Life's short and boring...

As everyone saw, I put up the new comic yesterday.
Actually, I just got back from Wisconsin. We went to Wisconsin Dells for a ski trip. Seriously, who goes to the "waterpark capital of the world" in the middle of winter on Christmas day?! Everything except hotels were closed, we starved because all the food places were closed.

I was very worried and didn't want to ski because I had broken my collarbone years ago from skiing and I couldn't use my left arm for 3 months. I ended up skiing, I'm still very good at it even though I had an 8 year break from it. I even taught Miki how to use the ski lift (she's been on the bunny hill since we were kids). The hotel we stayed at was Hotel Rome, which weirdly enough is located in the "Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park?" When did Rome end up in Greece?! We stayed inside the Roman Colosseum... which was right next to the giant Trojan Horse. The inaccuracy they're feeding to the tourists!

Wanna see the gingerbread house I built for my Christmas Party?

I was so yummy and candy-loaded. It was destroyed so fast.

Anyways, my family is planning yet ANOTHER trip, this time to "Canadia" (yes, misspelling out of hatred).

Ugh, I really don't want to go! We're visiting my cousin that lives up in Toronto. My only motivation for going to Toronto is the Chinatown(s) and the exotic Thai fruits that are illegal in the US but can be sold in Canada. I am going to stuff my face with mangosteen, dragonfruit, custard apples, and durian. I don't care for Niagara Falls, I'm sleeping in on the day they go to the falls.

I'm going to see if I can get out of going to Canada.

I need to post now before I go to work. I probably won't be posting this weekend because I might be busy.

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tomorrow, I'm going to a FOOD EXPO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Food... my most favorite thing in the world. I can't wait to try all the different foods. OHHHHHH!!! There will be futuristic kitchen equipment!!!! So much food and so many people!

Since I'm a business owner, I can connect and set up deals with the suppliers and vendors. That means I get to carry my flashy business cards, yay!!!!!!

Delicious food, here I come!!!

I wanted to draw all day, you know I really do.
I got stuck going to the dentist this morning.
After being tortured by the Novocaine syringe and getting cavities filled, we went off into the suburbs...

I wanted to stop by Mitsuwa, just because I was super hungry!
Well... I like hanging around the bookstore. I went to the usual ramen place I liked as a child located in the food court. I got my usual shio-ramen and I got an additional side dish of "natto."

It was my first time eating natto... Seriously the texture and smell are super intimidating!!! I HAD NATTO FOR THE FIRST TIME! It's a real taste bud shocker, it is! It's hard to get pass the fermented stink and the slimy gooeyness, let alone the putrid bitterness. It's not bad, it doesn't hurt to try new things. What do Japanese people see in this. To me, I was only able to get it down by holding my breath. To be honest, it was gross. But believe it or not, I finished the whole bowl.

Hehehe... I so gotta e-mail Miki about my natto experience. She's been traumatized out of eating fermented soy based items because of natto.

After Mitsuwa was school.
After school, I went to a friend's restaurant to get some dinner for home. Then while I sat and ate, I watched Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. Yeah... I was watching for quite a bit. I was watching it and nearly forgot to finish up today's drawing.

But I still got the drawing up.

I thought I should write this now since I have some time.
So anyways, Miki got back from Vegas last week. I'm so happy!!! She got first place! Overall, she said it was fun. As long as there were good memories from the competition, I know they'll last. A victory is a victory, but we didn't get to celebrate. Everyone's been busy, even me. But, Miki did bring back a gift for me.

Check out what Miki bought me:

Isn't it awesome!? It's a scorpion lollipop!!!
I haven't even seen these before! It looks good. Miki actually bought me something that suits my unique sense of taste. And yeah... that's a real scorpion in there. It's banana flavored, I can't wait to eat it, yet I don't want to eat it because it's too beautiful and I really want to keep it as a novelty. But Miki says I should just eat it because we'll come across more wacky things from different places we'll visit in the future.

