Friday, May 29, 2009

第一夫人與穿衣服的藝術 Clothes make a woman!

Take a look at this video:


Geez, what is she wearing?! She is doing a lot of movement in this video, but her top is too short and her neckline is too low. What's with the puffy sleeves?! While I was watching the video, I was worried that her midriff would be showing any minute...I am sure it did at some point because her shirt is so short!

What she is wearing is not very appealing! Even the wife of Belize's prime minister looked better and she was wearing only a simple flowery summer dress). Mrs. Ma can go shopping at Episode in Taipei and anything there will look better than what she wore. Apparently, she didn't spend any money buying new clothes for this overseas trip. Everything she wore abroad came out of her closet. She said she didn't need a stylist and she didn't need to borrow clothes from designers. I don't condone over-spending either, but even I (the spendthrift) go shopping for new clothes when I have to go away on vacation or to attend an official function.

It's not a good sign when the President looks better than the First Lady. But you know Taiwan media, they try to suck up to the presidential couple and said she looks so "princessy" in the puffy sleeves and the outfit showed a feminine side that no one had seen before. [cringe!] Then in another news story, President Ma said everything his wife did for him proved that he married the right woman 32 years ago!



This kind of stuff should be said behind clothes doors, in the privacy of their bedroom. I think most wives would do the same for their husbands under the same circumstances. But it made good headlines.

Some says clothes make a woman, but in Carla Bruni's case, no clothes makes a woman. Carla Bruni is the First Lady of France. I won't post any nude photos of her here (I'm trying to operate a family-oriented blog here), but for anyone interested in Carla Bruni's nude photos, she can be Googled. Her husband is equally proud of his wife. Carla Bruni looks great in those nude photos.

Mrs. Ma wearing clothes looked worse than Carla Bruni without clothes!

周美青 (馬英九夫人) 陪同馬英九總統出國拚外交,在友邦貝里斯的活動上,上台與朱宗慶打擊樂團一同表演。可驚的事是她所穿著的服裝。 台灣媒體還說她的姿勢優美! 拜托...馬夫人的上衣太短了, 隨時都有露肚的可能。她的荷葉領、公主袖的上衣, 理論上是 OK 的,但是只能適合穿在五、六歲的身上吧! 五、六十歲的人穿不太好吧! 連我九歲的女兒也覺得那上衣不美觀。而中國時報的標題是 "魅力四射”。 請問她到底射到誰了?! 太讓人爆笑了吧! 馬屁也不用這樣拍!

總之,我覺得懂得節省是臺灣人的美德。可是當總統出國做外交時,如果總統穿得比第一夫人好看(況且總統只是穿西裝、打領帶時), 那夫人就得反省。台灣有很多有名的服裝設計師及品牌, 連美國的第一夫人就懂得穿臺灣設計師的服裝, 為什麼馬夫人不懂呢?! 她並不是沒錢,我們的政府也不可能不給她置裝費, 那她為什麼不好好利用出國的機會介紹台灣的服裝業呢? 她寧願穿舊的 三宅一生(也要好幾萬), 也不願意再花錢支持台灣設計師。她穿的漂亮、得體也能帶動整個台灣及台灣人對於時尚、穿著的認知。

此外,馬總統也表達出他對太太的謝意,說出周美青為他所做的一切證明了他三十二年前所做的決定(他娶了她)是正確的。我真不知道應該怎樣解讀這句話(真的是有點肉麻!)。我總覺得這句話留著私底下跟老婆講比較恰當。我想每個老婆如果做到第一夫人的位子,都會跟周美青一樣的支持先生。先生對老婆的深情及謝意是用行動表現,而不是用嘴巴講講。其實夫妻之間的互動關係不是外人可以瞭解的。可是如果一個公眾人物把它拿出來講,那這件事就變成公共領域 (public domain),得經得起公眾輿論的考驗。

這幾天,法國總理夫人(Carla Bruni)又上了新聞。她美美的裸體相片又要被拍賣了。我不會在這裏 po 上她的裸體相片。要看的人上 Google 找既可。 法國總理聽到這消息對自己的老婆還是很滿意,反而向告知的人要這些照片的拷貝,因為老婆的美體靚影他也想保留一份。 相比之下, 穿上衣服的周美青還比不上脫光衣服的 Carla Bruni!

Saturday, May 23, 2009

小學科學博覽會 ( 學後心得) Aftermath of the Science Fair

On the way home from school on Friday, I asked my son what he had learned from the science fair at school. He thought about it for a minute and say, "Mom, I think you should stop drinking Coke from now on." I knew he must have learned something about the "shortcomings" of Coke drinking. I said, "why?". "Because it ruins your teeth. It also stains your teeth." was his answer. I thanked him for letting me know. Apparently, he saw a poster on the effects of Coke on teeth (or rather the tooth enamel). Of over 100 posters exhibited at the Science Fair, this particular poster made him take notice. I should be glad that my son immediately thought of me when he saw the Coke/teeth poster.

