Daily Happiness

Apr. 22nd, 2025 10:22 pm
torachan: ryu from kimi ni todoke eating ramen (ramen)
[personal profile] torachan
1. I had another work from home day. I'm about halfway caught up with my email and fully caught up with teams. Tomorrow I've got a couple meetings, so I've got to go in to the office, but I might work from home again on Thursday to finally catch up on everything.

2. When Carla was out today she stopped at Uncle Tetsu's, a Japanese cheesecake chain. They have a sakura cheesecake right now and we had some after dinner tonight and it was sooooooo good. I normally prefer New York style cheesecake to the Japanese fluffier style, but this was really good consistency and the sakura flavor was amazing.

3. I finished playing The Plucky Squire. Overall it's a pretty fun game, but it is not just a straight action adventure game. There are a bunch of (frankly not that fun) mini games for the boss fights and stuff where you have to play other styles of games and that is not what I signed up for. Like for one character's boss battles you play a Mike Tyson style boxing game, for another it's a rhythm game, and for the third it's a Puzzle Bobble type. Then there are some stealth sequences where you have to sneak past enemies who can kill you instantly if they sense you, and if they sense you there is no way to run to escape, even if you're close to a place you could get away. You're just instantly dead. And the final battle is a space shooter type. The good thing is that if you die in a boss battle you can sometimes restart partway through, not all the way at the beginning, and the stealth sequences have multiple checkpoints and you'll respawn there rather than back at the beginning. But I would still have preferred not to have that "variety" in my action adventure game. Still is a fun game, though. But if you suck at those types of games it might ruin it for you.

4. I finished editing all my Disney Japan pics, so hopefully I can get the last day's posts written up later this week.

5. Jasper is just so handsome.

torachan: (Default)
[personal profile] torachan
When I last left off, we had just checked out the big gift shop at the Fantasy Springs hotel and were exploring the land while waiting for our return time for the Peter Pan ride.

More DisneySea adventures! )

Daily Happiness

Apr. 21st, 2025 08:52 pm
torachan: palmon smiling (palmon)
[personal profile] torachan
1. I worked from home today, getting a fair amount of catching up done. Unfortunately I forgot that I also had to double check all my stores' budgets for next month today so that did take some time away from the email and teams catch-up, but I should be able to focus more on that tomorrow. (Probably will mostly work from home tomorrow, too.)

2. We bought a sweater for Alexander for his birthday and even though his birthday is not until next week, gave it to him yesterday so he could try it on and see if it fit, and it was a little big so we said we'd be happy to go exchange it. I was just thinking to exchange it whenever we next go, but there was availability today and Carla felt like going to Disneyland, so while I had to stay home and focus on my email backlog, she went and exchanged the sweater and had a nice morning at DCA. She managed to find all the rest of the hidden easter eggs there (eventually with some help from an online guide) and took pictures, but I'm just going to include those with our next trip post rather than make a separate one. They had Lightning McQueen and Mater ones which are super cute, though.

3. We bought a stereo for the garage and it arrived today. As all modern stereos do these days, it also has bluetooth capability to connect to your phone, but she mainly wanted it for playing actual CDs. Her current CD rack is overflowing, so we need to get another and then move the CDs out to the garage so she can have them out there with the stereo. Nice thing is, unless you're standing right by the door or window, even with it turned up pretty loud you really can't hear much from outside. Amazing what insulation can do!

4. I love the look on Ollie's face here, but he was even cuter before I turned on the light and came in. It wasn't dark but was dim enough that he was really well camouflaged in the box!

Daily Happiness

Apr. 20th, 2025 09:00 pm
torachan: ewan mcgregor pulling his glasses down to look over the top (ewan glasses)
[personal profile] torachan
1. Back to work tomorrow. I am not enthused about that, but I did really enjoy my time off and I felt like being off for three weeks allowed me to actually disconnect more from work than I usually do if I'm just off a couple days or even a week. I did glance at my email and messages every day, but only responded less than ten times and even when I looked at the phone screen to see the messages, I only did so once or twice a day, rather than multiple times throughout the day. Tomorrow will be the start of a huge catch-up (thousands of messages to get through) and I think I will just work from home tomorrow unless something else comes up, so at least it will be a slow easing back into things. And since it's the last week of the month, there are less meetings, which means for time for catching up.

