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Thursday, 19 June 2008

Tuesday, 10 July 2007

  • oodles

     

    Main Entry: o·dles Listen to the pronunciation of oodles
    Pronunciation: \ˈü-dəlz\
    Function: noun plural but singular or plural in construction
    Etymology: origin unknown
    Date: circa 1867
    : a great quantity : lot
     
    I've been having oodles of fun! So much that I've neglected this blog, my apologies my xanga friends. Anyhoo,  I've wrapped up the baby shower for my friend C last May. She's due to give birth any day now, don't forget to push hard C!  ... Been busy too with new designs for my flipstyles store. There were a couple of parties we attended for the young and old alike. John and I survived all the fun run we signed up for (although it was kinda half walk/half run teehee). And we had fun at our town's fiesta celebration - actually we had a food fest lol. I can still taste the beer battered onion rings and sinfully yummy funnel cake. A long time friend was here visiting from Singapore and we met up with him. Had another food fest hahahaha. Then John and I were supposed to go to Texas and visit a friend of mine but not all plans push through. Well, there's always next year. I did a no-cost decoration of our house by re-arranging and moving different items within the house. Work is still as exciting, learning new stuff everyday. We're doing reviews now for the next release and then the actual coding will begin a few months from now. I can't believe we're already in Q3! Time really flies fast when you're having fun. Pretty soon, I'll have to start buying Christmas gifts hahaha. So that's all for now folks. Live happy!
     

Wednesday, 06 June 2007

Thursday, 17 May 2007

  • Summer's almost here

    And I only had 1 post for spring. How sad is that?  I've been meaning to provide updates but more important things have been in the way (like work teehee). Anyhoo, here are highlights for the month of April and May.

    April

    *~~*  Tax season, who could forget about that? First year that John and I filed jointly.

    *~~*  We got a new grill and patio set. And John finished putting up all the hylofts in the garage. Hooray!

    *~~*  Happy Easter! So happy when Easter finally came coz we were able to eat meat once again. To celebrate, we hosted an easter egg hunt party at our place. Our friends' kids had fun collecting easter eggs and we had to do two rounds. Here are some pics from that fun day. (Click on the pic for a bigger size view)

    collage17

    *~~*  We drove up to Dayton, NV (30 minutes from Carson City) and visited my in-laws. They are selling their old house which is in a gated community inside a golf course. So we helped them move stuff to the new house which sits on a 5 acre lot. All that land, you could put a park in there hehehe.

    *~~*  John and I participated in the Stockton Asparagus festival run with Kaiser Permanente as the main sponsor. We even landed on the Kaiser Permanente (John's company) bulletin in our running form

    May

    With May being my birth month, you bet there were/are a lot of activities lined up.

    *~~*  John gave me the cutest gift for my birthday

    *~~*  We also flew to San Diego and spent a glorious 2 days there. Cinco de Mayo was being celebrated in Old Town San Diego and we spent half a day there eating and browsing stores. Didn't go to SeaWorld coz it's the same everywhere plus I've been to Marine World a couple of times that I don't think I'm missing anything for not going to SW. We did go to San Diego Zoo which is a disappointment coz when we got there, all the animals were sleeping because of the heat. Mid-80s temperature and even I was sweating. The funniest thing though was when we visited the Pandas and one of them started sighing while eating bamboo as if to say "Haaay i'm tired of eating these bamboo stalks." However, the Pandas that I saw in HongKong's Ocean Park were bigger compared to the ones in SD Zoo. My fave place in SD hands down, is La Jolla. It's a nice, peaceful town which reminds me of Monterey/Carmel. Balboa Park was also a surprise with all the beautiful buildings in there.

    collage12  

    SanDiego collage  

    *~~* John and I are hosting a baby shower for my friend Chingkee and James on May 19. It will be their first born and the shower party will be at our house. Since I'm the hostess, I've already prepared the cute giveaways, wrapped the prizes for the game, made sure there are plates/utensils/cups, fully stocked with drinks, decorations have been bought and all set to go. Our house will be bathed in blue come May 19.

