New Year's Goals

It is the New Year upon us and while I have never liked New Year Resolutions, I have always been a firm believer in New Year Goal Setting.

Thus, I hope to look back on this and see what actually transpires.

Here are my and Jo's hopes for the upcoming year.

Jeff's:

• I want Jo and I to be the parents of an adorable smart and healthy baby (or babies) by year's end

• I want Tiny Tycoon$ to be able to thrive beyond our expectations

  • I want to go full time for Tiny Tycoon$ by August, 2008, earning at least double what I am now per month

  • I want to have at least 25 schools using our curriculum by Dec 2008

  • I want my books and games to be an international success through great marketing

    • I want to finish the entire levels of Tiny Tycoon$ by April 15^th

    • I want to be able to publish the board game by early May

    • I want to have created at least 4 new board games to compliment the teaching system

  • I want to continue to find the best people for our company, increasing our team's potential

    • I want to find at least 1 other person for marketing and 1 other person for web site design

    • I want to create a passionate team of 2-3 people for game and curriculum development

• I want to start going to the gym and to get my weight down to 90 kg (198 lbs)

• I want to end my investment with N company and have my entire capital plus stated profit paid back by my birthday

• I want to increase my board game collection to over 85 games by year end (50 more)

• I want to take Mocha out for more walks – at least twice a week

Jo's

• Have a successful business, making over $2,000,000 NT by year's end

• To be healthy and have a healthy baby

• Have another dog

We shall see!

We hope your New Year is great and has many pleasant surprises!

Love,

Jeff & Jo

Merry Christmas to Everyone!

Merry Xmas All!


Jo and I would like to wish all of you a super bunch of holidays - Christmas, New Year's, Chinese New Year's - no matter which ones you are currently celebrating, we hope that you are happy, healthy, wealthy and wise, let alone can score lots of presents or red envelopes!

In a Snoopy style Christmas (Jo loves Snoopy):


Jeff and Jo

Jo's Trek to Taiwan's North Pole

Jo and I love hiking and mountain climbing, but we have very different ideas about what a good trip conists of.

For me, I would prefer to take a few days off work, don my backpack full of stuff, head to the mountain head and start hiking for - oh, say 4-5 hours is good. Then when we get to a nice scenic spot, set up a tent or things and either rest up a bit or make little treks around the campsite. Then head back after filling up with fresh air and great views. Of course, after this trek, you need about 1-2 days recovery to get back in to the working groove....

For Jo and most people in Taiwan, "hiking" is basically a full day of hiking, to rest a few hours, to wake up early enough to watch the sunrise and then hiking to another mountain about a day away. Then they return on let's say a Sunday and then go to work on Monday. Basically, I call it masochism, but Jo does seem to think it is 'fun.' Actually, to be fair, she openly says you either LOVE it or you HATE it (with like many things here).

I know I would fall into the HATE it category, but I am eager to test this theory, since I would love to see more of Taiwan.

And in honest truth, Taiwan is such a damn beautiful country that hiking through it would be great (however, I will also openly admit that Jo's stamina is most likely better than mine right now....).


Anyway, Jo recently went to Nan Hu area to hike in for 4 days. Basically, they hiked about 50 hours of the 96 total hours there! And even though exhausted on some parts, she and her group still had energy to take pics and enjoy the scenery (before crashing).

I really wanted to go, but I had to......work. Yes. Really. So while Jo hiked around Taiwan's North Pole in early December, I was hard at work on the computer....and such (but we won't get into that).

Here are some pics of her adventure!

Jo is in the Yellow Jacket

Anyway, I can't wait for my own trek to Taiwan's peaks. It may not be the ideal setting for me, but the scenery can't get much better.

Plus, I am a bit of a masochist myself!

Keep on trekkin'

Jeff & Jo

We Are Puzzle Geeks

I will now admit that I am a puzzle geek, mostly because Jo is one too!

I have completed about 8 puzzles (over 1000 piece) by myself in the time I have been in Taiwan and while it is not so many, it is a feat to juggle that and my computer games.....

Jo has also completed 10 (which surprised me - I thought just 2 or 3 - she really IS a puzzle geek!).

Anyway, for our anniversary we exchanged gifts and mine was a great old map puzzle - I am even MORE of a Map Geek, but that can be another post. Anyway, we recently finished and it was a fun geeky way to pass time.


So, THANX Jo for getting a great puzzle!

We will most likely have many more in the future....

