February 2026 part 1 (Chinese NY Festival, Olympics, Super Bowl, Quiet Milestone Birthday, Isaac Eating Program)

I enjoy watching national or global sports events. Two of them happened in February with the Super Bowl and the Olympics. I love Winter Olympics as much as Summer Olympics. My favorite winter sports to watch are figure skating, snowboarding, freestyle skiing, speed skating, and curling. I actually watch a lot of curling, even though people joke about it as a sport. Only watching it every four years makes it more interesting, I guess. It's akin to archery for me with the Summer Olympics. The opening ceremony was good. I'm not sure why Mariah Carey was a featured singer, but she looked and sounded great for how long she's had to hit those super high notes. She sang in Italian, not an easy feat. Maybe they just love her in Italy. Andrea Bocelli and Cecilia Bartoli and opera in general made sense. I didn't get to watch as much of the Olympics as usual, but tried to catch most of figure skating and snowboarding. Alysa Liu's spirit was very memorable and impressive. Our pastor even mentioned it would be something to have and express an even greater joy and freedom in Christ. Either the weather conditions or the course seemed to cause a lot of accidents, including the Gaon Choi crashing before coming back to win the women's Half Pipe gold. I have tried to get my kids into Olympics or the Super Bowl to no avail. They just aren't into it.  

I actually applied to work at the Super Bowl since it was in California but did not get selected. It probably was for the best, first because Isaac was on a certain regimen for his eating program, and second because ICE activities really ramped up at the time around us, and my friends and Naomi were nervous for me. I am a naturalized citizen, but I still decided to carry copy of proof around with me. I wasn't particularly afraid of anything happening, but it was just advised at the time. So since I wasn't going to be at the Super Bowl, that weekend I booked an afternoon tea at Hello Kitty Cafe for myself and Naomi to celebrate my birthday. She ended up not being able to make it, so my friend A. drove over an hour down to go with me. It was fun, and I appreciate so much her coming so I didn't have to go alone (no refunds). The sweets were a tad too sweet for me, either being Asian or getting older. I preferred the savory items. I had also invited a friend I usually go to these kinds of places with, but she has to take care of her elderly mom now. It's the case for many of my friends as we get older. 

My friends also gave me a gift card to one of my favorite bakeries for a birthday cake. Originally they wanted to get me a fancier Western bakery cake, and I have had the tendency to people-please and give in, but I had my heart set a certain cake, and it was for my 50th birthday, so I had to be more assertive and ask if we could go with this in-home baker. The thing about home businesses is it takes some time to hear from them, and often they do not offer gift cards. So my friend just transferred the money to me. I did feel bad for a moment for the trouble, but then I was super happy with the cakes I got, and I hope I communicated that well to them in the end. I got my blueberry black sesame hojicha and strawberry lychee rose specialty cakes. Naomi did come later in the week, but could not make it for the cake celebration. The baker also only delivers cakes two days a week, so we had to do the cake ahead of my birthday.

Our church service is in the afternoons because we use another church's (my former church's) facilities, so I missed the Super Bowl but watched the highlights and replay clips and ads later. And we had a nice treat when we pulled into church and saw jets flying over on their way to the stadium. We don't have DVR or anything like that. But it is certainly different than when I was the kids' ages, trying to use the TV Guide when we had one and schedule the VCR to record and hope I had a recordable VHS tape and that the power wouldn't go out. And even then my parents felt we had too much instant gratification. Now I'm the one thinking, "Back in my day..." We didn't get a VCR till I was 13, and my mom never knew how to program one, and I'd feel annoyed. And now here I am asking Isaac for help with my phone or laptop sometimes (rarely, though--tech has also become so user-friendly compared to when I was younger). And now with AI my techy kids are having to shift gears themselves. I'll talk about that in a later post.

On the morning of my birthday, the first messages I received were from my closest friend and my mom. The rest of this is going to sound like I'm complaining, but it's actually just a funny story. I had a nice birthday overall. Manny, who'd been disappointed by my not coming to his family birthday party, initially forgot. Isaac was around me before school. He forgot. Naomi, who had previously noted I didn't say happy birthday to her till an afternoon (because I didn't want to wake her and then was busy picking up a cake, but Manny had texted in the morning), did not say happy birthday till the afternoon. Only Lucas said happy birthday when he saw me. I can understand it, because we did the cake early, and it probably felt like the birthday had passed. Still, this was the first year I did not get to see Naomi for my birthday (we took a rain check) and she actually did not draw or get me anything like she does every year. I have two friends who never fail to say happy birthday every year we've been friends. They also forgot. I did not get a card from family members who usually send one. My friend from church said we'd do something, but then didn't really. No presents, aside from the cake and money from my college friends which was super generous. It was a little weird. Manny did end up remembering later, but he also never forgets. It was just interesting it would happen this year. 

