Tonight we went to a friend’s house to eat sushi and relax. It was really tasty! There was a big bowl of sushi rice, lots of nori, and some good “fixin’s”: unagi, salmon, saba, maguro, ebi, cucumber, avocado, and shiso. We ate so much, and had a really good time.

We decided to get a new minivan and decided on a silver Honda Odyssey. This car is so great! It’s really going to be convenient, especially when we have family visiting us. With two kids, the Pathfinder just didn’t have enough seating! The Odyssey is wonderful: lots of room, lots of power, smooth riding and comfortable. It also has dual power sliding rear doors. We wished it had a power lift-gate like the Sienna, but it is still really easy to open.

Honda is introducing a new design for the Odyssey in ’05, but I saw some of the early photos of the interior, and wasn’t too thrilled. It looked a lot like the Nissan Quest interior, which I was crazy about when I first saw it, but was not so crazy about when I actually had a Nissan salesman give me the grand tour. It was complicated and I didn’t like the amber/orange instrument lights. The Odyssey, in contrast, was simple and straightforward. I like the Sienna interior too, but the Sienna was a little more expensive than the Odyssey. The speakers in the Odyssey were a little weak, so I replaced them with a pair of Infinity’s and they sound really nice. The only problem with the Odyssey is that I don’t get to drive it every day! 🙁

Tonight we are having a couple friends over for sukiyaki. I went to the market yesterday and ordered a couple lbs. of ribeye steak to be sliced really thin. What they do is take the steaks, then freeze them and cut them with the band saw. They said that doing this is the best way because you can cut super-thin (about the width of the blade) and you have almost no waste. I can’t wait to enjoy the sukiyaki accompanied by ice-cold beer tonight.

I get in to work today to find an email proclaiming, “Round Rock Donuts in the kitchen. Enjoy!” So now I am enjoying two of their delicious yellow donuts. Krispy Kremes are yummy too, but it’s nice to eat a donut that is made locally (at a bakery, no less) and every bit as tasty as the donuts that the Krispy Kreme juggernaut produces.

Today I went to my friend Lana’s Birthday party. She turned three years old! We had lots of fun and ate yummy cake too.

We bought the Samsung e105 from the T-Mobile store and Mariko has been busy entering her phone numbers. It’s a pretty amazing phone, with flashing lights, amazing ringtones, and it is super-light and compact. We are going to use it as our “home” phone as well as Mariko’s keitai. To all our friends: if you are blocking your caller ID from your phone, don’t expect us to pick up. 🙂 Leave a message on the voicemail and we will call back.

By getting rid of our SBC land-line, we are going to be saving tons of money! 🙂

Thunderstorms, tornado warnings and temps in the 70’s today. Gotta love Texas weather!

Got an instant message on my phone… my first baseball score of the season. Although it is only preseason, it’s great to see a Dodger victory! We’ll take anything we can get. Hehe

[pic via si.com>