despite swelling, ate/ korean barbecue; sheer/ bloody-mindedness

wisdom teeth pulled; worse/ than chipmunk cheeks; now approach/ing Botox victim, ) -___- (

i am getting my/ wisdom teeth pulled tomorrow;/ SO TERRIFYING!!!!!! >____<

happy holidays/ ev'ryone! spend them with the/ people you love most, :) :) :)

the vienna teng/ concert tonight was utter/ fantabulousness.

i'm rather disa/ppointed in the rodarte for/ target collection.

I've been following the Mulleavy sisters since I first saw a spread on them in Vogue way back in....it must have been around 2005? It's been a kind of up and down with them; I've loved much of what they put out (although I wasn't so hot on their collection's recent rag-tagged-ness, but that's more a personal design issue than anything else) so when I first heard that they were going to make a capsule collection for good old Tar-jhay, I was pretty excited, even noting it on Google calendar, with email notifications for three days up to the fact so as to not forget, esp since the Anna Sui collection at the WC Target across the way from me was literally. picked. clean. a day after the collection dropped.

Unfortunately, I was sorely disappointed. The pieces were rather blah, keeping with Rodarte's girly design, but with an overbearing saccharine taste that is absent from their higher-end line.

the vienna teng/ concert tonight was utter/ fantabulousness.

is it cheating if i make up words? not if i didn't do it solely for the purpose of fitting the haiku syllable requirements.

too cheap to buy a/ pastry bag so my meringues/ look like little turds, -_____-;;;

While surfing allrecipes.com for something to do with my leftover celery, I chanced upon the front page picture of brightly colored meringues. M and I had been talking about lemon meringue pie, although she hadn't made any nor had made any invitations to taste any (>___<, :p), so I scanned the recipe and got it stuck in my mind that I should made meringue cookies.

By hand.

Yes, I am crazy.

Long story short, the worst part of the meringue-making wasn't the beating the egg/sugar mixture by hand (which, while certainly difficult, provided me with ample exercise for my biceps, :p). In fact, mixing was fairly simple (although not quite easy, especially as it came towards the end and trying to get stiff peaks by hand....[THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!!! hur hur hur *gets slapped*])

No, the worst part of the whole deal was (refraining from the that's-what-she-said-jokes given that I 1) had no one to share them with, being alone in my apt, and 2) had no one to share them with, as neither B nor E consider me worthy of being on good speaking terms with, apparently [woe and angst and terrible emo poetry]) having to scoop the meringue into something so that I could squirt it onto the baking sheet to be put into the oven.

Everyone online wrote that electronic mixers are almost essentially REQUIRED to make proper meringues (YEAH, WELL I SHOWED THEM, HA!), but I really do beg to differ. The most important piece of equipment for making meringues is a proper pastry bag.

I'd seen one in Safeway when I popped in to get cream of tartare and parchment paper, but had brushed it off as a silly expense.....little did I know.....

The recipe, I hashed together from various sources and from various bits of advice gathered from the internets, but it goes something like this:

• 3 room-temperature egg whites
• 1/4 cream of tartare (although the original equation was 1/8 teaspoon CoT per egg white)
• 3/4 cup and 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar (adapted from the original suggestion of either 1 3/4 [WHICH WAS SOOOO MUCH SUGAR, so I decided not to use that suggestion] or 2 tablespoons per egg white [which, at 6 tablespoons of sugar, would definitely not have been enough])
• Clean, oil-free, dry bowl of any of the following: ceramic, glass, metal. NO PLASTIC.

-----

1. Mix eggs until foamy.
2. Add cream of tartare. Mix until forms soft peaks.
3. Add sugar 1 tablespoon at a time. Mix until forms stiff peaks
4. Spoon into pastry bag
5. Squirt onto parchment-paper-lined baking sheet
6. Bake at 200 F for 1.5 hrs.
7. Turn off oven. Open oven door slightly. Leave in warm oven for another hour.

My problems made themselves quite clear starting at step 4. First I tried to make a parchment paper cone (or several), like I saw online, but the meringue mix proved itself too thick to properly settle to the bottom of the cone, so that it sat more at the top and squeezed itself right back out....the wrong end, -____-.

So next I tried the popular spoon-it-into-a-ziploc-baggie-cut-off-a-tiny-corner-and-use-that-as-a-pastry-bag idea.

It went from bad to worse. First, the spoon kept nudging the edges, so that even when I sealed the Ziploc, there was meringue outside the Ziploc seal.

The first few meringues turned out okay, but as I turned to refill the bag with more meringue mix, it started getting ALL OVER THE PLACE.

When I tried to squeeze the meringue out of the tip, it decided to ooze out the top instead, and all over my hands.

Then the tip decided to give under pressure and so I ended up getting squiggles all over the place.

Since I was trying to still maintain them in some sort of circular shape, then ended up being squiggles on top of each other, in a round-ish shape.

Once I got sick of getting it all over my hands, I just used the spoon and my fingers to blob them onto the baking sheet. I can't even begin to imagine what those would be described as.....

Once they were stuck in the oven and came out nicely tanned, they came off the parchment paper wonderfully.

.......they just looked like little turds is all.....

-_________-;;;;

(p.s. or at least most of them did......)

In any event, I know how to make meringue cookies now.....it's more a matter of getting them to look like meringue cookies that I will need to be working on, :)

they brought a box of/ chocolates but i took the/ bubblewrap instead, >:D

Today at work, we had our open enrollment meeting, and the associate brought a box of See's chocolate. Personally, I preferred the chocolate-covered pretzel-chex-dried-cranberry blobs that Teresa M's daughter made, so I grabbed handfuls of that and snatched up the bubblewrap liners that came with the See's candy box.

FTW! :p

i'm pretty sure i/ like watercress but i can't/ remember the taste, >___<

Just a bit of silliness.

Something I read recently mentioned watercress, and this thought popped into my head.

I know I've had it before, and I remember liking it, but even with the Googled images, I can't recall when I've eaten it or what it tastes like.....

my coworkers said/ it snowed last night but all i/ got was lots of rain, >___< , :p

pomelos are sweet/ but hard to eat without look/ing like a savage, :p

Can I just say that I love pomelos so much?!?!