I prayed and figured I'm being humbled here, but also, I could still enjoy my day. I got myself a record player for my birthday. It got lost in transit. So I got a refund for that one and ordered another one. And it arrived late, but came on my birthday. That felt like a huge blessing. Then I ordered my favorite salad from a halal salad place. Yum. After having Covid, I so appreciated being able to taste my food! I had to help Lucas with school, but besides that I was going to take it easy. I didn't want to do too many chores, but Isaac had an Zoom observation meeting with the eating program therapist, where they would observe him trying some new foods and our interactions, so I at least had to clean the kitchen and dining area. But really overall, I had a wonderful birthday. I enjoyed my leftover cake and my halal steak salad.  listening to my one record I had available, a Beatles love song compilation, on the record player. And I prayed and meditated a lot. It was a nice introverted birthday, and I'm never fully alone because Jesus is always with me.

The observation and meetings went well. At this point we were still doing a lot of meetings per week and starting out. The program was effective in getting him to eat more, though his eating still ebbs and flows. I won't get into what might have caused the eating problems, but anxiety plays a big part in it. It just really helps to have a third party encouraging him and also guiding me. One huge change I had to make was to let go of wasted food. That is so so hard for most Asians, and especially the way I was raised and growing up in poverty. I didn't like how my mom would eat anything I had left over, but I found myself doing it too once I had Isaac. He exhibited eating issues very early on, and we tried various things, but ultimately when he wasn't growing at all for a year, we had to enroll him in an outpatient program. I am very thankful for the progress, and I pray that his issues will resolve.

There were some other things I'd planned for my birthday, including watching a Chinese New Year parade and doing yoga with puppies. The parade didn't happen at the start of the city festival as advertised, so we missed it. Manny and I had a nice time walking around and eating, but I didn't want to wait for the parade. It was a pretty hot day, too. Who knew if and when it would happen? The only videos I saw of the parade after that were from the previous year, so maybe it didn't even happen. I did eventually do the puppy yoga in April. 

My favorite halal steak salad

With my two boys and the two cakes. I didn't know my hair was messed up. 😅

Strawberry lychee rose (something the family could eat) and blueberry black sesame hojicha (something only I could really eat, but they tried it)

Birthday tea at Hello Kitty Cafe

Sugar cubes were HK shaped

Birthday chocolate mousse

A nice man asked me to take a photo of him here at the mall, and then took this photo of me.

So nice of my friend to come out at the last minute for my birthday!

Grateful for A. and for HK

Olympics Opening Ceremony in Milan(o)

Mariah Carey singing Volare

Andrea Bocelli

Lang Lang accompanied Cecilia Bartoli. I was too lazy to turn the captions off.

Manny took me and Lucas to a grand opening at this bakery, but they did not have much available after our 45-minute wait. I generally will wait in line for a closing/last day, but I prefer not to for grand openings.

Manny and Lucas vacuuming the car at the car wash, same morning as the bakery opening

Manny having some Chinese beef noodle soup

The Monkey King arrives

Out for hot pot with A. and G.

My birthday present to myself, a record player. So excited to add to my vinyl collection.

August 2025 (Weird Al Concert, New School Year, Friends from College, Neighbor Baptism)

I'm still not completely over the fact that school starts in August instead of September for my kids (except for Lucas). Summer just feels so short, and it is short. We got a few things taken care of before Isaac and Naomi started. She got all of her wisdom teeth pulled, which was of course pretty miserable for her the first couple of days. Not all of them had come in yet, or they were coming in at a wrong angle, so out they came. Isaac got a haircut. I don't have a picture from his first day of 7th grade since it was busy and he didn't want me to take one. And we started packing everything up to move Naomi to her dorm. She stayed in the same hall as last year, but with three in her dorm room instead of five. The school hasn't kept up maintenance or security of the dorms as much this year. I think she is hoping to find an apartment her senior year. Speaking of maintenance, our washer and dryer were dying, so we got new ones. I opted for non-electronic ones. I just feel those last longer. Our previous ones had lasted us 20 years and did a great job. Unfortunately we had a leak, so then had to repair that first before they could install them. Thankfully we found a place that could send someone out quickly, and the price was reasonable.

Also in August, my neighbor got baptized in our community pool. It was wonderful to see. I can't remember if the pastor who came was her nephew or cousin, but he gave a good message and then we had California Pizza Kitchen for the party. The whole family was invited, but only I really knew her and only I really wanted to go. I do more and more things solo these days. It's not great but I prefer not to force anyone to do things with me unless it's very important they be there.

Then my friend from my college bible study who is a missionary in Canada came to our area to visit. I lost track of the dates and almost missed her, but thankfully caught her just in time. We visited with another friend from college and we went to our other college friend's church. He is the lead pastor, but he was speaking at a retreat, so we unfortunately missed him. 

I've been wanting to see Weird Al Yankovic in concert since I was a little kid. I always liked parodies and used to write a lot of them in school. I was also a weird kid (and maybe a weird adult, too, but I keep it to myself more now😄). Manny has actually seen him perform before at a country fair when he was younger. I was really hoping I would finally be able to make it, and this was the year. I'm not sure what happened, but I thought Manny and I were going to go together, and then it sounded like he didn't want to go, but it sounds now like he did in the end. I might have misunderstood, but I now had an extra ticket, so I invited my friend M, and she said yes let's do this. For months I thought that was the plan, and I confirmed even two weeks before the concert. But right before it, she changed her mind and told me she didn't really want to go unless I really needed her to. One thing I don't like to do is to drag anyone to a show with me who is not interested. I decided to ask Lucas if he wanted to go. He said okay, so that became his first official concert. He's not necessarily a fan, but I used to play Weird Al's songs for the kids, so they know him. At least the audience would be fairly tame, and there would be children, which there were plenty of, so it might feel more safe. My friend commented, "The things we do for our kids." And I had to sheepishly reply that I wanted to go more than he did. 

Weird Al did a single-take live entrance like he does in the video "Tacky" (parody of "Happy"), and I captured some of it below. Also just one more video. I have a lot of videos, but you can find better ones on YouTube. I wore a Saga Begins shirt since that's one of my favorite songs of his, a parody of "American Pie" covering Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. He didn't sing the song till the end. His career spans five decades, so he couldn't sing everything, and I got a little concerned it wasn't going to make the cut. Since we had lawn seats and people around us were standing, we also had to stand for most of the show in order to see. In that sense I was glad I hadn't dragged anyone else to watch it, because Lucas can stand patiently for long periods.

One-shot Tacky entrance

Smells Like Nirvana

Before the show. Lawn seating is far from the stage, but fairly easy to move around in.

Ready for the show

Japanese lunch after moving Naomi in

Studio Ghibli welcome

Found this randomly, just like I randomly spotted Naomi's. I've never come across a Lucas one. It's just as well, since Lucas doesn't/can't drink Coke.

With friend A and A from college on A's RV (A on the right roadtripped across the U.S. with husband and two daughters)

R's baptism

Some Asian food I made but can no longer identify 😄

Got a new (old school-ish) washer. I avoid electronic panels more and more.

August 2024 (Naomi Move-In, Isaac Middle School, Lucas Classes, Hiking, Salt Ponds, Inside Out, Artist Festival, Lauren Daigle Concert, Hokusai at Legion of Honor)

I probably could split August into two parts as well, but I'm trying to reduce the number of posts to catch up. Last August, Isaac started middle school, Lucas started music lessons and therapy, and Naomi started her sophomore year in college. We moved her into her dorm and went out for some Caribbean food afterward. The moving process thankfully seems to go more smoothly each time. 

Since this was Isaac's last summer before he started middle school, he really wanted to squeeze in as many childhood memories as he could. Of course, the New York trip was a major memory. He and I went on quite a few nature walks and hikes in the month of August. It was also a nice memory for the brothers to take archery together, aside from the triple-digit temps. Isaac also was graduated from the children's ministry to the youth ministry at church, though he usually sits in the main service with us anyway.

