Tuesday, June 30, 2009 2:40 PM
Okay, to balance that last post out, I did have a really great weekend. Things aren't all bad! Friday afternoon, I get a call from my fiance J (I've decided not to use the name Salami anymore since it's actually pretty darn horrible), who asked me 'how much do you like me right now?'. I didn't get it and after toying around for awhile and not being able to guess what he was getting at, I said I wasn't liking him all too much anymore. So he tells me he's coming home early from work and that he's not going to the gym so I'd have him all to myself. Me: 'That's it? I thought it was going to be something amazing!' J: "What do you mean? That IS amazing! What were you expecting?" Me: "I don't know. How about, you come home early, skip the gym AND we go out for dinner!" J: "We can do that. Do you want to do that?" Me: "I'm just kidding." But even though I was kidding, I was secretly hoping we'd go out to eat somewhere. When J got home, he stood in the kitchen, clasped his hands together and said 'So, here's the deal. We go out to eat at Lime or wherever you want, and then after that we can head to Macys to look at things for our registry or we can look at furniture.' Me: "COOL!" J: "Yeah but you have to promise me one thing." Me: "What?" J: "That you have to be happy." Me: "What do you mean?!!" J: "You have to be happy with me when we're shopping and you have to like me. No complaining about me!" I could've cried. I guess sometimes it's hard to fully see things from someone elses perspective. I mean, I understand he doesn't like to shop, but the previous week when I'd been bugging him about going to make a registry somewhere, it was basically like I was a mother dragging my teenage son out. He was all grumpy, had no clue about anything and didn't take the initiative to help me find where the registry even was in the store. He was in a bad mood all around. So we made a deal. No complaining from either one of us. We got a little soaked getting to Lime from all the rain, but it was nice being out in the early evening with him. We ended up going to five stores, browsing around looking for things for the house. It was great! After home-made blueberry wheat pancakes the following morning, we headed out again to look at more furniture and basically spent all day doing that. We finally purchased some things (which cost a fortune compared to what we had been planning to spend) but we're both really happy with it and the lady that helped us kept saying we were so nice to each other and that we were such a compromising couple compared to a lot of others that shop there. Hahaha! The day went by without us getting a chance to eat lunch so we had dinner out again and then took the dog for a long walk when we got home. Sunday was perfect too. We goofed around in the morning by blasting music and dancing around the house like fools. Played with the dog and practiced some cool new tricks which he seems to have picked up naturally (like going through whatever you tell him eg your legs, multiple legs, under multiple chairs lined up). I walked the dog in the afternoon in the hot sun (sorry, dog), enjoying the little wisps of breeze and hearing the sound of the icecream truck get louder and then fade away as it passed by me, looking for kids. It was such a gorgeous weekend. One of those that went by slow enough for me to catch all the good things.
Friday, June 26, 2009 9:05 AM Lately I've been one irritable ball of fire. I can't really figure out why but the smallest of things can get me so angry. Here are a few examples. My computer and internet connection run SO SLOW at random times, although, it seems that it always happens when I have to show someone something, go to bed or when he's waiting for me to go do something. Can't. Stand. It. To. The. Point. Where. I. Am. Pounding. My. Fist. On. The. Table. It's not even a year old too, this laptop and I have barely anything on it since I stored all my files onto an external harddrive when I got it. I run the virus check often enough. What's the deal, man? The other thing that really, really got to me a few months back was that we've been trying to donate things to charities like clothes, kitchenware etc. One thing we had was a big black desk. It's actually for mixers, amps etc but it worked great as an office-style desk too. I thought it was in a good condition. The only bit of damage was the laminate peeling from where some bottled water leaked onto it. Otherwise, great! It was to my understanding that a lot of goodwill places picked up goods and I really thought it'd be nice to help out a kid or maybe some volunteer group who needed a desk. So I called a few and got through to this one who told me "NAH, we don't take desks anymore." What the? I was pissed. Since when do you reject someone's charitable donation? Coincidentally, I had to take my dog to get neutered that week and while at the vet, there was a huge truck outside and a guy kept walking in and out of the place, carrying excess computer equipment and magazines etc that the business had. I stopped the guy as he was leaving and asked if they accepted desks. He said yes, gave me their number to call and said they could pick it up the next day. Great! So I called. They came the very next day and the guy said they couldn't take it as it was too big and there was the small water damage on it. He told me to try the previous group and said 'they take all the things we don't take. They take everything.' What on earth?! I've never had this happen to me when I lived in Australia. They were always happy that people donated and made use of pretty