WCB - 124 Blankets

I went out last week and got myself a new blanket. It's sooooo comfy. I have four blankets on my bed already, two comforters and two fuzzy flannel ones. During the summer, though, I folded up the comforters into the corner of my bed and Kamikaze claimed them for his own. I felt guilty taking them back, as he looks so content sleeping on them. Every night he starts out sleeping next to my head. I sling my arm out under his tail, which he flicks back and forth. It feels like, for a change, he's petting me! Sometime after I all asleep, he makes his way to his "bed on my bed" and spreads out. When I finally wake up, he toddles over to sit up against me for his morning brush while I wipe the sleep out of my eyes. We've got a routine.

Anyhow, I bought a new comforter and spread it out on the bed on Tuesday. Before I could try it out, Kamikaze claimed it for his own.


I showed this picture to Jane, my manager, she wanted to see the blanket I'd bought, and she complained "You can't even see your cat's face!"
"I know," I said, "He's sleeping and he's facing the wall!"

Over the past couple nights it's gotten quite cool! (YEE-HAH!) We went down to single digits last night - 8 degrees Celsius. I love it. And I love snuggling under my new super comfortable blanket. So does Kamikaze apparently. Here he is right now.

Can you see him? He worked his way under the blanket.

Can you spot his little paw?


My bed is fabulously comfortable. Lavender scented "sheets." (They're Korean style - a mattress cover and a "pad.") Five blankets. The flannel ones are draped at the bottom of the bed for me to rub my feet into. Do you rub your feet together while you're falling asleep? Kamikaze swishes is tail around. I think it's the same thing as my foot rubbing. Three pillows. Enough to snuggle my head into and hug. Two of them are scented with lavender and herb sachets inside. Fantastic.

Again, my life is thrilling. To think that my bed is something that pleases me the most....

But, sleeping with my big furry baby makes it that much more appealing. The last couple nights he's snuggled in under the covers and slinks is way over to my leg, where he flops down, his arm curling over me (and claws digging into me) and he bites me lightly a few times before he falls asleep with his head smushed into me.
It's good.

For more goodness, head over to the *NEW* Tuxedo Gang Hideout and check out all the WCB posts! Thanks for hosting tux-cats, and thanks for reading the rest of you.

Wafflicious

On Friday, I told the HomePlus freezer section to "Shut the HELL up!" There, nestled right beside the tortillas were these babies:

They're expensive, over five bucks a box, but they're pretty deelish. Except when you burn the hell out of them, which I did yesterday. There's really no saving toaster waffles once they've been charred. Really, I think I'd prefer EGGOS, but these are alright, though I doubt I'll splurge on them again.

If you're in Korea, your local HomePlus probably has a bunch of little kiosks somewhere outside the checkouts to the grocery store. There, you might find waffles, which are made nice and hot and the lady will slather on some whipped cream and (I think) apple jelly and then fold it in half for you to eat.
I never eat them like that.
But I have asked for them plain - and it's better if they're cool and have been sitting in that "waffle rack" for awhile. You can take them home and pull them apart into two halves (they're quite large) and pop them into the toaster for breakfast. Turns out they're cheaper than the imported freezer ones I was so excited to see, as they're a dollar each, and one of then makes a morning meal. The two waffles I burned yesterday cost about $1.70.
I don't know why I enjoy waffles so much, but really dislike pancakes.
My life is thrilling.

Crying

The other day one of my students brought a tiny little kitten to class. It had been given to her by another of my students who found it on the street and wanted to keep it, but decided not to because the kitten "cried all night" when she took it home.
"Yah," I said, "It's a baby, eh? All babies cry."

And it looked as if the baby cat had been crying. I told her maybe the little thing had an eye infection. Maybe she should take it to the doctor. She said, "Hmmmmm,...no."
Okay, then.

Maybe the kitten was crying because its new owner was wearing a T-Shirt of LIES!

The kitten was not white, nor was it wearing a ribbon of any sort.

Every time the kitten wasn't snuggled in the girl's arms, it was yowling. When it was placed upon the table it would stumble across and crawl onto a boy named Michael.

Maybe the kitten prefers purple shirts. Purple shirts that aren't filled with LIES!

