Three

The third moth is up this morning. I managed to take a couple pictures before it flew away.
What a transformation!

Butterfly Away

I'm happy to report that our butterfly project is a success......sort of.
We did throw away a couple of chrysalis before Amy informed us those are not dead caterpillars.

Anyway, the first Moth came out yesterday and was released in the evening. It was disoriented at first and climbed on me for a while. Finally it fluttered it's wings and flied away into the sunset.

This morning the second one came up to the net covering the jar. It's stronger than the first one, making a viable effort to get out. When I took it out to the backyard, it never stayed on the tomato plant for a rest. It disappeared once the net is off.

I'm still hopeful for a Monarch butterfly.......

Raising Butterflies

I've seen beautiful monarch butterfly in the backyard several times this spring.
Then Carol discovered one caterpillar on the tomato plant.

I found 6 more on the same plant and here they are.
According to online information, caterpillars are picky eaters and pretty fragile.
Ours grow at least twice in size a day.
They remind me of raising silk worms. Some educators in Taiwan are advocating raising caterpillars instead of silk worms as caterpillars can be released to the environment when children lost interest in raising them.
I've added a wooden structure inside the habitat this morning. In the afternoon one of the caterpillar is crawling around the wooden structure with speed, probably looking for a spot to pupate?

Waffle Iron!

**now updated with picture :))


Recently, our family purchased a waffle iron. I would take a picture but its very early in the morning and I wouldn't want to disturb anyone. Appearance wise, it is made of stainless steel, black plastic, and some non-stick surface that they use for the grill. It looks like the waffle makers that you see in hotels pretty much. Just less bells and whistles.

Yesterday, we tried the waffle maker for the first time using bisquick mix and made four delicious waffles. We still need some practice though since for the first 2 waffles, we used too much batter and it spilled over. My only complaint is that the bisquick mix was too salty and did not match up well with the pancake syrup I was using. Hopefully this means many more wonderful breakfasts (lunches, and dinners) to come!

WiFi at last

After hiddenjade spent hours slaving away on the phone, and computer and mousiechika pulled a few tricks out of her sleeve, we finally managed to set up the WiFi in our house. Not only that, now we have internet on our Wii!!
I'm excited. Just in time for my new ipod touch ;D

Dim Sum & Mochilato

After a fair amount of arguing and pouting, we ended up going to Royal Kitchen Seafood Restaurant in Irvine. We've been there before it changed to current name. Looking at the menu, this is a very typical Cantonese style restaurant. It looks cleaner than what we usually find near Montery Park.

We had:
燒賣 Siumai
蝦餃 Har Gow/Shrimp dumplings
海鮮餃 Scallop dumplings
牛肉粉 Beef Fun
鳳爪 Steamed chicken feet
蒸排骨 Steamed spare rib
蠔油芥蘭 Chinese brocolli
腐皮捲 Tofu skin wrap
皮蛋瘦肉粥 Congee with thousand-year egg and prok

The Beef Fun is excellent. This meal can turn Grumpy into Happy.

After the dim sum lunch, we walked to Mochilato. It has mochi, gelato and all the fixings. The mochilato has so many flavors. I tried almond. It has a very smooth texture and flavor.

Refridgerator Chess ~

Refridgerator Chess. The theory behind it is that whenever you are stopping in the kitchen for whatever reason you make a move. In the ideal world, you could play completely anonymously and it would add a little fun to your fridge snack trips. However, we have already lost the white queen under the fridge and are using a black magnet as a replacement.... And since there are currently 3 refridgerator chess participants in our family, everyone ends up playing both sides. And the anonymity doesn't work once the three participants start communicating. We have yet to finish a game of chess... still it is a nice quirk to all of our days.