Dim Sum Diaries
The other day, whilst going out to lunch w/ a female co-worker:

Me: Hey let’s go to In ‘N Out Burger for lunch! I’m hungry!

Co-Worker: You should get a Double Double animal style!

Me:

Co-Worker: What?

Me: What is that? Some kind of new sexual position that I don’t know about?

Co-Worker (all embarrassed): No! Its extra sauce, grilled onions and tomatoes, perv.

Me: Oh. Would it still be animal style if I didn’t want the tomatoes?

Co-Worker: Eh? I guess you haven’t heard of 4x4 or 8x8 either.

Me: Cool! Hamburger orgies!

Co-Worker: Get a room with your burger already.
Here's a neato thingie I just found...creating your own political ad...I thought w/ the presidential race heating up and all...how one layers various elements on a piece of footage can really make a difference on how a candidate is portrayed. For the political geek in all of us...
Fres Burger gave me mad props! Yay! My life is now complete. Ha ha ha. Okay, now he thinks I'm a complete weirdo.

Which is okay, because I'm in quite a weird mood now.

One may ask, Mir, why are you not at boot camp right now? And my answer is, tomorrow is the last day of boot camp, and I'm driving back tomorrow. The unnamed motel it is being held at is a complete pit. Its yellow. The beds are hard and I'm lonely. No one is overly friendly. My roomate took off to her own house (I live 20 minutes away, I might creep back in late at night, she says). And the two girls who are my age are kinda doing their own little clique thing. God, its like grade school all over again. Both of these girls who have offered to be my critique partners in the past (one has a triangular shaped eyebrow but w/o the base line)...but they kinda fizzled out...I am tempted to make catty comments but refrain because I am mature. I am so much better then that. I will not sink to their level. Also, because I can't think of any good comeback lines.

After tonight's session, I was like...hmmm should I drive home and surf the internet, or should I stare out of my motel window, gazing longingly at the back of a 7-11 and some Italian restaurant that offers free delivery for hotel guests? Sigh.

Yeah yeah I'm complaining. The sessions have been VERY PRODUCTIVE though. Not only did I flesh out Dan and Kate's characters, but I fleshed out the plot and my homework is to write the entire plot out on little stickies so I can put them in order in a timeline or something. There is a published author and 4 people in my group and we spend about 1-2 hours on each person...discussing plot points and character. Its amazing how bloodthirsty you can be when you are discussing plot.

Me (discussing my book): Well, I was going to have Dan take some shrapnel in the leg in Iraq, so he comes back a wounded war hero. But I'm thinking that may not be enough. Okay, fine! Dan's gonna get his leg blown off and he'll have to get a prosthetic!

Triangular Eyebrow Chickie (discussing her book): Well, my heroine's sister-in-law is a total bee-otch, so she should go to jail in the end. I know! The hero kills evil bee-otch in the end! It will help with his emotional healing process...

So like I'll give you a more thorough update later. I mean...back to my partial hiatus. Yeah, like I'm so not gonna blog for a long time...so you'll just have to read the archives. Ha ha ha...
If I was still actively blogging, I'd say go check out Fres Burger's blog cuz it all good and stuff like that.

Too bad I'm not actively blogging. ;)

Further proof that I'm a geek:

I'm supposed to bring a pencil to Writer's Boot Camp. Dude, I'm 32. I haven't written anything with a pencil since like college. I limit myself strictly to pens and laptops and a Palm Pilot stylus. So like I'm supposed to bring a pencil right. Never mind that my daughter has bajillions of glittery, sparkly old school (wooden) #2 pencils. I go to Walmart...and the geek imperative within me awakens...I stop by the school supply aisle and am instantly drawn to...wait for it...DUM DUM DUM!!!! MECHANICAL PENCILS!!! And not just any type...the special type. The futuristic looking type. Screw you, 0.7 mm...you suck ass. No. Only 0.5 mm for me! I'm a lead smaller size snob! After carefully inspecting each mechanical pencil...I chose one...what a geek am I. But not really because I didn't buy the accompanying pocket protector...I almost did...but luckily I barely stopped myself...I love my blinged out mechanical pencil...my dawgz gonna all be jealous of it...