much everything. Goods that were in poor condition too, which this wasn't. I was truly mad and absolutely disappointed that someone could have used this desk and these organisations wouldn't take it. I really missed home at that point and where I grew up and how all those things that I thought mattered, didn't seem to matter in the same way. When I was about 12, the company my dad worked for was moving to another state. They basically sold off all their furniture and I was jumping out of my skin because my parents bought a desk for my sister and I, amongst a whole bunch of other office furniture (which still furnishes our Sydney home today. Now that I think about it, my parents bedside tables are those light grey office cabinets. Haha! And we have the pidgeon hole shelving that they use for letters, in our garage, holding nails and tools etc). I'd always wanted a large office-type desk. What I got was a very plain, unfinished wooden desk with a file and stationary drawer attached. It had scratches all over it but it came with a key to lock the drawers and I remember beaming about it for years. My sister was the lucky one who got a glass layer that came on top of hers. However, I learned a neat trick about using raw brazil nuts (or other nuts) to rub out the scratches on my desk. I think I just rubbed over the entire thing and it worked pretty well. I still have it to this day. In fact, when I was about 19, I built a whole tower of shelving that sat on top of it since it leaned against the wall. So anyway. You can imagine my surprise when we tried to donate this very expensive and rarely used desk only to have it rejected multiple times. We ended up putting it out on the street for bulk pick up. I watched the garbage men lift it up and put it in the garbage truck, and the mechanical hand pulling it in to meet the rest of the garbage. What a waste :( Now I've just added to polluting the environment too. All this from trying to do a good deed! Lastly, HSBC. The bank, yes. They've been great for earnings etc but man are they so damn annoying or what when you have to speak to someone on the phone. I'm the complete opposite of most people when it comes to getting things done. I like doing things online, I like automated phone things. I'm not a big fan of talking to people over the phone for some reason. I had opened a joint account a few months ago with my fiance and a lot of mistakes happened. Like our cards came with two completely different account numbers. Half my other accounts disappeared when I tried to log in to do online banking things, etc. So I had to call multiple times and everytime I get the same schpeel about identity theft and how they'd like to offer me account protection for free for three months and it is so wonderful as it protects you against this and that etc. I decided not to do it, maybe later, but not now and I always have to explain why. By about the 8th time, I was reciting the same thing back to them. I hate when they read scripts off the screen. The lady on the other end kept insisting I have it because it's free and I said no, that since she's giving me a choice to have it or not, I've decided not to have it. She just didn't get why and asked me several times 'what is bothering you, mam?' YOU, woman, are bothering me. I should have just hung up. But I never do that, not even for telemarketers. Just don't have the heart because I know they're just trying to do their job. Sigh, and lastly...I went to the grocery store to buy a few things to cook and when I got to the cashier, she said 'nothing too much or too heavy please!' and I thought gee, this poor girl must have a a broken wrist or something. I tell her I've only got less than 8 items (hence the express checkout line I was in) and they were all light. 'Good because I'm just SOOO TIRED. I'm sooo tired. I know, why don't YOU do this? How about you scan your own things?' Wtf?! I couldn't believe her. I was shocked to the point where I couldn't think of anything to say. She doesn't stop there but instead continues to tell me that she hopes I'm the last customer, but by then someone else had walked up and she throws up her hands at me and says 'see!? I knew it. I just knew it.' Ugh! People like that just irritate me. There's this thing called customer service and PRETENDING to be in a good mood when you're not, because you're on the job. Hello?! Okay, I'm done. Thank goodness. Tuesday, June 23, 2009 10:33 PM Blueberry soup For some reason, I just can't seem to bake a cake. Or a pie. I got a good deal on a huge container of blueberries and decided I'd try my hand at a blueberry pie. I've tried once before and it didn't turn out too good but this time I thought it'd be a piece of cake (haha)! Found a recipe for Wild Blueberry Pie with Almond Crumble Topping from epicurious. It was my first time buying vegetable shortening and I had the hardest time trying to find it at the local grocery store. I had to ask one of the workers there and she had no idea and sent me straight to the boxed cake mix section. There happened to be a customer there so I asked her if she knew what it looked like and, while holding two boxes of betty crocker cake mix in her hand, said, 'I'm not too much of a cook but I think it comes in a can'. We stopped a young worker that was walking past and he didn't seem to know where tt was either but told me to look in the oil section. After all that, I now have a full container of vegetable shortening sitting on my kitchen counter. I decided to use a ready-made crust that had been sitting all this while in my freezer. That's called downright laziness! Yep!
