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Shanghai trip planning part 2

Well, I did it.

I finally went ahead and booked a pair Economy Plus tickets for JY and me to travel to Shanghai at the end of September.

The EPA pass purchase went rather quickly, I was able to book my E+ seats the very next day. It’s not business class, but with the addtional 4-5″ leg room, I think we’ll manage just fine.

We met with our friend Alex and Jay today over lunch. Alex just came back from China, and he brought back tons of digital photos that he graciously shared with us. There are so much changes happenning everywhere in China. Shanghai especially, looks like a modern metropolis.

Alex got us excited about our trip, hopefully we can keep blogging while we are in Shanghai to share our trip with you guys.

BTW, a good United Aireline ticket consolidator in the bay area that we used for our UA tickets is May’s Travel in Oakland CA, here is her (May, the owner) phone number: 510-832-7128. May has access to low-price UA tickets, although they are still more expensive that Air China tickets, UA seats are slightly bigger, and they offer the E+ seats. From my dealings with her, she seemed honest and helpful.

Jay, thanks for the baby bath tub, it’s just the thing to get the job done.

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Naming my baby part 1 给宝贝起名之一

I never knew there are so many possible girl names. When I browsing through the baby name section at Borders today, I saw at least twenty books on that topic.

As you all know (for those who don’t, please read my previous posts), JY and I am expecting a baby girl.

I’ve been doing name search for quite awhile, and I’m trying to come up with a list of names so we can pick one we really like.

So far, the candidates look like this:

  • Angela Greek heavenly messenger
  • Janice Hebrew God is Gracious
  • Jane Hebrew gracious, merciful, God is gracious
  • Joanne Hebrew God is gracious
  • Libby Hebrew Consecreted to God
  • Lisa Hebrew consecrated to God
  • Nina Spanish, Hebrew girl; grace
  • Priscilla Latin from ancient times
  • Rachel Hebrew little lamb, an ewe, one with purity
  • Sarah Hebrew princess
  • Sharon Hebrew princess

JY and I want something easy to spell, sound pretty and not too popular.

Which name would you pick? or do you have other recommendations? Please vote with your comments.

我们还不知道中文名要起什么，如果你有什么好建议，也请告知。
Thanks.

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Local Artist

As you may all know, JY was trained as an artist from an early age. She has done quite a few sketches, oil, and water-colors. Lately, she’s been drawing those wonderful cards for people inside my church.

It just happened that JY has a good friend named Magdalene, she’s an aspiring local artist residing in Alameda. Magdalene invited us to “Art in the Park” at Jackson Park over at Alameda. She has a booth there.

JY and I showed up at around 1:45pm. The park is on the small side, however, it was filled with people. There were many local artists displaying their wares. There’s also poetry reading, although we didn’t have time to stay over for much of it.

Magdalene has one of the biggest booths, she’s busy talking to people non-stop. We went up to her and said hello. She actually got a chair for JY because she knew about her pregnancy. We sat around and chatted with her other friends for a little bit. There were cute kids and dogs all around (there were actually models for some of Magdalene’s paintings)

We then sampled Magdalene’s work. I must say I was very impress by them. Last time I visited her, I didn’t see as much paintings, but this time, under the natural light, her paintings look vibrant, full of life. I especially like the “tiger” one, it captured the motion and posture of the tiger perfectly. I actually made the comment to her, and she asked us to write it down on her guest book.

The weather was nice, the festive atmosphere was intoxicating. It was truely an enjoyable experience. For those of you who are interested in local art, I think “Art in the Park” is definitely worth attending. It happens once a year.

Here are some photos we took at the scene.

Here is JY with the artist herself:
ArtPark02

Here is JY, Magdalene and I:
ArtPark01

You can find a selection of Magdalene’s work (including the “tiger” painting that I enjoy) here.

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It’s a girl! 我家宝贝是女生

今天我和JY去照了超声波。整个过程差不多一个小时。
那个帮我们的护士边用超声波仪边向我们解释看到的图像，“这个是胳膊，那个是大腿 等等”. 我们开始时不知道在看什么，通过她的解释我们才逐渐能看出些端详。

JY and I were both very excited to see our baby for the first time. It’s indeed a miracle. We were told that the baby were progressing nicely, within the normal weight range, than her major organs as well as limbs are developing as planned. We actually got to see the little fingers and toes, they were tiny. One of JY’s fear was that the umbilical cord would wrap around the baby’s neck and choking her (she read it somewhere this could happen), we were told it’s not the case.

I’m still trying to calm down from the excitement I felt when I first saw the baby on the UltraSound monitor, before today it was just a concept, but now, it’s something I can see with my own eyes. Now the realization of the responsibilities and joys of being a dad also is sinking in.

We are going to make our travel plan soon since the baby’s indeed healthy and developing so well.

Please keep us in your prayers.

Here is our baby’s sonogram from today:

SonogramForWeb

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Shanghai trip planning part 1

JY and I are thinking of making a trip to Shanghai to see her parents. We still haven’t decided whether to go yet, it really depends on how our baby’s ultra-sound result come out.

However, for the past few days, I’ve been researching traveling options, trying to make the flight from SFO to PVG (Pudong Airport) more pleasant.

There are a few options. It’s a really hard decision. United charges $5000+ for business class fair, Air China charges $3,000+. I’ve been thinking about creative ways to get the tickets so we won’t go broke before the baby even gets here.

The best option right now seems like United Economy Plus. These are special seats on United that gives you a few inchs of additional space, which will definitely help. It will also make upgrade to business class easier if there are operational upgrades available.

United just came up with a new plan that will sell you one year of economy plus access for $299. It applies to a Mileage Plus account holder, and allows the account holder and a guest to book E+ fares. It even works with Award Tickets.

JY and I can sign up for E+, get two tickets in E+ for our trip, then take operaitonal upgrades if offered at check-in. It’s the best I can come up with.

There are actually other options. If any of you have 90,000 miles with United, please contact me, I’d like to see if I can purchase them from you so I can get a business class reward ticket directly. If you have any United System Wide Upgrades, talk to me as well, I may want to buy a couple from you for the E+->Business upgrade.

Pray for us that the baby will be healthy and that we can learn the gender of our baby tomorrow.

A very helpful website for frequent flyer programs:
FlyerTalk

United Economy Plus