Enjoy life 自娛娛人

第一天，他沒搭到校車。


第二天，他又錯過了校車。


第三天，他又再沒搭到校車。
暑假結束，學校新的一級開課了。


最近每早都到我們家附近健行，沿途觀賞各家前園的景色。
有些沒什麼特色就像我們家; 有些家種植花菜爪瓜果樹: 有些還擺設裝扮，不僅娛己，也娛人。


心情和眼睛得到享受，真是有素質的人生。

不過，要上銷防東西被偷。

難怪‘他’上不了校車。

Miss 思念

第一年我來美國時，我們去 Steve 的父親墳墓致祭…


這是軍人的墳場，只供軍人及其眷屬。


Steve 父親曾參與世界第二次戰爭，韓國及越南戰爭。


Steve與父親感情深厚，但父親從不對家人談到戰爭期間的事。戰爭對任何人都不是件愉快的事…


Steve的母親是火化，骨灰盒葬在一起。

前面是父親; 后面是母親，在同一石碑。

Speechless

A man flew a business trip in a business class of airline. Unfortunately, the entertainment system was out of service when the way flew back to home. Anyway, the flight attendant told them online to claim their compensation.

After the trip and back to work, his colleagues in the same flight did their claim, but he didn’t. His wife reminded him several time to get the compensation. However, he doesn’t care and ignore. At last, his wife frustrated and said to him, if he not does it, then he not allows talking to her.

He said okay, he rather chose not talking to his wife.

一位男士乘坐出某航空公司的公務艙出差，可惜，在飛回家的行程，娛樂系統無法服務。不過，空勤員告訴他們上網索取補償。

回公司工作后，同機出差的同事們上網索取所得的補償，但他沒有。他的妻子提醒他上網索取，提了很多次。然而，他並不想要該補償，不理會。他的妻子失望，最后對他說，若他不索取補償，就不用與她說話。

他說OK，他選擇不與妻子說話。

Ellebracht family reunion in Cincinnati, Ohio

這張照片是參與Ellebracht大家庭聯歡會的人數，我想沒參與的可能有一半人數。嘩，有這麽多家人，三代同堂，其實姓Ellebracht的只有Steve一人。
怎麼說？原來這裡的習俗是女兒嫁了人，身分證就換丈夫的姓。
Steve已故的父親和爺爺都是單傳，Steve有倆位已故的姑姑，有七位表兄弟姐妹，有倆位姐姐已嫁，當然已不再和他同姓。
為何我沒改姓呢？原因是當我一來到美國急著早一點申請到居留證，填申請單都按照我的出生紙及護照姓名呈上，Steve在如何換姓的程序一無所知，也不介意我姓什麼。所以我就保留華族的習俗，身分證用父姓，除非有一天心血來潮去換夫姓的證件，或等到那一天我的墓碑才放上夫姓。
哎，怎麼說了這麼多，還是得說回大家庭聯歡會。這次的興起應是今年Steve母親的喪禮後，Steve的大姐及姐夫就提議夏天選一週末到他們家聚會。


