Archive for the year 2007
Mom’s Choclate Cake!
Posted on October 17, 2007 by Ching under Sponsored Post.
I was talking to some friends the other day and we were discussing recipes that are handed down from our families. You know, the good old favorite that your mom taught you, and her mom taught her and her mom and so on. So I told them about this choclate cake that my mother used to make for me every year on my birthday. It was a choclate cake that was so light and fluffy and it had a rich chocolate ganache that was the frosting. It was the greatest! I remember that she used this old Hamilton Beach® Mixer you know the one that had the Professional 2-way rotating head for thorough hands-free mixing and 12 settings that offered more mixing flexibility and precise control and I can never forget that 4.5 qt stainless steel locking bowl with handle, I used to stare at my reflection in that thing while Mom poured all the ingreadients in to it. Man, that Hamilton Beach® Stand Mixer brings back some good memories, and the best part is that they still make that mixer today. I use an Eclectrics® Mixer now to make that same cake for my family and friends. I have a feeling that it will be a part of our family for years to come, just like my mom’s coclate cake recipe!
No Comments
Ching Wants a New Bag
Posted on October 17, 2007 by Ching under Wishlist.
I want a new bag! I want a new bag! I want a new bag!
Why are bags so expensive? I found this bag at Franklin Covey which I thought I liked, but it’s freakin’ ginormous! It looks like luggage. They did have this nice business tote, though. But I already have a laptop bag.
They have a whole bunch of bags at 60% off right now because the new bags are coming in January. Maybe Brian will surprise me with a new bag. Hint, hint.
Kidding aside, I have the best work group ever! They gave me a couple of gift cards, a boquet of flowers, and a musical card for Boss’ Day. It felt like Christmas! The musical card was a challenge to read because everytime you opened it, it played that “All Star” song from the Shrek movie really, really loud. I love getting musical cards for others, too. I just never realized how bad it is when you’re trying to be quiet. LOL.
Anyway, it was very, very sweet and generous of them. I told Brian I feel really bad because I have been so swamped and stressed out lately. With everything going on, I haven’t had the time to spend with each person that I want to; I set some aggressive goals this year based on last year and I haven’t done as well at achieving them. It’s just one thing after another after another that you have to work on. Since there’s only so much of you, things get accomplished at the cost of other things. Right now, my team is getting the short end of the stick and I feel terrible.
Brian they just want to do something nice for me, so I should be happy instead of feeling bad. And I am happy. Thanks to my work group I might just get a new bag!
No Comments
And the Filling went Pop!
Posted on October 16, 2007 by Ching under Sponsored Post.
Today at work I had a co-worker loose a filling while eating lunch. It looked so painful to him, he squirmed and winced while he tried to finish his lunch and finally just asked to leave to go get it fixed. It sparked a long conversation about times each of us had experienced something similar! I told them about a trip I had taken several years ago. I lived in Memphis and would fly back home every so often to see my family, on one of the trips my filling on my back tooth popped because of the pressure. I was in excruciating pain and I still had several hours to go before I landed and to top it off I would not be near a dentist that my insurance covered. It was a long, painful and expensive trip for me since couldn’t take it after the 2nd day and broke down and went to my dad’s dentist to get it fixed. My coworkers were all sympathetic and told me that they felt for me. This made me think of the future and how I like to be prepared for anything! My wife and i like to travel and i thought to myself that this could ruin an otherwise pleasant trip if this were to happen to either of us. After some looking I found this amazing product that I wish I had when my filling popped. Its called. Dentemp OS, this stuff is great it Provides fast, temporary relief of pain and discomfort. Just remove it from its plastic vial and it’s ready to use. No Mess! No Mixing! and there are several applications in each vial. You can replaces lost fillings and it can be used to temporarily cement loose crowns. I would have been able to eat within 30 minutes of setting. This truly is a great product for temporary dental repair and I plan on having it in my carry on from now on. Its better to be prepared than in pain and embarrassed by the loss of a filling of crown.
