What to do?

It's another rainy weekend. We had a lot of these since the beginning of the year.

This morning I got up late and well rested. During coffee I asked Jack: "What do you think are good to do in a rainy day?"

"Reading books?"

"That's fine, if you like to read. I have my own idea of the best thing to do."

"Shopping?"

"Yes!" I raised my arms and beaming.

"Having a massage is good too."

"That's for sure. Another spa day. But I just had one last week, it's too soon." I'm still smiling.

I continue, "I guess cleaning up and clearing the clutters would be nice too."

"That's true, but I'd rather fix my iPhone apps."

"Yeah, you go ahead."

Someone stole my towel again

This is really bizarre and extremely frustrating. I hanged my towel by my gym shower stall, and when I was done with my shower and reached for it, it was gone. Luckily, I had another towel hanging at the shower curtain. Wasn't it so rude to steal someone's towel? This was like the forth time I had my towel stolen. The last 3 times the towel was stolen when I went for a swim. How stupid is that?

I need to watch my towel like a hawk in the gym!

Someone stole my towel again

This is really bizarre and very frustrating.

A Spa Day is a Smiley Day

Yesterday I wore a smile most of the afternoon. I had a very nice massage at our athletic club by Kristie. I visualized that I was in my room in Kauai, listening to the waves, the wind and the chirping birds. Kristie did a great job relaxing my tight muscles, especially on my shoulders and arms. I loved it. When I walked back to the locker room, I realized that I was beaming with joy. Then I soaked in the hot tub and sat in the steam room. When I was all done, I felt that some heavy weight was lifted off my shoulders, and I was ready for anything.

I am already thinking about doing this again!

Shopping

It's a rainy day today, and I got depressed easily. I have been bugging Jack all morning about wanting to go shopping.

We went to have dim sum first. We only go to one place for dim sum - Hong Kong Flower Lounge in Millbrae. The Dim sum was delicious, and we were very happy about it.

We then went to walk the dogs at the bay. Getting muddy, wet and cold. The dogs were happy, so it's OK. We finished around 2:30 PM.

We still had plenty of time for the rest of the Sunday, so we went to Main Street, Half Moon Bay to go shopping. Luckily, it didn't rain at all when we got back to HMB, and the weather was pleasant.

I used to enjoy window shopping on Main Street alone. Though when I shop alone, everything seemed too expensive, and I wouldn't want to break the buck. As a result, at the end of the day, I usually remain unsatisfied and slightly sorry for the shop owners.

Today was different, I showed Jack my favorite boutique, though they didn't have anything new so I wasn't impressed. We actually picked up a few interesting things from other home stores: a pair of shiny stainless steel cheese knives, a set of spice filled coasters, and a decorative door stop with a golden retriever sculpture.

Was it true that people could tell a lot about you by looking at your shoes? While we walked into some stores, the shop keepers looked straight at our feet, and then measuring the rest of us: what we were carrying, how we were dressed, etc. Coming back from the beach, both Jack's and my shoes were muddy wet. So I felt somewhat uneasy.

After we got home, I continued to shop online. I picked up some blazers and shoes from nordstorm.com.

So $300 later, and transferring more fund into my checking account, I am a happy person.

Percy Jackson and the Olympian Ruined

Jack and I went to see Percy Jackson and the Olympian, the Lightning Thief last night. Going to a movie on Friday night was not easy, because the full workday gave me a headache. It took me a while to unwind, but luckily the movie Showtime was at 7:30 PM, so I had plenty of time to relax before the movie started.

We both enjoyed the Percy Jackson book series, and thought of it as the lesser of the Harry Potter books. Even though the writing and the use of language was not as good as Harry Potter, the stories were creative and full of fantastic elements. So we couldn't expect less of the movie, especially because it was directed by Christopher Columbus, the director of the first two Harry Potter movies, which were my favorites.

The movie was really bad on all fronts. It couldn't have ruined the book more completely.

The acting was terrible, there was no chemistry between the actors whatsoever.

The teen stars, who were the main characters of the movie, lack the acting talents. The girl who played Annabeth, daughter of Athena, totally missed the mark. Her sword fighting was so poor, it looked like the sword was too heavy for her. The way she swung it was out of control, and after a few rigid moves, she was huffing and puffing. I guess all they care was her long hair, which she did a beautiful job swaying. In the book, she was the brain of the quest, but in the movie, she didn't show intelligence.

Even the adult movie stars such as Pierce Brosnan, who played Chiron, performed poorly. He was so stiff. I was not impressed with the lady who played Percy's mother either. Uma Thurman was fine, but she had a small part and her head was cut off early in the movie. I have to say, all of the actors look so detached from others and from the story.

