Dinner at 3PM is my style

Because I worked 10 hours last Friday and 10 hours this past Tuesday, I was able to take the day off today (yay!)

I spent the morning watching random videos (wasting time!) and on the phone with my friend, who is still in Oregon but will be flying back home TOMORROW. I'm really excited because we made plans to visit the Contemporary Art Museum, which I have never visited. I love going to new places! They also happen to be hosting an art festival on the day we plan to meet up (Saturday)! ^__^

I spent the afternoon with my friends over an early dinner at the Yard House in Waikiki. We chose to arrive around 3PM on purpose because we wanted to take advantage of the Happy Hour, lol.

Our waiter was friendly, but it's something that made sense when we discovered the required 18% tip ($25!) we had to pay at the end of our meal. Two of my friends and I ordered iced tea, which turned out to be $3.25! It wasn't even anything special - I could be drinking water. -_-;;; We made sure to get two refills so it's like paying $1 for each glass, lol.


I only ordered a small organic tomato bisque ($4.25) because I had a sore throat and the roof of my mouth was bleeding yesterday... I have no idea why, but it has been in a terrible condition for the last week. I'm not sick because my condition hasn't worsened - but they haven't improved either. ^^; Ahh, I hope it goes away soon!

Although I told myself I shouldn't eat any fried food while I was in such a condition, I couldn't help myself when it comes to calamari:



The calamari here is delicious!!! The breaded panko layer is crispy and the inside is soft. I can only remember having calamari at Genki Sushi and the irs is harder to eat. The soup was too salty for my taste (is it terrible to admit that my school cafeteria actually makes it better?) with a tiny portion that was not worth the price. However, I think I ended up eating more calamari than I should have...nobody else was eating it and I hated seeing food wasted.



Everyone agreed that the dessert was the best part! I had my first crème brûlée, which was topped with caramelized bananas. It's like pudding...flan...custard. My favorite! I love the soft texture and the subtle sweetness!

The bill came out to be $167.07...quite expensive. I paid for it with my card because I never have enough cash, but now I have all this cash from everyone. I have to be careful and wise about this... ^^;

I don't usually like to eat out because I need to save money but when I do, it's always for the company. Whenever a bunch of us can gather and hang out like this, I always feel incredibly LUCKY and SPECIAL. I never take being able to hang out with my friends for granted because they all have such BUSY SCHEDULES. ^^;

After "dinner", Joyce and I just hung around (but didn't buy anything!) and took purikura. It was a nice day!

Sleeping and eating...

Ok, so this fatigue I've been experiencing since the start of this week is getting a little ridiculous! I wake up at 7am, work until 1pm, eat lunch, and then collapse into bed for a 3 hour heavy coma-like nap. I don't wake up until someone calls me for dinner. What is this nonsense?! One would think that I would feel refreshed and energized after such a generous nap, but I still feel exhausted the rest of the night. I even go to bed before midnight (about 4 hours earlier than usual!) so it's not because I sleep late. Maybe my body is finally starting to catch up on the all the lack of sleep during the school year?

But sleep is a good thing right? I've been getting about 10+ hours a day. Most people are satisfied with 7 hours, but I've learned that the perfect amount of sleep for me is 8-9 hours. It's not so little that I want to sleep more and not so much that I feel tired waking up.

I guess I feel regretful that time is slipping away without my having done much. >__< Last week, I only worked 3 hours a day so I was able to eat out and hang out with friends every single day. As a result, I've lost money and gained weight in return. I like the weight gain in certain places and not others...hahaha! ^^ It's horrifying how much money I've spent on food alone. I vowed that I would start making my own lunch everyday starting...today! ^^

Today's lunch:

There are somen noodles on the bottom, but you can't see them because the toppings overwhelm, haha.

