Koji's Kitchen

See Sonnjea Run

noreply@blogger.com (Sonnjea) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:38:00 +0000

Yes, it’s true: I’ve taken up running. I used to swear that I would never run. A clever person once asked, “What if someone was chasing you?” and, after careful consideration, I replied that I’d run if the someone chasing me was really, really ugly.

So you may be wondering who exactly is chasing me. In a word: gravity.

In the past I’ve swum, lifted weights, done Pilates and yoga, and walked. My favorites are weightlifting and Pilates, and I belonged to a gym for a while and went to a Pilates studio religiously for years. But when Mr. Fix-it went back to school, the budget for hoity-toity Pilates went right out the window, and the gym followed close behind. So for the past 4 years, my only consistent form of exercise has been to walk the dog.

Maybe walking three to five miles a day with a dog is enough to keep a 25-year-old fit. It is not enough to keep a 45-year-old fit. I haven’t gained any weight, but everything is soft and squishy and I don’t feel strong like I used to.

Unfortunately, Mr. Fix-it is still in school, so until the stimulus package includes gym, yoga or Pilates dues, I had to think of a free way to exercise. Running, aside from shoes, is free. And I’m always up for a good excuse to buy shoes.

My goal is to complete a mini-triathlon by the time I’m 50. I figure if I start now, I might just cross the finish line in five years…

[WMML: Our sushi man has a crush on us.]

Three Words:

noreply@blogger.com (Sonnjea) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 01:51:00 +0000

I. Am. Done.

Taking a week off from writing to let everything settle, then I’ll start the rewriting and editing. The goal is to have it completely polished and prettied up and off to my agent by Thanksgiving.

In the meantime, woo-friggin’-hoo!!

[WMML: Got my first cooking-related injury in two years… and it wasn’t while I was cooking, but while I was doing the dishes. I think the moral of the story is clear.]

Novel Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Sonnjea) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:30:00 +0000

No, I’m not using blogging as an excuse to not finish the novel. Today is the last day of helping Mr. Fix-it prep his presentation for a conference tomorrow, and I’m filling in a lull between editing Power Point slides. I can’t work on the book because just as I get my head focused on the scene, a new slide is ready to work on. So, blogging it is!

BTW, I friggin’ hate Power Point. I know most of you are Windows people, but I have to tell you I love my Mac and most of its apps. One such, Keynote, is Mac’s presentation software and it blows Power Point out of the water. Sadly, Mr. Fix-it’s presentation had to be done in Power Point because of the hardware constraints of the conference. Boo hiss.

Anyway, back to the novel. I think the first draft will be done in about two days. It’ll be a wee bit light at that point, but then the editing, slashing and plumping up will take place and I think I’m in really good shape length-wise. Content-wise, of course, I think the whole thing is garbage. But that’s what I always think right about now. And I just can’t express how happy I am to have written another novel. I really didn’t think I had any more stories to tell, and that made me very sad, so even if this one joins the others in my pile of unpublished works with dozens of really positive rejections, I’m thrilled to have added to that pile! And this one has a catchy hook! Whether or not it’s catchy enough to sell remains to be seen, but it has one and that was my goal.

And no, I’m not telling you what it is.

[WMML: I discovered that if you scratch Koji’s rump while he’s stretching like up-dog, it makes him lick his nose. Continually. Dogs are fun.]

Fortune

noreply@blogger.com (Sonnjea) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 03:20:00 +0000

I was at a meeting where the discussion topic was fortune, which is an interesting word: You can go out and make your fortune. You can have good fortune, misfortune or fortune cookies. Fortune can smile upon you. Or not.

But no matter how you define fortune, whether or not you possess it is inevitably a matter of perspective. The other day, I was bemoaning the fact that our house needed a thorough spring cleaning even though it’s fall. I was scrubbing and mopping and dusting and washing curtains and floors and walls and feeling really sorry for myself.

