Random Mondays

Today's Random Monday Emoticon:

Item in question:
The hubby and I recently attended the Dallas Bridal Show with our friends, future bride and groom, Vandrew. Mission - find Vandrew a photographer and eat as much cake as possible. The hubby and I glanced at eye candy various vendors brought to display while Andrew... Well, home boy was on a mission to find a photographer y'all!! He stopped at every booth and discussed pricing, likes and dislikes, etc. Talk about an involved groom, eh?

After snaking in and out of aisles for 2.5 hours, we called it a day and Vandrew made an appointment with one of the vendors to further discuss options. And if you think I was kidding about an involved groom, check out who came out with more loot from the show!

Anybody else see what's wrong with this picture?!

Van - nada, Andrew - two extremely loaded/expanded bags!!

Random Mondays

Today's Random Monday Emoticon:

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Item in question:
My cousin from the land down under is taking a 6 week(!) vacation to tour the U.S. Last weekend, he made a pit stop in his itinerary to stop in Dallas to visit family. The last time I saw him was in 2005 (with a family entourage of 17 travelled down under), and barely got to see him. Now that we're all a lil older and a lil more mature, I couldn't wait to reconnect with him. Him and his girlfriend, Lisa, are travelers extraordinaire. They've been to Fiji, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand just to name a few, and I wanted the low down of their adventures!

They landed in DFW on Thursday evening (Feb 16), and took them out to eat a Chuy's. Unfortunately, our 9pm bedtime came much too fast and we had to part ways. They were driving up to OK the next morning to meet up with the rest of the family and catch a Thunder game. Excited that they would get to spend time with more family in my hometown, I was sad that our time together was so short. And I totally forgot to take pictures with them. Super sad face.

Fortunately, my cousin that would be driving my Aussie cousin and his girlfriend took a detour South to have lunch with me prior to them heading to OK. You see, my cousin lives in Frisco, so for her to drive to downtown Dallas just so that I could have lunch with them totally made my Friday. I almost cried happy tears for a few more hours with them. The hubby even closed up shop a lil early to haul ass to have lunch with us at Perry's Steakhouse. Y'all need to have their pork chops. All 16oz of it. For lunch. Dinner is 32oz. Just saying.

On an extremely full belly and happier mood, I returned to work and they headed up North. Again, forgetting to take a group picture even though I mentioned I wanted one. Picture fail.

Sunday afternoon came with a quickness, and my parents along with my Aussie cousins came back down to Dallas in order for them to catch their flight out to Atlanta. We met up with them for lunch at a sushi buffet, and since they had a lil more time to burn prior to their flight, we took them to the Galleria. They were interested in checking out the All American Girl store, and were flabbergasted by the magnitude of the store and all that it had to offer to little girls. We chit chatted as we strolled around, and for the first time, I felt like my cousin and I really connected. Winning!

As we bid our final good byes at the Galleria rooftop parking garage (it was hella busy, darn President's Day sales going on. Ha!), the hubby reminded me I  really, really, really, need to get a picture with my cousins as this was the final opportunity. Thank goodness for the reminder because I totally would have bid adieu with yet again, no picture!

Just the "kiddos"

With my parents



The hubby and I wanted to travel to Australia for our Christmas vaca in 2011, but flights at $2,000 per person deterred us away pretty quickly. Ouch on the pocket book!! With my cousins recent visit, the hubby and I once again have the itch travel down under this Christmas. Here's to hoping we find a killer deal on flights!

Random Mondays

Today's Random Monday Emoticon:

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Item in Question:
I'm a HUGE advocate of reading reviews prior to making reservations at a location or purchasing an item. I toss out the OMG! This is the best... and OMG! This is *&$%@^ reviews then revel in everything else. The amount of time I spend researching and reviewing things prior to committing might be a bit excessive. Excessive meaning, hours spent one day only to continue contemplating the next two, three, four days. Then re-reviewing the following day. And maybe the following, following day also. Yea. That kind of excessive. Total Type A over here - duh!

Any how, while I read tons of reviews, I've never been the one to actually write a review. Why? Probably laziness with a side of eh, I don't really care to. Who am I kidding. It's definitely laziness.

During our Christmas 2011 trip (which I still need to finish re-capping. Oops!), the hubby and I utilized Yelp and various other reviewing sources like crazy. Boy, were they helpful!! It helped decide our daily meals and adventures. When we came back from our trip, I decided that I would start writing reviews on TripAdvisor for everything we did and everywhere we stayed, and on Yelp for everywhere we ate. Check out this report TripAdvisor emailed me the other day.

I only have done 14 reviews, but have reached 1,696 readers?! Get out of here!!

Seriously, how freaking cool is that?! I'm definitely going to continue writing reviews, but for everything. Bought something - review! Ate somewhere - review! Stayed somewhere - review! Did an adventure - review! Now, I'm a read AND write review go crazy kind of gal. Yikes!

Are you an advocate for reading review prior to committing something? What about writing them?

Random Mondays: Happy Chinese (Lunar) New Year!!

Today's Random Monday Emoticon:

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Item in question fact:

Today is Chinese/Lunar New Year!!! This Asian holiday is HUGE and is well celebrated with abundance in food and games with all family members returning home. Every year, my family closes my aunt's restaurant a little early to utilize the space and the ginormous woks for cooking to put on a celebratory dinner fit for a king. Seriously. This year's menu consisted of 20 items of food (e.g. duck, quail, noodles, veggies, pork, beef, tofu, 3 types of rice, soup) and 3 desserts. The food was prepped and displayed in the buffet line.

Sorry the pictures are so blurry! iPhone didn't like the

horrible buffet lighting.

With over 50 people in attendance, laughter and joy from story telling could be heard miles away I'm sure. We were LOUD!

And to think I almost missed out on it this year because of the shop. An hour prior to closing, the hubby decided we were going to Oklahoma (3.5 hour drive) to enjoy the new year dinner with my family. He knew how BIG my family does it and was determined not to miss out on it. Meanwhile, I was set on not going. Not that I don't miss or love my family, but after a 12 hour shift (2am till 2pm) at the shop and a 3.5 hour drive immediately following (got to OK at 5pm) just to have dinner (dinner was at 8:30pm) then immediately drive back (left dinner at 10:45pm) another 3.5 hours to get back just in time to open up the shop again (got back to TX at 2:30am. Shop opens up at 3am), didn't sound appealing. Talk about extremely tiring. Plus, the hubby was driving and I was concerned if he had the energy to do it.

He even called my parents and jokingly tattled on me because I was being a bad daughter since I was refusing to go and that he might be arriving there by himself. He's too funny. My dad reasoned the same logic as I did. However, the hubby knew how much this annual dinner meant to my family and wasn't missing out. So the hubby took on the challenge and drove me to OK after a long work day so that I could spend New Year's with my family. Y'all, I have THE BEST hubby. Ever. Seriously. There's only 24 hours in a day, and we expended it all.

As if my hubby wasn't already awesomeness to the max. THEN, oh then... once we got back into town in the nick of time, the hubby let me sleep in till 7:30am while he proceeded to setup and prep the shop. Talk about love y'all. Le sigh... This has been by far the BEST Chinese New Year ever!

It's the year of the dragon!!

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From the hubby and I: 祝你新年快樂！恭喜發財！身體健康！萬事如意!!
(Wishing you a happy new year! To Happiness and Prosperity! To Health!  To accomplishing 10,000 things of your heart's desire!)

Random Mondays

Today's Random Monday emoticon:

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Item in question:

What does an Executive Chef at a nice restaurant buy at the grocery store?

Sorry the pic is grainy. It was taken with an iPhone

Ramen noodles!!

We were at the Uwajimaya Supermarket in Seattle when the hubby noticed this chef standing in the checkout line embracing a few packages of ramen noodles and a grocery list? As the chef spun around to people watch, we noticed his jacket was labeled with his name with the title Executive Chef underneath it. Interesting! Maybe chefs get tired of cooking nice meals so an easy, simple "home cooked" meal is preferred?

What's your take on the Executive Chef's purchase?

