iPhone Camera

Don't you think these pictures are pretty?  ^___^

No?  Er, well, that's nice @_@''

BUT YOU BETTER SAY THE NEXT ONE IS PRETTY *shakes fist*

Hahaha!  Guess who?

It's me in my PJs~ ^^ So did you say it was pretty?!!?

NO?!!  I'M GOING TO HUNT YOU DOOOOOWN

Just kidding :)  

I have some happy news.

Well, maybe shocking to some ;)

Buuuut, I got a smartphone!!  It's a phone that I can no longer drop without worrying it will explode :(  My Nokia MusicXpress has been a trusty sidekick for the past 3 years, and I still carry it in my backpack as my watch, haha!  I should really wean myself away from it =_=''

Anyways, I got an iPhone, which means.. LOTS OF PICTURESSSSS  :D:D:D  hehe, I need to work on my *point camera at self and shoot* pictures, since I definitely never take those @_@''  I tested the iPhone camera out on baked goods and at restaurants the past month, and they definitely don't look as crisp and clear as DSLR images (like the first two images in this post.  Use them to compare!).  But it's a phone, so it needs some slack ;)  The nice thing is that I'll pretty much always have a camera with me instead of lugging the DSLR around, but it's a hard trade off when I think that I'm losing some prettier pictures :P

So after suffering from baking withdrawals, I made a few things :D  (and ate them :D:D:D)

Banana bread-- soooo easy to make, and sooo good :)

Bread pudding :D  Used up leftover bread!  It's a bit sweet for me~

I'll cut back on the sugar next time ^^''

Gourmet food!  Hehe, this is a croissant spinach I had for lunch at school.  (Spinach on the side, YES!)

And another day it was Korean noodle soup with chicken :D

I'm so happy WashU spoils us with the food *swoon*!  Definitely will miss this when I graduate :'(

And after 3 years of being in Saint Louis, I finally tried Imo's Pizza, which is Saint Louis style pizza.  They use their own blend of cheese called "provel" cheese.  I'm guessing it's provolone and mozzarella.  Everyone tells me that I'd either love it or hate it, but I thought it was good (not in love!).  But the leftovers... mannnnn, once you microwave them and they become a soggy, mushy, cheesy mess... now THAT's what I fell in love with.  Haha!  Can totally imagine myself going to buy fresh pizza and just sticking it in the fridge right away so I can eat it the next day :P

Yay!  Happy I finally tried Imo's.  The taste is pretty strong, so I can see how people wouldn't like it.  But if you're on the other side of the group, this would be a nice place to eat junk food.  Also, I haven't actually eaten inside a pizza establishment before (other than Cici's like 923849238 years ago), so that was pretty interesting :D

Imo's pizza!  16 inch pizza with 4 toppings, cut into convenient squares~

My extremely happy and excited eating partner! Haha~

That's Imo's house salad.  It's pretty much a tossup of lettuce, a few carrots and red onion slivers, topped off with a generous handful of their cheese.  The garlic dressing is really yummy :D

I think I either did something stupid or said something funny here.  

Or maybe Daniel was just choking and I decided to take a picture instead of attempting to save him ;D

^_^

Imo's Pizza

23 N Bemiston Ave

Clayton, MO 63105

~*~

There was an intramural swimming meet, where my friends and I formed the MikiNuggets team (best name ever, no? :P)!  All of us were out of shape, but it was a lot of fun.  Since this wasn't a legit competition and there weren't many people, we were all swimming races after just finishing the previous one!  Our legs!!  :P

Debra and Daniel came to watch us :)  Hehe, it was like our Mommy cheering for us!  Thanks for coming and I hope you were entertained ^_^ *heart*

Team MikiNuggets!!  (taken by Debra using Brian's phone!)

Featuring:  Shannon, Grace, Brian, Justin, Michael, and Ian up top,
Leighton, Sebastian, me, and Jeniffer on the bottom :)

Too bad I'm graduating; I'd love to do this again next year!  But at least I get to swim with Sebastian every week :D

And finally, the BEST phone picture ever:

HAHA, just kidding.  This is by Dave Engel Photography!  I had a lot of fun attempting to pose in front of the camera, and the picture came out great!  It looks like summer weather is right around the corner!  (but in reality, I was chattering the whole time.. my lips are purple, hehe~)  This was my favorite picture out of the photoshoot, since felt less retarded doing it, haha~  Modeling is fun!~ ^^

IN CONCLUSION, (oh gosh, the lab report writing is getting to me @_@) iPhone pictures cannot compare to awesome quality DSLR cameras.  HOWEVER, I still like iPhone cameras because they're so convenient, and the quality isn't bad at all :P

AS AN ASIDE, I am sick!  Running around the pool without drying off and being cold definitely got to me :(  I have that feeling where all I want to do is hide in my bed covers and play Pokemon Gold on Gameboy all day, and I don't even have a Gameboy at college!  Hope all this getting sick silly business will go away soon. Spring break's right around the corner, and we definitely have some plans!!

