Happy Halloween!!!

Frank is really into the Halloween spirit. We bought these pumpkins so that we could carve them.

Frank's pumpkin is suppose to be the Governor from Walking Dead. You can see the scar in his eye that Michonne gave to him.

Here, you can see a sword in one hand.

On the other hand is a gun.

This is my pumpkin. I wanted to try something more challenging so this is what I chose. The Hello Kitty Witch. It was fun carving these pumpkin. With the seeds, we roasted them and snack on them.

This year is a quiet halloween, it is rainy out plus being in a walk up kids don't come by.

Pretzels

I really enjoy a good pretzel! My favorite treat is the Almond Crunch at Auntie Anne's, especially when it is just out of the oven. Having indulged myself in the land of youtube, I found this recipe to make soft pretzels from Laura in the Kitchen. I don't like a salty pretzel so instead I topped my with chopped almonds. It was missing something though, so I will rework that in the future. Also, Laura's recipe makes a dozen, but they are actually small pretzels. I wasn't sure how much to roll it out, so they were about 4X6 size wise. I made some into pretzel bites as well.

Also, this recipe has you do a baking soda to water dip. Shortcut is to boil water and put it in a bowl with baking soda and dip the pretzels. Optional if you don't have a big pan.

This is how my pretzels turned out.

These are delicious right out of the oven. The baking soda water dip will give you a crunchy crust and a soft inside.

I kept the rest in a tight sealed container and would toast it to reheat it. I thought about making just half a dozen because a dozen pretzels seemed like a lot, but we actually consume half a dozen on the first sitting.

I made chili earlier this week, so that is the topic for the next blog.

Recovery

I have been sick since last week, but it really hit me on Tuesday. I was congested and my ears were crazy popping. It sucks when you have all this snot and you blow your nose and your ears pop. It's Thursday now and I have been resting, ears minimally popping and congestion has gone down. Still sound nasally though. I think it is due to my allergic rhinitis. For which I ran out of my Rx. I am too lazy to go to the doctor just yet, since I have yet to find one. I substitute it with a saline solution. I think that is sufficient. I was actually able to be more productive today. I put some garlic ginger chicken in the crock pot for dinner and made mini spinach quiches. Overall, much better than the past two days where I slept most of the day.

I was looking up crock pot recipes and this is where I ran across the mini quiche recipe. I reworked a recipe from Pillsbury. I used my left over pie crust dough from when I made apple pie. Which was Ina Garten's perfect pie crust recipe. You can also use the puff pastry ones from the store if you are lazy. I substituted the half-and-half with 1/2 tbsp of melted butter and milk to fill up 1/2 cup. I didn't have any on hand so this works.

Ingredients:

Left over pie crust dough or 1/2 portion of store bought pie and pastry dough

2 eggs

1/2 cup half-and-half or 1/2 tbsp melted butter with milk up to 1/2 cup portion

1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt or garlic salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

9 oz chopped spinach (can be frozen too)

3 tablespoons chopped green onions

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 425°F. Knead dough until softened and no longer crumbly. Roll out and use a 2 inch round circle for mini pie crust. Use flour as needed. Make sure to extend dough 1/4 inch above edge of cup.

2. In medium bowl, beat eggs. Stir in half-and-half, cheese, garlic salt and pepper. Stir in drained spinach and green onions. Spoon about 1 tablespoonful mixture into each crust-lined cup.

3. Bake 16 to 18 minutes or until puffed and golden brown. Cool 5 minutes before carefully removing from pan to cooling rack. Serve warm or cool. Store covered in refrigerator.

I let it cool for about 5 mins before transferring it onto a cooling rack.

This is how the quiche turned out.

Next time, I make this, I am going to use a Puff Pastry Dough like for Egg Custard Tart and probably use the molds for it as well, perhaps. Also I wouldn't use the seasoned salt. I thought it was too salty. I might swap for onion powder instead. Enjoy!

