pink polkadots & gold sparkles

So.... hey there everyone out in Voxland! I've been sort of all over the place when it comes to blogging lately and I hope to remedy it sometime soon but while I'm getting my act together let's play Recap the Gap, shall we?
My last entry was in March which is almost six months ago now so we've got a lot of ground to cover!
April:
The beginning of this/end of March was a visit to Florida (lots of photos, but none on Flickr just yet - around that time I uploaded the photos from my small trip to CA last summer so... haha)
I spent a lot of time re-learning kanji and watching Lucky★Star (as well as the Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi)
This progress was greatly derailed by training my kitties to use the wonderful device that is the Cat Genie - I'll make a separate small post about this later, but if you have cats and a decent hookup for it, I'd suggest you look into getting one. I know it makes my life a lot easier!
May
I started to fall hard for 姫ギャル (himegyaru) style, which I will also make a more lengthy post about later. I even posted to the lj himegyaru community! which I almost never do for subculture fashions. I've still got a lot to learn, but I'm really feeling comfortable with it ♥
Plans for the summer were made, the House was attacked with a cleaning fervor that continued through...
June
I started driving lessons (well, just with family for the moment) on my 3rd permit, so hopefully I'll continue on and get my license this time? haha...
The rest of this month was mostly preparing for travel that would happen in...
July
I was in Japan from the 2nd-10th of July, and it was so packed full of stuff (@_@) I've uploaded some of my photos to Flickr, but sadly because it was grey out a lot of the time Japan looks very drab :P
When I came back from Japan, I'd caught a cold of sorts, so I was really sick, then sort of sick, and then I went to visit relatives in MI, and remained a little sick, and then came back, and still sort of sick, and then had to do more extended family visiting up until just recently.
So now it's August and I've been on a real creative kick (which I'm loving!) so I hope to post some pictures of things I've been making/working on soon ( ^ ~ )

In the meantime, here's a short video of my kitty Mika being affectionate & adorable ♥

(hey back at Vox, yayay)
So I'm thinking about getting a new cell phone, and I'm torn. I know I want quad-band, at the very least, and most phones have that, plus EDGE and stuff. But.... do I go with cute

w580i

like this Sony Ericsson w580i, which comes in a lovely pink color and is kind of snazzy looking? It's a slider phone, which I'm not crazy about as a format, but I don't hate it. There's some small issues regarding keys "cracking" on the number pad? Although as I understand it this is mostly the paint on the keys and not the keys themselves...which leads me to think "is it really such a big deal?" not to mention those problems seem to only exist in pre-week 44 production models which I shouldn't run into anyway... I think. It has a place to hang straps (a must for me, I've got tons hanging off my current phone - feels too light without it, actually!) and... well, it's pink! haha... I'm so excited someone is finally making a pink phone that isn't an awful hot pink and that AT&T is selling it so I don't have to go the unlocked route. Plus with the rebate and everything it's around $50 which is a pretty good deal. However... the phone itself can't do very much and while I don't actually use my cell phone a lot, when I do want to use it... well.

AT&T Tilt (HTC TyTN II)

