Gotta Kick This

Yesterday I rolled into work feeling rather worn down and by the end of the work day embarked for home running a fever. Came home to dinner waiting for me and our friend Kathy was also here needing some assistance for a school assignment. We helped, hung out for a bit then it was time to hunker down for bed. We watched 2 episodes of Downton Abbey then went to sleep.

Woke up this morning still feeling pretty weakfish and my sore throat from the previous day more sore, so I called in for the day hoping to get some rest and get whatever this is beat by tomorrow. Fever has returned already. Husband fed me leftovers for breakfast and we have proceeded to watch more Downton Abbey. Some very heart breaking episodes, leaving both of us in tears. Now he is getting ready for his interview at his favorite local game and comic shop. Having high hopes because he needs something even if it does not end up the permanent thing, but hopes seem quite promising.

Not sure quite what the rest of my day will entail, but I'm about to get up and find myself some lunch then probably entertain myself with Kpop maybe?

All The Food....

So got up yesterday morning and completed all of my errands except for one that I had forgotten about until later. Shipped a doll back to its owner, dropped one car off at the shop, then took the other in for an oil change.

After all of that I went to work and made a 6 hour day on my Saturday afternoon. I had tweeted about going to work before leaving and when I got to work had a text on my phone from my friend Jasmine asking if I'd like to come have dinner since at work I'm half way to her place from home. Logan was going up to the comic shop for board game night with Richard so I said sure. Got there and helped a bit with preparation. We had a spicy Thai soup, cheese stuffed mushrooms, cheese stuffed croissants, crab rangoons, tiramisu....dear lord I left so stuffed. I wish I had had my iPad with me to take pictures. I did take a few on my phone that I tweeted.

Came home and read manga before I went to sleep. Read Bad Teacher's Equation volume 1 by Kazuma Kodaka. Love it! It is really super adorable. I think I definitely expected it to be spicier with it's 18+ rating because really I think it would have been fine with a16+. It's mild enough for my 12yr old niece. Want all the rest of it as soon as I'm able to buy it.

Woke up this morning and got ready to go out. Logan and I went with Richard to see the movie warm bodies. It was very silly. Cute romantic comedy with zombies pretty much sums it up. Was happy the passes were free. I think I would have only felt it was worth the money if I'd been desperate to see a movie if I would have had to pay for it. However I really do think I would like to add it to my DVD collection after it comes out and gets down to $10ish.

Came home from the movie and we made a much needed run to the storage unit. We had packed some boxes of stuff up a few weeks ago because since we've been with mum and inheriting things from two passed relatives in Logan's family we are getting a bit cramped in the bedroom. While we were there we grabbed and brought home the box that has Logan's perler bead stuff in it so he can do something crafty with his current home time.

We did some grocery shopping on the way home then got home and watched the first ep of season 2 of Downton Abbey. Cannot get enough of it! Don't know what I'm going to do when we finish season 3. After that Logan made dinner. Hamburgers with mushrooms and sweet potato fries. It was so good.

Now we're watching The Walking Dead. Watching last weeks ep then this weeks after it. Hope to still get to watch The Talking Dead as well but I'm not sure how long we will get to keep the use of Mom's TV. We had been watching it through the Xbox tips but for some reason now we're not able. Glad mom has nothing to watch, but I know she won't watch this. Anyways that's life up until now. Got work again tomorrow....

Friday That is Not Friday

I got up and went to work this morning and the day really flew by fast. I even worked an extra hour and a half today and it felt like nothing. However today is not really Friday as I'm actually going into work tomorrow. Not doing a whole day but going to head in after I run all my morning errands.

Per usual I read a volume of manga today. Today was Tegami Bachi volume 12. Things are really getting serious and the big bad monster is taking out people and the bees fight hard to take it down. We meet a really adorable new character this volume and sadly something unfavorable happens to her because something is wrong with the main character. As usual it leaves us at a cliff hanger having me eager to know what happens next. Enjoying the series as much as I do currently it really makes me want to cosplay one of the characters. She's one of the older characters, has blond hair similar length to mine, wears glasses, and does dawn a standard bee uniform a few volumes back and I love the uniform because I really want to make the bee design on the hat with Swarovski crystals.... The character's name is Aria and her weapon is a violin which just makes me like her even more.

Came home to a delicious tonkatsu dinner. After dinner went to visit my mother-in-law where we procured borrowing rights to all of the seasons of Downton Abbey. We watched the first season on Netflix and she has the rest on DVD and we are excited to watch.

Came back home and Richard came over for some gaming. We played a game of Zombicide and sort of won our map. I say sort of because it was Logan's last man standing that completed the objective. Both mine and Richard's characters had all perished. Now we re going o have one Tike To Ride game then I am going to bed.

Another Day...

Woke up this morning to a delicious breakfast.  Toad in the hole with smoked cheddar cheese and some bacon on the side.  It really made a good start to my day.

