We are not amused.

We are not amused #1: I will be starting MY new year with two wisdom tooth extractions. And some fillings. And some replacements of old fillings. That I am not doing this until after the New Year has to do with how big a bite out of my benefit maximum for the year that root canal and the perio treatments took.

We are not amused #2: I came downstairs this morning to go to Investiture and discovered that someone had managed to pop my camper shell open. This is with my truck parked on the corner in full view of the house and fairly close to a street light. The lock appears to be completely undamaged, BTW.
Known to be missing are the folding garden cart I bought and used exactly once AND the sugoroku box and its contents, which included two very nice teapots, lots of cheap tea cups, the two tiered jubako one of my Tousando-ites gave me as a gift two years ago and the brocade futon cover I picked up at the flea market and use to decorate the House of Cheerful Monkeys. I can rebuild the box. I can replace tea things and other serveware at Daiso, but that futon cover was a random lucky find and I'll probably never see any of this stuff again.

The plus column

Because now that the being-pissed-report is out of the way, things did improve as the day went on.

1. The Safeway tuna "poki" (which was simply slices of raw tuna on a bed of wakame seaweed salad) fit nicely in the top compartment of my bento with some rice in the bottom, and traveled well enough when stacked in my basket ontop of a frozen bag of blue ice. Kiffany was duly impressed with my impromptu picnic on the steps of the event site. "Chopsticks and everything." Well, yeah!

2. Got to watch some of my favorite people step up as the new Prince and Princess. Had an interesting conversation on the artistic process with moira_ramsay . Sat in the peanut gallery with aureelia . Admired helblonde and moriven 's Baby Bear, who is not much of a conversationalist yet, but seems like a very mellow, contented little guy.

3. Was told by Wilhelm that he once again included assignments on writing tanka and haiku while teaching his middle schoolers a world civilization unit on feudal Japan. Was only mildly appalled when he pulled out his iPhone to show me his Facebook page with a horror haiku about zombies. ("Undead want my skull/Chanting, "Brains! pounding the door/Load the Benelli." I just fired off: "Clouds hide the moon's face./Things that go bump in the night/Are waiting out there." )

4. Got offsite in enough time to make it to Mom's Apple Pie before the 6 PM closing time for a slice of killer Gravenstein apple pie with layla_lilah , then mosey next door to the Henweigh Cafe for dinner. Yes, in that order. I had flank steak marinated in bourbon with sweet potato fries and asparagus, layla_lilah went for the Henweigh chicken pot pie. If you have cause to be up in the Sebastopol area for any reason, Mom's is definitely worth the detour. (On 116 just north of Guerneville Road). That pie was better than my grandmother's, which I didn't believe was possible. The Henweigh is also a decent place to get a meal. The one caveat: one has to exit the restaurant and cross the patio to use the restrooms, which is less than ideal on a chilly evening.

5. Will be going to a free Balinese music and dance concert tomorrow afternoon in Oakland, also with layla_lilah .

Tanka challenge 11/21/09

A teacup moon floats
Through a reef of clouds of an
Impossible pink.
Twilight remembers herself
And dons a more subtle robe.