bonnie & jason

25 random things about Alissa

Some of you who are active Facebookers may have noticed a “25 random things about me” thing making the rounds. Well, Dennis did one for him… and then for his dog, Bailey. Since I never have an original thought and steal all of my ideas from other people, I thought it would be fun to do a “25 random things” from Alissa’s perspective. Besides, with the twins’ imminent arrival, this seems like a good way to capture some of the things that I’ll probably forget about with the craziness about to befall us.

1. I have a new little blue stool that helps me get into trouble in ways I never thought possible. However, when my stool isn’t handy, I just look up, point, and say “Reach!”

2. Usually, when I need my daddy, I just yell, “Daa eee!!!” But sometimes, when he doesn’t respond, I try yelling, “Jay shin!”

3. When I first started counting at about 18 months, I used to start with 2 and skip 8. Now I remember both 1 and 8 and can go to 20 but usually skip 13 through 16.

4. Thanks to Po Po and Gong Gong, I know some Cantonese. My favorite words are Juju (banana) and Baobao (bread).

5. Most people think I look a lot like Daddy. I even have the same part in my hair. But actually, I look a lot like Daddy’s mommy when she was little.

6. Even though I’m 25 months old, I still fit most of my 6-12 months clothes.

7. My favorite veggie is corn. But I also like peas and edamame, especially if ketchup is available for dipping.

8. I know a lot of animals and the sounds they make. Dog, cat, duck, cow, fish, horse, pig, bird, are all fun but monkeys are my favorite.

9. I took to my potty immediately. For a week. Since then, I’ve refused to use it. Instead, I just run off to a quiet corner of the house and do my business. A girl needs her privacy.

10. When I got in the car after my Daddy installed two more car seats the first thing I did is point and say “Two babies!”

11. I think I’m pretty empathetic for a toddler. When I was not even 18 months old and Mommy didn’t feel well because the two babies were making her sick, I would realize it and go find Daddy. Also, when I go out and hear a baby crying, I immediately tell Daddy that the baby is crying. Sometimes I even tell Daddy to give the baby a tissue.

12. I’ve known my Do-Re-Mi’s for a long time now.

13. When I come home after going to the park with Daddy, the first thing I do is go tell Mommy what happened. Usually in one or two word phrases. Swing! Slide! Run fast! Fall! Ouchee!

14. I have a bedtime routine that starts with dinner around 6:30, bath around 7:30, milk at 8:00, and “The Upside Down show” till 9:00 when I pick out the pacifier for the night, brush my teeth, read a book, and then go to sleep with Monkey.

15. When I’m a bad girl, I get put in my crib for a few minutes. I cry.

16. I like to play hide and seek but I don’t know how to hide and I’m not a very good seeker.

17. Daddy has a singing dancing Homer Simpson that is one of my favorite toys.

18. I also have an “Elmo knows your name” that I love. Not a big fan of the “Elmo live” though. Scary.

19. My parents named me Alissa with the thought that they would call me Ali for short. They never have.

20. I used to call myself “Sa.” Now I call myself “Asa.”

21. I’m big into doing things myself these days. I can put on my socks and shoes. I can sort of put my pants on and brush my teeth. I also like to buckle myself into my car seat and high chair. Haven’t figured out how to get myself out yet though.

22. My Daddy uploaded 4160 images to flickr in 2008. Guess who is in at least 95% of them?

23. Almost all of my cousins around my age are girls. Almost all of my unrelated peeps around my age are boys. Weird.

24. I’m not only empathetic, but I’m also sensitive. When I feel that people are laughing at me, I get all self conscious and will be embarrassed to the point that I’ll cry.

25. I like to kiss the babies through mommy’s belly. But I’ll probably want them to go back in there in another couple weeks!

I miss my motorcycles

So the top 5 car exercise was so fun that I decided to do the same thing with motorcycles. The only difference is that I decided to make it a top 8 list. I’ll say up front that I’m a pretty die-hard Honda fan, and even though I only had 2 Hondas in my car list, my motorcycle list is made up entirely of Hondas. Not to say that I don’t like Yamahas, Suzukis, Kawasakis, Ducatis, etc… but most of the bikes on my list are pretty unique and don’t have equivalents by other manufacturers.

1. 1997 Honda VFR (V-four) – I owned this one for a few years and always regretted selling it. It’s probably my favorite bike. V-four, chain driven cams, single sided swing arm, pretty comfy but still sporty, slightly cheesy styling.

2. 1990 Honda Hawk GT (V-twin) – This is another single sided swing arm bike that I thought would be a great little city bike. It’s pretty narrow with it’s 650cc v-twin engine, doesn’t have a fairing to worry about, and a lot of them for some reason end up with Super Trapp exhausts which make them sound pretty good.

3. 2000 Honda Goldwing (Opposed 6) – Come on… everyone needs a bike with 1.8 L, 6 cylinders, and enough torque to tow your daily driver with. Besides, they have CD players, heated grips, and still go like a bat out of hell.

4. 1978 Honda CBX (inline 6) – I like the older naked bike look (I had a 1991 Honda Nighthawk 750 for a few years). With 6 cylinders spread wide across the chest of this beast, I just had to make it part of my list.

5. 2006 Honda CR 250R (2-stroke single) – I’ve never actually ridden one of these but I did do an American Supercamp course a few years ago and really enjoyed it. I always thought if I ever moved to a place near the woods, I would get one. Plus, it’s got that two-stroke engine narrow power band and exhaust buzz.

6. 1992 Honda NR750 (V-four, but the pistons were oval and it had 32 valves and multiple spark plugs per cylinder!) – This is maybe the weirdest thing Honda has ever done. As a way to use 4-stroke engines in GP racing, they decided to have oval pistons in order to make up the power difference to the 2-strokes everyone else was running. The oval pistons allowed them to have 8 valves per cylinder in order to improve the breathing that would normally occur with the 4 or 5 valves achievable with a circular piston. They also needed two connecting rods to connect the piston to the crankshaft. Unfortunately, the program did not go well… as you might imagine, oval pistons present all sorts of unique and new technical challenges. Honda went back to more traditional engines afterwards but did end up producing this hand made production bike in 1992.

7. 1990 Honda CB-1 (400cc inline 4) – This bike is super rare… I think I’ve only seen a handful of them ever. But when I was still at Cornell, before I even started riding motorcycles, someone always parked one near the autolab and I remember walking by and appreciating how small and simple it was. If I could have just one bike, I think this might be it.

8. 2006 Honda Ruckus (50cc four stroke with automatic transmission) – Ok, this isn’t really a motorcycle, but I really like the looks and always thought a scooter would be fun to have to just putz around the neighborhood with.

Top 5 cars

Dennis and I had a debate last time we went karting about what 5 cars we would want if money weren’t an object. This actually required a fair amount of thought since there are so many cars out there that I want. From muscle cars to sports cars to exotics to race cars… the car universe is vast. After much soul searching, this is the list I came up with and why:

1. 2006 Lotus Exige – follows the proven formula of light weight and great handling for speed without necessarily requiring tons of unweildy horsepower. And it looks mean!

2. 1991 Acura NSX – I’ve lusted after this car since it came out. Supercar looks and technology at more pedestrian prices with the reliability of a Honda. And I like the older ones that didn’t have power steering… more of a pure sports car.

3. 1990 BMW e30 M3 – Since a driving instructor took me for a ride in his, I’ve loved this car. I really dig the boy racer looks in addition to the handling and power plant.

4. 1998 Porsche 993 911 turbo – I needed a turbo on the list and what better turbo than the last air cooled 911? The whole whale tail look has always looked good to me too.

5. Spoon Honda Fit race car – This last one was really hard. I almost put Honda s2000 down but I already owned one. Plus, I already had the NSX on there so I thought I’d stay away from Honda. True, the Fit is a Honda, but the Spoon Fit is really a race car so it’s only cheating a little. Finally, I think I may actually get a Fit so I like to pretend that it’ll be like the Spoon one some day.

So that covers it. I have V6, inline 4, horizontally opposed 6, rear engine, mid engine, front engine, rear wheel drive, front wheel drive, turbocharged, supercharged, naturally aspirated, German, British, and Japanese cars.

Update: Dennis put a list of his own up. You can tell who’s the veteran (and professional) blogger and who’s still figuring things out.

Five things you don’t know about me

Dennis “tagged” me for the latest meme going around.  (I didn’t know what a meme was until just today.)  Anyway, the idea for this one is to list five things that most people don’t know about me.  So here it goes:

1. I’m semi-ambidextrous.  What’s semi-ambidextrous?  It means there are some things that I do lefty (eat with chopsticks, brush my teeth, play tennis, play pool), some things I do righty (eat with a fork/spoon, write, golf, play basketball), and some things I do ambidextrously (shoot a gun, throw a football, play ping-pong.)  Weird huh?  My mom is lefty and my dad is righty so I guess I ended up a little bit of both.
2. I snore like a horse when I’m really tired.  According to Bonnie, the bed shakes.
3. I have a minor congenital malformation (birth defect) called Clinodactyly.  (No, it’s not a mental defect.)  Basically it means my pinky fingers are slightly curved toward my fourth finger.  Let me tell you, it made using my fourth finger while playing violin/guitar a pain in the butt.  I got it from my dad.  As an aside, it was one of the first things we looked at when Alissa came out.  Thankfully, her pinky’s are normal.
4. I’m a closet broadway musical fan.  Of my favorites, I’ve seen Rent like five times, Les Mis about four times, and Miss Saigon about four times.  As gay as it is, I pretty much know all the words as well.
5. I have pretty bad road rage.  It never manifests itself in gesturing or horn blowing but if you’re in the car with me, you’ll hear me saying, “IDIOT” a lot.  I have a feeling that may be one of Alissa’s first words.

So there you go!  As for the next five to be tagged?  Unfortunately, I only know a couple other people who blog regularly so Deeann and Mike will have to do!

2006 and 2007 Cities

Dennis posted a list of cities he spent at least one night in for 2006.  I thought it would be an interesting exercise but will also look forward in anticipation of what cities we’ll be in for 2007.  I have a feeling that list will be even smaller given our new piece of “baggage.”

2006

1. San Francisco, CA
2. Taipei, Taiwan (Bryan and Sijen’s wedding)
3. Hualien, Taiwan
4. Kaoshiung, Taiwan
5. Taoyuan, Taiwan
6. Clarks Summit, PA (visit my parents)
7. Ithaca, NY (family vacation)
8. Millburn, NJ (visit Vin and Denise)
9. McMinnville, OR (Pete and Andrea’s wedding)
10. Las Vegas, NV (Elite investments trip)
11. Tallahassee, FL (business trip)

2007

1. San Francisco, CA
2. Clarks Summit, PA (to help my parents move)
3. Las Vegas, NV (where my parents are moving to)
4. Seattle, WA (where Dheeraj is getting married)

I think that’s about it.  Pretty lame, huh?  Alissa is totally cramping our style.  Not that we were a jet-setting couple to begin with.  But even going to Tahoe for a weekend seems like such a big deal now.  Oh well… we’ll see.  Maybe if I can get some visitors from the East coast to come out, we can make the effort to get some snowboarding in.