I topped the pie with the almond crumble (which actually looked like sand but oh well) and all was good going into the oven. Didn't take any pictures of the aftermath. It was like goop, oozing out of the sides of the pie and there was nothing to cut! Just scoop, slop, camouflage with scoops of vanilla icecream and drink. Hey, it tasted pretty darn good! That's what counts, right? Tuesday, 16-Jun-2009 3:40 PM I decided tonight I'm going to try and steam a fish for dinner. I just scanned through one recipe and got up to "Steam fish over rapidly boiling water for 12 to 15 minutes or until the eyes of the fish pop out. (This is an indication that the fish is cooked.)" and got to thinking, ugh, maybe I'll just make pasta instead. Then I remembered that my fish doesn't have it's head attached. Phew. I suppose it sounds ridiculous, because I'm happy to cook all kinds of things (except live lobster or crab) given that I don't have to be the one to remove all it's organs, feathers, spine ...or head for that matter. I just feel horrible holding an entire creature that's dead and then tearing it apart. For example, the prawn. Somewhere after about 3-4 rounds of de-shelling, leg removing (why must they have SO many legs?!!) and head snapping (which includes getting all that brown goop in my fingernails), I'll suddenly realise what I'm actually doing which freaks me out and I run out of the room and beg for someone else to finish the job. I'm such a wuss. Which makes me wonder how it was that I used to flush live lizards down the toilet, cut stick insects in half or kill frogs by smashing them under the see saw. The last one is extremely bloody - I don't recommend it! Hmm, pasta it is. Friday, May 29, 2009 0:54 AM I'm giving tons of credit and respect to those people that design, print and make their own invitations. I'm making my own and it is taking me FOREVER! Problems with printing, colour, images looking too pixellated, you name it! Plus after thinking that I did such a great job using Photoshop, I've realised that everything comes out blurry and you have no idea how frustrating that is!. I've had to try and re-do everything using a InDesign which I ahve no idea how to use. So things are coming along but I'm sure I'm taking the most roundabout way to it. I am embarassed to admit but I am currently: - sticky taping each rsvp envelope to a paper template I made And I just realised that this huge bug that was next to my foot the whole time is no longer there (where the hell did it go??!!!). Anyways, I'm somewhat enjoying the process because these invites are personal and I like that. However, I've made a bunch of mistakes with the fonts and colour etc...so sorry to those that are getting slightly mismatched invites! Doesn't mean I love you any less (although I am saving the best for my favourite people. Oh come now, you know you'd do the same thing!). Yikes it's 1am. Gnite. Monday, May 25, 2009 10:24 PM So I thought I came up with this great idea for our lounge room yesterday since someone won't let me get more lounge chairs to fill the space. Apparently it would 'block the view of the lake'. I've been wanting some extra furniture to fill the empty space near our glass sliding door that leads out to the patio and lake. Something like an ottoman which we could also use as a foot stool and to double up as extra seating for when guests are over but it's just never happened. So anyway, I thought wouldn't it be great to have some large cushions that could double up as art as well as a foot stool as well as a chair and wouldn't block the view because they are low seating?? How about stone or large pebble cushions? Cushions that look like real stones but are comfortable to sit on and look great. You can stack a smaller one on a large one and rest your legs on them or make a miniature sculpture, even. But. Someone beat me to it. Gosh darnit! I LOVE these! They are exactly what I had pictured in my mind. You can find them at vivaterra.com or smarin.net. Pity they are so expensive. I'm going to try to make my own.
