lucky magazine

i get lucky magazine:

inside, they have these tabs for readers to mark what they like:

i picked up my magazine yesterday to read it and this is what i found on the back cover:

that vic.

i found a shirt perfect for me

ah ha hahah

pics

we went to ai sushi last night (again, for the 48th time) and while i forgot my camera (again), i had my new blackberry curve which has a camera! look at how spectacular their stuff looks:

also on my phone were 2 artsy pics of myself which i showed vic and he was very impressed with my photo posing skills

i don't know why i am so damn happy-looking as i recognize the background and that's my work building. but sometimes you get so stressed you just have to laugh.

weekend food fest

i cannot be more excited about where/what we're eating this weekend.

tomorrow, a trip to the eye doctor to get new glasses for both vic and me (thank you new work vision insurance plan) and then to miga 59 in the burbs which is this contemporary korean buffet (with korean bbq!) but all fancy. then afterwards to my parents' house to visit perkaloo and pick up my food order. heh heh heh. i asked my mom to make us noi mi fen, 2 salty and 2 sweet. :) if it would've been practical to transport sao bing, you taio and dou jiang, i would've requested it. a prelude to the goodies we'll get to eat in taiwan. mmm can't wait.

then sunday, i got us in!!! at table fifty-two. just look at this place's menu. http://www.tablefifty-two.com/. just look at this place's dessert options:
Art's Hummingbird Cake 8.5
Strawberry-Blueberry Buckle with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream 8.5
Smith Family Twelve-Layer Chocolate Cake 9

there's no way we're not ordering all 3. there is just no way.

and look at this wonderful review on centerstage: http://www.centerstagechicago.com/restaurants/table-fifty-two.html!
chock full of wonderful nuggets like: "good-old fashioned, home-style Southern meal", "thirteen white-clothed tables dot this beautiful space", "you won't feel like moving after the feasts served here", "sample a wide array of soul food at the weekly 'Sunday Supper'... featuring 10 dishes like ... buttermilk fried chicken breast and three-cheese macaroni", "don't skip dessert", and "the Hummingbird Cake, featuring two pieces of pineapple, coconut and banana cake with vanilla ice cream, makes a perfect end to the meal."

ahhh!!!!

tt

i don't understand.

why did they put all of this:

"turbocharged 2.0-liter 4-cylinder with direct injection that makes an astounding 272 bhp and 258 lb.-ft. of torque. This brawny powerplant propels the all-wheel-drive 2+2 sports coupe and two-seat roadster to 62 mph (100 km/h) in 5.2 seconds and has an electronically limited top speed of 155 mph."

into this:

funny-shaped new tt

instead of into this?

gorgeous old tt

idiots!!! makes me so mad.

mochi takes after her mama!

i LOVE horror movies.

(click on above picture)

cat trees

this blog post is on the very important topic of cat trees.

vic and i have decided to get mochi (the cutest cat in the world (except for perky)) a cat tree! this is for her benefit, but also for the benefit of our furniture.

but why is it that every cat tree sold at every pet store is so boring? where are the tree-shaped ones? where are the pagodas?

in my mind, i'm envisioning something like this:


but instead, in the stores i always find this:

i'd sooner bust out a hammer and nails and build my own cat tree than pay money for something like that, so i did an exhaustive online search and much to my own surprise and excitement, found this wonderful-looking tree:

now, i agree this 8-footer is a bit much (especially for mochi who is currently the size of a loaf of bread) but do you see how this could also please the homeowner? it's like a work of art! unfortunately it's also priced as art ($1000+) so mochi's probably not getting this as her parents are selfishly going on a cruise later on this year and money does not fall from the skies.

upon closer inspection of the website, i saw who the tree was actually intended for:

. . . . . . . . . .

while the 3.5 lb. mochi is quite ferocious, she is by no means a siberian tiger.

i also found this tree which looked promising:

but then saw this picture:


is that a snow leopard?!?!

