Tag Archives: food

04/3/12

{365.94} I Use the Word ‘Jolly’ in a Sentence

Random: my brain is currently one long stream of keysmashing and !!!!!!!!! because my sister was using my desktop computer and was coughing all over it. I don’t want to get sick!!!!! I’m heading back to work next week and I just don’t relish the thought of being ill the entire time T-T I would totally Lysol this whole room to death but I have none. Instead I’m washing my hands every 2 seconds and having mental freak-outs over the fact that I’m now starting to sniffle and feel congested… (or so I’m convinced…)

Ran errands and went to Seafood City with my parents and Nina this morning — surprise, Nina woke up before 2pm! — and we ate at Jollibee. Which is pretty much the McDonald’s of the Philippines, and just about the most well-known fast food restaurant there. In places with a fairly high Filipino population, there will be a Seafood City and a Jollibee somewhere nearby. This is guaranteed. The thing with Jollibee is that they serve American food as well as Filipino food, and it’s mainly because in the Philippines they really loooove the idea of eating a burger and fries. I’m not joking about this. When I went home during my sophomore year of high school and ate at a McDonald’s there with some of my friends from school, everyone was staring at me the whole time trying to copy how I was holding my burger. They all insisted I was eating the burger in the “American way” that they saw in the movies. LOL. Anyway, not only do they serve burgers and chicken and fries and whatnot, they also serve spaghetti. HECK YES. This is my favorite Jollibee meal and I’ve been loving it since I was like 3. Spaghetti in the Philippines is a lot sweeter than traditional Italian spaghetti. I mean, not sweet as in it tastes like dessert, but they use more sugar than salt. They also serve it with little sliced up hot dogs, which probably sounds gross to a lot of people, but is completely delicious. (Who watches The Big Bang Theory and knows that Sheldon eats his spaghetti with hot dogs???)

So yeah, I have Jolly Spaghetti at Jollibee every single time I go. LOL. I think it’s funny that everything at this restaurant is based on “happy” things. The chicken is even called Chickenjoy. Also, the mascot is a huge, smiling bee. Gotta love it. Hahahaha.

Tomorrow is my family’s last day, so I’m not sure what all they have planned. They probably want to get all their things ready and packed up again, and we’ll most likely go out for dinner someplace. I feel a bit sad, mostly because if my parents really do end up going home to the Philippines for good this summer, it’s not likely I’ll see them again very soon. It’s just much too expensive to go there, and just as expensive for them to come back here for a visit. Not to mention a 20 hour flight T-T They did mention coming back for my birthday though, since I’ll be all alone again this year, haha. And my sister’s graduation ceremony is on June 12, so I’m going to try and drive over to San Diego for that, even if I can only stay one day and have to come home for work. We aren’t the kind of family that does daily phone calls or anything like that, but I still struggle with the idea that my parents are getting older and I’m approaching that day and age when I’ll be the parent and they will have receded into the background of my life instead of being its driving force. I don’t know, it’s weird. Just part of growing up, though.

…Akahfkjshdfjkafd I seriously feel like I’ve caught whatever Nina has just by touching my mouse to shut the computer down a second ago…. MUST WASH HANDS MUST WASH HANDS

It took me a little while, and was slightly confusing, but I finally figured out how to transfer the e-book I borrowed from the library from my PC to my e-Reader. As it turns out, Adobe Digital Editions is the best way to manage all the stuff I have on my Nook — or at least, the PDFs of my would-be novel, which I like to upload to the e-Reader so I can page through it the same way I would page through an actual book. It may seem weird, but it’s actually a good way for me to walk in a reader’s shoes and stop being the person telling the story. This is helpful because I notice things that I might miss in Author Mode. Also it’s convenient not having to read it on a computer screen all the time. Speaking of my would-be novel, I am sooooo glad I switched from 1st person to 3rd. I personally feel like it’s an improvement. I’ve mentioned that before, but I’m mentioning it again because I truly believe it’s helped a lot. I feel less constricted in third person. I feel like my writing takes on more detail and depth than it does when I feel limited to one character’s vantage point.

