Carved Pumpkins

Our collections of carved pumpkins just grew by 2. The haunted house and bat are carved by Carl and Carol.

Manhole lift (rotated)

Pastor Liao

Pastor Liao and his wife visited my mom on the first day after she received chemotherapy. Pastor Liao just retired this year. He still teaches and travels.

lacy scarve

This is the lacy scarve I've been working on and off.

The pattern is from a crochet book I purchased in Taiwan.

I've used 3 balls of wool blend yarn from Switzerland.

According to the label, the "Astra" yarn is 80% Schurwolle and 20% Polyamid.

Each ball weights 50g and is approximately 100 meters long.

The yarn can be handwashed and ironed.

I found about 10 balls of this pink yarn and a half-finished sweater at my mom's second floor workroom in Taichung. That workroom is primarily a sewing room with a lot of old fabric, threads, zippers, bottons etc. Further investigation reveals that the sweater was my sister's handwork. The sweater has a few small holes, possibly by some bugs. With my sister's permit, I start using the leftover yarns for this scarve. I want to crochet something quick and easy when I'm chatting with my mom at home or hospital. She sometimes laments how tedious to crochet fabric. Sometimes she suggests that I should crochet a vest. She said it's easy if you know how to make a pattern. She still thinks like a tailor.

Survivor of 1935 earthquake

On April 21, 1935, a 7.1 earthquake shook central Taiwan around 6:02 am.

A baby girl barely one year old was sleeping inside a bamboo basinet on the second floor of a house built with fine wood.

The basinet fell into an open drain and was toppled with piles of wood from the fallen building which killed one unlucky neighbor. However all residents of that house was able to escape to safty when they started to look for the baby. Following weak crying through the cracks, they lifted debris to find the baby with the help of a strong neighbor whose work was transporting carriages. The man of the house was not at home that morning as he went to a nearby town for a festival. They were relieved to see the baby alive with a big bump on the left side of her head.

This survivor of earthquake is my mom. I found a picture of the town she lived right after that disaster.

Miramar Mall

I took the metro train to Miramar Entertainment Park (mall) in Taipei. I have to change train at Taipei railrod station and then change again for the small train of Wen-hu line. This is the new line that goes between Nei-hu and Taipei Zoo. I rode this new route for the first time. The train goes through a tunnel and passes by Taipei Song-san Airport. The view of the airport is spectacular. A helicopter was landing right when we got there. After this outing I rode the free shuttle offered by Miramar mall back to Chien-tan metro station.

In the front of the mall is TGIFriday. Inside the mall, a long line of people wait in front of the Cold Stone counter. The line is even longer than the line in front of 85'C Irvine store, as it's Sunday and the mall is packed. There's also an Imax movie theater in the mall.

Blogger issues

Even though I started using blogger more than a year ago, I can't post as I'd like to. It's very hard to move text and picture around. Is it only me?

That explains why some of my pictures are out of order and why I can only post short entries. I'm considering starting another blog somewhere else.