30 for $30 deal

They have a "Dine around Seattle" event again this whole month and instead of 25 restaurants and $25 for 3-course dinners, they added 5 more places and increased the price to $30. It's really a good deal to try new places that you won't really try on a normal day. Last time I tried Brasa in Belltown and Eva Restaurant in Green Lake. I also tried Nell's Restaurant (for Veronica's b'day) and they are pretty good.
This time around I was planning to try Barking Frog and Etta's. Barking Frog was canceled due to bad traffic today. The weather was horrible and accidents all over the highways so we had to make last minute decision on where to eat. So we called in Etta's to make a reservation and we got a place for 2. Lucky. The food was delicious. My tablemate started off with an ice-cold wedge of crisp iceberg lettuce generously dressed with a creamy, chive-spiked Rogue River blue cheese dressing. I enjoyed the steamed Penn cove mussels with chorizo, potatoes and sweet onion. I went for the Etta’s fabled Rub with Love Salmon and cornbread pudding while my tablemate went for perfectly grilled tuna, just rare at the center, which was served with mashed sweet potatoes and black lentils. Really good!! Come dessert, I had to have the classic coconut cream pie, a towering slice of over-the-top coconut goodness and he had a Washington Apple Sorbet Terrine. Yummmy...The service was reliable and efficient and our server was friendly without being intrusive. Overall, I think both of us were really satisfied with what we had.
So for next week, I'm already browsing the website to find the next restaurant and I think we are going to try Veil Restaurant. The menu looks good and the review also pretty helpful. We'll see how it goes next week.

high maintenance bitch?

couple days ago, i had my nails done after a long day at work. i think it's nice to pamper yourself once in a while. so this morning, one of my guy coworker came to me and asked if i had my nails done. i said yes and asked him why. he and his friend think that girls that have their nails done are high maintenance girls. apparently his ex girlfriend was like that.

so i'm curious right now. it's true that when I stepped inside the nail salon close to my apt, most of the women there were pretty much like trophy wives or from well-off family. you can tell from what they wear and how they carry themselves. but then again, queen anne is quite a ritzy area. i bet if the nail salon is located in aurora or poor neighborhood, it's going to be a different story.

i can't really say that having your nails done mean that you are a one high maintenance girl. for me, it's just a fun things to do to pamper and make myself prettier. i haven't even thought about the subject until my coworker said that to me.

introducing dian widjaja, graphic designer

I've always liked my sister's work of arts since i was a little girl. so when she decided to become a graphic designer, her decision seemto be a good decision. after all the hard work that she put during 4 years of college, i can say that i really like and enjoy her works.

Here's her website/portfolio : http://dianwidjaja.com/

beauty is nothing without brains

take a look at these 2 commercials. they are so funny!!

The first one is a QA with a contestant from South Carolina for Miss Teen USA 2007


The second one is a TV commercial for Mercedes-Benz


now i'm wondering where "dumb blonds" jokes are coming from... go figure! speaking of the first video, i can't even understand what she's trying to say. it's a really simple question but it took her all around the world to answer it and she still didn't get it right.

hmmpphh

found out today from ticketmaster that they are refunding my money for amy winehouse's tickets that i bought couple months ago. apparently she canceled her north american tours. sucks. i was crossing my fingers that she can make it for this september. i guess not. hopefully she will reschedule it again. sigh. maybe i should just go to bumbershoot instead. the shins, panic at the disco, gym class heroes are playing on sat, sept 1st. i'm not really into sean paul nor joss stone but curious about kings of leon and black rebel motorcycle. saturday with the shins and friends or sunday with those 2 rock bands? can't really decide right now. anyone else wanna go to bumbershoot?

busy weeks

it's been a long week. so glad that weekend is here. getting involved with setting up the new line was interesting, fun and stressful. stressful in a way that i still had to manage my own line while also deeply involved with the new line. there were times when i had to do time studies on the processes and instead of leaving me alone with the studies, everyone wanted a piece of me at the same time. i was so ready to pull my hair out and started thinking of kicking someone. but anyway now that the line is somewhat ready, it's not as bad as the first time. still bad, still stressful but somewhat more manageable just because i have someone helping me with the time studies, and someone else to slowly take my place in the old line. hopefully he can learn things pretty quick.

