the last day of september

holy guacamole, where did the time go?!  just realized that today is the last day of september!  and i blogged every day of the month!  i'm actually enjoying my nightly ritual of banging something out on the computer but i might take weekends off beginning this weekend.  we'll see.

i guess today means that i can log in to fb and twitter this weekend since the september challenge is over.  surprisingly, this was a super easy challenge and i don't miss either modality of social media one bit.  who knew?  i am not planning on re-installing the apps on my iphone.  i think i can live without it.

the sun is setting earlier and the days are getting shorter.  fall is here and i would normally look forward to taking out all my holiday decorations and hanging lights on the house but the latter is definitely not happening this year :(  unless we can hang lights on our condo lanai!  hah.

time to start thinking about a halloween costume for the tiramisu!!!  and i need a challenge for october.  hmmmmmmmm....

baby fever

tonight, i held 2-day old baby brayden and instantly had baby fever.  and then he belted out a cute little newborn cry and it brought back all the memories of sleepless nights >.<  and then the baby fever was gone in a flash.  hahahah.

yesterday, i ate a tbsp of beef

top - all the korean side dishes, or "banchan"
bottom - seafood & chives pancake & stone pot bibimbap

i've been craving korean food like crazy these days.  last night, we went to korea house for dinner.  my favorite thing to eat there is 돌솥 비빔밥 or "dolsot (stone pot) bibimbap." it's like traditional bibimbap except it comes in a super hot stone pot and you mix  and cook all the ingredients, including the raw egg, so everything comes to a slight crisp and stays hot while you eat it.  it's super delish.  i normally pick out the beef but yesterday, i left it in and ate it...this is the first time i've eaten a meat product in almost seven months!  i really couldn't taste the beef because it was mixed in with all the rice and veggies but there was one big piece that ended up at the bottom of the bowl and i couldn't get myself to eat it.  not sure why.  i wasn't sure how my stomach would react to it but luckily, i didn't have to run to the bathroom all night long.  sorry, if that was tmi.  haha.

today, i went to the obgyn for my annual exam and she said it's totally okay to be a vegetarian during pregnancy so long as you eat a little bit of animal protein in the form of milk, cheese and/or eggs.  something about needing sterols.  NO, i'm NOT pregnant but i was curious as to what her recommendations would be so i asked.  for now, i'm going to continue being a vegetarian more than a pescetarian...still want to make sure my mercury levels stay low.

we're in escrow!

rent a house?  rent two condos?  buy a condo and rent a condo?  live with my parents? live within five minutes of my parents?  live in the same building as my parents?  is the house pet-friendly?  is the condo pet-friendly?  if not, who is going to take princess jasmyn?  

these questions have been driving me absolutely bananas for the past two weeks as we scoured craigslist and rental websites to figure out where we're going to live after november 16.  the hubby and i finally decided over the weekend that we need to commit to something before we end up homeless.  

turns out that someone we know recently bought a house and moved out of their condo and wanted to rent it out for a few years while waiting for the market to go up.  the unit is nicely sized at 1500 sf, secure and in a prime city location with killer views...and best of all, they'll let us have a dog!  we wanted to rent a second unit for my parents but were unsuccessful in finding a 1-bedroom so we decided to purchase one in the same building.  we put the offer in yesterday and went into escrow today! the new living arrangement isn't as convenient as what we have now (parents live next door) but jumping into the elevator and going six floors down to their unit isn't bad as all.  you really can't put a price on babysitters that are a minute away! 

as much as i'm going to miss our current house that we put sooooo much time and energy into, i'm excited to call another place, "home."  we're planning to put a lot of our stuff in storage and live minimalistically as renters.  i think our new life in the city will actually be a lot more stress-free as i no longer have to deal with the pool man, yard man, taking out the rubbish and recycle bins, etc, etc.  and it will definitely be nice to only have to scrub two toilets instead of four!

eat two scoops & call me in the morning

you really can't put a price on the awesomeness of having built-in babysitters.  my parents watched the tiramisu tonight so the hubby & i could run out and grab a quick dinner.  we ended up at Hale Vietnam and then walked over to the Pillbox Pharmacy for dessert.  amongst the advil and pepto bismol, you can get freshly scooped Cascade Glacier ice cream from Oregon.  i got a single scoop of almond pistachio and the hubby got a double scoop cone of some berry mix and the total came out to less than $3.50!  insanely cheap and good!

