desserts

After eating some Chinese food on November 1, we decided to stop by the nearby bakery, Grandma's Bakery. We always eat at this Chinese restaurant and we've always seen the bakery, but we've never stopped by. I don't know what made by sister decide to stop by, but I was more than happy to oblige.

Their pastries looked quite good, so we all decided to get one each. My sister ordered the cappuccino cup, which is supposed to be made of chocolate cake & icing & cappuccino. But she was given something else--something with white cake and caramel drizzle (found out when we got home). She was quite disappointed to get the wrong cake.

My nephew got the oreo cookie mousse cake. It just tasted like it was all whipped cream. My nephew had to put it in the freezer to see if it would taste better (make it more of an ice cream cake). I think it was better frozen, but it still tasted like whipped cream.

My niece got the chocolate mousse. It was quite good. She especially liked the fact that it was made of all kinds of chocolates, even the plaid-looking wrapper.

I ordered the tiramisu. I was debating between two things (can't remember what the other one was now), and we asked the salesperson what she liked best. Since she said tiramisu, I went ahead and got that. Out of everything we got, mine was the best.

I'm not sure that we'll ever go there again, but it was fun being able to pick our own little desserts.

halloween

i'm not really into halloween. i guess that's because i think of it as an american tradition (in the philippines, we have completely different traditions for this time of the year.) and, by the time i came here, i was already a teenager so dressing up was not something i wanted to do (and i'm not such a big fan of candy anway).

this year, since i'm living with my sister's family, i knew i'd be involved in halloween festivities somehow. when my niece went to buy her costume, i went with her and my sister. my niece ended up buying a feather mask for her costume. we thought it would be fun if all three of us wore various feather masks, so my sister and i bought ones for ourselves, too. (pics below.)

since i'm working in a university, i figured that there'd be some people in costumes and such so i brought my camera. i happened to be in the student union mailing my ballot, and i chanced upon these amazing carved pumpkins. i believe this was for a competition.





later in the morning, after my vietnamese class, i found waldo.

i saw a few people in costumes in the library, but i didn't take any more pictures (too busy working).

when i got home, they were just waiting for me. so i hurriedly ate dinner. we had our little photo op outside the house. here are the girls:

we headed over to redondo beach, where my nephew's boy scout troop had a halloween maze/ fundraiser.

we went in the maze first before heading out trick or treating around the neighborhood. we found my nephew:

after the maze, we went trick-or-treating--6 kids and 4 adults. there were a lot of people out. and a lot of the houses were decorated. i was surprised. i've never really seen so many trick-or-treaters. and my niece told me they have more people in their neighborhood!

that neighborhood has some nice houses. i tried to take pictures, but they didn't come out too well. i was able to take pictures of this house with the crazy yard. one passerby said that the owner does this for every occasion!

i didn't really take pictures of the trick-or-treaters. (that would just be weird.) but i did take this one.

after a lot of walking (over an hour, for sure), we went back to the maze. my nephew was taking a break from working the maze. he apparently changed from being in the dot room to the kitchen.

we were supposed to go to another maze at my nephew's dojo, but he was having too much fun working the maze. so we left him there, and we went home. that was an experience.

thriller

This month, I found out that they were holding lessons all over Los Angeles for people to learn the "Thriller" dance. This was all part of Thrill the World 2008, an attempt to set a world record of the most people around the world simultaneously performing the dance (which they did).

My 12-year-old nephew is very into the song, so I thought he'd actually want to learn the steps. They had lessons in the area, but he actually didn't want to do it. Maybe it's that age. I would probably have done if the family was doing it. lol.

Fortunately, they had a couple of lessons on the UCLA campus, and last Tuesday (October 21), I was able to catch a little bit of it.

(I actually have a couple of video bits, but it's taking too long to upload, so you'll have to settle for the pics.)

baking

In the beginning of October, Sharon, my former roommate, put on her Facebook status that she was baking pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. That sounded good, so I asked for the recipe, and I baked it the next day. Unfortunately, I didn't think to take pictures. They were good, though--not too sweet. And my co-workers can attest to that.

I hadn't really baked in a very long time. I used to do it a lot when I was in college, but that's a really long time ago. Baking those cookies has gotten me back in the mood for baking. (This is not necessarily a good thing since i'm trying to cut down on sweets).

The following week, I wanted to bake again, but I didn't have a recipe in mind. Based on the ingredients we had on hand, my niece and I decided to make chocolate chocolate chip muffins. They were okay. I actually took pictures, so here they are.

chicken adobo

The past couple of years, I haven't really cooked much. Since I returned to LA in May, i've mostly just cooked breakfast food. In late August, I actually cooked real food. I made chicken adobo. I don't really know how to make adobo, so meAnn, my friend in the Philippines was actually giving me instructions while I was cooking.

So here's the result. I'm not sure it looks appetizing in the wok, but it's the only picture I took. I can tell you, that it's good. Yum! I want some right now!

words

Last week, I got a book that I ordered through interlibrary loan. It's called Three Gay Tales from Grimm by Wanda Gag. Having taken a class in undergrad called "Queering the Canon," I thought it would be a queering of three Grimm tales. And I figured it would be worth looking at the book, especially since Wanda Gag received a Newberry Honor for her Millions of Cats.

I had to laugh at myself while I was reading the first story. Gay didn't mean queer at all! It is actually used in its more original sense, meaning happy or lighthearted. I should have known that. Wanda Gag worked during the first half of the 20th century, and the word "gay" didn't have the same connotation then as it does now.

Funny how words take on different meanings over time. Funny how a three-letter word can mean something innocuous on one hand and something that is threatening to some people on the other hand.

bookstore

The other night, I went to the bookstore with my sister and her family. In the hour that we were there, I read the last two books of The Spiderwick Chronicles. This officially means that I have read the entire series of five books at bookstores.

For my sister's family, going to the bookstore is an outing that they do regularly. (In fact, they went again last night.) Since I usually stay with my sister when I'm in the area, I have often accompanied them on these outings. So, it must have been during one of my visits last year or the year before that I began reading the series.

I know it seems like it took me a while to finish the series, considering I could read two of the books in one hour. Partly, it's because these outings are somewhat "events." Though they happen often enough, they are still considered special. Part of the specialness is that, sometimes, the outing included having dessert or hot chocolate at the bookstore cafe. Also, I often took this time to bond with my niece and we'd spend time just roaming around the bookstore. Plus, I often forgot which books I'd read, so I read some of them more than once.

So, the fact that I got to read the entire series exclusively at bookstores means that I have spent quite a bit of time with my sister's family at bookstores. And that's a good thing.

I know my sister's family loves going to the bookstore. And I enjoy going with them. I also enjoy going to bookstores with other people. So, I wonder how many people also think of going to bookstores as an event? How does that compare to going to libraries?