So why is that when try Cribz-speak I sound like a dork?

:p
I'm at home today...sick...again. I think its an ear infection. Last week it was a head cold. So I actually have the energy to post a short posty because I didn't have to wake up at the crack of dawn. Well actually, I did and watched a few episodes of Sports Night on DVD. Then shuffled along like an old woman back upstairs. Sigh.

Making good progress w/ the manu. Threw a lot of things out and put some new stuff in (could that be anymore vague)...much to the chagrin of Rand. Ha ha.

Am about to go to the doctor in a few minutes...tomorrow is daughter's sixth birthday...very exciting stuff. My sis is taking the kids to Disneyland this weekend...and I'm gonna be at Writer's Boot Camp! Woo hoo! Good stuff.

Just read Paul's blog and doing this meme thing.

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.

So here is mine...The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien.

There was a steady rain falling, which made it difficult, but he used heat tabs and Sterno to build a small fire, screening it w/ his body, holding the photographs over the tight blule flame with the tips of his fingers.

Peace out.
But this is too gross-a-licious to pass up...

From someone stationed in Baghdad. He was recently bitten by a camel spider which was hiding in his sleeping bag. It'll give you a better idea of what our troops are dealing with. Here is a picture of his friend holding up two spiders.
Still on hiatus...but leaving front page up...its not like I still check the blog or anything...its not like I'm addicted to blogging either...

Deep Sigh...
Moms...

What can I say. Their relationship with their children (especially as they get older) can be complicated. It was nice to see my parents this weekend. Mom is into the knitting/crocheting thing right now, so she is knitting me a shawl of sorts, a robin egg's blue one to keep me warm at night when I'm typing at the computer. Its pretty cool.

On the other hand, it was with some trepidation that I let my mom read the rough draft of the manu, and she (who doesn't like romances) kinda ripped it apart. So though there were some valid points, you know how you feel when your parents do that sort of thing...it left me feeling a little raw...

I read somewhere that you shouldn't show your manuscript to everyone...maybe that's good advice.

And now for my own almost 6 year old daughter, today is her first day of spring break day camp at the local YMCA. No longer a little baby, but still young enough so that your relationship is still not too complex. She'll still kiss me when I ask her to...hugs too...I need to remember to enjoy this phase...in a few years it'll be, Mom, please don't sing at the top of your voice to this Britney Spears song...

The bento moblog I blogged about before has inspired to try to be a little more creative with my kid's lunches. From the pics I have gleaned one can use mini-bagels, cut up hot dots (with dipping sauce included), some vegetables, fruits, etc. The japanese dishes, though they sound delish, are waaaaaayy out of my league...I need to go find a Bento box at the local Japanese market...

What's the point of this whole entry? Actually, I'm not sure except to say that the things that I remember being important to me as a kid...I'm trying to replicate for my own kids. Lunches. Ballet. Fabu birthday parties. Day camps.
Hmm...I can already tell this post is going to be somewhat rambly. So my dad calls me the other day.

"Hey," he said. "I read your blog! Are you okay? What happened to the kitchen???"

"Dad," I replied. "Its an April Fools joke."

"Are you sure? Because your mom did something like that awhile ago...and I was like...like mother like daughter!"

"Dad!"

So my parents come visit me today and of course my dad has to inspect the kitchen to make sure its not all blackened or something like that. Sigh.

I was reading the lovely Katia's blog, who always has wonderful descriptions of food. So of course now I am totally hungry. So maybe I'll talk about my mom cooking won tons last night. Basicaly you take ground pork, mix in an egg, oyster sauce, soy sauce and some chopped vegetables (like bok choy or napa cabbage). You mix it all up and let it marinate for awhile. Then you take won ton skin wrappers, put a dab of meat in the middle of a square and moisten the edges of the skin to fold it in half. So it is a little triangle. After you make a few, you gently lower them in boiling water, letting it cook for less then five minutes. The smell is wonderful and reminds me of when I was growing up and my mom was cooking back then too.

