Archive for November, 2009

It’s the last day of NaBloPoMo, thank goodness! I love blogging, but I’m really not interesting enough to be able to post every single day on a regular basis! So, as my last post for the month of November 2009, I’d like to share a few things that I’m thankful for (especially since Thanksgiving passed in such a blur that I haven’t had any time to reflect).

1. Amazing family that supports me no matter what I do or want to do in the future. Well…most of the time. I’m fairly sure Daddy Chao would NOT be at all pleased if I said I were quitting my job to be a Scientology prophet on the streets of LA. Not that Scientology sounds like fun, but who knows what the future holds (hopefully no cult religions for both me and my family’s sake)!
2. Friends that impress and astound me each and every day. (Okay, there are some days that are a little slow in the excitement factor. But we’re talking a good 80% of my year is spent in amazement of my friends! That’s a good percentage! Asking for more than that would just be silly and somewhat selfish! Or friends that are circus performers…intriguing idea…)
3. The fuzziest of pets, one of which eagerly awaits my each and every action, and the other that allows me to scratch her behind the ears while she looks at me disdainfully. I love them both, despite their completely opposite personalities.
4. My stuff. I know there’s the saying that “Money doesn’t buy happiness”. But I do love my belongings (i.e. Nintendo DS, iPod, JCrew argyle socks, Nikon camera…etc). All of which money bought and keeps me happily entertained. I suppose the more pleasant way of saying I’m thankful for my stuff is that I’m grateful for being gainfully employed in a job that I enjoy. This job enables me to purchase a few luxuries in addition to my bills and necessities. Does that sound better?
5. My health (and Andy’s health too, we both get very whiny when we’re sick. So, it’s best if we just stay healthy!) There’s nothing worse than being ill. You can’t go anywhere, eat anything, or visit anyone. You just have to sit in bed or on the couch watching terrible daytime television while you fall in and out of sleep. Yuck! Being sick puts a damper on everything!

There you have it! It may be very generalized categories that everyone can apply to their lives. But there’s a reason why it’s so universal, probably because it’s the truth! Thanks for sticking with me throughout the crazy NaBloPoMo event. I promise to only post when something exciting happens from now on…until next November that is!

After 11 hours in the car on our way back to Texas, I’m too tired to describe in detail what we did today. So, it’ll just have to wait until tomorrow. For now, all I’m going to say is “Yay Oklahoma Construction”!

Update: Now that I’ve caught up on sleep and am no longer jammed into the back seat of the car with a kitten and a puppy…I am more than happy to talk about what we did yesterday!

First thing in the morning, we met Aunt Susan and Debra for brunch at Yia Yia’s. I haven’t been there in ages, which is why I thought it would be nice to revisit the restaurant and have a nice chat. The food was delicious! I had a garden pita sandwich and Andy absolutely had to get the breakfast pizza (all cheese and breakfast meats with poached eggs on top). It was nice catching up the members of Andy’s family that live so far away. I just wish it were more than once a year!

Debra, Aunt Susan, and Andy after a delicious brunch at Yia Yia's.

As we were leaving, Andy asked if I wanted to go to Archiver‘s, my most favorite store in all of Kansas City (There still isn’t an Archiver’s in DFW yet)! I don’t generally like scrapbooking. For some reason, it holds no fascination for me. However, I do love making cards, even if my inspiration has been a little sparse lately. This also means that I have a terrible addiction to fancy paper with beautiful/cute prints, glittery stickers, and shiny doodads. When I step foot in the store, I tend to run around oohing and ahhing at absolutely everything and end up having the worst time trying to shave down the piles of stuff in my grasp to a reasonably priced amount. Though I would buy every single item in the store if I could, I’m happy with my purchases and think I can make some fun things out of them.

After much too much time wandering the craft supply store, we headed home to pack and play with with Cathy’s new kitten, Puffkin. I adore that cat! She’s tiny, furry, and completely full of spunk and WAY too much energy. I would hide her in my purse and keep her forever if I could!

Puffkin the Adorable...gnawing on my delicious fingers.

Finally with the car stuffed full of goodies and necessities, we were on our way back to Texas! Well, we made a quick stop in Emporia to visit Grandma Rose, but then we were definitely on our way home! That is…until the Oklahoma/Kansas border where we were completely stopped for an hour due to stupid people and road construction. It was a looooong trip, no doubt about it! We had a wonderful time in Kansas this Thanksgiving, but man am I glad to be home!!

I don’t have a lot of time to post for today, so we’re going with the picture format to show my usual day in the life of a home again Kansan.

8 am – Breakfast with Dave and Mary at First Watch! We thoroughly enjoy spending time with them. Now if only we can manage to meet for more than an hour or two at a time! Sigh…pencil in more Dave and Mary time as a goal for next year!

