Jules’ Neighborhood

Hi Vox friends! Just stopping by this holiday season to wish you all a Merry Christmas! Guess what! I graduated yesterday! And I got tiramisu and diamonds. And it snowed (weak, melted from the sun today).

Just wanted to say hello and send some smiles your way... take care <3

 

Originally posted at TOXiD-LOTUS.NET. You can comment here or there.

So we're back home. Glad to be home but at the same time we wish we were still in California. :( We had a really nice time. We got to see family and friends. We stayed with my dad and step mom until Thanksgiving day, then we drove to Vallejo dropped our stuff off at Jamie's and then headed to Ken and Karen's. We spent the rest of the trip visiting family and friends. We went to Apple Hill on Saturday. The kids had a lot of fun. I got my pumpkin fudge. Mmmm.

We got to see Clan Tata too. We headed to Cliche's house and played the new mario game on the Wii and then went out to dinner with Tieria/Kinon/Cliche/Bismol and Sam. :D Was awesome! Before we left we also visited Kinon at his apartment and ate yummy chinese food with Tieria/Sam/Bismol and Kinon, and then played a um board game. Also Fumiko broke one of Kinon's plates. >.>

Lots of stuff happened and I need more time to type it all out. But we had lots of fun and miss everyone already. :( We has lots to do too. Must take a look at office furniture since Kai's chair mysteriously broke while we were gone. o.O And some of our dishes mysteriously disappeared. Seriously. My mom has no idea what happened to them. Oh also friends of my mom took Kiyoshi and Eevee home and then some other friends took Puff. So we are pet less. :( We miss them, but they went to good homes.

Originally posted at TOXiD-LOTUS.NET. You can comment here or there.

A new post! >.> A long, long, long, long post shall be coming soon. Or multiple. Who knows. I'm not sure if I'll do it before we head home or if I'll do it after. We're still in California, obviously. :p

We've had a nice time to far. We stayed with my dad and step mom for a few days and have been at Jamie's since Thanksgiving day. We'll be heading home Saturday the 5th so Kai can have a day to wind down before he heads back to work.

It's been so nice here. The weather has been great and it's been wonderful to see the families. I know Kai has really missed everyone and has so enjoyed seeing them after three years. But it's time for a shower and bed. It's late and I am tired. :)

Originally posted at TOXiD-LOTUS.NET. You can comment here or there.

First off, why is Fumiko so... cranky today? Second, why does our wireless router hate me so much? :( I wanted to write a blog post last night and the stupid thing would not connect. For the life of me I spent two hours fiddling with it and resetting it and trying to make it work! Ugh. I ended up going to bed annoyed. -.- Anyways. Been a busy week. We had guests here for Sascha's birthday for a week. Sascha's dad David, and his wife Dianna flew in from Michigan to be here for his birthday. He had a blast I think. :P He got to go to the coast and visit the aquarium one of the days they were here. He got lots of goodies for his birthday. Tons of new Bakugan stuff, some clothes, a new Nintendo DS Lite, and a couple of games for it and some badass new Converse. Gray with gray skulls. They're hot if I do say so myself. ;) I made potato salad and chocolate mousse cake with homemade whipped cream, and Kai did his barbecue and teriyaki chicken kebabs. Yum.

I ended up cleaning up his birthday mess Tuesday after I dropped David and Dianna off at the airport. Holy mess. Eep. Our anniversary is coming up on the 12th. Yay! Three years! Then shortly after that we're heading to California for two weeks to see my dad and step mom and Kai's family and some friends. Kai hasn't seen his best friends in quite some time. So hopefully we can find time to meet up with them. :D Maybe? Seeing my dad and step mom will be bittersweet. They're not doing well right now, both financially and health-wise. We're really concerned that this might be the last time we see Jeannie. :(

Well, must make lunch and get back to Sascha's schoolwork. Private post coming later hopefully.

Originally posted at TOXiD-LOTUS.NET. You can comment here or there.

