I usually keep typing into this blog to keep myself amused more than anything else. I like to see if I can put together some coherent writing on a day-to-day basis for the practice more than anything else, and I find that I always need a bit of editing to make things more coherent. That’s just the way I write, I guess.

I just noticed that I haven’t written at all in the past three days, which I must just have forgotten to do. I’ve been a bit tired from the goings on at the gym and just plain tired in general. Wednesday I even punted the gym for a couple of reasons. One is just plain being tired, and the other is because my mom came back to from Japan that day and I knew I should probably take her out to dinner. I also had errands to run; returning the wrong light switches I ordered and buying locks for the back door to match the locks in the rest of the house. Which reminds me, I need to actually install those locks.

Thanksgiving we decided to go out rather than subject my sister to prep and cleanup and four of us went to Wildwood for dinner. The turkey, smoked breast and almost stewed dark meat, was exquisite and perfectly portioned. Any more and I would have been stuffed. I still achieved a proper food coma. Earlier in the day my buddy Matty from the gym said he wanted to go out to lunch and so we drove around the neighborhood a bit to find several taverns open, and we had a good pub burger at the Nob Hill Tavern.

Today we went out to lunch at Gaya Gaya for sushi (and some Korean food for me) and then I tried to put off the two errands I had on my list for the day. I forgot to do the other things on my list, but I wanted to get a Magic Mouse at the black Friday sale, and clean the gutters AGAIN. I mostly succeeded on both counts. I drove downtown, parked in a lot, stood in a line to get in the Apple store, and found that not only did I get the sale price on my mouse, but I also got a work discount as well. I went to the hardware store and found that I still had enough light to finish cleaning all of the gutters on the house, and one of the two on the garage before it got dark. I have to ask the neighbor if I can go in her yard to clean the last gutter anyway.

So there you have it. I now have the new Magic Mouse and my mom is back from Japan. I think that’s the big news anyway.

I got to work a little later than I expected today, because there was a car, a black Mercedes-Benz coupe, no less, stuck in traffic a couple of cars ahead of me at an intersection. I was going to back up and get around him, but there was someone right behind me and I figured out what I really needed to do was to put on my 4-ways, get out, and help the guy push his car out of the road. After we got it to the lot of a conveniently located convenience store, he said he’d run out of gas. I figured he’d be OK and headed back to my car. He seemed to be a bit confused, so I drove around the block and drove him to the gas station. I guess the new Benzes light the dash red when they’re close to out of gas and he was waiting for just that. In any case, it turns out his car was a company car. He works for Daimler, who bought out Freightliner, here in Portland.

I got to work only about 15 minutes late, and I was trying to wipe out my karma by singlehandedly eating all the candy my old boss has in his cube for bribes. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the stamina or the desire to eat much candy and I failed. Ah well.

I did finally find macaroni and cheese at The New Old Lompoc tonight. I bet I made up for all the calories I expended at the gym in the past week with that.

I miss Japan already. Especially since Flash Forward was supposed to be in Japan but it was just what whitey would imagine Japan to look like. Some of it was right, but most of it wasn’t. I mean, where was all the crumbling concrete? And who in the hell mixes the concrete over there anyway? There’s a bunch of stuff that looks like it’s about to fall down, especially in “resort” areas. I wonder if it’s the same over here, but someone just goes and fixes it up.

It took me a long damn time to put up my closet rod today. I can’t believe how much time it took me but it’s finally up. I guess it’s because I also moved my desk from the right to left side of my wall (moving the heavy file cabinet from the left to right) and then moving it BACK when my sister convinced me that I needed to put my dresser in the bedroom and the office in the other room. Then I had to disassemble a desk to move it from room to room and now it’s kind of set up but I’m not sure I like it. I’m sure I’ll eventually figure it out.

I had breakfast the past two days at Besaws. One of my friends from the gym refused to go to the proper greasy places so I acquiesced even though the last time I went it was just awful. Fortunately, it was good yesterday and I missed the special. I went back today to get the special and to make sure that the bad Eggs Benedict was the fluke, not the good Farmer’s Hash. My buddy Greg liked the hash today, so I figure maybe the Eggs Benedict was just someone screwing up the Hollandaise sauce one day.

I had a hankering for something cheesy for dinner, like a Japanese gratin, but all I could think of was macaroni and cheese. I knew they have it on the menu at Stepping Stone, a place I don’t go to that much because it’s so crowded during the day. They had the misfortune of being on Man vs Food and all sorts of yahoos are clogging the place up. Or, as the guy there told me, “Stepping Stone. Our line stretches to better restaurants!” The real motto there is, “Stepping Stone. You eat here because we let you,” and they are a bit surly sometimes. In any case, they were OUT of macaroni and cheese, but they I did have a backup plan: chicken fried steak. Hooray for breakfast for dinner.

