posting…New Year’s weekend

I’ve been a lazy blogger. Bad me. Umm, lessee…

December 27th, Wednesday, took my car in for 30,000 mile maintenance. The service area’s computers were out, and we (Daddy and I) waited an hour then found out the computers were back on but they didn’t tell us. -.-

My car didn’t get worked on until 2 in the afternoon, and so my car wasn’t ready until the next day. Argh. I woke up at nine to see if the car was ready but they didn’t call so I called them, then got put on hold for about 5 minutes before I was disconnected. (It’s a very busy place with not so good channels of communication open with the customers.) So then Daddy Hidek and I went in the van to pick up Noelle Tadash and SM00 for the weekend.

Friday we (everyone, Mum Daddy Hidek Noelle Tadash SM00 me) went to Mitsuwa in Torrance. Mmm, good udon. *grin* Everyone else (except Daddy, he didn’t get anything) had ramen.

Went to the bookstore. I bought the Paradise Kiss manga series in some special large(r) format. I don’t know what it is, I can’t read the Japanese on it, but I do know it’s an inch or so larger on the sides. Then we went to Fry’s, but Mum Daddy and I stayed in the car. They had the Wii but you had to buy 5 games with it. o.O Odd.

Oh yeah, it turns out my car was ready at 10 on Thursday. They must have called right after we stepped out the door. ;.; We went to pick it up at 3 but their computers were down again so we couldn’t pay with credit card. ARGH. So we left then came back at 5 to pick up my car.

Hidek rented Talladega Nights from Blockbuster, we watched that Thursday/Friday night, I don’t remember. We thought it was really funny. ^_^;; Daddy and I (and Mickey, some) watched practically all the extras. I really liked it. But this movie had less, er, guest roles? (drivers from NASCAR) than Cars did. :/ I thought that was kinda boring. But I guess they didn’t really fit into the story.

Erm, I don’t remember, one day we watched Shimotsuma Monogatari (English title: Kamikaze Girls) and Dark Water. Was it Saturday? And we watched Talladega Nights on Friday? It was weird, ’cause after watching Dark Water, that night SM00 went into the hallway and she came out saying water was dripping from the smoke alarm. O.o! The girl was coming to haunt us! But it turned out that the toilet upstairs flooded, and leaked downstairs. ehehe That night the boys and I played Texas Hold’em. Then SM00 joined us to play the boardgame Payday. (1994 edition. Apparently, the old version didn’t have the lottery. o.o But that part is so fun! XD)

Sunday we went to their house to make mochi. (Gee, I can’t say “pound mochi” can I?)

Monday, New Year’s, that was fun. I actually got to see the whole Rose Parade for once. o.o I think last year I was too nervous about school to sit down and watch television. And all the years before, we always went to a relative’s house to celebrate and not much tv watching got done. I guess I missed out on the Stephanie Edwards and Bob Eubanks era. :( I remember her, but I never really watched so I don’t know how she did the parade.

Tuesday Daddy, Hidek and I went to Borders. I returned the Nana manga that had the security device with the dried up glue that was pulling out the paper and got a $20 journal for only $1.73 with the return and my holiday savings. woohoo! Then I went with Daddy to Barnes and Noble. Why? I dunno. Just felt like going out, maybe I felt like looking at their journals and date books.

Wednesday Mum and I went out shopping.

Thursday I watched a lot of Monk season 3.

Friday, I don’t remember. o.O Saturday all the relatives got together at Noelle’s house for New Year’s. We left our house at 9 like we planned (shocking; maybe everyone was hungry, haha) and got to Noelle’s house around 10. Had good ozoni. XD Hidek bought Wario Ware, so we played that. I made wonton with Daddy helping. Then the boys played NASCAR I don’t remember which one, for the Gamecube. Then we had dinner. Yummm. I’ve got some leftovers sitting in the fridge for dinner sometime this week. XD

Sunday packed up my stuff. Pretty much all I did was watch tv. Drove up to school. Unpacked stuff.

Christmas

A computer-less weekend! Oh my!

Let’s start on Saturday. Mum wanted me to help her make the cookies, so I did that. We made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (or chocolate chip oatmeal cookies?) with some coconut thrown in ’cause Mum likes that, and “holiday nuggets.” I dunno what they are. ._. They’ve got lots of shortening and butter and sifted powdered sugar and chopped nuts, and they’re covered in powdered sugar. Very good. heehee.

Since Mum was doing other stuff (I forget what), and my elbows are I am so frickin weak, we got Mickey to hold the bowl for me while I stirred everything into dough. ehehe. And since Mickey was sacrificing his time, I thought we should put on some Christmas videos so he wouldn’t be so bored.

We watched Timmy’s Gift (Precious Moments), then It’s Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown (saw the first and last Christmas specials on TV last week), then Care Bear’s Nutcracker Suite, I Love Lucy Christmas special, Madeline’s Christmas (that tape’s going bad ;.;), then Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol (and an added short that’s on the DVD), then Mickey’s Christmas Carol, then Brand Spanking New Doug Christmas special.

