Life in the year 2024

January
I am writing this post on May 20, 2024.  😊 Time flies. Jasmine turned 19. Jasmine started to enroll in Chattahoochee Technical College. From Automotive study, she now was aiming at Medical Lab Technology. Way to Go Jasmine!  I received the water bill that was skyrocketing. Again, this was due to the leaking old copper pipes outside. Unlike April last year that I could see the waterfall came out from underground, this time, the leak was clueless, but the water meter kept spinning. So, again, I had the new water line outside work done. (and I just did the whole house repiping in October last year. LoL)

February
Ducky came back from New Jersey on February 10. He got sick after coming back and I also got it from him. We both had similar symptoms like having mild sore throat and felt sleepy. On February 22, we bought tickets to Japan in November. We watched several of YouTube videos on Japan travel. We were so excited about the trip. There were lots of new information like Suica card, JR Pass, etc. Ducky also started to learn the word "Shinkansen". :)   BTW, "Suica" "すいか" means watermelon.  Ducky flew to Arizona on February 24.

Shinkansen - Wikipedia
Guide to Suica Cards - Transport - Japan Travel

March
Jasmine's granddaddy, Jimmy passed away on Saturday March 9. I took Jasmine to see grandmom the following day as her dad was not around. Then, Jasmine got Covid-19 on Monday March 11, so, we both did not go to the funeral being held on March 12. After a week, she started to feel better. Ducky came back from Arizona on March 21 and I went to stay with him from March 23 - March 30. He had colonoscopy done on March 25 with the happy result and come back for colo test again in the next 10 years. Ducky and I went to Dahlonega. He bought me a very colorful handmade dress from India and a hat from Nepal. I looked so cute with the dress and the hat. We went to see Mindy's Volleyball games at the World Congress Center. It was so good to see Duang, Dan and Minday from North Carolina. We also went to have dinner with Kevin, Amber and two of Ducky's friends. 

April
April 5, Ducky flew to St. Louis, Missouri. I started to get rid of stuff around the house. I got to drop off electronics, plastics and such at Jim Miller Park in Marietta as part of the Cobb County annual event. Also, donated at the Goodwill over my house area. 

May
May 4, Duck came back from St. Louis. I went to stay with him and worked from his house from May 5 - May 11.  Jasmine broke up with Will.  On Wednesday, May 1, I took Jasmine to her college for the final exam and to the GYN office after that.  "You should not be with someone who does not love you."  was really a powerful phase from the nurse that helped Jasmine to realize it is so true as what it says!  I gave Jasmine lots of big hugs and kisses, along with lending her my ears. There was nothing better than just to listen and listen without any judgement. Ducky and I took Jasmine to the airport for her Japan trip with dad on May 9. And I picked up Jasmine back from the airport on May 16. She had not been feeling well while ini Japan, so, she decided to come back sooner than planned. I finished First Aid and CPR online class and in person on Saturday May 18.  The certificate would last for 2 years until May 18, 2026. I had a new pair of computer glasses. 

June
(While I was trying to write my life in the year 2025 on Feb 23, 2026, I saw this draft.)
I went to Blood Mountain with Ducky. Ducky and I had been working on our Sunrise home marble installation in the kitchen.

July
Ducky and I continued to build our home. We worked on smart toilet and vanity in the master bedroom. Ducky also finished installing toilet and little sink in the powder room. We went to Booth Barn for Van Halen Night with Kevin, Amber, Chad and their friends. 

August
Ducky and I continued our house projects. We also moved guest bedroom suite from my Marietta house to Sunrise. 

September
We met Bill and Jiang Hua (Hanna), Kevin and Amber's neighbors.

