Dim Sum Diaries

Top 4 Reasons Thanksgiving Was Awesome


4. The food!

3. (Did I mention the food?) N (sis) made this delicious pumpkin trifle to celebrate Mom's birthday. Better then sex, bitches.



2. (Foooooooooood) I linked the recipe for the turkey I was going to make the other day, and boy did it turn out well! Its so pretty! And yes that is bacon on top (for flavor). In other news, the recipe called for sage butter to be rubbed under the turkey skin, but the way Hubby was enthusiastically massaging butter into the turkey was akin to soft porn, imo.




AND THE TOP REASON #1 REASON THANKSGIVING KICKED ASS:

1. It was a very relaxing time I enjoyed with my Mom, Dad, Hubby, kids, in-laws and Sis and her Hubby. It was just great to talk, play Uno and hang. Of course them raving over my cooking didn't hurt either. :)
Happy Thanksgiving to all, gosh haven't posted in awhile! Hope everyone is doing well. Just came back from running around all over the city to get the necessary ingredients to make the yum-yums, including Maple-Roasted Turkey with Sage, Smoked Bacon, and Cornbread Stuffing and Whipped Sweet Potatoes and Bananas with Honey.

Went with Hubby last weekend to Gencon to meet up with a friend we know from WoW. Was slightly hesitant to seal my fate as a complete and utter geek in the eyes of my sister, as I asked her to watch the kids for the day whilst Hubby and I indulged ourselves in Gencon.

"Where are you going again???" she demanded.

"Umm...you know this game con, to meet up with some friends."

"What kind of games?"

"Hmm...good question. D&D type stuff, I think."

"Are you going to dress up?"

"Fuck no! Only dorks dress up. I am so over that."

"You did dress up as Captain Janeway FOR TWO YEARS IN A ROW for Halloween," she pointed out. "How do I know your not hiding the outfit in the car???"

"For the love of God N (sis), I am not that geeky, ok?"

"Uh huh." She seemed to remain unconvinced.

So off Hubby and I went, and it was quite interesting. I've never been into the trading cards or table top games, but I wanted to go and see what it was all about (this sums it up nicely.). Oh, how I wish my cell phone hadn't run out of batteries, so I could've taken some pictures. There was a booth selling cloaks, foam weapons and an entire booth devoted to dice (every shape, color and size you can imagine). There were rows and rows of tables set up so people could play games. I even played a table top game, it was all about math and dice on this mini board that was a square and landscaped (mini trees, houses like from a train station model). You measure out the distance your armies can move with a tape measure (interesting) and based on your dice rolling and the stats of your armies, you hit, miss, etc. I played Hubby and was singlehandedly kicking his ass, until Helexa had to cheat and give him loaded dice, so I lost, but only just. Bloody men with small penises trying to compensate.

Though it was fun irritating the hell out of everyone by shouting out "I WIN I WIN" every time I rolled. :)

The biggest draw though was Blizzard booth where they had a perky Asian girl hosting and throwing prizes to a group of extremely eager young men who all pointed north towards her. It was amazing. We had dinner and overall had a good time. Apparently table top games etc are big in the East coast and Midwest, not so much in California. But it was interesting to see another aspect of geekery I have no intention of getting into. I will not dress up as an female elf in a leather bustier and g-string, no matter how much Hubby begs.
Today is Hubby's and my 11th wedding anniversary (on 11/11 no less). We've been through so much together, the good and the bad. I just want to say I love you, honey. Not only is marriage truly a commitment, but so is getting what you want sometimes...so I wanted to share this story...

I've linked this video SO MANY TIMES. I decided to take the plunge and get the CD. They don't sell it on amazon.com, so I would have to go to try and buy it at a Chinese music store whilst visiting my parents' house in Los Angeles. Being the well-informed, NPR listening, internet savvy (yet curiously not knowing how to speak Chinese that well) person that I am, I immediately went to Wikipedia and made sure I wrote down the correct spelling of his name and his albums. Surely it couldn't be too hard to find a cd, right? OMFG...little would I know........

So, off to LA I go.

"Mom and Dad!" I chirped brightly as I entered the house. "I simply have to get this CD and you, with your mad Chinese language skills must help me!! Do you know of a Chinese music store we can go to?"

