Photo Shoot

Last week the weather was lousy and the photo-shooting schedule was postponed twice. Hopefully the weather would be nice on tuesday afternoon at 1pm, then we could proceed to take photos of the whole house and make a video tour on the internet for potential buyers to view.

As much as I want to pressure wash the whole house and everywhere, I hate to deal with the after-math of pressure washing. These guys did a good job in pressure washing the driveway and the deck at the backyard, but the strong stream just destroyed a lot of my annual flowers and it broke some of the surface of the deck by the spa area. Victor had to patch it with puddy to repair the deck and I will have to re-plant about 30% of the annual flowers plus re-mulch the front and backyard. However, it does look 100% cleaner and sharper after pressure washing, I am sure it will look great on photos later.

The inside of the house is pretty much all set to go, I would just have to make the bed on the date of photo-shoot, set the dining room table, hide the laundry basket, hide all the shampoo bottles or tooth brush on the counter top, make sure the kitchen looks neat and tidy, have the bath tub fill with water with rose pedal and make sure the jacuzzi is running, fix up with the lighting of different area...etc.

As far as the outdoor was concerned, I will have to remulch the front and back yard plus replant some of the annual flowers that were being destroyed, make sure all fountains are full and running, outdoor dining table was set, towel was placed by the outdoor shower area, fresh flowers are set for the sitting area, pool & spa pump are up and running, umbrellas are all open, lantern will be hung under the umbrella...etc.

Just a lot to do!

Rachael and the Goldfishes

"What are these bottles?!" Rachael asked Aunt Joey.
"These are different food for the fish, you know, it is the same like Rachael's having dinner, you don't want to eat the same food every night, don't you?! So these are all different kinds of fish food to give them nutritional value, sometime I feed them vegetable or fruit too, they love orange and pea."
"Ok, can I feed them again with different food?!" Asked Rachael. "Oh No, you already fed them 3 rounds and that is plenty of food for them for today, otherwise their belly would hurt just like the way you feel if you eat too much food." Aunt Joey replied.

"How are you uncle Victor?" Rachael asked.
"I don't feel well, there must be something wrong with me." uncle Victor answered with a long face.
"Oh you should see a doctor!" Rachael suggests,
"I don't feel well, I can not drive to the doctor, can you take me to the doctor, please?" uncle Victor asked again.
"I can't drive you, I am 3 years old and I don't have a driver's license!"
"Maybe you can take me with your bike, you can drag me behind while you are peddling, do you have a bicycle?" Victor asked.
"Yes, I have a bicycle home but you are too heavy sorry I can't take you! You can call my doctor, his name is Doctor Vitto."

last minute rush

we pushed the photo-shoot from monday to thursday, figured we'd have some more time to let the roofer finish his job, the pressure washing company to come clean the deck; at the end of the day everyone missed their appointment on monday then could not catch up on tuesday, today is wednesday and I have all these companies coming to my last minute rush, what a plan!

It definitely won't be nice if there is loose roof tile hanging while doing an aeriel view of the house, if the roofer could not finish the job and close up the roof today, I would have to push the photo-shoot appointment again and it is not good.

I have spent some time to pack some of my books and non-useful boxes accumulating the desk in the den and my kitchen area, it all looks good now. It is funny that you don't give a sh*t while you are living in the house, suddenly you are showing the house and everything has to look so tidy. I keep finding cabinet space to hide all these things usually hanging out on the counter top, everything looks good when you just look, but if you open one of the cabinet door, a bra may drop by at the second when the door was opened.....

2 days ago I happened to dropped by at Home Goods on U.S.1, everything was half off because that store is going to move near us to Northlake Blvd and Military Trail. I bought some fancy towels with crystal dangling on them. In real life, no one would like to use a towel like this, the last thing you want is to rub your face and get those little beads into your eyeball; but it looks so pretty being displayed, they are now in the master bathroom for photo-shoot tomorrow, and will be props whenever viewers come by. A bottle of bubbly with ice bucket would served as props also next to the jacuzzi. I would just to get some roses later today to make the bathing with pedal scene, victor thinks I am crazy, I said: "hey! what the hell! if we are going to do it, might as well do the best we can."

Too bad the weather does not seem to co-operate, it has been raining like crazy from yesterday, it is still continue to rain non-stop from last night til now 8am in the morning. We'll see how it goes, whatever plan God has for us, we'd take it.

Ultimatum

I never understand this word until I heard it from my girlfriends, knowing when you ask something and do not get a decent response, you use the ultimatum strategy.

Lately Victor has not been feeling well, he has this sinus thing lingering for a few months already, his ear, nose and throat doctor gave him tons of antibiotic. By taking antibiotic for such a long time, it kills the good bacteria in your GI system therefore created another problem for Victor, his sleepy colitis has gone to a big flare up recently.

