The anthem continues....

Adding on to the previous excitement created by alexa and mommy's anthem singing session....

Me: Hi Mom, I heard you guys are singing the anthem at work
Mom: Yes, the chinese team practiced twice and now we sing it very well. We know all the words
Me: That's great.
Mom: Yu Zhen told me a story about her friend who forgot his passport and to get back into the US from Mexico he stood tall and sang all four verses of the national anthem by heart. Allen was inspired by this story too and he said he will go learn the words
Me: that is funny
Mom: I have a fun game! For Christmas, let's sing the national anthem!
Me: can't we just sing carols?
Mom: anthem AND carols!!
Me: O...k....
Mom: AND! I will give $50 to anyone who can sing all four verses by heart! It must be ALL FOUR!
Me: wow....
Mom: But i am gererous! If you can sing two verses I give $10. If you sing three I will give $15. And if you can sing FOUR I give $50
Me: what are you going to do if we all get it right?
Mom: I am prepared!! I will give $200 to this cause!!!
Me: Ok, this is quite odd.
Mom: ODD?! NO! EXCITING!! we are POSITIVE people now! EXCITING!
Me: Ok, exciting..
Mom: you can tell xing xing and xing di too! (our cousins) I will prepared to give ALL SIX of you $50
Can you tell everyone so I don't have to type an e-mail
Me: Ok....... sure......

Alexa and I have decided instead we will break out into the Communist China national anthem to shake things up... what will we get for that? maybe -$50. (It's actually MUCH easier to sing than the US anthem anyways.... who doesn't love a good little ditty about Chairman Mao?)

No Means No

A phone call:
note: my mom is somewhat tone deaf and sounds like a cat stuck in a windsock when she sings.

mom: alexa! we are going to sing the national anthem at work on friday. all of us chinese people said that we are going to go home and do our homework so we can sing the national anthem with pride and not seem like foreigners. i don't know the words and tune!
me: you can look them up online.
mom: yes, on youtube?
me: wow, yes! very good.
mom: but i want to hear you sing it for me. will you sing it with me? i don't know how the words go with the tune very well.
me: oh say can you see...
mom: OH say can you SEEEE!!!
we sing the anthem.
together: ...and the home of the braaAAAVE
mom: what are ramparts? what does gallant mean? why are they streaming?
me: ramparts, like a fort. gallant is like brave. streaming, you know, like streaming.
mom: hey! you know how to sing "singing in the rain!" will you sing that?
me: yeah, i could, but i'm actually at a friend's house, and this is probably weird already...
mom: oh. okay. just real fast?
me: i'm singing in the rain...
mom: just singing in the rain...
me: what a glorious feeling i'm happy again...singing just singing in the rain
mom: no it's "...and i'm ready for love"
me: okay - and i'm ready for love
mom: hey! what about somewhere over the rainbow!
me: mom!
mom: okay you can't
me: okay
mom: please? just start me off!
me: somewhere over the rainbow...
mom: someWHERE over the RAIN-BOW
together: ...dare to dream really do come true.
mom: no, it's "once in a lullaby!"
me: okay fine
together: once in a lullaby
mom: okay haha bye!

friend: so what was going on there?
me: my mom has to sing the anthem at work.
friend: right.

listening problems?

conversation i just had with mom on the phone:

"HIII did you have fun in BEIJING??"
"yes"
"did you have fun in beijing?"
"yup"
"did you have fun in beijing?"
"MOM- i said YEESSS"

seriously... its like talking to a parrot

Animal Zoo vs. Asian Zoo

I went home to entertain my mom this weekend.

"Alexa, do you want to play a game with me?"
"What's that?"
"Well, when you leave home, you call me and say, 'falafel.' Then, when you get to your destination, you call me and say, 'hummus.'"
"Haha, okay...why are we speaking in code?"
"For FUN!!!"

The highlights of hummusing this weekend were visiting the zoo, home of new baby giraffes, and Hmart, mecca to all Asian grocery lovers.

The zoo was fun. We like animals. The Houston zoo has new baby giraffes!
Okapis are related to giraffes. They are silly-looking creatures. This one was particularly showy, as it wanted to walk right up to the fence and poop for us.

