~ Hong Kong Style BBQ ~

In all honesty, I don't care for American style BBQ. Hot dogs and burgers don't appeal to me much. Perhaps it's because I grew up with Hong Kong style BBQ.  I think I just like the fact that everyone is supposed to gather around the grill to cook.  This is a lot more fun, except it was super hot yesterday!

After a little while, we got lazy and put the food on the grill, American style.  Except, we still have HK style food.  You can't have a bbq without chicken wings!

I guess hot dogs are good too.  But we also like fish balls, pork balls, and beef balls.  We like to glaze everything with honey too.

We also grill shrimps and mussels by wrapping them in foil and adding some black bean and garlic sauce in it.  Sometimes, we also do veggie packs.

Yummy pork chops!  Thinly sliced and marinated overnight.  Awesome!

This is fruit salad.  Basically, it's apples, pears, pineapple, potato and whatever else you want to put it.  Just not mushy stuff like banana.  Then, add mayonnaise or miracle whip and mix!  Some people likes to put some black pepper or egg or fruit cocktail too.  My sister-in-law put some dried cranberries this time.

This was the most awesome watermelon!  Very sweet and juicy!  We also made a dessert soup with mung beans and seaweed.  It's very good to drink mung bean soup and eat watermelon to counteract the "heat" of all the grilled food.  I had a great time this weekend and I hope everyone else did too!  Can't wait till the next long weekend!

~ Muddy Hike at Billy Goat Trail ~

Yay!  It's finally time to hike!  It has been raining for a few days and I was worried that the trail would be muddy.  But, my awesome friend reassured me that it would not be muddy because he went last week and it was fine.  This is what my shoes and pants looked like after I came back.  Would you call this muddy?

 Just to be clear... this is what was on my shoes.....  I had some fun with my macro lens :D

Anyway, aside from the mud, it was a great hike!  It was a lil dangerous because part of the easier trail was flooded so we had to climb some crazy rocks.  I need to take a break from this Billy Goat Trail for a few weeks at least.  I m still a lil afraid of those rocks right now.  There were a lot of fallen trees and signs of flooding and I had to get down and use my hands at a few spots.  But, it felt really good to be out and about again. 

Of course, it's always more fun with the dogs!  It was a shiba inu party!  I was so jealous that they looked so clean compared to Momo!

Look at this rat.   He was not happy to be back on the leash after running around on his own for most of the trail.

Good thing I had a blanket in the car to save my seat!  He was so wet and nasty.  We had to shampoo him twice and just hose him down to get rid of all the dirt.   Well, at least he's nice and fluffy now.  Can't wait to go back!!

~ Happy Chinese New Year 4708 ~

Happy Chinese New Year!  This is Lunar Year 4708, a year of the rabbit.  According to some Chinese zodiac specialists, this will be a fairly calm year after living through the ferocious year of the Tiger last year.  I hope so!  I do need some time to rest!  Anyway, just for Chinese New Year, I did my nails with red and gold!  Sorry, Zoya Crystal, you'll have to wait.

This is a special new year for me because it's the first new year I spent as a married woman!  What's so special?  Well, instead of receiving lucky money from all my elders, I have to give some away!  I don't see a lot of kids though so I don't have that many red pockets prepared.  I love them!  They are so pretty!

Compared to the awesome craziness that was Chinese New Year in Hong Kong last year, this year has been fairly quiet and uneventful.  Well, that's Chinese New Year in America.  Who has time to do all the traditional stuff or 拜年 when they have to work or are snowed in with 2 feet of snow?  All the same, I hope every has a wonderful and peaceful year!  恭喜發財!  祝大家心想事成!  龍馬精神!

~ Snowmageddon 2011 ~

Ok, this is really not as bad as the last Snowmageddon, but it was coming down pretty hard!!  Traffic was horrendous and I know so many people stuck on the roads.  It's not just 270 and 495.  It was a lot of other roads!  DC gets pretty crazy with snow!  At times like these, I am glad I can work at home and didn't have to go to the office today.

So, after a day of watching the traffic and news and snow, I went outside to shovel.  My husband was still out rescuing people with our AWD and I wanted to make sure he has a little path to the door when he gets back.  It was really beautiful outside!

I wish I can capture the magical snow in the street lamp.  It was hard though.  It was dark, the wind was blowing and my hands were frozen after shoveling.

 

The snow is very heavy and wet this time.  The trees are all drooping from the weight.  I hope my neighbor's tree doesn't crash into my house!

Haven't done this in a while! Snow angel!  I am really hoping for a snow day tomorrow.  A real one.  One that I don't have to work even though I can work at home.  I need a break from debugging this stupid ClassNotFound Exception.  The class is there damnit!!!  Oops... sorry for the rant :)

Wanna see what made Momo cry in the snow?  Check out his very own blog at Mimolo.com!

~ African Cichlids Prejudiced against Albinoes ~

Mimo was attacked!!!  Poor thing.... He has been in 3 different tanks already and with each transfer, we hoped for the best and ended with less fins and tail. 