Dad gestured vaguely. "In Monterey Park somewhere."

Well it was a start. So we all went to Korean BBQ for dinner, where Dad said there were a couple of music stores nearby. I was very excited, practically running into the first music store I saw (through the back entrance). I waved Dad over to translate just in case (remember Cantonese = italics, Mandarin = bold).

"Do you have any CDs by Wong Gwung Liang?"

"Who?"

"His CDs include "Fairytale"? "Commitment"?"

She shook her head. "Never heard of him."

"Ah well, thanks anyways." I said.

Inside I was like, oh my god, you have got to be kidding me. To me, that is the equivalent of walking into Best Buy, asking for CDs by Britney Spears and them saying..."Who???" But I was not to be deterred. There was a youngish looking guy staring intently into a computer at the front of the store. He should know, hopefully. So I walked up to him.

"Hey dude, do you have any CD's by Michael Wong? AKA Wang Gwung Liang? You know, he has this video, where he's playing the piano and his girlfriend dies from a nosebleed?"

He shook his head no. I then noticed he was checking his Yahoo mail on the computer (though it was the Chinese version). I was getting desperate now. "Hey why don't you let me go to Youtube on your computer and I can show you his video..." I made a tiny move toward the keyboard, and he reacted as if I was going to attack him or something. I sighed and decided to move on. I tried a second store with no luck either, but the kids were getting hungry so I'd wait till after dinner.

"Those salespeople spoke Mandarin," Mom said while we ate. "Maybe they haven't heard of him."

"Mom, he's singing in Mandarin. How could they not know???"

"But based on his accent, he's not a native Mandarin speaker. Also this singer is kind of young, maybe the salespeople are too old to have heard of him," she said.

"That guy at the computer was in his mid- to late-twenties, how could he not know," I grumbled.

"Well, let's go to this other place in the 99 Ranch Market complex after dinner then," Dad said.

So after enjoying a thoroughly delicious dinner, we went to the final destination. I dragged Mom along (everyone else stayed in the car) because she of all people could translate my English babbling into coherent Chinese. Walking into the store, I felt confident this would be the place who would sell younger people's music (there was a Chinese poster of the latest Superman movie on the door).

"Hello, can I help you?" a young female salesclerk asked (lets call her Amy).

She spoke English. I could've kissed her.

"Okay, here's the thing, I'm looking for a CD by this guy known in English as Michael Wong. In Chinese he's known as Wong Gwung Liang. I swear i got the spelling of his name straight from Wikipedia. He has this song called "Fairytale" and in his video he's playing the piano and his girlfriend is like dying of a nosebleed which could be indicative of tuberculosis or worse, but the bottom line is her nose bleeds a lot in the video. His hair is kind of poofy...umm...he's cute and he sings these lovey dovey songs..."

"Leng-jai songs, more like," muttered Mom, inferring she was embarassed by her 34 year old's daughter obsession with music only a young teenager (13 years old) would go ga-ga over.

I only got a blank stare from Amy, whose eyes probably began to roll back into her head at the mention of "wikipedia". "Let me check," she said and began dialing a number into her cell phone.

"Who the hell is she calling," I whispered to Mom.

"I don't know, maybe another store location."

Suddenly the phone on the counter began to ring. The guy at the register picked it up (lets call him Jim). Amy had called Jim on the phone and they were standing ONLY TWO FEET AWAY FROM EACH OTHER. "Yeah Amy?"

"Jim, do you know of a Michael Wong or a Gwung Liang?" Amy asked.

"Nosebleed!" I piped in helpfully.

"Hmm...oh you mean GWANG LIANG? Oh yeah, of course!" he said.

"Oh...GWANG LIANG. Okay I know who it is now," Amy said.

She picked a CD out of the shelf and lo and behold, there it was!!! Victory!!!! So apparently it was only a matter of saying his name in Mandarin, as opposed to Cantonese. As I walked out of the store with the booty in hand, Mom only shook her head, "Who dies of a nosebleed? The sales clerk was laughing at you on the inside when you were describing the video. I could tell."

"Oh, Mom!"

