World Baking Day!

Mood:

Baking can be fun!I would like to get more into it eventually. I'd like to do things like breads, desserts, etc. I'm really curious about making breads, but a little nervous I'd ruin the whole thing.Someday, I'll get enough courage to do that...Anyways, even the smells of something baking can be great. 

Watched more of the Great Teacher Onizuka special. It's getting exciting and interesting. Tsubasa Chronicle was interesting, too. Sakura finally woke up. Still doesn't remember much other than her name. She made Syaoran worry by waking up, and leaving her bed when no one else was around. They found her though. Looks like the next episode will be about Fay. Know the least about him. Should be interesting.

I decided I needed to add more exercises to my fitness routine.Feels like I'm not burning enough calories. Also, noticed I don't do anything 'active' during the middle of the day. I have my morning sit-ups, 2-mile walk around dinnertime (now, more like afterwards), and my sit-ups before going to bed. So, I wanted to add riding my bike to it. Today, I cleaned it up, put duct tape around the handlebars (bugs had eaten chunks of it, felt awkward), tried to see if I could take the seat down a bit (turned out I couldn't. I'm not that short...Actually, a little taller than average), and went for a short ride. I soon found out that the tires needed air. Made a nice dragging sound as I rode.Tried to use the bike pump we have, but the needle to it is too small. So, I either have to have it done at a bike shop, or try to find the right needle and/or a new pump. Great.So, the bike's out of the question for now. I think I'll replace that with doing some jump rope. And, I had also planned to do a beginner's Pilates workout I found through Fitness Magazine. (It actually came up in a search. I don't read the magazine.) They show you through a video. Did that today. Didn't feel like I did much, but as soon as it was over, I could feel it. So, that should be great. Now, I'll be able to burn even more calories, and have some sort of thing midday. Yay! Exciting!Also, still sticking strictly to my 'way' of eating.

During my walk today, I bumped into a little girl. I had my music blaring, and barely could hear her. Sometimes, when it's like that, I'll make 'sense' of it later. Hard to respond to somebody when you're quite far from them. She said: "Your hair is very pretty! I want hair like that! How'd you do it?" Felt nice, but weird at the same time.All day today, whenever I've gone out, people have given me this really dopey/in awe look. It's starting to kind of creep me out. I'm not used to that sort of attention. I admit, my hair is looking better as I've been taking better care of it, and just as time has gone on. As it grows, it seems to only be looking better. Been growing it for around 7 years. Pretty long at the moment. Not sure how long it'll get. But, I'm liking it so far. Also, been focusing on taking better care of my health lately, so maybe they're picking up on that, too. Another thing might be getting into makeup/jewelry a bit more lately. 

Went to Red Robin last night. I got their root beer float. It's humongous! There was no way I was going to finish that thing!There was more ice cream than root beer. Tasty though. We shared an onion ring tower. That was pretty good. Got the bleu ribbon burger. I love that one, but it always comes out with a tiny mound of bleu cheese on the last half of the burger.It's supposed to feature the stuff! Oh well. It also has some sort of chipotle sauce, onion bun, fried onion strings, and the burger itself is pretty good. Comes with huge steak fries. All this coupled with the float, was hard to even eat half of it. Very filling stuff. But, I succeeded and had a glorious lunch today.

日本語

Did 2 kanji for today. First one was: 取. When pronounced as しゅ (shu): (Buddhism) appropriation, obtaining. As と.り (to.ri) or とり (tori): (suf) taking, taker, collecting, collector; last performer of the day (usu. the star performer), last performance of the day; (pref) (before a verb) emphatic or formal prefix. As と.る (to.ru): to take, pick up, harvest, earn, win, choose; to steal; to eat, have (a meal); to remove (one's glasses, etc.); to compete (in sumo, cards, etc.), play. This one didn't have compounds listed. The second one was: 酒. Most common pronunciation by itself is さけ or sake. Sake is alcohol, or the alcoholic drink of the same name. しゅ (shu) is used in many compounds. Occasionally, it'll be pronounced as さか (saka), き (ki), or くし (kushi) in other compounds. 赤葡萄酒 or あかぶどうしゅ (aka budoushu): red wine. 朝酒 or あさざけ (asazake): a morning drink (of sake). 甘酒 or あまざけ (amazake): sweet half sake, sweet drink made from fermented rice. 居酒屋 or いざかや (izakaya): bar, pub, tavern. 飲酒 or いんしゅ (inshu): drinking alcohol. 飲酒運転 or いんしゅうんてん (inshu unten): drunk driving. 大酒 or おおざけ (oozake): heavy drinking. お神酒 or おみき (omiki): sacred wine. There will be more compounds for this one next time. 

