Lu & Angela's Tucson Life

A New Online Album

2006-03-19T20:44:00.000-08:00

I understand that I've been lazy updating this blog. Part of the reasons is that I've set up a newer, snappier, and easier online album site. This new site will be bi-ligual with pictures in universal language and captions in Chinese. :P

Link We have uploaded tons of new pictures over there. Go check them out!

3/17: THREE MONTHS CELEBRATION!

2006-03-17T20:06:00.000-08:00

We had another Marrie Callandar pie for celebration!! Hum... Time flies!

First Swimming Lesson

2006-03-15T20:05:00.000-08:00

We got this special-made swimming ring for infant babies. It doesn't go on the waist but fits baby's neck. With this ring, Athena and move about in the tub freely, which is the most "mobile" for her now. She really enjoyed it.

Cute Athena and Mom

2006-03-11T20:05:00.000-08:00

Can you hear me now!?

2006-03-05T20:27:00.000-08:00

Do I have to explain?

Complete Gaming Set

2006-03-05T20:05:00.000-08:00

Although we know we won't have too much time playing, but when the Robinson's&May is having a 60% off sale, I still jumped in this deal. The whole set includes a foldable 8 seat poker table, 500pc casino chips and a auto card-shuffler. I feel like I am a professional poker player now. LOL

Beef Roast

2006-03-04T20:04:00.000-08:00

long-waited food picture: Beef Roast. Yam!!

Girly Smile

2006-03-01T20:04:00.000-08:00

Hehehe..........

Athena and Rose

2006-02-28T20:03:00.000-08:00

The rose is bigger than Athena's tiny face.

Hush! I am on the phone!

2006-02-27T20:03:00.000-08:00

Athena was talking with grandmom on the phone the other day. :P

LinkedIn and StumbleUpon

2006-02-18T20:00:00.000-08:00

There are two websites I found very interesting lately. The first one is called StumbleUpon. It is a mixture of del.icio.us, blog, tagger, and match.com. It allows you to save visited websites, categorize them and share with friends or anyone on the net!! It also comes with an easy button for your web-surfing. After you choose your interested website topics, every time you "stumble!", you will be directed to a recommended website in your selected category. I've used this function to discover lots of interesting sites. It also can serve like a friend-making website. It uses your browsing profile to match people that you might be interested in. A nicely matched virtual community is created!

Another site I found interesting is LinkedIn.com. It is a "networking" site. It encourages you to store your connections in their site and use the network built for job searching. Their business model targets on both job seeker and recruiter. Their user interface is easy to use and somehow like an RPG game - you are reminded your number of connections and make you want to add more.

My profiles at these 2 sites are:
http://luthealien.stumbleupon.com/ (stumbleupon)
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/1/7a9/389 (linkedin)

Come look for me!

Athena is 2 Months Old

2006-02-17T21:11:00.000-08:00

We celabrate Athena's 2 months old birthday with a banana cream pie from Marie Callender. Athena, grow up quick! Otherwise there is no pie left for you!
I know it's been a while since I updated this blog last time. The things are just hectic down here. The Theory of Computation class I am taking now just kills about 30-40 hours every week of my time. I think I am getting old to keep up with all these works. :(

New Toy

2006-02-17T14:12:00.000-08:00

We set up this new toy for Athena today. This toy will play sounds and move those small colorful dolls in front of her on the beat. She abosolutely loves it. Her sight follows the dolls and the lights and she trys to touch the moving dolls. She can play this for a long time! [Thanks to Kira!]

Athena's First Turkey

2006-02-15T21:14:00.000-08:00

Angela bought 2 turkeys before Thanksgiving and Christmas. But we didn't have chance to eat them before because we were busy preparing Athena's arrival. Now we finally got time to actually cook a Christmas meal. This is also Athan's first turkey meal, and of course she didn't get to eat any of it.

