Goodbye long weekend

I scream, you scream, who all screams for ice cream? Paul.
A good weekend isn't complete without ice cream... in the rain. Here I am taking a bite of the chocolate ice cream on a chocolate covered waffle cone. This weekend was esp windy. I wish I would have taken a picture to demonstrate the strength of the wind this weekend brought.


Chef Wang. I love fried food and I never had puffy fried shrimp like this. Always my favorite and lately I think the chef have been improving. I especially love how it has a light sweet sauce. I don't like sauces drenched in something just fried. Like- why put a tempura in a soup. Let the crispy tempura be in its natural delicious state on the side.

Go Bears! And A's.... and Giants. I am excited to go watch more ball games when the weather gets better.

Dessert to close out the weekend. The con pana was strong and good. The tiramisu isn't the best. I think the cheese part was fresh and the top part was a little hard. I should have opted for the canoli.

Dim Sum: from left to right: Siu mah, Sieun jook geen, & black bean spare ribs.

I think I have come to term with the chubbiness of my face. It will have some meat on it and it will be full.

This long memorial day weekend made me realize how much more breaks I need to give myself. I came back to work today feeling refresh and very strong. (Despite an annoying email) Breaks are very much needed if you want to keep your sanity, beauty, youth, health, and stability. It gives your brain a chance to breath. Working out is great to keep in shape but breaks are the BEST for your brain's health. In the long run, I would want a sharp mind more than anything else.

Hello gross eyeballs

My lunch yesterday. I can't get enough of this burger. It is that good. The beer compliments the burger so well! I couldn't get the full label of the beer but on the side it reads that this is a green apple brew. It really does taste like green apple. Although it says it a "hard brew" it is not that strong. I really like the flavor of this and would recommend this to everyone.
Actually, I think the proper term would be cider... not beer.



I woke up this morning to the sight of this face. It was actually more grosser in the early morning than now. Thank goodness it is healing... somewhat. Often I hear it is not good to rub your eyes and now I know why. Rubbing it is not totally bad for the eye, it is the risk of bacteria that might get into your eye. When you rub your fingers on your eye, you are basically cleaning your hand on your eyeballs and if there are bacteria in your hand, it will transfer over to the eye very easily. I know this because I went to see the doctor today for it. Because the eyeball is moist and warm, it is the perfect housing for bacteria to thrive and grow. Hence, don't rub your eye!!

When you eyes gets swollen and infected like this, get some warm tea bags and put them over your eyes to reduce swelling. From time to time, take a q tip and wash the rim of your eye.

I feel like quasi modo. I am grateful that I am working from home today.

Not Goodbye but, "Till we meet again"

25 years is a perfect number. Oprah's last show was today and I wanted to make sure that I can get off work early so that I can savor every last drop of her words before it is all gone.

Her last show is titled: "Love letter". It is a show where she reflected on lessons learned and her hope for all of her viewers.

The biggest message I took away is to let yourself be your true self. She said that when she felt embarrass, she knew that it was her ego talking. That really struck me hard. I can think back on countless times when I thought to myself, 'how embarrassing'. I never realize that was my ego side and understanding that enables me to be more confidant.

"There is a difference between thinking you deserve to be happy and knowing you are worthy of happiness." -Oprah

Oprah's Love Letter

I encourage you to read her speech.

Hello retirement

During another wonderful yoga class, a big mouse came. When our class ended, I heard one of the male students say: 'Oh. There is a mouse' Girls immediately started to scream. I thought the scream would have probably scared the mouse away but it didn't. I walked over to his shoe and sure enough, a big mouse was crouched over quivering.

It turns out that the mouse was eating some poison and that the poison was beginning to take effect. I couldn't believe at the size of the mouse. It was so big!!!

This morning, I went to a seminar held by AT&T to learn how to maximize your health savings plan. It was presented by Fidelity so I felt it was mostly a message about how we should put up more money into our 401K. However, I did get the chance to learn some things. Mostly, I learned that the government wants your money no matter what type of account you put it in. Your account may be tax free, but when it comes to taking out the money from your retirement account, it will be taxed. Moreover, there are a lot of guidelines that you need to understand if you do want to take money out from that account.

You know you are old when you have to start thinking about your retirement fund.

