- venice
- cheery vday bouquet
- worthy $8 chocolates and $2 macarons from the infamous bottega louis
- dangerous freeway picture action on the 210w of the miller factory that omits a warm and oh-so-satisfying smell of beer, wheat, hops, whatever it is…this is the highlight of my mon-fri
- doja
- evil eye fun
- grandmama!
- just found out i’m in juxtapoz2 thx to the disgustingly talented jun at arudima (if only that photo was taken pre-weight loss )

stephen, i’m so happy for you..i said it before but i’ll say it again and again. i can’t wait for you and joanna to have babies!!!!!!!!!! they’re going to be the cutest little mixed things ever. joanna, i don’t see stephen often but when i saw him at the reception, he was gleaming with absolute joy. you looked so radiant and i thank you for bringing him happiness. congrats to the both of you!

he liked it so much, he considered tattooing it on his body – i think it reminded him how foolish and blinded humankind is…with politics, media, sports, many many things. i wouldn’t mind being immortal…better yet, an elf, so i can be with like legolas. ♥♥♥♥♥ anyway, i’m not quite sure how the idea came to me but i knew i wanted to transpose the quote on post-its to something more lasting for him. he’s easy to please so i’m sure he’ll like it but i hope you guys enjoy it as much as i did making it! crafting to ennio morricone’s cinema paradiso is probably as gratifying as life gets. happy vday to all the lovers and friends.

the goods. not shown are: cork panels cut to size then wrapped in burlap, and the box, that originally held a random mushroom (no joke), i pried apart then glued back together.

where ze magic happens. those post-its are damn sticky! never once fell off the wall. 3M is amazing.

tim’s influential sketch

glue time. i bought these dumbbells and never used them. finally, they come in handy!!=P

final product. tip for future ref: burlap causes major hardcore allergies. should’ve chosen a different material

puck:
captain of our fairy band,
helena is here at hand,
and the youth, mistook by me,
pleading for a lover’s fee.
shall we their fond pageant see?
lord, what fools these mortals be!

- a midsummer nights dream act 3, scene 2, 110–115

*lx5

tim and i joked about how we did every touristy thing seattle has to offer but i do believe it’s almost true. on day 1 we visited the pike place market. we first witnessed the fish fly then off to happy hour at elliot’s oyster house – which became a little too happy for us. after attempting to do some buzzed shopping, we ended up agreeing to take a “nap” that turned into deep drunken slumber until 6am the next day. this was definitely not a sleepless in seattle trip. there’s just something so soothing about sleeping in a toasty bed while it’s raining outside. it’s almost hypnotizing.

feeling rejuvenated, we crammed most of the sightseeing in day 2. after a delicious breakfast at lola (a tom douglas restaurant), we took the monorail, rode the ducks around the city, explored seattle center including the emp museum, pacific science center and of course, the space needle. though i enjoyed the seattle center, i found myself wanting to explore the more lively pike place market. pike place chowder was recommended by friends and sure enough, did not disappoint. we also hit up the “cups of crab” stand in the middle of the market then accidentally stumbled upon the infamous gum wall. tim was going to offer me $5 to lick it but i countered with $100 (he was too wuss to accept it cause he knows i’d do it.) our last pitstop before nightfall was for the famous donuts, featured on the food network, from dahlia bakery (also a tom douglas restaurant, notice a theme here.) at the bakery, a homeless man who claims he has over 750,000 hits on youtube approached us and performed a tune using an empty water jug. i can only hope he is as happy and carefree as he seemed while singing.

seattle nightlife is more my style too…a bar/gastropub scene. great local beers and they seem to love their scotch. +1. we shot pool with some locals and strolled around downtown to random bars.

on our last full day, tim and i sped through the seattle aquarium then attended my cousins wedding reception in bellevue. photos of the lovely couple to come in the next post! en route, we agreed seattle looks just like forks in twilight…hardly any sun, lots of clouds, and covered in evergreen trees. it’s the exact opposite of socal’s 80 degree winters but nonetheless enjoyable and beautiful.

the reception was intimate but boasted lots of love and laughter. it was priceless to see my relatives, some who i haven’t seen in over 15 years. it’s a trip to think we’re all at this event to celebrate the union of 2 people beginning their lives together yet next week, I’ll see some of them again at our grandpa’s funeral in taipei to celebrate commemorate his life and passing. it’s the circle of life in 1 week’s time. too deep.

finally, though drained and still full from the reception, we made an effort to try the last 2 restaurants on our want list: serious pie (tom douglas, again…) and japonessa. i’m glad we did to end seattle right. and bloated. who says having 2 dinners in one night is excessive? not i.

btw, since we went to 3 tom douglas restaurants, all of which were recommended to us by friends, i took the liberty of wiki’ing him. he should be glad i did because i found not only does he pretty much pwn the downtown seattle food scene, he beat morimoto in an iron chef america salmon challenge. mad respect, tom!

and now, i’m at the airport concluding this trip. excited to get the photos uploaded and shared with y’all. seattle treated us well and i feel like i blabbed too much so i’m going to stop here. blame southwest for making me wait 3 hours at the terminal.

final note – here’s a vid i captured of the homeless man i was talking about earlier. also, don’t mess with me when i’m bored

1. you develop an internal alarm clock that wakes you up before 7am everyday.

2. you’d rather listen to kost 103.5 rather than power and sing scream eye of the tiger like it’s no one’s business.

3. you crave to bake on the weekends.

just to reaffirm how i constantly feel, i did all three of these things today. even sing eye of the tiger. way to go, em. i can almost feel my joints tightening up. i decided to make a rice cake in celebration of chinese new years but instead of making a traditional 年糕 i decided to bake a matcha mochi cake. it was also an excuse to visit the local japanese market, mitsuwa, and see the jolly japanese ladies that work there. they’re so cute! happy chinese new years everyone!! may your year be filled with happiness and love.

super easy recipe:

Matcha Mochi Cake
1 lb glutinous rice flour (equivalent to about 3.5-4 cups depending on the type of flour. the french weigh out their ingredients. and they make the best macarons so we should trust their technique)
2 tblspn matcha powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 cups milk
2 cups sugar (i used 1.5 cause i don’t like it too sweet)
3 eggs, beaten

preheat oven to 350 degrees. combine all ingredients in a bowl, mix until consistent. grease a pan or two, depending on the size, pour the mixture in, then bake for an hour or until you poke the center with a toothpick and it comes out clean. let cool before you cut it! next time i want to pizzazz it up and put some red bean in it. mmmmmmm. the star of the cake – matcha!!! it’s a great antioxidant.

dozer is the snot king. snot that looks exactly like how they draw it in anime. example below.