owen the brave and the tale of the smelly cheese

Owen's birthday party was highly successful. He got lots of fun toys, and was adorably entranced by them all. he ate like 4 pieces of his special strawberry birthday cake, most of it with his icing-covered hands, shoving it in his mouth and saying "mmm" with every bite. he has pretty much mastered saying the name Pablo, his favorite backyardigan, and makes an adorably sporting attempt at saying Uniqua, the name of the other most favorite ag-ah-ih-gah character. he caught a reflection of himself wearing lauren's Owen/Two shirt and said "nemooooo!!"

I'm sitting here enjoying a blissful lunch of french bread and cheese. today i am sampling two cheeses I have never tried before, one is called porto vino and is some kind of semisoft white cheese, like a cousin to cheddar--medium sharp and soaked in red wine. i say "mmmm" and the other i shall try right now, it is called teleggio--it looks like it has similar consistency to brie, but has a beige rind and sort of beige/gray hue and... is uber smelly--has this rotten mushroom/ammonia smell, dear God I hope people don't think I smell like this when they walk in my office, is supposedly mild and slightly salty...and almost made me hurl. oh, i had to run get a diet coke just to finish the bite. okay, i love cheese, but i am fairly pedestrian about my cheese taste--weird, smelly cheese whose smell you cant get off your fingers..nooo. sort of normal cheese soaked in red wine? yes.

Yesterday I was walking to meet my lewd grandfather and my quasi grandma at a local restaurant to celebrate grandpa's birthday. As I was walking I ended up following a girl walking in the same direction as I was. I was 15 feet behind her the whole way. And I realized how much different personal space is here than in Taiwan because I felt sort of anxious to get where I was going so she would know I wasnt following her. like, just sharing the same sidewalk in a nonbusy section of the city for 3 blocks seemed too crowded. suspicious. in taiwan i always knew i would share the sidewalks with like 50 people, and if i didnt get caught behind some dawdling university students who would inevitably break my stride and force me to shuffle behind them, i felt lucky.

It turns out that my dreams of marrying LaDanian Tomlinson have been dashed. Not only is he married, but a quick overview of the google search on him reveals that he is one of those sickeningly wonderful human beings, like Thomas Hodge, who you can't even *want* to marry because if they broke up with their wives then they wouldnt be as fabulous as they are and you just don't want to do anything to mess up the ideal. what i want are single clones of these men. *sigh* He is completely adorable. he gives away turkeys for thanksgiving and has a foundation for underprivileged families and loves his wife, and was emotional about her miscarriage--carries a picture of their ultrasound baby with him. they named her, talk about how their next baby will be her younger sibling. i was like crying after 10 minutes of reading about him.

For a different reason I was crying when I read about Britney Spears. She may have gone too far in flashing her crotch to the world, she says. I don't know the man myself, but from what i read in trashy newspapers, if kevin federline is trying to get sole custody of your kids...and he might have a solid chance of getting it...this is not saying something good about the trajectory of your life. Pull a Ricky Martin or Dave Chappelle. Disappear. find yourself. make sure you find a better self than the one you currently are. the julie has spoken.