My Weekly Adventures!

Life is an adventure so anything I do qualifies! So before you start talking about how watching TV isn’t, thats like saying reading a book isn’t. I can pretty much say that there’s a lot of readers who would disagree with you.  We are explorers and we travel to lots of fun places. Maybe you think I’m crazy but I’m not 😉 So to saythat this week is less actually going somewhere but just achieving little things.

Before we move along with this, I’d like to remind or bring to your attention that my Halloween Movie Marathon Poll has been up.  If you haven’t seen it or having voted, please head on over HERE to help me out 🙂 With some earlier planning, I can get more movies seen in October and make it an amazing month, especially with all of your help/recommendations!

1) Dragon’s Den!

I absolutely love watching Dragon’s Den.  I skipped a few season in middle but when it first launched, it was one of my favorite shows.  Its really grown to be completely amazing.  Although some pitches are just completely out there, some are really awesome ideas.

The last episode where recapped some of the some deals are usually amazing.  Its all so amazing to see people’s dreams become a reality.

2) Splurging on TV *blush*

A little shameless selfie 🙂

I never intend to splurge and I pretty much don’t impulse buy anymore. And I didn’t because I fully planned to go out and get Season 2 of Arrow but then I was thinking, I have to catch up with Vampire Diaries also. Now I’m waiting for Grey’s Anatomy Season 10 to go on special too (but then I didn’t watch Season 9 yet so its not so rushed).  See, I’m still logical, right? 😉

I’m trying to not go too crazy over Arrow so I started watching Vampire Diaries on the weekend.

3) A Productive Weekend Starts….Harvesting Herbs

Lemongrass, Orange Thyme and Yellow Zucchini

The weather got cold really fast last week and somehow is supposed to get warmer this week again….gradually.  Either way, it was the kick in my butt to speed up the process and let my fatigue take the backseat.  Thursday night activity consisted of going to harvest everything I could while there was still a bit of light before sunset.  Orange Thyme and Lemongrass is currently in the drying process.

4) Bike Support for my Friends

Thanks to my friend who took the picture

Oasis Marathon is going to be happening this coming weekend so my friends who are going to do the half marathon along with one doing the 10km and 3 others in for the fun went out for a group jog.  My job was to be bike support for their 17km run.  It included making sure that they were hydrated and giving them directions and scouting out the route ahead.  There were heavy winds and then my bike support broke down near the end because of bike issues.  Note to self, next time make sure to bring tools.  I did manage to bike very slowly home after making sure everyone passed the intersection to head home.  It was a pretty fun day and I biked a whole lot of distance and I was so tired after but I couldn’t let my body slow down because the garden and my house needed me.

5) Transplanting in and out

Top Left are the transplanted flowers from pots for next year

Between early morning before bike support and coming back afterwards, I got the two flowers at the top left planted into soil.  They should be both perennials viable in my zone.  They were also paired with others so I needed to pot those right away and brought in a few plants as well.

Eucalyptus, Orange Thyme and Citronella Geranium inside

This is only partial because others are by the bay window or in the dining room. Still a lot of transplanting to do this week and then hopefully it will be done…for now. Next is the shopping for spring bulbs and getting those in the ground.

6) Workout room done!

On Saturday, after the run, I went to battle the anniversary sale in Walmart and aside from a bunch of household products, I also ended up getting on special the final touches to our workout room.

Hello workout flooring 😉

Oh right, my boyfriend’s weights.  Mine haven’t been moved yet.  I can’t possibly lift that.  All I can do is roll them across the floor when they are in my way.

7) Making Awesome Ribs

I know I’m backtracking, but on Friday night, I sat down after running errands at my place with more moving stuff around and came home to make my ribs.  Ended up eating at around 9:30pm or something but they were so worth it.  I don’t know the measurements but I used soy sauce, smoked paprika, ground pepper, honey, ground coriander, herbes de provence to marinate it.  I did marinate it in the morning and then just popped it in the oven for 1.5 hours in the evening.  They turned out amazingly delicious 🙂

8) Autumn Chrysanthemums

Nothing more to say on that.  So beautiful 🙂

9) Hot Pot (aka Chinese Fondue) with my girl friends

One of my girl friends came back from Western Canada to settle a few things so we got together for a hot pot hang out.  There was so much food and it was amazing to chat with the girls.  Its always filled with fun and laughter.  And we’re even going to go see The Maze Runner together this week.  Yay! 🙂

10) Favorite Quote this Week

It was a tad tiring and busy but it was pretty fun as well.  I’m looking forward to seeing The Maze Runner.  I can actually see the fuzzy finish line in this whole moving business where I’m trying to do it slow and by myself so I can save money, still, its almost there.

