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I'm all out of sorts ..

because my baby isn't feeling well...

Feel much better soon, honey

"But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds," declares the LORD.
- Jeremiah 30:17

BBQ in Winter and Molten Lava Cakes

We had a beautiful day last week,

where the sun was shining, and the day was warmer.

So, we decided to make use of it by "christening" the "Daddy" BBQ Grill that David got ( as opposed to the "Mummy" BBQ Grill that he got for me )

Oh, and on the baking front, I made Molten Lava Chocolate "mini cakes" - once for us and another time for a friend's birthday. After baking, there wasn't much lava left in the middle as I left it in the oven for too long, but hey, practice makes perfect!

Simple Molten Lava Cake

( makes 2 little lava cakes in the little custard cups/bowls )

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp flour
• 1/4 cup sugar/splenda
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 squares baking chocolate
• 1/4 stick of butter ( we use about a slightly heaped tablespoon of margarine )

Method:

• Preheat oven to 425F
• Melt baking chocolate and butter in microwave about 1 and 1/2 minutes
• Mix chocolate and butter till chocolate all melted/mixed
• Add all other ingredients into mixture
• Pour into custard cups or any other small oven safe bowl ( mixture will rise a little in the oven )
  
• ( I sprayed the inside with some Pam so it would be easier to remove the cake )
• Bake for about 8 - 9 minutes till outer part is firm but leaving gooey "molten lava" in the middle
• Remove from cup/bowl carefully with a dinner knife
  
• Cool for about a minute and then serve with Cool Whip or Ice Cream
• ENJOY!!!!!!

"This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it."
(Psalm 118:24)

Fluffy

It seems like every year,

there has to be at least one "stray dog" event in our lives. Click HERE and HERE for 2005's. ( Yes, we still have the dogs, the Blue Heeler is Missy, and the brown/white one's name is "Wuss" - - it's a long story, and he is still Missy's best friend )

The latest one is "Fluffy"

The Many Faces of Fluffy

Fluffy wandered into our yard about 3 - 4 days ago, looking bedraggled, dirty, and tired. At first she just made the outdoor dogs go crazy with her presence, not to mention she kept eating the food we had put out for the wild outdoor marbled/blotched/classic tabbies that had claimed one part of the yard as their own. We thought she would wander off on her own, but she wouldn't leave !

So, while we determine who she belongs to, she has to be tied down with enough romping room. At first she protested quite a bit when we put a collar on her and tried to walk her on a leash to the tie down, but now that she's used to it, she is the most chilled out of all the dogs on the plantation.

We're not sure whose dog she is ... our neighbors down the road who have Great Pyreneses aren't missing any of their dogs ...

If only she weren't so sweet and pretty.... then it would be easier to keep on looking for her masters.

Weekend Update

So I will know what I did this weekend in history

Jim's Birthday

Jim is David's brother in law and a preacher at a local church. The birthday celebration was held at ( David's niece ) Stephanie's house ( Stephanie is a local glass artist - read article HERE - and has a gorgeous house ), and when she mentioned that their internet was somehow down, David was there to the rescue... I love my Tech Geek :)


SuperBowl LXI

So I had to watch the AFC and NFC championships with David. Now he has an agonizing 2 weeks of waiting before Superbowl 41.



Restaurant Empire

Okay, I admit, I'm a computer gaming freak. During breaks from reading, I play RPG/Strategy etc games online, on the PC, and on my PS2. I have my eye on Final Fantasy XII, but it's so &%^*$ expensive! So right now, I'm rediscovering the Restaurant Empire game I played a year or so ago. Hey, even JumbledMind has the same exact game!



Walter ( David's Dad ) is going to be more famous than he already is!!

The Abilene Reporter News has been putting an an in their paper for the local residents to suggest "local characters" to be interviewed and featured in the newspaper. Well, Walter, being the character that he is, was naturally recommended to be one of the featured residents. The reporter from the newspaper has met with him and taken notes, and I'll post the article once it hits the stands.

