Kokochi

Medicine Eat Station Restaurant

Dav IM'd me today proposing to eat lunch here. I couldn't go until 2pm so I was starving, but it was totally worth it. Dav picked me up with his motorcycle and off we went, pregnant belly and all.

I was pleasantly surprised. Right downtown, in a beautifully designed space with minimalist decor, we had delicious and healthy Japanese shojin food. Honestly, I could imagine we were in some hip Omotesando cafe in Tokyo. Since it was quite late, it was empty but huge, so I imagine they get a bustling lunch/dinner crowd.

Dav had curry udon that came with pickles and a tofu side. I had a yam croquette, veges in a sesame sauce, and vege rolls with seki-han rice. I ordered nice soba-cha too (buckwheat tea). For dessert, Dav had a perfect coconut jelly dish, and I had my favorite matcha shaved ice with adzuki beans. We're definitely going back!

Ian, Izumi, Tyler, and Julia

Now that Ian and I no longer work together, it's been a while since we've hung out. So they came over for dinner on Saturday. This was also to give Izumi a break from having to cook in their living room in a make-shift kitchen as they are remodeling their kitchen.

As always, it's refreshing and tons of fun to interact with the kids. We put on a few xbox games and they giggled like crazies watching how badly they drove in the car-racing games, or how cute their characters were in a lego-themed star wars game we have.

After dinner, we played Mille Bournes, an old time favorite of Ian's and mine. But somehow the game progressed very slowly (we were all stuck with no gas, a flat tire, no green light etc. forever), and the kids quickly got bored. Us adults played dutifully, hoping a winner would put us out of our misery. But it was a good time, sitting around the table as family, just shooting this shit.

A Salon

Our friends Brian and Tameeza started a Salon tradition, and we attended the 2nd on Friday. About 30 people gathered, nibbled, sipped, and socialized until the bell rang, and we all piled into the living room. The question we all took turns answering was, "what would you do if you knew you couldn't fail."

People interpreted this in different ways, as in what would one do in this current life that we don't do because we're afraid of failing, or what would one do if one could do anything, like create a gene that would make all humans shift their "racial" types every 2 years (Dav's idea). Or give everyone the ability to do lucid dreaming.

I had 2: become the mayor of a small conservative town somewhere and introduce a Burning Man type lifestyle. Assuming I wouldn't fail at this, I'd be most interested in how this process is achieved, i.e. what the change process and struggles would be in people's philosophical, religious, and deep personal beliefs.

My 2nd choice was to become a world-renowned cheese expert, and create my own cheese. By the end of the evening, my nickname became Mayor du Fromage, and Dav adopted Bullshit Sheriff - after a heated discussion where he called out someone's bullshit. So now Dav and I want to create personas (and matching outfits) to walk around the playa as Mayor du Fromage and her Bullshit Sheriff.

Nice eggs!

Bought these organic and free-range eggs at Rainbow. Very colorful - 2 were green!

My dear Mieko 行ってらしゃい！

If you've been following my blog, especially from the Tokyo Tidbits days, you know about Mieko. We used to work together before the word "blog" even existed. When I moved back to Tokyo in 2001 for a few years, I was super lucky that she was back too from SF for about 6 months for visa reasons. Triple lucky that Noriko (we all used to work together) was also back for a year for visa reasons. And the three of us together had soooo much fun in Tokyo.

Anyhow, when I moved to SF in August 2003 to be with Dav, both Noriko and Mieko were back in SF. So we've had this really nice international coordinated moving of sorts. And at times we didn't see each other often, but just knowing we all lived in the same city was comforting.

Now, Mieko is going back to Japan...for various reasons that were building up and I totally understand. It's just time. I know we'll always stay in touch, but it is sad that this era of living close together will end. Next time I see her, Dav and I will be parents, which will make our spontanteous outings to see independent bands more difficult. Mieko is hugely into the music scene both here and in Tokyo, and has introduced me to very cool bands. I will miss her and all her music insights for sure. But I am happy for her new adventure and am sure this is right for her.

These pics are from last night at Bottom of the Hill, to see one of her favorite bands from NY, Mice Parade.

Acme Chophouse

Yes, I'm really into food these days. Everything tastes so good! I've just started putting extra something on my thighs (and Dav says my butt is bigger already), so this pregnancy thing isn't just about the belly. Sigh. But I'm enjoying it now that it's more obvious I'm growing a little being versus carrying a beer belly.

Anyhow, last night was a delightful work-related dinner. We've had 4 of our Japanese 6A members working here for over a month, and since they are leaving tomorrow, we took them out for dinner. Lilia suggested Acme Chophouse and it was perfect in terms of offering a memorable meal that one would just not find in Tokyo.

To be honest, it's the kind of place I'd never go on my own, and would only eat such a type of meal once every 3 years or so. It's huge and meaty. Only one fish dish. We did family style so we got to share a variety of dishes. Two things: 1) the meat is organic top quality meat and absolutely delicious, and 2) my body can tolerate only so much meat!

