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Craig, Betsy, Hunter and now Connor!
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| Good bye Livejournal |
[Jun. 28th, 2010|08:45 pm] |
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I've decided that I'm going to keep all my blogs about the family on Facebook. There's a notes section in my profile page that you can click on and you'll see my blog there. Since I do most of my updates on facebook, it's just much easier to keep things in one place. Also facebook allows me to upload pictures a lot easier, so this is the end of livejournal. |
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| Socal visit part 2 |
[Mar. 16th, 2010|10:59 pm] |
So now, onward to Saturday 3/6/10---Cooking day. To be honest, Daddy did the majority of cooking, while I did mostly preping. On the menu for Aunty Cindy's reception were
1. Roast Beef: Cooked a la Craig's suvee (spelling?)style where he puts the beef in a vacume bag with all the seasoning and put it in a water bath at around 135 degree for maybe 2-3 hours. It was a success when he first tested it a few weeks prior when Meema and Cindy were in town for a wedding planning session.
2. Gratin potatos: This dish Craig had made for Christmas dinner at Grandpa Chucks and Grandma Renee's house. It was easy and can be made ahead of time and heated up at the reception.
3. Garden Spring Salad: Just a simple salad dressed up with lots of fresh vegetables like green beans, broccoli, peas, cauliflower, corn, avocado. Tossed with a rasberry vinagrette and another with a Greek mix (I don't really know exactly what it was...more about this dish to come.)
4. Chicken curry Sandwitches: Daddy made the chicken curry in about 30 mintues. He got these caned Chicken breast meat (I opened all the canes, I must say) and added celery as well as mayo and curry powder as well as some other secret herbs and spices. It could sit for a day and usually the curry flavor gets better the day later.
5. Cucumber sandwitches: What tea themed reception can it be with this classic sandwitch?!
6. Chilled Shimp: Cooked in a spiced broth that later Craig drained in our bath tub in the hotel room! Yes, we cooked everything in a hotel room!
7. Smoked salmon: yep, Costco brand. Someone actually asked us if we smoked it ourself!
8. Roasted vegetable soup: Craig roasted a whole bunch of vegetables in the oven and the day of the wedding, just dump it in premade chicken broth. Easy and it went by really well with the guests.
9. Cream of aspiragus soup: His secret,add broccolli in it for the sweetness. This was my absolute favorite dish
Wow, that was a lot of food now that I typed everything out! Aunty Cindy also had cheese and fruit platers on each of the guest tables, plus the delicious wedding cake.
Okay, back to cooking story. My memory is fading a bit, so I don't remember where or what the kids were doing while we were preping and cooking, I know that Brad had to go pick up Lourdes, Christopher, and Heidi, while Meema go with aunty Cindy to get flower. I do know when Chris got in town, he pretty much entertained the kids. Anyways, one of the first jobs that I did for Craig was peeling all the potatos. All 25 lb of them. We had forgot to bring our vegetable peeler so I decided to run out to Target to get a decent one. I purchased a good Oxo brand peeler that was good especially for potatos, and I started just admiring how well it does and opps...I was too careless and ended up cutting a small chunk of my 4th left fingertip off! Man, it was bleeding and bleeding...don't worry, no blood made it into the food. Luckly, Brad had some bandaids that I took and also we a box of gloves from Steve's house (we thought it would be better to wear gloves while preping food to feed 100 people would be a good idea), so my poor finger was securely wrapped in gauze with a pair of gloves over it. I would change the glove when the blood starts leaking too much out of the gauze, but fortunately, that didn't last too long. Needless to say, I'll definitly respect that vegetable peeler from now on. By this time, Heidi (Christopher's grandma) came to help and she took over the peeling duty. When the potatos were all done, we had to cut them into little disks, we had a mandoline to do the job so that was a piece of cake. The funny thing was that Connor was little helper, he was responsible for giving me the peeled potatos while I cut them. Of couse he would drop a few of them and let it roll around the carpet, but make sure to wash them. At one point, he started throwing them like balls, which I had to quickly stop him...but he was mostly helpful.