so, after thinking of not reading the last harry potter, i decided to change my mind and bought the last one (might as well). it's not a bad decision. the last one was so much better in storyline and action than the previous 2 books. i really enjoy the deathly hallows. there's an article about what happened next to harry and his friends after the final book in CNN.com. here's the article . i wish she put that information somewhere inside the book.

it's been a long day. going to brush my teeth and sleep.

random stuff

So, I have to admit that i really like to peek through my windows to see my neighbor's apartment. you see, when i moved to my apartment, whomever occupied that next building unit really did a good job in decorating his/her place. it has a wooden floor. for some reason the whole wooden floor thing kind of struck me as a romantic, warm, and inviting place to live. i just can't take my eyes of the apartment. then couple weeks ago, they moved out and i could see the inside (living room, bedroom, and kitchen) well enough through the blinds. at that time, i had couple instances where i was tempted to go to that apartment and pose as an interested future tenant just to see what it looks like from inside. too bad i didn't do it. i think in less than 2 weeks, one couple moved into that unit. well i'm not sure if it's a couple or not but whomever live there put red (red wine-ish) color drapes in the bedroom. interesting thing for a guy to put them in his room isn't it? so based on that, i'm thinking that there might be a girl living there also (i saw both of them drinking beer in their bedroom one day). anyway, i haven't peeked around as much as i used to. they probably think that i'm a stalker or peeping tom or something bad like that.

apart from that, i got a virus in my friendster! i saw my sister's profile and told her that someone hijacked her profile because her profile was really messed up (male, 31, single. from UK. also her hobbies, and all that things were erased and they put something in "about me" section). when i opened her profile, i guess that's when the virus or whatever copied itself to mine because couple minutes later when i checked mine, mine was also messed up. exactly the same as my sister (male 31 single, from uk and all that crap). i've changed it back and run antivirus, spyware, trojan remover from my computer twice. i'm still not sure how bad the effect can be. is it just some pranks? or someone maliciously put worms or virus in friendster. i don't know. have any of you friendster users had that before?

i'm such a procrastinator. i have this project from work that i'm doing it right now at home but so lazy to finish it. instead blogging seems to be appropriate at this moment. how bad i am.

concerts

My long awaited tickets have finally arrived yesterday. one for Michael Buble and the other one is for Amy Winehouse. I was browsing ticketmaster.com and found out that he is coming to Seattle (aug 28 and 29). at that time, i was interested to see his show but still thinking about it. by the time i made up my mind, both shows were sold out but i noticed that he added 1 extra day. so i made up my mind and bought the ticket. the 1st concert that I'm going to see it by myself. at the same time, when i was searching for MB, i found out that Amy Winehouse is going to give her first US tour and seattle is one of the cities. I like her voice and decided to just go for it. Can't wait for both of them.

the confectional

Confess your love for cheesecake. I have to say that I don't really like cheesecake that much. But today, when we were walking around pike place market, Sunny mentioned that there's one good cheesecake store around pike place. We found the place and they looked so good. Lots of selection of Cheesecake Truffles and Cheesecakes. After drooling at them, I decided to try one that caught my eyes: Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake. they had a small sign of "everyone's favorite" and it was fabulous! not a bad choice for first timer. Anissa got triple berry one and it was also a good one.
They even had cheesecake with cayenne pepper on it. I wonder what's the taste going to be. a spicy cheesecake.

The price is a bit too high for a small cake i think. I'm not sure how much 1 slice of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory cost but i think it might be around the same price for a bigger slice than this one. As you can see from the price list, one cheesecake costs $3.50. But I have to confess that it's worth the price. I just found a dessert place close to my place and definitely going to try more of them.


funny quote from the owner:
"Forgive me chocolate for I have sinned. I have not yet had my daily confection."

paris, je t'aime

In Paris, Je T'aime, celebrated directors from all around the world (Coen brothers, Gus Van Sant, Wes Craven, Alexander Paynes and many others) have come together to portray Paris in a way never before imagined.

Paris, Je T'aime is a collection of short love stories in Paris' neighborhoods (each director telling the stories of an unusual encounter in one of the city's neighborhoods). I watched this couple weeks ago in Uptown AMC cinema and I really enjoy watching it. It's a sweet movie worth to see.

