don't judge me...

but i'm one of those ppl who eat over their keyboards... what can i say i have a short attention span and am usually reading some article online when i munch on snacks throughout the day!
so i cringe to even imagine what disgusting thing could have been spilled over the years and incubating under these keys my fingers touch.

speaking of not judging me, i was finishing the book T. sent me (Julie and Julia) which i've blogged about earlier this month. it's a good interesting read, and darn if i never came up with such creative idea and relentless execution of the idea, or else i might have gotten a fanciful book deal out of it. but the book revolves around Julie who is determined to make every single recipe from Julia Child's Master the Art of French Cooking cookbook.

however, i knew i reached a stage beyond normal reason, when the pages displayed "JC" and i thought "Jesus Christ"? (help me if i don't get struck down by lightening for blasphemy) and took another second before my brain catches up to think what the heck would JC be mentioned in a cooking/blogging book.

spirit squads and what-nots

friday night the SJ Stealth were playing in town agains the Chicago Shamrocks.

i'm never one for Lacross games actually, caught a minute or so when channel surfing past the ESPN channels sometimes, but never had the urge to watch it on tv. but was randomly selected to buy free tickets to friday's game (i've bought tickets online before and they send me random newsletters) so i figured, 4 dollars including service charges for a live sports game is worth my time to check out.

the game was pretty close, we lost 11-10 and honestly the last goal that went in against us was BS - one of our guys was cross checked against the boards and went down for a full 30 seconds without whistle - the play continued and all of a sudden chicago had 2 players against no defense, just our goalie who was trying to see if our guy was ok. booo the play should've been whistled dead. our guy was down another 2 minutes after that goal.

the biggest thing is seeing the sheet of hockey ice completely covered by mini-putt-green, and the ice look so much smaller that way.
the annoying thing was the skanky cheerleaders who pranced around doing their little dance routines after every 15-minute quarter (they weren't even in sync, and most of the time weren't aligned in formation properly). being the typical girl i couldn't help but critique their little outfits and questioned whether some of them should really be on the cheerleading team of a professional sport in the fitness shape that they're currently in.

don't get me wrong, i caught a few episodes of Making the Cheerleader, saw half of the try out training process of the Dallas Cowboy's cheerleading team. man they deserve every muscle they've worked for, every dollar they get paid, the intensity of training and hardcore dedication they need to make it. but a lot of the other cheerleading squads aren't even remotely as respectable... just in skanky outfits half-@ss shaking some of their assets.


i didn't know Sci Fi channel has a reality TV show called Who Wants to be a Superhero - successful enough for a 2nd season! i think like American Idol, the most entertaining part would be watching the try-outs...

not a Dolores

A = me, AG = Author Guy, BS = ByStander

A - "i am a huge fan... but definitely not in the Dolores Claiborne way"
AG - *chuckles* "good because I'm a lot bigger than you and I don't want to have to fight you"
A - "oh, i play ice hockey, i am pretty sure if i need to, i can check you into the boards!"
AG - *chuckles some more*
A - "i project a presence bigger than my size, you know! :)"
BS - "hey Author Guy, i would be afraid of her, her purse is twice the size of your head!"
AG - "yeah, Aristole or someone said 'never anger someone smaller than you with a purse twice the size of your head!"
BS - "well Author Guy, you always did have strong female roles in your books..."
AG - "yeah, i can picture her as a very colorful character in my books, but i'm scared..."

i went to my favorite author's book signing last night. if you read 1 book this year, make it Lamb by Christopher Moore. it's funny, witty and almost blasphemous (which makes it so good)
he's known as Author Guy and he's pretty funny in person, i always enjoy his book signings. he finally wrote a sequel to Bloodsucking Fiends, a vampire story call You Suck, you can read the first chapter here

i always enjoy going to author signings, although some authors are more fun & entertaining than others.
Author Guy is funny, so is Chuck Palaniuk (famed for Fight Club but he has other great novels as well). i'd love to go to one by Maeve Binchy, but seeing how she lives in Dublin and every book she's put out in the last 5+ years she's threatened to be her last not sure there's many chances to see her in person....


* Spider... *

while driving home tuesday, in the rain and the reflections of the streetlights i realized there was a huge (nickel-size; which trusts me, seems huge in close proximity from my hands) spider frolicking on my steering wheel - my car was in motion, i was driving already... besides emitting a small scream (no one else to appreciate a good scream) i looked in the rearview to make sure no car was behind me so i can drive erratically a bit to pull over. i didn't want the spider to fall into the dark abyss of my car (images of the spider hiding in my purse, coming home with me, crawling on my legs, etc etc...)
in the rain i pulled the car aside, turned on hazards, the inside light, opened the cardoor, hop onto 1 foot to grab my shoe and ended the spider's life and threw him out onto the rainy pavement.
no regrets over the spider murder...

inspiration from food...

my lovely friend T sent me a copy of Julie & Julia - a woman's adventure into tackling all of the recipes in Julia Child's Master the Art of French Cooking within on year; the journey of it documented on blog and now in a book. T also sent me a lovely container of lavender flowers to make this awesome lavender creme brulee; it looks like my next baking project found me!
(thanks T, you are so thoughtful!)

