2011 is flying by! I didn't even get the chance to look back and reflect on the year that just passed. Maybe this is why I still feel like I haven't gotten my bearings for 2011 -I sorta feel like everything is blurring together and zipping on by. Where did the entire month of January go? The funny thing is I usually take a lot of photos when I'm out and about but I just looked at my memory card to backup photos for January and I took a total of 10 photos! That's a record low for me!

Just wanted to take 5 min to update my old, trusty site and promise myself to look back, give thanks and learn from 2010 and also gear up for this current new year!

Some of the great memories from 2010:

• JoyManhattan
• Many wonderful double dates with married friends
• 2 TLCs & marvelous comrades
• Training and running my first half marathon (proved to myself I could do this, will never forget the relief and amazement of crossing the finish line)
• Enjoying the UWS (Central Park, Levain, Soutine, Fairway, doggies, 8 min commute to work, apt roof deck, AMC morning matinées, awesome neighbors- LCC!) 
• Jesse in NYC
• Khoi in NYC
• Year of the drama addiction
• Mother-in-law in NYC (trip to Niagara Falls)
• Week with Jesse, Peter & Mom in law in one tiny apt (also realizing Jesse, Peter and I are all in the same decade for the first time)
• World Cup (and all the viewing parties)
• Partying it up with Mimi in NYC for a week (Circle, Slate, not cooking for 6 days!)
• 3 weddings in 3 states in 8 days (Kyu&Marie, Sam&Theresa, James&Jeri)
• Moving back to SoHa (FINALLY!)
• 5th Anniversary Trip to Paris, The Netherlands (left a piece of my heart in Paris )
• Painting, furnishing and decorating apt (Tulip table came home to Mama!)
• Part-time Joy admin work
• 5th Annual Thanksgiving Extravaganza
• Parents visiting NYC (then getting stuck because of massive blizzard)

I need to add some photos into this post to really make it complete but for now I'm happy I just wrote these things down. Bye bye 2010! Hello 2011!

Oh man, I have no idea what I just did but I'm doing it...I signed up for the Brooklyn Half Marathon on May 22!!

My back and foot are finally completely healed. I'm so thankful to be able to walk normally and start working out again. I ended up gaining almost 10 pounds back these past two months since I couldn't exercise.  So maybe I'm punishing myself by signing up to do this half.

Actually, a few friends asked me to do it with them. I was totally on the fence about it but then I went to cheer on some friends running the Manhattan Half this past Sunday.

Continue reading →

I normally sleep like a rock but for some reason I have insomnia today. Maybe it's because of the excitement from the "Blizzard"!??  Actually, I don't think that's it but I thought it was kinda neat to see the above weather report.

Ohhh all the things that amuse this Florida gal.

Today all the schools in NYC are closed. I heard that it's extremely rare for NYC kids to get snow days. You'd think that NYC would get tons of snow but actually since we've lived in the area the past 4 years, the most snow I've ever seen is about 6 inches on the ground (when we lived in Palisades Park, NJ) and about 2 inches in the city. The snow in NYC either melts super fast or is cleaned up within a few hours of falling so you never see huge piles of it, except at the parks.

Snow is still a crazy, new phenomenon to me even after experiencing 5 real winters (1 year in Korea, 4 here). Is it this way for other folks from sunny, warm places? I know blizzards are bad things and cause all kinds of havoc but I'm kind of excited by the thought of stepping outside of my apt (after things have settled down) and encountering a world of white wonder or a winter wonderland (hahah, ok that sounds super cheesy, sorry!).

I've never built a snow man so I'm hoping to get a chance to get to the park and build one this week. This is an activity I will be doing alone, as the hubs hates snow. I guess if I spent two years in the military in the snowiest place in Korea I would hate snow too.

Ok folks in the Northeast -I hope everyone stays safe and warm. You folks in warm, sunny places pray for us, it's predicted to be a wild one!

-Edit- The snow hitting our window sounds like little crunchies or pop rocks! Shingihae!

Restaurant Week just concluded and just like previous RW's we were able to try a fancy, schmancy place without breaking the bank.  In the past four years we've enjoyed RW visits to Craft (food photos near the bottom), Le Cirque, Asia de Cuba and Eleven Madison Park. If it wasn't for RW we'd never be able to try these places. Usually a three-course dinner at these restaurants could easily cost around $100 with tip and tax. But during RW dinner is $35 and lunch is $24.

Two weeks ago we decided to check out A Voce (Columbus Circle) for lunch.  Our good friends James & Christine recently went there and said everything was delicious, so I was super excited about checking it out. We live pretty close to Columbus Circle, and since the day was so nice we decided to walk to the restaurant.

Here's my photo post of our lunch:

On the way, we passed the Lincoln Center and saw they were putting some sort of advertisement on the steps.

The slogan flashed by on the underside of each step. Pretty cool!

Entry way of A Voce, located in the Time Warner Bldg

The view of Columbus Circle and South Central Park from our table

Crusty foccacia bread w/ricotta cheese & olive oil spread (I forgot to shoot the food in macro mode so the images are kinda fuzzy)
Continue reading →

During my year as an exchange student in Korea, I ate Korean food to my heart's (and stomach's) content. Growing up, we weren't exposed to many kinds of Korean food. A typical dinner at my house was rice, a veggie dish (like broccoli), chicken or fish dish and a side of kimchi. (I can't live without kimchi!).

I never had dduk bokki until college, when one of my roommates made it for me. And I'd never heard of things like soondae (blood intestines), jipo (dried filefish) or galbi jeem (these are all things I LOVE now) until I was 21 or so.

