Photographer Dad

At least Sayling or John didn't make us do this:
http://www.janvonholleben.com/dreams_of_flying.php?n=1

Yosemite pics

Just came back from Yosemite and had to share. I know this is the most over-photographed place on the planet, but I still had to take more and realized that my nightmare would be to go to Yosemite and forget my camera. I'll add more of Emma, Mia and Michael soon.

For the rest of the photos, here's the link

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=5921&l=a2d94&id=521294776

Hope you come and see it soon. I'll gladly go back.

antiracist blog

http://www.newdemographic.com

If you get a chance, check out this website. Since there are so many mutts in the family, I think it's particularly pertinent and good for us to be aware of these issues. It was started by biracial (Chinese mom, Belgian dad) woman who touches on why because racism has such nasty connotations, people deny it, making the situation worse instead of taking the attitude that "good people can be racist". She mentions how diversity training in the workplace is ineffective because what it really does is teach people to hide their racism. It's made my understanding of many situations a lot clearer, but it may be a tad too US centered to make complete sense.

Biking Gem - Baylands

Mia, Dave and Kate,

I am not sure I should even tell you this. Yesterday I discovered a bike lane to the Baylands without having to cross any major streets. Go down Loma Verde and turn right on Bayshore, the road that parallels 101, and in less than a quarter of a mile, there is a pedestrian bike path that goes under the freeway and takes you straight into a fabulous bird sanctuary. Within 10 minutes of biking, we were surrounded by flocks of pelicans, coots, swallows, Canadian geese, pheasants and tons that I didn't recognize. We saw a gorgeous hawk too. I am SO sorry I did not know about this route when you were here. Next time? Hopefully Mia can ride Emma's bike and I even have one Dave or Kate can use.

The mom youtube has been taken off the web. It was a mom condensing a day's nag into three minutes of William Tell overture. It was pretty funny!

Pip - rabbit help. I found great tufts of fur in Viva's cage, but no bald patches. Is this normal molting? Or should I worry?

Emma's in drill team for skating and Freestyle 2. If anyone is around April 27th weekend, she'll be in the local ice skating show. Come for your birthday Pip :) I'll buy you something and give it to you two years later.

No luck with the Solar office assistant position. They needed an accountant/bookkeeper which I couldn't fake.

kate - are the worms still alive?

Keep blogging the rest of you -
Miss you guys,
Pen

For moms everywhere

This is hilarious. Anybody who has ever parented will be able to relate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_oc1j5NakY

Pip - thanks for rabbit tips. It's horribly expensive to spay rabbits here. I'm thinking of selling ziplock bags of rabbit poop to pay for her food. Apparently you can apply directly to plants. I didn't know you and Ry had a rabbit. Come and visit!

RABBITS!

Hey Pen!

The bunny, sorry Viva is SO CUTE! They are really good to litter train and now you've figured out which corner you should have no problems...we keep Bilbo in our flat and he's brilliant, only ever goes in his litter tray. The main problem with letting them roam free is that they do just like to nibble things...electrical cables are popular - our rabbit we had in HK (Casper) used to frequently stop our washing machine from working by eating through all the cables except the live one...I wonder how he figured it out! Anyway, Bilbo's the same, so we do have to keep him out of bedrooms and the living room as this would be like going to the funfair with all the wires for tv's etc etc!

Food wise you need to give them lots of hay and green veggie - we usually buy green cabbage leaf, the dark stuff is good, and also things like Curly Cale. Herbs are also good but I find I can't grow them fast enough!! Bilbo LOVES Parsley and Casper used to love mint as well so you could try that. The fruit and carrots are good but quite sweet so should be kept as treats...we often give Bilbo the carrot peel when we cook them for dinner. Hay is a must as it will help them grind their teeth so they won't get too long and also make sure there's a stick or block of wood they can nibble on for fun and to keep their teeth healthy.

I think that's it...very easy animals to look after generally...yes...the adolecent thing! Is Viva a girl or boy? We had to give Bilbo a certain operation to get him to be less excitable by Ryan's legs!! They can also get agressive eventually if they can't find a mate so we thought it best to get doen before that happened. He's much better now and such a playful friendly rabbit...loves attention and wants to know who's visiting 'his' house and what's going on!!

Hope you enjoy it!

