I love blueberries. Earlier this year, James bought two blueberry trees from Costco for me and my parents helped me to plant them in our yard. Initially we didn’t expect to have fruits the very first year, but then we noticed with this in July…

So I thought of many ways to eat blueberries.

Blueberry yogurt…

Blueberry and raspberry cobbler…

Blueberry muffin…

Blueberry bagels…

And best of all, gourmet blueberry bagels with scrambled eggs and American cheese, as prepared by James..

When my parents came to town to spend the week with us and attend Lia’s one-year celebration, they decided to bring a truckload of merchandise. The items include organic home-grown lemon, custom pureed flax seed multi-grain mix, green San Jose Race Crew 2007 T-shirts in all sizes, an air-powered keyboard from my childhood, and the last of which is the subject of this blog, an animal trap. My mom read about my rodent headache and decided that my mortifying rat-catching skills required assistance, so she unilaterally brought the trap my grandpa made.

Here’s the rodent’s perspective…

I was impressed. This device was constructed using simple parts, which included a wire frame, a door that snaps close by the aid of powerful springs, a bait hook that releases the door, and a sliding latch that ensures the door’s seal. According to my mom, she has caught every animal known to humans from her organic backyard, and whatever animal is lurking in my garage is no match for this device.

We shall see.

After setting the rat trap, two days of silence passed.  On the third day, the peanut butter I used as a bait disappeared, but the trap was still active. The next day I reloaded the bait, and once again, the peanut butter disappeared. No Rat.  Finally on Saturday, the trap went off, the trap flipped over, but to my dismay, the rat had somehow evaded the trap!

Perhaps the trap was too large. Tim mentioned that he was able to catch rats with regular mouse traps, so I decided to pick up a 4-pack of mouse traps…

However, the instructions bamboozled me…

Never needs baiting? Is the yellow colored plastic supposed to masquerade as a piece of refresh cheese to lure rats, similar to the functionality of fake baits used in fishing? The traps have been set up according to directions for now, but if we don’t harvest some rats soon, I may have to go the traditional route and add some raw meat!

When my mother-in-law came back from Taiwan last week, she brought back some Taro Cake. When I opened the packaging, I saw a piece of technology I haven’t encountered before, the Wondersensor Oxygen Indicator!

Unfortunately as with most Taiwanese products, there was a serious lack of directions. I had no idea whether the “Don’t Eat” is in effect. What was the color code for “Yes you can eat”? A color legend would be nice here to provide guidance to its interpretation.

In case you were mystified by these purple-colored pastry, here’s a cross-section of the contents:

Flaky Taro-flavored soft shell with Mochi inside.  Delicious!

Last year, Lia got a LeapFrog Learn & Groove Musical Table for Christmas, and she loved it. Actually, it was a love-hate relationship if you recall her opening the green compartment over and over again. One day, curiosity zapped Karen as she tried attaching the legs included in the package, and to our dismay, this was a one-way street. Despite the bold words “Take the legs off whenever you want!!” (or something to that effect) appearing on the box, it was a clip that snapped in to the slot that was impossible to snap out without snapping the leg in half.

So I put on my Google hat and found this secret society of defective musical table owners who were always displeased with this oversight. One such owner contact LeapFrog, and the solution was to return it to the store, which we ended up doing. However, this also left Lia without her treasured Christmas gift. Even though she didn’t say it, we fathomed that Lia would missing the fun of crying while opening and closing the green compartment, so we ventured out to find a non-defective replacement.

Some comments suggested that the model with the purple door had legs with a release button, but without Superman helping us with his X-Ray vision, it was impossible to determine the color of the door. We tried purchasing one from Target one time, but the unit fell out as we removed it from the cart to put on the checkout counter. Green door.  Needless to say, we did not complete that transaction.

Finally, we arrived at an impasse, not having a strategy to find a replacement, so we gave in and bought the next table we found…

Green door.  But wait…  what’s a new red border on the sides? Turns out that we got a newer model that comes with legs that can be released! Happy ending! If you’re also contemplating giving one of these tables to your child, don’t get stuck with the defective, non-removable legs. Get the new version with the red side trim!

A long time ago when a deer mouse raided our pantry, we promptly bought a live mouse trap, caught it, and disposed of it. That was easy. Now we have a new invader, with the ability to wreck havoc in our garage. Let me demonstrate the casualties of this war declared on us by the evil fiend.

One of my favorite (and only) sneakers, fallen…

Filter for the heater vent, recently purchased, destroyed.

