Long Overdue

After telling everyone and anyone about the achievement of one of my lifelong dreams, here is photographic proof that I have a cat, who currently making it very difficult to post these pictures.


Look! She even gets grumpy like me when we lose our internet connection! SOULMATES.


But we fear tempermental internet connections not, for we are easily distracted; is that a platter of food over yonder?



(Yes, there was actually a plate of mango on the bed. Yes, I'm a slob and do in fact, eat whole meals in bed. )

Double Take

Spoils

One of the best parts of working at a Vietnamese company is that I get more free food than my expat friends. One of the best parts of working for two Vietnamese companies is that I get twice as much free food.

This morning a co-worker passed out young rice cakes for her sister’s marriage. I would have taken a picture of my cake to post but I’ve already eaten it.

Despite having received these wedding cakes many, many times, people always assume that this is my first encounter and feel obliged to explain, in English, that the little glutinous rice square I’m stuffing down my mouth is a Vietnamese wedding cake. These cakes are delicious. They're worth doing some matchmaking around the office to guarantee another little square of savory stickyness. Or I could just spend the 3000 VND (18.75 cents) to buy one.

I once made the mistake of saving one for Nathan to try. When my back was turned he was rooting through my pack for more. Only a heroic tackle on my part saved my secret stash. Nathan will just have to make his own Vietnamese friends.

Payday!

I have sixty more

My cousin Ken is horrible at improvisation. I think this is because his gigantic brain comes up with so many plausible ways in which a story could go that he chokes because even he can't handle how brilliant he is. For example, last August I received a phone call that went something like this:

Ken: Hey Vi! Did you , erm, did you happen to see, ah...well, there was this amazing thing! I mean, I was...this strange, kind of...on the internet, and I can't quite figure out what it is, but..it's really crazy, and...

Vi: Ken. Are you okay?

Ken: ...Okay. I wanted to be all surprising but just go to this website and check out this crop circle I did.

At this juncture I didn't screech, "Since when do you know how to make crop circles?" because every so often Ken will casually bring up his latest project, which would either be knitting, cycling across the country, screenprinting his own t-shirts, or baking bread in a rice cooker. I only know about the last part because he was in town once for a translator's conference and staying at my place. The only food in the place was some ramen, milk, a tiny sack of flour and maybe some dried cranberries. I came home to see him gnawing on a loaf of cranberry bread, and then he took me to the local Safeway and introduced me to food that didn't come in the shape of a cup.

Below is the crop circle. Apparently it was a happy accident that Ken was along for the trip; he was in the Mozilla offices for some translation work and saw some plans for creating a crop circle. Then he pointed out that the pi coordinates were totally wrong, they said, "You know how to make crop circles?" and here's where I imagine Ken replying, "Darn tootin'! Have you seen the fields next to UC Santa Cruz?"

Caution: Badass Geek ahead.

Because I'm still four.

Bap-pylicious

I'm on a snack-fueled posting blitz tonight. Vietnam is a haven in terms of delicious snackfoods, and I'm been gorging myself silly on fruits that required a three hour trip to Canada back home. I'm not a particularly discriminatory consumer either, as any of my former roommates will readily attest to my ability to inhale tons of food at a sitting while reading or studying, and then suddenly realize that I've eaten three king-size bags of potato chips. This isn't to say that I have no compunctions about food; I've balked at adding whole scorpion to my soup. Another food that I've been wary of is the corn-flavored sweet. There is a bewilderingly wide array of corn-flavored items available at the supermarket; corn is recast from a savory staple to...ice cream! popsicles! Corn-shaped lollipops! Little cream-filled cakelets shaped like ears of corn!

Obviously, Nathan approves:

Gummy Yummies

Sesame coated peanut brittle--delicious. The hotdog with removeable gummy bun? Generically sweet, but we all know I bought it more for looks.

Edible study aids! You can totally make out the all the major muscle groups!

Verdict: "Strangely creamy." I was personally hoping for a Willy Wonka effect.

"It is Satisfactory to use in hair treatment."

Daimler Wrap: Unpredictably preserves freshness, but oh boy, is it multifunctional!