So, here's the story.  Mimo is an albino Ruby Red, a type of African Cichlids.  When we bought him at the store, my husband's expert cichlid friend said to watch over Mimo.  In his experience, albino fish gets picked on a lot.  So, we put him in a medium size tank with fish that were smaller than him.  He was fine.  We noticed that he doesn't seem to see very well, but enough to eat and swim around.

But, we had an issue with the water quality and an ich (white spot) outbreak so my dad moved him to our display tank with the other adult cichlids.  We observed for a while, and things seem good.  But the next morning, Mimo just seemed so slow and tired.  He was just resting on top of the rocks and not really swimming and whenever he stops, a fish comes by and nibble at him!  See this black one?  He was ready to attack!

So, I guess this big tank was a little too much for Mimo.  He wasn't ready to be the only albino in this tank.

So, my dad put him in isolation for a few hours with ich treatment.  

My dad decided to put him in with the baby Ruby Reds.  We figured they are the same kind and Mimo is so much bigger that he should be fine.  See how his fins are already in a bad shape?

Those little babies won't hurt him right?  They did leave him alone for a while......  They just gathered into a little group and stared at him.  They don't look gangsta at all right?

But..... a day later, a big chunk of Mimo's tail was gone!!!!  These little bastards!  Trying to act all innocent but in reality, they are maniacs!!!  I should flush them down the toilet for hurting Mimo!  But, my dad likes them so I have to leave them alone.

So, my dad put Mimo in a even smaller tank with smaller fish.  He said he's sure they won't hurt Mimo.  But that's what he said about the previous 2 tanks!  I hope he'll be ok here.  If not, we will have to isolate him somewhere till we find more albino friends for him.

Now I feel bad. He had an albino friend with him in the fish tank at the store. Maybe that's why he was perfectly fine there with other adults fish. But, everyone is picking on him now even if they are 10x smaller than him! So, I guess I can confirm that fish pick on albino fish because this has never happened with any other new fish we have gotten. Poor Mimo!

~ Happy New Year 2011 ~

Hope everyone had an awesome 2010 and will have an even better 2011!  2010 has been a great year for me.  Nothing bad happened, but certainly lots of good things happened!  I am looking forward to 2011!  Today, we got a new life in the house!  Well, actually 3 lives, but only one is mine.  Meet my new friend Mimo!

Mimo is Momo's aquatic brother, an albino ruby red cichlid.  We are hoping to find him a special girlfriend so they can get married and have lots of babies.  Here he is in his new home.  Doesn't he look so happy with his new friends?

I usually don't do New Year's resolution, but I do want to set some goals.  It will keep my head straight because I have too many hobbies!

1. Create new packaging for my jewelry.  I bought the Silhouette SD for this reason but I haven't even taken it out of its box yet!  Another part of the branding effort is a new logo and website.  I will be moving this blog to www.happycloudmoments.com
2. Clean up my inventory.  Right now, I have a huge variety of supplies.  I want to keep less of a variety because I am starting to forget where I bought a certain item and I can't restock after I use all of them.  And it's just so hard to keep track!  So, be on the lookup for a big destash sale in my supplies shop!
3. I got a Swarovski hotfix gun so I will be rolling out some new products!  Yes, I have a lot of crafting toys to play with.
4. I am going to be more consistent with my jewelry.  I will have at least one jewelry making session a month to produce new products.  The rest of the time, I will just make stuff when people order. 
5. Do a major clean up of my house.  I have so much stuff.  Years of being a sentimental shopaholic has taken a toll on my house.  Plus, my family has grown but my house hasn't.  So, I will be doing a big purge!  In the spring, I am going to do a yard sale and get rid of some of my clothes, jewelry, gadgets and books.  After the sale, the rest will be going to Salvation Army.  
6. Create an application.  Not even going to attempt to sell it.  I just want to write something from start to finish.  To have something of my own.
7. Be healthy!  With all my hobbies, goals, game addictions, and tvb addictions, I don't get enough sleep.  So, I think I will try to worst of my habits.  Sleeping late!!  I need to sleep at a more consistent schedule and exercise more.
8. Enjoy life~! 

What are your resolutions?

~ Merry Christmas! ~

I can't believe it's Christmas already~! Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you had a great time with your family and friends and made them happy with the thoughtful presents you got for them. I got festive with my nails today and I just LOVE them~!  Isn't this snowman so cute?

I did something different for every nail!  I draw so well right??  Please excuse my sad cuticles.  I need to use the cuticle oil that I have!

Ok, I lied.  It's stickers.  I think I have 5 or 6 sheets of these left.  Yay for crazy impulse shopping in Hong Kong.  I think I have enough nail stickers to last me 5 years.  I was thinking about selling it on Etsy, but I don't think it's allowed.  So, I will just use them all myself!  Or have a blog sale.  I don't know.  My inner hoarder is telling me to keep them all to myself :)

So, my friends came over and we had an online shopping spree at Missha and Bath and Body Works.  Bad bad bad!  But, who can resist 50% off and free gift and clearance with another 20% off???  The Bath and Body Works semi annual sale started online.  And there's a 20% off + free shipping over $50 coupon code!  It's "F102777". The body butters are 1/2 off and buy 3 get 3 free and after the coupon it's like $3 each!

