finals countdown

One exam completed -- pretty sure I didn't bomb it, but one can only hope. No more evidence until the bar exam! Whoo-hoo!

Three more finals and a paper to go.

camera phone capabilities

I went for a run to the grocery store this morning, wanting to fit in some sort of exercise during the finals cram time. Of course my first final exam is tomorrow, and I should probably spend as little time away from the Federal Rules of Evidence as possible. That's why I decided to run to the market, buy some necessities to feed the brain, and catch the bus back. I figured I'd be done in an hour, tops (15 minute run to the grocery store, 15 minutes inside, catch the 1:20 bus and be home by 1:25).

So then I left the house and started running. I ran for a good 5 minutes until I got distracted by this beautiful flowering tree. I didn't have my camera on me and the only thing I had was my phone. The camera phone works pretty well for taking pictures from a distance. But, as you can see below, the camera phone doesn't do well with taking pictures up close. I didn't get the effect I wanted from this flowering tree (which I don't even know what kind of tree it is, but the purplish pink flowers were gorgeous).

This picture below would have been perfect if it a bit clearer and you could actually see the details of the flower.

So after that little 5 minutes distraction with the flowering tree, I commenced my running and ran for another 10 minutes before I got distracted by tulips in bloom. See, in this picture, the grocery store is just beyond this parking lot. But the flowers were so pretty, I had to take out my phone again and use the camera to take a picture (mainly because I wanted to use the picture as the wallpaper on my phone because the red tulips would match the red phone). This picture turned out so much better than the ones above.
So, I finally get to the grocery store and looked at my watch, 1pm. The bus comes at 1:20, so I had a good 20 minutes to dash around, get the stuff I needed, check out and run to the bus stop. Like a mad woman with her iPod in her ears, I quickly ran throughout the store and got some milk, fruit, cottage cheese and some frozen dinners (I get lazy during finals and the microwave becomes my best friend). I checked out, got everything bagged and ran to the bus stop. Looked at my watch and it was exactly 1:20. There was another man at the bus stop and he said he had been waiting for 5 minutes, so I thought I made it on time because he obviously didn't miss the bus either.

Well, I waited and waited and waited, and the man eventually left thinking he'd get home faster. I looked at my watch and it said 1:30pm. I looked at the bus schedule and the next bus was supposed to arrive at 1:50. So I figured I could walk/jog and be home in 20 minutes instead of sitting there waiting for the bus for 20 minutes. So, with my two bags of grocery, I set out for a fast walk home (I attempted jogging, but the groceries became too heavy for me to keep jogging).

Guess what happens next? I didn't get home in 20 minutes. I was about 4 blocks away from home when the darn bus drives by and passes me.

Oh well, I got a good hour and 30 minute workout from all that walking/jogging/running/carrying groceries. Still, I wish I had a car.

too much studying

CC: I wonder why every parking spot is taken.

Me: It's lunchtime, everyone is out.

CC: Oh, is that a spot over there?

Me: No, it's an evidence spot.

CC: A what?

Me: Oh. My. Gosh. I meant to say "handicap" spot.

CC: Haha, you have evidence ingrained in your brain.

Me: I hope that's a good thing and nothing leaks out Sunday night.

classic!

The Ex-5 Piece Stainless Steel Knife Set and Holder

What every woman should have in her kitchen. Functional, Practical, and Warns the males to beware!

springtime brings the flowers

the opposite of working out

My friends and I decided to take on the Summer-Six-Pack-Challenge, where we all measure our waistlines (in private, of course) and take a picture of our beergut/muffintops/flabby abs/my Pal, before we head off to our different destinations for the summer. Then, wherever each person may be, we vow to do a rigid exercise program towards the goal of achieving a six pack of abs by the time we all return to KC for the start of our final year in law school. The girl with the most improved set of abs wins all the bragging rights for the rest of the year.

I would also like to add that the two girls who already have FLAT stomachs should not be allowed to compete in this challenge, but since we're judging on overall improvement, those two better had rock hard abs that are so defined you could wash clothes on your "washboard abs".

