OK, people! What is the deal? It is freaking March 8th, 30 miles north of Kentucky, and what do we have? A foot of snow on the ground! Blizzard conditions! WTF???? Look at this stuff!!!?!?! [[image:snow11.jpg:Snowdrift in back corner:center:0]] [[image:snow12.jpg:Snow hanging off:center:0]] [[image:snow13.jpg:Snowy basketball court:center:0]] [[image:snow14.jpg:Cracking open the side door:center:0]] [[image:snow15.jpg:Look at that snow!:center:0]] [[image:snow17.jpg:Lamp is not spared from snow build up:center:0]] [[image:snow18.jpg:The back stairs:center:0]] [[image:snow19.jpg:The driveway:center:0]] [[image:snow16.jpg:Believe it or not, this is the front porch:center:0]] Dang it! I was looking for a picture of the front porch without snow, and all the pictures from last years are either vacation, food, or cat. Huh! I will have to take a picture of it when this snow stuff is over (if it ever ends!) and put up a picture of the front porch to compare with the last image here, just so you can see the difference. There are 3 stairs […]
Continue readingTag Archives: Around the House
TV first
Here are blog posts of things and events that happen at home…
Guess Who’s Back In Town?
[[image:uncleaunt.jpg:Cik Dik, Ayah Cik and Irfan in between:center:0]] What the title says….
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Irfan: Five Years After the Day
Tonight was Irfan’s 5th birthday, as can be noted via the photo of his cake below. See? It’s in the shape of the number five. Five. Five candles, ah ah ah. But yeah, Ain noted that it looks like the letter ‘S’. Here is the close up of the ancient inscription found on the cake during the archaeological dig: So, here we go by the numbers as per last year. Many thanks to Atok Irfan for his photography skills to get great photographic shots: Then I got behind the camera to take a picture of Atok & Opah Irfan: There were two cameras trying to take a photo of Irfan and Cik Emma. However, both were looking at the other camera when the button was pressed. Finally Irfan receives his birthday present from Atok Irfan! Check out the excitement in his eyes: It’s an Optimus Prime! But…. how to get […]
Continue readingDog Days of Summer
August has been a gruelling month in Southwestern Ohio. We might have seen a lot of rain in the Pacific Northwest when we visited, but from when we got home to this past Monday, we had not seen one drop of rain at our house! Grass is turning brown. Record high temperatures have been seen. Today’s high, for instance, is 99 F (34 C) and yesterday’s was 101 F (35 C). Humid like Malaysia. It did rain on Monday, and wasn’t too crazy hot on Tuesday, but we’re back to the heat now. So yeah it has been HOT! This is the kind of heat that makes up the “dog days of summer“. Defined as the period of time between July and September (roughly) when Sirius (the dog star) rises and sets with the sun. It also corresponds to the hottest days of the year in the northern hemisphere. And […]
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Sneak Attack Irfan
Here we have in the living room a pile of pillows of various shapes and sizes. You might think it’s harmless and drop your guard as you unwittingly walk by this scene in the house. But from its natural hiding space, a predator launches itself out from under the pile, illustrating how dangerous the wilds of the living room can be for the unsuspecting visitor.
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A Time of Reunion
We don’t get together that much these days, but when we do the survivors of the ACS Sitiawan, SPM 1990 batch, create one hell of a ruckus when we sit around the table talking about… well, anything that comes to mind. Earlier tonight, a bunch of them fell upon the Tenth Floor for a gathering and of course, to eat. There was also talk about peeing or hocking a loogie onto passers-by or the swimming pool below from the window and/or balcony. However, some sort of decorum was maintained since there were kids in the room. Apart from our household, the roll call included: Teik Sing (with Michelle and Baby Ashley-Joan), Shahar, Tern Lik, Nguk Lui, Alvin and family, Hudson and Kok Soon. Ain cooked two variations of bihun goreng, both of which were tasty. Teik Sing bought appetizers and desert, Shahar bought some kuih, Hudson brought chips and Kok […]
Continue readingSpring Flowers
Spring is springing!! Even though it’s a high of 40F (5C) today, and there looks to be little granules of snow falling from the sky (no accumulation so far tonight) and the low tonight will be well below freezing, it’s Spring! Witness the crocuses: [[image:flower01.jpg:Crocuses:center:0]] They say crocuses are the heralds of spring. They bloomed early, and now they’re gone. But they were gorgeous while they lasted: [[image:flower04.jpg:Little crocuses in a row:center:0]] [[image:flower02.jpg:Very comel, no?:center:0]] [[image:flower03.jpg:Lagi crocuses:center:0]] Then we saw these purple flowers blooming from the middle of this plant (last year I don’t think they bloomed – they look quite new. The plant grew, but didn’t flower last year): [[image:flower05.jpg:Dunno the name of the flower:center:0]] [[image:flower06.jpg:But it’s a pretty purple!:center:0]] What this flower is called? No idea. But in a few days, it went from the pretty little purple little balls above to this kembang: [[image:flower07.jpg:Mystery Flower fully blooming:center:0]] […]
Continue reading10 Reasons not to go outside
After about a week of rain and snow flurries and overcast skies (luckily it wasn’t too too cold so no snow stuck), Friday was a sunny day. Cold and windy, but the sun was finally out and Vin and I took the afternoon off to go out and spend the afternoon together. Saturday wasn’t a bad day either. But this is what I woke up to this morning and my heart fell. Let’s not be shy about it. Believe me, I don’t make any excuses – I will say it out loud and say it strong. I HATE SNOW! I loathe it. I think that snow is the single most depressing thing in the world, and the one reason that I would think about moving. Here are 10 pictures of the scene I saw when I woke up this morning. The first snow of the season that has any kind […]
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Rabies anybody?
