them

Word Smart I

Over the summer, I determined in my heart to build strong my vocabulary.  I have been using the highly esteemed Princeton Review 'Word Smart' as my source.  I was strong in the summer, now that heat has chilled and I have only  mastered from A to the mid C's.  I am going to make a better effort to move on to the D's.

I cleaned my workspace today - and am beginning to feel 100% better!  I hate clutter, though I am the very cause of clutter.  Now, all I need is a few postcards/pictures.  Let's hope I don't feel too settled and then end up getting fired.

veggies and fitness - oh my!

I went running on the treadmill - it's been a long time since I have ran - since my leg was in pain. Sadly, I do feel that  "deep down' pain in my heart of my right thigh.  O boy, I can't wait to get really old.  Feel like Charlie Brown. Humbug.

Today's exciting moment of the day started when at the Company fridge. I grabbed my usual Tuesday lunch (i.e. sushi) AND grabbed a vegetable platter with tuna as dip.  What a great combination!  I would recommend it to anyone as a somewhat healthy lunch - it had dip ready strips of celery, red bell peppers, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and a small thing of tuna.  

Oh, and I did get my Comme last Friday.  Yes, it's very musky - must be the cardamom. I'm thinking of mixing it with a lavender scent one of these days.

Peri"wrinkle" Top

Had a great weekend. Went to Old Navy Saturday morning after depositing my weekly pay - hoping to find either a good deal or basic cardigan.  I found this modern number at Old Navy - one of a kind!  I only found this one apparently just in my size, priced at $9.99.  Sure the blouse isn't made of silk but surely 78% rayon, 22% nylon with a shell of 100% polyester should suffice, eh?  It has a scrunched elastic bottom (great for hiding the stomach) and a subtle detail in the middle, notice the middle crease?  I waited for Fil to come to the store - so I could get a hearty 20% discount.  He also ended buy 2 long sleeves himself (one plaid with pink lines, one I would like to call the 'modern cowboy' shirt) - the total for all 3 items?  $13.80.  Hours later, I took a butchers at the receipt and found out my shirt had only been $2.00 - thus securing a $.40 discount, thanks to Fil.  Wow, I've never bought anything this wonderfully cheap.  OK, I have to admit - Fil paid for this one.  Thanks Fil!

Egg Salad Sandwiches

I visited my dear friend Rhoda in SF a couple of weeks ago - we were both set on thrifty mode. She made me a really great egg salad sandwich.  Isn't life about enjoying the simple things?  We browsed furniture shops after - t'was a good afternoon.

The thing I love about egg salad sandwiches are - they are so easy to chew into.  -- :) My personal PBJ substitute.  Also, all those hard boiled eggs remind me of a more innocent time.

See the above picture....I just had the second pleasure of eating one this past Saturday at Bakesale Bettys located in the Temescal Neighborhood in Berkeley.  The bread was fresh - there wasn't too much mayo it was surrounded by spinach .  Phil and I shopped our socks off after.

Yesterday, I had a third egg salad sandwich courtesy of the Company.  It was good - I think they may have had a few tiny bits of tiny red and green jalapenos.  Nothing great happened at after work.

I want to construct the best egg salad sandwich - that would ddd-definitely entail putting the egg salad in a super fresh puffy croissant - I would go light on the mayo.

C'mon ... Where's My Comme Des Garcons?

Seriously -- I've been waiting since Thursday...I thought it was coming from freaking neighbor state Arizona. THIS is completely analogous to waiting to see if I can get that Sales & Order Administrator position I applied for Thursday, the very same day the I ordered CDG.  Funny thing is like that CDG scent, I don't really know whether that Sales & Order Administrator position - will complement me.  

CDG sounds good on paper -

"...cardomom, cinnamon, nutmeg, clover, black pepper, clove, nutmeg, honey, floral notes, amber, labdanum, cedar, sandlalwood pepper, clove..."

S&O Adminstrator sounds good on paper -

"Administer the order approval and entry process utilizing Salesforce.com and Oracle Service Contracts.  Assist in planning and organizing marketing and sales activities which may include offsite events and meetings.  Assist with various projects - including sourcing lead lits, identifying new markets, etc."

