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.

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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.

postcards from hong kong

how do people write in blogs every day?? though maybe now that i have internet access at work, i may start writing more.

the trip to china and hong kong was amazing. every time i go i learn more things about life over there - no matter how many times i've been there, something new strikes me.

** i got to explore hong kong without parents and was able to see into the city itself - not just the family living of dinners and restaurants and homes.
** having anthony there with me... it was strange and wonderful. showing him a part of my life that no one else has ever been able to see. i loved sitting at the huge round table dinners, eating amazing vegetables, duck and shrimp (with the heads still attached) and seeing him next to me with all the chinese voices rushing about.
** i got to sing karaoke in peng san (where my dad grew up) with anthony, vincent and my cousin. ant & i sang "every breath you take." we rocked the house.
** we were called cheapos while bargaining at the lo wu commercial shopping center.
** i ate the WEIRDEST shrimp things i have ever seen in my LIFE. they were positively prehistoric. i will try and post a picture up at some point.
** we went to the cat store and cafe - where we ate meow-face toast w/ chocolate and fed cats from my salmon dish.
** i ate some sort of big roe sushi with my niece kiki and her boyfriend terri - dribbling the roe contents down my chin and onto the table.