So I typed out part 2, and all I needed was to add the photos but I was tired and went to bed. Then a lot of bullshit happened and I ws in no mood to type. But uh, I think I got some mojo.

First off, my PaBa cake - tumblr'ized. Savin mad time right now!

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Next, my sister's 21st at Wildwood BBQ.



Ribs wewre blackened outside and pink inside wtf. Bacon was good, pulled pork is pulled pork.





Kale and brussel sprouts with bacon and (absent) caramelized onions. Also cornbread which was warm and sweet and had whole corn kernels yums. Also had a carrot-raisin slaw that was yummy like apple pie filling. I want the recipe!



Red velvet for the birthday girl!

K so here's where the mojo came back. The party was a good 15 people, so naturally it was a big ass tab. My sister's friend brought her little sister, and asked for a separate tab. With tax and tip for the two of them with was a meager $30 (everyone else aside from the younguns had adult meals and alcohol so our tabs were $30 and up individually). But she had no cash on her despite the invitation saying everyone pays their own way, so my mom paid for her and she was supposed to pay it back. She actually said the money was in her savings... is she the female Kevin Hart? We had a little laugh about this amongst ourselves.

Shit I found out a few days later: The girl has a Chase bank account and there is a Chase directly across the street from the restaurant. She could have hopped over to the ATM directly in front of her.

Shit I found out a few moments ago, a solid month later: She's been making up excuses about the time it takes to transfer her money from one account to the other, so my mom texted her about it, and she called my mom thirsty!! OMG!! My mom is all... if you see her again, beat her ass... LMAO... even my brother wants to beat her shit. LOL

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Next, Tuna Cutting 2013 (in place of November 2012). Slimmed down from a good 117 photos.



Fish head, $20. Neck, $40.



The lady in front of me on line was this mad nice Japanese lady. We watched the sushi assembly together.



Price goes up every year -_- lol Well, rare that I spend $30 on lunch. (See end of entry, in fact).













Tools of the trade.



I feel like this is the same sushi chef from Japantown 2, back in what, 2010?



$10,000 fish knife.





Ohbanyaki filled with azuki and cream cheese... yummy as hell!! I want this to be a permament menu item. Barring that, I'll just bring them home and add my own cream cheese lol.



What makes fish tasty is the fat content, and the fattiest cut is the belly meat, ohtoro. Here's a spectacular fatty specimen with a hefty price tag (this is a SALE price mind you).

The other cuts are chu-toro (medium fatty) akami (not so fatty at all), and kiriotoshi (the scrap/end cuts/chunks). This year they added another category - nakaochi, the scrapings. Stuff scraped off the bone and such, good for making makizushi and such. Someone put back their nakaochi and I had a look.

And I wanted to kick them and kiss them for being so stupid!!!!



LOOK HOW AMAZING THIS LOOKS -_- WHY WOULD YOU GIVE THIS UP? I sort of feel like this is mislabeled cos it looks NOTHING like the scrapings lol.

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Last few notes:

I had my beloved spicy chicken sandwich from Zaiya East Village and it tasted like budget cuts.

I've been eating pretty simple lately (Maangchi's kimchi-guk recipe makes for an amazing lunch, on that note, and one batch makes like 3 days worth of lunch for under 10 bucks), but I haven't had a burger in months so I had some Shake Shack.

Why is it like, full of female employees who are MAD SKINNY? Like, 130lbs TOPS. ?!?!

When I was younger I'd always get annoyed at how my creative energy seemingly used to max out in the middle of the night when I was supposed to be asleep. I wanted to get up and draw or some shit. Well, I guess some things don't quite change. Lately I feel like blogging the most when I'm laying in my bed. It makes a laptop or tablet seem like a solid investment, but fuck all that. lol

So so far this month has been about (memories of) love, and food. Valentine's day was spent with me, and my cake. Paris Baguette came through and made what I believe is the best cake I've ever had.



The right level of tea flavor... a mouth full of fresh cream on Valentine's day is all a girl could ask for.

The other thing about Valentine's, is that my mom called me out. lol

"Don't you usually get roses on Valentine's day? What happened this year?"

Ok, so her clock is very off, as I have not gotten roses in a good... 5 years maybe? It just so happened I got flowers on 2 consecutive years and explained/mentioned nothing of it, so it stuck in her head.

In case you can't tell... story time.

Way back in my teenage years, I used to spend my internet time on a forum or two and on AIM with my fellow forum posters. One of the forum chums IMed me one day (I believe the forum had more or less met its end by then) and we chatted it up all friendly like like old times. He said he wanted to send me something in the mail and, because I trust him, I gave him my address.

What I wasn't expecting was a bouquet of roses on Valentine's day, with the sweetest card that like... can this even describe me? It's too sweet.

What he wasn't expecting was to find out shortly afterward is that I was already in a relationship.