Random Mondays

Since I'm (sort of) resuming normal programming now, what better way to resume it with an oldie, but a goodie series - Random Mondays!

Today's Random Monday Emoticon:

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Item in question:
The little town that our donut shop resides in just recently opened up a Second Hand Retail Store. They have quite a bit of few neat little things in there! Collectibles like these along with a huge assortment of vases for example:

 

The hubby even bought the town's authentic football helmet for a steal of $7.99. Go Fighting Farmers!

And this neat lil tennis memorabilia of how the tennis racket has evolved. The hubby is an avid tennis player and loves the sport:

Each week, the store posts up their specials to bring in business. This one week's special:

Yikes!

Oh. my. word.  I couldn't even begin to tell you what exactly they were offering this week! What do you think they meant to say?

Random Mondays

Work has officially blocked all things social so I can no longer log into blogger during my lunch breaks to catch up on awesome blogs or update my own. Lame! You're probably wondering why don't I just update when I get home in the evenings. Well, once I shut my laptop off at work, it stays shut and I don't get back on the internet bc I'm always so darn tired after work. As in I get home and sometimes don't get undressed from work clothes and pass out on the bed until tomorrow tired. Maybe exhausted would have been a better word? Yea. Flipping exhausted!

So guess I'll be updating on my phone on my train ride to/from work. We'll see how this turns out.

Onto today's random thought. Are you on Pinterest? If not, I suggest you go check it out. Now. It's so damn addicting. At least work hasn't found out about Pinterest yet so I can pin my little heart away. Hehe. What was I getting at again? Oh. Right. Pinterest. I'm following a complete stranger's (sounds stalkerish doesn't it? Creepy!) Work it! Board and am totally inspired to lose weight and be fit! Well after a week of following her board, I managed to lose 2lbs! Hoorah!!! No exercise. Just plain watching what I eat. Then the weekend rolled around and that means working at the shop 24/7 and no Internet. No internet means no Pinterest! No Pinterest means no motivation to be slim and mean. Well, I hopped on the scale this morning and hello +2lbs. Not cool. Who knew Pinterest could be so darn empowering?!

Are you Pinteresting it up like it's going out of style? You can find me here!

Random Mondays

Today's Random Monday emoticon:

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Item in question:
I attend the Plano Bridal show with future bride-to-be, Hany and another girlfriend yesterday. Guess who I ran into while stuffing sampling cake bites and perusing the aisles of the bridal show? My wedding videographer, BJ from Roman Video Productions! We were in the last aisle of snaking through the show when I heard someone call my name. I literally shouted - BJ when I recognized who it was!! That's not only what got me all excited. As we were concluding our encounter, BJ sweetly said, "Tell Sothea I said hello!" I was completely. speechless. Y'all - she remembered my hubby's name!!! I didn't even recall my hubby's name when we first met, or the next few times we met either... Sothea isn't exactly the easiest name to recall, but dude! She totally nailed it! Almost a year after our wedding, she still remembers. Le sigh. Is she freakin awesome or what?!

Have you encountered any pleasant surprises lately?

Random Mondays

I've been in Canada for work since last Sunday hence the lack of updates and the Random Mondays post on a Tuesday. Bare with me as today's post is totally random and much babbling of thoughts. Feel free to move along to more well thought-out and composed blogs. *cheesy, happy face*

Work in Canada was crazy hectic, but the weather was absolutely gorgeous. High of 75 and lows of 65? Yes, please!

The evening/sunset view from my hotel room in Montreal 

Beautiful flowers in the hotel lobby. Reminds me of my

wedding bouquet. Le sigh.

The view from Canoe, a restaurant in Toronto

on the 54th floor facing Lake Ontario, the CN

Tower, and Porter airport on a drizzly afternoon.

Looks like I brought the beautiful Canadian weather back to Texas with me:

You're welcome! I'm still working on the rain part...

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Labor Day was spent, well, laboring. At the donut shop. Wait, that's not what Labor Day is about? Well, crap! Oddly, I enjoyed my time at the shop because that was 1 extra day I got to spend with the hubster after being gone for a week with no form of contact other than emails. Yay for more quality time, even if it's at work!

