SUSHI! Made by Tom, with a few little helps from Melissa (like realising he was about to make four times the amount of rice he actually needed).



Starting at the top and the left:
- cute lil bowl of rice with cute lil chopsticks
- sushi wrapped in omelet (which I doubt we'll make again because omFg were they impossible to tie!)
- those are surrounded by little hosomaki-sushi with marinated tuna (which were AMAZING)
- miso soup (first time I'd tried it - it's a little intense but definitely yummy)
- up at the top again, our cute little cups of sake
- little dipping plates of soy sauce
- a little dish of wasabi
- temaki-sushi (hand rolls, which Tom thinks he has issues making) with tuna and chili-radish

So freaking delicious. I'll eat sushi at a random asian buffet but it's noooothing like the fresh stuff. <333

 
Mmmmm I am so veryvery full of amazing homemade sushi, compliments of the similarly-amazing Tom. ^________^ I will post pictures probably tomorrow, we have the cutest lil dishset and the sushi looked as yummy as it tasted - we (rather, Tom did, I just helped a little here and there) tried a few different things this time. We learned that we need to find a place that specializes in fresh fish around here, because even going to Martins, they only had one kind of fresh tuna - and Tom said it wasn't all that great (I personally have no idea). But mmmmmm was it yummy, especially the actual sushi rolls Tom made, that must have been the marinated tuna. And! The local liquor store had in a new brand of sake, which is better (and cheaper!) than what they used to, so that was lovely. So we plopped down and ate and drank and watched rather bad anime previews from the Newtype dvd.

And now that I'm quite full and a little dizzy, I'm heading to bed to get a good long night's sleep.

Once I put some more things on my darling lil Aja. (I downloaded a cracked version of a dvd -> mp4 conversion software, time to test the results! bwahahaha.)

And I was going to post the desert story over on AnJ, but, it needs a spellcheck still, AND, I just realised it has no title and I'm definitely not in the proper mindset to come up with even a provisional one just now.

 
I got it I got it I got it!!! I wanted something short and cute and happy and that made me think of blue.

Aja! *dances* That's so totally it! I was considering Azure when "Aja" popped into my head and it took me a second to place it (because I am sovery tired now) but it's one of the girls from Jem, the bassist who is veryvery cool - AND HAS BRIGHT BLUE HAIR! \0/ That's so it.

Meet my new lil Aja:

 
WARNING: spazzy techy fangirling ahead!

Since Tom and I both had today and will have tomorrow off, we decided to get out of town for a day and enjoy the time and go do something. So we went up to the mall for the day, and had a really lovely time. We bought ourselves a darling little sushi dish set, and picked up a copy of Newtype, and smelled all the newest Yankee Candle scents, and looked at video games, and had Japanese food for lunch, and Tom let me go in Hot Topic and Claire's (where I found an adorable little change purse - only $2! and a cute lil star necklace - only $5!), and looked at anime and things everywhere, and went into the Godiva store <3 and got a free sample <33 and I bought this wonderful little tin of little chocolates perfect for toting around in a purse <333, and I looked around places for a new mp3 player, since the play button on mine barely responds at this point (and it makes a bit of a rattley noise when I shake it around).

So we looked in Radio Shack, and they had a few mp3 players and well priced, and we looked at Best Buy, who had a surprisingly small selection, and they cost more than Radio Shack. Tom checked out video cards, because his is finally beginning to get outdated (which says loads, given that the thing is probably two or three years old - and it's still really pretty good, only recently being not top of the line), but again their prices were a bit high.

And then we went into the Apple Store.

Tom has been reeeeaaaaallllly really Applelusting over an iPhone - and understandably. Only the fact that they're locked in to AT&T is a bit of a problem, since AT&T coverage out here is, y'know, barely existant. So, no surprise, all sorts of hacks have come out to get service from other companies onto iPhones - and as of a day or two ago, there's a software hack (as opposed to the hardware hacks, which are much more intimidating) to do so, and it's really quite straightforward, you just swap out the SIM cards and run a little program. Tom checked out what Verizon's cheapest data plans were, and it's a bit less than the AT&T plans (we think). And we went into the Apple store to go paw at the iPhones and let Tom deliberate. So we played with one, and looked at the new fat Nanos. My initial reaction had been that they looked a little silly, so chubby and the screen too big for the device but too small to be useful. But seeing them in person? Totally different, THEY'RE SO CUTE!!! And they're all colorful, the 8gb ones anyway, and such cute colors.
And only $149/$199.