    *~~* We are participating in this year's San Francisco Bay to Breakers on May 20. John has experienced this before but it will be my first time as a participant. And very timely because they are counting down to the 100th year anniversary of B2B. Since this is the 96th year, they introduced a time chip for each participant to accurately time how long it took runners/walkers to walk the 12k course. For sure, that uphill climb at Hayes street would be torture. But I'm excited! People will be there in costumes and stuff but John and I will prolly be normally dressed teehee.

    *~~* I'll be a godmother once again. My cousin Ricca asked me to be a godmother to her son Rylan. Christening will be on Memorial day weekend in Fremont.

    *~~* Yeah we can't get enough of these marathons so we also signed up for the Modesto 5k run in May 27. We'll see if my legs can still stand after that.

    So you are all caught up by now right? Try to come back again next month to see if I didn't become lazy on updates. Have a nice day and thanks for reading my blog!!!

     

Friday, 23 March 2007

  • Hello Spring!

    Now that spring is here, John and I are actively looking for patio furniture and bbq grill to complete our backyard oasis. There's a wicker lounge set from  Target that I've been eyeing since last year. We saw it in the store, sat on it and it was soooo comfy. I was waiting for it to go on sale but so far it hasn't. And for $700 plus $180 shipping, it's way too expensive .  We also looked at Costco, Home Depot, Lowe's, Sears, Amazon, Overstock, Pottery Barn. And they offer similar sets for almost the same price, if not more pricey.  Like this and this or this and also this. We might end up getting this or this.

    For grills, we saw a Charmglow two-hood grill at Home Depot and HD even offer's free assembly. However, when I searched for reviews on Charmglow, it wasn't so positive. See the thing that we need to remember for buying anything is: (a) durability, (b) warranty and parts availability, (c) price and lastly (d) design. And our requirements for a grill are: (a) at least 3-burner, (b) with a covered flush side burner, (c) stainless steel, (d) has casters for mobility, (e) included rotisserie kit. So eventhough the Charmglow grill is good on the price, the reviews says you might end up buying another grill for 2 years. Those who have been grilling for a long time will prolly recommend Weber or Ducane or even Brinkmann. A Brinkmann grill is on sale at Costco and for a six-burner grill that can feed a whole clan, it's not a bad price and it has all the requirements we're looking for. The only thing is, it's huge. We don't really need a 6-burner grill unless we own a restaurant.  Another grill that we are looking at is the Fiesta Blue at Home Depot. It's not a known brand here in the US but apparently it is in Canada. Things that makes it stand out is it has an internal grill light, a built in electrical outlet, and a smoker box. The smoker box is where you can put flavored wood for grilling. The smoker box comes standard in higher priced grills. However, there's another grill that has this. New for 2007, the Ducane Affinity 4400 which is scheduled for release on March 25. Ace Hardware also carries this and I would have to see it in person first before we decide on which grill to actually buy.

    Tips of the day:

    You can convert long URL links into a short one by using TinyUrl. Just put your long URL in the box and once you hit make tinyurl, it will give you a very short version of your URL. So no more broken off links in email or long URLs in chat. I've been using this for years now and it has always come in handy.

    Want to know an easier way to open a jar/bottle of peanut butter or spaghetti sauce? Get that rubber band from the stalks of asparagus or spinach you bought, wrap it around the jar cap and twist. Try the same method in any other jar that's hard to open. Lemme know if it worked for you!

    Recipe of the day: Shrimp with quail eggs and asparagus

    1 can of quail eggs
    15-20 pcs of shelled shrimp
    asparagus stalks cut to bite size
    1 can of cream of asparagus
    garlic
    onion
    parsley
    salt
    pepper


    1. Saute garlic and onion in a wok over low heat
    2. Then mix in the quail eggs and asparagus. Saute for 5 minutes or until desired tenderness in asparagus is reached.
    3. On one side of the wok, saute the shrimp for 1 minute then mix it in with the rest. Sprinkle parsley and salt and pepper to taste. Saute for 3 minutes then turn off heat.
    4. In a pan, cook the cream of asparagus according to package/can directions.
    5. Afterwards, mix it in with the shrimp and quail eggs. Boil for 1 minute. Serve with warm rice.

    Bon appetit!

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