sheenn: August 2007

Sigh.

The state of American education today. Sigh.

Miss Teen South Carolina at the Miss Teen USA pageant last Friday.

Ahh... it's no wonder I've been feeling sluggish and not my normal proportionate weight. Kam, Elaine and I have started Fitday food diaries to log what we eat during the day. Yesterday was my first day... I thought I was doing well, too. I ate a chicken tostada (practically a boiled chicken salad!) and a turkey burger and even skipped the fries and got a diet soda... and this is what I ended up with:

Holy cow... I almost half of the food I ate was FAT... over 100 grams! In one day! I'm pretty flabbergasted. (No pun intended)

If you want to keep tabs on what I eat, use this link:
http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJournals.html?Owner=swarmin

Easy like Sunday morning...

No better way to spend a lazy Sunday than to stay in with the A/C blasting, eating last night's leftovers from Din Tai Fung (yay dumplings!) while carousing the town in Animal Crossing. I haven't played this game in maybe 3 years -- so I had to start all over from the beginning, basically rediscovering everything. This game is so addicting!

So far today I've completed all of my work for Tom Nook, paid off half my mortgage I have a shovel to start digging up some trouble. I am considering changing the system time to tomorrow so I can try for a fishing rod... this game is so much fun!

I let Steve create a character and he's starting the game too... he's addicted to shaking trees for money. So much so he walks around with a swollen face from bee stings.

This is the cutest game ever. :)

And I hear they're making a version for the Wii... yay!

Watch Dog

Since I've been parking on the street lately (Vina's car is parked in my spot) I've been walking past the side alley to get to the house. I give a little knock on the window to tell Lulu I'm home and this is how I'm greeted. :)

This lasts only a second -- as soon as she recognizes me she makes a beeline for the front door and waits there, no matter what I call out from the window. Talk about conditioning.

Happy Birthday Mommy!

I haven't had a chance to call Mommy to wish her a Happy Birthday yet but I did e-mail her. I sent her an e-card... let's see if she can figure it out. Kind of funny that Mommy is forwarding us all these ppt's and images... and I am still giving Daddy a step-by-step instruction on how to log into his e-mail.

Anyhow I am not gonna lie -- I didn't order Mommy's bday gift until today. Looks like she won't receive it until the first week of September so don't tell her about it yet! Aai originally suggested I give her some new pots and pants but after carefully scouring Aai's Indiana Ofoto album, I noticed a picture of Timmy's bed laying on top of a box of a 10-pc cookware set... so I figured she wouldn't need one.

So I called Aunty IeIng this morning to do some research on this "noodle maker" that Aai mentioned Mommy wanted and found out that it's just a pasta maker. So I researched a bit online to find the best manual one (we don't want Mommy making uneven noodles) and found this Italian one on Amazon... I added a couple of things to the order like a cookbook, pasta rack and noodle bowl set. I hope she's happy with it!

Too Much Entertainment

Okay it's no wonder I never leave home... we are way too entertained in front of that TV! Guitar hero on the xbox... watching Blu-Ray discs on the PS3... catching So You Think You Can Dance on the DVR... watching back-to-back episodes of Heroes on the Apple TV... and now have a Wii coming! :) Well... either we're too entertained to leave or too broke to go out. :)

It's scheduled to arrive at my work sometime today but it's already 3:17PM and I'm getting worried. :( If it -does- come today, however, I will be stopping by EB games on my way home from work to pick up Cooking Mama and a Mario game... which one to start with???

In addition to all of this gaming and TV, I've re-subscribed to NetFlix so we can start making use of the PS3 and the 1080p set-up we have. I've added a ton of Blu-Ray DVD's... can't wait for them to start coming!

A Phone Conversation with Daddy

Daddy's lines have been roughly translated into English for your convenience.

Me: Vina just left for Japan yesterday.
Daddy: Really? When is she coming here?
Me: Well, we weren't able to find a ticket in time. Maybe she'll look over there and if she gets a chance to she will still stop by to visit.
Daddy: Ok.
Me: Yona is visiting Indiana! She leaves tomorrow to go back home to Japan!
Daddy: WHAT!? WHAT THE HELL IS VINA DOING IN JAPAN IF NOT VISITING YONA?!!?!?!?

Oooooops...........

A Taste of Home

Last night was Vina's last night before leaving for Japan... she will be in Japan for 2-3 weeks and immediately move to San Diego when she gets back... the last one leaves the nest!

So last night I cooked a "Mommy" meal for her - Ayam Goreng (Indonesian fried chicken), Kang Kung (veggies) and Sop Bakkut (Uhm... backbone soup?). Not bad!

It was my first time making the soup and chicken -- the whole meal took about 1 hour to prepare. I was so hungry by the time I was frying the chicken. =/ But... if Yona can do it, so can I!

Then continuing on in my domestic streak, I also cooked some Mie Ayam (Chicken Noodles) and stuck it in the fridge for Steve and I to bring to work today. :)

Yay for home-cooked meals.

Yum yum dim sum

Last Saturday we brought Yona down to Cerritos to look for Angel one last time and met up with Graham & Rosanna for dim sum. Yum!

We went to Ten Ten restaurant... I haven't been here since they've moved. (I thought the old location was Tien Tien?) The dimsum was actually quite good! Yona got to eat her favorite dishes... Chinese broccoli, the white noodly thing, the square fried thing... yeah I'm not really good with dimsum dish names :T

After pigging out, we went to 99 Ranch Market to do some guided shopping with Auntie Ie Ing. I got to buy some ingredients for homey foods (hence the meal on Tuesday) and now I have a fridge full of noodles I need to cook.

After the market we went back to our old house to look for Angel, Yona's cat. We walked up and down and called out his name to no avail. We gave up and decided to try again after dusk, so went off to the Long Beach Towne Center to watch Becoming Jane. Yona is probably the biggest Jane Austen fan I know... but the movie was definitely better than I expected. This picture below was from one of my favorite scenes...

After the movie we headed back to Elgers to look for Angel. We hung out for about 20-30 minutes before watching the almost tearful reunion of Yona and Angel.

I haven't spent the entire day in Cerritos in a really long time. Kind of miss it!

Birthday with Shamu

Took Friday (My birthday!) off to drive down to San Diego and visit Shamu~

The drive down was longer than I remembered... I'm not used to driving from West LA.

Sleepy heads took a nap after the "ABC game".

Planning the itinerary... how to pack the most shows in one day?

Yona and a 2,343 year old sea turtle.

Flamingos are stinky.

Steve likes stinky flamingos.

So chipper these two are.

My favorite show of the day -- watching dogs, cats and a pig do tricks at the Pets Rule! show.

Why isn't Lulu that smart?? :(

Jaws of terror.

Manatee house of love.

I love penguins!

Yona and Jamie in a polar bear cave.

Yay for funnel cake!

Arrived early for the famed dolphin show.

Harshest dolphin critiques ever.

Sea Lion naptime... they remind me of Lulu...

Steve likes cactus gardens.

$10 cup of hot cocoa...

And we ended the night with Shamu Rocks!

Birthday Dinner/ Whitney Reunion

Elaine and my birthday celebration at Porterhouse Bistro on August 9, 2007.

It was like a high school dance... we took a gazillion combinations of pictures.