Kristina’s Neighborhood

family and friends:
1. visit grandma in LA more
2. be nicer to my family
3. write 50 handwritten cards
4. make effort to spend more time with friends

wellness:
1. walk or go to the gym for at least 30 minutes, 5 times per week
2. brush with the nub toothbrush* and floss every night
3. take asthma and allergy medications as prescribed = every day
4. wash my sheets, vacuum room and clean bathroom once per week
5. drink at least 64 oz water every day
6. maintain food blog and weight calendar
7. eat more fruits and vegetables
8. moisturize at least 3 days per week
9. check car fluids every 2 weeks and wash at least once per month
10. cut bangs and donate hair

knitting:
1. knit a garment
2. knit a pair of socks
3. learn the fair isle technique
4. knit a blanket

*I went to have my teeth cleaned on Monday, and was told that I have a small mouth. There's not much room between my teeth and the side of my mouth, so the dental hygienist gave me a special toothbrush for the sides of my molars.

recipe from: milk and honey cafe

I used 3 tablespoons of Maeda-en Sweet Green Tea instead of 2 Tb matcha because it's what I had on hand. My pound cake turned out much lighter because of this substitution. The flavor was light, not too sweet and both my very Japanese grandma and her very Japanese friend loved it. I can't wait to try baking it again but with proper matcha. The closest thing I can compare it to is castella.

I don’t think you noticed me falling in love with you. But I thought I’d ask, just in case.

via Missed Connections NY

photo from shisomama on flickr

I feel like I've been deprived! I tried fan tuan for the first time today and it's the ultra yum. I tried this bun with pork sung from Sheng Kee with Ben once and didn't like it, but in fan tuan it's so so so tasty! The combination of crispy you tiao (chinese donut) with sticky rice and pork sung is so amazing! It's kind of like the first time I had a Sam's Special from Sushi Sam's-- shrimp tempura temaki -- except better because it has sticky rice! I can't wait til tomorrow morning when I get to eat the fan tuan my brother gave me. :)

I'm trying to decide whether I want to give some of my girlfriends a knitted hat or knitted slippers for Christmas. Initially I was going to give them all knitted berets, but I can't imagine all of them wearing berets. Another idea is mittens-- but we either live in the Bay Area or southern CA and I doubt mittens would get much use; it doesn't get THAT cold! Which would you want to have?

I've been on a sort of knitting frenzy for the past month or so.

By the end of the year, I'd like to complete:
- a wearable hat
- wrist warmers
- a project with cables
- a scarf made with lace weight yarn 

My grandma came home from Costco with Halloween candy over a month ago. She bought a giant bag of an assortment of chocolates. I've surprised even myself by this, but I've resisted raiding the Halloween candy until a few days ago, when I just NEEDED chocolate! I had a bag of Peanut M&Ms (which only had 8 M&Ms!!) and a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

Today we went to Target because I needed new dish washing gloves, and my grandma wanted to get Hershey's Kisses to send to Japan. I told her she should just buy them at Costco, but she says the Costco sized bags are too big. She ended up spending like $50 on Kisses! Anyway, while I was following behind my grandma with the shopping cart, I passed by Bat Blood Orange Flavored Dots. I actually got them with Al in mind (Hi Al!) but then when we got into the car, I was really hungry and had to try them. I like them a lot better than regular Dots so the next time I go back to Target, I'm gonna buy a couple more boxes (even though I'm supposed to be on a diet).

After seeing the contents of RE:Ignite!!! and XGF's sacs, I've been inspired to post my own. Plus, I sort of feel weird that I read Vox blogs while I do most of my blog posting over at http://amietron.com/ (using LJ)! I'm going to try to make a better effort to post more things here, or at least try to cross-post so I'm not such a creepy stranger.

little black lesportsac

I keep the lip gloss (MAC Dazzlepuss) and mirror in a zippered side pocket in my purse. My ex-boyfriend's mom gave me the mirror a long, long time ago.

stuff

- 2 EpiPens

Andrew Sullivan had a little blurb about Sarah Palin's photo with the American Flag draped over a chair. This was a followup to another entry that linked to a Runner's World profile of Palin as a runner (the political bickering in the comments is predictable and predictably irritating, but some people evidently go in for that sort of thing). Within that RW profile is a photo gallery of Palin in her gear pretending to prepare for a run.

God Almighty, where do I start?

I'll start where I started reading, I guess.

Andrew Sullivan accused her of "brandish[ing] Trig as a political pawn at every opportunity." I really don't think anything written in the profile was political, so having Trig in a few pictures was hardly using him as a political pawn. If it were some other celebrity with a small child, I wouldn't be offended to see that parent pictured with a kid in a jogging stroller. Good for her for exercising, and setting an example for her children.

The photos remind me of the sort of embarrassing cheesecake you'd find in grandpa's workshop. A little too new to be kitchy, kept too precious so you know grandpa's thinking prurient thoughts and the whole experience just makes you shudder.

The flag draped over the chair was offensive to me. I consider myself a patriotic American. I happen also to be pretty liberal, but I don't see patriotism as anathema to liberalism, or vice versa--I also want to stress that patriotism goes beyond how we treat our symbols. Anyway, if there's any truth from the recent Todd S. Purdum's article in Vanity Fair  about Sarah Palin's past as a predictor of her future, then I can't say I'm surprised by her carelessness with the flag. To quote Purdum, "Alaskans of every age and station, of every race and political stripe, unself-consciously refer to every other place on earth with a single word: Outside." In other words, if he's right, she considers herself an Alaskan first, and an "American" second.

What offended me more in her portrait with the flag on the chair was her "Blue Star" flag in the window, on the left. Literally, on one hand she's proud of her soldier, on the other, fuck the flag. I question her patriotism, but again, if Purdum's article is accurate, her allegiances lie soley with herself.

And that's what really bugs me more about the current crop of Republicans: their cynical branding of themselves as more patriotic, more American than thou, and to prove it, they have the lapel pins, they have a flag in their Runner's World photoshoots, and as Bill Mahar has so cleverly pointed out, they talk about family values with their second wives (Reagan, McCain et al). If we just take them at face value, this image says, everything will be OK. And if we question anything of their message, we're threatening their First Amendment rights (O'Reilly, Limbaugh).

As long as at least 50% of the voters exercise a little critical thinking, I couldn't be more pleased than to see these cynical jerks scrambling to step on one another to declare themselves the leader of the Republican party. If we're not careful, though...