Lunar New Year Festivities

People are celebrating Lunar New Year, The Year of the Horse 2026. South Coast Plaza, an international tourist destination mall in Southern California, has beautiful decorations and captivating displays. Me and my husband went and a couple of days later, a friend who is a former coworker sent me photos of what she saw there. South Coast Plaza put a lot of work into their invitation for people to see and interact with their take on LNY. People in historically Chinese-style dresses were taking pictures because visually there were highly inviting photo opportunities. I liked seeing people posing for pictures - their photos are going to memorable.

I decided to take pictures of the Horse statue featured by Macy's. I felt like I was on the outside looking in and the in was fascinating. Red is big for LNY. I'm not very familiar to the holiday but think the traditions are certainly intriguing. Here's the photo I took:

I asked a friend whose parents are from Taiwan about LNY and red envelopes. Her description of the red envelopes given out around this time, typically to children, and sometimes for adults makes me smile.

These envelopes have good things inside: money or a gift card or something to brings joy and well wishes for the year. South Coast Plaza marks this Year of the Horse as February 17th, 2026 to March 1st, 2026. My research, which consists of asking another friend who has gone to Asian Garden Mall in Westminster during their LNY celebration, and asking Google and Duckduckgo, states the date as being February 17th, 2026. I'm sure there is a lot more info on different sites and tons of books. The holiday is pretty interesting, don't you think?

Winter Olympics 2026: Milan Cortina

 I'm going to do what's possible within my timeline: watch as much Ice Skating as possible. So far, I've seen Team USA win. Ilia Malinin executed quads, as was expected, given his nickname, "The Quad God." The ice skaters from Japan and Georgia really impressed me, especially Kaori Sakamoto, the women's gold medalist. The Individual Competitions will be next week. 

ALDI has helped me

 So, some time ago, Trader Joe's discontinued their Spicy Brown Mustard. I wrote TJ's, and that did nothing. The employees were predictably empathetic about the discontinuation. On social media, people were willing to suggest similar mustards. Somehow none of them were satisfying enough. Yeah, first world problem, I know.

Finally, a good enough solution has been found. ALDI, related to TJ's, was selling their Spicy Brown Mustard and I am using it to my satisfaction. Whew. It isn't the same, of course, but the taste is comparable. 

Happy New Year

 May your 2026 be happy. May you be healthy. Here's to a year of possibilities. My weightlifting continues and the number of repetitions is fine. The weight itself is still not where I need it to be, but in time the number is going to be higher. 

I'm really glad my friend told me about weightlifting. Sports like swimming and tennis are a really good workout, but lifting is more convenient these days. I look forward to swimming soon. Weather may become nicer this week. Last week many were surprised by rain.

That's another good thing about lifting. If it's raining or snowing or too windy, it's easily doable. 

See you back soon!

Christmas Eve

My Christmas Eve includes unexpected rain. Thankfully people didn't drive horribly. All was well within the parking lots and streets. Whole Foods was busy, 99 Ranch Market was not. This was one of the few times this month that I needed to wear a rain jacket. Come to think of it, I haven't worn one for most of  the year. 

Happy Holidays and I hope to write more soon.

Weightlifting!

 A friend of mine kindly and generously told me what I needed to know. We email or text each other about things every now and then. I wanted to find out a good way to be and stay fit. She told me she lifts weights.

So I have been lifting weights, working gradually. Thank you, C for telling me about lifting! 

Also, Thank you to E, M, and S for the suggestion of "Yoga with Adriene," on YouTube. She has an interesting style and her dog looks nice. A buddy of mine from India told me his opinion on yoga. He thinks it's for mental health. He runs and does cardio. Thank you, M for sharing your experience.  

Thank you to E, who worked with me - you know stuff about fitness. I don't think our paths will cross again, but who knows?  

Book review: Tan's Donuts by Maya Cheav

 I read Maya Cheav's book, "Tan's Donuts," weeks ago. The review wasn't one to publish immediately  because I wanted to give thinking about how to write my review more time. Cheav's book of historical fiction about a Cambodian donut shop owner was thought provoking. The setup of the book was creative. Different donuts sold by his store are used to describe his customers and he delves into memories of his life in Cambodia, and how he was affected by the regime of the Khmer Rouge. 

I would like for the book to be read by many because the stories are an intriguing read. What I read made me want to seek out more information on Cambodian history. 

"Tan's Donuts," is a powerful collection of short stories. The thoughts, memories, and feelings described hit hard. I was captivated. 

My purchase of the book was through Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Tans-Donuts-Chestnut-Review-Chapbooks/dp/1965158102 

- This is not an affiliate link - my review is not part of a promotion and I do not receive any profits from purchases.

I also did some research and found the following website: https://mayacheav.com/tans-donuts 

- Again, this is not an affiliate link, and I do not receive any profits from purchases. My review is to give my opinion on a compelling book I feel is important. I sincerely hope people read it.