New Toy: Day 1

My Nikon D3000 came in yesterday and I took it out for a test spin today.

Side-story: I went to Target to buy my camera last week, but when the cashier rung it up, my card was declined! I was so unbelievably bummed... not to mention confused, since there was no reason for my card to be declined. Jeff suggested that I just order it on-line because it would most likely be cheaper. I looked on Amazon and it was about $100 cheaper... no tax... and free shipping. Woo-Hoo!! I ordered it right there.

When I checked Yahoo for my confirmation e-mail, I also had an email from my bank. They reported that there had been some suspicious activity (my thwarted attempt at Target) on my card and that they had locked it! BAH! I suppose you could call it a blessing in disguise, since I got such a deal afterward. :)

Here are some test shots. There aren't many because I only had a 64 MB SD card on me, but I'm planning on ordering a larger one later on.

Trying to enhance his blue-ness.

A Japanese pinball machine from Mocha 101.

You've GOTTA know what this is.

Ummm... yea...

I am seriously in love with my camera. The pictures come out so crisp and detailed, even in dim lighting. I think that was my main issue with my little point-n-shoot Cannon. Couldn't take night shots for shit. But not my Nikon. :) I'm so happy! My last splurge for a while. Gotta let my stack recover.

Mushroom Love

Jeff and I went to the Gilroy Garlic Festival a little while back and there was only ONE thing that I wanted to eat: stuffed mushrooms. Unfortunately, I kept putting off buying some until the very end and guess what... they were all GOOOONNEE!! -sobs hysterically- Then, afterward, I kept hearing about how good they were and how I missed out. Damn it! I might go to the festival next year just to get 'em... cause the rest of the festival was just alright for me.

(My condolence gift: garlic fries with crab)

Back on point, though. The craving never really left me, so Jeff and I decided to dust off our cooking skills and make some crab-stuffed portobello mushroom caps! (click here for recipe) It's Paula Dean! It's gotta be good. The woman loves everything delicious and heart attack-inducing! Luckily, Jeff's always down to tinker around in the kitchen with me. I just have to suggest a recipe I want to try ^_^

The ingredients!

Jeff removing the gills and stems from the MASSIVE portobellos.

Good job, babe!

I guess the mushrooms reminded him of me?

I got the hang of it after a while.

Bringing the stuffing together.

Seriously. The caps were huge.

Panko bread crumbs.

We made 2 versions. Jeff likes the ones with more bread crumbs on top because they were crunchier. I like the one with less and pepper jack on top. Nom Nom Nom.

I do believe it was a success. We didn't realize how filling they would be, though. We weren't able to finish the 4 that we made. :/ Hope you guys give it a try! So good!

A Distraction Blog

So much is going on right now and I need to keep my mind from imploding on itself. That being said... time to blog as a diversion! Don't act like you've never done that before.

So Jeff and I went to Fanime for the first time and definitely not the last. We had SOOOO much fun, but were unbearable exhausted at the end of the day. I purposely kept up a constant babble on the drive home because he looked like he was about to pass out at the wheel. But let's backpedal for a bit.

The excitement didn't really hit me until we arrived in San Jose and got closer and closer to the convention center. There were cosplayers E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E!! I was ready to pull over anywhere, throw on our costumes, and go. Instead, we found a parking lot by McDonalds. We even went in in our costumes (along with every other person scarfing down McWhatevers)! Every day should be like that. ^.^ Ahhh... heavenly...

I won't go into detail because I have to get to bed, but here are a few photos! We have over a hundred, so I'm just gonna throw in a handful and get more in-depth later on. Enjoy and good night!

Hooray for ME, Billy!

Jeff and I went to Fanime in San Jose yesterday, but I'll save that for my next post. This one's for my birthday! Alright, so my birthday was actually on May 3rd, but... well, y'know how I am!