There are three things I can't stress enough:
1. That I had NOT A FLICKIN' CLUE he was into me. Back then, being a girl on a predominantly male forum, there were lots of guy-eyes pointed my way. He never got flirty or what have you, always polite and friendly. So this TOTALLY blindsided me.
2. That to this day I feel ridiculously guilty about it. Technically no one did anything wrong, but I feel like I should have handled it better. Somehow. He talked to me less and less until he stopped signing on AIM altogether and every time I think about it I feel like such a shit. I'm so sorry. I hope you find someone who appreciates and cherishes you.
3. That he is a good one or two thousand times better than my boyfriend at the time, who NEVER bought me flowers (not that he had to, I'm a simple girl) - his Valentine's day involved cheating on me with his other girlfriend, World of Warcraft, until near midnight. It's not just about V-day, either, he was a terrible lying, cheating, cowardly SOB and it took me far too long to accept this and break it off.

I broke it off a year after that... on February 13.

I think all my lonely V-days are because I have maxed out my terrible Valentine karma. LOL.

But really, ex-bitchass spent quite enough time avoiding me because he THOUGHT I was mad. I wasn't mad about a damn thing! I was fed up though. So when he asked me if I'd be home to receive a package present, I knew he was trying to give m a present to smooth things over and so I told him not to bother... and ended it there. This was the year I had to work on Valentine's with my boss (see: Na na 7) and when I came home, there were roses waiting for me on my bed again... from the guy who would be my next boyfriend.

THAT one treated me better, but we still crashed and burned before the year was out. lol

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As for the food part, I'm not even done working through that. I'll get back to you Sunday or so.

Happy Valentine's Day ♥♥♥

Happy Chinese New Year!!

Didn't do ANYTHING about it because Nemo just found US and left a shit-ton of snow all over the damn place.

Would have liked some dim sum... would settle for dan tat and turnip cakes.

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How???

How did my highlights, my HAIR... get darker???

Should be LIGHTER THAN EVER right now but now its like ultra dark and omg

My hairdresser kept asking me if I was ready to try a new color and I was like "nah" but wtf this wasn't temp color dye!!

I feel like eventually there will be a part 2, etc. lol

About 1 year ago I wrote about my dental follies with the orthodontist from hell, and how it resulted in my slightly crooked teeth. I realize though, I didn't write about my need for a new dentist after that visit.

Usually when I go to the dentist, I get my x-rays, my teeth cleaned, a deep clean, the "your mouth is hemorrhaging because you don't floss and not because I just stabbed you with this cleaning instrument" talk, and then I'm done - no copay.

So I legit couldn't figure out my checkup last year. He didn't do the deep cleaning - instead he scheduled me to come back for it. Fine, I figured, even though it wasn't busy at all so I couldn't see why he couldn't just do it then and there. So about a month later I came back.

First of all, I had to wait for friggin' ever even though I came early. It wouldn't be so bad if they weren't punishing the waiting room with this awful, awful movie. I had to look up the name - N-Secure. Doesn't the name alone worry you? The movie... sigh.

The movie is about some guy and his fiancee. He is an ultra strict SOB whose only goal is to make his father proud, and getting married is just part of that goal. His fiancee is a girl who came from a poor, empty background so marrying a guy with money is better than nothing. Thing is, the guy is a total militant dick. The type who doesn't want her coming home a single minute late, and lectures her about how disrespectful it is and does the math for the minutes to bring her ass home. Are you serious?

Well, girly tried to get close to another guy, she cot caught, she got thrown out. He finds another woman, but the paranoia is already set in and he becomes violent and abusive in his unreasonable distrust. And of course the girl has no idea about what happened so she's like, well what the fuck are you attacking me for I ain't even do nothin!

Meanwhile, ex-fiancee discovers she's pregnant and the baby can only be his, but the paternity test says it isn't. So she goes to the doctor and begs in a scene that set off such an alarm for me:
Her: Please, do another test. It can only be his. I was only with him.
Doc: We can do another test, but he has to consent to it.
Her: Please, can't you just do it?
Doc: I'm sorry, but I can't do anything behind his back or against his will as a doctor.
Her: ...
Doc: Aite I'll see what I can do.

what

No tears, no bribes, no desperate pleading... after explaining why he can't do it, he just up and says "k I'll do it." Doesn't that leave a really bad impression in all sorts of ways...

End of the movie - I think psycho guy dies and the doc proves the baby is his so girly inherits money to take care of the psycho's kid. I dunno. I was actually half assedly paying attention. They popped in a Tyler Perry movie after and then I definitely couldn't focus.

Finally the dentist saw me. It wasn't my usual dentist, though. This one gave me HALF a deep cleaning, charged me $80 (I repeat, NEVER paid anything and I didn't change my coverage or plan), and told me to come back for the other half, and he would charge me another $80 for that.

So uh... you charged me full price for half assed work? Next time you can give me 1/4 a cleaning and charge for that too? Just rack up at my expense is it?

On top of all else, he told the hygienist to teach me to brush and floss in the most patronizing manner possible. She just gave me a smile that said "I know, he's..." and I told her to skip it because I was disgusted as is. Dr. Gutman will be forever known as Dr. Cuntman.

So yeah, switching dentists. lol