...and then we did some jamming to Jingle Bells.

Are you sitting here reading blog posts, when you really should be doing some holiday shopping but you're here because you have no frickin' clue as to what to get (insert name here)???

Well...honey....have I got some advice for you!!!

A very long time ago, when I was in university (the first time around!), my step-mother sent me some incredibly wonderful goodies from a company that I have used again and again and again (they like it when I do that, you see!!) for the last 30-some odd years..for holidays, birthdays, special occasions, get well, I'm thinking about you kind of situations!!

If that person on your list has a sweet tooth, likes popcorn/cookies/chocolates/snack food....link on over to The Popcorn Factory and take a look at all the wonderful goodiness they have to offer. The containers that everything comes in are positively the cutest and can be used long after the popcorn (or whatever you choose to fill it with) is gone. The gifts are especially good for families as some of them are quite abundant and will keep the whole family happy...for a short time anyway!!

My personal favorite is the canister with different flavors of popcorn....they are offering one for the holidays that has 7 different kinds!!!!!

(Photo from The Popcorn Factory site.)

Go and check them out. You might find THE perfect gift for someone...maybe even a little something for yourself!!!

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Ah......there it is!!!!

Thanks to the help of these very important things on Saturday night....

I do believe that I feel the slight beginnings of the Christmas Spirit.

Yes, it's amazing what some ume shu ("plum wine") and Elvis can do for the spirit.

I had taken out the holiday Cd's for the party and on Saturday night, while I was waiting to get dinner started, I poured a glass of homemade ume shu and then put The King on.

Amazing.

By the third glass, I was crooning along with E and even tried to get Issei to dance with me.

(He pretty much ran from me, but Koji? He's my dancer. He and I were two-steppin', baby!!)

I woke up on Sunday with, no, not a hangover (surprisingly enough) but, a new outlook on this whole "holiday" thing. After getting some laundry started, this girl got busy.

The boxes full of Christmas decorations actually got taken down, opened, and some things taken out of the boxes.

Lordy, Lordy, but it's beginning to look a teeny-eensy bit like Christmas!!

So...the lights and paper bows are on the tree....the ornaments may have to wait until Wednesday when I have more time to go through what I have, to see which ones "make the cut" this year!! (I have quite a few ornaments and I would need another tree or two to be able to display them all....our little artificial trees are small so if I had a real American-sized one, it might be a different story!!)

Most importantly...the nativity scene is put up. For me, that is usually the first thing that gets done and last thing to get put away. It took me a very long time to find just. the.right. one to buy....the pieces are made of hand-carved wood and they are beautiful, I think.

Since I had worked through that whole "I gotta listen to Elvis" thing, I needed some different kind of music to help me through the day. I have quite a few from which to choose....Hawaiian...Neil Diamond...Jazz..a wide variety of compilations.....Spanish...Oldies but Goodies....and yesterday, I chose Vince Gill and James Taylor.

I also learned a couple things about myself and Christmas music today:

This man......

....this man and his incredible voice can make me cry.


And this man....

...this man, I would marry in less than a heartbeat.

And...he can do a mean version of Jingle Bells. The rest of the CD is awesome, but it was the Bells that got this family a groovin'!! If you don't have this CD, get yourself to the store and buy it today!! You truly won't regret it!!!

So....here you go....click on the link...turn up the volume...push whatever in the way there is because, you might just wanna dance!!! We did!!



Have a great Monday!! I've been singing Sweet Baby James' version of "Jingle Bells" all day and it really has made a difference!!! {{smile}}

Because it's Friday....that's why.

The day mayhem and destruction struck the garden...

it wasn't pretty.

(Twisted? Yes. Funny? Oh, hell yeah.)

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Turn out the lights...the party is over.

Yes...the party that started as a mere thought way back in October...is now a moment in history.

And what a party it was!!!

The place? Perfect.

The guests? Wonderful...all 64 of them!!

