YT-1300/LP's Journal

#27!!!

2009-11-05T06:18:13Z

I got the chills when Mo went up to the mound today and "Enter Sandman" started playing.

The Yankees have World Series #27. It feels like all is right with the world again.

Nine years is an eternity to wait when you're a Yankees fan.

* thumbs nose at BoSox fans who waited 86 years between WS wins. Got another 83 years to go, guys *

Can't wait to see the boys go up the Canyon of Heroes on Friday.

Congratulations 2009 NY Yankees!!!

Game One

2009-10-29T00:22:40Z

I have a good feeling about this year...

Go Derek! Go A-Rod! Go CC! Go Jorge! Go Andy! Go Melkie! Go Hideki! Go Robinson! Go Mariano! Go Johnny!

* ahem *

I'm fine. Move along. Move along....

lady_padme @ 2009-10-26T07:28:00

2009-10-26T11:29:17Z

Definitely, the most reassuring sight in the playoffs is that of Mariano Rivera striding up to the mound. He's like order out of chaos.

Looking forward to Wednesday night!

lady_padme @ 2009-10-15T15:50:00

2009-10-15T19:51:44Z

It's snowing outside, and the snow is sticking.

It's only October 15.

Dagnabbit.

lady_padme @ 2009-10-08T21:49:00

2009-10-09T01:51:31Z

I'm grossed out to read that Harrison Ford signed the petition to free Roman Polanski.

I still love Han Solo, but HF has dropped alarmingly in my estimation. I read the grand jury testimony that Samantha Geimer gave, which horrified me. How can anyone support freeing that man? Does the idea of a 43 year old man drugging, raping and sodomizing a 13 year old girl become appealing if you let it simmer for 30 years?

Health Care in 4 Napkins

2009-09-30T20:17:55Z

Healthcare Napkins All

View more documents from Dan Roam.

lady_padme @ 2009-09-30T14:57:00

2009-09-30T19:01:52Z

My inlaws are killing me. They really are. Not even here 48 hours and I'm already seeing red.

How hard is it to ask that two people can come for a visit for two weeks and behave themselves? Really?

For 12 years I've been their daughter-in-law and for the first seven years I did my best to treat them like I treat my parents. Every time they came to visit I stayed up late to clean the apartment, made menus for meals, tried to buy foods they liked. Every day off from work was spent taking them shopping or going places with them. Every day when I left work in Chinatown I would make sure to buy them a copy of the Chinese language newspaper to read, even if it meant I had to come out of the subway station again to get a paper because I'd forgotten. I borrowed Chinese soap opera tapes for them to watch on TV. Every birthday and Christmas I made sure to send them presents. I always made sure Dave remembered to call his parents on their anniversary and Chinese New Year to wish them happy. One month they came and I spent the entire month shlepping them around from doctors' offices to bloodwork to x-ray to mammogram--every day off that I had that month. I went to the pharmacy to pick up their meds for them every month and shipped the pills to them in China. When Alex was born, I even took pictures of them with Alex and sent them framed pictures of them with their grandson. Whenever they stepped in the house, I always raced to bring them a cup of hot tea, I brought hot towels for them when they had a headache. I really don't know what more I could have done as a daughter-in-law to make them feel welcomed.

And what did I get in return?

Let's see: Every visit they made, THEY announced when they were coming without ever asking us if it was a good time for us. They stayed as long as they wanted without ever checking to see if we might have plans. Visits lasted from one week to TWO AND A HALF MONTHS. My mother-in-law was constantly interfering with how I ran the kitchen, complaining about me being wasteful, even one day REARRANGING EVERY SHELF IN MY KITCHEN. My father-in-law, who by the way, never ever bothered to spontaneously say "Hello", "Goodbye" or "Thank you" for ANYTHING, even for the EIGHT THOUSAND DOLLARS I GAVE THEM FOR THEIR 40th ANNIVERSARY, one day decided to invite his friend over for dinner without even bothering to ask me if it was okay with me. I was sitting less than five feet away from him when he got on the phone to call his friend, and he couldn't even be bothered to say, "Hey, Nai Mei, is it okay if I ask my friend over for dinner?" At Christmas time, they mail checks addressed to David, with the memo "Merry Christmas Alex and Kaitlyn" without bothering to acknowledge me in any way, shape or form. When I was sick to my stomach with morning sickness, we were one hotel room away from them in Tokyo for my brother-in-law's wedding and they never once bothered to stop by and ask me if I was okay. Oh, and they never contributed a cent to my wedding, even though by Chinese tradition, it's the groom's side that's supposed to pay for everything. My mother footed the entire bill. But when Kaitlyn came, they made this huge fuss about how it's Chinese tradition to name the baby after the man's side of the family. Really? When it comes to paying money you forget tradition, but when it comes to naming the baby, we should all remember now? And when I balked they went and told Dave that they believed my evil mother was to blame. My evil mother. The same woman who told me year after year to let it go, and be nice to them they had the gall to call evil. And my MIL even had the gall to say it directly to ME.