Anyway, so J and I started going to the gym together this week. On Monday, we did a rigourous 30 minutes workout -- J on the treadmill and me on the elliptical (because you know, I'm old and my knees hurt). We ran/glided hard. We sweated tons. We chugged water and ran some more. We made our muscles hurt.

Then we showered, met up with the girls and had some ice-cream right afterwards.

WAIT!!! We had a reason for the ice-cream. C and I had birthday coupons for free Love-it size creations at Coldstone Creamery, but because mine expires almost as soon as C gets her coupon, we had to find a mutual date so the girls could get together and celebrate the end of my birthday week and the start of C's birthday week. So with this Love-it size Mint Mint Chocolate Chocolate Chip ice cream creation, I declare it the end of my birthday celebration week.

So, on Wednesday (today), J and I went to the gym again. We both did a 30 minute workout on the elliptical today, with pretty hard resisteance and doing intervals of hill climbs. I had a toning class last night, so my muscles were extremely sore, but I gritted through the 30 minute workout. We grunted. We sweated. We panted. We made our muscles sore.

I don't know what J did for dinner, but while I was in my afternoon class after being done with the gym, I was chatting with T online and she made me hungry talking about her craving for fried chicken, which gave me a craving for Burger King. So as soon as class was over, I called up CC and asked if she wanted to go kill our diets with french fries. Happily, she relented and my Pal is a happy tummy right now.

I know what you're thinking, what's the point of working out and taking a six-pack-challenge if all I'm going to do is eat junk. I say this: I'm warming up to the actual starting point, which is AFTER finals are over, and I'll start losing weight when I start my internship for the City Attorney's office because I'll only be able to afford to eat peanut butter sandwiches on my salary of $0. Cut out the eating, lose the fat. And somewhere in between, do lots of crunches to get those washboard abs.

Yep, that's plan.

up close and personal with food

new japanese joint

We decided to try out a new Japanese restaurant, Nara, after classes yesterday. The happy hour menu was the thing that mainly drew our attention, but we were a little weary of how good $3 sushi would taste like.

We started off with an order of the happy hour rolls: California roll, Spicy Tuna roll, and Philadelphia roll. I'm not a big fan of raw fish so I ate mostly the California rolls, which I don't think any good restaurant could mess up. I did try the Spicy Tuna and Philadelphia roll, but because of my aversion to raw fish, I stuck a ton of wasabi on it hoping to mask the taste and texture. Wasabi worked, and I mostly had tears coming out of my eyes while eating the raw fish rolls. I don't think I chewed very well either and just quickly swallowed it.
We also ordered the Fried Gyoza, which was really tasty. It's the Japanese version of a potsticker. And for some odd reason, I really liked the curly carrot strings - they were really crispy.
The weirdest thing off the happy hour menu was the "Green Apples and Fried Wontons" dish. Just judging from the name, my friend and I thought it was going to be some kind of dumpling that involved the use of green apples and the peanut sauce was going to be used for dipping. Um, this is what came to our table: a plate with sliced green apples and fried wonton skins, with a dish of peanut sauce for dipping. It was strange, eating a green apples dipped into a sauce that didn't even taste like peanuts. The fried wonton skins were good just because of the fact that fried anything is good.
Since we hadn't yet whet our appetites, we decided to order a couple more dishes. One being the cold udon and pineapples. It was cold. I only liked the pineapples; cold udon - not so much.
The Spring Rolls - um, I like mine better. But the presentation was very pretty.
The menu didn't list what was inside the spring rolls, so we had the idea that it was going to be meatier. It was more of a vegetarian summer roll, with lettuce and a piece of mango. The bad part was that they didn't make the rolls to order. The rolls were made in advance and then stuck in the fridge until it was time to serve. When you stick spring rolls in the fridge, the skin isn't stretchy anymore and the bean thread noodles get cold and crunchy, which is something you do not want to taste.
Overall, the best things were the sushi, even if I had to eat a lot of wasabi just to mask the raw fish rolls (but that's just me; CC totally liked the raw fish rolls). We'd go back there again and just order the sushi and gyoza. We'll skip the rest.

birthday feast continued

Because it's my bertday today, and because I only had one class today, I went to happy hour with CC at our one of our favorite places McCormick and Schmicks. Why is this our favorite place? $1.95 appetizers - oh yeah. My "21st" birthday drink - Strawberry Crusta. $8.95.
$1.95 Happy Cheeseburger
$1.95 Happy Spicy Buffalo Wings
$1.95 Happy Spinach & Artichoke Dip
$5.95 Molten Chocolate Cake & Ice-Cream
Free Happy Birthday Apple Pie

Yay!