Heidi and I then assembled the gratin potato in these large baking trays. 2 layers of potato, 1 layer of onion, the large amount of chedder cheese, repeat this process until we reach the very top of the tray. Daddy then tops them off with this mixturn of cream and spices and into the oven they go. On Sundy, a layer of bread crums go on top to finish baking.
We also did lots of chopping for his vegetable soup and just getting things preped....
That was pretty much how Daddy spend his Saturday, in the kitchen of our hotel room, cooking away.
Towards Saturday afternoon, I realized that I had forgot to bring Connor's black suit(what used to be Hunter's suit he wore to Steve's wedding). So I quickly went out with Hunter (Connor was asleep) to Macy's (I had a gift card) and picked out this super cute outfit for Connor. It had a burgandy shirt and little vest. Since I was wearing a burgandy dress to the wedding and Daddy had on a burgandy tie, then Connor would match us! I also went out to get some last minute ingredients for Daddy, and since I didn't know the area at all, really relied on the GPS system on the car. First stop was Trader Joe's for Ruby Port and Salad dressings, instead of taking me to a store that was closer, it took me to one about 7-8 miles away...(I didn't know any better until later) and then Daddy called me to get some service tongs from the dollar store or the 99cent store...once again, I relied on GPS and found that there was one in the town of Orange which looks like only 7-8 miles away, so off Hunter and I go in that direction...on the way there from Trader Joe's I came across "my people", a 99 Ranch supermarket, of course I had to go in and check it out. Then off to the rather Ghetto town of Orange, I'm afraid to say. When we got to the supposed location of the 99 cent store, it was no where to be found! So I finally called Aunty Cindy to get a location of one, back on El Toro in Lake Forest, which also had Trader Joes near by and a whole lot of shopping as well...now, why didn't the GPS suggest that area to begin with?!!!!
Went to the 99cent store to look for service tongs and found that they had NONE! Called Cindy and got her to look for it in Walmart, where she was headed anyways. Grabed dinner for the kids and I (Daddy got an In N out burger from Brad) and quickly headed back to the hotel, after wasting about 2-3 hours doing this one big shopping trip. And guess what?! When I went to unload the car of some other service items for the reception, for service tongs that Daddy had already purchased the day before at Smart and Final! I blame it all on Daddy!
When Hunter and I returned to the hotel room, Daddy had pretty much stopped cooking by then (7:30pm) and was entertaining Connor. We decided to call it a night and went to sleep rather early in anticipation that we would have to get up at 4 am to start preping for the actual reception later that morning!
So now, on to Sunday 3/7/10, Cindy's wedding day and also Connor's 2nd Birthday!
So like an alarm clock going off in us, Craig and I prompting got up around 4 am to start getting things together. Luckly, the kids were all deep asleep when we were working and didn't really wake up until their usual time of 6:30-7am.
Daddy went strait into working on the final touches of the roast beef, searing, slicing and making the gravy. I on the other hand had 100 portions of sandwitches to make of both cucumber and chicken curry ones. That actually didn't take me too long, maybe about 1 1/2 hours. We had to make some adjustments on the cucumber sandwitchs. Cindy had decided to use cream cheese and cucumber. I personally like mayo, and when we tried it with the cream cheese, something was off, so daddy quickly decided to add lots of sugar and some salt to the cream cheese and that made a big difference. I'm always amazed at that good palate Daddy has.
While I was making the sandwitches, Daddy had a little disaster. He didn't like the roast beef flavor at all. He decided the wine that he put the beef in to cook was not the right "flavor profile" so he tired to save it back changing the gravy. Luckly, there were grocery stores open at 5 am in the morning, so he went out to get new ingredients, ie beef stock and some herbs and start over. I think it made a big difference with the new gravy, but I think Daddy was still a bit disappointed because it was not what he had wanted!
After I finished the sandwitches, time to make the salads. By this time, around 6:30am, Heidi had woke up and came into our room to help. We made the salad, and decided that we should toss the dressing in so we don't have to deal with putting bowls out for the dressing. The amount of Rasberry dressing was perfectly fine for the 2 big portions of the salad we made, but the Greek dressing was definitely not enough. Well, Daddy to the rescue again. On the fly, he decided to mix the left over cream cheese with sour cream and lemon juice (which was absolutely delicious) and mixed it into the premade Greek dressing and I don't think anyone at the reception realized the difference! Disaster #2 adverted!