Grandpa’s birthday was the Monday (or Tuesday?) before, so he and Grandma came over for Chinese take-out to celebrate. My great aunt had them over for dinner earlier that week, too. Uncle R couldn’t come Saturday ’cause he had to work. XD So we had good eats. Then Little Women, the 1933 version with Katherine Hepburn, was on, so we watched that. Grandma could name practically all the actors. o.o But then again, I just remembered that she asked me only once where Hidek was. Hmm. It was Grandpa who asked about a dozen times during the movie, “Is that Katherine Hepburn?” *blink*

They left a little while before the movie ended, to pick up Uncle R? So Mickey popped in another tape and he, Mum, Daddy and I watched the Hey Arnold and old Doug and Edith Ann Christmas specials.

At nine Meet Me in St. Louis was on, so Mum and I watched that until 11. ^^ One of my favorite movies, wheee!

Sunday I wrapped my presents to everybody (except Mickey and Hidek ’cause Mum did that for helping her with the cookies), then made the brownies. Mum watched The Homecoming while she made the yams. I like that movie all right, but I guess at my age it just moves too slowly for me. When I’m older I’ll probably enjoy it more. I didn’t watch the whole thing. I left around the time John Boy went to the church. Oh, I guess I went on the computer over the weekend. I talked to Adam, then went to bed at midnight.

Christmas day Mum woke me up at 8:30. I got dressed, opened my Santa present ($15), then we were actually on time and left at 9. *shock* The streets were so empty. XD One of my favorite parts of Christmas. L.A. is so dead! We got to Auntie G’s, unpacked, hung around for breakfast that Tadash and Noelle and Auntie made. Mickey and I washed the dishes and Mum dried and put things away. Then we watched Hidek beat my cousin’s husband at Texas hold’em and win $5. XD; Then we opened presents. Noelle liked her present from us. :D It was a $20-bill folded into a ring and it was in a ring box. XDD Noelle Tadash and SM00 gave me a Dooney & Bourke wristlet that SM00 picked out. I like it, it’s cute and not ugly like lots of purses out there nowadays, and it’s definitely classy.

Tadash got the Axis & Allies boardgame, so the boys and aforementioned cousin’s husband and Uncle G played that. I did the money. Muahahaha, that is my role in (boardgame) life. I finally learned how to play the game. o.o My brothers had played with my dad’s game since elementary school, then Tadash has been borrowing it lately, and we never really knew how to play. ahaha. It’s a role-playing game. o.O Gotta roll dice, always roll dice, more and more dice… I’m okay. I’ve just never seen so many dice in one place outside of a game store. I think they got through three rounds of turns.

Technically the Axis (cous’ hus and Uncle G) was winning when we had to clean up for dinner. Uncle G gained a lot of land, and he had a huge army. Mickey had land, but his resources were thin. Hidek had pretty much the same as at the beginning (oh, plus 6 tanks and no transport XD) and I think Tadash had about the same as well. He called me a Nazi ’cause I thought the Axis looked like it would win. booo.

Noelle’s family left after/during dinner (after theirs, during ours, hehe). Hidek had me and Mickey play Big 3 then Egyptian War during/after dinner. Afterwards, I read League of Extraordinary Gentlemen vol. II some then had dessert and sat around listening to grownups talk while Hidek, Mickey, and second-oldest cousin did the dishes. We left soon after that, ’cause Mickey had to work today, and they were starting up The Devil Wears Prada. ;.; I missed it! I uh, also left my laptop and The Secret Garden there. *furtive glance* I was tired and just wanted to leave. ^^;; Mum picked them up from my second-oldest cousin’s husband today though.

Today I just watched my Monk season 3 DVDs (Mr. Monk and the Blackout, I couldn’t remember who the suspect was ¬.¬) and read volume 7 of Gokinjo Monogatari. Wahh, it’s over! But I really liked the extra chapter! Miwako!! XDDD Although I think I might like Mikako more than Miwako now. >.> Probably just because Mikako was the main character and you could go into her character more, as opposed to Miwako who was just a side character and didn’t get much development compared to Mikako or Yukari. :(

many nights go by…

Haven’t updated for a while. Haven’t really had anything update-worthy. I think my brain took a vacation and I haven’t really thought of any post-worthy opinions.

Saturday … uhm … I think I didn’t do anything special. Sunday I went with Daddy to the mall. He went to buy cards for New York relatives and cookies for the neighbors. I went to get 30% off a Nana manga, but Borders Express didn’t have the Nana I want. *tear* They only had 1 and 2. I finished 3 a little while ago, and there’s a bit of a cliffhanger there, so blagh I wanna read the next one really soon.

I bought Hot Gimmick volume 10 instead. I read that last night, and I just kept getting confused. Who are these characters? What’s going on? What happened? Blah. I have to reread the whole series. -.-

Monday … was nothing interesting, really. Mum stayed home because she felt a little sick, and went in to work today. Afterwards we went to the market.

