Thanksgiving Weekend

Thank you for the thanksgiving wishes ans sorry for not writing sooner. As usual, I stuffed myself silly on Thanksgiving especially since I did not cook anything much. We practically bought almost everything except for these Cheesy Garlic Biscuit that I partly made.

This is part of the crowd camping outside BestBuy in Huntington Beach.
They opened at 4 or 6am on Friday and this picture was taken at 8.45pm on Thursday.
Yup, people here go crazy especially for electrical items and toys.

A tall Xmas tree at Citadel Outlet in L.A.

Citadel Outlet was opened from 11pm Thursday until 10pm Friday. This was taken around 4.30pm just before we left. We were there since 12pm.
I even met a Malaysian guy with his son at the foodcourt!

Obviously I didn't buy much at the outlet. I only go to the stores that didn't have
any long Q at the cashiers. I'm still thinking about the 4 dresses that
I had to put back since the line was so long. :(

Gas Price and Ringgit Malaysia Update

As of Sunday night, the gas price in our area has officially dropped to below 2/gallon. 1.999/gallon to be exact. It is just so unbelievable yet so very true. The last time gas price was below 2/gallon was like in early 2005. Although we in SoCal have only started to get these below2/gallon gas price, I know for a fact that Cath in Virginia has been enjoying it for a while now. :P With the gas price going down fast, we only fill up our car $20/week which will give us slightly less than 3/4 tank and would last us for up to 9days if we stay local that is.

Ringgit Malaysia on the other hand is now at RM3.622 to USD1. That's 10cent down since the last time I made an update which was only a few weeks ago. I heard that it will be around RM3.80 for every dollar by year end. Who knows? We will just have to wait and see.

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On another note, it is Thanksgiving here in the US on Thursday and Friday will be the famous shopping day of the year, Black Friday. Michael has already applied for an extra day off for Friday. We have yet to decide what we are going to do for Thanksgiving but I do plan to go visit the malls and factory outlets on Black Friday. I need to get a new pair of sneakers to replace my 5year old that I have been using. I have never gone this long with any sneakers before. I guess when you are a fulltime housewife and not a member of any gym club, the need to own different kind of sneakers for different kind of activities just disappeared.

Iran and Plastic Surgery

Yesterday on Oprah the topic was 'Beauty' or what people around the globe do in the name of beauty. Some things are pretty well-known facts like in Brazil, where it is normal for a girl to spend half of their salary on beauty products or regime each month. Or that it is hard to find big sizes in Paris or how bengkung or body wrap is used by women who just gave birth to make the tummy go flat faster. Yeap, we have heard of those don't we?

But when we talk about Iran or specifically the Iranian women and their beauty regime, would you have thought that it would involve plastic surgery? Yes my friends. You heard me right. Plastic surgery. Nose job! It is apparently very normal for them and they don't even hide the fact that they just had a nose job. Wearing a band-aid on their nose is something that is done with pride. They wear hijab and band-aid on their nose and nobody gives a hoot. Some of them would actually wear the band-aid for 2 freaking years just to show people that she just had a nose job while others even if they have not had a nose job would still put the band-aid to make people think that they did. That is how proud they are when they had it done. What do you think the alim ulama in Malaysia would say about this fact?

Watching the show really makes me wonder about nose jobs or any other type of plastic surgeries like breasts augmentation, tummy tuck and so on. But 1 thing for sure, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Some like it skinny, others like it big. Some like it straight, others like it curl. And it will forever be that we are never satisfied with what we have. We always think that the grass is greener on the other side. Or is it? What do you think?

California Fire

I woke up on Friday morning to the news about fire in Southern California that started the night before. It was kinda weird since last week was rather a cold week. Of course by late Thursday mother nature decided to move in a 180degree turn and give us hot weather and high wind which is a lethal formula for brush fire.

On Saturday we decided to watch the new James Bond movie at The Block in the city of Orange. We can already smell the smoke even before we got on to the 22 freeway. The sky on our side was blue but followed by a very dark cloud no thanks to the wind that blew the smoke from the fire area. The sun was red and the air smells of smoke. We arrived at the mall at noon and surprisingly it was easy to find a parking. Pretty unknown of at The Block especially on weekend.

The fire has so far burned hundreds of homes from multi-million dollar mansions to mobile homes. The only good thing is that so far there is no death. But I really feel for those mobile homes owners. Where are they going to live? Winter is approaching and although winter here is pretty mild, it still gets very cold at night. Where are they going to go when there is no home to go back to? My prayer goes to all of them.

Dinner and Cake

Steak with Mushroom Sauce on a bed of Fettucine

His dinner. I tried it and hated it.

Chicken Marsala with Rice
My dinner. Tried it and double-hated it.
The worst food I have ever had.
And it was me who decided to try the restaurant! :P

The Huge Birthday Cake that My Baby surprised me with!
He chose it because he said that is the prettiest cake of all.
How sweet is that? *wink*
And I love the colourful candles which he himself selected and put on the cake.
Can you count how many candles are there?

Pretending to blow the candles.

Gas Price and Exchange Rate

Gosh! It has been a while since I updated on those 2 taboo subjects. But this time at least there is a positive result. At least for ur living in the US. As you all know, the gas price is gradually coming down. It was peaked at close to usd5/gallon. As of yesterday morning, Saturday Nov 1, it costs us 2.70/gallon although at noon when we were driving back fr the asian supermarket it went down to 2.66/gallon. Oh well, cant complaint too much. After suffering from a very high cost of gas the last 4-8 months, I am just so relieved that it is now back to what it was a year ago. Now, if only they bring down the price of goods as well. Everything went up when the gas price was up but when the price is down, nobody seems to want to bring down the price of goods.

Now, on the exchange rate, Ringgit Malaysia(RM) to USD it is not looking to good for Malaysian. Since Friday Oct 31, my exchange rate ticker on my notebook says that it is USD1 = RM3.553. It is of course good for Malaysian sending back money to home or if you are planning to go back and spend some moolah there. (Cath, Gert & Jannie, aren't you guys going back next year?)