Garden Eat Live

Video season begins.

2011-12-19T17:38:00.000-08:00

If you chase the link below you can find the daughter's christmas choir performance. I have edited it for watch ability. It was orginally half an hour of video and it is down to 5 min. I hope it is bearable.

Video link.

Great Room Renovation.

2011-09-10T00:35:00.000-07:00

Great Room Renovation.:

3D model by Dunnetsan

Hopefully you have a chance to down load Sketch up and then take a walk through our latest renovation evolution. We are looking for opinions. Click on the link at the top and it will take you to the google site where you can download it. Please and thank you.

Washington Week

2011-07-23T12:54:00.000-07:00

So we spent a week in Washington visiting my older sister and her husband recently. It rocked. They are living in Yakima which is actually closer to our new house than Vancouver. Plus it has cheap shopping and gas. Lots and lots of pluses to visiting.

They are a short walk from tonnes of stuff and they get good weather. Definitely an outdoor paradise.

You will notice the youngest is just freshly casted here. In reflection it is so nice to have him back to his old self. We left that foam soccer ball down there. The house had tonnes of good toys and the children had an awesome time. With the food and company and pets we all had a good time. Plus they had enough rooms that the kids could sleep separately from their parents. That was amazing.

Unfortunately they have weird gravity down there and my son couldn't seem to stay the right way up.

I am just realising now that we didn't get the dogs and Mia in the big group shot. Major faux pas. We will have to remedy that next time we are down.

Not gonna last forever.

2011-07-11T19:29:00.000-07:00

So as long as the listing stays up here is the house we are in the process of buying. Should be an interesting few weeks as the process roles along. I don't think the link will be up forever but I also don't imagine I will ever come back and fix the link. The Mrs and I are deep in the thinking process of some serious renovation ideas. So this blog may evolve into a renovating blog. Or maybe we will start a new blog. Who knows. Maybe gardeneatlive has run its course. I have definitely lost the thread of this blog over the last year. So we shall see.

Anyways, thanks for reading as always. Stay tuned for more news.

Love out.

The Last Days.

2011-06-22T13:43:00.000-07:00

Well this is a little tardy but nevertheless here is the last days of our stay in Japan. With the kids both not attending school we had some time to go out and do some day tripping. One such day has us at a museum of war. Kind of a dark place. Some nice gardens though.

Just so happens it was Cinco de Mayo. We didn't take any pictures of the war memorabilia or the life size diaramas depicting war in all its gruesomeness. The kids were thoroughly impressed by it, at some points they were actually scared. Nice work parents.

Three kilometers back from the War museum was another temple power spot. So we stopped in, walked the stairs, made the offering and rang the bell. We all made a guess as to how many steps there were. The daughter was the closest. The wife said she was fooled by a false landing.

After the temple we stopped for a snack and then tried to find the onramp to the freeway. The last month or so in Japan was marred by some extraordinarily bad luck or poor decision making in my driving. So many back tracks it was insane.

Another day trip involved using the tickets to the flower festival we had purchased. This was supposed to be a trip to take with my mom and her hubby when they came to Japan. However, with the tsunami and earthquake happening two days before they were supposed to arrive the trip never happened. But we decided to soldier on and see the festival any way. Within half an hour of arriving it started to rain. We ate our bento lunch under cover and then put on some rain capes and tried to take a look around.

Within the hour we were wet and defeated and headed back home, once again making some major long cuts in an effort to save time and money (unsuccessful on both accounts).

And with that our time was up. We enjoyed the last couple of days hanging out with family and eating home cooked food. Then it was off to the airport. Some teary farewells and a grueling 17 hours later and we arrived in Vancouver at the same time and on the same day that we left. It is nice to hear English all around but we really miss our Japanese family. We hope to be back there soon. If not to live then at least on an extended vacation.

Entertaining Guests.

2011-05-02T03:00:00.000-07:00

They were both entertaining and entertained. It was a good three days.

