My friend, Henry, turned me on to the fact that Chinese New Year is tomorrow. It makes me want to go down to Chinatown to see what's going on. The Chinese really go off for New Year's, and I know there will be a lot of exciting things happening down there. I checked the Chinatown website for Los Angeles and saw that, indeed, there are a lot of things planned. In fact, it looks like it's about a month long celebration. Tomorrow, Chinese New Year. Next Saturday, the Golden Dragon Parade. Next Sunday, Chinese New Year's Festival. The following weekend, a Lantern Festival. My mom, who is Chinese-American, said they used to get invites to the festivities in Portland's Chinatown years and years ago. A few years ago she was down there, and someone even came up to her and said, "You're Grace's daughter, aren't you?"

This is the year of the Boar. I was born in the year of the Boar, so I'm hoping it will be a very good year for me. So far, with the promotion and raise, new car, healthy-thin Wally, and an upcoming trip to Australia (fingers crossed) it looks like it will be.

The song for the day is "Every Time I Think Of You" by Eric Martin. The song was released off his 1985 album I'm Only Fooling Myself. This was another discovery made in the piles of free records that came regularly to the radio station I worked at. This song was never much of a hit, and never saw much airplay, but I liked it. And I remembered the voice when I heard it again when Martin fronted the 80s hard rock band Mr. Big, known mostly for their one-hit ballad "Be With You." While searching for the album art, I noticed that he's actually released a ton of albums, so someone must be listening to him.