Given that I would've been dropping $70 for a random 2gb mp3 player, just another random little thing like what I've been using...I decided to actually give an ipod a thought. Because, really, it'll last me forever, and I know it'll work fantastically, I won't have to fight with it all the time, AND, hi so much more space! Also - NO MORE BUYING BATTERIES. EVER!!!1!1! I go through them so quickly, if I hang out and listen to a few chapters of a book for an evening I slaughter nearly a whole battery, and that's without the backlight. And even if they're AAAs, it's still like $5 for four of them, y'know?

So, we went off in search of the M&T atm that Tom remembered seeing somewhere, to check our account balances. And we each had enough to swing our potential purchases, SO, back to the Apple store we went. Tom asked the iPhone guy what functionality they have before you activate an AT&T account. "None. None at all."
Well fuck that! Like I'm sure you can turn it on but you can't do a thing with it, not just use the music functionality or anything. And there's no coverage down here. And it's a $60/mo minimum contract, and a TWO YEAR contract at that.
So Tom decided he's going to hold off until more definite hacks have been worked out, and he has everything else in place (i.e., a Verizon SIM card in his hot lil hand).

And I went over to paw at the lil Nanos again, and work up the courage to plunk down a rather large sum of money. (I've been working tons of hours lately, and will continue to be, I already figured I'd have an extra hundred at least this month; plus, Tom's making enough to more than cover all of our bills himself, so there's a bit less stress lately.) And also, to decide which to get. The 4gb ones only come in silver, and, for $50 more, you get TWICE the space. Given that this is a long-term investment for me, it really made sense to do that. So then I was torn between the red one (which is a really lovely multifaceted shade of red) and the blue one (which is an adorable slightly greenish lighter blue that's really quite near my favorite shades). Finally, I decided on the blue, and we went over to the desk, where we were waited on by a very chipper, incredibly friendly, girl about the same age as us.

I asked if there were any sleeves yet for the new Nanos - she said no, the manufacturers haven't had time to make anything besides the arm-band one yet. I said alright, well, I think I wanted one. The blue one. I was very nervous but Tom stood right with me the whole time and the girl was so bubbley and goofy and cute that it helped loads. :) She asked if I'd made my little purse, I said I had (it's my adorable little cartoon-colored one that I love and Tom is terrified by). She said I could make my own iPod sleeve, and I said that's *totally* what I'm planning to do. She suggested making little antenna for it or something, I turned to Tom and said I should make it little kitty ears, and she spazzed and thought that was great. She asked what I was going to name it, and I realised I had noooo idea. She suggested a few, all derivations of "Podlet" and things, which were cute, but not very me. On the way home, Tom arbitrarily called me a tart, and then said that's what I should call my iPod, a tart, and I answered with "blueberry tart", which reminded me of the Strawberry Shortcake character Blueberry Muffin, which would be a darling name for a lil iPodlet, if a bit long. But we'll see what else I come up with.

It came packaged in this tiny little plastic case, no space wasted at all which I thought was wonderful, and as soon as we got out of there we sat down to poke at it. Of course I couldn't do much with it, no music being on it, but I saw what games there were (we played a few while waiting for our dinner to arrive later), and the options, and the first thing I actually changed was to kill the volume limiter (I hate those things). But I was flipping out - I realised that I finally own an iPod, and one that I earned for myself, and it's the first Apple thing I've ever actually owned, and omFg IT IS SO CUTE!!!

It was about 9:30 by the time we got home - we'd had a bit of a late start, got to the mall at like 12:30, 1, and there was a lunch and a dinner and a lot of backtracking in there, as well as a stop at Borders. And I was all set to run to my Kiran and plug in the darling little iPod---

And as I bent down to plug in the usb cable, I spotted a few ants on the floor.

And then we realised it wasn't just a few, it was A FUCKING INVASION. Out of nowhere! We hadn't even been gone a whole day and we'd been overrun! There were, oh god idek, probably a hundred of the damn things, scurrying from the front door clear over to the refrigerator. And Tom had taken out the - well, the major garbage bag, anyway, and I'd been keeping food debris cleared up. There was one empty glass on the floor, which we found like ten ants in, but other than that there was nothing but dust and the random debris that always develops in corners you haven't swept for a bit. And they weren't carrying anything or anything. My only thought is that the chillier weather must've sent them surveying warmer places in force...but good freaking lord! We spent like fifteen minutes running around finding them and squishing them, it was ridiculous.