Bird's Nest

2006-02-12T21:10:00.000-08:00

This is how Athena's hair look like right after shower. She's got natural curly hair. When it just turned dry from wet, it looks like something exploded on her hair! (In Chinese, it's called 'bomb head'. ) Anyhow, she is my precious little baby. :)

Athena and panda

2006-02-10T21:09:00.000-08:00

Here is a cute picture of Athena and panda, with grandma holding her. :)

Lynn's Birthday

2006-02-07T21:10:00.000-08:00

Feb 7th is Lynn's birthday and we are honored to be invited to this family event. Lynn has a special relationship with our family. She is Angela's obgyn doctor who help bring Athena to this wonderful world. She is also married to my best friend Mark. We've known each other for almost 5 years now (ever since I moved to Tucson). She is a wonderful wonderfal person. Also in the picture is the 2-year-old daughter Sarah Grace. She is the best baby I have ever seen in my life. I hope Athena will grow up just like her. :)

"Shadowless Punch"

2006-02-04T21:11:00.000-08:00

Says who that a month-old baby cannot be a marshall art master? Athena just demonstrated a very difficult skill called "Shadowless Punch" which means she can throw out punches so fast that the camara cannot catch! (yeah right :P)

Super Chinese New Year Party

2006-01-28T21:10:00.000-08:00

Jan 28th is lunar new year's day which is when Chinese people celabrate New Year. This year I had over 40 people from mainland and Taiwan at my house. Wei Chang and Harry Wang are the main organizers. Most of them are PhD students from the MIS department and their significant others. The party started at 2PM and ended 1AM. We sang karaoke with my newly written karaoke software (over 2200 original ktv clips). Of course, we didn't forget gambling. Daning was the designated BlackJack dealer for the all time. I would like to thank everyone for coming to my house and sharing the moments together. (I doubt any of them is reading this blog. ) I think everyone had fun!!

Closeup!!

2006-01-23T21:11:00.000-08:00

Athena Closeup

Flame Hair

2006-01-21T21:10:00.000-08:00

Athena's "Flame Hair"

1 Month old lunch at Macaroni Grill

2006-01-16T16:19:00.000-08:00

Time flies!! It's been a month since Athena was born. It's almost 2 months since last time I updated the blog. Being parents is easy and very joyful but learning to be a good parent is hard. Angela and I learn new things from the baby everyday and are amazed by baby's every move, smile or gesture. This is an amazing experience!! And of course, happy 1 month old to Athena. Though you can't eat a thing from the table, your daddy and mommy had a wonderful meal at Macaroni Grill. :P

Enjoy the new bath tub

2006-01-14T16:17:00.000-08:00

We finally decided to put Athena in a real bath tub so she can get familarized with water. Look at her look sitting in the tub. Isn't she lovely? (I think she is nervous)

I love swing~~~

2006-01-12T16:19:00.000-08:00

Another wonderful gift from Kira is this baby swing. Athena can stay nice and quiet on the swing for 30 minutes!!

Am I not a lion?

2006-01-09T16:16:00.000-08:00

Who has bigger mouth? (She is sitting on a vibrating chair, a gift from Kira)

My big belly.

2006-01-08T16:17:00.000-08:00

Athena's got a incredible big belly. Meanwhile she is gaining weight like crazy. She is almost 9 pounds now!!

Blanket from Aunt Yiru

2006-01-06T16:18:00.000-08:00

Yiru and Shengmin cancelled their trip to us this winter cause Athena's gonna be here. Anut Yiru sent Athena a wonderful blanket instead!!

First Christmas with Athena

2005-12-25T16:16:00.000-08:00

This is our first Christmas dinner with Athena being with us. We will see more pictures of her later so lets look at the dinner made by Lu.

What happened on the day Athena was born?

2005-12-19T16:42:00.000-08:00

Would you be wondering what happened on the day you were born? What do people do on the day you were born? I hope 4 papers will solve this question for Athena. :)

Athena Erin Tseng

2005-12-17T16:17:00.000-08:00

My daughter Athena Erin Tseng was born last Saturday 11:37 AM after 18
hours in labor. She is 7 pounds 11 oz, 19 inches. Both mother and baby
girl are very well. You can find more pictures documenting this wonderful event at

New TV -- 42" Plasma HDTV --

2005-12-02T16:17:00.000-08:00

New TV!! grab the after thanksgiving sale. :D

Glider

2005-11-13T20:30:00.000-08:00

This is a glider that was put together by Angela after she came home from the baby shower. It feels so nice!

