Frank analysis

Tony was playing in his high chair, while Ray was having his dinner. Ray was the last one still working at his dinner as usual. Dad moved broccoli plate a little closer to Ray to urge him eat faster.

Tony saw this and had a yell. Then Tony asked for broccoli. Certainly it was welcome. But while Tony was eating, and he was also yelling occasionally to Ray.

Ray started talking:"Tony doesn't want me to eat my dinner because he doesn't want me to grow big. He wants to eat more so he can grow big."

Kids do pretty down-to-the-earth analysis.

Also at dinner table, Ray talked something about his school day:"We had soccer class and everyone went to the class."

Dad pretended he didn't know it and asked:"Did you go?"

"I didn't go because you guys didn't pay it for me." Ray said with a frowned eyebrow.

Wow, Ray is fairly clear how things work now. And he also can exaggerate it a little bit with saying everyone went to the class except him. The fact is he is going to a dance class and most kids didn't enroll soccer class.

Ray was never interested in soccer though dad set up a nice soccer gate in back yard. Maybe it is different to play in a team. Well, maybe we should try it out.

One thing we need to mention is Ray made a huge progress in throwing and catching a football. Though he is far from as good as Jack next door (Jack is eight years old), dad can have fun with Ray now by throwing and receiving a ball back and forth. Right now we have to keep only six feet distance. Pretty sure the distance is gonna grow soon.

Our first rain flood experience

We got all missed water back in this fall. Today's rain even flooded Olson Meadow. It's quite an eye opener. A stonebridge nearby was completely under water so the road was closed. Weather forcast showed there's gonna be another rainy week coming.

What open house exactly means

Ray's school had an open house yesterday. This was the third time they did it. We attended the first time when the school just opened. It was just a tour of school, so we missed the second as we thought we did the tour already. It turned out it was more than just a tour the second time.

This open house was pretty much a show time. Every kid sat on their seat to show some projects. Ray's projects were 1).counting kindles, 2).bar maze creating, 3).two letters phonics. Mom and dad had a good time seeing what Ray had learned in school. Mrs. Betty told us Ray did well and even helped their Chinese teacher teach his class Chinese.

That is open house all about.

A fan of The wizard of OZ

While dad was flipping all ESPN channels to squeeze out every little bit report on Brett Favre's magic last second go ahead TD, he saw the Wizard of OZ in TNT. That was one of his favorite movie in high school. His exchanged English teacher from Washington played this movie for his class and it inspired a lot of imagination. Dad could't wait to get Ray there. Certainly Tony followed.

Ray loved it, though we really missed most of the beginning part. Dad promised to get a full version DVD for Ray and Tony. However, this movie opened a great source for dad's draining bedtime story lib. The Wizard of OZ was extended into many periods, which made persuading Ray going to bed so easy.

a number mystery

Quite a while ago, Ray's teacher Miss. Betty told us Ray impressed her with counting number up to 20, though Ray forgot one or two numbers. That was a pretty good math development. But Ray always forgot number 13. No problem from 1 to 12, then jump to 14, a little shaky after 14 but the only number he consistently missed was 13.

This really puzzled dad. What is wrong with 13? Dad didn't send Ray to Catholic school. Is it the pronunciation?

Dad printed down the numbers up to 100. Guess what? Ray could go up to 100. But he still needs help on 13. Dad googled around but didn't get any answer. What a mystery!

Gangs of Kettleman Lane

Here we are. Wilson brothers, George, Aaron and me. Not everyone showed up today. But this street has a whole lot more boys than girls. So be careful when you are around.

Move up

It has been for a while we didn't go to Olsen Meadow park, owing to this brutal hot summer. Ray starts thinking about real monkey bar now.

Where was baby?

Ray saw a lot of old pictures with only Ray, mom, and dad. "Where was baby?" Ray asked.

"Baby didn't exist back then. He was not born yet." Dad replied with a plain but straitforward answer.

A while back later. Ray came back and said:"When I was a baby, baby Tony went to baby island. When I grew up to be a big boy, baby came back from baby island." This question was still hanging on his mind. It might be too abstract to let a toddler accept the concept of ethereal existance. Ray had to figure out his own way to make sense of it.

English delicacy

Ray and Tony often fight for toys, books, and anything. A rule set by mom and dad is that you can not take things away from the person who got it first, as two boys have to share many things.

Ray certainly is not happy as the side with more power.

There was once Tony got something fun first. Unhappy Ray made a comment:"We just don't like each other."