We had some friends from Niigata come and visit us this last weekend. It was a Kagoshima whirlwind. The day they arrived we also had two last days of school, one farewell party and one school viewing day. So we divided and conquered. Miraculously we all managed to get to the same hotel in the Kag at the same time. We strolled through town and had dinner at an Izakaya. Everyone was tired so we had an early night.

The next morning we started with the main attraction, Sakurajima, the volcano.

The ferry ride was a little cool but the view was super cool so that kind of made up for it. I managed to make a wrong guess during one portion of our drive and we had to back track to get to our second destination. This was the basic theme of the trip.

At the dinosaur park the daughter climbed this five meter t-rex to prove she could even though I said she shouldn't. While sliding back down she got some painful fibre glass burns. Yes I mentioned to her that I told her so. So hard not to.

After the dinosaur park we hit up the free foot spa. We had passed well into the lunch hour so the kids got pop to tide them over. For lunch we headed back to kagoshima city and had black pig pork cutlets at pretty up scale place. They were good but I think we all felt a little under dressed.

We finished with the requisite picture with Saigo Takamori. The big man of Kagoshima. That night they came back with us to stay in Ijuin. It was a crowded house but we all made do and had a good time. I made chili and pizza. The mrs. contributed veggies and dip. There was lots of beer.

The next morning we didn't rush out the door. We took our time over breakfast and then we headed south for the requisite visit to the sand baths. The daughter went in with the guests while I played with the boys at the beach and the Mrs. took some pictures. However, she only took that one with ours.

We made it back earlyish and had a great dinner of Kagoshima's traditional foods. This of course included lots of beer.

The last day we went and visited Miyama, a local pottery village. If you have been following that is where the kids and I made our pottery. We toured the grounds of a historic pottery making site. Then one of our guests bought some shochu cups. The original potters came to Japan from Korea so it was neat to see the Korean influences.

After a great ramen lunch where the daughter finally got some gyoza (she was twice denied only earlier restaurant trips) we headed for the airport.

Our guests did some last minute omiyage shopping and then we said our farewells. They made it back to Niigata safely.

It was a busy busy four days but it was good to see them.

Love out.

Hello, Goodbye.

2011-04-25T14:35:00.000-07:00

We are fully into the farewell season here. Last Saturday we got together with some of the daughters classmates and their families. Barbecue in the park. It was great. One of the families we have basically been trying to have a get together with for the last 8 months. So it was nice to finally get together. But a little disappointing that it took this long. It turns out that the are big into camping. Good to know for any return visits. The food was good. The weather was a little cold. The kids had a great time. It was one of those settings where they would run off and play at the park and then twenty minutes later a couple of them would run back for some food. Then take off again. This is the kind of family fun I have always dreamed off. The picnic in the park. A bunch of families, open ended eating and drinking and no one wants to go home at the end. Loving my life right now. Can't believe there are only two weeks left. Dreaming about packing these days. Sigh.

Love out.

Vacation Begins.

2011-04-17T02:41:00.000-07:00

So we started our three week Japanese Vacation this weekend. Really looking forward to having three weeks to spend with family and friends. I am also looking forward to getting out and about in Kagoshima. Amazingly no Jet Lag to start the trip. Very lucky.

We had a great day on Saturday. We got up early and were out the door before nine. Our goal was Noma Dake. The last interesting peak relatively close to our house. After about and hour and 15 of pain and suffering in the car (two year olds just can't be reasoned with) we made it to the Noma Jinja, the inevitable temple most of the way up the mountain.

We hiked for about forty five minutes from the temple to the top. The view promised to be spectacular but then it reneged. We were basically in the clouds. It was muggy. Summer has officially arrived in Kagoshima.

We didn't pack a lunch, just snacks, on purpose. The plan was to get up and down before lunch and then hit a restaurant and an onsen. Well the little guy was tuckered when we got to the bottom and promptly fell asleep in the car. So we drove most of the way back home. We stopped in Fukiage, known for its Onsen Baths. It was the sage opinion of the Mrs. that to eat and then bath was foolishness. So we drove around looking for a bath. We stopped here.