The food? Oh. My. God. Delicious.

Did Debbie eat? Not much....she was too busy being the "hostess with the mostess".

Did she drink? Oh yeah...first time in about 2 months she had beer. Lot's of beer.

(She's going to have a headache tomorrow, she just knows....so she took 2 Advil, a multi-vitamin and drank a large glass of water....she's soon going to bed.)

Did she look good? No. She looked "awesome"!! (True comment from one friend!!)

Was it a good party? No. It was "wonderful" and "Oh, so much fun". (again...true comments)

Will she do this again? .......................Ask me again later...like in July.

I didn't get many pictures...had too much going on...but here are just a few...

First of all....

and incredible flower arrangement that I got from a student who couldn't come....

The placards for the tables......(oh yes, I did!!! HelllLLLloo...it's Friday!!)

The idea of a "secret door prize" was new to everyone. Remember the candles I made last Sunday? I used those as the prizes.....there was one of these papers under the table under one lucky person's place setting. (Those are artificial poinsettias, just in case you were wondering!)

One side of the hall....with the buffet table in the middle....Oh the glorious food!!!

(and my friend, Megumi, taking my picture!!)


....and the other side!!

I was so surprised that 6 women had worn kimonos!! They were gorgeous!! All the women looked beautiful...and the men were handsome.

I 'm hoping that people got pictures of the great prizes we had for the Bingo game...some people donated things (shopping gift certificates, a wallet, beer gift cards, a Nagasaki cook book written in Japanese and English...the author's sister is my student) and other donated things that were handmade (quilted pillow covers, leather bag, leather wallet, wreath, scarf, jewelry....).

And I'm hoping that someone got a picture of the food!! Holy Moly Batman!!

The sashimi (raw fish) tray was incredible!!! Koji and the K-man took me to the place and went in to have a look around....I thought that both of them were going to dive into the trays!! Koji was really sad he had to leave and go home to eat curry and rice!!!

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Fabulous Friday Freebie Giveaway Extravaganza!!!!

No....not me....but if you go over to my friend Very Mary's place, she is having a really wonderful kind of giveaway!!! (and by mentioning her doing this on my blog earns me a few extra chances!!). Very Mary is one of those people that, even though she is much younger than you (me!), you want to be like her when you grow up!!!

I wanted to do a whole post about inspirations and who we count as them in our lives and in the "arty" part of my psyche, I was going to mention her inspiring me to venture out into paper craft and all that it can be...but I'm tired and we'll be lucky if this part of the post actually makes sense!!!

Very Mary is a whiz at coming up with great ideas...plus she's a killer at the thrift shops and can find the best of deals!!!

So....if you are interested in a chance at receiving some really great paper products....go and check her out....right here....or see if she has something in her Etsy shop that tickles your fancy...she'd like that (she's fun like that!)!!

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And with that my loves....'tis time for this camper to call it a night.

May your Friday be filled with laughter...fun...good food and cold beer!!!

As of today (Dec. 11) at 10:35 AM.....

Lost: my Christmas Spirit

Due to a variety of circumstances...some not of my control...the energy to do anything in the way of the holiday is gone....adios...sayonara..see ya later.

Usually, by this time of the month, I have the entrance way in our house decorated with my snowman collection (see...up there...at the top of my blog...that was just part of my collection from last year!)....the nativity scene is displayed and the trees are decorated and we are ready for the holiday.

This year? eh.

I am hoping that after the party tomorrow night (for which I really should be working on some things, but here I sit....I procrastinate so very well!!) I can work on getting some of my usual holiday genkiness ("excitement") back.

On Tuesday, I was feeling so blue that I bought myself some flowers....they helped brighten the mood a bit. Aren't they pretty??

