m e

Of course, I'm not including the part of the IM conversation where he says he was just kidding, b/c it reads funnier without it.

so this morning as i was getting ready to leave for work, i glanced at the kitchen table with our jack-o-lanterns on it, and low-and-behold, it was like all three pumpkins had wet the bed.

gross rotten pumpkin juice was everywhere, and the pumpkins themselves were all collapsed and all green and furry on the inside. EWWWWW.

so i spent an extra 10 mins trying to clean it up and then drag the heavy stupid things to the garbage can. my leg got splattered with more rotten gross pumpkin juice and i was trying not to gag.

never! again!

So carmen and  will came over to carve pumpkins last night, and it was super fun.  Behold our works of art:



From L to R: Carmen's "Bats'n'Beads" creation, Will's angry pumpkin, Brandon's goofy pumpkin and my very very very boring, nondescript, traditional and uncreative pumpkin named Pumpkinmoto (he's Japanese. Like me.)

We had one extra pumpkin left over, so after arguing back and forth on what to carve on it (like the Arsenal cannon crest), we decided to carve a cow.



Those are the udders at the bottom. And no, those aren't weird chunks bitten out from its back. Those are "spots."

I'm bored.

Taken last weekend after bees and I went to the Korean supermarket for really cheap fruits/veggies.

Hahaha, take out the Fergie and it's literally straight out of the late 1990's. Well, replace the "Fergie" with "Wild Orchid," and you'd be all set.

One random thought: the LA Freecycle group is pretty boring--as in, no one really asks for outrageous things and people pretty much seem to follow the rules. Tues night, I met up with some lady to give her a free bag and she even gave me a huge hug.

But yesterday, I saw this post:

WANTED: Baby stuff

I have a 4 month old who's getting bored of her toys. Please let me know if
you have anything you're ready to get rid of - including activity centers,
bouncy chairs etc.! Thanks.

I don't know anything about child development, but your baby is four months old. Isn't that a little too young to get bored?

I was just imagining this tiny infant throwing her stuffed animal at her mom, yelling "WHAT THE HELL, MOM. YOU THINK I'M RETARDED OR SOMETHING?? AT LEAST TRY TO ENTERTAIN ME HERE. JESUS CHRIST, YOU DISAPPOINT ME." 

Anyway, other than that, I think I am doing really, really, really well. :)

I am having a good weekend so far:

1. I read American Born Chinese by that Chinese American dude. It was good but I don't really think it was as amazing to win all those awards.
2. Brandon and I went to Best Buy not once but TWICE in a row. We [me] bought a scanner so we can start scanning our photos for random archival purposes [aka showing everyone I know that funny pictures of my dad with an afro]
3. We ate a half-lunch at this restaurant on Hillhurst. Which was a half lunch because we weren't even that hungry.
4. Scanned photos.
5. Played Guitar Hero II with Brandon. I totes suck.
6. Caught up on all my Ugly Betty, except that ONE EPISODE IS MISSING and I don't know where it went. But seriously, best show ever. I think it even tops the Office. I hate to say it, but this Office season has been so up and down with each episode that I'm starting to miss last year. But Ugly Betty??? Maybe also because the new assistant, Nick, who is such the white frat boy jerk, totally reminds me of the white frat boy jerk assistant who I have to deal with almost on a daily basis. God I hate that guy so much.
7. I have a serious new crush on Henry. Maybe it's the dark hair and glasses. Move over, John Krasinski. Henry makes my heart go pitter patter now. :)
8. I ate two onigiri and a mini chocolate cake from Famima and now I feel kind of nauseous.
9. My sister finally bought her wedding dress. Woot.
10. I think I am getting a little obsessed with the art by Brian Lee O'Malley. Yeah, I know, Brandon's the one that gave me the books to read even though I thought this guy was just ripping off manga styles until I realized he was half Asian (because that makes it OKAY) and now I am in love. I wish I could draw and write like him. I was super excited when I found out he was also a Diana Wynne Jones fan because omg she is the best writer ever so great minds think alike, right?
    

Tomorrow is another Arsenal game. I think I will sleep through it (as always).

I did it! I baked my own cinnamon buns (not rolls) yesterday.

Um, this is them unbaked but after I left them rise a bit over a warm stove. For some reason, I think they look more delicious unbaked.

What a cheesy picture. But I like it. It's a nice reminder that work isn't everything, even though I seem to spend 85% of my life here.

Palm Desert next weekend! Biking all this coming weekend! 

B and I picked up my stupid old bike from the Bike Kitchen last Saturday, and managed to wander around the neighborhood all weekend (after picking up his new road bike, of course. Happy Birthday.). I realized how much I suck at cycling, I don't really like the gears on my old bike, and going downhill is just great.

Regardless of realizing that my new bike is really old and kind of stupid, I'm so excited to travel around on it!!!! 

Places we plan to visit, via bike:

1. Scoops. Okay, already done once when we went to pick up the stupid bike itself, but I really want to try this on our post-dinner-lets-get-a-pint-for-dessert runs at night. I just need a front headlight. Maybe I'll just ducktape an old flashlight and use that.