So Sascha's birthday is getting closer. It's on Monday. :O David and Dianna arrived yesterday so Sascha is pretty excited about that. We picked up Sascha's birthday presents last night and the day before. We got him a pair of Converse from Target. They're dark gray with gray skulls on the back. We also picked him up a couple of long sleeve shirts since he doesn't have many. They're thermal-ish material and have pretty cool designs on the front. One is a phoenix and the other is a guitar with wings. And then there is the gift from my mom. She got him a new DS Lite. He'll be excited once he opens that up. It's a modded DS, with a crystal see through case. It's pretty awesome. We'll be doing potato salad and chicken kabobs on Monday provided mother nature allows us to do so. I'm also making him a chocolate mousse cake with home made whipped cream and most likely getting ice cream to go with it. Kai will be doing the kabobs on the grill. Yummy. Speaking of grill I managed to run across grill guards and I assumed they were for barbecue grills. I thought to myself "Someone must be pretty bad with a grill to need guards on it... >.>" and then actually clicked on the link and found out it had nothing to do with grills. :( It was for cars! Go me!

Will be making a private post soon. I know I keep saying that, but then I get distracted. But ugh I need to. The whole situation with my moms husband is bad.

Originally posted at TOXiD-LOTUS.NET. You can comment here or there.

Oh Hai Mr. Drake... So Monday night we finally got our Rusted Proto-Drakes. Granted we should have had them months ago, at least we have them now! We got Yoggy +1 Keeper in 3 attempts. Woot. Then we headed over to Razorscale to get the rest of our dwarves. So happy! Also, Race changes are finally available in WoW! YES! I'm looking forward to Cataclysm. I think I want to turn my hunter into a Worgen. I'm not quite sure yet. But I'm happy to know race changes are available if I so choose to. Twenty-five dollars is not a bad price. Same cost to transfer a character to another server. Hopefully by the time Cataclysm is out I'll have decided. :D

The Race Change service lets you change a character's race to another race within their faction. The full range of customization options offered by the Character Re-Customization service is included as well. Each race change costs $25.00 USD.

Things to know before you start:

• Under normal conditions, a race change should be ready immediately after rendering payment and completing the steps in this process.
• You can select a new character race only from those in the same faction that have the character's class available. You cannot change a character's class.
• A character's current home city reputation level will switch values with their new home city, and their home city racial mounts will convert to those of their new race. Refer to the Race Change Translation Table for more details.
• A realm transfer is not included in a race change.
• A character can change races once every 3 days.
• Please refer to the Character Race Change FAQ for answers to common questions about this service.

Obligatory birthday post so I remember what I did today. Hm, so far ... Jay and I have spent the entire day playing Borderlands (we're addicts, well, maybe I am) and we had some lunch. We're going to just celebrate this weekend instead since it coincides with Halloween.

But, Happy 24th Birthday to myself!

Now, we're bummed the L4D2 demo got pushed back to tomorrow so we're going to take a break, play with Frankie, get some food, maybe shower, and then back to Borderlands :)

Originally posted at TOXiD-LOTUS.NET. You can comment here or there.

Not much to say right now. Tomorrow I will actually make a blog entry. :) Just wanted to post these real quick. There's a few more on my flickr. Fumiko is wearing her holiday dress, and those are the shoes to go with it. Sascha is turning 8 soon! Holy cow!

Originally posted at TOXiD-LOTUS.NET. You can comment here or there.

That's right people! Some nerds can cook! And not just ramen... So I've found some random, yet very awesome kitchen gadgets and other things that I'm convinced some of you nerds will love! Seriously, some of them are just plain awesome! So let us begin!

First up we have this super cute cheese cutting board! It's a giant mouse trap, for cheese! It's unfortunate that it doesn't actually work... It would come in might handy when Kai is eating all my cheese! I mean he has his Huntsman cheese he doesn't need mine! Anyways... According to reviews on this bad boy the cheese cutter works great and slices cheese nicely and the board is pretty durable and well made. Awesome not only is it cute but it's actually useful! Cheese anyone?

