Laugh Away

Mood:


By Yui. Kind of a fun and carefree song. About how we tend to worry over trivial things. And, that we should just laugh them away. Also, to realize the world around you. The trees, grass, etc. I like the message and the sound of this one. I think this is the first song I've heard from Yui. She's a singer/song-writer, multi-instrumentalist, and actress. 2 of her songs are featured in Bleach. And, another in Fullmetal Alchemist. Which gave her some international attention. She's won lots of awards, and seems very talented. I'll have to look for more of her songs.

I didn't feel too great on Friday, so I didn't post.Feeling a little better now. Although, now my fingertips are tingly numb. Yay!


We didn't get very good news on my mom's health.The cancer's getting worse. So, they decided to drop the most current drug, next one will be done every 2 weeks instead of every month. (That's given by IV.) She has to start up radiation again. I think everyday for 2 weeks or something. On top of all this, she had a horrible fall on Friday. Of course, it was good that she was already at a hospital. She was there to consult with the people who are going to do the radiation. She's lucky that they've been giving her something that strengthens her bones. Otherwise, it would have been a lot worse. 


We had gyoza and garlic green beans Friday night. I cooked the frozen gyoza, and we bought the green beans. When she got home after her fall, we went to the store. So, we didn't have much time to make a nice dinner. Although, I liked it a lot. Because she was still recovering from her fall, we didn't go to services on Saturday. 

I made a chocolate souffle last night. It's a German recipe. Really good.Might cook it a little longer and add more chocolate next time.The second pic, is of the souffle served with vanilla cream sauce.That was also a German recipe. It was a suggestion. It's more like a wine and vanilla sauce, though. Intense, but very good.They've already gotten a few faves on dA. Wahoo!


Looked at our French cookbooks on Thursday. Found more than I thought I would. With French food, I'm a little worried it won't turn out right.But, I'll try! Here's a sampling: bread soup, chicken hash, chocolate mousse, onion soup topped with cheese, egg plum cake, fish soup. 


Was going to look at our Lebanese cookbooks on Friday. But, it seems they mixed it up with Syrian and Jordanian cuisine. Plus, I only found a few things I might want to do. tabouleh, potato kibbi, potato salad, almond cream pudding, and spiced tea with nuts. I've had tabouleh before, and mom's made it. I've had kibbis, but not a potato version. The tea sounds interesting.


Was hoping to look at our Cambodian cookbooks, but they lumped it with Laotian cuisine. I only found 2 things: Laotian fish soup, and bananas cooked in coconut milk. Eventually, I'll look at these cuisines that were lumped together with others, online. Almost done with my initial list. Today, I'll look at our Malaysian cookbooks. Then, tomorrow it's Singaporean. 


I'm going to be cooking a lot starting today, because Passover starts Monday night. Today, apparently, I'm doing the chocolate matzah, charoset, and granola. Charoset's just a nut, apple, a little cinnamon, and wine mixture. It represents the mortar and bricks that the Jewish slaves in Egypt made and used to construct buildings. The granola's awesome!Matzah bits or farfel, honey, raisins (and/or any other dried fruit), and nuts. All of it cooked together, and then later, we have it as a cereal in the mornings. Sometimes it becomes hard as a brick. And, you have to pick at it a little. But, good stuff.The chocolate matzah's so good! 


I finished watching Tokyo Dogs. It was an awesome show.Perfect blend of humor, suspense, action, etc. I read that there's a possibility of a 2nd season. Kind of weird, because they wrapped up everything so nicely.I mean they got Jinno. The whole series hung on them catching the guy. Much as I would love to see a 2nd season. Maybe he gets out of prison somehow.

Also, finally got to watch Gintama: Shinyaku Benizakura-Hen the movie. (Gintama: A New Retelling of the Benizakura Arc) It was awesome! When they had this story arc in the series it was pretty epic (and I mean that). The movie version was even more so. They still managed to throw in the classic Gintama humor, along with the seriousness of it. I don't know how this series does it. It's intensely serious for a minute, has you laughing so hard the next, and then you're bawling your eyes out. It starts with Katsura being attacked by a member of the Kiheitai, and the Yorozuya (Gintoki, Shinpachi, and Kagura) search for him. The person who attacked him was like a test subject for the Benizakura sword. It's a living sword. Once it tastes someone's blood, it stores it, gathers intel, and makes the wielder stronger. Really good movie. I won't spoil the rest of it. 

