holiday relevations

Happy Christmas Eve! Well, not so happy over here on my end. My poor Pacho (my lovely silver Honda) got pretty banged up this afternoon. He went up against another Toyota and, lost. And throughout this whole thing, I just felt so guilty. Mind you I was not the driver but I still felt an enormous amount of guilt. That's when I realized, I have a freaking guilt-complex! Yup, a guilt-complex. I do realize that I tend to blame things on myself a lot. I also have this annoying habit of incessant apologies. Now that I have self-diagnoised myself, where can I find the cure?

perfect worlds

In a perfect, ideal world, I would be a cook/baker, creating delicious food and dessert left and right. My kitchen would be STOCKED full, topped to the rim with every spice, simply everything that I could ever wanted. Not to forgot, my kitchen would be happily equipped with blenders, food processors, and even double ovens! Oh my, what a dream that would be. :)

p.s. I bought Clue today at Target for $12. I am super excited to tear open the box and start playing. I <3 surprise Target trips - it must be all those bright lights. :D

Slacking Off

Ever since the clock change which has resulted in racing against the sunset to get home due to the lack of bike light, it has been so hard to work out. And on top of that, I have been eating more and more every day! I am in need of a big slap in the face as a wake-up call and get back to my workout regiment. The fat deposits are not going to go away on its own, unfortunately. :(

In addition, I realize how my wardrobe has more of a tom-boy feel, especially when I am in dire need of some feminine clothing and dresses. I look into my drawers and see nothing but tees and jeans. I don't even own a pair of skinny black jeans, an article of clothing that I believe can be used for a little dressing up. I have Saturday morning/afternoon to pick out an outfit and maybe instead of going for a dress and head towards separates, perhaps I will be able to hold onto it for future outings (date nights are always fun to dress up for!). I also hope to see sales, or at least reasonable prices but that may be asking for too much. Why do men have all the luck! All they have to do is wear slacks and any dress shirt and ta-da! Whereas for women, we have to find the right top to match the bottom to the perfect pair of shoes and accessories! No wonder I would rather stick with jeans and tees - definitely less complicated!

it's friday!

It's Friday! The start of a bad day. I just want to crawl back in bed, not ready to face the world. Another day of work that I do not want to deal with. I have gels to run, precipitations to do that I most likely will not get to, primers to resuspend, testing of new primers, and more isolations. Arg. And to top that, dinner get-together tonight that I am no longer in the mood for. It's just one of those days that I wish I had my headphones and can listen to music all day - that or just not go to work! My mantra for the day will be: must not bite anyone's head off. Roar...

sucky weather at home

So far I have been traveling home every weekend and this weekend was the most cloudy and gloomy of them all! To pass the time, I baked and cooked, and of course, knitted! My first panel of the afghan is progressing so slowly! I wish I was a speedy knitter and be able to finish the afghan in a matter of weeks, instead of months, or even years.

Here are some yummy baked goods that I have created this weekend.

The first pictures is actually a blueberry cupcake that I made a month ago.

And this is a little Calzone Cuppie. I found the recipe on Vanessa's Contessa. She has the most creative cupcake recipes that I have seen. This is basically a mini-pizza, yummy and delicious!

And here I made two types of cookies, a regular chocolate chip and a chocolate chocolate chip cookie, both with white chocolate chips inside! It was my first time baking homemade cookies from scratch and they turned out decent in my opinion, especially the double chocolate one. It was actually less sweet than I would have expected.

Unfortunately, not all of my attempts were successful. My Chicken Tikka Marsala did not even taste remotely close to any tikka Marsala I had ever eaten. Bleh. Hopefully I can breathe some life back into the recipe and nail it on the second try! My beef satays on the other hand came out unexpectedly scrumptious! The marinate that I used was so tasty, and I did not even use a recipe for it - tons of eyeballing and tasting. It was a very tummy-filling weekend and I'm ecstatic that I brought some of my mom's homemade wontons back to Davis with me. Delightful flavors in every bite!

favorite blogs

Lately I have become quite fascinated with food blogs, in particular, baked goods! Seeing all the beautifully imagery of cupcakes, cakes, and cookies makes me want to drive to the nearest grocery store and try my luck at recreating them. And since Halloween is creeping up, I was looking for something along the theme and I stumbled upon this gorgeous creation at bakerella.com. It is the spider and chocolate cookies! If only it did not require colored icing, which means that I will have to go get me some food coloring of sorts - annoying since I will not need a lot of it. Someday, hopefully soon, I hope to be able to create beautiful sugar cookies with icing, and layered cakes with delicious creams in between! I would love to be able to bake all day and just learn the art. Too bad not a lot of people in my family like sweets which leads to my brother and I consuming most of the goods and packing some pounds along the way.

one project down, millions to go!

