Monday, May 31, 2010

Joint Pains

I've been having joint pains stemming from my tummy swelling days, and I was hoping things would improve over time.

It's been over two months since Popo came out & my joints are still ache-y when I walk or stand around for a long time (like over 30 mins), and it's hard to sleep on my side.

Then I tried yoga.
I thought yoga would help me build up my endurance, and I'd regain a bit more mobility w/ my ache-y joints, you know?

Everything was going fine until I had to do the pose where you're your knees & lift one leg off the ground.

I couldn't.
It was too painful at my joints.

I think I seriously need to go see a chiropractor.
Time to search for one in the area.

PS. My ankle is also a bit ache-y too.
More on that some other day.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Lean Cuisine Review #1

Since Ralphs had Lean Cuisine meals on sale for $1.85 each, I decided to try some of them out.

There are hits and misses, so here's my review of the ones I tried.

Flat Bread Sandwich - Chicken, Red Pepper & Basil
I liked this one. It's very cheesy, which was really nice.
The flat bread is a lot thicker than I expected & chewy too. But it tasted pretty good, like white bread at Subway.

Panini - Chicken, Artichoke & Spinach
Was okay.
I wish it was cheesier. Didn't taste much of the artichoke too.

Panini - Steak & Cheese
Okay to kinda bleah.
The bread is thick and yummy, but would be nice if it could get crunchier... which is a bit hard w/ a microwave.
Steak was okay, and the cheese had a nacho cheese flavor, making it taste more chili-like.

Pizza - Roasted Vegetables
Bleah. No taste!
I was looking forward to this one, b/c I like the veggie pizza at CPK and other places.

The crust is the same as flat bread. Soft & chewy. I actually don't mind the taste of the crust.
The toppings include red & green bell pepper, cheese and tomato sauce. Unfortunately none of the toppings have any flavoring added, making the whole thing bland.

Entree - Chicken Pecan
The chicken & pecans were in a sweet sauce. And it's paired up w/ the rice-shaped pasta (orzo?), some wheat-like grain, snap peas and red bell pepper. It was okay, but I think the bread-type meals are more filling.

I got five boxes initially... and got a $1 off coupon for buying another five, so went to buy more the next day. So I'll have more entrees to review.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Yakitori @ Home

We haven't BBQ'd at home for a long time...
Plus Sat & I have been craving yakitori for a long time...
And after being inspired by the BBQ this past weekend, we decided it's time to start BBQ-ing at home again.

But the big Weber at Koge Haus is a little too much for the two of us. So we decided on getting a smaller grill to do a poor-man BBQ.

Sat found a cute bucket style one at Amazon, so I immediately added the green one to my Wish List. But my b-day is 2 months away. We want yakitori right now!

So Sat found a mini BBQ grill on sale at Target for $15.
We went to Target & they had black, red & green. The red was cute, and I really love green... but only the black one was on sale. So black it is. If we like it a lot & the black one breaks, I can always get the green one next time.

We also picked up a skewer set at TJ Maxx.

It took a long time to put together the mini BBQ grill... cuz the pieces don't line up straight! I got it to at least stand up, but it's not completely screwed together. That's for next time... cuz we be hungry.

Yakitori, okra & pineapple.
We didn't have a lot of ingredients at home, but that was plenty to make us happy.

I think we could do this every day.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Scraped Knee

I went to Giraffe R Us today to buy a stroller.
They didn't have the one we wanted in stock at the Culver City store the previous night, so I headed over to La Cienega b/c they were gonna receive a new shipment.

I haven't been to the La Cienega one in a long time (ever since Company B closed?), but they completely remodeled & have a big baby area.

They also added more entrances & exits, and I was very confused... So I walked in the right most door. But it was one of the exits (there were 3 entrances), so I crossed over to the middle door... and WOOMPH!

There was a bar along the floor.
To keep the shopping carts in place.
And I didn't see it b/c I had Popo strapped to my belly.