We all had a good time, and I think our Japanese team got all proteined-up for their trip home! Sekimura-san got some good pics here. Clearly, both of us started our picture taking with our lobster bisque soup :)

mangosteen

Decided to go out for dinner, but wanted somewhere new, so we drove to Tenderloin to randomly try a place. We choose mangosteen at 601 Larkin, and it was excellent Vietnamese food!

We started off with some sort of "blue" tea that came in the tiniest of tea cups. Then we had sweet & sour soup that was perfectly spicy, kept steaming hot with its own little table fire. The tea's flavor was doubled when contrasted to the soup. In addition to fresh imperial rolls, we had an elegant lemongrass tofu dish. I highly recommend this find. They have a beautiful card too (last pic).

It's cash only though so come prepared.

Graceopenheart

Helen, a campalician fellow member, came to visit SF from Colorado. She was here while Dav and I were in Colorado! But we managed to get one meal in together, which I cherished. We haven't had much time together, but connected when I was trying to organize last year's Campalicious. Helen swooped in, made my excel sheets look nice, and kept my sanity. Later, we began exchanging emails, and I've admired her courage on her blog to discuss her inner most thoughts and feelings. I tend not to do that, but really enjoy learning so much through her.

Finally getting some face-to-face time to catch up was perfect. Looking forward to a deepening relationship. : )

Copper Mountain

	Click to see video.

After staying at Keystone, we headed to Copper Mountain, another resort that apparently the locals like to use. We stayed in a gorgeous condo that was right smack in the middle of the resort village. This was also arranged by Colorado Ski Country just like our Keystone stay.

Others continued to ski or snowboard, but in the late afternoon, we all met up for snow tubing. My gosh, that was fun! I started with the slower trail, screaming my way down, afraid I'd crash and hurt my belly. But as I realized there really was no way I'd turn over, since the slopes are carefully built, I ventured onto more. Dav and I held on to each other's tubes, got a spinning start by one of the operator dudes, and went flying down. It felt like a roller coaster and Dav laughed his head off watching me scream my lungs out. I highly recommend it!

Later, we all met for an aprs ski drink, and I enjoyed a virgin cosmo. At dinner, we found the cutest dog decked out in doggy booties, waiting for his master. Up to then, weather had been quite nice, but by dinner, it got down to -8, rare for CO, and very cold indeed.

The last pics are of our condo. There was a photo frame on the fire mantle with a couple in front of a mountain. I guess this was to make the condo feel homey. Dav promptly left his mark by drawing in a cute dinosaur popping up in the mountains (it's hard to see, but it's there to the right of the white square glare on the picture close-up).

Overall, it was another fantastic stay. However, the altitude did catch up with me, no matter how much water I drank. The last night I didn't sleep well, had to put on a humidifier, and still woke several times dehydrated. By morning, I was exhausted. We had to wake early to get our shuttle back to Denver airport, and I was completely out of it.

Then when we got to Denver, our flight to SF was cancelled, so we had to be rerouted to Oakland. Luckily, everyone else was heading that way to attend the Tech Crunch Naked Conversations launch party, and Buzz kindly drove us all the way from Oakland to SFO so we could pick up our car. I wanted to go to the party, but was pretty much in bed from 5pm until the next morning!

I've known Buzz via Active Words, but on this trip got to know a lot more about him and all his amazing personal stories. We discovered that the house in Parenthood with Steve Martin was Buzz's! Dav and I promptly rented it last night to see his house. It was actually a touching movie and I got all teary-eyed by the end (yes, I definitely am more teary-eyed than normal and try to hide it it's so embarrassing).

Snowmobiling

Click to see video.

Yep. Being pregnant, you'd wonder why I came to this skiing/snowboarding heaven. For sure, Dav is snowboarding to his heart's content and loving it. When I was in the gondola, looking at the nice smooth slopes that were totally not crowded, I wished I could get a few runs in too.

But I went snowmobiling instead! I had no idea what to expect, and am more of the quiet sports type (sailing, hiking, bicycling) (that is, when I rarely actually do sports), so I thought I'd not enjoy the obnoxious motor sound. Indeed, the noise was obnoxious, and I felt bad for all the animals we must have disturbed. Plus the gas stank.

However, I have to say it was a fantastic experience. We drove out into the country, and went on some beautiful trails. There were 6 total in our group. However, me and Scoble's wife Maryam drove much slower than the others, and we were left behind. So for the most part, I had no one in front of me, and I could pretend I was alone. Don't worry, we had a great guide who would wait for us at every turn, and even served us all hot chocolate mid-trip.

Most memorable? Since I'm pregnant AND I've been drinking a lot because of the altitude, I had to pee...in the middle of the snowy mountain. I had so many layers to peel off, and then my poor bare butt in the cold...I sure won't forget that!