By this time, most of the food was done cooking and packed up to take to the reception site. Daddy and Uncle Brad left rather early, maybe around 8am to pick up a rental truck with reception supplies at aunty Cindy's, drop Craig at the community center where the reception took place, and Brad continue to the airport to pick up Jenny and Michelle.
I on the other had took care of the kids getting them feed for breakfast, and the getting them dressed for the wedding. I have to say, Hunter looked wonderful in his all white suit! People were commenting on how white it stayed throughout the event. Connor was of course cutie as well!
Time flys by fast, come 10:30 am, off we go to Heritage Hill for the reception. In our minivan was Meema, the kids, Lourdes, Christopher, and Heidi. We got to the wedding in good time. Hunter was the official "high fiver" at the wedding. While the guests were arriving, they were greeted by Hunter right on the path leading to the guest chairs and Hunter gave each guest a hi-5 as they make their way to their seat (I hope aunty Cindy was okay with it).
Come the ceremony, Cindy looked absolutely beautiful! To be honest, Craig and I had doubts about whether the red sash on her dress looked good or not, but to see it in person, it was GORGEOUS! I also really like the way Cindy did her hair, very elegant and sample. It complemented her tiara really well.
So the ceremony took place under this beautiful arbor, in clear sky. Connor had fallen asleep on daddy, and Hunter did his good job as the ring bearer. The funny thing was that Connor started snoring so loud, I was worried that people could hear him while Cindy and Alex were exchanging their vows. Another funny thing was that all during the ceremony, Hunter was standing with his big red pillow, looking here, looking there, making big circles with his feet on the ground...he was a bit bored I bet, but he was a good boy all in all. And at the end when the bride and groom kisses and pronounced husband and wife, Hunter louding exclaimed "is this all done?" (or some variations of it. We'll have to check on the video) I hope not too many people heard him.
We stayed a bit for photos while Daddy rushed on to the reception site to get the food ready before the guests starts arriving.
The reception hall was so pretty. Cindy had made these center pieces that was the most perfect centerpieces I've ever seen for a wedding. It was elegant, pretty, and most important, it didn't obstruct anyone's view. Craig had just started putting things out on these long buffet tables. Cindy had hired two helpers, Derrick and Joey, as well as Brittney, the wedding coordinator. Everyone was busy trying to get the food out and I immediately started helping after I passed Connor off to Shelly (Cindy had a kids table at the reception where they could color...excellent idea!)
One of the first things I did was start unpacking the salmon and arranging them onto a service platter. Luckly, next to each reception hall, there was a big kitchen for the caterors to use. Very ideal for the situation. We didn't have to worry about refrigeration issues. Also ovens were avalible, so Craig could keep food warm etc...There were also many washing stations in this huge kitchen.
After I was done with the salmon, I went on to plate the cocktail sauce on service bowls and potential disaster #3 occured. I realized while I was plating the sauce, that my bandaid on my cut finger was gone! Had it gone into a plate of food? The salmon? NO. The cocktail sauce? No. Well, I figured that most likely, it came off while I was washing my hands in one of those big huge sinks. Well, we eventually saw it on the floor of the kitchen, thank goodness, but that was quit a scare!
I must say, the reception came off pretty good. Daddy and I were exhausted, being up at 4am. But I think the adrenaline really helped keep us focused. I told Daddy though that we'll hopefully not have to cater for another even like this anytime soon. It was definitly do-able, but very tiring...and the fact that we cooked in a hotel room was all together another challenge. Thank god we had 3 refregirators though, one in our room, another in Brads, and the third in Loudes' room.
Oh, a personal score for me...when it comes time to cut the cake, I took the middle portion, the one with the banana rum walnut layer into the kitchen to cut and bring out for the guests. Because I was the one doing the cutting and because not everyone wanted that flavor, I ended saving a big huge slice for myself to take back! I think Craig and I had Cindy's wedding cake Monday morning, on the drive back to our house, and I had it again for breakfast Tuesday morning on my way to work!
