.:: Monday, November 26, 2007 ::.

i was reading an article about how real medical shows are on tv, and found the reader comments more interesting than the actual article. it was funny that most medical professions thought that the show "scrubs" was the most realistic! and that "grey's anatomy" is the least realistic which wasn't surprising (ppl arriving at work when the sun is out, doctors having time to take a leisurely lunch, doctors/nurses/residents having way too much sex w/each other, etc). but like most tv shows, these ppl also found some sort of real-world release when watching these shows, because they didn't watch it for the medical technicalities, they watched it for the dramatics. most doctors liked "house" because he says the things they only wish they could, but nurses wondered where the nurses were on the show.

anyway, one poster posted this website which i thought was pretty interesting...medical professionals commenting on medical (among other) shows. haha. there was also mention of 2 doctor-writers, jerome groopman and atul gawande. i was first intrigued by gawande's book, "complications", but decided maybe i don't want to read it, cuz it might just freak me out about hospitals and surgery. eek. i might consider reading "how doctors think" but maybe i don't want to know that either...

:: joyce 5:30 PM [+]::
...

.:: Saturday, November 24, 2007 ::.

hope everyone had a nice thanksgiving! this year, our neighbors nancy and ed invited us to join them for turkey, so we did. i made 2 pies, traditional pumpkin and of course my chocolate pecan, and i also made homemade brandied whipped cream. YUM!! i was a little nervous about the pumpkin, since it was my first time making pumpkin pie, but i had complete faith in cook's illustrated and it turned out wonderful! i didn't have any ceramic pie weights for the crust, so i used some decorative rock. haha...worked great! the whipped cream was the perfect finishing touch for both pies. i thought i would have to make a second chocolate pecan pie just so we could have leftovers, but N let us take the rest of the pies home with us. :D

the dinner conversation was actually quite fun, especially considering we didn't know any of their guests. ed's parents were there from buffalo, NY, as well as N&E's 2 kids (daughter is a very friendly and talkative freshman at CU, university of colorado, and son is a very anti-social freshman in high school). then there was N's friend originally from ireland. she talked a lot about drinking...go figure. hahaha...and she made delicious (but strong, well, for me) irish coffees after dinner. and there was carrie and christ (yes, christ, pronounced with a soft "ih") from akron, OH, friends of N&E's when they lived in tampa. so the 11 of us ate a lot, laughed a lot, and ate a lot. some other neighbors also came by after their dinner, and we ate and laughed some more. all in all, it was a fun time.

the only downside to not cooking your own thanksgiving dinner is having no leftovers! but luckily our friends C&C invited us to leftover turkey and game night last night, and so we got our turkey leftover fix (as well as her mom's green spaghetti! so yummy!), and played sequence and battle of the sexes (those questions are pretty lame).

so now that thanksgiving is done and over, it's time to start decorating for christmas. ugh...not looking forward to it. i don't know what's wrong with me these days...i seem to be in sort of a funk. hopefully i get over it soon, cuz i don't want to be a scrooge!

:: joyce 6:15 PM [+]::
...

.:: Saturday, November 17, 2007 ::.

let's talk food.

i found a recipe for honey walnut shrimp, like the kind you get at a chinese banquet (at least, that's the only time i've ever had it). it got great reviews, so i tried it last night, and it was really good! sometimes the walnut shrimp you get at a chinese restaurant is way overloaded with mayo...gross. but this recipe has hardly any mayo in it, i didn't even use all the sauce. like one of the reviewers, i used cornstarch instead of the mochiko (the box i have is really old, should really throw it out). and instead of deep fryng, i just pan fried, which i think turned out just fine, and far less greasy/fattening. :) yum! but now i've got an almost full can of sweetened condensed milk. i guess i'll go make some fudge.

so here's a question...what exactly is chow mein? in the bay area, when you order chow mein, you get those thick egg noodles pan fried with veggies and meat. so that's what i've always thought of as chow mein. there have been 3 instances in colorado now, where someone has ordered chow mein at a chinese restaurant, and they get something very different than the usual noodles i'm used to. instead, you get a saucy stir-fry of your choice of meat and veggies, on a bed of those little crunchy chun-king style "noodles" in a can. is this a form of chow mein??? so weird.

:: joyce 4:11 PM [+]::
...

.:: Monday, November 12, 2007 ::.

another quick but nice trip to norcal. this time we arrived thursday night. friday W went into the office out there, so my mom and i had much needed quality time together, shopping, eating jia-jiang-myun at my favorite place (where you can hear the cook making the hand-pulled noodles in the back!), walking around the park near their house, just catching up and stuff. it was nice. friday night, we met up with J&G and S for dinner and dessert. it was nice to see them, especially J who is 8 months pregnant!

the main reason for our trip was for R's red egg and ginger party, which was saturday. L&D came over to my parent's house early and we got to play with G, who is getting so big already!! then we headed for the party where we ate a lot and caught up with everyone there. it was nice to see everyone, L&D&G, M&J, and the family of honor, J&B&R. we missed Y&A, but hope we can see them soon too. :)

here's R...he was asleep most of the time, so i didn't get many pics.


and G, one of the few moments he stood still enough for the camera!

:: joyce 9:24 PM [+]::
...

.:: Sunday, November 04, 2007 ::.

i think i've found my next sweater to knit! it's been a while since i've knitted anything (since last winter really) but i've been having a hard time finding any patterns that i liked. i'm finishing up a sweater (for me) now, which is a combination of 2 patterns, taking parts that i liked from the big sac sweater and parts that i liked from the hourglass sweater (both sweaters i've made and posted about in the past). so hopefully all goes well with that.

here's my next sweater! i love it! i plan to skip the stripes, and hopefully can find the horn buttons that i used for another sweater i made. i love it!! and i love having a new knitting project!!

:: joyce 11:52 AM [+]::
...