Slacker

Okay, I'm a slacker. It's been over a week and I've been buy being a yarn addict. I buy yarn by the arm load. Crazy. I just went to Michael's Arts and Crafts in Everett with my sister yesterday night and bought 8 more skeins. Eh. I currently have about 20 skeins of yarn in my room. I have about 30 or more at home on LI. I'm making candy corn... preparing for Halloween. I'll post up pictures later. I promise! I also made a few hats too. Okay, I'm gonna go and crochet some more candy corn.

I'm Addicted to the Internet

Haha. OMG. I just realized that I spend the last 3 hours sitting in front of the computer doing who knows what. Actually, I do know what I was doing. I've been up since 7:30 am. Yea, I barely sleep and waste a lot of time on the internet (mostly Facebook, blogs, random interest stuff like looking for more cute crochet patterns). So I've been busy updating my wishlist on Amazon.com.

I'm currently into crocheting and needlepoint stuff like cross stitching. I spent 1.5 hours this morning looking up cute books to buy on Amigurumi. I picked out a really good looking one. After viewing the author's blog Ana Paula's Amigurumi Patterns and Random Cuteness I was persuaded to buy her book - Amigurumi World: Seriously Cute Crochet. I'm also buying Jason Mraz's Mr. A-Z album and Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure by Emma Campbell Webster.

I went to Jason Mraz's concert at the Orpheum Theater in Boston on Friday and it was amazing. I seriously love his music. His voice is so smooth and his music is just so catchy and melodic. I can listen to him all day (as I'm doing now).

Back to my internet addiciton. I also spent some time updating this blog to include a list of links. You can tell a lot about a person by the websites they visit. While adding links I ended up browsing the Sims 3 website. I'm going to pre-order The Sims 3 Collector's Edition maybe in a week. I'm excited. I still have to get a new computer to play the game. =( Ahhh! Everything costs money and I barely have any. I gotta stop buying, but it's just hard. I like to indulge my hobbies. I barely go shopping for new outfits anymore... but that money gets rerouted to my hobbies.

I still have to plan out the cost and logistics of my SkiJam! 2009, Thailand, and Europe trips. I can tell you the estimated cost now... SkiJam! - $399 (3 days), Thailand - $1500 (3 Weeks) , and Europe - $3000 (3 weeks). Yea... I have to put aside $5000 for the things I want to do. I still need to make sure I have money to live off of during my spring and summer when I'm not going to really be working. Hm. I have to start looking for a part-time job for spring and a full-time job for next August/September.

Lots of things to do and I'm procrastinating by sitting here on the internet. Yups. That's me. Okay, I gotta stop typing and do other things like upload my pictures and putting them up on Facebook. =)

Rest In Peace Eric

I just found out that a classmate of mine, Eric Z, passed away last night in his sleep. He's been battling cancer and unfortunately his life was cut short. He's been in my classes for the last four year and it's just crazy to think that he's not going to be there anymore. We should all be glad to have our health and everything we have right now in our life.

I never dealt well with death. I still think about my stepdad every now and then and do that whole "what if" scenario in my head. He was 36 years old (I was 9 years old) when he had a heart attack 10 days after my 9th birthday. I always thought that if he was still alive that we would be living a better life. My mom would not have to work so hard and I would not feel so lost.

A friend from high school, James Lundin, was killed in action on May 30, 2007. He was 20 years old. I remembered when he used to have a crush on me and I wasn't exactly into him. It's weird. Sometimes you take people for granted thinking that they'll always be there. Life is uncertain. You should always live it to the fullest and never look back. If only I could do the same. Time heals all wounds, if you let it.

Rest in Peace Eric, James, and Daddy. You're all in a better place now.

Stories about Columbus Day Weekend

Okay, so I have a lot of stories to get down before I forget everything. I also have two new Thai recipes, but we'll see how long my attention span is today.

