Man's (and eventually Paku's) Best Friend

Recently, Paku had occasion to be introduced to a delightful young pup named Lucy. This meeting, perhaps overhyped at the time, was regarded with aprehension and suspicion by both parties.

Lucy looked dolefully and dubiously at Paku, and Paku returned this gaze in kind.

After a moment of staring, things took a turn for the worse. It turns out that Pakus, while a corageous and loyol friend, also make a delicious nibble.
At this point, human intervention was needed. Paku was reminded to regale Lucy with the tales of his world travels. Lucy was reminded that it isn't polite to bite noses on first meeting. Both were informed of their mutual love of bacon.
Before long, it was the interspecies love-fest we'd all hoped and dreamed about. The lion lay down with the lamb, the Paku lay down with the Lucy. Alls well that ends well.

Paku recovers from Thanksgiving 2006; looks forward to Thanksgiving 2007

This Monday finds Paku slowly recovering from his first Thanksgiving in his newly adopted country. Along with his first Thanksgiving meal, Paku also discovered a novel mechanism for dispensing wine: a box and spigot.

Paku has always found the traditional bottle sealed with cork to be inefficient. First there is not sufficient wine in it for Paku and second it can be difficult to gain access to the contents. Purchasing larger bottles proved to be only a partial solution. The cork still gets in Paku's way!

As you can see, however, Paku was not deterred by the presence of corks or bottles on Thanksgiving; hence the need for a short recovery period.

Paku had so much fun over the weekend he is already dreaming about his second Thanksgiving next year.

Paku harbors maternal urges

As they advance in age, maternal (paternal?) instincts in our Pakus are slowly emerging. For the first time, they expressed the desire to create genetic replicas of themselves. If that is not possible (as their human captors claim it is not; but did you ever see Gremlins?), then Paku intends to secure possession of this baby, who turned up at this year's Thanksgiving. His name? Sean Oscar McDonald, the cutest baby our Pakus have ever seen.

His new name?"Naoki Shima." His slightly drugged appearance will likely remain until Paku has secured the baby's passage through Narita immigration....surely no one will suspect that he is not borne of our Pakus.

Paku Overindulgence

The day after Thanksgiving finds Paku playing mah jong with his other Paku pals!

Pink Paku is dominating the game so far, but Yellow Pakus are not far behind. YP needs another White Dragon, especially after he ate all his bamboo tiles.....

Admittedly, as tends to happen when Pakus are all gathered together, some merriment ensued and eventually a box (yes a box) of Shiraz made its way on the scene.

After a glass or two (or three or eight) Paku decided to check his blood alcohol level. Woah, Paku, is that device properly calibrated for pandas?!?!?

Paku dominates initial Thanksgiving Mah Jong game

Paku's Japanese upbringing has resulted in an excessive modesty which inhibits Paku from acknowledging his superior skill at the game of mah jong. However, modesty aside, Paku could not help but dominate his first game of post-Thanksgiving mah jong. So far Paku has engaged in relatively conservative play in order to achieve as many mah jong' s as possible. However, because of the relative ease of his victory employing this strategy he has decides to pursue a more aggressive strategy for the next round focusing more on points per hand than winning each game.

Unfortunately, Paku has an established weakness for dragon tiles so he must take care not to hoard to many dragons at the expense of winning games, a trap he has fallen victim to before.

Paku prepares a Thanksgiving feast

For his inaugural Thanksgiving, Paku has settled on the following menu:

• Turkey with stuffing;
• Cranberry sauce;
• Mashed potatoes;
• Sweet potatoes with oranges and brown sugar;
• Green beans with pine nuts and basil; and
• Corn bread

and for dessert,

• Pumpkin pie;
• Pecan pie; and (of course)
• Cheesecake.

Paku commenced Thanksgiving meal production last night by slicing a whole pumpkin in half and baking it in the oven. Paku will season and roast the pumpkin seeds for a Thanksgiving Day snack.

The outcome of Paku's initial efforts are so impressive that one might suspect that Paku was preparing his 12th consecutive Thanksgiving meal and not his first!

Paku embraces an American holiday tradition

For his very first American Thanksgiving celebration, Paku has ambitiously embarked on the preparation of a traditional holiday meal. Paku will prepare this 17lb turkey, complete with pork stuffing (a lot of pork stuffing), and a pie made from an actual pumpkin! Among the many challenges facing Paku this Thanksgiving Eve is his lack of familiarity with the menu items. Paku's initial proposed preparation for the turkey was spicy turkey roll. Then he suggested turkey-katsu (which I don't think is necessarily a bad idea but not appropriate for Thanksgiving), then he suggested turkey ramen and then teriyaki turkey. I think his ideas for the pork are best left to the imagination. Fortunately, Paku is nothing if not reasonable and he has consented to preparing all of the ingredients in the usual way.

Pakus have expensive taste

One of the downsides of traveling with Paku is his incessant complaining when the accommodations are not up to his very high standards. As a result, it was quite a relief to learn that the sponsor of our recent trip to Los Angeles was putting us up at the Four Seasons Beverly Wilshire. Paku averted a near disaster when upon his arrival the desk staff informed him that he would be staying in a smoking room with two double beds and not the non-smoking king room he had requested. Fortunately for Paku, he had arrived late enough that the manager of the hotel was willing to release one of the suites they keep available in case someone important shows up (which someone obviously had). Paku was particularly pleased with the huge plasma screen TV, the separate soaking tub in the enormous bathroom and the three complementary bottles of exotic spring water in the sitting room.

Another problem with traveling with Paku: finding an adequate supply of bamboo. Fortunately, while in LA Paku found In-n-Out Burger to be an acceptable substitute. What does Paku like to order at In-n-Out? Two cheeseburgers protein style, fries and a Neapolitan shake.