Up the rocky mountain they will go

i'd better post this as an intro before we go take a long (time wise and distance wise) trip to Colorado. an 8 day trip from july 1st to the 8th. here's how the plan is laid out.

our outdoors man, woman and child friend... a.k.a jept, anis and baby adam will drive from Peoria to our place friday june 30th. the 3 of them plus the 2 of us will leave for Colorado (a 12 hour trip) saturday evening after all world cup matches have been viewed. Brazil lawan France tuuuu, tak boleh miss... bila la ronaldinho nie nak score gol.

upon reaching destination, we'll go around doing tourist stuff. then a 3.8 mile hike up the rocky mountain to the campsite. 3 nights and 2 days roughin' it in the american wilderness. more walking from campsite to interesting spots. nature uuuhhh and aaahhh, snap-snap pics of every critter, rock and plant. cooking and sleeping under the moonlight... that kind of thing.

this kind of trip is the first for chot and i. we've gone to a few campings of the "park your car nearby, proper bathroom provided" kind. but this "haul your own food, tent, sleeping bag on own back and "going" in the bushes" kind is a bit (okay a lot) different.

i worry about the "going" in the bushes part. i don't think i can and chot also expressed the same worry. i mean no.1 ok la, no.2... eerrmmm... NO. so we will berusaha to keep it alllll in until we reach civilization.

another worry is of bears. i hope none come to visit our campsite... maybe baby adam's pile of dirty diapers (we have to bring all non-biodegrabable items back down with us) will deter any bears from coming close.

so i wish us luck... "GOOD LUCK".

The Cake

as promised, i'm sharing pictures of the (so-so looking) Father's Day cake. these are all the pictures i took, i was so into making... (errmm worrying of failing is more like it) that i forgot to take more pics.

after baking, removing the cake "bump"... an important step because i wanted to stack another layer.
leftover... chocolate stash for the coming week.the chocolate ganache. it is essentially heavy cream and chocolate. the recipe asks for heavy cream but i can only find heavy whipping cream. i guess it's the same thing. and since i wanted to whip this chocolatey goodness up into a lighter texture, it didn't make me worry. the end product. the writing on the cake... my 3rd try. all in all, boleh laaa... the taste??... i guess it could taste better, but it didn't taste bad... plus, we all ate it with vanilla ice cream... cake and ice cream, a combination that will always work... always...
i was suppose to bring the cake to the saturday farewell picnic but we all came up with a better plan. since all of us were meeting up again on sunday for world cup viewing and nasi lemak eating, the cake will be consumed sunday. since sunday is father's day and since sunday get together is indoors and since i didn't want the ganache to melt... and since... and since...

that's it. the story of the cake.

bake a cake

this saturday, there's a farewell picnic of sorts for Vivi and family (they're regular makan2 get together buddies) moving from Peoria to N. Carolina. i offered to bake a father's day cake since this weekend is a father's day weekend.

the plan is chocolate cake, and i am going to... yes, bake the cake but most importantly

1) attempt making... and
2) applying ganache frosting. AND
3) try very hard to make the writings on the cake look decent.

why ganache frosting u ask??... well once i watched alton brown on good eats made some and he used the word "easy". also, i have cooking chocolate sitting pretty and doing nothing in the pantry (it's the unsweetened variety, not fit for consumption unless altered in form and taste. this contributed to it's long existence in le' pantry). so, combining "easy" and availability, i've decided on ganache...

; )... as soon as i peel myself from this computer, i'll go do cake/ grocery shopping : )...

pictures will follow later...

a quick one

have tons to do so a quick post... i want to post a picture of the first rose of the year. likey likey. most of the roses we planted are hibrid tea roses. they are of the long-stemmed variety. saje jek, rasa macam cool coz that's what amoi2 kat cameron highlands jual... : )...

reminded me of the time i accompanied cikgu bai dan cikgu zt and cikgu shah pi cameron highlands. we took a bus full of form 1 kids ( i think)... the trip up wasn't as bad but the trip down... masyaallah, torture!!!... some puked and i was questioning the usang college bus's breaking capability when we were roller coaster-ing our way down those slopes... torture...

and the kids were buying roses, like a lot of roses... even the boys got into the action... i don't blame them when us grown ups were also feverish buying...

but alas, halfway down the mountain all roses wilted. when we got to gerik, they were wrinkly. some optimistic students (and teachers) placed roses in buckets of water and as i walked to class the next day i saw sorry looking roses dalam timba aligning the hostel corridor...

