3 day weekend & gaming

friday night, the ladies

(angie, meco and daughter, taylor, in tow, joss, and the boss, nanners)
came over for craft night. we didn't so much craft as eat pizza, talk,
laugh, and watch daddy's little girls.
technically, it still was a craft night because i taught
joss the slip knot to start her foundation chain for crochet
and i think i taught her the single stitch.
i think...

even if noone got anything done or started, i think it was a great way for us to unwind,
nanners and joss mentioned that just needed to get away,
from what, i don't know, but i know the sentiment,
sometimes, i just want to be alone,
in my own thoughts and feel some satisfaction.
it's not the same when you complete a project at work...
that special satisfaction when you put your blood, sweat, and tears into
something you created with your two hands...

i started on beading a little owl for my keychain and i got as far as step 18
and then it got too hard...that and i can't read kanji, i just read the diagrams.
oh yeah, and my coworkers seem to think i can read kanji because i own
a gazillion japanese craft books and i speak 4 languages and manage to
understand most of nihongo that is spoken to me, which only seems to be spoken to me
when my coworkers are around...the trips to the craft store, the trip to joyful honda and buying tons of light fixtures. i don't know how i managed that, but i knew how to count and knew enough of the words to get me by...

i started a macrame' project for the ipod today but i got sidetracked playing
guitar hero 2, then karaoke revolution party, then karaoke revolution country...
jeremy made mention that i should just go ahead and buy a wireless guitar so we could get encore of the 80s too, so now i gotta think about that...

i wish they made a karaoke revolution game with 80s hits or
just the cure and depeche mode and madonna, then we'd be jammin' and i've been trying to convince jeremy that we need an xbox because they have better games that are cheaper, but he's not buying it...yet

we tested out our new dance dance revolution for wii and that thing is
HARD!
imagine trying to keep track of 4 arrows, staying on the beat, and now
having to avoid stepping on foot destroyers, doing double-steppers, foot stompers,
AND having two controls in your hands, squeezing the triggers and swinging your arms
AT THE SAME TIME!

i must have looked like a complete idiot...

but what idiot do you know that can do all of the above and be
good at crafting, foreign languages, diagram reading, singing, dancing, air guitar and gaming?

that's right, ME!

cooking 'crass'

i taught/hosted my first cooking/english class tonight.
i got 5 students and i'll get to teach them twice a month :
kumiko, sumiyo, rie, naomi, and miwa.

i tried (and i should have tested this earlier but i thought it was foolproof) a pound cake,
and it totally overflowed from the baking dish to the bottom of the oven
and started burning
*grimaces* not my best first impression...

i had to let them go early because they have kids and family to tend to,
but i let the pound cake bake some more and it turned out really well,
so i hope the teaching liaison, tamae, will deliver the finished pound cake to the students tomorrow

i think we'll go easier next time and try something from a box...like cookies.

their english was great for first timers and i was totally shocked to find that they were in their mid-to-late 30s. and here i am, 25, no kids, teaching them to cook/bake...
it should be the other way around, huh?

i think the best part of teaching tonight was that they were repeating
'slowly' over and over = and it sounded like 'srowry',
adding flour and sugar, but one of them, sumiyo,
was just dumping the ingredients in and naomi and miwa were going nuts
with the electric mixer, getting cake batter everywhere.
it was hilarious. and then we started talking about dislikes and sumiyo said
" i disrike my husband ".
i don't think japanese talk about things like that,
much less in public or with someone they meet for the first time,
but i appreciate their candidness and honesty, whichever,
which makes me feel like they're not afraid to show their opinions and not afraid of nonconformity.

i think i'm going to like this class alot =)