1 Puteri

Woo hoo! After more than 3 months my custom plates are here! I received a letter in the mail from the DMV on Friday, made an appointment online to pick them up, and this morning my new plates are on my car!

I had to affix the registration stickers in the car before I screwed the new plates on. I brought a screw driver with me because I had to return the old plates to the DMV.

I don't know what happened to two other screws for the plates! There were only two to hold each plate! I think I need to buy a better frame for both the front and back plates. The above picture was taken right after I'd screwed on the plate - at the DMV car park.

My car with its new registration on my drive way. The only thing though, I wished it was a fancier car! Haha.

Great Show!

Andre Kole is awesome! That's the only word I can think of when I think of his skills as an illusionist. David Copperfield is the most famous of them all but did you know that it was Andre Kole who devised some of those illusions that David Copperfield became famous for?

For example, the disappearing Statue of Liberty. Andre Kole helped David Copperfield with that particular performance. And last night Andre Kole performed the disappearing Statue of Liberty in slow motion. Andre Kole even had a recording of David Copperfield's voice introduce that act. It was fantastic!

The other famous illusion that David Copperfield did was going through the Great Wall of China. Guess who came up with that idea? Yes, Andre Kole! And last night Andre Kole went right through a female assistant who was lying on a table. He also went through a large box fan. Such incredible performances!! Such a pity that any photograph taking or video taking was totally prohibited. Otherwise I would have a fantastic video to share here! :-)

A few of his great illusions were performed by his son, Tim Kole. He is, of course, much younger than his father, and therefore more flamboyant especially with the female assistant who had some really sexy dance moves around him.

Tim Kole did the pyramid illusion which Andre Kole said he deviced specially for a show in Egypt. The female assistant, who has got to be a contortionist, got into a very small pyramid. Then several swords were poked into the pyramid and even fire was lit near the top of the pyramid when the apex of the pyramid was removed. The apex was put back, swords were drawn out and then the whole pyramid open. Voila, the lady came out in a totally different outfit!

There were other great illusions during the night's show and one of them was of Andre Kole floating off a chair with a large back. A ring of fire was passed over Andre just to show the audience that he was not being held by something from the back. It was an amazing act.

Andre Kole is not only a master illusionist but also a committed Christian. His illustration of Man having 3 parts - body, soul, and spirit - using a lamp which had two layers of shades and the light bulb was really excellent. He then used the light bulb and wrapped it a red handkerchief and put it in a box to demonstrate Jesus wrapped in several pieces of burial cloths and when he opened the box the bulb was gone but the way the handkerchief was left was as if the bulb just disappeared, and what was left was the handkerchief folded the way it was placed initially. This was to demonstrate the miraculous resurrection of Christ. It was a great illustration using his illusionist skills.

After the show, I bought two books and Doug bought one, books that Andre Kole co-wrote. The first is Mind Games, which exposes today's psychics, frauds, and spiritual phenomena. The other book is Astrology and Psychic Phenomena which is a book exposing the practitioners of so called psychic phenomena with lots of relevant Bible passages prohibiting such practices. Doug bought a book called Tricks and Twists, where it shows you some basic magic tricks.

All in all it was the best live illusionist's performance that I had seen. A great show indeed.

Garage Heater

I could really do with a garage heater right about now. My garage is not so much a place for giving cover for my cars but more a work room for my hobbies. I even have my computer and TV in my garage. I spend a lot of time in my garage turned work room and now with the weather turning cold the garage is not going to be a pleasant place to be! I think a garage heater would be nice because then I won't have to leave the door from the garage to my dining room open so I could let some warm air in. It would be nice also not to have really warm clothing on just so I could work in the garage!

An Evening with Andre Kole

Doug and I have tickets to a show by Andre Kole tonight. Andrea Kole is a master illusionist and my friend, Kathy, who has been to one of his shows says Andre Kole is really, really good. I think I believe her because if David Copperfield calls him "one of the greatest illusionists in the world today" then he must be really good!

I have seen some TV specials of David Copperfield, but I had never heard of Andre Kole before this. I think David Copperfield is a great illusionist, and if David Copperfield uses devices created by Andre Kole in his shows than I guess Andre Kole must be really good.

What I find intriguing is that Andre Kole is not only a great illusionist but also a committed Christian. The show Doug and I are attending tonight is sponsored by my church. It seems that Andre Kole is also a public speaker for Campus Crusades International. In my books, that makes Andre Kole a greater illusionist than David Copperfield!