i have obviously been looking at zoo furniture, but i really believe a cat tree should look like a real tree. now the key is to find one that doesn't cost $1000 plus $500 for freight shipping. otherwise, it really will be time to bust out the hammer and nails. poor vic.

hello vday, goodbye vday

yesterday morning there was this HUGE bouquet of flowers at our reception desk. i asked our receptionist if it was for me (knowing damn well it wasn't but i can hope can't i) and true enough it wasn't, it was for one of our first-year associates. how cute, young love. i remember when i used to get bouquets and cookies and chocolates... but now, i am my own cupid. if i want it, i buy it for myself. it's so romantic.

OKOKKOOKOK so i told vic we weren't allowed to buy each other valentine's day gifts (i already have 5 smooching singing & dancing plush gorillas, i don't need anymore.) and maybe i said something to him about how flowers really were a horrible waste of money, please don't send me any more flowers, i can't eat flowers, etc. but still. a cookie bouquet isn't technically a flower bouquet, right? ok, so maybe i told vic a month ago i swore off cookies by design b/c they contain trans fat and if i'm going to get trans fat from something, it's going to be from a double-decker chocolate cake. ok so maybe i don't have anything to complain about since i dug my own damn vday grave.

but i did not dig myself a vday dinner grave! vday evening was very nice as we had a nice romanicky dinner at roy's. :) they had a special 4-course prie fixe menu but vic and i had 5 courses b/c of course, we ordered an extra dessert. they can't have 3 dessert options and expect us (me) to only pick 2!!! i took pictures of the first course (appetizers) and the second course (soup/salad), but got so distracted by our third course (main entree) and fourth course (dessert), i totally forgot to take pictures and those were the ones that were the most impressive-looking. clearly i would not make it as a photo journalist -- i often remember to take pictures of things long after they've come and gone.

i did however get a good picture of mochi helping vic pick out condos/townhomes for us to look at:

"dad! this one looks good! the master walk-in looks like it has a good chance of holding at least 1/2 of mom's wardrobe!" ha ha ha. mochi you are too funny.

auto show

last night we had dinner in chinatown (very tasty) and afterwards went to the chicago auto show where i saw my dream car up close:

audi r8

but it starts at $120,000 so forget it.

the auto show was a lot of fun. we walked around the entire place and sat in a lot of cars. my favorites to sit in were the toyota fj cruiser, mercedes g500 and the jeep rubicon something something. the jeep was particularly fun b/c it was part of this off-roading course demonstration and did things like drive up 45 degree inclines, go down 45 degree declines, drive through a mini-lake, speed over bumpy terrain where you're bouncing 3 feet in the air, etc. the ride was over too fast, but i guess that's the thing -- it makes you want to buy one. anyway, i was sold and was convinced we needed a jeep (for the rocky hilly terrain that is downtown chicago), but only until we moved onto the next exhibit.

i made us stop at one point to enter a suzuki drawing for free travel luggage that was going to happen in 5 minutes. there were tons of entries so it looked like a waste of time, but you never know. but i should know. vic wins every contest he enters!! within the last year he's won an adobe acrobat/photoshop software package and an xbox360 elite at two different work conferences. unbelievable. so out of about 500 entries at this suzuki drawing thing, of course he wins. and he's not even paying attention! i'm watching (like a hawk) the suzuki rep guy juggle all the entry ballot forms and stick his hand in the bin, and vic is off somewhere checking out some suzuki suv (sitting in the driver's seat, opening the trunk, etc.) when they call out his name, he's still in the suv but i cheer and i'm so excited people are thinking i'm a girl named vic. but whatever. he goes up to get the prize and suzuki snaps some pictures, and i'm beaming the whole time. i'm married to a horseshoe and for the rest of the night i went around making us enter every sweepstakes they had. one of them was for a brand new car. we'll see!

rock band stuff

finally, we are platinum!

