December 1: Traditional Japanese Sake Container

Given to Katie from Cyrus.

Don't judge a box by it's, umm, apparent blandness

I should have written more about my lunch with Cyrus yesterday for it was a really interesting time. The gift that Katie received is a microcosm of that lunch for it was given to Cyrus from the President of Toshiba a few years ago. When he first showed it to me, I thought, "Well, that's a dull looking little box." Then I got the story and suddenly it became an interesting little box with a fun story. Trained as a physicist, his interests include ultra running, Chinese and Hungarian poetry, and others. It's only fitting his gift was this.

I could rally around a pickle...if it
gets her to pee.

Katie
-Profession: Looking for the next opportunity

-Favorite surprise: Visit from my niece

-Your grandmother potty-trained you with pickles. What kind pickles were they?: Dill
-Since you grandmother told all of your boyfriend this fact, how many did you lose?: None. The story continued to spread, though.
-As a result of this training, did you have a greater or lesser likelihood to affix the Vlasic stork anywhere on you?: It's not very likely.

-Katie is the name of the Los Angeles Angels baseball team's Rally Monkey. What would you like people to rally around you for?: To get people together to volunteer.

-You have a bad association with trains (Orient Express--murder; Jesse James--murder; Thomas the Tank Engine--drama; Water for Elephants--a ruckus), tell me a theme for a train story that would be captivating, yet calm?: It'd be an old school, fancy train going from New York to California, carrying cool celebrities like Tom Hanks or Julia Roberts. They'd be surveying the landscape.