I love pomelos so much!

For the uninitiated, pomelos are a type of citrus fruit vaguely reminiscent of a grapefruit, but without the bitterness or pucker-inducing tartness. Here's the wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomelo

I adore pomelos (especially now that I've rather gotten over my persimmon infatuation, haha). The first time I'd ever had a pomelo was during my senior year studying abroad in China, and it still took me half of my trip to try them. They looked so dry and I normally don't like citrus fruits that I was scared off before I even gave them a chance. Luckily, Nick C shared one with me, and I was HOOKED.

H.

O.

O.

K.

E.

D.

I had at least half of one every day from then on out and mourned the loss of them when I had to finally leave for home. I knew that they'd be sold in Asian supermarkets back at home, but being in B and then in SR, I'd be hard pressed to find them, especially since they're seasonal, largely available only in Asian supermarkets, and I didn't have access to a car.

Luckily, SR had an Asian supermarket nearby that I frequented, but unfortunately, they were so expensive ($1.99 per pound?!?!?! You've got to be kidding me!) I bought them anyway, getting so excited to finally slice open its waxy peel, prise through its porous pith, pull back its bitter casing, to reveal my sweet little citrus jewels inside! Unfortunately, all of the ones I bought each time (yes, I still went back to buy more, hoping my duds were a singular occasion) were SO. DRY. And with no flavor to speak of! Worse than eating dehydrated oranges! Oh, they were terrible. I was so upset.

Today, I saw them on sale while on a rather spontaneous trip to the O Chinatown. In fact, today, when I saw them on all the stalls, I was actually talking to my mum on the phone, incredulous that they were so prevalent, convinced they weren't supposed to come out/be in season until Chinese New Year (which is in February) at least. She said they'd probably be fine, but I was tentative nonetheless, so scarred was I by those dry pomelos. But I bought them anyway, because I am FEARLESS!!!! (or just desperately craving again the sweet clean taste of pomelos just enough to dip a toe into the water again).

I guess I should start from the beginning, for my own memory's sake, because lord knows I'll have forgotten this by next month, let alone the years later from which I'm intending to look back upon this journal.

Today, I slept in rather a bit (after having finally broken down on the phone yesterday to my mum regarding the B situation, and fearing it would turn into another C or T situation, :( . Mothers always know best, and she said I should get some rest, as I'd feel better in the morning. Tomorrow's always another new day, she said. How many times I've heard it, and yet it never fails to be true, :] I love my mum so much.)

When I finally woke up, I had intended to finish off the rest of my stew (rather, beef soup, as it wasn't nearly thick enough to be stew), but instead, ended up having to throw it out, as it had gone bad over the week. Hungry and aching for some good Chinese food, I decided to get ready and take the train to O Chinatown for some good Szechuan noodles (dan4 dan4 mian4) at our family's favorite Shanghainese restuarant. Really, it's just a hole-in-the-wall, but it's been there since Uncle D first took us there for breakfast when we visited while I was still in high school, lasted through my college years, through three boyfriends, and is still here for me today, to offer me good old comfort food (and fresh homemade noodles! Honestly, how could I resist? :p).

The weather was brisk, so on went the boots, on went the argyle sweater, and then my grey jacket, since it wasn't nearly cold enough for the good old winter coat, stuffed some magazines into my bag, and out the door I went. Train took 15 minutes to arrive! >__<* Weekend schedules can be such torment on my stomach, haha.

There was some sort of Christmas parade that was getting started when I came out the station, but hungry I was, and there were so many people lined up on the curb that I really had no interest and made my way over to the restaurant (about five blocks down), ordered my food, and scarfed down half the huge bowl of noodles, like so. It was, of course, delicious. Had to take the other half home as leftovers though, haha, -___- ;;;

Ended up walking the streets, bought some veggies for the week, some chestnuts (hoping to boil or roast them! mmm, delicious~), and wandered around several blocks trying to find N Bakery. Mum called, and of course, we chatted a bit again, and she asked Dad if he knew where N Bakery might be (esp since all the streets in O Chinatown look so similar to each other! So easy to end up going in circles!) He said 9th and F, so I headed over there, still talking to Mum. Turns out the 9th and F bakery is the one I don't like, so I told her so, and we continued trying to figure it out. In any event, she had to get off the phone soon, so she told me to ask someone for directions.

After I did, turns out N Bakery is on 8th and F! Missed it by one street! And it was so close to my original starting point too! I'd just ended up turning right and not left! hahahaha. Anyway, went in, bought some pastries and started heading back to the train station, when I chanced upon one last store, towards the edge of Chinatown, and bought two pomelos for $0.99 each. WHOOHOO, SCORE!!!

As I came back to the train station, I caught the tail end of the parade, so I watched a bit, then hurried to the station, as I knew all the people who were watching till the very end would doubtless also have to head home afterwards.

Came home, finished the rest of the noodles for dinner, and since the noodles were such a strong taste in my mouth, decided to open up a pomelo, just to see, crossing my fingers and hoping for a good one.

Sliced open the rind. Hmm, light pink pith....interesting. Hopefully, a good sign?

Pushed through the pith and hit a pomelo section. Had to work a bit at it to get one out, but it squirted some juice at me, so hopefully that's a good sign....although I worried that it might be too juicy, and thus, not what I was looking for.

Pulled out a section, hmm, that's pink too. Looks a little like a grapefruit.....

Worried that it'd taste like a grapefruit too, I tentatively took a bite, and mmmmmmmmmmmm.......

.....heaven.

I finished off a quarter of the pomelo and set the remainder in a plastic bag to keep it from dehydrating.

Pulled up some episodes to watch, like so.....

Watching, watching, watching.

hmmm, well, I guess I could have a little bit more pomelo.....

Opened the bag, prised out a section.....

By the time mum called again in the evening, well.....

I told her, mildly embarrassed, that I'd started out with the intention to eat only a quarter of the pomelo, but.....

.....well, there was only one lonely section of the entire thing left.....

