Doctor's Visit

Went to see the doctor today. Yep, I'm still sick. But now, I'm armed with $50 worth of drugs.

Febreeze and Insect Repellent

Since summer camp one year back in high school, I knew that I couldn't use insect repellent. My first try was a bit traumatic. It started getting dark, the place was known to have mosquitos, so I pulled out my insect repellent that I got at the drug store.

I sprayed it on my right forearm and there was a burning like nothing I've ever felt. I panicked, ran around in circles for a couple of revolutions, realized that there was a bathroom just five feet away, and washed my arm under the sink with the cool, refreshing water. I deduced from the experience, that I'm an insect.

Just the other night, Alinna got her first bottle of Febreeze and went Febreeze-crazy. Now, though I've been sick, after she was done, I started coughing to no end. Yes, I'm an odor. It tried to eliminate me.

Feels Like Home

After nearly two years of living in our apartment, we now have wireless internet (courtesy of Dong's wifi hub) and a sofa (many thanks to John and Eddie for helping me move it in).

Slowly, our place is looking less like a college apartment. I had to grow up eventually I guess.

Summer School Update and My Transportation Adventures in LA

So, I'm in the fourth week of my five week intensive at the Pasadena campus of Fuller. I didn't have to use any strong arm tactics to force first or second year students out of the class. I just needed some good ol' flaky seminary students to not show up for the first few classes to make it in. Yahoo!

I've been flying into Burbank on Mondays and coming back home on Thursdays. The last few weeks have been pretty hectic so sorry to all in Southern California whom I haven't seen. This last week, I came back home on Thursday, spoke at a retreat from Friday to Sunday, drove back home late Sunday night, and flew out of San Jose on Monday to go back to Pasadena and take my midterm. Alinna's been great.

I thought that was it, but there was plenty more adventure left. I had a later than usual flight out of San Jose. 2:15PM. I knew it was going to be a little tight, but I figured, "An hour flight, get into Burbank at around 3:15PM, class doesn't start til 5PM so that gives me an hour and 45 minutes to get to Pasadena from Burbank using Metro. Yes, I may be the only Asian-American to have ever used public transportation in LA.

The flight was a little more than 45 minutes late. We take off a little past 3PM and I know I'm in trouble now. We arrive in the airport at 4PM. I run out to the bus stop which is a healthy distance away from the drop off station and wait there for maybe ten minutes. I'm really glad that the first bus that shows up is not only the bus I want to take but is also the rapid version of it (it skips over a number of stops). I make my one and only transfer in Los Feliz. It's 4:30PM. A bus is right there waiting, but I don't know if it's the bus I want to take. It's not time to go on an LA Metro expedition. I wait... for another 15 minutes. Again a rapid bus comes by but I'm looking at the clock and it's 4:45. At this point I know I'm going to be late, it's just a matter of how late I'm going to be.

The bus drops me off at Colorado and Los Robles about two and a half blocks from the Fuller campus at 5:20PM and I run for it. As I'm running, out of the corner of my eye I see something white. I think nothing of it until I notice that my backpack feels funny. The big zipper, the one keeping my clothes in was wide open. I look in and notice that my socks are missing. "I guess that was the white thing. Oh well." I zip it up, keep on going, and get into the classroom at 5:27PM out of breath. I hunch over, put my hands on my knees as my professor sorts through his papers to find the midterm prompt, and I work at getting back my breath.

The midterm is an hour long. Class started at 5PM. And it was 5:27PM. I seriously had flashbacks to my Bio 1A midterm at Cal. Except this time, I was in grad school and eight years older. Well, that and the fact that I didn't oversleep this time around, didn't almost get hit by a car on my way to class, and got a time extension on my midterm. The professor was really nice told me to catch my breath, wait until 5:30 to take the midterm, and that he'd give me the full hour from there to take the exam while the others would go on their hour long dinner break.

The midterm went fine and I capped off the day with some good comfort food... $1.20 tacos from the taco truck on Fair Oaks and California.

