Yokoz?!

[Closed as of early 2012 and to be a new restaurant called "iSushi"]

Here's yet another restaurant entry. I'm on a roll here...I went to the newly renamed Yokoz (formerly known as Yokozuna's) last week with my GBF. This is located in the strip mall across from Southwestern College. I hadn't been there in more than three months. They not only changed their name, but also revamped their menu. Well, the menus are new and their bento format has also been changed.

See? New Menu...More colorful I see. When we got there around 12 noon, it was kind of dead. I was expecting it to have more than 10 patrons or at least packed. Hmmm. When we left about a little more than an hour later, it was still kind of dead. That was strange. It's usually packed at Yokozuna's, oops, I mean Yokoz.

Below is the sushi bar...

Their bentos used to be $6.95. Then over the years, they raised the prices to $8.95. Now, since they changed things around, bentos are either $5.95 of $6.95. You used to be able to pick out 2 entrees and have it with either red or white rice, green salad, cucumber salad or macaroni salad and it all came with a few pieces of pineapple and 4 pieces of sushi. No longer. Now, there is a fixed $5.95 menu (you pick the protein) and a fixed $6.95 menu. Gone are the pineapple pieces which is replaced with miso soup. : ( This was my friend's order. He had the teriyaki salmon bento.

Close up of Teriyaki salmon - looks like the sauce was just brushed on it. Don't know if the salmon was actually marinated in it, not that it has to be...

This was my Bento - the Sesame Chicken. The server must not have been taking good notes because I ended up with white rice when I wanted red (it's red because of the achiote or annatto coloring). She ended up serving it on the side for me.

I liked my Sesame chicken - nice and crunchy, although I really shouldn't be eating a lot of fried foods. I'm not a big fan of miso soup. I miss having the choice of cucumber salad and macaroni salad. They made their mac salad island style, with fruit bits, just like how my mom makes it. Served also on the side was the finadene sauce, which is soy sauce, lemon and/or vinegar with green onions and chili. This was spooned on top of my rice. I also dipped my chicken in it. That was my salt quota for the whole week. In all, I was surprised with this visit. Maybe we caught the restaurant on a really dead day, but it's usually crowded during lunch. I was also disappointed because they didn't have any Spam. I ordered their Spam musubi (4 pieces for an appetizer) but they were out! How could an Islander place be out of Spam???

Asmara

After an appointment last week, Bert and I wanted to try this relatively new Eritrean restaurant on University. I had read about this post from Kirk's MMM-YOSO blog (again, I'm too lazy to do the hyperlinks...sorry!). If you are diligent enough to check it out and search it, you will see that Asmara was once Cay Nhan, a Vietnamese place. The address sounded familiar to me. Turns out that several weeks ago, my friend (Thai BBQ chicken post) wanted to go here, but we opted for the Thai chicken place instead. Well, if we did go, we would NOT have found Cay Nhan, since it's now Asmara. Anyways, I've been to Red Sea and Harar before, but never Asmara...

The restaurant in on University Avenue, just a few blocks from the 15 exit (head east).

It's pretty nice inside - real tablecloths on the tables (along with glass tops), cloth napkins...The lighting above the bar area is a holdover from the old restaurant (see pics in aforementioned foodblog), and the decor has been changed out from Chinese/Vietnamese to African themed paintings and curios.

There were many nice paintings in the restaurnt, this one was near our table...Asmara, named after the capitol of Eritrea, is a little more "upscale" (but not yuppyish upscale) than the other African (actually Ethiopian) restaurants. This is reflected not only in the nicer decor but in their prices, which are about $2 more for their combos.

Their imported beers were $3 each. Bert was going to get the Hakin, which was a dark beer, but he asked the server what beer he preferred. He said it was the Meta, which was a light beer, so Bert chose that instead.

For starters, we ordered two types of sambussas: lentil and beef ($2.25 for 2 pieces):

The lentil sambussas were a little dry and mealy. I didn't really like them.

The beef sambussas were more to our liking. There were little red flecks of pepper in there. What we really liked (but I kind of refrained from using a lot because I feared its inevitable spicy exit) was the hot sauce it was served with.

Bert ordered the Beef Combo, which are #'s 11- Regular Tibsi (cubed beef fried with onion, I wanted to say Rosemary, but I can't read my own notes! - and jalapeno pepper, #12 -

It's another kind of Tibsi, but the difference is that it's cooked with tomatoes and a berbere (a type of chili) sauce, and lastly #14 - another type of beef dish which was quite flavorful and spicy...The Regular Tibsi is on the right hand side. There wasn't a lot of flavor in it. It was quite plain and kind of boring. We liked the first two that you see on the left the best. The meat combo came with a salad and of course, was served on injera, the edible flat bread made of teff. This meat combo was $10.95. Now at Harar or Red Sea, it would have been $8.95 and they would have given you a choice of beef, chicken and/or lamb. Here you could choose beef or lamb.

