Welcome to May!

And now, here's a message from Despair Inc. for all you lolcat lovers out there.



This last Tuesday we went to Asahi (nee Kobe's,) a Japanese hibachi grill, to celebrate another birthday. Happy birthday, Paul! As usual, the cook was very entertaining. This one was actually better than others we've had. He had a few jokes, but it was funnier watching his reactions to the hibachi grill n00b we had with us. She was Paul's date and had apparently never eaten at a place like that before. After the first gout of flame from the cook's oil-covered grill, she scooted her chair back about three feet. She was sitting right in the middle where we forced her to sit after finding out she had never been before, of course. I don't think she trusted our cook with that much flame. The show went on with plenty of laughs until the cook was ready to make the main course. Naturally, he had to oil up the grill again. By this time, Paul's date had inched her way forward so she was only about a foot from the table again. FWOOSH! She was a good sport about it, but the look in her eye told the cook that if he knew what was good for him, he wouldn't light anything else on fire. Naturally, he did it anyway. This time it was just the onion volcano, so no one came to bodily harm, but the risk was there.

Perhaps, no, definitely more entertaining was Stacy's attempt at catching shrimp. The cook had set aside some shrimp to chop into tiny bits and toss into the diners' mouths near the end. Most everyone caught theirs after the first, second, or third try. Stacy, not so much. The cook actually ran out of shrimp bits to toss at Stacy as they rebounded off her chin, nose, forehead, pink hair, and even her teeth when she was laughing too hard to open her mouth. There was a collection of shrimp arrayed around her chair that would feed an Ethiopian family. Finally, after "recycling" the last of the bits that landed on the table, the cook made the shot and Stacy caught it. She nearly received a standing ovation.

It's comforting to know that even when we get out without the kids, we don't need them to fling food all over and make the cleaning staff earn their money.

Birthdays, Golf, Hair Dying, the Usual

It's been a busy week for me. Besides the fact that Stacy apparently hijacked my blog (don't save your login if Stacy is around.) I had quite a bit to do. This Thursday, we helped Kathleen celebrate her mumble mumble birthday at Clydes in Ashburn. I hope your mumble mumblenth year is a great one, Kathleen! Thursday was also the birthday of the son of a good family friend. Happy 2nd, Traven! His birthday was a bit low-key compared to Kathleen's. Although he probably had more fun sticking his hands into the cake than Kathleen did. Then again, she may have done that after we left. She was on her second cocktail by then. Maybe I shoulda hung out.

I took Friday off after being invited to a round of golf with some friends of mine from church. Although I remember going to the courses with my dad a couple of times, I've never swung anything bigger than a putt-putt putter in my life. I warned my partners of my extreme lack of experience and general lack of shape. Well, not so much lack of shape as lack of definition. It seems as time goes on, I grow a bit more blurry around the outside. I plan to eventually blur into a big, round, Scott-colored blob. Hah hah!

But I digress. After renting some clubs and a cart, my partner and I joined the other two in our party and we hit a few balls around. I was told that I don't swing like a girl. I swing like a nerd. I chose to take that as a compliment. After three or four holes, I felt I was actually getting the hang of it. A few good, solid contacts with the ball does wonders for your confidence. I found that my skills for expert green-reading do not extend past Mario Golf. As one of my partners said, I could scare the crap out of any hole without actually getting it in. I think I sunk four or five by the end of the 18 holes. I'd post a score, but with the amount of pickups I did, it really wouldn't be an accurate reflection of my performance.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself. There was talk of making us a semi-regular foursome, which is very appealing. I'd love to go again. There is a church-sponsored golf swing event at a local driving range this coming Thursday that I'll be attending. Maybe I can work on keeping my club head down instead of topping the ball and pretending the fairway is a big pool table. Now if I can just convince Stacy that I want a set of clubs for Father's Day.

Stacy and I got to go out Saturday night. Out was in, this time. Our church has been running adult dinner groups to help people to get to know fellow church members that they normally would only see a couple hours a week. We had a great time, especially discussing the unorthodox method of ridding yourself of caterpillars using half-empty cans of beer. No comment on how the cans of beer reach the half-empty state.

Stacy's newest hair dye had arrived earlier that day, hot pink this time. On a whim, we stopped by the drug store to pick up a bleaching kit on the way home. After driving the babysitter home and tucking the girls in bed, I set about playing at being a beautician. Stacy was very patient as I painted bleaching solution all over her head. After an hour and half, Stacy was thoroughly blonde. It was an odd thing to see. I have never seen her mid-dye like that before. I don't think blonde is a good color for her. You can be the judge further down in the post. After a quick rinse in the sink and a shampoo upstairs, Stacy was ready for the actual dye. Now that was fun. It's been a while since I've been able to indulge my artistic side. While saturating someone's head in hot pink dye isn't exactly painting, it felt something like it as I brushed the vibrant paste through her hair.

And let me tell you. Hot pink barely does the color any justice.

While it's not quite as impressive as in person, you can see the color in the slideshow. Stacy revealed today that her hair color is supposed to react to black light. I'm going to be digging mine out of the Halloween decorations tomorrow. If it's this trippy in normal light, I can hardly wait to see how surreal it is in the dark.

No "The Office" review this week. I got to the episode late and it's a bit untimely to review it now. It was a good one, though. I was glad to see that the little prick Ryan isn't having quite as great of a life as it had seemed before. I'll try to get in a good review next week.

Also, Ironman opens this Friday, so there's that too.

Now, the slideshow: