Video of my Beau Riding a Cupcake!!!

Thanks Bunny for the comment!! As per request, let me post a something about my thin DH... Look at him riding a cupcake!!

Cake Time!!!

This pas Sunday, I rode an electric cupcake!!!

Yup, this cupcake is using a car battery and parts of an old bike... No... I didn't make it, it was made by DH's co-worker and his wife. It was so much fun an totally hilarious!!!

French Dinner with Friends

At the "Alliance Francaise" gathering, we met a friendly couple from Paris. They invited us to their home on Friday to have dinner with some friends.

French people eat late (we know that from our trip to Paris in 2005, restaurants don't open until 7PM for dinner), our host said dinner would be at 8PM. We got there at 7:45PM, then we chatted and didn't start dinner until 9PM!

Dinner looked fancy. For appetizer, we started with some smoked salmon with some cherry tomatoes and some lettuce. Then for main course, they took a dish out of the oven and it was still boiling. It was a dish with cheese on top, "au gratin" as we would say in English, but in French, it would be the adjective "gratiné". It looked very cheesy... I asked, "Is this what we call mousaka?", they replied, "It's 'hachis parmentier'". Oh, wow... "What is it?" "It's a dish made of beef, onion, and potatoes." Wow... "What origin does this come from?" "Euh, I think French... it should be French." I took a bite and recognize right away this comfort food. "Oh, I know this dish", I said, "in Quebec, we call it 'pâté chinois'!". They found me very weird: "pâté chinois" literally means "Chinese pie"! Yup, I'm not kidding!!! In Quebec and New Brunswick, there's a version of hachis parmentier with added corn that we call pâté chinois. (You probably wonder why it's called like that, well, read the links then. ) Between the main course and dessert, there was a dish cheese, hmm... I tried Roquefort cheese for the first time! It was strong!!! Hehehe, I wonder how these French people stay slim with all this food (and drinks)!!

Free Ice Cream!!!

This is my 3rd post about free (or almost) ice cream in two months!!!

Häagen-Dazs ice cream shops will give out free cones of its new
flavors, Cinnamon Dulce de Leche and Sticky Toffee Pudding, on
Tuesday, May 15, 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., at any participating
Häagen-Dazs location

Museum Month

As I mentioned in a previous post, this month is free admission to selected museum for BoA's customers. On Sunday, we went to the city to visit two museums: California Academy of Sciences and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

We went to the California Academy of Sciences first. We found parking about two blocks away for $5 whole day, it was a decent deal, last time we were in downtown San Francisco, it cost us $17 parking!! This museum has a fancy name for an aquarium. Yup, that's what it is... we saw many tanks of fishes and not much of anything else. It was very small. Oh... and not only we got there for free, there was an oyster tasting!!! Yup, there are 5 different species of oysters and it was about tasting the difference between them. Since it wasn't crowded, we got to taste many... hehehe, I think I had 4. Then, we walked to San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). We did every floors starting from 5th floor where Picasso is. Hehehe, unfortunately, I don't know how to admire modern art.

We finished the day by walking to Chinatown and had dinner there. It was a long and tiring day, but educational. :)

Coconut Pudding

I recently made mango pudding for my sister when she as in town. DH complained that I was not thoughtful enough because he doesn't like mango. So, I looked up recipes for coconut pudding (椰汁糕) and found a few thanks to google search. I made it last night and *oh yum* it tastes just like the ones you get at dimsum!!!!!!!

Here is the recipe I used: http://www.tinfu.net/healthnfood/dessert/dessert25.asp

Ok, now one more item I won't order at dimsum... :)

More Freebies!!!

Free museum admission for Bank of America's customers during the month of May!!!

http://www.bankofamericapromotions.com/museums/

New Toy!!!

Sister came to town... and brought us a new toy! It's a Motorola RAZR, the G3 model (forgot its name) that is for the Asian market. Woohoo!!! a toy to use in Asia on our trip planned for the end of the year!

Finally not an Err4

DH finally registers on our scales last night. After close to 1 week of Err4, he registered 4.9% body fat last night... phew... I was afraid my husband was disappearing...

Cheap Ice Cream!!!

