Kokochi

Santarchy 2005

This year is my third, and Dav's umpteenth time. Santarchy is Dav's FAVORITE event (well, 2nd to Burning Man). I think the utter chaos, silliness, and all out obnoxious celebration of Santa-ness, both naughty and nice, is what gets Dav.

Unfortunately, this year was a raining storm. So instead of a parade of hundreds of drunk Santas bar hopping, we got broken up into smaller groups, wandering from bar to bar looking for fellow Santas. Too much walking, in my opinion. I froze!

Extra cool was that Marcus, Dav's bro, joined for the first time as a punk Santa. Estrella came as Elvis Santa (she made the outfit from scratch, and was in my opinion, the best Santa this year), and we later met up with Sean, Lani, Ellen (as seen holding a dildo when a bunch of us Santas passed Good Vibrations and couldn't resist visiting), Manisha, and Supratim.

Of course, it wasn't until the evening that we finally met up with everyone (Santarchy started at noon-ish). We were sitting in Pilsner with about 20~30 Santas, when a Muni bus full of Santas stopped. As they flowed into the bar, we all cheered. Don't know our number then...but I'm sure it wasn't all the SF Santas...

Although freezing cold, it was another fun year! Dav has a flickr set with more pics.

Z-TRIP & RADAR

Last Friday we went to see Z-Trip & Radar play for Future Primitive's 10th Anniversary at Mighty. Man, was it crowded. Dav and I stood by a wooden pole, and because there was a garbage can right in front of us, we had a little breathing room between where we stood and the crowd. I don't know how anyone got dancing...it was definitely over capacity. They had large screens that showed the scratching action along with pretty cool video-cuts of weird and bizarre old clips. Met up with Todd and Heidi.

It's been a while since I've gone out, and I was delighted to have fun and stay out 'til 3am!

I love Cute!

Just have to share this site Dav sent me. Cute Overload. Get your daily cuteness!

Picure from cuteoverload.com

Legally, we will soon be...

So this name changing business is a lot more complicated than I thought. If I were changing my name to Dav's because of marrige, that's rather simple. But since we're both changing our names to something new, we have to post a notice for 4 weeks in the papers, and then appear in court before a judge. That will be exciting! I suppose if someone is vehemently against our changes, they can appear too and make a case.

If you don't know already, Dav and I are legally changing our last names to Yaginuma, my mother's maiden name. I have 1 uncle only on my Japanese side who does not have children. So technically, the family name would end after my uncle. So Dav and I decided to take it on. We wanted the same last name, but he's not super attached to "Coleman," and taking Yaginuma is very meaningful to me and us. Plus, when we have kids, in case they don't get to live in Japan, at least they'll have this real connection to their Japanese side. And, it'll be fun to explain how their last names came about.

Legally, our Yaginuma name won't go in the Japanese 戸籍 Koseki (Family Registry System) since my mom married out of the family and was removed from the koseki. But no matter. We'll be living the name and it will continue for our family. I'm thankful my bewildered uncle accepted that we take the name.

So by February, we should officially be the Yaginumas. I'm already going by that, introducing myself as Mie Yaginuma. Still strange...And dad, I've always loved Kennedy, but this is a new chapter in my life, and Yaginuma fits perfectly.

Dav took advantage of this process to also change his middle name. So soon he can truthfully say, "My middle name is Impossible. Don't mess with me."

A ride in Golden Gate Park

Beautiful day.

Spur of the moment, we loaded the bikes and went to GG park.

Passed a guy who had swing dancing music blaring to which people stopped and danced.

Posed with a sphinx in the De Young Museum garden.

Stopped for lunch at an Indonesian restaurant.

Good Sunday, it was.

Saturday dinner

Random shots from a dinner at home. I made quiche, and documented the pie crust making stage, but entirely forgot to take a picture of the final result!

After dinner, Dav showed a hilarious video that I found on Gen's site. I loved seeing everyone's reactions as they watched it.

Later, Wakame joined us at the table. Both cats were quite sociable, actually. She kept meowing at Sean any time he stopped petting her.

A better dinner...

After being so disappointed with the eel the other night, and since we had a head of cabbage to eat, I decided to make croquettes.

So tonight we had croquettes filled with potatoes, peas, spinach, and mahi mahi. Raw cabbage with tonkatsu sauce. Brown rice with natto.

Yummy!

My walk to work

I've been walking to work lately. When it rains, or if I'm running late, Dav drives me or I take the bus. But I try to take advantage of the fact that it's a nice 30 minute walk. From the house, the views are gorgeous. Later, I cross the train tracks and pass by more funky buildings. Sometimes I listen to my iPod. Many times I just walk in silence. It's a great way to start the day!

Dav is the chosen one

The usual pattern of human/cat contact in our house has been the cats follow me around, and whenever I'm seated or in bed, they pile on. For sleeping, Waka generally situates herself on my legs, and Kats curls up perfectly between my side/armpit and arm (around him for extra close snuggling). If I'm asleep, he'll tap me on the shoulder so I can open my arm, let him in, then close the hug.

But lately, he's been getting a little heavy. So much that when he leans against me, it bothers me. And my arms falls asleep. So I've been less tolerant and a few times even nudged him off the bed.

A few nights ago, Dav was in bed and I went to brush my teeth. When I came back, I found Kats had switched sides. He was proudly snuggled up on Dav's side! He'd not done that before!

Waka is her usual finicky self. She moves about a lot. But while both Dav and I are sitting on the sofa reading, she's come up to Dav, walked right between him and his book, and settled in on his lap whether he objects or not. She's doing this more and more.

Perhaps it's the colder weather, but it's nice to see both of them warm up to Dav (literally).

Eel

Tonight's dinner: eel on brown rice, and sauteed spinach and collard greens with a gomae sauce. Veges were good, but the eel was fatty and of bad quality. What a bummer! :(