Samantha Ling

Even though we were completely stuffed from having so much fantastic food, we went to Porto’s Bakery anyway. It’s a Cuban cafe that serves soups and sandwiches and desserts. We, of course, were there for desserts! Porto’s, at least the one that we went to and I can’t tell you which one because I don’t remember, has two sections. One section is for soups and sandwiches and a small selection of desserts and the other section is just for dessert. We were there around 6:30 and it was totally packed full of people and they were going to close in an hour! There were still tons of people there!

I think this was a raspberry chcolate thingie,a flan thingie and a chocolate thingie.

I originally wanted to get just one thing. I wasn’t hungry, I mean, we just had a ton of food. But when we got to the front of the line, we saw all these goodies displayed that we ended up ordering like four things. And they were totally affordable, like $2-3 each! We ordered the strawberry cupcake pictured below.

A chocolate pudding thing and a guava and cheese pastry.

Guava and cheese pastry you say? It doesn’t sound that appetizing, does it? But OMG, it was delicious. We ended up eating all of it. And then the next day, we regretted not ordering extra like Chris E. did. The Hubs still talks about it lo these many weeks later.

Crossposted to Samantha Ling, Dreamwidth and Livejournal

After breakfast, we headed over to the Getty Center.

View from the Getty

It’s situated on the top of a hill and you can only get there by tram. The Hubs mentioned that it would be a great holdout if there was ever a zombie attack, but then we later discovered a service road did lead to the building. The Hubs then said all we would need to do was blow up that service road.

The Getty is free, but you do have to pay for parking ($15). I’d suggest going with a car full of people to be both eco-friendly and economical.

It’s part art museum and part garden. I especially liked this hedge that looked like a maze.

We spent all day there looking at paintings. There was a whole section on religious imagery starting from the 1600′s (I think) to the present. There were various paintings of popes. I especially liked the painting of the Sleepy Pope. I would show you some paintings, except I was admonished for taking them. The security people told me that I couldn’t take any photos.

I also couldn’t drink any water. Not in any of the exhibits. Not in the museum stores. And definitely not in the hallways. We had to leave the building to get a drink of water.

You also couldn’t walk on the grass. But only some grass.

As you can see, there are tons of people on the grass, but when we walked on the grass, we got yelled at. I couldn’t tell the difference between walk-able grass and off-limits grass.

So everywhere I turned, a security personnel was there to tell me I couldn’t do whatever I was doing. I half expected them to tell me that I couldn’t look too long. But I digress.

Amongst the paintings, there were also a lot of scary looking baby paintings. My theory is that babies back then popped out of the womb looking wide-eyed and psychotic.

Most of the paintings aren’t well known at all, but are indicative of the era. They did have some famous one’s, but we kind of breezed through those. I think it was because we’ve seen them before, and so we didn’t need to painstakingly read all about them.

While we were there, they had a special exhibit on Gods of Ankor and Paris: Life and Luxury where we learned all about what a wealthy person did during the day in Paris. Of course, no pictures. I was done getting yelled at. Right now, they have an exhibit that I wish was there when we went. It’s all about fashion in the middle ages! But alas, we were a few weeks early.

I quite enjoyed spending the day there. I’m not really big on paintings, but I did enjoy looking at them. There were little descriptions about the paintings next to each one, and I think I like the history aspect of them. There was one that Jenn was looking at that explained why there was a random lily in the foreground. Well it turned out at some point in time, they chopped that painting in half and sold it in parts!

The Hubs, of course, totally enjoyed it. Work sent me to Chicago once and I took The Hubs with me. While I worked, he went down to the art museum and spent the day looking at all the paintings.

In summary, the Getty is totally worth a visit if you’ve got a lazy weekend afternoon.

Crossposted to Samantha Ling, Dreamwidth and Livejournal

As Chris and I were returning home from grocery shopping, I saw something fly into the bush beside the car. I hadn’t really thought much about it. Having lived here for five years, I’ve learned to ignore anything that I see in my peripheral vision that scuttles or flies. If I jumped at every little thing, I’d always be on alert. There are so many frogs and lizards where I live along with tons of dragonflies and (certain times of the year) love bugs that there is always something moving.

So when I saw something fly into the bush, I didn’t really think anything about it. It was, unfortunately, a big mistake.

Inside this bush was a bird’s nest and the adult birds were defending their territory. There’s nothing worse than feeling the brush of bird wing against your face to get you running. Visions of Alfred Hitchcocks’s Birds came to mind and I had no intention of being pecked to death by a fist sized bird!