Eye Candy

i woke up and headed straight to te computer to check my email. got this forwarded one from a friend and decided to post it on my blog. usually saturday mornings i'd be busy preparing something special for breakfast but chot is out since 7.45. dia pi menembak... and if doesn't get home in 30 minutes... i'm gonna have breakfast without him...

the title of the email is "THIS GUY IS FROM INDIA AND HE IS THE WINNER OF THE MOST GOOD LOOKING GUY IN THE WORLD".

peerrrggghhhh...

i wonder if he's gay??...

and speaking of gay-ness. we were at the mall a couple of weeks back and this middle aged guy was walking towards us. he was wearing shorts and a sleeveless t-shirt, he's bald and tan and very fit. has one of those mustaches like the village people... so naturally, my first thought was "oh misai dia macam orang village people la" and as i was looking at him, i caught him looking at chot, from top to bottom i tell ya!!!... reallllyy checking my hubby out...

i told chot in malay "orang tu gay, dia tengok u dari atas sampai bawah"... and then i was bothered for the following couple of days... i guess it doesn't matter if a she or a he looks at my spouse with ideas of hooking up... anyone looking at my hubby like that, makes me a bit pissed...

hehheh... my chot is my chot is my chot...

How exciting... the World Cup is starting

the first game is currently playing on t.v (Germany vs. Costa Rica)...

we're recording it so later when chot gets home from work, we can watch it together. for this month, we've upgraded our cable services to include the DVR service. DVR stands for Digital Video Recording. It'a like VCR but much2 better. With DVR, we can record up to 80 hours of programming, watch any of them whenever we like. Aside from pausing and rewinding the program we've recorded (duhh??...) we can even pause live programming... LIVE PROGRAMMING. and replay critical moments... very useful in this world cup season, now that's gold : )...

and, i think (always did, always will...) that angelina jolie is some kind of beautiful... gorgeous... sensuous : )... see, when we put in the DVR unit, we temporarily got all movie channels. they were showing Mr. and Mrs. Smith... man... she's soooo cantik.

of dirt, rocks, wood and blooms

the planter is 98% complete. i somewhat feel it could look better... i.e use all railroad timber all around but that would mean prolonging the process, hauling big chunks of rocks over long distances and spending more on materials. it's ok... i'll plant something that will overtime cover that rock face. click here for pictures.

also to report, my first rose of the season is blooming. the story of these roses is that in our excitement buying and planting them last year, we made a little boo-boo... so 3 of the hibrid tea roses didn't come back. i was about to toss the whole roses idea out the window but instead replaced/ put in new ones. hopefully they'll grow nice and give me nice blooms.

6.6.6

was yesterday.. i told myself i will write something on this memorable date. but i didn't... am totally unmotivated.

so here i am a day later... the next row of sixes will be another 1000 years 6.6.3006... errmmm waitsaminute, there will be 6.6.2066. apa2 pun in both cases i'll definately already be in the ground.

the movie "The Omen", a remake of the old one premiered on 6.6.2006, very fitting indeed. all day yesterday on t.v, the programs had a similar theme... the anti-christ, satan, exorcism... stuff like that.

but then i went and read the malaysian online newspapers and it was a 180 degree take on the date. it's a good date for the chinese, a good date to get married... and if one could manage, a good date for your baby to be born on...

it's not in our culture as malays to interpret or associate negatives or positives for certain dates. but some will choose nice combination of numbers for weddings... chot suggested 7.7.2007 to my sis if she is looking for a wedding date... but unless it's on a weekend or a school holiday, it won't work as a wedding date.

that's it...

we went on a date

yesterday we went for a movie date. haven't seen a movie at the cinema for the longest time. being in a dark room with flashing lights gives me a massive headache... a recent fenomena... i blame the lupron 100% : )...

so a few hours before we went, i took eleve (macam panadol) as a precaution. i wasn't about to walk out in a middle of the showing with a head that's about to burst... besides, it a movie i wanted to see.

it was the latest (and last) X-men movie and i quite enjoyed it. i read that it got a lot of bad reviews. most probably from the comic book fanatics or those with so high expectations... ye la kan, it being the last in the trilogy they kot wanted it end with lots and lots of umphh!!!...

i won't divulge specific details but it sucks to see some good guys die... it's a shame and still a bit bothered... wtf win??... they're just characters!!!... this must be influences of chot and his anime...