And then this morning...after reading the comments from my last post and realizing that since we don't get certain TV program reruns 24/7 over here, I had completely forgotten about the Seinfeld episode with the "mansierre" (or the "bro", whichever) and was going to go to YouTube and see if I could find it when, lo and behold, my good friend Cheri actually left the link for it!! (Whatta Gal!!) If you have about 6 minutes to spare....or longer if you click on the other links they have for funny Seinfeld moments....go and watch. It made me laugh. Thanks Ladies for reminding me just how funny that show was...and for helping lift me out of "the blahs"!!

Here's something else that helped me today.....

I don't know who he is....but isn't he pretty??

(and I seriously doubt he'll be needing a "man bra" anytime soon!!)

~~sigh~~I think I'm going to put him as my screensaver!!

Warning!!! Please read the following carefully....

Due to the highly sensitive and humorously volatile subject matter of the following post, the author requests that readers refrain from drinking any beverages (at least the first time through) as...and she is speaking from experience here...there is a possibility of spewing said beverage.

Thank you very much.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The K-man and I have had some very interesting dinner conversations over the past 14 years and tonight's was no exception...oh...except for the fact that it made tea come out of my nose...possibly a first for a dinner time topic. Seriously...I've been chuckling about this all night!!

It only got worse when he sent me an e-mail message with the advertisement he found on the Internet proving what he had told me was the truth. It seems that this particular product was introduced on television the other night and it has gotten to be quite a popular item here in Japan....so popular, in fact, that the little guy and his wife who designed and made these lovelies said that the items are now back ordered and you might have to wait 2-3 weeks for delivery.

What on earth, you might be asking yourself, could this possibly be???

Dear Readers......

I now present to you....

The Man Bra.

Yes, my friends...it seems that men who suffer from "man boobs" are actually asking for support. And they are going to get that support...in white, pink and black!!

A Christmas present, perhaps, for the tranny in our lives.

You can also go here to see more....even though you probably won't be able to read what it says, you don't really need that particular ability...just look at the pictures...scroll down and you can see the "good points" of these bras. (Actually...I think I have one that is strikingly similar..... yet in a slightly larger size....to the pink one!!)

When the K-man first mentioned this to me...after I cleaned up the tea "spill"...I imagined something more in the lines of a sports bra...a jogging bra, mind you...to hold everything in a bit tighter. These? A bit too....shall we say..."girly", me thinks.

Personally....I can't imagine buying this for any man in my life. Yes, I know that "man boobs" are something that can happen and do to the chosen few. But, to actually purchase a bra for any one of those men (brothers, dad, uncles, good friends)...other than those who I think would actually like this and might already have one or three (you know who you are!!), I'm going to have to say....no...sorry...huh-uh...unless of course it was meant as a joke.

Okay...so readers....Man Bras. Discuss.

**Translation of ad by the K-man (who, by the way, does NOT need this item!!) and Debbie.

Procrastination--5.5....Debbie--4.5....damn. beat again.

If this were a true sporting event, a reporter might write that......

"It was a good fight until the last seconds of the game and Debbie scored some well-deserved points but they were just a little too late in the game to make a difference....she was just no match for her opponent. We see a rematch in the near future."

You're wondering about that ".5" though, aren't you?!? Well...from my list of "things to do" from Sunday, the laundry was the "almost".....as I had run out of hanging room outside AND inside (remember....no drier!!!) and yet still had more to do in the baskets....I sacrificed the half a point......will try to work again on the list.....hopefully sometime this week...maybe...possibly....who knows? :-D

My main objective for the day was to get the candles done. They really need to sit awhile to get the full effect of the scent.

So...my day started with a table full of all that I needed to finish this particular task.

I had this stuff....wicks, scent (a lovely "cinaberry"), and colored wax
...some of these warming in the toaster oven. I had to get the wax that was stuck on the molds from the last time I did candles and this is the best way to do that (or so I have found!).

...and this melting on the stove.

I made two different "kinds" of candles....the cinaberry ones and then, I was looking for another "Christmassy" scent but the one I have called "Christmas Tree" was voted down by all the men in the family....."smells weird", they said. Whatever.



