National Strawberry Shortcake Day!

Mood:

One of my fave desserts!This is actually tomorrow. Last night I had Red Lobster's strawberry shortcake in a jar. So, it's like I celebrated it early.It was so good! Tomorrow is also Family History Day and National Bourbon Day. Interesting mix of holidays.

Yesterday was Dad's birthday.We went to Red Lobster to celebrate. I love their 4-course meal deal, since it seems like a great one. Apparently, they stopped carrying the spicy chicken tortilla soup I usually get for my 'soup' part.So sad. I can't eat any of the soup options now.There are only 2. (They took out the Key Lime pie for a dessert option as well, so that's limited too.) One with clams, and the other with bacon. I don't eat shellfish or pork products.Maybe they're going to revamp it soon or something. 

But, in the meantime, I asked if I could substitute a side for it. They said I could, so I got their 'crispy red potato wedges' to replace it. Got the Caesar salad like usual. Which was pretty good.I got the wood-grilled tilapia entree. It comes with broccoli and a choice of one side usually. I got mashed potatoes for it. So, I technically had 3 sides.They even had the potato wedges on the same plate as the rest. I love potatoes, so the more the merrier!I could eat them all day! It was all pretty good. I saved a little more than half of everything. Only had one out of the 5 biscuits, and brought the rest home. I love those too!So, I did pretty well. I'll have lunches and snacks set for a little while. 

I asked for the red velvet cake in a jar at first, thinking that was all they had. (I like the cake in a jar specials, so I usually substitute it for my dessert option.) The waitress told me they might be phasing it out, but they can still do it. Then, I looked at their extra drinks/dessert menu display. They had the strawberry shortcake one listed instead of what was on the regular menu. I felt a little guilty, but asked if I could change it to that.They did. (Our waitress was awesome!) It has a ton of strawberries, lemon pound cake, vanilla pudding, and whipped cream. Apparently, in the pic it's supposed to come with a mint leaf, but mine didn't. That's ok. I didn't need it. It was so good!I ate the whole thing since I did so well with the rest of the meal. 

After that we looked around Barnes and Noble. Their Judaica section is seriously lacking.In fact, the bottom half of the shelves in that section are books on Buddhism. They should be in the section next to it...I think they had one new book, and it was huge. I watched the documentary, and it was pretty good. But, I don't think I could read the whole thing without getting sick of it halfway through, if that.I saw a book that has about 10 short Japanese stories in Japanese with the English translation on the side. It also has notes at the end about each story. It looks like it would be really interesting. Maybe I'll get it in the future. Also, saw a kanji dictionary that went into a lot of detail for each entry. How to write it, how many strokes it had, on (original Chinese) and kun (native Japanese) readings, common compounds as examples, pronunciations for names, etc. They're even categorized by their radicals. Really cool too. Looked handy.

I've been feeling kind of crummy the last couple of weeks.I realized yesterday morning that it might be because I'm seriously blocked up again. When I woke up, I felt the same piercing pain I did back from when I went to urgent care for it. It also makes my belly look much bigger and swollen. Kind of disturbing.I thought the belly thing was just because I wasn't being as serious about my fitness stuff for a while. But, it makes sense that I'd be blocked up. I stopped having my fiber 'gummies' for a little more than a week, and wasn't eating fruit either. I'm usually really good about that stuff. Especially the fruit part. I think anyone would have this problem after that.So, I got a laxative again. This time I'm trying a pill form. It's ex-lax. I really hated milk of magnesia.That stuff was like drinking paint or liquefied latex. Not sure which one, probably a mix between. The pills I tried last night obviously didn't have a taste or weird texture. So, that was a plus. I'm feeling slightly better already. 

Alice no Toge is getting really intense.There are so many twists and turns. I really could live without the fake love triangle. Asumi's new 'friend' is super shallow, and doesn't let her explain it. She's just getting close to Yuma so she can be closer to getting info on his father. The rest of it has been really riveting.I hope she'll be able to take down Yuma's father, who's the head of the department. Every time she gets evidence, he destroys it somehow. He was the one that essentially killed her father. He was behind it all. He told a nurse to administer a drug to Asumi's father. Little did she know, but he had a condition where if he took it, he'd hemorrhage out. They couldn't stop the bleeding, and that's what started everything. Still don't really know why he did it. It'll be interesting to see how it turns out.

