I made it safely to Japan on Tuesday!

I will still update here, but if you want to follow what I am doing in Japan, you can check out my other journal here: http://lo-in-japan.livejournal.com/

Kayla and I escorted a small army of Japanese women to Costco this afternoon.

It started like this: Yuko put out some chocolate for us to eat when we went over to her house for cookie decorating. Yuko's neighbor Megumi got all excited and told us that the chocolate was just like what they sell in Japan (nama choco) and was surprised to hear that Yuko bought it here in America at Costco. Poor Kayla mentioned that she had a Costco membership and within about 20 seconds we had solid plans for a trip there.

So the usual suspects were as such: Kayla, cause she had the card, myself for moral support, Yuko, Megumi and Yuko's neighbor who brought her 1 year old son Tepe-kun. We all traipsed through Costco eating all the sample foods and pointing at things that looked particularly tasty or interesting. Yuko turned to Kayla and said, "You have to teach us what all the delicious things are, okay?" So that is what we did... for 2 hours. But hey, that is 2 hours of Japanese language practice that I get in!

After that I hit up Target and bought my own drugstore worth of cosmetics and things that I will need to take to Japan. So after a long day of shopping, I'm pooped. And unbelievably I am going to get up tomorrow morning and make more Christmas cookies so we can take them to my Uncle's house on Christmas Eve. So I'm off to bed, dreaming of more baking. G'nite!

Okay, everyone often hears that a group of rhinos is called a crash. But did you know:

A group of finches is called a charm.

A group of frogs is called an army.

A group of toads is called a knots.

A group of geese in the air is called a skein.

A group of goats is called a trip.

A group of owls is called a parliament.

A group of hares is called a husk.

A group of turtles is called a bale.

A group of cats is called a clowder.

A group of whales is called a gam.

A group of tigers is called a streak.


Well now you know.

Kayla just put up some sweet pictures of us at the aquarium. I am totally rocking out my Bird Whispering skills... yeah, right before it tried to poop on me. Little shit!

This is the Christmas cookie decorating week!

I went over to the Dorl's house yesterday to decorate more Christmas cookies! We did the traditional sugar cookies and iced them, but Mrs. Dorl also made some delicious rum ball cookies. I have known Jenny Dorl since my days of ballet when I was 3 years old. I used to hang out with Jenny and her little sister Cassie after ballet practice. The funny thing is, I met Jenny and Cassie when there Mom was pregnant with their youngest sister Katie. So Jenny always introduces me to people as, "This is my friend Lauren. I've know her longer that my little sister."

RIght now I am over at Jacqueline's house watching her play Assassin's Creed. It's a pretty intense video game, not one that I would ever try to play... I stick with Rock Band or Lego Star Wars, ya know the easy stuff. So while she plays video games, I am stealing her internets to check all my emails.

Oh! Dan, Jacqueline, Joe and I went to see I Am Legend Saturday night. I highly recommend that movie! It's got a lot of good action even though it's only Will Smith commanding the screen. Actually Smith said that he got a lot of inspiration from Tom Hank's Castaway and seeing that Smith's costar in this movie was a dog, he did a damn good job. There was one part where I cried pretty hard. You get really emotionally invested in the movie... just go see it!

Mom and I baked up a storm. We have a cookie exchange on Sunday so we are going to exchange 2 dozen of 2 types of cookies. Mom made her thumbprint apricot cookies and I made my favorite chocolate marshmallow cookies. I got the recipe from a cookie cookbook that Emily gave me about 2 or 3 years ago. I LOVE that cookbook!

So if anyone feels up to making the cookies, cause they truly are delicious, I'll put the recipe up for you.

3 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup (packed) light brown sugar
2 sticks soften butter
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
12 oz semisweet chocolate chips
8 oz mini marshmallows (frozen)

Preheat over 350 degrees.

1. Combine flour, cocoa powder and baking soda. Set aside.
2. Combine sugars and butter and use electric mixer to cream together. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until light and fluffy.
3. Add flour mixture and chocolate chips.
4. Gather 4 or 5 frozen marshmallows in your hand and wrap the marshmallows with a heaping spoonful of batter.
5. Place balls on ungreased cookie sheet and cook for 10 to 12 minutes.

