The Elephant

One day I was walking from school with my best friend Shayan. He gave me a baby elephant. Shayan said that can I take care of him. I ask why. Shayan said he is going on a trip. I said I don't know. I had to ask my parents.

He said call me when you get home. I said ok. so I ran home. When I made it there the next 20 minutes. I went upstairs and I told my parents about the elephant. They said o.k. but for how long. I said I don't know. Then I said for a short time.

I went downstairs and called Shayan. I said I could have him. He said that is great. I asked him for how long. He said for a week. From downstairs I yelled for a week to my mom. He said o.k. I will meet you at the park at 5:30. I said o.k. It was 5:20 at the clock. I said bye mom. I rode my bike to the park. When I made it there I yelled Shayan.

He said there you are so I said that's a nice elephant. He said thanks. So I got the elephant. I went home with it so i put it on the shelf and looked at him. He jumped out into the garden and destroyed everything. It was the dog that my friend will leave I called him. I said to Shayan, You have to come pick up your elephant. he said I can't. I said o.k. fine. I hung up. So the next morning I didn't see him. I went to the neighbors. They haven't seen him.

So the next two hours I find him in the bushes eating leaves. It was the day my friend will come home. So me and the elephant went to sleep. The door bell rang. It was my friend. He took the elephant and slammed the door. I was really mad at that elephant. I died.

Fluffy Collage

Fluffy has been a faithful companion. Never a complaint. Just a wagging tail and unconditional love. What else can you ask for?

Fluffy just woke up

Fluffy resting on the patio

Fluffy looking smart

Where is Fluffy?

Pancakes For Breakfast

It has been a long time since I had pancakes. Usually I make them approximately 2 - 5 inches in diameter but seeing that I was the only one eating, why waste time making a whole bunch of little pancakes? So here it is, the giant 8 inch diameter flapjack. It was almost too big for the grill. I made two of them and was only able to finish 1 1/2. I was full for the next 6 hours.

Vegetarian Dinner

I like simple. In fact, I have been getting used to less and less meat in my diet. Main protein source is fish as in salmon and tuna. Amazingly, I feel better and actually have more energy. But this particular night, I decided to go completely vegetarian and prepared a giant bowl of seaweed, a large bowl of bok choy and a bowl of rice. I finished the whole thing and felt satiated for many hours afterwards.

Vegetarian Dinner

While digesting this mammoth feast of greens, I started reading up on seaweed. Turns out that seaweed is a type of super food, even better than broccoli:

1. Shiny and healthy hair.
   Amino acids, vitamins and minerals help strengthen hair strands and texture resulting in lustrous hair. Biotin, which belongs to the family of B vitamins, promotes healthier and shiny hair.
    
2. Keeps the mind sharp.
   Significant amount of vitamins, protein, ionic minerals and trace minerals enhances your brain’s performance specifically Asparagine, which energizes the brain and also boosts the immune system, while Boron improves mental clarity as it assists in unclogging arteries.
    
3. Makes skin clear, young looking.
   Rich in beta-carotene, Vitamin A, minerals and amino acids, sea veggies maintain collagen (a property necessary for smooth functioning of connective tissues) making skin supple, soft to touch. Laugh lines and wrinkles are reduced.
    
4. Preserves good eyesight.
   Sea vegetables are the leading sources of natural carotenes like Vitamin A (beta carotene) and bioflavonoids – antioxidants that help clear up the cellular debris that accumulate in the eyes. Bioflavonoids for one, works with prolonging Vitamin C action in the eyes, which help prevent swelling and inflammation of ocular tissues. Vitamins A and C keep vision 20/20 and help prevent “dry eye” syndrome.
    
5. Improves gum health.
   Aside from calcium, sea vegetables are also rich in vitamin C, one of the most essential vitamins, which keeps the gums in the pink of health.
    
6. Strengthens teeth, so flash that smile.
   26x the calcium of milk, seaweed strengthens teeth (and bones!). It also has Fluorine that fights tooth decay.
    
7. Maintains healthy thyroid function.
   Abundant natural, organically-bond iodine extracts maintain healthy thyroid function, help prevent goiter.
    
8. Helps ease colds and other respiratory problems.
   Seaweed’s strong anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties help prevent against colds, flu and other respiratory problems.
    
9. Prevents allergies and infections.
   Overflowing with vitamin B, C, minerals and amino acids and anti-inflammatory properties, sea plants enhance resistance to allergies and other infection.
    
10. Strengthens the immune system.
    Polynutrients in ocean vegetables help strengthen the immune system and keep the body resistant to illness and infection.
     
11. Fights “roaming” free radicals. An army of antioxidants fights dangerous free radicals (cells that go wayward) for a super strong and protected immune system.
     