Naruto Shippuden has finally gotten back to the main story for the last couple of episodes.It's really getting intense. Neji was killed, but that only made Naruto and the allied forces fight back with more vigor. Naruto was able to share the Kyuubi's (9-tailed beast. Which is a fox) chakra with everyone, so they're all much more powerful now. They were able to at least knock off Madara and Tobi from the head of the Juubi (10-tailed beast). (Not sure what 'beast' this one is supposed to be. Some have a mix of them. Like Hachibi or 8-tails is a cross between an octopus and a bull.) I think Madara and Tobi looked rather scared when they fell, or at least extremely surprised. Orochimaru and Sasuke's group are back in Konoha. It feels weird to see Orochimaru alive.He wasn't reanimated, just basically living inside Kabuto. He's pretty creepy. At the end, Orochimaru reanimated 4 of the hokages back to life. One of them being Naruto's father. Should be interesting to see how he'll react to that. He's never really seen his parents other than what the Kyuubi has shown him or what they left inside him. Not sure if they're going to fight the allied forces, Madara and Tobi, or just the Konoha ninjas. I guess I'll find out. They really need to give them a break.Oh, and Ino's and Shikamaru's fathers might have been killed by a bomb that fired from the Juubi which was aimed at Konoha. That's the thing, if the bomb went off in Konoha, why wasn't it in ruins when Sasuke and his group went through? Was it before? Oh well.

Wrote more of the 9th short story of my nightmare anthology. For next time I'll probably finish the writing part of this one. Then, I'll have to go over it and edit it again. Played my clarinet. Did a lot of klezmer tunes. Sounded pretty good. 

Did my nails. This time they're a purplish/dark lilac kind of color with lots of glitter. It doesn't have a name. But, I really like it.Kind of fun and party-like. I forgot that it had glitter in it. The pieces are very small, so it actually sticks pretty well. And, kind of has a more shiny effect. Also, goes on nice and smooth. 

日本語

Studied the kanji: 陽. If pronounced as ひ (hi): sun, sunshine, sunlight. As よう (you): yang (i.e. the positive); the open (i.e. a visible place). As 陽に or よう.に (you.ni): visibly, openly, publicly. 陽気 or ようき (youki): cheerful, jovial, merry, lively; weather, season; spirit of yang. 陽光 or ようこう (youkou): sunshine, sunlight. 太陽 or たいよう (taiyou): sun, solar. Started studying the kanji 様. I'll finish that next time. 

Did some kanji/vocab practice on JapaneseClass' site. Did pretty well again. Wrote out more of that section of the article in You Maga. Almost done with the writing/typing out part. Next, I'll actually get to start the translating process of it. Read an article in Japanese on Asahi's site about the singer Gakt starring in a new samurai-themed drama in August. It was interesting. 

Dope Headz

Mood:

From the Liar Game soundtrack. The Jdrama was great, but the music may have been even better. This was when either they didn't know the result of a game, or they were double crossed, or realized they couldn't beat the other players. Just when things got out of hand. One of the best tracks, too. I love the layering of all the parts of it.

I was referred to a gynecologist to talk about putting me under to have my new IUD inserted. I called her assistant last week. Didn't get a word from her. So, I called her again today. I have to have it done soon or I might start hemorrhaging again.I don't want to do that for 8 months straight again. In the message I tried to convey how serious this would be for me. Hopefully she'll understand and will get back to me soon. Otherwise, I'll ask for another referral...Since she didn't call back today, they say they're off on Fridays. So, I'll have to wait until Monday to see if she calls me back. It makes me a bit nervous.The receptionist at their women's clinic told me that I have to talk to the doc's assistant in order to get an appointment since it's a referral. Puts me in a weird spot.

Started watching the new Jdrama: Alice no Toge. Or, Alice's Thorn. So far, the first episode was really good. The main character is played by one of my fave actresses, Juri Ueno. She's awesome.She's extremely versatile with her roles. I think she became really popular through her role as Noda or Nodame in Nodame Cantabile. This is a totally different character. Pretty cool to see. (There are several of my other fave actors in it, as well.) It's about Asumi Mizuno's revenge on the doctors that killed her father. Their 'punishments' so far have been based on what happens to some Alice in Wonderland characters. Her father gave her an English version of the book for her birthday shortly before he died. He said he wanted her to be as strong and resilient as Alice was. During the 15 years after her father died, she became a doctor. Mainly so she could help others who were wronged by corrupt doctors, and to shed light on their mistakes. Her main objective during that time was plotting her revenge. (She just started working at this hospital, which makes carrying out her revenge much easier.) So far, she hasn't killed anyone, although I kept thinking she would. The first 'punishment' was based on what happened to Humpty Dumpty in the story. The second one I think was based on the Red Queen. Humpty Dumpty was the head of the nurses. After punishing him, he was forced to help her with anything she wanted. The Red Queen was a doctor who worked in the gastroenterology department, along with Asumi. She only thought of patients as lab rats for her to experiment on, not necessarily to save. She even said you can't be called a doctor unless you've killed at least 3 people on the table. (She killed many more than that.) In the end she swore that she'd never work as a doctor again. Before letting her go, Asumi tattooed the name of her father to the doctor's belly so she'd never forget that he had a name. And, wasn't some number or rat. She's rather elaborate with her revenge so far.She has a huge wall filled with pics of people who may be involved with her father's death. Should be interesting to see how this unfolds.

