Turkey in March

We had BBQ turkey tonight. Why did we have turkey? We had turkey because

1. we were craving it
2. it was a nice and sunny day, perfect for BBQ
3. we have been using a fool proof recipe for the past 2 years and the turkey is always juicy and delicious

Here's a pictography of the turkey and the cooking process:

Ming getting ready to BBQ the turkey


The turkey, all ready to go into the BBQ. It's legs and wings are covered to protect them from getting burned to a crisp


Ming checking the BBQ to make sure it's cozy enough for the turkey


2 hours later a perfectly cooked turkey

As always, the turkey was scrumptious. We started off by brining it overnight in a salt based solution. We then took it out this morning to dry out for a bit. 2 hours into the BBQ and the turkey came out, ready to be consumed :) I forgot to take a picture of dinner because we were so hungry and we ended up scarfing it all down.

I know that a lot of people don't like turkey because they don't care for the taste or it's normally too dry. One of these people was my auntie. She absolutley didn't care for turkey until she tried our BBQ turkey. It made her a convert and ever since she had it, she's never looked back. When we tell her that we are having turkey she's at our house as fast as the car can get her here.

Hot Pot, Nabemono, Shabu shabu

I wanted a claypot because I wanted to make a claypot dish with oysters. I did my homework and found out that instead of the normal Chinese claypot (which I think looks a bit gaudy) I could do the same thing with the Japanese version. The Chinese claypot looks like



The Japanese claypot is called a donabe. It is made out of a sturdier clay and is stronger and more resistent to heat. I like the look of the donabe a lot better than the Chinese claypot



Last night I made a claypot oyster dish with my new claypot/donabe and it was really yummy. Next is going to be hot pot/shabu shabu in it -- who wants to come to dinner? ^_~

Santa Ramen

Tonight Ming and I ate at Santa Ramen because we were craving ramen and had heard good things about this place. We also wanted to go do some grocery shopping at Marina after dinner.

We arrived at Santa Ramen at about 6.15p and there was already a line. O.o I knew the ramen was reputed to be good but I wasn't expecting a wait. We put our names on the waiting list and proceeded to wait until we were called. Luckily people ate pretty quickly and we only had to wait about 10 minutes before getting a seat in the 29 seat restaurant. We promptly ordered and waited for our ramen to arrive.

The ramen was very tasty but, as with most Japanese food, was laden with MSG and quite salty. It wasn't enough MSG to give you a headache but it certainly did make me reach for my water cup a lot. The ramen was really good. It was chewy and the broth was really tasty. Both of us had the stewed pork and roast pork in pork broth. mmm... We were lucky that we ordered when we did because 10 minutes later we saw the waitress put up a sign that said they were sold out of stewed pork.

Don't let the name fool you, stewed pork is really good. Stewed pork is really the pork belly which has been braised in a sweet, dark, salty liquid. It is the fatty pork cut of meat, found in "kau yuk mui choi" in Cantonese restaurants.

I couldn't finish all of the ramen so I asked for a to go container. The ramen was $11 per bowl. At $11 a bowl I expected that the restaurant would have some suitable take out container for the remainder of my dinner. Maybe in Japan they don't believe in take out containers (the employees were certainly Japanese and could have been born in Japan -- perhaps even the daughters of the owners) because when I asked for my to go container she came back with my leftovers in a zip lock bag. O.o Yes, my ramen and broth were all placed uncermoniously in a gallon size zip lock bag. Wow, that is the first time I've ever received a take out box that is a zip lock bag -- for broth!

All and all everything was really good and I'd go back again (1)if I didn't have to wait more than 20 minutes and (2) I only order enough so that I finish and don't require a take out container. I have heard that on weekends this place has over an hour for a wait and I'm not sure it is worth that. If you are in the area and are craving ramen, try heading over and see if the wait is short.

Real Time Weather Map

(click on the image to get a more detailed view)

With all of the rain that we've been getting it'd be nice to know what the weather forecast is, by the minute. I recently found out about Weather Underground and it shows you the weather maps in real time. Well, its got a slight delay but it is good enough for me. ^_^ It shows you when inclement weather is nearby. Yesterday I used it to determine when to go home. I left when there was a break in the weather and I wouldn't be completely pelted when I left the office.

This is a pretty nifty and useful tool. Whenever I need to BBQ again next I can use this tool to determine when we should put the burgers on the grill (and skip/miss the rain showers)

Ming the Phone

Motorola is introducing a new phone called the MotoMing. Yes, it's Ming's namesake phone.



I must admit that it is a pretty sexy and cool phone. It isn't completely sleek but it is packed full of new features. It has a stylus (yes, this is a phone and not a palm-like device) which has handwriting recognition. You can write chinese on the screen and it will recognize it. It's really cool and I can't wait to find it in stores to try out. Needless to say since this is Ming's namesake phone he'll be trying to obtain one in the near future

Happy New Year

It's officially the year of the piggy this year. Happy new year everyone!

We spent the weekend cleaning house and making Chinese New Year foods. Ming bought a 6 lb chicken for dinner. I have never seen a chicken that big and trying to cook one that big is really hard. We put it in an 8qt pot and it barely fit -- next time I cook a massive chicken I'll have to put it in the 12qt pot. O.o

This marks the first year that I will have to give out red envelopes. I am armed with crisp bills and plenty of envelopes. I hope everyone doesn't decide to descend on us and make us dole out more red envelopes than I'm prepared for ^_~

Disabling Your SSID

Lots of people have now learned that they should password protect their wireless network. Many others believe you should prevent your wireless network from broadcasting, thinking that it makes it less susceptible to attackers. Here's a comment about disabling the broadcast that is humorous and enlightening:


Disabling SSID broadcast makes your AP about as hidden as a duck sitting very quietly in broad daylight, in the open on a pond.

