Light Switcheroo

It's nit-picky, but we think the light switches with the lame on/off labels from the 70's are tacky and ugly. So Tung, all by himself, embarked upon the project of changing them out to the more modern, big-tab switches throughout our entire house. It's a good thing, too, because what goes on with electricity in the dark, cavernous confines of the wall is something that I don't want to mess with. Here's a picture of the switch after the wall plate has been removed:


Um, yuck. I wasn't around to hear the cursing that must have inevitably come forth when Tung discovered the lack of color-coding of the positive and negative wires, but I'll bet that was fun times for him. Below are pictures of the old double switches, along with a new and old switch mounted side-by-side for comparison:




And here's the ugliness of the wall stuffs aesthetically covered up with new wall plates:


The double switcheroo:

And now, all that's left to do besides enjoying the pretty new switches is getting past the muscle memory of flicking instead of pressing whenever we want to turn our lights on and off.

Against the Grain

Time flies, like a kite cut free of its tethering string, borne on the fickle winds, fluttering and drifting aimlessly against a backdrop of dark clouds and gray sky. In between being out of town and being sick, I hadn’t been to the dojo in over a week. A week on break from training feels so long, and my internal sense of time gets knocked off kilter. The hours bleed into days, and I forget where in the week I am without the benchmark training evenings to regulate myself.

It serves me right for being healthy for such a long streak—I knew that whatever I got next, it would be heavy enough to knock me out for a while. Memories of the last few months’ events drift into my prescription-drug-induced unconsciousness, of Sensei badly injuring his knee during the Hawaii Doshu Seminar, of his surgery and time away from the dojo. Sensations of jo training with Sempai lace my dreams; I am struggling to manipulate the jo to bring him down in a shihonage, but the wood bends in the middle and refuses to lend me its strength. “The wood is strongest along the grain,” Sempai tells me, “so extend through the jo.” I understand, but I cannot physically move to make it work. Sweat drenches my brow and soaks into my shirt as I sleep. It’s all I want to do for a long while, and I shun the sensations of consciousness and the healing sunlight to stay in that Sandman world where I hope my body can heal.

But I do wake. Yesterday, I stepped back onto the freshly-varnished wood of the dojo floor. My body feels weak from muscles left unconditioned and from the release of antibodies to fight the foreign intrusion. My lungs ache from the constant, hacking cough that still lingers. But Sensei is there for his frequent visits, hurt knee free from the clunky brace, and now walking without crutches. He’s been off the mat for a lot longer than me—since February—so I know I don’t have a right to complain. He inspires me to heal, shows me that if you work at it, it becomes possible. I bow in, and I take it easy during my first evening back, but I still sweat and struggle. My coughs bring forth a copper-tinged taste of weariness, like there are holes inside of me that bleed out my energy and passion. I have been off the mat, but I have never stopped fighting. It feels like a constant battle against the grain to get better and regain my strength. How can I blend and make it work? “Take it slow, but don’t baby it,” Sempai would advise. “Keep training,” Sensei would say. So I do. I take slow and steady steps back onto the mat, say “Onegai-shimasu,” and give the best that I can from this body recently broken.

Dome Light Installation 101

You know there's a problem when you're trying to play an interactive video game such as Wii tennis or Kinect Sports, and both you and your guests keep whacking the damn, low-hanging chandelier in the TV room in your zest to move your limbs. Yet another reason to replace a brand new, fully functional item in the house.


Because neither Tung nor I are very well-versed in the art of home improvement, we confess we almost gave up when we first cracked open the box and thought, due to the crappy instructions included, that we were missing some parts, But after getting over the wussiness of wanting to give up early, and maybe partly from the laziness of not wanting to drive back to Home Depot, we decided to give it a go.

Let me just stress that a dining chair ghetto-rigged with two Yellow Pages books for height enhancement is not the greatest way to go about installing a dome light.


We did have a ladder in the backyard but decided it wouldn't fit in the house, so for the most part of two hours, we came up with various creative (maybe stupid?) ways of enhancing our height, including me holding the parts up to the ceiling with a blunt wooden stick while Tung used both hands to connect the wires together, along with him using my wooden meat pounder and a flat-head screwdriver to chisel away aspestos bits in an effort to create a bigger hole (with no small amount of cursing involved).


Who says kitchen tools don't come in handy during home improvement? This gives a whole new purpose to P90-x arm- and shoulder-workouts, as well as the 5th bokken suburi done on repeat.

Finally, out of desperation, Tung asked to try the tall ladder, so after wrenching it free from the backyard tangle of overgrown winter weeds, I managed to fit it in the house. What a difference an extra step makes--with the right arsenal, Tung was able to finish screwing in the flush-mounted light.