*I miss Paris......

neurotic mom

Couple weeks ago i found a wound/scab around piggy's nose. i thought frappy must bit him so i didn't pay too much attention to it. until a week later when i found out that it's not getting any better and no hair around his right side nose. after searching the net for vets around my place, i found couple places but the problem is they only deal with cats and dogs. no exotic pets. damn. i still can't believe that guinea pig is an exotic animal. anyway, i called one place in greenlake area and they referred me to one vet in greenwood that deal with small animals. tried to call but it was weekend and i got their voice mail. from there, i found out about emerald city emergency animal hospital in wallingford. so i gave them a call and brought piggy in. the doctor didn't say much about what's wrong with him since she's not a specialist in exotic animals but she suspect of ringworm or mites infection. from that place, i got referred to this bird and exotic clinic in aurora. i called them up and set up appointment. what the 1st doctor suspected was true. piggy got ringworm. it's nothing major. just need to give him ointment around his infected nose. no big deal.

a week later, i noticed he wasn't feeling well. he sat inside his house and didn't eat that much and he started to lose weight. i separated him with frappy and put him in a box in my room so i can keep an eye on him. i took him last tuesday to the doctor again. in a week after i brought him to doctor, he lost around 10% of his body weight. not a good sign. the verdict wasn't good also. he got pneumonia. i was so afraid he won't make it to the doctor. so he's now under antibiotic and for 3 days, i had to make him soft food for him to eat. it wasn't fun. luckily he didn't have any energy left to fight me. so putting the syringe inside his mouth was not that bad. it was messy for the 1st time. but after a while i kind of getting the hang of it.

he's still under antibiotic but i stop giving him the soft food since he's starting to eat his pellets and hays and carrots more on his own. but i'm still paying really close attention to him and any tiny changes make me nervous. as long as he's eating a bit and drinking water, i'm happy. even the shape and size of his poops were really important. for these couple few days, i've been looking at them and making sure that he still poops every now and then. i think when i have kids on my own...i can say that i'll probably be one of those neurotic mother.

the series of unfortunate events

I think i can be a part of Lemony Snicket's book. Last Sunday it was raining pretty hard in the morning. As I was walking down the hill to go to church, my right leg apparently has a mind of her own. It slipped! Tried to catch my balance but to no avail. So i fell down. hard. I hit and scrapped my right kneecap. I thought for a moment it was going to be ok but as I looked down, blood was pouring out. Luckily i had a tissue paper with me that day. Tried to dry it out but it's just keep coming. In the end I had to go home. Can't really sit inside the church with bloody leg can you? Thank goodness it was memorial day weekend so I got monday off to relax my right leg. kneecap was swollen and painful but it's not as bad as Tuesday. getting in and out of car was a challenge but never knew that it was going to be that bad. walking was painful. sitting down was painful. even getting up from a chair was also painful. Couldn't really bend my knee. stairs was my enemy. by 9 am i was so thinking of going home and just resting my knee. i was limping and one of my coworker asked me what happened. So i told him and he offered me painkillers which I took instantly. I might have taken too much because by mid-day, I felt good. leg didn't bother me at all and i can walk like normal. Basically this week has been associated with pain. it's getting better now. can almost walk normally and not as swollen as before. but this is going to be another week before the bruise is completely gone and the wound is fully dry and turns into a big scab.

on another note...i just cut my finger today when I tried to trim some papers. later on i got another paper cut. What an accident prone I am.....one thing after another.

it was a great night

Thanks for coming to my place last night. It was really fun. I know my piggies will charm you all but didn't expect you guys to gush over "bad boy" frappy. hmmm maybe all of you kinda like the bad boy image in real life......or maybe it's just the "bad hair day" look that he has. Anyhow if you guys have time (vero and caroline) to upload all the pictures, share them with me :)

flickr account

Just created a flickr account for my pictures. Used to have snapfish to store pics but after a while you have to buy prints from them or they will close your account. So i'm starting new with flickr. I haven't had the chance to play around with it yet, but I just posted pictures from yesterday mariners vs yankees game. it's a boring game. yankees slaughtered mariners 7-2. mariners played really bad yesterday. as usual... that's nothing new (no wonder ichiro is going to leave seattle. he looked bored during the game) :p same thing with sonics and seahawks...they suck. anyway.. apart from the boring game, i walked around safeco field. pretty nice views up there.