what a painful experience. it took 4.5 hours, which overall wasn't so bad, but when we were going through it, about halfway through i was really tempted to abort mission. i was just so sick of singing! before you begin, you think of nothing else you'd rather do than accomplish this damn mission, but then in the middle some strange funk hits you and you think you'd rather do anything but continue on.

around song 25:
me: "ok, we know we can do it. let's just watch spiderman 3."
vic: "what? we can watch spiderman 3 after we finish."
me: *sad face* "ok, fine."

around song 27:
me: "these songs suck. let's watch harry potter."
vic: "harry potter will be there after we finish. we've already come this far."
me: "what about the chimera virus? it's taking over england. we have to save london."
vic: "afterwards."

around song 29:
me: "rock band blows. this is stupid. shall we eat the fat-free cheesecake i made?"
vic: "ok, we can pause and take a break."
me: "what?? i don't want to take a break. i want to take a quit."

around song 35:
vic: "you doing ok? we're doing well."
me: "i'm dying."
vic: "sorry."

[note: although the above makes it seem like vic was ruthless in finishing, in fact he was very kind and kept bringing me water and drinks and asking if i wanted to take a break. by this point, i was singing all the songs lying on my back with my head propped up by pillows. vic was playing standing up. we were a very interesting looking band.]

around song 48:
me: "10 more songs! i can't believe only 10 more songs!"
vic: "we're making good progress. do you want to take another break?"
me: "no breaks, we gotta make it to the end."

around song 50:
vic: "are you tired, why don't you drink some water."
me: *with a slightly maniacal look* "i'm fine!!! we have to finish! oh my god the xbox better not break down. no red rings of death!"
vic: "let's just quit and watch a movie."
me: *evil look*

on song 56:
me: [after i flunk out for the first time during that stupid "i get by" song by honest bob and factory dealer incentives] "this song is so stupid."
me: [after i flunk out the second time during that same stupid song] "i hate this f-en song!"
me: [after i manage to slog through the rest of the song so we don't have to redo it] *dance a jig*
vic: "two more songs"

and then finally, after song 58:

i'm really glad to have done it, but never again! *cough* *no voice*

from sarah to aleen to diana

just look at this magnificent cupcake. it's technically called "sarah's signature butter cream cup cake" (from sarah's bakery) but today it was called, "diana's happy chinese new year afternoon treat from aleen, who is a great and fantastic friend".

i really wanted to eat it like a lady, but i wound up snarfing it down. so, as usual, it was gone before i knew it. :(

random stuff

happy chinese new year!! we are going to celebrate by eating chinese food and not eating at ai sushi for once. i got my aunt to give me her restaurant's recipe for chinese chicken noodles to make for tonight. ... but ai sushi has this japanese sweet potato that is so delicious. i know i know, there's tons of stuff i think is so damn delicious and the best ever, but this one really is. this japanese sweet potato dish's not on the menu b/c if it were, there would be a global shortage of japanese sweet potatoes and then ai sushi would have nothing to put underneath their filet mignon when they serve it!

completely unrelatedly, i really want to get one of these cool cat trees for mochi.

i originally wanted to get one for perky when i first saw these a few years ago, but since perky lives with my parents, my parents would have to consent to having an 8' tall piece of attention-grabbing cat furniture in their house. not surprisingly, both my mom and dad were like, no way.

also completely unrelatedly, rainbow six vegas 2 -- March 21 release date:
http://www.xbox360fanboy.com/2008/02/05/rainbow-six-vegas-2-set-for-a-march-21st-release/

party! although i really can't think about that now. i'm just thinking of the japanese sweet potatoes.

going for platinum

a small miracle has occurred. netflix is finally shipping us harry potter. my god, the series has already come and gone by the time we are finally watching the movies!