Summer School Issues

Though I've graduated, I'm still a couple of classes shy. Literally, two classes shy. I'll take one during the fall, but I still need to take one in the summer... in Pasadena. I registered for the class but I got put on the waiting list. "Not a big deal," I thought, coming from my Cal experience. It's for my major, I'm a third year student, and I need it to graduate. Somebody else will get bumped out. Or so I thought. Apparently, it doesn't work that way in seminary. I got a notice a week ago saying that I got dropped out of the class... two weeks before the first day of class.

I've already bought 5 round-trip tickets to Burbank (because the class is on Monday and Wednesday nights, I'm flying in on Monday and flying back on Thursday so that I can be home on the weekends). I bought the books for the class. Yes, I was freaking out.

Now, one week later, I'm back on the waiting list, #1 on the waiting list to be precise and I've been told to just show up on the first day (this coming Monday) with no guarantee that I'll be admitted into the class. Yes, I'm officially in enrollment limbo.

I'm wondering if I should use some un-Christ-like strong arm tactics like staring one of the students down at the beginning of class saying, "I believe you're in my seat" or erasing one of the student's names from the enrollment confirmation sheet that gets passed around during the first class session.

Pet Peeve at Peet's

Just a random pet peeve I have while working at Peet's.

I hate it when people don't look at me when they make their order.

Example #1: The classic cell phone case. Person comes into the store talking on their cell phone and intersperse their order while talking on the phone. "Yeah, I know... that's what I said... and I can't believe that blah blah blah... medium latte non-fat milk... and so went over to him and said... blahblahblah." What makes me especially angry is when their order is really really long and finicky, say their order really quickly, and they do this. What makes me even more angry is when their order is really really long and finicky, say their order really quickly, do this, and make a big stink when their order isn't completely perfect. What's especially egregious is when they do this with a bluetooth headset on, I try to ask them for their order, and they shush me/glare at me/put their index finger up in front of my face to silence me.

Example #2: The talking to their friend in line case. Person comes into the store with a friend and they're talking... this is fine. It's their turn to order and they're still talking to their friend. Their shoulder is facing the register while they're talking to their friend. Person again, intersperses their order while talking to their friend. All additions to the cell phone person apply here as well.

Example #3: The ADD guy. Person is ready to place his order but moves his head around the room like R2D2 while making his order.

All this to say, I still really enjoy working there and I like the people I'm around.

Graduation... the Aftermath

Yes, I am now a Divine Master*.

Many thanks to all who came to celebrate this momentous occasion with me. Much love and thanks to Alinna for setting everything up on Saturday and hanging with me the whole time.

In Berkeley-like fashion, I've now walked but still have assignments due this week. A friend of mine, Jeff, who also walked was smart and turned in all his assignments early so that he'd have no clouds over his head during graduation day and the subsequent days thereafter. I now wish I was smart.

Thanks to Mark and his large mug, I think I must have drank five or six pints of the beer on Saturday. The result? Nothing. Fast-forward to today, at Peets, I kept sipping 1/8 cups of coffee throughout the day. The result? Feeling swirly and disoriented while stumbling out the door to go home.

* Pending passing grades in summer courses.

Kenya, the Supermarket, and Grace

This last week, I've had the privilege of having a guest over from Kenya. Just a quick run-down, we met in a Jesus-conference in Malaysia because he lost his small group. Our small group adopted him for an afternoon, we exchanged email addresses, I got his regular updates, he came to the United States (in Washington state), and he ended up coming here to the Bay Area for a week. If he didn't lose his small group back in September, we probably wouldn't have met and he probably wouldn't have come here to the Bay Area. Crazy how God works sometimes.

Anyway, it's been a real blast having him over, hearing his story, hearing about what he does back home, and just hanging out. For the first couple of days, he just kind of tagged along wherever I went including the supermarket.

I never thought that I'd feel embarassed in a supermarket. We didn't even go into a Costco (because Alinna and I don't have a membership). He and I went to Safeway. I was all fine. Parked the car in the lot. Got out. Walked in through the automatic door. Then, as I walked into the store and saw the wide selection of food available, I suddenly felt embarassed of the excess in America.

