Party Weekend

I realized that it's been over 7 months since I last posted a blog. This has been a busy year for us. My New Year's Day started with working in the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Dallas for 5 hours. In the past few weeks, I've been coming home late most of the time. Biajee took good care of the boys.

On the nights I left work early, Biajee and the boys could enjoy good food and good life. Saturdays are busy for all of us. Arnold has Taekwondo at 8:30 am and then both Arnold and Arthur are taking swimming classes. Tonight we're going to a friend's house in Fayetteville for party.

We're bringing Moscato Sparkling, roast duck and jelly fish salad. It will be a long night and we have Chinese school tomorrow afternoon. Arnold has made some progress in Chinese, English and math. Educating the boys has occupied most of our lives.

Tomorrow afternoon we're going to watch Super Bowl. It'll be NY Giants vs New England Patriots. The game will be in Indianapolis. I'll be making spring rolls while we're watching the game. This time I'm going to make shrimp only because I have a friend at work who is from Pakistan and cannot eat pork. I'm thinking of bringing him some spring rolls on Monday.

Biajee is going to buy some cleats. He's thinking about playing soccer at 6 am in the morning twice a week in the Walton Lifetime Fitness Center.

We had some good Bordeaux from Spain last night. It was made in 2005, very delicious.

国庆节

明天就是国庆节周末了。我们全家准备去沃斯堡的动物园。传说是全美排名前十名的动物园。希望很好玩。今天我2：30就下班了。前几天晚上每天都8：30才离开公司。Biajee已经开始抱怨了。

刚才把积压几天的衣服整理一下。家里非常零乱，主要是因为有两个混世魔王。我们准备把冰箱里的食物大清洗一番，所以今晚煮猪骨汤喝。

Biajee和我发现我们是大城市长大的人，似乎很难融入红脖子世界。所以在奔腾村住了两年，还是没有很多知心的朋友，不由令人觉得做人很失败。记得巴菲特说过：“如果你改变不了周围的人，就应该去改变周围的人。”真是至理名言。

孩子们今天在学校会玩水。阿瑟很喜欢游泳。如果好好培养，也许会有所成就。这几年在奔腾村住，托儿费用节省了不少，移民的身份也都解决了，还算是没有白白在红脖子世界转一圈。

阿诺很快就得上中文学校和钢琴课了。我们还没有找到很好的钢琴老师和课程。据说飞也特村的铃木课程不错。但上星期Biajee带我们去看的老师不是正式的铃木课程的老师，所以一切调查研究都得重新开始。大概得下周末才能再去看学校和课程了。

GMail

My gmail was locked up today because someone was trying to access my account from Spain. Somehow I couldn't retrieve anything from iPhone and had to come home and verify my account.

Biajee said Windows Phone is a good product as well. It came to the market too late though. Most manufacturers are using iPad and Android and most software developers are too lazy to develop apps for Windows Phone. However, Microsoft launched Office 365 today, which is an Office suite that can be accessed online, through smart phones and anywhere in the world. This should be a huge win for Microsoft as the more time people spend on using their software, the more potential they'll have making money.

We went boating on Beaver Lake the past Sunday. We rented a striper fishing boat for 4 hours, which cost $130 plus $10 in gas. Biajee and I will never want to own a boat. It's a lot of work to maintain and we won't go on water every week. We didn't catch any fish, but the kids had a great time.

We're planning on going to Fort Worth Zoo during July 4th weekend. Last year we went to Dallas Zoo and were very disappointed. It is said that Fort Worth Zoo ranks top 10 in the country and is a lot better than Dallas Zoo. We have very high expectations and hopefully can eat some genuine Chinese food as well.