Then he sneaked a glance at mom and dad nearby, then said:"But we still love each other."

Our story while dad was away

While dad was away to China, mom took care of both Ray and Tony. She did a terrific job. Not only was the house well maintained, but also she told dad a few fun stories.

Here is one of them.

Mom was blowing a floaty, which could lift Tony in pool. After a few tries, she had little success. It was hard. While she was trying to figure out how to do it, Ray urged for help. What could a toddler help? Mom kept trying without taking Ray seriously. It just didn't work. Meanwhile Ray was insisting helping. Mom certainly was a little irritated by Ray's push. "OK, I will let you do it and see what is gonna happen." Mom thought.

Ray happily took it over and started blowing the floaty. Like a miracle, the floaty started growing and growing. So did mom's eyes. Then it was done. Ray gave it back to mom and said:"Here you go, momy."

This story was not over yet.

Tony saw all this and he was excited to help too. He pulled the two corners of the floaty so hard that the floaty was broken. It turned back to flat like it started.

These are our two boys.

A week in San Francisco

People in New England emigrate to Florida in freezing winter. It makes sense for Texas folks to escape to California coast or New England in hot summer, even just for a week, which we did this year.

Last time I came to SF was January 2007, thanks to dad's conference trip. Now I felt like coming back to see my old friend.

We stayed a condo in San Francisco city, right next to MOMA. The condo was rented by auntie for a month at a special deal. We just took a free ride. It is said regular rent is $3000 per month plus $250 for a tiny parking slot. That is one of the reasons that most of people live in this condo drive BMW 3 series, Merceds CLS/CLK, Porche, and unknown tiny fancy sports car, that are easy to park. I am not kidding. The imbalance of housing price and housing size really make we Texan scratch our heads.

Rental car cost twice much as other cities. People told us sometimes cars were rented out in summer. Forget about price and you should feel luck to get one.

Parking is prohibitive, but we were lucky to get one free. What a luck!

A whole food store is one block away, recommended by people living here. It becomes our grocery store as our mindset are san-fancied, a new word we had to create.

Then it was our start of exciting SF adventure.

Day one:

...

I will let Tony to tell exciting part this time. Please see his blog for coming stories.

Then we were back to Austin. So in a day, we experienced 72F at noon in SFO and 95F at 11:00PM in AUS. But we did appreciate more our spacious streets and housing. In a way feel like a little chicken breaking out of egg shell.

Ray's Baby skill

Tony likes talking and whenever Ray talks, Tony always talks twice much back, though 90% of what he says is not understandable.
Ray knows how to deal with baby talking. Here it comes:

Tony:"aadyuo, jljhljladyfi, adkoqlk, oqakln, qimc, eojojljlagg, bla bla bla ....."
Ray kept his head down, working his stuff and replied:"OK."
Then Tony goes:" kqiuq, aipqhe, dfhloq, gqkjka, ejhkja, bla bla bla ...."
Ray:"Yes, you are right."
Then Tony was satisfied and kept quiet.

Mom is a genius

Mom picks Ray up from school at 2:30PM everyday. Then it is gonna be almost 4 hours she has to deal with two boys herself alone. It is a tough job as one of them is very needy. It is even tougher when it comes dinner cooking time. Cooking dinner and dealing with Tony and Ray at the same time sounds like a mission impossible.
We bought a book named 'How to cut' yesterday. This book taught kids how to make things with scissors. I was so into it and it became my favorite activity. Then it came to mom's cooking time. She came up with a creative idea to let me help her trim sweet bean clean with my scissors. I loved this job and did a wonderful job. You could bet on it as this job took me almost an hour to get it done. We all loved eating beans cleaned by me at dinner.

Oh, my, this Texas summer!

This summer was brutally hot and dry. We did get a few weather forcast with isolated shower of 20% chance of percipitation. But we always got the other 80% chance. Even Olson meadow turned yeallow with its newly installed sprinkler system, as city had to save water. We didn't get much chance for biking or hiking like this.

We met a few big boys in the pond. A boy just caught a fish. Dad caught this moment with a setting of ISO1600, 1/30' and F1.8. We wish the picture could be better, but it just couldn't be, as it's too dark. We need a full frame camera body with an F1.2 for this. That boy said that it was the first time for him to get a fish though he had been fishing for many times. It got to be us to have brought him good luck.

Libray lover

Library is Ray's favorite place. But it has nothing to do with books.

A diffence of one and half year old from three and half year old

One can be your model, the other can not.

