Last Minute New Year's Eve Dinner

Ichigo got a big sashimi platter from S-san, and she went crazy & bought a ton of stuff from the Korean market. So I sent out a quick Evite to have a mini New Year's Eve dinner party at our place.

Well, I had already planned for Ards and Dee to come. And I figured Dave was gonna come over anyway. So why not a mini dinner party?

Anyhoo, Dennis & Panda showed up. No Vu. He's been a lazy butt lately, since he didn't come for the Killer Shrimp soup that HE WANTED and didn't show up for our New Year's Eve festivities even though he didn't have anyone to spend it with. Hmph.

The rest of us had takoyaki (Ards made them), sashimi and nabe.

Sat, Dave & Ards were already watching 紅白, and switching to ABC whenever they didn't care for the singer. And we watched the countdown on ABC or NBC. With apple cider b/c no one brought over any alcohol. Hm, that's probably why Vu didn't show up.

To be continued...

Back from San Jose

I'm back from my two-day, one-night trip to San Jose.

It was a tough two days without internet access.
But I did my work as a photographer for Ichigo & her friend M-san.

I also got to catch up on sleep.
Which also means that I did very little work for Sat.
Like 10 pages.

Looks like I'll be working through New Year's.

PS. Thank you Dave for picking us up.

Shiz Can't Cook Series: Killer Shrimp Soup

Vu found a Killer Shrimp soup recipe online, so we decided to make it at home.

Although I don't have rosemary. Or celery seed. Or fennel seed. Or chicken broth. Or white wine. Or clam juice.

After work, Dee went to Trader Joe's to pick up shrimp & white wine. And I went to Ralphs to get the rest of the stuff.

I didn't know how much 1 quart of chicken broth was, since the box says "32oz." Was 1 pint 16oz? So a quart is 32oz? Or is it more? I couldn't find the info on the chicken broth box, so I bought two packs. (note: 1 quart is 32oz)

I never bought clam juice before, but it comes in a small grapefruit juice-like bottle. Although I couldn't buy clam juice for anything other than Killer Shrimp soup. Clams, bleah!

Oh, it was my first time buying herbs & spices too! Hmm, that's a lie because I bought cayenne pepper before.

Anyhoo, while Dee was mincing the garlic, I was preparing the broth.
I poured out the chicken broth. Then added 2 tablespoons of rosemary. Then added 1 tablespoon of black pepper... only to realize it was supposed to be 1 teaspoon. Whoops. We scooped out as much as we could.

After the garlic was put in, I realized the soup was too pale. Oh, I forgot to put in tomato paste! So we added that, and let it simmer.

In the end, the soup came out pretty good.

Kinda bitter... which Dee thinks is from the tomato paste.

Vu couldn't make it today, so we'll make it for him next time.
Since I have no other use for rosemary, celery seed or fennel seed.

My Christmas Story 2008

I woke up around 8am to the sound of NBC's Nightly News.
There was nothing good on TV last night, so I was watching the news online and fell asleep. The problem w/ the Nightly News page is that it'll continue to play a week's worth of news in reverse chronological order... and then repeats. Non-stop until you stop it. Sat finds this annoying, but she's not home to complain.

I played Pet Society for an hour or so, eating pastry from Angel Maid. It was flaky pastry with creme inside and topped with fruit. It was actually pretty yummy for being couple of days old. I started dozing off when Koge came over to sit on me. She likes to do that whenever I'm lying down and using the computer. So imagine me lying on my side & she's sitting on my side, right underneath my armpit. How 邪魔!

I think I was dozing on and off, thinking about when I should go to work... when Koge started to scratch the door to my bedroom. That's her sign that she wants to go to the bathroom. Smart kitty.

But she won't go pee by herself. She made me walk into the cold room, so I decided to go too. We pee'd together. I think it would have made a very cute Flickr moment.

After that, it was still cold & I had the We Cheer song in my head, so I decided to play We Cheer. I passed more songs. Yay!

I think one of the songs must have triggered something in Koge's small brain & she started looking around for Sat. Scratched her door, cried at the door... she's not home, yo.

I stopped playing We Cheer, and ate some potato chips & Dee's mom's cookies.

And decided that I'm too sleepy to go to work, so went to bed.

I probably slept for 2-3 hours, when Steph called & woke me up. She was playing We Cheer w/ several people & wanted to know how it works. I hope I made some sense. And hopefully they pass more songs than I did.

I realized I was hungry and only ate snacks all day, so I toasted two cheese & garlic sourdough bread slices. That'll be my Christmas dinner. Koge swatted at my legs & was following me all around the kitchen, when I realized her bowl was empty. Whoops.

