01.20.12
Posted in Anything goes, cooking, family stuff, felt projects, hobbies, knitting and crocheting at 1:33 am by Administrator
This post is going to be a mixed bag of things. The first item is actually a mixed bag of yarn. Around Christmas time I was doing a search online for sock yarn and came across a link to the Supersock Store. They were advertising a 50% off sale on Cherry Tree Hill yarns. However, there were “rules” to follow to participate in the sale. First of all, the sale would start on New Year’s Eve at 11:30PM eastern standard time. The first 200 customers to place their orders would get a free “goodie bag.” Within one of those 200 goodie bags would be a card that had a saying that would have the initials DBNY. If you got that card then your whole order would be free! Well, just the 50% off sale was an incentive for me. The goodie bag was yet another lure that was reeling me in. And finally the thought that my whole order “might” be free was the clincher. On New Year’s Eve I planted my butt in front of the computer shopping for sock yarn like a looney looking at sock porn. Ha ha! I then chose the skeins I wanted to sample, placed my credit card at the ready, and waited for 11:30PM. . . errr, that is 8:30PM Pacific Standard time (the east coast is three hours ahead of us). Okay, so I didn’t just sit there really, I joined the family feasting on our New Year’s meal. It wasn’t long when 8:30PM arrived, and I ran upstairs to start dumping my order in the “cart”. One of the rules was that you couldn’t add anything to the cart until 11:30PM when the carts would open. In ten minutes I had my order placed and confirmed. Was I one of the first 200 customers? I wondered. . . The next morning I got a confirmation letter from the Supersock Store with the added info that they ran out of goodie bags just before the ball dropped in Times Square. Ah! I must have been one of the 200! Yes! A week later my order arrived. . .
Aren’t they lovely? Ummmmm.
And what’s this? My “goodie bag?”
I got seven balls of novelty yarns, a needle gauge, some sample corn yarn, a few buttons, and several knitting patterns. Ah, I love it! Nothing like a goodie bag!
So what I found out was that the Supersock Store has these sales twice a year. So I decided I’m gonna test out these yarns to see if my boys like the quality. I’ve started to knit up some of the yarn to see if I’ll be participating in the next 50% off sale with goodie bag. This is the first pair of socks in the works.
Not sure how the boys are going to like the colors, but there she be. I’m curious to see how well they hold up.
Now while I’m at it, here’s something else I worked on for Christmas gifts for my crafting buddies.
Here they are completed with the scissors paired up.
I actually didn’t know what I was doing when I was making them and just winged it as I went along. Overall, I’m satisfied with how they came out. Most of all, my crafting buddies seemed to enjoy them. Here’s another view of the completed scissor cases.
Then my sister asked if I would help her out by making cookies for her staff. She wanted me to make some ornaments to tie onto each bag of cookies. Here’s what I came up with.
By this time my camera was starting to die on me. I had to try a million shots to get something that wasn’t over-exposed looking. This was the best I could get. The tie cords I made were done on my spinning wheel.
Here’s what the cookies looked like all bagged up.
There were 20 bags all together of oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies.
My camera was acting up again, so this picture has a weird coloring. But at least it captures the gist of what the completed cookie bags turned out like. Oh! While I’m sharing goodies, my friends from the Isle of Man sent me a really nice gift basket of fruit cake, pudding, and chocolates. I thought these boxes of chocolates were so cute shaped into their IoM emblem–the three legs, which I was told meant that no matter which way they are thrown, they will stand.
Now those were yummy! This picture is all that’s left of them. . .
Toodles for now!
Marlakins
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01.18.12
Posted in Anything goes, Playing the Tourist, family stuff, gardening at 1:09 am by Administrator
Apparently, my previous post of the rice terraces was a bit confusing as to how rice grows. To clear the confusion, I thought I’d post a few more rice pictures. Here’s a picture of rice at the terraces before harvesting.
Here’s a closer picture with Brian reaching out to touch the rice.
This woman was harvesting the rice and tying them into bundles for drying.
After bundling, the rice is laid out all over the place–along side the roads, the walls, etc. This is what the bundles looked like while they are laid out to dry.
These bundles were all over the place. Here’s another example.
