playinghavoc

It was a good Christmas. Easy, fun, no relatives coming to visit. And I got lots of socks. :D

People seemed to like the gifts I got them, which makes me happy. My Mom got a little choked up when she opened the book I got her -- a biography of George Washington from 1861. He's her hero. It's battered and has waterstains but hey, it's 150 years old, that can be excused. The drawings in it are also individually hand painted, which is neat. It took me several auctions to finally win it, so that was a highlight for me.

aphonetic had never seen Howl's Moving Castle, so we watched that. And of course there was the dinner, which is really just a repeat of Thanksgiving dinner, and I finally got to share it with one of my friends instead of just talking about what a good cook my Mom is.

Tomorrow I'm going to try and wake up in time to take aphonetic to the Creamery for breakfast before taking her to the airport (unless she would prefer another In N' Out burger, because I know she wants that too). It's Courtney's birthday, so we're going to Color Me Mine and then with the parents to see The Princess and the Frog (woo fourth time).

I hope you all had a good time.

My sister and I took aphonetic into the city to be a tourist. I also realized that even though I grew up here, I never bothered to take pictures. And I do love my city. So I brought my camera with me. Hardly a good representation of the city, it's mostly stuff we found fun, but still, it's a start. The Golden Gate, Fisherman's Wharf, animals (because it's me), geek antics (with help from beanclam), cable cars and damn big Christmas trees.



( Christmastime in the city. )

That aside, Merry Christmas, or whatever it is you may be celebrating today. And if you're not celebrating anything, I hope it's a good day anyway. I mean, my family just uses this as an excuse to give presents, hang out, eat food and look at pretty things. Hence why it has always been my favorite time of year.

I love you guys, even if I fail at showing it.

So I learned tonight that my brother's brother, Gustav, is the drummer of a fairly well-known Swedish heavy metal band called Bullet. At least, I am told it is well known in Europe. I have no idea. I knew he was in a band, but had no idea it was so successful.

Have aphonetic here for Christmas. Tomorrow will be showing her around San Francisco. Anyone in the area is welcome to catch up with us at any time -- we're just going to be hitting the major touristy stuff; cable cars, Fisherman's Wharf, the bridge, Ghiradelli Square, etc.

There's an article in the paper here about my trainer, Nancy, being kicked out of Stanford Barn, where she's taught for 38 years. They're replacing her with an Olympian. It's a sweet article and a good tribute to her, I think.

Inspired By Adversity: Nancy Hey teaches much more than riding.

Nancy has taught me since I was ten years old. As a result she's been a pretty huge influence in my life. I grew up at the barn. In my later teens, I spent most days of the week there, especially after I owned Valentine. It was her that put me with Valentine, who then herself through her problems and insecurity had a really big impact on my development as a person. I often had a very difficult time with the other girls there, and definitely went through some of the worst stages of my personality there as well, but Nancy was always supportive of me, and told me she trusted me. Nobody used to say that to me, but she always did.

I remember being surprised when I brought friends to meet her and they were thrown off by her. She's legally blind, so she tends to seem like she's looking through you rather than directly at you, but I'm so used to it it never occurred to me that it was strange. I don't know how to feel about her being made to leave. Obviously I'm sad, because that was partly my home and it was definitely hers, but it's so expensive now and it hasn't been the same since the other trainers were kicked out and replaced with people who only taught Stanford students. Everyone's following her to her new barn, and I know that means I'm putting the Stanford Barn behind me entirely as well.

...I find it perhaps I bit odd that I still consider her my teacher, regardless of the fact that I haven't taken regular lessons from her since I lived here, before I went to college. But I'm fairly certain that no matter what other trainers I've had and will have in the future, she'll still be the one I go to if I have the opportunity.

I have been sitting on this plane for about three hours because we were supposed to take off at 2:45 but San Francisco wasn't letting any planes land, so we didn't take off until 5:30.

But now I'm flying and have nothing to do, so I'll do that meme that maiden_rising did.

( I have a hard time picking 'bests' and 'worsts'. )

Talked about this in halcyonjazz's Princess and the Frog Spam Post (which I may just have seen for the third time), but I wanted to mention it here too because it's awesome.

For those who haven't heard, one of Disney's upcoming hand-drawn film projects is The Snow Queen. Yes, as in the Danish fairytale.