ENJOY!

The White Death hath cometh again.

I woke up this morning to an unbelievable 2 or 3 inches of snow on the ground. From what I remember from what the weather man said, he said there would be some snow in the morning, then sleeting and rain cause it would warm up in the afternoon, and then we should get most of our snow in the evening. Well I don't want to see what this is going to pile up to... and I wanted to go see I Am Legend with Dan and Jacqueline today. Boo!

Looks like it is going to be snow induced house arrest.

Today was Christmas Cookie Decorating Day with Kayla, Yuko, Yuko's neighbor. I busted out all the Christmas cookies cutters, icing, sprinkles and cookie recipes that I could find which, unsurprisingly to me, my mom has in hordes of in the house. I planned this day for us because knew it was going to be a lot of fun decorating the cookies with the girls, but I was wholly unprepared for how shocked the Japanese girls would be by some of the conveniences (aka: shortcuts) that Americans have for baking.

Take for example the tub of icing which can be a godsend for some women who devour it's contents in the throws of troubled times or for the working parent who has .5 seconds to make baked goods for their kid's school functions. I am always one for the tub of icing. It always tastes better than trying to make your own from powdered sugar... probably cause its full of fats and preservatives... bring it! Yuko and her friend were amazed to watch Kayla and I take vanilla frosting from a tub, add some food coloring and come up with a wide array of color which we loaded into snack size ziplock bags and cut off the edges to make piping bags. I don't know what was quite so amazing about it... maybe Kayla can help fill me in some more... but I think they might have thought that we make icing from scratch and/or have to buy icing in the colors we want.

Another amazing American convenience is the baking mix in a pouch. I know that our grandparents and some parents are probably still amazed at this new convenience of dumping a pouch of dry ingredients into a bowl and only adding an egg or some water or butter and, presto, you have cookies/muffins/cornbread/brownies/cake... you name it! Nevertheless, Yuko and her friend went into peals of conversation about the awesomeness that is the pouch 'o cookie mix. Seriously though, I'm not going to measure out all the stuff to make sugar cookies when the stuff in the pouch tastes just as delicious and is only 99 cents!

Oh! My favorite part of the day was when they wigged out about sprinkles. I know they have sprinkles in Japan! I've seen the rainbow sprinkles on those tasty chocolate covered frozen bananas they sell at festivals, but since most all Japanese don't have ovens in their homes, baking isn't a big part of their lives. Therefore, cookie decorating doesn't have a large market there, so maybe sprinkles aren't widely sold for general consumption. Yuko took one look at the wide array of sprinkles we had and asked what they were and if they were edible. I had been looking for those sprinkles that look like ball bearings... mom always tries to correct me when I call them ball bearings, but I can never remember their real name. I love decorating cookies with those ball bearings sprinkles (it reminds me of my grandma too) but I would have LOVED to have see Yuko's face if we insisted that those were edible as well.

So we busted out some sugar cookies and a good gingerbread cookie mix. We had all kinds of fun shapes like big Santa faces, Christmas trees, gingerbread men, reindeer, bells, nutcrackers (I made my nutcrackers into beefeaters), Mickey Mouse (for Yuko), snowmen and snowflakes.

Kayla and I had gone over to Yuko's right after lunch and ended up staying there for seven hours decorating and cooking!! We even got another one of Yuko's neighbors, also Japanese, to come over and decorate with us. This woman had the cutest little boy who was one and a half years old named Tepe (pronounced: Teh-pay). Little Tepe-kun was so precious, he is going to come out with us on Wednesday, along with everyone that was at the cookie decorating, so that we can have a sushi party at Kayla's house. Yum sushi!!

PEOPLE ARE CRAZY!


Biochemist found guilty of killing husband with acid

LOS ANGELES - A biochemist who killed her husband by knocking him out and pouring hydrochloric acid on him was convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder.

A Superior Court jury found Larissa Schuster, 47, of Clovis, guilty of murdering Timothy Schuster with the special circumstance that the murder was committed for financial gain. His half-dissolved body was found a few days after his 2003 death in a barrel that was inside a storage unit that his wife had rented.

