o brother, here art thou

My cousin Kevin was in town briefly on a layover between Ohio and Taiwan (he goes to Oberlin College). And before you ask - no, he's not my brother/cousin because his father and mother are related. His mom and my mommy are sisters, and we lived within blocks of each other most of his life. Since we're both only childs, and I would go over his house after school (Grandma was there), I pretty much consider him my little bro.

I was lucky enough to get upwards of 3 days notice that he was coming through this time. Last time, I got no notice at all...

[Cut to hazy flashback sequence]

Phone rings...

Serena (sitting in hotel room in Sacramento): Hello?
Kevin: Serena? Its Kevin.
Serena: Heya.
Kevin: Can you pick me up? I'm at SFO right now.
Serena: What?! You're here?!
Kevin: Yeah, didn't I tell you I was going to be coming through?
Serena: You vaguely mentioned three months ago that you might be coming to SF in August. But you didn't send me an itinerary or anything! I can't pick you up, I'm in Sacramento.
Kevin: Oh.

[Cut back to present]

The stupid dorkwad ended up taking a shuttle to our apartment building, and Nathan had to let him in. So I consider three days notice and being in town a huge improvement.

In any case, buttmunch that he is, I was really glad to see him. He's still my little squirt - after all, we were temporarily living with my aunt and uncle when he was born. I picked him up from his other aunt's place in Cupertino after work on Wednesday, and took him out to a fabulous sushi dinner at - you guessed it! - Chin's.

The food was fabulous, as usual, and I was super excited because there were new items on the menu. Yes, I've been there enough that I've sampled everything at least once. We tried out the Miso Crab Cakes: tiny little crab cakes drizzled in curry oil and marinated in miso, accompanied by some salmon sashimi. Delicious. We also ordered a new roll, whose name escapes me, but it was pretty damn good: tempura scallops topped with fried garlic and avocado. Its got a fairly subtle flavor at first, but the aftertaste - when the garlic hits you - is amazing. We topped it off with the best lychee ice cream in the world, which I just found you you can buy at Smart and Final!

I drove him to the airport the next afternoon, and gave him a hug. "Come back, squirt," I said. "I totally miss you."