UmaTheDevil (en)

Florida '07: Jupiter Light House

2007-12-04T14:45:00.001-06:00

Previously:
Jupiter Beach

So... lazy... (as if you can't tell!!)

August 14
I've been to Jupiter who knows how many times but had never been to this famous landmark. Mom asked what I wanna do before flying back home, so I chose to visit the lighthouse. (Just to find out later that Mom couldn't climb up because of her acrophobia, and there was a height limit for kids too... Doh!)

This red lighthouse has been serving the Jupiter inlet since 1860. So old that they couldn't find that special Fresnel lens at the lighthouse top to replace the one that was broken during the hurricane in 1928. They had to put the pieces back together and affix with the crossbar.

The small museum used to be the lighthouse keeper's residence and post office. I was laughing to see the food cabinet exactly the same as my mom's like 30 years ago being displayed in that museum... Darn! Am I that ancient?

Still so lazy... I'll just let the pictures talk now.

Then we went to Dune Dog for lunch. It was very simple yet super good. I almost had to roll out of there.

And that concluded our trip. Yey! I really made it by year end!

Florida '07: Jupiter Beach

2007-09-08T15:12:00.000-05:00

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Previously:
Zoo...Zoo...Zoo...

August 13
Since we didn't have much time at the Blowing Rocks, we planned to go to the beach again today. The rain was pouring quite hard while we were heading up to Jupiter, and I was a little bit afraid that we might not be able to make it to the beach.

But luck was on our side. Not only did the rain stop as soon as we arrived Dad's, it dried up pretty quickly and became sunny bright. We jumped in the van with all kinds of beach necessities - towels, sunscreen lotions, beach umbrella, hats, sunglasses, inflatables, everything.

The beach was quiet and B-E-A-U-tiful. The sky was clear, and the water was so calm. We picked our spot, got ready, and then everybody ran into the water.

Me The Moon Face!!

Ready To Go!

I'm not a good swimmer. The pool is okay, but the ocean... I'm only comfortable with walking in knee-deep water. If going in, I'd only stay where my feet could still touch the bottom. Deeper than that, never went there. Never felt like trying either. To me, human belongs to the land. Water is for other creatures, some of which I don't have an intention to introduce myself to. Here's Analogy 101 - Land:Water... Human:Other creatures... They don't mix. Get the picture? Good.

But I didn't wanna be the black sheep. If everybody goes in, I'd rather go in as well. This was where the floaty came to the rescue.

Fun In The Water

Do we really have to leave?

In the afternoon, Dad and Dave went golfing. We girls were talking about going shopping at first, but I was tired. So I stayed back with the resting kids, hoping for a nap. Turned out, Micah woke up and looked for his mama. I had to lie that she was napping so that he went back to bed. When I finished showering and just sat down, Joshua came out of his room. His resting time was up, and he wanted to go catch the lizards... What are kids made of?!? Red Bulls?!?

When Mom and Jenna came back, Jenna took me out to the mall. We got some presents for Mom and Dad. Lucky me; it was Florida tax-holiday that weekend. So I got myself some presents, too!

After delicious shrimp and grits dinner, we had a birthday icecream cake party for Joshua. Carvel's icecream cake is like no other. There's no cake in it... The whole cake is a block of icecream. Awesome!!

Dave finally got to taste his own medicine today. Remember the word 'air-poop'? Joshua really did it (and loudly too!) on Dave's lap! He laughed himself off so hard while saying, "I air-pooped on you!"

Sorry, Todd. I think we spoiled your son... Hahahaha...

Coming up:
Jupiter Lighthouse

Florida '07: Zoo...Zoo...Zoo...

2007-08-29T20:23:00.000-05:00

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Previously:
Blowing Rocks and Jetty's

August 12
This morning we zoom-zoom to the Palm Beach Zoo with Mom's special friend, Maury. He brought Robby the feisty parrot over before we headed out. Robby stayed in Mom's office behind closed door, so the kitties were safe from him... Huh? Shouldn't it be the other way around?

The boys were probably still tired from last night; they fussed a little today. In the van, Micah started with, "Mama! I wanna hold your hand..." But since Jenna sat in the back-row seat, she offered her foot instead. Then Joshua wanted one, too. Mom and I thought it was hilarious, but Jenna said, "That's love right there!"

We're in! Thank you, Mr. Maury, for buying us tickets.

Look who's fussing (n_n)

As soon as we entered the zoo, Joshua started crying so bad because he wanted to play in the fountain but didn't have his swimming shorts. Before Micah decided to join the crying troop... (seriously, it's contagious, just like yawning), Mom took him to the fountain. In a few, he forgot all about the fuss and started having fun with the water. I splashed him, he splashed me back. I splashed him more, he splashed my camera... Yaaarrgghh!!

Dave went ahead to the tiger habitat with Maury. I tagged along at first, but then I took too long taking pictures... and lost him. Well, well, well... Can you guess what time it is? It'ssss... Sulking Time!!

Nah!! Really, I didn't sulk. Staying back actually gave me better chances (and more time) to get these pictures.

Feeding Time

It was about lunch time when we regrouped. We spot this Sausage Tree on the way to the cafe. Ummm... Weird, eh? Made me hungrier.

It was so hot that I just couldn't wait until after lunch to devour a Klondike bar. And look what I had for lunch! It must be from that tree!

Lunch Time!

After lunch, Dave was amazing. Not only did he take my pictures and let me take his, he pointed out some animals for me to shoot as well. Come to think of it... he occasionally took pictures of the animals around our house. The birds, the rabbit, the coyote... Maybe he really likes wildlife photos. (Not talking about pictures of me, of course.)

We came back to Mom's house to get ready for the party. She invited over about 10-12 friends, including Georgio and Ann Marie, Jeff and Marlene, her tennis friends, and her Sunday breakfast friends. Another cool friend of hers was Carol, whom Mom met at the speed dating... (I guess the guys at that dating were all losers... hahahaha)

After everyone left, Dad joined us for dinner. Jenna was going to fix shrimp and grit, but it was too late to shop for the ingredients. So, Dad brought over the enchiladas and beans that he made. It was the best enchiladas ever! Really, Dad, I'm not just saying. I normally don't like enchiladas; so if I enjoyed it, it's gotta be the world's best. Thank you, Dad, for always cooking us delicious meals.

Special Note: It was Thai Mother's Day today. We wish both our moms forever happiness and good health. We love you very much.

Coming up:
Jupiter Beach

Florida '07: Blowing Rocks and Jetty's

2007-08-25T20:58:00.000-05:00

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Previously:
Fun at Dad's House

August 11
In the afternoon while the kids were cleaning up, mom excused herself to go prepare her Sunday party. So, the rest of us ate the pasta leftovers for late lunch. (See what happened when mom wasn't around? Hahaha...) Giuseppe's really gave handsome portion of food; so big that we still couldn't finish them all on the second day!

After lunch, we decided to go to the Blowing Rocks Preserve on the Jupiter Island. Everybody was so excited to go swimming there. We brought swimming suits, towels, and of course a lot of sunblock lotion. I already put some before leaving home, but I guess putting some more wouldn't hurt.

Getting Ready

We found out from the receptionist lady that the park would be closed at 4:30pm. We had only half an hour left!

So, Jenna asked her if we could go in without paying $2 admission fee, and she said yes. Waahoo! Good job, Jenna!

The entrance was pretty cool. It looked like a tunnel of sea grapes. Yup, sea grape... because its fruits look pretty much like grapes, and because it grows along the sea. As simple as that...

At the end of the tunnel, awaited blue sky, a long quiet beach, clear and calm water, and fresh breeze (and a lot of sun...) Looking from here, it was just like a small plain beach, nothing so special about it. But there's gotta be something, right?

And there really was something. As we walked through hot sand (ouch!) to the water, I noticed that it wasn't a sandy beach like others. The shoreline is actually limestone with holes that the waves crash through and create the plumes. Too bad the tide wasn't high enough to make the show when we're there. But it's pretty neat as it was; we could climb down and play around underneath those rocks.

Limestone Formation

Rock of Sand and Shells

Rock Climbing

Cave Boy! Hahah... Just kidding

Had we had more time, we would have been able to survey the shoreline more. Dave sorta quickly did, though, but he went so fast that I couldn't keep up.

So, I sulked a little when he was back. That's how I got my pictures taken. I know playing with people's guilt isn't nice, but it works well sometimes. Muahahaha...

Me No Sulking No More

The Look-alikes

Mom rejoined the gang for dinner. We went to Jetty's, a nice seafood restaurant located along the Loxahatchee river right across from the famous Jupiter Lighthouse! This is the place I've been mentioning to Dave that I wanted to go since before we flew out here. I got so excited about going there...

Sooo excited... that I forgot to bring the camera with me. Huhhh... I brought two cameras on this trip; and just when we went to one of the trip highlights, I didn't have any of them and had to live with a 2MB cameraphone. What a bummer!

They were quite busy that evening. Our table was about 45 minutes wait, so we took a walk to the marina right next door. The boats that docked there were mostly pleasure boats or yachts. Some of them you can rent out for fun. Dave was thinking about doing that, but at $70 a person... and considering how many people with had... Wooooey!

But among those nice and clean boats, there was this one real fishing boat. We could tell right away from the look and smell that this was what local fishermen actually use it to make a living.

We then walked back to Jetty's and hung out at their dock. A cute couple just got engaged right there that night. Awww... so romantic.

As they walked pass us, we noticed the big diamond ring on her finger. It was pretty hard not to notice, actually, because she kinda held her hand forward showing it off.

Jetty's Dining Patio

Jetty's Dock and Boardwalk

Overlooking Jupiter Lighthouse
from Jetty's patio
at cameraphone's best...

Our buzzer finally buzzed. We got fried calamari as an appetizer.

Dave got grilled grouper with crabmeat sauce and rice pilaf on the side, and it was oh so wonderful. The crabmeat was so sweet.

Mine was a blackened swordfish and crab cake combo with loaded baked potato. Mmm...Mmm...Mmm Yummyyy!

Dad, mom, and Jenna ordered scallop dishes. I tried a bite from dad's plate, and it was very delicious, too. This dinner wasn't cheap but was well worth it. Mom and Dad picked up the big bill, though. I'm feeling so bad because I pretty much made Dave request to go there. Anyway, thank you very very much, Mom and Dad. We love you.

Coming up:
Zoo...Zoo...Zoo...

Florida '07: Fun at Dad's House

2007-08-22T20:28:00.000-05:00

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August 10-11
It's been quite a while since our last trip to Florida. Jenna was taking her boys to visit their grandpa and grandma last week, so we took this opportunity to flee work and Texas heat.

But before hitting the ocean and family love, there was shopping! Besides some goodies for everybody, I got myself something, too. Found good deals at Old Navy and Stein Mart. Spent less than $100 and got everything I needed. Comparing with that $199 cute Coach at TJ Maxx, this is way better. Woohoo! Thank you very much.

We spotted a sexy beautiful blonde at the PBI, where we flew in on Friday afternoon. She gave us the sweetest smile and waved to us. Then I noticed Dave smiled and waved back, too! Hey!! What's up!?!

Oh, wait a minute... That was Mom! Hahahaha...

We got to chill out (thank goodness for the a/c), had some snacks and wine, and played with the kitties at Mom's a little bit. Sabrina wasn't as jittery as before but still shy, so we had to be patiently wait to play with her. Bellini, on the other hand, was such a ham as usual.

Mom's phone rang. It was Jenna saying that she and Dad and the boys were about half an hour to Dad's house in Jupiter, which is about the same amount of time it takes from West Palm Beach. So, we started heading up there. We stopped to pick up dinner from Giuseppe's on the way. We ordered Carbonara, Bolognese, Siciliana, Chicken Ravioli Gorgonzola, and Ravioli with Tomato Sauce for the kids. Dave's pick (chicken ravioli) turned out the best, while others were a little bit bland. The leftovers tasted better on the next day, though. We didn't do much after dinner since everybody was tired. Dad played Copacabana karaoke, and it became a small dance party before bed.

The fun continued on Saturday morning. Jenna went through her box of memorables, some of which she couldn't remember... (-_-")

Recognize the boy in this cool photo toy?

I didn't see when Dave did with his box, but he came home with an extra backpack filled with some signed baseballs and other stuff - among those was cousin Michelle's garter from her wedding!

Do it again!

It was pretty amazing that Joshua and his Uncle Dave got along so well as if they'd seen each other everyday. I guess Dave's playing rough and teasing amuse kids Josh's age. The word "air-poop" became THE vocabulary of the trip. Not sure how much Todd (the kids' dad) would appreciate it, but I bet my Mom would laugh her head off. After all, she was the one who started this word. That!... is how a grandma-in-law spoils a child!

While Micah played catch with grandpa and grandma, we noticed that he might grow up to be a wonderful quarterback. His throw was quite powerful for his size. He just needs to work on his catch a little bit and to learn not to fall down when not tackled.

We had a dance party again. Joshua specifically requested Copacabana song a couple times. It must be the beat that caught his ears, as he didn't care much for other songs. We also played the fishing game. I don't know if it was actually harder than it looked or if it was my bad co-ordinates. But Joshua beated me every... single... time...

To dance, or not to dance... That's no question!

Micah the Fisherman

Joshua the Vulcan

We were then out playing in the sun. Florida heat wasn't much different from Texas temperature-wise, but it wasn't as scorching because it was breezier and more humid. While Joshua was out on the crab mission with grandpa, Micah went swimming in the Loxahatchee river behind Dad's house. He seems to have as much fun swimming as bossing his mama to check the water, making sure that there was no pokey things, "That one! That one, Mama! That one, too!

It's cool in here!

Mangrove along the river bank

Always much fun with grandpa

Coming up:
Blowing Rocks and Jetty's

Fish Belly (Tai Pla) Curry

2007-08-05T17:16:00.000-05:00

I was ecstatic to find the fish belly curry at the temple, for I've been craving for this dish for so long. My plan was to add coconut milk, grilled fish, and some veggies to it like the way mom does. I was daydreaming about it all the way home.

But then I became crestfallen as soon as I opened the container. The curry was too thin and not spicy at all. Adding more ingredients to it would dilute it way too much...

'Crestfallen' - When an English teacher of mine taught his class this word, he said that when the rooster's crest (or comb) falls, that rooster looks very sad. Thus, the meaning of the word Crestfallen is sad or disappointed.

As the thirst that must be quenched, my craving must be fulfilled. The fish belly sauce that Oy sent me was sitting there calling, "Use me! Use me!"
Fine! I'll cook it myself!

Curry Paste
35-40 Dried chili pepper; soaked in water
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 tbsp. Galanga root; chopped
2 tbsp. Lemongrass; chopped
1 tsp. Kaffir lime zest
5 cloves Garlic
1/4 cup Shallot; chopped
1 tbsp. Tumeric powder
1 tsp. White pepper
1 tbsp. Shrimp paste

- The recipe said crush everything with pestle and mortar, but unless you have a heavy one, use the food processor. Though, the paste might not be as smooth as would be with the mortar, but that's no big deal. I used the processor, too, but it's just my laziness. Hehehe...
- Crush the chili peppers with the salt first. Then add galanga, lemongrass, garlic, and white pepper. Crush well.
- Add shallot crush some more. Now it will start to get sticky. Use the spoon to push it down (or shake it as I did...) often.

- Transfer the mixture into a bowl and then mix in tumeric powder and shrimp paste. This way, your food processor wouldn't turn yellow and stinky... like mine...

Fish Belly Curry
Chili paste as above
1 can Mae Ploy Coconut milk... 1 1/2 can if other brand
3 tbsp. Fish belly (Tai Pla) sauce
2 cups Grilled Mackerel; throw away bones
1 Potato; cut in big chunks
2 cups Thai eggplants; quartered
2 cups Long beans; cut into 2-inch long
4-5 Kaffir lime leaves

- Do not shake the coconut milk. Open the can and scoop the thick top in a large pot. Put on medium high heat and mix in the chili paste. Stir until it gives strong aroma (but good... or not?!?)
- Add fish belly sauce and cook until it smells reeeally good... hahaha
- Add the rest of coconut milk, mackerel, potato, eggplants, long beans, and kaffir lime leaves. Add water to desired thickness. Let boil and then simmer until the potato is cooked.
- Serve with fresh longbeans, napa cabbage, steamed rice, and fried eggs... ohhhh so heavenly...

Cautions...
As mentioned, this curry smells really strong while cooking. If you don't have a separate or closed kitchen, I'd recommend cooking outside so that it won't stink your whole house. BBQ grill or picnic stove works well... just watch for the bottles thrown by the neighbours... Hahahahah... Good luck!

Full Moon In July...

2007-07-29T16:00:00.000-05:00

The fifteenth day of the waxing moon of the eighth lunar month is (I'd say) the second most important Uposatha days in Buddhism, for it marked Lord Buddha’s first preaching to the first set of monks. Dharma and Sangha, two of The Three Jewels that all Buddhists take refuge, hence originated on this day. It is called Asalha Puja Day.

We went to Dallas Buddhist Center or Wat Dallas with Tang, Pop, and Pook today. Dave didn't really want to go, but I told him that Tom would be there. And sure enough, Tom had a last-minute change-of-heart and didn't show up... Dave complained a little bit but not for long. As soon as he got his grilled pork, he was happy. Hahaha...