-____-

WHITHER MY RESTRAINT?!!?!?!?!? (hahaha)

But my mum--lovely, lovely mum--said, "Oh good, you're eating enough fruit. Keep it up, :)"

Did I say how much I love my mum? (hahaha)

The thing about eating pomelos (or at least how I eat pomelos, -__- ;;) is that unlike pears or persimmons, which I tend to cut up very nicely into a bowl or plate, or even apples, which I take nice, clean bites out of, is that I end up eating them like a savage.

Not in that I don't show any restraint while eating it (which I don't, -___-;;), but that it's hard to extract the sections, and the pulp is so juicy that I just end up using my teeth to scrape the pulp from the section peel (or whatever the technical name is for that membrane/cell wall thing that separates each into sections). And between picking out seeds and getting juice all over my hands and pulling apart the peel and ripping into the rind, well.....

......well, all I can conclude is that I plan to never eat a pomelo in polite company (or even, for the matter, in front of people not my family [even though my friends have seen me eating like a savage before, this is taken to a completely different level....]); it's too embarrassing!!!! >__<* (not to mention I'd feel compelled to share, and well....)

In any event, pomelos will be my post-persimmon obsession, :p

I may very well go back to O Chinatown next week and pick a few more up, ;)

(p.s. So many fall fruits have the letter p in their names: pears, plums, persimmons, pomelos. Even apples!)

eating the breakfast/ of champions: oatmeal and/ Lays potato chips, :D

Although today is Tuesday, Heather is out on vacations, and so are our bagel/donuts.

*shock*

You mean to say that....that I have to feed myself?!??!?! On a Tuesday?!?!?!? Inconceivable!!!

So of course, I take my usual healthy/unhealthy route: oatmeal with half a pack of sugar (although I have decided that tomorrow, I will bring cinnamon, and see if that perks things up a bit) and a fun-size bag of Lays potato chips that were hanging around in my desk drawer from a week ago when Maria gave them to me.

Today was pretty busy with adjustments all over the place (although luckily, the phones were a little more forgiving today), trying to catch up and make up for time lost during the Thanksgiving holiday break, and then L being gone yesterday from a bad back injury, :(

And on top of that, looking for two cents in a 600-line file. Oh, my poor eyesight.

J and I finally figured out that it was due to some rounding errors in the R system, so that's what I'll be up to tomorrow~

happy thanksgiving/ to ev'ryone; what are you/ thankful for this year?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING~~~~~

My goodness, so soon has it snuck up upon us! This year, the schedule is as follows:

• Thanksgiving day/lunch/evening/dinner: movies and food with B van Os and his dog Copernicus, at their apartment in the city!
• Black Friday: no plans, although might go shopping, just for first-time kicks!
• Saturday: FRIENDSGIVING DINNER! SO EXCITED!
• Sunday: recuperating, hahaha.

This year, I am thankful for my lovely friends, loving family, good coworkers, and (relatively stable) job, and for my natural predisposition towards being (generally) happy. There have been quite a few dips this year, what with Grandfather at the beginning, and with the scariness of the job market, the uncertainty of certain related things, and having to deal with the fallout from the B and the E situation, and it's still a little rough and rocky overall, but all said and done, I'm thankful that everything will be okay, :)

You'll see...everything will be alright. Everything happens for a reason, and it all turns out for the best, :) Just keep on smiling, and you'll be doing better already, :)

Chin up, my dear!

just this morning i/ was thinking, what a nice day,/ but rain is good too.

b van o: why are you into / these crazy haiku thingys? / they are so silly

The thing about living where I do is that the first sign of rain brings everyone blogging/tweeting/facebook-status-updating about it; I can hardly imagine the flurry of confusion, exhilaration, and (from some people) mild spite should something like a few flakes of snow be seen (although given our climate-location, unlikely to the point of being laughable).

Although lately there had been rumblings in the air and in the news about wetter weather (say that five times fast! haha), I'd been ignoring them. The day started off nicely enough, a bit chill, but with enough sunshine to dispel consideration of rain. In the middle of the day, it began pouring and just didn't stop, so what a happy coincidence it was that today I decided to wear boots and had left my umbrella at work a few days ago!

ate so much last week/ the tailor had to re-do/ the seams on my dress, >__<

Today's haiku pretty much says it all; this entire past weekend was full of edible loveliness, between Napa, our most recent in the Sunday Dinner Series, and Monday's barbecue buffet at work (plus all the lovely leftovers that I've been having for lunch the past two days, )>__<( .)

I'd taken my dresses to the tailor's to get them hemmed and let out a bit; when I tried them on, she exclaimed that the chest and hip areas seemed a little tight, and was such a dear heart, trying to say that she must have mis-measured during the original fitting.... (although I knew the truth and tried to insist it was actually my lack of weekend willpower....)

In any event, she's going to add about an inch to both sides to accommodate aforementioned evidence of my lack of willpower, haha.

barbecue today?!?!?/ i am going to explode/ from too much eating! >___<

Heather ordered barbecue for the company to celebrate Holly's return after a brief hiatus spent helping her daughter recover (and likely, to improve morale...Mission Accomplished, I say, hahaha)

Beef brisket, mashed potatoes, coleslaw, baked beans, barbecued chicken, mmmmm~~~

Although given the eating frenzy of the past two nights, I am positively overloaded with good things to eat, lucky me! :)

feast day today; lots/ of good eating and drinking/ with the crew again, :) :) :)

bouchon bakery's/ pistachio macaroon/ is so delicious~~~~ :) :) :)

the brother's response: i was about to/ say that you couldn't drink wine/ but you're twenty three.

My brother's facebook haiku response to yesterday's Napa haiku: i was about to/ say that you couldn't drink wine/ but you're twenty three.

See, this is the type of silliness I was talking about when I said my brother and I communicate by haiku as a sort of facetious response mechanism, :)

I love my brother so much, :)

went to Napa today;/ enjoyed great wine, food, and weather/ with awesome wine buddies!!!! :D :D :D

Highlights of the day: freemark abbey, dean/ and deluca, bouchon and/ bouchon bakery, :) :) :)

---

Today was as close to perfect as I could really expect, although it started off a bit frantically, hahaha. But really, it was a beautiful day in so many ways....