Play water, soapless bath, outdoor exercise and water lawn, we do it all together

Confidence

In last parent-teacher interview Ray received a 2 for confidence, though he got 3 for most of others. The grading method is simple. 3 means good, 2 means needs improvement, 1 means bad. Probaly teachers never give 1 unless there is a real problem. So pretty much 3 means good, 2 means not so good.

Mom and dad figured that this might be related to Ray's personality. Ray doesn't talk much in public but like watching how others react first. But Ray is not afraid of showing off what he is good at, like dancing and singing in public, showing his drawing, even singing a story in his song impromptus.

Last night at dinner table, Ray suddenly announced:"Mom and dad, I can be anything I want to be." Wow, what a big word! We have no idea where he got this. Most likely from school. Do we still need to work on confidence?

叶公好龙 (Dragon fan Mr. Ye).

叶公好龙 (Dragon fan Mr. Ye).
An ancient Chinese painter loved dragon so much that he drew
everything about a dragon. One night, a real dragon from sky came
to his house to visit him. He was so scared that he hid in his bed with
his head all covered.Then people just found that he was not a real
dragon fan but a fake.

Ray loved pirate stories. Everything about pirates is interesting to him.
Their knives, their treasures, their eye patch, their hook hand. Even
their pants with shark tooth marks are Ray's favorite subjects.

We had a 4D movie in Star fish theater of Sea world. It is a funny
amusing pirate show! Mom enjoyed the show pretty much.
Then we asked Ray how much he liked the show.

Ray made his comments:" I don't like the show. It is pretty scary. The
hook, the bones, the bats, the bumblebee. They are all scary."

"How about the treasures?" Dad asked.

"I like the treasures." Ray said.

OK, Ray probably is NOT a real pirate fan, but a treasure fan.

iphonemena

Ray was watching Wimbledon final with dad, only after dad told him winner was gonna take a cup and a lot of prize money. Shopping in HEB made him realize having money was important. Ray told mom that he was gonna work in office and make money when he grew up.

Dad stepped into kitchen for a drink during commercial time.

Then Ray rushed into Kitchen.

Ray said it clearly: "Dad, when I grew up. I will buy an iphone."

Surprised with that he knew that there was a thing called iphone, probably that he got it from TV commercial, dad still asked: "Why do you want an iphone?"

"It has lots of games." Ray said.

Apple's marketing had a sell to 3 years old. This is phenomena.

Dad gave me a surprise, I had a return

Yesterday it was the first time I could float myself in the water without a floatie. This tripled dad's confidence that he could make me a real swimmer by the end of this summer. So dad bought me a magnetic drawing book today as a surprise present. Tony and I both loved it. I was so happy that dad bought this for ME.
After dinner, we rushed to pool again though the time was pretty tight. Dad wanted to solidfy the gain I got yesterday. He was a little worrisome that I forgot how to do it. It turned out that I made another step up today. I COULD SWIM NOW. When he released me in the water, I kept my body level with the water surface and kept kicking water hard with my legs. My hands were pushing the water to keep my boby balance. Then I was moving forward, pretty fast. This not only wowed mom and Tony, even dad, a guy who was hard to be wowed. When he freed me in the center of swimming pool, I could swim to the side. We did so many times as I became pretty confident now, once I realized I was up to it.
Dad said way to go to me. I said way to go back to him. What I really mean was the present. Keep doing that and you will get its worth.

I will tell daddy, mom was not careful

Tony's finger accident results in Ray's refusal to close any door when baby is around. He always asks mom and dad to do it. It is just the safest way to ensure he is not gonna make the same mistake again. This was proposed by dad originally but it turned out Ray really listened and strickly followed it.
Yesterday, when mom brought two kids to gym, Mom closed garage door uncarefully while baby 's finger was in. Thanks to the garage door thick cushion, no damage was caused, but babdy did cried a little bit.
On the way to the gym, Ray kept telling mom:" Mom, when we got home, I will tell daddy. Mom was not careful. Mom jammed baby's finger."
When they came home, Ray jumped out of car and rushed into the house to dad:"Daddy, mom was not careful. She jammed baby's finger." Then mom just stepped into house, with a flushed face.

Line leader pride

Ray rarely talks what he does daily in school. When mom and dad asked him what he did in school, the answer usually was either nothing or playing toys. There is no cam service in this school, so all we knew was from dropping and picking-up time peeks and parent teacher interview. We know he has been doing all right.
One day, Ray approached mom and told her that Mrs. Betty chose him as a line leader today. He seems pretty proud of this. We are not sure what a line leader really means, but it sounds like a good thing. At least Ray thought it was a big deal.
Well, mom and dad are pretty happy about it. Not for being a line leader, but for he is able to and eager to share with us what he is proud of in school.
So we mark this down. Certain year, certain month, certain day, Ray was a line leader.