Naruto Shippuden still is on that Kakashi arc special. It's been a while since they've actually gotten back to the story.I've decided not to watch it until they do. I don't need to see Kakashi's past rehashed a million different ways. They say they won't go back to the actual story for another couple of weeks. This is the longest special I've heard about, really.They actually say that it's a special and 'filler'...I don't even think they're trying anymore. Which is sad, because it's really good when it's not a filler. They probably just don't want to end it, and are milking it for all it's worth. 

In Hitman Reborn, Ganma tried to torture Gokudera in order to get info on Tsuna. He didn't know about them traveling to the future, their past selves replacing the future ones, and in Ganma's present Tsuna (who becomes the 10th Vongola boss) and Reborn are dead. At least, that's what people have reported. The Millefiore are trying to eliminate the Vongola family in their 'time'. This is 10 years into the future. Hibari, who's in the pic shows up and overwhelms Ganma. They bring Gokudera and Yamamoto back to the base through Hibari's entrance to it. He has his own section, and since he hates crowds, he normally only allows a certain amount of people to enter his area of the base. His area looks more like a traditional Japanese home, while the main Vongola base looks like a clunky bunker. His side's entrance starts at the Namimori shrine. (Namimori is the town.) Somehow that just fits him so well.He's one of the few people who didn't switch with his past self at the moment. (He'll be the last one that does, at least that's the way it was in the anime.) No matter how old he is, he's just awesome. Even his 'present' self is amazing. No one can really take him down. (Actually, apparently 'nothing' can take him down either. Even when he's been given a powerful poison that'll paralyze an elephant.) I love how Ganma said that he couldn't tell if Hibari was an ally or enemy of the Vongola, because of the limited intel and rumors. He's Vongola's Cloud Guardian, so of course he sides with them. But, he mostly thinks about his own interests. Like keeping the 'order' in Namimori, and if you break one of his rules somehow. That's how the Cloud Guardian should be, though. Kind of helping from afar, or an outside entity. One of his catch phrases is "I'll bite you to death". He says it quite often. He calls some of his opponents herbivores as well. Anyways, they meet up with Fuuta and Bianchi from the future. Later, they decide that they may have a little time to train, and Reborn suggests that the 3 of them have new tutors. Yamamoto will train with Reborn, Gokudera will train with Bianchi (she's Gokudera's sister, and every time he sees her face without anything on it like sunglasses he faints), and Tsuna with Hibari. I remember that it was a pretty interesting match-up in the anime. Particularly with Hibari training Tsuna. He gets a huge boost from it. 

Wrote more of the 8th story of my nightmare anthology. Might have hit a small block, but I don't think it'll take me long to figure out what's next. Played my clarinet. Did some Gershwin tunes, and pieces from my advanced classical solos. Sounded a lot better than I expected. It was nice. 

日本語

Studied the kanji: 面. Pronounced as either おもて (omote) or おも (omo): face, surface; (おもて only) mask (esp. a noh or kyogen mask). As づら (dzura): (suf) looking like a..., acting as if a... As めん (men): face; mask, face guard; surface (esp. a geometrical surface); page; (suf) aspect, facet, side; (ctr) counter for broad, flat objects, levels or stages, e.g. in a video game. As つら (tsura): (often derog. or vulg.) face, mug; surface. 面会 or めんかい (menkai): meeting (face-to-face), interview. 面識 or めんしき (menshiki): acquaintance. 面積 or めんせき (menseki): square measure, size (e.g. of land), area, surface. 面前 or めんぜん (menzen): presence. 

Did the practice stuff for attendance on JapaneseClass' site, then went through a good chunk of my vocab oblivion list. The stuff that you haven't gone over in about a month. Then, I also did one of their reading quizzes. I haven't taken too many of them before. I could tell that area needs improvement, because there were some words that were translated incorrectly.Not many people use it, but it is interesting. They give you a chunk of an article to read in Japanese, a list of common kanji/vocab that's used in the article, and then you can quiz yourself on them after looking through. I think for these they should test more on your comprehension, not just on the kanji and vocab.Since, someone could just see the list, and go right to the quiz without even looking at the article. I might bring that up. These articles are current and from various news sites like NHK, Asahi, Mainichi, etc. I normally just read the articles straight from the site, but wanted to try this out again. The one I looked at had to do with the Ukraine.