Lunamania

Happy holidaze. It's a distinctly San Francisco grey and drizzly evening. It's been like this all week. I should get my CA on and sit in front of a UV lamp to ward off seasonal affect disorder. Not. I stepped out in the drizzle to run an errand and I was feeling kind of bleu...then JOY! I came home to a most scrumptious holiday surprise from Bev and Roz!
Yes, I was honored with a tin of Bev's famous Christmas cookies. It's really the most incredible batch of cookies I've ever seen. There must be at least 10 different kinds of cookies in there. They've been tempting me from the kitchen table all day. I've tried like 5 different kinds of cookies and each one is SO TASTY! Holiday yummies! My brother is heading to Tokyo tomorrow so we tooled around to get gifts for the fam. But since this blog is all about ME, forget mom, dad and grandma and let's talk about my cool gift. Tomi got me the kewles snowboarding jacket. It's the most gear-weenie jacket you can imagine. I can't wait to go snowboarding again. Tomi and Mike patiently played on the bunny slope w/me as I ate snow. They were doing ridiculous things like going
backwards and I don't even know what else because I was too busy face planting. It feels strange to not be taking a week off to be in Tokyo. I think this is only the second New Year I won't be in Japan. New Year celebrations in Japan are all about year end parties, spending time w/friends and family, making best of worst of don't we wish we did more/less of in 2003 lists, resolutions and of course...OSECHI! That's special New Year's food. My mom and grandma spend days preparing many high maintenance dishes. Yukari will be doing something similar in NY this year. I do not envy the kitchen helper/s...ahaha. Joannie's working on a brief that has to be filed by the end of the year. In the midst of her deadlines she's patiently dealing w/my count the days till my life belongs
to barbri whiney self. We're heading down to the O.C. either tomorrow or
the next day. We will visit the home of...Chloe...perhaps the oddest looking cat I know. She's even funnier looking than Sethe after her haircuts. Safe high terror alert travels...and with that mention of high terror and travels after reading Lunamania, you will now have to pass remove your shoes, place your personal items through an x-ray machine and have your web activity tracked by the Department of Homeland Security. A happy holiday and safe travels!

Posted by at 4:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's Lisa K.'s favorite time of year. Dancing cherubs trinkets (?!), the holiday market at Union Square, roasted chestnuts, christmas trees named Greenwilder-chan at the Yanagino-Kim residence, Return of the King (a holiday tradition?), eggnog, stockings by the fireplace, trips home to the bio fams, reviews of unmet '03 resolutions and thoughts of lots of New Year's yummies...It's most appropriate that in this time of PEACE and ONE LOVE that the urban kitty warfare in my home is reaching detente. The DMZ has expanded from the kitchen to the hallway with the living room doorway now serving as the 38th parallel. Hamachi is holding her own--kind of--and now comes out to sleep in the hallway.
For those of you anticipating future blended feline families, the key is to treat the dominant cat like a PRISONER in his own home. Tamu is confined to the bathroom and bedroom unless under the eagle eyed supervision of his parole officer, aka Joannie. In this household, it's one strike (or even a checked swing for all you baseball fans) and you are OUT. And screw the ACLU, we've discovered that remote monitoring mechanisms are a critical tool in the fight against the terrors in the streets. Tamu now wears a collar with a bell so Hamachi knows his whearabouts at all times.
Psychological manipulation is also fair game. Tamu's collar has peaceful
sheep baaahing all around it. A purple collar with stoopid sheep is *highly* undignified and Tamu knows it. He can't figure out why the bell keeps following him and acts like someone who is hearing voices in his head. But it's working. On a non-chat related note, Tomi and I finalized my snowboard set up last night at a good sale at Pacific Bikes and Boards. Advice (I'm so full of advice today) to those contemplating snow gear: NEVER pay retail. I love sales. You can totally pick up last year's gear at 1/2 price. Unless you're a professional or someone with tons of disposable income, you won't feel a one year lag in snowboard technology.
We'll mount and prepare all the gear Thursday night and then it's time to hit the slopes this Saturday! Kirkwood better be prepared for me crashing all over their mountain. Finally, 11 and one half hour until I see the premier of ROTK. Kitty peace, dreams of snowboarding, and ROTK. Does life get any better?

