The End of Days, Part V: The Hurricane and the Garden

It happened again.

The Parents HOchies went off someplace over the summer and left us in charge of the Garden.  And once again, we managed to kill it.

In our defense, the Garden did not stand much of a chance considering a Hurricane passed through and killed it.  Honestly, nature was working against us this time and it was not that we were working against it.

The Garden was doomed to begin with!

If you might recall, we had been tasked with taking care of the Garden twice in the past - the first was 5 years ago and the second was last year.  Both times I managed to kill the damned thing.  The first time to slugs and the second to The Yellowing.

This time, H1 and I were left alone one weekend.  It was supposed to be a fun time - full of games, movies, bought food and late nights up giggling and talking.  But as if we screwed someone in the past and karma caught up with us, a hurricane decided to pay NY a visit and had The Hochies hunkering down for the worst but hoping for the best.  We came out of it with a flooded basement which was to be expected, and of course, a dead garden.

We picked that tomato

From Saturday to Friday: Too Much Adventuring! Part II: MoMa and Menchanko

Truth be told, I was the only one who got to see the Tim Burton Exhibit on the Saturday.  Boo-Head did not want to go in and really it was just too crowded to be enjoyed.

This time, H1's brain spurted out: Let's go to the MoMa on Thursday and then to Pommes Frites with Frass!

Her mouth was quick to follow.

My ears were within reach of brilliance and jumped all over her plan.

Plans changed somewhat as sadly, Frass could no longer meet us for our adventure.

We ended up going to the MoMa, and try as I might I could still not get a good picture of the entrance to the exhibit.

Then we ran through the new Picasso Exhibit, after which we decided to do dinner.

We opted instead to visit Menchanko-Tei on 55th.

We then decided it would be in our best interest to taunt Beetchie with photos of takoyaki and various other eats.

Really, I will say that H1 decided to do that.

She's a bit evil, that one.

I'm the evil one who will re-post the pictures here so that Beetchie may see them again.

More Midtown

There's only so much of Midtown to capture in our 12 minute walk but we're hoping to expand our expeditions this warm weather season.

For now, here's a little of our photo tour from two weeks ago.

A Night Out with The HOchieS, Part II: It Said MSG but We Ended Up in Canada?

It's very rare I find myself down in the 30s, which may explain why I have not had an amazing Korean food experience yet in K-Town.

Chances are if you find me in the K'Hood, it's due to the fact that I'm off dragging a poor soul to Madison Square Garden.

Friday Night's Victim was H1 (as previously posted) and Friday Night's Instrument of Torture?

A Night Out with The HOchieS, Part I: For Your Dietary Benefit

It should have been the perfect time for The HOchieS but instead what we got was some serious shade.

H1 and I ran off to K-Town for some eats and I almost took her for the noodles with black beans that Beetchie introduced me to.  However, having no leeway for a mess up as we were hungry and on a schedule, I decided that we should just go to the regular, safe eatery where we could guarantee some meat.

It turns out, that even your safe bet can be anything but.

After the taro, I had the worst meal I have ever had!

Before the details of that mess though, let us discuss the appetizers.

A Racist Blog?

It has come to my attention that in my attempt to deter spam comments, the blog may have shown its true colours by being racist.

X swears that on two occasions she has received a word verification prompt that singled her out for what she almost is - an Indian.

I would be inclined to say that my blog is not racist because if it were, it would single her out to be the Fake Indian that she is.

Regardless, I would like to take a poll from you guys.
Please take note of when next you feel the need to leave a comment and tell me what word it prompts you to input for the verification.

Let me know if you too get something ending with 'dahl' or 'ali' or whatever inappropriate 'appropriate' phrase happens upon thee.

Blog-away: WINNERS!!!!!!!!

You guys are all winners to us, except today of course because it's VD.

But you all are winners in the Blog Competition!

Blog-away I: TD5 at Spamalot on Broadway

• Winner: BEETCHIE's "...yes, I believe that he did just fart in our general direction..."

Blog-away II: CLee and Salt & Vinegar Pringles

• Winner: MC's Looking back, our protagonist realised that the pringle wasn't the only special looking yellow thing in the room.

Blog-away III: X Marches

• Winner: FRASS' "Where will YOU be when your diarrhea kicks in?"

Blog-away IV: Frass and Lettuce at Pongsri

• Winner: CLEE's "really?? that's all the brains that I has.."

