We’re returning Cu Dao’s grandma back to grandpa this weekend after spending more than a year with us. Gone are the homemeals after work. Gone are the beautiful flowers around the house. Gone are laughter and the joy of having her around.

A year later and grandma remains the closest to Cu Dao. In a year she had spent more time with him than any of us. I can’t thank her enough for what she had done for us. At times I felt so guilty that she had to look after him for me and Dana to catch some sleep. We were just too damn tired. I don’t know how she could keep up with his energy for ten hours a day and I never see her fuss or complain. Duke smiles often and grandma has something to do with that.

After a year of living in the same house with grandma, one thing I had learned is her easy approach to life. She doesn’t allow anything to stress her out. She lives and works with what she has. For instance, she cooks with whatever we have in the kitchen. Unlike my mom who has to have all the right ingredients, she just substitutes whatever that needed to make the dish taste right. In way her, her cooking is quite creative. She approaches to anything else that way; therefore, her life is very laid back. She doesn’t need much to feel happy. I really admire that quality of her and I am learning to apply that lifestyle into my own.

Thank you mom for a wonderful year. We will miss having you around. If you miss Cu Dao, you are welcome back any time.

Doan Minh Duc was born with his digest system hanging out his gut. The operations caused his family everything. At times, there was no food so his grandma had to feed him water mixed with sugar. Duc’s dad died in a work-related accident trying to make money to cure his son’s rare defect. The heartbreaking story could be read in Vietnamese at VnExpress.

Looking at Duc makes me think of Cu Dao, especially those round eyes and big ears. I am very fortunate that Cu Dao doesn’t have to go through the pain that Duc is going through; therefore, I really do hope that little Duc will get a chance to live a normal life. Information on donation is at the end of the article, please do what you can to help the poor little boy.

In an interview (1, 2 ,3) with Kristine Sa, Cathy Viet Thy was in tears when speaking about her public divorce with Johnny Tri Nguyen. She said that she was not attracted to him back when he started noticing her. Based on his old photos, I could see why. Johnny had some really girly hairdo back in the days. If Ngo Thanh Van saw him back then, he would had no chance. Viet Thi had done changed the little boy’s appearance by dressed him up and gave him a haircut. Still, a little boy is still a little boy. It’s time to let the little boy go and find herself a real man. I doubt that she will have a hard time finding one. Even though she has some wrinkles around her eyes from crying, she is still one hot MILF.

The double-set Highway Rider showcases both of Brad Mehldau’s pianistic virtuosity and artistic versatility. No matter what setting producer Jon Brion placed him in, Mehldau could transform his style and make his piano flows. Backing up by the crisp, hip-hop beat, he gets his swag on in the title track. His playing is no less addictive on the Latin-flavor “Capricco.” Saxophonist Joshua Redman shows up on “Don’t Be Sad” and makes a remarkable impact with his achingly beautiful soprano. From the lively orchestra to Mehldau’s dissonant chords to Redman’s gorgeous tone, the classical-jazz “We’ll Cross the River Together” is the composition that defines the album. Highly recommended!

Two of my favorite jazz legends died a week apart. Jazz singer Lena Horne left us Sunday a week ago at 92. Jazz pianist Hank Jones left us yesterday at 91. RIP Ms. Horne and Mr. Jones.

Let’s listen to Lena Horne’s “Stormy Weather” and Hank Jones’ “In a Sentimental Mood.”

Another weekend came and gone. I hadn’t done much except working around the house and spending time with Cu Dao and Dana. Thanks to Popeyes’ chicken and Corona on Saturday, I mowed the lawn so my house doesn’t look like a forest next to my neighbor. She has people cut her grass twice a week. I do mine once every two weeks.

Thanks to Popeyes’ chicken and Corona again today, I cleaned and organized my house. Being a freak of a minimalist, organizing the house is a bit of a challenge for me. I always have a hard time figuring out where I should store things. It’s a choice between throwing things out or put them somewhere and I would never find them again. Sometimes I just stood there stare at a particular thing for like fifteen minutes and still didn’t know what to do. At times I just wondered around the house like an idiot and not knowing what the heck I should do. That was when I needed Corona. It really helped clear my mind.