Schuster faces a mandatory term of life in prison without parole at sentencing, set for Jan. 16.

The Schusters co-owned a chemical lab and were in the midst of a bitter divorce.

Prosecutors said Larissa Schuster and her former lab assistant kidnapped her 45-year-old husband on July 10, 2003, knocked him out with a stun gun and chloroform-soaked rag, then dumped his bound body headfirst into a barrel while he was still breathing.

The assistant, James Fagone, told authorities that Larissa Schuster then poured hydrochloric acid into the 55-gallon container.


UGH UGH UGH! That woman is one crazy bitch!

My mom got a phone call from one of the women she works together with in charity who has season tickets to the Bengals. Since her grandchild was in town for the weekend, she couldn't make it to the Sunday game. Mom never lets a chance to go to the football game pass her so we scored some sweet tickets. And since Jacqueline has never been to a Bengals game, it was the perfect chance! Too bad it was the worst weather I have ever attended a football game in. It rained the whole time and only hit a high of 48 degrees that day. But it was SO much fun... and we WON!

I'll get some pictures up of it soon!

So Jacqueline and I spent all our time together this summer and fall. When I wasn't hanging out with her in Portland and she was back in Cincinnati. There was, for a time, when I thought that seeing her in Portland was going to be the last time for a long time since she was looking into jobs out there. However since she wants to go into a job working with high performance cars in chemical engineering, it seemed like it would be better to go onto graduate school for the next 2 years to get further experience since it is such a competitive field. She's attending University of Cincinnati now. So I got her back!

So Jacq and I are hanging out all the time again. It's much easier to hang out together, what with her being a student and me being currently unemployed... makes life much easier and more flexible.




So until I leave, it's a lot of her and I drinking on the weekends, playing video games during the week and once in a while meeting up for coffee or a movie. Speaking of which, we are so excited to see I Am Legend. Will Smith movies always turn out to be good ones! His Independence Day helped me on the road to recovery to getting over my fear of aliens. (Stop laughing!)

Jacqueline is finally finished with her exams at UC so her and I went out to celebrate together. We hit up the mall and perused the Apple store since I needed a new battery for my computer. That old battery I had was the one that came with the computer and now, three years later, it was only holding a charge for about 25 minutes before I had to plug it in again.

So after the Apple store we had lunch together. Pina colada for Jacq, gin and tonic for me. G&T is my all time favorite drink. Akane and I were nuts about gin!! We would often hide a bottle of good gin in one of our bedrooms during parties because we would polish off the whole thing ourselves. Akane and I made the stupid mistake of thinking the Bombay Sapphire was actually that beautiful color blue... yeah it's not. We went out of our way to buy it after admiring it for so long and when we ran home we got out the nice clear glasses and... yeah it's clear like all other gins. That was a painful lesson.

So after Jacq and I hung out at the mall, she went home for a nap and I went home and watched some TV. Her, Dan and I met up around 10:00, and met Brian and Julie over at some local bar. Then skyline at 1:30... chili cheese fries, yum!! Now I really should be getting to sleep cause I gotta get up early tomorrow.

G'nite!

It's funny what memories will trigger other memories.

Tonight over dinner with my Great Aunt and Uncle, I was telling the tremendously funny story of my Junior year roommate, Tomoko, getting trapped in our apartment's bathroom and having to literally rip the door to shreds to escape for fear of death of the apartment burning down from what she had been cooking on the stove. While my experience isn't nearly as frightening as poor Tomoko's was, it does involve me being trapped in a bathroom.

I attended my high school's prom my Junior year with my friend Jean. At the time she was dating a guy from the West Side and when prom rolled around she hooked me up with her boyfriend's cousin, Dan. We all went out a few times before prom, saw Spiderman together -- I definitely remember laughing when Dan started crying when Uncle Ben died, but I cried too so I couldn't say much -- and on the night of prom, we all went over to Jean's house so we could drive together. After the prom dance was over, we came back to Jean's house to change into regular clothes so we could attend after prom. So while Jean changed in her room and the boys changed in the spare bedroom, I went into the bathroom. Needless to say the door had been broken for some time and when I shut the door, I trapped myself in. It took about 45 minutes to get me out of there. Breaking the door was not an option, nor was jumping out of a second story bathroom window. Luckily the crack under the door was very large and they managed to squeeze a screwdriver underneath so I could unscrew all the hinges and pop the door off.

