foodsuit

do people have too much free time in hand?

well a california woman who filed a lawsuit to sue kraft food for their guacamole dip does ;P
she said the product label was misleading and it wasn't even made out of avocado!
another class action lawsuit ... or foodsuit.

why not make your own guacamole dip? how much is the kraft guacamole dip? the last time i bought a fresh made guacamole dip, it was at whole foods. it was pretty expensive for such a small container, but really tasty and the dip was made out of real avocado.

anyways ... now we should all read food packagings and labels ... so we can sue food companies for false advertisings and get some money to help solve childhood obesity and diabetes.

can we have a ban on food companies for using high fructose corn syrup? eventually hfcs is going to kill us all with heart attacks!

yet another blog

this time is for our trip to strasbourg, france! we are leaving on december 17th!

travel log of chia & lu: chialutravel.blogspot.com

second one done

yes, today marked the day i finished my second crochet scarf for baby. i am working on a third one for me. i hope i will get that done before we head off to france.

a new blog

i started a new blog today called 'a cheese a day' to recollect memories of cheese eating days. it has multiple stories from other people and my stories all rolled into one.

finally done

today marked the day i finished my first crochet scarf.

recipe: mashed potatoes

i usually pick up a huge bag of russet potatoes. i do not know how much i need but it is a good 10 pound bag.
my serving is a potato for two people. if you have 12 people for thanksgiving use 6 potatoes if there are going to be a lot of other dishes to taste. if just turkey and mashed then a potato per person.

simple mashed potatoes

potatoes - pick any kind you want ... i use russet because it is easy to peel and boil
butter - you can add how ever much you want. i used up the whole stick to a whole box
cream cheese - i love to add cream cheese to give it the tang
sour cream - sometimes i add it to soften the mashed up
milk - if it is really too dry or add it when you need to reheat the mashed again
salt - for taste if needed

peeling is a bitch. i do not like peeling potatoes so that is why jp ; ) comes in handy. if you have a significant other who like mashed ask him or her to peel the potatoes.

boil the potatoes in several pots if you have 10 pounds of potatoes. if not one pot is enough. boil on medium stove top fire. it will take around 30 minutes to 1 1/2 hours depending on how much you have cooking. test the softness with a fork by poking one of the potatoes. russet potatoes tends to crumble so you don't really need to do the test.

drain potatoes after they are cooked to perfection for mashing.

i use two bowls to do the job of mashing. one small bowl to mash and to mix in butter, cream cheese etc. and the other bigger bowl to store the mashed. it is easier to mash and to mix in a little at a time. your hands will get tired so have additional people to help you mash. once all that is done. it is time to taste. if you need some salt add some, mix and taste.

other ingredients you may want to add ... smoked bacon bits, wasabi, sweet potatoes etc
it is better to keep it simple by only adding one additional ingredient

thankful for food

we had a wonderful thanksgiving dinner. it was great to see all the aunties, uncles and cousins. i actually ate alot and for the turkey disliker like me ... the turkey was juicy and tender to perfection and i had two slices. theodore had stuffings and array of desserts from cheese cake from mousse fantasy to pumpkin pie with whipped cream. he preferred sweets more than anything.

this year i mashed potatoes again. it has become my trademark for thanksgiving. i had to think of different kind of stuff i can add to the mash. i put some hickory smoked bacon this time and it tasted smoking. jp and i also did some experimentation with potatoes. we made potato gratin. it needed some tweaking before we can actually present it one day for thanksgiving. so look out for it one thanksgiving!

pardon me

what did the turkey do wrong that it needs a pardon from president bush? turkeys are meant to be eaten as much chickens even thought in my opinion turkey meat isn't that good. i rather have more stuffings. maybe bush should save his pardons on the poor secret service agents who couldn't catch the robbers whom robbed one of his twins' money and cell phone. first of all is guarding the twins really a secret service agents job? who would leave their bags on the floor in a country like argentina and hoping that no one would notice. those robbers are professional robbers in a third world country. those agents are not use to swipers but more hand to hand combats and dodging bullets. maybe the pardoned turkey should take a second job in guarding the twins.

are breasts really that offensive?

according to one flight attendant it was. it wasn't even flashed at her, but the baby. for the purpose of feeding the baby i do not see that as offensive cause i am a nursing mom too. but then the mom should have just cover up or have the husband cover up for her whatever makes it easy instead of getting booted of the plane.

