24 August 2010

a nice tuesday

We had a nice Tuesday today. Takeshi's day off. We went down to Tyson's Corner mall, which is the largest (ritziest) mall in the area. I always like going there and walking around because somehow it makes me feel like I can actually afford that lifestyle. Lol. Bloomingdale's, Coach, and a dozens of other stores which will max out anyone's credit card in a damned hurry. We decided to take a trip to one of the mall's eyeglass stores which also has a small eye-doctor attached. Both of us were in need of a vision test - last one I had was about 3-4 years ago!

Cost us more than I thought though, at a total of $140 for the both of us. We don't have any health insurance right now, so we pay the total amount....cry. :( I found out my eyes are pretty much the same as they were, and I probably don't need a prescription change, which is good. On the bad side, I took the test where they puff air in your eyes (everyone hates that test!) - and I was told that the fluid pressure in my eyes are on the high side. They are still in the "average" level on the scale of things, but on the higher side of average. I was told that this puts me at risk for possibly getting glaucoma later on in life. Now, they told me at the age of 23, I'm not going to get it any time soon, but I was told to definitely keep up on the annual checkups. Kind of a bummer, huh?

Anywho, we bought some tea leaves at Teavana, one of my favorite stores. We bought 2 flavors of tea leaves, with the stores tea tins which I had saved at home. That way you can just pay for the (rather expensive) tea leaves and not have to crap out another $10-15 for a tin to put them in. The girl who served us was pretty chatty and bubbly in the beginning, but I have never seen someone change moods so fricking quickly! It was hilarious! She quickly learned that I was not made out of money and that I wasn't going to fill up BOTH tins all the way to the brim, which would have cost me about $42 a tin = about $85 total. Fuck. That.

Christ lady, I'm not rich. I LOVE tea, but...jeez. And she got so sad. Psh! She could have made it a little less obvious at least.

Me: (looking at the price of tea leaves as she weighs the tin) "Could you take it down a little? To about $20?"

Her: (about to shovel in ANOTHER scoop of tea) "....Oh....down?"

Me: "Yeah, less."

Her: (glumly and quietly pours some out)

Here are some recent photos! Have a good week everyone.



tea that TK picked - Earl Grey White


my tea choice - Youth Berry


yummy cheeses we bought that other day :)


Multiple "wash clothes"(?) over time from MIL. I want to use them - but how?? Any of the ladies back in Japan - what do you use them for? Any ideas?


the key lime pie I made! No longer around, though ;)


CD Depot, in College Park - sold some of our DVDs there on Sunday - got $32!



And now some photos of my handsome hubby (cause I'm shameless) from when we lived in Japan. Found these the other days while rummaging through my external hard-drive!



16 August 2010

key lime pie

I'm attempting to make it from scratch for the first time! I'm waiting for the pie crust to bake a little in the oven right now. I hope it comes out ok! I've only been able to make it because yesterday we took another trip to the GrandMart (international) grocery store. They ended up having a CRAZY good price for limes! 8 limes for one dollar. I love limes, so darn right I'm gonna get all 8! :)

And even after needing 4 limes for the recipe, I still got 4 left for anything else. Water with lime is always tasty. We also bought some more shiso (white) miso paste, ebi furikake, and I snatched another pack of natto. Takeshi bought another head of nappa cabbage, and made a whole big new batch of homemade kimchi. The man loves his kimchi! I also had to find use for some leftover buttermilk we had, and it was close to going bad (if not a little already...) so I made a big batch of waffle batter. Yaay. Waffle mix and key lime pie. Nothing but good, healthy food here. ;)

Totally switching it up - bought some liquid roach bait and a huge-ass fly swatter. Sigh. Little buggers are back again, but I doubt they ever really "left". Roaches can live through a nuclear holocaust. Argh. Here we could be spending money on new clothes or shoes or something, and we're buying shit that kills bugs. Blah.

11 August 2010

humid night

Just an update on recent goings-on. It's late, about 2:16am. Takeshi went to sleep already at about 1:30. He felt sleepy all of a sudden, even though we slept in until about 11am today. I guess I'm more used to staying up, so I wasn't feeling as tired. I was hoping we'd have some *cuddle-time* but, not gonna' happen. Such a bummer. A big bummer. I've been deprived of *cuddle-time* for a while now. I don't mean to sound rude or raunchy but I wish the hub would have the same overabundance of "enthusiasm" that GW's hub does.

