Making Christmas (Part V)... Or 2's 1st Christmas Card, Festive Pictures and Halloween in the Tree?

The HOchieS decorated one of two Christmas trees last weekend. Being that A'Face and B'Head are at the grand old age of 2 each, we made the tree kid friendly again this year.

Notable new tree friends this year include Kon -



Sheets, posing as the Ghost of Christmas Present (really he's just a ghost dressed up as a ghost for Halloween...I don't know how he managed to sneak into the Tree. The last time I messed with a ghost, I got scratched so I'm gonna leave him be) -



and CLee with his main squeeze:



Last week I got my first Christmas card for 2008 and I laughed lots. Thanks Sandy Cheeks.





H1 and I addressed our cards to send to friends and family, more like she did most of the work even though she did have my stamping and sealing like a Ralph (I thought Ralph only took care of tape!), and I took a picture of us (H1) busily working away.



I can't believe there are only 11 days left until Christmas. I wonder where my Christmas Spirit got to?

No! He's not in the tree!

Currently listening to: "Topo's Groove Heaven (Variant 3)" by Tsuyoshi Sekito, from the Brave Fencer Musashiden Original Soundtrack. What???!!!

"It's Written All Over Your Face...

...you just want my headphones, don't you?"

Justin Law, it's true. I do want your headphones and thanks to Gen Frien', I have a pair like them now.

My Etymotics conked out on me a few weeks ago, so I finally decided to try some Shure headphones that I've wanted for a while. Of course, until the day comes when I get the $600.00 pair (which I don't think will ever happen), I will never be satisfied.

I'm happy with my new Shure headphones for the most part - the sound is clear but the ear pieces are kind of hurting my ears (because in addition to tiny carney hands, apparently I've tiny carney ear holes as well) but struck upon a bit of genius before I ordered them to make the already awesome Shure headphones even more awesome...



(fantastic photo above of the shures taken by Gen Frien')

Why not commission my talented artist friend Gen to craft some Justin Law headphones for me?!

She's my talented artist friend but she's also one of my best friends, and insisted that she'd make them and give them to me as a Birthday pyo.

I. love. them.

It took about 2 tries before getting it on the 3rd due to my overwhelming demands and pestering but here's the set we decided on:





Of course, it was hard with the manga artist's and the tv series artists' inconsistencies and getting just the right picture but Gen did the best she could and they're fabulous as expected.

And of course, the day after I got them from her (they fit right on the Shure's so neatly!), episode 36 of Soul Eater came out and there is a screen shot of the headphones is perfectly clear and detailed. Grrr!

Well, Gen will try again to craft them as seen in Episode 36 in the near future, but for now, I'll keep rockin' these hotness ones I have on the train, so even more people can look at me and think me crazy.

No otaku has jumped me yet for my J. Laws.

H1, I am no Otaku!

Making Christmas (Part IV)... Assembling Treat Boxes

Lollipops were made of melted semi-sweet chocolate poured into Santa Claus Head molds, and wrapped up with extra holiday bags and tied with ribbon.






We made quite a number of them, with only 3 white chocolate ones sullying the lot. I keep saying it and will stand by what I believe - white chocolate's not really chocolate! In addition to which, it's a pain in the ass to melt; let us not discuss how I botched the first batch.

With the sugar cookies, lollipops and pear gruyere pie cups made, we assembled most of the Treat Boxes (Christmas Themed Chinese Take-Out Boxes, bought at Michaels. H1 and I would just like to say that Michaels is the best damned place we've been to in recent history).



On Monday, Sons made gulab jamoons and omg, those were amazing!





Only 2 friends got them, since only 2 appreciative Trinis were getting them...well, 1 appreciative Trini who gave me beautifully made, yummy sugar cookies as one of my pyos (Thanks, Gen!)



Note: Green Sugar Cookie Man was fortunate that he only lost a leg. There was a Sugar Cookie Massacre during my transport and two of them were beheaded. It was nightmarish and sad!

and one FRASS, who has yet to pick up his sad, lonely little box of treats!

