Nashville at SJ Sharks...

me: hmm there's decent tickets for tomorrow's Sharks game against a really good team - Nashville... i have a hair appt but i may reschedule that, but i have no one to go with :(

M: LOL its so funny that you mentioned hocky game and hair appointment in almost the same sentence - it would seem they wouldn't go together! but you make it work!!

me: so i'm trying to decide if i might get the tickets to go (someone at work is selling their tix) and delay my hair appt (that i really do need)

M: it would seem they wouldn't go together! but you make it work!!

me: i'm such a girl !

word of the day

is "fawn"

:) was chatting with a buddy, i guess maybe my use of the word is out of context. anyways i like that word.

usage: When i watch Marleau play hockey, I just want to FAWN all over him...

the other word of the day is "autopilot", because i've been kinda moody and emotional, and i feel like i've been on autopilot for quite a while

hockey, hockey and hockey...

in the past few years ever since i've started playing hockey, i know i've become involved (read: obsessed) with the sport. i can talk about it, watch it, play it, read about it, be engulfed in it.



nothing beats watching live hockey, except playing live hockey.



so my sunday league made it to semi finals. if we win again this week we'll make the finals. i think we have a decent chance at winning the season, but all the teams are pretty skilled all around so it'll be some tough games ahead.



the Sharks had acquired a new defense guy from the Habs - Rivet. it'll be interesting to watch him play, i don't have the luxury of watching most Habs games. being 32, he's going to be the oldest SJ Shark on the roster this year - which shows you how young the team is. The Sharks played a great game tonight and outshot Anaheim 42 to 19, and yet still lost 3-2. there were quite a few shots that hit the post... some days, everything goes your way, and others, it's the total opposite.



such is life...

personal anthem...

i recall watching Ally McBeal way back when (i hear the groans, but why must you judge...) but one of the wacky psychiatrists (played by Tracy Ullman) had told Ally to find her personal theme song, and play it and her day and perspective of things will change...



not that i believe in that stuff (or not believe...)

but i hadn't bought music in while and the other day the mood strikes and i bought Gwen's The Sweetest Escape.



was kinda feeling a bit blah (seasonal affective disorder maybe, since it's winter, daylight is short etc etc) but i put the CD in my car and the first song came on, which is a mix of Gwen style yodeling/dance-ish music... and i think, if i had to choose my personal anthem (not theme song, i prefer anthems, they say so much more...) i would choose this song - Wind It Up.



it's got a good beat to dance to, but the yodeling sections allow you to laugh a little at it; kinda like a good cheering up in life... something that makes you want to dance to the rhythm, but always be able to laugh at yourself. anyways, just a random thought.

burning down a church...

aka, humankind at its finest: the Crab Feed.

so my coworker B. invited me along for the Crab Feed - an extra ticket appeared because his original guests were sick.
i've been feeling rather antisocial since the ulcers. most of the time i crawl into bed with my laptop and internet, browse, read news and watch tv online and fall asleep (turning into a piggy, i know) so originally i'd declined, but feeling like i was too anti social, B was able to get me a ticket today for the Crab Feed.

show up at the locale, it was hosted by a hawaiian hula group who rented out the church. So i realize February is the month when dungeness crabs are in season, which is why Crab Feeds are so popular here (remind me to blog about the earlier Crab Feed which happened in a restaurant)


in any case, we all sat down at the annex of the church which serves also as a gym on non event days, long long tables are set up and everyone just sits; it encourages you to talk to ppl you don't know since groups are sat along the table and you face complete strangers. there were raffle prizes all through the evening, as well as hula and tahitian dance performances by the halau.

Fruit punch, pretzels and bread rolls are supplied. then salad course is passed along, as well as a pasta course. then came dungeness crabs, big silver tinfoils of them refilled on the table when the containers are empty.


nothing as graceful or as ladylike as digging into the piles of crab on your plate with probably 500 other people in the room. make note: this is not for faint of heart or an activity for any 'dates'. this is for taking complete strangers, or real good friends - basically people who you don't care about if they look at you in awed fear as you monstrously dismember the dead carcasess of the crabs and devour them with delight


the room was pretty noisy of chatter as everyone is chit chatting... when the crabs were brought out, a hush of silence blanketed the room. everyone's vision is limited to the crab on their plates, working to get the meat out, mixing their sauces, butter, lemon wedges, hot sauces, rice cooking in rice cookers (i kid u not), poke salads, mayonnaise... you name it, someone's brought it. the room begins to be filled with sounds of crab shell cracking and juice flying, people mumbling and sighing in enjoyment, equipment clanking (butter warmer refilling)


i tap out earlier than i thought. (i know, K would be so angry with me. i did drink some of the punch, although i know that's not why i couldn't eat as much as i used to. when we went to buffets K would forbid me to have water, as 'you can have water all you want for free at home, save the room for buffet food!!!'). but the richness of the butter, the hard labour of extracting the crab meat... overwhelms me. it's like Running of the Bulls in Spain.


the servers did a great job of keeping things cleared and refilled on the table.

during one of the clearing sweeps, i had my plates in my hand, turn to put it in the garbage bag of the server...

