OakMonster’s Den

All good little Trojans should brush up on fucla Fight Song this night.

High up in the hills of Westwood
Sprawled offensive to the eye
Lies a Cal extension campus
Known as Westwood High
(High! High! High!)
Home of all the Bruin bear cubs
UGLY is its name
The student body’s vile
The football team’s a pile
and the campus is a shame!

U (clap clap clap)
G (clap clap clap)
L (clap clap clap)
Y (clap clap clap)
U-G-L-Y
Eat My Shorts!

Now, the elusive (and offensive) verse #2 and even lesser known #3. Personally, I know verse #2 too. No, I did not make this shit up.

Bruins are a bunch of f*****s [rhymes with maggots…]
Song girls are a bunch of sluts
When they spread their legs so wide
they look like garbage trucks
(Good food! NOT!)
When we all go up to Westwood
Bruins are so gay
Each bruin in the band
his unit in his hand
will whack the night away!

U (Whack! Whack! Whack!)
G (Whack! Whack! Whack!)
L (Whack! Whack! Whack!)
Y (Whack! Whack! Whack!)
U-G-L-Y
Eat My Shorts! [or suck my…you know…]

In the locker room at halftime
Bruins give each other head
They congratulate the coach
by taking him to bed
When the bruins break the huddle
Pants will come back up
Each bruin on the squad
will surely shoot his wad
right in [enter quarterback’s name] mouth!

Fight on, Trojans!

My mom would’ve been today.

I never thought I’d hit this number of visitors!  But here I am.   It’s a biggy for this humble little ranting personal blog.

Thank you to all of you readers, lurkers and, of course, all of you accidental dropping-inners.  So, just for today, please leave a comment to celebrate an OakMonster’s Den milestone if that is not too much to ask.

My faithful readers: thanks for being here.  I mean, my 20+ a day readership all contributed to you.  Even my faithful lurkers!  I mean, you’re here to read all the time, just never leave a comment.  But just for today, de-lurk for the day, would you?  Leave a comment.  Show yourself.  And even for the first time lurker, please do introduce yourself.  I love to meet new people. 

Now, the accidental dropping-inners.  I am sorry that this site may not be what you were looking for but I am happy that you guys drop by.

Many people come over here looking for the lyrics to “Hey There Vagina”, how to make the Nerd Herd I.D., or to assemble a Rikku costume.  More disturbingly, some of you are here looking for college spanking.  I am horribly sorry to disappoint you here.  Spanking on this site usually means USC Trojans football having kicked someone’s ass.  I wish I could provide you with some fun college action, but sadly, this is not the site.

As an aside, I must say that I am thankful that I’m no longer the reining queen of burping fetish search term, thank you very much.  LOL.

Also many have landed at the OakMonster’s Den because they were looking for the Oakmont Country Club which seems to be one hell of a course and therefore nicknamed Oakmonster.  Or some kind of a wine term called an Oak Monster.  This guy even has a website and logo and commentaries on YouTube.

If you search OakMonster on Google, the first you’ll end up is my old spot at Blogspot.  Then you come on over to here.  But with the new terms popping up for the golf course and the wine, my title on top of the board is a wee bit threatened.

So, love your OakMonster a little and keep coming to visit here, okay?  Don’t let those other bastards pass me up!

Anyway.  Thanks again for coming by. 

LA Times’ Bill Plaschke reports:

“Ninety-seven percent of my collective experience says the news about USC’s negotiations with the Rose Bowl — leaked in the middle of the most contentious week of the college football season — is simply a negotiating ploy.

In attempting to gain control of a Coliseum that their football program has kept alive for years, USC officials have grown weary of dealing with a Coliseum Commission that works at the approximate pace of gravy, with missions as varied as stuffing.”

I mean, I CANNOT even fathom USC Trojans play anywhere else less the Rose Bowl. I mean, are people crazy?

