Have a holly jolly...

Many thanks to buddy/bandmate Kaz Iwai for the photography and photo art!

Smilefaucet presents

So Scott and I were honored to be part of Masa & Maggie's Smilefaucet film this year. Masa just posted the video so check it out. The theme this year was "chance" and Maggie did a fantastic job directing and coming up with the concept for the video. It was pretty hilarious trying to get all the moving parts to work, but gosh darnit we did. Masa did a great job covering up all the strings and pullies and their buddy Erik was a terrific help as well.

The party was fun and we also got to be part of the little title videos by playing musical chairs. It has been quite some time since I've played that game and let me tell you, it is just as wonderfully entertaining as I remember. But... much more painful when you lose than I remember. I guess there's a longer way to fall when you're taller and heavier. Good times! Kudos to Kaz and Yui for pulling it all together for the party and DVD. Go to the Smilefaucet site to purchase!

Thank you Arthlings!

Just a shout out to all my dear friends that have visited me at the hat shop and been so generous with their purchases. Thank you so much! It's always the best part of my day when a buddy drops by and it's fun to force, er, suggest hats for everyone.



I must say, my friends can pull off a mean hat. Hot, people... hot! I think a hat really does give people happiness and sometimes even confidence. Something so simple as a hat... who would've thought.


So thank you again my good friends and feel free to visit me anytime at the shop. No purchase necessary!

*Caitlin is rocking an olive Mr. Green handmade fedora, Sean, a soft fedora made in Japan by Arth, Kumiko, an amazing handmade original by New York designer Tracy Watts. I wouldn't be a good salesgirl if I didn't mention that, eh?

Special shout out to Danny for being my first friend to visit and purchase! And Linna and her fam for the largest purchase... 8 hats!

"Hey, what's your dream job?"

Is it sad that I can't think of a "dream job" anymore besides being comfortably retired and possibly doing volunteer work with children or animals? I remember a kind boss of mine once asking (as promotion time was coming around), "Well... what is your dream job?" I believe I foolishly answered, "Rock star." What an idiot.

Now my dream is to grow old gracefully and to become one of those old couples that hold hands and still have something to say to each other. Simple times people, simple times.

A Grand Slam

Ah, I miss my tiny Japanese pastries that were both enjoyable and plentifully filling. So adorable and tasty, as you can see from the photo. But has anyone noticed the crazy commercials for restaurants lately? Due to our ailing economy, it seems that take-out places and chain restaurants are attempting to reach out to us by pointing out their bargain prices and ample portions. God Bless America, indeed. One of the best ones I've seen is for Denny's. This is the commercial intro word for word, I swear to you:
"It's one thing to bail out Wall Street, but who's going to bail YOU out? DENNY'S!"

The other one I saw was for Pizza Hut trying to pitch their new line of pastas offering THREE POUNDS of pasta. This is supposed to be appealing. I believe it's three pounds for three bucks or something catchy like that. Who knows, maybe I'll be eating my words if things get worse.

Pancakes!!!

Last weekend, we made a brunch-tastic feast of eggs, bacon, and pancakes. It was so yummy and fun that Scott couldn't contain himself (hence the photo). We've been borrowing my friend's electric grill which is so very wonderful (and if he's reading this, I swear we're going to give it back). You can make anything on it, like brunch items and we even used it for our yaki BBQ and made okonameyaki and yaki soba. Fantastic.


I also made some special pancake shapes as I reminisced about making pancakes with my Oba-chan (granny) as a kid. I remember we used Bisquik (sp?) and mixed up the batter with one of those things you crank by hand, you know? It would squeak while it mixed the eggs and flour together. Oba-chan would always make me an extra special pancake shaped like Mickey Mouse. So I made one of those for myself and an odd, slightly phallic shaped, er, manly one for Scott. Pancakes rule!

And the Oscar goes to...

... the special features DVD of Hellboy II!

Rant of the day

Scott was super psyched to go out and buy the DVD to Hellboy II because we'd missed seeing it while in Japan. They were advertising it and really pumping it up on TV all week so we couldn't wait to check it out.

The commercial kept saying it was a 3 disc set so we were like, cool, it must have tons of special features and commentary. Well, the third disc is some lame copy that you can copy onto your computer or some crap that we'll never use. Ugh, so that was the first thing. Second, the movie totally sucks. Like, it's really bad. We were watching it and every few minutes would say aloud, "Is this for real??" or "Seriously?" or in unison, "This is sooo lame." I'm not an obsessive Hellboy fan so I was trying to sustain disbelief, but Scott is into the comics and was pretty pissed. (Ok, now we sound like total geeks).

Anywho, we moved onto the special features DVD which kicks ass! It makes the movie seem 10 times cooler and almost makes you like the movie or at least appreciate all the work that went into it. Scott is going to give the movie another chance, but I think I'm over it. It's just funny how these days the special features DVD can be way better than the actual movie. And it's expected that every new movie that's released on DVD will come with an awesome special features DVD. Maybe it will change the face of the Oscars.

Also, what is up with this HDDVD and HD radio crap? Do we really need things to be soooo clear, like beyond 20/20? I'm nearsighted so I don't even see things that sharp in real life. And don't get me even started on HD radio. I don't even know what that means. How clear can you hear things when most people's hearing is all messed up from listening with their earbuds all day? Ok, taking a breath now... whewwwww...