Added a Calendar

Blogger doesn't have a built-in calendar, which seems so strange because all Japanese blogging sites have a calendar built in.

But I wanted one, so I did a quick Google search for "blogger calendar" and I came across a guy who built one.

I really don't like reading instructions, but he made it pretty simple to set up. Now I just have to figure out how to make it green... He has a pre-made color themes for blue. I guess that's a popular color. His calendar is green, but I don't need the gradation.

Boys' Night In

I had to get some stuff from Chris, so I headed over to the boys' place since they were "hanging out" tonight.

I get there, and this is what I see:


They're playing "Dodgeball DS" in multi-play mode.

Close up images on my Flickr account (need to be a "friend" to view).

As I was leaving, they were pulling the coffee table to the side of the room. They were about to play a board game called "Betrayal at House on the Hill."


Brian took Dee & Jon out drinking and girl-watching in San Jose, but I guess that was too much excitement for them and they needed to spend the following weekend cooped up.

Learning to Play the Ukulele

I don't remember how it started, but じゅるる brought back a ukulele from his parents' home & said he'll play anything I want as long as I get a music sheet for it.

I looked for つじあやの's 「猫になりたい」, but settled for the Ghibli collection.

I also ordered a beginner's book on ukulele, so he (we?) could learn the basics.


簡単だから私もできるだろう、って思ったんだけど。

指が痛い。。。
しくしく

We learned how to play the ukulele in 4th grade, but of course I don't remember any of it. Was it this painful?

とりあえず、今日覚えたこと：
C chord
F chord
and G7 chord

But I can't move my fingers from one chord to another.
And my ring finger on my left hand is starting to cramp as I type.

じゅるるにはツメを切れ、って言われるし。
Or I can't hold down the strings(?) with my finger tips.

The first song in the book is 「大きな古時計」, but I might start with the 「かえるのうた」 first.
いつになったら弾けるのやら？

こんな感じでやってます：

I'm Too Old for Another All Nighter

After the all-nighter session from last night, I crashed & didn't wake up until noon-ish.

Ichigo came by with K-san around noon w/ a box of pizza from COSTCO. They must have needed a place to eat (maybe COSTCO picnic table area was too busy/dirty/full of pigeons for them) & thought our place was convenient. They made a lot of racket, & Sat yelled at them to let me sleep because I was up all night... and Koge was running around excited that there's more people over.

Please... let me sleep.

So I woke up, too tired to yell at Ichigo for tugging my big toe each time she walked by.

Ate two pieces of pizza, thinking how bad I've been eating for the past week. Pizza twice, chicken wings, 20oz rib eye, fried chicken strips w/ French fries... I swore off meat a week ago & I haven't started my pseudo-vegetarian lifestyle yet.

After Ichigo left, I was checking emails for a while... but I crashed again. Until 3:30pm. Shoot.

I check messenger, and sure enough Chris & Dee are already awake. Shoot.

So I shower & head over to the office around 5pm. Dee's already there. Chris shows up 30 mins later.
And we're still here at 4:30am. Wheeeee~

It doesn't look like we'll finish all the pages (did get 50 more pages, so 3/4 done), so I guess we're doing this again tomorrow night. きゃー

久しぶりの All Nighter

I did a semi all-nighter last night w/ Chris & Dee.
Although I kept dozing off every few hours.

I got home at 7am.
Currently uploading stuff for the HK printers.

We'll catch a few hours of sleep now (maybe 3-5 hours) & head back to the office for another night of late-night work.

Good night!

Sasami's Cookies Delivered

Sasami's been on a baking spree, and she kept a batch especially for me & Sat.

I've been stuck at the office trying to get the 5/28 deadline book out, so I was hinting & begging Dave to deliver the cookies to our office. But I didn't think he'd go for it... Sat would be like "Naw, let her suffer."

So we just kept working... when Courtney said "Someone keeps ringing the doorbell."

Dee & Chris went to look, and it was Sat & Dave.
They brought cookies!


So I passed it around to everyone.


Dennis w/ a cat(?) shaped cookie


Dee w/ a butterfly shaped cookie


Chris w/ a flower shaped cookie


Courtney w/ a cat(?) shaped cookie


Shiz w/ a broken star shaped cookie

Thank you, Sasami!
And thank you, Dave (who drove) & Sat (who felt sorry for Shiz)!

