Miho's favorites

It was a beautiful day today. I woke up late at 11AM, and had a glass of lemonade with red pepper as usual as my breakfast. Ray already got up and was eating a banana muffin at the dining room. I rarely eat sweets except for only Swiss Chocolate , but sometimes once every two month, I feel wanting to eat sweets. Banana Muffins or Banana cream pie or chocolate chiffon cake or cheese cake or cream puff or coffee taste ice cream. Those are my favorite sweets. But mostly , American sweets are too sweet to me so those may be the least sweets here (IMO), so that I can eat sometimes. Anyway, while watching Ray was eating banana muffin , I was influenced and had one of them with Parisian Soup which was our left over from our last dinner. Parisian soup is one of my favorites, it has leeks ( like Japanese green onions) with potatoes. Very simple taste, but has margarine, salt & black pepper and whip cream. In my mind, besides my work, about US skating Nationals often comes...

I knew he has been incredibly busy for ice shows and his GPS competitions since last May so I thought it won’t be updated until new year. And reading his journal, I found some new things I didn’t know how tough his situation was this season, it even looked tougher than I thought. >(Johnny's quotes) After my return from Japan I started noticing a lot of pain in my left foot and ankle. Having just gone into new skating boots two weeks before my departure, I thought something was very wrong.  I didn't really understand anything about my skates at the time because in all my years of skating I've had the good fortune of never having problems.  I have to admit a flaw right now. As long as I've been ice skating, and as long as I've been at an elite level, I understand absolutely nothing about skates or blades.  I just know to put new ones on every season and get them sharpened regularly. Galina Yakovlevna thought it would be smart to go into a new boot, ...

This year, we bought something different kind of calendar for our living room. I thought it’s kind of cute. Ray also likes it. I enjoy looking at all the hand bags in it. Hand bags ( purses ) and shoes are always my favorite collectibles ( also watches ) , and I used to love to collect many kind of styles of purses. Somehow, since I moved here, it’s enough to have one or two for shopping. But seeing those purses, my collector’s personality has appeared again . Even just looking at many kind of purse, it’s so fun. Last year ( 2008 ) , we were decorating Johnny’s image calendar in our bedroom, and napping kittens image for our living room, and Zen image for my office. Love Johnny's quote in it, " I think star is my symbol. Star doesn't know how it got where it is or where it is going or even what it is. But it keeps on sparkling. That's how I like to live. No matter what, keep on shining . - Johnny Weir " Choosing calendars every year is kind of fun...

Happy New Year ! Finally I was able to watch most of GPS events for men and ladies. But could not make some time for ice dancing and pair, so I can only comment for those two. My favorite programs and performances which made me to watch over and over were .. Men Johnny Weir FP ( NHK Trophy & GPF ) Seems like many people hasn’t been impress for both of his programs this season. But I really loved his FP and is still enjoy watching it for NHK Trophy and GPF. Jumps mistakes in it were not so big deal to me. Because other parts such as his whole body movements, especially his upper body , arms, hands and also his facial expression ! I thought this program is great. The choreography he did in the middle of the program was very impressive, it had deep emotion and his natural facial expression with his body language was interesting and was very emotional, and also straight line sequence was powerful, with every artistic movements were well balanced. In GPF, it was a lit...

Skating Competition is mostly like a mind game , and it’s like who has the most mind toughness ,most successful for their mind setting. Exceptional example of this may be Plushenko.  Most skaters can be inconsistent depending on the situation and I can really see how difficult it is to keep winning. Once a skater wins, he/she gets high expectation from audience, and gets high pressure for next competition. And many can not handle the pressure and nerves.  A skater who has less expectation from audience may be more relaxed and show their best at every competition. Also even small things can bother a skater’s mind, such as ice condition , blade problem , personal life issue , health condition etc.. Some skaters are stronger at SP than FP, and after SP, I always think it’s one of the most important times for mind-setting which influences the final result. Some are weak at SP, and might get less expectation from audience, and that makes them less pressure and make...

Whoa !  So many things have been in my mind since my last blog , but finally, I got to write about my impression of Skate America. This season I may not be able to spend much time for my hobby though I will try to take a time for it. I thought it won’t be shown in the US broadcast for all the GPS competitions anymore except for ladies LP, but somehow, Ray happened to turn on the TV on Sunday afternoon, and found a Japanese skater Kozuka had just finished his FP. And we were able to see Johnny’s FP in NBC broadcast. They often change the schedule, so we may need to constantly check the info about it to watch it. During the live competitions, I was at my computer with nerve , and after seeing the result of Johnny and placed in behind Kozuka , I had a bad feeling , … really bad feeling.. But after seeing Lysacek’s result, suddenly my feeling became much better. Yes ! 1. Takahiko Kozuka - Gold 2. Johnny Weir - Silver 3. Evan Lysacek - Bronze Takahiko Kozuka I onl...

Since I started watching figure skating competitions, I found it’s fun to make predictions for the medallists every event besides enjoy watching all the performances. It’s a game. People always make predictions based on the past results. But this is also a skater’s mind toughness competition, besides things are often changing every season, every event, so anything can happen, Also judging system changed some parts since this season again, so it’s more difficult to predict. I think there is always no sure prediction. It’s just prediction. It’s also scary to predict for my favorite skater Johnny Weir since I seriously wish him to be on the top of the podium every event from bottom of my heart. I get so nervous whenever he is at COP. And from my analysis , when many people were expecting him to win, it didn’t happen. Now I feel more scary since I saw many people are predicting him to win. So I try not to think about it. Here is the list of skaters for Skate America, Men...