Current obsession: Easter Candy

Love this time of the year when you get candy you normally don't see, like these bumpy jelly beans from Nerds:

The bag ripped and some of the beans spilled into my mouth. Delicious.

The girl and I also thought these were tasty:

Can't wait till Easter...

Brief obsession: Mash-ups

My daughter asked about mash-ups when they featured them on Glee (which starts up again on April 13--finally almost here!) And it reminded me of some really good mash-ups (which are commonly overlaying the vocals of one song over the instrumental of another song, as well as flowing between songs) out there--one of my first favorites being "A Stroke of Genie-ous" a mash-up between songs of The Strokes and Christina Aguilera.

Unfortunately the nature of different songs being mixed together by DJs has a fleeting, bootleg essence to them but there are a few DJs that have their mixes available online.

Some of my favorites are by Party Ben, which he has available on his website (www.partyben.com): Boulevard of Broken Songs, We Will Jump You, Somebody Rock Me, Pump up the Doorbell, Live Your Life Punk.

Another DJ has some interesting mash-ups, like between Jay-Z and Dave Matthews Band--check out "99 Crashes". I also found his "A Promiscuous Journey" pretty darn catchy.

Some songs definitely mash up better than others, and after hearing various mash-ups, I'd say there is an art level and skill involved. But in the end, they're a nice change of pace, when you're in the mood for something different.

Sweet Sunday

Today was an awesome Sunday. The weather was perfect. I know that sounds ridiculous given it's Southern California, but it was the perfect balance of sunshine and breeze that I could walk in the rays and not break a sweat (like I usually do). So the girl and I took a stroll to Starbucks and got some tasty beverages and the last chocolate croissant (heated, yum-o!):

Me: Hey Velina, do you know what it looks like you're eating?

Her: Sigh. What, Mom?

Me: A chocolate bar sandwich.

Her: (patient chuckling)

HA! Bet you all and her thought I was going to say "poop sandwich", right? Guess I'm a little more mature than that...

We strolled back sipping our drinks:

where we discussed topics like, where does the excess weight go when we "lose" it? Like after proper dieting and exercise, where do the lost pounds go? We both get that excess fat is "stored energy", so what physically happens to it when we burn it? Are we just expelling it through our various waste egresses?

The other thing on our walk back was teaching her the "Diarrhea Cha-cha-cha" song. I can't believe that hasn't been passed down the generations like "Jingle Bells Batman Smells". Well don't worry, despite a surprisingly reluctant student (I obviously should have taught her this at a younger age), the legacy continues.

The day continued on a positive roll when Michigan State made the Final Four today! Holy cow--do I dare dream they could go on further? Well after another Top Seed (Kentucky) lost this weekend, I say, why not?!

Though I missed watching the game (I did see the highlights), I was lucky to be shooting this angel's baptism:


Does it get any sweeter?

From Sweet to Elite

The Spartans move on to the Elite Eight. Missed last night's game against UNI (who killed my overall pick, Kansas, last week) but planning on watching their game against Tennessee tomorrow morning. Though the superstitious part of me thinks, well, I haven't watched any of their games so far--will that jinx them if I watch tomorrow's game? I guess we'll see...

Go MSU

My sister and I are sentimental Michigan State fans. Our parents were students there, got married there, and I was born at Sparrow Hospital.

When Michigan State made it to the Final Four last year--it was HUGE. So this year I got my sister and me some Spartanwear. This year they weren't slated to go so far (yours truly had Kansas knocking them out--sheesh, we all know how that turned out), but at this point with TWO top seeds out, anything goes.

Go Spartans!

I wish

...I could keep this rental car:

It's so nice to drive a car without a broken door handle, windows that shut all the way, working CD player, and that you don't have worry about it starting. I'm still focusing all my monkey power mojo towards my mechanic's brain to solve my starting problem.

...I hadn't gained 5 pounds in one week.

...I could play hooky and watch "The Runaways". Or "Hot Tub Time Machine".

Monkey Power activate

It's been a rough week. And it isn't even over. Monday, I was just off. Off enough to miss a plane, off enough to miss a text that my sister's husband's brother's episode of Law & Order SVU was being re-aired that night, just off, off, off.

Tuesday didn't fare much better--landed at the airport around 10:30am and went straight to work in my glasses and clothes that I had already run around an airport and was squished between two strangers for the last 12 hours in. Miraculously, put in a full day without passing out or stinking up the place and came home to a fevered daughter murmuring in my bed. Fortunately, it broke at 11pm that same night, but I'd have to keep her home today because of a 24 hour fever-free rule at school.

So today I told her I'd come home around 1 to make her lunch, but my car wouldn't start. I'd been having intermittent problems with my car just not turning over. I didn't have time to call AAA because I had to leave at 2 for a workshop out of the office. So after talking to my mechanic, I was ready to call AAA to get my car towed then figure out renting a car. When I got back to the office, I called AAA. He decided to give it a jump and it started--something about agreeing with the mechanic that the distributor probably needs replacing and it was compounded from a weak battery. He said if I drove it around for a half hour I could probably get it going in the morning and save renting a car for the night. At this point, it's past 7pm. I call the girl and tell her if she wants to go for a drive. We burn some time by driving to Nana's and returning some DVDs for her at the Blockbuster, then I decide to push my luck and head to Sticki Picki.

Sticki Picki is the Japanese version of the photo booth (complete with instructions announced in Japanese and rough English translations on the screen). The booths are bigger, there are props available, and you can decorate the pictures with various computer graphics afterwards. The cost was $9-10 (depending on booth) and we had a lot of fun. Together we came up with Super Hero Monkey Twins:


After the Monkey mayhem, we were pretty hungry so we walk over to Ajisen Ramen:

And enjoy some of the tastiest ramen ever:

To cap off the night we get some dessert from 85 degrees:

And finished the night with some delicious cream cheesecake:

Here's hoping some Monkey Twin magic and full bellies will bring some good mojo for the rest of the week. And get my car to start in the morning.