And yes, Coliseum folks. You’d be out of your fuckin’ mind to let USC go somewhere else. Not that we would ever abandon our traditions, but dude, think about this for a second. You lose us, you lose, what 90% of your business? The money coming in to the area is now going somewhere else? Talk about taking the neighborhood down with the ship.

I hope Bill is right. That the leaked news about negotiation with the Rose Bowl is all smoke screen in attempt to move the negotiation along.

ETA: USC alumni gets this email from Mike Garrett on the subject, confirming that this is NOT a negotiation tactic but frighteningly a hard fact.  LA Times is all over this plus the full text of Garrett’s letter.   

But hey, USC has enough bajillionaire alumni on our roster. Wouldn’t someone want to take this over and just buy out the Coliseum and just shove them bureaucratic jerks to the corner?

I mean, I don’t think we’d mind the George Lucas or Rick Caruso Memorial Coliseum, or Oakley or MySpace Memorial Coliseum? Heck, Ed Roski and Jerry Buss, between you guys you already own (or partly own) two professional teams in LA, how about one more? Edward Roski or Jerry Buss Memorial Coliseum has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

Tomorrow is the 100-day marker of the world without mom.  And so far, it has been full of surprises.

Before I hit the road to go to the temple, I stopped by Starbucks for my breakfast latte.  This guy in scrubs looked up from his paper and called my name.

Wouldn’t you know it?  It was Doc Trojan, my ophthalmologist!  (And yes, he reads my blog…so hello there, Doc!)  He had a few minutes before going in to do surgery at the medical center by my house.  So we visited for a little bit.  You know, talking about Trojan football.  What else!

When I told Brandon about this later, he asked if I told Doc that I want to get Lasik done next year.  Haha.  But seriously, he’s the only person I would trust regarding my eyeballs.  Or anyone else he’d refer me to I’d totally trust him on that too.

Anyways.  I said bye to Doc and headed up the 605 to the temple.  I got there just after the monks did their round of “tak batr” (food alms), but the head monk told me to follow the monks with rice anyway.  I brought over some cheesecakes for the monks, one of Mommy’s favorite desserts.  Once again, the only “western” dish in the menu.

If I could have my way, I would make fresh crepe suzettes right there at the temple, withholding the Grand Marnier and brandy, of course, and topped with homemade vanilla beans ice cream.  THAT is my mom’s favorite dessert. Ever.  But I don’t know if they’d let me do a table-side service for the monks.

After praying, I did “tawai sangkataan” (giving the monks provisions).  Traditionally, people would bring this bucket full of supplies like soap, toothpastes, and medicines to the monks.  Nowadays, the temple provided pre-packaged supplies for sangkataan that they reuse.  So you make a donation to the temple for those supplies which you symbolically give to the monks according to traditions.  But what you are actually giving is money to the temple to use for buying the real supplies or whatever the temple needs.

At first, my feelings on this was a bit of bad taste in my mouth. What is this, a money making business?  But when you really look at it, monetary donation does make sense.  I mean, I’m sure temples get flooded with supplies they can’t use fast enough.  All are just going to waste.  But if they do this donation deal, and use the prepackaged items as props for the traditions, then there is nothing to go to waste.  And if you still insist in bringing your own sangkatann bucket, I’m sure you can.  And they won’t turn you down.

After the temple, I tracked back from La Puente to Stanton to join up with Brandon, his boss and her friends for lunch at our favorite Thai restaurant.  God bless the Sargeant!  She loves “naem sod kao todd”…even after she finds out what “naem” actually is.  Well, that’s a fermented pork sausage.  Brandon wouldn’t touch that stuff.

And finally, I got myself an hour massage both for my birthday and in honor of my mom.

Mommy used to get massages at our house either once a month or twice a month at one point.  At that time, both of my brothers had left to study abroad and I was sleeping in my parents’ room.  So my room was turned into the massage room.  I would hang out in my brothers’ room, doing homework, watching TV or whatever while mom got her massage  in my room next door since both rooms share the A/C.