我們的Missouri州St Louis城市到他們的Ohio州Cincinnati城市，駕車約5小時半。
星期四去，星期天回。


在那期間孩子們去遊樂場或兒童博物館。


我們到花園，IKEA、Jungle Jim商場，還有去看一項紙皮製作的划舟賽。


紙皮划舟賽真有趣，


紙皮舟若做得不好，不僅划不來，


人還會下水。



一晚在Steve大姐及姐夫家聚餐


遊戲


玩牌。


一晚在Steve表姐及女兒租的一渡假村木屋聚餐



大人小孩水槍、水球戰


及慶七月聖誕，想不到還有Steve表姐的準女婿扮聖誕老人。


玩得真盡興。


另一表姐及女兒，他們說住camp（帳棚），回家路上遇到他們，我才知道原來他們的帳棚是高級的，鋼製，還有冷氣。

Homemade salted eggs & Boil eggs in a rice cooker

我們是潮州，想起小時候，母親早上都是煮稀飯（粥）。不知道是不是窮的原因，還是為了簡便，有時候我們一家人就是吃白粥配鹹鴨蛋或罐頭腌菜頭，偶爾有肉鬆…

我喜歡鹹蛋黄，因為有時鹹蛋白非常鹹，但如只挖蛋黄留下蛋白，一定會被父母罵。而且一餐只有吃半粒鹹蛋。現在我不僅自己腌鹹雞蛋，一餐吃了一粒半，蛋白鹹度恰好。

為什麼腌鹹雞蛋，不是鴨蛋咧？因為鴨蛋1粒$0.90，雞蛋1打$0.90！

告訴你簡便的煮蛋法，就是用煮飯鍋煮蛋。無論是生蛋或鹹蛋，不用猜水煮多久才會熟。煮飯鍋跳制煮熟即是熟了。我切開時，黄液留出，我還以為是未熟。不是没熟，原來是蛋黄油！

我吃著我煮的粥配鹹蛋和肉鬆… 回味一段往事！

We are Teochew. I remember when we were kids, my mom cooked rice porridge every morning. I didn’t know whether it was because we were poor, or because she wanted to cook something easy and simple. Sometimes our meal was plain rice porridge with salted egg or canned vegetables.

I like salted egg yolk, because salted egg white is always very salty. But if I just took the salted egg yolk and left the salted egg white on the table, my parents would scold me. I just might have half a piece of salted egg for a meal. Now, I can do homemade salted chicken eggs and I have one and half pieces for a meal.

Why chicken eggs, and not duck eggs? Because the price for duck egg is $0.90/each, but chicken eggs are $0.90/dozen!

An easy way to boil the egg is using a rice cooker, instead of boiling water on the stove. You don’t need to guess when the egg is done; just cook the egg in a rice cooker until the button turns off, then it is done.

When I cut the salted egg, the yellow liquid came out. I thought I hadn’t cooked it enough. No, it is the salted egg yolk’s oil.

I cooked rice porridge for a meal, served with salted egg and bak hu (pork floss)… recalling a past memory!

食譜The recipe: http://eheartrecipe.blogspot.com/2011/07/egg-homemade-salted-egg.html

Kuih Ketayap

通常要做糕點，都希望與人品嚐，才有做的勁，不然自己一個人又吃不完。

我做了娘惹糕之一的Kuih Ketayap/Kuih Dadar，給倆位朋友品嚐。

一位說: 這是什麼？她是台灣人沒吃過。

一位說: 很香，皮有些薄，味道很像。他是馬來西亞人，果然識貨，評估得很确實。

Normally I am in the mood to make the desserts/snacks, when I can share them with people. If not, I can’t finish them by myself and so don’t have the desire to make them.

I made Kuih Ketayap/Kuih Dadar, a Nyonya dish. I took them to meet two friends. One said: What is this? She is Taiwanese and never had this before. Another one said: Smell the fragrance, the wrapper is a bit thin, the taste is right. He is Malaysian, of course he knew and his comment is true.

The recipe食鐠

http://eheartrecipe.blogspot.com/2011/06/snack-kuih-ketayapkuih-dadar.html

Smelly smoke

“A cigarette after a meal, happy like an angel.” This is the Chinese phrase from a smoker.

I say, “A cigarette in the toilet, the secondhand smoke is smelly.” Back when I used to live with my family, my brother was a smoker. If I needed to go in the toilet after him, it wasn’t easy. I needed to hold my breath, but unfortunately I could never hold it for the whole process.

When I went back this trip, I didn’t see him smoke. I asked my sister-in-law, and she said he listened to the doctor and quit. I am glad and happy for him, his wife and kids, and others around him.

He was a smoker for about 40 years. I think it must be hard for him to get rid of the cigarettes. He did it.

I want to thank him, and wish him good health.

“飯後一根煙，快樂似神仙。” 這是一般好煙者的口號。

我說，“廁所里一根煙，臭味是二手煙。” 這是以前我住在舊家哥哥好煙的情境，經他進廁所後，如果我急要進去，那會很難受，每次撇着呼吸，但功夫不夠，總撑不住整個過程。

這次回去，看他沒抽煙，從嫂嫂知道她聽醫生，戒煙了。真替他高興，也為他妻兒女及周遭人少了二手煙歡喜。

他抽了大約四十年的煙，要戒時一定不容易，他還是做到了！

我要謝謝他，祝他健康安好。