12. Reduces cancer risks.
    Powerful antioxidants and anti-cancer properties help inhibit abnormal cell growth by a whopping 95%!
     
13. Stunts tumor growth. Iodine and amino acids combine to significantly reduce breast and uterine fibroids; help prevent cysts from forming.
     
14. Pumps up energy!
    Energy-boosting B vitamins, Vitamin C and minerals fight stress and fatigue so you stay active and alert.
     
15. Enhances cell regeneration. Retards ageing!
    Replete with phytochemicals and anti-ageing properties, sea plants enhance cell regeneration and rejuvenation thus, delaying ageing.
     
16. Lowers blood pressure and improves blood circulation.
    Sea vegetables are a very good source of magnesium, which has also been known to reduce high blood pressure; prevent stroke.
     
17. Nurtures healthy heart vessels.
    Seaweed curbs the formation of blood clots to help prevent atherosclerosis or hardening of the heart vessels.
     
18. Normalizes cholesterol levels. Effectively lowers blood cholesterol; helps stave off the onset of chronic diseases.
     
19. Supports bone health and joint function.
    High magnesium content stimulates production of calcitonin (hormone), which helps increase calcium in the bones. Seaweed is also a terrific source of natural vitamin D, essential for calcium absorption, bone health and muscle function. Its Fluorine content improves bone density helping prevent osteoporosis (bone disease) in the process.
     
20. Beautiful nails!
    Vitamins, amino acids, minerals and enzymes in seaweed keep nails strong and healthy.
     
21. Fuels weight loss naturally.
    Virtually fat-free, essential fatty acids (EFAs), plant fiber and algin fuel weight loss and amazingly continue to do so even as you age!
     
22. Aids digestion and waste movement.
    Polysaccharides (a form of soluble fiber) in sea greens, aid in digestion by soothing the digestive and intestinal tracts. No need for laxatives!
     
23. Promotes liver health.
    Contains important vitamins, minerals, amino acids and enzymes, which help prevent fatty liver development, toxic build-up and other related diseases.
     
24. Detoxifies heavy metals and pollutants.
    Minerals, amino acids and fiber work in unison to detoxify heavy metals and pollutants that enter the body through food and the air we breathe.
     
25. Snuffs out cellulite! Antioxidants in seaweed increase your body's fat-burning ability; help skin tissue and fat cells absorb minerals. These minerals then break the chemical bond that seals the fat cells and hasten their release out of the body (through the kidneys and bladder) halting cellulite build-up.
     
26. Maintains the body’s natural equilibrium.
    Major and trace minerals, which are plentiful in ocean vegetables, keep life-sustaining activities in the body and maintain proper PH balance for optimal health.
     
27. Supports kidney health.
    Minerals in seaweed act like electrolytes, which help kidneys regain optimum function. Then, too, its fiber content aids in kidney stone prevention.
     
28. Helps maintain beautiful body skin.
    Amino acid, minerals and vitamin content of sea vegetables nourish the skin. Trace mineral Serine enhances skin beauty while Theonine improves skin tone.
     
29. Prostate health.
    High in mineral content, seaweed helps maintain healthy prostate (gland) especially in middle-aged men.

In case anyone is wondering how I made this, it was incredibly simple:

1) Soak seaweed in water and heat in microwave for a couple of minutes to get rid of any impurities and bacteria.

2) Drain thoroughly in cold water. Cut in small pieces with a clean scissors.

3) Add soy sauce, rice vinegar and sesame seeds. Mix thoroughly.

4) Refrigerate until cold.

5) Remove and serve.

Kitty Witty on Pumpkin's Bike

I have no idea how this happened but after I parked Pumpkin's bike outside, I heard a meowing sound. I thought maybe Meow Meow was hungry. She usually meows when she wants to eat. But much to my surprise after I opened the garage door, I saw something incredible!

Salmon For Dinner

On the way back from buying Pumpkin's new bike, I decided to stop off at Koreana Market to pick up some food. Lucky me, there was whole salmon for sale for only $1.99/pound. I was not about to pass up that opportunity.

I brought it home and immediately got to work. Cleaning a salmon is not my idea of fun but it had to be done. Only problem is that once you touch a raw salmon, good luck getting the smell off. I am considering using a little bleach on my hands to get rid of it once and for all.

Dinner was excellent. I soaked a piece of salmon in soy sauce and then sprinkled some pepper on it. It was way too much so I will be eating leftovers tomorrow.

Hauling Away Dirt

After digging the jasmine vine out and planting the bush in its place, the extra dirt needed to go someplace. Now, I guess I could have spread it out someplace on the side, but instead, I decided to haul it away to the trail near the school. I wasn't about to do it during the day just because it was too hot. I waited until the Gold River Patrol truck had left the parking lot just in case he got curious about a guy pulling a cart with a load of dirt and rocks.