2. Larchmont Pizzeria. The best thing is that the whole Hancock Park area is F-L-A-T!

3. My parents' house, and then up to Lake Hollywood. 

4. Down Los Feliz Blvd and around the LA River Bike Path. Wooot! Except the Los Feliz Blvd makes me feel a little anxious.

5. Will's house! Only because it's the farthest bike-able distance I can think of. Um...I dunno what I'd do after we get there. Probably fall asleep on his couch while they watch something boring like The Wire. That show = zzzzz. I don't care what you say.

Hopefully we'll be able to bring our bikes to Palm Desert and bike around there on the awesomely flat streets they have there.

Hahaha, notice my excitement over FLAT streets? I'm such a wuss. I can't go uphill. I suck.

Moments when you're just kinda like, "Really, what is the point of doing ANTYHING?":

When you put toilet seat paper on the toilet but then have it all fall into the water by the time you sit down to pee so you just sit on the bare seat.

What the eff.

So, I finally kept my promise and did it. I spent five hours (YES, FIVE HOURS TOTAL) yesterday, at the Bike Kitchen, fixing up an old bike. I was so worried when I went that they wouldn't have a bike that I liked or the parts that I would need to fix it, but lo and behold, there was an old Spalding Blade with the perfect handlebars and shade of dark red that was just hidden between all the bikes. The girl said all it needed was a couple of new [used] wheels and it should be all set!

So I got to work: replaced the front brakes--about three times, since it wouldn't really tight up loosely (does that make sense?) properly, so we replaced the spring, and then replaced the front wheel, and then attached the missing brake wire, and then I cleaned the old rear wheel and replaced the gear thingamajig with a new wheel, complete with cleaning up the old grease gunk (down to the ball bearings) and replacing everything with new grease. My hands were FILTHY by the time I was done.

But by then, I was totally pooped out and celebrated with free bbq from Scoops next door (the owner doesn't even know my name, but for some odd reason, he loves me) and all I have to do is go back to pump air into the tires, fix the seat and make sure everything works.

I'M SO EXCITED.

Dumb things I did during my bike session:

1. Calling the rear axle a "tube" to my "Cook" who looked at my twice when I asked him about it. Yeah....I guess that's the wrong word for it.
2. Freaking out when the ball bearings fell out of the wheel while I was unscrewing it. I had no idea they had balls in it. Haha, I said balls.
3. Trying to test the gear switch while NOT pushing the pedal. Um... note to self: only try to change gears while the wheel is in motion.

I love it!!! I can't wait until it's really ready to go, and I can bike everywhere [within a 1 mile radius around my apartment].

Okay, new goal. At least, for the summer.

I want to build my own (creaky) bike at the Bike Kitchen, next to Scoops. Maybe this weekend?

The only thing that's holding me back is my awful work hours, which won't let me get home until like 8:00pm or so (stupid traffic!) and those intimidating hipster biker crowds that think they own the streets (which is fine by me. Just don't make me hit you with my Mini). And the fact that I don't really quite not how to ride a bike on the busy streets of LA. Or that I'd have to build this all by myself, b/c bees already has a bike.

But hey, what's the point of existence if you keep thinking about the things you WANT to do but never get around to doing it, because all of the above holds you back?

Normandy apple tart from La Brea Bakery and pistacchio-orange icecream from the one and only Scoops. Mmmm. 

Though the apple tart does look like a brain. Ew, gross.

No, not everything. Just waiting for the weekend. I've been waiting patiently since Monday morning, and it's still only THURSDAY. Not even NOON yet. I can't do this. 

I think, though, that to make myself feel better, I'm going to go downstairs to the farmer's market outside and buy myself some fresh flowers.

I am also giving up on Valentine's Day. B and I had an argument over it, because he hates it and I don't and there is nothing wrong with celebrating a superficial holiday that boasts a color scheme of pink and red and white. Right? I'm not giving up that belief, but I guess there really is no point in celebrating it if the other person doesn't want to. Oh well. 

So that week, I'm going to buy myself fresh flowers from the farmer's market again to make myself feel even better.

And ohmygosh, there's a new baby polar bear cub at some zoo in Germany.

The idea of even writing something about my boring life just makes me want to crawl under my deks, but I think I ought to write something so that in 10 years, I can look back and remember that maybe something did happen in the beginning of 2007.

For example....

( I baked a pie!!! )

Except, Bees washed and peeled the apples so he really should deserve credit, too.
Up next, gooseberry pie.

At New Year's Resolutions. I already broke one like a billion times already. I'm sorry, B.

From future Brother-In-Law:

i'm so excited to become part of your family. i can just feel the love already!
you anti-semite. 

I'm so excited, too. So if when my sister marries a Jewish boy, does this mean I can call myself ALMOST Jewish? Everyone says no, but I think it could work out.

So this whole LJ thing is really intimidating. Seriously. I've been LJ-stalking for quite a while now (it was the perfect way to procrastinate during college) and now that I have my own, I am quite at a lost of what to do.

But then, it's things like this and this that make me realize how awesome it is. Hahahahaha I love it. LJ makes the internet so much better.

I can't believe I'm doing this.