Here's the aftermath of what it takes to install a single dome light for the first time:


And finally, the sweet results:


Clean and ready for some Wii whacking and Kinect volleyball!

2011 Garden

We are growing tomatoes for the first time in our house. It was just around this time last year that we were preparing to move in, so this year, it's time to focus on the garden! We put in some Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes, Early Girls, Aces, Beefmasters, Champions, and Miracle Sweets, along with two zucchini plants. Can't wait to see how well they fare this summer.



Our herb garden consists of the existing mint, and I put in some new Sweet Basil plants and Cilantro.


To make the front of our house a little more colorful, I put in some small pink daisy bushes (osteopermums) and kalanchoes in magenta, yellow, and red.


I also planted some red, orange, and yellow marigolds in the round plot of our mimosa tree.

Napa Valley Wine Tasting

We spent a 3-day weekend in Napa Valley, our first time wine tasting. Aside from it being slightly cold, April is a lovely time to go as the hills, vineyards, and cultivated gardens are all lush and green from all the spring rain. Our first stop was V. Sattui, a great place to picnic. V. Sattui has a monopoly on the sales of food such as sandwiches and cheese--the winery was grandfathered-in after the Napa county decided to prohibit the sales of food on winery grounds.



Our next stop was Peju, a rather private winery with a quaint koi pond on the premises. The spring tulips were freshly in bloom right outside the tasting room.


Our sommelier was an old man who goes by Alan "The Yodelmeister." Not only does he yodel (which we did not hear), he also raps (which we did) when presenting the wines we tasted.



Next stop, Robert Mondavi, a popular tourist attraction known for good tours of the vineyards for beginner wine tasters. We did not taste here but toured the grounds on our own.


We also visited Chandon (home of the bubblies!) without tasting. Chandon has an impressive wine-bottle wall and has a more modern, chic ambiance to it.


Last stop for our Thursday: Silverado, a less-known and more private estate with tasting tables overlooking the beautiful valley.


I confess that by this time we were a lit-tle tipsy--everything tasted the same here, so we decided it was time to check into our hotel in the small city of Santa Rosa and call it a night.


The next morning, we had breakfast at Chloe's, a hole-in-the-wall, French-owned bakery/breakfast cafe. All the pastries and breakfast items were yummy! I had a chocolate croissant (pain du chocolat) and an apricot tart, and Tung had a breakfast baguette with eggs, bell peppers, sauteed onions, and cheese. The food was so good that we bought some sandwiches for a picnic at lunch.


We then went to Sterling Vineyards, where an aerial tram took us up to the tasting grounds.


This was a self-guided tour, and we walked around the "modern castle," getting our wine glasses refilled at designated stations while we enjoyed the magnificent view and learned about winemaking in the process.


We decided to stop by Old Faithful Geyser Park to see the natural geyser shoot off every 15 minutes as we ate our sandwiches from Chloe's.

A fun part of the park was the sizeable petting zoo, where I enjoyed petting and feeding the llama, goats (including the Tennessee fainting kind) . . .


. . . and Jacob three-horned sheep, who just had her spring lamb not too long ago.


Next major tour, Castello di Amorosa, the sister-winery of V. Sattui, built by Dario Sattui, the grandson. To me, the castle was an impressive piece of architecture with ironwork and stones imported directly from Europe.


It was fun to see the towers, courtyard, royal dining hall, and, of course, the dungeon, complete with all ye torture devices!


The Castello has a summertime Renaissance Fair for wine members only. Boy, I'd like to crash that party. Due to not yet being able to get permission from the county to host overnight guests, the only live-in residents of the castle are the small flock of barnyard animals and two cats--a blondie named Lancelot and a gray tabby named Guinevere (the English geek in me thought that was a cute and clever naming scheme).


After stocking up our wine purchases at the castle, we walked around the Town of Calistoga, regretting leaving our bathing suits at home and not being able to take advantage of the mineral-water baths that the region is known for.


For dinner, we decided on a whim to drop by a hole-in-the-wall barbecue house called Buster's Southern BBQ with a narrow ordering aisle reminiscent of Wienerschnitzel.


We were blown away by the quality of our BBQ dinner, served on modest paper plates. I tried the habanero hot BBQ sauce, and they weren't kidding when they warned me it was HOT! Tung had the tri-tip, and I had the half-chicken dinner. We loved it so much that we dropped by for lunch on the next day.


On Saturday, our last day of vacation, we visited the Petrified Forest to see trees that had been naturally petrified by volcanic eruption.


