Now What

Our family and friends in Asia

noreply@blogger.com (Leonard Chen) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 08:32:00 +0000

We have been back in the US for about five days now. Lina is taking a while to get over jet-lag - can't really force it with a 16-month old (can't very well give her melatonin or Ambien!). As such, Liz and I have been on her schedule as well. We are taking our time getting settled back into our apartment and into a more regular schedule. And we are obviously still processing our trip. It was a great trip - a bit rigorous, but a great experience nonetheless. Still going through the pictures, so I think I"ll have a few more posts left regarding the trip. Here's a quick one on the people we saw in Tokyo and Taipei.

The best part of travel is of course the people - reconnecting with family and good friends, and sometimes meeting and making new friends. Here's a sampling of people we spent time with on our three week trip to Asia.

Albert and Brenda Lin are our good friends from Taiwan. They are currently living and working in Shanghai, and were able to schedule a trip to Taipei at the same time! When Liz and I lived in Taipei in 2002 and 2003, Albert and Brenda were our constant companions! In retrospect, it was a much more care-free time in our lives, and we have very fond memories of endless hours of hanging out and talking about everything under the sun in cool cafes and restaurants around Taipei. We've kept in touch since we left Taipei - Liz and I were back in Taiwan a couple of times, including for their wedding, before this last trip and they came to visit us in NY while they were living in Chicago for grad school. Great to see you guys! Which city next?

Some of you know that I actually have a lot of family in Japan. My maternal grandfather moved his whole family to Tokyo from Taiwan some time after the war, to practice medicine, and so half my cousins are in Japan. Below are Kazen and Karin (sp?), my eldest cousin Weili's kids. And below that is a picture of my cousins and a couple of their spouses.

(Picture below: from left to right (phonetically) - Kaori (Nobu's wife), cousin Dr. Nobu Asai, cousin Isa Asai, cousin Weili (our eldest cousin on mom's side), cousin Weina, and her husband Ken)

I spent most of my childhood summers in Tokyo living with my grandparents, so I kind of grew up with all of these cousins even though we've mostly lived across the Pacific from each other. It's always great to spend time with them even though the opportunities are fewer these days and the time short.

While we were in Taipei, we also got to catch up with our old friend Linda from LA, and got to meet her husband Campbell for the first time. We went to Din Tai Fung - the best xiao long bao place in the world - and had a really great time talking about life, marriage, having a kid, and God. Good times...

Lina was very into this "xiao long bao" statue as you can see...

And last but not least, it was really great to spend time with Liz's mom in Taipei. Due to a last-minute change in her work travel schedule, she was able to hang out with us in Taipei. Lina was just so happy to have her A-ma around. It's always cool to hang out with our parents in the motherland.

Comfort food

noreply@blogger.com (Leonard Chen) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 14:54:00 +0000

When people think about Taiwan, they invariably think about all the great food. Now, I'm no expert in what exactly "Taiwanese cuisine" is, but I know that a lot of what we consider Taiwanese food is the simple comfort foods that one can get in just about any neighborhood in Taiwan from street vendors and small mom and pop operations. I don't mean to limit "Taiwanese cuisine" to this, as I'm sure there is a higher-end cuisine than this stuff, but this is the stuff that I love. When I'm in Taiwan, (and even when I'm not), I crave the simple stuff. Today, I walked down our street and just collected a bunch of stuff for lunch. It was so satisfying!

(Clockwise, from the top) [note: pinyin spelling as well as english interpretation may be inaccurate]
1. "cong you bing" - onion pancake, 2. "shui jiao" - pork dumplings, 3. "guo tie" - fried dumplings, 4. "cao fan" - pork fried rice, 5. "xiao long bao" - small dragon dumplings (another type of dumpling, like the kind from DTF), 6. "lu ro fan" (or, "lo ba beng" inTaiwanese) - don't even know what to call this. Some sort of minced pork thing over rice. My personal favorite.

close-ups

I just love this stuff. Call me a peasant - this ain't exactly dinner at Bouley or Babbo - but this was a FEAST for me!

Lina in her ancestral homeland

noreply@blogger.com (Leonard Chen) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 14:39:00 +0000

There was a frog at Taipei airport to welcome Lina for the first time to her ancestral homeland! Actually, I don't think you're supposed to take pictures in the customs area, but oh well. Lina was just thrilled to see this huge frog after a flight from Tokyo. She kept waving to the frog. Angelina is a 3rd generation Taiwanese-American, and this is her first trip back to the motherland. Come to think of it, I don't think I came to Taiwan for the first time until I was six or seven, so she's already ahead of me!