时差

原来大家都有时差。阿瑟从下午一点税卡去以后就没醒过。我很怕她半夜两点又醒了，那昨天我们为倒时差付出的努力将付之东流。

我们已经连续两个学期没能给阿瑟报上游泳课了，所以很希望明天能全家一起去游泳，当然是在父亲节的午餐之后。Ｂｉａｊｅｅ很喜欢Ella's, 是我们去年母亲节去吃过，味道不错，是自助餐，有很棒的羊排。

阿诺的跆拳道课进展很好，他现在已经是桔色腰带了。８月１５日阿诺就要上小学的学前班了。时间过得真快。我很希望能尽快让阿诺学钢琴。很多我自己小时候没有机会接触的东东要多给孩子创造机会。中文课过了暑假也可以开始了。很快我们的周末就会排得满满的。

最近和东岸的朋友聊过天，觉得孩子们还是在大城市长大比较好，机会多一些，环境好一些，当然竞争也非常激烈。阿肯色确实是很封闭的州。如果没有沃尔玛的存在，这里不知比外面要落后多少年。当年住在丹佛的时候，就有朋友因为受不了丹佛的落后而举家搬到东岸去。现在发现如果受不了丹佛，那么阿肯色简直是人间地狱。这里没有中餐，没有很好的国家公园，没有动物园，没有博物馆，没有很大的购物中心，当然也无法滑雪。我们全家就像苦行僧一样的活着。怪不得大多数人周末都去教堂与上帝交流。

暑假回国

时间过得真快。距离上次写博客已经半年多了。我们全家又回北京探亲，6月14日刚回美国。

北京变化实在很大。贫富差距悬殊，有钱人真多呀。

这次我们住在美华世纪公寓，在建国门附近。这是私人出租的公寓，所以没有人打扫房间。我几乎每天早上去塞特俱乐部游泳。北京的公园6点才开门，给喜欢晨练的我带来很多不便。记得小时候老人们4点左右就去公园了，现在发现老人们5点多就聚集在公园门口，等着进去晨练。这个城市整体来说比20年前要晚了，也许大家夜生活太丰富了吧。

我们带着孩子去天安门三次，照了很多相。阿诺最喜欢天安门，在纪录片上看过很多次，一定要去。孩子们倒时差花去一星期，这段时间我们每天2点起床，之后便带孩子们去天安门或奥林匹克公园完，6：30吃早饭，非常充实。

北京的交通比去年没有好转，去景山公园那天，Biajee和我把阿诺留在公园门口和爷爷奶奶姑姑一起，我们找车位花了两个小时，最后决定把车开回公寓再坐出租车上街。

这次吃到王府井小吃街，东华门夜市和前门的门框胡同。爆肚是王府井小吃街的最好吃，一定要选清真地点。东华门夜市多半是做给老外看的，食物并不好吃。门框胡同已经拆得差不多了，只剩一家爆肚冯，还没有王府井小吃街的好。炉煮火烧一定要吃小碗的，多加几个汤底。
最好玩的是北京动物园。孩子们得到许多玩具，还在海洋馆喂鱼，看了海狮海豚表演。推荐最好吃的冰棍是双棒，雪人，大红果和奇彩旋。

全家还一起爬了八达岭长城，在长城脚下吃了很贵很难吃的饭菜，全家都很失望。

最好的川菜是新川办餐厅，最好的淮扬菜是无名居和张生记。包子是鼎泰丰的最好吃。狗不理也不错，但一定要去金元mall.

我们在回程的飞机上还吃了其他乘客带的芝麻烧饼和酱牛肉，听说是在北京的超市买的，好好吃。老家肉饼的早饭也不错，比前几年大有长进。

现在我们又回到阿肯色，过起苦行僧的日子了。

Trip to China

Our trip to China started from November 15th, when I had to go to the company at 6 am and come home by 11 am. I　promised the vice president prior to leaving that I'd be available through email or phone call throughout the vacation. Biajee and I were under a lot of pressure and were really not in much mood for vacation during the beginning of the trip.

The boys, though, were having a great time since the very beginning. We had dumplings at home before Biajee picked up the kids. We left home at about 1 pm, precisely 2 hours prior to departure. There were some playground in Bentonville airport and they had a great time crawling in and out of the castle. Biajee forgot to add the mileage to our AA One World account when obtaining the boarding pass.

I decided to correct this mistake during the transit in Chicago. We even created an AA One World account for Arnold. He'll start to have accumulated mileage from this trip and many trips in upcoming years. We ate some bar food at O'Hare airport because Biajee didn't want to eat at Chili's. The transit time was four hours so we even had enough time to get 2 strawberry vivano from Starbucks after dinner.

