McDonald's Monopoly

I'm usually not one that cares too much about eating fast food. I don't dislike it, but just that I rarely go get fast food because it's never one of those places I think about getting food at when I'm hungry. However, when McDonald's has their Monopoly game, that's a different story. I'm a TOTAL sucker for that game! I know that the chances of winning anything (besides food) is near slim to none, but for some reason, I still like playing and collecting the pieces. It's a good feeling to know you won something, even if it's just the 1 in 4 chances of winning food. My usual self that doesn't care for fast food would intentionally think about going to McDonald's for food just to get play pieces.


This year, I didn't realize that their Monopoly promotion had started earlier than last year, so I've only gotten McDonald's twice for their promo. I got some Chicken McNuggets yesterday, but was quite disappointed to find out that they put the darn nuggets in a regular box and not a Monopoly one with the game pieces to peel!!!! (I did, however, find out that McDonald's now has a spicy buffalo sauce for their McNuggets and it's oh-so-good!! It tastes exactly as the real buffalo wing sauce--and it's actually spicy unlike other foods that claim "spicy" but isn't at all)


Since I'm trying to stick to my budget though, I guess that's it for now, McDonald's Monopoly. Until next year!!~~~

Self-Challenge: $10/day

So, it's only halfway through the month, but I'm close to blowing this month's spending budget already. It doesn't even seem like I did a whole lot so far this month. I was gone five days on a work trip with most of the food being provided. It's so surprising how quickly a few dinners/lunches, Walmart runs, a trip to Trader Joe's (when I was in the mainland), and an unexpected $300 expense can quickly add up. Then again, I'm not surprised about Walmart. They ALWAYS get me. I go in having a list of a few things to buy, but end up buying more than I intended. 


Now as a challenge to my self, I'm going to try to spend $10/day for the rest of the month so I won't be going over-budget. I'm not sure if that's actually doable, but we'll see. The weekdays aren't too hard, however, weekends could be dangerous.  I usually bring home lunch and don't usually go out during the weekdays. I don't really "need" anything from Walmart at the moment, except possibly some sewing notions for my Halloween costume. 


Silver lining: A $100 gift card from my work trip for food that I hadn't used. 


However, Day 1 has been a major fail.... 


-Office Depot: $50 - Totally ran out of black ink for my printer. Also bought a SD card for my camera I've been wanting--(Forgot $20 rewards certificate at home.) :(  
-Lunch: $0 - Friend treated
-Starbucks: $0 - Used my Starbucks gift card
-Ross: $41, but used the gift card, so technically $0 - Went in looking for a black tank top, but unnecessarily bought two pairs of shoes. How do I justify this purchase? I really can't..... (unless saying that they were "nice" or that I got a great deal counts)
-Target: $11, but used the gift card, so $0 - Found a plain black tank top for my costume.


Currently down $50 and only about $48 on gift card remaining.  :(

Don Quijote love

I think Don Quijote tops my list as favorite Asian (grocery) store to go to. (Walmart: I heart you too, but you just don't offer the variety of Asian food that DQ does). Don Quijote has a lot of variety and the price is reasonable for most things. I would say that Chinatown is THE place to go to get Asian groceries and veggies for cheap, however, I dislike going to Chinatown for groceries. It less convenient for me in terms of hours and parking, it's crowded, smells, and the worse is there's a lot of homeless people around there. 

I knew they had a lot of different noodles (dry and fresh), sake, snacks, Asian beverages, etc. However, today I see some new interesting finds as I was browsing through the aisles. In the Asian dessert aisle, I find a big section dedicated to just jelly, puddings, etc..... All different types of jelly flavors including the usual almond tofu and mango pudding to coffee and green tea jelly!!! It was my first time seeing coffee jelly mix in a store, and I just couldn't resist buying it. They even had packages of crepe and shortcake mix there, which I found interesting. Usually people just mix the batter themselves, so it's neat to see that someone already conveniently packaged it for you. 

Upon walking by the frozen food aisles, I had to check out what stuff they had available for shabu shabu. Some of the interesting finds in that section was that I saw they had frozen custard buns, lobster balls, and  miscellaneous Japanese variety packs for shabu shabu. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any shabu shabu/spicy hot pot base at DQ. Guess it's back to Chinatown for that one when I do shabu shabu. 

Back on the Pavement

I've been trying to keep up with my exercising, and today I got back into running the route I did when I trained for the Great Aloha Run. It's been a good half a year since I've gone on this route (from Ala Moana Beach Park to the zoo) , but it was good run. The view of the sunset was great, though, it did get dark very quickly. The five miles run seems to pass by so quickly when you have such a nice view to look at. The only thing I dislike about the route is that it's always a game of dodging the many people that are on the beach and walking the streets of Waikiki. I wish there was a nice, well lit place to go jogging around that was nearby work or where I live.... 

Overdue

So... It's been five months since my last post and obviously I'm overdue for one. I blame my lack of updating to the insane work schedule previously and laziness.


