Graduation Party #1

So, that is it. I am no longer a student. Unless the catastrophic clerical error of my nightmares actually occurs, I will soon get my degree in the mail. 20 years of work to get it. Here are some pictures of my graduation party. These pictures require very little explanation. Basically, about 34 friends came to my house for a BBQ, we ate, I opened some sparkling wine, Kira and I got into a sparkling wine fight, we danced a little, went to Karaoke and came home. Here is part of the pile of shoes inside the door.
This cork really flew! I think it went into the neighbor's pool!
Too much fun.
So Kira told me I was shaking the bottle wrong and that she could show me how it was done. This is what happened.
But then she made the mistake of going back outside.
This was only about 1/3 of the group.
Sung Eun looking very cute in a hardhat.Karaoke!
Me doing YMCA, and old Karaoke favorite.
Ralph looking like a stud...
And looking like Lionel Riche.
Rick, with fantastic red eye.

It was a fantastic party, the best I have ever thrown. I totally blew it on the chicken, but everything else about the party was great! Thank you everybody, I love you all.

Next To Last Day Of College

It wasn't quite a costume, but it sure was fun to make my "last day of school" shirt. A little sharpie goes a long way. Anyway, yes, today was my last full day in class at UC Davis. LAST DAY OF CLASS. I felt so good last night that I when I at Longs buying my Sharpies I also bought 3 bags of Dove chocolate to give to people on the bus the next day.
Well, I got on the bus, looking much like I do in the picture below. Nobody wanted to take my chocolate. What the heck?! Do people not like chocolate? Actually, I asked some of the people on the bus why they didn't want chocolate, and I realized it was because they thought I was either crazy or selling something. Yup. That's California for you.
Anyway, I finally got some people to take some chocolate. I then went to my last abs class. I can now say that on my last full day of school I screamed "dying turtle!!!" in front of class. Next I went to my English class, and when I got out a gargantuan thunderstorm was in the process of hitting Davis. Well, I was supposed to meet with Sung Eun later that day for lunch, so I went home and got my car to pick her up.
By the time I got to her place the thunderstorm was gone and the weather was some of the most beautiful weather that we have had all year. We went to Nobu's sushi, and had a suprisingly filling lunch.
The only other class that I had today was my Canterbury tales class, which I made it through. After class I stood on the desk, just like I had always wanted to do.
And what made this day even better was the fact that as soon as I got home my new computer arrived. It is a week early! And it is sexy! I already have a crush on it, and I feel like, as we get to know eachother better we will probably fall in love.

Robber Barons and Radio

I have only one more week of school. Less than 150 hours. Only one more of each of my classes. Only two more days of actual class.

I think I will attend my last class in costume.

Anyway. These are the plans of the future, and first let us speak of the recent past. This week was mostly uneventful. I met more people on Wednesday. I hung out with Sung Eun on Thursday. I ordered a laptop on Thursday night to replace my desktop, which I am going to sell.

The weekend for me began with a trip to Sutter's Fort with Manabu on Friday. Here are the gates of the fort.
I have been to Sutter's Fort before, but as a very small child. Comming back, I was actually very disappointed. Not only was everything smaller than I remember, but my greater knowledge of the world made it so that less of the fort was cool. At that time I remember thinking "Cannon! Cool!", this time I thought "Cannon. For killing Native Americans. *sigh*". Still, Sutter was an interesting fellow. He ran things intelligently, despite his orders to "pacify" the local people.
Here is Manabu at the fort.
And me, looking a little upset. But, without Sutter, I would not exist.
The evening of Friday the 10th was also the quarterly Medieval Studies dinner. Quite good, the food. Good conversation.
So, on Saturday Drake came and picked me up and we went over to someone-who-I-don't-know's house and worked to make signs for KDVS, 90.3 in Davis (the radio station where Drake is the News Director). Well, Drake did the work. I sat there and held his caulk. Here is Drake saying "I MADE this. I'm a bad-ass" with his eyes.
This is beautiful.
So was this.
After the signs were made we BBQed.
And then we went over to KDVS, where I recorded myself speaking Pidgin to introduce the Sonny Lin CD! Maybe my voice will be on the radio! I am very excited. Sadly, the only radio that I own is the one in my car, and I am not going to sit in my car until I hear myself.
This week will be eventful. Expect many pictures and good stories.

He's Back...

Everyone assumed that Manabu came back to California after three weeks of being in Japan because of a girl. Why else would you return to a place that you just left? It had to be a girl. To our surprise, it was not. Manabu is visiting because he is doing independent research on Native Americans. I think. Regardless, I am quite pleased by this since I did not feel like I got to spend quite as much time with Manabu as I would have liked. So, on Thursday, we went out to dinner. Look how strong I have become!
Yes, I put the pepper shaker underneath my shirt. Anyway, on Saturday Manabu, Tazuko, Takashi, Ralph and I took a trip up to Napa Valley. First stop was the Wine Train, just to see if uncle Vincent was there. Since it was Saturday, he was not. We went into the gift shop and looked around for a while.
Then one of the wait staff came by and gave us a glass of wine, thinking we were customers.
Next stop was this place.
Free tour, yeah. We didn't drink any wine here.
But we did see some impressive equipment and got a great explanation of sparkling wine manufacture.
And saw barrels.
After that, we went to Calistoga, got sandwiches at Cal-Mart, at on the curb and drove to Santa Rosa. Starbucks was sighted, and I stopped so that Mocha Jet Max could refuel.
Then we tried to drive to Fort Ross via Stevastopol, but thanks to the coffee break we did not make it in time. Instead we went to a random beach on the coast and looked for seals.
It was a great beach.
Ralph with driftwood.
Takashi shouting at the ocean.
"Sea" in Japanese.
A bug.
Finally, we went to Bodega Bay. I wanted to see the legendary birds, but by the time we arrived at the Bird Walk it was already closed.

By my standards, it was a failure of a tour. However, everyone else seems to have had a lot of fun, so I have no regrets. By the way, I was able to drive from Davis to the ocean and back, about 7 hours of driving total, with five people in the car and I only used up 3/4 of a tank of gas. My car is awesome.