Yesterday, L and W had said they were going to come early today, but they hadn't mentioned how early they were going to start driving up. As such, I figured they would give a call when they were about near. Set my alarm for 8a but snooze-buttoned my way through till 9:30a when I got a call from L saying they were already at the La F bakery down the block! Well, I just about jumped out of bed and into the shower, washed hair like so, got dressed like so, and ran off to meet them there, hair still mildly dripping, no make-up. The weather outside was much nicer than I'd expected.

L, W, and K were already at La F, with breakfast at hand and digging in when I arrived, so I picked up a Swiss Twinkie (my fave! It's essentially a puff pastry filled with nuts, brown sugar, butter, and dried fruit, rolled up in a croissant-shape, sprinkled with cinnamon-sugar that bakes to a beautiful crispy glaze atop pure pastry perfection), and we sat around the table chatting as we finished up. I bought some pears for the trip at Y Market, and we started off. (Although unfortunately, we got a parking ticket for parking without feeding the meter. We'd forgotten it was Saturday and not free-parking-Sunday, >__<*)

Anyway, headed off for Napa, doot-de-doo, with L and W sitting in the back watching Glee on L's compy. (Also gave me some time to put on my makeup, -___-)

Our first stop, Grgich Hills Winery (http://www.grgich.com/) Did some wine tasting (Sauv Blanc, Chardonnay, Cab Sauv, and Merlot...I think that was the order although I forget if it is, haha), but nothing particularly inspiring. Walked around the winery, got back in our cars and headed off to Len's preferred (or at least the one he was most excited about) winery, Freemark Abbey (http://www.freemarkabbey.com/).

Freemark Abbey! This is my new favorite winery! (I know, not that I have much experience in the way of Napa Valley wineries, but none of the other wineries we visited today even came close to matching it!)

We headed in and were greeted by the lovely Sue (more on her loveliness later, :] ) and offered the tasting list. K and L picked to taste their four Cabernet Sauvignons (including a lovely 1995 Library CabSauv!), while W and I chose their four-varied-wine tasting. Even as we were looking over the list, we were all intrigued by the 2008 Voignier (http://www.freemarkabbey.com/pdf/08Viognier.pdf), which is light (yay for me!) and was specifically suggested to be paired with Chinese Szechuan cuisine (with caught L's eye), and Sue, sensing our fascination with the type of wine, offered us tastings.....for free! She even suggested we take a walk on the back patio while she set up our wine selections on the tasting tables. So we did. :) :) :)

A while later, when we'd finished the Voignier (a little too light for L's taste. Very nice for mine, but L's observation had serious merit--it was almost like water, hahaha) and headed in for our real tasting.

Sue poured L and K the four Cabs (full glasses! Thus, W and I were also sneaking sips, hehehe) :

1995 Sycamore Cab Sauv (http://www.freemarkabbey.com/95sycamore.html)

• spicy nose! and definitely a spicy kick at first sip! yum yum, I like 14 year olds.....wine, that is, kekekek, >:D . L kept insisting that it mellowed out to a tomato-soup smell, which K and I thought ludicrous, but W agreed with L. We agreed to disagree.

2004 Sycamore Cab Sauv (http://www.freemarkabbey.com/sycamore.html)

• not as spicy, more of a cherry taste, also pretty tasty

2004 Bosche (http://www.freemarkabbey.com/bosche.html)

• K liked this one and bought a bottle, but I found it pretty unremarkable, or at least in comparison to the '95 CabSauv (hehe, which was by far my fave CabSauv). I thought it tasted a lot milder than the little bit of spicy nose, which was a little disappointing for me....again, because I couldn't help comparing it to the lovely spiciness of the '95 CabSauv.

Something Sue called "Bootleg" (http://www.freemarkabbey.com/bootleg.html)

• I didn't taste the mint until much later, but after K said 'blueberries', well, after that, we couldn't taste anything except blueberries. >__<* Of all the Cab Sauvs in this tasting, we thought this was the one we liked least, although it was still an excellent wine, :)

W and I had a glass each (even though we only paid for one tasting of four wines! and this was in addition to sneaking sips of the guys' tastings, hahah. Is it still sneaking if Sue was very well aware of us sharing wines?) the following:

--2007 Sauvignon Blanc (http://www.freemarkabbey.com/sauvblanc.html)

• Good, but unremarkable

--2005 Cab Sauv (http://www.freemarkabbey.com/cabernet.html)

• Very good; W and I agreed that Freemark Abbey has excellent Cab Sauvs.

--2005 Merlot (http://www.freemarkabbey.com/merlot.html)

• W really liked this one, but I'm not terribly into red wines, and Merlots are not really my thing.

--2005 Petite Syrah (http://www.freemarkabbey.com/psirah.html)

• Not bad, but by far, the Cab Sauv was better. But dry. Very dry.

We all finished off with glasses of dessert wine (http://www.freemarkabbey.com/holiday_stuffers.html) My favorites, by far, :) :) :) (L and K got a glass of each):

--2009 Late Harvest Riesling for me

• Gorgeous floral nose! that mellowed out to a light, fruity grapefruit, :) :) :) Light, delicious, and mildly sweet (if it was bubbly, it would've been PERFECT). Made only 13 times in the history of the entire winery because the conditions have to be perfect, and they were; and

--2003 Zinfandel Port

• Sweet and a little spicy

Sue kept coming by to check up on us after she poured the dessert wines, very friendly, asking if we needed anything else, asking which ones we liked, telling us to take our time, no hurry, and finally, she let us know that she had to leave on some errands. We were wondering why she kept coming by, but assumed she just wanted to check up on us. It wasn't until we got back into the car that we realized we'd spent nearly 3 hours tasting at Freemark Abbey!!! It totally only felt like 1.5 hrs max!!!

After our tasting, we took a stroll around the back of the tasting room garden to clear our heads so that we'd drive safely (Remember: Safety first, kiddos! Don't drink and drive!) Once we deemed ourselves ready (or at least K was ready to drive and I was ready to take over if needed, while L and W were definitely still amusingly tipsy in the backseat), L picked up a bottle of the '95 Cab Sauv ($95!!!), K got a bottle of the Bosche, W got a bottle each of the 2005 Cab Sauv and the 2003 Zin dessert Port, and I picked up a bottle of the 2009 Late Harvest Riesling and a bottle of the 2005 Cab Sauv to bring home to the parentals.

