Federer won 2009 French Open

A few things happened today.

 

Signed on Facebook for the first time. Not sure what facebook will do for an old man. It looks like a hip thing to do though. A lot of my young friends are on it. Perhaps facebook will turn me into a hipster in no time.

 

Federer won his first French open today. He is such a class act. I am really happy for him. I was rooting for him. I think most of the tennis fans were rooting for Federer to win too. This is Federer’s 14^th grand slam. Nadal reportedly has knee problems. Federer has a very good chance to get his Wimbledon crown back in early July.

 

Tiger won Nicklaus’ Memorial tournament today by 2. He birdied 17^th and 18^th to win. This is his 67^th win on PGA tour.

 

Bought Shimano SPD peddle for my Araya road bike. They say road bike goes faster than hybrid. Araya is an old clunker. I want to try it out to decide whether or not a new road bike makes sense. With a road bike, I hope to shorten my bike commute time to one hour or less, one way.

Bike to work week (5/12 - 5/16)

It is bike to work week: May 12 - 16. The often touted benefits of biketo work are 1) easy on the wallet, good for your physical and mentalhealth, and good for the environment. All good causes! On the way in,the gas price is now at 3.80 per gallon. Biking will certainly help the pocket book.


This year, I bought a bike. It is a Giant. The bicycle was made in Taiwan. Trek has nice bikes. However, all their bike I saw were made in China. I don't buy stuff made in China if I can help it.

I started to ride bike to work last week. I started from Olin Park. Olin park is about 6 miles from the office. It takes about 25 minutes.

Today, I am a little more ambitious. I started biking from Glenway. The route follows Glenway -> SW Bike Trail -> ... Cateye says I travelled 11.07 miles, it took 48.51 minutes and my average speed was 13.6 miles per hour. It was a very cold morning. I was exhausted when I arrived at work.

Giant TCX1

Madison Skyline Across Lake Monona

State Capital Across Monona Bay

Spring has arrived

Ah! Spring has finally arrived. Crabapple is the first flower to arrive and it is in full blossom now.

(picture taken from the front door)

(Crabapple flower close-up)

(From across the street. Don & Barb's house on the left)

A lot of yard work awaits me. I have spent the last couple days on pruning, clearing the shrub bed. The next thing to do is to spread this mulch pile into the shrub bed. After that is done, garden, deck etc. Lucky me!

Feb 2007 Hsin-Chu Trip

2007 February 新竹之旅

Prior to getting on this trip back to Taiwan, I got hook up with my college numero uno friend DC. It has been over 20 years since the last time I saw him. I could not exactly recall on what occasion we last met. I was reminded, though, that I visited DC while he was in his post graduate study at 中原 (our alma mater). Deducing from the timeline, it had to be in the early 80s that we saw each other. 25 years flew by just like that!

DC came to pick Li-Fen and I up at Candy’s place on 林森北路in the afternoon of February 12th. After all these years, DC has not changed much. Well, on a second thought, he is maybe a little bit more mature than he was in his college years. On the way to Hsin-Chu, we caught up somewhat with those missing years. Upon arriving Hsin-Chu, we checked into 工研院招待所that DC booked and paid for our overnight stay.

We met with DC’s family at 工研院tennis courts in the early evening. DC and I played for a set. We played again the next morning. I got beat pretty bad in both occasions. Coming up excuses for loses is part of fun in participating in sporting events. However, I am not going to do that this time around. It is time for me to cultivate characters. The “next time” will come soon enough. DC’s son has very good tennis fundamentals. He is a very good tennis player as well as his dad.

Later in the evening, DC and his family took us out for a superb dinner. Li-Fen and I were treated like royalties. I probably did not do thoroughly bad things to DC in our college days.

DC has a wonderful family, great career and an enviable lifestyle. I am truly happy for him and his family.

Li-Fen and I at Hsin-Chu High Speed Rail Station

There is no justice! DC was better looking eon back. It appears he looks better now too.














This is where we stayed for the night.

工研院宿舍with cherry blossom in the backdrop

Breakfast is served at Starbuck in Hsin-Chu THSR Station, DC’s compliment.

Inside of THSR Hsin-Chu Station

An odd and pronounced structure near THSR Hsin-Chu Station

Home sweet home

After 20+ hours in the air and in the terminals waiting, I finally made it home this afternoon. Not able to get a shut eye during traveling, needless to say that I was extremely tired arriving home. The mere act of entering the house does provide immediate comfort and relief.

During Osaka to Detroit long flight, I played a lot of bubble breaker on my Dopod PDA to kill time. I knew the PDA battery is low and wanted to charge it upon arriving home. My PDA was nowhere to be found. Subsequent to some soul searching, the PDA was thought to be left on NW0070 seat 55H. This episode is very upsetting. I am the only one to blame. A missing article report was file with NW Dane County counter. Hope I will hear from NW on my dear PDA soon.

Came home and found myself tipped the scale at a whopping 156 lbs, body fat reading at 16.6% and total body water percentage at 58.3%. Over the last two weeks, I eat everything in sight. Weigh gain was expected. However, an increase of 5 lbs seems to be on the high side. Body water percentage is higher than the usual. Perhaps I have excessive water in the body right now. At any rate, I will need to restart my weigh watching again: more cardiovascular exercise and monitor my intact.


Got to go to work tomorrow, Friday. It is going to be tough to stay awake. I cannot wait to meet the weekend.

Snowy Sunday

It is a snowy Sunday: a very good time for reading....Um...no, have not read a book for quite some time now. Time to watch a lot of TV.

Watched re-tun Australia open match between Roddick and Ancic. It was a 5 setter. Roddick prevailed 6 to 4 in the 5th. It was a close match. Roddick's big serve helped a lot.

Women's World Cup was on Golf channel this afternoon. The tournament was held in Sun City, South Africa. The team from Taiwan was in the 9th place at the time I was watching. Taiwan team's efforts were good enough for them to be on the first page of the leader board. It pleased me that they showed ROC flag and the name displayed on TV was Taiwan. Chinese Taipei is for Oxymorons.

We watched Notting Hill again this afternoon. I love this Julia Roberts/Hugh Grant movie. It is a heart warming love story. I am pretty sure I would watch it again if I come across this movie in the future.

Today is also NFL league play off day. For the national league, it was Chicago Bears against New Orleans Saints. The game was close until very near the end. Chicago broke the game open and won. The finalists for the AFL are NE Patriots and Colts. Patriots are leading by a very big margin.

Enough for being a couch potato. Here are a few pictures I took today from my sun room this afternoon.

Keeping the fireplace going did warm up the hearts

My backyard

My deck and the lonely, snow capped grill

Our good neighbour Don & Barb's

Don & Barb's evergreen trees

Our Middleton neighbours


Our Middleton and Madison neighbour to our right

Our garden lies beneath the snow

Devil's Lake

Devil’s lake has been my favorite stumping ground ever since I arrived in Madison. I have come to visit this absolutely fantastic state park gazillion times. My visits are usually in spring, summer and fall. This is the first time I came in winter.

El Nino! They say. This winter is expected to be warmer than yester years. It is now two days from Christmas and the high temp is around 40. It is certainly warmer than usual. The sun is hiding behind thick clouds. The pictures are not going to jump out of the frames. Nevertheless, It beats being snowed in and stay home.

G Spot

South Shore

Devil's Door from Afar

Devil's Door



Balance Rock