I’m not sure how this happened but I ended up taking more pictures of Tofu than family members. I met some new family members, and there were also some cute additions to the family, just like me! Except they were babies.

They had badminton set up and I hadn’t played since high school so that was fun. The net was set up too high so you couldn’t really smash it.

There were lots of other dogs too. Tofu was mostly shy and let other dogs sniff her. She’s more comfortable with the smaller dogs.

Some highlights:

Aqua made an awesome pirate doll. He was so creative, from the hook he made from taking out the pipe cleaner fuzz to the peg leg.

Tofu really enjoys the park and gurgling down water from the bottle.

This day my aunt on my dad’s side and her husband came over to our house to sit around and we later went to 8 Orders (Ba Dian). Their menu contains just eight different entree sets. Mmm Japanese food! Miso soup is refillable. The best part is that these entrees are only 200 NT each. That’s roughly a little less than 7 bucks. Cheap!

Then we drove around Dan Shui.

Finally, we met up with my uncle on my dad’s side, and his family. I haven’t met my cousin Danny in a long time. I don’t meet my dad’s side of the family very often, actually. They’re in Taiwan or Australia, not really in California though. I know my mom’s side a whole lot better. We ate at this restaurant in Dan Shui that is the only restaurant my uncle will go to. He has cancer so he trusts this restaurant to be light and delicious. Emphasis on the light.

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It had been raining so the field was muddy and had puddles in some bare spots of grass so everyone got pretty dirty. The other team wasn’t much of a competition and my cousin’s team had beat them before and this game was a rematch. Not much of a rematch @_@.

Then, after going back to Nathan’s house and cleaning up, we, my parents, and his parents took a bus for about 15 minutes to go to some awesome place to eat….sometimes great, but it was closed because it was a sunday! So we went to a nearby noodle house to eat. It wasn’t so bad. I took these with my camcorder, and I realize now that I can’t take pictures up too close with it @_@.

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My uncle recently visited Taiwan, something he does maybe once every two years. He gave my little cousin, Karen (that’s the English name she decided upon in school), 200 U.S. dollars as a gift (red envelope kind of thing. Asian people like to give money instead of presents. It’s practical!)

So Karen recieved 200 U.S. dollars, but she couldn’t use it because it was U.S. money. At the time, it was 32 NT (Taiwanese currency) to the dollar. By the time it was 34NT, she asked her aunt, my aunt, if she could sell the dollars to her. My aunt said she could. Karen waited until the exchange rate was 35NT and sold her dollars to her mom.

The next day, the exchange rate had risen to 35.something NT. She told her mom that she should give her more money since the rate had risen. Her mom said that she had already sold the money, and that if that’s the way she wanted to play, then she would have to give back more money if the exchange rate lowered below 34NT to be fair. Karen kept her mouth shut.

The first thing that surprised me is that she understood exchange rates. How many kids in the U.S. understand that kind of thing? The only time I remember hearing it in school was in senior year during Economics class. She waited for the rate to go higher.

Also, we weren’t seriously doing compound multiplication until fifth grade. Karen was already comfortable with decimals. (And a whole lot more I’m sure).

And, where was Karen getting her info on the exchange rates? It’s posted on the news every night. And she watches it.

Oh, and the class size ratio of student to teacher has always been really high in Taiwan. 40 kids in a class is nothing and it’s an argument going around that I don’t really agree on. Although it might only work in Taiwan because the kids study like crazy and don’t distrupt classtime because they’ll get their butt kicked by both their parents and the teacher.

Not that I wouldn’t like to be hired, and having less kids in a class would probably only help, but just saying. http://www.arthurhu.com/index/classize.htm Found this. Interesting.

Mom: hm….I wonder would it would feel like to fly like a bird.

Using my amazing imagination, I start imagining it from the first bird perspective. The horizon in the distance, wind on my face, winds spread out. My vision is impeccable and I can see trees miles…

Mom: Well…one thing I’m pretty sure is…birds aren’t afraid of heights.

…

…

-__-”

Then we started to imagine a bird who was afraid of heights…

Sounds like a Pixar short flim right? You heard it here first!!

We are such a diligent family!

How much is that kitty in the window? These pets were up for adoption in the Macys windows. Sooo cute. All pets should get their own little scenic corner!

Awwwww…

These boots were super cute.

As were these Betsey Johnson’s. The bottom is hot pink with Marilyn Monroe’s eye and gold hardware detailing of a bow.