Finally, we'd nailed everything we could see just then, I was sweeping up a bit, and Tom took the broom from me and shooed me over to my computer to play with my iPod. :) He's been so excited and so happy for me, he knows what a big deal it is for me. Of course, I had to update my iTunes first, it got cranky because I was, what, two-tenths of a version behind. And then I had to decide what song to play on it first.

And I realised it just HAD to be U2's "Vertigo", bwahaha.

I grabbed a random video podcast - and it really is strange, how quickly a small screen can grow on you. Like I won't want to watch a movie on it I know, nothing very detailed and artistic or anything, but animation? Perfect. (Tom gave me the dangerous idea of putting my Jem episodes on it, which would be FREAKING AMAZING, only I'll need to track down some dvd -> mp4 conversion software, which'll be, well, easy to find I'm sure, but poor Kiran's going to be hurting I'm afraid!)

So now I'm flinging my current audiobooks and some of the music I've had in heavy rotation on there, and then I'm going to curl up in bed with it and bliss out until I pass out, which won't be long because I'm freaking exhausted but----

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE OMFG I HAVE AN IPOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


...also of note, Tom bought a new sushi book, and has promised to make me sushi tomorrow. *dances all over the place*

 
My nice little monthly cd (compliments of yourmusic, which has my highest recommendation - it really is as straightforward as it looks) came yesterday, which is always exciting. I didn't get home 'til 9, at which point I just wanted to sleep, so it wasn't until tonight that I got a chance to listen.

For the Masses (A Depeche Mode Tribute). Now I love Depeche Mode, I do I do, but there are times listening to an album of theirs I zone out a bit and get lost in the.. oh idek, something in the sound gets repetitive after awhile. (I suppose it's just that I find certain songs stronger than whole albums in their case.) This album? Has some fantastic things - Hooverphonic's cover of "Shake the Disease" I've played 432890 times before, it's wonderful.
And then there's The Cure on a song, which, obviously, is fantastic, and the Smashing Pumpkins song is wonderful, and--- Really, it's just great, there are some very creative yet always appropriate interpretations of the songs. If you have any liking at all for DM or the genre in general, this is well worth looking into. :) I'm loving, and I know already this is going to be my writing soundtrack for a good while as we head into fall (and thus more melancholy music season).

...of course, as my last.fm testifies, I have yet to kick the Pirates soundtrack habit. It's just too good, too epic and grandiose and wonderful and dramatic, it's perfect for writing Phistos.

Which reminds me I'm supposed to be typing in edits to the desert story not posting nonsense on my blog. And I have a lunch still to pack and I wanted to be in bed early tonight sonofabitch.

 

Take The 'Which Fallen Angel Would You Be?' Quiz
Brought to you by Angel August's Abode

I was nosing around the internets the other day, looking for names for my Phistos. I've been fantastically vague so far, and have toyed with the idea of just using initials, as happens in some old books.. but that doesn't allow for any real character creation, you won't remember a handful of vague references to "N" or whatever, but Nila, you might recall.

I had NO idea what fantastic resources I'd have - there are lists floating around of a hundred names of the fallen angels. (And further motivation to get my hands on this - I've had my eye on it for awhile, and it's referenced *every* time I go researching anything angelic/demonic in origin.) Some of the names, I'm not sure where they turned up, but a good bunch of them come from the pseudepigraphal Books of Enoch - which I'm most definitely going to have to read, it gives a really interesting account of the Fall of Lucifer&co. (And though its origins are murky and it's certainly non-canonical... I listened to a lecture series recently on the origins of Christianity, and what's actually *in* the canon is a pretty motley assortment, most of which is pseudepigrapa itself, and there are things outside the canon that are really on equal ground with what is in it. There were some churches which took the Books of Enoch *as* canon for a good long while..)

Which brings up another interesting point I've found - I don't think anyone really agrees on which angel became Satan. Some lists give Satan as the name of one of them, but popular opinion is that Lucifer = Satan, though that I know has been disputed, and other sources earmark different angels entirely... the Book of Enoch, however, assigns a bit of personality to a handful of the angels, and gives Semyazzah as the leader of the bunch, in a story which compliments that tricky little bit in Genesis, just before The Flood, where sons of God come down to lie with the daughters of men and have offspring.

