nuki gets his hair cut

We scheduled to have Nuki's haircut today. Nuki is a fuzzy Malamute and he doesn't really like to have haircuts very much. However, it needs to be done once so often by a professional. And OMG it was $127.00 this time! It's not usually that much but I think there were some extra beautifying of some sort this time that the total exceeded the price of my haircut.

There's a little doggie bakery next to the grooming place and we usually like to go pick up some treats after Nuki gets his haircut... to compensate his "suffering" during the grooming. He likes "chicken and cheddar veggies" today.

"rou4 zao4" on sticky rice

We're not very festive kind of people, but I still managed to make something for the Chinese New Year's. I made "rou4 zao4", which is a traditional Taiwanese dish. I chose to used diced pork, while most people prefer it ground. I aldo added Taiwanese meat balls and eggs. It didn't look all that fancy, but it's delish! We put it on long grain sticky rice. Yum.

brokeback mountain posters

Don't laugh at me, but I still haven't seen the movie. However, I managed to find photo copies of the original movie poster, a Taiwanese version of the poster, and Ang Lee's autograph at a corner of a poster. Crazy huh!

happy chinese new year!

the guy that sleeps on the parking lot

I was walking to my car and saw this lump close by the dumpster, in the middle of the parking lot this afternoon. I went closer and saw that the lump was a middle-age man. I said, "Are you all right?" He moved a bit and tugged his arm under a pile of clothes. I then said, "Do you want me to call the cops for you?" And he started snoring.

Mikey walked out the building and said that he was on the phone with the dispatch and that they are on their way.

I had to take a picture of the guy before the cops arrived. It was just weird. Weird and amusing in a strange way.

When the cops arrived a fire truck came too. Then an ambulance came. The cops tried to wake the guy but he seemed to be enjoying his nap a bit too much. They finally told him he could not sleep in our parking lot. He was grumpy but finally got up and started rolling his sleeping bag.

Kuko, the cool Mexican guy that works upstairs at Stoneground, walked passed all these, dragging a giant garbage can that was almost as tall as him, just smiled at us. Mikey said, "I wonder what Kuko thinks about all these homeless guys that wonder around town."

As far as I know, Kuko works 100+ hours a week. He's a tiny Mexican guy who's always doing stuff when I see him. And then there are these big homeless guys who would wonder around and cause troubles to the businesses in the area and the government agencies and the library across street. What had happened?

OK I've got to write something about the well and strong homeless guys on the street some time. And I will also interview Kuko and see what he says.


Oh, and the guy's name was Clark. That was what he told the cops. I hope you moved on and did something cooler later on in the day, Clark.

santa fe console table

The Santa Fe Console Table we ordered from Overstock.com has finally arrived. There are other tables in the series and I'm thinking about getting the dinning table for the house since the dogs ate and shaped the legs of our current dinning table.



This table is "Crafted with carefully selected Brazilian pinewood, this table is the perfect addition to any decor. The hand-waxed finish, along with a hint of patina, ensures that there is no chemical odor and accentuates the natural characteristics of the wood. Measuring 50 inches long x 18 inches wide, it stands at a comfortable 29 inches tall."

sundance film festival 06

It's founded by Robert Redford in 1981 in the mountains of Sundance, Utah and this year's events officially start this weekend!

the chai lady

There's this lady who's been coming in to the caffe everyday and get a 16oz Chai this week. She came in this morning and said, "I've got to have your Chai one more time before I head home. It's the best Chai." I then found out that she's in town for business from San Francisco.

Thank you Chai lady. You made my day.

couch massacre

We built the dogs a "doggie room" out of our car port a few months ago. We put in two French doors and nice windows and eventually gave the dogs our retro and vintage 70s couch and a mattress. The dogs have been nice to the couch and the mattress for the past few weeks and today it finally happened. They killed the couch.



I don't know who started it. But I'm thinking it's Naicha and Yama.

snowy photo

Some people asked me what photo I used for my current banner. It's a photo I took in front of our driveway the other day when we had a lot of snow! I love the puffy snowflakes! OK in reality the snowflakes were tiny, but they showed up all big and fluffy in the photos!

more about peace

I'm still searching for a copy of "Peace, the Handraised Polar Bear." It's an NHK production from Japan. The search goes on. I'm thinking I may need to contact people in Japan before I can find it!

peace the handraised polar bear

John and I "accidentally" saw a programming on KUED last night (well actually early this morning). It was about a little Polar Bear named Peace in Japan. It is a wonderful story and Atsuhiro, the guy who raised Peace, is a true animal lover. I have to find a copy of the programming! And guess where I'm going to try to go next time I'm in Japan?

Peace: The Handraised Polar Bear

On December 2, 1999, a polar bear named Peace was born at Japan's Tobe Zoological Park. After his mother rejected the cub, zoo keeper Atsuhiro Takaichi took on the task of 'child rearing' and subsequently succeeded in handraising a polar bear for the first time ever in Japan and just the third time in the world. PEACE: THE HANDRAISED POLAR BEAR chronicles five years in the life of the young cub and the caring zoo keeper from the critical time after Peace was born to the arrival of summer and the cub's first swimming lesson. As efforts continue toward bringing up Peace, we witness an unbreakable bond of mutual affection and trust.

Ok the intro doesn't do it justice. Everyone's got to find a copy of the story and watch it!

sushi sushi sushi

I'm totally craving sushi right now. While we were in Osaka I took this picture of a restaurant's store front. Lots of sushi replica (and they looked so real!) displayed in the windows.

mocha

While I'm still without a cool digital camera and browsing through the pics I took with the Cannon S400 and remembering the good times we had, I found this picture of a Mocha I made.

39 cent stamps go crazy

So the USPS raised the standard domestic postage to 39 cents and of course invited a lot of complaints again. However, you can now create your own personalized postage stamps with your digital photos using a USPS licensed service called PhotoStamps. I think it's nifty. Pricy, according to me, but nifty.

camera dead

My precious Cannon S400 died the other day. I was mourning and that's my excuse for not having been blogging.

more bags

So I'm still in the bag making mode these days. I made a couple more this past few days. I'm on fire!

amber bock rocks

For New Year's Eve we were planning on going to the Bayou for some yummy beer, but then with the First Night events downtown we decided to just chill at home with the dogs to avoid all the traffic and chaos.

So we got Amber Bock from the store. I don't know if it's as yummy as the Japanese buckwheat beer that Kevin recommended but it surely made me happy on New Year's Eve. Yama was pretty excited about the beer too. Hmm... he's indeed half Japanese breed.