i put on my apron and my chef hat.

chinese beef noodle soup, chicken vindaloo, bi bim bap, and orecchetti with meat sauce

because of the lack of interesting topics for me to update on... i had attempted to take photos of home cooked meals made by that little asian gal in the kitchen. yes lil 'ol me. too bad i don't remember to do this that often... take pictures that is... all the while i pretty much cook daily.

[update] for those who don't know.. as with most of my posts.. clicky on the images = bigger image. voila!

a weekend of surprises

The weekend started off with surprisingly nice weather.. finally, after almost 2 weeks of rain.. and then a 'surprise' birthday party for my mom... but it wasn't one of those where the lights are turned off and everyone hides behind a couch. it was more of a "surprise you're having a party tonight, expect 20 people to show up sporadically." which was fine, it was like a surprise each time the doorbell rang. dad cooked up a storm all day, i got off early and helped decorate and 'clean'.. only to sneak off back home before the mom got home. i'm sure she enjoyed herself.. even if it was a bit tiring.

saturday. me and the hubby ran around doing errands most of the day.. then spent the evening with friends. and what an interesting evening it was. it was a last minute gathering of good friends for dinner at our favorite sushi place.. oishii. then killed some time at d's place before everyone met back up to go out to Hue.. where the real fun began.

happy birthday mom!

happy birthday to my beautiful mom...
i love you!

office chat is fun.

office dad says: wind beneath my wings!!!!!!!!!!
issa says: I KNOW.

office bff says: let's go pick up a Britney Spears "baby one more time" CD
office bff says: it's free.. on craiglist
issa says: um. what

each of these has their own stories. i guess i should elaborate. i had saved 'office dad' from tedious id-10T issues from our techies. and 'office bff' i guess he likes free stuff...

a little bit of this and that.

work has finally smoothed out to a more reasonable amount of busyness. which leaves me enough time to post a quick update. too bad there's not much to update on... other then finally being somewhat relieved from the stress from dealing with an insane time table for a project at work. i think it's time the IT fun coordinator plans a major event.. but i seem to be free of ideas at the moment.. something outside of the office would be ideal. we need it.

over the past week i have dusted off my guitar and viola.. and starting to rebuild the calluses on my left hand fingertips. plucking away at such standards as stairway to heaven.. it'll be awesome. hopefully i'll be able to pick up piano again soon too.

this past saturday, went out with dru and roz&d to celebrate a friends birthday.. at a hookah bar. it was pretty interesting.. but i stuck to wine instead of trying the hookah.. i didn't want to embarrass myself.. since i had no idea what the procedure was.. and having never smoked before.. i imagined myself trying then choking on the strawberry flavored.. smoke? afterwards we attempted to go some place where dancing could occur.. but we failed miserably, despite staying out til 2am.

this week the cold arrived.. and the so called 'ice storm' was rather uneventful. after having it hit pretty much all four years i was in Austin.. this was nothing. but the cold does make it that much harder to drag myself outta bed each morning. and i need to really start running again.

issa, hero to all.

so it's saturday and i'm at work. we have a major project which is due on wednesday so work has been crazy since i've been back from my 'christmas break' but at least while i'm QA-ing like i've never QA'd before.. i get to laugh at random messages from the dev team. it varies from day to day.. but i think this one is my favorite.

NYE 2006

New Years Eve (aka me and the hubby's wedding anniversary... 3 years and going strong!). 3rd year is leather.. so the hubby got me a coach wallet to match the christmas present he got me :D
Sunday morning I woke up extra early along with the mother-in-law, to head out to Target for the hunt of 75% holiday things. And I was quite the lucky one to say the least, since not all the targets went 75% at the same time.
Dinner was spent with family at the parents house. Dad (aka Iron Chef) out did himself as usual, despite suffering from a case of the stomach flu. I really don't know how he could cook this meal, but at the same time probably be disgusted by it. We had escargot to start, followed by a delicious salad, then the main spread which include paella, stuffed pork loin, and rack of lamb.. it was a grand feast.

The rest of the night we entertained ourselves till midnight, by playing wii sports and karaoke revolutions... everyone got really into it too.. so it was a good choice.



Dinner close-ups: (Click on any of the pictures for a larger view)

Have you seen me?

Missing. Candy Cane, 1.5 months old, 12 inches tall.

The days after Christmas seemed to fly by, full of relaxation and Law&Order.. and a quick trip to Austin.. a quick shopping trip. However, the morning we off to the ATX, i was awoken to a missing candy cane and some of the neighbor's decor missing and strewn about my yard. it was quite sad and upsetting. kids these days... stop ruining Christmas.

christmas past.

how sad it is when 'the most wonderful time of the year' passes.. but a new year begins... things have finally slowed down a bit around the house (though not at all at work) so i figured i'd better post a quick update from christmas... Say hello to the Family... and Hi Mom & Dad! (they read this too, even my dad told me i had been slow on updating)
Christmas eve was spent at my parents house where we were treated to a delicious homemade chinese dinner... and of course a few presents, as we waited up for midnight mass. renji especially loved his presents... too bad now he thinks every bag he sees must contain something for him.

Christmas dinner was at our house.. and we surprised everyone by serving up a turducken for the main course. it was actually quite good, but with 9 people over for dinner, we still had half of it leftover. it was huge! and for dessert i made tiramisu again to great avail! it ended up being a great christmas, spent with family.. exactly what the holidays are supposed to be about.

As for presents, the husband laughed about how i must really be miss domesticated diva because of the slew of domestic christmas gifts i received...