The show tonight is part of my church's outreach program. Tickets only cost $5 each and at such a bargain we are encouraged to invite our friends and neighbours to the show. Doug and I have not invited anybody. :-( Our church has also provided child care for children up to 4 years old. We are grateful for that because our regular baby sitter will be at the show herself.

I am really looking forward to the show tonight! :-)

Friends of the NRA Dinner

Last Friday night I attended a Friends of the NRA fund raising dinner. Friends of the NRA is the NRA Foundation and it was formed so that it can "provide grants for a myriad of local and national projects in need of assistance". Fifty percent of the money raised during Friday night's dinner is granted to qualified projects within California, and the remaining proceeds go toward qualified national programs such as Youth Development, Firearm Education and Training, Range Development and Improvement, and Wildlife Conservation Efforts.


Friday night's dinner was the first that I'd ever attended and it was quite an eye opener. There are many stereotypes that the mainstream media like to portray about people who love to own guns, and enjoy the shooting sports. The people at the dinner were ordinary people, the kinds of people that you have as your neighbors. The only difference is that these folks are passionate about protecting their 2nd Amendment rights.


The money raised that night was mainly raised through the sale of dinner tickets, raffle tickets, silent auction, and a live auction. I spent a total of $90 on raffle tickets and I was very disappointed that I did not win any guns that night. For the door prizes there were three guns to be won. Among the raffle ticket prizes were also guns and other stuff like hunting paraphernalia.

Guns and other items offered as prizes for the raffle tickets.

The meal was simple: tri tip, beans, green salad, chicken, macaroni salad, and bread rolls. There was cake for dinner. Non-alcoholic drinks was part of the meal, but you had to pay for the alcoholic beverages. The Rotary Club who had a license to sell alcoholic drinks benefited from the night's dinner. They ran the no host bar that night.

The dessert!

Doug is the treasurer of the local Friends of the NRA. He has been really busy several weeks before the event, and during the dinner itself he was also one busy man, managing all the incoming and outgoing money. He was recognized for his effort and received a plaque as a show of appreciation from the NRA.

Doug and his plaque.

For the live auction, the Friends of the NRA had hired a professional auctioneer. It made the auction interesting. There were some really generous people at the dinner and everything that was on auction was bought up.

One big revolver!

Look at this baby! It is the NRA's 2007 Gun of the Year. It is Smith & Wesson 468XVR and has a 8.4 inch barrel with interchangeable compensators & Hi-VIZ green dot front sight. The stainless steel frame has an eagle and American flag engraved on the side. It was auctioned off for $1100. Doug drooled over the revolver, and he imagined his friends' envious looks if he were to own it.

These were some of the other items that were auctioned off. Doug and I did not bid for anything. I had hoped to win at least a little pistol, but no such luck that evening!

The dinner raised about $30,000, before paying the expenses involved. Not a bad first fund raising dinner for the local Friends of the NRA, if I do say so myself.

DIY

We are hiring our good friend, Kathy who is a trained teacher, to help Denice and Duncan with their reading. Denice and Duncan have been in a classroom environment since they were two years old but when it comes to recognizing letters and numbers, they are not at a level which I consider satisfactory. That is why I am getting Kathy to help them bring up their reading skills level. Half an hour every day for each of them.

In order to have a conducive learning environment for the kids, we decided to look for a desk and chairs for them. On Sunday evening we went shopping, and searched high and low for the furniture but didn't find any at the stores we went to. So yesterday I made a special trip to Toy 'R" Us because Doug says he has seen small tables and chairs at the store. I got what I wanted but the table and the chairs needed some assembling. Ok, I think I can follow the instructions and assemble the table and the chairs.

Yup, I managed to put the legs on the table together, but after I was done, I noticed on one side the legs were not facing the way they were supposed to be facing! Heheh. I didn't bother correcting the mistake because in less than an hour, I had to pick up the kids from school. Doug had to correct that mistake later in the evening.

I managed to put one chair together without much difficulty. The only minor difficulty was putting the right screws in the right places. There were three different screw sizes. But with the second chair I put the seat base upside down, and some screws couldn't go in. So I had to unscrew the base and turned it around. But the chairs were assembled in the end! :-)

Kathy and Denice on their new furniture.

I had to hurry with the assembling because everything had to be ready by the time I picked up the kids because a few minutes after that, Kathy arrived. Yesterday was their first reading lessons with Kathy.

I have also ordered some books and materials from Amazon but unfortunately only one of the books is available and is already on its way, and the rest will be shipped when they become available.

Why am I not teaching my kids myself? After all I used to be a teacher, right? Heheh, I have no patience teaching small children, that is why!

