Right now I'm eating some leftover pansit with a chopped tomato with kosher salt and a mashed fresh garlic.

I paid most of the bills today. I'm totally in the hole, but I've got some checks coming in this week, and I've got a plan to be back on track. If only I could just stop eating. H does not seem to be able to go without heat.

Let's see what's happened in the past week. The director of Supersize Me came to my work today, and gave a talk and answered questions. Ron Sims and Michael Irons of the King County Coucil tried to explain to new voters the difference between democrats and republicans. After two weeks of never getting the phone call with the estimate, I picked up the digital piano from the repair shop; it was worse than when I dropped it off. I took it back the next day.

J flew in from LA, we went to a casino for drinks because I don't know or care much about Tacoma. The next day I watched the town hall debate between Kerry and W, and then picked up J and we both went to the airport to pick up M. He wanted pizza, so I took them to Zeeks (R wasn't there). I really enjoyed the pizza, but J and M didn't seem too impressed. I only like Zeeks, Mad, Northlake, maybe Atlantic Street, none of which are fancy enough to take guests to. After that we went to the Harborside for dessert.

The next morning I got up and bought that frozen shrimp that my family is crazy about. I personally would rather cook it myself. Anway, I brought it to Auntie E's and then met J and M at Ho Ho Seafood. They introduced me to H and A. They had ordered fish maw soup, deep fried crab, beef chow fun, and manila clams with black bean sauce. We went to Yummy House after that; I got a sponge cake; J had a petit four, and the others got cake: strawberry, chestnut, and cream.

Then we walked over to the Wing Luke Asian American Museum. I'm going to reccommend it to the diversity director. We went to Pike Place (they kept calling it Pike's), wandered through. J and H bought some slippers from the pinoys on the corner. They bought fruit bars, I think, and then we stopped for a caramel apple: we got pecan bear, I believe. Then they bought flowers (so silly) for my family. But before going there, we stopped at the Ballard Locks, saw the engineering, saw the salmon, etc.

Finally we went to my family's party. We were directed to eat immediately; they didn't even ask for our coats. There was pinakbet (which M ate), chicken legs, lasagna, karekare, whole fish, Auntie Baby N's beef lumpia, and lots more, I can't remember. Mostly I remember the lumpia and the lasagna. Later Auntie Baby N told us that there was soy sauce in the lasagna. We listend to B sing a couple songs, and then I gave the signal to go. I was thinking my friends were getting bored, but J seemed a little sad to leave. My family is fun and charming.

Actually, Uncle T and Auntie N were the ones who talked to them the most in the basement, which funtioned as the 'kids table.' In my family, the 'kids' (i.e., the kids, the in-laws, the out of town guests, and other non-Vs) end up at the 'kids table' not because they are not welcome by the adults, but because the adults are so boisterous that it intimidates them. Playing ping pong with M, I asked him if he was still intimidated by my family. He said "No!" and then he said "less." We asked C, M, and H where we could go get drinks and be asian. Auntie N recommended Bush Garden karaoke. My friends were intrigued, but I explained later. Auntie N is charming.

We ended up going to H and A's place for a couple of bottles of wine. There we had some intelligent adult conversation. We ended up talking about squid, so H rallied us to go eat. We ended up at Honeycourt (down the street from Bush Gardens) and ordered salt and pepper squid and a couple of bowls of congee; one sliced fish and one chicken and abalone.

The next morning I went to brunch at Auntie Baby N's with C, M, H, and Auntie R. Auntie Baby N is a food trip. Fluffy moist pancakes, bacon, beef lumpia, shrimp, sausage and pepper omelettes . . . we joked that it was less brunch and more pre-lunch, or prunch. Apples, grapes, bananna bread.

I took Auntie R to my place to wait for H, and then my friends showed up. I didn't even get a chance to put away dishes, much less shop for food. So we had some tea and fortune cookies. Then we went to the Crab Pot and looked at furniture (I think the Crab Pot gave me the poops last night; it wasn't as salty as before, but prices are up, and I can still make it better at home). I think after that we went to H and A's place, and then it was off to the airport.

Today I slept it, ate lunch at Lemieux, bought myself a hoodie, went grocery shopping, paid bills online, and that's about it. I am just behind on work as I was Friday afternoon.