Saturday, October 30, 2004

Halloween cookies

We baked these yesterday and S had a great time eating the decorations.

Halloween Cookies

Friday, October 29, 2004

Static Electricity

When I got gasoline for my car, I tend to put the nozzle in the tank, get back into my car, wait until it clicks and come out of the car to put the nozzle back to the pump station. This morning, as I got back into my car, a fellow gasoline buyer talked to me about my behavior.
Nice guy: Pointing to some warning sign on the pump "Excuse me, have you seen this warning on cellphone and static electricity?"
I’m thinking that this guy is trying to sell me something.
Me: "Yeah, and your point is?"
Nice guy: "Especially during winter, when you go in and out of your car, you build up static charges that could generate a spark and cause a fire when you touch the nozzle."
Me: "Really. So what I have to do is ground myself before touching the nozzle!"
Nice guy:"Yes or just stay out of your car until your finish filling up the tank. I've seen the video on what could happened and I don't want it to happen to you"
Me: "Thank you for bringing this to my attention" He wasn't a creepy guy after all. When I did a search on the topic and this is what I found this article on
static electricity Check it out for your self.

Pretzel control

I love honey mustard flavored pretzel. I know it has no nutritional value and it's filled with MSG but sometimes, I get in to the "Must have it" mode and I give in. Why can't the food scientists design the flavorings so that it does not have any backlashes like healthy food? I enjoy the burst of flavors in my mouth and my brain says to me "Eat more.. eat more…" After eating a hand full or two of them pretzels, I get really really thirsty and mouth doesn't like what I did either. It would ruin the rest of my day until I drink enough water to flush the junk out of my system. The experience usually keeps me away from honey mustard flavored pretzel for 6 months of so. If I happen to grocery shop on an empty stomach, I would seek out the pretzel on the shelf and purposely expose myself to the temptation while consciously knowing that eating it would ultimately be bad for me.
My solution to the pretzel issue is when I’m in the illogical state of mind in the supermarket is to buy the pretzel and keep it in the pantry un-opened. I've done this with ice cream and it worked. The ice cream lasted 6 months in the freezer.

Thursday, October 28, 2004

Rainbow and Happy Trees

This morning as hubby and S were leaving the house in the dark, it wasn't raining yet but we heard thunder roars that lasted over 30 seconds followed with lightning. By the time I left for work, it was pouring dogs and cat. Fortunately the downpour ended as I entered San Diego County. I was greeted with dry asphalt and somewhat blue sky. I happily gave the windshield wiper a break because I might need them later down the road. As I was changing lane, I checked my rear view mirror and noticed this beautiful rainbow behind me. It was a pleasant view after driving through gray sky. The rainbow reminded me of this little song S likes to sing. It’s from one of her favorite book A Birthday for Frances. The story is about Frances, the older sister jealous of her little sister’s birthday. At one point of the story they were drawing place cards and Frances protested and sang
Rainbow and happy trees
Are not for Alice* or for me
I will draw three legged cats
Caterpillars with ugly hats


*Alice is Frances’ imaginary friend.

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

Food fight everyone!

Here's an article on how Taiwanese lawmakers express their love for the opposing party.
Here's another link which leads to a video that shows them throwing papers at each other.


Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Stuff

Last night, while I was emailing mom some pictures, hubby and S were watching VCD of Chinese children songs that we called Orange Cat. When I was done on the computer, I went over to check on them. S was fully engaged with the show and hubby was falling asleep with his head leaning towards S.
I can feel his love for her when
He kisses her cheek to wake her up in the morning
He places marshmallows around the house so she can find them
He finishes carving the pumpkin even though S lost interest
He sits through Orange Cat and falls asleep

I like John Mayer’s song Daughters. Those who have daughters would relate to the song.

Here’s the lyric

John Mayer - Daughters Lyrics
I know a girl
She puts the color inside of my world
She's just like a maze
Where all of the walls all continually change
And I've done all I can
To stand on her steps with my heart in my hands
Now I'm starting to see
Maybe it's got nothing to do with me

Fathers be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers be good to your daughters too

Oh, you see that skin?
It's the same she's been standing in
Since the day she saw him walking away
Now she's left
Cleaning up the mess he made

Fathers be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers be good to your daughters too

Boys, you can break
You'll find out how much they can take
Boys will be strong
And boys soldier on
But boys would be gone without warmth from
A woman's good, good heart

On behalf of every man
Looking out for every girl
You are the god and the weight of her world

So fathers be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers be good to your daughters, too
So mothers be good to your daughters, too
So mothers be good to your daughters, too