The alms giving started after 10:30am. But we got there at 10am so that we could get good spots, both parking and in the alms giving line. Anyhow, we picked the wrong line again. Last time we were in the west line, but the monks started from the east line. So, we wanted to be smart this time. We reserved a spot in the east line... but only to find out that they started from the west line today. Doh!!

We didn't go in for the service because it was too crowded inside the building and also because Pook was Catholic. Yah, yah... Excuse, excuse. As mentioned in my previous post, the only reason I come to this temple is fooooooddddd. There were a lot of Thai food vendors here; many of of their food I wouldn't normally cook because they're too complicated (meaning, I'm lazy... hahaha). As soon as the alms giving was over, we headed for food right away. (Shame, shame...)

We also ran into Ken, Uncle Narong and Aunt Sue's younger son. Man, he's not a little boy I first met twelve years ago anymore. It was his first time visiting Wat Dallas by himself, and he was sooo excited about all the food. When he came to say goodbye to us after finishing lunch, we noticed several big bags full of goodies in his hands. I wonder if there's anything he didn't buy today. Hahaha...

Grilled pork on the stick is Dave's all-time favorite. We should have learnt already to turn in our order way in advance. They always struggled trying to keep up with the customers. Not sure why they never figure out how to cook faster. But I guess it's kinda charming that way. Since it was so delicious, it was worth the wait... as long as it wasn't too long and drove the customers away. Anyhow... note to self - Next time, order it as soon as we get there!

My favorite has gotta be the grilled sausage. It's pork and rice sausage that, before grilled, was fermented for a couple days to give it a subtle sour taste (or in other word, rotten... NOT!! It's only on its way to rotten... Hahaha... How appetizing.) Dave isn't a fan of this sausage, but that means more for me! Woohoo!

We also got some papaya salad, tapioca dumplings, chive cakes (which I can make better - quoted from Pook's... hahahah), ground chicken salad, sweet coconut cups, Thai tea, and a couple more desserts. I also included some pictures from our March visit (that I was too lazy to blog about), just to give you an idea of what else they sold there. So, don't be alarmed. We didn't eat them all.

I got to talk to the plant lady whom I bought a kaffir lime from. I asked her for some advices to keep the plants so healthy... or in my case, alive. She said a lot of good care was all she gave. Huhuh... I guess that's what my kaffir lime lacks. Another lady suggested that fish carcass was also good for kaffir lime. Wonder how strong the smell could get, though. I'll keep that in mind then, in case the citrus fertilizer from Home Depot doesn't work.

We ate sooo much today. I still wanted to keep eating but had to stop because everybody was done. Aside from the leftover, I also brought home the southern fish belly curry and a grilled mackerel. Aoy had sent me the fish belly sauce for cooking this curry, but I'm thinking next time. This time, I'll take the shortcut!

Tag... I don't look like...

2007-07-19T12:29:00.001-05:00

Got tagged by Praew again. But this one is much easier.

I don't look like... a glutton
Shouldn't this cheeky and round face speak it all? Not sure why people are surprised to see me eat. I wouldn't be able to compete in any eating contest because I'm a slow eater, but I can eat steadily... for a long time... and a LOT. This reminds me of two of my pharmacist friends back in Thailand. They ate like me, making it so much fun to lunch together. I also miss my ex-roommie, A-ngoon. One day we went to IHOP and ordered 2 dishes... each! The waiter came look under the table and said, "You girls must be throwing food away!?!" Mannn...

I don't look like... I can cook
... unless you've seen me cooking. It took my own mom a longgg time to believe that I really can... and do like it. When I was in school, I worked at uncle Narong's restaurant. He was surprised every time I brought over the dishes I made. He prolly thought he's good at hiding his cooking secrets... but I'm better at stealing them. Muahaha...

I don't look like... I don't play music
Many thought I play piano or some kind of musical instruments from looking at my long fingers. Alas, I can't play any of them. Even my singing is off-key, golly! (But still like to sing...) I'm pretty good with the keyboard, though. Not musical keyboard, but computer keyboard. Blogging and MSN chatting have improved my Thai typing a lot.

I don't look like... a short-tempered
Only people who are close to me would know this fact. Others would normally see me as a calm, happy, and bubbly all the time. But the truth is I can get annoyed and get mad very easily, especially when I'm hungry. Hahaha... Umm... Maybe my friends never get to see that because we always go eat when getting together?

I don't look like... a programmer
One of my high school friends said when I told him I was pursuing an MIS degree, "You? Computer?" I asked why, thinking that he might say something like "Oh, you're too pretty to be a nerd." (Geez...) Turned out, he replied, "You don't seem to be a logical person." Danggggggg!!!

I don't look like... an exempted student
Not sure if they still do this, but during my time, the senior-high students could take a special exam that once passed they were eligible for "the" college entrance exam without actual high school graduation. I was surrounded by smart classmates in my junior year. (Some were really smart, while some were just smart a$$es...) Anyway, since everyone took that exam, I couldn't be a black sheep. Many friends from my freshman class were surprised to see me applying for that (stupid) exam. They said I didn't look enthusiastic enough... This one they were right; I really wasn't.

I don't look like... MY AGE!!
Hahahaha... Just kidding, just kidding. This one is just for giggles.

The bottom line is... LOOK AIN'T EVERYTHING, don't you think?

Harry Potter and the Sick Fanta...

2007-07-16T22:50:00.000-05:00

Photo courtesy of www.movieweb.com

The Order of Phoenix - Finally, the first movie that's worth $7 ticket (and that's matinee...) since... I don't know... The Goblet of Fire?

Hahah... That might sound a bit too harsh; sorry. It's just because we don't go to the movie theatre much. Not that we don't like watching movies. We do... a lot, but we're just not one of those who must see them as soon as they're out. I bet this must be one of the wedding cake's side effects. Really... we weren't like this before married.

But there still are a few movies that we're eager to watch; Harry Potter is one of those few, especially to Dave. Sunday after lunch, he all of the sudden said, "Honey, wanna go watch Harry Potter?" I said, "Now?" It wasn't that I didn't want to; I was just surprised that he asked. But he mis-interpreted me and then said, "Well, it's alright if you don't want to." ... Wha...??

I finished doing the dishes and got dressed record-fast that day.

We got there just in time for the 1pm show, but we decided to wait for the 1:40pm to get better seats. I finished my popcorn even before the movie started. Harry Potter was no longer little kids movie (actually since the last one), and it was very exciting the whole time. I needed to pee really bad, but I just couldn't leave my seat.

Rewind (weekend); <-- My first C++ since I left school! Woohoo!

It was Friday 13th when Fanta got sick... She displayed warning lights and message just out of the blue as soon as I left a dumpy mall where I went to look for a planter. Maybe she didn't like that mall. Hahaha... But I actually suspected that it might have to do with the lightning and thunderstorm we went through Thursday night. We took her to the shop, and she ended up having to stay there over the weekend. It's Monday now, and they still couldn't figure out what went wrong. Hope she'll get well soon; I miss her already...

After dropping her off on Saturday, we went to lunch at the Mediterranean Café & Bakery. They have lunch buffet for $8.99, which I at first thought kinda expensive, judging from the limited variety. But then I realized that a good buffet doesn't need that many items at all. Their salads were very fresh and tasted good... but who cares about salad? Their meats, my friend, were the best. The beef and gyro meat were so scrumptious. The chicken was crispy on the outside but so tender it could be pulled off the bone with no effort. And their eggplant, though not meat, was just as awesome.

We went to Lloyd's backyard birthday party in the evening. His famous grilled chicken and Kara's spring rolls and fried toasts rock! The dark meats were marinated in soy sauce, Louisianna hot sauce, and Sprite. Definitely have to try that recipe. Most of the guests work for airlines and are so much fun to hang out with. (We felt young again...) Too bad we get to see them only once a year. There were also some Thai guests, but they disappeared after eating. I heard they went blackjacking at the other friend's house down the street. Hahaha...

The food was yummy, and the sun was... hot! I sat in the sun for not even an hour, and now I'm almost as dark as Lloyd's chicken. The joy was ours when the sun went behind the trees, but not for too long until we lost it to the mosquitos. OFF and citronella candles and torches seemed to work for only a short time before they became resistant. Those frickin' little monsters! The bites I got from my yard a week ago just got better, and now I'm all bumpy and itchy again.

Crab Cakes...

2007-07-04T22:06:00.000-05:00

July 4th this year, we just played lazy all day. Didn't go see the parade nor the fireworks at all, not even on TV. Ooh! We watched the famous Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, though. Takeru Kobayashi, six-time defending champion, finally lost it to Joey Chestnut this year. Amazingly, they both broke the all-time record of 59-1/2 hot dogs. Takeru finished 63 while Joey ate 66... All that within 12 minutes. Holy Schmoky!

But we had a very special dinner. My lovely sis, Pic, asked in her blog how Dave made his special Crab Cakes. He said he normally followed the recipe from Phillips' website. It's different from his mom's in a way that there's no veggie fillers and no need to bake in the oven. Anyhow, when I asked him for the recipe, he decided to demonstrate, too! Special treat for special mommy-to-be, sista!

INGREDIENTS
1 lb. crab meat (Try to get nice big lumps)
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 egg
1/4 tsp. dry mustard
2 Tbsp. mayonnaise
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. mustard
1 Tbsp. melted butter
1 tsp. parsley flakes
1 tsp. Seafood Seasoning
1/2 cup breadcrumbs

DIRECTIONS

- In a mixing bowl, combine all ingredients except for crab meat. Gently fold in the crab meat, being careful not to break the lumps.

- Shape into cakes.

- Pan fry (or bake at 375F for 12-15 minutes) until evenly brown on each side and reach an internal temperature of 165F.

PLATING
We like to eat these crab cakes with buttered rice, blanched asparagus, and cocktail sauce.

Buttered Rice:
Stir fry steamed white rice with butter in the pan that cooked the crab cakes. Season with fresh crushed pepper. Carrots and peas can also be added if you like.

Blanched Asparagus is very easy to make. Just blanch them, drain, return to the pan in which you quickly stir fry with butter.

Cocktail Sauce:
Mix some ketchup with lemon juice and ground horseradish. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Finally, plate them all up and enjoy. Easy-Yummy!

Mochi Ice Cream...

2007-07-01T16:12:00.000-05:00

So is this summer or what? I don't know what season we're at anymore. Spring was so short that my spring flowers didn't last past mid April when it started to get too warm. We hit 90F by mid June, and then it's been raining... a LOT. The amount of rain we got this year has surpassed last year's and the year before's combined. Yesterday, I heard on the radio that a cold front is coming...

Well, y'all. This is Texas. Yee-ha!

I don't know about you, but for us... anytime is a good time for ice cream. Its nutrition facts probably look scary, but it indeed is our hearts that are more dangerous, for we could easily (pretend to) forget about the calorie count and finish the whole pint (or larger) all at once. Dare to say I'm wrong?

There's a new kind of ice cream I just discovered today. Orn has been talking about this Mochi Ice Cream for a while, but I've never seen it around. Maybe I didn't look hard enough; I don't know. But I found it at the new Asian market nearby our house. Must... try...

So many flavors, they have. There are red bean, green tea, mango, taro, and of course the basic flavors like vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate. I wasn't sure how Dave and I would like it, so I bought only one box in red bean flavor.

Each box has 6 pieces, nicely packed (although I'd rather have more ice cream than nice carton...) It's pretty much an ice cream dumpling -- a tiny scoop of ice cream wrapped in thin glutinous dough, same as Japanese Mochi dessert. And it's yummyyy. Though, Dave said he perfered regular ice cream because the dough stuck in his brace...

As for the price, it's pretty expensive considering 6 pieces for $4.29. Ooh... Maybe it's good in a way. Since nutrition facts didn't seem to work, maybe the price consciousness can help controlling the calorie intake. Ah... Brilliant!

Tagged... vol. III

2007-06-19T20:22:00.000-05:00

Since last tag, the chain seemed to be broken... for my tag victims simply decided not to play. Hahaha... That's okay, though; many of them are now busy with their new exciting things in life. It was also, in a way, quite a relief for me because tagging made me feel like being forced to write. Writing part wasn't really a problem, but writing about something unplanned for requires thinking. Hurts my brain...

But just when I started missing such brain exercise, Praew gave me a new tag homework. This time, 'Good Things That Make Me Happy'. As easily-contented as I am (just throw me a piece of bone and I'll be happy already... Oh, that's a dog... hahaha), that should be a piece of cake. It seemed so... until I read the fineprints. The 'Good Things' must be the good things I have done, not like good food I ate or good movies I watched... Oy...

Well... Let's see. Gosh, my brain starts hurting...

Temple Going

I'm not the kind of person who goes to the temple regularly, but I try. Many people believe that every good is within your heart; that you don't need to go to temple or church to be a good person. I totally agree, but I have to admit that going to the temple does make me feel better. Religion is an abstract idea and, like abstract arts, can be difficult to comprehend. By making it more material, it grabs people better because it's now perceivable and touchable. Maybe that's the whole purpose of temples, or churches, or any rituals and ceremonies.

There are two temples that I usually go to. Dallas Temple always have big ceremonies on big Thai Holidays, which I'd attend just for fun and for delicious food. Keller Temple, unlike Dallas Temple, is more quiet and down to earth... and not all-about-status. If I feel like going to make some merits, I'd normally go there. Either one, I always came out a happier person.

House Blessing

House Blessing is a ceremony that is common to Thais when moving into a new house. We believe that every house or every piece of land has spirits. It's basically to pay them homage, ask for their permission to move in, and ask them to protect the house and its residents from any bad and evil. The monks would perform this ritual and also bless the house with peace and prosperity. When Dave and I bought our house, we invited five monks from Keller Temple to do this. It was new to us (to Dave, especially...), so we were clueless about how to do it. One of the monks, who's kinda like a general manager, coached me everything. He lent us all equipments and taught us how to arrange them. He went through all the chantings that we needed and also a rehearsing. He even told us what food was good for the abbot's health. Yep, we were highly honored by his presence.

Believe it or not, the weird sounds that I heard at night did go away! Or is it just my imagination?

Eating Vegetarian

No, no... I'm not saying I'm turning an herbivore. According to an unknown source research, people of my blood type shouldn't be a vegetarian or a vegan. So, I'm not going to argue... (Excuse, excuse... hahaha) But really, I AM (capitalized and bolded and underlined and...) a meat person, but there are times that I felt imbalanced and was hungry for vegetables. I guess that's natural, but the thing is I started getting dry skin, pimples, and uh... constipation by the time the nature hits. So I came up with a plan to eat vegetarian once a week. I tied it to the Buddhist Sabbath day, which occurs about once a week. That's for no specific reason; I guess I just like making it harder since it doesn't fall on the same day every week.

Lucky me, Dave doesn't have any problem with it because he also likes vegetables. So, I'm still doing it and feeling good. In fact, that's my only New Year's resolution that hasn't fallen through so far...

Fighting for Righteousness

After graduated from the pharmacy school, I worked under the government two-year contract at Chulalongkorn Hospital, one of the most renowned teaching hospitals in Thailand. There always were the interns learning on the job, and we had to be extra cautious when working with them. One day I was in the pediatric clinic. Everything in the pharmacy room flowed like a production line, until I noticed one prescription by an intern. She prescribed 3 teaspoons of antibiotics syrup, tid (that's three times a day), for a kid. My first thought was maybe the patient was a big kid who didn't like swallowing capsules, which wasn't uncommon. But, when I looked around and didn't see any big kid in the waiting area, I called the patient's name up, meaning to ask how old he was. (This was back then when not everything was computerized. The prescriptions were handwritten and showed only the patient's name and no age or other information. The patient records didn't come to the pharmacy room either. Scary, huh?) Turned out, it was just a baby. So, I tried to get a hold of that intern, but she refused to correct the prescription... or even talk to me directly...

I tried to save her face, but her ego was too high. My patience finally ran out when this started to hold up my work. I grabbed a pharmacopoeia and walked into her office. She still argued with me because her textbook suggested 45 mg/kg body weight. The baby was 8 - 9 kg and therefore needed roughly 380 mg. The syrup was 125 mg/teaspoon, so he needed 3 teaspoons. Impressive maths, but she missed the fact that the suggested dose was per day! It wasn't because I won the fight that made me feel good (Okay, maybe a little bit...), but it was because I probably had saved a baby's life.

While some interns were nice, some were not. A few of the not-so-nice ones were really good. Fine by me; they had their reason to be stuck-ups. But the bad ones... Boy! Do I hate interns! (Oh... This tag is supposed to be about happy thoughts, isn't it?)

Night Shift

Another thing I was happy I did while working for Chula hospital was working night shifts. All pharmacists were supposed to take turn in doing it. With the number of the pharmacists, it came to pretty much only once a month for each of us, but many gave up their shifts due to different reasons. Some had small kids at home, some had health problem, some had second job, some had drugstore to operate, and some simply had personal issue with the assistants. I had none of above except for the second job, which wasn't an everyday deal and therefore I could easily work it out. Although my second job required less hours and paid me better than Chula's night shift, I decided not to be greedy (for once... hahahah).

Working night shift was very different, and I learnt a lot. The medicine were of wider variety but less in brandnames and dosage forms than in the special clinic I worked at during the day. There were more direct interactions with the doctors because there wasn't time to go through the nurses. And there were less interns... (hallelujah!)

