Marla's adventure from Aplastic Anemia and beyond
Yesterday I tried to write up a post, but ran out of time. Today, I see that I’ll likely not have enough time to finish a proper post, again. Tomorrow will be super busy as we have two gatherings to attend, but still wanted to wish everyone in the bloggosphere a Happy Thanksgiving. Soooo. . .
HAPPY THANKSGIVING! 
Now off to shop!
Marlakins
Yesterday was Brian and my 23rd wedding anniversary. Yikes! Has it really been that long? Yep. Twenty three years ago today we were in the Yucatan Peninsula. But the evening before that we were having cake. . . Here we were 23 years ago.
Hmmm. I took a picture of this picture behind the glass frame. I didn’t realize it until now that my hands are reflecting off of this picture, ha ha! Oh well. That’s what happens when I’m too lazy to take the picture out to avoid glare and all, sigh. Funny for me to look at this picture and think of all the things that has transpired since that day. Lots.
We were going to have a very casual celebration by going out to lunch and then watching a movie. But as the saying goes, “things don’t always turn out the way you plan.” I got up early and did my chores. Then we headed out to the farmer’s market and the grocery to make sure things are stocked up at home. Then we headed out to have lunch downtown at Little Tokyo. Upon arriving we had to hunt for parking. We found a lot and paid the fee. By this time it was about 2:30PM. As we walked up to the restaurant the sign read, “CLOSED.” Ack! We had completely forgot that Japanese restaurants commonly open for lunch, then close until dinner time, which is generally around 5:30PM. Since we had just paid for parking we decided to walk around and check out the shops. We hung out at the bookstore at Weller’s Court. That turn out to be fun as we tend to love to look through books anyway, and they also had a nice “yarn” book selection. . . Afterward, we did more browsing around and well, can you say “impulse purchase?” I found little saucers that matched the cat bowls I bought on impulse a couple months ago. Oh, why not throw in a few tea cups and grinding bowl as well?
I don’t know, I guess there was something I liked about these little cups having covers. I was hoping they’d have matching cat cups, but alas they didn’t.
So we kept browsing around. I realized that I needed a birthday card for a friend and found this cute little card.
We also realized that we were likely not going to see a movie as our time table was getting tweaked. So we picked up Miyazaki’s latest Ponyo By the Sea DVD. But this time it was 5:35PM. Oh goodie, time for din din. We head back to the restaurant. . .
and what do we find? It’s jam packed! We’re told that it’ll be about a 35 to 45 minute wait to get seated, ack! We’ve already been waiting for 3 hours! Ha ha! Well at least now our names were on “the list.” The restaurant is kinda tiny, and they were already turning other people away since they knew they wouldn’t be able to serve everyone. Oh well, back to pounding the pavement.
Ordinarily we would have left, but I guess it must have all started when we had just barely paid for parking and at least wanted to make that count. Now we were on a mission. We are going to eat dinner tonight, period. But really it wasn’t that bad. It was actually nice to be able to relax and just lounge about browsing through stores and even just chatting with Brian and having him all to myself for a change. Once the kids came along it’s like we rarely have time to ourselves, so this was actually nice. Besides, before we got married and before the kids came along, Brian and I used to come to Little Tokyo to eat and browse around, so it was like memory lane, too.
Finally we’re seated. The restaurant is still packed, and we get seats at the sushi bar.
Brian and I both get our usuals. A chirashi bowl for me.
And a tuna/avocado/cucumber roll for Brian.
Upon returning home Brian whipped up some cookies. So the fam watched the Miyazaki film while munching on cookies and tea. So while the day didn’t turn out as planned, it was still a nice day for me. A nice simple anniversary. The best part is that we’re all well and still together. What more can I ask for? Happy Anniversary, Brian!
Marlakins
Okay, so I thought I should blog about something other than yarn and food this time. . . I’m still in the midst of reading Sven Lindqvist’s book A History of Bombing, so I will reserve comment until I’m finished or near finished. I’ll explain why if I ever get to that post. But along the same lines, my boys and I have been watching a video series called Firepower. It’s an interesting four part series about the latest in defense and aerospace technology that is no longer classified. We’ve only watched about two discs so far. According to the back of the disc it states:
This 4 disc set includes 20 half-hour epidodes:
Assault from the sea
Artillery strike
Battle Tanks
Missile Copter
Special Ops: Wings
Royal air Force
Airborne Assault
Strike Fighters
War on Wheels
Mirage Jet
Combat vehicles
Armor force
Desert War Games
Armored Vanguard
Destroyer
Warship
Test Pilot
Wild Weasels
Strategic Air Power
Stealth Jets
It’s amazing to see the advancements that have been made in our military. I haven’t yet seen the space stuff, so can’t really comment on that, yet. While watching this, I couldn’t help thinking about the cost of all this technology, the damages to life and the environment as a result of this technology, and where do these mad geniuses come from that are able to think up all of this stuff? I couldn’t help joking ask Brian and my boys if these things were really thought up in the minds of geniuses here, or did they get the information from beating up those Rosewell crash aliens? LOLOL Yeah, you know, the Terminator reverse engineering stuff starts to look logical, ha!