Now they're here because FIL had something wrong with his prostate biopsy and Dave wants him to get checked out in Sloan Kettering. Fine, but his mother barely walks in the door before she's out in my garden, picking my beans and telling the nanny to pickle them and saying she wants to make scrambled eggs and tomatoes for dinner. Hello? What happened to the fact that it's MY kitchen and I hired the nanny? What about what I want to eat? This woman comes in here and tells the nanny to save the leftovers for her son, IN FRONT OF ME. I swear if I don't have a major blow-out with that evil cow before this visit is over it'll take a miracle. So what if this is her son's home? That doesn't give her the right to supercede my orders or to be ordering the nanny around when I'm not here. It's my home too, and I'm the mistress of this house. The nanny makes what she makes on MY orders. I was never one to pull rank or to give people a hard time, and normally I tell the nanny to make whatever is convenient, and here this evil cow is stepping in acting like she's some fucking queen.

Why is it that when there's an earthquake, a tsunami, or some plane crash that it never involves these people? Is there such a thing as justice in the world?

Jets 16, Patriots 9

2009-09-20T22:26:14Z

Much better than last year. Last year was 94 degree scorching hot, with a crying Mei Mei and we lost.

This year, about 75, beautiful day, we had seats in the shade this year near the 40 yard line and Mei Mei had a coloring book and magic markers.

I knit about 22 rows of a new blanket for my cousin's daughter.

And we won.

Plus, it doesn't hurt that Mark Sanchez is kinda cute, even if he IS awfully young.

J-E-T-S: Jets! Jets! Jets!

lady_padme @ 2009-09-20T11:39:00

2009-09-20T15:40:48Z

The scenario: Me in the kitchen with the i-Tunes player on. Owner of a Lonely Heart comes on.

Me: Alex! Come here!

Alex: No, Mom! Don't make me dance to that! It's so eighties!

*weeps inconsolably *

Where is everyone?

2009-09-19T21:36:52Z

For some reason, LJ seems really quiet lately. Where is everyone? Am I the only one with no life or something?

Hello?

...echoes...

Lucky!

2009-09-03T00:30:55Z

Took the kids to the Funplex arcade today as a treat before the first day of school. As I was trying to drag them out, we passed by these machines with the claw arm. Inside were 4 iPod nanos. The game required either $2 or eight tokens. I put $2 into the machine and voila! a $199 16GB iPod Nano.

I told Alex he could share it with his sister. He asked if we could change the color because I picked up a pink one. The arcade guy said that was okay and he got a key to open the case and we switched for a blue one. Then he took Alex and Kaitlyn's picture to put up on the winners' wall. They wanted me in the picture but I said I was old and not photogenic.

Alex's First Movie

2009-09-02T02:03:30Z

Alex did all the stop motion animation on this little clip. He made the sets, arranged the Legos and took all the pictures. I just helped with the editing and music importation. Not bad for a nine year old on his first try, is it?

NEW EGGS!

2009-08-26T19:08:52Z

Five new eggs out!!!

* is ready to pass out *

More from Maine

2009-08-21T02:51:00Z

Came down to Freeport today....

Newest license plate today: Montana

L.L. Beans is awesome. Also a huge money drain.

And all the other outlet stores here...so dangerous, especially considering I spent far more than I should for a suncatcher this morning.

Dave ate lobster for the fifth day in a row today. He's had steamed lobster, grilled lobster, lobster pasta, lobster crepes, lobster roll and lobster sushi.

Going deep sea fishing tomorrow.

More of Maine....

2009-08-20T02:35:52Z

Another bicycle ride this morning. This time before we even had breakfast. Still feeling the burn.

Fun fact: Tourmaline is the state gemstone of Maine. It comes in many different colors, but most often in deep pink and greens.