I believe each family did their own harvesting, so these piles would be all over. They don’t sell this rice commercially. It’s only grown for the community and sold in small quantities to visitors. We were able to taste some of this rice in the local restaurants and also by purchasing a small amount that we were able to take back to Manila with us and cook at the condo. This is the type of bundle Brian was holding in the picture in my previous post on the rice terraces.
While I’m sharing this pictures, I thought I’d throw in a couple more that I liked. Here’s pic of some cute little girls passing through the terraces. These kids are used to walking up and down the terraces to go to school. They must be in great shape because boy, I was pooped walking only a short distance of steep steps.
Brian just loved this closeup.
Isn’t she cute?
Hope this clears up the rice thing!
Marlakins 
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11.21.11
Posted in Anything goes, Historical Trivia, History, Playing the Tourist, museums at 11:59 pm by Administrator
Before I get too lazy, I thought I’d start to share some of the pictures we took while at Mexico City. Here’s a pic near our hotel on the Avenue Reforma.
Brian and I were taking a walk to look for a place to exchange currency. The rate we found was 12.15 Mexican pesos to 1 U.S. dollar. The exchange rate was better at the currency exchange along the street than at the hotel or the LAX airport. Oh, one other thing, I found that it could actually get a bit chilly in Mexico City. I never really thought of Mexico being cold.
After exchanging a little cash, Brian and I headed over to the Anthropological Museum. Here’s a pic of the front of the museum.
This museum cost about $5 U.S. or $51 Mexican pesos per person. It was a very good museum, full of artifacts that were well laid out and separated by groups like the Mayans, Aztecs, Olmecs,etc. Here’s an example of part of the Aztec exhibit.
The round stone mounted against the back wall is an Aztec calendar. The cylindrical stone laying between me and the Aztec calendar is believed to be a sort of alter for human sacrifices. The center hole is believed to be where the heart was placed during or after the sacrifice. Yikes! The carvings along the sides of the stone seem to depict the sacrificial ceremony that takes place on that alter.
Here’s Brian next to another carving. If memory serves me correctly, this is part of the exhibit for Teotihuacan. At least I’m pretty sure that right outside to the left of Brian was the miniature layout of the Teotihuacan pyramids.
We took loads of pictures so that we could continue to enjoy them at home. They were also good for art inspiration. I’ve known that colors were used back in those times, but like the Italian villas, I didn’t realize how colorful the original structures were. For instance, here’s a replica of what some of the outer walls looked like. Along the side was a sort of freeze made of ceramic, and the colorful paintings looked like a sort of fresco.
Unfortunately we were only able to spend the last half of the day at the museum. You could easily spend the whole day or more there because it was really loaded with so many artifacts. But the museum closed at 6PM, so we had to get moving. There were lots of vendors just outside of the museum, and also some flying pole men dancers. Here’s a pic of them as they were slowly repelling down.
I believe this dance has something to do with Mayan mythology of the creation of the world. They’re supposed to be birdmen (the diety associated with this dance is a bird), and one of the men plays a flute as they gradually spin around and around until they slowly reach the ground.
That evening Brian and I hopped on a local bus to get back to the hotel. That was much cheaper than taking a taxi. The bus ride only cost $4.5 pesos each compared to us paying about $20 U.S. dollars taking a taxi from the airport to the hotel. Granted that was farther, but still, a taxi would have cost us much more. $4.5 pesos is just under $0.50 U.S.
The next day we joined a tour that took us to The Guadalupe Shrine and the ruins of Teotihuacan. I’ll try to sort through some of those pics and share those later. Aside from being wiped out from traveling and the slight time change (Mexico is two hours ahead of California time), our trip to Mexico was quite nice. Definitely a nice quick get away.
Marlakins
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10.30.11
Posted in Anything goes, Historical Trivia, Playing the Tourist, gardening, hobbies, museums at 9:16 am by Administrator
On Friday my boys and I visited the Getty Villa Museum in Malibu.
