Happy Birthday!

You mean the world to me.

Life, as we know it, is nothing short of a miracle.

Happy birthday my love.

Onwards and upwards, another good year.

Better person

Blake is a Spring-breaker. I'm a Spring-no-breaker.

While he's skiing in Sedona, I'm catching up on reality TV shows.

A text from me to him:

"I feel more American today. I ordered Chinese takeout for dinner."

TV + Takeout. That's how I spent my spring breaks in college.

My life is too predictable.

********************

There has been quite a lapse since my last update.

But things are good. At least the marriage thing seems to be working. (I recently discovered an aisle of self-help books in the library with those cheerful titles: "Divorce Busting," "Saving Your Marriage Before It Starts," "Saving your Second Marriage Before It Starts," etc.)

I still haven't made any New Year's resolutions. That's probably why I felt I couldn't start writing my first post in 2013 without talking about my grand plan.

I can maybe recycle some of my past ones -- lose weight, find love, and be happy (in that order, because I used to think one thing led to another; and of course, I blamed everything on the Chinese takeout I consumed).

Well, those kind of resolution was a product of its time (college!) and rose out of the misery of being single, unloved, and unloving.

But I also used to have another resolution: be a better person.

I think I can re-use this one.

I think I have come a long way since my time of slurping noodles while watching Sex and the City without a blink. I don't like that memory, but revising it makes me grateful.

My time at Yale is the most defining time of my life. It made me feel vulnerable and insecure all the time. I was always shy, and never good enough for anything. I had no skills, and few friends. I ate too much, and slept too little.  I could remember the long hours in the library, the Friday nights in the gym, the uncomfortable moments when I had to tell other people my plan for summer/next summer/the summer after the next, the painful trip of hopping with a broken ankle to campus health and hopping back -- alone, both ways, and the desperate meals at the graduate dining hall to avoid the awkwardness of eating by myself in my own college's dining hall.

Long story short, even when I struggled with being lonely and alone, I still wanted to be a better person and hoped for a change.

Now I'm in a much better place. The worst days always give me perspectives. I could have done so many things differently. But, in the end, I did become a better person. I had lost weight, found love, and started being happy again.

What makes things work never change: be brave, say yes. It just took me some time to realize what didn't work.

Hello Autumn

I love the crunch of leaves under my foot, the aroma of wood emanating from the thin crisp air, and the brilliant shades of red, orange, and gold.

I remember stepping outside on those first cool mornings of the autumn, and breathing in a lungful of the first painfully cool air of the season.

I want to roast some colorful veggies, wear a bright-colored sweater, sip a cup of hot cinnamon tea, and curl up under a blanket with a good book, and fall asleep.

Even in Arizona, where seasons are either extreme or not well-defined, autumn manifests itself in subtle ways with cobalt blue skies, sunlight that carries no heat and creates long shadows, and a breeze faintly scented with wood smoke and a hint of rare humidity.

It is the time of the year when memories are created.

We picked apples from the orchard. Crisp, tart, mottled apples from the orchard.

We sat on a pumpkin, while others took a hay ride or got lost in the corn maze.

We went camping; our tent strategically sat right next to a smoldered camp fire and unwittingly invaded a skunk's territory.

We dressed up as characters no one recognized from Arrested Development.

We went on pre-Thanksgiving shopping, but I told you to hold off till the sale for this green Guess shirt you were coveting. You were very miserable.

We picked out autumn-scented wallflowers from Bath and Body Works. That helped with your misery.

We got that green shirt from Guess on Black Friday. The shirt that made you look like a ranger. A cute nerdy ranger.

Our new indulgences this year:

Trusting your life in my hand when you are spider-manning.

Posing in the cool new restaurant in town after rounds of free good sushis.

And swiftly converting from the buy-only-from-the-sale-flyer girl to everything Trader Joe-y girl. I plunder and loot at TJ's. Here's a sneak peak of my most recently emptied boxes.

But my biggest indulgence is to have you with me when the days are brisk and the nights are cold. You hold my hands, duck into the car, start the engine, and turn on the seat warmer.

My favorite memory of all times.

Our car conversation

Me: I saw a Bentley today, parked outside the leasing office.

Blake: Yeah?

Me: It had crazy lightning-bolt headlight.

Blake: Let me look it up. What color?

Me: Black. I wouldn't notice it but for the lightning-bolt headlight.

Blake: Didn't see one on the website. Let me google "Bentley with lightening-bolt headlight." Hmmm. No result. I am pretty sure "lightening-bolt headlight" is not the way to describe it. I will ask Zeb.

Me: It was actually a good-looking car.

Blake: Yeah, did you see the interior? Red leather?

