When I first started my job I doubted the quality of our clothing. Truth be told, I wasn't very familiar with the brand when I first started and I worried that we sold cheap, poorly made, rayon/polyester fast fashion crap. I was relieved to find that our clothing are of pretty good quality, much better than say... Old Navy. While the clothing are durable, normally, our jewelry are crap. They're very cute but most are made pretty cheaply. Every once in awhile, we get a piece that's not only unique, but well made.
This is one of my favorite necklace. It has a good heft and looks and feels like real silver. I also like that, from a distance, it looks like a bow. It seems some people find crossbones to be a bit morbid. I get why but, come on now... Once Old Navy starts emblazoning toddler socks with skull and crossbones it's no longer macabre.
Many thanks to Jamie for forwarding me this link with really cute pictures of jewelry in teacups and saucers! I saw a blog post once where the author framed a lovely lattice grid with a giant frame and hung her jewelry on it with small s hooks. I definitely want to try something like that. I have cute pieces that deserves attention and I feel I'd wear them more often if I saw them on a regular basis. Out of sight, out of mind, you know.
Honestly, I didn't know he was still alive until a few years ago when I heard that his house caught on fire... Or was that Kurt Vonnegut (another one of my favorite author who recently passed away).
Oh wait, I did know that he was alive because Steven Colbert mentioned how Salinger came out of his hidey hole to sue someone for trying to publish an authorized sequel to Catcher in the Rye.
Catcher in the Rye has been one of my favorite books ever since I read it in 6th grade. I went through a phase where I decided that I was going to make myself a literary genius by reading classics. Um yeah... That didn't work out too well at all. I don't think I got past the first chapter of most of the books I checked out. Catcher in the Rye was an exception. I was enthralled. This is how young and naive I was, I was shocked, shocked, that you were allowed to print words like "shit" and "fuck" in a book. I thought the book was so great because every time I read it, there was always something new. Don't get me wrong, the book is pretty freaking great, but later on I realized that I always discovered something new because as I got older some of those innuendos started smacking me in the head instead of flying over it
A couple of days ago, when we went to Ikea, we really didn't buy much. I wanted to get some ideas for my future (fingers crossed) house but it's hard to get ideas when I don't know what the house will look like. Will it be a contemporary open floor plan or a more traditional one?
I did buy some small kitchen stuff. One can never have too many air tight glass containers, especially when even the big ones are under $3. Sadly, no $1 toilet brushes this time around but I did discover a new gem, the Choklad Not.
Poor name choice for a chocolate bar if you ask me. It's like, "Hey, I'm a chocolate bar... Not!" It's a real chocolate bar, if you consider 30% cocoa to be chocolate. According to Google, Choklad Not translates to "Chocolate Note". Wait, do all Ikea names translate into real Swede words? Normally I prefer 70+% but milk chocolate tastes better with hazelnut. Ooooh, hazel nut. You'd think a cheap chocolate bar would skimp on the nuts but you'd be wrong.
In doing a Google search I came across this blog about chocolates. Sadly, the dude lives in Canada so, chances are, any cool chocolate he finds will not be available here.
Confession: I don't clean my bathroom as often as I should.
Being the germaphobe obsessive hand washer that I am you would think my bathroom would get a daily scrub down, right? It is, after all, probably the grodiest place in a house besides the kitchen. It's a breeding ground for mold and dust and funk and hair and all kinds of grossness. The thing is, I'm not afraid of germs per se, I'm afraid of other people's germs. I'm the only person that uses my bathroom and I know I don't have athlete's feet or leaky pus, or whatever can be transmitted via the toilet seat.
It's been awhile since I cleaned my bathroom so I knew I was in for some major elbow grease time. Well, fuck that, that's what those scrubbing bubbles are for, right?
I love the idea of scrubbing bubbles, but I never trust them so I knew I needed another bathroom cleaner. You know, just to get what the bubbles missed.
While I'm not particularly green, I do harbor some guilt over pouring chemicals down the drain so I try, feebly, to be Earth friendly. To compensate for the scrubbing bubbles, I decided to to use a green bathroom cleaner.
I don't know how natural Nature's Source is, I kind of have a feeling it's not that green. But, you know, it's green enough to assuage my guilt.