Lina waiting for some "tswa bieng"(sp?) (Taiwanese), or shaved ice, by the popular "Monster Ice" shop in Yongkang Street. We have been staying in this neighborhood, which is known for some great eats, including this shaved ice shop. It's also the neighborhood of the original Din Tai Fung.

There's a park near where we are staying with a slide and some other of these things I don't know what you call them...things you ride on...We are OCD w/ the anti-bacterial stuff b/c of all the potential H1N1 action going on here...

We found a Toys 'R Us today and let Lina run around to blow off some steam. She was so happy when she found this toy giraffe - it's the exact one that she has at home that her Uncle Jimbun gave to her!

Lina in Asia

noreply@blogger.com (Leonard Chen) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 09:14:00 +0000

Our little urban traveller, taking a stroll at night in Tokyo...

So how is this trip going for Lina? What has she been up to? We often wonder what is going on in her head. Does she know we're on a trip? Is she wondering why every day is so different and crazy now (no more disciplined schedule!)? Only God knows!

We know she definitely misses the people that she is constantly around - her grandparents, her aunts and uncles, and of course her cousins. Her cousin Noah is only two months older than her - she used to see him several times a week until the Lee family moved to Kansas City recently. I brought along some home videos (short clips) on the laptop and on DVDs on this trip, and she often points to the people she recognizes (esp. the kids!) and wants to see them! We think she's heart-sick over her cousins/friends! I'm no psychologist, but I'm pretty sure the distinction between video and reality is probably still kind of blurry. It's like she wants to jump into the video and play with Noah! Today Liz's mom (Lina's maternal grandmother) arrived in Taipei as well and Lina was beside herself!

She also misses her crib! She has a nice crib at home. We are traveling with a light pack 'n play crib, which she likes too, but she definitely misses her spacious bed at home. We've come across a couple cribs in department stores and changing rooms and she goes crazy trying to get in them.

Otherwise, she is being herself. Roaming around places, making random noises, and smiling and pointing at dogs and other babies. Here are some random pics of her playing around town (in Tokyo).

Riding the tricycle (I'm really doing the work here) at a baby store in Omotesando Hills.

Outside the Anniversaire Cafe on Omotesando.

Liz "reading" a Japanese book to her.

Some good food in Japan

noreply@blogger.com (Leonard Chen) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 08:51:00 +0000

Traveling w/ a kid (a very young one esp.) is a new thing for us. We've only been on one other trip requiring air travel previous to this trip. We are so thankful that we are able to bring her to Japan and Taiwan. I love watching her absorb new surroundings and introducing her to our beloved homeland! But traveling with her definitely is a lot different from when it was just the two of us. Obviously! For one thing, it's not as easy to sit down and have a long and relaxing meal. Those of you who have eaten out with us know what I'm talking about. Lina is very active - which I am of course thankful for (better than lethargic) - but she definitely won't sit through a meal. She's sixteen months old! Also, she was never one of those infants that slept quietly in a car seat (w/ a blanket covering over) through a long meal. I think she did it exactly once (at Eunice (Liu) Hui's birthday dinner last year). So, it was a pleasant surprise that she fell asleep during two nice meals for us in Tokyo this past week!

This first place is an all-you-can-eat shabu place in Kichijioji, a bustling town about twenty minutes from Shinjuku, or central Tokyo. As you can hopefully see, the beef is thin and carefully presented. You get four trays of these at a time, and you can keep going for up to 90 minutes. Above is the pot w/ some veggies and the sauces. It was very tasty, and also very relaxing b/c Lina happened to be so tired she passed out in the Ergo baby carrier, and then on the bench next to Liz!

The next day, we were on Omotesando (Ave.? Bvld.?), the "Paris of Tokyo," and she fell asleep again while Liz was wearing her! We stumbled up on this fusion restaurant called Miyashita inside the posh Omotesando Hills shopping complex. We only found out later that it was a highly recommended place. We had to sit at the counter because the wait for a table was over an hour. We had minced beef cutlet, but look at all the other greens and garnishes that are so carefully prepared. This isn't Curry House on Sawtelle anymore! Again, very tasty. And it was nice to have a moment to relax over a meal! Thanks, Lina!

Travel and Self-Torture

noreply@blogger.com (Leonard Chen) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 02:39:00 +0000

Recently, we've been busy with some weddings in the family. Eunice, Liz's third sister, (& Ben) married in July, and my cousin Henry (&Naomi) were married a few weeks ago. They were all very smart - they went to Hawaii for a very relaxing honeymoon. My cousin Sam (&Karyn) are planning a relaxing getaway to Maui as well. Many of you know that Liz and I had a very rigorous honeymoon. You've all heard me talk about being nearly mugged twice in Spain, and taking a very romantic and intimate overnight coach train from Paris to San Sebastian with four other smelly travellers (one of whom stripped down to his tighty-whities). Well, we continued this proclivity towards self-punishment when we travelled on this trip. Here is a short clip of us after our 1.) 11 hr flight (w/ Lina being awake MOST of the time), 2.) 1 hr. 10 min. Narita Express ride into Shinjuku (w/ all our luggage and a very tired and fussy baby), AND 3.) transfer to a local JR train to our apartment. By this time, we were both pulling from DEEP reserves!

