brain barf… yum!
I didn’t realize Target was selling these. A great gift for under $10! Unfortunately, the item won’t be available for another 4-8 weeks… I guess the demand must be very high!
Don’t forget to buy another $20 of stuff to get free shipping!
(Here’s a screenshot for when that link gets taken down.)
::BillH::
For much of the evening, it has hurt me to blink my left eye.
I couldn’t figure out why, but Yoshi says it looks a little bruised.
Now I’m wondering when I could’ve punched myself in the eye…
…ow….
so evidently the mojo about the missing camera was good, cuz it was located about 15 minutes after jozjozjoz reported it missing.
i was reading in the bedroom (the warmest room in the house when the space heater is on) and she opened the door and said, “have you seen my grey sweats?” she looked on the floor and the pile of clothes that had previously been there was gone. “well, if you put them in the laundry, they’re in the washing machine.” i said this without really looking up from my book. i did look up to see one worried jozjozjoz staring at me, wide-eyed. “did you forget to empty your pockets?” i asked, rather casually. “yeah, and it’s not funny, either. very non-washable stuff in there.” this last part was said as she turned and walked to the service porch where the washing machine is.
this was enough to get me to put my book down and get out of the nice warm bed. i went to the service porch to find that she had pulled the laundry out of the washer and was searching the pockets of every item. “camera and phone.” was all she said, her attention on the wet garments.
wait. she washed her camera and her phone?
well, the phone was actually on the floor in the bedroom– i’d seen it when i walked into the room. it was plugged in, oblivious to the panic and seemingly ignorant of the whereabouts of its traveling companion, the (almost) new digital camera.
so then it became a search of everywhere jozjozjoz had gone when she got home, including the cabinets in the kitchen, the linen closet, the bathroom, the refrigerator, the office, the car and the path from the car to the front door. no camera in sight.
the panic began to set in. and then came the tears. “i can’t have lost the camera. it was expensive. i just got it. there were so many pictures on it. i can’t understand what happened to it.” all the while tears are streaming down her face. “see what happens when i put things away? i lose them!” somehow this was very logical in the jozjozjoz mind. see, this was the first time she’d actually come home and put everything in its rightful place before taking a shower and relaxing. i tried to explain that if she knew that she had the camera when she came into the house, that it still was in the house. it hadn’t grown legs and walked out. and since it wasn’t in the washer, chances were good it was safe. still the tears…
so we were back in the bedroom, looking under the bed and in all the drawers. jozjozjoz had moved my book to look under the covers of the bed. i picked up the book and the clothes that were under the book, and what do i find? one (almost) new camera. at which point i asked, “would you please explain how exactly this got here, under these clothes?” i think jozjozjoz was in shock, because she didn’t really explain, she just looked at the camera and didn’t say a thing for a good 30 seconds. i handed her the camera and picked up my book. jozjozjoz said, “you’re on page 305.”
turns out that when jozjozjoz went to change out of her sweats and into her pj’s, she emptied her pockets onto the nightstand, and then moved some clothes that were on top of her pj’s onto the nightstand, and that’s how she lost her camera.
but yes, i rule.
Among the many things I am grateful for, I am always especially grateful for my family & loved ones. Although my Mom can be “a character” at times, I know that everything she does is out of love for me and my brother: we are so lucky.
(Mouseover images for my notes, click to embiggen)
Our Thanksgivings are usually celebrated with our large extended family at my Aunt’s (Mom’s sister) place with the “traditional” Thanksgiving fare… and then some (i.e. – last year filet mignon was on the menu). This year, because my Aunt & Uncle are still dealing with the remodeling of their new home, their house wasn’t ready for entertaining so we decided to celebrate quietly at home. (Dad called us from Taiwan earlier in the day, so it was like we were all there.)
I didn’t want Mom to go to any trouble for dinner, but unfortunately, no restaurants were open on Thanksgiving. So my Mom and I ended up making one of my favorite comfort foods, tonkatsu (see JR’s description of tonkatsu) with rice, shredded cabbage, and potato salad for Thanksgiving dinner. Not exactly “traditional,” (no, we are NOT Japanese) but still yummy and Mom-made with love.
We decided to celebrate my birthday on Friday night instead at the Cheesecake Factory (courtesy of a generous gift card from Shelli for my birthday last year), so Mom, Bro, and I braved more than an hour and half wait so we could dine on the Hot Spinach & Cheese Dip with artichoke hearts, shallots, garlic and a mixture of cheeses served hot with tortilla chips and salsa.
