Rose Parade 2022

New thing today, watched the Rose Parade on time live from start to end from 8am-10am, instead of just catching replays or bits here and there. Also loved this 2022 Grand Marshall LeVar Burton! I have a strange affection for the Rose Parade. I don't actually like it that much, but something about waking up on New Year's day and watching some of the parade or having it on in the background during the morning is kind of a tradition. My favorite memory is a hungover drunken morning sometime in college, and the parade playing in the background. I also think we saw it when I was a little kid, miserable waiting in the wee hours for it to happen. We watched the parade live when I was an adult when my cousin was a dancer with KC and the Sunshine Band float one year. Mom knew the secret Pasadena parking spots and watch spots. 

I know next year it will play January 2, so I'm not sure how i'll feel about that. But, just... waking up and having it on in the New Year makes it feel, like a new year, like new beginnings are possible, or just another stamp in time. 

This year was kind of hilarious because I love KTLA coverage but the sound was all off. We kept overhearing the announcer at the parade route - who was very good - but also very loud interrupting and discordant with the KTLA news anchors and announcers. We also kept hearing LeVar Burton with a mic and yelling "Happy New Year" over some of the commentary, which was pretty funny. Overall though I love watching it on TV (or laptop) or from a cozy home listening to random commentary, instead of trying to watch it in person as it looks like it would be miserable. KTLA always does a great job and I like their coverage. I also liked their morning show when I had to be at work at 6am, KTLA is my favorite morning show. 

Additionally the miniature therapy horses were adorable, and I was amazed that the LAUSD marching band played "Beggin" a song that just came out in (I think) in August 2021 - so it was cool to hear it and be like, what is that, and be able to spot it. Floats are floats, not a huge fan, but one year we did go to Sierra Madre and walk around the floats parked - so you could really appreciate them. I would recommend that and do it again too. You can smell all the flowers and plants, you can see up close all the handiwork, and it was just amazing. 

I suppose what I love most of all about the Rose Parade are all the other memories connected to it, and the way this tradition, for some reason, has a soft spot in my heart. 

Throughout the morning we had the parade on but I tuned out here and there. We had breakfast and I played some video games so I wasn't glued to the parade the entire time. I don't even like parades, but I think the tradition of New Years morning, bleary eyed and watching commentary and video on the Rose Parade is something of a tradition. Happy New Year 2022!

DogTrekker and Mother Nature's Inn - Lake Tahoe

New thing today, booked a hotel room to stay in Tahoe City. We want to travel with our dog so we checked out the DogTrekker website and researched some vacation areas, hotels and cabins. We decided to go to Lake Tahoe and I called and researched a few places. I finally decided on reserving a room at Mother Nature's Inn. It got great reviews and seems really cute and cozy and the right place for us. Crossing fingers and hoping we have a good trip. This is a good start I hope!

New Year's Eve, Sleeping Early

New thing today, our plans for New Years Eve are to sleep early. Yup. It sounds glorious and I highly look forward to it. Yes it's a little lame balls, but we have something early and exciting to attend tomorrow, which I will be blogging about (hint, starts with an "R" and end with "ose parade"). That should be thrilling, miserable and worth blogging about.

And as the last post for 2013, I say, goodbye. It's been swell I suppose. Some bad things in retrospective, but I think I've grown, grown spiritually and shed some weight and bad stuff as well.

We're BBQing hot dogs and hamburgers for dinner and I am ridiculously excited for that as well. So this is the first time, new thing, we've ever "celebrated" the new year this way. We won't be staying up late to watch the ball drop. No forced attempt at merriment or social occasions, just sincere joy in doing things we love, and spending time together. We'll go to bed in 2013 and wake up in 2014.

May you have a Merry New Years Eve, and may 2014 bring lots of love, laughter, luck and l… (fill in blank) into your life.

Cheers! :)

Oh Christmas Tree

New thing today, got our Christmas tree up. Merry Christmas to All!

Christmas in a Cemetery

New thing today, Christmas Eve, drove through a cemetery. Wasn't feeling morbid, just that there's one nearby and on a lunch break, decided to drive through just to see it. Usually they're very green and serene and relaxing, so just a little lunch detour before heading back to work. Anyway, I found it very sweet. I saw people decorating the graves for Christmas. I also saw an old man sitting on a chair next to a grave, obviously spending time. Appreciate your loved ones and in the spirit of Christmas, remember to cherish people! Here are a few shots. 