i've spent the last few days working at my new second job. my old second job (rock band drummer/singer) has been demoted to third job as my new second job is being mochi's mama. after reading online about how serious kitty diseases can be to a kitty, i took mochi to the vet at the clinic yesterday. what a production. i had to rush back from work, line her new carrier with a fluffy blanket, get her into the carrier (no easy feat) and endure her pitiful meowing -- broken up only by her sneezes -- all the way to the vet's office. once at the vet's though, she was a good little kitten, except she sneezed (first and only time) on the vet right when he got close to check her eyes/nose. however, the vet was really nice, told me a lot about the cat flu and gave her treats and medicine. he called mochi Sneezy the whole time, which i thought was funny.

on the rock band front, i am having troubles picking a solo tour and sticking with it. i've done about 30 songs on hard drum solo tour but am stuck on vasoline. each time i play it's the same: i play 3 med drum solos but then get bored so i switch over to expert singing. then i sing 2 songs and think, i know i can do hard drum solo. so i try that damn vasoline song again, flunk out 3 times, curse the machine and go back to my solo singing career b/c i hate the drums.

thank goodness i have a bandmate. and one who is gifted at guitar/bass. :)

my bandmate and i are going to try expert endless setlist this weekend.

more mochi pics

here is mochi trying to lay an egg.



here is mochi helping me put the duvet cover on.


i am a tired mama, but still a proud mama.

i'm sleepy

i am so tired!

i feel like a mom with a newborn. our kitty has a cold (apparently it's common w/ new kittens) :( so she sneezes all the time and kept us up all night. she's very cute with her little mini *kachew* *kachew*s, but she's also a snuggler so she likes to come up onto the bed while we're sleeping and sneeze all over us. *kachew* *kachew* last night i kept nudging her toward vic b/c i felt like i was getting unfairly sneezed on more and it was keeping me awake, but then vic woke up after one particular sneeze (and spray effect) and said "geez, i need a sneeze guard", and that made me laugh really hard so i couldn't go back to sleep b/c i couldn't stop laughing.

anyway, i called the vet first thing this morning and they said it's very common, that as long as she's eating, she's fine and the cold will run it's course and she'll be healthy again.

in the meantime, i'm going to sleep with a towel over my head.

we finally did endless setlist on rock band. thank you to everyone who came over and helped!

we went to the whole foods in south loop yesterday. now that is a mega whole foods. not as big as the mothership in omaha which is larger than a costco, but has the same things offered as the omaha one that i've never seen elsewhere. an udon noodle station and sushi bar and enough samples foods that if you walk through the whole place you can get a 7 course meal w/out paying a penny. we found these mochi ice creams there that they handmake in hawaii (the same brand served at ai sushi) and got it in green tea and mango flavors. they were $7.99!!!! a box, but oh well, we have to eat.

speaking of food, what is up with eli's cheesecake. where has that been all my life. that is some TASTY cheesecake!! maybe it has to do w/ the fact i haven't had cheesecake in over 10 years, but it is damn delicious and the best i've ever tasted.

mochi the cat

it's a long story, but vic and i are now brand new parents. meet mochi!

we adopted her from the anti-cruelty society yesterday. she's the tiniest little thing, so playful and cute! she's on the skinny side, a little malnourished, so the shelter was like, please make sure you feed her well, she needs to gain some weight. i was like, trust me lady, this cat's going to think she's at the vegas buffets with the assortment we'll be giving her. my parents, vic and i feed perky (who is surprisingly not a tub o' lard but only 9.5 lbs., awww i miss perky, what a cuteycat), as i was saying... 2 kinds of hard food, 2 kinds of soft food, tuna sashimi, shrimp and calamari on a daily basis. so yes, mochi is going to get the same kind of love.

my hub

vic (reading his car magazines): "the new mercedes is really nice. . ." (flip flip) "the audi a5 looks nice too, but it's a gas guzzler with that gas guzzler tax." . . . "we should stop by that porsche dealership." . . . . . "the new model of the acura mdx looks so different now, you can't tell it apart from the acura rdx." . . . . . "there's a new bmw m3 coming out, it looks nice don't you think?"

diana (deep in her own line of thinking): "i'm going to buy 2 bags of onion rings at whole foods tomorrow."

vic: "we are having two separate conversations."

