Monday, January 19, 2009

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...

Thursday, January 15, 2009

I've Been Tagged!

School and work is CANCELED tomorrow because of a big storm that is said to come any minute tonight. (Hooray, hooray!) This is the first time school and work has ever been canceled because of a storm. The school will always be open as long as electricity is running. However, the upcoming storm will apparently generate such strong winds that it will be dangerous to go outside.

I've been tagged by Brittany!

Here are five things about myself, four truths and one lie. Can you guess the lie? XD (My sister and my close friends know me too well so they probably already know the answer...)

1. I don't like ice cream because it's too cold.
2. When I feel itchy, I have to scratch!
3. I like strawberry flavored candy.
4. The first thing I notice about guys is not their eyes, but their hair (and height!)
5. I love to climb stairs.

I tag...Jenny, Yesi, Cat, and Jayme... but only if they want to! ^^

Monday, January 12, 2009

A new obsession with dresses...

When I was little, I loved watching Disney princess films and seeing the heroines twirl in their big beautiful ball gowns. I thought, "I want to wear one of those poofy gowns when I grow up." It is the last day of winter break. I should be doing something...studious, like flipping through my calculus textbook and looking over some of the old problems. Right. My head is still stuck in la-la-land, especially since I just went prom dress shopping with my friends for the first time!

In the afternoon, the four of us went to Masako Formals. Bridal wear dominated, but there was still a small section for prom dresses. I actually had a hard time finding a dress that I liked - maybe because I’ve never shopped for anything like it before and everything seemed so...extravagant! I could not picture myself wearing many of these dresses and I almost did not try any on until a friend handed me one and insisted that I try it.

There was a bunch of bridal wear catalogs scattered about on the table so my friends and I flipped through them. If I ever do marry a rich guy, I would love to wear a wedding gown designed by Vera Wang or Oscar de la Renta. <3

Oscar de la Renta Spring 2007



Here are some of my favorite gowns:

Hwang Jae Bok




Faviana:






Alyce Designs:



This one is my favorite:
(Should I ask Masako Formals to order it for me if they don't have it in stock?)

2009 has just come so the new dresses haven't arrived yet. I still have months to find the perfect one (and hopefully, I do at an affordable price!) After spending around two to three hours at the dress shop, we decided to take the bus to go to the Don Quijote area and grab a bite to eat. While we were on our way, one friend commented, "Wait. Shouldn't we be shopping for senior luau dresses first?"

(Duh! That's in a few weeks!)

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Happy New Year 2009!


2008 was a very eventful year. I was busier than ever and spent more money than ever. As always, time simply flew. I wish I could say that I welcome 2009 with open arms, but I still childishly wish time would stop for just a moment. I feel a mixture of fear and excitement because I will be graduating from high school this spring (Oh. My. Gosh. There, I said it.) The time will come, whether I'm ready for it or not. Perhaps that is why I enjoy reading/watching books/movies dealing with time travel. It allows me to fantasize a bit.

On New Year's Eve, I finally got to watch the much anticipated movie, Summer Time Machine Blues, starring Juri Ueno and Eita. The movie has been sitting on my computer for almost a year (since January 2008!) but I never got around to seeing it. The movie turned out to be everything I expected so I was very happy. Fun! :)

I'm really enjoying winter break (I've learned how to relax!) But maybe that's just another way of saying that I've gotten lazier. School starts next week and I haven't started on any school work...oops! DX



I did design a bag though! It took me around eight hours to finish because I'm slow. I actually woke up last Sunday morning dreaming about the bag. I thought about it all morning, but didn't take any action. My head started to hurt as it screamed, "Do it!" So I did, but not without watching some anime (Monster) first to relieve the anxiety that had built up. I sometimes do get panic attacks like that for no reason...

A close up of the hedgehog:


I showed it to my co-workers and one thought it was a mouse. ^^; Ah,well, that was better than my mother, who thought the mushroom was an apple. I want to make more, but I don't think I will be able to since I haven't done any school work... ><

My 2009 resolutions:
1) Don't stress!
2) Think positively!
2) Be healthy!
3) Be happy!

I hope everyone is enjoying the rest of their winter break (while it lasts!) ^o^

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

I likes owls...but I don't want to be one.

Today is a very sad day for me and the rest of America. Our economy is already bad and it is only going to get worse from here on. We'll just have to bear with it.

Although getting a day off from school should have been happy news (and I guess it was?) nothing much happened. I didn't get to hang out with my friends and I didn't even start on my calculus homework (writing this blog post is further procrastination on my part! LOL.)

The only time I went out was to eat lunch with my mom and my aunt. I rarely hang out with my family so it felt a little...strange. I didn't know what to say and I couldn't communicate very well since they spoke their own village dialect. I really like my aunt (who flew from China last year to marry my good-for-nothing uncle.) Although I couldn't communicate with her very well, I can tell that she is a genuinely good person. I also like how she smiles a lot. I wish smiling came naturally to me. :)



We ate at Golden River Restaurant, a Chinese/Vietnamese restaurant in Chinatown. The food was good! I actually liked it better than the pho made by other Vietnamese restaurants. At $6 a bowl, the price isn't bad either.

I woke up late so I spent the rest of the day...studying for accounting class and finishing up homework I was supposed to turn in last class (GASP!) I don't remember ever turning in late homework. I was a good girl.

I used to really love school. Now I find each passing day a drag. I don't like school for preventing me from doing the things I really want to do. I'm always tired. I'm becoming a nocturnal animal because I feel more hyper at night! (I've been sleeping later too! ;o;) I hope this is just a small phase I'm going through and that it'll go away soon. >< I know that I can't afford to slack off now...at such an important time in my life...!

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Halloween



I usually don’t do anything special on Halloween, so it is funny that I actually dressed up this year! Compared to what others wore, you could barely call it dressing up...but the character I cosplayed didn’t require too much. ^^ I was Kiki, from Hayao Miyazaki’s film, “Kiki’s Delivery Service.” I wore red shoes, a plain black dress, and a red bow tie in my hair. I also sewed Jiji because the character would not be complete without her cat. ^^



Many people complained that I should have brought a broomstick with me, but I had my hands full that day (esp. in the morning!) carrying two bags of food for the Japanese Club Halloween Party, a huge yearbook camera, and my school bag.

Finishing Jiji was a close one! I didn’t have much time to work on him; plus, I ran out of black felt! (My good friend Wai Chu came to the rescue when she gave me what she had since there was no time to visit the craft store.) It was the first time I sewed anything (much less a plushie!) on the sewing machine. The experience was fun and I’d like to do it again! ^_^

The Japanese Club Halloween Party turnout was good. It could have been better (I’m sad that many people couldn’t make it) but I’m glad it wasn’t a total flop. After all, I stayed up 'til 1:00am to finish making chocolate cake! We bought a pinata for the event, and it was a major success because we got a lot of laughter. Everyone was having fun and enjoying themselves~


Here's a picture of Joyce trying to hit the pinata (and missed!) It's okay though, because I was worse. I didn't make any hit at all. :)

After the party, I went trick-or-treating at Ala Moana with some friends. A couple of people called us “old,” but that’s okay because this is the last year I’m going to do it (while I’m still 17 and not 18!)


I'm going to end this post with this picture because...I love my yearbook class! Everyone dressed up! (Except maybe the teacher, who claimed protested that he DID dress up...as himself.)

Monday, October 13, 2008

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.