Banana Burger!

After bowling we planned to go to Van Gogh's Ear for dinner, but it turns out they were closed for a private party. So instead we went a few doors down the street to a little Brazillian cafe called Banana Burger.

Yes, they have a burger with bananas on it, and that's the one I had. If you look closely, you can see the bananas underneath the lettuce. There were also potato sticks and corn on this burger. It was quite yummy. And by the time we were finished with burgers, the party at Van Gogh's Ear was over and we went there for dessert. The End.

Lefty Strike!

Yep, we went bowling again today. I made my goal of 100 during our first game, so during the second game I decided I would bowl lefty for the entire game.

During my second frame as a lefty, I bowled a strike! I didn't bowl a strike the whole time in the first game when I was bowling right-handed so go figure. The following frame I bowled two gutter balls, but the computer gave me a pin anyway... I figure it was extra credit for bowling with my wrong hand.

No soup for you!

Tiffknee's birthday is next week so last night we went out to dinner at Spanish Tavern with her and her folks and some of their friends. It was quite yummy, but the best part was when the power went out, and we had to eat our soup by backup lighting. Well, the rest of us had soup, just not Tiffknee. I don't know what Tiffknee has against soup, but whatever it is she obviously insulted the soup gods because they turned out the lights on us!

Turkey Pesto Pizza

Ok, this pizza is rather un-crazy compared to the last two. It has basil pesto, mozzarella cheese, tomatoes and ground turkey on a whole wheat crust. The turkey pizza I really want to make would be one that is Thanksgiving-style, with stuffing, cranberry sauce, potatoes and maybe even some gravy. But I want to make the cranberry sauce myself, and whole cranberries are not as easy to find now that the holidays are over.

I was chatting on IRC a bit earlier with some folks, and a chat friend from Brazil said they have a pizzeria down there that has chocolate pizza on their menu. Mmmmm, it looks good! I also found a recipe for chocolate pizza that maybe someday I will try.

Telemarketing Shrink Dream

It seems like I dream sometime just before 5am, or at least that seems to be the time when I become aware that I've just had a dream and can recall it in my slowly waking state. So anyway here's my dream from last night - or rather - early this morning, as I wrote it down in my little writing book.

We were looking 4 a doctor to treat something - maybe PTSD. We got an unsolicited call from one, but Kenji was in the bathroom. I almost hung up on the guy, but took his phone number instead.

Then Kenji came out of the bathroom and we told him to call the guy. So I called him and got the doctor's wife on the phone. She said it was late, and the doctor was not accepting calls anymore. I said the doc had just called us like ten minutes earlier. She reluctantly put her hubby on the phone. He didn't sound like he wanted to talk. I said just give my hubby a few minutes - that he (Kenji) just wanted to ask a few questions so he could see if he wanted to call him (the doctor) again another day. The doc agreed and I put Kenji on the phone.

Kenji was taking a while to say something, and I think it was because he was trying to put the call on speaker-phone. I said don't worry about speaker phone. But Kenji never got to ask the guy anything before the guy either hung up or the call got dropped.

It's hard to write in the dark when you are mostly asleep. Anyway in the dream I think we were at my parents' house, sitting in their kitchen when we were trying to make the phone call. Kind of a boring dream if you ask me. I like dreams where there's more stuff going on.

Crazy Purple Pizza!

Sorry I forgot to take a picture of the pizza before we cut into it. It was half gone before I remembered to grab my camera.

The crust on this pizza came out waaaayyyy better than on my last pizza. I used this recipe. I like it because it has honey in it. Here's the recipe I used on Wednesday.

Tonight's pizza featured the following toppings:

• mozzarella cheese
• little tomatoes
• almonds
• raisins
• snap peas
• Peruvian purple potatoes
• garlic, olive oil & salt
• little bit of paprika & parsley flakes
  

Little Hike at Eagle Rock

This morning I went for a little hike with Jason and another chick whose name I can't remember. Kenji was going to come hike too, but he had to hang around the house and wait for the Direct TV guy to come over and stick a satellite dish on our garage and put some cables in our house.


This time we hiked at Eagle Rock Reservation in West Orange. I didn't bother to take a picture of the NYC skyline this time because I put that in a different post already. So instead here's a little stone bridge we walked across. I tried to get Tiffknee to go hike with us but she wasn't having any of it. The End.

