Meme - Just for Fun

Got tagged by e~ via e-mail. Thought I'd post it to my blog because I can't bring myself to work anymore :)

Four Jobs I have had in my life:-
- Clerk at a gov agency
- Waitress at B Bombers in Holland V (HAHA)
- Barista at college cafe (mmm chocolate mint lattes!)
- Research assistant in neuro surgery lab (hey ratty ratty)

Four movies I would watch over and over again:
1. Pirates of the carribean (love love love)
2. Never been Kissed
3. Sixth Sense
4. Being John Malkovich - Run elijah! Run!!

Four places I have lived
1. Singapore, katong (all 18 years)
2. US, NC
3. US, NJ
3. US, MA (moved 4 times in 6 years, might be moving again!)


Four TV shows I Looooove to watch
1. Top Chef - Combines my guilty pleasures ..food and reality tv
2. The Apprentice (funny how it resembles the corporate world)
3. Lost (kinda ...till the plot got lost)
4. Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (new found respect for him after he ate/enjoyed? the eyeballs of a seal ....RAW!!..extracted from a dead seal CARCASS)


Four Special Places I have been on Vacation:
1. Bali- Our mini honeymoon
2. Tokyo - I swear I put on 5 lbs there
3. London - I first step foot in Europe
4. Las Vegas - Recent family vacation that was so much fun

Goshdarnit I need to leave the frigging USA more!

Four Websites I visit Daily
1. Gmail
2. Bloglines -> to stalk my friends and read the news. I highly recommend.
3. Chompster - To see if there are any new posts (shameless plug here)
4. That's it ... bloglines lets me read all my favorite sites

Four of my Favourite Food
1. Sashimi duh ... especially uni, amaebi, and mirugai
2. ok ok Pocky ... hokkaido butter flavor is especially good
3. Katong Laksa
4. Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake from CCF
5. Corn - I love corn!!!
6. I know it only asks for 4 but I could go on and on and on

Four places I rather be right now:
1. On vacation in the Bahamas, Galapagos, Fiji, Greece, Turkey ... basically not at work
2. At the mall buying shoes shoes and more shoes!
3. Ok can't spend $$? At home making cranberry cupcakes and watching my favorite korean drama, All About Eve (slap me please ... I'm such a huang lian po)
4. Hanging out with my family somewhere (they so far away sniff)

Four Friends that have been tagged who I think will
respond:
No idea, but I tag Matreshka, S*, Rhys (but he got no blog), Gabby, Mil, and Singapore Grrl. Yes all 5 of my readers haha :)

Drinking the Koolaid

I'm in guys! Will most likely be back in school this fall. After painful waiting on admissions day, I finally got the e-mail at 5pm. Torture I tell you!! Ironically, as I was about to click on the link to learn my fate, a colleague walked into my office!! Talk about bad timing. He had all frigging day, but no he had to choose this very second. I was dying of anxiety as he rambled on *#@*#*@#

Anyway, I spent the past few weeks contemplating my decision. And after attending admissions weekend, I'm almost convinced that I will be making the right choice. The exhorbitant tuition will be well spent and the returns will be invaluable. Gosh listen to me!! I've really downed the poisoned koolaid! But I admit, part of the appeal is that I get to leave my job and school seems fun ... all the trips around the world <- wait I mean I will learn alot and this will help with my career and marketability.

Oh look, and to show how badly they want my 80k, they also sent a "care" package with a bumper sticker, map, binder, name card wallet complete with name cards ...etc.

ok no way I am ruining my car with that geeky sticker. no wait I probably have to sell my car and throw in a corgi to pay for school :p but my dad would be real proud and want the sticker for his car so all is not lost. The name cards were also seriously weird ... what does one do with that?

The Scout Law

We almost got lost in the forests of Rhode Island on Saturday. Haha I kid you not. I suppose the incident with the sillyporeans searching for the Japanese Karate master and getting lost ain't so funny after all.

