sounds like rain...

and my car windows are WIDE open! wish i could do something about the hole in my head...

it's like driving down Havana...

yesterday, we were heading north on Havana, just past Buckingham Square, when i had a flashback (sorry, not drug related). it was about dusk...we passed the massive flag in front of the car dealership near Exposition.

Thawin Kittikunsereekam

huh?

when i was in middle school, Vinh Nguyen was the king of the table tennis courts. this little vietnamese kid just smoked his opponents with his swift reactions and deft flicks of the wrist.

until one day...

a new kid with an unpronounceable name ravaged poor Vinh in his once unpenetratable territory. all we knew was that he stomped the sheeyit outta him...beating him by at least ten points in every set.

who was this new guy?

a week later, while in science class, someone came to the room, looking for a cantonese speaker. well, who do ya think they picked? yep.

apparently, they needed someone to translate in the office for a new kid and his classes/abilities. now, my cantonese is not the best, but it was either me or Lisa, who was mixed and even less fluent.

we walk into Mr. Dreith's office and lo and behold, it's the vinh-dicator. he was about my height and with scrawniness to match. who was this david? did he have a sling with that ping pong paddle?

to be honest with ya, vinh was a head shorter than both of us. i just prefer the sarcastic metaphor ;)

well, i found out that the kid with the unpronounceable name was actually Chinese, but raised in thailand. his name was Thawin (tah-win) and he had a freaky sixteen letter last name - Kittikunsereekam. he was here to attend 8th grade and was living with his uncle...on Galena...just northwest of Buckingham Mall.

fast forward to 1987. Thawin and I were just finishing off our junior year in high school. And before every Calculus study session, we'd head to my house and held the ping pong challenge.

unfortunately, i was a mere mortal to this table tennis juggernaut. even with a ten point advantage, i beat him once out of the dozens of times we played. good thing i still could stomp him in chess...or English (hey, no fair...so what if i was born here).

for some odd reason, i have an image burnt in my mind of walking down Havana at sunset, towards the King Soopers. it was one of the few times i ever studied at his house...but it remains vivid, even after 18 years.

so anytime i pass the huge flag in front of the car dealership near the intersection of Havana and Exposition, i think of Thawin. and if i ever pass it at dusk, the exact 1987 image pops into my head.

funny how the mind works whenever you don't need it (to)...

anyway, after high school, we kept in touch. i went to archaeology and he went to mechanical engineering. in 1994, Thawin returned to his little corner in Hat Yai, Thailand...and i haven't seen him since. other than some emails and a couple xmas cards and photos, i only know that he's married and has a kid and another on the way.

just last week, i reestablished contact with him (after a few years of non-contact). and guess what popped into my head the moment i opened his email? uh-huh...huge flag, Havana traffic, and the oncoming May dusk.

now, if i could figure out some sort of Pavlovian process to make me blog...i could probably market it. as long as it doesn't taste like chinese herbal medicine ;)

yucky...

as of late, i've been abusing my contact lens use. yep. nothing like poor upkeep to tempt bacteria and other goodies into my eyes.

last tuesday, i noticed a bit of redness in my left eye and took it as a sign to take out my contacts...and leave 'em out for a bit. well, over the course of three or four days, my eye reddened and subsided...and my vision worsened to the point of a weird blindness - liken it to looking through a piece of wax paper. NOT GOOD.

after getting a hold of some antibiotic eye drops i obtained from the opthamologist, i made an appointment with my acupuncturist. after suffering through a bout of labyrinthitis in 1996, i've always made a point to consult my acupuncturist when western medicine didn't help. and the pills they gave me only worked for two days...

so...i was a human pin cushion on my left side this afternoon. a couple needles in my foot...a few in my arm...three in my neck...and two in my eyebrow. that's not the yucky part though.

nope.

the yucky part is the powdered herbs that i'm supposed to dissolve in two oz. of water, twice a day. ewww. never pleasant tasting, but always effective.

ya see, puttin' needles in ya and drinking foul tasting herbs usually go hand in hand when it comes to chinese medicine. the needles start the healing process and the herbs accelerates it. now, both aren't always necessary, but this time it was.

so i get another dose tonight and maybe eight more after that. oh joy.

happy drinkin'

...GAG!

time...

just gets away from ya when you don't feel like blogging. alas, the blogging police (aka, CB) is out in force. but hey, we can't all be going to her place; i'll try to do my part...really!

and to what was the above alluding? not a damn thing, just a ramble.

big news! my sister, Susie, gave birth to her first child last thursday. Christian Albert Richard Downs came into the world on 5/19/05 at 5:19(!) PM via c-section. poor thing. his head got stuck in her pelvic bone, so that was the only option.

7 lbs. 4.8 oz.