We also went to see Inside-Out 2, which was timely with Isaac entering middle school and Lucas being a teen. When Lucas was little he liked the first one. I also met the voice actress who played the lead in the first one, but she was not part of the sequel cast. Lucas started voice lessons/music therapy again after an over four-year hiatus. He also began CBT to help him get "unstuck" from certain automatic negative thinking. Additionally, he continued with his weekly Magic the Gathering meetup group, which has been a huge blessing for him. He also was on the hunt for some new clothes, so we did some back-to-school shopping. He barely wears his newer clothes, though. Seems like he reserves them for special occasions.

Naomi started her very busy sophomore year of college. I was relieved for her to be in a nicer dorm. They had five girls in a suite with one bathroom, but it had a kitchen and a living room area, and Naomi even got her own room. There were a couple of major issues toward the end of the year, and she had to keep her window closed because people liked to smoke in the area outside her room, but overall she was in a much better situation. This would be the year she would begin working on her art portfolio to apply for the elite graphic design BFA program at her school.

Speaking of art, one of my friends had a booth at a local art festival, so I went to visit and support. She has some award-winning paintings of redwoods as well. Also speaking of art, I went to check out the Japanese woodblock print exhibit at the Legion of Honor, a temporary exhibit, and it was just amazing. I have been drawn to them since I was a kid and never seen them up close. There were some violent ones that depicted the end of the samurai, and there were some that showed interesting depictions of the West. The highlight was seeing Hokusai's work. He is famous for his painting of The Great Wave Off Kanagawa. Naomi's went with her friend Monica to get lunch and boba, and I just met up with them later at Chrissy Field. 

Lastly, I went with my friend (another Amy) to see Lauren Daigle in concert with Blessing Offor. We had a quick dinner beforehand. When we got there, my friend ran into some old friends, so that was a nice surprise. The weather was good, and we enjoyed the concert. Daigle has received a lot of judgment and criticism for her opinions or clothing or lyrics from all sides, but I wasn't there for that, just there to be blessed by her music and gifts. They also had a presentation for an organization she is part of that helps children. 

My boys are almost as thin as those bows!

Redwoods of Shoup Park

A little welcome for Naomi and another roommate, the last two of the five to move in.

I  think Manny might have been mid-sneeze here. oops

A kitchen!

Caribbean lunch. I really miss Mango Cafe, the place by Stanford that Manny and I used to go.

Inside-Out 2 was pretty good

Like another planet

Some of the salt ponds have been a pretty pink because they are constructing levees nearby so water levels are low.

The sunset reflection was amazing to behold in person. We know a couple who just got engaged here.

Walking out to the ponds, you pass through the marshes

Like a portal

First day of middle school. Didn't want a photo, but he's in that crowd.

Ice cream truck was a nice way to celebration the transition from chidhood.

We lay on the grass and looked up into the trees and sky.

There aren't any playgrounds in middle school.

Orientation for the parents

Hiking by the Montalvo Arts Center

At a lookout

Reaching the top and taking it all in.

Returning to the place my older two have taken music since they were preschoolers for Lucas's lesson.

Isaac spent a few afternoons doing homework at the library, but it usually closes too early, so we stopped going.

Having vegan food with my vegan friend (I'm not vegan, but I like vegan food every now and then).

Excited for the show

Blessing Offor opened for Lauren Daigle. He is featured on "The Goodness" by Toby Mac.

She has an amazing voice, and I like the style of her upbeat songs. 

"You Say," probably her most famous song.

At Frost Ampitheater

Vasona Lake Park

Beautiful view of the lake

Duck crossing. Over 20 years earlier I saw the same sight at the same location.

Naomi and friend Monica having lunch at the Marina while I was at Legion of Honor.

I was there to see the Japanese woodblock prints exhibit.

Hokusai's work, the most famous of course being The Wave (in the center).

This print is a contemporary one in the style of the original prints. It was sort of a protest of western cultural influences (the McDonald's burger) on Japan.

"Woman Playing a Viola de Gamba" by Dutch Baroque artist Gabriel Metsu. I was fascinated by how the creases in her white dress were painted with such contrast and "shine."

I don't recall the name of this one, but I believe it's by a Russian artist.

Monet💖 Been here before with Isaac.

The Thinker thinking alone...

like me

Karl the Fog covering up the Golden Gate