Mom tried the Pecan Crusted Catfish (no description available on the CF site), Bro had the Steak Diane (Medallions of Beef Steak Covered with Black Peppercorns and a Rich Mushroom Wine Sauce. Served with Mashed Potatoes and Slow Grilled Onions.) I tried the Louisiana Chicken Pasta (Parmesan Crusted Chicken Cutlets Served Over Pasta Tossed with Mushrooms, Peppers and Onions in a Spicy New Orleans Style Sauce) since evidently my body felt deficient in its deep fried cutlet intake. And THEN we split dessert: the White Chocolate Chunk Macadamia Nut Cheesecake. Can you say “sugar coma?” Can you say “SO worth it!?”
So after all this, I didn’t feel as if I missed out on Thanksgiving fare at all, especially since I’d already had an early Thanksgiving dinner two weeks ago where I ate so much I got sick. Then, Yoshi brought me leftovers from their Thanksgiving dinner, driving a Thanksgiving care package over 400 miles so I could have some turkey, chestnut stuffing, steamed vegetables, cranberry relish & sauce, turkey soup, and pumpkin pie. (Yoshi keeps apologizing for forgetting the gravy, but I am not in the slightly bit upset about that… I got Thanksgiving leftovers!) Sorry, no photos of the leftovers Yoshi brought me.
Now that I’m recounting all the food I ate in the last three days, I am surprised I didn’t just POP from all that grub!
Dear Anyone,
Please please please send me some “finding my digital camera” mojo.
I just sat down at the computer and wanted to download my photos from this weekend and realized I can’t find my very precious, not at all cheap digital camera.
Oh where, oh where could it be?
UPDATE: YOSHI RULES! (Whew!)
We had a little container full of shredded raw cabbage in Mom’s fridge and I knocked it over while trying to put something away.
There were little itty-bitty pieces of cabbage all over the ground which took me a good five minutes to pick up.
Twenty minutes later, my Mom came looking for me.
(Laughing in Mandarin) “You know that cabbage you spilled everywhere? I opened the fridge and it fell out again. I just spent another 5 minutes cleaning THAT up, too.”
Good thing she didn’t think that I put the cabbage back in the fridge poorly. I was ready to tell her that we had some suicidal cabbage.
I’ve decided that since it’s my birthday, I’m allowed to be as emotional as I care to be. It’s not even noon and so far I’ve been happy, sad, nostalgic, giddy, pouty, bratty, annoyed, irritated, a little mopey, and hungry (ok, so hunger’s not an emotion).
I woke up early and went through a lifetime of photographs because somewhere in my mess of things, there is a photo from my 6th birthday where my grandfather is holding me tightly. It’s probably one of my favorite photos of all time & I can’t find it. I did, however, find a photo from grandpa’s birthday in 1981 where I am sitting on his lap, which is almost as good. Send me some good photo-finding mojo that I find the image I was actually looking for.
I got a birthday phone call and song (hee hee!) from Yoshi already. My Mom called and yelled happy birthday at me and then got ticked off at me because I supposedly didn’t call her back, again. [I was in the shower when she called and when I called her at the house (at the # she paged me at), I got the broken answering machine. I knew better this time & didn’t waste my breath with a message. But supposedly the phone didn’t even ring, so now I’m thinking there is something wrong with the phone line?] Anyway, Mom has decided to “re-direct” me to visit my Grandma before going home (which I should do anyway) and then meet up with some guy in a “Voy-ahhhj van” who’ll be waiting at the intersection of some major cross-streets in the San Gabriel area to give me a birthday care package from my Dad in Taiwan. She’s going to call me back later with this guy’s phone number so we can complicate this wild goose chase even further coordinate the details.
Anyway, let’s talk about happier stuff… presents! Last year, a number of folks were very generous and sent me some of the best birthday presents ever! Some of my blogging friends who sent gifts were Krixy, Mikey2, Keith, Shelli, Mike Doss, I *promise* (by tomorrow) to do a follow-up post with details of everything you see in that photo above. And then some.
Thanks also to everyone who has phoned, text messaged, emailed, commented, and IMed me birthday wishes. Although if someone would carrier pigeon a message to me, that would rock muchly.
This morning I was awakened by the ear-puncturing sweet jingle of my cell phone. When I saw that it was Mom calling at such an early hour, I answered it right away.
Mom: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!
Now if that had been someone other than Mom, I’d have been worried. But seeing as it was Mom on the line, her screaming into the phone was to be expected.
Keep in mind all of this is in Mandarin:
Me: Yes?
Mom: What are you going to do for your birthday? It’s on Thanksgiving this year, you know. I called you a few days ago and you never called me back. Are you OK?
Me: What do you mean I never called you back? I called and left a message two days ago on the answering machine at home. You didn’t get it?
Mom: Oh, I forgot to tell you. I think the answering machine is broken. All it does is a little beep-beep noise. I don’t know what’s wrong with it.
Me: How can you say I didn’t call just because you didn’t get the message? I told you I was planning to go home for Thanksgiving and that you didn’t have to go to any trouble for anything since it’s just us [me, Mom, and Bro]. I didn’t know your machine wasn’t working right.
