Just In Case You Were Wondering...
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
the godchild, is still the cutest kid EVER! (I know, I'm just a little biased..) I can't wait to see her again in early August. Counting down the days, Ryo!
Oscar Fashions 2007
Monday, February 26, 2007
Yes, I know that I am a couple days late on this but photoshop on my computer at work is working so very slowly that I had to wait until I came home to do this. How shall we start this? I think I will break this down by categories -
Thanks For Coming Out To Play
These were for the people who could have possibly been "Best Dressed" except for some little detail of their outfit.
Nicole Kidman - I usually love Nicole Kidman (especially more now after her wonderfully frank interview on the Oprah Oscar special). She's usually a pretty savvy dresser but I hated the huge half bow thing floating around her neck. If it wasn't for that one detail, she definitely would have been one the best dressed in my books. I loved the beautiful draping, the bright bold colour and if you can find a picture of the back, it was quite a stunning dress.
Jennifer Hudson - Lately at all the award shows, she's been just absolutely fabulously dressed. I like that she's not a stick, that she understands her body and is not afraid to be sexy and take fashion risks. The dress in itself was quite lovely but I was far too distracted by her kid space jacket to pay attention to it.
Maggie Gyllenhaal - I have to admit that I have never been a huge fan of hers but she's growing on me. When she presented I was just blown away by her dress. I am really starting to fall in love with navy again and I thought the bodice was so unique. That is until I saw pictures of the full dress this morning. What the heck is that weird detailing at the hem?
Penelope Cruz - I honestly think that Penelope Cruz is one of the most underrated actresses and beauties in Hollywood. She makes bold choices in her acting roles and fashion. I loved the colour and that bodice, just the work and detailing is mind-blowing and I know that this part may just be me being picky, but I just hate feathery detailing on anything. It feels a little tacky to me and just conjures thoughts of ostriches' backsides. That's just my two cents.
Once You're In, You Can't Get Out
Monday, February 26, 2007
That should be the unwritten credo of all gym memberships. After much contemplation, I've decided to quit my super cool but expensive gym. I am a little sad over this decision because I truly did enjoy it there, except I haven't really been going for the past six months or so. Chalk it up to me moving my office from the area. Yes, I really am that lazy when it comes to sweating on purpose.
Anyway, I've just had to admit to myself that I need someone else to motivate me to work out. Gaining weight doesn't seem to bother me as much as I thought it would. I always thought that if I ever became chubby that I would be really upset and do something about it. So far, I've only been fascinated by the emergence of a little belly. The holiday weight gain has produced a cute little ponch which I sometimes will purposely stick out to illustrate to Stef how cute I will be when I allow him to knock me up in the far far future. He keeps telling me that it's not that cute -- at least when I'm not actually pregnant.
Ash Wednesday In NY
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Marie, Boutsy and I spent most of Ash Wednesday walking around in the mists of confusion. The confusion for the girls was compounded by the fact that they had taken a red eye flight the day before from the West Coast and were a little disoriented. I had no real excuse other than my general malaise from travelling.
We were in NY to attend the Coterie, a bi-annual fashion trade show. The show which is usually broken up into three separate sites by commodity was under one big roof this time around. It made the whole experience quite over whelming. The first day we just walked and walked and walked. Endless booths of clothing just melded into one and we finally had to leave due to the fact that we were no longer processing the difference from one line to the other. We spent the rest of the late afternoon scouring lower Manhattan in search of visual inspiration. Other than Anthropologie, no such inspiration came.
Chinese Stefan
Monday, February 19, 2007
I don't know why this is, but it seems that Stefan has suddenly decided he's Chinese all of a sudden. He's been reading stuff on the celebrations and keeps sending me random miscellaneous info on my holiday. Perhaps a lot has to do with the fact that it's his animal year this year. Here are some of the random conversations that have cropped up in the past couple of days.
"Stef, can you please sweep the floor before Amy comes? Your little dirt devil has been shedding under the table again."
"I thought it was bad luck to sweep the floors in the new year..."
"Whatever... just do it."
(muttering to himself) "I can't believe she's making me sweep all my good luck away..."
Later.
"Guess what?"
"What?"
"I'm a metal pig and you're a fire snake."
"Guess what?"
"What?"
"Fire molds metal"
Sulking begins.
Later.
"Be nice to me! It's my auspicious year. It means you have to give me back rubs all the time."
13 more days to go until we can stop celebrating.
Gung Hay Fat Choy!
