Wednesday, March 30, 2011

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Yesterday was my first free day in weeks, it was nice to have time to cook for my dogs again, cleaned up the floors a bit and finally sent clothes to the dry cleaners! Now that my recital is over, we are in full force to work on the move. All afternoon my fiance and I had been packing his things into boxes, two is better than one when it comes to packing, and we got half his apartment packed up! We were tired by the end of it, and ran out to look at appliances for break time. Neither of us had anything, so we picked simple and basic things that looked easy enough to use without any complicated buttons, we still need a fridge though, that maybe for later!

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For some reason I didn't feel like a salad after all the manual labor, since it was Tuesday I thought we could give it a try at boiling crab. We tried to get in on the weekends a couple of times but the wait made it impossible. On a regular Tuesday night, we still waited for about 40 minutes. It was quite a experience to eat there, you get a table covered in a piece of paper, no plates, no forks, and the waiter put a bib around your neck before they threw a bag of seafood dipped in sauce on your table. That little bag of shrimp was all I took picture of for the food. Right after that my hands and face were covered in hot sauce. It was good though, I liked the shrimp, but the crab? I think I make them better at home:)

Monday, March 28, 2011

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Ready for some food pictures? We had a minor celebration with just a few people at Raphael, I'm in love with the crisp pork belly, I think I'm going to try and make something like it at home.
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So what have I been up to lately? A lot of things, mainly, a piano recital that just took place today. The program was a bit on the heavy side, Bach Toccata in D minor, Beethoven Sonata-appassionata, Chopin Ballade no. 4 and Gaspard de la nuit, the "supposedly" most difficult piece for piano there is along with Islamey. The funny thing is? I was as nervous as I had imagined myself to be, and perhaps even more, but not nearly as relieved as I thought I'd be after it's finished, I felt relaxed, that was all.

As I was driving today, I thought about all the help that I had received from people to make this recital happen, my fiance's support, all the help I got from my piano teacher, friends who came to the recital to support me, the recording artist, and even the concert coordinator and stage manager who were there and gave me peace of mind. It was definitely not the result of a single person, and then, there of course were the many piano teachers that taught me throughout the years since I was a little girl, the effort and care they put in me so I can be the person that I am now. I think this is a day to be grateful, if anything I owed it to them to keep practicing and keep getting better.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

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Both me and my fiance have been super busy lately, but tonight he gave up a few hours of his work time, which he will be making up for by working extra on Sunday to see me and take me out for dinner. It helped me to release a mountain of stress which have been escalating to ridiculous heights lately. When I think about this loving and caring man is the person that I'm about to marry, I have nothing to say but that I am pretty damn lucky!

Thursday, March 24, 2011

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walk with Kelly and Bobby in the morning, feels cold and fresh right after the rain!

Monday, March 21, 2011

This is too funny, hope this brightens your day!
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It rained all day Sunday. I got up early and made my way back to the gym Sunday morning. It was really nice to drive on the quiet street with drops of rain and trod through town in rain boots. The rest of day we met up with a wedding photographer (now we're getting somewhere, ) stocked up on groceries for the week and cooked dinner, two of our friends came over to chat for a little bit which was really nice. Right after they left my fiance and I raced to the theater and saw a movie. Counting yesterday, we have met each other for exactly a year and half. 18 Months! A short time on paper, but with so much change in life.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

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I've been looking for old or secondhand home decorations, recently I found this floral painting on the left on ebay, it's a real gem. I don't know where it will go yet but I like it a lot!

Friday, March 18, 2011

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Since we started our home buying process we've been to the new house several times already, after the initial dizziness about getting our hands on the property, I realized that there's practically no closet space in the house. There's one medium sized closet, but that's it, definitely not enough for the both of us. I might convert some garage space into a big closet, maybe.  Recently with my stress mounting I have not been exercising, and my stretch pole just sat there with nothing to do. It started out that I hung a few bags on one end when I was organizing my house, and a couple of days later there was several more bags on the other end, and last night I thought, well, what the heck, it will do as a clothing rack, so I hung coats and dresses on it. Sometimes, it's just nice to have your clothes and be able to see it too, usually they get smashed into my tiny closet and get lost or forgotten. Lesson learned? I DO HAVE SOMETHING TO WEAR, so, no more shopping for me for a while, I'm getting married, maybe this is about time to grow up and be responsible and start save a little now...