Next we have these awesome Salt and Pepper Mills licensed by Rubik's! Seriously how awesome is that? Well my husbands first reaction was "But they're already solved. *pout* Well yeah hun, it might be a little hard and a little messy to be solving while you grind. So these mills are the exact size as a real Rubik's cube. The mills themselves are quality ceramic mills that grind with different coarseness levels. Awesome. I hate grinders that only have one setting. -.- Also the salt mill has a white top and the pepper mill has a red top. Easy to tell the difference. So in short these puppies are awesome and would make a nice gift for the nerd who has a Rubik's cube obsession. Hmm I should buy a case of these...

SPACE INVADERS AWAY! Okay, seriously, this is one hawt totally freaking awesome sauce old school cutting board. The price is a little steep for a cutting board but my gosh it's *AWESOME! * It's hand made from some gorgeous maple and walnut. Apparently each cube of walnut and maple are lovingly glued to their brothers and sisters to make this gorgeous baby. And because it is hand made there's only a limited supply. Oh noes! Get one before they're gone! :( Also side note: but if you have severe allergies to nuts you might want to rethink getting this bad boy. The dark area is made from walnut and I wouldn't want you breaking out into hives or having anaphylactic shock because you couldn't help but caress and love your large, hard, squarish cutting board. Also licking it would be bad. But seriously. Don't die. Okay?

Okay so this isn't really nerdy per say, but it is pretty neat. I mean who really likes eating out of those nasty polystyrene cups? I know I don't. Plus you know the chemicals from cup can leech into the water. Though I guess if you're eating cup o' noodles you aren't really worried about that huh? Btw Georgia from NerdSalad has a nifty recipe called Chipotle Shrimp Ramen. Check it out and then go buy one of these kick as cups. :D So anyways, the cup is obviously made from ceramic which means no more ridiculous cups that bend, break, or spill! Hawt! Btw, chopsticks not included! Go buy some yourself!

HOLY MOTHER OF ALL THAT IS HOLY IT'S A TERRORIST!... Oh wait it's just a tea pot. Oops. So I found this highly amusing. Like extremely. I'd like to meet the genius who made this tea pot. Actually, on second thought. I think it might be safer if I pass. Who knows what sort of crazy came up with this. :wtf: So anyways, here we have a lovely white ceramic tea pot and it's lovely fashionable balaclava tea cozy! So I think this is a pretty unique and interesting gift to give the well rounded tea lover in your life. As long as they have a good sense of humour. This tea pot will hold enough water for 5 to 6 cups of tea. Mmmm, terrorist tea. Nom, nom, nom. I've been on the lookout for a tea pot. I'm still holding out for a Hello Kitty tea pot though... Oh btw the tea pot can obviously be used without the balaclava tea cozy if you're worried about offending any guests. :)

This is one of my personal favorites. It brings back so many lovely, dangerous memories for Kai. See once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, he was attacked viciously by a spork! No really! Okay so it was just a friend who attacked him with a spork, and it wasn't even titanium! He still has the scars to prove it too. I'm so proud of him for surviving such a vicious attack. <3 Anywho. Here we have this lovely specimen of a spork! Made from light weight Titanium, this spork is corrosion resistant and super strong. Ready to fight with the toughest of foods! Rawr! Be nice though. No spork attacks with this puppy, it could be deadly. I don't want to see any reports circulating with headlines like "Alliance Nerd wounded by Horde Geek in vicious Spork Attack!" Be responsible with your eating utensils people!

LIEK OMGWTFBBQSAUCE!!!111!1!!! Yes it's real, and yes it's awesome. Kai needs one of these to wear when he's making his scrumptious bbq ribs. Mmmmm. Ribs... Nom! So this incredibly hot, yet nerdy apron is made from polyester and cotton twill. It features a single drawstring tie for neck strap and waist ties. Let's be clear though, this bad boy clearly is not limited to just bbq! Just picture it... Your hot man in the kitchen making a home cooked pot roast with yummy veggies and mashed potatoes oh, and a pie for the both of you... Yeah, who am I kidding. We all know he's making a cup of noodles in his nerdy new ceramic cup. :angry: Oh well. At least he can do it in a stylish new apron!