Two Weeks into Summer 2011

So the first day of work wasn't that big of a deal. I was given mundane tasks - such as sticking labels on magazines and keeping a record of our clients on Microsoft Excel. My manager says that with this done, we can start afresh tomorrow (yippee?) I say she is my manager, but in reality she is only a few years older than me. Doesn't the word manager just make you think oldddd though? I pictured a middle-aged woman. I didn't mind the work she gave me because I like to think that you have to start small if you want to learn and get somewhere (eventually). The fact that she herself had to do this before I came along also comforted me, hehe. ^^ I hope to do exciting things soon!

After work, I waited for all of my friends at the bus stop because we all arranged to have a lunch date! <3 I had originally planned to meet one friend, but the number kept increasing (to almost about 12 people!) I was worried that there wouldn't be enough seating in the tiny crepe house as originally planned, especially after my sister warned me that it gets busy during lunch hour!

At the bus stop, a guy started to strike up a conversation with me!
I was waiting for the conversation to die down, as they normally do among strangers, but he kept asking question after question. I realized he was trying really hard to keep up the conversation and I wasn't helping. ^^; I was sneaky and pretended to play with my phone to avoid awkward conversation, but he was oblivious and continued talking to me, lol! He asked me if I was going to school here, what I was studying, etc. When I told him that I was an art major and that I loved doing portraits, he asked if I could do a portrait of him. Honestly, I don't think I would mind because he's very good looking with beautiful hazel eyes.

I responded, "Maybe I'll draw you if I see you next time."
He replied coolly, "Oh, I'm pretty sure we'll see each other often. I leave in August too."

(Wait - how did he know? I never told him...but I guess it's easy assumption to make. But why does he seem so certain we'll meet again?)

He told me that he was from Florida and that he was here as an intern for Hawaiian Airlines! He also said that he noticed me earlier and wanted to give me his umbrella because I looked so scared of the rain. LOL! He offered me his umbrella, saying that he didn't use it anyway! I cut our conversation short when I told him that my friends were already on the bus waiting for me.

I am usually very wary when talking to strangers because I live in the dangerous part of town. I hope he is the friendly guy that I think he is because he knows where I go to school and how old I am. I don't know anything about him because I didn't ask. However, it was very refreshing to talk to someone new! I wonder if I'll see him again?

I ended up seeing five of my friends for lunch - my sister also came to join us!


It was a pretty big group, so I didn't really get to do the catching up that I had planned. I learned that it's more difficult for me to talk to big groups and that I enjoy talking to people one-on one. This may be why I feel more comfortable at intimate parties rather than big parties...

I ordered the veggie crepe ($6)! It had a chock full of spinach, which I love, but I would have preferred it to be cooked spinach as opposed to raw. I dislike raw vegetables - they make me feel like a rabbit. I want to come back and order a sweet crepe! ^^

I rested at home for a bit before doing a little job hunting.
Why is it so difficult to find a job? >_<
If I can't find one, I should be using the time to work on improving various skills I have...studying, for instance.
Ahaha...I need discipline!!!

On a random note (wow, this is getting long!) I have started reading books again!
Yayyyy! I visited the library this past Saturday and it was actually open for once (the past three times I visited was a big fail). Although I read at school, I feel like I haven't read since forever because they weren't reading for enjoyment. I also missed manga. <3 I am currently reading the novel The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger .



I love a good love story and I wanted to read the book before I watched the movie. ^^

Taiko Cake

Despite everything that I said earlier, the taiko cake turned out to be a great success! ^o^




I can't believe half of it was eaten! It was more than I expected and it made me happy. Layers from top to bottom: butter, confetti, chocolate, and vanilla.

Through skill and perseverance (<- I have a hard time remembering how to spell/pronounce this word! Erghh!), my friend and I managed to pull it off!

...but after two days straight of parties and cakes, I WANT NO MORE.

The most honest truth is that I don't actually like cake.
I just made myself think that because everyone else loves cake.
The fact that cake is also often used for special occasions and regarded as a real treat also makes the idea of cake so much more attractive. But when I think about taste (regardless of the flavor), I'm not too fond of it.

I don't like a lot of food that seem to be popular with others, such as ice cream, beef...and burgers.