National Grandparents Day!

Mood:

Happy belated Grandparents Day! It was yesterday. They definitely deserve a day, if not more, honoring them.

Took Rosie to the vet on Friday. She was remarkably calm once they were looking at her. Almost like she was playing dead.On the way to it, she kept crying like crazy. They gave her a few annual shots, weighed her, and shaved/brushed out her matted hair. Weight was pretty good. They said she probably is having problems cleaning the area that clumped up. Mainly because either the weight is keeping her from it, or most likely, she might have arthritis, and it's just too painful.We just might have to brush it more often for her. Tasha's appointment is this coming weekend. We'll see how that goes. 

On Saturday, we picked up my bike from the shop. It looked pretty good. Also, got a new helmet. I wasn't even going to check my old one that's been sitting in the garage for about 10 years.Dad also got a new bike rack for her car. To make transporting them easier. Biked a bit today. Found out the seat might be a bit too high for me. I could barely get my leg over, and couldn't put my feet down when I stopped.It was still nice to see what it was like again. I'll have to put something over the handlebars, too. The bugs in the garage started to chew through it. So there's bite marks. They say there's spray on insulation foam I can use for it. If that doesn't work, then duct tape. 

Yesterday, we went to the Puyallup Fair. Haven't been to this one in a very long time, as well. Liked it more than the county fair. Has a bigger fair 'feel'. Saw some of the animals. Haven't been on too many rides before, so I tried a few. 

Went on the Sky Ride, which I haven't been on since I was really little. It's like a small cable car that goes over the fair grounds. It's quite an impressive looking fair from above. There was another ride, might have been the Scrambler, where we spun very fast. There was another spinning structure next to us, and I thought we'd hit it. It was fun though. We went on the Ferris Wheel. The part where they were slowly loading people to the rest of the wheel, wasn't very fun. But, once that got going, it was kind of fun too. Dad went a couple of times on the Tilt-A-Whirl. 

Towards the end, we decided to try the Starship. I didn't realize how crazy it would be.The outside has a lot of fancy lights decorating what looks like a 'ufo'. You can't see anything from the outside, other than it spins really fast. There's no seat belts. You just press your back to the wall where there's a foam panel that moves up and down. There's a railing for things like purses. We were spinning so fast, our purses were floating. I felt like something, like a blood vessel, was going to pop.It was so much force that I couldn't left my head too much. Oddly, I liked it. It was unusual, but fun. 

While I was there, had a gyro and garlic fries for dinner. Pretty tasty stuff!Later, had a strawberry shortcake for dessert. It was really good! Had a scone on the bottom. The scones were being sold everywhere! It seemed every few food stalls was a scone one. Doesn't particularly seem like fair food, to me. But, I love scones, too!Looked at a place that housed some of the venders' products. One lady stamped our nails with cool designs. I got a scorpion, since I'm a Scorpio. Dad got 2 butterflies, since she loves them so much. We might go back to the fair soon, to try more of the rides. The fair itself goes until the 23rd. 

In Baka to Test, the school's summoning system went haywire, because someone disconnected the main cable in the control room. Since Akihisa's wrist band isn't affected by the system, he's the only one that can fix it by sending his summoning beast in. (He's also the only one that feels pain through whatever's happening with his 'beast'.) The air vent is too small for humans to pass through, and some of the summoned beasts went rogue. He managed to fix it, but barely had any points left by the time his 'beast' made it back. 

Read some of Kekkaishi. Nothing very exciting. Played my clarinet. Did some klezmer and Mozart pieces. Finally decided on a name for my zoo! Now I have to figure out the animals. Ones that aren't the norm. In other words, some that I make up. Have to figure out their names, and what they look like. 

