Food: the good and the bad

You ever get that feeling when you first taste a dish and you will never ever forget?  Then everywhere you go you can't help but compare to the original best?  Well, here's  my take on two foods that I truly enjoy.

1.  I have always been a Quaker Oaks fan.  How could anything top Quaker Oaks?  That cylindrical box, the man on the label.  Since i was a child that was all i knew.  Then one day, my husband comes home from his grocery trip to Costco and brings this home.  COACH'S OATS.  At first i was just keeping an open mind.  Still thinking ofcourse that it can't be all that good because i had never heard of the brand.  So, we try it the next morning................and, to my surprise, it is soooooooooooooo good! Way better than Quaker Oats!!  Smoother, finer, and more palatable to the tongue.  I must say, this brand will be embedded in my mind as one that toppled my loyalty.

2.  On another note, I love love love Thai food.  It has all the Asian exotic flavor i want with the spiciness i crave.  This place, SED THEE, in Glendale, looked pretty impressive.  Amazing ambient lighting, beautiful interior decorating with a modern Asian Flare, rich private booths and impressive bar.  What was even more impressive was the price.  So, we were excited to have dinner.  But with all this impressive-ness, there was hardly any customers on a Thursday night.  Maybe two tables were occupied for a large place that must have had a seating capacity of 200 or more.  But the food must be amazing right?  And they had purple rice!   My favorite dish of curry and my husband's favorite eggplant dish was available.  My son was thrilled when he saw his Pad See Ew!   I was even convinced to have some freshly squeezed orange juice in addition to my pineapple juice.  So we pray, extremely hungry at this point, and dig in.......................... and that was when the enthusiasm faded away like a slither of smoke on a windy day.  My curry wasn't spicy and was watery, my husband's dish tasted more like onions than eggplant, and the only thing that i actually enjoyed was eating the Chinese brocolli off my son's Pad See Ew dish.  The orange juice was even bad, like somebody decided to pick the most bitter oranges to squeeze.  I guess i couldn't help compare it to my favorite restaurant in Pasadena, PATAYA (which is less fancy looking and less expensive but truly more taste worthy).  The price didn't really make it all any better.  

Well, i guess that goes for comparison.  Some things don't always have to look good to taste amazing. And some things appear to be good and just plainly.....well, how can i say this nicely.......totally suck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nasty bites

Recently this guy from upstairs started circulating letters that his unit had been infested by bedbugs and cockroaches and that apparently some other units in the building have been too and apparently the management hasn't done anything about it.   So his solution was to have all the tenants not pay for the next month's rent until the infestation had been dealt with.  We have lived in this building since February and so far had not had that problem.  The guy upstairs started taking his furniture and what not out of his apartment so he could apparently clean his space because he felt he could live there with the infestation.  Well, right about that time my husband started getting these weird bug bites.
 First he thought he got it from work but when he went to the dentist one day he came home with some more.  Then a 4 day weekend came and he still kept getting more bites.  Eventually my son started getting one or two here and there.  Just this morning he had 8 bites!!!  We haven't seen any bugs or any signs of infestation so we've been cleaning relentlessly trying to get rid of them.  I'm the only one who hasn't gotten any though.
My suspicion is that the guy upstairs started spreading them when he decided to bring out his furniture and may be intentionally spreading them.  There has been a security guard surveying our building these last few days and on Sunday the LAPD was outside in front of the building parked with a handcuffed man in one of the vehicles.  I just hope this infestation doesn't cause sickness because my other little boy is on his way any minute now and i'll be treating all three males in this household of these bites.  This truly sucks.   Plus my son is already sick with cough and cold.  sigh! My poor son has huge elevated bites on his arms, a buttock and knee.  If this guy upstairs is responsible i'll be truly pissed off!

Social Addiction

Yes, I admit, i have become quite a facebook addict.  I was once a friendster addict, a blogger addict, a myspace addict, and now... im into facebook and back into blogging.  Although the blogging world has slowly deteriorated over the years due to facebook.  It's always fun to look into other peoples lives, share yours, and communicate with long lost friends, family and what-not.  But recently i've realized a problem with social networking.  Here a few that i noticed:

1.  It changes one's perspective about themselves.  At some point you end up looking at other people and compare their lives to your own.  Are they successful, a failure, better or worse off than you?  Are they contented and more or less contented in life than you?
2. It changes one's perspective of other people too.  I have this facebook friend that i idolized.  was happy to finally have as a friend on facebook only to be disappointed at the results of their life.  It changed me.  I no longer saw people the way i used to see them.  I understand that people change, but, well, I just didn't realize that such a person could be who they are right now and made me feel less confident about my own abilities.
3.  It occupies my mind with unnecessary things.  I'm now concerned about causes that people are supporting that if otherwise i didn't know i wouldn't have cared for.  I'm now worried about someone who really doesn't worry about me.  i know know things about people that i probably would have better not known about.

Despite all this, it's a great place to start conversations, revive old friendships and see who really are your friends.  facebook is quite a phenomenon.  Maybe this one won't fade out as fast as those "other" social networking sites did.  They either have to keep up with the cravings of society now or get left behind as something that was once something good.

You infidels!!

If you know Jeff Dunham, he's a ventriloquist comedian, a few jokes i thought from him that made me laugh. 
WALTER: The Olsen Twins are in Honduras giving shoes to children in need & the children are giving them their food thinking they're starving.

WALTER: Darryl Hannah was arrested outside the White House, protesting an oil pipeline. I'm guessing she got to D. C. on an electric plane?

WALTER:Toxicology tests show there were no illegal substances in Amy Winehouse’s body when she died. Maybe she left them in Charlie Sheen. 

WALTER: I’m sure when the rebels take over Libya, it still will be a crappy place to visit.

Here are some clips.. hehe

The Pink elephant

It's so difficult to explain to a toddler/preschooler because each explanation needs an additional explanation to explain the original explanation. Case and point. The following conversation:
Kiko: Mama, what does "strange" mean?
 Me: It means something looks weird, not normal.
 Kiko: What is weird?
 Me: Looks different, not what you're used to seeing.
 Kiko: and normal? What is normal?
 Me: (at this point a little out of words and frustrated) Normal is something you're used to seeing to doing. Not normal is something that you're NOT used to seeing or doing.
 Kiko: Like what?
 Me: umm,, well, a pink elephant. that's not normal because elephants are usually gray
 Kiko: So that makes the pink elephant strange then?
 Me: Yup.
 Kiko: But a pink elephant is a girl elephant and it's normal to see girls!
 Me: but not normal to see a pink elephant.
 Kiko:Awwww... Poor elephant.