upside-down doggie

Wow, I thought Brindo was weird for sleeping on his back, but Pumpkin takes the cake.


Sleeping half out of her bed


Not very ladylike, honey...


Playing against gravity

I'm getting a neck cramp just looking at her.

kappa good

Forget Gary Danko, forget Michael Mina. Neither of those restaurants have impressed me or my foodie friends. To date, the only "high end" restaurant that I would recommend unequivocally was Myth... but Myth was never special occasion high end, and now its changed owners.

And then we met Kappa.

Certainly, Kappa doesn't seem like a schmancy place: it's upstairs from the Japantown Denny's, with an unmarked door, and seating for no more than 10. But the food, the service... its heavenly. Plus, one of the things that I was not impressed by Gary Danko was that the food they served was so generic. It was damn good, for sure, but I can get good foie gras just about anywhere these days.

Kappa is like no other restaurant - Japanese or otherwise - that I've been to. John and I went last Tuesday for his 30th birthday, and it was a wonderful experience. We ordered the omakase so we didn't have to think about what to order, and what paired well with what. We were the only two customers in the place until the last 30 mins, so Rumiko (the owner) fussed about us. Everything was superbly presented. All we had to do was to order a sake, and enjoy the food.

The omakase consisted of 8 courses of small plates - think tappas Japanese style. This included two appetizers, one sashimi platter, one soup, two desserts, and two mains. Even though each taste was just a morsel, by the end of the night, even Mr. Hollow Leg John was stuffed. Besides, the flavors were so rich and different that we were able to savor each bite.

It will be hard to top something like Kappa. But that's ok, that's why we have special occasions only occasionally.

god bless mao

This article appeared in the SF Chronicle today. Its hysterical...

Mao Offered Women to U.S.

Thursday, February 14, 2008 15:34 PST WASHINGTON, (AP) --

Amid a discussion of trade in 1973, Chairman Mao Zedong made what Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger called a novel proposition: sending tens of thousands, even 10 million, Chinese women to the United States.

"You know, China is a very poor country," Mao said, according to a document released by the State Department's historian office. "We don't have much. What we have in excess is women. So if you want them we can give a few of those to you, some tens of thousands."

A few minutes later, Mao circled back to the offer. "Do you want our Chinese women?" he asked. "We can give you 10 million."

After Kissinger noted Mao was "improving his offer," the chairman said, "We have too many women ... They give birth to children and our children are too many."

"It is such a novel proposition," Kissinger replied in his discussion with Mao in Beijing. "We will have to study it."

ahh... the memories

Today, MTV announced their very own "Real World" awards show. (Seriously.) Of course, no Real World history could omit Coral, from Back to New York, a.k.a. my former roommate from hell. This should bring a nostalgic tear to my friends from 1999, who provided refuge for me from her.

The award she is up for is very appropriately named.

I wanted to embed the video, but MTV doesn't publish the link, so go here to check out Coral in all her glorious insanity: http://www.mtv.com/ontv/specials/real_world_awards/category.jhtml?catId=roommate_from_hell&cpid=9

In fact, it was MY interview with the producers that got her onto the show. One of these days, I'm going to get off my lazy ass and write up those stories.

btw, some fresh pumpkin...

What a bunny-bunny!

the irony of pumpkin

Yes, I know its been more than months since I've posted. Everytime I think of something to write, I get distracted by the adorable little puppy I have at home. Or, rather, distracted by something bad that she's doing, trying to do, or trying to pretend she's not doing.

(It doesn't help that my wireless has been down for weeks, so I'm tied to the LAN line - which is closest to my couch - and everytime I sit down with the laptop, Baby plants herself on the keyboard.)

One of the bad things Pumpkin has been doing is eating her own poop every once in a while. According to my Vet, is normal puppy behavior. But still - EW. So I've been trying different ways to get her to stop doing it. I've tried scolding her (associating negative consequences), spraying bitter apple on it, even adding MSG - which my vet said would work, and promptly induced a tummy allergy in the poor thing.

Finally, I found something non-toxic to add to her food that seems to be working. Yep, you guessed it... pumpkin!

It took feeding Pumpkin pumpkin to get her to stop recycling her food. The irony is beautiful.