Goodbye Whole Foods

Items from Whole Foods: Cod Liver Oil/ Wheat Grass (supposedly raw)/ exfoliating bath towel

Total cost: $108

Holy moly! I seriously need to check the price before I put items in my basket. Like my mama said: 'You aint Bill Gate's daughter'. When the cashier rang up my total, I literally had to scan the prices item by item on their screen.

Note to self: Check the price. Also- stop going to Whole Foods.

I bought another Cod liver oil because I gave the original one I had to my Grandma. I have heard so much good things about it that I needed to share it with people I love. Going back to purchase another one for myself, I couldn't help but get sucked into all the other types of vitamins out there. It's so overwhelming and for a nutrition freak that I am starting to become, I can't help but gawk and contemplate if I should buy all of it.

I really do not want to become those vitamin geeks who takes about 16 different kinds of pills everyday.

No more Whole Foods for me. Trader Joe is more my price range and style.

Single

I am single.
This is one of those days where I don't want to deal with anyone. The less interactions the better.

I will be ok.

Hello mentor

For some reason, I agree to be a mentor for the day for high school students. That was about 5 months ago. When the actual day came along- I kept thinking to myself, why the heck did I sign up for this?

So I did it. My group of girls was mostly interested in technology they can see, like our video conferencing room and telepresence room. I can see them yawning (and I called her out on it) when I started talking about my job. Here are some comments that stood out to me the most from today:

"How come your bathroom are not more technically advanced?"
"Where are all the technology at?"
"How do people work in cube?"

My most favorite comment of the day came from another mentor person who works at AT&T:

:: addressing to Anna:: " Where is your mentor? You guys can't just walk around the building without your mentor? Who was suppose to lead your group?"
::Anna addressing the guy:: "I am the mentor."
::guy:: "What! Really? Let me see your badge.... Oh... You really work here??"

It was a good experience and I hope I was able to shed some light to these students.

Hello crazy weekend

Anna's thought bubble: Why the hell is my face so large and fat ?!?!
Before our big buffet dinner- we took a walk along the shore. It was very windy and our hairs got really messy.

I like this shot a lot. Too bad it was so windy. I don't think my grandma could handle windy weather too well- it exasperated her arthritis. However, my dad liked the fresh air.

And the star is: Abigail the baby. The grandmother originally handed me the baby but I think she handed the baby to me in an awkward way because I couldn't get a good grasp on the baby. Luckily my mom swooped in and took the baby from my hand. I was glad no one caught me struggling to hold the baby.

Kome was crazy. My dad and grandma pooped about 3 times this morning. The food there was good but it was just so much. It was crowded and chaotic. I couldn't eat in peace.

Love

Danny & Annie

When I use to have a long commute to Milpitas, I always tune in to PBS radio to help ease the pain of the long commute. It helped. StoryCorp is a feature on this radio station that I love. I cannot describe how much I adore this segment. If you never paid attention to what I say, then let me remind you what StoryCorp is: It is an oral history project. It is a segment where a team would travel to different cities in the US and different people would come and sit in a small booth and record a conversation. It is done privately in a booth and the topic is of your choice.

It is easy to be fooled by the material things people hide behind in. From reality shows to movies to sitcoms- we judge from what we see. I know I do- as much as I try not to. But I feel it is very hard to fake your voice. In StoryCorp, real people are talking with such a genuine honesty about real things. As mundane the story can be, it reminds me of how messy and strangely beautiful life can be. To me, StoryCorp helps me to see and appreciate the seemingly confused society we are in and to have compassion for people. According to the founder of StoyrCorp, this segment is about: "authenticity" and "honoring everyday people".

I am sure it doesn't make sense. I hope you can appreciate the link above. I was browsing through the TV (bc I promised a certain someone that I will not watch online reality shows for a month) and found that StoryCorp also does a cartoon remake. This particular story melted my heart and helped me understand a bit more of what love is.

A little background on this cartoon: It is a conversation an old man is having with his wife. The man has terminal cancer and knows his day is limited and the only thing that he wants his wife to understand is how much she means to him. His love for her is so profoundly simple. I can only hope that I will one day be able to understand love like he does. I will admit how much I struggle to comprehend love and I am always amaze to see how love transcends in such simple manners.

I cried when he made this statement:
"The only thing I have to give you is a poor gift and it is myself...and I always gave it."

I hope you enjoy the video as much as I do.

Hello Whole Foods!

Total cost: $45 ! Yikes! I better stick to Trader Joes. The Cod Liver oil cost $23.