"Alexa! Take a picture! No, closer! He's not done! He's going to poop! Hurry, this is so nan-de (rare opportunity)!"

Okapis have tongues so long that they can lick their own eyeballs. That's not all they can lick.

Afterwards, we went to Hmart, where we just happened upon Asian Food Festival Weekend. This phrase actually means "sample stands every 2 feet all across the giant grocery store." The place was so packed that it was impossible to move at a pace any faster than a saunter, and every two seconds we lost our shopping cart because we had abandoned it to chase down the next sample stand.

"Alexa! Let's eat! Here. Here is your lunch."
She hands me rice wrapped in seaweed on a toothpick.
"Thanks."

We took the food festival very seriously, as we did not fail to miss even one sample stand in the store. At the end, when I was tired from sampling:
rice drink
grape juice
aloe vera drink
many varieties of vinegar drink
ramen
okonomiyaki
rice with furikake
tuna sashimi
many varieties of kim chi
kim chi pizza
rice cakes
fish cakes
salmon with miso
cold soba noodles
mochi ice cream
dried crab and squid
seaweeds
tofu with sesame dressing
yogurt drink
asian meatballs
potstickers

...she pulled me into an aisle to "show me something." "Something" turned out to be the sample stands of chestnut-filled pancakes and yakisoba. We sampled those too.

What was truly amazing was that even though the place was so packed with people, checking out was surprisingly breezy because all of the people were not actually buying things; they were sample-hopping for as long as we had been. When we finally left, I looked at my watch and realized that we had spent as long at Hmart as we had at the zoo.

"Alexa, Hmart won. We bought a lot of stuff. Ha! Ha!"

So, the weekend was a success.
We even developed a new language:
"Okay, so we have code words 'falafel' and 'hummus.' What else do we need?"
"Do we need other code words?"
"What about for when we need to pee? Wasabi?!"
"Haha, that's good. It even sounds like 'pee.'"
"Yes, yes what else. What about when we're looking for a place to eat?"
"Can we just say, 'I'm hungry?'"
"Yeah I guess. Oh if we need water, we say 'sushi!'"
"Okay, sushi."
"Alexa, your to-fa (hair) smells. What's the code for that?"
"Well obviously that's 'tofu.'"
"Why are all these words food?"

be "young"

Lookinng forward to view your China Trip Album.
You and th eMr. Handsome will only be this "young" once. We are aging every minute. How to keep your youth ful face ?

PICTURES!!!!!

Mama

black socks...

while in the car on spring cypress mom is talking about marriage and babies for the one millionth time this week.

mom: don't forget that eric has to come ASK ME for your hand in marriage
mel: ok..
mom: and he has to come to my house.
mel: ok....
mom: and he has to bring me a present
mel: how is this all about you?
mom: i rasied you!
mom: and... buy me dinner...
mom: and wear a suit and tie
mel: what? no. that is ridiculous. no one wears ties to people's houses
mom: WHY NOT? he cannot wear shorts and flip flops
mel: no. i "ju jue" this (reject in chinese). you are a "bao....." (i forget how to say tyrant in chinese)
mom: HA HA you do not even know how to say it!
mom: and i will prepare 10 questions for him
mel: are you kidding me?
mom: you said he is good at taking test - so i will test him!
mel: ANYTHING ELSE?!
mom: ha- if you say that i will just keep thinking of things!
mom: tell him to wear socks.... black...socks.

she looks pleased and completely justified in her thoughts...... and i pray she will forget this conversation forever.

product letter intro

We pay our cell phone bill as a family. Every month, I log into the verizon account, check our balance, divide it 5 ways, and then notify the paying family members through email what the amount due is.

This month, my mom responded with this:

I am very appreciated you are doing this service to me. A bill paying time is a happy reunion time in the air, something to talk about. Especially when kids grow out of the nest, not much common ground to bring us in unless church time. I thank the Verizon and also my discount benefit CIRCLE US together. Let us enjoy it!!!Thank you again.

Thanks, Verizon.
You're welcome, Mom.