Oops, when trying to delete spaces underneath this photo, I deleted one space too many and I am afraid of messing it up, therefore the text will go ABOVE this photo. This was my entree, the Vegetarian combo ($10.95 also), which, according to the menu, comes with four types of vegetables served with salad and injera. The vegetable combo consists of #'s 4, 5, 6, & 7. The #4 is Collard with spinach cooked with garlic, onion and chile. The #5 is Timtimo (at least that's what my notes say) - lentils with onion, #6 - Timtim Alicho - Lentils with Curry, and #7 - Alicha - Cabbage with carrots and potatoes, onions, garlic and turmeric. As you can see, there are 5 items, so I'm not sure what the extra item is called. In any case, it's all good! We ended up saving some of our meal for our daughter, who ended up really liking the "eating with your hands" experience.

Here's the injera, served on a square plate. Kind of looks sparse. But maybe they were going for a different type of presentation, rather than the injera shoved into a serving basket. We ate the injera from our plates, since it had the meat and vegetable juices soaked in it.

I thought the combo plates were pretty good. A good value (although higher than the other African places) because you get to try at least 3 meat or 4-5 vegetable items. I'm a sampler kind of person, so this worked out really well for me. The service was kind of slow. There was only one server, plus one cook in the back. There were about 4 men sitting in the bar area speaking in their native language, but English was interspered in their conversation as well. Our server was very nice and helpful whenever we asked questions about the menu. I would go here again to try a few other items on the menu...

Ono's

(Actually posting this on 8/12) A couple of weeks ago, I went out to lunch with one of my friends (her son is TC's good friend in school). This is my 3 or 4th post for Ono's. I'm too lazy right now to make links of my previous visits.

For starters, we had the Caterpillar roll, which was all right. Service, by the way, was pretty good. It wasn't too busy but it wasn't dead either. Our waitress was attentive but not overbearing.

Sorry for the quality of the photos. I had the mixed Tempura plate which had a few shrimp and vegetable pieces, along with a mixed spring green salad with ginger dressing and mandarin oranges, plus a scoop of rice. I noticed that the plates on which our food was served were nice and square, as opposed to narrow and rectangular. That was one of my pet peeves the last few times I had been here. Sure the food looks "pretty" on narrow plates, but it's a fkn bitch to eat food neatly on a narrow surface. The nice square format was much much better...especially with my friend's entree, which was...

----kalbi ribs with (what they call) "kimchi" salad and rice. I remember I got this back in December with Bert. The salad isn't really kimchi, from what I recall, but rather, the flavoring in the salad, but even though, it shouldn't truly be called a kimchee salad at all. I think they gave her about 3 short ribs. They were pretty meaty and kind of a lot for one plate. She couldn't finish it and I ended up having a small piece myself.

Thai BBQ Chicken & Gelato Vero Cafe

*Please bear with me...Normally I write my text ABOVE the photos, but something is messed up whenever I try to add a space above the photo in Edit mode. It erases the photos, but yet when I return to the post, all the photos are there again. Also, something pops us saying that I can't change screens with unsaved changes. Gah! I'll figure it out later, but in the meantime, get used to this...

My good friend (the one with whom I went to Eclipse back in May) met up for lunch in late July. I was so happy to be out of the house and eating at a restaurant for the first time in weeks. We decided to go to the Thai BBQ chicken place (next to Saffron) on India Street. Here is the menu (above).

I got the two Thigh combo, with Jasmine rice, Cambodian salad (it was just coleslaw with peanuts) and peanut sauce.My friend got the wing (plus part of the back) and breast combo.

Closeup of the salad with nuts.

Closeup of the juicy chicken skin...Oh yeahhh! We pretty much demolished our plates. Well, we did have some leftover rice,but the chicken was done for! I really liked the spices they use to season the chicken skin. The chicken parts were tender, but fully cooked through (no Salmonella here folks) and delicious! This was way better than regular rotisserie chicken! The peanut sauce was also great with the chicken!

By the way, the Thai Chicken BBQ place is not a sit down place. It's strictly a take out joint, but right next door is Saffron Chicken (same owner). I snagged a table in the patio for Saffron while my friend ordered our meals. For dessert, we walked a few steps down to Gelato Vera Caffe. I had a buy one get one free coupon burning a hole in my pocket (Woo hoo! I'm a cheapass!)

She had the coffee with the dark chocolate (I think that's what it was!)...This was a medium sized gelato by the way.

I chose the gianduja (hazelnut), which tasted awesome! For our next gelato outing, we plan to return to Pappalecco in Little Italy.

Earthquake

So this morning, I had my first ever acupuncture treatment around 11:30. I've got a needle in the middle of my forehead, several more in my left arm, left leg and a toe or two, plus my right leg. I'm lying on the table, all the lights are out. I'm doing my best to relax (despite the Artic chill of the air conditioning) with my eyes closed. I also was trying to breathe using my diaphragm, rather than shallow chest breaths. This went on for maybe ten minutes when all of a sudden, I felt the table swaying. It wasn't drastically swaying or shaking, but just a gentle rocking motion. At first I feebly thought, "Oh, it's the construction..." since the medical building I was in is currently remodeling a wing. I was attempting to be as positive as possible, rather than panicking and thinking, "Fk! An earthquake! The building's gonna cave in on me! This is NOT how I want to go!"

