ice cream

... ok i didn't think i had a *PROBLEM*

i bought ice cream today from the supermarket... Hagen Daze Light Blueberry Cheesecake. First time i tried their 'light' ice cream, it sounds yummy
(i had their special edition Strawberry Cheesecake - which i can never ever find again in any store, but i look every time - they put real good chunks of strawberry cheesecake swirled in vanilla ice cream, it was heaven in every spoonful!)

the problem isn't that i bought the ice cream today...

it was apparent what the issue was, when i placed the pint of ice cream in my freezer...

it completed the 8th pint collection of ice cream i have in my freezer! EIGHT!!!! who HAS that much ice cream in their freezer?!?!?! here's a countdown.

Hagen Daze Light Blueberry Cheesecake - yummy, doesn't taste LIGHT at all, cheesecake ice cream with ribbons of blueberry and graham crackers.
Hagen Daze Vanilla - their classic, i think this is one of the best vanilla ice cream i've ever had, this is my usual backup, goes with with pie a la mode...
Hagen Daze Strawberry Shortcake - a friend brought this over thinking this was the prized Strawberry Cheesecake flavor i am on a holy grail search for.
Hagen Daze Black Raspberry Chip - dark raspberries with chocolate chip, i'm only so-so with this version. this is apparently an attempt for this classic Graeter's famous flavor
Godiva Belgium Dark Chocolate - a few spoonfuls of this typically satisfy my dark chocolate yearnings
Godiva Belgium Dark Chocolate Mint - i picked out the mint swirls they're yummy...
Ben & Jerry's Oatmeal Cookie Chunk - this is sooo good, sweet cream ice cream with dash of cinnamon and chunks of oatmeal cookie
Ben & Jerry's Everything But The - this was a wild, random choice. i didn't know what i craved and everything was in this ice cream so it seemed a logical choice.

the underlying issue is that ice cream is always on sale (2 for 5$) when i am at the store, and that i don't have one constant all-time favorite flavor... i want to try everything, and when i'm at the store i want to get a different flavor. none of the containers are less than half full, i'm a fickle ice cream eater. AND i cringe when i pass by the Ben & Jerry store and see a small scoop is 4$!!!
i'm intending to throw out half the ice cream in the freezer this week. after i sample a spoonful of each flavor one more time! :)

by the way this weekend was HOT here in - we had 42-43 Celsius degree temperature during the day both days! i was panting like a puppy with a tongue sticking out to dissappate some heat.
it was nice and cool at the hockey rink - but once we started playing, moving around caused us all to be sweating buckets!!!!!!

Word of the Day

Sycophants. Why are we surrounded by them? I can't stand 'em!!!

down for the count...

i'm down for the count today...

no, not another severe cold/cough, but since dinner last night my tummy's been on a protest. as in it will not hold anything...

a slight twisty-knots sensation persists. nothing major that i can't walk or talk, but not minor enough to just ignore. i got a nap this afternoon when i left work to go home for a bit. maybe i have an ulcer. i dunno, random guess. i think i need to stop trying to diganose myself...

in any case, the only food my tummy has hold on to is 3 spoonfuls of heated frozen mac n' cheese. and tea.

dominos...

i recall dominos being more popular in the late 80s... not the sit-down and play type, but TV shows would show neatly stacked dominos waiting for that one simple single push, hence the 'domino effect' ;)

who knew that everyday household items can be used for the same purpose... i must say i was facinated by this clip. the coins especially facinating, although the high heel shoes are a close 2nd. although my place already look like the aftermath of a domino event...

here's an interesting fusion of music Star Wars on Banjo

invaders

for you pathetic dweebs.

the office thief

i wish there were no more updates on the office thief who opened and used more than half my bottle of french vanilla creamer...

a few weeks ago i was at a supermarket and grabbed a few items for work snacks - trying to be healthy when the 3pm lull hits and not go crazy and eat overly-processed full-of-refined-sugar overpriced pastries from Starbucks. i bought a pack of sliced baby swiss chesse, unopened but once open you can reseal type of packaging.

i had forgotten it was in the fridge, until today, when i put the rest of my lunch in there... and yeah, what do i expect, right? the package was opened and half gone.
sure, i hadn't gone back in a few weeks to 'manage' my snack, but it's cheese, with a long expiration date, and it was fully sealed new in box, and bought by me.

