Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Walked to Ralphs

It's sad when all you can post about is going to the supermarket... but I haven't left the house in 2 days. Like not even walked over to Sat's to say hi to Koge.

Well, I had a deadline to deal with.

Sat offered to walk w/ me to Ralphs, so off we went.

They tell you never go grocery shopping when you're hungry. But what do you do when you're constantly hungry? Ah, make others shop for you... or make a list. Next time...

Cuz the first thing we see is the deli section. And I'm just staring at the fried chicken. I need something easy to eat during the week. Something that can be heated up easily in the microwave. Fried chicken!

I don't even like drumsticks, but I ate one anyway.
That's how hungry I am.

I also bought an assortment of bagels & rolls, so I can munch on them all day long. Plus sliced cheese & turkey, when I'm tired of just eating carbs.

Since we walked, we only buy the lightweight things.
All the heavy stuff like milk, cranberry juice... are being bought by じゅるる.

PS. We also had Popo's doc appointment too. That'll be on PopoLife.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Recovery: 1 Month Mark

So it's been a month since my major abdominal surgery.

The area around the incision is still numb/tingle-y. Occasionally it hurts, like when I sit down hard on the couch. I need to be more careful when I sit.

It took me about 3 weeks to comfortably walk up & down the stairs. I have no probs now, but I get tired if I go up & down more than two times in an hour or so. I need to build up my already-low endurance.

I'm almost back to my original weight. About +/- 2lbs from my original-original weight, and about + 5lbs from my lowest original weight.

I tried driving once... but it seems okay. I like the mini SUV since it's taller & I don't end up sitting down hard like I do w/ other cars. Once we get the back seat set up for Popo, I should be driving around to places more (w/ Sat).

I can finally eat meat & chocolate & fried foods.
That's a relief. I might want to eat Smitty's and Cecil's and Versailles. Someone invite me.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Dim Sum & Tokyo Table

We went to dim sum today b/c Ards told us that Nay wanted to go before she was on home confinement.

Yes, that's a very good plan.
How come no one told me to do that too... Oh, my heartburn made it impossible for me to eat anything. Great.

Altho with a little critter, you really can't eat much.
Plus the pork spare ribs never came around! Or the shumai! And Sat ate all the tripe by herself!

After dim sum, Nay, Jay & Ards headed to the Grilled Cheese Sandwich Invitational event.

The rest of us headed to Bin Bin Konjac for drinks.
It seems like the ownership changed, but it's the same good drinks. Only the point card is different... and they have a buy 2 get 1 free deal, which is nice since there were three of us.

At night, we went out to Irvine b/c じゅるる's college friend was in town.

We were looking for places to go that would be OK for Popo to tag along... we looked up Tokyo Table on Yelp. Seemed like it's similar to the BevHills one, but is it actually crowded? Cuz the BH one was empty. All the time. Which is why we liked going there.

Yelp wasn't helpful (only that it's too expensive [for college kids] & meh food [if you're looking for 'authentic' Japanese food]), so I tried asking on FB. But no one responded. Either I have no friends in the Irvine vicinity, or I have too few friends, or none of my friends go out...

We gave it a try anyway, and it was fine for Popo.
Maybe a little too cold.

Food was fine. It's the same fusion stuff as the BH one, but they had an expanded menu. We tried the chirashi-sushi pizza, which was like the original sushi pizza but w/ tuna & salmon. I liked the original, so the new one was good too. We got the usual for everything else (tofu salad, karaage, Philly roll), altho we tried the Hawaiian roll (crab + pineapple).

Oh, they no longer have the gyoza (not that it was good anyway), but they had stick gyoza. Didn't try it, tho. Maybe next time I'm in the area... and I'm not the one paying (which is the only way I do Tokyo Table).

Lots of outing in one day, for someone who's been on home confinement for a month. But it was exhausting fun.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Takoyaki Practice Night

We're having guests over on Sunday.
They're じゅるる's friends who I've never met before.

We're doing 鉄板焼き & たこ焼き, since you get to sit around a table & talk & eat, so we won't have uncomfortable moments of silence... Naw, it's so one person isn't responsible for making the food.

But I haven't made takoyaki w/o Sat before.
So we're doing a practice run today.

Starting out w/ making the batter (which has always been Sat's duty). I think I can handle the rest, since I've worked the takoyaki grill and all.

Teppanyaki is simple enough.
I'll just cut up veggies, mushrooms, and じゅるる will marinate the beef.

If I'm not frazzled, I'll take pictures.

PS. Dee came by to critter-sit today again.
I got a good nap on the floor (on top of the heated carpet).

PPS. Steph is supposed to come by tonight around 9pm.
Hopefully she'll find parking, cuz we're using up both parking spaces right now... I should move the mini-SUV back to Koge Haus.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Walked to Yogurtland

Today, Sat was reading the "first month" chapter of the APA book, when it mentioned that it's good to go outside & take a walk.

So we decided to take a walk to Yogurtland.
じゅるる (who took the day off b/c he couldn't sleep at all last night due to some fussy critter) carried Popo in the BB carrier, Sat walked in front & I trailed behind.

I get bit of a sharp pain on my left side now. Comes every 2-3 minutes when I walk. But nothing that's not bearable.

We got a little bit of frozen yogurt ($5.70 worth for the three of us... we don't pile on a lot in our cups, do we?), and as we were walking home, we all agreed that we were feeling like junky Chinese. And walked right into Panda Express.

So much for having a non-fat snack, eh?

