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. :(

meh

Hm, I was just reminded that I saw that Kids Bop commercial for the CD with Bring Me to Life on it. Can you imagine it? Kids crooning about being “numb without a soul.” Hmm … *imagines hoardes of young goth lolis and kodona all over the place*

Ooh, in my Kera magazine (which I bought today XD) there’s some blurb about Evanescence. ^^;; Of course I can’t read it though. And then there’s this page in the back that looks like you can order older issues. And the one with Amy Lee on the cover is shown. But then I think it’s only available by calling in. ;.; (How much would a phone call to Japan to order a magazine cost? ^^;;;)

Oh well. Today I went with Mum to Mitsuwa and that store is closeded. o_o Guess business wasn’t very good … Mum bought plates from … U … something. Utsuwa? Yeah, utsuwa.com. ^_^ They’re black, and about 7 inches in diameter. She was looking at these reeeeally pretty plates with sakura on a stone-y texture, but they cost $5.50 each, so, yeah, forget about that.

Aaand … I got Nana volumes 1-3 and Gokinjo Monogatari volume 1! :D But I don’t know where to get the translations. ^.^;;

So now I have only $15 or so. Mm. I want to buy Haibane Renmei volume 2. But I don’t want to pay more than $25. ^^;; Oh yeah, I still have to see Millenium Actress … gehehe …

Well, I’ve been working on an Amy Lee mood theme for a while … but now I’m kinda bored with it. Ehehe. It’s hard finding piccies for some moods. Like busy. Or thankful. Or envious. @_@ Last night I started working on my new dreamlog, but then I got bored acause I lost this bunch of papers where I wrote down some dreams from a week ago. ^^;;; So now I feel like, “I don’t wanna do this!” Bleh.

I’ll fight that

I watched Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door Thursday, with Noelle. ^__^ (And since then I’ve had two separate mentions of Halloween. O.o One from SM00, I forget what for, and one from my mom today, talking about doughnuts she bought with orange and black sprinkles. “What am I supposed to do, keep it for a month and a half? They wouldn’t be doughnuts anymore!”)

Wheee! More Spike and Faye-Faye and Ed XD goodness! Plus hearing the soundtrack that I’ve been listening to for about a year now without having ever seen the movie. ^_^;;; That was cool. “Ooh! This song! *hums along*” ^-^

We made a stop at Mitsuwa on the way home. Mommy and I shared a “pork-flavored ramen” from Tampopo. XD And it was better than the other, a bit … still really salty. Not that that’s bad, I’m just thinking about my system digesting it. ^_^;; I also got her to buy nori in the market. (wheee, nori!! :D)

Then we looked at that “book” (manga) store. There was this huuge thing with GLAY on it. $50. Hm. o_o (They’re like full of pictures, or something, I don’t know.) The Ayumi Hamasaki one from some 2001 tour is still there, $15. And I knew no one else there. (There was a book on the top shelf that was labeled Brad Pitt. :b) Couldn’t find Gokinjo Monogatari or Paradise Kiss or any other manga I knew and was interested in (Inu-Yasha :b). The Ring 2 video is still there. *shiver* Must watch some time. ^^

Looked through Trendy (really, it’s the store’s name). Not much. Inu-Yasha DVDs, three, for $60. All-region coding, too. And subtitles. But … I didn’t want to spend that much money at the moment. And there was this Totoro doll, too. One of the smaller ones. It was so round and cuute! ^__^ Me want. But didn’t buy. (*can imagine SM00 hiding him as well* D<)

Then after dinner Mommy, Hidek, and I went to Westside Pavilion. I wanted The Sandman: Season of Mists and maybe some shirts, and Hidek wanted an Element hat. What we got: Element hat (black and red, oooh), Element t-shirt, and Vans t-shirt, and two pairs of shorts (Dutch girl style, as Mommy said ^_^;) and a Nirvana book for Hidek; larger purse (ish cool ^_^) to fit my sunglasses, The F***-Up, For All Time, Sorceress, Born Blue, and lastly, The Sandman: Season of Mists, all for me. No manga this time. *gasp* (And the string of “teen” books, I’ve wanted them all for a long while. For All Time since 9th grade or whenever. o_o)

I don’t know how much I spent … hopefully no more than $50. ^^;;; Oh yeah! Westside Pavilion has a skate shop. I never knew. They also have a PacSun that’s more LA-style (read: more coool :b) than the one in Thousand Oaks (i.e. upper middle-class x_x). I was actually beginning to think that it might not be so bad after all. :b~ Ooh ooh, and and, there’s an anime cart right outside the PacSun! *dances* Although it’s not as fully stocked as the one by Noelle (two shelves of manga and one shelf of DVDs *sniff*), it has a website! :D I still have to check that out. ^^;; Will do tomorrow.

Parting words … new layout (BoA ^^) at [STF (link to layout archive)]. I still have to make a new layout for IAT. And make the wallpaper site. (Or maybe not.) And divide Elsewhere into writing and images (I’m gonna rename EW “Ever Elsewhere.” ^^)

nothing left to say

Okay. New layout! Ehehe. I got it from the cover of The China Garden by Liz Berry. Copyrights and stuff under credits. ^^;; Anyway … I’m not sure the lyrics fit the image (they’re, uhh … The Corrs’ “Give It All Up”) but I couldn’t find anything better … in other words I searched for a few minutes and got lazy. XP Oh well.

Other layout got boring. Even with the wraparound text it’s still image here, text to the side. And this layout is the same, just reversed, but it’s still new, so it’ll stay up for, oh, say a couple of days. :b But I still like the other layout … Mikako … and pnik :b … and Ai Yazawa … but the coding/placement got boring. So yeah.

On Tuesday night Mommy got me to watch Dead Like Me. :D Funny show. Not just funny. It’s interesting. It’s not … plain humor. I like the actor who plays George. Or is it Georgia? *didn’t pay much attention* Whyyyy did they put it on at 11 at night?! And then … the regular airtime from now on is Fridays at TEN. ;_; That’s Monk time!!! *wails* Unfaaair!

here comes another one

Yaya! ^_^ New layout ish up. Yupyup. I dunno who it is. >.> I think it’s Mikako (Miwako’s older sis from Gokinjo Monagatari). Pink hair, pouty lips, yeah, sure points to Mikako. :b

Anyway. Lyrics are from Yo La Tengo. ^___^ I like them. Another indie pop group I like. XD Uhh, but they’re not my favorite or anything … actually, I think I could rightly say that The Cardigans are my most favorite of all time bands. Acause I keep going back to them. ^_^ *thinks of all the other bands/singers/groups she considered her favorite*

Well anyway. The song is on their album, “I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One,” which I got on Sunday. :D It’s Autumn Sweater, the song that has the most comments on SongMeanings.net. :b
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