2 down, 1 more to go

Can you believe it? I'm still writing November.

Anyway! My family is arriving this Sunday evening and I'm already feeling the jitters!

The jitters began with all the Christmas lights we see outside. Hushby being the competitive person that he is, felt inferior that we didn't have lights on. So we went to get some and added it to our small collections of outdoor lights. We prepped the house for Christmas as much as we could afford to do. The fireplace, the outside and all has been decked with beautiful sparkling lights now and it's looking extra festive! The Christmas tree, which is puny has tons of presents underneath it this year... so much so that it is overwhelming the little tree!

Oh can you imagine the excitement when they see their socks already hung at the fireplace? I'm beyond excited!

Aside from that, last weekend, another dear friend of mine and Jane's arrived from Australia. Though only a short stop before they head elsewhere, we had tons of fun which really made up for the lost time we had not seen each other. Los Angeles was just a detour from their trip and as usual, I couldn't be happier to show them around. Keat Joo and her Hub, Steve has always been such a delight to be with. Both bubbly, playful and easy going, there's nothing much to worry about them. No need to wonder if they would be comfortable in my home. Just like Jane, they both made themselves at home immediately.

The evening we met up, we chat til 5:30am. At 3am, Keat Joo looked into my pantry and found Har Mee (Prawn Mee), a Penang's favorite and she squealed in excitement as if she found gold! Soon after, Steve took a shot of us in our PJs, trying to cook the instant noodles. My oversized PJ is looking so loose here but it makes me feel sleepy just by looking at it. haha!

Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera around and didn't have many pictures of us while we were out. But Keat Joo has more and I'm pretty sure I'll have it when she gets back to Down Under. I had so much fun the 2 days we spent together, I almost forget about finals in school and that I have tons to do.

So, 2 down, 1 more to go. Hope there's more to come next year ;)

Meantime, back to finishing up my work!

Guests

Wow can't believe how fast time flies. Looked like my last post was ages ago. My apology, yet again, for being the most inactive blogger ever. The holiday season is here and I am expecting 3 different parties of guests arriving in one week interval. It's going to be hectic but fun! There were a lot of things needed for the house that is still bare from necessities, so we took a lot of weekends off just for shopping. With groceries and christmas shopping combined, it was a bit hectic! Good thing though, that's all covered before Thanksgiving was here!

Speaking of Thanksgiving, you guys know who came for the break! It was Jane!

Here's proof of what we did:

At the Malaysian restaurant called Belacan Grill. We ordered Belacan Kangkung, Tumis Shrimp and Curry Fish Head. We ate like there's no tomorrow and started speaking Malay with the waitress who was quite impressed that she was able to converse with us, true Malaysians. We walked out from that restaurant 5 pounds heavier and Cooper had a little hard time driving us home.

We gave Jane the honor of harvesting our beautiful winter lettuce. Salad was much needed for the Thanksgiving meal and what better way than to enjoy our crops than this occasion? :)

Lettuce salad tossed with candied walnut and dried cranberries in white balsamic honey vinaigrette. The perfect light salad that we all needed before attacking the heavier dishes.

Hushby and Jane did 90% of the preparation this time. This year was much more relaxing for me, we even have time to play Wii and had lunch. I guess, preparing chicken instead of a big turkey helps a lot too. The cooking time was slash in half.

So, Thanksgiving break is over and done with. Jane's much anticipated arrival has gone too soon. Before we know it, she was out of the house and flew back to New York again. We did a lot in Seventy-Seven itself, I was glad to hear she felt comfortable in this home. Jane slept like a log each night and morning. I laughed sheepishly when she said she enjoyed sleeping on the $10 IKEA bed sheet. lol Jane is so funny.

We cooked together, had fun chatting til' late night like ol' times and ate like we hit puberty again. It was fun, so much fun I lost track of time. But all that catching up was needed for the soul. It warms my heart like a nice bowl of warm chicken soup. I hope she doesn't mind that I slept more often than usual too. All those Thanksgiving food is making my body a little heavier. :)

Next Monday, another dear friend from Australia is coming but they are only staying for 2 days. Then, the Chiang clan is arriving all the way from Penang, Malaysia - something I waited 8 years to happen. Now I only need to wait less than 10 days before I see them, in my own eyes, in my own home. I still can't believe it until I see them physically. It's going to be exciting from today onwards. But before that, I need to finish all my homework!

Toodles for now.

The Halloween Scare

Last Halloween, October 31st, Yew Wai and I was out the whole day. We went to an art gallery, had lunch at In-N-Out and wandered around town, enjoying the wonderful weather. The Halloween spirit was up and around. Usually, I have lots of candies and chocolates for Halloween every year but I never get any trick or treaters before, which was why I did zero prep for this year. Also, my other reasons are...

Number 1: I have no money allocated for super nice Halloween decoration

Number 2: I'm pretty sure no trick or treaters will come and get candy because I don't have Jack-O-Lanterns and we don't have any lights outside anyway.

AND!

Number 3: I'll be forced to eat them all if no one shows up!

So we came home that night at about 5pm with a set of 6 solar lights on hand.... Oh and some Ghirardelli Raspberry Chocolate to tame my cravings. Yew Wai was so excited that evening, that right after getting out of the car, he went to the garden and set the solar lights up. He wanted to do it before sun set, so that we'll get to see them how they look at night. At dusk, we were really delighted to see this!