Went to a place called Anemone Caves this afternoon. 20 years ago, Dave and his friend Joe went there to collect anemone for Joe's research (he's a marine biologist). Dave said the cave was filled with anemone. Went back today with the kids. Almost no anemone left. All collected by people, I guess. Sad. A scary rock climb down to a cave filled with seaweed and with some sea stars and a couple of anemone. Ah, well.

New license plates seen today:

Nova Scotia
Utah
Kansas
Idaho
West Virginia

Last tidbit: some very kind person pulled my laundry out of the hotel's coin operated dryer and FOLDED ALL OF IT. Bless you, whoever you are.

Off to Freeport tomorrow.

lady_padme @ 2009-08-18T23:03:00

2009-08-19T03:05:27Z

More license plates:

Delaware
South Carolina
Georgia
Alabama
Tennessee
Wisconsin
Colorado
South Dakota

btw, Mt. Cadillac has some lovely views at its summit.

Am very tired now.

Maine is gorgeous

2009-08-18T02:12:10Z

Greetings from Acadia National Park!

So, we got here yesterday and are staying in Bar Harbor. We drove up on Saturday from NJ and then spent Saturday afternoon in Revere Beach eating Kelly's Roast Beef sandwiches and their clam chowder and their fried clams (which are to die for, and are, incidentally, worth a 250 mile drive), and hanging out at the beach. We spent the night in Portsmouth NH and pigged out on BBQ. It's quite a cute picture-postcard New England town. You could totally see it on postcards at Christmas time.

Anyway, the next day we drove to Windham, ME and then to Lake Sebago, where Dave's old professor of physics, Dr. LaCasce has a house on the lake. Apparently, his family used to own pretty much all the land around the lake, but then, the brothers inherited the land, split it and sold off much of it. Dr. LaCasce is about 87 now. A lifelong bachelor, but a very gentlemanly man. We spent the afternoon at his place. The kids had a blast swimming in the lake and he made lunch for us. Tabbouleh salad, cold cuts and homemade blueberry muffins. There was another visitor there, a NY lawyer named Ed, who was very sweet about playing with the kids. Then, it was onto Bar Harbor.

We brought our bikes with us, but we rented this trailer thing for Mei Mei. We drove to the entrance of the carriage trails at the Acadia National Park and then Dave hitched the trailer to his bike and then we biked about 15 miles through the park. I am proud to say that I biked every inch of the way up hill, down hill, even times when I thought I was going to die from lactic acidosis. Alex kept needing to stop and walking, which made me crazy. I mean, he's NINE. I'm thirty-nine, weigh more, have a heavier bike and arthritic knees. It should have been no contest between us. I should have been left in the dust. Sighs. This kid nees some major conditioning work. Still, it was a great workout in the park, and the park itself was BEAUTIFUL. Gorgeous wildflowers, beautiful lake scenery, mountains, absolutely lovely.

More of Mt. Desert Island tomorrow.

And, geek note of the day, I saw something like 26 different license plates today:

Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Michigan, Minnesota, Texas, Nevada, California, and Oregon. Also, the license plates for Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick. Call me a nerd, but I thought it was cool.

.

Randomness

2009-08-13T19:18:18Z

Going to Maine in two days...am currently getting ready. Got munchies and drinks for the road trip and a present for one of the people we're going to visit. Forgot to tell the post office to hold our mail, but, I guess we'll survive unless there happens to be a surfeit of catalogs.

My laptop is dying. It's on it's 3rd hard drive already, so we decided to let it go this time. I ordered a new one from HP and it should be here in a couple of weeks.

Got a new book called Amigurumi Knits by this lady named Hansi Singh who owns an Etsy shop. It's all about making knitted vegetables, bugs and sea creatures and even has a section for mythical creatures like the Loch Ness Monster. I bought some yarn to make a Nessie for Alex, who really wanted one. Kaitlyn wants a sea star. Oh, and a knitted bathing suit for her koala bear. My stash just keeps getting bigger and bigger. It's very, very scary.

Curious, but does anyone else do this? It's been so long since I've written any substantial fic that I've sometimes passed time by going back and reading my own stories on TFN. It's amazing what dementia will do to you, as I sometimes forget plot turns that I've written! So, the good part is that I enjoy it as though I was reading someone else's stuff, lol.

Still mean to get to blank's fiction, but I also wanted to get some time in which I could sit down and start reading without interruption. It's the without interruption part that's making me crazy.