Me: No, I didn't see the inside. I mean it is actually a proportional car. No crazy front hood. Four seats. A beautiful, normal-looking car.

Blake: Nah... (let out a gruesome cry of admiration) BMW @#$%^&*!@~!!! (then another more gruesome cry of admiration)

Me: Urrr, that's such an ugly car. Enormous front hood and a tiny little butt. And only two seats for the price. It is weird-looking, a total lack of functionality, and mad expensive. How could you like something so strange?

Blake: Weird-looking, no functionality, and expensive... That sounds like your high heels to me!

Bob Loblaw Law Blog

Last Saturday, Knuckles got a flat tire.

Blake's fault.

My heart was broken.

Blake said, "Knuckles is just a car."

I said, "No! Knuckles is just a kid.  You cannot be so cruel to him. Knuckles is not Buckles."

I have big hopes and dreams for Knuckles. It may even go to college one day.

Blake just laughed at me.

Last Tuesday, I became an Elite Yelper.

My broken heart was healed a little by the new shining badge on my profile.

I have big hopes and dreams, too.

I can now fight back overrated, overhyped, and overpriced restaurants like a true honey badger!

Yesterday, I got back to Tucson without my Knuckles. Blake waited for me at the gate and gave me a bear hug.

Husband > Knuckles.

But Knuckles is still my favorite.

This morning, Blake and I went to the USCIS Tucson office for my biometrics exam.

One step closer to getting my green card.

This afternoon, at 4:46 PM, I clicked on the hyperlink.

I'm promoted to the Esq. status.

One step closer to being a Bob Loblaw Law Blog honey badger.

******************* Update*******************

Unbeknown to me, Blake spent the whole week finding new wheels and tires for Knuckles to keep him safe and healthy on the road.

Husband >>> Knuckles.

Blake is my new favorite.

But I always love this man.

Pampered

I don't often get sick (my perspective - she would disagree), but when I do Shijie pampers me like a small puppy. So when I came down with a cold at the end of this week, I wasn't surprised when she insisted on coming to "rescue" me in Tucson over me going to Phoenix for the weekend. While not exactly strict, she demands a thorough course of action, and only she can see that I perform all of them.

Her checklist for a sick Blake:
- Copious amounts of Vitamin C, juice and water
- Hour-long naps every 3 hours
- Herbal tea (each from some part of mainland China) every hour
- Soup for virtually every meal
- Hot baths before bed

Between these activities she chides that perhaps I should be on Rosetta Stone studying Chinese - while she works through Saturday on her legal briefs for the court.

But as I said above, she is not exactly strict. I often settle for either reading Sci-Fi, dreaming up designs for shirts or videos, or watching a TV series with her. And in the end, although she thinks she is taking care of me, I really think I'm taking care of her by distracting her from work over the weekend.

Of course it is at her insistance that I write a blog post, so perhaps I am the trained puppy after all.

(Food Therapy: There is nothing a good Korean BBQ can't cure.)

Milestone

Blake and I met three years ago, on August 28th, 2009.

I didn't drive at that time. He drove.

Knuckles hit his first 50K mark on August 30th, 2012.

Blake didn't drive this time. I did.

It has been an incredible journey with the lovely person who taught me how to drive, and the car that makes me smile.

Both of you made me do parallel-parking, brought me to a dentist, and watched me closely on the highway.

Both told me not to worry, and held my hand when I was shaky.

You two never judge and call me a bad driver. You are patient and loving.

Knuckles, Buckles, Blake and I are one family!

When I noticed years ago that Blake always keeps Buckles spotlessly clean, feeds her with the best gas, and cries a little bit inside whenever she got scratched, hurt, or dented, I had a feeling that he will also take very good care of me, just like the way he treats Buckles.

A man who loves his car loves his woman. A woman who loves her man loves his car.

I fantasize Knuckles and Buckles are this cute married car-couple, purring happily down the aisle, and snuggling side-by-side in their reserved parking spots.

Why wouldn't they? They love each other so much, and miss each other so dearly.

Thank you Knuckles, for keeping me in good company on the road.

Thank you babe, for giving me the courage to do what I fear so that I can do what I love.

Lovejoy

I finished the bar exam. That summarized my existence for the past two months.

Now we are in Portland, living on the Lovejoy street. The street name says it all.

More of Husby in the News!

UA just cannot get enough of husby!

For the fans, here is the sexy Appalachian accent he is not aware of!

Husby in the News!

Mr. C makes the news, again. He surely makes me a proud wifeski!

Here's the article.

Making Mirrors for the Sun

By Daniel Stolte, University Communications, July 5, 2012

With $1.5 million from the Department of Energy, UA researchers are continuing to improve groundbreaking technology to produce solar electricity at a price competitive with non-renewable energy sources.