This cleaner is very unremarkable. I didn't use it and think, "I might as well be using water!!!" but I wasn't blown away by it's magical cleaning abilities. I will say, however, that I really, really hate this cleaner. It smells like the kind of "nature" scented cleaners used to clean a lot of the public bathrooms. I would much rather my bathroom smell like a bleach bomb went off inside rather than the Target women's room.
And yes, yes, I know that it would've been quicker and cheaper to just use a regular bleachy bathroom cleaners and skip the whole scrubbing bubbles myth. I really want to believe in the powers of the scrubbing bubbles so I always give them a chance, even if the results are never as awesome as I hope.
I'm not on Facebook, nor do I want to be. Being out of this web 2.0/social networking loop, there are certain things that I don't get. For example, Michael asked me to email him some pictures of himself because a few of his friends demanded a new profile picture. He has not updated since summer. This sounded pretty dumb but he explained that these are people he hasn't seen in a few months and they want to know what he looks like now. I guess that kind of make sense... I mean, it would if he was a little kid but, come on now... Most grown ups do not look any different after a few years, let alone months.
Whatever. Any pictures I have of him are in my external hard drive somewhere. Being the lazy person that I am I told him I'll just take pictures of him the next time I see him, which happened to be a trip to Target. All he asked for was just one decent picture of him to post on-line. Where's the fun in that?! You want pictures? I'll give you pictures! I'll go all paparazzi on you. Here's Michael driving! Here's Michael getting out of his car! Here's Michael grabbing a cart! Here's Michael checking out coffee makers! OMG! He buys mouth washes! He's just like us!!!
While I was playing the stalker-azzi, I insisted that we play the appropriate music:
Dancing with your hands turning strangers into friends Touch the keys please, and unlock my heart You're free to be a freak, change your picture every week Show the camera, you're a superstar Upstairs all alone, one click for a show Your roof is on fire you're loosing control
It's this generation's "Digital Digital Get Down":
This song is kind of showing it's age. "If I'm not home, leave a message?" Sadly, kids these days, do not check their voice mail. I'll call them about something work related and they call back with, "Hey, what's up, you called?" "Did you check your voice mail?" "...voice... mail?"
Did you know that a typical voice mail goes 3 days before it's checked? When my DM was looking to fill a position, there was a dude who lost out on an offer because he never checked his voice mail. Yeah, texting is convenient, but if you're actively looking for a job, check you fucking voice mail dude.
While looking for a video for this song, I found this video clip:
I can't tell if the guy is trying to be sexy or creepy. At first, I thought he was trying to look all scary and menacing, or maybe he's just a big Disturbed fan:
But then the rest of the video is of him in preppy Hollister duds. Well... Douche bags are pretty creepy.
Anyway, back to Cash Cash...
"What is this crap?" Michael asked.
If you're going to act like a 14 year old girl, I think it's only fitting that you listen to 14 year old's music. However, since this Cobra Starship wannabees offended his indie/garage/hipster sensibility, I switched to the acoustic version:
And, for the record, I like Cash Cash. Fun songs are often underrated. There's no shame in liking bubble gum songs. Guilty pleasures? I have none, I'm not ashamed.
Since I was being his personal paparazzi, and since he is a fan, we, of course, had to play this song:
A couple weeks ago, I noticed that Michael has been listening to a lot of radio. Not just any radio, but 99.5. This, of course, only meant one thing- he found a pop song that he is ashamed to admit that he likes. So ashamed he won't even torrent it. God forbid there's any digital trail or proof that he likes a meaningless, flavor of the week song! Instead, he would rather endure radio music with fingers crossed, hoping that a Lady GaGa song comes on.
I did him a favor and bought him Fame and Fame Monster. It's yet to make it into his iPod but the CDs have not left his player. "Oh, it's there from the last time you were in my car." Really? Because the last time I was in his car we didn't listen to that CD.
Dude, it's okay. There's no shame in liking GaGa.
Eric once asked, "Why does everyone suddenly think it's acceptable to like Lady GaGa now?"
One cannot live off substance alone, sometimes you need some fluff. My personal favorite GaGa song is Telephone:
Michael did bring up a good point, "Why doesn't she just turn her phone off?" Shush now. The whole point of a pop song is that it doesn't have to make any sense.
In anticipation of my future move (fingers crossed) I cleaned out the kitchen and found a lot of things that I had forgotten about.
