Our trip to Eastern Canada

We're back...and it's good to be back!

We have mixed emotions about this trip. We were so looking forward to being aboard the highly-touted, much-awarded, Crystal Cruise Line because it is all-inclusive - meaning ALL the food (including the food in their restaurants and cafes) and ALL the alcohol was included. Having racked up a fairly high bar bill on past cruises, Pon and I couldn't have been more excited...except Pon and I both got sick.

We have never been sick together at the same time and to such a degree. Pon was first hit with the stomach flu and I came down with what I thought was initially allergies, which blossomed into a cold that I generously gave to Pon.

On the defense, I think we set ourselves up to get sick. Prior to leaving on vacation, Pon was totally stressed out about work and I was also trying to get as much work done before we left. We didn't sleep well the week prior and then on the day we traveled we probably only managed about two hours of really bad sleep on the plane.

Being sick on this trip has a lot to do with the lackluster feelings we have about this vacation. Here's photos from our trip. Enjoy!

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A Means to a...New Beginning

It's been three weeks since I left my non-profit job of 8 years and already it has been an amazing journey. People asked if I planned to take time off or if I would sleep in my first week, and the answer was no.

I literally, with no intention of doing so, hit the ground running the very next day after my last day at ICA. That Saturday I began touring pet shops with my friend and now new boss. With a different pair of eyes towards our new business venture, I was looking at product placement, packaging, etc. We checked out national establishments and independent shops as well.

On Sunday, Two friends who have been thinking about creating an art exhibition, asked me to meet up with them. I came away from that meeting as their project manager. My task was to keep them on schedule and handle all logistics for not just one show, but now potentially three shows if not an ongoing series. I suddenly had a new project to keep me busy.

On Monday, my boss said I need to come up with my own business name so that I can properly invoice his company for my work. So that night, without too much pondering I came up with a buisness name. We bought the domain name and created email addresses to go with it so that Tuesday I could walk into my boss' current place of business and sign in with confidence that I was representing a consulting firm that was there to assist with their online marketing sales.

On Thursday, one of the independent pet store companies that we visited on Saturday requested a meeting with my boss and I. They said they wanted to start selling pet products online and wanted advice. My boss essentially told them we could do it and that I would be the main point of contact. I nodded and smiled. Do I have any idea what I'm doing? No, not yet But I had my first legitable and billable client.

On Friday, I went to register my fictious business name with the county to make it legit and opened a small business account at my bank. The following week I built a very generic web site just so I had something for my "client(s)" to view should they want to find out more from my email address.

While trying to quickly come up with a company name that fateful Monday night, my husband suggested, with a straight face and a deadpan delivery, "Scrotum International."

So, why Cloud 8? while my web site explains most of the thinking behind the name, I left out the main inspiration. My name in Chinese actually means perfect cloud. While I'm not so perfect, I was also born on the 8th, which made 8 my lucky number growing up. The number 8 is also extremely lucky in Chinese. My web site goes on to explain that 8 is the common symbol for infinity and I believe that there are infinite possibilites to my new company. While cloud 9 refers to someone who has their head in the clouds because their euphoric and happy, I tout that I'm happy, but I've got one foot on the ground of reality. Hence, Cloud 8.

Why consulting? Meh, because it's vague enough to mean I can help with anything and that's what I'm doing. I'm doing a little bit of this and that.

Week three I ended up meeting with a couple of co-workers on two seperate occasions and I will now be helping them with their side businesses. I've got a meeting this week with another co-worker to assist her in her side business as well. And this week my boss and I will be concentrating the main reason he brought me on - to launch our own big pet product business. Stay tuned!!!

Hi. I'm a business owner. Look at me, look at me! Wow. Amazing.

The Trials and Tribulations of Turnip Cake

Turnip cake, also known as Law Bak Go in Chinese, is one of many favorite dim sum dishes. I've never had a desire to learn how to make it until my sister-in-law's mother served it almost daily for breakfast over the Xmas holidays in 2011.