When the wedding festivities were all over and the Dallas Hasslers on a flight back home, we headed back to our room very tired, but satisfied. Daddy came back to our hotel room seeing the mess that was made (we asked that our room not be serviced this whole time since we didn't really get permission to cook for such large group of people) and got onto another cleaning mode. Mind you, we had to clean up the reception afterwards since a lot of the service wear belongs to us, and now, time to clean up the hotel room. He did most of the cleaning while I can't really remember what I did...I think the kids and I may have took a nap, I really don't remember. Afterwards we watched a bit of the Oscars, Oh, Daddy took Hunter swimming as well while I rest with Connor. For dinner, we decided to try out Lee's Sandwitchs...it was yummy of course, and then we came back, packed and hit the sack....
Monday 3/8/10, driving home day...
after stopping at Uncle Steve's, who got me a new camera lens (thank you a million!), we headed out on our drive up the I-5. We actually met Grandpa Chuck and Grandma Renee at the McDonalds near Harris Ranch where he gave us the photos from his camera. Daddy was able to download it all to his little netbook. And folks, that is all for tonight!
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| Southern California Trip March 2010 |
[Mar. 14th, 2010|05:25 pm] |
As promised, here's the what-went-ons on our trip down to Southern California for Aunty Cindy's wedding.
Wednesday 3/3/10--We left on Wednesday afternoon after picking Hunter up from Kindergarten. We had to make a stop at Reebok outlet to pick up a pair of white tennis shoes since Hunter will be wearing a white suit as Aunty Cindy's ringbearer. I know it was kind of late buying it last moment, but we've been trying to shop for it and realized that a plain white pair of white leather tennis shoes would do the the job, as well as be good for all other things too, not just wear it once to a wedding and not again. During the process, we also realized that in my hast of packing, I completely forgot my own pair of black shoes that goes with my dress for the wedding, so we had to drive back home to get it...so started the drive 1 hour behind.
The drive was okay, it was raining on and off, but at least it made the trip a bit interesting, with the scenery. We arrived at Uncle Steve's house around 8pm. Steve and EH had gotten the kids their birthday present, which was a very cool humidifier in the shape of a cow and a leepard. Connor when he first entered Uncle Steve's house was a bit shy and not sure. He walked into the house and quickly wanted back out to the car. He cried a bit, but then settled down when Hunter started opening the presents.
The arrangement we made for sleeping that night was Craig and I on the bed while Hunter and Connor got the floor, with blankets spread out for padding. It turned out to be really good. I always thought Connor needed me to sleep next to him before he will fall asleep himself. But this time, he actually seems to enjoy the fact that Hunter will be next to him. At the beginning of night night time, Connor came to stand next to my side of the bed, but I ignored him and told him to go "night night with Hunter" (Hunter was already asleep at this point). Connor made a laugh, then went back to his bed on the floor, and that's it, out of the night.
Thursday 3/4/10--Next morning was a bit of a different story...woke up with Connor in my face, but happy. We started packing up to drive down to Orange County, but first, shower time since the kids didnt' get one the night before. Connor didnt' want to go in the shower, so unfortunately, we forced him. Since then, Connor has been disaggreable. Aunty EH had already left for work and we thought Steve would too, but since he didn't get called to work, he was still sleeping. We didn't want to wake Steve up, so we quickly packed up and left the house, not a good way to start the day with a disaggreable toddler....also in our hurry, I competely forgot there was poo-poo diapers I left in the upstair's bathroom trash...should have taken it out when we left...sorry Steve and EH.