Lina in Tokyo

noreply@blogger.com (Leonard Chen) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 02:34:00 +0000

Lina was jetlagged for quite a while. Those of you who know her know that she is a light sleeper. The picture below, of her passed out on the changing mat, is HIGHLY UNUSUAL. Anyway, here she is, passed out even after we picked her up from her pack 'n play.

Some more pictures of Lina goofin' around in Odaiba overlooking the Bay.

Tokyo! Some initial pics

noreply@blogger.com (Leonard Chen) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 01:42:00 +0000

Here are some initial pictures from our trip. I'll provide more details later as we're about to run out to meet some friends for lunch. The picture above is at the Ghibli Museum in Kichijioji.

Here's Lina and I on a boat/ferry going from Toyosu to Odaiba.
Standing out on the deck at one of the huge shopping complexes in Odaiba overlooking some bay or harbor. Not sure what it is. I want to call it Tokyo Bay, but I can't be sure!

Lina biting into a corn at a yakitori house!

MOS Burger! One of our favorite fast food joints in Asia! Here's Lina getting ready to chow down on one of their yakiniku burgers (the patty is made of rice). This picture was taken our first morning here, at like 9 in the morning. Lina at LAX getting ready for her 11 hr. journey. Pictures a bit blurry.

OK. More later!

Week 1 of my post-WMG life

noreply@blogger.com (Leonard Chen) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 05:15:00 +0000

It has been a little over a week since I ended my time at WMG. What have I been doing? Well, one cool thing is that I've been able to take Lina to the park almost every morning. There is a really cool playground near us called "Aidan's Playground" at Veteran Park, behind the Federal Building in Westwood. I try to take Lina there on weekend mornings. Now that every day is a weekend, I was able to take her for several mornings straight, which was fun. Here is a photo montage of Lina on the swings over the course of several (week)days this past week.

Post-WMG Life

noreply@blogger.com (Leonard Chen) — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 18:42:00 +0000

After four years, four months, and fourteen days, I've officially finished my time at Warner Music Group. August 14th was my last day at WMG. Although I've been based out of the Burbank office for the past year and a half, I finished up my last week in NY, where my team is based and where I spent my first few years. It was a week of transitioning and spending some good time w/ all the good folks at WMG. In the small world that we live in (and with this thing called the world wide web), I plan and hope to stay in contact with a lot of my ex-colleagues. But it's the day to day interaction that I will miss. I'm sad to leave my friends - many who have become very good friends - at Warner, but thrilled about the next chapter in life. I don't know what I'll be doing next career-wise (having several conversations but I'll keep the details light for now), but I'm looking forward to taking a bit of time off to spend with the family and to travel. We are headed to Japan and Taiwan next week for three weeks! A bit nervous about taking Lina on a 12 hour flight (she's been on a 6 hr. flight) but really excited about getting back to Asia and seeing some old friends and family. And eating really great food!

Happy birthday baby girl

noreply@blogger.com (Leonard Chen) — Sun, 03 May 2009 07:02:00 +0000

One year. Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes. How do you measure a year in the life? Can't believe our little Angelina was born one year ago. It seems like yesterday, and it seems like an eternity ago. We had a little party for her last week with our immediate families. She ate cake and frosting for the first time and shivered. Didn't really like it. Whew. We're going to just take it easy tomorrow. Maybe we'll get her a cupcake or something and take her to the playground. Lots of fun these days. She has been taking several steps at a time, and she's saying all sorts of random things. We were looking at some DVDs today, and she pointed to an animal on the cover of a Baby Einstein DVD and said, "duck." We looked at each other baffled - how does she know the word "duck?"

Susan Boyle

noreply@blogger.com (Leonard Chen) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 06:58:00 +0000

You have to watch this on YouTube. I can't embed it here since it's been blocked. Many of you have probably seen it already - it's all over the internet - but if you haven't, click on this link below and spend a few minutes watching this, you won't regret it. I'm certainly not the first person to blog or tweet about this (just tweeted this and it's one of the top trending keywords on Twitter, of course). Susan Boyle, a homely looking unemployed 47 year old takes the stage at Britains Got Talent 2009. Everyone rolls their eyes and chuckles to themselves. And then...