Mom: Well, you should’ve known I wouldn’t get the message if you left it on the broken machine.
Me: [silence]
Mom: So what time are you coming home?
I’m seriously re-thinking this crackpot idea of going home for Thanksgiving.
Can it really be?
My birthday is only two days away… that’s right folks, my birthday is on Thanksgiving this year.
Not only is my family probably not doing Thanksgiving this year (it’s the week of and no one in my family has called to invite me anywhere), but Yoshi is going up north for most of the weekend and I’m not going. I did get a number of other generous invitations for Thanksgiving, but since I know I’ll be a party pooper no matter where I am, I think I’ll keep my birthday blues to myself.
Yoshi keeps asking what I’m going to do for my birthday this year, and I keep saying “mope.”
Maybe I’ll try to find those pictures of the things my friends generously got me for my birthday last year (I am just a tad bit tardy with those, aren’t I, Keith?!)
UPDATE: Thanks to Sharky, who seems to have some sort of special psychic link to me. She called me within minutes of my posting this to wish me an early happy birthday and to invite me (again) to Thanksgiving dinner at her place. And she probably won’t know until much later that I even wrote this.
Yoshi pointed out to me the other night that the letters on my laptop keyboard are already starting to rub off.
Now, this wouldn’t be a huge deal (since I know how to type) except for two reasons:
1) Some of the laptop keys (like function keys) are located in different places than a standard keyboard
2) The keyboard has the Chinese keys painted on them. And I don’t know how to type in Chinese yet.
So far the letters that are suffering the most wear are the e, h, k, and n keys. I think I’d better take a photo of this keyboard so I’ll have something to refer to in a few weeks when all the letters disappear.
Yoshi made a pot of coffee & it smelled so good that I asked for a cup for after dinner, despite the fact that I almost never drink coffee and risked the distinct likelihood that I was going to stay awake all night and play the Sims2.
After about a quarter of the mug, I sat down in front of the TV & promptly konked out until Yoshi was good enough to throw another blanket on top of me. I guess I was asleep for a couple of hours when Yoshi came to wake me up again because I’d probably wake up in the middle of the night and keep everyone in the building awake with my shenanigans.
So now, I’m in a semi-groggy state, blogging in run-on sentences, and having wonderful conversations like this:
Yoshi: Hey, what did we name my tapeworm?
Joz: Didn’t you name him Fred?
Yoshi: No, we couldn’t name him Fred because I have an uncle named Fred.
Joz: Was it Bob?
Yoshi: No, that’s not it either, because I have an uncle named Bobby.
Joz: Oh that’s right, that’s the problem we kept running into when we were trying to name your tapeworm. All the good names for tapeworms were taken by your uncles.
I will spare you from the chat transcripts of the IMs I had with stkyrice, where I was guessing what horrible plush disease he had given his boyfriend.
…with the blogging.la folks certainly started off my Sunday morning right!
Remember how I was complaining about my stomache ache all earlier this week?
Well, Mr. Don informs me that I can look the little bugger that was causing me so much pain right in the eyes… with GIANTmicrobes plush dolls!
Shigella (I call him Shiggy).
According to their website:
We make stuffed animals that look like tiny microbes—only a million times actual size!
Each 5-to-7 inch doll is accompanied by an image of the real microbe it represents, as well as information about the microbe.
I hate to be a nitpicker, but these dolls HAVE to be more than a million times actual size, don’t they?
None of the following microbes are welcome near me or my loved ones in real life (ok, maybe the Bookworm is ok), but I’ve asterisked the ones that are kind of cute in plush form:
The Common Cold*
The Flu
Sore Throat
Stomach Ache*
Cough
Ear Ache
Bad Breath
Kissing Disease*
Athlete’s Foot
Ulcer*
Martian Life
Beer & Bread (Yeast)
Black Death
Ebola
Flesh Eating
Sleeping Sickness
Dust Mite
Bed Bug
Bookworm*
(and in the Professional line: H.I.V. and Hepatitis).
Glamourcon is the premier gathering of Playmates, Models, Pinups, Artists, Photographers, Celebrities, Collectibles Dealers, Publication Vendors, Agencies in the Glamour industry and they’ve pulled together a huge guest list to come to town this weekend for Glamourcon 35.
Since I’m actually going to be at Glamourcon this weekend to support Genevieve Gallen, one of the many featured models at the event, I thought I’d make this post and put up a little bit of eye candy as long as I was at it.
In addition to a huge list of models (including well over 35 Playboy Playmates), there will also be booths from L.A. landmarks such as Golden Apple Comics and Hollywood Book & Poster and many, many others.
Anyone have any past Glamourcon stories to tell? Is anyone else planning to be there this weekend?