Until I shifted my perspective. I realized I’m damn lucky to have a house at all, and I should be grateful for that and consider it an honor rather than a duty to take care of it. I don’t get all giddy about the prospect of scouring toilets, but I am a big fan of indoor plumbing, so I can either believe it’s unfortunate that I have toilets that need cleaning or fortunate that I have toilets. I’d rather feel fortunate, I’ve decided.

When I become really fortunate, I’ll have toilets and a housekeeper to clean them.

[WMML: The banana bread that just WILL NOT GET BAKED. I have no idea what’s happening inside my oven right now. It seems like it’s 350 degrees, but the banana bread is still all squishy and gooey. It’s going on 2 hours now…]

What I Did For My Summer Vacation

noreply@blogger.com (Sonnjea) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 01:23:00 +0000

Travel? Nope.
Home improvement? Nope.
Killer tan? Nope.

I’ve been gone from the blogosphere almost exactly 3 months, and what do I have to show for my time away? Not a heckuva lot in tangible assets, really. But it was an excellent summer.

Mr. Fix-it worked from home most of the time. Woo hoo for a) not getting up at 5 am and b) having him around more.

Koji is now on Phenobarbital and hasn’t had a seizure in 7.5 weeks. Really big woo hoo, as Mr. Fix-it and I are now able to leave the house… together… for more than five minutes at a time. And the best part: Koji is back to his old, silly self, playing and having a great time. He needs to lose the 10 pounds he gained, but he’s back to running with Mr. Fix-it, so it’s a start.

I wrote another novel. Okay, it’s technically not quite finished, but the end of the first draft is in sight, and my totally realistic goal is to have it done, polished and off to my agent by Thanksgiving.

It’s that last one that’s kept me from blogging. Some people can’t chew gum and walk. I can’t write and write. If I’m writing blog posts, I’m not writing novels. And vice versa. I’ll try and post more frequently, but if I’m a slacker and you just can’t stand not hearing from me, check Facebook. I can usually muster up a sentence or two.

[WMML: NSO nicknaming their new Great Dane friend “My Little Pony.”]

What's In a Name?

noreply@blogger.com (Sonnjea) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:58:00 +0000

In an effort to avoid working this morning, I was surfing the internet and came across this admittedly uninteresting headline: Pizza Hut to Change Its Name?

Now, I haven’t eaten at Pizza Hut since the late eighties and I certainly don’t have any interest in the company or its name but, as I said, I was dogged in my determination to avoid work, so I clicked on the link to the full article.

That’s where I learned that Pizza Hut has made the brilliant marketing decision to change its name to “The Hut.” Because, you know, the reason Pizza Hut isn’t a rousing success these days is because it has “Pizza” in the name. It has nothing to do with the fact that their pizza sucks.

Maybe they’re thinking that by removing the word “pizza,” consumers won’t be expecting, um, pizza and will therefore not be disappointed when they receive their PLF*. I imagine a conversation like this:

“Wow, Raoul, this pizza tastes like crap.”
[Raoul chuckles condescendingly] “Oh, Penelope, you’re so silly. We’re at The Hut. This isn’t pizza”
“Gosh, Raoul, I am silly! And here I thought it tasted like crap… But now that I know it’s not pizza, it’s really quite delicious. Please pass me another slice!”

Also, I can’t count the number of times Mr. Fix-it and I have been trying to decide where to go for dinner and been stymied because what we really wanted was a dining experience in a rickety straw-roofed structure with dirt floors. If only “The Hut” had been around, we wouldn’t have gone hungry all those evenings.

I don’t think I can get any more work-avoidance mileage out of this particular topic, so we’ll just wrap it up here. If I can find any more useless news to analyze for you, you can rest assured I’ll use it to avoid more work later on.

*PLF = Pizza-like food, as determined by pizza experts NSO.

[WMML: The funniest thing at improv last night was one of my classmate’s loud and persistent – and real – case of gas.]

