Kimono Chocolates

These chocolates are so cute. They are being sold at Dean & Deluca. If my diet allowed it, I would probably order a box.

Spare Change

If I had some spare change lying around I'd get this ring:


Alas, I think I need to save my pennies for a long time before I can save enough for a new play ring. ^_~ In case you are wondering, that is a 2ct emerald and 1.49 carats in diamonds.

The full ad is here

Moving on Up

Space has gotten to be a bit too cramped in our 2 bedroom condo for Ming and me We have way too much stuff. Between the two of us we have:

• 2 beds
• bedroom furniture (night stands and dresser)
• desk
• desktop and laptop computers (too many to count)
• 2 orchids, 1 ficus, 1 planter box, 1 japanese maple
• snowboarding gear (snow boards, boots, goggles, helmets, etc)
• 2 bikes
• a ton of kitchen stuff including formal china, various gadgets
• a complete filled tool box
• and the list goes on ...

A two bedroom just wasn't going to cut it for us any longer so we decided to take the plunge and buy a single family home. Yup, we are moving to a larger place up north. We're moving to Belmont, which is really close to the city so expect us to be less lame and make it up to the city more often.

We thought we were really smart to buy a 3 bedroom house ... we've now made drawings (on the computer since we're dorks) of furniture layout and we've already completely filled up all the rooms! Somehow we managed to cram all of our stuff in a 2 bedroom but when we moved to a 3 bedroom we still filled up all the space. O.o I think we need to learn to stop buying stuff

Regardless, I'll be really busy during the next month while we pack, move, jet off to Italy, come back and attend Pat and Anita's wedding. We've got a whirlwind next couple of months ahead >_<

Sleep Deprived

I've been waking up early to go the gym and I've keep it up for 3 (maybe 4) weeks now. I feel much better when I wake up early to go to gym rather than going after work. When I wake up to go to the gym I'm up at around 6:45am. Today, my non-gym day, I was uanble to sleep past 7am. Try as I might, I just couldn't get back to sleep. It's Friday morning and I was awake and wondering what to do. Going in to the office wasn't an option (I just didn't feel like getting in before 8) so I had to find something to do to occupy my time. I ended up making myself a real breakfast and I ate it while watching the morning news.

It is now in the mid-afternoon and I am starting to drag but still holding up. I hope that this morning wasn't an indication that I'll also wake up extremely early on the weekend. >_<

Salad Week

In the continued effort to try to be better about what I eat, I have deemed this week salad week. I am trying out mbhide's advice and eating low carb meals for dinner. It's just past mid-week and Ming and I haven't gone crazy yet (but we are definitely tired of lettuce.)

Monday: Salad with romain lettuce, shredded carrots, sliced cucumber, tomatoes, orange slices, pan fried chicken breast
Tuesday: The same as Monday except with extra chicken breast
Wednesday: Laab Gai accompanied by mint leaves, lettuce, and shredded cucumber.

Laab Gai is a Thai preparation of chicken. Wednesday was, by far, our best and most enjoyable meal. We ate 3 chicken breasts between the two of us and savored every bit of it.

The scale hasn't reflected any difference in weight nor do I feel any different from eating salads all week. A visual inspection of myself doesn't show any loss in my tummy fat. :( Nevertheless, I will ride out this whole week and continue to eat salads/low carb meals at dinner. I don't have any more energy (nor less energy) but I'm sure that we're at least eating at least one meal which is healthy.

Tonight is Atkins burgers (hamburger patties wrapped with lettuce) and more salad. After this week I don't think I will buy lettuce for a long time.

Are You a Red Sox Fan?

If you are a red sox fan then you might want to start buying some furniture. There is a store which promises that any purchase made between March 7 and April 16 will be free if the red sox wins the world series. It's a great marketing blitz and they will actually follow through should the sox win the world series. I have no idea if the furniture is stuff that I'd consider buying (e.g. is it my style?) but if I was in the area, I'd definitely stop by and take a peek.

Here's the full story: http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2007/04/06/jordans_is_betting_sox_wont_win_series/

Puppies On the Brain

Isn't that such a cute maltese puppy? We aren't ready to have a puppy yet but I thought this one was so cute

Vegetarian for 3 Days

Do you think you could (or would want) to become a vegetarian for 3 days? I was recently made aware that devout buddhists will eat strictly vegetarian for 3 days after a fortuitous event has happened. They believe that because something good has happened (e.g. a raise, bonus, getting a new job, baby) they will celebrate by sparing the lives of animals by not eating them.

While I respect the belief system that buddhists observe I am not sure I could live by it. I am not buddhist but I have friends who are buddhist. Giving up meat for 3 days seems pretty hard to do, particularly when it could happen at any time. I happen to like my pig, cow, and chicken and preventing at least one of them from appearing on my plate (and not completely overloading on carbs to compensate) isn't easy -- it sounds like the equivalent of a diet to me.

Could you do it? Would you do it -- give up meat for 3 days everytime a "lucky" event happened to you?

Cucumbers

I hate cucumbers. For some reason I just cannot get myself to like them. I don't mind cucumbers in water or cucumbers as garnish (since I never eat them) but I don't like to eat slices of cucumber. They seem like a waste of my space on my plate. I don't care for the taste of cucumbers and they don't seem "refreshing" to me. I am generally not a picky eater but cucumbers is where I have a problem. I will pick cucumbers out of my salad and put them to the side so that I don't have to eat them.

Enter the food processor. I love my food processor and have extolled its virtues many times over. I used the food processor to shred the cucumber and, voila, all of a sudden I was ok with eating cucumbers. I think there is something about eating a cucumber in large chunks (e.g. a slice) which doesn't agree with me but somehow eating cucumber shreds is ok. Voila. I can suddenly eat cucumbers without wincing in dismay. I no longer have a food which I'm picky about (only picky about its preparation.)

Lesson to be learned: never rule out a food unless you've tried it prepared several different ways. I have, in fact, become enamored enough with shredded cucumbers that I am willing to eat it in salads (shredded of course) next week and it will be an item on my grocery list.