Andy and Dave doing a quick home brew swap in the parking lot of the First Watch.

9:30 – 11 am – More exercise (and subsequently shower) time at Lifetime Fitness. I actually ran/jogged on the treadmill today, yay me! I have a hatred for running, as I’ve mentioned before. But the elliptical machine I used yesterday has rendered those leg muscles completely useless. So to switch things up a little, I was forced to do a little running. Blech

11:30 – 1 pm – A delicious dim sum lunch with my parents and grandma at Bo Lings on 93rd and Metcalf. Yum! I always beg my mom to take me for Saturday dim sum in Kansas. It’s delicious, and Dallas-Fort Worth just can’t compare!

All my favorites are well represented! And thus, the dim sum cravings have been satisfied for the time being...

1 – 4 pm – Jabber and I took a nice leisurely stroll through the surrounding neighborhoods. We basked in the afternoon sunshine and enjoyed an unusually warm afternoon. Meanwhile, Andy was up in the air on a two seated prop plane with his friend Brandon who recently earned his pilot’s license. I turned down this nice offer because I get terrible motion sickness and it just didn’t sound like fun to spend the rest of my evening as a queasy mess.

The outside of their tiny plane, shiny no?

And the inside of the tiny plane...so many buttons to choose from!

4 – 8 pm – We got a tour of Ashley’s beautiful new home. I absolutely love the care and style that has gone into her living area. It is an amazing space with an enormous yard for her puppies to run around in. How perfect! After the tour, we left all three dogs (Felony, Benson, and Jabber) in the house so we could go out for some yummy Indian cuisine at Masalas. I adore paneer tikka masala with naan bread. Double yum!!

Three sets of glowing puppy eyes are anxiously waiting for us when we come back from dinner. Think they missed us?

8:30 – 1 am – Then it was down the road to our friend Erin’s new house in Waldo, Kansas. (Where’s Waldo?? Yes, I’m sure this gets old if you actually live in Waldo, but humour me for the time being.) Erin also had a cute little abode to show off! I’m terribly jealous between the two houses we’ve seen today! I love the personality and characters people can portray just by decorating their homes. Anyhow back to the subject at hand (or else this post may never end), after Erin’s home tour we headed to the 75th Street Brewery. It’s a unique neighborhood bar in which they only serve local brews and drafts and do not carry domestics nor bottles. What a lovely way to end the night!

Andy was so excited about the local brews, that he had to try the beer sampler. So many tiny beers all arranged from lightest to darkest!

The beautiful ladies at the 75th Street Brewery!

I ended the evening chatting with Cathy as we played with her new kitty cat (more about that at a later date). And that in a large nutshell (perhaps a brazil nut?), was my day. We have another long and busy day tomorrow with a 8-9 hour drive to fit into our schedule! I always wish we have more time when when we’re in Kansas…but in the end, we do the very best that we can. If you’d like to see our pictures so far from our Thanksgiving 2009 trip, you can click here.

And now that Thanksgiving is over, the crazy tour of Kansas City begins! We started the day at my parents’ gym (Lifetime Fitness) in an attempt to work off some of those extra Thanksgiving calories. After all, I’m still supposed to Maintain Not Gain!! So with aching calves, we hobbled home to find a delicious take out meal from Haywards Barbeque. I can’t even remember when I last had Kansas City barbecue! No matter, because it was delicious!!

With lunch happily in my tummy, we headed out to Scooters to meet Cindy for a nice coffee. Though the weather is not terribly cold, it was still a smidge chilly today. Perfect weather for a scarf and a hot cafe mocha!

Me and my high school friend Cindy at our once a year catch up session. We always promise to meet up more often, but our lives always end up too busy...sad!

Then it was off to Olathe to visit Katie, CC, Reece and Chillybones! This was the first time we got to meet Mr. Reece while he was awake! He’s absolutely adorable and happily shared his toys with me, for which I was very grateful. We also met the newest member of Katie and CC’s family, Chillybones the Puppy. Though it took a little bit of coaxing for him to warm up to Andy, but he was happily accepting pets in no time.

Little Mr. Reece is such an active little fella!

Katie, Reece, CC, and Andy reminiscing through a pleasant afternoon.

And as the highlight of the evening, my parents made reservations for us to attend a show at the New Dinner Theater Restaurant. For my family, it’s all about the food. The show is just what happens between the buffet dinner and dessert… With that said, nobody bothered to look up what show we were seeing until tonight. That’s when we discovered to our delight and intense future mocking that we were going to view a wonderful rendition of Church Basement Ladies 2 starring Barry Williams (aka Greg Brady)!!!