The past weekend was quite productive. I made my own little headband, though I'm contemplating sewing the ends together to avoid having to secure the ends each time. Instead of crocheting 3 braids, I opted for just 2 and I think it looks decent enough.

And as for my practice afghan, I mentioned in my previous entries that I noticed a mistake in my stitching and had to rip it apart and start from scratch. Here's the mistake in all its glory. :(

I am hoping to buy some nice cream white wool yarn for the afghan project. And as for the Dragonball project, I finished knitting and stuffing all 7 balls, but only 1 has the star stitched in. 6 more to go! I am also reading the manga on the side and man, it's so perverted! All these things I did not notice in the cartoons when I was younger is now so blatantly obvious in black and white - amusing nonetheless.

cleaning monster

Man, what a workout. People should not underestimate the effects of cleaning, it is a total workout. This may sound weird, but sometimes cleaning feels quite therapeutic. I mean, yes, it does get hot and stuffy and the occasional sweat may sting the eye (an extreme that rarely happens), but you work yourself into a zone - a cleaning-machine zone where nothing exists except that orange spot you are desperately scrubbing away at. I am not at all means trying to promote myself as a maid for hire, but I do enjoy the occasional cleaning spree. With that being said, cleaning is also such a pain in the butt! I do not enjoy having to crouch and hearing my knees protest in agony (I have such weak knees). Furthermore, I dislike the smell of cleaning products that seem to linger at every corner, it just will not dissipate! Quite annoying. On the other hand, another plus is having good company while cleaning. It will most definitely make the time fly by quicker. Thanks for being my cleaning buddy! :]

work in progress

I have about 4 Dragonballs finished, minus the stars stitched on. 3 more to go! I can't wait till I finish them to perfection and get back to my afghan project. I think I will try and tackle the scarf on the side as well. Hopefully I will be finished with both the afghan and the scarves by winter or else it will defeat the purpose of making them in the first place. Time to knit in super warp speed!

cursed day back

Today is my first day back from my trip to San Diego and it does not seem to be off to a good start. I accidentally broke the last cup of a set that we have at home! I tried to get all the glass shards out of the sink so no one would accidentally slice their hands/fingers in the sink due to my incompetence. And then I realized that I made a mistake in my knitting so now I have to unravel it and start from scratch - again! It was starting to look all nice and the pattern was beginning to reveal itself too. What a bummer.

take off

It's a good thing I went ahead to print out the boarding pass tonight - turns out I remembered the departure time wrong. I thought it was 8:30am but it was actually 7:30am - my bad! I guess that means I'll have to sleep early, though I doubt that's going to happen.

Today was not much a productive day. I suppose the only productive aspect of my day was baking my very own chocolate cake from scratch. It doesn't taste that bad; however, it taste similar to any ordinary cakes. My brother and I even made the frosting! :)

warm welcomes

What a welcomed sight when I first arrived home. Freshly backed apple pie, courtesy of my lovely mom and brother. Although the pastry shell was not hand made, it was quite delicious and flaky nonetheless. My brother said he added less sugar than the recipe called for and I find that it was a nice balance of taste and sweetness to the pie. Yum!

After a day's worth of eager knitting, I finally managed to knit something successfully! It's suppose to be an orange, though my family commented that it looks more like a tangerine. For the orange ball, I used this simple pattern and as for the leaves, I took it from this really cute peach pattern. I plan to draw a face on it also but I have yet to figure out which expression to use. Next stop, Dragonballs! And seven of them too!

unhealthy, unproductive, obsession

So as of lately I have developed an obsession with knitting. However, it is safe to say that I have yet to progress pass Beginner and thus forth, have not actively attempted to begin the projects. I have so many projects and objects I wish to create, although I have not even finished one! Today I work, I caught myself daydreaming of all the lovely things I could create with just one ball of yarn - stuffed animals, headbands, scarves! I would absolutely love to make afghans and pillows and have it be appreciated and used. That is why I am so hesitant to make scarves - who will I give it to and more importantly, are they even going to wear it?

The following are some pictures of afghans and other cute bits that I hope to be able to make one day - just me, my yarn, and my knitting needles! :)

Look at the intricate pattern and design on this afghan! Doesn't it make you just want to cuddle up in it? This would be a great addition to my home/living room.

