Ok, so it’s not the regular season, but the first Dodgers spring training game will be on March 2nd against the Marlins. And of course, the regular season will begin with a battle by the bay: Dodgers at Giants, on April 5th. In July, the “Big Blue Wrecking Crew” will be in Houston to play the Astros. My friend Ryan and I might try to go to one of those games. I haven’t been to Minute Maid Park, but I hear it is pretty awesome.

While I was reading The Da Vinci Code, I kept thinking about who I would cast in the movie version of the book. For Langdon, I imagined that Kevin Spacey would be good. And for Sophie Neveu, I imagined Sophie Marceau. Now I hear there is a chance that she might actually get the part. Another actress reported to be in line for the part in Julie Delpy. I like her too, but she seems a little too soft for this role. As a side note, when I looked up Sophie Marceau’s name in IMDB, I learned that she was in one of my favorite movies, “‘Round Midnight”, as “(uncredited) …. Girl on street, finds Dexter Gordon slumped over car (non-speaking)”. But yes, that is her for sure. I thought she was great in the James Bond film, “The World is Not Enough”, too. Oh, Robert Langdon will be played by Tom Hanks… bummer. I always think of Kip from “Bosom Buddies” whenever I see Hanks.

I found two long white hairs on my head today. I don’t know why I didn’t see them sooner. Does a hair just decide to turn white one day, and then instantly changes from black to white? My hair is not that short either, these particular strands were about 2.5 inches long. Weird.

Here in Cental Texas, we have about two good weeks of great weather a year. That’s all subjective, of course, but to me, it’s either hot as Hell here, or too damn cold to enjoy the outdoors. Many people say that Austin has great weather, and I guess if you grew up in Iceland, it does. But to this So. Cal. native, I must say, the weather here leaves much to be desired.

However, we are experiencing a weather fluke in Austin these past few days. It has been gorgeous outside! Sunny and in the mid 70’s. Plus, the mosquitos are hibernating, so it’s safe to be out and about!!! Yesterday, Bay and I went for a walk around the neighborhood in the morning, and it was so nice. A bit windy, but warm and clear. The Freescale Marathon was yesterday too, and I suppose it was really nice for the runners and spectators. Looking at my weather bar at the bottom of my browser, I can see that tomorrow is going to be nice too! I wish I had the day off from work.

I love Underwood liverwurst. I have been enjoying it since I was a kid, usually spreading it across buttered bread. It’s funny, but my Mom is the only one in my family that likes it too. We both love sardines too. Anyways, after Mariko and I moved to Texas, we couldn’t find it in the stores here. They still carried Underwood deviled ham and beef, but no liverwurst. They still sold the liverwurst in California for a while, so we would pick up a couple cans when we visited there. But in the past year or so, they stopped selling it in the supermarkets there, too. I have been craving it for some time now, and found a place that sells it online. I am going to order a case, and probably split it with my Mom.

While searching for it online, I found some interesting facts about Underwood. You know, they have the coolest logo, but you have to check out the older Devil logo. So evil! Click on “read more” below to read a fabulous quote from the Underwood website:

A while ago, our man in Osaka sent some super-secret videos of some takoyaki-making. I have decided to release them to the public. Press release to follow…

Seriously, my friend Matt shot some footage of a cook at a takoyaki stall in Osaka. Here you can see the skill required to make these delectable little snacks. Actually, their size is deceptive: they fill you up quite quickly. If you have never tried takoyaki before, you are really missing out. Maybe I can coax Mariko into breaking out the takoyaki pan this weekend… Anyways, without further ado, I present the five sacred videos (.avi format):

[url=/media/video/tako1.avi>Takoyaki part one (7.8MB) Putting the pieces of tako (octopus) into the batter.
[url=/media/video/tako2.avi>Takoyaki part two (2.8MB) Putting ten-kasu (tempura crumbs) into the takoyaki.
[url=/media/video/tako3.avi>Takoyaki part three (8.4MB) Packing some of the finished takoyaki into containers/Turning the takoyaki over to ensure even cooking. (the difficult part, in my opinion) .
[url=/media/video/tako4.avi>Takoyaki part four (7.9 MB) More turning of the takoyaki.
[url=/media/video/tako5.avi>Takoyaki part five (3.9MB) And even more turning of the takoyaki. If you’re not salivating by the time you reach this video, please check your pulse.

[videos © Copyright 2004 Matt Melton>

Papa took these using his camera and new lights!

As part of our “clearing of the clutter” in the house, I decided to remove all of our music cd’s and covers/liner notes from their cases, and chuck the cases. We had about 10 cd storage boxes from The Container Store filled with cd’s, and they were taking up way too much space in one of our closets. It took a couple hours, but now all of our cd’s fit in two cases. I filled up two huge bags (contractor-style from Costco) with the empty cases. I felt kind of bad throwing out lots of the cool cd artwork, especially the Japanese cd’s, which can be really cool (and expensive at $30 a pop), but I honestly never really looked at them often. Probably once, and that’s it. The Pizzicato Five cd’s were very very cool, though.

I am now in the process of ripping all the cd’s to mp3. My Lite-on drive in my computer is nice and fast, ripping at 16x at 160kbps with iTunes. I love it. After I rip our entire cd collection, I will back up the mp3’s to dvd-r’s. How nice to clean out the clutter!