Red Hook Beer tasting weekend

last weekend, we went beer tasting at Red Hook Brewery at Woodinville. It was a great experience. BH and I went to Red Hook previously and wanted to take the tour, but missed the last timing. [By the way, last timing on Saturday is 5pm ] We were really glad that we managed to do so this time round with our friends

We paid $1 each for the tour and had about 6 small glasses (2 oz) of beer. It was worth it for the tasting. The guide was a good looking ‘Justin Timberlake’ kind of guy ;D I think we didn’t really learn much about the beer making process. Maybe it was the alcohol – the tour was filled with jokes of sexual connotations?! haha.. i mean.. it’s all for the name of fun!

Just for records, my favorite beer is Audible Ale. It tasted better than Heineken. I find it light and easy to drink, no bad after taste – lower alcohol content too πŸ™‚

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By the way… we get to keep the glass (retails for $2 each)!!! How cool!

After the beer tasting, we had dinner at Red Hook. Food are mostly burgers. I think the beer makes me so full.. I shared a salad with Jo instead. No pics of the food :/ However, I am very glad that they had fries to go with their burgers now! It used to be chips when I came last year

Some random pics taken at Chateau Ste Michelle. Loving my new hi-low skirt .. haha πŸ™‚ ohhh… and there’s a interesting event going on this coming Sunday – will drop by if we have nothing better to do

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To end this post – More apartment woes: (1) bedroom door fell off – door detached from hinge!!! so dangerous! (2) dishwasher screws came out – now the dishwasher might topple anytime (3) silverfish issue still around :/ The REAL pest control will be coming in on Thursday to examine the issue. Landlord is also getting a repairman to come in. Both BH and I are upset about our staying conditionsΒ  and is considering moving out…. we just can’t find another suitable place πŸ™ In the mist of all these annoying issues, I am glad that our landlord is proactive in solving them even when he is not in town

A reminder to me…

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what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger… smile πŸ™‚

Qdoba House Party!

It’s amazing that I got selected as a House Party host once again! Thank you Houseparty!

This time round, I am blessed to be selected f0r Qdoba House Party!

Party pack arrived on 26 April via Fedex. Look at the goodies!

Party pack includes

  • (1) Qdoba certificate good for a 20-person Catering BarΒ 
  • (1) Bamboo spoon
  • (1) Bamboo tongΒ 
  • (1) Tote bagΒ 
  • (1) Apron Β 
  • (12) Plastic margarita glasses for each of your guests for drinks or as a unique serving dish for salsa and guacamole
  • (4) Molcajetes to make and serve guacamole
  • (12) Qdoba rewards cards for each of your guests loaded with one free entrΓ©e

Much better than my previous party pack πŸ˜€ Thank you Qdoba!

Party was held on May 10 at Dave and Jo’s place. Thank you DJ for the venue!

3 days before the party, I called my nearest Qdoba (Redmond branch) to place order. At first, the person who answered the phone didn’t know what I was talking about. I had no choice but to email the Qdoba house party contact person. Within 3 hrs, a Qdoba rep contacted me and told me that she spoke to the manger at Redmond branch – ordering should be no problem! Love such great customer service! I called the Qdoba branch again and placed my order smoothly! Great start to a perfect party!

On party day, BH and I collected our food at 6.30pm. Sure enough, the food was prepared and waiting for us!

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Setting up the catering bar was easy! Qdoba provided the stands to place the food,matches,heating elements, utensils and paper bowls, tongs, napkins etc.

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I ordered the Naked Burrito Bar. The food looked and smell good! However, the amount of food was probably enough for 12-15 people. It’s too little for 20 :/

What’s a party w/o drinks right!?

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and.. what’s a party w/o the pretty bebes? fun and furry friends?!

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Finally…. most of people arrived!

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Fantastic food… great company.. successful party! Thank you! πŸ™‚

Do try out Qdoba catering if u have a party in future.. fuss free and easy to order!

Painting-Gas works Park

17 Feb

My friends and I had a girls’ paint day at Palettes and Pairings again πŸ™‚ It’s always fun to do such activities together.

The class started at 12 noon and we only left the place at about 4.30pm! This painting is intense – advanced level I would say!

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Of course, while the girls paint.. the guys had their own ‘boring’ activity. haha..

Here’s the final result

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My painting is full of flaws.. you just don’t see it on the photos. Anyway, I showed this to my sister and she was like “what is this? 3 sausages hugging each other?” hahahaha…. NOoooooo

This place is real! Shall blog about it in another post πŸ™‚

Here’s a group picture of the class…. now… you can see everybody’s painting is different! πŸ˜€

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Monday…I’m in love!

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Received another surprise in the mail today!! Yay!! Thank you Yuenmei for the lovely gift.. We plan to move to another apartment soon..So this towel will come to good use!! new place new stuff!!

Well… Something happened recently.. BH and I together with our group of friends are very saddened by it. Shall blog about it when I am ready… Its amazing that i didn’t tell any of my SG friends and somehow they seem to know…These thoughtful gifts Certainly cheered me up.. i feel so blessed πŸ™‚

A happy day need not be a sunny day :)

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It had been really foggy for the past week. I like the foggy weather.. Sun always give me bad headache ;(

Anyway, Caryn, one of my sweetest friend ever, sent me or rather us a small package for the new year.. Happy to be remembered!!! Thank you!! πŸ™‚

Sweet surprise!

Alina gave me a surprise gift for no reason! I was delighted! The gift was wrapped up very nicely and I love such pastry cookbooks! πŸ™‚

Took these pics on my iPad and used Aviary for picture editing… Not bad!!! Now I know why people take pictures w iPad… Hahaha…. But…. The no. of FREE apps for photo editing is so limited… Any others??? Do share!! I am iPad or rather apple noob!

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Whidbey Island excursion

    22 July

(3/10 of my personal blog challenge)

We went to Whidbey Island for the first time! Well, the main point of the trip was to bring the doggies to a off leash beach! How cool! The weather was not exactly sunny… in fact, it was windy, cold and rainy :/

Before the trip, we had breakfast at Pomegranate Bistro ( Oh yes, Dave is on clutches as he sprained his ankle)

The view was pretty nice.. but not as nice at the Bainbridge Island ferry.. haha.. the whole ferry ride only took 20mins! As we were driving a Honda fit, our price for car+passenger is only $7.75 ( small car category) – I think we were overcharged several times previously

We drove about 10mins to reach the beach.. it is a really nice place!

Alina kindly loan us her dog, Benji.. haha.. and it was the first time BH picked up dog poo…. heh.. tell me about it – BH had been talking about getting a dog for the longest time!!! On days like this.. we want a dog πŸ™‚

Whidbey island is quite small.. after the beach.. we hang out at Prima Bistro for Happy Hour. I personally feel that their happy hour menu is quite interesting.. there’s Pig ears , Bone marrow and snails!

It was a good trip….. until we had to board the ferry back… we started lining up at 5.15pm and only boarded the 6.30 ferry! Long wait~~

BH and I found out that there’s a no. of dog breeders in Whidbey island! haha..maybe the next time we come over, it will be for our puppy! πŸ˜€

ok.. check out my new aviator sunglasses! cool??!!

First Camping trip!

    6-8 July

BH and I joined our friends on a short camping trip at Lake Wenatchee. It’s our first camping trip and I was feeling quite anxious. I am glad it worked out well.. Just in case u are wondering, there’s no weird animals …there are also proper showers and toilets… great experience!!! I so wanna go camping again!!! πŸ˜€

Beautiful view of the lake!

This trip.. I discovered smores!!! So delicious!

So, what makes a good camping trip?

Looking forward to the next trip!

The many firsts~~

It’s amazing that we are still experiencing many first times though we are here for more than 3 years πŸ™‚

Our first picnic

Our first road trip with friends to Portland over Memorial Day weekend

Our first baby’s birthday party

I’m feel so blessed~~

Birthday Surprise! Lots of it!!

BH and I celebrated our birthdays on 23 and 26 March respectively. You know how most people include their birthdays on facebook? I decided to remove it.. I am not sure if it’s a windowsphone thing BUT I had been receiving alerts of birthdays on my phone ( my phone’s calendar is somehow synced with the dates on facebook!) It just felt weird to know that my birthday will pop up on ‘Hi-bye’ friends’ calender – so I removed it. I was really glad that a handful of friends remembered w/o facebook reminding them. haha.. it felt good to be remembered for 1 day. I feel special and that’s priceless!

Anyway, the only thing I really like about birthdays is the CAKE!! I cannot tell you how much I enjoy a good cake! Alina told me about Regent Bakery recently and I told BH to get me my birthday cake from there πŸ˜€ He did!!

He came home early and we ate the cake first. The strawberry cake was sooooo nice…it’s so soft.. and the cream was really light! I mean… we finished almost 1/2 a 8-inch cake before dinner!! (If u think that I put on weight, it’s the cake and all the good food!!!)