I think even with the sheets, the massage oils and creams got into the mattress.  Since then, my room always has a hint of that smell.

So, the massage today was in part my treat and in part one of those things Mommy did that will always remind me of her.

Oh, and Aurora wants to go to dinner.  And Justin is spending the night with us after his interview in Torrance.  So we might all go get food together somewhere.

Needless to say, I’m in a happy place at the moment.

You are trapped in your house on your day off because you have no pants.

That’s right, kids.  Welcome to my Vacation Day 6.

Yesterday, I went out and about and got me a mocha.  As I was getting out of the car at James & Aurora’s house, with just a little more left of tall hazelnut mocha slipped from my hand and “exploded” all over the car.  I had chocolate/coffee on my jeans, my car seats, my emergency brakes, and, inevitably, on the innocent bystander in the passenger seat, my new-ish Nike white sweatshirt.

I KNEW the whiteness isn’t going to last the moment I bought that stupid mocha!

So I ran into James’ house, drenched in chocolate/coffee/water (tried to wash some off in the car).  Thank gods they just started a load of laundry so I tossed my jeans and sweatshirt in with their stuff.  Aurora loaned me her soccer shorts.

And we played a good 3 hours of Rock Band while waiting for my pants to dry.  Oh my god, I had sooooooooo much fun!  James had me try the drum set which I sort of kind of get, but not very efficient.  I switched over to the guitar which I did a lot better on.  And finally to singing which I rocked our socks off even on the song I didn’t know.  LOL.  I LOVE that game!  I am now on stand by for any impromptu “band practice” that might come up at James’.

Then we discovered that the stain didn’t want to come out of my white sweatshirt so we soaked that some more with Shout while the jeans went back for another round of tumbling in the dryer.  By the time I had to leave, my jeans were still wet so I schlepped home in Aurora’s shorts with 2 damp garments in my back seat.

When I got home to further inspect my clothes, to my surprise, my jeans still have light stains on them!!  WTF!?!

I sprayed bleach on the white sweatshirt and took them down to laundry, then I dropped Oxyclean on the jeans, getting them ready for the second load.

As luck would have it, a few minutes before the first load is finished, we had a power outage.  For a good hour.  We did bring up the finished load and hung them to dry around the apartment.  LOL.  It was kind of sad.   By the time the power came back, if I was to continue with laundry, I’d be up till midnight.

So, this morning I finally plopped the jeans into the washing machine along with another pile of dark laundry…which happened to have my other pair of jeans in it.

So, here I am.  Pantless.  I mean, sure I have slacks and a pair of khakis I could wear.

But it’s my goddamn vacation and I fucking want to wear my jeans, dammit!

*sigh*

The moment those jeans come out, I’m outta here to have lunch with Brandon.  Been home so much these 5 days, I’m getting a little antsy.

How was your weekend?

I didn’t go anywhere near a mall, if you were wondering.

I am not THAT insane.  Thank you very much.

As a matter of fact, we had Shane over for a good part of the afternoon.  We were thinking of going to the movies, but changed our minds as we figured all the bored family members from out of town would be at the theaters.  Heck, that was what I did before.

Anyways, the boys played on the XBox 360 while I got my magazines and recipe folders sorted out. Later that night, we picked up Tamara and we all had dinner, some wine and played a little more games.

Despite the fact that we stayed home all day, I got 90% of my Christmas shopping done.  Oh yes, the old school online bargain hunter is back in her original form! Haha!

Back in my earlier days, November 1 marked the start of Christmas shopping. Well, for those my mom and I didn’t already shop for during my summer trip back to Thailand, that is. Most shopping will be done online or through catalog. By the weekend after Thanksgiving, I would be have the Christmas tree up and the gifts will all be wrapped.