Vote Early, Vote Often

noreply@blogger.com (Sonnjea) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:16:00 +0000

Borrowing from The Portable Blog, I put a poll over in the middle sidebar. Have fun voting!

What We Did Over the Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Sonnjea) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 03:42:00 +0000

We had the best weekend we’ve had in ages – nothing special, mind you, just a nice couple of days together without too much work, too many obligations or too much swine flu.

We did some yard work, and even mowed the neighbor’s yard because he was out of town and because he has mowed our lawn on occasion. (He mows ours sometimes because he has a power mower and we don’t and he thinks that’s sad. We don’t think it’s sad, but we don’t mind if he wants to mow our lawn, either). We tried to have Indian food for dinner, but there was a terrible tanker fire on the freeway and we ended up getting Italian instead – to go, of course – which was fun and delicious. We went to the Farmer’s Market, where summer has arrived along with stone fruits, the first (still lousy) tomatoes, and squashes of every size, shape and color. We stopped by Mr. Fix-it’s mentor’s apartment to help mentor’s wife get her internet connection reconnected so she could continue prepping for the bar exam, which is imminent, and stop freaking out (mentor is out of the country, conveniently for him). Mr. Fix-it played in his Land, I cooked a bunch of things, and we even barbecued for the first time this year.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend as well!

[WMML: Mr. Fix-it’s proclamation, “Pancakes: Not just for dinner anymore.]

I Need Improv(e)ment

noreply@blogger.com (Sonnjea) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:25:00 +0000

I wasn’t funny last night. Which, under ordinary circumstances wouldn’t be so bad, but since I was at improv it kinda sucked.

I’m thrilled that my first “dud” happened in week 6 – if it had happened in week 1, I might have been discouraged and quit. As it is, I know that I am funny… and that sometimes everybody has an off night. I’m going to go with “the planets weren’t aligned properly.” My other option was “it was a bad biorhythm day for me.” I know nothing about the alignment of the planets or about biorhythm, but they seem like perfectly sound excuses for humorlessness. (BTW, what happens if you were born in the sign of Pluto, now that Pluto isn’t a planet anymore? Are you not you anymore?)

Some people, however, did have lucky planets last night and I have to admit that, although I didn’t have as much fun as usual because I was off my game, I had a blast watching the stuff everyone came up with.

[WMML: The crazy cat Mr. Fix-it has to carve in his carving class.]

Another Day, Another Stray

noreply@blogger.com (Sonnjea) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 02:25:00 +0000

Twenty-four hours after I finished cleaning, scrubbing, vacuuming and detailing the inside of my car, I rescued the cutest stray dog I've seen in a long time. Friendly little devil, and I picked her up and set her in the car and she promptly dropped about three pounds of fur all over the front seat. Couldn't do it on Koji's back seat. No.

Fortunately, she had tags and when I got home and Mr. Fix-it could hold her wiggly little body still long enough for me to read them, we called and the owner promptly came to fetch her. She's a shiba, but I'd never seen one this color before.
A reasonable facsimile of the dog I found
Tags with phone numbers, people. It makes it so much easier to get your baby back!

One Night in Bangkok

noreply@blogger.com (Sonnjea) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:31:00 +0000

Really, does anybody actually believe that David Carradine committed suicide? While I admittedly have never even met the man, it seems out of character, especially given his public enthusiasm about having a resurrected career since Quentin Tarantino cast him as Bill in the Kill Bill movies.

And consider these clues:

He didn’t leave a note

He was shooting a new movie

He had ropes around his neck and, um, other [alleged] parts of his anatomy

He was in a hotel room

IN BANGKOK

I’m not suggesting foul play of the usual sort, but it does seem like foul play of the icky-I-need-to-bleach-my-brain-now-that-I’ve-pictured-it sort may have played a part.

On top of all this, I now have the song One Night In Bangkok stuck in my head.

[WMML: Everything at improv.]

Bumper Sticker Wisdom

noreply@blogger.com (Sonnjea) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 02:41:00 +0000

I saw these bumper stickers today:

If you don't believe in abortion, don't have one.

