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year of the ox

Happy Chinese New Year! Kung Hsi Fa Tsai! According to the CCC of SF

People born in the Year of the Ox are patient, speak little, and inspire confidence in others. They tend, however, to be eccentric, and bigoted, and they anger easily. They have fierce tempers and although they speak little, when they do they are quite eloquent. Ox people are mentally and physically alert. Generally easy-going, they can be remarkably stubborn, and they hate to fail or be opposed.

Is this you?

In celebration of Chinese New Year I made potstickers, wore a red shirt, and didn’t wash my hair (yuck, what a weird tradition).

My head hurts. Not from Chinese New Year but from being awakened by a text message from a coworker at 7:30 am about the weather and the condition of the roads. I now have bragging rights for being the first one on this office on this icy winter day.

excitement

It looks like my obnoxious sexaholic next door roommates are going to move. Hallelujah! I don’t have to move! I’ve come to really appreciate the house and the neighborhood over the past year. I like being able to walk to the supermarket or cvs when it’s warmer outside. I can even walk to the library, although it’s a bit of a hike. Best of all, I’m close to all those great hole in the wall restaurants in Wheaton like Full Key and Paul Kee. Yaaayyy!!

death of marat

La Mort de Marat, Jacques-Louis David

La Mort de Marat, Jacques-Louis David

One of my favorite asides in Robin McKinley’s Sunshine is the description of a fluffy little Gothic dessert dish called Death of Marat.

A Gothic sensibility in the bakery is not necessarily a good thing. I’d made this light fluffy looking number in a white oval dish with white high sides and presented the first one with a flourish to a group of regulars who had volunteered to be experimented on. Aimil was the one with the knife, and she stuck it in and the raspberry-and-black-currant filling had exploded down the side and over the edge of the dish onto the counter. It was, I admit, a trifle dramatic. “Gods, Sunshine, what is this, the Death of Marat?” she said. Aimil reads too much. Everybody at Charlie’s that night wanted a taste, and the Death of Marat, the first of Sunshine’s soon-to-be-notorious, implausibly-named epic creations, was born, although I think most of our clientele thought Marat was some kind of master vampire. (pp. 173)

God, I love the name. It would be fantastic if someone with baking experience came up with a working recipe for this, or for that matter all the other sweets from Sunshine’s bakery.

By the way, Jean-Paul Marat was a leader in the French Revolution. He was assasinated in his bathtub by one Charlotte Corday. Marat had skin disease and had to take cold baths to relieve the itching. The painter, Jacques-Louis David, was close friends with Marat.

back to work

Today I ordered two sections of Kaplan’s CPA self study program. Back to the grind. At least I have a new digital camera though! Its a Panasonic Lumix with lots more bells and whistles than my old Kodak. And it’s in a beautiful shade of blue!  lumix

aspirations

…for 2009:

-pass other 3 parts of cpa exam

-go to gym at least 1 day a week for at least 45 minutes

-paint a painting

-spend less time worrying

-throw a dinner party

-eat at least 1 fresh fruit a day

Happy New Year!!

passed!

I passed Financial Accounting and Reporting! Yaaay! Now maybe I’ll go buy the digital camera I’ve been wanting. :)

funny

binary-people2

from ThinkGeek.com.

highlights from trip home

So about two and half weeks ago I got back from my trip to home in Taiwan. It took about a week for me to adjust back to EST and I’m still working on the English thing. Yes, even though English is my first language, I got so used to hearing and speaking Mandarin that I now speak English rather haltingly. I take twice as long to respond to questions. Writing is a beast. Unfortunately I didn’t have the opportunity to buy a new camera while I was in Taiwan, so I don’t have pictures to illustrate my trip. I did take a picture or two of my mom’s kitten Jumpy with my cell phone.

Jumpy- 4 month old American Shorthair. I have such a crush on this kitten. He’s a gorgeous dark grey and cream striped cat. He looks like a miniature tiger the way he’s so sturdily built. I miss him. I’m already predisposed to love cats because I grew up listening to my mom’s stories about her smart calico cat she kept while she was growing up. Also, a lot of my friends tend to be cat people. Anyway, they named him Jumpy because he loves to jump. He’s really very playful and loves to play cat and mouse (you, the human, are always the mouse). He’d run up behind me on the stairs and catch my leg with his front paws and bite you. Or sometimes he’d get all agressive and put his ears back, his tail down, and arch his back, and come and attack you. All in good fun though. He only grazes you with his teeth, never bites down. He’s a little hunter. Early morning’s he’ll meow and look for someone to play with him. He’d jump onto my bed, I’d pet him, and he’d purr. He even cuddled up against me twice and laid his head on my shoulder. I’m soo in love with this cat! Oh yes, and he loves to eat fruit. Yes, fruit! He loves peaches, apples, honeydew, and ba-la.

Green Market in Taoyuan- I forget the actual name of the green market. This one was pretty cool. I came here the day after I got off the plane. I managed to find some cute tops and skirts for only about $3.50 each, so of course I was elated. Also bought 3 sparkly rings (costume jewelry) for the same price. My mom bought some clams and seaweed for soup. The soup was delicious.

Wasabi, Taipei 101- OMG this Japanese buffet is possibly the best buffet I’ve ever been to. Everything was delicious. They had sushi, sashimi, hand rolls, cold noodles, tempura, yakisoba, barbecued pork, grilled chicken (even grilled chicken hearts), miso soup, azuki and green tea ice cream, mochi and lot of other things I can’t remember right now. I ate too much.

Place where my mom was born- Err, I forgot the name of this town. My mom only lived there the first 10 days of her life, so of course she has no memory. It was one of those tiny, sleepy villages with narrow streets tucked in the mountains. Very beautiful and old townish. My mom and aunt stopped at this candy shop that sold the kind of candy they’d eat when they were kids. There was an old, tiny movie theater that had been coverted to a tourist shop. For a snack we bought rice dumplings wrapped in ginger leaves, which was very yummy and infused with a very fresh and light ginger flavor. For lunch we ate at this hole in the wall that specialized in Hakka food. Everything here was delicious too! We had tiny prawns deep fried with sweet basil leaves, stir fried chinese greens, deep fried tiny fish with sweet basil leaves, bitter melon, two bowls of pork soup with garlic chives and rice balls, and some other soup with preserved vegetables. I really loved the little rice balls, they were so perfectly cooked, just the right texture. Yumm. Of course what made the food extra delicious was the pork fat they use to cook everything, hehe.

To be continued..

free turkey

I got a free frozen turkey from work! Its been sitting in the freezer since Thanksgiving. I’ve never cooked a whole turkey before. This will be interesting.

ETA: When I brought it back from work it was smelling a bit off, so I’m not going to risk poisoning myself. Out it goes. Sigh. I was looking forward to cooking it too.

freezing

It’s effing cold out there! Brrrrr. I can barely think through the haze of sleepiness and cold. There’s no one else here in the office. I should have called in sick. Also, my brain feels as slow and thick as molasses right now, as a result of having my sleep schedule messed up for almost a week now. I don’t usually take this long to adjust back. I wonder what’s wrong.

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