Throwback Thursday

Coined as a result of social media, Throwback Thursday (#tbt) was born. Typically, I don't participate in such activities, but I was cleaning out my albums, and blow me down, it was a blast from the past one after another! This resulted in me photo texting these classical pictures. I surely found some interesting picture that the owner would cringe in seeing and thus request obliteration of such article. All in good fun....the bright side to cleaning up.

It takes us a while to finish up a bag of coffee. We finally finished the one we bought from Costa Rica. I opened a new bag today, also from Costa Rica. This blend is 100% Arabica coffee from Cafe Santa Marta, which is a Farmer-Direct. What does that mean? It means that the Farmer-Direct coffee comes directly from coffee farmers who grow coffee, harvest it, remove it from its pulp, sundry them, mill them, where there it no middle man. Essentially you know the coffee's origin. It is sustainable. These Farmer-Direct bag support the families and communities where the coffee came from. If you are a coffee enthusiast you can read more about them here.

This is the coffee that we are going to be drinking until we finish up this batch. It is a Peaberry Coffee.

Peaberry coffee comes from a single bean from the coffee fruit. Usually there are two beans. It is smaller in size than regular coffee beans. Some consider this to be of higher quality; for it is a rare and natural variation from the usual Costa Rican coffee bean. It yields 3-5% of the entire crop. It is more robust and intense, aromatic and smoother than the regular Costa Rican Beans.

Chapchae

One of my favorite things to eat is Chapchae. This is my second attempt at making it and it was much better than the first. The first time I made it, it was lacking flavor. When I boiled the noodles, I didn't add salt and I forgot to add the sesame oil until later. This time around, I made the bulgogi to add as the meat and it really made a difference. The marinate in the bulgogi really brought out the flavors.

Making Chapchae might seem a little time consuming because of all the things you have to add to it. You can pretty much pick and choose what veggies you want to add to it and stir fry then a little bit and continue piling it onto your noodle base. There are the veggies that I used.

Once everything is all cooked you mix it up and get this finished product.

As garnish, I cooked up an egg crepe style and sliced them and there you have it.

Japchae
Serves about 7-8 people

Ingredients:
1 bag of Sweet Potato noodles (dangmyeon), boiled 8-9 mins, then cut twice.
1 king oyster mushroom (you can use any kind of mushroom you like), julienne sliced
1 carrots, julienne sliced
1 red pepper, julienne sliced
1/4 of an onion julienned sliced
4 stalks of green onion chopped
1/2 brunch of spinch chopped
2 T soy sauce
2 T sesame oil
1 T sugar
2 eggs (optional)
Sesame seeds
Olive oil

Instructions:
1. Using a frying pan heat up olive oil on high to cook beated eggs crepe style, and lower heat to medium. Once egg is cooked set aside, let cool and slice into strips.
2. Cook Bulgogi. See previous blog on how to cook Bulgogi.
3. Boil noodles for 8-9 mins until cooked. Then place in a bowl and cut 2-3 times. Theses noodles are long. Add soy sauce, sesame oil and sugar. Mix it up.
4. Start cooking vegetable on a wok or frying pan. Heat up pan with oil on high. It takes about 2 mins per veggie. you can do it all at the same time or one by on or two by two. I did it in increments of two; I cooked the mushrooms with the onions. Then put that in the noodles. Then I cooked the carrots and red pepper. Then the green onions with the spinach. Re-oiling the pan each time.
5. Once all the vegetables are cooked. Mix it all together. Then add the Bulgogi. Add the Egg. Mix it all up to combine.
6. Serve and enjoy!

oh dear

I went downstairs to get the mail and on my way up as I was opening my mail, I walked into the wrong house greeted by a chihuahua and a guy saying "Hello!" I was so embarrassed and scared because of the chihuahua and walking into the wrong house. The door was open, who knew? I screamed and apologized....my neighbors probably think I am weird.

Starting from scratch.....

Have you heard of the saying, "I made it from scratch." Well, I made these from scratch. It's true, it does taste better when you make it from scratch. Yesterday was a day in the kitchen! I am kinda sore from today.

