I went. I gave. I remained standing.

I'm a pint of blood lighter. (Actually, two pints..since I've now donated blood twice. Okay...both statements are technically incorrect since my body has now replenished itself. Where was I going with this? Evidently, nowhere.)

No fainting... which is awesome. Because another girl almost did black out and now whenever I happen to see her on campus, I think "OOH, that's the girl that (almost) fainted." 

I brought my book "Spin Control" with me to check out while I was waiting. I actually didn't get very far in it because it only took me nine minutes to fill the bag.

I guess...from wherever she was viewing it from, the nurse felt compelled to ask "Are you going to be a dentist?"

Maybe the photos of pre-drafting fleece made her think of floss?

I think we missed the fall harvest...

Seeing as there is a little sprinkling of snow on the ground now.

This is the result of our gardening efforts this year. Not quite bountiful, but it's pretty damn cute.



First he was green, then he turned red. Our Christmas Pepper.
Except I don't think he'll last that long.


I sorta don't want to eat him. I kinda want to see if he'll turn orange next.

They've Skipped Over the Ring and Now They're All About "Productivity"

A few years ago, at my cousin Jen's wedding reception, her father (my Uncle Hubes) made a speech. I tried to coach him before hand on nice things he could say but the speech basically wound up talking about their future "productivity" as a couple. His word used at the wedding. Not mine. I think it was around this point when Jen grabbed the microphone from his hand, gave him a kiss on the cheek and thanked him for the speech which had everybody writhing in their seats. Then we all wrestled him to the ground before he could say another word.

It's now just part of our family history. "Remember when... "

Anyways, I sent out my email to the entire family about Christmas in Toronto. It was either doing it immediately or suffer through a constant barrage of calls and emails from my parents and my sister asking if I'd done it yet. Not that my sister cared, they would have just bombarded her with emails and calls as well, and then she'd pass them along. Here it is:

From: Nat

To: Clan

Subject: Family Christmas 2009

Hi everybody!

Happy December 3rd!

We're all very excited again to have (most of the) Wu family over for Christmas in Markham.

I only wish more of the Texan cousins can come too this year! (Hint hint!) There's lots of second cousins we haven't met yet! Plus Daniel and Michelle might find them more entertaining than us big kids. All we do these days is sit around and talk. It's not too late to book tickets to Toronto!!!!

Speaking of which: I also wanted to let everybody know that Gaston, Suzie and Zachary welcomed a new baby boy into their home named Xavier on November 22nd! The family is doing well. We can't wait to meet him. I think we'll have to plan a trip to Montreal for a visit in the new year.

So! Our traditional Christmas Kris Kringle Exchange. I think we might have some new players this year too. I can't remember if Cecilia and Jared have ever participated together. Cecilia, is Jared ready for this?

Disclaimer: This gift exchange will be in lieu of presents for all of the adults in the family. However, please bring a small gift for the kids! (Kids, in this instance mean: anyone under the age of 12)

Once again, as a refresher, these are the rules.

1. Participation is optional but subject to large amounts of peer pressure.

2. In order to participate in the gift exchange, bring ONE gift of approximately $25-$30 in value that others in the Wu family will want to barter/exchange/cajole/pry out of someone else's hands and/or sneakily steal. Watching this is pretty much half the fun.

3. The best gifts are ones that everybody wants. The challenge is to find the most universally appealing, useful*, gift that will divide the clan into strategic teams plotting to steal it away from each other. (Within rule #2) Please be aware that gift cards purchased in one country may not be usable in another country!

4. Make sure the gift is cleverly wrapped! (or at least make sure it's in a gift bag/box where the contents are concealed) Auntie Ling will peek otherwise and probably so will Uncle Tommy. Uncle Ken will likely shake it, so fragile items need to be wrapped with care.

5. It's all about strategy and random draw for gift selection. However, that doesn't mean that gifts can't be stolen! Full body contact is allowed if you feel like tackling someone down. We have plenty of doctors in the family that can now attend to injuries sustained during the game. (And a lawyer to handle issues of liability.)

6. Gifts are fair game for being poached, but will be retired after being stolen 3 times. As Aunt Cathy once wisely said "Don't love it too much otherwise, people will take it away from you!" Again, strategy is very key. You can laugh silently into your cha siu bao later after you've won the present of your heart's desire.

We hope to see you all in Markham on December 25th!

RSVP to Uncle #8 at email@rogers.com (905.471.1977)

See you soon!
Love,
Natalie

(*see how I cleverly followed my father's wishes? I'm so good.)
____________

About five seconds after I hit send, I get this email from my sister:

To: Nat

From: Mel

That's the wrong phone number haha

____________

Then Hubes wrote:

From: Hubert

To: Clan

Dear Natalie,

Thanks for the warm invitation and we are looking forward to coming up in a couple of weeks!

I love your idea of giving gift to the kids. Someday, we should, perhaps, evolve this practice to include gifts for elders, signaling the transition of the baton to the young, wonderful, prosperous, and responsible generation -J.

