| Date: | 2005-05-26 11:18 |
| Subject: | new blog |
| Security: | Public |
Hello! I have changed my blog site to TypePad. You can find it at:
http://petitshoo.typepad.com
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| Date: | 2005-05-19 10:48 |
| Subject: | Spaced |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  thirsty |
Forgot to mention, Jen and Dunc gave us Spaced on DVD. I arrived home from the states on a Thursday night, and we had watched the entire DVD set (series 1 and 2 and extras) by Sunday. We were highly amused by the whole thing. I have a feeling we will be watching it again soon so we can share with friends here.
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So before I get into the weekend details...*grin* how bout that new computer? It came in the mail on Thursday...made it here in a scant three days. Couldn't quite believe it. I couldn't order my big ass monitor from the states because it was too big to ship...so Friday morning, I drove to Tachikawa to our favorite electronics store–Bic Camera and bought a huge 30" monitor. It is sweet...especially now that I've gotten used to so much screen real estate.
We had a really good weekend. Started off on Friday night with dinner at Jen and Raul's. We made a few things ahead of time [i made pea panzenella (above) as our salad course] and then cooked together the rest [i made fruit bruschetta, she made squash and roasted pepper soup, and raul grilled kebabs]. It was all very delish.
Saturday, we went to the Fussa City Flea Market and shopped. We bought a few things...some CD's (most were 100 yen each), a necklace, a 1000 yen guitar ($10) that Denny fixed up (we had to go to Tachikawa so he could by new strings....it sounds great....perfect for brazilian music), some pottery, and a 100 yen stuffed panda (that is now "flying" from my ceiling). We made friends with the girls who sold us the guitar. The photo above is of Denny trying out the guitar and Karu jumped on drums for an impromptu jam. Hopefully we'll get together with Karu and Moe sometime soon for dinner.
Saturday afternoon we went to Tachikawa for those guitar strings and ate at our favorite chinese resaurant. We wandered about our favorite stores and came home for a relaxing evening.
Sunday was Design Festa. We went with our friends Cassey, Shafiq, Nikal (Shafiq's son), Chantelle, Yuki and her boyfriend Tony. It was very interesting.....almost a sensory overload of all kinds of art and things. Here are the photos .
Gotta run...time for dinner with Cassey.
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| Date: | 2005-05-17 11:06 |
| Subject: | cat buckaroo |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  amused |
Hehehe, this is funny:
Click on This.
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*bighappygrin*
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Been awhile since I've graced my blog with my presence. A few things I've done since then:
• tromped around in the woods like a 12 year old with my nephew and his buddies.
• spent just enough time in south georgia to regain my accent, but not enough time for it to stick
• avoided getting carried off by gnats
• spent some time in Macon, visiting friends and eating way too much
• attended my 10 year reunion at Wesleyan College. Jello really described the whole thing well....so I'm going to paste the relevant things she said here [and add my own comments in brackets and italics]:
• eating at our favorite local pizza place, which is just as good as ever, even if they don't carry my favorite beer any more
[course, I myself don't drink beer, though I have in the past from this particular restaurant....our fave...Ingleside Village Pizza].
• catching up with some of people that weren't in my "group" in school, but whom I always thought were interesting and intelligent. either we've all turned into really good actors, or we were genuinely interested in what each other had been doing for the past ten years. we seem to have more in common now, or at least more to talk about, even without the benefit of shared experience. neat.
[this was neat, it was interesting that we all had something to say.....and that we didn't necessarily feel like we had to fall into our old cliques...even though we did]
• having breakfast with two of our favorite professors, both of whom are retiring this year.
[To be honest, this was one of the main things I wanted to come back for.....Dr. A and Dr. Taylor were my favorites and I'm glad I got to see them again on campus.]
• watching the newly appointed college president, Wesleyan class of '75, play guitar and sing folk songs with her classmates for everyone at the reunion picnic. she is the best thing to happen to Wesleyan maybe ever, and I'm so pleased they chose her that I'm giving them money for the first time ever.
[me too me too]
• being with my two BFF for the whole weekend. it would have been significantly less meaningful without them, and I'm very glad we've stayed together (in a non- literal way, of course) all these years.
[*grin*, yes this last statement is true for me too, so glad Meg and I roped Jello into coming with us to the reunion...wouldn't have been the same without her]
Other things from the weekend:
• I got to randomly go to the art building with two wesleyan comrades and take silly pictures. Reminded me of the days when Kathleen would want to go and do butt prints, or steal something from the art building. Which got me to thinking about how Kathleen would drop her books out of the window in Science class and then just ditch during the break...and how I wished I had had the guts to do that.