I spoke to him about rescuing a dog for over a year, however, he comes up with excuses such as allergy to the hair, take so much time and energy to groom the dog or take it to the vet, you must walk it a few times a day, it may have accident inside the house then you wish the poop is not located on the oriental rug.

All of the above are true, but we can not omit that a dog in the house make it more fun! He has been so down lately I feel to add another family member in the household would cheer things up.

I understand I should not rescue one right now even I have been looking at them on the internet. It would create problems when we are showing the house, at the beginning of the training process we need to crate the dog and train it, I don't think it is a nice thing to see when you go into a home you intend to purchase. So I said to Victor I am going to rescue a dog after we finish selling the house, this is what I am going to do.

He said: "Why don't we hold on and see where we are going? We may be flying somewhere or staying somewhere for an extended period of time"

I replied, "I would get a dog that is less than 14 lbs so we could travel with it, I am not 12 years old and I do not need your permission, this is what I am going to do and informing you right now."

He did not say a word, he knows when I am persisting, no one can change my mind.

But I would have to do it after we sell this house and move to a temporary rental place, so that I would have time to make sure everything looks good in and around the house for showing. I guess I was in the industry, so I am not just going to let the photographer comes in and take picture whatever it is.

I would prepare the photo-shoot like I used to do it in the office, everything has to be in its place and avoid too much personal item. All the photos and perhaps trophies would be packed, the books and magazine would be hidden, I would make sure the dining room table is set for 6 with fresh flowers at the center, outdoor table would be set in a picnic / cookout theme, bath tub jacuzzi will be filled with water running along with the jets, rose pedals and perhaps a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket next to it, cookies would be baked out from the oven and lay it on the counter top. Everything has to look very inviting, it has to give a feeling to someone see it on the internet or brochure to imagine themselves being in the scene.

ok there is a lot of work to do before the photo-shoot on coming thursday, will post some picture later if I have the copies.

hole-in-one witness

Today is the second time I witness a hole-in-one and it belongs to Victor. We left the ear, nose & throat specialist's office in the morning then go play golf. At that time Victor was kind of worry because his doctor stated that anti-biotic hasn't really improve his blockage in the sinus, suggested that he needs an invasive surgery to drain the fluid. He will be put to sleep and it is a 1 hour to 2 hours surgery, takes a month to heal, of course there won't be any sports or heavy duty work after the surgery.

Perhaps the Golf God has mercy on him, decided to give him what he has been longing for, after hearing the bad news from the doctor's office. It was the 4th hole par 3 175 yard and he hit a 5-iron beautifully landed just short of the flag, I saw it disappeared. I said to him "It just roll up the hill and disappeared, it is in the hole!"

He was in dis-belief, said "maybe it just roll around the hole, the white flag is blocking our view to it."

"I think it is in the hole." I replied, "this is your first hole-in-one ever! I am happy for you and feel lucky that I can witness it. Well, you would have to claim your hole-in-one status legally by finishing 18 holes, now you don't want to put a lousy score on this score card because it will be framed along with your lucky ball."

All of a sudden he gets to play with much more focus, the next hole is a water hole and I told him make sure your worst score is a bogey, it just does not look good to have an 8 followed a 1 on the score card. This strategy worked really well and he shot 87 to finish 18 holes, we told everybody at the dining room while we stopped for lunch afterward. It is a special day for him, I am sure.

I wish my hole-in-one would come sooner than Victor's!

Genetic Alternation

I am not old-fashioned to a point that does not encourage science to develop, as a human-being we should know better of what is best for us, best for our body and best for our next generation.

From CNN last night or The Palm Beach Post, mentioned a genetic improved Salmon which grow twice as fast. Regular farm raised Salmon takes 36 months to mature because their growth hormone only active 6 months out of a year. Scientist took another deep-ocean fish ( forgot its name ) which growth hormone runs 12 months a year and take that gene then put into the farm raised Salmon offer to mass retail market, doing so dramatically shorten the time of raising the Salmon in another word it shorten the selling cycle means make more $ in a shorter period of time for the fish-farmer.

I personally do not eat any farm fish anymore, however it is very difficult to avoid farm raised Shrimp so I am still eating it.

We now wonder why there is so much breast cancer in women who is not even 40 years old? Cancer sounds so scary and it just seem so popular every where, I personally feel it is largely related to what we consumed.

We are consuming a lot of growth hormone we are not aware of, the chicken you ate at the restaurant seems so good but it could be shot with growth hormone to make it bigger to weight more in order to gain more $/lb.