These are crystal glasses from a sample sale at JC Penney. I got them for less than 77 cents each.
My favorite is the middle one, very art deco.
Speaking of sample sales, I also got these for 77 cents each.
Sure, none of them match, but they're nice plates and matching is so over rated.
Augh, I can't believe I bought one of these.
I think I've used it like five times. Maybe I would have used it more if it came with the grease catching tray but mine didn't so I would have to perch it on the edge of the sink.
These are not forgotten items.
I actually use them all the time. I just wanted to show them off because they are some of my favorite cookware and I think the light amber color is beautiful.
Speaking of beautiful things I use all the time:
You can't really tell but they are slightly translucent and opaque. It's great for ice cream, soup, and individual servings of cheese things.
I love casserole dishes and this one is so cute!
Maybe it's kind of cheesy but I like the pastel, cheesy, 80's motel art floral. Sadly, the dish is too small to be of much use.
When my parents moved to the US, my grandfather bought my mom a very lovely dining set complete with tea cups and serving plates, and saucers, and plates and the whole work. The print is quite lovely but the only piece I really liked was the creamer.
I plan on using it as a gravy boat since I use powdered non-dairy creamer. If I did decide to go all fancy I have the perfect tea cups:
And linen napkins:
But, you know, tea cups are never big enough to hold the amount of coffee I need which is why I prefer mugs:
This one was also 77 cents:
I miss those deals...
I never realized I had so much cool stuff. I've been using my plain white Corell for so long I never bother to bring out the fancy stuff. My mom is one of those women who save the good stuff for special occasions. Not me. I'll be drinking my water from crystal glasses going forward.
My favorite re-find of the day were, without a doubt, these:
Vintage Corell from like the 80's! Eeep! I remember eating dinner off of these when we visited my grandparents in the US back when we lived in Korea! So exciting!
I went to the grocery store to buy some lemons to make madelines but I saw a table of red velvet cupcakes and thought, "Oooh, red velvet cupcakes!"
I didn't even know what red velvet was until someone told me a few years ago. "It's like chocolate cake, only not so chocolate-y. It has like a hint of chocolate." Honestly, I thought the whole concept was kind of dumb. It's like chocolate, only not so chocolate-y? You take the best part of a chocolate cake and diminish it? Whose bright idea was that?! Then, last year, when Starbucks introduced their cupcakes, Michael bought me a red velvet cupcake and I was hooked.
So, back at the grocery store, I scratched my idea for the madelines and decided to go with red velvet. I don't like Giant's bakery section so I wanted to make my own but I didn't know any red velvet recipes off the top of my head. Hmmm... Well... I guess I can always buy a mix...
The frosting, however, the frosting is scratch. I hate commercial frosting, it's so sweet and saccharine and heavy. Red velvet has a subtle taste and I didn't want to over power it so I topped it with whipped cream. It was the first time I made vanilla whipped cream and it turned out very well.
Whipping up some cream is so fun, I wish I had more need for cream. Next time I plan on reserving a bit of the mix powder and add it to the cream to make red velvet whipped cream. Mmmm~ I love flavored whipped cream!
Since I will be moving soon (fingers crossed) I have decided to purge my closet, again. Less stuff I have to pack, the better. I enjoy cleaning out my closet. Who needs all this crap? When was the last time I wore this? Lately, I find myself wanting to wear the same 4 sweaters everyday, and I would, and I do, I just have to remember who I worked with when I wore what.
My closet is already pretty well edited (for a recovering hoarder, such as myself) so there wasn't a whole lot to get rid of. I have decided, however, to really pare down my tank/cami collection.
Remember the built in bra tanks? Remember how it was the thing to layer in mix and match colors? Well, I never did that so I don't know why I bought these. Employee discounts will make you buy a lot of thing that you never really wear. The only ones I'm keeping are the white and nude which I wear as foundation garments.
Remember the early-mid 00's when layering tanks were all the rage? I think the trend started in some resort island where all the girls were using dude's tank as cover ups or something. Oh I fell into that trend pretty hard and there was a time when I had tanks of every color. I couldn't wear a shirt without wearing a layering tank underneath, it just didn't feel right. I've since phased out of that trend (for the most part) so I'm getting rid of the ones that didn't fall apart in the wash from too much wear.