Its yummy to eat after you dab a bit of oyster sauce on it. Lo-Gung and my dad like to have contests regarding who can eat the most (my dad holds the record at 70). They like it with their own special sauce...a mixture of Siracha, rice vinegar and soy sauce and oyster sauce. o_O

I think I must be a big baby at heart, cuz I love it when my Mom & Dad visit and coddle me, their 32 year old daughter. :p

In other news, got in some good writing time yesterday. I was very tempted to go and check out Operation Neptune Shield, mostly to meet the famous Lt. Smash. Though he falls on the conservative side of the spectrum politically, he has a good blog. In fact, ONS seemed to be a we conservatives support our troops sort of counter protest to the anti-war protestors holding rallies that day...

So I decided to sit my butt down and concentrate on writing instead...

My dad brought his camera, mayhap I'll try to find something interesting to take a pic of later...

So what happens when you walk into an swanky art gallery one day and pretend to be someone your not, exactly? Trouble, my friend, trouble.

A few months ago, I walk in to aforementioned art gallery in cazh clothes (jeans and t-shirt). I really like this one painting by this Chinese artist and inquire as to the price. Upon finding out that it is slightly out of my price range, I ask if there are prints available. Art Gallery Chickie eyes my clothes and says rather brusquely, "We don't sell prints here." That question was my kiss of death, because after that I was ignored, if you know what I mean. That was a Friday.

The next day, I happened to be shopping in the area again. I went to the gallery, this time dressed in shorts and and a t-shirt. For some reason, Art Gallery Chickie didn't recognize me. This time instead of asking about prints, I asked if they had a catalogue of the artist's work. I must have sounded like I knew what I was talking about this time...I had to resist the temptation to throw in a few art terms to sound knowledgeable (Did you know that chiaroscuro is the new black?). Either they were desperate for a sale or I looked like I was a shabbily-chic dressed rich person. I pored through the catalog and told the lady that I liked one piece in particular.

"Oh sorry, I think that one is sold already," she said. "Would you like a Pellegrino?"

No problem, its not like I was really looking to buy. I just like sales people kissing my ass, but I politely declined the Pellegrino. So that was awhile ago. So then TODAY, Ms. Art Gallery Chickie calls me. "You know that piece that you liked? I found out that the artist still has it. Would you like me to have him ship it to the gallery?" she asked me.

Panic ensued. "Um...erm...um...what's his asking price?" I hedged.

She named a sum that had my eyes bulging.

"Um...let me talk to my husband and call you back before you have him ship it..." I said.

"Sure," she said cheerily.

Note to self: What the hell were you thinking???
Well I really did it yesterday. Lo-Gung came home with the kids at 5:30 pm yesterday to find two fire trucks parked at our house. Firemen were in and out of our house...the kitchen...sigh...

Lo-Gung was really mad. It seems I may have had a slight accident in the kitchen...I was making meat loaf yesterday and I thought that making IceBox Rolls would be a good accompaniment...I had this recipe and everything. So everything is fine, I'm doing the Martha Stewart thing, and then I get to the part of the recipe that says,

Bring one cup of water and 1/2 cup shortening to a boil in a small saucepan over high heat; boil 5 minutes.

So that's what I did...but then I had to go check my email, so I left the kitchen for a second...okay maybe a few minutes...I had five, didn't I? Next thing I know, I smell this burning. I rush back to the kitchen and find the saucepan is on fire!! It had already spread and I didn't have a fire extinguisher...so I called 911!!!!

Luckily the fire trucks came pretty quickly and they broke down the door with axes...so now our door is gone. They put out the fire pretty quickly, but the entire kitchen is blackened...then Lo-Gung came home...and the kids...they were crying....why did Mommy blacken the kitchen...was it punishment for something they did...

It was horrible. The firemen were scolding me...and Lo-Gung was scolding me...and I had had enough with the scolding...so I fed them all meatloaf to shut them up. The insurance adjuster is supposed to be out today...I'll let you all know what happens...