He's just chillaxin'

I've been hesitant to post this other picture of Kimchi because when people look at it they go "OH MY GOD HE'S ENORMOUS" and then I have to spend time explaining that it's just the picture and that it's probably a really tiny chair and they still say "HE IS HUMONGOUS AND READY FOR COLLEGE" so whatever. Here it is. Yes, he looks really big but he's actually still wee baby sized. Although, I might show up and he'll be huge like Jonathan Winters was on "Mork And Mindy" and then you will all be right.

Project Fugway

As some of you regular readers remember, and by regular readers I mean all two of you including my mom, I sometimes will post recaps of shows I watch, you know real highbrow shit like "Rock of Love" and "Rock of Love II." You may have noticed an absence of such a thing. You are not seeing things, I have not done this recently because there hasn't been anything on I've HAD to watch but today I want to post a little Project Runway recap. Overall I have not been too enthused about this seasons crop of designers. Many of them are whiny and most of the clothing looked like art projects from 4th grade summer camp. Last night was part one of a two part finale and I have to say that I'm pretty happy with the last designers standing, save for one. Let's take a look at them:

Leann - I was on the fence with her for a long time but I've finally warmed up after the last few challenges she won. Her dresses have been steadily getting more beautiful and she has shown more confidence in her designs. Even last week's during last week's disastrous "nature inspired" challenge, when the other designers showed pure pieces of crap, her lavender gown was beautiful and flowy. Well, from the front. The back was not good but it was still way better than the other stuff. Her wedding gown and bridesmaid dress combo from last night was gorgeous. I was skeptical when I first saw all those weird wavy layers but seeing it go down the runway was spectacular. It was exactly as Michael Kors said, chic, modern, architectural and still Leann. Well done. I'm excited to see her show at Bryant Park.

Korto - I've loved Korto's stuff all season. It's beautiful without being foofy and the structure and quality of her work is amazing. I also love her as a person because she just seems really cool. From what we saw during Tim's visit, I'm pretty sure I'll like her collection. It looks modern and earthy, which is a hard combo to pull off. Her wedding dress however, was a disaster. I know she slaved over it and it looked like it took a lot of work but it was butt ugly. The color was not good and the whole shape was bad and it was just too much of everything. The bridesmaid dress isn't even worth mentioning because it made me fall asleep. I hope she does well at Bryant Park.

Kenley - Oh, Kenley. Kenley, Kenley , Kenley. Why are you so nasty? Seriously. I'm shocked you are still in this. The last few challenges showed us nothing good from Kenley, especially her hideous scale dress. I get that she's this modern pin-up girl and there's definitely a market for that type of look but that's ALL we see from her. At least when Terri showed us pant after pant, she did them well, but Kenley seems to have no taste where pattern is concerned. Maybe I would cut her more slack i she wasn't such a raging be-yotch, but MAN, she is just not nice. I know it's about talent and not personality but I am just really tired of jerks and I don't think that people should be rewarded for being argumentative and snotty and bratty. She can take zero criticism and I understand he need to defend your designs, but you also have to be open to the notion that your design can be improved upon and that not everything you produce is AWESOME. All that being said, I thought her wedding dress was SPECTACULAR. It was feathers and tulle and ridiculous but it was showstopping and I would totally wear the shit out of it if I lived on a different planet. Her bridesmaids dress wasn't so great. I know Michael Kors loved it but I thought it didn't really relate that well to the wedding dress and it was way too short. I'm pissed she made it to Bryant Park but I got to give her props for that dress. Even if she stole it from Alexander McQueen but whatevs.

Jerell - Oh baby, I'll miss you and your overly bedazzled outfits and jaunty hats. Jerrell has been weird for me because he's hilarious but I just couldn't get into his designs. They just all seemed heavy and ornate and overdone. I wished he was going instead of Kenley but her wedding dress was far superior to his so I suppose it was fair. Well, sort of fair.

As far as an overall winner, I'm pulling for either Leann or Korto. I'm thinking that since they barely showed any of Kenley's collection last night, she might just win. I hate that the lesson is no matter how much of a jerk you are to other people, you can still win. Why is this world like that? for those who care, I'll have a finale wrap up next week.

Look at mah behbeh!

