Handmade Stuffs

My obsession with Bella and Edward led me to search Etsy for Twilight goods; which is where I found Pink Lady Designs. I love Sandra's stuff! She makes a lot of zippered pouches--the perfect thing(s) for organizing the junk in my giant purse! Sandra makes Twilight-related items, as well as non-Twilight stuff too. Cute, cute and the perfect way to always carry a bit of Twilight around with me.

Neil Gaiman's American Gods

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Some time not long after reading Stardust I decided to have a go at more of Neil Gaiman's books. I think first I read Anasi Boys and then I tried American Gods. I say "tried" because the book freaked me out. Mostly it was all the death that just seemed to spew out of the pages that disturbed me, and so I had to stop and move on to Neverwhere (which is still my favorite Neil Gaiman book).

Recently I got back into Neil Gaiman's works when I started following his tweets and his blog. Through the blog I learned that his executive assistant, Kitty, would be at Wonder Con. I visited her booth and had the chance to chat with her boyfriend who loves American Gods. I decided to have a go at it again.

And now finally, my review. It was great! I am so glad I picked this up again because it was worth another try. There certainly is a lot of death in the story, but it deals with so much more. It's hard for me to put into words exactly, but I feel like Neil Gaiman wrote America right. Just read it if you haven't and I'm sure you will see what I mean.


View all my reviews.

Twilight on DVD

Instant gratification has become a problem. It makes me forget the lesson I should have learned the last time I let my impatience overrule reason. That time I ended up at opening night of Return of the King, standing there wondering "Why am I here? I just want to see the movie." There have of course been other incidents of reason-overruled since Return of the King, but I always forget the lesson-learned, and there I was on Friday night at the midnight release of the Twilight DVD.

There were several midnight release party options, but I went to the Hot Topic one because Seth pre-ordered the DVD for me as an anniversary gift. Very, very nice and thoughtful of him. He of course thought it was a great idea until I forced him into accompanying me to the party (I used the whole if-we-lived-LA-or-Hawaii-this-wouldn't-be-an-issue to guilt him into this).

Well, bachi on me because it ended up being a torturous evening for both of us. Despite all the hype, the Hot Topic we visited did a poor job of entertaining Twilighters and their guests. The yawn-fest consisted of standing in two separate lines; one line to get into the store and the other to pick-up the DVD. If you read my twitter feed, you know exactly how bored I was, and I won't get into it again. It was so bad that I let Seth ditch me and wander off. I also stupidly left my book at home--more often than not I have a book in purse specifically meant to ward off impatience and boredom while waiting. Seth at least laughs about the whole thing and tells everyone that he stood with all the other dads while he waited for his 30-year old kid. Ha. Ha. Ha.

March Madness

I love when March rolls around. Along with October, it is one of the best month for sports. In March there is the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament and Spring Training for the MLB. I was going to boycott March Madness this year since the Big East was awarded with three one-seeds, but old habits hang around, and here I am watching the first round of the tourney.

On the other hand, it's a little hard to completely love March this year. There is actual madness to the month this year: moving and pending layoffs at work. Makes me want to be a hermit.

Time, Something of Which I am Currently Lacking

There are times when I wish I was one of those people who didn't need much sleep in order to properly function. These next two weeks would fall under the category of "those times." There is just so much to do...work, sew, exercise, yoga, read, pack. Unfortunately, the packing will eat up almost all of my spare time. The problem with this is that in my peripheral vision I see the quilt that I must finish by Saturday, in time for a wedding. Then again, I see the boxes and oodles of stuff that must be boxed and moved by the end of the month. It's too bad I need at least seven hours of sleep in order to operate as a normal human being. Time for some sleep.

Return of the Yogi

It's been over a month, but I finally got back to my yoga routine yesterday. It was wonderful to get back in to my weekly Saturday habit. I was a little scared because I have been having these shooting pains in my left hip for the last month. In fact, they make me wonder if you can possibly have pinced nerves in your hip; they are that painful (I really have no idea what a pinched nerve normally does to you). Class was great though, and Lauren must have have known about my hip issues because we did a lot of hip-opening work. As much as I try to deny it, I am truly a creature of habit.

Hunting Down Buttons

I need black buttons, and in the shape of a "long" heart; 11 of them to be exact. If you know where to find them, please comment. They are needed for a sewing project that must be done this month.

It is amazingly difficult to think of Google searches for these buttons since "buttons" also brings up flair. I do not need flair.

If I can't get the long heart buttons in black, I'll take watermelon seed buttons. Oh...light bulb...search for watermelon seed buttons. Regardless, if you have a lead, comment, please. Arigato!

Who Watches the Watchmen

It is a rare thing for Seth to actually want to see a movie in the theater; it is usually a painful process to get him there. Apparently though, I have been lucky in 2009. Hopefully my luck continues since this year is stacked with some big shows:

January
Somehow I convinced him to see Twilight, and that's when we saw a preview for Watchmen

March
Got to see Watchmen on opening night; seeing a movie on opening night with Seth is a first

May
X-Men Origins: Wolverine

June
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

July
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

August
G.I. Joe

November
New Moon

By the way, Watchmen was excellent. The cinematography, music and editing alone are worth seeing on the big screen. My two favorite scenes:

• Opening scene with the killer and the Comedian; love the contrast between the action, darkness and music
• Rorschach in jail, "None of you understand. I'm not locked up in here with you. You're locked up in here with me."

I have not read the graphic novel yet, but it's jumped up to the "must read now" level as I am beyond intrigued. Apparently the dork in me has found another interest; not one that has replaced Twilight, but rather one that has formed a line behind it.

Where Did My Day Go?

Sadly I must admit that yoga and sewing, two much-loved past times, have fallen by the wayside. Hopefully I can get up early Saturday morning for a three hour yoga class (which will be painful since I have only been able to do mediocre amounts of home practice). My other intent for the weekend is to sew. I have fallen behind and have a blanket that must be finished in a matter of weeks. Yikes! Yes, I would like to get my routine back.

hina matsuri

Happy Girls' Day! Not too many thoughts to share, just remembering Girls' Day as a child. The best part was having the boys put up your chair at the end of the day in elementary school.

Mostly Cause I Can't See You When it's Pouring

I have never looked this particular statistic up, but there are times when it seems that the great state of California leads the nation in traffic/driving laws. We must now use handsfree devices when talking on the cell phone while driving; and as of January 1, 2009 there is also no texting while driving.

It turns out there is also a law about turning on your car's headlights when using the windshield wipers. Every time it rains I hear the weather man remind us drivers to "turn on those headlights," and I finally looked it up (online of course). There it is, right there in the California Driver Handbook:

Use Your Headlights

• When it is cloudy, raining, snowing, or foggy. If weather conditions require you to use your windshield wipers, you must turn on your headlights.

This is a good thing because I have a hard time seeing dark cars driving on the freeway in pelting rain--when the water is not just pouring down from the sky, but is also shooting up at you, spewing from the tires of the car in front.