The place was deserted so the boys and I had our side to ourselves. The pool was big enough for the older boy to try and swim in. However, the water was hot and tasted of sulphur so he didn't make much head way. The little guy, as usual, enjoyed getting in and out. He also got a real kick out of turning the taps on and off.

Post bath I was fatally hungry. We had a few minutes of indecision before settling on rice balls and assorted lunch stuff from a grocery store. We stopped at a park and chowed down. I gave the Mrs. the keys and had myself a nice big beer. It was good.

Our last stop was a spot my Mother-in-law recommended. It is one of her power spots. It is a temple called Onamuchi Jinja. The temple is your regular fare but the real reason to go is the trees. Check out this monster the family is perched against. It reminds us of the tree in "Tonari no Totoro" (Totoro next Door) by studio Ghibli. It even has a little spot you could climb in and find a Totoro.

This next picture shows how far back I had to go to get the sucker in the frame.

After the tree we took turns drinking the magical temple water. I got video.

Post temple we got back in the car and everyone kind of drifted off as the Mrs. drove us home. Another fabulous Saturday and an excellent way to kick off our three weeks in Japan. Lets hope the rest of our vacation is as exciting.

Breaking the Rules.

2011-04-07T00:32:00.000-07:00

Recently I have been guilty of breaking the rules. Twice in quite frequent succession. Let me elaborate.

Last weekend there was a flower viewing party (read "cookout") at the neighbourhood park. A bunch of the old guys I golf and play baseball with put it on ever year and so I bought some beer and shochu and took myself along. It was a great time, lots of families and little speeches, I got to give a little farewell speech (very short). However, I broke a major rule. Never eat meat cooked by a half sober fifty five year old guy who is more interested in getting it out fast than making sure it is done. I also broke the don't eat raw deer meat rule. I mean everyone else was doing it so I figured it would be okay. Now I am riding day four of some kind of stomach parasite. Went to the doctor's today and I am now on medicine to clear things up and get my good bacterial juices flowing again. Will I never learn.

The other rule I broke is for me much more interesting. Last night as the family is all bedding down for the night I and trying to get the oldest boy to settle down. So I tell him I am going to bundle him up in a cocoon. He is a caterpillar and in the morning he will be a butterfly. So our conversation turns to the whole business of becoming a butterfly. What if its too hot in the cocoon? (helps the wings grow) Then we talk about being able to fly. At this point I think we are both on the same page. I mean we are both imagining flying. So we are talking about not having to walk places and stuff like that. Then I offer up he could fly all the way back to Canada. His response is no way, a plane is so much faster, however, he thinks he could fly up and ride on top of the plane on the way back. I still think we are in the same ball park. The he mentions that when we go to a hotel the next time he could fly up the stairs while we walk. I top this with he could just go outside and fly up to the window. To this he looks a little concerned. Well we would have to have a signal. So he could find the room. He figures I should stick my arm out the window and wave. I think about this and imagine the difficulty of trying to spot an arm. So I offer back that we could flash the lights twice. To me this is clearly a better option as it will show up clearly at night. Once he sees the general vicinity of the window he can fly up and find us. No he doesn't like this idea. Then he offers up this cool blue light that he bought on our last road trip. I figure this would work great it would be different and easy to see at night. From here we move on and the conversation slowly peters out. Then I am lying in bed thinking about our conversation.

I think we were in two totally different places. I am thinking about the possibilities of flying in a totally abstract way. However, to the boy, he is imagining himself with these wings, trying to do stuff like travel or find his family. And at the time I didn't notice. I was caught up in my own mental wanderings. So when engaged with my children I need to try and be present in their frame of reference . A rule I break far too often.

love out

Kumamoto Road Trip

2011-04-03T03:34:00.000-07:00

So we took a road trip this weekend to Kumamoto. It is the prefecture directly above Kagoshima. Our itinerary included Kumamoto Castle on the first day and Mitsui Green Land Amusement park on the second day. Good times.