In Geekiness,

Jeff & Jo

Our First Home During Xmas

We are excited to celebrate another Christmas (our second) together, but this one is special since we have our own house now. It does feel different. Just last year, we had moved into what I thought was a great apartment (with the jacuzzi), but that fell through due to the landlord screwing us, and then we moved into the apartment that the parents and Wendy saw when they were here, but that was also not to last long (for a much better reason - we bought this house!).

And finally we are here and it does feel like home, especially since the tree is up and some decorations are up (mostly from parents - thanx!).

Anyway, here are some pics of our first night after the setting up of the Xmas Tree.




Hope Everyone is having a great Xmas Prep time!

Happy Ho Ho!

Jeff & Jo

HAPPY FIRST ANNIVERSARY!!

Well, it is official!

Jo and I have been married for our first year! We got married in court a year ago today and then had the wedding dinner in Feb. to coincide with my parents coming, so today was a BIG day!

We both took off from work and just planned an easy day. Basically, exchanged some gifts and went out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants (Little Italy) and had a great meal. After that, we walked around both in and out and decided to head back home to relax and contemplate how we got this far....actually we saw a movie.

After that, I had to take Mocha for a walk since he was bouncing off the walls (literally) and then we just relaxed and sipped wine and chatted about the past year, our plans and hopes.

It was (and still is) great and I am so lucky to be the husband of Jo!

Here's to many more!

Jeff & Jo (and Mocha)

Well, we are in the middle of a pretty big typhoon now - bigger than others.

As I write wind is billowing all around us, the sky is grey and rain is going in seemingly every direction but down.

Actually, it is pretty cool, but I say that from my safe abode in Taichung, which usually never bears the brunt of a major storm (except once about 15 years ago, and coincedentally, I was studying in Tung Hai University at the time).

I usually work on Saturdays, but we only had half a day, thankfully. Driving home was interesting since I kept having to rebalance myself on the motorcycle from the winds.

Anyway, things are well here and now it is officially "Fall" season here and last night was the first night we did NOT use an A/C. And with this typhoon it should really cool things off.

Have a good day, where ever you are,

Jeff & Jo

Fun with Mocha

We have been having fun just being with Mocha and he with us.

He is quick to learn, but like most Huskies, is easily bored and needs a lot of stimulus. We usually play with him as often as we can and bring him up to our roof or out for walks, but we do admit that since we are busy, he has to find ways to enjoy himself.

So he usually bites everything that he can get his teeth on and even though in the beginning, we naively bought 'chew-toys', thankfully the cheap-ees are best - rinsed out plastic bottles, old socks and towels, and tennis balls taken from the land around tennis courts. He is gnawing on the leg of my computer chair as I write this, which is ok - it feels like I have a vibro chair now. Plus, about 2 weeks ago, he lost almost all his teeth and needs to get used to these big ones that prove he is a big dog now!

Anyway, here are some photos and vids of our big boy...

We have blocked him access to the living room - since he blessed the rug with an "angry" poop ( we think he was angry and purposely pooped there), so he now tries to be with us by hanging out on the sides of the sofa. When he is older, we will perhaps let him back in to watch movies with us, but he is quite content to rest on the cool tile floor instead of our rug.


This last one is a pic of Mocha's mom (on the left) and one of his sisters (on the right) - it was a litter of 9 pups in total. We think that Mocha will get pretty big - perhaps as big as the mother! He does indeed look like the mother.

This is a vid with Mocha and I playing.




This one is teaching him to stay.

That is all for now from our house!

Jeff & Jo

Mid - Autumn Festival in Wu Ling Park

Hi all,

Jo and I decided to get back into the woods over our 4 day holiday here called Mid-Autumn Festival. We decided to go to Wu Ling Park, about a 5 hours drive from Taichung on windy switchback roads through some of the most gorgeous mountain ranges anywhere and we just got back a few hours ago.

We did not go for 4 days since there was another typhoon warning, we figured at least a 2 day excursion would be enough and it was. Below are some of the pictures we took (the good ones are prolly Jo) with some write ups.

Mid-Autumn Festival or "Zhong Chiu Jie" is the most important holiday after Chinese New Year here and many families and friends get together to BBQ and hang out. We did our own little BBQ with some friends and then took off to Wu Ling Park. We can't wait to go back!

We are on our way to Wu Ling Park - a 5 hour trek through some of the most beautiful scenery, yet coupled with some of the most dangerous roads to drive on (at least for me - Jo loves it). Anyway, this is a shot from the car about an hour into the trip.

See that little line up the mountain there? That is our road and while you can see for many miles, you can also fall for many miles if the little girders didn't work. Course, I have to keep telling myself - look up! And it is weird since I am not afraid of heights, but while driving, it is different. Anyway, that cloud just rammed against the side and kept floating up!