He tells me though that he likes stale treats. And yes, Frass, I remembered how much you HATE pies, so you got none of that.

Forgotten Chinatown Shade

I forgot to mention it but we bought glow in the dark stars and moon to stick on Boo-Head's ceiling, and H1 was most appalled to discover that her kid's presento-pyo came in this bag:



Please click on the picture to enlarge if need be and read the various text on it.

Wha'?

Who did this? Was it those Koreans with their cuicks, again?

Ah, cuicks.

IFUCKING LOVE YOU!

That was some vintage stuff.

Making Christmas (Part III)...Pear Gruyere Pie Cups

Deserving of their own picture parade, we present to you pear gruyere pie cups.

We got the recipe and idea from the blondie and brownie blog, and they got it from the now defunct (and sadly so, even though...I rarely watched it myself but hey! I just don't watch a lot of television, not because tv is bad) Pushing Daisies.

The pears were amazing by themselves so there's not much port wine could do to muck up an already good tasting pear...would that even be possible?



It was by no means a hard recipe but the HOchieS do not usually deal with flour/crust so we were a bit scared by what the results would be.

For anyone who may want to know, it takes four Trini girls to assembly 16 pie cups but that was partially my fault, since I forgot all about the dough in the freezer while I was poaching some pears.

With X and Sons helping out, we got it done and in the oven and when they made an appearance after being baked, we just knew that these things would be fantastic times and that everyone who got one would love it (the feedback was very positive).







Oh yes.





Currently listening to: "Keiyakusha" by Yoko Kanno, from the Darker Than Black Original Soundtrack.

Making Christmas (Part II): ...and Making Christmas Piggyhs.

This year for Treats by the HOchieS, not only did we make Christmas piggyhs or Christmas Hams as I lovingly call them, but also Santa Claus Chocolate heads, filled Treat Boxes, gulab jamuns and baked the awesomeness known as Pear Gruyere pie cups instead of the regular red velvet cupcakes.

Before the pictures come rolling, the HOchieS would like to thank X and Sons for all their help. This year's Treat Bag/Boxes were of a whole other magnitude, tiring and time consuming work.

But everything was beautiful and tasted great.

Now, I present to you...the Piggyhies:

Unbaked Christmas Hams!



A Plate of Baked Hams Ready for a Paint Job:



Awww, Painted, Pink Pigghies...



What's this? A Devil Pig?



Devil Pig was given to Gen. Here he is gathering his forces. His life was quickly cut short after I tossed him a box though. It was off to Slaughter by way of Chewing for D.Pigh. All hail D.Pigh!



Memorable Quotes of the Evening:

X ::as she's painting the pigs:: : Oink

Or 2: What's with the violet eyes?
X: H1 says they're going to have violet eyes just like Elizabeth Taylor. Those were her exact words.
H1: ::after trying an eye:: Okay, no eyes.

Currently listening to: "Sunday Bloody Sunday" by U2

Sucked into "Combat!"

Sons left the television on this channel called "American Life" because she was reminiscing over some Remington Steel. As a side note, I was scorned for never watching it but that was before my time!

After she left to go to the store and I was busily organizing my bag of goodies and doing some work, I realised there was some black and white show going on after Remington Steel was over.

H1 and I are pretty hasty to dismiss anything in black and white but I noticed there was a soldier hanging from a church steeple and his comrades were trying their best to get him to shut his delirium. Why? Because the Germans were right below them and they'd get caught.

"What is this mess?" I thought. I knew the name of it because I saw the opening credits, which by the way was pretty impressive.

And so, I ended up watching Combat!, a show about two soldiers in WWII. I don't know if they were stationed all over Europe but in this episode, they were in France.

There was so much that could go wrong and did but so much that 'conveniently' happened, all so that the American soldiers could make it to safety, while the Nazis were all gunned down.

It was pretty typical in that sense but there was some grand cleverness to that show too including the Americans hiding out in the Belfry but suffering for Mass. With the bell being tolled right within earshot, they were hurting but not deaf afterward.