Wiki really is a phenonmenal jumping-off point for so much research, obviously you should only cite it where it's cited itself but, really, for story research on random things, it's fantastic.

And I think I have a real name now for the Phistos - the Grigori, the Watchers. That's who they are, it really is...only I doubt they'll call themselves that. I've written into the stories that they've been on earth so long that their true names have been lost, even they can no longer remember them. It turns out that many of the names of the fallen angels end in "-el", which is a suffix referring back to God - and I'm sure a bunch of rebellious angels leaving Heaven wouldn't want the constant references to a God they've turned their backs on, so, that's an excellent motivation for the beginnings of name changes. From there, it's really a natural thing, look at how much families' surnames change over the centuries. And many of the names are bulky Hebrew things, so of course there would be nicknames, and I'm quite happy with how clever a few of them are, hee.

CRAP I need to drag myself out of the research, I have three pages to type and a shower to take before Tom comes back for his lunch break (either at 11 or 12) - I'll hitch a ride with him when he heads back, and hang around Tim Horton's again and probably write until I head over to work at 4.

And I REALLY need to decide now who wrote the desert-letter, I left it an initial before but now I want a name and I haven't decided who yet...

 
"So I think I confused some people at work today. Someone asked if Brian was around, and I said: "No, he's not here. Well, unless he evolved to a higher plane of existence and shed his corporeal form, he's not back here."

omg I freaking love this boy.

 
So this is a typical Melissa-day just now:

Got to sleep in a little and get up at 8.30, since it's a Sunday and I didn't have to be at work 'til 9.30, and Tom wasn't going in until 11. Had a nice leisurely shower, picked out a cute, fun outfit (as it's a Sunday and thus no bosses in the store and fewer customers), had some toast and Tom drove me to the store.

It rained a lot today. My coworkers and I were all very sleepy and thus most were rather cranky, and no-one wanted to do the three tiny balloon orders we had. I think *I* was actually the motivating force to getting going this morning...uh, despite not having the sense enough to move the roll of bubblewrap off the corner of the scale in order to get it to give the right read-out. But eventually I got two cups of coffee, and perked up a bit, and there was a brief spurt where Erin cheered up and was silly. But Nikki was in one of her moods, which infected everyone around her, so it was pretty meh until Kate, one of the new girls, came in at noon, and Erin told me to work with her because she couldn't deal with training today. Really, Kate's picking up pretty well, and she's very nice and friendly, so even though we were both yawning quite a bit, we chatted and it really brightened my mood. I have my suspicions she's an art kid. She's a fairly bubbly thing, so she's nice to work with.

I got out of work at 4, but Tom wouldn't be out 'til 8, so I walked over to Tim Hortons, quite happy for the opportunity to use my ridiculously colorful umbrella, especially on a day when it complimented my outfit so nicely. Bought a hot chocolate and a yummy chocolate doughnut, put on some music to listen to and curled up in my favorite little corner to write for awhile. I got a fair bit done, finished a story I'd started...yesterday, I think? (I've been flying through, one to the next, so quickly lately that it's hard to recall. I wound up buying a binder and a handful of folders, so I can keep them all straight, and keep them all with me to work on, since they're all in various stages of completion.) Finished that one off, started a bit of another, and realised the rain was NOT going to stop pelting down anytime soon.