And with leftover yarn, I can create these adorable headbands! I think my cousin Alison would wear them with pride. :P

This pattern and baby blanket looks so fancy - it is a definite must-try when I get better at knitting.
Lastly, this is the one of the few scarf pattern that looks promising. Plus, the color comes off really well in the picture. My creative mind is salivating at all these tasty morsels - cannot wait to start!

BUT. Dragon Balls come first on my priority list, so until then - you'll only be an arm's reach away!

Angels & Demons rant + others

Omg, I'm so arg. The movie Angels & Demon is COMPLETELY different from the book. It does not even contain the twist that MAKES the book so awesome. It is as if the screenplay writer/director took the first ever manuscript of the book without any editing and made THAT the movie. I'm just boggled by the fact that they totally left out the best part of the book. Blasphemy!

On another note, I'm still soldiering on with my Dragonball knitting project. Still trying out different patterns and attempting to alter it to get the balls to a desireable size. Here's a picture of one of my last failed attempts, though I do think the penguin liked it very much.


AND, we conquered Cold Canyon, AGAIN. BOOYAH! :D Although I did pass out for an hour or two right afterwards - bed was soooo comfy! :)

p.s. I am currently sunburnt to a crisp!! It's like my shoulders drank alcohol and is exhibiting Asian glow.

virgin hair

I just lost my virgin hair/salon virginity and it sucked. This is what I get for trying to get pretty. This sucks. At least the bangs are keep-able. Sigh. Maybe I'll grow to like it. Tons of straighten iron usage?

smothering summer weathers

The one productive quality of this summer was me learning how to knit and crochet - it's quite fun! I'm in the process of knitting a ball so I can further style it into a replica of a Dragon Ball! No one thinks I can do it so I'm trying my darnest to make it as perfect as possible.

As the summer progresses, I'm starting to feel more and more homesick. I think I will eventually end up driving home every weekend, which is a waste of gas but at the same time, I'm always so happy and for those 2 days that I'm at home, I forget all that stresses me out. Well, of course there are also the days back home when I just want to pull out my hair and scream.

The past week and this week has been so incredibly exhausting. My body aches, my emotions are going up and down, and I just really want to close my eyes and forget everything exist and sleep! I don't want to think about work and having to get up at 8am. I just want to go on a cruise, relax, sunbathe, do some sightseeing, and be with someone who also wants to be with me.

I feel desperate for companionship and I miss the days when they were all within reach. Now all I have is a ball of yarn. All I'm missing is a rocking chair on the front porch and a nice tall glass of cold lemonade. Maybe a kitten as well, though I dislike pets.

July 5th bbq

Today was our makeup bbq for July 4th and it was fun. :)

In fact, it was a pretty jawsome day.

I'm happy that this month has started off on a good note and I'm hoping that maybe everything will turn around for the better.

summer time

Bright nail polish does not suit me and I'm sadden by this. Boo.

The weather's certainly feelign like summer. All that's missing is the pool parties and tennis! Gosh, I miss playing tennis!

burritos

Eating Dos Coyotes burritos and pigging out by myself is so lonely. :T

I miss my eating buddy! boo.

summer stress

I hate looking for housing. :(

This is going to be one stressful summer unless I figure everything out, fast.

suit-up!

Men in suits are hot. :)

Quite simply put, well-dressed men are drool-worthy. Yum.

mosquitoes

hot showers on mosquito bites are orgasmic.

sunburnt happiness

Today was pretty awesome. :)

I haven't seen/experienced so much in a day before! For one, I did not know that a tiger can spray their urine like a hose spraying water. Talk about marking your territory. Haha. And I can now tell my friends that I got stuck on a roller coaster! But man was it embarrassing to be crying because of it. In my defense, I'm deathly afraid of heights! Now why would I go on roller coasters you ask? 1.) It is somewhat thrilling and fun and 2.) I'm trying to get over my fear of heights? Haha.

Getting sunburnt is sooo worth it just to have a day like this. <3

But of course, the highlight of my day? Getting to bring home a new addition to the family. Please welcome, Hammy, the Hammerhead Shark. And here's Sharkie with Hammy! :D

cupcakes!

This is the best kind of breakfast at home. :)


More cupcakes! Baking is such a fun way to waste time. The cookie inside the cupcake turned out better the 2nd time I made it with white cake mix.