Blog-away V: MC Waits to Buy a Wii

• Winner: GEN'FRIEN' wins by default.  H1 would have won it otherwise but she is ineligible

Blog-away VI:  Beetchie, Or 2, Squid and Shark

• Winner: TD5's "The unaired in the US, Japanese Ad for "Shark Fin Soup" "

Blog-away VII: H1 the Chameleon

• Winner: BUGHIE J.'s Despite appearances in several 'B' style sci-fi and horror flicks, the Gorn never quite recaptured the success of his epic battle with Captain Kirk. So what's he up to these days? Aside from occasional appearances at Star Trek conventions, the Gorn runs a modestly popular webblog called "Let By-Gorns be By-Gorns: Yes I Really Do Love William Shatner;" hosts a monthly public access home & garden show called "Good Gorn Gardening;" and enjoys an otherwise quiet suburban existence with his I'k'GhekKkt'lor, a human female, and two-dozen Gornlings from a previous marriage to an Andorian asteroid mining mogul.

Blog-away VIII: Beetchie and Godzilla invade Tokyo

• Winner: X's "Damn this stupid human exhibit! I can't find this freaky lookin' thing in my program!" (not by default, X.  That was pretty good).

I'm sure you are all probably wondering what your presents are going to be but you will have to wonder a little bit longer.

We ordered them today and will surprise you when we receive them.

Thanks for participating all!

We had lots of fun with this and maybe we can do it again sometime.

HVD 2010

We would say that for the majority of the year, The HOchieS are awfully kind to our frenemies.

We have decided that this Valentine's Day, we will spread a little bit of dislike to you guys instead because you probably deserve it.

Rubbish Commercialized Day to you all!

Yours Always except on VD and Festivus,

The HOchieS.

New Jersey: Yes, It Still Sucks

The power of NJ's evil is so great, that not even a giant Japanese supermarket could save it.

The HOchieS & Co. took an afternoon out to visit Mitsuwa - the much talked about Japanese Supermarket complete with a huge Japanese food court, bookstore, steak house and Japanese-centric accessories, toys and knick knacks.

The food court was alright.  I opted to go with a spicy miso ramen.  It was not bad and the pork was definitely a lot better than what I get at Sapporo.  It was melty (as they called it) i.e. fattier and just what pork should be when it is in some ramen in my opinion.

Sadly though, I will never be able to re-create a great bowl of ramen as I did at the Ramuen Museum in Tokyo.

The Supermarket proved to be quite the let down too.

I think the problem with it is that I could get most of the items from it at J-Mart and the Chinese grocery in Chinatown or WP, leaving me unimpressed.

We then headed next door to see if we could find some toys, presents, something... the store certainly had lots but felt fairly 'junky' but on top of it feeling 'junky', it did not have 'junky' prices.  It was expensive in there!

All in all, it was a pretty big fail but we should have known better.

NJ's joy in proving that it is Hell managed to route us in the direction of LOST.  Some may say it was the GPS' fault that we were lost and ended up in a trucker's service station but the evil magnetic field that Jersey's got effed up the GPS for sure.

Frass, in a somewhat related issue, I decided to call you as I usually do when I'm in your Hellish State and got your mother.

Why that woman hates me, I don't know but please let me know her response if she ever gives you my message that I called.

Blog-away VIII

This is the final in The HOchieS' "Caption this Picture" competition.

Beetchie, I didn't realise I had a picture of myself with the shark 'hat' you forced upon my head back at the Tokyo Sea Life Park gift shop. Had I known, I would not have posted you at all.

As it turns out, you get to be featured twice and this time, it's ALL YOU.

Well, maybe a special friend too.

Blog-away VII

Hmmm...

Blog-away VI

A new day, a new picture!

Truthfully, I am running a little low on the pictures of 'new' people here (ie. people who have not already been used for a photo op in this competition).

Just to show you people that The HOchieS are a fair lot, have at this next entry:

Blog-away V

As if you could not guess, H1 and I have decided to post the winners list after the Competition is over.

Also, TD5 if you're reading this, I know you're in Carnival mode and all but you're keeling us here with your lack of comments.

Now for the next round!

Can I just say that I have a plethora of pics of MC that I could use but this is one none of you may have seen...

Blog-away IV

The fourth in our "Caption this Picture" competition is one you all may need some time to ponder over.

Blog-away III

X is away on business and informs us that she can access all websites except this one.  She won't be able to see this until Saturday when she returns, so I suggest we all get our punches in before then.

Once again, click the link to view the picture:

Blog-away II

Hello Frenemies!

I have a bit of an update on the Round I activities.

So far, I thank those of you who have commented - they're all really fabulous and have H1 and I rolling around with laughter.

There are '4' more people left to comment but Gen'Frien' informed me that she's not really funny and I informed her that that's due to the fact that she's not a hateful biatch like the rest of us.
Then I was told by X today that after Beetchie's comment, she was not sure she could compete this round.
 

Being the clever bunch that you are, I logged in this evening to find two more great ones and now H1 and I are having a difficult time choosing a winner of that lot and goodness knows what's going to happen when Frass and MC have a crack at it...IF they have a crack at it.

