The triangle historical place includes: Willamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown. The first stop of my vacation was Williamsburg, one of the triangle cities. We started driving at around 12pm, did not stop for food except snacking on some fruits and some figure foods. So we were starving by the time we arrived to our hotel--- Hilton Garden Inn. (I have to mention here, please DO NOT book hotels through www.hotels.com, we were guarantteed a room with two queen size bed but it was actually a room with two double beds). As soon as we dropped off luggage, we went out for dinner. According to the hotel recommendation, we went to the best Chinese place in town-Peking restaurant--a buffet style. I could not single type of food in that restaurant you can actually call it tasty. I was very disappointed. After the dinner, on the way back to the hotel, we went to the outlet in town. I think it is called Ramada outlet mall. There are pretty good selection in the mall, lots of good stores and brands. I am a big fan of shoes, so I walked through every single shoe store, I really liked a couple of pairs from Ninewest. But i did not get anything since they are all high heels.

The second morning, we went to the best pancake place for breakfast called Capitol pancake & waffule house. I have to admit that they did have very good pancake. As for whether it is the best pancake, I have no clue. After the breakfast, we headed to the visitors' centre located in downtown. We got the pass including palace which is the highlight of the day. The area is called colonial Willamsburg also called reproduction at least I call it that way. The tour started from the capitol, ended at the Govener's palace. It took the whole day. I did take many good pictures. But I do not have a clue how to upload them as a album instead of individual picture here. It was fun, I felt like I went back to the old days. People acted like they were living in the past days as well. One thing amazed me was a piece of clothes for supporting back, I forgot the name of it. Girls wore them for the whole life, boys wore them until they are 3. I did not care the back support part, I actually cared the way that thing carried the woman chest lol. We went to Christiana Campbell's Tavern for dinner, one of the finest restaurant in the colonial area. There are good seafood selection there like crab cake, shrimp, scollop..... I ordered shrimp and scollop cambo. This restaurant is George Washington's favorite seafood place. I was sitting in his favorite room.  How lucky am I!!! The food was fantastic but very expensive like $60/each.

We went to Jamestown and Yorktown the second day. There is historical and settlement in Jamestown. It was more fun in the historical place not much going on in the settlement. I personally fell in love with Yorktown. It is surrounded by water. The water is so clear that you can see the tiny little fish swimming right at the border of the water and the sand between the human being walking and playing in the water. It is so quiet even though there are tons of visitors everyday. I was feeling like moving there open a small chinese restaurant, working half of the time and then read, travel and write for the rest. I know it is a dream. so let it be one.

There are also many other attractions including Busch's garden, which is an amusement park having water slides. There is also President's park and a few good museum. Due to the time limitation, I did not go to those places.

There two sites are the best sites for describing the area. I personally like the second one more.

http://www.colonialwilliamsburg.com/

http://www.visitwilliamsburg.com/index.aspx

Outer bank Island was the last stop of my vacation. We stayed in Hilton Garden Inn again in Kitty Hawk. It is right on the beach. My room is on the top floor, having two large windows facing the Atlantic Ocean. So when I was in the room, I could hear the sound of ocean while doing my own thing, sometimes I looked out of the window and could see the people on the beach and the waves. In the morning, I  usually took a long walk along the beach while picking up pretty shells. The first day, I was very curious about those big holes (around 1 or 2 inches I.D.) and those tiny little holes like 1 cm I.D.. I finally figured out after observing for a couple of days. The second day, I saw so many little crabs on the sand. They all rushed into their holes while I approached them. That answered what the big holes are. I was amazed how fast those crabs can run. It also reminded me what my mom used to say about me. She said I walked like a crab, horizontally like a crab when I was acting like a boy. As for the little holes, I was more amazed when I found out the truth. The second day, I was playing on the beach. I saw those little tiny clams on the sand when the water went down. They were so tiny like 2 or 3mm. This did not answer what those tiny holes are until we walked on Nags head beach. We were playing, walking on the beach. All the sudden, I saw hundreds of much bigger size clams standing in the sand trying to hide back in when the water just went down. I could not believe my eyes. They looked like new baby bamboo after a good rain. Now I knew what those tiny holes are. But something made me sad was I saw so many tiny fish left on the sand when the tide went down. Most of them died or were eaten by seagles or peletons.