Compliment could also cause trouble

This weekend was a waste. Dad's bacterial infection came back after he finished up taking certain anti-biotic medicine for a while. So we stuck home to rest. The only thing we did was swimming.
Today, we were having dinner and we were all eating well. Tony started loving eating brocoli after he finished up four sweet-sour baby ribs. What was funny was he only ate brocoli flowers, not a bit of stem. He always gave stem back to mom. What was even funnier was dad and mom were impressed with this. They laughed and said Tony was so smart that he only took good stuff.
That was easy to be smart! I could be smarter. I instantly started giving my brocoli stem back to mom too. Dad and mom looked at each other and realized that they said things they shouldn't say. They'd better know how to compliment and when to compliment. Otherwise, you bring yourself troubles.

Reunion Ranch family picnic

Here came dad company's annual family picnic again. This year we did it in Reunion Ranch. Food was still from Rudy's BBQ. I had a good time in the tree house and maze. While in team event, I let my team down a little bit. I refused to finish it for some reason nobody understood. But one thing I got to mention is nobody was younger than 5 except me. That definitely made me feel better. There were also water jumping bed. Cowboy fought with Indian water fight. Tony and I didn't sleep until 4:00PM. We were almost the first to get there and the last to leave the ranch so you figured how much fun we had. We both felt into sleep on the way home.

Ryan had pony in his birthday party

I really had a good time. I rode two different ponies. One of them stopped walking for eating grass on the way. It happened mom was guiding the pony that time. Mom didn't know what to do but waiting. Poor mom.

My family

This is my family. Dad schetched most of black lines and I did a little of black lines, all color lines and all of coloring. So dad can take credit for helping out ratioing us, but honestly, my ratio perspective is pretty good too.
Did dad look like a cookie monster?

My first on-stage perform

I have taken dance class for three months. Mom and dad watched me in class a few times. They thought I did pretty well. Remember, I was born with that kind of showmanship.

Now it is our show time. My dance school is going to have a dance show in deer creek elementary school on Saturday at 1:00PM. 1:00PM? a tough time as I might need to take a nap.

Coincidentally, that day was Arron's birthday party hosted in Austin Park. And I was not feeling well that day. After we left the party for my dance show, I felt in sleep in car.

Ten minutes sleep didn't buy me much. Then people saw me standing on the stage crying though I was supposed to dance. Thank goodness, Tony slept through the whole show. Otherwise, he is not gonna treat his big brother seriously any more if he saw me like that.

Fortunately there was a second dance chance. Dad came to back stage to comfort me a little bit. I showed up in the second show and moved a little bit. No cry. When you talk about performance, I probably didn't score much. However, if you talk about the most progress made from first show to the second, I am the man to take the prize. Remember, I wasn't feeling well that day.

After all, every dancer got a metal prize anyway. 

Next day, auntie came to house and asked how I did yesterday. I wasn't embarrassed what happened yesterday at all. Instead, I asked dad: "where is my prize?"

Pressure and present, pretty close

Dad said:'Ray, you need to come to bathroom to have a bath.' 

No response at all.

Dad said:'I am serious. I am counting 1 2 3.'

Ray showed up in the bathroom and said:'I don't like dad counting 123.'

Dad:'You don't like it because you don't like pressure.' Dad was just trying to say something to distract Ray's attention, so bathing job could go smoothly.

Ray didn't say anything.

Here dad came again.

Dad said:'You don't like pressure. Then what do you like?' 

Here Ray goes:'I like present.'

Festival on sixth street

Sixth street is an Austin attraction with lots of bars, live music, and weird stores. Austin even crowns itself as a capital of live music. Well, Austin is weird and let's keep Austin weird.

Guadaplupe River Tubing

Tubing makes Guadalupe river famous. We drifted for about two hours, passing smooth water and rapids with a lot of fun. Also we swam in Canyon lake, a man-made dam lake in south Austin. We all were impressed by the water. Tony was too little to take it. Sorry, Tony, maybe next year.

A new chapter of leisure transportation

Since our success of bike riding to Champion park, bikes became the second most popular vehicle in my family after automobiles. The second most popular vehicle sounds trivial, but this popularity was won from three strollers, two tike wagons, and scooter. It is all about tranSPORTation.

