The Usual Suspects

Okay...
Just got back a few days ago from visiting my Lone Star State for 10 days. Wonderful time! Here's are my dearest friends or as I like to call them - the usual suspects!

Here's Shaady styling her blue TSHM T-shirt. :) Beautiful...brings me back!

Susan and her 2 year old cutie - Joel. He's at that perfect stage where anything and everything goes directly into the mouth. Notice the chopsticks. Love it!
The cuteness that is Susan and Joel! Gotta love the "Believe" T-shirt. GOD I hate Polar Express, but love ya Susan for making him wear it for me....hehe
My Hometown Shiner gals - Amy and Dawn. Notice the empty margaritas glasses. Was that our 2nd or our 3rd? I do miss proper strawberry swirl margaritas already.
Getting dolled up to go downtown - 6th street BABY or more properly....5th St. to Lucky Lounge!
Awww....the strangeness that is LL. Tin foil men!
Dawn and I trying to pull off some suave shots. Not sure it's working with Dawn grinning like a fool. Thanks Hun! :P
Again....thanks hun!
Just playing with the red lighting and candles.


Honestly....people do NOT (usually!) walk around in cowboy hats in Texas...at night...in Austin. Well, at least not all the time. Just couldn't resist posing with some random strangers.
Thanks for a fun time girls!!!! Much Love!!!
P.S. If you haven't already noticed. My hair went darker. I had planned to get blonde highlights, but after much deliberation went in a totally opposite direction. I was influnced by my friends here in the Ken who went dark recently and it looked lovely on them. Not sure how long this look will last with me. This has been the darkest my hair has gone since....like...maybe FOREVER, but the blonde in me will come screaming out again on day. Sooner or Later! :)
Pics of the family and PROPER Thanksgiving food to come soon...

Muhahahaha......

And so, here we are.
The day I have been waiting for - Halloween!!!

The last day before all the things I've bought and decorated and wore and ate and watched and heard that revolve around this joyful day stops being meaningful for another year. It's kind of like being on the last few hours of a really great cruise -- the port's in sight, you're just treading water, and while there's still enough time to go have a good time, the trip's so close to ending that you just can't have fun. I do this to myself every year, with every holiday that's important to me. I know I won't really care in a week, but what if I do? It'll be too late to watch all day episodes of Sabrina the Teenage Witch and have it be anything but just watching Sabrina the Teenage Witch. This is probably why Thanksgiving exists (for Americans like me) -- you need some kind of holiday placebo to curb your life between October and December.
Any-who...
Went to Tokyo with the Girls this last weekend for a Halloween blowout. Literally 22 hours of watching the sun rise, breakfast sushi, shopping in Shibuya, yummy late afternoon lunches with wine, more shopping, crazy hostel roomies, watching the sun set, getting dressed up, riding the Tokyo Subway in our costume, eating at TGIFriday, getting free dessert, and dancing till all hours of the night.
Awww......Lovely Halloween!
Two cannibals are eating a clown.
One says to the other, "Does this taste funny to you?"
Why did the ghost go into the bar?
For the Boos
Why did the ghost cross the road?
To get to "THE OTHER SIDE"
Why couldn't Dracula's wife get to sleep?
Because of his coffin.

Where does a one-armed man shop?
At a second hand store.
What is Beethoven doing in his coffin right now?
Decomposing.
What do you get when you cross Bambi with a ghost?
Bamboo.
What do little ghosts drink?
Evaporated milk.

What do sea monsters eat for lunch?Fish and ships.
How do you fix a jack-o-lantern?
With a pumpkin patch.

Did you hear about the guy that lost his left arm and leg in a car crash?
He's all right now.



Ohhhh....I LOVE this holiday!!! Makes me so happy!!!
It's been a ride, as usual.
We now return to our regularly scheduled junk, but the horror will strike again in about eleven months.
Happy Halloween!

19.4 SCORE! YAYY!!!!

I have to give props to Pam and her brown hat that I stole that night. Thanks hun!

Musical Nite Out - Sanjo

Just because...

I like the guy in his 7-11 outfit. Nice!!!

Gotta love those clean bathrooms.

Whale or Horse?

What would you eat???

After an odd long debate with Natasha over what actually goes into school lunches, I came up with the question:
If it came down to it.....would you eat whale or horse?

I found something to prove why I would pick the larger of the two.

Cleveland Scene featured an article on the horse meat export market.

"Each year, roughly 60,000 horses are slaughtered for meat. Nearly all of it is sold overseas, to countries like France, Belgium, Italy, and Japan, where horse is a delicacy. With mad-cow disease posing a serious threat, horse meat is a welcome low-fat, high-protein substitute for beef. Its flavor is a cross between beef and venison, slightly sweeter in taste, and surprisingly tender. And the U.S. is the world's largest provider. Though Americans will readily eat cows, pigs, chickens, and fish, there's something unseemly about eating animals largely considered pets."

oh and something else racking my brain-
I have eaten McDs twice in the last few weeks and since McDonald's has rolled out its worldwide slogan,"I'm Lovin' It!" which is a good slogan and all, but is it good for a Japanese marketplace? Wouldn't it come out "I'm Rubbin' It!"
Our is that just me?

Anna's House Party

Anna's House Warming Party held in Shibata last Saturday. It was a fun house party, don't get to do much of those in Niigata!







Jenny- hun....seriously, what did you do to your jeans?

Joel's belated Birthday cake! Sorry it's belated Joel - DON'T KEEP QUIET about it next time. ;P Shame! Thanks to trusty Pam to remember!

Looky! Looky!

Look what I found!

TEXAS BBQ.....hehe

1/2 of the ol' Apartment

Okay, so...I took these pics a while back when my apartment was clean. My worst habit it just NOT cleaning, so I don't have pictures of the full apartment just yet....but will soon...someday! :)
Top pic is the Living Room, Middle is the kitchen (of Course!), and the bottom one is the adorable old Japanese coloring prints I found and put up on the wall.

My Inspirational Point

I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite. - G. K. Chesterton

P.S. This is the view from my balcony.