• Giggling at the lady from the class of 1960, who quoted one of her friends from the class of 1958, who always used to say "once a knight, always a knight, but once a night's enough." (to fully get this joke, besides the innuendo, you must know that Wesleyan has 4 class names, Golden Hearts, Pirates, Purple Knights and Green Knights). We were highly amused by this little gem.
• Listening to Tena Roberts, Archivist for Wesleyan and a former student, tell stories from Wesleyan's past. Stories of panty raids, fires, water fights, and convocation games. For instance, they would count the number of grammatical errors in the preacher's sermon during chapel. I loved hearing these stories and hope they put them in book form.
• Spent time with my friend Heather, her newish baby Olivia (4 months), her sister Brandi and her new baby Cooper (only a week old when I saw him). I dubbed the day "baby day". I'm so glad I got to see both babies before they get past the baby stage...which will be when I will most likely get to see them again.
• Did too much shopping (as usualy)...only this time I was prepared by bringing a half empty suitcase along. Of course, it was still a tight fit, and I actually had to shift some things around on the way back in order not to pay an overweight fee ($350).
• Really enjoyed hanging out with jello and dunc and meggie. I miss them.
I am happy to be back with my sweet hubby though. We had a nice lazy week last week (of course, he was gone half the week). We made a new japanese friend on Sunday (met her through Flickr). This week has been busy, movie with Jen and Raul on Sunday night...we saw Million Dollar Baby (very good movie...dont' want to give too much away), dinner with Jen and Raul Monday night at Hathi, Tuesday was a bit of a break, but Jen and I started our new walking regimen..we walked 5K (3.2 miles). Wednesday, Cassey came over for dinner (made cauliflower soup, which was delish!), but that was only our appetizer. We had dinner with culture group (didn't get to the restaurant til 8:30) at an italian restaurant, and even though i only had a bite or two of each course (there were 7), I was stuffed at the end of the evening.
Which brings us up to date.
http://www.gizmo1.demon.co.uk/jencyclo/data/rules.htm
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These flowers always remind me of South Georgia. Forgot how pretty it can be in the spring.
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| Date: | 2005-04-19 21:12 |
| Subject: | Neckless |
| Security: | Public |
hehehehehehehehehe! One of my flickr friends took this photo in another part of Japan.
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Okay, so I've been slack as of late with keeping up my blog. Oh well. *grin*.
The photo of Denny below is from Chidori ga Fuchi--which has some of the most beautiful sakura (cherry blossoms) I've seen. They are so old and so big that they curve over the walkway and swoop down the hill. Amazing. These trees surround an outer moat of the imperial palace and gardens. We rented a boat for ¥800 and Denny rowed us around. It was a perfect day, the perfect temperature. A cool breeze blowing our hair. A lovely way to spend our 5th anniversary.
This morning I'm packing my final stuff for my trip back to the states. My bus to the airport leaves at 9am, my plane leaves at 3:30pm and gets to Jacksonville at 5:30pm (same day). Flying back in time I am.
Mata ne! (later!)
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I'll write more on this later:
Click to view the photos now.
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oh my goodness....this is one of the most random things i've seen in awhile:
http://thisismycomputerblog.blogspot.com/
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Last night at culture group we decorated easter eggs. None of them had ever experienced it before...and we had a great time showing them an American tradition. It was really cool to see everyone's unique decorating style, whether it was lots of stickers, using sponge paint, or simply drawing on the egg and then coloring it.
The egg above was drawn by Naito-san. It reads "bunny is pounding rice cake on the moon". I'll have to pay attention next time there is a full moon here....they see a rabbit on the moon (as opposed to the man on the moon).
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We were invited by Mie and Wakako (from Culture Group) to go and see the Plum Blossoms at Ume no Koen in Ome. We invited our friend Cassey to join us. So a nice big group of us went to Ome and ate Ramen for lunch and then went to the park. I had fun taking photos on the train and of course took lots of photos at the park.
It was a beautiful day.....a nice, cool, crisp, sunny spring day. We wandered around the park for awhile, and then went for tea and dessert at a little café. There was this one lovely spot of light hitting our table, so I put everything we had in the light to photograph. Cassey egged me on. We even simply photographed the light itself.
After dessert, we walked to a nice pottery shop and had a second little dessert at a manchu shop. (manchu=warm buns with sweet beans inside). At the mancu place, they also had pottery. And one of the potters showed us musical instruments that he made.
Very interesting instruments. They are a cross between a percussion instrument and a wind instruments. He played it by covering and uncovering a hole on the side, and hitting the hole on the top. He also blew into it to get a low sound.
When Cassey, Denny and I arrived a Fussa station, there was a musician playing outside of the Seiyu. I took some photos and asked for her email address. Her name is Megumi, and we were very impressed by her singing voice. We ended up getting some coffee and coming back to listen some more.