so the next time you need to pick up your cholesterol, high blood pressure or migraine medication, make sure you get a scoop of ice cream, too ;)  

holy crap!

no, this isn't a scene from hoarders.  this is our 700 sf condo that we never quite really moved out of in 2006.  it's filled with crap everywhere (these photos actually make it look cleaner than it really is), 95% belonging to the hubby...dvds, electronics, r/c car stuff, toys, clothes, games, etc, etc.

what you don't see is the MOUNDS of gecko crap and carcasses that fill up the space now.    those little irritating lizards have taken over the place.  i'll spare you from graphic photos but let's just stay that i wanted to barf and i wore gloves before i touched anything when we entered the unit today.  

cleaning this unit has been on my mind for years and it's hard to believe that we're finally doing it!  there are soooooo many things about moving that sucks donkey balls but it always forces us to de-clutter, clean and organize.  we're temporarily downsizing from 4000 sf of living space to 1500 sf and instead of paying ridiculous prices for storage, we will be using the condo to store our non-essential items.  

we spent about 4 hours at the unit today going through some of the crap that's in it...90% of the stuff will be dumped or donated.  if we haven't needed the stuff in it for the last 5 years, we definitely don't need it now.  we dumped one car load today and donated another.  we're planning to go back this weekend to continue the cleaning mission until we get to a point where we can rip out the carpet, plug all the openings into the unit, and call the professional cleaners to clean the unit.  it's gonna be quite a feat but it will feel so good when it's finally done.  

where the air is thin

there's a strong possibility that we may temporarily live on the 34th floor ("heaven" as someone in the elevator told me) of a high-rise condo for a year or two.  i am praying that being sooo high up in the universe means that there is absolutely no possibility that any of the following bugs will be in our immediate vicinity.  

• ants
• cockroaches
• silver swords
• beetles
• spiders
• wasps
• mosquitoes
• flies
• geckos/lizards

no offense to the entomologists of the world but i cannot stand bugs.  not sure why they were ever invented.

a busine$$ idea

i have a million dollar idea.  i am looking for investors to support a condo building that is pet-friendly and allows smokers to readily suck their lungs out on death sticks.  

after looking at hundreds of rental ads this week, if you've got a dog and smoke, you can pretty much consider yourself homeless.  

invisalign update

i am thrilled to report that the crazy hook that was glued to the top and bottom surfaces of my right lateral tooth was removed today and i no longer have to wear a rubberband!  my mouth feels sooo much better now!  i'll be taking impressions for my upper retainer at my next appointment in four weeks.  someone really needs to invent a better way to do the impressions.  that gooey crap and those huge plastic trays make me gag every single time!!!

i'm finally on tray 21 of 23 for the bottom teeth!  only three more trays to go but retainers for the rest of my life.  teeth and braces are weird like that.  i suppose that at age 80, i won't care about my teeth anymore but for now, i will be wearing my retainers.  as a side note, it took the hubby almost two years to straighten his teeth with invisalign but he stopped wearing his retainers years ago after all that work. slowly but surely, his teeth are getting jacked again.  poor guy.

mercury poisoning - an update

oh-em-gee!  remember this post on my positive mercury toxicity test?  i took my follow up blood test last saturday and got the results today.  in three weeks, my level decreased to 10, which is within the accepted norm!  yippppy!  the hubby went from 95 to 75, which is a huge decrease, but the doc said that his level is still waaaaay too high and he needs to stop eating anything from the ocean indefinitely.  i guess i'll have to leave him at home the next time i go to sasabune ;)

i also checked my lipid profile and i can't help but say that i'm quite pleased with the results :)  i'd like to increase my HDL levels...will work on that in the next few months.  my lipid profile has always been pretty good but i think this is the best it's been...and probably a tribute to being a vegetarian.  i guess i can still eat all my favorite cheeses :)  i told my hubby that maybe we'll celebrate 7 months of being meat-free and a kick ass lipid profile by going to ruths chris for a juicy ribeye!  i wonder how my stomach would react...diarrhea, cha-cha-cha?!

