Yay, I can finally get some strawberries this year! Those flowers should all give way to fruit soon...
Dwarf hippos
laelene Post in video blog，Tags: animals, singapore, videos, zoo
22
February
2011
kids love hippos from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
hippo break from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
Oskar massaged
laelene Post in photo blog，Tags: entertaining, pictures
21
February
2011
Oskar like this kind of stress relief - it's like a whole body massage when you pull the string and the grenade vibrates!
Birds of prey
laelene Post in general blog，Tags: animals, behavior, birds, los angeles, observation, pattern
20
February
2011
Lately I’ve noticed a lot of larger birds on street lamps (mostly by the highway). It started with this one owl by my high school, and has continued with more owls and some hawks. They’re big and beautiful and I only wish I could stop for a picture! It makes me wonder if something has changed lately to make them come out more. Perhaps their habitats aren’t what they used to be? Or they’ve learned to pick up the hobby of car-watching?
I am intrigued and I wish I knew a naturalist or someone who follows wild bird patterns. They could probably shed some light on the situation, since I feel like these birds should be deep in a forest or high in the skies, not sitting on a lamp post overlooking the I-5. At the very least, wouldn’t they take shelter in the branches of a tree? Even with the rain lately, I’ve seen them out and about, sitting atop their metal perches in the cooling rain. If I was them, I’d be in a tree trying to stay dry, not out in the midst of the downpour.
Oh, and I came home to find one of our lawn chairs torn apart one day. Looks like one of those birds could have done it. What’s up with the migration into human territory? I thought there was plenty of greenery and trees for them in the mountains by La Canada. Instead they’re coming out to places with sparse tree growth and high concentrations of human activity. Weird.
Traffic stopper
laelene Post in video blog，Tags: daddy, experiences, moving, police, videos
19
February
2011
I’ve always wanted to be in a cop car when they slow down traffic like that. Too bad this time I got caught behind him and my dad was just in front of him, in the Budget truck! Almost lost track of him on moving day to my new apt last month.
weaving popo from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
Bling ring
laelene Post in photo blog，Tags: creation, money, pictures, product
18
February
2011
Check out my handiwork combined into one awesome ring.
In a cloud
laelene Post in general blog，Tags: experiences, work
17
February
2011
This week has been pretty brutal on me mentally. Early on, I got hit with roadblocks and conundrums that had me wracking my brain and trying to troubleshoot multiple issues. Some were pretty complex problems that required much mulling and consulting with others in the office. It didn’t take long to get a headache trying to figure out the best resolutions to these issues. Just when I thought I knew what was going on and had come up with a decent way to fix it, something else would crop up to complicate it all over again. After awhile, my mind was fuzzy and I felt like a cloud had descended throughout my head.
It took many phone calls, emails, and IMs (along with quite a bit of thinking out loud) to eventually get to a place that I felt good about. And that process lasted a good 2-3 days, finally letting up a bit today. I feel much more relieved now and I can’t wait until the weekend – all the better that it’s a long one! Usually the weeks go by fast for me, but this one has dragged on as my poor brain took a beating. I’ve broken out all over my face, had restless dream-filled sleep, and sometimes can’t muster up an appetite. Amazing that I could have so much stress with hardly anything to show for it. I guess that’s what’s most frustrating – I spent so much time and effort and came up against so many dead ends that aren’t reflected in the final solution. It’s like all those drafts you go through to write a paper. The final product is clean and well-organized, but hides all the edits, revisions, changes…
I’m looking forward to getting a rest and hopefully a truly restful night of sleep soon.
Fishy meal
laelene Post in video blog，Tags: animals, nature, observation, videos
16
February
2011
If we didn’t see a lady taking pictures at the tree, we never would’ve noticed this hawk-type bird.
hawk eating fish from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
Urth Caffé animals
laelene Post in photo blog，Tags: food, los angeles, pictures
15
February
2011
They (Urth Caffé) always make super cool designs. Extremely entertaining! I requested the kitty cat. 🙂
LoveSac PillowSac
laelene Post in general blog，Tags: experiences, opinion, panda, pictures, products, shopping, storytelling
14
February
2011
This weekend I finally got the LoveSac PillowSac! I mentioned back in May 2009 that I’ve wanted this thing for ages (about 8 and a half years by now) and now it’s here. Originally I had wanted a SuperSac, the 6-foot diameter LoveSac, but after my friend lent me his indefinitely, I started to focus more on the PillowSac, which is cool because it is quite versatile. I like that you can get the Rocker and set it up to be a rocking couch, or lay it out flat to be the size of a full mattress. In addition, there are the fun shapes like fortune cookie and pea pod. 🙂
I’ve been following the Deals section of the LoveSac site, where they had an entire Fushia Berry Chenille set for $499 (more recently discounted to $399 for Valentine’s Day specials). I liked this set because it came with the PillowSac and cover, a Rocker, and two throw pillows. Purple’s my favorite color and I thought this unique pattern would be fun. However, it’s absolutely tacky and impossible to match with anything, so I held off, not sure about that pattern. Then, about three weeks ago, the Red Herringsuede one showed up for Valentine’s Day, also at $399, but without the throw pillows. Now I couldn’t decide between the two. The purple set had a better deal, but the red set is far easier to put in a room.
Click to see the deals:
So, that’s how I ended up at the LoveSac store with Panda this weekend. I figured I could take a look at the materials and decide once and for all which one made more sense. Thank goodness I did too! I had thought that the Herringsuede is a type of faux suede, but instead it’s actually a herringbone pattern renamed. After seeing that, I would have rather had another more exciting texture. Luckily enough, the store had a black Velvish PillowSac cover that it was selling for a discount because this cover was discontinued and it was their last one. Even more fortunate was that they had an open PillowSac selling for a discount because it was not completely brand new and in the packaging. The reason for that was it was used in a L’Oreal commercial that Beyoncé shot recently. Pretty cool, huh?
So when I heard the price of the PillowSac and cover, I was pretty sold, but I wanted the entire set I’d seen online, Rocker and throw pillows too. I asked the saleslady about that and she was able to offer slight discounts for both. She had a couple of throw pillows to choose from and I thought the Red Herringsuede would actually be a great contrast on the black. Having pillows that don’t match the PillowSac itself made things much more lively and exciting, otherwise those pillows sort of blend right in. In the end, I’d be paying about $27 more at the store for a much more customized set with a cool back story. And so that is how I ultimately got my new PillowSac set!