( Concept art goes here. )

Oh, and guess what? Alan Menken's doing the music. ♥

I've seen so many hamsters die that I tend to surprise myself when I continue to get upset every time. And I wanted to find Amigo dead today, because he should have died days ago, and has just been clinging to life and it was horrible and I wanted it to stop so he wouldn't be suffering anymore. I would have had him euthanized, except I didn't actually expect him to hang on so long. Normally when hamsters hit that stage, they go very quickly. He was a determined little guy, though.



But he had passed by the time I got home from work, so I took him outside and buried him in the dark and the rain while crying like a proper crazy pet owner.

katmaxwell decided this merited an early exchange of Christmas gifts, so now I have a stuffed unicorn, Elphaba, and King Julian to help ease my sorrows.

Have a a Formspring now? I was curious. Feel free to ask something, if you would like.

katmaxwell: At the white elephant gift exchange I got a muumuu!
llamrei: A... oh.
katmaxwell: What?
llamrei: I thought you meant, like... Mumu.
katmaxwell: Yes. I kidnapped him from Venezuela. He's downstairs in the closet.
llamrei: [fist pump]

Yippiee! ♥!

It continued to snow on and off the whole day! I'm soooo excited! This totally deserves an LJ post! *BEAMS!*



Obligatory picture of little_ribbon in the snow? BIGGER HERE! xDD! This was right before I had to rush off to work... I know I look like I'm standing in the middle of a random garden - but that's actually the little grassy area in front of the apartment block I live in. If you look closely, you'll notice the Santa Clauses climbing up the buildings in the background. My mother HATES THESE THINGS WITH A PASSION. She's been ranting about a building in Merksem that has over THIRTY SANTA CLAUSES climbing up the walls. O.o;;

( LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW! )

I wonder what the world will look like tomorrow morning? ♥! I also took a bunch of pictures of Pippa - my mother's Blythe! - in the snow... I'll be posting those soon! :D :D :D!

It's snowing~! ♥!



It's not all that much yet... BUT IT DOESN'T SHOW SIGNS OF STOPPING ANY TIME SOON. *BEAMS!*

SNOW! SNOW! SNOOWWWWW!! :D :D :D!

... and now I have to rush off to work. *pouts!* THERE BETTER BE LOTS OF SNOW LEFT TOMORROW SO I CAN TAKE OBLIGATORY LOLITA PICTURES IN THE SNOW.

I've been looking forward to the All Dolls Fair in Vlaardingen (The Netherlands) for MOOOOOONTHS... and I finally got to go last Sunday! ♥!

It was a bit of a rushed trip (I had to be at work at 2PM and Vlaardingen is an unfortunately looong drive?) and we got quite lost trying to find the place! I lost about an hour of looking-around-time because of the confusing highways and bridges in Rotterdam? ^^;;

Fortunately for little_ribbon the fair wasn't that big at all, so I managed to look at all the stalls in less than an hour before we had to dash off again back to Belgium. I ended up being over 30 minutes late to work, though. *laughs!* B-but, it wasn't too crowded at the mall so they didn't really miss me much.

I bought lots of fun goodies for my dolls! <3! I got some awesome new clothes from Plonsjeroze and Lovalizious for my Blythes... I should be posting pictures of Ruby or Pearl modeling some of the new items soon!



The most interesting finds of the day were definitely these Medieval-themed goodies! xD! Arthur is definitely, definitely, definitely getting his very own room now... I am already in the process of ordering him a bed from Wightcrafts! The owner is willing to give the 1/6th scale a go for me! YAY!

I'm really glad I got to go! I would have liked to be able to look around a little more and not have to check the time every other minute, though... There were some things I wanted to buy, but I forgot all about them because of all the rushing and chaos. I mean, I didn't even have time to take any pictures. O.o; Oh well... I'm just really relieved I got to go at all? For a minute there, it looked like work would spoil it all. (The week was UTTERLY EXHAUSTING - what with having to work 8 days in a row + extra hours! - but this was a very nice reward for me! XD)

Kitten and puppy pictures. Literally. And some of my favorite cats.



( Puppies are nature's remedy for feeling unloved. )

...Oh my god, you guys. My parents just sent me a two pound See's Christmas box of scotchmallows.

How will I ever eat all those? SOMEBODY COME HELP ME EAT THEM

I would just like everyone to know that when watching The Princess and the Frog, halcyonjazz's scarf moves higher up her face in direct proportion to how much screen time Naveen gets.

Yes, we saw it again. And laughed at her the whole time. But really, we weren't much better.

Also, someone needs to inform my GPS that I cannot actually drive through trees.