Spending time with Cu Dao was the most joyful part of the weekend. I enjoyed dancing with him to Hoang Thuy Linh’s album. That album is now stuck with us. No matter what mood he was in. He would move his body as soon as he heard the beat. We hung out at the bookstore while Dana went grocery shopping. I picked up some graphic design books to flip through while Cu Dao played around in the children section.

That’s pretty much how I spent my weekend. The other day, someone asked me what do I usually do for fun. Beside spending time with Cu Dao and Dana, I couldn’t think of anything else. I guess it doesn’t take much for a boring guy to have fun.

Last night, everyone slept well including Duke. He pulled through the night for the second time since the day he was born. Yesterday I packed quite a bit of fat food inside my body. In the morning, I had a coffee and a coffee cake at Starbucks. At noon, I had a hamburger and fries at the Foggy Bottom Pub. Around 4PM, I had a big piece of cake at our student worker’s farewell party. At dinner, my sister-in-law’s husband brought over a box of Popeye’s chicken. I had a Corona to wash down the fried chicken. After dinner, I felt mad sleepy. After giving Cu Dao a bath around 8:30pm, we went straight to bed. I woke up around 1:00am to cleaned the dining table and do the dishes. After that, I went back to bed again. Duke and Dana were still sleeping. I was surprise that Duke didn’t make any sound at all the whole night even though he moved around like the hand of the clock.

To cope with the previous night, I had three cups of coffee yesterday. One in the morning, one at noon and one at night to complement the last piece of chocolate cheesecake that had been sitting in our freezer forever while watching Glee, which has becoming my favorite show. Still, I was ready to catch some sleep by midnight.

At two in the morning, Duke started to fuss. His infection bothered him and he couldn’t sleep. I woke up and felt like I had a hangover. My head was pounding. I tried to calm him down, but didn’t work. I picked him up and wrapped my arms around him. He slept on my shoulder once again. Unlike the previous night, I could barely walked. I tried my best to keep him sleep in my arms for half an hour. I thought that he was already deep asleep so I put in down. The little guy woke right up.

I gave up and handed over to mommy. Duke continued to cry and woke up grandma as well. Grandma took him over to her bed, his mom followed, and I just got knocked out. This morning, Duke looked so scrawny that his eyes appeared to be big.

I got a call from Duke’s teacher checking on him. It turned out that the daycare closes next week, not this week. Dana had looked at the wrong calendar. I might have to take off a couple of vacation days look after Duke since grandma will be gone this week.

Last Friday evening, I had an opportunity to meet up with one of Ngoc Lan’s devoted fans and she introduced me to Thai In Shirlington. She recommended the drunken noodles and it was delicious. The taste was well balanced, not too sweet and not too salty. I tried some of her beef salad. Although the grilled beef was marinated to perfection, the meat was a bit chewy. It would had been great if the beef was not too cooked. I had fresh mango and sticky rice for dessert, which wasn’t so bad. I also tried some of her fried roti dough, which was similar to the Vietnamese version of xoi vi (fried sticky rice), and it wasn’t bad at all.

I was glad to get to know a Ngoc Lan’s fan in DC and I am still amazed how that angelic voice had reached so many people in many different ways. The fan I talked to spoke little Vietnamese, yet she knew by heart the songs Ngoc Lan had covered. Although we only met for the first time, we could talk to each other so easily. Our passion for Ngoc Lan made that possible. We both thought that it would be cool if we could get a bunch of Ngoc Lan’s fans together, try out different restaurants and talk about Ngoc Lan, politics or whatever. Any Ngoc Lan’s freak in is DC up for this? There are two of us now, but the more the merrier.

Last night, Duke had rashes on his behind, which caused him to be feisty all night. Poor little guy tried to sleep, but he was so itchy that he rubbed his butt against the sheet and cried with his eyes shut. Nothing we could do to calm him down. We gave him some Tylenol and took off his diaper, but nothing helped.

The only way for him to sleep was to hold him in our arms. Dana and I took turn carrying him around. He slept like a little puppy on my shoulder for a couple of hours. I tried to catch some sleep on the couch with him on my lap, but it was too uncomfortable. My head was pounding and I needed to take a leak, but I had to hold off because I didn’t want to wake him up, so I did some reading on my iPod Touch to kill time.

The next morning I called the pediatrician immediately, but the earliest appointment was 2 o’clock. It turned out that Duke has caught up with some bacteria, which he might had picked up from his toe.