It thinks that not going Quack Quack, makes it invisible. If there is any kind of traffic on your AP it and it's SSID is as visible as any other AP.

Valentine's Recap

After my oopsies I must say that dinner went very well. We had Jap chae (Korean noodles normally eaten as panchan) and double choc cake with choco frosting.


Jap chae with a Chinese twist. I added fresh bamboo shoots to it.


Chocolate cake!


mmm... cake

My V-day Oopsie

Last night I wanted to get a head start on my choco cake in preparation for Valentine's day. I wanted to have the cake made the day before so that I could add the frosting the next day, when the cake was cooled. In case you weren't aware, my previous post mentioned that I wanted to make choco cake for Valentine's day.

I got home at 9pm last night and made myself a quick dinner. By 10pm I was ready to make the chocolate cake. I was in a groove and I was doing really well (considering that I had forgotten to take the butter out ahead of time to make sure it was room temp) and it was in the oven by 10:30pm. No sooner had I placed it in the oven then I realized, "oh crap, I forgot to add the chocolate!" I made chocolate cake and didn't add chocolate -- sigh. O.o I think it must have been too long of a day for me for me to have forgotten something so crucial.

I didn't want to eat what could be terrible cake so what was I supposed to do? I cleaned up everything and started again. I ended up making another batch, with chocolate, of the cake. I was baking until nearly midnight last night! When I went to bed the whole house smelled like chocolate. O.o

The lesson that I learned is always double check that I've completely read the recipe prior to sticking the item into the oven. I hope this choco cake is good since I invested so much time into it!!

Baked Donuts

Donuts are so tasty but oh-so-bad for your health. Imagine my surprise when I came across this article for baked donuts. O.o Baked donuts!? I can't believe that .. well just in time for Valentine's day I suppose. It's a way to enjoy a favorite snack w/o putting your arteries in danger.

If they can make a Homer Simpson donut maker, I guess baked donuts aren't that far of a stretch.

Love Is In the Air

Valentine's day is almost upon us and we see nothing but advertisements for roses and chocolate. What are you goign to do to celebrate? Sit at home and treat it as thought it is another day or will you go all out and spend the (approx.) $110 dollars on a gift that retail forecasters are hoping for and eat out at some fancy restaurant?

You may ask what I am going to do for v-day and my answer is this: eat cake (a la Marie Antoinette's famouse "let them eat cake" statment.) I'm planning on eating some choco cake with a custard frosting. That is my v-day. Flowers and restaurant atmosphere are completely optional. All I really want is cake. ^_^

Too Much Anna Nicole Smith

As we've all heard by now, Anna Nicole Smith has died. You can't go to a single news source (be it paper, internet, or TV) without hearing about her death. Her passing has generated a ton of media traffic and every single reporter is talking about it. I see her picture wherever I click to while on CNN, Yahoo, etc.

I'm frankly tired of hearing about her. The media is treating her as if she was some terrific person who died in the prime of her life. In reality, many of them (myself included) sneered when her name was mentioned and thought of her as a major annoyance. She hadn't done anything to deserve praise or "oohs and ahhs." If anything, she was the epitome of what happens when you (pardon the phrase) take a girl out of a trailer park and swathe her in millions. I hardly think anyone would consider anything she'd done as admirable.

She's received more media blitz than when a president passes away. Now, c'mon, isn't that saying something is completely wrong with our value system? If a diplomat or president (or someone else who's done something to better society) dies, he doesn't recieve nearly as much attention as this. We keep hearing all these statements from PETA (and I will sneer at this particular name since I think that they are just a bunch of radicals who bully their way into everything), celebrities, etc who claim they knew her well and loved her. If they knew her so well and were such good acquaintances, why hadn't they spoken up before now? We hadn't heard a single statement from one of them during all of Anna's tumultuous times (death of J. Howard Marshall, who-is-the-daddy-scandal, death of her son, etc.) Why now? The reason they speak up now is because it gives these clingers a chance for some media attention (again, our media is giving way too much airtime to this story.)

Bottom line: move on. This story was noteworthy for all of about 5 minutes. There are plenty of other things happening in the world which are more important.

Princess to Wed Commoner

One of my vices is to read gossip about the stars. While I love to read about Hollywood stars I equally (if not more) enjoy reading about royalty. My magazine of choice is Hello Magazine. It is based in Britain and always has lots of juicy gossip about the royal families of the world.

The latest bit of gossip is about Princess Alexandra. She was married to the heir of Denmark but they divorced a few years ago. The princess is 42 years old and born in Hong Kong. She has a bit of Asian blood in her, which might account for her youthful appearance. She looks fabulous for 42!



She is set to marry a 28 year old photographer later this year or sometime next year. Someone as gorgeous as her is going to marry someone who is 14 years her junior. Whoa. There are plenty of women who marry men who are younger than them (think Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher) but ... it's hard to fathom it happening to royalty. With her marriage to the 28 year old commoner (Martin Jorgensen) she loses her Princess title. She's giving up a lot to marry him so he'd better be worth it!

If you were to marry someone who is younger than you (by a huge amount), what qualities would he have to possess in order for you to lose your currently cushy status? For us mere commoners, I suppose it'd be the equivalent of some high powered attorney marrying a farmer in the midwest. I suppose a farmer is a bad equivalent since farmers will make a decent living whereas a photographer is more of a fly-by-night occupation (sometimes its lucrative, other times it is dismal.) You'd really need to marry for love and be ready to sacrifice your current lifestyle for a more humble one.

The Dreaded Scale

I have finally come to terms with myself and realize that I've gained way too much weight in the past few months. I've only been married for 7 months but I've also put on a ton of weight during that time period. This acceptance prompted a prompt trip to Bed Bath and Beyond to buy a scale.