October

Aunt Linda visited. 
Ducky helped to post furniture for sale on Craigslist and I sold below.
TV Stand $150 Mr. White
Loveseat and sofa $200 Alex - Later Alex helped me fix retainers over the side bush and I paid him back $200
Dining room set $200 Thomas
Flowers couch $100 Allen
Desk and Shelves $50 Lewis
King size bed $300 Larry

November
We went to Japan. It was quite a memorable trip, and I needed to have a separate writing about it. The best was we got to spend time with my Japanese mom and dad there.

December
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Sunrise EP 25 - Aunt Linda visited

After the hurricane Helene hit Florida on September 26 and moved up to Georgia and South Carolina, Ducky was sent to Greenville, South Carolina. This time he drove there.  He headed off on September 30 and stayed there until October 27. 

While he was there, the lawn crew leveled the front yard and the ground around the house and seeded the grass. Oh, I had to mention that Ducky had 19 trees cut in September and the stumps were glided so, the front yard was ready for the grass!

He drove back to water the grass couple times. I could imagine how tired he could be. 

Aunt Linda visited for 5 days from October 29 to November 2. Ducky took her to Dahlonega downtown, to Horseshoe Bend where he used to live with Kevin and Amber and to the Blood Mountain. We also went to hang out at Kevin's house on Halloween night. There, Aunt Linda and I met several new people. 

I did easy home cook for 2 nights as well; turkey stuffed acorn and fried rice with salmon. As long as it was not so spicy, Ducky and Aunt Linda could eat pretty much anything including my simple cooked meals. 😀

Aunt Linda had difficulty going up and down the stairs. I helped her go up most nights. Other than that, she looked very much in good shape at the age of 75 (she was born in 1949). She said she would be back again, maybe after the house is done done.  (When would that be then? 😁)

Hurricane Helene - Wikipedia
Hurricane Helene (/hɛˈliːn/ ^ⓘ heh-LEEN)^[1] was a devastating tropical cyclone that caused widespread destruction and numerous fatalities across the Southeastern United States in late September 2024. It was the strongest hurricane on record to strike the Big Bend region of Florida, the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since Maria in 2017, and the deadliest to strike the mainland U.S. since Katrina in 2005.<sup>[2][3]


New friends
Mike and Dianne - Amber's next door
Bob and Dana - Pirate house
Rick and Natalie - Carribean
Kurt and Jennie - Schneider
Emma - Vietnamese Canadian American
Lisa - she brought chicken</sup>

Sunrise EP 24 - The Wood in the Bathroom

We spent hours after hours to pick bath towel hooks. Etsy has lots of cute stuff from around the world. It was funny that when I was ready to hit pay, then, the page started to show other similar items the customer like me might like. And indeed, I picked the other one instead and we really loved it! We now had a huge tree to hang our towels and also little bears to help clean up the toilet. 

Sunrise EP 23 - Master Closet

September 2 was the Labor Day of 2024. That long weekend, we talked about doing a short visit to Ashville in North Carolina or Greenville in South Carolina. But we ended up working on the house project instead. And here's the beautiful outcome!

Sunrise EP 22 - Bill and Jiang Hua (Hanna)

On September 1, Amber invited us for a boat ride. It was very relaxing. Then, in the evening, she had her neighbors visited. They were Bill and Jiang Hua (Hanna). Jiang Hua was using a translation gadget. She said it would be 3 years in February 2025 since she had come to US. Ducky asked if she had an English name and that how we came to know the name "Hanna". I remember spotting her English name in her phone and it was Hanna without an "h" like Hannah. What interesting was, Bill did not seem to know that name. 😀

Amber told us that Jiang Hua was a great cook, and she served like 10 dishes for them. Jiang Hua told me that before coming here, she was not that good cooking but because the lack of understanding English language here, she needed to find an alternative strong point to be able to stand out in a certain way. 