So now I have to write more paid posts, and make more quilts to pay for my kids tuition!

Road Construction

There's some road work, and drainage clearing going on on our street. They've been at it for three days now and this morning as I drove out of my driveway, I had to wait for a few moments for one of the road crew men to move a front loader off my driveway.

On my way home after dropping the kids at their school, I also had to wait for a few moments because half the road was closed as there were construction vehicles blocking one half of the road on each side.

I couldn't help noticing the crew men though. Three men were in the ditch holding some tools for clearing the ditch, but they don't seem to be doing anything at that particular point in time. Three or four others were either directing traffic or just standing around doing nothing in particular. And these men were husky looking men, none looked scrawny at all.

I was amused because it reminded me so much of the Road Works Department in Malaysia. Unless they are working on a very busy road where work has to be done quickly, two or three would be working, and the rest would just stand around and watch those who work!

I guess whether you live in a country like Malaysia or here in the USA road construction crews are the same!

Gone Shooting

“A Canadian is sort of like an American, but without the gun”

This weekend we are going to visit my in-laws. They live in the beautiful San Luis Obispo area in the central coast. It is about a 6 hour drive there and I don't think we have been to visit them at all this year. They have been to visit us though at least twice this year. My father in-law had hip replacement surgery about 2 months ago. He still can't drive very far, err, but I think they did drive to Las Vegas last weekend! :-)

That's my sexy hand posing with a Beretta. :-)

Anyway, while there, Doug hopes to take me shooting at his parents' ranch. The ranch is somewhere in the hills and there are places there where we can shoot our guns. It has been years since I fired a gun. Doug and I talked about going to a shooting range here in Sacramento but with young kids and having to arrange for a baby sitter every time we want to go any where by ourselves is such a hassle. The other problem has been time. Doug has been really tied up with home improvement projects since the beginning of the year.

I was talking with my elderly neighbor three days ago and asked him if he was going to the Neighborhood Watch meeting at the police station that night. He said, "No." There have been a rash of burglaries and suspicious activity in our neighborhood the last several months. I often leave my windows open when I go to the store or drop the kids off at school. Now I am afraid to do it in case some burglars try to break into my house. My elderly neighbor said he leaves his windows open all day long and said if a burglar comes into his house, he doesn't know how the burglar is going leave the house. I understood what he meant and suggested, "In a stretcher?"

Doug shooting his Firestar .45 automatic when he went target shooting with friends last year.

That is why I need to be handy with my gun. Sounds extreme, doesn't it, but better to be safe than sorry. I have young kids in the house and having a loaded gun around is also not safe. Doug is teaching the kids about gun safety and telling them the difference between a toy gun and a real one. He's teaching them not to point a gun, even a toy one, at anyone even in jest. But it's hard to get Duncan to understand that because he loves to play with his toy "boom boom" and trying to shoot at things. He got all excited when his dad shot his BB gun at a dog that strayed into our back yard. He didn't hurt the dog, just wanted to scare it away from the back yard.

Hopefully the weather stays dry this weekend during our trip. Some rain is in the forecast. I won't be firing any guns if it is wet and muddy at the ranch! :-)

Lost and Found

Yesterday this little dog showed up at our front patio. He was wearing a cone over his head and he smelled bad! Duncan even said, "Mommy, doggie very smelly." We did not know who he belonged to, so Doug put a temporary leash ( a piece of string) on him and tied him to a tree with a dog house next to him.

This morning Doug went to check on the dog and he was gone. The leash was there and it looked like somebody had removed the leash from him. We think that the dog belongs to our next door neighbour even though we had never seen the dog around before. I am happy that his owner found him because we were thinking of putting Dog Found posters all over the neighborhood.

A Pedicure and a Massage

I just got back from a pedicure and a body massage. I go for a pedicure at this nail salon at least once a month, but the massage was only the second time I had with them. Besides doing nails, they also offer massage services.

I have no complains with their nail services but as to the massage services, it could be a lot better. The last time I had a full body massage was at an aromatherapy massage parlor in Kuala Lumpur. Now that was a very satisfactory massage!

The Vietnamese lady who massaged me asked me if I wanted some hot Chinese oil on my back on my back as well. Being Asian myself, that is not a strange offer. Naturally I said yes. The oil was not as hot as I had imagined. Then I smelled a familiar smell. I lifted my head and took a look at the bottle of Chinese oil. Hahaha, it was that green oil with the strong sweet smell! If I had known that was the oil, I would have declined the offer of the Chinese oil. I have friends who said the smell of the oil makes them sick!