Things on my mind at the moment:
-OMG. My room looks like a frickin' pigsty. Good thing hardly anyone ever comes over.
-AW: Keep exercising. Don't let the momentum stop.
-How is it humanly possible to balance work life, social life, healthy lifestyle, and having leisure time (for reading, watching TV, cooking, etc) all into 24 hours?
-Damn.. I haven't gone on a photography adventure for a while. Gotta make up for it one day after the LA trip disappointment
-Need to write more frequently. Poor blog has been neglected.

Circle of Life....

I think it's interesting how the circle of life works. It can bring so much joy, but yet also can bring so much sorrow. In the past two months, I've sort of experienced both.


I've been to baby showers of my two coworkers/friends and cousin as well. It was the first pregnancy for all three of them, so the atmosphere was filled with joy, excitement, laughter, and hope for them. We had so much fun talking about their futures, them being moms, playing games. I imagine that it must be so exciting, yet nervous for them to be welcoming this new life into their home, but not being sure about what to expect from parenthood.


On the other end of spectrum, there is death. It's something taboo that people don't discuss in everyday conversations, but is inevitably part of life. Last month was my first time experiencing the passing of a family member. I guess there's always a first to everything. As much as I knew that it would have been something that'd happen sooner or later, it's something that you can never fully prepare yourself for. At times, I think I'm still in denial, but then I start to realize.......no, she's really not here anymore and all I have to hold on to are memories.


I've also had a friend in which experienced a death of her good friend recently. She told me she had dinner with her friend Ryan the night prior with a bunch of people. Then, the next day he was gone due to an accident. He wasn't old, he wasn't sick--there were no foreseeable signs. Yet, so easily, he was gone. It's unbelievably fragile how life is, but yet we don't seem to notice it in our day-to-day routine of things.


However, no matter what happens, life goes on. So, carpe diem............

Project Caterpillar

Yes, I am still alive, and this blog is still alive, though much overdue for a post. Haven't felt like having one of those "blog moments" lately. Anyways, time to catch up.

About two months ago, I tried raising caterpillars. (Note: It was my first time trying to do so. A lot of people did it as a project in elementary school, but I never did). It actually came up unexpectedly. My friend wanted to catch caterpillars, so I thought it'd be cool that I go with my camera so that I can get some shots of butterflies and/or caterpillars. We went to our old high school where there was a crown flower plant and caught some caterpillars and I was able to snap a few decent shots of butterflies. In the end, my friend didn't want to keep the caterpillars, so I kept them.


There were about five of them and the first few days went fine. I checked back a few days later and unfortunately they all died. I did a some research online and little did I know that the caterpillars needed "fresh leaves". I guess few day old leaves weren't their cup of tea.


So, now my friend who gave me the caterpillars was now interested in trying to raise some herself and went to catch some caterpillars. She caught some extra and gave me four of them. These ones were pretty huge already. So.... attempt number two.

Attempt #2: My chubby caterpillars

This time I made a conscious effort to keep the leaves "fresh" and going to the high school to pick up new ones every few days (even when it was raining). I also had made them a home via a Starbucks cup in which i made holes and put chopsticks in for them to crawl on. The work paid off. After about five days or so, I saw the first cocoon. Then, the next. I was lucky enough to see one of them make their cocoon. It went to the top of the cover and hung out their for a good 1/2 day or so, but the process itself happened in a matter of minutes. It was a bit weird. The caterpillar wraps itself with green goo it spits out, meanwhile its skin sheds.

Caterpiller upside down ready to turn into a cocoon like the one on the right

 Later the cocoon started changing colors about the fourth day or so. It turned to a darker, brownish color, then clear, in which you could see the black and dark orange which were the wings of the butterfly. I wasn't actually there to see the butterfly come out of the cocoon. I thought if it came out when I was at work, then it would have to stay there for a long period of time until I got home. Therefore, I gave it to my friend to look after the cocoons. Ironically, I was told the first one emerged an hour after I gave it to my friend.   -_- How convenient, huh?

My little butterfly!!! (The wings still weren't dry yet in the pic)

My friend gave me one of the last butterflies back not too long after it emerged from its cocoon. The wings were still wet and it couldn't fly. However, I let it go once its wings were dry as I didn't know what the butterfly's diet would be. I had forgotten I still had crown flower leaves in a cup until a few days later in which I was about to throw it out. Then, I noticed the leaf had a little tiny hole in it and after close inspection, noticed it was a tiny caterpillar!! 

The teeny caterpillar I almost threw away with the leaf

 I started raising this caterpillar as well, but this time it was in an open cup as I was too lazy to make it a cup and it seemed as though it wouldn't run away. It was going pretty well and the caterpillar was growing and I saw it shed its skin.

The caterpillar getting bigger and bigger day by day...

Then one night, I notice the caterpillar was not on its leaf and had actually ran away. Thinking it couldn't have gone far, I look around my desk, but was unable to locate it. The next morning, I find it on one of my gloves I had laying around my desk and put it back on its leaf. I knew I had to find it a new home so it wouldn't escape again. However, it made another escape before I got to making it a new home. This time I couldn't find it the next day. I thought it surely would've died by now without food. But, a day later, I find it on crawling on the floor!!

However, the caterpillar didn't last. Not sure if it was due to the lack of food when it escaped, but it died the next day even though it had its food source back.


I did prove myself not to be a caterpillar killer after all, and still raised four caterpillars into butterflies (though some died in the process).