No Comments
Jenni’s New Hanging Bookshelves
Posted on October 15, 2007 by Ching under Family, Flickr, Sponsored Post, Web.
My spoiled little sister wrote about her new bookshelves the other day.
“Sunday Dad finished my bookshelves.. There’s another set just right beside it. Almost all my books fit, actually, I was way surprised. Dad says to keep an eye on it for the next couple of days to make sure it doesn’t give. That’s very reassuring, huh?
He also tried to charge me $150 for the materials, and $80 an hour for the labor.
Really, Dad? I don’t think I would have hired a programmer that cost that much to make my bookshelves for me. Especially since you did almost miss the stud.
You have to hand it to him though, the bookshelves look fantabulous. I’m so very excited.”
By the way, I’m really digging this Payperpost thing. So far so, good. I am almost a third of the way to earning $300 toward my new digital camera. I have received $80.25 since I first signed up. Then I have another $95.15 coming my way. Of the the $95.15 that’s pending, four blog entries (about $39.00 worth) have already been approved. So I am just waiting on the payment for those. The rest (about four more blog entries) are still waiting to be reviewed.
You guys should sign up for Payperpost and start blogging for bucks today. I’m not just saying this because I will get $15 out of the referral, either. It really works!
No Comments
Bathroom Fixtures
Posted on October 14, 2007 by Ching under Sponsored Post, Wishlist.
Brian and I went to Thuy’s this morning to setup the encryption for her wireless. Michael was there and made breakfast for everyone. I was really impressed. I was expecting donuts. We had wheat toast, eggs, bacon, and sausage. It was really nice of them to feed us. Thanks, Thuy and Michael!
Brian and I figured it would take two seconds to secure her wireless. It actually took a bit longer because we didn’t know the password to the router. It was no longer the default. I told Brian to do a factory reset so it would revert back to “admin” as the password. He did a reset several times, but he was doing a reset like he does on ours and it didn’t work. He kept thinking that the router was reset, but the default password still wouldn’t work. Anyway, I finally convinced him that it’s not reset so he read the reset instructions. For Thuy’s router it was slightly different. Once we restored the factory defaults, it took seconds to change the login for the router and setup the wireless encryption.
Once we got that up and running, we connected Thuy’s laptop, my laptop, my phone, and Thuy’s iPhone to the, now secure, wireless network. I’d never really played with Thuy’s iPhone before. It is really cool. Seeing how it connects to the Internet and displays web pages really sold me. Anyway, after all was said and done we there for about an hour and a half (breakfast, setting up the wireless, playing with the iPhone, and all). I promised Brian we wouldn’t take more than an hour but it actually worked out perfect because I managed to talk Brian into checking out the parade of homes entries on the West side of town and the model homes didn’t open until noon.
The models we visited today were in Hampton Lakes, Watercress (a very fancy neighborhood in Maize), Evergreen, Fontana, Ridgeport, and Falcon Falls. All were in the Northwest area close to Thuy’s apartment except for Falcon Falls which is on the Northeast side of town. We went to check it out anyway because it was on the way home.
The models varied from inexpensive to mid-range to really luxurious. What we noticed was that the quality of construction and materials were pretty consistent with the prices, e.g. the cheaper homes used low quality, low cost fixtures. It was amazing to see the variety of faucets, kitchen sinks, bathroom fixtures, and such. I think the homes in Watercress used Kohler faucets. They looked really fancy and expensive.
In the category of inexpensive homes, Hampton Lakes and Falcon Falls are pretty comparable (no fancy fixtures or anything, just the basics) but we both agreed that the homes in Hampton Lakes were constructed better. Anyway, it will be a while before we are in the market to buy. We were mainly just curious to see what’s out there. Brian and I have a long road of home rennovations ahead of us. We’ve set a pretty agressive target of having our house ready by next selling season. I think by then there may be new neighborhoods in our price point that won’t se so disappointing in terms of layout and construction quality.
No Comments
