I got myself some perfectly annoying little burns while making risotto the other day. I grabbed the handle of a hot pan and seared a little half inch section along the middle and ring fingers of my right hand. I dabble a bit in cooking here and there and normally count a burn as a bit of a short lived trophy for whatever I’d made. These ones, though, are a pain in the butt. They are right where I’d rest a spoon, grip a pencil and, most notable for current events, grasp my chopsticks.

The Chinese New Year is this week, which means it’s party time. Jesse had a fancy work dinner last night and I knew I’d have to figure out how to get my hands back in the game. I decided to paste on some band-aids, which worked swell for making it easier, though still not quite painless, to pick up, for example, a spare-rib. The problem is that I’ve always loved band-aids with character – why choose something skin-colored when you can choose a cartoon! Before coming to China I made a small first-aid kit consisting of a box of band-aids with a tube of neosporin stuck in it. This is the third time it’s come in handy – China is dirty, even a very small cut gets grody.

Anyhoo, the band-aids I brought are Clifford-the-big-red-dog printed (they’re so cute!) and resulted in far too many questions about my fingers.

I’m sitting in a cafe feeling really darn sleepy. I ran out of work to do and suppose I should get off my lazy arse and give this table over to somebody who wants to buy a $5 glass of juice.

Jesse’s fabulous friend Brendan is in town again for the new year (he’s been in a different city nearly since I introduced him on the night of the spending of a lot of money) and he’s invited us to his family’s house for New Year’s festivities. This is such a big deal in China. It’s like Christmas and Easter in one. I’m imagining that there will be a great deal of weird food, firecrackers, and a certain type of dangerously strong vodka-like liquor called baijiou (white alcohol) that is just about as gross as alcohol can possible taste. I think I’ll have juice.