How is that even possible? Isn't the novelty of going to dim sum is because you can't whip up those dishes yourself in a timely manner? Turns out Mrs. Chen actually makes the turnip cakes herself and claimed it was very easy. At some point my mom got into the mix and there was a bit of a turnip cake throwdown. Mind you, my mom does not really cook.

My mom steams hers, Mrs. Chen bakes hers, my mom adds ingredients that Mrs. Chen doesn't, my mom reuses the mushroom water for flavor, Mrs. Chen doesn't. To be honest, both are good. So I took what I learned from both of their recipes to come up with mine, which I sucessfully created on January 23, Chinese New Year's Day 2012. I opted to bake mine because I just don't have a steamer of that size. The hardest part of this whole recipe was waiting for the mixture to turn to paste! I was convinced I was doing something wrong, but, here it is. I bring you the Young/Chen Lao Bak Go recipe:

-- One average size daikon (12 inches in length), peeled and shredded
*use a Cuisnart! Saves time and energy
-- One cup dried Shitake mushrooms rehydrated and diced
*save the mushroom water
-- 6 cups of water in total (with mushroom water)
-- 4-5 chinese sausage sliced
-- 1/4 dried shrimp, diced
-- 1 bag of rice flour (1 lb.)

In a large skillet stir fry mushrooms, sausage and dried shrimp until sausage is slightly brown. Then add shredded daikon. Season to taste. Stir until diakon softens.

Using the leftover mushroom water, measure out three cups of mushroom water and regular water and add to skillet.

In separate bowl, add 3 cups of cold water to rice flour and stir until smooth.

Add rice flour mixture to skillet. Keep stirring on low to medium low heat to prevent bottom from burning. Mix until pastelike (approx 20 mins.). Spread mixture into 13 x 9 casserole dish.

Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes. Making sure the top is not browned. Let rest. When ready to serve, Cut out slices to brown sides in a pan.

Enjoy!

My Last Week at ICA

During my last week at ICA (January 9-13) I was fortunate to have someone take me out to lunch every day, which was really nice.

On Wednesday, instead of our regular managers meeting, the managers surprised me with flowers and cake. There was no agenda for that meeting other than to share stories about me and my 8.5 years of work at ICA. Needless to say, there was a lot of crying going on from everyone, but it was really nice and touching.

The rest of the week flew by quickly.

On Friday, my last day, my office door had been decorated and at the end of the day, my co-workers threw me a small get-together at the restaurant bar down the street. They reserved a long table and decorated it with balloons and streamers.

Shortly upon arriving, a party horn was blown and there was a presentation I was not anticipating. The ceramic instructors made these beautiful plates with a map of ICA's campus on it. Each staff member signed their name where their office or studio was. Words cannot describe how completely touched I was. I immediately started to cry and couldn't stop crying pretty much for the rest of the night.

Susie gifted me with a framed 3 Musketeers candy wrapper. We, my two closest friends and former work colleagues Susie and Karin, used to call ourselves the 3 Musketeers - One for all, and all for one. I believe we were the core of the development department and we worked well as a team.

Karin also presented me with a pin of pilot wings. She actually spent her birthday day (that Friday) driving all over L.A. looking for this gift. When we used to have to sit back-to-back in our first "office" space, our big leather office chairs made us look like two pilots in the cockpit of an airplane when we were both facing the same direction. So we dubbed each other co-pilots and that's also how we often worked. It took the both of us to fly some big events and land that thing perfectly.

I also received my very own clipboard that everyone signed. At events, you rarely saw me without one. Now I have my very own. My favorite saying was written by Jennifer Carroll. It says, "No one f@#ks with a woman with a clipboard!" Especially this one! ;)

I cried a lot that night and initially people thought it was because I was sad, but that was not the case. I was crying because I felt so loved. I didn't know what to expect, and I was more than taken aback by everyone's effort and generousity. I will miss them greatly, but I'm also excited for my new journey in life.