Gong Xi Fa Cai

January 26, 2009

Or .. Happy Chinese New Year to the non Mandarin speakers

Our Chinese New Year’s Eve day was an eventful one which began with hanging some Chinese sayings of good luck on our front door. In the pics you will see Alice’s brother leading the proceedings. Some fine tune adjustments were needed.

Alice’s mother slaved in the kitchen most of the day making what would constitute our 3 big meals of the day: 1) Mid Morning, 2) Mid Afternoon, and 3) 11 pm feast. She made the basic dishes which were the backbone of the three meals and new to each meal were fresh jiaozi (dumplings stuffed with pork, egg, spinach etc).

After the mid morning meal we took a walk to the beach to see the dinosaur bone sculptures and throw some rocks in the ocean. In these pictures are Nathan (light beige coat), Carter (blue coat), Alice (tall chinese girl), her niece Rong Rong (short chinese girl).

As per tradition we lit off fireworks in the evening. We were not alone as you can imagine. The main bulk of fireworks started around 5 pm or so and continued until 1 am … steady. It was hard to talk over the noise. It sounded like a warzone. Nathan was very frightened which meant for a tough night for him.

I took some video of the fireworks we set off last night and will post again when I am not so lazy. As I type this it is New Year’s Day morning and more are going off!

Brotherly Love

January 17, 2009

The boys hanging on a Saturday afternoon watching Ultraman.

Not Good at Math eh?

January 14, 2009

An article in the Wall Street Journal shows the results of a study from CareerCast.com that tried to categorize the best and worst professions.

Much to my surprise Mathematician came out on top … with Lumberjack coming out on the bottom. Sorry Dad.

Firefighter

What they don’t tell you is how many lumberjacks worked their arses off their whole lives so that their sons could go become mathematicians. Thanks Dad! (and Mom too of course!).

Below is the partial results. Notice that heavily math based jobs come in at #1, #2, #3, #5, #6 and #10. Biologists at #4 use math modelling extensively and have to take Calculus in university.

The Best and Worst Jobs

Of 200 Jobs studied, these came out on top — and at the bottom:

The Best The Worst
1. Mathematician 200. Lumberjack
2. Actuary 199. Dairy Farmer
3. Statistician 198. Taxi Driver
4. Biologist 197. Seaman
5. Software Engineer 196. EMT
6. Computer Systems Analyst 195. Roofer
7. Historian 194. Garbage Collector
8. Sociologist 193. Welder
9. Industrial Designer 192. Roustabout
10. Accountant 191. Ironworker
11. Economist 190. Construction Worker
12. Philosopher 189. Mail Carrier
13. Physicist 188. Sheet Metal Worker
14. Parole Officer 187. Auto Mechanic
15. Meteorologist 186. Butcher
16. Medical Laboratory Technician 185. Nuclear Decontamination Tech
17. Paralegal Assistant 184. Nurse (LN)
18. Computer Programmer 183. Painter
19. Motion Picture Editor 182. Child Care Worker
20. Astronomer 181. Firefighter

Let’s Ride

January 13, 2009

Haircuts

January 12, 2009

Took the boys out in the cold last night to get haircuts. Nathan really loved having it done. Carter didn’t say much but he did lay down in the shampoo chair after and said “Niiiiiice.” For the Canadian readers of this blog it cost a little less than $1 Canadian for each boy. Adults are around $2. “Niiiiiice.”

Happy Birthday Ampa!

January 8, 2009

Nathan, Carter, Alice and I wish you a very Happy Birthday! (Sorry we are a bit late .. couldn’t get on the blog for some reason).

Hope you enjoyed the Birthday song from the boys this morning!

Lace ‘Em Up

January 4, 2009

We took advantage of a few days off work and colder temperatures to get Carter out on the pond. This was his second day on skates and he picked it up really well. Yeah .. that Gretzky kid’s home movies put these to shame but Gretz didn’t grow up in China either.

The vids