Hello!!

I can’t believe that I’ve neglected this blog for the longest time. It was over 6 months since I last posted. I lose my mojos to post anything here. I guess once you stop it is hard to get into the momentum to write again. A lot of things happen during this period. Some are good and some not so good. I am going to start posting here again to record our journey moving back to California. Yea we are moving back there again. It is already 6 years since we moved to Pennsylvania. It took us a while to get used to PA, especially the warm summer and the super cold winter. We were hoping that one day we get to go back to CA again. I guess God heard our prayers and Carlos got a job offer there. So we will be moving back there but this time it will be San Francisco. The last time I was there were in 1996 for vacations and really love it there especially the beautiful weather. I can’t believe that we will be moving there. Part of me is really excited but part of me is sad to leave this place where we call home for over 6 years. It is not easy to uproot ourselves again especially leaving some good friends behind.

So I will update this blog as often as possible. In the meantime, we will be on a road trip to the West. We will cover 8 states during this period of time. I hope we survive the long journey and don’t kill each other ha ha… Adios!!

Being A Little Lazy!!

I know it is kind of late to wish all of you but Happy New Year everyone. I’ve been neglecting this blog for the longest time ever. The last posting was in September 2010. The only excuse I have is I’ve been lazy. I am actually looking forward to 2011. I hope things will be better for the country and all of us.

CNY is just around the corner and I won’t be going back home. That too makes me feel kind of down. I am missing my family and the hopefully by next week I will get my mood back to celebrate.

Thanks to all of you who keep coming back to check on this blog. I promise to update it as often as possible. In the meantime do check out my cooking blog.

It has been a while.

It is over a month since I last update this neglected blog of mine. As some of you might know I am in Malaysia now and having a great time with my family. Before you know it I will be flying back to US soon. I am hoping that I can extend my flight ticket for a another 2 weeks but when I called Cathay this morning they told me that all their flights are full all the way until end of April. Man, they must be the only airline who is doing well in this bad economy. So now I am on their waiting list and if it goes well I will be flying out of here on the 22nd and if not I will be flying out of KLIA on the 8th as schedule. The reason I am extending my stay is my mom will be having cataract surgery on her eye and I like to be around during that time to take care of her for a few days before flying home. So keep my fingers cross that I will get to stay.

In the meantime I’ve taken tons of pictures in Malaysia to share with you but have yet to find the time to sit down and do it. Maybe when I am back to the US soil. Take care everyone and will keep you posted on the latest on my flight.

Happy Halloween!

I have been neglecting this blog again. Actually life is pretty much the same so nothing much to write about. Fall this season is terrible. It has been sunny for a few days and then raining non stop for the rest of the week. I never like this kind of weather. I have been hibernating at home and go out only once a week. We went out for lunch today and stop by the grocery store to get more chocolate and candies as the neighborhood kids who will be here for Trick or treating this evening. I will take some pictures of the kids and their costumes and post it up later.

Neglected Blog

I have been neglecting this blog again. The past few weeks have been busy, exhausting, stressful and terrifying. But I am doing ok now. Nothing much going on at the moment except looking forward to my sisters visit this Saturday. They will be here for 3 weeks. It will be great catching up with them as I do miss my family a lot.

I do have a lot of pictures to post here but I just too lazy to organize and resize it now. Maybe I will get it done in a day or two. So take care everyone and see you later.

I Am Going Home!!!

I finally bought the ticket for my flight home early next year. I know it's kind of early but I've heard that the prices will be much higher after October. I've been looking around for the best deal but every airlines seem to be charging a lot of money for it. I wanted to fly Singapore but too bad they don't fly economy from Newark anymore. They only fly Business and 1st class. MAS is charging arms and legs their ticket and cost almost 2K. I am glad I found a pretty good deal through Zue's agent but I have to transit in so many places and by the time I reach Kuala Lumpur I will be like a zombie. I am praying hard that this airline don't give me any problem when the time comes as they don't have a very good track record with the consumers.

I can't wait to be home with my family to celebrate 2009 Chinese New Year. The last time I celebrate CNY back home was 9 years ago. I am so looking forward to the reunion dinner and meeting up with relatives and friends. Hopefully I am able to meet up with some of my blogging friends too. Those who are interested please let me know o.k. Kuala Lumpur here I came!!

Sorry!!

Sorry for not updating my blog. I am a bit under the weather since coming back from New York. Will post some pictures of our trip to Long Island next week. Take care and have a good weekend.

I Am So Lazy!!

If laziness is a punishable crime under the law, I would never get a parole even... I feel like a vegetable. Laziness is a worse malaise than malaria. Medicines can't cure it. I've been lazy around for so many days watching the Olympic and now it’s all over and I have to get my butt up and do some housework. Laundries, ironing, vacuuming, wash my car, clean the bathroom, and update this blog...... I am already tired thinking about all the things I need to do!!

Actually I am looking forward to the long weekend as Zue and I will be visiting Lesley at Long Island, New York.

