Top Ten 2022

Happy New Year! - I force myself to only write about positive aspects of life in these year end retrospectives however its going to be tough as this year I lost my father after eight months of going back and forth to the hospital.  My doctor has said that I have to get to that point where I can look back at his life and look the celebratory aspects of his life.   I'm not there yet.  I think the cover photo encapsulates what he valued most in his life.  That and his many friends and family spanning the globe across many age ranges.

9.  Yufen's 50th Birthday / Costa Rica.  I had several 50th Birthdays to celebrate this year.  In a way we celebrated Yufen's three times as the plans kept getting pushed back.  However I'm glad to say we did it in the same calendar year.  I had been to Costa Rica about 30 years ago and loved the country.  Somethings didn't change - still need a 4 wheel vehicle to get around and of course much of the natural beauty of the country.  Our itinerary included Arenal, volcanoes hiking and hot springs, including my first natural one, mix of hot and cold, and then on to the Nicoya Peninsula where we hiked to some waterfalls and stayed at a surfing beach of Santa Teresa.  We really enjoyed the hotels and AirBnB.  Many thanks to my mom and everyone who kept the kids safe and on schedule.  

8.  Jamie's & Florian's 50th Birthday.  Next up on the 50th Birthday bandwagon Jamie who was born on Pearl Harbor Day.  To celebrate we went up to Reno where we dined at the finest steakhouse in the Peppermill, trash talked our way through poker.  Of course we played chess and even got some people to think we were some grandmasters - ha!  We had a blizzard raging outside so getting home was a bit of a challenge - we waited as long as possible before heading out.  On the penultimate day of the year Bo threw Florian a 50th birthday which was delayed with the passing of his father earlier in the year.   In attendance was Arshad who's father also passed away this year.  

7.     Business.  Thanks to my father we grew revenues.  My father later in his life decided to become a real estate investor.  After many seminars, online membership and talking to many people he bought two properties in Florida.  The business has taken those over and the revenue increase includes his properties.  The businesses fared well with the usual ups and downs.  Many thanks to Michael for covering when I was out and also thanks to Hemant, who lost his mom this year, for being supportive and whose guidance I will need more in the coming months and years.    

6.  Camping trips.  Turns out Yufen likes to camp.  The kids do as well.  Did I leave someone out?  This past year Yufen organized two big trips to Calaveras State Park and a return to Sugarloaf park.  The latter has an observatory with 4 telescopes and staff that operated them so that we can see the night sky.  Highlights included Saturn and its rings and Jupiter.  The moon was especially large so we got a great glimpse of its surface features.  

5.  Anisha and Jack's wedding.   So three days prior to the wedding Anisha announces that she and Jack are getting married.  It was held in the gorgeous backyard of Jacks brother Martin and his wife Rosie's backyard.  It was a great balance and reminder of the better half of the circle of life.  Also later in the year I saw many family members who were on the way to a wedding in LA.   It was nice to get their support in person.  

4.Ski Trips.   Yufen planned the last major trip of the year (it was a busy December - Costa Rica, Reno and Utah and we got in 3 days of skiing.  We had some hiccups big and small on the trip.  Including Ikon denying us Deer Valley and Southwest extending our trip.  However one highlight was seeing Yufen's friend Mia and her lovely home at the base of Snowbird.  It definitely reinforced some life changes that I've been thinking about for awhile - stay tuned... 

Earlier in the year, we went to our place at Palisades including for my birthday with Arshad and family and then later Kailee was killing it at Siberia!  Hopefully can do more friend ski trips this year.  The snow is epic!

3.  Summer Trip.  After several years of abandoning the summer trip to Taiwan due to Covid, Yufen and the kids went away for the summer.  They saw family, they got Covid separately and quarantined for about 3 weeks.  It left me with a summer by myself.  I made it to the East Coast around July 4th.  Abby thoughtfully got Covid to remind me of what Yufen and the kids were going through.  We celebrated the 4th from their rooftop.  Later I was invited by Ed to go up to Cape Cod to stay at his vacation place the highlight being a bike trip to Martha's Vineyard and a boat ride with his friend Mark.  Alas news of Ed's mom passing saddened the trip.   Another memorable weekend was celebrating Cole's birthday by going ballooning over Sonoma/Napa at sunrise.  It was a great way to view that part of the Bay Area.  Also spent a weekend at Sofia's place in Clear Lake.  Her family's house and surrounding area was burned with the forest fires a few years back.  However, as a testament to resilency both the house is rebuilt better than ever and the forest is making a great comeback.  Shiva.  

2.  Kailee and Kaiden

As I stated in my eulogy my dad would have wanted me to payback anything I owed him to the kids.  Kailee started middle school for 6th grade at EBIA which is more project based.  We identified a writing deficiency (no doubt Covid response of shutting live schools didn't help) so will work on improving that.  Besides school she has a great group of friends and likes playing softball.  Kaiden is in 2nd grade at Crocker and is continuing with little league and taking piano lessons.  His best buds are still Thomas and Reid from his class - they love Roblox!  I would be remiss not to mention all the volunteering Yufen has done over the past years including 2 Mosaic Nights for approximately 500 people and Diwali celebration for about 60 people and others....  

1.  Thanks everyone for being a part of 2022.   Your friendship means a lot and the memories whether or not listed herein make life worth living!