So... while Miki was basking in the glory of her triumphant victory in Vegas, a rare opportunity presented itself. Miki was offered a scholarship to study abroad in Taiwan!!! Of course this scholarship is for her to sharpen her cooking skills, a culinary arts scholarship... We were talking about it for a bit today, Miki has been thinking really hard about it. She's still unsure if she should stay or go. We talked about it.

Me:NOOOOOO DON'T GO!!!!!! I CAN'T BE SEPARATED FROM MY SISTER, I CAN'T SURVIVE!!!!

Miki: what do you mean? mom's not going to starve you.

Me: I'M GOING TO MISS YOU!!!! I HAVE NO ONE TO TALK TO!!!

Miki: it's only for a short while.

Me: now that I think about it... Taiwan...

Miki: uh-huh...

Me: since you're going to Taiwan, you could totally stalk Wu Chun!

This is what followed...
And that's where I got today's Miki's quote of the day:
"OHHH... I'M SO GOING TO TAIWAN NOW!!!! Aww... how thoughtful, you're thinking about your future brother-in-law."

Miki loves Wu Chun...

Oh yes! In addition to that...
MY BIRTHDAY IS THIS SATURDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!
My party is going to be on Friday. I'm so excited. I've missed my birthday for the past few years. My birthdays have been really sad for me too. I always try to invite my friends months in advance. But.... they always flake out the day of my party. In the end... either two people show up or no one shows up at all. I begun to hate my birthday after a while. Why bother if people don't show up? Why bother if no one cares? My family (except Miki) ignores my birthday. No one does anything special for me. I don't get a "happy birthday" and I don't even get a cake. According to tradition, because my birthday is so close to a bad day, we aren't supposed to celebrate it. But instead, it's just made me miserable.

This time, I'm actually going to have a party on Friday. My friends have confirmed their availability. Attending will be: Maciek, Marvin, Jason, and Ex. Yay, my birthday is so close!!!!!!!!!

After I woke up this morning... I started watching Zoids Genesis.
I went through three episodes and then went down for... lunch? I ate the remainders of that Kobe burger. I had some blueberry toast too. I finished and went back upstairs to watch more Zoids. I watch five more episodes before I left for work.

We drove off to work and there were already customers waiting outside because we were a little late. I walked in and prepared the AC. The customers were then seated. After a while of observation, I walked out and across the bridge to check out the Batavian Art Fair. Like I said, Batavia is a town filled with artists. There was this old couple that ate at our place yesterday, the eat here often. They're kinda famous around Batavia. Last year, that old man and his wife took first place with their amazing artpieces. The old man makes miniature scale paintings. Like 2 x 1 inch paintings. For something of that scale, the painting was so detailed and breathtaking. It was so beautiful. I admire the old man's work, it's hard to believe that such beautiful work can be done in such a small space. He even invited us to view his newer works at the fair too. When I arrived at the fair it was already clean up time. I just missed him. I walked back to the restaurant and continued watching more Zoids.

It's sad isn't it? I spend my work hours watching anime.
I watched nine episodes at the restaurant today. I then took a break and ate "basil noodles," not my favorite dish, but I was hungry. I was in more of a panang mood, but they wouldn't cook it for me anyways because it's bad for my health. In the anime, the battle is getting intense. But I'm not sure about this... there were an awful lot of Avex advertisements in Zoids Genesis. There was an Avex endorsed ad for the Kamen Rider OST and then there was one for the Zoids anime too. Not only is "DAI" (don't feel like typing the whole name) advertised but the voice actors in the anime sing the ending song too, so they were advertising for their own OST too.

Later, Miki and I stopped by Walgreens to pick up some allergy meds and basic stuff I needed like batteries for my Zoids at home and some extra snacks so I wouldn't starve in Chicago.

Miki will be home tomorrow. We'll get to hang out, but she'll be at the gym first thing in the morning. I'll just build another Zoid or watch more anime while I'm waiting at home, it'll be fun.

So I woke up, ate breakfast... spam and eggs.
I actually didn't leave Arata's house today. Miki left the house with Arata and Chizu-san to go grocery shopping. They were out for half the day. I stayed home with Arata's Grandma. I sat around playing on my laptop. I was watching a drama special. While I was watching, Arata's grandma came up to me and gave me red bean ice cream, I was so touched, grandma was worried because I didn't eat lunch. Miki and everyone else still didn't return, so I watched something else.

I had been itching to see the One Piece: Strong World movie, I remember Ex kept raving about wanting to see it. I got it on my computer and I just watched it. Strong World was so good. This movie was one of the somewhat rare occasions that Nami gets kidnapped again. I liked Biri, so cute, there's shops all over Japan that sell Biri plushies. The Straw Hat Crew looked so badass in this movie. Overall, it was good, but I have to say, my favorite all time One Piece movie would be "Dead End Adventure."

After Miki and everyone got back, Miki made a delicious dumpling soup. Arata's mom made a wonderful tempura platter with all sorts of vegetables and lots of shrimp. I ate a lot of fried lotus roots, my favorite.

After dinner, Arata took us bowling at a place near the house. There was a special discount today, it was 850 yen a game. The average cost of bowling is about 3000 yen everywhere else. We did one game of bowling.

Striking a cool pose..... then falling onto the ground miserably.
I had fun... it's sad that the bowling alley prints out your scores, I did horribly. I had a lot of fun! We hit the arcade after bowling. This place had a lot of games, most of which I have never seen before. Many claw games too. And Miki's favorite, the picture machines. We did two rounds of pictures and then returned to Arata's house.

Now I'm tired, I need to wake up super early tomorrow so I can go ice skating!
I'll write soon.

My meeting plan was a fail yesterday, mostly on my part for not even checking my stuff on DW. I partially blame my faulty e-mail too. But in this case it was primarily my fault.

I wandered around Hachiko plaza for about two hours and wow did I see interesting sights. Everyone is familiar with the "Tale of Hachiko," right? You know, the dog with extreme loyalty, he escorted his master to Shibuya station every day and even went back to the station to pick up his master. One day his master died at work and Hachiko still waited even though his master would never return. After decades have passed, Hachiko's statue has become a landmark spot for people who want to meet up. Everyone who waits there is usually waiting to meet up with a friend.

While I was sitting on the uncomfortable bench, there were a lot of people waiting for others. I saw a lot of interesting things. There was this old man next to me, he ended up falling asleep while waiting. Now, these benches are a little weird and painful to sit on. Think of a two-tiered railing, one railing you sit on and the other you lean back on. You need to sit upright to balance and even stay on. The old man feel asleep and just completely fell over and landed on his face. The impact woke him up right away. When he woke up, the person he was waiting for just arrived.

I think I also may have spotted "Wakaba Ryuya" walking out of Shibuya station. It's a possibility, he was in a horrible disguise though (he was wearing a nasty wig). There were a lot of screeching girls taking his picture. Maybe it was him afterall...

So... while I continued waiting, there was another Japanese guy sitting next me. He appeared a little older than me with somewhat short red dyed hair. He too was waiting for his friend to show up. When it's uncomfortably hot outside, most people scratch their neck, wipe their foreheads, or fan themselves. I'm not trying to be weird and I WASN'T directly looking at this guy. More like saw it out of the corner of my good eye. While this guy was talking on his phone... he actually reached under his shirt, pulled his shirt up, and started scratching his nipple. That was really weird! I'm slightly disturbed he did that in public. About 15 minutes later his guitarist  friend showed up and they crossed the street.

Continuing... I ran out of water at one point. My refusal to leave my spot made me super thirsty and hungry. Now I know how Hachiko felt... Anyways, there was this other Japanese guy. Umm... I forgot what it's called but it's a popular trend in Shibuya for a specific style? Super tan skin and outrageous hair? I know what it's called for girls, but the term for guys is different. He waited by the Hachiko statue to meet up with his friend. So... this guy was REALLY tan!!! The pigment was disturbingly dark! This guy's skintone was equal to a Hershey bar! Not only did his complexion stand out but he wanted to be noticed... He was dark and his hair was bright hot pink!!! Dark skin and pink hair just clash, it screams "look at me!"