I read a few blogs. Thought I should make note of my lazy Christmas day.
I promise I'll go to work tomorrow & finish the rest of the clean up (even though I don't get paid for this... I'll slack off in January, or leech off of Prince K for couple of dinners).

Last Day at Work... Not Really

Today was my last day at work.
It was a pretty hectic day because we had to do sooooooo much before the day was over. Like tossing out all the trash from under the staircase... and all the books and DVDs... and other trash that's been compiling all these years.

Oh, Dee and Den had to make two trips to downtown LA to deliver furniture & stuff too. They had to get up real early... and I got up late, around 9:15... so by the time I got to work, they were already back from their first trip. Whoops.

Anyhoo, I still had tons to invoice... and tons to write checks for... and calculate everyone's last pay check. By the time I realized it, it was already 5:00pm!

Oh, we had El Pollo Loco for lunch. So sad, b/c we called up two restaurants and they were closed. We were so hungry we just settled for Loco.

And I ended up working til 9:30pm... and I'm still not done, and the office isn't empty yet... so I'll probably go back tomorrow. And Friday. And Saturday. And Sunday. There goes my Christmas weekend (not that I had plans).

PS. I played We Cheer for the second time. I can't pass the single star songs at all. I finally passed my first song with the Choo Choo Train song. It's too hard. Maybe I'm moving my arms too much. I'm going to be sore tomorrow...

Xmas Gift from Ards, Final Corp Dinner

I received a package from Amazon.com yesterday, but I forgot to take it home.
I know who this one is from, since Ards already told me her gift was arriving on Monday.

My gift to Ards?
Uh, the check is in the mail...
Dammit, I don't have time to go Christmas shopping!

What? I got Steph's gift two months ago?
Well, she's easy to shop for... since she doesn't have anything in her house! I got her a collapsible colander, b/c I saw it on sale at Albertson's. Whoops, now she knows.

Even though I refuse to go Christmas shopping, I did have to go to Target today.
To get staff holiday presents.

You know... going to Target sucks during the holiday season. Going anywhere to shop sucks. But I fought the crowd and bought gift cards. Prince K wanted to get nice pens or something that's keepsake-y, but I don't have time to go shopping!

Anyhoo, we had our final corp dinner tonight.
I sent out emails to people 3 hours before the dinner, so I was surprised one non-employee showed up. Tee hee. We'll have another farewell dinner in February.

Nevermind that I got home at 1:30am and I wrote emails until 4:00am and writing this blog entry at 4:30am and I have to be at the office at 9:00am.

I hope to sleep in on Christmas day.

PS. Dee's mom gave me a Tupperware full of freshly baked cookies. I LOVE her chocolate chip cookies. Full of nuts. Yum! It's one thing I refuse to share with anyone. I'm so stingy... Bah humbug!

Running Errands, Saw Steph

I had a lot of errands to run this morning.

Went to the bank to ask about the IRA accounts.
The lady we talked to said there's no rollover fees. Whew, thank goodness.

Then we headed out to Chatworth to pick up some stuff for a childhood friend. I can't say what it is online in such a public forum, so you'll just have to ask me in person. *laugh*

After we got home, I headed out to Coffee Bean on Olympic & Bundy b/c Steph was having lunch w/ Rhona in the area. I joined them, exchanged gifts, and sent Steph off. She had a flight to catch at 6pm, and it was already well past 4pm. She had an even busier day, that started off awful at the post office. Give her a hug when you see her.

PS. The boys came back tonight to do some more filming in the capsule hotel-like shelves... I didn't hang around to watch them.

I've been so busy, I haven't been able to play We Cheer. Or Samba de Amigo. Boo!

Proof That They're Only Six Years Old (Mentally)

Dee, Dennis & I were at work cleaning up the warehouse.

And we stacked the shelves to make more room...
Then the guys boys started to climb through them!



"We used to do this at play rooms when we were kids!"
"Look, I can pop through the boards!"
"Whee, look at meeee!"

To give them credit, they did start off as saying it's like a capsule hotel in Japan.
But only a six year old would think to crawl in that space.

No More Killer Shrimp

Vu came by today b/c his mini Dell was arriving.
He came unannounced though.

I had to go to work, so I didn't hang out w/ Vu, Dave & Sat. They were playing We Cheer all day & were still playing when I got back.

Anyhoo, we headed out to Killer Shrimp b/c we were just talking about it last week.
And we get to Marina del Rey and it turned into Aunt Kizzy's Kitchen!

Apparently they closed the restaurants. Even the one in Studio City.

Nooooooo!

Where are we going to have yummy garlic shrimp soup?

We decided to go to Islands in the end... but it was a sad sad day w/o Killer Shrimp.

