random ramblings

Friday night began with a Halloween picnic at Donner Park with people from work. It was raining so the turnout was really bad. I only went because I am a part of the group that organized the event.  There were 84 people who RSVP-ed but I’m guessing only about 20+ showed up, I don’t blame the others for skipping. Who would want to eat out in a park on a rainy day ? But it was fun for those who came.I helped decorating the shelter with fake spider webs, it was pretty cool !  And everybody got to carve a pumpkin because we had enough for everyone!  Stupid me I didn’t know that we’re supposed to cut the top and take out the inside first. I did that after looking around and saw everybody else doing that, but then I did another stupid thing – I threw away the top ! So my pumpkin at that time looks like an empty round bowl with a big opening. I had no clue what I wanted to make so I ended up just making diamond patterns on the pumpkin. Suddenly we heard a big THUMP sound – some big tree branches fell down and hit somebody’s car. The car got quite damaged. When Andy and I approached the cop who came to record the accident  (we wanted to ask where we could donate leftovers food – we had probably $200 worth of KFC), there’s this black cat that kept crossing the parking lot back and forth. Andy asked if I knew about the superstition about a black cat crossing our path = bad luck hehehhee yeah yeah yeah..

Afterwards I went straight to Kas & Shahreel’s house around as I promised to help them with preparation for their party until it’s time to pick up Hendrik from the airport. When I got there, the family just came back from groceries – they were still unloading stuffs from their car. Hendrik would arrive in Indy at 11PM, so I could stay there for a couple of hours. Feli and Patty came too and soon we started working in the kitchen. Feli was assigned to peel the onions haha, Patty had the chopping job :  lemongrass, onions, etc. I was asked to cut a pineapple. It was my first time ever cutting a real pineapple, why can’t we just use canned pineapples chunks ? hehehe it was not an easy task you know ! Oh then we found out that the blender was not working!

We tried a food processor, but it was also not working !! So finally we used the magic bullet, which is a small blender intended for 1 serving of smoothie to blend onions, sardines, mackarel, lemon grass, etc… so we had to blend each food in several batches.

Hendrik left me a voicemail saying that his flight from Austin was delayed for an hour, I checked online and found out that he wouldn’t arrive in Indy until past midnight, so I had an extra hour to help out. I left the house at 11.15 ( estimated driving time of 45 minutes to the airport ) — it was still raining. I backed my car out of the driveway and BUMP !!! @&$#@& I hit somebody’s car !!!!!!!!! NOOOOOO!!!!!   I came out and saw that I had hit Feli’s car, her car was damaged at the driver side. I called her inside the house to let her know and to say SORRY !!! oh man, it must be the black cat ! :p  Later that night the girls found out that the garbage disposal wasn’t working either !! What’s going on ?! Spooky ! Luckily my car was just scratched a little bit. Feli made me feel better by saying  "Ok ok ga papa ga papa, gampang lah" when I told her that I’ll compensate her to fix the damage.  Dui BU Qi !

the middle picture was Feli crying when she found out about her car – hehe no lah, her glasses got foggy when she was peeling the onions.

I continued driving to the airport -I got there around midnight,  but Hendrik didn’t come out until around 12.30AM – we went home straight and got home around 1.30AM. 

Saturday morning I woke up at 9AM and started preparing tapioca pearls (sago) and konyaku to make Melon Sago for the party. I had to make a quick trip to Walmart just to buy a strainer for the tapioca.  I got back from Walmart around 11AM and Hendrik was still sleeping. Patty, who spent the night at Kas’, called me at noon and asked why I was still home and that I need to get there ASAP! I just got out of the shower that time. She said Kas already loooked so stressed because it’s 2 hours to the party and they still had so much to do!! They needed help ! At first Hendrik suggested to go somewhere to eat first before the party but when I told him that we were already "summoned" he quickly showered and we got there at 12.30PM.

Kas, Mimi, and Patty said they cooked until 5AM and they woke up at 9AM and went back cooking. Hendrik and Shahreel went to Sam’s club to get the birthday cake and ice and last minute stuffs…. oh btw the party was a dual celebration -  Tsaqib’s 2nd Bday as well as Lebaran. Feli this time she was put in charge of decoration hehehe she’s really creative with the balloons, Kas said now she knows who to contact for decorations for future gatherings.