He didn't do or say anything to make me feel embarassed at all. He just kept on smiling, talking with me about his family and what he's been doing since he came into the United States 4 weeks ago. But still I wanted to go through as few aisles as possible in the shortest amount of time (for this reason I decided not to get Doritos even though I had a coupon that would get me two bags for $3). I power-walked through the aisles, went through the checkout counter, got even more embarassed when the person at the register announced my total at a decibel level that seemed like it would rival a Rolling Stones concert, pushed the cart out the store, and finally I picked up my eyes and looked at him again.

The whole experience (which I repeated again with him at Albertsons and Smart & Final later in the week) really reminded me of the privilege I have as an American and brought new life to the times I've prayed before a meal thanking God for the food He provided.

A Couple of Quick Stories from Peet's

The afternoon rush (somewhere around 3PM) isn't very pleasant. Every other person is on their cell phone, nobody really looks at anybody else, the optimism of a new day is gone, and rudeness abounds everywhere, probably including Peet's workers like yours truly.

I ring this lady up. "Iced coffee, butter croissant, iced vanilla latte." Thirty seconds later, I give her her iced coffee and croissant. She looks at the iced coffee (which is what it sounds like, ice plus coffee) and says, "I can't drink that! Take that away! I didn't want that. I want an iced coffee, you know like a frappucino or something. Throw that away because I won't drink that."

I point out that we serve those too, but that they're different from iced coffees. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but I think what you're talking about is our freddos. As you can see, it's different from our iced coff..."

She cuts me off. "I don't want that. You can't make me buy that. I don't want it."

By this time, there's a queue of people waiting to order something. This lady has already paid for everything. I do some quick thinking, I figure out a way on the register to make it so that she pays the difference between a freddo and an iced coffee on a clean order. And she's finally on her way.


Another story from the other day. A couple of South Asian ladies are roaming the middle part of the store. There's nothing in the middle of the store. On one far end are the drinks. On the other far end are the coffee beans. The middle of the store might as well be the DMZ, there's usually nothing there, at least for customers.

I'm crossing this DMZ to go and help somebody with a coffee bean order but I notice the two South Asian ladies. I don't stop but keep on going by.

"I want some of these samples." One of the South Asian ladies flags me down and points to a sample snack tray with empty sample cups and a few crumbs strewn here and there. Apparently, there had been chocolate covered toffee things out for sampling earlier that day.

"I'm sorry, but we don't have any more of those for sampling today." I look around the area and find some biscotti that were labeled for sampling. I also notice one of my co-workers walking toward the coffee bean customer I was originally going to serve. "But we do have these biscotti to sample."

"Fine, we'll have some of those." I cut up the biscotti, put the bite-sized pieces into new cups, and the take one of the cups each.

With bite-sized biscotti in hand, one chimes in, "Do you have anything else?"

I see that there are also some chocolate eggs (probably from Easter) set aside for sampling too. "We have these as well."

"Fine, we'll have some of those too."

I ask, "Can I help you with anything else?" while glancing over to drinks section to make a hint.

"No. Our husbands come here every morning for coffee (which is likely a lie because I work most mornings and I there aren't any age appropriate South Asian men ordering coffee on a consistent basis). I, we, don't like Peets. I like Starbucks much better. Your coffee here is too strong."

And both women with both hands having a sample, walk out the door.

What's Next?

Today, while I was working, I started talking to one of my co-workers, Gisele. Among other things, we got talking about how I'm graduating this June (I don't remember if I've posted this yet, but I'm walking this early June... though I still have 3 classes to go).

She asked the natural question, "So what's next?"

My answer to everybody who's asked me this question over the last month has been the same, "Keep doing what I'm doing right now."

Seems kinda anticlimactic I know, but it's the truth. The three classes left aren't really all that relevant. They're more an addendum to my seminary career than anything else... an expensive, time-consuming, fly back and forth from San Jose to Burbank 5 times during the month of August addendum, but an addendum nevertheless.

