I've been cooking like non-stop since the beginning of the year. Thanks to the publicity from NY Times, many new people are finding their way to Suffolk Street. It's great, but it's tiring. A lot more work. But last weekend, I finally decided to do something else other than cooking. But it was such a miserable day with continuously drizzling rain, so some place near a subway station. I decided to take him to Ripley's Believe it or not in Times Square. Believe it or not, I really did. I even paid full price at the door. I didn't know it was cheaper to buy on-line. It's really expensive for what it is. It's a freak-show exhibit, mostly. There were some interesting things for Taiyo, though, like a mummified bird and an electric chair. But also some serious scary things that would haunt him for days to come. The videos and pictures of long-necked Burmese women were the scariest for him.

The tablet I dropped in the tub and died two weeks ago miraculously revived yesterday. The alarm suddenly went off on the tablet! I was about to give up on it. But then later that day I realized the devil took my digital camera instead. Somewhere between Ripley's and home, I lost my little digital camera. Of course it contained a tiny memory card with years of photos. Fortunately my photos are scattered between different medias and I didn't not lose a whole chunk of an era. I also don't remember exactly what was on it. There's too many pictures anyway. And there's too many videos. Taiyo's self-videotaping is even worse- he lets the camera roll for fifteen minutes at a time. Video digest from last summer is still one-hour long. Too long! So everything is a mixed blessing. What's lost is just some pictures. There's so many more to come and when do I ever have time to look back at all those anyway. If I am every really super rich, I would like to hire a photo/video record archivist as a household help.

So there's no photo today. Another Wednesday. Laundry, a trip to Restaurant Depot, a slice of pizza after school. A bad massage and a good massage. Nice folks for Sushi Class. Disappointed regular customers who didn't realize we were closed waving outside.

I finished reading "Slaughterhouse Five," such a funny, strange, and strangely-touching novel, by Kurt Vonnegut, I would say for me one of top five writers to die for, and watched New Year sunrise over frosted field in New Paltz. Watching sunrise is one of the common things we do in Japan to celebrate New Year after all night of partying. It's a remarkably beautiful moment when that first ray shoots at us across the ocean and we cheer on freezing beach. I really didn't meant to do that this year. I just woke up before dawn. And I decided to see the sunrise. It's New Year. Perfect.

A few hours later, I found it published online. SOY was in the New York Times. This happening on New Year's Day was way super auspicious in Japanese standard. I knew it was coming, since they sent the photographer and fact-checking emails were coming in from the Times, and I was so nervous, and that's probably why I was up so early that morning. And it turned out to be a sweet story. My friends were in tears. I spent too much time on Facebook that morning.
So it's been busy since I came back, cooking non-stop, literally. And meeting lots more people. So "stop being sad," a message from Taiyo says.

So some more of our endeavors during our vacation food-wise: Neko Sushi in New Paltz- Neko means a cat in Japanese so Taiyo wanted to go there, of course. Food wasn't terrible but something you can expect from a Japanese restaurant owned by Chinese. Sorry, but we are not really same people, and that's that.

We loved this place: Bridge Creek Cafe. Nice casual friendly place with fresh and honest food. Tasty seasoned pop-corn on the table.

New Year's Day. Lunch at New Paltz's classic P&G. When we arrived, the front of this bar was lined with Harleys. Taiyo tasted New England cram chowder and said, "It looks so gross, but so yummy!"

Then we had some heavy bar food. A crabcake sandwich for me. It was so tasty but got serious weight. It really didn't look that way. When the waitress asked me if we wanted to pack up the rest, I said no. I just wanted to ran away from it.

Another cute gem in New Paltz, Village Tea Room, where we had breakfast before heading back. It's a little house. Full of character. Great fresh food and inexpensive. Taiyo loved the oatmeal and smashed down the corn muffin, literally.

So all was good. Excellent. Look at this smile.