Now, I'm freaking full and absolutely buzzed because I drank before I ate. I feel like I need to go throw up just to get the alcohol out of my system. Hopefully coffee will work. That or a nap. Who cares about all the reading I have to do for classes tomorrow.

happy birthday to me!

No, I didn't eat the whole cake myself. I shared, thank you very much.

bad puppy part 2

Remember Beau, the puppy who is not allowed on beds? Well, he still hasn't learned.

Beau decided to share my bed with me one night when I was at L&G's for spring break. I usually sleep with the door closed, because I don't want Beau jumping on me in the morning. However, this one night, I woke up at 2 a.m. to go to the little girl's room. The door to the bedroom was left open.

As I was walking back towards the bedroom, I noticed there was a different smell to the room -- a doggie smell. I looked at the bed and guess who was in it? Beau. Right smack in the middle of the bed, and he even snuggled himself under the covers.

I laughed. Then I tried to pull him off the bed, which he did not want to do. He did everything he could to just make himself ten times heavier. I dragged him off, fearing that I was also choking him at the same time, all the while whispering loudly, "Get off, Beau. OFF. GET OFF!" Somehow, I finally managed to pull him off the bed, but he wouldn't get out of my room. He snuggled up to the side of the bed, gave me those puppy dog eyes that said "Please, can I jump back into the nice warm bed?" and kept wagging his tail. I kept telling him to get out of the room so I could close the door, but then I just hopped back into bed and ignored him, hoping he would take the hint. After a few minutes, Beau left the room and I hopped up to close the door.

And because this was all happening at two in the morning, I was not awake enough to grab the camera. But here are pictures of Beau in the process of destroying his new chew toy.

And when I woke up the next morning to tell L & G about how Beau jumped into my bed the night before, they both laughed and said they heard the whole commotion. They just kept laughing until they fell back to sleep.

Glad I could give them a midnight laugh fest.

this picture explains it all

Some people wonder why I eat so much. Others wonder why I never stop eating.

I tell them that when I'm hungry, I eat. And if I don't eat within an hour of feeling hunger pangs, I'll get really cranky, and then weak, and then more cranky.

"Ignore the hunger pangs and the hunger will go away."

I now found an image to explain why I can never ignore my stomach's growling:

Do you see what I have to answer to?!

Picture courtesy of K, who posted it on her blog courtesy of her sister A.

lemons and crabapples

I got up at 3:30am this morning to catch a 6am flight. I had three hours of sleep last night. I slept for 3 hours during the flight from Oakland to KC. I just got home, finished unpacking, had a lunch, and now I'm beat.

Screw homework, I'm taking a nap. Oh, and since I'm so tired, here's some pretty pictures of a lemon "tree" (shrub? mini-tree?) and a fruitless crabapple tree in bloom.

I often wonder whether I should quit law school and become a professional photographer.

banana caramel cupcakes

I bought this new cupcake book at Barnes and Nobles. There's a lot of good recipes for "gourmet" cupcakes, but I haven't had time to try any of it out. Plus, I don't have a lot of baking stuff in my apartment and don't want to buy all of it and have more to pack when I move after graduation. So, when I was packing for spring break at L&G's in sunny California, I packed the book along.