...yep! I quite fond of things that people tend to think are gross, such as seaweed and mushrooms! ^^;

Yay for Picture Posts (finally!)

First things first! The Olympus PEN E-PL1 that I ordered came in last week Friday! Woot! I was without a camera for three months now. I don't know how I managed to survive during that time. My new camera is alot bigger than I imagined it, but I can't wait to learn how to use it. I originally planned to purchase a DSLR, but stumbled upon Micro Four Third cameras during my search for one. I liked the idea of a compact camera that has the ability to take pictures of DSLR quality. I really actually wanted the Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1 but that's another $200 I can't afford.

I played with it for the first time yesterday on a Waikiki outing with a friend who just came back from Japan. I've never enjoyed Waikiki as much as I did yesterday! She introduced me to some of her favorite boutiques and I would have spent a fortune if I hadn't "accidently" left my debit card at home (I only had $12 cash on me).


Isn't he cute? This is the entrance to my new favorite boutique! <3


I think I'm coming back for this. After all, rain boots are necessary for Oregon weather. I mean, I need this. It was very comfortable and I love the design.


Vintage suitcases for those who want to travel in style! I took this picture right before I saw the sign forbidding it. Oops...


There are many shops and stands selling tacky merchandise and Aloha wear in Waikiki, but this really caught my eye for some reason. I really like the color and the seashell motif. :)


For lunch, she took me to Kokoro Tei, a cute little bento shop tucked away on Kuhio Avenue, catered mostly to the Japanese. I was surprised by the affordable prices (because most people think expensive when they think Japanese). I knew I had to eat more healthy so I ordered the "Shake Salad," which consisted of watercress, seaweed, (imitation?) crab, and cherry tomatoes with vinegar dressing.


I ate 2/3 of this. I guess I really just don't do salads.

I also ordered custard pudding, which was sooooo soft. <3 The caramel sauce was a little too sweet for me, but I'm glad I tried it! I am definitely coming back and ordering a bento!


We also had some delicious takoyaki at a takoyaki shop a few doors down.

Food heaven.

I really need to earn some more money so I can go shopping!!! >3<

Happy Lunar New Year everyone!

My sister and I went to Chinatown on Saturday night to check out the festivities. It rained a just like last year! I am glad the rain stopped quickly because having an umbrella open in the crowd is very inconvenient. I went out because I wanted to see my friend perform (sorry, all pictures of her came out bad!) She does traditional Chinese dancing (something that I quit doing long ago). I enjoyed watching lion dance, especially when the guys balance on the long poles~ very impressive! ^_^ I've always fantasized about doing this myself, haha! Alas, I have never seen a girl do it yet. Perhaps a boy's body is better built for this sort of thing.

On Sunday, I helped my mom make jai:



During these past two days, I must have eaten over seven bowls of jai already! XD

I received lai see from my parents this morning. I think I will use this money to buy my prom dress. :)

Coconut Carrot Cake!

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! :)

I ended up spending the entire day making a birthday cake for my grandma. Buying the ingredients used up quite a bit of money. (;_;)

But I've never made a cake cake before, complete with frosting, all by myself. It took me five hours to finish (not including how I spent all morning shopping for ingredients)! (^_^)

I was applying frosting when my mom mentioned that grandma was diabetic. (-__-) She is so mean for not telling me beforehand! What is cake without sugar?! (>_<) Well, I have to remind myself that this is the same lady who told me to add grapes and pork into my brownies...

Fall Break!