So took couple pictures from the game yesterday and also took couple pictures with pigs as my models. the girls were just sitting quietly inside the bowl not like piggie. but overall i still like piggie....i think he can act in front of the camera :) i'll take frappy's next time.. he's such a pain to catch. here's the link to my flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/niff3r/

tagged!

I've been tagged by lola to write my 7 habits or facts. Basically the rules are:
• start with 7 random facts/habits about yourself
• people who are tagged have to write their 7 things on their blog
• then choose another 7 people to get tagged and list their names
• don't forget to leave them a comment to tell them they have been tagged and to read your blog

My 7 things:

- I must have my small black pouch filled with lip balm, lipsticks, lip gloss, and small mirror inside my bag all the time. I feel naked if i don't apply my lip balm and lipstick after I eat (ohh and checking my teeth with my small mirror after I eat. Don't want any unwanted veggies/meat stuck in between *grosss*).

- I check my email while brushing my teeth in the morning. While at work, I have 1 tab open for my yahoo email and second tab for news website (cnn.com, or msnbc.com or seattletimes.com). When I come home, I sit in front of my computer and browse for new anime torrents and check my yahoo mail again.

- I must have my cellphone with me all the time. It bugs me if I forget to bring mine. I'll keep thinking what happen if something bad happen and I can't contact anyone.

- I have to sleep with a blanket eventhough it's summer and hot outside. It's just not right without a blankie to cover me up.

- I hate parallel parking. even hate it more if there's a car behind me waiting to pass. I'll pass that parking spot to find other spot.

- I hate waiting for people who are late for their own appointment. If you make appointment at certain time, be sure to show up at that time or move it to later time if you can't make it. It annoys me most of the time.

- I'm shy. I'm usually very quiet around new people.

Well that's about it. I can't really think of anything else right now. If someone wants to play along, leave me a comment and i'll check your website/blog :) I have 3 people that I will tag: anissa, veronica, and citra. Feel free to play along guys... :-)

some thoughts

I'm a bit disappointed with the 2 hour special of grey's anatomy. For some reason, I found the whole story with addison's adventure in LA was.....boring! There's no depth and intrigue to her part. it's just plain and nothing special. well maybe I'm expecting more out of this 2 hour episodes. They are going to make a spin-off "private practice" for addison. Right now, after watching that, I don't think I'm going to follow the spin-off. not until they write a better script for the new series. prejudice. probably i'm one of those GA fans that can't accept the spin-off, thinking that GA will always be better. I can't wait for next thursday ep. going to be back with the main casts and story. can't believe that season 3 is almost over. 2 more episodes to go. curious to see how they will end this season.

Anyway, moved in to my new place today. i hate packing and unpacking. it feels like i don't have much stuff but for some reason the whole process (of packing and unpacking) feels like eternity. i'm tired and sleepy.... going to bed soon. getting those piggies inside was fun by the way. we had to cover them with stuff (bedsheet, furniture, etc). I think the whole process might be a bit traumatic for them. i found piggy turned into a fluffy fur ball...(that's what happen when he's afraid of something, like loud noise). very cute....i might just scare him once in a while hehehehehe....

moving in and out

It's moving time again. sorry niss for all this hassle. I feel kinda bad. i hate moving out and i know i'm not the only one. kind of getting used to it but still hate the whole processes. by the way niss, you should take a look at the newer house... from the sounds of it, the first one seems old and crappy...let me know how the second one goes...

this is totally irrelevant to my posting but i saw one of my girl piggies is kissing the other girl!!! oh god.. now i have 1 lesbian and 1 gay pigs. i've seen piggy making a mating sound to frappy and hardly to believe that sweet pea also making that noise today to moccha! my mistake for letting piggy running around and met those girls.

anyhow, i found an apartment in upper queen anne. it's an old building but the owner takes good care of it and still preserving the inside ornaments/woods really well. really nice 1 bedroom. smaller bedroom than my current one but the living area is pretty good in size. kitchen is small but cute in a way and the most important thing: bathroom is clean and in good condition. the apartmen itself is located in the main street (queen anne ave N). really close to stores, restaurants, bars and only 3 blocks away from kerry park. so in a nice sunny day, i could take a walk around the neighborhood. parking is going to be a challenge. but who knows it's not going to be that hard.