New Fluffy Addition

We rescued a Rex rabbit (Viva, short for Velveeta, hopefully forever) from one of our neighbours, and one of Hana's Paly peers who oddly enough got a bunny six months before graduation. Viva (previously known as Bunny) was left to live with mom and yappy cockapoo - not a happy situation. Thankfully we managed to litter train her and she now roams around the living room without leaving too much debris. She still nibbles at furniture but is getting quite good at knowing what she should and shouldn't be chewing on. Emma noticed that she consistently eliminated in one corner of her cage and so I bought a box and put it in that corner. Viva decided to pooh everywhere EXCEPT that corner of the cage. Chi suggested I put another litter box in her new favorite pooh corner. I figured that if she decided not to go there also, at least I would have a very small area of the cage left to clean. However, she decided that one box would do for sleeping and one for poohing so it's worked out well. She loves parsley and rosemary and basil - I'm thinking she would taste pretty darn good with herbs infused from within but I get very evil looks from Emma whenever I suggest it.

Pip - would love any rabbit training tips from you. I hear they go through an adolescent stage. What else do they like to eat? We've given her snap peas, honeysuckle, dandelion leaves and flowers, napa cabbage, radiccio, brussel sprouts, broccoli, apples (big hit) and banana. Parsley and Basil are her favorite.

I went for an interview as Office Manager with a start up company Solar Notion. Unfortunately they needed someone with accountancy bookkeeping skills so I've bought a "Bookkeeping for Dummies" and hope I can fudge my way through it. It ought to be really fun place to work. There are four guys and they already have $60 million in funding. Michael Green is one of the four people working there.

Thanks for posting the photo of See Sum. I love her hair, she is so hip. How old is she?

meeting with See Sum

We went for a meal in London with See Sum, and we met Carol and Ishbelle there too, as well as their aunt and uncle. They are over here to visit another of See Sum's sisters who is ill with cancer.

I hadn't seen See Sum and Carol since 1994 and Ishbelle since 1973.

I've put some photos on http://www.flickr.com/photos/sayling/sets/

STEAK!

Pen!!

Steak knives arrived this morning (In time for our 2 year anniversary!!)...THANKS!! They're fab! Looking forward to sitting down to a nice steak soon! Hope things are well with you & Emma. Can't believe Hana's at College already...makes me feel OLD!

Loads of love,
Pip & Ry. xxx

Pachelbelled out and Nobel prize for Maths

Found a t-shirt which I thought Mia would like. Do you want me to get it Kate?













For those of you who have been overexposed to Pachelbel's Canon in D, here are some links you might like

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM&mode=related&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uISuvTiTYJA

Also, had to vent and get this out. My frenemy, Penny (mother of Emma's friend) has always struck me as a bit of an ignorant, Asian-phobic (her kids are not the brightest) insular mid-Western American stereotype at its worst, and her favorite anecdote for putting down Asian nerds is this.

Why is that despite consistently winning international math competitions (designed for testing creative math solutions, but I doubt she would know that), Singapore has never won a Nobel prize for math?

Apart from the fact that Singapore has a population the size of LA, and Nobel prize winners are from all over Europe and America where they are more likely to have Nobel nominating connections, there ISN'T a Nobel Prize for maths. I think her point is that Asians are not creative because they don't indulge in imaginary play enough as they spend too much time learning facts and don't know how to think outside the box. Which is ironic really because you are talking about a race that invented the compass, gunpowder, paper, chopsticks, acupuncture, feng shui, medicine, MSG, Peking Duck, potstickers, dim sum, Tai Chi, Karate, gourmet cuisine, etc. (OK, I know it was over a long period of time and there are a lot of us, but still)

The next time she tells me this (she's already done it twice), I'm just going to ask her this...

Why despite consistently winning International math competitions, has Singapore never won a Nobel prize for math?

Because there isn't one...

btw - I guess David wasn't thrilled about his gay picture being posted on the web because he hadn't met some of you and you wouldn't know how very masculine he is in real life.

Hana off to CC

Here's the link for more photos of Don and Hana's road trip to Colorado
http://www.stark.ws/events/HanaTripAug07/index.html

Airports

Well Iit's been a while since I was last on this...sorry for that. Life has been a little crazy lately, but things are all good. :)

As you know James came over to the UK at the beginning of August which was GREAT to see him...it also gave us an opportunity to see mum (A rare occurrence!) and SL & MR (twice!) so that was cool.