In addition, my phone was buzzing right after the swaying. I chose not to answer it since I was lying down and trying to relax. Turns out that Bert called. He ended up leaving me a text, "Did you feel the earthquake? Our building was swaying.".

The earthquake, which started at 11:42 am originated from the Chino Hills (San Bernardino area near L.A.). It was initially thought to be 5.8 in magnitude, but later downgraded to a 5.4. Luckily there were no reports of injuries or deaths up there.

It was a bit harrowing and ironic since I was supposed to be in a "relaxing" environment...

Our garden and hot dog thing from Zion

Something's screwy when I try to insert a space above the photos in my posts! It erases all of the photos, but then when I go back into the post, the pictures are back. So, bear with me...Pictured above are homegrown Swiss Chard. My parents gave us 2 pots of chard and one pot of Collard Greens. Perfect for making Nillaga.

Here's our tomato patch. We got the plants free from Bert's co-worker. They are supposed to be Beefsteak tomatoes. That's a tiny cherry tomato plant in between the middle and last tomato plants.

Baby beefsteak tomatoes. Too bad I'm not too fond of these tomatoes. I prefer cherry or grape tomatoes.

We also got some corn from Bert's friend, as well as Sunflowers. The corn is in the back row, the sunflowers in the front. I've also planted a few green onions in between the flowers and a lone bell pepper plants, which, unfortunately isn't getting enough sunlight (big sunflower leaves).

Hibiscus about to blossom.

My dad planted one of the potted swiss chards in our vegetable bed. Can't wait to use these for some soup. Maybe I'll make bulalo (Filipino soup, made with boiled beef shank and vegetables).

One of my favorite treats to eat at the bakery in Zion...the sliced hot dog thing! It's only $1.75 and it already has ketchup on it! MMMMM!

I saved the best picture for last...my mom's salmon head soup!

Nice fish eyes looking at you. Actually, I'm not a fan of this soup, but my dad sure likes it.

No Comic Con this year & new book series to read

For the 2nd year in a row, Comic Con was sold out days before the actual event. Bert and I have been going since the early 90's, back when the Con was not all Hollywood Hype.

This year, we did NOT go, mainly because we waited too long. Also, I wasn't sure I wanted to walk around the Convention Center with thousands of people and risk getting sick again. The last time we didn't go was in 2000 when TC was born. I kind of didn't feel like waddling around the Convention Center floor and mingling with the masses of humanity while eight months pregnant.
We never got the 4-Day pass, but instead we went on Thursdays (the "first" day for the peons who don't have the luxury of the 4-day pass and Preview Night Wednesday). I would peruse the aisles while Bert would hunt for his graphic novels treasures separately. Normally, I'd check out booths like Fantagraphics (home of Love and Rockets), J-List (cool Japanese stuff), Slave Labor Graphics (Lenore), Top Shelf Productions, Drawn and Quarterly (Optic Nerve, Eightball), Bud Plant Books, Gama Go and also seek out the independents for one of a kind works. For the past three years, we've taken TC on Sundays since that day is dedicated to kids, including panels, drawing workshops and film festivals, etc. Two years ago, she wore her Supergirl outfit. She can wear her Hogwarts Gryffindor outfit next year when we all go.

Bert and I ended up watching G4's special on the Con Friday night. Turns out the hottest ticket (well for over 6,000 teen girls and their moms) was Exhibit Hall H for Summit Entertainment's panel on upcoming films including, "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (Keanu Reeves was there), "Max Payne" (Marky Mark made an appearance), "X-Men Origins - Wolverine" (Hugh Jackman also showed up as a "surprise" guest), and the Dakota Fanning "rape" movie. But they weren't there for those movies and actors. Those rabid women were there for the upcoming film, "Twilight", from the first novel of the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer.

The main attraction? The hot young cast, (most of whom are virtual unknowns) which stars the very hot Robert Pattinson, the guy who played Cedric Diggory in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire". He plays Edward Cullen, a mysterious and handsome teenage vampire with whom Bella (another main character) falls in love. Kristen Stewart (she played Jody Foster's daughter in "Panic Room") plays the lovestruck Bella Swan. After watching videos of the Comic Con panel, I saw the actors barely got in a word edgewise since so many girls were screaming. They also could not form complete sentences. Anytime Cedric, I mean, Pattinson spoke, there was mayhem from the crowd and incoherent babbling by him. It was like the Beatlemania. My interest was piqued.

I haven't read any of the books in the The Twilight Saga (more info here), but plan to do so just to see what the hype is about. Am I being manipulated or what? Ha ha, I need an excuse to read something new folks. I feel like I've been living under a rock, having missed this burgeoning cultural phenomenon. I haven't read a good vampire series since Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. The fourth and last book in the Saga, "Breaking Dawn" will be released this Saturday. I normally don't read romance type novels, but maybe I'll like it. Or maybe I won't. I don't know about the hype proclaiming this series to be the new "Harry Potter". I don't think so...