I got tired and Miki swung by to take me off to an amazing food wonderland located several meters from where I was waiting. It was an amazing super market. There were foods from all over Japan. All the ingredients were fresh. After being immersed in that beautiful underground paradise of food, we were on a mission to find "Tokyu Hands." Tokyu Hands is a shop that sells almost anything craft related or collectible. There's even random pharmacy stuff too. I went for the toys! There was one floor that had a lot of toys. I bought a robotic nano bug, oh it's so creepy. I bought some chibi Gundam models to build for fun in the hotel room. I also bought some randomized "One Piece" collectible pirate ships. When I opened the boxes, I got everything BUT the "Going Merry."

Let's face it, I will only buy toys, Japan is nothing more than a giant toy trip to me. I love being a kid (from my point of view I'm still 9).

On the way back from Tokyu Hands, which we technically got lost, we found..... what my friends were talking about "MANDARAKE!" It is well hidden on a side street. Mandarake isn't truly a building... We walked and I noticed the sign and I got excited, "WHOA!!! It's Mandarake! My friends were talking about this place! I can't believe we found it!" The sign was small and said "MANDARAKE" on it with an arrow pointing down towards a staircase. At first we were a little skeptical, should we go, should we not? We began to walk down the stairs... then a second flight of stairs... then a third flight of stairs... Then we were greeted by a blacklight lit entrance followed by an enormous windowless utopia of anime goodness. But then I had my crazy thoughts! THIS PLACE IS 3 FLOORS BELOW BASEMENT LEVEL!!! IT LOOKS LIKE AN UNDERGROUND ANIME CLUB!!! HOW BIG IS THIS PLACE?! THERE'S NO WINDOWS DOWN HERE!!! WHAT IF THERE'S A FIRE?! I explored a little the first aisle I checked out had... Zoids... Kid in a candy store... I picked out the ones that weren't sold in the states and when I walked to the back to go check out the display cases before paying. There it was... in the display case... an ultra rare... Japan exclusive... discontinued production since 2005... "Murasame Liger!" It was priced at $170... "Must have..." Am I insane for being a hardcore Zoid collector? I bought it... now I'm super happy and will not buy anything unfood related for my entire trip here!

I was busy for the rest of the night because we met up with Arata later. We ate. We did each others' nails (excluding me, I hate nail polish). We watched a Taiwanese drama which was on a Japanese channel? I think it was called, "Miss No Good" or something like that.

Well, today, we woke up early and went to the "Tsukiji Fish Market!" Its the largest fresh fish market / tuna auction in Japan. They had so many live fish!!! Thanks to the kind fish monger at the market, he let me film him paralyzing the fish in very violent ways. There was blood everywhere. I had a lot of fun! We then went to another section which also sold seafood and produce. There was another kind man that sold us a cut open / ready-to-eat sea urchin. He was happy to take pictures with us. We bought some fresh oysters from his place too. He poured soy sauce into the shells for us to eat right away. Obviously I'm an American, so I ate my oyster American style... which is to practically inhale them like shots or chucking them, as to Arata who slowly nibbled at the oyster. I quickly slurped the oyster whole, that oyster was gone in the blink of an eye. The guy who sold it to us was amazed and yelled, "SUGOI!!!" I'm guessing that oyster chucking is uncommon here.

We then got on the train and went to Harajuku. We found "Kiddy Land" an awesome toy store! They had a lot of Pullips. I bought a giant plush Ghibli cat, more One Piece ships, a Final Fantasy figurine, and two Bey-Blades. I was so excited over the Bey-Blades. They discontinued in the States a long time ago, the tournament leagues were disbanded all together. But the sport is still going strong and continues in Japan. I didn't know that Japan had new seasons of the anime and they even modified the overall designs of the Bey-Blades themselves. It used to be full plastic with a small metal weight ring to keep it balanced while spinning. Now, the center is full metal and the balancing weight ring has now become the main attack ring. Before, the top plastic panel was primarily used for attacks. Now, the full metal center is used for attacking instead.

Look at me going on about toys.
The main highlight was the Tsukiji Fish Market!

I hope Arata's house has internet.
I'll write soon.

