We are taking it easy today, having some good friends over for dinner. I am making some burgers on the grill, with a new recipe I got from a burger cookbook. Some of the ingredients are dijon mustard, shallots, and sake. It should be delicious. 🙂 The only problem is that it is in the high 90’s outside, so bbq’ing will be a little uncomfortable.

I sold my first photo today to someone here where I work. I had a 16″x20″ print made from a color slide, and it turned out pretty good! I think I will save the profit I made and put it towards the dSLR that I want! 🙂

I rode a pony for the first time today! -Bay

I finally have a laptop of my very own! It’s actually Mariko’s old laptop that, with some help from friends, has been brought back from the dead. It’s got a nice 12GB HD, 32 MB of memory, a Pentium II processor running at 266mhz, and a beautiful 800×600 display. Not only that, but it’s running the latest and greatest OS, Windows98. It’s actually not that bad…really.

My main motivation for getting this running is just to have a laptop that sits on my bedside table that I can use to connect to MLB Audio games, so I can listen to the Dodgers lose while I fall asleep. I couldn’t get my PocketPC to connect succesfully to the MLB streams, otherwise I would be using that. Besides the audio streaming, I guess I will use it for IM’ing, email, and web browsing. For the IM I will use Trillian/Yahoo!/ICQ, and I might use Opera to connect to my IMAP mail server. I really like the interface. I think that’s all I will load on it. Right now it boots up really fast, and I don’t want to slow it down by adding all the junk like RealAudio, Quicktime, etc. I don’t think this computer can handle all the good stuff anyways.

A mosquito bit me on the top of my right ear. I hate mosquitos. I wonder if that mosquito magnet” works. I saw it at Costco the other day for something like $250. One of our friends had a little electronic/ultrasonic device that is supposed to repel mosquitos. She got it from Japan. It’s small, about the size of a garage door opener. I need that. I’m willing to try anything because I hate mosquitos so much! Even more than fire ants. Arrrgh!

Here’s a couple tunes from Pizzicato Five’s “Great White Wonder ~ Rare Masters 1990-1996”, my favorite cd by them. I remember I bought this cd in October ’96 at a shop in Omotesando. I don’t know the name of the store, but I remember that they sold pianos and sheet music as well. It was about 7pm, and I took the Ginza Line from my work, towards Shibuya. I got off the train early, and took a walk around Ometesando, bought this cd, and just outside the store, sat down on a wall by the street and popped it in my cd player. It’s weird, but I can remember that just like it was yesterday.

This cd is so great. I recommend picking it up if you can. I remember listening to K*I*S*S on the Toyoko line going back home. The Tokyo FM jingles are pretty cool too. My two favorite songs are ƒLƒƒƒbƒgEƒEƒH[ƒN (Catwalk) (St. Etienne Remix) and Friend & Lover. (click on the title to take a listen) In October of 96 I traveled a few times from Tokyo to Osaka to see Mariko. I would always take a late shinkansen from Tokyo station to Osaka station and Umeda. Catwalk was always the perfect soundtrack for speeding out of Tokyo on the shinkansen and cruising through the night, the lights outside a blur. Lyrics and translations to both follow…

This morning I stayed at home to take care of Koa. I got to watch a little morning TV, which I never get a chance to do. I decided to watch a show on ESPN2 called Cold Pizza. It was ok. But then I started thinking about actual cold pizza. I am not sure what is so good about cold pizza. I hear people say, “I love cold pizza in the morning.” I don’t know about you, but isn’t hot pizza better than cold pizza? And how often do you not have a microwave near your fridge? I mean, nuke it for 30 seconds, for goodness sake. And even if you’d rather not do that, doesn’t the thought of eating all that oil and grease while it’s in its solid form make you kind of ill?

For some reason, this reminds me of something Adam Sandler once said. I think it was on SNL, and he had a commentary on the Weekend Update segment. He started rambling about how a sandwich is always better with lettuce on it. I totally agree! It adds so much: color, texture, moisture… And if you have an avocado handy, that is even better!

They seem to have the best winning percentage in the Majors right now. (.688) That is so bizarre… Go Blue!