(Blah blah blah boring writing stuff)

Okay, time to go wash my hands for the 853845th time and then start chugging orange juice like no tomorrow. I feel like my sister’s cold symptoms are waiting to pounce on me. *cries*

03/22/12

{365.82} I Succumb to the Perils of Dessert

Yeah, I know you’re jealous. Also, sorry Marjorie, I know you’re on that evil pre-wedding diet you insist on inflicting upon yourself. But… IT WAS TOO PRETTY NOT TO TAKE A PICTURE OF.

Also, it was delicious. And so, so bad for me. Whatever. Enjoy now, suffer later~ We ate dinner at Chili’s today because we’d been meaning to eat out before David departed for the wilds of New Mexico. Also, like three years ago we were given a Chili’s gift card as a birthday present or something and we never used it until today. Yes, I realize how absurd that is. We just kept forgetting we even had it. (We also have an Olive Garden gift card that we recently received as an anniversary gift and haven’t used yet either.) So, today we vowed that we were going to eradicate the $25 on that card, and we did. It was a very good dinner, AND I got to have this sinful Chocolate Chip Paradise Pie. Look, even its name is sinful. Chocolate chip cookie bar + chocolate syrup + coconut + vanilla ice cream = YAY.

Today was another of those days that felt like Saturday because David didn’t have work. He got his out-processing finished up yesterday and only had one more thing to do today, which we accomplished in less than 5 minutes before heading to lunch at the BX (yum, Anthony’s Pizza~~~ omg I am REALLY pandering to my junk food addiction today T-T). Oh, and he washed my car for me, because he’s awesome. The last time my car got washed was in November. LOL. I stopped by the library to return 2 books and pick up 2 requests that were waiting for me, and we timed how long it’ll take for me to get to work from our apartment (about 10-15 mins). The true miracle: the entire day, we didn’t indulge our Target habit EVEN ONCE. Of course, tomorrow we’ll probably end up there. It’s inevitable.

Also we’ve been nerding out and playing our latest game purchase, which is Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. Man, we swore we weren’t going to cave in and buy this… David for one thinks that the graphics are horrible, but since I’m not a stickler about graphic quality (I will play all my older, super pixelated games as contentedly as I will play a shiny, fancy new game), it doesn’t bother me as much. The camera swings around a bit too rapidly for someone who is as motion-sickness prone as I am, though. That and my PC controller somehow won’t work with it. This is likely because, despite updated drivers, I have an older model gamepad and it just won’t recognize the game at all. LOL, my stupid gamepad is so outdated that it doesn’t have the 4 buttons on the side labeled properly, it just has them labeled numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 instead of A, B, X, Y. Super fail.

Okay, I’m going to hang out in the spare bedroom with David and watch him play the game with his newer, actually functional controller. Until I get a gamepad that works, I have to play vicariously through him. Blah!

One more day before David leaves :( NO I WON’T THINK ABOUT IT ANYMORE ARGH

03/7/12

{365.67} I Declare a Peanut Butter Emergency

Ugh, I’m out of peanut butter. This is bad. My love for peanut butter is only rivaled by my love for popcorn. THIS IS A CODE RED, GUYS.

Every night, before I settle down to write my blog entry, or sometimes in between the blog entry and the writing of my would-be novel, I have two pieces of toast smothered in peanut butter. Some nights, I wander away from the toaster oven and get lost in whatever book I’m reading to pass the time while waiting for my food, which results in varying degrees of charred toast. Which I still slather with peanut butter and then consume, because life is short, and I’m hungry. I don’t know how I developed this ritual, but it’s like clockwork at this point. It means that, even though it’s a Thursday and NOT a grocery day, I’m going to need an Emergency Wal-Mart trip tomorrow. (UGH)

