Where does the @!#$ go? -Envy (Ben Stiller and Jack Black)

I lost my pics. Yep, that's right...they're gone...poof...82 of them, nowhere to be found. Something happened with the computer and the internet and whatever - who cares what happened, I have 82 missing pictures.

• Hula pictures...
• Super cute Katelyn pictures...
• Eating at Golden Lobster pictures...
  
• Pictures at the top of Tapochau...
• Pictures of the 8 Monteros, 5 4-runners, and 4 sedans heading up the mountain (what's up with that; I've never seen it so busy, if there were an entrance fee the government'd make a lot of money off the 60 or so tourists that visited this morning)...
• Home-made (reduced fat and sugar) totally yummy Mango Cream Pie pictures...
• Home-made (but not so good) pasta pictures...
• Cute cousin pictures...

At least these pictures aren't as sentimental as new-born pictures. Like the 50 or so of Katelyn that got erased from this computer. I was devastated. I still feel the hole in my heart....

No egg.

Ok, so 'Mary' from Saipan Vernacular just shattered my world. What's wrong with "no egg"? She told me this story about a vegan friend of hers telling a chef at a teppanyaki place that he wanted his fried rice without egg. He just kept saying "without egg....without egg". The chef was clearly puzzled, so Mary took over and told the chef, "no egg". He understood. What?? She's telling me that "no egg" is wrong. Oh my gosh, I don't know that I can accept that. ;P

There is no egg in my soba. What am I supposed to say, my soba is without egg...it is sans egg.

Ahhh!

For a week now I have been dreaming about ordering a new TI BA II Plus Professional Calculator because the display on my HP 10bII is messed up. I finally got my last check from my old job so I jumped on the web to order one and amazon won't ship it here!

Wait! Best Buy! ...Noooo! They only have the TI BA II Plus Business Analyst Calculator and the TI BA II Plus Financial Calculator (and the HP 10b II - but I want an upgrade and I want to keep it under $50).

No, no, what have I done? Walmart has the Plus Professional!! ButI have vowed never to shop at walmart.com again.

I don't know what to do.

Stuff to see...or not.

Benchwarmers - um, I'm not sure what to say about this one. I'm not sure if I enjoyed it, but I couldn't stop watching it.

Running Scared - I liked it.

Annapolis - I feel the need to watch An Officer and A Gentleman. It was ok. But the boxing wasn't....should have hired a different boxing trainer for the actors.

Saipan Vernacular

In California, I once told some friends that just for kicks my best friend, we'll call her Ace (lol!), and I would go strolling through Kagman - we'd get lost and try to find our way out again. They thought it was really weird that we went strolling all the time. I think they pictured us in long dresses with pretty pink parisols walking along some beachfront path. Boy, were they wrong.

Recently, a friend of mine mentioned the odd reaction she received when she told a friend in the states that she was going to "get down with him." They stopped at a store and she told her friend she was going to get down with him. He thought she wanted to dance.

Reminds me of when people ask you to follow them. "Follow me, fan, I'm ashamed" means, "please come with me, I'm kinda shy." Has anyone ever asked you to "follow me smoke?"

So then this same friend, let's call her Mary, told me about the time her high school English teacher was getting into colloquialisms and vernacular. He told them that when he first arrived on island and people would tell him "on the light," he would would confusedly look up at the light - what's on the light? He didn't see anything. When he finally understood what was being asked of him, he would respond with "TURN on the light." He also told the class that "open the light" or "on the faucet" was incorrect. Mary told me that she and her classmates agreed with the teacher, "yeah, Mister, we know that...open the light is wrong" (notice how they only refer to him as Mister...another example of Saipan high school vernacular). Then the teacher gave another example, "nothing power." And the class was confused, "what do you mean, Mister, there's nothing power...it means there's nothing power."

One time James answered a phone call at work. It went a little something like this...
James: Hello?
Dude: Can I speak with 'Jamal'?
James: Who is calling?
Dude: This is the Godfather.
James: Who is this?
Dude: The Godfather.
James: *thinking, I'll give him one more chance.* Who is this?
Dude: This is the Godfather.
James: *click*
It was so funny hearing this story. I explained to James that people will often just say, "this is the Auntie" or "this is the brother" or whatever. So it is most likely that that dude really was Jamal's Godfather. But whatever, with the work James does, I agree that he should have properly identified himself.

A post for Kainoa.

Well, it's really just a bunch of fun pictures from this afternoon. Enjoy.






Notice how it begins and ends with chocolate.

Odd things Deece writes.

Dance of the Winshield Wipers (while stopeed at a red light)
Pieces of metal and rubber move asynchronously to P. Diddy's Godfather.