how to make intestine cake

i never got around to making another attempt at the yuzu chiffon cake, otherwise known as the intestine cake.  it requires my kitchenaid mixer, which is at our old condo, and i'm hoping that it's still in workable condition.  we haven't been in that place in at least a year and i'm afraid to go in there to start cleaning this weekend so we can use it as storage >.< 

anywho, back to the intestine cake.  today, i peeked at my blog stats and saw that one of the search terms that led to my blog was, "how to make intestine cake."  wtf. i'm hoping that the person was looking for something fun and novel like the brain or heart shaped cake molds and not an actual cake made of innards.

tweezerman

this post is dedicated to my collection of tweezerman tweezers, THE best tweezers on the planet.  i've only used the slanted tip model and looove them so much that i've never tried the other ones.

the tips are super sharp and capable of grabbing the finest of hairs and always on the first try.  and they come with a lifetime guarantee and free sharpening! 

just to clarify, i don't really collect tweezermen.  the tweezers are awesome but if you drop them and they fall on the tip, they lose their precision-ness and don't work perfectly anymore.  i dropped the white and pink ones years ago and need to mail them in for re-sharpening.  the green one is my travel buddy.  and the sexy red one is my newest acquisition :)

olukai 'amo

no worry, brah!  i'm not turning all hawaiian on you.  just wanted to give my new home slippers some blog lovin'.

my new 'amo slippahs.  photo credit 

while pregnant with the little tiramisu, i developed plantar fasciitis in my left foot. in layman's terms, this basically means that i have a sore left heel.  it never quite went away so i saw a podiatrist several months ago who prescribed three things:

1.  morning stretches.

2.  an overnight boot.

3.  never walk barefoot...ever.

4.  cortisone shots if the above do not work.  ouch.

ummm...just in case you didn't know...i am not trying to sport the hairy european look.
this is a photo i pulled off the web because i'm too lazy to take a picture of my boot.  photo credit 

i do the morning stretches and it has definitely helped to heal the torn fascia.  the night boot sucks big time.  i've tried sleeping with it several times and it keeps me tossing and turning so i chucked it a loooong time ago.  luckily, it seems that my heel is feeling better even without it. 

our house has no carpet so i always wear "house slippers."  i was wearing these crocband flips for the last six months or so until the little thing that goes between your toes broke last week.  they hardly provided arch support but they were better than nothing.  this weekend, i ended up buying olukai slippers, which my podiatrist recommended.  they are supposed to have great arch support and special technology that allows the bed of the slipper to mold to your foot shape...and they were a whoppin' $60!  holy guacamole.  at least they come with a one year guarantee.  and i think i'm kinda supporting the local economy although a quick search of the company shows that they're based out of california and not hawaii >.<

saturday date night x 2

i've been craving korean food but we ended up eating japanese izakaya food tonight...twice...in one night.  hah!

we parked the car and planned to go to imanas tei except we walked into the wrong door and ended up at kohnotori.  the two restaurants are next door to each other but the door for imanas tei is tucked near the corner of the building near the stairs so it's easily missed.  and kohnotori doesn't have a sign over the door...just a banner in japanese.  we sat down and i told the hubby that the restaurant didn't look the way i remember it.  and then i looked at the menu and couldn't find any sushi.  and then i looked at the cover and realized that we were at the wrong place!  hah!  we decided to order a few things that looked interesting and decided that we would eat again if we were still hungry.

here's what we had at kohnotori, which is a yakitori restaurant for the most part.  it reminded me a lot of japan :(  besides the stuff shown in the photo below, we also had fried tofu, big island abalone sashimi, and grilled shitaki mushrooms.

top row - grill master at the yakitori grill
bottom row - tofu with nametake mushrooms, takoyaki, grilled musubi with miso

after kohnotori, we walked about 10 feet and ended up in front of imanas tei.  there was no waiting list so we sat down to have part two of our dinner :)  

top - ika & uni sashimi, spicy seaweed salad
bottom - seafood dynamite, mentaiko & yama imo sushi

what a yummy night!  wished that we had enough time to grab dessert but the little tiramisu comes first.  my mom was watching her and it was getting close to her bed time so we headed home.

