Surprise, Surprise, Surprise

So I got home around 6:15pm after visiting friends and family. I was expecting to find Jen and Chris waiting for me at my place, ready to head out for dinner together. Instead I drove up and noticed my buddy Dallas on the back deck with a deck sander working away. As I pulled up and stopped more friends started walking from around the corner. They all looked tired, disheveled and dirty. Then Chris came from around the corner and said "Surprise".

I knew something was up.. I had this gut feeling that something was going on but I had no idea to what extent. Besides the gut feeling, everyone turned off their "Find Friends" which is an app that allows friends to see where other friends are located. They didn't want me to see that they were all at my place, and that furthered my suspicion that something was up. Come to find out that Dallas with Chris' help created "Operation Shiny". My group of friends have been talking on Facebook for over a week about getting together while I was away and trying to get some of my "house prepping" work done.

If you're a regular reader of my blog you know that I'm getting ready to sell my house... well I've been getting ready the past year. But before I can put it up I wanted to paint the entire outside of the house, re-do the decks, pull all the weeds and various other things to make it look it's best. They all helped with some of those... they worked from Noon to 7pm. They pulled weeds, moved around gravel and filled in spots where the gravel was gone in my driveway and sanded my back and front decks (unfortunately the big sander wasn't able to get everything so it's going to require more hand sanding to get everything). They also replaced one of my damaged screen doors.

The amount of work they all got done was very impressive. I mean the weeding alone was HUGE, but filling in the gravel in my driveway was great and getting 2/3's of my deck sanding done was a huge help.

I couldn't believe that my friends did this for me in the middle of their labor day weekend... how awesome are they. Still got a bit more to go before it's ready to be put up on the market but this definitely helped me in a big way and I will always be very grateful.

So thanks to Dallas and Chris for organizing this event and to Jes, Jen, Aaron, Rupert, Brett and Elie for working so hard today and getting me one step closer to selling my house.

Afterwards we all went out to Chili's for a much needed and deserved dinner.

Meeting Online Friends & Family Picnic

Today Chris and I only visited a few hours in the morning as I had to meet up with an out of town friend and then go to my family labor day picnic. Chris was going to have some one on one time with Jen until I got back home around 5pm.

I left the house around 10am and headed to Disneyland where I was meeting up with an online/forum friend Rick Peete who is from the Chicago area. We meet on the Treks in Sci Fi Podcast forum many years ago. He was at Disneyland running a 5 and 10k marathon this weekend. Being this close to me we had to meet even if it was only for a moment. So I got to Disneyland and Downtown Disney and texted that I was here. After going back and forth for a bit and an half hour of walking around the Disneyland Hotel area I finally found him and it was as if we were long lost friends seeing each other after many years. He was as friendly and nice as I expected him to be. He introduced me to his wife and son. While he was dealing the marathon stuff I chatted with them and talked gaming with his son. I spent about an hour hanging out with them. He's coming back in March for the LA Marathon so we are going to try and hang out for a bit more then.

I said my goodbye to his awesome family and made my way about 30 minutes west to where my Dad's side of the family was having their annual Labor Day Picnic. I got there around 1:30pm and planned to stay until 3ish as I wanted to get home around 5pm. Well I haven't seen some of these family members for a while and we talked and had an awesome time visiting. I pushed back my time to leave to 4pm but then my cousin Renee came over to our table and we caught up with each other. I finally left this event around 4:30pm and headed home. Chris and Jen were waiting for me to go to dinner so I tried to get home as quickly as I could without killing myself. I manage to pull into my driveway around 6:15pm and was not expecting what I saw!!!!

... to be continued (next blog)

Korean Cheese Ramen?! Are you serious?!

Curiosity strikes! I found these Korean Cheese Ramen in one of my local Asian stores (I think it was in Ming Sing 明星) , and I actually wanted to try it out!

Korean Cheese Ramen

You cook the noodles in a pot or microwave with the soup base and dried vegetables and ham pieces. 

Red packet is the dried veg and ham; Silver packet is the soup base; Yellow packet is the cheese powder

Then you add the dried cheese powder in afterwards. 

Add the cheese powder in

Mix and voila!