How was your week? Tell me about it!

Happy Monday! 🙂

Book Review: Stefan’s Diaries Vol.1 Origins (The Vampire Diaries series)

I’m a huge fan of Vampire Diaries.  I think that the series was super smart but its just lightly similar to the book series.  I never intended to get this as its more of a tangent that was made after the series happened and was successful based on one of the main character, Stefan’s coming to be a vampire. He’s the good brother in the whole series, or at least he tries to control his humanity a lot more.  If you watch the series, you will understand what I mean.

If you don’t, this book doesn’t really matter.  Its really just a more detail version of Stefan’s life. This book starts off from the little snippets from the series about how he became a vampire and his infatuation of Katherine and his fight with his brother Damon over this girl.  How they each had to make their choices.

Its a pretty average young adult supernatural romance fiction. Honestly, I enjoyed the original book series a lot more mostly because the TV series only extracts the characters but the story itself is so different.  This book, the first in the Stefan Diaries series, was pretty much creating a back story for the TV series for the fans who want to know more.  Its definitely a strategic move.  Its an alright book. I never really felt compelled or pulled in.  I never really felt the urgency of the situation because I do know the outcome and the general idea of what happens, especially since this was written a 2-3 years back or something and the TV series has touched some of the parts already.

I’m going to keep this short. If you haven’t watched the series, this might actually be more interesting to read though.  The Vampire Diaries TV series and book series both have engaging storylines in their own way.  It all depends which path you choose to take.  I got this book only because it was to fill up an Amazon order to get free shipping and it was half price promotion.  My expectations were not high to begin with and it was not exceeded.

This actually puts me in a little rut.  I never start a series and not finish it…which also means, I need to hunt down the other books slowly 😉  Although, I think the next books could be more interesting since it might shed light on actual details that the series never mentions.  Who knows, right? I like to stay positive and expect the best!

*Just a quick update on my 2013 Reading Challenge in Goodreads! This completes my 18th book out of 30 goal 🙂 I realize its past the halfway point but I figured it was worth a mention 🙂 Things are on track 😉 If you have Goodreads, feel free to add me as a friend!*

A Few Rainy Days, TV Addictions and Delicious Meals

Sorry for the late weekend personal post!  I spent a lot of time hemming and hawing at figuring out what to write today but here it is…

This past week has been all about water falling down onto the earth.  My grass is waiting to get mowed as it gets longer and longer after a whole week of rain.  My trees are patiently sitting there awaiting its next trim so that it looks all beautiful and round, instead of having a bad hair day.  The best part in all this is that my flowers are all budding.  After looking at Marilyn’s gardens with her colorful irises, I was longing for mine to eventually bloom as well.  It probably might happen next week. YAY!

These beautiful flowers have started blooming though. They usually end up covering the whole tree with wonderful pink flowers.  Its always nice when the yard is looking extremely green. I snuck out in the pouring rain to get a few pictures of it!

I started on Thursday with trying to catch up on all the season finales that are happening.  I am TV addict.  I have a queue list for ones that are waiting to be started, another one for currently in progress but a season or two off track or just finished, and another one to keep track of the ones that are up to date.  Now there is even a list of upcoming fall season new ones to track.  This season has to be pretty good.  Its just about ended for most of them and I’m already done with New Girl, Vampire Diaries, Bates Motel (as of last night) and Elementary (as of today).

Next up is Criminal Minds and Grey’s Anatomy.  I’d still need to search up whether they have their finales out yet but I’m excited. However, those ones are going to take longer since I only watched a few episodes and maybe Grey’s Anatomy, I managed to get to midseason finale and then I stopped.

Whats nice is summer is the time to catch up on all the miscellaneous TV (like Glee, The Mentalist, Grimm) and some already ended ones (Flashpoint, Gossip Girl) plus the awaiting to start list (Arrow, Sherlock Holmes, Downtown Abbey, The Following, Once Upon a Time, and more) since I only watch True Blood during this time.  Can I just say I’m super excited? There’s still a few weeks but its my guilty pleasure.

