Julie Ta's blog

New York!

Dan and I, my family and whole extended family just got back from New York for my cousin Stephanie's wedding.  It was my NY cousins' first time to meet Dan, and everyone asked if he was half Japanese, but I don't blame them since Dan starts every topic with "when I was in Japan...blah blah."  Also, he's dating me, though not exactly Japanese, asian attracts asian, right?  And hey, it was his idea to go see the cherry blossoms bloom at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden and Murakami's exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. The last one I wish we had a chance to see, but it was not in our cards.  The only two days we had for our own exploration were Monday and Tuesday, which are the days when everything fun is closed and to be opened when our flight departs on Wednesday, 4:18 pm.  At least we ate like absolute kings while we were there and my cousins loved Dan.  

On Friday, we visited a rock and meteorite store near the Empire State Building with my brother and sister-in-law.  It was there that I heard the nerdiest thing from Dan: "I hope they have my favorite rock, tourmaline."  Jessi and I laughed in his face, then ended up with egg on ours when he showed us a small specimen that cost $26,000.  But my brother says that to be fair, the first sample he showed us sucked ass (and cost $2.50).  

Vox is being stupid so I can't upload any pictures, but you can visit our photo gallery.  One album is of my cousin's wedding and the other is of the rest of our vacation.

 

An email stalker in a weird sort of way

Hello Ms. Julie,

I have not heard from you for a while.  How are you doing?

For your information - Please be aware of the new US Postal Service rates that go into effect on Monday, May 12th  The new rate to send a 1 oz. single piece First Class Mail  will increase from the current rate of 41 cents to 42 cents.

Hope to receive your e-mail.    Have a wonderful day!  
golden-dragon@XXXX

Maybe you can benefit from the information, too?

Death Bear stare

Come a little bit closer

In the same way I whispered to Dan during the preview for Charlie Wilson's War that Julia Roberts' southern accent just sounds like Julia Roberts speaking with a southern accent, Natalie Portman looks like she's trying too hard for that deep, serious model stare.  She's normally so gorgeous, but the way her nose is wrinkled and her eyes are squinted, it looks like she's just inhaled some foul odor. 

Happy ValenSlime's Day

astro-slime

Dan and I shirked all pre-packaged Valentine's Day goods this year and stayed in for a mad night of cooking and eating instead.  Staying in to cook and eat?  Sounds like many of our nights anyway, but not when it's filled with slimes, homemade miso soup, tempura, salad, and "demon slayer" sake!  Dan appropriately donned his Iron Chef jacket (a birthday present that went wrong somehow..?) and I, an awesome apron from his mom.  

more slimes

I modestly sipped a chili margarita while I cooked (chilies were courtesy of my uncle, who unloaded a bagful of homegrown ones to Dan after hearing he liked eating spicy food, and true to his word, he's been adding it to everything) and Dan got to chopping eggplant, Japanese pumpkin, mushrooms, zucchini, and what we thought were baby sweet potatoes.  But, not even an unidentified vegetable could ruin such a deep fried dinner.  Like Dan said, it was a shame no one else was there to enjoy it with us.

Clothes-wearing dogs

If Tesla were a girl, I'd slap Dan

 

The seer is seen

Jessi treaded on my territory and emailed Thomas an image from a yahoo mail ad of my likeness.  What do you think?  She said it made her look twice.

Yahoo!

Me, some years ago

I don't know what it is about the pictures from email sites, but a few years ago I found my sister's perfect doppelganger while checking my hotmail.  Behold Evil Janice:

Evil Janice

Real Janice

The Dog

Beware these eyes

I saw Jens Lekman last night with Dan.  He's so charming--I even got Dan to say he's "cute" (in looks.  Him con Andrew Bird.  Yay for me).  But the first rate fan next to me thought she got tickets for a sing-along.  All I wanted to say was Dan paid money for me to hear Jens--not you--sing.  Also, we saw

1) the skinniest boy ever.  He wore a bandana around his neck and a worn out fedora.  We also agreed he looked like
   the stereotypical ethnic best friend in every 80's movie.
2) a look-alike of James
3) a look-alike of Josh 

It's said that seeing a friend's doppelganger foreshadows bad luck or illness for that person, so watch out.  And consider all of you other people lucky, because I'm pretty damn good at spotting them.  

Vroom-vroom

Tiny in tiny.

I love this picture: my mom (at 4'11") test driving the Smart car!  She actually makes it look normal sized.

Be prepared for January '08.  This will be the iPod of cars, and even though I think it's the cutest, most cartoon-like vehicle that I should own, I wasn't that impressed.  My drive was jerky, and I was a little embarrassed because it made me look like a drivers ed student.  But, it was fun waiting in line with my mom and brother and a good way to get out of the house.

 

Sadly, no Puerto Rico was played

Grandfather + grandchildren

My sister came home for fall break this past weekend.   40 vietnamese egg rolls were purchased.  2 giant platters of noodles were made by my mom.  Parents, grandfather, siblings, sister-in-law, boyfriends, and boyfriend's mom were stuffed. 

State Fair, part 2

The essence of the fair, sans food:

me + Dan

Cyclops and Triclops

<--The airbrush artists at the fair are the best of their trade, as you can see.