I’m sick again with a cold. 
I left work early on Monday afternoon to work from home.  My head felt as if the Kodo drummers have been pounding on it.  I took
Tuesday off and slept most of the afternoon. 
The much needed rest threw my sleeping pattern off.  Sleep finally came to me around 3 AM.  I went out for a brisk walk  yesterday, had
some herbal tea and contact C.  I felt my body rebounding and warning me to slow down.  I stopped by  Starbucks for a coffee in the afternoon and read a bit. I didn’t feel the least bit guilty even as work piled
up.  The sun was out and I could feel its
rays warming me up.  It felt like a towel
fresh out from the dryer. I shouldn't complain about my workload.  There are others who have it worse than I do.  I complain about the chains from work.  I also know I control my destiny.  I think I'm just literally sick of work.

So I’ve been “working from home” for the past few days.  I play hide and seek with my manager who is
looking for my monthly reports.  I
haven’t shaved since Monday and I look “scruffy”.  I really wish I could grow a beard.  My cousin has a goatee and it looks good on
him.  His fiancée would beg to differ
though.  I mean we have similar genes
right?  But I found out a few years ago
that he has some Japanese blood in him. 
Yes, it must be the hairy Japanese gene. 
     

The advantage to working from home is that I can “quit” work
at a reasonable time and make dinner. 

This is beef and broccoli in oyster sauce.  I added some garlic, ginger, scallion and an
onion.  I had some leftover preserved (salted)
turnip from the previous day so I threw that in too.  The beef had been marinated in soy sauce,
corn starch, sesame seed oil and a bit of pepper. 

I had some Udon noodles in the fridge.  I threw in some pork strips (pre cut from the
supermarket), thinly sliced onions and Napa
cabbage; added some soy sauce and oyster sauce.  I also added some home made hot sauce from my
bf’s mom.  It gave it just a bit of extra
kick.  The only thing I didn’t like about
the pork was the amount of fat.  Most of
it renders out when it's cooked but it’s best to trim it before you cooking.  I also marinated the pork in the
same marinate above.  

My mom used to make this dish during the summer with garden
fresh tomatoes.  In the winter, she would
use tomatoes that she had frozen.  I had
some beef left over from the beef and broccoli dish.  This is actually quite simple.  I fried some onions, added the beef, some
garlic, a can of tomatoes and some frozen peas. 
I couldn’t get a smaller chunk of peas from the bag.  It was a bit watery so I made a slurry of
corn starch to thicken it.  I added some
sugar and Worcester sauce.  It's nothing fancy but it's quick.

Xanga:  Hi Matt, how’s
it going?

Matt:  Hi,  I’m doing fine thanks.

Xanga: I’ve been meaning to check in with you since you’ve
returned.  But I’ve been busy making a
lot of changes on my site.  How do you
like them so far?

Matt:  So far so
good.  I really like the Universal Inbox
and the ability to preview my subscriptions. 
Did that improve your server performance too? 

Xanga:  You’re asking
a technical question?  HAHAHAHA…

Matt:  Grr… I happen
to understand some of these basic concepts.

Xanga:  Of course, I
forgot.  But didn’t you tell me once that
although you work in I.T., the only thing you know about I.T.  is what I.T. stood for?  Ok ok just kidding… I don’t worry about system
performance and stuff like that.  I have
a team of techies that monitor server performance and stuff like that.

Matt:  The only pet
peeve I have with you is the layout of the themes.  I don’t
like how narrow the layout are in most of the themes.  It also makes picture placement a bit tricky
and awkward.

Xanga:  I see… maybe
some of the designers will change them.  So have
you linked back up with all your old subscribers? 

Matt:  Not really, I
think I have reconnected with most of them but not all.  But I’ve also found a lot of new Xangas that I
enjoy reading.   

Xanga:  That’s good.  Who’s your favorite nowadays?   

Matt:  Well, that’s
like asking who your favorite child is.  
Everyone is different and I like the different styles and perspectives.  There are a lot of good writers out
here.  I hope you’ll feature more of them
so that others can find out about them. 
Sometimes it’s more than the number of comments that matter. 

Xanga:  You’re right
(ed. note:  Matt’s always right).  Is it my imagination or are you writing less?

Matt:  I write when I feel
like it and post when it’s ready to post. 
But I must admit that the long hours at work continue to take a
toll. 

Xanga:  tsk tsk…. that’s
no fun.   You really need to focus on
what’s important in life.  You still
enjoy writing?

Matt:  Yes yes… I
know, I should focus on that.  I still
enjoy writing.  I also enjoy the sense of
community here although I know the bonds can be somewhat tenuous.  You know, I’ve always wondered how much you
can find out about someone just by reading their blogs. 

Xanga:  I just provide
a forum for everyone.  I don’t judge them
or vouch for their honesty or their character. 
I leave that to you – that’s part of the fun of reading and writing
blogs I suppose.

Matt:  Yeah I would agree.

Xanga:  So I see your
bf now reads your blog.

Matt:  Yep, it’s a
nice change compared to before.  I feel good about it.