The flight from Chicago to China is about 13.5 hours long. The flight was very empty so our family occupied two rows in the middle. The boys slept lying down most of the time. Biajee and I slept lying down for a few hours. I watched Despicable Me and Twilight Saga: Eclipse during the flight.

It was very cold in Beijing when we landed. Both families were waiting for us at the airport. My in-laws rented a car for us so that we could drive to our hotel. We stayed at an apartment hotel on the east 3rd ring in Beijing. The location is absolutely very convenient and there are tons of restaurants around the place. It's also next to a subway station so transportation was very convenient.

My father-in-law prepared a lot of cash for us this time. Everything we do in Beijing was on him. This was a gift of love to all four of us. We hadn't been back to Beijing for 6 years due to Biajee's immigration status. Our future plan is to go back to see everyone annually.

The minute we opened the hotel room, the kids saw a red toy car and a toy police motorcycle that are both drivable in the room. There are two boxes of other toys and tons of clothes and even a baby crib. Our families had checked in for us earlier during the day and arranged the room to the best condition.

Both boys had jet lag and refused to sleep during the night. We were very lucky that we didn't stay home, otherwise there would be no rest for the whole house. Our flight arrived at around 11:18 pm so we didn't get back to our hotel till 1:30 am on November 16th.

I went with dad to the beauty center near Kunlun hotel the next morning to make an appointment for facial and massage on Friday, then we went to a salon close to the hotel to get my hair done. The whole family waited for us till 2 pm to have lunch together. Arthur was asleep then so my sister-in-law had to stay in the hotel room with him.

We went to the Fuli plaza across the street. Downstairs there are different kinds of fast food called 大食代。　We ordered wonton, steamed buns, pan-fried buns, noodles, cold veggie appetizers and 凉皮。 Everything was delicious and I felt I ate too much.

The only issue was it was very hard to find public restrooms in Beijing. Even if you found one, there would be no toilet paper so it's recommended that you bring your own toilet paper whenever you go out and always go to the restroom at home before you decide to go out. Most restrooms are squat-style vs. sit-style so it was very hard for Arnold to adjust in the beginning and generally speaking, most restrooms are quite dirty. I had to make a fair comment that the condition of public restrooms in Beijing was a zillion times better than when I was a kid. I still have nightmares these days about dirty restrooms whenever I had too much stress from work. Dirty restrooms are my pain points during the years I grew up in Beijing. I don't think I could ever forget about them in my life.

My father-in-law took all of us to the Pangu Seven Star Hotel for dinner the first night. It was right across the street from the bird nest and the water cube. The service was top notch and food was delicious. The price was sky-rocketing high as well. We ordered a fish that cost 2,500 yuan (around $400) and the rest of the dishes were 2,500 yuan. Everything they served us were delicate, artistic and soothed the taste-bud very well.

There was even private restroom inside the room we dined. The kids walked around the hotel after they finish the majority of their dinner. We took a lot of family pictures in the hotel as well. My father-in-law said that we'd come back again next year during summer. He had very good taste in delicacies and had dined in a lot of different restaurants in Beijing and other cities in China.

I went to the stock exchange and the bank with my dad on the morning of the 3rd day. Biajee went with us and waited for us in the bookstore in Xidan. This was the day we utilized the subway systems together and we had Sichuan food for lunch prior to going to the tailor's shop to make a Chiong-san for me. We bought some books for Arnold to study Chinese. We also went to Walmart in Beijing and bought a lot of DVDs and food.
We also went to my father's home and bought me a winter coat in the clothing market.

On Thursday evening, we went to the national theatre, shaped like an egg, to watch Don Quixote, performed by Royal Dutch Ballet Team. The performance was better than any of the ballet I'd ever saw in my life. It took us a while to find the entrance to the theatre though since we had to go under the ground. It was a wonderful experience recommended strongly by my father-in-law. We were lucky that we caught this performance since they only perform twice in Beijing.

On Friday morning, Biajee tried to take the boys to the day care opened by my sister-in-law. They got stuck in traffic for 2 hours and Arthur missed the toddler class. I went to treat myself in the morning via subway so I managed my time really well. Biajee came to pick me up at 1:50 pm and we drove to my in-laws' home for lunch. They steamed a fish and made some mushrooms for us. The boys ate a lot.