Sunday, 24-May-2009 0:49 AM The days are flying by so fast and I can't seem to get as much done during the day so I'm sitting here, at almost 1am, dealing with the frustration of trying to print some wedding info onto A7 size paper. Not possible! I don't understand why, of all sizes, it doesn't have this size as a print option??? This has been bugging me ALL WEEK. Why is it that things just don't line up right either? I must just be hopeless at this. On a different note, look who's camping out in our backyard!
And look at what went on only a few hours later! Goodness, you horny male duck! Can't you see the woman just gave birth to a bunch of babies?! Yes, that is him completely sitting on top of her, pinning her head down with his beak. I was mortified.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 12:32 PM My square foot garden
I've always wanted to grow my own herbs and plants and every so often, I'll get something, re-pot it and hope for the best. Then I heard about square foot gardening from the in-law's and it's a great way to grow a sizeable amount of vegetables (or flowers, whatever you like) in a small amount of space. We don't have that big a yard so instead of the 4 x 4 foot squares they suggest, I've opted for 1 x 3 feet. I made two sets of them. That's six square foot boxes.
What really got my butt moving with this project was that I'd just come back from spending a month visiting my family in M'sia and after all the delicious food we ate, I was determined to spend more time in the kitchen trying to make the same dishes. I'd also gone ahead and bought seed packets throughout the year and they've just been sitting there, begging to have a relationship with the earth. It's been just over 3 weeks now and I'm thrilled with my veggie garden. They're still alive and thriving! Some of them are grown from seeds, some from seedlings.
Want a little something to do this weekend? Start up your own veggie garden! Here's how I made mine. Let me just start by saying that I can't take credit for how I did the square foot garden. I read the square foot gardening book and tried to follow the instructions the best I could, with some minor tweaking here and there. You can check out their official website here. I did encounter one problem though. I couldn't find ANY vermiculite where I live. The only place that sold it was a local Lowes and they were all out of stock. They told me that the same guy comes each time and buys the entire lot. Damn you, guy! So I used perlite instead, which I don't have any problems with except that it is a little bit light and can float around when you water the soil. Okay, lets get started! The whole idea behind square foot gardening is to reduce the amount of space used, minimize on weeding, digging, watering and thinning AND you don't need to use any fertlizer! The potting mix is made up of very specific ingredients: 1 cubic feet of vermiculite - helps to aerate the mix and has good water-holding capacity. As I mentioned, I couldn't find any of this (thanks to that guy) and used perlite instead. It's all the little white specks you see in the pictures. 1 cubic feet of compost (It should from at least 5 different sources! eg manure, mushroom compost, vegetable compost etc. The best way is to make your own! I had trouble finding 5 different types so I ended up with 3). 1 cubic feet of peat moss - this helps to retain water To construct the boxes you will need: 4 x (3 feet x 6 inch) plywood boards 4 x (1 foot x 6 inch) plywood boards Note: I bought 3 planks of 6 feet x 6 inch boards and had them cut it into the dimensions above. 4 x 1 inch lath sticks. These are used as the dividers to create the "squares". 24 x Wood screws that are two times as long as the thickness of the wood. The books says to use deck screws but the ones I bought were too thick and were splitting my wood! I ended up using nails. Weed cloth - I used two layers of this for the bottom of my boxes because it seemed quite thin and flimsy. Primer and white paint (optional) Tools: If using wood screws: cordless screwdriver, drill bit for pre-drilling the holes If using nails: hammer Staple gun - for stapling weed mat to the inside of box.
STEP 1: If you want to paint your boxes, only prime and paint the wood that faces outside. Leave any of the wood that will be in contact with the soil bare. Lay your wood out on newspapers and paint a layer of primer on the wood. Make sure to stir the primer and the paint thoroughly first!