Office Flooring

This is a big job but someone has to do it and it looks like it is going to be me. Well, not exactly. Vasily is coming to do the actual installation but I am doing all the grunt work. What does that involve?, you might ask. Well, it means removing everything from the room, cleaning the walls, painting with primer then final coat. Then after all that is complete, I will rip out the carpeting and the current baseboard. Then it is on to primer and then final coat.

Office Wall

Office Wall

Suwanna Birthday

Su Zhen was so nice to invite me over for dinner on Friday. It was going to be beans and rice otherwise. I was commissioned to purchase a cake. Not a chocolate cake or any other typical American style cake which would have been way too sweet. Nope, it was going to be a fruit cake. But there was a problem. I needed to have the cake people at Bel Air Market write Happy Birthday Suwanna on top of the cake. No can do, they said. Wouldn't work on this cake. Okay, then a pink plastic sign would just have to do.

We had a nice dinner courtesy of Yummy Kitchen in Folsom, followed by the cake. Then it was on to play on the Wii with Tansy and Emily. I still haven't gotten the hang of interacting with the Wii but it was fun seeing me try and balance myself and then play some games. Last time I weighed myself and Emily called out in her cute little voice, "You're fat!" It sounded so cute the way she said it with half her teeth missing from her mouth so I asked her to repeat it. The second time she was a little shy. Well, she wasn't shy today.
"You're fat!", she yelled out laughing. Okay, I get it now.

Suwanna and Famly

Tansy and Emily

Chinese Food from Yummy Kitchen

With Tansy

With Emily

Talking With Strangers

One of the reasons I signed up to be an Unfranchise Business Owner with Market America was to push myself to do things I normally wouldn't do. Since I spend a lot of time in front of the computer, I felt I needed to socialize a bit more and this business is all about networking.

First goal is to get more customers. I would like to shoot for 10 customers a month. I feel that is doable.

In any case, I went to a computer training at Annie Chen's house on 7/22/2011 which happens to be located off of Riley Street in Folsom.  The training finished at about 9:45 PM. But I stuck around until about 10:30 PM talking with Su Zhen and letting Su Zhen and Annie talk to wifey on the phone about various issues relating to the Unfranchise Business back end.

Winco is conveniently located on Blue Ravine which is on the way to Annie's house. I like Winco because it is open 24/7 which suits my style. The only drawback is that late at night is when they are restocking the store so there are forklifts moving around and people rushing around scanning products as they reload the shelves. No problem. I can deal with that. I grabbed a shopping cart and started strolling through the store. First stop was my favorite section - the produce section. I passed through some overpriced apples and was about to check out the packaged lettuce when I spotted a middle aged couple in the same area. Were they speaking Chinese? Yes, they were. I know this because my ears are very sensitive to language, especially languages I am familiar with. "Should I speak to them about Market America?", I asked myself. "What's the worst that could happen to me?"

I continued debating the possibilities as I left them to head over to the cereal section. Here was my opportunity. I spotted them again in the bakery section and told myself that it was now or never.

In Chinese: "Excuse me, do you speak Chinese?" They were surprised to see an American speaking Mandarin but they were friendly right off the bat. I told them all about Market America (I later learned from Su Zhen not to tell people too much at first as that might scare people off). But the truth is my style is always to be up front from the get go because then I never have to worry about there being any misunderstandings. Nobody could ever accuse me of not being forthright.

I had the husband call my cell phone. He was all ready to sign up once I explained that it was free and there was absolutely no risk involved. The next day I went to a birthday party for Suwanna and at that time I decided to call him right in front of Su Zhen. He wasn't home so I left a message. It turns out that he called me back right away but somehow I didn't hear the cell phone ring. He not only left his email, he left his PO box. Wow!

When I got home, I immediately sent him an invite from my preferred customer back end. I also told him that I would like him to meet wifey and pumpkin after they come back from Taiwan. After he signed up, he said he was going on a short vacation but will return early August. Perfect! My first customer and probably a friend too!

Give Stuff Away and They Will Come

The side of the house was getting to be a mess and I had promised myself that before wifey and pumpkin came back, I would have the whole house cleaned up and then some.

What is the fastest way to get rid of stuff? Give it away and they will come. I posted the ad on craigs list on 7/20 at 6:34 PM and at 6:35 PM, the emails started coming in, first a trickle and then an avalanche. By 6:40 PM I had counted 150 emails. I quickly contacted the first person that had responded. His name was Fernando. I was all prepared to speak in Spanish but his English was good. He promised to come the next day at 4 PM.

Meanwhile, I had some desperate emails. Some wanted the step exerciser. Another wanted the woman's bike.  And someone else was begging me for the child's booster seat - $17 at Walmart. There is a lot of desperation and pain out there.