Pumpkin Pie

New thing today, made pumpkin pie. I've never made it before. I used the Cooking Light Pumpkin Pie Recipe as husband & I are both being healthier.

It was surprisingly easy & tasty. The hardest part might have been finding and shopping for ingredients, especially the pre made Pillsbury dough and pumpkin spice. Alas you just roll out dough onto pie pan (that was new too had to get one), mix filler ingredients, pour out & bake. I've never cooked with just egg whites either and had to get that, which I did easy as well, like a pro straight out of the eggshells, no devices.

It came out tasting sweet and moist. It's not as pumpkin-y as I thought it would be. Also I'd probably like a harder crust vs just the edges being hard. Overall a success!

I may be a fan of pies making now :) I've never really been a cake person, so maybe I'm a pie person? New things! :)

Also I never had pumpkin spice in the cabinet before. I love this stuff. Smells amazing and wow! My favorite new discovery in making pumpkin pie!

Howloween Pooch Parade and Pet Expo - Simi Valley - 2013

New thing today, first time went to the Howloween Pooch Parade  Pet Expo - Simi Valley - 2013.

It had maybe 20-25 booths of dog related booths and services. There was a Haute Dog vendor there. They had a dog costume parade, frisbee throwing/catching competition, and demonstrations from the Sheriff's K9 squad, obedience school and therapy dog trainers.

Overall just a fun silly excuse to dress up dogs in costumes and watch people and dogs get in the Halloween spirit. Family fun :) Go next year! We will :)

Enjoy some photos.

This lady was dressed as a watering can, and her dogs were Chia Pets!

Hot Dogs!

Fire/Police Dogs

Skeleton

Hard labor cart drawing Beagle with his Pirate master!

GhostBusters!

Dog Attack

New thing today, two dogs attacked our dog. Everything's ok, no physical damage, just a scare and a lucky miss. Our dog is a little dog, stray Lhasa Apso Shitzu mix and a sweet friendly one. So we have relatives who have these 13 and 7 year old pit bull mixes. They're nice dogs overall. I like them. They're friendly with humans but don't get exercise and are not sociable or friendly with other dogs. We've never had the dogs meet, as we know it wouldn't be good, as the pit bull mixes aren't friendly. But a relative today wanted to give it a shot and try out to see if they could be sociable and get them friendly and used to each other. With the holidays it would be nice to have all our dogs get along and be able to hang out together.

We were very cautious and careful, but alas, the mixes were still aggressive and lunged at our dog. They were trying to be social, but I think they just couldn't figure out this was a friendly situation. I think not enough social opportunities at all for these dogs. They sniffed aggressively, were very excited and possibly thought it was a snack or game or I don't know, just not really being calm or friendly. Husband and I go by Cesar Milan guides, and these were nice dogs, but it was definitely a situation where the human owner didn't follow dog psychology or understand that their dogs were not being calm or sociable, but were excited and mildly aggressive.

Good thing we stayed on our toes and stayed calm, but basically, no dice. It's just irritating when someone thinks their dogs can be friendly, but isn't honest with themselves to realize their dogs can't be sociable with other dogs. In order to test the sociability theory it put our dog in danger. Ugh!!! There were two close calls, and it could have been quite disastrous if one of the bigger dogs got a good lock or bite on our dog. Luckily our little one is quick and smart and avoided any damage. Relative has offered to lock their dogs up in the garage next time if we want to bring our dog over. That was really nice, but we will see? Might just be better to keep our little one safe at home. That was a first, to have dogs attack our dog, and I'm trying to stay positive but it was upsetting. But alas, let it go, live and learn.

Christmas Hiatus

New thing of the day, I think I'm quitting.

Well, I'm quitting the daily blog anyway. Christmas was tons of fun! Lots of presents, family, driving and cool stuff. I have lots of new things I could blog about, but I think it's not worth it to do it every day. Life is for living, not for blogging about it. So I think I'll change the tone of this blog to be more about the quality of the new thing I've tried, rather than the quantity. The daily blog has become rather burdensome rather than inspiring. So I will now blog when I have something interesting or new I've tried. Goal will be to do more creative things, rather than just finding something to blog about every day.