PS-My daughter thinks I'm crazy because of this episode...
On the darkest hour of the darkest night, she lay in her bed sleeping, but it was not a restful sleep. It was fitful really, she must have been dreaming about something that bothered her, for there was much twisting and turning. In the end she settled by sleeping in a reverse of her usual position, her head at the footboard and her feet resting on her pillow. The air was very cold, so she'd wrapped herself up completely in her soft, flannel blanket for warmth, looking rather like a blue burrito.

The doorknob to her bedroom slowly turned and the door creaked open. A shadowy figure quietly slipped in and paused for a moment, gauging the scene before him. His eyes sharpened as he saw the burrito-shaped blob, a multitude of thoughts racing through his mind. He walked over to his side of the bed and slipped in, carefully adjusting his sheets and curling over to the furry blue mass's pillow next to him. It was still completely dark as he pulled down the blanket and gave his wife a deep, urgent and longing kiss.

Suddenly he jumped back in shock. "Oh my god!" he cried. "Do not tell me I just kissed the bottom of your foot goodnight!!"

The Blue Burrito looked up from the foot of the bed. "Tried to slip it some tongue too. Dork."
Holy Fish Sauce Batman, the Dems have taken both the Senate and House! I haven't been this giddy since 1992 when Clinton won. Then I realize this was 14 years ago and I'm thinking, damn, I'm bloody old now. With these tidings of great joy, I've begun listening to NPR again (weird huh), and I have a job interview tomorrow. Just trying to find some temp work until I hear from this other job, but with the holidays coming up and such, extra money is always nice.

I'm a little nervous, to be honest, its been almost 2 years since I last had a job...so wish me luck.

In other news, Daughter had acute pain in her side for a couple of days, which resulted me rushing her to urgent care. After waiting two hours for a blood test (we went to dinner while we waited), results were normal. And she felt better already. Better safe then sorry...but damn its stressful.

And in yet other news, I just have this general good feeling of things to come...maybe its because the Dems are the roxxors? Or maybe its those fajitas I had for dinner tonight...either way, I'll keep y'all updated... o_O

More Pretty Food Pics From White Barbarian Dork


Went to the local Renaissance faire this weekend. I thought the kids would enjoy the sights and maybe get a little cultural exposure. It was fun, though I was a bit surprised at how many people actually spend those massive amounts of money to costume themselves and their pets. In that pic below, that dress is made entirely from chain mail. I was thinking, "Wow I should buy that!"

The merchants were very nice, one of them even gave the kiddies a plagued rat puppet (free). "Go forth and spread the bubonic plague!" he replied to the kiddies' dutiful chorus of "Thannnk youuuuu!!" I enjoyed the Celtic step dance performances. I did notice that Hubby was careful to wear his sunglasses to this event, so no "checking out of the wenches and their huge, massively exposed bosoms" was too obvious.

Let's see...also saw "Flushed Away", and that was cute. Got a chance to see the Borat movie, I couldn't believe the theater was PACKED. Was #1 this weekend too, and here is an update on some of the people who were in the movie (and didn't know they'd been had).

Side note: UTILIZING THE POWER OF GOOGLE, I'VE CREATED MY OWN SEARCH ENGINE!! And you can create your own too! Pretty damn spiffy, I must say.

Ugh, brain is dead. If I think of anything else to post, I shall do so later. :)

UPDATE:



I've never cried so much over a nose bleed.
Okay so there is this total dork who went to Taiwan on a business trip and decides to send back tortuous pics of delicious food he had, and he apparently doesn't know how to upload pics to Blogger. What a tard.

So thusly the Dim Sum Diaries is happy to present...orgasms on a plate:





Ah yup, its all about me! Just a list denoting what I'm into these days:

WHAT I PLAN TO BUY OR WATCH THIS MONTH:
THINGS I SEEM TO BE ENJOYING AT THE MOMENT:
In other news kids had fabu Halloween, Daughter needs braces. Still waiting to find out if that job prospect is a go, but have guarded high hopes for a positive result. Must go shopping for Thanksgiving (holy shit already) soon, as am planning a bang up all out party for Turkey Day. Williams-Sonoma, here I come!