Rare Inspiring Garden From Office Building

Very few office buildings have offered any landscaping that is worthy attention, let alone inspiring. Nationwide is that very few that has a great indoor and outdoor garden in Columbus Downtown office building. Especially I like the one in the back corner of the building. Simple, volume, texture and harmony. It carries my point of view of what the garden is about. The beauty is beyond blossoming and lasts the rotation of seasons.

ALL ABOUT FOOD

Sammy's mom and BC are visiting us. We have been cooking and ate non-stop.

Tonight we had Thai food Sammy made. Two dishes - one with eggplant, beef and green curry and Fried Shrimp. He followed the recipe from Thai Cook book purchased last week in BookLoft of Germany Village in Columbus. It is delicious. Well we will have green tea ice cream tomorrow.

French night last Thursday, four courses - entree, salad, main, desert. That beef stew was yummy after almost a full bottle of wine was dumped in. And our new favorite salad -spinach, Chinese Mango and oliver oil & Lemon juice dressing

Chinese night last Friday, shredded baked tofu, pork with shredded red potato and celery, Pat's favorite Chinese vegtable and silk soft tofu, tomato and pork soup. We finished with shortbread with strawberry and Haagen-Dazs Ic-y Cream.

Work In Progress

GARDEN CARE (OR) FREE?

I was working in the yard from 8:00 Am to 7:00Pm yestersday almost non-stop. When we bought this house, we knew that it would take a great deal of work to make it fabulous. During the past 80 years, it seemed that none of the previous owners put any thought or efforts on it. The yard just did not have its bone. it did not have a single mature tree. Well we do have a mimosa tree if it can be qualified as a tree. I have been working on it since last summer when we moved in. It does get better every day but it is a long way to go.

If you read my blog before, I had one post titled " Darwin Theory for Gardening" way back when we just moved in. It was a story regarding my conversation with our neighbor Jane and Michael. After a year, I know them much better. We are just so lucky to have this wonderful neighor. They are very sweet and genuine. Surely we have one thing in common particuliarly. That is gardening and plants. Every time we have done something in our yard, she will go back to add a one more item in Michael's to-do list for her garden. We joke with poor Michael all the time.

I started to create our shady side yard garden as my first task. Since we share drive way, Michael and Jane's house has the opposite sunny side yard. It was some spotted plants among a lot weeds. One day, Michael cleaned up the whole area. It looked much better. Then they went for a plant shopping. I do not help but realizing that some of plants might not survive for long since they are plants for shady area.

I know how much Jane is eager to have a beautiful garden and now her frustration. We have given her plants once a while - Chinese Jasmine, Mexican Sunflower, Bamboo Fern, ..... Well they gradually disappear from her inventory. I am afraid of asking.

I have to come to conclusion that for some of garden lovers, what they need is so called "Care Free" garden if it exists. The one way to achieve it is to hire someone to do the work and maintain it. Well the garden surely is cared but not free. Most of people are not able to afford it. They have to know how to care first before it is free( relatively). That seems to be a dilemna for Jane as well as many frustrated gardeners. I learned from my failures and still do. I hope that Jane is able to pass that hurdle one day. Sometime people tends to be shy of asking. Most times, good advices are free for us to know how to care.

Orchid & Mary's Chinese Pot

Peony Heaven 2007

Finally, tax reporting time was over. It was a stressful time of the year, especially this year. The good part is that we can get some refund instead of payment. We have been working in the yard and simply a lot of work needs be do to make it fabulous. I almost complete the shady side yard. I went to my friend LaiYee's yard which is 19 acre wood land right inside Athen city. I was so fascinated to see so many plants I have never ever seen before. I digged a few for each of them. They are just so unique and are not available in nursery. I hope that they will survive and thrive. By the way, I make a bonzai out of them as well.

Kitchen is 97% done. It looks and funtions nicely. Sammy altered the island to replace it with a big stainless top and put a space for microwave. We do not need to go to the bathroom to heat our food any more.

Originally we planed to use two big Ikea red Lacquer boards for the kitchen. Somehow Sammy changed his mind to paint the sides instead. Well Here they are -biggER dinning table top. Surely it is very rustic mod. Peony flower from our garden is simply charm with this reborn dinning table. It was not ugly the first time and just gets better born again.

A Few Accomplished Today

1. Bird Watching - Bird feeder right outside our office window
2. Cut Rosewood for Kitch Sill
3. Cook Beef Stew from Julia Child

Am I Still Chinese Or Not Any More?

When I came and studied in the early 90s, I had to live in the student dormitory for the first quarter. I arrived too late and could not find a rental place. I had to buy the cafeteria passes since no cooking was allowed in the dorm. Food would be the best comfort when someone is far away from home. But I had to eat all the "lousy" American food. I remember that Thursday's dinner was the only once a week menu that I slightly looked forward to. It was either fried chicken or fried shrimp. The worst one was pizza day. I just could smell the tomato sauce a mile away as our kitty Gorme does for anything milky. But she loves it and I absolutely hated it. I would hold my nose, go directly to fruite or ice cream bar and grab one and run out of cafeteria.

That was more than a decade ago. Surely life comes at you fast. Well I might still not be crazy about pizza. But I love many other cruisines than Chinese. Even though Chinese may still be my very food for comfort, I become more critical as well. Well that will be on my another post.

No matter where I go, I always have some of Chinese colleagues and friends. I do not know if I have changed but they remain the same or I lost part of my very Chinese but they preserve it. I feel the gap of interest, the difference of perspective and ... Sometime they are so conspicuous. sometimes they are subtle.

I am still practical but become more idealistic.
I appreciate more of quality of life than quantity of material.
I still treasure money and wealth but not worship them.
I am more conscious of enviroment we all depend on.
I am learning to be more gracious to the others.
I believe that life is more adventure than a comfortable routine.

From me, my journey is more rediscovering of my Chinese root in comparison with Western system. After all, the world is so much in common and so different.

Still or not, I realize that I am finally able to be an American as a Chinese than try to fit in as an American.

$24K Surprise From IRS

Well it is a tax season once again. It is the time of year that I just drag my feet to sort out all our tax documents before filing our federal, state and deceasing S corp tax returns. Well I have to file my S corp return by 3/15, which is today. I failed to have it done past weekend when I planned and dragged until this morning.

The difference is that I did have an excuse this year. Once a while I receive some IRS letters for my S corp, which are all junk. Usually I did not even open it and throw right into my recycling basket. Well this one came several days ago and stayed on my desk unopened until two night ago. Before I was going to toss it, I opened the letter for no particuliar reason and read a few lines on the first page. I am just grateful right now that I did not have a heart attack then. I could not believe my eyes - OWE $24,334.xx to IRS. It tooks me a while to calm down and see what heck IRS wants from me.

Well the story is simple. I exercised and sold all my stock option before I left Earthlink. Since I did exercise and sell the stock at the same time, the profit was treated as ordinary income like my salary instead of capital gain. It was reported in my 2005 W-2. Supposedly that ends the story. However, the broker reported to IRS as well. Even worse, it only reported the total sale which was much higher than exact profit since the stock option had cost. Then IRS assumed that I did not pay the tax since Schedule D(for capital gain/loss) was not filed. I did not have choice but dig into my archive to find all the supporting documents. I barely slept last two nights to put all the information together to respond this IRS notification.

It does make me so mad that our government is capable of wiretaping anyone around the world. But can not avoid this stupid mistake. Instead it really can use this aggressivenes and our taxpayer's money to go after those real crooks.

I finally sent my response to IRS this morning and hope that It is good enough and do not have to deal with it again.