Next day as promised, Fernando came with his brother. They were so grateful to take the stuff away. He told me to call him if I ever had anything else to give away. I waved goodbye as I saw my old bathtub being hauled away in an old Chevy pickup.

Here is the actual ad with notations and link to slideshow on what was going to be picked up:

PLEASE DO NOT EMAIL ME AT THIS TIME ASKING WHAT IS AVAILABLE. SOMEONE HAS ALREADY MADE A CLAIM FOR MOST OF THE ITEMS TO PICK UP TOMORROW. IF ANY ITEMS ARE NOT PICKED UP BY TOMORROW AFTERNOON, I WILL CONTACT THE NEXT PERSON DOWN THE LIST WHO RESPONDED TO THIS AD.

Item #1: Rabbit Cage

Item #2: Wheelbarrow (Claimed for pick up 7/21/2011 at 4 PM)

Item #3: Bathroom Faucets (Claimed for pick up 7/21/2011 at 4 PM)

Item #4: Trail Gator Bicycle Tow Bar (Claimed for pick up 7/21/2011 at 4 PM)

Item #5: Metal Bath Tub (Claimed for pick up 7/21/2011 at 4 PM)

Item #6: Step Exerciser (Claimed for pick up 7/21/2011 at 4 PM)

Item #7: Hand Push Mower (Claimed for pick up 7/21/2011 at 4 PM)

Item #8: Woman's Bicycle (Claimed for pick up 7/21/2011 at 4 PM)

Item #9: Child Booster Seat

View complete descriptions and pictures in my photobucket album:
http://s1230.photobucket.com/albums/ee489/eldorado2768/Free%20Stuff/

Let me know what items you are interested in and with the exception of the bath tub, I will place on the side of the garage for you to pick up.

Backyard Gardening

The jasmine vine on the side of the house was too close and it has always been my suspicion that rats were using it to climb into the attic. I decided that today was the day. Originally, I thought that maybe I could just trim it down but once I started trimming, I discovered that the branches were intertwined with the wooden lattice. And I wasn't surprised to see Christmas lights inside. In other words, it was one twisted mess.

Step one was to remove it. That was a big pain not just because there was a lot of vine to remove, but it was a tangled clump that required a lot of effort to separate and cut into smaller pieces. Fortunately, the yard waste container was empty. After about an hour, I got the vine removed and began loading it into the container.

I quickly realized that the container would not hold all the clippings so I used the sledge hammer to compress it. That wasn't good enough so I stood on top and began jumping up and down with Fluffy watching from a shaded area nearby. I was a sweaty mess when I finally got it tamped down. I pulled my leg over the container to step on the ladder but I missed the step and lost my balance. The container began to tip over and like a slow motion movie, I tipped over with it, falling on a piece of marble. The fall was slow enough for me to prepare so it was only a small bruise on my elbow. I got up and brushed myself off. Fluffy was busy tearing apart a tennis ball to bother looking over.

Vine removed. Need to replace it quickly before wifey finds out. 

Step 2 was to dig a hole for a replacement bush. The bush I had picked out was one on the side of the house in a planter. Gold River is built on river rock so about a foot down, I started to hit large rocks. This slowed my progress but I was not going to accept defeat. After chipping and banging away, I dug a decent size hole that was large enough for the bush.

Hole completed. Ready for plant.

Last step was the easiest. I took some compost and threw it into the hole. The bush fit snuggly and I covered it up and then soaked it with the hose. Mission completed.

Lollicup is Out of Business

I don't usually go out of my way to enjoy a Boba tea but if I happen to be nearby, I have been known to stop in for a drink. Just the act of poking a fat straw through the sealed plastic rim of a freshly made tapioca or milk tea drink is fun.

Yesterday I paid a visit to the Radio Shack across from Target and decided to stop by for a milk tea. But alas, the sign said closed even though it was only around 5:30 PM. I peeked inside and sure enough, the store had been cleaned out. That really pissed me off because there is nothing else like it in Rancho Cordova. I suppose I could have gotten a cold Starbucks mocha from the refrigerated section of Grocery Outlet next door but it isn't the same.

Fluffy Throws Up

We were out on the trail today, on our way to Bel Air Market and all of a sudden Fluffy started throwing up. I am going to guess she must have snacked on some weed or plant she wasn't supposed to touch and that was a big mistake. Google map shows exact place where it happened.

Fluffy dumping on the trail

MA Translation Services

Su Zhen asked me to translate her 2 minute commercial from Chinese into English. I said sure, no problem. I figured I could just copy and paste into Google translate and then modify from there. Instead of handing me a flash drive with her text neatly typed, she handed me her handwritten speech. Uh oh!