Recent years, we have been giving home made gifts with the thought of it being more personal yet economical. But this year, we returned to the consumerism circuit. The past few years of giving homemade treats haven’t really been a success. I mean, some of the friends I won’t get to see for a while and therefore the goods weren’t fresh, or I had to bake according to when I would see them, also not horribly convenient.

Anyways. This year, I supported traditional consumerism.  And I’m pretty much done. There are still a few “hand made” items that need to be done for Brandon’s family. And I still have to put some more thoughts into what to get for a few more people. Other than that, we’re all set.

And to capitalize on other home shoppers like myself, Brandon handed me a few used games to re-sell on Amazon. Despite all the raves, we didn’t particularly like Halo 3 or Assassin’s Creed. Well, Brandon doesn’t like playing them and I got bored watching him play them.

Mind you, Assassin’s Creed is a marvelously beautiful game and the concept is pretty cool, but boy was it boring to watch. It’s like, go to this tower, now go to that tower, scale it and do all of this cool move and stuff and then go to the next one. You can’t even run if you want to keep your low profile so you saunter through a town. I’m sure there is more to this game but we were so done with it. But I digress.

So I put those games back on Amazon for sale on Thursday night. Not 10 minutes later, both of them were sold.

(And for those who are curious, we went out and bought Mass Effect to replace those two games we just sold. Brandon’s enjoying it so far and so am I.  It’s really awesome how everything is done. Just like what they said on the promo on SciFi channel, it does feel like you’re in a “Choose your adventure” movie instead of a game.  Everything is so detailed.)

The buy of Assassin’s Creed turns out to be from a military address.  If you know us, do you think we’re going to have a military personnel buy his own game this time of year?

That’s right.  I sent the buyer a confirmation email that his item has been shipped and that it is on us.  Merry Christmas is my message that I sent with the full refund.

Oh, and our Marine contact for this year’s Operation Jingle All the Way wrote me back! After a few years of sending stuff to the troops, this is the first time I actually got an email back from anybody.  (Well, except for Air Force Amy.  Then again, she’s a friend and not a random contact.)  Everything works out for him and his company. All the girlie things got distributed to the ladies and the boys surely will enjoy the loot.

We have been emailing back and forth a little bit now.  Guys, I think we have just adopted a Marine.  :)   So, our Biker Marine, if you stop by, thanks for being out in the front line.  We’ll send you some more stuff soon!

As for tonight, it’s full moon in November. What do you think we’ll be doing after dinner?

Actually, I almost forgot about this year’s Loy Kratong if not for my former blogger friend Kitjar who popped in on my IM to say hi.

Wow. How this month has flown by. And Wednesday is the 100th day anniversary of her death.

3 months have come and gone. Holy cow…

I miss being a night owl.

With my work schedule and daily life, I can’t really stay up till midnight and head to work.  I mean, given that I get to sleep on my way in to work, but I’d still be tired there.  Sometimes, my body seems to function well with a little sleep as long as I nap hard during my commute or sleep really well at night.  But those nights are few and far between.

I love working on the computer later at night versus earlier in the evening.  For one thing, I seem to write better when the house is dark and Brandon is in bed.  I mean, Brandon is usually playing his game, so he doesn’t bother me or anything but it’s a shift in the space when he goes to bed.  I guess he feels the same about me when I go to bed.

See why we are so compatible? 

As much of a social animal as I am, deep down I too am a hermit.  But I can only hermit for a few days before I get the cabin fever.  I mean, I’ve been home for two days I’m already get the jitters.  Brandon on the other hand can go without people for a good long time.  But I digress.

Last night I wasn’t up so late.  I did so much during the day–taking boxes of books to the post office to mail out to the troops for Operation Paperback, carrying groceries and doing loads of laundry–that by dinner time, my back seized up.  I have this issue with my back muscles tensing up when I’m stressed out, but yesterday was more because of heavy lifting, I’m sure.