Nursing mom files complaint against airlines
Updated 11/17/2006 8:57 AM ET

By Emily Bazar and Sam Hemingway, USA TODAY

A clash between a nursing mother and a flight attendant has sparked a discrimination complaint, an airline investigation and a grass-roots protest.

Emily Gillette, her husband, Brad; and their then 22-month-old daughter, River, were removed from an Oct. 13 flight from Burlington, Vt., to New York after a flight attendant asked Gillette to cover up while she was breast-feeding the girl.

Freedom Airlines operated the Delta Air Lines flight.

Gillette, 27, filed a complaint against both airlines last week with the Vermont Human Rights Commission alleging that the airlineviolated a state law that allows women to breast-feed "in any place of public accommodation." The airlines have until Nov. 27 to respond, Gillette's attorney, Elizabeth Boepple, says.

In a show of support, about 30 mothers and fathers and dozens of children staged a "nurse-in" protest at Burlington International Airport on Wednesday.

"I've always nursed my children when I'm on a plane," says Carolyn Beer, 34, of Burlington. "Their ears hurt with the altitude change, and it's a strange environment for them. The alternative is to let your kid scream."

The Gillettes, of Espanola, N.M., boarded the flight shortly before 10 p.m.. They had been in Vermont visiting friends and were headed to New York to see other friends and Emily Gillette's sister.

Gillette took the window seat in the second-to-last row, she says, and her husband took the aisle. She began nursing River, using one hand to hold her shirt closed. She says: "I was not exposed."

But the flight attendant approached, tried to hand her a blanket and asked her to cover herself, she recalls. "You're offending me," Gillette quotes the woman as saying.

"I'm not doing anything wrong and I will not cover up," Gillette says she said in response.

Spokesmen for the airlines declined to discuss specifics of the incident.

The flight attendant walked away, Gillette says, and a few minutes later, a ticket agent boarded and said the flight attendant had ordered them removed.

The airline arranged for a hotel for the family for the night and a flight with a different airline the next morning, but Gillette wasn't satisfied.

"No woman should ever be ashamed of breast-feeding," she says. She wants "both airlines to create policies that protect a woman from being harassed for feeding her child on an airplane."

Delta is working with Freedom on an investigation, Delta spokesman Anthony Black says. "Delta supports a mother's right to breast-feed-slash-bottle-feed her babies on our aircraft," he says.

Freedom spokesman Paul Skellon says breast-feeding on a plane is OK if it's done in a "discreet way."

Forty-three states have some form of legislation protecting a woman's right to breast-feed, according to Mary Lofton, spokeswoman for La Leche League International, a group that encourages breast-feeding.

Lofton says the league has had a growing number of contacts from women who say they were harassed for breast-feeding on planes.

Sharon Panitch, 37, a massage therapist who organized the Burlington nurse-in, says people who object are "hypocritical."

"We just want to take care of our children," Panitch says.

Sam Hemingway reports for the Burlington Free Press

strong emotions can cloud basic judgments

maybe mel gibson didn't have if half as bad as michael richards, but then gibson is not jewish. offending the jewish community especially in hollywood is a big no no. which is worst not being jewish and offending jewish people or being a jewish and not black and offending black people and calling them with the n word? in any rate people shouldn't be calling each other names it is just bad karma. say sorry and let's move on. why make it even more outlandish? it is a big deal but what is the bigger deal? bush sending more troops to iraq or name calling. people are dying out there no name calling can fix all it, they are still dead. so just move on and take the apology and suck it up people. you got better stuff going in your life than this stupid thing. not like we haven't heard those before.

instruction: double crochet

i was looking for a better instruction in showing how to make double crochet. i finally found one from the dummies book online. click here for a illustrated instructions. i knew i should have gotten that book instead of the other ones i bought.

an attempt to shoot the sky

jp was out on the balcony for an hour shooting the leonids. here is the result using the canon 20D setting: bulb around 1 minute, f 19, iso 200 and focal 38mm. of course when he checked the photos on the actual lcd screen there were no streaks of light but lotta dots of stars. only this morning when he viewed the photos on the computer screen there were mini streaks. this one is one of the better test photographs of the meteor shower. oh of course if he knew he would have bulb for 20 minutes.

space dog

something new in my little shop =D



this bracelet is made with lampwork beads and glass beads held together by wires.

travel photos from si chuan

my uncle travels alot. i mean lot. he went to si chuan (in chinese 四川) a province in the central-western china. here i share some of his photographs.