I can't carry Popo in the carrier yet (or I don't think... I haven't tried), but it'll be nice to take walks every other day.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Married Filing Jointly

Worked on 1040s & 540s over the weekend.

I should have worked on them earlier, but things have to fall into place first to get things started... or that's the excuse procrastinators like me use.

Didn't help that Popo decided to show up a week later... or that it'd take me 2 weeks to recover.

Anyhoo, I learned a lot about "married filing jointly"... or "separately" for that matter.

I thought the latter would be easier, since there were a lot of changes in my overall life last year. But it made things more complicated. Shouldn't we be considered individuals, especially if we've been married for less than half the year last year?

So "jointly," it is.

I am looking forward to next year, when we can claim another exemption.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

OK to Drive

I went to my doctor for the 2-week follow up.

Since I'm not in a lot of pain, and I'm moving about pretty decently, I got the OK to drive.

Not that I have anywhere to go, since I'm not working.
And hard to get out when there's a critter taking up a bulk of your time (altho I'd have more time if I stopped playing games on FB...?)

And the car seat is in じゅるる's car for now...

Maybe I'll start driving in another 2 weeks.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Critter-sitter Dee

Today Dee came over to critter-sit Popo.

It was mostly so I can catch up on sleep, but I also had to run over to Koge Haus to cut Koge's nails. Well, run is just figurative speech... since I can barely walk at a normal pace yet. But I do need to start walking, and the 200 meters or so to Koge Haus is a good start.

Sat came over to wait for the food that Dee was picking up from Ichigo, and we watched Mary Poppins while we waited... and then while we ate.

After we left, I guess Dee watched Mary Poppins again w/ Popo. She's gonna learn all the words to the movie & songs by the time she's 3.

Then he watched Zombieland that Ards had left for us to watch (along w/ Star Trek & Cloudy Meatballs). I wasn't aware of the movie, but I guess the boys went out to see it a while back? And Dee had missed it, so he was enjoying it here.

I crashed when I got back.
I really should take 2-3 hour naps every day, since I'm only sleeping 4-5 hours at night. Although that's about how much sleep I was getting when I was working -__-

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Borrowed Clothes

Ards came by today w/ a BIG bag of infant clothes.

Nads offered to lend me a bunch of hand-me-downs she got from friends & family, since I had mentioned that I was running out of clothes (I didn't buy a lot of NB or 0-3 sizes).

So I went through the pile & picked out about 12-15 outfits.
Mostly long sleeve ones, since Popo seems to complain about it being cold lately. I also decided to try out couple of the zipper coveralls & dress-type coveralls, since I haven't gotten those. If I like them, I might buy them myself.

A bit later, Sat came by to drop off some gyoza. We froze them couple of weeks ago, when we made a big batch. Good, we have dinner for tonight!

PS. Tues night is our "Parenthood" night. It's one of the few TV shows we watch on a weekly basis. We didn't have any problems watching last week, but tonight... Popo decided to wake up at the 15 min mark. Gah!

We were able to quiet her down for about 5-10 mins w/ the bottle & pacifier... but we missed the whole segment w/ Julia & Joel. Grrr. Time to read TelevisionWithoutPity recaps (even tho I do anyway).

Saturday, April 3, 2010

N&J Baby Shower, Visit from Vu

Today was Nads & Jams' baby shower.

I was planning to go w/ Ards, but couldn't get up before noon. Well, I was up earlier, but collapsed after couple of early morning feedings.

And Sat decided not to go b/c she was feeling sick.
Plus Vu was gonna come up to WLA to look at computer stuff.

So even tho the event was 12pm - 4pm, we headed over there a little after 3pm. The shower was already winding down (they finished all the games & opened presents), but we managed to grab a few red velvet cupcakes. They were yum! Gotta ask Jams where they got them.

Since I took some cupcakes home, Sat came over w/ Vu to eat them.
And for Vu to see Popo.

While Popo (& Sat) were napping, Vu and I were stalking people on FB. See, I'm having trouble remembering all the HS friends (even if I had friended them). So we were going thru the list, trying to tie them to groups and clubs and stuff. Of course there's a bunch of people I haven't friended, so we went from person to person to see if they're around... if they look any different.

Meh, I'm not good at this keeping in touch w/ people thing.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Date w/ Ards

Ards had the day off today, so she came over to hang out after she got her hair cut.

BTW, her new hair cut is fabulous.
Much much lighter looking.
And good length too.

I wanted to buy some stuff at Babies R Us, so I asked Ards to drive me there (I can't drive for 2-4 weeks) while Sat babysat Popo.

We ended up going to Babies R Us, TJ Maxx, Target & Campos Tacos.

And she let us borrow Star Trek BD and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs BD. Oh, Zombie-something too.

じゅるる hadn't watched Star Trek Movie yet, so we watched it (I was asleep for the first 30 mins or so, but had watched that portion earlier). He was surprised how good it was.

Ards stayed til around 11pm... which worried me, since she usually goes to sleep much earlier than that. I hope she wasn't tired. She spent a lot of time coo-ing Popo to sleep, who was fighting to keep her eyes open. But in the end, Ards won. It took 5 hours, tho... -__-

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Photos from Hospital Stay

I uploaded the photos from my hospital stay on Flickr.

My account is expiring on April 6.
I need to renew soon, but the Yahoo login page isn't working. Prolly just a Firefox issue.

A bunch of other photos are being uploaded by Sat.
But her account already expired (and she's also having trouble renewing), so she can only upload 100 per month. She should have more uploaded soon b/c it's April.

If you need a guest pass for Flickr (to see "Friends only" photos), email me.