2. We had a lovely time at DCA this morning. I've heard that easter can be a pretty busy day but while it was getting a little busier by the time we left, it was super light in the first few hours and the weather was great.

3. I love getting shots of the cats looking out the window.

2025 Disneyland Trip #28 (4/20/25)

Apr. 20th, 2025 06:39 pm
torachan: maru the cat peeking through the blinds and looking grumpy (maru peeking through the blinds)
[personal profile] torachan
Last day of the Food and Wine Festival so last chance to ride Soarin' Over California before it goes back to Soarin' Over the World.

Read more... )

Weekly Reading

Apr. 20th, 2025 06:12 pm
torachan: scott pilgrim pouting (scott pilgrim - pout)
[personal profile] torachan
Currently Reading
The Undiscovered Deaths of Grace McGill
26%. The MC is a cleaner who goes in and deep-cleans the houses where people have lain dead and undiscovered for a long time. She stumbles upon a mystery when two of her recent jobs have had the same dried flower at the scene. Pretty interesting so far.

Architectural Follies in America
16%. This is a short, picture-filled book about various odd buildings in the US. Randomly found it in a neighborhood Little Library. It's interesting.

A Drop of Corruption
23%. This has definitely picked up now and I'm a lot more interested in what's going on. Just haven't been making much progress because I've been off work and the majority of my audiobook time is in the car. Also a note on the audiobook, and I had this problem with the otherwise excellent audiobook versions of The Locked Tomb series, but there are pronunciation changes from the first book! I'm guessing that after the first book's audiobook came out, the narrator got feedback from the author and then made changes for the following books, but it's really jarring and I wish that if the author really wanted names/words said a certain way (or in the case of The Locked Tomb, certain accents used) then they would make note of that first, rather than changing mid-series. (And if it's just the narrator making changes rather than author feedback, I wish they wouldn't make those changes, either. Pick a pronunciation and stick to it!)

Hidden Figures
44%.

Recently Finished
Winterborne Home for Mayhem and Mystery
Sequel to Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Virtue. This felt like maybe there was supposed to be more books in the series and it all got wrapped up quickly in the end? It was all right, but I wasn't super into either book.

The Boney Hand
Sequel to Charlie & Frog. Another mystery in the town. This was cute. Seems like the author maybe wanted it to be a series but there haven't been any more books after this.

The Amelia Six
Middle grade book about a group of girls who win an overnight stay at Amelia Earhart's childhood home, but while they're there, her goggles go missing and they have to solve the mystery. It was just all right.

Murderburg
Apparently originally a web comic, this graphic novel is about a small island town inhabited mostly by criminals. The actual name is Muderburg, but everyone calls it Murderburg. The main characters are not even thinly veiled Morticia and Gomez, though the children are not Wednesday and Pugsly. It was fine. Somewhat funny in places but mostly just there.

Break Out
Heavy-handed graphic novel about a world where mysterious and possibly alien cubes appear in the sky and start randomly kidnapping people. But it only happens to teens, so when the governments of the world have done all they can and can't find a way to stop it, they just say well, it's just a few people here and there, we'll just have to live with it. Then the kids save the day. Obviously paralelling school shootings, but it felt like the message was more important than the story itself, because the plot is just one of those types where so many coincidences happen just right that it feels unbelievable.

Do Da Dancin'!: Venice Competition vol. 1-2
I'm not enjoying this quite as much as the original series, but it's good enough that I'll finish it.

Umimachi Diary vol. 8-9
Overall this series was just okay. I originally read the first three volumes on a limited time free promotion and liked them a lot, but when I finally got around to reading the rest of the series now I just found it kind of dragged. Not bad, but just okay.

