I have been reading a lot more lately during my commute so I wanted to share what books Brent and I are reading and have read these days. The Kindle has gotten me to read more books easily since I don’t have to go to the store or wait for the books to get delivered. I even got inspired to read some of the books I bought back in the day that sounded great but never opened up. My life and commute is a lot less boring when I am reading an awesome story.

Books I’ve finished

Talking to Girls About Duran Duran-Rob Sheffield: This is a very cute book, an honest story about a guy growing up in the eighties. Each chapter is a different eighties song. If you love the eighties you have to read this.

The Hobbit- J.R.R. Tolken: Awesome, I have wanted to read this for a long time, and is a way easier read then Lord of The Rings. Brent is reading this again since he read many years ago. We can’t wait for the movie.

Abe Lincoln Vampire Slayer-Seth Grahame Smith: Also awesome, this book is definitely a manly book, Brent really liked it. He finished this book faster then any book I have seen him read! The story is loosely based on facts from Abe’s life and of course a fake ass story about vampires. We also can’t wait for this movie to come out, the cast looks good already.

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan- Lisa See: This book is good and sad, sometimes I get a little tired of the classic asian stories of class and tradition but the bottom line of the book is about friendship and hardship. Which made for  a good read. My mom lent me the book since her friend recommended it to her. I was holding back tears while riding public transportation.

The Lovely Bones- Alice Sebold: Pretty good, but sad, so sad. I never saw the movie and my mother in law bought me this book since she really liked it. It was such a sad book, but the author creates beautiful pictures through her descriptions which I really haven’t read anything like that. I ended up seeing parts the movie and it is a little weird, so I can see how the descriptions didn’t really translate to film, but in the end glad I read it.

The Help- Kathryn Stockett: Amazing. This book got me inspired to read more. I would be at work thinking about what was going to happen next in this book. That says a lot. I recently watched the movie and it was really good too. But the book is still way better. Highly recommended.

Currently Reading

The Kill-Emile Zola: So far so good I’m almost half way through the book. This is one of my old books that I looked cool but I never read. Zola is a French naturalist writer so far it is about greed and rich people being bored with their rich life. I know the book is a commentary of the society of that day so I am just waiting to see how it plays out. I am still glad I am finally reading this book though. The author’s life is way more exciting and interesting then the book itself, I should have just got a book on Zola.

Game of Thrones-George R.R. Martin: Brent is reading this series now. We love the show and Brent decided to take on the task of reading all of them since the box set was on super sale at Amazon. I will also read them afterwards too.

What is next in line to read..

Bossypants -Tina Fey: I have been wondering about this book for a while, I always think about buying it and never do, it sounds funny and cute. Who doesn’t love Tina Fey?

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)-Mindy Kaling: I read and excerpt of this book in a magazine and it sounded funny and cute. As if a friend wrote a book about her thoughts on her life, it’s next in line after Bossypants.

Today is the eve of the new year and I wanted to say that 2011 was awesome and if 2012 is anything like 2011, it will be completely amazing.

This past year has been a year of reaching goals and feeling good about them because they took hard work to achieve them. I’m one of the lucky ones and got a great new job. My family is doing well and staying healthy. My pug baby Oliver got skin cancer and had the tumor removed and is now cancer free. My friends are healthy and happy and are having beautiful children. We couldn’t be in a better place and we are definitely looking to the future, so I definitely look forward to what 2012 has for us, Happy New Year!

It has been a little over two weeks since we got back from our vacation and I know Thanksgiving is around the corner, wait no it is tomorrow actually. But I wanted to share a few highlights from our week long visit to Oahu, we did some tourist stuff and more importantly we hung out with my family on Halloween, for my 31st birthday and my nephews 4th. We had such a great time on the island.