Smelling/Doing is a whole other thing... 

Why do I hate waiting for the unknown?

Drinking Chocolate

  Going 

 ..going

... gone.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

Empathy is one of the rich feelings, one feels when watching "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly". Through Julian Schnabel's crafty directing, I was able to experience a slice of how Jean-Dominique Bauby lived in his final year. Bauby was the former editor of the French Elle Magazine in the 1990's. He was living the successful high life when suddenly his world came crashing down as he was struck with a stroke paralyzing him completely save for one side of his face.

In the movie, we understand his internal thoughts which run the progression of feelings: frustration, fury, self-pity, acceptance, regret and finally empowerment. Bauby's only form of communication post stroke is through one eye alone. He overcomes his grief and self-pity by clinging on to his imagination and memories. His persistence peaks as he writes an auto-biography in the hospital - by painstakingly communicating each letter to his assistant - slowly through one bat of an eye at a time.

All in all the movie was beautiful for its subject matter, music, and cinematography. I would like to read Bauby's book - I imagine I would try to embrace each word. The human mind is a powerful thing.

Comme Des Garcons Original Eau De Parfum

"What's that you got on, is it Comme De Garcons?" (penned by poet Gwen Stefani via ballad 'Harajuku Girls' courtesy of boyfriend who has a fixation on femme fatale top 40).

I'm awaiting my 100ml of Comme Des Garcons original Eau de Parfum - ordered on Ebay for the sweet price of $38. I believe the retail for this fragrance is somewhere around $120. I must admit I am taking a big 100ml risk here as I have never smelled it before.

My small interest in this 100ml protagonist - was conceived while in Montmarte, Paris this past January. I remember stepping into a small wife/husband shop -- I don't remember the name of the shop - I just remember loving the fact that they had a variety of clothes, furniture, jewelry - of which I'm sure each item was passionately hand picked. I recall seeing a bottle of the Comme Des Garcons Original Eau de Parfum in a glass case - one of the two fragrances sold at the boutique. Of what little French I knew, I remember learning 'Garcons' (meaning 'boy' in French) from a scene from Pulp Fiction. Of course as always, I was too shy to ask if I could smell the parfum in the case. When I arrived back to the States, I remember kicking myself figuratively for my passivity. Plagued with guilt, I ordered myself to circulate various departments stores and perfume shops - hoping to experience a whiff of the original. The closest I came to finding it was - at San Francisco's Bloomindales where - the lady behind the counter said - "I thought we had it .."

To run parallel to the sweet ending of many Disney movies with the conclusion "they lived happily ever after..." - so will my very own Comme Des Garcons and I live...

The brand actually is Japanese. As I am slowly realizing many modern material goods comes from Japan. Anyways, I have taken the liberty to steal a description of this original from a fellow blogger: " the avant garde fashion line's first fragrance, launched in 1994 with the tag line "works like a medicine and behaves like a drug". The notes include cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, black pepper, clove, nutmeg, honey, floral notes, amber, labdanum, cedar and sandalwood."

I'll be sure to document my experience.

Chicken Feed

My Snapple is dead scared of his tin dog bowl - this has gone on since he was a poopy. In the past few months, he's prefers us to serve it to him like chicken feed. I love Snapple.

If I Ever Feel Better

It seems like there are some of us who have had a hapless 2008 - counterintuitive to chinese superstition - well it is modern day - this poem/song makes me feel, well - better:

They say an end can be a start
Feels like I've been buried yet I'm still alive
It's like a bad day that never ends
I feel the chaos around me
A thing I don't try to deny
I'd better learn to accept that
There are things in my life that I can't control

They say love ain't nothing but a sore
I don't even know what love is
Too many tears have had to fall
Don't you know I'm so tired of it all
I have known terror dizzy spells
Finding out the secrets words won't tell
Whatever it is it can't be named
There's a part of my world that' s fading away

You know I don't want to be clever
To be brilliant or superior
True like ice, true like fire
Now I know that a breeze can blow me away
Now I know there's much more dignity
In defeat than in the brightest victory
I'm losing my balance on the tight rope
Tell me please, tell me please, tell me please...