Daily Happiness

Apr. 19th, 2025 10:07 pm
torachan: arale from dr slump with a huge grin on her face (arale)
[personal profile] torachan
1. We went to the farmers market this morning. I wish it was on Sundays instead of Saturdays because we usually go to Disneyland on Saturday morning, but this week we're going tomorrow instead, so we could go to the farmers market today. Sadly the Filipino tamales guy was not there this week, but we did get some of the delicious chocolate dipped macaroons we've gotten the last few times we went.

2. For dinner we ordered pizza from a fancy local place we have been meaning to try for years and never get around to. Sadly the one pizza I was most interested in from their menu was not available (butternut squash), but we got a zucchini one and a meat lovers one and both were very tasty. Definitely would order from there in the future, though it's not an every day place, that's for sure.

3. Usually I make a chocolate sheet cake for Carla's birthday but because we were out of town, I totally forgot about it, until randomly a channel Carla follows on youtube had a video about it, so I decided to make it today. I don't bake very much anymore and this cake is a lot of work, but it's soooooo good. After I'd already started mixing ingredients, Carla mentioned making a half-batch, but it was too late by then, but for next time I definitely will. We hardly use our large oven anymore and it's become a cupboard instead, so it has to be made in two small sheet pans to fit in the Breville, and that made it a little more annoying, plus we just don't need that much cake. I can give a good chunk to Alexander to take home with him tomorrow, at least.

4. Chloe and Molly were twinning on the bed.

torachan: (chloe yawn)
[personal profile] torachan
Up until just recently (April 1st, as it happens), the rides in Fantasy Springs were virtual queue only, so you really had to get there early to lock in the return times, but as of this month, they now have regular standby lines in addition to the paid premier access for three of the four rides (the Tinkerbell ride is standby-only). Still, I wanted to make sure we were in the park right when it opened to get those premier access passes, especially for Frozen, since that is the most popular ride.

So I went over to the park around seven and got in line, and Carla planned to meet up with me before nine. That was definitely the right plan! )

Daily Happiness

Apr. 18th, 2025 11:00 pm
torachan: scott pilgrim pouting (scott pilgrim - pout)
[personal profile] torachan
1. Nintendo announced that preorders for the Switch 2 will start on 4/24 and the price will stay the same. Hopefully it won't be too difficult to get one.

2. I had ordered some jeans from Target the other day but have to return them because they don't fit (they discontinued the style of jeans I have been wearing these past few years so now I have to try to find an equivalent), so we were planning to go to Target to return them today, and then last night we watched a video about the new pickle menu items at Popeye's, and there is no Popeye's conveniently nearby but there are two near Targets on the other side of town. So we decided to go to one of those Targets and then get lunch at Popeye's. Sadly they seem to be already out of the fried pickle chips, but Carla did get their pickle brined wings and a pickle lemonade. I just got regular chicken tenders, but they were really delicious. I wish we had a Popeye's or even KFC nearby but the only fast food chicken near us is Chick-fil-A. :( Anyway! Returned the pants, stocked up on cat food, and had a nice lunch. Oh, and Popeye's also right now has strawberries and cream biscuits, which are very tasty.

3. Chloe was being so tolerant of Jasper being near her, and Jasper was being a good boy and not pestering.

Daily Happiness

Apr. 17th, 2025 10:49 pm
torachan: maru the cat sitting in a bucket (maru)
[personal profile] torachan
1. We took a longer walk today and went down to Bay Cities Deli to get sandwiches for dinner. It gets super busy at lunch and dinner time, so we went down there mid afternoon, which was definitely the right choice. It wasn't too crowded inside, and we got our sandwiches to bring home for dinner later, and a snack and something to drink while we sat and rested before the walk home. Plenty of tables available outside at that time of day, too.

2. Jasper says, you may kiss the paw.

torachan: (Default)
[personal profile] torachan
On Friday we went in to Tokyo in the morning and then decided to go to Disneyland for dinner and spend a few hours there in the evening to enjoy it on a non-rainy day. Tickets are reduced price for evening visits, and the price varies per day, but I think these were about 5000 yen each (~$35) and we could enter from 5pm.