Also, watched Gintama on Friday. (And, no I didn't really plan it that way.) It was pure hilarity this time. Actually, somewhat smart. Everyone, but Toshi and Shinpachi (in pic), is infected by alien parasites known as Q'Sai Nettles. First, they transform and assimilate info from the host. Eventually, it transforms into something completely identical to the host. The alien supplants the host and matures the appearance of the host by 2 years after a few days. The comatose originals are hanging from the body. They return to normal if you smack them with a paper fan as hard as you can. Apparently, at the end, the only one who truly was not infected was Gintoki. He just dressed up, and played along. The parasite latches onto ambition. He has none. 


deviantART fave: StupidFox- 45 I did not make this! Another funny installment of StupidFox. Actually, in way, creepy. 

National Anthem Day!

Mood:


This celebrates the day President Hoover signed a bill, in 1931, that designated the 'Star-Spangled Banner' the official national anthem of the US. It was written by Francis Scott Key in 1814. It's quite a song.It's also International Sister Cities Day, and Hina Matsuri or Doll Festival in Japan. (Sometimes called Girl's Festival.) 


It was slightly cooler than yesterday. But, I'll take that over what it was last week.I managed to make the rice balls this morning! Yay!I made 4, some tamagoyaki (rolled omelet), and cut up an apple. I used hummus, umeboshi (pickled plum) paste, bits of turkey pastrami, and craisins. I love trying new things and experimenting with them. (First time using hummus and pastrami for it.) The tamagoyaki, surprisingly, came out better than last time. It actually looked more like a uniformed roll. I made a little too much food, so I'll have the rest tomorrow. Out of what I had, it was very good.


I got a funny email last night. It told me that my Birthright group was planning a reunion in May. And it will be for one day in New York. Ummm...That's kind of hard to get to, and you want me to be there for only a day?!They said we're sorry to the west coast, Canada, south west, the south, etc. people but.... That was pretty lame. And, I'm sorry, but I don't suddenly become best buds with someone in just 10 days.Plus, it's only 3 months after. It just all sounds bogus to me.
Wrote more of chapter 13. I'm up to 100 pages in Word! Wahoo!I didn't know I'd be throwing in another interesting plot twist today. These things just come to me, and I try to roll with it.It fits the story, too. Played some more Mozart. Wasn't as good as last time, but again, it's been a while. Tried some of the hardest tunes in the book. It wasn't too bad.


Tokyo Dogs was a bit more intense than usual. They still managed to throw in a healthy dose of humor.Yuki's starting to remember more things. They managed to stop someone who was going to put cyanide in a popular brand of bread. Maejima actually had more of a role this time. So, that was interesting. I like when they develop characters more. Yuki's also in deep trouble. She never made it back after her shift at the restaurant. And, that suspicious waiter asked her to go out to dinner with him. Doesn't look good.Someone keeps scamming Sou's mother. 

In Naruto Shippuden, it was even more emotional than last time. Still, not much action. Although, it looks like that will change soon. You can almost feel what the characters are going through. Sakura now knows how Naruto feels about her. Sasuke's team was about to ambush the kages, but Zetsu popped up at of no where and told them he was there. Zetsu's kind of creepy. Madara or 'Tobi', suddenly appears next to Naruto while he's feeling depressed. And, says he wants to have a talk. (Zetsu and Tobi are in the pic looking at the building where the kages are having their summit.) 


deviantART fave: APH-Cup Collab Seborga I did not make this! Another cup collab for the Hetalia version. It's Seborga in Vanilla Italian Soda. Kind of nicely done. I haven't seen Seborga yet, so I'm not sure if it's an oc. But, I haven't gotten around to too many of them in the manga. The anime has been pretty slow at introducing other countries. 


Youtube:
This one's a bit creepy, yet kind of addicting. It's Remote Controller sung by Len and Rin:

U Can Do It

Mood:

By Domino. This was the 15th ending for Naruto Shippuden. Kind of a good motivating song. The ending animation is a bit weird though.Domino's a Jpop/hip-hop trio formed in 2000, and debuted in 2009. I like their sound. I'll have to check out the rest of their songs.