The first day was a lot of driving. We left home around 10. I was a little traffically challenged so we ended up taking a long cut, however we played at a cool park and had a nice lunch. We finally got to the castle grounds around 3:30.

The cherry trees were in full blossom and it was a spectacular summer type day. Well a warm Vancouver summer type day. Definitely spring here in Japan. We wandered through the grounds and then went into the castle proper. The boys were more interested in chasing and being chased. However, the daughter seemed to enjoy the museum aspect of the castle. Some really cool history. We really liked the lookout at the top of the castle. Beautiful views and a lovely breeze. The only picture turned out a little dark, sorry.

We left the castle around 5:30 and arrived at our hotel a little after seven. Everyone was pretty beat but we had some dinner and a bath and got into our very small beds. We had to take two rooms as there are officially five of us now that the baby is 2. We got up the next morning and all had some buffet breakfast. Then it was back in the car. We bought some bento lunchy type stuff and headed for Green land.

It was a great day not a good day, a great day. The kids and I got the all day pass and made the most of it. The baby and I did lots of little kid rides while the older two, after getting over their initial fears, rode a bunch of the jet coaster rides as a pair. When I rode with them there were some pretty scared faces but they always got off the ride wanting more. The two oldest were able to spend some of their hard earned new years money. The both bought stuff at the gift shops. It was pretty painful pointing out all the stuff that they didn't have enough money to buy but in the end they both bought stuff that they were happy with. The boy bought some geki ranger swords/quarter staff. The daughter bought some key holders and other miscellaneous little stuff. The shopping was really really important as they were using their own money. Recently shopping has become a really big deal. Stretching their wings I guess. On the way home we stopped at a local restaurant and had some regular old Japanese food for dinner. I drove the two and a half hours home, we arrived at about 10, and everyone pretty much went straight to bed. Good times.

About a month to go in Japan. The time draws near.

Love out.

Just keep rolling.

2011-03-23T03:02:00.000-07:00

Well here we are again, fancy that. I am back to the dinner pictures. Mostly because I am having to wait my turn for dinner these days. The table is packed.

Last night we had the daughters favourite, Gyoza. These were home made beauties thanks to my wonderful mother in law. I fed my face in a serious manner and all the garlic in my system gave me a wild night. My dreams were so vivid I felt like I was actually awake. When I woke up I was slightly confused as it felt like I hadn't been asleep.

On a different note I have been trying to catch the mother in law in action. She is very camera shy. Two nights ago I caught her with her fingers in the gyoza mix.

Tonight I was too slow and slipped away.

We are eating maki sushi this evening. It looks lovely and I can't wait for a seat at the table. People are gobbling it up. I sure hope there is some salmon left by the time I get going. In other news I went fishing with the father in law today. The weather report was calling for 2.5 m waves but the day broke sunny and calm. So we decided to go for it. We went with another of his local fishing buddies. Below is the picture of all the fish I caught.

No you aren't missing anything. I pulled in a big fat goose egg. Also the called for weather did arrive in the end. Brutal. However, I managed to keep all of my cookies. It was a wild ride home but we made it safe and sound. Hopefully I will manage to catch at least one more fish before we head back. That is it for tonight.

Love out.

Can it be True.

2011-03-22T00:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes I believe it is. Two posts in two days. I am actually posting about last nights dinner as I think two posts in one day would have been way over the top considering my recent out put.

So last night we had Yaki Niku. Basically barbecued meat. The big Teppan is set up in the middle of the table and then everything is fried up on it. Whenever a piece comes ready someone picks it up and dips it in their bowl of dipping sauce. Good times.

I, however, waited out the rush and sat and sipped my whiskey. It is shochu whiskey but the really good stuff. We were planning to take the parents on a tour of the factory when they were in town. The sons best friends dad works there. I am sure we will make it there someday. Anyways, back to the whiskey, I sat there sipping while everyone else devoured. It was very pleasant to stay above the fray. I also got a bowl ready for this guy.

