I sit in my living room and watch that horrible show What Not To Wear on an almost daily basis.  Regardless of the fact that I can't stand Stacy and Clinton.  And then I look at my own wardrobe and wish that somebody would just nominate me.  I'd deal with their obnoxiousness if somebody would just send me on a $5,000 shopping spree.  My wardrobe consists of t-shirts and jeans.  None of it is REALLY the right size.  None of it is age (or situation) appropriate...  It's a bunch of silliness, really.  Things I'd have worn in high school, for the most part.  And then I beat myself up and realize that I need to grow the hell up.  I stopped buying "fat shoes".  But the rest of me just doesn't move forward.  I am stuck in my adolescent slump.

During a nap, I threw away the remnants of Amaris' pizza lunch.  Upon waking, she went to the table, saw her empty plate and said, "Oh no!  My food's gone!  I'm hungry!"

I just finished my entire first week's worth of classwork.  In one day.  Without breaking a sweat.

$40 bought me a replacement battery on ebay, and I just spent $29 on an additional 1GB RAM. All that's be left to buy is a new power adapter (which I've been scoping out and it looks like I'll be able to get one for $50 or less) and Lucy will be like new. Lucy and I have a bond. We've been through a lot. I've broken her a couple of times, she's pooped out on me once or twice, but somehow we always find our ways back to each other - Lucy warm and toasty in my lap and me with hands poised over the most comfortable, familiar keyboard in existence, eyes fixed on the LCD. Yes, I am a computer geek. More appropriately, I'm a Mac Geek.

Before we left California, we took her to an Apple Store to diagnose a long overdue issue that rendered her useless for over a year. (What can I say, I was lazy about it!) The Genius at the Genius Bar in Thousand Oaks literally repaired her free of charge in 10 minutes and sent me on my way. He said to me as he corrected the issue (which basically was that the battery needed to be reset and the OS needed to be reinstalled), "This is the most well-loved notebook model that Apple has ever come out with, statistically." And I literally almost cried when I agreed and said to him that my PowerBook G4 was like my little sidekick.

She's old. She's speckled, she's dented. But she's mine. And I think that I'll forever love this silly old computer.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

I need this picture where I can see it periodically. It makes me happy.

So it's Marine Corps Ball time! Happy belated birthday, Marines. :)

Last year, I spent the entire day fretting about making things JUST right.

Today, after having seen myself in my gown (which, by the way, I paid WAY too much for and it looks nothing like the picture it was advertised with) several times and feeling disappointed at my lack of feminine curves thanks to my pregnant belly, I am less motivated. Add to that the fact that I honestly am low on supplies and can't make EVERYTHING perfect and I know that and you have my current mood. I mean, had our shipment arrived here when it was originally supposed to (by November 2), I might have a little more drive. But since it didn't get onto the island till Wednesday and won't be delivered to my house till Monday, I am lacking. No curling irons, no jewelry, bare minimum makeup supply, etc. Not that everything would have been in the shipment - I mean, I would still have needed to buy hair products and such - but at least I'd have not had to buy other necessities, like the new bra and the new "formal" shoes - and then I might have had some extra cash to spend on the little details.

But I didn't. And I honestly still don't know what I am doing with my hair. I have it up in experimental option number 1 right now - rag curlers - and if I hate this, I'll have to rinse it out and start over. We'll see what happens.

By the way, fire engines just arrived at my tower, and a Japanese fire man (who looked an awful lot like Jackie Chan) just came to my door and asked to check my kitchen smoke detectors. And yes, that picture really IS an accurate representation of what I look like right now. It's a damned good thing that I put the shirt on. I was considering hanging out in my bra till I had my hair figured out.

Anyhow, I am playing the procrastination game. I don't want to take my hair down till Mark gets home with my hair spray (I didn't have any of that, either) and I am scared to start on my makeup because, like I said, I might end up re-starting with my hair. So for now I am just hanging out and doing nothing productive. Really good, right?

Last year's Kari would be so disappointed. And so would a handful of other people I can think of (Ifer, grandma, Aunt Sheri, etc). Oh well, it is what it is, and I am what I am.

I've been on a naming spree. But my two favorites are the names I gave to the iMac and the Funcargo. The iMac is Jimmy. As in Jimmy MacElroy. (Get it? Because it's a Mac? aaahahahaha) The Funcargo is Prudence. It was rainy yesterday afternoon and the roads (being paved in asphalt and crushed coral) were a tad slippery. Mark spun the tires out slightly while we were trying to make a right turn. He patted the dash board and said, "Good girl." And "Prudence" just popped into my head like a message from above.

We experienced all that is American Village, and it was pretty cool.







They had this awesome arcade there, Club Sega. Everything is horribly overpriced (it's ¥100 per game for most games. The fancier games can be up to ¥200. Our exchange rate today was $1 = ¥99.) but they have slot machines and a whole bunch of those awesome "crane" games hopped up on steroids. They had that cool scooty game where you try to push tokens over the edge for tickets, except the goal was to push CANDY over the edge into the prize return. We won FIVE regular sized packages of POCKY! And a crapton of candies.

We also visited for the first time a Jusco. Which was like EVERYTHING all under one roof. Like a Japanese Wal Mart Supercenter, but better. It was like a full sized department store, food court, pharmacy, grocery store, bakery and deli. I was pleased by Jusco.

The only thing yesterday lacked was a trip on the ferris wheel. But as you can tell by the photos, it was mildly stormy and we figured it'd be a funner experience on a clearer day. Plus we wanted to ride it at night, and we kind of ran out of Yen and things to do before it got dark. So instead we came home and rented a movie.