what, that was a week ago?

to the tune of: Special Cases by Massive Attack

yeah, that probably means it's time for another update. Our day off last week found us getting completely lost on this hill looking for Los Trancos, despite our nice printed directions. Streets and Trips, it seems, is far better at finding the nearest Safeway than the entrance to a nature preserve. But it was still a nice, if somewhat short, hike.

Friday night more white people than I'd ever gone with packed into a karaoke room and lasted two hours. A far cry from the marathon all-night sessions we used to do in Japan, but a respectable performance, in which Todd, Jim, Jen, Kathy, and I formed our own boy band to croon through the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync stuff that made such better jokes than real songs. It was weird though, the first time I'd been to a karaoke bar without doing any Japanese or Chinese songs...

But fear not, I got my Japanese in for the weekend playing Naruto Ninja Gekito Taisen (Fierce Ninja Battle, loosely). Which was way more fun than I expected. The whole game is nicely cel-shaded, so it looks more like a well-drawn anime than a video game. Think Street Fighter, but with more animated ninjas who can each bust out special moves if timed right: Sakura lets out the raging "inner Sakura", Haku surrounds his enemy with mirrors and shoots them with lasers; you get the idea. And all the while they trash talk in Japanese. So entertaining to watch...a four-person match turns into the Weakest Link. Oh, and Tim turned 23.

We have so many baked beans leftover from our right proper southern cookout it really isn't funny. But, I must say I don't mind the leftover chicken and creamed corn at all. Soo good... real live Southerners Kathy, Kelsey, and Michael came up with some fine impromptu recipes.

I can't stop myself. Today I bought a wireless router and a new hard drive (for storing all those perfectly legal, er, backup copies of movies and music. Yeah, I just need to back up my flatmates' music collections, you know, just in case something happens to their computers...