So being sick with a cold today, I decided to bail out of work early and go buy myself the Dyson vacuum I’ve been meaning to get for a long time now. How nerdy have I become when I actually get excited about buying a vacuum cleaner? Well, what can I say, as you probably already know, I’m a big fan of wonderfully over-engineered products. This Dyson DC-14 Animal is right up my alley. Yes, I got The Animal even though I have no pets. You know, I *had* to get the animal hair removal thing because… well, just because dammit! Everything about this beauty was sweet. From the well designed, easy to open box, to the easy assembly, brilliant design and clever attachment holders, this baby just had everything completely well thought out. I plugged it in and watched it work its magic. You can go onto the Dyson website and read about how it all works and see the demos of each attachment’s purpose, but let me just say, all the buzz around these vacuums is not just hype. You just can’t buy a better easier to use (and empty) vacuum than this Dyson. Even the cashier at Best Buy got all giddy when she saw me bring it up to the counter. If you don’t own one, go and buy one. Now.

After a thorough vacuuming of my apartment I had worked up a nice appetite, so it was time to go for omakase at Hajime again (omakase #24 this year for those of you scoring at home). As you may or may not know, the US Open (golf) is at Winged Food in Mamaroneck this week and this county is jammed with everybody who’s anybody in the golf world, so I purposely planned to hit Hajime tonight to see if any pros would be dining there before the tourney starts tomorrow. Sure enough, as soon as I sit down, Sam leans over and asks me “do you know the Japanese golfer Aoki?” My eyes light up and I say “Of course! Isao!” Sam smiles and tells me he’s having dinner in the back. Very cool. Isao Aoki was my favorite golfer when I first started getting interested in the game. I even started out modeling my putting stroke after his bizarre technique- hitting from the heel of the putter with the toe of the club angled about 30 degrees in the air. I also used to wear a black golf glove because he played with one too. I couldn’t see him from my seat at the sushi bar, but about halfway into my omakase, he came out from the back room because he needed to go outside to smoke. He was waaay taller than I remembered him looking on tv, but other than that, still exactly the same. He doesn’t seem to have aged at all in the past ten or twelve years. And apparently he eats a lot too, because there are very few people that can arrive at Hajime before me and still be eating when I finish my omakase. We actually left at the same time tonight, but since he was there before me, you know his party downed a ton of food (and probably a ton of sake too judging by the raucous volume coming from the back room). Apparently Aoki loved the food too, so hopefully this will be a regular spot for him whenever he comes into town. Way to go Sam!