We're 6 days into September now, which means we're less than 2 weeks away from our 1 year wedding anniversary! Holy moly!! I need to get a move on finishing our wedding recaps - stat!

How was your Labor Day weekend? Anybody else welcoming the cooler weather?

Random Mondays!

*peeks around the corner* Timidly, "Hi fellow blogsters!" I know I took quite a hiatus from blogging (work is going through some major organizational changes), but I'm back (hopefully) and I'm hoping to finally be wrapping up my wedding recap because um. our anniversary is coming up in about a month. Holy bujeebuzz! Already!! To start things off right, back to our regular programming (if you still poke your head around these parts of the blog any way)!

Today's Random Monday emoticon:

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Item in question:

During our "spontaneous" summer vacation over the July 4th weekend, we spotted some GORGEOUS flowers right outside our hotel. I instantly fell in love with them, but have no idea what they are! I'd love to add them to our flowerbed around the pool! It's also massive! Like bigger than the size of my foot. I have a proof of this, but not sure where I filed that picture away at... FYI: I wear a size 8!

Isn't is gorgeous???

Do you know what this beautiful plant is? What's your favorite plant/flower?

Random Mondays!

Today's Random Monday emoticon:

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Item in question:

My wonderful hubby bought me a new purse (not) for Valentine's Day this year, and have been battling the "crap, I keep losing my shit in this bottomless pit" due to the constant shift of purse contents. It's rather annoying. Enter Purse Bling. They totally have it together in regards to this bottomless pit issue! Purse organizers - brilliant. Absolutely. Brilliant! Now all your crap belongings have a home. A pocket for the cell phone, sunglasses, pens, meds, etc. According to Purse Bling, there's even a special pocket for business cards. I'm totally in for one, but now I can't decide which one to get! So help a home girl out will ya? Which do you think I should get??

The Purse To Go Original:

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It has 8 pockets and a "bottom"

The Joey Junior Purse Organizer:

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Has 6 pockets and wraps around the interior of your purse.

Which do you like/prefer? Once y'all help me decide, I have to decide on which color. Oi vey! This is way too many options for totally indecisive moi. Feel free to recommend a color too if you'd like!

P.S. The owner of Purse Bling, Jerilyn, even personally emailed me to help me determine the proper purse organizer size for my purse. Talk about customer service! Love it!

Random Mondays!

Today's Random Monday emoticon:

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Item in question:
Last Friday, I exaggerated the 105 degree weather, but the car reading corrected me later that afternoon. It was higher. With the heat index, the air was a scorching 116. I could literally feel the sun rays burning holes into my skin.

Yup, it's almost 7pm and we're still rocking

100+ degree weather. It's not even August

yet, which is THE hottest month - ever!

How's the weather where you're at?

Random Mondays!

I know, I know, I know. I'm a horrible blogger. While I previously mentioned blogging would be light, I didn't intend it to be one post a week. Last week was our summer vaca (I might or might not blog about it), so I did horrible job of scheduling posts for the remainder of the week. I only did my Random Monday one. Lame, I know. So if you're over me, I totally understand. Redemption is never easy and I'm not making any promises to because well, under promise and over deliver is always a better philosophy than over promise and under deliver right? Right! Moving on...

Today's Random Monday emoticon:

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Item in question:

During our summer vaca last week, our hotel, Farmer's Daughter, in West Hollywood was across the street from the Farmer's Market. You can bet your money that the Farmer's Market was on my agenda for breakfast every day. Why? Because when there's the freshest fruit galore available, I'm all over it baby.

The variety was endless 

Pre-sliced fruit. They were so sweet with

none of the work. Heaven!

What do you look forward to at the Farmer's Market?

Random Mondays!

Today's Random Mondays Emoticon:

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The city's informal town hall is held every Saturday at our shop. These guys crack us up and are like informal door greeters to all our customers (because they literally know every single person in town). It's also becoming the place to meet up! For example, the town's football team has breakfast at our place every Friday. It's the place to grab breakfast before any sports games/meets or even for church on Sundays. And most recently, we're the convening place for boy scouts! How cool is that! I couldn't be more proud of what our "mom and pop shop" has become and am excited to see what's in store next. The people here are what really make it what it is. Plus, the hubster is such a social butterfly and is somewhat a local celebrity, but I'll let him tell you that story!