The other thing I really liked about it was that everyone spoke their respective languages and there were NO SUBTITLES! They could have been saying ridiculousness in German and French but I would never have known!

When the priest went to the German commanding office to tell him to get the presumable dead American soldier from the steeple, he went through 3 languages before finally asking him if he spoke English, to which the German Commanding Officer smugly and smirking all over said yes.

One German soldier decided to take the boots off the American because his boots were tattered unlike the corpse hanging from the steeple. It cost him his life and his entire squad but the drama in the rescue that incorporated the boots story was greatness.

Oh, and one more thing. The best part about that show was the episode title.

It was called 'The Steeple'.

I know I'll research this later and find out it was a really popular show and be persecuted for not knowing it.

Not without its flaws (like really, how did the Americans hear anything the Germans said from that distance?) or overwhelming patriotism Combat! made for interesting times and made me waste 1 hour watching and 20 minutes blogging, when I came home early to get rest from catching the cold from Alpha Monkey Boobey-Head, Beta Goat Luuuuiiiisss and Omega Ostrich H1.

Making Christmas (Part I): Chinatown Friday

As I write this, it's actually December 10th even though I started this post on December 6th. The HOchieS had a very full weekend past, with Day-Off'ing, Chinatown'ing, Baking, Decorating and doing Christmasie Christmas'ing.

On Friday last, Sons and the HOchieS trekked off to Chinatown for some Dim sum. I think I have to make it a tradition of making the Dim sum trip to take pictures of the Chinese Christmas display at Golden Bridge and well, to eat Dim sum of course.

The dim sum was extremely good on Friday and I saw things I never saw there before. I was rather impressed and tried to take decent pictures for once. Umm, that didn't happen. Clearly it's due to my lack of photography skills but I'm still trying and learning. I think H1's got a better eye than I but does she have a Camera Eye? Hmmm...

Cart Love -



OMG, here come the meats:



H1 and her good "Camera" Sense, for taking pictures of babies and now beef & pork:





What?! It was a first for here! Juicy pork dumplings?! Oh, how disappointing - the juicy bit leaked out...ah well. They were still stuffed with piggyh bliss:



The display was quite festive this year:



I particularly enjoyed the Santa:



After the eats, we headed to where the cool kids go. Sadly, Soul Eater Volume 2 figures were not out yet so I couldn't buy my beloved Stein, but we did do some Christmas Shopping for Momma HOchie, some kids and I got H1 a present. That reminds me that I need to take that from her so that I may wrap it up.

It was a fun but busy day that ended after we went to the grocery to buy ingredients for the two day bake fest which we'll discuss in a Part II blog post.

Memorable Conversation of the Day:

Sons: We're the only non-Chinese people here.
::later on:: Or 2: Oh, there are some white people over there. The Chinese people put them in the corner - out of sight. No one puts baby in a corner!

Currently listening to: "Heaven's Dead" by Audioslave.

That Scary Halloween Cat

It's December now, the month of Christmas and before we know it will be - there are only 19 days left after all.

The HOchieS started decorating and we put Santa up on the window.

It turns out, Santa has a helper this year.



During this recession, Santa could not afford Rudolph as those reindeer are part of a union and all.



That Scary Halloween Cat though, he's a free agent.

Currently listening to: "Little Green Bag" by George Baker.

So Distraught!

If Kakashi Hatake is truly dead, I will stop reading and watching Naruto Shippuuden!

Sons Is Here!

And she already managed to sully my ears by dirtying up "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" by The Offspring.

All I'll need now is for MC to create his character Sexual Chocolate again with the new and improved 'fro that has a 'fro comb in it and I'll have the entire Rock Band 2 cringe experience!

::shudder::

Baaahahahaha

Here's an article I found on Gamespot that is wrong on all levels.

A black sheep? Speaking street?

Oh, Nintendo.

Oh, Animal Crossing; it's no wonder this game cracks me up some.

Source: www.gamespot.com

Posted Dec 3, 2008 2:07 pm PT By GS_News

Every now and then, game companies' PR and marketing backfires. Sony's 2007 God of War II promotional party featuring a decapitated goat made Fortune's list of the 101 Dumbest Business Moments of the year. Then there was the Wii port of Okami, for which Capcom swiped cover art from gaming site IGN--and forgot to remove the watermark.