++++

today's friday and we plan to continue rebuilding the planter (another planter...). this one is located behind the house. the back wall is low and the glass is creeping into it. chot bought railway timber (huge 6"x8"x8') a month or so ago and we just started the work a couple of weeks back... it's progressing veeerryyy slow... like everything with us, more rehat dari kerja...

i want to put a picture of before we did anything to it but something is wrong somewhere, preventing me from doing so... later then.

i wanted to use it to grow vegetables/ food stuff but chot is not budging from his plans of stuffing it with flowers. he said that vegetables belongs way back at the end of the property... ok la, i don't care, his plans is ok osso...

with the beginning of the sunny season and working outside, we are slowly getting dark. we don't use sunscreen coz they give me rashes, and chot doesn't use them because he refuses to put any lotion like stuff on his skin. he is getting darker faster due to longer time spend outside (he mows the lawn and plays football... i mean soccer).

hassan, his kulit putih bosnian friend remarked of the "tan" chot has, at which point chot answered "this is my natural skin color man, it's just turning back to normal". hassan said "cool"... here, fair skinned mat sallehs want to be tan... and people in malaysia/ asia in general wants to be fair (what's that one face cream product kat malaysia??... "fair and lovely"??...) macam- macam...

so happy weekend then... may it be a good and enjoyable one.

hello hello

dah lama dah tak ber blog... it's a mix of kemalasan dan kesakitan : (...

it's due to the changing seasons i think. all of the pollen and ragweed in the air gives us sinus allergies, eyes itches, nose runny, sinus pressure... those kind of mat salleh kesakitan.

the story is with my eyes (mostly). they were red and verryyy itchy. i got scared when it got funky when i put eye drops so decided to visit a doctor. just a regular doctor "doktor biasa- biasa", a general practitioner as oppose to a specialist.

anywhoo, he took one look (a glance more like it) at my eyes and said it was an infection and gave me antibiotic eye drops. although my eyes didn't get any better, they didn't get any worse so i didn't kick up a fuss. but on the 8th day they got swollen... yeah like sly stallone in rocky.

haiyaaa... now what??... so dear husband made an appointment for me to see an eye doctor.

now this guy is great. he put eye drops to make my eyes glow... and he uses his tools and gadgets, he inquires and explains, and entertains questions. spend a good amount of time on me making me feel someone actually cares : )...

so the story is, i was miss diagnosed the first time, given the wrong medication, resulting in me feeling like crap enduring the errr crap my eyes were in. what a waste of time, and money.

i dunno about the rest of u out there (like what?? 3 people on a good day that reads my blog) but i feel that a good doctor is someone who CAREs. doesn't matter if ur a general practitioner. i mean if u care enough, u will be a good doctor... right??...

i miss my family doctor in JB. Dr. Kamal is a very good doctor, my mom best describes him when she (always) says "tengok muka doktor pun dah rasa sihat sikit"... eerrrmmm not that he's a brad pitt just that he truly is concern and it shows on his face.

so the moral of the story... be a caring doctor, even if u miss diagnosed someone, the least u did was to make someone feel better seeing u... now that's medicine : )...

it's definately inside...

lin,

the orchid is "grown" inside because...

ya all have a good weekend ya hear ; )...

donno la

marina was telling me of what songs some of the pictures on my blog reminded her of. sorry lady, i'm bad with names, phone number and song names (and their singers). what was and are currently hits i'd probably listened to but that's about it, just plain ol' listening. sometimes i'll switch on mtv or vh1 just to have some noise in the house but usually... no.

i know now it's that powders guy with his "had a bad day song"... and that "u are beautiful" guy... although i must say, black eye peas punya lagu2 sume sedap and even tempted to buy their CD.

it seems, i have become stuck... just like people before me. stubornly holding on to songs that reminded us of whatever it reminded us of. like my late gandpa with his keroncong (or was it gazal??) and my mom with her sharifah aini... i am stuck at old songs of sting/ police and brian adams...