Susan Boyle clip on YouTube

Wow. I was blown away by this. And moved. (It doesn't hurt that Les Miserables is one my favorite musicals!) Nothing I'm saying here is original - seems like the masses have weighed in. Here she is - this person that is utterly unremarkable. I know that sounds mean, but you know it's true. I don't have all the facts, but from Eugene Cho's blog, which is far more developed than my thoughts here, it sounds like she's had a relatively uphill life. Then you have all these smug self-important people - Simon Cowell, and his cohorts, the audience, and certainly everyone watching on TV or on the internet - sitting in front of her, ready to just tear into her. She just didn't belong...and then the music plays. People continue to smirk. She opens her mouth to sing and...BAM. W-O-W. Maybe it's the proverbial underdog story. Maybe it's that the world all around us seems to be going to the crapper in a hurry. It's all of these things and more. And then this humble, utterly unremarkable woman - insignificant in the haughty world's eyes - comes out of nowhere and just floors us...and in the process, lifts my spirits. Thank you, Susan. I needed that right about now.

UPDATED: her behavior post-performance has put a real damper on this...

Recent picures of Lina around the apt

noreply@blogger.com (Leonard Chen) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 05:36:00 +0000

Playdates

noreply@blogger.com (Leonard Chen) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 05:26:00 +0000

Liz and Lina have been going on playdates more, and having folks over. Lina just LOVES other kids and babies. She loves to have other children around. She'll start pointing, laughing and sometimes yelling. Frenetic energy.

Here are some recent pics of a playdate at our place with Janet (and "Aju") and Charice (and Max and Maddy). I posted about them a while back...Janet and Charice's husbands, Taos and Ko, respectively, were both classmates of mine at Wharton. Liz met Janet and Charice in Philly and they bonded as LA transplants who were dragged to Philly. Now they are all back in LA with their kids. Ours is the youngest. Liz and Lina also just hung out with Janet (and Agnes) and Grace (and Christian). (Grace is also a prolific updater of her blog!) Charice and Ko just had another one recently!

Books

noreply@blogger.com (Leonard Chen) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 05:17:00 +0000

Liz and I were both book nerds growing up. Trying to instill some of that into Lina. She's starting to really get into books. As some of you know, Eric Carle is a famous illustrator and children's book writer. This year is the 40th anniversary of his seminal work "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." His illustrations have a very distinct style, and even Google chose to redesign the home page on the actual 40th day anniversary, in his style. Anyway, Liz recently bought Lina the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" Lina loves it! This morning, without gesturing, I asked Lina: "do you want to read a book? How about 'Brown Bear?'" She crawled right up to her book shelf, picked up Brown Bear and exclaimed "brunh brunh." Haha. I was proud...

Here she is sitting by her bookcase.

Bad blogger

noreply@blogger.com (Leonard Chen) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 04:57:00 +0000

I'm a bad blogger. Ever since I read this post from my boy Tim Kau in NY I've been feeling really antsy about my inability to blog consistently. And even @Hosive talks about the modern-day pressure of needing to consistently express oneself on social networks - through tweets, FB updates, Flickr uploads, FB picture uploads, imeem playlists, etc., etc. I do feel this persistent low grade stress, or annoyance, in the back of mind, for not being up to date on posts, tweets, updates, and pictures. My little sister-in-law Leener, for example, is an avid blogger and is so on top of her pictures, both on her blog and on FB. Most of my tagged photos on FB are from her.

I started this blog with grand ambitions. I wanted to comment on not just our life in LA - which has been dominated this year by the new entrant into the family - but also talk about the industry I'm in (music, digital media, etc.) and maybe even talk about travel, etc. I wanted to talk about interesting ideas that I'm ruminating over. And I wanted to write about meaningful things related to family, life, politics, faith, etc. All of the things I find on my friends' blogs...

But, at the end of the day, it's just hard to find any energy left to write anything. It's been a tiring year! And to be quite honest, I just don't seem to have any interesting ideas or topics to explore these days. And if I do, I quickly forget them due to general exhaustion. Well, things are getting a lot better. Lina is on a pretty consistent sleep schedule, and so our lives are a little more predictable. So, hopefully I'll be able to write more consistently on this blog again. But I'm not going to overreach. I'm gonna keep it simple. Step 1: I'm gonna post some recent pics of daddy's girl now...

Chores Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Leonard Chen) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 04:52:00 +0000

Here's Lina doing more chores...sending some faxes for me, and loading the dishwasher...

Chores

noreply@blogger.com (Leonard Chen) — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 05:55:00 +0000

We're starting early with instilling a good work ethic in Lina. Here she is taking out the trash - her own diapers...

Hawaii - the first pics

noreply@blogger.com (Leonard Chen) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 08:01:00 +0000

So we made it back from our first plane trip and vacation with Lina. We had a really great time. It wasn't the most relaxing holiday we've ever had, but it was fun! Here some initial pics...