I landed on both of my knees.
Fortunately I didn't fall completely, so I didn't crush Popo.
And I didn't break my foot either. Whew.

But my knees are scraped.
The right one is bleeding a bit.
They sting a bit, so I put bandages.
しくしく

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Thinking About an iPad

I was thinking... maybe I should get an iPad.

I'm okay w/ the Vaio for work related stuff.
I mean, I only use email, Word & Excel (occasional PowerPoint). Altho it would be nice to use PhotoSh*p, I'd only use it 2-3 times a year.

But the Vaio can't handle FB games. Or Hulu. Or iTunes.

iTunes is a new concept for my life.
I don't listen to music, b/c I'm okay w/ any noise to keep me company. So most of the time it's the TV. But Popo likes music, and I thought iTunes would be handy. Of course I've never used iTunes, so I hope I can figure it out.

Oh, and a computer for storing all my photos would be nice. And be able to share it w/ じゅるる.

And I'm guessing an iPad is easy to use.
So I don't have to call Vu up every time something happens to any of the computers lying about the house.

Or I could be happy w/ having something like Sat's blue Dell.
Would that be cheaper than an iPad?

Monday, May 17, 2010

HK Kitchen w/ Sat & Dee

Last time me & Sat tried to go to HK Kitchen, they were closed. They close on Tues now.

So we made a second attempt today.
And took Dee w/ us, since Sat had some business w/ him.

It's handy to have three sets of hands when taking Popo along. Cuz one person would have to be holding her... she won't stay put in the travel bed anymore. I wonder if she'll stay calmer if we had a stroller? I should start looking into them.

The food was yum.
We ordered too much, and we didn't take any containers... but there was plenty of food to fill up the Styrofoam boxes.

After eating, we went to Dee's house so Dee's mom & Cee could meet Popo.

And we wanted to meet Mr R.
He's sooooooo cute!
Queen L is cute too (just in case she's reading this), altho we didn't get to see her yesterday... only heard her on the other side of the door.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Ards Brings Nan

Ards came by after work today.

She was waiting for traffic to die down, so she came to hang out.
And brought me nan from Samosa House.
It was yum.
I should go there someday.
It's walking distance too, so might be a good walk.

She also gave me updates on Nay & baby R.

I'm shooting to go visit them next week.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Cut Hair

I got a haircut today.

I decided having long hair takes too much time to wash... gets in the way when I'm feeding Popo... so I decided to chop it off.

Now my hair is chin level.

I haven't had it this short in a long time, but I'm happy I use less shampoo now.

Photos... coming soon.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Shiz Can't Cook Series: Country-Styled Pork Ribs (Slow Cooker)

I found a package of country-styled pork ribs on sale at Ralphs, so I decided to cook them in the slow cooker.

Pork.
BBQ sauce left over from the other time we cooked beef short ribs.
Ketchup.
Mustard.
Soy sauce.
Brown sugar.
Salt.
Pepper.

All went inside the slow cooker, set on "high," and left alone for 4 hours.

Came out like this.


The meat was tender, but didn't have enough flavor.
I over-under-compensated since we put too much BBQ sauce in the beef short ribs & it came out too strong.

But if you pour BBQ sauce right on it, it was fine.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

FB Debut?

じゅるる, who works in the real world, gets requests from co-workers & friends for Popo photos.

I mean, do people really want to see photos of kids they're not related to?

Here's my thought on other people's kid photos.
1. For prints, once a year is good enough.
Like holiday cards.

You see how much they've grown, and it's a good reminder of what they look like (just in case you don't see them often, but would need to recognize them if you see them at the market or something).

2. For digital files that are emailed to you, once a year is also good enough. Maybe even too much, after the initial newborn interest. Altho photos for holidays ain't so bad.

Ichigo wanted to send some Popo photos to friends in Japan, so I e-mailed her smaller files of what I uploaded to Flickr. Sat agreed that people wouldn't care to HAVE photos of kids (= Popo) of kids (= me) they're not related to. But Ichigo's generation don't all have emails and internet access (only via cellphone), so maybe this was the only way to go.