I can report that the food is as delicious as it always has been. The show, however, was…a little painful. It’s about a group of ladies that work in a Lutheran church’s kitchen in the basement. I understand very little of the Lutheran faith or their practices. So when they poked fun at Lutherans, the humour was pretty much lost on me. Plus, the song and dance numbers left much to be desired. Oh well, the autumn risotto and being able to leave at intermission made the evening a successful Chao Family endeavor!

Cathy's excited to see Church Basement Ladies 2, can't you tell??

Cathy and I anxiously awaiting the buffet to open!!

Andy dreaming of his idol, Barry Williams! So hunky!!

Once we got home, we headed out for a nice long walk with Jabberwocky. She absolutely adores the chilly Kansas weather! Once we got to the Oxford Middle School track, we let Jabber loose and she proceeded to sprint and run amuck in figure eights until we called her back to our side so we could head for home. (Yes, I know that dogs aren’t allowed on the track. But we had a plastic bag at the ready, and she had already done her business earlier today) Now we’re all warm and comfy with a tuckered out puppy at our feet. Tomorrow starts another crazy hectic Kansas day!

We finally got to Kansas at 3 in the morning after our 9 hour drive from DFW. I sat in some very strange positions during the car ride. This has unfortunately made my back sore and I’ve been hobbling around like a little old lady all day today. In the morning, my parents, Andy, Jabber, and I went on a nice crisp autumn stroll in Shawnee Mission Park. Though a little chilly, it was a beautiful afternoon! We saw bunnies and squirrels galore! Jabber was in heaven! After walking four miles, we felt ready for the evening’s delicious festivities!

My parents can cook and eat Chinese food with ease any day of the week, but they don’t have a great love of making traditional American food. But in the spirit of a nice American Thanksgiving, my mom made reservations for all of us to have the dinner buffet at one of our favorite restaurants in Kansas, Bristol’s Bar and Grill. YUM!!

Cathy, me, and Andy trying to pace ourselves...which in the end was a failure!

The Chaos and Andy about to enjoy a smorgasbord of delicious food.

My favorite things at the buffet were most definitely the baked butternut squash casserole, the seared tuna tartar, the always present Thanksgiving turkey (they named it Tom Turkey…sad) and ham with a honey wine sauce, and the most perfect bread pudding known to man!! We are now all pleasantly stuffed and happily watching Ace of Cakes together as a family. Relax in the evening, then off to the gym with the parents tomorrow morning to start working off the aforementioned delectable bread pudding.

Jabber and I wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving weekend!

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving Eve! We’ll be leaving for Kansas in just a moment, but I thought I would leave you with a warning as to what will happen if you eat too much tomorrow…you might find yourself unable to roll over!! Though I doubt any person can be as cute as the following video!!

Makes me wish I had a tiny French Bulldog puppy…

Thank goodness the end of November is almost here! I’m quickly running out of things to blog about!! Well more specifically, when it’s a non-descript day like today and nothing exciting happens, then I tend to get writer’s block. So today I’m cheating and am going to display a few of my favorite things…because I really have nothing else to say.

Fat Witch Brownies – I discovered this fun bakery (based in NYC) on a Food Network special. We’ve only ordered the delicious brownies for ourselves once, but it’s often my stand by for a last minute gift.

Clinique’s Acne Solutions Cleansing Bar – Because I’ve always hated getting pimples! And now that I’m far away from puberty, it seems even more insulting to break out! I use this every night before bed, so far so good!

Zero Calorie Water available exclusively from Walgreens – Typically, I only drink water with the occasional cup of coffee during my work day. However, by lunchtime I’m tired of drinking plain tasteless water. When working at Walgreens, I discovered these store brand versions of Vitamin Water, except they have no calories (as the name suggests)!! It has a mild but pleasant fruit taste that I love.

My Rocket Dog Sneakers – I’ve worn these shoes down to the ground and still continue to put them on everyday. They’ve traveled with me all over China and through the endless hours of pacing at work. I’ve tried a lot of fashion sneakers to get me through the day, and so far these are the only ones up to the task.

Three Dog Bakery – Andy and I don’t have a passion for organic foods like the popular health nut craze demands. However, we try to eat healthy and certainly don’t mind organic foods when it’s affordable. The same goes for Jabber and Attila’s treats. Though I do despise getting either of them the yucky smelling, food dye infested treats. Try getting red food dye out of your carpet once it has been regurgitated! Which is why I love getting their all natural cookies (Vanilla Woofers for Jabber and Chicken treats for Attila) from the Three Dog Bakery!

Her Look – For all your keeping things well hidden, under your garments, and enhancing without surgery needs…I particularly like their “Low Beams”…

Okay, I suppose I could list my favorite products and foods all day long! But since I’ve got some packing and cleaning to do before we leave for Kansas tomorrow, I’ll have to stop for the time being. Hope you will give some of these items a try!