Noodle’s Close Call with a Bee

On Saturday, Noodle got stung by a bee on his right eyelid!  A bee had gotten through our chimney and Noodle chased after it, not knowing what a bee was.  The bee stung him on his right eyelid.  He ran around in pain.  Finally Todd got a hold of him and immobilized him while I took the stinger out with a tweezer. He’s been ok since then, no allergy or lasting effects. Thank goodness! We were ready to take him to the emergency vet if he showed signs of distress afterwards. Poor little Noodle.


On Monday (April Fool’s Day!) I had a doctor’s appointment to get a mole removed and biopsied.  I had a new mole on the back of my left wrist and it was growing.  So my doctor decided to take it out and get it sent to pathology.  Thankfully, I got the word on Thursday that it is benign!


I spent a lot of time last week crocheting some soap scrubbies, which is like a soap pouch combined with a wash cloth.  I’ll be selling my hand-crocheted soap scrubbies with some soaps as a gift set at the end of April in my Pacifica Grace Studio shop!  They will make really cute teacher gifts!


I also spent a lot of time formulating some new products that will be included in a gift box for Mother’s Day in my store.  I’m excited to create the products!  This month’s product release will be delayed until 4/29 due to the number of products I’ll be offering.  It will also be the last new product release until September.  I’ll be taking the summer off, since the majority of the products that I ship will melt in shipment in the summer.  I will do product restockings by request, if it’s something that won’t melt in summer shipment.

The weekend before last weekend, Todd and I went to Meet Fresh again for Taiwanese dessert.  This time we got the taro ball ice bowl.  It was yummy & chewy!



This past week Todd organized a couple of social outings with coworkers and ex-coworkers.  I love how good he is about catching up with people and bringing fun into the workplace.  On Wednesday at lunch, he and his coworkers went to the newly opened Salt & Straw at One Paseo for some ice cream!



Then on Wednesday night, he had dinner with his ex-coworkers Andy and Cecile at Aladdin Mediterranean Restaurant. 


On Saturday, we went to lunch at Santouka Ramen, one of our favorite ramen places around here.  We went there because I wanted to go to Mitsuwa Market to buy some matcha latte mixes.  The trip was a success, as the ramen was delicious and I found the matcha latte that I was looking for!



Yesterday Todd ran his annual favorite trail race, the Xterra Black Mountain 15k Trail Run.  He did well!  As always, I’m super-proud of him.  I tried to find parking at the venue so I could take photos of him at the finish, but there was no parking, it was completely full.  So the photos of him are courtesy of his friend Amy, who ran the 5k and placed 2nd in her age group!  The run looked extra scenic this year with all the wildflowers we got from the winter rains!





After a shower, we went to Todd’s usual post-race meal, Phil’s BBQ!


For the last month, blogging has been very tedious due to Google disconnecting it’s photos API.  I despise the clunky Blogger interface and had been using Open Live Writer to do all my blog posts.  I used to be able to just drag and drop photos into Open Live Writer and blogging was so easy.  Now I have to go through a whole convoluted route to get photos to post correctly and it is taking me 3x as long to blog each post.  I’m super-frustrated with the situation.  As if having the motivating to blog isn’t enough, now I have to contend with the difficulties of getting photos into my blog posts correctly.  I’m definitely considering migrating to Wordpress.  If any of you have had experience migrating from Blogger to Wordpress, please share with me!

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Neck Deep in Finishing 2018 Taxes

I spent about four full days this week doing our 2018 taxes.  I knew when the tax law changed for 2018 that it was not going to be favorable for us.  I was right.  The new tax law disproportionally punishes people who live in high cost of living states/areas.  We pay SO MUCH California state income tax AND property tax and it used to be completely deductible.  For 2018 that specific deduction got capped at $10,000.  For us, that means that $15,000 of state and local taxes that we paid is now NOT DEDUCTIBLE.  Which caused our tax bill to increase by about $4,000.  That is very punishing.  I am NOT pleased at all.  Like I said, when I read the tax reform, I knew it was not favorable to us, but now it’s quantifiably unfavorable.  Thanks Trump.

