Kokochi

Yum yum yum!

OK, I promise this will be that last post for long time about the wondeful food I'm eating, but again, tonight was fantastic.

When Kimi and I had our special day out, we went to one of my favorite restaurants, Baraka. I can't get enough of their warm pistachio goat cheese dish. Since then, Kimi has been experimenting, and one day called me saying she figured out how to create it. So when she asked what I wanted to eat tonight, besides anything that she cooks, I requested the goat cheese dish. It was soooo good. And so that I don't have to beg her to keep making it for me, she gave me the necessary ingredients with a beautiful handmade dish that is oven-proof, which is necessary. Now that's a personalized gift!

Then we had a giant paella full of seafood. And for dessert, Kimi made a matcha/chestnut poundcake and matcha ice cream (yes, she made the ice cream!). As you just read yesterday, I love matcha.

Thank you for your patience since I couldn't help but want to post about my good fortune. I shall calm down now. And thank you to all my wonderful friends for making this moment so incredible. Mwa!!!!

Full of Happiness...need i say more?

I'm a little lost at how to begin, because I had another amazing evening tonight. I feel like I'm in some Happy Movie that keeps going on and on.

Basically, I consider my B-day as just a day. It's nice to reflect on the passing of time, but I don't bother much otherwise. However, warm celebrations began from last weekend. Then last night, Elida cooked for me. And tonight Rachel and Cesar invited me over for dinner. I'm being spoiled and pampered!

And what a special evening tonight was because Kimi, Noriko, Mieko, and Manisha were there too...totally as a surprise. But get this: Rachel has never met Kimi, Noriko, and Mieko. Rachel emailed Dav, he told her about them, and she arranged this whole gathering. I can't begin to explain how thoughtful that is. You see, I have several circles of friends from Campalicious, Japan, and high school. I've been looking forward to having them overlap and meet each other. But tonight was the first night that this happened. It was very special for me to see everyone together tonight.

In addition, Rachel didn't just cook a dinner. First, there were my favorite kinds of cheese (oh, how I love cheese), and pink champagne that Kimi brought. Then we sat down to a delicate vegetable pie with Japanese flavorings that Rachel made; the top had my name and a heart baked onto it!. She also made scrumptious vegan chocolate cupcakes with matcha cream inside (she knows I love matcha) and a marzipan Totoro! Can you believe? I'm so sorry Dav is missing all this...

And I'm a bit bashful to say that tomorrow night, I'm invited to Kimi's for dinner too! Seriously, I didn't plan this, but I somehow finagled to have 3 great cooks offer to cook for me 3 nights in a row. I'm trying not to sound like I'm bragging, but I'm simply at awe of my luck!! Thanks, everyone!!

Stuffed buddies

I came home today and found the most pleasant surprise package from Raven. When I visited her in Portland recently, after I saw her fluffy stuffed animals, I shared with her how I had lost my beloved Charlie and Pierre when I moved from Tokyo. I had packed them in a box and the box never arrived. I've had both Charlie (big brown bear) and Pierre (small panda bear) since I was a kid. They were irreplaceable and losing them broke my heart. Luckily, I had blogged about their noses, so at least I have some record of them (last 2 pics).

Raven sent me "Charlie bear's cousin" whom I gladly welcome aboard. I can't believe Raven remembered and also understood how important Charlie and Pierre were. I need to figure out what this cousin's name is...Thank you, Raven!

By the way, Raven and I have the same B-day!

An AMAZING Evening!!

Elida came over and cooked for me tonight. And she cooks like no other! I am seriously beginning to appreciate Mexican cooking. Elida's work is nothing like what you find in restaurants which I've had a hard time getting used to. Tonight, she cooked Chile Rellenos...and from scratch, as usual. I had never tried them in restaurants since they always looked just covered in gook. Elida's were simply AMAZING!

She also brought some cake. And she and Ezra sang me the B-day song which made me blush like a petunia (the pink ones). How lucky can I get to have Elida come over and cook AT MY HOUSE for me? And, she made both Ezra and I belly-laugh for half an hour at some crazy stories she has.

Then we went to Bissap Baobab to top off the wonderful evening. Ezra joined us. And because it was my special day, and Elida was there to advocate for me, I got in free and I got a hibiscus martini on the house. That was pretty neat. Check out the eerily loooong arm in that one picture, especially the fingers. I giggled when I saw that. I think it's the night vision mode that elongated the guy's arm beyond the norm.

The dancing was super fun...but you know what absolutely made me jump like a little kid? Elida pointed out the one and only Matt Gonzalez there. As we left, we casually walked by him, but my heart jumped. I bashfully confided in Elida that I felt like a groupie and really wanted a picture with him. So she arranged that too. Elida is the coolest!

Tant pis for the gigantic shadow covering my face, making me look like a she-bear, but it is me between Matt Gonzalez and John West. I tried googling John West to no avail, but he's Green Party too, won a race recently, and IS a Green Party Mayor somewhere in New York State. Sorry I didn't catch the actual town. Isn't that cool??

the wait

Some of you may remember that even in the urban jungle of Tokyo, I trained and worked hard to enable my cats to go outside. And this was living on the 5th floor of an apartment complex with no gardens whatsoever.

My current living situation is a little better, but also similar. I live on the 3rd floor and there is a back door to a small garden through the garage on the ground level. I slowly had to train the cats again; at night, I open our front door, walk down to the garage, open the back door and let them out. Waka is still spooked by the various noises and now rarely ventures out, but Kats will whine at the door until I let him out and he'll run down ahead of me.

I leave both our front door and the garage back door ajar (thank you to my housemates who allow me to do this!!), and once the cats are home, I have to go down and close the garage door. I basically need to be waiting for them.