There's more of them, but they couldn't all sit at the

already extrapolated table without violating the fire code!

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Happy 4th of July everyone!! Thank you to all our men and women in the service for all that you do for our country! Hope you're all enjoying some good ole BBQ and spending quality time with your loved ones!

Random Mondays!

Sorry this is a day late and I haven't updated in a week! Such a bad blogger. Work is consuming me, but I know it's no excuse. I do have potential exciting news though so stick with me will ya?

Today's Random Monday Emoticon :

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For work, Andrew was sent to Durant, OK, which is about an hour North of Dallas (or so the Choctaw Casino commercials tell me). Van wanted to take a road trip and surprise Andrew so she called the hubs and I up to see if we would like to accompany her on the trip. She offered to drive so we thought heck, why not! Since we were going to wait for Andrew to get off work to have dinner with him, a quick pit stop at a fast food joint was a must. Two hungry chicas - no bueno! Since we're the most indecisive people ever, we pulled into the first fast food joint we saw at the next exit - Taco Bell. And no Mexican food is really complete without salsa right? But if your salsa has the same thought as you, well, you know it's going to be a good day!

Has any coincidental good incidents happened to you?

Random Mondays!

Today's Random Monday emoticon:

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Kroger has a reward program (Plus Card) where you get discounted prices on certain items based upon the weekly ad, but no matter what, you earn points for items you purchased ($1 on groceries = 1 point, while 1 prescription fill = 50 points). For every 100 points accumulated, you receive $0.10 off per gallon of gas! Not too shabby of a reward with gas prices being ridiculous at almost $4.00/gal! There are very few items we purchase at Kroger, but when we do, it's in massive quantities. 

Previously, the gas discounted limited you to $0.10 off per transaction, therefore, if you earned 400 points, you were entitled to $0.10 off a gas fill four times, not $0.40 off your next fill. Bummer. Now, Kroger has a new feature to their reward program which got us super excited! You can now stack the points for an even larger discount on gas, up to $1.00 off per gallon! Oh yeaaaa! Our recent cost per gallon?

What exciting news have you gotten recently?

Random Mondays!

Today's Random Monday emoticon:

I wasn't able to find a smiley that was

fitting for today's post

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I missed out on the creative/crafty gene in my family so I'm always in awe of other's creations at DIY projects. While driving home from Dart one day, this fabrication had me dumbfounded - a crib made from PVC pipes!

Please excuse my disgustingly dirty windshield.

That's what happens when you drive in the country

 at 2am with bright headlights. You don't want to see

 my front bumper...

Has there been DIY project that astounded you?

Random Mondays!

Today's Random Monday emoticon:

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There's something serene about the sky when the clouds are fluffy and depict imaginative shapes; and the sky is the perfect shade of blue.

Is there something in your life that just has you melt away and smile?

Random Mondays!

Today's Random Monday emoticon:

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Item in question:
Something in the hubby's brain the other night made him spontaneously want to learn to speak Chinese all of the sudden. Or maybe my griping about how he never has the desire to learn my native tongue, but I can somewhat hold my own when speaking Khmer. That's besides the point. Plus, he's the one that approached me about learning Chinese.

Moving on. He also recently jumped off the Blackberry bandwagon and hopped onto the iPhone bandwagon. Mostly because the iPhone has more apps (read: games. Boys!). So we browsed the App store to see what (free) apps were available in regards to learning Chinese. We found a couple, but this one totally baffled me. This app offered two courses: Essentials and Flirting. Essentials were the basic "Hello", "Goodbye", "I'm sorry", etc. Flirting on the other hand. Oh. my. word. For some, maybe this repulsive  forwardness approach is their way of flirting, but as a girl, if some guy came up to me and said these lines, I'd run far, far, far away. Then again, I also couldn't help my literally laugh my ass off as I was scrolling down the page. Oops!

Have you ever encountered interesting phrases or approaches to learning a different language?