Story #1: Apple Picking on Saturday

So my mom had this great idea to go apple picking at the Lewin Apple Farm on Fresh Pond Avenue in Calverton/Riverhead, NY. Great. I decided to join the trip since I haven't been to an apple farm since I was 15 or 16 years old. That's a very long time ago, well, maybe not that long ago, but you get the point. Back to the story, I decided not to bring along my hand bag because I hate carrying unnecessary items around with me. So I stored it under the front seat. My mom saw what I was doing and did the same and so did my mom's cousin (I just call her aunt instead of my first cousin once removed).

We took some cash and our cameras and headed into the farm. We managed to bag about 6 lbs of apples. It was slim picking since it was late into the season. While heading back to the car my mom realizes that she didn't bring the car keys and none of us had our spare keys or cell phones. Oh man. So I borrowed people's phone and called my neighbor. He has a spare key to our house and can retrieve our spare car keys. While waiting for him my mom and I decided to go pick more apples and left with another 10 lbs. It took my neighbor 2.5 hours to get to us (we were only 30 minutes away). Oh man. What a waste of a good two hours that could have been spent at the mall.

I decided to walk to the nearest cross street (2 miles down the road) while I was waiting for our back up key. I ended up going to this Poultry Farm on Rt. 25. My family had bought turkeys from them in the past. It's been a good 12 years since the first time we visited. My mom ended up picking me up from the poultry farm and we bought an apple pie. It was delicious.

We went back to the car and realized that my right rear wheel was flat. It had a nail in it. I ended up changing the flat with the dummy. My mom and I drove to the nearest service shop and had them patch it up. Pretty quick. Then we head to Stony Brook to go shopping. So the lesson of the story is: Don't get too excited about something that you only bring cash and camera and not your keys and phone. And check for flats before you drive.

I got the goods...

... and so does my mommy.

Story #2: Yarn Freak

Okay, when I get really into a hobby (usually for some short period of time) I end up buying everything necessary to participate in that hobby. My current hobby is crocheting. I ended up going to Michael's and AC Moore while I was home and buying $80 worth of yarn and accessories. OMG. They were on sale so I bought them. It amounts to something around 10 lbs of yarn. I couldn't help myself. They had all these pretty colors. I also bought two volumes of Crochet Today magazine (Sep/Oct and Nov/Dec). My current project of choice are hats and caps. I'm making my mom and my aunt one. They're super cute. I'll take pictures and put it on here later.

Thai food - upcoming recipes include Gang Som (Sour Curry) and Kaow Mun Gai (Chicken with Rice). Okay, I gotta go get ready for bed now... after I kick my sister out of it. She likes to come over, talk, and fall asleep on my bed while I type away on the computer.

Columbus Day Weekend

One more quick post. I'm going home tomorrow afternoon. I won't be getting home until midnight. Fun stuff. On Saturday my mom is taking me apple picking and then we're going shopping. She has to stop at Macy's. I'm probably going to go to Michael's Art and Crafts afterward and buy more stuff for my yarn collection. I decided that I want to make my own paperboy cap. I had an awesome one last year, but I lost it. That's the story of my life. I have something I really like and I end up losing it. Anyways, here's a link to the hat I'm going to make. Have a good night and a great long weekend!!!

http://mjcrochet.com/newsboycap/newsboycap.html

Oh Roommates...

Did I mention that my roommate has the thermostat that control both of our rooms in her room? (My on-campus apartment is so weird like that. Two out of the four bedrooms actually has their own climate control. The two that don't are controlled by the living and by another bedroom). So my room is either freezing cold (her bf sleeps over a lot and they have a lot of body heat) or super hot (she turns off the air conditioning when she wakes up in the morning and I get back before she does). So today I had Joy and her friends over and Joy commented that it was hot. So I knew that my roommate was out so I opened her door a crack and turned on the AC and shut the door again. She came back about 30 minutes later. So to be polite I told her that I adjusted the thermostat and that she can turn it off again if she'd like.

