Wa Gwai 兩隻人見人愛的搗蛋嘩鬼 - My 2 Little Rascals

It’s official.

Wagwai blog is officially migrated and has become Chick ‘n Monkey

See U all there!

xoxo

I’m one step closer to setting up a new domain for my Wagwai blog.

Check it out: www.chicknmonkey.com

xoxo

I have been thinking about getting a new and dedicated domain name for my blog. Unfortunately, my #1 choice is already taken by someone else - wagwai.com. So, I have been brainstorming and asked Elaine and Vivien for their input and suggestions.

Before I have asked for their help, I had these domain names in mind, but none of these was available.
wawawa.com
wawa.com
wewewawa.com
wewa.com
weewa.com
wagwai.com

We have come up with the following:
wa-gwai.com
mywagwai.com
wagwaiblog.com
wakwai.com
2wagwai.com

I liked mywagwai.com, but it’s not like perfect and easy to remember. As Vivien pointed out, only Cantonese people know what “wagwai” is.

So, this morning, out of nowhere, a domain name popped up in my head. I wasn’t even thinking about anything related to that. chickenmonkey.com. Well, not available either, but chicknmonkey (kind of like chick ‘n monkey) is available tho. Yippy! quite easy to remember, and there’s a story behind it too. I will leave that for another post.

xoxo

Alex’s birthday is coming up in a few days, and I have been preparing his gifts, party favors (@ the childcare center), and his birthday outfit. No, not naked!

He has a pair of favorite jeans, but they are too small now, size 18-24 months. There’s a monkey dangling on the cargo pocket, that’s probably why he loves them so much. I had already put them away, so that he won’t ask for them anymore (hopefully).

Alex has been asking for a pair of jeans with his favorite character - Lightening McQueen. I have searched high and low and couldn’t find any. I ended up digging out his used white tee, buying a pair of pull up denim jeans (elastic waist band all around, that’s another hard to find item when you need them), and a few iron on transfers and embroidered patches, I made his birthday outfit with his favorite character on them.

The results, pretty good. The only mistake I made was that I didn’t trim the paper before I iron the “Birthday Boy” on the back of the white tee. For the front, I trimmed them really good. I can’t wait to show him his new outfit.

xoxo

You know how wireless providers always warn their customers or potential customers that ending the contract early, will result in penalty. Recently, we ended our old contract early, by 3 weeks, we were penalized for $525. Well, good thing is that our friend had dealt with the provider for us, and they had reverse the charges. Now we are just waiting for the check to come, could be any day now.

A Superior Court judge in California has ruled that charging cell phone early termination fee is illegal. WOW! That’s good news (for us, the users). Obviously this is not the end of the story. There’s gotta be appeals after appeals. Let’s just see how the story goes.

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I remember when I was younger, well, that’s probably a good 15 years ago, it’s my first time I tasted this seafood dish, and it has become my all time favorite ever since. My aunt made this dish - Steam shrimps with minced garlic. She cooked this dish without the vermicelli or yam bundle, and later on, people had many variations of the dish. Many people and Chinese restaurants use the same ingredients and method to prepare with scallops. I wonder if this dish had an American version of it at the cook off.

Oh, one more note, personally, I think the vermicelli is the best part of the dish, because it absorbs all the tastes from the prawns, garlic, and soya.

Ingredients
Prawns: 14-16pcs
Minced or diced Garlic: 2 tablespoon
Red Pepper (Optional): 1 diced hot pepper, optional
Vermicelli: 1 pack or can be substituted with 12 yam bundle, drained
Minced Ginger: 1 ½ teaspoon
1 diced green (or spring) onion
Light Soy Sauce / Soya – 1 Tablespoon
Seseme oil – ¼ teaspoon
Salt – ¼ Teaspoon
Sugar – 2/3 teaspoon
Shaoh-Sing Wine (Chinese rice wine) – 1 tablespoon

Cooking instructions
1. boil the vermicelli until it becomes clear and soft. Put the vermicelli into cold water to cool off for 5 to 10 seconds, then drain.
2. clean the prawns, trim the legs, head can be left on or removed. Slice in the middle of the prawns (but do not cut into half). Put into freezer for 10 mins
3. mix minced garlic, red pepper (optional), minced ginger, salt, suger, Shaoh-Sing Wine, and sesame oil, then spread on each prawn individually.
4. Put the yam bundle or vermicelli on the dish. Put the shrimps on top of the yam bundle or vermicelli. Add some salt to each shrimps. Put 1 tbsp of minced or diced garlic on each prawn.
5. Steam it under high heat until done (around 6-8 mins). Add 1/2 of tbsp of soya on each prawn. Add some hot pepper and green onion on each shrimps. Heat the oil until you see the smoke. Put 1/2 of hot oil on each shrimps. Serve hot.