Okay, that didn't free up that much space. I can reclaim half my closet space by getting rid of all the skirts, jackets, and dresses that I never wear but I can't. They are the stuff I wore the least but I'm most attached to. It's odd, I know.
We're on a budget, trying to buy a house and all you know, so it's been awhile since we ate at a new restaurant. A Buffalo Wild Wings opened up near us and the hype has been crazy. 1 hour wait for take out, 4 hour wait for dine in. Once the hype died down, we decided to check it out.
I got the smokestack, which is barbecue with onion rings, coleslaw and some other stuff.
It was good but nothing that's going to be haunting my dreams at night. The barbecue sauce was much too sweet for my taste. Thankfully, I had no qualms about appearing un-lady like in front of Michael because the whole thing was a bit messy to eat.
Michael ordered their wings with the fourth hottest sauce.
I have to admit, the wings were pretty good.
The food wasn't bad at all but it was rather generic. I don't understand what the hype was about but, to be fair, I can see it being a fun hang out spot if you're into wings, beer, and watching the game with some friends. I am not. However, as someone who might be buying a condo in Ashburn, I say hooray to any establishment that caters towards the young and single rather than the married with kids set. I will like to sell my condo one day and the younger the demographic, the better it will be.
I got my 401(k) account statement for the last quarter. My rate of return for the last quarter was...
4.16%
Not bad, I guess. I mean, it beat inflation (just barely). Under my brother's advisement, I moved all my money into a very conservative fund for the month of October and a bit of November. Seeing as how I didn't really follow market trends, I'm not sure if that helped.
Overall, I think I did pretty well this year. My rate of return for 2009 was...
36.01%
I've already made up all the money I lost back when the market crashed.
My rate of return since my account inception is not so exciting at...
Don't get me wrong, I love heels, but, let's face it, I very rarely wear them. I'm on my feet all day at work so heels are out of the question. I can try to cram my heel wearing time into my off days but that just doesn't happen. So, when I go shopping, I'm not even going to look at heels.
Right now I'm looking for a pair of preppy, dude-ish loafers. I really liked my pair but, unfortunately, I lost them. I think I'll go for legit dude's loafers- well boy's loafers.
Here are the pairs that I am considering:
I don't know... Too masculine?
Maybe once the weather warms and brightens up I'll be lusting after cute, colorful heels again.
I got my credit card statement and it's a lot better than last time!
The total? $556.89. It's still really high but wait, wait, there's a good reason.
12.6: $24.17 at Shell Oil 12.7: $9.48 at Cheng's 12.12: $24.92 at Shell Oil 12.17: $12.45 at Akira Sushi 12.18: $24.09 at Shell Oil 12.19: $354.00 at Amtrak 12.24: $19.40 at my place of work 12.24: $24.65 at Shell Oil 12.30: $20.00 at Chick-Fil-A 12.30: $23.38 at Shell Oil 1.4: $20.35 at Shell Oil
Did you notice the Amtrak charge? No, unfortunately, I did not go on a trip. My brother and my cousin were stranded in NY during the blizzard. The only way for them to get home the next day was via Amtrak. I got a phone call late at night from my brother asking me to look up and purchase some tickets so they could come home.
I was reimbursed for the tickets so technically my total comes to like $200. Not bad, though, I can't believe I spend so much money on gas...
I know it's kind of late but... Want to know what I got for Christmas?
BAM!
That dried up looking thing to the left is vanilla. That pile of glorious redness is saffron. Yup, saffron.
Dude, check it out!
Unlike the ones from Trader Joe's, it's mostly red, very little yellow and white bits. That's important since the yellow and white bits are flavorless. It's all in the red.
It's not just the vanilla and spice. I also got a La Creuset casserole dish. Or maybe it's a roasting pan?
When I get my own place, I'm going to collect enameled cast iron cook wares. It's going to be so bad ass.
This is Wet 'n' Wild MegaEyes eyeshadow in cream 251. I assume "cream" is the name of the color since this isn't a creamy eyeshadow, but maybe it's not? For now, I will just call it cream and, let me tell you, cream is the best shade of eyeshadow I have ever used. It blends perfectly, almost transparent, just slightly sparkly. It makes my eyelids look like they're just naturally bright and awesome. You would never know that I'm operating on just 5 hours of sleep most days.