Baby Shower!!

2005-11-13T20:29:00.000-08:00

I would like to thank for of our friends who came to the baby shower today. Much much love is in the air today. Special thank goes to dear Cathy Larson for hosting the shower.

Mazda MPV

2005-11-11T20:29:00.000-08:00

Finally, we've got the miniVan to drive around town and carry stuff!! This is a Mazda MPV ES 2001. :)

Trick or treat!

2005-10-31T09:28:00.001-08:00

There are ~100 kids going through our front porch this Halloween night. Angela took a picture with three cute girls dressed in Cat girl outfit (and a pirate).

Start working on the baby room

2005-10-31T09:28:00.000-08:00

With the baby coming in less than two months, we finally decided to start working on the room. The first thing? paint the baby room. Color of choice? Disney piglet. :D

Yet another cucumber

2005-10-29T09:28:00.000-07:00

Yes, we have another cucumber in our backyard. It is pretty good size compared with the IPod-mini sitting next to it.

Scary pumpkin face

2005-10-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

It is a trandition in US to carve a pumpkin scary face for Halloween. This is the first time we did this. Angela did a good job!!

Angela's crochet gallery

2005-10-27T09:27:00.000-07:00

Some of you might already known that Angela has be learning crochet for quite some time. This is a photo gallery of her various master pieces. Full catalog is available upon request. :)

Lu's become a hair stylist

2005-10-25T09:27:00.000-07:00

Hail! Angela! She was so brave to let Lu cut her hair. (In fact, it was Lu who was fearless. Angela would kill Lu if he messed up her hair.) Anyways, the hair looks fine from a distance, but I will NOT do this again. The pressure was too much!

BTW, this is Angela's first picture on the blog!

New dining room light

2005-10-23T09:22:00.000-07:00

With Kate and Chris's great help, the new dining room light is up! Now we can finally see what we are eating! Many thanks to Kate and Chris!!

Cucumber dish

2005-10-18T09:27:00.000-07:00

We used the home-grown cucumber to make Taiwan style cucumber cold dish. :P

2005-10-16T11:08:00.000-07:00

Pretty little butterfly

Arthur Bryant's Barbecue

2005-10-15T11:07:00.000-07:00

Arthur Bryant's Barbecue is one of the best BBQ joints in Kansas City. I tried the baby rib & sausage combo. The rib was okay, but the sausage's REALLY GOOD! Daniel was there with me but too bad he doesn't like meat.

Gorgeous K-State University

2005-10-14T11:11:00.000-07:00

Gorgeous K-State University! This castle-like building is the Computer Science Department. :P I am very glod to have the chance to visit!

The little apple

2005-10-13T11:05:00.000-07:00

I am gonna visit Manhattan !!! in Kansas.. :S The K-State University is located at Manhattan, Kansas. Very green, cute little town. Everyone is friendly here!

Many thanks Kira and Ian

2005-10-09T20:36:00.000-07:00

Generous Kira & Ian invited us over for a nice BBQ dinner and gave us all these baby stuff. We cannot thank them enough! Of course, we have to mention their beautiful kids Nathan and Abby as well! :)

New Taiwan Passport

2005-10-08T22:44:00.000-07:00

My new passport. Finally my new passport arrives Tucson. I am no longer a man without passport!! The word "Taiwan" in the middle is somehow cheering. :P

Squash

2005-10-08T22:39:00.000-07:00

Can't believe our squash really fruits. Don't know when is a good time to eat it? This is one of the only three squashes(cucumbers) we have. :(

Smiley Baby

2005-10-06T20:37:00.000-07:00

This is the lastest ultrasound picture of our baby. She is smiling!!

Romance of the three kingdoms

2005-10-01T22:32:00.000-07:00

Another goodie happened because of the L.A. trip is that I picked up a book: Romance of the tree kingdoms. I had this book since I was in middle school. There is a game made out of this book by KOEI (see screenshot below. I think version 11 of this game was out last year). Every boy I know was totally into this game/book. It feels so good to re-read the book. Lots of memory come back to me.
By the way, for those who don't know this book, it's a historical novel talking
about the war affairs between three kingdoms from 189AD to roughly 250AD.

Trip to L.A.