So was this going to be a challenge? I am never one to turn down a challenge. Step one was to transpose the entire speech into Google Docs. With my MDBG online dictionary, I found as many characters as I could and left blanks for Su Zhen to fill in. I honestly thought there would be more mistakes but I was pleasantly surprised when she handed it back to me with only a few corrections.

Great. But that was only step one. Step two was to not only translate it into English but make it sound like an American wrote it. I copied and pasted blocks of text into Google Translate and then rewrote the sentences so no one would suspect that this speech was originally written by a Chinese woman.

I finished this morning and emailed her the retyped Chinese version as well as the new English version. No feedback yet.

Trail Maintenance

I like to hike on the trail that runs parallel to the bike trail. This trail is on BLM land, same general location as the washing machine pit. But I don't like being poked and bloodied by Spanish Thistle. This type of invasive weed which is native to California has spread all up and down the state.

Spanish Thistle is about as painful an encounter as cactus. This year has been especially wet with much greater than average rainfall in Northern California. As a result the normally small patches of thistle scattered throughout the trail has been replaced by huge fields of thistle, encroaching on my favorite walkways and making hiking an unpleasant experience for myself and Fluffy.

I decided that this situation was simply unacceptable. Today after walking through the trail one more time with Fluffy, I dropped her off at home and loaded up the car with shovel and clippers. Temperature was not too bad, around 86 degrees. Nevertheless, I brought a thermos filled with cold water. I arrived around 1 PM and surveyed the scene one more time before I got to work.

Thistle Everywhere

I thought I could get the whole thing done within about an hour. That turned out to be an optimistic prediction. An hour turned into 3 hours. I was pouring sweat after about 10 minutes and taking cold water breaks about every 5 minutes. The 2nd section had much thicker growth and took longer than the 1st section. I was exhausted but my job was still not done. There was a little rock hump that has always been a pain in the rump to climb up because it is slippery. I chopped down the hump and created a makeshift staircase out of large boulders.

Implements Used

My job done, it was time to go home. I really should have worn gardening gloves because my hands were a bloody mess. I gulped down about a gallon of water when I got home and immediately took a refreshing shower. Ahhhhhh yes.

Chinese MA Meeting

This is my second MA meeting held in Newark which is in the east Bay. Pumpkin and wifey are already in Taiwan so it is up to me to once again gather information.

The unique aspect of today's meeting was the fact that the entire presentation by various leaders was in Chinese. In fact of the 100+ people attending the event held in a hotel ballroom, I was the only white person.  Did I care? No because I have always felt comfortable with people from different cultures. After all, I did live overseas in Taiwan for over a year.

Here was a good opportunity to see how much Chinese I could understand. Fortunately, most of the speakers included slideshows in their presentations which helped tremendously. Aside from the Chinese herbalist, I understood about 90% of what was spoken about. These were people who have achieved high "pin" levels in the organization, most earning between 15K - 35K each month.

For lunch we ate at the Com Tam Thanh Vietnamese restaurant across the street from the hotel. Mm good. I had a regular side bowl of Fa Ah or Vietnamese noodles and enjoyed company and conversation with women in my upline. By this time it was quite obvious that this business is more heavily skewed to female entrepreneurs. Not that there aren't any men, but the ratio is probably something like 70% - 30%.

Once again I was asked to sit for many hours at a time. This is not good. I don't know how I am going to handle these kind of all day events because my butt was getting really sore around 2 hours into the morning session. In addition, someone behind me kept goosing me around every 20 minutes. One time I turned around to see who the offending party was, but I just saw a couple of middle-aged men smiling back.

The meeting ended around 4 PM. We gathered outside to give some feedback. One of the guests expressed his denial that the MA products were scientifically proven to cure diseases. He is of course correct in that the FDA does not regulate nutritional products so claims cannot be verified. But others in the group responded in a way that I found makes a lot of sense and that is to use your own experience to prove whether it works or not. Certainly can't hurt. I added my own little feedback saying that I am glad that I do not have to reinvent the wheel. That little phrase was kind of difficult to translate into Chinese but somehow I managed to stumble through.

I got a ride home with Patricia Wang and Coco.

Riding around on a hot day

Next stop was the library to drop off some books and movies that pumpkin was supposed to read and watch.  Riding to the Fair Oaks library is a lot different than going to the Rancho Cordova library. There is Bridge St which is a little steep and of course the chickens. Every time I ride through this area, I am always on the lookout for a wandering group of chickens. Usually I can hear at least one cockle-doodle-do on the north side of the Fair Oaks Bridge.

Speaking of the bridge, it is bikes and pedestrians only and the view of the river and sunset in the evening is enchanting. I stopped briefly to take a picture of the American River below. Isn't that cool? You would never guess that I am in the middle of a large metropolitan area, just minutes from my house.