Soda drinking is my one vice in life. I cannot live without that bubbly sensation of the first sip. To maintain a decent weight, I have resorted to drinking diet sodas. I also like that caffeine buzz cola sodas give me, but I'm not brand specific. I'll drink Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Diet Pepsi, and Pepsi One, depending on whichever brand is on sale the week I run out of sodas.

I have been warned about the adverse effects of soda-drinking, including calcium depletion and the ruination Coke causes one's teeth. But like anyone who has an addiction, until one is faced with an impending death sentence, one will not give up on one's addictive vice. In that regard, I am no different.

學校辦的科學博覽會星期五結束。放學回家時,我問了兒子,“你看到那麼多的科學海報,你學到什麼沒有?” 他想了一下就說,“媽媽,妳不要再喝可樂了!” 我心裏跳了一下,也知道大概他看到什麼樣的科學海報了。 不過我還是繼續問他,”為什麼不能再喝呢?” 他說,“喝了可樂之後,牙齒很容易變黃,也很容易蛀牙。” 我趕快告訴他,“謝謝你的提醒,不過媽媽早就知道了。謝謝你,可是你不用擔心媽媽,我只要常常刷牙就不會有問題的。” 小孩這時才鬆了口氣。我也鬆了一口氣。我最怕人家叫我不要喝太多汽水。

我當然知道喝汽水對身體不好。汽水能讓身體少吸收很多鈣質,對於家有骨質疏鬆症病歷的我以及牙齒不好的我,汽水的確是要少碰為妙。但是這個癮很難戒得掉。每當喝下汽水的那第一口時....那種超過癮的感覺,我可能要到面臨生死存亡的決擇時,才會放棄喝汽水!

Sunday, May 17, 2009

洛杉磯又地震了!!! Earthquake!!!

My husband and the kids had just finished working on the science project involving boiling some soda cans and were moving on to the next science project when we heard a huge rumble. I was sitting on the sofa getting ready to talk to my dad on Skype. Once I ascertained that it was earthquake, I screamed to the kids to go outside. But my son was so fast, he ran past me and hid under our kitchen table! My daughter had her shoes on, so she managed to get out the door. We heard a loud thump, like something fell. Then all of a sudden, it was quiet. Earthquake no more.

In hindsight, my son did the right thing going under the table. He is only in Grade 1 and he must had only 2 earthquake drills since he started elementary school. But I must say, all the training exercises helped. He knew exactly what to do. In a split second, disaster can strike and often times, there just wasn't enough time to react. Trying to get outside might be the thing to do, but often times, it's not possible to do, especially if you are in bed, on the second floor of a house. I have to work out a disaster plan with my husband so we all know where to go (i.e. the escape routes) if we are in different parts of the house.

Tonight's earthquake lasted maybe 10 seconds. According to U. S. Geological Survey (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/), it was a magnitude 4.7 earthquake, centered around Lennox, CA, which is less than 4 miles east of the LAX (Los Angeles International Airport). We are about 12 miles south of Lennox. We saw the local news and many people had china and glassware broken. We later found out that the loud thump in our house was the ladder falling down. Nothing got broken, thank goodness. Even though it wasn't a big earthquake, it still shook us up!

剛剛洛杉磯又地震了!!! 這一回的震央是在 Lennox市, 大概在洛杉磯國際機場往東走五公里的地區。我老公正在跟小孩做項科學實驗。他們才剛完成第一個實驗, 正在準備下一個實驗時, 聽到一陣陣的隆隆聲,好像大卡車要衝進來似的。我正坐在沙發上要跟我爸通 Skype。 我話都還沒開始講就大聲叫“地震了,趕快出去!〞兒子馬上跑到餐桌下面躲。女兒則跟我要開後門出去。就在這時候,地震就停了。根本就來不及反應! 還是兒子做得對, 只有他跑對地方, 躲到桌子底下去。平常學校就有辦災難演習, 這一回真的有用到, 派上用場了! 兒子才一年級就知道該怎麼做, 讓我們大人覺得很慚愧。我得和老公好好的想想我們自家的災難計劃。我們應該事就先想好逃生路線--人在一樓時要往哪走, 人在二樓時要往哪逃。這些都應該事先要跟小孩子講好, 出事時, 大家就會知道該怎麼做了。

這次地震的威力只有4.7, 不至於造成任何嚴重的傷害。但是小孩、大人都嚇了一跳。小孩子還真的是上了一堂重要的人生課程--如何逃難!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

很糟糕的新聞標題 Terrible headline!