Like my Yokoyama Yu icon?
I made it from the "Kanfuu Fighting" video.
I didn't have time to write yesterday. I need to make this quick because I want to hang out with Miki.

Yesterday in Batavia it was "Windmill Fest." Batavia's birthday. It was like a mini carnival, it had rides, games, and food. It was near my restaurant too. I snuck out of work and went to go play at the festival. I rode the ferris wheel, ate 3 funnel cakes, a one foot corndog, and kettle corn. Is it suspicious at all that the Chinese food stall sold funnel cake, corndogs, hamburgers, fajitas, crab rangoon, and Italian beef? I kid you not, the name of the stall was "East China Inn." What a fun filled day for me.

Today was Christina's birthday. She invited me to Gameworks for her party. I haven't been to Gameworks in a long time. When I got there, I refilled my playcard with $10. I was hoping to win a plushie out of those clawgame machines for her, but that ended up being a fail... After I walked away to go refill my card again, Christina got on the clawgame and instantly won a Chimchar plushie. Why do I now feel that unfairness enjoys taunting me? Anyways, we went to go play the "House of the Dead 4" ride/game. It was really cool, you even need to put a seat belt on. The seats for the game actually moved and rotated as if you were in the game. What I didn't like was the bursts of air that would hit you when a zombie from behind you is breathing down your neck... way to make it realistic. It freaked me out. But I did shoot the most zombies.

After we died on level 2 of that game, we went upstairs to the arcade games. We were looking around the DDR machines and fortunately we found a gamecard with 247 credits on it. That's a lot of money, I can't believe someone lost it.

After the party, my aunt picked me up and I ate a lot of yummy food. Now my stomach really really hurts.

Sorry for not writing for a very long time... again.
Miki even warned me too. She said... never look back(I'm kidding, "kat-tun joke"), what she really said was "careful Tess, people might think you're dead from not writing." Well! I am very much alive. See! I AM NOT DEAD!!! I'm still very busy with lots of stuff you know, I don't have all the time I want anymore.

Ha! Like it matters, no one would notice if I died. I'm too quiet to begin with... wouldn't be noticed at all.

With that out of the way, what is "The Taste?"

Well, it's short for "The Taste of Chicago." It's the largest outdoor food fair we have every summer in Chicago. Restaurants from all over Chicago gather and set up tents and sell their best dishes for tickets.

Dominick's Grocery sponsors the festival every year and like I said earlier, you need tickets to purchase food. It's $8 for 12 tickets, which equals about a strip. There's rides, free concerts, raffles, food, and test samples for drinks or products that haven't been released yet.

I went with Miki by train. It was so scary because we were the only ones waiting for the train.

Chi-an wanted to meet up... so after we got off the train, we wandered around(we were lost for a while) until we made our way to the "John Marshall Law School."

Right on the corner of the street... there was this giant eyeball that just stared off towards the lake(Lake Michigan). It was still being assembled... I wonder what it's for???

We looked around and we didn't see Chi-an. We called her and all of the information we could give her was... "we're next to the giant eyeball, in the corner of "State" and "Van Buren." What I didn't realize was that Chi-an was right next to us when we called her. We didn't notice until we walked apart.

Every year, I always buy crawfish from the same place, but this year they withdrew from the vendor's list. But my other favorites were there, like homemade potato chips, giant bbq turkey leg, and fried okra.

The place that sold these chips was nearby the "Buckingham Fountain."

There it is, all the way in back.
I tried a few new things too because there were also some new restaurants selling food at "The Taste." There was this one Afrian cuisine place called "Iyanze," that had the most spectacular Hibiscus sorbet. They also had a very interesting stewed goat which I regret not taking pictures of.

Later we met up with Santi, Chi-an's husband. Santi is awesome! He made a great list of places he wanted to sample food from. We did save him some goat, but because he was a little late, we kept teasing him about the goat getting tough because it had taken him so long to find us. But yeah, he recommended a mustard fried catfish... and the aroma... the herbs... seasoning.. texture... they all complemented each other so well. So mustardy, the catfish smelled fishy... seeing as it's one of the most smelliest fishes you'll ever find, in my opinion... the batter would work on tilapia very nicely. Sorry, no pictures of it.

For dessert we chose to try out "Churro Factory." The line was really long, the churros must've been really good. That's why we waited in line. They piped filling into the churros... melt in your mouth deliciousness. Freshly made churros are unbeatable.


On the way back to the main side of the fair we saw something interesting being sold at another restaurant. The "Abbey Pub"(it's actually near my house) had a stall at "The Taste" and one of their items was "Irish Curry w/fries." We all had a "lol...what?" moment,,, it was great. But out of curiosity we wondered, "what on earth is Irish Curry?!" Santi, who was laughing behind me said, "HA! No such thing, curry isn't Irish! It must be 'Japanese curry' or something." Chi-an and Miki were super curious and asked one of the workers what exactly was the Irish Curry and what was in it. The guy had no clue, he just sold the food. Out of fear, he ran to the back and got their chef to talk to us. He was laughing and said we were the first ones who actually asked about the curry in detail. Out of refusal to reveal anything, the chef just started lying his way through all of our questions like a joke. In a rather good Irish accent he said, "ah... the herbs picked from the highest peaks to season tis fine curry... made by laughing leprechauns with pinch of shamrock under a rainbow..." What a load of bull, now that we're suspicious, we ordered a taste portion. I tried the the curry... I recognized the scent and taste and I yelled, "you were right Santi!" The restaurant workers and their chef giggled as they had no idea about our secret conversation. Miki and I then screamed "IT'S JAPANESE CURRY!!!" Their chef was shocked and said, "now now, what's tis about? Hush down, tis Irish Curry, no no no, just fine Irish Curry." After we walked off, the chef had a grumpy look... Sorry... but you can't fool me, you can't call it Irish when it's clearly Japanese curry. Though he could easily fool people who have aged/dulled taste buds. Hehehe... Irish curry wasn't worth a photo, sorry again.

As my first day at "The Taste" grew closer to an end, we made another round back to Iyanze for some more Hibiscus sorbet. After that we all parted ways.

NOW! Day two!!!
Yeah I went back for a second day, this time with my parents. I did try more food today though. I had a plantain pork dumpling, more churros, chorizo w/yuca fries, hibiscus sorbet, rainbow ice cream, and bananas topped with mayonnaise(which was really an accident on Miki's part). Oh man... Miki... the bananas with mayonnaise were foul... don't ever do that again.

Speaking of bananas, Chiquita Bananas had their own tent. I got myself a banana hat and it was awesome! They were giving them out for free, but they were cool! I had so much fun wearing it.

I'm wearing it over my Tanaka Koki hat and it still looks ok.

While we were waling around in the back area, we could see all the grills they were using for "Robinson's Ribs." They were smoking and grilling a lot of meat. There was so much smoke everywhere.


It was so nice, we had a little picnic in the shade. Almost the perfect picnic.
My parents fell asleep after eating...


After the festival, we went into Chinatown because it was nearby. We were by New Chinatown.

My mom needed groceries... I wanted to take some pictures near zodiac square because they had all the cool statues, but it was a bit far(not really, it was a 2 minute walk) and we didn't have time. I did get a quick picture of the entrance of zodiac square.


As we left I also got a quick picture of the pagoda located in the center of the area.

And that was what happened recently. If I have more time again, I actually have some really interesting stuff to post.

Until next time, bye again.

Yesterday was Santi and Chi-an's wedding!
Miki and I had to cater for the entire party. A lot of people turned up for the wedding. It was a lot of work and I was working for free. The party took place at Santi's house. His house has no air conditioning. Not like it mattered, the majority of the party was outdoors. Not to mention that it rained all day, it was a good thing they set up tents. A lot of people still got soaked though.

Santi and Chi-an really wanted their food theme to be a full "Tapas" menu.

