Summer Saturday in Seattle

Dinner at A's. Da la A si mangia bene. Vi faro vedere le foto dopo.

International District streetfair. I took the bus to the ID and met la H and la L at the Toyota Karaoke tent. The karaoke seemed to be about singing; we considered signing up but I decided not to once I saw how lame it was. The audience was sitting on their hands in the sun.

For some reason, McDonalds is promoting itself to Asian Americans, it's totally baffling, but the website is interesting. So of course, McDonalds had the most expensive looking presence at the streetfair, and to be fair, people were interested. The immigrants were, at least. Immigrants, wearing their sun visors were all over the McDonalds and Starbucks booths. Everyone else, including the Asian Americans, avoided the corporate booths like the plague.

The Republicans had a booth too, staffed by some young repubs who just... they just wear the wrong clothes to a street fair. Also, there was one rich Chinese guy wearing a republican tshirt. What a joke.

The booths to see were archipelago-inc, which is the awesome Filipino American culture t-shirt company I should have started in the 90s if I had any business sense. They are based out of Seattle and their shirts are all awesome. Let me know if you need any cultural explanation of the t-shirts. The other cool stuff was from spicy brown, run by some Japanese American kids who were quick to point out they were from LA (we know, son, we know). La H got pretty verklempt when she saw the salmon family tshirt.

There was also entertainment at Hing Hay Plaza; mostly dojos on display. There was a dragon team (lazy), some lions (shy) and some dogs (AWESOME!). I told la L that the UW cheerleaders should make a Husky mascot that worked like the Chinese costumes, instead of stupid Butch the Husky, who first appeared in 1994 when the UW athletic dept. discovered marketing. I told la L but she either didn't hear me or thought it was a bad idea.

Mool naeng myun. Ichiro was closed, so instead we went to the Hana at the Great Wall for some mool naeng myun. It wasn't that good, but it was fun surprising the Korean ladies with our addiciton for mool naeng myun. When we went to pay, I saw them sitting at a table eating salad rolls. Hey, I said, you're eating Vietnamese food! They giggled, yah, sometimes we get tired of eating that (pointing to the kitchen) all the time.

The neighborhood. Rushed home for an HOA meeting; it lasted an hour. I ended my term as HOA Secretary. We knew that the drughouse family and the B's were moved out, but la K broke the news that V was gone as well. Amazing! I think the Section 8 people across the alley drove her out.

With all the yuppies moving in across the street, the neighborhood is getting whiter; white neighbors = higher property values, which in turn gets me closer to my latest dream of owning a fabulous condo in Pioneer Square/ID/stadium district. I'm hoping the new owners of the drughouse tear it down and build a bunch of skinny townhouses for MORE YUPPIES.

Of course, more yuppies changes the feel of the neighborhood. White people tend to stay inside, so it's harder to meet them. I finally met one of the new neighbors across the street, and only because I've been walking through their alley on the way to the bus stop with the express purpose of running into and introducing myself to the new yuppies. I forget his name, but he seemed like a nice white kid and he had a lot of tatoos, so he's more like the old neighbors than the new yuppies.

Arrr. Dinnarrrr at Ivarrrrrr's; cajun style cod and chips with a cup of salmon chowder and an iced tea. Yes, it was too much sodium. Arrr. Then we went to see the pirate movie. Ay, the sea turtles!

I haven't done my Chinese homework yet.