Dogs with Cabin Fever are no fun

So, I found out that weird howlings and messing up the house ( i.e. peeing on the rug ) are signs of cabin fever. Henry is guilty of both of them, but I can't really blame him coz he hasn't been able to roam about outside as much, with the below freezing temperatures and like that. I try to let them out during the warmest time of the day for several hours so he can romp and play and just get all that energy out of his system, not to mention get some sun!

Baking Mania

For some reason - maybe it's all this cold weather - I've taken to baking, which is pretty weird, coz I never was very much of a cook or baker. But in the past week or two, I've made Banana Bread, Blueberry Muffins and Applesauce/Walnut/Pecan Nut Bread.

PHEW

Yet another Friday come and gone

At first we weren't sure

if we would be able to go for bible class because it had been snowing/"sleeting" Thursday night into the wee hours of Friday morning. But in the morning, the roads, although wet, were not iced over or real slick and the rain had let up some, so it was business as usual.

First off was bible class, and then we were off to the post office to mail some stuff back to Malaysia. Cindy's husband, Johnny, had printed several photographs of the family, and even one with ( almost ) everyone wearing shirts that my parents had sent for Christmas. I had to send some official stuff back to my mom and JumbledMind for them to help take care of some matters back home. THAT went pretty smoothly, not like some OTHER times......

Next, it was off to Jordan Taylor's. They have a selection of "Feed On The Word" dinnerware/tableware that are very pretty and Cindy has had her eye on them forEVER. BUT, they are VERY pricey, and so we could just look and wish we had oodles and gobs of money. We're pretty doubtful they'll go on sale any time soon, though. I did get some CrabTree & Evelyn Lavender Carpet Refresher at half price ( need it with all those animals in the house ) though.

Next we were off to Cypress Street Station for a girly lunch of soup and salad. The Chicken Tortilla Soup was wonderful and while Cindy had the Blackened Chicken Salad, I had the Turkey slices with Bruschetta Salad and Asparagus. Talk about girliness!

We went on to browse at Civilization, where I bought a Gooey Green Wiggle Pen for the fridge, and off to Walmart for some grocery shopping and to get a Subway Melt for David ( read: MAN FOOD ).

Ooooo and I'm so excited because the 100 prints that I had ordered online from WinkFlash arrived, and they cost a grand total of 0.99 cents after a "free 100 prints for first time customers" coupon code. W00tness galore!

24 Marathon and Crashing Towers

During the Ice Storm recently, (updated 1/18/07)

the local Fox affiliate's (KXVA) broadcast was interrupted 5 minutes into the Season Premiere of "24". Since we had waited since almost the middle of last year ( I think ) to watch the new season, we were not too pleased.


This was posted on their website:

We are aware that due to the ice storm that hit the Abilene area on Sunday night, the Season Premiere of 24 was not able to be viewed at many households in the Abilene area. This was not anything that we had control over.The problem was with AEP, our electric power provider.We apologize for the inconvenience and are working with the FOX network to try to bring that episode to Air as soon as possible.

When they finally got back on the air, the 2 hour premiere was over, and we were left wondering if there would be a chance for us to watch it before the next 2 hours, which was the next day, a Monday. ( They were doing a 4 hour premiere package thing over 2 days )

Monday came and we decided that we would forfeit watching the next 2 hours since we had NO clue what had happened in the first 2 hours, and decided to watch the Golden Globes instead.

At least they didn't lose a broadcast tower, like the local NBC affiliate, KRBC, which had gone off the air shortly before 8 pm, and David didn't get to see the season premiere of Crossing Jordan. Needless to say he was not happy. And they didn't get back on the air till about 12:30 p.m. the next day.

