LimByLim

Ramblings: Girl Scout Cookies, Yogurtland & Babies

February 13, 2014 No Comments

Girl Scout cookie season is upon us. It is about half way through, and k has already surpassed her sales from last year. Currently she is at about 325 boxes, and I don’t expect her to go much higher. Like last year, we pushed hard the first couple of weeks and quickly tapered off. k’s confidence in asking people if they would like to buy cookies has definitely improved from last year, but there is still plenty of room for growth. Smile

I revamped our troop’s cookie booth poster, and it looks much cuter this year, if I do say so myself.

This is what our living room looked like on cookie delivery day. I really should have ordered more in the beginning so I wouldn’t have to bug our cookie mom so much about re-stocking. Lesson learned for next year.

k handed out bulletins at church as part of Scout Sunday

We participated in National Frozen Yogurt Day at Yogurtland. This is one of the few times when I allow the kids to load up on toppings, since they are free, so it is a real treat.

Recently, k and n have been really enjoying playing with their “babies”, which is a collection of about 7 or 8 dolls. I enjoy seeing how they use their imaginations in interacting with the babies.

This was a scene I found at the breakfast table the other day. They named the babies in front Boy Champion (aka Little Boy Blue) and Girl Champion (aka Sara, presumably named after their Auntie).

Girl Scouts

Watching the ‘Eaters

February 7, 2014 No Comments

Last Saturday we went to a UCI women’s basketball game against Cal Poly SLO. The Girl Scouts were giving away free tickets, so I thought going might inspire k’s basketball game. Unfortunately, UCI lost (we don’t seem to have luck with cheering the home team). By the way, I can’t believe the Cal team we watched lose to UCLA won a game against the number one team in the nation less than a week later!

We came in right during the National Anthem, but we were still able to sit in the second row (I guess that is why they were giving away tickets!) We even made it onto the jumbo tron, which was quite exciting, as I always thought that would be fun.

They had some fun giveaways during the game, including t-shirts, whole pizzas and In-N-Out cards that floated from the ceiling in mini hot air balloons. However, we were only able to snag some mini Nestle Crunch bars, which the kids were quite pleased with:

Afterwards, we celebrated Chinese New Year by eating orange chicken and chow fun. Smile

Family Field Trips, House, Vacation

The Media Niche Saga, Part II

February 5, 2014 2 Comments

I am happy to report that we have made another major improvement regarding our ill-placed media niche. I first blogged about our “problem” back in 2009. We have since gone through some changes, including getting rid of cable, buying an antenna, buying a converter so our Series 2 Tivo could work with digital over the air signals, and replacing our Tivo after it died with a Tivo Premiere, which negated the need for the converter.

This was our recent setup, which was certainly not ideal. TV shoved into the corner, ugly antenna hanging over the fireplace, and wire dangling between the tv and Tivo because I was too lazy to fish it through the wall (which I now realize is not even safe, after my dad showed me some internet articles).

A few weeks ago, my mom mentioned that my dad was thinking of buying a new television and giving their old (very nice) one to us. Only problem was that there was no way it would fit in our media niche. They thought maybe we could wall off the media niche and hang the television. I brought it up to D, thinking there was no way he would go for it. Surprisingly, he was open to it, so we called a guy that hung our neighbor’s television. We decided to add a partial fake wall, so that the media niche would be even on top and bottom, and the tv would fit on the wall above the fireplace.

Here is our “fake” wall mid-construction. It is about four inches deep.

A hole was made so the wires could go through.

It’s up! We will have to put up some shelving to fully utilize the space. I guess that will be part three of this ongoing saga. Hopefully it will not take us another four years!

Date Night, Running

Pauley Pavilion

January 29, 2014 No Comments

D and I have not had “date night” in a while, so when D was offered tickets to the Cal v. UCLA game, we jumped at the opportunity. The game started at 5 p.m., so we left early to beat the traffic and ate an early dinner. One of D’s colleagues who knows we like “cheap eats” recommended that we eat at Gushi, so that is what we did.

It is definitely a hole-in-the-wall place. The patio is basically on Galey Ave., and it is super-loud with motorcycles revving their engines, and screeching tires.

We shared a Combo Plate, which comes with a drink for $11. It was quite a lot of food! We reminisced about Steve’s Place in Berkeley, which was also known for large quantities of Korean BBQ. Being around colleges always reminds me of my own college experience.

We gobbled down our food and walked quickly to Pauley Pavilion. It is a very nice facility and so convenient since it is in the middle of the campus. The game was a disappointment since Cal lost, and actually was never in the lead. At times, UCLA was up by a lot, but Cal did make a mini-comeback which at least made it somewhat interesting. One highlight of the half-time show is that we saw a guy win a free Kaplan course by shooting a lay-up, free throw shot, three point shot and a half-court shot all within thirty seconds! I like how basketball games are so short in comparison to football games. We were home by 8 p.m., just in time for me to record the Grammy’s (since I forgot to set our Tivo).