The electrical parade! )

Daily Happiness

Apr. 16th, 2025 09:23 pm
torachan: nepeta from homestuck (nepeta)
[personal profile] torachan
1. Disneyland Pride Nite tickets went on sale this morning! We are going on Wednesday 6/18.

2. We had a nice lunch at DCA today. Nice overcast weather and not too crowded.

3. Gotta love Gemma's judgy face.

2025 Japan Trip Part 3 (4/5-7)

Apr. 16th, 2025 09:18 pm
torachan: ewan mcgregor pulling his glasses down to look over the top (ewan glasses)
[personal profile] torachan
The fifth was Carla's birthday and our first day at DisneySea. We did not do anything that day except Disney, so that will be a separate post on its own.

4/5-7 )

2025 Disneyland Trip #27 (4/16/25)

Apr. 16th, 2025 07:12 pm
torachan: charlotte from bad machinery saying "oh the mysteries of the moth farm" (oh the mysteries of the moth farm)
[personal profile] torachan
We went down to DCA for lunch today. I think we've now tried everything from the Food and Wine Festival that we wanted to, though we're going again on Sunday to hopefully ride Soarin' Over California one more time before the end of the event.

Food and Wine Festival )

Daily Happiness

Apr. 15th, 2025 10:45 pm
torachan: (Default)
[personal profile] torachan
1. I made spam fried rice for dinner tonight using gochujang flavored spam. I am not usually a big fan of the flavored spams, preferring the original, but Carla wanted to try this one. Unfortunately we could only find it at Costco, which means getting 8 cans, so it's a good thing it does taste good lol. The fried rice turned out very tasty, so I'd definitely use it for that again, but there are other options, too.

2. Love this sleepy little guy.

torachan: a cartoon kitten with a surprised/happy expression (chii)
[personal profile] torachan
When I left off we had just returned to the World Bazaar for lunch and to check out the shops.

On to the afternoon! )

Daily Happiness

Apr. 14th, 2025 11:16 pm
torachan: a cartoon bear eating a large sausage (magical talking bear prostitute)
[personal profile] torachan
1. We went to the post office this morning to mail some souvenirs Carla got for friends and family, and I was able to pop into See's Candy since it's right next door and use up the rest of the gift card I got for Christmas. Also stopped in Subway to get lunch and my sandwich (honey mustard BBQ chicken) was delicious.

2. I'm so, so glad I decided to just go with a three week vacation and not feel self-guilted into just doing two weeks. (No one at work was actually making me feel guilty about it, in fact everyone was like "you never take vacation! you deserve this!" but it's still hard to take that much time off, especially when we've got the new store opening in a couple months and need to prep for that.) I'm not physically worn out from the trip the way Carla is, but I just am really loving the fact that I have a whole other week to decompress after that go-go-go vacation, which was fun but a lot of stress!

3. Having that extra week off means I could do things like last minute decide to go to Disneyland tonight for dinner without feeling like I have no time to do other stuff. Since it's apparently spring break for a lot of places this week, all three other Magic Key levels are blocked out this week and the crowds were very low tonight. Made for a great evening.

4. Got this great pic of Tuxie the other day.

2025 Disneyland Trip #26 (4/14/25)

Apr. 14th, 2025 10:56 pm
torachan: karkat from homestuck headdesking (karkat headdesk)
[personal profile] torachan
Did not plan to go to Disneyland today but around dinnertime Carla happened to look and see there was still availability and asked if I wanted to go down for dinner, and I checked the traffic and it was surprisingly light, so we just headed down for a quick dinner trip.

Read more... )

2025 Japan Trip Part 2 (4/4)

Apr. 14th, 2025 10:18 pm
torachan: a cartoon kitten with a surprised/happy expression (chii)
[personal profile] torachan
Friday forecast was for no rain, thankfully, and since we were planning for DisneySea on Saturday (Carla's birthday), we decided to do a non-Disney day in between.

Day 4 )