Today I gave the girl a little toy mouse on a pink string for the kitten. Karen and Jane freaked out at the sight of the mouse. They're rodent-phobic. The girl left after my class finished at six, but returned for a grammar class at eight, reporting that the kitten really likes the mouse. I wondered, later on, what she's feeding the kitten, and if they have a litter box and what-not. Caring for a cat here is a pain in the ass. It's not like you can just stop at the corner store and pick up cat food and supplies. I go downtown for Kamikaze's stuff, though there is now one pet store in my area that carries some cat products. I hope she cares for her new kitten, but as I looked at the little thing, I caught myself thinking about chicks in a bag.

Speaking of things that cry, yesterday a disabled man wandered into the school with a big bag of things he was selling. Mostly there were packs of socks and toothbrushes. Jane initially said she wasn't interested, but then decided to have a look. She relented, and agreed to buy a 5-pack of socks, but started ripping open the bags to snatch out the pairs she liked and assemble herself a hand-picked assortment. The guy was protesting quite a lot, but Jane was overpowering him with, "Look! I'm buying your socks, but I want what I want!" When he started to cry, she started yelling at him to stop being a baby. While she was screaming at him, I set off for class. When she stopped by my classroom door a few moments later, I said, "Jane, why do you make your boyfriend cry?"

She told me to shut up.

And speaking of things that make me want to cry, today when I walked into my second to last class of the day, a little ten year old girl reached out and clasped the zipper of the sweatshirt I was wearing and WHOOSH - totally unzipped me.
I was only wearing a sports bra underneath.
Nice.

Petals

Today's Study on Grasshoppers and Their Environs

This grasshopper lives on a leaf.


This grasshopper lives on a spicy pepper.


These grasshoppers live on my desk.

Show Me the Money?

Well, my boss and I finally hashed out a dollar amount (or won amount, as it may be) to try to settle up tax and pension issues. It wasn't as much as I might have gotten if I were to sick the government offices on her, but it hopefully will keep things civil and save me the hassle of having to undo what she's done. See, she listed me as an "Independent Contractor" which means, pretty much, that I'm self employed and therefore responsible for a higher tax rate. It also means that I should be settling my taxes directly with the tax office. Instead, as you may know if you've been following this drama for any amount of time, she collected 1.7% ABOVE the rate of an Independent Contractor - and has submitted nada in my name to the tax office. For three years. That mess also affects my pension - as I gather "Contractors" weren't mandated to pay into pension until January 2006.

So we settled on a lesser amount, and I've been trying to convince myself to just "let it go." My boss has requested that I write up some sort of agreement on the amount we settled on, "in case you change [your] mind in a year or two." ("About suing [my] ass.")

Thing is, the first of her monthly payments toward settling up was due last week with my regular pay. Yet, it failed to appear in my bank account. I mentioned this to her today, and she told me she's very busy. Thankfully, she wasn't too busy to pay me my salary, but I suppose that coming up with a few extra hundred dollars takes more time? More abacus work? More visits to a fortune teller to determine the most auspicious days to GIMME? I don't know.

Funny. I'm very often thinking about patience. More specifically, I'm thinking about the fact that I have none. But I think I judge myself too harshly. It's been about a year now since we first started negotiating, and I've yet to actually turn her upside down and shake the money out of her.

Go, me!

Some Sage T-Shirt Advice

It's so true. I know that I don't have the time to talk busily always. Sometimes it's all I can manage to talk lethargically usually. Other days it's an effort to chat brusquely hardly ever. And YES, "Old thought ist't used nowadays!" These days itt's all about the New Thoughts. New thinking for a brave new world.


Again, so wise. Take it from me. I know a lot about what you should and shouldn't do. You should never ever under any circumstance make a Catti RuRu Decision. It would only turn out badly.


DO IT! ROCK IT! NOW! Not later. Not tomorrow. Not next week. NOW!! Right this second! Are you rocking it now? Come on! Why put off that which must be rocked until tomorrow when you must ROCK! IT! NOW!?!?!

Pay No Mind

To the Drama Queen behind the curtain, but honestly,... Sometimes
talking to my family makes me want to chop my head off. That can't be good, can it?