Went to work as per the usual.  It was a bit boring today.  I have to remember that straight up data entry work gets boring and old pretty quick.  After a phone conference we ended up having to change the way we were keying stuff a little bit.  Also after lunch they came through and we had full building drug testing for compliance on a contract.  BUT for my current security cleanreance on the current post I still have to go on my own time to a local lab for drug testing. 

After work headed out to see Jasmine & Jim.   Jasmine and I went to Target and Walmart to hunt furbys for my sister in law and found that neither the walmart or Target next to her place have any at all (not even a space on the shelf).  We are now back at her place watching Inkigayo episodes.  Yay Kpop!

In reading today I read volume 11 of Tegami Bachi.  It once again was full of a lot of good fuzzy feelings, action, even more plot twists, and sadness.  I don't think I've mentioned it before but the main character really does cry a lot.  He's a very emotional (I think 12 or 13 year old) boy.  It was fun seeing and finding out even more about the character that you would have initially thought from the first volume would be the main character.   The art is still spectacular as always....  Tomorrow I should be reading and completing volume 12 which will have me completely caught up and then I will whine and moan about how it's not coming out fast enough like how I complain about Blue Exorcist & Bakuman.

Well watched yet another up of Inkigayo which was the week before this most current one and it was actually quite uneventful.  Looking forward to this weeks up becuase there are a lot of good looking comebacks.

Another Day

Trying to keep frequent.  Starting is the first step.

It was raining this morning so traffic was special. Was a little late for work, but since I can make up what time I'm missing that doesn't bother me.  However this morning while being stuck in traffic I realized I had forgotten my manga for the day.  I was really mad at myself about it.  My husband did not double check me this morning.  Sad right?  Fully grown adult who still has trouble remembering everything to be ready to go about my day. At work they were able to get all of my stuff taken care of so that I can start working on my new assignment.  I think tomorrow will be easier than today because I feel like I picked up a lot and will have to ask a lot fewer questions.

During the day I tweeted the URL for this blog because I was actually really proud of myself for posting yesterday like I had set out to.  In the process something in former posts has bothered a close friend.  We are going to talk more about it tomorrow when I see her but she had said something on twitter and I was about to respond when something about the wording clicked that it may have referred to something in my blog. I automatically texted her about it in case it was me and I'm really happy I did instead of my original response I was going to write on twitter. Feel like much less of an as and we'll get it all worked out the best we can.

Got home and yay dinner. We had salad, pork chops, mashed potatoes, and mushrooms stuffed with cream cheese and red onion.  Just finished up and took care of some dishes.  Another amazon order came in today. Baby books!  A few weeks ago we saw this really informational witty book called The Baby Owner's Manual. It's totally a tech manual (formatting and all) for babies. We instantly thought of my brother-in-law Gerald and he's a very much a tech guy and a new father of just a month now.  Logan also took an interest to it (my husband has worse baby fever than me right now) so we ordered 2 copies from amazon (one for Gerry, one for us) and also for us we got another book in the same series, The Baby Owner's Games and Activities Book.  As soon as the husband gets a new job and we get some stuff squared away we will actually be thinking more seriously about children.  The husband of course feels like he can never be over prepared so he's really looking forward to reading these books.

I think the rest of the night is going to result in chilling and watching stuff off the Xbox. We got the first ep o this new half season of The Walking Dead since we tuned in on Sunday and found ourselves a week behind.  We were really astounded.  We remembered when the last half of the season ended they said it would be returning the 17th of February.  We must have completely missed the memo that it got moved up a week and we never saw anyone post anything on Facebook like we usually do.  I think tonight I also want to try and squeeze in watching Music Bank from 2 weeks ago. Trying to get caught up on my Kpop promotions.  Will be caught up with Inkigayo tomorrow.

On silly Kpop subjects I was stupidly proud of myself this morning that I could remember all the names of the members of VIXX and I feel like I can recognize most of them easily now with exception that 2 of them are a little easy to mix up, mainly because they are a little less prominent to me.  I think I will have to update about doll stuff once again in another post.  I am now once again updating off my iPad and the pics I want to share are still on my laptop and not yet uploaded anywhere online.

Life, Manga, Music

Haven't written for a while. I was just thinking to myself today, and even tweeted about it, that I really hadn't blogged for a while again and I should.

Work has been a little special lately. I'm temporarily shifting positions to work on a different project at work which will not allow me to be helping and doing work all over the building as I have been doing as a team leader.  Because of this I've been having to get people refreshed and trained so my roles get covered. Found out today I may be starting on the project as soon as tomorrow. I had to fill out info for a background check and they have to change my job code and pay so things like that take time.  Last week I got out early most days because its to the point where I'm around to assist but mot actually doing any work anymore.