Wow, I would love to have a courtyard like that! But alas, only in my dreams, heheheh. Actually, this was my first time back at the Getty Villa since it’s reconstruction. The first time I had gone to the Getty Villa was during my high school days way before the Getty Center opened in Los Angeles. For anyone visiting Los Angeles, this is definitely one of the museums that should be on your list to visit. The Getty Villa was constructed as a replica of the Villa Dei Papiri for the purpose of housing J. Paul Getty’s art collection. The Villa was also intended to give the visitor the feeling of what it was like to walk in the villas back in it’s day and get a feeling of what it must have felt like to be in ancient Italy. It’s really a lovely place to visit full of history and art. Not only is the art collection engaging, but so is the architecture. Our docent told us that the Romans were obsessed with math and right angels and such, so a lot of that is seen in their architecture. This picture is an example.
According to our docent, the Romans were very practical, so all of their construction had dual function. That is, nothing was created solely for aesthetics, but also for functionality or special meaning. The gardens were also designed to grow plenty of herbs as was believed was done back in ancient Italy. The garden is impeccable. I even saw the most perfect pomegranate tree there. Other pomegranate trees I’ve seen have usually been unkempt and wild looking. The one in the Getty garden looked perfectly pruned. The picture doesn’t seem to do it justice. I found it to be very striking in person.
As with all museums, there is even a nice little gift shop. I always get sucked into those, heheheh. I found that the Getty Villa also has live stage performances. I’ll have to look into those and see when they do them and how to get in. I’m not sure, but I was under the impression some were performed in the amphitheater just in front of the villa. For anyone who loves art and architecture, you can easily spend the whole day there. Not only are there art works that you’d normally expect like pottery and sculptures, they had other things like this mummy.
I didn’t realize that the Italians did this back as early as the 1400’s (I think that’s about the date of this). I’ve been to Italy years ago and even visited some of their catacombs, but maybe I wasn’t paying attention if they mentioned these. The ritual was changed from the Egyptians, but there are some similarities, but also some differences like the face painting on the head of the mummy. Apparently, that painting was supposed to be what the deceased looked like.
I’m a sucker for art or most any craft, so I love to get ideas in places like this. For instance, one of my interests have been to learn to tole paint, so these murals caught my eye as I would love to learn how to paint these floral curly cues.
I love the floral vines along the column, pedestal, and below the window. Just before I went to the Philippines, I picked up some paint and paint brushes to try to learn how to do these as well as flowers. Have not gotten back to it since I’ve returned, wah. The other hobby that I’ve wanted to dabble in is mosaics. I purchase a book on this as well as checked some out from the library, so the Getty mosaics were also a great interest to me.
I like the idea of the shells as well. I’m thinking maybe I can try a small scale project like a flower pot for starters. The Getty mosaics definitely serve as a source of inspiration if not only for admiration of Italian creativity and skill, but for aspiring artists. We took a lot more pictures (I just love museums that allow picture taking), but there is just too much to share on a small blog like this. Suffice it to say that I highly recommend visiting the Getty Villa. For art lovers, it would definitely make for a very nice day.
Marlakins
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06.26.11
Posted in Anything goes, Book Reviews, Hmmm Moments, humor at 12:10 am by Administrator
Last week I was driving along when I found myself behind this vehicle . .
I couldn’t help but notice something unusual mounted on the back spare tire. Here’s a closer shot. . .
Yikes! That was not a picture! It was a taxidermed head of what, I’m not sure. This is the first time I’ve seen such a thing. Yes, I’ve seen taxidermed animals before, but not one mounted on a spare tire. Maybe because I live in the city, this is unusual to me, I don’t know. At first I thought it was a fox, but I think it’s illegal to hunt those, so I think this is a dog? I didn’t grow up doing or seeing this kind of thing, so it’s a bit weird to me, and thus why I had to take a picture of it.
Okay, so I didn’t see anything else unusual that day. We just went out to lunch at a Mexican restaurant and did a little shopping. I’m still working on another one of my cross stitch projects and reading some of the library books I checked out. I’ve slowed down on the Hiroshima in America book because I ran into the portion where the author seems to be psychoanalyzing Truman to determine what his thought process was in deciding to go ahead and use the atomic bomb on Japan. Personally, it’s easier for me to just read the known facts and perhaps even use those facts to try to speculate why something was done but, I have a hard time psychoanalyzing people. I would make a terrible shrink! So instead I have been spending more time reading Weller’s writings from First Into Nagasaki. Included in the book is part of a daily diary written by a U.S. Marine who, along with a friend, managed to hide out on Wake Island after the Japanese took control of it.