Appetizers

• Empanadas
• Steak w/ chimichurri
• Bacon wrapped dates
• Caprese
• Arugula Salad

Main Entrees

• Black beans
• Rice
• Grilled vegetables
• Cuban pork roast
• Paella con mariscos
• Picadillo
• Grilled plantains

Dessert

• Madelines
• Blueberry au citron
• Flan cheesecake
• Lemon cookies
• Creampuffs

As we were discussing the menu, both of us gave Santi this weird look and said, "Santi... Caprese.. IS NOT Spanish!" But he wanted it anyways. As long as his wife could get the bacon wrapped dates, he didn't really care.

One of the downsides to catering is... you work in a place where no one sees you. You're in an enclosed area with little ventilation and near heat blasting stoves. I have to stand all day and it hurts my feet. It feels different to be backstage during a wedding. You get to see the bride get ready. The make up artist cakes her face with tons of make up and she puts on her amazing wedding dress. As they announce her arrival from outside, as she walks out that door, she holds her breath and gives a big wide smile of relief. Then she gracefully glides through the door that separates her from the groom. As Chi-an walked out that door, I could hear people in the hallway crying. Being backstage during a wedding truly is an amazing experience.
After the ceremony finished, we already finished preparing the appetizers. We begun to work on the main dishes. For the steak appetizer, we cubed the steak and trimmed the ends and fat off and left them on the side of the cutting board to not be served. Unfortunately... the groom snuck into the cooking area and he starting eating all the unusable meat-ends we left on the cutting board. Santi was stuffing his face with steak as he was telling us that they already ran out of steak outside. Then he started hoarding the fatty pieces of meat-ends on the cutting board. Santi said, "I know it's bad for my heart, but it's where all the flavor is!!!" He left us to work on the other food. We took the pork roast out of the oven and it was so juicy and tender. Not to long after we carved the roast and served it... Santi's brother, Victor... saw the pork fat we trimmed off the roast and he started attacking the cutting board just like his brother. Both of us yelled, "Victor! Away from the pork fat!!!" Victor, who was still stuffing himself with pork fat said, "but it's so yummy and it melts in your mouth." In my mind I was thinking, you're a doctor Victor, you more than anyone would know how horribly unhealthy consuming pork fat is.

While I was working on the paella, I was opening the Arborio rice with a really sharp knife. There's a saying between people who know me and it's "Never give Tessie a knife!" I tend to accidentally injure myself when using a knife. Commonly I've chopped off my own fingernails... and that's a normal occurrence. On some occasions I have bled. When I was cutting open the Arborio, I held the knife in my right hand and the bag of Arborio with my left. My left thumb and index held the top of the rice bag open while my right hand sliced the bag open. Because the Arborio is vacuum sealed, the bag will move when you puncture it. When I sliced through the bag, the bag puffed up and the bag became thinner. Because the knife was still going, I underestimated the strength I was using to cut the bag open. All of this happened very quickly, so there wasn't enough time to think. The knife ripped through the Arborio bag very quickly and sliced right through my thumb. I had cut so deep into the flesh of my thumb that it actually reached the bone. I started bleeding all over the kitchen sink. I thought I had lost my thumb, it was a lot of blood. This is the second time I have nearly cut my same thumb in half. The first time was from a meat cleaver. First impulse from getting cut is for me to rinse it in the sink. Conveniently right in front of me. Then I got a sheet of paper towel and applied a lot of pressure onto the cut. I was squeezing the cut shut with my index finger and continued cooking with my clean right hand. I was cooking with one hand for the rest of the wedding. You know, from the time I got cut, I've been requesting a bandage through Miki... and I never got it until the end of the wedding because Miki kept forgetting. For the whole wedding, I was clutching onto a paper towel because "someone" never grabbed me a bandage!

This catering job was a success and everybody loved the food. By the end of yesterday, I was really tired and in pain. Victor's wife, Sue, knew I worked really hard on the food and gave me a nice long back massage. After Sue was done, Santi attacked me with his chair massager. It was a basic wall plug-in massage device you attached to any chair. I was sitting on a stool so Santi just held it up to my back and pushed up against it. Ouch! It really hurt! He was jabbing that thing into my back, actually, he was leaning on it. He said the deep tissue massage is even better with applied pressure. Yeah right! My back still hurts even right now.