I HAVE THE POWER

I'm still amazed at how smart Daniel is. The most noticeable change is how he reacts to verbal discipline. When he does something wrong (e.g., throw an object, playfully hit someone in the face) we give him a look and say his name in stern voice. He immediately stops what he's doing, his face cowers, the bottom lip starts to quiver, and waterworks soon follows. I find it adorable.

As a first time parent, I never knew that babies understood tone at such a young age. I can already see Daniel pausing before doing certain things because he knows he would get in trouble. I think it's adorable that he sometimes looks back at us to gauge our reactions.

I like to explore the limits of my parenting power. My recent thing is when I see Daniel doing something he shouldn't be doing I firmly say, "Daniel, you need to stop what you are doing right now. You are over there. I need you here right now." while pointing at the ground in front of me. To my surprise, Daniel usually comes crawling over to me.

Muwahaha! I can't believe that works! I feel like He-Man! With only my voice, I am raising my metaphorical sword in the air and yelling, "I HAVE THE POWER!!!"

Happy Resurrection Day

I was up extra early on Easter Sunday. I was really looking forward to hearing Pastor preach the Word. It was also Daniel's first Easter! We all got dressed up and Daniel was especially handsome. I tried to match my tie to the rest of his outfit.

Pastor preached on the Resurrection from the Gospel of Mark. The sermon focused on the women's desire to wake up early to anoint the body of Christ with spices as a final act of love. They wondered how they were going to move the large stone which blocked the entrance of the tomb. They were surprised to find the stone was already rolled aside and that Jesus had risen from the dead!

Pastor also pointed out a small detail where the resurrected Christ informed the women to inform the rest of the disciples and Peter. It was interesting that Jesus individually named Peter as he probably felt unworthy to be a disciple after he denied knowing Jesus 3 times prior to the crucifixion. It's a reminder of Jesus' unbounded love and forgiveness.

It was unfortunate though that Tary and Daniel did not get to hear most of the sermon. Daniel decided to exercise his lungs in the sanctuary and let out several very impressive outbursts. Hopefully the audio system will be installed soon in the downstairs nursery so we won't have to miss hearing any more sermons.

Mommy Needs Breaks Too

My lovely wife recently bought me a GPS watch (Garmin Forerunner 410) with heart-rate monitor (HRM) to keep track of my running workouts. On Saturday morning, I decided to ramp up my Warrior Dash training by running my normal course twice for a total of 4 miles (or only 3.79 mi as my watch accurately informed me). What's great about this watch is you can upload your workout data to a website and view the data visually in various charts and tables. You can see the data from my previous workout here.

Tary was set to leave the house for a girls-night-out but she was very upset when her cousins weren't ready to leave on time. I felt bad because she doesn't get to go out that often to relax and de-stress so I think it gets bottled up inside. The last thing she needed was to squander this free time waiting for others. I also need to be more helpful around the house so I can lessen some of the burden from her shoulders.

So Daniel, when you are old enough to read and understand this, please give your Mommy a big hug and a kiss and tell her that you love her. She spends hours pumping, cleaning bottles, doing laundry, cooking meals, changing diapers, and many other miscellaneous Mommy-tasks each week because she loves us. We just need to tell her that we love her too!

After a while Tary was able to get out of the house and do whatever girls do when they're out. I called my BFF (who I affectionately call "Uncle Jesse" from the sitcom Full House) to come over and help me watch Daniel. Things started off pretty well. I was able to clean up around the house while Daniel took a nap. I fed him an early dinner and gave him his bath. Then we started to fade...

Daniel is like an energizer bunny. He never stops playing and simply wore us out. Uncle Jesse fell asleep on the sofa. I started to drift in and out on the living room floor. Daniel took liberties to climb all over and around my corpse.

Mercifully another friend texted me while returning from Boston. She came bearing gifts of Korean fried chicken from Bon Chon and some Dunkins iced coffee. It was like sipping liquid energy! Ahhh!!!

More friends came by to visit and Tary returned from her night out. We sat around and hung out. There's nothing like having good fried chicken in the company of great friends.

Good Friday

This past weekend was Easter weekend. Like many other weekends for our family it was a busy one. With so many things going on, I thought it was important to take a breather and record some of what went on.