Once the primer is dry, you can start with the white paint.
I had to do at least 2 layers because I was using an old, stiff brush and it was giving a ton of streaks! After the paint has dried, it is time to assemble the pieces of wood together. If you bought the wood screws, a cordless drill comes in handy now! If you opted for the nails, get your hammer out! If you're using the wood screws, you need to pre-drill holes in the long planks. Once you've pre-drilled the holes, you can screw the first long plank perpendicular to the short plank. I just realised how bad I am at explaining all the technical stuff. Sorry!
This is where I was having trouble with the wood screws as it was splitting the second board it was going through. I had to switch over to nails after multiple attempts ie didn't have any more spare wood to destroy! Hammer away until you have put together the two boxes.
Here's where you take a breather and marvel at how nice the boxes look. You can put the dividers in and secure them with nails or screw if you like. I had a very hard time trying to do this so I chose to just lay them on top once I had the soil in (see photos at the bottom). Then get out the weed mat and cut out more than enough to cover the bottom of your box. You'll need the extra length to staple to the inside of the box.
Using a staple gun, staple the weed mat to the inside of the box.
Done with the construction! Now move your boxes to where you want them in your garden. I had to play around with my layout. I initially wanted a long line at the edge of the house wall because we have a narrow grass area but decided to put them on the concrete instead.
It's time to prepare the "mix" I happen to have a huge box to use for mixing all the different ingredients but if you don't, you can always pour it all onto a tarpoline.
I poured all the ingredients out onto the box. Because I had to buy several bags of compost to make up a variety, I did end up with a lot spare. I had to roughly guess the amounts to use. It's important to keep the soil lightly moistened when mixing the ingredients together. Use the "mist" option on your hose if you have it.
Mix everything together! This is what it looks like if you used perlite. Like your soil has a bad case of dandruff.
Fill your wooden boxes with the good stuff!
Lay on your dividers to form the "squares".
Time to plant the seeds! I had lettuce, pak choy, snow peas, choy sum, chilli. Make sure to check when the best time to plant your seeds are. Though you can always improvise ie make shade clothes or put a cover over the box if you're planting a winter plant during the warmer seasons.
The good thing about the book is it has a whole list of plants in there and it shows you a diagram of how many seeds to plant in a square. For example, the snow peas were 9 per square foot. Make the holes with a your finger and pop in 1-3 seeds in each hole. This way, something is sure to grow and once it does, you can remove the excess and leave the strongest one there.
The end result. I did have two plants that I bought and transplanted them into the squares.
Now play the waiting game! Make sure to keep the soil moist but do not overwater! Day 3: My pak choy and snow peas sprouted! I had to move my boxes because it actually rained that same day after I finished planting all the seeds and the water was pummeling down off the roof, right onto my seeds!
Swiss chard below.
Day 5: Pak Choy doing well! All the red petals you see are from a bush next to the boxes.
Now because I planted several seeds in each hole, I've had some out so there is only 1 allocated vegetable for it's spot, to prevent overcrowding.
Day 5: Pak Choy
Snow peas, below.
Basil
Swiss chard
Spring onions!
Still no sign of the lettuce or choy sum yet! I ended up growing my chillis in a spare pot I had. No sign of those sprouting either :( Day 10: Choy sum makes its appearance! So does the chilli! Still no sign of lettuce. Day 18: Putting in stakes for my snow peas. I bought the thin bamboo ones at HomeDepot so they looked more natural than the green plastic ones.
Below: Some cilantro I bought and planted in the middle square. The swiss chard is in front of it and some spring onions which you can't see well in the picture.
Got fed up waiting for the lettuce so I planted store-bought mint instead. Forgot to take a photo! They were pretty hard to transplant. Very flimsy. Pak Choy doing well below.
Day 14: Pak Choy and mint to the right
Hello mint!
Basil!