I like your Christ. I don't like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ. ~ Gandhi

Losing faith in humanity, one person at a time.

Must Have Update

noreply@blogger.com (Sonnjea) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:42:00 +0000

I am now the happy owner of the orange Must Have purse from my side bar – for approximately 1/4 what it would cost in the real world – thanks to knowing people in the right places!

In a weird twist, I also received a very cool, very French, black Guy Laroche bag as a gift a week or so ago, so now I have fun and funky and cool and sophisticated purses for whatever occasions might arise.

You know, in case you’ve been sitting there wondering.

[WMML: Chickens laying eggs in piles of bamboo leaves, under the rosemary bush, in the compost bins.]

Improv in Action

noreply@blogger.com (Sonnjea) — Sun, 31 May 2009 02:24:00 +0000

Here is a funny thing the Improv Everywhere folks staged at a mall in LA. In this case, they DID have permission from the mall management (and Hot Dog on a Stick), but no one else in the mall - vendors OR shoppers - had any idea what was happening.

Read all about how they set up this fun gig here.

Pez Murders and Congolese Sci-Fi

noreply@blogger.com (Sonnjea) — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:09:00 +0000

It’s Friday, which means last night I was at improv. Luckily there were no seductive paint store scenes in need of acting out. Whew.

First we played a game where Person A went on stage and began doing “space work” (which means they pretend to be chopping tomatoes, or driving a car, or playing baseball or whatever) for 10 – 15 seconds. Person B then joined them, either doing the same space work or something that complemented the action. Person B had the first line, which was to include who and what: Person A’s name and what we were doing. Person A then answered with another who (Person B’s name) and where the action was happening. The goal is to get all the necessary info out there as quick as possible so the scene can develop. Most of the scenes were quite short, but one of mine got to go on for a long time and another one involving murdering someone for their Pez dispenser went on for a while as well.

This is a fun game because Person A starts out with their space work with some intention in mind, but Person B may not get that and whatever Person B says, goes. One lady was clearly pushing a stroller, but her partner didn’t get it and said something about, “Hey, Patty, it’s good to see you dancing salsa again,” and so Person A had to totally switch gears. When it was my turn to be Person A, I went on crying hysterically and, I thought, looking inside a coffin. Person B (a man) came onstage, paced around like he was very disturbed by my actions, then yelled, “Oh, for crying out loud, Doris, it was only a doll!” That was very funny and led to a whole scene about me, a 34-year-old woman with a huge doll collection that was routinely mauled by my husband’s overly-cherished idiot cat. We had “all those kids downstairs,” but I was only concerned about how the other dolls were going to feel when the cat wasn’t punished for beheading my favorite doll, and my husband was only concerned that my wailing not disturb his cat. He did offer to fix my doll. Quite the gentleman. It was really fun because of the ridiculous level of intensity and emotion. I was sobbing and wailing (you know, fake dramatic sobbing and wailing because we’re not actually crying) and he was shouting at me, and I was yelling back at him.

Next we played Foreign Film Dub (which Whose Line did famously well). Two people act out a scene from a foreign movie, using gibberish language, while two other people translate. Everybody has to play off everybody else in this game – the two actors are trying to convey some kind of action taking place, but they might think they’re looking up at the UFO in the sky only to hear the translator say, “Look at those clouds! I think it’s going to rain!” Quite funny. Especially since nobody in my class can do an accent to save their life! We had a “spaghetti” Western set in Russia (which I guess makes it a borscht Western), a Bollywood action movie, an Icelandic film noir and a Congolese sci-fi film. Every single one of them sounded more like Chinese than anything else, with the exception of the Icelandic guy, whose gibberish consisted solely of “hunka hunka, hunka hunka hunka”, with accents in different places to emphasize his point. It was hilarious.

