Dear Journal

[gurdymonkey]

.....still not king, still not singing, still not getting any.

On the other hand, my to-do list is shrinking:

1. Laundry is done.
 
2. Ominous purple goop has been applied to my scalp and my "skunk stripe" is gone for the next few weeks.

3. Supplies for The House Of Cheerful Monkeys' party have been acquired. At 99 Ranch Market, I got  mochi, manju and a couple of bottles of sake - good old Sho Chiku Bai nigori, Shirakabe Gura, and of course, some of the Choya umeshu.  Figured that as long as I was up El Cerrito way, I'd poke my nose in at Yaoya-san. Rewarded by the scent of extremely fresh fish, I picked up some bento sushi, seaweed salad, some pickles, rice crackers, dipping sauce for soba noodles (I'm thinking cold soba will make a nice lunch on a hot Purgatorio afternoon), and a small bottle of Kamotsuru Tokusei Gold, which I've never had and which is certainly worth trying in a 350 ML size. And yes, the bottle is rather attractive. THEN I hit BevMo for a bottle of the Momokawa Moonstone Asian Pear sake. Noticeable in its absence from the Asian markets, it still makes a nice "gateway" sake for people who have never had it.

4. Picked up a box of wooden checker/backgammon pieces and a pair of dice to go with the sugoroku chest at Games of Berkeley. Thank God I'm not a gamer or I wouldn't have made it back to the parking meter in time.

5. Ate lunch. Gold leafed some more cartwheels onto the sides of the sugoroku chest. Will give 'em an hour to dry and then I will start working on the "waves".   Hopefully the new paint brushes are thin enough.

EDIT: This gold paint sucks. Sucks, I tell you. I cannot seem to get a neat, consistent line with it. And I NEED neat, consistent lines for the water effect. Wonder if Beverly's is still open....

And now a meme, stolen from aureelia:

Five cool local things - the Bay Area iteration.
1. Moe's Books, 2476 Telegraph Avenue, Berkeley CA 94704. Four floors of nirvana, both new and used.
2. The Asian Art Museum, 200 Larkin Street, San Francisco, 94102. There's a reason I keep going back over and over and over again.
3. Antiques by the Bay, Alameda Point, Alameda, CA.  Fresh air, treasure hunting, people watching and the exercise you inevitably get just from walking around all morning.
4. California counts as the Pacific Rim - and that makes me the envy (and personal shopper) of a number of people who portray Japanese personae in the SCA. Two of the three surviving "Japantowns" in the United States are in San Francisco and San Jose (the third is in LA). Oakland Chinatown is even closer. Takara brews sake in Berkeley. In the past three years I've gotten to see performances of kyogen, kabuki and bunraku. I'm taking taiko through my local Department of Recreation.
5. The weather.

Five cool local things - the New Jersey iteration.
1. The Cloisters. Fort Tryon Park, New York.
2. Italian food. Olive Garden or a Macaroni Grill? No way.  Friday nights at Luigi's of Ridgefield Park. Pizza from Stefano's on the corner. 
3. Classic all night diners.
4. Driving south from Franklin Lakes on Route 208 at night and seeing the New York skyline in the distance.
5. The gang from Rusted Woodlands. Miss you guys!

Comments

[aureellia.livejournal.com]

I would like to go to the Asian Art museum with you. I go on my own, but it would be terribly fun to talk to you about the pieces.

[mamapduck.livejournal.com]

The Italian food I found closest to New York Italian in California was a place called Granada's which disappeared from the Berkeley Oakland border and then (in a freakish coincidence) reappeared in Jackson shortly after my folks moved there in 1990. Unfortunately, good Italian is prevalent in Jackson and the surrounding towns and Granada's did not survive.

Someday we'll go to Gianini's. It's upcountry in Amador County and what the Olive Garden is a vague caricature of. It's about an hour and a half drive from the new house but I suspect you'd find it worthwhile. And we'll have guest space in the new house. :)

[danabren.livejournal.com]

Hey, now, Fort Tryon Park is in the Bronx, New York - does that technically count for a Jersey-based meme?

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

Yes, because it was the only thing I would be willing to cross into Calcutta-On-Hudson FOR.

[xrian.livejournal.com]

.....still not king, still not singing, still not getting any.

Reminds me of what my mother used to say after bringing in the mail: "No love notes, no checks for a million dollars..."

[gurdymonkey.livejournal.com]

Reminds me, I should send a guilt laden poem to Someone Who Never Writes to me any more and see what he's up to. ;-D