Ah well, next year, we'll be going to Con to soak in the pop culture madness!

CD Mix my friend made me

During my last chemo, I texted my friends that I was going to "kick cancer in the 'nads". I originally wanted to text "nuts" but decided against it because it might have been too vulgar for some of the other text recipients. When I think of 'nads, I think of that Australian waxing product. Anyways, my good friend (she's one of my educator gal pals; we recently went to Eclipse last month) made me a CD mix of songs she thought would cheer me up. She is so awesome! We met 15 years ago at an Filipino American educators' anniversary dinner. She can speak Spanish, is one of my few friends that listens to and enjoys Rock en Espanol (and she's not of Hispanic descent either, not that you have to be), and loves going out to eat at different restaurants with me and our other friends.

She is also of the few friends that I have who share a similar wavelength in terms of musical knowledge and trivia. We were talking last month about how we are both female educators with Masters degrees, consider ourselves to be pro-woman, yet we still like misognystic rock bands/songs from the 80's! Motley Crue anyone? Early Van Halen? AC/DC? However, her musical taste is a little more diverse than mine and over the years we've been friends, I always learn something new whenever I'm riding in her car listening to whatever she had in the tape/cd (and now IPOD) deck or whenever we traded CD mixes (remember tape mixes? ha) with each other. So here goes the playlist along with selected (blather) commentary...

Thank goodness there are no insipid and flaccid inspirational ballads in here either (Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and their ilk). Thank you!

Kick 'Em in the 'Nads Mix
Summer 2008

Song for a Future Generation - The B-52's
Wow, how did she know that this is one of my favorite B-52's songs? "Wanna be ruler of the galaxy...wanna be the king of the universe...Let's meet and have a baby now!"

Getting Better- The Beatles
One of the "happier" sounding songs from the "Sgt. Pepper" album. Although, if you listen to the lyrics, Lennon says he used to be "cruel to his woman".

Stayin' Alive- The Bee Gees
The brilliant opening song of the classic disco movie, "Saturday Night Fever". I wonder why people thought the Bee Gees were so hot and hunky back then. I know they sported the "open to the navel" big collared satin shirts which showed off their chests along with a gleaming gold medallion nestled amongst their chest hair. Yet their singing voices were falsettos. Falsettos don't remind me of manly men. I think of eunuchs or Prince (but Prince is different!). All right Barry, Robin and Maurice! Rock those skin tight Angel Flights and platform shoes.

By Your Side - The Black Crowes
Not much of a Big Crowes fan but I can see why she put the song in...

I Still Believe - The Call
I totally forgot about this song. This was one of their few songs played on the radio besides "Walls Came Down" and "Let the Day Begin". When I was reading the Wikipedia entry on the call, it mentioned that this song was included in the soundtrack for "The Lost Boys". (tangent alert) Remember that film? Corey Haim? Corey Feldman? Jason Patric? And let's not forget Kiefer Sutherland as the evil vampire in that flick! Actually, I have that soundtrack and only remember one gem off that album which was Echo and the Bunnymen's deliciously faithful and dark cover of The Doors' classic "People are Strange".

Times Like These- The Foo Fighters
Love this song. Dave Grohl is awesome.

Hit Me With Your Best Shot- Pat Benatar
Yes, I liked this song in 6th grade (dating myself there!). Pat Benatar was one of the few women musicians that I admired back in the day, along with Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders. Then, this song got overplayed and got boring after hearing it the 100th time on 13k and the Mighty 690! C'mon! You know you listened to those radio stations!

Eye of the Tiger- Survivor
Okay, even though I don't like Survivor, I know why she put this song in this mix. I think this song was in one of the Rocky movies. Sylvester Stallone is so gross and 'roided up. I can't believe he made Rocky V (or was it 100?). Uhhh...straight to video (I mean, DVD)! This song is the king of cheesiness!

Life's What You Make It- Talk Talk
This is one of those "learn something new" moments. I admit that the only songs I knew by Talk Talk were "Talk Talk" and "It's My Life", the latter song recently remade by Gwen Stefani.

Gettin' Better - Tesla
My friend is also a rocker like me. No wonder we get along so well! She knows I totally dig on Tesla. This is one of my favorite Tesla songs (besides "Love Song" and "Modern Day Cowboy"). Jeff Keith has got one of the most distinctive voices in rock. This song reminds me of my early college days, when I was the only chick in my Guitar elective class. The other female was an older woman who was totally into Blind Faith and Jethro Tull. The other guys were thrash metal freaks, which I think irked the teacher because he did not equate "playing fast" (a la Yngwie Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert of Racer X, Anthrax, Metallica, etc) as being "good".

Little Suzi - Tesla
Another kick ass song!

Little Fighter - White Lion
This was a band that I didn't want to admit that I liked back when they were popular. I was irritated by the plethora of mass produced glam/metal hair bands in the late 80's. Their album "Pride" had a few other catchy tunes, like this one, "Wait" and "Tell Me". Mike Tramp had a cool head of hair back then. Pretty boy. I YouTubed him recently. He's still performing but not as White Lion. Time has treated him well. He still looks relatively good! Love his Danish accent. Their guitarist, Vito Bratta, is underrated. Unfortunately that's what happens when you get stuck in a hairband in the 80's and live in the shadow of being an Eddie Van Halen wanna-be.

I Need Novocaine - Greenday
Another band I don't really listen to. They are kind of like whiny neo-punks but I think she may have put this in for humor's sake.

Dig - Incubus

Nellie the Elephant - The Toy Dolls
When I did the Wikipedia link, I was surprised that the Toy Dolls were an older punk band. I should have known something like that. I feel like I've been living in a cave and aurally tortured by songs of Kenny G, Yanni and John Tesh. This song is kind of funny too.

Happy Boy - The Beat Farmers
Wow! I'm surprised she had this song! I haven't heard this in years! The KGB morning show in the late 80's used to play this song ALL THE TIME! As I read the Wikipedia entry, it listed the specific DJ's, Jim McIness and Pat Martin. I used to love listening to Pat Martin - he had a cool voice and played so many cool rock songs back then. For you non San Diegans, the Beat Farmers were a local band featuring animated frontman, Country Dick Montana, who was often a guest on the radio morning show. Hearing "Happy Boy" made me smile.

Things that amuse me

[I'm actually posting this on Monday, July 21st]
Since I've been living a hermetic existence for the past week or so (until my immune sysem recovers), I've had the pleasure of internet surfing many different blogs, reading books/graphic novels here and there and watching music videos I haven't seen in a long time.

There's a funny new blog - Cake Wrecks - you should see it. It's a site devoted to cakes that people actually paid for, but the cakes are either unintentionally humorous, mispelled, look awful, etc. For example, there is a cake intended for a baby shower and it's a baby in a bassinet. Very creepy. But funny. In a bad way. Shudder.

Current book reading -The Sandman Companion by Hy Bender. Thanks Superman. Now I can fully understand all of the references Neil Gaiman stuck in the Sandman compilations that I breezed through in the early 90's. It's an excellent book by the way. The author interviews Gaiman and goes through each story line blow by blow, reference by reference (and there are MANY!)

I also have a stockpile of DVD's to watch plus some burned Korean and Japanese movies/soap operas given to me by N's husband L when they visited last month. I am also excited because the first season of Spaced (a British sitcom that starred the magnificent Simon Pegg, star of such films as "Shaun of the Dead", "Hot Fuzz"and the more recent,"Run Fat Boy Run", the latter which I haven't watched but plan to once it comes out on DVD. L told me it sort of sucked because it was directed by David Schwimmer - ugh, yes, Ross from "Friends", but I still want to watch it because I really like Simon Pegg, as an actor, not as a hot piece of meat okay) is coming out on DVD. It was already out before, but only for Region 2, since it was a British import. We don't have one of the all region DVD players, although I'm told that they're rather cheap now. America plays Region 1 DVD's only. By the way, that was a long ass parenthetical statement.

I also broke out with my DVD compilations of videos, such as Queen - Greatest Video Hits Volume 1 as well as Volume 2. Volume 1 is better actually since it's earlier Queen. The only video we can't let TC watch is "Bicycle Race" because it has nekkid women riding bikes in it. Yowzah! We also watched my Journey Greatest Hits 1978- 1997
DVD last night. Check out Steve Perry in the "Lovin', Touchin', Squeezin' video" (see below)

Can you say Sprayed on Pants? And Oh My Gosh! Love Steve Perry's hair!!!! I am serious about that! His hair should be shellacked and mounted on a dummy head and displayed on a pedestal as a stellar example of how 70's rocker dude hair should be. Pre-Mullet days too. Neal Schon also rocked a cool whiteman's Afro in this video. Journey was one of the bands I would never admit to liking back in the late 70's and early 80's. But now, after several decades, I admit they wrote some pretty good stuff. Well, at least up the the mid-80's when they started to suck. TC's favorite video is "Separate Ways" because it's so cheesy. Beavis and Butthead also made fun of that video.

Another video compilation that I've been watching on an off is Duran Duran - Greatest - the DVD . The only thing I don't like is that it's hard to navigate through the menu to get to the extras. I also have to be careful with this video because I cannot let TC watch certain ones, like "Girls on Film (uncensored)" and "The Chauffeur ". "Girls on Film" (directed by Godley and Creme, of 10cc fame) had nekkid women in bikinis slide on on whipped creamed poles in a boxing ring. They also wrestle each other in whipped cream and you could see their boobs. I know some guys are thinking, "Hey, what's wrong with that?" Ha ha. There are a whole lot of fetishes going on in that video and I don't think my kid should see this. There's also the notorious video for "The Chauffeur", which has a woman dancing around without her top. For you trivia hounds, that skinny blond chick is Perry Lister, better known as Billy Idol's girlfriend in the 80's.