We guided ourselves through the short loop tour and then dropped by Prager Port, whose interesting interior decor includes dollar bills left behind and tagged by previous guests. Ports are too sweet for Tung's and my taste, but we did get a dessert wine out of it.


Next, we dropped by Sutter Home, home of the white zinfandel, and walked around the gorgeous garden.



And then it's homeward bound, but not before another stop to V. Sattui to stock up some more! This place gets ridiculous crowded on the weekends--the difference between our trip on the quieter Thursday morning was painfully obvious. But we did make it out with a bottle of 12-year-old Port and a Cabernet Sauvignon as a gift to Tung's family.


And finally, the stash, to commemorate our first wine tasting trip. For sure, we'll be back!

The Clues of Engagement

Note: The actual clues are the ones in red italics underneath the numbered titles, which I've included to more easily keep track of them.

1.) The First Clue


It all started with some Edible Arrangement boxes delivered to my workplace. Tucked in with chocolate-covered strawberries and pineapples is a note:

I know no ways to mince it in love, but
directly to say "I love you:" then if you urge
me farther than to say "do you in faith?" I
wear out my suit. Give me your answer; i'
faith, do: and so clap hands and a bargain:
how say you, lady?


The note also explains that I will begin my quest for happiness on this day, and that the gate keeper is

“the boy that defeated a giant.”




2.) David

Tipped off by the quote by Shakespeare’s Henry V that it will lead to a proposal, I saw it coming but was unsure of where it would lead. I contacted the first person that occurred to me from the giant clue—my brother David, who sent me the next clue:

3.) The Phantom of the Opera

Great plays starts with a great overture. The object of your desire is full of mysteries that cannot be fully explained, and it shines like no others. Your first hint is located in an object that can be found in this video. Happy hunting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpmURNb449o

The video clip showed the opening scene from Phantom, one of our favorite plays, where the chandelier is put up for auction and transitions into the beginning of the story when the Paris Opera House was thriving. After watching the film starring Gerard Butler, we waited for a long time for the play to show in San Francisco, and on the night we went, a man had proposed to his girlfriend during intermission. I had mentioned that I thought it was pretty romantic, but my proposal story doesn’t stop here.

4.) The Chandelier

When I got home from work, I stood on one of the dining chairs to find my next clue in the chandelier of our formal dining room:

“Among her guests, Suyuan found the ‘best quality’ in her daughter.”



Right away, I recognize the line from The Joy Luck Club, one of my favorite books. Naturally, I thought it must be hidden in the chapter “Best Quality,” so I flipped through that book on my shelf but didn’t find anything. With some prompting, I realized the chapter described a scene where, during a family dinner, everyone gathered around the table to eat crab (naturally, a favorite of mine). Coming together for food represents unity and a time for bonding in so many cultures, and being family-oriented, both Tung and I are big on hosting and attending events like these. At my usual seat, I found, taped underneath the formal dining table, my next clue, coupled with a hex wrench.




5.) “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here”

The road ahead will be treacherous.
Omnem dimittite spem, o vos intrantes

When Tung met me in college, I had a facetious license plate frame on my car: “Starlight, Starbright, Where the Hell is Mr. Right?” After we started dating and I was pretty sure I found my Mr. Right, I switched the message to “Abandon Hope all Ye Who Enter Here”—a quote from Dante Alighieri’s "Inferno" section of The Divine Comedy, inscribed on the threshold of the Gates of Hell. I bee-lined to the first Inferno that came to mind—Tung’s bathroom, trying the hex wrench on various objects screwed to the wall without finding an appropriate fit. I next tried the oven, thinking it might be a temperature reference, but didn’t find a clue there, either. Finally, with the “road” portion of the clue, I figured it would be car-related, so after using the hex wrench to pry open my back license plate frame, I found the next clue.

6.) A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Lord, what fools these mortals be!

One of the first plays I took Tung to was a production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Santa Clara University. Since then, he got forever sucked into the cheesy world of live performances and musicals. I recognized that line spoken by Puck right away, so within seconds, I found my next clue in my Pelican Shakespeare anthology at the beginning of the Midsummer play. A funny side-note is that Tung claimed to have spent hours looking through my various, very thick Norton anthologies to find the appropriate one in which to hide the clue. If you’ve ever owned or had to read from a Norton, you’d know the jokes about its sheer bulk, one of the favorites being that it is an English major’s murder weapon of choice (one clonk to the head, and you’re a goner).




7.) Room and Jewels

My next two-part clue led me to a specific room in the house, and then to an object in the room.

