ironymaiden | chestnuts roasting

busy busy busy.

had a great time with the pirates last night; the company party was at GameWorks. i never played many arcade games because of the cost (and never when i could do it with alcohol), but we had unlimited play for three hours, and the place wasn't too busy. many zombies were killed with shotguns, giant robots were killed with other giant robots shooting hearts and flowers at them, cars were raced, there was skateboarding and street luge, and giant air hockey.

i had the experience of vanquishing an anonymous challenger at Tekken 4, and i hope that fourteen year old boy has learned an important life lesson :) i've learned that arcade games satisfy my natural tendency to move with the motion on the screen, and those years of piano lessons have left me much better suited to arcade buttons than console controllers. thinking about it, i wish i had a controller with something like four left and right front buttons instead of two. or maybe a joystick with four buttons down the grip and one for the thumb on top. i wonder what's already out there?

today we went shopping for goodies to take to holiday parties. really, i'm always looking for an excuse to go to Big John's PFI, which is not only foodie heaven, but also in a secret location in an oddball neighborhood with absolutely no money spent on presentation, so it's three times the fun. i love buying the finest fresh spices from five gallon buckets. (hey,

mimerki, i knew i had seen HobNobs in Seattle before. they're at Big John's, three kinds and a bunch of other cookies made by the same company) there are roasted chestnuts for sale outside Uwajimaya, and i'm fascinated and delighted by the roaster, which seems to be based on an oil drum and a Mongolian-style wok. i was going to buy a custard apple for C to try, but i can't bring myself to spend $7 a pound on a piece of fruit from California. later on my way to the state store in Queen Anne, three people passed me on the sidewalk, singing Feliz Navidad at the top of their lungs.

i'm still not done with the distant folks' xmas stuff, but we're the bad children, so it's not like it's hurting the reputation.

i've got a bottle of Fighting Cock. now i'm off to hopefully not set the kitchen on fire making a holiday beverage. Yule rolls inexorably on. happy holidays.