bay.takoyaki.org is down for a bit. I think some of the permissions got messed up and I am working with a tech to figure out how to fix it. Sorry! Actually, I think that instead of using a sub-domain for the site, I am just going to create a new blog page, and since we are expecting our second child, I want to combine the blog for both of them (can’t have bay.takoyaki.org for both!) It will take a while to figure out how to restore the bay.takoyaki.org mySQL database into the new blog, and I might just have to redo all the entries by hand. (ack)

Today we went to the Austin Zoo. It was a little on the cool side, but the animals seemed to be more active than in the summertime, when the weather is blazing. We saw lions, tigers, bears, leopards, a black panther, and huge turtles. The Austin Zoo is pretty good, considering the city is not too big.

Today we are eating turkey! I cooked an 11lb bird today and oyster stuffing. We are taking it to a friends house to add to the other great food that they are making. A couple changes this year for the bird: brining and an electric knife. I recommend both. I soaked the turkey in a brine solution (1 cup salt, 1 cup sugar, 2 gallons water) overnight. This kept the bird moist during roasting. And the electric knife made carving the turkey super easy. At least the breast meat. I used a regular knife to carve the dark meat.

Bay and I were watching Bear in the Big Blue House this morning, and there was a segment where they were singing and doing the limbo. I thought to myself, “The limbo is really cool, especially when you are a kid.” The I started thinking about other things that are neat when you are young, and I came up with:

• Caves
• Kites
• Riding bikes in the rain
• Flashlights
• Having a substitute teacher
• Sandcastles
• Watermelon
• Last day of school
• Frisbees

Today is kind of chilly (for Texas). It’s in the 50’s, and tonight it will drop to the 20’s! Tomorrow will be the same. So, tonight for dinner, we are having spicy Thai green curry. I can’t wait. Mariko is preparing it right now as I write this. I can see the coconut milk! Spicy curry with cold beer is so awesome.

While shopping around town today, we stopped at a new gift store that has lots of Japanese gifts like keychains, phone straps, stuffed toys, anime dvds, etc. It’s called Morning Glory Gifts and is located at 6929 Airport Blvd. #153 (the strip mall with the Korean market). They had a couple cool Afro-ken phone straps, and several Totoro plush toys. They even have a video viewing room in the back, sort of like a karaoke box. For an hourly fee, you can use their big-screen tv/entertainment center to watch dvd’s. I am sure we will be going back, as Bay really liked it.

Today we went to ride Thomas the Train. It was pretty fun for Bay.

I loved living in Japan. It was so much fun. Maybe the best thing I liked about living there was the great food! You just can’t get the same variety and quality here in Austin, not even close. (Although there’s no Chuy’s in Tokyo!!!) Now I am not talking about expensive gourmet restaurants, but the whole gamut. Here’s a few of the foods and drinks I miss:

• Mr. Donut curry pastry
• Nori-ben at Hokka Hokka Tei
• Shabu shabu at Moo Moo Paradise
• Yakiniku
• Fruits Calpis
• Karaage-kun at Lawson
• Sea-chicken onigiri
• Corn and mayonaisse pizza
• A big nama-biiru at a beer garden
• Ramen
• Freshness Burger
• Ten-don
• Kaiten-zushi
• Calpis Sour
• Nan-curry dog at Mos Burger
• Jaga-fries at First Kitchen
• Calzone at Cappriciosa
• Churasco in Aoyama
• Croquette burger at McDonald’s
• Yakitori

The front page headline graphics for CNN.com are often totally lame. Take this example. It’s like they have a program running where you enter in keywords, and it churns out a graphic for you. This one’s keywords were: Massachusetts; spotlight; same-sex; gay; ruling. Sheesh, even a stock photo would look better than that graphic.