Update Time

It occurs to me that I havent updated in a while....I'm not really sure why I feel a need to update, I just feel like some undocumented time is missing I guess. So last weekend I went to Columbus to visit Sarah at her parents' house, and also encoutered a large family get together, so I met a good amount of relatives...it was the first time I met a lot of her mom's side of the family. I did learn how to play bocce ball, which was fun. I took a greyhound there and back, and on the way back, I didnt have a ride from downtown, so I walked back to my house, which is maybe 2 miles away on the top of a hill, but it would not have been so bad except for the fact that it was quite hot and humid and I was wearing pants and had to haul 2 bags, so I was quite sweaty once I got back home....only to figure out my roomate who has a car had arrived back home sometime while I was walking, so I could have just waited and called him to get a ride.

So I tried to make a japanese red bean dessert on Sunday after getting back from C-bus, but I couldnt find a recipe for what I wanted to make, and what I did end up making didnt turn out quite correctly, and I ended up wasting a lot of time, but oh well, I still have bean paste and I plan on making anpan soon. I also want to try to make a baguette or at least some bread from a bread book I found in Sarah's book collection.

I guess I have been on kind of a Japanese kick lately, as I just finished Zen and the Art of Motorcycle maintenance, started The Samurai's Garden, and I went out to Jungle Jim's again to peruse the Japanese section for cooking ingredients, such as rice vinegar and sesame oil. Our main puropose there (at least my housemate Ben and I) was to pick up materials for making sushi, which we plan on doing soon. Perhaps it was inspired by the previous weekend's Japanese culture at the art museum, I don't know. Allright, enough updating, I need to actually work on my design crap now.

The door to Sarah's house sums up the party for her parents' anniversary and her grandfathers birthday: both their Norwegian (mom's side) and Italian (dad's side) families got together for quite a large get together. If my family had a party, we wouldn't have enough room on the door for all the flags...mostly just random european countries. 

Sarah's family playing bocce ball...I played before this with Sarah's Dad on my team and we won....mostly due to his late round skills

Tonight

Procrastinating,
I post pictures on my blog.
I should be working.

Samurai Domokun! 

Another interesting print...this one I believe was done by an American who lived in Japan for 50 years 

this is a detail from the print below: check out the modern laundry...jeans, tank top, and a culture club shirt

this is a more recent Japanese print that was on display...looks like an older traditional style japanese house 

feets 

cincinnati-dayton taiko group 

the box on the back seems to be entirely windows for what must be a magnificent vista 

an odd modern arabesque styled modern home in mount adams, with quite a view of kentucky....the house is for sale, but probably all kinds of expensive 

Mt. Adams...carrying on the tradition of odd water pouring fountains in Cincinnati 

The area just outside of the main downtown area in Cincinnati, as viewed from Mt. Adams 

a very bucolic view out of the window of Sarah's new apartment 

I visited this exhibit twice this weekend at the Cincinnati Art Museum, once on Saturday with Sarah, and again the next day. It is an exhibit on Japanese work coats (happi) and fireman coats (hanten). On Sunday they had a taiko drum performance...which my old japanese teacher is a part of (small world) and the curator of the textile and costume division of the LA county art museum talked about the exhibit, which was interesting. 

lobster attack 

I decided to stop by Graeter's to show Emily and Dan one of the foods that Cincinnati does right....I'm sorry, but Skyline is not good...I have become less dissapointed every time I have had it, but I think that means that my standards are lowering...I still wouldnt call it tasty. But anyways, we ran into my housemates on accident and then we ended up talking about all the places Emily and Dan had been and discussed various geographical things. 

the water goes up, and when all the water gets to the top, it kind of explodes and bubbles and agitates the grounds, then as it starts to cool, the brewed coffee gets sucked back down into the bottom part by the pressure difference 

the brewing process on my vacuum coffee maker....as tyler would say "wait, you havent even seen the cool part" 

I decided to brew cofee and it became an event for all 8 people in the house, including myself. 

My brother Dan and his friend Emily visited me on their cross country road trip that started from San Francisco. We are technically the eastern most point of their journey...they stopped here after a quick jaunt through New Orleans (between tropical storms) and while I couldnt find too many really cool things to do with them Saturday night, I took them and Sarah to a little Vietnamese place near my house. If you live in Cincinnati, you should defintely check out Cilantro on Clifton...its good and very reasonably priced (around 6 dollars for every meal). 

Sarah came back this weekend, and we took a trip to Findlay Market with my housemate Ben. Mostly we looked around a bit...looked at the numbers of pretty decent meat vendors and produce. Sarah and I picked up some pine nuts, gorgonzola, and pecans for making 2 different breads that Sarah wanted to bake. I have been meaning to go to Findlay market, but havent went since I've lived in Cincinnati, so it was fun. Also, the gorgonzola pine nut bread and the maple pecan bread were quite tasty and went fast. 

Training

So the Rocky Theme just popped into my head and I had to listen to it, and then I thought about how I need to get in better shape before my next race. I realized what I really need is a good montage. All I need is some footage of me training and running consecutively faster and maybe the theme to rocky and eye of the tiger, and badaboom badabing I'm ready to set an American Record. That is all. I need a montage.

some hooligan fireworks In the apartments directly next to the Church of Urban Outfitters 

This is our local Urban outfitters and Coldstone Creamery, which is just down the street from my house....probably a little wrong that they are in an old church, but its a pretty cool building setup, and definitely an entertaining concept that may or may not have been done on purpose 

fireworks in the neighborhoods 

this is a view of much of the athelitic area on campus, including the baseball field closest in view, and also with the football stadium and arena in view. On left with the lit sunroof is the newly redone student center. Many things are still under construction, as 2 cranes are visible, but a lot of things on campus are close to being done, so maybe my 5th year here everything might actually be done...although there is new construction that will begin at the area just right off the top of campus which should be nice when it is done (as that is some of the seedier side of campus) but they havent broke ground yet, so it will still be quite some time.