Lucky In Love
August 8, 2008
What’s that noise I hear all around the world today? Why, it’s wedding church bells ringing! The number eight has always been considered lucky in the Asian culture, so when you have a date like 8/8/8, what better way to celebrate than with a wedding. I read that theknot.com alone had 22,000 registered weddings for that date, with many more thousands of couples doing so all over the world.
My Mom & Dad’s wedding pic (almost 40 years ago!)
I think part of the fun of these wedding sites is to read up about how the couples met and to learn about how their relationship blossomed, so to keep up with the festive occasion, I though it would be fun to match up the “couples” I have in our toy line and describe them in the couple-in-love way.
This is Peep and Tweet The Chicken. Peep remembered that the first time he saw Tweet, he thought to himself, “Now that’s one cute chick!” After they got engaged, the couple decided to get matching heart embroidery on their chest to remind themselves of each other.
Our second couple is Simon and Sunny The Squid. Sunny told me a funny story about the night before Simon proposed, he had asked her Dad if he could have her hand in marriage. Sunny’s Dad answered, “Well, son, she’s got eight of them tentacles – which one do you want?”
And our last couple is Boy and Girl Hippos. Did you know that Hippo Girl’s Mom tried out for Disney’s Fantasia movie as one of the dancing hippos? For the wedding reception, the couple surprised wedding guests when their first dance together was…what else…a hippo hop routine!
P.S. What kind of cake did these three couples have at their reception? Our lemon buttercream rosette cake, of course!
Congratulations, all you newlyweds!
Linny
Room Candy – always yummy!
Question: Why Are Frogs So Happy?
August 8, 2008
Answer: They eat whatever bugs them!
Yes, I still chuckle at jokes written for fifth graders!
We just got our new JUMBO frog dog toy shipment today, and I thought it would be fun to celebrate the green theme by trying out different drinks that are…well, green!
To be honest, I’ve been looking forward to this tasting experiment for a couple of weeks ever since I spotted this particular drink at a Vietnamese bakery.
Drink #1 – Seaweed jelly drink with mystery fruit pieces. After I did some research online, it turns out that these tiny egg like pods are basil seeds. Not quite the same basil that you chop up and sprinkle over your spaghetti – these basil seeds are from an Asian variety whereby the seeds’ outer layer turns into a gelatinous texture when soaked in water.
Okay, this is not exactly green, but I give it a perfect score for a drink that is just plain crazy and cool – doesn’t that remind you of frog eggs swimming in a dark murky pond? Check out this picture of real frog eggs.
Photo credit: wikipedia
While looking for frog egg pictures, I read that frogs can lay up to 4000 eggs at one time. Whoa – how do all those eggs fit in the Mama frog before she lays them? I’ll have to look into that! So what does a drink that looks like murky pond water and frog eggs taste like, you ask? It’s actually quite good! If you’ve never had seaweed jelly before, it basically tastes like jello made out of strong tea with an herb-like aftertaste. The basil seeds, which I never had before, tasted like micro jelly balls with a crunchy pit center. I’m sure there are many folks out there who just slurp the basil seeds up and swallow them whole, but my preferred method was to actually try to chew on them for a bit to experience the crunch of the individual seeds – not that they need to be broken down into tinier pieces, but it’s the same kind of fun that I get when I pop the individual bubbles on bubble wrapping!
Drink #2 – Honeydew slush with tapioca (boba) balls. This one’s pretty tame in taste and color compared to the previous one. I’m going to need something much, much greener!
Drink #3. Be careful what you wish for! I don’t quite know what makes up this green liquid, but man does it taste awfully grassy! I’ve had wheatgrass shots at Jamba Juice, and it’s one thing to down a tiny shot of grass juice, but to have an iced 16 oz worth of it is just a little too much green for me!
All in all, this was an awfully fun way to spend an afternoon. I’ll probably have to repeat this “experiment” with other colored drinks/dessert soon. Let me see, what toys do we have that is chocolate in color…
Linny
Room Candy – always yummy!