Sunday, February 18, 2007
It's the year of the Lucky Pig (supposedly, this is a golden year for all piggies out there in the world). We had a really great dinner at my brother's place celebrating the new year with my family and my sister in law's family. It's not very often that we actually get to celebrate on New Year's Eve due to my parents wonky work schedule. But this year we got to start the Chinese New Year the traditional way, ringing in the eve with closest family and friends.
Irene made a veritable feast. I think she's starting to inherit the Kang tendency to overcook but gluttony is always the perfect way to celebrate. We got to also hang out with her super cute niece and nephew. I can't believe how quickly the kids have grown and it was so sweet to see Meghan talking and having full conversations with us. She so obviously loves my brother and sister and I can't wait until they are little "Kuku" and "KimKim" to my own children.
Week 7 - Reading
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Baby, it's cold outside.... How cold? It's been hovering between -20 C (-4 F) and -35 C (-31 F) and really this weather would have been tolerable if we had any HEAT! I swear, I think our landlord is trying to get us to move. Years ago when we moved in, the area was somewhat sketchy and no one really got "loft living." Now, with recent developments and the opening of some really stellar restaurants and building of condos, the area is hot and happening. We still pay reasonable rent in comparison to some of our new neighbours that have moved in. Needless to say, I've been spending most of my week keeping warm. Fingers left out of blankets, or sleeves start to turn into little icicles.
I borrowed The New Natural Cat from the library in order to educate myself more on taking care of Mindy, who has had recent bouts of illness in a more natural way. Like anything new, I read it through and tried to determine for myself what made sense. Sometimes "natural" healing books are too pro-their way and against the others' way. I liked that this book had both pros and cons of both. Even though she does lean more toward the natural way of healing, she also recommended visiting a vet you trusted with your feelings about alternative healing and also going to a vet should your cat be seriously ill. I think I am actually going to buy this book since it's just been a wealth of information and I think I will refer back to it often. Mindy's already benefited from a couple of remedies the book suggested for her irritable tummy.
Is Blood Really Thicker Than Water?
Thursday, February 15, 2007
You can't turn on the TV these days without some poor Anna Nicole story. It's quite insane actually, how much news coverage this is getting especially considering that there are wars happening, the earth is melting and other more important things. The thing is, it's all a sad situation and the saddest part is that there is an innocent five month old child who has no idea what the heck is being made of her future life.
Love
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Men seem to have all sorts of "bugs" in their genetic make up. I say this all the time. It's as if their brains just aren't wired in the same way as women's brains are. Has anyone else noticed this? Men are always bragging that God made them first. I have this theory that when men were created, God realized that there were all these bugs in the original prototype and so women were created next. Women are the 2.0 version of humans.
Men in my family have their own set of bugs or flaws. The most prevalent one is Lackofloveitis. This "bug" is actually a mental delusion where the party suffering from it feels that they are loved slightly less or not at all in comparison to others. Every week or so, some member of my family is declaring that one of the guys or the guys themselves are complaining about how they're loved less than the girls. Trust me, they suffer from various other more serious bugs such as Painintheassitis and I.P.S. (Irritable Personality Syndrome) to be concerned with the lack of love. Because them being loved less is simply not an issue.
Thank goodness the women in my family are made from sterner stuff. It balances things out.
To my family, whom I love best in the world: my life would feel like less of a life if one of you were not in it. Happy Valentine's Day.
Week 6 - Reading
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Only ONE book!
I swear I am not getting lazy although I must say that I am having a hard time keeping up with work taking up so much of my time of late. Also, my library books were all overdue and there was not much that I felt like re-reading from my library. Except for this book, Kitchen Confidential.
This is one of my all time favourite books for many reasons. When I was in university, I spent about three years bartending and waitressing. After all, it was the only job that a university student could have that made relatively decent money. A lot of times, chefs depicted on Food Network are clean, polite and usually boring. This book really deals with the realities of restaurant life and truly depicts what "lifers" in the business are like. I also love that Anthony Bourdain never hides his absolute love and curiosity about food. In my ideal world, I would have loved to have been his assistant when he travelled and ate his way around the world.
Whenever I read this book, I am reminded of all the funny and interesting people I have met, the insanity of chefs and I do really think back on those days as the "glory days." All the wait staff and chefs I met were all pretty quirky characters. There are days when I really miss it but I know that there is no going back. That, and I would have most likely been a raging alcoholic by now. Somehow, it always went hand in hand. You always went out with your mates for that extra pint after.
Working at a restaurant has taught me so much how to interact with different people and work under pressure. These are lessons that you can never teach to someone. In many ways, the experience has definitely molded part of my personality today. I can always tell if someone has ever worked in the service industry. There is a self confidence that radiates from those who enjoyed their experiences there. I'll be sure to kick my kid towards a restaurant job when it's their time, as I really do believe it's a wonderful life lesson.