Song of the Backup Batteries (during loadshedding or other blackouts)
Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep. Beep beep beep beep. Beep beep...

Lazy!!

Check out the carrot I found in my McDonald's Asian Salad on Saturday:

Is it too much to ask to throw away the carrot wedge when you are done shaving off the salad slices?

(On a side note, I don't think there are even any carrot pieces in the Asian salad....dang, I should have called and complained.)

Blog This!

You see the little thing on the blogger bar at the top of each blog that says "Blog This!"? I didn't know what it did for a long time. And I every time I read it I would imagine a person (or often Homer Simpson) raising and shaking his fist as if to threaten another person and then forcefully saying "blog this".

Well, I do that all the time. If James and I have a ridiculous conversation or I snap a picture of something weird, I turn to him, shake my fist and belt out, "blog this!"

There are so many things I say 'blog this' to. But during the course of a day I tend to forget all of them. So here are a few that just came back to me. I don't care if they're old...I don't care if they're lame...I just want to BLOG THIS!

1) James (just after getting his new Pride Fighting Championships video game): "Tito Ortiz is gonna fight in Pride tonight - because I'm gonna make him! Because Tito Ortiz doesn't fight in Pride, you see."

2) Now that my mom has grandkids from both of her daughters, every once in while when I call my mom, I'll call out "Nana Chong" or "Nan Chong." Chong is her most wellknown nickname. But I do this jokingly, because I think you really have to be man'amko to have Nan or Nana in front of your name. And when my mom runs through her whole list of grandkids before she lands on the right name, "Mikey, ai, Mele, Maui, ai, Katelyn," that's when I tease her that she's man'amko or I guess mas amko (hey, I'm Chamorro, but I don't really know the language). Anyway, a few weeks ago one of our nieces (my mom's grand niece) came to the house. She parked her truck and started calling out "Nan Chong."

3) One time when James was teaching the kids judo class, a boy came up to him and flashed a smile. Most of the boy's front teeth were capped in silver.

• James: You know, there are some adults who would pay a lot of money to have teeth like that.
• Boy: A hundred dollars?
• James: More than that.
• Boy: A thousand dollars?
• James: Maybe even more than that.
• Boy: Infinity??
• James: No, not infinity.
  

I found a few bags of frozen cherries in the back of the freezer...

you know what that means...Cherries Gone Bananas!!! (it's one of my smoothies)

I'm no cook.

Whenever cooking comes up in a conversation, I just tell people that I don't really cook. James can cook, but I prefer to bake. But lately, I just want to cook - and surprisingly, my food has been turning out pretty ok.

Deece's Spinach and Basil Macaroni (goes well with chicken baked in cream of mushroom soup - don't forget to brown the chicken first)

1. Boil some macaroni - don't forget to drain it
   
2. Mince a lot of garlic
3. Stick some thawed frozen spinach and a lot of fresh basil in a food processor with the garlic and chop
4. Pour some olive oil over the macaroni and add some salt and pepper
5. Stir about a quarter of the spinach mixture into the macaroni
6. Add a little more olive oil and most of the remaining spinach mixture
7. Then add olive oil and salt and pepper as needed and add the rest of the spinach mixture
   
8. Stick in the oven for a while just to heat it up
   
9. Eat
   

Deece's Layered Penne Pasta and Chicken

1. Boil some penne pasta - don't forget to drain it
   
2. Get some spaghetti sauce, add stuff - mushrooms, fresh basil, black pepper, garlic
3. Grate some cheese - whatever cheese/s makes you happy
   
4. Thaw some pre-cooked, breaded chicken breast tenders (I think I used Foster Farms)
5. Drizzle some olive oil over the bottom of a casserole dish or glass cake pan
   
6. Mix some sauce with the penne pasta and make the pasta your bottom layer in the pan
7. Add some more sauce
8. Sprinkle a little cheese on that
9. Lay some chicken breast tenders down on top of that
10. Smother the chicken with the remaining sauce
11. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on that
12. Bake for a while so the cheese gets ooey and gooey or bubbly
13. Eat.

Deece's Own Hamburger Casserole Thingie

1. Cook up some diced onions and garlic
   
2. Brown some ground beef with the onions and garlic and salt and pepper, oh and add some sliced fresh mushrooms and cook
   
3. Boil some macaroni - don't forget to drain it
   
4. Grate a whole bunch of cheese
5. Mix the macaroni, ground beef mixture, a jar or two of spaghetti sauce (depends on how much beef and macaroni you made), and 3/4 of the cheese
   
6. Throw into a casserole dish
7. Top with remaining cheese
8. Bake till cheese is ooey gooey or bubbly
   

Sorry, I don't really measure...I prefer to just eyeball my ingredients. But they're simple recipes cause I'm a simple gal. And sorry, no pictures.