I wanted chessy corn muffins so I whipped up a batch, but from the Jiffy corn muffin mix. I added cheese to make it chessier, but the texture was too crummy. So I realize that if I want some delicious corn muffins, I am going to have to make it from scratch. That's the lesson here. But I must add, if you don't have the time, the box mix is a good substitute. These days, I have all the time in the world, so its no excuse for me.

Frank really likes apple pies so I decided to give it a try. I watch cooking/baking videos on youtube and that is where I get some recipes and techniques. We had some apples as well, so why not. I think it's also the season for apple picking.

The recipe I used for the crust is from Ina Garten. I also want to reference Laura in the Kitchen; I watched her video to get a visual of how the crust should look like. I wanted a flaky crust, so the secret is you have to work fast and keep everything cold. It is actually really fast and easy to make when you use a food processor. It is the clean up that takes longer. I would highly suggest making your own pie crust. This is how mine turned out.

I was pretty happy with how this turned out. With this recipe you have to refrigerate it for at least 30 mins before using it.

For the Apple Pie recipe, I used one from Eugenie Kitchen. I didn't use the lemon juice though because my apples did not need it. I used about 4 apples. The eggwash will give the pie a nice shine and I sprinkled it with cinnamon and sugar to give it more taste and color. Skip the cinnamon if you don't like it. This is an exception for me, I am not usually a fan of cinnamon. It is actually pretty simple to make. I went with a lattice top because I though it looked pretty. See.

It just requires patience because you have to wait 2 hours to let it cool before you can eat it. Oh the torture! If you cut it to early the juices with run and you will have a soggy crust. Patience! Here's how it turned out.

I also made some Bulgogi because I was making some Chapchae. I've never made Bulgogi before, so I found this website and used it as a concrete to make my version of Bulgogi. Instead of ribeye, I used steak but cut it in strips.

Bulgogi Recipe:

1 steak cut in strips

⅓ cup of soy sauce

3 T sugar

1 T sesame oil

3 cloves of garlic, minced

¼ tsp of red pepper flakes

2 pinches of black pepper

¼ medium onion, halved and sliced into medium moon shaped slivers

3 green onions including the white parts, finely sliced into small pieces

1 T sesame seeds

Cooking time!

1. Combine and whisk soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil and garlic in a bowl. Once sugar dissolves, pour into steaks, add red and black pepper. Cover and let marinate for an hour in refrigerator.

2. Heat up wok (or pan) with oil on high. Add meat with marinade. Cook for 2 minutes then reduce to medium heat and add onions. Heat for another 2 mins until meat is cooked. Then top with sesame seed.

This is what the meat looks like once its marinated. It absorbs all the seasoning for a tasty piece of meat.

And here is the finished product.

Next time, I might blog about chapchae, until then.....

Macarons, First Attempt

I've never made macarons before. I was just a consumer. My friend, Kim, introduced me to these delights one summer in Sacramento. She took me to Ginger Elizabeth where you can have an Ice Cream Macarons sandwich. Since then, I have consumed all sorts and flavors. The best savory ones I have had were from a client. They were from the little door in Los Angeles. A couple nights ago I dreamt I made some savory macarons.

Anyways, yesterday I was on a quest to find some black sesame powder to make the macarons. Luckily, they had it by a local grocery store. Making macarons you have to be precise. I actually didn't have a scale to measure things out but the recipe I found online used typical measurements. After searching high and low for the right recipe, I decided to go with the one I found on Amy's Food Adventures. She owns a dessert place in Toronto. I found her blog quite helpful since I no longer had to do any measurement conversion. Most of the ones I watched on YouTube used gram measurements. I also found this video from yoyomax12 on YouTube very helpful getting the right technique down.

When making macarons you have to wait until the batter is completely dry before you bake it in the oven. It was very humid today so I had to wait an hour and 20 mins for my drying process before I could bake these little delights. This is what they look like as they are drying.

I baked them for about 18 mins at 300 degrees F. And they turned out like so.

You have to let it cool completely before you fill them. I used a black sesame buttercream filling. I used Amy's Vanilla Bean Recipe but omitted the vanilla bean paste and used 4 tsp of black sesame powder instead.