My other choice, which seems completely opposite to the above, is the AT&T Tilt, a.k.a. HTC's TyTN II, Kaiser. This is one awesome phone, in terms of features. Bluetooth, Wifi, GPS, Windows Mobile 6, full keyboard (well, all the keys, they're small though, obv.), 3mp camera... it's like a mini laptop, basically. Not quite Ultramobile PC worthy, but for a phone, this is pretty much everything you'd ever need, I think. It's just... well, kind of blah. Grey & black? Come on. The least they could've done is stayed all black, like the original version - I think AT&T's the only one who went duotone on it. I could get a case for it, cover it with sparklies and hope I learn to love it but I just feel so unsure. It doesn't feel.. cute, or me. I mean, the features, wow, I can't imagine ever needing another phone (until tech takes a giant lead forwards, at least) The price is equally... astonishing. Uh, but not in a good way. Around $450, since even with contract it only gets down to $400 - I'm not eligible for any rebates because I don't have a $45+ data plan (since my house doesn't get phone reception, this shouldn't be a surprise but), I'd rather just get it contract-free and worry about renewing the contract when the time comes. Unfortunately even though I'd like to get an unlocked version, the price in that case skyrockets to $700 which I really cannot justify. $450 is pushing it, to be honest, but it's a PDA device which I've been wanting to replace my old (dead) one for over a year now. I was waiting for this to come out so I could upgrade to it, but the upgrade trade off is kinda low.. It's an awesome phone but will I come to hate it because it's not cute enough? Why can't companies make cute, really functional tech? It's like, either we make it cute and dumb it down for 10 year olds who would only use it for myspace, or make it superawesome but the most ugly design ever? I mean, the TyTN II's not so horrible I'd feel like smashing it, but it really gives off a "oh, that phone" kind of vibe. Could I possibly adorn it so you could barely recognize its former self? I think it's got a place to loop a strap, but I'm not positive. .... Hmm.

I seriously enjoy this commercial waaaaaaaay too much.

Apple announced their new iPod line yesterday - the new nano, iPod classic and the iPod touch. Both the classic and the touch have good points: the classic goes up to 160GB in capacity, and the touch has Wifi, touch screen, and flash media - but only up to 16GBs. I can't see myself downgrading in space any time soon, especially since memory cards are getting up there in space anyway, might as well use my PSP or something, and I don't really need 160GB of space at the moment. I'm also upset they seem to have moved from white to silver as a main color :/
So, no new iPod for me this round.
But what about PSPs?

Sony PSP Slim - Rose Pink

So I've been following this lead of 8 kittens that were born around July 26th. There was a lot of back and forth, they weren't promised, they were, they weren't really, they weren't up to seeing anyone yet.... and today, I got to see them.
They were so tiny and adorable!
I'd never seen kittens younger than 8 weeks before because my cats were always spayed/neutered and I didn't know anyone whose cat had had kittens. Pet stores won't take them until they're 8 weeks old, and that's the only place I got to see them. These babies were only 4.5 weeks old, not ready to come home yet, but alert and interested (once they got used to their surroundings).
The girl who was in charge brought them to a local pet store that she worked at, and we brought an old baby playpen to hold them in. 7 out of the 8 came - one was at home with the mother - and 6 of those 7 were available. There were three calicos of varying coloring, three orange tabby boys, and one b&w - she was going to be the store's pet. I immediately picked up a sweet little calico girl with tan ears and forehead. Initially she just sat in my arms without moving much, but eventually became interested in climbing all over me XD She was my absolute favorite and I claimed her quickly. I had to consider whether getting two was the best option - littermates would make the best companion for a lonely kitty, and while I don't anticipate going on lots of trips, I do know there will be times when I won't be home for a few days to a week throughout the year. I wanted to choose a friend, but the other two calicos became someone else's choice right away. Only the tabby boys were left.
When we initially took the kittens out of the cat carrier and into the playpen, one of the tabbies immediately rushed over to the side and started to climb out! He got to the top before we noticed! I'm fairly sure that's the boy I picked - he was very playful throughout the time there - at the very end like most of the others he was tired out, of course, but we brought toys to play with them and he was eager to participate. Holding him was a bit of a challenge, he wanted to climb right up and over my shoulder!
We did take pictures of the ones we liked, but they're on my mother's camera so no photos yet (sorry! (^^;;)). The calico is easy to tell apart from the rest, but the tabby has a brother who is very similar, but more dark orange than him. Hopefully I can pick him up before his brother goes off to his location - someone else just wanted "a cat" without caring too much which one so they got the last one available.
Initially I wasn't sure if my husband would be up for getting two at once since he's never had pets before, but so far he's seemed very receptive. He knows I'll be the one to take care of them, so it's not much work on his part anyway XD I'm so excited! They will be ready to come home early to mid September~ if I don't upload the initial photos by then, I'll take lots of new ones anyway!