• Vean in Scrapebooking Class


Scrapbook Class with Irene

Steve bought me a scrapbooking class as X’mas gift. This is a scrapbook artist that I absolutely L.O.V.E.! Her works are so rustic and has so much details, Steve is very impressed with the class work that I created…lol

• Bakesale Betty

One day Steve and I were passing by Berkeley and we noticed this small deli shop on the corner with a line of customers lining up. So we figured it must be good and decided to grab a bite. When we stood in line, an employee told us they are all out of buffalo chicken sandwich, so we left, wondering if that is that only thing they sell. We then Yelp it and realized that’s the best selling item, and decided to come back earlier this time to try it out.



Buffalo Chicken Sandwich @ Bakesale Betty

The sandwich is not cheap (approx. $7) but I think it’s big for me. There are a couple pieces of fried chicken wrapped in a french baguette bun, served with cole slaw inside the bun. I like the sourness of the cole slaw. There are also buffalo sauce that you can add to the chicken (hence the “buffalo” chicken sandwich) but it tastes good without the sauce too.

Steve is not too crazy about spending $7 for a sandwich, but I like it very much. Hey, the sandwich went on a recent front cover of the San Francisco magazine. It must be good.

• Indie Mart

The Workshop offers mini-classes on a variety of craft or cooking projects. It sounds like fun, and one of these days I will go take a class!

• World of Good

Socially responsible shopping. Never feel guilty about shopping again =P

• Love this bathroom, this patio & this bathroom

The Flaming Lip’s Oklahoma Residence

Dominey Pavilion by Lightroom Studio

White Bathroom

• DIY Thread Lamp

This is totally gonna be on my DIY list!

• Reviving an old chopping board

Some nice info on how to make your wood cutting board look like new again.

• Donate old cell phones

If you have old cell phones that Goodwill won’t take and you don’t know what to do with they, why not donate them for good cause?

1. Donation

I dropped off the items at the local Goodwill on 12/31! During the year, we made approximately $950 of donation:

- Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano $100
- UNICEF $100
- CA State Parks Foundation $100
- Tzu-chi $200
- University of Illinois $100
- KQED (net of gifts received) $24.5
- InVision toy drive $11
- Goodwill approx. $322

I consider the goal achieved!

2. Clean up & organize the house

Bathroom cleaned; kitchen rearranged; family room organized; study room organized; guest room organized; entrance organized; garaged partially organized.

I consider the goal pretty much achieved!

3. Traffic ticket

I submitted the written declaration on 1/2. 2 days late but goal achieved!
4. Update financials

This is about 30% done. Will keep working on it in 2010.
5. Craft projects

I finished the scarf for my dad and 95% done on my mom’s tote. Still a lot to get done. Mission incomplete.
6. Sell wedding gown & decorations

Listed the wedding gown today! 3 days late but still accomplished. Still need to list the decor.
7. Baking

Did not attempt this at all. Goal not achieved
8. Set up workshop

The garage is still full with boxes, but we’re clearing it out little by little every week. We will have the workshop set up sometime this year. For sure!!!
9. Set up business

I have no time to do this since the above 8 items took most of my time!
10. New year resolution

Working on it……

With 10 days till the new year, there are a few things I gotta get to before I write up my New Year Resolution =)

1. Donation

Steve and I decided to contributed a percentage of our after-tax income to various charities, and we decided the amount to be $1000. We’ve made a few donations during the year, so we need to tally up what we’ve donated so far, and to pick a few charities we support to make the donation before 12/31.

2. Clean up & organize the house

After moving into our house for over a year, it still looks like the day we moved in……so I’m going to use my week off to unpack, organize, and clean up.

3. Take care of my traffic ticket

My first ever traffic ticket that will cost me $500. Ouch!!! I will take Steve’s advice and fight the ticket.

4. Update our financial

That’s already been on my agenda for a looooooong time! I need to get our finance organized so Steve can realize how much junks he bought.

5. Finish the craft projects

The X’mas gifts to be done first. I’ll post them later.

