today's boston is tropical

it's surprisingly warm today. a balmy 44 degrees F. such a nice change from the usual below freezing temps. i can definitely feel the cold, but i'm not in pain and/or numb. sweetness! unfortunately this also means the snow/ice is melting into muddy puddles all over the place, but whatever...

rumbly noises

last night as i was trying to sleep the heater kept making rumbly noises. i thought "jesus christ the heater is annoying. living in this dorm frickin' sucks." but then later i realized it was my stomach.

the end is near...

as i was walking outside today i noticed the puddles have frozen over. and as i looked in the mirror today i noticed i'm now vampire-white. all vestiges of the tan i had accumulated over summer are now but a distant memory. it's the beginning of end.

sanrio eraser tea

the local cvs carries 2 types of tea: celestial seasonings sleepytime (ick) and standard liptons (double ick.) luckily i found cardullo's (which in addition to a wide variety of teas also carries a wide variety of chocolates. score!) i made my selection of celestial seasonings perfectly pear white tea based on the following: 1. it was a white tea, which is supposed to be higher in antioxidants, 2. it didn't cost $20/pack like the republic of tea's white tea, and 3. it sounded kind of yummy. so i tried it for the first time today and while it smelled quite good, the smell was exactly that of the pink little twin stars eraser i had when i was 9 years old. it brought back some happy memories, but i don't think i'll be buying this again.

an o.c. moment

i had an o.c. moment this saturday when i went to the joint grad school geekfest they called a "dance" (so high school.) not because there were pretty people there. but rather, they hired a band (for free, i later discovered. so i guess it wasn't so much "hired" as "the band volunteered") that sounded like the crappy bands the o.c. always manages to feature via the bait shop.
in other news, i just ate a whole pouch of milano cookies and now am feeling quite ill. ugh.

the leaves scared me today

since it's autumn, there're giant leaves from giant trees all over the ground. as i neared my dorm today, this enormous gust of wind whooshed in my direction and the seemingly innocuous leaves on the path in front of me flew up, forming a formidable leaf wall. as this wall rushed toward me, i wasn't sure what to do. i briefly considered protecting my face with my arms but ditched the idea since that would make me look lame-ass to the other pedestrians. thankfully, the need for a decision suddenly died as the leaf wall leveled out before it hit me. i was left trembling and considering the what-if''s. i'm still unsure how to interpret this experience. is this a warning from above?....

candy corn strangeness

i bought some candy corn on impulse yesterday and ate some/a lot. when i was flossing and brushing last night, i discovered that my teeth and tongue had bright, almost fluorescent, pink all over them. i'm assuming it's from the candy corn since that was the only artificial thing i ate yesterday (i think,) but that's weird isn't it? should they stain, shouldn't it be orange? i mean, i bought the classic candy corn, yellow/orange/white... how strange. i'm going to eat some more tonight to see if this strange phenomenon is consistently linked to candy corn consumption. and just as a side note, everytime i eat candy corn i think about making a giant candy corn on the cob by sticking them together with frosting. but due to my innate laziness, i've not accomplished that yet. it's been on my to-do list forever.

i have a nice arm muscle

i got my tb and one of my hepatitis b shots today. and when the nurse was shooting the poison into my upper arm she was like "you have a nice muscle." that's right! i know! i kept trying to tell my brother i had a nice upper arm muscle but he always just laughs. but now a NURSE said I have a NICE ARM MUSCLE.

want a bigger nose?

those inventive japanese peeps have come up with something new to help the masses attain better features in the comfort of their own homes! check this: the new "hanahana." hehe. a wee bit funny tis. i don't think the problem (if you can call it such) is simply a small nose. it's also the nose bridge, or lack thereof. supposing this works *eye roll* i'd think one's face would look quite comical with a giant schnaz sans bridge. i guess at least this one doesn't look quite as painful/painstaking as the pitchfork you stick in your eye to make a double-lid...

hateful people

i hate it when people force their way into an elevator before i have a chance to get out. especially when the doors haven't even opened all the way and i have to either stand aside and let them let them pass or get body-slammed. i mean, jesus christ, does it save them anytime? no! but is it a testament as to how rude they are? yes!

funny (weird, not ha ha) convo at the doughnut shop

ppprmntmonkey walks into doughnut shop
doughnut man: hello; ni hao
ppprmntmonkey: ni hao
doughnut man: (in chinese) do you speak chinese?
ppprmntmonkey: (in chinese) i don't speak it well.
doughnut man: (in chinese) i don't know how to speak it; i'm from thailand.
ppprmntmonkey picks out doughnut in english and proceeds to pay for it
doughnut man: (in chinese) i'm from thailand. have you ever been there?
ppprmntmonkey: (in chinese) once, when i was little.
doughnut man: (in chinese) i don't understand what you said.
doughnut man gives ppprmntmonkey change; ppprmntmonkey thanks him and walks out of shop

there's no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow; in fact, there's no rainbow at all

why doesn't anyone make rainbow sherbet anymore? i mean just plain old rainbow sherbet. none of this new-fangled "rainbow sherbet, tropical" or "berry rainbow sherbet." i like mine with raspberry, lime, and orange. no berries. no pineapple. it's as much about the colors as it is about the flavors. in the defense of ice cream manufacturers, they do sell raspberry, lime, and orange separately. but that's not what i want. i want mine premixed! i don't want to have to buy one and a half gallons of ice cream at a time. that's messed up!