We visited the Byodo In-Temple (Where Jin and Sun got married in the tv show Lost), just as beautiful as on TV! Halloween in Waikiki was packed and totally the happening place to be even if we hung out in Ewa beach for the majority of the time, we were staying in Waikiki at the time and saw some interesting outfits. I saw a sexy shell and net costume and then a few minutes later a chubby man in small shorts and a pig mask. Definitely a mixed bag! For my birthday dinner Brent took me out to Nobu in Waikiki and we had an amazing dinner. Lots of yummy fish dishes and cocktails! We had such a blast on Oahu, we are a little sad it ended but we know we will always come back and visit.

My lovely niece Brooklyn in her kimono

Halloween in Waikiki

My oldest nephew Tyler looking good on Halloween as Captain America

The brothers are too adorable with their breakfast pop tarts

31st at Nobu Waikiki

Brent and I at Byodo In-Temple Valley of the Kings

It has been over two years since Brent and I went on a vacation. For me that is a long time, in my early-mid twenties I was used to some sort of vacation once a year, whether it was a trip to LA or NY, yes I did travel like that, I made myself get away from work even if it was a cheap vacation, I went and enjoyed myself. Sorry I am reminiscing, this post is about the trip we got back from last week, Kauai and Oahu, total of 10 days! We have never been to Kauai, and it was amazing.

We stayed in the South Shore, Poipu. It is a resort area, but very comfortable with a nice variety of restaurants and beaches. The sunsets were amazing, the most beautiful I have seen. If you ever though of going to Kauai, go book now, I called our trip our second honeymoon. Here are just a few shots of our 4 day trip to Kauai. A post on our visit to Oahu is coming up soon!

So I got a new job. My first big girl job is what I have been calling it to my friends. I have a cubicle, it’s 8-5 and I am so excited about it. I want to be prepared, my endless amount of free time is now going to change to a regular work week. Now with the rest of the working world,  I will have to pre plan dinners,  have less time to make these dinners, and be prepared for work 5 days a week.

So I needed work clothes, I purchased a few tops, cardigans, a new jacket that is light, warm and comfortable and still looks good with my work clothes, but not too fancy since it will spend a lot of time on public transportation. I bought a couple pairs of new work shoes, nothing too high, a pair of flats and heels. I bought two new pairs of black pants, nylons, nylon knee highs, and nylon sock things for flats, I don’t know what those are called. The basics of my work wardrobe are good for now.

Then I bought a new water bottle, and made sure my little insulated lunch bag is clean, and that my iphone has new music on it. Seriously it is like sending someone off to school, but maybe some sort of private school since I will be needing professional clothes like are similar to a dress code. Yep, that is what I got going. But the biggest worry I think is making sure I will have my schedule down, my commute is almost an hour each way, and I need to wake up pretty early, and somehow fit in making dinner and preparing lunches to bring to work as well ugh. We’ll see how it goes, wish me luck!

When I was around 14  years old I started to have trouble reading things on the chalkboard at school. This sucked of course because I always sat in the back. I eventually figured out I needed glasses, and my dad who wears glasses told me that he also got his glasses around the time I did. I started to sit in the middle of my classes from then on anyway and wore my contacts. I had an awesome time with color contacts, they  were all the rage back then in the 90′s, but those didn’t last long and I stuck with my regular clear contacts.

I had some very bad habits with my contacts, they were monthly contacts but I wore them for many many months! I had a years prescription so I never had  to go back, I made those contacts last years! Mostly because I was cheap and because they didn’t bother me so why would I throw them away? I would keep them clean and everything was fine. Until I ran out of contacts and had to see my eye doctor for new contacts. Then I would get new contacts and do the same thing for years. Last year I needed more contacts, so I had to find a new eye doctor, I found a new eye doctor since I hadn’t seen an eye doctor in years so I searched online and found one down the street from my house.

My appt. was typical, I did the tests, answered questions and met with the optometrist. He shook his head at my bad habits and let me know my left eye had a haze over it, because of my contacts. It would go away with time, but it was because my  habits, if I kept going on that way I was it could have severely effected my vision aka can lead to blindness. Scary. So I got new contacts and was on my way, promising to throw out my monthly contacts when the month was done. I was truthful, I didn’t want to mess up my eyes permanently.

