Success!!

Ha ha...I tried my professor's gingersnap recipe tonight, and it turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself:P My roommates tried them and they said it was good. Ha ha ha~~~
Problem: too big of a batch. So next I'm gonna try gingerbread and gingerbread cupcakes and share them in some of my classes:)

Here are some from the first batch...

The Best Birthday Ever~

I've had so many wonderful birthdays...and this is one of the best. I had got cards and presents from my family (my parents' card made me cry..), Christina my roommate made a yummy cake for me, and all my roommates signed a lovely card, my aunt and uncle sent me a card, my grandparents called, and my bf sent me an adorable stuffed cow. They didn't all happen on the day of my birthday, which is why I feel so good too. I felt I had a birthday week or something:P

On the day of my birthday, nothing particular happened during the day. In the evening my roommates presented me my cake^____^



Isn't it lovely? I don't think anyone (outside my famiy) ever made a cake for me....Actually, Crystal's birthday was 2 days before mine, and Christina made her a cake, so I could see this coming.
Then comes the fun part. My best friend Pamela had been asking what I wanted to do all week on Friday night (my b-day). I kinda had a hunch she was planning for my birthday, but then she made it sound like a usual weekend for us to hang around or do something. She didn't say anything at all. Anyway. When we got to her place...


Isn't that sweet? Her roomate had gone to pickup pizza like I had suggested, and a few of her Cornell classmates (all guys..) came over too. We had delicious pizza, watched a Cornell film thingy, and...



Isn't it cute?? And it's an ICE-CREAM CAKE. Which I sooooo love. And it's chocolate and vanilla ice-cream. Yum. Yum. Yum.

And then we played Catch-a-Phrase. It was gallons of fun! It was so hilarious. When someone--I'm not going to say who--tried to explain a phrase, he used words like "has antlers....seacow". Guess what the word was? "Matinee"! Hee hee....Some of the phrases were hard to understand.

Pam gave me a matching scarf and hat and these adorable, fluffy blue-and-white socks with a cute little deer on it.

It was a wonderful, wonderful night. Could anyone have a better birthday?

Lois Lowry!

Whoooooweeee! We got to visit Lowry at her house last week! Nov. 1. We saw her dog Alfie, and he was just adorable. If I ever got a dog I'm gonna get a Tibetan Terrier too. He was so quiet and friendly. When we were sitting in her living room, drinking tea and asking her questions, he would jump up beside us sometimes. And once he even cuddled up in my lap and kept licking my face! I was sooo happy. No dog was ever that friendly to me before.

We even had dinner at her house. We got to use her dishes, but the teacher had prepared a vegetarian lasagna: squash and spinach. She had also brought homemade bread, and even a carrot cake for dessert! Yum yum. But too much would've been too sweet and made me sick. I brought some almond tofu and other people brought dessert too, but that cake just made the other snacks paled.

We even got to use her bathroom on her study! I never thought using a bathroom would feel so special. I saw a Chinese version of The Giver on her bookshelf too.

It was such a nice night. The teacher even drove me home afterwards--right up to my door:)

Halloween~

Okie....finally:) The last couple of weeks have been busy busy busy~~ I had a presentation and paper due this Monday, and another presentation and 8-12 page paper due this Wednesday--on top of all the usual work. Thank God the teacher gave an extension for those who were to present. So I took up the extension. I'm planning to finish--at least a draft--today so I can watch Wizard of Oz tonight! Even though I still have this paper, I am soooooooo relieved to have my crit class presentation done and over with, even though I did a terrible job on my part. My partner was great though. Anyway. To catch up on Halloween:P

So the week before Halloween I went to Pam's place for the first time to carve a pumpkin and make pumpkin pie and pancakes! We are so proud of our pumpkin^________________^



Ain't it COOL????? Pam made the sketch and we each carved out half. Then we went ahead for the pumpkin pie. She and Phil found the recipe online. We did the filling....not exactly according to the recipe....and the pie didn't turn out that satisfying.....but the filling made excellent pancakes! Pam and I did the first one, then their friend Jeffrey came over while Phil was doing the other pancakes. Mmmmm....it was sooo delicious. Wish we had recorded the process, cuz we don't remember how the batch came out exactly:p

On Halloween day I bought some candy and added them to the stash my roommates had bought. I even skipped my kungfu class--well, I had work too. I was excited to see kids in their costumes, but we only got 2 doorbells and 5 little girls in all. Darn.

That bowl of candy is still sitting on the table, waiting for us to finish it. Turned out we bought candy for ourselves:P