Grumpy Pants
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Hi, my name is Karen. You can call me Miss Grumpy Pants. At least for this week.
This is what's been going wrong in my world (yesterday's incident not included).
I dropped my camera last week. And now the lense won't retract. It's beyond its warranty and I am not sure whether I want to pay for a new one especially since I am saving for a digital SLR. But me without a camera is like fish without water.
Mindy has somehow developed a bad reaction to her medication and prescription food. My child is listless, lethargic and having diarrhea. I lay awake most nights just holding her close wishing she would feel better. The vets just want to give her MORE medication. But I'm looking at alternatives. I figure since I barely take any synthetic medication myself, why the heck would I poison my child? I am becoming disgruntled with conventional medicine in general.
I ordered sashimi to make me feel better since sashimi always makes me feel better. I got a splinter from the take-out chop sticks. Yes, I am the only Chinese person in the world who doesn't own her own set of chopsticks.
It's been so cold here and so dry that my skin feels awful. I DO NOT like feeling dry, flaky and uncomfortable. My usual potions and creams have not helped.
I don't understand why when he does laundry, why he never remembers to wash my jeans? I mean, I pretty much only wear jeans every day? How hard is it to wash a couple pairs of jeans?
I am going home and will be trying to get over my grumpiness in these ways....
Mop the floors (shiny floors always make me happy)
Cuddle my baby (because I love her more than anything else in the world)
Watch cheesy TV (I don't want to have to use my brain)
and sulk.
No Tolerance For Intolerance
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Marie asked me last week why I haven't yet blogged about the whole Isaiah Washington controversy as this is a topic that usually gets my goat. I felt at the time that there were already so many sites talking about it that adding my own voice would not have added anything new.
And then today, something happened.
The funny (or weird) thing about this is that last month I was trying to explain to Stefan that, even though people are pretty accepting of others in Toronto, there is still an underlying sense of prejudice within our society. My argument was that we needed to be aware that it still existed and to be vigilant against people who react this way.
Stefan wondered whether I was being a little over-sensitive about the issue. In his defense however and in my experience, it's usually people who have not experienced much prejudice (in this particular case, Stefan and generally other Caucasian friends) who deny that there is prejudice out there. Perhaps because they themselves would never treat someone differently for being different from them, that they simply cannot see anyone else doing it.
Stuck On Stationery
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Isn't it funny how we as individuals can form such odd habits? I often wonder where it comes from. For me, I am particularly weird about my stationery. I remember always having a list for my back to school shopping as I could only do my work on specific things.
For example, all my math homework could only be done on graph paper. If I happened to have run out of graph paper, I would write all my notes on lined paper and re-copy all of the day's work on graph paper. All math notes must be written in blue medium point pen and actual work in mechanical pencil. English notes were to be written in black fine point ink pen. And notes could never be messy. I've been known to rewrite whole chapters of work if I felt like they were messy. There was a very good reason for this madness though. The neater my notes were the better I always did in that particular class.
Now in my adulthood, my weirdness is seeping into my work. I have a nice bounded book to write a list of things I want to accomplish each day. I also have a paper pad to just scribble miscellaneous notes. The entries in the bounded book is written in black ink pen, notes are made in red ink. When I am done a task, I can only cross it off with a yellow highlighter. Blue means an issue is pending, pink means that there is a major issue on this, orange means that I should look at it and follow up at a later date.
And the whole point of this entry is that I can't find my yellow highlighter and I am all discombobulated over this. I get great satisfaction out of crossing things off my list. I must go and see whether there is some office store nearby.
Does anyone else have weird habits with their work?
Week 5 - Reading
Monday, February 5, 2007
I have been remiss with posting what I've been reading. It's been a really insane time and I've been a little loathe to be on the computer.
Marie gave me When The Elephants Dance and as always, she has impeccable reading taste. She always forces me beyond my reading comfort zone and introduces new genres or topics to me. This one was about Filipinos during the Japanese occupation of South East Asia during the second world war. It was particularly interesting to me because I don't have very many Filipino friends so I know very little about their background and culture.
In the midst of the horrors of war, there are folk stories that are told by the group of people. These stories are grounded in myth and history and I loved how they are tales of hope and courage. This book was truly a wonderful journey and for brief moments in time, I was transported to a completely different place. I love books that do that.
Now I'm off to check Lisa's thoughts on what's been happening with the Barnacle family. I am so behind all my blog reading.