This was the busiest "break" of my life (busier than when I was actually in school!) I barely slept. I didn't have time to blog! To make up for it, this is going to be a long post. :)

Saturday, Oct 4
I spent this night watching my first and last Homecoming game. I never cared for football, which is why I never attended any games before, but I'm required to take pictures for yearbook... and it is my senior year. I heard that our football team isn't that great, but I didn't think we were that bad. But we were. We lost horribly. The score was 0 - 30. It wasn't fun shooting pictures for hours straight. The camera I used was specially lent to us by the graphic arts teacher. It was supposed to be the best one, but it was defective. Every time I click to take a new picture, a message would appear saying, "Err 99." We didn't know what "Err 99" was so we couldn't fix it. When I did manage to snag some shots, they were all blurry. I remember my face getting sticky from the humid weather (it rained every so often). During half-time practice, I carried the senior class homecoming banner across the field. We ended up 2nd place, with the freshmen winning 1st. I wasn't upset, until I heard that the freshmen had "outside" help. Since they cheated, I don't consider them real winners.

Sunday, Oct 5
I spent the morning making an eeyore plushie for Wai Chu and the rest of the day at Joyce's place, making Wai Chu's two birthday cakes. The cake batter is green tea flavored, but the two cakes have different frosting. One cake had azuki beans incorporated into the whipped cream, and the other was green tea cream cheese frosting. I love the azuki bean one the most! *o*



Monday, Oct 6
The cakes were finished just before Wai Chu's birthday party:



It was a shabu shabu party held at her boyfriend's place.



There were two pots.

Regular:


And spicy:


We threw in tofu, lettuce, cabbage, dried bamboo, meatballs, taro balls, cuttlefish balls, cuttlefish dumpling, noodles, and beef. :)

Tuesday, Oct 7
I finished eeyore this morning! :) It was very challenging to finish the plushie~ I almost thought I couldn't do it. I was very happy with Wai Chu's reaction when I gave it to her. ^o^ She's crazy about eeyore and has about twenty of them on her bed. This one will be special, though, since I embroidered her name on his body:



I was about to cry because I did the embroidering freehand and I thought it was ugly, but it was the best I could do without fancy tracing paper and other equipment needed for proper embroidery. We went shopping that afternoon (first time in ages!) I spent a lot of money. -_- I splurged and bought myself a Paul Frank t-shirt at Nordstrom. It didn't feature the monkey, but it was really cute!

We also stopped by Shirokiya afterward and both bought the new Calpico Aloe Vera drink. It's now my new favorite. *o* I love the way aloe vera tastes~! I remember having aloe vera yogurt during my trip to Japan earlier this year, and it was heaven! We ate at the noodle shop, "mikazuki" and both ordered miso udon:



I've eaten shoyu ramen and kitsune udon at "mikazuki" before, but I wanted to try something new. Of course, I ordered udon because I've been craving udon ever since I saw the movie, "Udon," which was all about udon. Udon is my favorite noodle. <333 The soup turned out to be a bit spicy and not what I expected. I finished the whole thing though (yay!) because I'm Chinese and can never ever waste food.

We spent the rest of the day raiding Barnes & Noble's craft and art section before going home. There are so many new books that I wanted to buy! *o* I checked the library catalog when I got home, but the library doesn't have them (at least not yet!)

Wednesday, Oct 8
I worked the entire day at the library since I took the previous two days off. But it was far from boring! There were more owl sightings and this time, inside the library itself!



Here it is, cleaning itself while I filmed him or her. :) Some people really couldn't believe that there was an owl in the library. They accused the librarian of lying when she showed them a photograph, claiming that it was a painting.

My favorite animals are lions, elephants, and owls. I've seen the first two at the zoo, and an owl at a field trip when I was seven years old. It was sleeping then, so I didn't get a good look. Other than that, I didn't know there were owls flying around in Hawaii. o_o;



This one is a Hawaiian short-eared owl called a pueo. At first, it hung around the area between the state capitol and Iolani Palace. The first time I saw it was when it was up in a tree by the library. There were green parakeets squawking furiously at it, but the owl ignored them. According to a co-worker, it had stayed in that position since 12pm (it was still there when I came out at 5pm!) And did I mention that it is the cutest thing ever? Even though I saw it poop (at least not on me)? It is very tiny and a little puffy. Several librarians expressed their concerns that it might be sick, but I hope that's not true. >< One claimed they saw a rodent in its mouth one day. We all wanted the owl to eat the rats for us (they come out at night and wrecked havoc in the workrooms) but my co-worker pointed out that it may not be good if the owl captured a rat that had been poisoned.