There is also an audio book that Ronin let me borrow called "Lies My Teacher Told Me" which I've been enjoying. The author totally goes into the miseducation, basically of American youth. Kind of like Howard Zinn's, "A People's History of the United States " in which events in American History are ignored, distorted, marginalized, excised and whitewashed so that America can feel good about what they did when they colonized countries like the Philippines, enslaved blacks from Africa and so on. I haven't finished listening to "Lies..." yet, but there were some interesting tidbits of information in there. Wish I could remember them right now, though!

I'm still laying low for the time being. It's like being under self-imposed house arrest. I'm hanging in there. I was bummed last week because I wasn't able to accompany TC on her first day of school. She is now in 3rd grade! I'll have to meet the teacher once my immune system recovers. TC really likes her class and of course, her teacher.

My hair is kind of growing back. But the hairs are very baby fine (if that's a word). It will be awhile before it looks like how I had it back in May. Perhaps it'll take a year or more. I'm not sure. But either way, I am glad to just be here. Period.

Last one!

I'm finally done with my last chemo treatment!

Now, I've gotta lay low for the next three weeks - stay away from crowds, not eat out at restaurants, not eat raw fruits or vegetables, and not be in contact with sick people...etc. Basically, be a hermit.

It was such a relief when the nurse took out that needle near my wrist!

After one month, it's Tamoxifen (pill form) everyday for five years.

Figs for Bri Fundraiser Reminder

Just a reminder that the Figs for Bri Fundraiser ends on July 15. Even though I have never met Bri, I saw her blog through another food blogger's link (see my June 21 post). It's not too late to help out.

See the info below:
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This is an appeal on behalf of a group of food bloggers who are friends of Briana Brownlow @ Figs With Bri.

Bri was diagnosed with breast cancer two and half years ago. A mastectomy, chemotherapy and two years of relatively good health later, the cancer is back. It has metastasized to other parts of her body. At the age of 15, Bri lost her 41-year old mother to the disease. Now, she’s waging her own war against breast cancer. More about it here.

She is going through intensive chemo and other treatments and needs to focus single-mindedly on healing and finding what treatment works best for her. Her health insurance, unfortunately, does not cover holistic alternatives which she would like to try. Bri and her husband Marc have enough on their plates right now in addition to worrying about her medical bills.

The team organising the JUNE edition of CLICK at Jugalbandi has organised a fundraiser to help Bri and her family meet her out-of-pocket medical costs for ONE YEAR.

CLICK is a monthly theme-based photography contest hosted by Jugalbandi. This month’s theme is: YELLOW for Bri

Yellow is the colour of hope. Through the work of the LiveStrong Foundation, it has also come to signify the fight against cancer.

The entries can be viewed HERE. The deadline for entries is June 30, 2008. The fundraiser will extend until July 15, 2008.

The target amount is 12,000 U.S. dollars. We appeal to our fellow bloggers and readers to help us achieve this. Bri deserves a chance to explore all options, even if her insurance company thinks otherwise.

There’s a raffle with exciting prizes on offer. After viewing the list, you may make your donation HERE or at the Chip-In button on any participating site.

Your donation can be made securely through credit card or Pay Pal and goes directly to Bri’s account.

This month’s photo contest also has some prizes. Details HERE.

You can support this campaign by donating to the fundraiser, by participating in CLICK: the photo event, and by publicising this campaign.

Back Home...and one more day

It's nice to be back home, sleeping in my own bed, being in my own backyard watching my garden grow, being home with my husband and daughter, eating good food!

I'm so anxious and excited for tomorrow because it's my last chemo.

As SD foodblogger Captain Jack advised me, I WILL "kick cancer repeatedly in the nuts" with "Great Vengeance and Furious Anger!" (for you pop culture Philistines - the second half of the quote is from Samuel L. Jackson's 'Pulp Fiction' character Jules Winnfield quoting Ezequiel 25:17)!

Boogers, Evil Buckle and Puff Sleeve Rant

After getting out of the hospital, we met my sis for her lunch break in Mission Valley. I wanted to get some new eyeliner (okayyy, and some new jeans) at Nordstrom Rack before going home. We first went to the Mission Valley Mall Food Court where I observed an Old Asian Guy who worked at Santorini Grill digging into his right nostril. He had no gloves on and was at the front counter next to a younger female worker. They were just standing around since no one was in line to buy food. Was he a cashier? A food server? Or God forbid, a cook? I had no idea. In any case, I was a bit put off. He even saw that I saw him but obviously didn't care. Why should he? His expression was so blase. He continued his digital nostrillar spelunking oblivious to all around him. Hey, I'm not the nose picking police, mind you. Pick all you want but if you work in the food service, at least pick your nose in private and I would hope that you please please wash your hands before touching food served to unsuspecting victims!!!

Don't be surprised if you eat at Santorini Grill, to find an extra ingredient or two in your tzatiki sauce, lemon chicken kabob, or gyro plate.