What You Need

I bought myself a new keyboard - not because my old one wasn't working, but because most of the letters had been rubbed out by my fingers. I didn't realize when I bought this keyboard, but the sides are all lit up with neon lights. Bonus! However, in typing that last bit, I've changed over to CAPS LOCK twice. That sucks.

I was home this evening enjoying my Sunday. That means I was without pants and floating between my computer, the TV, my book, and a nap. Perfect. But then the doorbell rang, and once I put pants on to answer it, I found my friend Ben on the other side. I thought it might be him, since just over an hour ago I'd gotten a message, "Let's sing a song!" from him.

Now see, that message does not specify. It doesn't say where, when, or for how long. And I maybe should be used to Ben's modus operandi, but on the other hand he should be used to my hatred of impulsiveness. But he's not. And I don't really understand that, as I'm so very grrrrr-ified when he shows up unannounced - which he always does.

See, if I'm home, I'm in my pyjamas. They're not fuzzy flannel and bunny themed, but they're PJ's nonetheless. They're comfy and I dig them. Really, they're a T-shirt and fleece palazzo pants or (like I was wearing today) shorts. Actually I wasn't wearing the shorts. I was sitting upon them. When the doorbell rang, my shorts were lining the computer chair and I was very close to napping stretched out on my bed.

So I put on my shorts and answered the door. And scolded Ben. Again. After leaving him outside for a few minutes - to tidy up just a little bit and get myself together, I let him in, and continued to try to straighten up. I needed a shower. In the meantime, a guy showed up with a box full of chicken. Ben had ordered it on the way over here. Yummy! Except I'd just eaten my brunch - wonton soup - not even an hour and a half before. And I still needed a shower.

I need advance notice. I need to prepare my space for a visit, or prepare myself if we're going out. I don't think that's unreasonable. It's better for everyone if you call ahead. Isn't that a rule?

So when we finally got down to it, there was some cold yangyum chicken that I wasn't hungry for, and a couple of hours worth of karaoke to be sung. And some rum. It was all good by then. But, initially,...

What is it with the friends I have these days who are fun and cool but like to BUG me? I'm far enough along in life to know what I'm like - good or bad, and so I broadcast that - and more often so, just fess up to it. Yet so many people insist on doing what it is that bugs me so.

I don't know what it is exactly. I think I'm sending mixed messages. Perhaps if you're easygoing in just about every other aspect of life, people won't take you for real in the few areas you'd like to be uncompromising about. Whatever it is, I'll bet that friendship isn't easy. You might want it to be, but there always seems to be some little pinprick that makes you go, "What the hell?" But I've had those moments in every single friendship in my life.

It's probably just me, but what is it with my friends who aren't giving me what I want and need?
What the hell?

WCB One Two Three - Kamikaze and Dog

Dog approached as Kamikaze napped.


Kamikaze woke up.
Ah! Doggy! Do you want to come nap with me?
This made Dog happy.

They snuggled up together.


But Dog started to hog the carrot and Kamikaze felt crowded.


Kamikaze woke right up and tried to reclaim his carrot.

Hoggy Dog, get your own carrot!

So Dog said, "Fine! If I can't sleep in your carrot with you then I shall sleep UPON you!"


Hey K, there's something on your back!

I know.

And I don't like it!


Get it off! Get it off! Get it off!


Sigh.


So I took Dog off Kamikaze, but I was surprised when Kamikaze asked for a kiss.
But he lied, and instead ate Dog's face off.


For more WCB-goodness you should slide on over to visit Sher and Upsie over at What Did You Eat? Thanks for hosting, Sher!

Some Comfort Food

With the weather getting a lot cooler at night, it's nice to have a nice comforting bowl of dinner.

Here we have some rice, scrambled eggs, and teriyaki chicken. The other bowls have mushrooms in oyster sauce, some sort of green leaves, and tomatoes and onions in some vinegar and soy sauce. I love meals where everything goes perfectly with everything else.

This meal was eaten while I sported super fuzzy green socks and watched Forest Gump for the manillionth time. If only someone had been playing with my hair as I ate, I would have been absolutely blissed out.

I tossed the mushrooms in the big bowl with the leftovers I couldn't finish because I got too full. In the morning, I pulled it out of the fridge and dumped it in the wok. Viola - instant easy breakfast!

What's your favourite comfort food?

Tangled Up in Blue

Juicy

Today my co-worker offered me some juice.


I said, "Ummmmmmmmm,....no thanks!"

Something You Don't See Everyday!

I was walking down the big hill on my way to work Wednesday and I noticed a splash of green on the stone wall beside me. Ah! A praying mantis! I will photograph you, green bug, and add you to my All Praying Mantii All the Time Blog!

But what are you doing exactly?


Your ass seems to be exploding.

It actually looked like there was a bug that was vomiting from the back end of the mantis. Look at those antennae things. They were feeling around as white goop spilled out of the rear of the insect.

Well - what she was doing, in fact, was laying her eggs. From Insecta Inspecta World "After mating, the female will lay groups of 12-400 eggs in the autumn, in a "frothy" liquid called an "ootheca", that turns into a hard protective shell. This is how these insects survive during the wintertime. Small mantids emerge in the spring. Often, their first meal is a sibling."

I offered to coach her through her labour, but she told me to "Bug Off!"


I've seen them hatch before, the baby bugs. They spread out from what I had assumed was a glop of wallpaper paste and covered my spare room when I lived in Japan - and I do mean covered. They were EVERYWHERE! They're fantastic when they break free - perfect tiny replicas of their parents. Mini-mantii!

Here's what the nest looked like on the way to work today. There was no sign of Mama Mantis, who probably went off to die somewhere.

Trying to Tell Me Something?

I got a lot of nice little presents from my students on my birthday last month. Mostly, it was stuff bought from the stationery store across the street. Cute pencils and things like that. A couple kids gave me stickers. I like stickers! Check out these nice doggy stickers. My student must have saw the English and thought, "Oh, Jelly will like these!"


But hold on a minute. What's that??


Well that's not very nice!!! Fuck you too, doggy stickers!

Ah well,...I got some cute rabbit stickers as well - so that makes up for the rude ones.


Nice little fuzzy rabbit sticke,....wait a sec. What's up with the guy in the corner?

Clearly, he's flipping me off.

I like the stickers, but they don't seem to like me! Rude little stickers!

Iris

Can you see my soul?
It's bright and rectangular, eh?

Drainpipe

It's kind of like "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn."
But, instead it's "About Three Storeys Up from a Drainage Pipe, on a Big Ass Retaining Wall that Holds the Mountain Back from Sliding Down and Killing Us as We Sleep, Grows a Seemingly Impossible Little Flowering Bush."


It's pretty, though!

Saving Grace

Last Friday I skipped merrily to work. Even though I should have been dragging my ass because I hadn't had nearly enough sleep the night before, I was happy because it was Friday. Damn, I loves me some Fridays! But, I was also pleased because it was Speech Contest Day! (I was going to link that up,...but - blah.) I'm in charge of Speech Contest. Whoopee! I pick out some sort of text and I practise it with each of the classes every time I'm with them for about a month. Then all the students gather in the foyer and we listen as they read. Clap clap clap. Yeeee hah!

Speech Contest days used to be quite out of hand, and the K-Teachers would patrol and hit the kids with sticks, but these days we're a kinder and gentler school - and no one carries weapons. Well,...that's not true. Sunny has a broke down rubber mallet that squeaks, and Jane's got a cushy yellow fist at the end of a stick that doesn't hurt at all.

Me? I've got my rolled up newspaper that I use to swat my students's butts. Then I mash their noses into their erroneous worksheets, while I shout "BAD! BAD STUDENT!" Oh, wait. That's my puppy I do that to. Oh, wait. I don't have a puppy.
Whaaaaat-ever.

Anyhow. Where was I? Oh, yes. Tra-la-la, I skipped to school.

I like Speech Contest because it gives me a chance to not be,.....well,...teaching. It does give me a chance to be proud of the wee students as they display how well they can perform. When I first introduce the "speech" we're going to practice, they're really quite awful. But on Speech Contest day - all of them are very good and a bunch of them are outstanding. I dig Speech Contest Day.

