Barkley let us know last week that they would be holding office Olympic events to celebrate with our friends in Beijing. Complete with torch run featuring yours truly. Why not throw down and do it up in style, so, with a run to the thrift store and some costume pieces from previous events I am prepared for the opening ceremonies. Wish me luck. It’s a good thing I don’t embarass easily. 
Tim
The other night we had a gathering at Mom and Bill’s…complete with burritos, beer, and the Olympics. (Although that didn’t interest Watson half as much as Jungle Book!)
On the back deck a couple of pots were just begging to be photographed…Mom wanted them “blogged.” Such ego!!! 
The birthday projects have lingered a bit due to the sheer size of the goals…but, fortunately, we were able to finish up the West side of the house this past weekend!
The grow light that Bill arranged in the sunroom is now working its magic, as well. It’s so cool to have that on at night and see the brightness from outside the house…looks almost supernatural!
Rae
From Gabriel (08.07.08):
Last night was one of those rare kind of dinners not easily forgotten. Eunjin, Daniel, a girl named Ukimi, and myself met up with another family in the seaside town of Tomari located 20 minutes north of Rokkasho-Mura. Tomari is famous for their squid. Yes, squid. Exiting the car we noticed that there were maybe 25 or so Japanese men gathered around and endless supply of styrofome containers. The day’s squid arrived and was being auctioned off. It was a complete fury of activity, the business of squid.
Tomari Ohashi Bridge over the Tomari Harbor
The Tomaria is famous Japanese restaraunt known for their fresh fish. It is very cozy with only 3 sitting rooms and a few seat bar. I took my sandals off and found my cushion indian style seat on the floor. In short time our room was filled with beer, edamame, and a good vibe.
Then comes the ride. Now I am good to eat most things, or at the very least try them. Slimy and chewy are not my thing but the reigns on those guidlines were let go pretty early on. There were all sorts of little plates with beautifully prepared foods; a breaded chicken sesame type thing with salad, steamed shells home to slimy and chewy things, and a fresh crab egg drop soup. Oh, and who can forget the raw, yes RAW beef liver. Seriously no typo here RAW BEEF LIVER. Little bit of cut leeks and soy sauce wrapped inside some raw liver and totally %(*#&ing disgusting.
Now it picked up from there. We were honored with a really rare kind of raw sea urchin which looked like a cold yellow and orange mush. The color of Bert and Ernie. One of the women’s mothers acutally brought it to us at the restaraunt. And in truth with a little soy sauce it was actually good. One woman said, “Flavor of the Sea.” Little did i know what this sentence forshadowed two looming culinary events. First, boiling in front of us in small ceramic pots was a crab gut situation with egg…flavor of the sea. Now this was not a particulary good flavor to say the least, but it was nothing compared to the raw squid intestine which apparently tastes like the “flavor of the deep sea.” This was more of an Ernie color with the consistency of maybe an i’ve had the flu for a little over a week flem booger. The custom here is to take a few pieces of raw squid and drag through the Ernie colored situation, little bit of soy and your set.
Mind you, this all didn’t happed at once and was drawn out over 3 and a half hours. There was plenty of Asahi beru (beer) to wash this all down.
The Eggplant! I forgot about the eggplant. This i will definitely learn to make. It was basically half an eggplant baked with miso paste, soy, and some pepper. Crazy amazing or maybe just the most familiar thing on the table besides beru.
Finally my dining dilligence paid off with a huge platter full of sashimi (raw fish) Every fish on this plate was local, so amazingly fresh including; salmon, a large kind of sardine, squid, white fish, and shellfish which is suprisingly crunchy. Some soy sauce and wasabi and i was in Heaven. One of my favorite treats in life is being able to eat sashimi to my hearts content. And it was.
Click here for a nice “Oogahorn” sound effect
Message from Gabriel:
I haven’t bought a car yet. The whole car thing started out as a big pain, but has worked out quite nicely so far. I have a small window of time until I have to decide which car to buy. I am leaning toward buying a small car called a March which I think is made by Nissan. It is red but similar to this and maybe a bit older. The good news is that it only has 50,000 km, has 2 years of Japanese insurance called Shakken already paid (which costs around $1000 US), and only costs around 170,000 yen or about $1700 US. Plus it gets great gas mileage. We will see what else comes up, but I think it’s a good deal. No one else in the whole village has a red car, so I would be easy to spot!
