January tip from Martha Stewart is this handy little door knoob hanger.  It's like those little "Do Not Disturb" signs at hotels.  Except that this little door knob hanger has a little pocket for little things like coupons, keys, shopping lists, etc.  If you are like me, you will often forget to bring your shopping list to the supermarket with you.  So this little handy door knob hanger will provide a place for you to put those little items so that you can grab them as you rush out the door. 

What do you use to make this little handy hanger?  Felt of course!  I love the simple concept and the use of cheap material. 

I recently discovered two candies that I really like but can not find in my local markets.

Back in December, someone at work gave me a tic tac orange silver, an individually wrapped tic tac candy in orange flavor.  It was yummy!  I did not have a chance to ask my co-worker where she got the candy and I no longer work with her.  I found them online but don't really want to pay $20 for a box of candy.  I would rather just buy the candy at a market or a store. 

Last month I had lunch at a local Thai restaurant and at the end of the meal, they gave us some Kopiko coffee candy. I tried one out and wow, it was yummy and loaded with caffeine!

If anyone knows where I can get these candies, please share.  I would love to have a box of each for my desk at work.  The Kopiko will be handy for long meetings...

Besides crab and lobster, steamed clams are my next favorite seafood.  On occasion, if I come across a fresh bach of clams at my local Japanese market (Marukai) at a reasonable price, I will pick some up.  A week ago, I did just that.  I steamed some fresh clams in a can of chicken stock and water with plenty of herbs and fresh ground pepper.  As I was enjoying my bowl of hot, yummy clams, I chewed on something crunchy.  Clam meat isn't crunchy...I thought to myself.  Initially, I thought I ate a piece of clam shell.  Upon removing it from my mouth, I realized that I had partially eaten a tiny little crab!!  Actually, to be accurate, the clam I ate was eating a crab before it met it's unfortunate death in my cooking pot.  It was a small reminder that human beings sometimes are at the top of the food chain.   Happy eating to everyone!  :-)

I use a lot of lemon when I cook.  But one of my pet peeves is lemon seeds in my food. So when I found this little Japanese gadget for ~$2, I just had to give it a try.  Basically, you cut off the lemon top, screw the gadget into the lemon and it turns the lemon into a juice bottle.  Just squeeze the lemon for instant, seedless juice!  You can even close the cap for later use!  Very cool...

Which pairs of shoes do you like? Which pairs of shoes would you wear? Which pairs of shoes would you buy?  Did you have the same answer to all three questions?  For me, I like the first and second pairs from the left.  As for which pair(s) of shoes I actually bought, that depended on the prices of the shoes.  Which pair of shoes do you think is the pricest?  Which pair is the cheapest?  To find out the prices and makers of each pairs of shoes, click on each image.  I bought the cheapest pair, which is also the pair I like the most.  Lesson of this blog...value is not always fairly priced.

Last week we went to see Slava's Snow Show at UCLA's Royce Hall.  It was a chance for us to get dressed up for an evening of dinner and show.  I've been to a couple of events, including my graduation, at Royce Hall so getting a chance to go back is a small treat for me.  What is Slava Snow Show you ask?  It appeared to be a cute fantasy clown show.  But it turned out to be the most interactive show I have ever been to.  Think Cirque du Soleil with the audience getting to participate.  At one point in the show the audience got to pull a huge cotton cover across the entire auditorium.  During intermission, the clowns invaded the audience spraying water and jumping on seats, generally wreaking clown havoc. :-)  At the climax of the show, a snow storm blew out into the audience with stunning realism.  The show did not end with the clapping for the performers but rather it ended with a huge party complete with colorful giant balls thrown out into the audience.  We had a comlete blast!

A rubber toy mailbox...a typical dog toy right?  Believe it or not, Toby had been in fear of this little red mailbox he got for Christmas for over 3 years!!  Why you ask?  I don't really know the reasons for most of Toby's fears.  But my guess would be that I have always gotten him stuffed animals for toys since he was a baby of two months old.  Then he got this rubber mailbox one year and that's when I discovered Toby's fear of rubber toys.  He would bark at the mailbox incessantly, while backing away from it.  Since he was barking so much, I decided to put the mailbox in his toy chest out of his sight.  Well he knew it was in his toy chest so he wouldn't even go near his toy chest to get his other toys out.  So I hid the mailbox elsewhere for years, forgeting that I even still have it.  Since then everyone knows of Toby's fear of rubber toys, all of his "aunts" and "uncles" no longer buy rubber toys for him. 

Fast forward to 2007, Mr. BAW brought back a rubber ring toy for Toby from a recent trip...unaware of Toby's strange fears for rubber toys.  To my surprise, Toby took to the rubber ring like it was a stuffed toy!  Look at him in action below!  He carried the rubber ring over to the couch and wanted me to play with him!  He also carried the ring upstairs.  He definitely likes the rubber ring.  I then started to wonder if Toby had finally overcome his strange fear of rubber toys.  So I dug up the old mailbox and brought it over to him.  He definitely still didn't like the mailbox but is no longer afraid of it.  He just tolerated its presence on his couch.  Maybe Toby's becoming a braver dog with age?!  This thought is quickly dashed the following evening when Toby kept me up all night because he was afraid of gusty winds.

By the way, wouldn't the first picture of Toby and the mailbox make a wonderful postcard? :-)

Happy New Year everyone!! I hope you've all had a wonderful 2006 and are on your way to a great 2007.  Before I leave 2006 completely, let me share with you my birthday adventure last month. Mr. BAW took me to the Griffith Observatory to celebrate my birthday because he knows what a big nerd I am.  Griffith had been closed for renovation for the past three years and I've been anxiously awaiting for its grand opening.  We got to see the new planetarium show which I thoroughly enjoyed!  The show gives a good overview of the history of astronomy, from Ptolemy to Hubble.

Unfortunately, it rained the day we visited Griffith.  So we spent most of our time there inside the observatory.  But there were enough exhibits to keep us entertained for a while. I quickly found the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram on display.  The H-R diagram demonstrates stellar evolution and where the Sun fits in the universe. 

Enjoy the rest of our adventures at the Griffith Observatory!

The exterior, the rain does not take from its grandeur.

The beautiful ceiling in the lobby.

A beautiful giant Foucault's pendulum sits in the center
of the lobby. It demonstrates the rotation of the Earth.

One of the exhibit halls filled with hands-on demos.

An exact replica of Galileo's telescope which he used to
view Jupiter and its moons ~400 years ago.

One of the demos showing how ancient people used to
plan vegetation growth based on the position of the Sun.

A replica of the Zeiss Telescope at the Griffith Observatory.  This demo allows you to open and close the telescope dome and steer the telescope itself.  Believe me, it wasn't trivial! :-)

We came upon a demo in which you get to "create" an asteroid and shoot it towards Earth.  You determine the asteroid's mass, diameter, velocity, angle of impact, and the location of impact on Earth.  The demo will then simulate the effect of your asteroid impact on Earth. 

Most people that worked the demo before us were making small to medium sized asteroids that struck the ocean or remote parts of the planet causing some climate changes.  But not Mr. BAW...he was determined to create the most massive and dense asteroid travelling at the higest speed towards Earth.  The result?  Total destruction of Earth!  Mr. BAW was mighty proud of himself. :-)

Happy New Year!