A few weeks ago, one of my dear friends gave me a box full of these homemade cookies as part of my birthday gift (what you see here is what is left after I devoured a bunch of them). I think they are called pecan balls? These delicate cookies melt away as soon as you pop one in your mouth! Super yummy!

My strawberry haul from this morning!

I know I’ve written about my strawberries here last year, but I think the shapes are looking much nicer this time ’round. Biting into one, they’re juicy, and the center is red — not white! I don’t have enough to make a pie or cake, but I’ll figure something out before they get eaten up! A single serving tart perhaps?

Over the weekend, we went to the Japanese Garden in Balboa Park to see the flower arrangement that my mom was asked to do for their exhibit house. It was so pretty! She used cherry blossoms, lilies, and ferns. I love how the branches cross over each other in the middle.

Last week, the Dalai Lama made his first public visit to San Diego where he spoke at UCSD, USD, and SDSU on various topics including compassion, peace and justice. I had seen the Dalai Lama on tv before, speaking in interviews, but to be able to hear him speak in person was an amazing experience. He was charming, intelligent, funny, and truly inspiring.

For my birthday last week, one of the things that we did was walk around the San Diego Zoo! We hadn’t been there yet this year and were surprised to see there were new spots to see and walk around. One of the changes was the layout of the panda exhibit. While winding around the line to see the pandas, we saw a little animal in his space, up in a tree. The red panda!! A.k.a. “Lesser Panda” (lesser?). I seem to fall in love with a new animal on each zoo visit (like this guy from last year) and this year the red panda has captured my heart. He’s so CUTE! I wanted to reach out and hug it!

While we were in Seattle we got tickets to see Pina 3D — a movie by Wim Wenders about the innovative German choreographer Pina Bausch. A description of the movie:

“Pina is a feature-length dance film in 3D with the ensemble of the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, featuring the unique and inspiring art of the great German choreographer, who died in the summer of 2009. Pina is a film for Pina Bausch by Wim Wenders. He takes the audience on a sensual, visually stunning journey of discovery into a new dimension: straight onto the stage with the legendary Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch ensemble, he follows the dancers out of the theatre into the city and the surrounding areas of Wuppertal – the place, which for 35 years was the home and centre for Pina Bausch’s creativity.” — (C) Official Site

The movie had intense moments as well as tender ones, all through the choreography of Pina. I had the privilege to see Pina Bausch in person several years ago when she received the Kyoto Prize and was in San Diego. Her presentation was captivating and I have been a fan ever since then. So when I saw her movie was playing, I had to see it! I’m not sure if the movie is still playing at the Cinerama (Seattle) but if it is, check it out. Oh, and don’t forget to get the chocolate popcorn (chocolate popcorn!!).

We just got back from our trip to Whistler, Canada (with a quick stop in Seattle) and today has been a day of catching up and tidying up — my disheveled room is a reminder of my frantic last minute packing. It’s a mystery to me as to why I am always packing in such a rush. (I even make a pack list!) Hm.

Here’s a photo of Pike Place Market in the distance. I was able to snap a photo right after it rained.

Yesterday Joe brought home this heart-shaped cake for Valentine’s day. He mentioned he picked it up at Whole Foods so I looked online to see if there was a name for the cake, but no luck! I couldn’t find this cake anywhere online! The cake was mainly a creamcake (not cheese cake) with a raspberry layer in the middle with a thin cake layer at the bottom and strawberries on top. As Joe was figuring out how to cut into the cake, I suggested we just slice it down the middle and each get half a heart! (Which is what we did.)

Over the weekend we flew up to Seattle for a quick trip for our niece’s wedding. A pretty, pretty wedding, the bride and groom looked very happy!

For the wedding, several family members stayed at my mother-in-law’s house where a few of us made valentine’s day cards with my niece’s niece (my grand niece?) who had to make about 20 for her classmates. I don’t think I ever handmade cards for my classmates, but it definitely brought back memories of choosing which card to give to who.

These were fun to make! But of course the biggest challenge was to get a 5 year old to sign her name on all of the cards.

Last weekend I helped my friends during the Chinese new year festival which took place downtown (I was at the booth in front of the Chinese Historical Museum). I loved seeing the lion dance and everyone I met was super friendly, I had a super nice time!

Today in Japan is “Setsubun” which marks the day before the beginning of spring. Traditionally, each household chooses a member of the family to wear an “oni” (demon?) mask and everyone else throws roasted soybeans at him/her saying “Oni wa soto! Fuku wa uchi!” which means “demons out! Good luck in!” and is thought to drive out bad luck from the home. We don’t do this at my house, but we do follow the custom to eat the roasted soy beans for luck. How many beans? One for each year of our lives (and one more for extra luck!).