btw - i think i exceeded my seafood intake for the week.  what i would do for a spicy hamachi hand roll :)

september challenge update

16 days into the month and i honestly haven't even thought about fb or twitter...at all.    these past few weeks have been soooo hectic with my parents out of town (no baby respite for two weeks), the surreal super quick house sale and now searching for a temporary rental.  i'm pretty much on craigslist all day long scouring the housing posts for something that fits our budget and our needs.  we are either looking for a home with separate guest/in-law cottage or two condos in the same building...the convenience of having your babysitters parents next door is really priceless!  realtors tell me that the rental market is super tight with only a 2% vacancy!  the homes that we have been interested in have already been rented so now i know that i gotta act super fast!  my biggest fear is that we'll commit to something and then the perfect rental will appear the next day.  what to do, what to do.

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aren't blog posts boring without photos?!  these days, i hardly have a chance to take photos because the little tiramisu always hijacks my iphone to watch videos.  i cannot wait until her ipod cover comes in so she can watch her stuff and i can have my phone back!  i've resorted to making daily calls with my ancient Motorola Razor that i use for my business line!

hip, hip, hooray!!

the parentals are finally back from their vaca! it was a long but short two weeks for me...time flies when you have a zillion things on your mind and you have to take care of the kiddos. maybe I will get to run away and do some errands tomorrow! hopefully, the blogs will become more interesting in the next few days!

the question of the day

live spaciously and drive a kia?  or live in a closet and drive a bmw?

not so pet friendly

wowie! I've never realized how difficult it is to find a rental that accepts small dogs! one property manager said that dogs damage things and stink up the place. i laughed at him saying that my dog is more obedient and potty-trained than my baby. hah.

ah-choo!

we had italian food from bella mia tonight.  i love their eggplant parmesan and eggplant rollatini and they always offer free delivery so it's perfect when i don't want to cook (which really, is every night).  anywho, the tiramisu was eating some of my linguini when she sneezed.  and then she started rubbing her face and nose.  i looked up and saw a linguini noodle hanging out of her nose!!!  hahahah it was the funniest thing!  i thought that stuff only happened on tv!  she couldn't get it out so i pulled it out for her...it was about 6" long...and then re-fed it to her.  just kidding.  i dumped it.  wish i snapped a picture but my priority was to free my princess from distress ^_^

i'm mentally exhausted and it's making me physically exhausted.  good night.

nine eleven

it's hard to believe that ten years have passed since 9-11.  i was living in san francisco at the time and i remember waking up to a phone call by a friend who told me to turn on the tv immediately.  i could not believe what i was seeing.  it seemed like the whole nation was in a state of chaos and nobody knew if any other major monuments were on the list to be hit next.  home alone, i was frightened and confused.  i ended up staying home from work as i didn't feel comfortable driving into the city or near the golden gate bridge.  i remember being nervous every time i was in my car on the 101 heading towards the city and continuously praying for safety.

i will never forget this day and am so thankful for all those who make it their mission to protect our country everyday!

yummmmmmm

we had some family visiting from the mainland and had dinner at hakone tonight. omg.  all i can say is that sushi never tasted sooooo good in my life!  they ran out of amaebi and crab sticks (the real stuff), which was a major bummer since those are the hubby's faves.  i had a few pieces of uni, ikura, crab/avocado, unagi, tobiko, and salmon.  didn't touch the hamachi, which is one of my faves :(  

the tiramisu looooved the food there!  she especially loved the chawanmushi.  she's always more adventurous when we go out to eat...probably because the food is highly seasoned, flavorful and full of salt.  luckily, she always drinks a lot of water.

tomorrow, i guess i go back to vegetarianism?  or if i can't find anything to each in the fridge for lunch, unagi it is because i have a few that i bought prior to this mercury thing-a-ma-bob and it needs to be eaten up!