The corn we are consuming along with its by-product is genetically altered, so does soy bean in this country; unless you are like me would go buy at health food store for organically grown product which costs more but at least I know what I am getting, I am not getting more SCIENCE into the food I am eating.

In Hong Kong, it is the law to label your food's ingredient if it was genetically altered, not the same here in USA's FDA. In Hong Kong, you'd see a label clearly marked on the product's front panel if it contains any raw materials that was genetically improved, such as soy milk used genetically altered soybean, or nestle instant coffee used genetically altered coffee bean, sometime you'd see that label on a cantaloupe if that is the case. It helped me to identify what I should buy and what I should not. Some people are not crazy over it, they'll eat anything, call me skeptical but I don't like the idea of playing God over nature.

Recently there is an Egg-scared in USA, with eggs that contaminated with germs. Do we really know what we are eating? Can we really trust what it said on the label? The answer is "NO". I was once involved in bringing in frozen food products from Asia, all it takes is to send sample to one of the lab in the country to identify all the ingredients and nutritional value, then when you really making the product, it has a margin of error for a random check by FDA, which is around 15% of difference was considered acceptable if FDA happens to take one sample out of 1000 pieces of package food product. Also if you decided to put some chemical into the food to make it taste better, you do not have to list it on the label if it is less than 2%, under FDA's rules and regulations.

I have a good friend who loves her dog so much and only trust the dog-food package label which she feeds her dog for, I asked her once do you really know what people put into the food they package in the mass market?! Do you know dog should eat REAL food if you can afford the time and expenses to prepare it for your dog? Ask any regular dog owners would tell you eating package dog food is the best for the dog's health. This is totally brain-wash by advertisement and commercial. What did a dog eat 200 years ago before there was package dog food in the supermarket?! A dog would eat whatever the household left over, or throw at the dog, as long as the sauce was omitted.

Try to think if you were your dog, eating the same brown-color looking crunchy boring food every night, won't you want to do something nice, throw her / him a piece of beef that you left over from dinner?

Yom Kippur

Today is the holiest day on Judaism's Calender, Victor and I would just cut golf out, stay home to reflect ourselves. He would fast without even drinking water, I would just do a liquid diet. I am not obligated to join his fast, but I would like to do so thinking in the old days, Jesus did the same thing, perhaps I should follow what he did in Jewish tradition. The truth is I am indeed need to eat a little less......

We both lost weight after coming back from Thailand, 2 months back to USA and we are getting it all back. We did not intend to lose weight while traveling, just the fact that the portion size was so much smaller in Thailand, it forced us to eat less and could eat more often or taking in smaller meal throughout the day. It was also extremely hot there, you just sweat like crazy by doing nothing. Thailand is located directly on the equator, however the heat is not like Africa's dry heat, it mixed with the moisture from the Gulf and it got very humid and hot in the summer. That is what the draw back Victor's facing, it is too hot for him. Nevertheless, he doesn't like to see snow in the winter, perhaps Costa Rica would be better.

I am getting excited to receive my American Passport, after 4 years of filling up forms, interviewing and sending in $3,500 dollars; I would receive my passport within a month. Very likely we would plan to go to Costa Rica in November once I get my passport on hand. We are going to sign with the listing agent whom we read about on The Palm Beach Post, he is going to list it at 1 million, after 1 month and we would do a price-reduction for a lower figure. There is a strategy involves to put a mark there at 1 million level. Nowadays people is using internet to research no matters what they are buying, 1 million is generally a search preference for those who is looking under "1 million" or over "1 million", by putting the number right at it allows us to be exposed to researchers who hit the internet with this big watermark. Well, a buyer could always throw us a figure 20% less and that is out of my control, but being exposed to the maximum amount of viewer is my goal, domestically or internationally.

I think the house is like a baby, it is always your own baby is the most gorgeous baby in the world. No one dares to tell a mommy that her baby is an ugly baby, just like no one in the world would say to you --- your house doesn't look good. It's just so universal. In the selling part, I would only assist my agent and let the professional does his job. I treat him as my nanny, whom is going to take care of my baby when I am away.

As I discussed it with one of my girlfriend earlier about selling handbags on ebay, it is very easy to get attached to an object and do not want to lose it. The house is the same, it is an object just the same as a favourite handbag. You get very attach to it; Victor is like that, very sensitive and very emotional. I just tell him wherever we go, there is where our home is; it is not limit to which house we are staying at, it is where we choose to be.

Don't get me wrong that I don't like this house, I love this house we live in the last 6 years. But it is time to move on and it costs too much money to upkeep it, we would plan our next place with the least amount of maintenance work as possible, Victor should not be climbing up and down the attic anymore, and I should devote my time into Golf totally instead of pruning trees.