Ichigo Turns 60

今日は苺さんの誕生日でした。
３週間も引きこもり生活してたら何日か忘れちゃったよ。

昨日電話で話したとき、「ケーキ２個も買ったから～明日皆で食べようね～」って言ってたんだけど、祝ってほしかったのね。

今日はNさん＆Sさんと競馬に行って、Nさんを家に下ろしてから、私をピックアップして、Korea Townへゴー。Soon tofuを食べたんだけど、今日のキムチはイマイチだったし、soon tofuのオーダーも間違えられたの。苺さんは seafood bibimbopがほしかったのに、bibimbop setが来て。私は spicy bean paste soon tofu をオーダーしたのに、mildが来たし。

Sさんを下ろした後、うちに来て
「さー、これからケーキ食べるぞ」と思ったらパーキングがなかった。

苺さんは soon tofuの辛さに参ったらしく、「胃が痛い」と言って帰っちゃった。
「チーズケーキは食べていいわよ」と言われたんだけど、一緒に食べた方がいいんじゃないの？

Soon tofuのご飯、石焼です/Soon tofu rice in clay pot


---
Today is Ichigo's birthday.

I lost track of dates & times from being stuck at home for the last 3 weeks, so I forgot.

No wonder she had brought cake over & left it in our fridge (she slept over on Saturday to keep Koge company).

Ichigo went to the race track today w/ N-san & S-san. After she dropped off N-san, she picked me up & we went to eat soon tofu in Korea Town. It wasn't that good today. The kimchee wasn't as good as usual, and they messed up on our order & nothing was spicy enough.

We dropped off S-san & headed to my place to eat cake, but there were no parking spaces. Ichigo's tummy was acting up from the soon tofu, so she decided to go home w/o eating cake.

She said we could eat the cheesecake, but maybe we should wait to eat with her some other time.

Sweepstakes Life: Random Stuff for May

I was watching Ellen today & two of the viewers got a free vacation to Hawaii courtesy of Embassy Suites.

So I went searching for my own free Hawaiian vacation.
I didn't find any, but decided to sign up for random sweepstakes.

1. Malt.com - trip to Scotland
2. LetsTalkColorado.com - trip to Colorado
3. Monster.com - MLB All Star Game trip
4. Macys.com - Tasso Elba wardrobe (mens' clothing)
5. BabyUniverse.com - gift certificate to baby clothing stores
6. Ghiradelli.com - trip on Amtrak

Hm, none of them are that interesting.
I'll look for more when I'm bored in June.

Kat-chan Working in Japan

I got an email from Kat-chan, several months after he went back to Japan.
He said he got a job in Kanagawa & lives there now. And he finally got internet set up at his apartment.

I'm glad he was able to find a job b/c he was saying it's hard to get a job in Japan once you're in your mid-30s.

One Day Trip to San Jose

I made a one-day trip out to San Jose for work.
You can read the details of it on either of my work blogs (Industry Babble, BB Production Blog), altho I haven't written them yet.

Sat is there for another day, which you can also read on her work blog.

I got 4 hours of sleep on Friday. And slept the entire flight to San Jose.

I got 3-1/2 hours of sleep on Saturday. Got to the airport 1-1/2 hours early, and somehow slept on one of those chairs by the gate. Then slept the entire flight back to Los Angeles.

I was too tired to park my car at the off-site parking lot at LAX, so my parking bill was $57.

Back to work.

New Faucet

My bathroom sink was leaking hot water for several months. I'm thinking 4-5 months, but it might be longer... since it was pretty bad when people came over on New Year's.

The problem is, we didn't know how to find a handyman. The guy we used to call left for Japan 8 months ago.

But Ichigo found a new handyman (a resident of Mr/Mrs M's building) & she had him come over today to fix the faucet.

Nevermind that I went to sleep at 3am and woke up at 5am to take Sat to the airport.

I come back home at 7am & went back to sleep... and the handyman showed up at 9am.

And Ichigo was there, so I should have been fine sleeping in the living room... but they kept waking me up every 20 mins to ask questions. Where's the pliers? Are there any plastic boxes? Why aren't you going to work?

Anyway, I woke up to take a photo of the sink minus the old faucet


Then Ichigo & the handyman headed over to OSH to buy a new faucet.

My request:
* Longer neck, or at least the water spout higher up
* Prefer lever handles
* Prefer single lever
* Silver

So this is what I got


I would have preferred a simpler design, but this is all they could find at OSH.

I was also told that my sink is an old type that requires washers, so they scrambled around looking for them. They found washers at the third location (B&B Hardware on Washington & Centinela).

Next home project: adding the plates to the light switches & electric outlets.
I haven't put them back on since we moved in 3 years ago.

But there are a lot of other things that haven't been worked on for three years... like repainting the inside doors & frames, sanding the front door & re-varnishing it, painting the sink area walls, putty-ing the nail holes in the wall trim & painting the trim, repainting the kitchen cabinet doors, finish adding the handles on the kitchen cabinet doors... it's endless!