although i did try to stay in the know when i was working and fell in love with marc anthony (that one album he was professing his love for JLo)... tapi after moving to waterloo, i really didn't care. i only stuck to songs that made me feel good.

and then there's the thing with American Idol... alamak, makcik tak layan la reality snow/ reality talent/ reality drama... don't watch AI, amazing race, that one in the jungle... survivor. no simple life, no hogan knows best... maybe a little ousborne (see??... don't even care if i spelled it wrong)...

so tak tau la lagu pasal cherry blossom yang AI contestant tu nyanyi while crawling on the stage. but i know the cranberries... i partly thank u for that marina!!!... u put ur cassette player to good use in kuantan time. haiya!!!... am currently smiling remembering all those zombie sessions... "zombie... zombie.... zombieeh... eeeiihh.. eeiihhh"... : D... lin, u remember???...

later when we became roomates that trusty cassette player lull us to sleep. now let me tell u people, this lady loves songs... LOVES... with drawers full of tapes... FULL... if ever college didn't work out, she'll be a swell DJ...

purple

tak tahan...

i was at my friend lin's website (i always visit) and today she posted adorable pics of her tia. don't get me wrong, this little pumpkin (makcik lin, so fitting when u refer to tia as pumpkin) is always adorable, a.l.w.a.y.s : ). i get the urge to rush there if it weren't for the fact that they live in UK.

i told lin i wanted to try and use these pics of the pumpkin as my computer screen wallpaper... and a few clicks later, this is the result... i just had to, tak malu la pi taruk gambar anak orang lain kat comp sendiri, tapi... tapi... aunty win tak tahhhaaaaannn... so darn cute...



click here for the post

yap yap yap

i felt like yapping with no particular topic in mind.

i made kuih today, buah melaka. tak mau la ambik gambar dia coz they look like how buah melaka should look like... and i think all malaysians know how they look. apart from shumaila that's happily enjoying her visit home to pakistan and will not be reading my blog, buah melaka is buah melaka, is buah melaka... eehhmm eehhmm good...

minor glitch in the beginning when i used the wrong tepung (tepung beras instead of tepung pulut) making the mixture ssoooooo runny, a closer look at the recipe made me realized my mistake. and down the drain it went. sayang la wasted my precious esen pandan (tq audra : )... )

yap yap yap... there's a strong wind advisory today. the wind is blowing hard outside. chot said it's like 35 miles per hour winds... kuat lah tu agaknye. and it's osso nippy outside. chot had to move his pokok back inside, takut2 nanti terkejut sebab sejuk and mim alif ta y... saya sangat suck at jawi....

yap yap yap... perut dah buncit coz i haven't been doing my pilates. almost everyday chot would ask if i did any... "why??... u think i'm fat??"... : )...

no, don't get me wrong. he's just trying to start a conversation. i realized it's a challenge for him to make we talk... he's a list of favourite Q's

1) bangun pukul berapa hari nie?
2) siapa email hari nie?
3) email siapa hari nie?
4) dah buat pilates hari nie?... belum... hari nie belum...
5) when i started blogging... blog apa hari nie?
6) ada siapa call u hari nie?... (coz he knows i'm bad at calling people. so he doesn't ask if called anyone...)
7) dah makan?

a few days back, i reallllyyy didn't feel like talking so i told him "i tak mau cakap, why don't u call kawan peoria"... teruk perangai... i know...

ok, enough yapping... i've reached my blogging time limit.

p/s. i want to put a pic but the site is experiencing some problems...

mighty suspicious

this came out of Berita Harian online newspaper today. this elephant is no more, found barely alive by the wildlife and park ranger people with a bullet wound on it's head. it's mighty suspicious when this female elephant was found around the same area where the mom and baby elephants took a stroll the other day.

i feel sick to my stomach... this poor elephant didn't do anything wrong. we went into their home, cleared their forest and erected our houses and our kampungs and our schools... and then got scared or even pissed off at these guys for endangering us when it's the other way around. u have no right to hurt and kill them sir when they can be moved to a safer location. this is totally uncalled for...

wish i was there

this picture came out of the star online newspaper. how interesting i said to myself, to be able to see elephants in the wild... i mean, wild elephants in the wild??... but it is dangerous, them being so big and us being so small... even trained elephants in zoos can seriously cause sorrow when they want to.

