*Live Free or Die*

I know you've been waiting patiently by your computers hitting the refresh button every few minutes with the hopes of seeing what our big news is, right? RIGHT?!?!

Let me just start by saying the following: NO, I am NOT pregnant. Goodness, does everyone have sex on their minds or something?

The B.I.G. news is this. We're moving. Again. Back to the east coast. Where on the east coast, you ask? I have provided a fairly obvious hint of where we're going with the photo above. Still not sure? It's NEW HAMPSHIRE!!!!!!!!

Dave was offered a position with a company in Manchester and he has accepted. He is really excited about this opportunity. Congratulations, Dave!

This is VERY exciting because Dave will be doing the kind of work he wants to do. I will be able to stay home with Beana and focus on some things I've been wanting to do for a long time. We'll also be much closer to family and friends.

On the other hand, this is not exciting because we are going to leave the most incredible group of friends here in Seattle. All of Beana's aunties who love her and care for her like Dave and I do. We love them all so much and love it here.

The east coast winters are the other reason this is not exciting. Have I mentioned that I grew up for the most part on tropical islands? Have I mentioned that cold weather for long amounts of time make me crazy? :) Aaaah, I'll get over it. I lived in Manhattan and Philly long enough to know what to expect and I'll be able to teach Sabrina how to make snowmen! See, there is a light at the end of every tunnel.

This past weekend, while in NH, we had a couple of opportunities to spend time with old and new friends. It was awesome. A friend had suggested that we look for a place closer to our friends and not the beach areas we were looking. After seeing/meeting everyone Dave and I decided our friend was right. Being close to friends would make a huge difference. I can always drive to the beach. We will be living in Nashua. We found a great house this past weekend with the help of an awesome realtor from Remax. We sure got a lot done during our 72 hour long (touch down to take off) house hunting trip.

So...we're packing a little every day. Dave will be there by the beginning of April and Beana and I will be there shortly after.

See you soon, everyone!

Dream a little dream...

Our new president keeps making cameos in my dreams. No, not really a cameo...more like a co-star.

Ok, to be honest in my dreams we're having an affair. Yeah, it's H.O.T.

How weird is that? Do I have a crush on Obama? And if that's not crazy enough, read on.

The first time it happened I woke up, looked at Dave and said, "I just had the weirdest dream. I was having an affair...with Barack Obama."

Dave started laughing hard and then said, "Wow, you really like that guy!"

I said, "I guess so...but that's not even the weird part. Apparently I really like Michelle Obama too because in my dreams I'm having an affair with her too!"

All of my lesbian friends are laughing at me right now, I just know it.

POW!

Yes, that is a black eye that my daughter has in the pictures above.

If you think she looks bad, you should see the OTHER guy!

Just kidding.

Seriously, this kid is going to give me a heart attack one day. This past Saturday she was sitting on a dining room chair and playing with some paper that was on the table. I was washing dishes and was about 2 feet away from her.

I hear a sound, look over and watch as she somehow tips over to her left and proceeds to fall out of the chair. This would have been ok as the chair is not very high. I mean she trips and falls all the time, right?

The OTHER chair that was in the way of her face on the way down was the culprit.

Oh my gosh. At first I didn't realize that her face had caught the corner of the chair. She was face down and started SCREAMING with her face buried into the floor. I rushed to pick her up, looked at her face quickly and didn't see anything wrong. I held her tight for another minute and then looked down again at her face and there it was. This small cut next to her eye.

I hugged her once more then looked down again and this time could see the swelling begin right by the bridge of her nose.

She was quickly consoled by bottle and I frantically called Dave. I didn't know if I should bring her to the hospital or just let it be. Dave fractured his orbit a while back and needed plastic surgery to keep his eye from sinking into his head. I had a crowbar fall off the top of a ladder and land square in the middle of my head resulting in a beautiful concussion that to this day I swear is the reason I get massive headaches. So, needless to say, we're a bit nervous about any head or face injury.