On the actual day of my birthday, my family went out to dinner to one of my favorite restaurants: Banana Island! The food is delicious there, but not over-priced. It's Thai, Singaporean, and Malaysian... which you can probably tell from the sign. It was completely unnecessary for me to write that. Meh.

My favorite: #101 Indian pancake (aka: Roti) & curry
Lola snatched the potato slice before I got to it, so mom ordered another.

My family's intense when it comes to eating.
Too focused to even smile.

Well, except for this little ham right here.
AND she causes a domino effect...

Jeff's present for me!!
Okay. Okay. It was SUPPOSED to be a surprise, but here's how it went down:

I was watching TV in the living room (At Jeff's request, so that I wouldn't be able to see out the window). Les suddenly stepped up next to me, also to block the window. We were good. I couldn't see anything coming to the front of the house. Then, Tito Miguel walks in from the other room and looks out the window and says, "Oh! Jeff got you a bike!" WTH, man!? lol

Another gift from Jeff.I soooo want to make this little Spartan guy. He's adorable! I could make a bunch and declare war! Jeff even went to the arts & crafts store to help me pick out needles and yarn.

Oh yea. This is how I roll. :)


Fast forward:

Afterward, Jeff and I saw X-Men Origins: Wolverine with 2 of my co-workers: Jeff & Virginia. That was funny, too, because Jeff (bf) & I were already seated and waiting for them to show up. When that did, they had this HUGE balloon with them that blocked the aisle. I swear, they got the girliest one they could find! Fairies and flowers. They were cracking up when they saw my face. After that, we all ended the day by having dinner together at BJ's at Tanforan.

T'was wonderful. Friends, family, food, love & Hugh Jackman.
But wait!
There's more!
Which I will save for another entry... g'bye!

Fanime Update!

Fanime is ONE day away. Jeff came over tonight after work to help me put the finishing touches on my costume (after surprising me at work with flowers ^.^) I think everything is coming together nicely:

Drying my head.

A little paint...
(had to keep Mariel away from my work area)

Almost done with the head piece!

Jeff mixing up some blood for me.

Baking my dress to a golden brown.

Jeff smearing around some blood.

I'm so excited for Sunday! I can't wait! I'll post pictures of us getting ready in the morning... WOOOOOO!!!

And she's off!

Jeff and I are heading off to San Jose at the end of May for Fanime 2009. This is the first time either of us has attended something like this, so we want to do it right. Of course, that means that we're dressing up. Mmm-Hmmm. Matching his and hers costumes in sickening couple tradition. Haha. We both love Silent Hill and decided that he would be Pyramid Head and I would be one of the deformed nurses. He's been working like crazying on his helmet. If you want to see his progress, just click ->HERE<-. That link actually goes to an older post off his blog, so he's actually much further along. Here are some of his latest pictures:


I got my "sexy nurse" costume in the mail. It's the smallest they had, but considering that I'm smaller than your average lady... it's still not small enough. Heh. It's fine. I have other things to worry about before altering that and dirtying it up. I'm going to post a video on it later, because I have a couple qualms on the quality. I'm focusing on my head piece at the moment. Here's what I've gotten done so far...

I didn't draw eyebrows...

I had to mark off where I was gonna cut the eye 'cause they were way too low.

See? Much better, right?
(Not that I'm going to be able to see anyway.)

Me: "It it the size of my head yet?"
Nikki: "No. Need to be bigger."
Me: "Err... thanks."
I'd say that's about right.
*sigh* These two...
So it won't stick.Ready to get down n' dirtay.
I really should've changed out of my good clothes,
but I was excited to get started.

Nikki had baked oatmeal/raisin/ chocolate chip cookies earlier, so I decided to have one as a reward after. I'm currently waiting for it to dry before starting on another layer. I'm having fun on this project! It's been a while since I've made something and I can't wait to see how it turns out. Cross your fingers for me!

Oh yea! My birthday was this past Sunday, May 3rd. I'll post on that later. I HAVE to show you that day!

Alright then. G'nite, everybody! Sweet dreams!