Emmy Picture Post

Because my parents are on a vacation and haven't seen their grand dog-ter since they left, I decided to do another picture post so that my Mom can logon and see.

How is this comfortable?!

Sunday morning cuddling with Daddy.

She got a new raccoon toy from our neighbor who moved
out.  I left the toy on the table to show Nick, but when I
got home from work it was off the table.  She had taken it
off and started playing with it, cardboard and all!

Rain boot, fox, frisbee, squirrel, raccoon, and pink Ugg
battle field...and she looks so innocent.

After I did my half marathon over the weekend I went back
to sleep for three hours in the middle of the day.  Emmy
probably thought that I was sick.  Little did she know that
when I woke up I was planning on giving her a bath.  She
was ambushed.  This is her rolling around post bath.

I can imagine her saying, "ughhh I have water in my ears."

Clean and brushed out.

Nick made her a little nest of pillows.

Tonight's Dinner: May 17, 2013

For dinner tonight Nick and I decided to do Chinese takeout.  We were planning on going to a friend of Christopher's house to celebrate his 21st birthday at midnight.  Most of the time on Friday's I don't cook anyway and today wasn't any different.  We definitely enjoy having a Chinese place in walking distance.  We walked Emmy down the street to pick up our food and comforted ourselves that at least we were burning some calories.

Salt and Pepper Pork

Shrimp Chow Mein

Combination Hong Kong Style noodles

Jojoba Oil

As many of you know, and are probably utterly disgusted, I get awful flaky scalp during allergy season.   My lips also suffer in that they peel, itch, and crack.  This is why we are getting married in October and not having many flowers at the ceremony.  Less chance of getting the sneezies, itchies, or hacking coughs.  I'll have enough to worry about.  Allergies shouldn't be one of them.  Hey, I think I just came up with a new storyboard for Claratin.  I want proceeds!  Taking Claratin actually does help the scalp and lip itch.

Anyway, since chemical shampoos, all natural shampoos, expensive scalp dandruff treatments, and conditioners haven't helped me, I decided to try the oil route.  One of the makeup gals that I watch is very into using oils for her skin and hair.  I've somewhat subscribed to this way of thinking.  I've been using raw coconut oil on my face at night.  It seems to absorb into my skin much better than normal night creams.  Though it doesn't seem to have any wrinkle reducing properties, my skin has been feeling really good.

So I've been trying hot oil treatments on my hair with coconut oil.  My hair has been super healthy and growing much, much faster than in the past.  I actually think that the growth is from all of the green juice I've been drinking, but the oil does keep it hydrated.  Pink So Foxy also recommended Jojoba oil for the scalp if you have dandruff, mild psoriasis, or eczema.  I have been using the Jojoba oil on a Q-Tip after I wash my hair so it doesn't get my hair oily.  It actually works pretty well.  I way fewer flakes, but my scalp does still itch quite a bit.  One step in the right direction.  I've been doing hot oil treatments with Jojoba rubbed into my scalp and coconut on my hair.  So far it's been going fairly well. I have noticed that after a while treatments start to not work as well after my scalp gets used to it.  It is an on going battle for sure.

Tonight's Dinner: May 15, 2013

After a very, very long day, Nick and I still had to go out to Ikea to look for center pieces.  By this time, I was extremely beat from having a four hour marketing meeting and having people over two nights in a row.  We still needed to get our stuff done.  We were able to get almost all of our center piece parts.  They didn't have as many candle stick holders as we need so we will have to go back.  At least we have somewhere good to eat.  Our basket looked ridiculous with hundreds of candles, candle sticks, and votives.  By the time we were done, we were both starving and even more tired.  Good thing Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe is right around the corner!

We don't often get out to Rudy's as it's a little bit of a drive for us, but since we were in the neighborhood it was a no brainer.  With the way that we eat, you wouldn't think that we are getting ready for a wedding.  Most people are dieting around this time.  I guess Nick and I stress eat.  

Buffalo tofu

Nick's Cajun fish burger.

I got a pulled pork burrito.  I just love my burritos!

Nick indulged and got a chocolate cake with ice cream. 

My cousin has a cool little tray like this for her hand pump
soaps.  I think she said that she got hers from Pottery Barn.
This is actually a candle tray, but for $2, I'll take it.  Not as
sleek as my cousin's, but it catches the water and does the
trick.

Today's Lunch: May 15, 2013

I very much appreciate the fact that Webfortis gives us Admin lunches monthly.  Usually, we go out to eat, but we were all bogged with a ton of work so we did takeout instead.  We decided to try Boudin's lunches.  I got an individual pizza.  While delicious, it wasn't very filling.  I probably should have gotten a sandwich.

Tonight's Dinner: May 14, 2013

Game of Trones night!  We had a couple of my coworkers over for dinner and to watch Game of Thrones.  I'm not that into the show, but I enjoy having their company and talking with their significant others.  We always try to make it somewhat GOT themed, so we made a couple of roasted chickens.  I wanted to grill giant turkey legs, but Sprouts didn't have six in stock.  Roasted chicken it was.  It was quite delicious, but because they were quite large, we had to sear off the dark meat to fully cook it. It was a weeknight after all, so we couldn't push back dinner until 10pm. Yikes!  We started it early too!

Sauteed spinach

Tonight's Dinner: May 13, 2013

Mrs. Fong bought steaks on her trip home from Las Vegas.  They had ordered a grill, but it hadn't come in yet so we had them over from steaks and corn.  I'm always up for a good steak!  Mrs. Fong got us ribeyes and Mr. Fong a tri-tip.  I think it was a tri-tip.  Maybe it was a New York strip.  Whatever the case, they were all really good.  Recently Sprouts was out of quinoa so I wanted to try millet in it's place.  Not a good replacement.  Mr. Fong really liked it, but I didn't like the mealy texture.  I don't know if I cooked it incorrectly, but I didn't enjoy it.

We made blended orange juice in the Vitamix.  It was really
good!

I actually pranked one of my workers and said that this was
cheese sauce. One of my other coworkers drank it (knowing
that it is orange juice) and said that it was really good.  The
victim coworker almost gagged.  It made my morning. 

Tonight's Dinner: Mother's Day

Since we knew that we were having a large lunch we didn't think that we would be very hungry for dinner.  Christopher and I wanted to take my Mom out anyway.  We also did some last minute shopping and got her a new gardening hat and walking shoes for their up coming National Parks tour.

My Mom has always enjoyed Fenton's Creamery.  We decided to try a similar ice cream shop, The San Francisco Creamery.  It was really good!  Plus, there was parking.  That's pretty much what sold my Mom.  Once she heard that there was parking next door, she was fine with try out the SF Creamery.

Today's Lunch: May 12, 2013

Today we headed out to the City to have Mother's Day lunch with my Grandma and extended Chin family.  Normally, we get the same things over and over, which is great because we know that we like it, but today we did try some different items.  I really enjoyed them.  That's not saying much since I always enjoy our family gatherings.

I've had something similar to this at Legendary in Oakland, but it was slightly
different.  This fried tofu had a little patty of pork on top, rather than scallop
like at Legendary. 

A type of Fukien Fried rice, but with shrimp.  It was delicious and I think my
Uncle Daniel ate about three bowls. 

Fried fish. We've had this before, but I still think it looks cool. 

Run For Your Lives

This was making out to be my worst nightmare, but I love my brother and he wanted to do it.  "Zombies" chasing us for three miles isn't exactly my cup of tea.  We started out bright and early at 4:45am on a Saturday morning to get to run in a po-dunk town that we didn't know existed near Sacramento.  The race was held at an ATV park, which meant that it was hilly and dusty.  It wasn't nearly as scary as I thought it would be.  The zombies were instructed to not chase the runners too much.  There were a couple of chasers, but they never really went after me.  Too slow I guess.  Christopher on the other hand, was chased a couple of times because he's quick and a challenge to get.  I was just concentrating on getting away.  Thankfully I wasn't that girl who screamed the whole time.  Believe me, there were quite a few of those.  In retrospect, I would definitely do it again, but would gather a bunch of friends.  It is actually quite a bit of fun.

Bright and early; we are still clean. 

This is one of those pictures that just won't rotate. We were
"infected" because all of our football flags were pulled.

I wore compression shorts.  This is the line of dirt and mud
that I had after I changed. 

Since the run was so far away, we decided to sit on the hill in the shade and
watch all the waves of people after us run.  This was the main field area where
we were both "infected".   Notes to future runners: do your run in the morning.
It got really hot. 

I was quite proud of myself for going through this mud
pit.  Christopher and I cringed and waded through it, but as
the day went on, people were hippo-ing and purposely
dunking themselves to stay cool. 

Dirt and tan line from the over 21 wristband they gave me.

Tonight's Dinner: May 10, 2013

My cousin who lived in Hong Kong and now Singapore for the last 12 or so years came home for a visit.  He wanted to get the Chew side of the family together for dinner.  This was fine by me.  After work, we all headed out to San Francisco Chinatown for some good Chinese food.  There was way too much food for the amount of people that we had, but I wasn't complaining.  It was so delicious, but we just couldn't eat it all!

Classic Chinese charcuterie.   From left: Jellyfish, beef tongue, pork belly, and
bbq pork.

Shark fin soup in a giant bowl.  I don't eat the stuff anymore because of ethical
reasons, but it sure did look good. 

Snap peas with beef and sliced day boat scallops.  I think this was my favorite
dish.  I ate so many scallops. 

Crab claw shrimp balls

Mustard greens and abalone.  I also had quite a bit of this
dish. 

A couple of lobsters.

Giant fish.  I'm pretty sure that Nick at most of the fish himself since everyone
else was really full by the time this came out.