December 2006
12.25.06, Monday:
[10:42pm] Merry Christmas to all! ^_^
It's interesting - Christmastime is supposed to allow one to relax, with vacations and all, but ironically, it seems to simply give us more time to be busier than ever. But it's a good sort of busy - visiting friends, hanging out, playing, eating, cooking...heh heh heh...and it's been nonstop action over here on all those points! =) I owe a few phone calls too - for example, Jason, Femi, and Fred! =)
Wednesday - Took Vanessa to go with me to visit Anna! Memorable moments - Beef Rolls, Vanessa attacking Anna with chopstick splinters when she split her chopsticks, Misscha, Cue, and Hip Hop! ^_^ Vanessa and I are full of nerdy goodness, creating x-y-z planes at the gym, and head nodding lymph nodes away, ha ha ha ha...^_^
Thursday - I woke up at 11am that day. I've not slept in so much since...ever...! Heh heh. But I made more White Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies with Walnuts and Coconut, and brought a fresh batch over to Giang at Victoria Gardens, where we did a little Christmas Shopping, complete with a Winter Dream Tea Latte! Mmm...! ^_^
Friday - Everyone was at Wal-Mart. It took 2.5 hours for a free tire rotation (free, because I got my tires from there years ago)! Luckily, Shelton had a day off and came with me to play with all the toys at the store, ha ha ha...=) Eventually, we made it out to Temple City, where we finalized the invitations (yay!), and got to eat at Tasty House again! *drool*
(1) "Bei Fong Tong" Fried Rice! I never knew this type of fried rice existed. It's a top favorite! =) (2) Shelton munching away... (3) Yee Mien - simple and tasty with shitake mushrooms and green onions. Not my favorite of all noodles, but it IS Shelton's favorite. =)
We got back through crazy Friday traffic with barely enough time to rest and head to FoCus Prayer Meeting. I love the Friday Prayer Meetings, hee hee hee...just a good place to keep accountable and to get to know each other better in different levels than usual. The girl population is growing now - it's grown over...300%! Ha ha...3 girls now, when there used to be one. =) Go Gianne! Go Mello! ^_^ Gianne also gave us yummy cookies...mmm...
And since Gianne's a cooking enthusiast like me, I'd have another culinary buddy to start House of Joy again with! ^_^
Saturday - DVD was back! =) So we ate at Coco's before heading back to his home for some Texas Hold 'Em. Megan won, ha ha ha...apparently, she learned how to play at her friend's "Hannukah Party" *wink*, and with Mr. Wang's push, she cleared all of our chips. ^_^ She's the new Thomas! Ha ha ha...there should be some sort of play off...=)
Sunday - Church! Another inspiring message from Pastor ^_^ and a luncheon for the Urbana folks. I'm jealous - it's always fun to travel, and they're going to St. Louis - Mello, Calvin, Vanessa, and Josh! Bring me a piece of the Arch back! Ha ha ha! ^_^
Today - Christmas Dim Sum...always tasty...=) And Soyodo rocks. I'll take a picture of my new little lion-dog friend and put it up next time. ^_^
12.19.06, Tuesday:
[12:35am] I've been sleeping really late now that it's break for some weird reason. Like last night, I was up wrapping some gifts and writing Christmas letters...and today, I'm still up, cuz I just finished making these wonderful cookies that will be mailed out to some of my friends tomorrow! ^_^
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies with Dark Chocolate Chips!
Shortbread Cookies with White Chocolate Chips again, but this time, I added in Coconut and mixed the dough better, and they came out wonderfully flaky and delicious. WOW. The only bad thing about this recipe is that you have to freeze the dough for at least 1.5 hours after you make it - that's why I made two types of cookies, cuz while it was freezing, I made the oatmeal ones. If I didn't run out of butter, I'd have made a second batch actually. =) But this one was worth the wait. =) And next time, I'll mix in different stuff to see how it comes out.! How exciting! ^_^
12.18.06, Monday:
[11:27pm] NEW additions to the X-Tank as of yesterday! ^_^ Grover Cleveland and Akisekou has joined in, 2 chubby pearscales. We added a giant colorful pot for them to play in, but at the moment, they're mostly still scared of it. Queen Esther was the bravest so far, and had gone in once for a bit, while Barnabas still holds the tube as his own special home, heh heh. Hoover, meanwhile, used to nervously scoot away whenever the new kids got too close, but he seems to ignore them now. =)
(1) Grover Cleveland (2) Akisekou (3) Queen Esther mad doggin' the camera...I couldn't get a good shot of her tail, but it's gotten really long and silky! (4) Barnabas guards his tube entrance (5) Grover wondering if he should explore the new pottery (6) XFish checking out their reflections...
[08:45am] Would you like to die in a pool of 409, or to suddenly be smashed from existence out of nowhere?
That's what would happen if you were roaming around in my bathroom, for no reason...
...if you were an ant...!