I bought a scale to help me figure out how much I weigh and to hopefully chart my weightloss. I've been going to the gym again and trying to be smarter about what I eat. This scale is my motivation to do well...

Dark Chocolate M&Ms

I bought some dark chocolate M&Ms over the holidays. I love dark chocolate so I thought that I'd give the M&Ms a shot. I love to snack on M&Ms and I love dark chocolate -- sounded like a perfect combination. Upon trying the M&Ms, however, I was sadly disappointed. It doesn't taste like dark chocolate and is like the normal M&M. There is too much of the candy coating and too little chocolate to discern (at least for me) any difference between plain M&Ms and dark chocolate ones. :p Next time I will just buy the plain M&Ms and not waste my time scouring for the dark ones.

New Dessert Fave

I ate at Juni the other night with a friend. The food wasn't spectacular nor memorable -- and certainly not for their prices. The best part of the meal was dessert. I had mango sorbet and completely enjoyed it. I found out that it wasn't house made, nor even made by some Asian brand; it was made by Haagen-Dazs. O.o It was probably the best mango sorbet I've ever had. It tasted just like the little manila mango and it wasn't too sweet.



It only has 120 calories per serving (there are 4 servings in the container) and all of the ingredients are ones that I recognize. There isn't any corn syrup or other weird (aka bad) perservatives or sweeteners. I am definitely going to stock up on a pint or two of this the next time I go to the grocery store.

Orchid SOS

My orchids aren't doing very well. They look sad and droopy and dark green. I want them to be healthy and flower so I did a bit of research on the 'net. I found out that you should use sphagnum moss to fertilize the plants and help them get healthy again. I bought some of what I thought was sphagnum moss but it turns out that I bought the wrong kind. :( I bought sphagnum peat moss. The difference is that the peat moss is the decomposed version of sphagnum moss and isn't as effective. *sigh* Well, nevertheless, I put the sphagnum peat moss on the orchids and hope they do better. I'll check on them again in about a month and compare how they are now.

Pasta for Ladies .. of the Night

So I've got some anchovies that I'm trying to figure out how to cook up for dinner. Ming doesn't really care for them so I've got to figure out how to incorporate them into dinner where you really can't tell they're there. During my search I came across pasta puttanesca. I've heard of it before and it incorporates the anchovies in the pasta sauce ... sounds good to me. I read about its history and found out that it was served by ladies of the night in order to tempt men to come to them:

"This sauce is named for ladies of the night. They would place pots of it in their windows to tempt men into the bordellos. "

Whoa ... I'm going to be making an illicit sauce? I would never have guessed that something as simple as pasta sauce would have such a colorful history

Sudoku Mania

I got sucked into doing sudoku. I've been going up to the city to do work for a customer every now and then and it's a long train ride. I normally read the paper but eventually I finish the paper and it's still awhile to go before I get to my destination. I started doing a sudoku puzzle and I finished my first one yesterday. I understand why people are so addicted to this now; it's seemingly easy but it does take a bit of work at it. I've ended up going electronic and now I'm doing the puzzles on the computer (much easier than pen and paper since its ultimately easier to read on the computer than in a tiny little box on the paper.)

Call me crazy but I just joined the masses in loving this game. Well maybe not love but definitely hooked and once you start a puzzle, it's hard to stop until you finish

Scratch and Sniff Stamps

China has released some stamps where, if you scratch it, it smells like Sweet and Sour Pork. These stamps are to commemorate Chinese New Year, this year being the year of the pig. I wonder if scratching it will make people hungry for dinner ^_~

Article

Celebrating Tet

I'm not Vietnamese but I'm going to celebrate Tet at Tamarine Restaurant. I've been wanting to try Tamarine for a long time, especially since people have been giving it really good reviews. I've eaten at its sister restaurant, Bong Su, in SF and really enjoyed it. I can only imagine that Tamarine will be just as good as Bong Su.

I normally celebrate Chinese New Year so Tet will be a different experience. I'm looking forward to it since the restaurant will have different decorations and entrees out for Tet. They're even going to have a lion dance -- in downtown Palo Alto! O.o

Review: Kite Runner

I stayed up late last night (gasp, on a school/worknight) and read The Kite Runner. It is an excellent book and I recommend that everyone read it. It is about a boy who grows up as the son of the richest man in town (or among the richest). It takes place in Afghanistan prior to any of the upheavel. During the boy's childhood he grows up when the monarchy is still in power and it gives great insight as to what Afghanistan used to be like. Gradually there is a coup and social upheavel, causing the boy and his father to flee to America. As an adult, the boy is summoned back to Afghanistan and he sees how it has changed and how life has become unbearable when under the rule of the Taliban.

More than anything else, this book helped open my eyes to what life was like in the middle east. All we've ever heard is that its a war zone (since that is what its been like for the past 25 years) but it wasn't always that way. It used to be beautiful and "normal." Towns were prosperous and while not as "advanced" as the states, the towns had their own charm.

I also learned a bit about Afghan culture and how different it is compared to Asian culture. It was refreshing to hear the intricacies of their culture and how they also value the concept of family.

I stayed up very late to finish this book but it was a total page turner. If you haven't read it yet, it is a must read.

Happy New Year

Happy new year and welcome to 2007! What did I do to celebrate the new year? I played wiiiii!!! Since getting married earlier this year Ming and I decided to be ultra social and lay low. We spent the evening at home and played wii all night. Yup, we're a ton of fun. O.o

I love the wii. It's a lot of fun to play and since Ming has cleaned the house, we've got ample space to play it. I'm most addicted to Tennis (wii sports) and Zelda. I haven't really played other games yet since I'm trying to become a pro on Tennis and get further than just a wooden sword.

Hope that everyone had a good new years and didn't get too drunk. ^_~

How Unique Are You?