More pics of us!

1 thing to note about bakeries in US is they don’t provide candles for bday cakes :/ Those in SG, don’t take the candles for granted!

After which, we headed to I love Sushi by Lake Bellevue for dinner. Authentic Jap food by a small lake surrounded by town houses. The view was pretty. I thought the food was quite ex BUT that’s the only place I know in WA that had Lychee Martini!!! Yumm!!

We had a filling dinner! haha.. and I seriously enjoyed my cake!!! Nothing special happened on my bday.. I was just delighted that BH and I spent it together – That’s the best gift!

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As BH’s birthday falls on a Monday, I treated BH to dinner at Bai Tong Thai on Sunday. We really like the food there! Affordable and delicious! The greeters were all v pretty!

Anyhow, we reached there at 5.15pm and it was still Happy Hour (ends at 6pm) We ordered a whole lot of food + I ordered their special alcohol for the day ( some vodka w longan), super nice! Good alternative for Lychee martini. Bh ordered Thai Milk tea


Look at the pic above – Don’t BH look like a mosquito drinking muddy water? haha

Here’s dinner!

Since it’s BH’s bday, I didn’t interfere when he ordered the food. I almost fainted when he ordered the omelet. I mean.. it’s such a small omelet and it cost almost $9!!! erm.. It taste ordinary.. i didn’t taste anything special. I am just hoping that they used organic eggs man! Besides that, he also ordered Bai Tong Special rice. To me, it taste too ‘Thai’ , so ‘Thai’ that it has a weird plastic taste (not to our liking) Pls don’t get me wrong, I really like Bai Tong BUT BH just ordered weird things :/ oh well… birthday boy/girls are always right. hahaha

AND… as though we haven’t had enough of Regent’s cake.. I bought a Bday cake for BH too! hehe…

The next morning…

This time, it’s a Black Forest cake. It’s supposed to be their specialty BUT I like the strawberry cake better. hehe

okok… if u think our bday celebration ended here… u r so wrong!!! hahaha… at 8.30pm there a knock on our door.. I mean.. before that BH and I had a ‘loud discussion’ about DBS ibanking. I thought the knock was from our neighbours complaining about the noise level…. BUT…….

OUR FRIENDS CAME OVER WITH A CAKE!!!!! OMG!!!! (Justin, Alina, Dave and Jo) we were shocker than shocked! hahaha.. it was a HUGE surprise!!! Our aptment is secured, means there’s no way they can get in of they don’t have a fob! It turns out that they used the callbox to ask our neighbour for help to open the door!!! hahaha

No pictures! Silly us! we forgot to take picture! the priceless video is with Alina though! Very happy and very surprised… and there we have the 3rd cake from Regent bakery! It’s a Mocha cake this time!! hahahaha… ok.. this is the birthday that we have 3 8 inch cakes from the same bakery! hahaha.. btw…we finished it in no time… So did we have cake overload??? NO!!!! I was still thinking of asking BH to get a cake from Regent for our 10 year anniversary!!! hahaha…

Okok…. so…. did the surprise just end there???? NO!!! Our friends have ALOT of ideas up their sleeves!!! SERIOUSLY!!!

On wed, I met Jo and Alina for lunch ( Sam was suppose to come along but she’s not feeling well.. hope she’s better now) … and they surprised me with a gift!!! πŸ˜€ Rem how I was saying I need a real Madeline pan??!! They bought 1 for me!! I was elated!!!Jo also got me a flour spoon !! so happy!! I mean.. I wasn’t expecting anything… and I didn’t even want them to know that it’s my birthday!!! πŸ˜€ Thank you so v much!! U gals made me soooooo happy!!!

Of course, last but not least…Caryn and Zhihui sent me a grill via amazon way before my birthday(end of Jan)!! At first, I thought it was delivered to the wrong address ( since we didn’t buy anything ) It was a huge surprise that it’s from them!!! How thoughtful!!!

My friends are so into surprises!!! πŸ˜€ Thank you Thank you X1000000000!! *touched*

Oh.. the pretty daffodils are fresh from Alina’s garden! They smell so good… every morning we wake up to the nice scent of flowers.. and Alina came to our minds. hahaha so sweet~~~

See the pillow at the bottom left? haha.. That’s my gift to BH.. heh.. Personalized it on Inkgarden and it turned out very well… Why Pingu?? hahaha.. that’s our private joke πŸ™‚

Such a long entry today! Hope to blog soon before our BIG trip in… 10 days time! *gasps*