Mystery Present

I received a package via UPS yesterday.

It was a mini OXO salad spinner that I added to my Amazon wish list b/c I had sold off my big salad spinner that was taking up too much space.

Yay!
Although it's too cold right now to eat salad for lunch or dinner, I'll use it when it starts getting warm again.

So I dug around in the box to find a note from whoever the gift came from.

Inside the box:
Salad spinner
Receipt for the salad spinner
Thank you for shopping letter from J&R
J&R catalog

Hmmm... I understand getting the receipt (I suppose it's a packing slip, altho it lists the price & everything!), but it doesn't say anything on the receipt. Hmmmm...

So I asked on IRC, and the responses I got were:
Ardith - I got you something, but it's something else. It's arriving on Monday.
Sat - I didn't get you anything, in case you were wondering.

Hmmm... So who got me the salad spinner?
Please speak up yo!

Dee's Cat Fight Scar

Dee came over to eat yakiniku.
Good thing, since the Korean meat that Ichigo brought over was gonna go bad.

After dinner, Dee was teasing Koge by making her stand on her hind legs... and then she made a weird noise (I didn't hear it) and bit Dee in the nose. She drew some blood.

That's what you get for picking on Koge.

PS. Meat was good. And we bought more of the not-so-yummy organic tofu from Trader Joe's because it tastes pretty good grilled.

Vu to the Rescue

Vu came by b/c Sat was expecting her new laptop to arrive. And she always has him set up new computers w/ drivers and anti-viruses and all that fancy stuff.

Anyway, we were expecting the FedEx delivery guy to come around 2pm & thought Vu would come around then... but he was probably bored at home & showed up at noon. Well, at least we could eat lunch together.

Dave wanted to join us for lunch too... but we thought we shouldn't leave the house if the FedEx guy was coming, so Sat & Dave went to Hop Woo for some Chinese. We got some spicy scallop combo meal, kung pao chicken combo meal, house special pan fried noodles, and Chinese broccoli. Real Chinese broccoli, not Panda's version of Chinese broccoli.

While we waited for the FedEx guy, Vu yanked out my virus infected hard drive (old old desktop that Erikku made back in 2002) because I had lots of old Koge photos I wanted to retrieve. He spent hours un-virusing the hard drive, and I finally got all the files I wanted. Koge, age 4 months old photos are up on my Flickr account now.


Look how white she was!

Meanwhile, Dave was busy cleaning out one of our bookshelves... because Sat just got her new ergonomic desk & needed to rearrange the living room. She COULD work in her own bedroom... but she wants to be able to watch TV while she works. And play w/ Koge.

I don't have a desk set up in the living room... so I'll continue to work off of the TV tray. But I've been looking at those hospital table-like laptop desks, so I can sit on the chaise, type on my laptop and watch TV. It's $70 at Bed Bath & Beyond... た、高い！

Anyhoo, every hour that passed by... we gave up on the FedEx guy coming. But he showed up around 7:00pm! So Vu was multi-tasking by fixing my virus infected hard drive & setting up Sat's new laptop.

And now that the FedEx guy came, we could finally go out to eat. After debating over what to eat, we ended up at Denny's. Sat had her usual waffles, and she demanded to have powdered sugar & whipped cream. Picky. I had a Grand Slam w/ pancakes, oatmeal, hash browns and eggs over-eay. Vu had sirloin steak, and Dave had the Slamwich.. which was huge and oily and unhealthy. But it looked delicious.

We came home, cleaned some more, had Vu change settings on the TV to make it brighter... and decided that we should buy a new TV. The old TV will just have to go to the boys' place. Hm, I was hoping the TV would last 3 - 5 years...

We have lots of cleaning to do still.
And another big pile of books to take to Book Off.

Dinner at Versailles, Boys' Filming Part 2

After a long day of work, we headed off to Versailles for dinner.

I had the squid & rice dinner for the first time. It was cooked in squid ink, and was stew-like. It was warm in my tummy (I sound like Ardith) & made me feel sooo much better. Then I got sleepy soon after.

The boys are doing their second filming day tomorrow.
Something about the lucky cat movie... and a box fighting movie.

We'll look forward to their YouTube postings.

Our Broken Microwave

Yama sisters' microwave is broken.
It's been broken for several months now.

Symptoms:
1. Food doesn't heat up.
We would stick a ball of rice in, nuke it for 2 minutes... but one side is still cold.

2. It stops.
You punch in the time & walk away... and the microwave stops with 20 seconds left. Today, it stopped after 2 seconds!

So Sat is looking for a new microwave now. But everything on Amazon.com is really expensive. I think she should ask Dave to take her to Target to buy a new one. I have a $20 gift card...