Just behind the University of Arizona's Bear Down Gymnasium, a house-sized frame of crisscrossing steel tubes is mounted onto a swiveling post in the concrete bottom of an empty swimming pool.

The tracker, as the structure is called, supports two curved, highly reflective glass mirrors, each measuring 10 feet by 10 feet. The tracker is "on sun," converting the hot Arizona summer sun into electrical power.

"We use mirror-making technology we developed at the UA to make highly concentrating solar mirrors," said Roger Angel, Regents' Professor of Astronomy and Optical Sciences and director of the Steward Observatory Mirror Lab. "Our technology holds the promise of getting the price of solar energy down to where it can be used on a large scale without depending on subsidies and be competitive in the electricity market."

The Department of Energy recently granted $1.5 million to Angel's research group to extend the mirror-making process to the so-called thermal method for making solar electricity. The mirror-making process will be optimized for cost-efficient mass production. The group has already patented its method for making dish-shaped glass mirrors.

"Most mirrors used in solar power plants are used for thermal generation by focusing light onto a long pipe used to heat water into steam," Angel explained. "This requires the mirrors to be shaped like a cylinder. What we have learned here at the Mirror Lab is how to bend the glass to high accuracy so as to focus to a point or a line."

The grant involves a collaboration with a commercial manufacturer, Rioglass Solar in Surprise, Ariz., which churns out cylinder shaped glass mirrors every 20 seconds.

"Much of what we have learned about making telescope mirrors carries over," Angel said, "how to make them, how point them and how to make them efficient at collecting light. But for this technology, we have to do things ten thousands times cheaper and ten thousand times faster than we do for a telescope."

Angels' team plans to build a furnace that works like a giant toaster oven. Within in a few seconds, heaters placed above the flat sheet of glass turn glowing red, and within a minute the glass will soften and sink into the mold placed underneath.

"Our students are the lifeblood of this project," Angel said. "Currently they are working on ways to convert the light focused by dish mirrors into electricity using photovoltaic cells."

The mirrors focus sunlight onto a 5-inch glass ball and from there to a small array of 36 highly efficient photovoltaic (PV) cells, developed originally to power spacecraft. They convert a broader range of the solar spectrum into electricity than regular cells.

The ball lens is coated to maximize transparency for the incoming rays. Angel said that an undergraduate student working in the lab, Ivan McCrea, discovered a new way of coating the lens for very high transmission.

Another student, Blake Coughenour, a graduate student in the UA's College of Optical Sciences, is working on the optics to more efficiently couple the dish-collected sunlight to the cells.

"Because we are focusing highly concentrated sunlight onto the cells, we had to design an effective cooling system for the cells," Coughenour said. "Otherwise, they would melt within seconds."

A unit of fans and radiators – not unlike the cooling system in a car – is attached to the solar cell array, keeping them about 36 degrees Fahrenheit above ambient air temperature.

"The tracker is fully automated," Coughenour explained. "The system wakes itself up in the morning and turns to the East. It knows where the sun will rise even while it's still below the horizon. It tracks the sun's path during the day all the way to sunset, then parks itself for the night."

In recent test runs, the prototype module generated 2.5 kilowatts of electricity, enough to meet the power demands of two average U.S. households.

"By using mirrors to focus on small but super-efficient photovoltaic cells, we have the potential to make twice as much electricity as even the best photovoltaic panels," Angel said.

How does the solar technology compare to non-renewable energies?

Angel said an array of sun trackers on an area measuring about 7 miles by 7 miles would generate 10 Gigawatts of power during sunshine hours.

"You could make the same total amount of electrical energy as the Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant near Phoenix, the biggest nuclear power plant in the country."

Unlike conventional power plants that use steam to power turbines, Angel's photovoltaic prototype uses no water, making it especially suitable for desert regions. The materials are cheap to produce and by concentrating sunlight with mirrors the plant's footprint is smaller than that of PV panel-based plants.  

"We have laid the foundation for a structure that meets all the criteria you would want to see in an energy technology that is kind on the planet, doesn't emit carbon dioxide and doesn't consume water," Angel said.

To bring the solar concentrating technology developed at the UA into production, Angel together with several partners founded REhnu, LLC in 2009. Former UA President John P. Schaefer serves as the company's president, chairman of the board and CEO.

Angel's team is continuously working to improve the technology and through the new award will extend its application to thermal as well as photovoltaic generation.

Coughenour said: "What is cool about our group is that we get to build the technology, take it out into the field and see how well it performs, and then go back to the lab and make the necessary adjustments. Each time, we learn more and more, and optimize again and again. We are at the cutting age, and that's lot of fun."