Monthly Archives: September 2008

Koi Pond

Posted by Leaf on September 15, 2008 2 comments

This is a friend’s koi pond. There are about 30 koi in here.
Koi Pond

He says when he moves he’s definitely taking the fish with him. “Once you have a pond, you can’t go back.” Guess he got bit by the aquarium bug. I can see why though. The fish with the flowing water makes the backyard very tranquil. He has his maintenance routine simplified so it isn’t a lot of work. There’s a uv filter that helps keep the water clean and the algae from overtaking the place. The little machine hanging above is an automatic feeder which is set to go off twice daily. Every so often he changes the water out completely by netting the fish and washing out the pond. The thing that amazes me the most is the koi hibernate in the winter so unless it freezes, they can be left in the pond year round.

Mid-Autumn Festival

Posted by Leaf on September 14, 2008 4 comments

This year’s Mid-Autumn Festival falls on a Sunday night (Sept. 14th). I couldn’t get a decent pic of the moon but it was bright and large.
Mid Autumn Festival
Tonight is windy too. Feels like the kind of wind that’s going to bring us some rain. 
Green Bean Mooncake
Sesame Seed mooncake
I love this holiday because I like looking at the moon and the stars.

One thing I wanted to add about these two mooncakes. On the left is a new chilled soft kind. The filling is a sweet paste. This particular one is sesame flavored. It’s wrapped in a mochi like skin. I like the mochi part but the filling is sweet and a bit greasy. I don’t think I like it very much. But there are other flavors (green tea, taro) so maybe those will be better. The one on the right are mung bean pastries with a flaky crust. Very yummy.

Roast Chicken & Potatoes

Posted by Leaf on September 13, 2008 2 comments

roasted chicken and vegetables
The weather turned cool and rainy yesterday, so roast chicken sounded like a good warm your soul meal. September is so unpredictable though because today, it hit 90s. Suddenly roasting a chicken on an August-like day didn’t seem that appealing. No matter though, it still came out delicious!

The recipe wasn’t really a recipe. It was sort of thrown together in a semi-concocted, I-think-this-is-how-it’s-done-usually kinda’ way. I mean, poultry goes with onions, carrots, and celery. And who doesn’t like garlic? And ok go ahead and add some this-and-that… You get the idea.
roasted
Ingredients:
1 chicken
2 celery hearts
1 5lb bag of carrots
1 large yellow onion
1lb of sliced mushrooms
2 bunches of spring onions (probably didn’t need this along with the yellow onion, but eh, more variety!)
1 clove of garlic
Lawry’s seasoned salt
Poultry rub (any kind/optional)
Dried herbs (any kind/optional)
cracked pepper

Preheat oven to 350 F. Rinse the chicken. Rub it with the seasoned salt, pepper, and whatever herbs and rubs you want. Wash and cut the veggies in big (about 2 inch) chunks. I left the carrots unpeeled. Smash the garlic cloves and stuff them in the chicken. Season the vegetables and lay them around the chicken. Also stuff the chicken with some of the vegetables. Make sure the bird is placed breast-side up and tent it with foil so it doesn’t dry up. Cook it for 2-2.5 hours. Eat a pickle.

smash potatoWhile that’s cooking go ahead and wash and boil some red potatoes in salt water. After they’re fork-tender, smash it with a fork and put oil, salt, pepper, and dried herbs on top. Then, bake it in the oven when the bird has about 30 minutes left. This is the same time when you should take the foil tent off so the skin can brown a little. Raise the oven temperature to 400 F for this last half hour. This is called Crash Hot Potatoes and it came from Pioneerwoman.

The chicken came out juicy and the vegetables were very flavorful and not mushy. The potatoes were a mix of crispy and chewy. Yum yum.

Pastry Friday!

Posted by Leaf on September 12, 2008 None comments

Today is the gateway to weekend-land.  As if that wasn’t nice enough, we got sweetened up even more when a couple of managers in our office showered us with sweets and other delights such as this,
Panera
and this. 
Panera pastries
Which makes it an even better day.

It’s always a treat on a sort of overcast day like today.  I’m anticipating more of this as the holidays roll around.  Can you believe how fast it’s coming?  My coworkers tell me it’s a sign that I’m getting old when I get all my-how-time-flies.  But my how time flies!!

My boss came up to me just as I had my camera in the box of bagels.  “What are you doing??”  “Uh, nothing.” <grin and stuff camera into pocket>  I adore my little camera!!

Domino Effect

Posted by Leaf on September 11, 2008 None comments

Wasn’t it just a couple of months ago when I wrote that my sane coworker was leaving the team?  Now Biblethumper-Grump is leaving!!  There will only be three of us left!  Major bummer.  We’re about to get an intern in a few weeks but who knows how long she’ll last.  Once the interns figure out the boss’ crazy ways, they usually leave for a new rotation.  This bums me out.  I mean, I’m happy for them.  The defectors.  The deserters.  The turncoats.  Truly, I am.  But the truth is, I want to leave too.  It sucks to be the one left behind.  Plus, Grump totally doesn’t appreciate the beauties of where he’s going.  I’m telling him about the farmers’ markets where he is, museums, the botanical gardens, restaurants and he’s unaffected.  The most blank, so-what expression ever.  “I don’t like shopping.”  “I don’t like dining at expensive places.”  Now you know why I call him Grump.  Grr.. good riddance!  :(   Oh and he already told me he’s not going to share contact info with us at his new place.  When I asked, he responded “Probably not.  I’m going to be very busy there.”  Ouch.  I wasn’t even asking for the information so we could bug him about work.  It’s just nice to keep in touch and whatnot.  Or not.