This just goes to show... never trust a bathroom!!

So Mom's friend hooked her up with tickets to opening night of Wicked here in Cincinnati. Only problem is that the tickets are for January 9th and I am leaving for Japan on the 7th!! I'm so bummed.

I have really wanted to see this play for a long time now. Tiff was the first one to introduce me to the soundtrack. Since I was trying to make up the story line from the lyrics (something I tried to do with the Phantom of the Opera when I was a kid and ended up misinterpreting most of the story) I decided that it would be best to read the novel (Wicked by G. Maguire) which the play is based off of. So, I wasn't crazy about the novel but it was still really interesting. Therefore I think I am going to like the flashy, cliffnotes version that is the broadway play. Too bad I am missing my chance.

One of these days I will get my chance.

Here comes the White Death!

All the weather stations are freaking out because we are building up to our first real snowfall of the season! Rumored 3 to 4 inches of it. But it never turns out to be as much as they predict.

I've had such a good summer here in the Nattius. Back in August, Mom and I were invited by her friend Nancy Brown to watch a Bengals game down at the Paul Brown stadium! Mom and Nancy work for the Salvation Army and make doll clothes for American Girl knock-off dolls that they give away for free to needy children at Christmas time. So Nancy invited us to watch the pre-season Bengals vs. Colts game... we beat the hell outta them, but look where we are now! 4-8!? Pathetic! Ok, ok... don't let me go on about the Bengals... I'll get the vapors.



That was the first time I had ever seen a live Bengals game! Can you believe it? Lived in this city for 22 years and never attended a game... well I know I'm not the only one (*cough* Jacqueline and Kayla). And we had these great seats that were right on the 50 yard line. Too bad beer is $7.50 a bottle.

Then, I got a call from Kayla in October. Her friends had season tickets and weren't going to make it to the Bengals vs. Jets game. So Kayla, her Dad and I went down to tailgate since Kayla's neighbors had a tailgate party all set up. After the biggest and best Bloody Mary of my life, we grabbed our seats. Guess what? That was one of the better games we had and beat the Jets (not really too hard to do though). I point to the fact that I am the Bengal's good luck charm. Yup, that's gotta be it!

So while it's not been a good season for the Bengals, I've been in front of the TV watching every game. If I'm not out at a sports bar, I'm over at Jacqueline's or watching it with Mom. Mom's a pretty avid Bengals fan too. TJ Houshmandzadeh is so attractive!

On top of football, I got to hit up a Reds baseball game over the summer. I never mind watching a baseball game 'cause I played softball for 2 years in high school, so I can really get into the game. The Reds pitcher, Homer Bailey, is a Ohio University alum! It made the game more fun to cheer them on. And, just like with the Bengals, the Reds beat the hell outta the Chicago Cubs. Ha!

However, when it all comes down to it, I like soccer the most. I actually played soccer for 6 years -- from kindergarten to 7th grade! I lose my mind when the World Cup comes on!

The Bengals just played the Steelers yesterday... what a shitty game. It was so bad, that I turned it off. Damn disappointing... but that's part of the life of being a Bengals fan I guess.

However, the Cleveland Browns are putting on a very good show this year! But I'm not rooting them on... oh no! Not me. Cleveland is my mortal enemy... but the Browns are doing well. Seriously though, it would be really awesome to get one Ohio team to the Superbowl! Ohio produces some of the best football players in America, but why can't we ever have a good team?!

What a wonderful surprise when I got a facebook message from my good friend Crissy that she would be coming back to Cincinnati so that her parents could celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.



Cristina (on the right) and her little sister Daniela (in the middle) were my very, very good friends in high school. Crissy was in the same grade as me and I was paired with her one day in 8th grade Spanish class. We hit it off and became good friends, but sophomore year we got the news that because of her Dad's work, they were moving down to North Carolina. That was quite the blow since I spent all my free time with her in school, as well as out of school. And since I was at Crissy's house so often, I became good friends with her younger sister Dani who is three grades younger than us. (Oh and if my mom hadn't cut off the head of the woman in the picture in the background, you would have seen that she was winking and we copied).