Busy Weekend

I had a really busy weekend as Zue came over to our house. She stayed for a night. The two of us went for shopping and as usual I bought a lot of kitchen stuffs from Ross. That is my favorite place to shop for kitchen stuff. I end up buying all the cute kitchen gadgets for my sister Elizabeth new house and some clothing for myself. After that we had Indian food for lunch.

The next day we went out again to a few places and later busy preparing for our evening BBQ. Yes, we had BBQ again and this time we didn't grill pizza but we grill steak, hot dogs, sausages, chicken drumstick and corn. I forgot to take a picture of our BBQ.

It's so nice to have the company of Zue and her husband Murphy and also Diana and her BF Robin. Two of them will be leaving for England and Paris this evening for two weeks long vacations. Kids now are so lucky. Get to fly here and there for vacation. Hope they remember to bring home some Macaroons for us.

P/s I can't load up any picture because something is wrong with my server. Its sooooo slow. Not sure if it is my server or blogger problem.

Passion or Obsession?

I love cookbooks and I start buying them since I was in my secondary school. I have to admit that I have too many them. You can never let me go near a book stores and I will go crazy. Carlos is so scared of me especially if I go to Barnes and Noble. I will come out of the store with at least 2 to 3 cook books in hand and that doesn’t include food magazine yet. I subscribe to Bon Appetite, Gourmet, Cooking Light and also Everyday food magazine. I even have the habits of buy online now which is not good.

Do I refer to the all cook books for my cooking and baking? Maybe 20% of the time and mostly for my baking. As for cooking I will put whatever I want in a dish and never refer to an exact recipe. I just like to spending hours flipping through all of them and drooling over the beautiful photos. You will find more books on the shelves, my coffee table, night table and even bathroom.

What you see here is just my collections since moving to PA and the rest of the books are still in boxes at the basement. I can’t even remember what I have in those boxes. You won’t believe if I tell you I even bought the same baking books a few times and now I have two of it.

Back in Malaysia I have about 3 big boxes of the books in the storage. I am not sure how am I going to bring it all here. I wonder if it’s a good idea to ship it over here but I am pretty sure it is going to cost me a lot of money.

What I will do now is to avoid the book stores in order not to buy any more books. Carlos had been complaining that I am running out of space on the shelves for my books.

I am Back !!!

We touch down around 3.40am this morning. Man, it was a long tiring trip home. Our flight was delayed in San Francisco for over 4 1/2 hours. First they said we have to wait for the plane to come in from LAX, then the plane had some engine problem and can't take off, then they can't repair it and need to change to another plane and then the plane finally came in after 3 hours of delayed. After they board all of us and on the runway the captain told us they have some computer glitch and he need to reboot it all over again. What a bummer!!! We sat on the runway for over half and hour and finally we took off around 7.00 pm. Lucky Diana and her BF came and pick us up from the airport at the wee hours of the morning. We finally hit the sack around 5.00am this morning.

I will be posting some pictures of our trip to CA so stay tune for that.

Sizzling Hot!!!

It’s not only sizzling hot outside, it’s also sizzling hot inside. We are having heat waves for the past few days and it’s really torturing. You might think that I came from a Tropical country and I should handle the heat well but that is not the case. I prefer the cold weather anytime.

Temperature had been soaring to 98 degree which is a record high but it feels like 105 with the extreme humidity. We had power outage around 7.30pm last night because of the strong wind, lightning and thunder. Our A/c has been running 24/7 for the past 4 days. I have been hiding inside the house but I really need to go out to run some errands before our trip to CA. Hopefully the weather there is much cooler than here.

California here we come!!! I won't be updating my blog until next weekend. I will be taking a lot of pictures of our trip so do come back. Take care everyone.

Rambling II

I've been cooping up at home for so many days. I finally got out of hibernation as I needed to go to the supermarket to get my fresh fruits and vegetables. We are running really low of everything. What a nice change, to breathe of fresh air once again. This is how I live most of the days. I don't go out often unless it is absolutely necessary.

And I do this more in the winter. The thought of putting on layers of clothing, scarves, and jacket makes me want to stay in every single day. It's still so freaking cold outside and we will be expecting more snow again tomorrow. I just can't wait for spring to come.

While in hibernation I clean up my closet. Need to tidy up all my clothes and shoes and give some away to 'Goodwill' and I remember Cat asked me to show pictures of my shoes. So, here you are Cat ;)
I bought this new pair of shoes online last year and guess what. It was a bit too tight for my giant feet. Is a size 7 1/2 and I wanted to give it away. Just remember this shoe is much smaller then the usual 7 1/2 shoes. So any of you who wear this size send me an e.mail or leave me a comment with your address or email and I will mail it to you. Of course you have to be living here in US and is first comes first serve. No more buying shoes online for me ;)

No Mood for CNY

Chinese New Year is just around the corner and I always get depressed during this time of the year. I am not in the mood to do anything. To make it wrost Diana is not here and my sisters won’t be coming. They plan to go to Japan in April to visit Diana so they decided to come here only around autumn.