Hyung's 22nd!

Who's tharrr?

It's Josh's 22nd birthday!  And my post is almost a month late :P

Josh had class until late, so we had a late night cake celebration on his birthday~ ^^

Debra and Elaine ordered a crazy awesome ice cream cake from Maggie Moo's @_@

Why dinosaurs?  Apparently hyung wanted to be a paleontologist when he was younger (me too!).  And the gummy bears are because he likes gummy bears.  Which I don't think match with ice cream because they get super hard, and I get too lazy to chew them :P  The inside is strawberry ice cream!  I personally don't like fruit dairy products, but it's Josh's favorite ice cream :D

^ That's the only picture I took with my DSLR camera, and the rest are with a phone camera... can you tell?!

Yay!  Yay!  Make a wish~

And blowwww~

Cake cutting :D

All of us cheering him on (cutting ice cream cake is apparently a workout)

But what's a birthday without a birthday dinner?? :O 

Debra searched all of Saint Louis for a ramen place, and apparently there is only one.  ONE.  ... how is that even possible??!  And it's not even a ramen specialized shop.  It's a Japanese restaurant called Finn.  We headed on over during the weekend, with Debra and Elaine tricking Josh and saying they were taking him to a massage place that was right next door instead XD

Debra and Josh always match in plaid!  Too bad Elaine's not wearing it too ;)

Side salad with ginger orange dressing

A bunch of sushi rolls for the boys

And yet another!  They're so pretty and over-sauced :D

RAMEN!  My second bowl of Japanese ramen ever O_O

This was the miso-based ramen.  I waited too long to eat it, so the egg yolk became quite cooked, phooey~ But other than that, I loved it!  It was definitely on the salty side; eating the mushrooms was like a constant reminder that my liver was going to explode, but despite that, I finished everything!  Sluuuuurp!~ ^^

This is the udon soup, and it comes with shrimp tempura.

For dessert, Debra ordered their house specialty: crepe-wrapped banana with ice cream and caramel sauce

And to sweeten the deal, Book enjoyed some green tea ice cream with adzuki topping!

I think the ice cream looks more appetizing than the banana, but I don't like caramel sauce, so... I'm biased.  :P  Josh thought his soy-sauced ramen wasn't spectacular, but he's been to Japan and had *legit* ramen before.  Whoo!  Hyung's 22, oh my~~  Big brother indeed :)   Hope this year will be the best ever for you!!

Finn Japanese Cuisine

1682 Clarkson Rd

Chesterfield, MO 63017

Happy Valentine's!

Hey guys!  Since a few days ago was Valentine's Day, I'm trying to stay updated with somewhat timely/relevant posts (hehe, finding that I'm posting things 2 months after they happen now!).  Let's see the goodies!~~  ^^

You know how in elementary school, we all passed around those pre-printed V-Day cards with cute little messages and cartoon characters on them?  I miss those!  I almost bought a box to give out to my friends but decided on something else :P  My friends are so cute too-- I got some veryyyy cute Valentine's gifts :D 

Hehe, love the message *heart*  :D  "Thankyu" Elainey-pooh ^^

Anna's such a pro-confectionary-concoctionist!  Who would've thought of a coffee filter? @_@!

These are from Daniel ^^  Haven't gotten roses in a while~  These are "passion roses!"

And for the flip-side! :D

What are these?  Homemade chocolate truffles!

I gave them to my apartment girls *heart*!

Each bag with dark cacao and a choice of coconut, white chocolate chip and butterscotch chip :)

They were really messy and fun to make-- totally thought I messed up, and they turned out much softer than intended... but I'm glad that they held up!

And this box!  :D  I thought the X and O looked out of place, but I tried D;

Us girls weren't the only ones sharing the love :)  Josh had a mission for a special someone, and I was honored with the prospect of "teaching" him how to make chocolate-dipped fruit.  (In quotations, because it's literally just... wash the fruit, melt the chocolate, dip, DONE! :P)

Can you see what it says?  ^^  I think it's so pretty~

Awesome job, Hyung!  Mission accomplished!