After Crissy and Dani moved down to N. Carolina, they had the chance to come up to visit a couple times a year but once they started to fit into their lives down there and I started making new friends, we started seeing less and less of each other. I hate to admit that communication became less and less again as well. So when I got the message that they were coming back to the Natti, it had been 3 or 4 years since I had last seen them!

It was like we hadn't been apart!

The three of us wandered over to our old high school to see everything that had changed. We ran into a lot of our old teachers! I got to see one of my favorite teachers Mr. Meyers who taught me Chemistry and Environmental Science. I got to see Mrs. H-M who taught me Chemistry Seminar, which was like a Forensic Science class. And we got to see Mrs. Gudelski who taught me Biology. We just missed Mr. Sutcamp my old Social Studies teacher and I missed seeing Mrs. Putz my old Orchestra teacher. Apparently we weren't supposed to be wandering the halls after school hours without permission. When one of the janitors hunted us down, Crissy, Dani and I played the, 'I can't believe how long it's been since we've been in this school! Aren't you the same janitor that was here when we were here!?! I can't believe how much has changed!' The janitor, overcome with apparent nostalgia, dropped what he was doing and ended up taking us on a personal tour of the school, taking us back to restricted sections, and getting into teacher's classrooms to see old teachers of ours.

Still miss those girls! Hope that I can see them again one day soon!

I am still lovin' on the shark petting exhibit at the Newport aquarium. This shark was my favorite as well as the most friendly shark there was in the tank. What a cutie! Here Yuko demonstrates the two finger petting rule.

As I was stretching my red MS cause bracelet over my hand on Wednesday, the poor thing snapped clean in two and went flying across the room to huddle in a corner. I don't think I have been without that bracelet for the last... two years? More? I can't remember but in probably every picture on facebook you can see it on my wrist.

That bracelet means so much to me because it was given to me by my cousin who was heading a MS (Multiple Sclerosis) club at University of Cincinnati. My cousin was diagnosed with MS about 3 years ago, so I wear my bracelet everyday cause I lurv my Couz!!

That was until Wednesday when I apparently wore the thing out. Good thing my Great Aunt and Uncle (who are the grandparents of my cousin) have a stash of the bracelets at their house. I went over there with a birthday pie for Uncle John and obtained my new bracelet!

I feel much better now.

If you want to learn more about the disease and ways you can help, you can check it out at nationalmssociety.org

OMG!

Helio broke off his engagment with his fiance!!!

The two had been going dating for six years and last I heard, Helio was saying that they were pushing the engagment back another year... but nooooooo! Lies!

Okay, everyone is blindly blaming Helio's dance partner Julianne. Well maybe I am setting myself up for them to prove me wrong but that girl is only 19 years old and while the two of them had good chemisty, I don't think Helio's wife (Ali Vasquez) has been thrown into a blind rage just because her fiance is dancing with a little blonde hottie every week. No, I think that there has been something wrong between Helio and Ali for quite a while now. I mean six years? That's a long time. And Helio keeps long, long, long hours traning as a race car driver. He has precious little time off to just be with her. And Ali is a business executive so I don't think she has a lot of time for herself either! I think there has been a long running fight between the two of them about having time together. Then he enters this dancing competition and has to train for dancing 10 hours a day, which leaves no time to be with Ali... if they weren't thinking about breaking if off before he entered, not getting to spend any time together after he entered the competition really split it up. I think Julianne had little to do with it.

However, ever since that palm reader told Mom that she was psychic, Mom has been making all kinds of 'predictions'. Last night as we were watching the finale, Mom looks over at me and says, "You know, there is so much chemisty between Helio and Julianne and I wouldn't be surprised if something happened between them." To which I supported my man Helio by saying, "Oh Mom, everyone says that about every star and their dance partner! Besides, he's engaged to be married. And Julianne is only 19 years old! Nothing is happening between them." Mom shook her head and said, "I don't know. I think there is something in the future for those two." Yikes.