kim = big nerd

so serious, this is how big of a nerd i am. i took the journal i have on my webpage and just now transferred each entry into my blog.

le sigh. i have, however, determined that i am a listing freak. i really like lists. in fact, just today at work, i made a list of things i needed to do around the house. things that needed to be cleaned. things like "pick up clothes." and then, of course, i left the list on my desk.

but how will i know what to clean! i am lost!

things that make me sad: that no one at work talks about the tsunami. but everyone was buzzing before about janet jackson's breast jewelry.

::and if you want to help::

mmmmmmm... sushi.....

tonight is the tampa group gift exchange.

...

sounds like some kind of 12-step program, eh? it's actually just our friends getting together and gifting each other in a mad frenzy of shredded paper and, in this case, sushi. we're having dinner at ichiban. if you live in tampa and have never been there, you should definitely high-tail it to this place. we're talking quality sushi and lots of it.

you know, i've been told i can eat a lot of sushi.

"you eat!" - from a server in firenze, italia after ordering (and eating) a sushi dinner for 2

i think i'm going to try and keep a log of how much sushi i ingest in a sitting. granted, i don't go out a lot, since each sushi meal for me & ant approximates anywhere from $50-$100. but this way i can keep track of my sushi eating habits and thusly work out a program wherein i can train myself to ingest more and more.

i'm sick. kick it.

images from the holidays

::this is how yam feels about the holidays::


this is the singularly ugliest picture of yam ever. shh - don't tell her or she'll cry. anthony's new nickname for yam is "skeletor."

::angel (ant's parents' puppy) & ant giving his best boxer imitation at thanksgiving::



::thomas & our tree::



::our uber-cute owl tree toppers::

::christmas-y musings::

christmas is over - and thank goodness! not that i don't love the holidays, but i'm really looking forward to seriously crushing and maiming my credit card debt. "grind it's bones to make my bread" kind of thing.

christmas eve was spent w/ anthony's family - very relaxing and filling with an awesome italian 3 fish dinner. had we the traditional 7 fishes, we would still be at the table this very moment - possibly not moving. and i got a s'mores maker! anthony's brother sal had never heard of s'mores; he thought it was some kind of alcoholic drink (which it very well may be). he kept grilling me, asking "that's it? what else??" when i told him what was in it. "just marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers! ...no really, that's all there is to it."

christmas day was spent with my family at my parent's house with the non-traditional asian christmas bbq. steak, salmon, gimchi, rice, chicken wings and what appeared to be either frozen vegetables or veg-all. the veg-all was very disappointing, but everything else was amazing. it was really good also to see jenny & jesse - kids i had seen just days after their births - now they're in middle and high school! nothing like kids growing up to make you realize the passage of time.

the most incredible

so. the most incredible part of this trip to hong kong and china was anthony.

that sounds kinda funny i'm sure. but it's true. it was simply amazing to be sitting at a table in china with my family eating delicious food and then look over and have anthony there sharing it all with me.

this is a part of myself that i've never shared with anyone but family.

sure, i've shown people photographs, told them my adventures in eating pigeon and weird mollusks and dog and goose intestines, explained the squatting toilet technique and revelled in the us/china exchange rate, but no one has ever been there with me, experiencing it all, breathing in the smoggy china air.

i love him. : )

postcards from hong kong

while my brother, anthony and i were leisurely enjoying the hong kong park, we were mobbed by a gang of elementary school girls! ok, to be more specific, anthony, in all his white-ness, was mobbed by a gang of elementary school girls. it was hilarious! ant, almost 6 ft tall, the girls, almost 3 ft tall. they crowded around him holding up pink pieces of paper and pencils asking for his autograph.

"red room cinema is famous in hong kong!" is what anthony is all about.

need... uterus... love.... ..

it is incredible to me how much pain a uterus can create for a female. and not even while having a baby! i had to leave work early yesterday - the pain was unbearable. i was hot and feeling faint and retching... ugh. even after 2 bc powders and a looong nap i wasn't feeling well. today i'm feeling semi-normal after some advil. (no more aleve for me, thank you very much! i bet their stock plummetted after all those news reports.)

cold crunchy snow

i'm sitting here at work and i can't image snow.

to actually see it bob from the sky all fluffy and soft and crunchy and wet and cover everything. the ground, automobiles, our sad grass-less front lawn. it would look much better covered under a cushion of snow, really.

does it thunder when it snows? or is there lightning? like rainstorms here, but without the rain. just little white blobs.

so last night i continued on my "making art" full-throttle ahead plan and made a lanyard for my little id tag at work. it has a clip, but if i wear a dress, there's nowhere to attach it and i'm sure it loses 'security value' if i forget it on my desk when i leave for lunch.

it's print gocco time!

so... a while back i posted that anthony had bought me something online.

i figured out what it is.

ok, ok. actually, HE gave it away. i was just teasing him. i think he was already paranoid that i knew though, since he ordered it online - there was one night where he forgot to delete the history file in explorer and he thought i had peeked (i didn't).

anyways, we were talking about stockings and how big they needed to be and he hinted that mine needed to be big, like 10 inches by 8 inches big, which is, coincidentally, about the size of a print gocco - the biggest item on my christmas list! our conversation went like this:

"is it a print gocco??!"
"no. those things are expensive!"
"is it? is it?"
"nope."
"thank you for my print gocco!"
"... you looked!"
"i didn't! i really didn't!!" *gack*
*anthony very unhappy pouty*
*kim super happy prancing*

creation

my new goal is to create something every day. not in the invent-something kind-of-way. i just want to get back into the habit of doing art, MAKING art. i miss having an outlet. and i have a freaking craft room, for god's sake. i don't want to make something only when the room is clean (which is never, by the way).

so that's my new goal. my holiday goal. last night i painted a wooden box. pink insides with a crispy green outer shell. it looks rather green and growing. it will probably be hammered into the wall with the intention of decoration and perhaps as a small box shelf.

mm... what to make tonight... what to make...

mantis shrimp goodness

so anthony and i FINALLY found out what kind of crustacean we ate in china. we've been looking online for quite a while and ended up getting a good idea of what is was from a marine life book at borders. a little more online searching and voila!

