⊕an adventure to Monterey Bay Aquarium

We decided to visit Monterey Bay Aquarium in one of the Thanksgiving holidays.

With the guidance of GPS, we took 880 South, 17 South, 1 South, 
then arrived the aquarium in about 1 and half hour.

The Giant Octopus was our first must-see stop.
Then with the map in hand, we pretty much visited almost
each exhibit area, including watching a Jelly Fish presentation.

Giant Octopus

Beautiful Jelly Fish

Amazing Leafy Sea Dragon

This is the first time I saw this amazing creature. The way they move in the water is so graceful.

This was a wonderful trip for us. We learnt and appreciated knowing the 
magnificent creatures in the aquarium.

⊕Joan Baez - Gracias a la vida

Joan Baez is one of my daddy's favorite singers.
I started listening to her songs when I was very little.
Naturally, I like her too.

I like the simplicity that her figure presents and yet deep and powerful
meanings her songs convey to the world.

I like her passion and the love to the world.
I love the beauty in her voice.
I really like her.

I found this song from youtube.
She sang it with great passion and grace, as usual.
I think it is a great song to hear in Thanksgiving holidays.

I found the lyrics in Spanish and the translation in English in this web site:
http://www.williammorin.com/graciasalavida.html
Thank God. I can read both languages in one page! Thank the people who
contributed to this web site.

Thank you, Joan Baez.

⊕枯木新芽, 死而後生. It's rebirth.

I thank the lesson that the plants taught me this morning.
There are new shoots in the dried branch that I was planning
to remove. To my surprise, these new green shoots are
signals of life.
I thank you, God, for showing me the vitality from dried branches.
Where I think the only thing I see is dried, still branches,
incredible life power is happening.

It's rebirth.

今早在修剪花草時, 意外看到, 我一直以為枯掉的樹枝, 竟長出新葉!
這是我計畫要折掉的枯枝耶! 看到可愛的, 小小的綠葉, 小心地從
看似乾掉的樹枝縫冒出頭來, 我的心裡充滿感動與感謝. 造物主的力量
太神奇, 太偉大了, "死而後生", "浴火重生", 這些成語在我腦中浮現,
生命的力量讓我讚嘆!

計畫要移除的枯枝 dried branches that were planned to remove

嗨! 大家好~ Hello World!

開心地呼吸新鮮的空氣~ Gratefully breathing fresh air

嫩綠的新葉們 new green shoots

⊕America! The Beautiful

前幾天小朋友在圖書館借了一本有聲書, 書名是"America! The Beautiful.",
放出來之後覺得非常好聽, 書中也介紹這首詩及曲的來源, 原來這首歌已經
有百年多的歷史了。

這首詩是由Katharine Lee Bates這位女詩人(同時也是衛斯理學院的英文教授), 在
1893年紀錄她旅遊足跡到達處, 感受到的自然壯麗與對歷史人文事蹟的景仰,
爾後, 她的遊記彙集成了這首流傳百年之久的"America! The Beautiful."
 1895年Katharine公開出版這首詩.

我們這本有聲書配置的曲子是由 Samuel Augustus Ward先生所做, 就像Katharine一樣,
Samuel也是在旅行中受到這塊土地的瑰麗啟發, 哼出這首曲子. 聽說, 百年來,
經過無數次的比賽為這首詩重新譜曲, 但沒有一個曲子如Samuel先生做的這首如此
廣為流傳及受到大家喜愛.

有趣的是, Samuel這首曲子於1888年出版, 但直到1904年, Katharine的詩及Samuel的曲
才被放在一起成為一首歌, 並到1910年才出版.

Samuel先生於1903年過世, 因此他並不知道自己的曲子成為美國人最愛的一首歌.
Katharine小姐則過世於1929年.

這是意境深遠且曲調優美的一首詩,　小朋友很喜歡聽.
在這裡附上Youtube上Willie Nelson及一群明星合唱的版本：



它的歌詞是（來源：http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/lyrics/america.htm）

(lyrics by Katherine Lee Bates; music composed by Samuel A. Ward) O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassion'd stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness.

America! America!
God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.

O beautiful for heroes prov'd
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life.

America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev'ry gain divine.

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears.

America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.

⊕Allen (part II)

There are two other Allen that I met so far.

One is the little boy next to my house. He is as old as my son.
My son likes to play with him and his sister in front of our house.
It was fun watching them play and communicate using kids'
language.

Next one is one of my son's classmate. I guess he is
the tallest in the class. I used to think of him as a kid with
a temper. After volunteering some tasks in the class,
I found him a kid with a tender heart. His expression
of feelings is direct. He would give me a big grinning
smile or give me a big hug as a surprise.

I happened to see him pat goats in the Ardenwood farm.
It was such a gentle manner of Allen's. He was like talking
to the goat, then he told me the goat was sad. I looked
at the goat and felt his words true. From then on, I felt the
bridge between me and Allen was built.

I don't know why I wrote these about the three Allens.
This driver reminded me the first Allen, and the second, and the
third Allen I know of. So I felt like writing something about them.
That's all.

My bless to all three of you, Allen.

⊕Allen (part I)

Today when I was driving, the driver in front of me looked like
one of my ex-coworkers. His name is Allen. The image of the
driver's back reminded me of Allen.

