Dinner today -> Black Pepper Spaghetti with BBQ Pork

Made some Black Pepper Spaghetti with BBQ Pork for dinner today. Made some cheese bread too. It was pretty good. The BBQ pork I got was abit too lean for my liking.


^ Black Pepper Spaghetti with BBQ Pork.

I was up really late last night. Up til 2am. I was watching "Cool Japan" on NHK (Roger's TV Japan channel). It's normally on at 11:15pm, but it got pushed back to 1:15am because of the Live Sumo Tournament.

FYI: Morning Musume are invited as the special guest to the Sumo Tournament Finals on Dec 5. Maybe I'll see them perform live on NHK.

Yesterday's "Cool Japan" episode was about Japanese packaging. They talked about how advance the packaging in Japan is compared to the rest of the world and how some of the packaging is "overkill".
The really cool packaging was the "Glico Pucchin Pudding". The pudding comes with caramel on the bottom of the cup. It is normally served with the caramel on the top. To achieve this, there is a tab on the bottom of the container that you break to allow air to go in and allow the pudding to slide out (Gavin/Emi did you know about this?). See the video below. I'm going to try and find some Glico Pudding at T&T next time I'm there. It's such an ingenious idea, that some company should bring it over here. (Can you tell I'm fascinated by this design?)


^ Glico Pucchin Pudding released!

The overkill packaging they were talking about on Cool Japan, was that you can buy a package of gum wrappers (the Juicy Fruit sized wrappers). The wrappers are for when your done chewing your gum, you use the wrappers to wrap it, and throw it away. I can't believe people actually buy that!

Useless Japan Info:
Tommy Lee Jones filming his newest "Boss Coffee" Commercial. He is the face of Boss Coffee. The coffee is pretty good too. If I recall correctly, it tastes similar, if not better, than Tim Horton's double double. If your ever in Japan, you should try it, hot or cold, from the vending machines.


^ Tommy Lee Jones filming Boss Coffee commercial.

FYI:
T-minus 19 days til Gavin's and Emi's baby is born!

Weekend Report -> Happy Birthday Susanna!

Friday:
AKB48 Sub-group: "no3b" or "No Sleeves", released their 3rd single on Nov 27. This sub-group consists of 3 AKB48 Team A girls, Takahashi Minami, Kojima Haruna, and Minegishi Minami. The group was formed when these 3 girls were filming their comedy TV series "Mendol" (Stefano: have you watched it yet?).


^ no3b - "Kiss no Ryuusei" promotional video.

Saturday:
I finally got rid of my 10yr old cell phone and got a iPhone 3GS. I stayed with Telus as my provider. They gave me unlimited texting and free Caller ID for 3yrs. I was planning on going with Rogers, as they have similar plans but they were going to give me nothing free. Also Rogers's roaming plans are significantly higher than Telus's.
-> Does anyone know how to move the app icons around and how to delete apps?
Update (just hold down the icon you want to delete for 3 seconds. When it "wiggles" you can move it or delete it.)

Cooked up some Beef Tendon Stew throughout Saturday. Actually started cooking on Friday night, as it takes along time to cook to make tender. Included some marrow-filled Beef Bones for extra flavour. I also added chinese mushrooms and daikon. I cooked it for a long time, but it was worth it. It was really good in the end. I gave a third of the pot to my parents.


^ Beef Tendon Stew.

Went to Jeff's house for some gaming Sat night. Ben, Jeff and I played some Settlers of Canaan and Formula Die (a Indy Racing board game). While waiting for Ben, Everett seemed fascinated by me being there watching his DVD of "The Backyardigans" cartoon. Linda made some good cookies for us too.

Sunday:
Happy Birthday Susanna!
Went to Emerald Chinese Buffet for lunch (used to be called Du Barry). My grandma knows the owner and is the owner's daughter's god-mother, so we got our meal on the house :)


^ 1st plate of food. I got alot of rice wrapped shrimp. They make it good there. Their 2-bite egg tarts were really good too. (FYI: I splashed soy sauce all over my shirt.)

Susanna got a Strawberry Mousse cake from T&T as a birthday cake. It looked really good, but didn't taste that good. I got to say that the bakery section in T&T is not rating very well with our family. Their egg tarts taste weird too.


^ Susanna's Birthday cake. I forgot to take a pic when it was whole, but I got the before and after pics :). The box is good quality.

Time Magazine

Absolutely nothing exciting happening today. So I'll post a magazine cover some people might find interesting. (I'll save some other magazine covers for other times I got nothing to talk about.)


^ A weirdo is on the cover of Time. Not sure who he is, but I don't think he can pull off that move anymore :) LOL

Dinner today:


^ Shrimp Wontons with Ramen.

Bird

Went with Susanna to T&T and SuperStore tonight and bought some groceries. Nothing else going on today, so I'll post my #1 favorite AKB48 Song: Bird. Debuted in AKB48 Team A's 3rd Stage (A3), sung by Takahashi Minami (center), Shinoda Mariko (Left - white feathers), and Oshima Mai (Right - black feathers). This video is from Shibuya AX 2009, Fan voted #4.


^ "Bird" from AKB48 Shibuya AX: Request Hour ~Set List Best 100 2009~ (ripped from youtube so the quality isn't great; volume is abit loud too)

It's only Monday

Today at lunch I splashed really hot chili all-over 2 lunch tables. Burnt my fingers, got it on my sweater, got it on the chair... basically I made a big mess. Luckily none of it landed on Marc or his food.

Dinner today was Thick Sliced Bacon Strips with a side of McCain Rising Crust Steak and Mushroom Pizza. Center was a little soggy/greasy as I think all the extra bacon juice ran to the middle of the pizza. Was going to steam some broccoli to go with the pizza but ended up not doing it. (Sorry Emi, still no green veggies in this meal.)


^ Mmmm Bacon with Pizza. Saving 1/2 for lunch on Tues.

Forgot to mention yesterday, that I saw 2 big flocks of Canadian Geese flying in the "V" formation. What made this abnormal was that they were flying in opposite directions. I think one of the flocks is lost and heading NORTH for winter. LOL

Anyone have their Christmas Lights up yet? I saw abunch of lights up in the neighborhoods near my house. Nothing spectacular, but they look good.
I think the main competitors in my Christmas Lights Contest are going to be Steve and Andrew. They've got some of their lights up and will be adding more. If you know where they live, swing by their houses and checkout what the competition looks like. If the decorations look too good, go ahead and re-arrange the lights to your liking... just kidding ^_^ I guess I should make "no sabotaging" a new rule.

Useless Japan info:
Saw this really cool Doggie Piggy Bank. It goes on sale today in Japan. Maybe I'll look for a site to order one. Click the link and watch the little video of what it does. It's really cool.


^ Doggie Piggy Bank.

Monks in Japan are so cool. They dress like Raiden from Mortal Kombat. I think they just stand there, not moving or speaking, waiting for donations.


^ Japanese Monk (aka Raiden).
(pic from shibuya246.com)

60th Kouhaku Invitee List:
The official list for this year's Kouhaku (japanese/ english) is out today. Kouhaku is the biggest live music show held in Japan on New Year's Eve. It is also a friendly competition between the Red (women) and White (men) Teams. 2nd year in a row that Morning Musume wasn't invited, but AKB48 got invited. I'm also surprised Yui wasn't invited.
I'm looking forward to watching the following acts:
Red Team: Aiko, AKB48, Ayumi Hamasaki, Perfume
White Team: Arashi, EXILE, SMAP, and Funky Monkey Babys.

Weekend Report -> Fongpay Sushi Rolls

Not much going on this weekend. Mostly played Dragon Age, watched TV, and ate "Fongpay Makizushi".

Instructions to make "Fongpay Makizushi" (Salmon, Egg, Cucumber, and Avocado).
Prepare Ingredients:
Rice:
- Cook about 4 cups of rice (makes about 10 rolls).
- Mix into the cooked rice about 4 tsps of Rice Vinegar.
- Let rice cool.

Egg:
- Mix egg with 1/2 shell of milk and abit of salt.
- Cook in pan flat and flip.
- Slice into 1-inch strips.

Cucumber:
- Peel cucumber.
- Cut in half and scoop out seeds.
- Slice halves into narrow strips.

Avocado:
- Cut avocado in half and take pit out.
- Scoop out avocado meat and slice into strips.

Salmon:
- Slice salmon into strips and remove any bones. (Costco salmon is good for this.)
- Do not use salmon meat from the tail. It's tough and fishy.


^ Fongpay Roll Ingredients.

Steps:


^ 1. Layout seaweed and put a thin layer of rice on it, leaving about 1-inch of space at the bottom.


^ 2. Put 1 or 2 strips of egg, then add salmon on top of the egg.


^ 3. Add avocado on top of the salmon. Add a strip of cucumber.


^ 4. Finally, roll the sushi and close the roll with water. I usually use a hot pan to heat seal it (still hot from making the egg). You can try and use a bamboo mat to roll it, but I find it hard to use. It's easier to just us my hands.
(Also don't worry about the ingredients sticking out the ends.)


^ 10 minutes later I made 8 rolls.


^ Mixed some wasabi and soy sauce together for dipping, and sliced up 3 rolls for dinner. Ate them while watching this week's AKBingo! and Shukan AKB.

I stored the rest of the Fongpay Rolls in a Ziplock bag. Made 2 more rolls on Sunday and destroyed all of the rolls over the weekend.

Dinner today -> Oysters + more

Note the Christmas Lights Contest at the top of the page.

Dinner:
Got 12 oysters for $3.99 from Farmboy.


^ 12 Raw Oysters.

I steamed them in a new steamer machine my parents got for me.


^ Steaming Oysters.


^ Finished Oysters with Garlic Butter

I was kind of disappointed how small the oysters were. No wonder they were 12 for $3.99. So I ate those up pretty fast and was still hungry. I steamed up some baby corn and some pork & chives dumplings.


^ More Food. Satisfying.

Mail Watch:


^ Finally got my copy of Super Mario Wii. The red case is different from the usual white.

Happy Birthday Jeff!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEFF!!!

I'm ready to chow down on some Rideau tonight.
nuff' said ^_^

more later...

Update:
Went to Rideau with Jeff, Linda, Everett, and Ben for Jeff's Birthday Dinner. Naeem couldn't make out tonight. Dinner was tasty. We ordered a whole steamed Fish, Chinese Veggies, Tofu Hotpot, Schezwan Beef, and Singapore Style Noodles.


^ Rideau Dinner Dishes.

Afterwards we headed back to Jeff's house for dessert and some board games. Nehal joined us for some gaming too.
Linda made a Tiramisu Cake. It was really good. I usually don't make desserts, but I may need to steal this recipe and try to make this one :)


^ Linda's Tiramisu

We played some Ticket To Ride and Bohnanza. Both are great games.
Ticket To Ride is board game where players build train routes to connect cities. Really fun and takes some luck and strategy. But for some reason, Jeff always seems to win.


^ Ticket To Ridge Results: 1st = Jeff; 2nd = Andy; 3rd = Nehal; last = Ben.

Bohnanza is a card game where players are bean farmers and try to make as much money as they can by trading and planting beans. Another fun game people should try.
(no pic) Bohnanza Results: 1st = Andy, Ben, Nehal (all tied at 17 coins); last = Jeff (15 coins)

Mail Watch:
Still no Super Mario Wii in the mail today.

Dinner today -> Turkey Thigh and Rice

Dinner today was left over turkey thigh and rice. Nothing special.


^ Turkey Thigh and Rice

Nothing much happening today. Was hoping my copy of Super Mario Wii was going to arrive in the mail today, but it didn't.

Dinner today -> Beef in BBQ sauce

For dinner today, I was planning on something simple: Beef Hotpot (basically boiled water with salt and garlic, then dipping thinly sliced beef into it). As I started to prepare, I detoured from my plan. I sliced some onions, chopped some garlic, caramelized them; threw in the beef and added BBQ sauce. Topped it off with green onions and some Wafu sauce. Then I open up some corn, cooked some rice, and re-heated yesterday's potatoes.
It evolved into this:


^ Beef with onions in BBQ sauce, corn, potatoes and rice.

Took a pic of my Maid Cafe souvenirs.


^ @home Membership Card (Lvl 1), Coaster, and my pic with one of the maids. (She's pretty cute. I don't remember what she wrote on the pic.)

On a sad note. Today at CMC, my friend Myriam was layed-off. I think she was kind of expecting it, but it was sad to see her go. She joins a growing list of ex-CMC people.

Useless Japan info:
A new limited flavour of Coke will be released in Japan for the winter season. It's called "Coca-cola Plus Fibre". The new Coke helps you go poo :) I think it might taste gritty?
(credit to IXA Ready - Fist On!)

Weekend Report -> Strike Fighters Party

Friday:
Played Dragon Age late into the night on Friday. Finally got enough money in the game to become a Templar, to buy another backpack, and to get all the Blood Dragon Armour parts. I also downloaded the Rock Golem Shale Quest. I got him in my party now.


^ Fongpay: Dwarven Warrior.

I discovered that I get 4 free Chinese TV channels until Dec 1 (Rogers 819-822). 2 channels are movie channels, 1 is a variety show channel, and the last is a MTV type channel. I watched parts of Jackie Chan's "Young Master" movie Friday night, and a comedy ghost movie.

Read an article on the top Maid Cafe's in Japan. Gavin, Ben, and I went to the rank #3 @home Cafe. I think we went to the 6th floor one? We're all bronze members of this Maid Cafe. Bronze membership is called "Lvl 1 My Master". I'd like to go back there next time I'm in Japan. Maybe we can get to silver "Familiar Master" level (you collect points for each visit and get gifts/discounts for certain levels; Silver = 5 visits). Maybe we should bring Yuto. Start him young at Level 1 and maybe he can achieve "The Legend" status (2000 visits) by the time he is 20. It'll only be 100 visits a year :)

Saturday:
Saturday was the CMC softball team's end of season party. Our team is called "CMC Strike Fighters"


^ Strike Fighters Logo (create by yours truly ^_^).

Our record was 4-15-1 this year. Our best season since I've been on the team. 3 real wins, 1 default win, and 1 tie. Were getting better :)
I brought Sausage Rolls to the party. I made a home made sauce for it too (ketchup, mustard, wasabi, and black pepper mix)


^ Sausage Rolls.

The party was fun. Lots of food, Foos Ball, Kareoke and Air Hockey.

Sunday:
Went to the Toy Sale at Lansdowne Park today with Ben and Susanna. Bought a couple of toys for Christmas Gifts.

Afterwards, we went to the little Flee Market in Stitsville. I found and bought some "Bread & Butter Pickles" from the jam lady.


^ Bread & Butter Pickles.


^ Dinner today was potatoes and a turkey leg.

Lunch today -> Scores

Had a large gathering of former and current CMC employees today at Scores Chicken Rotisserie (22 of us). It was nice to see everyone again. I ordered the 1/4 chicken leg with the all-you-can-eat salad/soup bar. I was a little disappointed with the chicken I got. It was kind of on the small side, compared to the other times I've been there. The meat was moist, but the skin was really chewy and tough. No pic, as I forgot my camera at home.

For dinner today I cooked a pack of the Jumbo Shrimp Wontons I bought yesterday from T&T. I also made some ramen to go with it. Added a soy sauce marinated egg too.


^ Ramen with Jumbo Shrimp Wontons.

STORY:
I got a message on my CMC phone this afternoon from Sandra. She asked me to restart her computer so she could connect remotely. I did, and called her back to let her know it was done.
When someone picked up the phone, I could hear Sandra in the background yelling, "I'M NOT HOME". The person who answered, proceeded to tell me Sandra wasn't home. I left a message with him, to tell her that the computer was reset.
Point of this Story:
When you are at home, DON'T be within earshot of the phone when you yell "I'm not home". It'll make the caller crack up laughing. LOL :)

Lunch today -> Ox Head

Went out to lunch today with Naeem, Jeff, Linda, and baby Everett. We went to Ox Head Vietnamese Restaurant at the Centrum. Everett was being all cute 'n' stuff, shaking his head and sticking his tongue out at everyone.


^ Ox Head Special Vermicelli

Went to T&T tonight with Ben and Susanna. Check out all the yummy swag I scored:


^ Ramune drinks from Japan. The Ramu Bottles don't have the trademark marble stopper, but the litchi flavour one does.


^ Jumbo Shrimp Wontons, not the Green kind :)


^ Veggie Spring Rolls x2, Assorted Bean Curds, and Seasoned Conchs (aka extra large snails)


^ Yukimi Daifuku (IceCream filled mochi) from Japan. I ate it before from a convinience store, when I was in Odaiba, Japan; with Gavin. Good stuff.

FYI: Happy Pocky Day! (checkout the post date and time 11/11 11:11)

Dinner today -> Spaghetti

For dinner today, I made a big pot of meat sauce with alot of sliced mushrooms added. Used the sauce to make a big bowl of spaghetti. The key again is a couple spoons of sour cream in the sauce (and the spaghetti must be "al dente")


^ Large Bowl of Spaghetti & Meat Sauce.

Yummy.
Nom nom nom...
(time lapse: 10 minutes later)
... nom nom nom.


^ Large Bowl.

I got a package in the mail today from CDJapan. It's my AKB48 2010 Weekly Calendar.


^ AKB48 2010 Weekly Calendar Box.

Inside the calendar box includes a envelope containing 5 random photos. While opening the envelope, I was hoping to get Yuko or Kasai or both or an autograph photo or at least a "front girl".


^ AKB48 2010 Weekly Calendar and 5 photos.

No Yuko or Kasai. I did get 2 Takahashi Minami (aka Takamina) photos. She one of the girls I favor and also a major "front girl". She's Captain of Team A, which also means she's Captain of all of AKB48.
The other 3 girls... meh. I don't know their names. They're newer members. 1 is on Team K, 1 on Team B, and 1 is a Research Student (training to join AKB48).
(FYI: Takamina calendar photos already go for at least $10 each)

Also had this AKB48 song stuck in my head all day: Iiwake Maybe. It's the single released before RIVER and I like it more than RIVER. It's more catchy. (BTW: Most of the girls in the video are "front girls".)


^ AKB48 "Iiwake Maybe" (Youtube rip and abit loud).

Hey Will. If your reading this, call me back at home this week in the evenings. Your not picking up your phone when I call you.

Coffee Maker Fixed

I thought my coffee maker was broken on Saturday. I filled it with water, turned it on, and nothing happened. I tried poking around the water drain with a chopstick and shaking it. Didn't work. I was thinking, "Damn, now I have to get a new coffee maker too. What's next to go wrong? (because I beleive everything happens in three's)". Saturday went by without my caffeine fix from my daily cup of milk tea. Sunday morning rolled around, and I woke up to a huge caffeine headache. I drank a can of Coke but it didn't work.
Steve told me today that I should try adding 2 parts vinegar with 1 part water, into my coffee maker. It might be clogged with debris buildup from the water. The vinegar will break it down. I tried it Monday night, and it worked!!! My coffee maker is fixed, but smells like vinegar. Thanks Steve. (Steve also showed off his new iPhone. I'm so envious. I want one too!)

At CMC I'm doing QA (Quality Assurance) work now. I did a SIL audit today and sat through some manual testing. Also auditing a bunch documents for CMC MTL.

Weekend Report -> Dragon Age

Was planning on getting an iPhone on Friday, but I decided to get a new 19" HDTV instead. My projector was losing video whenever I used my XBox360, and I really wanted to play Dragon Age.


^ New TV

Other than Dragon Age, I didn't do much else this weekend. The only notable meal I made was on Saturday for lunch: Garlic Oysters and Potatoes.


^ Garlic Oysters and Potatoes