soo behind...

... on everything!

I need to
- clean the apartment
- do laundry & put clothes away
- clear out the fridge
- bake cookies
- come up with (late) Christmas presents
- finish knitting my left mitten
- finish the shawl on the triangle loom
- start a new lace shawl - Jared Flood's Juneberry Shawl
- hem pants
- dry clean pants
- farm mats for tailoring & alchemy transmutes
- organize yarn stash
- start cooking dinners again
- exercise
- get birthday presents
- organize financial stuff
- work on side programming projects
- work on planning for a website for dad

Cookie Baking

A little while back, I bought the Martha Stewart Cookie book. The lime meltaway cookies that I made from a recipe on a cooking blog I follow was based on the one from Martha Stewart's book. I wanted to make my way through lots of cookies (probably not all as a few of them require specialized molds). I started off with 3 - the Honey Florentines, the Gingersnap Palmiers, and the Cornmeal Thyme Cookies. I made these on Thanksgiving morning with the idea that I'd have some to give out to family later that day.

The honey florentines seemed a little bit off... too sticky and not crunchy enough. I wanted to try adding chocolate to them. It seemed like a good idea at the time... but then I realized that I didn't have enough time to let the chocolate harden enough so it wouldn't get smeared, or even (if I were overly ambitious) to attempt to temper the chocolate so it wouldn't melt at body temperature. So in the end, these were a failure. Lawrence and I ended up eating these.



The Gingersnap Palmiers were interesting. They weren't completely made from scratch as they called for frozen puff pastry dough. The sauce used to glaze the dough had raw grated ginger, molasses, and black pepper in it. After the dough was brushed with glaze and rolled up, it had to be wrapped and frozen for a few hours. Then, it was sliced. My first batch, I let it bake for slightly too long because I was pressed for time and had to shower. I was mad at myself for making such a stupid mistake. These failed too, but I still ended up eating them. I think the molasses glaze made them look darker and they weren't actually as burnt as they looked. I didn't take any pictures of these. I did bake more later, and those turned out beautiful. I brought some to Lawrence's family's Thanksgiving dinner. I also gave a bag to my parents when we went out for my brother's birthday. Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of the good ones!

Third was the cornmeal thyme cookies. I had to run out on Thanksgiving morning to buy the fresh thyme and dried currants used in these cookies. Other than those ingredients, these were a breeze to make. I used a medium grind cornmeal that I had in the fridge for a while. These cookies were surprisingly good, though the cornmeal was a little too coarse. I wrapped these up and gave some to my aunt and uncle as well as my parents. They don't look particularly great, but they were interesting to eat.



Lastly, today I tried making a classic chewy chocolate chip cookie. There are three kinds of chocolate chip cookies in the Martha Stewart book - soft and chewy, thin and crispy, and dense and cakey. I made the first because that's how Lawrence likes his chocolate chip cookies. At first I thought the butter might have melted too much before I started mixing in the sugar but the cookies didn't spread much so I guess not! They looked weird when taking them out of the oven - thick, brown along the bottom and edges, but undercooked-looking on top. What caused the thickness, I think, was the large sized chocolate chips I used. There was also an over-abundance of chips. I halved the recipe as I only had one cup of chocolate chips so I only made 16 cookies. Some of them also may have been a little large as the original recipe says it makes 3 dozen. Sorry the light in this picture is pretty bad. I would make color adjustments, but I don't think it would make these pasty-looking cookies any prettier.

Recent Cooking

A month and a half ago, Lawrence got into making pizzas. We already had a brand new, beautiful Emile Henry pizza stone to replace the tile I was using previously. Our first attempt was a flop, literally. As Lawrence was trying to slide the pizza onto the stone from our bamboo cutting board, half of it got stuck beneath itself and the mozzarella and tomato sauce got seared to the 500F pizza stone. Thankfully, Barkeeper's Friend was able to get all the burned sauce and cheese off. The amount of dough we had was enough for 2 pizzas, so I slid the 2nd pizza onto the stone and we enjoyed a beautifully cooked pizza.

monday workout

Deadlifts with 135lbs x5

Squats with two 12kg kettlebells x10

Presses with two 12kg kettlebells x10

Windmills with an 8kg kettlebell x10

Push-ups x10

Adobe MAX

Going to industry conferences is really inspiring... I should definitely try to go more. I guess I had gotten into kind of a funk about learning new stuff on my own. I'm probably going to sign up for lynda.com. I really want to learn more about user interface, interaction design, and graphic design too. Right now I don't have enough confidence in those areas to really push my point of view.

thursday night workout

5 sets of 10 reps using the barbell:

- deadlift
- row
- clean
- squat
- press

5 reps using these rolling dumbbell things:
- one arm
- other arm
- both arms

monday night workout

Repeated twice:

5x - Deadlifts, at first 50lbs + barbell, then 70lbs + barbell
5x - One-handed presses, each side, with a 12kg kettlebell
5x - Assisted pistols on the Smith machine, each side
5x - Assisted pull-ups on the Smith machine (first time one-legged; second time cross-legged), each side
5x - Push-ups
20x - Double-handed swings with a 16kg kettlebell

Lastly 15 rollouts on the ab wheel.

Thursday night's workout

laddered sets of 10 kettlebell swings:
8kg -> 12kg -> 16kg -> 20kg (omg 44lbs!!!) -> 16kg -> 12kg -> 8kg

10 assisted pull-ups on one leg
10 inchworm push-ups
10 chair pistols on each leg

Repeat all that again, but with the kettlebell swings going:
20kg -> 16kg -> 12kg -> 8kg -> 12kg -> 16kg -> 20kg

and the assisted pull-ups on the other leg

Monday night's workout

Three sets:

- 10 single-handed swings on each side (16kg kettlebell)
- 10 kettlebell squats (single 16kg kettlebell)
- 10 single-handed presses (12kg kettlebell)
- 10 reverse rows on the Smith machine
- 10 kettlebell lunges each side (passing the kettlebell between the legs)
- 10 push-ups

late night cooking

Late night cooking = bad idea. Especially when it's something I haven't made before. I had been meaning to make some Chinese pan-fried chive dumplings for a while now. Apparently for too long as the chives I bought were partially rotting. I had to go through each stalk, not just to wash them, but to pick off any slimy rotted portions. This took a LOT longer than expected. I started at 10:30pm but did not finish until 2am.

This was the recipe I followed: Stuffed Pancakes with Garlic Chives

The dough calls for boiling water. Why? I don't know. I didn't have any pork on hand so mine only had vermicelli, egg, and chives as filling. The second most time consuming part was wrapping the damn things. When a recipe calls for 1 lb of flour for a dough that then needs to be divided into small chunks to wrap things with, that should be a clue to either cut the recipe in half or not start it at 10:30pm.

Silly me, I made the entire portion of dough and separated it into 16 balls. I continuously wrapped until 2am, by which time my back and legs hurt. I couldn't even try one because Lawrence didn't want me to fry them up that late at night. Instead I got up extra early this morning to fry some up. I made them last night so that I could bring them for lunch so I better have some for lunch.

I was a little bit skeptical because the chives & vermicelli were not cooked before wrapping but they steamed up nicely inside the dumplings while they were being pan fried. It actually turned out pretty good, but I think I'll try cooking the next batch at a medium-high heat instead of full on high. I think the outsides got too dark before the dough could fully cook. However, the one I ate seemed cooked through so I don't know if it's even an issue.

Three pan-fried chive dumplings + 3 slices pan-fried turnip cake with sweet chili sauce = nom nom lunch!

weekend

Saturday
- went to a patternmaking class at the Urban Craft Center in Santa Monica (was almost 1.5 hrs late but I caught up)
- went to the LudoTruck (doing well, food is awesome with just a few tweaks needed and consistency issues addressed)
- went to see Muse at the Staples Center (great show, my 2nd? stadium concert EVAR)

Sunday
- played WoW ALL DAY (got my warlock from lvl 13 to lvl 20)
- did laundry, including hand-wash clothes (I won't even say how long it's been)
- washed dishes & prepped lunch (go me!)

stair climbing

67 floors, up and down!

Kinokuniya's crafting section

So usually when I go to the Kinokuniya in Little Tokyo, I browse the Japanese knitting & crocheting books. Today I happened to be browsing around the other random things at the front of the store and found, OMG, a crafting section right at the front! They have these Hamanaka kits for a bunch of different crafts...

There were whole kits for these amigurumi animals, either as small stuffed animals or keychains, for $14.45 each. They even had tools, like the pom pom maker I bought a while back, as well as a needle felting starter tool kit, a felted ball maker, crochet hooks, clay sculpting supplies, bags of different colored wools for felting, pom pom animal kits, and these freakin' basketweaving kits to make these cute little piggy baskets.

workout

3 sets of:
- standing cable rows, as many as possible, one minute each hand
- standing cable presses, as many as possible, one minute each hand
- jump squats, as many as possible for one minute

Total that was only 15 minutes of exercise, but I must have taken 15 minutes of rest because I only got through 3 sets of that. It was tough, tiring, and I tried not to get nauseous. It really did not help that this was a morning workout and I wasn't able to eat early enough beforehand (what I did eat was only a cup of yogurt). Plus we went to sleep at 3am last night, and right before that we had pancakes, eggs, hashbrowns, and sausages at IHOP for dinner (at 2am).

kettlebells!

Last night:

18kg kettlebell~
- 40 swings
- 30 swings
- 20 swings
- 10 swings
(100 total)

- 5 on each side - squat, transitioning into a press upon standing back up
- 10 on each side - rows

The entire set repeated twice, and then just a third set of the swings (300 total swings in 30 minutes!).

Thursday workout

6x total with double 8kg kettle bells (all two-handed):

- 5 reps of: clean, swing, high-pull, snatch
- 5 reps of: squat, press
- 5 reps of: rows

Monday workout

- 40 consecutive double-handed swings with the 16kg kettlebell (35 lbs - a personal best!)
- 15 on each side - lunges with the hind foot resting on a bench
- 15 on each side - one-handed reverse rows
- 15 push-ups

I even went through all that a second time, up through half of the one-handed reverse rows before I started feeling nauseous.

breakfast

egg whites mixed with green onion, topped with a little bit of light soy sauce

steel cut oatmeal, mixed with applesauce, honey, and chopped nectarines

Friday Dinner

Lawrence went to Gyu-Kaku for dinner with his brother...without me and without even telling me until I called him to ask what he was doing. :/ So, I made dinner for myself. There were a few recipes out of "How to Cook Everything" I had wanted to try and I already had all the ingredients. I made 2 dishes: quinoa with shallots, leeks, and scallions; and garlic roasted brussels sprouts.

The quinoa was pretty good. It was real easy to eat and is supposed to be *super* nutritious. I did not burn my brussels sprouts this time. They ended up nicely browned. I wonder if my oven runs hot? I only needed to cook them for 20 minutes at 450F, versus the 30 minutes instructed in the book. This time I also smashed each clove of garlic with the flat of my knife before adding it. They ended up deliciously crispy at the end.

Workout

Thursday -

with the 8kg kettlebell
{
10x with each arm - clean, squat, press, snatch
10x in each direction - circular reverse rows
10x on each leg - one-legged squat variation (with leg lifted behind)
} x 2

10x each arm - dumbbell ab rollout, with only 1 arm extended at a time

yay for the prop 8 ruling!

Even though it's going to get appealed to a higher court, YAY that the judge ruled Prop 8 is unconstitutional!

Plants on my Balcony

Photos of a few of the plants on my balcony.



That's a flower from my tomato plant.



That's the window planter, and I have in there (left to right) parsley, serrano chile, cilantro, rosemary, basil, mint, and thyme.

exercise - Monday

I think Monday's workout was with the 12kg bells...

- 30 double kettlebell swings
- 10 double kettlebell presses
- 15 double kettlebell push-up, deadlift, rows
repeated twice

- 15 leg lifts (keeping one leg vertically as straight as possible, lower the other leg all the way down then lift up & alternate)

LA River Plan

I found out recently about the LA River Plan, a plan to revitalize and integrate the LA river into the communities it passes through. The plan's website is here: http://www.lariver.org/. It includes development plans for the park near Chinatown/Lincoln Heights where the corn fields are and plans to make Griffith Park more accessible with pedestrian walkways.

More info here:
Curbed LA - stories tagged "la-river"
LA Times - EPA declares L.A. River 'traditional navigable waters'
LA Times - Restoring the LA River

New Music

Music I've been listening to in my regular rotation recently (British female pop & some European anthem trance):

La Roux - Bulletproof.

Marina And The Diamonds - Mowgli's Road.

Florence and the Machine - Cosmic Love

Oceanlab - On A Good Day. (not the official mv, but the winning mv contest entry)

OceanLab - Lonely Girl.

Rank 1 - Symfo

Pledger & Smith - White

whoa my gourds!

I actually got blisters from last night's workout!

10x10 double kettlebell swings (two 26lb kettlebells)
15x2 renegade rows with the 18lb kettlebell (but with my supporting arm up on a bench)
15x2 lunges (I forgot which one I used)
5-4-3-2-1 kettlebell squats with the two 26lb kettlebells cleaned to the shoulder

Thursday workout & 4th of July weekend

Thursday:
- 30 double handed swings with the 16kg kettlebell
- 10 push-ups
- 10 sit-ups
- 10 lunges each side

repeat x5 = omg, 150 kettlebell swings with a 35lb kb!

Saturday:
Peggy's b-day bbq!

Sunday:
Fireworks in Fullerton with Lawrence's cousins! I spent the afternoon making a huge bowl of guacamole which everyone seemed to enjoy. :) I used the recipe from the How To Cook Everything book. I really need to start photographing my cooking too. There needs to be a pretty Ravelry-esque site for every niche!

I also picked up another plant. I've now got on the balcony: a tomato plant, a pot with cosmos seedlings, and a window planter with basil, thyme, rosemary, mint, cilantro, and serrano chili.

cooking

From Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything:
- Black Beans and Rice
- Lentils and Potatoes

From Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice:
- Broccoli Cheddar Cheese Soup

Soup turned out great. For the black beans and rice, I used canned instead of the dry beans called for in the recipe. I think I needed much more water while it baked because the rice took a long time and was still pretty hard by the time I was done. I guess I thought as long as the stuff was liquid, the rice would be getting water - not true. I used red lentils instead of the brown called for in the other recipe. Apparently red lentils cook A LOT faster. It was my first time cooking lentils and I wayyy overcooked it. It turned out to be more of a mashed lentils and potatoes dish than anything resembling an Indian dal.

In the end, I didn't get to do more than taste a few partial spoonfuls of each. It's almost 2am and I'm too tired to be hungry. Ordinarily I'd be fine but I had a workout tonight and I probably really need the protein. :/

Oh, and by the way, tonight's workout:

3 sets of 10 reps each of the following series (using a 45 lb. bar)
- partial deadlift
- bent-over row
- clean
- squat
- press

this week

Doing squats with weights is killer and makes me realize that at this point non-weighted squats would not be very useful for me. Wearing super-high heels has made my calves super tight, like they get after I get a major cramp. Lawrence got me these raw denim jeans...they started out at a 31" waist and then after 2 nights of wear stretched to 33". They're straight-legged and slightly tapered. It's been a LONG time since I've worn straight-legged jeans. I usually buy baggy boot cut jeans. These are snug in the thighs and butt, are super low rise, and are more feminine and flattering than my old Lucky jeans. Lawrence wants to get them tapered even more in the calves because apparently my 15.5" calves are still too skinny.

___________________________________

I have issues with throwing things away. I want to try to at least sell them, donate them to Goodwill, or just give them away for free to someone who wants them. The problem is I forget, get distracted, or get overwhelmed by other more urgent things and it never gets done. Lawrence gets frustrated at the piles of stuff I want to get rid of but not throw away. Last night we threw a bunch of stuff away including 2 brand new large but cheap Ikea rugs. There were also a bunch of cardboard moving boxes that could have been recycled. It mentally pains me to be part of the consumerist-centered throwaway economy. Lawrence thinks I'm being ridiculously "all or nothing". That may be true, but how do you cherry-pick when you uphold your ideals and still have respect for your own sense of morality?

sore

My exercising has been sporadic for the past few months because I got sick, then I got super busy moving and attending an expo.

