Archive for July, 2011

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Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011)

July 22nd, 2011 by Manda | No Comments | Filed in Reviews

Tagline: Ska2oosh!

Starring: Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Gary Oldman, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, Lucy Liu

Summary: Po, the new Dragon Warrior, joins forces with his kung fu master friends to defeat an old enemy with a deadly weapon that could spell the end of kung fu

5 Words/Phrases: Great animation; witty script; good development between characters; interesting developments with Po’s backstory; all-around enjoyable movie

Most Impressed By: Jack Black is a great voice actor, he is superb as the voice of Po

Least Impressed By: …nothing!

Comments: It’s a solid movie but I’m skeptical of the ending – it leaves the movie wide-open for Kung Fu Panda 3, which isn’t something I’m positive is a good idea…

Overall Rating: 9/10

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My Helicopter Mother and the Gynecologist Appointment

July 19th, 2011 by Manda | 3 Comments | Filed in Family

My mother insisted on driving me to the gynecologist this morning for my yearly check-up. While ordinarily this would have been an innocent enough gesture, the fact that she wanted to take me to the gynecologist meant only one thing: she wanted to know the details of my appointment.

Generally speaking, this is not always a bad thing. It’s good when a mother cares about the health of her child, after all. But it does have the tendency to get mighty awkward when it’s about gynecological health, because there are certain things about a daughter’s life that a mother doesn’t need to know about her daughter. Or at least, certain things MY mother never needs to know about me.

The awkwardness set in as soon as I returned to the waiting room after my appointment was over, where I found my mother reading a magazine.

How was it? What did she ask you? Did you have to have a pelvic exam? You have a bandaid on your arm – did you have a blood test? Why did you even need one?

I explained to her that I had a pelvic exam because they recommend all women to start getting them annually once they are 21, and that a blood test was routine. It wasn’t a lie (perhaps a lie of omission, at least for the first part; the blood test was actually routine) and it did the trick as she seemed satisfied with my answers. However, I can’t help but think that the whole situation could’ve been avoided if I could’ve just gone by myself to my damn gynecologist!

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Lemon Basil Olive Oil Cake

July 17th, 2011 by Manda | 1 Comment | Filed in Food


I haven’t baked anything in a year. In China, traditionally there are no ovens in the kitchen, so I could never bake anything. In the weeks leading up to my homecoming, I’d given a lot of thought to what I wanted to bake now that I’d finally have access to an oven. I could opt for something I had done before, like a red velvet cake, or try something completely new.

As you can see, I went for something completely different.

I’d never, ever heard of basil being used in a cake recipe. Lemon, basil, and olive oil go splendidly together, but I’ve only ever tried the combination in savory dishes. It all ties together surprisingly well in this recipe. When it was baking, I was afraid I’d inadvertently made “basil bread” instead of a cake! However, the cake is sweet and has a lovely basil flavor, with just the slightest touch of olive oil and lemon.

It’s a pretty damn good “welcome back to baking” cake, if you ask me. It’s flavorful, memorable, and sure as hell unique.

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