a time to enjoy

The weather was perfect. Sunny, but cool.

We biked around the island. There were Yong and Xin biking ahead of us.

The water was crystal clear.

I took a picture of our hotel from the ferry.

My husband was taking an evening walk in front of our hotel room.

the bridge

it has nothing to do with work

My back has been hurting for 5 days now due to my diligent work on my puzzle mentioned in my last post. Bummer!

I am addicted to Guitar Hero now. Jinli let me borrow her wii for a couple of weeks, so I have devoted most of my time at home to that little box. I am still at the Easy level, but someday, I hope, I can fully explore my guitar-playing talent and start to earn the big bucks.

After lunch today, my colleagues and I went to CSE building and played foosball for 15 mins (sorry, Brian!). It was a lot of fun having 4 people playing. The game was pretty intense. At the last point the two teams were tied, but our opponent won at last. Ying has shown enough potential that after some practice I believe we can be the new champion.

Congrats to myself!

I finished my 2000-piece puzzle this afternoon!

It was bought in March. After I put together the borders and part of the tables, I lost my interest. When Rui visited me at the end of April, She was obssessed with it and made quite a bit progress. So this is how it looked after Rui left.

how the puzzle looked after Rui's visit

I was inspired by her, so I picked up where she had finished. I found that working on the puzzle fully showed how I worked on my research project or anything serious. It is very hard to get me started, but once I am able to focus, I can get a whole lot done, in general.

And here it is!

Ta-da!

my favorite family guy moments

Since I am not into writing or reading this week, I will just put something here to maintain my reader stream.

Here are my top 3 Family Guy moments so far:

1. Peter didn't believe he was fat, so Brian started to throw stuff at him and showed him that he was so fat that he even had his own gravitational force.

2. Peter made his house an independent nation, and sang to the policemen "can't touch me".

3. Peter felt violated after the doctor tried to give him a prostate exam.

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There is nothing on Youtube, so I couldn't post any of those clips. Bummer!

the best movie ever

I am not ashamed to admit that I think "message in the bottle" is the best movie ever.

Last night I watched it for the nth time, where n is larger than 3. It was still as beautiful and touching as the first time I saw it. And since I knew the ending, I started to cry around the middle of the movie. :)

There is grief, hope, forgiveness, lots of love, and Kevin Costner playing the perfect guy. Ahhh, what else can you ask for from a movie!

Iowa, I hope you will be ok

one of the bridges at downtown Cedar Rapids. I took this picture in last November.

This one was taken on the same day.

the picture from today's CNN. Where I circled is the same building as in the last picture. All the bridges are submerged now.

I like what the local sheriff said in the news:

"We're just kind of at God's mercy right now, so hopefully people that never prayed before this, it might be a good time to start," Linn County Sheriff Don Zeller said. "We're going to need a lot of prayers, and people are going to need a lot of patience and understanding."

(CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/weather/06/12/midwest.flooding.ap/index.html)

something light

1. four kittens

http://fabvalley.org/bbs/viewtopic.php?t=3380

2. bagel and fire

My former advisor bought a bagel at Mujo, the North Campus cafeteria. When he tried to heat it, the bagel was so large that it got stuck in the toaster and later caused a fire. (Brian, correct me here if I report it wrong.) There was even flame coming out of the toaster.

So my advisor asked the cashier: "Give me some water. There is fire!".
Cashier: "What kind of bagel did you order, sir?"
My advisor:"I need water to put off the fire!"
Cashier:"Oh, I already unplugged it."

3. BBQ smell

It happened on our way home today.
Ying: "I smell something good."
Me: "Is it from me?" (When we were in a restaurant last time, she said she smelled something nice and it was the perfume I was wearing.)
Ying: "NO! I smell BBQ. Meat!"
Me: "Well, this is meat (showing my arm), and the sun is burning my skin!"

Actually, there was some sort of bbq smell from somewhere else.

interesting encounter

Ying and I played tennis for about an hour this evening. Then I went back to my apt. Right after I opened the building door, I saw a woman lying there.