Most times, Kats stays out about an hour and comes back up. But every once in a while, something will perk his interest and he'll be away for 3 or even 4 hours.

Needless to say, I get worried. On the one hand, I'm happy for him to really spend time outdoors and explore all he wants. On the other hand, I can't wait to get him in my arms again. Every time, faithfully, he does come home and nudge me. I hug him immediately. I can't help but worry until he comes back, but the immense pleasure I have when I see him again is the reward.

Tonight Kats went out for a long time. I sat up waiting. Now he's back, and we'll all go to bed.

[my god, I am such a cat lady! At least Dav balances me out so I don't dedicate my whole life to them! Seriously, did you notice all the cat pictures I have by my desk in the previous post?? Click on the photo to see background details]

a tiny dare

During dinner last night, my 2 housemates made a dare that if I wore a certain t-shirt to work, I'd get a back massage. I wore a cardigan for most of the day, but always with enough open to show the "...uck li..." When I walked in this morning, Ginevra immediately recognized the shirt (being the super cool gal that she is). But I also had to wear my shirt, sans cardigan, during a meeting...which I did. No comments from anyone. Curious. Ezra did waltz into the meeting with a camera for evidence (2nd picture).

Now that it's near the end of the day, I'm a bit more comfortable so I had Ginevra take a pic of me. Can you read the t-shirt?

Corkscrew

For Christmas, Kimi (bless her heart for knowing me so well), gave me the best gift: a wine opener. Many people know that I'm horrible at opening wine bottles. I've been seen holding the bottle between my legs pulling and heaving at the cork. I've broken corks and had to give up on bottles...

But this 'machine' from Kimi is the most amazing no-fault, easy-does-it, corkscrew opener. I had my doubts, but it works so fine. I can open a bottle elegantly without holding my breath and pulling with all my might. In fact, Emerick caught me at dinner at home when I pulled out the cork with one (1) hand and was proud as can be!!

The set comes with a wrapper cutter and plugs for when we don't finish the wine. The perfect gift that is coming in handy indeed!

[ps. the shadows in the product photo are of Waka and Kats who were curious...]

Bunny Time!

There was the most fantastic bunny party last night. I can't believe I've never been before since it's been going on for several years. Went with Elida, Sean, and Emerick.

Elida came over beforehand with a bag full of accessories and we spent several hours debating what to wear, cutting out pink cloth, and sewing together our bunny outfits. At one point, since I'd never been before, I was worried if in fact the party was really about bunnies and whether we'd show up all decked out for nothing. But my gosh, we were tame compared to the amazing variety of costumes we saw! Every bunny had a personality and it was hilarious to see what people came up with. And what a fairy-tale of a theme; to have a huge warehouse of gorgeous bunnies, bunny bands, bunny fashion shows, bunny games, bunny food, etc. Totally worth it!!

Emerick decided to go last minute, so I had him put on an old pink hat I picked up a thrift store years ago. He looks good in anything!

Elida and me at home before leaving ... proud of our pretty last minute concoction of an outfit.

A poor crucified bunny, and a scary blue hunch back bunny.

Around midnight, Sean and Emerick were 'caught' by the bunny patrol because they didn't look bunny enough. They got dragged to the make-over area, were guarded so they couldn't run away, then placed in front of a gleeful make-up artist. They look real thrilled with their whiskers, no?

They had various musical shows for entertainment, and goodies on a table in a bunny bowl and a sheep bowl. All the details of the party planning were fantastic.

Bumped into Jason from work, which didn't surprise me. He had a tux and looked like a very swanky bunny.

	Click to see video.
Click to see video.	Click to see video.

The videos are hard to comprehend, but they are of a dance by Madame Bunny, a bunny band, and the main dance floor when giant plastic green balls were bounced around.

Emerick took pics with his high-quality digital camera so I'll get copies and post better pics later. :)

Family time!

Friday night, Ian invited me over to stay at his place. The plan was a slumber party, watch Tyler's little league skills in the morning, then a movie. Family time that can't be beat. As we were driving to Alameda where he lives Friday night, Izumi called to check where we were. I got the feeling the kids were tired, but hanging in there cuz they wanted to see daddy.

But when we got there, I walked in and the living room that was dark suddenly lit up, a video of Hello Kitty dancing to Happy Birthday came on, home-made decorations came into my view, and Izumi, Tyler, and Julia were jumping up and down. Ian began belting out Happy Birthday. What an awesome surprise! [It's actually a bit early, but I am so touched and happy!]

On the table, there was a cute paper cake that Tyler and Julia made. Tyler spelled my name and drew pictures of cats on it. Julia pasted on butterfly stickers. Wow, their memory: they obviously understand I love my kitties and Julia must have noted the blue butterfly I wore at the company Christmas party. As we chatted into the night, Julia dozed off on the sofa. So cute.

This morning, we watched the little league team. It was really nice to see all the parents out and dads playing catch with their tiny 5 year olds. It was pretty hilarious to watch since the kids didn't quite get what was going on. Ian and I caught 2 basemen discussing bumble bees even as someone was batting. One time, a runner went after to catch a ball instead of running. It is a confusing game to learn!

Then we watched Robot at a fantastic local Alameda theater that is in a converted old church. There are sofas galore and was a very warm neighborhood place. The guy who sold our tickets, got our popcorn and ran the film was one guy! I'll have to get you the name of it later.

Now I'm off to preparing for the bunny party tonight ;)

Neat Adaptive Path party

Joined fellow Six Aparters at Adaptive Path's 4th anniversary party. Right around the block from our office, a taco truck serving yummy free food, and an open bar. That's a party to go to, I say! Nice to see my brother there too mingling and enjoying himself. No need for real name tags, so the Adaptive Path folks gave out creative ones.

I'm quite proud of the last photo. Can you tell who he is? He *is* part of the solution!