Long story short, I was able to get a same day appointment with our pediatrician who had us do an x-ray and all is well. She was laughing and playing by the end of the day. I, on the other hand, could have fallen asleep standing up by the time we left the hospital. All that adrenalin and nervousness finally at bay made me sooooo tired.

I do have to admit that I'm still yelling at myself in my head for not having anticipated that the other chair was too close. I know it's not rational but when you have someone who depends on you 150% and then things like this happen you can't help but automatically take some or all of the blame upon yourself. Welcome to the world of parenting.

Happy New Year!

Chinese New Year, that is!

The year of the Ox has arrived. Are you ready? Last year was a little rough around the edges...so I'm seriously rooting for a good one.

So sorry for the LOOOOONG delay between posts. Life...was...happening.

So let's start fresh, shall we?

We had an awesome New Year's celebration on Sunday. About 10 friends came to hang out and celebrate. And the main thing we did was E.A.T. This is Chinese New Year and if you ever visit my family in Taiwan during a holiday you'll see what a feast really is. So I thought I would follow suit.

I made striped bass steamed with ginger then *flash* cooked with hot oil, mandarin beef, sesame noodles, ants climbing trees (cellophane noodle dish with pork), shrimp egg rolls, string beans, eggplant, rice, marinated cucumber salad, bean sprout salad, and the traditional dish of steamed dumplings. I also served a roast duck, but that was from Chinatown. It still counts though.

It was a big meal and I'm pretty sure everyone enjoyed it. At one point as I kept bringing out dishes Rhianna said, "It's like we're at Dim Sum, Maria! It just keeps coming!"

I really like to cook, but being my mother's daughter, cannot seem to make a dish that serves less than 6. I don't quite know why I do that but I always have. I don't cook often...I call it my yearly cook off.

The best part of the night was Sabrina (of course). She was running around in her chi-pao dress looking cute as ever. My aunt bought this dress for her while we were in Taiwan and it finally fits. I think you'll agree!

I'll write more soon...

Happy New Year everyone!!!!!

My missing limb~

2 weeks = 14 days = 336 hours = 20,160 minutes = 1,209, 600 seconds.

Could 2 weeks feel any longer than it did while I was traveling for work through Seoul, Hong Kong, Hanoi and southern Taiwan? By myself? Without my husband? Without my daughter?

Sabrina's picture is the desktop image on my laptop and every morning of every meeting I attended, no matter what mood I was in good or bad, when my laptop loaded up and her little face popped up with that shit eating grin of hers and her Mariner's cap on sideways I just smiled like the Cheshire cat.

How is it possible to constantly have 2 people on your mind 24 hours a day? Could it be because she is quite possibly the coolest kid I have ever given birth to? (See how I complimented her without insulting all the other children of the world? Smooth.)

Could it be because I have the most A.W.E.S.O.M.E. husband who also happens to be a kick ass dad? Seriously. He just doesn't stop. Sabrina's face lights up like a Christmas tree whenever she sees him.

When their flight arrived at 5:00 am on a saturday in Taoyuan, Taiwan I was sitting and waiting behind a wall that keeps people from being able to crowd the exit doors. There is a large screen television that gives you a nice wide view of the people who will be exiting through these doors to help you find your friends and family easily. I was pretty tired but pretty excited. The night before I went to sleep fairly early. My aunt asked why I was going to bed so soon and I said,

"The sooner I fall asleep, the sooner I wake up and it's time to go to the airport to pick up my family."

Who can argue with that logic?

I saw them on the tv and I ran to the wall and started waving to get their attention. Dave saw me, smiled and waved back. And then I started running to get to the end of the long wall that separated us. I couldn't believe how emotional I was feeling. And that wall just did not seem to want to end. I've been through a lot of airports throughout the world and I'm pretty sure that this wall is the longest of them all. It felt like it was getting longer and longer. Is this a trick?!?!?