to hell with the games, i had thought of running my grubby fingers all over the slices of cheese and putting it back in the package, hoping whatever dirty germs i may have would possibly give the thief a deserving stomach ache.
too much effort.

i took the package of cheese out of the fridge...

and dropped it right into the trash. and i feel so free.


some kindred spirit might say 'hey, you didn't even remember it was there, isn't it better someone ate some of it, so not to waste it before it might go bad, because there are starving children in the third world...'

i say they did not buy the item, did not leave a note to say they are helping themselves to an emergency slice or two. it is stealing, no matter how you cut it. it is stealing if you do it in a supermarket (open the package from the fridge of something you didn't pay for and eat half of it and put the package back in the fridge).

i'm a Roomba Mama!

i'm a proud new owner of a Roomba. i've read mixed reviews but generally most owners love the Roomba and being both a geek and a lazy person, and someone who does not yet own a vaccum (don't judge me!) i bit the bullet and bought a Roomba....

doesn't it sound promising? push a button and let that thing go in your place, it can do carpets & floors, and when it runs out of battery (active time is about 2 hours) it will find its way back to homebase for recharge, allowing you to set it free on the dirt next time you need..

i was looking with my friend who has been wanting one since Christmas. i told him i'd buy one if he does, and he did... so we're Roomba buddies
a friend of mine just got Tivo, so he had an open invitation for our friends over to watch Tivo-ed shows (most of us don't have cable TV at home, and yes, we work in the Profitable High Tech field we also live where frozen dinners cost 4 bux each)... my Roomba & i are already invited to a Roomba-Tivo party, the Roomba will be set free to clean at my friend's place, and Tivo will entertain us in the meantime....

sad life of a silicon valley girl ;)

retirement food...

i think i've found my Retirement Food - when i've retired, probably losing a few teeth, not able to withstand anything requiring too much work, this seem like a good meal...
cream spinach mixed with just garlic spinach, and a side of mashed potatoes and gravy. yum...
anyhow, that's what's for lunch from Boston Market... not that hungry today, so just got the 'sides'.

finally saw my friend J. back from her backpacking trip in 'stralia; we both fell sick with bad colds, then you know how life is, conflicting schedules. plus we live 50 or so miles apart from each other so it's not very easy to just 'drop by' on a weeknight. it was very nice to catch up!
we went to this place called Texas Roadhouse, which is kinda like a Jack Astor's except while you wait they give you a bucket of really yummy roasted peanuts, and everyone just throws the shells on the floor - it's what they do. the steak & ribs were very good for the price, and huge plateful of food. the bread came with yummy honey butter...... i think i can just sit there, order a drink, have the free bread & peanut and call it a nice meal out!!! we loiter at Borders afterwards until they close... nice, peaceful evening.

sat night i find myself at my friend P's wedding reception... her wedding & original reception was in Feb in Hawaii, but sweetheart that she is, she planned another one locally for friends & family who couldn't make it (time or money wise) to Hawaii... the reception was in her backyard, with long tables and a little porch-stage, lots of candles all around, and a tiki-themed bar complete with a few professional bartenders... weddings and receptions and showers are always akward situations for me; most of the time you know MAYBE a handful of people if you're lucky, and rarely get seated next to people you would've chosen to spend a whole evening getting to know otherwise... you talk about fluffy things like work and pets and vacations and really, would still have covered the same topics if you sat next to some other random strangers that evening...

i showed up 'late' (it was a walk in walk around type of thing) but i got there before the belly dancer... P hired a belly dancer and she was absolutely amazing!!! not the prettiest, but she had a lot of makeup on, the whole exotic smoky-eye look, and long wavy hair down to her butt.
and could she move! she had fabulous abs, and a great body... the girls i was sitting with were all saying how UN-womanly we feel when we see the way she can move her body and look like the very essence of a woman - sexy, confident, fun...!~

afterwards, we were talking to the dancer, who was super nice... we told her how impressed we were, great body she had... and she told us that she has a sock stuffed in her skirt at the back of her butt, and 'everything but the kitchen sink' stuffed into the bra-top that is supporting her chest. :) and believe you me she looked like it was all hers!!!! i think her revelations are very entertaining and nice to know; how hard it takes for a woman to look womanly with curves and toned muscles & everything, when the perfect womanly look from the dancing we saw was 'enhanced' !!