I have heard it quoted that of all the money in the world spent on military, the U.S. spends more than half. Proportionately, the U.S. is that much ahead technology-wise and supply-wise of all the military in the world. At least that is what we are lead to believe. The idea that the U.S. spends that much on military is staggering to me. But as I watched this Firepower DVD series, which showcases the variety of weaponry and vehicles used by our military, I can understand why so many billions of dollars is spent. Not that I agree that it’s a good investment, but that all this gadgetry is so darned expensive that it could easily run into the billions of dollars to engineer, construct, operate, and maintain. For instance, there was a section on the Stealth Jets. One B2 cost over half a billion dollars to build. “ONE” jet. I don’t think that’s counting training the personnel to fly it, maintain it, fuel it, and what happens when it gets shot down or is downed by accident? How many of these things does our military have? And that’s only “one” model jet. They have many, many more, including land terrain vehicles and sea vessels. Speaking of training crew, one model jet called the “Spooky,” operates with a 14-man crew. They need that many men because the Spooky has mounted guns fixed to the sides–three or four men are required to operate one gun. According to the video, they practice every day. Another jet called the “Spector” is outfitted with a Howitzer. . . All that fuel and spent ammunition/bombs/missiles or whatever projectile they happen to be using must cost a pretty penny daily just to train. It’s no surprise our country is so heavily in debt.
I can’t deny that these military crafts and gadgetry are impressive. I’ve always enjoyed watching James Bond movies particularly for the gadgetry. What 007 fan didn’t love Q Division, aka Quartermaster, aka Q? But at the same time I can’t help thinking about the writings of Sven Lindqvist, particularly when he asked “who do they use these weapons against?” The ugly truth is that real military equipment is not used with as much percission as the 007 movies. It’s not only the “bad” guys that get blown away. In real life many hundreds and thousands of innocent men, women, and children have gotten blown away as a result of these inventions. With today’s technology, the person pulling the trigger doesn’t even have to be close enough to see his victims. He never has to see their pain and suffering, their limbs tore apart, their blood and guts gushing to the ground, their deaths, or their life-long injuries. I have to ask myself what kind of a world do we live in where these actions are what makes our heroes? And I understand more and more that the Bible rightly states that our world is in the bosom of the evil one.
And then there’s the issue of “who comes up with all the stuff?” Whoever they are, they are brilliant, even though I think they have to be pretty detached to humanity to some degree to feel it’s okay to develop these things for the express purpose of war (or extremely naive to think that only the opposing armed military will be victims of these weapons). I’m personally not fond or agree with the “ends justifies the means” logic. Also, I can’t imagine that these brilliant minds are only Americans. So I looked up which countries build and develop these military aircraft. In relation to all the world, it’s really just a handful of countries that build these. Aside from the U.S. countries like Russia, Germany, France, England, Japan, etc. engage in manufacturing and development of these technologies. Then they sell them to other countries to use. . . What makes them different?
Okay, it appears I’m out of blogging time again. . . grrr. I’ll probably continue on with a rant on this another time, heheh. For now, must dash. Matty wants to visit a particular store which closes in a couple hours. Need to beat traffic. . .
Marlakins
P.S. So far I’m giving the DVD series Firepower a thumbs up. Still haven’t seen it all, but it’s pretty good so far. . .
Just popping in to keep the blog up to date. Geocities closed down and with it my Aplastic Anemia site, Marlakins Adventure, has closed down. My son, Matty, downloaded a copy of it onto his computer, so until we can figure out where to re-upload the site, it’s currently off the net. Since I have been contacted personally by some people asking where my website went, and if I’m okay, I thought I better update my blog just to let ya’ll know that I’m still okay, thank God!
So what have I been up to? Well, more of the usual–reading, knitting, household chores, errands, and the like. Last week we went down to Little Tokyo for dinner and snooped around the shops a bit. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, but I did come across something that I just thought was too cute to pass up–a Totoro cell phone holder. . .
I know! That’s called “compulsive shopping.” My bad. I try not to do that, but it happens. Funny thing is, we have been holding off on getting a cell phone for years as we try to avoid as much radiation or electromagnetic energy as possible (but even that goes all to hell in a hand basket in terms of computers in this house, sigh), but recently broke down and got one for Andrew since he’s regularly out at school. It’s a cheapy pay-as-you-go phone, but at least I know I have access to him while he’s away. How’s that for a doting mom? But now that we got it, I found that every time “I” leave the house, Brian wants me to take the phone so he can have a tether to me, ha! So it has become a practice for us to just put the phone down on the table, so that whoever goes out takes it along. But look! Now we don’t have to just chuck it on the table. It has a cute little home now, heheheh.
The other things I’ve been doing have naturally included more knitting. A friend wanted me to knit up a couple pairs of ankle socks for her. She provided the yarn (Mary Maxim’s Gemstones), and I provided the stitches. Here are the two completed pairs.
The next knitted project I worked on was for a request for a baby/toddler’s vest. I hunted for a pattern I liked, but didn’t find one. So I used two different patterns and came up with this. Here it is in progress.
And here it is completed.
I got the stitch pattern from Sirdar’s Cheeky Chinos book. It wasn’t a vest, but a regular full sweater with sleeves and a round neck. However, I liked the pattern on the sweater. So I used that pattern, then worked it into a vest pattern with a V-neck that was from an old Simplicity Knitting magazine. The yarn I used was Zenga Baruffa Aerobic, 100% wool, with US 5 needles for the body and US 3 needles for the ribbings. I found the end result satisfying.
I’m currently working on another pair of socks for a gift. This is my first time using Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn. Ummm luscious. . . Almost wish these socks were for me. . .
Okay, that’s it for now. Need to head out to the market in a few, and maybe later I’ll work on another post dealing with some of the stuff I’ve been reading lately. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get to it.
Marlakins
