Peanut Cat and Friends

We have only been gone for a couple of days and we have already met five new kitty cats. The one right here looks a lot like Spammy, but sheʻs not. Her name is Peanut, and you can tell sheʻs not Spammy because she has a little white dot on her neck. Peanut belongs to my friend Patti. Sheʻs a friendly little kitty, and she looks real pretty sitting in front of the Christmas tree.

You might think this is a picture of an orange bowling ball and a black and white cat. Turns out that bowling ball has little legs and it can run. The bowling ball has a name, too - Morris. The black and white kitty is named Cindy. Cindy and Morris are living in Mommy and Daddyʻs basement right now. They like to chase strings around when they are not busy eating and sleeping.

The other two kitties we met are named Trouble and P. Or is it Pee? I didnʻt see how it was spelled. :) They live at our friend Chris's house, and we went to visit him on Friday. I forgot to take pictures of them though.

Blue Moon Diner

For lunch today, Kenji and I drove up to Gardner, Massachusetts and had lunch at the Blue Moon Diner. Yeah, they really donʻt have much of a web site. Their food is ok, and their service is friendly. Mostly itʻs just cool to eat in an old-time dining car.

On the back of the Blue Moon Dinerʻs menu they have their version of the 10 Commandments:

Just in case you are having a hard time reading them, here they are in text:

1. Thou Shall Not Eat At McDonaldʻs
2. Remember Thy Local Diner and Eat There Often
3. Thou Shall Not Cover Stainless Steal with Brickface or Wood
4. Thou Shall Not Covet Drive-through Convenience
5. Thou Shall Not Worship Golden Arches
6. Thou Shall Tip Thy Waitress Generously
7. Thou Shall Sit At The Counter
8. Thou Shall Speak Loudly When Giving Order
9. Thou Shall Enjoy The Music
10. Thou Shall Eat A Hearty Breakfast At Any Hour Of The Day
    

Christmas Bandstand

Kenji and I are in Massachusetts visiting Mommy and Daddy for Christmas. This evening we had supper uptown at Picasso. The town common is all decked out in Christmas lights so I thought I'd take a picture of the bandstand, which is across the street from the restaurant.

R2D2 Mailbox

Last night Kenji and were in West Hartford, Connecticut. They have a whole bunch of cows all over the place, and they are decorated real nice like the light bulbs were in West Orange last summer. In fact, this is the second time the cows have come to West Hartford. Anyway, instead of wandering around and taking pictures of all the cows, we decided that we'd just have Kenji pose beside this U.S. Mail box disguised as R2D2. Or is it R2D2 disguised as the U.S. Mail? Hmm....

Me 'n' Musubi :)

I almost never get to be in the picture since I'm always the one taking them. Kenji had to make a funny sound to get Musubi to open her eyes wide, hehe.

The Blue Vipers of Brooklyn

Last night a guy named Tim hosted a dance at the Elks Club in Summit, New Jersey. He's hosted such dances on several occasions but I don't think they've been well-attended - I had not been to one myself - at least until last night. This time Tim had a hit with a cool band called The Blue Vipers of Brooklyn.

Yep, I took this picture with my phone. It doesn't have a flash on it, and the dance hall was dimly lit. So this is about as good a photo as you're gonna get form me.

Anyway I almost didn't go to this dance, but I'm glad I changed my mind. I quite like the Blue Vipers. Their music is filled with lots of little fun sounds a dancer can play with. And I liked that, with the exception of the bass player, all the band members played relaxed and sitting down. When I was not busy dancing, I really enjoyed watching the percussionist, David Langlois, tickle his washboard, which he tricked out with an assortment of old tin items from the kitchen, with his metal-thimbled fingertips.

While I guess they are a swing band, I don't lump the Blue Vipers into the category of neo-swing bands; I feel like their sound is more authentic. I bought one of their CDs - Forty Days and Forty Nights - though I had to borrow $5 from Gretchen to do so. Apparently they recorded this CD as a result of winning Fox TV's Morning Show with Mike & Juliette Subway Idol contest last summer. Anyway hopefully the Blue Vipers will get more gigs in New Jersey.

Oh here's a nice podcast from WNYC talking with the Blue Vipers.

Spammy sticks his head in a glass

This morning I was drinking some orange juice - the first time we've had some in a month or two. Spammy was so happy to lick my empty OJ glass. He shoved his whole head in the glass, and almost couldn't get it out!

Merry Christmas from our elfin' selfs!

Spammy says "Merry Elfin' Christmas!!!"

See our elfin' selfs here.

Dunno how long that link will work so you better look at it now.
:)

Green Tea

We just had some green tea. The green tea showed up in the mail the other week ago, along with the cute little blue cast iron teapot. The tea cups showed up in the mail today. I heard that tea cups would have accompanied the tea and tea pot, but those tea cups were made in China, and they might have had lead in them. So those tea cups went back to the store and they were replaced by these tea cups, which were made in Japan. Thanks Mom and Dad. :)

Cafe Serene

The other week ago we got one of those envelopes full of coupons for local businesses. Usually we don't ever use any of them, and sometimes I just put the unopened envelope in the recycle bin. I'm glad I didn't this time because otherwise we would have missed the buy one dinner get one free coupon for a little place called Cafe Serene in Livingston. Kenji and I went there on Friday night.

Although we've driven by it many times, we never noticed it before. I guess they are kind of new, at least in this location, as evidenced by their not very permanent looking sign. Unfortunately I didn't think to take pictures of our food, which was pretty - so I guess we're stuck with this crappy picture instead.

I had the Tuna Tataki, which was several slices of seared tuna on cucumbers and a small pile of pasta. It was really yummy, and I appreciated that they didn't ask me how I'd like my seared tuna cooked.

Kenji had the Tilapia Fish 'n' Chips, which came with delicious honey jalapeno mayonnaise instead of tartar sauce, and really yummy thin sliced sweet potato fries.

We still have a coupon for a buy one lunch get one free; Kenji is taking the day off tomorrow, and so is Tiffknee, so we three will go have lunch there. We'll probably even go back there another day when we don't have a coupon. :)