It will be my 8th year away from home. I really feel lonely as there is lack of festive mood here compared to Malaysia. Back in those years I will be busy baking cookies, we sisters will be busy making kueh kapit, kueh rose (beehives), shopping for new clothes, cleaning up the house and planning what to cook for our reunion dinner.

I promised a few friends 'Bak Kwa' so I better get my butt up and do something.

Anyone can tell me how I can cheer myself up? Oh well, I guess I will be making a lot of phone call home to Malaysia.

My Little Adventure

I did something really stupid this morning. I locked myself out of the house. I was in the mid of cooking some stew. When the stew was simmer away I decided to go outside to get the newspaper and also to get rid of the dead bunny’s Remember the bunny's that ate all my flowers and my tomatoes. Well, found him dead last night right in front of my garden. So this morning I wanted to get rid of it.

We normally don’t lock the door from the garage to the house but since Carlos was away I locked it last night. As usual I had this habit of pulling the door close each time I went out through the garage. Once I pulled the door I remember I forgot to lift the lock up. Oh..noooooooooo what am I going to do. The stew was simmering away on the stove and I can’t get in. All kinds of scenarios ran through my head. What if I burn down the house or the smoke alarm went off or the sprinkle system turns on? So I ran to my good neighbor Nancy and see if she can help. The first thing she said was let’s just call the cops. I was like ‘What’ shouldn’t we call the locksmith? She said the cops will know what to do.

In a matter of 5 min 3 very handsome policemen came. Gosh, there were good looking. Just like those cops we saw in the movies. As usual they took down my name, address, phone number and even date of birth. Now, I had a record with the local police station :( they were trying to figure out how to open the door without damaging anything. First,one of them tried using the credit card method. Nothing happen. Then they asked if is ok to break down the door. I told them to go ahead. Fixing the door is better than burning the house down. After a few slam of his body into the door it OPENS. I was so Happy. First thing I did was run to the kitchen to turn off the stove. Lucky there were still a bit of water left in the kettle.

Look at that poor door :( Actually I was so tempted to ask the policemen to pose for a picture so I can blog about them but after thinking about it better not. They might think I am up to no good :) :)

I am really thankful to the Downintown policemen who came to my rescue. Actually this was not the first time I called on them. I once lock myself out of my car with the engine and A/C running. How clever of me, right. Well, that is another story to tell you one day :) I think I have to give my neighbor a set of my house keys and also my car key. Just in case I lock myself out again. I wonder why this always happen when Carlos is away so he can't come to my rescue. Wait till he comes home and I tell him the story. I am sure he will shake his head. Sorry sweetie, you have to fix the door now . It is better than burning the house down :) :)

Note : I just spoken to Carlos on the phone and he asked me to stay at home, stay put and don't do anything or go anywhere until he gets home tonight. I guess he is scare that his wife might get into troubles again ..ha ..haa By the way, I am going to Micheal's and JoAnn :) :)

Are You Addicted to the Internet

I didn't think that I had an addiction until today. I woke up this morning and I can't get my server going and I had a panic attacked. Poor Carlos was about to leave for work and also going away for a short trip and I was giving him a hard time. I wanted him to check the server or the box downstairs and he needs to get to work. And with him going way I was at the brink of tears. What am I going to do without him and my internet for a few days? I can't blog, I can't chat, I can't check out my favorite blogs, I can't check my comment or reply my emails.

Honestly, what did we do before internet. I can't go on a day without checking my blogs or my emails. It is really sad. Are there any other addicts out there? Please don't tell me I'm the only one. Go ahead and take this test Are You Addicted to the Internet and see if you are an addict like me :) I scored a 69%. It said " In your opinion, life without the internet is hardly worth living. Could be, but you probably need a bit more fresh air and sunshine to think clearly"

I called Verizon and the finally get my server working. My life is back to normal again ;)

New Year Ramblings

2007 was a pretty interesting year for me. I got to know so many new friends through blogging. Thank you all for visiting and also take the time to comment and I really appreciate your encouraging words and not forgetting all my silent readers. Sometime I do get curious at who are they and really wish they will leave comment . I guess they are just shy :)

As I look ahead of 2008, I’m not going to make any resolutions or goals. I know myself that I am just plain lazy or such a procrastinator that I will never achieve it so why bother making one in the first place. I will make resolutions on the Jan 1st and abandons it by the Jan 8th. Instead, I’m going to make a list of things I’m going to do.

Diana was suppose to leave for Japan on Jan 1st but got stranded at Chicago due to the plane engine problem and she only left the next day. I am glad she is safely there now. Is pretty lonely here for me without her. No SMS in the morning or daily phone calls from her to tell us she is safely home after classes or from work. I hope she is having a good time there.

We finally get to sleep on our new bed for the New Year. Carlos finished it on New Year’s Eve and not only that he clean the whole bedroom from ceiling fan to shampooing the carpet. I helped him a bit here and there. So that is how we spent our New Year’s Eve.

Anyway, I wish everyone will have a good year ahead and best wishes to all for the year 2008.