We then ended up going to Hathi to eat dinner with Cassey and to this little club to hear a friend of hers play. I had flashbacks to college, being in a small smokey bar, listening to a very loud band play. (and I mean loud. This club's max capacity was probably 50 people, and the band was so loud i had to keep my ears covered for the whole show). It was loud angry music (and to be honest, not very good loud angry music), and the singer has watched to many music videos.
And that was our saturday.
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| Date: | 2005-03-23 23:01 |
| Subject: | Shinkansen |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  happy |
I went with Denny on a band trip this weekend [click the links for photos]. We rode 10 hours on a bus to Misawa in northern Japan. 10 hours. On a bus. But, we had a little DVD player and watched Angel season 4 most of the way. And we stopped at rest stops every two hours. One of the rest stops had BUNNIES! Little white bunnies with red eyes. Too cute. And we ate lost of snacks along the way as well. Saw some nice views.
It was (*#^@(%^#@$ cold in Misawa when we arrived. Wow. We checked in, then walked in the cold to the BX (this is what the band guys usually do on the trip...don't have much time for anything else) for dinner. Then to bed.
The next day, I went for a long walk from the base to the station. Much longer walk than I anticipated. Misawa is a nice place. Found some cool stores to shop in. And an old shrine to photograph. It snowed on and off all day, which gave my walk a nice magical feel. At the shrine, a japanese couple and their son came up behind me. I noticed they had the son take their photo in front of the shrine, so I offered to take a photo of all of them. And I did. Then the wife wanted to take my photo with her husband and son. And she took a photo with my camera as well. Very nice random strangers. At this point, it was really snowing a lot. And was quite cold. They left, and I hung around taking photos. Then, the sun came out (while it was still snowing), and I couldn't help but wonder if there is such a thing as a "snowbow". Wouldn't that be cool?
After my walk, I met Denny and some of the guys from the band for lunch. We ate at a little restaurant where I had a northern Japan version of yaki niku..except with pork and lettuce in a BBQ type sauce. It was called pork barayaki and it was quite yummy. After lunch, Denny and I went for a small walk, but as my feet were tired, we ended up heading back to the base for a rest. He went to his gig, I ate calzone from a cafe on base, and that was that.
The next morning, the band bus dropped us off in Hachinohe to catch the Shinkansen back to Tokyo. In contrast to the 10 hour bus ride, the shinkansen took all of 3 hours. And it was really fast. And a nice, smooth ride. Amazing really. We were in the green car (which is the nice car) and had really great seats with leg room and foot rests. With trains like these, who needs airplanes?
Back in Tokyo, we boarded the Yamanote line train to Ebisu. We were on the Gap train (as in, the only ads on the train were for Gap). From Ebisu we took a taxi to the New Sanno Hotel for Denny's next gig. We found a great brick oven pizza type place called "Plates" where we had Pizza Margarita and a Mortadella Pizza....both quite yummy. Then I went for reflexology on my feet (and to wander around some more), while Denny went back to set up for his gig. The reflexology was really interesting. She did some pressure type things on my feet (that really kinda hurt), but when she was done, my feet felt great. And she could tell from my feet that my neck and lower back were sore.
We stayed at the New Sanno on Sunday night (I watched TV and read while Denny had his gig). On Monday, we had a traditional Japanese breakfast of miso soup, salmon, rice, and some very odd vegetables. Then we went exploring. I showed Denny the Azabu International Market where they have an english bookstore. And we went to the Prince Arisagawa park to look at the ducks and blooming trees.
For lunch, we ate Jerk Chicken. Really good, but really spicy jerk chicken served with coconut rice and banana chips. After lunch, we walked back to the Sanno to catch the free bus back to the base.
All in all, a nice mini-vacation for me and a typical work weekend for Denny (well, I guess not so typical since I was along to drag him around *grin*).
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| Date: | 2005-03-17 14:03 |
| Subject: | inner critic |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: |  contemplative |
I composed this blog entry while lying in bed the other night trying to go to sleep. It seems that is the best time to do any thinking (that and when you are in the shower). Inspiration always hits at the most inopportune times, when the last thing I want to do is reach for a pen and paper. It would be so nice if I could attach my inner monologue directly to the computer to uplink my thoughts.
Now, on to the topic at hand--the infamous Inner Critic. I was thinking about how as kids, we didn't have much of an inner critic. We were little creators...whether we were creating art, poetry, superheroes or disctruction, we were all about creating new things. And we didn't criticize ourselves...we just made things and showed them around. I was a prolific creator as a child (as I remembered recently going through all of my drawings and poems and short stories that my mom kept). I wrote poetry. I wrote short stories. I drew lots of pictures. I even started my own neighborhood newspaper. I'd interview the neighbors, draw their picture, and handwrite the articles. I even made up games for the back page. My mom would make copies for me, then I 'd go sell them to the neighbors. And my mom kept all of them. I was a creator.
