Winter

Oh there's the Seattle I know. Totally grey and dreary. I'm happy to be heading mitten-side soon. Hopefully there will be some sun there!

My Guy

me: O.O

J: o_O

me: you are turning into me

J: o.O

me: HAHAH

J: hahahahahhaha
Alrighty, back to my fake grant!

Blue skies

It's supposed to start raining again next week so I'm soaking in what sun I can!!

It's final's week

Today I was trying to plug my ear buds into my ipod and I was so brainfried from too much studying that I tried to put the jack into my ear instead of a bud.

Christmas season

Today I listened to Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas" guilt free :)

And yes, that is a Christmas tree on top of the space needle :D

Turkey Day

I am grateful...

(1) for my family and friends and a HEALTHY DOG (in like 2 weeks it will be the anniversary of Momo's death. It feels like forever ago).

(2) that I got into graduate school. Who knew that would happen?

(3) that I like graduate school and made friends and am pretty content with where I am in life right now. Who knew that would happen?

(4) for the food I just ate and all the food I'm going to EAT THIS WEEKEND! Wahahahahha.

(5) to be alive after tempting fate with all the plane rides I've taken since turning 24. Woo!

Thanksgiving

This year, on Thanksgiving I am thankful that my family is happy and healthy (well kind of healthy...we're all quite lazy :p). I am thankful for new friends as well as old friends - and hopefully they are happy and healthy too! I am thankful to be in school in a wonderful environment. And this is the silliest of them all - but I'm thankful the class I'm teaching doesn't hate me or think I'm a bad teacher.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

It's not me, it's you

I have always been a somewhat superstitious person. In the past two weeks, two people I know have passed away in fiery car accidents. In both cases, the people I knew were rear-ended when they were being completely safe drivers.

When I heard about the accidents my first thought was "Cars can actually light on fire? I thought that was just something that happened in movies"

The reason I bring up the superstition is because I am terrified there will be a third person. So please drive safe and watch out for people behind you!!

STOP THE SELF-BANG VIOLENCE!!!

Got a haircut, it's A LOT shorter than I meant it to be, and when it's down an straight I feel like Javier Bardem in No Country For Old Men. On the plus side, he fixed my bangs. I really need to stop believing I can cut them myself :)

gchat

Crouton visited me this weekend, and is currently in the bathroom...

Christine: Hello from the bathroom!!! :)

me: OH CHRISTINE.

True colors shining through

My walk to work is gorgeous right now. Thanks for a better Fall than last year, Seattle!

Veggie love

Purple carrot!!! My CSA is over next week and I'm pretty sad about it. At the very least, I've learned to love chard :)

Chapters

Rochester

Bagels. Snow. Nerdiness. The best friends that I've had since childhood. Even though I fought with my parents constantly, this was home, and I was afraid to leave it.

Ann Arbor

For some reason I will always associate college with being cold, with studying late into the night while the snow accumulates steadily outside and the windchill is negative twenty degrees. I miss these nights when I leave Ann Arbor, the sting of the cold when you step outside and eating hot soup with friends in the apartment on Packard and waking up every morning in a warm bed because hummusboyfriend had come back from the computer lab sometime around four in the morning. I miss the nights of going out on South U and throwing 16-person-dinner-parties and going on a mad scramble of having enough chairs. I miss Cottage Inn. I am nostalgic for these days for almost the entire first year out of college as I struggled to adapt to a new city and a new lifestyle and a place where not all of my friends were within a ten minute walking distance.

Cincinnati

I hated Cincinnati for the first few months. Moving three times in my first week did not leave me with a favorable impression of the place, and when I was attacked by an army of houseflies Drag-Me-To-Hell-style, I was pretty sure this was god's way of telling saying I did not belong in Cincinnati. For the first time in my life, I was alone in a strange city, and without the safety cushion of college where a bunch of young people are just as eager to make friends and start a new chapter in their life. My co workers were mostly around my parents' age, and the one young guy who started work on the same day I did was aloof and had no interest in being friends. Slowly, I began to meet people, our friendships reserved and awkward at first, but with time it grew into a solid group of six food lovers who did everything together, especially stuffing our faces. We went glamping in northern Ohio, a weekend in a snug cabin with a hot tub where we rotated kitchen duties and had fabulous homecooked food for every meal. We ate at every new restaurant in Cincinnati. We had bad movie nights. We raised my poor sick puppy Momo, and grieved when she died. In the end, my time in Cincinnati went from unbearable to something that I would miss dearly when I left, and it would have nothing to do with my quirky boss or the delicious black raspberry chocolate chip ice cream or the blonde-haired boy that kissed me good night and good bye on the doorstep, but six friends I had never expected to care for.

Atlanta

The transition to Atlanta and grad school was 6000 times smoother than my move to Cincinnati. Perhaps it was because I was ready to be back in graduate school, or the adorable roommate in a beautiful apartment that we decorated together (with a KITCHEN ISLAND!!!!), or the friend that I made on the first day of orientation that I hit it off with instantly and now we're pretty much attached at the hip, or all the delicious things I've discovered for eating. I'm stressed and overwhelmed and sleep deprived, and I'm nursing a head cold as I type this, but I'm pretty happy with where I am right now.

HOWEVER, this is the first time in my life that I have not had access to Brueggers or any sort of decent bagel, and that makes the New York snob inside of me rear its ugly head.

What's next...San Francisco?

Drifting

I pretty much pulled an all nighter last night to finish a computer coding project so I'm feeling like a zombie now.

Crouton and two of my Cincinnati friends are coming to visit me 2 weeks from today! HOORAY! I'm so excited. :)

Adventures in TA-land

I did an eval today in my class to see how I'm doing.

No major complaints so HOORAY FOR ME!!!

So early

SF at 5:15 in the morning. Catching an early flight back to Seattle so I can put in a full day of class an work.

I think that it is time for a nap...

Weekend!

Yes I need a rolly bag for a weekend trip.

Unrelated - why am I always craving burritos?

Detroit love

Some unexpected Detroit love at the chromeo concert

Sunshine on my window

Why yes, it is a gorgeous day in Seattle!

you can do what you like...

Seattle has definitely settled into gloom and doom. I feel like I haven't seen the sun in days and last night by 7PM it was already full dark. At least it felt like it was super dark.

So I am doing my best to be cheerful. That includes decorating my desk some more:

psst...yes that's you guys!!!

And also demolishing a gigantic zucchini. I made this:

based on this recipe. We took a few shortcuts though and managed to burn the crust a little bit, but it was still tasty and delicious. Also, I was mad at my pastry for not puffing like it was supposed to, but still, it's dough and I love dough so I couldn't stay mad for long.

We also baked up some zucchini chips. AND I still have 1/3 of the enormous thing left. I think zucchini bread is in my future.

Pickles

In about a month these guys will be pickles!

Ah, friends

Upon expressing my concerns to Emma that I will have issues saying no to HummusFling when I return to Cincinnati to get the rest of my stuff...

"You might not be able to say no, but I will have no problem saying no to that. In fact, I will hold your belongings hostage."

The Simple Things

Lavender along my walk home smells so nice :)

So Early...

It's been a while since I've had to escape my bed at this time in the morning...

Summer's End

It's getting cold in Seattle (I could argue that it never really warmed up anyway). The clouds are rolling in, but at least the sun is making some effort today.

I'm gonna fight 'em off...

Someone left a chair army in the hallway outside of lab.

Hello September!

Well, life is still rolling along.

I've made another new friend.

The sun finally came out in Seattle! And look! It's a drawbridge!

I've also been having plenty of food adventures.

Overall, I think I'm ready for classes to start again and work to kick into high gear, but I will definitely miss summer!

Desk Update

Still working on getting pics of you guys up, at least for now I have a second plant to keep the first one company :)

Life Update-y Stuff

In personal news, boyfriend is gone. I think my parents had the funniest reaction to this news that I'd ever heard of. My mom said, "well you're dad won't be upset" and my dad nodded yes. By no means is this depressing news! My overwhelming thoughts are RELIEF that it's over.

On a brighter note, I have joined a lab!! We are supposed to take three rotations in different labs and then match and join one of them, however, I'm in my fourth rotation. To do a fourth rotation is rare in my program, however, I've heard from other programs that it is less rare, although still not standard. I'm not sure if my friend was just saying that to make me feel better or if it's actually true, but in any case it doesn't matter. It's serendipitous that I ended up where I did. Once I was able to think clearly about it, this lab will really be the best fit for me.

Check out my desk!

I also have a plant! One of my lab friends heard me complaining about how everyone across the way from me has plants so he brought me a little carnivore to keep me company. There's 3 separate plants in there and their names are Herp, Derp, and Merp.

Anyway, except for the plant, my desk is pretty lame. I would love to hear ideas about how to decorate :)

Things Happening In September

Okay, yes, I realize the current month is August, doesn't mean I can't talk about the future though!

College football starts again! Although I am not a huge football fan, I am excited about watching the games with an entire bar full of Michigan alum. I'm crossing my fingers that there are fewer noon games this year because noon Eastern means 9AM western, and I feel guilty about heading to the bar so early.

I hit my 1-year anniversary in Seattle! After a year I definitely feel more comfortable in this city. However, I still have not explored very much. I think the goal for this year is to not only get out of my neighborhood more, but to get out of Seattle more. I also have to work on being more outdoorsy. No one is around on the weekends. EVER. In the summer there is camping/hiking and in the winter there's skiing. I suppose I have a few weekends where it's too rainy to camp and it hasn't started snowing yet that I'll have friends on the weekend!

my hair is straight again

I got my hair straightened yesterday.

not that it wasn't straight before. just really frizzy.

this should beat hongy's asian curls in her picture below :p

A True Hummus Moment

I'm having a dinner party tonight.

Menu: dumplings, hot and sour soup, veg fried rice, veggie stir fry

(not Hummus moment: totally forgot about dessert again)

Guests: 15

Seats in my apt: 9...maybe 11 but that involves some creative couch squishing

My apartment is TINY.

Maybe I should get some floor pillows.

Two days until AirHeads and I meet up in Thailand!

WOO WOO!

My sleep schedule is super messed up though. It's not even 9pm yet and I'm really sleepy (though I just drank half a lychee beer, which never helps)...I better get over that before this trip.

There are so many good baked goods in Taipei, I've basically been living on just carbs. Mm, the anti-atkins diet.

I'm in Taipei

Today I was at a drugstore and saw a PLASTIC CLIP THAT YOU CLIP ONTO YOUR NOSE TO MAKE IT POINTIER. I tried to take a photo of it but the store owner yelled at me so I had to run away.

Crazy Asians.

The Weekend of Stuffing My Face

Hello. I am a silly girl who doesn't really know how to use a webcam to take a picture of myself. Also the fact that my hair is curly gives me an identity crisis.

I spent this past weekend in Indianapolis for my friend's brother's wedding (I shall refer to said friend as Mustard from this point on). Mustard's brother and his bride are both big foodies, and I knew the wedding budget was pretty huge, so I've been looking forward to this wedding for quite some time. It was a pretty extensive wedding weekend, with a rehearsal/rehearsal dinner/hospitality suite party, wedding, and post-wedding brunch.

Unfortunately, I got a superheadcold right before the wedding, and my taste buds were dead for most of the weekend, but I enjoyed myself anyway, despite much pain from clogged sinuses and blisters from wearing too many high heels and super expensive dresses in 90 degree weather.

The hospitality suite on Friday night was pretty crazy. It was in a suite

in the hotel that most of the wedding guests were staying at, on the top floor of a high rise. Apparently George Bush stayed in this suite when he visited Indy. There was an open bar and bartender, a candy buffet!, and a dessert bar. The candy buffet consisted of peanut butter-filled pretzels, gummy bears, m&ms, and chocolate covered blueberries in tall glass containers. I popped a chocolate covered blueberry into my mouth, and Mustard asked me if it was licorice, to which I answered yes, I think so. That was the first sign that my taste buds were way dead. The second sign was when I approached the dessert buffet, which had the typical cheese and crackers and fruit platters, as well as chocolate-covered strawberries (I ate about 10 of these), chocolate chip cookies, and what looked like cake pops. I bit into the 'cake pop', and said 'hmm...I think it's ice cream.' Upon further inspection, I realized it wasn't very cold, and wondered aloud if it was chocolate covered frosting balls. Then someone told me it was cheesecake on a stick. RIP taste buds. May you and my nostrils someday work again.

On a random note, I had just seen a picture of $3000+ Christian Louboutin shoes in a magazine a few days ago, and thought wtf, who wears $3000 shoes. At the rehearsal dinner, one girl was wearing those exact shoes.

The wedding the next day was beautiful. It was in the garden of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, with the cocktail hour and reception held inside the museum. The wedding ceremony was the perfect length - about 20 minutes, and I got served a delicious bubbly cocktail with fresh raspberries as I walked into the ceremony area. Note to any friends getting married in the future: please keep your ceremony under half an hour, because that

's about how long my attention span is. The food at the cocktail hour blew my mind. I've been obsessed with the concept of soup served in shot classes, both because they're pretty and because I love soup, and they had three types of soup served in shot glasses at this wedding. If you've never seen this before, here's a picture:

They also had a gourmet cheese bar, and numerous delightful bites being handed out: fried risotto balls, SWEET POTATO FRIES SERVED IN SHOT GLASSES WITH SOME GARLIC AOLI (I loved these), lamb meatballs (I obviously didn't eat this), figs stuffed with goat cheese, just to name a few. The bartender asked me if I was over 18, and I was sad, because I had just turned 24 less than 48 hours ago.

For dinner, I sat at the head table with the rest of the wedding party and their plus ones. Mustard was pretty nervous for his best man speech, but he did great, which is good because I told him if he froze or got emotional in the middle of it, I was going to pinch him really hard. Mustard and I joked that I was Head Asian (there were 3 other Asians at the wedding, which we dubbed Happy Asian, Ambiguous Asian-we couldn't agree on whether or not she was actually Asian, and Short Asian..everyone else was Caucasian) since I was the only Asian at the head table. The sides were passed down family-style, but the main entrée items (braised short rib and marscapone ravioli with heirloom tomatoes) were served by the waitstaff. The ravioli waiters kept missing me and the groomsman sitting on my other side, and we were joking around with each other that they were purposely not giving us ravioli, when (I didn't hear this, but Mustard told me):...

Bride: (to wedding planner) The service is poor! Hummus hasn't gotten any ravioli! Look at her plate! It barely has anything on it!!!

[A minute later, server 1 appears next to Hummus with plate]

Server 1: Would you like some ravioli?

Hummus: Yes, thank you.

[15 seconds later, server 2 appears at Hummus' elbow]

Server 2: Would you like some ravioli?

Hummus: ....

When Head Asian wants ravioli, she gets ravioli. Hee hee, just kidding. :)

The sides were also good: fingerling potatoes, swiss chard, buttered radishes, and other stuff I can't remember, because I was too busy gawking at the DESSERT BUFFET - 2 different types of cake pops (double chocolate, and strawberry cake covered with white chocolate), red velvet whoopie pies, rice krispy treats, and FIVE KINDS OF CAKE. My favorite one was a hazelnut cake with nutella buttercream. <3 We stuffed our faces and danced up a storm.

Okay I'm still pretty sick so I'm going to sign off now and write about the post-wedding brunch later.

Happy Cinco De Mayo

I'm so full I'm pretty sure I'm going to burst any second. I'm also disgusting.

Today I ate

3 donuts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

a quesadilla

a cupcake

a latte

some soup

a banana

2 big margaritas!!! It's cinco de mayo, after all.

a giant burrito

frozen yogurt with fruit

Now I'm sitting up being sleepy from our not-so-wild evening out and waiting for HummusBoyfriend to arrive. Zzzzz.

Happy Cinco De Mayo. Cheers.

Basel the Basil II

I bought another Basil this year. I have high hopes for this one.

...even if he almost died overnight already

http://mandaflewaway.tumblr.com/post/2057242738

Good way to amuse yourself for a bit!

Brown Bagging Lunch

I've had trouble getting back on a schedule since Spring Break a week and a half ago. Typically I'll cook a ton of dinner and then pack some for lunch the next day since microwaves/fridges are abundant. (Although some of the fridges in lab are decidedly food free :p)

Side bar: is Mario Batali not wearing pants?? I need to stop watching Iron Chef at night - I just get so hungry. In case you're curious it's Battle: Rice! And now I want risotto obviously.

Anyway we've been eating out a ton and I'm already tired of sandwiches after 2 days. Ideas for more interesting lunches I can bring that are pretty easy to put together?

Glamping = glamorous camping

So a few months ago, Shorty was like 'let's go camping', even though Shorty is the least roughing-it person I have ever met, even more than me, and that's saying something. The boys were like "Let's pitch tents!" but the girls put an end to that real fast. So as a compromise, we decided to go to Hocking Hills for the weekend and do woodsy activities while staying in a nice cabin with 3 bedrooms and a hot tub.

We went ziplining and hiked in a beautiful forest with lots of interesting caves and waterfalls, but we also spent a lot of time at the cabin, making homecooked meals (I love having lots of foodies for friends), hanging out in the outdoor hot tub with wine, which is on the back porch overlooking the forest, grilling, roasting marshmallows around a bonfire, and watching movies. Highlights of our weekend food:

Granola and yogurt fruit parfaits (with THREE types of granola, and strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, bananas, and the best kiwis I've ever had)

Sandwich bar

BBQ grill out with hot dogs, meat kabobs, veggie kabobs, roasted carrots, potato salad

S'mores around the bonfire

Pancakes (plain, blueberry, banana, banana chocolate chip, and chocolate chip) with maple syrup and breakfast potatoes

Picnic lunch mid-hike: roasted eggplant and zucchini pearl barley salad, homemade potato salad, hummus, homemade bread, fruit salad, brie and rosemary asiago cheeses, brownies

West African Stew (slow-cooked in a crockpot all day while we were off on our hike) with crisp green beans that are tossed in minutes before serving...yummm

Did this blog die?

We are lazy :'(

I'll update on how grad life is. Had my rotation talk for the winter quarter. I'm finally getting really used to saying quarter. I think it went well. My PI said, "Good job. Nice shoes." I think that's good?

Unless there was nothing else good to say about my talk :'( But for reallies I think it went well. I liked the lab except for the nasty mice. I'm moving on to the next thing tomorrow so wish me luck!

Yummy Vegetarian Tortilla Soup

Here's an easy soup that I threw together last night for one of our Group Loser gatherings. People liked it and asked for the recipe, so here it is. It didn't require buying a lot of weird ingredients, so that was nice.

1 large onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, crushed/chopped

3 TB. canola oil

1 green bell pepper (or any other bell pepper..bell pepper away!)

2 hot peppers, diced (I used one jalapeno and one thai chili)

1 28 oz. can of diced tomatoes (that's the big fat can)

1 normal sized can of black beans (aren't I good at writing recipes)?

2 TB cumin

1 tsp. garlic powder

1 TB cayenne pepper

2 c. veggie broth

salt and pepper to taste

Tortilla chips & shredded cheddar to garnish

Saute onion and garlic in oil. Add bell peppers and hot peppers. Dump everything else except for the garnishes in and bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve topped with cheese and broken up bits of tortilla chip. EAT!

Cincinnati Bucket List

First of all...whoa, someone else already came up with a Cincinnati bucket list. Eh?

http://www.cincinnatichamber.com/liv_b.aspx?menu_id=178&id=8256

This is mine:

(1) Go ziplining.

(2) Go to Cincinnati Museum Center Omnimax Theater

(3) Have Mike host a dinner party.

(4) Eat burritos at The Comet!!!!!!!!!!

(5) Go kayaking.

(6) I don't know if I'll be around for it still when it starts up again, but I would like to pack a picnic and go watch outdoor movies in Mt. Adams in the summer.

(7) Eat at Local 127.

(8) Have afternoon tea at Essencha (the full deal with food involved).

(9) Have Stu host Bad Movie Night, complete with snacks.

(10) Go camping. (umm...I'm actually more of a fan of renting a cabin, but we'll see)

(11) Have a fondue and wine night.

(12) More themed dinner parties: dim sum? sushi? Pizza? Southern food? Color theme? Cooking with booze (as an ingredient)? Stew-off, if Stu doesn't end up having his work one?

(13) I should probably eat Dewey's pizza at some point.

(14) Pool party

I know there are more but I can't think of them right now.

OLD!

Well, maybe not so old. I'm going to be 24 in a month! aaaahhh!! Should I have a quarter life crisis?? Actually I'm looking forward to my quarter-century bday bash. I should have a bash!

I am in a different lab now. For our first year we rotate through 3 different labs and try to match to where we'd like to stay for the rest of our grad studies.

The project itself is starting somewhat slow but I'm sure it'll pick up soon enough. Also we finally go all of our grades back. I didn't do great for my rotation talk but I just have to be optimistic and think that there's lots of room for improvement! :)

Me too! Me too!

One new thing I did: I started working out fairly regularly...still can't see much as far as results though! haha :)
One thing I am not proud of: How tired I always am.
One thing I am proud of: Finally starting to feel happy about my job and being in Michigan.
Fond Memory from 2010: All my sweet trips!
One thing that has changed about me since beginning of 2010: I don't like drinking nearly as much as I used to.
One Resolution: Nope.
One thing I look forward to in 2011: Going to India/taking 8 days off work...and of course heading out to Cincy to meet Hummus's new puppy!

Super late but why not, right??

One new thing I did:
I successfully karaoked in front of more than 50 people. by successful I mean people were cheering!!

One thing I am not proud of:
how much I smoke. Really not that much.

One thing I am proud of:
my kinda sorta toned legs from all those spinning classes

One Fond Memory from 2010:

CNY with Adam in Singapore and going to HK with Jamaine. Wow i'm a playa!

One thing that has changed about me since beginning of 2010:

I barely drink.

One Resolution:
to not have one

One thing I look forward to in 2011:
my sister's wedding in September(if i'm lucky enough to go to England), trip to thailand with Hummus