Big Bird

Here's another bit of a dream remnant from earlier this week. I was driving somewhere in sunny Arizona through some small town, when I drove past a giant bird walking down the street in the opposite direction. The bird was as tall as a human, had giant eyes the size of the palm of your hand. Its feathers were dark gray and the irises were orange.

I continued driving and saw some other odd creature walking along the road. That's when I decided to take pictures of these creatures with my phone. I took a picture of the second creature, then put the car in reverse to try to find the big bird. I stepped too hard on the gas and backed up too fast and went too far. I didn't hit anything or anyone. I did find the bird, but I think I had some kind of difficulty taking a picture of it for some reason.

Alligator Hunt

For the past week or so I've been having all sorts of dreams while sleeping at night. I guess that's not unusual but it feels unusual for me because for many years I feel like I haven't remembered or even been conscious of any dreams I've had while sleeping.

I used to like recording my dreams when I was in high school, but somewhere along the way I guess I had better things to do and I got out of the habit. Anyway I always thought dreams were rather entertaining, so I've missed having them (or more likely, just being aware of them). Therefore I decided that I'm going to try to record my dreams again.

Last night was the first time I tried writing them down. I put a little blank book and a pen next to the bed, and scribbled what I could remember of my dream in that in the dark. My handwriting is barely legible and my writing was rather "downhill" looking. I really didn't remember too much of it, but here are the remnants I did recall (verbatim from my little writing book).

Tonight's dream was about alligators. Big ones. There was a dirt road. It was night. We were trying to find our way to the main road. Then it was day. That's when we were looking for alligators. Then Kenji and I were out for a walk on this dirt road. We stopped for something. Then we - Then he asked me where we were going to go next. I said we would walk down the dirt road more, till we got to a roadside snack bar and could have lunch, so we could walk more. He was disappointed. I wanted to do more walking.

And that's about it. Not very interesting. I know we saw some alligators in the dream. One was pretty big. Others we just heard about and were trying to find. Oh the reason Kenji was disappointed was because I was going to make us walk more and he doesn't like to walk.

Mind your children or they will be given espresso and a free puppy

That was on a sign at Van Gogh's Ear Café. I wrote about that place before. Anyway that's where we went for this week's installment of the search for the perfect dessert (which was preceded by bowling and meat on a stick).

This is Kenji pondering over what to have. He decided on some chocolate coffee drink with the word lust in the name, but he can't remember what it was called. I didn't take a picture of it because a drink in a mug looks pretty much the same as any other drink in a mug.

I was torn between getting the peanut butter mousse pie and the chocolate saucy cake. So Tiffknee helped me out and got the peanut butter mousse pie so I got the chocolate saucy cake and we got to try each other's dessert. I think Tiffknee really liked her dessert.

Here's my chocolate saucy cake. It was saucy. And chocolatey. And wayyy yummy. As you can see, this time I remembered to take pictures of our desserts before they were half eaten. I would have taken action shots of them being eaten, except the lighting in Van Gogh's Ear is a bit dim.

Overall, Van Gogh's Ear beats out Baumgart's by a long shot. Better desserts, better ambiance. The only thing Baumgart's did better was their whipped cream was homemade. Don't get me wrong - Baumgart's was good... it's just that Van Gogh's was better.

Crazy Pizza!

I made pizza tonight. And because Kenji is out of town this week, I got to put all crazy stuff on it.

Here's what I put on my pizza:

• garlic
• olive oil
  
• hot peppers
• snap peas
• cilantro
• zucchini
  
• mushrooms
• tomatoes
• mango
• mozzarella cheese

I think the only thing I wouldn't put on the next time was the zucchini. I might have baked it too long too - the crust was a bit hard around the edges. But the center pieces were good.

Making an Egg Salad Sandwich

For lunch today I made an egg salad sandwich. As I was removing the egg shells I was reminded of a kid I went to school with named Scott.

