Tomo Arigato

We went to the hospital for what would be our final ultrasound.

The doctor said that these were pictures of a normal human baby and not a monkey picking its nose. I guess time will tell.

We celebrated the continued presence of our primate fetus with a trip to TOMO for dinner.

This was one of those set course situations which simplifies my life.

"Dungeness Crab, Haiga Rice, Grenobloise"

"Japanese Sweet Potato, Kimchi, Ennis Hazelnut, Soy Milk"

"Gigante Beans, Nettle, Tendon"

"Porchetta, Leeks, Raab"

"Braised Cabbage + Furikake"

"Buttermilk Rhubarb, Caramelized Cacao Nib, Tarragon"

We saw another table getting this odd flavored kakigori with lemon marmalade, fenugreek, and fennel. And I says to myself: "Lydia's growing a mammal of some sort and she deserves to have a few desserts today! I will of course also have a few bites."

And so it was done.

All the Immersions and Diversions

Tonight we went to WNDR Museum Seattle with our friends Shubra and Sumit.

The exhibits were a lot of interactive, immersive types of art installations. This light up floor mirror hallway thing was interesting.

With this thing you pressed different buttons and different parts of the display would light up and play music. There was also a table where a lady was handing out miracle berry tablets. I've tried miracle berries before in Japan back in the day. The berry blocks the sour and maybe bitter receptors in your mouth, but leaves the sweet receptors alone. So when you bite into a lemon for example it tastes like the most wonderful lemonade you've ever tasted because all that's left for you to sense is the sugar of the fruit. I thought that this was super fun and very unexpected.

When everything had been immersively experienced we popped into Itsumono to try some fun Japanese food. This wild thing was a:

"Seattle Dog Musubi

arabiki sausage, cream cheese, caramelized onion, sriracha"

This was a good example of the playful fusions this place offers.

"Chocolate Mochi A La Mode

chocolate mochi cake, burnt white chocolate, dark chocolate ganache, vanilla gelato"

"Loco Moco Scotch Egg

hamburger, egg, mac salad, rice"

"Wagyu Don

wagyu hanger steak, yoshinoya beef fat sauce, onions, rice"

Free Laughs

I was very proud of myself for winning an Instagram giveaway for tickets to a comedy show. Bonus points was that it was at the Kirkland Performance Center which meant we could just walk right on over. It was funny because the giveaway was for three tickets. After they contacted me and said I had won, I was like: "what the hell am I supposed to do with three tickets?" so they bumped it up to four. 

They could have bumped it up to 40 and still have plenty of room. The place was less than half full. The headliner was Kabir Singh, who has been on America’s Got Talent and did writing on Family Guy. He was decent. Derek and Gabby went for the other two tickets so that was fun.

Mariners Opening Day

We always had such a good time at St. Louis Cardinals opening day that we thought we should give the Mariners' a whirl to be good and definitely legitimate Seattleites.

I had an important choice to make in my closet. Be "that guy" spoiler with some random team jersey on or root root root for the home team?

Lydia had her pregnant Seattle fan uniform on.

Just like in St. Louis, Opening Day here in Seattle was an opportunity for local greats to make appearances to the adoring public. Ken Griffey Jr. luckily was one such appearance.

He and a pack of other Seattle legends threw the first pitches. I don't think I've seen any of these guys in real life before so this was very cool.

Gary Payton and Marshawn Lynch threw a throw as well. Ichiro made a separate appearance later on as well. I think that is officially every Seattle sports figure I've ever heard of.

We're excited about the Cardinals coming to town but it's also in the baby danger zone so we're not sure if we're going to try to attend or not.

I chose conformity and wore my Mariners uniform. Our friends Michael and Miriam were in attendance with us.

I can't get enough of the palm scanning, pick up my own beer and leave magic.

Aside from the winner and loser of today's game, we're all winners today.