Easter is a special time for me. It's a time of reflection. Good Friday commemorates the crucifixion of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He died for the sins of the world which naturally includes my own. I have done a lot of dumb things in my life. As a result, he died because of me. He died so that we may gain eternal life through Him. Mercifully, he died for me. Amen.

As for Good Friday itself, it stayed true to its name with an early release from work. I felt like a high school student being dismissed on a half-day.

I rushed to pick up Daniel from daycare. He was very excited to see me. He recently started in a new room call the I/Tod room for kids between the infant and toddler stages. Daniel loves the new surroundings with new toys to play with and cushions to climb. I'm sure he also enjoyed being reunited with his old friends because he was the youngest baby in the infant room for a while.

When we got home, Daniel and I spent some much appreciated quality time together while Mommy was still at work. We played together in his play room (i.e., the living room). He sat on my lap and held my hand while watching a little bit of TV. I do love this time with my little boy.

After Tary came home from work, I ran out to the store to buy some ingredients for home-made fried chicken. We have this thing about trying to make good fried chicken and we have failed miserably each time. It was my turn this time and the results were mixed. The batter was crispy but a bit too salty for my taste. The meat remained moist but was relatively flavorless. Okay, at least we're making some progress.

Dear Readers...

I am such a lazy blogger. Well maybe not lazy; busy is a better word. I don't write that often so I apologize for not posting a consistent amount of time-wasting material.

But...for those who find me somewhat interesting, I refer you to my Twitter feed. If you're already on Twitter you can follow me directly at @paultrinh or you can simply bookmark this link if you'd rather not sign up for Twitter.

Whenever I think of something mildly interesting (e.g., sports commentary, funny quotes, inside jokes, nerd/geek news, etc) that doesn't quite warrant a full post about it, I'll usually tweet about it instead. I consider my Twitter feed as an extension of this blog, a microblog of sorts.

So spread the word and feel free to add this to the growing list of ways to cyberstalk me. Now I only need about 4.3 million more followers to catch up to Ryan Seacrest.

We So Excited

Please join me in welcoming Cam as the newest member of our family. Tary picked out the name. Isn't it cute? Cam is perfect and Tary loves her already. Our families were excited for our special edition (sic). When we first laid eyes on her, Tary and I shared a look that said, "Yup, she's the one. I can't wait to bring her home and let everyone see her or take her for a drive around town."

If you haven't figured out by now, Cam is what Tary affectionately calls her new car, the 2011 Toyota Camry SE.

Tary's old car was a painful reminder of what happened a few weeks earlier. It's a great car but it's like a big neon sign for ricers and ghetto people to target again. I'd go absolutely berserk if something happened to us again. It also was a coupe and it was becoming increasingly difficult for Tary to get Daniel into the car-seat. Whenever God blesses us with Baby #2, it would become practically impossible. It was time to replace it.

Once I was inceptioned with the thought of buying a new car, I started doing my research for current cars and promotions. Toyota was offering 0% financing for up to 5 years. I sent out requests for online quotes from nearby dealerships. After receiving a few bids, I came up with a number that was a few hundred dollars lower than the lowest bid. I called the Internet salesman from the closest dealership and frankly stated that if he could meet that price, I would show up in 15 minutes to sign the paperwork. He called me back an hour later and confirmed that he could do it. After going over the final figures over the phone, I asked him to list all of the expected fees and email it to me. I printed out the email, drove over there with Tary, and the rest was history.

This was the 2nd car I have negotiated and bought by myself. Asian parents pride themselves on their negotiating skills so many of our friends have their parents negotiate for them. I'm proud that I can do this on my own. We got a great price and you can't beat 5 years, 0% financing.

And at the end of the day, Tary got a great car.

You Can't Find Good Help These Days

One motivation for blogging is to record events/feelings to track how I or the world around me changes with time. I also like to jot down "life lessons" that I've learned along the way both as a reminder to myself and for our kid(s) when they're old enough to read this. With all that said, I learned several valuable "life lessons" from recently having security lights installed.

