Christmas in Seattle

Well, I had my first White Christmas! Mary and Mom flew in, too. Here is Mary making a snow angel in front of Grandma's garage.

This was also my first year sending out Christmas cards/newsletters. I liked writing in the cards and the way they came out, but I was distraught by the process of narrowing down whom to send them to. If you did not receive a Christmas card, I apologize. I am happy to send a PDF (electronic) version of the card to each person who asks me via e-mail. It has the benefit of being scalable, and it will not fade in sunlight!

Everyone said this was the most snow they had seen in Seattle, and some people have lived here 30+ years! Outside of my Auntie Nancy's house, crazy icicles formed. The ones shown were at least 2 feet long.

When I was a kid, I was very into receiving presents. Well, only particular presents, i.e., things on my wish-list to Santa. Usually this included money, Transformers, G.I. Joe, GoBots, and/or He-Man. I remember one year when I must have had ~20 presents, and I wanted them ASAP. I probably asked if I could open them all on Christmas at midnight. While that did not work, I somehow got my parents to agree to let me open one present every hour, starting at midnight. While I was unsupervised (because they were sleeping, duh), I stuck to this "honorable" agreement. So I was spoiled ... and no doubt ungrateful ... but at least I had honor ....

From Christmastime

This year, Christmas was very low-key. In Sacramento, we would visit my dad's grave in the morning; this time we just did our own thing. The annual Christmas dinner here is hosted by Uncle Paul and Auntie Nancy. Unfortunately, a couple of relatives could not make it in the snow. After dinner, we opened up presents. The most presents probably were for Baby Jubilee. Mary also had us perform a reading of part of the play "The Man who would be King," by Dorothy Sayers.

On Saturday, Mary and I made Christmas cookies with a spritzer cookie gun. When we were kids, we used to do that every year.

From Icicles, snow angel, snow melt

Now the snow has mostly melted, but it was a bit messy. I think my car got stuck in the snow/ice/mud about six times over three days. But each time we were able to get it out after not too long. And I learned a lot.

More snow! More snow! More snow!

So last time I thought it had snowed an inch or more. This time it was more like six inches!

Compare this picture to one from last time. See how the street is now invisible?

The snow was nice and crunchy. It had a very thin icy layer on top, which made it fun to walk on. It reminded me of several foods: the crunchy top layer of a custard mochi if it is cooked long enough, creme brulee, some meringue, and marshmallows cooked on a campfire. Tasty.

I was so excited by all the snow that I kept listening for the person in our building who shovels the snow. When I heard him, I ran outside and asked if I could do it! He let me shovel the entire walkway, which was totally fun (and a good workout) for me. Someone should make a Wii game like that: "Wii House Chores."

Sunday, a couple from church had their wedding! My Uncle Paul and company went. Thankfully, everyone was okay.

From More snow!

There has been so much snow that, only a few hours ago, a big branch from one of our pine trees broke under the weight. For scale, you can see a 4-door car on the right side of the picture! Thankfully, no one had parked directly under the tree.

I know the snow must eventually melt, and I am not looking forward to that. It seems like everything will get muddy, dirty, and wet.

But wouldn't that be a good Hemingway title? "The Snow Also Melts." It would be a total chick-flick.

Snow! Snow! Snow!

The first pic may look like rain, but it is snow!

It snowed on Sunday! I think it was at least an inch!

This was the first time in my life that I remember seeing snow fall, except in Lake Tahoe. And Tahoe was different, because there was already lots of snow on the ground.





In the morning, the snow looked really nice. I really like the way the snow looks on bushes and trees, and even on my car. It was an adventure for me to figure out how to clean off my car so I could visit Grandma. And then to drive slowly and watch out for ice on the roads. And I find it fascinating how the snow stays on the cars and bushes for days, even if it is sunny outside.

From First snow of winter!

The snow on my car makes it look like I got a new roof, Mini-Cooper style!

It is supposed to snow even more today and get even colder. I am very grateful to live in a warm apartment.

Apple's Photo Booth

If you have a Mac or know someone who has one, have you ever tried "Photo Booth"? I think it is one of the hidden gems of OS X.

For those not familiar with Photo Booth, it is a simple way to take pictures using a Mac's built-in camera. Photo Booth has been around for at least a couple of years, and it comes pre-installed in all new Macs. You click on the camera icon, then it counts down 3-2-1-*CLICK*, and you've got your photo! Just like a real photo booth.

However, I suspect there are some who have used Photo Booth and not realized its full potential: the effects! Photo Booth uses the computer to manipulate an image in real-time, so you can easily set up and take some really interesting pictures.

Why do I think some people may have used Photo Booth but not used the effects? It is because of a user interface problem, in my opinion. If you were a new Photo Booth user, you might try this: open Photo Booth, click on the camera icon, and take a picture. Then click on the picture you just took. Now I've told you that you can make cool effects with Photo Booth, so you might look for the Effects button to set up your next photo. But the Effects button is not there! You have to click on the camera icon to enter live mode, and then the "Effects" button will show up. You might not think this is an issue, but I was totally frustrated with this a couple of years ago, and earlier this month, my cousin had the same problem. They have improved things in the latest version by letting you select Effects from the menus, but they also could have simply had the Effects button always visible; clicking on the button would then switch the camera to live mode.

From Photo Booth

One of the new effects in Photo Booth is to put a custom scene behind you. Here, I am riding a roller coaster! One more reason I never have to leave home!

A Fong Thanksgiving

So I had my first Thanksgiving with my Seattle relatives. I was warned beforehand that they like to eat a lot for Thanksgiving. "That's strange," I thought. "We seem to eat well already for regular family events."

From David, Wai, Sophie, Mae

Anyway, they were right. I don't think we had any more food than the average American Thanksgiving, but we ate together the entire week! Several events culminated this week: Mom visited, Uncle David flew up from Los Angeles, Uncle Wai closed his sub sandwich shop for Thanksgiving weekend, and Jubilee, my first-cousin-once-removed, had her first birthday! This resulted in really nice meals the entire week: Sunday night (church Thanksgiving), Sunday night again (Wai's birthday), Tuesday night (David's birthday), Wednesday lunch (Wai's subs) and dinner (fancy burgers and wine with David and Mae), Thursday lunch (Wai's dim sum) and dinner (Thanksgiving), Friday lunch (Wai's dim sum) and dinner (turkey jook/porridge), and Sunday dinner (Jubilee's birthday).

From Thanksgiving!

Of course, I feel undeservedly lucky. (Is that like grace?) However, I am really happy that I again got to know some of my relatives better. Many aren't even my blood relatives, but they still have been very kind to me.

From Wii Fit

My Wii Fit helped quantify this week's feasting: I gained 4.6 pounds since Tuesday! On the other hand, before this week I was worried that I was losing too much weight. Silly me.

Notice that my Mii says, "I ate too much . . ."