Used to be that you could set your watch to S.C. Days. They were Friday. Last Friday o'the month as I reckon. Giddyup. These days, though - many things are pear shaped. Up is down. Day is night. Who knows when the hell things are going to happen? Which is why I asked Jane on the Thursday after Chuseok (9/27) if we were going to have Speech Contest the following day. "Uh, nooooooo," Jane decided. "Let's have it next Friday."

Right, then. Skip to "next Friday" and I skipped to work.
"YAY!" I bellowed as I came into the staffroom. "IT'S S.C. DAY!" (Not really. But I asked where the microphone was because I was all ready to go!)

Jane and Sunny looked at me like I was nuts. "No! It's not S.C. Day!" they protested.
"What? Yes it is!" I countered.
"NO!" Jane said. "Look at the calendar," she said, pointing to the whiteboard up on the wall.
I did look, and indeed - S.C. Day was listed on the 12th.
"But you said last week it was THIS week," I told Jane.
"No, I didn't"
"Huh? You did too!"
"No, I di--" And just then two little girls came in the Teacher's Room and said, "It's S.C. Day!"
"Did you tell the students today is S.C. Day?" Jane asked me.
"Ummmm -yes, because when they asked me last Thursday and I asked you, you said it was today."
"No, I didn't."
I sighed. "Well, let's have it today." I said. "It's been six weeks since the last one. We're sick of practising the same speeches."
"But look," she said pointing to the whiteboard calendar again, "Speech Contest is next week."

I guess she did have a point. The October calendar was there on the wall and we could all clearly see that Speech Contest was written in red on the twelfth. It's not like you can just go around erasing these dates. It's not like you can just rub them ou,....Oh, wait. It's a whiteboard. I walked over and rubbed out October twelfth with my thumb.

"Oh, look!" I exclaimed, rewriting the words "speech contest" in on the fifth. "Speech Contest just moved! Now what say you go get the microphone?"

She still wanted to argue with me, but I wasn't going to bother. This Face-Saving b*s* can be tiresome. Sometimes it seems like no one can ever be wrong here, and the most stubborn person wins.

It's now been just about a couple weeks shy of a year since I started fighting my boss about taxes and pension. I think we managed to come to an agreement today. It's been a cordial but sleazy ordeal, and I'm absolutely owed more than what I'm going to end up with. I could fight more, and utilize the government agencies with their employees who are, by my experience, uninformed, unhelpful, or just plain idiots. However, I don't have the mad Korean language skillz or a vindictive hard-on to nail my boss. As I've always said, I like her, - and it's a shame she didn't set me up right and I wasn't better informed when I started working for her. So negotiations have been tiresome. It's been impossible to get her to agree to what I want, so she gives a little and I give a little and she gives a little, but she's determined to have the last little. So today we were left arguing over 0.3% of tax. (And give me an "amen" if you think income tax should be non-negotiable. That's what I'm saying!) Regardless. "Fine. Save face, and rip me off just a little bit more," I thought, as I finally relented. Let's put this to bed, and you can go to sleep tonight with your precious face intact. (And my butt more ravaged than I'd like, but whatever.)

Speech Contest, done. Negotiations, done.
Now let's see if I getz paid!

I'm Ba(r)ck

And I brought my delicious pencil case.

I know you love it. And you want it. But you can't have it. It's MINE. Grrrrrr!

Not Ok Computer

Bloody hunk of crap. I'ts been NOT working more than it has. I'm thinking about getting my money back and buying a new one. I think Kevin jinxed me in my comments. Everything's his fault. Bastard!

So I Sez to the Pig in Front of Me

¡Oh mi dios!

I actually told the freezer at Homeplus today to "Shut! UP!" when I saw these babies inside.


And they had different sizes as well! Fantastic!
I'm going to get up early and make little "tortilla sushis" for my co-workers and I. We'll have two varieties: smoked salmon, cream cheese, and sprouts, and some salmon cream cheese, sun-dried tomato, grilled eggplant, and avocado.