Saturday though, Melody organized a group to go hiking the Sam Merrill trail up Echo Mountain (straight up Lake Ave. in Pasadena/Altadena). The trail was uphill the entire way and follows the side of the mountain. Next time I'm wearing better shoes - I ended up with blisters on both heels.

Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning we went to the Mitsuwa food fair held at Torrance & Costa Mesa. We tried ramen from some popular chains in Japan (delicious!), ate takoyaki, and tried various other foods.

Sunday afternoon we went with Lawrence's cousins to Tanaka Farms, a farm located smack in the middle of Irvine, for strawberry picking. After that, we all went to try the famous Taiwanese bakery chain, 85C).

NRA

Wow, in Chicago. Just finished a hectic day of pitching at the National Restaurant Association Convention. I suck at selling, but it was a good experience. There's 3 more days, and the busiest days are still to come. We've got a ton of fliers we need to print out cause we're out.

Things I want to do

These are the current things at the top of my mind that I want to do.

Update my Windows OS so that I can install Microsoft's Visual Studio Express.
Write up some web applications in my spare time that I can then put on a server.
Take dance classes at PCC.
Take tai chi classes at PCC (tai chi sword!).
Finish up my current knitting crochet projects.
Use the carpet in my new apartment to block the lace I finished but never blocked.
Get a dog.
Design a lacy crocheted shawl using fingering weight yarn and doily techniques.
Continue crocheting doilies out of the Japanese books I have so I can enter them on Ravelry.
Design a filet crochet chart of a cool, maybe nerdy, image that Lawrence can appreciate.
Take some beginner yoga classes.
Regain physical strength & stamina after being sick for 2 weeks.
Figure out and prepare some knit/crochet entries for the LA County fair.
Cook more things.
Take a class on cooking techniques, like the Chicks with Knives classes.
Go to more new restaurants.
Go hiking in the morning.
Learn Cantonese - Pasadena Language Center?
Eventually learn the violin.
Practice piano & er-hu more often.
Eventually learn Japanese.

grandiose music

I've been on a quest lately to find more of specific types of music to add to my playlist.  One of those types is "grandiose" or "epic" sounding pieces.

Here's a list of what I've accumulated so far:
1) Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man
2) the theme to Star Trek: The Next Generation
3) the theme to Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
4) the theme to Star Trek: Voyager
5) the piece He's a Pirate from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
6) A Dark Knight from The Dark Knight (actually, pretty much all of the pieces from the soundtrack)
7) Molossus and Eptesicus from Batman Begins
8) Creating Governing Dynamics from A Beautiful Mind
9) a bunch of stuff from E. S. Posthumous that I've listened to way too many times now

Yes, my list is limited to the movies I've actually watched (very few and limited to pretty much the past 10 years or so).  Maybe it's because I grew up watching TNG, or because I'm a big science fiction fan, but I LOVE the feelings that the Star Trek themes evoke in me.  It brings me back to my junior high and high school days when I read about and imagined a world with interstellar travel, advanced civilizations, and a sense of immense vastness.

bollocks

...is a funny British exclamation meaning "testicles" and often used to mean "nonsense".  It also has nothing to do with this post.  I just heard it used in How I Met Your Mother and thought about how I always liked the sound of that word as an exclamation!

So I'm finally getting over my cold.  It started the Monday after the Grilled Cheese Festival, so I'm on my third week now.  Lawrence went up to San Francisco last week for work so I'd been at home by myself, feeling horribly sick.  I didn't take care of myself at all, eating junk and playing Heroes of Might & Magic III until 2:30am.  Saturday I felt well enough to go to the self defense class Melody was hosting, but...I didn't eat anything substantial the entire day.  Since Friday night, pretty much all I had were some Japanese crackers I splurged on (ugh...4 packages of rice crackers, potato chips, puffs, and more rice crackers).  So by Saturday evening I had a killer migraine, I was feeling totally out of it, dehydrated, a little nauseous, and just absolutely horrible all around.

I called Lawrence and he recommended I take a few big gulps of the strawberry kefir we have so that I can quickly get some sugars absorbed into my system, and then take an emergency can of Campbell's chunky chicken noodle soup so I could get some more carbs and some sodium to retain fluids.  It definitely helped and I felt much better by the time I went to sleep.

Today, I felt well enough to go to a workout session.  Melody had me work with kettlebells, so while it was some strength training, there was definitely a cardio component to it.  I was definitely still recovering and couldn't finish the rest of the way.  I got winded with a 2 sets of one-handed swings as well as a set of double swings to go.

I stopped by Gelson's on my way home to use the $5 coupon I got in the mail.  I got a ton of stuff for breakfast (need to stop going to Europane because it's too yummy for my own good) and plenty of veggies to cook with.  I really feel like some wild rice mushroom soup right now too.  I'm planning to go to Whole Foods in a little bit to pick up some wild rice.

Since I've been spending so much time at home, Muffin has gotten more snuggly with me than she has been for the past few weeks.  Right now, she's sleeping on my one leg that's propped up against the other.  :)

There was a Ravelry thread I was reading that really got me riled up though I'm not sure in which direction.  It was about feminism, male empowerment, equality, and the progress of female equality.  I'll save the details for another post.

May the 4th be with you!

Cause it obviously is not with me.  :(  I've been sick for a week and a half now.  My nose is still congested and runny.  My throat still feels funny.  And I think because of dehydration, I spent half of last night coughing with a dry throat.

...

One thing an induced hyper-alert state is not good for?  Learning new things by way of reading technical articles.  Gahhh.

whoooooo

3 hrs of sleep + at least 1 cup of coffee + looming deadlines + few programming hangups for me to get stuck on = 1 super-hyper-active me working at a million miles per hour

Classical forums

Of all the places to get me pissed off - I happened onto a classical forum thread discussing metal (rock).  OMG, there are some stupid, pompous, arrogant, elitist assholes who think that because metal isn't on their Oxford music curriculum, it has no artistic merit whatsoever.  Trolls exist everywhere I suppose, but it makes me want to bash my head into a wall.  Why can't people just agree to disagree?  Even something as "scholarly" as musical theory can be highly subjective.

Ageism & Homophobia

http://bayarea.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/suit-charges-elderly-gay-couple-was-forced-apart/

There was a press release Sunday, I think, about this.  It makes me so sad.  :'(  Even if there is a settlement or money is awarded, the damage has already been done.  Nothing can fix the injustices already suffered.  I hope at the very least, the case becomes an important example that separate is NOT equal.  Those who want to will use any excuse they can to deny equal rights.  Sadly, it may take many more stories of these situations for people to realize that their prejudices hurt peoples' lives.

kitty

LOL

Muffin likes to walk around and then suddenly flop over onto the ground.  Lawrence thinks it makes her look like one of those whores that sit in brothel windows - "look at me, look at me!"

exploring downtown

I walked around a part of downtown I had never explored today.  Lunch was at the LA Cafe (on the same block as Syrup Desserts - Spring St. between 6th & 7th).  I had a Shanghai Salad - pricey at close to $10 but decently sized with lots of chicken & fried wonton strips.  Passed by Cole's which serves french dipped sandwiches.  Coworker said it was NOT good.  Phillippe's remains our french dip goto place.  Next door was Blu LA Cafe with a gorgeous photo of a juicy burger.  Reviews on Yelp look mixed.  Next to that was Babycakes.  We stopped by to sample their baked goods - mostly cupcakes.  They specialize in gluten-free/vegan cupcakes.  They use spelt, a wheat variant, agave as sweetener instead of sugar, and are dairy-, egg-, and soy-free.  I got a red velvet.  Definitely interesting.  Not light and fluffy but I like the frosting (there'st just enough and it's not a sugary monstrosity of death).  Note: I am not a cupcake connoisseur.

Long posts are hard

I don't have the time to write out all the long posts I'd like to write but I still want to post about my experiences for posterity.  Eventually I'll get caught up on the backlog I suppose.  Meanwhile, I can't let that prevent me from posting.

