Weblog

Thursday, 29 January 2009

Friday, 16 January 2009

  • Eldwin hit the Big 3-0 at the beginning of January.  His mom organized a big Chinese dinner in Monterey Park with lots of food.  It was fun to celebrate with family and friends.  His actual birthday was the day after we arrived back in Jakarta.  Since he loves trying new foods, especially desserts, we got cupcakes in 10 different flavors to share with friends.  The cupcakes were beautiful but ended up looking a lot better than they tasted.  Although I give Eldwin a hard time about being "old," 30 doesn't seem old at all.  But I am starting to see how short a lifetime is... it just flashes by.

     


Sunday, 23 November 2008

  • Before coming home last week, I was traveling for about 10 days for work in one of the most beautiful places I've been in the whole country. I had a great trip! But one the way back to Jakarta, when I tried to check in, they told me my ticket had been canceled! Supposedly this happened because it was not entered properly by the booking agent. I started sweating, since I had only a few hours turnaround in Jakarta before heading to LA. In the end, they let me get on the plane and even sit in business class for free because there weren't any more seats in economy. But it was tense ten minutes. Whew. I'm glad I got home, but I really want to go back.

    image001 image002 image008 image010 image004 image006

Tuesday, 18 November 2008

  • First day in LA

    Yesterday was my first full day back in LA.  It was a bit surreal.  Eldwin made breakfast.  At 5 in the morning I was thinking about an Egg McMuffin.  He did one better and made a turkey sausage egg muffin.  Yum.

    We went to church at Evergreen LA which was really refreshing.  Then we headed out to Eldwin's mom's house with Oscar and Christina to pick up Eldwin's suitcase, which got stuck in Charlotte, NC the day before.  My mother-in-law just had her toilets replaced.  The air was seriously full of smoke and particles though since much of east LA County and Orange County are currently on fire.
     
    When we arrived, we found that radiator fluid was dripping out of Christina's car, which we were supposed to borrow.  So we left it there are went off to get lunch and new cell phone numbers.  Eldwin actually got a new G1 too, because he lost his pda on the trip from Jakarta three weeks ago.  On the way to the T-Mobile we got in an accident in Oscar's car.  It felt bad, but there was almost no damage to his car.  A Volkswagon rear-ended a Corolla, which hit a Civic, which hit us.  Only, we had to stay there almost an hour waiting for the police to show up and sort things out. 
     
    Christina's car had to go into the shop.  Then we ended up at Indian (read: Native American) Restaurant on San Gabriel, a Taiwanese/sports bar/hunting lodge themed place with a ridiculously un-PC name.  The waitresses dressed in tiny black skirts and tank tops and wore feather head bands.  But the food was pretty good and they have a big TV for watching sports.  It was a crazy day.


Monday, 29 September 2008

  • Two things that make me happy:

    So over the weekend I got two happy things, one big and one small. The big one is a bed frame. Eldwin and I have been sleeping on a mattress on the floor for the last year and a half. Originally, it was because we couldn't find the right frame for the right price, but we got used to it and in an effort not to accumulate too many things put off getting one. So it took an unpleasant experience to make me change my mind.

    One night last month I was sleeping when I heard this creepy shaking noise and had a strange feeling. I woke up and told Eldwin to turn on the light. To my horror, a two-inch large cockroach had been crawling on my head. It then started flying away trying to escape. Eldwin swatted it with the bug racket. Later we found a second one hiding under one of the pillows we use to keep our pillows from sliding off. It was so gross. The cockroach in Wall-E makes the same noise when it walks.

    Our new bedframe was originally owned by Sandra, a Korean-American woman I'd met in Jakarta in 2004. But we bought it from another couple that had bought it from her. Small world.

    The small thing I got was a September issue of Food and Wine. My friend Hiensen, who I met when he first moved to LA five years ago, came back to Jakarta for the first time to visit his family. It was great to see him and catch up. And he brought the magazine for me. I got it yesterday and first thing went to the supermarket and whipped up Sauteed Chicken with Olives and Roasted Lemons, one of the featured 30 best fast recipes. It was really fast, about 25 minutes and really tasty.

    Last night I was sitting in bed reading about Mario Batali's culinary tour/road trip through Spain (oddly enough with Gwyneth Paltrow). It was a wonderful feeling. 

    Sorry the pictures are bad; over the weekend I left our camera at the office, so I had to use my phone.