--------------

so our tt got rear-ended a few weeks ago. it's all fixed and pretty now, but at the time it was traumatic. i mean, the TT is my baby.

[in the elevators, it's me, vic and a nice older british couple who had just seen us outside with the TT and getting a police report for insurance purposes]

british gentleman (in a nice english accent): "i say (ok so i added the i say part, but the rest of this quote is true and verbatim), that's quite a shame what they did to the back of your silver porsche out there."

diana (frozen solid from standing outside and dazed and confused from entire scenario): "oh, you mean the TT? yeah."

british gentleman: "oh, it's an audi TT. nice looking car you two have got there. what a terrible shame."

vic says thanks. i smile politely.

diana (exiting the elevator): "that was nice, that they noticed us outside and said what they said."

vic (nodding): "yeah."

we're both quiet as we're walking down the hall to our condo, just thinking about what happened outside. we unlock the door and walk in.

vic: "on the bright side, they thought your car was a porsche."

tv land

i was just sending a work email to clients but instead of typing "Regards" at the end, i typed in "Retards". must be what i not-so-subconsciously think of these clients.

overall, my mood is joyful and excited. this is b/c vic and i went condo shopping this weekend and... WE NOW HAVE A BRAND NEW MONGO LCD TV AND PS3 AND SELECTION OF BLU-RAY MOVIES!!! it went like this: "ooo i like this place. oooo i like this place even more, let's go see it again at nighttime. ok, this place sucks, and it's impossible to park around here. you know what? we need a bigger tv. i can't stand looking at the puny thing anymore."

so that's where we are! stalled in our condo search b/c there are just too many choices, but we now have a fab new entertainment center. the HD on the big tv is spectacular. we turned it on and flipped to a basketball game... i could see the players' sweat droplets and each individual pore. giant! larger than life-size! and the blu-ray thing is amazing. we popped in spiderman 3 and again, i could see tobey mcguire's giant pores.

the best part is our big plasma that was in the living room is now in the bedroom and replaces the dinky 13" LCD. i can finally see the tv from the bed without the use of a telescope!

who needs a bigger condo now. space is overrated. enjoy your time watching big tvs and worry about nothing else.

♥ mochi ice cream ♥

mattress shopping

in my quest to go totally domestic, i am going totally destitute. this is because we are also in the market for a new mattress. you'd think you'd be able to drive it down the street with the amount they cost!!!

y. and i are going to macy's during lunch today to test out the mattresses. by "test", i mean clamber up on top of and butt hop. the last time i was there (about 2 weeks ago) i was testing out mattresses and found one i really liked when this old salesguy came up and announced i had a "princess complex". according to his observations, i was only climbing aboard ones that were high up off the ground "like a little girl because it reminds you of your parents' bed." . . . . . WHACKJOB!!! anyway i found out he isn't working today so it's the perfect day to go. plus, macy's is having a huge mattress sale. that store has a one-day sale every day or a 13 hour sale every 13 hours, it seems. but i am not complaining.

another property!

we have an appt. this saturday to see this condo that's really contemporary/modern. contemporary and modern is a lot of fun, but let's face it, sometimes it's form over function. and if we're being really honest, most of the time it's no function. i am a big fan of this.

this particular unit we're scheduled to see is very poliform-ish (http://www.poliformusa.com/). nice clean lines, lots of whites and very contemporary. while our current condo is more modern, i think our ideal home would be more along the lines of contemporary with a little bit of modern stuff. my favorite showroom is ligne roset (wells & hubbard). white background (walls) with splashes of color (rugs & furniture). this is yet another place i would move into.