Wooo Hooo!!! It may be crappy out today but who cares because we got NEW PICTURES!!!!!!!! Jesus, he's like 7 feet tall already. Ok, he's not that tall but the pictures make him look like Yao Ming. Well, if Yao Ming was Korean but I digress. He's f%$&ing cute, no?

Have you heard? The bird is the word. Thanks, Peter.

PISCES 10/06/08 What gives you the right to do what you are doing? You have granted yourself approval, surely. You must, therefore, have some belief in your own authority. Fan that spark of self-esteem until it becomes a flame. Don't worry about it going out of control. Waves of difficulty will damp it down before long. Those waves keep on breaking over the shore of your life. You are feeling swamped by them. That's precisely why you need to become more sure of your own judgement. Anything is possible if you believe in yourself.

Well, what fresh hell is this?! Keep on keepin on but hold on, you might drown in waves of difficulty? This doesn't sound very awesome. This sounds like a bad greeting card. Oh well. What can I do? I'm powerless to the great gods of horoscopia. Anyways, this was a very busy weekend for us at Kimchi Central. I spent Friday night and all day Saturday working on a shower cake and Jeff spent Saturday at actual work. Suck. My super awesome friend Sara came by on Saturday to a) talk me down during a rather stressful cake "situation" and b) help me try to get my sorry ass organized since my house looked like one of those houses on Oprah when they do a clutter intervention. The problem is that we bought all this stuff from Ikea that needed to be assembled, so there were boxes everywhere, I have a bed and an old dresser in the middle of Kimchi's room so I can't put anything in there until we get his bed situated, which couldn't happen until we got our bedroom situated which wasn't going to happen until I cleaned out all my drawers to prepare. Whew. Yesterday I finally got a handle on things and got our bedroom all set up, which is awesome because I'm living all Eurotrash with wardrobes instead of closets, so now we can move on to painting our old furniture to go in Kimchi's room and then we can get him all set up, which will then free us to finish all the other crap. It's a process, people. Sara is a champ and I can't thank her enough for all her help. You're a super pal, SJPeePee.

Speaking of kimchi, we decided to finally find an authentic Korean restaurant to go to this weekend. We decided on the one voted best in the city and let me tell you, it was true. It's called Hangook Kwon and it was absolutely delicious. I was nervous with all my food issues but I decided to be brave and just go with it. We knew we were in the right place because we were the only people who were NOT Korean. No one was speaking English. That means the food is good, right. Our waitress was very sweet and helped us navigate the menu and we ended up with a beef and rice roll as an appetizer, which we had no clue as to what it was and it turned out to be a sushi-type of roll and it was SO good. For dinner, I got beef bol go gi and Jeff got pork tenderloin with kimchi and some other stuff I couldn't identify. I'm not going to say there wasn't a fish head stew and a pig intestine stew on the menu because there was but whatever. No matter what you order, as is tradition, you get 6 little bowls of side dishes, one of which is kimchi. I was kind of afraid because I had heard stories but honestly, it was delicious. Everything was super spicy and garlicky and kind of sweet and just YUM. We are totally going back and I can't wait to take little Kimchi with us. There was a little girl, probably about 1 or 2, at the table next to us and she was SO CUTE I wanted to just eat her (not literally) and the best part was that she was using chopsticks! I am totally teaching Kimchi to use them. Jeff had to ask for a fork. The waitress was amused.

That's it. It's Monday, I'm tired and I can't wait for Friday.

Cake Alert

Cake? Did someone say cake? I think someone said cake.
www.theatomiccakeco.blogspot.com