My full name (with my maiden name):

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 176 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

My new full name (married name):

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 49 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

I guess I'm more unique (and less chance of being mistaken) now that I'm married :)

Modern Mediocore Chocolate at Inflated Prices

I recently was made aware of a chocolate maker called Noka They have a very minimalist, sleek, and modern appeal to them. Their packaging is exactly what would appeal to the urban, minimalist.



I came across an article which does an in-depth review of Noka chocolate. Noka is sold at premium stores such as Dean & Deluca and Neiman Marcus. This chocolate, on average, goes for $300/lb. Yes, there really are 3 digits to the left of the decimal point. In France you can expect to see chocolates for $100/lb but $300?! Damn, that had better be some really good chocolate to warrant that kind of price tag.

It turns out that Noka is a chocolate which has basically been re-branded (from a company called Bonnat). Noka is a company which repackages chocolate made by another company and they charge a 1300% markup. O.o While the chocolate is decent, it is no where worth that much money (particularly since you can buy the chocolate directly from Bonnat). Noka is the most expensive chocolate that you can buy but I'd rather save my money and buy chocolate from Vosges or Amedei instead. At least those companies are actual chocolatiers and make their own truffles, etc. instead of simply taking the chocolate and melting them down into another mold.

Noka is very cool to look at but I'll take a bar of some other chocolate (by a chocolatier who actually makes their confections) any day.

It's Christmas Charlie Brown

Urban Outfitters is selling a replica of the sad Charlie Brown Christmas tree. It's so sad .. but really cute. We aren't going to have a Christmas tree this year but, if we did get one, this is the one I'd get. ^_^

We Have a New Bond

I saw Casino Royale last night, finally, and I really enjoyed the movie. It was a really long movie but had a lot of good scenes and the script was well written. I'm not a Bond fan by any means but I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It definitely surpassed my expectations.

I joined in with the masses when we all groaned upon hearing Daniel Craig would be the famous 007. He doesn't seem handsome enough to follow in Pierce Brosnan's footsteps. I should actually say that statement past tense. After seeing Daniel Craig's performance I was very impressed. He has a certain charm that grows on you and he portrayed Bond very well. He is in very good shape; his body was really buff! The stunts he did in Bond took my breath away and there were scenes where you could see just how hard his (ample) muscles were straining. O.o

All and all, it was a good evening and I'll rent/buy the movie when it comes out.

Start them Young

We've all had to worry about children who misbehave. Sometimes you just grin and bear it (and administer a bit of discipline.) How do you deal with children who lie? Better yet, how do you deal with parents who lie because their parents taught them to lie. O.o Yes, you heard right. I had the misfortune of finding that my cousin has been taught to lie by the parents. *ouch* Is it any wonder that children these days are much worse off then we were as a kid? When we grew up our parents had values and morales and always taught us to do the right thing. Somewhere along the lines todays parents forgot these lessons, and instead, do a 180 and teach their kids all the things that we were told never to do.

Well, now that I know kids these days are so terribly misbehaved, I'll just need to remember to never volunteer to babysit these kids.

Breakfast of Champions

This is what I had for breakfast today:

See's Candy and Milo (kind of like a malty hot chocolate)

Tis the Season

It's holiday time! I've been busy trying to figure out how to do x-mas shopping with the hectic workload ... how do busy people do it?

I've also gotten into the holiday decorating mode this year so I want to add some x-mas decorations around the house ... My mission: find a wreath to hang on the front door. I don't feel like going through all of the hassle of a tree this year but maybe next year :)

Happy Turkey Day

Happy turkey day everyone! Eat lots, be merry and give thanks to the oodles and oodles of turkey ^_^

The Devil Wears Prada

I finished reading The Devil Wears Prada and although I didn't have really high expectations for the book, I was still left feeling disappointed. Everyone in Europe seems to adore the movie so I thought I'd give the book a shot. Normally the book is always better than the movie so if the movie is good, the book is generally ten times better. Unfortunately, the book wasn't as good of a read as I had hoped. It definitely doesn't keep you hooked like the Da Vinci Code or any of John Grisham's books. Rather, it is through and through a chic lit book. I don't have any problem reading a chic lit book but I was expecting this particular one to have a bit more substance. The book is written from a first person point of view and .. the girl isn't very likeable. She catalogues her life working for as an assistant for some big magazine company and the book is all about how she slaves for a high and mighty fashion editor. The book didn't have any dull spots but, rather, just seemed boring. I love reading about fashion and the book was more focused on dropping descriptions about the fashion labels than it was about developing a complex and intersting story line.

I hope the movie turns out to be better than this book, that'd be a first, because all of Europe can't be wrong ... can it?

Love to Amazon

I love Amazon. I signed up for a trial of their Amazon Prime program. This basically let you get free 2nd day delivery of any items you ordered for 3 months. If you don't cancel within the 3 month trial period then you pay $79/year to continue the program. As with all trial offers, you will automatically get charged the $79 unless you cancel before the trial period expires.

I've been really caught up in work and before I knew it my 3 month period was over and I got charged the $79. *doh* I promptly cancelled the Amazon Prime membership since it was cool to have but not something that I really need. Today I received an e-mail that confirmed my Amazon Prime cancellation AND the CS rep also said they'd refund me the $79 since I hadn't taken advantage of it (meaning I hadn't ordered any items since they'd charged my credit card.) That is so cool! Amazon refunded my money even though it was my own error (I should have been more on top of things) and I didn't even ask for them to do this. Wow.

Amazon has made me a very happy customer and one who'll gladly keep ordering from again.

Jet setters

From dictionary.com:

jet set n. - An international social set made up of wealthy people who travel from one fashionable place to another.