It's Friday and I got off work early to take a stroll at Whole Foods. Supermarkets are great places to get educated. Whole Foods is a mecca of gourmet products. Have you every wonder why supermarkets make you walk through the fresh fruit/ veggie aisle and put the poultry all the way in the back? I wonder why that is...

Once I walked in to abundance of veggies, I immediately thought, 'Dam. I should have brought my camera'. It was beautiful. So many types of fruits and veggies you wouldn't normally find in Safeway. I am talking about fresh coconut meats, organic sprouts, beets, baby carrots with the leaves still intact (makes for great decoration), and others.

Don't get me started on the vitamin aisle. I mean Walgreens, Safeway, & CVS's vitamin aisle is just embarrassing compared to the abundance of assortments of vitamins available here. I was so mesmerize. I couldn't believe all the things available. I love all the options for smoothie supplement powder and quality vitamins. It's great.

Whole Foods is famous for their take out food section. At first glance, you get sucked in and think wow. Really- it's not all that good. They are not special nor are they really delicious. There was a deal today for a whole cooked chicken for $5 and you get a free sides. Does the chicken look good in this picture? Let me tell you: ITS NOT!!!! It was dried and so unflavorful. I felt like I was eating strings.... yes, strings you would tie things with. I couldn't finish the chicken. The dark and white meats are all gross. The macaroni salad also lacked excitement.

The dark chocolate was good. This came with a poem too. However, I didn't understand the poem... it was something about a women's spirit. I needed dark chocolate moment today. It was a tough week.

Hello frozen food

My lunch today: deep dish personal pizza with pepperoni from Costco

I would prefer a little more pepperoni. Today I had bread cravings and hence, pizza! I really like this pizza because the bread is soft and the crust on the bottom was cooked to crisp perfection. I had this with a small glass of champagne. Cheesy bread like this goes well with some tangy alcohol in my opinion.

I can't wait for my bikaram yoga class coming up. I enjoy sweating away all the toxins away!

Make it a great day!

Hello good morning

I like eggs. When I have time in the morning, I like to take time to make a yummy breakfast for myself. I truly believe in starting your morning off right: slowly, clear and level headed mind and with a nutritious breakfast.

Matcha green tea/ 2 over easy eggs/ butter toast/ strawberry, kiwi, apple smoothie

Needless to say, I had a good morning. It would be nice if I had coffee with this, but green tea suffice.

My temporary new work spot. I love love the sounds of birds chirping and the sight of nature. This is just some of the things that makes working at home so enjoyable. It's great. :)

For dinner, I had yet another egg. I guess I had a big egg craving today.

Broccoli/ eggs/ over rice mixed with baby clams.


I think I am quite good in incorporating many healthy food in my diet. It truly is a lifestyle you have to create for yourself if you really want to eat healthy. You have to enjoy it. Luckily for me, I do.

What is your favorite breakfast?

Goodbye fun weekend

- @ YakiniQ for Korean BBQ. I am anxiously waiting for the food to be cooked.

-It would look much more appealing after the meat have been cooked. Notice the big portions...

- We discovered green tea crepes. Green tea and strawberries doesn't mesh well together. I love green tea.

- a nice picture except for the fact that I am slouching! I like the red accent and how it is captured on my cheeks and lips. It makes me face pop. Look how red the cheeks are on the guy behind me. I wonder if the photographer purposely did that or whether he was just focusing on his berry drinks on the table...

Hello Oregon!

- Off to Oregon- for my sister. This weekend, I drove my sister back to the camp base and here I am demonstrating a life of a fellow Americorp. Only a small red bag (that is not ergonomically fitted) is what you can bring with you. See my grandma in the corner. :)
-Before my sister leaves for Oregon, we have to ofcourse fatten her up. My grandma makes the best food. Hands down. She will forever be my favorite chef. She made: pork patties, fish cake, baked chicken, steamed fish, special Chinese greens with mushrooms and eggplants. Didn't I tell you how hard it is to diet when you go eat at my grandma's?

-Note to self: don't tilt my head when taking pictures, or in general, as my fat tends to conglomerate in a massive heap. Ew.

- My grandma loves to tend to our garden. Here she is putting boxes over the plants in preparation for the windy weather. Do you see my mom in this picture?? I didn't even realize she was there until I looked at the picture on my computer screen. Bonus point if you can spot my mom.