Deeeebate

Did you watch the debate last night? That's the hot question this morning I guess. We watched, along with my sister who watched with us on speaker phone. Generally I hate these things because it makes me uncomfortable for everyone involved and I certainly felt that at times last night but overall I'm kinda "meh" about it. I don't necessarily think that it swayed any undecided voters and I think that whatever you felt about either party going in, you probably felt the same way going out. I disliked Sarah Palin going in and I continue to dislike her. See? I did have a few issues, mostly with these things called facts, which both of them manipulated quite well. In that respect it was a draw. My biggest compliment of the night is for Biden for maintaining his tone and keeping the focus on McCain and not Palin. The news people chided him a bit for not being more on the attack but he was in a lose-lose situation. Had he attacked her at all, they would have jumped on him immediately, calling it sexist and whatever else. If he went too soft and talked down to her, he would have been called condescending. I think that by remaining as neutral as he could, which I feel he did for the most part, he escaped any unfair labels.
Which brings me back to Palin. I know that most people, well most dems anyway, thought she would fall on her face or run off the stage, neither of which happened so I absolutely give her that. She maintained composure, even when it was clear that she didn't know the answer to the question. My biggest issue was that she began by basically saying she wasn't going to answer the moderator's questions the way they wanted them answered, which I thought was disrespectful. Clearly she had been extensively coached to answer key questions a certain way and when those questions weren't asked, she dodged the question at hand to answer what she had been taught. In fact, it became clear to me that she really wasn't paying much attention to the questions at all as she answered the question "What is your Achilles heel?" with a long, rambling statement about what her "strengths" were. That was really annoying. She also talked in circles, as she is prone to do, and really only definitively answered maybe two questions, one of which was about gay marriage. She clearly thinks being gay is a choice and to have that attitude in 2008 is ridiculous, but that's my own opinion. The other thing that bothered me tremendously was when she would take on her "folksy" way. She uses her "aw shucks" attitude when she's caught without an answer and it pisses me off to no end. You know what Sarah Palin? I'm NOT Joe Sixpack and I'm NOT some folksy retard that needs to be talked down to. This whole "hockey-mom with the Fargo accent and the smarmy attitude" thing may work in Alaska, but if you're trying to appeal to the intelligent women of the entire country, yes the entire country, not just the small town people you seem to think are the only important ones, how about learning your shit and giving answers that don't require an eye roll or a catchphrase? And do not, I repeat, DO NOT, claim that you work for women's rights. That statement caused me to stand up and yell "fuck you" to the TV repeatedly. This took a lot of energy so I expect an apology. I could go on, but I will conclude by saying that she gave her supporters exactly what they wanted to hear and she didn't freak out and vomit on the podium so well done. The bar was set low for you and you met it. Good job.

There you have it. Biden didn't eat his foot and Palin didn't vomit on the podium. Done and done. I don't think anything has changed so let's go back to the actual candidates we are voting for. Next I would like John McCain to explain to me how his health care policy isn't going to totally screw us.

Have a great weekend.

weekly wrap up

So.....a lag in posts. Sorry about that, reader. I've been kind of busy so I'm presenting a weekly wrap-up for you. Honestly, this is more so my mom understand why I haven't called her back much this week. Yeah, sorry about that, Jan.

- So Monday we had to bid a fond fare-thee-well to the Ford Windstar. We returned her after work and then went to Trader Joe's. I know, BREAKING NEWS. When we got into Jeff's Civic, I felt like I was in an episode of "Honey, I Blew Up The Kids" or something because everything was so small and jammed in there and it wasn't like the nice, spacious interior of the Windstar. It even had doors that automatically opened and closed. I know that's old hat for regular drivers but I felt like I was in a magical land. Anyways..

-Tuesday night I met with my freelance graphic design client. She practices a type of energy healing therapy and offered me a session to see what she. It was oddly soothing. They touch you, but it's not massage, it's more like the just hold their hands on your arm or something. All I know is that it made me sleep better that night so well done. When I got home from work, the FedEx man brought this giant box to the door and I was like "wha?" and it was a big box of baby stuff from my sister-in-law. Well, it was from her girls to Kimchi rather. Either way it had some seriously cute shit in there. This was my favorite:

She also gave us these adorable burp cloths things that have his name on them and this pod thing that you can put them in and the sit there and they can't escape. It's really cool. Thanks, K.

-Wednesday I made cake. Thrilling.

-Thursday. Ooh, that today, right. Well, today we did something exciting, we went and filed the last bit of Kimchi's paperwork! We have a 2-6 week wait for our approval and once that happens, Korea can issue his visa to travel. I'm still not counting on anything happening quickly because the paperwork situation was dodgy and we has some "issues" but I have to say that as much as I have bitched about the immigration office being inept, the woman today could not have been nicer or more helpful. Still, don't count on it.

Check back over the weekend for a cake sighting.