so the selling agent for the place we're seeing on saturday was so funny; she was like, "i want you to know that this is a very industrial-looking home. it's very modern and contemporary, so i don't want you to be too surprised." i was like, "trust me, lady, we ARE modern and contemporary." and then she was like, "oh good, because someone else walked through and didn't understand why there wasn't any carpeting...."

i should've told her our current walls are painted bright red, our bedroom is dark purple and our master bath is bright green. trust me, nothing surprises us.

bff

janette just called. before i answered, i knew i was in trouble. she's a very vigilant friend, and i'm... not. so i actually thought about not answering, but while i may not be vigilant, i'm not a jerk either. besides, she's my bff.

me: "hi janette, long time no talk!"

janette: (after a brief pause, probably from surprise that i answered) "OH MY GOD YOU'RE ALIVE!!! NILO (her brother, who was in the car with her), SHE'S ALIVE!!!"

me: "very funny. i nearly died of the flu a while back" (ok, so i never had the flu)

janette: "did you get my invitation? we're having a birthday party next weekend for poknut, you better be there. you're her godmother!!"

me: "um, ok." thinking: oh dear lord, more gifts. MORE GIFTS!!!! >:O

[side note: actually, the gifts part i don't really mind, despite the fact she has a bazillion family members who are constantly having birthdays and holiday parties and weddings, etc. and i am constantly buying gifts for said birthdays and holiday parties and weddings, etc. it's the fact that she lives soooooooo faaaaaaar away. beyond my parents' house. my idea of comfort zone and where i will happily travel w/out complaining is between halsted and the lake for east-west, and chicago ave. and adams st. for north-south. on the few occasions when we travel north of north ave., it's like canada to me.]

janette: "i'm serious, you better show up. your birthday gifts and your x'mas gifts are still sitting under the tree. actually, they're not because we took down our tree. now they're under the sofa. mama toka asked who they were for the other day when she accidentally kicked them."

me: "i know, i have your gifts too. i don't remember which ones are birthday and which ones are x'mas though. originally some were wrapped in birthday paper but around x'mas i just wrapped them up again in x'mas paper with the birthday paper still on. you'll have to peel through layers. it'll be fun for you."

janette: (laughing) "that's what i did too!! your birthday presents all have birthday wrapper with x'mas wrapper over it. you better show up on saturday so i don't have to bust out the birthday wrapping again. and whatever i bought you is no longer trendy. all of it's on clearance. the gift receipts have all expired. if you got fatter from the holidays you're going to have to diet because if it doesn't fit, you can't return any of this shit."

me: (laughing) "ok."

she's a good best friend. she's the kind of best friend who, even though she was 8 months pregnant and working and tired as all hell, she still set up a myspace account because i asked her to, even though her initial reaction to myspace was, "i don't have time for this space shit."

best friends should make you laugh, right? she really does.

we'd have 9 homes throughout the city if i had my way (and 70 million spare dollars)

we had the most amazing weekend. it was filled with…. CONDO SHOPPING!! now there are few things in life more exciting to me than shopping for clothes, but i believe condo shopping is one of them. we had four appointments all over the place in river north/gold coast and managed to make every one of them (and still squeeze in a tasty lunch at rockit inbetween). this is the breakdown of each place, in the order that we saw them, and the stuff in quotes is the stuff going through my head as i see what i’m seeing (most of which i didn’t say out loud, thankfully):

place # 1. 2.5 bedrooms with 2.5 baths as well in river north. walk thru the front door, “oooo should i go left or should i go right? so many twists and turns, i like that! ok, i’ll go left.” well i wound up going right b/c the selling agent shovelled me that way. but on the whole the unit was really nice, so sunny, lots of corners and hallways, ledges all over the place – it really seemed like you were in a house. at the end of the walk-thru, all i could hear in my head was me saying to myself “I WANT TO MOVE IN!! I WANT TO LIVE HERE!!” i might have unintentionally insulted the selling agent though (truly unintentionally, as usually my insults are quite intentional ;)). while the selling agent was opening one of the balcony doors -- this place had 2 balconies, but one of them was really tiny, like a sliver of a space for just one person to stand, so i was like, "it's cute but apparently you can't be a fatty mcfatty pants (my affectionate term for anyone who's kinda big) to fit out there". vic told me later he thought the selling agent was a bit on the hefty side and he couldn't believe i said that. :D