Last night I worked out with kettlebells again for the first time in a long time.

12kg
- 30x two-handed swings
- 30x left-handed swings
- 30x right-handed swings
- 15x alternating single-handed swings (30 total)

2x 8kg
- 10x alternating presses (20 total), followed by 10 seconds holding both straight up
- 20x double swings

2x 16kg
- 15x double suitcase deadlift

After my workout, Lawrence surprised me from behind as I was talking to him on the cell phone.  :)  We went to the Container Store to scout out our organization options.  We'll probably be getting kitchen shelving as the kitchen at our new apartment has limited counter space.  We need something we can put the rice cooker & stand mixer on.  I'd love to custom design something using their modular kitchen shelving units.  I think I've also finally come to terms with the quantity and quality of my stash.  There is a ton of yarn that I can and should donate because while I MAY take the time to devise a suitable project, it would be so rare of an occurrence that I would just be fooling myself.  I'd like to cut down on a lot of the yarn I have so that I'll actually use the nice stuff and not feel overwhelmed by it.

I suggested going home to cook something for dinner but then we both realized we felt like Indian food.  We went to All India Cafe in old town and had some Palak Paneer, Aloo Gobi, rice, & garlic naan.  It isn't my favorite Indian restaurant (I can't say I'm crazy about any of the ones in Pasadena I've been to) but the cauliflower in the Aloo Gobi was sooo good!  We thought to ourselves how marked up the prices must be.  Each of the vegetarian entrees were about $8-10.  Portions were not huge and comprised largely of non-exotic vegetables - cauliflower, potato, spinach.  Since these are also Indian home foods, how difficult could it be for us to cook it?  We'll see.  We saved enough leftovers for my lunch today.  I also sliced up some char siu (bbq pork) that I made last week.

urges

Sometimes I get overwhelming urges.  When I decide I want to do something, I usually just do it because I know if I wait too long, I'll forget and then I'll regret it.  One of the things I hate the most is deciding to do something and then not following through on it (issues from my childhood).  However, sometimes I get urges to do things that take planning, long term commitment, or lots of invested time and money.  Some of these urges get acted on to my eventual benefit or detriment.

For example:
I've got a ton of straight knitting needles and random yarns I bought off eBay over 5 years ago that I will never use.  However, I am also now at least a moderately advanced knitter and crocheter.  I bought a rigid heddle table loom, cones of weaving yarn, a drop spindle, and I've attended spinning and dyeing classes.  I can't say I've spent much more than a few days doing either weaving or spinning.  I also have beads and wires squirreled away somewhere from my jewelry-making phase.

I've gone through phases where I really, REALLY, wanted to start roller blading again, buy and ride a bike, volunteer at a non-profit, join a common-interest social group, and raise a pet.

So what is it this time?  Well, this one has been re-occuring for a few years now.  I really want to learn the violin.  It would require time and money, but I've always loved violin music more than piano or erhu (apologies to my erhu teacher who is the sweetest person ever).  There was a phase when Lawrence bought a guitar and I thought I would try to learn that with him.  Lawrence also prefers the cello so I considered taking private group lessons with him to save on costs, but no.  What I really want is violin lessons.  Ugh, unfortunately our money is going towards other things right now.  Losing weight takes priority and I'm already paying for personal training sessions twice a week.  We're also trying to cut down on expensive food costs.  Even if I cut the personal trainer sessions, it wouldn't be prudent to instead spend the money on violin lessons.  If I'm working out and cooking dinner when I get home from work, I probably won't have time for practicing either.  SUCKY.

But I really want to learn to play the violin!  Of course, I also have to worry about how much I'm over-hyping it in my mind.  What if it turns out I just don't have a knack for it?  Would I then go try the cello?  I would like to be good at the drums.  No woodwinds or brass.  I don't have much lung power.  I feel like the problem with guitar is that it seems you're only playing chords to accompany your singing, which is the actual melody, and my singing sucks ballz.  Maybe I can do classical guitar!  That was actually what I wanted to do when Lawrence bought his electric guitar.

This is turning out way too long for a rant on how I want to play the violin.  Hah, this blog is like my whine-fest for stuff I don't actually want to whine about out loud.

How to Train Your Dragon!

Just got back from watching this movie at the Century City IMAX in 3D.  OMG, cutest, funniest dragon movie ever!!!  They did such a great job with this movie!  That dragon is so meltingly cute.  There were so many funny parts...I was laughing all the way through the movie.  I was expecting it to be more cheesy and aimed at younger kids.

I still want to watch Alice in Wonderland.

differences in DDR style

Playing DDR with Lawrence can be interesting because our minds work so differently.  He tends to pick up the visual cues of the arrows reaching the top rather than listen to the beat to aurally anticipate the arrows.  I'm the opposite - if I had to rely solely on the visuals, I would find it very difficult to react in time.  Instead, I listen to the beat so I can anticipate the timing of the arrows.  This can come in handy when you've got a bunch of quarter, sixth, or eighth notes in quick succession.

I'm also better at jumping.  He's got longer, muscular legs and is very heavy on his feet.  That makes jumping a slow and clumsy process for him.  Thus, he hates playing songs that have lots of Air while I love them.  I've always loved jumping - I think it's the sudden burst of energy.  I can go all out, let go, and not hold back.  Give 100%.  Maybe that's why I hate long distance running?  You can't give 100% because the point is to hold back and maintain a steady state for a long time [zzzzzzz].

We played DDR last night because Lawrence realized he needs to lose weight so that he doesn't stretch out the seams of his new A.P.C. raw denim jeans.  We hope to go running tonight.

Tonight I also wanted to make buns.  I started on the fillings yesterday.  I have a slab of pork butt marinating in sauce.  I made a ground pork butt & napa cabbage filling.  The pork butt will go in the oven tonight and come out as delicious cha sao/cha siu (Chinese bbq pork).  I'm going to make two different bun doughs cause I'm following two different recipes.  In the end, I will [hopefully] have some steamed bbq pork buns and some sheng jian bao (Shanghai pan fried buns).

Inner Turmoil

Coding causes so many conflicting feelings.  I hate it when I've got two lines of nearly identical code, yet one works and the other one doesn't.  There must be a logical reason though, and I love following the logical trail to figure out the possibilities.  It's almost euphoric to finally figure out what was wrong.  A missed "+ 1" here, a forgotten cast from string to int there...and it's inevitably something stupid that makes you wonder at your own intelligence.  Am I smart for finding the problem, or stupid for letting it happen in the first place?!  :O  Slowly but surely, I will conquer this app!

Lawrence & Me

San Francisco trip - Saturday

Saturday morning we rented a car so we could drive North across the Golden Gate Bridge to Calistoga.  First we stopped off in Chinatown to pick up breakfast.  It was really crowded there due to the ongoing New Year's celebrations.  We stopped by the Golden Gate Bakery for egg tarts and were surprised there was no line.  Then again, their pastry maker passed away in 2007 and the crust just hasn't been the same since.  Since there was no line, we also didn't have fresh piping hot egg tarts.  The crust was still definitely not the super flaky delicacy of years past.  It pains me that they were not able to pass on the flaky pastry skills.  This place was a San Francisco landmark!  No more...  :(  We also picked up some dim sum to eat in the car.

It only took us a little over an hour to get to Calistoga.  We stayed at Solage, a spa that was rated #1 in Conde Nast for the Americas/Caribbean and #2 in Travel + Leisure magazine for U.S. & Canada.  Their restaurant/bar, Solbar, even has a Michelin star.  The service was great - the people who work there are super friendly and service oriented.  They even gave us some hot chai to drink when we checked in.  :)  The rooms were awesome - they had concrete floors and were like their own little cabin-like buildings.  The layout was open and spacious and the room had a sliding glass door that opened out to a covered patio.  The rooms come with a pair of bikes parked outside so you can ride around the property on them.  They also recommend you use them to ride into town (stores are two blocks away).  Their spa, restaurant, etc. all have bike racks in front for you to park your bikes.  Rooms for us were $320/night.