Kaitlyn's starting kindergarten in 3 weeks. I'm very verklempt over this.

That's all. Move along, move along....

lady_padme @ 2009-08-04T15:41:00

2009-08-04T21:44:47Z

Book meme gakked from miana_dude :

Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.

1) Gone with the Wind (Margaret Mitchell) - I've memorized vast sections of this book. While as an adult I recognize some appalling racial commentary in this book, the love story between Scarlett and Rhett is still my favorite.

2) To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee) - beautifully done. When a book delivers a powerful message but the writing is so good that the reading is effortless that's true mastery, IMO. I loved this story.

3) Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) - What can I say? Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy. A romance for the ages.

4) Anne of Green Gables (L. M. Montgomery) - I always see Anne as charming, spirited and very principled.

5) The Far Pavilions (M. M. Kaye) - All the descriptions of British India are fabulous. It really transports you to a time that's so romantic and adventurous.

6) Shadow of the Moon (M. M. Kaye) - Again, great descriptions of British India at the time of the Sepoy Mutiny, but the unconventional love story was what made this for me.

7) …And Ladies of the Club (Helen Hooven Santmeyer) - I think I learned more American History from the period of 1869-1932 than I ever learned in any textbook, but it was done in such a way as to make it not only painless but endlessly fascinating.

8) The Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan) - The only book that ever made me cry at the end. 'Nuff said.

9) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (J. K. Rowling) - I loved all the HP books, even brought the first three with me when I went into L&D with Alex, but this was my favorite.

10) September (Rosamunde Pilcher) - I really loved this many layered story and how richly she drew out not only the characters, but the feel of the Scottish Highlands.

11) Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier) - The creepiest non-creepy book I ever read. It's saying something for her talent that she can make you feel like there's mist all around you even on a sunny day.

12) The Thorn Birds (Colleen McCullough) - Another great read and my first introduction to the Australian Outback. She really makes you feel you see all of the life on Drogheda. Wonderfully done.

13) Julie and Romeo (Jeanne Ray) - Just so unusual to see an older couple's romance. And it was done in such a lighthearted, breezy manner that it was really fun to read.

14) The Persian Pickle Club (Sandra Dallas) - Like To Kill A Mockingbird, this one sneaks up on you unawares. I didn't really know what was coming until it hit me and then I loved it.

15) The House of the Spirits (Isabelle Allende) - A real wonderful introduction to Chile and the tumultous times in the middle of the 20th century that the country went through. And so magically done.

I noticed that a large number of books that I love have turned out to be huge doorstoppers. I just love it when books I love go on and on..

lady_padme @ 2009-08-02T00:40:00

2009-08-02T04:43:52Z

I went to an Indian wedding tonight. I have to say, Indian women have fabulous clothes. They were so colorful and bright and all had sequins or glittering paste jewels. I had a blue velvet evening gown and I felt like a drab little pigeon next to a flock of bright, gorgeous peacocks. If I ever get invited to an Indian wedding again, I'm going to Flushing to buy myself a salwar kameez...maybe something like this:

The Best Walk Down the Aisle EVER

2009-07-31T04:39:35Z

A friend of mine e-mailed this to me....

lady_padme @ 2009-07-28T23:44:00

2009-07-29T03:46:04Z

I now have BSG Season 4.5 in my greedy little hands! What I really wanted was to get the entire series box set with the little Centurion figurine for BluRay, but at 209.99, I thought maybe the better course was to appeal to Dave that I have a birthday coming up...in November. :p

Anyway, off to watch what I do have. They say there's an extended version of Daybreak. WOOHOO!!!

lady_padme @ 2009-07-18T16:41:00

2009-07-18T20:42:59Z

How cute is this?

We Wuz Robbed

2009-07-16T23:19:03Z

I swear, I don't know what the Emmy voters are smoking, but they have it all wrong! Four seasons of the BEST SHOW ON TELEVISION and they never once bother to give a single major Emmy nod!!!! Mary McDonnell and Edward James Olmos alone deserve to have a shelf-full of little statuettes, not to mention the great writers and the amazing series arc overall. Gahhh!!!

Sighs. Oh well.

In other news, because I was so gobsmacked by Gabri's great layout, I went to layouts_by_me and got this current layout. I love it muchly.

New Eggs!

2009-07-15T02:17:23Z

Four new eggs came out tonight!!!!

AND I'M SCROLL LOCKED!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!