Basil Plant from Hough Mama

A package arrived from Hough Mama today - and it's a live basil plant! All the way from Michigan OHHHHHH!!

My mom was at disbelief how a live plant could be mailed and still survive in a package. Hough mama is pretty incredible. So sweet, too, for sending me what I've always wanted and have been too lazy to drive down to Home Depot to get myself. It's embarrassing how lazy I am and it takes Hough mama to send me a package. But I AM very excited the basil plant! There are actually four of them. They still smelled very fresh when I took them out of the wet newspaper package. Only two of the stems were broken but all the leaves were still intact; I'm determined to nurse them so they get the best care and the best Californian sunlight. I better go get better soil or fertilizer pretty soon. These plants deserve the best care because they are not only born out of kindness they also have traveled very far indeed!

I can't wait till they are ready for picking. I've wanted to make ALL basil pizzas and ALL basil pastas with just olive oil and garlic for a long time. Haha silly old me!

Lavender Cookies!

I made lavender cookies today! I forgot where I got my recipe, but I made the cookies according the recipe posted on the first link that I saw. I scrolled down the page after I made the cookies to see - gasp - unfavorable comments that the recipe received. I was prety happy with my cookies though, and I like them better than the snowballs. All the ingredients were readily accessible (butter, sugar, eggs, flour) but lavender. Not that it's so difficult to get - neighbors have huge lavender bushes out in the frontyard, so big that you can easily sneak behind them to pick out a few lavender flower stems - it's just that there is quite a bit of work involved in picking out buds, taking out extraneous little connecting stems, washing them, and drying them. But it was fun and well worth it. I think I'll make them again for my parents and bro. Don-don!


***Below is a spoiler for Bob. Stop reading if you are Bob***

I also drew a little something for Bob...(I hope he didn't see this post because it's meant as a surprise for his birthday.) I won't post the drawing here because my drawing skill is embarassing. It's supposed to resemble Muir Beach, where we watched the most beautiful sunset. It was two years ago when we made the trip, and even now I can still remember the dog on the beach, its old man, the cold, the moon, the sunset, the purple sky, the rocks, the rock that we sat on, soft sand, and the gentle sea waves. It was an enveloping calmness. Warm despite the cold; very sweet and touching.

Jennie is getting married!!

So hard to believe! Jennie is getting married!!!! CONGRATULATIONS to JENNIE!
MAN, I can't believe anyone of us is getting married this soon... even though it's been long known that Greg and Jennie have been very stable. But OH! WOW! I wonder if they are moving to France! I am pretty excited about the wedding and the new life that Jennie will be leading! Jennie will have a lot to teach us when we get married (because it might be a while before anyone of us gets to...maybe.) Will be attending that in Decemeber, tentatively. Don't know where the action is yet. So hard believe. Haven't seen Jennie in a long time either.

We've always been wondering who'd be the first one to marry and now things we talk about are getting real. All the "girl talks" are becoming "real talks". Kind of scary. I'm getting OLD! The next one among us to get married is... I think Sandhya. Then Tiffany. Then I can't say. Too hard. I don't think I'll be the last one though.

Commencement

This is the time of graduation again...not mine but Bob and Wilson and Kwame and Sheng and Barry's. There were lots of relatives who came and this reminds me of Rabbit and his many many relations. I think among them Barry's relations were the most numerous. I saw his grandmas (nutty and gingerbread), his parents, his bru and his girlfriend, his prof (or lecturer Mark), and maybe even others that I can't remember. They are all very nice and I thought his dad was especially funny and conversational, quite like the dad in American pie. We were all at Sheraton for Barry's brunch, and I also went to the dinner that Peter organized after the departmental ceremony at a Thai place.

It was the second time that I met Bob's parents, who were very sweet to let me tag along for the entire time time! We walked around a lot and ate at the Fish Market. I was so bad...I didn't know that I've ordered such a giant plate reminiscent of the HUGE plate that I ordered at Denny's after the Yosemite climb, which people still make fun of me about. Yes the giant plate consisted of delicious seafood and pasta; but it was too big in spite of its loveliness. Also because Bob's parents and Bob don't eat a lot I look like a beast! hehe!

Anyway, they met my mom today, and we all had dinner together at Joy Luck Place near Ranch 99. I was happy that my mom felt at ease with them despite her nervousness prior to the dinner. Good good!

Man but I have to say that graduation is a big pain. Everyone seems soo tired. So many dinner/brunch engagements, while things must also be packed and stored away. Poor hough baba and hough mama. Right after my departmental ceremony last year my parents whisked me away and we all went back home to take a nap.

Included are pictures of agave a plant that is grown and is now blooming outside of Rains. It lives for 20-25 years but blooms only once for 3 weeks at the end of its lifetime. A rare event indeed! Very rare sight to see this aloe-looking plant to tun into a giant asparagus! Reminds me of a giant firecracker. Funny plant!


It was a surprise that we ran into Jonathan who took the picture below for us. He had this funny mustache that he hadn't shaved off for quite a while. But now he's passed his quals so he can clean up a little bit. I'm not complaining about his mustache tho. I've been seeing Daniel's mustache for a long time. HAHA! Congratz to Jonathan!We took these pictures after we came back from Half Moon Bay! Bob took me to Half Moon Bay for a day during the Memorial Weekend so I can forget about OOMMF for a little while.