Foodie Adventures with Nach: Days 4 and 5

Let it be known (again) that I have wayward math. Alright, not really but Nach's visit began Tuesday night and continued through Sunday afternoon. I combined Saturday and Sunday because Saturday was a bit of a strange day for food (and by that I mean I really don't have pictures…), while Sunday we said our goodbyes on the streets of Chinatown. It was my last attempt to rid myself of the hipster. And if you are to believe UI, I was successful. UI may be making claims that this current Nach floating around TAY is an imposter, since he, UI was not with Nach during his final hours and I pulled a switcheroo.

Playing Outside: A Tale of Two Boys

Sundays: usually spent cursing your existence as you think about trudging to work the next day.  It's also the day you might catch up on all the shows on your DVR or what have you.  Basically, Sundays are the equivalent of lazing about, in my mind.  But lazing is not part of the plan when you have rambunctious 6 year old nephews and a 4 year old niece, who insist you take their 8 dart rapid fire action Nerf gun outside for a game of "You're the Bad Guy and You Have to Chase Us".



Very early on, my sister decided that the introduction to video games for her now 6 year old would be put off until he was about 7 years old.  That's not to say she was trying to limit his exposure completely to video games but to things such as FPS games, Resident Evil type zombies and the like, she felt it best to wait until he was older (older than seven, probably).

My brother on the other hand, is the complete opposite.  His son is all about his Super Heroes, blasters, headhunting zombies, fighting games and combat.  He is also 6 and his introduction to those types of games happened about a year or so ago.

The Return of the Claw and More at Gleason's

I'm not sure why it took me this long to go to Gleason's.  Maybe it's due to the fact that I don't really like pizza even if the ones made at Gleason's are specialty flat bread pizzas and high class.  Or maybe it's due to the fact because the pizzas are specialty it makes me think that this place would be plagued by hipsters.

On Tuesday, X and Moodou paid us a visit and we decided to go on a foodie adventure for old time's sake.  You know, that's what we do when X comes around.  It's what we're supposed to do! Never mind we have yet to take her for Tea at Kathleen's Tea Room.  X, don't worry about it.  You saw nothing and you remember nothing about that.

Happy Birthday!

It was Boohead's Birthday yesterday.  I blame my lateness on the Lego building that has been consuming our lives every evening since Sunday. 

Curse you, Haunted Mansion!

Little BooHead...how is it you're six years old already?

Happy Birthday to Boohead

Happy Birthday, little Boohead!

You're not so little anymore, now that we think about it.  At 5 years old, you have had many an adventure and we hope you have many more.

In fact, you could be adventuring right now! I don't know what you're up to since you have not yet called for me to come over to your house.  I hope you're sleeping in like I told you too.

It's the best birthday present you could give your Momma and Daddy but it leaves me to ramble aimlessly on the blog.

Such is life!

Happy Birthday!

Quick Nerdish Sort of Note

It's been a week and a half since H1, BH and I trekked to Midtown ON A SUNDAY (ugh) to participate in the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3DS Launch Event.

And of course, there was a freakin' line.

We went on a scavenger hunt to find gold skulltulas, or uh, rather, H1 and BH went on a scavenger hunt while I waited in line for a keychain (yay?) along with my pre-ordered copy of the game.

That...does not look like the gold skulltulas in the game... I call shenanigans!

We did not stay for the drawing of the prize, making all of H1's hard work useless.  But you know, H1, you had fun looking, right?

I did not take a lot of pictures there and really, what did I do then?

Of course, all that was required of me was to take one picture and even that I mucked up.

Well...it was worth it because I got the game on launch day allowing me to register for the limited edition commemorative cd collection.  Right? Yes.  It was not a total loss.

Plus, I am enjoying my game a lot.  A lot.  The details of that I will wait to bore you with at the End of Year review.

Anyway... H1, BH and I will also take away our childhood memories from the trip.  Or at least, BH will have fond, childhood memories of it all.

Memories...and some Shake Shack burgers.

Fellow 3DS Cool Kids Met Via Streetpass at Nintendo World on 6/19/2011: About 40.  Ah yes, I walked away with a lot of those too.  Nintendo's the place to be at a launch event! Did you like my "Rocket Science" moment? Did you?

Hiding in the Tall Grass...

An epic battle is about to begin!

A battle that's not so epic because what does that Smug Leaf think he's doing? He knows he's grass type and will get his ass busted up by the fire-breathing type.  This is going to be a damned massacre.

A Lobster Fest?

It can't be all Brasserie and Home-made Ramen all the time here on the misadventures with The HOchieS.

Sometimes, when the child speaks, you can opt to answer the call.

Even when the child speaks the crazy and demands a Lobster Fest from you guessed it...

By the way, I think that's my best bao-head to date!

Let it be known that it was in fact, our last venture to Hatsuhana that brought on this lobster fest request from BooHead.  As I recall, the conversation with Grandma went a bit like this:

::While watching tv, the commercial for Lobster Fest at Red Lobster came on::
BH: I want to go to Lobster Fest, Grandma
Grandma: You like lobster? I think you mean you like crab.  When did you have lobster?
BH: Mmmm, I LUZ lobster; it's so crunchy.

Grandma had no idea the lobster massacre at Hatsuhana took place a mere few days before BH saw the commercial.  Still fresh in his little head was the light, crispy awesomeness of the tempura lobster we had, which he almost ate all of if given the chance.

Even though I tried to explain that tempura made the lobster good, he insisted that it he still wanted lobster, tempura style or not.  And thus the trip was made.

Happy Birthday, Boohead!!!!

You are sleeping right now and I should be too.  We've a big day ahead of us!

Update on 10/10/10:

The day has ended and fun was had.

What a lot of legos you got!

I think it's safe to say that Batman & Friends was a hit.

Happy Birthday!

3 years old today, that Boobey is.

I heard he was scared of the clown.

No worries, I hate them too.

Cleaning, Conversations, Discoveries and a Terrible Lack of Blogging

There's a reason why I've been staggering the blogging but I've found it very hard the past few days to not type something down.

Although nothing major has happened, there's always some stupid thing to mention!

I feel that I've not played a game in a while, not before Dragon Quest IV which I'm currently kind of playing. It's going okay and a cool thing happened to me. I'm currently running a weapon shop! It's kind of fun but also kind of confusing as to when I should stop working for the day and determining my commission. I know, all that stuff isn't as exciting in real life nor is it that excting in the game.

In the meanwhile, my lack of playing videogames has been usurped by watching anime and television. For a while there I thought I wasn't watching enough American television. So I started watching True Blood, which is going alright. Dexter started up as well, so I watch that. There's a lot on TV and can I just say, CBS has a formula that works brilliantly for them...

It starts with a body, there's a 'bigger' mystery behind why there's a body, then the CSI, CIA, NCIS, FBI and whatever 3-4 letter organizations can be called in to figure out what horrible thing happened. Next they'll be calling The Mentalist, "TheM" and The Ghost Whisperer "TGW" and make a profession out of it.

Aside from collecting various anime and related osts (thx buj...CBS should give me a job), I've been on a hunt for other music. By other I mean, non-anime related soundtracks. Just when I thought I'd not be getting Keane's 3rd album after listening for free last week courtesy of the band and deciding I didn't want to ruin the greatness of their 2nd album with a tainted not-as-good album, I got an e-mail from them telling me I could buy the MP3s for $2.99. Okay, crap or not, I can find 4 songs to like for $2.99 and still get 12! Why, I'm listening to one now and I like it, which leaves only 3 more to go.

With no way to segway, here's another bit of penned up wealth of non-blogging I wanted to mention: I 'cleaned' up my shelf in my room. The stuffed animals that I really didn't need to look at on the daily all went in a tote. It was sad and they're probably pressed for air in there but I think they'll be alright.

As Papa HOchie said, "you moved toys to put more toys on your shelf!" Yep, I sure did. But at least I'm clearing room for dvds and manga and ...more toys.

The discovery I made? I have shit I don't even remember I had. That's so sad. Also, I got some cool things! Like Postulio! And Vivi...who's not as cool. Why do I have that?

A Love Hina shelf! I maintain that I love Love Hina, regardless of how 'shoujo' that makes me, if that's even the word I want to use. Shut up, H1!



Vivi and one of my most awesome figures, my whatever version of Seymour. Shut up, Seymour haters!