Overall, for my first attempt I am happy that I got that nice egg shell appearance, but the foot wasn't as solid so I will need to troubleshoot that in the future. I also thought it was little sweet and wanted more nutty-ness from the black sesame. Next time, I may add less icing sugar and more almond meal or black sesame powder. I would also use a different filling, not a buttercream, perhaps a ganache.

The final product: Black Sesame Macarons with Black Sesame Buttercream.

Next, I am going to try making earl grey macarons...maybe.

Homemade

Lately I have been experimenting with making ice cream. I attempted making Fresh Peach Ice Cream. When making ice cream there is a good amount of prep work like freezing your ice cream bowl and your mixture before you churn it. Those are key and will make for great consistency. I wasn't so patient when I made the Fresh Peach so the consistency wasn't was great. In part it is probably the recipe I used. But it turned out tasty. Here it is, Fresh Peach Ice Cream.

I have also been craving those baos, I made a veggie one inspired when I had a shiitake bun at momofuku in NYC. I deep fried shiitake mushrooms with beets and carrots and some garlic, made some special sauce and voila!

I was quite happy with how these turned out. I made them again the next day, but baked the ingredients instead of deep frying, I suppose it's healthier.

I made another attempt to make ice cream because I wanted to get the consistency down. So I decided to make Coffee Ice Cream. I was definitely much happier with how this turned out. I adapted the recipe from Laura in the Kitchen but opted to take out the Chocolate Chunk and pressed my coffee with a mixture of instant, so for a pure coffee flavor. Here's a picture of how that turned out.

Right now I am making Black Sesame Macarons and am waiting for them to dry so I can put them in the oven. It took an hour or so...geezzz!

Unsettled

Today was such a lazy tuesday. I didn't really do much, in fact I didn't leave the house all day. What a lazy day. I did however experiment with a new recipe. It is a remix on the burger. I had these beets that I wanted to use up and I really wanted to make it with some tofu....so the creation of a beet burger came about. I put tofu, beets, carrots, garlic and green onions in there. Added some salt, pepper, onion powder and red pepper. I baked it, but it still was pretty wet, so I think I should have added more flour to combine it better. Next time, I might add an egg to get it to combine better. I ended up pan frying it as well. Anyways, here are some pics from the REMIX.

This is what it looks like when I mixed up all the ingredients.

Formed them into patties.

Assembled with cheese, cilantro and jalapeno hummus, sauted with onions and mushrooms.

Peach Scones

I really was planning on making blueberry scones, but blueberries were expensive so I decided to make peach ones instead. These days I have more free time on my hands so this was today's project. Unfortunately, I was out of baking powder so I had to run out to the store and get some.
The secret to making scones crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside is to gently handle it and keep the butter cold. I kept it in the freezer already cubed up.

The peach scones turned out pretty well, they had a nice brown bottom and the inside was moist and soft. I am not a big fan of hard scones. Below is the recipe that I used. Enjoy!

Peach Scones Print
Yields 8 scones

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp sugar
5 tbsp unsalted buter, cold, cut in small chunks
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cup peaches, cut into cubes

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Sift dry ingredients for the scones: flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Using a fork or a pastry blender cut in the butter to coat the pieces with the flour mixture. You can also use just your fingertips if you have neither or those. The mixture should look like coarse crumbs.
3. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk. Fold everything together just to incorporate. Do not overwork the dough unless you want tough scones. Gently fold in the peaches.
4. Generously flour your work surface and your hands and turn the dough out. If you are not using a scone pan, shape the dough into a rectangle about 12" x 3", about 1 ¼" thick. Cut the rectangle into 4 (3") squares. Then cut each square on the diagonal to make 8 triangles. Place the scones on a silicone mat. Brush the tops with a little milk.
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

Goals

Thinking about Goals. I have been watching a lot of You Tube videos. Perhaps I will make something and blog about it. Well, I do make stuff but I should implement the blogging part perhaps.....

updates

It's wednesday......debating on what I should tackle today. I have all these media files that need to be sorted.....perhaps I will look into that. Also looking at employment options. On the side, I am taking care of house stuff. I put up curtains in the dining area and was able to recycle the pomps from my wedding. I would share that picture but it is a little dark.