On the way to Nags Head beach. We visited Wright Brothers National Memorial, the brothers who invented first power flight in 1903. It is amazing and inspiring.

I tried to upload some pictures here. But I am not smart on this. Maybe next time.

好文同享: 作者：stein

很生活的故事，经典句:“No time is a good time for goodbye，no ending can be a good ending”

写的很好, 非常搞笑，作者的文笔很流畅，而且思想应该也比较新奇，语句幽默，同时也很有时代气息，对于一个女生来说，与其爱着一个不懂得爱自己的人，倒不如珍惜身边爱着自己的人！

http://bbs.readnovel.com/htm_data/7/0611/159860.html

Hope this article helps you relax a little bit after being busy for the whole weekend.

I am not sure when and where I read this sentence. But it sounds so true to me.

I have been on this site for like a month. Met one person, been talking to a few over the phone. Interesting thing is one of the first a few questions is always whether I have dated American guys. My answer was that I only dated one Chinese guy. The rest are white guys. Then the next question has always been how the sex life is compared to the sex with Chinese guy. Remember one of my best friends in Canada asked me a similar question 3 years ago. I told her to find a white guy and try for herself. Then we giggled and laughed the whole day. But honestly, myself gets along better with American guys because of my personality: very straightforward, simple, always say what I want directly. Most of Chinese guys in North America become so..... how should I put it without being offensive. They become over defensive and selfish, narrow minded (all they think is sex), not deep enough to carry on conversations. American guys are polite, caring and more considerate but very sensitive and easily over react.

All of us are trying so hard to look for the Miss.right or Mr.right. some of us are not being honest and clear to ourselves about what we are and what we are really looking for. Then It would be a lot easier or I would say clear target. Including myself, sometimes I am not really certain about what I want. But when I look back the failed relationships I had. I did learn what kind relationship is a lasting healthy relationship.

In a relationship, we have to have the mutual respect, communication, doing things for each other without expectations, honest, APPRECIATE YOURSELF AND YOUR PARTNER (remember to say thank you and love you often), admit your mistakes and say sorry, be responsible no matter who our partner is. Keep in this mind, accepting a person means accept him as a package including the good, bad sides, his concept about life ---- his life style and most important accept his family because they come before us.

I am not trying to educate or lecture anyone although it may sound so. Friends keep asking me when I am getting married and have children. I keep telling them that I do not know. and not sure whether I want to. But I know deep inside me, I desire unconditional love from someone I love who loves me. Someone that I can give all my love to, willing to do anything for him. It will come someday as long as we have hope.  But dating is fun too :)

good luck buddies. wish you find your the other part soon

     This never posed a problem to me until recently after I received an email from a previous co-worker in Toronto.  In her email, she shared  a story regarding to a girl who had lots of health problem caused by soy bean products.  The girl has paid lots of attention to what she eats, been working out hard to keep in shape.  A few years after she has been eating lots of soy products as replacement of meat in order to get protein.  Tumors and abnormal cells start to appear in different body parts. First,  thyroid, she got that removed. Second, ovary,  then she got the whole female productive system removed.  Then breasts were removed as well.  So she started to question herself and doctors why all these had happened to her since she has been eating healthy and excercise regularly.  Meanwhile, she started to search information online about soy beans.  Then she found that quite a few other females posted their similar stories. They all pointed out that soybean caused the problems for them.  After reading this email, I start to feel curious because I never thought soy beans can cause health problems for human. That is not the way we have been told. We have been told that soy beans protect us from heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis and the discomforts of menopause. And actually my graduate study is about flavonoids from soy beans, grape seeds, tree barks, onion.....I remember that I wrote lots of nice comments about flavonoids as antioxidants.  Frankly I was in a shock after I did some reading about down sides of soy products. http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/darkside.html

    Researchers at the US Toxicological Laboratory in Arkansas found that the thyroid-depressing substances are isoflavones, the estrogen-like compounds found plentifully in the soybean. Isoflavones, which have both hormonal and nonhormonal properties. One concern is that soy may adversely affect thyroid function and interfere with the absorption of synthetic thyroid hormone. So it is important for soy food consumers to make sure their intake of iodine is adequate.

    Further confirmation of soy's adverse effects on the mind comes from a recent study of Japanese Americans living in Hawaii. Professor Lon White found a significant statistical relationship between two or more servings of tofu per week and "accelerated brain aging." Those participants who consumed tofu in mid-life had lower cognitive function in late life and a greater incidence of Alzheimer's and dementia. What's more," said Dr. White, "those who ate a lot of tofu, by the time they were 75 or 80, looked five years older." 

    There are too much to write them all here. So please do some research on your own online to take some precaution.

    Take care. wish everyone a healthy long life

    J 

First time I ever tasted durian was in Feb, 2007.  One of my best friends, Diana, who loves durian but cannot eat in her own home because her husband hates durian, and so do her in-laws. So one day, she asked me whether I like to eat durian. I said that I have not been brave enough to try it yet, I have heard that people either love it or hate it.  So the next day, she brought a box of frozen durian that can be found in probably any Chinese grocery store.   The moment she openned the box, I do not know what is the right word to descrive the smell  lol . I believe that people who have tried it know what I mean.  I did not hate it but I did not love it either. In another word, it is not something I would crave for.

Yesterday, for some reason, I miss durian. So I drove to the only Chinese grocery store in town called Lao Wang Dian and bought a box of frozen durian. I literally took it to the balcony to open the box and ate the whole thing there as well. Afterward, I have tasting it for a few hours for now. So curiosity made me go online to do some research about it. Here you go:

Durian can be best described as having succulent, creaming but smelling like stinky old shoes . Durian grows in these regions: Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Hawaii, Florida, Burma, Sri Lanka, Philippines. If you google it, you can find lots of cute stories about durian online and even on youtube. Some of those things, you might find new to you. For example, durian reacts so strongly with beer and creats lots of gas (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f66veXeJzj0). Lots of people talk about the first experience with durian. quite interesting.

So who else enjoy durian like I do? Maybe we should have a durian festival .

Hope everyone had a great long weekend and ready for tomorrow. Oh btw. tomorrow is my birthday. I am going to be 36 . But I feel like I am 26 at heart.

good night

I never watched as much TV as I do now in my life. Usually I do sit-ups, push-ups, weight lifting.... when I watch TV because I can not sit still for over 20 min.

I believe that everyone has a few favorite shows. Mine are American Idol (I know I know. It is old to lots of people), Dancing with the stars ( the reason why I started to watch it because I was extremely attracted to Mario Lopez from 2006, shhhhhhhhhh... quiet lol), So you think you can dance (paid $350/ 2 tickets for an alive show in TX, seriously over priced but was fun), x-files (watched all the DVDs within 2 weeks days and nights), 24(did the same thing as I did to x-files, rent every DVD from blockbuster, and watched them days and nights, I guess somehow I am very possessive to something is good and interesting, I sometimes read novel over night when the books are really interesting), Seinfield, Friends, Sex and the city, American funniest family vedios  and Just for laugh (Canadian show).

The funny thing is that we always like someone more than the others in the show. So we cheer for them, we vote for them and we even argue for them. Remember the time that only 12 contestants left in the American idol, I pointed David Cook and said: this guy is going to be the one when most of my friends said that he could be gone any week. Tonight is the finale, guess what, David Cook is the winner. Does that mean that he is a lot better than the top 2 David Archuleta? No!!!. Actually personally I think Archuleta is better in singing than Cook. So why did Cook win over Archuleta. PACKAGE, YES PACKAGE: He is a great singer, no doubt about it. He is very good looking, in Chinese 型男, very good and cool looking. He could fit in any bands and do a great job. Although Arculeta ranks top2. But I believe that he will have a great future as well.