lunch at rockit. YUM-MAY. we also had a booth so it was very cozy. i ordered chocolate chip pancakes, vic had french onion soup and the kobe beef burger with truffle fries. i ate all his fries. the whole experience was great. i drank a diet rite with lime -- i think they’re the only place in the city that serves rite rather than coke or pepsi. we gabbed about how wonderful place #1 was, and i was thinking, is anyplace going to beat it??

place #2. walk through the front door. “THIS IS IT!! THIS IS OUR NEW HOME!!” in fact, my eyes started watering (which happens only on 3 occasions: when i’m scared during a horror movie, when i’m crying or when I want something very badly. obviously, i wasn’t watching a horror movie nor was i sobbing b/c someone hurt my feelings). i walked through the entire unit in a daze. even now as i’m typing this it’s difficult to get words out b/c i keep picturing the unit and then my imagination goes and the next thing you know i’m selecting paint colors and furniture. 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, with TWO PARKING SPOTS included.

place #3. pictured in one of the blogs below. this place is gorgeous. you can’t help but walk through it and say “ooooo” at everything. it hasn’t been built yet, so we walked through the model. i would move into the model if it were an option. an interesting thing i remember: the refrigerator/freezer was subzero brand, so it’s this fancy sleek looking machine. when we opened up the freezer there was a six pack of diet coke that had exploded. i’ve never seen that before.

place #4. walk through the front door. “THIS IS IT!! THIS IS OUR NEW HOME!! I WANT THIS PLACE!! FORGET THE OTHERS!!” the coolest layout i’ve ever seen, try a condo DUPLEX with a master bathroom that’s all modern and marble and big enough to start a spa business in, and with a kitchen that looks like it belongs on a food network show. i could totally picture us living here. i could totally picture us living in the master bathroom. i'm telling you, this place is amazing. when we left, i told vic we had to stop at papyrus so we could order our We Have Moved cards.

definitely a lot to think about, plus there are 5 more places we're going to look at.

on the current condo front, we got a note from our new neighbors sent to all the people on our floor apologizing for their disturbances. apparently someone else complained in a more conventional way. so that was kind of a bummer... we didn’t even get to do our rock band thing. vic and i have been rehearsing sabotage for our rockband bedroom debut: "IIIIIIII CAN'T STAND IT, I KNOW YOU PLANNED IT..."

2% or 98%?

i heard this interesting little exercise on "poker after dark" last night/this morning. apparently 98% of the population comes up with the same answer, while 2% come up with a different answer. try it!

1. think of a number from 1 to 10

2. multiply that number by 9

3. if that number is a two-digit number, add the digits together

4. subtract 5

5. determine which letter of the alphabet corresponds to the number you ended up with (1=a, 2=b, 3=c, 4=d, etc.)

6. think of a country that starts with that letter

7. remember the last letter of that country

8. think of an animal that starts with that letter

9. remember the last letter of the name of that animal

10. think of the name of a fruit that starts with that letter

. . . . .

are you thinking of a kangaroo in denmark eating an orange?

when did i become so domestic?

if i owned this dog, i'd name him wicket. he looks just like an ewok!

on another domestic note, we're currently looking at 3-bedroom condos. what i'd really like is the top unit (it's the only 3-bedroom unit AND it's a duplex) in our building so we could have essentially the same view as now but with more space for all my clothes. unfortunately it's currently occupied by this lady who won't move out. blasted woman. destroying my life!

ok, i guess life can go on, especially when there are options like these:

i don't know about that squid shaped floor lamp, but everything else looks amazing. just look at that kitchen. that kitchen says to me, "girl, you deserve to have your own food network show. let me help you out with that." and look at the width of that refrigerator. it's as wide as i am tall! what a dreamy fridge. on the con side, it looks like i'll have to jump in order to reach the microwave. but who needs one when i'm cooking on that gorgeous stove with my fleet of le creuset pots which i pull out of those spanking new snaidero cabinets!

