Doctor's appointment

We went to the doctor to confirm that Lili is developing right. Her height is in the 90th percentile for her age, the weight is below 50%. With being so active doctor said, it is as she was whole day in the gym working out, no way to gain weight.

She is one bouncy, happy baby, always curious about everything around her.

She crawls around the room in no time and chews to bit any book, or magazine she can find. It is a new job for us to police the floors and pick up anything she can hurt herself with.

Lili's first tooth

Few days before Lili's 6th month's birthday marked the next important step - a first tooth cutting thru the lower jaw.

Congratulations Lili!

Chipped dinosaur tooth

I watched a program about peleoarcheologist in Ethiopia spending 3 weeks just to find a chipped dinosaur tooth. The four well educated guys in the remote place of the world. That expedition must have costed a fortune. Yet it was worth it!

I guess sometime my own expectations are too high.

I complain the school is not worth the money and time I invest in it. I spend 6 hours at school every night just to learn a little bit of information, maybe that is all I should have learnt? I guess I will never answer that question.

One thing I have to learn is to live my life a little bit at the time.

poison, or ulcer?

I think I just poisoned my self, or I had a violent reaction of my stomach... I ate mashed patato and chicken, which has been in the fridge for a few days, and some water diluted wine (I cannot drink full strenght). Usually, I might have a hearburn after a wine, but this time I after just a bite, or two, my stomach just shut down. I had run to the kitchen to spit the wine, took a glass of water, but I could not swallow. Eventually, I managed to take two heartburn pills that I swallowed, but I still could not drink much water. For the next hour I was puking what seemed to be a foamy clear-watery substance (pill efect?). To make it worse my baby had a hissy-fit, everytime I left the room, she was screaming. So I was puking with the baby on my arm - how much fun! I was on the verge of a panic attack because my stomach was killing me, I felt like choking. I was afraid that it is a poisoning indeed, and worse, that the baby got it too (via a pacifier, or bottle I was trying to give to calm her down). After I got everything out of my stomach, the little chicken I ate, I got better. I called Ji but she did not answer, I wanted her to know what is going on in case I get worse. Finally, I managed to feed the baby enough (with the frequent stops for the bathroom visits and her cry attacs) and she fell asleep. I had to sit over her for a good 30 minutes, because she was opening her eyes to check if I am there. Now, I regained my strength and I am readying to make some jello. A trick I learned in my highschool days of heavy drinking and frequent hang-overs and alcohol poisonings -- the best cure for upset stomach is jello, or polish version of it, a kisiel. Well, life throws you the curve balls sometimes. I feel better now.

Choices: 15 minutes at a time

Recently, I have been worrying about the future. I am long past dwelling on the past, but still I feel inferior to my potential. Worry is a killer, a stress maker. I had a lot of it lately.

I've just read that the more one lives in the the present, the better one masters life and continues growing as a spiritual being. I've lost that somehow recently.

I used to live 15 minutes at the time*, for practical purposes that is about the closest one can go about daily things without full meditative awarness.

You have to have you priorities straight, your values set to know what is right thing to do at the moment. That takes time to develop, you can learn from smarter parents, or peers, or from your own mistakes if nobody around you fits the profile of the mentor.

Let me explain: In your 15 minutes intervals you ask yourself what am I doing to enhance my life. That can be anything:

- studying for the celebral growth
- watching an educational program on TV for the same reason
- eating food for health
- exercising for strenght and good mental attitude
- attending school for the diploma (even if you learn nothing)
- deciding to go sleep to replenish the energy, rest is essential
- playing with the baby for her sake
- spend time with family and friends

What you don't want is to waste time, waste your life. When you vegetate in front of TV watching a really bad Sci-Fi show, or worse, a soap opera, you just waste the time. You don't rest, you don't get stronger, you grow weaker.

I noticed that if you put this practice to life, you don't worry about the past and the future because you are already doing the best you can.

Another miracle is that sooner than later you end up achieving more that you have dreamed at the begining and the achievment feels effortless, because you did not struggle to reach it. You just lived your life one-fifteen minute moment at the time.

If you side-track from the practice bad things happen, you get depressed, discouraged, life it an unbearable weight that you cannot handle, you may end up doing stupid things that you will be paying for a long time to come.

Finally, ending on the buddhist note, nothing is bad, nothing is good, things just are in their own suchness. You don't make good, or bad, decisions to regret in the future.

You can eat your rice with a fork, a hand, or a chopsticks -- all methods are equally good and will serve the purpose. Question is which one will you choose at this moment? You should not get attached to any particular one. If you dine in Japan; learn the chopsticks, in India; a hand, etc. Whole life is full of choices. Be aware.

* the fifteen minute idea is not mine original, like most of our thoughts, I've read about it in the past, maybe in Dale Carnegie books. Always learning from, and repeating after the smarter before us.

2003 Chi-Town Engine Teardown Competition.

Today, during the annual CarQuest World of Wheel show in McCormick Place, Chicago, we took part in the engine rebuild competition and won.
The job that takes normally 16 hours by the book took us over 39 minutes. About 8 minutes better then the next team. Of course we did not do every last procedure the rebuild calls for, some were dropped for safety (crank removal), other to shorten the times (only 2 pistons were extracted), but it was close enough the real thing. Also, we got a 30 second penelty for the dropped torque-wrench. There were couple of curve-balls thrown at us, such as the fact that you cannot lay down under the engine to work on the oil pan bolts (also for safety reasons). All team members performed superbly. I got a good quality digital video recorded.
This was a third win of our school in last 4 years the competition was conducted. We won mostly due to very good support of few dedicated LTI teachers and countless hours of practice. For last few months we were meeting at least 3 thimes a week and doing 2, or 3 rebuilds a day. Great experience, I got a jacket, a cap, a golden watch and some car accessories.

I am glad it is over and won, it was very taxing in the last few days.