This is my Valentines Day Card this year for Tiff, and she is coercing me to post it on the blog. Anyways, the end has a photo slideshow of pics from when we were dating. I did have fun making it, though.
A recent Fox News article reports that Chinese officials only have 500 more days to eliminate public spitting before proving to the world that they are a civilized nation at the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing. How will they enforce it? Well, officials hinted at posing fines on public spitters, but I'll be surprised if any of this will work. I've read horror stories of wintertime icy spit slicks near bus stops (and other areas of high traffic) that take down even the most careful pedestrians.
Adviser Zi Huayun declared the "four key bad habits of Chinese: spitting, not waiting in line, widespread smoking and swearing in the Beijing dialect." The first on their list to eliminate is the spitting, probably because it is the most atrocious, and noticeable, to foreign visitors. The Olympics Committee is really trying to improve their international image in preparations for the games.
I'll report back later this year about public spitting in Tianjin. Call me pessimistic, but I'm avoiding bus stops at all costs.
Last night, my friend Jeff treated Tiffany and I to an early birthday present and a magical evening with my favorite performer, Kurt Elling. The show was phenomenal! He has a new album coming out in the next few weeks, so he played mostly new songs and arrangements that I hadn't heard from him before. He, along with his accomplished collaborator/pianist Laurence Hobgood (and Rob and Willie on bass and drums) combined sweet melodic lines with virtuosic voicings, improvisation, poetry, and good ol' fashion Chicago grooves and jive. This quartet plays extremely tight together and have mastered the art of on-stage musical communication with each other.
Kurt is well-known for mastering the art of vocalise: writing lyric to inspirational hooks and improvised solos of past jazz masters. For his final song of the set, he sang his version of the classic "Body and Soul," which he interpreted the standard as a love song to his 17 month-old daughter (same as Ellie), Luiza. Needless to say, the entire concert was absolutely electrifying to say the least.
Anybody mildly interested in jazz needs to investigate Kurt (even if you are an elitist instrumental jazz snob), and see him live in their lifetime; It is an experience! I have been trying to see him for years and came close to making several trips to Chicago to see him live (he plays every Wed night at the Chicago Green Mill when not touring). We didn't think we would be able to see him for years. We are very fortunate to have Jeff and Cristi who surprised us by making this long time dream come true sooner than I ever imagined!
Kurt feeling the groove of legendary John Hendricks' "Soulfood."
Today when we told Ellie to fetch her shoes so we could go out, she pulled out MY shoes, slipped them on and proceeded to strut toward the door. We spent the afternoon at the BYU Monte L. Bean Museum--sure, the animals are no longer alive, but that failed to extinguish Ellie's amazement and curiosity. We stayed so long that Ellie missed her naptime window and we honestly didn't realize how whackered she was until we looked up the dinner table and there she was, sandwich securely clenched in one hand and beginning to drool through her open, slumbering mouth. 
I babysat a friend's 7-month-old a couple times recently and it was a blast to see how Ellie reacts to close contact with a REAL baby. Even though she became extremely jealous when I fed or craddled the other baby, she was generally very nurturing and excited to have a baby around. I was relieved to find that Ellie can actually be quite helpful in a big sister role. She obediently fetched the other baby's toys, binky, and diapers from the other room as I requested them, enthusiastically shared her dolls and animals (or pushed them into her face), and when prompted to use "gentle behavior," she lovingly patted the baby's head and rubbed her belly. Hopefully she'll be even more willing to help and nurture by the time Erik makes his grand entrance. 
Ever since Aunt Michelle's temporary absence (visiting friends in Portland), Ellie has found her life hopelessly DDR-less. (For those of you not in-the-know, DDR, or Dance Dance Revolution, is the only so-called video game I whole-heartedly embrace. It basically involves stepping on arrows on a special dance pad to corresponding arrows on the screen, all to the rhythm of your favorite tunes. I was a fanatic for this in high school, as are many Asians, but my skills are nothing on Michelle's, who tears up 19 high-energy songs in a row before stopping for air (oh, to be young (and not pregnant) again...).) We got Mish some new dance pads for her birthday and ever since, one of the highlights of Ellie's day has been joining Mish on the dance floor. Mish has been gone almost three weeks now, and Ellie has consoled herself by finding more and more DDR dance pad-substitutes, including everything from baby quilts to cutting boards to Bob's card pad to the laptop keyboard, when we're not looking. Needless to say, Mish: come home soon before Ellie destroys everything flat in this house!!!
Well, Ellie's affinity for all animals has been officially established. We had been noticing how much more attention she pays to her stuffed animals, her sincere efforts to produce animal noises, and how for the first time she sat captivated through the entire "Babe" film. So, it was time to get her her first pet. We visited the pet store for FHE a couple weeks ago and found she loved the birds, turtles, bunnies, and dogs. Thankfully, she was equally fascinated by the fish, so we settled on a nice, low-maintenance beta fish, which she affectionately calls either "fff!" or "ish!" Hopefully Sesame Street will help her merge these utterings. And despite Fishy's lack of appetite, things have gone quite well. Several times a day, including first thing in the morning, all she wants to do is say and wave "hi" to her fishy. Her enthusiasm is undaunted--perhaps it's good we didn't get her a more interesting pet--it might have been TOO exciting for her little animal-loving heart to handle.