Monday, October 25, 2004

Family Life

We had a pretty calm and relaxing weekend. Saturday morning, we decided to take S to our local park and realized there's a local arts and craft fair. We spent some time in the park and went to the fair. There were lots of booths with jewelry, indoor & outdoor country style decorations, hand made greeting cards and knitted product such as scarf & baby blankets. There were also animals for kids to pet and ponies to ride. S had fun riding pony. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring the camera to capture her excitement. She's not into petting or feeding sheeps. I was tempted by the smell of food that was there at the fair. BBQ Chicken, BBQ corn, hot dogs, & kettle corn. I gave in and bought kettle corn but we went home for lunch. Kettle corn was delicious. The microwaveable version just doesn't cut it.
Sunday morning, we went for a 45 minutes walk around our neighborhood. In the middle of our route is a park so we stopped and let her have her exercise. She's really good at swinging. Big difference in motor skill of a 3 vs 4 year old. She can swing really high and no afraid. Confident enough that mom no longer needs to push her or get her off the swing. There was another boy on the playground but they did not play together. When we got home, I was channel surfing and found my self watching an International pizza competition. The pizza were so mouth watering. Needless to say, we had pizza for lunch. Since hubby and I could not agree on the toppings, I ordered the 4 small square pizzas from Pizza hut. It was not as tasty as the regular deep dish pizza. The dough was not thin or thick crust so that was disappointing.
After lunch Hubby carved one of the pumpkin for practice. It came out very good. He placed it in an ice chest to preserve it. Hopefully it'll keep 'til Sunday. He plans carve more on Saturday. :)

Friday, October 22, 2004

Shall We Dance

I've been hearing mix reviews on the movie Shall we dance. I'm a sucker for movies that has a dance theme. Movie critics hates it but some of the radio personalities like it. I saw the Japanese version of Shall we dansu back in 1996 and really enjoyed it. It sucks that the Richard Gear version is basically the same story with American actors.
On the other hand, I'm loking for the Japanese version of The Ring
called Ringu. Just wants to see if it's scarier than the American version.

Thursday, October 21, 2004

Universal remote control

As I was listening to NPR on my way home one day and I was intrigued by this segment on remote control that shuts off any TV. I imagine all the places where I can use it. In the women's locker room, restaurants & in sports bars. I can also use it at home when hubby is paying more attention to the TV than me. :)

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Rain makes driving a nightmare

When I woke up this morning, I look out my bedroom window in the dark and the wind was blowing hard on trees and rain was pounding on the window warning me that it was going to be a tough day on the road. I went to a conference in Knott's Berry Farm area and it took me well over 1.5 hrs to get there. Luckily, I had S with me so I was able to drive 40 miles/hr on the carpool lane most of the time. If I was on my own, it would have easily taken me well over 3 hrs. 30% of the people did not show up for the conference because of the weather.
Rain,
Please ease up for the rest of the week and you can pour your heart out on the weekend.

Monday, October 18, 2004

Weekend activities

On Saturday, we went up to my parent's and hung out with Bulleye. We went to Hacienda Heights for some San-Tung region Chinese food which is heavy on carbohydrates i.e. noodles & dumplings. My favorite dish was the green onion crepe and jellyfish. In the afternoon, we played 2 games of poker. I lost both games but Hubby won one. It was hubby's 1st time playing Texas Hold'em so good job hub!
We rented Supersize me on Sunday and the director conducted an eye opening experiment. He gained 25 lbs and ruined his liver by eating only fast-food for 30 days. In the movie, one lawyer made a comparison between fast-food chains and tobacco companies where they put in tons of money to lure kids to buy their products. I have to admit that there had been instances where I gave in and ate fast-food to appease my daughter. At the end, she was more interested in the toys than the food and we all ended up eating unhealthy meal. Back in June, I had In & Out double double animal style with fries and drinks. After that meal, I felt sick and have not gone back since. Another harsh reality I learned is how chicken Mc nuggets are made. Chicken nuggets are basically like hotdogs in little round shapes. It has lots of chicken parts that we normally wouldn't eat.
I would recommend the movie. Some parts are slow but it's educational.
I will make a conscious effort to eat fast-food no more than once every 6 months.