Bill used to work in military for several years. He had been travelling around the world. He always had lots of stories to tell us. Some seemed to be confidential matters in the past. 😜 I did not catch all of what he said and could not remember everything. He was holding 2 citizenships. I could not remember what was the other one. It was a small country with political issue or so. He mentioned obtaining the citizenship by helping their government (I hope I got this right). Bill married a Japanese woman who was his first wife who passed, he divorced his Thai wife who owned a Thai restaurant Kevin and Amber dined in from time to time. And in 2024, his girlfriend (or new wife?) was Jiang Hua. He sure loved Asian women. Oh, and he could play guitar and sing very well. Maybe he could teach me guitar lessons. 

Jiang Hua was a very smart woman. She used to work as a key management for a Chinese company supplying bottles to Coca Cola. (LoL, I needed to check with Ducky if I remembered that correctly.) She traveled around the world as well. I would like to know but did not ask how come she ended up in USA and what she was doing for living here. Bill praised her along with raising the point that her dad was the first pilot of some sort of an important plane. Jiang Hua refused to talk about her dad mentioning it made her sad. She liked Guinness beer. She could shoot as well. Wow! She sure was a smart woman. How come she did not pick up English after living here for almost 3 years. Or actually she knew English but could not let others know about that fact. There were still some mysterious points to think about her. LoL

Ducky and I met Bill and Jiang Hua 2 times during my one month with Ducky at Sunrise. 

Well, that's not Bill though. 😀

Sunrise EP 21 - Convection Range

After coming back on August 20, Ducky had not been deployed until September 30. It was unpredictable. I thought I would only have 1 week with Ducky, and we also rushed to complete the master bedroom and bathroom, and the 1st move from my house within the 1st week he came back. Then, he was told that he would not be deployable until after September 19. I was so happy to hear that. So, we spent time to arrange things in the kitchen's cabinets. We shopped grocery and we did our first stove top cooking. 

I made easy fried rice as the first stove top cooking meal! My first time using convection stove! I also fried salmon and cooked beef stew with Chinese Five Spices powder on stove top. I was a bit surprise that when frying salmon, the oil did not splash like crazy.

My first bake good in the oven was Red Lobster Biscuits bought from Costco. I forgot to buy cheese to mix with it. I had to learn the oven, and the rack position being used was too close to the top. I later swapped the rack position and finally the biscuits were ready!  I needed to learn the oven more.

We made chicken casserole together. Ducky is my whipping cream maker. The casserole was a success with the oven. 😉

We did bake goods couple times; pumpkin bread/cake, banana bread/cake, and blueberries muffins. Some of these bake goods taste better the following day. I guess it takes time to absorb all the ingredients together. 

Ducky bought temperature measurement to sit in the oven. He learned that the oven is off by 14 degrees. I have learned that to wait until the oven is at the set temperature said in the measurement, and stick the mixture in, outside get burned in no time before the inside is cooked. There are several things that might contribute to it as well: the type of baking tray, the rack position in the oven, etc. When baking the banana bread/cake, we did our own way by setting to 350 degrees and waited 10 minutes to stick the mixture in and waited 30 minutes then, it was done nicely.  

I will definitely read about convection oven before I go to the Sunrise home next time. We have to practice couple more times to understand the oven. 

Oh, and I cooked Greek Chichen with yogurt and beef stew in the crockpot. We also enjoyed yummy salads. Apart from that, Ducky introduced these new drinks to me, Caucasian 😁 (White Russian), Daiquiri, and Umeshu with peach sparkling water.

Our first stove top cooking!

Our first oven cook!

Sunrise EP 20 - The 1st Moving to complete the Guest Bedroom

On August 24, we rent a moving truck from Home Depot and went to move the guest bedroom suite from my house to Sunrise home. We also moved couple other things like the black storage shelf from the piano room to the storage room at Sunrise. Kevin and Amber came to help. Phew. Thanks Kevin and Amber! 

I am writing this EP on October 12 and Ducky just told me that Aunt Linda is coming to visit from Oct 29 - Nov 2. I am glad we have the bedroom ready for her. I just ordered couple of queen size bed skirts. I hope one will fit!