Yay! It's the 6th day!
Feels like it's going by so fast. Might make latkes again at some point. Today's also National Candy Cane Day. And, Rosh Chodesh Tevet, which is the new month of Tevet on the Jewish calendar. It's also the start of Kwanzaa. So, happy Kwanzaa to those who celebrate it!
Oh, and if you celebrate Christmas, hope it was a good one.
And, today's also Boxing Day in Canada and the UK. So many holidays. Cool.
I got another present a couple of nights ago!
A clarinet stand. It's so awesome!
Sometimes, I need to stop and get/do something for a minute in the middle of practice. This is better than laying it on a table, or trying to somehow maneuver it so I can carry it with me, or leaving it on a chair, etc. I can just leave it standing up. The keys won't bend this way, or damage something it's on.
I keep thinking that it's not very sturdy, but I've pushed it hard and it's stayed where it was. The design's interesting too. The 'legs' are inside the main part that supports the clarinet. You just unscrew the bottom, and they flop out. Then, to secure it, screw in the bottom again. It's from Germany. And, there's like 6 languages on it. Warranty thing's only in 3. English, German, and French. But, there's Japanese, Chinese, and Russian as well everywhere else. That alone's interesting to me.
Mom said that she has one present she'll give me Tuesday night, and the other one's still on its way. So, it'll be a little late. That's ok with me. I'm happy to get any presents.
So far, the pens and stand are really awesome presents! I wonder what else there will be?
Went to the Hanukkah party Saturday night. It was really nice to get out, see people, and have some fun.
We did Havdalah, and lit the many cool menorahs people brought. Really pretty when they turned out the lights. There were some traditional ones, homemade ones, artsy looking ones, etc. We said the blessings and sang a few songs over the candles. Then, we had dinner downstairs. The tables were pushed way too close to each other. Even the really skinny people had issues getting in and out of their chairs.
There was some pretty good food this time. Vegetarian lo mein, pot stickers, spring rolls, latkes, a couple of salads, bagels, mac and cheese (weird...
), pizza, and some others I can't remember at the moment. They had gelt and M&M's scattered across the tables, along with some dreidels. There were so many desserts, too!
A cake, mini cinnamon rolls, cheesecake (?), fortune cookies, and more. I met a Japanese woman at the party, who seemed a bit overwhelmed with everything. As soon as she heard that I was learning the language, she sat down with me. We talked for a long time. It was kind of nice.
She's a lot more traditional with her Japanese, so there were a couple moments of confusion on both sides. Sad thing is she's much older than me, and there's a different way of speaking to someone like that in their culture anyways. She said she's heard that the 'youth' have really changed the way they used to speak. They're not as polite, and they say things 'oddly'. (Her words, not mine.) She was so excited about meeting me, she gave me her phone number. (I gave her mine, too.) She said I should call her if I need anything, whether it be help with my Japanese or just to talk. She said she wants to learn more about me. And, she's pretty interesting, too. So, that's great. I was hoping to find someone much closer in age to me.
But, that's ok, it'll give me experience in talking to that age group, as well.After talking to her, we went up to watch the movie. It was Up. I've seen it before, but it's still funny. I usually forget that parts of it has some pretty cool art.
On Friday, we went to get some groceries. We were running low on a lot of things, and we usually go then to get our challah. It was packed!
People were parking in the street outside the parking lot. Crazy! We got a lot of stuff, most of it we really needed, some for what I want to make this week, and a few 'extra' things. We were late enough, that by the time we went to the check-out it wasn't too bad. Not a long wait, like one or 2 people before us.I'm thinking of making salmon chowder, a Korean chicken recipe (first time cooking a whole chicken. We'll see how that goes...
), and a Finnish sausage thing this week. All of them sound soooo good!
I decided on making an Irish bread and butter pudding with whiskey sauce as a dessert for Friday. Sounds awesome!
Dad made duck last night with some stuffing, carrots, and peas. Turned out pretty tasty. It's been a long time since I've had duck. To me, they taste much better than chicken.
But, they're kind of expensive, and seem more fattening. I think she's going to make a soup out of the leftovers tonight. I was kind of thinking about the salmon chowder, but I see her reasoning with getting rid of some leftovers before we might make more. Sounds good anyways. So, maybe I'll do salmon chowder tomorrow night, instead.
A friend I haven't seen in at least 5 years talked to me through FB. She said she was in the neighborhood visiting someone. And, that maybe we'd get together before she left. Which was today at around noon. Doesn't look like it's happening, but she said it was a maybe. So, she probably didn't have time, or was too tired. It's all good. Maybe next time.
She has another friend who lives in the neighborhood, who went to the same schools I attended. (Including college. Weird, pretty much through elementary school and on.) I've known him for a much longer time. We're not very close, though. Nice guy. We were a little surprised that someone would be friends with both of us. She's known him for a long time too. Didn't go to the same schools though. (Well, except college. We all at least started with the same one.) Anyways, it was nice that she was thinking about just 'stopping by'. She's always been very spontaneous, so it doesn't surprise me. Things seem to suddenly be getting better for me. Maybe that's a good sign for the new year?
Did my own service again Saturday morning. This time, it was like Rosie was attending it. She didn't even try to eat my tzitzit, and sat (what looked like) in awe next to me. When I bowed, she bowed too. She's an interesting cat. Very into music, and now my service stuff? (Probably doesn't understand the service, but still wonders what I'm doing.
) Kept up with my clarinet, except for on Saturday. Ran out of time. Poor planning on my part.
But, it's cool to see how far I've improved with practicing so much. Gintama was even funnier today.
I don't see how this show does it. And, I was right! It was all a crazy prank on Gintoki. They wanted him to quit drinking, so they came up with this messed up story that he had sex with 6 of them (one a guy) while he was drunk. He tried to own up to what he had supposedly done, by living with all of them in different apartments that were a part of the same complex. Zenzou played a role as giving him really bad advice through the whole thing. It was one of the best pranks that I've seen. He said he'll get his revenge on them soon. But, it did the trick for a while, even after he found out. But, as soon as he found out he may have really did something with Madao (the guy), he immediately ran to a bar to try and 'forget' everything. Yamada Taro Monogatari seems to always make me smile more at the end of each episode. Just a really nice show. Ikegami seems like she's actually growing up a bit. Liking her more that way. Mimura is a little trickster. But, a good one. One that has a lot of good intentions. In D no Arashi, they did some experiments with some of the animals at a zoo in Chiba. Things like, are elephants really dexterous? Giving them small things like peanuts. I already knew it, but their conclusion was yes they are. Another was, do lions play like their house cat cousins? Turns out they do. Only it's a lot more dangerous, obviously.
I love this show.
deviantART fave: BBY Head Dance I did not make this! A funny dancing character animated by an amazing artist I watch. He's been doing a lot of these kinds of things lately. And, I like them.
Youtube:
One of the Ao no Exorcist's, or Blue Exorcist's specials. The funniest one so far. Most have been really weird:
A Gintama amv featuring Katsura. I love this song for some reason. It's mostly in Swedish. Found out about it from another Gintama amv a couple of years ago featuring Gintoki. It was a lot better, but this is pretty good. Fits him, too:
