  Just got back from the Japanese restaurant Momotaro in Burbank. It was a belated birthday dinner for my mom. I ordered a big sashimi platter and an Asahi beer. That's a great beer for a beer that's not black. Guinness is my favorite beer. Guinness is black. Negra Modelo is another beer that I like. Sushi is my absolute favorite food. And there's never enough wasabi to go with it. Just like there's never enough tabasco sauce on anything. I like my wasabi with a side of sushi. One of the greatest things in life is that wasabi headrush. My sister, my brother, and my brother's wife, stepson, sister-in-law and baby daughter were at the restaurant too.
I shared the beer with my brother because he wanted to - otherwise I would have finished it all myself; it came in a big bottle. My dad didn't go, probably because he had chemo a few days ago and so wasn't feeling up to it. He's undergoing chemotherapy for lung cancer. He's always had a tendency to opt to stay home when the rest of us go out, though. He's doing really well. He goes to work. He went back to work a few weeks ago, after a 6-week-or-so hiatus after undergoing surgery to remove tumors from his lungs. He doesn't look sick. He has chemo every three weeks. He's 67 but looks younger than a lot of 67-year-olds. He's bald, but it becomes him. He had his head shaved before the chemo could make his hair fall out.
My brother's a Marine corporal, and he says he might have to go back to Iraq as early as next month. He went there when the war began and came back home in May 2003, and now he's supposed to go back again. Hopefully something happens so that he doesn't have to go back. 