I'm almost done this shadow. Sad! This picture was actually taken about a month ago so it will be gone soon. I do want to go buy another one in the exact same shade but, considering the bazillion eyeshadow I have that I'm trying to work through, it seems wrong. Guilt!
Besides, I'm not sure if it's still out there. I got it as a gift from Jamie years ago so, for all I know, it's been discontinued. I almost hope it is so I won't feel guilty for buying one. I know, I know, it's Wet 'n' Wild so it probably costs less than $2 but still... $2 is $2 too much when you have as many eyeshadow as I do.
Recently, Michael and I went to Ikea. We started our day by eating at the famed Ikea cafe. I see ads for their cheap meal all over the place and all over their catalog. I've always wanted to try it but Michael's always poo-poo'ed the idea. He can be quite snobby about where he eats. Well, this time I insisted, and I really wish I hadn't.
The marinara tasted like ketchup but that's okay because the pasta was so bland it somehow managed to suck all the flavor out of the sauce. Their famed Swedish meatballs were good but it's about as good as the meatballs you get at Trader Joe. I noshed on Michael's fries, those were very good.
Not much to report on the furniture. I mean, it's Ikea, their design doesn't exactly change much. The room set up seemed to be about the same as the last time we were there.
In one of their fake condo set ups they had a TV playing Singing in the Rain.
OMG! I LOVE Singing in the Rain!!! The clothes in that movie were too die for. I watched it a million times growing up and my favorite part is when they talk about the first "talkie" and it's all the girls in these super cool costumes and... anyway. I could have sat there and watched the entire movie.
This was my favorite room in the whole store.
It's a lot of... birch? I'm not sure why I liked this room so much. It's a little too much... wood.
I think I just really like how bright and light everything looks. Oh, and the green, I like the green.
I know I've been talking the talk for awhile so I think it's finally time to walk the walk.
I'm planning on buying a house soon. Planning, not thinking. Housing prices have come down and I finally have enough money saved to put down a decent 10% down payment. What I really want is a nice little town house (or a cheap ass condo) in Ashburn, or a super fab 70's condo, complete with giant walls of glass and parquet flooring in Reston. Unfortunately, Ashburn might be a bit out of my price range and Reston might be a bit too ghetto.
We'll see... We'll see.
The only thing I'm certain of is that it must have 2 bedrooms and 2 baths.
It's not often that I make a meal. When I do cook it's usually entree only. Most of the time, like with pastas, an entree is all I need. When it's not, it's eaten as a side dish to rice. This time, however, I decided to go for the whole kitten caboodle.
We start with the roast!
After a generous covering of salt and pepper I seared it on all sides and baked it for a few hours. See those silver grids, that's my cooling rack. I love my cooling rack! Not only it is great for cooling stuff, it's also great for roasting and cooking meat (or meat loaves) so that all the fat just drips down. Speaking of which...
Mmmm... pan drippings. This is, by far the best thing you can use as sauce. How good? Good enough that I didn't use any A1 and, trust me, I love A1. I didn't even bother flavoring it with some red wine or thickening it with some flour. It was just perfect as is.
Dude... It practically melted in my mouth.
You can't be a meat and potato kind of girl without some potatoes, right?
I'm not really a fan of mashed potatoes but I like my mashed potatoes. It's flavored with some truffle oil and grated parmagiano cheese.
To complete the meal, I decided to roast some vegetables.
Do you have a salad spinner? You totally should, it's like three awesome things in one.
1) A colander to clean and drain. 2) A spinner to dry. 3) A bowl to mix or toss.
I tossed it all with some basting oil:
Then I broiled it oven for a few minutes:
The zucchini loses a lot of water while it broils so I recommend broiling it on a cooling rack (see, I told you it was handy!) so that the vegetables do not swim in vegetable juice.
I'm not sure what I enjoyed more, the beef, the potatoes, or the veggies. I should make a meal more often!
Awhile back I bought a sweater from Old Navy that ended up being a piece of crap. Crappy yes, but it was so perfect in so many ways. I liked the color, the fit (slightly loose and slouchy, but not baggy) the feel (oooh, soft!), and the warmth. Well, I returned it after I found this one at Gap.
