Happy New Year

Remembering my year in 2014

I did yoga today.  You know what yoga is; downward dog and plank's pose that goes along with stretching every muscle in your body.  But today our Teacher told us to meditate take two long breaths and along with it think of two things that happened every month this year.  Those things could have been things like successes or challenges.  "Its important to reflect and take time to give yourself achknowledement for what you have done throughout the year." she said.

This is a list of my 24 things that happened to me throughout 2014
Breath in, Breath out

1.      Went to eat at my favorite restaurant Ocean (an Asian restaurant) three times

2.      Raced some people on the side roads

3.      someone passed

4.      Zahdi came to United States

5.      spent more time outside sitting on porch people-watching

6.      bought new used car by myself including loan etc

7.      found out my brother was moving out

8.      grandma passed on, I miss her tremendously

9.      helped someone

10.  read a big gigantic book called Little Friend by Donna Tartt

11.  read another big book called The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

12.  helped a friend get a job at a hospital

13.  went to Duluth

14.  Lost my $400 damage deposit to a woman who is a bad landlord and got it back by being assertive.

15.  Went to gym 12 times in a month

16.  Did some things I planned in October

17.  Helped My mom

18.  Said some heartbreaking words to people that I regret

19.  Took some people with disabilities to countless amounts of plays and outings

20.  Got recognized

21.  Lost two jobs

22.  Gained two jobs

23.  Found out that I am somewhat stubborn

24.  Enjoyed December holiday this year more than I have in the past 15 years.

 

Worded or Wordless

More YMCA.  After becoming dizzy from circling making many rounds around the track, I partook in some treadmill walking.  You know this is a virtual age when you realize that there are more touch screen features on certain YMCA machines than others (particularly St. Paul YMCA's vs. New Hope).  While walking on the treadmill, I realized I could watch my favorite sitcom, plug in my I-pod, see my facebook updates or watch a youtube clip from the touch screen.  I chose searching You tube clips, and to my favor I found a rather nice one about a couple who shares their home and their cooking ideas with the world in a video channel called Adventures to the Tar Pit on Youtube.  

Well after having my fill of fantasizing about the tar pit's family version of chocolate chip cookies, I moved on to explore another video clip.  This one is called Toy Hunting.  It introduced some new girly toys that are currently on the market for kids.  And when I say introduce I mean that a young woman literally walks around a department's toy store aisle and picks up toys and describes them to the lesser known audience.  Toys like Briar Beauty Barbie (got enough B's in that name) And a miniature doll called Adopt Me, amongst other dolls.  Now as much as I may like the idea of dolls I couldn't help think of the toys from my childhood

Sally secrets

PJ sparkles

Pillow People

Pound Puppies

Pipe Works

Lite Brite

Popales

Ragedy Anne and Andy

Toys of the 80's and 90's

      

      

All that's missing is the white picket fence

      

texas

      

      

      

Writer's tips

       Writer's tips in Global Dig


1.When writing an historical novel you have to think of every last detail of truth even down to a spy character taking a casual picture with a tourist and the possible change in the spy's future from taking that picture.  You have to think of the things like whether certain trains would have been running in that time period and what would have been their routes or if the empire state building could have been seen from the distance that you had that character see it.


2.In a story, even a minor character's exchanges need to be specific.  You can't just say the tickets were given if there was no one in the scene to give the tickets.


3.  Body language in a scene is very important with a memorable character.  A character's actions need to be over emphasized on the paper whether its their reaction to another character's words or their drastic movements.

Hannah Hung, Food Writer

Hannah Hung, a food writer writes on average 3-4 restaurant reviews a day with a total accumulated 1,373 restaurant reviews last year alone!  Her reviews are posted on yelp.com and here's a comment that she wrote on Nando's Peri-Peri restaurant We decided to dine-in (loved the colorful decor, with the cyan-ish lampshades and the awesome art pieces on the wall). All of her posts are at least 300 words long which puts most food writers to shame. Check her out at Hannah Hung  

How to Eat a Cupcake

      


I'm reading this novel called How to Eat a Cupcake by Meg Donohue and there is a really great section where a woman asked her fiancé to picture their lifetime together.  I attached that great section below:




I see brunches and the Sunday Times.  I see us butting heads over the current state of world affairs and enthusiastically creatively making up all over the house.  I see myself dragging you to a lot of movies starring Will Ferrell, and I see you dragging me to a lot of movies that involve more reading than watching.  I see myself pillaging your brilliant brain time and time again for answers to any number of business conundrums that I'll face along the way of building this company.  I see us traveling-scuba in the Galapagos, island hopping off the coast of Croatia, eating our way through Asia.

      

 
A Short Story called:
Question of the Week

"Can I help you?" said the service lady
"Oh yeah. I got this Rug." Shirley said.
"So I see."
Shirley lifts up a flowered rug scrubbed dirty with yellow curry lentils, peppers and tomatoes.  The service lady nodded. 
She seen it all.  The putrid and the bare.  The vomit colored laundry, the Saturday after a Friday night next to an Indian restaurant.  And she had to bare it all.  Shaking her head, the service lady pointed to the gigantic tumbler which was big enough for a bike, a large storage rack and a few other miscellaneous items.

America's Best Pancakes and Cupcakes

     


At a time of the year when I want to take the stress off of moving, I turn to the best pancake and cupcake blogs. 


http://coleensrecipes.blogspot.com/2011/06/best-pancakes-ever.html- This writer has a great peanut butter cake recipe and the biggest pancakes I've ever seen.


http://www.jimspancakes.com/ a blog on the art of making great pancakes.


http://thefrostedcupcakes.blogspot.com/ great cupcake blog, also has an easy recipe for making great frosting for Georgetown Cupcakes Salted Caramel Cupcakes.

      

Downtown Minneapolis  

When Workout is Never Enough

     


Four hours a day from 6am to 10, a South Korean couple in their seventies make their way to the gym from Saint Paul to New Hope to start their workout.  They begin with early morning swimming and an hour later they might move to walking on the treadmill.  Then its weight lifting for an hour.  Then a dance  class. 
"There are no arguments with your partner when they do opposite sports," the Korean woman says.  Only on occasion will this couple do an aerobics class together throughout their four hour workout.   They also own a  beauty supply shop in St. Paul making their day brimming with activity.

The Show Must Go On:Zumba 101

      
This post is thanks to another day at Dance Zumba class.  We danced to more Hindi songs and got our groove on.  Our instructor asked if we want to change from our routine Tuesdays at 9:30am to Tuesday 1:30, for which we all explained "No!"
  Do you know how hard it is to get the gym at 1:30 in the afternoon? When your day has already been done and started by then.


Zumba-my club team-Indian Music

Dum Dum Dum mast hai: The bollywood Class of Myoga Master Krish 
Dance dhamaka for DOOKUDU Poovai Poovai song at Dinaz Somajiguda  Dance dhamaka for DOOKUDU Poovai Poovai song at Dinaz somajiguda