After waking to Tary's car on cinder blocks (and how did they carry them there?), it became obvious that the lights on the telephone pole at the end of our driveway were not a big enough deterrent for thieves. We decided to have motion-activated security lights installed on the front and rear of the house. I posted a request on ServiceMagic.com and had two electricians come out to scope the job and provide a free estimate.

The first electrician seemed knowledgeable and offered suggestions for high-quality security lights and where he would install them along the house. He provided multiple quotes with combinations for how many security lights to install with several models to give us options to fit our budget.

The second electrician showed up with another guy who was supposedly a security camera expert. They only toured the perimeter of the house and spoke in general terms which did not boost my confidence in them. The security camera expert started to talk about wireless networks (right down my wheelhouse) which agreed with my initial impressions. This electrician never made me an offer.

So I called the first electrician and left a message that we accept his proposal and asked when he could come and install the security lights.

A few days went by and no response...

While jogging with some friends, I ran into my neighbor and told him about hiring the electrician. My neighbor strongly urged me to call his buddy instead. I futilely tried to explain that I already agreed to another electrician but my neighbor insisted that I didn't pay the electrician yet so it was okay to switch. (Note to self: Never listen to my neighbor again...)

His buddy Ron called me that night to discuss the job. After talking down the price a bit, I agreed. Unlike the first electrician, I had to pick up the lights so I placed an order for the security lights at a local electrical supply store. I figured the discounted labor costs would save us some money.

The next morning, I had the unenviable task of calling the first electrician to tell him that I was reneging on hiring him and that I decided to go with another electrician because he had failed to call me back in a timely fashion. I got his voicemail and left a message.

At the same time I received a pair of voicemails. I briefly listened to the first message and he stated that I bought the wrong lights. Uh oh. How did he know I bought lights?

I called him back and repeated that we decided on another electrician. To say he was upset would be an understatement. He angrily informed me that he already paid for and picked up the lights. He reminded me that the lights I bought were not good enough and that he bought a higher model. Doh!

Okay...that went well...

After confirming that there was indeed a higher model, I called the electrical supply store back and updated my order. I also had to order the PAR-38 lamps. After a quick mental calculation, I was disappointed that everything now costs more than the first electrician's quote. [Expletive!]

Fast forward a few days and Ron finally came by to install the lights. We were already frustrated because we originally planned on test driving cars and going shopping but were stuck waiting for him instead.

Anyways, Ron made quick work of the lights on the rear of the house. When he started on the front lights, he told me that I needed to run out and buy a mounting block. I quickly drove out to Home Depot and picked up the required hardware and returned. Sigh...another cost.

The afternoon was quickly fading. My neighbor felt bad that we couldn't go on our test drive so he volunteered to watch our house after Ron finished the install while we were away.

After returning home from the dealership, the security lights were installed. I went upstairs and found a Slim Jim wrapper on the floor next to Daniel's room. I thought it was strange but I assumed that Tary's cousin who slept over the night before had eaten one, threw the wrapper away, and one of the cats pulled it from the trash to play with it.

I was reading the instruction manual for the security lights and it mentioned an included piece of plastic used to adjust the settings. I went looking for the boxes the security lights came in and found them in the trash cans along the back of the house. As I searched for the tool, I found another Slim Jim wrapper. [Expletive!]

Okay, now I was really angry. My neighbor bullied me into hiring his buddy. Then I had to be a huge jerk and cancel the first electrician. Then I had to go and order the parts which ended up costing me more money. Then we got stuck waiting around for the guy. Now he takes it upon himself to take snacks from a box sitting on my desk while we're away!

I was fuming so I called my neighbor to complain. I don't care about the 50 cents or whatever the Slim Jims cost. I was more disappointed that he did not have the common decency to at least call and ask first. I don't know you dude. I am not your buddy. Seriously, who does that?

Ron called me back a few hours later to apologize. He explained that he thought it was like a candy jar thing. I never heard of anyone else putting a Slim Jim as a community candy jar in their bedroom/personal home office. What else could I do but accept it for what it was.

So what did I learn from all of this? Let's recap:

1. You can't find good help these days. Everyone claims they know someone "good" but they really don't. Ignore them next time.
2. Trust yourself. I like to think that God has given me a pretty level head. I need to trust my own decisions more.
3. Don't schedule two contractors for the same time. It's awkward. Trust me.