Here is a vid of the area above.

This is a pic of another Cloud Sea since we moved above and below the cloud line on our travel.

This is a lake called Bi Hu that we saw after coming out of that cloud sea....(we are not even there yet and it is so cool!)

AH! We arrive at Wu Ling Park Recreation Facility, which has been in operation since the 50's. It was clean and comfortable and since we were the only people there besides another couple, we had a great time! (We purposely went on the last day of the holiday to beat the rush and took off another day as well! Great idea!)

Here is our first walking trek - up to a waterfall about 2 hours away. We arrived around 2 pm and did the trek to return just in time for dinner. Was a nice time to spend walking and communicating with the birds along the path. Oh, plus the waterfall was nice, too!

Here we are in front of the waterfall.

And here is a Vid of the waterfall (so fresh!)

We trekked a bit more the next day and just absorbed being surrounded by trees (and bugs) and very few people! Such a nice change from Taichung!

Just breathe...

In and .....


Out......


And the coolest thing of the whole adventure was seeing the moon on our night walk. I mean, that IS what Mid-Autumn Festival is for - to mark the Autumn Equinox when day and night are equal times (and just another time to eat lots of food!).
But imagine a crisp clear night punctuated with so many bright stars, plus the brightest moon that we have ever seen! Holy Cow! It was so bright we could see our moon shadows!
Jo did a great job taking the pics!

Ok, that is our newest news. I will try to get on more to upload vids and pics of Mocha, who is now almost 35 pounds!

Here's to wishing you all a great Full Moon Festival!

Jeff & Jo

Ok, more pics about our 'pre-kid' (well, that is what I have been calling Mocha).

No, he is only 'pretending' to look dumb.....the cheeky pup....

Thought we could get some vids, but will have to wait (is taking longer than usual to upload).

Anyway, he is peppy and active and even though at times he needs some disciplining, he is indeed loveable!

Hope you can meet him!

Jeff & Jo

Some Updates

Hola again!

I will just jump right in with some updates in lieu of apologizing for the lack of writing....

Mocha Related!

• Mocha is getting a lot bigger - heck - only in the 5 weeks he has been here, and has gone from 7 kg to about 12 kg (13 lbs to about 23 lbs) and this is only for a 4 month old puppy!
  
• He indeed has an attitude and is 'too' clever at times, but we love him for it and at least he knows who the Alpha male is (come to think of it, it might actually be Jo!)
• He also finally has gone through the potty training process pretty well (it will be supervision for awhile tho), and no longer is our house 'mined' with brown or yellow land mines. However, the thing we are working on now is when he gets excited to see us (or anyone, really), he can not control himself too well.....but that is ok, too...
• We have been compiling pictures and a few vids, but I will need more time for those!

House Related!

• Our Waterfall is coming a long nicely and Zak (our tenant) is creating a pretty nice zoo of sorts there: he has Hali, the German shepard, Chunky, the cat, and now has about 12 turtles in the waterfall area, 15 snails (to eat the algae, and some fish scattered around. Not to mention the plants and trees on the roof! We are still working on it, but since it has been so hot out, it is difficult to find good times to continue.
• We are getting to know the neighborhood better and - more importantly - many neighbors are getting to know us, since there is a distinct lack of foreigners living here, so my (and Zak's) movements are always noticed.
• We are working on putting of a curtain divider in our living room since the AC has to work too hard to cover the large space. We currently have 2 shower curtains hanging up, but it kinda has the 'tacky' feel, even though it is much more efficient.

Tiny Tycoon$ Related!

• We have got a few more classes lined up and are looking forward to getting things really rolling in terms of the business as a business entity come this fall.

Us Related!

• We are still working a variety of jobs, with the majority being Compass for me and Privates for both Jo and I. However, we are also looking into many more investment opportunities and helping others take advantage of them, so we shall see how things pan out.
• For some strange reason, I was not as hungry as I was before and lost about 10 lbs or 6 kg. However, thank god I am back up a bit! However, Jo would prolly not say "thank god...." more like "oh darn..."

Not much more than that -

-- Oh! -- About a week ago, another relative popped into this side of the world for a brief stay - Uncle Ed - and we meet up with him and another work associate in Taipei. He was also blown away by the moderness of Taiwan and I hope will return for a longer time so we can really show him how cool Taiwan is.


Our secret goal is to get ALL of my US based family to - at least once - pop on over here! Haha....come on, you know you want to!

Anyway, sorry for the delay again.

Best!

Jeff & Jo

Another Teeny Update!

We have another teeny update.....

