Appetizer
When you were a child, which crayon color was your favorite?

I liked blue, but it was the bluish-green one. Maybe it was called Turquoise.

Soup
On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being highest), how likely would you be to change jobs if it required you to move?

2. We are pretty much set up where we are until the kids are grown.

Salad
Take all the numbers in your birthday and your phone number and add them up, one by one. What’s the total?

70

Main Course
Have you ever “re-gifted” anything? If so, what was it and who did you pass it on to?

Nope

Dessert
Name something you need from the store.

Milk

As I was running on the treadmill at the Y the other night, I watched the Pistons play the Magic the on TNT. Bill Walton was part of the team calling the game. It occurred to me that a drinking game could be made from the telecast. Every time Walton uses the word “Premiere”, everyone takes a drink. Guaranteed to get everyone plastered. “He’s the premiere player in the East.” “The Palace, the premiere venue in basketball.” etc etc. I still think Walton is pretty entertaining to listen to, though.

This Cuisinart is one of the best tools we have in our kitchen. Mariko uses it quite a bit for lots of different things, but for me, just the fact that I can grate a pound of cheese in about 5 seconds is reason enough to own it! I also use it to puree my ancho chiles for homemade chili, although I sometimes use our hand mixer. I totally recommend a cuisinart for your home!

5 miles at the Y.

What a weekend! Let’s see, where do I begin. I guess I will just go in chronological order. Friday was a holiday for Bay, Koa, and I, so we relaxed in the morning at home. I started cleaning the house in preparation for Sunday’s Easter egg hunt and birthday party for Koa. Oh, and we sold a dining table on craigslist. The Vietnamese woman who bought it was nice, but when I was putting the table in her mini-van, she says, “I have chickens in the van.” WTH? Sure enough, in the front seat was a big cardboard box, and I could hear scratching sounds from in there. Apparently she was going to cook em up or something. Anyways, she we exchanged the table and cash, and she went on her way. That afternoon, we met Mariko near her work and took some photos at a bluebonnet field that she had found. There were so many! It was fun, but Bay and I each got a fire ant bite. I suppose it could have been worse! After taking the photos, we went to IKEA to buy a bookshelf, which I built that evening.

Appetizer
When you travel, which mode of transportation do you prefer?

I like traveling by train the best.

Soup
Have you ever met a blogging friend in person?

Not a blogging friend, but an IRC friend. We’ve known eachother for about 12 years now!

Salad
When was the last time you were really, really tired?

Last week I nodded off at the dinner table while Koa was eating.

Main Course
If you could have dinner with any one fictional character from a book or movie, who would it be?

I think dinner with Vizzini (morons!) from Princess Bride would be funny.

Dessert
Fill in the blank: One day, I hope to see _______________.

My grandkids playing with my parents.

I was enjoying Hana Yori Dango 2 quite a bit, but the ending was just too bizarre!

*Spoiler alert*

The part where Domyouji loses his memory was so random and clichéd that I couldn’t get past it. It’s like the story was moving along, heading towards a nice, simple conclusion, and this crazy thing just happens for no reason. But, I guess it’s to be expected, since the story is so wacky anyways. After the memory loss, another hot girl (Umi, played by Erika Toda) throws herself at Domyouji, and he ends up refusing her, just like how he refused Shigeru, who I consider a definite “trade up” to Tsukushi. That’s fine, though, because Umi is a crazy woman who you just have to hate. She serves as a vehicle for getting Domyouji and Tsukushi together again, this time at some snow lodge, where Tsukushi almost dies, but is rescued by Domyouji. He then recovers his memory, and it is smooth sailing the rest of the way. The ending where Domyouji proposes was over-the-top just like the rest of the series and everything wraps up nicely: Nishida gets his job back, the family business is saved (indirectly by Tsukushi) and the Domyouji mother finally comes around and gives in to Tsukushi and little Domyouji. All very nice and tidy.

I’d have to say the best parts of the show were when we find out that Domyouji was actually relieved that Ken was alive and showed genuine concern over him, rather than being angry that he was tricked (which was a big surprise), and then in Episode 7 when Soujiro saw the two building signs with Yuuki and realized that he made a huge mistake by not going for the girl that he was in love with. In fact, that was the single best part of the drama. I am sorta glad that this dorama is over, though. It went on a little long, and I was losing interest towards the end. I think I prefer more realistic dorama, where the plot isn’t so far out there. Another Kekkon Dekinai Otoko would be awesome! Still, Hanadan2 was enjoyable, and the theme song by Utada Hikaru is great.

Here’s a run-down of the notable girls in Hana Yori Dango 2, in case you are interested:

Tsukushi “The Tough Weed” Makino (Inoue Mao)

Yuuki “Second Fiddle” Matsuoka (Nishihara Aki)

Shigeru “Trade Up” Okawahara (Kato Natsuki)

Umi “Psycho Bitch” Nakashima (Toda Erika)

Shigeru again because, well, just because.

Today I picked up an immaculate iBook from my friend Mikey. It’s an older G3 model, but is in perfect condition, and I am enjoying it so far. I set up the mail program to talk to my IMAP accts, installed my IM apps and set up Firefox with Google Browser Sync. My last Mac that I had was a pain in the butt (an original bondi blue iMac), but I am expecting this iBook to be worlds better in terms of stability and fun. One thing it cannot do is play back my dorama. It has trouble just keeping up with the video, even if the file is local. But, that’s ok because I can still listen to MLB Gameday Audio and my iTunes library without a hiccup! Plus this laptop is soooo quiet!