2005-09-25T22:18:00.000-07:00

Angela and I decided to make a trip to Los Angelas. The purpose of this trip is multi-folds. First, we get to meet Flora and her husband-soon-to-be (They are gonna get their wedding ceremony in November :)). Secondly, we get to enjoy the authentic Taiwan food in L.A. Third, I can apply for a new Taiwan passport. Lastly, we get to relax for a little bit. The four purposes are all satisfied very well. We even brought home a frige-full of frozen food!! (see picture below) There are some other friends we didn't get to see this time. Well, L.A.! we shall see again!!

Angela's making crochet!

2005-09-13T22:08:00.000-07:00

Angela has been making crochet blankets for our coming baby. This is her first time learning how to crochet. The blanket looks unbelievably good. Way to go!

Thorny Lemon Tree

2005-09-12T20:37:00.000-07:00

Well, The lemons didn't come free. They have long thorns protecting them. I got stinged several times in collecting the lemons. :(

Early Lemon

2005-09-11T20:36:00.000-07:00

Early lemons! One of the branches on my lemon tree fell off the other day. I was forced to chop the branch and collect the lemons. Surprisingly, I ended up with 200+ lemons!! If you want some lemon, please feel free to let me know. I have more than enough!! P.S. A good tip in juicing lemons: microwave the lemon for 20 sec before you juice them!

2005-09-06T21:46:00.000-07:00

finally, the Babe T's license plate arrives!!

2005-09-05T21:46:00.000-07:00

Yilu, Jialun, Lin... came to our place one night to sing keroyoke....

2005-08-28T21:45:00.000-07:00

Shauna's goodbye party and Mani's house re-warming party

Calligraphy

2005-08-28T20:35:00.000-07:00

Shauna is leaving Tucson for Seattle and Mani is having a house warming party. So we decided to write them some calligraphy for present! The one on the left is for Mani. It is a combination of four Chinese characters. It means "bringing in the treasure and money". The blue one is for Shauna. It is a Chinese saying by famous Confusous: "Studying is like rowing a boat upstream. If not going forward, backwards then." Hope all the best to Shauna for her graduate study in Seattle!

Baby owl gets bigger

2005-08-22T20:22:00.000-07:00

The baby owl came visit again. But this time he is signifacantly bigger!

Taiwan noodles

2005-08-14T20:14:00.000-07:00

In a boring weekend, I decided to make taiwan noodles :)

Baby's first video!

2005-08-06T20:18:00.000-07:00

As I promised, I've converted the baby's first video clip into computer-readable format. You can download the clip here . It is really AMAZING. You can actually see the baby sucks her thumb and kicking her small little legs. AMAZING. If you like, a physical VCD is available upon request. Please write me to reqest one. :)
Another thing, Angela and I are thinking about names right now. We have some names we like but we are also open for suggestions. Please throw your ideas towards us!

2005-08-06T20:13:00.000-07:00

Angela made a strawberry mousse for hot-summer dessert.
She just ate two pieces, and I ate the rest of it. Haha!!

2005-07-28T18:54:00.000-07:00

Bunny visit. After bobcat and owl, this time it's a small bunny resting outside of my kitchen window. Well, welcome to Lu's zoo!

2005-07-28T18:53:00.000-07:00

First Sponge Squash

2005-07-24T20:45:00.000-07:00

Cathy and Shelley came to our place today. We had a four course dinner and Cathy brought a delicious homemade pineapple upsidedown cake. We had a wonderful evening! Also, we talked about cats a little. Here is the link to the FIV disease I mentioned. LINK

Owl and bird

2005-07-22T13:03:00.000-07:00

There are more and more animals around the house. After several visits of the owl, we found it will come and sit on the tree outside of kitchen window in the afternoon and leave after dark. I guess he is gonna stay with us longer now.Another stupid bird hit on our door this afternoon and hurt itself. Don't know what to do with it. :S

Pacific Seafood Buffet

2005-07-21T18:00:00.000-07:00

We went to Pacific Seafood Buffet at Phoenix to celebrate the knowing of our cute little daughter!! We now are gonna to think about names and paint the room pink! :P

Baby feet

2005-07-21T10:11:00.000-07:00

Another picture from the ultrasound session. This is the feet of baby girl. This is gonna be her first foot print! hehe.... :)

Baby girl coming on 12/19/2005

2005-07-21T10:08:00.000-07:00

Yahoo!! It's a baby girl !! We went through a complete ultrasound scanning of the baby today. The baby is in very good shape. We now know it's gonna be a pretty little girl. Wonderful!! We even took a short clip of the ultrasound video. I will post soon after I found an VCR. :)

Monsoon!!

