Huahai and I have just returned from our first trip together to Italy. The trip itself was wonderful and unforgeable. However, it usually took a lot of planning for such an extensive trip, unless you hire someone else to do it for you or join a tour group.

We usually …

I was looking for buying birthday cakes for the cats' birthday. Surprisingly, although it is very easy to find dog bakeries, there seems no existence of a single cat bakery. Luckily, a single Google search online brought up many birthday cake recipes for the cats. I picked one simple recipe …

We are getting rid of our front lawn --- to save water and money!

A landscape designer helped us did the design to convert our front yard from an old deteriorating classic English garden into a vibrant modern garden full of native plants.

Given our shoe-string budget, we plan to do …

The old master bathroom is dark and ugly, with only one sink and w/o tub.

We wanted a master bathroom that is modern and bright, and at the same time with a sense of Zen. We also wanted it to have two sink and separate shower and tub. Three …

China is a fast-changing country. Not surprisingly, the list of popular gifts for Chinese family, relatives and friends keeps on changing as well.  When I return to China, I always do some extensive research to gather an updated shopping list of gifts to buy. Here is a summary based on …

I am consistantly looking for new ways to entertain the cats, as they get bored with their toys very quickly. One new toy I have recently bought for them is Hex Ant.

I tried it during the cats outdoor time.  Mayori completely ingored it, while Tom was obviously attracted to …

The old cat tree of Mayori and Tom were bought nearly 4 years ago and has started to show its age. I have been shopping for a new cat tree for a while now. I need something that is nicer than the typical carpet covered cat tree and goes well …

Mayori is mostly a very sweet girl. However, she can have evil eyes as well. Look at the follow photo when she wants to hunt to the toy mouse. She certainly looks more like a leopard than a domestic cat!

Mayori and Tom grow up together ever since they were still little kittens in the shelter. However, they still love to fight, especially for the best spot for window-watching the outside.

Tom shows off his Samba dance skill.

As a cat, Mayori has impeccable taste, as represented by her favorite furniture in the house --- a Bertoia Diamond Lounge chair.

It is certainly a modern classic and a piece of highly functional cat furniture as well – Mayori can attack Tom easily from all different angels and only need to …

Tom shows off his catch and his big paws.

Mayori loves drinking fresh-served water, especially from a wine glass. Obviously she believes that is the right way to drink water for a cat princess.

Mayori loves to play hide-and-seek with us. The top drawer of our dresser is now her new hiding place.

Cat in a pizza box?

Either Mayori believes that she tastes better than the fresh baked version or that she believe that she needs a new bed smelled like fresh baked pizza. Either way she obviously enjoys the pizza box. 

I have accumulated over 60,000 miles on British Airlines Executive Club reward account for a while now, but keep on having problem redeeming them. First of all, it is difficult to find any reward flight available; secondly, the fee is extremely high --- for a flight from SFO to LHR …

This is the first time we have even been to a cat show. We have enjoyed it a lot!

The show cats are all very tidy and cute. Too bad that spectaculors like me cannot touch or pet any of them. :(

But I still love my kitties adopted from shelter …

Tom is waiting for Santa ...

Mayori want to be Santa's little helper ...

I have been waiting to try the Tofurkey for a few weeks ever since I saw the ad from Trader Joe about it. So I finally tried out on Thanksgiving.

This is what Tofurkey looks like out of the box. Then I cooked it in the oven. It tastes better …

Finally, after our trip to China this year, we got our wedding gifts from Huahai's parents --- a special Olympic umbrella. 😛