Shiz Can't Cook Series: Egg, Over Easy

I had natto gohan for dinner tonight.
(No, it's far from fancy, but it keeps my tummy full)

There was a little bit of rice left over, so I decided to cook an egg to finish it up.

I tried to make an over easy, but I messed up while flipping over:


The spatula didn't slide under the egg. And the egg popped when I was lifting it up & I got scared. And maybe somewhere in my mind I wanted to make a scrambled egg because Sat said she wanted to eat one.

Dee's Pets, Follow Up

I asked Dee if he got his crab shrimp thingies from Chris.

"No, they all died."

The big ones (2 of them) died in the office & the rest died as Chris drove them to his house. Apparently these creatures are too weak, because the bumpy ride was too much for them. But they're a species that survived for millions of years?

"It's okay, I ordered more eggs, so I breed more."

At least he doesn't have to worry about them anymore when he goes to Fanime this weekend.

Shiz Can't Cook Series: Rice-a-Roni

Sat was broiling salmon for dinner last night, so I thought I should make Rice-a-Roni to go with it.

I glanced at the box & it said 2-1/4 cups of water. So I started boiling it & read over the box and it said "brown rice & pasta in skillet first." Damn.

I move the skillet w/ the water away & start a new frying pan. I pour the rice & pasta in & poured olive oil without measuring (the box says 4 tablespoons of margarine, but olive oil is close enough).

Then I walk away from the stove to watch Dancing with the Stars. Less than a few minutes in, Sat yells out "don't you have to stir this around?" I walk over couple minutes later, and half of the pasta was burnt. Damn.

But that doesn't stop me! I poured the rice & half-burnt pasta into the other skillet with the 2-1/4 cups of water, and move that skillet over the fire. Dump in 4/5 of the seasoning packet (it's too salty otherwise). And let the water boil away.

The Rice-a-Roni had a burnt flavor, but it wasn't something you couldn't eat. So I plated it, put broiled salmon on top & continued to work.

Sat wanted a bite, so I told her that it has a burnt flavor & she probably wouldn't like it. She didn't.

But, but, but... I'm not the only bad cook in the house.

Ichigo came by later at night to drop off things, pick up laundr... never mind that. She started making something, but she must have messed up, because she said 「美味しくないわ～。イカを入れたのが良くなかったのかしら？」. I looked & it looked like シチュー. Sat said it's supposed to be clam chowder, but we're not going to touch it. Maybe the boys will eat it.

Lump Removal Surgery, Cont'd

I went to my follow-up appointment with my doctor today.

The doctor said it's a lipoma, a fatty tumor, just as she thought. She said everyone (my regular doctor, ultrasound doctor & her) weren't sure what it was because it was placed much deeper than usual. It's normally closer to the skin & mine was closer to the muscle. Maybe my layers of fat just pushed it down.

But she said she knew what it was as soon as she opened me up.
So it's not cancerous and I'm all done.

She did remove the steri-strip off my wound(?), and there was a little knot sticking out of my skin. Using a scissor-shaped tweezer and real scissors, she pulled & snipped it off. It kinda hurt. The nurse bandaged me up, though (I asked for a Bandaid because it was stinging & bleeding).

After I got home, comments from the IRC-ers:

Dave "Did they give you the lump to take home?"
Answer: No

Sasami "If it was cancer, I would have knitted a cap for when she goes bald."
That's awfully sweet of her. I was thinking of getting lots of different colored hats if I had to get chemo. I generally don't look good in hats, but I wonder if it'd be different if I were bald?

Trader Joe's in Torrance

I went to the Torrance Trader Joe's with じゅるる for the first time today. The one along Hawthorne. I pass by it whenever I go to BVUS, but I didn't really notice it before.

Torrance Trader Joe's customer demographic is very different from West LA. 子供連れの中年白人女性が少なかったかな。And younger, overall?

家の cerealが無くなったから買いに行ったんだけど、オキニの Granola Maple Pecanが売り切れ。がーん。

仕方なく Low Fat Granola Almondを２箱買った。Granola系 cerealは甘すぎるからBran Flakesも買ったの。

This should last me for a few weeks while Sat is away at Fanime.

ついでに夕食も買った。
サーモンサラダとチキンソーセージ＋polentaラザニア。２人用には少ないかなと思って、パンもゲット。２人用のパンの種類が少なくって困っちゃう。２人用なら一人でもぺロリと食べれるのにね。

Fanime用のお土産を買ってたら、じゅるるがいなくなって。小さいTrader Joe'sをグルグル回ったんだけど、見つからず。
「じゅるる見ませんでしたか？丸い子なんです」とひとり言を言いながら歩き回ったよ。

今夜の夕食。


お皿に盛ると出来合えのご飯に見えないです。
きーちゃんも騙されたぐらい。
「じゅるる、本格的なご飯作るんじゃん」だって。

Duckie at Target

Duckie emailed saying he left his old company & now works at T*rget.

