You turned 18 months a couple days ago, but already behaving like a terrible two. We went out for dinner on Monday and not only you refused to eat, but also acted up when we didn’t let you play. You did the same on Tuesday when we were at a Vietnamese restaurant. You did much better when we were having dinner at home yesterday. I take that you enjoy staying home more so we’ll stay home from now on.

You talk and babbling quite a bit these days. You mix both English and Vietnamese. We’re trying our best to speak exclusively Vietnamese at home, but you also pick up English at school. Words you use the most are: “ball,” “bóng,” “more” and “Bac Tram”. “Ball” is your favorite word and you associate any rounded object to it. You call out “bóng” whenever you spot a balloon. We just love the way you accent that diacritical mark. You say “more” when you want more milk, which is your favorite diet. You can drink milk the whole day without food. As for “Bac Tram,” you just woke up one day and repeat the words for an hour or so. I can see why though. Bac Tram treats you really well; therefore, she must be your favorite auntie.

I am sorry that I can no longer dropping you off or picking you up from school. I have to leave before you wake up and I can’t make it back on time before you get out of school. I rely on your mom to handle both and I am feeling guilty about it. I deeply appreciate all of her work and you should be thankful as well. I am looking into moving you to a daycare near work so we could ride the train together. JCCVA is a great daycare and you are enjoying it. Your friends like you and your teachers adore you, but the location is not so convenience for me. We’ll see.

Thirsty celebrated its one-year anniversary yesterday. I was watching the book trailer last night and reflecting on the very special project I was proud to be involved in. Congratulations Kristin and thanks for the wonderful opportunity.

Lil Wayne’s I Am Not a Human Being drops while he’s incarcerated on a charge of criminal possession of a weapon. True to the title, Weezy is not a human being. He’s a fucking rhyme animal with a special talent for making some of the most wack-ass punch lines sound both amusing and intriquing at once. In “What’s Wrong With Them,” he claims “Sanity kills so I live the crazy life.” He indeed lives a crazy life and not only isn’t shy away from telling it, but also telling it in the most compelling way. Even when he gets down and dirty in “Popular,” his rhymes come off hilarious: “I’ma tackle her, get in back of her / bust it open suck that pussy like the dracula.” Weezy obviously likes to fuck, not just women, but the world too. On “Bill Gate,” he boosts, “Weezy fucks the world, yup I fuck it till it ovulates / Get her to the crib get in that pussy and just dominate.” That’s Weezy and he proves that being behind bars could lock down his physicality, but not spirituality.

Looking for some good-old-time blues? Check out Eden Brent’s Ain’t Got No Troubles. Brent got some serious chops on the keyboard, particularly on “Let’s Boogie-Woogie,” but it’s her big, raspy pipe that makes her a sensational bluesmama. Her version of “My Man” is a reminiscent of Billy Holiday’s, but in a higher register and faster tempo. From the funky opening (“Someone to Love”) to the mellow closing (“Goodnight Moon”), the whole album is popping, yet the joint that gets me both bouncing and smiling is “In Love With Your Wallet,” in which she warns the old fool, “Oh daddy, oh daddy can’t you see? She’s in love with your wallet not your personality. / She wants a sugar daddy just to pay her bills / She’s barely middle aged and you are over the hill.”

This is our first night apart. I am not sure if I could sleep tonight. Coming home from work not seeing you and mommy already feels like I am missing a part of me. The house is so empty without you. I already miss hearing you talk, watching you sleep and holding you. I am sure you’ll have a good time with mom and grandparents. Be good, eat a lot of food and please let mom brush your teeth. I can’t wait to see you again tomorrow night.

Before leaving Las Vegas, I stopped by Target to return a cooler and 24-pack water bottles. Here’s a brief Q&A with the customer service:

Customer service: What is wrong with the cooler?
Me: Not cool enough.
Customer service: What is wrong with the water?
Me: Not cool enough.

The lady looked at me and was not amused. We bought the cooler to keep Dao’s milk, but it doesn’t do a good job of keeping the cool. As for the water, I couldn’t figure out the short reason. Whenever I return clothes, the simplest reason is: I don’t like it. I didn’t want to tell the lady the whole story about how my sister-in-law wanted to buy 2 cases instead of 1 even though we only stayed for a couple of days and she thought that we might needed them since we were planning on driving to California, but we didn’t. If I were to carry 24 bottles of water to the airport, I might not make it back to Virginia with all the security checks.

This is our last night in Las Vegas. I am sitting on the 25th floor of The Palazzo looking at the gorgeous view of the Sin City. Duke is already deep asleep after a long day of walking and pushing his own stroller from The Venetian to Caesars Palace. For some reasons, he likes to push the stroller more than sitting on it. Maybe being born on the year of the water buffalo has something to do with it. Dana already sneaked out downstairs to spend some last minutes with the slot machines.

Taking a kid to Las Vegas results in some interesting experience. We need to find kid-friendly environment as well as taking turn to be with him while one of us was at the Casino. Dao discovered the slot machines as soon as we landed in Las Vegas. He loves anything that has buttons and spinning wheels. He also loves the view from the Palazzo’s window. Each morning he got up and ran to the window. He looked up on the sky and said “bay” if he saw an airplane. He looked down and said “xe” when the cars passing by.

Although we stay at The Palazzo (courtesy of my brother-in-law), my favorite spots are in downtown. I don’t have to burn too much cash to have a good time. Yesterday, I sat at the Pai Gow table for five hours with around 15 rounds of gin and tonic and only lost 100 bucks. In Atlantic City, $100 would have lasted in 10 minutes. I am not a big gambler and I set my limit is $100 a day. On Sunday, I hit a bonus for $100 so I treated everyone to dinner. After dinner, I went back and lost all of my bonus.

Gambling aside, Las Vegas is still my favorite spot for relaxing and enjoying Vietnamese food. There are places that even open twenty four a day so I could get some good pho any time. Ok, my brain is fried. My head is still spinning from yesterday’s alcohol. I better catch some sleep before we head back to Virginia tomorrow. Flying is a bitch and it gets even worse when you don’t have enough sleep. Good night, virtual world.

The two kids who were born on the same day finally met in real life. Dao and May seem to get along well. They even held hands. We also got to meet May’s parents who married on the same day as us. We met up at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. With the $5-special admission, the aquarium was packed with more human than fish. Dao enjoyed his visit, but he got tired around 8:30pm so we headed home. It was a nice play date for the kids and we would love to arrange something like this again. If you come to D.C., let us know.

My next goal is to turn WordPress into a simple CMS so I could offer to my future clients an easy way to update their web pages. All that I really need the CMS to accomplish is the ability for the clients to change text, add a page or insert an image. It’s sound like a simple system, but I want the framework to take full advantage of HTML5 and CSS3 and I want to strip away many admin features that my clients won’t need.

The simple CMS has been in the back of my mind quite some time, but I haven’t had a chance to work on it. Maybe when I redesign Visualgui.com, I would use it as a project.

Thanks to Text Link Ads and the sponsors (on the right column) for supporting Visualgui.com. As of today, Text Link Ads makes more money than both Google AdSense and Amazon affiliate combined and the sponsor links don’t even stand out. It really is a nice way to create some passive income to pay for my domain and hosting fees. If you have a blog, you should give Text Link Ads a try.