Koge Barfs in Sink

I came home today to Koge home all alone.
While I was taking my coat off, she started hacking in the kitchen & went ケロケロケロ～ right in the sink.

She seemed okay, though.

I don't know if I should be happy that she barfed in the sink, so it's easy to clean up (she did it in the garbage disposal side, so I just washed them down)... or grossed out that she barfed in the sink where we make our food.

Time for bleach, I guess.

PS. I took photos, but I won't upload them b/c Ruuku objected.

PPS. My dinner tonight.
Spiral mac & cheese. Forgot to take a photo of it too.

Pooping Polar Bear, Penguin & Deer

Sat, Dave & I met up w/ じゅるる at Mitsuwa Santa Monica to eat ramen.

じゅるるgave me a baggie w/ some toys he found at Rite Aid.


It's a pooping polar bear, penguin & deer!
I think the poop for the polar bear & deer are chocolate covered raisins or jellybeans. The poop for the penguin are little round chocolate balls.

I wonder who'll eat the candies with me?

My First Temp Job

Well, it's not your usual office work type of temp job *laugh*
I went and helped at the FF event today.

I bumped into Sasami first thing in the morning, then I didn't see her for the rest of the day. Well, that was because I was tucked away in the back behind the stage area. So she text'ed me to see if I was still around.

What did I do?
Let's see... helped attendees take pictures w/ girls dressed up in costumes. Signed up folks for the costume contest. Made various prize winners fill out tax forms. The last part was a lot like what I do normally.

I didn't take a lot of pictures cuz I forgot to recharge my battery.

They provided bento boxes w/ sandwiches, potato chips (gave that away), apples (gave that away too), potato salad (didn't eat), lemon squares. Okay, I only ate the veggie sandwich (half) and the lemon squares (2/3). It was plenty. I should have taken more water bottles, though. And maybe the lemon squares.

After the event, I bumped into Sasami again & went to dinner w/ her and her friends.

I was tired, but Sat must have been more tired from Knott's b/c she was already sleeping when I got home.

PS. Aside from providing lunch, they will also be reimbursing us for parking. Yay!

Dee's New Pet, Dinner at Smitty's

Dee was helping us clean up again, and he found a black widow among the boxes that were outside.

So he caught it.
And instead of killing it like he's always done, he decided to put it in a plastic container & take it home. Now, I don't know about most folks, but I don't want a little insect that could kill me hanging out in the same room as me. I hope his mom talks some sense into him.

After work, I joined Allen, Steebu & Dee at Smitty's for some fried chicken wings. Yum!

They were gonna watch some Japanese film called "The Audition" at the boys' place. I declined to go watch it w/ them, and Dee whispered to me later that I wouldn't like it at all b/c there's some arm cutting w/ piano wire. Ew!

I hope everyone has fun at Knott's tomorrow.
I'll be working all day in Hollywood.

Working at a Geeky Event This Weekend

Well, I always work at a geeky event.

But I wanted to check out the FF event, so I askedじゅるる to get me in. I offered my services for free, just for the opportunity to see what it's like. And I didn't want to pay for the ticket either (I don't play the game).

じゅるる talked to people & I got the OK to work. Yay!

So I'll point fingers at Sasami & her online friends and laugh at them. No, I won't do anything that mean. But I'll convince them to buy stuff. Oh, they don't need any convincing to fork up money. Damn, this is a nice business!

Looks like I'm working the stage area. I hope I don't have to translate on stage... cuz I sure don't know any terminology.

Sat & friends are planning a trip down to Anaheim to go to Knott's this weekend. It's the Toys for Tots drive. I won't be going with them, unfortunately. I hope everyone has their $10 gift. If not, they should be stopping by my work to pick up some stuff.

Going Free

I secured a freelance gig today.
It's only for 6 months, but it's a start.

I was hoping to get another gig doing the same stuff I've been doing for work, but that's probably not going to be happening.

I also realized that I'd have to send out my own Christmas cards this year b/c we won't be sending any out from work. Plus I need to let everyone know that I'll be going free (or planning to).

To save a bit of money, I'll send out the cards going to Japan w/ Sat. Although I have more places to send to, so it's not really saving... but at 94 cents a piece, we should be saving plenty as a whole.

I still have to worry about health insurance, although I'll be covered until January. Whew, that'll give me time to sign up for individual health insurance as well as go to my annual check ups.

I might still look for a full-time job, but I'm not really motivated to do the search myself. So I'm thinking of signing up at various staffing agencies & make them look for work for me. I might just do temp work during slow months, since it happens to be the same months accounting departments all over are scrambling.

We'll see how things go.
Everyone is welcome to treat me out while I stay unemployed.