Saturday lunch we ate at Solbar.  The food was pretty awesome all around.  We ordered (it probably changes a bit daily):

• winter squash velouté - with crispy sage leaves and granny smith apples
• some creamy soup with chorizo that's not on their online menu
• spicy shrimp lettuce wraps - glass noodles, nam pla dipping sauce, avocado and pickled carrots
• salad of asian pears and winter greens - bibb lettuce, red cabbage, hosui pears, toasted cashews and chili-lime vinaigrette
• freshly baked sea salt flatbread - romesco sauce, salsa verde and white bean purée with pimentón de le vera
• LUCKY PIG - slow-roasted shoulder of long and bailey duroc pork, black sesame crepes, pickled pineapple, mongolian peanuts, lettuce cups and more
• meyer lemon pudding cake - meyer lemon caramel, blood orange granita, honey tuile

We all agreed that the flatbread was delicious, and it seemed each of us liked a different dipping sauce best.  The Lucky Pig came with a ton of super tender pork.  You got to build your own wrap and all the little condiments they gave were yummy too.

[the view from our patio]

After lunch, we rode in to town and walked down the main street to shop around a bit.  We then went back to Solage and decided to soak in the geothermal heated pools before our scheduled mud treatment.  There was a big pool and separated walled clothing-optional pools that were much hotter.  There was also a steam room heavy with a eucalyptus scent.  Sonny and I went to the clothing-optional pool but I chickened out of going nekkid.  It was a little weird at first but ultimately I regretted not taking full advantage of the experience.  7pm was our appointment for their signature "Mudslide for Two" treatment.  It was 3 parts - mud slathering/baking in a heated room and then rinse; a mineral bath in their footed tubs; and finally a relaxing twenty minutes in a reclined cushy chair, wrapped up in a luscious down comforter, with headphones that play new agey spa music.  It was verrrrry relaxing!  I loved the whole experience!  Well, except for one thing.  They need to replace those Bose headphones.  BOO BOSE!  We had tried to get the full spa package, but they were already booked (grrr at the last minute planning).  Even so, just the mudslide was pretty awesome.  Even Lawrence was able to unwind.  Next time I go to a spa, I'd like to try out some facial/skin treatments.

We ate dinner in the lounge area of Solbar where they serve you from a changing menu of small plates.  We loved the food...they had some really good dishes and the surprising thing was how affordable the prices were.  I should have written them down or at least taken photos of the menu.  :[

San Francisco trip - Friday

A few weeks ago it was suddenly decided we would go up to San Francisco for the weekend.  Josh and Lawrence needed to be in SF for a food tasting for one of their truck concepts.  I guess they decided to make a weekend out of it so I went up too.  Sonny, Josh's girlfriend was also there.  The tasting was on Friday.  Lawrence flew out of LAX at 6:30am.  I was going to as well but our plans were too last minute.  Instead, I left straight from work and took the FlyAway shuttle from Union Station to LAX.

I was really nervous the whole time because I was by myself.  I've gotten so used to having Lawrence around that having to do things like that by myself feels really weird.  Also, Lawrence didn't know where the Long Term Parking lot was and ended up parking in the lot across from the terminal, which charges $30/day.  I needed to get there early enough to move the car to long term parking.  Of course, I look up the maps for LAX way in advance and plan out my schedule with the bus times so that I have plenty of time to do all this.  I had plenty of time to spare, but I still got a little nauseous from the anxiety.  I speculated at Lawrence that this is why I've always tried to maintain a calm relaxed state, partitioning my mind so that I don't think about certain things.  If I'm constantly thinking about and worrying over everything at once like Lawrence does, I can get physically ill from the anxiety.

The flight was fine, just a little bit of scary turbulence and more anxiety.  I got onto the AirTrain, then the BART.  I helped some people figure out the BART ticketing system (Is it really so difficult?!  I suppose if you're in a rush and you don't read the instructions).  The others were already eating dinner in Chinatown so I had to take a taxi there.  I'm pretty sure that was the first time I had ever flagged down and took a taxi for myself, ever.  It wasn't so bad I suppose - the taxi driver didn't try to talk to me much.  I hate having to make small talk with random people cause I really don't know how to do it right.  O_o  Anyway, we ate at Yuet Lee.  We had crab, clams, some veggies, sweet/sour pork.  It was decently good but Josh didn't think it was anything special.  I suppose you have to think about it in the right way.  It's about as good as San Francisco Chinese food gets.  One can not compare that with the variety and quality of Chinese food available in Los Angeles.  That night we stayed at the Grand Hyatt on Union Square.

doily blocking

crochet photo

Photo of my lace doily being blocked on a board with 60 pins.  An overhead shot of the same doily.  The lace doily I finished blocking yesterday.

monday workout

Monday was at Melody's house (yay!):

10lb sledgehammer:
- 30x circular swings on each side

6lb sledgehammer
- 30x vertical swings on each side
- 20x body twisting while holding the hammer sideways at a 90 degree angle

small ball peen hammer
- hold bottom of hammer with arm held straight out and let the end lower towards the arm, then pivot it straight back away from the arm

heavy ropes:
- 30sec. double wave pattern, both arms moving together
- 30sec. alternating wave pattern, arms alternating
- 30sec. sideways wave pattern, arms moving sideways out & in

25lb sandbags:
- lift, toss in arms, toss in hands, lift above head, toss back down in arms, then hands, then ground
- alternate lifting over a shoulder and touching the end to the ground
- alternate lifting over head to touch each shoulder

woah, earthquake!

At 4am, we had a 4.4 magnitude earthquake with the epicenter about 10 miles from us.  We felt it shake pretty hard although I don't recall the building creaking.  Lawrence was already awake and he quickly woke me up.  We tossed on our robes and went outside the building as a precaution.  It reinforced how we've laxed in our earthquake preparedness.  We had a backpack filled with emergency supplies, but then ate the cans of soup when we were low on food and dumped all the stuff out when we had to use the backpack.

Weekend in SF

I've decided to split this up into multiple posts.  There's just too much to write about for one go.  These posts are not really meant to be informative - more like a personal journal for me to record my impressions.

A couple weeks ago, we suddenly got the opportunity to go up to San Francisco to hang out with Josh & Sonny.  I wasn't able to be there Friday until late at night so I missed out on the food concept tasting.  Saturday we rented a car and drove up to Calistoga to stay at the Solage spa & resort.  We ate at their Michelin-starred restaurant, Solbar, and relaxed at the geothermally heated pools before getting a relaxing mud treatment.

Sunday we drove to Yountville for brunch at Ad Hoc, and then drove up & down the highway for wine tastings.  We stopped at Opus One, Robert Mondavi, & Joseph Phelps.  For a late lunch we went to the Oxbow Public Market in Napa and gorged ourselves on raw oysters.  We also tried a place there called Pica Pica Maize Kitchen.  It serves Venezuelan street food consisting of various fillings over your choice of three different corn breads.

For dinner, we were back in San Francisco and tried out Heaven's Dog.  Monday & Tuesday we relaxed in SF, shopping, eating, and looking at condos.  I didn't call anyone up to hang out with because I wasn't sure of Josh & Sonny's plans and I didn't feel like I should go run off on my own but Lawrence assures me that it would be normal if I want to do so next time.

Photo processing

Going through the recent photos on the camera so I can add pictures to my posts.  Meanwhile, here's a few old ones:

Muffin likes to molest me while I sleep:

And here she is looking sneaky:

Here's Lawrence 3 years ago when he first started his job at Maserati:

Annnnd, here he is this week just after he got a new haircut (wearing contacts too):

Here's a gorgeous domme at the Folsom Street Fair:

And this was the line for the LudoBites truck at the LA Street Food Fest, when it was still early:

Long posts

Ugh, long posts make me tired.  I have a post waiting to go about my trip to SF from a week ago but it just gets longer and longer.  I decided to remove the food reviews and turn those into separate posts...but that means I need to write even more to properly get down my thoughts on the food.

Maybe tonight.  I kind of want to bake some more.  Maybe cake?  Bread is waiting for me to get off my lazy bum to clean out my dough bucket.  It's got leftover dough from seriously....three months ago.  I'm scurred.

Workout & cookies

Tonight's workout:

- Holding onto one end of a 45 lb. bar with both arms held straight out, lunge to one side.  Lunge to the other side while bringing the end of the bar over.
- Lunges with a 24 lb. bar held on one shoulder, repeat with the bar held on the other shoulder.
- Raise the 24lb. bar, lifting it straight up hand over hand, then lower it hand over hand.
- Assisted pull-ups.
- With upper back resting on a balance ball and a bar held with arms straight, bring one tip over the head to touch the ground and then the other tip between the legs to touch the ground.

On my way home from the gym, I went to Sur La Table and bought a BeaterBlade mixer attachment with silicone wings that scrape the sides of the bowl and a Microplane zester.  I also stopped by Gelson's for a bag of key limes and a bag of King Arthur All-Purpose Flour.  This was so I could make a batch of key lime meltaways, recipe courtesy of smitten kitchen (adapted from Martha Stewart's recipe).

[cooling on the rack after baking]

[after being coated with powdered sugar]

Delicious!  The flat beater attachment worked perfectly.  I might need a little more sugar in the dough.  I also wouldn't mind adding more lime zest.  I definitely need to use regular salt instead of Kosher salt, which was the only salt I had.  :<  The texture of the cookies, however, turned out perfectly light and powdery.  Too bad Lawrence doesn't like citrus zest of any sort in anything.  I'm too lazy to take pictures since it's so late at night.  I still have another log of the dough in the fridge so I'll take pictures of the next batch.

Thursday workout

Back into the groove of things~

- With hands on a bench, hop both feet over the bench, left and right (x15).
- Plyometric push-ups using the bar of the Smith machine (x15).
- One-legged jumps forward, back, left, right (x15) on each foot.
Repeated that set 4 times.

- With hanging from a pull-up bar, lift knees up as close to chest as possible (x15).
- With both hands held straight out, pull the cable sideways across body; flip around and do the same in the other direction (x15).

Note to self

Drinking lots of water may be good for my health, but I need to tone down the rate.  Needing to get up and go pee every half hour from drinking too much too quickly does not help productivity, especially when coding.

Old games that are not popular enough

My dad used to sign up for this magazine that would give you a floppy disk insert every month that had DOS software & games on it.  These disks kept me occupied in my elementary school days.  They had text-based adventure games, dungeon crawlers, first person shooters (pre-cursor to Doom),  puzzle games, word games, etc.

Sadly, I can't find any of them available for download on the internet.  I guess they JUST WEREN'T POPULAR ENOUGH.  ARGH.

ZZT
Conflagration
Catacomb 3D
Murder in the Museum
and a ton of others I don't remember the names of

There's also this one game that was on our copy of OS/2 Warp.  It was a puzzle game where you had a character that had to move boxes around on a tile-based grid.  It was similar to Chip's Challenge except there were no fancy water/fire/ice tiles and no monsters.  It just had one-way tiles and boxes arranged in specific ways.  The goal was to move the boxes to the indicated tiles.  I just can not for the life of me find any reference to this game.  O_O''

TV lineup

My current TV lineup & their resume dates.

March 1
Chuck (actually, I still need to catch up to the current episodes)
How I Met Your Mother
Big Bang Theory

March 8
House
Castle

April 1
Bones
Fringe

Thursday, whew.

Thursday:
- office Pie Day, celebrating Black History month, Chinese New Year, President's Day, & Valentine's Day
- last day of bootcamp (testing out)
- got to eat some khao soi & Korean fried chicken.

Pie Day!  It was mostly an excuse to take advantage of Marie Callendars' bi-annual month-long pie sale.

Bootcamp!  It was the last day, meaning it was testing out day!  I lost 6 lbs overall, 3 inches in the waist, more inches all over, and 1% body fat.  I almost doubled the amount of sit-ups I could do and slightly increased the number of push-ups.  I also did the timed mile run in 8 minutes.  I don't know how much of any improvement that is from the beginning, but I'm guessing a big improvement.  I haaated running outdoors but I think I've gotten better at it now.  I've built up more stamina and I'm considering getting Lawrence to go running with me at night.  The next session starts in March and I'm still trying to decide whether or not to do it.  The amount of time it takes and the dietary limitations are pretty stressful.

Dinner!  For dinner, we went to a Thai restaurant over in Hollywood.  It's a place that specializes in Northern Thai cuisine, which means they have khao soi!  Khao soi is a curry noodle soup using a coconut-based curry with egg noodles.  The places I've had it typically serve it also with chicken, red onion, pickled cabbage, and lime juice, topped with crunchy fried noodles.  It was very good and definitely had a spicy kick to it.

We decided to top by Kyochon on our way home as we had heard about the Korean fried chicken phenomenon several times now.  It took 20 minutes for our to-go order but apparently that's normal.  Lawrence didn't want to wait until we got home so we had some in the car.  Now this is some delicious fried chicken!  They're supposed to be double-fried, which is why they take so long.  This technique produces a yummy chicken wing with tender meat inside and a crispy mouthful of skin on the outside.  The soy garlic sauce was good, but I felt like it would have been even better if I had honey to dip it in.  The spicy chicken had a spiciness that crept up on you, but once it did - OUCH.  That was some painful spice on my tongue!  Lawrence's first spicy piece wasn't very spicy so he happily ate another.  I guess that's when the heat kicked in...lol.  He hopped around the apartment complaining about the pain while I laughed to myself.  See, it wasn't me being a spice wuss!

Thai food

I miss Thai food.  Sure, Saladang and Saladang Song in Pasadena are nice, but I need a place where I can get good, cheap, non-pretentious, Thai home cooking.  We haven't explored the wealth of Thai food in LA, I think because Lawrence was tired of having so much Thai for so long...but I reallly want some.  NAO.

table leg warmers

I just saw a post on ApartmentTherapy showing off some photos from Ambiente, an international design show in Germany.  One of them really tickled my fancy - a bench from the Pling Collection with knitted "socks" on its legs.

I've never seen knitted home decor used that way before!  It's totally functional too - if I have wooden floorboards, I can give my tables socks to help them slide around easily without scratching up the floor.  I need to come up with some guerrilla knitting for my home!

LA Street Food Fest [after]

We got up before 5am and were out the door by 5:30am.  I wanted to make sure we got some breakfast so we stopped by Jack-in-the-Box.  By 6:30am we were at the LA Center Studios, where the event was being held.  The guy we met there gave us a tour of a set.  They film a lot of stuff there and apparently they were still in the process of filming The Next Food Network Star (airing summer this year) so we got to see the set.  :)  That was pretty cool.

We spent the next 3 hours setting up the booth for MobiMunch.  It was exciting to watch as the food trucks trickled in.  The chef I met on Wednesday was Ludo Lefebvre from LudoBites.  MobiMunch sponsored the food truck he was cooking on.  Apparently there's some backstory behind how that came about but I won't get into that here.  Jeffrey Saad (finalist on The Next Food Network Star) came to the event as well to act as sort of an ambassador for MobiMunch.

The event itself was O.M.G. insane.  A quick search today showed that reactions have been very mixed - people were either excited they got a chance to try the food there or were pissed off at how long the lines were.  Since we were stationed in an open space in front of the LudoBites truck, we were able to witness the chaos first hand but not get totally consumed by it.  The LudoBites line grew quickly, expanding straight out until it hit the fence and wrapped around...hit another line and turned again.  At that point I lost track of the end of the line.  The location was enclosed so there was a longgg line outside to even get in.  It wrapped around the block, made a snake-line through the parking lot next door, and continued to wrap further around the block - I don't even know how long it went for because I was inside the whole time.

So, even though we were at the event, we only really got to try a handful of food.  We were able to get some of Ludo's chicken.  One of the girls volunteering with us was able to snag some popsicles from PopShop.  I had a lime mint mojita popsicle, and it was deliciously refreshing.  It got to be very sunny by mid afternoon.  I was able to get into the VIP section and try out some other vendors there - The Fry Girl, The Dim Sum Truck, and The Tea Salon.  The lines everywhere were seriously ridiculous.  Some people had to wait 2 hours for Ludo's chicken, and then another hour to get their order.  The most successful people separated for a divide-and-conquer approach to hit up the most popular vendors.

