4th of July @ NY

So it's been some time since my last post. A lot has happened but was too lazy to update this. I was in NY again, during the 4th of July weekend, I had so much fun...well, so much too eat. We decided to stay 3 days/2 nights this time so that we could try some new restaurants w/o having to sacrifice returning to some good old places to eat. Hahaha....it's always about food.

I bought a Tokidoki for Hello Kitty mirror at the Sanrio store....cost me a small fortune! But absolutely beautiful!!!

Hello Masterpiece

I was reading Hello Kitty Hell and learned about another Hello Kitty exhibition! It's Hello Masterpiece by Leslie Holt, the exhibit is held from May 10 - June 21, 2008 in Missouri. You could download the color catalog or listen to the audio tour online. Amazing!!!

Melting Pot Dinner

I had such a great time last night, I went to the Melting Pot for dinner with my friends. I love fondue so much that I subscribed to its newsletter and I'm glad I did. Melting Pot was running a 2-day special menu which include Ming & my favorite Maryland Crab Cheese Fondue in celebration of Melting Pot's anniversary.

Our waitress was very friendly and even look a bit like Drew Berrymore. She told us about the half-price special on wine under $50, so I couldn't resist and ordered a bottle for the table. And aside from ordering the special menu, we also added three order of lobster tails!!!! Because we had four pots, we decided to have a different chocolate fondue for each pot, Cookies-n-cream, White Chocolate, Yin Yan, and the special White Chocolate Apple Pie.

First Course - Maryland Crab Cheese Fondue
Succulent crabmeat blended with your choice of swiss or sharp cheddar cheeses and old bay seasoning.
Second Course - Strawberry Almond Spinach Salad topped with a Basil Infused White Balsamic Vinaigrette.
Third Course - Entrée with 3 oz. Center Cut Filet, Chicken and Vegetable Potstickers, Teriyaki Marinated Sirloin, Boneless and Skinless Breast of Chicken and White Tiger Shrimp Fourth Course Fourth Course - White Chocolate Apple Pie Fondue

Memorial Weekend in NY/NJ & HELLO KITTY!!!

With nothing else better to do this Memorial weekend, my friends and I decided to go to NJ/NY. Well...actually, there is a very important reason to visit NY this time. I saw a post from Hello Kitty Hell about a Hello Kitty exhibition by Tom Sachs in NYC. So, the mission of this trip is to see the Hello Kitty statue!!!

The collection is located at Gordon Bunshaft’s Modernist Park Ave tower and it includes one gigantic Hello Kitty, a 10-foot-tall Hello Kitty fountain, a 10-foot-tall Miffy fountain, and a My Melody statue. We took so many pictures, I just couldn't resist!!! And of course, we also went to the Sanrio store in Time Square. Unfortunately I didn't find anything special this time, just a pair of Hello Kitty eggs.



And on our way back to Chinatown, we walked by Garrett Popcorn and the sweet buttery smell is totally irresistable, so we bought some to snack in the car. We also tried a couple new Chinese restaurants in Chinatown this time and had my favorite 車仔麵 (noodle cooked in a cart) and Ming's favorite seafood dinner. As usual, we also visited New Jersey Mitsuwa Marketplace at Edgewater, which was holding a Gourmet Food Fair. They had sweet potato apple pie, dorayaki (red bean paste pancake), kaisen sanshoku bento box (ikura/salmon roe, uni/sea urchin and fish over rice) and many more Japanese specalities!!! There is also the Memorial weekend special, shark fin noodle soup. Writing this makes me hungry!!!



And the last stop of our trip is SHOPPING!!!! We really didn't have that much time left, so we only went to two stores in SoHo, then head on out to the Woodbury Outlets. And according to Ming, he's finally found a store where there are better men's clothes than women's and that's Uniqlo at SoHo.

Strut Your Mutt Dog Parade, Bethesda, MD

It was a beatutiful day on Sat and was definitely the perfect weather for the doggies. A lot of people and doggies were already there when we arrived, but it wasn't as crowded as last year. Only one street was blocked off for the booths, compared to two streets of vendors from last year parade. I guess it has something to do with downturn of the economy because there were hardly any dog clothes booths. I was a bit disappointed because of it since I was looking forward to all those cute little puppy outfits. But I still had a great time with Moby and my friends and Moby was wearing her new red dress....super cute as always!

Iron Man Rules!

Finally saw Iron Man yesterday and I was genuinely impressed with the movie. Robert Downey Jr. was awesome and made me believe that if there's a Tony Stark/Iron Man in this world, then he is the man. The CG was realistic and I like the scene when he tried on the arm piece on the 3D panel and the funny 3D trash can. Overall, well-paced, good action sequence, good comedy and a good looking RDJ.

Robert Downey Jr. in Elton John - I Want Love MTV

On the hunt for a good Online Backup

So, I've spent the past couple of days searching for a good reliable online backup. I tested out a few of them with hugh free space (Scribd, Adrive, Mediamax-now called thelinkup) only to find out how much I don't like them.

Then I went on to read another tons of reviews/blogs on yet another list of online backup services (Mozy, HP Upline, Carbonite, Microsoft Windows LIve Skydrive, IDrive, IBackup, etc), and the conclusion is that I don't really like any of them either.

Finally I came across this blog about, dropbox and it looks so much simpler than the other online backup services. I'm still waiting for the beta invite, hopefully I'll get one soon. For now, I'll continue to rely on my local backup drive.