MANTIS SHRIMP.



let me profess: anthony was incredibly brave. he was amazing. he actually reached for the shrimp thing before i did and ended up showing me the proper way to eat it: twist off the head, then peel back the shells and eat the meat on the inside - just the tail. the same way lobster is red, mantis shrimp is purple. it was so tasty! these babies were easily 6 inches long.

apparently they are wicked fast and can actually cause people to have fingers amputated. they may also need to be kept in specially made aquariums because they can punch through glass. the force of their "smashing appendages" is slightly less than a .22 caliber bullet.

impressive!

(image taken by james fatherree - see more about mantis shrimp @ http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-03/jf/feature/)

hand lotion & grapevine holiday lights

1. currently obsessed w/ hand lotion. this penchant began when i first worked for a computer company and my female supervisor had THE. SCARIEST. dry man-hands i have ever seen IN MY LIFE. also, she typed like she was punching the keyboard, which was kinda cool, really. but since then, i've had the need to keep my hands nice and moisturized. not to mention that 2 days ago they were so dry they were flaking on my fingers and getting red from the many minute cracks that dryness can cause.

2. where the heck can i get my grubby (yet moisturized) hands on a string of grapevine ball lights? target used to sell them and anthony and i have gone to every one in our city looking for them. i found some bamboo ball lights online, but they were $30!

soft & cuddly

THIS...
.
... is a knitted uterus.

... is this not the singularly coolest thing you've ever seen?? this would make a kickass necklace, even a belt, or a purse!

instructions on making said kickass, knitted, woolen womb: http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter04/PATTwomb.html

doesn't it look so sweet and soft and cuddly? who could tell that this little soft pink thing could cause so much pain for 2 days out of the month. we all need more uterus love.

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas*

i am completely in love with bolthouse farm beverages. if you've never tried them, definitely do so! even the slightly scary uber-green one is delicious. plus, they're super healthy, don't contain high-fructose corn syrup, are 100% natural... good god i sound like a commercial.

they've got this amazing chai vanilla soy drink,and mango lemonade...

*drool*
http://www.bolthouse.com

in any case, anthony and i have finally gotten a little christmas tree! we put it up this morning at 2:30 am. i'll post pictures at some point, but instead of a star tree topper, we've put up 2 little owls! we are so f-ing cute.

the future of humanity is grim. very grim.

so........... i know my grammar isn't always great. i write run-on sentences with abandon and overuse commas. but reading this blog entry, well, scares me. no really! what the heck is going on here? is this new? is this some weird and "hip" talk that i'm far from privy to? what is this chick even talking about?!?

"was out e` whole day wif dear ..yays ! doublehappiness ~ hees .woke up @1pm from the ringin of ma fone ..dans dear call me go down beach road wif him.and he wanna mit ad 130pm. which is jus lyk 20 mins ?omfgs. was practicallycrazee .. rushin thru ma baths.and preparing lahs. gosh. bud still, was late 20mins.dear had to wait d/s for me.sorrrie mans . bud heys; gurls do take a longtym to prepare.dunch he noe ? x: LOL. so well, headed down to bugis furs.went toget our stuffs dere .and waited for his bro ..on e` way down, was on e` sametrain wif khai.bud nv getta see him; cos dear was LAZEE to walk to e` end.lol.after bugis, headed down to lavender..meet dear's bro and his fren to beachroad.shopped dere awhile; dans headed baq home.lotsa crappin and joking.. cantstand e` hell out of it.hiaks ~ bud in short, its a realli FUNN day wifdear.hees. nw thinkin wad am i gonna do wif e` tee i bought him for xmas.-.- heWONT like it for sure."

a portrait of the author as a young man

"...he burned to appease the fierce longings of his heart before which everything else was idle and alien. he cared little that he was in mortal sin, that his life had grown to be a tissue of subterfuge and falsehood. beside the savage desire within him to realise the enormities which he brooded on nothing was sacred. he bore cynically with the shameful details of his secret riots in which he exulted to defile with patience whatever image had attracted his eyes. by day and by night he moved among distored images of the outer world. a figure that had seemed to him by day demure and innocent came towards him by night through the winding darkness of sleep, her face transfigured by a lecherous cunning, her eyes bright with brutish joy."

-- james joyce

mm. rereading a book i should have read in high school. kinda funny how i'm really enjoying quite a bit. in any case, i think i'm going to try and start keeping more of an online diary. i'm intrigued by this "digital revolution" thing, and besides, "blog" is the hot word, or so i hear. i think i'm interested in the idea of having a memory without a physical presence - if that makes any sense. a diary in the abyss.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

anthony apparently just bought me something online for christmas. ...want to know!! i'm pretty excited this year about the holidays. ant and i are going to get a little potted pine, probably from target. none of the fake ones really called out to us and though an adorable squat tree whispered out to me the other night, it would just be too hard to deal with the clean-up and the kittens drinking the sappy water. instead, we'll have to find a way to keep thomas from digging up the tree and yam from climbing, and possibly snapping, its trunk.