I started paying Steve Rodriguez, the handyman via Chase's quick pay feature which allows a customer to send a payment via email - kind of like Paypal. Anyways,  because the amount was large, it sent up red flags in Chase's Money Movement Dept. I got a call from Chase asking me to verify some personal info. Well, for some reason, their computer wouldn't take my atm pin so the service representative first asked me if I knew a banker at Chase? What, are you kidding? I avoid going into banks as much as possible. My transactions take place strictly with the atm. The woman insisted that I go into the branch and solve the issue there.
Okay fine. Might as well take care of a few other things as well as long as I am going to be out and about. The weather was hot but that was just too bad. I downed a few large glasses of water and hopped on my bike for the 5 minute ride to the Chase bank on Gold River Express and Sunrise Blvd. I really don't like that branch because the only way to get to it is through a parking lot. Yep, another car-centric strip mall with no bike racks of course. I parked my bike next to the Zinfandel Grille and headed over to the bank.
One thing good about going inside was the temperature was about 30 degrees cooler than outside. Oooh, yea. I plunked my sweaty self down in the waiting area and started looking aimlessly around while I waited. A teenage girl and her younger brother were sitting off to my left. The girl had ear buds on and was texting furiously as her brother watched. Her fingers moved so quickly, I thought they were going to dance right off the phone.
After a short wait, a service representative came over. "Can I help you?" "I sure hope so", I answered. After a lengthy phone call with the bowel movement, oops I meant money movement department, the problem was solved, at least until the next time the flags go up.

After huffing up Bridge Street, I made it to the library. By the time I arrived, I was a sweaty mess. The drinking fountain just inside the entrance was cold and refreshing, though. I gulped down vast quantities of water.

Last stop was Dollar Tree on Madison and Hazel. I happen to like this one because their shelves are almost always full. I locked my bike and went in.  Some kids were running around the store. I guess it was better than running outside in 96 degree heat. I found everything I wanted and then some. As I meandered back to the front holding my green basket, I heard a woman call to one of the kids running around in a thickly accented stern voice. "No Alberto. You deednt leesten to me and now you gonna pay." I looked up and saw a fat Hispanic woman holding an equally fat boy by the shirt. The boy had a terrified look on his face even though he could have been 10 or 11.  With a fat, pudgy hand, the woman smacked the boy on the butt.  Ouch, that must have hurt because the boy screamed in pain.  With the boy crying and sobbing, the fat woman dragged him to the front of the store.  "Nos vamos afuera. Vamonos Alberto..."
I exited the store with a large bottle of purple Gatorade G2 in hand ready to inhale before the harrowing journey down Hazel. Who cares if it wasn't cold. I certainly wasn't complaining.  After downing the sports drink, I unlocked my bike and got ready to hop on. "Excuse me, Mister." I whirled around to see a young boy walking up to me. "Do you know where a bike shop is?" The father was right behind him. "Oh, the only one I know is Bob's Cycles." I answered. The father smiled and said, "You were the only one with a bike." Yes, the only one foolish enough to ride around in this heat.

My little good deed for the day done, it was time to head down the road from hell.  This is the same street where a pebble bounced up and cracked the windshield of our Toyota Corolla only days after we bought it.  Yes, the city is in the process of widening the road through its powers of eminent domain but that wasn't going to help me now. I coasted as slowly and carefully as I could, watching for ditches on the right and speeding cars and trucks only inches away on my left. Last time I checked, the bridge widening project was almost complete and that was going to be my reward.

Finally I got home and splashed gallons of cold water on my face. Journey complete.

Wearing a Tie

I can't remember the last time I wore a tie. Could have been over 10 years ago. But Su Zhen persuaded me to upgrade my exterior look for a Home Business Presentation or HBP. The meeting was scheduled for July 7th at Qun Yu's and Wang Jun's house in Folsom. They asked me to prepare a short speech on why I decided to sign up as a MA UFB. Yes, there are a lot of acronyms here but that is how they talk about it so I might as well learn it as well.

So I am supposed to give a speech at someone's home in front of people who I don't really know and wear a tie and button down shirt to boot. This is not normal for me.  The day of the meeting, I quickly put something together but there was no time to practice so I printed it out to read when called upon.

After the speech I stuck around for a little while longer and met Gary, a Harvard educated doctor who told me that all the world's diseases can actually be distilled down to one disease which is a failure at the cellular level to either absorb the right nutrition or get rid of waste. A very controversial take on modern medicine but this theory is the premise that through nutrition and lifestyle changes, most problem diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes can either be controlled or prevented from occurring at all.