i still hate to pack up my stuff...i want a maid to help me . oh need to hide piggies when i move in.

winning a battle, losing the war

I thought finding an apartment would be a fun and easy but no. it's such a pain in the ass to find one around Auburn. Went to auburn yesterday to look for one and either they don't have a 1 bedroom or the neighborhood/management is bad. There's 1 apt that I almost signed the lease around green river community college. We went back again to drop the application but on our way to the manager, there's one lady who told us not to do it. Apparently her daughter is staying in one of the unit and she has so many problems and the management just doesn't seem to care. Ok... so we backed out of it. Decided to drive around more. Couple good places but they just don't have a 1 bed available at the moment. then we decided to try Kent. the first place looked ok. so we stopped and took a tour around the apt complex. overall the apt looks good so i signed the application and gave deposit. I was happy... but i was browsing the apartment ratings at night and found out more about that place. Crap....it turned out to be pretty bad. only 18% recommend that place... uhhh that's not a good sign, especially after i read all the reviews. Called my bank and put a stop to the check. I just have to call them in the morning and let them know that i'm not going to take that unit.

so now... back to square one again...don't feel like looking around that area anymore... might as well just stay around seattle.. at least I know the neighborhoods. The only thing that I can't stand is the commute. well let me rephrase that.. i don't mind the commute YET..the fact that I have to fill my gas tank every 4-5 days is starting to kill me. But i think i need to find place closer to my work soon before I-5 N is closed (2-3 lanes) around august for 3 weeks. just imagine the traffic back home...it's going to be a nightmare.

works and weekends

i passed 2 stinky and stressful weeks! from my old-5 minutes working and 15 min playing-days to a slave-in-training. my boss told me she has a laptop plus set up the email for me couple days ago but until this day, i haven't seen any of those stuff yet and everyone was like "oh let me send you email for the details...." and i can only say "sorry.. haven't gotten computer nor email yet"... and the other thing is i never sit down with my boss to talk about work expectation and what she wants me to do for the production floor. this whole 2 weeks, probably less than 15 minutes worth of talking. only on the first day she gave me a training list on what the whole goal/training to look like and basically introduced me to the supervisor for training. but...on the second day.. supervisor was sick for 2 days.. and my boss was just like "here you go... from this day on you'll be the next team leader"...

FUCK! that's what you call training program?? so basically i have to figure things by myself...nice.
well at least they haven't kicked me out yet so i guess i'm doing ok right now. 1st week was uncomfy as i was trying to get to know the people better and i have no idea what's the deal with that line... by the end of the 1st week i think i got it... i think...

on another matter... my family just got bigger. got 3 more members that are joining me and piggy. sweetpea, mocha, and frapp (short of frappuccino). 2 female and 2 male. the girls are quiet. but the guys.... are not. when i introduced him to sweetpea... that's a totally wrong move....he just wanted to totally take her right there at that time... such a horny piggy! even right now with a male pig, he still making that mating noise and sniffing frapp's butt! make me thinking that he's a gay piggy... but they were saying that's normal when you introduce new pig to current one. So we'll see in couple more days how they will behave towards each other.

ps. i wanted to get piggy a friend so we bought a female piggy because we thought piggy was female. apparently he's not a female :) that's why i have to separate piggy and sweetpea...and i don't want to return her. she's such a darling girl! so either switch sweetpea with a male piggy or just get another playmates for both of them, i chose the latter...that's how I got mocha and frapp to join our family. if i'm not lazy.. i'll take pics of them and post them here...

oh..weekends at last!!! thank goodness we don't have to work this saturday....

WEBoggle

Thanks for msnbc.com for getting me addicted to WEBoggle a neat online version of Boggle. I used to play this game for my english class during junior high but never knew that they have an online version for it. You may have to wait a few seconds for a new round to begin, but you are playing against other real people in real time, and can see how your score compares at the end of the round. just don't be stressed out comparing your low score with some of those incredibly high scores (kind of make me thinking that those guys don't have anything else to do besides playing Boggle). Well i guess if you practice enough, you're bound to improve.