Monday, June 23, 2008

Asian drivers ... ROCK!


OK, so I realized after I posted the entry about Whirlyball that I neglected to address an obvious question: How did I do in my first foray at it?

Well, while it is true that one might expect me, an Asian American woman, to fare poorly at Whirlyball, a recreational activity that requires some driving skills, I assure you that I did much better than you might think. I even scored a few points! True, I did get stuck in the corner a few times, but I eventually figured out how to free myself.

Granted, I am not the best driver in the world. I hate to reinforce stereotypes, but I'm afraid I fit the bill when it comes to the idea of Asian women being bad drivers. This issue was raised recently, after I noticed how torn up our tree lawn was. There were tire tracks and deep mud grooves where there should have been nice grass (carefully planted and cared for by my lovely husband). Standing on our driveway with hands on my hips, I had decided enough was enough. "That's IT!" I declared. "I've had enough of these random people tearing up our lawn! Let's dissuade these randoms from using our driveway. Let's put ROCKS on the sides of the driveway. Big ROCKS!"

"Uh, are you sure about that?" Vic asked.

"Yeah, why not? Let's put big rocks there so these randoms will pick someone else's driveway to plow over."

"Rocks? You sure?"

"YES! BIG ROCKS!"

I talked to our neighbor about the plan. He was amenable and followed our lead in putting a big rock on his side of the driveway. Vic asked me one more time if I was sure I wanted to go through with this plan. Annoyed by his reluctance, I asked him what his problem was.

"YOU are the one who keeps tearing up the tree lawn! You and your dad!" Vic finally blurted out.

Since it was my own plan, I didn't want to abort the mission. I also needed to prove that I could navigate our car between the rocks. So the rocks went down, according to plan.

Then I noticed how narrow our driveway apron was. It's abnormally narrow! I don't even know how regular cars fit on it. We have a compact car even - I can't imagine how one would drive an SUV on it. I asked Vic if maybe we should remove the rocks and hire a contractor to expand the apron. Vic responded with a sound that was half-growl, half-guffaw.

My dad has been complaining about the rocks too. I don't know about him, but I've run over the rocks only once.

So far.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Happy Father's Day to a lovely man


Happy Father's Day
Originally uploaded by Chiubacca
Nico made a very sweet Father's Day card for Vic.

The cover had a rocket ship heading into space ("because Daddy likes outer space") with a countdown of "5 4 3 2 1 0!!!!" I love that Nico used four exclamation points. I generally think one exclamation point is enough to convey a message, but I think it's OK for kids to use more if they want.

The inside of the card had a cute drawing of the family. All of us have orange faces. Interestingly, I am the tallest and have two pink hearts above my head. Nico said they are earrings. Vic appears only slightly taller than Nico. Also, I seem to have an abundance of black hair, whereas Vic, Nico and Nolan have none.

The best part was the message Nico wrote all by himself:
Dear Daddy
I love you so much as I wish.
You are so lovely.
You are the best dad!
Love Nico

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Whirlyball after work


IMG_0006 1.JPG
Originally uploaded by gravity0069
I played Whirlyball for the first time on Friday night - Friday the 13th, in fact.

I joined my former colleagues in University Marketing and Communications at Case Western Reserve University for the fun activitiy. I hadn't seen many of them since my goodbye party, so it was nice to hang out with them outside of work. Whirlyball is hilarious! How can you not love an activity that combines bumper cars with lacrosse, basketball and a good amount of trash-talking?

Heidi Cool captured the experience on video - that's me at the very end. I'm not sure if I scored that time. I probably didn't.

Here's another Whirlyball video Heidi took. Were we really shrieking like that the entire time? Yes, apparently.

Anyhow, it was a really fun time and I hope to do it again some time.