now, this happened near Gerik, Perak. I know that area coz i spend 2 years of my life teaching in a school on a hill in the jungles of Gerik. in my 2 years there, i was kindda on the lookout for wild animals... wouldn't that be some kind of coolness?? this city gal can boast to her city family and friends "oh... just the other day we had elephants stroll through the front gate"... but no, never happened...

the closest i came to a wild animal was the cobra bai (my friend) ran over with her housemate's car. it was a hot (always) and sunny (always) afternoon, we were wizzing our way back to school from Gerik town. turned the corner and there it was, streached across the middle of the road this long glistening black thing. we both held our breath as we went over the sorry soul... (do snakes have souls??...)

but i think the snake had long lost it's life before our borrowed wheels crushed more bones. we went ka bump and that's as close as i came to anything wild... a dead snake.

the school i taught is a boarding school and i stayed in the school compound. dreading the warden title but car-less to stay outside. i got ready in the morning to the sound of the jungle coz every morning without fail, the monkeys greeted us with monkey noises... not chimp talk, it was something else. was somewhat soothing actually... hmmm... i wonder if only jakun city folk thinks that...

a guy in our office once told me of answering the phone and a lady at the other end asked if we have elephants in the area. the lady was suppose to come and teach but she never showed up. of course there's elephants in Gerik but it's not like they stroll down the street or anything... ; )

cherry tree

sharing pics of the cherry tree. we have 11 fruit trees on the property, i think 3 of them are cherry trees. they were the first to bloom, crisp white flowers...

don't know if the cherries are any good coz the birds ate them all last year. .... they sell those nets use to cover the whole tree but no... have other things to care for so we'll just let the birds have them for now.

am i moody or am i not moody

i read that people on lupron get moody (yeah, lets all blame the drug)... although there is truth in it coz this moodyness has been lingering for days. but i do try (very hard) to have patience and not let the mood swings get the best of me.

but don't blame me for being angry when you sprinkle lawn fertilizer and weed killer and only when the work is done, read the instruction... whaddayaknow... you did it wrong. and don't get angry at me for getting angry at you.

and i am still angry... am tempted to put on shoes and walk out the door but it's dark outside and he's using the car.

why am i getting worked up over fertilizer... wtf... damn drug...

coffee break

it's been a few days since my last post... i was conciously trying to keep away coz some remarked how i have a lot of time (dunie and audra, don't feel bad or anything ok : ? ) to spend on creating posts and stuff like that...

it's my own doing see... i did sit in front of the computer and neglected house chores and projects. patut la banyak masa, not only don't i work, i didn't even do house work : D...

there's nothing wrong with blogging, just me making myself feel bad indulging. felt the same when i eat too much chocolate.

so, i went and did a lot of ironing... like A LOT... washing, cleaning, tidying up... u know, boring stuff. and cooked and baked...

and here i am today!!!... blogging and not feeling bad about it!!!... ok, maybe a little bad, tak habis gosok baju lagi... didn't i say A LOT : D... this way, it feels more like taking a break from (never ending) house chores rather than taking a break from blogging to do chores ; D...

have some pics to share. took these like 5 days ago. this is how it looks when asparagus sprout. there's a huge bulb under there and asparagus continously sprout during its short season. we plan to dig it up and move it coz right now it's scattered.

when they grow up to 3 to 4 inches, i'd go and collect them. but would only use the first 3 inches or so. as the asparagus grow, the stalk (can i call it that??) will get fiberous and not fit for comsumption. the ones yang dah kena potong is still growing. and at the end of the season (when the stalk gets thin is when harvesting stops and we let them grow.

now, i need to go back there and collect some more. i know the ones that's just breaking ground are tall enough by this time.

cuteness

FLOWER +GIRL =
FLOWER GIRL
Audra send me these pics of ika with the tulips. the shot of both together is meaningful : )... and darn cute!!!...

let me try this again

i admit that my tech knowledge is limited, so when i post that bit about HOUSE FOR SALE, i thought i did it right. waitsaminute, i did do it right!!!...

i made a flier for that house and saved it as a pdf. knowing that i need a place to host the document, i use yahoo briefcase. yahoo photos to host my picture albums, so yahoo briefcase can host my documents. felt like a genius figuring that out allll by myself.

until anis point out that clicking on the link doesn't direct her to the document. waaaaahhh???.... rupanya2, i need to pay for an upgrade then it'll work. rats...

i'm sure if i dig deep enough, search long enough, i'll find a place to host my documents on the web for FREE but alas, i'll just settle for this way... my way.

if it needs getting done and u don't know how to do it proper, just wing it!!!... "buat cara bodoh" my mom would always say.

so this is the the cara bodoh... click here for my do-over...

blooms from the our cherry fruit tree

HOUSE FOR SALE... (this again??)...

