Daily Shots: Elmo

I couldn't wait to post pics of what partook in my kitchen this past weekend. Big little Pretzel's 2nd berfday was coming up, and Miss Antsylily informed me that she was planning on have an Elmo themed partay for him. Although it's harder these days for me to find time to go crazy with any sort of party planning, I wanted to at least make something for my favo little guy. He's just the cutest thing evar with his giganto smile. So after browsing the internet for a bit, I came across the idea of making elmo cupcakes. I was actually really excited about them, which is surprising cos I absolutely hate the thot of baking. Not a fan. So I bought boxed yellow cake, red icing from the tube, marshmallows, black gel icing and giganto orange gumballs. Cupcakes from NON-SCRATCH! Hoorah to me! And man. Lemme just tell ya how hard gumballs are to come by. I couldn't find them anywhere and finally had to settle on buying a wholesale box of gumballs from Sam's. That's right. 850 assorted gumballs just for 24 orange ones. That's how I do it! So I now have all these gumballs that I have no idea what to do with. My co-worker already said she'd take a handful. Any other takers? As for the cupcakes, it was my very first time ever making cupcakes. First time frosting anything. I bought this hand held mixer thing like two years ago and I unwrapped it from the box for the very first time this weekend for the cupcakes. Sad. I know. But it was kinda fun. I probably would never do it again for fun, only for special occasions. Big poppa is the greatest. He thot of using marshmallows for the eyeballs and sliced all the marshmallows for me while I made the cupcake batter. I'm a lucky gal. We actually had a good time assembling the cupcakes together and laughed as elmo came to life one facial piece at a time. More on the birthday thing later.

Event: Swan Lake

You may think I'm completely loco and nuts, but when I heard that the Houston Ballet would be performing the famous ballet Swan Lake at the Wortham, I made a note to purchase tickets right when it became avail. That was August of 2008. When would I be using those tickets? June of 2009. I know! There was no way that I was going to miss out on it. I love ballet and I've always wanted to go see Swan Lake. I managed to gather up a handsome group to accompany me on this night of culture. Some were secured early on, some were coaxed, some were coerced and some were just forced at the last minute. Hah! The ballet was just magnificently beautiful. Set to the music composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the story follows Odette, a beautiful maiden transformed into a swan by an evil knight, who I guess has powers of some sort. Odette is a swan by day but turns back into human form at night. She meets a prince who falls instantly in love with her, even when learning of her curse. In the end, the prince battles the evil knight and shoots an arrow at him. Alas, he misses and it hits his beloved Odette instead. Heart broken, he takes Odette in his arms and drowns himself in the lake. The swan lake. My favorite parts are when the flock of swans danced together. All the girls were perfectly in sync and it was simply mesmerizing to watch. A lot of tippy toes and skinny arms swaying back and forth. To be honest though, there were a lot of areas that were quite a bit repetitive and could have been left out. The whole ballet lasted about three whole hours, with three intermissions. That's a lot! I kinda felt bad for the guys that were with us. I know they were getting a bit restless and bored with it all. But hey, you don't go see a ballet everyday and if anything, they can now tell the ladies that they've seen Swan Lake. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take all too many pictures. We got there a little late and so everyone was rushing to get to their seats before it started. You know American folks. They're always on time! Haha.

Since we were at a ballet, I told the guys to give me a demi plie! Since they are such awesome guys, they obliged. I wish the fracking pic wasn't so darn blurry. Pooey!

It's just me being the completely immature and unclassy person that I truly am. Hah!

Musik Mundi: Keri Hilson

Knock You Down by Keri Hilson. Another song that big poppa likes jamming to. I think he likes the video to this song a lot better. Something about wanting to look like Ne-Yo. He played it in the car while I was driving so much that I started jamming to it. Her voice is great, unlike the over-rated Beyawnce. The beat is awesome, the music is awesome. And the fact that I still like the song even though it comes on all the time on the radio says a lot. She's a singer and a songwriter and a piano playa. Now how about that! She's written songs for Britney Spears, Ludacris, Usher and Ciara. She's been featured in other peepos music and vids. In the words of Buddha: "Good Stuff!". I wonder if she was named after the lotion.

*photo courtesy of amazon.com*


Keri Hilson feat. Ne-Yo & Kanye West
Album: In A Perfect World (2009)
Song: Knock You Down

Paw Pals: Stewie

Some more pics of Stewie taking a nap next to me and my laptop. She's so cute! I love her so much. I can see why people who don't have cats say that they don't like them. But, at the same time, they don't know what they're missing out on. She makes me smile just by being a cat. I hope she gets fatter. She's so skinny right now! When I look at her, she reminds me more of a wild cat than your usual domestic cats. She's fierce!

Graduation: S. Linh

My cousin graduated high school this year and my aunt threw her a little graduation get together for mostly family. My aunt is a frackin' bad arse cook. She makes unhealthy stuff (fried!) but it's what I prefer to eat anyways. Haha! Every time I have a big party, I'll ask my aunt to make me her famous chicken wings. It's always a big hit. But man. It really is surreal knowing my little cousin will be starting her college career this coming fall. How old am I now? Sheesh! She got a car as a graduation gift and I'm sure we'll be meeting up a lot more now that she's got 90% freedom.

The graduate and my little baby sistar.

Some of the food. First up, the CHICKEN WANGS!

Everybody also always love her egg rolls. If you would like to learn how to make AUTHENTIC VN egg rolls, you must check out my friend's new cooking show thing he has on youtube called Tran Can Cook. He may be all tatted up, but he's seriously the nicest and FUNNIEST doods I know. Subscribe, leave a commets ... you know the drill.

Of course, she's also an amazing baker. She baked this cake. I forgot what she called it.

The lady behind all that good stuff.

Oh yeah. The German baby made an appearance and she was happy as always.