This time it's Baskin & Robbins promotion time, it's cheap - $0.31 - but not free!

http://www.baskinrobbins.com/Promotion/31cent.aspx

It's Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007 from 5pm to 10pm!

Err4?

Talking about being married to a skinny husband. Two nights ago, after his shower, DH (Dear Husband) was looking forward to play with our new scale... He stepped on it happily and was astonished to receive an "Err4"... "Error 4?", he expressed out loud. "Don't weigh yourself until we find out what error 4 is", he said to me. He pulls out the instruction manual and here is the explanation:

Display Err4 Body fat percentage is beyond the range (4% to 50%).

Ok... So I weighed myself and got a normal result to confirm the scale is working fine, then DH weighed himself again and gets the same Err4.

Today, for the 3rd night in a row, DH is still Err4. (He used to be slightly less than 5%, in the 4ish%.)

My sister is coming... Again!!

My sister is coming this weekend... again!!! She was here just 2 weekends ago, the company she interviewed for is making her come in again for a second and final round of interviews. It will be another weekend of eating and drinking...

Another trip for cheap!!!

Hey all, remember my trip to Napa Valley? We stayed at a resort offered by those timeshare presentations? Here is another one... for Honolulu, Hawaii!!!!

Early last week, my husband got a letter from snail mail. It talked about a trip for two including airfare to Honolulu and 2-night stay for $100!!! That sounded too good to be true!!! So, my husband called and asked if there were other fees and the lady confirmed that the $100 was to cover the taxes, no other fee!! We quickly booked an appointment to listen to the timeshare presentation and went in on Saturday morning.

This company (RCI) sounded like much a better deal than the last timeshare presentation (Shell Vacations) we listened to. It was so attractive that we did spend 30 mins to think about it and finally turn them down... hehehe This one is really cheap, only $8350 for 21,000 points which is enough for 3 weeks of stay per year in one of their 3,800 condoes they own across the world, HOA (Homeowner Association) fee is only $273. Also, being a preferred member, we could get 30-50% off airfare since they are wholesaler. Since we are planning a trip to Hong Kong this year, we thought maybe we can make use of it and resale it next year... We should come out cheaper or we might just break even... I also thought I would have a place for my parents to stay if they visit the Bay Area. But at the end, the choice was easy - they don't own condoes in Hong Kong or San Jose, so, not good for us... BUT WE GOT A TRIP FOR $100 and for listening and considering!!! hahahahaha

New Toy!!!

We got a new toy!! It's a scale with percentage body-fat analyzer!! It was a deal on amazon.com, regularly priced at $99 and down to $17.99. Amazon doesn't charge sales tax for item shipped to California and shipping fee was waived because we signed up for Amazon Prime membership (free trial for the first 90 days).

I knew how much body-fat I had, but it was my husband's body-fat that I was curious about! That guy can eat, he doesn't exercise much, but remains fairly slim, so I always wondered... Maybe he has a lot of body-fat and he doesn't even know!!!

Ok... the verdict? 0_O He has the lowest level of the healthy range for body-fat percentage for men (which is about 5%-8%)... He's not even 5%... *sigh* some people can just afford to eat without having to worry...

Lunch at Google!!

My brother's good friend happens to be living in the Bay Area and working for Google. We bumped into him and his family and he invited us to visit Google and have lunch there. So, last Monday, after we drove my sister off to the airport (she was in town for the previous weekend), we went to Mountain View and met the friend at his work. I guess you all heard about free meals at Google and how they have chefs cooking for them. We had to check it out!

We got there around 11:30AM and visited the friend's office, two of their cafeterias, and a few of their mini-kitchen. It was still early, we had the chance seeing the happy cooks working hard preparing lunch with love and attention. Wow, lots choice of food!!! and all healthy choices!! Their milk is organic and their snacks are healthy choices like yogourt, apple crisps (made from dehydrated organic fuji apple), nuts, smoothies... As for lunch, one of the cafeteria served tuna steak (rare in the middle, just like tuna sashimi!) and New York steak... oh yum!!! But we didn't eat at that one, we settled for a second cafeteria where we had sole fillet stuffed with chunky crab meat... :D~ and for dessert lava chocolate cake and lemon strawberry shortcake!!! HAHAHA... my husband was so happy, he can eat and he was running out of space on his tray!!!

