What I am Reading

I do not have as much time to read as I would really like to, as you would know if you saw the stack of books that I have that are waiting to be read. I recently finished reading "Rhett Butler's People" which prompted me to want to read "Gone With the Wind" again. It has been many years since I read "Gone With the Wind", so I wanted to read it again so I could see how the events in "Rhett Butler's People" lined up with those in "Gone With the Wind". Most of you have probably seen the movie, but the events in the movie barely scratch the surface of the events as told in the  book, even though the movie is  4 hours long. I have just started, but so far in many cases the events barely mentioned in one book are told in greater detail in the other book, and some questions that there might have been about Rhett after reading "Gone With the Wind" are answered in "Rhett Butler's People".

Pictures of Taiwan

I just spent the better part of an hour looking at the pictures that  Andrew made on his recent trip to Taiwan. He must have shown us at least 1000 pictures and they were all fascinating. Andrew got to see a lot of things on this trip that we did not see on our trip to Taiwan last summer. He and Jen-Yu drove around the entire perimeter of the island and he had some really interesting pictures of the eastern coast where the mountains meet the Pacific Ocean. In a lot of places the coast is really rocky and there is no beach. He had a lot of great pictures of the doors of houses which were decorated for the Chinese New Year holiday. I am going to try to get him to make a book from those like the one we made with iPhoto. I may try to get some of his pictures from him so I can post them for you to see.

No More Empty Nest

Daniel is back, with Magen of course. The lease on Daniel and Magen's apartment ran out, so they are going to be living with us until they go to France. They are not totally finished moving, but they have moved to the point that they are sleeping here now. Magen is getting everything in their space fixed very cute and she says she is going to post pictures on their blog as soon as she can, so you will have to check it out there when she gets it posted. Just click on the link on the left side of our page. Daniel says that he is much less messy since he has gotten married. Now we will see if that is really true!

Orchids

My orchid is blooming! I am posting a photo of my orchid on the right. No one has ever accused me of having a green thumb, so I think my orchid just likes the spot it is sitting in. This is the second time that it has bloomed in the last year. I am so proud of it. Of course, my little orchid is nothing compared to the beautiful orchids that we saw when we were in Taiwan last summer. I am posting some photos of the orchids that we

saw in Taiwan so you can enjoy them too.

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Xin Nian Kuai Le! Gong Xi Fa Cai!

For those of you who do not understand Mandarin Chinese (myself included) the title says "Happy New Year" and "Wishing You Prosperity" (I think).  This year the Chinese New Year is on February 7 (it is already 2/7 in China and Taiwan). Since New Year's is the biggest holiday of the year for the Chinese and my daughter-in-law is from Taiwan, she and Andrew have gone to Taiwan for the holiday which they are spending with Jen-Yu's family. The date of the Chinese New Year is the second new moon after the winter solstice, so it is a different date each year. Each year is assigned one of 12 animals on a rotating basis. This is the beginning of the year of the rat. People born in the year of the rat are said to be charming and ambitious, short tempered and sometimes sneaky. If you would like to know more about the Chinese New Year holiday, check out the following website:

www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/culture/lunar-ny/

Here is a picture of us with Jen-Yu's family: