mom's birthday

God, sometimes I feel I'm the epitome of an Asian-American. A food blog. Fascination with phone charms. Almost a hundred photos of my cat ON MY PHONE.

Fuck it. I like food. I ate at Cafe Sistina for mom's birthday and even though she had a bit of a cry because they ran out of vanilla ice cream it was still a pretty nice night. These photos are awful because I didn't want to use the flash and I didn't really want to spend 99% of dinner photographing it.

We were greeted by a dog. And bizzare menus. Then my brother complained that the cola tasted funny and we traded drinks. He took my iced tea and added five sugars to it. Escargot with polenta, a little too buttery but still tasty. Caprese. Holy crap was this dressing amazing. Perfect olive oil/balsamic vinigarette combo. My mom and some bread. My mom got some kind of spinach fettucini seafood spectacular. I couldn't eat it but it looked and smelled amazing. She said it was slightly spicy, just right. Craig got lasagna. Craig always gets lasagna. And me? Well I got some chicken penne something something in a creamy tomato sauce. It was a little dry and bland. I was pretty disappointed. After her teary-eyed bit, mom said really loudly that she should be able to get some kind of dessert for her birthday. So the waiter brought a slice of cheesecake. She didn't even eat it! Anyway, this is the only decent group photo the waiter could take. He was a really nice guy, but didn't speak English super well and wasn't familiar with cameras.

Anyway, Cafe Sistina is really affordable considering the atmosphere and service and food. While I was a little disappointed with my entree, the appetizers made me more than happy and my mom and brother seemed really satisfied with their food. I'll just be sure to order something without chicken next time.

reminiscing summer

It's the middle of September and I just want to go back to eating shave ice and drinking bubble tea and laying around reading what I want when I want. Bon dances, hiking, passing out on the beach for hours-- I miss everything! Except that this weather is still lingering-- it needs to go. I don't know if I'll be able to survive under this kind of humidity for much longer.

But back to reality. It's week four of the fall semester and I'm overwhelmed with books. We've finished roughly two per class (that's six total) and I'm getting confused with characters and plot lines. Everything is blurring together and I'm having trouble keeping up. So far, Whitman is probably my favorite author I've read this semester. But we're moving on to Jack London and his short stories are great. Glad that it isn't like Spring 2011 where I was stuck reading Medieval lyrical poetry day in and day out.

I went shopping at Revolution Books today to pick up the rest of my reading for the semester. What's-her-face and I watched news clips on Al Jazeera while she told me that Libya and Egypt are in dire need of communism. Which turned into a ploy to invite me to join the communist party. Nonetheless, the books are surprisingly cheap here. I bought roughly 16 books for only $100. You have no idea how happy I am!

I'd post photos of the food I've been eating but... well... they're really embarrassing. 75% of the photos are loco mocos, the other 25% is just poor quality photos anyway.

it's still august!

I've been having a good week! The work load has become intense and I'm constantly doing homework. Between classes, during classes, while eating, while bathing, while riding my bike (only once! regretted it immediately), not to mention work at Starbucks, too. I feel like there isn't enough time in the day and yet I somehow get it all done. The only exception being my laundry; I've been neglecting that completely.



I have trouble studying at home unless I have a ton of background noise. It's pretty much the reason I opted to sign up for Hulu Plus. It's the first month free with a .edu email address, and the selection of films and TV shows are undeniable. It's cheaper than Netflix, too. Finally got around to watching 400 Blows and I really liked it! Never watched a French New Wave film before and kind of excited since Hulu hosts the Criterion collection. I have an assortment of titles to choose from!

Anyway I only wrote this to get away from reading more but I guess I'll get back to it. 157 pages down, 173 more to go.

backlog

Dinner with my dad and step mom. Banana splits to follow!



Dinner with my mom (impromptu) at Cafe Laufer. Salmon + Rye and their Chinese Chicken Salad. Won ton overload. I love that it's such a quaint cafe!

todaaaaay!

Dan and I hiked Diamond Head. He's a hiking newbie so seemed fitting to do the easiest hike on Oahu.





It was pretty hazy but still really nice! Maybe a sunset hike in the near future. Note to self: buy some legit shoes. Keds just don't cut it.

Before that we ate at J&J Bistro which is a pretty awesome French-Laotian place that is relatively reasonable in price. I got the "De Afternoon Tea" set which was about $15. It came with a pot of tea (English Breakfast!) and a entree set that included a mini turkey croissant sandwich, ham and corn quiche, crab ragoon, scone with orange marmalade, and a smoked salmon with avocado spread on a slice of french baguette bread! Oh, and dessert, which was a chocolate coffee mouse cake, red velvet cake, and a small orange tart. Dan got a pizza!! It was super good.






I gotta work on updating with greater frequency. I promise, a backlog of photos will be coming up real quick!