I'm dying to make a mango cream pie, but haven't had the chance yet. When I do, I'll post a pic.

ETA: Wow, this post really makes it seem like the only thing I can cook is pasta. I can cook eggs and soba too! Uh, and a few more things....

Eh, whatever.

Doesn't this banana cake look good? It was! After looking at all the food on Mona's blog lately, I was so happy when my sister made this.

Just a bit of bad weather today during hula.

Musicians.

I was at their practice today for about 20 minutes. I took about a thousand pictures. Here's one:

With all the strong winds today this dude was really struggling to stay on his feet.

The best pedicure on island!

Before (Still had on the polish from the last visit on mother's day....shhh...don't tell anyone.)
During

After

I'm out!

Yesterday was my last day at my old job (that sounds funny) and Monday will be the first day of my new job. My co-workers and the bosses took me to lunch. It was very nice and they gave me a bunch of really nice departing gifts - way more than I expected. Farewell, my friends.

This will be my last post and picture dealing with my work. K, I'm out!

Some vehicles should not be allowed on the road.

Obnoxious ones, that one that I always see on As Perdido Road that is constantly going through a "Road Test" (sure), and ones that look like they are about to come apart or topple over.

Take, for example, this truck:

We thought it was going to fall over and crush every car that pulled along side it.

Things that are good.

My Oster Classic Beehive Blender:

The Mango Fandango smoothie I made for lunch:

Nutter Butters:

Pork Tacos:

Yuck!

We just finished The Hills Have Eyes. I'm still feeling disturbed. It took us a few days to finish it because I'm not a fan of scary movies and I prefer to watch them during the day - I don't know why I agreed to rent this one, nay, why I asked to rent this one. Well, stupid me decided to let us finish it tonight - all the most scary, suspensful, gross scenes were tonight. Yuck! This movie is absolutely, positively, without a doubt not for kids or the squeamish who don't like scary movies.

I'm such a dork!

How many people do you know constantly set off their car alarms while they're in the car? One. Me. Just happened a few minutes ago in the parking lot outside of my office. Happened about a month ago in the parking lot at Joeten. Happened two days in a row in the parking lot of MHS in April. Once again, I ask, what's wrong with me??

Deece: A Series

Yeah, a series of vanity! Shameless self portraits, round 2.

Another day at the office.

Deece's Eyes

My evil twin. According to James, my evil twin is Japanese.

Waiting

Do I want a mango smoothie or a bango (berry and mango) smoothie?

A taste of yummy

Inspired by Maranda, I asked James to take me to the Taste of India as I hadn't been in ages and I also hadn't yet tried their breakfasts. It was great. (Maranda takes great food and ceramics shots...you'll see why I really wanted to eat there.)

James had the Poori Masala








I had the Kerala Pancakes and Vegetable Curry










I had Milk Tea and James had Masala Tea.
For a view of how they pour their tea...check this out.

I thought I was going to drive my sister's Montero home on Saturday....

I ended up driving my brother in laws T-100 instead. Which, at the time, I was thinking that I hadn't driven that truck in nearly 6 years (or any manual transmission for that matter). So I freaked out the whole time pulling out of the parking lot. Then I freaked out some more thinking about heading up Capitol Hill - praying that I wouldn't have to stop on an incline for any reason - so I ended up forgetting to go to the store to buy laundary detergent. Then the whole way up the hill I'm freaking out and praying that I won't have to stop before I make the turn to our road. Thankfully, I did well the whole time. (When I got home, James reminded me that I drove that truck about a year and a half ago. Dang, I wish I knew that earlier.)

I love that old truck. I remember one time when Ed let me drive it home after show - we were sitting at a red light, I had one foot pressing on the clutch and the other on the brake, what do I do? I decide that I'm too far back, so I pull the lever under the seat to move it forward. I get pushed back with a great force, my foot pops off the clutch, the truck dies, and the light turns green. Classic.

I used that truck to take my driving test. I remember my mom telling me I should wait and borrow someone else's car (hers was uninsured at the time) because I wasn't going to pass if I drove the truck. Way to have faith, mom. I came back a few hours later with my license in hand. She must have just forgotten that I had been driving for a few years already. Yeah, yeah...that must have been it.

See, Saw not see-saw

We saw Failure to Launch this weekend. It was cute. But I doubt I'll ever watch it again.

While my daughter sleeps in my lap...

I am able to post these morning pictures:

Don't know why, but I like this one.

Danced some hula. Here's Angie flashing her sweetness.

Ate luch at World Resort. These ribs were sooooo good.

Oh boy *sigh*... This shelf of cards at the bookstore was really feeling down. So I said "smile!" And it did. Oh boy!