Went over another kanji, practiced some, and looked over some compounds. Went over another Japanese lesson in my book. Almost done with a section of an article from You Maga, that I've been translating for a bit. Read an article in Japanese about Universal Studios Japan having a Halloween event. Sounded fun.

In the process of figuring out a better design for my main character from Alliance. He's looking much better already. 

Banana Lover's Day

Mood:

Banana's are awesome!I always have one with breakfast or lunch. There's many ways to eat them too. Banana pie, banana flavored drinks, bananas in coconut milk, etc. are all great. 

I finally got my bike to a shop that'll fix it up. I haven't biked in about 10 years. But, for some reason, the last year or so I've had dreams about it. They've only gotten stronger. Kind of freaky.But, I used to love riding my bike. It feels like you're not really working out, until you're off of it. It's amazing to feel the breeze, and going over dips with it. I love my bike, but it was in the garage the whole time. So, things were eating the handle bars and seat. The tires were slashed as well. If I still want to ride it, it has to have some work done. It'll be ready at the end of the 1st week of September. Can't wait!

On Saturday, my dad and I went to the county fair. It was a lot of fun!Hadn't been there for about 10 years. We shared a huge sized curly fries and peach lemonade. I was amazed at how big they were. Later, I got some cotton candy. Haven't had that in over 10 years. It was awesome!Couldn't eat a lot of it, but that just means I can savor the awesome for a little longer. ;) Dad got a funnel cake with blueberry sauce, powdered sugar, and whipped cream on top. Had a couple of bites of that. It was really good too! 

We mostly went around and saw the animals. Saw the horses, cats, dogs, poultry, cows, rabbits, and more. That was nice. I've always had a soft spot for animals. (Even wanted to major in animal science...Didn't work out though.) Took a lot of pics of them, too. Then we looked a little at the vendors and rides. None of the rides really appealed to me, and the stuff I was interested in at the booths were really expensive. Oh well. Nice to see anyways. Managed to get a little sunburn while I was there. I never tan. I burn instead.

Yesterday, we went to a nail salon. Dad had a pedicure and French manicure. She wanted to look nice for when she goes back to work soon. Plus it was a good deal. It took 2 hours!I almost fell asleep by then. She's never had a French manicure. (I haven't either.) So, it was interesting. 

We were hoping to get some Noah's Bagels after that. But, the place the GPS took us to was called Einstein Bagels. So, we got those instead. They looked pretty good. Then, we started to get hungry, and decided to go to Applebee's. The waiter was a bit odd. But, nice. I had the orange chicken. It was pretty good, but a little bit spicier than I expected. Nice that it had a bunch of vegetables and some nuts, too. There was so much, I had to take about half of it home. Got a chocolate mousse shooter for dessert. I love those, because they're small. Just enough to hit the spot, and not feel heavy.It has oreos, chocolate mousse, chocolate chips, and whipped cream.

Not sure if I mentioned it, but started Hana Yori Dango (Boys Over Flowers) a couple of weeks ago. I've watched the anime version. Wasn't too fond of the design style, but really liked the story. I hated the first episode of the drama when I tried it a few months ago. But after trying it again, so far, from the 2nd episode on it's been great. Has a ton of actors that I like. That's a plus, at least. This started out as a shoujo manga. (I tend to not like that style anyways. There's very few mangas/animes in this style that I like.) Makino Tsukuchi is the only poor student at Eitoku Gakuen, the school for the ridiculously rich and privileged that is ruled by the Flower 4 or F4, a group of guys who come from extremely powerful families. The leader's Tsukasa, Rui's an introvert, Sojiro's a player, and Akira's a 'madam killer' with ties to the underground. If you get on their bad side, you're brutally bullied. Makino gets on their 'bad side', and is bullied by everyone. She refuses to stop going to school, and they call her a tough weed. She declares war on the F4. Her number 1 enemy of the group, Tsukasa, ends up getting romantic feelings for her. Her crush, Rui, seems to feel something too, but left to be with someone in France. 

Just started reading The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien. I like Shakespeare, but I knew most of what was in the collection. The ones I hadn't read before were slightly dry. So why not change to another book? I've read the Hobbit a long time ago, and thought it might be good. I'll see how it turns out.