Lots of Pots

Today I put Maxine's favorite new toy (a soft cloth jingle ball) a few feet away from her and as expected she started crawling towards it. A few feet past the ball was one of the new books her cousins sent her for Christmas. It's a Winnie the Pooh book called Lots of Pots. I've read this book to Maxine at least 10 times in the last few days and she really seems to enjoy it.

Turned out that although she loves her jingle ball, she went strait for the book. Even more surprising was that she took the book her in her hands and tapped it a few times. Then she looked strait at me with a sort of sad face. Of course I went over and read it to her (3 times). Three more times she picked the book over the ball.

I can't tell you how happy this made me. We started reading to her at 3 months and she's gradually shown more and more interest. I hope to read to her every day and hopefully plant the seeds of a favorite pass time.

Though I'm thrilled she likes to be read to, I sort of wish she'd like some of the other books we've read to her and not just the one. Don't get me wrong. Lots of Pots is a literary jewel in it of itself (lines like "red paint, blue paint, lots of red and blue paint" are hard to come by), but He Bear, She Bear; Green Eggs and Ham; and If You Give a Mouse a Cookie aren't bad either.

But either way, I'll say this. If she's hooked on one book I'm glad it's Lots of Pots and not Lots of Pot. That would be a whole different kind of book and one I probably wouldn't be thrilled about it.

Christmas Songs

NBC recently aired a special about the best Christmas moments ever on TV, which I only caught the last 15 minutes of, but enjoyed any way. They hooked me by playing a clip of Phoebe singing her Christmas song, of which my favorite line is "spin the dreidel, Rachel" because she couldn't find anything else to rhyme with Rachel. Love that Phoebe. If you haven't seen it or don't remember it, check it out here.

One of their top moments (#2, I believe) was Nate King Cole singing The Christmas Song, better known to many as Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire. They played the music video (is that what they were called back then?) of him and I have to say I was immediately awed by him. His smile is quite possibly the friendliest one I've ever seen and the way he was singing was so heartfelt and genuine. It got me thinking that it's probably why all those classic Christmas songs were and remain everyone's favorites. I'll take Nate King Cole over Destiny's Child signing any Christmas song, any time. I do like Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas is You. That song rocks.

But my all time favorite remains Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee. No other song puts me the Christmas mood like that one. Paul's favorite, by a landslide, is Feliz Navidad. Every Christmas while driving around, we crank up volume and pretend to sing along because the only words I think either of us knows is the feliz navidad part. Imagine it: Chinese guy, Indian girl in a Toyota in Minneapolis singing at the top of their lungs to a Spanish Christmas song. God bless the melting pot that is America!

My First Ebay Auction

Call me a bit behind the trend, but I just bid on Ebay for the first time...and won! Recently I fell in love with a brand of shoes I'd never before heard of called Keens. Supposedly they were designed by a guy who used to work on boats or ships and he was constantly getting sore toes from knocking his shoes. (No idea if this is a common occurrence when sailing, or if it was just him, but this is how the story was told to me.) So he created Keens, which have a distinctive black ribbing around the toes.

But the real reason I fell for them? The first pair I saw were in red and I instantly wanted them. But give their $90 price tag, I couldn't quite convince my wallet. So I headed to Ebay, for the first time with the intent to bid, and typed in "keen presidio". Believe it or not there was only one pair in the color I wanted (tomato) and it was serendipitously in a size seven. Highest bid at the time? A mere $10.50. I registered, bid, and 12 hours later, I won.

Sweet victory, you come to me in the form of shoes!

They arrive later this week. Hopefully there won't be a post about the evils buying shoes on Ebay next...

Mahjong

For Thanksgiving this year we went to Florida to visit Paul's family. It was a 9 day trip filled with good food, great company and some hard core mahjong.

If you've never played, I highly recommend it. It's a bit complicated at first. There are several different tile types and many different to win. One series of tiles features the Chinese characters for 1-9, which I rarely play because so far I've only memorized 1-6. You'd think it wouldn't matter because it's all fun and games, but think again because the Yu family plays for cold hard cash. Is it any wonder we get along so well? If you know me, you know I love me some gambling.

The down of mahjong? You can't really control how much money you lose. Unlike poker where you lose only what you wager, you won't know how much you're going to lose until the hand is over because the winnings are calculated by the type of win it is. For example, a hand with all pongs (3 of the exact same tiles) and the same suit with a self-pick last tile will get you $7.50 from each of the other 3 players. But a hand with pongs and chows (sequence tiles) of mixed suits will only get you $1.50. Feels great on the winning end, but not so much when you're losing.

Thanks to help from Connie, Didi and Paul, I did much better this time than in the past. Win or lose though, mahjong is one of my favorite's when visiting Paul's family.