Cheese Ramen ^_^

I was a bit hesitant at first before eating these because I haven't tasted these before, but I had a go and ate the whole thing! The noodles tasted a bit bland. But the soup... the soup... it's cheesy and spicy at the same time, creamy and absolutely addictive. (^_^)b It's like having overcooked spaghetti and cheese sauce with a bit of pepper added in... 

I'm amazed the Koreans invented this!! Heheh.

I think I'm going to buy a few more of these... I can't remember the price, but I'm sure it was under £1. I don't all Asian stores have them, but have a look and find them!! ^_^

Girls Weekend

So the hubs is away and it's just us gurls. The three of us. As I write this the youngest is snuggled behind me in my chair, oldest is vegged out on the bed to my right. I love these girls, they make me smile and feel so loved. Other moments I want to pull my hair out, but what ya gunna do? They're kids. I couldn't be prouder of the lil geeks I'm raising. My girls recognize the music of WoW, Doctor Who, Lord of the Rings, and many other things. They love the Avengers (I think we will need to make our first trip to a comic bookstore soon). The other morning when driving oldest to school they were having some imaginary play in the backseat involving Repunzel, within the 20 minute drive there were witches, The Doctor, Spider-man, and an evil step-mother. All I could do is smile and be proud that they are becoming well rounded. There is still a bit too much princess in their life I think, I would rather it be rough and tumble independent women play. The princess stuff doesn't teach them that, it teaches them to wait for a man to rescue them. Having girls it is a bit unavoidable unless you want to offend every person in your life that things every girl needs a princess book that talks about their wedding plans... So I hide those books, and let them turn their princess dolls into Daleks. As much as I have struggled to find myself and my geekiness, and to accept it, I never want to do that to my kids. My kids are quirky and imaginative. I LOVE it!! Can't wait to introduce them to more stuff and to learn about that stuff myself with them. After all I am walking into the world I denied myself for far too long. We will do it together. Happy Saturday!!

Peace and Love,
Jay

Picnic in the Park

For today's activities, Chris and I got up early and had breakfast. We hung out talked the majority of the day. This was my only Kenny and Chris one on one time I was going to get for this trip. We just enjoyed each other's company. We tried to get my router to work with a Minecraft server so we could play together but something happened and we broke it and now it's not even doing my wireless. Chris tried and tired to fix it but alas it was unfixable.

Later in the day Chris planned a "Hang with Chris One Last Time Picnic" at Griffith park. We headed out around 2pm and went to the store to get some items needed for the picnic. We got to Griffith around 4pm and the spot we wanted to use (the old Zoo) was being used by the Shakespeare in the park company so we opted for a spot at the lower level. Chris and I were there for an hour before more people started to show up. He and I played some extreme bocce ball. When Elie and Brett showed up we through around a frisbee for a bit. We got the BBQ going had some hot dogs.

Little by little more people arrived, we soon had around 15 people and it was getting dark fast. We could no longer play any games so we sat around talking and eating. Luckily for us the Shakespeare people put up some light in the walkway as the play was ending soon so that gave us some light.  The only light we had before were four little candle lights that Kim had (thankfully). The picnic/party came to an end around 10pm as the park closed at 10:30.

Chris was very happy with the turn out. He got to see a bunch of Guildies and friends and that's exactly the reason we put on this picnic... one final hurrah before deployment.

Random Geek Question: Cosplay

Another Random Geek Question that I asked on Twitter and Facebook. This question spawned from a recent episode of Heroes of Cosplay on Syfy. On the show these hard core cosplayers were saying that people shouldn't cosplay whoever they like, that they should take into account their body type as those that don't give cosplayers a bad name or bad image. One of the newer cosplayers objected to this and said she felt anyone should be able to cosplay anything they want as long as they are having fun and the seasoned cosplayers looked appalled by this statement.

So I put this question out there "Should people be able to Cosplay anyone/thing they want? Or should they take into account their body type & gender?"

I got about fifteen or so responses and everyone one of them said that people have the right to cosplay whoever and whatever they wanted to and it didn't matter what there body type was or gender. A few did mentioned that "larger" cosplayers should consider what kind of characters they can play. But the majority said good for those who don't fit the typical body for a certain character and are brave enough to show it off.

For me I think anyone should be able to cosplay/dress up as anyone/thing they feel like. I for one know my body and I'm not comfortable playing tall skinny characters when I'm short and fat. Instead I find characters that I love and feel I can pull off with my body type. That doesn't mean that I agree that someone who is short and fat can't play a tall, slender character, I'm just saying that I can't.

If you're a regular reader of my blog you know I cosplay as a Hobbit. I love Hobbit culture and their values and could see myself happily living a Hobbit life. When I opted for which Hobbit to play I went with a brown wig and had "the ring" so of course folks thought I was Frodo, when the new Hobbit movie came out I was called Bilbo alot and of course you get the rude/very honest people who said I was too fat to be Bilbo or Frodo so I must be Sam even thought Sam is blonde and doesn't care the ring or sting for that long in the adventure. I realize that I am heavier then how Frodo or Bilbo were protraied in the films, but not the books. I have considered finding a blonde wig so I can portray Sam as he is my favorite Hobbit/Hero of the story so next time someone says I am Sam.. I can proudly say you are correct. Let me know what your thoughts are on my recent Geek Question about Cosplaying.

Bank Holiday Yumcha at Dragon Castle 金龍堡 - London Elephant and Castle

Has it been a while since I went out to yumcha? Yep it has been a while. 

This time I went out with my mum again. And this time we dined locally at Dragon Castle which is by Elephant and Castle... Chinese name is 金龍堡 (canto: gam lung bou; mando: jin long bao) literally meaning "Golden-Dragon-Castle/Fort". You can see in the picture below that you have to read it from right to left, as it is in traditional Chinese script writing for door signs. Don't worry I get confused too sometimes... When it first opened I only went there once and bought a crispy noodle dish as a take away. It was good, but very expensive, and I never went back since then! But this time I went there to yumcha, eat dim sum and enjoy my Bank Holiday Monday! 

I can't believe I haven't dined here before! I have been telling myself to go to this place for years, and on Bank Holiday Monday I finally went!! Yipee!! I think I would have dined by myself if no one came with me...

The entrances are on either side of this red door and the two stone lions

A stone lion

The dimsum menu outside the restaurant

It is a very grand place, and it hasn't changed much in appearance since it has opened - both the interior and exterior... although a paint job of a different colour that wouldn't match the rest of the building would be preferable... A light blue building looks dull for a Chinese restaurant that serves good food (already praising the food! Dear Me!!). 

Don't like the blue exterior - needs a paint job for the restaurant section

They have a small indoor fountain / pond

So many goldfish!

Apart from the ugly paint work outside, its interior is extremely beautiful! There is a tall ceiling and there are large chandeliers hanging. There's a large bar area, I bet the owner wanted a big bar to serve many different drinks! I didn't get to see the large tables at the back as there are dividers blocking that area, but you can see them when you're on the bus. The dining tables are equally spread out but you can still see what other people are eating... We had a couple of women sitting next to us, and one of them was quite irritating and a bit rude. Not sure why. I think they enjoyed the food but didn't like the service.

Inside the dining area

Don't ask me why I always take pictures of the lights! They are so grand!

The windows are so big... cleaning must take forever!!

Ordering dimsum is quite easy, it's a bit like Ping Pong, but there are no set menus and the food is traditional stuff! Just write down the number inside the brackets of how many of the dish / basket you want. Unfortunately the menu is in Simplified Chinese, no Traditional Chinese and there's no English on the ordering paper, but there is a menu book with the pictures and English inside, which also includes the main menu (rice, noodles and other dishes)... So if you get stuck refer to the pictures or otherwise learn Chinese or dine with someone who's Chinese (like me! Invite me!! ¬,¬) or ask the staff... The manager speaks Cantonese, and the waiters / waitresses speak Cantonese and / or Mandarin. I spoke mainly Cantonese and English, and said thank you in Mandarin quite a few times...

The dimsum menu in Simplified Chinese

The dimsum menu in pictures

The dimsum menu in pictures continued

The dimsum menu in pictures... final page!

Our food came! My mother didn't want to each much, but I ate quite a bit. Heheh... I did all the food ticking (ordering) by the way, I never usually do... 

This picture doesn't feature the taro croquettes... ate those before the other dishes came...

Ate the taro croquettes first. These are very good. I felt like I've never tasted these before! They were smallish, but it felt like it melted in your mouth...