One lady came in late and wasn’t feeling well. First she thought she’d be able to go, so she went on stage to start the Borscht Western, but she bailed after the first line because she wasn’t well. So we needed a woman to fill her place. I had just finished my Congolese sci-fi, but everyone hollered for me to do it. I don’t know if that’s because a) I was an amusing Congolese alien-fighter, b) I make such an idiot of myself people can’t really believe it so they want to see it again to make sure, or c) nobody else knew what the hell to make of a Russian western and didn’t want to humiliate themselves. Oddly, I was paired with the same guy I did the Western scene with last week, but this week I forgot to spit. Oh well. I’m actually quite good as a translator, but I need work with my gibberish language and my space work. You know, we all have our issues.

That was the last class. I know several of the folks were already taking the class for the 2nd time, and are signing up for it again next time. I signed up for the next one, which thankfully starts just next Thursday, so I don’t have to suffer any longer than normal without improv. And I’ll sign up for the one in July as well. Then, rumor has it, our instructor isn’t teaching in August. What the hell is he thinking?

Oh, and based on a scene from a week or so ago when one group did a poetry reading about Costco, a girl in class is planning to stage a mock poetry reading, improv-anywhere style, at our local Costco. I just don’t know if I’m brave enough to do that, but we’ll see…

[WMML: Yes, it was a Congolese sci-fi film.]

Getting Tired

noreply@blogger.com (Sonnjea) — Thu, 28 May 2009 03:07:00 +0000

I don’t know about you, but I had a very exciting day – and improv wasn’t even involved.

I got tires for my car.

Yeah, whoopee, right? But this is exciting for a few reasons:

It’s the first time I’ve gotten new tires for the Element, which I’ve had for over 4 years and 84,000 miles. Two of the tires have been patched as a result of running over nails. But while the tires are dead, all four wore evenly, with no scalloping or weird wear, and 84,000 miles is pretty darn good for a set of factory tires.

I’ve needed new tires for about 10,000 miles now and haven’t had time/money/inclination to deal with it.

I still don’t have the time/money, but I managed to find some inclination.

I got a decent deal (four hundred bucks out the door for four tires and alignment).

They threw in a free repair on the flat tire from Mr. Fix-it’s truck that’s been flat and sitting in our driveway for FIVE YEARS. He’s been driving on the spare (which is a regular tire) for FIVE YEARS. He’s been driving around without a spare for FIVE YEARS. I’m not making that up. We truly are that friggin’ pathetic.

Tomorrow I’m getting a new windshield. Ours got chipped when it was one month old, on our very first trip to Oregon. Fortunately, it was way down at the bottom of the passenger side and it didn’t migrate, so it remained a small ding that we didn’t feel bad about not fixing. However, a few months ago we got a big ol’ ding that now looks like a ginormous spider web. So, rather than waiting FIVE YEARS for no apparent reason, I’m getting it repaired tomorrow.
I still need to schedule its regular maintenance and wash it (probably two or three times at least), but my cute little red car is getting happier.

[WMML: Typing FIVE YEARS a bazillion times.]

It's All About The Food

noreply@blogger.com (Sonnjea) — Sun, 24 May 2009 23:40:00 +0000

For our requisite Memorial Weekend barbecue on Monday, we’re grilling awesome bluenose sea bass and some asparagus and having it with Caesar salad. But for Mr. Fix-it’s “Birthday Do-Over” dinner tonight, we’re having my Mighty Fine Mussels over penne pasta with the first squash of the season and buttery, garlicky ciabatta bread – and Grand Marnier soufflés. I asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner, and all he could come up with was the soufflés, so I figured out the rest. On his actual birthday, we had time constraints and excessive driving to contend with so we made do with quiche and chocolate mousse. Such a hardship.

Yeah, it’s a lovely, lazy, beautiful holiday weekend and I clearly have nothing to say. I hope you’re all eating as well as we are and enjoying the kick-off to a fabulous summer!

