Year: 2007

Apparently, Frank did actually break a rib on his first snowboarding trip. Ouch. 4-6 weeks. Been there. Not fun. At least he says that he’s not turned off by boarding because of it. 🙂

Families gather on the eve of Chinese New Year to celebrate with a grand feast called the reunion dinner. From what I understand, there is a traditional set of dishes that is served including a fish which is not fully consumed, some black hairy noodles and abalone. I was in the grocery store yesterday and I noticed you had to ask the cashier to go behind the register to give you a can of abalone. They are stored next to the cigarettes and the hard liquor. Abalone? An addictive substance? I guess the abalone is the centerpiece of the meal since a can will set you back about $50S.

Both the black hairy noodles (actually some sort of moss) and the abalone are both endangered species. At least no one will tell you that the American turkey is an endangered species. Last year, I celebrated CNY by sobbing my way through a number of parties. This year, I will celebrate by cooking! (no endangered species on our menu, that will be for sure!) What should we make?

I got myself a metronome! My teacher spent the last lesson telling me that I got no rhythm which is something I’ve known for a long time. I like to just play willy-nilly and it sounds fine to another person who has no rhythm (like Donald), but it drives Jeremy a bit nutty since he has a very strong sense of timing. I’ve read somewhere that all humans have an innate rhythmic abilities simply because of the steady beat of our hearts, but I swear, I must have some sort of arrhythmia because it just isn’t there. So I got the loudest one I could find and it has a bell that rings on the first beat and I set it to a snail speed and play my piece so slowly in an effort to not rush running scales and not slow down where I have trouble with the notes. This is going to take forever.

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Scientific name: Catharanthus roseus
Common name: Madagascar Periwinkle
Location: Singapore

I probably shouldn’t have had that white mocha at about 10pm… Oh well. I’m pretty wired right now. I had something I wanted to post about, but now, I have forgotten it. Oh well…

Tonight I went off to the Buddha Lounge, for my first Happy Hour event. It was an Asian filled crowd, and I didn’t really know anyone there. Some observations – It really hard to tell what people look like in a dimmly lit bar. Even if you can get a good look at them, honestly, everyone looks the same to some extent. While I don’t discount the possibility of meeting someone at a bar, it’s hard to see anything that sorta pops out at you. It’s all physical stuff to go by, when you decide you want to talk to a girl.

I mingled a bit. Sorta proud of myself. I knew this one guy there and we chatted for a bit. He just got engaged and his fiance was there. Nice guy. I gave him my card and we’ll probbaly do lunch on Friday sometime. I thought I saw Choon’s old dance partner at the bar. I went up to say hello, but it wasn’t her. I forget what her name was. I totally pulled the “I know you from somewhere” pick up line. Laff. Anyways, I didn’t press the conversation since it was very apparent that she was with another guy at the bar.

I actually don’t mind mingling – as much as I thought I would. It’s fairly easy once you have an in with some folks. I wanted to mingle some more. There was another in with some folks, if Ray didn’t chicken out. He could’ve talked to this girl that was talking the host of the party. I wanted him to introduce me to the host, so he could talk to the girl, but no dice. You gotta go with people who are willing to put themselves out there a little bit.

Anyways, We’ll see how the next one goes. I probably know even fewer people for that one.. laff.

oh also I should say that I drank more tonight than I usually do. 1/4 bottle of (crappy) red wine that was on sale. A scotch and soda, which is a man’s drink according to Mike, and an amaretto sour – a good girlie drink with a macchiano(sp?) cherry. 🙂

Look who is always in our bed in the morning.

Last night, it wasn’t until Edda woke me up at 5:00 am that I realized I was sandwiched between my two guys – usually I notice when Vince slips in next to me.

About a week ago, Edda started not sleeping or eating as well as she had been previously. I remember when Vince’s rhythms were off – it usually preceded a developmental milestone. He can walk! He can talk! He knows how to swipe a credit card! Now with Edda, I think the same thing – her brain is changing somehow and I’m looking for changes in her. Is she mouthing differently? More tippy, losing her balance more easily? Is she paying more attention to me when I call her name? Maybe it is something as simple as her growth is slowing down. Anyways, her eating of 2 full plates of spaghetti and an orange and a tub of cottage cheese at dinner is something that isn’t sustainable in the long run anyways.

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My Pomatomus socks are coming along. This morning for an hour, I sat at McDonald’s knitting. It kind of a pain for a travel project, I have to have the pattern unfurled at all times and I have to pay attention to the changing patterns.

I didn’t order any hash browns, I usually feel like I need to rent my seat time with a small order, but there were many empty tables and the morning was just so beautiful.

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I haven’t found any new flowers recently, I think I have to start photographing trees, but I’m a bit unsure about how to do this. Do I take a picture of the whole tree? Or just the leaves of the tree?

Scientific name: Pelargonium zonale
Common name: Geranium
Location: Austin, TX

It’s been a quietly unhappy week chez Doris. It’s mainly driven by my monthly swing in hormones. This week things seem not as shiny as when the new year started.

Edda’s school has lost a few teachers. None of Edda’s teachers left, but a few on her floor and I didn’t notice until 3 weeks into the term when I saw that one of the classrooms was quiet. I opened the door – the lights were off, chairs scattered and all the artwork down. And then I found out through the grapevine that another teacher left and a few students I was fond of also went away. I didn’t know these people well, I don’t know where they went, but I’m sad just the same. Arg, why do things have to change?

Jeremy is preparing for our eventual move back to the US. The company that we’ve rented the car from has been notified, Ruby’s vet is readying the paperwork, air travel is being considered (Jeremy did have an idea that we’d take the Queen Mary so we wouldn’t be jet lagged, but we’d have to dress in a tux and gown for dinner and god knows that we aren’t good for that..). I am a little snappish when Jeremy asks me detailed travel questions. I think I’m still in la la land, thinking that I can procrastinate on planning and maybe it will never happen, or that it will happen so slowly that I won’t notice too much and then one day I’ll look up and there will be a mug of hot tea in my hand and snow falling outside and I’ll think, that’s funny, where did the pool and palm trees go? Ha ha ha!

Vince is alternating being excited to look at real estate online with Jeremy (another task that Jeremy is enjoying and I’m sort of avoiding – Hello, my name is Doris and I like to avoid things) and saying that he wants to stay in Singapore forever.

Tonight is the first class. No flirting allowed!

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Scientific name: Allamanda cathartica
Common name: Golden trumpet
Location: Singapore

I think I finally figured out why women carry purses. It’s actually quite practical … in a way. Like guys, girls have to carry stuff. Things like cash and ID and key and a phone. Of course, most women carry more stuff than guys. Things like possibly make-up or other things.

Now guys just carry stuff in their pockets and are done with it. The trouble is that if you’re a girl, and you want to wear those sexy, ass-hugging, $200 pair of designer jeans to show your booty off, well that’s all well and good for showing your smackable butt, but it ain’t no good for shoving your iPod in your pocket when your jeans are skin tight. It’s just not practical or comfortable to have things in your pockets. So then? Of course, women have to create another fashion item, the purse, to carry their junk in, so they can still show off their butts to the guys.

Ronnie just pointed out to me that purse is actually from the latin, puris savus, for “satchel for carrying bits of your dinner that you didn’t finish but want to take home”. It’s funny how the word has evolved…

It’s been a cabbage kind of day.

Do you see the Joy of Cooking in the background? It was the only cookbook that I brought to Singapore. I love this cookbook, so classically American, it just is a pain that a lot of the ingredients can’t be found at our local supermarket. I heard that they came out with a new edition that is more of a homage to the original, more folksy tone. The edition I have (early 90s) is the more worldly one – more ethnic recipes and culinary tips and I think they got rid of the game section. I wonder if they brought it back for the newer edition – you know recipes for rabbit and squirrel. (Have I ever eaten a rabbit? I can’t remember.)

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Look at this terrible join I did a bazillion rows ago. I just knit the two yarns together for 20 stitches and then dropped the yarn from the first cone. Somehow it’s gotten itself tangled in a lifeline and now it’s a bunched up mess. There is no way in hell I’m going to rip back a bazillion rows, so this is what it’s going to be.

But! I used the internet to figure out how to do it better! A Russian join.

Lookie here (I apologize for the photos, I was using natural light, but these are just ugly):

Two ends, in love:

They intertwine:

You thread the first end onto itself:

Go a few inches:

Do the other side:

Trim!

It looks like one!

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I have no idea what this is, but it’s so cool!
Location: Singapore

That’s right, I’m sticking my tongue out at you!

11. My favorite personal hygiene procedure is flossing.
12. I can tell I’m off kilter when I don’t bother to floss before bed.
13. I can take a 30 second shower to get ready in the morning (soap the dirtiest areas and wash hair and face.)
14. I have never: had a perm, tweezed my eyebrows, colored my hair or gotten a pedicure.
15. I don’t like getting haircuts.
16. I don’t shave because I have very little body hair.
17. I don’t use deodorant because I think I don’t smell.
18. I like keeping my nails trimmed and unpolished.
19. I love baths. A hot bath and a good paperback book is all I need to waste a few hours.
20. I wear a mouth guard at night because I grind my teeth terribly when I sleep.

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I’m almost out of yarn on this cone. I wonder how I’m going to attach it to the next cone? Hmmm..

I was again at the library looking at stitch patterns. Normally I’m not into bobbles, but look how cute!

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Scientific name: Tabernaemontana
Common name: Pinwheel Jasmine
Location: Singapore

I guess it’s always a busy weekend, but this weekend was fairly busy.

Friday night I skipped out on having dinner with Arif and the gang, cause I needed to cook for a potluck on Sunday night. (More on that later.) But I didn’t end up doing much cooking at all since my roommate had some folks over for a dinner party and I didn’t want to interrupt their fine dining.

Saturday, was ski day. My other roommate, Frank, had his first snowboard day! He just bought a snowboard in December, but never got a chance to use it, that is until Saturday. We went to a small place, Dodge Ridge near Yosemite. When I mean small, I’m talking small. JT and I, who are intermediate skiiers, basically skied the entire mountain in about an hour, 15. Of course, the conditions were crap. 12 inches of base snow. I think I gougedd my skis on some rocks. Sigh. Frank did really well tho. We hung out with him in the afternoon. He could turn heel side and toe side, but like any beginner tooks some tumbles. It was worse cause either he couldn’t slow himself down, or he just liked going fast, so all those tumbles were at a fairly good clip. He’s sore today. 🙂

Sunday was just some shopping in Gilroy. I got some bib tights (biking shorts that have suspenders and go down to your ankles) for 25% off. And then we found a coupon for the store and went back and got another 15% off. That paid for lunch. I’m finding that you can stillget pretty good deals not even working at the shop. 🙂

Sunday night was Yi-Ling’s monthly potluck. January’s theme was “starters”. Get it? 😛 Heh. I made some bacon wrapped scallops and a dessert of lemon squares. Dean made a yummy stuffed mushroom, with garlic and turkey stuffing. It was pretty yummy. Tho now I have to start training for this triathlon… Need…. to… lose… weight…