All posts by epicureasian

a gardening gamer girl in search of good grub
Ye Olde Garden

New callas of May

The callas are blooming. First up: Flame. These blooms display brilliant yellow, with a touch of orange or red. I am assuming that as the weeks go on, they will deepen in color per their namesake. As an aside, the single blooming purple flower of my Devil’s Wine calla has barely faded but held its true shape. It’s a testament to how long-lived these calla blooms are!

My Blossom Farm order came in last week, but 2 of the lavender plants I ordered do not appear to be faring very well. I’ve been keeping a close watch on them, but it appears the smallest of the 4 has given up the ghost. I’ve messaged Blossom Farm for assistance…perhaps they are not beyond rescue. I’m just glad that I have one each of the 2 larger specimens, Coconut Ice and White Provence.

I’m not too thrilled with the Bewitched Purple potato vine (which appears to be mislabeled) threatening to take over my planter. While the palmate shape of the leaves are attractive, they are much too large and overshadowing the neighboring plants. I intend to pull it out as soon as I can find a suitable replacement, preferably a petite-leaf purple potato vine, similar to the compact bright green potato vine (which may be a Sweetheart Light Green) in the other planter.

Today is an example of a perfect morning on the patio, cool weather and warm sun. I should invest in a folding patio set. Perhaps I can shop for one this holiday…if the fiance will let me out of bed this weekend. 😀

5/20/2009 On the Patio Again (1) 5/20/2009 On the Patio Again (2) 5/20/2009 On the Patio Again (3) 5/20/2009 On the Patio Again (4) 5/20/2009 On the Patio Again (5) 5/20/2009 On the Patio Again (6) 5/20/2009 On the Patio Again (7) 5/20/2009 On the Patio Again (8) 5/20/2009 On the Patio Again (9) 5/20/2009 On the Patio Again (10) 5/20/2009 On the Patio Again (11)

Bites and Finds, Dining

Girl Scout cookies in my ice cream

Cookies and ice cream seem to be a natural pairing…the ubiquitous cookies-and-cream ice cream is proof. (Not to mention cookie dough ice cream!) When I spotted Dreyer’s latest entry into this subgenre, I just knew I had to try it. My all-time favorite Girl Scout cookie is the Samoa…and every year I’ve indulged on several boxes during the cookie-buying season. This year, I’ve managed to scrape by consuming only 2 boxes (mostly in one sitting)…so I needed a Samoa fix–badly.

I discovered Dreyer’s (Edy’s in some markets) Limited Edition Girl ScoutsÂŽ SamoasÂŽ Cookie Grand Ice Cream in the freezer section of my local Central Market, and I took it home and devoured it. It’s SamoasÂŽ Cookies in Caramel Ice Cream with Fudge, according to their website blurb. Normally, I’m not a caramel fan…but the caramel complemented the Samoa cookies perfectly, which in turn was punctuated by the occasional drizzle of fudge…and the combination is addicting. According to their site, this is only available from January to April, so I consider myself lucky snagging it here in mid-May.

Technical

Crossposting to unify social networking sites

I’ve been researching ways on pulling together my online presence into my WordPress site and I’ve found some interesting addons that may at least link up MySpace and Facebook (and other well-known networking sites).

Since I know Ynygma is into Facebooking, I thought the Facebook Dashboard Widget might be an interesting enhancement to the WordPress experience. If you’re interested in crossposting, then perhaps the Socialite addon is worth a look. ShareThis accomplishes this task with a larger list of networking/bookmarking sites to choose from. I’m still in search of an addon or widget that will pull MySpace info into WP but because it’s known to be the most proprietary of the networking sites out there, chances are slim that an addon will do what I want it to do. If anybody finds something with this kind of functionality, then please let me know!

Speculative

Quotations and thoughts on being Asian

World of Warcraft should be placed alongside Facebook and cigarette breaks as leading causes of declining productivity among today’s workers. The game is just so damn addictive.

Asian parents often have one of two mindsets. They are either motivated by the lack of opportunity provided in their own lives, and are determined to provide their children with the facilities and support to excel that they themselves, never had….The other mindset is one of pragmatism. The ever-worrying Asian parent, fearing mediocrity for their child, pushes the poor kid to their limit, all in view for their future.

The “critical language acquisition” stage ends when a child hits 7. Before that age, languages can be easily learned — one of the reasons why Europe and other Asian countries teach foreign languages before Middle School. Sometimes, it’s just ludicrous how the American education system works.

Asian chicks dig white guys. Somewhere in the midst of the pseudo-nationalistic indoctrination our well-meaning parents inflict upon us, we ladies stop paying attention and allow tall(er), skinny, white boy engineers to steal our hearts.

I found some entertaining reading and speculation on the Asian culture (Stuff Asian People Like) after filling out an amusing quiz on “How Asian Are You”.