Wealthy people huh? I don't think that I'm considered a wealthy person but I am a jet setter ... this weekend Ming and I are off to Boston. We're going to see all of his old college fraternity brothers and it'll be really cold there (high of 45). *brrr* I guess the only way to stay warm is to stay in Copley Place and go shopping. ^_^

Toys for All

Earlier I had posted that Ming got to buy the TV that he'd been itching to buy. The TV arrived and he's diligently been testing it out with 360 games. Since he got his TV it's only fair that I get something in return too ... so I bought a purse. It isn't just any purse, it's a purse I've been looking for for the past year. I finally found a purse that had all my requirements (roomy, leather, tote style) and I stumbled upon it here:



So now that each of us has some new toy to play with .. how do you find a suitable x-mas gift? O.o

New Toy

Ming got a new toy at the end of last week. In fact, I even went to buy him the new toy.



It hasn't arrived home yet but when it does, I have a feeling we're going to be glued to the couch for awhile. ^_^ The store will have to call us when it does arrive but I'm looking forward to it because it means that everything will be so much bigger and crisper.

Bringing Ramen on Vacation

If you had a limited budget for a vacation, do you think you'd
1. choose to go to an expensive and exotic location but *bring* most of your meals
2. go to a more modest location but go out to eat every meal to sample the local culture

Yes, there are people who have done the first option when going on vacation. Most people choose to live within their means and don't over extend themselves so much that they no longer have any money left for food. Nevertheless, I am sure there are a surprising number of people who choose to BYOB it on their vacation. O.o It's a crazy notion if you ask me but I guess there has never been a place where I've wanted to go where I can no longer afford to pay for my own food.

The people who BYOB it aren't the ones who are bringing food to a condo ... it's bringing ramen and any other instant food (e.g. granola, dry cereal) to some (for example) Caribbean island because they spent all their money on air and hotel and none is left over for food.

It doesn't seem like a real vacation to me unless I'm able to go mingle with people and eat out at restaurants with them ... figuring out how some of the locals eat or eat at some of the best restaurants the area has to offer.

What would you do? Would you spend all of your money on air and hotel or would you spread it out more evenly such that you have enough to eat at the local restaurants?

Back from Sin City

We went to Las Vegas over the weekend to celebate my sister's 21st birthday. My entire family went and we had good times. We took my sister to Tryst and got her liquored up (with the help from Mr. Effen Cherry and Mr. Belvedere) but the boys were disappointing. There wasn't anyone good looking and they were all old -- as in the same age as my dad! The music was good but the DJ jumped around genres too much for my taste.

We did a bit of gambling and we didn't do so well in that area. We ate a ton and overall had some good family time together and terrific memories.

The only bummer from the weeken dis that I ended up getting sick. =( Too much smoke in the casinos and a/c lead to me getting sick. *sigh* Well at least I can say that we had a good enough time this weekend to make up for me now feeling the ugliness of a cold.

Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dumb

I saw an episode on the Food Network featuring Paula Dean's sons and they truly are twiddle dee and twiddle dumb. The sons were raised in the south so they are supposed to have a bit of a southern charm to them and definitely have the southern drawl. Unfortunately, as I sat on the couch watching these two all I could think was "you guys cannot be for real." They go to various restaurants and show what the restaurant is well known for (cuisine-wise.) For having a mother who's become somewhat of a tv cook juggernaut they are really clueless. They act really dumb and as though they've never been in a kitchen before. They like to dip their grubby fingers into everything and always go "ooh ahh" over everything, especially bourbon or whiskey.

These guys act like completely simpletons. They are like southern frat boys who've been dropped on their heads a few too many times as a child. *sigh* This goes to show that nepotism is definitely not a good thing -- leads to us innocent TV viewers being subjected to 30 minutes of watching immature idiots on TV

The Cat's Away this Weekend

While the cat's away will the mice play?

I took Ming to the airport this morning. Traffic was horrendous; it took us an hour to get from Palo Alto to SFO. I am so glad that I don't have a long commute anymore. If I had to deal with bumper to bumper traffic (and stop and go) every day I'd go crazy. Right now I'm completely spoiled by my 3 mile commute. ^_^

Ming is away on business through the weekend so it means that I have from now to Sunday to do whatever I please. While he, lucky guy that he is, gets to go shopping at Riccardi, I am left in the Bay Area to find my amusements. What would you do if you had the entire weekend to yourself without worrying about repercussions?

Love Parade is happening this weekend but its become so commercialized that I'm not really incentivized to go. While I love the music that is played I don't look forward to seeing all of the commercial aspects of it that now exist.

I suppose I could take this time to clean house ... but I think it'd be better to wait on that so that Ming can join in "joys" of tidying up too. x_X

Oh the possibilities of what to do ...

What Celebrity Do I look Like?

I recently discovered this new site called My Heritage and it allows you to upload a photo of yourself and it then tells you how close you look compared to other celebrities. Its pretty cool. According to my results (I uploaded one of my wedding photos) I look most like Joey Yung followed by others (as seen below). The photo they have of Sammi is really out dated



Who do you most look like? ^_^

Fashion

Maybe I've been watching too much Project Runway but this dress from Fashion Week really caught my attention



I just had to share with it you because I love the dress but it's price is probably way out of my league and I'll have to be content with simply viewing it from afar.

Jusice on Fox

Last night I finally got around to watching the tv show Justice. It is a tv series about a group of lawyers who try to win a case for the defendent. The lawyers try to convince the jury that their client is innocent. At the end of the show you will see what actually happened and if the jury was right in their sentencing of the defedent.