There is nothing deep about it and most of the time, I get frustrated with Sookie’s ugly disgusting accent but Bill is officially batshit crazy and Eric is super hot to look at.  Now, if we get in a few more stupid comments from Jason and then get Alcide back in the pictures, I think I’m ready to watch vampires and werewolves crazy go on ;).

On top of all these, I have about 4-5 Hong Kong series to catch up with and months upon months that I’ve fallen behind on those dramas. Maybe the occasional Taiwanese series since I’ve heard of a few that are interesting and silly fun 🙂 Lots of TV planned..now I just need to find the time.

Yesterday after dragonboat practice, I went out to dinner with a friend at our neighborhood joint which is a very good little homestyle restaurant of Chinese French fusion food.

Garlic Shrimps with Rice and Salad

Tonight I went there again to celebrate a meal with one of my long time friends.  Here are some pictures of what I had and the dessert is my boyfriend’s 🙂

Beef and Vegetable Soup

Fried Chicken Leg and Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce

Cheesecake with Ice Cream

This place is called Mrs. Amigos.  The owner is a super nice lady and the staff is agreeable and friendly. I love going here! If you ever are in the Montreal area, I urge you to drop by for a meal.  They may be a small joint but they offer very delicious food 🙂 I love the dinner meals like the one I had.  The shrimps were super delicious and the chicken leg with spaghetti is one of my absolute favorite meals EVER!

Plus, I was with great company.  We had a lot of chats and laughs throughout the night.  Nothing beats hanging out with awesome times with friends 🙂 It certainly made my weekend!

How is your weekend so far? Sunnier than ours in Montreal? Maybe more relaxing? Any weekend addictions? How about TV series other than my growing list that you’d recommend to me? I’ll always find a way to fit it in…

My FIRST: One Lovely Blog Award Nomination

I’m still feeling a bit dazed and confused right now.  My first award…its been about one year and 10 months that I’ve been blogging and I’ve read millions of posts about others getting awards and it never occurred to me that it’d happen to me…and it has.  Give me a few moments to wrap my head around this…I’m just happy!

First of all, I’d like to thank Aan at Sigoese for the One Lovely Blog Award Nomination.  I haven’t followed his blog for a long time but he has some amazing content that goes up. You definitely need to check it out.

These are the rules below, as copied from Sigoese for the nominees to follow:

1. Thank the person who nominated you
2. Add The One Lovely Blog Award to your post
3. Share 7 things about yourself
4. Pass the award on to 15 nominees
5. Include this set of rules
6. Inform your nominees by posting a comment on their blogs

Seven Thing About Me:

1) I love music a lot: I play the piano, sing, and am learning guitar (very slowly) and I listen to music every single day.

2) My love for Dragonboat is the reason and motivation that I exercise and train.

3) I am a collector of  Disney(Pixar included) movies and Hayao Miyazaki animations.

4) I have a digestive disorder that makes me sensitive to caffeine, lactose, MSG, and a whole bunch of random vegetables and foods.

5) I believe that crafty DIY gifts mean so much more than any store-bought gift.

6) I watch too many TV series that I can’t possibly catch up anymore (Criminal Minds, Grey’s Anatomy, The Mentalist, Vampire Diaries, True Blood, Vampire Diaries, and some other guilty pleasures like Gossip Girl, etc.).

7) I hate having a cellphone (even if its a necessity) because I see it as a tracking device on my whereabouts.

Now, on to 15 blogs I’d like to nominate:

1. Thirdeyemom
2. Lead.Learn.Live
3. Head In A Vice
4. 50 Year Project
5. The Wish Factor
6. Crazy Train To Tinky Town
7. Sethsnap
8. Homemade with Mess
9. Bucket List Publications
10. Ali Does It Herself
11. A Word in Your Ear
12. Ridha’s Kitchen
13. Salt and Serenity
14. Modern Home Kitchen
15. A Nature Mom

If you are interested in movies, recipes, photography, crafts, travels and adventures, at least one of those blogs will fulfill.  Thanks again to Sigoese for the wonderful nomination!