Contract, Skip work, Earthquake...

Today, I did somethig that I have never done for last 2 months! tee hee hee.. I called in sick today!! When I woke up this morning around 8am, I had a headache, plus thinking about that I had to suffer for the whole 8 hours today, nuh uh.. I decided to stay at home and enjoy the day.
hahahaha.

Yesterday, I have signed my contract with Graduate College to become a Graduate Assistant. The secretary told me that I only had to pay around $500 for tuition!! How cool is that?! Plus, they still give me a plenty amount of salary!! Higher than what I earn from my internship and higher from what I got working from VRAC!!! woo hooo...thank GOD!!!

Anyhow..so today I called my parents back at home in Indonesia. I was told that there was just an earthquake 6,2 Ritcher! Read Full Story

I am so worried about my parents :(
Luckily, everyone was ok. My mom didnt even notice that there was an earthquake because she was in the car at that moment. But my dad, boyy...he was still in the office on the second floor. He felt the shake for like 10 seconds. Hmphhh... I wonder..whats up with the world now? It is filled with nature disasters, wars, bombings...
Why cant we just live in peace, huh??? Why do we have to kill each other??? Dang it!..
You know..if you think about it...we are all a living human who have the exact fear, exact needs, exact dream. Well, maybe not exact, but you get the point!

Hmphh, ok..enough about this, Im going out to lunch now and try to have a pleasant day.
Im glad I called home because now I miss both of my parents. :( But, no worries, I ll be home in December!! Yay...

Fishing Tale

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WOW...we're on the BIG screen TV!! [+] click image to enlarge.
PAPARAZZI is everywhere.

Fun weekend!!!

What a fun weekend I had!!! Woo hooo...but u know...it was a super hot weekend as well!! Literally HOT!!! I think the temperature went up to about 100F!! Crazy!!!!

Friday - we went to Sam's club to buy new furniture for my friends. They are moving to new apt so they need new bed and new desk and new bla bla. :D Bought 2 office chairs, so that's good.
For me, I bought food and baking stuffs and vitamins for my parents. After that, we went to -s-'s place to watch "Munich"..Woooo...I still cant get rid the picture when the guys killed that lady and left her naked!!! :(

Saturday- went to Ames Animal Shelter. We saw one dog particularly we like! But unfortunately, she's not up for adoption. Then, went to Des Moines JC Mall..I got one cute white clutch purse from Aldo. Im gonna use it for next Saturday's wedding coz Im going to wear my white and black gown! :D My two boys (not my kids!!!): Ray and -s- bought stuffs from Aldo, Banana Republic and GAP!! I guess it is a shopping day for them!! :D
After that, we went to one of our friend's bday surprise party!!! Stayed there for maybe an hour or so then we went straight home!!! But Happy Birthday to K if she reads this.
May God bless you abundantly, xoxo!

Sunday- church in the morning, work in the afternoon, then bbq in the evening...
And now Im taking a wonderful rest on Sunday evening ...ahhhh I m loving this time! :)

So tomorrow, going back to work :(...Yuckyyyy... I dont want to go back to work !! :( But I guess, I have to suck it up!!! :(

Anyway, Im gonna watch tv while sleeping on my bed!!
Have a great niteeeeeee..

GAP big Sale!!

Hmm..Thursdayyy..yayyyyyyyyyyyyy...that means, 1 day closer to weekend! double yay!
The weather for today : SUPER HOT! Well..it was super hot in the afternoon until 5pm. Then, because our office is like in the middle of nowhere, no trees whatsoever nearby, it makes our office double hot! Plus, the roof is made like some kind of alumunium which absorbs the heat from outside..oh mannnnn, i felt like a beef ready to be grilled! So, for the last hour, I could hardly concentrate at all in getting the palm pilot working. BTW, my project is now to transfer the database that I made into Palm Pilot, which I have no clue whatsoever to do that. I have never used Palm before, let alone transfer the database to Palm?? Hmphhhh... Thats why I emailed my ex-manager at Citigroup this morning, our beloved Levi!!! Ohhhhhhh...how I miss those days!! I actually enjoyed working at Citi rather than working at BS. It was so nice to hear back from him. He was telling me about how they moved to new building and the old building became super ugly because the new owner chopped down all the trees. Not good!!