I still think of myself as a creator. But as I've gotten older the inner critic has grown too, and gotten more vocal. Sometimes I wish for duck tape and a closet to shove her into. And somedays, I thank her. Because the inner critic keeps what I do the best it can be. But, it also inhibits me from starting new projects..things I want to do...but just can't start for whatever the reason. Maybe my drawings will suck. Maybe I can't paint anymore. What will I draw or paint? What will my subject be? How can I make it happen? All of these questions run through my mind. I've been doing graphic design for so long, and have been told what my subject matter is and what the client likes, that I feel like I've lost my own voice in the process. and my inner critic doesn't let me forget this.
What's the solution to all of this I wonder. Finding new creative outlets? My inner critic has no problem hushing up when I'm cooking. I can be as creative as I want, throw in a little salt here, a little pepper there, and like magic I have delicious food almost every time. And if it doesn't turn out that well, I know exactly what to do to fix it next time. I've renewed my love of photography and seeing the world in many different ways through my lens.
Here's to letting go of our "adultness" and finding our inner kids once more. And here's to happy creating in whatever ways we can.
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things i am looking foward to:
• cherry blossoms
• going to Misawa with Denny (yes, and the band) this weekend (Misawa is at the northern tip of Honshu island).
• riding in the Shinkansen back from Misawa with Denny
• making more tomato soup
and when I go to the states (besides the obvious seeing friends and family):
• the apple store (ok, that was probably obvious too)
• breakfast with Dr. Anderson and Dr. Taylor at Alumnae Weekend (wheeeee)
• new computer new computer new computer
• driving faster than 40km an hour for a long period of time on the open highway
• using shortcuts that actually work
things I'm not looking forward to:
• the long-ass bus ride to Misawa (10-12 hours by bus)
• the long-ass plane ride to the states and back
• having to do businessy things
• dealing with lawyer speak
• and did I mention the plane-ride?
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So, yeah...I think the picture says it all (as do a couple others I posted on Flickr). This is the most heavenly combination of flavors....pure love.--homemade tomato soup with little mozzerella, prosciutto and pesto grilled cheese sandwiches to dip with....yum! *satisfiedfullgrin* Also must add that the pottery it's on was given to me by my hubby....who knew I had a similarily designed teapot (200yen at the flea market). Love him too. ;D
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As if I needed any more ways to procrastinate. Thanks to my friend Jen I have found a new addiction to add to my arsenal of internet procrastination tools--Prognosticate.com. Thanks Jen. *grin*
As if I needed anything besides Flickr to keep me occupied when I'm putting off doing actual work.
Today was a pretty good day for a Monday. Well, except for the having to drive the long way to take Denny to work, and then come back and take the car to get fixed (which wasn't really a bad experience...the stem of the tire was leaky..they replaced in under 10 minutes)...then driving back to the other side of the base for lunch (the long way again) and then back to get Denny after his work ended....because they closed the shorter way to get to the other side...and whoever designed this base decided it would be cool to split the base with the flightline and runway...and lets make it so you have to go around your ass to get to your elbow if you want to go anywhere. We've decided that will work at keeping those terrorist pizza delivery guys from finding us.
Anyway, tonight, we went the long way again to go and see Electra. We really enjoyed it...good flick....one to see again. If you haven't read the comic books at all...then you may not know what to expect....it is a dark movie (like the tone of the comic)...and well done (much much much much much better than Daredevil ever thought it would be...course....i guess that doesn't take a whole whole lot). Jennifer Garner did a great job in the role...you totally forgot about Sidney Bristow and thought of her as Elektra after the first few minutes. (course, there was still a scene or two where i thought her cellphone would ring and she would answer and say "i'll be right there").
All in all a good day. And I did manage to get some work done. yay me.
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I've been working on getting my Japan photos onto flickr...there are lots and lots...but I'm back to early May of last year....it's fun revisiting photos I haven't looked at in awhile. Fresh perspective is a very good thing. Also fun to revisit postings from last year to refresh my memory about the photos. Here's one of my faves.
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| Date: | 2005-03-14 09:27 |
| Subject: | munsterlander |
| Security: | Public |
| Mood: | amused |
Here is a neat link:
http://gone2thedogs.com/game/preloader.swf
It's the Canine Algorithmic Transfer System...tells you what dog you are...with a really neat interface.
I'm a Munsterlander from Germany.
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