The last time I had tortillas was earlier in the summer when I got a fabulous surprise package from Maven over at The Sanctum Santorum, which included a little taco-kit! (Thank you again, M!) I can't recall why I didn't blog about the tacos. Maybe because though they were delicious, the photo was ugly? (I kind of overcooked the meat.) Anyways, here they are, wishing they had some guacamole on them. I don't think I could find avocados at the time.

If HomePlus starts carrying taco seasoning, I'm going to have to flip the hell out in one of the aisles! Note, those things on the tortilla package are definitely NOT tacos.

Simple

I'm going to post now about something kind of laughable.
Master Chef's, all of them that read this, will have a hissy fit.
I'm okay with that.

I think this is beautiful.

See that?
Gorgeous!

Do you know what it is? It's some kind of spaghetti-ish sauce and mac'n'cheese. In Canada, we call the pasta part "Kraft Dinner." If you're making an (un-PC) "welfare" dinner, you throw in some chopped up hot dogs, and douse yer K-D wiff kechup n'peppah. MMMmmmmm.

Here, it's called "hard-to-get-comfort-food-gold." This Mac'N'Cheese was sent to me by my friend Eva and it's just difficult to get here. It's gooooood, though.
The spaghetti-ish sauce was a mix of tomato paste, tomatoes, ground beef, some sliced sausages, peppers, onions, mushrooms, jalepenos, and olives. On a recent Sunday night, with a movie playing, this dinner was a big hit! The next morning for breakfast, reheated with some milk and tobasco thrown in,....Uhmmmmmm!

And I shared the spaghetti-ish sauce with my manager, who had stolen one of the packs of Mac'N'Cheese Eva sent. She declared the combination delicious! And it was! I'm going to have to experiment on making this in the winter without the pre-packaged mix.
Macaroni and cheese and meat and veg and spice,...perfect bowl of comfort food!

Visit Me

For all your praying mantii needs.


All praying mantii.

All the time.

Mashi Maro

I love this naughty ubiquitous rabbit. I think my wee student's T-shirt sums him up very well.

He does have a short statere.
And, he tends to be weighty.
And he is bizarre. Like most of the T-shirts here are.

Oh, Blogiverse!

I haven't been ignoring you. My new (used) computer has been continuously crashing since last week. So I call in Mister Computer-Man and he fixes things and leaves, and then my computer seems to miss him, or something - so it crashes again. Awesome! Mister Computer-Man came over again tonight and tinkered around. He told me he will come again tomorrow. I guess he misses my computer as well.

Actually, it's the fan -or cooler - (thingamajig) that needs replacing. It might be cool for tonight (PUN!) but may decide to just quit if it gets sleepy, or bored or something. If I turn of the computer, it will definitely not be roused again.

You can tell I'm practically a Computer Technician, right? I'm sorry if my use of uuber-tekkie jargon was way over your heads!

Time

I don't get it. I know it's supposed to be measured out in equal increments. Seconds, minutes, hours, days,...you know how it goes. And I've heard that one measurement of time is supposed to be exact to the other. For example, I think we would all agree that in theory one hour should be quite the same as another hour.

However, I can tell you that there is some sort of error. Something's amiss. I've just tested my hypothesis about "time glitches" and found that the suspicions I had are actually correct.

"VACATION" time goes by much quicker than "REGULAR" time. It's TRUE! I remember back to last Friday at 8:01pm and it was the start of my vacation. And here we are, five minutes later - and my vacation is pretty much kaput. How the hell does that happen?

I have another theory. I will bet that "vacation" time has many many more legs than "regular" time, and is therefore able to run much much faster. I'm guessing that "regular" time has mayyyyyybe two legs. Perhaps one. "Vacation" time, on the other hand, probably has somewhere in the realm of three million, two hundred and fifty four thousand, and seventy-one legs.

What I need to do is TRAP time and observe it. Under a microscope, I think. (I really should get myself a clipboard and a lab coat, too.) So I'm going to be busy in the next couple days coming up with some sort of container to capture "regular" time. Luckily, I'll have one more day next week - Wednesday - to trap "vacation" time. If I'm unsuccessful, though, I've either got to get someone else to help me. "Vacation" time is elusive, and I'm not going to see any more of it after next Wednesday until Christmas.

I'll publish my findings in "Popular Science" magazine. Oh, and here too.