Kokochi

Mocha

Barak brought his dog, Mocha, to work. Everyone is smiling and playing with her now.

Cheu

Dav's old housemate, Cheu, is originally from Singapore, and now lives in Brazil. She moved there like me - to live with a love. She flew into SF for 2 days from Singapore on her way back to Brazil after a visit home. We went out for Brazilian butt-shaking music. There were some great dancers, but I swear, their feet moved a mile a minute. I felt like I should oil my hip joints to get more movement. How do they do that?

I love this picture of Cheu and Dav.

Happy Girls' Day

I almost forgot! I had a set like this (well, not that elaborate) and remember playing with the decorations. So much detail, it was better than any doll set you could dream of. Yeah, the Japanese aristocrats had crazy notions about beauty back then. Wanna hang around wearing this? They spent all their time writing poetry with just the right symbolism, on just the right paper that matched the season and was scented by perfect perfume, and with their hyper practiced calligraphy skills. Back then, your writing reflected who you were. They focused so much on beauty that the starving common people finally revolted. Read about the Heian period and The Tale of Genji to get a sense of how self-focused the aristocrats were!

I have the right to vote

I will never forget the fact that being able to vote is a relatively recent privilege, and considering what's going on in the world, I deeply appreciate this right. I will walk barefoot through snow to vote. But that's why I live in sunny CA.

My voting place is in the neighborhood elementary school. In the hallway, kids were learning the letter P and painted various People figures. One was a cute purple dog though.

Sunday evening music

Quicktime 6.5 Movie (.3gp) Download free player.	Quicktime 6.5 Movie (.3gp) Download free player.
Quicktime 6.5 Movie (.3gp) Download free player.	Quicktime 6.5 Movie (.3gp) Download free player.

Last night Dav and I went out to see some bands play. My friend Mieko (with whom I used to work, was in Tokyo while I was living there, and is back in SF now) is really into music and I love her taste. If she recommends a show, I go.

Dav posted about this so I'll let that describe the music and just add my phone videos here. I wish they were better quality ... that theremin instrument was wild, beautiful, and eerie all rolled together ... the "sex kitten" Dav mentions was amazingly seductive in her puffy white opera wig of curls, exaggerated long pearl necklace, and tight dress with peeking cuts and random words stuck on the back. She convinced me that she was serious when she moaned, "L.A......freeeeeeeewaaaaaay." The pictures of her here show her during the 2nd half of the show when she came out fully covered in gold, with her hair sticking up in 5 directions, twirling pink glittery nun-chuks.

And yes, when we got to finally hear Tussle live, that was cool. I don't know how to describe them, but they are totally worth it. They really play well together.

Very fun night!

the joy of living with cats

Transcription by Dav:
[Drawing of Mie laying in bed with a cat on her legs and a cat on her head] "Princess Wakame sleeping on my legs" "King Katsuo sleeping on my pillow before he then sat on my head!" and "one pillow against wall and one pillow for my head."

I love having the cats sleep with us. To be encircled by Dav, Wakame and Katsuo, all warm and snuggly, is so comforting. I can reach out and feel a familiar heart-beating ball of fur, have a random paw reach out towards my face, and hear the occasional meow if my leg bumps into one of them.

But it's getting a little out of control recently. Dav and I are getting squished. Sometimes, we'll find both cats blissfully sleeping on or between us, and when they're fast asleep, it's like having a bag of rice on you. If I want to roll towards Dav for a hug, I have to maneuver around these heavy loads, untangle myself so not to disturb them too much.

At least Wakame stays on the bottom half of the bed. But Katsuo has taken a liking to my pillow. I have 2 pillows; one up against the wall and one for my sleeping head. He usually settles on the pillow against the wall. I can feel him lean against my head, but if I nudge back, I can usually get him to keep his body above and away from my head. However, if he shifts during the night and turns a bit, his whole weight can come crashing down on my head. Like last night. I awoke in the middle of the night because Katsuo was literally trying to sit ON my face! I love 'em, but Dav and I don't have much space left to ourselves!

Marcus the Artist

Transcription by Dav:
Black Dawg 02-24-04 Year o' No Lords
[punk rock kayaker in a sea of blood]

Marcus was fascinated by my digital pen and tested it out. Thank you, Marcus!

To top it off

As if we're not full enough, we go and have ice cream at Mitchell's. Yeah, it's good but whew! It's Mardi Gras though and lent starts tomorrow for some so tonight is the night to enjoy :)

Dav's Family

Transcription by Anonymous:
Having dinner with Dav and his super extended bio-family. Some I've met & lots of new faces. His grandmother is so sweet and cool - she has 22 grandchildren, 26 g r e a t grandchildren, and 3 g r e a t g r e a t grandchildren! And Marcus, Dav's half-bro, announced he's engaged. Yeah [heart * heart * shine]
Very cool to see all this. We are all stuffed!

And the last drawing is by Marcus...the one who made the funny face. He creates posters for bands. Really cool drawings. This one is part of a larger poster announcing his B-day bash and has a drawing of himself.

Sheila

I forgot to buy my kitties' favorite 'wet' food today. Our schedule is that in the evening, they each get a spoonful of canned cat food. It's their highlight of the day. Dav usually serves them this wonderful treat before I get home and they love him for that. But I came home today and no food! So the cats were waiting, and Dav, swinging a Google yoyo we picked up the other day, reminded me that he had nothin' to give my wide-eyed hopeful kitties. So I kissed Dav and ran out to get some 'wet' food.

Down the street is a great corner store. I bought a zucchini from them one day and they threw in a cucumber for me. Real neighborhood spot. I ran in and bumped into a guy, obviously on his way home from work, with a big bag of kitty litter. I smiled as I looked for kitty food.

The owner chuckled as I made my purchase saying, "we're all so busy for our pets." The owner sympathisizes cuz he has Sheila. She sits outside ALL day long, mostly in a comforting box. She's very old and hobbles. But everyone loves her.

As I petted Sheila good-bye, I remembered when my housemate Kunal once asked for directions and after I described the route, he said, "oh, turn by the M&M store." That is the official name of the store (evidenced by a big painted sign on the front), but I didn't recognize it. I asked Kunal, "you mean where Sheila is?" Of course he was like whaaaa???

See, I noticed Sheila from the very beginning and she became that corner in my mind. I had never bothered to register the name M&M after that.