With Love,
Uncle Hubert

__________

From: Nat

To: Clan

I have a brand new magnifying glass wrapped up for you already! :o)

_________

From: Hubert

To: Clan

Dear Natalie,

Thanks and I am greatly satisfied to have such a useful gift so that I can watch more clearly what is going on. Some other elders would like, perhaps, more little ones running around though -J

With love,
Uncle Hubert

_________

From: Nat

To: Clan

As your very accommodating niece, there actually will be another little one running around this Christmas.

I'm happy to introduce you to our newest little one, Dayna. SURPRISE!!!
See attached picture!

Love,
Natalie



____________

From: Hubert

To: Clan

Perhaps, some elders would prefer to have more future tax payers to finance our retirements instead-J.

With love,

Uncle Hubert


So I was wrong. Clearly, they've given up on having any more weddings. It's just more delay. And our years of schooling and slaving at our careers is of no importance. It all comes down to who has the best child bearing hips and the fact they just want us to get on with it already.

Just in case...

...anybody else had to look up the word "hirsute", like I did.

hir·sute (hûrst, hîr-, hr-st)
adj.
1. Covered with hair; hairy.
2. Botany Covered with stiff or coarse hairs.
[Latin hirstus, hairy, bristly.]

Totally not what I expected it to mean.

However, at least I can now say that the one with the big white woolly patch down the middle is the best representation.

Felt Stones

December is a whirl wind.


Just a reminder to find a few moments of quiet and solitude.


In anticipation of a huge family Christmas, I'm already looking forward to when it's just the four of us again.

Organizing a Family Christmas

For some reason, my family always ends up hosting Christmas for my dad's side of the family. You've heard me talk about this before. My parents are major stress balls for about 10 days straight. The house is packed with people. The stove is on constantly and we're always eating. Every year, we do that Kris Kringle thing. Speaking of which, I'm about to compose my annual email out to the clan advising them of the rules again this year. Hopefully, this year people will finally understand that when I talk about "Kris Kringle", I'm not actually referring to R or a new boyfriend of my sister's that they haven't met yet.

I send out the same email every year asking people to only bring one present under $25. It never works because I come from a family who seem to have a genetic disregard for playing by the rules anyways. So we all end up going crazy buying presents for everybody else to make sure we've covered our bases and nobody's feelings are hurt.

For the few days leading up to Christmas, there will be some major discussion again (like last year) about etiquette and protocol with regards to lucky money because some people will see us in the "no ring" category and others will see us in the "not technically hitched, but close enough" category. At least this year, the non-subtle, euphemistic ring finger waggling action will be evenly targeted to R, my sister's boyfriend and my engaged-for-three-years cousin Ang.

Anyways, back to my email. My dad has me send it out every year on behalf of him and my mom. This year, my dad (via my sister) has asked that I add the following helpful guideline to my email:

"Please choose gifts that others would consider useful."

He wants me to stress "consider", so at least people are reminded to think about it.

How I know I'm a freakin' awesome girlfriend

See that?



It's a crusty loaf of bread.

AND.... I made it. ME. In a dutch oven. (Actually, technically what we have is called a french oven.)

Sounds more impressive than it really is. Because when you get right down to it... it's another "just add water" recipe. The recipe is that super easy No Knead Recipe going around the blog-verse. Of course, with my tendency to over - think and over-analyze things, I had a few issues and challenges.

"active dry yeast"
Okay... I had bread machine yeast. Is that active dry yeast? It didn't really say on the jar I had, but since it was the only yeast I had, I had no choice but to use it. That was an easy deliberation.

"warm room temperature, about 70 degrees."
What does 70 degrees translate to? Because where I come from, the house is always around 17 degrees. I had a feeling that 17 degrees is colder than the bread would like to be resting at. So I stuck it in the oven.

"what do you mean you stuck it in the oven?"
As R pointed out, I could have melted my melamine mixing bowl. Shit. Didn't think of that.

"The dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles."
The first time I made this bread. No bubbles. I thought a lot about the fact that there were no bubbles. I have no idea why there were no bubbles. The second time I made this bread, there were so many bubbles - it scared the crap out of me after I saw it breathing on its own out of the corner of my eye.

"When it's ready, the dough will have doubled in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger."
Um. It looks the same to me. Poked it a few times. Absolutely could not tell if it "readily" sprung (sprung? sprang?) back.

"At least 20 minutes before the dough is ready"
aka "At least three hours after you've forgotten about it"

"heat oven to 475 degrees."
Shit. My new, very precious, dutch oven has a heating maximum of 375 degrees. Fuck. An hour of googling later (Google, how i love thee) I realized that I had racially profiled my little pot incorrectly. He's FRENCH. Not Dutch! French ones have a [insert more technical term here that is not "plastic"] handle at the top which prevent you from heating it in the oven more than 375 degrees, unless you want to kill everybody in your house with toxic fumes as the handle melts and causes world-wide catastrophe. At least, that's pretty much the implications I took away with me when R told me not to heat it beyond 375 degrees. So I improvised. I stuck the oven in at 375 degrees for around 40 minutes, then I took the lid off and blasted it for another 15 minutes at 475 degrees.

