Archives – December, 2006
Merry Belated Freaking Christmas!
James Brown died on Christmas. How sad. He was another one of those guys that I wished I could have seen live, but oh well. I can still dream of seeing Pavarotti in concert, although I doubt that will happen.
I was in a pretty bad mood on Christmas Eve. I don’t think it is PMS, since that shouldn’t start for another week, I think. I think it is just the holidays and me missing that certain person who seems to have forgotten me already.
My Mom’s friend Alda invited us to her annual Christmas Eve dinner at the Natsunoya Tea House. This place has been around since at least the 1920′s and it’s the last fully functioning tea house in Hawaii. It’s also about 2 streets away from my house, but I had never been there. It is quite Japanese too. You have to remove your shoes when you enter a dining area and you also sit on the floor in the main dining room.
Alda reserved a party room though, so we did get to sit in chairs. The party room was away from the main house, down a little walkway and that was in a kind of pseudo Japanese garden. The room had tatami floors too! I don’t have any pictures though, since I forgot my camera and I don’t have net service on my phone.
Dinner was nice though. It was family style with a lot of Japanese food. After dinner we played some games like Christmas Carol Pictionary. Alda also got some door prizes so everyone left with a present – which was awfully nice of her.
But, onto the Phat Lewtz!
I didn’t get much this year, but I don’t really get that many gifts anymore anyway. I did get a little spending money from my Grandma though – woot! Well, I got it a little before Christmas, and so I decided to get myself a couple of things that I had been wanting for a little while. I got a Brita pitcher that was really cheap at WalMart. I mean, the pitcher was cheaper than a filter and it came with a filter! Go figure. I should have gotten another one, just for the filter, but oh well.
The other thing I got myself was a Joby Gorillapod. What’s a Gorillapod? Only the coolest tripod out there – that’s what!
In case you can’t tell, it’s a flexible mini tripod. The neat thing is that the legs are fully flexible, so you can bend them around things – like poles, door knobs, whatever, in order to get the shot you want to get. Or like in the photo above, your camera can be on an uneven surface, but still be able to get stable shot. I would post a pic of my camera on it, but then I wouldn’t have a camera to take the picture. Doh.
The Gorillapod is also pretty tiny – it’s about 6 inches long and weighs a little less than an ounce – so it is easily transportable – especially considering that you could literally just loop it around a backpack or purse strap to transport it.
For more pictures, there is a whole photoset over at Flickr that you can check out.
Let’s see what else? Well, like so many years before this one, we got a lot of family gifts that consisted of snacks. Although the best one that we got was this one -
I *heart* Coffee.
My Mom’s tenant also gave me some soap and a Japanese wash cloth. It was very sweet of her, but I just find it extremely funny too.
My Mom got me one of those fancy art sets with like 100 tubes of oil, acrylic and water color paints, some colored pencils, some water color pencils and some oil pastels. Yikes! That’s a lot of color! It also came in a fancy wooden box. I am going to put pictures up of it tomorrow. The ones I took today came out all funky with a lot of glare. Oh well.
I didn’t get Rayne anything special for Christmas. I already got her a monster bag of sparkly fuzzies and she has subsequently lost like half of them. I am sure I can find them, but I would have to search all over the floor – under furniture and stuff – to find them. But it’s cool since she still has like 10 available to her right now.
Instead we gave her a special treat for the holiday.
It’s sashimi! She went absolutely bonkers over it. She only ate half of it though, we are saving the rest for tomorrow.
I got my Mom a Family Guy DVD set and she loves it. I got her hooked on Family Guy months ago and well, we watched like 5 hours of episodes today. Ach.
So I thought I would close this post with some holiday related photos.
This is what happens when you let a poinsettia plant go wild. It becomes a giant bush!