For the first time after 4 months in this house, we've never seen our garden lit up at night and you may think we are a little crazy being this excited with a few LED lights, but we've always wanted to sit outside and we can't because it was always too dark. This thing is wonderful. So easy to install and no mess with wiring. All they need is sun light and a solid ground.

Satisfied with our solar purchase, we went in and get cooking for dinner. Before I could cut anything up, a faint sound of knocking came from the door. I opened up and there were two little kids with their Dad carrying a little Buzz Lightyear and his sister, a pink Sleeping Beauty princess. They were both so adorable! I was overwhelm with cuteness!

"Trick or Treatttt!" they delightedly chant.

OMG, my first trick or treater... what do I say? OMG I have no candy!! Wait... I may have some...

Immediately after that thought, Hushby came up behind me with that box of Ghirardelli. He read my mind so well but I guess the pressure was beginning to kick in that we both automatically thought "That box of chocolate has got to go!"

It is expensive chocolate by the way and by the time I gave two for each of them, I only have four left in the box.

We shut the door after they left and both Yew Wai and I looked at each other with our eyes wide open, panting - asking each other, why did they come in?? We don't have lights out. Wait, we have solar lights now! It's signaling "We're home!" We looked at each other again, thinking this is no joke, we gotta get candies. The night has set in, our solar lights turned on by itself - unstoppable! Nice timing! LOL

Pictures of other people's houses

Hushby quickly drove off to get a few packs of candies. I stayed at home coz' the soup was already boiling and I can't leave the uncut meat behind.

Then the door knock came again, and I opened. This time there was a party of 8 kids.... yes, 8 kids not including the Dad. All under 4 ft tall, chanting "TRICK OR TREEEEEEATTTTT!"

Ya know, I've spoken in front of 500 people hosting an event, I've done countless presentations and never had the slightest anxiety over it. But with these little ones, my palms were sweating, my heart was palpitating and I had no choice but to say "sorry, I ran out of candy!"

The Dad said it's OK, I already felt so bad at that point. All the kids were giving me that puppy look!

"But I do have four left?"

And they squeal with excitement, all pushing their baskets to me fighting for that 4 expensive Raspberry Chocolate that I will never have! Sigh!!

Hushby came home after what seem like eternity for me, protecting the fort by myself. As soon as he poured out the bags of candies, the knocking on the door got even more frequent. So frequent that the gate did not even have a chance to shut itself! And I'm not kidding!

What a crazy night! The Halloween scare! That solar lights giving out wrong signals! Ah what a timing!

On a brighter note though, it sure was a very exciting occasion for us especially having seen the little ones which I learned later, every household look forward to for Halloween. It was cuteness overload for me and I treasure the chance being "scared" for once :)

With that said, I shall be more prepared next year. Possibly even considering dressing up to scare the little kids back :)

Veggies

When's the last time you've seen my vegetables?

Very long time huh! Probably a month ago... I guess I was away long enough that none of you have seen the progress. Here's the lettuce:

TO-MA-TOES!

I harvested 2 good size tomatoes last week and I didn't know what to do with it until I watch Jamie Oliver on TV. Because I'm a big fan and his idea of veggie kebab sounds too good, we did our version with summer squashes. And yes we still have summer squashes coz' its still so warm out here. It's going to be a hot winter!

I'm not gonna bore everyone again admitting that I've been extremely occupied with school, especially that midterm has just passed and especially wanting to eat well, cook at home and stay out of sickly people and avoid being sick... it's just all too much to take but I shall persist!

Happy Deepavali to all my Indian friends :)

Study Room Update

Remember back in July, we tire our muscles and rush to get the floor of the rooms done? It seemed so long ago. We used to sleep in this room with our bed there, a chest of drawers and 2 luggage because it was the only room that was strategically available due to the construction work. The master bedroom at that time was under renovation and the other room, Grey room had all our furniture and boxes in it, that filled up all the space except for a little pathway. Study room was our only real estate sanctuary but even that, it was icky. The carpet and the smell of it was... ok let's not go there.

So that's how it looked like when we had all essentials out of it. The bed and a chest of drawers, at this point, had been move to the master bedroom.

After the carpet was torn, the wood floor was put in.

Then we had the baseboard in. The baseboard is not that noticeable here because of the obvious mess I made but there is difference in real life. We sealed the gap between the board and the wall with a latex solution and then painted it with glossy white. So in actuality, the baseboard is glossy and the pattern really comes through with the paint. And because it's so white now, it also shows off the grey tint on the wall which I kinda like. But sooner or later, I'd want to paint the whole room white to benefit a work room.

The IKEA white table is now longer than it used to be. That's because we bought an extension and connect it to the original piece. We refused to get another computer table for the desktop as it may take up more unnecessary space. Since the two computers share a printer and other miscellaneous office supplies, it only make sense to sit both on one desk.

We have two more shelves to mount on the wall which I'm sure will clear up my table space. At the mean time and as you can see hiding in the closet *shy*, there's more stuff, still in boxes, mostly books actually.

Just a fun info. We unscrew a wall socket because of an internet wire but to cut the long story short, when the socket was taken out, we found out that the actual color on this wall was a bright pink! Looks like it might have been a little girl's room prior to the last owner. After seeing that, I'm thankful for the light khaki grey. No designer would want a pink room! It would have damage all the colors I see.