So....after sniffing through my scent collection, I ended up with one that, while not so much a Christmas scent, it's still pretty....I chose Honeysuckle Vanilla. Both turned out really nice.

See the ones on the right....I actually used little cake tins for those!! I came across that idea a few years ago and they work really well.

These will used for the "door prizes" and only 10 people will get them. I went to the 100 yen store (beautiful, half-sister to the $1 store in the States!) and found some really cute, small saucers to put the candles on. I wrapped some raffia around each one....

...and put them in nice gift bags (with lovey-dovey English written on them, but...that's just more fun, I think!).
Yes, they would be more suited for something other than Christmas, but....that was pretty much all I could find......a little gold ribbon and some red packing stuff inside...who's to know but you and me...and some of my students who will actually read and understand it?! Believe me...all will get a giggle!

Here's what I am working on this morning...the goody bags. The bags have a snowman memo pad, a couple of wintery pencils, and some Christmas candy. It's not much, but....my students will enjoy the contents, I think.

**By the way....if any of my students are reading this....SSSHHHHH!!! Don't say anything to anyone!! It's a secret, okay? Okay! I am open to giving out "be quiet" presents!!!

Is my house clean? No.

Can you see the floor of my room? In certain places...yes.

Is the laundry done? No. It's rainy today and not a good day for drying.

Christmas decorations and tree? Hahahahahaha!!!

Not yet.

Am I still in my pajamas? You betcha.

Have I even brushed my teeth yet? No...but will do so soon.

No classes this morning so will work some more on that list from Sunday...maybe...I might just go and see what FOX has on its line-up this morning...THAT is sounding like the thing to do for just a bit.

Have a wonderful day!

Aaah...Procrastination. Thy name is Debbie.

Things I should have done yesterday, and yet...here I sit...in front of the computer.....

1. Send a "Get Well Soon" message to our friend, Karen. She had stomach surgery and will be out of commission for a few weeks. She's actually my Mom's good friend, but I love her, too.

HEY....she reads my blog so, you know "two birds, one stone" thing here...

Hope you're feeling better soon, Karen!!
2. Make candles (Oh yes, I do!) for special door prizes for party on Friday. Yeah...this one has to be done today!!

(These are some candles I made a few years ago and sold at a flea market!!!)


3. Dig out the Christmas decorations (from various closets all over the house!) and "get that tree up!!" (Actual quote from youngest son!!)


4. Get the stuff for the "goody bags" (for Friday's party) out of the box and packaging they came in and get the bags put together...also, get "thank you" note typed, printed and also put in the bags.

5. Straighten up the "Oh...don't open that door and if you really have to, open it ver-r-r-r-rrry carefully" cabinet in the kitchen.

6. Dig out the boys' winter clothes and actually put them away instead of just digging them out every morning to find something warm to wear. Actually...Issei and his friends are in some "how long can you wear shorts and short-sleeved t-shirts to school without being a weenie and putting on a sweatshirt" type contest, so for him, I don't really have to hurry! (yeah...very thin line between roll-your-eyes crazy and tough.)

7. Do the Mt. Kuroiwa of laundry that has piled up over the past week.

8. Go to the "in box" of my e-mail and clean out the 417 messages that are just sitting there. (Will do that tonight when all is quiet and I can sit back here without being all "girl interrupted"!)

9. Move piles of clothes, books, and stuff around in my room to make it look like I actually did some cleaning...this would make the K-man oh so happy!

10. Go through the "clothes I might possibly never wear again but will take with me wherever I go" box and see if there is something I can wear for this damn party on Friday!!! (uh-huh...I may have to get a new box because I can now wear those clothes!!! Yeah!!!)


ENOUGH ALREADY!!!

Must turn off computer....

Must get something done....

Must make more coffee, because it's going to be a long day!!

I wish you all a productive, non-procrastination type day!!

Really? It's Friday....already?!?!