I am also thinking about starting another blog. But then that would be too many blogs to maintain. Perhaps, I will just integrate it in here as well. I think that is a great idea.

Frank really wanted broccoli soup. It is super easy to make. All you need in a good size pan. through the broccoli in there with some water. I added leeks too. The just boil it until soft. Then use an immersion blender, or blender to puree it down. And season to taste. I put some shredded mozzarella for garnish and all done.

Here's a pic of that. We had it with salmon and toasted bread.

Moving

One more month until the big move occurs. I am still sad that I have to move. Especially since we just landscape the backyard. Today, I had renters come in and take a look at the house. It's definitely stressful moving and trying to rent out our home. I am sad that I have to leave everything. I resigned from my job and have to take a licensure test. BOO!

I hope we find good tenants and the move goes smoothly.

Up to date

It's been a while since I've cracked my books from my hygiene schools days. Next week, I am taking the written anesthesia for the WREB and the following week, the process of care. So I am brushing up on some didactic information. This is one of those perfect weekends to watch a movie on the couch. But alas, it is sacrifice for studying. I also have wednesday off so I can review then. But today, I am going to try and finish reading the textbook, a couple for chapters to go. Not bad. Just taking this time to take a break.

I had an eventful weekend nonetheless. We celebrated Benedict and Sophia. Benedict is a doctor now and sophia is an attorney. Those two little ones really made something of themselves. I am very proud of their accomplishments! Makes me think that I should achieve more in my life.

Co-dependency

Co-dependency is an interesting concept. People depend on people constantly, which is great. But Independency is the foundation on which co-dependency can coexist with. You have to be independent and happy individually to be able to be able to coexist in a co-dependent relationship. Before MOST people get married, they want to experience life individually. Once they are happy being alone, that is when they are ready to completeness. How ironic is that, yet it totally makes sense. Does it to you or is this just mum-bo-jumbo?

It's about 2 right now and I really should be getting ready for Frank's graduation, but he isn't home yet so I figure I might as well blog. I am also on hold to make changes to reservation for my brother's grad dinner next week in NYC. Serious how does this place stay in business, I have been on hold for 20 mins now. CRAY CRAY!

Last Sunday, I made waffles. Inspiration: Just cause. I have a sure fire recipe that gives you a light crispy waffle. The secret is you gotta sure buttermilk, cornstarch and vegetable oil. Read about it more here from Pamela Andersen

I also experimented with a baked trout recipe because I got these from my mom. Thomas and Sophia go fishing and cause these so I wanted to bake them, it smells less fishy that way. They turned out pretty well.

Last night I roasted these babies. I really like Kabocha and this is a great way to have them. They are just so hard to cut.

Now I just got off the phone as I waited on hold for 30 mins. This is my review about the Loeb Boathouse Central Park.

This place needs to rethink there reservation service. I called well in advance to make a reservation for my Brother's Grad for 7 people. If you have +6 or something you have to call and can't make a reservation online. Really, I just cancelled my reservation because I wanted to change it at a later time. I wanted on hold for 31 mins to find out that the reservation I made was changed for another time with no one calling to tell me about it. HELLO, I live in California and to find out that my reservation got moved when I got there would not be welcoming. Management, hire more phone service people. I should have hung up earlier, but I am glad to find out your poor management skills well in advance before spending money at your establishment. Highly disappointed that no one called to tell me that you can change my reservation without notifying the customer. Would rate this place zero!!!

Suspense

Sitting here waiting to get my trim. Debating on whether I should get some type of bangs or not. My eyes slowly start to get irritate and watery. Me thinks its from the hair dye chemicals.

Still undecided about what do to. And now distracted of a waiting package on my door step. Now I am in a rush to get home, but still need to run some errands before heading back home.

Monday

I am incredibly tired today. As I write this blog, I am on the stationary bike at the gym. I have less than 2 minutes left. I am so tired that I got a green tea latte for lunch. But I was still dead tired. Caffeine does nothing for me. There is one thing that does wake me up. That is watching korean dramas. But I can't do that when I am working or driving. I am still pretty tired. I don't particularly know why.