I also had to learn how to do taxes as a small business owner.  There was so much to learn and a steep learning curve.  Startup costs can be a one-time write-off.  I had to figure out my end of 2018 inventory $ amount for both raw materials and finished products.  I had to calculate Cost of Good Sold directly associated with every product I produced.  I kept very good records so it was easier than someone who may not have kept good records.  But this first year was still quite a learning curve and tedius.  However, now I know exactly what categories go into what on the tax forms and I can cater my record-keeping to that, so that next year when we do our taxes for 2019 it will be easier!  No wonder people hire tax accountants to do their taxes.  I am an accountant but NOT a tax accountant, but I’ve never hired someone to do our taxes.  I always feel like I know enough to do our own taxes.  Plus I feel like gathering all the financial info is already half the time, so why not just enter them all myself?  Anyway, glad they are done and filed!  We ended up oweing some federal taxes and getting some state taxes back.  It was not a horrible result, but it was a $4,000 difference than if the tax laws did not change.  I feel like there is no incentive to purchase or own a house in high cost of living states now.  If we can’t deduct those taxed amounts then who would want to own a house?  No wonder our housing prices have seen a downturn, and nobody is buying!

Some brighter topics… I’ve had these flowers for a couple of weeks now.  They are finally wilting.  My good friend Meera gave them to me when she took me out for birthday breakfast!



I did a good amount of cleaning last week.  It felt really good to get a couple of areas cleaned up.  I sure wish houses didn’t dirty themselves, LOL.  On the weekend, we went for a walk along the coast.  It was a really nice day and we had an important conversation.  Walking outside is my favorite, but I don’t seem to do it enough!



Last weekend we tried out a new dumpling restaurant called Harmony Potsticker.  We thought it was decent.  The potstickers were good!  Todd had regular pork potstickers while I had shrimp and chive potstickers.



We also got some tofu soup and smashed cucumbers.  The tofu soup was good but the smashed cucumbers were not our favorite.



On Sunday, Todd spent a few hours making his world famous triple chocolate mousse cake so that he could bring it to work for a project-ending celebration on Monday.  It was as good as I remembered it!



It had a base layer of flourless chocolate cake, followed by a layer of whipped chocolate mousse, then topped with whipped white chocolate mousse,  It was as amazing as it looked!  Many of Todd’s coworkers said it was restaurant quality cake!



This past Monday I went to Costco to stock up on some stuff, but also to get my passport photo taken!  I need to renew my passport so we can take a trip later this year to celebrate our (gulp) TWENTY-FIFTH wedding anniversary!  I really can’t believe it’s been that long.



On Wednesday my friend Erecca, from where I used to work, took me out to lunch at Gor Gai for my birthday.  It’s my favorite Thai food around here.  It was fun to see her and catch up! 
On Thursday I received a super awesome package in the mail from my friend Peppermint for my birthday!  She picked out a Happy Planner for me and it’s perfect!  I haven’t been scrapbooking but this planner style of decorating with stickers and jotting down stuff seems like it will be fun!



Since it’s an 18-month planner from July 2019 to December 2020, she also got me an undated extension so I can start to use it immediately in April.  So nice!  I’ve already put date stickers on all the monthly and weekly pages in the extension so I’m ready to go for April!  So excited!
Then yesterday (Friday) my friend Anne treated me to high tea at Marlene’s Tea and Cakes for my birthday!  (I am so so blessed with caring friends who seemed to have celebrated me all month long.  I don’t take it for granted at all, and I’m super-touched and thankful.)  I had NEVER been to high tea before and was so delighted at this new experience.  Here’s a sneak peek at it.  I will be writing a post about it in a couple of days.



Here’s a cute Noodle photo to finish off the post!

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Sure Feels Like Spring Now!

Todd and I went to the beach for a walk yesterday, because it was sunny and 72 degrees.  We haven’t hit the 70’s in two months, which is quite unusual for San Diego.  It was simply beautiful there!  And lots of other locals had the same idea and headed to the beach too.

