Post-Thanksgiving: Toto, We're Not In Kansas Anymore...

Had a great time in Hutchinson, KS with the Kwas. I'll let the pictures do the talking. Be prepared for some very graphic shots of food. Thanks to Chris for some of the pictures. You can find more at Kirsten's blog.

Wednesday: On the road (this was probably somewhere in Oklahoma)

Healthy snacks

'Hutch'

Me and my fruit platter ;)

Char Kway Teow for dinner!

Great entertainment (the ones in the foreground at least)

A very naked stuffed turkey

Thursday: Kirsten making peach tea

Kirsten's mom prepared a feast! Rice, mashed potatoes, chilied corn, green bean casserole, stuffing with cranberries, pumpkin pie, gravy and Chinese-style chicken with mushrooms. Oh, and Cool Whip.

Friday: With our lovely hosts at Ken's Pizza, after shopping

It started snowing! (I chose the car to match my bag)

All ready to go out and play

With the shovelBrrr!

Kenaz doing most of the work

Don't you just love our snowman?

I do.

My snow-angel! (Beth: wink wink, nudge nudge)

Saturday: Bye bye, Kansas (let's play Spot the Snowman!)

Pre-Thanksgiving

It's that time of the year again. Just as the tests and final assignments pile up and threaten to overwhelm us, we are suddenly handed a lovely 5-day weekend... a moment's respite from the pressures of schoolwork. I'm exaggerating - this semester has been really consistent and well-paced so far. And actually, only Thursday and Friday are holidays, but all four of my Wednesday classes got canceled (i think 'canceled' looks better with 2 L's) because professors wisely predicted that none of us would show up anyway. So I am leaving with Kirsten, Kenaz and Chris at 4:30am Wednesday morning for a 10-hour drive to Hutchinson, Kansas, where K and K's parents live. Apparently there's not much to do there, but I'm looking forward to going to Wichita for the SALE TO END ALL SALES on Friday. They call it Black Friday here, "so named because of the heavy traffic on that day, although most contemporary uses of the term refer instead to it as the beginning of the period in which retailers are in the black (i.e., turning a profit)," according to Wikipedia. Stores open at 5am, and most people have queued for a while by then. Should be an experience, though I'm not exactly sure what to buy.

Another personal holiday tradition: buying the December issue of InStyle, which I can lovingly peruse for months on end. Even though ads take up half the magazine. It contains their annual Best Gowns feature, which I love.

I was looking forward to hosting John and Mel before I left for Vancouver on December 15 but it turns out my Rhetoric exam is fixed on the 14th and so I won't have time to show them around. Pity. It was really fun doing that with Munz last year. Wow, has it really been a year since then?

Since I have absolutely no photos, I will put up this very flattering one stolen off my swiss cousin Ching's blog. You have to click it to experience the full effect:

4 Lims and a Loh

I'll be back with Thanksgiving photos. In the meantime, take care and I miss you!

Across the Pond...

Quentin Blake is such a genius. Why can't he doodle on walls here? I would love to walk past this every day:

Apparently this is the Stanley Building at the new St Pancras Eurostar terminal in London. Xiaoen and Diane, please go take a look for me!

Chipmunks Trailer

The movie will probably be really bad, but this makes me laugh out loud. O how I love the Chipmunks!

In Praise of Mint and Chocolate

I feel like writing!
Last Sunday, what began as a simple request for JFoo to "fix my fringe" turned into a fully-fledged haircut. I was kinda like WHOA!! at first, but after a while I was glad he got carried away with his scissors. In fact, now I want it even shorter. You can assess the results below:

Me and Mr Hairstylist Extraordinaire

First pretty friend - Kirsten

Second pretty friend - Daph

Yesterday (Sat) Chris' Dad came over to our place and made a pot of VENISON STEW for us from the deer he had killed a few days before. As cute as Bambi and his friends are alive, they also taste pretty good simmered with onions and potatoes. Uncle also made his famous Hainanese Chicken Rice and cabbage soup. Mm-mmm.

Just finished watching 4.5 hours of Roots today for my Civil War class. And that's only half the mini-series. I was the only one who showed up for the screening so I watched it with my professor and we ate chocolate bars in between the episodes. I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed it. It wasn't visually stunning or anything (which is what usually attracts me), but the length of the series allowed for great character development - something you can hardly find in a 2 hour movie. I took a class on African-American history my first semester here (mainly because all the other classes were filled) and watching Roots really brought it all together for me. It's such a powerful story. Can't wait to watch the next three episodes.

Peppermint mochas are back! Christmas is coming! Mint and chocolate... such an amazing combination. After Eights, Girl Guide cookies... Someone should write a poem about the miracle that is the mixing of those two flavors. I nominate Fish (after reading her delightful little ode to words that end with 'ee').

Great song of the moment: John Mayer and Alicia Keys' Lesson Learned. Her voice is like silk. Can't wait for her new album. Check it out on YouTube. Also, Leona Lewis' cover of Snow Patrol's Run. So good.

Space Filler

Don't you think I kind of look like Matilda?

Courtesy of Uncle Song aka 'DJ Lo' aka King of festive YouTube playlists specially created to meet your every holiday need. For a small fee, I will pass on his amazing Deepavali and Christmas mixes to whoever wants 'em. Just kidding..