6. Sell the wedding gown & decorations3

I know it’s beautiful and has sentimental value, but I can’t justify having a wedding gown in my closet that I will not ever wear again. Plus, I already made a deal with Steve before I bought the dress that our mutual goal was to sell it after the wedding, and he’s been bugging me ever since……

7. Bake cupcakes or make bread

Now that I officially own the mixer, I should really make something. Should I bake cupcake or should I make bread? Umm……tough choice……

8. Set up a workshop at home

This will have to be done after the garage is cleaned out.

9. Set up my business

(Secret)

10. Write a New Year Resolution

I’ll write my new year resolution on 12/31 =)

It’s 4 am now, and I can’t sleep anymore.  We plan to head to the lounge at around 6:30 am and take a hot shower (it’s roughly $8 singaporean dollar per person to take a shower).  Although it’s not cheap, but we figure we’ll be out all day in HCMC until we find a guesthouse at night, so it’s worth spending the money to get freshen up a bit.

There’s a 24-hour food court upstairs and I really want to eat hainan chicken!  But we want to have lunch at the lunch lady’s place in HCMC.  so I’m not sure if we want to stuff ourselves with hainan chicken before having pho at noon.  Besides, I’m not that hungry yet.  Singapore Airlines gave us so much foods!  We have lunch, light meal, and dinner on the air (the portions are all the same, can’t tell a difference between light meal and dinner…)  We also had snacks in between.  Maybe we’ll have waffle & snacks instead?  Maybe we’ll have hainan chicken on our way back with the 1-day layover? 

I can’t wait till we get to HCMC!  We have no idea where to sleep tonight!  But we do know the exact location of the soup lady for the really good pho =)  Before that can happen, we have to pray that we can get into Vietnam with no problem.  We got pre-arranged visas online through a hotel in Vietnam.  The cost is cheaper than getting actual visas through the consulate (Vietnam doesn’t provide visa on arrival).  How it works is that we applied and paid processing fee online, then we got a letter from the hotel.  We printed the letter and supposed to hand it over to immigration and pay the $50/person multi-entry fee.  They should have our visas ready for us.  Let’s cross our fingers……

Alright, I’ll stop right here.  The internet here times out every 15 min and I already re-logged in a couple times.  I hope I can find internet & time to blog more when I get to my destinations.

Last night was a long night.  Indeed, neither Steve nor me sletpt at all!  Not that we were sleepless due to excitement, but we had not start packing until then, and there were a lot of little things to pack (as with all trips…)!  Clothes, shoes, Steve’s camera gears, adapters/chargers.  And to stuff them into the backpack neatly too!

By the time we finished the bulk of packing, it was almost 5am.

Then I also spent some time on the sewing machine (my first projects!).  Steve got a money belt and will be the keeper of all documents & money, but then I really want a neck pouch or something to put my money, too (in case we lost each other), so I spent time making neck pouches.  The first one was too small, so I had to make another one.  By the time I was done, it was 7am.

After taking shower, we walked to the bus stop to get to BART.  The bus stop is 30 min away from the house by foot, and we were late heading out the door, so needless to say, we missed the bus and had to wait another 40 min.

Finally we got on the bus, got on BART, and I felt asleep almost immediately.  I was so tired!  We arrived at SFO, had a light meal, got on the plane, and I fell asleep again.  The ride was very smooth.  It was between sleeping and eating for me all the way =)  Singapore Airlines really stuffs you!

Oh we have to broad soon!

Since 2 weekends ago, Steve and I started hiking with our new hiking shoes and a loaded backpack, in anticipation of our upcoming trip.  We want to make sure we can get used to the backpack as well as breaking in our new shoes.  The first weekend, we hiked an hour at the Berkeley Marina.  Last weekend, we did 2 hours at the Oakland Redwood Regional Park.  This weekend, being the last weekend before we’re off, we’re doing 3 hours in Briones Regional Park!  Yay~

• 2nd Annual REI – Ridge Trail Service Day

Volunteer to work on the trails!  Too bad I found out too late and the trails near us are all at capacity ;(  Plus the timing conflicts with my Saturday class.  I guess I’ll be looking forward to it next year.

