Immigration, a Headache for All
One of the latest topics on the radio is about immigration. I have not yet made up my mind what I think is best and I don’t know how the U.S. will be able to get itself out of the current situation. There are many illegal immigrants in this country who are contributing to the economy and have built their lives here, bought houses, raised children, paid taxes and have positive contributions to the communities. For these people, I believe that they should, over time, be given the opportunity to become legal residents. Meanwhile, I agree that there should be improved measures to stop more illegal immigrants from entering the country – sure enough, if the people who are thinking of illegally entering the country see that over time, there is a chance for them to become legal, then there is an incentive to risk crossing the border… That’s why I am sitting on the fence, undecided at this point.
Let’s face it, look at the types of jobs many of these illegal immigrants end up having – if there is an abundance of Americans willing to take those jobs, which are usually manual jobs, with long hours and involve a lot of hard work, there is no need for the employers to hire illegal immigrants who are often willing to take any jobs that come their way.
At the same time, I don’t know how on earth INS will be able to deal with more processing of a revised/new type of visa. Our friends who are skilled, legal immigrants working for Microsoft, are already in the system to get their Green Cards. A few months ago, they all got letters telling them that due to the overwhelming number of applications which need processing and the INS was (still is) way behind, they have indefinitely freeze further processing of their applications. In the mean time, they can continue to renew their current work visa year by year, but there is no telling how long this freeze will end. Just think, if the INS cannot process the legal immigrants already in the system, how are they going to screen the millions of illegal immigrants already in the country and more that are going to apply legally for temporary visas?
This is all a bit of a cluster. But I have no solution to offer.
American Thanksgiving Weekend
We had a nice 4-day getaway during Thanksgiving. We went up to Vancouver after work on Wednesday and stayed with Dan’s parents for the night. We then headed up to Whistler for a couple of days. There was hardly any new snow on the mountain and there was also temperature inversion, so we ended up not snowboarding at all and just spent Thursday and Friday hanging out at the Village, shopping and taking Gander for walks.
We had a great dinner at Bear Foot Bistro on Thursday night; they have the most amazing wine list there and we got to have a peek at the cellar downstairs. Considering the wine selection, the food prices were fairly reasonable – we were in tourist town after all! On Friday, we slept in and then went for a walk in the rain; we took Gander to Canine Cove at Lost Lake and even though the water for absolutely freezing cold, he had no qualms about swimming out to fetch his toy. Dan spent some time in the hot tub and sauna while I just lounged in the room and read. We had dinner at the hotel restaurant, the Crabshack, which had pretty good food as well. We have been to many restaurants in Whistler, ranging from the noodle shop to the top of the line fine dining and we are seldom disappointed.
We returned to Vancouver on Saturday and swung by the Kirste-Yees to visit Erland, Kiki and Saskia. We have not seen them since the summer and won’t be seeing them until the New Year, so we had a lot of catching up to do. We also delivered their Christmas gifts early since we won’t be spending Christmas with them…. It’s be many years since we did Christmas Eve or Boxing Day at their place. I quite miss that; on the other hand, those were before babies days. Now that the Petkaus and the Andersons all have kids, I am sure the general atmosphere will be very different.
We spent the rest of the weekend just lounging around until it was time for us to head out to Kits so that Dan could teach. Mum met us in Kits and we went for a nice walk and had a great chat. If all works out well, Mum might come down on Boxing Day with Grandma to attend Aunt Katherine’s party – that would be great!
Work today was a bit of a joke – I had 3 surgeries and was done before 1 p.m. Normally, if no emergency comes in, the surgeon of the day could leave at 4 p.m. But lucky for me, one of my surgery patients from last week needed a bandage removal and recheck today and they could not come in until after 4 p.m.! So I just sat around, read my book and chatted with the others for 3 hours!! Luckily, the clients came on time and the pet is doing great!
I did a bit of baking today and made 2 batches of biscotti: Raspberry, pistachio and white chocolate biscotti and Cranberry and almond biscotti dipped in dark chocolate. They are in the fridge chilling right now and I will bring some to work tomorrow. They turned out pretty well and I think I will be making some more as a gift to the Riverdog staff. I am sure I will make a few batches for out party next month as well. But my plan for my day off this week is to make Panettone from scratch. It will take a few hours, but baking seems less scary to me these days and there is always the bread machine to do most of the work.
Dan and I ‘inherited’ the Christmas village decorations from his parents, so I’d better go and see if I can help set it up. Dan already put the LED Christmas lights up outside – only available from Canadian Tires!! I think the tree will go up this weekend – our trusted, lit, spinnable, Taiwanese pine!
There Is No God
I heard Penn Jillette on NPR this morning’s ‘This I Believe’. He is Penn from Penn & Teller. I only saw him perform for the first time a week ago on TV and was quite impressed by their style. At a time when the ultra-right Christian groups have so much influence in Capitol Hill, it is nice to see someone like Penn to come right out and say “I believe that there is no God”. Check it out: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5015557
A Week in Review
The past week has gone by so quickly that I didn’t realize I have not posted anything over 8 days. After my 2 days off last week, I only had to work for 3 days and then I was off again for 2 days; in fact the rest of the month will be full of short work weeks – just the way I like it.