It was decided that we couldn't go to Water Cube that afternoon since we didn't pick up the tickets. My father-in-law ordered some tickets for us via phone, but we had to pick them up in the military museum in Beijing. Everyone suggested that we go by car at 4 pm in the afternoon.

The next thing Biajee and I knew was that we got stuck in traffic for 3 hours and there was almost no gas in the car. We couldn't find a gas station and we circled around Beijing West Station 3 times. Biajee even went into a taxi lane by accident and had to back out in the middle of the street. There were 3 taxis behind us, waiting patiently while we performed all the above. Fortunately, my father-in-law loaned us his iPad so we were able to reboot it and then search for the locations of gas stations. We finally refilled the gas and I went to a public restroom. Then we decided to pick them up and go out for dinner.

We went to a place called 江南赋。It was located near Zhongguancun. The food was not bad, but it was very cold there. We later found out that they turned off the heater at 8:30 pm every day and we arrived at about 8:30 that evening. Arnold was sleeping all night long. Arthur ate quite a bit. The beauty of this restaurant is if you spend over 100 yuan, they will give you back a 50 yuan gift certificate that you can use next time.

The next day was Saturday and we decided to go to China Science and Technology Museum for the whole day. Arnold and Arthur had a great time in there. We spent the morning in the Kid's Area and then had buffet lunch. The yogurt and soymilk were the best ever at the buffet restaurant. The only embarrassing thing we ran into was when I took Arnold pooping, there was no toilet paper in the restroom so I had to rush back to the restaurant and ask for a handful of napkins to wipe his butt. The lesson learned again: bring your own toilet paper whenever you go outside your home in Beijing.

We then watched the IMAX movie of cave exploration for 40 minutes. Afterwards, my in-laws watched Arnold and Arthur for a while and let Biajee and me walk around the 4th floor. The museum closed at 4:30 pm and Arnold missed the opportunity to ride the mockup roller coaster. We decided to come back next year.

We took the kids directly to dinner with Biajee's college classmates. The restaurant was 眉州东坡酒楼　near the airport. Everyone arrived really late so the boys were starving till 7 pm before we placed orders. The food was mostly Sichuan style, but all the veggie dishes tasted the same.

On Sunday morning, we dropped off the boys at my in-laws' home and then drove to University of Science and Technology Beijing to visit the former department head of Economy Management. He taught me during college and we had a very close relationship. We took him, his wife and another teacher (Ms. Xu Changmin) to lunch in a canteen in school. We then toured the new building of Economy Management Institute.

Biajee and I then called back home and decided that we need to go watch Harry Potter prior to having dinner. We went to the theater across the street from Shuangan Shangchang. The earliest seats we could get was for 4 pm. The beauty of the theatres in Beijing was that we had to sit according to assignment so there was no worry of losing good seats.

We went to Shuangan Shangchang and bought some undershirt and pants for the boys. I had to say that everything in Beijing was very expensive, from food to clothes to housing. I started to wonder how people could survive in Beijing. One interesting fact was that during our get-together with Biajee's classmates and my classmates, we had to pick up all the bills. Nobody was willing to pay for anything. I believe everyone was under a lot of pressure to make more money.

The movie was wonderful. It was Part I of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. The director of this movie was as good as the director of the first Harry Potter movie. There were a few episodes in between that were not well made. But this one was worth seeing for sure.

We met our families in 鼎泰丰　for steamed buns. These were the best buns we'd had for a while. Arnold must have had at least 15 buns. Arthur ate a lot as well. The dessert and the side dishes were very tasty too. Again, this was a recommendation by my father-in-law.

We decided to go to Tianjin on Monday via the high speed railway. It only took us 30 minutes to get there. My dad went with us. We toured the Old Culture Street and bought some brushes and papers for the boys to practice Chinese calligraphy. We then went to the original store of 狗不理　for lunch. It was located on 山东路，quite a distance from the Old Culture Street. We utilized taxi in Tianjin. The steamed buns there were the best. We strongly recommend pork and cabbage stuffing for the best buns in China in any good restaurant. Other flavors would not be as good.

