Stuffed Companion

I've already written about Babo but I've haven't mentioned him for awhile.

I've taken him practically everywhere. He rode on my motorcycle across the country and back and I squeeze him into my luggage wherever I go. Childish, perhaps but I never said I was mature in the slightest. Babo was given to me by my youngest sister and while he may be ugly, he makes up for it in softness and a great pillow on the plane.

Having a bad day? Someone giving you a hard time? Babo's got my back. What he lacks in mind power, he makes up for in love. He's everybody's best friend. He will stick with you to the end and when something scary happens, he will send you a nice greeting card from wherever he runs away to. Babo is a mischievous creature so its best to bring him with you to as many places as possible. Its okay to leave him at home but it is recommend you keep the cookies in money on the highest shelf. This is all stated in his "bio" on the uglydoll website.

That's probably why we get along so well, our love for cookies and money. Despite having Babo for a couple years, he's still in pretty good shape. I know other people who give their uglydolls a lot more lovin' seem to lose their mouths or plumpness.

Well that's about all I have in me today. As you can see my life has been very uneventful so I have very little to write about. I leave you with this silly shallow depth of field black and white photo, bam.

Christmas Decor

I'm certain that my Mom lives for the Christmas holiday. She has so many decorations, she could easily decorate three medium sized homes. Most of her collection consists of Nutcrackers and Santa Clauses. One Santa even has fiber optics coming out of him and stands about three feet tall. My mom is also stuck on hanging stuff from the ceiling. If its Chinese New Year its lanterns, Valentines Day its a bunch of red things, and this time for Christmas its these enormous spherical ornaments as well as dozens of plastic snow flakes spanning about eight inches wide.

I'll have to get some pictures of all this stuff, but for now the following pictures will have to do.

Above you can see a portion of my mom's nutcracker army. Below is the seven foot tree which appears small because the ceiling is so high.

Here is the new garland. My mom is overly excited about this. It looks the same as last years if you ask me.

Bear with me, I tried to get a little "artsy" with the next couple of shots. At least I'm willing to admit I know nothing about photography. The one thing I am an expert on is sleeping in.

Some macro attempts on the garland.

Can't leave out your monochrome!

That's all I've got for now. Apparently I've been bitten by the photo bug so you'll be subjected more horrible pictures in the future. Luckily, no one visits the blog so the number will be minimal.

Sweet and Sour Soup

Had some fancy Vietnamese soup the other night. At least I think its Vietnamese, at least a Vietnamese lady made it. I guess it could be Thai, we'll just say "Asian" and cover all of them.

Traditionally this dish is made with fish but my mom decided to change it up with shrimp. I prefer the shrimp as it does fall apart and disintegrate within the broth. I'm not exactly sure what goes into this stuff but I do know there is lots of pineapple and okra. I scarfed it down too fast to realize what else it was comprised of. This is one of those dishes that taste oh so good when its chilly out.

Back to the okra, I like it. However, the only time I ever get to eat okra is when its in gumbo. I like the taste of it but do to the mucilage in the pods, there is a ton of slime produced from them. While it tastes pretty good freshly cooked, the texture is a little funky reheated. The okra pods in this dish was kept intact minimizing the sliminess and as a result were super delicious. Okra can also stir fried and cooked with acidic ingredients to cut down on the slime. I've tried to mention this to my mom but she refuses to take any advice from me. Another reason for me leave this place.

Poor Ducks

Found a video today. Of course there is a chance you've probably seen it since it has over 2 million views.

If only these geese in the backyard had as a hard of a time in the wind, then maybe they would just blow off the yard into the pond.

The Minolta

Dug around and found my Dad's old Minolta SR-T 101. Apparently my oldest sister has dibs on this. I think she even used it for her film classes.

This Minolta was introduced in 1966 and stayed in production for 10 years with minor changes. This camera looks like it has seen better days, the door to the film has trouble staying closed. The other lenses in the camera bag look like they have been roughed up too. The lens on the camera now is MC Rokkor PF 58mm. Apparently this was a very good lens back in the day. I've been looking around to see if there is an adapter to use this lens on newer cameras but all the adapters I have found have glass in them which will comprise the picture quality. I did find a website where they will send you a kit to modify the lens to fit your EOS or whatever new fancy camera you have. I think this site will also modify the MC Rokkor for you if you are not confident in your machining skills, like me. I doubt I'll ever get around to using this equipment. Looks like I'll have to get by with the cheap Fuji for a little longer.

Squirrel!

I was about to head out the door the other day until I saw a visitor on the deck.

I was surprised to see him get all "Mission Impossible" on the wall with it being so cold out. I thought it was funny he decided to take a stop on the speaker just to hang out. If he comes around again I was thinking of naming him. Right now the first thing that comes to mind is "Henry", I'll try to get come up with something better.

If you're wondering about how that Hedge Fund thing went, well it was awful. Not sure what I was thinking rolling up to the place in jeans. I was the only person under 35 too. Most of the people there looked like they were in their late 40's. The speakers tried to keep the seminar under an hour but of course it ran longer than that and most of what they talked about was boring tax stuff and SEC regulations.

The food however was good. They even had beer there! The food was catered by Starr Restaurants. They had cocktail shrimp and some kind of nuggets, not sure what they were actually made of. The star (pun intended) of the spread however was the cheese steaks! They were not your typical cheese steak. They consisted your regular findings in a cheese steak but instead of being in a roll it was wrapped in a crazy tortilla and then deep fried. Nothing like a cheese steak from Pat's, but still very good. I wasn't able to snag one of these delicious treats before the seminar started, it was torture waiting to get my hands on a cheese steak and free beer. The beer I had was Kenzinger from Philadelphia Brewing Co. I believe it was my first time having it and it was very tasty.

Cutest Daily Puppy

This is the cutest puppy ever! Ugh, I wish I had a puppy so bad. This puppy's name is Chloe. I don't think I've ever seen a Australian Shepard with different colored eyes, so cool.