So the year I spent in Korea opened up a whole new world of cuisine and delicious eats! The funny thing is, even though I ate soooo much in Korea, I weighed the lightest (of my adult life) during that time. I think it's because I had no car and did a lot of walking. Also, living in a dorm at the very back of campus on the side of a mountain probably helped.  The walk to my room was killer -straight up hill and up 5 flights of stairs!

When I got back from Korea I started to cook Korean food at home. I found two Korean cookbooks written in English but they were terrible and the measurements always seemed off. To cope I would find the same dish in both books and come up with my own recipe based off both books. There was a lot of trial and error going on!

One day I was googling random Korean recipes and came across koreancooking.xanga.com.  I was sooo thrilled! All the recipes were so easy to understand and in US measurements! (This is another awesome site Bee created. I found this site first and then came across Bee's wedding site). I learned how to make miyuk gook, galbi jjim, spam musubi and kimchi gook from this site. Also, I would use the site as a reference for other dishes I sorta knew how to make but needed confirmation on ingredients and quantities.

When Suseok oppa came back to the US he brought me 3 awesome Korean cookbooks. Literally translated they are "Making Side Dishes for 500 won," "Making Soups and Stews for 1,000 won," and "Setting the Table for 2,000 won."

My Korean isn't very good by any means but the books have step by step images and the directions are very easy to understand for beginning Korean readers. The great thing about the recipes is that all the ingredients are easy to find and for the majority of the recipes you don't ever have to step foot into a Korean grocery store.  Oppa and I have made tons of the recipes in these books and so far everything has come out tasty. Today we used the side dish book and made Busans-style seafood pancakes. Continue reading →

We bought this poster because it describes me and oppa so well!

Working for a web company, I've come across so many awesome blogs. I've also met some really cool bloggers. I probably regularly read over 400 or so blogs but I wanted to share the ones I'm currently really into.

In no particular order:

-Shim and Sons: Sally is a super talented designer of handmade goods/stationery and mom of two adorable boys from Portland, OR. I've been reading her blog for about 3 years now and love her posts on wonderful things she makes for her boys and for her online shoppe.

-Ask a Korean!: I'm not sure how I found this blog, but about six months ago I stumbled upon it have been hooked ever since. Just like the name of the blog implies, folks email the blogger (a 1.5 generation Korean-American, he came to the states when he was 16 and speaks Korean and English fluently) all sorts of questions related to Korea -language, politics, culture, economics, etc. The Korean (as he refers to himself) answers them in his delightfully smirky and knowledgeable way (often times in 3rd person).

-The Shooting Allens: I used to follow Holly's home design blog but when she and her hubby Tripper successfully got pregnant with twins via IVF she switched to blogging about her journey with her beautiful baby boys. I love reading her daily updates on her boys and the crazy tales of how she tries to balance being a wife, mom, designer and full time employee. She's also a Southern gal and has wonderful taste in design.  Continue reading →

And I LOVE it! After I we got back from Korea at the end of last summer, I started to embrace the inevitable. The ajummaness (for the non Koreans- ajumma is what we call older, usually married women) in me. It started to come out in bits here and there:

• coupons/discounts give me so much joy (the 20% off Bed Bath & Beyond coupon is the most coveted)
• cookware excites me
• I'm constantly thinking of ways to hook up my single friends (with each other) keke
• I say "aigoo" and "ohmona" way too much (and recently started to clap my hands at the same time)

When these little ajumma bits come out of me here and there, it always makes my friends laugh and catches some off guard. When I went home for Christmas, Peter commented on this change in me. He said something like "Ummm....Noona, you are such an ajumma." I think I replied with a thank you. hehe

A few weeks ago I met up with some girlfriends for dinner, drinks and dessert. Christine busted out her coupon organizer and we were in awe!

Super cute Christine w/her wonderful creation

I knew I had to have one too. I had been carrying around my coupons in a ratty envelop. So I went out to Staples a few days later and bought my own organizer and labeled the sections. This beauty only cost $4 and is super sturdy.

Keeps my coupons organized and easily accessible

Another fairly recent purchase that has brought me so much joy is my portable glass baking dish. Continue reading →

Growing up I always thought of my dad as Superman -tough, silent, strong, never gets sick or hurt. I only remember my dad getting sick once when I was 8, and man he was such a trooper.

He didn't tell any of us he was sick and went about his day like normal. It was a Wednesday, so that evening he preached at our weekly Wednesday night service. When he finished his message he almost collapsed. Turned out he had a fever of 104 and was burning up and extremely weak.  The whole time he never complained or thought to cancel service being that sick.

This past Sunday after church, I checked my phone and saw that I missed 5 calls from my mom. My heart skipped a beat because I realized something must have been pretty serious for her to call me that many times when she knows we're at church.

When I called my mom back she told me that my dad was having strange chest pains and to be safe they went to the ER. He had to stay overnight for observation and for a coronary catherization in the morning.

The next morning the tests detected two blocked arteries and several arteries 30-40 percent blocked. The doctor said it was good thing my dad came in to get checked out. So many people ignore chest pains and end up having heart attacks.

This morning my dad had several stents put in to unblock the arteries. He's still in the hospital but should be able to go home tomorrow night.

I'm so grateful that this problem was caught in time and my dad is going to get better. I'm so thankful that my parents went to the hospital and got checked out. I'm thankful for all the prayers from friends and family that covered my dad as he went through each procedure. I'm especially thankful that my dad is still here with us. Nothing makes you more grateful for what you have, than when you almost lose it.

My dad wearing the workout shirt, shorts and socks we bought him this Christmas. He wanted to "upgrade" his gear.