Another funny thing I saw had to do with an eldery man who was quite thin. He was getting helped out of a car by a woman. The man sported that classic "old-man-high waisted" pants look with his khakis pulled up to his nipples and cinched with a thick belt. One that belt was a very large black enamel belt buckle that proudly proclaimed the silvery word "EVIL" in all CAPS. Hey, at least he had a sense of dark humor, or maybe he really does subscribe to the fact that he is indeed "evil", a grandpa badass if you will. That pride reminded me of like Samuel L. Jackson's embossed "Bad Mother F--ker" wallet (from "Pulp Fiction" folks). Click here to see the wallet. Gotta love the Blaxploitation font!

You go old man! Represent the evil!
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A few weeks ago I bought a blouse online from Banana Republic and received it last week. Unfortunately, I didn't get to try it on until today because the day I received it, I had to go to the hospital and all. The blouse was on sale and I had my eye on it for awhile. It's a reddish violet silk blouse with puffed sleeves. (update 7/8 - now the damn blouse is on sale for $19.99 and I paid more for it - I'm definitely going to return this - not just for the high prices I paid for but for the poor fit...read on)

Look at that skinny chick. Just look at the SPACE between the sleeve cuff and her bony stick like arms. She's probably wearing an XS.

I figured a size S would fit me just fine. That size is what I normally wear from that label. Mediums are usually too wide for me.

But my fashion desire and the fit of this blouse was not to be.

The puffed sleeves were so tight over my biceps. If I even flexed slightly , I would have had my circulation cut off or did a Hulk and tear the sleeves up! I had to struggle to pull the blouse off. It's not liked I'm yoked or anything! I think my arms are okay---toned but not as cut as I'd like them to be. I'm not a "big" person nor do I have fat arms. In desperation, I thought, maaaaybe I could take out the buttons on the puff sleeves and move it to the very edge of the cuff to allow more space for my seemingly monstrous biceps. However, even if I did that, those sleeves would still be tight! WTF!!!

I think Banana Republic sizes their puff sleeve arm hole diameters for people with 7 or 8" biceps like the anorexic chick pictured above from their website. Ergo, I am going to return this blouse to the store (instead of mailing it back in). Sigh...And I liked it so much too - the style and the color. Alas, online, the only size left to buy is XL.

Note to self, stay away from puff sleeve designs made for prepubscent bodies.

Food You Don't Want to Eat

THE JOY OF HOSPITAL CUISINE

I thought you might be remotely interested in this particular post since some of my blog is food-related. Here is just a tantalizing taste of what I ate (or didn't eat) during my 6 day hospital stay. I had a fever of 102 on our wedding anniversary last week. Instead of going to Bite or Eclipse Chocolat, we spent it in the hospital where I was to remain until being discharged this morning.

The short story - had infection/got hellacious hives (whereupon my arms and legs looked like an angry human relief map) and a "neutropenic fever"/had to go to ER and after nearly 8 hours, had my own private room which became my home for nearly a week. If my fever spiked, I couldn't be released until I was 36 hours fever free. So, it was kind of up and down for me. Thank goodness my husband stayed with me at night too and that my family visited me. I had no internet access either so I ended up doing a lot of reading and watching movies on the laptop.

My diet was "Neutropenic", therefore, I was and currently still not allowed to have fresh fruit I am supposed to stay away from "thin-skinned fruits" like apples and pears; I can eat bananas or oranges which have thick rinds however. When one is neutropenic, one is more prone to get infections, so my food was pretty bland and boring. Nothing raw. Vegetables were cooked down to the same soft consistency which would have been great if I had no taste buds or any teeth.

BREAKFASTS (or should I say Breakfasteses):

1 pat Margarine (1 pat)
1 tiny packet of salt Salt
1 8 oz Milk 1%
1 each Orange Juice
2 Wheat Grain Pancakes w/Syrup
1 6 oz Coffee
1 each Creamer
------the other variation had pancakes with Scrambled Eggs
Another Breakfast had almost the exact thing, except in place of pancakes, it was "French Toast" with apple juice. All the breakfasts had a mini cereal box (either Cheerios, Total or Corn Flakes). I'm not a milk drinker so I told them not to give me any more more. Instead, they gave me a mysterious container that had "MM" written on it. That turned out to be Mocha Mix, their milk substitute.

Yummy.

Gag.

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Lunches:
(all lunches + dinners hd 1 pat of margarine and 1 salt)
1 each Cranberry Juice
1 serving of Fruit Neutropenic (either canned peaches or pears or fruit cocktail)
1 serving Saltine Crackers
1 cup of Mashed Potato (with skins on)
1 1/3 cup Mushroom Barley
1 1/2 cup Oregon Blend Veg. (don't know what makes it "Oregonian" since it was just lima beans and green beans)
1 3 each Chicken Tenders (surprisingly enough, these were edible but I was surprised that they gave 3 for one serving because they were pretty big; I only ate 1 and 1/2)
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(sorry about the crappy formatting - can't figure out why it's double spacing)

Here's another lunch entree:
1 3 oz. portion + 1 oz. gravy Hot Beef Sandwich (it was 1 slice of bread with brown goo and a slab of greyish brown meat. Nice. Hot Beef Sandwich.