The thing about eggs that made me think of him was that one time in elementary school, Scott brought in a brown, jiggly, translucent egg for show and tell. He said he made the egg that way by putting it in vinegar for a few days or something like that. The egg looked pretty cool, but I could never remember exactly how he said he did it. I think I tried to make a brown jiggly translucent egg once but it didn't work out, and I was too shy to ask Scott how he did it. If only I had the internet back then... I would have been able to look it up!

So anyway while I was thinking about Scott and the jiggly brown translucent egg, it occurred to me that the only other thing I remember about him is how he almost strangled me in fourth grade. I don't think he intended to do since I don't recall any malicious intent.

What happened was I was sitting backwards in my chair, working on some little project with the girl seated at the desk behind me. I was wearing a bright green hooded sweatshirt, and when Scott walked by, he grabbed my hood and wrapped it around my neck and just kept walking while holding onto my hood. I twisted around in my chair as far as I could, but I couldn't turn very much because I was sitting backwards in my chair and my leg got caught on the chair back. So the hood kept getting tighter and tighter around my neck, and I couldn't speak. Then everything got a bit fuzzy and quiet, and the next thing I remember I was looking up at the ceiling and I could see one or two of my friends standing over me. Then things got less fuzzy, and went and told the teacher and she didn't really do anything about it and then I forgot about it... until I made egg salad sandwich today. :)

Bowling with no arms

Yep, then after our inaugural quest for the perfect dessert, Kenji Tiffknee continued on with our plans to go bowling in West Orange. The lanes in West Orange are way busier than the ones in Roselle Park. It's cool and all that they turn the lights down and crank up the disco balls and music, but it was super noisy and we had to wait like 45 minutes to get a lane.

The other cool thing about having the lights down low is that it makes your arms disappear!

In Search of the Perfect Dessert

Well after eating little chunks of grilled chicken on sticks, Kenji, Tiffknee and I decided to go bowling at the lanes in West Orange. But that bowling alley had league only play until 9:30pm, so we had some time to kill. To fill that time, we decided to go on a quest for the perfect dessert. Thus began our inaugural quest, which was at Baumgart's Cafe in Livingston.

I forgot to take pictures of our desserts before we began to dig in, so you'll just have to settle for half-eaten desserts. Kenji got carrot cake...

Tiffknee had a sundae...

And I had apple crisp.

The desserts were good, but I don't know whether any of them qualified for as a perfect dessert. I haven't actually thought about the qualifications of a perfect dessert either... I figure I'll know it when I see/taste it.

1st BBQ of 2008

Ok it's not really barbeque - it's just grilling. Yesterday we decided that we wanted to have meat on a stick. And since it wasn't really all that cold out we decided that we should take out the grill and cook some little chunks of chicken on sticks.

Lionel Richie Rocks...

... or something like that. :) After bowling and Panera Bread this evening and before the American Gladiator championship, the guys played a little karaoke. It's too bad we only have one microphone. But anyway there's Kevin and Kenji singing All Night Long. Hehe!

A Turkey for Lex

Yep we went bowling again this Sunday. This time Kevin came with us. Lex didn't come with us because she's not into bowling, and she had laundry and other stuff to do anyway. But she told Kevin to prove that he loves her by bowling a strike for her (oh, they are getting married in July for those who don't know who Kevin and Lex are). Anyway, Kevin started his first game by bowling a strike, and then he finished his second and final game by bowling a turkey. :)

Wicked Big Waffle

After the dance on Friday, some of us went to the diner (as usual).

I was being a good girl and got only hot tea and matzoh ball soup. But then Liana went and got this gigantic waffle covered with I think 8 billion scoops of ice cream. Then she forced us to help her finish it. Oh well so much for being good! ;)

Fire Garden

For Christmas, the library gave me a Starbucks gift basket full of coffee-type stuff as a thank-you for delivering books to shut-ins last year. The metal basket-like container from this has been sitting on our dining room table for a month and a half now, just kind of getting in the way. So while I was dusting earlier today I figured out something to do with it.

Those flowers are metal tulips we got a couple years ago from some art museum gift shop. They are taped to the top of a couple of boxes inside the basket, and there's fake grass covering the boxes. Inside the tulips are little votive candles. Well, it's kind of a fire hazard so they can't be left burning unattended, but it still looks kinda cool when the candles aren't lit.

Decisions, decisions...