Thursday, March 17, 2011

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My fiance and I have been stuck in the middle of a stressful home buying process for quite sometime, at last, on Wednesday we signed off the last stack of paper work early in the morning with the escrow company. Neither of us had any idea what the heck we were doing, so we read through every single line carefully and asked a bunch of stupid questions while the escrow agent shook her head because of our stupidity. We celebrated the occasion with a big breakfast, my fiance had to ran back to work right after, while I had to go and get a dress for my up coming recital. We both have been super busy lately, there's almost no time to really think about what is happening with us becoming a new couple and the move, the new house, the repairs, the renovations, the furniture, my kitchen color scheme!!! We haven't got to none of that, or have any time to indulge in the joy of becoming new home owners. Remember I said March was going to be tough? Well, not for too much longer I hope.  Tomorrow is Friday and the news said that's when the radiation plume will arrive Southern California. I have been indulging in this piece of bad news constantly and searched all day for iodine tablets even though everyone else around me are perfectly calm. I'm confining Kelly and Bobby to inside the house and making as few trips outdoors as possible, the doggies seem real miserable to stay at home though, I hope everything will turn out ok!

Monday, March 14, 2011

What do I do during my five minute mini breaks between practicing? I check out fashion blogs like the Sartorialist. It relaxes me instantly, lift the mountain of stress off my head and get me think about the real important stuff like, what's my next pair of "it" shoes.
      It's hard not to think about what has been going on in these past few days in Japan. I have been glued to the computer watching live footage of the tsunami, and it was nauseating watching the wave swipe away everything in its path. If you would like to help, there are many ways to make a donation to Japan such as through the Salvation Army or the Red Cross, or through various social media, more details can be found in this article.

Friday, March 11, 2011

          Since my fiance and I started dating, we always meet up with each other about twice a week, usually one day on the weekend and one evening in the middle of the week. Unless things really get hold up because of work, we always made arrangements in this way. Most of the times he drives to me, sometimes I go to him, or we meet up at restaurants in the middle of somewhere to share the driving.

        Those meet in the middle nights resulted in us exploring a lot of places that we normally would never go to. Anyone who lives in Los Angeles knows, if you just walk on the street, you don't see hardly anything at all. You drive and drive and drive, and suddenly there's a little world out there with the cutest shops and restaurants and bars to get lost in, and then four blocks later, nothing again.  Last night we went to a Spanish restaurant in downtown Claremont. Because it was late at night, I got out of my car and found not a single person on the street, nor did I see the restaurant at first, only my fiance was sitting outside the building waiting for me.  When we walked into a hall way and got into the restaurant, suddenly there was a hall jam packed with people having dinner and listening to live flamingo music, on top of that, I had never seen restaurants with customers just singing and playing the guitar at the table on their own, it was quite a lot of fun. I putted on a little makeup for the occasion, which, if you know me, is rare, and got dressed up a little bit. Then it suddenly dawned on me that, after a few more weeks my fiance and I will be moving in together.  There will be no more of these little romantic nights where we hadn't seen each other for a few days, and I'd feel the little tingling feeling in my skin when I see him again. I asked him what he thought of that, he said it'd be much better, he'd prefer to see me all the time. Now that I think about it, I think I'd prefer that too. I can't wait for the day when we share our lives together and get to see him everyday. How does that song go again? You are my sunshine, my only sunshine...

Summer is coming, and I'm liking these Swedish Hasbeens.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Somehow this article in the New York Times escaped me, it was ran last summer. It is a truly incredible and inspiring story.
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my brain is fried between memorizing 16 pages of Bach( fun, not!) and dealing with some pretty lame personal issues, at the same time I'm beginning to think about my wedding. What is going to happen? Am I going to have a ceremony or what? What is engagement photography? How come I didn't know anything about it? Hmmm. I am clueless!

Monday, March 7, 2011

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I had a really good weekend. My fiance and I worked and ran around town quite a bit and got some used furniture. By the end of day we had awesome Si Chuan Chinese food, have you tried it? It's extra spicy, we always order boiled fish plus some veggie and small side dishes. I don't think I've ever had bad Si Chuan food! If you are a fan of spicy food by all means get on yelp and find one near you!

Saturday, March 5, 2011

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Sewing patterns? I got some! A while back I took a sewing machine class that explained how a sewing machine work, I think that should be enough for me to make a dress now, RIGHT? I think so much about crafts when stress is mounting, can't wait for March to be over.

Thursday, March 3, 2011


A few days ago I found this on youtube and it made me laugh so hard! What was even funnier? Not everyone who saw it got that it was meant as a joke!

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

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On my way home from the gym I picked up a Kitchen timer, butter cup, measuring spoon and an apron. They are pretty to look at even if I didn't like to cook! :)
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I have been looking at rugs at Anthropologie lately and I kind of like the idea of hanging a beautiful rug on the wall.  I like all these, especially the lobster!

New Year Preparation

I always like to do a bit of preparation at the end of each year to welcome the new year, although this year things were very challenging, I...