::Koga::
…staring at a blank screen, trying to think of what to write and go
plskdhfo;iahedf9pqy vpyr9q34y pds;lf pa9reh;aer oip
on the keyboard just to hear your fingers moving?
On a somewhat related tangent, when T was over a few weeks ago, she heard me typing on my keyboard and called me a “pounder.” I didn’t realize it, but I guess it’s true. Bossman used to comment about my fingers “flying at the keyboard” and I guess it’s ‘cuz he could hear me typing from his office. Am I really THAT loud a typer?
*typety-type-type-type*
…but most recently at Eden’s.
Press each letter in the address bar of your browser and list what the auto-complete function jumps to first.
A is for: andreah
B is for: blogging.la
C is for: (my) cafepress shop
D is for: danielphillip
E is for: ebay
F is for: fricative
G is for: gingersmack
H is for: hot links
I is for: innerzinc (zee)
J is for: jadedju
K is for: kitschycoup
L is for: l.a. times
M is for: maps at yahoo
N is for: nba (hey! who was using my computer?!)
O is for: ofoto
P is for: painfully cool
Q is for: quikbook
R is for: radiofreewill
S is for: scratching the itch
T is for: teebubble
U is for: umar siddiqi
V is for: vern yip
W is for: what the hell happened last night
X is for: xeni jardin
Y is for: yahoo
Z is for: nothing
::fricative::
…where I woke up on my own at 4am with less than 3 hours of sleep under my belt. I don’t know what’s going on, but this is frustrating, because I do get tired later in the morning when I get that little sleep in consecutive nights.
I’ve been up for more than 3 hours, unable to get back to sleep again. In addition to watching the sun come up this morning, I watched two old episodes of Friends, a re-run of Frasier, and yesterday’s Oprah with the makeovers of Julia Roberts & Gisele Bundchen’s friends & the Destiny’s Child reunion.
Oh yeah, and now I’m blogging.
If I’m going to start my days so early, maybe I need to figure out a way to watch less TV in the mornings. Believe me, I’ve never been a morning person, so I’m the last person who wants to start my days this early.
So Sharky and I found each other at the Museum of Television & Radio (MT&R) Annual Gala at the Beverly Hills Hotel earlier tonight. Neither of us knew the other was attending, so it was really great to see her again.
The Museum honored Barbara Walters and the cast & crew of Everybody Loves Raymond. It was a star-studded, red carpet event. It was hosted by Larry King, a replacement for Carl Reiner, the originally scheduled host. (I was personally disappointed that Mr. Reiner wasn’t able to attend. I was also disappointed that Brad Garrett couldn’t make it either.)
Here is the photo of the night: Michael Douglas and jozjozjoz, courtesy of Sharky, who hung around Mr. Douglas all night. (Thanks, Sharky!) Catherine Zeta Jones wasn’t there because she is in Mexico shooting a movie. I don’t know why I have a retarded hair problem, but oh well.
Michael Douglas was there to support Barbara Walters, as was Maria Shriver, with video messages from the hosts of “The View” and Oprah Winfrey.
Here is a partial list of celebs I saw tonight, in no particular order:
Ray Ramano, Patricia Heaton, Governor Gray Davis & Sharon Davis, Peter Boyle, Doris Roberts, the Sweeten kids: Madylin, Sawyer & Sullivan, Casey Kasem, Brett Lewis, Norman Lear, and more…
The original press release about the event is below… I also included some photos I took of the event below, as well.
Continue reading ‘Michael Douglas and Joz’
Johnny Depp in the window of a Montblanc store. Seen the other day at the Glendale Galleria… looking just as yummy as those choclolate-dipped strawberries.
::pepitosmith::
The next time I feel the urge to gorge myself, I need to remember how horrible I felt all last night and this morning. Ugh. The food was so good, but the tummy ache is just not worth it.
Tonight, I’ll be going to a red carpet event at the Beverly Hills Hotel and I’m hoping I’ll be completely recovered by this afternoon so I can enjoy myself. I think dinner is catered by Patina, so hopefully I’ll have my appetite back by then.
Our friends had a bunch of us over for an early Thanksgiving dinner… turkey, ham & all the fixins…
My tummy kept sending my brain the “Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm GOOD FOOD signal” and so my brain kept making my hand shovel more stuff into my mouth.
Four hours after I stopped eating, my tummy still feels like it’s going to burst.
Maybe Thanksgiving soda would’ve been a better idea…
I was awakened this morning by the world’s worst charleyhorse in my right calf.
I literally screamed and whined and cried for 30 minutes until it kind of went away.
Several hours later, it is still tight and very sore, but I can at least move without wanting to smack myself in the head with baseball bat to relieve the pain.
Yoshi has been calling me Gimpy all day…
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