Wake Island is very small, and there were about 3,000 Japanese troops occupying the island during the writing of Scotty’s diary (one of the two Marines, the other being Stevens). That made it tricky for those two Americans to evade capture, but they managed to hide out for about three months before turning themselves in. While they hid, Scotty wrote a daily diary. I found it quite interesting because it explained how the two men managed to hide and find food while the Japanese troops were literally all around them, almost stepping on them at times! They basically laid down all day long, then scrounged for food late at night and buried the cans (when the Japanese bombed Wake Island, the military rations got strewn all over the place). Luckily for them they had plenty of food that way, although he did complain that they were lacking starch, which he believed added to his weakness. Of course everything was canned, too, so I bet that didn’t help, either. One thing I couldn’t help noticing was at even amongst the danger and fear, these guys still managed to have a sense of humor. I found that while reading other books of POW accounts. Here’s one daily entry that I found humorous.
“Feb 4
Fred has a hunch help is coming soon–first time he has been optimistic about it. With planes up all morning half the day is licked, which is something to us as we are living from hour to hour now. Little lizards crawl over us catching flies. They are so tame now we have to brush them off while writing. Their heads and bodies are just 2 in. long and tails about 3 in., dark brown with three gold stripes from end to end of body. There are six on me as I write and I love them. One has a purple tail and one little fellow is speckled an has not stripes–I guess he’s just a private.”
Tee hee! Funny.
So I’m about 3/4ths of the way through the book and have just started the section regarding the “Hellships.” I had read a little about that from other sources, so I’m interested to learn what else others reported.
Okay, so other than that I’ve just been doing the regular family stuffs. I’ve been a bit disappointed with how the media has forgotten all about the Fukushima disaster and hasn’t updated much on the condition of the Nebraska nuclear plants, either. It has forced me to scour the internet for any info on those plants, which seems like such a shame. Normal citizens are doing the work that paid journalists should be doing. I saw “nothing” in our TV networks regarding the nuclear protests in Japan. It was only through the internet and home videos that I saw anything about those protests. At least Italy and Germany have come to their senses and are making the effort to go nuclear-free. The U.S., on the other hand, acts like nothing is wrong. Where are all the “environmentalists?” They seem very silent on this issue. . .
Marlakins
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03.26.10
Posted in Anything goes, Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, History, Uncategorized at 11:38 am by Administrator
Back in October and November of 2006 I was blogging about radiation, its discovery, and its subsequent development. I don’t remember why I never finished the series, but I did write five parts, the first of that series was posted here. And here are parts 2, 3, 4, and 5. Today I found the beginnings of my 6th part of the series in my drafts folder. Since recently I seem to be back studying radiation history, I thought my radiation post might be relevant, so am moving them back up. I find them particularly relevant in light of the fact that nuclear energy seems to be making it back to the forefront again with all the commotion of global warming and climate change. The least we could do is study and understand the issues at hand. These posts have been my attempts. Below is what was stuffed in my draft folder as the beginnings of my part 6 on radiation.
To continue with my radiation series, I thought it might be a good idea to step back for a moment to look at what else was happening in the world. So many events overlap in time, which are linked to the progression of discoveries and inventions. Various events can overshadow new discoveries to the point of oblivion such as is claimed with the emergence and subsequent disappearance of Coley’s Toxins discovered in 1893 for cancer treatment . William Coley’s promising research with the use of Erypselias to treat cancer was pushed into the background as the X-ray became the treatment of “choice” for cancers in 1896. In a similar vein, research on “radiation,” along with the idea of the possibility of harnessing its power to create energy was brought to the forefront. While scientists were learning the secrets of the atom nucleus in the 1930s, Adolph Hitler also began his rise to power in Germany. In fear of persecution, some Jews and those opposed to living under fascist or totalitarian governments were able to migrate to other countries such as England and the United States. Among them were physicsts Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, Edward Teller, Enrico Fermi, and Victor Weisskopf.