- Chocolates for desserts today. Spreading them out on the table makes me smile. It's so pretty.

Hello food network

- ew... notice the red spot near my nose? ew. Rice Krispy for dessert.

-Watching Food Network while eating my delicious lunch.

It was a southern theme so I got to watch Paula Dean make comfort food from the comfort of AT&T's couch. Did you know you can actually fry an egg? Like literally crack an egg over a pot of hot oil and deep fry it? Wow... I think I found my new favorite way of eating eggs.

If a waitress ask me how I would like my egg, I would be like: "Deep fried please". Usually I like it poached or over easy. But that's too boring now.

Happy Mothers Day

-Happy Mothers Day to a strong and inspiring woman-

-I went to Trader Joe and these are what caught my eye. The beets are not as good as the beets I had at House of Prime Ribs. I never knew how good beets could be until I went to HOPR and had their beet salad! Unfortunately, this beet salad didn't taste as good. -

-My mom's favorite dish -

-Trader Joe's chocolate souffle. The BEST. The chocolate cream inside was rich and not as sweet as I thought.-

Hello journey of my relationship

- oh so good. The batter is so light and fluffy and the meat inside is sweet. I would definitely order again. -

- my favorite salad of all time... tuna salad from angel fish. If you go, I think it is most fun to sit at the sushi bar. the staff is not the most delightful. -

-I don't eat ice cream, but my bf change my mind very often. Cheese cake oreo ice cream. Delicious. -

Hello Friday

I took a half day off to come out for my grandma's appt. After the morning appt, we went straight to Farmers Market. Cauliflower and kiwi seems to be in season now. We only got kiwi ($1.50/ bag).

I saw some interesting things at Farmers Market. When I use to work in Milpitas, there were rows and rows of strawberry plants. I don't understand the logic behind buying just one plant when it could only yield maybe a handful a year?

Pork belly- Chinese style. Chinese invented roasted pork belly. We taught other cultures how to best get the flavor and texture of it by a special roasting process. After farmers market, we got some pork belly and it was so so good. The butcher actually just finished roasting it and we got the good part. I tried pork belly in fine dining restaurants (once in Ritz and once in Cliff House). If you get it in an American establishment, you pay $30 for just 3 pieces of pork and maybe some mash-potato on the side. The platter of pork in the picture costed only $15. If I compare the pork belly with the American attempts, I would say the American way is very saucy. But the Chinese way is more authentic and better in taste in my opinion.

In fact- Anthony Bourdain LOVES Chinese style pork belly roasting. He even traveled to China and did a whole episode on this art form.

After coming home, I got hungry again. I opted for a smoothie, matcha green tea (see the foams), and some mixed cereal and chocolate for snacks.

Today's episode of Oprah is lame. Julia Robert and Tom Hanks in on promoting a movie and I get disgusted when Oprah put certain actors on such a high pedestal. I know when to be in awe and when to just be amused.

Goodbye worldly image

-boil first then pan fried lightly -

-ta da! chicken potstickers w/ home-made taro-peanut filling bread-

Slowly but surely- my back is recovering. I never realize how much I move around when I am sleeping. I guess each time I tried to roll over in my sleep, I could feel the muscles in my back hurting and I would wake up. I think I woke up about 5 times last night.

Today I decided to make some dumplings for lunch. I enjoy making my own lunches. There is a quiet beauty to being home alone and working- away from the corporate life.

For some reason- I keep thinking today is Friday. Not like I have a lot of exciting plans for the weekend.

I was thinking this morning about my back pain and I think this is a sign from God telling me to chill out with my workout. I turned away from him in sight of worldly images. I got the message loud and clear.

Hello ouch 2

-Update-

I tried my best to hide my injury from my mom but wasn't successful. After a scolding and more scolding and her theories on why I am injured- she proceeded to take out the Chinese herbal rubbing alcohol and 'bit me'. She deep elbowed me, fist punched, slapped, and tickled me. I wanted to cry.

Here is a picture of me in the aftermath. I smell so good now.

Hello ouch!

84 degree weather today. I couldn't last in the heat for more than 10 minutes. I tried to walk around my block to get some exercise and the heat of the sun is too much for me. I wonder how I am going to last Miami in the 95 degree weather...