Allen seemed to go to work early everyday, as early as like 6 am.
I wonder what he was doing so early? I had no intersection
with Allen at work until the end of that particular year.
There was a fund-raising/gift donation campaign that both of
us volunteer to involve to some activities.

We met, discussed, then made an appointment for our next meeting.
It was then I knew Allen came to work so early.

Usually Allen was modest, polite, and not talkative.
He was always on-time, punctuate. He seemed to be
a very self-discipline person and also wanted people
to treat him the same way.

One time after our discussion, he told me,
"Could you please not wear perfume, because
I have $%^&*, the smell of perfume is not good
for my body?"

In another occasion, everybody was in a team-building class.
A colleague was playing a joke on him and this person didn't know
he had offended him. Allen suddenly stood up, said something loudly
to this person, walked out of the classroom, and left the rest of
the class speechless.

I lost my contact with Allen after leaving the company.

The image of the driver's back this morning reminded me of Allen.

⊕A cup of coffee in the morning at Trader Joe's

上星期送小朋友上學後, 想到要買一些蔬果,
就直接開去 Trader Joe's 買.

不過有點早, 還不到9AM, 門還沒開呢. 可是讓我訝異的是,
竟已有一群人在排隊等著進去.

為什麼呢? 店家也很仁慈, 看沒差幾分鐘, 就
先開門讓大家進去了.

我停好車, 也趕緊進去瞧瞧, 通常是有什麼 Sales 好康的,
才會這樣.

走進去, 已看到有人拿著一小杯咖啡, 悠哉地邊喝邊 shopping 了.

再往裡面走進去, 聽到有人親切的招呼著: "新鮮的南瓜派, 快來嚐嚐!"
走過去, 看到一位男士, 很熱情地跟這位招呼的小姐道早安, 然後說:
"我想我需要一份較大塊的南瓜派!"
"沒問題!", 這位小姐開心地回答, 然後又說:"別忘了配一杯剛磨好的現煮咖啡喔!"
天啊, 好像在招呼自己的家人耶.

看到如此景況, 尚未用早餐的我, 也趕緊向前拿了一份南瓜派, 不知是氣氛的關係,
還是真的很好吃, 我用兩小杯咖啡將南瓜派吃完, 覺得真的好好吃喔.

親切的小姐還跟我說: "謝謝", 並繼續說: "你知道嗎?
南瓜派富含很豐富的維他命A喔!"

看了背後的營養成分列表, 真的有很豐富的維他命A耶, 買一份回家吃吃看吧.
(出乎我意料之外, 小朋友竟很喜歡吃 Trader Joe's 的南瓜派! 這個南瓜派
很快就被吃完了.)

昨天中午時間, 想到火雞肉片沒了, 就再到 Trader Joe's 買,
咖啡仍然好喝, 不過試吃換成Brussels Sprouts, 也覺得很好吃,
並且容易料理, 買了一包回家試試看.

Trader Joe's 這家店是妹妹介紹的, 以前我除了去 Safeway 外, 就是到 Whole Foods.

去Whole Foods主要是買有機蔬果及產品, 妹妹介紹的 Trader Joe's 也
是主要賣 有機產品, 兩者的差別在於, 後者走小型經營, 顧客親切的好鄰居商店形象,
價格也很親切, 也生產自己品牌的產品, 我才買了 Trader Joe's 的 Instant Coffee
回家喝呢, 還真好喝.

雖然這是Trader Joe's的一種行銷手法,
但我得承認, 這種 親切式行銷 還真常讓我感到開心呢!

Trader Joe's 較 Whole Foods 離我們家近, 所以現在我常到 Trader Joe's
買東西, 並享受這家親切的小店常常帶給顧客的一些驚喜!

⊕Inner Being

Your Inner Being would want you to manifest everything that you decide that you want. Your Inner Being would want you to know that you have value and the ability to have or be or do anything. Your Inner Being would want you to fulfill every wish and whim that you could identify.

--- Abraham

Excerpted from the workshop in Philadelphia, PA on Tuesday, April 14th, 1998 #250

Our Love,
Jerry and Esther

⊕GPS, GPS, we love you!

I borrowed this Garmin nüvi GPS from my brother-in-law.
It turned out to be very handy for us.

I used a Gosget Papago in Taiwan, but never
relied on the navigator as much as I do here.

I can't imagine how I used to find all those places
in the United States back the time when all I had
was the AAA maps.

Now I use this GPS to find grocery stores, post
offices, and places like DMV offices.
It started to give us great fun when we sort of used
it to find nearby parks, and restaurants.

Since we always go to the parks that we know of,
this past weekend my son asked me, "Can we go see all the parks
in Sunnyvale?"

I thought it a good idea to do this adventure. So,
I tried to use the functions in the Garmin GPS
that listed us nearby parks in the city.

We started from the nearest, then the second closest, then
the next one.
We were like tourists visiting different places with fresh
minds. We found quite a few interesting parks around, like
Bradly Park, Fair Oaks Park, Victoria Village Park, Las Palmas
Park, Bayland Park, Ponderosa Park, Sunnyvale Community Center,
and Martin Murphy Jr. Heritage Park.

Our adventure will go on as long as we have a GPS.

I thank the person/group/company who invented this great device.
With this little gadget, we can go anywhere with its instructions.

Thank you. Global Positioning Service is Great.