Yep so I was having a hard time motivating myself today to do some chores. Instead of just thinking all day about all the things I ought to get done and then avoiding doing them, I decided I'd do just one of them and at least get that done. But then I found myself taking too much time to decide which task I should choose.

But then I found a cute little decision maker on the internet. It's called A Choice Randomizer. You can put in as many choices as you want and then click the button and it decides for you.

I had four choices and took the best out of five... the randomizer must have really wanted me to dust because that came up three times. So anyway, the dusting is done. Maybe - just maybe - if I feel inspired enough the vacuuming will get done today as well. Thank you Matthew Souzis for helping me get at least one thing done today!

Belkin Class Action Suit, part II

Today I received a Belkin wireless refund notice, relating to the class action suit I wrote about back in April of last year. It says we are eligible for a full refund on up to two Belkin wireless products. Turns out the two Belkin wireless products we own are qualified for the settlement, and yes I still have the original receipts after all this time. So after I get the form mailed in tomorrow or Tuesday, we should have our refund back within 12 weeks. Yay!

It's sort of timely, because we've been having trouble with our Belkin wireless gateway for the last several months. For the most part it works, but every now and then it just decides to not work, usually just for a few moments, but increasingly those few moments seem to be getting longer and longer. So, we'll put the almost $100 we get back from Belkin and put it towards a nice shiny new Apple Time Capsule.

New Bowling Terminology

Kenji, Tiffknee and I went bowling again tonight at Roselle Lanes. We made up some new bowling-related terms:

• Cheese - The last pin standing when you only mange to knock over nine by the end of the frame.
  
• Cheese Ball - The ball that knocks down the would-be Cheese in the second ball of the frame.
  
• Field Goal - The second ball of the frame that goes between two pins without knocking any down.
  

Quote of the evening...

Setting: Superbowl XLII party, last four minutes of the game, surrounded by Giants fans
Grace: "Are they gonna kick it now?"
Hector: "No. There's no such thing as a five point kick!"

Pretend Fish Supper

Kenji and I went to a fish supper with Tiffknee at Tiffknee's church this evening. It was a fund raiser for the local Boy Scout troop. I call it a pretend fish supper because we didn't arrive until about 7pm, and by that time they were all out of fish. But they still had chicken. The chicken was deep fried in the same batter they use for the fish, so it still looked like we were eating fish and chips. We even still used tartar sauce on the chicken. :)

While we were waiting to be served by the Boy Scouts, I folded a tiny paper crane out of the blue paper napkin ring that came on our plasticware. The Boy Scouts were rather slow in their duties, so Tiffknee's dad shared some of the bread from their table with us. In return, I gave him the crane I'd just folded.

A little while later, the little paper crane ended up in the hands of Grandma Willson who was so impressed with it that she took it home with her, carrying it carefully in one hand, and in the other hand, her leftovers.

Just as we were about to leave, Grandma Willson's daughter came by our table to tell us that Grandma liked the crane so much that she forgot to take her purse home - and that's why she was back - to fetch the forgotten purse. Tee-hee-hee!

Almost our old apartment...

Last night I came across this video on YouTube - I actually even know the guy who made the video, heh. We used to live one floor above and two units over from this apartment.

Gaffer Tape Wallet

Back in 2002, I had my wallet (and whole purse) stolen at a swing dance at the Kapiolani Park bandstand. The next day I was telling some of my chat friends about it, and one of them suggested I make a new wallet out of duct tape.

Well I didn't have any duct tape, but I had a nice big roll of black gaffer tape that my friend Christopher gave me as a going away present when I moved away from Connecticut. So I made a nice black wallet out of gaffer tape, and it served me well for five years.

My black gaffer tape wallet would still serve me well, except I saw some nice pretty bright colors of gaffer tape at the art supply store. All of the sudden I wanted a funky colored wallet. First I tried a pink one with velvet that had smiley faces crushed into it. But the smiley faces became uncrushed when I had my wallet in my back pocket while swing dancing. Also, the velvet was purple and I didn't like the way it clashed with the pink gaffer tape.

