Best Camera EVER!

Everyone's talking about the new iPhone (including the husband), but not me... I've been talking about the Canon S90 since April. Yeah, I'm different, mainly because I'm still not completely bought into this whole Apple gimmick, at least not yet.

My devious husband (after living with me for half a year, he's learned from the best) decided to leave me a pleasant surprise while he's enjoying his weekend in Sin City. After five clues which left me scrambling around the house trying to figure out where the next clue is, I finally figured everything out and was led to a box of molten chocolate cake. And inside... was THE camera I've been talking about forever!

We have been using a Canon SD300 for a while, so you have no idea how great this new camera is for me! Thank you hubby, you're the best!

Weekly Menu

On Saturday night, before the weekly (at least first half of the week) menu is "printed" on my cute pig stationary, I like to peruse through cook books around the house and menus I've grabbed from random restaurants to think about what our upcoming week's dinner is going to be. It's fun to have a strictly Asian meal, a strictly American meal and a random fusion (what exactly is fusion?) mix for other days of the week. Fancy restaurants like Parcel 104 has a different menu every day, so I figured... why not? It'll be fun to experiment as well.

Since summer has arrived, and Bible study, as well as other random things are on a break, it means that I have more time to experiment with a more lengthy assortment of recipes which I never had time to do before summer was here. So for this week...



MONDAY - the "All American" meal! Clam linguine + baked chicken thighs with potatoes and carrots (Monday's the start of a brand new week and I usually like to start with an American meal since it's easier to prepare and doesn't make as much of a mess.)



TUESDAY - the Chinese meal! Steamed fish (which the husband has perfected) + duck (this is a cheating dish since we bought it from Won Kee) + tomatoes and egg



WEDNESDAY - two types of salmon (Yoshinoya marinated + "special" baked salmon) + bok choy (This was taken out of William Sonoma's Weeknight Meals but tweeted a little to my own liking.)

THURSDAY - we took a break on Thursday and went out to eat.



FRIDAY - By the end of the week, whatever's left is usually thrown together... what started out as a Pad Sieu fusion turned out to be more of a Mongolian BBQ dish, oh well.

The husband and I like to rate our dishes so we can repeat the good ones and serve it to our guests. Since there's more free time over the summer, perhaps you'll get served next!

There's No Point in Leaving

We have decided that there's really no point in leaving Mountain View. Within a ten mile radius is Palo Alto and Sunnyvale (in opposite directions), it's 11 miles away from SJC and 23 miles away from SFO. Besides not having a Korean market and patbingsoo (even though those two kind of go hand-in-hand), Mountain View has everything (and more!) that we could ever ask for!

FOOD: hello Castro Street!

Our favorites:

- Maruichi (ramen... Santouka would've been our favorite, but it's outside our 10 mile radius).

- HK Bistro (HK style food.... favorite = pork chop over rice, Top Cafe is a bit better, but we're going for closeness here).

- Verde (hands down, best pudding milk tea ever!)

- Maldonaldo's (pizza with a plentiful of toppings, and if you get lucky, you can even find coupons in the weekly ValuPak!) *not on Castro

- Rincon Sabroso (hands down, best tacos EVER! Even better than Mexico... if you walk inside this hole-in-the-wall, can't even see it when you drive by Rengstorff, it'll look like you were inside a Mexican kitchen anyway) *not on Castro

- Donut Field (best pupusas in Mountain View... oh! They also sell donuts... random...) *not on Castro

- Pho Garden (home of the Pho Challenge, originally in SF... not only do they have pho, but their garlic noodle dishes are quite superb as well)

- Clarke's (charbroiled burgers... grease = mmmMmmm good in the neighborhood!) *not on Castro

NATURE: Rancho San Antonio, Shoreline Park (and also Shoreline dog park for little Dot to go)

MARKETS: Target, Walmart (even though I'm against it), Daiso, Trader Joe's, Safeway, Luckys, Nijiwa, Walgreens, Milk Pail (my favorite!) and yeah... the list goes on!

FITNESS CENTERS: 24 Sport and 24 Supersport... and yes, they are in the same plaza...

There's really no reason to leave Mountain View...