Anyway, enough about office and stuff! After work, -s- had a phone interview with a company in MN for 30 mins, then we went straight to the mall in the middle of rain. Woo hoooo... guess what?! There was a super big sale at GAP!! Sooo, those of you who havent gone to GAP recently, should go there! Things were sold for like $4!!! -s- was super happy because he got to buy lots of things for $4!!! tee hee hee.. I even bought a blue sweater and a sandal for my twin! :D Niceeeeeeeeeeee

Now, a gift for all of you: a very good music video to watch!! However, please get your Kleenex before you watch this, coz it does get sentimental!!! tee hee heee....
It's Korean, I dont even understand what they're saying, but I get the point since the video really says it all!!! But make sure, you watch it from the very start to the very end if you want to have a good cry!!!:P Enjoy!!!

**KISS **

Mission Impossible: Accomplished!!!

**UPDATE 07/13/06 10.45pm**













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Yayyy....my failed mission yesterday was finally succesfully accomplished today! I tried to make that cake again. Woo..hooo...I got the right result. I will post the pictures tomorrow, coz -s- still has the camera for now. Anyhow, I cant accomplish this task without the help of someone ( u know who)..tee hee..hee..
Thank you dear!
I wish I made more batches, but I only made like 2 batches for today. So I can only give it to some of my friends. Hopefully, they'll like it though, :D

Anyhow, today after work, and after I made those cakes, I went to my friend's belly dance performance at one of local restaurant here. Guess what, the owner is also an Indonesian, but oh gosh!!! He is soo stingy!!! I cant believe he lets us pay for $5 to watch the performance.
It's more than the coverage cost for night club! And he was so rude today! Like I came in right away and sat with my friend's hubby because nobody was outside to stamp my hands. So I thought, maybe there was no cover cost at all. Then, I saw the owner passing by our table and I called him to say hi. Then..He looked at me strangely.....( I didnt know what was he doing or what was he looking at)!! But then, he said " why didnt you get the stamp on your hands?" DUH! There you are, he was staring at my blank two hands! hahahaha...Gosh!!!
It's not like we dont know each other, I have been coming to that restaurant for almost 5 years now! He should at least be a little bit nicer or more polite!...Danggg...it's all about money for him, I guess. Blah!

Anyhow, give an applause for -dx3-. She did great. Btw, they only had practice for like what, twice or 4 times? There were some people who were really funny. One gal particularly, I dont think she could do belly dancing well enough. Seemed like, she was dancing a mix of hip hop with belly dancing. tee hee hee.. but I admire their efforts :D

Hm.. Im ready to sleep now.. just got back from my second job. So tired but still happy coz I got my mission accomplished for today. I should think of the next mission :D

Nite nite..

Mission Impossible: Kue Sus

Today is both a good day and not so good day for me. The good part is, I talked with Ron, the Director of MBA at ISU, that I should start the job as graduate assistant pretty soon..about 4 weeks from today. That means, I gotta tell my boss that I need to quit 1 week earlier than the initial end date. Meanwhile, I need to get some training with the person whom Im going to replace. Hopefully, it wont be on the weekend..

The bad part is.. I tried to bake another cake, called Kue Sus (vla cake, huh?)...it's not really what I expected..in other word.. I think it's doomed.. :(
But, I still have the filling and it's yummy!!! Hopefully tomorrow it will be better..huhuhu

Today, I am so sleeepyyy... Oh gosh, I could not concentrate at all at the office. I woke up around 7 am today since I needed to get the oil changed for my car. Hmphh..
After work, I and -s- went to Dutch Oven Bakery to buy three cakes...they are super yummy!!! But, they're not cheap either. :D
Then, we went to UPS to pick up a package for my bro.

Thats about it for today.
Adioss....

Yay!!! A Mireacle.. Once Again!!!

I am soo happy todayyyy!!
I just got my prayer answered!! tralala trilili

For this last couple of weeks I was busy contacting every departments at ISU, asking if they have graduate assistantship position available for this Fall 2006. But some of them did not reply my email *How rudee!! * hehehe. Some of them replied but they got nothing for me .. hix..
Soo..everyday I asked God to please help meeee...I know He will keep His promise eventhough it looks like His plan doesnt go with our plan. Actually, this is what the pastor talked about yesterday at the church.
The bottom line is eventhough sometimes things dont go according to our plan and it feels like God forgets about us or His plan doesnt go with our plan..just CHOOSE to TRUST HIM.

Anyway, here is the story. I used to work for VRAC for my graduate assistantship. By the way, GA is really important for me because it helps to pay my tuition. I got my Non-Resident tuition for around $9k changed into a resident-tuition which only costs about $3k. Big difference, right!!
In addition to that, I still get a scholarship for 25% so I only need to pay about $2300. Wait..thats not it!! I still get a salary in addition to that!!! Woo hoo!! Isn't it awesome!!