On Saturday I finally bought another roll of gaffer tape - this one's bright green. So now I have a funky pink and green gaffer tape wallet, with zig-zags and tiny hidden triangles. :)

Snuggle Cat

Birthday Dinner

We had a real nice dinner tonight at our favorite Indian restaurant, Moksha in Edison. It's the place our friend Gretchen introduced us to back in November during Diwali. Gretchen's friend Rex waited on us, and he took real good care of us. We had the Amaravathi Kodi (chicken) for an appetizer, and the Nellore Chapala Koora (fish curry) with coconut rice for our meal. We also tried samples of some of some of their other dishes, all of which were yummy. And we had their Orange Blossom and Fruit Punch drinks, both of which were really yummy. We were going to order dessert but then Rex brought out ice cream with a candle stuck in the top for my birthday, so that was a nice surprise. :)

More car trouble?

Ok, so I was just out doing my usual every-other-Friday book delivery routine, when somewhere around the time I crossed the intersection of Eagle Rock Avenue and Pleasant Valley Way, my not-quite-year-old Honda Fit began to make the most wacky-ass noise I've ever heard! It was a very loud, varying, but mostly high-pitched metal-on-metal scraping sound - sometimes squealing, sometimes clattering, but mostly a cacophony of sound that you generally do not want to hear coming from your car - ever.

When I noticed it, my first thought that something screwy was happening with my iPod so I shut the radio off, but to my dismay the sound was still there. Then I hoped it was the car next me making that sound, but that car passed and the sound remained.

So I pulled into my next stop - the sound continued though the frequency reduced as the car slowed and then stopped as I came to a full stop. As I stopped that first time after the noise began, I did hear a sort of a twanging sound, as if something just broke free of something else. Stepping on the gas while in neutral didn't produce the sound, so it must be something that depends on having the wheels in motion.

I got out of the car, dropped to my knees and looked underneath as best I could, but I couldn't detect any loose metal dangling things. I tried to look inside the wheels at the brakes as best I could - didn't see anything unusual. There was no smell of burning brakes, no sign of anything leaking.

So I delivered my books for this stop, took one more look under the car for leaks and such, and then continued gingerly along my way. As I backed the car out of the stall I did not hear the sound, but as soon as I turned the wheels and began to move, it came back loud as all get-out.

I proceeded along slowly, rolled down my window to listen some more... I'm not entirely certain, but the sound seemed to be coming from the front of the car. At my next and final stop, I checked under the car again, and this time I also tried pushing on all four corners of the car. Pushing on the left-rear sort-of produced a sound that could be part of what I was hearing while driving. I should note that in addition to the rate of speed, the noise also seemed to depend a bit on the road condition as it responded to small bumps in the road. Also, the noise seemed to get especially loud when turning the wheels.

Anyway, I know I wasn't just hearing things, because people did stop to look at me as I drove by. Heh how embarrassing.

After my last delivery, I went back to the library and dropped off all the returned books. At that point it was no more than a mile to get home and I figured I could endure the squealing for a couple minutes more.

But about half-way home, as I slowed down for a stop sign, the squealing magically went away before I stopped. And it stayed gone for the remainder of my drive home.

So what the heck was that noise?? I'm quite sure I didn't run over something that would have got caught up in my car and I certainly didn't hear anything fall off the car as I approached that stop sign. Anyway, I made an appointment for first thing tomorrow morning with Honda to have them check it out. I suppose that if they can't reproduce the sound they aren't going to have much luck finding out what made it. But there is a recall issue that I was notified of recently, so maybe they can at least take care of that if they can't do anything about the noise that doesn't seem to be there anymore.

So this is where all the cars go...

...that get towed in New York City.

Yep, tonight I went into the city with Joe and Liana to go dancing at Frim Fram. It was a really fun time, at least until we arrived back where we parked the car. I guess we misunderstood some signs on 28th Street... would have been helpful if the curb was painted yellow but it wasn't. Plus there were a bunch of other cars that were parked illegally as well - I supposed they were all towed too.

Originally Tiffknee was going to catch a ride home with us, but because we had to deal with finding the car and getting it out of impound, she thought it would be quicker for her to get home if she took the Path train. I'm not sure what happened yet, but I guess she missed the train, and now that I'm home, I see that Kenji is now out, off to fetch Tiffknee from the city. D'oh!

