another rainy short weekend
worked 1.5 days, remotely
all caught up on TV episodes
went to Fisherman Terrace for john's bday family gathering
the Alaska King Crab were SO GOOD!!!!!
Tried an easy chicken recipe.... result so so

Nothing special last week.
In crunch mode at work again.

Tried roast chicken and yogurt pumpkin... both kinda sucked...

Was planning to use the movie coupon... then forgo it and stayed in instead.

Missed out on the T-shirt promotion from the cereal box..... promotion over.

Another short week. Weather was really nice but didn't get a chance to go out and enjoy.
Busy trying new recipes this week, Braised Chipotle Chili and Pork medallion with Onion marmalade. Both turned out pretty good. The Chipotle Chilli was a tad spicier but after 3 bites u get used to it and the taste was fantastic. Originally, I was planning to do the pork next week but the chili went away faster than expected...

Braised Chipotle Chili

The Pork Medallion and Onion Marmalade

I also came across an easy dessert recipe, Apple Crumble. It was very easy to make and only needed 35mins baking. The only downside of it is that it's quite hard to take it out without it crumbling.... and thus the name Apple Crumble.. hahaahaaa

Apple Crumble

Went to Fisherman Terrace for dad and mom's birthday... again.
We had abalone and shark fin set dinner. It was ok.

Tried new recipe "Arroz con Pollo" and substituted rice with cauliflower.
Totally tanked. Too much water in the end. Should have stopped at 1 cup of chicken broth.. instead of following the recipe with 2 cup. Maybe rice aborbs water more than cauliflower and thus the overflowing water..... This will be the second to last time (I still have some leftover tomato paste) I use tomato in my cooking, flavour usually ended up quite blend. What a waste of time and effort.

Picking up on new series, Sanctuary. Started on Durham County season 2.
Watched the usual Medium, Smallville, Heroes, and House. No Fringe or Vampire Diaries.

It seems like my right blade alignment is finally right.... *touchwood*
However, my left is now starting to give me trouble.

short week

A rather short week.

Tried out 2 new recipes, liked them both. First one more successful than the other, which burned the bottom of the pot....

Beets with Brussels Sprouts

This is my favourite veggie dish by far.

Apple Sake Braised Short Ribs

was able to savage most of it besides the stuffs that's stuck at the bottom

Went to Coquitlam and re-aligned my right skate... again. Tried first time yesterday, felt a lot better. Hopefully this time it's really going to work out. Next thing... new blades... starting to be able to completely go around near my toe-pick as I was going into my spin.

New skating season started. Yuna won again :D. Wohoo!! She's getting so show-likey now and totally at ease during the competition. I was totally surprised that she had 2 new programs out already..... wonder where she found the time in between all her competitions last season (i.e. before this summer) and all the shows that she's doing and all the commercials that she's doing. The programs couldn't have been more than a few mths old.

Thanksgiving weekend

Had a pretty good thanksgiving weekend. Did not do one bit of work work and also not much housework. Should start cleaning the bathroom and coffee table and countertop again....

Made 2 meals, curry shrimp with rice and non-spicy version Dan Dan Mian. Brought the noodles to Sun's Thanksgiving dinner. I think I didn't boil the noodles enuf so I left it in the wok to simmer a bit more and..... the sauce was kinda dried out and soaked into the noodles afterwards.

My in-law made turkey using fresh turkey and the usual salad and also shrimp cocktail. I liked the fresh turkey more than the frozen turkey. Also, there was exceptionally good homemade pumpkin pie and chocolate cream pie (which I didn't try any). My sis also brought in some really good pastries from chinese bakery.

On Sun, we finished the left over turkey drumstick, shrimps, and pumpkin pie. I thought to myself that I didn't need to cook this whole week but it looks like I still need to, once.

Had a whole day shopping spree on Mon. Got John 3 pieces of clothing but going to return one. Bought myself a wood mortar and pestle (on sale, half price), a good spoon rest set (no more messy clean up from dropping chopsticks onto kitchen floor), and a wine stopper. All from my $50.00 The Bay gift card which I reimbursed with my points. I still have 9 bux left on it.

Also, bought 2 books from Chapters on Sat. I caved after a few hrs standing around in the store..... already finished one of them, Twenties Girl. It was great!!

Caught up on all shows (Supernatural, Fringe, Vampire Dairies, Dexter, Flash Forward, Medium, Dollhouse, Smallville), except Desperate Housewives. "Vampire Dairies" is officially my favorite show, besides "Dexter". "Dexter" is getting very good now, can't wait for the next episode.

Tried another vermicelli recipe. It's good except that I didn't put in enuf meat.

Went to Gary Point Sat. It was such nice weather. Saw turtles and cows. It was cool. There were some guys doing some kate boarding... or whatever that's called.