I dont normally watch lawyer shows, e.g. Law and Order, CSI, but this one got me hooked. There was never a dull moment and I was completely at the edge of my seat (well, the couch) and trying to figure out if the defendent was really innocent. It's a really good show and I'll be hooked to it until 24 comes back on -- and even then I'll be watching both 24 and Justice religously

Weekend in Napa

We spent the weekend in Napa and it was gorgeous. It's been quite a few years since I've been wine tasting in Napa/Sonoma so it was really nice to go back. I'd forgotten how gorgeous the area is. Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to upload the pictures yet so you will have to take my word for it. :)

We went to a ton of wineries:
- Cakebread Cellars
- Peju
- Niebaum Coppola
- Markham
- Close Pegase
- Chateau St. Jean
- Carneros Creek/Mahoney
- Rochioli

By the end of it all we didn't want to drink anymore wine or see any wine for at least 24 hours .. but we did end up joining 2 wine clubs


Carneros Creek


Chateau St. Jean

Yes, we joined 2 clubs and still brought back 2 cases of wine with us. Wow .. who wants to help us drink up :)

Fountain of Youth

Supposedly David Copperfield has found the fountain of life on some island that he just purchased near the Bahamas.
News Story

Hmm .. I think I'll believe it when I see it. With all of the uber smart people in the world, wouldn't they have found the fountain of youth first? Instead, an entertainer is the one who made this miraculous discovery? Sure ... yes, I'm a bit cynical but with everyone who's much smarter and research oriented then a magician would have been sure to have found this miracle water way before him.

Renewing Wedding Vows

Nope, I am not renewing my vows. For goodness sake, it's only been a little under 2 months. I am talking about Britney Spears and her renewing her vows to the slimeball, er, Kevin F.

story

After a whole 2 years of marriage they are renewing their wedding vows. I think the whole idea of renewing vows is a bit silly ... and it's even more incredulous when you haven't been married for very long. It's a sign that things are going downhill really fast and that the couple is fooling themselves (for a few months longer) that things will work out.

Good-Bye Name

I had my name legally changed today to my new married name. It's sad saying good-bye to my maiden name. :( It's always been a part of me and it's sad to see it go away. I couldn't keep it because, let's face it, Wong Wu sounds just way too much like a joke. On the plus side, I have a new signature that I've got to learn to perfect

It was good having you by my side these past 26 years name .. at least I still get to have you in my Chinese name. :)

Superman Returns

I saw Superman Returns last night. Ming made me see the previous Superman movies with Christopher Reeves and after seeing those, the new Superman cannot hold a candle to Christopher Reeves. Christopher Reeves has a sort of classy, gentlemanly aura about him while Brandon Routh just kind of fizzles in that department. Brandon Routh does a decent job at the role, I suppose, but everytime I see him, I think of him as liking the other white meat instead of Lois Lane.

All and all, the movie was good but I'm not sure I'd go see it again.

Ron's Farmhouse

If you've ever met me you'd know that I'm the type of person who'd never set foot in a dive bar. It isn't because I have something against them; it's because that isn't generally where I choose to go nor where my friends choose to go. So ... where am I going tonight, Friday night? I'm going to one of the oldest dive bars in the area: Ron's Farmhouse. It even has a MySpace page: MySpace page

I'm going to attend a comedy night. I don't have any expectations of it so maybe it'll end up being a really fun night. We'll see just how "divey" Mountain View can get. I'll report back later.

Wedding Bells -- They are a Clangin'

It seems like we've got a whole bunch of weddings to attend within the next year. We've got a bunch of wedding invitations from friends and more on the way. I thought that we were done with wedding stuff for awhile until I see the mailbox with invite after invite ... I guess that is to be expected since we're at the age where we're getting married and our friends are too. We've got:

1 wedding in August (Bay Area)
1 wedding in September (LA)
1 wedding in October (LA)
1 wedding in Spring 2007 (details TBD)
1 wedding in May 2007 (Italy)
1 wedding in June 2007 (Bay Area)
----------------
6 weddings!

We're going to be doing a ton of wedding gift shopping and travelling. I guess it is time for me to go out and buy more outfits to wear. ^_^

Married Life

I've been married for a month now and become an official Mrs. What's different? Um.. not a whole lot except that I need to make a conscious effort to refer to Ming as "my husband" and that I need to try to find time to unpack. I still have not fully unpacked into Ming's house yet because .. well, I don't really have a good excuse. My excuse is that I've been busy and lazy.

Over the weekend to commemorate our month of being married we decided to make a big purchase. It was our first big purchase together and it wasn't really to commemorate our month of being married -- it was more like because it was time for Ming to have a new car. We bought a 2007 Maxima and he is currently enjoying it everyday on his way to and fro work. It's his new toy -- got all the bells and whistles of keyless entry, bluetooth , navigation, etc.



I don't get to drive it very often since it is his car but it is a really comfy car to ride it. It gets decent gas mileage for a full sized car and I love the wood trim ^_^

Honeymoon Photos

Finally got a chance to upload the photos from the honeymoon
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=16iblc65.7fmpd1dt&x=0&y=vp97ox

Back and Married!

I’m back from Mexico and now I’m a Mrs.! It’s hard to believe that after all the planning and doubts that the wedding went off beautifully. If there were any snaffoos, people hid them from me. I couldn’t have asked for a better wedding and everything went off flawlessly. Everyone looked great and now the only thing I’ve got to do is twiddle my thumbs for 8 weeks until the photographer gets us our photos. Yes, it really does take them 8 weeks before they will be able to get our photos back to us.

We had a fabulous honeymoon. We boarded the plane bright and early on Sunday morning and landed in PVR (Puerto Vallarta, Mexico) without any issues. The smallest problem we hit was that we got nailed at the airport by someone trying to sell us a timeshare. Uh oh. Luckily we managed to eventually get away from him and take the shuttle (a taxi) to the hotel.

The hotel was the best! Upon arrival they served us some cooling fruit drinks. The checkout process was us sitting on the couch, sipping our drinks, and the guy coming to us to say “are you ready to go up to your suite?” The hotel itself is totally gorgeous. It caters to tourist (both from the states and Mexico) so it’s got top notch everything!