I am going to buy some apples and see if that helps my drive this week. This commute is definitely a challenge. Driving + 90 miles a day is no bueno. Fortunately traffic wasn't too bad coming home today. Let's hope for the same tomorrow.

Blah Blah Blah

Tuesday afternoon...feeling quite blah. Work went by quickly today. All my patients were running late today, so I ended up running late as well. Mucho exhausting day. Decompressed with some almond and red bean jelly. Now I am dreading gathering all the paper work to refinance. Gosh, being an adult is so taxing, literally.

I really just want to relax and do absolutely nothing. Well, maybe watch some DVR stuff. Alas, I even have to work tomorrow. I sound like a complainer and whiner. The upside is....my last wednesday to work. I really bring it upon myself, working various wednesday. But I am scaling back.

The weather has been really nice here. Sunny and calm.

Shower time so I can sit on the couch. I am all perio-ODD out!

Sunday

I find myself spending Sundays in the kitchen. On Friday, Frank bought me a baguette from Surfas. I in turn decide to make Stuffed Mascarpone French Toast. A while ago, I had something similar at Starling Diner in Long Beach. This is my version of that. It came out pretty well. I am glad Frank liked it. Overall, it was a successful attempt.

After a little nap, I made these Devil's Cupcakes with Mocha Frostings. I made them for Diana, hopefully she enjoys them.

Right now, I am enjoying some Coldplay via Pandora and waiting for my Roast Chicken, it's sizzling in the oven. I'll post pictures of that later.
It's later. Here's the Roasted Chicken!

 

Some veggies that we grew from our garden, the swiss chard. With some kind oyster mushrooms and carrots.

 

Veggies from the Chicken Drippings, nice and caramelized goodness!

 

Dinner is served!

 

Peeved!!!

Last Wednesday, my parked car got hit in the parking lot that I have been parking at for the past 5 years. Bear in my mind I park at this space or the one next to it. It's a given. Anyways, as I was heading to my car to head home, I see this huge dent in my rear left bumper. Seriously, it's an eye sore. I am super peeved because there are two valets working at this time and they both claim that they did not see anything. There are totally lying! Th first picture depicts the point of view of where the valet is stationed at. A clear sight of my car with the dent on the rear left bumper. As you can see. Now This is the dent up close and person. What really grinds my gears is that the valet claim they saw nothing. When in fact, you can clearly see that one would have heard something with a crash like this. So that is why I believe those two valets are hiding something. They are clearly lying because if they saw someone else do it, they are suppose to write it up. Also, when I questioned both valets, one said that they didn't see anything and even ventured to say are you sure that happened here. Lady, you've been out here 6 hours and you mean to tell me that you didn't see anything and not notice that my car never had a dent. I have witnesses that say my car without this dent. The other valet, just ignored me and was trying to run away, clear sign of guilt. I later found out that they are suppose to write up a claim for the damages, but I was clearly being brushed off. I filed a claim today and I hope it rules in my favor. I am not brushing this off because its about the principle. And in the future, if this happens to someone else in the building they will not be brushed off. Justice must be paid!

The bug caught me!

Coming into work today was not a great idea. First patient in and I've got a cough attack plus runny nose. Fortunately, I have one more and tomorrow I can rest, the day after I have off as well. Perhaps, I will be back up and running by Thursday. I do feel a fever coming on. Thankfully it is almost quitting time.

Testing Instagram

Tax time

It's that time of year, we spring forward and get our taxes done. I am here waiting, it's been 30 mins pass since my appointment. I notice I do not like to wait especially when I made an appointment. Especially because I have other appointments after this. I am all about being efficient and terribly look down when things are as they should be.

On another note I am pretty flexible. If one worked for me I would have very high expectations. But I also learnt not to expect so much because you set yourself up for disappointment.

Boy, life is a contradiction. I heard something on the radio yesterday and how when you serve people you focus less on yourself. That must be what it like to have kids and such.

Perhaps, I should do that, not the having kids part. But serving more...

