Camy Tang's Blog, page 124

Chocolate mint

Captain Caffeine and I have arguments about this all the time.



I like chocolate mint, meaning chocolate with mint flavor added.



However, I do NOT like mint with chocolate chips. Something about the texture doesn’t appeal to me and the dominant flavor is mint with chocolate as almost a sidenote.



The Captain doesn’t understand why I make such a distinction. But to me, it seems very different. One is chocolate with mint, the other is mint with chocolate.



Then yesterday I tried a new tea, chocolate mint flavor. I hated it. Basically, it had more mint than chocolate, which put me in mind of mint with chocolate chips.



Am I being too picky about this? Which of you guys likes mint with chocolate chips?

New Apple products!

I have been DYING--dying, I tell you!--for a new laptop computer because mine, while a sturdy thing, is very heavy and slow (I only have 3GB of system memory). So I was waiting with bated breath for the Apple WWDC keynote yesterday.



Hooray! New MacBook Pro! I am SO all over that! I just got a new contract with Guideposts, so that’s what my advance will go toward. :)

Scanning recipes

I admit, I’m going a little nuts with my scanner.



Blame it on ebooks. I’ve been getting used to the convenience of having electronic copies of paper, which don’t take up space on my bookshelf.



I am one of those infamous people who cut recipes out of the newspaper and keep them, intending to one day make them. And so I have a folder FULL of clipped recipes which I don’t want to throw away because I might actually want to make one of them one of these days.



But then I remembered, I HAVE A SCANNER.



So I’ve been scanning my recipes in as .pdf files, and I use AABBY FineReader Express for Mac to transfer the .pdf files into a text file. Voila! Electronic copy! Goodbye lots of little newspaper clippings! I’m free! I’m free!



(Okay, maybe I’m overreacting a tad.)



The OCR reader software isn’t perfect, it seems to enjoy turning fractions into faintly derogatory nonsense words which I have to edit in the .rtf file. But on a whole, I am definitely happy to have electronic copies of these recipes, even though Jesus will probably return before I make most of them.

The lost art of letter writing

I’m reading Jane Austen’s Letters and there is something about them that makes me want to grab my fountain pen and some nice thick letter paper and write somebody a chatty letter.



These days, there’s email and Facebook and Twitter to keep people up to date with any news about us, but it’s so much less personal than a letter. Then again, it also takes less time for us to update lots of people. :)



I’m rather torn because I like the convenience of writing one blog post or one Facebook post to tell hundreds of people (or at least the five who read my blog) about anything interesting (or not interesting) that has happened to me.



Then again, what is it about a thick sheaf of creamy paper that’s so enticing? Or the feel of a smooth fountain pen that glides across the page like an ice skater? I wonder if I like the process and tools involved in writing letters more than people actually want to receive them? LOL



Any of you still write letters?

The music connoisseur

My parents in Hawaii have a black poodle named Kuro. He is PSYCHO. He’s not mean but it has the energy of a Mexican jumping bean.



I got the following message and photo from my dad:



Kuro listening to classical music. Getting cultured.







Maybe there is something about the power of music to tame psycho poodles. :)

This is the reason my dog is so spoiled

I find it morally impossible to say no to a face like that. :)

Coffee with my Street Team member, Marguerite!

She was in town on vacation and we met up for coffee at my favorite coffee shop, Barefoot Coffee Roasters in Campbell. Marguerite tells the best stories! We had a great time!

TMI warning: the epic battle between plantar fasciitis and running

Okay, so the great war for control of Middle Earth, it ain’t. :) I blogged earlier about battling plantar fasciitis in my feet, and it’s still something I’m working to heal.



I’ve been stretching, using a golf ball, and I also tried a Strassburg sock to use while I sleep, but it ended up being uncomfortably tight just under my kneecap and made me wake up in pain. I got a new sock, Thermoskin Plantar FXT Ultra, which feels much more comfortable and might do the trick.



Anyway, I laid off my running for almost two weeks before I couldn’t stand it anymore, and I went running again yesterday. It felt GREAT. I’m a little sore today, but it’s that good sore that makes you feel super healthy and skinny enough to fit into a size 2.



I’m still a bit dismayed at the extra weight I’ve put on, especially because it jiggles a bit in all the wrong places, but I’m hoping that if I can get back into my running and keep up with the decent eating habits I’m learning (let’s conveniently forget the week of carb binging, shall we?), I’ll eventually get down to a healthy BMI.



The big hurdle to overcome is the plantar fasciitis, to keep it from flaring back up as I start running again. I suppose if I start hobbling in a few days, I’ll have to surrender and give up the running for a month or two. :(



How many of you who had plantar fasciitis had to give up exercise? And for how long? How long did it take for you to heal and be able to get back to your normal routine?

Signed up for a Tumblr account

But I’m not exactly sure what it’s for? Any of you use Tumblr?



http://camytang.tumblr.com/

It is NOT just like riding a bike

Yesterday, I went bike riding for the first time in literally YEARS.



For a while I hadn’t had a rideable bike because my last one was old and needed new tires and (surprise!) I was too lazy to get new ones.



Then Captain Caffeine found a really nice bike at Goodwill for only $50. Of course, this one also needed new tires (or at least new treads) but after I bought them, the Captain put them on my bike for me and filled up the tires.



So then I had to buy a bike helmet that didn’t look like it had been through WW3. My last helmet had been with me since college, and I’d been in a couple accidents with it. I think I’m technically not supposed to use it after it’s been in an accident, but I was (surprise!) too lazy to go get another one, plus at the time I had my old unrideable bike and saw no need to get a new helmet.



So yesterday, finally, in an effort to be green and save gas, I took my new bike out to the grocery store. I was REALLY shaky on that bike. People who say you never forget how to ride a bike are LYING. I was pretty nervous riding to the store, but luckily didn’t get hit by a car and (an event even more likely) I didn’t hit anything like a phone pole or a stoplight or a person.



I picked up my groceries and packed them in my nifty Hawaiian backpack and went home. Hooray!



Then I realized my back hurt. What’s up with that? Isn’t bike riding supposed to be good for you?



And, er (TMI warning) that bike seat was super hard! Oh my gosh, my butt hurt so much. Do I need a new seat or do I just need to get used to the one I have?