Me and Lina at Lanikai Beach on the east shore of Oahu. Breathtaking...
Ko Olina lagoons, below, on the west shore of the island. We caught the sunset, which was really nice.

Pre-Trip

noreply@blogger.com (Leonard Chen) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 07:46:00 +0000

We're going to take this little critter on her first plane trip. It's just past midnight, and our flight is at 8:45am. I think we are close to being done packing. We're a bit nervous about taking her on the first flight. A cousin of mine is getting married in Oahu, so we thought this was the perfect opportunity and excuse to go on our first trip as a family. If we survive the five and a half hour plane ride, I'll blog about the adventure!

2008 in Review

noreply@blogger.com (Leonard Chen) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:53:00 +0000

The Year in Review - Facebook updates

noreply@blogger.com (Leonard Chen) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 07:43:00 +0000

You're wondering: who has the time to go and cut and paste all of these one by one? I guess I do. I have this tendency to want to review each year as it draws to a close. Usually I read my journals from the year, and talk to Liz about the year. This year, Liz suggested that I take a look back at all of my status updates on Facebook. So, I actually went through the laborious process pulling out each of these updates from the year. There are about 120 one of them! 2008 was a year to remember. The great and terrible year. I'll have more to say, and some photos to post. But first...my year of Facebook status updates:

Jan 2: Leonard is looking at short-term flats in Le Marais. 11:50pm

Jan 5: Leonard is working. 11:53am

Jan 6: Leonard is taking it easy with the wife on the Westside (not Upper) and psyching myself up for CES. 12:29pm

Jan 6: Leonard is sitting at LAX Terminal 1 waiting for flight to Vegas. 8:11pm

Jan 7: Leonard is in the taxi line at the Venetian. 9:49pm

Jan 8: Leonard is hoping to kick this cough soon. 12:38pm

Jan 8: Leonard is so glad that doctor friends can call in prescription drugs for him. 5:23pm

Jan 10: Leonard is in rainy NorCal and wondering why the weather has sucked since moving to the West Coast. 10:22am

Jan 10: Leonard is hoping Michael Nash doesn't hurt anyone at SFO if our flight is delayed another hour. 3:34pm

Jan 10: Leonard is relieved to be back. 10:53pm

Jan 21: Leonard is having brunch with the wife at Toast on 3rd street. 1:38pm

Jan 21: Leonard is planning the details of their last vacation...ever. 9:47pm

Jan 24: Leonard is pissed that United cancelled not one but two flights on him. 8:53am

Jan 24: Leonard is onboard at LAX headed to Nice via Frankfurt and CDG. 4:56pm

Jan 25: Leonard is stuck for a couple of hours in Frankfurt, with only a doppio and an FT for company. 5:20am

Jan 25: Leonard is wearing the same thing today b/c Air France/United lost his luggage - a perfect way to cap off a perfect travel day! 11:50pm

Jan 26: Leonard is buying boxers in Cannes because the airline hasn't delivered the lost luggage. 9:07am

Jan 27: Leonard is having lunch outdoors on the Mediterranean sea. 4:04am

Jan 28: Leonard is not feeling great after staying up all night. 10:26pm

Feb 1: Leonard is making reservations at Kong and Laduree in broken French. haha... 2:51am

Feb 1: Leonard is getting crushed by the euro. 2:19pm

Feb 2: Leonard is standing in line in St Germaine for some macroons. 6:44am

Feb 6: Leonard is finally at CDG, after 90 minutes of public transport - involuntarily standing in solidarity with Parisian taxi drivers on strike. 12:54am

Feb 6: Leonard is back Stateside. 1:20pm

Feb 7: Leonard is using his 646 number cuz he lost his 917 phone - sorry for those who called. 3:57pm

Feb 9: Leonard is back in the warm weather. 9:16pm

Feb 12: Leonard is at LAX again, and wondering if ordering this Sausage McMuffin is a bad idea. 6:46am

Feb 12: Leonard is anxious to get off the plane and away from the talkative stranger on 9A. 4:11pm

Feb 13: Leonard is eating In-n-Out in the car, on the 405 North, and doing a conference call. Not a great idea. 11:22am

Feb 16: Leonard is reading the paper by the pool and working on the master to-do list. 10:44am

Feb 21: Leonard is sitting in sister in law's living room with a bunch of folks, timing contractions, and wondering if his nephew will be born on Uncle Leonard's birthday! 11:16pm

Feb 25: Leonard is trying to build a multivariable decision model for selecting the right car - should have paid attention in Monte Carlo simulation class. 12:41am

Feb 25: Leonard was asked earlier in the day: "Are you the new intern?" Nice. Maybe I'll wear glasses and a tie tomorrow.