20"

cute as a button. just downright adorable. haven't loaded any pics yet...but will do so soon.

anyway, sis is getting out of the hospital today. it was supposed to be yesterday but Christian had a bit o' jaundice and dehydration, so the homecoming will be around 6:00.

eight days already?

time to get off my lazy blogging ass and catch up some, eh?

well, the baby shower that susie's co-workers held was a small affair - 15 people. still, she freakin' cleaned up. all kinds of clothes, especially socks. that boy must've gotten three or four dozen pairs... the family/friends shower is saturday. we'll see what kind of goods she'll hoard then ;)

been going out again. i'm really in a funk about cooking dinner. i've got great ideas and am usually an excellent improviser, but it's just the action of cooking; neither of us has felt like it.

last thursday, we drove on over to our fave Mexican restaurant, which has relocated to the same area as Pat's (Cindi's favorite philly steak joint), only to find that the renovations still hadn't been completed. sigh. to go two months without the #9 combination at La Cocina de Marcos is unjust.

tired of all the places around there, i decided that we were gonna try a new place that had recently been reviewed in the Denver Post. it's a teeny little place that sits a half block from my ol' high school, in a really short strip mall just off of Leetsdale and Monaco.

Italian.

it's called Nonna's Bistro...and it's a keeper. lois had penne with spicy sausage and i had the asparagus ravioli...mmm-good. one of the best touches was serving a freshly baked mini loaf of bread, steaming hot with a side of marinara for dipping. good coffee too. we'll hafta go back soon to sample the rest of the menu.

really though, it wasn't the food that was most memorable. nope. it was something that happened towards the end of our meal.

a couple walked in and was given the choice of a corner booth in the back or the first booth near the window. they chose the latter, probably to catch the beginning of the sunset.

about fifteen minutes later, while we were finishing our dessert and coffee, there was a thunderous crash in the back...like someone had dropped a massive tub of dishes. turns out that a TV positioned in the corner, too heavy and not stabilized enough for the surrounding drywall, tore out of the wall and onto the table and booth below - where those two people luckily didn't sit.

yep. that 13" TV could have easily bludgeoned someone or at least caused permanent spinal damage. geez. either those people needed to buy a lotto ticket for their fortunate choice, or the owner because an incident like that would surely have put them out of business and into the throes of bankruptcy.

i may think twice before sitting under a TV in a restaurant again. whew.

and more going out...

went to a new buffet near Cinderella City for Mother's Day. this place, Int'l Buffet, was advertising half off for mothers in parties of four or more - we just had to go. two mothers (my mom and eldest sister) and an expectant one made for some discountin' heh. unfortunately, they still charged susie full price, even though she's as big as a house. i guess she should consider herself lucky that they didn't charge for two people, eh?

as chinese buffets go, the food was generally good. there's a new wave of restauranteurs who are starting chinese buffets with offerings of crab legs, sushi, and even mongolian bbq or dim sum in addition to the usual offerings of sesame chicken, lo mein, broccoli beef, crab cheese wontons, and hot and sour soup.

still though...what was international about it? other than the clientele... the buffet was asian, not international. but hey, whaddaya want for $8.99?!?

tuesday was Chipotle. we stopped into the Tiffany Plaza one before catching 'The Aviator' at the cheapies. remind me to never get chips and guac (at Chipotle) again. they lime and salt them...which would be okay if they didn't use huge almost rock-like salt. i could've thawed the snow off of a driveway with a basket of their chips. weird.

of course, this is coming from a person who opted for a $1 hot dog at the cheapies. how scary is that? it's really sad how much i have a penchant for an occasional hot dog. i'll even make sure i have one on every trip to mexico from a sidewalk vendor. for about twenty cents, at least you know you're gonna get a hot dog with bacon, mayo, and chile. at the cheapies, you get a hot bun with a steaming WTF?!? when you bite into it. the flavor is so...alien.

god, i shoulda forked over the extra $1.50 for the raisinets...

The Aviator was quite good. after having seen three of the best actor nominees - we have yet to see million $ baby and hotel rwanda - i feel that jamie foxx wasn't as good as Leonardo di Caprio or even Johnny Depp (in Finding Neverland). DiCaprio was over the top as Howard Hughes. and Cate Blanchett? she totally nailed Kathryn Hepburn's accent! wow.

perhaps we can catch Million $ Baby this weekend... and hotel rwanda? just rented it from McD's.

speaking of McD movie rentals, we did get a few during their free rental code promo. we got to see 'Sideways' 'Lemony Snicket' 'Closer' 'House of Flying Daggers' and 'Ocean's 12'. i wonder what's coming out next...

what about you guys? and Cindi, what movies did you pull out of the box that i lent ya? are you hating them all yet?

at 4:30...

i'll be taking my mom to susie's workplace for her baby shower. just three more weeks (until the due date). who knows when baby Christian will run out of air and want out.

last night, lois and i spent an aggravating 45 minutes at Target, looking for baby registry items that were simply not in stock. i think the first eight or nine items that we were considering buying...were purely imaginary. and was there anyone there to help us?!? HAH!

ah well. we did manage to find six items that filled two bags nicely though. i'm thinking that we should just get some of the original items online for the friends/family baby shower in a couple weeks.

bidding...

been looking for cheapo ink cartridges for my printer on eBay. i figure i should be able to find some for around $7 (incl. shipping). i just refuse to purchase them for $25-$30 each anymore. i know i could also go to the hassle of using refill kits, which i used to do for my old printer. you know what though? they ain't that convenient and there are other problems like leaks and smudges...no thanks!

mebbe it's time to get a lower end laser printer; i just don't print that much with color. we'll see...