After shopping and eating (no pictures), we got some pear cider! It was soooooo good.

Where is Thelnie?

I like this! ^_^.

There wasn’t a real way to countdown to the end of the year because nobody really know the official time…but the fireworks went off and so I assume…that was the right time. ^_^.

My brother is over for Thanksgiving and I picked up him myself! My first time picking someone up at the airport…Long Beach, no less! I had to do a little circling…and pulling to the curb…and it was dark…I feel really brave. ^____^. Aaaand he is over for a week! Yaaaay. Aaaand we are going to go to Disneyland today! I feel like I still go there enough that I need a pass @_@. Pictures will ensue, and my brother takes great pictures so we are in for a special treat. I’m going to bring my Princess Aurora (Briar Rose) tiara today. And I’m going to curl my hair.

How many times have I started a sentences what “and” today? Tsk tsk…my second grade teacher would be ashamed.

So I said, that according to Spanish class at school, that their culture is to take a siesta around noon after lunch. And that schools allow this time for students to go home and sleep.

Dad: Except for Zorro!

Mom: ……pwahahhahahaha…hehe….hahahahah

Me: ….<: )…uh…what mom….

Mom: I just imagined everyone sleeping in their homes, and Zorro is hopping around the tops of houses and climbing everywhere in his outfit!

Dad: heh…he’s probably sneaking a peek at people too! kekekkekeke

Me: ……..heh…..heh…….hehehehehhehe

It’s funny if you imagine it. Somehow Zorro becomes a perverted spiderman weilding a sword.

I was walking up to our gate from the backyard, and from the corner of my eye, I saw something black fall down from the ledge on the wall to my left and it disappeared behind the gate. So I thought…um….was that a slowly falling leaf? I shrugged it off and I stuck my hand through one of the holes in the gate to lift up the latch, and slowly opened the gate a crack, to find a HUGE black spider!!!

It was probably a black widow but I didn’t have time to ask her.

In accordance with acceptible reactions to spiders, I freaked out, yelled, ran my hands all over my body and gave myself the heebie jeebies.

And then I ran to my daddy.“eeeeEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeee”

My mom gave him a paper towel and in bewilderment, I said, “This isn’t the kind of spider you can just smoosh with a hand and paper!”

By the time I showed him the monster, the spider had crawled too high for my daddy, so he used a broom and smacked it. The monstrosity fell down and its last sight was the shadow of my dad’s sandal.

The end.

The hardest part was building the modular stairs because the stairs that come with the game are the straight kind. You have to do some mod work to get around it and it took some research and patience. It’s not perfect, there are floors that can’t be built on, as you can see on the top floor, but….oh well. There are loft areas in the house now! hah.

This took me about…6 hours total. Time flies @_@.

Here are some, and you can see more if you click.

The front

The side

The family and dining room. Or was it living…I get those two messed up. What’s the difference anyway? I gave my brother a nice mahjong table, a bookcase because he likes to read, a piano, a silly violin in the corner (in case, you know, you want to smash something), and I actually like the couch. The dining table is long with a long runner rug because he said he was looking for a rug at Ikea.

The kitchen, viewed from the living room. I’ve always liked pots hanging from the ceiling. The wood is the darkest Sims had without being black. The closets on the left are supposed to be large cabinets but they don’t really have big cabinets in Sims so I improvised. The TV has plants in the back because that’s how he said he wanted to do it @_@. Make more room for a bigger tv.

This is the top floor, the master is on the right. Just a couple design ideas. The umbrella is the focus on my design. And the disco light ball. Also got him a big plasma tv on the wall. The closet has clothing strewn around the floor. The kids rooms have appropriate beds, like the coffin bed at the top left.

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I like the little gnome. The trees are japanese maple, but it’s Winter in the game so you can’t see the leaves <: (

Nice hammock

A globe since my brother is good with countries. Little robot guys.

A little more on the couch and modern coffee table.

Framed photography.

Nice car…

Kitchen with island.

Comfy couches.

The walkway.

View from the left.

Master closet.

My brother on his Poang chair that he has. That’s also a Billy bookcase…not sure if he has that from Ikea.

The bear is essential too.

There’s a Gundam on the desk in the office also…can’t see it from here. I also like the coffin bed.

The troublesome stairs. You can see the open loft area. In actuality, you can’t see the open space from the second floor, but on the first floor, if you look up, you will look all the way up to the roof.