OMG! I am so beyond sore! I went to yoga yesterday. I hadn't been for months and taking a Level 2 class might not have been the best idea. But it felt so good to get back into it. Aside from being sore, I had a good second half of the day. My sister and I went to Queen's Bakery for afternoon tea.

The tea selection is minimal and the tea sandwiches are nothing to rave about. The only sandwich worth speaking of is the nutella almond. It's really hard to go wrong with nutella. Overall, it was nice to spend time with my sister. Afterwards, I gave her a trim. And just hung around.

My weekend

I had a pretty productive weekend. I made fresh pasta for the first time. It was pretty fun and wow, it makes a difference. If you have the time, totally try it.

We also finished cleaning up the windows in out patio. Makes so much of a difference. I took this picture to show our hard work. Next step scrapping the ceiling... I can feel the soreness already!

I have to chose 3 brands/logos that I like. Upon my search, I came across this and thought it was pretty cool. It is interesting to see what big fish and what little fishes are a part of it. You can call it a manufacturing family tree.

Random pic

Right before bed, I wanted to blog. It's quite late and I really should have slept an hour a go. But a quick now before bedtime. I wanted to post a random picture and just talk about it. It's mobile art. Frank bought these for me right before christmas. What a sweetie. They were pretty white tulips. I love white flowers because they symbolize something pure and clean and fresh. I like yellow flowers too because they are like the sunshine. I meant to blog about something more meaningful today but as the day went by the thought passed away. Perhaps tomorrow?

Valentine's Day Traffic

I can't believe how incredibly jammed the roads are. My journey home today took me an all time long journey of 3 hours. Seriously! This is way too much! Perhaps a half day on Thursday is the solution or never working on v-day.

The highlight of the day was a home cooked meal by Chef Dinh! Thanks for gracing us with your culinary delights Dinh!

Now, for lent this year I decided to blog more and get back to yelping. It's been a while since I've yelp and I heard a calling.

Till next time!

The beginning!

It's been ages since I posted on here. It is that time again. Look forward to it, more to post later.

Not amused

Regularly I sleep like a rock, but I was woken up and it was hard to fall back asleep.

Roar!

Annoying

Just asking to see where my patient is, it's 2:03 missy not 2, plus the dude is late none the less. Not annoyed at the patient but the person that booked it. What's up with the attitude. I was just curious, since most these patients come in 25 mind late. Come on now. So don't be pissy with me for wondering if they are going to be late.

Late again

9 am appt and it's 20 minutes after. Another late patient. These people need to get a watch. Seriously, let's be realistic and respect other people's time.

Darwinism

It's all about survival of the fittest! The weak will get eaten alive and the strong will prevail!

It bothers me when people are weak. If you don't believe in yourself then you are weak. You have to be confident and have swag.

Just because someone is old doesn't mean they are incapable. No one wants to be dependent on anyone and when you treat them that way because of their age then you are doing them no favor.

If you admit to ageism then you have given up.

Disclaimer: one should also accept their limits but not bound themselves to it.

Accomplish!

This weekend I felt very accomplished! Even though I already forgot what I did yesterday, I feel like I got a lot dunzo! Home inspection check. Decided in a loan. Did some errands. Did bikram. Started my registry. Did the details for my wedding. Even though, I still have a lot to do, I feel settle because I got a lot of my planning done! Yeah me! And Frank! He was such a trooper today!

Horns!

I am a courteous drive. But when u don't make time to be in the right lane and honk, then child you've push the wrong button!

Save you money. I was expecting a package today from USPS. Express mail with guaranteed delivery by noon today. The parcel person instead left me a sorry we missed you slip. HELLO!!!! Where's my packaged that was guaranteed to be delivered to me TODAY? So I went to the post office to attempt to claim my hostage parcel. Alas, it was not there and a waste of my time. The Postal Service needs a parcel person so us picker uppers need not wait. Also, annoyed that the postal person did not leave me my guaranteed package. What the heck. Long story short, save your money. No use getting the express since i didn't get my guaranteed delivery.