We took the train back to Beijing and went to rest in the hotel, waiting for my uncle's family to come and have dinner with us. I had a massage while waiting. We went to the restaurant across the street from our hotel. The name is 松鹤楼。The food was great, but I didn't think my dad ordered the right dishes and Biajee had diahrrea afterwards. My aunt and uncle prepared two red-packets for the boys, along with toys and food. I believe the boys would be spoiled if they stay in China for too long.

We went to visit Sam's Club, Autie Zhao Peng's home on Tuesday. Sam's Club Yi Zhuang opened on November 14th. It felt a lot bigger than the Sam's Club in US. It was a very high end place in China, targeting middle and upper class consumers. We bought some bottled water drinks there.

Auntie Zhao Peng took us for hot pot. Arthur slept for the whole time while we ate and talked. We went to her home afterwards, watched TV, ate more and drank more soymilk. We left there at 3:30 pm and headed to my dad's home so that we could avoid rush hour traffic.

We had dinner at my dad's place. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law joined us as well. My father-in-law departed for a meeting in Huairou on Monday afternoon. We had crabs for dinner, along with fish, shrimp and other veggie dishes. Auntie Cao did most of the cooking. We also played badminton with dad in the house.

Daddy went to see the doctor on Wednesday morning. Biajee drove us to the tailor shop to try the Chiong-san. It was decided that we could pick it up on Friday. We then went to Xidan Transportation Bank to meet with dad again and drove to Xiaochang Chen to meet with Li Tianze for lunch.

The Xiaochang Chen Biajee picked out was located on Nanheng Jie, in a very shabby building. The price had gone up to 20 yuan per bowl. The food was delicious though, even the boys ate a lot of them. I decided that we need to get some more food in Hong Zhuangyuan.

We met my in-laws in Military Museum afterwards. Arnold was able to play with the tanks and planes. It was too cold outside. I strongly recommend not to purchase the extra tickets in Military Museum. The entrance to the Museum was free. All you need to do is to show your ID to get the tickets.

We drove to 江南赋 on 光华路　after the military museum to meet with my high school classmates. The gathering was very pleasant although not a lot of people showed up. Niu Hongtao arranged the whole thing and she is the one I'd missed a lot over the years.

On Thursday morning, we went to Beijing Hospital to visit Dr. Li Guozhen. She is 95 years old now, living with a nanny in her original home. She is Huanhuan's grandma and has always been very kind to me since Huanhuan and I became high school classmates. We had breakfast downstairs in 田野家。　Everything was really good there. Biajee was very impressed with the steamed buns and the pan-fried dumplings.

Granny was a bit lonely lately and she wanted very much to have lunch with us in Xinqiao Restaurant next door. We decided to visit the next day to have lunch with her. We met our families at 晋阳饭庄　for lunch and then toured 纪晓岚故居　next door. The food was so-so, but the tour was most interesting. The public restrooms are very cold in China during winter. I realize I'm complaining about restrooms everyday, but it's the reality if you plan on visiting China. Be prepared for it. Or you could pick very high end restaurants so that you won't run into such problems.

We tried to go the Nature Museum, but it was under construction and needs appointment for tour. We decided to skip it for this trip since we were running out of time. We went to our hotel with my in-laws and rested for a while. Biajee's high school classmates would join us for dinner in 巴国布衣　that evening.

Around 20 people showed up for dinner. Biajee had great conversations with old friends. I was able to socialize a bit as well as learn about all the silly things Biajee did when he was a kid. Wuyi shared with me the true life of diplomats in China. It feels like there are a lot of sacrifices in family life if you decide to be a diplomat.

Friday was the last day we were in Beijing. We went to pick up the Chiong-san only to find out that they were late and they delivered it to us on Friday evening. We went to Hong Zhuangyuan again for breakfast. It was not as good as the first time. Then we drove to Dr. Li's home to take her out to lunch. We had dim sum in Xinqiao restaurant. It was the best dim sum we'd had for years. Granny ate a lot of steamed buns and other food. She missed Huanhuan a lot. I sincerely hope Huanhuan and I could be back annually to see her. All she need was some attention from family.

Biajee taught my dad how to use iPod in the afternoon. We then went to dinner in Shuangjing Xuan. Two of my classmates from college joined us. Our luggage was packed afterwards. We bought 3 full priced plane tickets and were able to bring 6 check-in bags and we did check in six bags. Most of the luggage were toys and books for the boys. There were also some food we purchased as well.