Before David goes to bed most nights, we watch a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory, which airs before Conan on TBS. We never used to like this show, but it grew on us. I mostly watch it because Sheldon Cooper puts joy in my life. So, this is mostly for those of you who watch the show (because otherwise you will have no earthly idea what I’m talking about). There are some things I go totally Sheldon over, in the same way that the actual Sheldon goes bananas if you sit in his spot on the couch, or launches into total freak-out mode if interrupted during a conversation. (There are other Sheldon quirks I could discuss, but he’s best discovered on your own, so you can appreciate him fully.) You could also simply refer to them as things I happen to be dementedly particular about. The list includes not having peanut butter for my toast, as crotchety and irrational as that sounds. Also on the list of Things That Make Me Go All Sheldon On Everyone:

  • When people type “sneak peak” instead of “sneak peek” (What are they talking about, a mountain with ninja qualities? Omg it just makes me go insane akjdhsfkjahsdfjkasd)
  • When my burger isn’t plain at whatever fast food place we’re eating. I ordered it plain. Why is there all this crap on it?? I have been known to go back and ask for my order to be corrected, which is a very Sheldon-esque thing to, but whatever. Why should I have to suffer through a meal that I paid for but was made wrong?
  • Completely extraneous details being added to film adaptations of books. I’m serious, I thought my eyes would go zinging out of their sockets while watching The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian some years ago. But then, I’m very, very touchy about books being adapted for film because 9 times out of 10, I will believe the book was better. And shouldn’t have been touched. It should’ve been left alone, in its pristine majesty, forever. And ever. *crazy eyes*

So yeah, the point of that whole thing up there is that tomorrow I have to buy more peanut butter because I’m all out. See how I can turn the most random things into talking points for my blog? It’s one of those completely useless talents that I’ve acquired over the years.

There is some incoherent babble about my writing, cleverly concealed after the jump!

Continue reading →

03/4/12

{365.64} I Tempt You With Donuts

Yay, Dunkin Donuts! We didn’t get over there until around 6:30pm, so they didn’t have much of a selection left, but it was still good. We got the last chocolate, two vanillas, and three with rainbow sprinkles. I had one earlier for dessert and it was delicious~ I haven’t had Dunkin Donuts since I lived in Hawaii. Don’t you wish you could have one??

Went to the library to pick up my book requests that had come in, but had to stop and marvel at the automated book return system they have… amazing! (“SO THIS IS WHAT LIBRARIES ARE LIKE NOWADAYS!!!”) Your book is scanned as it goes into the slot, and their system updates itself. Very cool. Also very cool: the library is open every day of the week. Our public library in Wichita Falls was never open past 7pm on weekdays, closed at 2pm on Saturday, and wasn’t open at all on Sunday. Of course, it was the kind of town where lots of places aren’t open on Sunday and where most everything closes by 9:00pm. Still, I never understood why the library wouldn’t be open on Saturdays, it just seems to me like ordinary people who have full time jobs that are M-F and 8-5 would be hard pressed to make it there before it closed on a weekday. And as a student, I know I often ended up doing research for things on weekends when I wasn’t spending all day at school. So being open for only a short time on a Saturday was odd to me, even if I could understand the Sunday closure. Today, our library here was actually really busy, lots of people either using the computer lab, checking out books, or sitting in the chairs doing work on laptops and in textbooks. Just further proof that libraries should be open on the weekends! (I’m pretty much in love with the Las Vegas library system. Can you tell?)

David got tomorrow off in exchange for those 2-9 shifts he worked last week, so he’s planning on getting his car’s windows tinted. That, and our DVR mysteriously broke and won’t record things anymore, thereby defeating its own purpose, so he called today and was told he’d better bring it in to trade for a new one. Meanwhile, I plan to clean the apartment and give it a good scrubbing. It’s a mess, like it always is after the lackadaisical attitude that takes over on weekends… Mondays are pretty much just filled with an endless stream of chores for me.