Newly constructed Dahlia Growhomes Double Storey Standard Bungalow on freehold land. Located on a corner lot in Nilai Impian, Nilai, Negeri Sembilan.

Asking price RM380,000.00. Call Encik Jaafar or Puan Asmah at (03) 4022-3132 for further inquiries.

Property Details

Bedrooms: 3
Bathrooms: 3
Dining room: 1
Dry kitchen: 1
Wet kitchen: 1
Living room: 1
Car porch: 1
Store room: 1
family room: 1
Balcony: 2
Land area: 6,515 sq. ft.
House size: 1, 518 sg. ft

wuzzup!!!

nothing much. what is there in a life of a fulltime housewife with no kids... in the midwest.

weekend went well. the weather was nice so we did stuff outside. went to lowe's and pi gatal beli a pond kit (a good deal at 50% off)... so a pond looks promising in the near future : )...

also bought cement and used it in an attempt to rebuilt the rose planter. that rose planter was the first thing we re-did when we moved in. because we didn't really know what we were doing, it ended up looking bad.

cement is kindda cool but we didn't buy enough so the weekend project isn't a weekend project after all. maybe today we'll finish it up. i hope it doesn't rain. and i hope chot's leg gets better.

chot pulled his thigh muscle playing soccer yesterday. it's only the second game in the league (first game gave him a bloody nose). i had to drive him to work coz by the time he was ready, it was already 9 ish. by this (late of a) time, the only empty parking lots are far away. so i drove and dropped him right in front of the main door.

we're currently watching this anime. it's reeeaallly slow (and stupid) in the beginning. the first 3 dvds are set in feudal japan and the last 2 in the presant day. and it's kindda scary the way their eyes don't blink. have 1 more dvd to go.

and also watching samurai 7... this is better. there's an old japanese movie from the 1950's called "7 samurai". it has the same premis but set in the future.

i like animation but chot is the anime lover. he'll remember the name of the characters whereas i will not. he'll talk about the characters as if they're real people (dorky...) whereas i will definately not. he'll watch an anime series again (and again) whereas i won't... i'd say "kan dah tengok, kenapa nak tengok lagi??"... he'll go "sebab suka..."... iyo la.

if he has time, he'll play inuyasha before he goes to work. inuyasha is quite good but a bit soap opera-ish coz it's never ending.

HOUSE FOR SALE

CHOT & I WOULD APPRECIATE IT IF THE INFO IS SPREAD AROUND.

PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS.

TQ MUCH : )...

Happy Birthday

senyuman menawan

cair aunty win dibuatnye : D...

DONE

I am very very proud to show this picture. time, energy and sweat was put in and this is the result. chot and i finished rebuilding the retaining wall sampai ke depan and mulch the whole area. we only kept 2 of the evergreen shrubs and the hydrangea bush (that's the bunch of twigs on the ground). the rest made their way to plant heaven.

and this is how it looked before. chocked with overgrown bushes. click here for before and after pictures.

random

Asparagus from the back garden. stir fried with oyster sauce and garlic powder for dinner. crispy and sweet. we didn't plant these, was already here when we bought the property. tq old owner couple sir and/or madam...

FRESH = TASTY

Coca Cola's new product, coke with coffee... yes... coffee. Being regular coffee drinkers, we just had to try this out. I didn't like it, chot says he'll drink it but because one bottle (small 8 oz) costs around the same as gourmet coffee, he'd rather buy coffee coffee.

coke + coffee = not good

UNDER THE BRIDGE

WARNING... these pics are disturbing...

picture no. 1 was forwarded by chot's friend in malaysia. i zoomed in so it'd be clearer...

haii-yaaa!!!!... the ghost looks like chot... doesn't it??...

well, some friends and i think so. what do u think??

: D... no wonder kids can't help but stare at chot... this uncle looks scary huh??... : D...