How old is Grandma?

Today my extended family on my dad's side celebrated my grandmother's birthday. No one seems to be sure how old she is (something to do with the date recorded and whether it was according to the Western or lunar calendar plus the fact that you're 1 when you're born in Chinese culture). It said 94 on her birthday cake, but my vote is for 92. My mom asked Grandma today how old she was. She thought for a long time and then replied, "Fifty." That's probably how old she feels. What would I say? I think 30 is probably just about right.

Our California trip thus far:

- Watching big screens: 15 episodes of Season 2 of the show 24. May and Joy watched ahead and caught us up to 5pm. My husband is soooo addicted. Ezer and I also saw King Kong. It was okay. I shed a tear when King Kong had to die.

- Celebrating Christmas:
Only one uncle's family came over for Christmas Eve this year. I kind of missed the regular clan crowd. We saw almost everyone today at the birthday though. Also, since Christmas fell on a Sunday this year we didn't go to the beach and take a family picture like we usually do (church commitments). Joy left the next morning (and we came Christmas Eve) so it was a little sad that we missed our small window of opportunity.
It was also sad that my sisters didn't go to church with us for service and didn't want to help read from Luke after Christmas breakfast. I'm not around my sisters that often so I don't usually feel so accutely their loss of faith.

- Shopping and reading: I feel like we've gone to only 4 locations...the new Bella Terra center (Barnes & Noble and the movie theater), South Coast Plaza (furniture shopping and Wahoo's Fish Tacos), Newport Beach Library and its surrounding shopping complex and the Newport Coast center (Banana Republic & Trader Joe's). That's it. We've gone to all of the above locations multiple times. Yesterday and today I read Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende (the NB library has a great donated books for sale section). It was okay. Ezer asked me the last book I really liked (he perceives me as not getting excited frequently. I said Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. After reading Bel Canto I followed up with more of her books - The Magician's Assistant and Patron Saint of Liars.

- Cooking and eating: Mom was away at the college group's retreat (she's a counselor) so we needed to fend for ourselves. It was a good team effort - one night was meatballs with pasta and cabbage salad; another night we made a corn and green chile tamale casserole. May even made yummy scones. On our regular SoCal eating checklist, we've only made it to Wahoo's (also on the list - In-n-Out, Thai Nakorn, Jamba Juice).

- Walking: Ezer is still training for his marathon (the Orange County marathon, January 8th). While he runs, sometimes May and I walk. We've tried to mix things up with different locations. Wednesday is the Newport's Back Bay. Today it was the Balboa Peninsula. Tomorrow I think Ezer is going to run around Mile Square Park with my Dad, who has recently declared he wants to run a marathon when he turns 60.

I appreciate how much of an effort Ezer makes with my family. Any future sons-in-law are going to have a high bar to reach!