Heh heh. It seems so violent and senseless to die this way. And yet, sometimes, our lives ARE just this unpredictable and fragile, right? =T Lucky for us, we're not just ants, roaming around on a vast white counter, searching for something to to fill our stomachs when there is nothing there anyways. By the grace of God, we have salvation, and a purpose to serve Him in all we do. Huzzah! ^_^
I'm on break! At last! But I'm also sick. The last 2 days of work, I practically had no voice. It was interesting teaching this way, but at the same time, I was lucky too - Thursday, we had a quiz, and Friday, I had them watch Alton Brown (How to make chocolate; and for those super enthusiastic classes that wanted more, how to make cheesecake, ha ha!). I skipped out on one of the textbook adoption meetings (there were 4 meetings after school this week for me total! 2 of them textbook adoption related, the other 2 with school - department heading is alright, but meetings, meetings, meetings seem...endless...O_o) and rested at home as much as I could. Before I got sick though, I did try more cookie recipes, such as Coconut Balls, White Chocolate Chip Shortbread Cookies, and Raspberry Pastries. ^_^
I had a few visits after school from Ramona kids, which is always awesome, and was even surprise-attacked by Cornzy, who jumped out of nowhere, ha ha ha! ^_^
Party-party-party!!! The house was packed with Andrew, Gilbert, Mike, Gianne, Thomas, Theo, ET, Nina, Josh, Chris, Mello, Megan, Shelton, and I, all of which contributed to good food for the potluck dinner. ^_^ Saturday night was bodaciously fantastic, ha ha ha! ^_^ Texas Hold 'Em Tournament (The-Calculating-Thomas-Built-With-A-Natural-Slide-Ruler-In-His-Head-Hustler and the Newbie-I-Just-Want-To-Get-Rid-Of-All-These-Chips-Gianne rocked the house and took off with all the chippies, hee hee hee. ^_^), Smash Bros. (Yay Ice Climbers! ^_^), Chess Tournament, Cards Tournaments, repping in the kitchen, way more than enough tasty food to gorge on, gifts all around, and a white elephant one to boot, and just, plain, fellowshipping together was wonderful! =)
12.12.06, Tuesday:
[06:04am] It's been a busy couple of days! But fun! In short:
[updated: pictures added!]
12.07.06, Thursday:
[06:56pm] And God did bless me with a much nicer day today. =) Woke up a little later but didn't hurry this morning, and I wasn't late! Labs went smoothly, and got everything graded at work before leaving by 4:30pm (early!), getting home before darkness set in. Ate me some yummy mushroom-green onions-mozzarella crescent rolls...and I think I'll have time to bake cookies tonight, cuz work for tomorrow is about done! Yay! ^_^
Starting next Monday, I'll also have my room back during conference period! Woo hoo! I've been sharing my room with the SDC teacher, who has no room. I don't mind, but I have noticed that my work efficiency has probably decreased since I've had to share, as I'm not in my room so I can't decorate it, update things, make phone calls, and things like that then. Instead, I have to move out whatever I want to do so that I'm not in there while she's teaching. But next week, she's getting her own room for 3 class periods, and one of them happens to be my conference period. So I'm quite excited about that. =)
Another exciting thing about today? I found out that Cheesecake Factory's giving away complimentary meals for two prior to their official opening later this month. And I got a spot! Yay! I'm so excited!!! ^_^
Yesterday had highlights too - playing at Cue with Anna, ha ha, and having Genki Living crepes, even though eating it was a gigantical mess...=)
[12:33am] Oh Jonah days! At least it's now morning of a new day...right? Ha ha...way past my bedtime...zzzz...>_<
12.04.06, Monday:
[07:39pm] This just in...!
Another wow! ^_^
[4:39pm] It's been a busy, busy weekend...but very good...=)
On Friday, Shelton and I met up at Newsong's ministry center to see Rosalyn present for her Thailand missions trip! She did SUCH a great job on the DVD...I still have the Pirates of the Caribbean song stuck in my head, ha ha ha...Way to go Ros! ^_^ Afterwards, Shelton and I took our hungry stomachs over to Pho 79, only to see that they were already closed. But Lee's never closes, so off to Lee's Sandwiches we went. ^_^
Saturday was a visit to Temple City to finalize a photographer, and found one we did! They threw in a bunch of bonuses too when I kept asking about this or that, AND when we asked about lunch, they directed us to one of the yummiest cafes! I think it is my favorite now, ha ha ha...! Tasty Garden is highly recommended, as it comes with all the goodies one can expect from a HK style cafe, including free drink refills, excellent prices, hot and tasty dishes, and even afternoon tea dishes. =)
That night, I practiced crab-walking and dribbling on the courts, and learned how to defend properly, coached by Shelton, ha ha, and was able to play a game of basketball after church on Sunday. ^_^
I took today off to bring my parents to LAX. They're off to tour China for a week! How exciting! I will miss them though. =( But they'll have fun, and be back to share all their stories soon. Yay! ^_^
And after dropping them off, I went to get my haircut...
...the stylist also convinced me to highlight it...ha ha...never had it dyed before, though I always kiiiinda sorta wanted to.
AND she convinced me to get a perm of some sort - my mom kept telling me to do it, and I didn't want to (bad experience in 7th grade. Let's leave it at that. ^_^), but she demonstrated how it would look like for free with a large curling iron, and how it wouldn't be ALL of my head - just the bottom half...and though it's too much for now, I'll do it some other time, maybe closer to the wedding date. Cuz I do like it a lot. =)