Maybe they should just charge less...

Yesterday, I got a box of chocolate-covered strawberries and caramel apple wedges from my eye care center as a thank you for doing LASIK there. The strawberries looked and tasted really delicious, but the apples were a disappointment. Not only were they apples (definitely on the no-no list), but they were covered in cinnamon powder. Cinnamon is NOT GOOD unless it's a Cinnabon. I couldn't help but think that I would rather have gotten a discount than receive this box. But then again, I suppose it is kinda nice to get something delivered to you, and it looked very pretty.

Today, I forgot that I had all these desserts to eat already, so I went ahead and baked some Lemon Poppy Seed cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. I thought they came out pretty good.Then I went out to dinner with my roommates to a really delicious tapas place in SacTown called Tapa the World. What a silly name. Good thing the food was really good! This is what I end up doing when I have a Friday afternoon off--the first one this quarter that I wasn't scrubbed into surgery! Tomorrow, we are doing a "Girls Only"...well alright, "Girls Invited Only" 1pm Matinee to the SATC movie! Can't wait! Then on Sunday, I'll be neutering (I hope!) a bunch a cats at the Sacramento SPCA. Of course in between all this, I have to do a take-home exam that is due on Monday.

Shiny Plane

When I was flying back from ONT to SAC, I was very impressed with how clean it was inside the SW plane, especially after my sister told me about how nasty the seatback pockets were and that I should never touch anything from them. Then I noticed that the window was squeaky clean. I don't know if this picture shows it, but the wing was so clean that it was reflecting the light from the beautiful sun that day and looked almost slippery.
I used to take pictures out of plane windows all the time, but this is by far the cleanest window I've taken a picture through on a plane. The view was so nice that I forgot how terrifying flying was... that is until it got really turbulent later in the flight. Good thing I treated myself to some coke.

Yoga in Bed

A few weeks ago, I decided to use my American Express reward points to get something so I can use them up and cancel the card that I never use. It turned out to be quite an ordeal. I ordered 2 things: A DVD called Yoga in Bed, and a Disney CD of children's songs for my niece. According to the point values, I would end up with 3 points left over. Well, something went wrong on the website and my points were redeemed for credit to my credit card, but the items were not ordered. Had I known that, I would have stopped there. When I realized that the order had not gone through, I called customer service and they ended up ordering the items for me. But after I hung up the phone, I checked my account and I ended up with 2 orders of the DVD and 1 order of the CD. I now had to pay for the extra item. Then I discovered that the shipping charges were at the ridiculous amount of about $10 per item, which were additional charges that were not accounted for when they redeemed the points! To make a long story short, I had to call them 2 more times, and then make one more phone call directly to the company from which the order was placed. In the end, I ended up with just 1 DVD (sorry Attie!), and a credit of $4.23 on my credit card, which wasn't enough for anything else.
I watched the DVD yesterday and it was just alright. I thought maybe it would have something that would help me relax before going to bed, but some of the positions require a lot of shifting around of pillows and such which takes a lot of effort. Maybe I'll try the morning routines another day. If anyone wants to try out the DVD, let me know. I would not recommend trying to get it for free from any rewards program. Now I just have to find something to spend the $4.23 credit on before I can cancel my card.

LASIK Successful!

It is only the day after my lasik surgery and I can already see great! I went in for my post-op recheck and the doctor told me that I can see more clearly than expected already and should still continue to improve. The procedure itself took about 20 minutes, and there was no pain at all. I was still nervous through the whole thing, and with the help of Lorazepam and Dr. M telling me to relax my shoulders, it was over in no time. The procedure was definitely much less stressful than going to the dentist.

I have to wear these ugly eye shields for a week when I'm sleeping so I don't accidentally scratch my eyes out. Yes, my eyes are a little bruised, but they feel fine. Dr. M told me that it'll go through all the bruise colors before it goes away.This is my medication/regimen for the first week. There are lots of drops and I'm already forgetting sometimes. I had to make a chart on my dry erase board to check off so I don't forget.

TT was so sweet to send me these flowers to help with my recovery! Thank you!

Noodle Tasting

My roommates and I decided to do a little taste test of these 3 frozen Taiwanese noodle dishes. The contestants are:

shredded pork and preserved vegetable noodle soup

noodle in brown sauce with pork, soybean kernels, and soybean curd

stewed beef noodle soup with vegetable

AW tasting the beef noodles:
KH ranking her preferences:
The results are in! Interestingly enough, we all had different rankings! Maybe the order you eat them in has an effect on which one you like. I did cleanse my pallet with water in between dishes though.
How wonderful that each of us ended up with our favorite dish! No one had to make any sacrifices!

Trip to VA

I went to visit TT last weekend and we went to see the animals at Maymont Park. Richmond has some very nice places and the weather was wonderful. Here are some pics of a few funny animals that we saw:

On the way back, I had to fly through Chicago. The great thing about it was the food I got to eat during my layover. The first one was a borger from the Billy Goat Tavern.
Then I had a really good Chicago-style hotdog. Yes, it was airport food, but boy was it good! Too bad it wasn't a char-dog.
This was one of the few times I had no problems at the airport, even though I was flying through Chicago. Most people know of my affinity to airport trouble, including 9/11, the Thanksgiving I got stuck in Chicago overnight in the plane because the runway was too icy for the plane to taxi, the flight cancellation on the way to Costa Rica with a change to a flight where we were flagged and had to go through the air machine, and various other incidents. Even after all that, I still really like airports!