Hai Luo Go ice river


spring pool


a morning view


typical housing


local tibetian girl

playstation 3 & jesus doll

playstation 3 is the most wanted game console of the year (out beat tickle me elmo) and jesus doll is rejected even for marine toys for tots. maybe toys for tots should accept the jesus dolls and trade them for playstations and every kids will be happy =) kudos to you if you are one of those people camping out at a best buy, frys or circuit city for a playstation 3 ... i tried to get one at costco.com but no luck because their system kept crashing and i couldn't log in so i gave up. they were gone within an hour.
i would probably settle for a jesus doll even though i am not a religious person, it seemed more peaceful and hopeful for this holiday season. and at least you will not be shot at, beaten to a pulp or robbed at gun point for a jesus doll. happy holiday.

apple pro

the order is on its way! woohoo!

Processor: 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM-2x1GB
Hard Drive: 120GB Serial ATA Drive@5400rpm
Optical Drive: SuperDrive 6X
Display: 15" Glossy

to replace my g4 =D
thanks jp for my early christmas present! XOXO

go emmitt

i voted for him at the end because he has the spirit and i also love cheryl. i am glad the popular vote do come through for emmitt ... with victory V

"It is awesome! It is awesome!" declared Smith, after hugging his professional dance partner Cheryl Burke. "We came a long way, we really have."

they sure did!

a 'kung fu' logo design

this week i was working on a logo
using an existing photograph provided by the client

work in progress

ideas from the client - two different look and feel


they like the first one because the second one seemed too complicated for them in concept
brush stroke and kung fu - both convey inner energy of a person - i guess they do not see that

to make it more pleasing to the eye ... i did some tweaking since the original photo was taken in an angle looking up to the person which creating a slight awkward proportion when it is just a flat graphic

what is in my shop?

mind eyes bracelet


mismatch earrings - $10


hearts


5 of a kind bracelets


duo I earrings - $16


duo II earrings - $16


earth bangles - $50 each


earth bracelets - $13 each


ocean bracelet - $22


maelstrom bangle - $168

my scarves

i am still working on the one for baby which is actually the second attempt at it since i was crocheting the first one in the width direction rather than in the length which came out really awkward. i preferred the length direction it is much more smooth and hangs on the neck nicely. i may desmantle the first one i made up to the end of the yarn. i also started another one for jp using acrylic yarn and it is much thicker than the cotton one.

cheaper yarns

i was looking for some craft stuff at createforless.com and i found their price for sugar n cream yarns are now by far the lowest at $1.39!
they ship for free when you spend $100 or more.

shop is up and down =(

sorry ... my shop is going up and down. i guess it is not as smooth of a transition for the people at etsy.com to launch their version two.

jp said they are very amateur in releasing a new version of their site. yes and taking a lot of risk in doing so. one thing you don't want is your site to be down ... not even for one hour. jp should know after working on huge sites like work.com, business.com, carsdirect.com and ussearch.com.

they may need to rethink about their 10 cents increase for listing ;P

etsy v2

they are still working on it. my shop is still down.

review: beard papa's

yummy ...
i had to try them since they said they have the best cream puffs in the world. it tasted like a vanilla eclair. i bought the regular cream puff and it has real vanilla bean in it. the pastry shell is extremely fluffy. you have to eat it right away once the filling is filled into the pastry puff so the puff itself does not deflated over time. and they fill the pastry when you order it. a dozen of them for $17 dollars. they are worth every penny.
i went to the one in west la on sawtelle.

real time with bill maher

i love this show. it is on hbo with new episodes every friday night 11pm/10c.

this is stolen from the show cause i thought it was a great list of "douchebags" (quoting bill maher)

lobbyist jack abramoff
aka the look of a bad dude and it is no hobby
(his hobby is to lobby but thank god his name is not bobby)
he went to the same high school as me argh!

ex house majority leader delay
hence his name and the #3 powerhouse behind the republican party after dick cheney and cheated by funneling corporate money (this is his actual mugshot taken when he was booked)

ex senator santorum
he is no saint from philly

katherine harris
she is the one who stopped the recount in florida when bush was in the lead in the 2000 election and it all went south from then on
(the poor creature must be in pain)

george allen
lost his football in virgina

mr ex secretary of defense
donald rumsfeld
supported by bush but resigned after election 2006 was over
scapegoat nonetheless

karl rove
thanks to him that bush is president twice in a row
now who is the loser of the bunch

k-fed
i think britney spears finally got her brain
he is only the sperm donor

saddam the insane
before
and
after
farewell to hang

roseola

a case of roseola virus ...

