I took my boy for lunch at a Chinese restaurant, after an ill-fated attempt to get his hair cut, and he was quite fascinated by the chopsticks on the table. “Open! Open!” he demanded, so I separated them and he had a lovely time stringing pretzels on them. The waitress noticed his progress and brought him some chopsticks that were rubber-banded together with a bit of paper serving as a fulcrum. She helped him eat the first bite of tempura, and then he went. to. town. By the end of the meal, he was successfully eating rice! Rice! The hostess, who was in her 50s, said, “I can't even eat rice with chopsticks.” Very cool. And then, to cap it off, the fortune in his fortune cookie read, “You have a deep appreciation for the arts and music.” Truer words were never written; you should see him color and dance.

Today, it snowed. Again.

I've been thinking a lot about food lately, and as I don't think I ever posted our Christmas dinner menu, here it is:

Obligatory green-bean casserole

Prime rib with Horseradish crust

Yorkshire pudding

Cauliflower gratin

proscuitto-wrapped figs (omiword these were soooo good)

Eggnog-pannetone bread pudding (this was not good at all; too boozy)

Mmmm. Lunchtime!

My adoring and adorable fans, I have asked my publisher if my book will be available at amazon.com or any other online outlet. Haven't heard back, but if the answer is no, I'll buy a carton of books and sell 'em out of the online equivalent of the trunk of my car for five bucks apiece, plus shipping. Probably be around seven dollars, total. I'll keep you posted, believe me.

The best Oscar moment to top all Oscar moments, ever, was when Jon Stewart brought the woman from Once (great film) back on stage to say her thank-yous. Classy, classy, classy. Kept me and Monstro from going to bed all ticked off at the orchestra conductor. Whoot!

I pretty much just had the best hour of my life. After going grocery shopping, I stopped in at a downtown Northampton bookstore/cafe and bought a copy of my book! Living in Northampton and Amherst 2008-09 looks great and even features a photo taken by moi on the cover. I brought the book to the counter and told the clerk, “This is my book and I'd like to buy it.”

And then I went home and got laid. Pretty awesomely satisfying hour in the life of Motormouth, ohhh yeah!

The other day, Monstro and I were standing on the kitchen side of the baby gate. Monstro put his arms around me from behind and started kissing my neck. Then our boy ran up to his side of the gate, proclaiming, “Mutter! Mutter!”

At first I thought the German I've been speaking to him was starting to pay off, but then we realized what he was actually saying was, “My turn!”

Today I drove to Boston in the crrrazy snowstorm to hang with my MFA buddy Shannon. She's the admin for the big head honcho at a major hotel near Logan Airport so I had a lovely time enjoying the amenities of her fine establishment. Shannon's doing great after her health scare(s) of last year and it was SO GOOD to see her and reconnect with one of my San Jose peeps. We took the T to see her new “single-girl apartment”, which is adorable, then had muy authentico Mexican food in her neighborhood, then rolled back to the hotel, had cookies and milk in the Executive Lounge, and watched “Juno” on the hotel's pay-per-view (or, in our case, comp-per-view). Lights out at 9:30. Pretty much a super-awesome day. Thanks Shannon!!!

Have you guys heard about the pastor who's exhorting the marrieds in his parish to have sex every day for a month? I think it's awesome. What a great exercise for Lent!!! 🙂