And here's a closeup shot of the cookie from the leftover cookie dough. It was nice and hot and so delicious! Time to bust out the chocolate frosting and just drench them with it. Yum.

pick-me-uppers

I just found this super awesome music video that totally made my night. I believe it's the latest single called "Sorry Sorry" from more recent Super Junior's album . What can I say, goodlooking guys in suits is definitely one of my weaknesses. I included a link on the bottom so I can share with everyone that awesomeness that is Super Junior. I even made my mom and Oscar sit through the whole thing PLUS a bit of their performance on some tv show. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QO6SjMsmY8

no more studying please

There are definitely better ways to spend the weekend than studying. I would rather go to the ARC than read my notes. It's so hard to absorb the material when it's so dry and boring! Maybe I would remember the material easier if they animated it and made it into some sort of cartoon with funny and catchy one-liners. Lymphocytes and the immune system is not my forte. I would rather stick with RBCs and anemia any day.

Rainy days are no fun. It ruins everything! You can't go play tennis, football, or even throw a frisbee around. Even worse, no spontaneous trips or outdoor adventures. I can't wait for the sunny days to roll in. On the brighter side, at least Pacho is cleaner than before. :)

p.s. I'm downloading Disney music on my crappy internet and hoping it won't disconnect on me. Yay for Disney movies and soundtracks! :D

nom nom nom

The things that get me through the week, aka, what I look forward to the most :)

1. Tuesday lunch with David
2. Thursday lunch with Brian
3. Friday 4:40pm. :D

Lastly, THE WEEKEND! I'm so glad Friday's almost here. But too bad I have a midterm I need to study for. :(

And as for the things I crave for...

1. Crepes! (with a spoon of ice cream on top if it's a dessert crepe)
2. Burgers
3. Cake and cookies

Man, I totally need to work out more consistently in order to not balloon up even further. I'm such a fatty! Gosh I love food. Feed me please! :D

This is what I am currently munching on:

rejection

Rejection of any kind sucks. What's worse is waiting for more than an hour just to get rejected! Oh welps, at least I got a free t-shirt out of it. ;P

necessary evils

As my second midterm looms ahead, I find myself procrastinating even more. Like someone once said, video games are more fun when you know it's crunch time and is obviously trying to avoid the books. I've been leaning towards more fighting games, such as Street Fighter and Ranma 1/2! I still remember the good old days when I could whoop my cousin's ass in Ranma. And now? I get confused by the buttons and get owned by the computer. Epic fail. The more I lose, the more I remember why I steered away from video games in the first place. Does anyone want to train me in the art of video games? :D

pennies vs. the world

Why are pennies so easily shunned in comparison to quarters and dimes? Is it because it's not silver? Or is it because it's one cent and is therefore the lowest of the bunch? Pennies are always the ones that get discarded and treated like the unwanted children of the wallet. Is it's presence really that offense to people? Sure it takes ten of them to equal a dime. And sure, it takes more space then necessary. But it's still money! Think of all those discarded pennies and what a fortune you could already have had! Maybe it is because I grew up with my mom who spends all the pennies at Chinatown since they don't allow credit cards. Did you know that if you spend the lesser coins, you can save the quarters and such for later. And even better, you don't have to break your bills!

PENNIES RULE!

pretty flowers

My precious Easter Lilies. :) They smell so nice! Too bad I am currently having an extreme case of allergies and I can't sniff it anymore. There's still one more flower that has yet to bloom.

I <3 flowers.

:)

home is where the heart is

I am ready to go home now, ready to leave it all behind me. It being Davis and everything. I just want to eat my mom's cooking, watch tv with my brother, and just chill in my pjs. 3-4 weeks without seeing my family is just too long. I'm so happy that by this time tomorrow I'll be worry-free. Can't wait! :)

another conquest

Stebbins Cold Canyon, I have conquered you. Until next time... :)

early mornings

Even though it's a Saturday and there's no work today, I managed to wake up even earlier than before. 8am! I did not even bother to attempt to go back to sleep. Study time. :)

Studying hemoglobin diseases is soooo boring! And there's so many types! o.o There's Hgb S, Hgb SA, Hgb CC, Hgb CA, Hgb DD, Hgb DA, and Hgb E. How in the world am I going to be able to tell the difference between them? Ahhhhh. :(

On the bright side, I'm super duper uber excited to be going out today! The weather's not particularly ideal but oh wells. I'm still excited! I hope it gets sunny later so I can bust out my sunglasses. :) I'm already anxiously waiting for 11am to come around so I can start on my adventure!