For Easter, I decided to attempt the banana caramel cupcakes. Sooooooo yummy. Below is the receipt and pictures of the process. Sour Cream Banana Cake:
-6 tbsp butter, softened.
-1/2 cup firmly packed brown suger.
-2 eggs.
-1/2 cup self-rising flour
-1/2 cup all-purpose flour
-1/2 tsp baking soda
-1/2 tsp allspice
-2/3 cup mashed overripe bananas
-1/3 cup sour cream
-3 tbsp milk

Filling and decorations
-3 tbsp caramel sauce
-1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped
-2 medium bananas (14 ounces), sliced thinly
-chocolate chips to top (or shaved chocolate)

Baking Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 6-hole oversize (Texas) or 12-hole standard muffin pan with paper baking cups.

2. Beat butter, sugar and eggs in a small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy.

3. Stir in sifted dry ingredients, banana, sour cream and milk. Divide mixture among baking cups; smooth surface.

4. Bake large cakes about 25 minutes, small cakes about 20 minutes. Turn cakes onto wire rack to cool.
5. Remove baking cups from cakes.

6. Fold 3 tbsp of the caramel into the whipped heavy cream.

7. Cut cakes horizontally into three slices. Re-assemble cakes with caramel whipped cream and banana slices. (cake, whipped cream, banana slices, cake, whipped cream, banana slices, cake).

8. Top with layer of caramel whipped cream and chocolate chips.
This is the finished product. Get a fork, a glass of milk, and devour away.

Easter Eggs

Last year, my birthday was on Easter and I went to Easter Service at a Presbyterian church. This year, Easter is starting off our spring break and I went to Easter Service at a Southern Baptist church. Boy, that was quite an experience. Hallelujah!

After church, L was preparing Easter dinner and she wanted me to decorate hard boiled eggs. I haven't dyed Easter eggs since I was ten years old, but I'll do anything artsy that involves getting my hands dirty.
So we boiled the eggs and then I prepared the colors, 1/2 cup warm water plus 3 tbsp vinegar and a tablet of dye. Turns out the red is really orange, and blue and green dyes the best.

I used the wax crayon to draw on the eggs before dipping it in the dye. It's kinda hard to draw on a white egg with a clear wax crayon and not be able to see what you just drew. Turned out okay, I guess. At least you can tell this one is a flower.

The plate of finished eggs, sitting and drying. There was a weird looking rabbit that I drew -- it was kinda sadistic looking. Oh well, I'll be breaking up the eggs and making egg salad in about an hour.

Happy Easter!

a shot of dessert

Tonight's spur of the moment dinner was at PF Changs, one of my favorite Chinese-food-made-for-the-American palate (aka as authentic Chinese as you can go without scaring off the Americans). We had the PF Changs Spareribs (not shown), Chicken Lettuce Wraps and Fried Shrimp Dumplings (both shown below).

The ribs were finger licking good (although, PF Changs is probably not the kind of place to start licking your fingers at the table). The sauce was probably hoison based, and the meat was nice and tender, sliding off the bone with ease.

The chicken lettuce wraps were delicious, too. To make it more authentic, a side of hoison sauce should have been included -- oh wait, that's Peking duck, nevermind.

I was quite surprised that the fried shrimp dumplings (image below - up close and personal) were quite large in size. I was expecting dumplings that were about an inch and a half in diameter, but these things were almost two inches all around. I wasn't able to pop a whole dumpling in my mouth, which is what I normally do. I had to bite it and break it apart.

The "surprise" of the meal were the shotglasses full of dessert. We had asked for the dessert menu, and instead the waiter came by with this arrangement of shotglasses of various kinds of desserts ("I'm the dessert boy tonight, can I interest you in a shot?"). There were eight different shots, ranging from PF Changs Great Wall of Chocolate Cake to Carrot Cake.
To satisfy our dessert craving, we chose the Strawberry Cheesecake (shown below) and the Banana Sundae (shown above). For $2 a shot, it was a perfect size to quell the sweet tooth and not have any guilt associated with eating a regular slice of cheesecake or a whole banana split sundae.
All in all, it was a perfect portioned meal. By sharing three appetizers and having these smaller versions of the dessert, we had variety, we felt full and satisfied, and most importantly, we didn't feel like we had to throw up because we stuffed ourselves with too much food.

Next time I'm at PF Changs, I'm totally going to forgo real food and just eat the eight different shots of dessert.