I finally reached them and Dave gave me a big hug and kiss and Sabrina was smiling at me from her car seat. I gave her a big kiss and pulled her out of the car seat and hugged her like crazy. And the tears were rolling down my cheeks.

Don't ask me why. It's not like I didn't know I was going to see them in 2 weeks...but being away from them feels like I'm missing a limb. I hadn't slept well at all and just felt disconnected in a lot of ways.

I don't think I can do that again. Not for 2 weeks. Way too long. And poor Dave - taking care of an infant by himself day and night. But did he complain even a little? Not once. He even took the time to send me some early morning, straight out of bed pics of the two of them.

Awwww. Aren't they so cute?

And just a quick *shout out* to our friend Liz Diesner!!!!!!! Who, during the 1st 2 weeks I was gone picked up Sabrina every Tuesday from day care and watched her until 11pm while Dave was in class, then for the following 2 weeks fed and watered our cat, painted the back deck, worked on the yard and watered our plants. You rock, gurrrl!

Hanoi Hilton...a history lesson

I had an extra day in Hanoi and wasn't sure what to do with it. It's not that there's not a million things to do and see in Hanoi, it's that it's summer and the summer weather is just plain torture.

It AMAZES me to see people walking around in jeans and long sleeve shirts. If I could I'd be naked with one of those umbrella hats that fit snug on your head and the umbrella cleverly shades your head. And why stop there? I would even buy one of those little battery operated mini handheld fans, shimmy it to a string and creatively find a way to tie it around myself so that the fan was blowing directly on my sweaty head. Seriously. Hanoi is hot as hell and 100% humidity to boot.

I had toyed with the idea of leaving a day earlier than planned and going to Taiwan but then I remembered my dad had said it would really be cool if I checked out Hoa Lo prison, which is commonly known as the "Hanoi Hilton". If you read my last post you have probably figured out that I'm very superstitious. On top of that I believe in ghosts and spirits and all that jazz. I just do. As a result I have absolutely no desire to hang out in cemeteries or any other place known to hold dead bodies or where people were cruelly treated and killed. And I'm pretty sure that Hanoi Hilton fits this description quite well.

However, my dad has a fairly strong influence on me and I would do pretty much anything for the coolest dude on earth...aka my dad. He's a huge history buff and growing up I remember him trying to teach us history and connecting it with what was going on at the present moment. There was always a lesson of which I'm pretty sure I missed the majority, it was just his excitement when telling the stories that made me stick around. So I decided I would visit the prison, maybe I'd learn something. I did not know anything about the prison other than the bits I've heard about McCain being held there after his plane was shot down in the 70's.

What I found most interesting is that the prison was built by the french to imprison (mostly) political prisoners during the early 1900's. The photos and letters and descriptions of the kind of treatment the Vietnamese prisoners endured were pretty disturbing. I made myself go and see the guillotine which seemed like such a simple machine considering what it was made for. Seeing the guillotine wasn't quite as scary as looking at the baskets that lined the walls next to it. These baskets were used to hold the severed heads. I didn't last too long in that room.

The part that bothered me was the way they portrayed the part of the prison's history when American soldiers were held there. It seemed too unbalanced especially considering you get to this part of the prison after seeing how the Vietnamese were treated by the French earlier that century.

My understanding was that the prisoner's who were held there and then released stated they were treated poorly (to put it mildly). The prison, however, displayed only very positive looking images such as clean clothes and new toiletries that were given to the soldiers upon arrival. There were Christmas drawings that the prisoners' made and a photo collage of soldiers decorating a Christmas tree. There were letters from the prisoners stating they were treated very well. I had to do some digging around to figure out why the current Vietnamese government was making such an obvious deliberate effort to make this all look so positive.

