Beethoven In Trance - Episode 62

2011 Annual report

Another good year.

Early 2010, Jessica applied a job in emarketing and didn't get it because she was overqualified. Early 2011, I applied the same job in emarketing and got it because I was qualified and was lucky enough to know the hiring manager. It was a same level transfer between the two departments and I even got a small raise for it. I was pretty happy about that when I got the job.

The job is a demanding one. It changed the way I do things a bit and gave me a new look of the job in the company. I can't think of anything else in the company I want to do, and I can say it's the best job I have in the company so far. The job opens up a brand new area to me, and I like the prospect of it in terms of future career outside of the company. I wish it pays better comparing to the same level jobs in the other area. I am working on getting a promotion with my manager right now. He has been a tough nut to crack and I am targeting to get to the next level in 2012.

Jessica is still very busy at work. Alice has not been an easy baby to take care of, therefore, it adds more pressure to our relationship. After my parents went back home in China, taking care of the baby and work has becoming challenging. We finally decided to make some purchases to make our lives easier. We bought a chest freezer and put it in the basement so that we can alleviate the stress of stuffing the frig in the kitchen. This has been very helpful since we make our own baby food for Alice. We bought a steam mop base on her brother's recommendation, and I have to admit, it works pretty well. I finally decided to use the dish washer because spending 2 hours everyday after work to wash dishes is not funny at all.

We also bought a Ipad in part because I hope this purchase will land me one of the mobile account at work. We both love it. I can use it as phone and call and text for free. We can even use it to make video call to home in Shanghai. My experience with it makes me believe mobile computing is the future.

Alice has not been an easy baby to take care of. She is loud and demanding. Preparing her food daily is also time consuming and energy draining. She just started to work last week (at 15 month old). She is often fussy about the lunch we prepare for her and she always gives her teacher hard time.

There are a few more changes in the last year. I started to have lunch out more than ever in the new job. It's difficult to turn down boss and coworker's invitation. I also started to experience beer and wine. I have about 3 cases of wine downstairs right now and I don't think I can finish them all before I bring in more. I've learned to appreciate the taste of wine and grown to have a bottle almost once a week.

Our patronage to WholeFoods has been steadily increasing since Alice was born. Our food expense has increased year over year(though I don't have an exact number). We spend more on trying new things and healthy alternatives to what we used to eat. I expect our expense will continue to rise in the future, but probably not over 5%. Speaking of finance, 2011 sucked. Our 401K account dropped 3% and 5% respectively. Other after tax accounts also performed poorly after mid year. This is a good time to buy. I am transferring money between bank accounts to fund our retirement accounts. We also opened a 529 plan for Alice. We want to add more fund as soon as our bank accounts are linked.

Another major purchase I made this year is chef knife. I have spent hundreds to upgrade my kitchen knife. My knife collection now is almost exclusive Japanese knives. They are made from hard steel and sharpen easily. To keep those knives in their top conditions, I purchased several different grits for sharpening stones. I also bumped into some cheap sharpening stones in Chinese stores in downtown. Those are very low grits coarse stones, and they actually work pretty well. While I was there, I also bought another flat bottom carbon steel saute pan for $8.99. You just can't beat that price. I got the sense that the store is getting rid of those oldies but goodies and replacing them with nonstick shit, well, that's too bad.

I found the turkey frier is very useful to cater party this year. I borrowed one from my neighbor and hooked it up with a propane tank. It becomes a mobile cooking station and it cooks fast, very good for deep frying anything. I would have got one for myself if I didn't get one from my neighbor.

One major accomplishment this year is that I finally completed a full marathon this year. 26.2 miles. It was a perfect season. It all started with an idea at the beginning of the year to see how much I have recovered since 2008 when I injured myself in my first marathon. After several running sessions, I have decided to try a full marathon. I did get injured again month before the race, and I went to the massage therapies on campus weekly. I was trying everything and anything to get myself ready for the race and eventually, I went to the event and finished without any injury. Jessica and Alice were waiting for me at the finish line and I carried Alice through the finish line after over 6 hours of journey in the national park. It was a great day. To top it off, I didn't have to pay for the race because our company is a sponsor of the event.

There is one movie I watched in 2011 that stuck in my mind. It was a Korean movie called "Sunny". It got me think a lot about what life is all about, which is a topic that has been in my mind recently. We both feel that we are waiting for our next big dream, and we haven't yet found it.

It's Chinese New Year today and we are taking tomorrow off.