Skeptickle

Dear J Crew,

Here we are again. I just received one of your 20% off final sale coupon codes in my inbox. For me, it’s like a shining light – full of promises and potential, compared to my other emails, which consist mostly of spam from pharmaceutical companies in Canada. You tempt me with lovely textures, gorgeous colors, and the charm and sophistication that I crave. Nevermind that you’re a company for yuppies and bourgies. They obviously have good style sense. So I noticed that you’re starting to raise your prices, which means that the sale prices are higher also. This is probably the best for the both of us. Soon I won’t be able to afford you and we will part ways. Doesn’t mean I don’t want you badly, I just…don’t think it’s right for me to go with my instincts of buying now and thinking later. Don’t you agree? I mean, that’s what screwed so many people over in this economy in the first place.

Just know that it has taken me a lot of will-power not to order this from you:

or these:

and these…

and these…

and maybe these:

Nevermind that I almost never wear heals. I’m certain that if I buy one of these magical ones from you then I’ll be just like one of your models- cute, light & breezy, and perpetually happy. Alas, I am young, and it would be irrational of me to take from the pot that will go towards a down payment, our future family, and possible emergencies. So for now, I will have to quash my urges and find satisfaction from solely drooling over your beautiful pictures. I hope you understand.

Love always,

Sophia Q.

For the past 10 months I found myself with a lot of time on my hands to read the books I wanted to read instead of the stuff that was assigned to me. I was able to devour about 30-40 books in that time span. Reading has always been more than just a hobby to me; it’s more like an obsession. My favorite place to go when I was young was the library, where I’d check out as many books as can fit between my skinny arms and my chin. I wouldn’t eat or sleep because books were food and rest enough for my soul. I still have trouble putting down a good book and sleeping, and would instead stay up all night to finish it. Here are five books that I highly recommend if you’re looking for something to read that’s worth sacrificing sleep over. They cover all sorts of deeper issues, like the different kinds of love, loss, forgiveness, fear, betrayal, and hope- that make you keep pondering well past the last page.

1.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. Nonfiction. This book is the one that inspired me to be a locavore and to look at food in a very different way than I did before. Kingsolver was able to weave her and her family’s story with facts, recipes, and other anecdotes throughout the book, which made it both entertaining and educational. She writes with the kind of honesty and common sense that anyone can appreciate. It gives the reader a look at the trials and joys of growing a sustainable farm, enough to feed a family of four, for an entire year. What a great experiment!

2.

Peony in Love by Lisa See. Fiction, inspired by true stories. This book really revealed to me a lot about Chinese history and cultural beliefs. I have to admit that I’m a little behind on learning about my own people and there are some traditions and rituals that continue to elude me. For example, Chinese ancestral worship is something most Chinese families still practice. There are complicated rituals attached to these duties and I never fully understood what most of them were for. A good part of it was explained in this book, along with a detailed snapshot of what life was like in 17th century China. You can tell that the author did her research and I’m looking forward to learning more from her other novels.

3.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. Fiction. I’m so glad to find an author who understands (aka is obsessed) with books as much as I am. The circumstances are puzzling until the main character starts uncovering the truth piecemeal. This book read like a good mystery movie with a delicious plot twist towards the end. The characters are well-developed and original. I can’t rave enough about this one!

Continue reading Book Recommendations

Disney/Pixar did it again with their new movie Up. I have to admit, I used to be skeptical about Pixar’s animation especially when they were acquired by Disney. I didn’t think their creative genius would last. I mean look at Dreamworks. They used to be entertaining when they made Ants and Shrek (I &II) , then it all went downhill from there. They now seem like they are trying too hard to be like Pixar and have very little original or interesting storylines of their own. And when they do, they go over the top and try to be “cooler” than their audience (check out Sharks Tale and Shrek III and you’ll know what I mean). Maybe I’m so unhip that I can’t relate to their characters anymore, even though I can always emotionally relate to Pixar’s characters.

