Baby Shower: Faith

These are fotos from rice and corn's baby shower for their little girl faith. Great name! Gilles, mascara and transam did such a wonderful job with the decor and food. I know i'm always gonna eat up a storm when i go to chez ngo. I got a chance to show my awesome pictionary skills during a baby themed challenge. The funniest part was when i was up to draw, i was up against a dood and our word was 'labor'. Oh dood he was. I drew preggo lady with legs up in the air getting ready to pop a baby out. He drew like a construction worker digging with a shovel. Hard labor! Haha. So funny. Since i knew all the pictures were baby themed, i already pulled up a list of potential baby related words in my head and just started firing them out as my teamates were drawing. And i'm LOUD. So even if the other team said the word first. All you could basically hear is MEEEEEE! Haha. I love that game. But i don't care to play it cos it brings out the ugly in me. Haha. My team won of course. Ugh you see! I hate being competitive! As i've mentioned before, i seem to have tricked people into thinking i'm a baker. I actually hate baking. I just like the art and creativity that comes with it. Since my dear co-worker friend baked me those awesomoe tirimisu cupcakes, i really wanted to try to make some. Usually i wait and make stuff only once and hope things are peachy. This time however, i did a test batch. And thank goodness i did! My first batch of cupcakes came out all weird and some were burnt. I don't believe in setting timers and i seriously can't/shouldn't bake/cook and watch tv at the same time. So i was more careful with the real batch and i think everyone seemed to like it. Even the parents liked it and older asian parents are the hardest to please when it comes to american desserts. I was pretty pleased with myself. I always enjoy spending time with this group of people. I feel like i could be stuck in a barren warehouse with no entertainment and still have a great time with them. It's all in the company! And the best part is that they seem to enjoy my comapany too.

Restaurant: Shade

250 West 19th Street
Houston Texas 77008

For the past two months or so, i think i was under some stress that i wasn't even aware i was under. I guess it's bound to happen after working 40 plus hours a week at one job and then putting in more hours helping big poppa's biz. I kinda felt burnt out. I was on edge and so was big poppa. So of course that leads to the both of us constantly snapping at each other and arguing more than usual. Even so, i know that we've got such a strong enough bond that we can weather anything together. It's rare that we have date nights alone just cos we try to squeeze in dinner and brunch with friends on the weekends but i think it was something that we really needed. We went to Shade in the heights one saturday evening. Just the two of us. It started off kinda quiet. I was a little tense. We both ordered some wine. MUCH NEEDED. As we started to drink, big poppa gave us a little toast. To seven years together. And from then on we both loosened up and great conversation followed. The food here was okay. I think the best thing was the MAC AND CHEESE. It was the reason why i wanted to come here. Super creamy mac and cheese with truffle oil. Like a lot of truffle oil. I know real foodies turn their nose at truffle oil but i love the stuff. I love when mac and cheese is creamy. It kinda made me want to go home and try to make my mac and cheese creamy. Everything else wasn't so impressive. The clam dish had some of the cleanest clams. Maybe i'm just used to dirty asian gritty clams. I'm not really into clams but i always try like one or two to get a feel for the sauce. Sauce was okay. Big poppa's scallops were too sweet. I'm guessing they added a bit of sugar to get that nice caramelized sear but it made everything too sweet. My porkchops were kinda bland. I make super bad for you super glazy porkchops so american porkchops can't realy meet my expectations. I seem to always order it anyway. Our night ended with friends at a coffee shop. Can't get any better than that!

Holiday: Easter 2012

I was at hobby lobby one day, i dunno, prolly buying arts and crafts stuff that i didn't need, and i saw these cool large egg nesting eggs. I figured I would buy some for some of the kids for easter. I went home, stuffed them with goodies. Then i decided to paint their names on the eggs in my favorite cool font. Omg. This turned into a a two week project. Everyday after dinner, i would work on painting the names onto these eggs. I used acrylic paint which pretty much did not hold well onto the plastic eggs. I estimate that i spent approximately 45 minutes on each letter. Not name. LETTER. I did all of the names by hand without any tracing. I just simply started painting their names directly onto the egg. And with having to do multiple coats and messing up, forty five minutes had come and gone. I guess i enjoy this type of stuff in some weird way. It helps me to practice being patient and calm. I think Knox was the only one who gave me the reaction i wanted. He's in one of the vidz below and i can still hear his voice say 'ANOTHER EGG!'. These kids really are too cute. I felt bad afterwards and apologized to all the parents for giving their kids candy as well as more toys to clean up. Haha. The vid of my-linh is so funny. I felt so bad for big poppa. Man, i got my three future ringbearers and flower girls right here! Yay!

Birthday: My Big Three-Oh!

This is the e-mail that i sent out to all my peeps who came out to celebrate my bday with me:

Hello! Hello!

Before i disappear into my thirties, i wanted to let you guys know how honored i am to have you guys in my life. As i know that most of you are also getting pretty darn old, i thank you from the bottom of my hung-over heart that you found the energy to come out to help me celebrate my birthday. I hope that everyone was able to enjoy themselves and eat some good food and indulge in some much needed libations. I'm so sad that some of you had to leave so early! If the success of a birthday celebration is measured in terms of the next day's recovery process then i would say i had me a good night. I had two words for myself when i woke up the next morning: TRASHY HO. I knocked out when i got home. No bath. No make-up removal. No BRUSHING TEETH. Eek! My sweet boyfriend managed to help get me out of my party clothes but he must have forgotten to put my pj's on. He forgot right? RIGHT?!? But yeah. I suffered from queasy stomach and super headache for a good part of the day.

I also want to say thanks for all the wonderful cards and gifts. My sister had a great time opening all the presents while the bf and i were sleeping the alcohol off. Of course, i also need to add that no gifts were necessary! All i ever want is to simply spend time with friends! I must admit, my secret plan to have my birthday party next to some of my favorite stores worked as i know some of you got me last minute gifts from there. YES! Haha.

Depending on my level of laziness for the rest of this week/month, I may or may not get out some thank-you cards. Please reply with your snail mail address! It may or may not include pictures of yourself.

I LOVE you guys!


It was just maybe five years ago that i had the biggest falling out with some folks who i thot would always be in my life. It was such sad times. It took me months to get out of the funk i was in knowing that i was walking away from best friends and realizing that my friendship was not good enough. As i neared my thirties, much of me has stayed relatively immature but for the most part, i've developed great confidence and clarity in myself. As well as some extra baggage around the waistline. Haha. I have no doubt that i am a great and supportive friend. Albeit maybe a little unavailable as of late. I really do envy those people who are capable of having ever lasting friendships but i know that i may not have what it takes to be that person and i think i'm okay with that. People will either appreciate you as a friend or they don't. Friendship is supposed to be easy, not forced. I slowly learned that maybe i had outgrown these people and perhaps they felt the same about me. I think the only people i miss and think about is SD and TN. But you know, loyalty goes a long way. No guts no glory. I don't know if everything really happens for a reason, but i KNOW that if i hadn't broken away the way i did, i would never have met the amazing people that i'm friends with today. I love having people who are so positive and supportive and makes me want to be a better person. Why waste time being or saying mean-spirited things. So as i walked to my birthday celebration, i just couldn't help thinking how much things have changed and how different the guest list would have been if things hadn't changed. Things are so much better now. One thing that hasn't changed is my wonderful relationship with big poppa. Only he could calm the whirlwind of chaos that goes through my head. And without him, my birthday wouldn't have been as awesome as it was. Thank you big poppa and and thank you to all my friends who make life pretty darn great! Cheers to being 30!