Posted by at 4:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Clearly, I'm having an a.d.d., not get too much done today kind of day. A tidbit to note. The Motorola T730 cellphone is semi-waterproof. A dear friend of mine--she shall remain unnamed to preserve her dignity--recently stumbled upon this new technology. How? She dropped hers in the toilet and it continued to vibrate for 3 hrs. There are so many questions surrounding this scenario. I wonder who was trying to call from the depths of the toilet.

Posted by at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Tonight is Sweet Sessions at Nightingale. If I were in NY, I would be just getting up, maybe hooking up w/Anthony for a quick visit to June at Beat Street, and then packing my stuff up for Lisa to come fetch us. I miss spinning w/the Ang and Squeak. Looking forward to some fun reports--I hear Lisa has some good new mixes. It's a not too grey saturday in the bay. I've been spending the last couple of days working myself up into a frothy state over finally committing to taking the February bar. I forked over an arm, leg, and first born to the Barbri empire yesterday. The whole process is giving me pre-mature bar anxieties and flashbacks of Professor Whitebread and that crazy lady who somehow managed to turn the warranty of habitability into a Dido song. Then there are the vivid horrific memories of the PIMA that I was to all who surrounded me during the NY bar. People start to live in a teeny twisted bar world. I remember Jess P. exclaimed during a family law lecture, "This guy is funnier than Conan! I'd watch him even if I wasn't preparing for the bar!" uuhhh...no. NOBODY who wasn't studying for the bar would find this guy remotely funny. I don't want to go back to that world!! Help!! I believed most people who've ever taken a bar exam have similar memories. Joannie (who has taken and passed the NY, NJ and CA exams) seems to defy that mold. The way she talks about it, you'd really think it's like taking the written portion of the drivers' license exam. She remembers preparing as a simply "doing some practice questions" experience. I attribute this memory lapse to some self-defense phenomena akin to pregnant women forgetting labor pains. So I've been having mild anxieties, but I'm going to focus on getting stuff done on this VESL project the next couple of weeks, and enjoy the holidays (I have some snowboarding plans!) On the news front...

Posted by at 4:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm sitting here w/the local news on and I keep thinking it's a re-run of the Terminator...but it's actually the governor of California. And speaking of bad actors, I FINALLY saw Matrix Revolutions. I still have no idea what to make of the Architect, Oracle, or evil martini olive smacking French Man. I don't really get it. Then again, who cares? It's all about Nona Gaye, the invasion of the calimaris and the final Mr.Smith-Neo showdown. No Oscars to Keanu Reaves. His response to seeingTrinity impaled on some scary-spiky-iron-won't make it alive out of this stuff-rod? "oh no." o.k. back to my off line life.

Posted by at 4:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The battle for Middle Earth has begun--in my digestive tract. My system is waging a losing war against the stomach virus going around. Porridge, crackers, ginger ale, water...nothing is working. But as my online presence may reveal, I'm feeling a tad more hopeful that Zion will be saved soon--oh, wait...wrong movie.

Posted by at 4:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm back on the Left Coast after a very tasty thanksgiving in New York. There are many things to report back on, but given that I spent most of the holidays w/the very same folks that would be inclined to read this blog, I will spare you all the "re-living the moment via blog" phenomena. Highlights include sous-cheffing--or more like just staying out of the way--in The Master's Kitchen. And a birthday spoon bread just for me! "Mine...all...mine...precious!" oh wait...my spoon bread fantasies bleed into Lord of the Rings. Which was of course another highlight--8 hrs of Middle Earth. And I have advance tickets to see the first showing of ROTK on Dec.16th. BEAT THAT! I spent a few days in sunny but scary Orange County. I could grow to like L.A., but that whole territory south of L.A. was an experience. Altho, I could get into the strip malls with multiple bubble tea options. I will soon post pictures of Tony and Ai-Jen's banquet, Chiquis and her lovely person, and oh so much more. I've been getting complaints. I mean feedback, that the pictures are taking too long to download. I'll have to edit them down etc. I've been spending the last couple of days wonking out--reading various policy papers and trying to orient myself in the byzantine world of federal funding for vocational ESL programs. More importantly, I'm doing this from an office in Chinatown.
Yes, more food options. Today, I discovered a very tasty new bun. Goes by
the name of "Mushroom Flaky Bun" Unlike other Chinese buns--Pineapple Bun,
and Dinner Roll (which is actually quite sweet), this one is aptly named.
It's a bun, with some mushroom items inside and flaky stuff on top. Very tasty!

Posted by at 4:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)