[WMML: Everybody at the farmer’s market, oohing and aahing over all the wonderful produce. I mean, it IS wonderful, but it’s southern California, for pete’s sake. We just STOPPED having squash a month ago, and now – FINALLY – we have squash again. Phew!]

More Improv Silliness

noreply@blogger.com (Sonnjea) — Fri, 22 May 2009 19:58:00 +0000

Mr. Fix-it has had family issues the past couple of weeks, requiring too much driving, too many phone calls, too much time. It’s just been too much. Luckily, I have improv class, where I can go and totally unwind. Honestly, it feels like kindergarten – playing, acting silly, making up different characters. We shout and make mean facial expressions, then we bust a gut laughing so hard. It works because everyone is in exactly the same boat, no meanness is allowed, and the instructor maintains a very supportive, nurturing environment for expressing our creativity. I haven’t been embarrassed once yet, which you will be even more amazed at when you get to the end of this post. Usually I tend to blush when people look at me. Not any more.

Last night our warm-up game was to wander around the room randomly, just being our natural self, making eye contact with whomever we passed. Then, at the instructor’s command we all became over-eager, so we’d stop one another and talk over the other person with our enthusiasm for how very BLUE our shirt was, for example. Then we’d be normal again (yes, I use the word “normal” very loosely). Then we’d all become pissed off. Then back to normal. Then haughty. You get the idea.

So, after spending 15 minutes going in and out of these moods and expressions, we were ready to begin. The first game was a poetry reading. Four students went on the stage, each waiting their turn to recite their poem. The topic for each group was given by the audience (all 4 members of each group had the same topic). The first of the group would say something like, “Hey, I’m Joe. I’m a longshoreman and I like to come down here to It’s a Grind to read my poetry. Tonight my poem is called ‘Purple.’” The poems could rhyme or not, make sense or not, etc. It would be good for the members of each group to interact and play off each other, but it wasn’t required.

My group’s topic was food, and I was the last to go. My bit went something like this: Hi, I’m Giselle. I’m a model, and I came out tonight because I heard the topic of the reading was food, and I love food. I hope you enjoy my poem. It’s called ‘I love food.’ I love food. I love pizza. I love desserts. I love anything that’s around. I eat all I want, because I don’t keep any of it down. Thank you.”

My teacher said when I went the model route, he figured I’d do something about not being able to eat food because I had to stay thin, and being bitter about the other people enjoying food or whatever. He didn’t predict the bulimia angle, which he called “even creepier,” and he thought it was great.

The next game was in groups of three. One person was a store clerk, the other 2 were shoppers who came in together. We did the scene once, just as our normal selves (the audience supplied the type of store for each group, the group members decided their relationships and what they were shopping for, etc). Just a little scene like 2 brothers going to a pet shop to buy a bunny. Nothing special. Then, after we’d repeated the whole scene once or twice to memorize our lines (which we’d made up the first time through), the audience gave us an attitude we had to express – all three members of the group having the same attitude, like anger or whatever. Everybody had to go through it in two different emotions. We had frustrated and giddy, ditzy and angry, sad and suspicious. In my first group (I was special – I got to work in two different groups), my “daughter” and I went to a sporting goods store for a pink volleyball. We first had to play it disgusted, then spiritual. We weren’t allowed to deviate from our initial “script.” So whatever we said the first time through is what we had to stick with, no matter what the emotion. We had to alter our body language, facial expressions, tone, etc. For the disgusted version, we had a lot of turning up our noses, grossed-out expressions and bitchiness (I chose to interpret “disgusted” as disgusted with the situation, rather than imagining green goo on the volleyballs or whatever). For the spiritual version, we did throw in a hallelujah when the pink volleyball was located, but other than that we conveyed spirituality with heavenward glances, whispered tones, a couple of falling on the floor in rapture moments, and some crossing of ourselves.