I mean, my back doesn’t hurt per se, but it was so tensed I could barely breathe or move.  Major discomfort.  Brandon handed me an anti-inflammatory to take after dinner.  My back soon relaxed.  Maybe it’s the pill.  Maybe it’s the certain parts of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”.  But sure enough, after the movie is done, I fell fast asleep.

But tonight, even filled with turkey and wine and bliss from USC’s victory over ASU, I just didn’t feel tired.

So, I stayed up to research ideas for Christmas gifts.  I started in on a few little things already and eying a bunch more.  I think we will make family photo book for Brandon’s side of the family.  It’ll be something I’d gladly work on during the break.  I also ordered my special set of greeting cards from Moo.com which will go out to my family.

While working at it, about an hour ago, a fight broke out somewhere down in my alley way.  It started with a loud tire screech.  I heard some mumbled conversations.  And then this lady started screaming bloody murder.  I couldn’t really make out what she was saying and from my window, I couldn’t see the action.  Then there were more voices, guy’s angry voices, and bottle shattering.  I assumed that was some bottles from that “thoonk” noise, you know what I mean…right?   Some more screaming, yelling and more crashing of things.  I was getting worse.  I went to the phone and was getting ready to dial the local police when I heard sirens…but I think that was the siren from the local firehouse and not the cops.  Nonetheless, the commotion faded away very quickly.

And if I was in bed, I probably miss all of that.

We have had a window fan going in our bedroom since the summer.  It’s not only provide the cool breeze we need, but also cut down on the voices from our neighbors, both the casual yappers on the balcony and the “F-Bombers” downstairs in their garages.  Now it is a white noise we can’t live without.

The thermostat was set to a certain degree, and when it got cooler a few nights ago, the fan turned itself off.  Both of us woke up almost instantly to the lack of noise.  I wonder how we’re going to do this when it gets a lot cooler this winter.  Well, *IF* it ever gets cooler.

The apartment is still warm from the oven.  And it still smells mildly like the turkey gravy out there.

I got a 5-lb. turkey breast from the store and I brined it with my friend Candice’s recipe. It’s so frickin’ delicious!  And we had mashed potatoes, Stove-Top stuffing and gravy.  That’s it.  And that’s all.  Green beans casserole?  That’s my favorite, but I’ll be the only one eating that so it’s not really worth the effort.  We still have a LOT of homemade bacon mac & cheese I made the other night to get through.  I don’t need any more leftover in my fridge right now.

Well, I guess I rambled on long enough.  It’s been a while since I have a late night rant.  So, there you guys go. 

No, I am NOT going to do the obligatory “What I’m thankful for” post.

So, have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Gobble gobble.

Went to bed when I wanted to.

Woke up when I was good and ready.

Getting ready to do whatever I want today.

Ah….the start of a WONDERFUL at-home vacation!

Actually, this would make my first week off of not going anywhere ever.  Usually, I’d be in Red River with Brandon’s family or back home in Bangkok.  Never once I have taken this much time off to just be here.

My coworker Dave, a world’s traveler, tried to talk me into jetting off to Cambridge and visit Elan for the week.  And I did seriously thought about it.  I can be in London for about $900.  But for that amount, I could go to Bangkok just in time for the high school reunion my Mater Dei girls are putting on on Saturday.

Cheaper yet, I did think about going to New York and crash with Nalin, or up to Oregon and hang with Cheech.  You know, leaving on Friday morning and coming back on Tuesday to beat the crowd.

But I don’t know about tossing my money into the wind like that.  Not especially after the living room upgrade we just did.  After all, we want to be out of debt.  Sure, it’ll be a carpe diem moment I will never ever forget, but boy will I have to pay for it afterward.

Anyways.  So I’m going with the original plan of just hanging around home for once.  Maybe a weekend trip down to San Diego would cure my onset of cabin fever which I KNOW I will have by Friday.  Hahah!

But it’s MY vacation at the moment. I’m just going to let everything go whichever way it wants to go.

Now, I think I’ll go take a bath.