The screenplay changed the story so much that many intriguing elements from the book were eliminated, and were replaced by mediocre acts. In Half Blood Camp, the movie eliminated the amazing inverted U shape of the cabins of each Olympian god, which the children of these gods resided, once claimed by the god. There was no dining scene in the movie, so they didn't have to show the ritual of giving food to the gods. Annabeth didn't have her Yankee cap, which made her invisible. Annabeth's affection to Luke was non existent. Ares, the war god, and his daughter, Clarisse, didn't exist in the movie, that got rid of many interesting scenes. In the gods' summer solstice gathering, instead of everyone wearing cool modern outfits, such as Poseidon's Hawaiian shirt, board shorts and sandals, they had all the gods wearing ornate Greek armors and robes.

We wonder what happened to this movie. They have great material to work with, a good cast minus the unknown teen stars and a supposedly well known director. Though we knew it wasn't for us to figure out, but at this point, we decided to blame the director, who should have the total control of all aspects of the movie production. If it was their intention to produce a mediocre movie just to satisfy teenage kids, then they have done it well, as we heard applauds at the end of the movie.

This movie was worse than a Disney TV movie. Miley Cyrus is a much better actress, just a thought. :)

The most refreshing part of the evening was watching groups of teenage kids entering before the show, and listening to responsible parents telling their kids to behave well in the public, such as take their legs off the seat rest in front of them and washing their hands after going to the bathroom.

Too busy watching the Olympics

and reading Percy Jackson book #4. No time to blog.

Chinese New Year Street Fair and the Gift Show #1

Last Saturday I had a full day of activities. My kiting buddy Gayle got me and my mom exhibitor passes to the S.F. International Gift Show at Moscone Center in San Francisco downtown. I was excited about it because I've never been to the show before. When I got to my mom's, she told me there was a Chinese New Year Street Fair in Chinatown, so we decided to go there too.

We left mom's around 1 PM and took the bus #10 to Chinatown. The driver told everyone to get off the bus as we got to Chinatown and Italy town border, which was the end of his service route. We walked toward the street fair, reminding each other to guard our purses well, because we were entering the most convenient area and situation for pick pockets.

The first thing we saw was a set of mini-carnival rides, but they were mostly empty. The touristy 6 blocks of Grand Ave as well as the interaction streets were blocked off, and vendor stalls were set up on the street. The place was so crowded it was overwhelming.

"Which way should we go?" Mom asked.

"Just walk to one end of Grand, then turn around to the other end."

Grand Ave. in Chinatown was always vibrant. It was packed with souvenir shops, Ginseng and herbal stores, Chinese grocery stores, bakeries/coffee shops, tea houses, restaurants, jewelry stores and boutiques. Most of them were tourist traps, except for the grocery stores and probably the poultry shops with had big sign saying: "no pictures please" in both Chinese and English.

Many street fair vendors sold arts and crafts featuring Chinese New Year decorations. The local Chinese radio station's set up a stage, and mom got to see her favorite D.J. in action. Others sold clothing; people who sold Chinese marinate provided food tasting; fresh popcorn smells great, and there were lots of flower farmers.

I let a lady in a white medical robe checked my blood pressure. She told me it was a little high but not too bad. She suggested that I could take the nature supplement, which she was selling, to improve my immunity. It would help delay my menopause until my late 50s or beginning of my 60s. I politely told her that my blood pressure was alright according on my doctor, and no thanks.

Many people waited in line to play the mini wheel-of-fortune set up by the Cathay Bank. They all looked so hopeful. The line went to the end of the block. SFPD also had a presence to recruit, but he had no customer.

I also had fun shopping. I did agree with mom that we couldn't buy too much, because without a car, we would have to carry everything around wherever we went.

I asked the lady who was selling a popular Japanese hair dye for the price.

"2 for $10."

"That's $5 each, it is not much a discount."

Another lady chimed in, "Well, we offer free gifts."

"What's the gift, may I see it?"

"We give you a cute mirror." She pulled out a 3x2 pink folded mirror in a plastic bag.

"Oh, it's such a tiny thing. That's not much a gift." I wasn't impressed. Though I already pulled out my money to buy 2. Note to myself, I need to work on synchronization between bargaining and my body language. I was never good at bargaining. If anything, anyone could talk me into buying things without much efforts. I am after all, simple and gullible. I felt better when I was with mom, as she would keep me out of trouble.

As I walked away with my purchase, I told mom proudly, "do you think my aunt would like a pink mirror with her hair dye? At least I don't have to pay tax." Tax, unfortunately is as high as 9.5% now.

A lady from a local bank asked if I wanted to get a new credit card, or to open a checking account with interest rate as high as 1.2% for a $10,000 deposit. I said "No, thanks," and walked away with disbelieve.

It was real fun to be at the street fair, watching people buying and selling and being happy.