The second group I worked with was a husband and wife going to a paint store. We were painting the baby’s room, even though “we don’t have a baby yet.” My “husband” added, “We haven’t even conceived the baby yet.” It was a paint store that, oddly, only carried white paint and black paint. Anyway. I’m not going to give you all the details because the attitudes we had to do were just wrong. First, we did it as seductively as possible. That’s right. A porn paint store. It wasn’t pretty, but we were good at it I guess because the audience was hysterical AND totally creeped out. A couple people said they felt like they needed showers (not cold ones, just cleansing ones)! Then, we had to do it as a Western. I was still the wife in that version, but I did a lot of spitting.

Seriously. Do you wonder why I love this so much?? It’s friggin’ awesome.

[WMML: Mr. Fix-it brought home chocolate shakes to have for dinner with the family last night. As a surprise. Meanwhile, I made chocolate mousse. As a surprise. There’s something to be said for communication…]

Shake, Rattle & Roll

noreply@blogger.com (Sonnjea) — Mon, 18 May 2009 04:08:00 +0000

Yes, we felt the earthquake and yes, everything is fine. Some things fell off shelves, including several framed photos - but only one broke. A small but heavy metal sculpture fell and scared the crap of out Koji, who was sleeping nearby, but it didn't bonk him and he didn't have a seizure. Still, it was the most damage we've ever had (Northridge didn't cause any damage here). They're saying (at the moment) it was a 5.0 centered right near LAX, which is about 19 miles from here.

Hometown Hoopla

noreply@blogger.com (Sonnjea) — Sun, 17 May 2009 00:32:00 +0000

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Kooky Movie Choices

noreply@blogger.com (Sonnjea) — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:57:00 +0000

We watched a cool indie film a few weeks ago called The Deal, which we really enjoyed. One of the trailers on that DVD was for another indie film called JCVD, which also looked good. Even though, you know, JCVD stands for Jean-Claude Van Damme. Seriously.

We rented it this weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it. JCVD plays himself as a has-been actor who has no money and just lost his daughter in a custody battle. He’s alternately mocked and idolized, despised and revered. Even his agent seems to think he’s a joke. He tries to get away to find himself but instead finds himself in a bizarre bank heist in Belgium.

I don’t want to give away the story, but it’s pretty cool. There’s one sort of quintessential JCVD fight sequence in the beginning, and it’s impressive how fast the Muscles from Brussels still is at 47. Other than that, it’s quite different from your usual karate movies, with an actual story (involving much from JCVD’s real life) superimposed on the action.

Throw in a few digs at Steven Seagal and John Woo, and it’s an evening’s entertainment.

[WMML: Koji dreamed himself right off the edge of the bed the other night. Again.]

Mission Improbable

noreply@blogger.com (Sonnjea) — Sat, 09 May 2009 12:05:00 +0000

Inspired by my improv class, I spent Friday morning watching video of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, which used to be my favorite show. I found the clip I was looking for, one that nearly made me pee myself the first time I saw it. I suggest emptying your bladder before viewing. Enjoy!

We've Got Class

noreply@blogger.com (Sonnjea) — Fri, 08 May 2009 16:47:00 +0000

A few weeks ago, the Parks, Rec and Marine catalog of community classes arrived on our doorstep, and I perused it as I always do. Only this time, instead of saying, Gee, I ought to take a class and then promptly chucking the roster in the trash, I actually picked out a few classes that looked interesting.

I signed Mr. Fix-it up for a wood carving class that, as it turns out, is taught by a 90-year-old codger who has been carving for 82 years. Mr. Fix-it is carving a crane with, according to him, the dullest carving knife known to man. Since Mr. Fix-it is obsessed with keeping his own tools ridiculously sharp, using the tools provided in class is a challenge for him. But he’s playing nicely with the old folks (the assistant teacher is in his late 70s; the single other student at least 20 years older than Mr. Fix-it) and having a great time.

I signed up for sign language. I learned the ASL alphabet when I was about 10 (partly to annoy This Land at the dinner table) and have always remembered it. But we thought it would be nice to be able to converse in loud restaurants, and Mr. Fix-it has some hearing loss from his many years of work in noisy labs and machine shops. So I figured I’d take the class and then teach it to MFI. Last night was supposed to be the first class, but our instructor was very ill and had to cancel. There’s one other student and she’s not a hundred and ten or anything. Probably thirty-ish.