I'm planning on continuing to work at Baylight part-time and Peet's part-time. I know that underlying the what's next question is the assumption and the expectation that with the piece of paper in my hand known as the Masters of Divinity, something would change, I would be upgraded somehow. It's the primary reason why most people get more schooling... to initiate a change, to move on up like the Jeffersons.

And thinking back on the last three years, I guess that's happened to me albeit in less dramatic fashion. For one, I'm working in a church I like. Yes, that started a year ago, a year before I graduate and have documentation that I'm qualified in some way or another to work in a church. Two, I'm enjoying the pace of my life right now and the purposefulness I feel on an almost daily basis. Working at Peet's doesn't require an M.Div but it does give me a forum to put the things I've learned in school into practice. And for that, I'm grateful and lucky. And three, well, I can't think of a three right now. Rather, I had one but it just fluttered away. Besides, this post is getting long even for my tastes.

Warriors and KG

Since the Warriors came home from Utah, Bay Area sports talk radio has been talking about the need to pick up KG (that's Kevin Garnett, 7'0" forward for the Timberwolves for those who aren't sure) to get over the hump.

I think Don Nelson said it best in stating that right now, the Warriors already got over the hump... that hump was getting into the playoffs. After 13 years of ineptitude and wallowing over the draft... nay, having the high point of the basketball season be wondering about who the Warriors are going to pick in the draft lottery, the Warriors have gotten over a huge hump. I've said it once, but it cannot be overstated, these guys should be applauded and celebrated for the great year.

And if we must start talking about the "future" of the Warriors (Kelly wrote an interesting post by the way, about Asian kids and our obsession with the future), I don't think a blockbuster trade involving KG is the "key" to getting over the proverbial hump. Callers have talked incessantly about the Warriors' need for easy points down in the paint during the closing minutes of the 4th quarter.

This line of thought is wayyyyyy over-rated. The great teams of the recent past left the few minutes of the 4th on the shoulders of its star guard and his ability to drive to the bucket or take the 10-15 foot jumper (see Jordan, Wade, and Hamilton).

I'm not saying that the Warriors don't need somebody with a bigger body. My contention is that the Warriors don't need a low post scorer. They just need somebody who can rebound, block a few shots, and run like the dickens to keep up with the rest of the team (after all, Biedrins can't play 48 minutes/game). And they won't have to break the bank to get somebody like that.

This recent obsession with getting an established low post scorer sounds eerily reminiscent of the 93-94 offseason when the Warriors tried desperately to get an established low post presence after getting knocked around in the 1st round of the playoffs by one Charles Barkley. The Warriors' solution? Rony Seikaly. Yes, I'll admit that I thought that Seikaly would be the answer to getting the Warriors over the hump. Hey, Rony Seikaly averaged something like 15 pts and 10 rebounds a game while playing with Miami the year before (he's no Kevin Garnett but he was established). Yes, my hopes rested on Rony Seikaly. And what happened? The subsequent 94-95 season was the first of 12 "rebuilding years." Caltrans rebuilds faster than the Warriors did.

Early Morning Person?

The last two weeks I haven't been slotted to work the opening 4:30AM shift at Peet everyday. The opening assignment has been staggered between a handful of people recently. When I'm not opening, I'm starting anywhere from 6AM to 9AM. While a 6AM beginning might have sounded daunting a month ago, it feels like "sleeping in" now.

This isn't to say that I'm completely used to my new daily schedule. As evidenced by Alinna and my visit to John and Alissa's place last night to watch Heroes, I quickly melt down at about 9:30 or 10PM. Maybe melt down's not the term I'm looking for since it evokes images of Chernobyl and nuclear disasters. A guess a simple "melt" will suffice in this case. I was a puddle on their sectional couch while I watched Hiro Nakamura (my kinsman) swing from his perky ups to his disappointed downs with ease.

KNBR, the Warriors, and Perspective

I listen to sports talk radio quite a bit and today hasn't been an exception.

One thing that's struck me about today's KNBR shows is that a lot of "Warriors fans" have been complaining and scratching their heads over what's "wrong with the Warriors." I guess ever since they lost last night to the Jazz, the Warriors suddenly have something wrong with them. Just goes to show how greedy "Warrior fans" are.

