I actually don't remember whether I've eaten that brand of bread. But pretty much any kind of bread is wonderful to me, because I simply love bread.

There's something in the French language that I find hilarious. Part of the final exam for French included reading a pamphlet about Harry Potter, and in it were the words "baguette magique". I didn't think much of it at first, but then I read over it again and wondered if there had been any magical bread in Harry Potter, because I certainly couldn't recall any.

Turns out that a "baguette magique" is a magic wand. A drumstick is a "baguette de tambour", a "baguette d'encens" is an incense stick, a "baguette de chef d'orchestre" is a conductor's baton... And baguette can even refer to a chopstick, if you're eating. I suppose baguette doesn't just refer to food. It's just a stick or rod-shaped object in general.

But really, though, words aside, I've been living off of bread for the last two weeks or so. The #1 thing about my trip to China was bread, no doubt about it. I stopped at every bakery I saw. Would be heaven if I could spend all day visiting bakeries. Bread's cheap and tasty. Everything looked like a great deal compared to USA - got "pineapple buns" (they don't have pineapples in them, I think it's just named that because it looks like pineapples? I have no idea. They're also called polo buns). One itime I found them, fresh out of the oven, for ¥3.5 per bun. One US dollar is about ¥7, so it's like $0.50 for a bun. Better deal than any pineapple bun I've found yet in the USA. ...Then again, the average pay of people in China is far less, so it only looks like a great deal to a foreigner such as myself. But I also found melon bread at a 7-11 in Shanghai! It was only ¥5! And it's just so hard to find melon bread where I live, even if there are many Asian food stores. When I do find it, although it's delicious, it's kind of pricey.

Still, I guess it's not so bad to be back home, because I discovered a place to get pineapple buns. There's a bakery in a nearby grocery store which sells them 3 for $1.95! I can almost die happy.

Labels: baguette, bakery, bread, china, deal, delicious, eating, food, french, harry potter, magic wand, meaning, money, pineapple bun, polo bun, price

I've had a few previous run-ins with cats. Most of the meetings were with cats in the neighborhood, except for two occasions, one at my mom's friend's house and another at a Humane Society. Cats have never seemed to like me much. They either stare at me suspiciously and run off if I try to approach, or they keep turning away from me to show their disinterest. In fact, my parents' friend's cat even bared its teeth (though I'd heard that he - or was it she? - didn't like people much to begin with) when I attempted to get friendly with it.

So I wasn't quite sure if I really ought to be volunteering to help out with a Town Cats event at PetCo. It was an adoption fair for cats, and I was supposed to be helping with the cleanup - dismantling the cages and that sort of thing. I figured I might as well go. Despite all of my cajoling for the past couple of years, I have still been unable to convince my mother that we ought to get a cat or dog. It's probably because of one of these reasons...

1. My mom never liked cats or dogs much. It seems that her side of our family isn't fond of animals in general, since they didn't have pets when my mom was young.

2. No one has time to take care of it. There's no one to feed lunch to a cat or dog, and if we got a dog we'd have to walk it every day. (I think that'd be good exercise, but it is time-consuming.) Cats are lower maintenance, but as my mother considers them to be rather disloyal and not as useful (for instance, dogs could guard the house while we're away), that's out of the question. I don't think my mom has ever really spent time with a cat, though, so how would she know?

3. My mom is afraid of dogs. She thinks that the big ones are scary and that they will bite her. It's ridiculous considering that she's never even been bitten. And I don't think it's good to be judging animals' temperaments by their sizes. I've told her to pet dogs, that they won't hurt her, but she always refuses.

4. I'm allergic to cats, so I can't have one. Three times I have gotten rashes after coming in contact with cats. Of course, it's not life-threatening, I could still have a cat, but it sure would be annoying suffering from allergies all the time. (And since cats don't like me, I think I'd get along better with a dog.)

5. My dad is allergic to dogs, according to the doctor. I might've mentioned this in an old post. The doctor told him that he's allergic to dogs (guess he found out by giving my dad an injection of something doggish - yeah, I know, that's not a real word - and deduced that he's allergic) but I have never seen him react to dogs. So it's probably a lie. But I don't know for sure.

Anyways, I've wanted to have a dog since about second grade, though I didn't start to nag often until middle school. But even after years and years, I have not managed to convince my mom. She half-jokingly made an offer to me many years ago, saying that if I quit going on the Internet, I could have a dog. I suspect that she only offered that to me because she didn't think I would be able to do it. I have considered quitting the computer (except for homework purposes, I suppose) so that I can have a dog, but I'm not completely sure she would hold up her end of the bargain. Besides, there are lots of things on the Internet that I still want to do - post on my blog, for one. And so I am still stuck in this dogless, catless state. I'll probably be like this until I move out (my mother is always saying I can have a dog...when I'm an adult. It's rather frustrating. She says I'm not responsible enough to take care of one anyways, since I've broken my DS and a camera, as well as lost a jacket, homework assignments, and various other things).

Labels: adoption, allergies, animals, cat, deal, dog, fair, family, internet, mother, pet, petco, reasons, town cats

I often have trouble finding desktop backgrounds I like. I may have complained about this in earlier posts...The screen resolution of my computers makes it hard to find a background. Even my old laptop, which I used to use a few years ago before it got slow and keyboard started deteriorating, doesn't have the 1024x768 resolution that is common of backgrounds, so I could never really find a good one. The background would get stretched out and ugly on the screen, or I'd have to "tile" it. (You may understand what I mean if you have spent time picking backgrounds a lot) This is the link to a site I found which has some nice widescreen, big wallpapers. They are mostly nature backgrounds, though. Click here

There is the possibility I could try to get a summer job. A friend of a friend has her own company, Gal with the Bleu Umbrella, or just Bleu Umbrella Co. The website link is here. Click here It looks pretty cool. Anyhow, there's two jobs you can have, either model or freelancer. Certainly I am not model material (except for that funny time in Mr. Blair's class, when he said "This person will be a model" and picked out MY name XD) so I suppose I will be a freelancer. Apparently, if I apply for the job and get accepted, I'd do things like host stuff for the Bleu Umbrella Co. Anyhow, it's worth a shot trying to get a job; I would like to be able to make some money so I am not always depending on my parents. They work hard and I want them to relax since they are "getting on in their age".

I've just started reading a book called The Prophet of Yonwood, by Jeanne DuPrau (from the books of Ember series, and I have talked about them in a previous post somewhere). On the cover many birds made a strange shape. At first I thought it was a fish, pointing downward, but then I took a look and said, "Wait a minute! That's not a fish tail! That's a nuclear bomb!" Here's links to two pictures so you can see what I mean.
Nuclear bomb (The grey/yellow thing)
The Prophet of Yonwood

My mom cares a lot about getting good deals on things. When she came back from Las Vegas before, she brought me a present, a plush dolphin! I love dolphins. They are my favorite animal. But then I took one look at it and thought right away that I'd seen it before. It had been on sale at Rite Aid for several dollars less than my mom had bought it for. My mom was quite mortified and had a rather strained look on her face. I know I'd want to save money whenever I can, especially if I'm getting the same exact product. But oh well. I like to imagine I am "adopting" stuffed animals and saving them from certain doom. (It's a great exaggeration, though.)

Labels: background, bleu umbrella co, bomb, books, clothes, company, cover, deal, desktop, dolphin, fish, interfacelift, job, money, nuclear, save, screen resolution, summer, the prophet of yonwood

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