Bad lighting aside, the color is similar (a bit more darker and muted), the fit is better (it's like the boyfriend sweater that I've always wanted!), and it's soft, warm, and snuggly. As an added bonus, it's a bit more... Hmmm... what's the word... Well, no one's going to mistake it for my sick sweater (you know, that sweater you wear when you feel like crap but you still have to leave the house). Oh, and did I mention that they were the same price? Yup, both were $16.99 (on sale).
The downside?
It still pills like crazy. The picture is too complimentary; it's worse in real life. Not as bad as the Old Navy sweater, mind you, but bad enough that I have to shave it after every wear or two.
Oh, it's from their "luxe" line?
What's so luxurious about an acrylic/nylon/angora blend sweater that sheds like crazy? Gap, you need higher standards.
Flaws aside, I've been wearing it a lot more than I probably should. Well, it's really cold outside. Looking all snazzy isn't very high on my priority list right now. I do, however, work with two fashion conscious girls. I don't think I've seen either of them repeat an outfit yet. They apologize for looking too plain, "Oh, sorry I look like this, I didn't get much sleep last night and I kind of overslept." "This" being, you know, a shirt and jeans, the same thing 90% of the population wears on a regular basis. I should probably give the oatmeal sweater some rest. Besides, at this rate, it might shed itself bare.
Now that the spring merchandise are landing in the stores all the sweaters are starting to go on clearance. I'm just going to bite the bullet and invest in some nice cashmere sweaters. My cashmere collection is becoming extinct; I've already lost two due to holes. Either I get some weird stains that reacts poorly to the dry cleaning chemical or there's a moth in my closet with an expensive taste. Well moth, if you're to blame, you might want to start slumming before you starve to death.
I must say, I am a pretty big fan of Urban Decay's lip products. This is S&M Lip Gunk from their Side Show Face Case. I guess they don't make them anymore since I can't find it on their website. Man... How old is that Face Case?
S&M is kind of an odd choice of name for a shade that's so... tame. It's essentially a clear lip goop with a bit of glitter. It has a nice, thick, but not sticky, consistency and it last for a decent period of time. My only complaint is that it smells like hemp. I'm not sure if that's intentional or it's due to age...
On an unrelated note, I got a $50 gift card to JC Penny. About 6 years ago, Sephora and JC Penny partnered up. I know you can use JCP credit cards at Sephora.com, but I'm wondering if I can use the gift card online. I am running low on the Frederick Fekkai Glossing Cream...
Or maybe I'll use the gift card to buy a new knife, mine's getting kind of dull...
I love macaroni and cheese. What's not too love? The Pioneer Women had a recipe for Fancy Macaroni and I was excited to try it out. Pasta? Cheese? Bacon?! Onions?! What's not to love?
It was... okay. It's one of those dishes that I'd be stoked to make often if it cost under $10. I forget how much all the ingredients cost but it called for lots of cheese. I remember thinking that it definitely was not worth the cost of all the ingredients. Maybe I'll try it again with just plain cheddar.
As a kid, every New Years, I always received money from my elders but that money train stopped once I got a real job. Poop. This year, surprisingly, one of my uncle gave me $50. I kind of felt bad accepting it, since I am clearly too old to be still receiving money on New Years, but... It was $50...
Hanging out with the family was surprisingly enjoyable. The obligatory conversation with my grandmother was... quite depressing. She talked on and on about how my dad will soon die from diabetic complications unless I make it my job and duty to ensure he eat healthy at all time. The baby was adorable and Walter, being the dumb ass that he is, had to make offensive comments.
I'm so tired of him and his homophobic, racist comments. I don't believe in New Year resolutions but I think I'll make one this year. Every time that dumb ass says something stupid, I'm going to call him out. I called him a racist today and, after a lame attempt at defending himself, "What! It's true," he shut up. It was satisfying. Maybe it'll alienate our relationship and maybe he'll ban me from seeing The Baby but I just can't put up with him anymore.
Anyhoo...
New Years are all about mondoos, or gyozas, or wontons... dumplings... etc. My favorite are the ones I make but I don't make them very often. My favorite store bought ones are the vegetable gyozas from Trader Joe's (the ones in the green bag). I used to fry them but I recently discovered a cleaners, quicker, easier way.
I bake them in the toaster oven at 400 degrees. My kitchen doesn't smell like oil and cleaning up is very easy.