Swiss chard
Day 23: Which happens to be TODAY! L to R: Pak Choy, Mint, Basil
Basil
Below: L to R: Pak choy not doing so well Cilantro, Green onions and swiss chard (I used a watering can to water the swiss chard and I think I flattened it :( It's trying to make a comeback). Snow peas. These grow FAST and are the easiest to grow. They do like to grab onto other plants though so be careful with that. They kept hugging my cilantro and every night I had to unravel it and try to train it to grow on the stakes.
I wish I had more boxes to plant other things like parsley and chives etc. Ah well! That's for another weekend, eh?
Thursday, July 2, 2009 12:27 PM Friday night in.
It's Friday evening and I'm flying solo tonight! Which means it's all about me, me, me! I do love spending time with my boy but once in awhile, you just need that time to yourself. To do whatever it is you want. For me, it's eating in front of the tv, watching some girly crap that I know he just won't put up with. So, hello potatoes and 'The Hills' here I come!
Thursday, July 2, 2009 12:27 PM Planning for a wedding sucks when: - no one wants to fly halfway around the world - no one wants to fly halfway around the world to the US - no one wants to fly halfway around the world to the US because they're afraid of the swine flu - you are chinese and the only Saturday available is the 14th and your mom tells you this date means 'sure to die' Actually what annoyed me the most last week was that I thought things were getting underway and when I called my mom to check on who may or may not come from overseas, she was so snappy about not knowing and then stating how certain relatives didn't even show up for my dad's 60th so why on earth would they bother to fly overseas to celebrate my wedding? Thanks mom. So that tore me up and I ended the day thinking lets just forget about the whole thing. But I got over it and figured things out and put a hold on the 14th Nov and even ran it by the family. Two days later, my mom calls me up, not wanting to say what the big deal was, but finally spitting it out and saying that the 14th was a bad date and that the swine flu may get worse over the next 6 months and I would be asking too much of people to fly overseas. So we're back to square one again. Trying to figure out the hardest things - when to have it, what country to have it in, who could possibly attend if it was in whatever country... Vegas is looking good right about now! Thursday, 2 July, 2009 12:27 PM Meet Mac.
This is my buddy, Mac! He turned 1 yesterday and I completely forgot to give him his birthday present. But he did get a lot of downtime, hugs, heavy brushing (darn those knots under his chin) and lots of treats! And to think he was just this small not that long ago:
He's really been the coolest, happiest dog (except for the leash pulling). I'm rather lucky. His favorite game is hide and seek. You hide, he seeks. He might take up to ten minutes (he's a thorough searcher) but he's still pretty darn good at it. We've managed to train him to do a bunch of tricks. Excluding all your basics (sit, down, stay, wait, shake hands), he can: get on his bed, go to his crate, get the ball and bring it back, catch a frisbee, spin and rollover. Although the last two he confuses. He'll also get confused and run through his whole bag of tricks if he sees that you've got a good treat. The downside to him, although it's adorable, is that he's pretty clumsy. He hits his head on things a lot, like the legs of the chairs or the seat of the chair, or a stationary truck when he's walking. Or if he can't decide whether he wants to turn left or right when playing chase and runs head-on into the wall. He'll also jump a mile high if a long blade of grass pokes his leg and look back at it with a 'what in the hell was that?' look. This one I'll never understand because it happens multiple times a day when I take him out to do his business. He's such a sweet boy though. Always coming up and leaning next to you and dropping his head on your thigh. :) I hope he lives forever!
Saturday, April 25, 2009 3:38 PM And she's back! Can you believe that I've been thinking about updating on an almost daily basis and just couldn't think of what to say? Then all of a sudden it's what? Almost TWO AND A HALF years later!? Crazy! What should I write? What do they want me to talk about? What's interesting? No, idiot, this is YOUR page, write what you want! That's what you've always been doing! I have to admit, in the past three years, so many things have happened. Major things, like moving to another country, working as a professional, getting engaged, buying a house, buying a dog, growing my own vegetables (okay so this last one was just last week and it's not major, but it took me forever to do it!). I'd always been meaning to write about it all and post photos, so I could look back and see all the things I'd wanted to do and what I actually accomplished. I'm finally back. I do wish the last couple of years had at least a few entries in there so I could recollect the memories when I'm 82. I had some great times.
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