All TV series are back. There are almost too many of them to watch: Fringe, Supernatural, Heroes, Smallville, Desperate Housewives, Medium, Vampire Diaries, Eastwick. Also, picking up Ghost Whisperer now.

sick....

Did a bit of work Sat morning. My test plan was nothing close to done.
Got sick in the evening.... forgot to bring my jacket when I was going across the street for groceries. Now taking Bukley's Day Time Fast Relief. So far, nothing serious except sore throat.

Didn't sleep well on Sat nite. Had some sort of diarrhea, woke up 3 times. Felt better the next day and woke up at 7am as usual.

Made stir fry fish fillet with black bean sauce. John liked it. It was so so for me.

Went to cousin's bday on Sun. Had sun dried tomatoes chicken with cream of celery and thick twisty noodles. It was good and I ate it maybe a bit too fast. I had internal pain almost the whole time I was there. Could be because I didn't have anything the whole day except my big white chinese bun in the morning and a 1/4 of a ham and egg bun in the afternoon.

Caught up on House, Medium, Vampire Diaries, and Fringe.

Not so exciting weekend

Worked a bit on Sat. Had such a hectic week. One of the days, I only had 3 hrs to work on my own stuff and all the other time doing support.

Tried out new recipe, "Stir Fry Rice Noodles". It turned out pretty good except that I didn't really like the marinate I'd used with the beef.

Watched Bruno. Extremely bad.

Went to driving range, continue to suck.

Skating-wise, I didn't have much alignment issue last week. Although I've noticed that my right ankle bone is hurting a bit after a while... maybe I need some more boot punching.
Started layback, had no idea what I was doing. But, I'm starting to notice how my blade should feel underneath me.
Changing my waltz jump prep, having much less swinging-around issue. Key is to "step out" left foot (and the right backward outside skating edge becomes forward inside edge) at an angle (45 degree-ish relative to your path). Because of the "step out", the right side of the body is very much behind (and does not cross much the "vertical mid-line" of my body). Because of that, when I bring the right foot up it can only go up and not around. I'm still tweaking the angle that I should step out and how much lean I should use while stepping out. When I feel comfortable and gutsy enuf, maybe I can try axel.. hohoho.

Another great weekend

Sat, took SkyTrain the first time! It was slower than I expected maybe because part of it was above ground and things seem to move slower when they were far away. We went to Oakridge and downtown. Had lunch at Sciue. It was way too slow and they weren't even busy. The server had an European accent, maybe New Zealand or sth.... we had trouble understanding each other. We also ordered at the wrong side.... the pizza side. Maybe we should stick with Pizza next time we go there... if. We both ordered egg benedicts. I expected more stuffs in my egg benedicts. There was only spinach on it and it's kinda blend. John ordered prosciutto but got ham instead. We also didn't know that we were supposed to get the cutlery ourselves. We were thinking of going to Chambar at first but they're only open for dinner and although they had a xth anniversary thing food won't be ready till 3pm.

Saw "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "Drag Me to Hell". First one was good, second one was bad as expected. There were some gruesome scenes that were so exaggerated like they were trying to shoot a bad comedy. Saw "Dexter" season 4 episode 1 =). Then... too much staring at the computer and started to have a slight headache Sat afternoon and a full blown headache Mon....

Sun, made "Three Cup Chicken". It was good except for the basil... maybe the basil that I got was not exactly Thai Basil.

Great long weekend

Had a really great long weekend. Did zero cooking and work :P.

Fixed my computer problem on Sat morning after a clean wipe and re-install. No more internet problem. Somehow the upgrade to Snow Leopard failed. Although the airport said online, my browser won't load anything. Same with my neighbour's open-to-public network that I picked up. Same thing with plain old ethernet connection. Something screwed up the interface.

Went to coquitlam and had my sharpening done and learned that I needed to replace my blade soon. The sharpening is now beginning to shave off the first toe pick. It's about time... been almost 8 yrs that blade. Went to Superstore @ Coquitlam and did my grocery shopping there.

Had family dinner w/ both sides of our family @ Fisherman Terrace. Lots of good food.

Sun did the usual thing. Went to church, then to parent's place to clean up the fish tank. Then, back home and did a bit of vacuuming.

Saw "I love you, man". It wasn't a big blockbuster but it was good and light.

Mon morning, did more cleanup because a friend of mine was coming from dt to visit me. Cleaned the bathroom floor, countertop, and mirror, even the scale inside the bathroom. For the kitchen, I only did the floor and one part of the countertop due to time constraint... and laziness.... and I'd probably mess it up Mon nite anyway... after cooking dinner.
Went to Richmond Public Market, waited for my friend a bit. Got bored and then walked to Richmond Center. Met a friend of mine in Richmond Center. We chatted a bit about golf and work, and he drove me back to richmond public market to meet my other friend.
Brought my friend up to my place and we talked about life and stuff and realized I had a lot of work to do to save my plants... I guess I'm not really a plant lover and maybe should have stick with plastic plants.