Mmm Mmm Good!

I always wanted to go shopping at the new San Fransico Center in SF Downtown, but couldn’t find the time to go. Afterall, it’s an hour drive and parking in the garage could be expensive. This past Saturday, I need to go Chinatown, so I thought it’s a good chance to go Downtown too. Dear Hubby agreed to go with me to keep me company. Kids were supposed to stay home, but under certain circumstances, Ashlyn tagged along. The only store I wanted to shop at was H&M. Why? Here are the reasons:

1. Bigger & better selections (I assume)
2. Early Fall collections just arrived
3. Most important, have a $10 off $50 purchase coupon for Kids’ department

We got there, parked. Both Ashlyn & myself were excited to go shopping. Went to the one on Powell Street. As soon as we went in, Ashlyn said, “I told you not to look at adults department. I told you to go to the kids’ section.” We went upstairs, nop. I remember Elaine told me there’s kids’ section, so I called her. She told me to go to the new one at the Westfield San Franciso. We went. There’re 4 doors at the entrance, 3 of them were shut. A security guard standing in the front, answering people questions. OMG! how could that happened? Not today!! A piece of paper posted on the glasses, and all I could see was “Power Outage” NO! NO! Not today! We went in anyway, and I checked the directory, H&M was located on 3rd floor. I looked up, dark, no light at all. Oh well, so we turned around and left the building and head home. Both Ashlyn & myself were disappointed.

You know what my Dear Hubby said to me? He said, “It’s not your day today!” How comforting.

*sigh*

When we had our first child, Ashlyn, it was pretty quick for us to decide / comprimise on the name. The second one, Alex, took a little more time. It was not an easy task at all.

Have you caught on to the latest celebrity babies’ names? Since a few years back, celebrities named their babies some unusual names, like Apple, CoCo (this is obvious that her mom loves certain name brand). The latest, Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline, a mouthfull. I must say, when I heard this one, my reaction was “HUN?” Sunday Rose. Well, I guess Sunday Rose isn’t unusual anymore until I read this news headline (from New Zealand) this morning. Judge: Girl’s name, Talula Does The Hula, won’t do. First I saw Talula. It caught my eyes cux one of the characters in the animated movie Barbie Island Princess (one of Ashlyn’s favorites) was named Talula, it’s a monkey from the South Sea. It’s a mental torture to the child. Moms and Dads to be, please think twice, three times, four times before you decide on your child(red)’s name(s).

There were so many activities went on over the past couple of days, I’m still trying to recuperate. First off, getting ready for Baby Ryan’s first US visit, meaning lots of moving things around, and cleaning up to do. Then, preparation for Ashlyn’s birthday parties, note, P-A-R-T-I-E-S, plural, one at the childcare center, one at home with relatives. I have been trying to wrap her presents after she’s asleep, but I fell asleep with her too, so I had to make a quick trip home after I dropped her off at my aunt’s after school. On Saturday, it was my cousin Jessica’s big day - wedding day. Although she opted for the simplified version, no ceremony, just the traditional Chinese tea ceremony and banquet at night, but I was exhausted. Thought I could spend Sunday at home, doing nothing. WRONG!!! My cousin visiting from Canada, attending Jessica’s banquet, they’re cousins by “marriage” kind of, but they’re also classmates from elementary school in Hong Kong. Since she’s in town, we went dim sum with grandparents, then done some shopping for Baby Ryan. By the time we got home, it was dinner time. We had so much left over from the wedding banquet that could feed us for the next 2 weeks.

I will go into details individually and share pictures shortly. All I wanted to do now is to catch up with my beauty sleep.

All my dear friends know how much I love to shop. It could be in upscale department stores, that usually just window shopping, and if I did make a purchase from these stores, items must be from the sale racks. I wouldn’t miss the chance to dig for exceptional deals at discount shops, or fighting for the great stuff with other moms at the street hawker stands (that usually happened in Hong Kong only).

“The item” I purchased from the Hong Kong trip was a ring I got from a friend’s jewelry shop. It caught my eyes cux it’s simple, but yet multi-functional. The price tag was in the 5-figure (Hong Kong dollars), which is in the mid-4-digits in US dollars. Since it’s her family business and they are wholesaler, let’s just say I got a pretty good deal.

OK, back to the ring. It is a ring, but, you can wear it as a pandent — 2 ways. Pictures tell a thousand words.

There will be more goodies to come!