Project 360 day 43

So I was at my dermatologist the other day. While I was waiting for the doctor, I picked up this food magazine which had a story on a Sushi chef from Seattle that only uses sustainable fish. After reading about the plights of the bluefin tuna, I think I have decided that I am not going to eat anymore of it. ( this is a hard decision to make because Daitoro is sooo delicious!). Along with the article was a easy recipe provided by this chef. We made this dish tonight for dinner. It was quite tasty.

project 360 day 42

This was taken at I Love Sushi. It is party for Ninja's old roommate who went to Australia and came back to visit. Everyone ordered 3 rolls each . This is the fullest table I have ever seen.

Project 365 day 41

After my latest snowboarding adventure, I noticed that my gloves are actually coming apart at the seams of my fingers. I am amazed that my hand stayed dry the entire time. Those pair of REI gloves have served me well over the years. They see snow about once a year for 4 years. It is time to retire. So tonight, I went to REI and got these Dakine Catalina ones. They are definitely an upgrade, with leather palms and Gore-Tex lining. Lets hope I get to use them at least one more time this year.

Project 365 day 40

This is the last of my sake posts for a while as I ran out of my backlog hehe. This is Ninja's newest acquisition: Ura. It is usually really expensive but this one was on sale for 50% off. This is also a Junmai Jinjou so it is the same as our old favorite Kikusui. Tastewise, this one is much more "tasty" in that it makes much more sensation on your tongue than the Kikusui, however it doesn't go down as smooth as the Kikusui. Actually it rather burns a little haha. But it sure does make a party on your tongue :)

project 365 day 39

This is Kasumi Tsuru Kimoto Extra dry. I'd say this is slightly less smooth than the Kurosawa from last post. Other than that, there is not much I can say about it. haha.

project 365 day 38

The next in line for my Sake theme. This is Kurosawa, a Junmai Kimoto. It was recommended to us by the Japanese grocery store wine guy. Apparently it has the reputation of being very dependable and very "pure" taste. If you want to know what a normal sake SHOULD taste like, then this is it. This is only Junmai Kimoto not Jummai Jinjou so it is lower grade than the Kikusui I posted before. However, it is still very smooth and light. Ninja says it has a full body, whatever that means. I can say it was pretty good though.

project 365 day 37

Snowboarding at Steven's Pass today. As the Veggies know, I am usually the skier. However, the friends I went with this time all snowboarded and there were some beginners as well so I figure it is as a good time as any to give it a shot. I actually found it easier than skiing especially after I learned how to leaf down the hill. It is much easier to slow down or stop on snowboards, less chance of tumbling down the hill in a heap. I had alot of fun.

project 365 day 36

Continuation of the Sake theme. Hmm as I am writing this, I realized I probably should have tried a different setting for the pictures rather than just doing it in the exactly spot. Will think about it some more next time. This is Kikusui, a Junmai Ginjo as opposed to the sweet Nigori in the last post. Junmai Ginjo is more of a traditional sake type. It is clear high grade rice wine. This particular brand is actually extremely good. Very light and smooth and with just a hint of alcohol taste. This is Ninja's favorite so far. Since my judgment of whether a drink is good is how much I can not taste the alcohol. I'd say this is my favorite as well haha. It does come with a big pricetag. This is about 13 bucks while the Sayuri was only 6 bucks haha. Both bottles are small sample size bottles.

project 365 day 35

Velius inspired me with his themed pics. I am starting a Sake theme. Ninja is a big fan of sake and have been going through the local Japanese grocery store's sake section. I would try a sip now and then just to see what the difference is. This one is the first one we tried. A Sayuri Nigori, it is a very sweet cloudy sake. There are rice at the bottom and when you shake it, you can see it swirls in the liquid. I think the good thing about it is that it is pretty sweet, although not very 'smooth'. Good thing for dessert I suppose.

project 365 day 34

Today was a super cold day, completely blowing away any wishful thinking of a mild rest of the winter. It was cold and wet, in other words back to normal. Just before the sunset however, there was a brief patch of clearness and you can see the surrounding mountains. You'd think being in Seattle, I'd get used to seeing them but for most of othe year they are shrouded in cloudiness that I still gasp everytime I get a clear view of the magnificence.

project 365 day 33

On Monday, all of a sudden, our resident Lara Croft was replaced with this bad boy.

project 365 day 32

Ninja made this giant piece of steak on Sunday. It was so delicious and only took 12 minutes to make. American food sometimes really is quite simple! I wish I know how to make some, rather than the time consuming Chinese variety.

project 365 day 28

I suffer from a serious case of Out of Picture Idea-itis. It doesn't help that basically everyday I just go between two places. For the make up day, I took a picture of Ninja's most expensive bottle of booze. Apparently it was like $200. Don't know why people drink this stuff haha. I think I am going to do pics of booze for all future makeup day. Ninja has quite a collection to tie me over =p

project 365 day 31

Today, I went on my first hike of the year: Talapus Lake. This is rather early to start the hiking season but this winter has been unseasonably warm (sorry Eastcoasters). The organizers figure the snow will not be stopping us. This is rather an easy hike, about 4.4 miles round trip with an elevation gain of 1200ft. It is really just a warm up. The first half of the hike was relatively easy and dry. Then we got to the second half, where the trail was covered with 1 feet of compacted snow which is basically ice. That was not bad going up, but coming down was really tricky. I fell once. The trail ended at Talapus Lake which is surrounded by mountain peaks and completely frozen over. It was really lovely and a gorgeous day for the hike.

