Dim Sum Diaries
Yeah I guess I couldn't stay away from blogging that long...still playing around with a new template...
Happy 9th Anniversary Honey!!!!

Took the day off yesterday, had a nice relaxing day. Went out with Hubby to lunch to a kickass Vietnamese restaurant.

Had the #4 special, which is beef noodle soup with tripe, tendon and joints. Wondered how the waiter would react if I asked for "extra ligaments on the side please".

Still cannot find a decent non-Legolas elf pattern for kid's Christmas play costume.
Domain Transfers (and Hijackings) to Become Easier (via).

Make you you update your contact information with your domain registrar! o_O
The Kevin F. Sherry Sweater Project: Sexy sweaters and cardigans from the '80s.

I think Hubbo had a few of these.

Also, I have this brilliant idea for Thanksgiving. Absolutely no cooking is needed this year, all I need is this!



Just line those bottles up and bam dinner is served! Each bottle represents an entree in soda form:

- Turkey & Gravy Soda
- Cranberry Soda
- Mashed Potato & Butter
- Green Bean Casserole
- Fruitcake Soda

Yum...............
This is mostly for myself.

A new book called Considering Aaron Sorkin will be out next year. Eleven essayists explore the subtle, pervasive and often contradictory messages woven throughout Sorkin’s work, from politics to portrayals of women, and consider his impact on film, television and culture.

Good script site here.
Ugh, I must be big time PMSing cuz all I can think about is food right now. Especially comfort food.

Saturday I was totally craving hot Asian noodles of some kind. There was no place that served a decent wonton mein, so I said to hubby, let's get FUH!. Actually, it's pho, which is Vietnamese for noodles. Went to this great AUTHENTIC Vietnamese place. Kids enjoyed broken rice and pork chops while I went into foodgasm over the hot, savory chicken broth soup (had 2 bowls). The vermicielli noodles with fried pork chop bits and spring rolls were also good. Yummmmyyyyy!

Hubby mentioned that his co-worker Sushi-man (who also is Chinese) also craves hot noodle soupy dishes like I do. Mayhap it is a Chinese addiction thing?

Also, this Cream of Mushroom Chicken recipe sounds like a good one for tonight.

A co-worker, who is Fillipino, has a mother-in-law who makes sausages. He brought some samples to work in case anyone wanted to buy some. There was this one, embutido which tasted pretty good. I sliced it up and used it to make fried rice. Pretty damn tasty I must say.

Sunday I escaped away and got some writing done. 11 pages baby!!!!! Now all I have to do is add punctuation, nouns and pronouns.

DSC00460
Originally uploaded by miriyaparino.
You never realize how fragile your sense of well-being is until something happens. In our case, the power went out tonight for about 4 hours. Man, it was kind of freaky. It happened when I was cooking dinner, so the gas was on and then the lights go out...so I'm like cooking in the dark.

Hubby and I scramble to get candles, but we don't have emergency backup candles, so we ended up using the holiday ones, which is why the picture looks so festive. Then I remember I have tealights, so that is good, because we have a lot of candles and not too many candle holders.

"I have tealights in the drawer!" I exclaim to Hubby.

He opens the drawer and finds a bag of like 100 tealights. "Where did you get these from?" he asks.

"From Crate & Barrell. You see the label on the front of the bag? It says Crate & Barrell?" I say snarkily (to be a smart ass)

Hubby rolls his eyes and then sighs loudly when I take insist on taking pictures of our secondary lighting system. So we decide to go to my in-laws house because they have electricity.

"We could go to a movie and leave the kids there for a couple of hours," Hubby suggests.

"Sure," I reply.

But when I go to the internet at my in-laws to check movie times, I find that in-law's compy is riddled with spyware crap, so I spend the next few hours downloading the Yahoo toolbar with the spybot remover thingie and updating his anti-virus software and looking like a hero because I seem like I know what I'm doing.

Electricity is back on, finally.
Saw The Incredibles yesterday. Totally excellent! It was nice to get away for a few hours.

I usually view Friday as a "I can do what I want day". For example, I can drink coffee and/or soda (caffiene) at night!!! Because I can stay up late and don't have to worry about getting up at hella 4:00 am for work!!! It's small pleasures like this you really come to appreciate as you evolve to old fart status. Sigh.

