Tasty Asian Culture

I don't know if you realized, but this week has quite a few holidays! Mardi Gras does always proceed Ash Wednesday (or the first day of Lent), but they don't usually land on the same week as the Lunar New Year and Valentine's Day!

Today I got the opportunity to make some Thai Tea with Boba!! Following a recommendation from a friend's blog, I promptly ordered some Tapioca Pearls and large straws from Amazon! They didn't arrive in time for our Chinese New Year Feast, but close enough!

Mail Order!

Delicious Thai Tea with Bubbles!

This year, in honor of Year of the Snake, my family decided to start some new traditions. We made some tasty Asian foods, including: Mango Chicken Curry, Chicken Lo Mein, and Chicken Tempura. We adorned our table with a stone snake (the new year) and a dragon (last year) and our plateware from Japan. I put on a cd with traditional Chinese music that I purchased when I was in Hong Kong. We also decorated our cake in honor of Year of the Snake! It's fun to be festive!

Tasty Food for the New Year!

It kind of looks like a snake....

Another tradition we started this year was writing out some goals for the year to put away until next year. I have this large glass owl jar that we plan to fill with pieces of paper with great moments of the year written on it, to read at the next New Year's event. We put our yellow pieces of paper with our goals in this jar too. I think by next year I might need to learn some new Origami! (Mine is the frog.)

Decorated Goal sheets

I hope that you all enjoy the holidays of this week, and try something new this year! Start a tradition!

I have decided!

Hello!

So my writing everyday of break didn't go as plan, but I'm sure you readers of mine don't mind, right? I just wanted to let everyone know that I decided to add a blog about my bartending experiences:) It will include drink recipes, alcohol research, and probably many other things. Don't worry though, I still plan on keeping this blog going too!

Check it out:

Karaoke and the Emergency Room

Man, too many things happening recently and a lack of internet connection. Doesn't make for consistent blog postings.

This story dates way back to finals week, first week of December. One of my friends from karate, Brad, went to his last karate class and was going out to celebrate moving back to Washington. I got the pleasure of joining him and his friend Bobby at Suds here in Corvallis. I had never been to Suds before, it's a pretty sweet little place, in the building of Woodstock's pizza.

Brad and Bobby started drinking some beer and got me some hard cider, catching up and talking about what lies in store ahead. After two ciders for me, (and I don't know how many each of beers they had!) we decided to head over to the Peacock. Now this was odd for me, I have never gone out on a Wednesday night, and never putting no thought into what I was dressed like.

I discovered that the Peacock is great for some karaoke on weeknights. There were some impressive folks singing too! After I had another beer, the boys convinced me to sing a song with them. (It ended up being the last song of the night, I guess it took me a while!) We sang "What's My Age Again?" by Blink 182. It was a lot of fun, and I definitely messed up the song with the lyrics right in front of me.

The Peacock closed and none of us were in any shape to drive, so we started walking towards Brad's place. Bobby thinking ahead, had some chex mix to eat on the way. By the time we got to Brad's house, we discovered that there were nuts in the mix and Brad happens to be allergic to all nuts except for peanuts.

Bobby and I were going to try to head over to my house, where I have a car and could drive somewhere to get Benadryl, but instead we called an ambulance. Brad and Bobby spent the night in the ER, one of Brad's roommates dropped me off at my house where I slept until about 6am and went and picked them up. It was an eventful night to say the least. Things I learned: Benadryl is an anti-histamine, so that means good for people having an allergic reaction, and Good Samaritan Hospital is in a weird place at the end of 9th Street. Good things to know.

Blog Ideas

I decided to give myself a day to think of the possibilities I could write about in a blog. If I do go with one of these, it will probably become it's own blog....here are some ideas:

1. Going right along with the movie Julie & Julia I could go through The Complete Home Bartender's Guide. The only problem is setting a time frame, there is no way I'm making drinks every night! Not to mention how expensive that could get.... but it would go along with me wanting to be a bartender.

2. I could write music reviews. This is probably coming mostly from my need to write a review on the new Lady Gaga cd, which will come soon. I have a huge variety of music I listen to, and I wouldn't mind an excuse to keep expanding my collection...

3. Being a fashion design major, I could write about fashion. I would probably use this blog as a tool, so I could better understand what designers are out there and what the fashion world is doing or has done. There'd probably be some room for some fashion tips too, not to mention any projects I happen to be working on.


And there you have it, my top 3 ideas for a blog project. I'm still unsure I want to tackle one of these, because I could use that time for a lot of other valuable things that I want to do. Like learning french, drawing, practicing karate for my next belt test, and the list goes on. For now, I am going to commit to write more often, everyday during break, and at least once a week after the term starts. Still, these ideas intrigue me. What do you think?