good seat

hot out

smoothie in

new year's eve's eve

people watchin'

niceeee

the year in perspective 2

i read a whopping number of non-trade books this year thanks to the e-library and my trusty smartphone app. HOM drags me to the gym every few weeks which is a damn sight better than two years back. the DSLR continues to supply the dust bunnies despite a brief attempt to take it out from the cabinet.

on the work front i get paid to do stuff that is not a chore and is even mostly enjoyable which of course excites vague feelings of unworthiness and guilt. my pleasure to engage young people, i always think. i walk with some patients to the end of their journeys. it is my utmost privilege.

O has a health scare which jolts me into considering an alternative life with no live-in help and perhaps shortened hours at work. against the odds stacked against her by age and imaging she emerges unscathed and HOM and i breathe a collective sigh of gratitude and relief.

HOM and i steal short trips which actually add up to quite an almost embarrassing number. heh.

new synapses

how to reformat the blog layout:

• go to design
• scroll thru every option
• take the plunge and change the formatting
• chicken out and leave
• repeat
• dislike how the new format looks
• ask google how to get the look i want
• follow steps 
• discover they were steps for wrong look
• discover new command to tweak
• ask google how to get the look i want on mac
• follow steps 
• voila!

in the new economy:

• google sure knows a whole lot
• what's not to learn

year-end visit

we visit with J1 Y and J2.

they make time to go around with us. as it should be, my friends tell me. really? it always amazes me that people would take their time to match mine. thank you!

how are your children? people ask me. alive, i say. they appear busy and happy. i am thankful enough. 

J1 and Y are in the heart of the city. J2 is in the heart of farm country. so different and so strong in different ways. our children but their own persons. 

my hope is unchanged. be clear-eyed and brave, my children! remember who you are and where you come from. walk with honor and courage. rejoice in the journey. and my God, who has supplied my needs, is He who will supply yours.

taipei impressions

• it's a city to walk and subway in, if only because the traffic snarls are unending
• the smokers are ubiquitous and the most innocent looking pedestrian will light a ciggie at the drop of a hat
• they have pedestrian crossings across the widest streets and they tell you how much time you have to get across and they give you plenty of time!
• its messy gangly solidly mid-century and nothing-beyond-the-eighties architecture brings back  memories of the taiwanese tearjerkers of yesteryears
• their people are beautifully courteous in a way that refreshes your spirit after a year in the trenches of work peppered with news of protests and marauding scooters
• for reasons HOM and i cannot fathom, we expect taipei to be cheap so needless to say we are disappointed
• it was a lovely visit to rival the best year-end vacations in memory

the year in perspective

"i have satiated the weary soul, and i have replenished every sorrowful soul."

- jer. 31:25

weary sorrowful satiated replete

beleaguered broken redeemed restored

impoverished provisioned

broken. grateful

TA-DAH! product of the century-to-date

presenting the social water bottle, which has come out from the obscurity of non-existence to current omnipresence in the best company, as an expensive accessory doing what the mug used to do. and really, i don't see why you need to take gulps of water as we converse.