Our honeymoon package was for an all inclusive resort so all of our food and alcohol was covered. We took advantage of this and ate 4 meals (on average) a day! We had to get our moneys worth, so to speak, so we had to eat $360 worth of food and beverages. We drank so many drinks and ordered a ton of room service. With every room service order we ordered a bottle of liquor. We only found this out on Thursday but, after finding out that it was comp’ed to the room, we kept ordering bottles of alcohol. We didn’t mange to finish a bottle but sure had a good time trying!

The rooms had a Jacuzzi hot tub and that is the best thing to relax in right before you go to bed. Your muscles are totally put at ease when you sit in it for half an hour before bed. I highly recommend it ^_^

The weather was gorgeous and we enjoyed 90 degree weather everyday. Both Ming and I ended up getting a really dark tan, not that we’re complaining! ^_^

There were 2 peacocks roaming on the grounds of the hotel. One was an albino and one was a gorgeous blue and green one. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get any pictures of the blue and green one. We also saw a huge green lizard/iguana on the grounds of the resort also. Everything there was so vivid in color – except the albino peacock of course.

We went into the downtown area of Puerto Vallarta for all of 2 hours before heading back. It was too much of a city for us and we wanted something a bit more remote and less dirty and touristy. We went to downtown to buy some Tequipal (Tequila cream) and then bee-lined it back for the hotel.

The food was completely amazing at the resort. I found out what real chalupas and gorditas are – not a thing like the Taco Bell ones! They were so tasty that I believe I ordered one each day. ^_^ We ate fine dining almost every night and consumed a ton of seafood, lamb, chateau briand, etc. We had some really good food. I could go back again and eat more foie gras … ^_^

Pictures to come soon …

Plastic cups

I'm about to spend nearly $200 for plastic cups for the wedding. The plastic cups (actually champagne flutes) are going to be used for a grand total of 5 minutes before guests throw them away. *sigh* You've gotta love all the "little" costs of a wedding

12 days left and counting ...

I can't believe the wedding is almost here. I've got 12 days to finish all the preparations. Whoa ... Am I ready? Absolutely not. O.o

The one really great thing will be that I get a chance to see all the out of town friends and relatives .. it's just the sprint up to the wedding that is the scary part!

Officially Domestic

I have officially become domestic. I subscribed to the San Jose Mercury Newspaper.


Ming and I will now receive the paper 6 days a week and, like proper Palo Altonians, faithfully recycle the paper daily.

All I wanted to do was receive the Sunday Ads (him for the Best Buy and CompUsa and me for the Target ad) and I ended up getting the whole paper. O.o

RSS Feed reading

I've finally gotten my act together and stopped doing the "old school" way of manually navigating to a site to see if it's been updated. I have finally gotten an the habit of reading the RSS feeds instead. I am using Google's RSS reader. It's so much easier to read RSS feeds now! I can't say that I love Google's implementation but its better than navigating to each site manually.

If anyone has another suggestion for a better reader, let me know ^_^

Lemon Squares Part Deux

While Ming was out enjoying Sin City with his posse of guy friends I made lemon squares this weekend. Since not everyone knew what lemon squares were the last time I posted, I decided to take a picture this time around.

They were so tasty ... I wonder how long they'll be around before we finish them all.

Rainy Days

Rainy days bring me down. There isn't anything to like about rainy days. I suppose that one could see something special and likeable about them .. but after months and months of rain, I definitely can't feel that way. Had I ended up working full time in Seattle I think I'd end up suffering a big period of depression. :p

I'm a sun person. The rain gets my clothes messy, prevents me from wearing nice clothes, makes traffic terrible, and generally just brings bad news and circumstances. I used to laugh when I heard that doctors prescribed tanning salons to combat the winter time blues. I laugh no longer. I can see now how beneficial it'd be to get some sun in and pretend that all is status quo (well, status quo is sun for Cali). If I wasn't so against tanning (and losing my nice pale complexion) I'd actually consider going to a tanning salon.

Tomorrow is Easter. I hope that the weather is better and brings some sunshine for people who celebrate Easter as their one special day of the year. Hell, maybe going to an Easter celebration would cheer me up and be my "tanning" solution to the spring time blues -- yikes, that term shouldn't even be applicable but it is.

My Schedule for the next week

Wednesday - Friday	Get butt kicked at work during working hours. Work on assembling and sending wedding invitations until the wee hours of the morning.
Saturday - Sunday	Tahoe for Snowboarding
Monday - Friday	Get butt kicked by work. If invites are not finished yet, really, really scramble to get them out and sacrifice any and all sleep.

Boy, it sure sounds like fun >_<

Healthy Dinner for those on the Go

This is a really cool company idea: http://www.myprepcook.com. The company basically delivers all the food prepped and ready to go. It allows busy people to cook their own food when they get home and requires the person to have minimal equipment at home. The menus look actually decent. Price is a bit steep at $15/meal + $5 delivery but for those people who are too busy to prep their own food, this is an ideal solution.

Ride Around The Neighborhood

I bought a road bike and finally had a chance to ride it today because it was sunny outside. It's been a LONG time since I've actually ridden a bike so I was a bit wobbly at first but eventually remembered my bearings. My first trip out with the bike and it ended up 2.5 ride. I rode with Ming and we had a ton of fun. We rode around Los Altos and Palo Alto and even made a pitstop to pick up some veggies for dinner. I saw many, many beautiful homes in Palo Alto and Los Altos. There was even a point where I thought that we had to be in a neighborhood filled only with CEOs because the houses were so nice. Each house seemed to be a villa/castle. It was insane. I hope to one day live in one half that nice. =)

Back from the Dead: Drink Club

I received an e-mail from Drink Club today. O.o I thought that Drink Club was totally dead! I haven't been to a Drink Club event for a long time. I guess the promoters got their act together and started throwing parties again.

