Thingits: Soul

Meet Soul! She's a Momiji Doll. She likes motorbikes. There's a slot at the bottom where you can hide messages. I wrote a simple birthday message.

Birthday: Bambu

This weekend was my good friend's birthday. It was also her dad's 60th b-day according to the lunar calendar. Supposedly, it's a big deal in the Asian reasoning to celebrate the 60th birthday so her mom threw a big bash. My parents and her parents have been family friends since before Bambu and I were born, so the whole fam spent Saturday evening eating loads of food. Her mom is a super awesome cook! I love Vietnamese food! The next day, the bf and I went to a bon voyage thing for our Navy friend who just completed his Master's and is now moving to the great city of Seattle to pay his debt to society for the next three years! That's the second person we know who has moved to Seattle this year alone.

Happy birthday to Bambu! Her younger sister is actually my age but for some reason, I've always been closer to Bambu. She also is the first recipient of a Momiji doll as a b-day gift. I gifted her Soul girl. More on Soul later.

The bon voyage party was held at this amazing apartment clubhouse. There was a pool table, 8 flat screen TVs, poker table, foosball table, computers with internet access, and best of all, virtual golf! So the guys really loved that! The bf ran around playing with whatever he could.

I got to indulge in two very yummy cakes this weekend. This is Bambu's birthday cake that her bf got for her. It's the Domino cake from Ruggles. Funny story. I actually got her the Domino cake last year for her b-day. Her bf, Deebo, told her this year that he got her a cake that was even better than the one I got her last year. And then it turns out to be very same cake. That guy is so silly.

The Navy friend had a tirimisu cake from Le Duc. Oh it was sooooo good. Creamy and not to overly sweet. Perfecto! It was really a sinful weekend. Maybe that helped attribute to my muffin top I've been sporting this week. Uggh!

Restaurant: District 7 Grill

501 Pierce
Houston, TX 77002

It's a good thing to have American breakfast once in awhile. The bf and I usually opt for some sort of Asian cuisine when we go out for brunch. One Sunday, I suggested District 7 Grill for a change. The food was good, but it took more than thirty minutes to come out. I'm not sure if that's how it normally is or if they were just having some kinks. Even though we had a busy schedule for the day, we waited patiently. Good thing Rhythmic Gymnastics was on or I would have been super grumpy from hunger. This place is like a little diner/trailer hybrid. It's located right where downtown meets midtown. Although the food was yummy, I just don't think it's the best choice for the first meal of the day. I just felt so sluggish after eating my two sunny-side up eggs (gotta have them runny!), french toast and sausage. Definitely not the breakfast of champions. Their country potatoes was the bf's fave.

Pros: Good food, outdoor dining available, had disposable cups and sauce containers (that means it's cleaner than your average shoddy restaurant washing technique)
Cons: Took 30 min plus for food to come out, had disposable cups and sauce containers (how wasteful!)
Double Con: One of the waiters was really sweaty and I saw him take his BARE hands and wipe his face of the sweat. GAG! Those same hands could have touched my plate of food!

Thingits: Japanese Milk

Here's my first of four Moofia's. It's Japanese Milk!

Musik Mundi: Snow Patrol

My fave song from Snow Patrol's Eyes Open album was mos def NOT that Chasing Cars track. Natasha Bedingfield did a cover of that song and it was SO good and much better! Her new album isn't bad either. Maybe next week will be Natasha's week. Anyhow. So Snow Patrol. They are still a great band with such a smooth style of music. Most of the members are from Ireland but reside in Glasgow, Scotland, home of folks behind Travis! I think the best song from their new album is Make This Go On Forever which was featured in a Grey's Anatomy episode. The gooey feeling that I get when I listen to this song is the inspiration to love more. Nacho CHEESY I KNOW! It could almost pass for some yuppie Christian song. Musically. Not lyrically. Which are some good poetic-like lyrics by the way.




Snow Patrol
Album: Eyes Open (2006)
Song: Make This Go On Forever

Paw Pals: Tino vs. Baguette Man

Tino and the Baguette Man Dunny got into a little scuffle. The little baguette guy came out victorious.

But it was a tough battle and they were both pretty wiped out in the end.

Daily Shots: Keychains

My middle sistar is a collector of key chains. I always make sure to bring her back one from every single city that I travel to. I think she has all her peeps doing so. And the result: A massive mess.

Thingits: Moofia

I finally got my first four Moofia's! It's a series of mini figures created by SRANGEco and Tokidoki. There are 11 dairy-flavored characters total (Soya, Leche, Latte, Low Fat Milk, Mou Mou Milk Bottle, Baby Milk Bottle, Choco, Japanese Milk, Riso, Creamina and Fragolina) and they join their leader Mozzarella in her quest for schoolyard justice. Yeah. Whatever that means. They're blind boxes so you don't know which one you're getting. But it's okay cos they come in these super cute milk cartons. Groovy man!

Placenter: Tansu

321-B W. 19th St
Houston, TX 77008

I ordered my first Momiji doll on Amazon the other week thinking that there wasn't a single store in Houston that carried these little figurines. I was WRONG! I noticed that my little Momiji was shipped from this store called Tansu and it was right here in Houston. So I made a special trek over to the Heights area to check this place out. It's so crazy how much the Heights area has changed! From what I could see just driving by, there are a lot of cute stores and cafes and I have already begun rounding up some folks to go back there with me one day when I have time. So the only store I went to was Tansu. Tansu specializes in trinkets, novelties, origami and even furniture. It's basically all things cool in my book. I would have loaded up on all this junk if things were just a tad bit cheaper. I visited the mini wall of Momiji's they had to offer. The bf rolled his eyes as I gushed over which one I would get. The worker lady there told us that she ships out at least twenty of those suckers everyday. See, I'm not the only wasteful person out there. Hah! I already have one for myself, which I'll introduce in another blog, but I went ahead and bought two more since I have two friends who have birthdays in September. The bf queried my friends possible disinterest in these things. I actually don't really care. It's either this or no gift at all! I actually should have bought three since I have a friend with a birthday THIS weekend. I may have to make a trip out there sooner than I thought. I must apologize for the crappy looking photos. The worker lady was super nice and said it was cool if I took pictures, but I didn't wanna walk around flashing all over the place.

Tansu sells a lot of unique cards.

I super love cherry blossom trees. They're just gorgeous and supremely romantical!

I'm so silly. I have this yellow origami bird that I got from this Yellow Magazine event from awhile back. Like almost two whole years ago. And the word Tansu is written on the bird. And I remember telling myself, I should go there one day.

Momiji heaven!

Whenever I get my own place, I don't want a fancy schmancy dinner table, I want a picnic style family table just like this one!

Oh Really?: Fuwa

The Fuwa ("good luck dolls") are the official mascots of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. I'm about to literally write verbatim from wikipedia. There are five fuwa, each one representing many different elements such as the colors of the Olympic rings. The theme of the day is me wanting something that I have deemed wickedly adorable. Seriously. I crave and I covet these cute cuddlies. The mascots were created by a famous Chinese artist, Han Meilin. The names of the five fuwa are BeiBei, JingJing, HuanHuan, YingYing and NiNi. Taking the first parts of each name and combining them yields: "BeiJing HuanYing Ni" which translates to "Beijing welcomes you". Although they were supposed to represent luck, recent events in China have led the Chinese to believe that each of the Fuwa have cursed their country. Read each Fuwa description for more detail.


Name: BeiBei
Gender: Female
Cultural Inspiration: Fish; Traditional Chinese New Year lotus and fish design.
Olympic Ring: Blue
Element: Sea
Fengshui Element: Water
Sport: Aquatic Sports
Curse: In June 2008, one of the worst floods in 50 years hit much of Southern China and forced 1.6 million people to evacuate their homes.








Name: JingJing
Gender: Male
Cultural Inspiration: Giant Panda; Song Dynasty lotus.
Olympic Ring: Black
Element: Forest
Fengshui Element: Wood
Sport: Weightlifting, Judo, etc.
Curse: Who could forget the massive earthquake that devasted the Sichuan Province in May 2008. The Giant Panda is the animal native to Sichuan.








Name: HuanHuan
Gender: Male
Cultural Inspiration: Olympic Torch; Fire design from Mogao Grottoes.
Olympic Ring: Red
Element: Fire
Fengshui Element: Fire
Sport: Ball Sports
Curse: The Olympic torch relay was dogged with protests. Some cities even opted not to participate because of escalating danger and riots.








Name: YingYing
Gender: Male
Cultural Inspiration: Antelope; Tibetan and Xinjiang ethnic costumes.
Olympic Ring: Yellow/Orange
Element: Earth
Fengshui Element: Earth
Sport: Track and Field
Curse: Two words, Free Tibet!









Name: NiNi
Gender: Female
Cultural Inspiration: Swallow; Sand Martin Kite
Olympic Ring: Green
Element: Sky
Fengshui Element: Metal
Sport: Gymnastics
Curse: Nini is a swallow that resembles a kite. In April, there was a deadly train crash in the city of Weifang, also known as the 'kite city'.