At the very least, I feel the event was a great intro to the newest street food out there and really gives me more incentive to go find the trucks and try them out on my own time.  If I went to the event on my own, I probably would have gotten really pissed off too.

L A Street Food Fest

w00t!  Totally looking forward to this.  We're going to be up at 5am - set up on location is at 7am.  The event doesn't actually start until 11am and it runs until 5pm.  Afterward...I still have to head over to my parents for Chinese New Year stuff.

Sick?!

Speaking of being sick...I hate being sick - who doesn't?  I'm pretty sure I caught whatever it was Lawrence had a couple weeks ago.  Yesterday, however, was a fortuitous day to get sick.  Josh is in town, the LA Street Food festival is this Saturday, and that means there's a lot to do for the business!

I slept till pretty late in the morning and Lawrence was late to his dental appointment.  After he got back, his brother asked if we wanted to go check out a certain food truck that just finished getting wrapped (i.e. covered in a vinyl wrap so as to change the visual of the appearance of the truck in a non-permanent, easily switchable way).  This truck is being used by a certain celebrity chef on Saturday's street food fest.  I just recently started following LA Weekly and a few over local L.A. oriented restaurant-food blogs and so I've heard about this chef.  Screw my cold - I wasn't going to give up this opportunity to meet the guy!

The truck looked totally badass, with his totally badass logo of an angry coq (French for rooster, harhar) wielding a knife.  There was a small film crew there taping the chef for a reality tv show based on the chef.  They tested out the deep fryers on the truck and we got to try out the inaugural food truck-fried chicken.  It was juicy, flavorful, and totally delicious!  The chef and his wife were very friendly, personable, nice.  We got to chat with them and it was soooo cool & fun.

That night we went to have dinner with them at the Lazy Ox Canteen.  It was funny...when Josh asked if we wanted to go have dinner with them Lawrence was a little hesitant (I didn't want to seem overly eager by screaming out "OH GAWD, YES!!!").  Then Josh mentioned they were going to the Lazy Ox Canteen, and both of us lit up and were like "OKAY!"  Haha.  I had heard it mentioned all over the LA food blogosphere and really wanted to give it a try.  Dinner ended up being not so much about the food as Josh, in his enthusiasm, ended up dominating the conversation with his "company pitch".  :P  All in all, it was a great time.  I felt bad for our servers as they kept on coming by to see if they could bring us our second course, but everyone was either too busy talking or just plain not hungry from all the fried chicken we had earlier in the afternoon.  I tried to eat a lot of the salad and veggies (luckily we ordered plenty), but yes - my bootcamp diet went out the window.  I didn't order a beer and mentioned I was kind of on a diet.  The chef was like - oh yes, I'm always on a diet - bread, butter, etc....LOL.  There's nothing better than a fresh, warm baguette for this French chef and I totally agree.

Man, I SO wish I had done my food research before going to Paris with my mom that one year.  I totally missed out on the opportunity to experience some of the best food in the world.  Lawrence and I will have to go there some day.  He's so cute too, he said I should ask about the famous Parisian artisan bread baker I had been reading about in Peter Reinhart's book, The Bread Baker's Apprentice.  I did mention that I had just gotten into artisan bread baking.  :D

So yeah, to sum it all up - I had an awesome day meeting some awesome people who cook deeeelicious food.  I felt like the odd duck out cause I'm just a lowly code monkey who works on a computer all day.  Speaking of which...it feels good to get back into some REAL coding, no matter how much I complain about the frustration.  It's only frustrating until you figure it out, then it's like the biggest satisfaction ever.  :D  Even so, it's nice to occasionally take a break from the code to do stuff like refactoring or UI design.

Monday workout

I flew through workouts on Monday.  It seems that bootcamp has increased my stamina for Melody's workouts - maybe it's the cardio, or the fact that I'm working out 4 nights a week instead of 2 for a total of 3.5 hours of strenuous activity each week instead of 1 hour.  I don't remember what I did - there was too much.  I should have written it down on Monday.  :(  I missed last night's bootcamp workout because I was sick...

Efficiency vs efficacy

I sometimes get so caught up in figuring out the most efficient way to do something, I lose sight of the larger picture and nothing actually gets done.

I just realized today one way in which my obsession with efficiency has been useful. It forces me to practice and learn new skills that ultimately become part of my repertoire. By experimenting with various finger/hand positions and motions, I've become more flexible with my knitting techniques. I can knit with the yarn held in either hand (as well as both for fair isle colorwork). I can knit with quick fluid motions, although I am still trying to minimize the stress on my wrists. I can also hold the yarn in two different positions so as to adapt my tension to fit the project/yarn at hand.

w00t

164 lbs.  It's not that much less than 165.5lbs, but at least it's going DOWN.  I need to totally DDR it up on my off days.  This past week of exercise was not so bad even though I missed Tuesday.

Last night we went to So Kong Dong for some soon tofu (Korean tofu pot).  It was pretty good, but the broth wasn't as hearty as I expected, especially given that I ordered my regular spicy.  I'd like to eat more soontofu for dinner but I only know of one Korean place in Pasadena, and they're more contemporary.

Developer rant + other news

Have I already complained about how much JavaScript frustrates me?  AJAX + ASP.NET = headdesk.  I guess it's because I'm really not that familiar with AJAX, its integration with .NET, or the gritty .NET stuff involving authentication/access/webservices/etc.

I'm trying to figure out how to do certain things with my code, and it seems like it should be simple enough.  I mean, functionally it's pretty basic.  The problem seems to be with the way I'm implementing it.  I don't know how I'm *supposed* to implement it so I've just got to try something that looks like it should work...until I realize it doesn't and then try something else.

_______________________________

Grr.  It doesn't help that I've been getting only 6 or so hours of sleep each night.  I missed my workouts Monday and Tuesday.  Tuesday, I partially made up for by digging out the DDR and doing 40 minutes of cardio.  It was good, and I can still do medium difficulty songs easily.  The heavy songs with tricky footwork are still beyond me.

So on Saturday I went to Salon Sessions in Pasadena to get a hair cut.  Angela was really cool and even gave me a card for a free makeup session (because I'm a n00b who doesn't know how to put on makeup and she's really sweet and wants to teach me)!

Lawrence picked up my bro on Friday after going out to Riverside to pick up Phillip from his job interview after Phillip's car broke down.  We ate at Shabu House in Little Tokyo.  We walked over to Wurstkuche afterward, but they were packed and so I didn't get to buy my bro a beer.  Saturday, he went out with us to the IMAX at the Ontario Mills mall.  We met up with Lawrence's cousins to watch Avatar.  After that, we went to Rowland Heights for some sushi at a HK market plaza that was surprisingly not bad.  We went to William & Cathy's house to hang out and I taught my bro to play Cantonese mahjong.  I knit a bit and ended up falling asleep for a few hours.  We didn't leave until close to 4am.

Sunday we went to Golden State Cafe (finally!) in Hollywood.  Lawrence and Wilson got the burger, with a side of sweet potato wedges and fries, respectively.  I got the grilled chicken caesar salad.  We all agreed it was yummy! :)  I also got to try some Scoops gelato, Brown Bread flavor...omg, delicious!

SQUEE!

One of the benefits of living & working in Los Angeles is that they do a lot of filming here.  Since I'm in the middle of the Civic Center, I've seen them do a lot of filming outside the government buildings.  Today, literally RIGHT outside the building, where we cross the street to go to Starbucks, they're doing filming for Bones.  On our way back from Starbucks, we actually saw David Boreanaz standing on the sidewalk, putting on a tie.  SQUEE!  I was actually hoping to see Emily Deschanel.  :)  I may try going back out there later.

ETA - Went back down just a few minutes ago and watched them film a little right outside the Metro station escalators.  Both David Boreanaz & Emily Deschanel were there!  I wonder if I could get a closer look?  :)

So. SORE.

My shoulders, sides, arms, neck, upper back...are SO SORE!

165.25lbs tonight.  I weighed myself after I got back from work/working out.  I feel like weighing myself again tomorrow morning to get a more accurate reading since this was still a lower measurement (at the end of the day) than the last time I weighed myself (in the morning).