Anyway, I just had to try the massage given by this particular lady. My previous massage was done by another younger lady who no longer works there. If I can find some place that offers a better massage service I'd like to give them a try. Today's massage, it's better than no massage at all, and I felt like spending some money on a massage! :-)

Insomnia

I like to stay up late updating my blogs, replying to comments on my blog and also writing the paid posts that I have managed to snag.

One of the reasons I started staying up late is that I am quite the insomniac. There have been times where I just couldn't fall asleep till it was two or three in the morning. I have resorted to taking an antihistamine to help me sleep. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

This week my kids started going to school an hour earlier and that means I have to get up an hour earlier too. Boy, it was difficult to get up an hour earlier than usual! My kids have the same problem too. They have to learn to go to bed about 45 minutes earlier than their normal time, and they also find it difficult to settle down that early. Daddy has to stay in bed with them to encourage them to go to sleep. Last night they managed to fall asleep within half an hour of going to bed.

Wine makes me sleepy and so I thought a little wine might do the trick. Two nights ago, I finished what little was left in a bottle that had been opened maybe about two week ago. Bleaarrhhh! It tasted horrible. It tasted like it was only fit for cooking! :-) It didn't help me sleep probably because I only took a few sips of the bad wine! In the morning, I had a really bad stomach upset. Could the bad wine have been the cause?!

My friend, Kathy, suggested exercising. I am not much for exercising but maybe that is what I should do. She goes to a gym twice a week, and maybe I should join her. I know if I were to do it alone, I would not be able to stick to the exercise routine.

Do you know of any remedies that will help and insomniac sleep? Herbal remedies perhaps? Do let me know!

A Summer's Wedding

Pretty in Pink! The ribbon necklace and matching black with pink crystal ear-rings were made by yours truly. :-)

The newly weds, Oscar and Monica.

Doug and I were at an evening garden wedding ceremony and reception yesterday. It was a beautiful day and the delta breeze was blowing. Sunny and cool by California's standard.

The wedding ceremony was beautiful. The bride looked radiant and beautiful, and groom looked dashing. They each read a letter to each other, and exchanged a self written wedding vows. The bridesmaids were gorgeous in their pink with black organza sashes dresses. The black ribbon necklace around their necks and their matching earrings looked lovely. :-)

When the sun went down, the night got cool. Too cool in fact. I felt sorry for the ladies who wore their strapless dresses, or their spaghetti strapped dresses. It was the first night that I'd actually spent that number of hours out this summer. I brought my silk shawl and that kept me from shivering that night. A little dancing warmed up the blood a little too!

The wedding party was at its liveliest when we had to leave. Doug had to take the baby sitters home and we didn't want to keep them up for too long. But all in all, it was a beautiful summer's wedding.

Looking for a New Bed

When you buy a bed and a mattress, what do you look for? Comfort? Functionality? Style?

For me comfort is top priority. The queen-sized water bed that Doug and I got after we set up house is no longer as comfortable as it once was. I have stopped sleeping on that bed for several months now because I started having lower back pain. The top foam padding of the mattress has lost its firmness, and sags right where my lower back is. Doug still loves the bed but two days ago he woke up wet. It appeared that one of the tubes in our water bed had sprung a leak!

Well, I thought, that would be a good excuse to get a new mattress. Hell no, Doug instead bought some stuff that he used to try to patch up the leak! To him, the water bed is the most comfortable bed he'd ever slept in. It was the most comfortable bed I had slept in too when we first bought it, but it no longer is!

Since getting the lower back pain from sleeping on the water bed, I started sleeping on an adjustable single bed that I got when I was pregnant. The comfort level could be better, but compared to the sagging padding on the water bed, it is a lot better!

I hear a lot of advertising on Select Comfort's Sleep Number Bed. On TV, some faded TV stars are also endorsing the bed. I am quite tempted, but I think the bed is not that different from my water bed. Instead of water tubes, there are air chambers, and of course there has to be a padding at the top, just like my water bed's. That padding will eventually sag, as it did on my water bed, even though the air chambers remain in good condition, unless it develops a puncture!
One alternative to a queen-sized bed is to get another adjustable bed for Doug, and we'll have them side by side. The adjustable bed is comfortable for reading and watching TV because you can raise the top end and there's no need to have several pillows piled behind you.

I like the adjustable bed because I have a very acid stomach and at times I just have to have my head higher than my tummy because of the acid reflux!

We'll see how ready Doug is about getting rid of that water bed!