Scientists already knew that atoms contained electrons and protons, however, British physicst, Ernest Rutherford, believed that there must exist a “third” particle. In 1932, James Chadwick of Great Britain was able to tease out that third particle. Through his experiments, Chadwick was able to eject a previously unknown particle, which was neither an electron or proton, but was a “neutral” particle. This particle was soon called “neutron.” With the understanding that the “atom” housed the potential energy powerful enough to create an atom bomb, atomic research was catapulted to the forefront of science. In the summer of 1939, rumors began to circulate that Hitler’s Germany was actively engaging in atomic energy research. For fear of what that power would be used for under the authority of Hitler, the U.S. was determined that it would create the atomic bomb first. Massive amounts of money and man power was funneled into its research and development. The nuclear race was on.
WWI had been fought with chemical warfare. With continued global unrest, something was needed to ensure that the United States continued to be the leading world power. That something needed to be more powerful than chemical warfare, something that would wipe out whole facilities and infrastructures.
Okay, so that’s what I had sitting in my draft folder for 3 1/2 years. Now that I’ve started reading about radiation again, and in light of the push for nuclear power plants, I’ve moved on a bit to learning about the history of nuclear weapons and subsequently nuclear power. Recently I commented on a couple books–A Slow Death: 83 Days of Radiation Sickness and Atomic America. I finished reading The Day We Lost the H-Bomb, so will eventually comment on that book as well. I just started reading Dark Sun: The Making of the Hydrogen Bomb, and wow, already an enlightening read. I also recently watched a DVD called, “The Atomic Bomb Movie,” which has live footage of nuclear detonations as well as a narrative of some nuclear weapons development history in the U.S. There’s also a good amount of info online regarding the Chernobyl meltdown back in 1986. I had realized that I never really knew much about the details of what happened there, so decided to watch it and man! what an eye-opener. Maybe I’ll comment more on that later regarding what I learned that I had not known after all these years after the accident. They are still dealing with the situation today more than 20 years later. When will we ever learn? Anyway, need to get out the door in about 15 minutes, so will stop here for now.
Marlakins
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04.20.09
Posted in Anything goes, Uncategorized at 9:00 pm by Administrator
It’s hot here today in Los Angeles. Brian said that it hit 100F, yikes! And while I was planning on blogging a little more on Frank Schaeffer, I’m just too hot and lazy. . . So I think I’m gonna save that for later and instead write about something that requires less thought, but still enjoyable nonetheless. I know this has made the rounds several times already, but it really was just fun to watch and is a feel good video so I’m gonna put it up for the remote chance that someone hasn’t seen this yet. Like most of those who first saw Susan Boyle, I was pleasantly surprised! Just click onto the picture for the video.
After watching Susan Boyle I started to think of all the people who have lovely voices. Unfortunately, I’m not one, but I wonder if I’ll get a better voice in the next life? Ha! With that thought I thought imagine what beautiful music we might hear in heaven? If we have people here on earth with beautiful voices, just imagine what sounds we might hear in heaven? I bet it would just blow us away.
When it comes to music, I’d say I like a variety of styles. Recently I’ve been enjoying listening to Elisa. I particularly like her song, Dancing. She has such a lovely voice.
For those who are familiar with Bic Runga and her old album, Drive, there is a little part in the music video above that reminded me of Bic Runga. It’s been years since this video came out, but I was happy to find it on YouTube. Brian is the one who pointed it out to me years ago. He said, “You have to see this video. It’s so cute.” Turns out he thought it was cute that this little Asian gal had a crush on this white guy, ha ha! Hmmm. It’s called, Sway. What a lovely, clear voice she has. And I did end up buying her album, too, heheh.
Maybe some other time I’ll put up links to some of the male musicians I enjoy listening to.
Marlakins
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08.28.08
Posted in Anything goes, Uncategorized at 2:06 pm by Administrator
A couple weeks ago I found to my surprise and delight that Custom Handweaving was going to have a booth at the Bead Show at the Pasadena Hilton. The reason I was excited about that bit of news is that they are one of the few vendors who sell spinning wheels near me and I’ve been contemplating getting a wheel for quite some time, now. Custom Handweaving is actually located in Redondo Beach, which is about a 45 minute drive away from me. But Pasadena is only about 15 minutes away from me, so I broke into my piggy back and jumped at the chance to see what spinning wheels were going to be on display.