For those of you who listen to NPR, you may be familiar with a game show called Says You where the 2 teams have to answers funny and, often, witty word puzzles. The show is based in Boston, but they have road shows ever so often. Last Friday, they were in Seattle. Dan and I went to one of their shows (where they had 2 recording sessions) at Town Hall as part of his birthday gift. It was a lot of fun and, apparently, the Town Hall audience that night was the biggest audience they have ever had! I thought that was pretty neat. The hall itself is a pretty cool place and Dan recognized it as the venue where John McCutcheon, the folk musician, performed when he was on Seattle (we saw it on PBS). We found out some interesting trivia about Seattle during the show.
Mum came down to visit last weekend: she spent Saturday hanging out with Aunt Katherine while I was at work and then both her and Katherine made a wonderful seafood dinner that evening. We were hoping to go to the dog park with them the next day, but the weather was horrid, so we only ended up going shopping for a bit, having a late lunch at Fins and coffee at our house afterwards, before Mum had to head back.
It was Mum’s birthday on Monday, so I was going to give her the birthday present while she was in town. But we found out during dinner at Katherine’s that she has bought the same cookbook I have got for her just recently! What can I say? Great minds, right? So we went to B & N on Sunday morning to exchange the one I got her for something else. At least she got to pick her own present, so that’s pretty good.
On Sunday night, Vince and Yuka came over to watch the Penn & Teller show on NBC with us. It was quite a fun show even though I am not a big magic fan. Having said that, these 2 guys are pretty clear on the fact that there is no magic involved, just good tricks and debunking. We had pizza for dinner and home-made red bean soup for dessert (yes, a wired combination, but who could say no to red bean soup!).
While we were having dessert, Gander did the most amazing thing. We have witnesses and we have it on tape. To understand why this is so cool, you need to know that usually when we go out and have to leave Gander at home, we often put treats in his toys to keep him occupied and out of trouble. One of these toys is a rubber tire. We would put treats in the hollow of the tire and then plug the hole in the middle with another toy, often a Kong which also has treats within it. Sometimes we would also put a toy that he likes in that hole, so that he has to work at getting it out in order to play with it. In other words, he has been conditioned to think that if he pulls the toy out of the tire, he will either get treats or a toy that he wants.
In the past, we have seen him attempt to put a toy in the tire; he would then pick up that toy and look in the tire to see if any treats magically appear. He has never been very successful in plugging the hole with the toys. But on this night, he repeatedly put his rubber squeaky toy all the way in and then pulled it out through the other side. You could tell that his action was very deliberate and that he was getting better at it after a few attempts. He always checked the inside of the tire after he pulled the toy out, just in case some treats appeared. He must have done it five to six times altogether and Dan got most of it on tape.
It was very interesting to see how Gander figure things out and I would love to find out what his ‘thought process’ was. The ultimate goal for him, I am pretty sure, is to get a treat. This is what we think his ‘logic’ is: he knows that treats are often hidden in the tire and he had to pull something out to get them. So if the tire is empty, he will need to put something in so as to have something to pull out. All in all, he is a pretty smart puppy! I may even have to get him one of those Fisher & Price games soon to teach him shapes!! And then we can progress to numbers… Nah, I am not that crazy!
Yesterday was Dan’s birthday, but we did the whole birthday thing on Monday, my day off. I successfully made his birthday cake – a Victorian sponge sandwich cake with Nutella in the middle. Ok, so it was not real Nutella but the Trader Joe’s version of it; but you can’t really tell when it is in the cake. For dinner, we had roast leg of lamb with polenta – in fact, that is what I am having for lunch today as well!! It was a very successful birthday dinner.
My culinary adventure did not end there. Yesterday evening, I made a batch of Pistachio, Cranberry and White Chocolate biscotti. It was so good!! The recipe actually asked for dried raspberries, but I couldn’t find any at the store, so I decided to be bold and start substituting even though this was the first time I made biscotti. Luckily, it turned out great and it seemed more seasonal with the cranberries. I already have ideas on adjustments to the original recipe for the next time I make it. It is more work than getting it in the store, but definitely less work than I expected and much more satisfying to see it coming out of my own oven! It went extremely well with my latte this morning. All that talk of food is making me hungry…. Lunchtime!
Chan Can Cook... Most of the Time...
I worked this past weekend, but everything went very smooth at work and this time, I did not have any clients walking in with dying pets that I had to resuscitate. On Sunday night, Dan and I met up with Naomi and Mark to have dinner at Tulio, an Italian restaurant in Seattle, and to see ‘Sweeney Todd’, a musical about a serial killer in 19th century London.
We arrived at the restaurant a bit early and were waiting for Naomi and Mark when we half-witnessed a 3-car collision at the intersection by the restaurant. We were only half-witnesses because we heard the screeching tires and the collision while our backs were to the intersection and we only saw the end result of it. No one was hurt because it was fairly low-impact, but I think the old man who was either running a red light or trying to turn the wrong way into a one-way street was quite shaken up. One of the pedestrians crossing the street called the police and they arrived when we were just entering the restaurant.