The owl flew on the ground once and I was very close to petting it. I couldn't do it because I was too shy and afraid to scare it away. We participated in a little staring game before it flew away. I added a shot of the owl in the 'fauna' gallery. ;D

Thursday, Oct 9
I had a doctor's appointment at 10:30 am. I finally get to wear contact lenses again! The rest of the day was spent in yearbook class, sorting and deleting the pictures we took during the homecoming game. I had around 200 shots, and none of them were good. BUT ONE GREAT THING DID HAPPEN! I SPOTTED YOO CHUN PARK (Micky of popular Korean boyband, Dong Bang Shin Ki) in his high school yearbook! I knew he went to Chantilly High School in Virginia (I remembered because my other website goes by the same name). When I saw a yearbook from Chantilly High School lying on the bottom shelf, I silently prayed that he would be in it. I looked him up in the index and sure enough, he was on page 309! XD He was a ninth grader then and his hair was still ugly. XP

Friday, Oct 10
I worked half day. The owl was still at the library! :) I met up with Jenni after work and she took me to Nijiya Market and Yogurtland!



I had no idea what to get, so I ended up getting green tea and taro yogurt, with a little pineapple yogurt on top. The toppings were awesome! *o* What other place would let you combine azuki beans with granola? It tastes weird together, but whatever. I love them both! I also had some cookie dough balls and cocoa puffs (I chose these randomly because I didn't know what they were until I tasted them) and mochi balls. My favorite toppings are the azuki beans (heavenly!) The pineapple-flavored yogurt tastes stronger than the green tea and taro. I tried a bit of Jenni's mango yogurt and concluded that the fruit-flavored yogurt tasted better. Next time, I'd like to get cheesecake yogurt mixed with another flavor (I haven't decided what yet). There's even peanut butter yogurt! I'd like to try that as well, simply out of curiosity. ;D Of course, no matter what I get, I'll put azuki beans on top because they're the best.

After Yogurtland, I stopped by Roosevelt for this year's last football game. I was forced to use the same camera so the pictures didn't come out any better. The varsity game was better (20 - 36) but we still lost!



Our football team may suck, but our band sure doesn't! :) I didn't know they did what S Orchestra does in Nodame Cantabile! I got very excited seeing it~ hehe.


Saturday, Oct 11
I came home after 11 that night so I had to drag myself out of bed early at 7 to get ready for a movie at 9. My sister gave me tickets to see a Chinese film called, "The Prince of Himalayas." It was a part of the Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival held here every fall. I love watching foreign films! They're very different from the American movies I'm used to seeing and they widen my perspective of the world. "The Prince if Himalayas" is supposed to be a Tibetan adaption of Shakespeare's Hamlet. I'm not familiar with Hamlet, but I'm assuming it's a tragedy because everyone dies in the end. The Tibetan language is very interesting~ it sounds like a combination of Mandarin and Korean. The hero of the movie is played by Purba Rgyal, a new Tibetan actor. This is his very first movie. HE LOOKS VERY MUCH LIKE KIMURA TAKUYA!


Sunday & Monday, Oct 12 & 13
Calculus homework.

Zucchini cake that doesn't taste like zucchini, a growing cactus, and a mystery fruit!

It's another three day weekend for me! Yay! But I'm stupid so I'm still going to school on Monday (to help out with the senior class homecoming banner). =X I also heard from a friend that it will also be a potluck so I decided to make some chocolate zucchini cake!



I have wanted to try making zucchini cake for a long time, but I never got the opportunity to do so until now. I haven't tried it yet but my sister liked it so yay! ^_^ I gave a mini slice to my dad and he complained that he couldn't taste the zucchini at all. (Um, dad, that was the whole point. Why would you want cake to taste like a vegetable? Ew.) I'm going to try carrot cake next! Tee-hee.