My best bet was to try to make a run for it with my groceries. My strategy was to duck and weave! But the bird did not attack us further. I think the squealing and running convinced the bird that I was no threat.

We managed to bring in all the groceries without receiving permanent damage.

And of course, I had to go take a photo, but I had to be careful. That bird was totally watching me again and I had to be quick or it would attack me again. I had no doubt.

Crossposted to Samantha Ling, Dreamwidth and Livejournal

This week officially starts my new job. I’ll be moving groups within my company to a position that has more work. Potentially, I’ll be working twice as much as I do now, which means also that I’ll also be making more money. What this means also is that I’ll most likely have less time to write.

Here’s the thing, I wasn’t writing anyway. This job requires me to meet a billable dollars quota. I know this probably doesn’t mean anything to most of you, but it basically means that I bill enough to justify my salary. And when I didn’t have enough work, I was trying to find work. I was thus, worried about getting work.

The new position isn’t like that. The group has too much work, so it was a natural decision to move me to a different group. The idea is that we’re moving me because I was underutilized.

Several people asked me how I felt about having less time to write. My answer was this, I like being employed and getting a steady paycheck. I have a financial responsibility to my family and my job has great health insurance.

I’ve recently spoken to a few writers, some were writing full-time, some half-time, and some where writing full-time and writing full time. Most of them weren’t living solely on their writing income. They had a spouse that was working and that was what was keeping them afloat.

I’m looking towards my future and what I want. And even though I’d love to have a writing career that can pay all the bills, I’m also realistic about that reality.

Some of you might think that I’m selling out to the man or that I’m giving up on my dreams.at least, that’s what some people have said to me. I disagree. I think you can have a good paying job without selling out to the man. I’m still going to write. I’m not quitting. I’m just taking a detour. And that’s ok.

Crossposted to Samantha Ling, Dreamwidth and Livejournal

Here’s OPI’s Ogre-The-Top-Blue. I got it because it had Ogre in it. I didn’t like it so much when I put it on, but it slowly grew on me.

and then I put the silvered shattered nail polish on it. It’s the Pirates of the Caribbean edition, so I think it’s limited edition.

I like the effect it has, but I think that it would look better with black shattered, but that’s super hard to get your hands on. I’m not sure if it was limited edition (it’s shown on the OPI site with the Serena Williams and Katy Perry editions. But I haven’t been able to find it in stores, not that I’ve been looking really hard.) The shattered effect makes a blah kind of color more exciting, don’t you think?

Crossposted to Samantha Ling, Dreamwidth and Livejournal

So it’s been forever since I posted and I feel like I should let you know the update on the e-reader.

I talked to Chris’ dad and he’s not really all that happy about e-book only editions. He’s old school. I mean, he’s like Gibbs on NCIS. A phone is used for calling people. That’s what it does!

There are plenty of other authors that have traditional books that he likes to read. So he’s sticking to those.

In other news, I’ve been following a couple of beauty gurus on youtube. For those who don’t care about such things, you can probably just skip this whole rest of the entry. I love make-up and every once in a while, I will buy a whole bunch of new lipstick shades and eye shadows because they’re always coming out with new colors and also because I like change.

I’m really into gold colored eye shadows right now and I’ve got like 3 shades of gold and they’re all completely different. I also like a pinky-reddish raspberry color as well. I took some photos, but I look the same regardless of what colors I use since I don’t wear my eye shadow that far up my eye lid. I feel a lot like Mimi from the Drew Carey Show when I do.

Brown eye shadow vs. pink eye shadow. Can’t really see a diff, can you?

That’s because I have a hooded mono-lid, one of which has a fold and the other doesn’t, so I have to put make-up on differently for each eye. And because we have the power of youtube, I’ve found a lot of asian women who show us how they do their makeup. Two of the one’s that I like are Jen and Holly Ann. Their aesthetic is a lot closer to mine, but they buy a lot more accessories than I do. They also do a lot of product reviews, which I like watching even though I don’t buy anything that they review. Both of these girls talk relatively fast. There’s not a lot of ummss and uhhhs in their videos. They’re right to the point. I stop a lot of youtube videos or fast forward a lot of them because some of them talk so slowly. They’re like turtles.

Unfortunately for me, I am several shades darker than they are. In MAC make-up terms, they’re NC30 and I’m NC37 during the winter and NC40 during the summer. So colors that look great on them, sometimes don’t look so great on me. For instance, lipstick colors. What looks great and pink and natural on them, unfortunately makes me look like I’m wearing too light a lip color.