2005-07-20T18:54:00.000-07:00

Monsoon is finally here!! After more than 30 days of 40+ degree temparature, the monsoon (afternoon thunder storms) is finally here. Tucson is livable again.

Baby owl visit again!

2005-07-17T20:11:00.000-07:00

Baby owl visited us this afternoon again. He stayed outside our kitchen window for the entire afternoon. Angela and I were so thrilled of his visit. He has big eyes and would just stare at you. His mouth keeps moving as if he was talking to you. Since this is his second visit in this week. I suspect that he is actually staying.

2005-07-16T17:50:00.000-07:00

new member of our plant family: tomato

Take Nerdness Test!

2005-07-11T22:52:00.000-07:00

I am very much ashamed of myself for not able to score a higher nerd score. Click below and check your "Nerdness" today!

Owl visit

2005-07-11T20:00:00.000-07:00

There was an owl sitting at my front porch today. I feel my house more and more like a zoo!
close-up of the owl:

4th of July hang-out

2005-07-04T20:32:00.000-07:00

4th of July is a national holiday. Yilu, Jialun, Angela, me, and Doggie got together at AppleBee just to hang out. We ate tons of food (3 plates of buffalo wings, mazzarella sticks, spinach dip with chips, onion peels and a thai chicken pizza). :P

Angela's Birthday Getaway

2005-07-03T10:17:00.000-07:00

It was Angela's birthday on July 3rd. We decided to go to Phoenix to enjoy some real Chinese food. Of course, Doggie is with us. This is his first time being outside of Tucson. We also went to Chandler Fashion Square to do some shopping. The Cheesecake Factory there is awesome!!

Chris and Kate's Wedding

2005-07-02T22:18:00.000-07:00

On the 2nd of July, 2005, Angela and I attended Chris and Kate's wedding. It was a very beautiful Catholic wedding hosted at Saint Pius X Church of Tucson. This is my first time went to a religious wedding. Although we didn't understand the ritures most of time, the wedding was truely beautiful and the bride and groom were truely blessed.
The reception after the ceremony was very good. The food was good, and the open bar was good. Even Kate's dad's singing was good. The best part is the Krispy Kreme tower! Shauna has the pictures. I will try to post the picture later! Too bad Riyad can't join us. He is busy "travelling".

Watermelon Blowout!

2005-07-01T10:18:00.000-07:00

Safeway was having a 4th of July sale the other day. We found these seedless watermelons to be a great buy. They were $1.88 each!! So we bought 3!! These are gonna last for the rest of Summer. :)

Baby Tseng is 8.28 cm long!

2005-06-23T10:19:00.000-07:00

We went to see Lynn again for Angela's 3rd check-up. Amazing things happened during the checkup. First of all, Doggie (baby's nickname) has grown to 8.28 cm long. It's about the size of 2 AAA batteries together. Secondly, when we are looking at the baby through ultrasound vision, we saw baby kicking!! We can't believe baby can move even when he is only 8 cm long!! Lastly, Doggie seemed to know that we were watching, so he turned around and gave us a front close-up! See below for picture. Angela and I would like to thank Lynn for her patience and generously gave us so many ultrasound pictures. Doggie will thank Lynn too.

2005-05-22T20:23:00.000-07:00

Watermelon is glowing! Actually I am not quite sure if this is watermelon. Anyways, we have to put in a few supportive beams so the vines can glow. I can't wait to see them glow!

Saguaro's blooming!

2005-05-22T20:21:00.000-07:00

Saguaro's blooming! See the funny "flowers" on the head of a saguaro. (This might be the source of my allergy :( )

Zan and Jennifer's graduation

2005-05-14T17:19:00.000-07:00

Zan and Jennifer's graduation ceremony. It is so fast that we have to see Zan and Jennifer go. This also reminds me of my own ceremony 2 years ago. Time flies!! (P.S. The ceremony this year is much more fun!)