Wrapping up our weekend, we saw the movie Dream House starring Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz. Neither of us had very high hopes for it, because we’d seen the trailers when it hit theaters some time ago and it seemed like they divulged every plot twist just in the previews. But, it turned out to be a surprise, since there was more to the plot twists than we initially predicted. So, not a bad movie. I’m glad we have it a chance, despite our misgivings. Actually, when it first came out, I was visiting David over the weekend in San Antonio and we drove to the movies to see it, only to discover that the line to buy tickets was ridiculous. We debated for a while, then decided to just skip seeing it and wait for the DVD. (We do this a lot. Going to see a movie just costs so much money T-T)

I have soooo many books to read! Just picked up our book club selection for March, which is Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. Excited! I’ve been wanting to read this one. I love the creepy vintage photos included with the story. Wish I could’ve gotten the actual book, but the e-book was cheaper, so I went with that instead.

However, right now I need to do some writing so that my day won’t have been an endless exercise in being unproductive. Good night!

02/10/12

{365.41} I Believe in the Magic of Pancakes

Oops, guess who got distracted playing FFXIV and forgot to blog on time? Guilty as charged T-T In my defense, I was caught up with learning how to use all the controls and all the other things you adjust to when you start playing a new game. David’s been playing on his own, but convinced me that I needed to try it again. When the game first released, it was really boring and also a hot mess, so I made a character and then promptly moved on to something else. This time I’m going to try and stick it out. They aren’t charging any subscription fees right now since apparently there will be a massive overhaul of the game being released in October. We paid $10 (we had a $10 off coupon from Amazon, hurray) for the game download so I could have a serial number, and I gave it another go. So far, I’m having more fun than the first time.

First (second?) impressions so far: Lots of very pretty scenery, I definitely like that you can level any/all of the classes on the same character and sort of mix and match your abilities, and I like that you can do most of your traveling through teleports. This is because I am extremely lazy in both the real world and the virtual world, and I remain unrepentant about it. (Why run when you can mystically appear there between one loading screen and the next? Exactly. I contend that this isn’t really laziness, it’s being intelligent and evolved.) I’m looking forward to the updates and huge, drastic changes that are in store. I especially loathe their convoluted auction house system. Horrible! Just use a regular AH like everyone else T-T No one will blame you for it, I swear. One can’t be unique about everything just for the sake of being unique.

Anyway, before we decided to just get the game online, we were going to try and find a collector’s edition of it somewhere, so we tried a few different GameStops but of course they weren’t carrying it. We checked online to see which locations even had them, but the list was highly inaccurate, to say the least. LOL. After this fruitless search, we went to go use the IHOP gift card that my mom sent us for our anniversary. Yes, it was delicious. Pancakes are a magical food that can be consumed at any time of the day.

I can’t believe it’s already the 11th of February tomorrow. David leaves next month for New Mexico and won’t be back until summer. I’m really not looking forward to it. I feel like he just barely got home. Ugh. At least he isn’t heading overseas or anything, not that I will be able to visit him very much since it’s too far to drive. I plan to stay as busy as possible so I won’t have time to mope about him being gone. Perhaps by then I will be gainfully employed… lol.

Blah, sorry for this boring entry today, it was one of those I-forgot-all-about-blogging days when I had nothing planned for a blog post.

01/25/12

{Project 365.25} I Cook Things & Feel Accomplished

I went to the grocery store today :( It’s truly unbelievable how many people are running around town at 10am on a Wednesday. Still, I got the shopping done and then I hauled all of it upstairs to our second floor apartment. Then, I made David some fruit and yogurt parfaits for his breakfast. He gets up horribly early every day for work, and he doesn’t have much for breakfast unless it’s something he can eat in a hurry or bring with him, so I thought I’d get some of these little reusable plastic containers and make parfaits with blueberries and strawberries. I think they look adorable~~~~ Except there wasn’t any normal granola at the store, so I had to substitute some of David’s Kashi cereal for topping. In any case, this way I can just wash out the containers and make more parfaits.