• Tony Bourdain Commented on Alice Waters

Steve and I had been watching Bourdain’s No Reservation on Vietnam & Laos due to our honeymoon planning.  We’re constantly cracked up by his comments.

Well, I don’t know.  I never tried Chez Panisse but I would like to one of these days……

• The Gibbon Experience

If we have time, it’s worth doing this in Laos, although it’s a bit pricey.

• 555YVR

A new condo with affordable units in downtown Walnut Creek is finally releasing!  I see this complex whenever I pass by WC to get gas, it’s nice they’re finally getting done.

I heard about this author on NPR one night.  She has a new book out called The Man in the Wooden Hat.  I didn’t really listen to what this book is about, but then the program also talked about her other book Old Filth and that sounds like an interesting book to read.

I’m be looking for the book the next time I head to the bookstore.

-

• Free Flights for Lifetime

Wow.  Nice!

• Ground Decoration

I am contemplating in installing this on our deck……

• Joaquin Miller Park

Read about the restoration of the Joaquin Miller’s Abbey in SF Gate.  It’s nice that there are so many parks near my house, now that we know one more place to go for our weekend hiking!

• 風轉西藏——我在拉薩賣咖啡

I was researching about the Vietnam trip and stumbled upon this.  With a couple more clicks, I found out that this guy actually biked all the way from Bangkok to Lharsa, and then decided to open up a cafe in Lharsa, and has just written a book about his experience.

It’s nice to be living freely.

While REI reps at different stores have generally been informative, there was still conflicting info given such as hip/shoulder weight distribution and fitment.   The article here provides proper fitment guideline, as written by the backpack maker.  For comparison purpose, I’m 5′-10” weighing 140lb with slim build, and measured 18” for the torso length.  For my own fitment, here are the packs I tried on in no particular order:

• Osprey Atmos 50

Better fitting than Gregory below without the foam sticking in the back, though shoulder strap padding was a bit thin, causing indentation underneath the armpit.

• Gregory Z55

The foam pad used in the upper back constantly reminded me of its presence, which would be a distraction during the hike.  It did have side access zippers on both sides of the main compartment area, which enabled easier access for quick retrieval.

• Deuter ACT Lite 65+10

Best pack by far in terms of comfort, fitting, and workmanship.  Quality material and excellent construction, reflecting the high standard one typically expects of from a German company.  It’s vari-quick harness shoulder strap system allowed me to fine-tune torso length to the desirable position.  The pack fits you, rather than the other way around.   No hot spot on the back.  Only minor drawbacks were no integrated rain cover (a feature others may be missing too) and its tendency to sway under momentum (32” tall).

• Mountainsmith Cross Country 3.0

As featured in Backpacker Guide ’08 for best value, it will carry anything you can sanely load into it with ease at the rated 70L capacity.  The really small and not-so-functional daypack can be separated, though the compression straps would be rendered useless for the main pack.  Fitting was on par with Deuter due to similar vari-quick harness setup, though extensive foams used on the back created hot spots, great in winter alpine hiking but not in hot & tropical Asia.

• Deuter Futura 50+10 Vario

Final winner — this is the go-to-pack for our trip, whom I’ll be spending a lot of intimate time with, right after the newly wed wife.   Same vari-quick harness as the bigger ACT Lite 65+10, though just 40lb capacity instead of 50lb.  The smaller volume/weight capacity suits me just fine, since being the mule of the family sounds tiring without setting afoot yet.  It has an integrated rain cover and also features more exterior pockets, always a plus.  The ventilation design in the back is a bit different from ACT Lite, through usage of mesh screen, in addition to the aircontact foam/mesh combination.  Look foward to testing the pack under real condition for the weekly hike.   The goal is to carry approximately the weight we would be carrying on the trip while afoot for extended duration.

I was “hoping” to honeymoon in Tibet but plan changed……

• My Mom Is a FOB / My Dad Is a FOB

An SF Gate article mentioned these 2 blogs built by 2 college friends.  Some of the stuffs are pretty funny although they are clearly targeted toward college-age.