Workouts

Tonight was with Melody and it was all kettlebells.  It felt good to do strength training.

30x each with the 12kg kettlebell:
- 2-handed swings
- single-handed swings (right)
- single-handed swings (left)

1-handed presses with the 12kg kettlebell:
- about 15x with the right arm, and hold for 10 seconds
- about 8x with the left arm, and hold for 10 seconds

15x suitcase squats with two 16kg kettlebells

15x 1-handed rows with the 12kg kettlebell

15x assisted pull-ups

15x push-ups on the 16kg kettlebells

repeat the three sets of 30x kettlebell swings with the 12kg kettlebell

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I think the bootcamp training has been helping my stamina with the strength workouts - besides the cardio, it's at least double the amount of strenuous exercise from before.

Food is still the most difficult part to nail down, especially on the weekends.  We go to sleep late (we went out to Lawrence's cousin's friend's place on Saturday night where they played Big 2 & mah jongg until 2am).  We left earlier than usual, but still didn't get to sleep until around 3-3:30am.  Each morning we didn't get up until around 11am.  That pushed back breakfast & lunch so both my sleeping and eating schedules were screwed up.  On the weekends, I think the last thing Lawrence wants to do is eat at home, especially if we're hanging out with Phillip.  It's hard to get enough water too, but that's my fault.  I could be carrying around my water bottle if I put my mind to it more.  :/

vegas food

Just for personal reference, when we were in Vegas last weekend, we ate at:
Sushi Samba, Cut, Daniel Boulud, and Zine.  We also had breakfast at the Mirage's B.B. King Blues Club, lunch at Taqueria Canonita, and grabbed a bite from the Bouchon bakery counter.

We could have but did not go to Bar Masa/Shaboo.  If we had more time we may have gone to try Bar Charlie.  Next time?  :)

weight

We have a scale in the apartment building's shared gym.

I weighed in at 172lbs a couple weeks ago, but I was pretty dehydrated and probably retaining water.  It was also at the end of the day.

At the start of the boot camp, they weight you and I started at 170lbs.

Over the weekend, I went to the gym in the morning to see how I was doing after a week.  166lbs.

I didn't want to get too excited since it was probably all water weight anyway.  It could also have been a fluke - the low end of a varying weight due to who-knows-what.  So, I went back the next morning with Lawrence in tow (I had a bowl of cereal already).  166.5lbs.  I wonder how much of the weight difference was due to pre-menstrual water retention?

Now that my period is over and I'm better hydrated...let's see how this next week goes.

went to Sephora

I stopped by Sephora on my walk back from the gym today.  I needed to get a moisturizer and I wanted something that would go with the facial cleanser that I bought (Philosophy: Purity & Peter Thomas Roth: Gentle Complexion Correction Pads).  The girl who helped me pointed me to the Boscia moisturizer with sunscreen.  I also picked up 2 more products for skin lightening.  She recommended natural products, specifically the Ole Henriksen "truth serum collagen booster" for day and the "enlighten me pigment lightening serum" for night.  She also gave me samples for the Ole Henriksen eye cream and enzyme mask.  I got to try out a foundation too.  I mentioned that I have the Bare Escentuals mineral powder, but she suggested I try a liquid foundation, specifically a brand called NARS, but geez... $42 for a small 1 oz. bottle!  O_o  The other stuff was pretty expensive already.  $48 for each of the Ole Henriksen bottles and $36 for the tube of Boscia moisturizer.

We watched the movies Coraline and Doubt this weekend.  Coraline reminded me a lot of Pan's Labyrinth, except for perhaps a younger crowd.  I didn't really want to watch Doubt.  It frustrated me that it ended without a satisfying resolution.  I don't like stories like that because as Lawrence explained, it's not about the story.  It's about ideas, which in this case was the idea of "doubt".  Apparently Julie & Julia and The Hurt Locker were all rented out at our Blockbuster.

tough day

So after working out yesterday, I was talking to Lawrence on the phone and just started crying.  I don't know if it's because everything felt so hard and I was sick and tired...or if it was PMS and I'm getting my period soon.

I asked him to pick me up from the train station because I really didn't feel like walking home.  We stopped by Border's where I bought a Kakuro puzzle book and then went to Blockbuster where we rented the latest Harry Pottery movie (he watched it without me and I never got around to seeing it).

It was 2.5 hours, but I felt like barely anything happened.  It was nice to get interested in the world again and this morning I thought to pick up my copy of Deathly Hallows and finally start reading it.

ETA - menstruation it is!  about time too...

New exercise regimen

I started a new exercise regimen.  It's a 6 week bootcamp of 3 hour-long sessions a week that takes place right across the street from my office.  Being that it's an hour long and it involves much cardio (including running), I'm not sure how much energy I'll have left if I still want to see Melody on Mondays.  Well, it's only for 6 weeks.

They require you to bring a jump rope, a pair of 3-5 lb. weights, and a yoga mat since it takes place completely outdoors.  It's a fairly large group of probably close to 30 people.  They also want you to track your food in a log.

It's too bad that I'm SICK.  URGH.  I was in Vegas over the weekend and ended up sick.  Initially it was the cigarette & cigar smoke that really irritated my throat and gave me a sore throat.  Then I got a stuffy/runny nose and my brain feels clogged.  It really sucks having to run around for an hour outdoors while sick, but I don't really have the time to make up classes.  They only let you make them up within the current session.

In their initial 2-minute test, I was able to do 20 push-ups and 19 sit-ups.  Body fat was 33.1% - low end of high & high end of normal.  I weighed in at 170 lbs, which has been relatively stable for the past year or two.  I really need to watch my diet more to lose weight and maintain a stable lower weight.  I hope tonight doesn't go too bad.  I'm not feeling great today though my throat isn't hurting.

Japanese-style custard pudding

A few months ago we bought a cup of Japanese-style custard pudding (with caramel on the bottom, like flan) from the Marukai in Little Tokyo.  Lawrence picked it up on a whim.  It was some of the most heavenly pudding I've ever had in my life.  Lawrence was determined to figure out how to make it and started researching the moment we got home.

After much searching on Google, he combined various recipes to make his own version of this Japanese pudding.  He experimented a bit with the caramel as his initial attempts were too bitter.  We bought cheesecloth to strain the milk/egg mixture.  We also used whole vanilla bean pods so that we could scrape out the seeds.  We even bought 2 sets of ramekins.

It turned out SO good.  Lawrence made two batches, the second one perfecting the mistakes made in the first batch.  Unfortunately, over the holidays when I requested he make more, he realized he forgot the exact recipe specifications he used.  I'm going to make him write a blog entry for me so we have it archived.  The stuff is too good to forget how to make.

Monday workout

- 1 minute of jumping rope
- 3 large jumps forward, then sprint to the end of the mat and sprint backwards all the way across the mat, repeat 5 times
- with hind foot on a "slider" (gripped on one side, smooth plastic on the other side), bend down into a lunge, touching 2 weights (10lb?) to the ground; stand back up, lifting weights to shoulders and then above head
- with hands on a medicine ball (2kg?), jump feet back and do a push-up; jump feet in and stand up, then jump with the ball as if shooting a basketball

Repeated all of that twice, but I didn't make it to the last item the 2nd time.

Mistakes

Part of being an intelligent person is learning from your mistakes.  You recognize what went wrong and you don't make the same mistakes again.  Constant improvement means constant progression and self-development.

So why do I never learn that drinking certain coffees gives me cramps??

moosak

anthem trance!

Burned my Bread

I baked bread yesterday and I burned it.  It was either because the thermometer I used to measure the internal temperature was broken (the plastic melted when we stuck the magnetic back onto a too-hot oven door) or the inside of the oven was too hot.  I turned up the temperature to 500F because according to the oven thermometer I got, the inside of the oven takes a long time to heat up.  That itself may be due to the addition of the 2 large clay tiles I bake my bread on.  Being too hot could mean the sugars caramelized on the outside of the bread too quickly for the inside to finish baking.

I had actually hoped I would burn my bread some time soon.  I've under-cooked it so many times that I knew how to avoid that problem.  Now I know - instead of just checking the thermometer, I should check the look of the bread itself as well.