蜂巢荔芋角 (Mando: feng chao li yu jiao; Canto: fung caau lai wu gok) "Honeycomb/Beehive Nest" Taro Croquette - £2.90

This, as usual, is the shrimp rice roll. I love this stuff. I wish they sold the frozen version in China Town and other Asian stores so I can steam these at home. I know they sell them frozen worldwide, but not in the UK... :(

Simp: 鲜虾肠粉 (Mando: xian xia chang fen); Trad: 鮮蝦腸粉 (Canto: sin haa cheung fan) Fresh Shrimp (or Prawn) Rice Roll (cheung fan) - £4.00

If you don't mind eating the insides an animal, then you might like this. This is black pepper tripe. Tripe is part of an animal's stomach. And this is seasoned very well and it's a little spicy... Not sure which animal it's from though...

Simp: 黑椒金钱肚 (Mando: hei jiao jin qian du); Trad: 黑椒金錢肚 (Canto: haak jiu gam cin tou) Black Pepper Tripe - I love this!! - £2.90

This is one of my favourite dimsum's of all time! Shrimp dumplings. This has a thick, translucent wrap. The dumpling is a bit big. And I could eat these everyday if I could or whenever I can. My mum said not to order these, BUT I LOVE THESE!! You can buy these frozen in Asian supermarkets.

Simp: 笋尖鲜虾饺 (Mando: sun jian xian xia jiao); Trad: 筍尖鮮蝦餃 (Canto: seon jim sin haa gaau) Haa Gaau - Shrimp Dumplings - £3.00

Everyone likes Char Siu Bao (BBQ Pork buns), but I eat it all the time! So I went for these chicken buns, chicken and mushroom buns to be exact! It's not sweet and tastes very good. Different to the ones you buy in Asian supermarkets. There are big pieces of fresh chicken inside.

Simp: 香菇鸡包子 (Mando: xiang gu ji bao zi); Trad: 香菇雞包子 (Canto: heung gu gai baau jai) Chicken and Mushroom Buns - £2.90

Inside the bun, very fresh ingredients!

My mum wanted these mini glutinous rice parcels, well she wanted the bigger version, but they don't sell those. These look in-house made. Definitely not frozen bought. There was a big fresh prawn in there, and usually the frozen ones have a dried shrimp in them.

Simp: 迷你珍珠鸡 (Mando: mi ni zhen zhu zi); Trad: 迷你珍珠雞 (Canto: mai nei zan zyu gai) Mini Glutinous Rice Parcels - £3.90

Inside the parcels

I think all the dimsum is made in the restaurant. All of it tasted very fresh and very different to the ones in China Town. The most expensive item on the menu is a fish congee (rice porridge) costing at £5.50.

The waiters / waitresses are always there looking at you, and they will fill your tea cup even if you didn't ask for it! A very different dining experience for me. I'm sure in China Town they don't help you fill your tea cup for you! One was a little impatient with my mum but was quite nice when he got our bill... And, woah. I think they were all eyeing me taking pictures... I can't help it, I take food pictures all the time!

Total bill came to £24.90 which includes the drinks and a 10% compulsory service charge. Without the drinks and service charge, it would have been £19.60, and that averages out to £3.27 per dish / basket!! Mega cheap!! ^_^ I like this place!! I would definitely come back again!!

Our receipt

So South Londoners, if you don't think China Town is for you, or you can't be bothered to travel out to a restaurant that serves dim sum, I would definitely recommend you go to Dragon Castle.

My geeky rating: 4.9 (loses a 0.1 mark for service charge)

Good points:
- Nice, spacious restaurant
- Good service (they try their best)
- Food is nice and cheap, I like it

Bad points:
- Waiters / Waitresses are constantly eyeing you, I feel like I don't know where to look...
- There's a 10% service charge!! :( No point giving tips if there's a service charge!! (I hate service charge with a passion... see all my other reviews with service charges!)

Address: 100 Walworth Rd London SE17 1JL
Telephone: 020 7277 3388

Dimsum serving times: Mon-Sat 12pm - 4.45pm; Sun 11.30am - 4.45pm

Website: http://www.dragon-castle.com/

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"Get Fit" Week 4

So it's been a month since I got the news from my doctor about being on the verge of diabetes and having to change my diet. I have manage to get as low as 201 but the past few weeks I haven't been as diligent with my workouts since I lost my elliptical machine. Also my eating hasn't been that great and I have gained a few pounds back and was up to 203 on week three. Now at the end of week 4 I haven't gained any weight.. which is great.. but I also haven't lost any weight which isn't so great. I weighted in at 203 again.