• Fight on SF Muni in Chinatown

Totally hilarious!  I don’t understand a word that the Asian lady said, but there’s someone in the background shouting in Chinese saying “Beat her!  Beat her!”.  I don’t think that will ever happen outside of Chinatown.

• 小肥羊之老鼠實錄~深圳福田振华路店

小肥羊

No way I’m eating there!  I did go to the same restaurant in the US though, hopefully the US is more hygiene than China……I guess I don’t mind their packaged hot pot soup base =)

• “The” Baby Einstein

All the above links have the Asian theme!  Here’s one that’s different.  This 2-year-old has IQ of Einstein, way smarter than me!  That is just so weird……I guess my baby will be reading Encyclopedia instead of watching Baby Einstein.

With that in mind, we went to REI and tried out some backpacks for me.  First, we decided on the proper size.  This article has some basic information on how to choose a backpack.  Although our trip is considered extended trip (5 days & more), we really can’t carry more than 70L of gears (that would be way too heavy!!).  According to the REI staff, that pack is really for people who are carrying snow gears, rock climbing gears, etc.  Since we have none of those, we thought multiday is the best for our trip and something good to have for future use.

Next, we figured out my torso size.  My size is between an extra-small and a small.  I tried on a few small packs, and they fit pretty well, so there was no need for me to try extra-small.

After that, it’s basically just trying out different packs, loading it with weights, walk around and see how it feels.  We loaded it with about 25 lbs of weight, and it was heavy!  So I think the ideal capacity for me is between 40L to 55L, because any higher capacity would just be wasted.  It wasn’t that easy finding packs for women in the capacity that I want at the Berkeley REI store, but I did manage to try a few:

• REI Venturi 40

REI Venturi 40

This is the first pack that I tried on with 20 lbs of weight.  According to Steve, this pack has a pretty good rating (function/price), although it wasn’t too comfortable for me.  There was a lot of pressure on my hip bones (probably due to not enough padding).  I also felt pressure on my lower back, which I supposed is due to the weight, not necessary the design of the pack.  The shoulders were not too comfortable either, no matter how I adjusted the pack.

So I moved on.

•  Gregory Jade 50

Gregory Jade 50

I can’t remember the exact model for the second pack, but it was a Gregory, and I remember seeing this bag on the rack.  This time Steve loaded 25 lbs of weight.  Not knowing that the weight increased by 5 lbs, the first reaction I had after putting this pack on was that it was lighter than the REI pack!  My hip bones didn’t hurt anymore, but I could still feel weight on my shoulders no matter how I adjusted the straps.  I also still had the lower back soreness.

Overall, this is better than the last one, but I tried a couple more.

• Deuter Futura Pro 34 SL

Deuter Futura Pro 34

Steve loved the Deuter!  Deuter doesn’t have sizes because it is adjustable to your exact fit, however, I don’t think this one is adjustable, but anyway……We couldn’t find a Deuter multiday pack, so we tried the day+ pack.  It feels pretty good!  No pressure on my hips, the shoulders still had a bit of pressure, and lower back still sore, but overall, it was slightly more comfortable than the Gregory.

Next, Steve let me try the bigger Deuter bag just to see how it feels.

•  Deuter ACT Lite 60 + 10 SL

Deuter ACT Lite 60+10

I guess this is what I tried on last.  Immediately after putting this pack on, the hips felt good and I didn’t feel the soreness in the lower back!   Steve thinks maybe the Futura 34 is a bit of a stretch for 25 lbs.  Everything feels great except the shoulders.  For some reason it wasn’t covering my shoulder bones and it was creating soreness on my shoulder blades more than the other packs.  Fortunately, this pack is truly adjustable where you can adjust the shoulder straps up and down.  With a few adjustments, my shoulders were covered and not as sore as before.

The only problem is this bag is too big and I will never be able to carry it when fully loaded.  But I guess we’re convinced that Deuter is a pretty good pack and next time we can narrow down to trying the other Deuter’s.

After trying out the 4 packs and walking all over the store with 25 lbs on my back, I was ready to call it a day!