Some pharmacists liked putting the meds together themselves and letting the assistants to calculate the bills and hand the meds to the patients. But I did differently. I liked taking the prescriptions myself, let the assistants prepare the meds, and then I checked before dispensing them to the patients. That way, I could check for any errors before wasting time collect the money and then refund or recollect it, and the assistants got to learn to read the prescriptions and know more meds, which helped them do their fulltime job. But the most precious thing was interacting with the patients, which I didn't get a chance to during daytime. I got to explain about the drug use, answer their questions, or even chitchat with them. The patients spent long late hours with busy and moody staffs in the ER; they deserved nice treats. Pharmacy room was the last point they had to visit; I wanted them to leave with happy face.

But thinking about it, the night shift could also get pretty scary, especially after midnight when it was dark and quiet. I got spooked by some patients that all of the sudden appeared at the windows several times, too. Huhh...

Full Moon in May...

2007-06-10T20:38:00.000-05:00

... and I turned into a werewolf... NOT!! Hehehe...

Thursday May 31st was a full-moon night of the sixth month in the lunar calendar. It is the most important Buddhist holiday called Visakha Puja, the day Lord Buddha was born, enlightened, and died... all on the same day of the year. How amazing is that?

So we're off to the Keller Temple again. But since I also meant to bring Fanta to get blessed by the abbot, I'd rather go on the not so busy day so that we wouldn't bother him too much. I chose to go on Sunday before Visakha Puja, thinking that the temple would celebrate on Sunday after. Turned out, the temple was celebrating that Sunday we went. Doh! "Oh well, never mind. If the abbot is too busy, we can always come back later", I thought.

The alm giving was going on inside the service building when we arrived. It's normally done outdoor, but they had to move it indoor because of the rain. The service building wasn't big, and they probably didn't prepare for that, it was a little chaotic. The guests didn't (and probably couldn't) line up as they usually do outdoor, so the monks had to rove among the crowd. They were so kind that they kept checking around to make sure that they didn't miss anyone.

Then the service started. Another special thing they did that day was Pah-Paa. The purpose of this Pah-Paa was to help a Buddhist temple in Austin build their main hall. A lady brought a basket full of Thai desserts for sale. The desserts had no price. She suggested the buyers to clip however much they wanted to on a money tree, and that money tree would go towards Pah-Paa. Brilliant, eh?

'Pah-Paa' literally means Clothes of the Forrest. In the old time when the monks wandered around more than stayed in the temple, people who wanted to give them clothes to wear just hung them on the trees in the forest as if they were abandoned. Any monks who passed by could pick them up as needed. Nowadays, people bring to the temple these clothes along with other things, including donations. Pah-Paa is usually with a specific purpose, but it can also be without. The money trees (to represent the forest) are set up for anyone to clip the money on or place other things underneath. It's like a Christmas tree!!

We ran into P' Aey, the lady we met last time. She seemed to be close to the monks, so I asked her how I could ask the abbot to bless Fanta. She was very kind and told us to go see the abbot with her after lunch. There were a lot of food that day, but most of them were desserts. By the time we grabbed our plates, most dishes already ran out. The set nearest to where we were had only two things left - bone-in chickens and corn on the cobs, which Dave's braces wouldn't be able to handle. So, I snuck into another group and found some more food, including my ginger tofu - Yippee!! The papaya salad was spicy but very delicious. Even Dave who doesn't care for raw papaya ate it all.

Then all of the sudden, P' Aey got up and walked towards the monks. While I was wondering what she was doing, she asked the monks, "Those desserts, you don't eat, right? Can I have it?" Oh my Lord Buddha! Can we do that?!? I guess she can. Hahaha...

Thanks to P' Aey, we got to try a LOT of delicious desserts. Most of them were made by that dessert lady. I didn't buy any from her that day because it ran out so quickly, but I promised myself that I wouldn't miss it next time. When we finished lunch, I took a bowl to the kitchen and ended up helping another lady wash a huge pile of dishes. It must have been a magic dish pile... No matter how many we washed, the pile was still the same size!! I had to excuse myself before it was done because I had to catch the abbot with P' Aey.

While doing the dishes, that lady saw my wedding ring and said...
Her: "You're married?"
Me: "Yes, ma'am."
Her: "Ah... If you weren't, I'd send you to the beauty contest..."
Me: "..."

When I researched about the Keller Temple, I found an article about interviewing one of the senior monks in Thailand. He mentioned that there were quite a bit of angels at this temple. They came and asked for his teaching during his visit. I've never seen those angels, but it's a sin for a monk to lie, so I don't know... But there was something...

It rained all morning that day; sometimes light, sometimes heavy. As soon as we arrived at the temple, it rained cats and dogs. I couldn't help myself complaining, "Ohh... Our food is gonna get wet! Can't it wait until at least we get inside?" Suddenly, the rain stopped. Dave let me off and went to park our car. After he got inside the service building, the rain continued. Again I complained, "Oh no... How are we gonna get our car blessed?" When the service was over, it stopped raining and became sunny. The abbot could bless our Fanta with no problem. Was it just a coincidence? Or was it an act of the angels?

I was at first a bit shy about this car blessing. Luckily, a Laotian guy just bought a brand new BMW for his daughter (Me so envy... Oops! That's a sin, right?) and wanted it blessed too. When P' Aey told the abbot, he went in his room and came back out with gold leaves and some kind of wax. His secretary prepared a yellow flag for each car and the holy water. Dave carried the holy water and followed the abbot around though he still kinda wondered why him... The abbot put a bit of wax above the rear-view mirror and stick a gold leaf on top while he's quietly chanting some mantra. Then he sprinkled the holy water all over the cars and the owners. Dave got all wet again... I teased him that maybe the abbot saw an evil spirit in him... Hahaha

We donated some money to the temple and drove home happily in our blessed Fanta. After we got home, it rained again...

Baby Girl...

2007-05-21T20:52:00.000-05:00

Mom (Bonnie) and Jenna have been predicting that our baby, that is if we have one, would be a girl... no matter how many times we insisted that we'd prefer a boy. I guess their wish has finally come true.

Meet our baby girl,
Fanta Strawberry... Raishe!!

After my old Boo-Boo left, we spent a couple weeks looking for a new car. Gas is getting expensive... well, let me rephrase. It's already expensive, but it's very likely to go up even more. So, we looked into something with good gas mileage. Those cars are usually small, which in fact is totally fine by me.

Unfortunately, Dave has a hard time driving a small car because his legs are too long. Although this new baby would be mine, we'd rather get the one that he can also drive on the weekend because his Xterra drinks gas only a little bit less than camels drink water... So, anything that has better gas mileage but not too small would help.

I always wanted a Beetle because it's so cute - especially the white (which is not so white) convertible with cream color interior. But cuteness is one thing; practicality is another. I was quite disappointed to learn that its gas mileage wasn't that much better than my Boo-Boo and that it didn't get that good a consumer review either. But even if otherwise, we couldn't buy it anyway. Or we might have to make a hole in the floor so that Dave's legs could stretch through... like Flintstone's car...

So, we started looking at the mid-size, and hybrid if possible. The Accord Coupe was my next target but Dave rejected it because of its being 2-door. His reason was that it wouldn't be convenient to put a baby seat in the back... Mannnn, we don't even have a baby! (... yet!) Anyhow, I was disappointed again to see this year's sedan. It's... ugh... No wonder I don't see as many of them on the street as the older models. We also noticed there were very few hybrids on the lot. The salesperson admitted that they didn't sell many because their hybrid still have problems. We left with no intention to go back.

Everybody said Toyota was the leader in making hybrids, so we stopped by to check them out. To be honest, I personally like Honda better than Toyota. Don't ask me why; it's like I prefer Nikon to Canon... just like that. We found their Prius pretty attractive. It's cute... not Beetle cute, but more of a futuristic cute. And its lovely 60/51-mpg gas mileage really knocked our socks off.

But... driving Prius is really, really weird. Its steering wheel is a bit small, and its front panel is different. The transmission is on the front panel instead of beside the driver's seat. And it has only forward and backward, so you'll have to push a separate button to put it to Park position. Backing up is the hardest part. Its high rear and small windshield make it almost impossible to see anything behind the car. That pretty much forces the rear camera to be a must-have option, which brings its price higher than it already is for the car its size.

Getting used to all those is probably all it takes. But the (same old) problem is that it's still too small for Dave. It looked like he's driving a go-cart! Okay, maybe not that bad, but his arms and legs seemed pretty awkward driving it. Moreover, its interior wasn't that impressive. I think it could have been better with that price. So, we had to pass on the Prius despite its head-over-heel gas mileage.

Then Dave mentioned to the salesperson that he wanted to see the Camry. At first, I was like... Oh nooo!! Not the Camry!! I know I'm not that young, but... that's like an old dude car!! (I was picturing the previous year's Camry.) But I completely changed my mind as soon as I saw how it looked like. The design changed a lot from last year. It looks more sporty... kinda like Lexus. I have to admit that I fell in love with it at... uh... hello? Hahahah... Anyway, we found out later that this year's Camry uses exactly the same frame and very similar body to Lexus IS. Cool beans!

We decided to go for the Hybrid model. Though more expensive, we think it's worth the skyrocketing gas price. And since many options in the regular model became standard in Hybrid, we hardly had to add more options. Saved us another headache because choosing color was already tough. Well, actually it was me who couldn't decide. Dave had chosen from the beginning the Magnetic Grey, which I also liked. But then the more I looked, the more I liked the Magnetic Red... and the Ribbon Blue... and the Desert Sand... Before it got worse, I narrowed it down to the last two finalists - red with bisque interior as first choice, and grey with either bisque or ash interior as second.

They said it would take them 6 weeks to bring in the red one with the options we wanted, whereas the grey one would take only 10 days... So we (Dave - happily; me - not so willingly) picked the grey one and started negotiating. But as soon as it finalized, the remorse hit me. I just felt that at the price I'd be paying, I shouldn't have been pushed around to compromise my preference. The second choice suddenly wasn't good enough. So, I started whining about changing to the red one. Dave was mad but helped me search for it anyway. (He's cute like that... hehehe) I went nagging our sales guy, Tommy, to go get it or I'd take my deposit back and go somewhere else! What a psycho... but the customer (albeit psycho) is always right. Mwahahaha...

Our first salesperson was actually Waleed. He and his manager were very nice and seemed very honest. We didn't care if they actually were really good actors as long as they weren't pushy and could make us feel that we could trust them. But on the day we were ready to discuss the price, Waleed got tied up with another customer and thus turned us over to Tommy. Maybe he didn't think we'd go that far that day, but we could have come back later, too. Oh well...

Tommy Boy was far far away from the nicest person in the whole wide world (and neither a good liar). Sometimes I felt that he spoke faster than he thought, so I'm not quite sure if he was rude or was just honest. It was good in away, though. If Waleed were our salesguy, I probably felt bad nagging him and might end up with the grey color. But since it was Tommy, I made him work his @$$ off to get me the red one. And amazingly, he could get it in the matter of days. See? It didn't take 6 weeks like they said!

Our baby girl behaves very well so far. She's so adorable I couldn't help myself taking her out for a photo session. Quite a babe, isn't she?

Asia Fest '07

2007-05-11T14:27:00.000-05:00

It was such a hot and humid day when we went to the 4th annual Asia Fest with Tang and Pop. The "Fest" was smaller than we expected, but there were quite a bit of interesting shows on the stage. The kids in colorful costumes were really cute. Most of them went barefooted on the stage, which was fully exposed to the sun... and was in black... We could feel their pain just by looking at their facial expression. But as much torturing as it was, the show must go on. What a spirit!

The Lion Dance was always fun... although too short. The girl who danced it, she does Kung Fu and manipulates the sword as well. So, don't you even think about messing with her.

What I hoped to see and photo was the Japanese Drum Show, but it was the very first program and we got there too late. Bummer...

The food there was a little bit disappointed. There were only two vendors that sold real food, and one of them couldn't get it going because the food temperature didn't meet the requirement. So, the Chinese BBQ dominated the whole fair. They tasted good, but it was just so plain... I got an idea. Why don't we join them next year? Thai food is gonna rule! Note to self - Check with the Health Department about the vendor license.

It's Friday, and I'm dead tired. So many things going on with me these days. But I can't use it as an excuse not to write much... or can I?

Hehehe... Of course, I can. I'll let the photos speak for themselves. Just click away and enjoy. To see more descriptions on my Flickr, place the cursor on a thumbnail and then click "Photo Link".

Making Merit...

2007-05-04T22:01:00.000-05:00

I'd been wanting to go to the temple since our birthdays, but we got busy with our Chinese New Year's party and put it off. And it ended up being put off... and off... and off... As Songkran approached, I started nagging Dave again about going as our moms' birthdays were in April. We planned on going on Saturday 14th with Tang and Pop, but I got too tired. Plus the big storm Friday night made us unable to go shopping for food and other stuff we wanted to bring for the monks. So we had to put it off once again...

Then I got that car accident right after. Punishment? I don't know. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but it did make me feel like being chased by evil spirits. I begged (or forced?... alright, maybe threatened...) Dave to go to the temple for real this time.

It probably isn't fair to make a Catholic go to the Buddhist temple when I don't go to church myself. Well, I wouldn't mind if Dave wants me to, but he never tries because he isn't a church-goer either. I thus thought at least he gets to be closer to heaven by going to the temple with me. Since Christianity and Buddhism (and supposedly all other religions) alike teach people to be good, I believe God and Jesus wouldn't mind. One episode of South Park even mentioned that Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Muhammad, and Lao Tsu were actually part of the "Super Best Friends." Hahaha... Okay, maybe the way they depicted them was a bit malapropos, but hey... at least the moral was right.

We went shopping for Sungkatan items. Many believe that they must be given to at least four monks to be complete. But man... Making these boxes isn't cheap. Each box costs about $30! So Dave and I each gave only one box. It's the thought that counts, isn't it?

'Sungkatan' is offering daily necessities to the monks but not any monks in particular. It is considered a better way of giving because not only does it teach us to be generous, but it is also more beneficial. Sungkatan goes to any monks to whom it can be more useful than to others who may not need them at the moment.

In Thailand, traditionally, ten Sungkatan items - e.g. soap, razor, toothbrush, toothpaste, detergent, medicine, stationaries, herbal tea, umbrella, bathing clothes, dining-wears, uncooked rice, herbs and spices, and so on - are nicely arranged in a yellow bucket and then covered with plastic wrap. Any number of buckets can be offered to the monks at a time. But many things have changed. The number of items changed, the items can be whatever useful for the monks, and other kinds of containers can substitute the buckets. All to better fit the monks' needs and people's convenience.

But the thing is a lot of people do this. I noticed that many of these boxes ended up on the shelf for re-sale to people who wanted to do Sungkatan but didn't have time to arrange the boxes themselves. I totally understand that trading excess for money that can be used towards the ongoing projects would benefit the temple more, but now I'm thinking why the boxes. Wouldn't it be better to spend that money on something else that can do more than sitting on the shelf?

Back to our temple going... Wat Buddharatanaram is located in Keller and therefore a.k.a. Keller Temple or Wat Keller. It was built by the Buddhists in Keller and DFW area and is one of the first six Dhammayutti temples in the States. The monks were invited to stay here to teach Buddhism to the Buddhists and the enthusiasts. Many of them are from the northeastern part of Thailand and can speak Thai and Laotian (and English for some of them). That and their practice similar to that of the temples in the northeast probably are the reasons this temple attracts a lot of Laotian Buddhists. In fact, there are more Laotians than Thais; a lot of times this temple is mistakenly called Laotian temple.

'Dhammayutti Nikaya' is one of the two orders within Thai Theravada Buddhism. It is said that Dhammayutti Nikaya is more strict and emphasizes more on practicing than Maha Nikaya order, which is said emphasizing more on studying. I don't know Buddhism deep enough to say if that is a true statement, so I'd better not say too much. But, by the way, I just personally think that studying and practicing must be done together to be enlightened. So why separate the two?
Okay, I shut up now...

Their morning ritual actually starts with really early meditation (that I've never made it to... hmmm). But the part most people usually attend is the 11 am lunch offering and the morning chanting. After the monks greet and welcome the guests, they'll preach or discuss Buddhism a little bit (or a lot if they have time). Then the guests and the monks together pay homage to Lord Buddha. After that, the food offering starts with the guests chanting to declare their intention and ask the monks to receive the food and other things, including Sungkatan. The monks will chant to acknowledge it and bless the guests. The merit everybody acquires that day is then shared with other beings - living and dead alike. While the monks are eating, the guests will do their morning chanting and then eat the monks' leftovers. It's like a happy ending... especially for us.

We arrived at 10:45, which normally would be in time for the service. But surprisingly, a lot of guests were already there; and what's worse was that the chanting already started! As we quickly got into the service building, I asked a lady what went on. She said that three new monks were ordained earlier that morning. Ahhh... That explained everything. This joyous occasion is quite rare for Thai temples in non-Buddhist countries, thus many people wanted to witness it. And they didn't just go there; most guests brought food for the monks, as did I. So it became a feast!

Keller Temple is one of the few temples that pay much attention to seniority. All dishes must first be offered to the abbot. He will take some and then pass them on to his subordinates. Considering the amount of food people brought today, this process could take quite a while. They had to start the service earlier so that the monks could finish their lunch by noon, as it's one of the monks' 227 rules.