...actually, I was waiting for Jo to take some pics before I posted and the previous post was going to be this one, but I was just stalling....(I can stall well).

Anyway, we would like to introduce you to our newest family member - Mocha!


Mocha is a 3 month old male Husky that we got from a friend of a friend whose mother had a litter of 9 pups. Jo knew I love Huskies ("Ha Si Chee" in Chinese) and it must have slipped out in conversation awhile ago with a variety of friends. This friend just happened to know the dogs masters and coincedentally saw a tired mother and lots of pups. He thought nothing of it, but then when the woman asked him if he wanted one, to please let her know. He then remembered that I liked Huskies and yesterday afternoon, we went to look, loved what we saw and took home Mocha.

We marked his birthday at April 6th; so another Aries!

As Jo and I were discussing if we really wanted a dog right now, we both were considering many things, but the main thing was that we both love dogs and it will definately make our lives more colorful...heck only in the last few hours, Mocha has added brown and yellow to our lives (in many places!).

Some of Jo's friends (women) all said that getting a dog now is not that good for the baby that everyone is hoping will pop out of Jo sometime soon, but Jo and I dismissed it since we are ready and raising a baby and a dog at the same time should not be TOO hard, right? haha.....anyway, there is NO news on this other topic.....

As for Mocha and his name....we talked about 2 hours about it - sigh.....but we both like the name and the sound and it even matches his colors!

At first, as is the tradition here, a dog's name usually consists of two same sounds and Jo was eager to have "Zai Zai" as his name - which to me sounds like "Lulu" or "Kiki" which I hate....so I said "No." Flat and simple. Then it was my turn to propose one and I love "Kodiak" or "Halifax", but Jo just looked at me and said "No" even flatter and simpler....

Jo: "MiMi"
Jeff: "Come on, that is terrible and a girl's name! No more double same names, please! How about 'Moby'?"
Jo: "Hmmmm, No. 'A Li'"
Jeff: "No. Too Taiwanese. How about 'Keiko'?"
Jo: "That sounds Japanese."
Jeff: It is Japanese, but it sounds cool."
Jo: "No."

....and so on....

Finally, I offered "Mocha" (or "Moka") and we both were silent a moment and nodded our heads. Yup, that is the one.

Mocha seems to be very active and a little dumb - what puppy isn't? - but only after about 15 tries, he now knows how to sit. We will work up from there, slowly. He is quite young, but also quite big and Jo remarked - Damn after 3-4 months, she may not be able to walk with him! Anyway, we both love big dogs, so this is certainly a rather interesting experience!

Oh, we talk to him in English, unless Mom is angry - then the Chinese comes out.....but all his commands will be in English - maybe later we will make him bilingual, but not now......

....Yay! We have a pup!

Here is some info about Huskies and some more!

Teeny Update

So our lives are getting back in the swing of things; with the apartment getting that "lived-in" look (which, as one of my friends pointed out means: you have a crap load of a lot of stuff!), work getting more stable (or as stable as private classes can get), and our other rooftop apartment / patio getting cleaned up.

As for the apartment, we have only done the little things to make it look nicer - like deciding which pics and posters to hang up, clean up nick nacks and put them away (geez, where did they all come from and why have they not found their way to the trash can?), and other minor details. I am still surprised, along with our friends that we have actually done the bulk of tidying in a relatively short time - going from the grime of having been empty for over a year to a pretty nice place was tough, but we realized Jo and I are anal about different things.

Jo is anal about actual dirt on things, like th floor and tables, whereas I am (perhaps a typical guy) not phased by this too much. Of course I will prefer clean things and do my part, but not at the extent that Jo does. I, on the other hand am anal about where things go, in terms of making it pleasing for the eye to rest upon, so to me, dirt and dust should be cleaned, but a pillow that is askew is more painful to me. Jo just rolls her eyes at this, but hey, this is where my gesalt reliance comes in.

Anyway, so as a team, we complement each other, especially in the case of apartment cleaning, with me doing the bulk of the moving and rearranging, and Jo doing most of the dirt cleaning. Plus, we just bought this cool contraption for picking up dirt / dust and other things off the floor. We used to clean our rug by using tape - to stick up the dirt, which works great (vacuum cleaners here are not that good we found and dislike using them). Anyway, we found a sticky roller contraption that Jo actually got excited over (typical woman, perhaps?) and now we both like to roll the floor dirt away. Ok, ok, little happys for little things.....

As for work, we are both doing myriad things.