Fluffy's Muscle Spasms

Today I took a walk with Fluffy to Bel Air via the American River Parkway back end trail behind Gold River. There is a secret path I go through which helps me to avoid traffic. It actually goes through a junkyard.  Previously, going through that path meant battling with Spanish thistle and prickly bushes. That was clearly unacceptable for both me and Fluffy. I resolved to fix the problem and one Sunday a few weeks ago, I brought my heavy duty clippers. In the space of about 20 minutes, I had cleared the entire path of all problem branches and thorns, making it a pleasant route to travel.

I noticed that since I cleared the path, there appears to be much more traffic through that area.  The grass looks more flattened than before. But I am digressing. The real reason for my post was what happened after Fluffy and I exited the path and continued on cool, wet grass. All of  a sudden, Fluffy dropped to the ground and rolled around. This is something she loves to do in cool grass which looks like some type of celebratory squirm. I watched in delight as she wiggled back and forth in the grass. After a couple of minutes, I lightly pulled on the leash to get her back up but when she started walking, she began dragging  her right hind leg. Then she tried to hold the leg up. Then her left leg started dragging. I had her lie down on her back so I could check her out. Was it a thorn? I checked both her legs and paws. There was no thorn or prickly thistle in her fur. I held her leg up and it started to spasm. Then her other leg started to spasm. This was strange! What was  happening. I had her get up and we continued on. I watched carefully and after about 2 minutes, the limping disappeared.

A Second Business

Today I went ahead and signed up to be an "Unfranchise Business Owner" with a company called Market America. What is MA? It is a product brokerage company. What is a product brokerage company? They have a web portal in which people can purchase two kinds of products and services. First, they have their own branded products in nutrition, cosmetics, household goods and other daily use products. They also allow their partner stores to advertise and sell through the MA portal. This is the product brokerage aspect of their business. All the well known web based stores such as homedepot.com, macys.com, walmart.com, sears.com and thousands of other stores are all accessible through the portal. So why go to walmart.com through the portal? Why not just go directly to walmart.com? The reason is that by navigating to the partner store through the portal, the consumer can get cash back. In addition, just by referring the portal to friends or family, a user who has signed up as my preferred customer can get a .5% referral fee on all their referral's purchases. Wow, that sounds good.

So what makes this business different is that in addition to getting people to sign up as preferred customers, you leverage your efforts by signing up distributors below. Sounds like multi-level but it is setup in such a way that anyone can potentially make a lot of money, not just the people at the top.

Commitment to make this business work and actually turn a profit takes about 2-3 years. Seems like a long time but it isn't that long and the investment is not that high. There are a lot of seminars and meetings to attend to stay on track.

I signed up on Cindy's behalf. The signup process involved Cindy's friend from church named Su Zhen and her upline distributor, Wang Jun. Both of them came over and walked me through the sign up process online.

What we got immediately was our own web portal. I also had to order product and setup auto transfer since there are minimum quantity requirements that need to be met each month.

Introduction to Market America

When we got back from our trip to L.A., wifey asked me to attend some presentation about a business called Market America. She and pumpkin were scheduled to take a church trip in San Jose which conflicted with this event which coincidentally also took place in the Bay Area.

I had to arrive at the In-N-Out Burger on Sunrise at 5:50 AM. Ay caray. It was not easy to get up so early but I managed to half run, half walk to the designated pickup place at 5:45. At 5:48 a van pulled up with 5 women - Coco, Wang Jun, Su Zhen, Patrica Wang and two other women who I had never met.

I had a long conversation with Su Zhen who is the person that introduced the business to Cindy. She is from Taiwan and lives in Folsom with her husband and 2 daughters.

Finally after a long ride, we arrived at Santa Clara University a little before 9 AM. I am not used to sitting all day so this was going to be a challenge, not so much for my attention span but for my reluctance to sit so long. The speaker, Phil Guido, came on and talked about Market America and how he got into the business. He also talked about how to recruit new distributors and stay focused on duplicating efforts.

My job was to take lots of notes since I had agreed to attend on Cindy's behalf. Could this work for us? Selling products was not my forte. Memories of trying to be a telemarketer for Armstrong Cabinet Refacing about 30+ years ago have always haunted me whenever confronted by a business like this but I thought I should be open to something different. Besides, it is nice to be able to do a more social activity than staring at the computer all day. 

Master Bath Remodel

Our bathrooms were in need of remodeling. The shower leaked in the master bath and the shower doors were falling apart in the guest bathroom. After much discussion, we decided to have them upgraded. We hired this Russian guy named Vasily who was a tile specialist. He did a great job in both bathrooms.