I finally sanded my awful job of mudding and even painted the wall! I may actually get all my stuff moved into my bedroom soon. I have to think about what I’m going to do with an old stereo cabinet my dad had. It is one of those glass-fronted cabinets on casters from the 70’s and I’m not sure anyone would want it. Instead of giving it to Goodwill (sticking Goodwill with it), I’m thinking of cutting it up and throwing it out.

And yet I did so little this evening, besides watching close to a dozen TV shows to catch up to what I missed while I was in Japan. Maybe I’ll get my rooms straightened out, my closets fixed, and maybe even some blinds for my weird new window. We’ll see.

I forgot what I was going to say when I posted some more burger reviews on the Portland Burger Blog. In summary, Castanga Cafe was good but not very exciting, and Pause was spectacular. But Castagna Cafe was full of people my age, and Pause was full of kids. What can you do?

I’m really racking my brain to try to figure out what it was I was thinking about earlier, but I can’t remember and I really should get some sleep. Ah, there it is! I was just thinking about how my performance at the gym is affected by mental state and I found that just knowing that I didn’t have to run around the block made it easier to deadlift 2 32kg kettlebells without stopping, which I was unable to do earlier, and row 250m 5 seconds faster than earlier round. I guess this just means I need to convince myself I can go harder again. I think I’d rather take a nap.

I successfully smashed my finger at the gym today. I wrapped it up with athletic tape and kept going, but it hurt and it wouldn’t stop bleeding. I figured I could find a convenience care facility attached to a local ER and at least get it looked at. Best outcome would be if if they just told me I was a big wimp and sent me home. Much worse would have been if I had looked at it myself and it was bad enough that it made me queasy or pass out. I really wasn’t up to poking and prodding my own injury. That’s why I have a job and insurance, right?

I went to Good Samaritan, my neighborhood ER, but they just gave me attitude about how busy they were. The woman at the front counter told me she’d call Emanuel (where I used to volunteer 17 years ago) to see how busy they were, but instead she just asked how late the “fast track” was open. She told me there was an hour-and-a-half wait at Good Samaritan but Good Samaritan was the fastest ER in the area. She wanted me to just go to Emanuel or call them but my fingers were all taped up and I didn’t want to try dialing my cell phone. Off I went.

Anyway, the “fast track” at Emanuel was pretty fast, and I was out of there in an hour. They poked at my fingers (which still hurt), took some X-rays, called me a wimp (not really), and sent me on my way with this weird sock-like thing on my pinky. I won’t describe the tip of my pinky fully, but it’s pretty mashed. I guess they want me to put Neosporin on it and come back if it gets worse.

That’s not really the kind of excitement I was looking for, but just the kind I get. I hope I didn’t get H1N1 in the waiting area.

So now I’m home and am about to use my new Sonicare toothbrush that Amazon delivered, and of course the heads I have already don’t fit the new handle. Sheesh.

The wind is really blowing right now and I bet the storm they’ve been promising is on its way. Earlier it felt like it was in the 60’s and you could tell something was coming. So far there have just been a few gusts and no downpour. It’ll probably come in the middle of the night when my jet lag is keeping me from sleeping well (like last night). But there’s always the chance that the workout at the gym is going to keep me in a fairly immobile. Being away for two weeks coupled with my cold made things especially enjoyable tonight. We’ll see.

I have to figure out what to do with the man purse I got in Japan. When I’m there I usually carry around 2 cell phones, a digital camera, my passport, and my rail pass. One cell phone is a rental with a Japanese number so my friends can call me without making an international call, and the other is my iPhone for getting demanding text messages from my sister. In the past this meant stuffing crap in my jacket and carrying my jacket around even when it wasn’t cold out. Now I have a nice man purse that even fits my Kindle as well as the rest of my crap. It also smells nice.

Not real sure if I’ll have much use for it here, though.

Well, time to see if I can get some more sleep.

I still have my cough and I figured that taking it easy would be the best, so I didn’t do all that much today. Mudding is an annoyingly boring task that requires a lot of waiting for the sheet rock compound to dry, recycling a pile of old magazines just takes opening up the proper bin in Portland, looking for the closet rod just took rummaging around in the attic space, and dinner was whatever was in the freezer. All so I can get better and go to work tomorrow. Hooray.

I seem to have come down with Dr. Kawasaki’s cold. I figured I would, since Mrs. Kawasaki had it as well and we were in a car with her for days. I started coughing on Wednesday and I sort of thought it was because I was hanging out with my buddy who smokes, but that was sheer optimism on my part. So far my biggest symptom is my cough but things are starting to ache. My sister is sick too, but she’s completely down and sleeping all day long, so I guess I have it a lot better.

I got up at 7:30AM today, but I just decided to go back to bed around 9:30. I didn’t get up until just before 1PM, but I did get a bunch of things crossed off my to-do list. Online bill paying, trips to the hardware store to fix some doors and closets, and even getting someone to help me move some furniture. The last thing on the to-do list for today is to go to bed by 10PM, but I’ve blown that already. I’m jet lagged and I’m still only getting 6 1/2 hours of sleep a night. Thursday I got up at the equivalent of 2PM Wednesday afternoon, and I still went out to dinner with friends. Breakfast #2 on Thursday was fried chicken and waffles at the Blue Pig!

Friday I went out to Ringside with Il because he wanted me to meet his new girlfriend and stayed up late.

I really should try to get some sleep. Otherwise I miss things and weird things happen. Who put my picture on the women’s underwear bin?

I suppose that’s as close as I get to women’s underwear anyway.

I’ve been up since 2PM on Wednesday (looking at local time) and it’s 11:30PM now. I better get to sleep soon. I started out the day in Tokyo, did some shopping, headed over and now here I am. Breakfast at Tully’s in Tokyo, lunch from an airport convenience store, dinner on the plane, breakfast on the plane, breakfast at Blue Cow, and dinner at Castanga Cafe.

I better hit the hay before I keel over.

I got up this morning in time to cram a bunch of stuff into my sister’s little orange suitcase. She bought it because it’s quite cute, and I’m sure she was fearful when she lent it to my mother. My guess is that she was especially afraid that I would end up with it somehow, alone and in need of a bathroom. I’d have to roll her cute suitcase into a nasty, smelly train station men’s room, where it would be soiled for all of eternity. I guess I won’t tell her anything.

Anyway, I had breakfast with my mom and my aunt who were being silly as always, and we parted ways at Shin-Osaka station. They went off to the west, and I headed east to Tokyo. My aunt bought me a traditional bento to eat on the train, which I picked out. It turned out to be full of mushrooms, which I don’t particularly like. I’ll eat them, but I figure they’re wasted on a guy with tastes like mine.

In fact I didn’t like much of it, but I ate the whole thing. I got to Tokyo and it was pouring, and I needed to use the bathroom but that’s probably enough of that story. I made it to my hotel, which took longer than I thought, and was soaked with sweat. I knew I had to get to Akihabara so I dumped my crap and headed out. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring a map so I had to rely on memory to get there, which wasn’t so bad because it’s not had to find from Shinjuku. (Express Chuo-line to Ochanomizu, then the Sobu line one stop.) While I did forget to buy more Mac crap for myself, I did get the last item on my sister’s list: a plastic iPhone case with a hole for a Japanese strap. I even got her a dangly thing, I think, at the Glico store. Or at the Hankyu Tigers store. I can’t remember.

I rushed back to the hotel make sure my online reservations were done, and I got a call from Hiron who wanted to meet me in Akihabara. He’s an illustrator and friend of Chico’s who I end up talking for hours to about American TV shows. Chico went to high school with my sister. Anyway, I did end up meeting up with Hiron and Chico and they took me to an area of Shinjuku where they were a little afraid to go, to an Okinawan restaurant.

We had some interesting things to eat, including “sea grapes.”

On the way back I convinced them to go to Mos Burger for dessert, where Hiron had a kinpira rice burger (braised burdock root on a bun made of grilled rice formed into a round patty) and I had a Mos Burger because I love the things and I hadn’t had a chance to eat one on the trip.

So that’s about it for my last full day here. Tomorrow I head home!

I’m not sure how the morning got away from us this morning. We ended up just walking around for the heck of it. We were just waiting for noon, when my mom, my aunt, my uncle (their older brother), and their cousin from Tokyo were all going to get together for the first time in 20 years. I was there holding a seat down at the same restaurant we went to yesterday and I FORGOT TO TAKE ANY PICTURES. Sheesh. I had to listen to a lot more stories about the old days that I have no idea about.

I also helped my uncle get all the stuff we brought him back to his house. More family chit-chat, but I did see my cousin’s first grandchild who is about 13 months old now. What a cutie. Here’s a picture of great grandpa (my uncle), grandma (his daughter-in-law) and So-chan.

After I got home, it was off to see an old friend from my Mitsubishi days and we ate fried things on sticks and talked nonsense for a few hours.

It’s a nice way to pass the day, but I still have to get one last item on my sister’s wishlist. Sheesh. It’s off to Tokyo tomorrow and then back to the states the day after that. Two days of travel!