Though we missed the first chanting, we were still in time for the blessing. We thought of bringing the boxes back some other time, but a lady encouraged us to go ahead and give them to the monks anyway. So we did; couldn't back off now, could we? That would make it more awkward than it already was. Hahaha... The food offering went on and on... and on... I looked around and felt underdressed. The Laotians, especially the ladies, all dressed up very nicely... making Thais look like a bunch of bums.

While the monks were eating (finally...), we did the morning chanting. I remember Dave being so bored because he had no idea what we said. But the fact is that it's mostly in Pali, and I can still chant understanding not even half of it. So, I asked Tang and Pop to borrow the chanting book from the temple and was going to put it in English for him - not translating it, but putting it in Karaoke sort of thing. I know he wouldn't chant along, but at least he'll have something to look at and be less bored. But then we found out that the temple also has the books in Roman-alphabetted Pali. Man, I'm telling you. Trying to read it was more fun than I thought.

All the food was set on the table outside the service building instead of inside like on other days. Some of those food Dave didn't care for, and some of those he wouldn't even try. But to me, I just had to try everything; my bowl ended up looking like those of the monks. As we ate, we noticed a group of pretty ladies cooking something. So we went checking it out. What they were making was called Water Lilly cookie. It's pretty interesting the way it was made.

Before we left, we walked around the temple and found another neat thing. It was the cement molded into the angels and other different shapes. Looks like they'll be used to decorate the back gate, which is under construction, and maybe other buildings as well.

It was another beautiful day. Hot, but beautiful... and yummy!! (And hope the evil spirits are gone...)

What if...

2007-04-23T22:29:00.000-05:00

Have you ever been in a trouble so big that made you question yourself... What would have been had you not done something? What if you did otherwise?

Last Monday was such a typical Monday. It started off with the "How was your weekend?" and "What did you do last weekend?" kind of conversations, and then works started hitting like crazy. I took a quick break to pick up lunch from across the street and back to work. In the afternoon, I would normally prepare a report for Tuesday conference call with a client, but it was getting late, and I also needed to make a stop for gas before heading home. "That's alright", I thought, "I could log in from home to finish the report tonight."

I stopped at Costco for gas and a couple more things. While in the store, I browsed around to see if there were anything I could use for dinner... and of course, I went sidetrack a little bit. In the end, I only got the stuff I needed and some nice asparagus. Everytime I swung by Costco after work, unless I needed something from the Asian market, I usually took the tollway home to avoid the notorious traffic on Park Blvd. But that day for some reason I decided to take the local route.

Not until half way home did I realize how late it was, so I thought about getting a take-out instead. As I was approaching the traffic light, I moved to the rightmost through lane because the line was shortest and then noticed La Madeleine. I thought about getting something from there but then changed my mind. Their bakery is always good, but their dishes are quite expensive for a self-service, semi-fastfood kind of place. I always wonder why people (including ourselves) keep going there. Maybe it's just because it's "French"?

Anyway, sounded normal so far, right?

...

Things started to go wrong when a maroon QX4 came from nowhere and slammed right into my rear on the right side. It happened so quickly, but it really felt like a slo-mo. I could see the glass from my back window that was shattered into small pieces flying all around. The steering wheel appeared closer and closer until it touched my forehead... (or more precisely, my forehead touched it). The impact was so hard that my car spun and hit the other two cars - the Altima in front of me, and the Ranger to my left. Miraculously, all I had were a keylime-size bump on my forehead, a couple bruises on the legs, and sores in the neck and shoulder.

The QX4 then swerved into the right-turn lane, bounced the curb, and collided into a white Sorento that also stopped in the traffic two or three cars ahead of me. That forced the Sorento to run into the Accord in front, and the Accord into the Element, which was the very first car in line. Total cars involved - 7. That QX4 driver claimed that he blacked out from his diabetic condition. But some people believed otherwise; they said they could smell alcohol from him. Even the police suggested in the report that he be charged with a DWI.

I surely was upset. Dave and I have been thinking about buying a new car, but not now... and not like this. What's worse was that I just filled up my car, and the gas isn't cheap nowadays... Crap!

So, what if I took the tollway home? What if I didn't move to the right lane? What if I made a turn into La Madeleine to get dinner? This might not have happened... maybe? I don't know... I really don't know. I could play these what-ifs all I wanted, but it wouldn't make anything better, would it? So I thought of it this way - Maybe something bad was meant to happen to me.

Had I taken the tollway, where every car went much faster, I might not have been this lucky. Bump and bruises might not have been all I got. I might as well have been... dead.

Had I stayed in the middle lane, where there wasn't an extra right-turn lane for that car to swerved into, the impact would have been direct and harder. If the airbag deployed, I would have had cuts in my face and arms. But if not, the injury might have been even worse.

Had I decided to go get dinner at La Madeleine, or had I not spent as much time at Costco, or had I stayed back to finish my report... I can't think of anything that might have happened. The office collapsed? Costco on fire? La Madeleine exploded? Okay, probably not likely... But if I weren't there when all this mayhem happened, it would have been the Altima that got hit, and she might not have been as lucky as I was. Maybe, I had saved her life!

You may think of me as an extreme optimist, but honestly I'm nowhere near it. It's just that, in some situations, there's nothing I can do better than positive thinking. You can also try it sometimes; it may help you find peace and happiness.

P.S. That evening, we ended up eating at La Madeleine anyway. Doh!

Songkran with Mavericks...

2007-04-15T23:31:00.000-05:00

It's Songkran time!!

'Songkran' is a Thai word derived from 'saMkrAnti' in Sanskrit, which means the passage of the sun from one sign into another. According to the solar calendar, the year begins with the entry of the sun into the sign of Aries, which is when the sun passes the equator and begins its northern course. This day "is considered auspicious and is celebrated with social, cultural and religious performances."
- VISUVA SANKRANTI; Festival of India

In Thailand, although Jan 1 is the official New Year's day, this traditional New Year's day (which is now fixed on Apr 13) is still most widely celebrated. Three consecutive days starting from Apr 13 to Apr 15 are declared national holidays and, thus, make Songkran the largest festival of the year. Water plays a big part in the celebration. Religiously, Thai people wash the Buddha images with gently perfumed water for prosperity and good luck. Socially (and traditionally), a small amount of water is poured on others' hands to greet, bless, and show respect. Young peeps, however, would just throw water into each other for fun and also to relieve the unbearable summer heat. That has become the fun water fight, which is what most tourists are familiar with.

Songkran actually fell on last Friday (13th?? Ooohh... superstitious...) It was also my mom's birthday, so we gave her a call to wish her a happy birthday, good health, and prosperity (so she can share with us... Muahahah!!). She asked Dave 'Sa-baai dee mai ka?' (How are you?), but he was too shy to reply in Thai. He passed the phone back to me, and while mom and I were giggling about it, he quietly said 'Pom sa-baai dee krub' (I'm doing fine). He's cute like that...

The Dallas Buddhist temple hosts a Songkran festival annually. We went there a couple years ago, and it was so much fun. Besides the alms and the New Year's service, there were stage shows, a lot of food, and of course water fight. Carrying big water gun was pretty obvious to the kids that we didn't mind getting wet. As soon as we stepped in the playground, they screamed 'Oy!! Farang!!!' And Dave became their main (and big) target from that second on.

But we didn't make it this year, because we had made a prior commitment, which was as much important and as much fun. It's to go see our Mavs beat the no.2 rival, San Antonio Spurs!! Woohoo!!

The game time was changed from noon to 2:30 in the afternoon. So, we decided to get together with Pook and Tom at Hooters for lunch. Lucky us; we got there early enough to be able to find a parking spot. The fee was only $5 all-day, comparing to $20 at the stadium, and yet it wasn't too far to walk to the game. Sweet! Saved us $15 each car! A lot of Mavs fans also lunched here that day. I bet they all were there just for wings... just like us... (Y...eah... Right!!)

Pook said she was going to wear her Nowitzki home jersey, which made me envy. I begged Dave to take me to the fan shop to get a Devin Harris jersey, but he said no. I know it's expensive for a shirt, but... but it's not just a shirt! While I was pouting, he promised to let me have the one Sim gave him on his birthday a couple years ago. Hooray!!! But man... his jersey was sooo big. If I didn't wear another shirt inside, you can see my belly button through the arm holes! Pook helped me tie a knot at the bottom of the jersey, and it worked just fine. Too bad it wasn't Devin Harris, but that's alright. Nowitzki would do. (Arrrgghhh!!! Pook's so killing me for saying this!)

After lunch, we headed for the American Airline Center. There were a lot of fans hanging out outside the southeast door.

But there weren't that much to see, so we went inside. Amazingly, there were more Spurs fan than I thought. The guy in front of us kept shouting, "Go, Spurs, Go!", and Dave shouted back, "Spurs, Go Home!" (but of course after they were a bit away from us... hahaha) Our seats were in the nose-bleed section on the third floor... We had to be careful not to get too much excited, or our noses would really bleed. Just before the warm-up, a huge muscular Spurs fan in Tim Duncan jersey walked in. He started talking to other people around there, looking for other Spurs fans, and amusingly taunting us Mavs. Ah... This game is gonna be fun!

The Spurs went in first for the warm-up. I felt bad for them when they were booed by the audience, but oh well... Their fans booed us at their home as well, so I guess that's fair. Then the Mavs went in, and the fans started getting crazy. The most hair-raising moment had got to be the team introduction. As if being such a star-struck myself wasn't enough; the thrilling announcement, mind-blowing lights, heart-pounding music, breathtaking dancers, and the Rowdy-Proud-and-Loud cheering noises really made my adrenaline level skyrocket.

And the tip-off began. Tim Duncan got it... Darn!

We were only a couple points behind from the start. The fans went nuts when we caught up in the 2nd quarter... before falling behind again.

While the team were regrouping, our mascots Mavs - Man and Champ - came out and did some amazing stunts.

At 1:04 minutes left in the 3rd quarter, Duncan was ejected from the game to everybody's surprise. I screamed in joy with the crowd too, but honestly, I had no idea what just happened then. The second T he was given turned out to be very debatable, and caused the referee Joey Crawford to be suspended until the end of 2007 playoffs. Personally, I don't think NBA was being fair. Suspending him for a few games or from Spurs games should be enough. What punishment did Duncan get for his trash talk after being ejected? Nothing.

But... Look who's happy! Hahaha...

Remember that (really) big Duncan's fan? He was so upset about the kick-out, he got up and took his Duncan jersey off. We were laughing at him for doing such, accusing him for not being a true fan. But he put on another jersey, which happened to be in Duncan's name still, only in different color. He then turned to other audience and laughed and taunted us some more. He's such an amusing guy despite his scary look.

We were still behind in the last quarter. During one of the time-out, a hilarious short movie 'Dirkinator' was played on the big screen.

At 1:15 minutes left in the last quarter, Dirk made a jump shot that tied the game for the second time. We could keep ourselves in the seats no longer.

From that point, Buckner added two more points from his layup, and Stack added one more from the free throw. Devin, last but not least (because it was Devin... Hehehe), added another two from the free throws. The final score was 91-86. And goodness, my Devin scored 21 points total!!

So happy, everybody gets free taco!

And of course, any good game must be concluded with a traffic like this. I heard somebody (maybe young... and drunk) screaming, "Let me out of here!!"

It was such a beautiful day... beautiful game... and beautiful company. I just couldn't think of any better word than Mark Followell's
"BEE-EEE-EH-YOOOO... TIFUL!!"

Easter Eggs...

2007-04-08T22:09:00.000-05:00

Although deemed the most important holiday in Christian year, Easter doesn't seem to be the day for party kind of celebration like Christmas. I guess it's one of the true holy days, for there were big celebrations at every church. The huge church nearby our house conducted five or six services today, including the 6:30 am "Son Rise" service, which at first I thought it was "Sunrise."

'Easter' is derived from the name of an Anglo-Saxon goddess of dawn, Ēostre. Eosturmonath, or the month of April in modern, was named after her, for spring is considered dawn of the year. Easter Sunday is between late March and late April of every year. Christians believe that it was the day Jesus resurrected from his death by crucifixion.

Dave said that his mom took him to this early morning service at the beach when he was young. I asked him how it was, but all he said was, "It's too early." Oh...

The egg hunting is still unclear to me. I've seen chocolate eggs and plastic eggs filled with candies and toys. So does anybody still use real eggs? If so, what do kids do with them? I hope they don't eat them all. So please, if you know the answer, tell me, tell me.

We didn't paint any eggs, but we did eat some...

I felt like having breakfast at IHOP, but Dave pointed out that it might be very crowded with people coming from churches. He then suggested Tony's Cafe, a mom-and-pop place serving American home-style meals. We had a feeling that it might be closed for Easter, and it really was. So, our next target was Chubby's.

And they're open! Woopeee!!! We got biggg glasses of orange juice while looking at the menu. I remember my first visit here; I was actually craving for a good old-fashioned hamburger, but I ended up ordering the chicken-fried steak instead after browsing their menu. I wasn't disappointed at all. Inside its crunchy crust was juicy and tender steak. The gravy that topped it was creamy and tasty. It wasn't too salty like at some other places.

Though irresistable, I wanted to try other things. So, I had to strict myself only to the breakfast pages. My goodness! Everything looked awesome. French toast platter first caught my eyes. Then there was pancake breakfast combo... and Huevos Rancheros... and...

... Omelette! They had several kinds, but I chose the Chubby's house omelette, which was stuffed with sausage, bacon, tomato, onion, and cheese. It tasted pretty good though the eggs weren't as soft and fluffy as IHOP's. Since Dave just made hashbrown on Saturday morning, I chose to have grits to come with the omelette. It was quite bland by itself but better once mixed with the butter they gave on the side. I also had toasts, which, frankly, I could do better. But the basket full of jam was pretty neat.

Dave had scrambled eggs with bacons and hashbrown. The bacon strips were much bigger than IHOP's, and they were pretty generous on those, too. Awesome! He chose to have biscuits with his plate, and that made me very jealous. Not only did it look so delicious, but it was served with the gravy! The same gravy I loved! He let me dip my toasts in the gravy, though. But I wanted more... So, note to self -- Don't bother getting the toasts next time. Get biscuits!

Being sooo stuffed, our breakfast became brunch. We also saw in the refrigerator different kinds of pies, all loaded with either whipped cream or meringue. Even Guidelive.com highly recommened those. Too bad we were too full for it. Next time, next time...

While we were waiting for our food, Pook called to see if we wanted to go see Blades of Glory. Dave didn't really want to see it (He said it was gay movie...), but I dragged him along anyway. It was hilarious yet silly as expected. Some parts of it were so funny that I laughed so hard my tears dropped. Anyway, we thought the movie maybe worth renting and watching at home but wasn't really worth the ticket price. Man... We hadn't been to the movie theatre for so long. The $6.50 matinee price shocked us a little.

There are few upcoming movies that we thought we'd definitely see. Spider-Man III is a must; Shrek the Third, and the new Pirates of the Caribbean also look great. The new Fantastic Four and Adam Sandler's Chuck and Larry seems good also, but we may wait until they come out on DVD (or even cable TV). Hahahaha...

Ooh... I can hear those easter chicks saying, "cheap cheap cheap..."

Ka Moo... Five-Spiced Pork Stew

2007-04-01T23:18:00.000-05:00

Ka Moo... doesn't have anything to do with cow as it sounds like at all. It's actually Thai word that literally means 'pork leg'. This Five-Spice pork stew is one of the most popular fast food dishes in Thailand. It's certainly not fast to cook, but what we do is pre-cooking it and just putting it on rice to your order. You can choose any combination of meat, fatty skin, intestine, feet, and (before it sounds more disgusting... hahaha) hard-boiled egg. But as you can see, this dish can be very unhealthy; so eat it at your own's risk.

Personally (and therefore my apologies if I offend anyone), I don't care for the intestine and the feet. I used to like the feet, though. It's so fatty and so soft that it almost melts in your mouth when you suck it off the litle pieces of bone. However, I completely lost my appetite for the feet after my first attempt to cook them. They looked sooo disgusting, sooo scary... disgusting scary.

It used to be a love-hate thing when I cooked this dish. Love to becase it's delicious, but hate to because the stove-top always got very messy and that I had to keep an eye on it while simmering for hours after hours. Then I finally discovered how handy the Crock-Pot could be, and now cooking this stew is no-more-fuss. Lovely!!

This recipe makes very large portion that can feed 12 hungry people. As many of you might already know, I don't measure when cooking. The following measurements are just estimates, so adjust it as you see fit.

MARINADE
- 1/4 cup Honey
- 1/4 cup Light soy sauce
- 1/4 cup Oyster sauce
- 1 teaspoon Five-spice powder
- Pepper; freshly crushed

STEW
- 7 lbs Pork picnic shoulder with skin (or without for healthier... or the pork shank for uh... unhealthier)
- 12 Dried shiitake mushroom; washed, and soaked in warm water
- 3 10.5 oz Sour mustard greens; sliced about 1/2 inch thick
- 12 Eggs; hard-boiled and shelled
- 1 + 2 tablespoons Five-spice seasoning powder
- 5 Star anises (leave out if not available)
- 3 Cinnamon sticks (leave out if not available)
- 10 Peppercorns
- 1/2 cup Light soy sauce
- 1/2 cup Oyster sauce
- 4 pieces (total about 3.75 oz) Palm sugar (can be substituted with 1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed)
- 3-4 cloves Garlic; minced
- 3 tablespoons Vegetable oil
- 12 stems Cilantro

- Mix together all marinade ingredients. Coat the pork and marinate for at least 4 hours... overnight would be great. Discard the liquid when done.