Ok, seriously, enough shopping!!  I am going to be a good girl.  I think.  No Victoria's Secret.  No more anything!  Ok, gonna go do a face mask so I can make room for the new face masks that are coming next week.  :)

~ Thank You for the Christmas Presents! ~

I got a surprise package in the mail today. Gotta love my LGs~!  I love this mini card!  So cute!  and everything was so nicely wrapped.  To my lovely LGs, your presents will come when I visit!

I guess I should've put this under my tree and wait till tomorrow but.... I just wanted to open it.  It's Munny~!  And the surprise accessory is a very cool hat!  Hmm.... what should I do with this?  I think I am going to give it anime eyes.... and make the hat yellow.  With stars.  Maybe I should hotfix some Swarovskis on it to make it bling?  This is going to be hours of entertainment!

In the box was also another fun toy.  I have never seen this before, but it's called Piperoid.  It's like these paper tubes that you can use to create robots.  Fun!

I didn't think I will have a tree this year, but my dad found the little one I had from a few years ago and plugged it in.  So, I have been putting some of the presents underneath it.  This one is so pretty that I just didn't want to unwrap it.  I have already unwrapped and consumed my other presents... I just get too excited and can't wait till Christmas to unwrap presents!

Ok, so this is my little prelit baby tree.  Poor thing.  I can't even find the ornaments for it.  This is as Christmasy as it gets in my house.

So, thank you everyone for all your wonderful presents and thoughtfulness.  I appreciate everything!  If you are wondering what my husband got for me, hopefully I will be able to show you in a few months.  :)

~ Why Eat Out When You Can Eat This? ~

I know you miss all my posts about restaurants and stuff. I am sorry, but I just don't feel like eating out much nowadays. Why? Because I am awesome home-cooked Chinese food every day!  Let me show you a typical dinner at my house.  It's usually 3 dishes and a soup.  We try to balance the meat and veggies.

This is steamed chicken wings with black mushrooms and Chinese sausage.  The chicken is so very, very tender!  This is probably one of the healthiest ways to eat chicken wings.

This is a close up.  See how translucent the Chinese sausage is.  Very good stuff!  I think the brand is "Ga Ga".

This is corn beef with potato, Chinese style.  Well, not really Chinese style.  More like my dad's style.  This is awesome on its own or over rice.

We are pretty big on soup.  And I am not talking about canned soup broccoli and cheese.  This is soup made with various veggies or herbs with either chicken or pork or beef.  It is more broth like but it's supposed to be very nutritious.  This one is made with melon, mushrooms and chicken feet.  Chicken feet provides a lot of collagen.  It is probably better for your face than a collagen face mask!

All done.  I don't have to do dishes.  I don't have to cook.  I don't have to pay.  Awesome :)

~ Happy Thanksgiving ~

I can't believe it's Thanksgiving again!  What a crazy year!  Last year, I wrote about everything that I was thankful for and it was a little..... mushy.  This year, I am going to skip that.  I am still thankful for having everything I had last year.  This year, I am also very thankful that my family has grown!  I am now married and I have all my wonderful in-laws.  And my stepmom has moved in with us and now my house is always full of food and laughter.

This past year has been great and I am thankful for every single awesome moment of it.  I hope everyone had a wonderful year as well and enjoy your day off with your family and friends!  Happy Thanksgiving!!

~ Lush Chrysanthenums at Brookside Gardens ~

This past weekend, we had beautiful weather!  I am so glad my friends and I planned a trip to Brookside Gardens to see the Chrysanthenums.  It was my first time at Brookside and it was great!  Not very hard to find, plenty of parking and just beautiful!  The sky was so blue and all the color leaves are just so pretty.

Loves these bright red trees!!  I need to go take more pics of the red leaves before they all fall off!

So the chrysanthenums are in the observatory.  It's surprisingly small.... for some reason, I was imagining all the flowers being outside, in a huge space.  But, it was only a small green house.

But, there are a lot of pretty flowers inside!!  I walked around the entire place 3 times and every time I see something new.

Of course, I took lots of pictures.  I really wish I have a macro lens but my hands probably shake too much for a lens like that.  Sadness....Anyway, here are a few of my favorites.  This one looks really soft and romantic to me.  Very .... wistful.

I never realized these flowers are made out of all these little flowers!  They are so adorable!!

These are so fluffy and big!  It's like the size of a slightly flattened soccer.  They look like pillows to me.  I just wanted to touch them!

This one is just....weird......

Such pretty colors......  So warm and sweet.  

I like these a lot too.  They are like little stars.  

I want to take my mom here.  She loves flowers and she'll love to see so many pretty ones.  She also loves taking pictures so this will be a perfect outing for her.  There's also a little succulents section in the observatory that she'll love.  Too bad she rather go to Vegas than come visit me.  And yes, this is my passive aggressive way of telling her that she sucks!  Just kidding.....I love my mom!