I got up late yesterday, because I was coughing throughout most of the night.Slept in a little today too, because I wasn't feeling too well. Yay!Although, I was woken up by sounds of a cat scratching things. So, that was a lovely thing first thing in the morning.Rosie was playing with a branch off one of the plants she eats. Her claws were digging into the carpet. She may have scratched up the recliner again on top of that.I was half asleep when she started banging her green rubber ball against my door. I have a tiny bell attached to something on my door knob, so it made a lot more noise.She's been taking all her toys up to my room, too. I think because she's been lonely with only me in the house.

There was periods of rain and snow yesterday. This morning there was a type of thin hard icy snow just barely touching everything. I think that's more dangerous than a ton of fluffy snow.All day it's been light snow off and on. Lately, it's been getting heavier bigger flakes. I hope it doesn't snow too much.

I posted a pic yesterday on dA: Park 3 It's got 4 faves already! Wahoo!That's a lot for me. Also, submitted it to 3 groups. So far, only one accepted it. Waiting for approval from the other 2.Also, added some dA plz stamps to my profile. They definitely fit me. You can go check it out. Blogger seems to separate the stamps up, so it looks strange on here.Also, I changed my nails again. This time they're a deep bordeaux color. Kind of pretty.

Made a good dent into writing the beginning of chapter 13.The story's getting even more interesting. The ideas are just flowing again. This chapter may be slightly 'lighter' in mood than some of the more recent chapters.Just noticed that one of the characters, who seems pretty important (at least to the school), I've never actually described him.I just have his name. But, it's only his second or third appearance. I'll have to make a character reference sheet, and I might stick his description in at some point. It's weird, because he was one of the first characters that I came up with.

Played some more Mozart. Did even better than yesterday. Just need to remember to add a little more air when playing trills. With some of them, I wasn't getting any sound out.Very few mistakes. I also have to remember to only pay attention to the music. Not to noises outside, the cats, talking, the weather, or even thinking about stuff I'll be doing later. Sometimes that can be hard.

Also, yesterday and the day before, I went through my 'to-watch' list for my Tuesday drama. So far, none of them looked appealing enough.I might try looking at more during the weekend. Just added a bunch of stuff to the list, too. A lot of them look like they have potential. So, we'll see.

Watched more of Tokyo Dogs. It's getting really interesting with what Yuki can remember, and the rest of the plot. It still has a lot of hilarious humor, lots of action, and suspense. It's becoming a pretty big fave.

Finished watching Bloody Monday 2. It was really good!Spider was actually a childhood friend of his. Their fathers were best friends. She taught him how to hack. She died at the end. J, apparently, was behind it all.He's sneaky, but really good. He put up an act that he was dying of radiation poisoning. He gets away at the very end. It seems to me that this leaves the series wide open for a 3rd season. I really hope so!The whole series has been amazing!I thought everyone would die in the end, but Fujimaru came through and tricked Spider. The story was very complex, but really interesting.

Got most of Max's body 'fleshed' out. Just need to flesh out his hands, legs, and feet. He's starting to look better than I thought he would. After I get his body down, I'll get to move on to his clothes. Wahoo!

In Fairy Tail, they defeated 2 of the members of the assassins group. Pretty epic battles. Lucy managed to snap Juvia out of being brainwashed by one of them. They both become good friends and managed to defeat him together. Natsu was swallowed by the owl guy. Gray had an awesome battle against him, and saved Natsu. (Gray's in the pic.) Jellal is getting pissed.

In Naruto Shippuden, there wasn't very much action. But, it was very emotional. Naruto begged the Raikage to not 'dispose' of Sasuke. He was turned down. But, seemed to get through to him. The Kages started their discussion. Mainly, about the Akatsuki. Sai found out how Naruto feels about Sakura. Naruto told him he doesn't think he can bring himself to tell her. (Pic is from them talking about it.)

I made the tuna casserole on Tuesday. It came out pretty tasty.Funny thing, the recipe I had didn't mention the tuna.But, I kind of instinctively knew when to put it in. I experimented a little for dinner last night. I mixed up some eggs, cheddar cheese, sliced turkey pastrami, dried onions, carrots, corn, garlic, sweetener, and salsa. Then, fried them all together. It was really good.So, I guess it was successful. Tonight, I think I'll have some of the leftover tuna casserole. Tomorrow, I'm thinking a good Shabbat dinner would be: some panko breaded fish, mashed potatoes, and peas or green beans. Not too bad.Maybe I can find a frozen challah too. If not, I'll just use a slice of some other bread we have.