Jo is working now with a friend to sell investment insurance as well as mutual funds, a topic that she excels in due to her high level math skills. It is a sales and commission job, so she is using the friend's numerous contacts to explain the benfits of this type of investing. She is also teaching both English and Math privately to students at a pretty good wage (I have mentioned to some before the high wages and low living expenses make living in Taiwan very ecomonical for my current lifestyle). Of course, we are also working on Tiny Tycoon$ together as well.

I am still working at a place called Compass English part time (full time is too constricting and is actually less money per hour), as well as my numerous English privates. The manager of Compass has been begging me to work full time, but as Jo and I were discussing it, we realized that by just adding another 4 hour a week private, I could manage the same income as working 15 hours there. AND, more importantly, I could have more time to spend with my lovely wife and she could have more time to spend with her great husband! So, no brainer.....

As for the rooftop patio, it is coming along, with many DIY projects in the works. The thing Zak (our friend and tenent above us) and I are working on now is the waterfall, that "ideally" will be quite nice when we finish. Zak has a knack for plants and projects like this, since in the apartment above, we are already putting in new windows, creating a kitchen counter and redoing the bathroom (in bits at a time). Owning a "tenent" apartment is interesting since you do have to understand the boundaries of who pays what....and we are all agreeing at this point.

Pics of Zak and the rooftop patio will come eventually.

Anyway, just a small update!

Our New House(s) - Buy 1 Get 1 FREE!

Ok, so as most of you know, Jo and I bought a cool house recently.

This was not too unexpected, since we had been looking (and researching the market here) for about 9 months, but the speed at which we agreed on a low ball price and the shock of having the guy accept kinda threw us for a loop since we were in the midst of preparing to go back to the states (I will talk about that in another blog - I will work backwards a bit...) as well as changing our working schedules.

Anyway, we both immediately liked the house as soon as we entered the place and knew that it was a good deal, especially since it was a "Buy 1, Get 1 Free" due to the additional 3 bedroom apartment on top of our 3 bedroom apartment that we currently rent out to one of my good friends.

To give you a taste of our timeline for the last few weeks....:

• We looked at the house in early May and agreed on a price a week later
• We then decided to move out of our apartment (which we thought we would be in for at least a year) in Mid May.
• Since we were planning to leave for the States on May 20th, we had to push the bank and the accountants to make sure all the paperwork was done before we left (no easy matter)
• We then set May 18th as our official move date and moved all day that day (Phew!)
• We had a day of rest (but not really since there was no place to rest in our place- too many boxes!)
• We left for the states on early Sunday morning and had a great time!
• We came back to an unpacked house on June 5th and sighed, especially since I had the Flu and was as good as worthless for moving things.
• Thank god we made at least one nook livable (our master bedroom area) and I was there for about 5 days recovering.
• Then on that Friday, we got the energy to start moving and simultaneously painting the apartment and did not stop for about 10 hours.
• I worked the next day and regretted the painting / moving effort
• We then spent a week of moving and removing and touching up and shuffling all of our things around to get room by room semi-livable.
• On this past Sunday, we finally were sitting on our sofa and said "I think we are almost there!" and we are.
• I started to write and post again.

So, ya wanna see some of our semi-livable pics?

Here ya go....

Here is our entrance area, when you first come in.



This is when you turn around and see our Living Room



Another Living Room shot
(you can tell I am getting old since 'my' spot on the sofa is where all the pillows are in the corner! haha.....)


Here you are in the Living Room, looking at our main door again and our Library.



Our Library is small, but is sort-of comfy....yes, those black hanging things are supposed to be a see through wall...



Our Kitchen is next to our Library and is very bright (and quite big!)



Another Kitchen Shot



And another.....

This is our master bedroom that is next to the Kitchen and we both chose the purple as our mood color.



We also have a guest room (so you are invited!),



An airy bathroom,



A cool Balcony (one of two - the other was too messy to show),




and our beloved Computer Room, where I am now slaving away......this is my side....



...and this is Jo's side

Hmmmmm, didn't I just get through bloggin about my OTHER apartment - the Wizard's one??? Geez, things happen fast sometimes.....

Anyway, we are still tweaking and working on things here (of course), but for the most part, we have about 80% done and are quite happy with the results.

I am not going to show our rooftop apartment and patio yet since that is still a whole other project, but I promise when it is nearing completion, I will be ciked to show it off......

Well, I hope you like Jo's pics and what we have done. She took these pics today, so it gives you an idea of the current state of things so far.

Please understand that I had to get my home readied before anything else and we were both shocked it took so little time - only a week or so of heavy shuffling! I thought it would take at least a month or so.....

Will try to post more later (course that is what I ALWAYS say....) haha.

Take care!

Jeff & Jo