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MEET ELYSE, HELP ELYSE
Meet Elyse...she is the eldest of triplet girls of my dear friends, Tim & Susan. Elyse was recently diagnosed w/ HLH, a lethal disorder that destroys her blood cells. She is currently going through chemotherapy, but she needs a bone marrow transplant to get a chance at life. Her parents are working with Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches to organize a donor drive. They are asking friends to open up their network of friends, churches, organizations, etc. to raise awareness and help promote a donor drive for Elyse.
I will definitely be at the donor drive, and also try my best to get as many people to attend. If this story has touched your heart, would you please share the story of Elyse to all your friends, co-workers, families or church members in an effort to increase the chances of Elyse meeting a match? I will be posting upcoming donor drive information as soon as the date is set! PLEASE VISIT ELYSE'S BLOG TO SEE HOW SHE IS DOING
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HENKELS? SHUN? WUSTHOF?
I've been waiting for my wedding day to invest in a good set of knives...the time has long passed, and I still haven't made a decision on which ones to get. We all know Henkels and Wusthof are top brands. But what's the difference? And what the heck is SHUN? Is that new? Their knives are so scary looking. So I went to BBB (Bed Bath and Beyond) last night so I can browse around from a large selection and hopefully pick up one knife to take home and try out. There were SO many different brands...and SIZES! OMG do we really need all of them? I just got more confused. Hogan and I stood there all flustered looking at the long list of knives and prices. And then to my rescue came another customer who happened to be a catering chef and the sales guy who used to work for the Patina Group! Here's what I've learned:
- Henkels knives have 3 tiers. Top of the line (i.e. Professional/5-Star/4Star) are the original German made type- these knives display their signature logo with 2 dudes (the twins). The next line is the mediocre one made in Sweden- these knives display a logo with the twins, one holding onto a spear. The last one is the line made in China- 1 dude (not even twins) holding onto a spear. So make sure you know which one you are buying!
- SHUN knives are known to be the sharpest. More geared for those who cook very often. Long-lasting. They look a bit awkward because the handle doesn't resemble those of most other knives, but their handles are super comfortable. They're pretty pricey. And they are NOT Japanese. Each knife comes in a nice case with a Japanese character on it, which is also displayed as their logo on the knife, but it is not Japanese, it is American made- well at least that's what the chef told me.
- WUSTHOF- they're top of the line and ideal for home cooking.
SO I brought home an 8-inch SHUN Chef knife cuz I'm such the Master Chef, right? haha. I got it cuz it looks BAD ASS. And I returned the mini food processor back on the shelf since now that I have this magnificent super cutter/dicer/slicer, I won't be needing the food processor anymore. I tried chopping some garlic when I got home but I really didn't notice much difference at first. But while I was slicing up the sun-dried tomatoes, I noticed that I had sliced off a part of my fingernail!!!! (see photo) it totally reminded me of that one Friends episode where Monica and Phoebe were catering a funeral event and Phoebe lost a fingernail in her quiche..... so I guess the SHUN was sharp enough. My next purchase would be the 7 inch Santoku and a sharpening steel. Other than those 2, I really don't think I would need a top of the line paring/bread/utillity knife. All this terminology- it's just a marketing gimic- you only need one small knife to to all the paring and peeling and stuff...and maybe a serrated one for cutting tomatoes and slicing bread.
Here's the dish I made with my brand new SHUN- if you want the recipe, click here.
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MY FIRST BID
I got my first bid on my wedding dress today. Relieved....and also sad at the same time :) but I'd rather do something with the proceeds of the sale than hold onto it because of the emotional attachment....oh but I have pictures for that. It would have been nice to hold onto it, possible alter it to wear it as a formal evening gown one day...but c'mon, I could never wear that dress to a party....maybe if I were like 40 years old or something. SO, it's up for sale.
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I've done a lot of research into selling used wedding dresses, and I'm telling ya, don't even think about recovering 50% of the costs, even if it's designer. I've seen so many Vera Wang dresses posted up for sale at 50%-80% that go unsold. My thought is this, most buyers who have the money to pay 50% for a Vera Wang or alikes would probably rather pay full price and get their won. So my pricing strategy was to post it at 30% of retail price, but decided to lower it a bit more to increase visibility. and it worked. i've had 200 hits within the first 48 hours and i've been bombarded with questions, and have been enlisted on many Watch Lists. I've been lucky. This is pretty exciting, we'll see where the bidding takes us.
I'll feel a lot better if I allocate the proceeds to something tangible and valuable instead of spilling it here and there. Hopefully I'll get enough to back to get something nice for our new home- dining set...washer & dryer...or the "Rain" showerhead or something like that.
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HOGAN'S FIRST WALK
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I tried taking Hogan for his first walk last night in an effort to potty train him outdoors, but it was pretty unsuccessful. He was very uncomfortable with the leash around his neck, and the feel of concrete to his feet was probably unpleasant. He was whimpering as I tried to drag him on his four legs, and when he tried to get in the elevator, the doors almost shut in front him because he was too scared to cross the 1-inch "gap" between the hallway and the elevator doors.
So back to square one - he'll continue to take care of his "business" on the wee-wee pad in our living room until he's a little bit older. His peepee and poopoo amounts are pretty small still so it's not too bad, but I better get him trained outside before his amounts get too big. And what if he starts lifting up his leg? (he doesn't lift his leg while peeing yet). Do I have to put up wee wee pads all over the walls too?
Most of you have already seen Hogan, but here are some more pictures of him- oh he's so adorable. I just can't get enough of him!
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WEDDING PHOTOS
Hey everybody, WE'RE MARRIED! Thank you everybody for giving me a wonderful wedding day. We've posted all of our wedding/paebaek/honeymoon pics. There are over eight-thousand pictures of the wedding posted on eugene's website. Enjoy!
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JB REUNION
20 years ago, I enrolled at John Burroughs Junior High School, in the seventh grade. I was reminded of this event by my jr. high school friend, Hamilton Tran, along with almost 60 of my classmates in a mass email sent out by Hammy. Can you believe it? TWENTY YEARS!!!! since i've been in the seventh grade. And wow, seeing all those names on the email list shot back a lot of memories, seeing old pictures was pretty funny, and reading about everyone's lives through their blogspot and myspace postings was pretty hearwarming.
Can you spot me on this yearbook page? (Thanks for sending these pages)
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NOT SO "PICTURE PERFECT" MOMENT
Eugene and I took photos last week with our wedding photographer, Sae Lee. It was quite an experience. We must have taken over 100 shots - some where we posed for the shot, but the majority of them were candid shots...and of course only about 1 out of 10 turned out okay. The rest...well the rest are pretty funny. The photo above- I couldn't resist. It was a DUD picture but it totally reminded me of a 70's-80's Korean movie poster, kinda like the ones posted up at Dahn-Suhng-Sah.
And here are some nice ones- well, at least I think they're nice.
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