This week sees another such misstep, this committed by Nintendo in an effort to promote the interoperability of the recently released Animal Crossing: City Folk with 2005's Animal Crossing: Wild World for the DS. To allow members of the media the chance to check out the function, Nintendo sent out copies of Wild World with a saved city already on it.

But as spotted by MTV Multiplayer and confirmed by GameSpot, not everyone in the city was very neighborly. Specifically, the character of Baarbara the sheep greets players by using a racial epithet (pictured) in a modified form commonly used as a greeting in hip-hop culture. The line also includes a line of dialogue from the film Full Metal Jacket that Asian-Americans might find offensive. Wild World lets players customize greetings, and it appears that the objectionable wording was inserted using that function.

Although embarrassing, the Animal Crossing N-word flap doesn't rank alongside the game industry's biggest PR fiascos. Those include Microsoft's steady drumbeat of denials of widespread Xbox 360 failures in the months leading up to its $1 billion admission that the "Red Red Ring of Death" was all too common. The Big Kahuna of publicity trainwrecks came in 2005, when Take-Two Interactive insisted that the "Hot Coffee" sex minigames in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas were the work of PC hackers...just days before the minigames were found hidden in the unalterable PlayStation 2 version of the game.

[UPDATE] True to its word, a contrite Nintendo issued a statement to GameSpot apologizing for any offense and promising to recall the offending copies of the game from media outlets.

"Previously played copies of the 2005 DS game Animal Crossing: Wild World were sent to 14 members of the media to demonstrate the ability of players to transfer items to the new Animal Crossing: City Folk for Wii," said the publisher. "We regret that an offensive phrase was included without our knowledge via a wireless function that allows user-generated catchphrases to spread virally from one game to the next. This version is limited to 14 copies created for media review purposes only and is not available at retailers. We sincerely apologize for the incident and are working with media who received the game cards to return them to Nintendo immediately."

Currently listening to: Brain Schemes.

Interpunct This, CLee

Currently listening to: "Fuuki Iinchou Hibari Kyoya" by Toshihiko Sahashi, from the Katekyo Hitman Reborn Original Soundtrack I. I love it!

Bread, Ham, Macaroni Pie, Sweet Potato Souffle, Collard Greens, Beef, Stuffing and ...TWO Turkeys?!

It's true.

This year was a the HOchieS first.

There were two Thanksgiving turkeys.

Let us review:

Good times with Momma HOchie's Home-Made Bread? Check.




Good times with ham? Check.



Good times with the best macaroni pie from the best macaroni pie maker H1? Check.



Good times with Collard Greens? With Bits of Ham? Check and Check.




Good times with Sweet Potato Souffle that'll never taste as great as when Aims' makes it? Check.



Good times with roast beef? Mm, check.



Good times with Turkey 1 stuffed with Stuffing and covered with bacon? Oh yeah, Check!





Almost as good times with Turkey 2 stuffed with nothing and covered with bacon? Yep. Check.



So that was Thanksgiving 2008 at the HOchieS house. There were desserts as well and sadly, no picture taken of the saffron rice which was awesome.

Even with two turkeys, there's no food for you, Beetchie and hard luck, X. Bwahaha.

Currently listening to: "Bakosou Yume Uta" by Diggy MO', from the Soul Eater Soundtrack (3rd Ending Single).

Awww, Cute

I'm really happy to see that Kon will be in the upcoming Bleach movie. I really miss him.

Yum, Roti

A couple of weeks ago, Momma HOchie made her own dahl pourri! It was incredible and incredibly good!

From this -





To That -





To Eat With The Good Stuff -



Currently listening to: "I Wanna Be" by Stance Punks, from the Soul Eater Original Soundtrack.

Just Like That Other "Dot E" Before It

H1 presents:



Currently listening to: "Lazy Eye" by Silversun Pickups.

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

It's the last month of 2008 - here's hoping it's a great one.