The LoLee Planet

You remember how we almost moved to Hawaii last year! Well, if we weren’t ready, certainly Laifu was. And all of you who want to visit us only because we’re in Hawaii =p. And believe me we’d love to have you visit us in Honolulu too!

If you don’t know why I’m still in Kingston, the story went like this:
Flora contacts Craig
Craig offers exciting opportunities in Hawaii
Flora gets excited
Flora gets Jason excited
Flora and Jason look into real estate and surfing classes (exciting!!)
Flora and Craig exchange emails and phone calls madly
Flora gets Laifu ready for immigrating to an island (needs to get blood tested at least 3 months before moving and the test must be done in one specific lab in the US)
Craig disappears and Flora/Jason/Laifu stay in Kingston

So, a little more than one year later (now), Craig and I got in touch again!

This time, Craig offers an exciting opportunity (yes this sounds familiar, doesn’t it!)! But one has to be aware of the fact that things may just fall through the exact same way. Either I’m too stupid, or I just REALLY want to visit Hawaii! I am still pumped about the potential opportunity, but I know I should not be too optimistic until I get to meet Craig face to face and get some actions on paper. So I will update if there’s any exciting news, or i’ll update next year this time when I talk to Craig again ;=D

We got Laifu when she was about 5 months old. Before she moved to Kingston from Vancouver, she lived her first 5 months in an outdoor fenced yard with her parents Shiji and forgot-mom’s-name, and Laifu’s old name was Mimi. Much has changed since she came over, but she’s relatively good with simple commands (when food is involved) and has been a very clean dog. One thing she has always been good with is doing her business outside, but we need to go to a new “low” point for her.

Well we can not blame her completely. It really is due to the snow storm!

We’ve got a lot of snow in Kingston this year and we’ve had our share of woes. Especially since Jason and I have moved, we’ve experienced many incidents related to snow/winter. Our Prius and her awesome low-friction tires are NOT fit for snowy winters like this one. We’re buying snow tires next year.

So back to Laifu! To say that the weather yesterday was atrocious is an understatement. It snowed hard, had continuous high wind, and hailed for a good hour or two. Laifu had no interest of going out at all! And if you know Laifu, you know how much she loves staying out. But she’s been a good dog, i’m sure she can hold…

This morning when we got up, we heard some licking sound. What’s laifu licking?! I didn’t have my glasses on but Jason said Laifu’s eating her poo-poo!!!! The funny thing is Laifu was SO EMBARRASSED that she wanted to clean up after herself before we wake up!!! What’s funnier is that she got so embarrassed and hid underneath the bed for a good half an hour! Luckily we’ve been feeding her good dry food that her poo doesn’t smell and is very firm n easy to pick up. But i’m just so amused to see how embarrassed a dog can be! I missed a good Kodak moment but these will do….

Oh, and she’s back to her spoiled self this afternoon. that tells you how much memory dogs have….

Yesterday we walked onto Colin’s Lake, which is the lake that’s real close to where we live. It was frozen solid as there were trucks and minivans parked on it while families were ice fishing. It was actually a really nice day! Sunny and calm. Jason said this was his first time on a frozen lake, and i think it’s also Laifu’s first. We took lots of pictures that you can check out here, but as you can see right here, Laifu needs more socializing…. she’s grown too anti-social since we moved to the country!

After getting the new car, we had to help break in the vehicle. In doing this, we will get improved fuel efficiency after the vehicle is broken in. Thats the best excuse I had for driving the car… so I’ll use it. Flora and I decided to drive up to Jones Falls, part of the Historic Rideau Region. Much like the Kingston Mills, Jones Falls had many locks to bring boats up and down the Rideau River System.

I was pleasantly surprised at the park and how the buildings have been restored. Laifu enjoyed the ride in the new car as well and actually sat the whole way there and back.
She enjoyed running around the park as well. At the same time she overcame her fears of walking atop the locks and did it 4 times over. I’ll let the pictures do the talking, It was a nice daytrip none the less.

Laifu loves the backyard, rain or shine! Jason and I hate it when she runs inside the veggie bed and the flower bed, but she enjoys the attention and always hangs around the two spots until we chase her out.

On Friday evening, she was taught not to get into the flower bed by a bee….. she looked so funny with her swollen mouth and eyes!!! She was even worried about going down to the grass for a while!

Everything was just like any other day. I woke up, I fed Laifu, I walked her, and then she demands to go to the backyard after her walk. I opened the sliding door and wholly-c.r.a.p, there was a gigantic moth resting at the corder of the sliding door. I have NEVER seen a moth that has a wing-span of about 15cm. It was HUGE, it was colourful, and it was pretty scary. Even Laifu was scared! She barked at the moth, and was very careful not to get too close to it. I, on the other hand, rushed to get the camera. I was unhappy that Jason’s not home yet, therefore the D50 was not home, but any camera can capture the gigantic thing! Though Laifu and I were very restless, the moth seems to be in its own world. It slowly moved its wings a couple times, and just sat still there, never moved in the 5minutes that Laifu and I were all over it!

After lunch, i figured I should find out what kind of big-moth it is. And w.h.o.l.l.y..c.r.a.p., i think it is THE largest moth on earth, the Atlas Moth. Now i was totally intrigued and had to read more. Oh what? it only lives in south east Asia (see reference)? How did it get to my backyard? DId I? Could I have brought it back from Asia when I was in Vietnam and Taiwan in March?! I don’t know!!! How did it get outside? Where was the cocoon? I had so many questions!

I was getting paranoid so HAD TO FIND SOMEONE.   I eventually emailed someone at Queen’s Biology, and he got back to me suggesting that i need not to be too excited because the moth is probably a Cecropia moth, which is native but uncommon in urban area to North America.  Well, now the mystery all made sense……… nothing so mysterious anymore.  But check out this picture, it’s crazy how big the caterpillar is!  3/4 the length of a pop can?  crazy…..
Here’re some pictures: