Chocolate Cake Dusted With White Mocha

It's my dad's birthday and I made chocolate cake and dusted it with white mocha. I used the new cake mold I got for Christmas from my sister Grace. It worked out really well. I like the bit size feeling. No fork or spoon is needed for this, just your finger.

Santa Clara Valley Orchid Society Flower Show

I love orchids, they are low maintenance and they bloom for a long time.


They are also very durable and will respond to healing and reviving after drowning in too much water or near death dehydration.


They also come in all sorts of colors and patterns and shapes.


They can also be very fragrant.


This is the time for orchid shows and I went to one at a local mall in Westgate. This one did not charge an entrance fee. It was small compared to the one in San Francisco Fort Maison. But it had enough of a variety to enjoy. These are from Santa Clara Valley local growers.

30 Cents an Ounce

Stumbled on Yogurtland on the way to another dessert place. It was a great find. It's totally too cold to have ice cream or frozen yogurt but oh well, it's fun. This place sells it by the ounce and it's 30 cents an ounce. It's totally help yourself service from making your own swirls and toppings. I wanted to try all the flavors so I made a rainbow in my very big bucket that is actually size small. My favorite for the night is blueberry cheesecake and taro. My bucket only came out to a little over a dollar and I was able to finish everything. I can't stand it when the store gives you more than you can eat and charges so they can charge you a bundle for it. This is better. I can finish exactly what I wanted, no leftovers, no throw aways or over stuffing myself. Just perfect.

Where's Lance?

Tour de California





Went to San Jose Japantown today for lunch. It's my nephew Kevin's birthday. He tossed a coin and picked Japanese food over Italian. It was raining and we came across road blocks. We couldn't find parking etc... and almost decided to go somewhere else for lunch. The deciding factor was whether or not we had enough umbrellas in the car. The kids found them underneath seats and so we parked the car and walked. As we walked we discover the road was blocked for Tour de California. We decided to stand in the rain and wait for Lance Armstrong to pass by and cheer for him. You know when they are far away it seems like they're going slow but when they actually pass by, they pass by in a flash. So where is Lance? Which one is him? I have no idea. He flashed right by.





We ate at Minato Restaurant where my dad works. He knew we were coming and he made me special eggplant. It was so fresh, tender and juicy. So delicious!

Then we went back to my sister Helen's place and the kids watched Madagascar 2 and went back and forth between my sister making "man to" and the movie. I thought Madagascar 2 was funnier than Madagascar 1. We also had time to watch Totoro. It was all in Japanese and my little 6 year old niece Ellie and 3 year old Lena translated for me. I saw this when it first came out like 15 years ago or maybe it was more than that, well anyways, I did not remember any of it except for the cat bus. I thought the cat was the coolest, he had the GPS on everyone and everything way before the invention of GPS.

Valentine Sox

It's Valentine's day. My newphew Dustin had his first baseball tournament in Sunnyvale. I had hopped it would rain since it was raining all week. It's just sooooo cold. Well, it didn't rain despite promising dark thick black low clouds. So I packed my pack with pillow and blankets, gloves, and beanie. I dressed for a snow storm. It was smart of me because I stayed warm this way on the cold metal bleacher. I don't think it would have been this cold if it wasn't also windy. Well, we were cold so were the kids. They actually had to jump up and down to stay warm on the field.

I brought a poster to cheer Dustin on. His jersey number is 2. I used waterproof pen incase it rained. But I didn't use waterproof poster paper. I actually don't even know if there was such a thing.

Check out these clouds. He had two games today. I had planned to only sit in on one and go home and watch the NBA All Star Slam Dunk competition. But they lost their first game and was really bummed out. All the kids paid attention to the bleachers to see which parent left and lost interest. I decided I'd stay and forget about slam dunk competition.


We decided to go for Korean food for dinner to warm up.

Dirt in Nails

I worked on the garden with my dad. He didn't want me to get my hands dirty or lift anything heavy. But I did anyways. I like doing things with him. My dad is more of a doer than a talker. In a matter of a few minutes we filled a 20 gallon box with weed. It was heavy. I enjoyed it working with him like this. He does not stand around and criticize me or undo everything I did. Instead he didn't want me to get my nails or feet dirty.

Cute?

Why are squirrels cute? I'm not sure. I knew someone who had a squirrel for a pet and fed it organic Odwalla apple juice every day. The squirrel was actually sick for a week during which there was outbreak of e-colli. It was only afterwards that they pasturized the apple juice.

I thought squirrels were cute until one day I noticed in my backyard squirrels makes sounds and my dog barking hard. I peaked out and squirrels were throwing walnut shells and fruit pits at my dog from the fence. It was not playful. Then I found out they were rodents like rats and stank.

Super Bowl Sunday

My brother Michael and his son Dustin came over for Super Bowl Sunday. They played basketball out in the driveway during half time. I watched my brother teach Dustin how to play basketball the way my father taught us when we were little. That was neat to watch, exactly the same. I guess when it's good, keep it and pass it on.
The last five minutes was quite the thing. It actually felt like a Super Bowl game. Then the turn of tides in the last minute of the game, the winning team became the loosing team. Too much excitement and intensity all packed into 5 minutes.