Whenever I have time during the day, I would browse through all the headlines of my two favorite Taiwanese on-line news source: The Apple Daily and China Times. Today, one such headline on www.chinatimes.com grabbed my attention (it served its purpose). "水牛城墜機報告 正副機長打情罵俏 奪五十命" (http://news.chinatimes.com/2007Cti/2007Cti-News/2007Cti-News-Content/0,4521,5040654+112009051500172,00.html). It was one of those news that captured the hearts and minds of the audience when it happened. Seeing the inferno that ensued after the crash really tugged at my heart strings at the time. The Chinatimes headline indicated that the Buffalo NY crash of a Colgan Air jet a few months ago was caused by the intimate conversation of the pilot and copilot (implying that there might be some hanky panky going on). I was shocked to see the headline, so I went on to read the article. But nothing in the article supported the headline. I went on to read the readers' comments and realized that I wasn't the only one who felt that the headline was either badly translated or badly written. In any case, I went to cnn.com (http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/05/14/buffalo.crash/index.html#cnnSTCText) and Wall Street Journal (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124212789938210353.html) to get the actual news story. Apparently, the real cause of the crash was the pilot and the co-pilot's inexperience. It really makes me wonder who are flying the planes these days!?!?

我每天有到網上看報的習慣。因為台灣的報社大概會在美西時間下午一、二點時刷新版, 所以我晚上一有時間就會上網看台灣新聞。今天在中時電子報看到一篇很聳動的標題:
"水牛城墜機報告 看正副機長打情罵俏 奪五十命" , 看起來這正、副駕駛還真的有來一腿。但是文章內卻沒有提到那正、副駕駛有多曖昧。看到很多人留的言都在批評那記者寫錯標題。我也覺得是這樣, 所以我再上網找一些美國來源的文章來看。看完後才知道這次飛機失事的主要原因是因為正、副駕駛的飛行經歷不夠多, 一旦發現緊急狀況, 他們無法隨機應變, 導致墬機。

看樣子, 中時電子報的記者(或主編)可要多加學習英文了, 才不會把新聞標題翻譯錯誤 。



Sunday, May 10, 2009

大家的母親節是怎麼過的? How was your Mother's Day?

I had a very relaxing Mother's Day. Neither of my kids have any projects due in the coming week, so I didn't have to nag them about their assignments. I don't know why I still have to worry about school assignments. It's like my recurring high school nightmares never ended--forgetting about an exam or assignment. Maybe it's more about me than about them. Perhaps, I'm the one who stresses out too much about their school experience.

Anyways, this morning my dad woke me up via Skype. He wanted to chat, but I wanted to sleep. Then I realized I had family coming over for lunch, so I got out of bed and started to clean the house. My dad had forgotten about Mother's Day. At least I got to wish my own mother a Happy Mother's Day via Skype. I told him I would call him back later on tonight and began my "special" day.

My husband decided to have a barbeque at home and invited his parents and his sister's family over for lunch. This is no different than what we normally do on a Sunday. The only difference is that my son doesn't have baseball practice today. His coach canceled the practice so all the boys can spend their afternoons with their moms. All the kids were playing in the backyard while my husband fired up the charcoal and made some fabulous ribeye steaks for lunch.

Before my husband went out to Costco this morning to buy the steaks, I told him not to waste any money buying jewelry for me. What's the point of a gift when I can basically buy anything I want the other 364 days?! He said OK and off he went.

I believe that everyday should be Mother's Day, not just one Sunday in May. Mothers should be appreciated everyday of the year, not just one Sunday in May. But the American culture promotes Mother's Day and all the kids in schools will make a card and a small gift for their mothers or grandmothers. I got a pair of earrings from my daughter. She made them at her last Girl Scout meeting. My son made me a pen holder which looks like a potted plant.

But the best gift I got today was the gift I asked my son to give me. I told him that for Mother's Day, I want him to practice his violin. So without any complaints (which he normally does), he went to pick up his violin and played everything once. He did mumbled under his breath "I am only doing this for you because it's Mother's Day!" Whatever, I got what I wanted!!!

In the end, my husband did buy me something for Mother's Day. He bought me an orchid plant from Trader Joe's. His explanation: "You are so good at raising orchids." There is some truth to that because orchids are the only plants that hadn't died in my care.

我先說我自己的母親節好了!

今天的天氣不錯,我老公在家烤肉,請了公婆和小姑一家到家裏吃飯。其實這跟我們平常星期天的作息沒有兩樣,只是兒子下午的棒球練習被教練取消了(通常是每星期天下午四點到五點半)。教練說這樣才能讓小孩在家多陪陪媽媽。

兩個小孩和表弟玩到五點才散會。

我 叫老公不用買什麼東西送我。我該有的都有了。母親節本來就不需要存在。大家應該天天都要對媽媽好,不是等到母親節才對媽媽獻殷勤。不過話又說回來, 我倒是利用母親節給我的特權, 叫我兒子練小提琴給我聽。今天是唯一的一次他沒有跟我討價還價, 而自動的把小提琴拿出來練。雖然他的嘴不斷的碎碎念, 我還是很感動!