as i turn, my elbow accidentally pushed a loose piece of paper towel towards the tealight candle in my butter warmer

i turn back around and POOF, the paper towel is on fire, the lightness of it starts it half floating...


in a momentary of mild panic mixed with disbelief, i started blowing at the paper towel to try to put the flames out. it worked a little but did not extinguish it. B's friend on my left watched in amusement for a few seconds before she unscrewed the water bottle cap and douse the whole thing with water, at the same time we both wrestle the paper towel, half aflame, into the styrofoam bowl which is halfway singed.


a small puddle of water splashed onto our table, and onto the girl's clothes; she was absolutely cool about it and we were laughing. well that event made the evening memorable for our group.


it would've been ironic to show up to my high school reunion one day (catholic high school) with a story about how i almost burned down a catholic church in california during a crab feed....

laziness

somehow i thought having internet at home would prompt me to update

this blog some more... but i see that i've been so lazy i've hardly

added updates...



one of my latest hobbies is watching tv

online... there are quite a number of sites that has the latest

episodes of prime time shows...



some of the shows i've been watching:

Ugly Betty

Gray's Anatomy

Desperate Housewives

The Apprentice

Battlestar Galatica

escher

i think this is cool, Escher and legos.

it's Presidents' Day on Monday here - whoohoo long weekend! it's also Chinese New Year - year of the Boar / Pig. yum yum...

Fon-don't

so yesterday i spent the evening with a few friends for potluck and fondue. i have no idea how we ended up with twice as much food as for the number of people, so it was a sickening full evening of gorging... (take THAT, Valentine's day my @ss!)
after loitering around the table i helped melted the chocolate and cream over the stove...

transfered the fondue into my little el-cheapo fondue ceramic pot and we lit the tealight candle from the set.
after a few minutes we began losing faith that the little candle can keep the fondue hot enough to eat...

someone else had brought their camping cast iron fondue set, so by majority vote, it was decided we needed to use this more serious fondue set which sits on top of a can of sterno.
now being a city girl all my life, i had to ask what sterno actually is, and the dumb-down version is 'gel gas'. ok... so the sterno was lit, and a pretty blue flame appeared... chocolate in the cast iron pot sitting on top. voila, sounds like a good plan!

however, after a few minutes, we came to a consensus that the chocolate was still just room temperature - making the chocolate difficult to coat to the fruits.
one of the girls L had an idea - why don't we just heat the cast iron thing on the stove to get the chocolate melting and boiling, then put it back onto the sterno...

J did just that, delicately handling the cast iron pot with potholders and (unbelivably) not catching them on fire or burning herself. she got the chocolate to a roiling boil and came back with the pot.

now sitting atop the sterno, the pot of boiling chocolate became angry. it sure was bubbling, and boiling and toiling much like the witch's concotcions out of Macbeth. we merrily started dipping the fruits into the chocolate (my faves were pineapples, strawberries and bananas in that order)... then after about 20 seconds, the angry chocolate looked... well unlike chocolate. a layer of oil seperated the mixture into liquid and chunk. what was delicious and smooth now look like potting soil left in the rainstorm and sat out for a few more days beyond. nothing could salvage this pot of nasty looking gunk.

in desperation we melted some more chocolate and cream in a non stick small pot on the stove, and just sat it on a tivet in the middle of the table for another quick 2 minute lightening round of Survivor Fondue (fastest fingers get to have fondue before the chocolate settles back into solid form as the pot cooled...)

people tell me fondue is an art, but after last night i think it's very much a science. the gross kind that you love to mash and get your hands on when you're a kid, like making mudpies in your front yard. i've undercooked chocolate, and burned it on the stove - but never in my life have i seen such a distinct seperation of chocolate fondue. now i feel my collection of chocolate-kitchen mishaps is complete.

it was so memorable that J took a video clip of it and put it on YouTube. yes i am the one who turned away from the camera, heaven knows i don't want to be associated with the gunk and the Fon-don't. (forgive the bad fondue-pun, but all the other ppl there seemed to think it was semi clever and laughed politely)

here's the video of our Fondue Gone Wrong

the mall...

after work i stopped by the mall to run an errand...
figured, ok tuesday night, should be pretty quiet.. but noooooooo the mall was packed, milling around were mostly zombie-like men with a look of desperation in their eyes. you can FEEL them assessing every store thinking 'would i get in trouble if i got her something from this store?!'

to me they are the obstacle of the mall obstacle course; most of these guys are clueless and procrastinating, they have no real destination or idea of what to get, and should i have opened a counter in the center of the mall and said 'give me all your money i'll come up with the right gift idea' they would've gladly hand me their worldly goods... it's entertaining but they better not be in the sales racks fighting me for the last item!

here's a little NSFW (not safe for work) humor:

One morning while making breakfast, a man walked up to his wife,

pinched her on the butt and said...

"If you firmed this up, we could get rid of your control top pantyhose."


While this was on the edge of intolerable, she kept silent.


The next morning, the man woke his wife with a pinch on each of her breasts

and said.... "You know, if you firmed these up, we could get rid of your bra."

This was beyond a silent response...