the party started dispersing bit by bit, the older relatives were going home. i met this pair of half-vietnames-half-white sisters and found a drinking buddy in Angie, who is bumming with her sister for a year until she can save enough to get to vet school at UC Davis. we had a soju shooter, a barcadi coco shooter (chased down with a slice of lime and sooo yummy), a rum-cranberry shooter (not so tasty) and a triple-sec/sweet-sour/whisky mix shooter. at the end there was a bit of drama with P's younger brother and the friend of the 18-yr-old cousin acting a bit scandalous in a bedroom upstairs...

all in all, a good evening of drinking, fun and not too much of required-fluff-conversations...

and of course played hockey this weekend, was glad to be able to get 4 games in. had decent games, just need to work on not freezing up and stopping to skate once my blade make contact with the puck...

yum... lobster...

reading about the rare lobster in the news actually made me crave for lobster...
the last few years of living at home, mom & dad would totally cash in on the cheap summer lobster sales (foggy memory suggested they were priced at something crazy like $0.99/lb or something) and we'd boil them all, spend a few hours extracting all the meat, then putting all of it in the fridge so we can use the meat for a salad, or just carnivorous eating rampages.

i only had lobster once since i moved out of the house. a friend was flying about 10 lobster from hometown BAWSTON out here, and for my birthday she gave me 2 of the lobsters. they were slightly chilled on ice but still mobile when waking up from a cold slumber in the styrofoam container. i'd read instructions online and seemed confident enough to go home and cook them. first boil until half cooked - the most humane way to go - then chop in half and grill the rest while basing with a marinade. what can go wrong?!

well E. had no crazy love for eating lobster like i did (though he likes lobster, but not LOVE) and wanted nothing to do with the killing of the beasts. no worries - i'm chinese and since young we've seen chickens and parts of various unidentified animals being chopped left and right, raw, cooked, whatever.
afterall, i was only just going to throw it into the pot...

...
...
...

then i felt BAD for KILLING the damn lobsters. i never thought i would. i have stood my my parents side many many years witnessing this simple act of lobster murder without any remorse, and all of a sudden, i get to the boiling pot, and i FELT BAD!!!!!! E. was on the sideline, couldn't bear to watch this...
they were Boston lobsters, i couldn't very well have let them go free on the lawn hoping they'll find a good new home; or just let them eventually die of starvation or lack of water...
so i quickly threw both of them into the pot, praying that the cosmic karma total wouldn't get unbalance and punish me for robbing these lives out of the lobster. it's kinda like i have no problem when someone else had kill the animals, and i have no problems cooking the killed animals, i just have that problem being the one bringing the end to them.

and so, no the world didn't crumble and punish me for the deaths, but i felt sufficiently guilty enough, that i half heartedly chopped the boiled lobsters in half, and put them on the grill.
they tasted "ok" but i think the guilt of brining their demise troubled me, and affected the taste.

the lobster tasted... a bit tough because i overcooked them on the grill. and tasted... GUILT-Y.

well, after travelling down memory lane with this blog post, i think i'll delay my next lobster dinner at home for a while...

movies, etc

ok, i finally got around to watching

Xmen 3... i liked it, but didn't LOVE it, perhaps because i can't quite related to the Jane character as much. it was interesting to all the characters' storylines move forward; however, given that one of my fave characters disappeared early in the movie... well...

Superman Returns - liked this one a lot, actually saw it on the curved Imax and on regular screen. Definitely both have advantages and disadvantages, but i liked it better on Imax. besides the fact that i thought Lois made a bad mother (who brings their kid to work? where's the expensive but snotty nanny?!) i actually like the story, and i thought the actor was good.

The Omen (original). yes i know the new one came out 6 - 6 - 06 (pretty clever) but i'm not big for seeing horror movies in the theatre, unless i'm there with ppl who are passionate about that genre. i saw 28 Days Later which was a great movie but hella distrubing, and i was distrubed all the way home. The original Omen was good, although i really fault the movie trailers industry, because almost all the main scenes were shown in this summer's remake trailer. Other than that, the Omen was less 'scary' than i thought; i had thought it was going to be more gruesome and graphic, perhaps like The Exorcist.

i also bought Waiting and The Aristocrats, which were supposed to be decent. it's hard buying movies - if i've seen it, and liked it, chances are i might watch it maybe 2 more times if i owned it. if i hadn't seen it, how do i know i might watch it more than once?! do i really NEED to own the movie? how often have you gone back and watched a movie?

being a freak, the only movies i've ever watched over and over are: Anne of Green Gabels and the sequel to it. Nowadays i pop a random DVD from Gilmore Girls series when i'm home... other than that, no movie's made an impact where i've watched it more than 3 times.

sf people - can you steal one of these for me?