女兒送了我一副耳環, 是她在上個女童子軍聚會時做的。兒子則在上課時做了一個花盆式的筆架給我。老公最後還是有買東西送我---他到 Trader Joe's 買了一盆蘭花給我, 因為蘭花是我唯一養不死的盆栽!

祝所有媽咪母親節快樂!

Friday, May 8, 2009

母親節的禮物 Mother's Day Gift

Time flies. It's almost Mother's Day! I wasn't fully aware of how close we are to Mother's Day until I got an email from my son's class mom telling all the parents that volunteering in his class has been canceled today because the kids are making Mother's Day gift in class this morning. So, of course, no moms are allowed in class. I was suppose to go in to help today, but since I didn't have to go, I decided to go to Sam's Club to look into a Mother's Day gift for my mother-in-law. My mother-in-law is very frugal. She doesn't want any of her children to spend money on her. Even with that in mind, I still want to buy a small present for her. She has done so much for her family. It's such a cliche, but she really treats me like her own daughter.

I thought of making a photo mug for her. I can upload photos onto Sam's Club digital photo center and order special gifts using those photos. I was going to get my sister-in-law and brother-in-law to email me photos of their kids, so I can present a mug to my mother-in-law with all her grandkids' photos on the mug. Unfortunately, the order would have taken at least a week and there just wasn't enough time to get this gift made before Mother's Day.

Since the photo gift idea didn't work out, I had to find another gift for my mother-in-law. I ended up buying her a burgundy velor jacket, a beaded top, a huge bag of Hershey's Nuggets, and a pot of roses for my mother-in-law. As I'm typing this, I've decided to return the pot of roses. In showing the roses to my husband, I got pricked twice by the rose bush. As my mother-in-law has poor eyesight, I am sure she would prick herself if she had to take care of those roses. I will find another potted plant from Trader Joe's to give to my mother-in-law.

My husband asked me what I want for Mother's Day. I told him not to bother. It really is meaningless to buy me a gift. What kind of gift will show me that I am appreciated as a mother?! Nothing can compared to a simple statement from my 7-year old son, "Mommy, you are so cute!"

母親節快到了。事先我完全無警覺, 真的沒想到這星期天就是母親節。好快喔! 又一年了! 昨天兒子班上的班媽寫了一封電子郵件給班上所有的家長告知這星期四(今天) 我們不用進教室服務(volunteer),原因是小朋友要在課堂上做母親節的禮物給自己的媽媽, 所以媽媽不能到教室幫忙。

也好,我可以去做別的事情。當然, 最緊迫的事情就是得準備個母親節禮物給我的婆婆。我本來想利用小孩子的生活照 (我也向小姑和小叔索取他們小孩的照片), 把它印在馬克杯上送給婆婆。把所有婆婆的孫子孫女的影像印在馬克杯子上是一過不錯的 idea, 只可惜 Sam's Club 需要七天以上的工作天才能製作完畢。那時候母親節也就過了。算了, 買別的東西送婆婆好了。

我在Sam's Club 逛了逛, 挑了一件葡萄酒色的絲絨夾克及一件同色的長袖上衣給我的婆婆。我的婆婆非常節儉(台灣人的美德!), 通常是不希望晚輩為她花任何的錢。但是我還是想買個小禮物送她, 因為她真的是一位好婆婆! 反正我知道我不能花太多錢在她的禮物上面, 要不然她是會不收禮物, 叫我直接拿回去退。我正是怕她不喜歡我送她的衣服, 所以我又另外買了一大包的巧克力糖 (Hershey's Nuggets) 給她。這巧克力我知道她一定會收的, 因為我兒子也喜歡吃。所以我的婆婆不只是位好太太、好媽媽、好婆婆,她更是一位好阿嬤!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

笑話 Joke of the week

I just saw something funny on NBC. It was a commercial trailer advertising Jay Leno's Tonight Show. Jay Leno, the host of the Tonight Show, was doing an on-the-street interview, asking pedestrians some questions.

Jay Leno: Who lives in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?
Woman on the street: I don't know.
Jay Leno: Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?
Woman on the street: (big smile because she knows the answer) SpongeBob Squarepants!

剛剛在電視上看到一則笑話,是個節目宣傳廣告。美國國家廣播公司(NBC)的深夜談話性節目主持人Jay Leno 在做街頭訪問。

Jay說: 誰住在 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? (答案是美國總統因為 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue 是白宮的地址)
街頭女人說: 不知道耶!
Jay說: 誰的家是海底裏的一個鳳梨?
街頭女人說: (開心的笑,因為她終於知道答案了) 海綿寶寶!