This past week, my birthday celebration continued for a little bit.  On Monday on my actual birthday, I spent the day making things, which makes me the happiest!  I made a bunch of new products for my Pacifica Grace Studio’s March product release this past Friday.

If you’re interested in purchasing something, you can receive 10% off by signing up for my newsletter.  I will push the latest newsletter with the 10% subscriber discount code out to you when you subscribe.  The code is good through Thursday 3/21.

On Tuesday night Todd and I went to see the Captain Marvel movie at AMC.  Our local AMC has reserved reclining (heated!) seats now.  They also serve real food too!  And every Tuesday is $5 tickets, even for new release movies.  Such a great deal!  We enjoyed the movie and we’re now excited for Avengers: End Game to come out in April!

Todd surprised me with a new color laser printer for my birthday.  I had wanted one for my business so that my labels would look extra nice.  My colored inkjet was sort of on its last legs and being temperamental.  I used my new color laser printer for my product labels last week and they look AWESOME!  I was very excited.  And so grateful for a supportive husband.

On Saturday we went to lunch at Taste of Hunan with Todd’s work friends Emily and Sean.  We forgot to take photos of our food and of each other.  Whenever that happens I tell Todd, “It’s like it never happened!”  I hate photo regrets.  We ate a bunch of authentic Chinese dishes in family style, meaning sharing all the dishes.  It’s the best way so everyone can try everything!  Loved the meal.  I had never met Emily or Sean before.  They are in their 20’s.  At one point in the conversation, we were talking about something and I said, "Yea, it's like the Soup Nazi!" :: blank stares :: I continued, "You know, from Seinfeld". :: more blank stares :: Oh my, I am old.

Yesterday we went to lunch at Mendocino Farms, because it was a warm day and we felt like eating salads.  We LOVE their Impossible Salad there.

The funny thing about that is, the first time we had it, we didn’t even realize that it’s not real meat and the entire salad is vegan.  It’s THAT good!

Todd had a lunch last week with some work friends.

He also got a haircut.  Every time he gets a haircut, we get to eat our favorite Indian food Punjabi Tandoor for dinner, because it’s near haircut place and Todd brings the food home.  Needless to say, I ate well for my birthday week, LOL.

This morning, my sweet friend Meera treated me to a belated birthday breakfast at Original Pancake House.  She brought me a bouquet of beautiful flowers, a card, and some chocolate!  I’m beyond blessed by her friendship.  And every time we talk, she says something about me that makes me feel special and loved.  Something that makes me take heart and say, “She gets me.  She understands me.”  That right there is a special friend!

(BTW, I probably need to up my eyebrow game?  It looks like I have none!

Some Noodle cuteness for this week!

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Birthday Month + Being Thankful

Happy March!  March is my birthday month and it’s exciting and a little terrifying at the same time, at my age!  Of course I try to remain positive about aging, but the train of time doesn’t stop and keeps on rolling.  In honor of my birthday month, I made an appointment for my annual wellness check with my doctor.  I had been putting it off since December… for stupid reasons.  One of them being that I probably put on a few pounds since my wellness visit in December 2017.  That time my doctor did mention that I’ve put on a few pounds the last three years.  I had promised myself in my head that I would eat better and exercise more, neither of which happened in the last six months.  So I guess I felt a little bit ashamed and disappointed in myself.  But I realized that’s not a good reason to not get my annual wellness exam, so here we are.

Because of this being my birthday month and the upcoming visit to the doctor later this month, I thought it would be a good month to kick off a regular exercise plan again.  Starting today I’m doing the six-week Jessica Smith Walk Strong DVD series again. 

I did this program twice during my “Summatical” in 2017 and really loved it.  I talked about it in-depth here on my blog.  I love Jessica Smith’s approachable and can-do encouraging style.  And for the most part the DVD series isn’t too difficult, although some days are more challenging than others.  I like how well-rounded it is, with a mix of cardio, strength, HIIT, stretching, etc.