L! Aww, poor ded L...



Ded White Boy, peeking Tokyo Monokuro Boo, a smoking watermelon - all slumming it outside Zim's house.



Ooo, hottie Kaoru and vintage DBZ:



Judge Magister Grabranth! I'd open it to showcase all it's glory but it'd probably need its own shelf:



Much like Gungrave (my most badassed figure to date) hiding behind our favourite, Love & Peace-u!



Lord Stanley Hihat Trinidad XIV and Bleach!



and H1's favourite, Majin Kappa



There's more but I haven't set them up yet. Which leads me to my next bit of blogging -

Frass and I went to dinner tonight as part of his birthday and general meeting up plans. We were supposed to be at Janet tonight but Janet J. has some kind of rare form of migraine she says, that makes her get vertigo. I don't understand why she can't include the vertigo moves into her dance routine but that's just me.

We ate at Pongsri and had all the usual suspects. Not picture here are the golden triangles which we devoured earlier on:



It was good seeing him and he gave me presents, making it even a better reason for seeing him. Aha. I keed.

Really though, Frass: have a safe flight and a great time in Merry Ol' England & Italy! I'm still hatin' on you but not really. Take pictures and have tons o' fun!

There's more food news: Magnolia cupcakes are overrated.

H1 and I finally had a taste of what the big deal is about and we still have no idea what the big deal is about.

The cupcakes tried to choke us! The buttercream is fabulous as far as buttercream goes but the cupcake didn't taste fabulous at all and was really dry.





Oh yeah, and Happy Birthday Frass! We hope you enjoy your cupcake even though we knew it sucked before we bought it. Heh.



Hey, at least it was a cutie pie cupcake with that flower! By the way Frass, that cupcake wrapping paper is fantastic.

Finally, Boobey Head made me some eats while I was out today. I got a 3 course meal and I hope next time it'll be a 4 course with a drink, because I get parched and I like 5 or 6 appeteesers.



But really H1, how could you let him buy bacon without the fat?! He may as well have been effin' Canadian!

I know what you peeps are thinking; you're thinking I probably should have not bothered to blog and you know what you can do? You can shut up! Heh.

Currently listening to: "Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Have a Nice Dream" by Taku Iwasaki, from the Soul Eater Original Soundtrack. I love you, Death the Kid!

It's October!

Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit. Hare, Hare, Hare.

This here signals the end of H1's Birthday Month and the beginning of Or 2's.

September was a good month and we ended it by baking and decorating sugar cookies this past weekend!



It was our first attempt as H1 decided she needed to hone her decorating skills, or rather get some skills then hone them.



Boobey helped but geez is that kid strong! 'Slowly and carefully add the flour to the mixture,' we told him. What does he do? He takes two hands and tosses it all in the bowl at once. Luckily that did not spoil our recipe but it was rather funny.



Our cookies actually came out quite good and I'm not a fan of sugar cookies, really. They could have baked a little bit longer but we'll blame that on her tilted oven, the tilt not having anything to do with the baking part.



Notice how awesome snow covered pine tree, emo lumberjack, fish and flounder are?





I would however, thank you to not mind Fish's green buisness!

And of course, look at bad ass Flounder...



Scary! but Awesome! H1, I enjoy his crazy eye.

Things missed:

Random pictures taken in September at the Train Station





Random NYC shots (sad times that's no longer Lehman Bros.):



and Dexter in Midtown:



Currently listening to: "Gallop" by Pe'zmoku, the Bleach 16th ED Single.

Time Off

It was not exactly how I wanted to spend a semi self-imposed early dismissal yesterday but when we left work at 2:30 PM, there was much to be done.

Poor Boobey has been ill so he went to the doctor. That was at 4:20.
Then we went to the DMV to renew H1's license. That lasted only 30 minutes.

However, there's almost always something amusing to find and that's no exception at the DMV, a place full of misfits, miscreants, miffed government workers and less than merry customers.

The amusement of the time spent there involved the pen dispenser.



For 25 cents, one could get a pen that is FULLY GUARANTEED to work. The pen and the machine, I think are both guaranteed to work. H1 thinks that's a lie since they look like the same damned pens that have been there for 4 years now.