Two days after James left, I was back at the airport flying off to Oz for a week of work...a bit mad and certainly something I wouldn't do again in a hurry, but it was a good trip. We have some exciting work going on with some surgeons and professors there so I got to go over to discuss all the work we want to get involved with. Had never seen Melbourne or Sydney before, so it was great to explore...was blown away by Sydney and decided within minutes I could easily move out there! The view from my hotel room wasn't too bad either....

Hope all is good with you guys...BIG HUGS to you all. xx

Introducing David

David is sorry to have missed the family in Tahoe, but until you meet him in person, here's Emma's daddy-O. Did I tell you he once lived in San Francisco and bartended at Hard Rock Cafe?

UK UK UK

Hey everyone, this blog does seem a bit busier than the last one, but I'm still not entirely sure why we couldn't just use the old one????

Also I stil think you guys should all get facebook!!!!!!!!!

Anyway I'm going to be in england From the 1st to the 17th of August. Sayling / Marie is it ok if I come visit you sometime from the 13th to the 17th???? maybe spend a couple of days up there?

Tried calling

As you can see, we made a quick stop in the UK, tried calling, but you guys were all out and we had to leave without seeing you. SOB! boo hoo! JK - just Universal Studios...

not Katrina

Just watched Jon Stewart on how the English floods were handled. So not Katrina-ish. Shelter, food and water were provided, even for the black people - what a concept! Perhaps the Americans will eventually adopt this idea. Hope everyone is OK. Is Rosie still in Oxford?

I think Emma is missing you guys because every so often she comes up with a Mia impression. She manages to do a Kate pretty well too, but the Mia ones are the best. She still has to work on Dave's because he just sounds Scottish.

Emm and I just did a road trip to Los Angeles and back on $45.00 of gas. Spent two days at Universal Studios which was mostly fun but the House of Horrors scared both of us and I had a hard time trying to get Emma to go on any death related rides after that. Hung out at Venice Beach before heading home. It reminded me of a beachy sunny New York with lots of knock off sunglasses and street vendors.

Listened to all the BBC podcasts on the way back, as well as some Harry Potter. No wonder Emma's got the British accent down.

Just noticed your photo of me Sayling. Thanks a lot! hic.

more piccies

I've put some piccies on Flickr: here

Dad

Emma's Joke

If you speak three languages you're trilingual, if you speak two languages, you're bilingual. If you speak one language, what are you?

Answer: An American

for DKMTR

Wore my birthday Miravidi necklace and matching earrings with new black GAP dress on sale from $69.99 to $19.99 to the annual Palo Alto glass and clay festival and felt very chic. Thank you!!! very pretty prezzy.

Michael Moore's movie, Sicko, is out and I wish you guys were here to see it with me :( Would have been interesting to get your British perspective on the American health system. Am accompanying Emma to "Order of the Phoenix" even though it's my least favorite Harry Potter, angst ridden, whiny teenage brat.

How are the worms?

I wish other Lows would blog. This is getting monotonous, listening to my own voice all the time... sigh!!!

Have a Spanish chaperone, Nuria, from an exchange program staying with me for a month. We joined the group for a tour of Alcatraz. I don't think Mia would have enjoyed it, but it was really interesting and it happened to be on another gorgeous sunny San Francisco day so the views from the ferry were magnificent. The Ferry Building where Henry used to work has been revamped, Covent Garden like into a very chic, shopping area with an organic farmers' market feel. A must visit for your next time. We are planning on going to Santa Cruz (beach) with the group tomorrow and hopefully the girls will get a chance to practise their lithping Thpanisth with the Spanish teenagers.

iPhones

They are a rip, but they are pretty spiffy! Very proud of iHana iWorking iAm!

Hana got Emma her red AIDS supporting iPod (25% off) and Emma is particularly grateful that it was not engraved with Emma Pachelbel Low which we had threatened. We have Harry Potter, podcasts and all sorts of audio that you wouldn't normally find on the iPod of a 10 year old.

Sorry Kate (and Mia) still no sign of white bunny in Emma's room.

Wiggly worms

Sunshine came to a rain drenched and grumpy home this week when our FIRST EVER wormery was safely delivered. Mia helped Mummy do the big jigsaw and make a bed for the wrigglers. We then settled them in the yard neatly behind the barbecue with a few scraps. We secured the lid and left them for a week as instructed. The next day Dave and I were hopping with excitement, and yes, glee, so we took a peek. They were all over the bin like a rash! The info says that some exploration in the early days is normal but this was crazy. I do hope they're happy. I do, I do , I do!
Yours, proud and anxious in Liverpool.
p.s. Mum and Matt have been on at us for years to get one - hope you're pleased p.p.s. What killed your worms Pen?

last post I promise!

I'm still downloading pics - give me a break!

OK - so I bribed Emma with an iPod if she could learn Pachelbel Cannon in two days. And she did. Do I celebrate the genius and diligence of my talented, musical prodigy? Or do I deplore the evil materialism that's creeping into the very fabric of our hic-xistence?

PS - is there anyone left who doesn't have an iPhone yet?

not an urban myth

Trebuchet - perhaps Hana will read this.

Someone claims this story is true, although we were pretty hammered trying to polish off those half opened bottles of Ferrari Carano, courtesy of Silver Legacy that I just wish Mah Mah would have the sense to leave at the casino (and I had the determination to pour down the sink where it belongs), but I don't, shence (hic) my drunken blurb. Apparently some kid was playing with her new pet kitten in the garden in Palo Alto and a hawk swooped down and carried it off. If this story is true, can you imagine the hours of therapy it would take to neutralize this particular incident?

I promise I'll stop blathering, I'm so excited to be able to blog and I'm in between loading images on to Shutterfly. hic.

Palo Alto contribution

Hi Hana,

This font's for you...

I was so happy to see Hana at my house (first time since the Brit Lows left) and her comment was: "yeah! there's not much food left at Daddy's house". I was still happy to see my prodigal child though - whatever the reason.

I sent the link for Matt's photos to my friends and everyone agrees they are awesome/sensational/holy cowish. David's sister, whom I have never met sent me an email asking what kind of camera he used because the images were so sharp.

Hana thought dinner with the Starks at a Greek restaurant in Palo Alto was quite entertaining. Grandma Stark with a bubble thought "I've never met a real live person from Gibraltar", and MR saying "I'd never realized quite how American Hana's family was".

Not really Low-related but it was a funny story so I'll share. A friend of mine, Nancy, (blond, WASPy, from Boston, grew up vacationing in Nantucket) told me that the author of "French Women don't get Fat" Mireille Guiliano, used to stay with her family as an exchange student and "the American family" she talks about in her book with the fried, stodgy, carbs that get Americans fat was her mom's cooking. It was all post depression food. And No, Nancy is not overweight like those boat women in Tahoe, in case you are wondering.

I enjoyed seeing all of you SOOOO much. Thanks for coming over. It was so nice that you could be here for Hana's graduation and meet the Starks (if only to prove that them that I'm the freak loser in the family and Hana's not necessarily doomed to a life of unemployment). Hopefully next time you can meet David who really wanted to come but was held up by the Habitat blitz build.

Just came back from visiting Ysa, my childhood friend from Malaysia whose husband is the founder of Walden investments - the company I had told Matt to contact for his venture. John and Sayling will remember Ysa. They had just bought a new house in Piedmont and we were invited to visit. She had extended the invitation to all the visiting Lows who were still around. Holy Moly! I was expecting a grandish, Don-Chi-style house but it was a mini Hearst Castle. Makes Don's house look like a cottage. 20,000 sq ft house in 4 acres of forested land in one of the most expensive parts of the Bay Area. Absolutely gorgeous! It was a 80 year old house that had been restored with original tiles in the original style of the house really nicely, obviously expensive but nothing ostentatious or garish about it (apart from the fact that it's a 20,000 sq ft house in Piedmont). Emma and I felt like we were at a resort. The pool looked a little small, but it was only in relation to the rest of the house, it's at least twice the size of our pool. The coolest part is they are going to do a nature trail around the property. Lip Bu told me he had specifically put in an elevator for his aging father who had lived with them for years so he could get down to the pool area and garden, but he died before they moved into the house. I left feeling like I should have paid an entrance fee to view the house, it was that grand. Ironically for mom and Henry and some of their cronies, (Ysa's parents were also included) when Lip Bu first started out 20 years ago and asked them to invest in his company, no one wanted to take the risk because he had a moustache, and by Chinese standards that made him look like a crook. I'll bet they regret that little prejudice - the guy's got to be a billionaire. Ysa still looks beautiful and as unaffected as ever. No designer clothes, make up or plastic augmentation evident anywhere.