Okay so I know I already told you about salt and pepper mills. But come on... It's an R2-D2 freaking pepper mill. It's like 100 times more leet than the Rubik's cubes. It is! Anyways, who really wants to pass up twisting R2-D2's head for fresh pepper? I'd like to... But for other reasons... >.> I hope Kai doesn't read this... He's a Star Wars junkie... Anyways little R2-D2 here stands a whole 4.75" tall. Oh and peppercorns not included. I recommend white peppercorns. Mmm. Spicy and tasty.

Sooooo. Since I wrote about the R2-D2 pepper grinder there's no way I could pass up this Star Wars cookbook. Seriously. I want it. I must know what sorts of interesting recipes reside inside... I mean Wookie Cookies. One automatically pictures hairy, brown, stinky cookies right? But no, they claim to be very delicious hair free cookies! Other recipes include: Jedi Juice Bars, Dark Side Salsa, Boba Fett-Uccine, and many more. Also this book apparently features wipe clean pages, for the messy star wars nerd chef. Hmmm the Greedo's Burritos sound interesting. Okay I need this cookbook. It has gone far beyond want. NEED! I'm sure Kai wouldn't object. He'd love to try the Boba Fett-Uccine.. Teehee! :yum:

Originally posted at TOXiD-LOTUS.NET. You can comment here or there.

For those of you who haven't visited a Target lately(How Dare YOU!), they're store brand has changed and boy is it freaking awesome! Their store brand Up & Up is amazing, it's roughly 30% cheaper than other brand names. I am one of those people who is very picky and well strange about brands. I have certain brands I like, for various reasons. Well over the past few months we've switched several things over to Up & Up. Some of them are: diapers, wipes, baby soap, toilet paper, body wash, trash bags, ziploc baggies, advil, paper towels, dryer sheets and I'm sure we'll soon be switching other things over.

One thing I *love* is their diapers. Seriously a box of size 4 diapers which is 82 diapers is only $13.59 at our local Target. We were paying anywhere from $18.99 to $21.99 for a box of diapers before which only had around 60-66 diapers depending on which ones were in stock. Besides the price these diapers are awesome because they don't leak, they don't irritate Fumiko's skin, and they don't have any characters on them! They have green and blue circles on them. That's it. Before we had to keep Fumiko in Huggies because it was the only diaper we could find that wouldn't leak. For someone so tiny she pees her brains out. Seriously I've seen them float by on more than one occasion! :) We go through tons of diapers so to have quality diapers that cost so little is a blessing.

We also use the Up & Up brand baby wipes for her. She's had no reaction to them! We've tried the unscented, sensitive and the potty training ones actually. The potty training ones can be flushed and have a light clean smell, I actually *liked* the smell of them. The unscented and sensitive wipes have no scent. They clean well, are soft and they are cheaper than any of the other name brands. :) I also like their Mild Hair and Body wash for babies. The scent is almost non-existent, which is more than I can say for Johnson & Johnson and other popular brands. The smell is actually nice as well, especially for those who don't like the smell of J&J. It cleans well without drying Fumiko's skin and again it's not irritating for her. It's also much, much, much cheaper than J&J. It comes in a normal size as well as a larger size with a pump. I recently also picked up their Lavender and Chamomile shampoo to try since we are almost out of the Mild. So far the scent is alright. It's a little heavier than the mild, but it cleans just as well and doesn't bother her skin. So we shall see. :)

Let's see. OH! The toilet paper and paper towels are awesome. They are cheap and still a really good quality. I actually prefer the toilet paper to any other brand I've tried. That goes for store brands and popular brands. One thing I hate with toilet paper is the lint dust junk. I've found that Up & Up premium toilet paper doesn't have much of it. The toilet paper is thick and strong while still soft. Normally I use the Kleenex brand paper towels because they are soft. While Up & Up brand paper towels aren't quite as soft, they are definitely strong, and softer than most other brands. They come in normal sized sheets as well as the smaller sizes that Bounty is famous for. Overall I'm very happy with the paper towels and will definitely be sticking to them.

Overall I am extremely happy with all the Up & Up brand products we've tried. We haven't switched back to our normal brands and we probably won't as long as they remain cheap and of great quality. I highly recommend trying them. You won't be disappointed. The savings is phenomenal.

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