On the long drive home I got to thinking. I spent way too much money on gifts this year. I have an artist cousin who inspired me. She gave me a photo print of one of her drawings. I love a lot of gifts my aunts make because they're home made blankets, ornaments, cards or paintings. My favorite gifts are always the creative self-made ones. So I'd like to start planning and trying for next year, to be more creative and make all my gifts.

In addition to saving money, I get to do something creative with myself in anticipation of gifts. I have a lot of creativity and undiscovered talents that I believe in - so I'd like to explore those. Not sure if this blog helped me break out of the "afraid to try new things" thing, but maybe it did. I saw my aunt cook Filipino food and it made it feel easy and accessible. I've seen relatives give home-made gifts and I want to do that too. I'm tired of thinking about new things to try, and I just want to do it. Take chances. As my Oatmeal Cake disaster showed me, I mess up, but all the more motivation to do it well.

We got a blender and a crock pot for Christmas and I can't wait to try them and to try new recipes. It seems like scarves and socks were a cozy hit at Christmas so I want to learn to crochet and make them for next year's gifts. Also, we finally put up some bookshelves and I have my own corner for creative cards, paintings and such. I think I'll start painting/drawing again and posting them here. I can finally start scrap booking and printing out the many photos I store up but never really share or do much with. So many fun creative and non-TV projects I want to try. I want to do more essential important things.

Plus with my Master's degree and school - time will most likely be more strained. Eating out is costing too so gotta start doing stuff at home. Anyway - it's a New Year's resolution I suppose even though I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions, only once a year. I think you should always seeking to improve yourself.

So New thing of the day - today, I got crocheting hook, yarn and booklet on my own. Last time I tried crocheting, my grandma was around to help me learn. I was much younger then and forgot most of it. Then I tried learning with a friend long ago. We did a bit in the car on a road trip but I didn't stick with it. Now I am self-inspired after Christmas but also to make beautiful pieces like my grandmother does. I think I want to learn crocheting, then sewing, then making clothes and quilting - a passion I've always had. Not sure how long I can stick to crocheting, but if I know their end goal - Christmas 2011, it'll be easier to make.

So anyway, first steps. Went to Joann's after work. My is it intimidating. All those yarns and hooks to choose from. I chose a small pretty book for patterns I like and could follow. I chose a variety of plastic crochet hook sizes. I also chose a nice yarn color that I wouldn't mind making into something. Project is to make a scarf for husband and/or friends/family. Socks and scarves for now. One step at a time. I've got to remember that.

Anyway - did a few practice runs and was able to make something semi-descent start to a scarf. I kept doing a few rows then taking them out again. Trying to get good practice before actually starting a scarf. A single stitch crochet for now. I'll start at the beginning and not try to be overambitious or zealous about getting good fast. That's the trouble I think. We always seek to be great fast. I'm taking the Japanese approach. Always working to perfection and seeking to improve. I've also been reading some eastern buddhist religion texts so that's inspiring as well.

OK so, new goal. Do new things, but not every day, and do more creative new things. I thought about quitting the whole blog altogether, but I think it's been a good exercise. It's just one I can't keep up daily, and that's ok. Will keep trucking.

Well, happy holidays y'all!

Parol

New thing of the day, we put up a parol.

Parols are Filipino Christmas Star Lanterns - that we put up at Christmas. Most are pretty gaudy colored and have various twinkling combinations to them. There are a great variety of types and colors and they're mostly found in the Philippines. 

I bought a simple pretty white parol a few years ago and brought it back to the US. We haven't used it since I brought it back because, well, no real room and we never had a place of our own to decorate. This year though, our own place, our own decor. We found the parol and put it up! Oh how exciting and wonderful. It's a great piece of home that I absolutely love and makes it feel all the more Christmassy! 

Maligayang Pasko! It means Merry Christmas in Tagalog! :) 

Crock-Pot

New thing of the day, got an original Crock Pot for Christmas.

We did Christmas a little early this year with certain family members, due to the hectic holiday schedule coming up. In the gift exchange, we got a crock pot. It was on our list of wants, and with little/no experience with a crock pot - I've heard wonderful things so wanted to try it out.

Love this as it's red like our rice cooker. Set it and forget it - I hope. We may try cooking with it at first over the weekend so we can get comfortable with the timing of the food and be present and be around when it's cooking. Maybe do some mass meals ahead of time and have leftovers over the week. I'm a fan of easy cooking and maybe we might find some great ways to make yummy food with this. 