Tulio is a very nice restaurant. Naomi and I went there sometime earlier this year before another show; so we thought it would be nice to introduce our spouses to it (and other restaurants that we have visited in their absence). The show was a bit of a disappointment as a musical. The story was gruesome and intriguing – it was about a 19th century barber, Sweeney Todd, who was determined to avenge the death of his wife and to get even with the people who accused him of and punished him for a crime he did not commit. He returned to London after 15 years in Australia. He paired up with an old acquaintance and ended up being a serial killer who murdered some of his barber shop customers and made them into meat pies. Lovely, huh? The story, the set, costumes etc were all very well done. But the music was not enjoyable. We all agreed after the show that we would have enjoyed it as a play instead. Nonetheless, we had a nice evening out.
Work was fairly steady yesterday and the day went by without too much drama… if only the sick pets come in earlier in the day instead of at the end of the day!
Today and tomorrow are days off for me after working the weekend. I spent today doing the usual day-off things: some household chores, taking Gander to the park, grocery shopping and cooking. Gander did very well at the park today – I am sure his one-week refresher course at Riverdog last week has a lot to do with it. He stole a couple of toys from other dogs, but he was pretty good at letting me take them back. We did not lose any tennis balls either.
One of my favourite things to do on my day off is to cook, often trying out new recipes. Last week, I bought a Chinese cookbook filled with a lot of basic stuff as well as fancy ‘restaurant foods’. One of the recipes that caught my eyes and helped me decide to buy the book was fried glutinous rice. That has always been my favourite winter dish and I bought the ingredients few days ago, planning to make it today. Lucky for me, Uwajimaya, a Japanese supermarket with a large selection of Chinese (and other Asian) groceries, is just a couple of blocks from my hospital. I was not able to find Chinese bacon in the store, so I just used extra Chinese sausages. Despite the slight change in the ingredients, the result was amazing!! I am quite proud of myself – it tasted just like the stuff I’ve had in restaurants!! I am sure if I could find Chinese bacon next time, it will be even better!
Another thing that I made today was Ching Po Leung soup. This has always been one of my favourite home-made soups. I bought the packaged dried ingredients a while back, but I forgot about it until a few days ago when I found it while going through the pantry. I tried making Ching Po Leung soup a few years ago, but it did not turn out to be that great. So I went online this morning and Googled it. I found a recipe for the soup and it included a couple more things besides the dried ingredients and the meat. I have all but one of the extra ingredients, but I went ahead and made the soup anyways – and it tasted so yummy! I am sure Mum would be proud of me! Like most Chinese mums, she is always concerned that I am not having any home-made, slow-cooked soups. Well, at least I have got one of them figured out!
My next challenge will be to make Dan’s birthday cake next week. My last attempt to make a cake was a bit of a disaster. It tasted good, but the texture was way off – it was more like shortbread than cake! I suspect it was because the baking powder I used was a bit old and perhaps I didn’t add enough milk and the batter consistency was not right… I have bought new baking powder since, so I hope it works out. I was going to make a chocolate cake, but I think I’d better stick to the basic sponge cake for now; instead of putting jam in the middle of the layers, I will be using Nutella. Even if the texture still doesn’t come out right, at least I know it will taste right!
End of the Rowing Season for Me
When I told the coaches that I would be available for the Head of the Lake race next weekend, I was told that there will be a tryout for the 2 really strong, competitive boats and each class will also send in other boats for the race. Coach M was also very adamant that the line-ups for the race will be up 2 weeks before the race and that those of us who want to race should not miss any practice.
I know I am just an intermediate level rower and I was not going to try out for the competitive women’s 8+; so I waited and waited for the ‘class boat’ line-up to be drawn up. As the race date got closer, there has been no follow-up on the seat-racing that was supposed to take place; there was also no news of a line-up for the boat from our class. Meanwhile, my back started to act up again in the past few weeks. But I thought, “Oh well, it’s just another 3 weeks, I will just tough it out until after the race. Since I have committed myself to be available for the race, I can’t miss practice now…”
It is extremely frustrating to then find out today, a week before the race, that I was not put in a line-up. When I asked M, she just said, “You are not as strong as the others”. I know that I am not as good as the people in the selected crew, that was why I was waiting to be put in a less experienced/competitive crew! I was not aware of any selection process in our class until today because our head coach chose not to follow-up on her previous plan and not to inform the class of the change.
I received an e-mail from our team captain earlier today suggesting that I tell the Director of the rowing club about the situation. Apparently, there are still other issues that need to be addressed. And she (captain) assured me that our regular coach will be back soon. It was nice to get the message from her and to know that other people felt that the situation was not handled properly. I will see what comes out of this. I will end my season early to rest my back, work on core strength and return in spring, hopefully with our old head coach back!
Anti-war Rally
Thumbs up to all the students who will participate in the walkout this afternoon all over the country on the first anniversary of Bush’s second term to rally against the war in Iraq.
