Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was not very eventful (no travelling)...yet it was a great one. I did some shopping online...had dinner with a few colleagues and their families...and also had some friends over my place for dinner.

For the thanksgiving dinner at my home, there were 12 people in total. It has been a while since the last time I cooked for so many people. I was very excited. I was torn between Western and Malaysian food, so I ended up having a mixture of both. It took me a while to research online and decide on what to include in the menu. Also, I was not sure if I should roast a turkey since it requires a lot of time and I don't really like turkey. Finally, I decided to roast a chicken as a substitute of the turkey. Together with the main dish, I eventually came up with my complete set of menu as below (click on the dish name for the recipe):

Starters

Thai-style Mango Salad

Chicken Satay

Entrees and Sides

Grilled Asparagus

Roast Chicken

Roast Potatoes (baked together with the chicken)

Jambalaya

Dessert

Kek Batik

That was the first time that I try cooking the dishes above. I am very happy that everything turned out well. A whole day of work was worth it because I enjoy cooking and eating a lot.

Lastly, I would like to thank everyone for coming and hope you guys had a great time too :)

-

ps. Thanks for the feedbacks. I'll keep them in mind. Hopefully the next time, we'll have more satay and more games available :P

From A to Z

During Labor Day weekend (I know it was some time ago), Pei Ying, Keng Yang, Wei Ping, Jason and I decided to go for hiking and camping at Utah. It was a short but fun trip and the scenery was just breathtaking.

After the trip, I dove right back into my studies for Exam 6 (I'm so glad that it's over) and didn't have the mood to upload my pictures until now. Since it was a while ago, I could not remember some detail about the places that we have been to. However, I still have some pictures that I would like to share.

Arches National Park


At the park, we spent a night in the car before we hike to see the Delicate Arch. At night, there were not as many stars as I expected; however, there were more mosquitoes than anticipated and I had a tonne of mosquito bites from that night :(

Leaving that aside, the wait and hike were definitely worth it because the view was remarkable.

The Delicate Arch

Sunrise at Arches

Another view of the Delicate Arch

The usual "jump shot"

The Double Arch

Bryce's National Park

Bryce Canyon

Zion National Park

We spent most of our time at Zion National Park. We shared a campsite in the park with Wei Ping's friends. Although camping tent is not the most comfortable place to sleep, I still enjoyed sleeping out in the park and waking up to see the surrounding tan-colored sandstone.

Sandstone that can be seen everywhere in the park

Our biggest challenge in the trip was to hike the 2.5 miles Angel's Landing Trail. The trail begins with a paved path before we started to climb up the steep path of the canyon.

Looking up

Looking down

After a long hike, we finally reached the most thrilling part of the hike. About 1000 feet above the canyon floor, we will be walking along a steep and narrow ridge with only chains on the side to hold onto. Every now and then, I could look down from both side of the path to see the scenery below.

The last 1/2 mile

PY: "help!!!"

KY: (pretend not to hear anything)

View at the summit...doesn't look that impressive here...you need to experience it yourself

Spot the lizard

Another cute guy at the summit

After having lunch at the summit, we headed back. The hike down was not as tiring as going up and thus I took more pictures.

Layers and layers of rock

Another view

More random stuff that I spotted on the way down

After the hike, we were all exhausted and decided to pick some mini trail to hike. We trail up to the Emerald Pool and also took the Riverside walk.

A small waterfall on the way to the Emerald Pool

Before we knew it, it was time to go home. There are still some things that I wanted to do here in Zion (rock climbing, hike the Narrows...) but we didn't have enough time (or energy left). I guess I'll come back in the future.

On our way out, we stopped to take a picture of Mesa in Zion that reminds KY of excel spreadsheet

On the way to the airport, we stopped by a few places.

Sand dune (I can't remember the name)

The Valley of Fire

This trip was definitely a good break from studying. It brought up fond hiking and camping memories. I would definitely like to have more camping trips and also one day, go back to Zion.

My babies

During Spring Break 2006, I participated in the ASB program and went to Southern Pines, North Carolina to plant the Long Leave Pines. If I remember correctly, we planted about 1000 trees during the trip...knowing that not all of them are going to survive.

The size of the seedling in Spring 2006 (almost the size of a carrot)

Recently, one of our group member went back to Southern Pines to check out the trees and I can't believe how fast they have grown.

The relative size of the tree in 2009 (photo taken from facebook).

I am really glad that my babies are growing well and I really hope that one day, I can go back to Southern Pines for a visit...haha...and I am sure that by the time I go, they will definitely be taller than me :P

A glimpse of my new apartment

Can you put the puzzle together?

Homesick?

Here's a very special water globe:

Do you recognize these buildings?

I love it.

Love the water globe.

Love the fight song that it plays.

Love the sweet memories that it reminds me of.

July 4th weekend and 7 Eleven

July 4th Weekend

July 4th falls on a saturday this year, I got a day off on Friday and this happend to be my first day off after I started working. Initially, I wanted to take this opportunity to visit some places. My first plan was to go to Boston but unfortunately, I had to cancel it because someone (ahem...) bailed out. After that, I found out that I couldn't proceed with my second plan to visit YC in Champagne, IL either since he decided to come over to AA during the weekend. So, I ended up in AA...which did not turn out to be such a bad idea after all.

Wei Ping invited us to his church group barbeque. Since I was in a good mood (after SOA released MFE result on 7/2) and I feel bad to go empty-handed, I decided to make some egg tarts (recipe).

The most important things: ingredients plus good mood :)

Fluffy mixture of eggs, butter and sugar

The dough

flattening the dough

using a muffin pan as a substitute of the pastry tin

egg tart filling

ready to bake

done!

ready to go!

Later, I realized that Wei Ping made the same dessert to bring over to the barbeque, what a coincident! It seems like he used triple the amount of eggs than I did for the filling, which gives a nicer color and taste to his tart....I guess I'll try out his recipe the next time I bake :P

The barbeque was good, I didn't expect to see so many people that I know. As for the rest of the weekend, I had a good time chilling out with friends. The only painful part of the week was packing!!!


7 Eleven

After a good break during the July 4th weekend, I pretty much had no life the week after because I was either working or packing at home. I realized how much of stuff I had accumulated over the year... Mas's comments about my online shopping was justified...haha...luckily, I managed to pack most of the stuff that I wanted to move to my new apartment at Dearborn.

And finally, on 7/11, I moved to Dearborn.

Boxes

Coffee table and some furniture that I disassemble...and you can see the tv at the back (which Wei Chieh tries every year to pusuade me to throw away)

More furniture

The move to Dearborn went on smoothly. It took us about 3.5 hours to get PY and my stuff to our new apartment. I would like to thank Jason, Wei Chieh and Billy for helping us to move...thank you very much!!!

Next thing on the list is to decorate the house and give it a more cozy feeling...hopefully I am not too lazy later to organize a little house warming party...also, need to catch up with my study as I am behind of the schedule.