She seemed quite scared by me. She asked me "who are you? why are you here?" I soon realized that she thought she was in her own apt. So I told her that she was lying outside her apt. She was shocked by the truth.

I asked her if she wanted to go back to her apt and if she needed any help. She said yes, yes. So I picked up her stuff and walked her to her door. She asked me to come in. Since she seemed really sick, I did.

She kept saying "how did this happen" and seemed quite emotional. So I got her some water to drink. On her kitchen counter there were dozens of huge empty wine bottles. And I smelled alcohol from her breath. I asked her if she had been drinking. She didn't deny it.

Then she started crying. And kept asking me what my name is. I asked her to call for help. So she called her only friend. It made me sad that it seemed that person didn't really want to come. So I stayed to make sure he would be here, or I might need to call the hospital.

She kept sobbing. I asked why she was sad. She asked me why I cared. I said "because we are here". So she told me that her mom killed herself not long ago, and she had some major medical condition and showed me the surgery mark on her belly (which made me a little uncomfortable), and she was addicted to alcohol (I kind of figured that out).

I understand that she is in pain, but I don't know exactly how I can help. So I told her that she needs professional help with her alcohol problem. That God cares about her. That I used to drink everyday but he changed me. That we are all sinner so what happened happens. That my friends and I would pray for her. That things will be alright. It is hard to say how much she had listened. I hope God is working his way on her.

After she calmed down a little, I helped her find a comfortable position to rest and then I returned to my apt. Later her friend came. So hopefully she is taken good care of.

It is just sad to see that how much pains she is in and how helpless she seemed. She told me that it meant a lot that I cared. And yet I did so little. She asked me where my strengh came from. I answered God. On one hand I appreciate it that God gave me the chance to glorify him. On the other hand, I keep thinking oh please don't get me into trouble by helping strangers. It shouldn't be like this, but this is definitely something outside my comfort zone.

Let's see what will happen next.

I love Nadal

His fourth French Open championship! Yay!

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It is obvious that NBC bought too much time because they didn't expect Nadal would finish the game so easily. So they are playing the final of 2007 Wimbleton to fill the time. Well, I am fine with that. :)

so fed up

Now I understand Trudi and Brian's frustration with those commentators. I mean, come on, Nadal is a great player and he has won French Open for the past three years. But all that they are talking about is how great Federer is and how surprised they are when Federer loses one point.

I want to shout to them "what are you talking about?!!" and "shut up!!!!!".

French Open

Again, Nadal to Federer.

Now I have something to look forward to this Sunday.

another vacation

My husband is coming to visit me at the end of this month, so we are going to drive up north with another couple and enjoy a nice weekend by the lake.

This is the motel we are going to stay:

http://www.clearwaterlakeshore.com/index.htm

Ahh, isn't it lovely? Our room will be facing the lake and the bridge. We can walk on the sand anytime, which is right in front of the house. I can't wait!

lifegroup, books and the earthquake

Last night was my first lifegroup since, let me think, the summer began. Anyway, it felt like forever. For people with short-term memory like myself, this can not be good. When I am away from my lifegroup for too long, I feel detached, or even become frustrated with them. However, once I sit with them and hear them talk, I fall in love with all those girls again. I feel, again, that I have the most awesome lifegroup. So I need to write this down just to remind myself of how unreliable my feelings are.

The book of June for my bookclub is "the power and the glory" by Graham Greene, which is Brian P.'s favorite book. I started it last week in order that I might have the courage to attend this month's bookclub discussion. Then I ended up with reading Philip Yancey's "finding God in unexpected places", which speaks more directly to my heart for the time being. Yancey's books have a comforting effect on me because my heart resonates with his questions and doublts while his discussions give me insights into how to cope with my frustrations about my faith.

I have been avoiding reading news about the earthquake. My mood was dragged down, which didn't help either them or myself. I want to give more, but first I need to hold myself together. Last night when Ciara prayed for people whose lives have been affected, I still couldn't hold back my tears. If you are reading this, please keep them in your prayers. May those who have lost their beloved be granted the strength and be able to find comfort in God's love.