Twenty-seven

I remember when I was younger, I would get a certain number of cookies depending on how old I was. Four years old, four cookies. Six years old, six cookies. Thankfully this stopped before I had to start lugging around a ziploc bag to keep extra cookies in.

But now it seems that I have revived that tradition. No, I didn't just sit down and eat 27 cookies (though depending on the cookie type, I'd love to try). No no. I have changed the focus from cookies to books. This month, including books I have purchased, been given and purchased using gift cards, I have added 27 books to my collection. Twenty-seven years old, 27 books.

Not surprisingly, my to-be-read pile has exploded, practically doubling in size. But you know what? That is fine by me. After all, I'm going to read them all anyway!

Delicious Birthday Dinner

Yum! I just got back from one of the best meals I've ever had! To celebrate my birthday, my parents, Dan and I went to a place called Ino Japanese Bistro in Richardson, where we had the omakase - chef's choice. (To celebrate my dad's birthday, Dan and I paid!)

We had no idea what we would be getting when we started, but were all eager for some culinary adventure. We had 8 courses: tomato in clear sauce; edamame and eel soup; yellow tail, tuna and halibut sashimi; assorted Japanese vegetables, including lotus root, sweet potato, and konnyaku; salmon topped with potato; fried "sweet" fish; noodles over ice and dipping sauce; and green tea ice cream topped with azuki (sweet red beans). The meal took about 3 hours and it was wonderful. Don't even ask about cost - it's definitely a once- a-year treat. But what a treat it was! A great birthday present. Thank you, Dan!

Some information on omakase:

"Definition of "Omakase", from the verb "makasu" which means to trust, to let someone else take the initiative. In general, "Omakase" expresses the idea of having the courage to place your life in the hands of someone else. Or, in the case of dining …place your dining experience in the hands of our chefs.
"A true chefs "Omakase" menu should reflect the chef's vision of the following;
Flavor - distinct or combination of sweet, tart, bland, salty, spicy and sour
Color - contrasting and attractive combinations
Texture - distinct or combination of crisp, soft, chewy, and firm
Shapes & Size - mix of flat, round, long, chopped, shredded, heaped, tubular, etc
Temperature - hot, cold, tepid, lukewarm, even icy"
from http://www.florestaurant.com/menu.htm

News and Whatnot

Just some news to catch folks up (if anyone does actually happen to be reading!)

1 - Kitties are wonderful, though Bitty is a scaredy-cat (now opening the closet door freaks her out) and Chloe is way too addicted to boxes. Everyone else is lovely.

2 - Chloe must have gotten the "addiction" gene from her mom because I am addicted to candles. I ordered more, much to Dan's amusement.

3 - Dan's temporary crown keeps coming off. The dentist should be back tomorrow, but they say they can't do anything more than what he is doing (which is constantly re-gluing it), so we are now just waiting for the news that the permanent crowns are in. Poor guy.

4 - My grandma shattered her wrist on Tuesday. She had surgery yesterday (though she could not be put under due to her health, so it was all done with local anesthesia - ouch!). She's got three(?) pins in her wrist and will be in a cast for about the next three months or so.

5 - I had a speech to do at my Rotary club today. I think I babbled a little, but it went well (I think) and it was nice talking to people afterwards and getting to know them better. The more I get to know those in the group, the more I like them!

6 - Dan is still reading Harry Potter. He's so slow! Okay, he really isn't. He's just not obsessed like I am. But I'm dying to talk to him about theories of book 7 but I can't yet because it will spoil the secrets for him.

7 - Sunday is my birthday. I am looking forward to it. Dan, my parents and I are going to a Japanese restaurant in Richardson to have the "chef's menu". Expensive, but what are birthdays for if not to splurge? And Dan said that the kitties each got me a book. That's always good!

And since 7 is a good number, I will stop there.

Virtual Web Pet

Thanks to Tracy, I now have an alpaca! Okay, it isn't an alpaca - it's a llama. But isn't it cute? Look to the right and scroll down below my links and you can see my lla-paca. Pet it and it does a lla-paca purr. Very cute. Thanks Tracy!

If you want a web pet, you can go here:
Bunnyhero Labs

Harry Potter Kick

Okay, I'm on such a HP kick right now. I got HP and the HBP at about 1:30 Saturday and finished it at 10:01pm the same day. It was SO good! I admit it, I cried. The ending of the book was really the beginning of the next book, if that makes sense. I have heard that J.K. Rowling, when asked what her longest book will be, said the last one because years 6 and 7 are really one long book that are split into two parts. And I would totally concur, without even reading book 7 (though I would love to if it were out yet). But since I cannot read book 7 yet, I want to read anything HP-related.

So I'm off to search for HP stuff online and see if there is any idea when book 7 is coming out. Oh, and by the way, read HP 6 if you can - it's wonderful!

An interesting occurrence

Something very odd just happened.... I have nothing to read.

Well, I suppose I could start another book. But Harry Potter comes tomorrow and as soon as that comes in, I will start reading it, abandoning any book I have unfinished.

