A Good Weekend for a Change

iPod morning commute music: Ray Davies, Other People's Lives (2006)
My birthday present to myself, this is Ray Davies' first true solo studio album. It couldn't be finer! One of my very first iPod morning reports dealt with a Kinks greatest hits album, and this has gotten me listening to that again, along with my favorite of their mid-sixties albums, Face to Face, Something Else by the Kinks, and The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society. But I digress...Other People's Lives is very good by any standard. Davies is a writer's songwriter, and his wit and observations come through clearly here. Musically strong as well, Alisa, my 15-year-old, said she couldn't believe Davies was 62. My friend Brad G. also commented that his voice sounds as young as ever. If you are a Kinks fan, you will love this CD.

And it was a very good weekend indeed. I turned 52 with a bullet. Kaoru got me a new wallet, Tatsu bought me Rickie Lee Jones's first CD (Chuck E's in Love) and Alisa got me a small birthday teddy bear that could hang in my car if I wanted to be cute.

On Saturday, Alisa and I joined my friend Aaron for a professional basketball game (The Basketball Japan League, unfortunately known as the BJ League) The Osaka Evessa vs the team from Niigata. The father of Matt Lottich (sp), a point guard out of Stanford and a team leader, was in attendance, and Aaron got some free tickets courtesy of his father-in-law to give to other Americans to keep the dad company, which we did. He was sitting directly behind Alisa. The hightlight for us came before the game started. I guess the team also throws out 4 autographed team balls to the crowd, and Alisa managed to snag one. Needless to say, she was thrilled. The game was excellent, fun, exciting, really noisy, with our team winning. I would love to go again!

When we got home, Kaoru had made my birthday dinner, lasagnia, and a delicious chocolate birthday cake.

Sunday was spent just kicking back, watching the Olympics, sipping beers. Tatsu, unfortunately, couldn't watch much because of several school papers all due on March 1st. It appears he finished his Theory of Knowledge (TOK) essay, but still needs to work on the final draft of his Extended Essay. Reading over the TOK, I have to admit I was impressed with his writing and thinking skills. Of course, there were a lot of small mistakes, but overall, it was pretty well done. As a dad, I am pleased.