the waiting game

i took my follow-up mercury test this morning. it's only been three weeks since the initial test but since we're going to hakone tomorrow for their seafood buffet, i thought i better take the test prior to indulging :)  it's been a month without seafood (i stopped eating it a week before i actually took the first test) and i'm ready for some yummy sea creatures!  just to be safe, i'm only eating the stuff that's realllllllly low on the mercury scale.  i can taste the amaebi as i type this :D

peach fuzz

whenever i tell her to smile, she closes her eyes now!
not sure where she learned that one. 

hehehe if you haven't noticed, the tiramisu's hair is finally growing.  looks kinda like peach fuzz in some spots...and orangutan hair in others :)  it's sooo cute!

speaking of peaches, i need to hide the huge ones i purchased yesterday because she always wants the entire fruit intact (rather than letting me cut down on the waste by giving her only half or small slices).  i guess she's just copying mommy and daddy.  but she did inhale more than half of this gigantic white peach today!!  holy smokes...that's a lot of fiber for a little person!!!

a costco jaunt

my little tiramisu absolutely loves riding in shopping carts!

the tiramisu and i went to costco today...just she and i.  if you don't have children, you won't know how big of an accomplishment this is.  or, maybe i'm just a wuss and all moms go to costco with a toddler en tow.  haha.  

i find it challenging because i have to simultaneously shop, feed, watch and entertain her. it's especially difficult when i go to the cold room, where the refrigerated fruits and veggies are.  i would normally leave her outside with my mom but today, i had to bring her in.  surprisingly, she loved it, although she started shivering as i was trying to find a mold-free clamshell container of strawberries and blueberries.  i'm one of those shoppers that insists on digging through boxes and boxes of fruit to find the perfect one but today, i was forced to grab and go.  ugh.

besides 100 rolls of toilet paper and paper towels, we bought pounds and pounds of kiwi, blueberries, strawberries, bananas, white peaches, pluots, and clementines.  my girl loooooves fruit.  i wish this costco stuff was organic (rarely do they have fresh organic fruit) but i have a hard time justifying paying $8 for a few oz of organic blueberries at whole foods when i can buy 2 lbs at costco for the same price or cheaper.  i try to wash all the stuff really well before eating so hopefully that helps :) btw - make sure you read your labels carefully...most of costco's organic veggies are from china.  wtf.

the post-shopping experience also has challenges of its own. do i...

a - put baby in the hot car and then unload the shopping cart?  leave her door open? turn on the engine and cool the car off?

b - leave baby in the cart in the hot sun while unloading the shopping cart and then move her into the hot car?

c - ask stranger to watch her in the shade while i unload the shopping cart?

d - hire a personal shopper?

and yes, i know that grocery carts are nasty, especially where the kids sit.  i am in need of a shopping cart cover and until i get one, i disinfect the crap out of the cart and handle with disinfectant wipes before letting my princess sit in it :D  on second thought, i will probably continue to wipe the cart clean before putting a cover on it because those yukky germs will get on the cover and that's pretty gross as well.

name that red blob

this is one of my new fave things to eat.  what is it?

a - raw liver salad

b - steamed beets

c - aku gone bad

d - chopped placenta

okay, option d is pretty nasty but there are places in the world where mothers actually eat their placenta following birth.  don't believe me?  go google it.

anywho, if you haven't lost your breakfast/lunch/dinner by now, the correct answer is B!

vegetarianism has definitely expanded my vegetable repertoire and now i know how much i loooooove freshly steamed beets, especially these ginger beets from whole foods.  (no, i don't work at whole foods although i ought to since i'm there almost everyday.)  the picture doesn't do the beets justice but they are just so pretty and magenta in real life!  the beets are tossed with canola oil, ginger, salt and pepper according to the label and now i'm on a mission to make this at home!  it's so delish! and the little tiramisu loves it, too!

word of caution...beets turn your pee and poop a pretty magenta color.  a bit frightening if you're not expecting it.  hah.

gots my toes did

i loooove weekends and three-day weekends even more.  it's so nice to have an extra pair of hands to help out even if i have to reiterate the same task twenty times to the other adult member of my household.  

anywho, on labor day, i treated myself to a much needed pedicure.  pedicures are my only monthly splurge and for some reason, i missed august so my 4th of july red and blue toenails with stars were looking pretty horrific.  after one hour of pampering, all is well for my ten toes and feet.  can't wait for the holidays when i plan to paint them in my usual festive red and green with silver glitter!  btw - only 109 days until christmas!!!