Hmm... We need to go back ;)

Free Ice Cream!

Today is Free Scoop Day at Ben & Jerry!!!

Quote from their website: "On Tuesday April 17th from 12pm until 8pm participating Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops around the world will be hosting Ben & Jerry’s Annual Free Cone Day."

I'm going home!

Hey!! I just booked for my flight back home in June with a stop-over in Vancouver. My maid of honour is getting married in mid-July and my other friends are getting married on July 1st, so I'm going back for a whole month!

I redeemed my flight using my Air Canada's Aeroplan points and it's costing me a whole $155 in taxes!!! That is so expensive and they don't even give the break down of the taxes!!! The taxes are more expensive when you cross the USA-Canada border. I remember redeeming for flight from Ottawa to Vancouver and it only cost me ~$30-40 depending on how many and which airport I stop over.

This is the 4th North-America flight I redeem using Aeroplan points (25,000 points). I have been member of Aeroplan since May 2000, so 4 flights in 7 years, not bad at all! My last trip was paid using my 30,000 points of Diners Club, which took me about 2 years to accumulate. I also have about 41,000 points with NorthWest Airlines' WorldPerks' and about 15,000 points with United Airlines' Mileage Plus.

I think my favorite points-to-air system is Diners Club. It is really easy to book a flight through their travel agent and there's no blackout dates. I will drop Air Canada (at least not focus on it) and will collect UA's Mileage Plus for all Star Alliances flights because AC charges too much taxes. I'm not liking NWA's WorldPerks' points as there are very little or no availability for flights at 25,000. As for Delta's SkyMiles, it is also a pain to find a good flight back to East Canada because their hub is in Atlanta, GA and flying to Montreal would mean having to deal with a detour.

Hehehe... that was my 2 cents regarding redeeming points... :)

More to grow!!!

2 bell pepper seeds just sprout today :D. There's hope of having bell peppers this summer :D

Spring is here!!

It's that time of the year!!! Husband and I have been waiting for Spring for many months. We have been looking forward to grow vegetables and fruits in our backyard.

Husband and his parents moved into this house last year in March, it was brand new and was finished building in February. The house came with an unfinished backyard. It rained a lot in March 2006, then it was our wedding in May and summer was hot and dry, hence, we didn't have a chance to work on the backyard.

Two weekends ago was the beginning of Daylight Saving Time, I thought it would be a good time to start sowing some seeds indoor. We went to Walmart and got some seeds (it was only $0.10 a pack!!!), some potting soil, and some biodegradable containers to sow the seeds in. We started growing indoors some zucchinis, cucumbers, carrots, string beans, green onions, cherry tomatoes, and bell peppers. Being optimistic you would say? :)

It's been two weeks, 3 zucchinis, 4 cucumbers, 5 green onions, and 3 carrots sprout. We were so happy to see them come to live!!! But also disappointed that cherry tomatoes, bell pepper, and string beans didn't show sign of life. Zucchini was the early adapter, it grew so big that we had to relocated them to a bigger home, which we did it this weekend, we planted them outside. We decided to keep the other sprouts indoor as they seem still very fragile.

On Saturday, we went to Lowe's and Home Depot. We got 1 tomato plant from each store (hybrid cherry tomatoes from Lowe's and "early girl" tomatoes from Home Depot) and some garden soil from Home Depot. We also got a pot of Garlic chives (a.k.a. Chinese chives, 韭菜) from a friend. We transplant all 3 pots in our garden, next to our zucchinis.

Last but not least, there was a citrus plant sale at Costco, so we got a 2-feet tall semi-dwarf blood orange tree for only $17.79. I approached some fellow buyers at Costco and asked them if they succeeded planting citrus. They confirmed that they already have an orange tree and a lemon tree and they grow very fine, so now they are getting a mandarin tree. Our tree will bear fruits, it may just take couple years... Couple years? I don't know where I'll be in couple years!!!

Diet isn't doing good...

A friend came to town for business. We met up with him 3 times and also met up with another friend for hotpot. So it kinda screwed my diet :(. I weighed myself this morning and gained back 2lbs of the 4 I lost... Oh well... will work hard again soon :D