On the subject of manga work for DMG I was finally able to complete my last assignment and am clear save for requested edits. I'm really just happy to be out from under it and not feeling so behind and having no spare time because of having an assignment to complete.  I was a little disappointed though that I got off early last Thursday and there was no email newsletter with more assignment listings. As a lettered I have to be able to jump on those listings ASAP. However despite all the terrible things I did succeed in not missing a single deadline.  However I know my current sleeping schedule is still a little messed up from the month and a half I stayed up until midnight on work nights so lately the time has really been running away from me.

On subject of manga that I'm reading let me just say I've been reading a lot lately. I've also been reading some shorter series and stand alone stuff in between waiting or books for some of the longer series I've also been reading.  I believe in the last few weeks my title listing has included Tegami Bachi, Gorgeous Carat, Fujoshi Rumi, Tomcats, and Peach Girl.  Yes for the record I do read a rather wide variety of manga. 

- Currently Tegami Bachi has been the major favorite. I didn't get into it until about 11 volumes were out so I've had the lovely pleasure of having a multitude to read at once to catch myself up to the current release schedule. I've read up to volume 10 and just got volumes 11 & 12 in the mail today.  It's such a good story with wonderful art. The art was what drew me to it at first but it not being by a manga-ka I knew nothing about I was hesitant to pick it up at full price.  I managed to get the first few volumes at half price books and have been picking up the rest at discounted price on amazon.  I really hate describing manga most of the time because I feel like of I talk too much about it to really get my point across about what is so great about it will give too much away. It's fantasy, adventure, coming of age, mystery, fighting....so much boiled into one. Right now I think I'm most enjoying it because it's much deeper and a little darker than I thought it would be. It's very heartfelt but then mystery and suspense that I'm just so excited to see what is going to happen next.

- Gorgeous Carat was actually a much better read than I was expecting. It's a fun exciting story through all three volumes. I also in the mail today got a used copy of Gorgeous Carat Galaxy so I haven' read that yet and am referring to the base three volume story.  I remember buying the first volume many years back because it was a BLU manga title (meaning it was yaoi) and I really just had trouble getting into it because at that point in time I think I was really just desiring more smut and was less into the story.  It is very mild on the BL and there's nothing overly graphic so I feel like it's a title that would be approved to lend to my 12yr old niece (she's a mature advanced reader but her mother still doesn't want her into anything too graphic till she gets just a little older).  It's a mystery adventure story set in the early 1900s in Europe then moves around some Arabic and middle eastern counties.  I was amused because a few things out of the eps o Downton Abbey I was watching last night reminded me of it.

- Fujoshi Rumi was just one very amusing and silly love story about a boy who falls in love with a girl who is a huge yaoi fangirl.  It's like all the sweet cute innocent shojo love story with fun silly otaku goodness and some great BL fantasies on the side.  So for any fellow multi genre lovers this was a fun read.  I wish it could have had more of an insight to why girls who enjoy BL (they do touch   on the main girl character's opinion on the matter), but that was really not the main point of the story. It is a short little 3 book series so if what I have said sounds somewhat interesting if you come across it cheap or to borrow it's worth the read.

- Tomcats volume 1 was something I picked up off the $1 discount cart at my local half price books. I primarily picked it up because it's published here in the states by Deux (a yaoi label) and I figured it was worth $1 to continue to fill my BL library.  It looked really cute from first glance and is really cute and silly.  It's like a goofy gag exaggerated slice of life kind of story. There are humans and cats and he cats are basically just small catgirls  and catboys.  There is no BL romance in it at all though in the postscript the manga-ka does state that there was not in this book but that she would be doing more for the next book.  However there is just the one book published here in the states.  It was random and silly and while it made m giggle I'm glad I only paid $1 for it.

- Last thing I will talk on is Peach Girl. For years I wanted to read it after enjoying the anime, but while I had enjoyed the anime it was never something I was super crazy over so once again my reluctance to invest in such a manga then every time I considered it at half price something better was there or there was never a volume 1. Finally picked up a chunk of the series for $1ea and am now just filling in what I need for reading it as I go along. I've officially read through volume 2 and so far the anime was very verbatim from what I've read.  I do keep getting really annoyed by Tokyo Pop's obviously kinda crummy translations but I digress.  Am still looking forward to making it through more of this shojo classic (sorry for anyone who doesn't consider it as such but it is honestly old enough and had enough popularity behind it for me to consider it as such).

Okay so enough about manga. I totally claimed I was going to talk about music, but I really have become quite tired after that long bit I just wrote.  I guess on the music front I can still complain about not having enough time to follow everything and everyone I want to.  Still t current more predominantly into Kpop as apposed to Jpop but it really just helps that I keep up fairly regularly with Music Bank and Inkigayo.  I really want to get caught up with more of my favorite Japanese groups and also with my fave Korean groups Japanese work. I've only briefly been following my favorite group's, U-KISS, work and there most recent single is awesome. They do so much better work for Japan.  But yah so much out there I need and want to listen to!

I think next post I need to remember I have doll photos and face-up work to share.  Maybe someone out there is reading and interested in it (or my blathering a about manga & Asian music for that matter).