We started off the hike in good spirits. 6 miles? No problemo. We're still young *cough*. The walk started off quite picturesquely. After an hour, we'd walked by a gurgling brook thing that ended in a reservoir. Awwww



All was well till 3 hours into the hike. We were getting tired, the trail was longer than we'd expected, the trail markings were confusing, and our map sucked. The supposed highlight of the trail, Penny Hill, didn't even much of a view. We didn't see any cool wildlife (pondskaters don't count). We had no compass, little water (3 small bottles between the 5 of us), no food, rain jackets, or cell phones (we left these in the car, as a consolation we didn't have service anyway). Wow weren't we brilliant?! And to make matters worst, we also saw large fist sized piles of poop on the trail ... hmmm

Looking back, the predicament we were in was pretty funny haha. Fortunately for us, we ran into 2 mountain bikers (guardian angels?) who kindly gave us directions back. It started thundering in the last leg of the hike but we even made it out an hour before sunset! YAY

A creepy shack we found. Though what good is it? With those huge gaps at the bottom, it wouldn't have provided much refuge from wild animals.


So much for hubs being a scout and me a guide in school. But hey, I say being prepared is boring, let's just wing it. :D

Sunday Cook Out

We're planning a cook out this weekend on our patio since the weather is going to be somewhat nice (sunny and a high of 60). We're desperate to enjoy the good weather while it lasts.

This is kinda last minute so I'm making up the recipe here at 10.30 on a Friday night. I'm thinking

Drinks
- Watermelon Margaritas

Appetizers

Veggies
- Grilled corn on the cob (I love corn!)
- Waldorf Salad

Meats


Dessert

Meringue Topped Southern Banana Pudding

Can't type anymore..too sleepy .....will continue tomorrow.

Attn: Children of the 80s

I found this 明天會更好 video on takchek's blog. So nostalgic ... but dude the hairdos gotta go. Do you recognize anyone? I'm not very well versed on taiwanese singers but hubs spotted Leslie Cheung.

My Stalker

I think I have a stalker at work. I was walking back from building #1 a week ago when this little guy with high waisted pants tried to make conversation with me (I've never met him before). As we were exchanging the usual niceties ... how are you blah blah blah ... he suddenly asked me if I go to the gym. Then he's like, and you only go on Tuesdays?

Awkward moment. My jaw dropped to my feet. How tf does he know I got to the gym at lunch and only on Tuesdays??? Thankfully for me, at that very moment, a loser coworker whom I haven't bothered to talk to in ages walks by. Never been so happy to see the guy. We have a normal conversation about the weather whilst allowing me to ditch stalker dude.

OK so I was at the gym again this week for my weekly spin class... and guess what!! I notice stalker dude in my class!! The question now is ... has he been going before this week? HRMMM am I so oblivious as to not have noticed him? HAHA Maybe he really isn't a stalker after all ... and I am just shameless. But then again how do you explain the weird stares I get as he walks by my office :p Ah hah!

Puppydom

I finally got round to scanning some photos we have of Moxie as a little puppy (4 weeks old?). Gosh she used to be so adorable ..... now she's just an overgrown pup hee

At 4 weeks old ... see the rest of the photos here.

Everybody Loves Cupcakes

After stumbling upon Cupcake Bake Shop by Chokylit's blog, I was inspired to make some of my own because they look so darn gorgeous in the photos!

Mine turned out amateur-ish. But they tasted yummy. I guess you can't go wrong with ingredients like cream, sugar, and butter that already taste good. I especially liked the raspberry frosting. It reminded me of the Raspberry Ripple ice cream that I used to love as a kid. The ice cream vendors on Orchard Road in Singapore still sell this wedged between 2 wafers or bread. So good on a hot day!

Oh yes, I should mention that I stupidly forgot to add the eggs to the batter till I was about to fill the cupcake shells. Not sure if that was why my cakes rose and then deflated haha! I also confess to over beating the cream ... oh well.

Me so lonely ...


Vanilla cupcakes with raspberry cream frosting ...