Shall we start with the fact that this has been one of those weeks that was like "'whoa!! where did it go??" Then....let's throw in the whole "what was Debbie thinking when she decided to have a party?" idea combined with a little (barely noticeable) flaw of my character called "procrastination tendency". (No really...I work better under pressure/a deadline!) Okay...now...just to make it interesting, let's add a couple little boys (ages 6 and 10) that are each going through stages that, honestly, I do. not. need. right. now.

Breathe, Debbie...just remember to breathe.

Okay....small rant over....time to get on with what's really important....and in keeping with a bit of a theme that was started at the beginning of the week....

Garish Flamingo Friday

(In a Christmas Pin sort of way!!)

(Really....I'd love to know where this came from....I love it!!! Yep...there is only one way to go from here, folks!! It reeks of gaudy, but I really couldn't care less!!!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

"How are the plans for the

"Celebrating the Holiday Season with Debbie and Friends"

extravaganza going?", you ask.

They are going quite well...thank you for wondering.

I gave invites to all my students...about 132 people...and it looks at is about 75 or so are going to be coming. I still have a class tomorrow to get answers from and a couple people, due to circumstances beyond their control (grandbaby about to be born, hub in hospital, things like that!), haven't made a decision yet so I've (being the incredibly nice person that I am...'cause I'm all about being nice, ya know!) given them until Wednesday to tell me "yea" or "nay".

I made an order to Oriental Trading Company for some "party favor" type stuff....and am just waiting for that. The signs for the tables have been sketched out and I'll try to get them on the computer tomorrow night. We will be playing Bingo (an easy and relatively pain free game!) and the prizes are almost all gathered....I still need to find one of those contraptions that you spin and a ball comes out and that is the number for the game....on my list for tomorrow!

I have some really talented students and many of them have donated things that they have made....jewelry, pictures, scarves (one is actually from my Mom!!), for example...plus, some people have donated gift certificates for beer (always a good thing to have!) and a couple restaurants that I went to and pleaded go to quite often and always talk about when we are working on restaurant English, have also donated "one free dinner" type certificates.

A couple of weeks ago, two of my "helpers" went with me to the hotel where we will be having this gala event for a meeting with the people in charge. I felt that I needed to take a couple of Japanese speakers just to make sure there would be no mistakes!! One of them was a great "take charge" kind of woman and she made sure that the man we were dealing with knew that we knew exactly what we wanted and how much we were going to pay. I'm taking her with me wherever I go from now on!!!

The lobby of the hotel for this 'please dear God, let everything be okay" party!!! The Christmas decorations are so pretty....I'm getting so excited/nervous/nauseous!! {{smile}}

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Did I mention that my dance group had a performance on Sunday? You knew, that, right? Well....the community center festival was on Sunday and on Saturday night...this is what I was doing........
Do you have any idea as to how much material is at the bottom of one of those dresses?!?!?! Well....I'll tell you....there are 686 cm.!! (Being the teacher I am, I turned it into a math project for Issei...multiplication, division and addition...we do it *almost* all here at Kamp Kuroiwa!!)

And here we are....aren't we a lovely group?? The lady in the middle, without the blue dress is our sensei (teacher)...the other one on the left is her assistant!! (And yes, I was leaning down a bit...in the first picture that was taken, my head was cut off...damn..too tall again!!)
There are actually more ladies in our group, but only 10 chose to perform at this festival. We were the next-to-the last group and we did a great job!!!

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Yesterday, I was out in our garden and took some pictures of the beautiful colors that surround us right now. I do love fall...the colors are so incredibly vivid...and we know how much I love that, right? :-D


Only one picture was taken indoors...and that was one of the camellias...we have 3 trees and when they all bloom, it's going to be quite a sight!! The K-man, right before climbing into bed, informed me that it was going to snow tonight.
Yeah. Okay. Whatever. If you say so.
It has gotten much colder in the time I have typed this out, so maybe we might have some frost....snow or no snow, winter is here.
I'm glad I got those pictures before the frost does!!