He was working 3 days a week before as a substitute pharmacist, but now he's back to his 4 days a week schedule.

Sat said, "that's what normal people work!"
I think normal people work 5 days a week.

Pizza Hut Grill Sweepstakes

I'm a sucker for sweepstakes.
It's probably because I watched the entire run of Nasubi's Life on Dengeki Shounen TV series.

So today's sweepstakes.
Pizza Hut's grill-an-hour sweepstakes

I didn't win today.
And they said I have to come back again tomorrow.

I usually forget, so I thought if I link from my blog, I might visit more frequently.

Sasami's Bug Problem

Spider in My Water
Flickr: mouriran





Sasami seems to have a lot of bug problems.

First, it was the six rows of ants marching into her room (to eat a brownie on her bed?).

Then there was the cockroach that was in the sleeve of her sweater she was wearing.

Then even more recently, she found dead ants in her ears.

And now she found a spider hanging out in her Brita pitcher.

Ew, gross.

Dee's Pets

Dee came by the office to drop off a Tupperware with some crab-shrimp organism.

He's going out of town for couple of days this weekend to attend George's graduation in SF. So he asked Ku-suke to take care of them over the weekend.

They're pretty stinky.
And gross looking.

There are 5 in there. 2 big ones & 3 little ones.
He was worried that the big ones are going to eat the little ones. Kinda like how Hoji is trying to eat Sen?

Prince said "寂しいヤツだな." He was imagining Dee talking to these crab-shrimp creatures, in his room all by himself.

Vu Gets a (Real) Job

Vu came over because he wanted us to celebrate that he got the position he interviewed for at his current company.

After arguing over where to eat, Vu, Sat & Dave settled on ordering Thai food & getting it delivered. Maybe they felt sorry for me cuz I couldn't really leave the house (there's a lot of stairs).


More photos are up on Flickr.

Note: this post was added retroactively.

Lump Removal Surgery

I had an outpatient surgery done today.

I discovered a small lump on the side of my belly (called "flank") on New Year's Eve, went to see a doctor in January, got an ultrasound done in January... then procrastinated about going to see a surgeon about it until April.
(a quick medical history, for those who were out of touch)

So I went to a Surgery Center located in Santa Monica to get the mysterious lump removed.


Checked in at 9:45am, waited until 11:30 to be called in.
I was told not to eat or drink anything after midnight the night before, so I was pretty hungry by then. Each time the nurses asked if I had anything to eat today, I told them I was hungry & they apologized for the pain. Good thing they weren't dealing with Ards.

It seems excessive, but every staff verified what surgery I was getting done & checked my ID bracelet. Like 6 times.

The nurse also wrote a "no" on my left belly, and the doctor wrote a "yes" on my right belly.

So with everything in place, they got me prepped for surgery.

The nurse stuck an IV needle on my left hand. Then the anesthesiologist added something to the IV needle area saying it'll make me feel like I had a glass of wine. And I don't really remember much else after that.

What I vaguely remember is seeing the operating room lights above me (I must have woken up a little when they moved me from the rolling bed to the operating table) & feeling cold on the operating table (they probably took off the blanket that was on me).

Then I have a dream-like memory of someone wedging me up with pillows (so they can get to my lump easier).

And being transferred to the rolling bed.

Next thing I remember is staring at the white wall of the prepping room. I'm guessing they make us face the wall so we're not disoriented by all the movement in the room. I must have been talking to myself as I was waking up, because I had a nurse ask me to repeat what I was saying.

As I woke up, I remember two things:
1. What color corresponds to what on the monitor (I figured out white is breathing!)
2. How I wish I had my camera, so I can take a picture of the IV needle in my hand.

The doctor came by to tell me that it looks like a fatty tumor, and they'll get lab results on Monday.

After I changed out of the surgery garb, they carted me out in a wheelchair.


I was told I could do normal daily activities, so I worked for couple of hours right when I got home. I did take a nap later, though.

Note: this post was added retroactively.

Shiz Starts New Blog

This is my 5th blog.
But I don't really have a blog that's non-work related (except Mixi diary), which is why I'm starting this one.

I realized a lot of my circle of friends don't know what's going on with my life (nothing too exciting) or other friends (not much either), especially those who moved on from IRC chatting or were never part of it. And a bunch of them aren't checking out Flickr either.

So it's a one-directional way to keep in touch.
And if old friends find this blog, it'll be a non-invasive way of catching up. (But you can email me too!)

This blog will be about my non-work life.
If you want to know about my work life, please check out my other 3 blogs (1 isn't active).

Note: the first couple of entries are retroactive entries, starting with my lump removal surgery.