This semester, it's getting better.. I will get 50% scholarship instead of 25%. That means, I have to work twice harder, about 20 hours per week. But, I will get a higher salary of course and smaller tuition to pay! :)

So this morning, the first thing I always do when Im at work is to check my email. Well..no news from those departments. :(
But then, a few hours later, I got one email from Director of MBA at ISU. He was asking me if I'd be interested to work for one of the professors for the assistantship!! Woww!!! The amazing thing is.. I didnt even expect him to email me because I did not email him. I think I told him months ago that I might need assistantship for next semester if for some reason VRAC doesnt have enough budget. Ohh, by the way, I m not working for VRAC anymore because they have a budget problem so they cant afford to hire GA. Thats why I need to find another assistantship.

Woohooo....so now he told me I have to do some training in the evening for the job. Hmm..hopefully everything will go well! Thank God!!! :D

True Friendship

This particular posting is dedicated for someone who has a troubled heart due to friendship problem..But I guess, we can all learn from this! :D

I've had the same friendship problem months ago. It was pretty stormy and edgy moments. But I have learned so much from that experience. Im even thankful that I have that problem because it really opened my eyes and see the real truth.
It taught me what does it mean to be a true friend and I also learn that people do change! Sometimes it really surprised me that the people that we thought were our best friends, it turned out they were not what we expected from best friends . And on the other hand, it surprised me also that people who we thought initially were the bad people, they turned out to be the ones who care about us. Amazing, huh?!

Im happy with what I have right now.. I'm thankful that I have a loving family, friends and of course, I still have Someone who cares about all of us. :)

Below is couple of articles about a true friendship and I soo agree with what they wrote.
Enjoy!!

A poem by David Leonhardt

True Friendship

Choose friends wisely, the portrait they paint
Is who you are and who you ain't.
Friendship is life's great support
When friends are of the right sort.
For all your dreams do they make room,
Or bring you down with doom and gloom?
You will know a friendship is true
When it brings out the best in you.

True Friends
by Kristie-Lyn Wightman

People today, in all this new world technology and thinking, have lost sight of what a true friendship is. So, in sprit of my best friend Tellie, I thought I would help the world out a little and explain what real, true friends are.

1. Friends don't have to be exactly the same. Friends have similarities but they also have their differences. They key to opening up the world of friendship is not only to expand on similarities but to accept each other's faults. Because you can't ever judge your friend.

2. Friends have to argue! No one likes to but it is necessary to be healthy. Cause if you agree on everything, either the government has expanded cloning subjects or someone isn't being true and is trying a little too hard.

3. You have to be comfortable together or else you just aren't going to click. If you feel edgy around the person then something isn't quite right.

4. Friends love unconditionally. They have there little angry moments but what's done is done and all is forgive and forget. Why let something that happened in the past ruin what happiness you could have in the future?

5. Believe in love at first sight because there is the equivalent in friendship. Some people think that you have to know someone really well to become good friends. Trust me, it's not true. If the first time you really spend time together you talk for 25 hours straight until 4:30 in the morning about some topic you thought no one else in the world understood, hun, that's real love at first sight.

Sen's Baptism!!

Hip..hip..horray!! Congratulations for Sen!!!! I almost cried at the church seeing him and the other girl getting baptised! I think it's by the grace of God that we could know Him and be His children. So.....yayyyy...congrats again!!!

Ps: Thank you for my bro, Ray, for taking the video! And thank you for -dx3- for editing the video and add the cool song as the background!! hihhi..Smoochies!!!

Food that we made this week..

Hi guys, it's been a week since I wrote my last blog, huh?!
These are pictures of food that me and -s- made this week. Actually we forgot to take pictures of yesterday's food when we had a dinner with bunch of our friends. But, it was super delicious for sure! :D

Anyway, the first picture is Pulut Hitam! I know..it's not really a good pic! Too dark, eh?! But, my twin bro loves to eat it so much that he asks me to make more!! He's already ate like 2 days in a row and he still wants it!?? Dear...I told him to wait for a week, hihihi.
Next is a picture of Indonesian Chicken Noodle. It tastes pretty good! I stole the recipe from my best friend's hubby's website, haihaihia.
The last picture is what we call, Cat's tounge!! ahuiahuahua --> that's the English Translation for the cookie, seriously!! ahiahiahia.. The real name is Lidah Kucing!!! But dont worry guys, it's not really a cat's tounge..I dont know either why it's called Lidah kucing...not an inviting name for a cookie! :P The good thing is, all of my friends love it! Even, Ray's co-worker loves it so much! He is an american by the way but he loves my cookie!! Yayyyy...

Ok..next mission is to make Kue Sus...:D
We'll see how it goes..