Needless to say, we made it out of there like bandits, :D

Our next stop was the Dean and Deluca to pick up deli-items for lunch: a panini cut four ways, mushroom-edamame salad, bacon-brussel sprouts, pesto pasta salad, an Asiago baguette, and slices of cured meats. Then headed over to V. Sattui's across the way to pick up a chunk of Montecerda Spanish cheese and some port-and-truffle duck pate, and ate on the picnic tables outside. The pears I picked up earlier paired beautifully with everything. A delicious lunch with wonderful people, in beautiful weather~

After lunch, we headed over to St. Supery (http://www.stsupery.com/) for their tasting as L had a Google employee discount that allowed us a free tasting with the purchase of a bottle of wine. Beautiful artwork on their wine labels. While their wines were certainly excellent, we were soon tiring of wines and the four of us each picked up a bottle of their special Moscato dessert wine, which we'd all tried at L's birthday party a few months ago, :)

Couldn't make it in time to get the bubbly that W was so excited about, but we had dinner reservations for 9:45p at Bouchon (http://www.bouchonbistro.com/), meaning that we had nearly 3.5 hours to spare until then. We headed over to Ceja's wine lounge (http://www.cejavineyards.com/Wine-Tasting-Salon-Lounge-Art-Gallery) where W and K had a tasting and L had a glass of the house red, then about 7p, headed to Bouchon to see if we could get an earlier seating. It looked pretty busy when we got there, but we were assured that if there was an opening, we would be given the seats. In the meantime, we went next door to Bouchon Bakery (http://www.bouchonbakery.com/) and got a special private tour of the baking in the back by Matt McDonald (http://www.bouchonbakery.com/showStaff.php?id=61)!!! How exciting!

Picked up a chocolate Bouchon and a pistachio macaron (mmmmm~~~) and luckily, got seated by 8p, :) :) :)

Our dinner:

• Sparkling water (we'd had more than enough wine at that point, haha)
• 1/2 dozen oysters
• poached egg with port wine and duck confit ('Oeuf en Meurette' if you want to be fancy, hahaha)
• Rillettes aux Deux Saumons (fresh and smoked salmon rillettes served with toasted croutons)
• I had the Poulet Roti (roasted chicken with red win poached pears, mustard greens, fingerling potatoes, & whole grain mustard jus; very good and very tender and juicy. We spent much of the dinner debating how they could get it roasted while keeping the inside tender and juicy)
• K had the Steak Frites (pan-seared prime flatiron served with maitre d'hotel butter and French fries; their French fries are fried in duck fat and are truly sublime)
• L had Rabbit Boudin (one of the specials, so it wasn't featured on the website, so I don't know how it was prepared), which I don't remember much of to be honest, although it was quite good
• W had grilled sea scallops, also a special and also not on the menu, but very good; wanted to get it myself, actually, but we wanted to all get something different so that we could try the different things.
• Shared a Pot de Creme with Huckleberry; delicious~

We finished by 9:45, which would've been the time we would've started had we not arrived early to see if we could get early seats, :)

Headed back soon afterwards to K and M's apartment to hang out; L and W were staying over as we are having feast day tomorrow (today, but time-stamped to reflect yesterday, :] ), and I stayed up with M until about 2a watching Glee episodes and talking.

The perfect ending to the perfect day, :)

another fake fire/ drill today; apparently/ it's a common thing, >___<

Today, another fire drill. Not quite sure what set it off, nor was it a practice one as far as I could tell, but as L and I were taking the first (yes, first! we skeedaddle'd it out of there as soon as we heard the first faint, 'All clear') elevator back up, we were sharing with someone else from the third floor. We were talking about how this was probably the third time in just as many months, and he mentioned, as he exited the elevator, that his company had been in the building for several years, and apparently this happens quite often.

Well, much to look forward to then, I suppose, -___-;;

The last time we had a fire drill was only about a week ago!

Otherwise, the day was fairly uneventful, although L and I went to get maa-hah-huh-aaassive (oh no, talking like Scrubs' Dr. Cox. uck, >___< *) burgers for lunch from The C, which is, funnily enough, on the ground floor of our CEO J's temporary apartment complex! Only finished about half of the burger, and had half of L's enormous order of onion strings. So full..... )-___-(

After work, headed off to try out a new tailor in Downtown B, recommended by M and various yelpers. She's going to be modifying my new teal dress (hem shortened), and my new black dress (hem shortened, inch added to the side). She was really nice, and I hope she does good work on my black dress especially, X >__< X

Otherwise, not much going on tonight, but going to Napa with K, L, and W tomorrow!

Super excited!

hot showers, tea, and/ pie are perfect for warming/ fingers, toes, and souls, :)

today is [brother]'s/ birthday; happy birthday to/ my dear baby bro, :)

Today is my baby brother's 17th birthday!

I usually forget, but my mum had luckily reminded me a few days ago. It's strange how these sorts of days sneak up on you sometimes, and even stranger to think that my brother is now 17!!! SINCE WHEN, I ASK YOU?!?!?!?!?!

I have a terrible memory for birthdays, as exemplified in an anecdote about getting my brother's SAT scores from the CollegeBoard test services a few years ago. My brother had taken the SATs as a test run one year, and for whatever reason, the results never arrived at our house. What with me being home from college for spring break, my parents decided it would be a good idea to have me call CollegeBoard and request a re-issue of the score.

The ensuing conversation when something like this:

CollegeBoard: Hi, how can I help you?

Claudia: Hi, I'd like to request a re-issue of my brother's SAT score; it seems like it never made it to our house.

CB: Ok; what's your brother's name?

C: [gives brother's name]

CB: His Social Security Number?

C: [holds hand over phone] Moooooooooooooom, what's his SSN?

Mom: It's on the sheet taped to the inside of the pantry door!

C: Ok! [gives SSN]

CB: What's his user ID?

C: uuuuuuuuuh. Don't know that one.

CB: Okay, what about his testing number?

C: uuuuuuuuuh. Don't know that one.

CB: Okay, what about his email address?