fever up to 103.5
mild diarrhea
puffy eyes
irritable and extremely tired
loss of appetite
rash appears after fever ends
it strikes baby 6 months to kids 3 years of age

treatment of roseola ...

let it run it course
lot of fluid intake
lot of rest
to reduce fever ... infant tylenol or acetaminophen
or a lukewarm sponge bath

who is in the house?

wow ... what a close call. this is going to be interesting 110th congress. go democrats and bush is going down.

vote

i finally get to vote before the booths are closed tonight by 8pm. I was there at 7:30pm and there were a quite a few parents with their babies. each babies got a ty beanie from the lady at the polling area.
mr. governator is way ahead of the game ... this time i did vote for him cause he did an okay job and besides the other guy looks fishy. besides that the interesting thing is who will (the donkey or the elephant) take over the congress? i like to see democrats take over the house.

making ceramic pendant and medallion

my cousin is taking a class and she rolled out some clay for me. i used cookie cutters and rubberstamps to create each pieces. i bought some chinese character rubberstamps and i finally got the chance to use them as a guide for me to carve the pieces. hopefully i will have the time to finish up the pieces before the clay dries up. in the meantime, i just used damp towels to cover the clay and wrapped them in plastic bags.
i made 3 different medallions so far: peace, love, and star characters.

birthday party

we went to a fun 2 year old birthday party. they rented a huge jumper and popcorn cart for the kids. our almost 10 months old had some laughs in the jumper. even the parents join in the fun. it was a huge hit. i also like the idea of the popcorn cart popping fresh pops for the crowd.

review: the backyardigans

when i first watched this show i thought it was boring, but then it did grow on me after watching a few more episodes. my favorite episodes by far is samurai pie. i can never remember all the names of the five characters of the show. the character that stands out the most from the five is pablo. he is the penguin who is always stumbling and very clumsy, yet he never gives up.
in every episodes the five friends embark on a journey in their backyard from their realities to their own fantastic adventures. the 3-d animation is fun to watch especially with songs and dances. the songs and dances are themed and very well put together like a broadway musical production in itself. you can even join in for the fun.
this show doesn't have the interactivity like the other shows on nick jr., but it gives you an idea of what you never want to give up ... imagining the possibilities. imagination doesn't require much.

... do you wanna make pies?

now tomatoes

hmm ... i love spinach and now it is off my grocery list for a while and now tomatoes! i can avoid not eating in a restaurant, but not shop for them as part of my diet that is just going too far. most of the veggies i do clean them and then cook them. i rarely eat raw salad bowl if i do i triple wash them even if they do come in a bag that said prewash ... i don't really trust those packaged veggies. whatever are printed on the packages you still have to clean it ... don't be lazy because food poisoning is no fun.

i had food poisoning a couple of times and it all came from eating meat product i bought from carl's jr. (it was always from the same place. the one located on santa monica blvd before 26th street. the carl's jr i go to often was inside campus of USC and i had no problem there.) it was an immediate reaction after 30 minutes to an hour after i ate ... my stomach cramped up and i was forcing myself to vomit all the bad stuff. after 2 hours of going back and forth to the bathroom vomiting i felt much better. i just drank a bottle of water to stay hydrated and just went to bed without anything else. the whole experience was exhausting. so better be safe than sorry ... laziness just doesn't cut it.

homemade baby food

i started making baby food with fresh chicken soup and sometimes with fresh beef soup. mostly adding potatoes, carrots, squash and sweet potatoes. this time around i am going to add beans and rice with some minced meat. i just blend them all together using my everyday blender.

if you want to start making baby food, i would go with a regular blender rather than getting a smaller one. i made 18 to 20 packages of 2.5 ounces of baby food and it last me a week and a half. i freeze them by reusing the gerber plastic containers. i find those very handy dandy. or you can use ice cube trays.

i also would like to try the food mill so i can add some variety of food my husband and i eat so the baby can try some too.

christmas spirit

i am already in the spirit of christmas ... available at my shop.

christmas minis


let it SNOW