vacation starts tomorrow

We were swamped with big delivery orders all day. Mike came in to pick up his dinner and said, "Japanese girl won the gold!" The very first medal for Japan this Olympics, and it's gold! It seems winter games are much more intense and dangerous than summer games, without synchronized swimming, beach valleyball, and jump rope. Except curling. I don't quite get that one. My favorite has been short track, with that cutie Ohno, and freestyle aerial skiing. That's totally insane. For me running a marathon is nothing compared to THAT.

So after another busy day of work, with nothing ready for my vacation from tomorrow, just relaxing watching the Olympic games rerun. My amaryllis is almost blooming. I hope it surprises me in the morning with at least slightly open flower. I would really like to see that before I leave.
on february 24, 2006 @ 02:11 am [link]

since I deserve a vacation

I decided to have one. I cashed in the mileage and got a ticket to Barcelona at the end of the month. My friend Nuria will put me up. Because I hardly travel, it could be another kind of work and stress, but it would be a nice change of scenary.

Yesterday morning, I was surprised by the sight of a flower bud from my Amaryllis which hasn't bloomed in 5 years. Year after year I followed the instructions trying to have it bloom again. This year I never dug out the bulb from the pot. I kept thinking about it, because it was what I was supposed to do, according to the instructions that came with the flower. But I finally got it when I didn't follow it. Lessons learned: don't always follow the instructions, also, don't give up. In the afternoon, I sent out 6 more sushi masters into the world; it was another fun cooking class. Close to the Valentines day, three sets of couples showed up and shared their love for sushi: an official food of Japan.

The first blizzard of the season left me enough things to do in front of the restaurant. My today's workout was for the upper body strength (which I really need) through snow shoveling! At least it was fluffy powery snow and didn't have too much weight. Still plenty for my 30-minute workout.

I've been doing theme nights for music at the restaurant for a few days. Wednesday was George Clinton night, then Bowie night, followed by the Cure night and Dixieland jazz night. I don't know what's going to be tomorrow. I saw a wonderful film on DVD this weekend: "God is Brazilian." How come I never heard about this movie? It was beautiful, funny, and heart-warming. Music was also fantastic. Maybe it will be a Brazilian night tomorrow, which I often have anyway.
on february 13, 2006 @ 01:04 am [link]

New assignment

Kerry, one of my students from last months' cooking class, wrote a great review of my cooking class in her blog. Very cool. I always get nervous before the class, feeling like I don't know enough to give a class, and usually not knowing what kind of people are coming. But as soon as it starts, I can get into my groove and try to share the sometimes mystical world of Japanese cousine in the easiest way to handle and digest. I get great pleasure of teaching, and knowing that my students really enjoy it. This is definitely something that I would like to continue. Sharing is very important part of cooking and eating.

My friend Orly asked me to cater for her son Guy's Bar Mitzvah. I said of course! I know Guy from even before he was born. It would be interesting challenge for me to do some Jewish/Mediterranean dishes, although I am pretty good at all kinds of international flavors. Seth came in yesterday and wondered why I was studying Jewish cook books, and I told him the deal. 'I also have a book to lend!' Half an hour later he came back with another book for me to explore. I got some homeworks to do.
on february 7, 2006 @ 07:26 pm [link]