We went out to IKEA this last weekend to get some ideas for curtains and blinds for the new house, and we ended up picking up this chair for the princess:
I love how the instructions are all done in pictures — probably so they don’t have to translate them. Probably makes sense in more ways than one considering no one ever reads that shit to begin with.
Is the question mark a truly international symbol now? I wonder if there are any cultures where it isn’t understood.
SKY PerfectTV & docomo FOMA Cooperative Event
“Cheer Up Indies Vol. 24″
Shibuya Eggman
http://eggman.jp
Date: 01.31.2009 (Sat)
Doors Open: 18:00
Show Starts: 18:30
We’re on stage last, scheduled to start at 21:00.
Featured Artists:
Takashi Houjou
ARGIANO
OTOTOI GROUP
Phos*Mass
fit
Tickets:
Advanced - 2,000 Yen (+ 1 Drink)
Door - 2,500 Yen (+ 1 Drink)
Ticket Reservations: info@fit-noise.com
Things that happened this weekend:
I only have about ten pages left of my first draft edit for the book I’m working on. My idea is to do a quick read through next, highlighting stuff I think is still too clumsy, fixing minor syntax crap, and leaving notes for pacing issues and whatnot. I’ll go back through it again after that and work out what I have marked (and maybe possibly add what I feel is missing or incomplete). From there, I don’t know. I assume I’ll probably put it down for a while and at least read through it one more time. We will see.
I’m still doing my Kanji stuff, working on level 6. It’s progressing slowly, but it is progressing, which I assume counts for something. Better than nothing anyway. I’m also very slowly reading “Twilight” on my commute back and forth to work. My mom sent it to me for Christmas so I figured I would give it a pass through.
I still have a crap load of band stuff I need to start taking care of. First on my list is to finish updating our mobile site because it needs it badly. I also need to get some stuff together for the upcoming show. Maybe from there I will get back to working on the primary site some, merchandise, and etc.
The wifey and I crammed this dish together between me getting off work and putting the princess in the shower:
It has to be one of the easiest dishes on the planet but it was terribly yummy.
I finished up “Choke” last night. It kept my interest, it was paced well, and it even had its moments of brilliance, but in whole I just wasn’t really feeling it. It kind of felt like it was being provocative for the sake of being provocative, and the center plot line just felt a bit lame. Then I get to the last couple chapters and wow — it totally took me off guard. And I remembered why I like Chuck Palahniuk so much: he always has a twist or two waiting for you (or in the case of “Invisible Monsters,” like a million twists), and he obviously puts a lot of effort into his endings (unlike a lot of authors, even a lot of good ones). Like the wifey said to me the other day: when a book or movie has a good ending, you tend to be rather forgiving on the rest of it.
We went out to the lot today to met up with a fellow about what we are going to do for curtains, blinds, and whatnot. The house has come along quite a ways; the flooring is completed and they even have the kitchen in already.
We ended up hitting a few showrooms, most of which were these ridiculously expensive designer places (simply because they were close by). It probably didn’t help us too much on the actual “picking shit out” front but it was rather educational nonetheless. We were mainly trying to decide what (in general) to put in and where.
Anyhow, this marks the last painful stretch of having to pick out and decide on lots of crap. At this stage I’m really looking forward to having it complete. I’ve been eating essentially the same lunch for a year now primary to avoid having to make any extra decisions.
On that note, here is the princess writing all over herself:
Already just like her mom — going right for the credit cards:
Lorne and Maggie are back from their respective trips home and they popped in this afternoon/evening for dinner, drinking, and uh, drinking. I threw together some risotto, the wifey added in some caprese, and they made a terribly fucking good chicken caesar salad with banana splits for desert. And beer, of course. You know, for the drinking part.
I ended up getting tipsy and calling my mom, forcing her into a game of online “Mario Cart.” My dad’s name was “dejugher” or something unintelligible like that. After getting disconnected, I told my mom we were going to have to organize a local game when they come out to see us (complete with long island ice teas) to which she replied, “yeah, if I can still see the TV.”
So there you go, that’s were I get it from.
I have had this craving for peanut brittle and the wifey had never heard of it so I figured I would take a shot at making it on my own. Unfortunately, I had a hell of a time finding corn syrup over here. I ended up having to order it online from a import shop.
Here’s the goop just dumped out on a pan waiting to cool:
Looks rather disgusting doesn’t it?
It came out something like this when it was all finished:
I swear, this stuff is like crack.
The wifey took off to go to the dentists and I was to take the princess into daycare after her breakfast. Apparently she didn’t really want to go because she locked me out on the balcony. Luckily the wifey was coming home so I only had to wait out in the cold for about an hour (which was all of an hour too long with how windy it was).
We went out to go see the house again this afternoon:
The flooring and walls are mainly in (except for the third floor), and they are in the process of putting in our little desk/counter in the living room and the barrier for the kitchen. I swear, it’s really amazing how fast they get stuff done.
Oh, and the princess has learned how to use our digital camera:
Well kinda.
It’s only eight days into the year but it feels like a month has gone by already given how much has been going on. Life is just moving so insanely fast these days my fingertips are turning white from trying to hang on.
Lorne’s still not back from Canada yet so the rest of us fit guys got together at my place for a few beers. The plan is to start up practice again from next week. I’ve been doing a lot of work on the website and whatnot and have got quite a lot accomplished, but I still have an humongous backlog to take care of — it has been all just kind of sitting there for months now. We also have a concert coming up on the 31st at Eggman of which the details will posted as I get them. It looks like it is going to be a terribly interesting event.
Anyhow, in short, I’m just keeping crazy busy. I’m about eight chapters into “Choke” now, still studying Kanji (currently working on level 6), still working on finishing the editing for my novel, still staying up way too late every night and getting very little sleep to get everything done, still being ridiculously busy at work, and still…
Never mind, I ran out shit to list.
We took the princess out to Pierette today (a play facility for kids) and it was too much fun. It actually rather surprised me how much she can do on her own these days. She not only went down a pretty big slide all by herself and on her own volition, but she even managed to climb back up the damn thing somehow.
More pictures here.
Tomorrow is my first day back at work and I’m happy to say that my rash has pretty much vanished now. I still don’t know where the hell it came from, but I’m just thankful it decided to move on. I also managed to finally get through the rest of the Hitchhiker’s series from Douglas Adams, which was extremely funny — and brilliant of course. The last book, “Mostly Harmless,” was a bit too bleak for my liking (especially considering it was the last book), but it was still entertaining.
I’m probably going to read “Choke” from Chuck Palahniuk next being that it has been on my list for a while. It takes me forever to get through books these days; I just don’t have the time to read anymore. I’ve started trying to read on my train trip back and forth to work but even that doesn’t work out most of the time. The morning train is so crowded I usually can’t manage it, which just leaves the return trip, and I’m typically too exhausted to bother by then.