i've started reading the book which is so far pretty well written and interesting. i can relate to food being a comfort in life, afterall don't they say someone's love of food gives you a good gauge of their love of life? last night i was inspired to make risotto primavera. For a while i made risotto once or twice a week so i have the basics down but it's been a while and i wanted lots of veggies in it, so it had onions, carrots, zucchinis, asparagus and peas along with spicy italian sausage. i must say it's to die for, request this if i ever shall offer to cook for you ;)
but more and more i realize, even though i turned to eating food as therapeutic all my life, increasingly i've become more involved with cooking food as part of my therapy. last night i had the Sharks game steaming online in the background, and chopped, sliced, diced and sizzled away. Risotto is especially therapeutic - sounds NEEDY, needing to stir it all the time until liquid is evaporated, then repeat. but for some reason, the repetition and incremental progress of cooked risotto calms me down. (Sharks winning their game in LA also helped!)


i've become a Cookware Snob. last year i own a Le Creuset for the first time in my life and i've never looked back. i'm getting 2 more Le Creuset as gifts this year so i'm super happy about it. too bad they no longer makes the pretty Citrus color gradient yellow i love so much (darn you Le Cresuet)



yesterday i also bought myself a REAL bedframe first time in my life! Look at me, I'm a Big Girl now! *cue Pampers commercial music in background* it's solid wood (unlike previously plywood or brushed metal frames i've had), and 40% off, such a steal i had to have it. but it does make me feel like a Big Girl.

continuing on that topic, i feel like i have to balance out the Big Girl feelings with doing something crazy & wild. i dunno, a roadtrip somewhere? a last minute shopping splurge on something i don't need? i'll think of something...
i think i'm still in the midst of the Rebellion Teenager phase i never went through earlier in my life, just playing catch-up. what would you do that's Crazy & Wild? i'd like some ideas.

my friend Deviline is going on a trip to Egypt soon - how exciting!!! and Paras is going on a week long cruise in the Caribbeans... i hope to live vicariously through the rest of you and maybe be inspired to do that crazy something i've been looking for~!

ugly betty

i've been catching up on tv shows online lately :) it's like having tivo at my fingertips, i can watch the shows i want whenever i have time, pause, go get dinner, come back and continue the show... i've heard of the show Ugly Betty, but never caught it on TV till now... i think it hits home for every woman who still sees their ugly duckling reflecting back in the mirror from time to time. it's also fun seeing the haute couture of high fashion magazines, i think this did right what Devil Wears Prada lacked...

on with more rants.

i would never deserve to own high fashion anything, that's because i have at least 5 loads of laundry at home waiting to be done. yes, i have in unit washer-dryer and i have done laundry past midnight many times. not that doing laundry takes effort, strength or skill; however it's one of the chores where i drag my feet at. any volunteers to do my laundry?

the hockey store i go to had a new shooting practice lane installed - got a demo of it last week before my game... it was so cool! basically like a batting cage for hockey! you can change the speed of the puck being passed to you in the series (from like 23 mph to 35 mph), change the reaction time (time lapse between pucks), and randomize the 4 corners of the net that you're supposed to shoot at. for me the 10 minute demo let me really solidify what everyone has been telling me HOW to handle the pass and shot but i never really quite GOT IT before...
having the chance to repetitively correct what i wasn't doing and improve on what i should do definitely helped me with really knowing how to connect with the puck (mind you i still can't lift my shots off ice)
http://www.rapidshot.com/home.php

chinese new year is coming up (as is the Superbowl)... i didn't realize that we're the year of the Pig now... i swear time flies by quicker every day.
this is an interesting take on Scratch N Sniff stickers (loved getting those when i was young)

zibby says not to write TOO LONG blog entries, so ending rant here for now.

love affair with the tulip

now that the holidays are over, we can concentrate on anything other than red-green tinsles... don't get me wrong, i usually like holidays, but this year has been quiet and i was about bored enough to get back to normal every day life. having been sick for so much of last year, i wish everyone a great year ahead with good health and happiness.

i saw the prettiest tulips the other day, a nice rosy pink tulip with a gradient wash down to white on the bottom of the flower. i always thought tulips were not long-lasting flowers, i bought them anyways thinking i'd get 2 days of prettiness out of them. surprisingly they lasted almost a week. i guess it's nice to be living in california and being able to have tulips on my desk in the roaring december weather.

update on my tummy situation, i am still on nexxium, and get slight heartburn still when i eat. the plus side is that i am able to trade ulcer stories with lots of people, including the older crowd, which should lay good groundworks in the future should i look for a Sugar Daddy.

i've been pretty antisocial the last few months, being sick kind of does that to you. i guess you can kind of tell with the infrequent updates to the blog. sometimes i feel i am just thinking out loud and subjecting my readers to my boring rambling. bleh

so i finally got high speed internet at home; after 9 months of not having it, i am like a starved child at the buffet table! pry my cold dead hands away from the keyboard, i dare you! if you're online at night, you can usually find me logged in. i've discovered the joy of tv show episodes being shown on the network websites now - who needs cable?!?!?! who needs a social life?
i've got tv shows on the browser, friends on instant messengers, email at my fingertips. cuddle up on the couch with a pack of instant noodles who can beat that? (does that sound sad?! don't judge me!)

ok sometimes when i'm blogging i just feel like i'm the crazy looney supermarket-cart-pushing lady mumbling to herself...

Happy New Year!

Happy new year to everybody! I hope that you had a happy and safe holiday.

Congratulations to Gravy and his gal! They will soon come over to the dark side and join the "smug marrieds" (Bridget Jones reference for all the puzzled guys reading this).