UPDATE: Turns out Tiffknee was at least able to make it back to Newark Penn Station, which is good. I'm glad Kenji didn't have to go all the way into the city. :)

Domo-kun says: Have two birthdays!

Kenji gave me this fun Domo-kun calendar for Christmas. This afternoon I looked at it because I needed to know next Tuesday's date. That's when I noticed that I have two birthdays this year. :)

More spinny stuff

So we went to that spinning class on Tuesday... then on Friday, Kenji and I tried out one of the new Expresso Fitness bikes. It's a stationary bike that has a screen attached to it that you can go on virtual bike rides. I found it entertaining because I could aim at other riders on the screen and run them over. Well, they just disappeared when I hit them... it's not like I could see them all fallen down on the ground or something. But it gave me purpose in my riding, and that made the cycling more enjoyable. :) Still I was only good for about ten minutes before I went to go walk on a treadmill instead.

Kenji played some of the other games on the bike. In one of the games he played, he collected different colored coins. Each time he found a coin, he then had to go kill the dragon of the same color. Cute! Maybe I will play that game the next time.

Spinny spinny spinny

This evening was another first for Kenji and me - we took a spinning class. Not the kind where they teach you how to make yarn. The spinning class was at the JCC fitness center, and it was in a cool, dark room full of stationary bikes, and we rode those bikes harder than I ever rode a bike before, and it was only for 45 minutes. Of course I've ridden a bike for much longer than 45 minutes. But going for a bike ride, I get to take breaks, like when going down hill, and I certainly don't push myself as hard as Howie the spinning instructor pushed us (and I'm pretty sure he went easy on us since this was the first spinning class we ever took). Twenty minutes into it I felt like I was crying but really it was just sweat running down my face. Anyway my legs hurt now, but I guess it's good for me. Kenji says he's all sore too. The End.

Seahawks Lose

To follow up on last week's Seahawks post...

Kenji says, "Another disappointing Mariners season starts tonight!"

Moar cheezburger fun...

Teh kittehz still want you to vote 4 dem...


moar funny pictures

Vote for Spammy & Musubi!

Spammy and Musubi want this picture to be on the I Can Has Cheezburger? homepage. Click on their picture here so you can vote for them. To vote for them just click on one of the little cheeseburgers that are sitting on top of Spammy and Musubi's picture.


moar funny pictures

kthxbai!

Kenji is a Turkey

The proof is in the picture:
Yep, so anyway today Kenji, Tiff and I went bowling at Roselle Lanes. It was fun because for a while we were the only ones there. A bit Twilight Zone-ish really.

Woo check out that form! And all the other empty lanes!

More proof of Kenji's turkey. Notice where in the 5th and 6th frames, Kenji, Tiffknee and I all got strikes in a row. That's because the lane got screwed up and wouldn't put pins back down on the lane at the end of Kenji's 5th turn. By the time the bowling alley folks fixed it, all three of us had strikes (because the system sensed that there were no pins left behind after the reset). Well we decided to keep our free strikes, and I'm glad I did since without it I probably wouldn't have made my usual goal of getting to 100 by the end of the game.


Oh, also notice that in the far left column of the scoreboard, our initials are Mr. T. Tee-hee-hee!

Seahawks Win

Note the little green gloves. Oh and the score - Redskins 14, Seahawks 35.

If the Redskins ever decided to move to the state of Washington, they wouldn't even need to change their name. Heh.

Chop-head

I intentionally lost this hangman game because I wanted to see what would happen to the little orange guy. The guillotine blade dropped down and chopped his head off! Eek!

Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!

Happy 2008! Once again we welcomed in the new year at our friend Kevin's apartment. We ate all kinds of yummy food, talked, played Dutch Blitz, and watched ancient Dick Clark on the TV. Even through all the makeup, that guy is finally showing his age. It must be about ten years since the last time I watched him on New Years Eve because I don't remember him seeming so old - I guess he's doing pretty well though for all the strokes he's had.

When we got home we found a bunch of Au Bon Pain napkins and and red ribbon on our kitchen floor. It didn't occur to me till after I cleaned it up that the mess was the kitties having their own little New Years celebration, throwing confetti and streamers around the kitchen when the clock struck twelve. Good kitties!

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. :)