Delicious, surprisingly affordable Korean food in Lynnwood.

One of the new communities we checked out had an in-progress house that we looked inside just to see the floor plan. Piroko’s brother may live with us when we get a house, so we’ve been taking him along.

We’re house hunting. The more houses I look at, the more I want to live in a house like the one I grew up in: suburban, quiet, and with a big wilderness area in back.

My friend Andrew had this laying around in his apartment, and it sure brought back memories. When my cousins and I were kids, we used to create elaborate rules for these electric racecars. We had a money system where you could use winnings to buy options for your car, like super sticky tires (some kind of glue that we figured would help your car stay on the track even around sharp turns) and earthquake tires (which allow you to separate the track at a location of your choice once per race). Indeed, we were the type of kids who could never just play a straightforward game; everything needed to have a codified ruleset.

We bought ourselves a new car. Here it is, the day we picked it up, in the dealership’s garage. Piroko’s sister named it Palschurom for us, via whatever magical mechanism in her head conjures up the names she assigns to various inanimate objects.

We bought a couple of cars; one for us, and one for Piroko’s brother. When we asked about trading in our old Maxima, the dealer brought out a book for checking on the value of old cars. Appropriately enough, the title of the old car value book is… NADA.

I drink a glass of wine almost every evening. I used to shun all alcohol, but a bit of reading convinced me that a glass of wine, enjoyed for its flavor and its gently relaxing effect, is far from the binge drinking and the glorification of intoxication that I witnessed in school. The *Commonsense Book of Wine* also reassured me that it’s all right to drink inexpensive wine.

This photograph doesn’t really do it justice, but you asked for it.