Homework

Wish they came in Pinky size.

Aaaaargh!!!! It's the end of August!!! Summer's over!!! And I have to work tomorrow... (T_T) Oh well, more work = more money (although very little). I need the money to go onto the trip...

Homework

Endless... (T_T)

Backyard fruits

We only had very few raspberry this year...
Where did today's wind come from? Definitely did a number on my back... (T_T)

Constructions

The house is progressing fast...














Traffic jam made me late for dinner. There's a subtle change in my mom's attitude. Before, she's mostly against eating out. Now, we eat out more often. (Today's excuse is, my brother's kids are going back to school soon.) This, I'm sure has something to do with my dad's health.

Lunch...

My former neighbour is visiting so we ate out. There's been a lot of eating out in July and August...

Homework

Still haven't gotten over the "I don't even worth 8 bucks". Probably never will, until I get a better job. (T_T)

Anna's Orange Thins

"Swedish recipe", "by appointment to H.M. The King of Sweden". Sounds like something big! But it's actually very affordable. Got mine at Ikea. London Drugs sells it too (at double the price).

Tastes like orange alright. Otherwise it's the same as their most popular ginger flavour. Still think it's a bit too sweet and heavy. Good crunch. I guess this can still be called bite size although I have to struggle after putting a whole cookie in my mouth.

The mini version is from Re-ment's candy toy. Unlike Megahouse, they don't copy the design 100%.

Lid...

Flipped my lid.

My boss was complaining about me going ahead to "create a new piece of graphic" when she didn't request it, plus the time it took (1 hour) was too long.

• First, the material I was provided didn't work as is. I couldn't get the corners of the frame to match. It was late and I improvised.
  
• Second, I did try my best to minimize the time and effort. After a while, I realized I was fighting a loosing battle with the provided material. It's easier and faster to just make something to cap the ends instead of tweaking the borders. And it will look way better too. It wasn't like I didn't do anything during that hour.
  
• Third, I only get paid $8 an hour. A warping 8 bucks! And she can't even pay me 8 bugs for that? Yeah, when she said she could have gotten some students to do the job, it broke my heart. She must think my effort didn't' even worth $8! But she deny it, saying she can't afford it and I shouldn't take it personally. Yes, I understand that. But it doesn't matter at the end. It's a fact that I still don't worth $8 regardless of me taking it personally or not. I wonder who else in this freaking world is stupid enough to do Photoshop job for $8 an hour.

I like her work and all I wanted to do is to make her stuff look good. After all, if she can't make enough money, I don't get paid. That, I do understand. But again, this $8 is giving me too much pain.

I hate crying. Especially in front of some one else.

Telus really sucks!!!!

Yeah... my weekly chiropractor appointment. He took a week off in the beginning on August, and will be taking another week off at the end of the month. Looks like he's taking time off more and more often. Must be making lots of money. My money. (T_T)

OK, the subject. Telus really sucks!!!! Out of no where, they billed us $40 more, saying it's a one time fee to combine the internet and the phone onto the same billing day. Hey wait a minute! I didn't ask for that! So don't just go ahead and do it without getting my consent and then charge me! First the text message fee, and now this? Grrrr... I'm not looking forward to making complains over the phone, because I'm in crunch time right now. I have no time for that!!!

Sorry I'm grumpy, thanks to the recent weather fluctuations. (T_T) I just hate turning into a monster and can't do anything about it. (T_T)

Passport

Well, my mom is going to HK with me so I have to take her to renew her passport. Sigh... the time has come, hasn't it? Parents starting to lean on me. But they never raise me to be independent. If I can't take care of myself, I can't take care of anyone else. So don't lean on me. We will all fall for sure. Isn't there something called the youngest child syndrome or something like that? Parents don't let go of the youngest child. Yeah, I'm extremely bitter.

Grouse Mountain

(Yesterday's stuff again.) This is my second time. Last time was early 90's in winter. Came up here with a visiting friend from out of town. Took a few pictures and went back down. Of course there were no shows in winter. Only skiing. And there were no bears yet. Didn't know all those are actually quite interesting. It was very cold, though. I was completely caught off guard. It rained a little bit too.

The whole 9 yards

Ooops... missed the date stamp!

Guest

No, they aren't all mine. 2 of them belongs to one of my Japanese blog friends who's visiting. It's gonna be a lot of eating out in the next few days.

Party?

The house across the street seems to be having a huge party. There were tents and lights and music etc. My mom said it's a funeral, but I think it's more like a wedding.

Sign

What sign?

Car wash

Labour intensive mini photo albums. (Homework)

I finally washed my car! It's been 2 years and 2 months! But it also reminded me why I left it for so long. After the wash, my back pretty much all locked up and rendered me non-functional. (T_T)

Le Pettit Ecolier

Finally caught one on sale. It's good! The cracker is like tea cracker. Blend but brings out the chocolate well. It's a combination that gets it just right. Still leaning towards candy instead of cracker because the chocolate layer is kind of thick. The best thing is, it's not as addictive as those tiny Japanese ones.

The miniature is a candy toy from Megahouse. "Imported Goods". There are fake Perrier, Ritz, Budweiser etc too. Quite cute and funny.