Patty and I prepared the melon sago dessert. Ta-da..  this is the result.. pretty isn’t it ?
By 2PM, we’re all ready and the guests started arriving.

The hostess and the Menu :
- Laksa Kelantan (kuah laksa + thick noodle)
- Nasi Kerabu
- Chicken Rice (Nasi, Ayam, Kuah, Tomato, Cucumber, Lettuce)
- Nasi Beriyani (Pulau Rice, Goat Curry, Acar, Dal)
- Nasi Impit / Lontong, Sambal Kacang
- Ayam Masak Merah
- Rendang Daging
- Kari Daging
- Sambal Ikan Bilis
- Lodeh
- Shrimp Curry
- Mutton Dish (like Dry rendang)

mmm I need to get the list of food from Kas.. I couldn’t remember what else was there

Yummy yummy yummy ! – Hendrik already asked me several times since Saturday for me to learn how to cook the Chicken Rice and suggested that we try making them for Thanksgiving

Last month I asked Hendrik if he wants to come down here on 10/22 or 10/28.  Btw this week was our 7th Anniversary. If he had come here last weeked, we’d have more time to spend together, and it would be more relaxing, but Hendrik chose to come down this weekend because of this party ! He didn’t want to miss all the good food! hehe ..   Although he was exhausted from this short trip,  there’s no regret

Here’s the bday boy with the proud parents. Look at all the gifts ! Tsaqib is a lucky boy !

I think there must be around 40 people who came .. but still plenty of leftovers. so we who stayed in until the end got plenty of ziplock bags to da-bao the food hihihihi. By "the end", I meant until the kitchen and dining room was back to Friday night’s condition, all pots, pans, dinnerware, table, chairs, clean and back in their place. Kathy did most of the dishwashing hehe. Everything’s done around 8pm. It’s all because we started the party in time and all the extra hands that helped — besides the hosts, I think Patty worked the hardest Thanks guys !

more pictures of the party here

Hendrik wanted to watch some movies when we got home.. and we ended up watching 3 movies back-to-back until almost 3AM :  Dragon Tiger Gate, a HongKong movie, The Art of Fighting, a Korean movie, and The Amityville Horror.  what a mix, eh ?

so there goes our Saturday.  Sunday, Hendrik panicked when he saw the it’s already noon when we woke up and told me to take a shower right away but then he realized it was Daylight Savings Time and we earned 1 hour  so it’s actually still 11AM.  He was so happy when he realized this, I didn’t understand why he was so happy just because we got an extra hour  

We went to Sichuan restaurant in Carmel for a late lunch, I was so sleepy afterwards… but we still had plenty of time before he needed to get to the airport so we killed time at Castleton Square Mall, and then Best Buy, and TJ Maxx,  and we still got to the airport 2 hours before his scheduled flight. Unfortunately there wasn’t any earlier flight that he could get into. Hendrik told me to go home and rest because I was so sleepy and tired – I reached home even before his plane left Indy.

A few hours later Hendrik called me from Dallas. Guess what ??  His flight to Austin was delayed again !! He swore he’ll never fly American Airlines again!!  Originally he was supposed to arrive in Austin at 10PM, but he didn’t get there until 12.30AM ! And then he had to wait a while for the baggage so he didn’t reach home until 1.30AM ! Hahaha I thought it was funny when Hendrik specifically told me to blog about this ! He was so pissed with AA.

just came back from the airport 1/2 hr ago…  my flight was delayed 30 minutes from Memphis.. but it wasn’t too bad since I got upgraded to First Class hehe

This weekend in Austin felt so short..  We didn’t do much really…  stayed at home most of the time… watched Law & Order SVU marathon on tv…   I cooked and cooked…

we also watched 3 movies,   2 of them are Indonesian : Gie and Ca-Bau-Kan… and Shutter, a very scary Thai horror movie.. in fact I was still thinking about that ghost in the movie when I was driving back home hahahahah 

*sigh* not ready to start another week at work… too much things to do this week