- Fry garlic in oil until golden brown. Mix in 1 tablespoon of five-spice.

- Brush the mixture all over the pork.

- Broil the pork in the oven for 15 minutes or until brown, but not cooked through. (This one is a little bit burnt... eheheh ^^")

- Put the garlic mixture leftover in the Crock-Pot; add more oil if necessary but not too much. Mix in 2 tablespoons of five-spice, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and palm sugar (broken into small pieces, and don't worry if they don't dissolve). Add peppercorns, star anises, cinnamon sticks, shiitake mushroom, and cilantro.

- Add the pork to the Crock-Pot.

- Add water to just cover the pork. Turn the Crock-Pot on low and leave it for 14 hours; or on high for 10 hours. (Reduce time when cooking smaller portion.)

- Rinse the mustard greens in cold water three times. Then boil and discard water twice. This will get rid of excessive sourness and can be prepared in advance and refrigerate. Set aside.

- At the last hour, check the flavor of the stew and season as needed. Scoop out some liquid to mix with the mustard greens. Bring the greens to boil and then simmer until soft.

- Add eggs to the Crock-Pot. Turn them half way after a while for even color.

- To serve, use wide blade knife to flatten the pork a little bit and then slice. Half the eggs. Serve with steamed rice, mustard greens, and some cilantro. Sprinkle some chili vinegar on top... Yummy!!

Spring Is Here...

2007-03-28T23:48:00.000-05:00

Yeyyy!! It finally rained for real after a whole week of acting as if it would but didn't. As much as I miss the sunshine, we desparately need it because it's been so dry lately. We've been on level III water restriction since June last year. Last week they relaxed it from allowing the lawn springlers to run only once to twice a week. But that's not gonna be enough during our harsh summer. Hopefully we'll get more rain to restore the water level in Lake Lavon by then.

But let's not think about the summer heat for now. Spring just started, and I'll enjoy every bit of it. The gentle weather makes it a perfect time to work in the yard. Seeing plants awakening is quite amazing and just feeling good.

We can tell that spring season has arrived when Callery Pear blossoms. After the tree loses all its leaves, its flowers blossom before the new leaves expand and are thus very showy. It is said to be a humdrum due to overusage in Texas landscaping, but I don't think so. Some streets that grow a lot of them look very beautiful in blooming season, very much like the scene from the famous Hanami in Japan. Alas, the flowers smell really weird. I think it smell like dried dog pee.

'Hanami' (花見 - 'Flower Viewing') is a Japanese tradition that people go out to picnic and watch Cherry Blossoms at the parks in spring. I've never been to one, but I heard that some parks could get so crowded that people would have to go reserve their spots since early morning.

Chinese Fringe Flowers are very showy as well. The shrub grows quite fast, so we have to keep it in line. I normally used a pruner to trim it, but Dave wasn't as patient. One day when I didn't look, he just chainsaw massacred it... It looks kinda ugly now, but all I can do is to swallow my tears and wait until it grows back. Of course, Dave isn't allowed to come near it anymore.

But he can do this. The Purple Heart is a real low-maintenace plant that you can count on its coming back every year. In winter it'll just dry out and blend in with the mulch or dried grass. You can easily rake it all out; no pruning required. The new leaves will pop out from underground as it enters spring season. Then it'll thrive through summer.

Daylily is another plant that dries out during winter and grows back in spring. These used to be in the front flower bed, which was turned into a tulip bed last year because I thought daylilies were dead. But when I found its bulbs as I prepared the bed for tulips, I dug them up and planted it in the backyard. They didn't flower last year because they were still weak. Hopefully we'll see some this year.

Liriope also builds new leaves every spring, but the old leaves don't completely dry out. So, you'll need to cut them short before or as soon as the new leaves start for fresh and clean look. I had to do it the hard way for the past two years because I let the new leaves grow too long. That made trimming old leaves difficult and very time-consuming. Dave wanted to cut them all with the weed eater, saying that wouldn't kill it. But what about the brown end on the leaves?!? Geez... Men...

I planted a couple of yellow Asiatic Lilies in this corner last year. Disappointed by the fact the the flowers bloomed only once and didn't even last long in the warmer weather, I didn't even care if it would come back or not. But it did. So I decided to leave it be and planted the Azalea that I planned to plant in this corner in the pot instead.

That pot had Jasmine that was killed last winter by the frost. Eheh... It was my fault, too, being lazy to shelter it. Anyway, when I grabbed the pot, I was surprised to see green shoots coming off the soil. Coolio! Jasmine has been proven hardy! So I planted it in the ground and hoped for sweet fragrant blossoms again this summer. Ooh! I just realize that the spot I planted it doesn't get as much sun as Jasmine likes. Oops!

I learned from Fahsai that Roses need a hard pruning at the end of winter. She said that I might feel terrified doing it the first time because it's basically ridding everything but the stems less than two feet tall. But they were so ugly at the time that I didn't really care if they died. But they turned out to like it and grew even prettier. This picture was taken only a week ago; Now they're all covered by the new leaves.

Dusty Miller is a pretty hard-headed one. Winter didn't affect it at all, as it stayed the same as it was before it got cold. It takes the summer heat surprisingly well, too. If you want it to grow big, you'll just need to occasionally trim it. But I want them stay small in the flower bed, I tried hard-pruning them. They didn't seem to mind.

I had a real hard time growing Spearmints from the seeds. I gave up and finally bought a small one from the nursery after my many attempts failed time after time. Not only did it survive the frost, now it bacame a jungle. So, don't be surprised if I talk nonsense (than ever?); it's just Mojito. Since they're so invasive, I have to slow it down somehow... right?

'Mojito' is a popular Cuban cocktail made of spearmint, sugar, lime, rum, and club soda. So refreshing, and you can just pass out even before you feel the alcohol rush.

We kept our Tom Yum garden inside the house to shield them from the coldness, but they still looked pretty... pathetic... (Even Dave's mom said so...) I thought they'd be all dead for sure, but surprise, surprise! I'm so happy to see them all alive; Kaffir Lime in particular. I was so bummed out when I thought it was gonna die because it kept losing its leaves. C'mon! We paid $30 for that little dude!

Rosemary has such a nice aroma that complements many recipes, including Dave's dad's yummy bean soup and my thanksgiving turkey. But I'm not sure which way it'll go and still keeping my fingers crossed. It doesn't look like it's gonna die, but it hasn't grown back much either. Please don't die; how can I make my turkey without you?... (Answer: Buy it from the store! Plant the new one!)

And these are all the new babies I just planted this spring. (Hahaha... This post is getting long, and I'm getting lazy. Sorry...)

Weeds...

2007-03-23T20:42:00.000-05:00

No, no, no... Not the kind of weed that gets you high. This kind, on the other hand, gets you down low... low to the ground.

Spring is my favorite season of the year. The weather is nice. The flowers bloom. The plants grow back. Unfortunately, so do weeds!!

Creeping Woodsorrel is the one I kinda like. We have a dry and shaded spot in the sideyard that grass can hardly grow. For some reason, this weed can flourish to cover that tough spot. Although it sometimes invades other spots, its roots don't run deep. That, and the fact that it's creeping, makes it quite easy to pull out. Its little yellow flowers are pretty, too.

Persian Speedwell is the one I hate to pull out because of its cute tiny blue flowers... which you can't see here. They don't seem to want to open, for it's been overcast for a week now. If you click on the picture, you'll see a few tiny blue buds - That's it. Check this website out to see how the blossoms look like. But the fruit... Now I know why the Japanese named it 'Dog Scrotum' (大犬の陰嚢 - 'Oo-inu-no-fuguri'). Teeheehee...

Dandelion has been our regular. Some people say it's edible. In fact, George Duran of Food Network's show, Ham on the Street, once made it into a couple dishes. I thought of trying but... You never know which of the neighbor dogs have been watering (or maybe feeding) them. Ewww...

Sow Thistle is in the same family as dandelion. They look almost alike, except that sow thistle's leaves have prickles, and it can grow really big if not pulled out early.

And I've been wondering why I don't see many dandelions and sow thistles in our yard this year. Look like they chose the other house to invade. Huhuhuh... I guess this neighbor never ever pulled them out. I get it when someone said, "My yard, my house. I'll do whatever I want." But truthfully, that's a really selfish statement when it comes to weeds. Those seeds can fly who knows how far. It's just not fair when most people have to work hard to keep their yards free from the mess caused by few people' negligence.

But this year we're heavily invaded by ~~Creeping Charlie~~ Henbit. Thanks to the water restriction the city put us on, our lawn became thin and perfect for it to thrive. When its flowers bloom, some unattended roadsides become pinkish, which is actually pretty. But let the roadsides be; They're too invasive to be left in our yard.

Crabgrass is a real bad guy. It comes back every year, and it can grow in a blink. If you don't pay attention, you'll see the whole shebang popping up all of the sudden. The bigger it gets, the harder it can be removed. I had a big one in the backyard last year, and pulling it out was such a pain.

But the biggest pain of all is the Hairy Bittercress (aka Jumping Jesus). Never had it been in our yard until this spring. When still young, their round leaves and tiny white flowers looked really sweet and delicate, so I left them alone for a little while. But, O spite! O hell! They matured so fast that the seed pods were ready to pop within a week. And they didn't just pop either. They exploded at the slightest touch, and they went in every direction, including my eyes... So bitter, just like the name says. Maybe even Jesus had to jump because of this pain in the @$$, too!

And this is how our weed-free yard look like, comparing the the neighbor's on the left. Now I know what it means by "It's always greener on the other side." They just don't work as hard as we do. Hahahaha...

Ow! Ow! Ow! My... back!!

New Orleans Mardi Gras: Day Two

2007-03-14T17:30:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, we decided to go uptown where many parades set out. We knew we'd miss the first one anyway, so we weren't in a hurry to go out. Lloyd told us to dig his mom's fridge for breakfast. Kara found in the freezer a big box of croissant but with last year expiry date. Of course, hunger won over scare. Well, it was in the freezer; Should be okay... (right??) Anyway, CJ refused to touch those croissants and was ecstatic when Lloyd found the biscuit dough. I thought about checking the expiry date, but on the second thought... I'd better not ruin CJ's heaven. Teeheehee...

After the stomach was fed, the army could march. Today we took the highway to New Orleans, so we got to see the 23.9-mile long Pontchartrain Lake Causeway running in parallel to our road. We drove pass the beautiful (but still under renovation) St. Joseph's Catholic Church and the famous Superdome that Louisiana worked very hard to get it renovated before the football season started. And their team had proven that they worth it. Go Saints!

We drove by Tulane and Loyola, two of Louisiana's renowned universities. They're located right next to each other on St. Charles Ave. Lloyd said he went to one of these two (which I couldn't recall which one), but he left for the pilot school before he graduated. That program was in Daytona Beach, and he was so excited about going there. Turned out, he ended up going to the new campus they just opened in the middle of nowhere. He said it was good, though, for he might not have graduated had he gone to Daytona.

It was difficult to find a parking spot today, but we weren't that out of luck. When we walked to Napoleon Ave., we were speechless. I read from the Internet that uptown was more family-oriented than at the Quarter, but I had no idea it'd be this much familty-oriented. In fact, it looked more like tailgate party than Mardi Gras. Kids were everywhere, and nobody minded them setting up the box seats in the very front row. Those box seats were pretty neat, though. It's basically a box with wheel attached to the top of the ladder, so it could be easily dragged here and there. When you find a good spot, just turn the box side up, and there you go. Your personal box seat!

We turned onto Magazine St. to find a better spot. There weren't many kids here, so it should be more fun. Don't get us wrong. We love kids... just not at this moment.

And it really was more fun here. There were more younger people who weren't kids doing some crazy stuff. But uptown crazy couldn't compare with the Quarter crazy. The sexiest girls we spotted were the two in cyan tank tops. Anyway, Dave felt better to show off his nudie beads he found while we're walking from our truck. It was pretty funny when that naughty little boy in orange sweater approached him and said, "Nice beads you got, Mister!" We were laughing our heads off but also hope his parent weren't around. Hahaha...

Then came the Krewe of Thoth. They named themselves after the Egyptian god whose head was of an ibis. He was the god of arbitration, magic, writing, and science.

The Krewe of Mid City was scheduled to start off at two o'clock, but none of them had been on time. We decided to go grab a quick lunch at Cafe Roule. Biggg mistake! Their order line was such a mess. More and more customers showed up, and the kitchen was nerve-wrecked. While Kara's chicken ended up given to the other girl, Lloyd's sandwich went MIA. Since it seemed to be out-of-sight-out-of-mind, Dave went ahead and waited right at the front counter to give them some pressure. And it worked! Our food finally came out. If I were to grade this joint, it would fail miserably. Service - Sucks; Taste - Don't know. Was so hungry it went down the hatch; Price - Not a bargain; Cleanliness - "Seriously Nasty" (Even their restroom sign said so.)

We missed the parade because of that ~~frickin'~~ place. So we headed back to put the beads in the truck and then sat at the icecream shop nearby. Since we didn't have the restroom priviledge like yesterday, this Creole Creamery had been our savior. We didn't use it for free, though. Every time we went in, we bought hot chocolate as our toll. It's quite cold out anyway. After the recoup, we went back for the evening parade. This one wouldn't pass Magazine St., so we had to look for a new spot on Napoleon Ave.

It was pretty hard to find a good spot, as most had already been reserved since in the morning. We picked a spot right on the intersection that they just blocked the traffice crossing Napoleon. To be honest, I didn't like our spot at all. Facing west made it impossible to take any picture before sunset. But what's worse was the people coming out from the bar. Everytime the police temporarily unblocked the intersection to let the crew member and securities go through, there always somebody trying to take our spot. And what could we say when they have a small kid or a mental challenged with them?

But I got really mad when somebody was oblivion enought to smoke right in the crowd. So, I coughed right in her hair. Muahaha... I am evil Homer! I am evil Homer!

Anyway, the Krewe of Bacchus finally arrived. They were named after the god of wine and fertility. This parade was huge and very colorful. Their theme this year was animation pictures. Can you name them all?

Then we went on crawfish dinner mission. But maybe it was too early in the season or already sold out to the crowd, we couldn't find any. The closest we found was Cooter Brown's. They didn't have enough to make seafood platter, but they could still make po-boys.

Po-boy is a type of sandwich made with french bread stuffed with meat or fried seafood, mayo, lettuce, onion, and tomato. It was originated from a restaurant in New Orleans that made it from old bread and gave it out for free or sold it cheap for the strikers (whom so-called "poor boys").

What's cool about this place was their beers that came from countries around the world. I had an oyster po-boy with Negra Modelo. I'm not a beer person, but I found this one pretty tasty. Dave had a crawfish po-boy with Half & Half, which was half Guiness and half lager pouring into two layers in the glass. After dinner, the beads sorting party began. We kept only the unique ones, kept some for Lloyd's mom, and throw the rest away. Lloyd did the cutest thing for his mom before going to bed. He spelled out "Welcome Home" with the beads!

As soon as Lloyd and Kara's dining chairs and all the bags were loaded in the back of the truck, we hit the road. The view in the daylight was much different from night time when we came in. We stopped for lunch at Mulate's, which is a well-known cajun restaurant in Breaux Bridge about two hours away from New Orleans. I asked Lloyd what the differences were between cajun and creole. He said that cajun was brought to Louisiana by the provincial French Canadian immigrants, and they adjust the recipe to suit local ingredients. It's lighter and more rustic than creole, which is thicker and creamier because it has more European influence. And I thought I liked cajun food all along... Not until I tried the real cajun did I realize that it was actually creole that I liked.

After that, I enjoyed the view behind my eyelids until we got home... So, no more pictures. Hahahaha.

Almost forgot about my new toy! It was the new Sony Cybershot DSC-W55. Though not even close to the top of the line, it was everything I wanted. I will mainly use my D70 still, but there are times that the big camera isn't so convenient. So I wanted a compact and affordable one that takes decent photos. $200 for 7 mp, and all the pictures from this trip were taken by this baby. Not bad, eh?

New Orleans Mardi Gras: Day One

2007-02-26T15:20:00.000-06:00

We hit the road on Friday afternoon. Lloyd said we wouldn't need the GPS because he knew the way, but I snuck it in the truck anyway. It's 8-hour drive; Lloyd probably needed to nap at some point. With GPS, we wouldn't have to bother him much. Besides, it tells not only the map but also the restaurants and gas stations, which we'd definitely need. Good thinking, right?

And the journey began! Since Lloyd was the local, we let (or more precisely, made) him lead the trip. He was an excellent tour guide and very patient with the rest of us. But he couldn't find us crawfish... Oops! Just kiddinggg!!