Running

The Sixth Time’s a Charm

January 22, 2014 No Comments

On Sunday, I ran my sixth and final marathon. Leading up to the marathon I was so burned out from training for my fourth full marathon in the last 12 months that I didn’t stress out about it. I chose the marathon because the temperature is usually in the 40s and 50s; however it ended up being in the 50s and 60s. In fact at the beginning of the marathon the MC said that most won’t get a PR due the higher temperatures (it was in the 70s at the end of the race). That gave me a good excuse if I didn’t PR. I also was resigned to the fact that I probably would never break 4 hours in a marathon given that my previous PR in five tries was 4:08:58. The race started at 6:15 a.m. and leading up to the race it was smooth. The marathon started over an hour before the half marathon so parking, the porta-potties, and finding a dry warm place to stretch was not a problem. Being a smaller race, it wasn’t really crowded at the beginning of the race like the L.A. Marathon. I started out the first mile at a 9 minute pace. At mile 7 I was under an hour, and at the mid-way point I was around 1 hour and 50 minutes. I thought I was going out to fast and would soon regret it, but I was feeling OK so I kept the pace. Soon after I lost half of my salt tablets while reaching for them. Trying to keep calm I thought if I got to mile 20 in 3 hours, I would have a shot at a PR. I past the 20 mile marker in 2 hours and 50 minutes. I started cramping at mile 22, but fought through it. By mile 24 I thought 4 hours was possible, so I just tried to enjoy the view for the last couple of miles. I really didn’t think I could break 4 hours, and am still not sure how I did it. I know God kept me calm and answered my prayer of just doing the best I could. I am glad that after 8 years (4 10ks, 6 halfs, and 6 full marathons) I finally accomplished the biggest goal I dared to dream: A sub-4:00 marathon! Praise God. I can officially change big bucket list item #2 to… Run a sub-4:00 hour marathon (Carlsbad 2014)

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MLK Weekend

January 21, 2014 No Comments

We had a full three-day weekend. Friday afternoon, D drove down to Carlsbad to pick up his race packet. k had her second keiki hula lesson.

Saturday morning, we had a consultation with someone to hang our new-to-us television. Saturday afternoon, k went to a Fancy Nancy-themed birthday party. Saturday night we went to Souplantation so that D could carbo-load.

Sunday morning, D ran what he has deemed his last marathon. (He’ll provide more details, I’m sure). Sunday night, D and k had a daddy-daughter bowling night with her girl scout troop. n and I had a mommy-son date at In-n-Out.

Monday morning we went on a whale-watching cruise in Newport with Davey’s Locker. All four of us only had to pay $32 total, which I thought was a good idea (again, we had free tickets through OC Register). We took our car on the Balboa ferry.

This was our boat.

We gawked at the large homes/boats.

We saw numerous bottle-nosed dolphins. You can only see the tip of the dorsal fin here, but they were pretty active.

We saw California sea lions.

Unfortunately, we saw ZERO whales. Yesterday the boats saw a total of 17 gray whales, and according to the website, they saw 5 gray whales during the later cruises today. Oh well. We received 50% off coupons for our next cruise since we didn’t see any whales, but I’m not sure when we’ll want to try again.

This was the only whale we did see.

n fell asleep. I was thankful that none of us became seasick.

It was a lovely day weather-wise.

Afterward we went to my parents’ house to celebrate my sister’s birthday.

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Turtle Rock Community Park

January 14, 2014 No Comments

We had some free time on Saturday morning, so we decided to check out Turtle Rock Community Park in Irvine. We started out by checking out the small Nature Center. There is a short trail that is accessible via the back of the Nature Center.

First we consulted the trail map.

Then we headed toward the right, and found the rock maze.

Then we looked at the human sun dial.

I enjoyed reading the quotes along the way.

This is the perfect “hike” for really small kids—even toddlers could do it.

Next the kids played in the park.

We snacked on mini bagel chips—aren’t they cute?

There is also a small stream with ducks.

I enjoyed exploring this park. It is always good to spend some time outdoors, and we are fortunate that such outings are possible in the middle of winter.

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A Princess Party

January 13, 2014 No Comments

Last weekend k went to a princess-tea themed birthday party. Since the moms were invited, I attended as well. I enjoyed all of the details, and I think I had as much fun as k. I am glad k had another opportunity to wear her Easter dress!

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Goodbye 2013, Hello 2014

January 10, 2014 No Comments

Yes, this post is a little late, but better than never. New Year’s Eve we followed our annual tradition of looking through all of our photo albums. At night we tried to all sleep on our couch, per our other tradition, but alas, this was the year when we just did not fit. D volunteered to sleep on the floor.

n took a nap around dinnertime, so he was still awake when D and k were sleeping at around 9:45 p.m. We were all asleep by around 10 p.m., though.

New Year’s Day was all about the food!

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Good-Bye KBF!

January 9, 2014 No Comments

We used our Knott’s Berry Farm 2013 passes for the last time on Dec. 30. We managed to whittle the price down to less than $5 per person per visit, which was our goal. I am officially tired of Camp Snoopy and I have no plans to return to KBF until n is old enough to ride the faster roller coasters. All in all, we had many fun times there, though, and I’m sure the kids will miss it.

One place that I always meant to visit with the kids, but never did, was the replica of Independence Hall. During our last visit, I made sure we stopped by.