Finnish Foods!

Last week I went on a magical journey to Boston to find some elusive Finnish foods.
After some extensive interneting, I found 1 place that sells some!
Cardullo's! A little store in Harvard Square that I've been to before and forgotten about. Hah!



This is what I got!



2 bottles of Kristall, (Swedish nommy light soda, pear and black currant, only pear is shown right now, i accidentally tossed the other bottle!) Finnish sweet licorce, regular salt salmiakki, and double salt salmiakki! I didn't know if I was going to like it (I do like licorice a lot) but I do! Not enough to toss a bunch in my mouth at once, but one at a time slowly eating it it's pretty good! :D

Wasn't too expensive, I think for all that it was $14.

Yay! If anyone else has any recommendations, lemme know! I almost got marzipan (which I've had before) and turkish delight, but it was a little too expensive for that trip haha!

Cosplay post!

These are my cosplay.com posts about my costume ^^

http://www.cosplay.com/journal/4664/

(Associated pics) (I'm holding up my skirt to show them off ahhahaha)




http://www.cosplay.com/journal/4683/

(Associated pics)


No lunch post today, all I have is leftover Hamburger Helper haha!

Bento returns!!

Sorry it's been so long since I bento'ed!!



It's been a while since I've had time or will to do one! Today's is simple- I didn't have a lot in the house at all! The other day I HAD gotten a mini seedless watermelon, though, so that's today's snack! Also today, I have a couple green onion buns, and tamagoyaki... on a couple thin slices of cornbread that I had laying around haha! Also for later I brought my fruit drops in case I want another little snack! (Only a couple though!)

In the back right corner you can also spy with your little eye my 3 pc. utensil set! Green fork, spoon, chopsticks in a case! (I brought it for breakfast yogurt and lunch haha!) Very handy! ^_^

Cardcaptor Sakura set!!

I really wanted the full box set of Cardcaptor Sakura, one of my old fave animes, but was NOT going to pay for an American version. (They are discontinued, the last CCS set i bid on on ebay sold for over $300!!)
So I checked out a different ebay seller, who I found out later bought from a Hong Kong company, animedvdsupply.com. So far I am VERY VERY impressed. Easily the best bootleg I have EVER bought.
(Sorry for the crappy pictures in advance! They're from my cell phone... the pictures are VERY clean on the case, bright colors, CORRECT colors... etc.)



This is the cover of set 1. (There are 2, I didn't feel like taking pics of set 2 haha! Maybe later!)



Flipping it open once opens to a couple more beautiful pictures of Sakura's battle costumes.




Flipping it open again opens up to 4 panels... these are the DVDs. They are held in with the GOOD pushy latchy dvd hooks, that do NOT break as easily. The DVDs themselves are beautifully and professionally screened with a picture of one of her battle costumes, and below that is the full color picture of the same battle costume behind each disk.

The disk plays great, correct coloring, no fading in the show itself, NO ENGRISH! I think all they did was take the official version of the region 1 dvds and copy it to a region free and condensed disk, so instead of 18 disks there are now only 8. This is further proven as the extra features are the exact same as in the US disk. (I've seen the US version dvd 1 before from my library and remember it well haha.)

OVERALL: A+. More than I bargained for. Great quality, highly recommended. I will be getting my Sailor Moon Complete Set from there, I hope the quality is consistent, I really do. I'll be so saddened/disappointed if it's not!

1st Music Review!!

Today will be my first music CD review!! I got in my import cd, YUI's newest single, Again! (from Playasia.com) It came with a fairly big sticker of Ed and Alphonse from FMA:Brotherhood on the back, and inside the case was a smaller sticker of the alchemic circle used in the show. Fitting as this is the new OP for the show! =D

1. again- *****. The whole reason I preordered this CD!! I LOVE this song!! Upbeat pop song, sounds a little sad, but determined. The japanese is fast, but she sings it beautifully, and interspersed are some slower parts. (I love the fast parts!)
Here is the translation... http://sziur18.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/yui-again-lyrics-translation/
I also like that it's a long song. It doesn't feel like it to me, because I never want it to end! The first time I listened to this song, I couldn't get enough, so I listened to it 5 or 6 times in a row!

2. Sea- ****. A lot slower than the first song. I feel like this song really shows off her voice. I feel a definate sense of longing in this song. It too has a bit of a sad sense, but it still makes me smile. It's very calming. I also feel so accomplished when I can understand a few words here and there, like "minna minna, genki desu ka." haha!

3. SUMMER SONG ~YUI acoustic version~- *****. I'm a sucker for acoustic songs. This is a playful song, makes me think of summer memories! Sadness gone! Maybe a sense of remembrance, but HAPPY remembrance!

4. again ~Instrumental~- **. I don't care much for the off vocal versions of songs. Nothing much to say... haha

Overall... AMAZING CD!!! I really wish I knew all the words to the songs... all of these are songs that I would LOVE to be able to sing in the car with the windows rolled down, and people giving me stange looks. (I can do that partly for again, but not the other 2!)

NEW CAR!!!

So... today I finally got my new car!!!



Its a NEW 2009 Toyota Yaris!!

YAY

It's a really cool little car! Stress little haha just the way I like it, but I can fit in this thing. :) Long legs approved!



haha me and the car... next to us is a Ford Focus, its shorter in length than that haha! My mom keeps joking that her black lab is going to pick it up and dig a hole and bury it! >.>



Ahhh! Pepper no!! STEP AWAY FROM THE CAR!!!!



You can see a little of the inside here... I had to wait an extra couple days for the power one (the one they had in stock was no power, so manual change the rear view mirrors, which I did NOT approve of. haha! And power lock and unlock and a car alarm now, too!) The dash is nice and un-distracting in the middle.

Yay hatchback! I needed that for theatre stuff. ^_^

Overall... yay! Great gas mileage. Avg. 29 city, 36 hwy. Warranties coming at me every which way haha. Car is 16k, not including add-ons.

WHEEEEE~

Jew Food!

I got myself some VERY jewish foods today for lunch. (Semi meeting for office peoples.)
No pics, but I had chicken matzo ball soup. NOM.
Chicken soup with carrots and celery, with a matzo ball in the middle, made with matzo crumbs, egg, a lil water.



And I also had a potato knish, which is potato with a pastry outside.



Kinda looked like these, but this was a nice and brown all over, flaky, and heated to perfection. MMMMMM.....



First, some fresh jewish corn beef. Haven't had it since I was a kid.



Next, a sour pickled green tomato (Jewish style of course!) to compare to the ones my mom made this past winter.

Last....



HAVLAH! This one is sold in half pound blocks like this, and is marbled with chocolate, as you can see. :) It is a sweet sesame cake I guess you would call it, but it's not like cake cake, its a slab of this stuff. A bit like grainy fudge I guess is the consistency. It's good, just as I don't like sesame much it takes me a loooong time to finish anything this big. It lasts me more than a month haha!

Soup for the Sick (me!)

This is the veggie soup Kelley made for me when I was sick! YUM. It was very good, especially after I added a little more spice to it while she was cooking it! ^^

It had lima beans, corn, carrots, mushrooms, celery, onions, *thinks* and thats it? I cant remember exactly. Simmered for a while in veggie broth.

YAY! Thank you Kelley! <3