But there are a lot more make-up whores out there than me and I discovered make up and beauty blog whose complexion is the same as mine. She’s great in that she manages to get a lot of different makeup brands and puts them on her face. I can see which colors I like before I even go to the store. I also love this other girl named Samantha. She’s doesn’t do a lot of make-up tutorials, but she’s got a style aesthetic that I like and her skin tone is also the same as me (though she definitely likes a lighter lip than I do. She’s younger, so she can get away with it.) Plus, she’s british and has a really cute accent.

And because I can, here’s my eyeshadow for Saturday night:

Makeup Forever (MUFE for short) star powder in #3 (honey gold), Mac Cosmetics eyeshadow in woodwinked. I know people sometimes describe their eye shadow colors as whore-y, but some people also have no sense of adventure. Urban Decay eyeshadow in Hustle (which I have as part of the Naked Palette) And I use Bobbi Brown gel eye liner in black because it’s one of the few liners that don’t smudge on me. I know everybody LOVES the urban decay 24/7 eyeliner, but I find that it smudges. A lot. The other one that doesn’t smudge is smashbox jetset liner, but it dries HELLA FAST. I use them both on my tight line and my water line and I have no problems with either.

This is what it looks like open. I think I’m also wearing Mac’s ricepaper on the inner corners.

I also use shiseido’s mascara primer and Mac’s plush lash mascara (although I don’t love it, I got it as a two-fer at Nordstroms when they were having a sale. The brush is too big for my little lashes). I normally prefer Lancome’s Definicils, but they’re expensive and I’m looking for alternatives. My problem is that because of the way my eyes are, mascara and eyeliner smudge like the dickens and I live in Florida, which is humid, which compounds the problem. I used to love Shiseido’s mascara, but they changed their formula or something. It’s not as nice. And the lashes are Ardell Demi Pixies which are a little too dramatic for everyday wear, so normally, I wear the Ardell Babies when I feel like lashes. Most of the time I don’t, which is why the photos of my eyes look different above. The left one has no false lashes.

And yeah, I’m a girlie girl. I doubt most of you care about this stuff though, so you don’t have to worry about more of these types of posts.

Crossposted to Samantha Ling, Dreamwidth and Livejournal

Do you remember the jewelry party that I went to a couple of months ago? So I ordered the items (a broach and a bracelet) from the seller. It took her about a week to actually place the order and then a few weeks after that, the whole shipment gets sent to the host. I had expected it to arrive at my house since I supplied an address, but I suppose that’s not the case. This is fine, since it’s easy for me to go to the host’s house and pick up my items, but it’s an extra step that feels unnecessary (The company probably wanted to save on shipping).

The broach, I gave to the hostess. It was her birthday party after all, and she had said that she liked the jewelry.

The bracelet, I kept, but I’m afraid that I’m not too happy with it. In the catalog photos, it looked like the crystals were black, but in fact, they’re more metallic, similar to hematite. Unfortunately, this means that I have nothing to match it as the necklace and earrings that I had bought it to match are actually black crystals.

The silver plating, unfortunately, is not the highest quality. I suspect it will wear off quite easily as the material underneath is rough. There are some pointy bits that make it uncomfortable to wear and make my skin red. The plating is also a little bit uneven. In certain parts, there seems to be globs where there should be intricate scroll work.

I’m also afraid to say that it’s quite cheap looking. I’m fairly sure that the material underneath is a metal alloy of some sort (because it’s heavy), but it looks an awful lot like plastic. I won’t be wearing this, like, ever, since I’m a little embarrassed by it.

I had also expected to have a clasp, but it’s clear elastic that binds the bracelet together. The knot that ties the whole thing together is not hidden and also pokes into my skin leaving yet another red bit on my wrist. For $35 with tax and shipping, I expected a little bit more than this. I mean, I didn’t expect it to be fantasmo, but I didn’t expect it to look like something an eight-year-old would wear on Dress Like a Princess Day.

The other pieces that were on display were not nearly this shoddy looking, but maybe that’s why they didn’t bring this one to show. This is more a lesson for me than it is anything else. And I really should have known better. But at least the broach looked nice and it was something that the hostess wanted (I should have bought two of those instead!). But alas, I wanted a bracelet. The likelihood that I’ll buy anything from this company again is pretty much nil.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it since I definitely wouldn’t give it to anybody I know. I mean, I’d be embarrassed to give it as a gift. Maybe one of you has a child that might like it. And if you like it, I won’t judge you. Not much anyway. Otherwise, it’s going to the Goodwill bin. (They don’t take returns.)