We stayed at our cool Judge Hedges' house in Slidell, half an hour north of New Orleans. She named her backyard Briarpatch as in the African American folktales, which was Lloyd's and his sisters' favorite when they were kids. The original sign inside the fence (which I forgot to take picture...) survived after Katrina hit the old house. The slate on the sunroom floor were popped out from the old house by Lloyd himself. There are still a lot more left, but he's been too busy to go get them. Maybe he's pretending... (Hey, I prolly would, too!)

Speaking of Katrina, Lloyd also took us to see his mom's old house that was destroyed. She decided to demolish the remainder but hasn't yet decided what to do with the land. It was pretty funny to see her campaign sign still there. We stayed there until Lloyd finished his beer. He's a kind of person who'd drink for anything. He even made us stop at the graveyard in the middle of the night to drink with his old friend... You should have seen how freaked-out Kara was. Hahaha...

Then we took off for New Orleans. There were still a lot of ruins along the road. Some were amazing; like that barge that somehow ended up on the roadside. But overall was pretty sad. The bridge that was supposed to replace the old one was deserted. We saw the tall bridge that served as a refuge for the people during the flood. Seeing the marks on the houses' front doors was the saddest part. Each mark tells you the date the house was searched, the number of people and animals rescued, and the number of deaths found. Sorry I don't have picture of those marks. I waited to get a good shot when our truck stopped, but there was none when it did. Anyway, I knew we had arrived New Orleans when I saw those big old trees on the roadside.

Our first stop was St. Louis Cathedral, the famous church located right behind Jackson Square adjacent to the French Quarter. The photo courtesy from www.helloneworleans.com on the left is probably what many people have shot or have seen from the postcards, magazines, or the web. So, I decided not to take it to break the trend... NOT!! Actually, I just couldn't because the gate was closed. Boohoo... But inside the cathedral was amazing; it's my first time seeing it.

We then walked the Bourbon Street through the Quarter. Being very concerned about us getting separated and/or abused in the the crowd, Lloyd walked so fast that the rest of us had to pay attention more to catching up with him than checking around. It was the fastest shooting I've ever made. Snap, snap, and snap; no aiming involved.

Watching the parades is free; you don't need to buy any ticket to see them, but that means you'll have to be in the crowd. We had no idea how crowded (and dangerous) it would be, so we decided to buy our convenience and safety. The Grandstand ticket through TicketMaster was much cheaper but sold out. We instead bought the tickets to the Chateau Sonesta Hotel stand, which I happened to find on the Internet. It's $60 per ticket for the whole day. Comparing to $10/day ticket + $25/night ticket + fee + shipping & handling from TicketMaster, it's not too bad. In fact, it wasn't bad at all as we also had the access to the hotel's restrooms if we needed to go, the lobby if it got too cold, and the concession stand if we got hungry. The raised stand was pretty much the same as second floor balcony, and it was located on the corner of Canal Street and Bourbon Street - the hottest spot anyone could have got. It really wasn't bad choice at all. If you look to go wild in the crowd, don't do this. But if you'll go conservative like we did, Chateau Sonesta is where to go. (Hey! Where's my commission?)

The Saturday's first parade, "Iris", approached as soon as we arrived the stand. I had to finish my jambalaya quickly. It was good, though.

Followed by the second parade, "Tucks" - one of the most bead-generous. They even threw the whole bag; one of those landed on Dave's forehead... Ouch!

We got so many beads that we think we'd better unload them into our truck during the break. Our parking spot was perfect. It was still early when we arrived, but we gave credit to Lloyd for the most part. He knew the back road to that spot near the Mississippi River. Most people would try to park closer to the Quarter, and not many knew about this one. Less traffic for us, woohoo! On the way back to the hotel, we stopped for beignets and cafe au lait at the famous Cafe Du Monde. I didn't have enough beignets... In fact, it'll never be enough.

We got back to the stand just in time for the most anticipated of the day, "Endymion." They were huge and colorful, and of course gave out a lot of beads. Capturing night shots was already difficult. The beads flying at 50 mph and the crowd fighting for them made it even harder.

But this is the float I liked best. Happy face in the front and sad face in the back. They both changed colors all the time.

There was a really cute girl dressed as sexy Rageddy Ann on the balcony. She got a lot of attention from the crowd, including Dave's. I saw her looking at Dave, too... $&^#@%&$#@!!

So, I didn't take her picture... Muahahaha... Anyway, she's in one of the weird looking pictures I experimented on. And I just have to add this transition to make them look weirder than weird. Hahaha...

Our day was concluded at the Red Fish Grill inside the Sonesta. Everybody looked red in their red lighting. Dave's iced tea was the prove that he wasn't drinking (after ten beers on the stand...), but the picture was blurry because of my Cosmo. Hahaha... It kinda sucked, though, because it was served on the rock, and I drank slower than the ice melted. I had Soup 1-1-1 and Shrimp Remoulade for dinner. Soup 1-1-1 was the soup samplers of Alligator Sausage and Seafood Gumbo, Redfish Court-Bouillon, and Soup of the Day. The Soup of the Day, broccoli cheese, was kinda boring, but the other two were awesome. The Shrimp Remoulade was the best dish I had during the whole trip. Dave also had Soup 1-1-1, but he paired it with the house salad. I bet mine was better. Teeheehee...

Valendi Gras...

2007-02-20T13:58:00.000-06:00

It's Mardi Gras - Fat Tuesday in French. Today is the day many Christians would party their ... off, for it is the last chance for excess before they go into Lent for 40 days. During Lent, they'll sacrifice something in preparation of Easter. I'm not quite sure what I would give up if I were a Christian. But since I'm not, I wouldn't worry about it and just party! Wahoo!

But wait... One of my New Year resolutions is to give up meats on Uposatha days, which are the Buddhist sabbath days that occur about once a week. I've been doing that and meaning to do it for the whole year. Man! That's more than 40 days!

Anyway, I called it Valdi Gras for a reason...

Dave don't give me flowers on Valentine's days. Although I still think from the bottom of my deepest brain fissure (which is not so deep) that it'd be kinda nice if he did, but really I wouldn't know what to do with them either. Flowers die, and I hate throwing them away when they die. Gifts from the loved ones are not supposed to be thrown away.

And he knows to please me in a different way. I came home from work and found his signature crab cakes nicely plated and waiting on the table. He also did all the dishes that night. I felt like a princess!

But that's not it. We went to Kara & Lloyd's house blessing party about two weeks ago and happened to talk about Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Then Lloyd came up with a pretty neat idea. He needed to return his dad's truck to his mom living in Slidell, about 30 minutes away from New Orleans. How about we all go to Mardi Gras and rent a minivan back?!? Then his mom had even better idea - "Since I still have your dining chairs and I won't be home, why don't you all go and stay at my house, pick up the chairs and then return the truck later whenever?" Going to Mardi Gras and not having to pay for the expensive hotel room; unless you live there, how could you beat that?!? We love Judge Hedges!

Although our trip expenses were not big, I get to go away from work. So, this is still my big Valentine's present. Not to mention my new toy I got right before the trip. Woohoo!

What's the new toy? Where are the pictures? All answered in the next episode.

Tagged... Again...

2007-02-06T01:28:00.000-06:00

... this time by Praew, with the topic of Five Things I Want to Eat in Thailand. Five! only!?! Man... That's tough. However, since we just went to Thailand last October, I'll cheat a little bit. How about five things I wanted to eat but didn't get to?

First... Khun Tim's northeastern food; that includes soft and steamy sticky rice, grilled pork on the stick, grilled chicken, papaya salad, grilled beef salad, etc. This place is not really a restaurant but a stall setup in front of Khun Tim's townhouse located inside one of the residential communities on Pattanakarn Road. It's one of a few roadside stalls that my mom doesn't mind getting food from, so there's no question about their cleanliness. But besides that, the food is awesome. What's neat is you can call in to make a pick-up order so you won't have to wait there. Or you can sit down at one of their few tables, but be sure not to go at peak lunch time as the wait (for the table and for the food both) could be very long.

M.K. Sukiyaki has been what I really wanted to eat, but unfortunately it isn't Dave's favorite. He thinks eating hot soup in as hot weather as in Thailand is crazy. One evening, we went pick up my dress in Siam Square and decided to eat out since it was almost dinner time. I asked Dave what he wanted, but in turn he told me to pick whatever I wanted, anything that I'd miss when we came back to Dallas. Whoaaa!!! How sweet of him! I was so excited I said straight away... "I wanted DooDee Noodle!!" (which was in fact a very very basic noodle shop...) I was sooo mad at myself. Dave is still laughing at me everytime we mention about that. The golden opportunity already knocked, and I just let it slip away. Why? Why? Why?

Silver Palace Dim Sum located on Silom Road. My dad used to take us there when I was young, and I still remember how good it was. The other place I went more often when I grew up was the Jade Garden at Dusit hotel since it was the same good but within walking distance from my work. Too bad they're no longer there, and I'm not sure if they were just closed or consolidated with another Cantonese restaurant downstairs. Dim Sum in Dallas isn't bad but isn't nearly as good, and I kept bragging about it until Dave felt the urge of trying it. Anyway, my parents decided to take us to the one in Radisson hotel, which was closer to the house. It was delicious yet not what we hoped for. They made each piece too big, so we got full before we could try more of different stuff. And I guess we were expecting different atmosphere - more of a crowded, noisy one with a lot of steamy carts being pushed around.

Pia's Fiery Spicy Clam in Samutsongkram province, my mom's hometown less than two hours away from Bangkok. We used to lunch there everytime we went visit grandparents or had a family gathering there. Forget the A/C; their breezy porch by the river is much nicer. The long boats passing by every ten minutes are loud but somehow quite pleasant. Besides the famous clam dish, I'd recommend spicy stuffed calamari, snapper fire pot, butter yellowtail and mango salad, shrimp cake, Tom Yum Goong (spicy prawn soup) with young coconut, and fried fish in sour curry hot pot. Oooh, I'm already drooling just thinking about it. Next time we visit Thailand, we have to go there. And while we're there, we have to go clam fishing and visit the beautiful King Rama II Museum and Garden, too.

Last but not least, Chinatown roadside food... not just one kind of food but everything on Yaowarat Road. Royal steamed bun, shumai, grilled squid, grilled meatballs, satay, sausages, fried chive dumplings, chui guay (rice cake with pork and cabbage toppings), grilled banana, grilled tapioca, roasted corn, chinese cakes, and many many more. Dad always brought my sister and me these yummies when he picked us up from school. I used to envy dad because his office was surrounded with all good food, and I started to dream about visitting the Chinatown. Then one day when dad got stuck in a late meeting, I asked him if I could go wait for him at his office instead of going straight home. It was my dream came true. Everything looked even better off the grill or steamer, and I ate so much that I couldn't eat dinner. (Mom wasn't very happy. Heheh...) When I took Dave and his family there, I thought that we could have bought a little bit of everything and shared among the five of us. Turned out nobody dared to eat anything from the street venders, so I got full having just the grilled squid and none else. By the way, Dave bought a couple kilos of mangosteens. Thought he'd wait until we got home to eat it, but no no. He cracked them with bare hands and sucked the juicy flesh up. He almost finished them all... while walking. Pretty talented he is!

That's all folks! Now I'm tagging...
1. Ao As promised... heeheehee
2. Aom How about five best thing you had from your trip?
3. Puu Hope you still remember some.
4. JJ Once again.
5. Wiwi Your blog has been idle for too long. ^^

Christmas...

2007-01-25T23:24:00.001-06:00

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... yeah, a whole month after the fact. My tail is getting heavy... (Huh? Click here to see what that means.)

"Din Pog Hang Moo" is one of several Thai proverbs about laziness. It literally means pig's tail (heavily) coated with dry mud. For Thais, pigs are not considered pet, so they never are clean and get to run around the house. Instead, they're most likely kept outdoor, and they walk around and sleep on the bare ground. When it rains, the ground becomes wet and muddy. Pigs don't care; In fact, they probably like it as wet mud keeps them cool. So the mud sticks around their hairy tails, and it will dry and harden and become magnet to new mud if the pig doesn't shake it off. As time goes by, it will look like a giant clump hanging on the pig's butt.

Basically, I've been procrastinating while my blogging materials pile up higher and higher. A huge ugly ball of dry mud is hanging on my rear now. It's getting hard to shake it off, but I'll try.

Well, let's get straight to the point.

It's the most wonderful yet dreadful time of the year. Wonderful is Christmas itself - time off from work, cooler weather, family gathering, the laughs and joy, beautiful songs, delicious feast, colorful decorations, and gift opening. Speaking of the gifts, here's where dreadful comes. I like shopping, but only when there's no pressure. Does this also happen to you? Or is it just me? When I merely looked around, nice things were all over the place. But they all somehow disappeared when I really need them; Why!?! And the crowd at the mall, too. It was almost impossible to find a parking spot or even a table at the food court.

Anyhow, we survived it this year. No fighting, woohoo! Our shopping and gift wrapping were done early, except Joshua's. We had a split decision between a mini basketball hoop and a baseball set. About a week before out flight, we finally decided to go with the hoop. (Yeah! Go Mavs!) Unfortunately, it couldn't be shipped in time for Christmas, so we had to get it from the store and take it with us. Since the box was too big, it had to be checked in. I asked Dave to buy me a rope to tie the box so that we could carry it. And then...

Me: So honey, did you get the rope?
Honey: Of course, I did. Eaaaaasy task!
Me: Coolio. Where is it?
Honey: Here.

Me: But... But honey... That's not a rope. I wanna tie the box, not the chicken...
Honey: Twine, rope... same thing.
...
And I married an engineer! Oh, pooh-pah...

Though, after all the fun, we found exactly the same hoop in Joshua's room as soon as we arrived. So, we ended up having to go exchange it with the baseball.

We gathered at Jenna & Todd's house in Columbia, SC this year as it's not quite convenient for them to travel with the two little doodles. Dad drove and arrived there before the rest of us. Dave and I flew in on Thursday morning, and mom in the afternoon. The Christmas tree was beautiful, as usual. We placed all the gifts under the tree and just enjoyed the rest of the day. Jenna made pot roast for dinner. It was very yummy... so I had to steal the recipe... Teeheehee...

Friday we didn't do much. Todd went to work, and the rest of the clan went shopping (of course). We went to exchange Joshua's present at Toys R Us. Thank goodness for that place because the kids were easily distracted by all the toys there, making it easy for us to sneak up getting the baseball set and pay and even put it in the trunk without them knowing it. Then we went to the mall as Jenna needed to get something I couldn't recall. We decided to have lunch there, which I wasn't quite sure if it was a good call. It was good in a sense that it was right there and we could choose whatever we liked because of the variety. But like I mentioned earlier, finding a table was like playing musical chair. Then I got to go for a round on the carousel with Micah and just realized that I was old. I'm telling ya; That thing was pretty dizzying... At dinner, mom made crab cakes, and it was oh so good.

The (grownup) boys went golfing on Saturday... so the girls went shopping... NOT! (Surprise, surprise!) We and the kids went out for a walk in the neighbourhood. Jenna also delivered gifts to her neighbours and friends. Most of them weren't home, so she left it at the front door. Micah started to fuss a little bit because he didn't have enough afternoon nap. I was nervous at first, but then I learnt how easily kids could be distracted. Anything would do, although it's as simple thing as little pink flowers or dandelions on the roadside... Even dead squirrel would do. (Oh, does it sound too cruel? Hahaha)

Micah: Mama takes too long talking to this neighbour. I'll go find Joshua.
Joshua: Micah! Look! I'm blowing dandelion!
Micah: Hah? Lion? This? But it doesn't roar...
(Mama shows up.)
Mama: Here, darling. I'll hold it for ya. Now blow!
Micah: Ppppooshhhh...
Mama: Hahaha, no no. Blow it like this, darling. Whoosh...
Micah: Oh!!... But Mama, there's none left for me...

I made spicy chicken coconut milk soup and crispy noodle with gravy for dinner that day. The Korean noodle was different from the kind I'm used to, but it also worked well. Everybody loved the soup, although Todd liked the noodle better. Speaking of which, I still have to send Jenna and Mom the soup paste. Oops!

The weather was very nice on Sunday. Joshua and Micah were allowed to open one gift each today. Joshua got a scooter and the whole protection set. Micah got a new blue trikes, but he was attracted to the scooter better. I tried to take pictures of Joshua wearing his helmet and protection pads, but he kept running away. So I had to pull some tricks I learnt years ago from Nikon class. I showed him how I captured him in the camera and said he could try it too.

Me: Joshua, can you make a funny face?
Joshua: Like... this?
Me: Hahaha... That's a boring face! (So why did I laugh??) Here, do like this, bleh!!
Joshua: Blehhhhhhhhh!!
(Hey, it worked, didn't it?)

While Dave and Todd prefered to stay inside, the rest of us had another outing at the playground across the street from the house. I met new friends - Savannah, Gia, Zack, and Hunter... and guess what? They're quadruplets! There were also Tema (the quadruplets' amazing nanny), Lucas (another neighbour kid), and Lucas' dad (whose name I didn't catch). Jenna brought two bubble bottles, and the kids (especially Micah) had a blast.

Mama: Let's make bubbles, Micah. Here, squeeze Mr. Hippo's belly like this and whoosh...
Micah: Okay, strangle Mr. Hippo...
Micah: And... hah...
Micah: Heheh, I changed my mind. You blow, Mama.
Mama: Okay, here we go! Whoooooosh!
Micah: Oy, Mama, my eyes...
(Hahaha... Just kidding, Jenna.)