Even both of our cars suffered some damage as it chewed its way through the wiper fluid hoses, such as that shown at the upper-left side of the following image:

Enough is enough. I’ve decided to fight back, Tom & Jerry style:

Yes the trap is big. Yes, it can probably snap my finger in half. Hopefully the fragrance of the peanut butter will be enough to lure the foul beast, and put an end to all the terror it has bestowed upon this household!

A while ago, we cheaped out and switched to a cell-phone only arrangement at home using the XLink Gateway, but the cell phone voice quality was dependent on the distance of the cell phone to the Gateway. When it is far away, the sound can be choppy. After a while it induced enough annoyance that I investigated cheap alternatives to reinstating our home phone, and that’s when I came across this at Best Buy:

It’s called Ooma Core and for $250, you get a hub that masquerades as an answering machine, and a “scout” device for connecting to other outlets. In my case, I just plugged it into my XLink Gateway, and as a result all three phones ring my cordless at home.

The device comes with lifetime phone service with free calling features such as caller ID and call waiting, as long as your device is in good working order. It also includes unlimited national calling and pretty cheap international rates. Signing up was a breeze, as it just takes typing in the serial number on the ooma.com web site and choosing a phone number in the city of your choice. Within 15 minutes the number was ringing my phone.

How’s the sound quality? Short answer: It depends. Long answer: It depends on your internet connection. When I first got the device, Comcast had some issues with its internet service for the entire city, so sometimes the sound would cut in and out. However, since Comcast fixed their issue, the phone service had been working fine for the most part. Occasionally, one person cannot hear the other person at all, but I suppose one can use that as an excuse to evade unwanted calls. A reconnection typically fixes the problem. The other annoying part was that the caller ID redial on the phone did not work because I needed to add a 1 before the area code, which was not part of the caller ID. Lastly, there can be a little static when the phone connects where the ooma tone is supposed to be heard, but I assume it’s just a software bug. Otherwise, the call quality is as good as any other VOIP phone.

There are a few caveats, of course. First, for any product where they got your money already, customer service is probably sacrificed. I’ve yet to call customer service, but I can’t imagine why they would want to spend much time and money supporting a device they’ve already got paid in full. Second, I’m betting on the company fending off becoming another SunRocket (bankruptcy) for 10 months to break even (using Vonage/Comcast as a comparison point). With the country being in a recession, this can be even more of a gamble than before.

So the jury is still out to whether this was a good investment or money down the drain, but lately it has been working just fine. With our cell phones as backups, let’s see how long we can stretch this service out!

This last Sunday afternoon, Lia woke up from a nap around 3 pm, when the schedule demanded a snack. However, because Karen was still snoozing upstairs, I kept Lia company for an hour before bringing her up. When Lia saw mommy laying there, she first tapped mommy on the head, but then she started opening and closing both her fists. I thought, “oh this is interesting, she’s exercising her tiny fingers!” But then Karen realized that this was not a dexterity exercise, but signing “milk”!  Karen had been teaching Lia every day before each feeding, and apparently Lia picked it up and used it to express that she wanted a feeding! Wow!

Now in case you’re unaware of what baby signing is, it’s sign language taught to babies who haven’t reached the gabbing milestone yet as a form of communication. Well, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s a few examples…

Milk: Open and close fist as if milking a cow

Dad: Put the thumb of open hand on the forehead

Mom: Put the thumb of open hand on the chin.

Sleep: Draw your hand down over your face and close your fingers together while your eyes fall asleep

Airplane: Stick out the thumb, pointer, and pinky, and make the hand fly!

Flower: With fingers closed, touch one side of the nose and then the other, as if smelling a flower

Want: With open hands in front, scrunch your fingers like grabbing something and pull the arms back.

There! Now just teach that to your baby and he or she might surprise you next time!

The veternarian who single-handedly squeezed Fuzzy to death decided to milk more money out of us by sending us a reminder that Fuzzy is due for a “wellness exam” a year after he passed away.  Apparently they didn’t realize Fuzzy didn’t make it through his last visit.  This is the Bellevue Center of Veterinary Medicine, which I would recommend that you stay away at all costs unless you’re looking for a Euthanizing Institution. 

WARNING: The following story contains graphic images and can be upsetting. Parental discretion is advised.

When we came home today after running some errands, we unloaded Lia along with the groceries. Next to the garage door, some carpenter ants were crawling. “They’re back?!” I thought to myself. I followed the carpenter ant out of the garage when, to my horror, I saw four corpses sitting in my driveway. These were no ordinary corpses–they were babies! What happened? Did some cruel parent threw their babies out of the window, or did these babies get so hot they lept to their death in the 92 degree heat of the day? Forensic evidence were lacking, as the parents were nowhere to be found and it was difficult contacting any family members.

Here was an picture taken of the crime scene:

Currently the case is still open, and we hope someday to unravel this mystery.