hemolysis

Is it wrong to that I'm more worried about killing Flintstone than my midterm on Monday? Probably... but I already spotted two wilted flowers on Flintstone! And as I was touching one of them, it fell off. Arg. I hope I don't have like an anti-green thumb or something. :(

Studying hemolysis and the different types of intracorpuscular defects that can cause hemolytic anemias is sooooo boring. The iron definiciency and megaloblastic anemia was much more interesting to look at. It's probably because the lectures were shorter. :P

Did you know... during hemolysis and your bone marrow is trying to produce more cells, you can end up having skeletal deformities?? A sign of this are widen foreheads because the bone there is still capable of producing blood cells and so, as the cells increase in number, it expands and hence, your forehead expands too! Totally random. I just thought it was kinda cool. :)

pretty purple

Meet Flintstone!

Flintstone is a pretty purple orchid.

Isn't he lovely?

He makes me smile. :D

mummy 3

So I was procrastinating and decided to watch The Mummy 3, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Now first of all, I dislike movies that suddenly have a different actress playing the same character. Prime example would be the new girl playing Evie, who was previously played by Rachel Weisz. This new Evie was older, and was much more clumsier, definitely not worthy to be opposite of Rick. I guess the movie producers really wanted to franchise on the movies and man, did they fail.

comforts

The best part of today is waking up wrapped in a cocoon of warmth. I think the day has already gone downhill from there. There are days where you just don't want to wake up and today is definitely it. I got a mountain of hematology work to conquer and my white flag is already halfway in the air.

Staring at white blank walls is not fun.

I want a nice frothy milkshake or some cold yummy boba.

fob?

This has been such a rough week, starting from Monday. I just can not seem to wake up like I have been. The lure of the heavenly aroma of coffee is so strong! If only there was a coffee pot at work, that would make life so much more easier.

Anyway, there's this new professor that is currently working in the lab and he came all the way from India, not sure which part exactly. I showed him how to take his LB + Agar Media to the autoclave and on the way back, he asked me along the line of, when did I come here from China? I was stunned! And after I told him no, I was born here, he was like, "good accent". wtf. What accent? I was so insulted. I just wanted to throttle him and arg. I'm still ticked from thinking about it. I am so not a FOB. Mistaken identity people!

Another thing that ticked me off - people who use the autoclave incorrectly. Hello? Dry and liquid stuff do NOT get autoclaved TOGETHER. Hence there is a separate program and button for dry goods, and liquid goods. Furthermore, whoever did that ALSO forgot to use a tray for the media and so I had to take it out and the steam coming off from the bottle slightly burned my fingers. That was not fun. So yes, people need to be properly trained to use the autoclave machine before they go all-gung-ho on it and think they know it all. I guess that is another pet-peeve of mine - people who cannot follow simple instructions or protocols.

I need a shot of caffeine to keep going. A nice delicious smoothie would be extremely delightful and refreshing right about now. :)

p.s. I miss the sun. :(

must bulk up!

This is my inspiration to work out. I should probably blow up this picture and hang it in my room. It was pretty sweet when I did my first pull-up. I want to be able to do it again! I guess the only way now is to buy the ARC membership. Thinking back, I'm still amazed how I was able to manage two jobs AND go work out at the gym afterward during that summer. That was such a productive summer. :) I sure do miss it.

I hope the rainy and cloudy days leave soon and the sun stay out longer. I'm looking forward to the Spring and the Summer just because there will be more sun. I need to get back into my beach bod! :D

sparkles

I'm finally getting into my studying groove! Yay. I got chocolates from COLORADO! Double yays!

Now I want to go shopping and buy cute dresses and heels and play dress up. :) And then a weekend getaway to Tahoe for some snowboarding fun! That would be super awesome. I'm crossing my fingers for snow in March so I can make it happen. It would be pretty sweet - snowboarding for the first time. That would make an awesome Spring Break!

Yay for grooves!

typical Sundays

I'm feeling tired again, with a pinch of lostness. Sounds like it would make a great martini. Maybe call it Black Abyss?

I want to walk in the rain.

raindrops on my head

New intriguing snack: saltine crackers with strawberry jam. Yum. :)

dis-heart-en-ed

Each day is as uncertain as the next...

But each day is suppose to be a gift right? Yay for presents.

Bollywood-ness-ness

JAI HO! This song makes me wanna break out and dance... bollywood style! Yeaaaa! :)

rumbles

I'm hungry for sushi! And I also want some cheesecake and chocolates! :)