Dumpling Day and Tuesday night Dumplings

This weekend our village had our second ever Dumpling day. A little different from the first one.
On the first dumpling day a year ago, we were anxiously waiting for Cindy to receive her referral. It was a thursday and we had been planning dumpling making for a few weeks in advance. However, when the day came, we already knew that Cindy was "in" for that month of referrals and she should have been getting her referral *that day*. By mid day, we had news that the DHL truck had broken down and the delivery wouldn't make it to Portland until the next day. Dumpling making that night was jubilant and anxious. We were excited for the next day and could not wait for it to be late enough to go to bed so it could *be the next day already...*
Dumpling making this year featured our very own little Dumpling....becuase, since we were making Dumplings the day we waited for her, she has been known as Dumpling. So this year around the table, we had 4 aunties, a Mommy, and a dumpling. We made around 200 dumplings, and Dumpling played with dumpling wrappers in the water making little balls of them.

Next year, we are hoping we have 1 Auntie, 4 Mommies, and 4 little ones... We can't wait for the time all of the girls will be old enough to learn to make dumplings with us. For now, playing with broken dumpling wrappers is enough. When they are old enough, they will join in with our Chinese New Year Preparations and help make dumplings and cook the Chinese New Year Feast.

This year we made 3 kinds of dumplings. Traditional Pork, and new this year- Vegetarian and Shanghai Soup dumplings, also called "Xiao Long Bao". When you bite into them, there is soup inside the dumplings. Unfortunate we ran out of dumpling wrappers so we were only able to make the pork and vegetarian ones. I brought the ingredients for the Xiao long bao home with me and last night I made another 125 dumplings. Cannot wait to try them!

Bad news in Photo Land

Well, the news is not good. The old laptop, currently home to more than 3000 of my photos, is not only officially dead, but it has bad segments. Which means the ordinary data transfer guys can't deal with it, and I need the super qualified data transfer guys. Who cost more than $59.99. a lot more. One quote was $250-$500 to recover them, anticipating it should be around $250. $250 to get photos of my dead computer. They want me to spend $250 on a DEAD computer. Dead. not to be revived.
The second quote was even worse- I told him I had one quote that was a bit scary, and he said yes, it is scary. Then he gave me a quote of $1200-$2400. I quickly told him that his quote was approximately 6-7 times SCARIER than the first one.

And, I don't currently have a card reader for my new laptop which reads my digital SLR card. So- hang tight, I promise there will be photos again.

And, there is a small bit of saving grace in all of this. Perhaps. I last backed up my photos around August this year. So everything before August is safe on CD's. And, I have not yet deleted the two now nearly full cards which are at least from Christmas in VT and I think the Secret Mei Mei party in Portland, which is in the realm of another 800 photos. So those too are SAFE. But my Nov. China trip, Thanksgiving, Sharon's birthday, and my "can't believe the baby's not here yet" vacation to Paris & Amsterdam pics.....all hanging out in dead computer purgatory....sigh....