Friday, October 15, 2004

Bubba is out

This blog is about last night Survivor so if you are interested in the characters, please go to http://www.CBS.com because I may not do justice describing the characters.
I never thought I would say this but I'm so glad that Survivor decided to mix up the team. It was too predictable that the women would keep winning the challenges and John K would have been the next outcast. I like Amy because she's not afraid to vote out the guys and she's true to her sisters. Other women in the Yasur tribe were worried that if they vote out one of the two guys, then they won't be able to win physical challenges since the other team has 4 males and 2 females. Before mixing up the tribes, the women were winning the challenges so what's there to worry? I'm glad Yasur tribe voted for Bubba because he was an awful player. Before the immunity challenge, he was sending hand signals to his old tribe member Chris and thought he can get away with it. I still don't understand Bubba's reasoning for the signal. Besides, on his original male tribe he was getting a free ride from the Sarge and not really contributing to the tribe.
An ironic part of the show was before tribal council, the two guys, Bubba, and Rory hugged each other and said a prayer together. During tribal council, they voted for each other.
My prediction for next week tribal council:
Rory for Yasur Tribe
Julie for the Lopevi Tribe

Thursday, October 14, 2004

Painful Lesson

2 days ago, I accidentally sliced the tip of my right middle finger by running it over the jagged sharp edge of a new Saran Wrap box. Blood was gushing out like mad, I was in lots of pain and S was overly excited by the event.
S: "Mom, let me see, let me see the blood... I can't see it from here."
Note that I was in the kitchen and she's in the family room. Once she figured out I wasn't going to show her my wounded finger, she came in to the kitchen.
S:"Uh.. it looks like ketchup, your blood looks just like ketchup, why does your blood look like ketchup?"
Me: "I don't know S. I'm hurt right now and I need a band-aid."
S: "I have one in my jacket, Daddy where's my jacket? Can you please get my jacket, it’s in the car, Mom need a band aid now!."
At this time, hubby was frantically searching for a band-aids in our 1st aids kit.
Hubby: "S, calm down and be quiet!"
Hubby finally found some band-aids and I was able to cover my wound & stopped the bleeding.
Since the accident, I've been keeping the left had dry so hubby has the dishes and S bath duties. It’s not so easy to wash my hair or my face with only my left hand. Hopefully finger will recover by next week.
Lesson learned: Next time, use a butter knife to open a saran wrap box.

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

Picky me

Yesterday, I had kung-pao chicken from a so called Chinese restaurant near work. I did pack a lunch but I couldn't stand the smell of salmon. Kung-pao tasted OK. It reminded me of how home cook meal taste better than take out. Here's a picture of my home style Kung-pao chicken.


Workout Log
Time: 56 min
Heart rate: 145
Cal: 429

Monday, October 11, 2004

Movie Date

Sunday, hubby and I decided to go on a movie date. He wanted to see Supersize Me and I wanted to see Love Actually . Unfortunately for him, the store was out of Supersize Me so he brought home Love Actually like any good husband would. Before going to the video store this was our conversation.
Hub: "So what is Love actually about?"
Me: "Based on the title, I would say about love..hello..?" no I didn’t say that out loud. That was inside my head.
Me: "It’s a romantic comedy. I've heard good things about it. I think you'll like it"
He was enjoying the movie until we saw Collin Firth on screen.
Hub: "What is this? It's him again. I didn't know it's a British movie!"
Me: "Did forget to mention that it was a British romantic comedy? Give it a chance.. I think you'll like it."
Although he's not much of a Collin Firth fan, he enjoyed Hugh Grant and the female actresses in the movie. I thought the movie was funny yet touching at the same time.
That was our date, in our living room while daughter was taking her afternoon nap.

Sunday, October 10, 2004

Pumpkin Patch

We went to a local pumpkin patch yesterday. Besides pumpkins, there were kiddy carnival rides and pony ride. We got there around noon so it was getting hot. I told S that we'll come back later when it's cooler. She wanted to ride the pony before leaving so we agreed.
Ponies may be cute but they are stinky. As the ponies were going around a circle, the pony in front of S stopped and decided to go number 2. The teenager in charge of the horse quickly clean up the green poop and that's when S's pony decided to go number 1. A gal quickly run to S's pony and dumped some absorbents stuff over the urine.
S really enjoyed the ride. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring the camera to capture the moment. We are planning to go back again since we didn't pick a pumpkin yet.

Friday, October 08, 2004

Soaring gas price

I went to get gas during lunch today and there was a huge line at the discount gas station. I paid $2.24/gallon where as 8 days ago I paid $2.00/gallon. That's 31.5% in 8 days.

Dah

As mentioned before by Bulleye, this season of survivor casts are fairly tame. The cute guys are being voted off and the challenges are not that challenging. The highlight of the show for me was when the female tribe won the reward challenge and had the opportunity to spend a day with a Vanuatu local name Dah who showed them how to live as an islander. The 1st thing he did when he got to the camp was walking up a coconut tree, chopped down a coconut and drank the juice. The ladies were very impressed. Later, he showed them where to find vegetables, roots, & sugar cane. He also taught them how to make coconut milk, crab hunting at night & better their shelter.
On a side note: I fried salmon for dinner last night resulting in the whole house smelling fishy. Hubby was not happy and was spraying air freshener everywhere.