?

i can't remember what my new year's resolution is. two people today have asked and for the life of me i can't remember. i know i made one, and it was a good one too, but i can't remember! i even told some people what it was after the month just started, but i also can't remember who i told. how embarrassing! so frustrating! and it's not the kind of forget where if someone mentions it, it refreshes your memory and you recognize it. it's the kind where if one of the people who i told it to told me what it was, i'd give them my one raised eyebrow look and wonder if they were trying to trick me.

so i think i'm on my own for this one.

the possibilities:

the most obvious would be to stop eating so many damn cookies.

. . . . .

. . . . .

. . . . .

that's all i can think of.

. . . . .

fucken a.

well, i know for sure it's not to reduce the amount of swearing.

. . . . .

. . . . .

it must be the cookies one.

this makes me laugh

rock band brings more than just musical enjoyment to the people in the band...

so we have these new neighbors, a young couple, and the husband apparently snores really loudly (i don't know, i'm always asleep) but vic the night owl says he can hear him through the bedroom walls at 2 am and it keeps him up. what i do hear though is all their yelling earlier in the day whenever i'm in the bedroom -- these people are always in a fight and it's very annoying. vic says we should knock on the wall to distract them, but we haven't yet. anyway, i forwarded the pic of the prototype rock band drums and this is what vic wrote back:

what we need to do is move rock band into the bedroom, and then do the 58 song set whenever that guy starts snoring.

*snorrrreee* ~~~~ AHHHHHHHHH I CAN'T STAND IT YOU KNOW I PLANNED IT I'M GONNA SET IT STRAIGHT THIS WATERGATE

i think we really are going to do this. whenever i picture it, i can't stop laughing.

are you kidding me

i can't even play the plastic ones yet!!!

my math skills are too advanced to remember simple math

vic and i are going to taiwan soon and i'm going to need a calculator watch. the vendors at the night markets are just going to have to damn wait until i finish calculating my conversions.

i dressed up as penny from inspector gadget one year for halloween so i know i have one of these lying around.

wo ai ai sushi

vic and i tried a new sushi restaurant this weekend called ai sushi.
5 stars!!! they had the freshest fish in the prettiest rolls. you know how sometimes you go to a sushi restaurant and they slap all 5 rolls you order onto one plate. not this place. each roll comes on a separate plate with amazing presentation. like for instance, our negi hama roll (which was huge and delicious) came on this mini rich brown colored bamboo mat thing on a fresh green banana leaf on a white square plate. so fresh and so pretty. we ordered a lot of goodies: bagna cauda (shrimp squid seasoned with garlic, olive oil and anchovies), a salmon flight, an assortment of fancy maki rolls, mochi ice cream of the most interesting flavors (tiramisu, chocolate egg nog and chocolate espresso), this dessert called ice something -- it's got green tea ice cream on the bottom with a panko-crusted strawberry mochi ice cream on top, and a bottle of sake. the sake experience was my first ever and so much fun. they come out with this tray of 10 different types of (the cutest) sake glasses and you get to choose the one you want. vic chose a little bamboo one, i chose one that looked like a mini martini glass. i was very pleased with my selection until i saw vic drinking from his bamboo cup. so yes, even with sake it's "you always want what you don't have" with me, so 2 sips into my martini glass, i had to ask the waiter to bring me a bamboo one too. anyways, new favorite japanese restaurant.