V-Day 2013-- Happy! :D

Signing out ^o^

I miss baking :)

Huh?  What's this about?

Well, from the picture, it's obviously about... ME.

Hehe, well here's the bigger picture:

With the help of a decorator tool (my summer birthday present from Elaine!), I made my first cookie cake during winter break!  My mom's coworkers loved it so much that I was requested to make another batch the following week :P

The decorations turned out cute, but I better figure out how to make frosting better... Definitely added too much butter! ^_^''  Ahh, looking at this picture reminded me of how much I miss playing around in the kitchen... definitely will be some baked goodies popping up around here sometime this month :D

Don't you love short posts?  They're so much easier to read than my winding, rambling ravings by a lunatic ;)

Taiwan 2012: Day 9 (Yilan- Orchid garden and more gardens)

I've gotten really insecure recently.

I prefer a simple life.

On other news, TAIWAN!  It's been a while since a post from my Summer trip to Taiwan last summer, and it's almost (not really, haha!) summer again, so best to post up another! ^^

Fishie!!

Welcome again to Yilan!  We woke up and found our way to breakfast, which was a little breakfast shop selling sandwiches, soup dumplings, potstickers, baked flatbreads, soymilk, and a bunch of other goodies.  Mmm, getting hungry just thinking about it!~ :)

Dumplings steaming and almost ready for consumption!

My hungry cousins deciding what to eat for breakfast

Afterwards, we drove around for a while until we reached a greenhouse.  It's a orchid orchard (looks so weird, try saying it 3 times fast! Or-kid-or-card-or-kid-or-card... okay, failing.. XD)!  Anyways, they are known for making really nice floral and vanilla products.

It's a greenhouse, but white :P

Lots of windows helped brightly light everything up

Sashes made things look purdy too :3

We could walk around the whole greenhouse-- here's from the second floor!

Sleepy Michael... poor guy, driving us everywhere~

The interior smelled of fragrant flowers, and groups of people began piling in near noontime.  They had a bakery that made fresh bread and a little cafe that sold tea and sandwiches.

Pretty bread!

They cut the bread up for your before bagging it up

* Stars mean my uncle took these pictures!

* Do my mom and I look alike? :D

* Everyone says I look more like my dad.

* Is that TRUE?!

* I mean, I guess both of our faces are abnormally shiny because we're sweating and all.. ;)

After our visit, we made our way to lunch!  It was in a nice place that reminded me of a hotel.  While we ate in one of the side rooms, the main level was preparing for some big festivities!  I'm guessing it was for a wedding~

Across from us was Turtle Island!  Do you see the turtle?  The big mountain is the shell :D

Our dining area!  What a view!

And here comes the food-- appetizers!

Soup... noodle things?

Ooh!  I know what this is XD  Sushi with sashimi~

Huge prawns and fried ice cream

Well we *thought* was fried ice cream, but Connie opened hers and it was fried green tea mochi with red bean in the middle O_O

Spareribs with taro

Steamed fish

Mushrooms and veggies dish

A soup

And dessert!  Sago with red bean pudding

* Yerrrr out!  Haha, I don't know what this was for :P

* My oldest aunt and uncle.  I think my uncles and my dad look really similar @_@

* Which two are sisters?  The girl in the middle is a friend I met last time I came to Taiwan!  She lives in Yilan.

After lunch, what do old people like to do?  Visit gardens!  Haha, the kiddos were joking around that the trip was nice for sightseeing, but we literally just look at plants the whole time :P

I came here last time too!

Nearby was a stream where my uncle and cousin cooled down in.  It's SUPER chilly and felt really good ^^

And all the men join in, haha!  Whoo-whee, feels good!

So that concludes our trip to Yilan!  We headed back to Taoyuan and stopped by a bustling rest stop first.  Even the rest stops in Taiwan have delicious looking bread!

Bread as big as my head! :3

Michael also gave me coins to try making cotton candy for the first time :)

I failed XD  Look at Michael's stick-- that's the one I made, hahaha ^^''

Once we got back, we were all tired from running around Taiwan.  But Michael took Connie and I to a hair salon where his friend worked, and we both got hair cuts!

What's Connie looking at? :O

Don't you think hair stylists always have interesting / nice hair themselves? :P

I got my hair cut too!  But I didn't ask for it short enough, so I got another cut when I got back home in the United States, hahaha~

Okay!  Hope that was a nice break into Taiwan :)  I have one more short, tiny post from the trip before the series finishes :D  Hopefully it'll be posted before long, haha~  Stay tuned!