KRBC/NBC Abilene Tower after the mighty crash:

(Photo taken from KRBC website)

ANYHOW, yesterday, I managed to find the first 4 episodes of "24" Season 6, the exact ones that we had missed, online at PeekVid.com, and so David and I had a "24" marathon last night, watching all of them from his widescreen laptop, comfy and warm in our matching recliners till almost 4 in the morning. Hehe.

Oh, and it was snowing outside when we finally finished watching the 4 episodes, and what did I do? Stand outside and catch snowflakes on my tongue, of course!!

update: In the Abilene Reporter News today:

NOAA transmitter goes out

Today's Talker

January 18, 2007

Here's today's lesson in irony: When the ice-caked 500-foot KRBC-TV broadcast tower collapsed during Sunday's wintry blast, it also took out the National Weather Service's transmitter - meaning your little battery-operated weather radio that warns you about nasty storms is about useless for now.

''It might take a couple of weeks for complete repairs,'' said KRBC and KTAB-TV news director Tom Vodak.

People can still get weather information from TV, radio, www.reporter-news.com and the Abilene Reporter-News, but not with their weather-dedicated radios.

- Ken Ellsworth

Venturing Out

We finally got out of the house today.

After all, it WAS Taco Tuesday, where everyone in the family gets together for a meal at Rosa's Cafe and Tortilla Factory. So, we bundled up to be warm in the below freezing temperatures and thanked the Lord that the car started without a hitch. Today, David's cousins, the Garrett twins, and their spouses, were there too, so it was quite merry.

I even made a dessert ( albeit from a box ) - Coconut Creme Pie, which everyone enjoyed.

We noticed on the way home that Walmart's parking lot was totally packed - we're surmising that since today was the first day the roads were safer to travel on, that people were out stocking up. Good idea - we were too..

My Little Sister's Moving on UP!!!!!

Congratulations, JumbledMind!!!!

She has just been promoted by the leading English newspaper, The Star, to be Bureau Chief in the state of Malacca in Malaysia. W00t ! W00t !!! W00t !!!!!!!!!!!!!

She's the youngest journalist in the history of The Star to be Bureau Chief! Her position even puts her above her former boss in Johor! Talk about a promotion! Attagirl! We are soooo proud of you!!!! Gotta be the Tan genes. LOL.

Ice Ice Everywhere ( and Flooding in Malaysia)

Just like some parts of the country right now,

we're having freezing rain, sleet, ice pellets, whatever you wanna call it.

"In American usage, sleet is a form of precipitation consisting of tiny frozen raindrops, or ice pellets. This is often mistaken for hail, but forms in a different fashion and is usually (but not always) smaller. This occurs when snow flakes falling through a small layer of warmer air in the atmosphere will begin to melt. They can then refreeze if they pass back into a layer of colder, sub-freezing air closer to the ground, resulting in little balls of ice. These ice balls may bounce when they hit the ground, and do not freeze into a solid mass unless mixed with freezing rain. Sleet is not to be confused with soft hail, which forms through another process."

( reference: Answers.com)

This is what I woke up to, today.







The Sleet in Action


Purdy......but VERY dangerous weather/road conditions right now

Sunday 1/14/2006 10 a.m.

Church services have been cancelled today..

We've bought a couple of kerosene convection heaters and a huge 5 gallon drum of kerosene ( Praise the Lord, we called our neighbor, who works at Tractor supply Co., and he brought it to us when he came home from work yesterday - David was taking no chances on the VERY icy and slick roads ).

We were trying to plan for if the power lines came down from just being too heavy-laden with ice, or if a tree/tree limb came crashing down on them, for although the house has central heating, even our standby space heaters run on electric. You never know.

Freezing rain is still falling down in pellets this morning and things aren't going to get any better in the next few days. This morning I went out and insulated the outdoor dogs' houses with cardboard, stuffed up any drafty areas ( Missy has a very sturdy commercial dog house, but we had nailed boards and pallets to make an A frame house for Wuss, and it is off the ground - pretty good work, if i say so myself ) and fill them up on turkey bones ( hey, I roasted a turkey yesterday - it even helped warm up the kitchen. LOL ) and dog jerky. Had to go out several times yesterday with an "ice pick" and hot water to melt the dogs' water so they wouldn't go thirsty.