Got a 4 qt ceramic - which I think will fit all our general needs. Should be interesting to try out. I'll let you know when we try our first recipe with it :) 

Snapfish

New thing of the day, ordered a gift off of SnapFish.com.

Not too many details on this one, but I selected and uploaded photos onto a gift for someone on SnapFish :) It was surprisingly not that stressful or bad, more fun. I've uploaded photos, but I've never ordered a gift through them. They updated their photo upload site since the last time I uploaded anything, so it's much faster now and more convenient. Only bad thing is we were out of internet connection earlier this evening, and the checkout page is taking a long time to load so I'm not sure if the problem re-surfaced again. At least if I don't order/buy the item tonight, it's already prepped and ready to go. Also will use a coupon code!

Let the Christmas buying begin! We're going to try getting all the shopping done tomorrow evening after work. SnapFish - very awesome site and services :)

A Charlie Brown Christmas Tree

New thing of the day, put together our first Christmas Tree - a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree!

My sister said she saw it at Borders, so the husband and I went to check it out. We had our first Christmas as newlyweds last year, but we were living with family and the house and decorations weren't really ours. This year, it's our first Christmas in our first condo/home. I've been feeling super super festive and excited about everything. All year we've been picking out our own furniture, wall colors and building our home and our lives together :) Now we get to create our first holidays and Christmas season traditions. We also met during a Christmas party, so the holidays are extra special to us. Anyway this Christmas season, feels like our first. 

So, in our spirit of non-conventional and attempt at non-materialistic minimalist living (with our small place), we were debating about Christmas trees. I wanted to buy a large living tree and wrap Christmas lights around it and keep the tree in our house year round. We were looking at plants and debating if we should get a small fake tree instead, or just shopping and thinking of different ideas. Then, the perfect solution, a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. 

It's sad and wimpy, but that's the charm of it. We were standing in line at Borders and a woman commented on our tree saying "Wow is that really a Charlie Brown Christmas tree? That's great! It's sort of appropriate and a sign of the times these days". We agreed. Although I still love the large Christmas trees and the lights and all the ornaments, it's just not our style and not really in the budget. It's kind of a pain to put up and take down, and we don't have room to store a fake one. I was a fan of wrapping lights around one of our living plants/trees in the house, because it's sort of like, unique and sustainable I suppose, saving space and decorating something living instead of fake or dying. 

Anyway, we love our little Charlie Brown tree. It's small, compact, and we'll probably take it with us up north when we visit with family. My mother's side is meeting up in a hotel suite for the festivities - so we'll bring it there and have our own little piece of Christmas. Best of all, it stores small and has very little environmental impact. 

I still have to watch the Charlie Brown Christmas - it's on my Netflix queue. 

Anyway - the tree came with directions, really not necessary but funny if you needed these to put the thing together. Anywhoo, Merry Christmas everyone! :) 

Christmas Card Photo

New thing of the day, picked out our Christmas Card photo.

We're not usually card people, but I'm feeling very festive this year since it feels like our first Christmas since we got married - our own place and our own holiday :) So we were choosing through some fun/goofy photos to use as our card photo, because that's just our style.

Anyway we took a photo at a friend's wedding - of us holding up frames. It was very fun and cool and we decided to use it for our Christmas card. This isn't the two of us below, and it's not nearly as serious or stylized, but you get the point. Happy Holidays! Thanksgiving here we come!

Spooktacular!

New thing of the day, partied up Halloween in style.

Most Halloweens I am not really into dressing up or getting too festive. It's fun, but I don't get excited. This year, we were very festive and in the mood to celebrate.

It started out by getting Halloween costumes. New thing - I was Rainbow Brite! Below is my costume and accessories. I had the blue dress and blue/red earrings. The rest is new. Got the hair tie/shoelaces from Hot Topic. Found the awesome rainbow leg warmers that I wore on my legs and arms at Spencer Gifts. The found the rainbow socks, necklace and fingerless gloves from Sidecca. Got my cranberry colored converse from Famous Footwear. The only thing I didn't have in my outfit is the wand and the rainbow belt.

I love this costume because I can wear all the accessories again and again. LOVE rainbow stuff. Plus I got a lot of admiration and kudos from other girls who were Rainbow Brite fans. We saw another Rainbow Brite walking around and we were like "DOUBLE RAINBOW!".

