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.