Pixar just has an elegant way of telling a story and their jokes are always tasteful. Anyways, I was still skeptical of their latest movie Up because the trailer made it seem like the characters were very one-dimensional. So what if an old geezer tied a bunch of balloons to his house and told everyone else to piss off? Why should I care about him or that chubby cub scout?

Well, my inner pessimist sure got silenced within the first twenty minutes of that movie. With the exception of Grave of the Fireflies (which I wouldn’t recommend to anyone who doesn’t want to feel deep and utter despair), I don’t think I’ve ever teared up during an animated movie before. Don’t get the wrong idea though, Up was not nearly as depressing as GOTF. I had to really hold it together because we were sitting amongst Rob’s co-workers and apparently Rob was feeling the same way at the time. The old man’s backstory helped us relate to him at a deeper level. I won’t give it away because it was a surprise to me and I think it’s better as a surprise. Every time Rob and I come out of a Pixar movie we’d reevaluate our favorites, and Up has definitely made it to both of our top 5 Pixar movies list. Here’s my current list (so far):

• -Ratatouille
• -Up
• -Toy Story 2
• -Finding Nemo
• -Wall-E

I’m really looking forward to the release of Toy Story 3 that’s scheduled to come out next year!

The story that led to us choosing Café Primavera as our caterer is actually quite uncustomary. I started searching for a good but (relatively) affordable caterer after we changed our date. Only two caterers that I talked to who were on the Nestldown preferred vender list fit within our price range. There were a couple more that dropped the ball and didn’t get back to me so I assumed that they didn’t need our business. One of the people I got a hold of was Erika of Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme catering. She met with us at a Starbucks and went over what they were about and asked us a lot of questions about the types of food we like and what we imagined things to be like for our wedding. She answered my prepared list of questions very professionally.

We scheduled a tasting at Nestldown while another wedding was going on, which I guess is standard for them. Sorry no pictures of that tasting, but it’s pretty much the same as the one for Cafe Primavera, except PSRT didn’t let us try the vegetarian dish. The food was delicious, but what totally blew us away was their homemade ginger ale. It was the best ginger ale we’ve ever had, with fresh bits of ginger floating in it. We seriously drank a whole bottle of it by the end of the tasting. So we were pretty set: good food, good ginger ale, and we really enjoyed working with Erika. I kept attempting to get a hold of Continental Caterers because they initially responded to my queries but they seemed too busy to get back to me when I was trying to schedule a meeting.

So we sat on making a catering decision because we knew it would be wiser to try out at least one other place before signing a contract. About a month went by and then Erika emailed us to tell us she was leaving PSRT and will be working at Cafe Primavera. Our file will be transferred to someone else within the company and they will be taking care of us from then on. I was both surprised and curious. I asked her more about the company she will be working for. She was reluctant to tell me about them because she didn’t want it to seem like she’s trying to steal clients (which she wasn’t, it was all my own doing). In the end, I convinced her to let us try the food at Cafe Primavera to quench my own curiosity.

Review of Cafe Primavera after the jump

Continue reading My Experience with Wedding Caterers

Rabbit's Foot Meadery

So after I kidnapped the hubs from work, we headed straight to Rabbit’s Foot Meadery in Sunnyvale. The owner, Maria was sweet enough to let us have a tasting even though it was late in the day. We tried 3 different meads, a chocolate raspberry port, three cysers, and three ales. I liked everything we tried and we made out with bottles of both a sweet and a dry mead.

We then set off to a tea shop and got educated on all the various teas. The shop specialized in Taiwan oolong and aged Pu-erh tea. We got a set of teas to try with the cast-iron teapot we found in Chinatown awhile ago. Since we had a late reservation at Chez TJ, we walked around for a bit and wandered into a fish store. They had some of the coolest fish and other animals to look at including this itty bitty shark:

Shark Purse w/ cute baby shark inside!

Chez TJ Review after the jump

Continue reading Rob’s Birthday and Chez TJ Review