Also — glory upon glories — I totally cooked a new recipe for dinner. This is part of Phase I of my plan to cook dinner at least three times a week. I made crispy oven-baked chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy. Technically, David was in charge of the mashed potatoes and gravy because these tasks were delegated to him, but still. Hahahaha. It turned out pretty good, so I am labeling the endeavor a success. The mashed potatoes were particularly amazing. Tomorrow it’s slow cooker pot roast.

To end my entry for today, I would like to share that my mother called me bright and early this morning presumably to make small talk but actually to ask me if I could possibly set her up with Facebook Timeline because she was tired of the old Facebook format. Oh, and my sister wouldn’t do it for her because she didn’t know how/hates Facebook. I really had to laugh. I think Facebook totally changed my mom’s life. She was able to still be on her high school reunion committee even though it was happening in the Philippines (she attended last summer and the tide of pictures is STILL coming), and also she routinely suggests that I friend massive lists of relatives I didn’t even know I had. (“WHERE DO THEY KEEP COMING FROM???”) Every day, there is a post from my mom of some kind of inspirational quote, as well as an aggressive campaign to tag me in all pictures she feels I need to see at all costs. No, it doesn’t matter if I’m not actually IN the pictures, so if you see me tagged in something featuring random people who don’t resemble me at all, don’t pause to wonder. Just nod, smile, and bow before my mom’s all-out Facebook Domination. This is what I do. By the way, you better believe she goes by a ninja alias on Facebook. SHE will find YOU, not the other way around. *Control Freak Dance* Hahahahaha. Still, since my family and I are not big on calling one another all the time, FB is how I stay connected with them through my mom’s news feed vigilance. It’s a good thing, as well as completely hysterical.

01/13/12

{Project 365.13} I Wax Poetic About Ice Cream

I’m considered very weird by others in my family, but the truth is that there isn’t very much Filipino food that I actually like. I’m a finicky eater, so the often adventurous (read: often bizarre) foods that my parents loved to cook and consume always made me want to run to McDonald’s and have a good, old-fashioned, perfectly safe cheeseburger (plain, of course). As a child, I went with my mom to the Asian market and she bought a paper bag full of carefully hand-picked dungeness crabs that she picked up with a pair of slimy tongs. Fascinated and disgusted at the same time, I remember staring at them as they flailed in the air before being dropped, unceremoniously, into the big soup pot full of water on top of our stove. Now, don’t cling to any illusions that I, even as a small child, thought the crabs were being kept in water so they could swim around and be happy in our home. Nope, I knew that their fate involved being boiled alive and then torn apart, even their brains being eaten. SUPER GROSS, I KNOW. (Amy Tan actually wrote a scene like this in one of her books, which really made me feel one with the world because I realized I wasn’t the only Asian child to have gone through this kind of trauma.) Crab night was one such night that I would make myself some Instant Ramen instead. My culture and I aren’t usually in sync, although as I grow older, I realize more and more “Filipino things” about my own personality. One of these is my complete and absolute devotion to Magnolia Mango Ice Cream.

Magnolia is a brand from the Philippines. They had a factory in the town we lived in there, and you could eat ice cream in their little restaurant on the ground floor. Mango is my favorite ice cream flavor, and I’ve never been able to find an American equivalent for this except once, with a brand I don’t remember anymore that I think was sold at Publix. Or Winn-Dixie. Obviously, because I just spent the last couple of years on the Prairie, this particular ice cream became a rare luxury that I only got to have when I went to visit my parents in San Diego. My dad, knowing how much I love it, always bought me at least a pint and left it in the freezer for me to find when I’d unpacked my bags. It’s absolutely delicious. It tastes like childhood and simpler things, whether I scoop it out myself into a mug or my dad brings it to me from the kiosk at Seafood City in a styrofoam cup with a plastic spoon tucked in. It reminds me of the ringing bells and drawn out syllables of the ice cream vendor who used to pedal around our neighborhood in Davao, selling it by the scoop right around the time for merienda (an afternoon snack, usually around 3pm, that is a common practice in Filipino households like ours). It’s just one of those things that makes all my troubles drift away for a while.