Feb 26: Leonard is doing the maternity tour at Cedars Sinai - short of breath and light-headed all of a sudden! 5:18pm

Mar 3: Leonard is rescheduling the entire week. 10:49am

Mar 3: Leonard is at Cedars again. 6:27pm

Mar 3: Leonard is at Cedars again, about to go meet the new nephew for the first time - Noah F. Lee, 7 pounds exactly. 6:29pm

Mar 6:

Leonard is wondering why the directed him to the long security line upstairs at Terminal 1 LAX instead of letting him go through the empty line downstairs. 6:17am

Leonard is taking a train down the peninsula looking for his rental car. 4:12pm

Leonard is polishing up a bottle of Ridge Valley with old friends Andrew and Charles, and waxing nostalgic about the city. 11:32pm

Mar 9: Leonard is at Target, amazed that there are so many little things he didn't realize he needed until seeing them. 4:05pm

Mar 10: Leonard is moving into the new crib on Olympic and Bentley. 2:17pm

Mar 11: Leonard is cleared but running out of those precious 500 mile credits and comps. 8:36am

Mar 18: Leonard is already logged on to CBS March Madness on-demand and watching Tyus Edney vs. Missouri 1995 over and over... 7:59pm

Mar 29: Leonard wonders if San Antonio could be considered a critical business trip. 9:58pm

Apr 11: Leonard is having a "GSD" day - getting shtuff done. 12:40pm

Apr 12: Leonard is labeling, filing, and shredding, and getting a lot of satisfaction out of it. 7:01pm

Apr 13: Leonard thinks Britax should hire a couple of product designers to re-write the user manual, b/c I have no idea how to use this thing. 10:55am

Apr 16: Leonard is making a list but feeling paralyzed. 12:28pm

Apr 28: Leonard is picking up some shaved ice at volcano tea on sawtelle. 10:30pm

May 3: Leonard is waiting in room 5 at Cedars, with a view of the Hills. 7:54am

May 4: Leonard is sleepless at Cedars, chillin' in wonderment with Liz and Angelina "Lina" Ruth Chen, born 5/3 at 11:03am (PST) - 7lbs. and 21 in. 12:58pm

May 12: Leonard is changing, burping, changing, burping, etc. 7:29pm

May 12: Leonard watching Anderson Cooper and wondering why there is so much suffering in the world.via Twitter - 10:40pm

May 22: Leonard is doubtful that summer hours means anything to his dept. 1:23pm

May 23: Leonard is on a day trip to Berkeley for sister's grad...sitting on southwest now, the greyhound in the sky. 6:41am

May 23: Leonard is at a commencement cocktail thing at berkeley, shocked at how fast the kid sister grew up. 11:54am

May 27:

Leonard is wondering if the pediatrician would ok a night cap to take the edge off for the baby. 12:52am

Leonard is thanking the barista for the free fourth shot of the quadruple soy latte and hopes this helps him get through the morning. 7:43am

May 29: Leonard is eating a lu(3) dan(4) and thinking of Shilin night market in Taipei. 12:00am

Jun 4: Leonard is watching a documentary of the "Showtime" era Lakers - the refrigerator door is closed! 10:13pm

Jun 5: Leonard feels like it was just yesterday when he was watching Magic & Co. at the Fabulous Forum in Inglewood. 2:37pm

Jun 6: Leonard $138 a barrel... shoot me! 12:50pm

Jun 9: Leonard is finalizing his term life insurance application - both comforting and quite disturbing. 4:52pm

Jun 11: Leonard is exhausted and so not in the mood to talk to the extremely talkative driver. 10:17pm

Jun 17: Leonard is thinking about shutting down the TV - it's just too painful. 8:03pm

Jun 28: Leonard is picking up world-class dumplings at Din Tai Fung in Arcadia. 6:47pm - Comment

Jun 29: Leonard is happy for Espana. 1:41pm

Jul 7: Leonard was just asked if he was an intern again. Thinking of wearing a suit to the office (where everyone wears jeans) from now on... 12:16pm

Jul 8: Leonard is shocked that somebody actually bothered to call from Cannes about the mobile phone he lost six months ago; must have dialed everyone on my presets. 9:52am

Jul 10: Leonard is is sitting across from Ken Watanabe abd thinks the (second to the) last samurai looks a lot bigger onscreen. thinking abt challenging him to a sword fight. 1:17pm

Jul 17:

Leonard is bleary-eyed abd trying to convince himself and his wife that some day they will miss the moments. thanks elliott, for the advice... 4:41am

Leonard is bleary eyed but trying to telling himself and his wife that someday they will look back fondly at these moments. thanks, elliott, for the perspective! 4:44am