Fainting Incident at Blood Source

I like to give blood. I have given over 5 gallons since moving up to Sacramento in 1997 and before that I used to give regularly to the Red Cross in West L.A. While in L.A., I recall some of my donations were in platelets but since about a year ago, I have been giving whole blood exclusively. For many years I went to the Citrus Heights facility on the corner of Fair Oaks and Greenback. Then one day, I was driving up Folsom Blvd in Folsom on my weekly pilgrimage to Winco to buy some groceries when the familiar Blood Source logo caught my eye in a small strip mall. That is a lot closer than Citrus Heights, I thought and the bike ride is infinitely more pleasant. The American River bike trail is just across the street so I immediately decided right then and there that I was abandoning the Citrus Heights location forever. The Folsom office is actually a little smaller but more modern and the nurses are sweet too. After giving a few units of whole blood, one of the nurses asked me if I wanted to try giving some platelets. She said that in some cases, I could give both platelets and whole blood. The only downside is that a platelet donation takes about 50 minutes to an hour while I could squeeze out a pint of whole blood in less than 10 minutes. When she mentioned that they have personal DVD players and all the latest movies, I decided to give it a try. Of all the times I have given blood, and that is quite a few times, I have never felt any unpleasant side effects. Yea, I might feel a slightly light headed when I first get up but after wolfing down a pastry and a few cups of cranberry juice in the rest area, I am good as new. The platelet donation machines have changed quite a bit since back in the 90’s when I gave at the Red Cross in West L.A.. They are computerized and there is only one needle for input and output. The input is some kind of citrus juice mixed with red blood cells and the output is platelets. During the process, it is common to feel numbness or tingly sensations in the lips or arms or chest. No big deal, just suck on some tums and it usually goes away. On that Sunday morning, I had a couple of large cups of tea in the morning. The nurses said to make sure to drink water to help the blood flow out easier. Before settling into the donation chair, I took a piss per instructions because it was going to be a long time - the computer calculated a 113 minute session. I have no idea how it calculates it. But in any case, there was only a little bit of piss at that point. I guess the tea hadn’t digested through my kidneys yet. After getting comfy we got started. The movie was Inception - some sci-fi movie with Leonardo DiCapprio about a team of people that can invade other people’s dreams and change their minds about things. At about the 45 minute point, I started to feel the need to take a piss. Bad timing of course since I was in the middle of donating. But at that point, I didn’t feel numbness or tingly sensations so I didn’t ask for a tums. That turned out to be a mistake as I would later discover. But my biggest feeling was wanting to pee. By the 1.5 hour point, I felt like my bladder was ready to burst but I held on. The minutes seemed to slow down. Finally, the process was completed and after waiting a couple of minutes, I rushed into the bathroom to relieve myself. I unzipped and let out and out it came out, slow at first and then building into a torrent as furious as a dam that had just burst. The pee just kept coming. I didn’t know a human bladder could hold this much liquid. After what seemed like 2 or 3 minutes, I began to feel kind of woozy standing there waiting for this show to end. By the time it did, the room started to get dark around me. I quickly bent my head over for a sec until the faintness went away and then opened the door and walked over to the rest area. I knew something wasn’t right because the room kept getting darker until I shook my head. I made it over to the refrigerator to pour myself a juice. As I opened the refrigerator door, that woozy feeling returned. I quickly poured the juice and downed it in 2 gulps because I was afraid I would pass out standing right there. I told myself to hold on. Maybe if I sat down things would get better. I sat down and tried to focus on a newspaper in front of me.
I made it to a chair at the counter and tried to focus on some article in the newspaper in front of me. The darkness returned and I didn’t have time to shake my head or place my head down. I suddenly felt too tired to keep my eyes open. I knew what was happening to me but I couldn’t stop it from happening. I laid my head down between my arms and started dreaming for a brief second before I blacked out completely. When I awoke, I was lying on the floor with my legs on the chair which had been tipped over. My first thought is that I had fallen backwards but the sight of 4 smiling nurses allayed my concerns. "David, David!", Kelly called to me. "Look, there are 4 beautiful nurses around you."  That comment made me chuckle as I regained my consciousness. They told me that I had slumped over and one of them had spotted me from all the way over on the other side of the room. They apparently knew what to do and all of them sprung into action. They tipped the chair backwards so they could monitor me. I was lying right on the cold floor but it felt good because my body was drenched in sweat. The body does weird stuff when you pass out and they had used water to cool me off. My arms were tingly but after sucking on a few Tums, the tingly feeling went away. It took about a half hour before I felt good enough to get up. Good thing I didn’t ride my bike like I usually do since a trip back, though downhill most of the way would have been wobbly. I drove home about an hour later and had to call them when I got home so they would know I made it home okay. That whole rest of the day I couldn’t keep any food down. It was about the most unpleasant blood donating experience I have ever gone through. However, that being said, I plan on continuing to donate when the weather gets a little better.