i noticed they have branched out on the vanilla front, however. breyers now makes vanilla, french vanilla, natural vanilla, lactose free natural vanilla, calcium rich vanilla, homemade vanilla, extra creamy vanilla, 98% fat free vanilla, 2% milk light vanilla, all natural light natural vanilla, all natural light french vanilla, sugar free vanilla, sugar free french vanilla, and carb smart vanilla (who eats vanilla? (besides my dad. and han.) what is the difference between vanilla, natural vanilla, and french vanilla? can anyone taste the difference? the only way i can tell french vanilla from vanilla is that it's yellow. and who eats low-carb ice cream?? actually, it's not even called "ice cream" anymore. breyers calls it a "frozen dairy dessert." i've tried low-carb on 2 separate occasions and both times it tasted like somebody ground paper and ice together.) breyers doesn't make rainbow sherbet. nobody does anymore. the good 'ol days are officially over.

read the book; now gimme the movie

books, originally uploaded by ppprmntmonkey.

just finished reading memoirs of a geisha, which i'd picked up at the borders in the washington/dulles airport. (what a rip off! i could've saved $5 had i bought it from amazon) bro recommended it and it was actually quite fantastic. (nothing like shogun, which I found dreadfully boring.) had a lot of cultural stuff, which is always interesting. i hope the movie will be good, as it stars zhang ziyi, who i think is pretty. she should be good in it since, as the bro said once, "she's good at playing roles where she gets raped." i suppose there is no "raping," per se, in the book, but perhaps they will write it into the movie so she can do her magic. the movie also stars ken watanabe, gong li and michelle yeoh. gong li and michelle are supposed to be 2 geishas in their prime, but in real life they seem old. then again, could be they'll be covered in rice flour the entire time. aside from their being older than i'd've imagined from reading the book, the casting of these peeps seem really good based on looks alone.

anyway, next on the reading list is soul of the fire, which is book five of terry goodkind's sword of truth series. am somewhat wary of it, as, supposedly the main characters won't be able to use magic. (or, magics, as han would call it.) how will they cope?!

japanese cuisine - twinkie maki sushi

IMGP0781, originally uploaded by ppprmntmonkey.

look at how beautiful these are! jen made them following the directions on this website, which heather found. and you can see a better picture of them (with their siblings) and read about her grueling experience here. she (and everyone else) thinks they're gross tasting, but i think they're absolutely fab. i was actually surprised i enjoyed them so much, considering how i went on a hostess binge last night and ate so much i thought i was going to puke. (their orange cupcakes really ain't all that.) but the flavors meld together surprisingly well in this twinkie concoction. the tartness of dried fruit in the center perfectly complements the delicious golden sponge cake and creamy filling that is the twinkie; and the fruit roll-up adds a wonderfully fruity zing. on a scale of 1 to 5, i give these a 5++! thank you, jen!

my new aves toy

IMGP0778fix, originally uploaded by ppprmntmonkey.

look what i got from aves with my antibody. it's so cute! you can get one too if you order a chicken antibody. i miss those career fair days when you can score dozens of stress balls (albeit none as cute as this one.) those were good days those were... my favorite was a yellow smushy star from ernst and young... anyway, perhaps i will use this one to relieve my stress when the antibodies aren't working.

so anyway

that's a view from the plane somewhere between hartford and dulles. i have no idea what river that is, but it looked cool. see the chunks of ice floating? ok, so not that exciting, but i thought it looked interesting.

first photo

fromtheplane, originally uploaded by ppprmntmonkey.

from the jeneview...

here's what genevieve* said to anita* today:

"you're just a big poop; a biiiiiig steaming pile of feces." and then later, for no reason i could fathom, she said: "my bum hurts right now."

*names have been changed to protect the innocent

from the hantastic point of view...

here's what han said to thomas in the flyroom today:

"hot! you're so hot!"

from the hantastic point of view...

"She likes coke and chips and she likes to watch TV and soap operas. She doesn’t do any sports. She doesn’t do any knitting or crafty things. She likes to smoke pots. Did I mention chips and coke? You don’t think Anita’s* a frat boy? She’s not going to be happy. Did I mention pot? I didn’t say that. Heather said that. She said that once, that Anita's a frat boy."

-- Han 2005

*name has been changed to protect the innocent

i may wake up at 1pm, but i'm a morning person

i wake up after 12pm a lot. in fact, almost all the time. everyone thinks i'm weird, that i like being awake at night and despise the daytime. i don't! i hate waking up late and only seeing 2 hours of daylight (if any at all); it makes me depressed. i actually love being awake in the morning, when the sun is still in the east and the day is full of potential. why do i not wake up earlier then, you say? ah, simple answer to that really. i'm lazy.