Today for me is all about digging in at home, resting and spending time with the family. And getting some writing done. And cleaning the house.

I'm still trying to think of effective things to do for Julian Goodrum (see entry below). God I don't even know the guy but I can't stop thinking about his situation. After Kerry's loss (yeah I'm getting over it already okay), I feel like this is some cause with possible achievable concrete results. The Army should lighten up on the poor guy already.
I just read this article via Sean from docinthebox. I am so mad.

1st Lieutenant Julian Goodrum, ex-navy and currently in the National Guard. He was in Iraq but he got sent back because he was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and hand injuries. The article says it best:

Back at Fort Knox that September, Goodrum had surgery on his left hand. But he had to wait weeks to begin physical therapy. And weeks more passed before he could iron out the red tape for surgery on his right hand.

Conditions for soldiers on medical hold at Fort Knox and elsewhere were poor. There were too few doctors. Soldiers faced lengthy waits for processing and treatment. Many soldiers were sent to civilian physicians. And the base accommodations often were poor. Congress ultimately would investigate and recommend changes.

Goodrum filed more official complaints. And he made his "treated like dirt" comment to UPI. It made him a bit infamous on base. He felt it put a bull's-eye on his back.

Goodrum's treatment situation was becoming even more maddening. Suddenly, there were confusing complications in his quest to get surgery for his right hand. On Oct. 29, oddly, he was dropped from "medical hold" at Fort Knox, though he still needed care.

On Nov. 5, at a base clinic, he says, snide comments were made to his face about his outspokenness in the press. He claims a clinic attendant told him he would not be getting his second surgery.

He was so angry, so unnerved, he began to cry. He called a medical case manager. He called a commander he knew. He received assurances that of course he would receive his surgery.

So on Nov. 7, he reported to the Fort Knox hospital to begin the process. He would have to be readmitted to medical hold. And he also asked for help with the emotionalism and anxiety that seemed to keep overwhelming him. He wouldn't get very far.

Lt. Col. Ronald Stevens, then the deputy chief of clinical services at Fort Knox, had been checking up on Goodrum. Stevens had looked at Goodrum's records after the UPI article, Stevens testified at the Article 32 hearing. Stevens thought Goodrum had exaggerated. The UPI article, said Stevens, contained "untruths."

In his testimony, Stevens claimed he wanted to meet Goodrum. He had instructed medical staff to not readmit Goodrum into the medical hold company, but to send him to see Stevens instead.

The physician's assistant who handled Goodrum that day testified that he remembered few details about the encounter. What Goodrum remembers is this: being told that Stevens did not want him to be treated. And a note on a page of Goodrum's records from Ireland Army Community Hospital at Fort Knox reads, "Colonel Stevens do not [sic] want this pt. to be in med. hold."


You guys should read the rest of the article. I got so mad after I read it I emailed Arlen Specter who is the Chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee. Then I emailed a well-known mil blogger re the situ. Jesus, I wish there was more I can do.
Finally it's Friday. Not much going on in my life really. Just a general feeling of numbness as reality of Nov. 2 sinks in. The reactions of some Americans to Bush for four more years is interesting (and dare I say amusing?).

Anyways, tonight will be family bonding night, wherein Hubby and I take el kiddos to see The Incredibles, which has gotten good reviews.

Also finally getting the writing juices flowing again. Retooling manuscript. Kate finds new love with someone else. The fun thing about being a writer is the godlike power you wield over your characters. Good stuff. :)
Okay enough of the political talk.

Just took a cool quiz Are You A Regency Catch?

Apparently, I am Catherine Morland.

Young lady, you've got more sensibility than sense! It's time you stopped your romantic daydreaming and found some sure–footed older beau to set you on the straight and narrow. You're putting your reputation at risk. You're like Northanger Abbey's silly Miss Catherine Morland, who was led astray by her passion for florid gothic novels.

BTW, Regency House Party (a reality dating show using 1800's rulz) looks pretty cool.

Update: Just took the quiz for the guy version, apparently I am Mr. Elton!!!

Update Update: Swell Mademoiselle is a cool blog. Go read it.
People say there are two Americas. I think there are at least three.