Leonard is stuck in line at sbux behind the guy who ordered 8 diff custom beverages - what bet did he lose? 8:27am

Jul 25: Leonard is working. 1:53am

Jul 26: Leonard finally enjoying some downtime after putting the kid down - surfing the net and watching TV...now considered paradise...via Twitter - 1:46am

Jul 28:

Leonard is disturbed by the fact that 30 days of gmail have been wiped out of his inbox...this couldn't just be a case of pocket-typing could it? 12:36am

Leonard is thankful and relieved that bro/sis-in-law are here taking care of baby while we take care of stuff, and entertained by their sheer panic. 8:19pm

Jul 29: Leonard is getting blasted with emails, IM's and facebook messages asking about the earthquake. 1:02pm

Aug 3: Leonard wishes he pushed back more on his stylist and feels like he should be wearing rayon and singing duran duran with his new '80's-style do. 11:55am

Aug 4: Leonard is wondering how long must we sing this song. 9:37pm –

Aug 5: Leonard (to the guy blackberry-ing in the bathroom stall): you gotta draw the line somewhere! 4:15pm

Aug 8: Leonard is closing out a very productive week - 1 parking ticket, 1 speeding ticket, 1 extra VOD charge b/c they couldn't watch the movie within 24 hrs...what a week. 5:17pm

Aug 9: Leonard is at Half and Half tea house in San Gabriel, which has the most authentic Taiwanese boba in LA. 5:41pm

Aug 10: Leonard finally watched the Opening Ceremony - 3 days later - on DVR...and wow... 1:38pm

Aug 22: Leonard is wondering why the NYtimes got the news on the selection before he got his promised text message. 11:40pm

Sep 7: Leonard is looking forward to this full capacity redeye. 10:15pm

Sep 11: Leonard is sleep-training. 11:27pm

Sep 13: Leonard almost caved on night #2 of sleep training...almost...goodness. 12:05am

Sep 26: Leonard is wondering if the average Taiwanese is also taller than the average North Korean, and by how many inches? 7:53pm

Sep 28: Leonard is roaming around the UES in a tux...fancy Chinese delivery guy or friend of bride and groom? 9:53am

Sep 30: Leonard is glad to be back at home with the girls. 11:33pm

Oct 5: Leonard is trying to calculate the absolute maximum amount of Motrin he can have in 24 hours, and how best to disburse it, without OD-ing. 10:02pm

Oct 15: Leonard is pissed that the greedy insurance co. called my mobile to ask how much longer I'll be hospitalized...at least wait til after the IV and oxygen tubes are... 9:20am

Oct 16: Leonard is thankful for a nice break from the drudgery of the hospital - a couple of hearty laughs while watching the al smith charity dinner. 6:26pm

Oct 17: Leonard is thinking 17 straight days of fever probably ain't good for the brain. 10:33am

Oct 18: Leonard is must be picking up the med lingo - a doctor just asked me if I was a doctor. or I've been here way too long... 10:44am

Oct 19: Leonard is becoming a fixture here, just had my daily half hour conversation with the hospital menu supervisor about her graduating son's career path - MD, MBA, or... 11:40am

Oct 21: Leonard is dying to get the hell home...anyone in WeHo or Bev Hills got a helicopter for a quick getaway? I'll rip the IV's out like 007... 7:47pm

Oct 29:

Leonard is happy for their old home of 2 years - good ole' philly, which according to will smith, is jiggy. 7:35pm

Leonard is happy for his old stomping grounds of 2 years - good ole' Philly, which according to Will Smith, is jiggy like LA. 7:36pm

Oct 30: Leonard is wondering if it's a bad omen when my insurance company - United Healthcare - calls me to talk about getting a living will done? Yikes. 10:19am

Oct 31: Leonard is happy to have Mike and Oli over tonight. 11:09pm

Nov 4: Leonard - wow, my six month old daughter is going to grow up thinking she can do anything... 11:15pm

Nov 7: Leonard is sacrificing baby's sleep schedule for korean bbq. hopefully won't pay for it later... 8:21pm

Nov 10: Leonard California drivers (San Mateo county jurisdiction) - any suggestions for the FASTEST possible online traffic school course? 9:50pm

Nov 21: Leonard is looking forward to dinner with the wife, while the sis-in-law babysits! only the third quiet meal just the two of us in the last 6 months! thanks Em! 12:52pm

Dec 1:

Leonard is with my peers at the LA Superior Court for jury duty. 8:04am

Leonard is filling the last seat in the box. 2:59pm

Dec 5: Leonard is bruised, sore, and scratched up after slipping down some stairs while holding lina - thankfully baby is ok; and what's up with my luck this year. 1:18am