Alinna doesn't understand this about me, but I'm elated that the Warriors got this far. In fact, it's mind boggling. To me, it doesn't matter if the Warriors lose the series to the Jazz... at the beginning of the series, I was saying that it didn't matter if the Warriors got swept (though I will still root for them to win). Everything past game 6 of the first round Mavericks series is, to me, a bonus. This team has come a long long way this year. The way they finished the season, getting rid of Dunleavy and Murphy and getting something good in return, avoiding the lottery since I was a freshman in high school... the list goes on.

There's nothing wrong with the Warriors. They're an 8th seed in the 2nd round of the playoffs. They're undersized, don't rebound the basketball well, and depend on playing a style of basketball that yes, will surprise some teams but is not likely sustainable over the course of a long series of games... at least with the players they have now.

This Warriors team has done so much this season. Be happy with the ride they've given you Bay Area. Significant strides have been taken. Lest you forget, Adonal Foyle started a good number of games for the Warriors just last season.

One Week Veteran

I say "one week veteran" tongue-in-cheek. After working at Peet's for a whopping full week now, I am now just getting out of the utterly helpless and incompetent phase.

My manager says, "Most people think that this is an easy job, but it's not." While I wouldn't say that it's a difficult job, it does take a while to finally figure out how to do most everything and do them quickly. For the record, I haven't touched the espresso machine yet... sorry all you latte and mocha fans, I can't make you one.

What can I do after five shifts? Make coffee, make iced tea (I sound a little girly when I say this, but I found out this week that I like the coolers they serve at Peets), bag and grind beans, load the pastries on the tray (which is harder than it sounds because all the bran muffins look the same and part of the job is labeling them), and work the register... sort of.

I also remember the names of two customers, Karen and Keith. Although, if you ask me what their drinks are... well, one thing at a time, one thing at a time.

First Day on the Job

So, today was my first day working at Peet's in Los Altos.

Yes, after almost graduating with a graduate degree, I'm working at a coffee house. I need the regular schedule that it gives me and I'm just looking for a way to plug more deeply into my community and neighborhood. Plus, I just like the coffee there. But enough of my need to justify myself...

It was my first day and they got me starting off with the opening shift (because I requested morning working hours so that I could do church work in the afternoon), and that means being at the store at 4:30AM. Yep, the other 4:30. If you're interested enough in reading this blog, it probably means that you know me well enough to know that I am by no means a morning person, and I think this qualifies as a beyond morning person job. We'll see how I hold up after consecutive 4AM mornings (this week I'll be there for opening from Monday to Thursday).

My shift runs froms 4:30AM to noon this week except for Wednesday when I'm working from 4:30 til 8:30AM. Come on by if you have time. It's the downtown Los Altos location on State Street.

Addendum to the Restaurant Cut Post

I was just reminded of the "7-bone steak" by Alinna. When Safeway debuted the Restaurant Cut last summer, I think they started off with the 7-bone steak. There it was, on the weeklies for Safeway, the "7-bone steak" and sure enough, it looked like there were seven bone pieces on one cut of steak. I didn't really check. I'm not sure if it was because I was too lazy to make sure that there were indeed 7 bones or because I didn't think it was worthwhile... but at a glance all I could think was, "Whoa that's a whole lotta bone."

Anyway, why would you advertise that? 7-bone steak? What's next? Lots-of-gristle steak? Super tough steak? I just don't understand why having lots of bone would be considered a good thing or something to highlight when trying to sell it.

I haven't seen the 7-bone steak make a comeback over the last 10 months though so either they've taken it off the market because despite Safeway's best advertising efforts it didn't sell well, or somebody in the marketing department got fired and now the "7-bone steak" is guised as something else in the Restaurant Cut line.

Safeway and the "Restaurant Cut"

Completely innane post today, but I've been wondering about it for a little while now. For the last couple of months, Safeway, the supermarket has been putting out a new line of meat (only beef I think) with the label "Restaurant Cut."