We took the #45 bus to go to Moscone Center. We were at the back of the bus, which got more and more packed as the bus moved along Chinatown. At the last Chinatown stop, it was absolutely packed. The driver kept telling people to move back, in both Chinese and English. The young man next to me said: "We are at the back, and it's packed. They'll have to wait for the next bus." So the bus moved on.

Jaw dropped

Am I the only person who is so shocked about the Toyota recall? Such a rock solid company that is in crisis. Similar to Sun Microsystem being bought by Oracle. Toyota has a longer history and high prestige in the global market. I am sitting there, jaw dropped.
Toyota news today

Another jaw dropper of the day: UK PMs Charged Over Expenses. Gone is the days when politicians were noble.

There will be earthquakes and tsunami that destroy lives; the U.S. could lead the global economy into financial crisis; the U.S. auto companies and financial sectors would need government bail-out; and the state of California could run bankrupt. On the brighter side: a black man could be the U.S. president; the Chinese would journey into space. We just have to be prepared for and adapted to any change that is coming up.

Follow the recipe

This is the phrase from one of our favorite animation Ratatouille. What happened to us this Monday night reminded me exactly this phrase.

Last Sunday, Jack bought a package of garbanzo beans from an Indian store next to our favorite Indian restaurant. The next day, he wanted to make hummus with it. Oh, Jack is eating hummus now in an effort to improve his diet, since hummus is this super healthy food.

We carefully reviewed the recipes from multiple cookbooks. Since we bought the dried garbanzo beans in bulk, we had to first soak them in water until they got soft. Jack decided to make a big bunch at once. My logical self told me, we should follow the recipe first and see how it turned out, then we could make a big bunch as we were more familiar with the steps. Jack reasoned with me: "Normally I would agree with you, but since it's a simple recipe, it's like making salsa, you can add ingredients to taste." It's true, this is really no big deal. I was very tired that day, because the Indian coffee kept me awake until 2 AM, so I didn't argue with him. I did my part to help.

Jack chopped up half of an onion, fighting his tears back in the process and dumped it into the food processor, along with Tahini (sesame seed paste with lemon), garbanzo beans and olive oil. I minced some garlic and put it in the food processor. We blended all the ingredients together and it was done. Amazingly, it looked exactly the same color as the Sabra hummus we bought from Costco, which was Jack's favorite. Easy! We quietly congratulated ourselves then did our taste test ...

It didn't taste right. There was too much onion taste and too garlicky, there was also a hint of bitterness. Ah, easy fix, we added more chickpeas in hope of balancing out the garlicky and onion taste. I seriously didn't know where the bitterness came from and how to get rid of it. We blended the mixture together again and tasted it. A little better, but still the onion and garlic tastes were overpowering.

Jack checked the recipe and screamed: Oh, I am supposed to cook the garlic and onion before blending it. O.K. that explains it.

The next day, here's our email exchange with subject line - Our hummus:

think that we put in too much garlic in this batch. I didn't think I'd ever hear myself say that.

I intend to use more olive oil in the next batch.

--
Jack

That's ok... we learn this way. I didn't give 2 bunches as the recipe called for.
I think cooking the onion and garlic would help too.

ying

Not bunches, cloves. Did you give me a bunch? That would explain a lot.

- Show quoted text -

oh! I put 2 bunches. whoa, that reminds me of when I first tried to make Indian curry and messed up between teaspoon and tablespoon. That was funny...

Ying

I was in the office, but I can't help to laugh out loud.

My breath tastes like garlic. It is all your fault :-)

We the smell of garlic and onion will follow us for the days to come, as we are consuming our homemade hummus. Giving us bad breath and coming out of our pores.

I told this story to my wise Indian coworker, she laughed and suggested: "no recipe will call for garlic in bunches. That's too much garlic. But at least your hummus is has a LOT of healthy ingredients." When I offered her some to taste, she declined politely.

For your reference, here is a hummus recipe found online.

The end

Clear! At last

Last Tuesday when I went to the office, the first thing my co-worker asked was: "What happened to your skin? Is seems dry and with red patches." I say, "Oh, probably because I lost sleep the last week during the storm, my dogs has been waking me all night for 3 nights straight." But then later on I realized it wasn't the reason. The next few days I suffered dry skin. Even Jack said maybe I had some kind of allergy with a skin product.

I started using multiple new skin products, and I didn't know which one in particular was the culprit. So I was very concerned. To "fix" my skin problem, I was careful to only used the mild moisturizer I had been using for a long time, that I knew wouldn't give me any irritation. After a week, my skin finally cleared up, and it is smoother now.

My educated guess at this point? Do not mix moisturizers. What I did wrong was during daytime, in order to make my skin "super" moisturized, I would first put on moisturizer cream, then a layer of sunscreen before I leave home. That's what's irritating my skin. I bet if I only use one cream at a time, my skin would be fine.