C: uuuuuuuuuh. Don't know that one. He changes it too often.

CB: Okay, what about his testing center?

C: uuuuuuuuuh. Don't know that one.

CB: Okay, what address was it supposed to be sent to?

C: uuuuuuuuuuh. [rattles off incorrect address.]....I think.

Mom: That's the wrong address! It's [correct address]

C: Oh. umm. Okay! [gives the correct address]. Sorry, I only come down for college breaks; that's a mashup of my permanent and my college apartment address.

CB: uuuh, that's okay. We're going to need his date of birth?

C: uuuuuuuuuh. It's the 10th of November, 19xx. I think. Either that, or the 11th of November. I always forget, -___-;;

CB: Ma'am, which one is it?

C: uuuuuuuuuh. Moooooooooooooom! Mooooooooom! [mom has mysteriously temporarily disappeared] Daaaaaaaad! What's [brother's] birthday?!

D: uuuh. It's in November.

C: I know that. Is it the 10th or the 11th?

D: The 10th.

C: [to CB] Oh, it's the 10th.

D: ...or the 11th?

C: ....or the 11th.

CB: Ma'am, which one is it?

C: uuuuh....

D: uuuuh....

M: [who by this time has reappeared] IT'S THE XXth!!!

C: Oh, she says it's the XXth! (every time I retell this story, I can't remember the date, :p )

CB: Thank you ma'am. We'll be sending the SAT scores for [brother's full name], [SSN] and [DOB], [testing ID #] to [home address]. Is that correct?

C: uuuh, yes. Thank you.

CB: No problem, ma'am. Have a good day. [hangs up]

C: .... -___-

M: .... -___-

Brother upon my recounting the story to him when he got back home: Why didn't you just wait for me to come home.... -___-

-----

Anyway, what that long anecdote illustrates is that I have terrible memory for birthdates, including my own, but more specifically, for my brother's birthdate. I just remember it's in November, and it's either the day of, or the day before, Veteran's Day. I just can't remember which one it is, is all, -___- ;;;

It's a subject of mild consternation (coupled with bemused exasperation and resignation) from my dear brother, who has perfect memory for all family birthdays, including mine.

In any event, today is my lovely brother's birthday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHOUT-OUT HAIKU TO THE UBER-BROTHER!!!!

-----

As a special two-for-one deal (well, more that I came up with two and ended up posting both on my gtalk status):

i thought today was/ going to be bagel day/ but we got donuts, >___<

Darn it! Foiled again!

I can't eat donuts, >___<

baking zucchini/ bread and drying persimmons/ call if you need me, :) :) :)

This past weekend, Safeway had a "Breakfast's on us!" offer with a string of coupons from purchasing Halloween's Cheetos that indicated if I spent $50 at Safeway, I would be eligible to redeem the following items for "free":

• Lucerne eggs, 12 count
• 16 oz Safeway brand bacon
• 6 count Safeway breakfast bread
• 1 gallon Safeway orange juice

So I toodled over Saturday morning to pick up my "free" items. I must admit I cheated a little bit on the $50 issue, since I can hardly be expected to buy and consume $50 of food before it all goes bad. As such, I just bought a $50 Safeway gift card and was done with that.

But now I have a carton of a dozen eggs that I need to consume before they go bad. Except for the fact that one should not have too many eggs in a day for fear of cholesterol overload, and I don't normally make eggs for breakfast anyway (too lazy to wake up early enough to cook and consume them before work, ~___~;;)

As such, I picked up some zucchs from Y Market and headed home after work today to make some zucchini bread. Also picked up some plain yogurt to substitute for some of the oil in the recipe (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Zucchini-Bread-IV/Detail.aspx?prop31=2) since there is WAY too much oil in that recipe, haha (although it certainly does make the bread very moist if you have a lot of oil). The zbread turned out okay, although less sweet, as I cut down on the sugar, and less moist, as I had cut down on the oil. Originally planned to bring it to work tomorrow to share with the coworkers, but just remembered that tomorrow is Tuesdays. And Tuesdays mean bagels! ....or donuts, >___<

Anyway, while the zbread was baking, I tried to decide what to do with my persimmons and spent about an hour peeling away the thin skin. All I can say is that thank goodness our paring knives were sharp! Peeling persimmons is an exercise in patience and an example of tedium!

So I tried oven-drying, which resulted in

• several hours of waiting on persimmons,
• one ditched, blackened batch
• stickiness
• dried persimmon chips that taste like....sweet potato?

I've also tried freezing, but I wonder if that will blet them into mushiness and ruin them? After all, I love Fuyus for being crispy-crunchy, with that odd little pop in the middle where the softer portion resides...

Well, I've stuck a gallon-capacity Ziploc in the freezer and am hoping for the best. X >__<>

does anyone know/ how to properly preserve/ fuyu persimmons? :D

I live across the street from Y Market, a lovely little fruit-stall-organic-foods-market place that has been fulfilling my seemingly-inexhaustible need for persimmon this particular season, and for $0.99 a lb, a fairly inexpensive need at that. I've been researching various ways to preserve persimmons, but a large portion of the literature is devoted to preserving Hachiya persimmons, which I am not terribly interested in for a few reasons:

1. they are not available at Y Market, and thus, less readily available to me.
2. they are mushy. I do not like mushy.
3. I cannot buy them in bulk out of fear that they will all mush on me at once
4. they are too sweet for me

As such, I want to preserve my Fuyu persimmons so that I can have them after season ends, :)

I am a big fan of preserving fruits in their original form; my frozen summer berries lasted me two and a half months after the last of the berries had gone, :)

Most of the options seem to cover either puree-ing or making chutney (neither of which is easily feasible for the non-food-processor-owning me), but a few had freezing or oven-drying as options.

another fire drill/ in our building today/ but it wasn't my fault! >___<

Today there was a fire drill in our building, lots of excitement (although, I suppose, it wasn't terribly exciting)

And for the record, it was not my fault this time!

Last time, I accidentally set off the fire alarm in the building. Instead of going out to buy lunch, I decided to save some time and money by eating a Red Baron frozen pizza thing purchased from the Target across the street sometime earlier this week.

Stuck it in the toaster oven, like so.