When I arrived, I found that Nancy, the owner of Custom Handweaving and a very nice lady, brought a nice selection of wheels. I originally had been eyeballing the Ashford Double Treadle Traveler spinning wheel on the net because it was compact, but still had a nice country look to it. Since I’ve never owned my own wheel before, I really didn’t know what to look for aside from versatility and aesthetics. I basically knew I wanted one that was decent looking so that I could leave it out in the house and that it had to be somewhat small because I don’t have much room here for more gadgets. Plus a small wheel would make it easy to transport if I wanted to take it to a spinning group meeting or just somewhere else to spin. When I got to the show, I was able to try out a few different models and brands, including the Ashford Double Treadle Traveler. I say “try out” meaning treadling, since I’ve never used a spinning wheel before, but only a hand spindle. What I found was a bit unexpected for me, but I’m happy with my final choice. After a little bit of treadling and contemplation, it was only a matter of minutes before I became the owner of my very own spinning wheel! Woo hoo! I know, I know. “Woo hoo” over a spinning wheel? Yes, something only other fiber artists/addicts can understand. . . It doesn’t “look” like what I had in mind for a spinning wheel, but somehow I still think it has a cute look to it, anyway. Plus it’s pretty compact, and best of all, the treadling is extremely smooth! When I tried out the floor sample, I fell in love with it. That baby had to be mine! So, I dug deep in my very shallow pockets, and I forked over my dough. This is what I now have as my very own. . .
Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m pleased to introduce the Ladybug Spinning Wheel by Schacht Spindle Co. Inc. (Rah, rah, rah! Roar. Applause.)
Yeah, I know. It doesn’t quite look like the spinning wheel that Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger on, but hey, I like it anyway! And it spins like a charm! I will admit that at first I felt very uncoordinated. I had to concentrate on getting the wheel to spin in one direction and at a constant rate. Once I had my feet doing what it should, I found that I wasn’t using my hands to draft the wool. Once I started to draft the wool, my feet would stop treadling and/or I would pause then start the wheel in the other direction, ack! Any spinner knows that I would never get any yarn spun if I kept up those antics. So it took a bit of practice, and I can now say that I’m much more coordinated and am actually able to spin on this thing.
Okay, so for a little info on this new baby. It is new, not only to me, but it’s one of Schacht’s newer models. Hee, I’m just so happy with it I have to show another view of it.
Now that red flywheel may look familiar for some reason. At first I thought of a steam ship or a fire engine, but I thought, “No, there’s something else about that flywheel. . .” As it turns out, Schacht actually makes other things aside from spinning wheels. I think they’ve made old cars, and they make bicycles. . . And yep, a better look at that flywheel pretty much has “bicycle rim” written all over it. I noticed that there is even a “hole” where the stem of an air tube (or inner tube) would come out! Ha!
But honestly, that didn’t deter me one bit as when I felt how smooth it treadled, I realized that they’re likely using their bicycle assembly/design knowledge to make such a smooth treadling animal. I personally don’t know why they call it the ladybug, but I’m guessing that’s why they chose to have a red flywheel. And as a nice little touch (the type I appreciate), each Ladybug Spinning wheel has a tiny ladybug affixed to it somewhere, but each one has the ladybug placed in a different spot. So one of the first things I looked for when I pull the wheel out of the packaging box was where my ladybug was placed? I found it on the rear maiden.
Ah, thar she be. Okay, so before I sign off, I did want to mention how nice it was doing business with Nancy in that along with the purchase, she also threw in 1 pound of wool for practice spinning as well as a little oil bottle for the wheel. The wheel came with two other bobbins, and I also purchased a couple of carders. With my wheel purchase, I also have one free spinning lesson, but I just don’t know when I’ll get the chance to drive all the way out to Redondo Beach. It must be the current gas prices that really have me turned off about driving too much these days. And am I glad that these spinning wheels don’t use fuel, ha!
Okay, now I better get some use out of this stuff, so toodles for now!