It's Day II of the Blog-away but I am having a hard time choosing the next photo for one particular reason.
 
As you all know, The HOchieS are not really fans of putting ourselves or our friends out there on the internet in pictures.  However, some of the photos are just nothing without the expression on your faces.  I can draw bao heads to capture the moment but my drawings are terrible and more than likely will not do most of those things justice.
 
So, I have a proposal.
 
I am going to post the original pictures behind a cut.  If you want your pic. removed immediately just let me know and I will do so and I'll e-mail the pic. to the group instead.

 

Please know too that I will never keep the picture in its original form forever on the blog and will alter it at some point soon after your entries are in.

 

That said, click the link to see Round II's Caption This Picture Contest (and I'm posting it a bit earlier before everyone has commented on the last because X will be on a business trip for the next week and wanted a shot in this Round).

My apologies to CLee in advance...

 

Blog-away I

Wouldn't you know it?

This right here is the 1000th 1 or 2 HOchieS blog post.

To celebrate this day of millions of characters typed, 999 + stories told and memories shared with all of you frenemies...H1 and I have decided to do a little Giveaway.

Think of it as pyos to you for pyos to us - for all your hilarious comments to the snarky ones or to the times you glossed over (mostly my) ramblings.

Of course, we racked our brain to come up with some sort of blog-centric quiz because why would we just give you guys things without making it interesting?

Now, I can't say my solution is interesting but it'll be as fun as you guys make it.

For 8 future blog posts with this one included, I borrowed a little daily exercise from one of our favourite bloggers.  Ours may not be as gross as his but we're going to present to you a picture in a "Caption This Picture Contest".

I'll post a picture and in the comments section leave your caption to match.

The funniest one as voted by H1 and I will get a prize!

Of course, since we love all 8 of our trusted frenemies who participate actively on here (I luz you others too, I do!), we have decided to do 8 blogs of giveaways. 

The person who wins day 1, is free to enter a comment on any other day if so compelled but even though you may have a killer caption again - we'll pick the 2nd best to win on day 2 and so on and so forth until each person gets a prize.  Makes sense?

Okay... let's begin!

DAY 1: Caption this Picture

Happy 4th of July

We had a fun day with friends coming over to eat Momma HO's jerked chicken, jerked pork, saffron rice, melongene casserole and bbq chicken. Thanks to Alex's Mom for the black rice (with lots of bacon for me...mmmm).

There are no pictures of the greatness as Frass pointed out because you know we enjoy nothing more than torturing MC but unfortunately, we were too starvin' marvin' to take the camera for pics. I'm regretting it now but I can at least post pictures of the chocolate sheet cake that H1 and I baked again. These are ones of that first time but never posted:





Memorable Conversations of the Day:

H1: Frass, you want some raspberry smirnoff?
Frass: Yeah, but I hope it doesn't taste like ketrax.
Or 2 & H1: What's ketrax?
Frass: Worm medication. Allyuh never had to take that as chirren?
::crickets::
Or 2 & H1: Um, No.
Frass: Oh yeah? My sister and I were always on that.

Or 2: Just so you know, I like your daughter's watermelon pants.
Alex: Oh yeah? I was wondering if it was too stereotypical. I asked my sister...You think I should put her in this? You know, watermelons and black people?
Or 2: ::chuckle:: Don't worry, I think it's cool. Oh you know, we had watermelon in the fridge...
Alex: Why you gotta be all racial?!

Currently listening to: "Thank You Very Much" by Kaiser Chiefs

Downtown Friday

We began the week with a Monday Midtown Mini Adventure and ended the week with a Friday Downtown Excursion.

Along with Alex, we journeyed to Chinatown, which was not as crazed as I predicted and actually quite the nice evening for walking about.

An emergency call to Beetchie to inquire as to where good dumplings could be had, led us not really finding good dumplings but it also led us to not eating bad ones either.

Note to remember from B.: The dumplings at the Excellent Dumpling House are not that Excellent.

After many years of knowing Beetchie, I never truly ventured to her family's Malaysian Restaurant "Saya". That's probably the fault of the Marco Polo Noodle House that's right next door that H1 and I used to frequent, only to discover that that place is now gone. We cried a little when we found out.

So yes, we were starving and even though we had dinner plans at 9 PM, we went and had first dinner.

First dinner was greatness.

The curry puffs are fantastic and just about everything else was too - the satay (beef and chicken...yum!), the nasi lemak..mmmm. It was all goo'd times. Perhaps, too many goo'd times because H1 and I managed to over-eat a tad. Heh Heh.

Well who knew that a 6 PM meal would full us up so much by the time the 10 PM meal came around?!

After finding all manners of sparklies and danglies for X, a super Japanese bath towel for her,

Oh, the Japanese and their sekshi:





and walking forever to get to Thompson St., we parted ways with Alex and met up with X and Mk at Kittichai for X's Birthday celebration.