Set the timer, like so.

Set to bake, comme ca.

Head back to desk to continue work, like so.

Five minutes in, I go back into kitchen to get some water and check on the status of said frozen pizza thing. Someone mentions that it smells like smoke, and worried, I peer in through the oven window. Nothing. The cheese hasn't even melted yet. Still looks mildly frozen. Turn around to say, Well, it's not me, and as the words come out my mouth, the fire alarms go off. Luckily, this building is better than our previous one, and the fire alarm is a mild (if vaguely robotic-sounding) male voice instructing us that this is a fire alarm and to make our way to the stairs and to our allotted meeting place. So I push the timer to the very end and make sure the toaster oven is off and head for the door.

As we were making our way down, someone smilingly mentioned that it was probably my pizza thing that set the alarm off, and of course, I defended myself, haha, it would be terribly sad if my pizza set off the fire alarm, seeing as the cheese wasn't even melted on it yet.

Convened as appropriate downstairs and waited for the all-clear, >___<

As soon as the all-clear was given, we headed back up, and I decided to check on and reset my pizza thing as soon as we got back to our floor. M was bent over the toaster oven, fiddling with something in the back, and I asked her what was wrong. She turned and smiled, and said that since the toaster oven was in a little nook above the sink, it had gotten pushed up against the wall, and the heat had near burned through the electrical cord powering it.

Well. I certainly didn't expect that.

Needless to say, I didn't end up eating the frozen pizza thing that day, and ultimately wasted more time in the effort to save time.

*sigh*

As such, I was inadvertently responsible for setting off the fire alarm.

BUT JUST THAT TIME. NOT THIS TIME. NOT ME. Just so we're clear, -___-

....although I got grief for it from the traders the rest of the day until I threatened to beat them up.

sludgey grey oatmeal;/thank goodness for delicious/persimmons and pears, :)

Given my bad eating habits (yes, I can finish an entire party-size bag of Cheetos by myself, and yes, it is disgusting, and yes, I am trying to wean myself of this habit by not buying Cheetos), I am trying to be a little healthier and health-conscious by eating oatmeal, which, unfortunately I find to be rather disgusting. I can't stand the sludgey consistency and the slimy grey goo that oozes around my bowl. I originally had been ding-ing it in the microwave (even though they are not instant oats), but it kept exploding all over the inside of the microwave.

I've just been putting hot water into the bowl of oats and eating it that way. Uck.

I've heard oatmeal tastes better with dried fruit or with brown sugar, but given that I don't really enjoy either of those options on their own, it's unlikely they'll improve upon the oatmeal. (Tried with dried cranberries just in case. No go. With frozen strawberries? Same.)

Thankfully, I have honey-sweet Bartlett pears and crisp Fuyu persimmons to take the bad oatmeal experience away.

whoohoo, bagel day/ lovely cream cheese-topped bagels/ and fruit on the side, :]

Tuesdays are Bagel Days generally, although we alternate with Donut Days every other week. By far I prefer Bagel Days though, since I tend to get donut-hangovers from the sweetness of donuts, and it just about ruins me for the rest of the day when I get that vise-tight migraine-grip from the sugar-overload.

My favorite bagels are the seed bagels, with poppy seeds for crunch, sunflower seeds for nuttiness, and sesame seeds for that certain je ne sais quoi. Much as I love seed bagels (piled with, I kid you not, a literal inch of cream cheese), they tend not to love me as much, and so if I carelessly smile after a seed bagel, there will be lots of lovely seed friends hanging around in my front teeth. It's rather embarrassing, so luckily, I have a small mirror at my desk, and my toothbrush set just in case, ;D

More pears and persimmons, my favorite fruits of the season! They're really fabulous this year, bought from Y Market down the block from me, sweet and tasting lightly of honey (which is strange, considering I don't like honey in and of itself.) To play around with synesthesia, they taste round and gentle, softly bright and warm with cool undercurrents. My goodness, they're gorgeous.

how does the lovely/ weekend pass so quickly and/ the weekdays so slow? :]

Oh my goodness, November already?!??!?!?

This weekend was lovely, lovely, and today was, strangely, warm enough to wear shorts; I certainly garnered a few odd looks, even though the weather was very mild (and this is coming from me, who is cold at room temperature!); I forgot to keep in mind that it is, indeed, November. One can hardly be expected to see people in summer-shorts in November!

Today, went over to K&M's for homemade pizza; they'd extended the invitation last night at G's Halloween party, so I toodled over in the late afternoon after M finished making their pizza dough. Brought over some fresh persimmons, and we got started.

Le, Ju, and S also showed up, although certainly not as hungry as we'd expected them to be.

The pizzas, in order:

• caramelized onions, mozzarella, bacon
• 2 types of mozzarella, roasted tomatoes, mushrooms
• caramelized onions, goat cheese, bacon
• caramelized onions, sweet potato, mozzarella, mushrooms

My goodness, we were full after that!

The guys watched the Yankees v. Phillies World Series game, and we chatted. Sad that B couldn't make it, but she had begged off with a busy homework schedule. Alas, another weekend quickly gone by!

halloween is here/today, kids dressed in funny costumes,/their parents dressed the same

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, EVERYONE!!!!

Last year, I went as a sailor (although people at work guessed 'cruise ship director'. I suppose? I've never been on a cruise before. Someone else guessed 'a character from JAG'. While I'm not particularly familiar with the series, I guess that's an appropriate description from what I've seen of the show on the cover of a DVD set at the movie-rental store? LAWLZ.)

This year for our work Halloween party, I changed (definitely couldn't walk to the train station in costume! Even I have limits, hahaha) into my space-shuttle-glow-in-the-dark-stars fleece footie pajamas (size L from the little boy's section at Target! Twelve buckaroos and ninety-nine cent...aroos!), stuffed my feet into my reindeer slippers, brought along my monster-dolls, and went as a baby/young boy-child. Not the most original, but by far the most comfortable, :) :) :)! Today is Saturday, and the parents brought their young children out early to trick or treat (B and I were sitting in a cafe studying in the afternoon and saw several children out in costume; so cute!).