My buddy Chris is staying with me from Thursday to Monday for the Labor day weekend and I have several picnics and dinners planned, so week five is not looking so good on the losing weight end. Chris is going to take a look at my elliptical and see if he can fix it, if he can't I really need to come up with a really good short 30 minute cardio workout that I can do and not get bored with.

One month in and I have lost a total of seven pounds which is great so I'm happy about that but I'm still struggling with my eating habits. The reason I'm losing weight is because I'm not eating and that's never a good way to lose weight. I need to find that balance with the way I'm eating and find a new workout regime soon.

Random Geek Question & Picking Up My BFF

Posted another Random Geek Question on Facebook and Twitter. I asked if you are a Trekkie when which is your favorite Star Trek Series. TOS (The Original Series), TNG (The Next Generation), DS9 (Deep Space Nine), VOY (Voyager) or ENT (Enterprise).

I got about thirty responses and the majority of the people said (as expected) TNG was their favorite. Now I'd say about a third (the older fans) said TOS had a special place in their heart as it's the series that introduced them to Trek. I had several say DS9 was their favorite as it was the best written and another few say Voyager as it's the Trek that they grew up with.

For me it's tough as I watched TOS as a kid but it didn't grab me like Star Wars. I didn't really become a Trekkie until TNG and I was in love. So TNG is my favorite but DS9 was amazing and I agree it was the best written Trek but I have a soft spot for Voyager as I loved Captain Janeway. Enterprise was good the first time I watched it. I enjoyed it but didn't think it was anything special but rewatching the series I have really grown to love it. As for the original series, I haven't seen every episode or if I have I can't recall them all like I can with the newer ones. I do plan to one day go back and watch from the beginning all of TOS. That's going to be a blast!!! Tell me your favorite in the comments below.

In the evening I headed out to the Ontario Airport to pick up my best bud Chris. He was visiting for the labor day weekend. This was going to be the last time I would get to see him until sometime in mid 2014 as he's being deployed to Kuwait. He flew in around 11:30pm. As always it was awesome seeing his smiling face as he came down the escalator. Not a lot of chatting was happening in the car, we were both very tired, but there was this feeling of comfort of being in the same space together and that was pretty amazing. Can't wait to spend the next four days hanging out.

M&M's Bitesize Cookies and More EXTRA Chewing Gum!

There's an old Victorian style sweet shop in Ramsgate! It's called Mr Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe and I've never been in an old looking sweet shop before. It felt like being in a Harry Potter scene... ^_^ (Check out my pictures in this post)... So what did I buy? I bought three items...

EXTRA chewing gum and M&M's Bite Size Cookies

First thing that caught my eye were these M&M Bitesize Cookies. These are definitely mini cookies which taste like normal chocolate chip cookies, but there's a candy shell sweet taste to it - as you would expect with M&M's being in a cookie. There were only 8 pieces of mini cookies in the packet, and cost 99p. There's nothing too special about them, and I'm sure a lot of people can bake these... Wished I had a bigger version of it! Was a bit disappointed with these really... :(

Only 8 pieces in the packet!

The second item is the Apple Pie EXTRA Dessert Delights chewing gum costing £1.49. Expensive! I liked the other flavours that I bought from Dallas, and so I wanted to try out a couple more... This one tastes a bit like apple pie. It has a very sweet taste to it and you can taste the "crust" flavouring. There's a bit of an apple sour taste. It's probably not my type of flavour, but it tastes ok if you like Apple Pie!!

Extra Dessert Delights - Apple Pie Flavour

The packaging

The chewing gum

The third item I bought was the Sweet Tropical EXTRA Fruit Sensations chewing gum also costing £1.49. This one is right up my alley! Once you open the plastic wrapper there's an instant tropical fruit smell. It tastes a bit sour but I don't mind! I do like sour things to be honest, just not sour apples. :) It has a long-lasting taste to it too!

EXTRA Fruit Sensations - Sweet Tropical Flavour

Funny packaging

The chewing gum

There's over 90 Mr Simms Old Sweet Shoppe stores in the UK! And there's one in Finchley, London too! I think I need to pop up to North London some time soon!! XD

Website: http://www.mrsimmsoldesweetshoppe.co.uk/ (I don't think they sell these products on their Internet site :( too bad!)....