Mom made her very first standing rib roast for Christmas Eve dinner. It was very tender and very delicious and worth spending $XX on it. (Not sure if Mom wanna tell...) After dinner, we had a little family photo session. The neighbour came visit and brought gifts. Joshua and Micah got a whole bunch of toy cars. I think Todd had more fun openning it than the kids did. Then we had a Jesus birthday cake, which actually was peanut butter pie that Jenna made. Yum-O!

Christmas morning, Joshua woke us up. (And if I didn't get up, he might as well drag me out of bed, too.) We came down and started separating gifts into each one's pile. Joshua's and Micah's were the biggest. And then came the fun time! Although we kinda knew what we'd be getting because (almost) everybody made a list of what we wanted, tearing wrapping paper was still as much fun.

Before lunch time, Mom had to leave. We took her to the airport and came back home eating leftovers and already missing her cooking... Oh, I mean, missing her. Then we played a poker game. Unlike my first time playing, no one spared me mercy anymore, and I lost... Dad seemed to be winning, but in the end it was Dave who won it all. Woohoo! We tried to make Dad, Todd, and Jenna pay up with real money, but we weren't successful.

Dave and I left on Christmas afternoon as I had to get back to work on the next day. It was such a bummer, but it was also good because the airport was less crowded. I just had to take some pictures of the Columbia Airport because we don't get many chances to fly in here even though it's closer to Jenna's. It's normally much more expensive to fly directly here than to Charleston or Charlotte since it's a smaller airport and not many flights go there. American Airline happened to run a special promotion just in time for this special occasion; Lucky!

It's only January, and I miss Christmas already. Don't you?

Oops! I Was Tagged...

2007-01-17T10:57:00.000-06:00

... a week ago by a friend of mine, Aom. Whoever gets tagged is to finish a blog assignment and then pass it along to other blog writers. This assignment is five things about myself that not many people know. In fact, there are still so many things waiting to be blogged but have been delayed by my laziness. I guess I can't be lazy any longer.

What don't people know about me? My, oh, my. I thought anyone who knows me would already know pretty much everything about me. Because I'm so self-centered that I only talk about myself?!? Hahaha... Just kidding. Though, it sometimes seems to be that way just because I don't really enjoy gossipping about other people... except Dave. But well, husband is not considered "other people", right?

Anyway, I guess there are still a few more things I can tell. First, cooking never... ever... was my favorite thing to do back when I was living in Thailand. Loved eating, that's certain, but was never fond of cooking. The old gas stove in mom's kitchen was what I hated... or to be exact, what I found dreadful. It was the kind of stove that you have to turn the knob to let the gas run and stick in a lit match close to the burner and, Poof!, there it goes. I was too scared to stick in the match close enough, so the gas came out too much by the time it went off, and I always ended up getting the big Poof... always. Another reason I didn't like cooking was that it always turned into a huge deal when mom cooked. (Oops! Mom is not "other people" either, right? Hehehe) My worst experience was when Fujian noodle wasn't yet available in the supermarket, and mom made it from scratch for a big party. We made hundreds, or maybe thousands, of small doughs and hand-pulled each of them into a strand of noodle. Everybody including dad had to stay up really late to do it. Eating it was fun, though. We played "Who made this noodle?" game at the table. Of course, the short, fat, ugly and bumpy ones were mine. But the top reason I never wanted to cook was that yummy food was so abundant and cheap out there. Why bother cooking?!?

Second, I think I used to be a Celt or used to live in King Henry VIII and Queen Anne Boleyn's era in my past life. Have you ever felt like lost in the dream when you saw something you'd never seen before in your life? Celtic music and art always gave me that weird hard-to-breath feeling. The Scarborough Faire is another place I fell in love with. I wouldn't buy the season pass to go to there every weekend like many people did, though. It's too far and too expensive. But the music and the court dance they performed there always gave me goosebumps. Or am I just insane? I do love the stories about the king, the knights, the wizards, the dragons, and fantasy fictions. My favorite movies of all time would be The Excalibur, Merlin, King Arthur, Dragonheart, Labyrinth, Legend, Willow, and Lord of the Rings. The last one was mainly because the way the elves were depicted in a very Celtic way. I once dreamt that I was an elf living in Loth Lorien. Then Legolas tried to hit on me, but I turned him down because I was secretly in love with Haldir. Hahahaha... Arrrgghhh!!

Third, I'm silly scared of many things. I enjoy taking pictures of butterflies as much as I'm terrified by them. I'm scared of lizards. I'm scared of ghosts (especially after watching a horror movie). My dentist has been telling me to get my wisdom teeth removed, but I'm too scared to do that. My work has to do with computers, yet I'm scared of technology. It changes too fast, and I'm afraid to admit that I'm too old for it. I want to run my own business, but I'm afraid that I'd fail, that I'd be unable to pay off debt, that I wouldn't have money to raise our kid (if we have one). Oh yeah, having kid is frightening too. What if I can't raise them well? What if they get involved in drugs and gangs? What if they call me stupid because I can't help them with their homework? What if they don't love me?... And then I'm scared of getting hurt. I always gave all I had, so it hurt so bad when betrayed. I sometimes seemed to be cold-hearted and strong, but I wasn't. I was just too scared to give it the second chance. It's like standing under a durian tree, and its spiky fruit fell right on my head. I learnt how painful it was and then stopped standing under that tree. My skull didn't get thicker; It'd be the same pain if the durian fell on my head again. On the other hand, if I let my head get hurt that way again, that'd be a pretty thick-skull of me. Oops, am I being too serious now?

Fourth, I'm very shy... Really! I'm always quiet among people I'm not familiar with. Sometimes I have no idea what the hey they were talking about. My English is far from perfect, but I understand them alright. It's just that I don't have the information to chitchat with them. How am I supposed to know with whom some girl at their work just broke up and whom she's dating? As the matter of fact, do I care? And I think asking what one does for a living is such a lame ice-breaker. C'mon... If I'm a paparazzi photographer, or a celebrities' personal caterer, or a famous brandname designer, then there might be something fun to talk about. But please, I'm writing health insurance claim processing programs, and then what? ZZZ...z..z.....z I'm frustrated when I'm like that, too. Often times I kept quiet because I was listening and gathering information. But when I thought I knew enough to join them, it was time to go home... So I think I'll try not to care what people are talking about, and I'll just blabber about things I know (like food?!?). Are they gonna think I'm crazy?

Fifth, I always make bad choice. When eating out, I took so long figuring out what I wanted... but ended up envying others because their food looked better. I sometimes decided to take tollway to work because I was late. But then I got stuck because there was a road work up there. When I drove on an unfamiliar route and had to decide which direction I should go, I always chose the opposite. Oh, it looked like a nice day, I'd get a car wash... and of course, it rained right afterward. There were two different kind of steaks at the store. I didn't remember which one was tender and which one was tough, and I gotta pick the tough one. Got in the shortest line to pay for the grocery, and the manager-alert light just had to go off because the person right in front of me happened to pick up something that didn't have a label. Then I bought a Lotto ticket; Sure enough, the numbers I picked never won anything.

But there was one decision I made and never regret. That was to spend the rest of my life with my sweetheart, David. (Hehehe... Honey, you're getting me a nice gift after reading this, aren't you?)

And I'm tagging...
1. Pook: Something to do before you go to Thailand.
2. Puu: Your last update was over two months ago, so do it!
And 3. Jay: Just because I haven't talked to you in a while... Muahahah

Thailand '06 Episode IV: Sawaddee Suvarnabhumi

2006-12-26T17:29:00.000-06:00

Our flight from Osaka to Bangkok on JAL was quite pleasant although the food could have been better. I remember having decent sashimi salad on Thai Airways in 2004, and that probably made me set a high expectation from the Japanese Airline itself. While I loved their hot green tea, my curiosity kicked in when I saw a drink called Yuzu on the beverage menu. I found out from the flight attendant that it was a citrusy drink and supposed to be pretty good, and I just had to try. Turned out, it was citrusy alright, but it tasted (to me) more like watery lemonade. Blah...

Other than that, everything was excellent. The flight attendants were very nice and helpful and smiling at all time. Thai Airways used to excel in this, but we've noticed some downward changes lately. Maybe it's time for Thai Airways to revisit their service ethics a little bit.

I paused that thought when the captain announced that we'd be landing soon now that there was bigger thing to be excited about. We were landing at the world's newest airport, Suvarnabhumi. Wow! This trip has been quite an eye-popping. New terminal at DFW, new route to Osaka, and now new Bangkok airport! As the plane was getting ready to land, I could see the temples everywhere. Yes!! We're really in Thailand. Dave once joked about the abundance of Thai temples that if he threw a stone in any direction, it would certainly hit one.

At last, Suvarnabhumi, here we come!

Inside the arrival level was not fully done, but it was full of beautiful sculptures. I didn't take any picture, thinking that I could take the pictures of them on our way back; Bad call, though. But I wasn't really in a photo mood because we heard a lot of complaints about this new airport. Like indefinitely long walk, confusing signs, slow immigration process, and the worst had to do with lost and delayed luggage. Rumor had it that Thai Airways tried to take over the baggage service from the contractor at the old airport, but they were inexperienced and desparately failed. The airport ended up having to reassign the service to the original contractor just a few days before we arrived. But our worries turned out to be in vain. The walk wasn't that bad. The signs were clear enough. We went through the immigration pretty fast. And our bags showed up almost as soon as we got to the baggage claim. Hoo-yah!

If you have family picking you up like we did, then you wouldn't have to worry about getting a taxi. All you need to do is to pick out a rendezvous. My mom, who previously went survey the airport, told us to meet everybody at gate B. We actually came out from gate C, so we just made a right turn and there they were, right in front of gate B. Cool beans!

I took only a few pictures as we were heading to our cars. The interior was quite nice. And there were lots and lots of food you can eat. It actually looked more like mall's food court. I was excited to see the dessert stand at first, but on the second thought, I'm not sure how well they're doing. They were pretty quiet, comparing to others.

On departing, I recommend that you call the airport (02-132-1888) ahead of time to find out how early you should arrive the airport, which check-in counter your airline is at, and which entrance is the nearest to the check-in counter. The airport has ten entrances altogether. If I remember it correctly, entrances 1-3 are where all the domestic check-ins are located. All other entrances are closer to the international check-ins. The check-in counter should also be able to advise you on how far your departing gate is and how long before the boarding time you should go through the passport control. You might end up with plenty of spare time, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

My intention was to take more pictures on the day we flew back home. Thanks to Dave for being so nice and didn't fuzz about me taking too many pictures as always. (He either actually got better at tolerating or simply gave up... Teeheehee)

Beyond the passport check, there were beautiful sculptures of Lord Shiva and the demons seeming to play tug o' war with the devas. This scene was actually from a Hindu story called Samudra Manthan, in which the devas and the demons called a temporary truce to churn the ocean in order to make the nectar of immortality. Not quite sure what message the airport trying to send, though. Is it merely an artwork? Do I think too much?

From that point on, there were refreshing bars, restaurants, and a huge shopping area. Many famous brand names were there. It's like the second Siam Paragon!

And we finally made it to our concourse. It was quite a distance from the passport checkpoint, but I personally think that it wasn't so bad considering all kinds of things you can see and those moving walkways. We ran into my dad's friend and his wife who were going on a business trip in Japan and would be on the same flight as ours. So we got to talk to them a little bit until boarding. And that concluded our wonderful experience at Suvarnabhumi.

Next episode:
Siam Square
But how about a Holidays break?

Thailand '06 Episode III: Stuck

2006-12-07T03:42:00.001-06:00

It was past 9 o'clock when we arrived at the Washington Plaza Hotel right inside downtown Osaka. Our shuttle parked at an assigned spot across from the hotel. That meant we had to drag all our luggages across the street, and the traffic wasn't light even late at night. There was a traffic light, but I was still worried about one of my bags because it was old and didn't cooperate with us well lately. It made it all the way through, though. Good boy, good boy...

After checking in, we asked the concierge for a place to exchange the money. There was none inside the hotel, and the ones outside were already closed. He said there were several restaurants that accept credit cards, including the hotel's. What a shame... Those cheaper ramen-ya (noodle shops) along the street were what we'd like to try, but they only took cash. Wanting to search no more, we decided to eat at the hotel. It was pretty good dinner. Dave had shrimp fried rice, and I had a beef and rice hot pot. The price wasn't bad - about $8 or $9 each, but what really killed us was the drinks. Dave's coke and my hot green tea costed us $10!!

The street where our hotel was located was quite a lively area, almost like Silom Road in Bangkok. Would be nice if we got there earlier and explored. But we were hungry and dead tired. So, we just ate dinner, got ready for bed, and then zzzzzz.. zz.. z... No monkey business... Oh, did I mention that our shuttle would be leaving for the airport at 7 o'clock in the morning even though our flight wasn't until 1 pm?

I got up early the next morning to make up for the photo ops I missed last night. I opened the window to peek outside, but rooftops were all I could see. So, I closed the window and noticed the sign. Part of it said, "Do not open the window." Oh Cripes! (I looked up later and found out that the rest of it said, "when the wind is strong." Phewww...)

Our room was pretty small. In fact, everything was so small. The bathroom door opened outward, which was a bit strange. But it had to be so because it was quite crowded in there. There was no way two persons could get in at the same time. The closet was so tiny that we couldn't even stick our suitcases in.

No question about it, our room became really jampacked.

We got downstairs around 6:15 am. If the shuttle didn't pick us up that early, we would have had our breakfast here. The buffet for $10 didn't sound too bad (if the drink came with... considering how much it costed last night). Too bad, they didn't open until 7 am.

There was a little gift shop in front of the restaurant. These golf balls were cute.

We figured we must have been early as there weren't many people around. The concierge suggested that we wait at the hotel because it was raining. But we noticed a purple shuttle across the street. So, Dave went to check it out. I looked around while waiting, but may eyes kept laying on the chicken on the left and the crab on the right. Finally, Dave came back with the bad news -- We weren't as early as we thought. The first shuttle was already full, and we were stuck with the second one again! Shucks! So, as soon as the second shuttle arrived, we rushed there to make sure our bags got in. The red zone was where our shuttle dropped us off and picked us up. Our hotel was the brown building with red letters on top of it. Not long after we were done, more and more people kept showing up. Loading the bags wasn't fun.

While people were having fun cramming their luggages in, I took off for some pictures. We noticed a few young kids, dressed up neatly yet fashionably. They all had same hair style, both boys and girls alike. There was a nice udon (Japanese thick noodle) restaurant nearby. The plain old noodle soup with just one piece of tofu was $6. Cold udon was $7, curry udon $9, beef udon $10. The one with name sounding like Deity's Chow Udon was about $12. Quite expensive for a noodle bowl, but that's not all. At the bottom of the menu, there was an ultimate udon buffet for $31 a person!

The shuttle was finally ready to leave. There were more people on this shuttle than last night. The luggage bin underneath was too small, so some bags had to go in the passenger seats and middle aisle. It was so unfair, as they didn't even attempt to put more people on the first shuttle and then left all the mess to the second one. But we didn't get down early enough... Guess we were partly to blame, too.

The traffic on Saturday morning wasn't bad at all. The red bridge led us out to an artificial offshore island where the Osaka Kansai Airport was located. We noticed a lot of things going on along the bridge as we departed the main island. Their cruise liners, metal junkyards, and industrial plants are nicely zoned.

It was surprisingly crowded at the airport. We almost got in the wrong line as they all were long and overlapping and folding and all. I had a little hard time checking in because my last name on the ticket and on the passport didn't match, but it wasn't too bad.

Not quite sure why they gave us the access to the Sakura Lounge, but that was sweet. There were free magazines and newspapers, snacks and drinks... including beer and liquors! We hung out in the lounge a little bit before going out looking for real food for brunch. While Dave stayed conservative with tempura udon, I went for the new stuff, kimuchi ramen. They both were delicious.

We went to the gate and saw that we still had over an hour before boarding. So, I wandered around with my camera. Besides those cure figurines, it was pretty boring. Empty terminal, coin operated massage chairs, public phone, drink machine... Boy! I was that bored!

Finally, our plane were here, and the boarding had begun. Bye-bye Osaka.

Next episode:
Sawaddee Suvarnabhumi!

Turkish Bath..?..

2006-11-28T03:28:00.000-06:00

I'm slipping this one in between the trip blogs as Thanksgiving weekend just passed. Traditionally, this is the day the Westerners give their thanks to God for the harvest season. But the U.S. and Canada are the two countries that widely celebrate this occasion; in fact, it seems to be even bigger in the States. I also learnt that this was the day the Pilgrims showed their appreciation to Squanto, the native Indian who helped them survive through their first winter in the new land... (which they later took over...)

American Thanksgiving is on the fourth Thursday of November. Most places are closed on Friday as well, allowing people to get together with their family for the whole long weekend. I wasn't so thrilled about this holidays when in school because there always were exams or paper due right on the next Monday. Couldn't go anywhere despite a long break. Anyway, if you're cooking Thanksgiving dinner, be sure to stock up by Wednesday night. Many started their grocery shopping the weekend prior, but Wednesday night is always a mad house, especially around the canned food and baking ingredients aisles. That's because almost evey store would be closed on Thursday, even supermarkets and Wal-Mart. If you just realize that you have missed something on the list on Thursday morning, well... you're pretty much screwed.