Have a wonderful Friday everyone!!

So....garish is good....right?

After weeks of procrastinating and debating with myself (always a lovely time,that), I finally broke down and bought a new cell phone. I had had my trusty keitai for about 3 years and had accumulated enough points to get a pretty good discount on a new model. When it comes to things like cell phones and computers...anything that requires more than a few minutes of going through an owner's manual....I will put off the actual buying as it is not something I look forward to purchasing or having to do actual studying to figure out how the damn thing works!! (We've had this discussion on my prone to laziness when it comes to things like this....haven't we?)




Anyway....while my cell phone was on the downhill slide to completely going kaput....I was also doing some thinking about buying a digital camera that would make this whole blogging process a lot smoother. You may not have been aware of this, but....the K-Man pretty much has the "keys" to the camera. Oh...he let's me take it out and drive it whenever I want to, but....when it comes to actually going somewhere....well....the hardware is all on his computer (Strike 1) and in Japanese (hello...strike 2) and...no...no Strike 3, the first two pretty much did me in.


So...in the procrastination/debate thought processes, I finally came to the conclusion that if I could find a cell phone with a really good camera, well....what a great deal that would be, right?


So....to the cell phone shop I went.


45 minutes later, I came out with this lovely little gem. Isn't she pretty??


I have been playing with all the things that I have figured out it can do....other than the actual phone, e-mail and awesome camera, I think that I can watch TV and maybe there is a way to get YouTube.....not sure, but....that's what it looks like!! As with most things here, the English explanation and information are much to be desired.




The owner's manual was absolutely laughable....while the Japanese version was about 600 pages long, there were 2....yes 2...1...2...pages in the back (right before 2 pages of whatever in Chinese!) and let's just say that...all the info on those 2 pages...yeah...Issei and Koji could have figured out!! Other than that.......useless!!




Being the smart woman that I am, I sat down here at the computer and did a search for this particular model and found the phone, but not really any kind of information to help me figure out how to get YouTube or anything important like that, but...I did come across something very interesting....

It seems that this particular model of Casio camera (with its 8.1 mega pixels) is a bit more high-tech than other models. It's kind of like the "Cadillac of cell phone cameras"....which, when I mentioned that to the cell phone dude in the store, he chuckled.

Anyway....on one site I found this:

Available in some ‘interesting’ colors, including a rusty brown that tries to pass itself off as champagne, garish pink and a lovely off-lime green.

Excuse me?? Garish pink?? GARISH??

Being a tad bit miffed and wondering if maybe, just maybe I had remembered the meaning of garish as something else, I did a quick check at the Merriam Webster site and here is what I found:

garish Function: adjective
1: clothed in vivid colors2 a: excessively or disturbingly vivid b: offensively or distressingly bright : glaring3: tastelessly showy : flashy
synonyms see gaudy

Wow.

Hello. My name is Debbie. I have garish tendencies.

1. flamingos and hibiscus in car 2. hibiscus plastic cup and nails my yours truly 3. real hibiscus in our garden 4. baby Croc key holders 5. hibiscus lei on wine bottle in kitchen 6. cutting board 7. curling iron 8. hand-knitted scarf by Mom 9. polish and knick-knacks next to computer 10. Hanes Her Way and Fruit of the Loom unders for women 11. bag with teaching stuff 12. O.P.I. polish (Don't Know Beets Me and Senorita Rose-alita...love them both!!) 13. dish drying rack in kitchen 14. my favorite button 15 and 16. repeats

Well....I guess that I'd rather be a bit garish and memorable

than boring and forgetable anyday!

And...I have a fantastic phone that matches my nails...my tea glass...my underwear (just in case it should ever come up!)...my scarf...and I'm sure that if I looked around a bit harder, many more things! {{smile}}

I wish for everyone a bit of fun...some garish fun ...today!