Who is scared of whom?

This is Staple, our neighbor Mrs. Sally's dog. She is a master of catching flying balls. If you throw a tennis ball from where she is resting to the far away meadow, she can always get there and back with the ball. The kid basketball is the largest ball she conquered with her magic mouth.
I am a little scared of her as she ran towards me a few times. One time I was trying to run away but I felt down to the ground.
Actually she is really scared of me. She just pretends rushing to me but she always swerved her course in the end. If a ball were on the ground, we both are scared of picking it up if we are both around, as we both are concerned if the other party would attack.
Tony is also scared of her. She bumped Tony once which made Tony cry hard. We don't have a dog at home so that we had little experience dealing with doggies. With Staple around, we are dealing better now.

Spring yard

Last weekend report

Last weekend, we attended Texas military show hosted in Texas military force museum. I watched crossfire show, toured military truck, cannon, tank, fighter jet, and helicopters. I also tried military camouflagers helmet.
The bat tattoo on my face was got from another event a day before. Oh, Our Weekend is busy.

Crape Myrtle transplating

Last winter, dad transplanted an 18 years old crape myrtle in our backyard. I was borrowed as a reference to show how big the tree was. Buying a tree with this size could cost a fortune but dad got it for free as some nice guy wanted to replace it with palm tree.
It took quite a bit effort to get the transplanting done. After the tree was trimmed down to half of its' height, it is still like 8 feet tall. Dad has been concerned about if the tree can survive the transplant, as the tree was so mature. But myrtle was a tough one. People just said you can not kill it.
They are right. This spring, the myrtle survived. The new leaves relieved dad. Otherwise, getting rid of such a gigantic tree is a headache. Remember the swing set story?

We like fighting games

Arron is taking some martial art training class. Fighting with Uncle Bo was one of his favorite games after class. Ray was encouraged to join in as dad wants to toughen him up. In general, they teamed up together to fight dad. Here is a little script mom eavesdropped from these two dudes,
......
Ray: Arron, I can beat you in a fight.
Arron: How can you beat me? I am four years older than you.
Ray: So? (mom figured Ray ran out of answer, but this answer sounds so cool)
Arron: ...... (Arron was a little shocked so he didn't know how to answer either)
After a little silence,
Ray: You are not that big. I will eat lots of rice and lots of RouRou (means meat). Then I will be bigger than you.
The conversation continues ......
Well, Ray never really committed this promise. But a verbal fight is as important as a real one.

Mom, I am not shy any more.

Every kid is unique. Ray was considered as a shy kind. When Ray was little, he was afraid of big kids. One of the most deep-impressed moment on mom and dad's minds was Ray turned his face away and kept perfect still, but kept sneaking glances by just moving his eye balls, to a big boy eating ice cream on a bench in a shopping center when Ray was just one year old. That serious face was molded into mom and dad's minds. If it happened to Tony, Tony probably had hugged the boy and got a share of ice cream from his new friend. When Ray went to school, he insist not to say hi to his teacher every morning even when he was three year old. He just stood still there. Certainly Ray liked his school. It took some effort everyday to get him out of school when mom picked him up, as he was always busy with some 'projects'. It is just kids' personality. But what is ironic is Ray was born with some showmanship. He is not afraid of singing song and dancing in front of mass. Actually he really enjoys attracting attentions. He likes making songs ad lib, such as a pirate song, a shark song, a dinosaur sone etc. and makes a show.

With endless encouragement to talk to people, to greet people, to play with other kids, Ray started saying good morning to his teachers, though the volume needs a 20dB audio amplifier at least. It shows progress. When he says 'Hi, Mr. Brian' to our neighor, the whole street can hear him.

Yesterday, as usual, after school, mom brought Ray and Tony to park. They met Sohen and his dad. Then Ray started talking to Sohen's dad while Sohen and Tony were running around. The extent of that conversation certainly was beyond mom's imagination. Ray even gave some idea when Sohen and Tony can come to his school and what they should be prepared. When it was over, Ray came to mom and said:'Mom, see, I talk to people. I am not shy any more'. In the evening, mom got an email from Sohen's mom. The email said, 'My husband told me Ray and he chatted quite a bit in the park'.
Ray certainly impressed all of us.

I can hold it for thirty seconds

Pre-easter weekend

Last year, Ray was still scared of Bunny. This year he couldn't have enough poses with Bunny. He picked so many egges but there aren't candies inside. Instead, he traded a goody bag with the eggs. It was definitely a beautiful spring day but we noticed the attendence was way below last year's level. Economy related?