Second Thoughts

We recently hired a person from the said b-school for a position similar to mine (though I'm sure he's earning much more ..hrmm or is he?). I did however hear concerns that he wasn't experienced enough? Gosh what's going on in the job market? This dude has like more experience than I do. Are they looking for people with 15 years on their belts or something? How unfair. In any case it made me a little worried about whether b-school is really going to help me :p

Oh yes and an interview update. Thanks ya'll for the well wishes!!! You guys are the best. I ended up wearing the pant suit because of the weather and a good thing too since my lady interviewer and everyone else was wearing pants. I thought that the interview went alright except for a stupid question I asked at the end *kicks self* arhgk! But we'll see, you never really know with these things. I'll be prepared for the worst... ain't I the perpetual optimist! :)

Disclaimer: If you don't hear any thing more from me about this topic it probably means I've been dinged! Oh well life goes on ... at least I had a good run

MS Homes

Wow, so Martha Stewart has been busy designing homes and boy are they cute! Priced between 200-400k, I am almost ready to move back to North Carolina where these concept homes are. On second thought, I don't think I'll get used to the suburban life. :)



The homes are in Cary, NC. My friend, A from college, used to live there. It's really quite a cute town, quiet and close to all the universities in the area. A house like this in boston would be at least a million moolahs *sob* ...



Awwww this one is right out of a storybook. OK what do they even need a garage for??? It hardly snows in NC :P

Cel-Ray?

I was in the mood for soda today and on a whim decided to have the cel-ray flavored Dr. Brown's at Zaftig's (a jewish deli where we went for brunch). What I did not know was that cel-ray's short for celery and the soda had a weird celery after taste. Strangely enough, I actually enjoyed it! The flavor was refreshing and wasn't too sweet ... even though a can still has 36g of sugar (I checked).

Oh yes, and zaftig's serves really good brunch ... I had really yummy pancakes with strawberry butter and fruit. The also have challah french toast. I think the ones they serve here look like cakes! Gotta have it next time. But sorry no photos folks, I left the camera in the car.



See zaftig's on chompster

OMG!

I'm going to Hollywood, I mean Cambridge eeeha!!!! I have to share the news because I'm so super dooper excited! Drum roll ... I have been invited for an m b a interview at the one school I applied to. OK I just got notification today and the interview is in a week's time. I'm a nervous wreck now, I need to start preparing pronto!! HELP!! *GASPS for AIR*

I was quite pleased with my essays (shameless) but the next round will be even tougher. Approximately 40% of the applicants are interviewed and of that another 30% will be selected .... I feel like I'm on American Idol. The odds are against me and I don't think I interview well???? :( ... but even if I do get in, will that 90 grand be well spent (that is 90 LV bags thank you)? <- reason to be happy about rejection

OK...a quick poll ... should I wear a skirt suit (more proper?) or a pant suit? I could knock em dead with my killer (*ahem* dry scaly) legs ... or be all preppy in jcrew haha. Gosh of all the things to be worrying about! :p

ClustrMaps

How cool is this? ClustrMaps is a free service that lets you see where visitors to your site are located on a map! I know I know, my blog is obviously on the lower rungs of web stickiness. In fact I'll be wearing its unpopularity like a badge! But still it'll be cool to see. haha

Hrmm looks like this image won't update tomorrow. I'll keep my fingers crossed that I'm not the only visitor ...

A Valentine's Tradition

... no more! We usually celebrate valentine's day by preparing lobster at home (we've done this 2 or 3 years in a row already). This makes celebrating so much easier since you don't have to battle the crowds or worry about where to go :)

Chez MintPatch Dinner Menu
* Oyster Stew
* Pepper Crusted Steak with Red Wine Sauce
* Balsamic Tomatoes and Crinkle Cut Fries
* 1998 Monticello Rioja
* Strawberry Mousse in a Chocolate Shell

This year, we strayed a little from the winning formula. We had steak instead since we weren't particularly in the mood for lobster. I tried to stay true to the seafood tradition though by making a pot of oyster stew. It was also yesterday that I discovered how disgustingly packed with fat cream based soup dishes are. I used a whole quart of half and half and a stick of butter. That's like over a 100g of fat!!! Yes you heard right. See thats why I don't like cooking, for me ignorance is bliss. I can never look at a bowl of chowder the same way anymore.

Look at the candles ... so romantic right? Too bad hubs made me blow them out after 2 minutes :p


Hubs is especially proud of the fact that the steak is carmelized on the outside yet juicy on the inside:


I'd like to say I made this ... but I bought it from Whole Foods:

Awww

I want to be MADE

Wow yesterday brought the first nor'easter of the season. Weird, this has been an unnervingly mild winter so far. 50 degrees F in February? I should be rejoicing but I know we'll eventually pay for it with some freak snow storm in May when I'm out parading in my new sandals.