I'm not a huge Discovery fan but these posters are wicked... they're to promote the Race2Replace (Lance Armstong)

links for fun

interesting lessons, applicable to life outside designs: Things they never taught me in design school

interesting conversation piece at summer BBQs

some of you knows Nathan, who still does the whole dragonboat thing here in the bay area

my shopping victories...

not necessarily the healthiest way to vent stress, but i like to shop when i'm not feeling 100% cheerful... (used to be food, but now-a-days my tummy can't handle the same capacity for food, so i have to pick and choose what kind of food i want to eat and can't just indulge myself the same way)

i went to the outlets (20min drive) this weekend to return a purse i bought but didn't love. M says: you gotta LOVE the purse, otherwise, put it back on the shelf.
i ended up getting this yellow twill Coach purse for 70% off so i 'splurged' and got this Coach bumble bee key ring to accessorize my purse (it's sooo cute together) In the past 2 years i've stopped buying 'fashion' purses; any random style/junk i used to see at cutesy teenager stores, and really come to appreciate the workmenship of high quality stuff. Coach leather purses has the softest leather... and even then, i only buy when it's on SALE at the outlet prices!

a new BCBG outlet store opened next to Coach; i don't recall every owning anything from BCBG, except maybe a tank top or t shirt on final clearance years back... but because this outlet store was new, it has a full range of styles and sizes of stuff, plus 50% off lowest price, on a lot of items... i ended up getting a lined linen skirt for $20 (length debatable to whether it's work appropriate) and a red version (with a beautiful deep red ribbon) of this fabulous silk dress for $30 (89% off) - it's more fabulous when i'm wearing it!


decent damage for a shopping trip, but no buyer's remorse on any item; i'm content for the time being (is it vain!?)

slugs...

I don't know what's MORE wrong - the soft soothing music in the background, or the narration:
Slugs Mating

funniest 6 minutes of Whose Lines Is It

Pirates of the Caribbean came out at mignight last night - tried to go see it, got there 45 minutes before the movie, and they already let the herds sit... there were probably 10-12 seats available but all singles and no one seemed likely to move their big @ss. got a refund to watch it some other time - forgot school was out and the kids all got dressed up as pirates to watch the midnight showing. Apparently they were in line since 7pm and were in the theatre sitting since 10pm. gives me more time to work on my maiden-in-distress-oh-pirate-guy-please-rescue-me costume...

weekend: hockey hockey hockey, a friend is working on her photo portfolio again so we have a long session tomorrow. i'm supposed to bring simple innocent cloths and realize, i have none (me? hootchie-mama all the way, baby!)

Happy belated Canada Day!

this marks the first year since i moved out here that i've celebrated Canada Day in California.

i went to the annual Digital Moose Lounge Canada Day picnic (mind you, it's almost highway robbery when they charge you 26$ per person plus 5$ parking for a picnic - 2 pieces of chicken 2 sausages, then garlic bread, salad and watermelon pieces!!!!!!!!)

anyways, i chalked it up to that 5 years of not celebrating it averages the cost out to 5$/year i did not pay so whatever...
i wore my sweatpants with Roots emblazoned on my butt proudly (it's also amazing how little-to-none of the Canada-themed clothing/accessories/flags/banners i actually own. if you have extra stuff lying around at home that shows Canada, or the flag or whatever, box it up and send it to me and i'll wear them proudly on Canada day)

i guess Canada Day in montreal was never a big deal - it's "Moving Day" - the day when most housing leases start so everyone is moving out of an old place into the new. i'm guessing this neat little 'tradition' was popularized by the french-canadians who did not want to participate in Canada Day celebrations so they have an excuse.

in any case, it was nice to look around and see many Canadians around; however at a glance you can't really tell what the common thread is, we look as diverse as a sea of any Americans here in the valley. There was a McGill Alumni table (yay) and i met 5-6 other McGill-ites who updated with news about the school having bought some hotel for dorm spaces, to the not-too-public marine-biology summer course that is a month-long dream course which takes place in Barbados where the school owns property. (where was this info when i was debating what to take?!?!) we were nostalgic about the good Canadian Corn Pops, coffee crisp, caramilk bars, and Tim Horton coffees, as well as discuss the ingredient differences between Canadian Coke and American Coke. Also the affordable price tag of an education back home...