eventful weekend

Saturday went home bringing a bunch of clothes that I seldom wear, and the digicam and speaker for bro.

And carted back to penang 1 pot of chili and half sack of earth to fill up the pots on the balcony.

The previous plants died a horrible death from infection (I don’t know a better term for it as I am not even sure what the heck is the whitish things that ate up the plants) no matter what we did to save it.

Bah! They were already so tall and green and leafy and beautiful!~

And all of the sudden the whitish thing got a hold of them and started to devour them. >.<

Kh sprayed it with a concoction of some chemical thingymajik that he google-d from the internet but they still caved in to the monstrosity of the evil webbed plague infection.

In the end, we need to terminate those plants and threw them away, rather than letting it die a slow painful death. Woo, I’m all for euthanasia. Haha!

 

Anyways, ambitious as we are, we got some seedlings from jusco the other day, and decided to try our luck planting vegetables on our balcony.

Mind you, not a whole row of them, just 2 pots of them. Haha!

So that is the usage of the half sack of earth my dad dug up for us and was ferried in the car all the way from another state.

Oust the old, dried up dead earth from the old pots, pour in the new ones and I put in the seeds.

Careless as I always am, I accidentally poured way too much seeds unto my hand, because how the hell would I know that those seeds are so small?

So I poured them back into the plastic that contained them and ended up putting too many seeds into the pot. Supposed to put 3 to 4 seeds, but I ended up putting a whole lot more.

Don’t ask. :p

 

So ended up we had 1 pot of chili, 3 pots of vege. Let’s see whether those vege shall sprout and grow.

And I do hope that I won’t kill the chili plant. Mum said it will bear chilies soon. It was a small chili plant which dad uprooted for us to bring back to Penang.

 I can’t wait for my first harvest! Hahahaa!!

Agriculture is the in thing now babeh!!

 

Oh ya, my crabs craving kicked in during the weekend, and I called mum to ask her to tell uncles to reserve come crabs for me.

But on Saturday when I went to gramma’s house, uncle said he cant manage to get a single big ass crab.

Only 3 small ones. So I’ll just have to settle for that to satisfy my cravings. Next time I’m gonna call my mum way in advance to place bookings on those yummy-licious crabs.

Just you wait fatty ass. I’m gonna get you soon!~ muahahahahaa!

Lazy me wanted to steam those crabs but kh said to let him try cooking sweet and sour crab dish.

Hell yes! Although we did not have corn starch at home but it turned out well.  Bravo!

Crabs for supper. Any takers?

effing smart eh? nay!

Lately the gloves in the lab are slightly thicker in texture. And all this while, normally I used the S sized rubber gloves whenever I need to clean my units with alcohol.

So when the new batch came, I took S size as usual. Jeng jeng jeng! Somehow the gloves are tighter than the previous thinner batch. And I’m not the only person noticing this.

The other gals who have been using S size gloves mentioned that as well.

And just now, when I was using it again to clean my units from olive oil, I really felt the difference. It wasn’t as comfortable, and its too thick and too tight.

Feels as if it is compressing my hand.

And suddenly realization dawned upon me…….

Most of the guys don’t like to use condoms. That figures.

Who the heck wants to squeeze their dick inside a smaller rubber glove and feels compressed?? :p

Haha! :D

sucky day

sucky night. those four words sums it all.

p/s: i have always hated explaining myself. Thou shalt know…

++

On a somber different note, What Sarah Said – death cab for cutie

And it came to me then that every plan is a tiny prayer to father time
As I stared at my shoes in the ICU that reeked of piss and 409
And I rationed my breaths as I said to myself that I’d already taken too much today
As each descending peak on the LCD took you a little farther away from me
Away from me

Amongst the vending machines and year-old magazines in a place where we only say goodbye
It stung like a violent wind that our memories depend on a faulty camera in our minds
But I knew that you were a truth I would rather lose than to have never lain beside at all
And I looked around at all the eyes on the ground as the TV entertained itself

‘Cause there’s no comfort in the waiting room
Just nervous pacers bracing for bad news
And then the nurse comes round and everyone will lift their heads
But I’m thinking of what Sarah said that “Love is watching someone die”

So who’s going to watch you die?..

V-day plans went haywire

Both kh and I have an agreement not to celebrate v-day the way it was commercialized. For the two of us, it would be more like just a relaxing weekend, eating home cooked food and spending time with each other. For we believed that v-day isn’t all it is hyped up to be. Heck anyone of us can buy flowers for our loved ones any other day rather than on this particular day when the price is cutthroat and ridiculous. For real love to be sustained, affections and love are to be shown all throughout the 365.24days of a year, instead of on just 14^th February. I even came up with the theory that maybe the florists conned us all into believing that different flowers, different amount of stalks and different colors representing different meanings. Haha…

Well ramblings aside, I did plan something for him. What I intended to do from a week ago was to cook him a nice meal, and spend the time at home watching a movie or something of that sort. But our plan my plan was thrown in shambles when my boss told me on Friday that I would need to work on Saturday.

Imagine for this whole week, we hardly spend time together too. Monday was kh’s badminton session, Tuesday was mine, weds was spent together at home lepaking (at least 1 day out of the 5 weekdays), Thursday I had a fren’s birthday dinner to attend, and Friday he was supposed to meet his sister for some on-going stuff. So I made an excuse on Friday night that I am tired and would like to rest at home and not visit his sis. He bought the excuse because the whole week I have been pretty tense with my work stuff too.

So as soon as he’s out of the door at 7.30pm, I set off to my project.

I took out the unsalted butter, and let it thaw for awhile while I watch the 7pm show. Haha! :p

Right on dot at 8, I weighted the butter, chuck it into the cooking pot, and proceeded to weigh the rest of the ingredient. After pouring the caster sugar into the bowl, I opened the drawer to look for the hand mixer but I just couldn’t find it. and then it struck me that it was at home with mum!!!

Goodness me, so I had to use hand to mix up the batter of butter and sugar, and then the eggs, flour, baking power, milk, cocoa powder and choc chips. My hand was so tired at the end of it.

I think I took nearly 1 hr to do all this, just to make sure I had it all mixed up well!

I even make do and used the rice spoon (instead of a wooden spoon which was used for cooking) to do the mixing because it was shorter hence less energy needed to turn the batter. Hehee…

But all the while, I need to check the time and rush through it because I’m afraid kh will come home anytime soon. Huhu….

After I’m done with everything, I scooped 6 of it into the cups and let it bake for 15mins. Turns out the top was slightly burnt. hehe.. :p

So I used 12mins for the last batch (3 cupcakes for the 2^nd batch because the batter only makes about 8-9 cupcakes) but it wasn’t cooked when I poked the fork in it after 12mins.

So I can only have cooked cupcakes when the tops are slightly burnt. Because I’m was too lazy and in a hurry to stop looking for a tooth pick, I used fork to poke my cupcakes hence you can see in the pictures the holes across the top of the cupcakes. Hehee…

While cooling off the 1^st batch, I proceeded to make chocolate ganache, and then I remembered I did not buy any heavy cream. So being the smart ass (konon la) I substituted them with a glass of milk (fernleaf) but I put in a lot of milk powder so it willl become “heavy”. :p

Poured the whole thing into a smaller pot and put in the chocolate bar and halfway thru, realized I had too much milk and proceeded to pour half of it out while losing some chocolates at the same time.

So I’m left with half of my original chocolate ganache, and later you can see that not the whole cupcakes was covered. Hehee….

And then sudeenly I had this idea to write some wordings on the cupcakes, and I have no time to do anything else, nor do I have any idea how to do a frosting. So I ended up trying to create butter cream of my own, and it turned out fine for the first 6 cupcakes, but on the 2^nd batch, the cupcakes was still too hot to put butter on it, hence the wordings melted away on my first try.

So I ended up stuffing those 3 cupcakes into the freezer in a desperate attempt to cool if off faster as kh is already on his way back. Haha!

But still, the wordings are a little off, but overall they got the message thru to him. Heeee… I tried my darnest to clear away the chocolate cupcakes smell in the house but when he came home, the first thing he asked me was “what’s that nice smell?” and I put on my best poker face. haha! Finally he saw the cupcakes arrange in alphabet on a plate on top of the coffee table. heeee… happy valentine’s my love!!

my batter before it was baked

 

 

empty cupcakes waiting to be filled. hehe...

 

notice the slightly darker top? hehee... :p

 

first batch of cupcakes, after 3 of them being poked with fork. haha!

 

while these 3 are being baked, i was cooking chocolate ganache and buttercream. multitasking wei

 

since i only have 9 cupcakes, i was fretting over what to write on them. haha! this is what i came up with

 notice 3 alphabet which seems to have melted away? those are the 3 which i stashed in the freezer and yet it wont cool off fast enough! don let the aesthetic fool you though. ask kh how does it taste like? hehee..

kh n his cupcakes. hehe

Backdated posts – photo story

I have had a few posts which was so backdated but i would still like to put them here. most of them are about get-togethers and food.forgot most of the time to snap pics of what i cooked, so here are just a bunch of them which i remembered, and i find it to be more “canggih” then the rest. ;p

 

The first about a one-time-deal snack I made on a particular day (which was a weekday) and I never do it again. hehee.. I bought the ready-made French bread from jusco for the garlic bread, roasted some tomatoes and cooked a can of Campbell mushroom soup (with potatoes) and oh-its-so-heavenly. Lesson learnt, never to use unsalted butter for your garlic bread. I like having lots of butter on my garlic bread, but I made the mistake of using salted butter instead of unsalted ones and the garlic bread turned out a tad too salty to my liking. Kh being the supportive husband walloped everything down.

And for the roasted tomatoes, you can put a dash of salt if you feel like it. but I left mine untouched, just some chopped garlic, dried basil herbs and a sprinkle of extra virgin oil.

yummy snacks

Another is a picture of kh attempting chicken curry, and hey it came out very well indeed! *thumbs up dear *

The chicken was tender because it was left to stew for quite sometime. And I like my curry to be slightly thicker in texture. Yum yum… the steamed tofu and vege was cooked by me. accompanying side dishes. Hehee..

Sumptous healthy lunch

 

Next in the picture was dinner cooked by Khay Inn with his assistant Kh while I’m away in office slaving away. Those are for new year’s eve day when we were doing out countdown at Khay Inn’s house.

To date, Khay Inn’s culinary skills has never fail to impress me. in fact it made me shrink away in inferiority sometimes because I cant cook such things for Kh. Well, I will try dear. You have my word. Below, is roasted chicken, blanched broccoli, garlic bread, salad tossed in olive oil, abc soup and spaghetti (he added some red wine into the gravy). Beats going to the restaurant anytime jostling with the crowd on new year’s eve. not in the picture is his Sangria drink.

imagine cooking 5 portions of this. woot!

 Lastly, is a picture of gingerbread man which was given by Pei Lynn during xmas day. It’s so cute that I don’t have the heart to eat it right away so I put it in the fridge, and only ate it a few days after. Haha! thanks Pei Lynn!

Gingerbreadman for Xmas!

 

p/s: this is a none food related paragraph. Hehe.. one of my favorite top was missing for weeks, and I suspected that it was blown away by wind when I couldn’t find it anywhere in the house. I can’t believe that I overlooked under the bed too. But alas sometimes things surprises us and pops out when we stop looking. In this case, the thing that found my top/camisole was the faithful i-robot or more fondly known as “robot-chai” by me and Kh. We left it running in the bedroom and suddenly it went quiet. So I went in to check and lo-and-behold, the strap of my camisole was stuck to the motor of the robot. -_- Thank god it the strap wasn’t broken, and the motor wasn’t jammed up either and function normally after I took out the knotted strap.

My cami & i-robot

karma stings…

There I was laughing my ass off, making a big fuss over kh for his non-existent pimple because he was eating peanuts non-stop nearly every night, even taking the effort to memorize the existing pimples on his face so I can pin point out with precision any fresh new ones when it pops out the next day, but lo and behold! Karma’s a bitch!!
I AM the one waking up with a gigantic pimple THE VERY NEXT DAY and his face is still smooth from any pimples invasion. How can this be????
I was the one abstaining from peanuts (not abstaining, its too strong a word, I just don’t really fancy peanuts) and yet rewarded with one big red blob just right underneath my left nostril. It’s so unfair!
So I’m guessing god my body is teaching me a lesson not to be so cocky and think so highly of myself (pimple free days are so over!).
I am so ever humbled in the presence of a holy zit. Bluek!
Oh ya, did I mention that kh had a field day teasing me over it?
And going into 2nd day when it was slightly yellowish with pus, he sang the phrase “na-na-na-nah, na-na-na-nah!” from Hey Jude.

Did I tell any of you that kh is my husband??? *looks horrified* ><

p/s: please forgive me for fretting over a zit when our politicians are crying wolves over the invasion of gaza while ignoring the pile of shit in our own country. I would have stuck a pole up their arses if I can have my way (figure of speech, duh!), but then again they would have thrown me in jail and locked me up over my treachery of mocking them

the hairdo story

Lately I (KH) spent a bomb on my hair, and I am mortified by the sheer audacity of the act itself. What prompted me to do what I did? Was it the curiosity that gets the better of me, or just the act of giving in to spontaneity that propels the act in itself?
It always beguiles me, the fact that women will spend a fortune on their tresses and on their face just so it makes them look good, and feel good about it. I always can’t quite comprehend to spend such a large sum on something so finical, so absurd and so vanity motivated that I kind of find it amusing, when I see friends splurging on it. Now…now.. Look who has bite the bait. -_-
Let me recall when the moment of internal struggle started….

I went to the salon to trim my hair, mark my words… one day before annual dinner because I took into account that it would be too rush to get my hair done before the dinner itself as I will be leaving the office at about 3pm+. And what did the smart-ass hair dresses told me?
That it won’t make a difference if he trimmed my hair because tomorrow, my hair will still look… well… normal….
So he suggested that I go home, come in tomorrow to get it curled for the dinner, and then decide whether I like it or not. for split seconds I contemplated to get the perm done on that day itself but it was way too late, as they closed at 8pm and I was there 6pm+.
So off I went home with KH, and I told KH, very smart guy. He lets me off the hook for a RM40 trim and waits for me to come back for the RM300 perm. Ha!
The very next day, I went off after work to get my hair thong-ed. Woo… I find it ok, but I don’t like the way my fringe falls of to the side. KH in his best absolute polite manner declared that I look alright and nice.
that was on a Thursday, 18th December.

The following 1 week or so, was spent on debating internally whether I would like a permanent perm or not. At last, on Sunday, the weekend after Christmas, I told KH I don’t want to perm, as I love my straight locks. So we went to the salon about 5pm+ to get my hair trimmed and KH waited for me because it would take about an hour.
And while I was seated on the chair, Derick the hairdresser goes on with his “why don’t perm your hair for a new look for 2009, yada yada” and again it ignited my courage from last week which already ceased fire during the weekend. And I saw a picture from the hair magazine which they had, and I showed to KH and asked him “what about if perm it this day? Bigger thongs and falls naturally eh”

KH had this I-cant-believe-you look on his face and guess what he said “it was just 5 mins ago when you made up your mind you don’t want curly locks” -_-
If you had seen the look on his face, and if I were a guy with coconut sized balls, I would have shrunk into a minion, scurry away and bury my face in the first hole I can ever find and reside with mice for the rest of my life. It kinda puts me to shame actually. For changing my mind so easily all the time. :S

So I proceeded to get my hair permed, RM300 including some treatment they will include in the solution. And I told KH to go home first as it would take about 3 hours for the whole thing to be done. The funny thing was, although I am nervous, but I felt kinda on the edge and curious bout my new look at the same time. I believed I succumbed so easily to his suggestions because I had been twirling with the idea of curly locks for quite sometime. I believe my straight locks make me look boring at times. Plain Jane. Oh ya, did I mention KH is a fan of straight hair? Hence the yo-yo decision to perm or not to perm during the weekend before I decided on the NO-perm on my way to the salon but ended up perming instead? Forgive me if I confused you….

So alas, long story short, after perming, I don’t really like my new look. I missed my old hair so much I was whining that I look like aunty to KH for the rest of the week. And to add salt to injury, he said I was 100points before having my hair done, and he deducted 5 from me after that. In his entire charming manner he still insists I look great, just that not as great with straight hair. Dang! But I told myself to give my hair 2 to 3 weeks, and it will be natural after that. Talk about self delusions. Haha!
I did not dye my hair during the perm session because Derick said that it is still too early for CNY. He said to come back in 1 or 2 weeks time. Color + highlight cost a bloody 220. there goes an arm and a leg of mine. But in this case, it’s the arm of KH.

Because I was feeling kind of low the whole week because I really do believe I look like an aunty, I was seriously considering getting the color done as I believe it will help me look better. But I was also wounded from my first visit and I gave it a long hard thought, and no actions. Being the angel that KH is, he offered his arm $$ to sponsor my coloring, and heck-yes of course I accepted. Hahaa… thanks dear. That was so generous of you. heeee….

So I went yesterday to get my color done, and again the guy said color + highlight will look better instead of just dyeing one color instead. I easily chose the base color, which is an auburn natural shades, but I got confused on which color for the highlight, so I left it for the hair dresser to decide (he chose a copper tone shade). All the while he was reassuring me I will look pretty afterwards (all hair dressers are like that. Bah!). And I kept telling him no yellow undertones because I don’t want to look like a la-la girl (slang term for Ah Lian, Ah Beng’s better half) or worse, looking like an aunty with overtly bright hair. I have no idea whether he hair dresser finds me annoying or not. hehee.. he asked me whether KH likes my new look, and I told him point blank he is still not used to it. (he is KH’s long term hair dresser actually)
Yada yada yada, 2 hours later I’m done. New color with highlights thrown in, and I felt million dollar.

Well I certainly believe the color makes me look way better. And I feel much better today. as of now while I’m writing this down. But that’s cos my hair is all covered in gooey stuff they applied yesterday after styling. I will know how I will look like tonight when I washed my hair. Heee…
And this round, I declined any additional scalp treatment (RM25) and cold hair treatment (I believe another additional RM50) which I had during my first session. Blek!

Conclusion of the $$ I spent:
1. Perm + basic treatment = RM300 (assortments of big and small thongs)
2. Additional treatment to wash away the chemicals = RM50
3. OSIS styling products on promo = RM88 (wax stick + volume cream + hair spray freeze fit) all products of Schwarzkopf *I checked the price in another shop in QB, apparently I did get those 3 stuff on a bargain *
4. Coloring + highlight = RM220 (courtesy of KH as new year pressie)

In all my entire life, I had never ever spent so much on a hairdo. This… is an amazing feat in itself.

360 degree of transformation. kekee..

killing time

Date : 22nd November 2008
Time : 10.15pm
Venue : debug lab

I am stuck in the lab, waiting patiently while the clock ticks away in US. Literally!
I had to wait in the lab to call to CTMC to give them my Amex credit card so they can bill Intel directly for my medical bill.
I can’t submit a MyExpense report until the they charge Intel because then the bill won’t be reflected in the system. Sigh…. I was told by the voice recorder that their billing department starts from 8am to 6pm. Much to my chagrin, when I called direct extension of the billing deparment, nobody picked up and I was routed to the front desk.
And according to the lady at the front desks, billing department staff usually comes in at 9am, and leaves at 5.30pm.
Lo and behold, here I am. I can’t drag this any longer because Xmas and New Year is only 2 days away, so my bet is many are already on leave.

Kh was out playing badminton just now when I came in, because I thought this would only take a minute, so I came into to Intel by myself to make the call.
But I don understand now why Austin is no longer 13hours behind us, but instead it is 14hrs now according to the lady at the front desk.
So in order to call at 9am, I have to wait until 11pm here.
Anyways, back to first sentence of this paragraph. I came in alone because I thought this would take awhile. But here I am stuck until 11pm, at the very least.
Kh asked me if I wanted him to come in to accompany me, and I said no, while all the time in my head the answer is a resounding Yes!
So I had committed the very sin that I preach to myself never to, which is to say No when I actually meant Yes. -_-
Boo… shame on me…

On the bright side, Pei Lynn called me today, saying she has something to pass to me. and I’m guessing maybe it is one of her infamous banana bread or cookies.
But never in my life would I expected her to give me gingerbread man cookies. And they are oh-so-cute!~
I wanted to snap a picture to post it up here but my stupid modem/router was giving me problem at home just now, so I cant get connected.
I probably will do it tomorrow because by the time I reach home later, it will be too late and I would be too grumpy to get connected.
One thing I am sure of is, I will definitely snap a few pictures before they ended up in my tummy, and Kh’s.
Pei Lynn even put my initial and Kh’s on the body of the gingerbread man. Heeee… thanks again Pei Lynn. Words can never describe how I feel.
And thanks to Jenny for her souvenirs from Korea, and May for the Xmas card. Today is a happy day for me. up until this very moment.

Once I settle this, I am sure I would feel like a stone has been lifted off my shoulder. The hospital bill has been bugging me ever since the moment the bill came in the mail.
Delivered to Penang address. Huhu~
Fucking Bloody usd220 for a urine test, usd25 a pop for a vicodin, and another usd489 for emergency room admittance.
So to all the folks out there, unless you are dying, do not go to the hospital in the United States. Medical care really cost a FORTUNE there. That is why insurance is a big thing in US.

p/s: at least I got a pop of Vicodin, House’s very own version of candy

apple corer…

Today I’m gonna post a picuter of my favorite tool to cut apples at the moment.
I call it my personal “apple corer”
Hahahaaa…….. cutting apples is no longer a chore

position the apple corer as symmetry as possible...

[caption id="attachment_49" align="aligncenter" width="460" caption="press down with all your might!! "][/caption]

tadaa! the end results. hehe..

mumbo jumbo

While writing posts in my blog, I’m always having trouble trying to put a title to my thoughts.
That’s because my thoughts are always jumbled up, and I’m always skimming the surface, jumping here and there and ended up nowhere. -_-
As for today, something prompted to me write, bout how I felt, lately that is.
As we all realized, when people grew up, they just grew apart. Probably the bond is still there, but no one makes any effort about it.
People always say the other party is busy, or worse, they ALWAYS ASSUME. We all should be matured enough to realized that we should not assume things.
Things are never the way they appear to be like.
So hence the excuses of “I never tell you because I thought you were busy”, or “I thought you wont be interested in that” and much more lame excuses.
Asians typically don’t have the nerve to just say “actually I forgot to tell you” or “I prefer not to tell you at that time because I don’t want you to come along”
And most of them always make a fuss by saying “oh never invite me” when they knew you just came back from somewhere, but in reality, if you really invited them, they most probably would not or could not make it.
Now why do I say so? cause most of the time when you asked them to go somewhere, they always came up with excuses of not being available, so eventually you got jaded and leave them out of the equation whenever you make a plan. Who’s to blame? I honestly don’t know… O_o

Like when we had our wedding dinner, some people were shocked that kh and I did not invite certain people. Its like “hello, its my wedding. Suka hati la I nak invite sapa” -_-
I don’t owe it to anyone to please them; apparently some people seem to think that not being invited to a wedding dinner means they figure lower on the couple’s list.
Well, why don’t they see it that they themselves are not closer enough to the couple, and if they are invited to it, it would appear to be as if they are invited for the sake of filling up the empty tables.
Whose fault it is to not keep in touch in the first place?
I can say it’s everybody’s. Everyone is waiting for the other party to initiate something, and ended up when pigs are flying in the sky, no one is meeting up for drinks anywhere yet…
And some Chinese seem to think that whenever there is a wedding, big bosses must be invited, because they wont come but you can earn their ang pow.
I certainly abhor such culture and mindset. As for me, 1 word sums it all. Cheapskate!

Sigh.. Lately I’m feeling a little under the weather. My gastric has gotten worse 2 weeks ago, and for whole day yesterday I was cooped up at home suffering from migraine, but thanks to the ever loving kh, I managed.