Anyway, we were stuck at home all Sunday and ended up watching two movies 3-Iron and The Aviator. An arty one and a hollywood-esque one. Hubs refuses to watch chick flicks, I'm still working on converting him. We also watched like a billion episodes of MTV MADE that I tivo-ed. See MTV makes me feel young and cool again. Woohoo!

If you haven't watched it before, Made is this show where teenagers get transformed into anything they want. Of course the twist is that these kids are the total opposite of what they want to be made into. Think along the lines of loser nerd wants to be a rapper or prissy princess wants to be skater chick.

Hah so I was just thinking, how cool would it be if I could be made into an aerobics/spinning instructor! How totally opposite of couch potato me haha.

Now what would you want to be made into? :)

Depressing

Smashed Poop

It all started on Thursday when Miss Moxie picked up and ate this awful stinky piece of thing when we were out on our evening walk. It was dark, I couldn't see, so I yelled like a mad woman but nothing would make her spit it out. !*@*!@

Fast forward to Friday she has the runs in the morning. In the evening hubs comes home to a poop fest in the kitchen (good thing I got home late muahah). Then early saturday morning, I wake up to this awful stench smell in the bedroom. Turns out she couldn't hold it in ... and the scariest part was she wasn't able to walk. Her hind legs just refused to hold up :*(

Turns out I don't do very well in stressful situations. I got all freaked out and we rushed her to the emergency vet ... at 5am. The nice vet managed to coax her to walk after a bit and gave her a fluid injection beneath her skin so she won't dehydrate. You can see her little hump in the photo hehe.

She's doing better now, after a long afternoon of looking rather pitiful, crying, and not being able to walk. She can finally stand up with some effort. I'm so relieved I can finally take it out on her for all the worrying. No more sympathy for Mox. She wins an oscar for best corgi actress.

Meet the Family

Uh oh it's retail therapy part II. As you can see, now that the wedding is long over, and I'm done with my applications, I am in desperate need of a new obsession. Funusual was having a 30% off everything sale and we managed to pick up a few Alessi kitchen accessories. They are usually ridiculously expensive, but so irresistably cute. Looks like we're officially alessi whores.

From left to right. Ms Priss, the pepper grinder, Mr White Pants, the cork screw, and funky Koziol, the sugar dispenser, masquerading as an Alessi.


I also got a cute apron! Me posing as myself ...


I need to resist the urge to go back and get the can opener! OK I need to go hibernate now, we're out of heating oil so our apartment has no heat or hot water bleh. Time to wrap myself in blankets.

Retail Therapy

Headed down to bloomies last week to indulge in some retail therapy and managed to score some bargains. I got a cute juicy velour hoody (I love juicy), a BCBG sparkly top for $30 (I wore this for CNY) and a pair of theory velvet pants at more than 50% off (don't they make my behind look so nicey nice). Juicy, Theory and BCBG are some of my favorites because they fit me so well! Shopping in the US is a huge pain since I'm, to put it bluntly, short. And every friggin store is guilty of of vanity sizing. I swear a size 0 here is really a size M in asia. HOW UNFAIR. Ok rant over. I guess this stops me from buying everything in sight.

The hoodie. Well not technically a hoodie since it has no hood. Confession: I've worn this 3 times already haha

新年快乐

Happy chinese new year! The year of the dog, moxie's favorite :)



For our 'tuan yuan fan' we met up with two couples at Chau Chow City in Chinatown. You see 6 is a lucky number ;) As we ate, we lamented about the cny foods we missed most. Kueh bankit, pineapple tarts, bak kua, fried prawn rolls ..argk! Yeah we're deprived, gone 10 years without partaking in the festivities. Also talked to my family, they seem to be having much fun (without me). Hubs and I resolve to celebrate CNY in singapore next year.

Weird, I never really missed the whole lunar new year thing till this year. I don't know why, maybe as you get older you get more nostalgic ... it's nice to celebrate in a big way like the americans do thanksgiving. Even though both festivals really stand for the same things, spending time with family, thanksgiving just doesn't have the same feel since it's not something I've grown up with.

Fish Maw soup. I don't remember why but eating fish maw is supposedly auspicious?


Yummy duck


Pigs trotters with fatt choy. We clogged our arteries but we'll be rich!


Sea cucumber ...


The obvious ... 年年有鱼. This was actually really tasty!