One is Bush's America: an amalgam of the extreme Christian "conservatives," corporate interests and the builders of the burgeoning national-security state.

Another is the Democratic "left": wedded to the old, discredited politics in a time that demands creative thinking.

I suspect there's a third America: members of an increasingly radical middle that will become more obvious in the next few years, tolerant of those who are different and aware that the big problems of our times are being ignored -- or made worse -- by those in power today.

That third America needs a candidate. Or, maybe, a new party.


--Xeni from Boing-Boing's take on the election situ.
Damn damn damn. What a rollercoaster last night. Despite early speculation that optimistically showed Kerry winning, that doesn't seem to be the case. There may still be a very very slim thread of hope, but I'm not holding my breath.

Hope. You evil emotion, you. You flirted with me all afternoon yesterday. Made it seem like we were getting somewhere. You gave me your phone number. I scrawled my number on your metaphorical forehead with permanent marker! Were you going to call me? I waited all night with baited breath...but YOU NEVER CALLED!!

UPDATE: It's over.

Four more #(*@#%@$!%#!# years.

Kos has some thoughts on the state of the Democratic Party.

Wonkette Posts Em, I Cut & Paste Em Here


Per Wonkette, the latest numbers.

FL: 52/48 - KERRY
OH: 52/47 - KERRY
MI: 51/48 - KERRY
PA: 58/42 - KERRY
IA: 50/48 - KERRY
WI: 53/47 - KERRY
MN: 57/42 - KERRY
NH: 58/41 - KERRY
ME: 55/44 - KERRY

NM: 49/49 - TIE

NV: 48/49 - BUSH
CO: 49/50 - BUSH
AR: 45/54 - BUSH
NC: 47/53 - BUSH


UPDATE: More from Slate.

UPDATE: Bah! Many postings on the numbers, no time to keep updating...still have kids to pick up and dinner to cook. Oh and vote. Keep fingers crossed...
Per Wonkette, as of 11:37 am PST, some preliminary speculative numbers:

K/B

AZ 45-55
CO 48-51
LA 42-57
MI 51-48
WI 52-48
PA 60-40
OH 52-48
FL 51-48
MICH 51-47
NM 50-48
MINN 58-40
WISC 52-43
IOWA 49-49
NH 57-41


Keep in mind this is MERELY SPECULATION from a certain source, but we'll see what happens!
Well it is Le Jour Del Destino, I'm pretty sure I'm mixing French and Made Up Latin in that phrase, but you get the picture. It definitely is a day of destiny. So go vote. That's what I'll be doing after work.

In other news, I added some new linkys to my Daily Reads section. Also I will be cozying up tonight, alternately keeping an eye on election results and watching The West Wing: Season 3.

Also, I just got a book that I ordered from Amazon yesterday, called Purple Hearts, detailing the lives of some U.S. soldiers who lost limbs, sight or health in Iraq and what has happened to them since coming back home. For example:


(photo by Nina Berman)

From The Book: Spc. Sam Ross, 21 an army paratrooper and combat engineer with the 82nd Airborne Division, was gravely injured May 18 in Baghdad when a bomb blew up during a munitions disposal operation. Photographed at his home in Dunbar Township, Pennsylvania October 19, 2003

In one case, Tyson Johnson had been wounded severely and the Army was trying to get his signing bonus back because he didn't fulfill his contract (because he was wounded). When the press got wind of it though, the Army abandoned it's efforts to collect.

I don't know what else to say about it except that you should read it. Each account is compelling, filled with despair and little hope. It's the story you rarely hear about.
Let it not be said that The Dim Sum Diaries is only a slightly leaning libbie blog (even though it is).

If you lean to the right and are sick of food that plugs the Democrats, for example, Heinz Ketchup or Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, I present to you:

Star Spangled Ice Cream (via)! Ice cream with a conservative flavor (get it get it). They have cleverly titled ice cream flavors, among my favorites:

-I Hate The French Vanilla

-Choc & Awe

-Iraqi Road
Literacy is an enormous issue today. That's why we have proposed the No Caucasian Child Left Behind initiative, with a goal of 10 percent literacy by 1860. Because we owe it to our Caucasian children. Campaign Trail Quotes From George W. Bush, If He Were Running for President in 1848.

Don't forget to vote!!!!!!!!!!!