December 26, 2006
| You scored as C.G. Jung. You are more of a spiritualist than would be immediately apparent. Some of your notions are questioned by the cynical, but deep down you know the human consciousness is more than the flesh and tissue can account for. You tend to take a scientific observationist look on matters the average person wouldn’t even begin to analyze. You personally are responsible for most of the ideas that are floating around in modern psychologist’s/psychic’s paltry little skulls. On the down side, you tend to be associated with that asshole Freud. |
What Pseudo Historical Figure Best Suits You?
created with QuizFarm.com
December 25, 2006
I took Thursday and Friday as rest days. Partly because I was tired and partly because my Mom decided to stay up late those nights watching the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
Saturday night I did the Firm’s Complete Aerobics and Weight Training from BSS2 again. I really like this workout. It is definitely one of my favorite Firm’s.
I got through it okay, except that I did have to stop in the middle to stretch my back out. Grrr.
I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do Sunday night. I was thinking about going down and using the treadmill, but my Mom and I went to a Christmas party and I just wasn’t able to make it down there before we had to go.
I should have done a pure cardio workout, but I didn’t feel like that either. So instead I did the Firm Parts: Standing Legs workout.
OMFG, it’s a tough workout. It’s basically about 45 minutes, (including warm up and stretch), of lunges, squats and leg presses. It’s called a Firm Parts video because it is a compilation of exercises from the first 6 Firm workouts. I haven’t done this one in a looooooong time and I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to make it through, but I did. Well, I did have to stop a couple of times to stretch my back out, again, (sigh), but I did it! Woot!
I also wanted to do some ab work after that, so I did the ab workout from the Firm Volume 6 off of the Firm Parts 5 Day Abs video.
Grrr, I wish I knew what it was exactly that causes my lower back to hurt so much when I do some videos. I really try to watch my form whenever I work out, so it shouldn’t be from bad form. I think I get back pain because my abs must be weak. At least I hope that it is what it is. At least I can rectify that by working on my belly more.
December 25, 2006
I saw this over at Kristen’s blog, who saw it on someone else’s blog, who saw it at someone else’s blog – and thought it would be fun. I got the music off of what is on my mp3 player right now. I love my Zen Micro, but the random option on it is pretty sucky for some reason.
Rules:
1. Open your music library (iPod, iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For every question, type the song that’s playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool…
Waking Up: Emerge by Fischerspooner (One)- Gosh, how appropriate!
First Day at School: Thoughtformsby Lush (Gala) – Man, I wish I could understand what they were saying.
Falling In Love: New Star in the Sky by Air (Moon Safari) – Moon Safari has got to be one of the greatest albums of the 90′s. It’s hypnotic and mesmerizing – I guess like love is.
Fight Song: Hey Little Girl by Mathias Schaffhauser feat. Rob (Ultra 80′s vs. Electro)
Breaking Up: Minimum Rage by Green Velvet (Whatever)
Prom: Let the Music Play by Shannon (Let The Music Play) – HA! I never went to any Proms though. I was in Washington, DC the week of my Junior Prom and in Germany during my Senior year of high school. Oh well. I don’t think anyone would have asked me to go anyway.
Life: Kelly, Watch the Stars by Air (Moon Safari)
Mental Breakdown: Someday by Debbie Deb (She’s Back!)
Driving: Jeremiah by Storm, Inc (Live at DNA Lounge, San Francisco) – this was one of Storm Large’s earlier bands. Man, Storm Large is such an awesome woman.
Flashback: Raw Heat off of Chrome Children (Chrome Children) – This is some compilation album put out by Adult Swim from the Cartoon Network. The album really isn’t that bad – lots of ambient and rap I can only classify as “ambient rap.”
Wedding: A Good Idea At The Time by Ok Go (Oh No) – LOL!
Birth of Child: Let It Take You by Goldfrapp (Supernature)
Final Battle: All That I Got by Fergie (Dutchess)
Death Scene: Great Day by Storm, Inc (Live at DNA Lounge San Francisco) Great Day? Pffffft.
Funeral Song: Shake and Pop by Green Velvet (Shake and Pop/Electricity 3-Track Single) Oh yea, get down and funky.
End Credit: Talisman by Air (Moon Safari) – How odd. This song has no lyrics, but it always brings me to the verge of tears whenever I hear it.
December 24, 2006
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