Crossposted to Samantha Ling, Dreamwidth and Livejournal

So after I posted the photo with Chris and myself at Disney, Abs was disappointed I didn’t talk more about the actual mechanics of doing Disney with children. In all honesty, I was lazy.

A couple of weeks ago, Abs & D, Aims and M and their two children, Princess the Older and Princess the Younger (Not their real names) came to Florida for a week-long adventure at Disney. I only did one day with them (which totally pooped me out, so I don’t know how they managed to do the whole week.) We went to Animal Kingdom.

Tag! You’re it!

When you go to Disney with children, I’d suggest going with three times as many adults as there are children. This way, not any one person has to watch the children the whole time. Now who is in charge of which child? Well, that depends. If the child holds your hand, you are responsible for her until you or she tags someone else. For instance, I had Princess the Younger (who is two years old) as we were walking to the safari ride. She walked away from me, which is fine since I could still see her. But then she took D’s hand, at which point I said, You’re it! It was then his responsibility to watch her. I don’t think any one of us had her for more than twenty minutes at a time, which makes it easier on your energy and you’re sanity.

This also assumes that you have relatively responsible friends.

The Runner
Disney has the fast pass, which pretty much allows you to jump ahead in line. You get a pass for one ride and then you have to wait X amount of hours before you can get a fast pass for another ride. Abs was right on top of getting the tickets. She remembered which rides they were interested in and what time we needed to get the next fast pass at. So I’d suggest designating one person for that. Otherwise, you may end up waiting an hour and a half for a ride.

The Non-Rider
The other thing I’d suggest is to being someone who doesn’t like the rides. Princess the Younger was not tall enough to come with us to certain rides, so someone needed to watch her while we went.

Abs, Aims, M, Princess the Older and I wanted to go on Everest. Luckily for us, we had Chris and D who did not want to go, so we left Princess the Younger with them. Aims strapped her into the stroller because she was already starting to doze. She told them that Princess the Younger could have anything she wanted from the snack bag and also told them to walk her around in the stroller. She falls asleep when you walk her around. They said ok, and the rest of us got in line for the ride.

Then we realized that we left her with two men that don’t have much experience with children. And we had fully expected to return to find Princess the Younger to be covered in empty snack bags since Aims said Princess the Younger could have anything from the bag. She didn’t specify that it had to be one at a time.

Luckily, Princess the Younger fell asleep pretty quickly after Chris and D began walking with the stroller. She actually fell asleep with her hand in her snack bag.

mini games
While we were standing in line, we played mini-games that only required your brain. One game we played was an alphabet game. We would start with a subject (Disney Characters) and take turns going through the alphabet. We started with A for Ariel. Then the next person get B and had to find a character that started with B. Like Belle.

I don’t remember what I got, but I do remember getting P and I couldn’t think of any. I was blanking. Actually, I blanked on all my letters. I apparently M put his arm to his nose and I was like, what elephant started with P? I totally don’t know anything about Disney! But eventually they gave me enough clues so I figured out it was Pinocchio. it seemed like such a duh answer after they helped me. I also got U which was also a totally duh moment. I blame a long day, but I think I just suck at that game. Nevertheless, it helped pass the time.

We didn’t end up seeing everything at Animal Kingdom. We missed the Asian section, which meant no tigers or the tapir, but that’s par for the course when you bring children. It didn’t bother us much since we’ve been there several times, but you may want to move at a slightly faster pace if you want to see the whole park.

And come in February! The weather was pretty awesome.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Crossposted to Samantha Ling, Dreamwidth and Livejournal

I don’t know what you’ve been doing of late, but Chris and I disapprove of it and we’re very disappointed in your actions.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Crossposted to Samantha Ling, Dreamwidth and Livejournal

I got a phone message from the dermatologist letting me know that my biopsy was negative. I hadn’t expected the news to be anything but negative as there was no indication that it would be anything else. I think she just took the biopsy because the insurance would pay for it and also because she wanted to cover her ass.

They never explained what the green spot was. I don’t think they even know. It was probably just a blemish on my skin.

Now that I think about it, you know what I blame that on? Paintball. I blame Faust. We used to go paintballing a lot. I got some serious bruises that scarred me, and I’m pretty sure I got shot in the back at least twice in one of these sessions.

So my green spot will most likely be replaced by a brown spot. By which I mean a scar. Hey, at least I’ll know for sure why I have that.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Crossposted to Samantha Ling, Dreamwidth and Livejournal