If I ever feel better
Remind me to spend some good time with you
You can give me your number
When it's all over I'll let you know

Hang on to the good days
I can lean on my friends
They help me going through hard times
But I'm feeding the enemy
I'm in league with the foe
Blame me for what's happening
I can't try, I can't try, I can't try...

No one knows the hard times I went through
If happiness came I miss the call
The stormy days ain't over
I've tried and lost know I think that I pay the cost
Now I've watched all my castles fall
They were made of dust, after all
Someday all this mess will make me laugh
I can't ewait, I can't wait, I can't wait...

If I ever feel better
Remind me to spend some good time with you
You can give me your number
When it's all over I'll let you know
If I ever feel better
Remind me to spend some good time with you
You can give me your number
When it's all over I'll let you know

It's like somebody took my place
I ain't even playing my own game
The rules have changed well I didn't know
There are things in my life I can't control
I feel the chaos around me
A thing I don't try to deny
I'd better learn to accept that
There's a part of my life that will go away

Dark is the night, cold is the ground
In the circular solitude of my heart
As one who strives a hill to climb
I am sure I'll come through I don't know how
They say an end can be a start
Feels like I've been buried yet I'm still alive

I'm losing my balance on the tight rope
Tell me please, tell me please, tell me please...

If I ever feel better
Remind me to spend some good time with you
You can give me your number
When it's all over I'll let you know

If I ever feel better
Remind me to spend some good time with you
You can give me your number
When it's all over I'll let you know

If I ever feel better
Remind me to spend some good time with you
You can give me your number
When it's all over I'll let you know


"If I Ever Feel Better" sung by french band "Phoenix"

BYOW At Chinese Restaurants

In this economic downturn and my personal crisis in my career, I find that eating out has sadly become a lower priority on my list. It's not even a choice - my hungry piggy demands it. This brings me to brainstorm just how I might - when given the chance to treat myself to a meal - maximize my dining experience without breaking the bank.

Just last Sunday, I accompanied Phil and his family to a restaurant named Ka Pok located on Webster St, Alameda, California, USA, Earth, Milky Way. I really enjoyed my dining experience there - in short - it recently went through a change in management, there is always a crowd, they serve free really amazing chinese soup (with full pieces of meat), free appetizer (consisting of iceberg lettuce, strips of cold white chicken, jellyfish, drizzled with sesame oil and garnished with sesame seeds), free dessert (standard in most chinese restaurants served to you provided that you are chinese yourself). I am digressing about free stuff, am I not? Apart from all the free stuff I've mentioned, I just like the selection and quality of the food.

I saw a table with a bottle of wine, and moments later saw a crab dish with sticky rice on another table. Phil's mom helped me ask the waiter just how much the corkage fee was --ta da-- 5 bucks! You can't beat that. My take away from Sunday night was one of these privileged fridays - I must drop by Trader Joe's - grab a bottle of white - which states that pairs well with Chinese food - head to Ka Pok and order the crab dish with the sticky rice. Sure the ambiance will not be there - but that's what the wine is for! I must say that the whole bring your own wine (BYOW) idea is derived from when Phil and I were in Bath, England - chowing at an Indian restaurant - which totally promoted bringing your own wine. I remember we slipped across the street after ordering and crossed the street to a small wine shop - picked something moderately priced - and subsequently shared sweet moments...

I think I have found a little piece heaven even in tough times.

Oldie on Seattle 2006

The Succulent and Orange County

I went to the OC over the past weekend hoping to go to Disneyland for a day.  Instead, I came back with a small succulent with the species name "babies toes".   Although I didn't go to Disneyland hence was unable to rid my childhood favorite ride (Pirates) - I came back with a the perfect surreal succulent found in a farmer's market in one of the myriad number of strip malls in Irvine.  The baby toes form a 'CG' like plant.  I hope to keep this plant for a while.  Life can yield good things even at $3.