project 365 day 30

Spring is in the air.. This is the traffic circle outside one of our buildings

project 365 day 29

After contemplating it for months, I finally bought a laptop today. This is a Sony Vaio 13" , from now on it is going to be my precioussss..

specs:

Now as usual, it came with a bunch of crap and I will spend the next couple of days cleaning up my precioussss..

p.s. I gotta make up day 28 again sigh

gasp! not project 365

This video is really cool!

project 365 day 27

A little forest is growing on the windowsill at work. Kirason has been taking care of most of these. She has done a great job. The second from the right has been growing so much, she already had to split it 2 times.

Project 365 day 26

Speaks for itself..

Project 365 day 25

I decided to call certain someone "Ninja" since he is too lazy to come up with a name and he is all stealthy so there now I can refer to him haha. I had dinner with Ninja on Sunday. He went and bought these American style Kobe Beef from our resident Japanese grocery store. It is crazy marbled and very very tendered. You barely have to cook them! yum!

Project 365 day 24

I have a big backlog of pictures again, for some reason i never remember to go post them -_-

M's birthday was this last Friday so on Saturday, for celebration, we went to the performance of "Butterfly Lover"(梁祝）by the Beijing Dance Academy on their world tour. The show itself was fantastic. The first half was made up of several short dances, encompassing both traditional and modern dance forms. The traditional dance are basically court dances from thousands of years ago. There were several modern dance that was quite interesting, one is this weird interpretive dance set to Chinese Rap except all the dancers were wearing Beijing Opera costumes. Very weird. The second half was the full 25 minute set of the Dance Drama "Butterfly Lover" which is basically Chinese version of Romeo and Juliet. It was amazing! The dancers were so exquisite and the music was so moving. I think it was the best dance I have ever seen!

I actually felt sorry for the dance troupe because the theatre was barely 1/3 full and they were pretty bad at organizing. For example, they didn't do much of advertising at all for tickets, unlike that Sheng Yun dance troupe that had posters everywhere!. Then at the theatre, they didn't have the program until the show almost started and they didn't have any sort of introductions. I feel like their talent was not being appreciated because most people here didn't even know they came! What a loss!

project 365 day 23

Also from Kirason's desk, these are Nohohons! I have one at home too, but Kirason has like 10 haha. They are little bobbleheads that runs on light. soo cute !

I have been watching alot of Olympics these last couple of days. The women's figure skating long program was incredibly good. I am glad Kim Yu Na won. She skated a perfect program under so much pressure. What an athlete! Everyone else brought their A game too!

and Good luck to the Chinese women's curling team who is competing right now haha, I hope they win the Bronze!

project 365 day 22

Was super busy this week so slightly behind. These next two are both what are on Kirason's desk.

project 365 day 21

Alright, so like I totally cheated for today's picture but this is too good to pass up. I have been watching lots and lots of curling as apparently NBC only deems this sport worthy to be broadcasted live (shake fist at evil NBC!). I am completely confused as to the rules for the longest time, finally someone found this nice diagram for me. What a crazy sport!! but Go China!!!

project 365 day 19

I figure this is approriate for makeup day. This is the same flower as the one I started out project 365 with. A perfect symbol of the passage of time:)

Project 365 day 20

oops, I missed day 19 again. gonna have to make that up. This is my coworker's bookshelf. It is full of Nyankos, which are basically cats that um. believe they are food.. @.@

project 365 day 18

First sign of spring! This weekend gave us two gorgeous warm days. We actually had a littel stroll outside and sat outside for some lunch. Along the way, I saw this lonely tree in an abandoned parking lot. It is so beautiful and I hope it indicates of good things to come :)

Project 365 day 17

What is better than sliced bread? inflatable toast!!

Project 365 day 16

A foggy morning today. As I was leaving the house, basked in sunshine, I noticed this thick band of fog down below the mountain. Then I drove through it, and then it was sunny again :)

project 365 day 15

Aha! and everyone thought I was on crack when I was trying to describe this mythical beer to them! This is Lhasa beer, brewed with the purest water from the Himalayas. How does it taste? According to a certain taste testers, it tasted "strange' which i think is euphemism for it taste like crap. Although he also said after 2 it wasn't so bad ;)

project 365 day 14

M just came back from a nice weekend in Houston. She bought me these pair of furry boots so I can wear them at home :D

project 365 day 13

Went to the birthday dinner of the friend who was leaving. His girlfriend made this fabulous cake. The dinner was held at Purple Cafe and Wine Bar. It is a relatively new establishment in the new preppy downtown Bellevue. Food was quite good and atmosphere was excellent.