So from EMma, Loser Loser, Double Loser, WhatEVER, get the picture, DUH!

L8er
Pen

Sappy

Kate and Dave and I were talking while we were in Yosemite about the John Lennon line "life is what happens when you're making other plans". I just watched Stranger Than Fiction with Will Ferrell and there's this monologue by Emma Thompson at the end that reminded me of the John Lennon quote and of why I had so much fun in Tahoe with everyone. So, as sugary sentimental as it is, I'm going to share it. It's actually much better with the video that accompanies it and after you've seen the film, it wraps it up nicely, but here it is in black and white.

"Sometimes when we lose ourselves in fear and despair, in routine and constancy, in hopelessness and tragedy, we can thank God for Bavarian sugar cookies.
And fortunately, when there aren't any cookies, we can still find reassurance in a familiar hand on our skin, or a kind and loving gesture, or a subtle encouragement, or a long embrace, or an offer of comfort. Not to mention hospital gurnies, and nose plugs, and uneaten danish, and soft spoken secrets, and Fender Stradocasters, and maybe, the occasional piece of fiction.
And we must remember all these things--the nuances, the anomalies, the subtleties--which we assume only accessorize our days, are actually here for a much larger and nobler cause. They are here to save our lives."
--Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

Thank you.

Blog!

Awesome name ... love the name ML. 

Just wanted to say that I am so glad to have seen many of you Lows (and TRs) in Tahoe. I had forgotten that you all are so cool that one doesn't even need to DO anything to have fun ... existing is enough. Only wish James & Pip and significant others could have been there. :(

Come visit me in CO and we'll ski! Yay!

Btw, this is from xkcd ... a fave webcomic of mine:



And here are some photos from graduation/baby photos. Mine are the excellent ones. Must be the genes.
http://www.stark.ws/ More when I get my compy up and running.

Hello!!!

Great idea Matt! Always think I should get in touch with the 'Low' family more...I'm rubbish at keeping in touch with Dad and James though so there's not much hope for the rest!! Hopefully this will change things.

So, thought I'd leave a quick post to let you all know how Ry and I are doing. Basically, things are great! We spent most of May in HK with James and Dad which was FABULOUS and just what we needed. Since Christmas things have been a bit crazy with all sorts of family and work 'events' and what with moving a week before we left for HK, we really needed our holiday! But we came back feeling very refreshed to a new apartment...very cool, 2 bedrooms (Please all come and visit!), living/diner, much bigger kitchen and right close to my work so we are selling a car and I walk to work!! It's been a really good change, and will continue to get better as we work on the decorating! (That's the fun part though!)

Unfortunately the holiday to HK meant we couldn't join you guys in Tahoe...VERY disappointed about that, but will try and sort something out for Pen, Emma & Henry to FINALLY meet Ryan! I have submitted an abstract to an Orthopaedic conference in SF next Feb, so if I get in hopefully I'll be able to come over, which will mean a flying visit to see those of you in CA...will keep you updated on that one.

Right, I did say this would be quick, so I will stop now. But hey, that's a little bit of an update on what we're up to. Hope all of you are good...miss you all!!

Love, Pip. x

Tahoe Pics

here are my pics from tahoe/yosemite.

Welcome!

Hey y'all.

Made a blog so that we could all keep in touch a little better.

Here are some things you can use the blog for:
- Posting links to your pictures
- Posting (a few) pictures
- Posting links to interesting things you've found
- Telling everyone about what's going on with you
- Asking people a question you want help with

To use the blog:
1. Accept the invitation that was sent to you from green.or.die@gmail.com (my account).
2. Sign in to Blogger here.
3. Make a new post, comment on other people's posts.

As with all blogs, it's only interesting if there's new content posted, so it's up to you to keep it going. Make new posts, comment. Let us know what's up.

Love ya,

ML