Just Add Lightbulb

I Wish I Could Use One Of These Once In a While...

But it hardly ever rains in San Diego.

Beverages

So Many To Try

Kinokuniya Bookstore

Uwajimaya is probably the king of Asian Grocery on the left coast.  Founded and based in Seattle, my family and I have sort of started making it a point to go there every time we are in the city.  To be fair, it's my little sister that makes it a point to go and makes sure that not one of us forgets that "we still need to go to Uwajimaya!"

While the grocery itself is amazing and a lot of fun to visit and explore for a bit, the Kinokuniya Bookstore that adjoins the Asian market is mind boggling.  The bookstore teems with shelves upon shelves of Asian language books, the overwhelming majority of which are Japanese manga.  Japan takes comic book culture to a whole different level than what many of us grew up with.  There is no Amazing Spiderman, Silver Surfer, or Green Lantern.  Surely, there are the equivalents and Japan's own superhero genre (Dragonball Z anyone?  Awesome.) but there are also thousands of comics about sports, mystery, school, gossip, dating, romance, aliens, fighting, adolescence, you name it.  And yes, plenty of (too many, really) comic books about school girls.  Maybe they're not actually about school girls.  Maybe they just feature them on a lot of different covers.

What's really interesting about this manga culture is that while a lot of us see comics and scream "nerd alert!", it seems totally acceptable in Japan for all ages to sit and read a comic instead of the newspaper while riding the subway or waiting for the bus.  I saw this with my own eyes while I was in Japan this summer.

I promise, those photos are on the way.  You'll see them...eventually!

This Is An American Football

Pep talk.

Power Punch

Utter despair in the upper right corner.

Winning With Authority

No superheroes here.  Just straight up football players.

Yep, I said it and I'm not from Great Britain.

Volume

Best Guess..."Loft" Apartments.

Living in a loft is all the rage but constructing new ones all over the place is too much the rage.

If Only Gas Didn't Cost What It Does...

I've been in love (LOVE) with the Defender for a long, long time.  It has such a rugged yet clean line to it and I think it's truly awesome that it no doubt drives and rides like a raw brute.  This, ladies and gentlemen, is a Sport Utility Vehicle.  No luxuries, just functional design and construction.  It's a go anywhere, do anything, always ready, never fails, never quits, point A to point B vehicle.  And it looks great.  It's timelessly cool.

Just a damn shame it gets 13 mpg.

Simply Satisfied

Satisfaction, yes.

Breakfast is hard to mess up but that said, it definitely happens.  Finding a simple, no-frills restaurant that knows how to cook an egg, doesn't burn the toast, gives you a massive waffle with syrup at hand, and refills my mom's coffee mug as much as she likes (I don't drink a lot of coffee) always feels like a great win and starts a day off right.  Places like this can be found anywhere.  You just have to give up on the fancy, embrace the simplicity, and get yourself through the door and to the plate on the table.

Summertime Dinners

The Crab and Sweet Corn dinner has started to become something of a family summertime tradition whenever in Seattle.  Pike Place Market is always a good time and a great place to get some fresh vegetables and crab.  Not always cheap but absolutely worth it.

From Below The Canopy

Mr. Hanks, I Found Your Friend

Don't You Miss Making Sandcastles?

I saw this and wondered why none of it was being used to build something.  Then I realized that maybe it's because a lot of kids these days might not have the attention span to commit towards building a full-fledged castle.  Well, at least this pail and these shovels were brought for a kid who was at the beach and outside instead of in front of the tele playing Grand Theft Auto.

Yep, I think there really are 5 year olds to 8 year olds out there playing that game.  Scary, yeah?

I miss making sandcastles.

Tracks Lead To Somewhere

Big Kite, Little Kite

One of these days, if I live near here and have the guts, I'm going to try this.  And I'm going to drag my dad along with me.

The Ebb And Flow

Weatherworn Wood by the Water

I think wood is so cool almost solely because it's often a safe bet that whatever wood you are looking at is really really old.

For Dear Life

Flying Kites