I'm Back

I've been terribly remiss in my blogging lately, as Sharon kindly pointed out to me. Yes, I know. partially because I've felt uninspired since I seem to blog about everything except The Wait. Partially because I frequently wonder whether The Wait will ever turn into The Family. And partially because I've been one busy girl with a whole lot of stuff.
Here is what has been going on in the last month- briefly:
Christmas- I made 7 pair of felted slippers for all the waiting mama friends & a few with little ones at home already, they are adorable little mary janes with pearl buttons and are pretty darn cute if I do say so myself...but 7 pair, took a bit of time! I have a few more pair to go for people who didn't get them on the first go around... I also went to Vermont to visit the family & had a nice time, got to play with my friend's 9 month old daughter and spend some serious Auntie time with my niece Molly. Good times. Right up until it was time to come home....the weather was beautiful and there was snow all around for the entire week I was there. On the day I was leaving, there was a storm coming up from the south, promising 1-4 inches of snow. By the time I arrived at the airport, it had barely started snowing, but it had started. My flight was supposed to leave 2 hours later, but add in that JFK was "busy" so we were delayed, then our flight was oversold, then we were overweight for the weather, we were on the airplane, we waited, we got de-iced, then we were off the airplane and several hours later put onto a 6 hour bus to JFK. Arriving at JFK at 2:30 in the morning, people actually showed up about 20 minutes later and gave us boarding passes, and I think by accident, hotel vouchers. I got to the hotel and had 3 hours of sleep before needing to be back at the airport again, but also, a SHOWER and new clothes. By this time I had been re-routed to Atlanta, so I flew to Atlanta, sitting next to two other men whom I had met in the Burlington, VT airport who were returning to San Francisco. In talking with them, I learned they did NOT get a hotel voucher, and most people stayed in the Terminal all night! Oh I realized I was lucky indeed. They must have realized they were not supposed to be giving out vouchers, but as I had the foresight to go get right in line as soon as we arrived, I had been first. Sometimes I truly think I lead a charmed life. Arrived in Atlanta to begin my 5 hour layover in Atlanta, which then turned into a 6 hour late as my plane was delayed yet again. Arrived home 31 hours after arriving at the Burlington airport. Drove immediately (at 9:15 pm on Friday) to my classmate Jeff's house, as Paul & Simon were in town & this was the night of our big group dinner (which was supposed to have been at my house at 6:30 pm!). Fortunately, there were plenty of our teacher's Dumplings left (YUM!) and lots of other fantastic chinese food!
The next day was our secret Mei Mei Party with our single adoptive families group in Portland, the "larger village" group. Had a wonderful time and loved seeing all of the girls playing together! We did an ornament exchange for the adults (very fun! I LOVE my ornament!) and a gift exchange for the little ones.
For the next two days I planned & Shopped and baked, and on New Years day I had my annual new years brunch. There was plenty of food and I was surprised later to realize that throughout the day, 50 people had been at my house! And even with that, I had sent leftovers home with a few different people, and put leftovers in my freezer to save for later! A very fun time, and my favorite way to start the new year!
The next day Cindy took her first out of town trip with her friend Connie since Dumpling came home, so I took care of Dumpling for 1 day (a morning, evening and the next morning), and Heidi took care of her for the next evening. I had such a wonderful time, I did not want it to end! I hope this little girl knows how very much all the aunties love her! She is the sparkle in our eyes!
I spent the next week and a half organzing photos. I had about 1800 photos which were "uncategorized" in Photoshop, so I spent time nearly every night organizing photos. I finished and the next day my computer crashed. And, it crashed in a big way. I called around & the advice I got was, "based on the age of your computer...if you have the means, now is a good time to buy a new one..." Okay, certainly not what I had planned, but okay. It was time. I had planned to buy a new computer in 2008 anyway, just.....in a few months... Ah well. So- off I went computer shopping. Compared Apples & PC's and decided (after a 45 minute tutorial with the Apple guy) that I needed a PC. Interesting as by the time I arrived at the apple store, I was nearly certain I needed an apple, but by the time I left, I was certain I did not! I ended up with a Dell Inspiron 1420- RED. Very exciting! Had to order it online, so I ordered it and waited. Last Saturday was Dumplings 3rd birthday, and first birthday since she has been home! Cindy did an amazing job for her first kid's birthday party, and we had a small 'after party' with the 4 aunties at her house after & watched Dumpling open gifts. We the 4 aunties went in together on a gift for her- we bought her a kids digital camera- which, I am pretty sure was a major hit! Last Sunday I flew to Germany for work for a week. I was there just until yesterday, Friday, and just arrived back in Portland on Friday afternoon. Just a short trip, although I could have used another entire week there! Had a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it in!
Was happy to find my new RED computer waiting for me when I arrived, so I set it up and started using it! Very exciting! I need to take it to the computer place to get all my data transferred, but I'll do it on Monday, as I don't think the person is there this weekend anyway, and it would just sit. So, I may as well use it and admire it while I can before leaving it to get the data transferred.

But, that explains why there are no photos here. They are all in dead laptop purgatory, or on my camera (My card doesn't fit in this computer, I need an adapter...)

Today is Cindy's birthday, so it's time for me to get in the kitchen & get going on the cake!!!