19 October 2010

cold toes

So begins the season of me always needing to wear thick socks or slippers around the house! Brr.

Just brewed a pot of some 'wellness' tea of sorts, that we bought in Japan. I forget the name of it...it comes in a white box with black print. Takeshi would know. Hmm. In any case, working outside walking dogs does have its dangers with catching a cold! I feel twinges of ickyness once in a while. Drinking this tea makes me feel better! I hope it actually works though!

We also have started having bath nights on Takeshi's days off. I LOVE taking bath and I miss the deep deep bathtubs in Japan! American tubs pale in comparison. But we still enjoy baths anyway, and we bought bath salts at Mitsuwa last month! Can't let it go to waste. ;) But we've found that the 'hot water' doesn't really get hot enough for baths. Takeshi likes his showers/baths TEN times hotter than what I can stand! So for him, it's probably even more of a disappointment! So what we've started to do is boil a pot of water on the stove and throw it in with the 'hottest' water from the shower. It definitely makes a difference in any case.

Parents are coming to visit in less than a week from overseas! Pretty jazzed about it. I'll be going to New York City with them for a few days in the middle of December. It should be fun - they've never been and I always love going. The day they arrive is also Takeshi's birthday as well. :) He'll be a ripe 24. Hehe. He is SO hard to shop for (as are all men?) so I am making him a gift, like I have in the past. I'll post a picture of it when I'm done! I wanna keep it a secret since TK's on Blogger too. xD

Both of us have come down with colds of a sort. Mine has been going on steadily for about a month. I have extremely terrible allergies all year round, so I had just chocked it up to the dry air or whatever, walking dogs, etc. But I went into a walk-in clinic today and there's good news at least - I don't have any infections or godawful problems and such. Just allergies. :( Bleh. Doc gave me a prescription for some antibacterial stuff to take for 10 days, just to rule that possibility out. I also bought a "neti pot" yesterday at the store, so I'll be using it frequently to see if anything gets better. Here's a description of a neti pot if you haven't heard of it!

The sensation of using the neti pot, for me, is more than a little uncomfortable, but I'll deal with it!

Thanksgiving for us was quietly spent at home this year. Takeshi cooked. It was very yummy. :) I surprisingly convinced him to watch a Lupin the 3rd movie with me. He's not much of a TV/movie guy at all, so it's always a treat for me when we sit down together to watch a movie!

Random photos from the recent past weeks! Have a good start of the week everyone!



Walking in Old Town with Sydney


Mimsy the poodle


crimson tree in one neighborhood I frequent at work


near the water in north Old Town


can anything else fit?


11 October 2010

jazz before the week begins

I'm beginning to use the 'radio' on my iTunes a lot more these days, mostly for jazz music which is one of my favorite genres. I find my personal collection of songs is somewhat boring right now. Haven't come across anything new lately that I like.

Yesterday was a nice day overall even though we had a little mishap with doing the laundry. This building is so fricking old and I guess that goes for the door to the laundry room downstairs as well. We both go down to the floor below us to do laundry (which is not free, mum yes). We're about to throw in the clothes to the wash, and I decided to go grab something from the apartment really quick before that - and I can't open the door. A little piece of the metal doorframe has wedged itself in between, so that we couldn't open it. And the crappy, cheap door handle looked like it was about to fall off any minute. Had come loose and wasn't secure at all. And that room is hotter and more humid than a Turkish bath. If both of the dryers are running, it's hard to breathe in there after a while! So TK finally got the door open after hitting and tugging the shit out of it. Afterwards, the door itself had kind of bent from the door handle up. Crappy-ass door. We could have been stuck in there and we hadn't brought anything with us. I know what I'll be calling to the office about next...

Finished the laundry and then went to Old Town Alexandria to walk around a bit. Ended up going to a pizza joint down there for a late lunch/early dinner, called 'RedRocks Pizza'. Place was nice in decor and all, and the pizza wasn't so bad. We left and went to the Barnes and Noble Booksellers store in the area. I saw a book I have been wanting to get that's been released but only in hardback! I'd rather wait and spend only about $8 for the paperback instead of paying up $25.95 for the hardback now.

Learned that mum and dad are probably coming to the States in December for a visit, so very excited about that. :) Christ, I see them more and I do my little brother who lives miles away from me! Such is the way of Michael, I suppose.

I hope that kaasan and tousan will come to visit us in the States again sometime soon, but as I hear it, my MIL might come on her own next year. My FIL will probably be caught up with work and all. :/ My SIL at one point expressed an interest in visiting the States again too, but I don't know about that, since she's fairly new to the workforce, right out of college etc. Still would be nice to see her again though.

I love this time of year, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. Winter is also my favorite season. I just hate the small (gradually growing) tidbits of Christmas being thrown at us ALREADY in October. Ridiculous. As one comic said, "Santa needs to stop poking his ass into other holidays." Right you are sir.

Here are some recent photos from last week along with a video of one of the puppies I walk. :) Ganbatte everyone. Have a good week!



me trying to get Grace to go up for a walk




abandoned parking lot I found while walking a dog in Alexandria the other day


apartment building I go to - where one of the dogs lives


certain things we bought for the apartment recently - rug for the kitchen, outside mat for the balcony, and a light-up pumpkin to be festive for Halloween :)


04 October 2010

blog bump

Ok so I'm mentioning another blogger for anyone's consideration!

My best friend Todd has started a blog of his own, and it's been created to help anyone with any kind of questions concerning the plant world, gardens, soil, landscaping, etc etc. He has just completed a degree in Plant Sciences from the University of Maryland and is very knowledgable.

I have asked a million questions of him in the past, and he's still the first one I go to, when I have a problem or just want to gain some info about the plant world. So if you ever have an inquiry, feel free to drop a question on his blog! ;)

http://gggazette.blogspot.com

another rainy week?

I hope not, but the forecasts don't look to great. I don't like walking dogs in the rain! Granted it's kind of fun watching THEM have fun getting wet, but in the meantime, Laura is turning into a melting, curly-haired mess. Seriously, I don't know why I do my hair before I leave the house. One drop of moisture on my head, turns it into a poodly-rat's nest.

Had a good Sunday today. Went to Tyson's Corner mall again, milled around, went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. :) Very yummy, and also a plus because I have leftover chicken enchiladas for my dinner tomorrow. Always nice to eat something that tastes better than anything I could make!

Tonight we tried doing some highlights with Takeshi's hair. We used the Gatsby hair bleach stuff he bought at Mitsuwa. It went ok...we admitted he would have been better off going to a salon. Definitely. I tried my hardest to brush on the bleach (with my FINGERS in BAGGY frickin' gloves they give you - retarded) on little strips of his hair, but some parts look like, and I'm quoted the hub, "panda spots". Sorry! I tried my best. Lol. But it doesn't look terrible, and we can always try making it better in the future by thinning his hair out, etc.

Makes me wanna do something with my hair, but I don't know what I'd want to do. And I sure as hell wouldn't trust myself to do it at home. Salons all the way, for me!

02 October 2010

a different outlet

So I finally decided to make an account on WordPress as well. I may in the future move my blogging entirely to WordPress instead of Blogger, but for now this second blog accomplishes something Blogger cannot. Password protected posts. Sometimes I need and want to write about more personal things/issues that I don’t want the whole internet community being able to see.

For now, I guess is that I can post the URL link to a protected post on Blogger – those whom I’ve given the password to will be able to then see it. Or, if you can choose the option to follow both of the blogs.

If you want to ask me if you could have the password to the posts, email me at bigteamug@gmail.com.

Here's the link:

wordpress