Project 365 Day 12

Happy Chinese New Years and Happy Valentine's day everybody :D. This was my Valentine's dinner :D. Steak, Shrimp, Spinach and Yam. It was incredibly delicious :D

project 365 day 11

Yesterday was a friend's going away party. He is leaving MS and going back to his home in Australia to start a new career. He had a get together at this bar/lounge called Kurrent . It was pretty decent place in Capital Hill. Got nice music and very spacious private room. I haven't been out at a bar in a long time. The music is just as loud, but at least the air is clean :)

project 365 day 10

Insights is this personality test/team training group, kind of similar to Myers Briggs test. I did their simple questionaire and this is what my color came up in the order of the most like me to least like me. I think it makes sense :)

Project 365 day 9

Someone brought some Sake to my place but neglected to bring any sake cups, so we were forced to improvise...

project 365 Day 8

During New Years, one of my friend brought me this beautiful Orchid as a party gift. M has been taking diligent care of it and it is still blooming beautifully!

Project 365 day 7

Nerdiness: see how many books you recognize on this very nerdy bookshelf hehe.

project 365 day 6

gosh... I am already lapsing. I have to fudge day 6th's pic a little. Saving this post for later

update: This is a pic I took a couple of days earlier that I didn't end up using. Very interesting cloud formation among the mountains surrounding our neighborhood.

Project 365 day 5

Wing battle at Snoopy's Superbowl party (go Saints!). I was not involved in anyway except eating and judging. The wing flavors from left to right is : Spicy tossed, Mexican, traditional bbq and Caribbean. Spicy Tossed won the vote!

Project 365 day 4

Went to Yoga for the first time today. 10:30 in the morning at David Barton's gym. It is very fancy, check out the main entrance! Yoga was pretty fun and actually pretty tiring., I am not used to do so much stretching. I rather enjoyed it!

Project 365 Day 3

no no, I haven't forgotten! but it is sooo hard to remember to come post them! -_-!!

A simple one today, my friend Kirason saw this really cute animal in QFC, she is going to buy it for her friend's birthday. :D

project 365 day 2

whew.. this project almost was dead in the water by the second day haha. I remembered to take a picture but totally forgot to post it. So here it is a little late. This is taken at Boiling Pot, a individual hotpot only place here in Bellevue. They just opened and have relatively good business but I do wonder what they would do when summer rolls around? Just sell drinks?

project 365 day1

ok, so Velius has convinced me to do this. I feel like this will be a good way to keep up my blog and really do a project for a whole year. So here it is day one, in keeping with the Sweetness theme this week, this is my dead moogle giving me a rose :) ok. so the rose is free from the downstairs flower shop =P

weapons of small destruction

I went to a shooting range yesterday with some friends because it was ladies night at Wade Shooting Range. This is the first time I have ever been to one and it was a very interesting experience. The paperwork was actually extremely easy, you just fill out a form with your address and what nots and give them a driver license to keep for the gun. There were 2 guys and 4 girls in our group and the guys knew what they were doing. So they picked the guns. The guys, being extremely enthusiastic, picked a Glock 45, a Springfield 1911 and a Beretta 22LR (for us girls ). Then we had to pick out our targets. The guys very sensibly picked some round targets with points on them while we picked Osama Bin Laden because we thought it was hilarious.

After we picked the guns, we put on the earmuffs and safety glasses and went in. NOw I was already warned about how loud it was going to be, but I was still totally surprised at the noise guns generated. For the first 10 minutes, everytime a gun went off, I literally jumped. It was actually really scary. I don't think the earmuffs were very sufficient either cause my ears are still ringing right now. First, I Tried the Beretta 22LR, the guys picked this one because it has the least recoil, it is practically an air gun and it felt like it too. It was very light and I can mostly hit where I want to hit. When you are shooting that gun, it doesnt' quite impress on you the power a handgun possess.

But when I switched to the Glock 45 it was a totally different story. The glock 45 is a much heavier gun. I think it is a popular police weapon. The recoil was soo bad that I can't fire more than 3 shots before my hand start hurting. and I absolutely had no aim because everytime I fire, my hand shoots upwards toward the ceiling and I have no idea where the bullet went lol. FOrtunately I didn't seem to hit anything inappropriate. When I was firing, the bang was so loud that earmuffs was virtually useless. I don't understand how people do it without earmuffs on the outside. There is so much power in this gun that it really really made me feel that this is indeed something that can tear through flesh and kill a person. It was awe inspiring.


I then tried the Springfield 1911, this is a really old gun. It looked like something out of the movies. My friend said that it was old and reliable. It is kind of in between the 22 and the Glock in term of recoil. Actually I think I liked this one the best, it still felt really powerful but not so much that it feels out of control. When I was shooting, I had this urge to just empty the clip really quickly because it felt so good. I refrained tho because I can't quite trust my arm to hold me through all the recoils lol.


All in all, it was quite an experience handling weapons of small destruction. Throughout the entire time I had kind of an unpleasant feeling knowing that any of these guns are build for one purpose and that is to kill another person and to do it so easily, just gently squeeze the trigger and it is done. It kind of makes me want to hide. Not sure I will go back again.