Went to Wii party @ my other friend's place. Lots of ppl showed up. It was a lot of fun and good food and from there I got my Mon's dinner taken care of =).

Saw "District 9" 2 weeks ago. Fantastic movie. It's my fav movie of the year.. or of several years!!
Met with old highschool friends last week. Had such a great time. There were so much food. There were ribs and potatoes salad and curry fish ball and tunna roll (tuna in croissant) and pasta in white sauce w/ cheese on top, and weird but tasty greenish malaysian drink (avacado, jack fruit, young coconut, palm seed, green jelly), and very good watermelon, and very good fresh fruit cake. I also brought my banana bread over and had half of it take home. Friend's baby was more or less very behaved and didn't cry much.
Hectic week @ work working more than 10 hrs every day; support by day, development by nite. I'm now sick of work.

short vacation

Went to Oregon last week. Did not check work email or work the whole week, but did do a bit of work Sat and Sun morning before leaving for the trip.

Oregon was very nice... aside from the traffic congestion from time to time.
My favorites:
- the Hecata Head LightHouse Trail and Sea Lion caves
- the zoo, the bats
- the sand dunes

Ran almost 4k on Sat, did not feel a bit sore. Probably from not doing any real exercise the whole week.
Had sis bday dinner @ our usual restaurant on Sat. The lobsters were nice.

Only cooked once and didn't do any major cleanup.

extremely hot week

record high temperature everywhere
didn't feel like doing much this week
did try out 2 new recipes, an easy veggie stir-fry and sweet and sour spare ribs. The veggie dish was great except for my mistake of adding in mths old french beans from the freezer... which was the whole point of this dish, to finally use them up... they tasted totally like the fridge. The spare ribs were terrible. I tried it twice. Both time sux. First time with beef short ribs and some beef stew ... thinking that was one of my mistakes... not using the ingredients the recipe stated. So second time around, I went out and got pork spare ribs. Same results..... the sauce never ever thickened like the recipe said :(. I was greatly disappointed. But, we both liked the sauce (although watery) and I tried not to cook too much rice this time.....so there wasn't much left for this week. We're gonna have to eat our fingernails...

Met w/ some old friends last week. We went to 7th heaven hk style cafe restaurant. It was pretty good. Although it was a week nite, it was extremely busy.

Cooked twice on Sat... since I knew that I might not have time to cook on Sun.
Made General Tso's Chicken and Chicken Fried Rice. The former was really really really good. I wish there were more to spare. We gobbled it up in half a day. The chicken fried rice was just so so. The $5 5-spice powder doesn't seem to worth it.

Ran on Sun morning, just 4K. Walked about 2K, probably. Really out of shape now.
Went to wedding on sun. Met w/ some friends there. It's such a small world.
The wedding was nice, at a Surrey golf course...but 3X degree is way too hot for outdoor wedding. It was slower than expected and didn't end till past 10:30pm. The food was really good. It's a 5-course dinner, salad (roasted tomato, pine nut, and spinach), soup (way too strong lobster bisque), entree (fish or steak), followed by cake.

Extremely extremely busy @ work.... helping ppl left and right.
Totally didn't get enuf time to study for the upcoming security audit.
Didn't try out new recipes, made mongolian beef and eggplant with beef (instead of pork).
Went to superstore twice ... ended up spending ~$100 in total this weekend.
The soap bar and shower gel were on sale so I bought a few.
Bought a lot of fruit, blackberries (2 $3.xx @ superstore), blueberries (1lb 3.xx @ saveon and 2lb 5.xx @ superstore), rasberries ($3.xx @ superstore).
Got 2 kinds of meat, both organic, ~$6 each. Got 2 loafs of bread (otherwise I'd have to get it again @ saveon later the week). Got banana as usual. Got wipes, didn't get the $3.xx enviromentally friendly one (that was on sale last weeks but not this week) and got the 1.xx not-so-environmentally friendly. Also got some celery and carrots.
Didn't get granola bars @ superstore since they were not on sale, 2.77 each. Got them at saveon instead $2.50, and I got 4 of them. Oh... and also peanut butter, PC brand, the natural kind. It's so good and only $3.99. Really... no big items... but still so expensive.