Wow, I’m talking about going grocery shopping as the highlight of my day. No wonder I don’t update outside of school. *makes a face*

What else can I talk about … Oh, on my validate-all-websites’-XHTML project, I got a little further along. With [Blue Book (link to quotes site)] I switched from using html documents to php documents for the pages, just so it’s easier to update the layout. Specifically the navigation. The reason I stuck with frames for that site so long is ’cause I didn’t want to have to update the navi for every single page. I’m happier with the site now! I might actually update more often! I still have to clean out the quotes, get rid of ones I don’t like any longer.

But I suppose that’s only interesting to me. Maybe Noelle.

Um, on Christmas presents I’ve bought or put together everyone’s but SM00’s. I’m gonna go get that tomorrow. The sad thing is that both Hidek and Mickey paid up everything they owe for all the presents (I usually buy stuff and we split roughly three ways), and I’ve got only $21 cash for SM00’s present, and I want to check Borders tomorrow to see if they have Monk season 3 (40% off DVD boxsets) and Nana volume 4. Technically I have only $80 in my checking account (just because the property managers haven’t cashed the rent check yet doesn’t mean I count the $1300 that’s in there), and maybe I can ask Mum for $70 tomorrow for inputting Grandpa’s stuff into Quicken that I can deposit in the bank, and then I’ll feel better about using debit to pay for Borders stuff.

Two sentences that were toooo long. I need to get to bed.

my own home

Ahaha yeah don’t ask what I’m doing up so late again. D’oh.

Umm … I packed up my stuff last night, so this morning C and I loaded the car from about 9:30 to 10. *blink* Yeah. We had so much stuff. Barely fit in the car. Shocking. Gas was $2.69! Grr. Traffic was good. Normal, I mean. It backed up on the 405 around Sunset. And for some reason, there were quite a few cars on Sunset. Maybe ’cause it was lunchtime. I dunno.

I unpacked most of my stuff. ^^;; Still need to set up my desktop, if I do. I probably will; I’ve got the scanlations of Gokinjo Monogatari sitting on there. (I’ve still got the .rar files on my laptop, but then I’d have to unzip them and save them somewhere and there’d just be duplicate files sitting taking up space when I have perfectly good files on my desktop.)

It’s cold here. ;.; Well, I mean, it’s moderate yah (L.A. weather…) but there’s gonna be rain over the weekend (the channel 2 weather anchor said thunderstorms! *bounces*) and it was overcast today so no sun. And, most of all, this house is just plain cold. But Mum said she and Daddy laid down three sections of insulation over … some area … in the old part of the house. I wasn’t wearing a sweatshirt during the day! (No, I was just wearing a tank top, shirt, thermal top, socks, leggings, and sweat pants. *grin*)

…I think I just smashed a spider unknowingly. *shudder* I was lying down on the floor, but sat up to type this entry, and I just looked at my knee where I noticed this daddy long-legs was. eeeee. Creepy. >_> (Note: I like spiders. Just as long as they’re not running toward me or located somewhere on my person.) But … at least it was dead. ^^;; I killed it! *sniffle*

I need to get to bed. O_o

rain Wet Christmas

Wow I spent an hour on this computer already. Bad me!

Over the weekend I just worked on my art journal. Not much interesting there. It rained. Lots. eep. I’m glad I didn’t have to be anywhere in it. ^_^

Oh, but I did take Hidek to Circuit City to see if they had the Wii in. grr.

I have no idea how people can drive so frickin close when they’re going so frickin fast when there’s lots of water that’s spraying up into a mist behind cars. *twitch twitch* I stayed behind this RV and van that were going 45 on the 101. ^^;; I also wasn’t feeling completely awake while I was driving.

It’s so weird, in L.A. when I thought I saw rain, it wasn’t really rain, it was more like a drizzle compared to what I’ve seen at the community college I went to in Ventura County, and here. And yet people in L.A. still don’t know how to drive in it. O_o

Hm. Today I woke up at 8:45 and left at 9:30 to get my pictorial space project printed and my art journal bound. Still not done with it, I just wanted it bound. I just pretty much have to write some stuff and print some stuff and glue stuff in. Oh yeah, I have to make the folders though. meep.

Before I left, I was watching music channels (it turns out the California station here doesn’t play KTLA morning news after 9, whyyyy?). Um, heard a band I want to look into on Steven’s Untitled Rock Show, Over It. On VH1 Classic they were having a special with Twisted Sister about their new Christmas album. It’s funny how good metal can sound if there’s a tune behind it. XD;;; I saw the music video for “Oh Come All Ye Faithful” and I didn’t think it was disgusting. (I am not a fan of metal or the like.)

But I don’t think I want to hear their version of “White Christmas.” I just can’t hear any version other than Bing Crosby’s. (I’ve also come to really love the movie Holiday Inn. XD) Same goes for “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” Erm, with Judy Garland replacing Bing Crosby. *blink*