This past week has been pretty crazy with all the weirdness between her parents. Hongyun and her folks had a family meeting and basically spoke frankly about what was going on. They realized that her mom was just making things miserable for her dad. She's rather insecure and has issues dealing with his want to explore new topics. He's somewhat of a scholar and enjoys learning about other cultures and all sorts of topics. Her mom is rather freaked out by this as she is very financially motivated and really only cares about saving money to dump into her son's failed endeavors. Her dad has tried to speak with her about the things he learns in an effort to share and have conversations with her about these things over the years, but she doesn't really seem to be interested in anything other than saving money and making money. If you want to talk to her about the price of tomatoes from week to week, she's your woman. If you want to talk to her about the latest news stories and the implications for the local culture, you'd best look elsewhere. I don't blame him for looking for friends elsewhere. He's a rather smart guy and he has the right to explore the fun and interesting points of life. I feel bad that we were a bit rough on him, but he seems to be cool with things now. I just feel bad that he's going to have to continue to deal with his wife's insecurities.

Anyway, the long and the short of it is that unless Hongyun's mom can understand that she is at least partly to blame for creating a hostile environment for her dad's love of learning, then I don't think they'll be happy. The good thing is that the air seems a bit clearer around the house. Hongyun and her dad are seemingly enjoying a bit of a revival in their relationship. Her mom doesn't seem to be able to process this information and may be interpreting it as hostility towards her. I don't think she has the ability to really deal with issues of this nature where different culture and values are at the core of the dispute. She seems to believe that she hasn't really done anything wrong and does not understand his need for lifelong growth and learning. She's really quite closed-off in that sense and does not enjoy learning for the most part. We have interpreted this as her "boneheadedness." Not really meant in a mean way, but just that her ways are as unchanging and stiff as bones.

Now for the fun stuff:
Hongyun and I went to a Halloween party this past Friday night and didn't get home until 3am! The next morning, we were pretty much useless and spent the day just trying to recuperate. I had a major service scheduled for my car and ended up getting new brakes, a new battery, as well as a brake fluid flush to go along with it too...talk about a drain on the finances. They gave me a Prius to drive around which was not too shabby. I probably will either go plug-in hybrid and/or Smart car next time I need a new car (which won't be until 2015 at the earliest). We drove the Prius around the Oakland hills gawking at the megahouses up there (again). This seems to be a hobby of ours. Anyway, we found some free potted plants and other stuff and decided to take some of them along for the ride. After we got my car back, I noticed that it did run a bit quieter and the clutch didn't squeal any more. We ended up hitting the North Face store and buying her folks some winter gear. We figured that since we're planning on sending them home, that we should probably get them some good, lightweight jackets that will make moving around the bitter cold easier. That night, we watched some World Poker Tour and Hongyun actually got into it now that she's taking a statistics class. She ended up crashing on the couch around 8pm, while I spent the night playing Super Paper Mario (awesome game, btw).

On Sunday, we didn't do too much either....we woke up very very late and walked up Solano Ave. to have lunch at Zachary's Pizzeria (awesome Caesar salad and pizza, btw). This consumed most of the afternoon and when we got home, we cleaned up the downstairs which has just been a complete mess lately. It's now a bit less messy, but we still have quite a ways to go in the cleaning up department. We're need to unload my old 20" monitor, a coffee machine, and two old laptops. We ended up spending the night getting back into studying mode.

At this point, I think we're rather undecided about her folks heading home. I think it's good for them to get back home and work through their issues, but I'm worried that things will go back to the bad old days if Hongyun isn't there to help coach them through things. Plus the bitter cold can't be good for them as they are getting rather old. The weather here won't be anything like over there so that's another consideration.