Today was not the typical Sunday... Not only does my body shut down at the end of the week, my brain doesn't seem to function very well either. But I actually went out in the morning to study for the SATs with my friends at McDonalds. We only did the essay and two sections before my friend got tired. We quit and went up to another friend's place to finish our British literature homework. We're reading Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" right now and not enjoying it. ^^;

Oh, and this may seem really random, but I bought a cactus for a $1 during last year's Okinawan festival.



It was a really cute little thing. I'll be honest and admit that I almost forgot about the cactus for a while...until a year later, I looked out the balcony and noticed that my cactus plant was gone and replaced by one that is twice as tall and in a pot that was twice as big. I asked my mom, "Is that mine? O_O" And she said it was. I couldn't believe it! (The difference isn't obvious in the pictures though, because the bigger pot is in proportion with the bigger plant.)



My sister and my brother also bought a cactus each, but I think they both died. I was really surprised to see my cactus so genki. *^^*

Some more randomness:



This is a picture I took at the Queen Kapiolani Garden in Waikiki before school started. I've never seen such a fruit before and none of my friends knew what it was either. Some fell off the tree and the impact of the landing revealed the lavendar flesh inside the fruit. My sister said it might be breadfruit, so I looked it up:



It looks a little similar, but it is not quite the same. Breadfruit isn't purple inside either. =/ Does anyone have any idea what the mystery fruit is?

Merry Christmas!

Haha, it's kind of late right now (okay, realllyy late). But still. :D I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas today. Truthfully, Christmas day has never been special for me - in fact, it can be quite boring since all the shops are closed. But I was smart because I went grocery shopping on Christmas Eve so that I could make my brother and sister lasagna. Making lasagna is fun and I like how you can virtually add any ingredient you want. I prefer my lasagna with plenty of mushrooms and spinach~ yum!


Different angle, with some cheese sprinkled on top.

I meant to finish Orange Days by watching the final episode today, but there were some complications so I watched Security Police episode 1 instead. It stars Junichi Okada. <3 He's beautiful. The drama is pretty good so far. Lots of (literally) ugly bad guys. Okada plays Inoue Kaoru, an officer who is a part of the security police. He is cool when he takes down bad guys, but his character is extremely eccentric (I've been meeting alot of strange characters in Japanese dramas lately). Many people have good intuitions, but his sixth sense seems to be sharper than others. He also has moments when he "spaces out" but he can always spot a bad guy in the area from their movements. Inoue can also sense when a person has ill intentions or malice.


Here he is, spacing out. xD

I'm also watching Galileo, another Japanese drama that involves mystery. I can only catch up on watching dramas during long breaks. :D I have so many things I want to do over the break that I'm not sure if I can accomplish them all. Here are some of the goals I hope to reach by the 14th of January:

1) Complete all homework assignments.
2) Work on school projects.
3) Study for the SAT.
4) Revamp the entire Love-Train network.
5) Bake yogurt cake.
6) Learn how to use the sewing machine.
7) Draw.
8) Brush up on my Japanese! じつは日本語あんまり知りません...-_-;

A few days ago, my sister taught me how to crochet! I can do it (sort of) but I need alot more practice if I want to make amigurumi...*o*

Again, I wish everyone a safe and happy winter break!

Adventures with Gingerbread

Last Sunday, Erica and Jenni helped me bake gingerbread cookies for the Japan Trip Craft/Bake Sale which takes place the next day. With the recipe taped on a kitchen cupboard, I handled the wet ingredients listed in the recipe and Jenni took over the dry ingredients. Halfway between mixing and stirring, Jenni discovered that there was not enough flour at Erica's place. We looked at each other and then at the pouring rain out the window. Erica got her slippers dirty and I got my socks wet, but we didn't let that stop us. xD We walked back to my place to get more flour and continued on with our baking. :D

Baking is definitely a tricky process. The dough refused to cooperate with us. Erica's sister had warned us that because Hawaii's weather is slightly warmer than most places, the dough will be softer. I let Jenni do the rolling because I always get the dough stuck onto the pin. I don't know how she does it. @_@ I wish I had more patience! We made three batches of cookie dough - two for cookies and the other batch for making gingerbread houses. =) We kept rotating them and putting them into the refrigerator in hopes that the dough would harden. Chilling the dough did not make too big a difference as it was still difficult to cut out the shapes, but we tried out best. After cutting out the shapes, Erica carefully transfered them onto the pan with a spatula. We decided to make gingerbread men, Christmas trees, and snowmen. :D I decorated the gingerbread men with m&m buttons and used a toothpick to make a face. Poking holes for the eyes and mouth was fun. =)



Cookies don't normally expand, do they? These did. There was no trace of those scrawny little gingerbread men we cut out - out of the oven, they're big guys. When they were baking in the oven, Erica peeked through the lit window and exclaimed that some cookies were sticking to each other. This worried me. But when we took the cookies out of the oven, we smiled at the sight of gingerbread men holding hands. <3

"Aww, they're friends!"

One batch of cookies came out a honey-golden-brown color. The other batch was a darker shade of brown. Erica worried that we burnt them. I joked that we could still sell the burnt cookies by saying that we added cocoa powder to that batch. XD But they tasted alright~

Jenni was evidently very enthusiastic about making gingerbread houses because she brought lots of candy to decorate them. I did not have any candy at my place so I brought mixed nuts (cashews, hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts, you name it) and animal crackers. ^^;;; I haven't made gingerbread houses since elementary school. I used to make them using milk cartons, graham crackers, frosting, and gummy bears. Reminiscing triggered something in my mind. A sudden realization hit me!

Everyone I know uses graham crackers to construct their houses and I have never seen anyone use real gingerbread. @_@; But I guess the name works better. Graham cracker house doesn't sound as pretty.

We were all pretty excited to be making our first gingerbread house from scratch and with real gingerbread. I happily thought to myself, "These will be genuine gingerbread houses, not fake ones!"



Making gingerbread houses from scratch is no doubt a difficult task. It is no wonder people used graham crackers - they are easy, convenient, and uniformly shaped. We had to cut out dough with a knife to make the rounded corners straight. My gingerbread house kept falling down. The trick is to be persistent...and to stick it into the freezer before it falls on you again.


Presenting the gingerbread house before it goes into the freezer.

(I only notice now that one side of the roof was lopsided. Oh well.) The frosting hardened pretty quick and I was eager to start the decorating~! I started by slithering frosting on the gingerbread and sticking snow caps onto the roof.


Me & Erica's gingerbread house (left) and Jenni's (right).

Jenni decorated the top of her roof with peppermint kisses and used cereal to create the look of a tiled roof (she loved the idea after seeing it in a Martha Stewart magazine). I wanted to give my house color and variety so all four sides were decorated differently. Erica helped me decorate one wall with a variety of nuts (Jenni commented on how they looked like bricks), another wall with a candy cane, the third side with red & green gum drops, and the fourth side with peppermint kisses.


Isn't it pretty?

I propped a "reindeer" on top of the house for a finishing touch. (In actuality, I have no clue what animal it is but it passes for being a reindeer. ^.~)


Finished product!

Long Overdue Post on Fall Break

I'm sorry I haven't blogged in a while. My sister hogs the computer way too much. For evidence, you go to her websites and see that they are updated more frequently than mine. And...I've been busy. I planned to write about my fall break, but that was more than a week ago now. I don't quite feel like blogging too much about it now. Still! I have pictures! So let that be the excuse for this overdue post. =)

Sunday (Oct 1)
I went out with Jenny and Zane for lunch and a little bit of shopping. And just because I want to show off my lunch:



Tokyo Shoyu Ramen @ Mikazuki inside Shirokiya



Monday
I planned for this day weeks before fall break started. My friends and I were all stressed from school and work so I figured we could all use a little cheering up. Although we see each other every day at school, it's not the same as getting together just to have fun. And I mentioned before how a friend neglected all her friends because of her boyfriend...well, this was a girls-only-fabulous-fun-day. This means he CANNOT come along. He actually called while we were putting cucumbers on our faces, but my other friend snatched her phone away. xD We baked matcha roll cake with azuki beans and gave ourselves the "beauty treatment" (my ideas).