Xanga:  Awww… that’s
good to hear.  Hey, it’s getting late,
you better wash up and get some sleep.

Matt:  Yeah, see you
later.

Xanga:  Bye Mattie

Matt:  The name's Matt. 

Xanga:  tsk tsk... so grumpy.

Food porn:

This is a simple beef stir fry with carrots and broccoli.   I had marinated the beef before.  The veggies were all washed the night before.  So all I had to do when I got home was to simply cut the veggies and fry everything up with a bit of oyster sauce.  It looked better than it tasted though.  I think I should have added an onion to counter the saltiness of the oyster sauce. 

Warning – the following picture may be too graphic for some
of my readers, especially those of you who have impeccable taste in fashion and
common sense. 

Well, I think I may have to replace this pair of pants.  I use it mostly for gym or sleep.  I was about to wear it when I notice this
huge hole in the backside. 

 Now the question that’s probably on your mind is, “How the heck
did that hole get there?”.

 Is the answer:

1.   Matt
   bent over
2.    Matt
   ate a lot of beans and this was the end result
3.    It
   was the tag team duo of washer and dryer
4.    Uhm….
   someone got frisky
5.     It’s
   the same pair of pants I wore during my toilet training days. 

 Moving on...

Sometimes an even scarier sight is this.

It's the dreaded Weblog Entry screen of Xanga.  Sometimes words just roll off my finger tips while on other days, nothing comes out.  What I do now is start all my entries on Word and save them until they are ready.  I think of them as planting seeds.  Each entry germinates at a different rate. 

I tried this mini watermelon the other day.  It's about the size of an average cantaloupe.  It was ok just not sweet enough.

By the way, the answer to the quiz is "3".  I hope none of you got it wrong! 

The snowstorm last
week that had the weather forecasters in a frenzy wasn’t as bad as I
thought.  I worked from home on Friday
and didn't have to worry about driving.  Although I have to admit I wasn’t that productive.  It was a bit tricky walking around though when I went out in the evening.  The sidewalks weren’t cleared yet and it felt
as if I was walking in sand.  It was icy in several spots too.  But thankfully I got through it without
landing on my bottom.  My bf had to
shovel his driveway couple of times.

When
I met up with him on the weekend, his back was still aching so I gave him a massage
to ease the pain.  I finished off by
massaging the scalp and forehead area.  I
think if I ever lose my job, I should get one as a masseuse.  It’s interesting feeling the muscles and
trying to figure out where the aches are and using just enough pressure to ease
the tension w/o making it too uncomfortable or painful. 
Any potential customers out there? 
 

We didn’t
actually do much on the weekend. Both of us had a long week so we just took it
easy.  We had a late lunch at a pho place,
did a bit of groceries and grabbed a late dinner at an all you can eat sushi
place.  It was actually quite good.  All in all, a very relaxing weekend.  

Some pics that
I took on the weekend.  I wanted to take a close up shots of the kids playing but didn't feel comfortable.  The parents kept staring at me when I was taking pictures even from this distance. 

Patterns...                                                                    

Some food shots:
I made some soup for dinner my dad and sis.  The stock is from pork bones, pork shank, some dried scallops, dried mushroom stems (perfect for soups), ginger (not pictured here), some large bean sprouts (I'm actually not sure what they are really called.  But I use it to help "sweeten" the stock a bit.)  and a couple of melons (the ones with the fuzzy skin).  I usually make the soup at my place and reheat it at my dad's place.  I also added some tofu and a bit more ginger at my dad's place.  For dinner, I made some beef chow mein.  (the pic is a bit over exposed). 

One of the things I want to focus on this year is managing
my money a lot better.  By that I mean
paying more attention to my modest little retirement fund, making sure I pay
down my debts as fast as possible and be a bit more conscious of how &
where I spend my money.  I’m not exactly
what triggered this.   Maybe it’s the
recent gyrations in the stock market.  RRSP
(Registered Retirement Savings Plan) season is just around the corner as
well.  The tax filing deadlines is also
not too far away too.  Or maybe I’m
finally listening to my bf who has been reminding me to pay more attention to
these things.  I don’t go crazy and spend
wildly (well, except maybe this Christmas). 
My bf on the other hand is careful on where he spends his hard earned
dollars. 

Here’s an interesting contrast.  When I’m over at his place, I’ll be checking
the Best Buy and Future Shop flyers.  He’ll
be scouring the flyers for all the grocery stores.   He
knows what the average prices are for almost all items and wheter or not it’s a good deal.  On the other hand, I only know
that if bananas are 39 cents a pound, it’s a good deal.   Why do I know that?  Well, when we first went grocery shopping together,  he almost fainted when I started to pile
things into my shopping cart without checking the prices.  So his first shopping tip for me was: bananas
at 39 cents a pound is pretty good price. 
It’s too bad my poor brain can only remember this, nothing else.    