The coming back flight was full so I didn't sleep at all. Biajee and the boys slept a bit. There was no headset in this sector of flights and the service was horrible. I got sick when I was in Beijing so I had a running nose and was coughing all way long. We arrived in Bentonville on time. We all slept in the afternoon to catch up the time zone change.

I woke up at 4:30 pm to start unpack and finally finished by midnight. Biajee blow dried two of my cashmere sweater and permanently damaged them. Right now everyone in the house is fast asleep except for me. I'll need to get ready for tomorrow's work day.

文山会海

现在才发现作预算时非常繁琐的工作。这本身是一个非常漫长的项目，尤其是在沃尔玛，长达一年，其间要与各个部门沟通，简直无法有一刻安宁。一年之后就得立刻开始下一年的预算，就像希腊神话里的西习坲斯，永无休止地搬石头。

每天白天开很多会，每个会结束时都会有一堆工作要做，但又没有时间马上做，所以只好等大家都下班之后做，造成了加班的现状。

今天中午差点没来得及吃午饭，幸亏试食了肉糜面包和烤肉饼，又买了一个冷冻金枪鱼三文治，再加一包膨化食品，算是过关了。Biajee说很快鱼就要全部变成转基因的了，多么可怕！我要在它们转基因之前多吃一些。想不到生物科学以及高科技就被这样滥用了，简直堪称人类的悲哀。

上周末看了《车》这部动画片，非常好看，是迪斯尼下属的皮卡萨公司制作的。想不到现在的动画片已经达到炉火纯青，登峰造极的水平了。

下星期一就要去俄克拉荷马城给阿瑟看病了。真希望他快点好起来。这次我们星期六就出发，可以在那里玩一天，星期一再去医院。希望能在那里的中餐馆吃到活鱼。Biajee已经研究好要去那些景点了。现在Biajee已经成为旅行计划主管了。

Beijing

We booked our trip back to Beijing. It'll be 2nd half of November. We'll start the visa process in October. Since it's so expensive, we decided that it'll be best for us to be able to use it again next year.

Biajee took the boys to Rogers downtown today for a train event. We're completely adopting the midwest living style these days. I met 2 coworkers in Spa Estitheque. Apparently today is a spa day for girls.

Today is also the last day of this season's Taekwondo and swimming class. We have to register for the next swimming class in a week or two. I've pre-registered Arnold's Taekwondo class already. We need to buy him the outfit, which will cost $50.

I　went to volunteer for Youth Bridge Inc on Friday. The facility helps with youths and at risk youths with different problems, mostly focused on and related to substance abuse. At risk youth is a big social problem in the United States. The population of United States in 2% of the world, but consumptions of drugs are 2/3 of the world.

云吞

这两周每周末都包一些云吞给大家吃。主要是猪肉鲜虾油菜馅，所以味道十分受大家欢迎。孩子们宁愿吃皮所以我就吃很多馅，听上去好像我在虐待儿童一样。不过把馅包进皮里，煮好了再把皮和馅分开始很大的工程呢。有时候觉得还不如给孩子们煮片汤。

今天全家一起去开了星期六早会，顺便带大家参观了我的新办公室。有自己的办公室很惬意，这听上去很幼稚，但我长这么大，还是第一次有自己的办公室呢。由于我们公司以节俭著称，很多和我同级别或者比我级别高的人都没有自己的办公室。有没有办公室确实对工作影响不大，我实际上并不太在意。

阿瑟现在上游泳课，阿诺上跆拳道，所以周末时全家很忙碌。中午去山姆俱乐部购物并吃了比萨饼，路过勃拉姆斯还吃了汉堡包和冰激淋。回家之后Biajee坚持把剩的云吞全煮掉。吃完午饭已经下午三点了。全家午睡，现在才大概起床。

两星期前去照了全家福，沃尔玛内的照相馆很贵。明年不去那里了。

Biajee的新工作进展顺利。我给了他很多建议，譬如打印项目清单，与老板一对一谈话，和同事拉关系之类。Biajee颇觉受益匪浅。我觉得自己应该可以当很好的辅导员。现在的工作和曲妮娜不一样，主要得建立良好的人际关系。发现最好的交流不是发电子邮件，而是去和大家面对面谈话。

Washing Machine

Our washing machine has not been working properly for a few weeks. I called National Home Center, where it was purchased and the technician came to fix it today.