I don't know what to make of it. What does "Restaurant Cut" mean? I grew increasingly suspicious when I saw that their "Restaurant Cut" line costs less than their regular "Ranchers Reserve" line.

Example: The Restaurant Cut Top Sirloin steaks are often on sale for $5/lb.. Meanwhile, the Ranchers Reserve Top Sirloin steaks are rarely on sale for $5/lb. and are more often on sale for $6 or $7/lb..

Does the Restaurant Cut come from a different place? Is it one or several USDA grades lower than the Ranchers Reserve?

Now that Alinna and I have been getting almost all of our produce from either the food box or from Frederico's market down the street (support local businesses!), meat is one of the few things we get from Safeway... well, that and Captain Crunch.

Any help on the Restaurant Cut? I've been too chicken to go and try it out.

Seminarians Gone Wild

I'm officially on Spring Break!

Last quarter was my last full-time quarter. From here on out, I'll be taking two classes or less per quarter. Three classroom classes left and one internship. It's pretty sweet seeing that almost all of of my requirements have been completed.

So what has this seminarian done during perhaps his last Spring Break ever? Mopped floors, vacuumed, made corned beef, re-evaluated my newly drafted fantasy baseball team, and compiled a spreadsheet for Alinna so that she'll know how much each homemade baked good costs to make.

I'm going crazy! Think MTV will want to film my exploits during Spring Break? Maybe bringing in Jerry Springer would spice things up.

In the Cave

Alinna and I have been really blessed to be able stay in a two-bedroom apartment in Sunnyvale for the price we're paying.

So what do two married people do with a two bedroom apartment? One's a bedroom. The other, well, the other's purpose has morphed as indicated by its various names. At first, it was dubbed "The Other Room" which then quickly changed to "The Junk Room" as we started piling boxes and other things we didn't know what to do with into the space. Going to a seminary that runs on the quarter system doesn't really help things all that much. I feel like I'm constantly buying books. And what do you do with books you've read and are done with? Throw them into the junk room of course.

Well, with sudden influx of shelving, most of the junk in the junk room started to get filed away. So now, it's starting to resemble what many call an "Office." We call it "The Cave" for reasons including that its the place where we spend alone time and that its often pretty dark because for some inexplainable reason the curtains are almost always drawn.

These last two weeks as I've been finishing off my classes this quarter (in the middle of finals right now), I've been spending a lot of time in the cave. When Alinna comes home, she'd often find me squinty and elated to see another human being.

To help keep myself sane I've put this guy up on the window sill in the cave.His head just sways from side to side as the sunlight hits his solar panel. For some strange reason, when I look at him, I can't help but smile. Mad at my inability to find original source documents about the Cluny Reform Movement? I just glance over at him, he's smiling and swaying, and soon, I find myself kind of smiling and swaying with him. Weird. I think the men of the Inquisition would have found me a witch had I had him in my possession 500 years ago.

Oops, I just zoned out because I was looking at him.

Dichotomies?

So Alinna and I were talking last night about fobby-ness. For those not familiar, FOB is a largely Asian-American term meaning "fresh off the boat" or having characteristics that are largely associated with the country of their ancestry despite living in America. Basically, it means that the person hasn't really adjusted to life in America and carries on in life as if they were still living in China/Korea/Japan/Vietnam/[insert country of choice].

So, I, being the way that I am, set up a monochrome world of fobby-ness. It's black and white. You're either fobby or you're not. Going to Cal and Asian American Christian Fellowship, I met a lot of people I just didn't get. After a while, probably because of my frustration, I just painted the scene with the big brush and thought to myself that it's because they're fobby. They're operating out of a cultural paradigm that I cannot understand.

To my defense, this is in large, the world of Japanese-Americans. You're either fobby or you're not. It's a black and white world. There are the new immigrants, people who came over during the 80s and 90s because their company sent them here to establish the American branch of the company. Then there are nisei (2nd gen, largely grandparents now), sansei (3rd gen, middle aged), and yonsei (4th gen, kids and young adults) who been in America since the turn of the 20th century. They don't speak Japanese, might be part of a taiko drumming club for the cultural experience, have a family member who was in the 442nd, received money from the government for the internment camp experience, and don't make Japanese food except for maybe spam musubi (which isn't really Japanese, but Hawaiian).