Not only are WE having bad weather, my hometown in Malaysia is having a second wave of floods, just a few weeks after the bad flooding in December. Luckily, although the district/county where my family is, is hit by floods, the main town area where they stay is not under water. My sister, JumbledMind, has been reporting on the floods, wading around in flood water and riding around in 4WDs and sampans ( little boats ) for her newspaper, The Star, and so we're keeping her in our prayers that she will be safe while getting the stories.

For more pictures of the floods in Malaysia ( taken from the Star Online website ), click HERE.

A "What I am Watching" Post

We do not subscribe

to any Chinese/Asian Channels on our Satellite TV service, and so I've been quite deprived of Cantonese serials for quite a while now. Yeah yeah, American channels show the odd Cantonese movie now and again, but after having grown up with watching HK chinese serials ( they're kinda like 20 - 50 episode miniserials ) all my life, having to rely on IFC ( Independent Film Channel ) for my need for some Canto-Action is pretty puny.

So, I've been gorging on one of the latest Hong Kong serials ( 20 episodes ) via AZNV.TV ( free streaming, btw, only needing WinAmp ), Trimming Success ( 2006) . I'm up to episode 11 right now, after a marathon over the past 2 days, and although it's pretty hokey and has the same old twists and turns, nothing we haven't seen before, but to me, it's like a breath of fresh air. AND, the serials are in their original language, and subtitled in English for when my Cantonese/Mandarin vocabulary fails me! I hate it when the Cantonese audio in the movies aired over here gets dubbed over, because really, if you know the language, everything is soooo much better in the original language. So much gets lost in translation. For now, I'm in heaven...Yeah!

*aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh*

Letti on Ice ( Part Deux )

The last time ( which was the first time ever )

I had ice-skated, it was in Perth, 10 years ago, when I was there for Eileen's wedding. That skating experience was a total fiasco. I kept falling and falling, and at the end of the day, had big bruises on both knees, not to mention a sore behind and a bruised ego. I had roller skated a lot when I was a kid, but slippery ice with a single blade on either foot to balance on was a whole different thing.

Anyway, on Thursday night, I went on the ice with some degree of trepidation, but determined to have fun, whether I was going to look like a fool or not. Cindy was there skating along with me ( yay! ), and David was there for support and to be our camera man. ( He told me later that had he not been in charge of the camera, he would have sooo not been able to watch, just in case I fell and hurt myself ).

Well, to my amazement and delight, not only did I fall only ONCE, but after a few minutes of holding on to the side of the rink, and crawling along with the babies, I was able to take my hand off the ledge and start skating slowly on my own!! Hurray!!!

In the video clip, towards the end, I'm skating away on my own! ( still very much staying to the side ... just in case.. )

Letti on Ice

I went ice skating yesterday, FINALLY!

Pictures and Short video clips to follow. I'm too knackered and muscles I haven't used in a while are hurting.

Abilene Cutting Horse Spectacular

David's Dad had such a wonderful time

at the Cutting Horse Event we brought him to yesterday, at the Taylor County Expo Center - and reminiscing about his ranching days, that he didn't even realise it when almost 2 hours had passed and it was dinner time!

Well, one of the reasons too, was that we had had New Years' lunch at Cindy's, southern style, and I had made 2 chocolate meringue pies - one for everyone for dessert, and one for him to relish at home. *hehe* And he had 3 slices after lunch!!

The events are broadcast live over the internet Jan 2nd to 13th, so for those interested, you can catch a live webcam feed HERE .. Or you could listen to audio feeds HERE.

14th Annual Abilene Spectacular Cutting Event
January 1st 2007