Nothing to see here, move along.

It's been almost 2 weeks since I've written anything here, I thought time was only supposed to fly when you're having fun? Things have been going pretty predictably lately, so I haven't had much new to report. I'm guess I'll get started on part 2 of my previous post, at least.

I managed to drive to O'Hare to pick Kaz up last Friday, that was an adventure. I'm such an inexperienced driver, so I try to take back-roads whenever possible. Especially when there's toll-roads involved. In retrospect, it probably would have been significantly easier if I had just sucked it up and taken the highway. Oh well!

Didn't do a whole lot worth mentioning over the weekend, and this week has been pretty low-key so far. All of the job listings I've found this week are particularly useless, they're all for really specific jobs like bus driver, welder, or "entertainer for upscale gentleman's club." And they're largely posted by people who write at a third grade level. Third grade is even generous for people who write things like "Seeking a experience Dental Assistant!!" I don't even know what that means.

In other news, I'm really relying on our crock pot to do most of my cooking lately. Two of the easiest and best meals I've made (Pork & sauerkraut and BBQ pulled pork) involve dumping all of 3 or so ingredients into the crock pot and letting it cook for a few hours. This leads me to conclude beyond all reasonable doubt that pork + crock pot = success. Doesn't make for good food photography, unfortunately.

Kaz has to leave again on Sunday for some business trip to (wait for it) Guntown, Mississippi. I looked it up on Google maps and it has like... 2 streets. It's like something out of an RPG game, but more ghetto. There's a post office, fire department, school, a few houses, a store, and the mayor's office. And a cemetery. So even though I'm unemployed, at least I don't live there.

Alright, pointless update is pointless, now back to scouring the internet for jobs I won't get. Cheers! 8D

What day is it?

My perception of time is starting to get distorted from being unemployed so long, it's trippy. I had another job interview for a receptionist position on Friday, but they ultimately decided to hire someone that had more experience. I'm not sure much experience is required to answer a telephone, greet people, and generally maintain a body temperature of around 98.6, but apparently it's a lot. I'm annoyed, but also thankful that they actually took the time to shoot me an e-mail, since so few companies actually do, nowadays.

Oh well, back to the drawing board for the 9000th time.

This past weekend was nice, because Kaz actually got to come home from his ridiculously long business trip in California from Friday to Sunday evening. We found what is undoubtedly my new favorite Thai restaurant, which is delightfully close by. I was skeptical at first because of the name, Oishii Thai, and the fact that a Thai restaurant was offering sushi. But the food and service were both extremely good, I highly recommend it if you ever happen to be in the area. (though really, why would you? o_O)

On Saturday, I made 잡채/japchae, my first attempt at making Korean food. Back when I was at PSU, I'd get japchae pretty regularly at the Korean restaurant near campus. I found the recipe here, and followed it pretty closely, though I didn't have any sesame seeds. Did you know that a small bottle of those bad boys costs over $7? What. But anyway, lacking ingredients aside, it turned out great! I highly recommend that recipe, if it sounds like something you'd like to try.


Sometimes I think I like photographing food more than eating it... D8


...Jesus Christ, all I talk about lately is food. My apologies.


Anyway, we also went to see Piranha 3D on Saturday night. It was pretty much exactly what I expected it to be, no more, no less. Although we didn't consider how expensive 3D movies are, so when the guy was like "That'll be $30." for two tickets, we were both kind of floored. And then, I made the mistake of wanting a bottle of water and minuscule box of Reeses Pieces, which came out to over $8. Where do movie theaters get the balls to charge $4 for a bottle of water? I should have been paying more attention to the prices, no one needs bottled water that badly.

I won't really bother reviewing the movie, because I am lazy. All you need to consider is blood and tits. If you like either of those things, you will probably like Piranha.

Kaz left again for CA last night, and apparently the taxi driver who drove him to O'Hare was extremely fascinated about him dating a white girl and wanted to discuss at length everything there was to discuss about interracial relationships. So that was a little creepy. I'm not sure what I've even accomplished since he left. Today sort of flew by, and all I have to show for it is the eBay listing I made for one of the items Chieko gave me to auction off.

Anyone in need of a Toby Keith flask? No? Okay, cool, didn't think so. But if you change your mind, you know where to look!

Guess I'll get back to whatever it was I was doing before I started this. If I can figure out what that was.

Oh dear...

I DUN GOOFED.

...Evidently. I went to dye my hair again this morning because my roots were looking like shit, even though I dyed it not so long ago. I used the same brand and type as last time, L'oreal Healthy Look. I normally don't use rinses (because really, what's the point?) but my hair is sort of damaged lately, so I wanted to use something that wasn't so harsh. Last time, I used one that was one shade lighter, and it didn't change the color much at all. This time, I used...


8G, Soft Golden Blonde


My mom uses this one as well, and she says it works great. The color looks really nice on her, so I thought I'd give it a try.