Had another short and rather boring weekend.
Made "Dan Dan Mien" on Sat. Since the "kung Pao Chicken" was too spicy last time... I only used a 1/4 of the specified amount for Sichuan peppercorn and totally skipped the chilli oil. The result was.... to me a bit disappointing. It seems to be lacking something... probably should have used 1 chili and maybe 1/2tsp instead of a 1/4tsp of the peppercorn.
Went to family July bday dinner on Sun. Got a brie melting mini claypot and some bath things. The claypot was cute but I donno what to do with it yet... since John shouldn't eat cheese. I need to do some research on sauce making probably.
Didn't get to make my onde onde again, put back my ingredients into the freezer the 2nd time...
Watched "Mall Cop".... kinda boring and not that funny.
Shopped for July bday gifts and also got myself 2 2010 tops from The Bay. They were on sale for $9.99, regular price $2x.xx. Very very good quality, made with Bamboo sth... Much more comfortable than regular cotton.

Worked most of Sat (remotely), but managed to clean up side table and dining table... that were becoming breeding grounds of dust bunnies.

Also, went to Boston Steakhouse. We had the Roti Canal (Malaysian pancake with curry sauce) and Indonesian Fried Rice. Both were pretty good.

Visited the chinese supermarket, "Rice World". It's like a Superstore, asian version. Surprisingly, they have some cereal (altho not much variety) unlike the other asian stores. Downside is they only accept cash or debit card. Got some really good Singporean instead milk tea there, and crysanthenum chinese herbal tea.

Walked around in Aberdeen center too!! Tried out the new yogurt store. It was pretty pricey but very good. We had a small green tea yogurt for $3.xx.
All in all, it was a pretty good Sat.

On Sun, made Kung Pao Chicken... way way way too spicy .. will have to tone it down several notches next time. But, other than that, it was pretty good.

TIBCO GI or ICEFaces
After a year or so of developing in Struts it's time to move on.
First I tried TIBCO General Interface, the IDE was quite impressive. It can run inside your browser, IE or FF. However, I found out that you couldn't really control the layout of the component by dragging.... In the end, still have to specify the css position and layout thru their properties editor. Same stuff as what I was doing before, with css stylesheet. Also, had a really hard time trying to put it together with struts. The example provided was using Struts 2.0 and we're on to 2.1.x already. The converting the GI data structure into struts action mapping structure seems too hardcoded and well... just plain didn't work with 2.1.x, eg. the getInstance() call for XWorkConverter is no longer available for struts 2.1.x. We might be able to get around with it by using conversion configuration file, xwork-conversion.properties, but just didn't have the time or patience to try it out.

So, now I'm onto ICEFaces. It seems to be cooler although maybe not as mature as TIBCO GI. But, it's J2EE. We can directly use the EJB data, no need to convert this and that. The only thing that worries me is that some ppl complain that it's quite slow when synchronize is turned on. However, ICEFaces said that could be turned off as long as you don't need the AJAX Push techonology. I'm hoping that's true for now...

Another lazy weekend
Didn't do much cleaning except for the usual dish washing and wipping the floor... briefly.
Made Korean Potatoes Noodles. It's ok, but not as good as I had hoped, not sweet enuf. The fact that it's unclear in the original recipe of how much sauce to use did not help. Everything was just eyeballed. Maybe I should have used brown sugar/corn syrup instead of just relying on my rogers granulated sugar and sweet soy sauce.

Had bday dinner @ Fisherman Terrace with family. My favourite food there is still the free pudding cake dim sum near the end. Maybe we should try another place next time... getting so bored of it.

Went to driving range. Had a few extremely good shots with my iron but totally sux w/ John's hybrid.
Tried to use my new VISA chip card again and failed... 4 times!! Donno if it's because it remembered that I entered in the wrong PIN last time and no longer accept PIN?

Went skating w/ friends on Sat. Surprisingly, it wasn't packed. The ice was pretty nice too. Saw the kid from our club that I used to skate with in the Bronze session 2 yrs ago. She's now doing single axel. Most of which she either fell or popped but a few of them were good. My feet went all numb after just standing around / skated very slowly... Didn't attempt my usually under-rotated double loop nor my sometimes-work-sometimes-don't-work camel spin. Had about 2 good scratch spins and the rest not-centered at all. But my back crossovers were good that day, partly due to the softness of ice. After many many years, I can finally skate backwards w/o too much tension and able to watch out for ppl. I'm still a bit weak on the clockwise direction but a huge improvement nonetheless.

Went to driving range afterwards. We forgot my club so I had to use John's clubs. Most of my shots sux but I had a few good ones w/ the hybrid!!! First time ever! It sounded so good. Ping!!!

Didn't do much cleanup other than the regular vacuum and wiping the floor.

Made chicken w/ tomato/egglpant/red and green peppers/onion sauce. It was average....could be because I only bought 1 eggplant while the recipe called for 2. In the end, I found it a bit blend so added in some ketchup and cumin. That did the trick or saved it...

Watched Quatum of Solace. It was ok. I went to sleep before it finished..... just too tired.