miss that a lot. We paid triple the price of what we paid in Japan yesterday and the food was not as good, but it was good enough to soothe us. The selection was quite limited and the price was fair for what they offered. There was only one waitress who was also the cashier and the cook. She was not Japanese. We each had a small hotpot in front of us and were presented a plate of mixed vegetables, tofu and clear noodles aside from a large plate of Sukiyaki beef.

Biajee had to ask for an extra bowl of Udon in the end. We didn't feel full without the Udon. It's a very important part of Japanese culture. And it's hard to get good Udon here. Biajee bought some frozen ones from Pacific Ocean Supermarket, which was no good at all.