Alinna, however, sees things in shades of gray. There's a middle ground where you retain some aspects of your culture but are not fobby. She speaks Cantonsese, affirms strong loyal ties to family, etc. but at the same time, she often craves Italian food not Chinese, speaks English without an Asian accent, etc.. I guess this is the common experience of Chinese-Americans, living in the middle ground, I don't know.

Intolerant

For breakfast this morning, I had a muffin and a small cup of milk. Bad, bad, bad idea.

Time to Barbeque

I realize that it's been almost two months since I've posted. I'm a pretty streaky blogger and I just hit a cold spell... literally. The month of February shall from henceforth be dubbed as "The Cold." I've caught six colds to date this winter. My guess is that at least three of them were during the month of February though it's hard to say because the colds started to bleed into one another during "The Cold." Just as I was recovering from one, another would hit me. It's too bad that Ben's wedding was during "The Cold."

To celebrate the emergence from "The Cold" and the awesome weather we've been getting here in the Bay Area, I decided to fire up the grill for some Tequila-lime Tri-tip sandwiches yesterday. The tri-tip was courtesy of Safeway's meat sale ($3/lb. offer good through today). As I was checking out, I remembered that we might not have enough charcoal, so, leaving the meat behind at the checkout counter, I dashed out to grab the charcoal bag. When I came back, the checkout guy and the bagging lady raised their eyebrows as if to say, "What do you think you're doing in the beginning of March?" I told them about the 70 degree weather out and that yes, I was going to barbeque me some tri-tip.

It may be premature to say that summer has come early. And I don't know what the groundhog did, but the grill came out.

Parting Ways

Late last night, I tried parting my hair again. It's been a while since it's been this long and part-able.

I started by trying to re-establish my old part, down the middle but slightly off to the side. Since it's been about five years since I had it last, the hair wasn't totally cooperating but it was good enough for Alinna to have a look-see. With arms open wide and a big smile, I looked for Alinna's approval. Instead, she frowned... big-time.

Take-two. To be even more obnoxious, I tried the swooping part from the right side of my head. I even got it to wave across my entire forehead. It was pretty awesome. Again, I turned around and looked for Alinna's approval, but instead her hands started attacking my head.

I think it's safe to say that I will forever be parting ways with the hair part.

Taking Out the Tree

It's now January 10th and I have finally taken out the Christmas tree. It was starting to look a little crispy and when I finally tried to push it through the doorway, it was more than just a little crispy. There is a massive trail of pine needles on the stairs leading up to our apartment. The stairs are now ninja-proof. No ninjas will be able to creep into our apartment unannounced.Totally unrelated, I was browsing around and found the blogs of some of the people in my fellowship. After reading them, I've come to realize that I make some completely innane posts. I used to write deep Jesus-y like stuff on this blog (or at least I thought so), but those days are now gone. Instead I write about Christmas trees and ninjas.

Back and Refreshed

I'm back from my now yearly trip to North Carolina (it's now yearly because it's been two years in a row). As Drew Hyun said once, I get to spend a week down in North Carolina with a bunch of people whose cars I'm not even worthy to wash. Get to learn from a bunch of holy people, enjoy their fellowship, and at the beginning of every school year, I get a scholarship check from them. I think it's a pretty sweet deal.

Pounding

As per the Satake annual tradition, we ended the year by making mochi the old-fashioned way. Fire, steam, rice, mallets, and a marble bowl that is deceptively heavy. There is a lot of physical exertion required. Lots of pounding and grinding. Alinna found her niche in the process by discovering her hidden talent of making attractive, perfectly round pieces... everyone was impressed.

In other news, last Sunday both my mom and my sister made comments about my weight paired with a gentle patting on my belly. I dunno. What do you think?

I think it's safe to say that Alinna's been taking care of me.