While Abah and Mak were visiting with us last year, Abah took an avid interest in the wildlife around here. Here’s a squirrel eating from the container of seeds Vin puts out for the squirrels and the birds. I hope it doesn’t have rabies. 😀
Continue readingIn a galaxy far, far away… Eid Mubarak!
Eid Mubarak and Selamat Hari Raya to everyone! This year, for the first time, Mak and Abah came to spend raya with us, so we had a nice quiet celebration, just the 4 of us. We had the raya breakfast of pulut (glutinous rice), rendang ayam (chicken rendang) and sambal tumis daging (beef sambal) but took no pictures of the food as we were too busy chowing down the morning of the 1st of Shawwal. After the food, we then all got dressed in our Raya finery, took a bunch of pictures and then did the ritual salam-salam and asking of forgiveness of each other, as is tradition for a Malaysian Eid. Take a look of the pictures of Mak and Abah with us for the first time during Raya, and because it was quite cold outside and our Malaysian thin cotton materials, we only took pictures indoors. Mouse over […]
Continue readingIn a galaxy far, far away… Part I
After Yope, Yong, Emma, Irfan, Wan Ngah and Aji sent Abah and Mak to KLIA, they embarked on a long, arduous journey where finally they landed in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport. Unfortunately, they arrived on a rainy night and due to traffic issues in the rain, Vin and I did not arrive at the airport right on time. Abah and Mak were waiting outside the terminal, and Abah was cold, so after a quick salam and kiss kiss, everyone piled into the car and we came home for dinner. [[image:us02.jpg:Mak is helping to stir the stir fried veggies:center:0]] [[image:us03.jpg:Hanging out in our kitchen – note the rosemary focaccia:center:0]] [[image:us01.jpg:Abah showing off his chicken, Mak has a piece of focaccia:center:0]] [[image:us04.jpg:First dinner at home with Abah and Mak:center:0]] Some pictures that were taken in our house: [[image:us05.jpg:Vin watering the plants in the library:center:0]] [[image:us06.jpg:Picture of the house taken from the street:center:0]] […]
Continue readingHair!
OK, so I didn’t actually go see the musical Hair while I was in New York City on Saturday, but here’s some news on hair: I cut mine!! Here’s a picture of me from this past May, where you can see how long my hair is. [[image:eur146.jpg:John and Jane Catchpole, and me and my hair:center:0]] In the past five months it has grown even more weed-like and out of control. So I took action (aiya, after all Raya is coming up and my parents will be here for Raya, must spruce myself up a bit, right?). Here’s how much I cut off (for scale I put a normal sized ballpoint pen next to the hair): [[image:hair1.jpg:Braid of the hair that was cut off:center:0]] And here’s the after picture: [[image:hair2.jpg:Sila minus the weed-like hair:center:0]] I really don’t care too much how long my hair is to be honest. I’ve tried every […]
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Exactly Four Years Ago Today…
… Irfan Shafiq was born just before 5 p.m. in the maternity ward at Kuala Lumpur Hospital. He caused his mother to be stuck at the hospital for almost 12 hours before finally decided it was time to pop out. I was right there with Ain when he popped out. When the nurse handed him to me he gave me his best “Hey… can you tell me what the heck’s going on around here” look. Atok and Opah arrived from Sitiawan today to celebrate the occasion with Irfan, after which Opah made nasi ayam for dinner. There was cake with candles (a hit with Irfan for some reason) and the photos were taken by Atok. We had dinner when Mak Long and Ayah Long came a-calling. I noticed that Irfan was sleepy by 8pm but he fought his drooping eyes until it was after 11pm, because of the occasion. I […]
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Damage Report
As much as I’m extremely happy there’s roof over our heads (and ten floors plus change beneath us), I am very much zonked out by the accumulating damages in our house for the sole reason that the building was 10 years old when we moved in. It’s a great place to be, but we need to move out of here so we don’t spend a bomb monthly on fuel costs and waste hours every day travelling to work, which is right across the city. But before we can move out, we’ll have to sell the place cause we can’t really spend on rent on our income. (Not to mention transporting our stuff would also cost us some money.) And before we can sell the place there are a few things on the wishlist that need to be addressed. Firstly, the building needs to be more presentable. That’s currently being fullfilled […]
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Today The Light Switch…
… Tomorrow the world!!! Earlier today Irfan realised that he has a new super power: the ability to reach any high switch on the wall with his hands (albeit on tippy toes). So all morning he’s been all over the house flipping switches. Lights. Fan. Forcefields. Directed-energy weapons. Life support systems. But the best thing all week has been his newfound skill of asking to use the toilet when required. Many thanks to Irfan’s Tok & Opah for teaching their grandson while Ain & I were at work last week. The other thing Irfan did with his grandparents was watch Pixar’s Cars together. The first time they watched a movie together, but the third time Irfan’s watched Cars in the theatre. Cars appears to have become Irfan’s favourite movie. He asks to see it again almost every day. He can remember names and tell who’s who on sight. He points […]
Continue readingAfternoon Storms
For the last month or so, the late afternoons, before the onset of dusk, is usually time for heavy rainstorms. They’re so heavy that sometimes, the hills in front of the apartment on the other side of Pandan Indah are totally obscured. Lightning tear across the sky. Thunder shakes the windows. Each time it hits, there would come a time during the storm when the lightning and thunder would coincide, which indicated that they were extremely close. This could be very disconcerting up here on the tenth floor. But today something new occurred. Not only there was an extremely bright flash of lighting coinciding with a loud thunderclap. The event also producted a strong electromagnetic field which caused my computer CRT monitor’s colour to go all purple. Fortunately, a quick usage of the monitor’s degauss function immediatedly rectified the problem. Thankfully the computer wasn’t damaged in any way.
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