So little by little, I’m slowly getting my financial house
in order.  I don’t want to have a late
payment this year – period.  Those
interest payments add up and kill your credit rating.  All my bills, statements etc… are all over
the place.  One time, I showed up at his
place with all my receipts in shopping bags and shoe boxes.  He didn’t know whether to laugh, cry or slap
me silly.  This may take a bit of time for me to get all my stuff organized properly.He’s actually quite good with
money.  He’s negotiated car deals,
mortgages & has even caught his bank making an error once! 

After my bf took a look at my nest egg, he concluded that I’ve
got too much cash and not enough equities. 
My bf told me what he recently purchase and to take advantage of the
recent drop in stock prices.  I made a
couple of trades now and so far so good.  My bf is actually quite good with money.  He’s negotiated car deals, mortgages &
has even caught his bank making an error once!  

I try to do some simple things too.  I don’t buy tea at work anymore.  It’s $1.35 a cup.  So I buy tea bags and bring in my own thermos
cup.  I try to keep to just one cup of coffee
a day.  But there are days when I’ll need
a coffee in the afternoon so I don’t fall asleep on the keyboard.  I even watch how I drive.  When there’s no traffic say late at night, I
just coast along at the speed limit or just below it.  It’s a lot more economical this way than zipping
along at 110 kph or 120 kph.  And of
course, I only buy bananas at 39 cents a pound. 

If I keep this up, I should be able to sleep better at night
too.       

 And now for more food…

The stock was a combination of chicken and pork bones.  The small meatballs are pork with finely chopped preserved salted
radish (I think that’s what it is) and shrimp. 
The veggies are Napa
cabbage.  It takes a bit of time to make
this but it was very good.  I added some
finely chopped ginger as well.  I have to find a way to make the pork more "smooth" or tender.  Maybe I should mince it by myself instead.   

I made a roast chicken the other night.  Someone had told me about this very simple recipe.  I've tried this several times but have never cooked it.  The skin (yeah - it's unhealthy) was crisp and the meat was tender and juicy.  I had some mashed potatoes as well but since the chicken was taking it's sweet time cooking, I ate the potatoes first.  A confession though, I somehow managed to set off my unit's smoke / heat detector when I opened the oven door to check on the chicken.  I've never had this happened before.  There wasn't any smoke at all.  My stir fries have created even more smoke and the alarm has never gone off.   It wailed about 3 or 4 times.  I had to open all my windows to air out my unit.  The security guard even came up to check it out (I called him).  I took out the chicken about 20 minutes before it was done and had to put it back in the oven at a lower temperature.  I'd give this about 6 / 10 for my first attempt.  I saved the left over meat for soup the next day with some carrots and veggies.  The bones are now in my freezer waiting for the stock pot. 

My orchids are blooming like crazy.  I have about 5 of them and 4 have started to bloom and a couple of have multiple stems of blooms.  I really don't do anything with them.  It's water, the odd fertilizer and light.   I've rescued a couple from my dad's place. 

At lunch today, I heard some Christmas music.  I don't know about you but I'm not ready for Christmas yet. 

My bf and I had dinner the other night at a restaurant near his place.  We've eaten there a couple of times and the food was good for a franchise type restaurant.  We waited for about 15 to 20 minutes for a table.  What I didn't enjoy was several people who came in after us and gotten seats because they seem to know the hostess.  Grr....

My bf ordered soup and an entree while I had a fish with veggies, rice in a lime broth.  I've had it before and enjoyed it.  The waitress brought the soup first.  Within minutes, the entrees came out while my bf was still having the soup.  We chatted briefly and decided to overlook it.  My fish was perfectly cooked.  The rice was undercooked.  I tried a few spoonfuls to see if it was just an isolated grain but it wasn't.  I looked around for our waiter but he was nowhere to be found.  Fortunately the manager was walking by and I explained the situation to him including the fact that my bf's entree was getting cold. 

He apologized profusely and took away my dish.  My bf could see into the open kitchen and told me that the manager was gesturing to someone.  He came out afterwards and explained that the entire rice they had that evening was undercooked and would I like something else instead.  So I ordered another dish.  Every so often, my bf would be saying things like - "I think I see them making your meal, he's peeing into your steak and glaring at us.   No wait, I think he's just picking his nose.  Uhm.. I guess he has an itchy spot."   I didn't dare turn around.
The manager got the food out again, told us my dish would be complimentary & apologized profusely again. 

I don't know, maybe I'm getting cranky in my old age but good service in a restaurant should be a basic skill.  And how could you even serve undercooked rice?  Especially to a Chinese guy. 

Changing the subject....

I've been trying to learn how to cook bitter melon.  I didn't like to eat this when I was a kid and started to eat it a few years ago.  It's loaded with nutrients and it isn't as bitter as you might imagine.  This is bitter melon with pork and black bean sauce.  The pork has been marinated in soy sauce, sesame seed oil, corn starch and a bit of pepper.  The black bean sauce is made from scratch and I added garlic, scallions, ginger, soy sauce and oyster sauce. 

A good chef would wipe the side of his plates.  But a hungry chef who was in a hurry to get the pics doesn't.