Saturday was a whirlwind of stuff. Did homework/studying in the morning. Went to lunch at 3pm at Philippe's, legendary home of the French Dip sandwich in downtown LA. We ordered beef french dips with macaroni salad and chili - the chili being the new thing! We've had the French dip sandwiches before. I'm not a huge fan of them. I think they're good, not great, but like the nostalgia and legendary status it holds. Loved the chili. Very hearty and warm and tasty. We got it with melty fresh oozy cheese and onion. I thought it was a bit pricey coming to $19 for lunch, but overall a yummy but late lunch.

   

Next we had season passes at Universal Studios so decided to wander around checking out the park, City Walk and people watch if they had costumes or decorations up. Very fun and relaxing, but overall I had a food coma and not a lot of energy. Good times though.

At City Walk they have a Pink's hot dog outlet, so decided to try TWO new hot dog dishes. I personally love the location at City Walk because it's close by and we can get a limited menu of Pink's without lining up for an hour in Hollywood. Just having a plain stretch dog with nothing on it (Betty White dog) is delish.

I got the Mulholland dog - with nacho cheese, grilled onions, grilled mushrooms and bacon. That was DELISH! I was too full from lunch to finish my dinner, but it was amazing and I highly recommend it.

  

We also tried the CityWalk dog. Some ladies were commenting when we got our plate like - WOW that looks amazing. It's got onion rings topped with BBQ sauce. Very messy but good. The husband really liked that one. I had a few bites and it was sweet and savory, but not a fan of the mess. Also quite large and unruly to eat.

 

So after that, got in our costumes and met up with some friends in Santa Monica at a new place Finn McCool's. A very cool place, lots of party revelers and people dressed up. They had a Beatles tribute band playing all dressed up - very fun. I'm not a huge fan of the music for dancing, but still had a good time. We walked around that area people watching. My favorite costumes of the night - a Charlie Brown and Lucy couple, a Tiger Woods and Elle couple and of course the other Rainbow Brite! Some honorable mentions, McGruber, a girl wearing/doing the "walk of shame", Mad Hatter via Tim Burton Alice, Hulk Hogan in skin tight leotards, some other wrestlers the husband recognized. 

Didn't want the night to end so decided to walk around West Hollywood - another new thing. Never did that before and Wow. There's a lot of skin and sexuality there and not as many fun costumes as I thought there would be. Just a lot of showing off the goods and trying to score. One awesome thing we did see - very new - a fully loaded kickass Ghostbuster car! Sorry the pic is sorta blurry but I took it quick on the fly. Sooooo cool!

So we went home after that, driving through/on Hollywood just to see the action. I think Hollywood had the best costumes and masses of people. If we have the energy or willpower, we might go there tonight to wander and check out costumes, if we can find parking. Last time I was there I was in college with some friends. I definitely want to go again and check it out, just not sure if we'll do it this year. Hollywood was amazing with the creativity of costumes, with a lot more normal people just walking around trying to have fun, and not necessarily show skin or get laid as in West Hollywood. We saw a Cobra Kai couple, and the husband was like "That was so his idea so much more than hers". I'm all about the spirit of having fun and dressing up to be goofy/silly! Plus the creativity! 

Apparently in the UK, at universities, per a friend of ours - she says about once a month they dress up in costumes for themed parties or clubs - and that she missed that. Here we only dress up to party once a year. There, they do it regularly once a month, with various cray themes. Awwww!

Anyway lots of new things of the day. Food, dressing up and fun! If only the nights didn't have to end or our feet get so tired. Alas :) Happy Halloween!

The Great Holiday Plans Charlie Brown

New thing of the day, as a married couple, deciding how we're going to split and spend time with the families during the holidays.

This is not our first holiday season as a married couple. We were newlyweds in 2009, so we had holiday season 2009 to spend with the families. Thing is, they're all local and it was super easy to figure out plans.

This year, 2010, we have quite a few relatives living up in northern California, and now we have to consider driving up north for the holidays. This means scheduling time to drive up north and drive down home area LA to spend it with the families. Plus splitting it between our two families, and also between time off work and such.

It was so much easier planning this stuff as a single person. No easy way out or in. Ugh. Plans may or may not work. That's all. The joys of marriage. It's rough - am welcome to any suggestions on planning.

Never seen "Four Christmases" before, but I assume it sorta feels like that. Being torn between multiple families, trying to see everyone in one day.

PS: I've also never seen The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown or A Charlie Brown Christmas. Something to add to new thing of the day.