So you think you can dance will start tomorrow again. I am kind of excited about it. So guys what are your favorite shows. And why you like about them

Time to tuck in. Dreamland is calling me.

Have a great long weekend.

Funeral is a ceremony making a person's death. Traditionally in U.S., there is a viewing held in the funeral home with the casket open which allows family and friends to see the deased for the last time. And then casket is take to a church where a priest conducts a mass ( a ritual ceremony). The casket then will be taken to the grave to bury. But Jon's funeral was very untraditional. It was conducted outside the chapel at the Cave Hill Cemetory. It was a very well known and beautiful cemetory. Jon looked very peaceful just like that he was sleeping. There are more than 150 people there. Very casual. The lady speaker did an ok job except she talked too much about herself and her business more like a sales meeting. The best part was when she was reading all the letters written about Jon from his friends and family. People were not crying like the funeral in China. After the ceremony, we went to the grave site where Jon was buried. The burial procedure took only a few minutes. Afterward, some friends met at a bar and other friends and family met in his home drinking, eating, talking just like normal  party without tears.

In China, funeral usually takes place within three days, sometimes in one because there is no embalming (remove fluid from the body). Sons and daughters drape their head and upper body with white cloth and tie at the waist; carry a picture, ramed and edged with black crepe. Family and friends come to view the body before it is placed into a cardboard coffin. This is usually accompanied by weeping and uncontrolled mourning. Then the coffin is taken to the funeral home. Family waits outside of the funeral home when the body is cremated, then bring the part of the ash back to bury in the family grave plot.

Alison seemed very ok during the whole time. Her parents and sister from Canada stayed for another week. Then she will be on her own. A few people offered to babysit Jordan when needed. I am sure Alison will be doing fine except it will hit her from time to time.

I wish her the best from my heart. Wish I could do more for her. ..

Alison called fairly early this morning.  She was surprisingly calm on the phone. She said: Jade. John passed away last night at 1am.  For a secon, I did not know what to say except sorry.  Even though it is expected, it still somehow shocked me. I couldn't control tears coming down my face.  I kept telling her that I am going to be there tomorrow.

John and Alison had been married for 4 years. Most of the time (99%), John was acting like a mother. He would cook for the family, cleaned the house, take care of the daughter, chase her around to feed her, play games with her. Alison spent lots of time on playing tennis. During the time John was in hospital, Alison was very impressive. She was a great mother, took absent at work, spent as much time as she could in hospital.  After John went in coma, she has been like a trooper, holding the last hope, trying all she could to wake him up. But ..... I guess she won't have regrets. And I believe John went away with a heart full of love. He used his life to prove that Alison has been loving him.  She just showed him in the way he could not understand and feel.

I am not sure how I feel at this moment. Many times, I could not stop crying.  I wish everyone a healthy, happy life, the LEAST I can do.

Alison called this morning around 11am, saying that doc is going to remove John's life support. So he will be on his own. She also said that funeral is planned on the coming weekend. So I booked the ticket to fly out on Friday after work. This is not going to a pleasant trip. Somehow I am afraid of going there. Not like other times, I was always happy and excited about meeting old friends. Additional to that, Alison's voice really disturbed me. She was very upset, a few times she had to stop to calm down. She said that she is scared to lose John. I did not know how to comfort her. I would be scared too. Someone you have been with for years, having a kid together. All the sudden, you realize that he might stop breathing and never comes back. I felt it when my mom passed away. 14 years has passed, I still have hard time to believe that it happened just like that. Imagine that they are wife and husband. Plus she will be a single parent. hmmmmm that is scary. How is she going to explain to her daughter where her father is.

Over the years, I never asked how my dad feels without my mother being around. Maybe I should.

So love what you have. So no regrets in the future. give the best of you to the one who you care and cares for you.