how to make a $20 pizza for only $7.50

left - the $5 medium size spinach & garlic pizza;
right - the $7.50 add your own toppings special :)

i've recently discovered the best deal everrrr!  during certain promotional months, whole foods has a sunday "take & make" pizza special...buy 1 pizza, get 1 free...but it's limited to cheese, pepperoni or the chef's special, which has always been spinach & garlic whenever i've taken advantage of this killer deal.  the regular price for a 12" pizza (comparable to a medium size at most pizza joints) is $9.99 but with the promotion, it's roughly $5.00/ea (a little basic arithmetic for my mathematically challenged readers ;).

i buy either the cheese or spinach & garlic pizzas and then add my own toppings!  this weekend, it was portobello mushrooms and roma tomatoes!  a gourmet pizza for only $7.50 ($5.00 pizza + $1.50 one portobello mushroom + $1.00 for roma tomatoes)!!! 

now how can you beat that?!   

the baby bistro - spaghetti bolognese

my little princess looooooves pasta!  one of her favorite dishes is spaghetti bolognese. unlike marinara sauce, bolognese is heavy on meat and contains very little tomato sauce.

i usually make penne (instead of spaghetti) and stuff the centers with the bolognese sauce to make sure the tiramisu eats the sauce and gets her iron and protein.  

the recipe i use is from Annabel Karmel.  i usually double it (everything except the chicken broth because it's easier to stuff the penne when the sauce isn't runny) and freeze it since she eats this at least once a week.    

the great chase

tonight, we ran into a friend in the neighborhood who has a son who is only 14 days older than the tiramisu.  they came over for about 45 minutes to hang out and holy smokes, i never realized how energetic a child can be!  the hubby thinks that the tiramisu is hyper but little chase is about 10x more hyper than her.  he's super active and was kinda slapping my little princess around, especially when he wanted something that she had >.<  he tried to give her a hug and ended up tackling her and they both fell on the ground.  hah.  are all baby boys like this?!!!  we are planning regular play dates so we'll see how they interact the next time.  in the meantime, i'm going to teach my princess how to hold her own :D

let's dance!

my baby girl loooooves to dance.  she learned to shake her booty by watching the Diaper Dance song from Baby Signing Time.  nowadays, she dances whenever she gets excited or hears music.  it's sooooo cute and funny.  i need to figure out how to post videos so you can see how adorable she is.  yes, i'm biased :D

atomy - the night routine

remember this post on bb cream?  i've been liking atomy's bb cream so i started using some of their skincare products last week.  luckily, they sell a 12-piece travel set which is perfect for trying out the products since the portions are smaller.

this is what i'm using at night -- a SEVEN step process!  after one week of use, i'm pretty happy with it although it almost takes a college degree to figure out what everything is for and the correct order of application.  you can read more about the individual products here and here.  at some point, i will start integrating the peeling gel and peel-off pack, which i believe only need be done every few days or so.

1 - evening care deep cleansing

2 - evening care foam cleansing

3 - skin lotion

4 - milk lotion

5 - essence

6 - cream

7 - eye cream

this is the first time i'm using an eye cream and i'm glad i am because i'm definitely feeling my age and want to preserve my youthfulness (or rather try to regain it) as long as i can!  the skin around the eyes is super delicate and eye cream is supposed to keep the skin moisturized, soft and supple which, in turn, helps prevent bags and crows' feet wrinkling.  of the 7 products above, the eye cream is my fave!

now that i have the skincare routine down, i'll start using the hair and body products (the other 5 items in the travel set) tomorrow and review them about a week later.

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today starts my one month of being off of facebook and twitter!  i deactivated my fb account in its entirety (although it only takes a re-login to get back in) so i'm nowhere in fb world anymore.  twitter doesn't allow temporary deactivations so i'll just have to use willpower not to check tweets.  and both apps have been deleted from my iphone. i guess if anyone really needs to contact me via fb, they can contact the hubby.  and since there's no way to prove that i haven't been on these sites, you'll just have to take my word for it ;)