We continue our drive down to Orange, but realized that it was only 9am and our room check-in won't be until 4pm and also Brad and Meema flight doesn't get in until 11:45 am or so. We decided to drive down to Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific to kill some time. We figure Connor should love it since he is so into fish. Hunter should like too since we took him there before and they had a small water play area. We were sure right! Connor loved it! We even upgrade our ticket to Annual membership. We figured that it would more than pay for itself if we go there 2 times and we do plan on a July vacation down in Socal. Hunter had a bit of an issue however. He does get bored easily if it's not what he wanted to do. He kept on saying he wanted to leave and why is it taking so long. I acutally had to put him on timeout, just have him sitting on a bench away while Connor, Daddy and I continue to look at the fishes. I told him that I was disappointed in him because mommy and daddy paid good money so they can have fun, so it's ungreatful. He sort of understood and stopped whinning a bit. His attitude changed all together when we got out to the water play area...then it was all good. Connor even joined in the fun, runny around after Hunter. The weather was beautiful so we didn't really worry about the kids getting wet. We also found these stamp stations that were set up around the entire aquarium and realized that it's a scavenger hunt of some sort. Just had to get a free book that talks about the animals, then go find the station and put the stamp on it. By this time, Connor was already asleep in his strollar, but Hunter was all about the hunt, so he did that with Daddy. Next time when we return, we will for sure start with the hunt, and end with the water play. Oh, another cool thing as the aquarium was the bird exhibit. They had a room with lots of Rainbow Parrakets. We paid for the necture, and the birds comes and sit on your had to drink it. Hunter was a bit afraid, so he didn't participate, but Connor was really into it. There were some good pictures of me with Connor feeding the parrakets, but daddy was not used to my camera so he kept pressing the wrong button and missed the moment. Oh well...
By the time we finished the aquarium, we headed down to our room, The Residence Inn at Irvine Specturm. We picked this location because the price was very good and it has a full size kitchen (we are the caterers afterall). When I went to check-in at 2 pm, they said the room was not ready (we requested that Brad and our room be right next to each other so we can use their kitchen too). We ended up meeting Uncle Brad and Meema at the specturm mall (they were having lunch at PF Changs) and wasted some time just catching up until it was time to get into the room. (BTW, Brad and Meema's rooms were all ready when they checked in around noon, lucky!)
Hunter and Connor were so happy that the rooms were right next to each other. The hotel is set up like little condos, with 4 units per building, 2 on the bottom, 2 on top. We got the bottom unit luckly, so we didn't have to lug 1/2 of our kitchen that Craig packed into the back of our van up flights of stairs. Hunter and Connor was just happy runnying back and forth between the two rooms. It was rather convienent!
That night, we had a little early Birthday celebration at the Rainforest Cafe in the Costa Mesa mall. We thought the place would be good for Connor because he is so into animals. We were right! The entrance of the resturant had this giant fish tank that has this snow flake eel swimming round and round. Man, did Connor like that eel! We even tried to find a stuffy eel for him, but they didnt' have it. The birthday dinner was rather low key. Just us and Uncle Brad, Meema, Aunty Cindy and now Uncle Alex. We also realized that Connor loves baby back ribs! Aunty Cindy showed up with the most perfect birthday present for Connor. At first Connor was a bit fussy, but when we opened the present and found that it was a wood puzzle with ocean animal shapes....HOW PERFECT was that! It actually kept Connor entertained for the entire trip!
oh and there was this guy that were making ballon animals and shapes at the cafe. For $5, he made Hunter a ballon hat with a fishing rod and a fish attached at the end of the line. He wore it and boy, did it bother Uncle Brad. First of all, Hunter sat next to Brad and was just overly high energy for poor Uncle Brad, who was just getting over an illness. Then this balloon thing keps on hitting Brad in the face. It was rather interesting to watch I'm afraid.
We ended the dinner with a chocolate cake that came with 2 candles and a sparkler on top. It was big enough for all of us to share. Towards the end of the dinner however, Connor was more interested in the eel, so we had to head back to the entrance many time just to satisfy his Eel couriosity. But still, a very fun evening. Oh, but the bad thing that happened was that I broke my camera lens this evening. I had the camera on the table with the strap hanging down the side of the table. I turned, caught my foot on the strap, the the entire camera came flying down, crashing on the floor. The lens was busted, but I figured out the main component of the camera was still okay, so we made arrangements on Monday to head back to see Uncle Steve and see if he could fix my camera.
Went back to the room that night, rearranged the room so that Hunter got the pull out couch while we put Connor on the floor next to Craig and tried to sleep for the night! Boy, was that a bad idea.
First of all, Craig said that he will handle Connor that night if he becomes fussy and give me a break. Let me tell you, that surely did not happen. Connor was so fussy, waking up multiple times at nigh, and each time, Craig slept right through it. I finally was so fed up, I took Connor up to bed with us and he ended up sleeping with his feet on my back and his head on Daddy's belly. I came to the realization that Connor in a strange place didn't like to sleep alone, so the next morning, we rearranged the room again, this time taking the mattress from the sleeper sofa, putting it on the floor and so Hunter and Connor will again sleep together...and let me tell it, it worked!