Thursday, October 07, 2004

School picture day

Today is S's school picture day. 2 days prior, we got a note from school outlining the various packages available for us to buy. The cheapest package is $8.00 and has only the class picture and the most expensive one is $28.00 which includes class picture, 1 ea 8"x10", 2 ea 5"x7" and 16 wallet. The part that bugs me about the whole deal is that we must decide on the package we want and pay before seeing the picture. In fine print, it did say that we have 3 days to return it for refund if we're not completely satisfy. We've decided to get the class picture only.
S really likes bringing lunch to school. When she came home last night, her lunch box was empty.
Me: "You ate everything!"
S: "I didn't eat it all at once. I ate a little bit at a time"
Me:"Good Job"
She was disappointed this morning when she realized that she's having school lunch today but I'll pack her lunch again tomorrow :)

Tuesday, October 05, 2004

Disconnected from the world

Today, there was some issue with the router at work so we had no email nor internet access all day. I did not realized how much the internet is a part of the fabric of my life. I wanted to look up something work related but wasn't able to.
Mom gave me some food today so I did not spend too much time cooking dinner. Thanks mom :) S ate lots of chicken with rice tonight. She also gave me some fruits and my favorite is the plum. I was about to eat one and she said "Can I try some?" I hand her the plum.
S: "I don't want the skin."
I had to eat the skin so she can eat the fruit.
S: "Why do you like eating the skin?"
Me: "Because I'm a mom"
I packed her lunch today and it seems to work out. Will do it again tomorrow.

Monday, October 04, 2004

October already?

Can't believe it's already October. 3 more months and it's 2005. S can't wait for Halloween. She thought that Halloween happens the moment we are in October. I had to show her the calendar and count the days until Halloween. I have not gotten her a costume nor the candies for the neighborhood kids. Can't get the candies too early or I'll end up eating them. This year, she wants to be Sleeping Beauty so we’ll shop for costume soon. May be I'll use the Disney gift card we've received from Bulleye and his wifey. The dress up day at her school is either the 27th or the 28th. We bought some Halloween chocolate chip cookie dough over the weekend and we'll bake them the day before her school party. S likes to make cookies from scratch but I don't have all the equipment. May be during our Christmas get together with my friend P, we'll bake some from scratch.
On Sunday, I made Pad Thai for the first time. I didn't realize how much sugar is in Pad Thai. It called for 3 tablespoon for a 6 oz noodle recipe. Hubby was complaining about the vinegar smell in the kitchen while I was cooking but he ate the final product. We both concluded that it did not taste like the restaurant version so I got to go back to the restaurant, order the dish and figure out what the differences are. I know that I didn't put as much oil in mine so the noodles were clumping together. With all the sugar and oil in Phad Thai makes it not such a healthy dish so we can have it once in a while.
I watched some TV this weekend. Two shows worth mentioning are as follow:
1) Documentary on IFC (Independent Film Channel) that showed what students in NYU film school went through to make a 10-minute film. It was brutal to see that besides being creative, they also have to resourceful with the business side of the coin such as raise money to support the film and making sure they stay on budget. While watching the show, I thought about my friend Jo who studied here is now a film director in Taiwan. I hope she’s at a level that she can delegate most of those tasks and focus on the creative part of the process.
2) Reality check shows on Fineliving where a lady's dream job is being a wedding coordinator so she had the opportunity to shadow a real wedding coordinator for a week and see what it takes to be one. At the end of the show, she realized that being a coordinator wasn't really her dream job after all.

Friday, October 01, 2004

Qi-gung

Today, I went to the library and returned a book on qi-gong which was way over due. I went up to the checkout counter and after the clerk scanned my card.
Library clerk (LC): "Would you like to take care of the overdue fees on the qi-gong book?"
Me: "Yes, how much do I owe the library?"
LC: "$2.50"
I handed her a $5.00 bill
LC: "How did you like the book?"
Me: "It was good and informative but practicing and experiencing the qi movement is a different story"
LC: "I studied under a qi-gong master before and he was 80 but looked 45. When he sent his Chi, the class felt it"
Me: "What does it (qi) feels like?"
She looked over the check out line concerned.
LC: "Do you have a minute? Let me take care of these folks"
Me: "Sure"
I started browsing on the literatures in the checkout area.
After a minute or so, she came back to me and said
"Hold out our hand"
I placed my and in mid air with palm facing up and she placed one of her palm above and the other below my hand.
LC: "Do you feel any thing?"
Me: "No"
LC: "Close your eyes"
I closed my eyes, and after a minute or so, I felt heat and tingling sensation on my hand.
Me: "Yes I feel tingling sensation and heat"
LC: "That's a representation of what qi feels like"
I didn't expect to experience some one else's qi flow through my hand so it made my day.