Locate me first:

Call me Mary Beton, Mary Seton, Mary Carmichael or any other name you please—it is not a matter of importance.

Then me:

I had brought so many beautiful gowns, so much jewelry, ornamented sandals, hairpins and diadems and headdresses.

I confess I do not know my Virginia Woolf and had no idea about the first clue. Turned out it was from “A Room of One’s Own,” which I had initially thought was the office in our house that we painted purple as a designated “writing room” for me, but it was actually the bedroom. The second quote was from The Memoirs of Cleopatra, alluding to her jewelry and ornaments, leading me to my jewelry box.

8.) Shoes

When there’s a shine on your shoes
There’s a melody in your heart
What a wonderful way to start the day.

One of the first things I put together by myself was a shoe rack for the house (astronomical talent, I know), and in one of the shoe boxes—conveniently the LAST one I managed to look in—was my next clue.




9.) “Good fences make good neighbors”

Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall…

From the famous Robert Frost poem, I was led to the fence that we had rebuilt, sharing the cost with our backyard neighbors. The old fence had fallen down from a storm when we first moved in, and it was one of the many repair and renovation projects Tung and I went through as new homeowners.




10.) Kitchen and Cutlery

Two American ladies wish to retain a cook -- 27 rue to Fleurus.

Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes.
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry, 'Hold, hold!'

Another two-part clue, the first from The Book of Salt by Monique Truong. Salt and cooks can be found in kitchens, and the second clue pointed me to my “keen knife,” a sharp-edged, Japanese iron blade used so often to prepare our dinners. Underneath the knife tray, I found…




11.) Wood

Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane,
I cannot taint with fear.




During the first Christmas we celebrated in our new home, Tung and I dashed to a local Safeway on a particularly frosty night and bought Dura-Flame logs to burn in our wood fireplace. In the wood box, I found the ring box still in its Classic Rock plastic shopping bag, where the ring was purchased. Where the ring should have been was another clue:

12.) The Way of Harmony

When an opponent comes forward, move in and greet him;

if he wants to pull back, send him on his way.

Of course, what proposal would be complete without a reference to my choice martial art and how Tung and I met to begin with? In an aikido book by Morihiro Saito—my current teacher’s teacher—was the Henry V quote that started my journey, and which Tung read out loud to me:


I know no ways to mince it in love, but
directly to say "I love you:" then if you urge
me farther than to say "do you in faith?" I
wear out my suit. Give me your answer; i'
faith, do: and so clap hands and a bargain:
how say you, lady?



When I said yes to him, he gave me my last verbal clue to find my well-deserved ring: “Inconceivable!” Nestled in the inner cover of The Princess Bride DVD was my ring wrapped in a microfiber cloth. Tung finally slipped it on my finger, sealing “The point of no return.”

*****

How do I define love? It’s a boy with kickboxing bruises on his shins, whom I first met through training, who showed no false pretenses and practiced aikido with me in the way it should be practiced: with commitment and practicality, and with heart. It’s a young man who took me to a Valentine’s dance in college and later rode a ferris wheel with me to see a view of the world from up high, even though I later found out he does not like dancing or heights. It’s in the little gestures like reaching out to cradle my head as he took the off-ramp of a freeway exit, to keep my head from lolling in my sound slumber. It’s long car rides where the journey meant more than the destination as we talked over things that bothered us about work, family, or school. It’s buying things together that spoke of bigger commitments—a wiggly little puppy that has now grown into a nine-year-old dog, a car, a house. And it’s someone who has been right by your side through the major parts of your life, sharing the journey with you, knowing enough to take you on a nostalgic trip down memory lane with little strips of paper containing literary clues.




When someone loves you, he remembers what you love. I’ve always felt I have not been completely true to my creative-writing nature when I took up technical writing for a living, but these old English literature quotes resurfaced from my memory and heart with every new clue that I unearthed. He said I have given him “10 wonderful years.” What say I to his proposal? That he has also given me the most memorable 10, and so much more. That I can’t wait to embark on the next 10 with him and see where life will bring us. That I have been, always will be, ready for him. Ready and waiting.

For Tung, whom I always carry in my heart alongside this poem:

If I could, I would bottle you and me.
A dab behind the ears, and suddenly
I’d have sun in my smile, stars in my eyes,
Ocean in my laugh and wind in my sighs,
Summer in my soul! In my fantasy,
I’d distill our love with alchemy,
Capture each sweet moment in amber glass—
Your flicker, my flash, your hush, and my sass…
Then I’d inhale what I already knew—
The answer to the question of love? You.