I also signed up for intro to improv. The write-up left it unclear as to whether this was an improvisational comedy class, or acting, or what exactly. But it did say it was a supportive environment to enhance creativity, and it just sounded like so much fun. I have NO performance experience whatsoever. I didn’t even take a drama class in high school when all my friends did, so you’d think I would’ve been nervous, but I wasn’t. And, OH MY GOD, it was so much fun. I think it’s the most fun I’ve ever had in any class, ever. There are 19 students, from late 20’s to around mid-70, roughly evenly split between male and female, all walks of life. We did ridiculous things that on the surface don’t sound like they’d be all that exciting but that were hilarious. With a group of 4 others, I helped make a funeral machine. Other groups made a nice flower machine, a swine flu machine and an IRS machine. We told the story of how Jimmy stole a leopard (because he wanted one to train, of course), each of us adding one word in turn. Working in pairs, we heard how Chris stole a firetruck, jack-knifed it on the freeway and flipped off the policeman; how Jennifer failed her final exam and hugged her teacher very hard; how Phillip won the lottery and kissed Mary a lot; how I went to Starbucks on a blind date, spilled two mochas, sneezed on my date and then rushed out. We laughed our asses off for 2 straight hours and even though class goes until way past my bedtime, I never yawned once! I can’t wait for next Thursday, and I wish the class was longer than 4 weeks.

[WMML: I hadn’t spent sufficient time with Spike this week, and when I went outside to water plants this morning, she rushed right over, looked up at me and pecked me hard on the shin. We don’t call her Spike for nothing.]

I'll Be Like Hemingway, Except With a Laptop. And, You Know, Not Drunk and Crazy. Or a Man. But Really, Really Similar.

noreply@blogger.com (Sonnjea) — Fri, 01 May 2009 18:16:00 +0000

No, I don’t have the orange purse yet. But I will.

In the meantime, Mr. Fix-it needs a new laptop. He got his when he started at UCLA, two point five years ago, and he’s filled it all up. Not only that, but his nifty Time Machine (a backup device) that backs up his crap to MY hard drive (making my computer his external hard drive), has filled up my computer. I was down to 2 gigabytes of free space. Out of 250. Last night, he backed his backup off my machine and now I have 187 gigabytes available, which is of course burning a hole in my pocket so to speak and I’m debating about whether to fill up some space with oodles of music downloads or maybe some movies and a few seasons worth of Dancing With the Stars.

The good news for me is, I get his old laptop. I don’t need a gazillion gigabytes of disk space. What I need is to be able to work someplace other than my desk. I am so excited about – woo hoo – going out to the living room to work! Actually, I’m thinking about the summer. When it’s warm in the afternoon, I’m looking forward to loading the computer and the dog into the car and driving down to Belmont Shore, the area a few blocks from the beach with stores and coffee houses galore. It’s always about 8 – 10 degrees cooler there than here (despite the fact that it’s only 5 miles away), and it’s a dog-friendly street: all the restaurants have front patios and, while the mean old health department won’t let you bring the dogs inside the little fences, the restaurants all offer water bowls and treats just on the outside of the fence. So you can sit right next to each other but on opposite sides of the little wrought iron fence and, if you have a laptop like I will, you can do your work and be cooler than inside your stifling house.

Well, it's exciting to ME anyway...

[WMML: Five computers for two people. You’d think we’re friggin’ NASA or something. Or at least that Mr. Fix-it could finish counting by now.]

I LOVE This

noreply@blogger.com (Sonnjea) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:56:00 +0000

This is Tumi's new Villa Simple Satchel, in my favorite color. I just wanted to share. It's on sale for $396 (regular $495), so not exactly a bargain.

I don't know how, but I'm going to get this purse!