From Malaysian curry to Thai curry, H1 and I had even more good times at second dinner.

I did not have as many goo'd times as I should have because I was still sadly full from first dinner, but did love myself some tempura sea bass appetizers.

I didn't care much for the chocolate baby back ribs which really didn't taste anything like chocolate and only served to mess up my chopsticks royally (which annoyed me to no end - filthy chopsticks are one of the most horrid things ever. And this was coming off the fact that my server took my chopsticks away and then didn't want to give me a plate. Ass!).

My meal (what I could eat of it) was good save the fact they managed to burn the meat on top but meh, I still enjoyed my pineapple braised short ribs in green curry.

H1 had some sort of steak which she really liked and then we had to go after a champagne toast to X.

Talk about a mess trying to get a train that ran and getting home. It took an hour for us to get to Grand Central and we just barely made the 12:20 train and goodness knows that we did not want to be in Grand Central until 1:50 AM.

Poor transportation left us a bit cranky but at least we weren't cranky because we lacked food.

Making Christmas (Part VII)... A Mountain of Pyos, A List, Thanks and a Middle Finger

It's always hard when Christmas Day is over.

Christmas seems to never want to come and then when it's here, it goes by so quickly that it's depressing. It always feels as though something else should have happened but never quite did.

This year, The HOchieS had the fortune of a Thursday Christmas and a Friday office closing but as soon as those presents were unwrapped Christmas day, I felt that my weekend was already done.

Sure enough, it's Sunday night now and I'm already dreading another work week, even though it's a short one. I already feel like next weekend's gone too and I'm looking forward to Martin Luther King Jr.'s Day.

Clearly I have problems.

This was not supposed to be a rant but really a thank you for the presents and the pyo list to keep track of.

As per Bunji's commentary (and his finger):

"It's 2008, and there's a recession but obviously NOT AT THIS HOUSE".



It was truly embarrassing but I stuck to a budget for the most part, as did H1. Well... maybe.



Now, on to the Loot!

The Cheat -

Season 8, Vol. 3 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Comic from Or 2

Diderick -

A hardcover copy of the Divine Comedy from Or 2

H1 (an incomplete list because I don't know all she got)-

A Christmas Candle in Cute Christmas Sock from Mahone
Clothes from Aims
A copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard from Alex and J.J.
A Hand Vac from X, Mk and Mw
Persepolis the book from TD5
An additional subscription to Bookswim from MC
A Sephora Diva makeup kit from Frass, to add to her fierceness in 2009
A Lilac stone pair of earrings from Sons
Pajamas, and measuring cups from BooHead
Butter dish, clothes & accessories, hand vac, sneakers, pot holders and other things from Luuuuuiiisssss
Awesome sweaters from Momma HOchie and Papa HOchie
A (I only want a) Candy Cane (This year) Mug from Papa HOchie
A Deep purple stone pair of earrings, The Complete Peanuts 1967-1970, and the Limited Edition Collector's The Tales of Beedle the Bard from Or 2

Or 2 -

A Christmas Candle in Not-as-Cute-as-H1's Christmas Sock from Mahone
A Ghost of Christmas Bear, and TONS of Great Time Spam Singles from Sandy Cheeks
Persona 3, Death Note DVD Volume 4 and a Cool Japanese Diorama from Aims
Persona 4 from X, Mk and Mw
Death Note DVD Volume 6 from CLee
Monies for Rock Band Songs and my Death the Kid Soul Eater Silver Ring from Sons
A Monokuro Boo Note Pad, Yummy Sugar Cookies, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles Manga Vols 2-3 from Gen Frien'
Futurama "Bender's Game" Blu-Ray Disc, and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles Manga Vol. 1 from Frass
Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles Manga Vol. 2 from MC, which I will be getting a refund for from Amazon for Vol. 4
Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles Manga Vols. 7-8
A Christmas Story Limited Edition Box Set, and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle Manga Vol. 9 from TD5
Christmas Eve Pajamas, and Reno & Rude figures from Boohead
The Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 2 from Luuuuiiissss
Awesome sweaters and pants from Momma HOchie and Papa HOchie
A pyo and christmas ornaments Mug from Papa HOchie
A huge tin of Royal Dansk Danish Butter cookies from Diderick and The Cheat
Shadow of Colossus from Bunji
xxxHolic Manga Vol. 12, D. Gray-man Manga Vol. 11, and Disgaea DS from H1

I'm not finished with Christmas shopping yet, days after the fact but it'll happen.

Sorry to be late, friends and thank you so much for everything.

Currently listening to: "Mayuka's Theme" by Seikou Nagaoka, from the Tenchi the Movie 2: The Daughter of Darkness Original Soundtrack.