Unfortunately I was having problems with these new contacts, they hurt when I took them out and when they became dry around 6pm,  sometimes 2 pm, they would move when I blinked. The contacts would move up and down with my eyelid, so they never stayed in place. Lucky for me I got new glasses and brought them with me wherever I went. So I would rip those horrible contacts out throw them away and put on my glasses. I thought this was just my eyes adjusting to these horrible new disposable thinner then my last pair, better and more breathable kind of contact. This went on for about 7 months, my problems got better, so I didn’t have those contacts acting up as bad and get stuck up in my eyes as much, but I ran out of contacts way too fast. I went through a years contacts in less than a year. Luckily my next appt. was already coming up, so I  thought perfect I can get more contacts!

So I went in to my appt, did the tests and got my eyes all checked out, he said I might have a degenerative eye disease where my contacts would be covered by my insurance, but he wasn’t sure yet, since I was a relatively new client he wanted to monitor my eyes more. OK crazy, I don’t want to hear that, that sucks, that sounds life altering and I don’t like it! One day I will know more about it, so I am not going to freak out unless it’s for sure, so let us move on! So my prescription was updated and my right eye is developing an astigmatism, that is when the shape of your eye changes to more like  a football then a circle, yikes. Sorry I am going off topic.  My doctor said things were good and my hazy left eye was all better. I told him about how I hated those previous contacts and what happened and he said oh that is not the contacts fault, that is your eyelids fault. You have GPC. What is GPC? It’s called Giant Papillary Cystoma. I had a bunch of them under each eye and they were created by my previous bad habits with my old contacts lens I wore for years. The sensitive underpart of your eyelid get irritated by the contacts lens and the deposits that build up on your contact lens and your skin reacts by making these bumps called GPC. So these GPC were creating a rough surface that would act like sandpaper on my contacts and stick to my contact lens that is why when they got dry my  contact lens would move up and down as I blinked. When I removed my contacts lens, my eyes felt like there was something in them and they would hurt for about 10 minutes after I took off my contacts. These were the GPC being irritated that my dirty old contacts weren’t there anymore and had nothing to grab on to. Why did I suffer? Why did I do that to myself, and I had no idea, I just didn’t know any better.

Wearing my glasses and wearing daily disposables is like nursing your eyes back to health from GPC. I also noticed around the time my contacts were sticking to my eyes, the whites of my eyes around my pupil were developing bumps, just one near the edge of my pupils. I saw on tv that these develop because of sun damage or irritation like wind and dust can make these occur, they don’t go away and they can only get worse. I know these sprang up around the time my GPC was the worst, so I know it is because of GPC irritating them when I took out my contacts. Luckily I know what happened and can try to take better care of my eyes forever.

My doctor also gave me a two bottle prescription for Pataday. They are anti-inflammatory eye drops that work to speed up the healing from GPC and make them go away forever. One drop a day in each eye at night is all I need and I know that the drops are helping my GPC, which I think has healed a lot because a contact lens hasn’t stuck to my eye since last spring. Anyway I wanted to share the damage that can happen with not listening to your eye care professionals, don’t try to prolong your contacts, it will only give you more pain and suffering! GPC sucks and seriously google GPC images and see what comes up, it will scare you straight!

Sorry this was so long!

Well the summer flew by and it’s bam second week of September already. A couple friends are getting married and having wedding showers, I have a bachelorette party coming up. What is my husband going to do while I’m gone for two days? He will probably really enjoy his time alone!

Oh, big news, I got a job, yay, going back to school actually worked! But alas I don’t start for another couple weeks and so what do I do with myself?? Life was moving and progressing fast and now I am at a standstill. So today I have decided to work on my blogs, and do some reading.