Which brings me to...
My Flickr set, full of Popo photos.

Since only friends & family have access to it, I'm okay posting all these photos and being a total 親バカ. And although I think the photos are all adorable (see, 親バカ), I dunno if I want to have everyone we know see our complete 親バカ-ness.

So what do we do w/ じゅるる's colleagues?
We could make a Picasa account w/ a limited number of Popo photos to share. Or create an album on FB...

But I don't wanna be one of those who have kid photos as their profile picture. Okay, an album on FB isn't a profile pix... but it's one step closer!

That doesn't mean I'll stop じゅるる from having an album.
He's nowhere as neurotic about being public on FB as I am. I mean, I resisted being connected to him until we both updated about Popo on FB. I still think it sucks that FB forces BOTH of you to be linked, once you confirm your relationship. It can't be a one-way thing? Really?

Okay, I stop my rant.
Popo will be making a FB debut shortly... maybe.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Poor Planning

I was in Santa Monica today for my 6-week follow up appointment.

And Nay's in a hospital in SM right now... and I should have thought to arrange to visit them, since I was in the area (like 4 blocks away).

But I've been really bad about pre-planning & muti-tasking & all the stuff I thought I was good at.

Is it b/c I haven't been working in a busy environment for the last year and a half?

...or is it from the bump hormones?

...or lack of sleep w/ Popo?

Well, I thought Nay might be further along... since I was put on Pitocin after 12 hours & in serious pain by hour 15.

But it's still poor planning on my part.
We could have dropped off lunch for Jams. *sigh*

Monday, May 3, 2010

Leftover Cake

So what do you do w/ all these leftover cake?
Share it w/ friends, of course!

Sat had arranged for Ards to stop by after work, so we had a little cake dim sum.

A little bit of tiramisu cake, a piece of opera cake, and 1/3 of the guava cake.

Three straight days of cake.
We'll avoid sweets for the rest of the week, I guess.

But after Ards left, I realized I forgot to give her the Japan omiyage from Steph. I guess she'll have to stop by another day.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Second B-day Cake

We had a second b-day cake today.

This time it's family only.
Plus Dee.

Dee came early, so he took care of Popo all afternoon.

We had guava cake.
Man, eating cake 2 days in a row... not good on the diet. So we sent half of the leftover cake home w/ Dee, so he can share w/ his mom & sis.

And we watched Amazing Race & Celeb Apprentice together too.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Sat B-day Chinese

Like we do every year, we had a get-together lunch for Sat's b-day... at a Chinese restaurant. This time it was Hop Woo in WLA. Duck time!

I finally got to meet Sasami's b/f. Nice guy.

Sof showed us a photo of Ben wearing a gakuran.
No, actually it's a high-collared Chinese shirt. But b/c it's black, it just looks like a Japanese school boy uniform. *snicker*

Our table was mostly vegetarian. And it wasn't b/c Steph was at our table either... just happened that way.

And the other table (mostly boys) was very meaty. Poor Panda was wishing she was at our table... which would have made sense, b/c there's no point in having two Cantonese speakers at one table and none at the other.

Most of the group headed over to Yuu Yuu's for happy hour karaoke, while me & じゅるる went home b/c we had brought Popo along. Plus Vu was gonna help me fix my virus infected Vaio. Which is now fixed. Horray!

Post-karaoke, half the group came over to have b-day cake. TJ tiramisu cake & opera cake. I had the opera cake, which was yum. Sat figured Ards would like the tiramisu cake, so saved one piece for her. She'll come by on Monday to eat it. And pick up Japan omiyage from Steph.

We should have ordered pizza or something cuz everyone stayed late... so I quickly made takoyaki & cheese-yaki. But I'm sure everyone was still hungry afterwards. Hopefully they all had late night munchies.