Stayed over at B's last night after attempting to make beef stew (we ended up with a hearty beef soup more like) and chatting the night away just like in the old days when we used to live together, :) So good to catch up again. In the morning, got the breakfast fixin's and had a lovely brunch with B:

• sweet baguette from La F.
• eggs, sunny-side up
• ham and pepper jack cheese
• Port Salut cheese and water crackers
• blueberry jam
• orange juice
• persimmons, pears, and plums that I had brought over last night

All consumed in B's lovely little breakfast nook/kitchen area, with the windows and door open to let in the warm breeze, music in the background, nonstop chatting as usual. B had some homework assignments to do, so we headed over to a cafe near my place and settled in. Very cute cafe, with plush couches, designed almost like a common room that you'd expect to see in Harry Potter!

After studying most of the afternoon away, B and I went to G and A's Halloween party, with the theme of "Wear something orange and bring something orange". I lent B my orange-striped shirt and a little orange hair-bow, while I went only with another one of the hair-bows. B brought orange jello with canned peaches, and I, true to form, brought Cheetos. It was a small cozy party, filled with lots of eating and playing-of-games. Best costumes of the night definitely went to G, who recycled a cardboard box and various colored shopping bags into a very creative Rubix cube, and to J, who wore a bright marigold hooded sweatshirt and sweatpants, with a bright red shirt, and yellow paper ears, a highly original and quite easy Winnie the Pooh.

Definitely a great night; so good to see everyone together again! :)

the wind blows chill and/thrilling; quick jaunty steps; soup/and sweater weather

Can you tell that autumn is my favorite season? (Even though the nights get so cold! brrr...)

At work, we were discussing all manner of lovely autumn-weather foods. Some of our (mostly mine, haha) cravings:

• hearty beef stew in the Chinese-Vietnamese method, with carrots, potatoes, daikon, onions, a thicker brother, lightly seasoned, sprinkled with lemon juice, eaten with noodles or a roll of French bread
• the perennial favorite: tomato soup with grilled cheese sammiches, :)
• flaky fish
• garlic mashed potatoes with gravy
• seasonal fruits: apples, pears, quince, persimmons (my favorite by far!)
• pulled-pork sandwiches
• ginger-pear tart
• roasted veggies (squash, zucchini, cauliflower, broccoli, tomatoes, garlic, etc.)
• butternut squash soup, garnished with bacon pieces and apple slices
• roasted chestnuts
• green beans and fried onions
• French onion soup
• Chinese hot pot
• Chinese-style rice-in-a-stoneware-bowl with sausages, veggies, mushrooms, various meats
• Shabu Shabu (Japanese-style hot pot)
• Bibimbap (Korean-style rice-in-a-stoneware-bowl)
• Galbi (Korean barbecue)
• Soondobu (Korean spicy tofu soup)
• corn chowder and a tuna-fish sandwich
• pork chops
• zucchini bread, banana bread, carrot cake
• braised meat of any sort (lamb, pork, beef, duck)
• chicken soup with rice
• Pho (Vietnamese noodles)
• potatoes/sweet potatoes/yams (baked, roasted, pie'd, mmmmm)

The list goes on and on....I salivate even while typing these. Even though I'm sad to see Summer go, it's hard to be too upset, since Fall is so delicious!

whither the leaves of/yesterday? plucked up by/ someone's brand new rake? :]

Composed on the train, on the way to work. Lovely crisp weather once again, but alas, no leaves nor leaf piles to be found.

It is probably (and very likely) that the lovely piles of leaves that I had crashed through and traipsed over yesterday were the result of someone's early morning toil; at the time, I had thought that the wind had blown them naturally into piles, and well.... I suppose I was the end and the beginning to someone's hard work, LAWLZ. (Although naturally-formed leaf piles are a rather lovely thought, aren't they?)

today the autumn/leaves were particularly/crunchy like corn flakes, :p

Composed while walking to the train in the morning. A truly delicious start to a lovely (one hopes) autumn.

Yes, I am one of those people who, despite the rather childish nature of the activity, and despite having two decades and change to my name, will go deliberately out of my way to step on that crunchy-looking leaf. We are a rather rare and elusive subset of the breed, which rarely exhibits these symptoms beyond the first 10 years of life.

Silliness about erudition aside, there's an immense visceral satisfaction to be had by this activity, a complete sensory overload: the crackling of the leaf in one's ears, the shuddering crumble of the leaf as it gives way to the weight of one's step, the mosaic of leaf bits as it cracks, the brisk bite of the weather which accompanies (and dare I say, produces?) the best leaves for crunching.

Definitely puts a joyful bounce in my step, in more ways than one. I do admit to inadvertently garnering rather strange looks from the children loitering outside the school, waiting for their bell to ring: a well-(occasionally professionally)dressed female, purse in one hand, dinosaur lunch bag in the other, crunching around piles of leaves in sensible mid-level heels.

But what is dignity in the face of happiness? (hahaha.)

a haiku a day/ keeps the crazies away: my/ haiku blog. welcome!, :D

I suppose I should extend a small welcome to any who come this way, likely by accident: Welcome! :)

I am very easily amused, and my current pre-occupation is mundane haikus. I've been silly all over the place (mostly on various Facebook walls) by composing messages in haiku-format, and only recently, have decided to keep track of it by blog, partially as a sort of personal journal, but largely to keep myself amused. I don't really know how likely it is that I will have a new one every day, but I will try my best to have one up whenever I can.

For the uninitiated, Wiki gives a rather extended definition of a haiku, which you can check out here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku

But in short, (and roughly translated from the original Japanese intention), haikus are a form of poetry, which follow a 5-7-5 format, wherein the numbers indicate the number of syllables in each line.

Since this is more a tongue-in-cheek exercise in personal amusement than in literary seriousness, I'm not going to be terribly focused on the nuances of the original Japanese art form (at least not until I can stop being silly, and definitely not until I get poetically-skilled enough give the poetic format the proper respect it deserves).

Hopefully I'll be able to keep this up for a good while; I've been known to abandon causes without prior notice, so... *crosses fingers*

x (>___<) x <------ supposed to be my scrunched up face and crossed fingers. As proper warning, I am also prone to the occasional bad ASCII drawings.