So she was getting ready to leave or something 10 minutes after Joy and friends left and I hear this noise... she was testing out her room lock or something (we use our school ID to swipe into our building, our apartment, and our rooms if we lock it). Goodness, like I would really rifle through all the shit she has on the floor, peak around, or steal her stuff. Right. So she leaves to sign in her bf or something and I checked her door and she definitely locked it. Okay, now that's just being ridiculous. I never go into her room unless it's to adjust the thermostat which is right inside the door and I always close her door like how it was before. If she keeps locking it this is going to be a problem because it's not fair that she's also regulating my room temp without my input and I can't adjust it when she's not around. And she's never in anyways. She gone most of the day and comes back late at night to sleep. I hate waking up cold in the morning... brrr.

I can't wait to live in my own apartment. Then I can control every aspect about it.

P.S. I love playing the Sims 2 because I get to live in this fantasy world. The Sims I manage do get annoying sometimes. Especially when they know they have to go to the bathroom and don't quite make it there. Lame.

P.S.S. My sister also does a lot of art and crafts stuff. She makes beaded necklaces. She's just saying that it's a granny thing to do, but I know she thinks it's cool. =)

Video about Sims 3, Cross Stitching, and Aptera

Hey, I made another video or two actually. My sister is in the second one with me. I got interrupted while filming the first one. So check them out.

Take 1

Take 2 with Joy

Adventures into Thai Cooking

Thanks Elvin for letting me know that gratification is a word. I probably knew it was in the back of my head, but I didn't check to make sure I used it in the correct context when I made the video. Here's the wikipedia definition of it: Gratification is the positive emotional response (happiness) to a fulfillment of desire.

Okay, so I started making my own Thai food after I don't know how many years of eating it. Probably 22 years since I've been eating my mom's cooking since I was a baby. I usually make the trek home to Long Island just for my mom's yummy Thai food. My favorites are Lad Na (also known as Rad Na), Pad See Ew, Gang Som (aka Sour Curry), and Fried Tofu with Sweet Chili dipping sauce. The desert menu can go on forever... my mom makes the best deserts on the East Coast. Okay, that might be stretching it, but hey, she's amazing and I'm not being biased. She usually sells her cooking at the local Thai temple when they're having the monthly Buddhist celebrations.

Anyways, I started making Lad Na (twice now) and Gang Som. So far so good. =) I'll take pictures next time I make Lad Na. I believe I'll try making my mom's awesome Tomato Soup next. Here are some of the recipes. I'll probably edit it until I get them right. You can find most of the ingredients at Chinese and Asian grocery stores.

Lad Na (2 Servings, maybe 3) - Modified version of www.thaitable.com

1 package (3/4 lb) of fresh flat rice noodles
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
6 tbsp vegetable oil (I usually use olive oil)
1/4 lb of pork, chicken, or beef, thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic
4 tbsp tapioca flour
2 1/2 cups water
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp soy sauce - mushroom (or Thin Soy Sauce)
1/2 lb of broccoli or Chinese broccoli

Coat the pork with 1 tablespoon of tapioca flour. Mince garlic. In a bowl, add water to the rest of flour. This will the base for sauce. Cut up the Chinese broccoli into 2 inch-pieces.

Slice the noodles into 1/2 to 1 inch wide strips. Break the clumped noodles into strands.

Heat up 4 tablespoons of oil in a non-stick pan or pot. When the oil is ready, put in the noodles and stir. Add 2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce on the noodles. Stir again until all the noodles are broken into pieces. Keep stirring for 5 more minutes. Set the cooked noodles aside.

In a pot or pan that is big enough to hold all the ingredients, heat up the rest of the oil. Add minced garlic and coated meat. Stir for a minute or so until the meat is getting cooked. Add the flour water. Stir quickly to keep it from forming chunks. When cooked, the flour will turn from white to clear. Add soy sauce and sugar. Stir. When the sauce is bubbling, it should have a consistency of thick gravy.

Put the noodles on a plate and pour as much gravy on it as you like. Add a bit of white or black pepper and some boiled vinegar with pickled chili, for the experienced.

I'll put up pics and more recipes as I semi-perfect them. Taste definitely depends on the cook. I love the way my mom's cooking tastes so I emulate it. Okay, time to go eat!!!