But it was interesting to note that, in case the GUARANTEED to work pen didn't work, you could call for service.

You know, just in case.



If you noticed though, you can't really because all the service number stickers have been scratched out.

I guess they stand by their earlier claim of fully functional equipment.

As H1 and I discovered, even with 25 cent pens, people will always go for free, even if free is tethered to a metal chain -



Currently listening to: "Vaati's Wrath" by Mitsuhiko Takano, from The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap Original Soundtrack.

Saturday and Sunday

The HOchieS had fun this weekend. We saw some snow, which incidentally is no fun for H1, we ate chinese food for breakfast and Budgie HOchie the Third and Angel came around for a visit.

What did we do together?

We played Rock Band and let me just tell you, Boobey Head and Boobey Face can sing.

Songs were mastered with the elusive five stars on the tracks that we love most but just couldn't quite nail including "Creep" by Radiohead, "Maps" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "The Hand That Feeds" by NIN and "Say It Ain't So" by Weezer.

Three stars were made on the ones we didn't know and five on the ones we didn't think we could ever make, such as "Run To The Hills" by Iron Maiden (who knew I'd get it on the first try?!) and some we were embarrassed by i.e "Dead on Arrival" by Fall Out Boy. Ugh.

All this happened because quote,

H1: You needed me. I am not only your Band Manager but I am also your muse.

Truly, H1. Truly.

Can't wait to get the entire band together. We're going to have so much fun. The Oxtails will conquer all!

Currently listening to: "No Myth" by Michael Penn. I could totally get five stars on this.

MC Hearts Me

I got my second present for this Christmas from him. Thanks, MC. I hope you get yours soon.

I was told Boobey Head bought something for me already but I've not yet seen it wrapped up or about.

I hope it's not a pair of killer monkey pajamas again.

Well, That Was a Waste of Time

Halloween 2007 is over and thank goodness. It was so bad, it doesn't even get a grade! It gets a "U"!

Alright, maybe an "F Minus Minus Squared".

No costume was very inspired this year. There were lots of the usual offenders - princesses and the like. A child of about 12 or not much older, and maybe even younger, showed up in a french maid outfit, with asscheeks hanging out and everything. It was disgusting. That little whore deserved to be locked up in her room with no MTV, Myspace or High School Musical or whatever shit it is she's learning to be ugly from.

It came very close to being a complete disaster for costumes until I saw a Black Spidey, who was slightly awesome thanks in part to the very dazzling, light up necklace around his neck.

Michael Myers, age 14 showed up at the door and that was pretty frightful. He's the only one deserving of an "A".

You know, other than me:





I worked very hard on that gourd! And H1 worked very hard on the self-love!

Boobey Head was rather impressive as well, actually.



There was only one A+ to dole out this holiday:





That boy can put on a wig, toss on a little makeup and be his sister.

What also made this Halloween ass, was that, for every polite child (oh and I must remember that one kid who rang the doorbell a million times only to greet us with a very polite good evening, Happy halloween to us and thanked us for the candy before she even received it - that kid was classic), there were 2 rude, FminusUcking bastards. They were the kind of kids who asked for particular candy but not nicely and then grabbed things from your bowl. They were also the ones not in costume. WTF.

I guess I have only myself to blame for not setting the mood by playing "This Is Halloween". I broke tradition and got shart.

Ah well, it's November! Which means good times in 20 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Doodle, Doodle"

It's been near six days since Gnome has returned to Castle in the Fog after his excursion to some sort of School Beyond Red Carpet Turf.

Gnome never rests.

Gnomey-mobile has been busily puttering along over Flat Hillians, near Smudgey Lake and back and forth between Castle in the Fog and Gnome Cottage - The weather has been unseasonably warm for this time of year, so Gnome Cottage remains open.

He heard something last week while enjoying a slice of his favourite Fall pie, which of course is Pumpkin and Some Kind of Apple.

With colour pencils in hand and chittering with excitement, he gets to work on a blank piece of paper he found lying near his Junior Accounting Calculator.



"All creatures deserve greetings of this kind", thinks Gnome happily, "even if they send me fleeing...quivering under a bush."

He is particulary fond of his "Y"'s and his "O"'s, as he draws busily away, grinning from ear to ear.