The highlight this year is the train ride. Everything of this train was homemade. Ray'd like to stay on forever and he ened up with having three rides.

The next day, Ray went to movie theatre first time ever. Well, maybe add an adjective 'non-3D movie'. Ray felt asleep last year in Moody Garden IMAX 3D show 'the seamonster'. But now Ray was ready. Ray was so excited that he refused to step out to get popcorn as he was afraid that he couldn't come back in. The movie was "Monsters vs. Aliens". Ray finished the whole movie without stepping out once. And he enjoyed a bottle of juice and a lot of popcorn. He said he definitely will come back again. Well, you got to earn it with being a nice boy.

Attention stealer

This time the lens was focused on me and the attention was supposed to be on me. Look at Tony, he was stealing attention, just like he did in real life. This fellow is a master of getting attention. He is so dexterous with making a smile or a cry, then mom and dad yeild.
One thing can tell all. I was about five pounds more than Tony at his age, but dad never complained about his back pain back then.

Counting pretty Nandina berries

Ray was counting Nandina berries. Ray's procedure was: Take it, count it, then throw it. They are for birds.

virus attack

The only bad thing about spring is virus coming back. Tony was hit first, then dad (he was confused by Allergy), then mom, then me, then dad, then... I had fever and went to see doctor. Doctor generally don't give medicine. They just check and tell mom no ear infection, so you don't need to worry about it.
It is spring break time anyway. When I get better, we might go to some place fun. There is a little story about Tony's ER visit. I am kinda responsible for it. I'll let him tell the story.

a subconscious admiration

Dad told me the race story of turtle and rabbit last night. I was pretty into this story and the lazy rabbit made me laugh hard. The next day, I drew something with my canyon and surprised mom a lot. She didn't need my help to recognize what that was. Dad believed he made turtle my hero.

Financial crisis made dad a photographer

Taking photoes doesn't make you a photographer. Knowing how to use Photoshop doesn't make you a photographer. But Financial crisis can. Let me tell you why.

Sears photo studio used to be our place for some serious photos, like three month, six month, one year old etc. Never got fooled by taking one or couple shots, then we are done idea. Every time, we ended up with a bundle. They all looked so nice, but they are not cheap. However, we can only get paper copy so that dad had to scan them to share the photoes. What a hassle!

Engineers always think they can do things themselves, if they believe it is worth doing. Dow-Jones evaporated dad's 401K quite a bit. Consumer confidence went down. Everyone is thinking about cutting expense. Dad's company mailing list had a bunch of debates if they should turn off light when they step out of their office. It is a balance of saving bulb or saving electricity. Inspired by these kinds of debate, dad started thinking about how to cut expense at home.

We can not negotiate my tuition and fee in school. Dad is already driving a 35mile/gallon car. We can cut some LUXURY stuff. Going less to restaurants? Tough call as mom and dad do need some help some time. To go food really helps. Cell phone. A good call. Pay as you go is a better choice for mom and dad. They use landline phonte 99%. OK, what else? SEARS PHOTO STUDIO.

Dad equiped himself with a bulky Canon dslr. As his budget doesn't go beyond $2000. Actually it doesn't go beyond $1000. He could only go with EF-S sensor EOS series. Thus, it makes little difference between going with lest expensive XS and most expensive model in this class. At least it is the conclusion after his extensive research as an optoelectronic expert. He can talk to you whole day about this. Believe it or not, he even found the equation of calculating depth of field. Anyway, he is really serious.

OK, now look at what happened. He is obsessed with how to make nice photoes. High performance lens is a must. Kit IS lens is not bad but not great.You need this for that and that for this. Now he figured Canon and Nikon still could make money even if they gave you camera body for free. Lens prices are prohibitive but you need good lens. That is against his original intension of expense cutting. Thanks godness dad's job doesn't need air travel. Otherwise we are going to bankrupt if he wants to make an airplane.

Dad still got time to prove his decision was right or not with his photo product. Microeconomically, he still might save the expense without trading off quality of life. Macroeconomically, U.S. local market lost another piece of share to Japanese manufacturers.

One thing shocked dad is Canon dslr body and lens prices are going up lately rather than going down, which dad took for granted that consumer electronics price should always go down, down, down. Is dollar getting weaker? Man, let's think harder about expense cutting.

















(This picture was taken in a hotel room with Tony, dad shot without using flash. You cannot do it with a point-shot camera. Dad would proudly say)

Play dragon kite with Ryan