Tag Archives: fish

Bump, Fish, and Baby Gift

Posted on May 10, 2012 | 1 comment

Now that I am making renewed efforts to get off my procrastination trend, I’m posting about a few things that are new in my life. I’ll put them in order of newness.

FIRST: Baby Bump

Enough to take a picture

The good news: the bump is here.

The bad news: fewer and fewer clothes seem to fit like they used to … or at all.

I have to say, there were quite a few times that I felt like I was silently suffering during the first trimester. I looked normal from the outside, but nausea and other hormonal changes going on, I did not feel normal… Consequently it is nice though to have a few friends making comments of, “Oh, finally showing!” It makes me feel as if what I’m going through isn’t so invisible to the rest of the world.

The baby must like getting its picture taken. Because Sunday evening after getting Andrew to take some baby bump pictures, I felt the baby kick for the first time. The kicks have been pronounced enough that Andrew was able to feel the little one kicking around Monday and Tuesday. I think it was the first time during the pregnancy that my husband has said he’s jealous 🙂

In other news: NEW FISH

Recap from one evening the other week:

Andrew: Where’s the fish?

Me: “Did Eppy escape!?!”

Andrew: ” I don’t know. I can’t find him.”

A few seconds go by.

“Uh-oh.”

Somehow our dear Epsilon had burrowed himself deep within the root mass of our lily/plant that sits in the tank. Either he decided it was a good resting place, or he couldn’t find his way back out. In any case, that was where we had to extricate his lifeless body from 😦

So, on our day off last week, we made a trip to the Aquarium store. (Hurrah for unusual date outings.) Andrew picked out his new pet.

Meet Kappa!

Shhh – don’t tell him he’s a “replacement pet”!

He seems friendly enough to the new snails. (Our concern with Eppy was always that he seemed a bit too intrusive of the snails’ space.) And, thankfully, he has the same knack for getting all excited when Andrew gets home and gears up to feed him!

For 50 cents we bought another snail to add to our tank family. He seems to have settled in well enough. However, due to his significant size, he makes the other snails seem… well… less. They weren’t cooperative enough to be part of the picture.

First Baby Gift

Recently, I’ve been missing my friend Jennie 😦

The Lord moved my dear friend and her hubby back to Texas.

Sokolik and Randles families say goodbye

She was thoughtful enough to bequeath me all her pantry goods that she didn’t care to transport back to the States. Yay!

While I picked up a load of her hand-me-downs she surprised me with a gift.

I get my very own jslik designs, hand-made, baby cover! I am stoked.

“R” is for “Randles”

Just in case there are those who are wondering – No, we haven’t picked a name out. Jennie wanted to monogram something, and figured an “R” for “Randles” was a safe bet 🙂

I love the cute print, especially the adorable turtles! And it already matches our soon-to-be baby room. Double score.

1 Comment

Posted in Life

Tagged baby, blanket, cover, fish, gift, pregnancy

Another day, another head… or two

Posted on September 14, 2011 | 1 comment

I’m still working through getting pictures and stories up from Selam and Jehiah’s visit with us last week. But I thought I would take a break and do an “everyday life” post.

When our vistors arrived, they came bearing many gifts. The gifts were objects we had ordered or had family find/purchase for us that are hard (or impossible) to get here in Singapore. One of the treasures we had our family bring us from the States was Ranch Seasoning. I know… weird. But hey, it’s the little things in life 🙂

Anyways, one of the plans for the seasoning was to make our favorite Tilapia dish. We had scouted the grocery store in advance to make sure that they had tilapia. Today came and I decided it was a good day to make the meal for dinner.

I go to the grocery store.

Then I walk to the seafood counter.

I ask the fish-lady (I’m sure there is a much more proper term than fish lady) for 1.5 kg of Tilapia.

She says a few phrases which I do not understand. Then says, “you want fish?”

“Yes!”

“How many?” she then asked. To which I shrugged, “Two?”

“Small or Large.”

By now I’m thinking I had no idea I would have to answer so many questions, and I certainly wasn’t prepared. I shrug and respond, “Small.”

This response surprised her, for she repeated, “Small???” In a voice that said, are you sure you know what you’re asking for.

She came around to the front of the counter and picked two fish out and asked me if they were small enough. I didn’t care (nor did I know), so I confirmed that they were.

The two small fish were then taken back to the counter where she weighed them out and asked me if it was enough. Of course they were enough… ?

She brought them to her special work counter/sink and cut the fins/tail off, gutted it, and descaled the cold creatures. After this was done, the remaining fish were put into a bag and handed to me. I politely thanked her as I though, what have I gotten myself into?

Now I should back up a moment. Growing up we rarely ate fish. Fish was in the form of “fish sticks.” I don’t think I remember my mom even cooking fish till my teens. And even then it was a rare occasion. I would eat fish at my sister’s house or at restaurants, but it was never something that I grew up eating and watching it be prepared. No one really fished in my family, so we never had the opportunity to watch fish be prepared from scratch. The fish I knew was already cooked by someone else. As I passed into adult-hood my enjoyment of fish grew, and I would buy fish to try my hand at cooking. The fish I bought at Giant or Safeway was already set to go.

Now that you have an understanding of my background, you will greater appreciate this picture.

Tilapia

Now it isn’t so much that I was grossed out. In fact after dealing with a few chickens’ heads… well, these really didn’t seem that gross. And hey, at least these didn’t have feet or fins I had to cut off … and no gizzards to pull out 😉

No – it wasn’t gross. It was new territory – that’s what it was.

I had no idea what to do.

Cue Youtube.

Nothing like a good how-to video to boost my confidence.

Tilapia "Fillets"

If it’s not obvious, the top two were my first attempts. But practice makes perfect… or at least better, if not perfect. My bottom two turned out much better. I was on a roll! Too bad I only got 2 fish.

Oh well.

Andrew arrived home from work. I proudly showed him the fruits of my labor. We made dinner together.

MMMM! Slightly oily – but that gives us an excuse to make it again and improve upon the recipe.

Tilapia - the finished product

Two more heads that I’ve chopped off, and another dish that wasn’t what I expected for prep-work. Another day, and another adventure that turned out well here in Singapore.