smell of sunshine

Given the irresistible passion for freshly baked shortbread, I tried a recipe from a baking book I read in Micheal's --it turned out to be a very applicable one. Magically, I got the rich, delicious cookies by using impossibly simple ingredients, working through super easy steps.  I can hardly wait to eat when the aroma of the melting butter comes out of the oven gradually while the cookies were being baked ......

Ingredients:
- 2 sticks minus 2 table spoons' butter
- 1/2 superfine or granulated sugar
- 1  2/3 cups of all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup of rice flour or corn starch (I used corn starch)
- pinch of salt
- 2-3 drops of vanilla extract
- 3-4 table spoons of demerara ( Optional)

Steps:
1. Beat butter until creamy.
2. Add in sugar and vanilla extract and continue to beat the butter mix until it is light and fluffy.
3. Sift corn starch, flour and salt, add the powder into butter mix.
4. Knead gently for about few seconds, form the dough into a log shape.
5. Chill the dough for about 20 minutes until firm.
6. Slice the dough into 1/2 inch rounds and arrange them slightly apart on a parchment paper, chill for another 10 minutes.
7. Preheat oven to 350 degree. Bake for 15 minutes until firm but not colored.
8. Let the hot cookies cool down for a while.

After that, brew yourself a cup of Earl Grey and enjoy the buttery, crumbly shortbread~


More about Shortbread:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortbread

 爸爸妈妈的婚嫁

    谈笑中戏言，当年二八年华初识老公，差点叫人家“王叔”。小胖听在耳中，记在心中，倒是沉得住气，并不当即打破砂锅问到底。

    两三天后，一家三口躺在床上陪小朋友睡午觉，身倦眼旸即将梦周公之时，听到小朋友脆生生的嗓音在耳边响起，

    妈妈，你怎么会嫁给“王叔”的阿？

    我一惊，差点没笑翻在地，暗自捉摸，小丫头陈府倒深，晓得趁虚而入，让人措手不及….

    我支支吾吾，谨慎地措辞：那个，daddy 喜欢妈妈，妈妈喜欢daddy 阿。。。

    小胖趁胜追击，你觉得“王叔”帅么？

    帅阿~我捧腹。

    小胖边回味边总结陈词，哦，所以你嫁给王叔了阿……

小胖的上海话

 外婆说，你的笔呢？

小胖说，妈妈kang4(藏)起来了。

 

小胖说，我会说上海话。

画外音，会说什么呀？

小胖说，萨斯，萨武，切饭。。。

 小胖的中国话

四岁的的时候

外婆，今天学校的party 吃什么了？

小胖， tou3 豆梨。。。

外婆，什么梨？

小胖，不是梨，是tou3 豆梨。

外婆，。。。那是什么梨。。。。

。。。。。

妈妈脑中灵光一闪：土豆泥是也！

小胖和外婆

假期结束，从上海回美国的，上飞机那天，小胖哭天喊地，要外婆一起回来。

舅婆婆打圆场，说是飞机票没买好，所以外婆不可以一齐上飞机，等外婆把飞机票买好了，再到美国去。

小胖抽泣着，好。让她买明天的飞机票。

我有一个爱财的女儿。

小朋友不过五岁半，但很早便了解钱的重要性。

 她明白daddy mommy每天必须要去上班，赚钱，这样她才可以买玩具，住大房子。所以，虽然三岁的时候，她很是不情愿去学校，可是听到妈妈说…赚钱…她也就半推半就地踏入了幼儿园的大门。

自打外婆为了提高她收拾房间的积极性，制定了每次25美分的奖励制度，小朋友的打扫热情空前高涨，并时不时殷勤地询问是否要她帮忙收拾我们的房间。闲暇之余，捧着她的kitty储蓄罐，摇一摇，数一数，然后两眼放光地告诉我，她已经有12个钱钱了！

 小朋友的 kindergarten 毕业纪念册上写着未来的理想是当医生，更重要的是，要把所有的钱钱都存进piggy bank! 小朋友作算术题的时候，要求做和money 相关的加减法…

