Apps for NY trip

I'm heading to NYC tomorrow. Yay~~~ Excited to see the big apple again! I will be there on my own with my friends, who know as little about the city as me. Sadly, I can't count on them to show me around. But I'm not even worried, because I've found a fantastic iPhone application called NYC Way. 

It shows detailed information of subway, museums, free activities, restaurants, theaters.... even restrooms. How sweet! Basically, everything you want to know about NYC is just one click away. 

Another kudo for apple!

Looking for a creative T-shirt?

Check out threadless.com

My attention was drawn to threadless because of the hilarious T-shirt shown on the picture below:

This T-shirt, unfortunately, has long sold out, but there are many other creative, funny, cynical, funky ... ones for you to choose from on the website now. I'm sure you can find one that suits your mood the best.

The business model of threadless is different from other customerized T-shirt sites like zazzle.com. Zazzle.com prints out T-shirt first and then sell them on the website. However, Threadless publishes pattern designs instead of real T-shirts on its website and invites users to vote for their favorite patterns. Only when the votes reach certain number will the patterns be printed out on T-shirts, which will be sold online.

Threadless works with artists from all over the world and has built a loyal community of consumers.

Besides, knowing the preference of potential buyers, threadless can easily decide on the quantity of production, which is why its T-shirts are 20-50% cheaper than those on zazzle.com.

Newbie Driver

That's me!! I passed the driving test and got my driver's license yesterday! Yippee! First thing first, I want to thank my hubby for being such a patient instructor, for putting up with the scratches I added to his new car, for trusting my driving skills with his life :) 

In the US, people don't need to go to driving school to prepare for a driver's license - unlike China. After passing knowledge test, you can apply for Instruction Permit, which works as an ID card (you can travel domestically with it) and allows you to drive within the State with an experienced driver (over 5 years) sitting in the front seat.  How cool is that! 

You can then schedule a driving test - road test. Make sure to schedule it early, because waiting period is usually over 1 month. After around 25 hours of driving practice between Bellevue and Seattle, I was ready for the test.

I did my driving test at Bellevue DMV. The driving route is from 132nd Ave. NE - NE 8th St. - 126th Ave. - Parallel parking between two cars there & backing up from a corner there too - NE 2nd St. - 124th Ave. - Bel-Red - back to the DMV office. It took only 20 minutes in total.

I got deducted points from hitting the curb while parallel parking, driving too slowly :), turning a bit little too wide... but no violation of laws or dangerous actions. Just like that, I passed. 

Time to think about what kind of car to drive. Any suggestions? 

Soft cookie recipe

Raining, raining again in Seattle. I need something sweet to cheer up the spirit. How about some chocolate chip cookies?

I have tried dozens of cookie recipe since I bought my first oven in 2005. It was so tiny that I could only bake six cookie at a time. But we were in China, nobody baked at home at all. I was a baking pioneer. My first batch of cookies come out burnt and flat, but my dear friends Bonnie, Sosa & Xiaoliang were so supportive and encouraging that they even finished them up. My fellow workmates became my testing mice for the next several batches of cookies. Thanks buddies! I wouldn't figure out the following perfect cookie recipe without you! 

Here is my recipe.  

Preheat oven to 350F.

To make a batch of 12-16, you will need

1. 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2. 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3. 1/4 cup white powdered sugar

4. 1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar

5. 1/2 teaspoon salt

6. 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter in liquid form

7. 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

8. 1 large egg 

9. 1 cups (half a bag) semisweet dark chocolate chips

Mix all the dry ingredients (1-5) in a large bowl. 

Add liquid ingredients (6-8), mix with forks or simply your hands. 

Add chocolate chips and mix again. 

Make doughs into 1.8-2.0 inch wide, 1 inch thick cookie shaped ones, put them on cookie sheet and send them into the oven.

Bake for 10-12 mins. 

The cookies come out perfectly chewy outside and soft inside! Yummy! I just finished 4 in a row, I'm now happy and fat :) 

Happy Mother's Day

To all the mothers and mothers-to-be that I know. Hope you all had a wonderful one. Watch what this mom has to say about being a mom and see how much you agree. Enjoy it!

Print Screen on iPhone

Aha, big discovery for me. I can print screen on iPhone too!! Here is my screen shot. Perfectly professional, uh? :) You can do it by following the simple steps below: 

1. Make sure your your iPhone firmware is newer than Version 2.0. New iPhone 3GS builds in Version 3.0 already, so you don't need to worry if you have one. If you have an older iPhone, and you haven't updated for ages, go to Settings - General - About - Version to check. If your version is older than V.2, you can update it on iTune. Simply plug your iPhone on your computer and turn on iTune, it will ask you if you want to update. Just click on update. Follow the instructions on the computer screen, it's easy and quick.

2. When you're on the iPhone screen you want to print out, hold home key (the black round button at the bottom of the phone) and power button (the silver one on the top of the phone) at the same time. and then release both. The key is don't hold them both for too long, because that's the way to turn off the phone. Try a couple times, and you will get it.

3.  You will then notice iPhone screen flash white, you can also hear a shudder sound. Go to iPhone Photos, and your screen shot is stored in your photo gallery.

My iPhone Application Pick of the Week

Yelp - A website provides user reviews on businesses like restaurants, hotels, museums, doctors etc. It's the American version of da zhong dian ping.

Have you ever stood at the corner of the street, starving, but just can't find or can't decide on where to go eat. Then, you should download Yelp on your iphone. It allows you to find restaurants near your physical location. It of course pulls out Yelp reviews as well. After you open Yelp, you will find a button call Monocle on the right top corner of the screen. Click on it and activate Monocle. It's the coolest part. Monocle activates iPhone built-in camera and GPS. You just need to point your iphone to one direction the way you hold it when taking a picture. The restaurants just pop up like the pictures shown below.

With Yelp App, you get restaurants' reviews, details and even directions (go toward the way you point your iPhone) all at the same time. If you like it, download it. It's free. 

I used it last night, when my friend and I stood at 3rd and Pine. We were starving from a whole day of museum extravaganza. Yelp led us to an awesome Vietnamese restaurant called Long Provincial Vietnamese Restaurant at 2nd and Steward - Only two blocks away from where we were standing, but we would never find it so easily without Yelp. The restaurant has beautiful oriental settings (lanterns and bamboos),  and western influences (a fireplace and a jellyfish tank). The menu looked great. We ordered two draft beers, two phos and a spring roll dish to share, $35 in total. The food tasted really really good, but was a little bit too much even for two large appetite women, so you know how much to order.  Yippi!! 

I'm in love with Yelp app. Thanks Bill for your recommendation. It's my pick of the week.