I have been trying to read The Hobbit, but I feel like I have to catch up on my tv. Is that bizarre? But I am starting to get back into working out at the gym regularly so I guess my plans are blog, work out, read and catch up on tv. Oh the life of the unemployed, I guess I have to milk it for all it’s worth. Believe me, not working isn’t as glamorous as it seems, no one around here is rich so the daydream of shopping everyday is extremely ridiculous. I actually get really depressed when I have nothing going on. I have to make a list for myself everyday or I end up depressed on the couch.

Anyway I found something today while reading blogs and looking for new recipes. Today I’m making Vietnamese Spring Rolls! I will eventually blog about them on foodiemob my food blog, but until then, I am super excited about these Whole Food Coupons that you can print out from their website!

Kim chee or kimchi (how ever you spell it) is a Korean side dish that is something I have eaten all my life. It’s amazingly delicious. But this is my first attempt at ever making them from scratch. I was tired of the store bought kimchi that was not spicy and was watery and sometimes just blah disappointing. I once found a great brand that at least was close to what you can get in restaurants, since that is usually home made, and the quality wasn’t consistent and just left me sad.  I have seen lots of bloggers make homemade kimchi so I finally found sometime to make my own. And I am never ever going back to store bought. Well maybe if I am in really in a time pinch, but most likely not.

I made cabbage kimchee and pickle kimchee from maangchi.com. And it was amazing, and had a nice spice. I didn’t use any oysters to help with fermentation so it took a while for my kimchee to start to ferment but once it did, oh my it was soo good. I need to make some more soon because I am starting to run low! My favorite is the pickle kimchee, growing up I would snack on this refreshing spicy kimchee all the time!

I will blog about my kimchee experience at our blog foodiemob.com when I get a chance but for now here are the pictures of my homemade kimchee and pickle kimchee!

Sheesh, the summer is halfway over already, time goes by fast guys, take advantage of it while you can! While there have only been a handful of hot days here in the bay area, we have had a couple of BBQ’s here at the house which are always fun. Brent and I have both been busy, me finishing up the last of my school requirements and Brent transitioning over to his new offices. Needless to say with being so busy, we are super happy with the way things are moving for us. Some photos of summer so far.

Firing up Brent's new infrared grill!

This past Memorial day weekend was our second wedding annviersary. The weather in the bay area was horrible. If I was getting married that weekend I would have been stressed out. But since we were celebrating our wedding we decided to do something more outdoorsy and booked the weekend near Big Trees. Big Trees state park was why we wanted to go up there, just hike around these huge ancient Sequoia trees, that have been there forever, some of them from like the 1400′s or something. Hello is that even possible, I guess so. They had names like Abe Lincoln and Mama tree.

I am not too outdoorsy, I went camping once as a kid with the YMCA one summer, and I think my grandparents had a little trailer and I went somewhere with them once. Anyway that was about it until I got into my 20′s and camping was a cheap and interesting way to get out of town with your friends. Also of course to spend the whole time drinking. Truthfully camping is not my favorite, but I can hang out outdoors, that is not a big deal.

We visited the little towns in the area. We had lunch on the way up at Angels Camp where we had $10 hamburgers (not worth it), we hung out in Arnold for dinner one night at the brewery, $4 pints are a good price. We also shopped at Arnold’s annual craft fair. We hiked up and around Big Trees which was really fun, but the weather was cold and rainy. Our last day in the area we went and hung out in Murphys to do some wine tasting. This was one of the highlights of the trip for me. The town is super cute, and seems like it definitely has started to cater to tourism. There are cute restaurants and delicious wine tasting rooms. We stumbled across a French husband and wife wine making team and as we got buzzed off their wines, all tasting rooms are free by the way. I did get a little nostalgic at how Brent proposed to me in Paris and it was only fitting that on our wedding anniversary we got to drink wines made by French people and listen to their French accents. It was a short weekend but a much needed time away.