I'm so clever.

On another note, if you want to double the recipe - don't forget to double the flour too. Just a friendly reminder ... I know most people wouldn't need this reminder... but some people might find it helpful.

Sometimes I am a bad girlfriend

Me: Go to my blog!

R: Only if you tell me what my last blog was about

Me: ....

Dayna

A little belated happy birthday to our household goof ball (there is stiff competition here for that title). We absolutely love how manic she looks when her lips get stuck on her teeth. It's one of our favourite things about her. Although, this picture reminds of having a child who refuses to smile for pictures.

"Smile pretty for the camera, honey!! CHEEESE!!"

And then you get this:

She is SO good. We're so unbelievably lucky to have her in our life. You have no idea how hard this is for her:






Don't worry, I wasn't completely heartless. She got to play with it.

Finally had the time to upload some pictures, so you'll see me around again, at least for the next little while. I've been up to a lot of different projects and one big one in the works for 2010. Super excited.

"She did the Poo Twice" Revisited

My parents came home to find a guilty looking Tora and an entire raw chicken missing from the counter.

Dudes, it's Def Con 5 in the house.

DEFecation CONcern Level 5.

Tora's on 48 hour Poop Watch.

How do you interpret this?

R recently stumbled upon this super-dense, firmly packed mini loaf of pumpernickel bread at the grocery store. He loves it. It's become a daily staple and he rations it out to himself.

It's 90 calories for a super thin slice. Made with all natural ingredients, no preservatives and yet claims to have a long shelf life. (I won't dwell on this because then he won't eat it anymore)

Anyways, what absolutely kills me about this tiny loaf of bread is the packaging.

*ganked from the german deli website*

What does this say to you?

Pumpernickel is an essential ingredient to a romantic night in? Nick Pumps Her? (Sorry, I couldn't resist) A good source of fibre is the secret to eternal youth and a hot, steamy relationship?

Someone enlighten me.

At any rate, at 5 g of fibre per 55g slice, this is a high-five to carbs and bye-bye to Atkins.

Hand Washing

I don't know about where you work, but where I work, they've installed paper towel dispensers as an option for people who don't want to use the already there hand blowers. They're providing personal bottles of hand sanitizers at every desk (for some reason, they skipped my desk). There are hand sanitizer dispensers at every entrance. We are told that there are masks and latex gloves available for each unit, if needed.

...and there are signs every where on the proper way to wash your hands.

Step 1. Grab paper towel (hence the newly installed dispensers)
Step 2. Turn on water tap WITH the paper towel.
Step 3. Wet hands with warm running water (not standing water) and make a soapy lather. Be careful not to wash the lather away so create the lather away from the running water. Rub soap on the front and back of your hands, as well as between your fingers and under your nails. Must do this for at least 15 seconds.
Step 4. Rinse your hands under the still running warm water (probably steaming hot right now - Question: Do I pick up the paper towel with my soapy hands to adjust the water taps? What happens if I accidentally pick up the side of the paper towel that I used to turn on the water taps in the first place? I guess, I'll need to repeat step 3 and request an extension to my 15 minute break because this is taking a really long time.)
Step 5. Pat hands dry with a paper towel. (The SAME paper towel or a different one? If it's the same one, it's been sitting on the counter among all the nasty counter water and other paper towels. Okay. Different one)
Step 6. Turn off water using same paper towel and dispose in a proper receptacle.

My thoughts:

1. Seeing as this is all being done to preserve our health and live long healthy lives - what are we doing to ensure that Mother Nature is also going to live a long healthy life? Because the way I see it, that water tap has been running for at least three or four unnecessary minutes - longer, if you run into paper towel difficulties. As for all of those paper towels - are we planting more trees? Recycling more? What?

2. Why can't we air dry our hands and flap them around? Sure, you might piss off your co-worker if you enthusiastically flap your wet hands in their face, but we can use a bar of soap to write on the mirror and advise people not to do that. Personally, I use the flap method and if my hands are still damp, I use my fingers to pat down my frizzy hair.

3. If everybody else is going to use paper towels to turn the water taps on or off, I'm willing to take the risk and NOT use the paper towels to turn the water taps on or off.

4. Why are you leaving your used paper towel on the counter? Why?

5. I don't think all of this hand washing is going to prevent you from turning into a blood thirsty vomiting zombie.

6. Are these signs in the men's bathroom? Because some of these guys are in and out of there so fast, there is no way they're doing Step 3 and Step 4. Actually, I'm wondering if they're even doing #1 in the bathroom or if they just went in for a quick scan of the facilities.

7. As a community, since we are so actively trying to get people to wash their hands properly, I really think some effort needs to be put in place to get people to:

a) not pee on the toilet seat or;

b) if you can't manage to contain your pee to the toilet bowl, then some mechanism needs to be implemented to shame the person who left pee on the seat and is now standing in front of the sink using five minutes of running water and 10 paper towels to wash their hands.