Sushi feast

2005-05-14T11:17:00.000-07:00

Angela's friend, Hitomi and her mon, Ikuko kindly visited us on a beautiful Saturday noon. They brought the entire tranditional Japanese kitchen into our house and they made wonderful, wonderful sushi!! See Hitomi's greedy face in the picture!

2005-05-09T21:39:00.000-07:00

Angela made "Sautee Tofu" for lunch. Don't they look perfect?

Mother's Day

2005-05-09T21:38:00.001-07:00

On Mother's Day we went to La Parrilla Suiza for dinner. We ordered on appetizer and two main dishes. Of course, we had a very delisious "Flan" for dessert as a wonderful ending. Unfortunately, we finished it too fast, so there was no time for taking any picture. : )

Sweet roses

2005-05-09T21:38:00.000-07:00

There are few rosebushes in our front yard. Two of them are red, and the other is yellow. We love them a lot. They make our yard look so fabulous.

Baby's 2nd checkup

2005-05-05T20:51:00.000-07:00

Baby Tseng (aka XioGozy) is expected to see this world on Dec 19th 2005. He is right now 12.5mm long and has a small heart. Just can't wait to see my little baby!! (p.s. this picture is from the 2nd checkup on May 5th) I really hope Gozy to be a good baby. D suffers a lot these days.

Homemade noodle

2005-05-01T21:49:00.000-07:00

Homemade Tsa-Jon noddles (Chinese noddles) made from flour!!

My first Linux desktop enviornment

2005-05-01T21:37:00.000-07:00

After 72+ hours' work, I finally have Gentoo 2.6 hardened (a linux distribution) up and running. To install this distribution, I started from stage1: complie the source codes. Although this is not my first time working with *nix but this is the first time I used desktop enviornment

Mark strikes with dumplings

2005-04-30T20:01:00.000-07:00

The Coppola family (Mark, Lynn and Sarah Grace) and Sharat came to visit us. Mark made chinese dumplings! Angela also made a banana cake for dessert.

Network security class in Phoenix

2005-04-27T21:17:00.000-07:00

I was lucky to have a chance attending a network security class in Phoenix. The training center is right next to ASU. I like the way ASU looks in that the campus looks so modern.

Baby's first photo

2005-04-24T21:53:00.000-07:00

Lynn did the first checkup for Angela. This is also the first time we saw the baby. Although it's just a sack, we are all very exicited.

Spounge gourds coming

2005-04-23T21:05:00.000-07:00

My spounge gourds finally sprout! (or are they watermelon?)

Bobcat hide

2005-04-20T21:06:00.000-07:00

This is the place that bobcat laid the other day. See the bird feathers he consumed. :S

2005-04-19T20:56:00.000-07:00

bobcat closeup

Babcat visits my backyard! (or to stay?)

2005-04-19T17:56:00.000-07:00

Bobcat in my backyard!! Angela and I were working in our little field in the backyard this afternoon. All of a sudden I spotted a "big cat" sneaking away. I realized later it was a bobcat living in my backyard. I found "his place" under the tree and lots of bird feathers showing its success in hunting. I cleaned up the bush so it can't hide no more. Any comments on how to deal with a bobcat who wants to stay?

2005-04-18T21:37:00.000-07:00

Angela's crochet pieces. :)

The Private Life of Chairman Mao

2005-04-17T21:26:00.000-07:00

This is an interesting book discussing the private life of famous Chinese dictator Mao by his private doctor. I can't put this book down after I read the first couple pages. This book changed my views towards the Chinese communist party and its leaders. I hope there is a book talking about Chiang, Kaishak, the leader of Taiwan government, in his late years. The comparsion of these two people would be very interesting. Of course, the books should not be biosed. Here is a link to the English version of this book at Amazon.com.

Pineapple cake

2005-04-17T21:05:00.000-07:00

Taiwan dessert: pineapple cake. Angela spent Sunday afternoon making these delicious pineapple cakes. They taste so good that I am not gonna to share. :)