For more details, go here: http://www.sfdrinkclub.com/emails/060317.html

Taiwanese Food Explained

I can describe Cantonese food. I can describe "northener" food (Sichuan, Hunan, etc). I cannot describe Taiwanese food. I don't know what the exact differences are other than to say "everything I ate in Taiwan was yummy." Aside from eating delicious banquet style food while in Taiwan, I can't say what Taiwanese food is compared to Cantonese or any other type of Chinese cuisine.

Luckily I don't have to describe Taiwanese food because this site does it for me: http://www.eatingchina.com/articles/art-taiwanfood.html

Lemon Squares

I made lemon squares last night because my co-worker brought lemons to work. I brought a bunch of lemon squares into the office today and it was a total hit. I brought in about 3/4 of a pan and it vanished in about 45 minutes -- and it isn't even 10:30am yet. My co-workers loved it and couldn't stop thanking me for bringing in the goodies. It brings a smile to my face to make people that happy and appreciative. ^_^ I made them because it was therapeutic but it's a double gratification when I see how others appreciate them so much.

Paper is heavier than you think

I never would have imagined that invitations can weigh so much. The wedding invitations are being shipped and they weigh 20 lbs! How does paper weigh that much? Dear god.. what am I getting myself into with the postage. O.o

Mrs. Ming or Plain Ol' Cindy

There’s a lot of debate about whether or not the girl should change her name to her husband’s once they get married. It can be argued either way, change or not to change. In the Chinese culture, the girl never changes her given name (her Chinese name). If her name is Amy Chan before they are married and her husband’s surname is Lee, then she is still known as Amy Chan by friends. When she is referred to in context, then she is called the wife of Lee. This pretty much eliminates the whole messy ordeal of “does she change her name or doesn’t she?” Dear god, my ancestors thought of everything. ^_^

I found it particularly funny when I was researching wedding stuff to find a white girl who was marrying a Chinese guy trying to “asian-ify” her wedding. Because of the aforementioned statement, she’ll never use the guy’s last name, at least when writing in Chinese. They made a sign that contained his Chinese last name (written in Chinese calligraphy) with her English name and his English name. Now while this may look really pretty, it is quite the gaffe. It’d be the equivalent of getting a bad word tattooed on yourself when you really thought the word had an entirely different meaning.

Moral of the story: While giving things an Asian twist can be very “in” and it can look very pretty, you’d better double check before embarrassing yourself in front of friends and family.

What a million dollars can buy you

If you had a spare million dollars lying around you could buy this 3ct pink diamond ring:



Or this tiny house in Palo Alto:



Hm... ring or house .... ^_~

Shoes, shoes, and more shoes

I received my wedding shoes over the weekend. I ended up buying a pair of Vera Wang shoes O.o I couldn't help it... they were so nice and tall and had point tips. I'm a sucker for pointy shoes



I also bought a pair of shoes at BCBG that are pointy but they totally messed up there. They gave me a pair of mismatched shoes! I didn't think to check the sizes when I left nor did they check it when they rang me up. My left shoe is now bigger than the right. Grr.. I bought the shoes in Napa so going back isn't a possibility. I called them up the next day and they're going to send the shoes to the Great Mall store and I can go exchange for the correctly matched pair. Phew... The only bummer is that I now need to wait a week for them to transfer the shoes to the Great Mall.

Night of Gluttony

Tonight I'm going off my "diet" (not really a diet but promise to eat healthy) and I'm going back to the Lobster Shack. They got a fresh shipment in of seafood and that means I'm going to dine on fried Ipswich clams and oysters on the half shell. Mmm... I love lobster shack. The food is so incredibly fresh and I don't believe I've ever eaten sweeter scallops other than at that restaurant. All the seafood is flown in from the East Coast (Boston, Maine, etc) and everything is fresh, servings are amazing, and quality is outstanding.

I think I'll have died and gone to heaven after my gorging of clams and oysters tonight.

S&P Clucks

Over the weekend Ming and I went to Sur La Table and found the cutest salt and pepper shakers. They are ceramic chickens and I think they're adorable. They are now sitting on Ming's dinner table.

Shoes

I finally found a shoe that I like for my wedding but
1. It's Vera Wang -- I just had to go designer, didn't I?!
2. Store doesn't have my size



*sigh* I guess the quest must continue ... shoes, shoes, and more shoes.

Bacon

I have inexplicable craving for bacon. I wanted bacon when we went on our ski trip last weekend but, sadly, bacon cravings didn't get satisfied since we ended up eating Canadian Bacon, not true bacon. I'm contemplating going over to Mollie Stones and getting some of their thick cut bacon. Mmm .. Bacon is one of those things that I rarely crave and I eat once in a blue moon. A couple of nice, thick cut slices of bacon with buttermilk pancakes or in an egg biscuit sound so good right now.

It isn't even lunch and I'm already trying to figure out what I want for dinner tonight/breakfast tomorrow. >_<

Addicted

I have something to admit: I'm got an addiction. I am addicted to watching 24 and Desperate Housewives. Both shows have got me completely hooked. I just finished watching all of season 1 of DH and I'm religiously hooked on FOX on Mondays at 9pm. I spent the better part of my day reading the synopses for all episodes of season 2 of DH. There is no stopping this insanity. Gotta get my fix in >_<

My crack addiction will end when the season ends, thankfully.

Pet Peeves

Today I started reading over someone else's code and realized that one of my biggest pet peeves is misspellings. It really makes it hard to read someone else's work when there are many words that are wrong. I wish people were more diligent and made sure that their submitted work had gone through a spell checker. Grr. You'd think that professionals would have pride in their own work to be able to send the sucker through the spell checker. Honestly, how hard is it to spell? It's something that has been ingrained in us since grade school.