Mariko, Bay and I are back in Austin after a week + in Los Angeles. It was nice to see my family again, and eat lots of good food as usual. We had lots of Japanese and Hawaiian eats, I think I must have gained at least five pounds. My mom is always feeding us, so I was pretty much stuffed the whole time I was there. I will update with some photos of the good food we ate when I download them from the camera.

When we came home yesterday, we were happy to see that the new laminate flooring that we ordered and had been keeping in the garage was almost completely installed! Our friends have a nice business set up doing mainly exterior work, but they were able to lay down the floor we ordered, and they did a great job! If you ever need any kind of exterior work done to your house, make sure to contact Austin Exteriors!.

Light rays coming through Iao Valley, Maui.

This morning Mariko, Rand, and I went to Van-Van to get haircuts. Van-Van is a Japanese style salon, which is something I miss. It was natsukashii to experience all that again: reading Japanese magazines (Spa!, Mono), getting a hot shampoo, the attention to detail, etc. It was fun.

For our 7th anniversary, Mariko and I went to a tempura restaurant and had some great food. We sat at the counter, and the chef served us little by little. Imagine a sushi bar, but with tempura instead of sushi. We ate shrimp, squid, vegetables, etc.

They give you three types of salt to try with it too, as well as the tempura sauce and daikon. We also shared a daikon and ikura salad which was yummy as well.

Today we flew to Los Angeles to spend our Xmas vacation with my family. We met my brother Kevin and his son Taylor at Azuma in Gardena and ate lots of great food. I had the tonkatsu and sashimi. Oishikatta!

We bought the “Olive, the Other Reindeer” dvd for Bay the other day and have been enjoying it. The animation and CG is really cool, a combination of 3D, but with a flat 2D style. The voices are good, with Drew Barrymore in the starring role, but the only problem is that her singing voice is not so good. I think they should have found someone else to sing the songs. There are some pretty funny jokes geared towards adults too. It was created by Matt Groening, of Simpsons and Life In Hell fame, and you can see some of the same style jokes.

I am not an Andy Pettitte fan (I’m a Dodgers fan, I don’t like the Yankees. boo Reggie), but I found it interesting that Pettitte will be playing for the Astros next year. I can only imagine him wearing pinstripes.

It’s kind of funny how you associate players with the teams and cities they play for, but your opinion of them changes when you find out where they grew up or were born. For instance, I was never interested in Nomar Garciaparra before a couple weeks ago when I found out he was born in Whittier and grew up in So. Cal. And I always liked Eddie Murray since he is an L.A. native. And I hated Reggie Miller when he played against the Lakers in the Finals a couple years ago, until I found out that he is a Riverside, CA native. At any rate, Andy Pettitte will be joining Houston, which is near to his home (Deer Park).