1 1/2 cup of Veg. Germany Blend (although I'm not sure what made this Teutonic--it was just canned green and yellow beans with flecks of red bell pepper)

another entree item was

1 1/2 cup White Rice (this was truly heinous Uncle Ben's style rice)

1 1/2 cup Zucchini

1 2 oz portion + 1 oz sauce Teriyaki Chicken (this was a thin, flattened chicken breast that was only slightly edible due to the thin smear of teriyaki sauce)

...and the featured juice of the day was Grape!

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Dinners:

1 serving of Fruit, Neutropenic (canned peaches or pears - I don't remember!)

1 6 oz Soup - Cream of Chicken (this was the grossest soup ever - it wasn't creamy at all but very thin and watery...much like diarrhea in looks and consistency: Yellowish and with a few bits of mealy solids settled at the bottom of the bowl. One sniff of the thinly coated spoon of dripping anal spew was all it took to make me blanch at the thought of ingesting this subhuman abomination.

1 1/2 cup Italian Blend Vegs. (hmmm, they seem to like "naming" these vegetable blends.)

1 3 oz. protein + 2 oz. sauce which was Chicken with Lemon Caper Sauce (it was a flattened breast of chicken covered with sauce and a few chopped capers. I didn't bother to smell it.)

I didn't consume any of this swill. My parents ended up visiting and saving the day by bringing me ribeye steak with rice and corn.

Another entree:

1 Fruit, Neutropenic

1 6 oz Soup - Chicken Noodle (see description of soup above, but with noodles. Same reaction)

1 white roll

1 1/2 cup Capri Blend Veg (Oregon?German? Italian, now Capri?)

1 9 oz Chicken Pasta Alfredo (these were farfalle and the sauce was really watery and you could see the separation of the oil and the cheese).

In all, not very appetizing. I think I just ate the fruit for this and a few pieces of the veg.

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This was my "4th of July" Dinner (which I actually didn't eat because again, my parents visited me and gave me Filipino food instead - meat/rice/pinakbet)

1 serving Fruit, Neutropenic

1 "Star Spangled Cookie" - this was actually a mini packet of Lorna Doone shortbread cookies

1 6 oz Soup - Cream of Tomato (I didn't even try it but my daughter did and she liked it and actually finished it)

1 flour tortilla

1 1/2 cup carrots (cut into thick wavy slices - again, enjoyed by my daughter. I think this is the kind of food she's used to eating in the school cafeteria)

1 1/2 cup Parsley Potato (mashed potatoes with skin on, this actually tasted decent)

1 3 each Chicken Tenders (Actually, I would have eaten these if my parents hadn't come ewith food. I think this was the day I ordered Chicken Tenders twice.)

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This is just a sampling of what I ate. I am not trying to sound ungrateful but...

Oh.

My.

Gosh.

Some of that food was simply inedible. I didn't want to make a fuss and ask for substitutions or have it taken back. I wouldn't want to incur the wrath of the hospital cook! Kidding. But seriously, I know other people didn't have a choice like I did (with people bringing me food) and I'm sure there were many other patients with worse physical problems that didn't care about something as trivial as food. If anything, I did have a somewhat active hand in choosing what I could eat. Every morning the nutritionist would visit me and take my "orders" for lunch and dinner from a list of choices. It was like asking me if I would rather eat a dog turd or a cat turd or a rat turd. The choices were rather dismal so I made my half-hearted selections, knowing that my parents would save me most of the days. There was one day where I had chicken tenders twice but for dinner I ended up eating something else. There was another day where Thane visited me and brought me rolled tacos (my request), but those aren't really fun to eat without guacamole which is verboten for me.

My sis visited me the other day and brought her laptop and one of my favorite movies...

You guessed it....

Fast Times at Ridgemont High!!!!

It was kind of funny because the movie was just in the background. We weren't really watching it since we were just kicking back and talking, but sometimes we tuned in to certain scenes. A nurse walked in to give me my vitals while Jackson Browne's "Somebody's Baby" was playing in the background...during the sex scene where Stacy Hamilton (Jennifer Jason Leigh) was losing her virginity to Ron Johnson, the stereo salesman at the local makeout place, the Point. I don't think the nurse even knew what was happening, but I wanted to crack up. At least she didn't walk in during the swiming pool scene with the very beautiful and foxy Phoebe Cates. If you're a guy over at least 25 with a pulse, you probably know what that scene is. I'm sure your Betamax or VHS copy's tape is quite thin due to that oft-rewinded bit. Fast Times at Ridgemont High has got to be one of the best movies EVER!!!

Looks like I digressed a 'skosh, but hey folks, that was my week in food!!!

I am sure glad to be back home eating normal food again. I'll be playing it safe for about a month though until I can, once again, ingest thin skinned fruits and vegetables without fear of a bacterial infection. Until I can once again swill alcohol in great amounts (just kidding), until I can once again eat berries and fresh salad greens without retribution of a GI tract infection thus compromising my health. Thank goodness I'm okay now, at home and hive free as well.