But the real madness is the morning on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Most stores and shops open as early as 5 am and run their huge sales until 10 or 11 am. Many shoppers line up at the door since Thursday night to make sure they get what they want, which could be really cheap but limited. This year's hottest item has got to be Sony's PlayStation III. I didn't go out shopping, though. We went to bed late and didn't get up until 9 am. By the time I finished dressing up, the sales might be over. But now I'm thinking... That morning, everybody might be right out of the bed, with untidy hair and stinky breath anyway. So why bother? Hahaha... Just kidding.

Turkey plays the main role in the Thanksgiving feast. On the side there could be potatoes, corn, fall-season veggies, dinner rolls, and then pies for dessert. We didn't get together with the family this year, so we invited some friends over on Saturday -- A chance to have fun roasting the big bird. Another alternative is deep-frying. It cooks faster, so the skin is crispy, and the meat doesn't dry out. But we didn't have the frying pot, so before roasting I brined the bird like Food Network's Alton Brown suggested. Brining helps tenderize the turkey meat and keeps it juicy even after hours in the oven. It's the Turkish bath! (You know... brine, bath, turkey... Git it? Git it?)

The spa... infused with oranges, lemons, onions, and rosemary... ummm...

Bathe the turkey, and towel it dry.

Get in the spa tub.

Spend a night in the cool hotel room... I meant, in the fridge.

Next morning, towel it dry again and then massage it with butter. Pictures were censored; they were too sexy... NOT!! My hands were just so messy that I couldn't pick up the camera. Then after hours in the heat chamber (yeah, oven), time's up! Get in my belly!

Other sides we had were...
My favorite cranberry-orange relish. Dave never cares for cranberry sauce, though.

Baked mashed potato with milk, butter, brie, and thyme. This one rocked.

Orange-glazed butternut squash. We got a big squash this year. Big enough to make this whole pan and another bowl of masked squashed.

Green beans and peas. Got it from Sandra Lee's Semi-homemade Thanksgiving. It turned really bitter after warming in the oven. Yuck!

Dinner rolls made from the frozen doughs. Though, next time we'll just stick with the store-bought.

Everything, including Albert's famous stuffings. It was delicious as always.

Then dessert time! Tang's Oreo cream pie was awesome. And the 5-lb pecan pie Dave got from Costco was also yummy... and very big...

After that? Food coma, of course...

Thailand '06 Episode II: Ohhh-saka

2006-11-22T11:31:00.000-06:00

A Japanese city named Fukuoka gives us a giggle every single time it pops on the flight map. Austin Power fans might have an idea why... Anyhow, that also means Narita Airport isn't so far away.

But our anxiousness turned into anxiety when we hit a really bad weather as soon as our plane lowered its altitude. Just when I started to get scared because the plane shook badly, we suddenly pulled back up. Weren’t sure what’s going on, but boy! That’s a relief. When it got stable, the captain announced that we couldn’t land in Narita due to severe weather, so we were redirected to Osaka instead. Oh, great.

An hour later, we finally arrived at Osaka Kansai Airport. We had to sit in the plane for at least an hour before the captain announced that we wouldn’t be able to fly back to Narita, and the airline would rearrange everyone’s flight from here. Although the chance was real slim, we still hoped that we could get a flight out that night.

There were two ladies at the gate giving out the new flight information. It was quite a mess. Everybody was tired and confused and then got upset because the two ladies didn’t speak English very well. (Still better than my Japanese, though.) As we tried to get through the crowd, we overheard that everybody was to go upstairs to the American Airline counter on the 4th floor. No idea why they didn't just say so.

Everyone went upstairs but had to stop at the 2nd floor. In front of us was nothing but a sliding door to access the train. Some unfortunate airport staff happened to walk by. He got bombarded with dozens of questions, all of which basically meant “Where the *beep* is the 4th floor?!?” He tried his best to explain with his broken English that we had to take the train to the main terminal and then go up to the 4th floor. After all the communication chaos, I started to wonder. Was there not a single Japanese passenger on this flight? That’s so unlikely, isn't it?

We had to go through the immigration process once we got inside the main terminal. Dave would be fine, but I, holding a non-US passport without a Japanese visa, wouldn't. There were several ladies helping the passengers with the forms and providing the new flight information. Ours was, sure enough, on the next day... Yet, after the wait in line, the immigration still didn’t let us go through. He told us to go back to the ladies again.

The ladies fixed something, but the immigration still didn't like it and made us go back and forth between them and the ladies again and again. We started to get upset. What did he want? Why didn't he just say it (in English, please)? Why didn't they communicate with each other when they're just across the room? But wait! Where did all other people go? How come just a few of us were stuck here with this two crazy immigration officers?!?

One of the ladies decided to go talk to them. (Bless her heart!) She said that what he wanted to see was our tickets flying out of Osaka. How the hey would we have them when we still needed to go get them from AA counter on the 4th floor... passed the immigration point? Hello!?! After another commotion, the ladies decided to cover the old flight number on each ticket with a little sticker and wrote the new flight number on it. We hesitated to take it because this was no difference than what she did before, except that time it was on a separate piece of paper. Turned out, it worked! That little sticker was a magic!

We got our new tickets and headed out to the shuttle, being so happy to finally get to eat and rest. The first shuttle was full, so we got on the second one, which turned out such a bummer. The shuttle wouldn't leave until the rest of the passengers were on. A group of Chinese speaking noble ladies started to complain because nobody seemed to know how longer the wait would be and where those last passengers were. The complaints were in vain, though. We ended up waiting in the shuttle for almost another hour.

Almost four good hours were wasted at the airport, yet another 45 minutes were spent on the road. AA must have had a connection with that particular hotel they took us to. I guess I shouldn't complain, though, because AA could have just left us on our owns instead of providing us a room, for the re-routing was caused by the weather, not mechanical problem. But the bigger problem was that we were starving to death. Our last meal was just a small sukiyaki brunch on the plane.

I totally forgot about taking any pictures during that whole torturing time. As soon as I realized that, I reached for my camera. And the result was...

Not quite sure if it was because of all the things we'd gone through... or because of me having a gut to yet take any pictures...

Next episode:
Will have more pictures - promise. But for now, it's turkey time!

Thailand '06 Episode I: Flying Out

2006-11-16T17:36:00.000-06:00

Since the DFW airport re-opened its Terminal D as a new and modern International Terminal, the only times we'd been there were to pick up or drop off friends and family. The outside was very nice, but we had no idea what it was like beyond the security checkpoints. So, we were pretty excited flying out of there. In fact, our whole flight was quite exciting. New liquid rules, new luggage weight limit, new flight schedule, and save the best for last -- flying in to Suvarnabhumi, Bangkok's brand new international airport.

Once passed the security checkpoint, it felt like another world. It's no longer the familiar DFW. It's something else but still... familiar... Then the directory said it all. Despite only a few shopping places, its left panel has a long list of restaurants, most of them are either popular chains or well-known fine diners. Wow! It's... It's... It's a food court! The whole terminal is a gigantic food court!! It was too early for a big meal, so Dave had an Au Bon Pain's croissant sandwich and I had an Auntie Anne's warm sesame pretzel. I was lucky; my pretzel was the last of the batch. People behind me had to wait 10 minutes for the next batch to come out.

Another new thing that DFW is proud of is the Skylink. It's the new train that connects all five huge terminals inside the security. As American Airline’s hub, two whole terminals and parts of a few other terminals are utilized by American, while other airlines each has a spot in one of the other terminals. So, there’s a pretty good chance that the passengers will need to change terminals. Shuttles are another slower and less convenient option, but walking definitely is not.

Our departure was pretty interesting. We had to rearrange our luggage at the check-in because one of them was over 50 lbs. (Meaning… the scale at home reads too light? Arrgghh!) Then we noticed there was nobody waiting around and there was no flight information at the gate either. We checked the board and found that the gate had been changed; how nice. Although in the same terminal, it was still quite a long walk... with no moving walkway. So, if you complain about the long walk at Suvarnabhumi, well, think again.

We still love American's built-in headrest seats and spacious legroom. Besides the fact that the remote control cradle had no cover and Dave’s elbow accidentally turned off my TV or changed the channel a couple times (especially when a handsome actor was on...), the movies were not the same as shown in the schedule, my pork medallion was overcooked, my rice smelled like cucaracha poo, and they didn’t give me a sandwich box while I was resting my eyes (yeah, right), everything else was just fine... until the landing.

Next episode:
What adventures lied ahead? Was it me who gave Dave a headache? (I hope not...) Read on...

Salmon en Croute

2006-11-13T16:40:00.000-06:00

I meant to blog about our recent Thailand trip, but I got tired just reviewing all the photos. As an army marches on its stomach, I think I'd better feed my army first.

Since we got back, I've been craving for Thai food as if I didn't get to eat enough while we're there... which is definitely not the case. Poor Dave; He, on the contrary, became sick of Thai food... and I'm still cooking Thai. Bad wifey me...

So I started looking for recipes because I'm pretty dumb when it comes to western cooking. And I found this... Salmon en Croute (aka Salmon Wellington). This recipe is probably not so healthy. Despite salmon and spinach, it calls for puff pastry and good amount of olive oil and butter. But for us, delicious first, healthy later.

I didn't skin the salmon, but you sure can if you don't care for it. I normally don't eat the skin, but this time it'd be fried and then baked. It should turn out crispy... Yummm...

The recipe actually calls for frozen spinach, but I just had to be stubborn. I felt that fresh spinach must be healthier (Oops! Did I just say healthy?), so I went for the fresh one. Big mistake. After it wilted, it started giving out juice like crazy. It took quite a while to evaporate that juice; In it, of course, vitamins and minerals. Much about trying to be healthy, huh?

I didn't realized that I should have halved the recipe until the finished products came out of the oven. So we had it for dinner two nights in a row... Lucky it's delicious.

Now the recipe. Remember, it serves 4!!

Salmon
4 salmon fillets, about 4 ounces each, of fairly even thickness
2 teaspoons dill weed
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
Salt and pepper to taste

- Season the salmon fillets on both sides with the salt, pepper and dill. Sprinkle the flesh side with some of the lemon juice.
- Heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the oil and butter.
- When hot, add the salmon, skin-side down. Brown well, about 3 minutes. Turn and sear top side, about another 2 minutes. (Time can vary, depending on the thickness of salmon. It should be rare as it'll cook more in the pastry.)
- Remove from pan and refrigerate until completely cool, about 1 hour. Save the pan to make the sauce later.

Spinach-Mushroom Filling
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup finely chopped onions
8 ounces button mushrooms, chopped
1 package (10 ounces) frozen chopped spinach, thawed and thoroughly squeezed dry
Salt and pepper to taste

- Heat another medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add the butter and oil.
- Sauté the onions until slightly tender, about 5 minutes.
- Add the mushrooms, spinach, salt and pepper. Sauté until mushrooms are cooked through, about 5 minutes. There should be no moisture but, if there is, make certain it evaporates.
- Place in refrigerator to cool.

To assemble
1/2 package (17-1/4 ounces size) frozen puff pastry (1 sheet of about 8-2/3 ounces)
1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water

- Thaw the pastry for about 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 400° F.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll the pastry out to a 14-inch square, or about 1/8-inch thick. Cut into 4 equal squares.
- Place about 1/4 cup of the spinach mixture in the middle of each square, then top with a piece of salmon, skin-side up.
- Brush the edges of the pastry with some of the egg wash. Bring up opposite corners of the pastry around the top of the salmon. Pinch the edges together to seal.
- Place the pastries on an ungreased baking sheet, seam-side down. Brush the tops with the remaining egg wash.
- Bake until golden brown, about 25 minutes. Meanwhile, make the dill sauce (recipe follows), using the pan in which the salmon was seared.
- Remove the pastries from the oven and let stand about 5 minutes.
- To serve, spoon some of the sauce on each plate, then top with the salmon pastry. Any remaining spinach-mushroom mixture can be heated and served on the side.

Creamy Dill Sauce
2 tablespoons dry white wine
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

- Heat a medium saucepan over medium-high heat (or use the skillet in which the fish was cooked).
- Add the wine and lemon juice; bring to a boil.
- Add the cream. Simmer until well-combined and cream has reduced slightly.
- Stir in the dill and parsley. Taste for seasoning.

I'm Back!

2006-11-06T16:52:00.000-06:00

Thanks to the Blogger's angels, I'm finally back on line. After begging them to clean up after my mess twice, I promise I won't try anything without reading the manual again. Though, the saying "third time's a charm" is quite tempting... hmmm...

Title: Everybody
Artist: Backstreet Boys

Last weekend I felt like such a big loser. Our Mavericks lost to Spurs by 6 points, that I can take. But losing to the Rockets by 31 points... Holy Guacamole! And then the Cowboys lost when we should have already won! Arrgghhh... It felt not only like being kicked in the rear end, but it was like being stomped in the chest, run over by a truck, flattened by a banana griller, and poured with hot caramel... Yummm...

But it wasn't all bad. We did have a great time with Tang, Pop, Pook, Tom and Roxy on Saturday night.

Roxy is a new member of Pook and Tom's family. She's a maltese pup about three months old, but her energy is of one-year-old dog. Dave (although still not allowing me to get a dog...) seemed to have a blast with Roxy. But Roxy's favorite person that night was surely Pop as she followed him everywhere.

I was so excited about Roxy that I didn't really pay attention to my cooking. So, kids, pardon me if the food didn't taste very good. Anyhow, we had grilled pork with sticky rice as appetizer. The pork tasted good, but it was a little tough. I should have used shoulder instead of ham and should have marinated it longer. I made another attempt to cook the sticky rice in the rice cooker, and it turned out real nice this time. I'm an expert now... Hah!

The main dish was noodle soup. We made Chinese BBQ pork noodle for the two farangs, and yentafo for the rest of us. No discrimination involved, but those weird fishballs in yentafo don't happen to be Dave's and Tom's favorite. I went shopping at the Hong Kong Market and, surprisingly, found two things I never thought I'd find -- fish wonton and rugby meatball!

And finally, dessert time! Tang made her famous mandarin orange cake, with a new look. Instead of assembling it into layer cake as usual, she cut the cake into cubes and layer them in the individual cup. I think it's a really neat idea. We could enjoy the yummo all the same but without the cake cutting mess.

So, our last weekend wasn't all bad. In fact... it wasn't bad at all!

Love Me Tender

2006-08-18T02:17:00.000-05:00

Whoa... My new house is collecting dust already!!! But, oh well, forget the dust. I feel like getting in the kitchen today.

We'd been eating chicken a lot lately. So much that we could turn into chicken had we eat one more. But just in time before that happens, Dave just mentioned that he felt like having green curry beef. Right on! We went to the Chinese market for the ingredients. Their beef didn't look good, so we made another stop at the supermarket. Turned out their beef mostly came in steak cuts. The only kind coming in big piece was the part called eye of round. And not until we got home did I realize that it was the same part I foolishly bought last time... just because it was on sale...

It's kinda funny the way different parts are named. Like pork "butt" is in fact shoulder and not rear end. Beef "round", on the other hand, means rear end, which is the well-exercised part and therefore lean and tough. My friend and I once contemplated about how this part got exercised so much that it became this tough. Our theory was maybe the cow wags its tail left and right to shoo off the flies as it walks... hahah... maybe?

Beef round is actually good for slow roast, but that wasn't what we wanted. I found ways to tenderize it on the Internet. (Don't you love it?) Pounding with the mallot would make it flat... not good. So, I had to go with marinating. But in what? I had no pineapple juice, papaya juice, nor marinating powder on hand. Vinegar might make it too sour. Ah, yogurt and oil are other options. I happened to buy the buttermilk the other day, meaning to use it for the fried calamari I saw Emeril made on TV. It's not yogurt, but oh well... that's close enough.

I sliced the beef paper-thin and put it in the glass bowl. Poured some buttermilk and olive oil in and mixed well. Covered the bowl with plastic wrapper and let it marinate in the refrigerator for two hours. The beef turned out really tender with no need for long simmering. Save me gas and time in front of the hot stove... Awesome!

New House

2006-08-07T17:14:00.000-05:00

I've been talking about moving into a new house for like... what... almost a month now? Finally, I did!

It's a new house for my blogs I'm referring to. (Real house? Our payment on it is only forever more to go, so it's unlikely for us to move anywhere soon...) In fact, MSN Spaces is not so bad at all. It's like living in a furnished apartment. You pick a floorplan you like and just move in. But of course, the floorplans are limited in variety and cannot be customized. Moving the furnitures around is pretty much all you can do. If you need anything extra, you have to make a request through the management office. And while your request for an extra patio light might not be approved, they might just decide to repaint your door at their will.

Once you're done with moving the furnitures around, you start to want to do something new like getting a satellite dish or planting some tomatoes but can't. That's when you want your own house where you can do whatever you want with it - modifying floorplan, repainting, finding the right furnitures... what have you. No doubt it takes longer to be able to move into your dream home.

Now my new house is still far from perfect. But as long as it has a kitchen with enough utensils to cook instant noodle and a comfy bed to sleep in, that's a pretty darn good move-in condition to me. Extra stuff like wall paintings can be acquired later... maybe much later. (That sounds very much like our real house... Huhuhuh)

Title: Our House
Artist: Madness
Album: The Rise & Fall