Which would be why I dragged David to the commissary today, on the premise that we needed spaghetti ingredients for tomorrow’s dinner. He tried to start walking off to the self check-out after we’d filled our basket, but I was NOT leaving that store without my freaking ice cream. I’ve looked around, but I’ve only been able to find it at the commissary so far. Yes, I will totally drive 25 minutes to Nellis so that I can have this ice cream in my freezer. When I get there, I have to seriously resist the urge to hoard multiple tubs of it with which to stockpile my ice cream supply. Addicted much???? But I don’t buy more than one tub, because you know what? I think it’s better to eat it little by little, making it last longer, because the feeling that it’s something rare makes it taste better. And every time I have some, it’s like being five again, in all the best ways.

01/3/12

{Project 365.3} I Bake On Occasion

Last night after writing my blog entry, I e-mailed myself a list of things I felt needed to be done today. Classy, I know. Anyway, this extremely riveting list included activities such as remembering to change over some magazine subscriptions, dropping off the mail, folding neglected laundry, (finally) taking down our Christmas tree, and baking muffins. I am proud to say that I accomplished… three things on the list. LOL. I mean, it’s not that I was unproductive, it’s just that the things I worked on weren’t listed. Not an excuse, I swear! Our book club started its first reading selection this month so I spent practically my whole day working on the website and forums for our discussions since I’d committed myself to getting it done by Friday. I took a break to bake the muffins — evidence above! My husband loves blueberry muffins. I don’t make them from scratch because I’m neither a gifted baker nor insane, but I do switch out half a cup of water for half a cup of milk. They always turn out freaking amazing. Who cares if they come from a mix? (I can already hear myself saying this same phrase to my children in the future…)

Honestly though, I like baking a lot more than cooking. But if we really want to get technical, the weird thing about me is that I enjoy making food for people more than I like eating whatever I’ve made. It’s more fun to work on the presentation and watch intently to see if the food is being enjoyed. I’m also a picky eater, so the assortment of food that I eat isn’t varied in the slightest. I don’t mind putting together meals involving things I don’t like eating, though, as long as no one makes me eat it. I love cookbooks, The Food Network, and Cooking Mama because I like to watch food being cooked and I like, I suppose, the idea of food. Which is super bizarre, but whatever. LOL. Anyway, I definitely like baking and one day I hope I can find someone to rope into a Wilton cake decorating course with me. Or maybe I’ll go on my own. After some thought, I’ve decided that cake decorating, drawing on cookies, icing cupcakes, and arranging food on plates appeals to my artistic sense. Eating the food does not. Hahaha.

It’s already Tuesday and tomorrow is Wednesday! Since I’m not working, the weeks sort of just slip away. I have no obligations so sometimes I even lose track of what day it is. This is weird for me because I’m not usually like that at all. I guess when you work Monday through Friday, you always keep a finger on how close you are to Friday. I am, however, sort of dreading next Monday because I have a doctor’s appointment scheduled. Ugh! I hate going to the doctor. I hate making the appointment, I hate showing up for the appointment, I hate everything that happens DURING the appointment, and I hate waiting in line at the pharmacy after, if my visit results in some kind of prescription. I hate hospitals and clinics as much as I hate airports, for the shared reason that I hate possibly not knowing what I’m doing or where I’m going. I’m always afraid I won’t do something that I’m supposed to, or that I’ll check in wrong, or whatever. But anyway, I do have the rest of this week before I need to start bracing myself. Blah.

On a final note, I read this article about the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge, known more popularly as Prince William and Kate formerly-Middleton, AND IT CONTAINS MY NEW FAVORITE PICTURE EVER. I love Will+Kate. Especially Kate, who has amazing hair and amazing clothes and is something like an actual Disney princess. I have a fascination with the British monarchy and these two are my favorite royals, I don’t care what anyone might think of me for it~~