小朋友对“钱”的一腔热诚，让我有些哭笑不得。诚然，赚钱自立，是一个人安身立命，对自己负责的重要环节。可是，小朋友这样的务实，会不会太早？

 

小朋友历时一年的学琴史很是荡气回肠。气，是妈妈常常气不打一处来的那个气。肠，是小朋友时不时泪迸肠绝的那个肠。

虽然小朋友很享受流利弹完整首音乐的那个瞬间，但之前的那个苦练过程，终究是艰难的。于是，经常上演的场景便是：小朋友气呼呼地钻到钢琴底下，拒绝再练习卡壳的那一小节；那厢原本下决心要寓教于乐的妈妈恨铁不成钢地撕下了温情的面具，气急败坏：用你的小脑子想一想！

…………

 暴风雨过后，两个人便没事人一样抱抱亲亲，好似 那一幕彼此折磨不过是场白日梦…虽然，妈妈时常觉得自己凶神恶煞般的形象实在很丑陋，有些懊恼，可是，看看小朋友天真无邪，毫不记仇的样子，便也就云淡风清地假装那不过是往事随风…

 昨日，妈妈闲来无事，突然雅兴大发，弹琴抒怀（且忽略琴技拙劣）。突然之间，就毫无征兆地卡壳了，望着小朋友崇拜的无邪的眼神，妈妈不好意思地承认：我忘记谱子了…瞬间，小朋友跳起来，装出凶神恶煞的样子吼道：用你的小脑子想一想~~

 

 

%let today=%sysfunc(today(),mmddyy6.);
%let PARENT=C:\PARENT;
%macro checkfolder(PARENT,today);

    options noxwait;
    %local rc fileref ;
    %let rc = %sysfunc(filename(fileref,&PARENT.\&today)) ;

    %if %sysfunc(fexist(&fileref)) %then
       
        %put Folder &PARENT.\&TODAY  exist;

    %else %do;
     
    options noxwait noxsync;
    X "md &PARENT.\&today";
    X "md &PARENT.\&today.\INPUT";
    X "md &PARENT.\&today.\OUTPUT";
    X "md &PARENT.\&today.\CODE";

    %end;

%mend;

%checkfolder(&PARENT,&today);



Function of the macro:
1.    Under parent directory, check the existence of folder named after today’s date (here 070109).
2.    if the folder does not exist, then create folder and subfolders using command lines.
Output:
      C:\Parent\070109\input
      C:\Parent\070109\output
      C:\Parent\070109\code

Before:

 

After:

 

---Make Life Easier.

    Sending Email in SAS to distribute analysis results is pretty cool and convenient. But unfortunately it is not 100% automated. After I ran the SAS code in a batch mode with simple code used to send out email listed below, I was a little bit annoyed to see a Microsoft outlook authorization pop out. I STILL NEED TO CLICK 'Yes' button MANUALLY to complete the whole process.

filename mymail email 'myname@xxxxxx.COM'
         subject="SAS AUTOMATIC-RESULTS "
         attach="R:\MYFILE.RTF";
 data _null_;
  file mymail
  cc=('hisname@xxxxx.COM' 'hername@xxxxx.COM');
  put 'Hi,Guys,';
  put "Analysis Output as of  %sysfunc(today(),date9.)";
  put "                             ";
  put "Please Let me know if you have any question.";
  put "Regards";
  put "                             ";
  put "                             ";
  put "SAS                          ";
run;

      I dig into the issue a little bit more and eventually found a way to solve the problem: putting two lines into SAS configuration file for email set up:

 
-EMAILSYS SMTP
-EMAILHOST MAIL.MYSERVER.COM

 

    First line set up the email transfer protocol and the second line is the email server you will be using. By adding these two configurations, SAS will call mail server to send out the email directly without using window’s application (which is MAPI as original set up).

    ps.SAS online documentation will be a good source if you are interested in SAS email function:

http://support.sas.com/91doc/getDoc/lrdict.hlp/a002058232.htm#a002058238

 ----Make life easier.