I’m also going to try to fit in as much yoga as I can.  Yoga with Adriene has a calendar of yoga videos up for March.

And you can find her March playlist on YouTube here. 

As I get older, I realized that when I think of things I’m thankful for, there are more and more things that I’m thankful for because I DON’T have them.  Things like health issues, health issues of loved ones, big heavy financial burdens, career stress and worries, etc.  It’s kind of weird to be thankful for things you don’t have, but because I have experienced some heartbreak and stressful things in the past, I know full well that they could happen again.  (Those things being my mom’s illness and eventual passing, and Todd having a mysterious cerebral spinal fluid leak that kept him bedridden for two months.)  Over the two years that these two things happened, I thought I made it through rather unscathed until three months after my mom passed away.  One day in May 2007, I had a sudden anxiety attack while running on the treadmill.  I was not particularly stressed or anything, so it came on suddenly and I was so surprised.  My body just decided it held up long enough under duress, and it broke.  I went on medication for a year to control the anxiety attacks.  Those things happen.  And I’m fully aware they could happen again.  Therefore I’m always thankful for the calm and boring days.

I love the first photo in this blog post, as well as this one.  Noodle “helping” Todd with the puzzle, ha ha.  Too cute!

Todd has been really busy this past week at work.  He worked long hours and also the entire weekend.  His months’ long project at work went live as of 6pm last night.  He is on call for “hypercare” for any urgent issues that come up with the new system going live.  On early Sunday morning he got called at 3am and got up and worked from 3-5am.  He’s so excited that the project has finally gone live though.  This is the project that kicked off when he went to India last year. 

Fun things this past week:

On Wednesday night we went to check out a newly opened Taiwanese shaved ice dessert place that opened in San Diego called Meet Fresh. 

This is the kind of street dessert that I ate in Taiwan as a kid.  Grass jelly, taro balls, shaved ice with syrup or milk, red beans, etc.  (I lived in Taiwan until I was nine, when we moved to the USA.)  It really brings back the childhood dessert memories!

On Thursday I went to lunch at Rice Chicken to check out their Korean fried chicken.  It’s brand-new and soft opening for them.  I had the regular fried chicken with garlic chili dip.  I thought it was decent but not as good as Furaido Chicken inside the Atlas Market.

And a funny thing happened later that evening.  I was checking out the Instastory of a local account that I follow, and he had gone to Rice Chicken that same afternoon for lunch.  I thought, oh, what a coincidence!  Then I looked closely and look who is sitting there on the left side of his photo?  It’s ME!!!

I thought that was hilarious and messaged his account.  Imagine you’re just perusing things on Instagram and find yourself in someone else’s Instastory, LOL!

Todd had to work on Saturday, but we met up for lunch at Tofu House.  It was a rainy day and we love going to Tofu House on rainy or cold days for some reason.  It was delicious, as usual.

Yesterday I made a cream clay cleansing balm, just for fun.  It has coconut oil, grapeseed oil, castor oil, emulsifying wax, stearic acid, vitamin E, kaolin clay, vanilla FO, and valencia orange EO. When it set up it has a balm texture. Smells like a coconut orange creamsicle. It’s a solid oil facial cleanser. The emulsifying wax allows the oils to rinse cleanly off the skin.  I tried it last night and also made Todd use it.  I really like it!  And I LOVE the smell.  I put this up on Facebook yesterday for an edition of “Food or Skincare?”, because a lot of bath & body or skincare things I make look like creamy food, LOL.

I’ve gone done the rabbit hole of reading about alpha hydroxy acids (glycolic acid, fruit acid, lactic acid), niacinamide, hyaluronic acid, panthenol, hydrolyzed silk proteins, etc.  It’s really fun and I’m learning a lot!

That’s all for today!  If you haven’t noticed, I am blogging on Mondays and Thursdays now.  It is a good amount of blogging to aim for these days, and I’ve got them set up on my Google calendar.  Come back Thursday for my thoughts on being a newbie first-time housewife!

And just because Noodle looks so cute in this photo.  He got tuckered out after “helping” Todd with the puzzle.

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