I have been having this salad addiction for months now, and I popped open and finished several bottles of salad dressing all by myself. From that, I am able to decide on my favorite salad dressing - Catalina.

I don't hate vinegar, but I don't do sourness, hence French and Italian are on the bottom of my list, and I did not even try Balsamic Vinaigrette. Thousand Island and Honey Dijon both have the creamy texture I like, but Thousand Island got one extra point for having the righteous flavor for salad. I still see Honey Dijon more of a sauce for meat. Caesar dressing has this peppery kick that contributes to its zesty taste which everybody loves but me, owing to my extremely low tolerance to spiciness. Blue Cheese and Ranch have the similar taste that is too rich, and Blue Cheese stinks even more. And finally I came across Catalina dressing which tastes healthier than Thousand Island because of its lack of mayonnaise and its sweetness from sugar and ketchup negates the sourness from vinegar and lemon juice as in French dressing. 

One essential for my salad is a handful of Honey Roasted Sliced Almonds or Honey Roasted Pecan Pieces from Fresh Gourmet. Very often I found myself overdoing the nuts, and having lots of leftover lettuce. 

Within just mere one month, I had the gaucho experience twice at two different Brazilian steakhouses. To sum up my thoughts, I made a table of comparison. Overall, they both scored about the same, but which one would I choose if I were to go back again? Probably Chima, for that I can enjoy my favorite meat - fish, which Fogo de Chao lacks, and then wash down the excessive saltiness with free refills on coke.

 

I can go die and no one will even know.

For the past two weeks or so, I have been struggling with something at work. I seem to have lost my "clean hands" overnight, just like that! Something that I was used to be good at, I am not anymore. What frustrated me even more was that no matter how careful I was while performing the test, I still got the same failing result. It was always that one dilution that fell 0.1 out of the range, granting me a total incompetent. After so many practice runs, I was still not able to get it right. I need somebody to watch me step-by-step to make sure I do everything right. Yes, it has gotten to a point like that where I need to be watched like a toddler, so I don't fall (fail).

Hopefully, Chris can help me figure out what exactly went wrong with me. If so, I will bring him back green tea Kit Kat!

On another note, due to my own idiocy, I signed up for one of those too-good-to-be-true deals online two months ago. Although I realized it was a scam as soon as I finished the registering process, and called immediately to cancel, they still shamelessly charged me $30 two months after the cancellation. I thought it was nothing to worry about because I have the confirmation email with the cancellation reference code and thought I could easily call to ask for a refund. Little did I know that the customer service woman would be so freaking ridiculous and retarded that she repeatly "claimed" my account could not be found despite I gave her my name, phone number and email address that I used for registering. For 30 minutes, it went like this: she put me on hold, apologized (for making me wait), asked for my name; put me on hold, apologized (for unable to pull up my record), asked for my phone number; put me on hold, apologized (for making me wait), apologized again (for unable to pull up my record), asked for my email address; put me on hold, apologized (for making me wait), apologized again (for unable to pull up my record), asked for my credit card number. She finally dropped the question and asked for my credit card number. That was when I could not take it anymore and just hung up on her.

I then called the bank to request to dispute that unauthorized charge, and also to ask for a new number credit card. Everything was taken care of, in 5 minutes.

I was just on the phone with the doctor. She got the CT scan result back, and it confirmed what the sonogram showed, a 1 cm hemangioma on my right liver. Since hepatic hemangioma is a benign tumor (technically an abnormal buildup of blood vessels), nothing needs to be done at this stage, but I should continue with the annual monitoring.

Words cannot describe how HAPPY I am that this week is finally over and the inspection was a big success! However, this is not the end of the audit, more to come in two weeks, and another nerve-wrecking one early next year! I am going to just be a blob and snuggle up with fluffy Benetton on the couch this weekend!

On another note, this weather is totally making me crave for chicken noodle soup!

I cooked, baked, and cooked more. Nasi Goreng was too spicy to my taste, Oreo cheesecake was imcomparable to Cheesecake Factory's, but scalloped potatoes were a big success! At least 33% of my Labor Day's effort did not go to waste. I shall attempt red bean mochi cake later.