The end of summer day

Hope by Yiruma (love his song!)



It was raining on and off outside this morning. The weather was clear in the afternoon and the tiny breeze made things a lot better when I walked outside!

For the past two weeks, I have been looking at the search engine in Pubmed for more than 5-6 hours a day. It is to the point that I don't want to look at it for the rest of the week (but I really doubt this is going to happen).

I will repeatedly tell myself that this too shall pass!

I went to Hallmark today to get some cards and saw that the store currently has a 75% sale (on selected items - mostly out of season items) and if you buy 6 or more you will get 85% off instead. I got 5 items and it took a good 15 minutes to get the next one to get the 85% off. But according to Hallmark, I saved about 47 dollars (what was supposed to be a 50+ purchase became an 9 dollars in total!). Can I be happy? Probably yes because I only bought what I thought I would use and nothing else. That's why it took me forever to decide on the last item!

As I walked the sale isle, I realized oh Father's day has passed. when was it? How come I couldn't remember? I took me a couple of hours to remember that it was in June. It's now August. I wonder whether I have too much in my mind that things start to blend into each other and probably don't make sense as much? I started writing some deadlines down and everything was dated 2010 (we're almost done with 2011!!!).

I wonder...by this time next year and the year following next...how much would I remember...

today, I made another batch of kombucha using a different type of green tea. My other batch is growing very well! ^_^

Black Rice and Sweet Potatoes ^_^

Because I become instantly obsessed with sweet potato and want to know everything about it.....so don't get me started when I searched for airplane tickets recently... in any case.. I found a blog entry talking about black rice and Japanese sweet potatoes...
although I don't cook it the way she did.. I guess I was a Japanese in my past ... decades/centuries ago :)



http://tokyokitchentales.wordpress.com/2010/11/10/satsuma-imo-gohan/

I do find it odd to talk about Japanese food on July 4th... so much contrast..

July 4th 2011

Is it July 4th already?  it will be at least another few hours... in any case, I already heard fireworks soaring the sky.. are people drinking already?



Of all the years, this is probably the first July 4th weekend I'm alone and nowhere near any relatives.  I guess it's part of growing up.  You slowly drift away from the things that you've known for years and come to take them as they are always there.

Have been busy with work and a short vacation.  Now back to regular schedule.  Try to get a good start on a research project with my professor.  I think we finally get it going.  I got some data... (approximately 20% of what I should get... but if I can accomplished that in one day - not on sitting, then I think I should be able to finished this by the end of July - I hope..) with the analysis can be done in the month of August and have it written in Sept and submitted in Oct and present it in Dec... and possibly getting more data to have it presented next June at the national meeting...(too much to ask? but I always think you should aim high so even if you can't achieve the highest level, you are probably close to it!).

I'll be in internal medicine this month.  nervous...and anxious... because I realize i don't know anything.  Whatever I studied, I forgot them already.  Hopefully, my patients will be nice...

I've started cooking new things these days.  Recently hooked into Japanese sweet potatoes.  This makes me want to go back to Japan sometimes this year.  I didn't realize how much I love that country even though I couldn't speak the language.  I just like strolling the street randomly without having to worry about anything.  Is it a true vacation? I guess so.  Kyoto is so different from Tokyo.  There are many places I want to visit that are near Kyoto (on the outskirt mostly) but didn't get a chance to do so.  The people I met there were so generous.

If you want to try, black rice (or wild rice) cooked with chopped Japanese Sweet potatoes is delicious! :)

Happy July 4th!! Get your shopping done because I've heard it's a steal this weekend.  I did mine online which took approximately 30 minutes (the amount of time it would take me to get to the mall, find parking, and get to the store).  Good luck with the deals! ^_^