While the kids are sleeping, I am sitting on the blue sofa and looking out the rainy, snowy, dreary sky. I used to observe my father-in-law doing the same not so long ago. I miss the man.

1. Thu Phương – Hà Nội và Tôi: Thu Phương crafted a concept album of her very own Hà Nội.
2. Giang Trang – Lênh Đênh Nhớ Phố: Giang Trang’s simplistic approach brings out the pure beauty of Trịnh Công Sơn’s music.
3. Thanh Thảo – Nonstop 2012: Bạc Trắng Tình Đời: Thanh Thảo and producer Bảo Lư pumped out one of the hottest club joints in 2012.
4. Thủy Tiên – Ra Đồng Giữa Ngọ: Thủy Tiên returns with a solid Trịnh Công Sơn’s songbook.
5. Quái Vật Tí Hon – Đường Về: A rock album filled with original, engaging storytelling.
6. MTV – Nếu Chỉ Sống Một Ngày: This album marks a tremendous growth for MTV group from being a banal pop-rock boy band to a matured, lyrical rock group.
7. Đức Tuấn & Vựa Lúa: A fun, youthful album with various experimental group singing.
8. Dzoãn Minh Vol.7 – Xa Vắng Người: A solid, romantic album focused on Ý Nhi’s music.
9. Lâm Thúy Vân – Bảy Năm Mối Tình Câm: A soulful, straightforward cover of standards from Lâm Thúy Vân.
10. Hiền Thục – 3:15 PM: This album demonstrates Hiền Thục’s commercial success.

Dan’s blood test result is in. He’s moderately allergic to white egg, milk, soy and shrimp. He’s highly allergic to peanut. The doctor subscribed 4 packs of EpiPen for both kids and recommended to take them both to allergy pediatrician.

True be told, I never paid much attention to allergy until I become a father. I am either lucky or don’t know any better because I can’t think of a type of food I can’t eat, but I can think of what type of food would give me diarrhea. I can’t imagine what it would be like if I have food allergy. The positive outcome would probably be I wouldn’t get so fucking fat. Lately I have been getting so ridiculously hungry at night and I always ending up eating something around one in the morning.

Now the kids have all kind of food allergy. I really feel bad for Dan because he loves food as much as I do. He would eat anything we give him. So now we have to eliminate food that he’s allergic to. Fortunately I don’t care much about peanut. I wouldn’t miss it if I don’t eat it again ever.

Last night Cu Dan woke up every two hours and refused to go back to sleep. The only way to get him to settle down again was to lock ourselves in the bathroom with the fan turned on and rock him in my arms. In order to keep me energetic, I jammed Thanh Thao’s remix in my headphone and it felt like I was in a club again. The room was dark and the music was pumping. The only different is that I was getting my groove on with a baby instead of a chick.

My car stereo died on me last week; therefore, I have been commuting with no music. This evening when I parked my car at Dao’s daycare, I put on my headphone and listened to Thanh Thao’s remix album for ten minutes before picking him up. Once we were in the car and driving home, one of the songs stuck in my head so I sang out loud: “Thà là bỏ đi hết ta làm lại từ đầu / Thà là bỏ đi hết ta chẳng nợ gì nhau.” Dao immediately told me, “Daddy, don’t sing.” I asked him why and he replied, “I am allergic to your song.” I flipped out hysterically. That has to be one of the most hilariously sad criticisms I have ever heard.

Hôm nay là ngày cuối trong văn phòng của năm. Hai tuần đến phải dành trọn thời gian cho gia đình và ngủ bù. Không blog, xem email, Facebook hay Twitter nữa. Chúc các bạn một mùa Giáng Sinh vui tươi hạnh phúc.

Lại thêm một nạn nhân của ung thư. Căn bệnh hiểm nghèo đã cướp đi một giọng ca hiền hòa của nền âm nhạc Việt Nam. Mông anh trọn một kiếp đam mê.

Hardcore designers and developers tend to giggle when I tell them that I am still using Dreamweaver for my editor. It doesn’t bother me at all as long as I still churn out impeccable markups. I have been using Dreamweaver for many years because it comes with the Adobe CS suite. Why not just stayed with the whole Adobe line? I tried Coda in the past, but didn’t really get into it.

Coda 2, however, is a game changer for me. I started using it a couple months ago and getting a hang of it. I made the switch because Dreamweaver has become way too slow. Firing up the same file in Coda 2 and Dreamweaver CS6 and the result is quite drastic. Coda 2 launches much quicker. One thing I still don’t like about Coda two is the preview. I keep previewing my CSS and js files by accident. I still like to preview my page in real browser like Chrome or Firefox.

Now I find myself using Coda 2 more and more and Dreamweaver less and less. By the end of this year, I should uninstall Dreamweaver to avoid accidentally launching it.

Not sure what prompted me to ask Dao, “Are you a train?” He replied, “No, you silly. I am not a train. I am a people. I have feet. Trains don’t have feet. Trains have wheels.” Sounds like he made his case clear.

As we were stuck in traffic on our way home yesterday, Dao said, “Cars please move out of the way so we can go home.” I asked him, “Why do you want to go home?” He replied, “So I can see my mommy. She’s my best friend.” I asked, “Am I your best friend?” He said, “No, I am not your best friend. Baby is your best friend.” I said, “Oh I see. Baby is my best friend. I miss my baby.” He said, “And I miss my mommy.” He made his case once again.

The other night, Dao took a dump in the potty, got up and shouted, “Daddy, daddy, I pooped butterfly.” I took a look and his shits somehow curled up like a shape of a butterfly. I invited my wife to take a peek and we laughed hysterically. Dao actually is more of a visual guy than me.

The funny thing is that Dao poops a lot even though he hardly eats much. On the other hand, Dan eats everything and yet he poops so little. He does only once a day and his shits look like chocolate chips (the ones that you put in cookies). The biggest he created is about the size of a Hershey’s Kiss. Sorry if I ruined your appetite.

By the way, our little Dan has started to walk. Love seeing him taking his first steps.