Jeff was surprised that I'd brought home "pink carnations." First of all, they are peonies, not carnations. Carnations are cheap tacky flowers they always dye stupid fake colors like blue or green. And they smell like nothing much. I always hated that they were the flower of my birth month. Second of all, I have said on many occasions that although I despise pink as a rule, natural things like flowers and sunrises and kitten noses are totally allowed to be pink. In choosing this combination of peonies, which are pretty and smell good, I was reminded of Victorian botanical illustrations. Or like this.















I do have a romantic streak, people.

Anyway, Friday night, Mooney had his birthday party at the Blue Corn for the first time (his usual venue had closed). Happy for us, too.















This makes me think that Mooney and Jeff share some kind of Gachapin/Mukku affinity, or that Gachapin/Mukku-wear is the in thing for birthday gifts this season.















I was determined to capture my favorite Mooney song on video this time, as I do not have it in any other format. I don't know what it's actually called, but I know it as "The Neko Song" or "The Spoon Song." Love it.



Again I was coerced into drinking a shot. This one was Jagermeister, which I hate almost as much as tequila. They got me when they said it was for Kevin, who really wanted to be there. Crap. Fine. I did the shot. Seems like Kevin was really there in spirit, because just as we finished our shots, the table mysteriously tipped and spilled my Maker's-soda and Helen's beer all over my foot, just as if some long-legged coltish German had upset the table in high spirits. Just the alcohol, not the water that was also on the table. Helen may have been the vehicle, but the Germinator was definitely driving.

Things got sillier after the last set, as they do. Mooney kindly shared his ordered-in sashimi with us. I was closely observed as I tried raw horse meat. I disappointed my observers by shrugging. It was okay. Red meat. Less chewy that the tako that was next to it (I dislike chewy octopus. So hard to get it tender).

Streamers came from somewhere. Which looked dashing on Susan and Helen both.





























These flowers-on-wire showed up, too, twined around our fingers. I somehow ended up engaged to Mooney, as well as to Susan, who is also engaged to Helen. Hm.

I awoke the next day, happily still married to just one man, and the family went to go see Indiana Jones 4 with a couple of kid-friends. I was very anxious about this long-anticipated movie, but I ended up liking it. Biggest point in its favor: Karen Allen. Only good Indiana Jones heroine. And nobody tried to make us believe that no time had passed. She had aged, Indy had aged, it was the 1950s. Every bit of 50s iconography you could think of was there, giving it a great pulp-serial-adventure feeling, which is exactly what the original Indy Idea was all about. I had to remind myself of this when something seemed a little too much, like Cate Blanchett's silly (Boris and) Natasha accent, or the origin of the chosen Precious Object of this movie (the crystal skull). It's not meant to be realistic. But it didn't annoy me anywhere near as much as Temple of Doom did, with its Scooby Doo ooga-booga tiki/voodoo-god crap and the most annoying heroine in the world.




















"Oooh! I broke a nail!" And what's with that hair?

So yeah, on the whole, I dug it. It's no Raiders, but you just can't top that.















After, we went to Negishi Koen for a bit. M & his friend ran off into the woods to shoot their BB guns, while D & his buddy attempted to fly the cool eagle kite he got in China. Though Jeff flew it most of the time.



That's pretty much it for excitement this week. Oh, and some guy got stabbed at a bus stop in our neighborhood. And a bat-shit crazy guy went on a stabbing spree in Akihabara, killing 7 random people in the crowd. After running into them with his truck. Because he was "tired of life." Whatever. Japan is losing its reputation for low violent crime statistics. I'm getting out of here.

I'll leave you with this. Jeff chided me for snapping this photo. I couldn't help it.