In a nutshell, "although North Vietnam had signed on to the Third Geneva Convention of 1949, which demanded "decent and humane treatment" of prisoners of war, the North Vietnamese saw U.S. bombing attacks as "crimes against humanity". As a consequence, severe torture methods were employed. The aim of the torture was usually not acquiring military information but to break the will of the prisoners, both individually and as a group. The goal of the North Vietnamese was to get statements from the prisoners that criticized U.S. conduct of the war and praised how the North Vietnamese treated them. Such POW statements would be viewed as a propaganda victory in the battle to sway world and U.S. domestic opinion against the U.S. war effort. In the end, North Vietnamese torture was sufficiently brutal and prolonged that virtually every American POW so subjected made a statement of some kind at some time."

Ah ha!

Now I understood. Like my dad said, "When you win the war, you get to write the story."



P.S. The Vietnamese refer to the war as the "American War". Interesting, no?

Sharing IS Caring!

To quickly catch you up, I've come and gone from Hong Kong where we were hit by a typhoon! I ate wonderful food and met a couple of awesome people!

My next stop was Hanoi, Vietnam. The people here are really, really, really kind. I stayed at a little hotel in the Old Quarter which is quite a busy area. Crossing the street here takes a bit of faith. I just focused on a spot across the street, said a quick prayer and walked. Quickly. Didn't get hit once. Whew!

There's a lot to tell about Vietnam but too many to write in one post.

I want to tell you a meal I experienced one afternoon. In Vietnam there is a dish called 'bun cha' which is a lunchtime only dish that is easily found in northern Vietnam and a bit more difficult to find in the south. There isn't a lot to it, just some BBQ minced pork balls in fish sauce with vegetation and cold noodles. However, this is a dish not to be missed!

I sat down at a community table across from a man in his late 40's. They put a plate of raw vegetables and basil (yum!) in front of me along with the small plate of noodles, an empty bowl with a spoon, a bowl with the grilled meats and vegetable in a soup, another bowl with just the broth and the vegetable and small plate with a couple of fried spring rolls. I took a picture of it for you.

I started to eat my lunch and was immediately totally and completely focused on this meal. It was delicious! There were so many tastes and textures and colors to be mixed and played with. I watched the other patrons to figure out what could go with what and realized you can mix these ingredients in any way you want.

The platter of raw vegetables and basil was quite large. I kept reaching for the different ingredients and savoring every bite. All the while there was a stream of people coming in and going up the stairs to their tables. I was sitting fairly close to this stairwell and kept getting knocked in the back and the back of my head by their bags and elbows. Everything in Vietnam is fairly tight quarters so you just have to get used to it. To be honest I didn't care at all - everytime my head was hit and pushed forward I was in the middle of bringing my chopsticks to my mouth so the result was a mouthful of deliciousness. Would YOU complain?

The woman next to me got up to leave and her dishes were removed from the table. Another person immediately sat down in her chair and he was given the same set of dishes and food that I was given.

I then realized something.

There were 8 people at this table. There were 8 of the same meal on the table. BUT there were only 7 platters of the vege's and basil.

I had been picking from the platter in front of me not realizing that the platter belonged to the man sitting in front of me. The first few times I reached into the plate I noticed him look at me a little funny and smile but I thought it was because he realized I was a foreigner. Now I realized that it was because I was eating off his plate!

Oh. My. Gosh.

Not only had I been eating off his plate, I was using my fingers to pick the basil and reaching into it with my chopsticks using the end of the chopsticks that go into my mouth. When you are sharing with family this is ok, when you're eating with new friends or business acquaintences you should flip your chopsticks over and use that end to grab items.

But let's be honest, the main rule of thumb that really applies here is that you DON'T EAT OFF OF YOUR NEIGHBOR'S PLATE ESPECIALLY WHEN YOU DON'T KNOW THEM.

But did I stop eating off the plate? NO! Didn't I tell you that that was one of the best parts of the whole meal? He didn't seem to mind sharing so I apparently didn't seem to mind either!

I did start to flip my chopsticks over but I just kept on eating. I was hungry!

Mr. Rogers was right ~ Sharing really IS caring!