view from the kitchen window

AAAaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!

Too pretty for my eyes(and freaking empty wallet).
Anyone with extra Euros to spare? Please??

Click here.

For Jesse

Well, since we are going to celebrate J's birthday and surprise parties among us don't work anymore, I have a teaser cooked up especially for him!

I know J is one of my most faithful readers, thus he should be able to see this in time, b4 his dinner party tomorrow.

FYI, we are going to a Steak house coz' a carnivore, he is.



So, what the hell do you think this is, J?

Sharpen your fangs and cya tomorrow!

the Birthday Calculator

30 March 1980

Your date of conception was on or about 8 July 1979 which was a Sunday. I really didn't need to know that...

You were born on a Sunday under the astrological sign Aries.
Your Life path number is 6.

Life Path Compatibility:
You are most compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 3, 6 & 9.
You should get along well with those with the Life Path numbers 2, 4, 8, 11 & 22.
You are least compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 1, 5 & 7.

The Julian calendar date of your birth is 2444328.5.
The golden number for 1980 is 5.
The epact number for 1980 is 13.
The year 1980 was a leap year.

Your birthday falls into the Chinese year beginning 2/16/1980 and ending 2/4/1981.
You were born in the Chinese year of the Monkey.

Your Native American Zodiac sign is Hawk; your plant is Dandelion. One of my fav. flowers

You were born in the Egyptian month of Paony, the second month of the season of Shomu (Harvest).

Your date of birth on the Hebrew calendar is 14 Nisan 5740.

As of 9/6/2006 7:54:17 PM EDT
You are 26 years old.
You are 318 months old.
You are 1,379 weeks old.
You are 9,656 days old.
You are 231,763 hours old.
You are 13,905,834 minutes old.
You are 834,350,057 seconds old. I feel so much better...

Celebrities who share your birthday:
Scott Moffatt (1983) Norah Jones (1979) Matt Doran (1976)
Celine Dion (1968) Ian Ziering (1964) M.C. Hammer (1962)
Paul Reiser (1957) Eric Clapton (1945) Astrud Gilberto (1940)
Warren Beatty (1937) John Astin (1930) Rolf Harris (1930)
Peter Marshall (1930) Frankie Laine (1913) Vincent Van Gogh (1853)

Top songs of 1980
Lady by Kenny Rogers Upside Down by Diana Ross
Call Me by Blondie Starting Over by John Lennon
Another Brick In the Wall by Pink Floyd Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen
Rock with You by Michael Jackson Magic by Olivia Newton-John
Funkytown by Lipps, Inc. Another One Bites the Dust by Queen

Your age is the equivalent of a dog that is 3.77925636007828 years old. (Life's just a big chewy bone for you!)


There are 205 days till your next birthday
on which your cake will have 27 candles.

Those 27 candles produce 27 BTUs,
or 6,804 calories of heat (that's only 6.8040 food Calories!) .
You can boil 3.09 US ounces of water with that many candles.

Your birthstone is Aquamarine

The Mystical properties of Aquamarine
Aquamarine is often used to experience love and mercy. It is said to help ease depression and grief.
Some lists consider these stones to be your birthstone. (Birthstone lists come from Jewelers, Tibet, Ayurvedic Indian medicine, and other sources)
Jade, Rock Crystal, Bloodstone

Your birth tree is Hazelnut Tree the Extraordinary
Charming, undemanding, very understanding, knows how to make an impression, active fighter for social cause, popular, moody and capricious lover, honest and tolerant partner, precise sense of judgement.

The moon's phase on the day you were born was waxing gibbous.

Click here

Labour Day - what work?

FUnny, I thought we are supposed to work even harder on this day. Instead, we take a (much deserved)break. Betcha some ppl ain't as lucky. Like that garbage-collector guy I saw today working on the streets.

Finally put this piece of properly framed vintage world map reprint up on my wall. Mission accomplished. My apt is one big step closer to looking less like an ex-college-student's place. (previously I had 3 Chanel No.5 posters by Andy Warhol mounted on a too-large FOAM BOARD)

Armed with a Borders 30% off coupon, i bought myself a new book to amuse.

Haven't had a chance to start, but whilst flipping thru, saw little snippets of hilarious and embarrasing medical/common sense topics being answered and/or discussed. Great way to enhance my social-gatherings conversational abilities.

Took a doggy nap, woke up hungry and disappointed that there is no date for dinner. So ate some instant noodles, watched Wheel of Fortune, took a nice shower and chomped down some ice cream. It is amazing how I can feel so cold in the apt, yet a taste of the stone-cold Vanilla Fudge fuzzily warms my insides... ... mmmmmm... ...

Don't forget to awwwww at my spanking shiny Alessi heart shaped ice cream spoon.

In all, I had a wonderful week. I had tonnes of fun. I dunnoe how I managed to summon enough energy to go out after work every day. Might be the power of that good feeling. And now it keeps me yearning for more... ...

Awww man~~~

Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin killed

By BRIAN CASSEY, Associated Press Writer

Steve Irwin, the hugely popular Australian television personality and environmentalist known as the "Crocodile Hunter," was killed Monday by a stingray while filming an underwater documentary on the Great Barrier Reef. He was 44.

Irwin was killed by a stingray barb to the heart on Batt Reef, off the remote resort town of Port Douglas in northeastern Queensland state, his wildlife park Australia Zoo said in a statement.

Crew members aboard Irwin's boat, Croc One, called emergency services in the nearest city, Cairns, and administered CPR as they rushed the boat to nearby Low Isle to meet a rescue helicopter. Medical staff pronounced Irwin dead a short time later, the statement said.

Irwin was famous for his enthusiasm for wildlife and his catchword "Crikey!" in his television program "Crocodile Hunter," which was first broadcast in Australia in 1992 and has aired around the world on the Discovery channel.

He rode his image into a feature film, and developed the Australia Zoo as a tourist attraction.

"The world has lost a great wildlife icon, a passionate conservationist and one of the proudest dads on the planet," John Stainton, Irwin's friend and producer, said in the statement. "He died doing what he loves best and left this world in a happy and peaceful state of mind. Crocs Rule!"

read more here

Alameda Antiques By The Bay September 2006

YAY!!!

This weekend is a long weekend because of Labour Day holiday on Monday. Missy gathered a few BFFs and headed off to Alameda Antiques Fair in Oakland. Unfortunately, they closed the westbound Bay Bridge all thru' this long weekend for construction so we gotta make a BIG round down South and cross to the other side of the Bay by the San Mateo Bridge. Normally it is a 20 mins drive. This morning, it took about an hour. Luckily Mai-chan drove her newly purchased Volvo wagon and even made us some extremely delish Strawberry + Custard cake!

devoured within seconds...

everybody busy looking for something to buy...

I wish but I can't, so I take photos...

notice Shinta + Sayaka checking out the gorgeous blue hand luggage which Shinta purchased later...too good to let go!

SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOUTUBE.COM NOW. WILL LOAD THE VIDEO LATER.

Sayaka playing a super cute musical instrument with Happy Birthday Song!



SO AMAZING!

This is what I bought. A little shelf-thingy to put thr Frog's House on top and some knick-knacks inside. Got a really good deal and nice ppl helped me to carry it... hehehehehe my apartment is pimpin' ! Gotta have a party soon!

I also bought a *something* [u know, you have one in the bathroom and you can do your handwashing-clothes in it. I know how to say it in freaking Chinese but not English :( argh! ] OH! A basin. heeheeehee I also bought a $5 pair of wooden Salt N Pepper holder for my personal use in the office. YAY!!!

Mmmm Mmmmm....COOKie MonSTer!!!

I had the epiphany.

So I made cookies(!!!) and am so glad. Coz' it is real easy.

Just add one EGG and a stick of BUTTER into the PRE-MIXED package... ...

then sprinkle a little dash of LOVE with a handful of TRUST and .... ....TADAH!!!

OKIE, I will stop being so cheesey.

I really love to cook or bake. Unfortunately, I dun have the luxury of the time. I am either too tired when I get home or too lazy when I get home. Heeeheeeheee. But I am considering to have another party at my place which will gimme the opportunity to show off treat the good peeps around me! Maybe... I need an auspicious date and reason to.

Aiyah~

I love SG food.

Just wanna share my LOVE with you guys...Introducing Laksa
(my PMS comforter).

And yes, I cooked it. With Prima Deli pre-packaged Laksa Kit.
Just add water, prawns, noodles, fishcakes and whatever you like
(no beansprouts). I even bought a old-fashioned rooster bowl to eat in.
Makes me happy!

What do you see when you take the BART to a Sunday afternoon Giant's game?



I wonder if the movie is gonna be released in the great island of Singapore. But i ain't planning on watching it, though i heard there is actually a plot. Mmmmm...

And thanks to all the people (= freaking 0) who informed me about blogging through Firefox. Coz' allt hese while missy has been writing HTML codes to liven up my entries like T H I S, and now I finally realise on Firefox, writing entries comes with all these built-in functions in da window to let me use all the colors I want. Le sigh...

Damn girl~

I am pretty sick of all the tabloids about *Brangelina* for the past year. Nevertheless, I still think she is too gorgeous to ignore. She probably is going to kick Brad Pitt's ass anytime soon.

Girl Power!



This is a photo-ad for St John's. She looks waaay too calm coz' I know she is all crazy inside. Nice campaign though. I heart AJ.

It was more than a week ago...

I finally had my first piercing!!!

Had wanted to do it for the longest time but due to chronic sinus and allergy problems, I have been hesitant. But not anymore!!!

And no I DO NOT want to pierce my ears coz' it is so passe.

Check out the horrific photos. WARNING: I don't look very cute. 'Cept for the pic with my cutie pierce-master-Ryan.

YIKES!

Only my left eye was teary, and I figured that it is the left side of my nose getting pierced, so only my left eye could see the process. So the right eye doesn't know what's going on.

The needle pierce was smooth and hurt only at that very second and then it was POOF! The pain was gone. It was way much bearable than a lot of things and people - say, I would rather get piercings than work. hahahahaha

So I have been taking care of it until a few days after the novelty worn off and I just use the Q-tips to swipe any boogger caught it between.

And I think I look very nice. I am officially cool.

FOr everyone's sake, all the guys, please click here.

And ladies, click here, and/or then here.

I want that dog~

Interesting piece of information...

~~~

There was a study done where a control group of 100 people were divided into two.

50 people watched a very funny, tears-of laughter type movie. 50 watched a very sad and tears of compassion type movie.

At the end of the sessions researchers collected the "happy tears" and the "sad tears" with eye droppers.

They found that "happy tears" are made up of brine...salt water and not a great deal else. However the "sad tears" were found to contain the very same chemicals and enzymes that are found in tumours, ulcers and other such lumps and bumps and sicknesses through out the body.

This test concluded that the body, when crying in sadness etc is literally flushing out all of the toxic-chemicals that accumulate and are a part of the sadness /heart ache experience.

Therefore if one holds back those tears, those toxic-waters will find somewhere else to deposit themselves.....and prolonged lack-of-crying-release will guarantee that the body will accumulate a huge amount of internal pollution and toxicity that should have been released through the tears........is it any wonder that the eyes sting so much when we hold back our tears?

~~~

I choose to agree with the above forwarded information. Believe me, I have done a great deal of crying this year, and it is only August! It doesn't matter if my cries are sniffles or *earth-shattering*, even if my head feels 1000000 times heavier, eyes dangling on the edge of their sockets, nose = geyser, I always feel better after a cry. Sometimes the cries come out from nowhere and sometimes the slightest hint of a particular name turns on the tap.

YES, despite the strong exterior, I am only human.

"You will look back on the times you laughed and you will cry. You will look back on the times you cried, and you will laugh."

Yums.

I got these pictures in an email from my Aunt - An Aunt that loves to send everyone she knows funky stuff like that.






I heard they are rather crunchy too!

P.S. I would have fainted it they were grasshoppers or frogs.

disclaimer: I have sworn off frog's legs from Geylang, forever!!! Really.

The breast job that saved a life

Hospital: Shrapnel from rocket lodged in implants, sparing Israeli woman.

JERUSALEM - An Israeli woman's breast implants saved her life when she was wounded in a Hezbollah rocket attack during Israel's war with the Lebanese group, a hospital spokesman said Tuesday.

Doctors found shrapnel embedded in the silicone implants, just inches from the 24-year-old’s heart.

She was saved from death," said a spokesman for Nahariya Hospital in northern Israel. The woman has been released from hospital.

Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.


Link

Maybe it is time for me to take some action to save my life.

Death Cab for Cutie Berkeley Greek Theatre

So I went to the Concert... ... (envy me?) It was awesome. look at the videos and knock yourselves out.

The opening bands : Mates of State & Spoon


Mates of State






The Encore.

guess what?

HAPPY

BIRTHDAY!!!



Thanks for the visa!

I wonder why I can't grow fat.

I had an AWESOME weekend.

The reason is FOOD (and massage and food and shopping and girlfriends and food and weather).

Fri:
• had lunch @ Cafe Myth - fabulous Pulled-Pork Panini & Home-made Potato Chips.
• tried out a new massage(affordable) place on California St. and had a refreshing Swedish massage. I have too much tension on my back, I was told.
• ate at Solstice
(I only just realised I had mentioned this on the previous posting. Oops!)

Sat:
• worked @ Stumasa from 11-6 with M
• went shopping with her @ the Gap & H&M
• ate a big dinner at a dirty filthy & absolutely satisfying Vietnamese place called Tu Lan (I'm not cussing! It really is)
• someone drunk-dialled me

Sun:
• woke up early to have delicious Viet. beef pho @ Turtle Tower (M's addiction)



• proceeded to the San Francisco Gift Show 2006 @ the Moscone Center (trade only). Shopper's Heaven - but can't buy unless I want x12 of everything. Cash & Carry has the shittiest stuff too.
• 2 words - Beard Papa





I'm eating a chocolate-filled as I write.

• I was hungry again so met S & E for an ultra-early dinner @ 5 @ Tanpopo in J-town.



• Viewed a 2-bedroom apt with S & E. Great but the closet space(or the lack-thereof) is not very helping especially with fashion-chameleon me. Ha!
• Finally ~ They dropped me home, I did 2 loads of laundry, watched America's Funniest Home Videos, cleared some stuff from my SG trip(yesh yesh... ...they're still hanging around on the floor) and will call it a day right after this.

My Need to Bitch.

Wednesday was WORK-FROM-HELL.

It was the first time I revealed my dark side to the rest of the agency. Normally, I am this cutie-innocent-tiny asian girl who would just accept her fate when work orders pile up. Then, I got crossed.

EVERYONE ELSE got to go on with the agency's summer outing to watch a baseball game at 12:35PM. The agency is as silent as a cemetary by 11:30AM. But in my head, I was screaming like hell. Because I have to stay(and I did till 7PM++) so I could finish up something else that someone else couldn't.

First, I don't blame the freelancer. He was staying behind too, trying to complete all the shit work piling on his desk. Secondly, I don't and will never blame my manager, for he had to sacrifice and stayed behind just to accompany me. Thirdly, I don't blame my colleagues in the creative dept coz about 3-4 stray cats had stayed and help out too, with the loser me.

So, I blame the accounts/project management shitheads who couldn't get their shit together. Planning a deadline on an All-Agency outing day is just plain fuck-tarded. It was scheduled months ago to be a half day. And we DESERVED it, for working so hard. So that, my friends, is a shit-fuck incident.

As for the rest of the week, I was compensated with a very light workload, sympathy(genuine?) from others and soon-to-come extra day off. Because it felt even worse to find out everyone got to be pissed and shitfaced at the game AND After-party, while you got to be pissed, shitfaced, sitting alone at in the makeshift cube coz the regular computer crashed.

Let the hate out.
~~~

Today is Friday and I finally got over it and I no longer go to bed angry. I actually went to the agency with a happy mood and managed to keep it for the rest of the day. Had a Fabulous lunch with some of my fav. ppl in the agency(a treat from my manager too!), fooled around at the production table, the ugly sucker fish of the agency finally deceased(I am sorry), had a beer(but it caused a bad reaction with my allergies), a fav ex-colleague dropped by, had a 15 mins massage, had another 1 hour massage with Shinta(who finally moved back!) at this new-found Yoga/Massage centre on California St., had an awesome dinner afterwards at this almost-yuppie-but-still-cool resturant — Solstice and finally, somebody said I am missed dearly.

Oh! One more thing-we have this weekly Friday draw to decide who can have the weekly bouquet of flowers of the agency's receptiion area. I had wanted to win for a long time. So, they decided to let ME do the drawing this time, from the can of collected namecards. And guess what? I managed to pickup my own card!!! So Missy won and took the pretty Un-named flowers home. Sweeeeeeet!

pretty pointed flowers

Someone decided to leave. So we have to eat.

This issue of the SF Guardian's 2006 Best of the Bay is am awesome nifty solution to my usual problems of deciding where to eat. Instead of going to LIME for its recommended brunch, I decided to ask the gang to go there for dinner. If it's good, it will not make a difference will it???

They serve in small dishes-Tapas style, which is great for little girls like me, but not for those ever-hungry men. Nevertheless the food is awesome~ Everything we had is good. Everything. So, go knock yourselves out if you have a chance to. It is near the Castro area, so there is the one Men's bathroom, the other is a Unisex situation. The servers dress in the weirdest way. Somehow they didnt communicate before they go to work this morning. One was dressed like a tennis player, and the hostess looked like she walked right out of a burlesques act.

Here are some pics of the food. I am still figuring out how to use my shiny digicam.














Also, Mister Hu is leaving to convert to a 'East Coaster', thats not cool, and hence the farewell dinner.

Just chatting with a colleagues today, feeling kinda teary still, everytime i think of Dolly. I dunnoe why. Somehow, some random songs, some bizarre thoughts will remind me of her. and then I get upset, and all pissed. And then I get into fights or arguements with innocent(not!) people I care about :(