It's a very odd feeling. The urge to have a book by my side "just in case" is one that I never really noticed, however it is currently screaming at me. I am just now noticing how often I will carry a book from room to room, regardless of whether I actually read on it while in the new locale.

I potentially have as long as 23 hours before Harry finally shows up (fortunately, based on past experience, it should only be 16 hours or so, at least half of which I hope to be asleep).

Regardless, the lack of a book to have by my side has me currently very unsettled. Just thought I'd share. (And ask you to keep your fingers crossed that Harry comes soon!)

Pope and the peril of Harry Potter

OMG, this is ridiculous! The Harry Potter books are no more "occult" than I am even though I own a black cat. If I say more, I'm going to end up with a huge long book of a vent so I'll just post the link.

Pope and the peril of Harry Potter

HARRY POTTER

Okay, I just spent my lunch hour not eating, but surfing the net for Harry Potter info. It is this Saturday when book 6 comes out and I just can't wait! AUGH! Yes, I know I'm acting like I'm 12 but I can't help it - I WANT TO READ HARRY POTTER!!!

Amazon.com: Books: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6)

Lots of changes, old Max, lots of changes...

Okay, the blog page here is based on a template and it looked so sharp that I thought the rest of my site suffered in comparison to it. So I've made some big changes! So far, I've only made those changes to the main page and a few others, but the rest of the pages are coming - so stay tuned to see what shows up!

Want to know what's new?

Ta-da! The page has changed! I switched out the News and Update section for the Blog section and made some changes in the blog's template to personalize it some. I even made the changes in HTML - with no help from Dan, either!

Okay, what all has been going on lately? Good news on the health front... the heart thing is nothing as serious as SVT. Basically, my heart is overreacting to normal stimuli. So the cardiologist put me on a different (lower dose) beta blocker and I have to go back next week so he can ultrasound my heart, just to make sure everything is working fine.

About two weeks ago, Mom came down with a bacterial respiratory infection. And she was kind enough to pass it around to EVERYone. Dan got it, my dad got it, my grandma got it, and no surprise, I got it. My grandma ended up in the hospital for about 5 days but she's doing better now. Mom and Dad both had to take antibiotics to get over it, Dan toughed it out and I followed my parents' example went to the doctor for some antibiotics. He prescribed one of the antibiotics that I have taken with success in the past. Well, it didn't work too hot this time. I had an allergic reaction to it. Now I'm covered in a pink rash from jawline to toes (and behind my ears). But I'm doing MUCH better - the rash used to be bright red and swollen. During the worst of it, I was taking about 4 baking soda baths and cold showers a day to stop the itching. It was really bad. I went to the doctor yesterday to get a steroid shot and that helped things a ton, but the itching came back AGAIN today, so I got another steroid shot this afternoon. I wonder if I'm going to be buff now?

Oh, but the fun isn't over. Yesterday as I was parking at the doctor's, I hit a truck. AUGH! Fortunately, it was a huge truck and I ended up only hitting his rear wheel - no body damage. Well, no body damage to his vehicle. My car got a little crunched. But, yay for plastic cars - the dents popped out so now the bumper alignment is a little off and the top coat of plastic or whatever has scraped off in a few places. Could have been much worse.

In other news, Dan had to get two teeth crowned. Poor guy. The dentist said that getting crowns had a 50/50 chance of solving his problem, but our other options were a root canal or to just yank the tooth (and he's already missing one on that side). Since they are molars and I kind of want him to keep eating, we elected for the crowns and even though just the temps are on, he's not hurting any more. So looks like that did fix it. Yay! The dentist did mention that he thinks Dan should have his wisdom teeth removed. Boo!

Outside of all that vastly amusing information, there are a few more things going on (though none as exciting as a skin rash). Mom and I are working on planning the family reunion which will be August 6. I'm really looking forward to seeing everyone, especially my cousins Cindy and John (and hopefully Chad, too!). All the kitties are doing fine - Bitty is a gargantuan 6.6lbs. She's turned into quite the little cuddle kitty. Gidget has also become rather demanding of attention. It is not unusual for me to have up to 3 kitties on my desk while I am working. Thank goodness it is a big desk.

OH! And, my grandma got a new cat, Coco. She's had her for about a month now - a shelter rescue. She's got a great story that I really don't have room for right now. My current plan is to make a page for her, so hopefully I will do that soon.

Weeeee! Wasn't that fun? Aren't you glad you read this stuff? Of course, who knows who actually reads it. I think my mother-in-law (Hi Claudia!) and occasionally some of my side of the family. But I think mostly this is kind of like throwing spaghetti at a black hole. Does it stick? Eh, probably not. Just kind of echos around in the vastness of space (or anti-space or non-space or whatever is in a black hole). But who cares, it is fun to babble! And maybe if I babble here, I will be less likely to bore my adopted solider in Iraq to death in my letters!

Look ma! I can blog!

Okay, I've succumbed. I have decide to try blogging! *gasp* I thought it might be a good way to update my page more frequently. We shall see how it goes! If I like it, I'll just replace the News and Updates section with this blog.

But no worries, the old News and Update entries can still be found here!