So she rolled over and grabbed him by his 'DANGLER' With a DEATH GRIP in place to make her point,

she said... "You know, if you firmed this up,

we could get rid of:

the gardener, the postman, the pool boy...

and your brother!"

English visitors

whooohoo...! i hadn't seen her for YEARS, my friend S. is coming to visit (with her 'french lover') mid March...! they are coming from Manchester, UK... (one day i'll find my way to Europe... one day) i can't wait.
it's always nice to get together with friends, and as the years go by, everyone has their work and familial obligations so it gets harder and harder to get together...

(one day we need to all take a cruise together and not have to worry about hotels, activities and food plans!)

on to other topics, this year i went to my first horror convention in my life, a friend of mine is a big horror fan, so we had went to Fangoria... it was interesting; granted i didn't really know that many of the famous actors and directors of the genre... but ppl there get all dressed up and made up and super excited about these movies. what reminded me of the topic is this article on How to Survive a Horror Movie

i know you will all thank me for the valuable advice the next time you're about to read a demon summoning book aloud in the middle of the night in front of a lighted candle by the bathroom mirror by yourself.

i read a news article today, what caught my eye wasn't really the topic of the article, but rather, this wording "untimely death". isn't this just sounds redundant? when is a death ever truly 'timely'?

speaking of horror, gore and gruesome deaths... tomorrow is Valentine's day. but seriously, who truly embraces Valentine's day? does it even mean ANYTHING to anyone??
of all the 'holidays' i think this one truly embodies the commercial pressure - restaurants jack up prices for a 'special menu', roses costs 4 times the regular prices, everything is tin-foiled red and pink shape. those who are together has pressure to present how they feel about the other by giving each other gifts; those who aren't together are reminded that this is a day for ppl who are together...
and no, i'm not ranting because i'm Single or Bitter, i've always felt embarassed when i got flowers, and embarassed when i didn't :) so tomorrow i will celebrate anti valentine's by going to a potluck with a few female friends for a quiet evening in, chocolate fondue & all.

currently reading...

i go through phases where i love to curl up with a good book and just lose myself for a few hours.
after i mowed through Chris Moore's You Suck (a delicious sequel to the funny vampire novel Bloodsucking Fiends), i also devoured Julie & Julia (sent to me from Tanya my adorable friend from east coast). mind you i'm not reading anything that are of world importance (when talking to Chaos, her reading list encompasses law regulations and other important real documents)

so i'm currently reading Amy Tan's Saving Fish from Drowning. now you got to know how hard it was for me not to buy her book in hardcover when first published (as i did most books from authors that i like to read)... i knew if i Hold Out, they will publish trade/paperback version which is cheaper, since most of the books i read, i don't end up wanting to collect to pass on as family heirloom to my great grandchildren. the story is interesting but certainly seems more mature writing than her previous works.

雪蛤膏 hasma

kind of random, but this post has been inside my head for the past few weeks.
growing up chinese, there are a few things you learn about food:
never question what it is or why you're eating it. because inevitably, you don't get a straight answer to what you're eating, and you're always told it's good for you - replenishes moisture/nutrients of some kind. (or whatever you happen to be lacking, smart chinese remedies)

the other day i was at a bubble tea/dessert shop, and as we looked at the picture of a dessert double boiled in sugar-water (the same chinese words for 'dessert'), nicely presented inside a coconut shell, with an orchid flower adorning the side and everything looked pretty & appertizing. then i noticed they had put the english word of what it is on the picture; it's something i've eaten every few months (especially in winter) all my life...

as trained by the thousands of years of chinese culture, i've never questioned WHAT it is. i only know my mom soaks a bunch of this stuff (which i JUST found out is called 'hasma' in english) and it looked like dried oyster pieces until the overnight watery bath - the next day everything is puffy and white, cotton-like looking but with more 'pull'; and i'd help my mom pick out the spotty 'dirt like' pieces that had gotten stuck in this stuff. once cleaned, then my mom takes it and performs some magical cooking techniques until the dessert is made and we'd eat it for whatever good it's supposed to do in my body.

so i was very excited after all these years to slap an english name to this mysterious stuff i've grown up with all my life...
only to find that according to wiki, i've been eating hasma "dried fallopian tubes of the hermaphrodite frog"!!! does my mom KNOW what exactly this is??? had she known all along? or maybe she just thought it's a certain part of a 'snow frog' or something without knowing the details. maybe she's just like every other crafty chinese mom, knowing better, saying less...

now that sounds so disgusting. but i swear to you when you cook it into a dessert and you don't know what it is, it doesn't TASTE disgusting.



still, sometimes i think: ewwwwww

what are the labels?

after seeing the many signs to 'upgrade' to blogger Beta, now there's this 'label' field on the bottom of posts where i assume i can enter keywords, and maybe somewhere someone searching for 'blasphemy' (see prev post) can readily find my postings/blog.

but what happens if i put 'sex' in there and in every label - afterall it's the most lucrative business for the internet PLUS it's what drives technology to make leaps and bounds of progress (discussed with a coworker, it's one of the reasons why networking giants increase their hardware capacity to handle ever more speed/bandwidth!!!)
blah