Marlakins
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12.29.07
Posted in Anything goes, Uncategorized, knitting and crocheting at 12:57 pm by Administrator
Ah! I’ve found a moment to blog. So I uploaded my pictures like crazy. Too many to share, but picked out a few from Christmas eve (eh, more than a few, ha!) Basically, it has become a tradition for our family to celebrate Christmas eve at my parents’ house. We all go over to my parents for a large dinner, and then hang out until midnight when we open our Christmas gifts. Then we all sleep over and continuing eating on Christmas, ha ha! I didn’t realize it until just this Christmas that that is a Catholic tradition, yikes! Anyway, the dinner was all organic again, heheh. Brian and I are usually in charge of that because my family knows that we are picky that way. Good of them to oblige us! This year’s dinner consisted of tea smoked duck, steeped chicken, paella, baked root veggies, mashed potatoes, bread and cheese. This year, after stuffing myself silly with Brian’s pumpkin pies(he’s honestly the better cook between the two of us. He cooks “specialty” stuff, while I cook every day meals), I decided to buy some ready made desserts from Real Food Daily, my local organic restaurant. Wow, and am I glad I did! It dawned on me that I had not had “cake” since 1999! My kids have, but not often, so this was going to be a treat for them. As it was for me because it was heavenly! Ha! Here’s a shot of our dessert table with homemade oatmeal cookies topped with pecans, chocolate swirl cake and ginger cupcakes from Real Foods (yum!), and another chocolate cake my sister picked up from a Japanese bakery in downtown. It was so cute with lots of animated toppings.
And here’s what the first slices looked like before we demolished the desserts. . .
Oye, it was weird eating cake again after 8 years! New Years is coming up, and we’re to cook again, so I just might pick up another cake, heheheh. . . As you might expect, there’s no more left, and even this poor deer tried to plead with us not to be eaten.
Ah, but his pleas were not heeded, and he’s history, ha!
After dinner we hung out and socialized for a while. It’s always a good time! We got to watch some movies on my parents’ new HDTV, which my oldest sister bought for them this year. My dad is so funny. He loves war movies, I think because of his experience during WWII. So when we set up the TV we teased how soon we might see him sneaking around in army fatigues, peeking around corners, etc. ha! Now he can watch his movies and you’ll even hear the shells falling to the ground in stereo, ha ha ha! My dad. . .
The kids amused themselves with various things. Lately they’ve gotten into drawing, and Matthew drew up a bunch of face “parts” that could be re-arranged. Here they are with them.
And here’s some of the combinations that we came up with.
And here:
And here:
Ha! Well there were quite a bit more combinations, but I think you get the drift.
Midnight approached in no time. Since we all stay up until midnight, Christmas eve at our place is usually casual. This year I knit up presents for everyone, so I manned the camera. But I misjudged my knitting abilities and was not able to finish all the projects I wanted to even when I only made ankle socks for my sisters, ha! I only got to finish “one” side of my brother-in-law’s socks, and the reaction was so funny that I have to share the pictures. . .
Okay, so what was so funny? Well, my sister and her hubby were planning a trip to Machu Picchu. They were leaving on the 26th of December for a week. When my brother-in-law saw only “one” side of a sock, he yelled out, “Is this supposed to be a harbinger of the future? I’m going on a plane ride for goodness sakes! Am I only gonna need a sock for “one” foot soon?” LOLOLOL I tried to explain to him that I was knitting as fast as I could, but couldn’t finish it, ha! But I’m finishing the other side, so don’t worry, “He’ll get “two” socks, ha!” But, as you can see from the picture, he didn’t want to hear it, ha ha ha!
My sister convinced him that I was going to finish his other sock, so he could rest assured that his “feet” (plural) would be safe on their trip. Here they are modeling their sock/s.
Here’s my other sister when she unwrapped her socks. Her feet are so tiny that when I showed my boys the completed socks they exclaimed, “Wow, auntie has small feet!”
And here are my two sisters modeling their new handmade socks. By the way, they were both knit using hand-dyed wool from Hissy Knits.
I also knitted up two pairs of socks for my dad and a felted purse for my mom. After all, what do you give people who don’t really need anything? We bought stuff for the kids, so I didn’t have to knit up anything for them, ha! But it’s okay because I’ve been knitting stuff up for them before Christmas.