Ciaoooo

I want this!!!!

This saturday, we will visit this cutie pie!!! Probably, we will take it...woo hoooo...but shhh dont tell my mom.
I dont know why but during these couple of days, I super really want a dog!!! Hmphhh..
We'll seeeeeee

My future pet..

Oh mannn... For some reasons, I am longing to take one of those cute dogs home with me!! :(
Which one should I choose? Help me to decide please!?
I actually like Scooter (the first picture). Then, my second choice will be Mercedes on the last picture. Both dogs in the middle havent got a name yet.
Hmm.. I have emailed the animal shelter asking for those 4 dogs and I am right now anxiously waiting for their reply!! I hope I can bring Scooter home.
Now..please tell me, which one do you think I should take home?

IKEA + Mall of America + Hongkong Noodle

Guess what that thing is! hihihi..If you get the right answer, you will get one FREE pineapple roll that I just baked! LOL..However, please be advised that those of you who bought this thing with me are excluded from this lucky draw. :P

I have been looking for that thing since long time ago. I first knew that there is such thing sold somewhere from my best buddy, Davina. She owned that and I think it is a pretty cool. Anyhow..this thing is called a Plastic Bag Dispenser. Yupeee...it's a place where you keep all of your used plastic bags that you get from supermarkets or anywhere else. Simple purpse, but yet it is so helpful. Now, I dont have to have a super gigantic plastic bag to hold bunch and bunch of plastic bags! I simply will put those bags inside the dispenser at my kitchen!! :D yay..I bought that yesterday at IKEA. It costs about $1.99. Pretty good deal, huh?! Total I spent at IKEA was like about $16. I actually wanted to buy a wall shelf for my bedroom, but seeing that we have to actually nail the wall made me think twice! Especially, I didnt have the tools necessary and I dont think we are allowed to nail the walls at my apartment. Hmphh..Soo no wall shelves for me :(

After IKEA, we went to Mall of America (the biggest mall in the US). -S- bought a new pair of ROCKPORT sandals, and I bought 2 cute blouses. I spent $8 for those. Tee hee hee. Then, we had dinner at Hongkong Noodle Rest before we head back to Ames.

During our drive back to Ames, I kept dozing off! I was super tired and super sleepy..I survived for the first 2 hours, but on the last hour, I couldnt keep my eyes open anymore. I slept for a while. Poor -s-, he had to drive alone..staring at the dark road without anyone to talk to. huhuhu..Finally, we got back around 1 a.m. I jumped right to my bed after brushing my teeth, wash my face & body. Woo hoo..cant tell how I miss my bed ! :)

Anyhow..I m at my second job right now.Im waiting for my paycheck!! Woo hoo...and I supposed I would have my saving interest from ING this month for about $60. I havent checked it though since I forgot my acct number! :P But, it s all good..

Saturday in Minnesota

Hello world..Im currently at Minnesota. Today our plan is to have lunch at Peninsula Restaurant. They serve a super delicious Indonesian meal! We went there last time and we simply could not stop eating!
Im waiting -s- to get home from the interview he is having right now. I hope everything goes well. I m sure he will do great but my concern is on the visa situation. This is really a disadvantage for all of us, International students. Since the new regulation, it is really hard to get approved for H1B visa, let alone transfer the visa to another company. Hmphh..but I told him not to expect anything due to the visa situation. Let's just take this as an experience and to meet old friends! He got nothing to lose anyhow.

I dont know how long I have to wait here, but Im getting sleepier. I slept on an air mattress last night. I should let you know that I move a lot when I sleep. ahahha...My mom even said to me that when I was a little kid, I moved a lot like a horsie when I slept that I would turn 180'! Amazing.. So last night..because of my crazy toss and turn, that mattress deflated! In the morning, I could feel that I sank in the mattress!! Mann...that was not comfortable at all.
Anyhow..here I am right now..sitting in the living room with a laptop on my lap, writting my beloved blog.

Anyway, Im planning to go to IKEA..I think I should buy a wall shelf. You know..a shelf that we can be nailed to the wall. IKEA said..we have to think CUBIC. That means, use the height of the wall so we would have much bigger floor space. I think that is a pretty smart idea. So, Im gonna start looking what should I buy to make my room bigger!
After that, we will go to Mall of America, the biggest mall in the US. -s- needs to buy something there, so we will shop shop! woo hoooo..

Ok.enough for today.. we re still deciding whether we should go back home to Ames tonight or tomorrow morning. I prefer tonight so we would have time to sleep and have a rest since we dont have Monday off!!! :(

Have a great weekend!
~mony