Huge plate

You guessed it, more visiting relatives. 13 people at the table. (Well, 7 are locals.) Too much food... (But they were good.) I still haven't gotten rid of the 2 inches around my waist when the California cousins came. (T_T)

It's been 3 days since my left ear gone elevator. Hearing is muted like when there's atmospheric pressure difference. A little dizzy every-now-and-then too. Something's wrong. Not to mention the bald spot on my head.

The other day I checked my blood pressure at one of those do-it-yourself machines at a drug store. It was 104 and 66. The sign on the machine says normal is 130 and... 80 I think. Looks like I'm too low. Then when I look it up online, the "excellent" reading is 105 and 70. According to another table at that site, I'm between a low normal and borderline low. The 2 tables contradict themselves by saying "excellent" on one, and "borderline" on the other. So which one is it?

Olympic torches

Interesting...
I didn't watch the opening ceremony although I heard it was fantastic. My question to China is, shouldn't there be more important things to spend money on?
Or is telling the world "we are the best" more important? All that, is just an empty shell. Sigh...

Pea Pretz

Thanks Sora for this one again. Haha... she's become my Japanese exotic junk food supplier. (^_^)

First impression... somehow smells like peanut. Crunchy and light like shrimp chips. Probably has high baking powder content. Tastes like soy sauce. It also reminds me of those battered fried peanuts. Then there's some kind of grassiness. Is it from the pea? Or is it from the seaweed? It's quite deep and multi-layered. Can't really figure out what exactly the taste is. It's mild and light, yet has a punch. I can confidently say, only Japanese can come up with such a delicate flavour. Westerners' taste buds are way too screwed up from heavy salt and sugar to appreciate it. This is the most delicious junk food I've had for a while.

My twilight zone

(Photo has nothing to do with subject.)
My room seems to have acquired a twilight zone recently. Since last Thursday, I've been looking for a set of candy toys I bought for a friend, without luck. There aren't that many places for it to hide, yet I can't find it!

Then 2 days ago, it happened right in front of my eyes. Chewing gum is a fabulous cleaner for files and sand paper. (Don't worry, I wash it after use. It's not gross.) I was sanding some Pinky parts and as usual, used a piece of that to pick up the bits. One moment I was using it, then the next moment I reached for it, it wasn't there anymore! OK it's a piece of gum after all and will stick to whatever. But I've looked everywhere and still can't find it! Could someone please explain?

Global dimming

Watched a rerun of Nova's Dimming the Sun. Here's more on global dimming. Either way, we're doomed.
The program was interrupted by sirens near by. A firetruck stopped 4 houses away. Then an ambulance. Paramedics went inside the house. Then came another ambulance. And yet another. There were a total of 3 ambulances. The firetruck left. The first and the last ambulance each took off with one person from the house. Not sure about the second one. Hmm... I wonder what happened.

Mini Pretz (caramel)

Thanks Miru for this one! And thanks Sora for sending it. (^_^) Kinki (Kansai) area limited edition. About half the size of a normal box. Very cute! Perfect for kid's snack. Caramel flavour is... caramel. Very fragrant. Nothing too exotic, playing it safe. Still, you know what I'm gonna say. Shouldn't Pretz be salty instead??? Hahaha!

Summer...

(Picture has noting to do with the subject.) After 2 weeks of dinginess, it finally feels like summer again. I was wearing 2 fleece jackets! (Well, that could be the vampire too.) Every year there would be one week of heat, then summer's over. This year the very hot days happened in mid July. It was way too early! Which means there should be another heat wave coming up, probably in August. Yeah, each year my computer would restart itself without warning from overheating. It hasn't happened this year yet.

Hmm... snow in May, heat record in July. The earth is definitely in distress. (T_T)

Trip planning is slowed down for the moment. My HK friend's cat is sick so she has to deal with that first. I'm still waiting for some Japanese friends' advice on accommodations. It's extremely unusual for one of them to take this long to reply. I hope she's fine.

Little bean gets mad!

Thanks Sora again for this wackily named snack! (With FMA connection, haha...) It's a collection of individually packaged small peanut snacks. Variations include 2 kinds of rice cracker with peanut, battered fried peanut, and butter peanut. (Sorry I ate the pink bag of rice cracker peanut without realizing it's the only bag. So, no picture.) These tiny bags are probably for kids. They're literally bit size. Very yummy. (Or am I at the salt-craving phase again?) Feels healthy too, a lot healthier than chips or candy.

Koeda "Morning Time"

From Japan, thanks Sora! Limited edition blueberry yogurt corn flake Koeda. Smells very sour and strong! OK, if it's yogurt it's supposed to be sour. But it also indicates a cheap, very artificial cough-syrup-like berry. Bracing for a not-so-pleasant experience, I took a bite. And... the actual taste is surprisingly mild! And... not bad at all! First, the white chocolate tricked me into thinking milk heavy, but it's not! This is way less milk-heavy than many other Pocky and Kitkat I had recently. The tartness seems to be from the berry instead of yogurt. It's mild and light. Well balanced. Then there's something else that I can't identify exactly. Must be corn. Overall, it's good. But since it's white chocolate, I don't think I'll go for another one even if it shows up over here. (White chocolate is basically all fat. You know that, right?)