Dec 7: Leonard is finally caving on his policy of not requesting to add friends on fb, and is finally requesting to add Liz (the wife) as a friend (she has the same policy). 11:36pm

Dec 8: Leonard is at Ralph's supermarket, missing Fairway's on the UWS. 8:35pm

Dec 21: Leonard is at nieces/nephew's holiday piano recital...they are great, but brings back tortuous childhood memories... 6:47pm

Dec 22: Leonard accidently hit the "take a break" link on Gmail and is locked out. Anybody know how to unlock this function? 4:20pm

Dec 23: Leonard is waiting to get in for some korean bbq at Tahoe Galbi. 7:50pm

Dec 24: Leonard can't believe it's been one year exactly since we left NYC. Where did the year go? 10:36am

Oh Lina

noreply@blogger.com (Leonard Chen) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 06:48:00 +0000

Every day she seems to learn something new. She's now a bit over seven months. In the last few weeks, she's been learning to crawl. At first, she started out by just "creeping" around the floor, and flailing about to travel across the room in whatever manner she can. Now it's a little more coordinated, and she's becoming super fast. This opens up a whole new set of things for us to worry about! And it's tiring keeping up with her. I can't even imagine what it will be like when she starts to run around. She's also sitting pretty well by herself now. And just today, she started going from crawling position to sitting position rather smoothly.

She has also started sitting on her high chair several weeks ago. Now she can sit with us at the table while we eat, which is a huge improvement. Thanks to my friends Dan and Claudia for such a generous and cool gift! This ain't no regular high chair, it is a feature-packed TRIP TRAPP high chair from STOKKE, made of cultivated beechwood. Oh yeah, and as you can see, she's starting to eat solids! She is really getting a lot more interactive. It's been really fun.

Different events

noreply@blogger.com (Leonard Chen) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 06:33:00 +0000

Since getting out of the hospital, we've tried to restore some normalcy in our lives. It has been nice to get out again and also to partake in the fun events in life. Here's a picture of me and Lina at Liz's cousin Charles (and Angela's) wedding in San Juan Capistrano. It was kind of cold, and outdoors, so we had her bundled up.

Liz's birthday. Only the third time we've had a meal together by ourselves outside of our home since Lina arrived. Had some prime rib at Lawry's. It was fun, but we ate our food super-fast as that it is the only we know how to eat now. Thanks again to Emily and Jonathan and the kids for babysitting!

At Shabu Hachi, one of our favorite restaurants in the neighborhood. Great shabu shabu here, and reminds us of Shabu Tatsu in the East Village - one of our absolute favorite spots in NY. Always a special treat to enjoy dinner with good friends on a cold winter's night. Not quite the same effect here!

Speaking of friends in NY, our good friend Brandon came to visit. Brandon has a cool job - he travels around the country selling whiskey. Here's Brandon chilling with Lina!

October at Cedars

noreply@blogger.com (Leonard Chen) — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 05:00:00 +0000

So, finally, here is the rundown of what happened to me in October. The ironic thing is, I remember flying back from NY at the end of September thinking, "that was a busy month - two trips to NY, and many other things going on - I'm looking forward to October..."

I'll try to keep the description brief. I had a cytomegalovirus ("CMV") infection that basically wreaked havoc throughout my body. To be more specific, my physician called it CMV colitis. To provide a bit of context, I was diagnosed with a chronic illness called Crohn's Disease in 2002. As such, I take immunosuppressant drugs on a daily basis to treat this condition. At some point, my immune system must have dropped below an acceptable level, causing me to be vulnerable to a CMV infection. In actuality, CMV is a relatively common in the population (55-80% of adults have it), but it doesn't pose a problem for most people with a healthy immune system. For me, the CMV infection started in my GI and spread to many of my organs - my lungs, kidneys, liver, etc. My blood counts were all off (e.g., low white blood cells, or "neutropenic," and low red blood cells), resulting in a blood transfusion at the hospital.

At first I just thought I had a bad flu. I had ten days of fevers, chills, and bad GI symptoms before I was finally admitted to Cedars-Sinai hospital. It took an army of specialists and a few days for them to definitively diagnose it. I was really sick for the first 4-5 days, but started feeling a bit better after the treatment started kicking in (ganciclovir via IV). I was released after 12 days, but continued IV treatment at home for two weeks.

The good news is, I am expected to recover 100%. I would say that I'm close to that now, although I've been given strict orders by my team of doctors to try to take it easy and I'm still banned from air travel.

I have a lot of thoughts from being at the hospital, but I'm not sure if I ever get to that. It's funny how memory fades with time. Here are some pics for your enjoyment though...

Not looking too good here.
Hospital food. I didn't eat anything for almost the first week. But after that, this was what I was enjoying every day.PICC line that I had after being discharged...