One good outcome I can think of right now: my boss is nicer.

Canon Powershot

Posted by Leaf on September 10, 2008 3 comments

Here’s my new camera.
Canon Elph SD1100 IS
It’s a Canon Powershot SD1100 IS. Nothing fancy. Just the basics. This is my fourth digital and my first Canon. The first two were Kodak which I loved for the vibrant colors, especially outdoors.

Kodak DX3500The first was the DX3500. I think my cell phone has more mega pixels than this toy of a camera, which has 2.2 mp. This trusty little camera started my habit of taking pictures of everything and nothing.

Kodak DX6440The second was the DX6440 (4.0 mp and optical zoom). I started blogging with this camera.

I loved the Casio Exilim EX-S600 for it’s size and user friendliness – it had all these presets. For instance, I love taking pictures of food and plants. It had a setting for food and flowers and more than two dozen other options. I didn’t have to futz around with the other settings. I do not like fussing with camera settings, hence the Powershot with minimal bells and whistles. Just turn it on and click. My one gripe about the EX-S600 was the speed. Canon - Macromode It was really slow in preparing for a shot. I had to let it think and “boot up” to prep for each photo. That made it really hard to capture those movement or hurry-quick shots which was mildly irritating. Plus, anytime I was trying to take a photo of food, I’d have to hold everyone at bay for what felt like an eternity before my camera would take! Or if I wanted to take a photo of people, they’d have to stretch the cheese! extra long. “CHEeeee-eeee-eeeze? when-r-u-going-to-take-the-dang-foto-already?” But did I mention it’s portability? I could fit it into ANY purse, even a little wristlet. I love the small size. Please don’t be discouraged by my comments from buying the Casio Exilim. The newer models are all faster and it’s an excellent, excellent camera! The only reason why I didn’t get it this time is because I wanted to try a different make.
And since I now have a history of abusing my camera, this time, I got a case.

Busted Camera

Posted by Leaf on September 8, 2008 4 comments

My not-yet-2-years-old digital camera broke! Waah! I was careless and squished the LCD screen with my books and pens or something. It still takes pictures and they come out fine but because the LCD screen is 3/4 whited out, I can’t see enough to adjust the settings let alone center my picture.
Broken LCD
Literally, I point in the general direction, view a corner of the picture, and mostly hope for the best. It’s too bad because I really liked my little Casio Exilim. It was so small I pretty much carried it with me everywhere, weekly. You never know when you might see something that you want to capture. Just the other day, I left it at home and missed a shot of, you guessed it, food. Taiwan shaved ice. Guess I’ll have to eat it again so I can get the picture.

Shoo fly don’t bother me

Posted by Leaf on September 7, 2008 3 comments

I was sitting here in front of the computer minding my own business and this mosquito started biting me. Four times! 3 on one leg in the same general area too. I smushed her. She sucked her last stealthy suck.

Bad Hair Day

Posted by Leaf on September 6, 2008 None comments

Hanna
This is what’s left of hurricane Hanna. Just a day of soothing rain and wind. I didn’t even bother trying to tame my frizz.

Nationals

Posted by Leaf on September 5, 2008 None comments

The last time I went to see the Nationals play, it was a disappointing game against the Florida Devil Rays. They lost 0 to whatever. I left before the 7th inning stretch.
Nationals Park
That time, I sat on the tippity toppitiest top level of seats up there.

Nationals Park
This time, they beat the Atlanta Braves and there was a bit of a tussle off field which provided a quasi-halftime show (I’ll explain later).

Also, I sat much closer this time. Closer to the game. Closer to the concessions.

Nationals Park
Mmm…nachos with extra jalapeños. Yummy heartburn heaven.

So the fight that broke out – there was this fan who was enamored with Chipper Jones, some Braves player. Nationals Park He made a sign and periodically ran around yelling “CHIPPER JONES! Yee-aaah!” or chanting “Chip-per Jones! Chip-per Jones!” so on and so forth. There was a good-sized crowd of Braves fans who got into the spirit of things, chanting and cheering with him. Nationals Park But since he was in Nationals territory, there was also a bunch of people who got annoyed. Finally, some dude came up to him, made a grab for that sign and ended up tearing half of it out of his hands. He proceeded to tear up that half of it. Then there was much yelling. Then a bunch of security guards came. Then more yelling.

And I captured this historical event because I was the official photographer-of-discord for the evening. And this is about as exciting as my life has ever gotten.Nationals Park

I just thought of something interesting. I’ve been to 3 major league baseball games total. The first one was in Atlanta to see the Braves and Devil Rays. Then this year, it was first the Nationals and Devil Rays.  And now, Nationals and Braves. 3 games, 3 teams.