It's Christmas Eve!!! It's also my fiancé's birthday! I've got a number of things to do today. However, I am feeling a nap. I still need to somehow manage to get a birthday card. It's on my to do list today. I am always in transit so its hard to get things done. Next year, I will feel much more settle because I will have everything in one place and not have 2 sets of everything. CONSOLIDATE will be a resolution for next year.

It is so hard to type because I've got a band aid on my index and middle finger. Clumsy me. I stabbed myself with a High Speed Suction. OUCH!! I totally went through a couple layers of epidermis. Also a sign that I need to take a vacation. Fortunately, I get a whole week and some off. YAHH!!!

I went kinda crazy on the wrapping this year. But can't wait to get some new wrapping paper for next Christmas and even some ornaments for my First Christmas Tree.

Skinny jeans

The skinny jeans are out!

Holidays are here!

The best thing about working in a dental office is all the delicious goodies we get! We score mini Bundt cakes and a sweet basket of cookies and brownies! Delicious!!!

Headache

My head hurts! When you have an appointment at 1, don't show up at 1:20. Your appointment was at 1, I think that's pretty straight forward. If you are going to be late, then call and reschedule. This is not acceptable.

Hump day

Working five days a week is tiring. My eyes hurt. It's the holidays. Too many things to do and not enough time to do it in :(

Sunday was a super busy day. It was a day of shows and errands. This was a really nice picker upper from lette. I was on my way to J.Crew and stumbled across this. Raeceen was just telling me about it, but I wasn't aware they had one in Pasadena. It's about $1.70 for one macaroon. It was pretty good, nice and chewy. I still have 3 left. Then I will yelp about it. :P

It's about 20 mins to 9 and I am listening to One Republic as I am digesting my happy hour meal from yardhouse. To work out or not to work out that is the question that lies before me. I am leaning towards doing a quick p90x core workout. Which I most likely will attempt. But still letting my food digest.

Today, I realized that I have about 6 months left. I didn't really how fast time is flying by. I better get back into planning mode. The roadblock has really halted my planning, but I hope to get over these bumps in the next two weeks. (crossing fingers)

Tomorrow, I have a really super long exhausting day. These events do not make me happy. I drive enough as it is.

Venting time...... lately I have had some anxiety.....I know exactly what causes my anxiety and thinking about it really upsets me actually. I often wonder what it is about being maternal that makes kids crazy. Possibly rooted in upbringing. I get a lot of advice from people these day adding their 2 cents. About how to raise my future children. About how to raise a family. About marriage, etc. I appreciate these comments and totally understand where they are coming from, but can't help but observe the faults.

Here's my 2 cents. People are all different and couples have individual dynamics. Prayer is an awesome thing and having belief is great. But one NEEDS to find the their own enlightenment to truly understand the present of GOD; only then will one be a true believer. Until then, one should be patient until that time has come.

Today, I got a chance to finally check out Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge. When I used to work out in LCF, a lot of my patients would tell me about this place and how beautiful it was. It is really quite nice. Especially in the Spring when the flowers are in bloom. But it was just as beautiful on this crisp November day. My cousin was visiting and I thought this would be a nice place to take her. I got to explore the grounds and get some nice shots in too.

These are some of my favorites:

It's been a while since I've updated. I been pretty exhausted of recent. On top of my forever long commute to and from work, I've had to take care of my mom. Man, definitely way too early to be taking up this responsibility. Anyways, we do what we gotta do right. Not too long ago, I was think kids in the mix isn't a bad idea. But now, waiting a good 2+ years sounds about right. I know I ain't getting any younger, but I am going to enjoy the little freedom that I have left and stretch it out as long as I can.

I'm psyche for my upcoming vacation of rest and relaxation. I'm all booked to so it's just planning what I want to do from here. Which should be too bad. Hopefully that is. Last weekend was nice cause I got to spend the weekend with the girls. We had Tea Sandwiches and more. This past weekend was also a treat. We did a wine tour with an unfiltered barrel tasting at Agua Dulce Winery. It was quite enjoyable. There was this goat that was friendly but so FRESH, I say. And of course, nothing to end our tour but so show off our kung fu moves. Not sure which move Frank is sporting but some high double kick, eh?