So far he has identified the problem. There was a plastic filter prior to the drain pump filled up by Arnold's socks, hairpins he brought from school, rockets from his transformer, etc. The socks smelled quite moldy already. These things were stuck there, causing the drain pump not able to pump water out, resulting in failure of spinning.

Right now, Brandon, the technician, is trying to put everything back in place. He said this was a main problem of the front load washers. Although front load saves water in comparison to top load washing machines, you may run into such technical problems.

The way to avoid this is to put all the little stuff into a wash bag and put it into the washer as a whole. I need to stop by Walmart today to get it before we can do laundry again. In other words, this would never have happened if had not had babies. So a tip for all our friends who have babies: use wash bag for baby stuff.

父亲节

今天是Ｂｉａｊｅｅ的第五个父亲节了．我们全家去密苏里／阿肯色火车公司搭乘了父亲节特别列车．列车发车站在斯普林代尔，一个位于奔腾村和费耶特村之间的城市．我们十一点从家出发，大概十一点半抵达车站．在剪票台取票，并特别询问了头等舱和普通舱的区别．原来普客是１９２０年建的车厢，头等是１９５０年建的车厢．普客更加适合我们，因为座位是一整排的，可以给小孩子睡觉．

１１：４５准时登车，发现头等的座位其实就是一些单人沙发，未必舒服，还是普客好．１２：００　整火车出发．网站上说这班车要去番布伦市，来回一趟就奔晚上７点了．实际上我们３：３０左右就回来了．中途经过了一个叫做文思录的地方，有一个１７００尺的隧道．过了隧道之后就找机会将车头调至车尾，往回开了．

上车之后就发午饭，每人有一个免费饮料，其余饮料一刀一份．午饭是典型的南方菜，烤猪肉，土豆沙拉和烤豆子．甜点是苹果馅饼．我们四个人吃了四份，主要是我在吃．Ｂｉａｊｅｅ星期五港刚拔完智齿，不能大吃，我只好一个人吃了四份午餐．当然味道相当不错了．

饭后服务员还进行了知识问答，我因为答对了题目还赢了一顶棒球帽，非常不错．路上经过了一架长７００尺的桥．之后阿诺就在Ｂｉａｊｅｅ身上尿了，造成的状况好像是Ｂｉａｊｅｅ尿裤子了．我们给阿诺带了替换的衣服，却没有Ｂｉａｊｅｅ的衣服，所以Ｂｉａｊｅｅ只好穿着有尿臊味的衣服直到回家．

Ｂｉａｊｅｅ昨天拿到了绿卡，所以我们可以计划回国了．

James at the Mill

Biajee received the offer from Walmart on June 2nd. He'll start the new job on June 14th. We went to James at the Mill on the night of June 2nd to celebrate.

James at the Mill is a restaurant with a long history. It's located in Fayetteville, but you actually exit at #62 on I-540 south to get there. It's a location that I used to eat a lot at years ago when I worked for a Walmart vendor.

The restaurant belongs to a hotel. There is a huge wooden mill outside erected in the 1900s. The pond and little waterfall are very entertaining to Arnold. Lots of fish are swimming in the pond, reminding us of West Lake in Hangzhou, China. We fed some leftover dinner bread to the fish there afterwards.

I ordered white Zinfindal for us. It's sort of a cheap white wine, but tastes very good and sweet. We had house salad, crab cake and a full rack of baby back ribs for dinner. Biajee was able to finish most of the ribs. The flavor was phenomenal. Dessert was most impressive. We had chocolate pyramid with raspberry sherbet and vanilla icecream, sided with fresh strawberries and pineapple.

I started a weight loss program the next day. The shirts I ordered from Ann Taylor arrived yesterday. They are all size 00 and fit me beautifully. The only disappointing thing was I paid for shipping when I ordered and now they started a Free Shipping with Orders over $150 special again. If you are a fan of Ann Taylor, I strongly recommend ordering clothes on line now. Size 00 is not carried in stores and is sold exclusively on line.