But um... my hair is definitely BROWN now. I haven't gotten around to taking a picture of it yet, but there's no mistaking that it is not blonde. I'm not necessarily mad about that, except the color is kind of brassy. And I still would have been fine with it, but the dye didn't take to a sizable chunk of my hair on the right side! I used the entire bottle, so I highly doubt I missed a spot, but there's a section that just looks noticeably lighter than the rest. I'm annoyed, but I don't want to a) buy another box of dye to fix it, and b) subject my hair to the dying process so soon after just doing it. Ugh, what to do... It's a shame I look terrible in hats.

And one other complaint is that the conditioner they give you contains an ingredient called "Royal Jelly", which sounds like some kind of spermicidal lubricant used by kings, and it smells like Amoxicillin. It's disgusting, and I can't use it because it reminds me of like, Redi-Care.

But I digress.


On a more pleasant note, I made Annindofu/杏仁豆腐/Douhua/Almond pudding (or whatever the hell else you want to call it) last night. We had it the other day at Chieko's friend Chika's house, and when I saw how easy it was to make, I had to give it a try. I didn't have kanten, so I had to substitute regular unflavored Knox gelatin and that worked fine. I followed this recipe, the only thing I skipped was straining the milk mixture through a sieve. And instead of making it in individual cups, I made the gelatin in a large, shallow tupperware container for easy storage. After it chilled, I cut it into cubes and topped it with mandarin oranges, some other canned fruits, and fresh blueberries. Unfortunately, the blueberries were from Jewel, and as with much of their produce, they tasted like crap. Super sour! Everything else was great, though, it's a really nice, refreshing dessert that doesn't have a lot of calories.


DAMN YOU, BLUEBERRIES!

Anyway, yes. And now I have to go take some pictures of inanimate objects, and for once it isn't for PoupeeGirl. I'm going to be selling some leftover concert swag on eBay for Chieko and Ryan in the near future. I've never sold anything on eBay, but it doesn't look so complicated. Anyone need some Justin Bieber tote bags?
(I know I don't. 8D )

Clearance

Have I ever mentioned I love buying things on clearance? I'll buy pretty much anything that costs less than $7, on the off-chance that I may be able to one day work it into a super-cute coordinate. I like my outfit today, so I thought I'd camwhore it up a bit. ♪ And everything was less than $5(each, that is)! ...Except the shoes. ...And the necklace, which was a present from Kaz's mom.ヾ(TωT。)
Still pretty good, though! I had sort of a hard time taking a picture where I didn't look either a) several months pregnant, or b) suffering from acute appendicitis, but I guess that one's alright. Oh yeah, unrelated, but my mom is coming to visit from July 31st-August 7th! I'm pretty excited, though I'm not sure what we'll do all week. Kaz did get us tickets to go see the Walking with Dinosaurs show in Chicago, so that should be neat. Finally, I'll have some stuff to take pictures of!
I'm really hungry all of the sudden... I think I'll go eat leftovers, I made some strange dish last night with whatever we had on hand, which happened to be chicken, garlic, mushrooms, onions, zucchini, cream of mushroom soup, and a bunch of spices that I'm not sure went together. It was okay, but not the most amazing thing I've ever cooked. Alright for not using a recipe or buying anything. ヽ(　￣д￣; )ノ Cheers!

Inception

...is a pretty cool movie!  Kaz and I went to see it this afternoon, we both really liked it.  I guess I'm kind of late to the Leonardo DiCaprio fan club, I never cared for him when Titanic came out and all my fellow junior high-schoolers were in love with the guy.  But I just recently watched Shutter Island which I also liked, and this movie was enjoyable as well, so I guess I'm a Leo fan now.  I have to say, though, just based on the two most recent movies I've seen of his, Rose should have considered herself fortunate that Jack didn't make it to America in Titanic.  His marriages never seem to end well.   Inception is one of those movies that really sucks you into it, though, I felt out of touch with reality for a while after it ended. （￣〜￣;）  After we got back, we made beef with broccoli for dinner, it was amazing!  I made it once before, but I think it came out better this time.   
The recipe was from here, I recommend it!  We did add quite a bit of extra stuff, though.  Onions, extra garlic/garlic powder, scallions, mushrooms, and a little orange juice.  It's so easy and quick to make. ♪ I'm sad the weekend is over though, back to job-hunting tomorrow.  Ugh, fml!  ヾ(;´Д`●)ﾉ

And now for my first actual post...

The dining room proudly presents... your dinner! [/Lumiere] This is the result of today's cooking adventure, it turned out pretty good! I made pork tenderloin with onions, garlic stuffing, and baby spinach leaves sauteed with olive oil, garlic and mushrooms.


And for dessert, chocolate chip cookies! Not made from scratch, unfortunately.

...I like taking pictures of food. 8D;