It's another set back with the fuckin' hours he works, that's all. He's usually too tired to give a crap at night when he gets home, and the only time when I might see an opportunity is on Saturday night, and he's had some wine or something. Is it a bad thing that most of the time, we end up having *cuddle-time* after we've had a glass of wine already? Psh.

Sorry if this is too much info. Sometimes I feel like I'm stalking the man once he gets home, but then it usually ends up being the usual love-pinches and squeezes but nothing beyond that. Makes me feel bad sometimes...

Went to Georgetown today, for a sudden interview for Takeshi at the Blue Duck Tavern. He'll probably go do a day's work there in the near future to truly see if he likes the environment and such. Essentially he found out that he'd be able to work there from roughly 3pm to 11:30pm (8 hours), 5 days a week, for $15/hour. Instead of the place he works now, in which he works roughly from 10am to midnight (13-14 hours), for $8/hour. In doing the math, he figures that if he decides to take this new job, he'd have to probably work another part-time job in the morning before the job at the Tavern (doing prep work at another restaurant, working at a cafe, etc.) to be able to make more savings per month. Right now, with his hours there's no way he's able, time-wise and energy-wise, to have another job.

It sucks that I'm not able to contribute more to the savings per month right now, with not having an official graphic design job somewhere. I'm waiting to hear back from Petsmart (after the drug test I took on Monday for it), on if I passed the test (no reason why I shouldn't!) and when we can finish this shit so I can have a job there hopefully. But even that won't even pay me as much as if I had a full-time job. And benefits would be nice too!

I'm happy I found a place that has a good possibility of hiring me finally, so that I can make money, but I feel like I'm still letting Takeshi down since it's not my "graphic-design job". The "job that will fix everything" sort of speak. It almost makes my possible part-time job feel like it doesn't matter. :(

That's also not to say that I'll stop looking for a full-time job! I search everyday still.

The way we figure - the only way to be able to move out of this low-income apartment building, and afford more than this, is for me to get that graphic design job somewhere. Ugh. It never ends! Always some kind of shit-situation to crawl ourselves out of. Lol. Slowly. :/

04 August 2010

up and down

It's been a little while since I posted. I've wanted to, but my mind is in all directions these days. Somedays I'm bouncing off the walls and can't concentrate on much, waiting and searching for a job.

Recently I've had 2 separate job opportunities arise (one part-time job, one graphic design *paid* internship), that I was pretty hopeful about, and then they just went to the shithouse. I guess I shouldn't hope TOO much with these things. Just setting myself for disappointment, and there's never a guarantee that it'll come through for me! I've tried to stay detached from this stuff now, and just keep searching.

Today was fairly nice though. I finally set up an interview at the local Petsmart store, for Friday. I'd like to get a part-time job there (I applied for a cashier job (blah), and then as a pet-bather at the groomer's section), but again, I don't want to get my hopes up. I went for an interview at the other place, and they still didn't take me in the end.

Went to the gym today and ran on the treadmill like a sweaty-hamster, and felt very good about myself. Got back, took a shower. Came home and had an orange as a snack (a lot better than recent snacking habits...)

Right now it's 10:10pm. A little while ago I made a cocoa mochi cake - just waiting for it to firm in the fridge and then I'm trying some. :)

Takeshi's been talking to his mum back home a bit. They correspond a lot through email these days, since video-chatting with is weirder for them all, I think. But Takeshi does use international calling cards instead. Seems the economy back home in Japan isn't too much greater than the economy in the States. SIL is still living with the PILs, broke up with her long-time boyfriend Jumpei. :( Sad to hear, since I met him a bunch of times and they seemed like a cute couple. Also, since Jumpei is part of a family which is really good, old friends of Takeshi's family. And they live in the same neighborhood! SIL works in Nagoya as an English teacher's assistant? I believe, and it's a bitch to commute from Suzuka to Nagoya every day. She's bummed because she can't afford to move out of PILs house right now at all on her salary. Hope things get better for her soon!

Recent photos:



Old Town Alexandria - Torpedo Factory. Old factory turned into artist gallery spaces. Lots of unique art to wander around and look at


Old spice and tea store in Old Town. Every space in that store was filled to the brim with stuff


Outside view of the back of the Torpedo Factory, along the dockside





We bought a waffle-maker! :) Takeshi's been itching to get one for a while. Lol.


Mmmmm waffles are good :)