After about two hours I headed out again - and cursed myself again for accidentally wearing my old sneakers, which have a hole in one sole. Also an umbrella helps but does not keep one entirely dry when it's absolutely pouring out. So I was a pretty damp little thing by the time I got over to WalMart. I still hadn't decided if I was going to try to catch the campus bus and head home, or lounge about in Tom's car, but I did know that we were about out of ramen, and Tom and I both have a good handful of days to go before another day off so there's going to be lots of omfg-too-tired-to-make-a-real-meal occasions. So, I went off in search of ramen, which I found, and in browsing around checking for soba noodles (which I can't find anywhere around here, bahhh), I found Tom. :) He and a coworker were heading toward the back, apparently having just finished filling in some food on the shelves, given the empty pallet-jack-thing Tom was pushing. He stopped to chat for a minute, surprised but happy to see me, and told me his iPod was in the car (with more of the audiobooks I've been listening to on it) if I wanted. At that point, curling up nice and snug in the car sounded more appealing than hanging around with no idea when the bus might come by. So I gave him a kiss and let him get back to work, while I browsed around the store awhile. I found some chili sauce, neat looking beads that were cheap, some silk autumn leaves that looked nice and were also cheap, considered some jewelry, and found a tote bag that looks large enough to hold my story-binder and is also very cute. (Also did a quick but of spy-work to see how their Halloween section was shaping up. Obviously they rape us on costume prices BUT we kick their asses in selection. And our customers mostly hate WalMart.) Unfortunately, I did my casual browsing *after* having picked up the box of ramen, which I was carrying under one arm, so I built up a rather nice sore cramp by the time I made it to the register. >_<;

And then I curled up in the car for two hours, taking off my soaked socks and shoes, nibbling on the remains of the lunch I'd packed, and doing some more writing. And then I was running dry on the writing, so did a few sketches of scenes and characters, and was quite happy the the sketch I did of the dancer in one of the stories. She's very pretty (though my drawing isn't quite the way I have her imagined in the story). When my writing petered out, I switched from listening to music to audiobooks, finished the fourth book in Orson Scott Card's Homecoming series, and listened to a few chunks of The Screwtape Letters - as read by John Cleese! eeeee! it's absolutely fantastic. (If anyone wants, just let me know, I'll be more than happy to pass it along.)

Fortunately, it was just past 8 when it started getting too dark to write and things; I started in on the fifth book of Homecoming to distract myself for the last fifteen minutes. I spotted Tom walking up from a bit of a distance, and he made his car honk-- he explains this by saying he forgets where he parks, which is true, but I know full well it's also to scare the crap out of me. We headed right home, as there's a Giants game on tonight, and Tom bet a coworker $5 on the outcome. Boys and their cute little rivalries - Tom's surrounded by Bills fans, of course, and thinks them all vastly inferior in their choice of teams. BUT, as we came up to a stoplight, Tom says:
"So, you want to hear something that will help your poor little ego?"
"Sure!"
"When you came in, some of the guys saw you. And they said you're "a looker", and that you don't look 23, you look like you're a lot younger."
"Really?? Oh yay!"
I realise the younger thing is probably due to the fact that I don't dress like a proper grown-up - and I don't ever intend to, I'm an artist, I don't have to follow the rules. ;) But it still made me very happy, my poor little ego *does* need petted once in awhile. And Tom does, of course, but, y'know, he has to. *giggles*

He immediately went to the couch and turned on the tv. He'd told me his tummy hurt so he didn't want anything major for dinner, which was fine by me, as I wasn't too hungry and obviously didn't feel like making a full-blown meal at 8.30 at night. So I made sandwiches - he requested a peanut butter and jelly (with a bit of honey, one of my personal tweaks), and I snuck a little ginger in there, because though he doesn't like it, it helps cranky tummies. (He'd had Burger King for lunch as usual, which means he ate too much, and this time it was a total of four beef patties. gaaah.) I realised I don't have to go in 'til 4 tomorrow, which means I don't have to leave 'til Tom heads back after his lunch break, and I won't need to pack a full lunch, SO, I can skip doing dishes for once tonight. (I've actually been keeping up on them lately, which has been wonderful.) I remembered that I watered my indoor plants this morning (obviously the ones on the porch don't need it today), so, I contentedly plopped in front of my computer.

Did the email, checked facebook, and decided to post here.. uh, though really I'd meant to get more typing-up done for another story. That should get finished between tonight and tomorrow, when I'll print it and start editing... unfortunately this particular one is rather jumbled. It doesn't really have much action in it at all, it's more a postcard from an exotic vacation, and I want more to happen in it. Also, I thought of things later that I wanted to add, so there's a few pages at the end of random chunks that I need to decide where to put.

It's halftime. The Giants are a point behind, apparently they're making some really good plays and then screwing up the simple things - which is their usual approach. Keeps things interesting, anyway...not that I can really follow the game on my own, but Tom is highly entertaining to watch, and I do try to pay a bit of attention to keep him company.

Okay halftime's nearly over, so Tom will stop pestering me for attention for a few. Time to type! There will be a new post on Amaranth and Jasmine before the week is out. :)