Friday 3/5/10. Friday was shopping day for us. We didn't buy any food for the reception yet and this was going to be the day. We had to get chaffing dishes, service wear, and lots and lots of food from Costco. In the afternoon was the rehursal for the wedding. As the ring bearer, we had to go so Hunter can practice his roll. Tell you what, the wedding site was beautiful. I understood right then why Aunty Cindy wanted to get married there. It would have been a beautiful place for the reception too, but we knew the weather was not going to cooperate, so unfortunately, the reception had to be moved.... Hunter met the flower girl for the first time there and he and Julia got along perfectly. They are both 5 years old, so lots in common. (Funny story later on to come!)
Friday night was also the rehersal dinner. It was held at an Italian resturant in Newport Beach. The food was SOOOOO GOOOOOD! We had Julia sit next to Hunter and they quickly found they have one huge thing in common, their love for BUTTER! All night long, it was nothing but Butter on this, Butter on that. Mostly bread, but always with lots and lots of BUTTER. Connor ate really well too, after we had a little accident though. Connor is a total carnivor! He loves meat! So when a saugage platter came, we gave him a piece, and he ate it and soon started crying. We didn't know that there were a mild and a spicy one on the same platter. Craig tried a mild one, thinking all to the same, ended up giving Connor a spicy one. Poor little thing, at a spicy one and didnt' know that if he just drink some water or eat some bread, it would all be better. Instead, he just cried and cried...took me a while to calm him down. He did go back to have more sausage though, this time I make sure it was okay. So that was our Friday...the kids slept fine that night and onward to Saturday...(I'll have to update later since Connor just woke up, so my computer time is over for now) |
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| So proud of my big boy |
[Mar. 12th, 2010|10:55 pm] |
I just had to write about what happened last night. I will update you all on our weekend down in Southern California at Aunty Cindy's wedding, I promised...
So last night, before I put Connor to sleep, we usually read a book or go through these Chinese picture cards that my mom had got for us in Taiwan. Connor is currently working on the one all about animals (which is his favorite). Hunter was in the room too while we worked on the Chinese.
Then Daddy walked in with Connor's favorite stuffed animals, a turtle and clown fish from Finding Nemo. When Connor saw them, he stood up and said "ORCA" and ran into Hunter's room and came back with a stuffed Shamu, which we got for Hunter a long time ago when we first visited SeaWorld (Hunter was probably only 2 1/2 years old at that time).
When Hunter saw Connor with Shamu, he grabed it and start hugging it (afterall, it is Hunter's favorite). Well, a fight started with Hunter holding onto Shamu while Connor crying and trying to pull Shamu by the tail out from Hunter. At first, I wanted Hunter to give up the toy, but Daddy stopped me, saying that Connor needs to learn to respect other people's things, and since Connor already had turtle and fish, he has enough toys to play already. Well, we kept on saying "no" to Connor which only makes him cry even harder.
All the sudden, Daddy point to turtle and fish and said "Connor's". For some reason, that seemed to have shifted Connor's focus and he started laughing and went on to hug his own stuffy. We then point to Shamu and said "Hunter's" then point to the turtle and fish again and said "Connor's". We did this a couple times, and then asked Connor who the stuffy belongs too and he answered correctly, saying "Connor" when we point to the turtle and fish and saying "Gur Gur" (which means older brother in Chinese) when we point to Shamu.
Now the good part...Hunter then handed Shamu over to Connor and said "share". Connor very happily took Shamu from Hunter and hugged it. I was beside myself! Such a milestone for both big brother and little brother! We than point to the turtle and said "Connor share" and Connor immediately gave the turtle to Hunter. After that, they started handing stuff animals back and forth to each other as well as to Mommy and Daddy. We couldn't believe it went so well. I was so proud of big brother Hunter!
Oh, and Hunter lost another tooth, also pulled out by Mommy. Nothing special, did it with ice again and money in a plastic bag etc...this time however, the money stayed under his pillow so he woke up and got the full impact of finding $2 under his pillow
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