I spent most of the day inside. Not because I wanted to, but because I strained my neck. I was eating breakfast and turned my head to look at the clock in the kitchen and BAM! a sharp pain shot up to my head. It hurt so much that my gums in my mouth started to ache too. I seriously think I blacked out too because I remember sitting in my chair and I couldn't see anything but blackness. I knew my eye lids were open but I couldn't see anything! It was truly frightening. After a couple of seconds, I regained my vision and equilibrium. My whole right back and neck is so sore. I took some tylenol- but that didn't help.

I think this is a result of just too much tension that I hold. Of what? I am not sure. I remember my yoga teacher told me that she said my back is very tense and that I needed to relax and not stress to much. After she mentioned that- I tried to put more awareness in my back and realized that she was right. My back is tense. Not only that, my face is tense also. A good thing that I recently learned in yoga is bringing awareness to your different body parts so that you can relax them and bring more circulation to that area.

I encourage you to close you eyes and try to bring awareness to your body parts and try to find where you might be too tight. It's a great way to help alliviate pain and knots that you might have.

Since I couldn't take my bikaram yoga class today and can't really do much, I stayed inside and decided to make another glass of smoothie. This time, I added the 'Very Green' powder in my drink. It supposedly has a lot of nutrition found in green veggies. It made the smoothie taste raw. The hemp was worst. It made my smoothie taste more raw and had a vanilla taste that I wasn't found of.

Hello smoothie

-Smoothie 101-

My mom wanted to teach me (me, who have been making smoothie for a year now) how to make proper smoothie. According to her, a good smoothie needs fresh fruits, sweet fragrance and the right consistency. I like my smoothie watery; that way I can gulp it down easily.

My mom likes it thick and she likes the apples unpeel. I don't like the skins of the apples in my smoothie.

In this smoothie concoction, she has: bananas, apples, & strawberry with milk. It was good but I would prefer it more watery.

It's so funny seeing my mom getting more invovled in my diet regiment. It makes it more fun for me and I get to learn new things from her. (Or is she learning from me....????)

Hello 'chae-dah-joe'

-Early Mothers day lunch: Grilled pork over rice. She really liked the charred taste of the pork and found the small grain rice to be: "great in texture and have a sweet fragrance"-

-My dad's favorite way to take a picture; slanted. Why? 'Because it's more artistic'. I had pho sprinkled with lots of green chili-

My dad and grandma are in love with Trader Joes. I took them there yesterday to show them around and because I wanted to check out a smoothie powder that supposedly had a lot of omega 3s.

Here are the reason why they liked 'chae-dah-joe':

1) Free samples

2) Quality free samples from things like soy milk to sugar cane sprinkles

3) lots of organic food (she was surprised to see Almond butter)

4) a lot of ethnic food they have never seen before

5) the abundance of nuts that are available (sun flower seeeds, pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, pistachios, almonds and many more in roasted or non roasted or salted versi0n)

6) Free samples (this is very impt to them)

I feel so good and proud to be able to introduce them to TJ for the first time.

Hello a good Sat minus the mall and minus the cheesy movie

-For dinner, we went to the most charming and full of character type restaurant, in my humble opinion. The restaurant looked like it was once a diner (from the bar stools seating on the side). It had tacky Asian like decorations, very low (and seemingly red) lighting, a lot of locals, old school furniture, and best of all: an old guy playing on a piano in the corner! A lot of yelpers gave this place 3 stars because of the heavy sauces on the sushi (an element I also do not like in sushi) but I think that they just don't know how to order. All in all- the sushi is excellent and I would like to make this my local spot. I am so tired of going to over-rated sushi places where young people go to be seen and the decor is over enthusiastic. I for one, appreciate a good quality restaurant that have excellent service, good food, and charming atmosphere. We ordered a lot. I appreciate how this place doesn't over-indulge in the rice for their rolls.-

-The mall: a favorite spot for my bf. On a crowded occasion like this, this mall will feature shows such as: a group of elders dancing. I never seen a mall that have so many types of performances than this one in Daly City. I think the line of performances is really telling of the type of city this is: a lot of local Daly City people like to hang out in the mall. Including my bf. hm. -

-Boston Chicken. My bf loves this plcae. To me, it's just a chicken that is too buttery with sides that lacks flavor and freshness. I like it, but I wouldn't come here on my own. I only come when he has cravings for it. Really, it's not that bad. If you go, I would recommend getting the dark meats with green beans and other veggie options. -