Peanut pancake

I had to fix my craving. So I attempted to make the Peanut pancake (or Ban Kian Kuih) which is commonly sold at the night markets in Malaysia.
Thanks to Lily Wai Sek Hong's blog, I found this recipe.

I omitted the lye water (potassium carbonate & sodium bi-carbonate solution) and substituted it with water and white vinegar, and added brown sugar to the ingredients. The brown sugar is acidic and the alkaline in the baking soda needs this to react and neutralize.
I did not achieve the "honeycomb" effect. Next time, I will try and add more baking soda.

Will add this recipe into our laksaware recipe blog for easy future reference.

Square head

Every time I feel this need to have my hair trimmed, I get the same old dilemma. Getting a hair cut is not a fun experience because I haven't found a hair salon that I like (yet). And I don't even get one every couple of months or so. My last hair cut was 6 months ago. Yes. SIX months ago. I got that one in Malaysia and I liked it.
Anyways, I decided it was time, and way overdue for a haircut. So I got one today on the way home from work.
I should have listened to my inner gut feeling telling me to walk out of the shop but I did not.
The stylist was somewhat rude. Maybe he had a bad day. But I should know better than to put my fate into the hands of a moody stylist.

Too late.

I came out looking like crap and then I had to pay him for it! And even gave him an obligatory tip! Damn.

I'm glad I did not let him cut my bangs. Or I'll really end up looking like this. Or worse.

A colorful afternoon

On Sunday, mom-in-law invited me to watch Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Halton Theatre in town. We met in church and rode the church bus to the theatre. The play is based on the biblical tale of Jacob's son Joseph and his 11 brothers. Very colorful and vibrant and good stage props.

I was a little disappointed that "Joseph" did not look anything like Jason Donovan.
Nevertheless, it was entertaining.

Sewing like a maniac

I don't sew and I used to hate sewing. When I was younger, I've seen my mom sew but I never bothered to learn.
Jason has an antique Singer sewing machine and it's been sitting in the closet untouched. I've decided to experiment with it. Unfortunately for me, it doesn't come with instructions.
After spending 30 minutes trying to thread the needle in (and lots of frustration), I'm on the go. Then the bobbin decides to run out of thread. So I spend another 30 minutes on the internet trying to find some instructions on how to thread a bobbin. I don't think I got that fully right because the tension was all wrong but I managed to get enough thread into the bobbin and plop that thing back into its slot.
Thank God for this website!

So I made myself a knitting needle case. And I'm still alive. And I did not kill anyone. But I have a splitting headache now probably from cursing too much.

More Green Card news

If you recall, I submitted my papers to USCIS for removal of conditions on my Permanent Residency in May 9, 2007.

On Thursday Feb 7, nine months later, I received a letter from the USCIS informing me that they had transfered my application to the Vermont Center for processing due to backlog.
The USCIS website says they "received a significant increase in applications last year, an increase in nearly 1.4 million as compared to the previous year. They have hired approximately 1500 new employees to address this workload. Things should be back where they were before the application spike by 2010."

2010??! 2010??!!

Today I read this : "Citizenship on hold for many immigrants".
President Bush is asking Congress to spend money to help businesses root out illegal workers (damn you illegal workers!) but he did not request additional funds to help legal immigrants become American citizens more quickly.
It says "Right now they are taking resources from permanent residence to do citizenship".

I'm screwed.

Trouble's little excursion

Early Monday morning, we made the trip to Huntersville for Trouble's Radioactive Iodine treatment. Trouble was a little edgy and nervous in the car so I sat in the backseat with him and had him on my lap. He was wide-eyed and curiously looking out of the window, and finally settled down back in his cage and took a nap.

We were greeted by a team of very friendly staff at the hospital. We waited till all the other five cats who were undergoing the same treatment arrived. There was a Moe, Peaches, Kat and I don't remember the other two. The assistant came and spoke briefly to us individually. We said our "goodbyes" to Trouble and told him we'll see him soon and she took Trouble inside to the"examination room" while the cat owners were ushered upstairs for a briefing by the Doctor who was also pleased to answer any questions that we may have.

Each cat will be staying in a "Snyder Kitty condo" in the facility which is separate from the hospital, has his own food (we also brought him 4 cans of wet cat food), and is allowed a "comfort" item (we gave him a fleece blanket), which because of contamination can not be returned.

At 4pm, Dr Tom called and told us Trouble was doing well and he received the therapy treatment on the same day. Because he had involvement of both lobes of the thyroid gland, he needed a 2.66 dose of the ¹³¹I, which is a mid-range.

Today, Nicole, another assistant called and told us Trouble has been eating well (both wet and dry food), drank 1/4 of his water and has normal bowel and urine movement. And she said he is quite a talker.

They will call us again tomorrow to advise us Trouble's radioactive levels. If it's in the safe range, we can go pick him up tomorrow after 4pm.

This is the first time Trouble is away. The house seems kinda strange without him around. This morning, I imagined hearing a sound that could be him vomiting then I remember he is not here.
Out of habit, I still close the gate to my office upstairs when I leave the room, and then realized I need not have to because Trouble is not here. I still hear him meowing, and realized it's just the neighborhood kids playing outside. Turns out I am not the only one who thinks those kids sound like our Trouble.

Superbowl

For someone who doesn't know much or care much about football, I must say this year's Superbowl was pretty exciting, especially the last 2 minutes of the game. Impressive. Giants won. And the commercials this year were better than last year's, in my opinion.
We usually watch the game over at the in-law's place and eat consecutively for 3 hours infront of the TV. Jason made some wings. We also had some shrimps, chilli, guacamole dip and chocolate fondue.

Earlier this afternoon we met up with Brendan and Alexis who were in Charlotte for the weekend and had sushi for lunch and they came over to our place to hang out for a bit before heading home to Winston-Salem.

Tomorrow morning at 6.45am, we'll be taking Trouble to Huntersville for his Radioactive Iodine Treatment. Poor fella will be there for 3 days before he gets to come home. Jason is giving him a little pep talk now.

Cooper made me a lantern!