Chris’ Birthday Lunch + Concord Seafood City

We had a birthday lunch for my nephew Chris at Le Cheval in Walnut Creek.

Chris' Birthday Lunch  Mahliyah's Calamari Dip

Afterwards, me and my Mom went to the Concord Seafood City to see how it compares to the Vallejo one. It actually seems smaller.

Christmas Paper Fight

Christmas Shopping Continues…

I finally got up off my butt and started the majority of my Christmas shopping. I went to Daly City, because there was a place that I think would sell some printed Pacquiao shirt that my nephews would like. I did see some through their window, but they were already close when I got there around 7pm… so I proceeded to go to Tanforan Mall.

It wasn’t as busy as I thought it would be at the Mall. I found several other gifts there, which was good, but I still have tons more to buy.

One weird thing that happened when I was there was that a cute Filipino guy walking towards me bumped my bag with his, smiled then said "Bag 5!"… I think he meant it kinda like "High 5", but with shopping bags… hehe… it was weird, but I must say that he was cute and adorable and made me smile :)

Clingie’s Second Ootheca (Egg Sack)

Clingie and Her Second Ootheca (Egg Sack) I woke up to find that my pet Praying Mantis, Clingie laid another ootheca (egg sack) last night. I took out the first one and placed it outside because I didn’t want them to hatch until the spring. I was kinda surprised that she had another ootheca. I wonder if the eggs were fertilized and were just inside her, or if they are not fertilized… similar to how hens will lay eggs even if they are fertilized.

Later in the afternoon, me and my Mom went shopping. Went to Costco and got food for Christmas. They went to Island Pacific… Then afterwards ate at Subway… or as my Mom would call it "Footlong".

Holiday Work Party + Snowflake Ornaments + Christmas Tree Decorating

We had our Holiday Party at work. It was pretty low keyed, but I like it better that way. We played a game where we were supposed to guess who the person was in the childhood photo. It was pretty difficult, but I got 9 correct out of 17. Afterwards we did our White Elephant Gift Exchange. I ended up scoring four Lundberg Studios glass flower ornaments!

After work, my friends Howie and Bill wanted me to come over to get my Christmas gift. They said that I need to get it "before" Christmas… because I should "use" it before then… so I first met them all including Mikey (who was in town) for dinner at China Gourmet. Afterwards, we went back to their place and hung out. I noticed Mikey also had a nice DSLR camera, we I asked if I can play with it and compare it with mine.

Snowflake OrnamentsHowie and Bill gave me a clay pot bowl. I think it’s one that you can cook asian clay pot dishes in… and they also gave me some beautiful wooden snowflake ornaments, which was similar to some that saw at the Castro that I really liked.

I guess this kinda got me into the holiday spirit… When I got home, I finally decorated the Christmas tree. (This was the latest that I think we ever decorated the tree.) My brother bought it about a week ago, but I just didn’t have time (and help) to being down the ornaments from the attic. My brother brought the stuff down last night and left the indoor decorations in the living room, but nobody likes to decorate the tree, so I usually end up doing it.

I had an idea to take time lapse photos of the tree decorated.

Amigurumi

Last night, I was watching a knitting/crocheting show (I think it was called Knitting Daily)… They had a segment where they crocheted these cute Japanese-style dolls called Amigurumi. This may be a perfect first crocheting project, since I bought a Learn How to Crochet kit a few weeks ago.

Here are some links I want to jot down for reference:
How to crochet Japanese amigurumi dolls using single crochet
mom & pop design: not your grandma’s crocheting
Curls of Sunshine – New Free Amigurumi Owl Crochet Pattern
An Introduction to Amigurumi
Birds of a Feather « BitterSweet

Livingetc India

Two of my photos were published in the December 2009 issue of Livingetc India.

Livingetc India

Links: Storefront Gardens

I just discovered a blog called Storefront Garden that reminds me of all the little shops in San Francisco with plants in their windows. I should photograph more of those :)