I got an email from my sister the other day from Urubamba, Peru. They’re having a great time, and guess who still has two feet? Ha ha ha! I’ll let them know it’s because I’m pretty much finished with his second sock. Here it is, and just needs to come off of the needles. Hopefully, I’ll finished them off today. He’ll have them when they return.
And finally before I end this. . . the little bears I’ve been crocheting up have unexpectedly been a hit! Ha! I’m almost embarrassed to say how many I’ve made! Yikes! But I’ll say one thing, no two are exactly alike, and I’ve been getting more ideas along the way. After I finished these bears, I tied on pens to each one. They were received pretty well that way. Here’s a shot of a few of them before going off to their new homes.
Whew, is anyone still with me this far? Ha! Blogging is fun, but it’s hard to keep up with all else going on. I’ll try to be better this year, but my new year’s resolution list looks like it’s gonna keep me pretty busy! So in case I don’t get back on until the New Years, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!
Toodles!
Marlakins 
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12.10.07
Posted in Anything goes, Uncategorized at 10:56 am by Administrator
Merry Christmas everyone! This year is just flying by! I’m so behind this year, but I’m forcing myself to make a quick post because I realize that it’s been a while since my previous post. Despite things moving too fast for me, I’m still enjoying the season. Last night my family and I went out to dinner at Ulysses Voyage. So while we were there, I was able to take a picture of the Christmas decorations at the Grove, which now has their Christmas tree fully “assembled,” ha! In a previous post I wrote how I finally found out how they got such a tall perfectly shaped tree each year. This year that mystery was solved for me. Basically, they assemble a tree by building one up with real branches. So here’s what it looks like fully decorated at night. This was taken from the 7th floor parking lot.
I think it was a couple weeks ago when they officially lit the Christmas lights and closed off the Grove for private invitations during that opening. I wasn’t invited, ha! But I could hear the fireworks from my house.
Here’s a picture of my youngest son, Aaron, and me at the base of the tree.
Below is another shot of some of the decorations. The gingerbread house had a long line most of the day of parents with little kids trying to get in to see Santa. My son jokingly told me, “Wouldn’t it be funny if Santa were there telling the little kids on his lap their fortune?” Ha ha! What a thought, especially around here where there are quite a few Palm and Psychic Readers! Yikes! Yep, another strange thing in the big city. . . The topic came up because of a discussion we had about how mixed up the meaning of Christmas has become. One of my friends had gone to Japan and mentioned how during Christmas they had some trinkets or Christmas decorations for sale with “Santa on a cross!” Ack! I can see how they’d be confused!
After we finished dinner, we took a short drive out to Beverly Hills. When my sisters and I were kids living at home with my parents, my father used to love to take us to Beverly Hills to look at their Christmas lights display. We used to do that every year. Each year the decorations were different. Well, years have gone by since we did that, so while we weren’t too far, we decided to check out Beverly Hills along Wilshire. We were a bit disappointed to see that there were hardly any Christmas lights displayed as they had in times past. (Maybe the person who used to be in charge is retired, ha!) However, we did turn down Rodeo Drive, and look what we saw!
Those square glass boxes suspended in the middle of the road are housing Baccarat chandeliers. It’s been a while since I’d been down there during Christmastime! I found an article dated 2004, which explained that Baccarat decorated this street with 20 of their crystal chandeliers each worth close to $50,000, yikes! That’s a about $1 million just along this street. Kinda makes me stop in my tracks in confusion, ha! One side of me loves art and beauty(so that I “oh and ah”), yet the other side of me hates the gaudiness. Oh well, such is life.
Here’s a closer view of one of the Baccarat chandeliers. I would have taken more pictures, but my camera battery died after this shot, ha!
Okay, I’d better stop playing around here, and get my butt moving! Don’t know if I’ll have much computer time between now and Christmas, I in case I don’t get a chance to send a proper greeting, Merry Christmas everyone! Oh! And I hope everyone’s Thanksgiving was nice, too! Ours was very nice aside from the “bugs” I caught that slowed me down for Christmas preparations! Ha! But I’m good now! So must dash and make up for lost time!
Toodles!
Marlakins
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