judyonthenet

Apr152007

People to see, games to play.

I got two packages in the mail yesterday, both from CDUniverse. I now own Puzzle Quest for DS and Super Paper Mario for the Wii. I spent most of today playing both games, tag-teaming between the two with Kelvin. I think I’m up to World 2-3 in Super Paper Mario. In case no one’s heard of Puzzle Quest, it’s basically an RPG, but instead of regular RPG fights, you basically play Bejeweled against enemies. The way the story progresses is more similar to something like Fire Emblem than Final Fantasy, and the game is insanely addicting. Lots of things to do, like missions, capturing creatures, taking over cities… I can’t stop playing. And the AI is no joke. Actually, I’m pretty sure the computer is cheating. It’s ridiculous how many 5-turn combos the computer tends to get. Anyways, I think I’ve got like a level 15 Warrior right now, and I’m riding around on a giant rat that bites people. Whee.

I had a more active weekend than usual. Kelvin and I had dinner with Mike and some of his friends (Liz, Esmond, and Steven) at Tanto, then we got desserts at Q-cup. I’ve never had crepes at Q-Cup, and they were alright. Kelvin got a chocolate crepe, which apparently is one of Q-cup’s “french crepes”. And apparently, Q-cup’s idea of a french crepe is a giant ice cream sundae wrapped in a chocolate pancake. My non-French crepe was just a cone shaped crepe with a scoop of ice cream for $4.50. Kelvin’s sundae-in-a-box was only a dollar more, and when they say “extra ice cream”, they MEAN extra ice cream. I’m serious, the thing had FOUR scoops of ice cream. Luckily, more of Mike’s friends showed up there (I believe, Will, Richard, and Terry?), and they were helpful in finishing off that thing so I wouldn’t have a fiancé (not boyfriend… not boyfriend..) exploding from ice cream.

Yesterday, Kelvin’s parents threw us a small engagement party at their place with all the close family members, so it was his dad, his stepmother, his mother, his brother (+wife+baby), and his sister (+ best friend/roommate). It was a nice get-together with everyone, and there was a lot of good food. Kimi brought a whole bunch of poke, which made me very, very happy. Kelvin’s mother made some shrimp & veggie dish with lots of bok choy, which also made me very, very happy. I ate a lot of salmon and strawberries (the fruits were served this weirdly yummy sour cream + marshmallow creme concoction), and I think the only thing I missed out on was the salad. I showed off my ring to everybody, and it got lots of approvals… and of course, I mentioned for like the 20 bazillionith time how impressed I was with Kelvin’s selection, considering he had zero input from me. We also got to play with the Kelvin’s niece a bunch, and she seems to be very fond of her uncle and aunties. (She even knows how to say my name!)

Oh, a sidenote, I also dropped by the Shane Company to get my ring cleaned before the party, and for some reason, there were TONS of couples looking at engagement/wedding/anniversary rings. Kelvin said all the times he went in there to figure out ring stuff, there were only at most 3 couples in there, weekday or weekends. I don’t get what the special occasion is this weekend, but I guess it’s getting to be wedding season, so probably more weddings/anniversaries than usual. A busy Shane Company salesperson was really nice about getting my ring steam-cleaned while she was helping 3 different people. What’s strange is that, while the people selling rings are always really nice, the people by the registers seem to have issues. I didn’t want to bug the busy salespeople, so I asked a girl working the register where I should go to get my ring cleaned and how long it would take, and she kind of had an attitude and wasn’t very patient even tho she wasn’t very busy. She told me I needed to ask a salesperson (which is true) and that cleaning could take 1-3 days (which is not true). [ “More like 1-3 minutes.” -Kelvin] Maybe she meant like some super special polishing or something, but whatever. Kelvin said that when he had to deal with a register person when he got my ring, he didn’t like their attitude either (much unlike the person who helped him with my ring). He guesses that all the salespeple rejects end up at the register.

Anyways, this post is lacking pictures right now because Kelvin had an accident with his beloved camera. During the engagement party, while trying to take a picture of his niece trying to get onto a chair, he tried to do his retarded quickdraw camera shooting, but his grip wasn’t too good. The camera slipped with the lenses extended, and it hit the kitchen tile, causing the lense thing to be crooked. At first, it looked like it didn’t affect it functionally, but eventually it got worse, and now the lense won’t even retract anymore. Because it’s constantly open (even when it’s off), the camera is confused and in some invalid state in its little state machine, and it won’t do ANYTHING. We can’t even get the pictures off the SD card, and Kelvin doesn’t have an SD card reader. Yeah, Kelvin was being a major downer all evening because he broke his camera, but I think he eventually found solace in harassing his sister during her long-distance phone conversation with her world-travelling boyfriend and playing bull-fighting-with-blankie with the baby.

New thing I learned today: Red velvet is a type of cake that’s popular in the South, and it’s known for its dark red hue, sometimes contains cocoa (but usually doesn’t tastes strongly of it if it does), and is often served with cream cheese frosting.

Susie (Kelvin’s sister-in-law) treated us to a yummy Red Velvet cake for our engagement party. She got it from Sugar Butter Flour, a new bakery in Sunnyvale. It was really good, with a light cream cheese frosting and filled with custard. I was a bit thrown off by the color, as I kept expecting it to have some sort of loud flavor. But it had a subtle, indiscernable flavor, so it felt kind of like drinking Crystal Pepsi. Susie’s from Texas, which is why she knew about this cake (her grandma used to make it).