Matcha roll cake w/ azuki beans & apple cider


It tasted like a dream come true...


Just b/c I like this shot and you can't really see our faces...(I'm in the middle.)


Tuesday & Wednesday
Work @ the library.

Thursday
I went bowling to celebrate a friend's birthday. I hit a strike, but suffered from a mysterious losing streak afterward. I was doing fine in the beginning, but after lunch, I got zero after zero. o_o; Hm. Bad luck sushi?

Friday
This was the longest day. I set my alarm to wake me up at 6:10 AM, but I forgot to put in a CD so I woke up 20 minutes late. On Friday, I was supposed to go hiking at Diamond Head with Erica and the Vietnamese Club. I'm not in the club, but I'm going anyway just because Erica invited me and I've never been to Diamond Head. *smiles* Erica estimated to be finished with the hike at 12, everyone was telling me how we had to climb a 100-step staircase, and Ha complained that her legs were killing her. All of this made me think it would be a long and difficult process to get to the top.

The hike was actually slightly disappointing for me because it was so short. It was an easy hike - not challenging at all. The trick is to watch your feet. The path is rocky so you can easily trip, fall, and break your back. And the infamous stairs! Not difficult at all! A hundred steps are nothing! ;D (I know my sister will have something to say about this...tsk,tsk.)

The view at the top was spectacular. There were many Japanese tourists and I heard someone exclaim, "Sugoi!" Sugoi, indeed! :D I made a gallery of this trip and you can view it here. (If you go to the Photography page, you would notice that there are two more galleries - 6 & 7. I'm going to put that up later because there are too many photos to deal with right now.) The first shot in the gallery was taken before our hike. Erica spotted a stray cat so I snapped a picture of it. Erica was second to take out her camera, but one picture was enough to scare the cat away. XD Sorry, Erica! You can have my picture (just ask)! I also have a picture of stairs in one of the shots...people told me that was the 100 steps staircase, but they were mistaken! Those were NOT the staircase...there were actually three sets of staircases. Thankfully, I did take a picture on the real staircase:



Erica (in pink) and me on the 100-steps staircase.


We finished the hike three hours before 12 so our "lunch" became our "breakfast." XP

I say this is a long day because I also went out later that night with an old friend from elementary school. <3 I've never attended a "First Friday" before. "First Friday" is an event that happens on the first Friday of every month. Galleries in Chinatown/Downtown are open for public viewing. There is much entertainment such as live music. Many shops and restaurants are also open. =3 We went to the The Arts at Marks Garage and I really liked this piece:



I don't remember the title, but it costs $1800.

It is an interesting piece, but I would rather use my money for the Japan trip, hehe. ^^ I also took pictures of paintings but those didn't come out well due to the glare of the lighting. My favorite place was the Ramsay museum. Ramsay is an AMAZING artist and I'm officially a fan now. I'm sad that I can't find any of her works online so I can't show you guys. =( What sets her apart from all the other artists is her extraordinary attention to detail. When I first entered the museum, I noticed that there was a magnifiying glass hanging next to each peace of her artwork. I found the sight to be quite comical...but you can only truly come to appreciate her fine lines when you view them up close. It's astonishing.

Here are some other pieces that I liked:



All of the members of the Chinese zodiac!


A close up of me!


Cute teacup set.


I really liked that teacup set...I thought it was irresistably cute...simply adorable. This was at the grand opening of a new furniture shop called [area]. I'm sure it was unaffordable so I didn't bother looking for the price.



Pretty vase.


I fell in love at first sight with this gorgeous vase at the shop "into" (yes, it's called into), but pictures don't do justice. -_-

It's getting really late now so that's all for now. Good night!