He had crashed out after a busy day of playing soccer in the park and watching videos inside. The only problem is that he had done the in betweener crash. You know, 4:30 ish. Not going to be down for the night but if he sleeps until 8 then he won't be down again till twelve. So I tried the gentle wake up. No success. He bawled until I got Anpan man up on the computer. Then he sat in my lap to watch while he ate dinner. Of course, when I closed up the computer it was back to bawling. So I took him outside for walk around the neighbourhood. Quiet again until we got back home and then bawled to keep going on the walk. He eventually quieted down and I managed to stuff my face in the meanwhile. We slept as a family for the first time in a long while last night. It was nice. Until I woke up sandwiched by the two oldest with the little one having been just barely squeezed out by the boy. I look longingly over at my wife who slept unmolested on a futon of her own. Ah the good old days.

Back on the Horse.

2011-03-21T01:05:00.000-07:00

Wow did I ever fall off the life wagon there. The last two weeks have been kind of blurry. I think I am still dealing with the sudden change in expectations. Sort of having to mentally get back on tracks after all our plans came off the rails. Also we have been dealing sick people and injuries so nothing has really been business as usual. However preceding all this craziness we had some good times. First up is the oldest boys final field trip of the year. I start with some video of me and the littlest going down a slide together. In the video I am totally oblivious to the fact that my son has a broken arm.

Good times (the sliding, not the broken arm). I didn't get many candid shots as my hands were full with the two boys and no Mrs. (her day off, this was the first day of the daughter having the flu so she stayed home to tend to the sick). I did manage to get one group shot and one shot of the rest of the parents. Amazingly I on the odd occasion I actually feel like I fit in with this group.

This is the latest birthday picture. The cute little toddler/preschooler you all remember turned fourteen. Holey smoke.

Pre-Emptive Post

2011-03-06T19:45:00.000-08:00

I was feeling in need of a project. So I decided to make a video of our year in Japan. Now I know the year isn't over. We have some great events coming up. However, so far this is what our year has been like. Hope you enjoy. It runs about seven minutes. Sorry that was the best I could do.

Our latest Movie

Recent Tidings.

2011-03-03T16:38:00.000-08:00

So this is a bit of a round up post. In my rush to get out my last post I managed to miss the fact that we had a lovely day at the park on Saturday. Kenko no Mori is really our go to park for having a good family time. I would say it was the equivalent of the Stanley Park of my youth. There is no aquarium or zoo but for a nice weather Saturday when you want to be outside with the family it is hard to beat.

We actually got out of the house by ten, which is rare for us. When we got to the park we started with some grass sledding. Unfortunately, the predominant wind was from the volcano and was bringing ash. This did not slow us down and we kept on sliding. Next we went to the playground and played in the sand.

In the background you can see me working with the daughter sifting the sand. We used the littlest's new sand toys and made a big pile of soft, sifted sand. We actually filled up the day-glo green grass sled.

Next up we went over the the big field for some ball kicking, frisbee throwing and kite flying. At the far edge of the field are two bronze horse statues. The requisite pictures were taken.

After leaving the field we went out for lunch. We stopped at a place whose name eludes me now, but we all managed to get what we were looking for. I had a big bowl of black pork miso ramen. The Mrs. had some kind of seaweed soba set. The two bigger kids had the childrens udon set and the youngest had a mini bowl of udon. It was a fabulous family day. I always feel satisfied after we manage to get a good family event in on a weekend. The question I am always left with is why we don't do it more often.

Half Marathon Madness.

2011-02-27T05:29:00.000-08:00

So there is a lack of pictorial evidence of todays events as we were both running. But it was a good day. The Mrs. and I were up at 5:45 with a plan to sneak out of the house by 6:30. The Mother in law was going to drive us to the ferry terminal. Nice plan. Only all three of the kids were up by 6:00, dang it. Fortunately the middle child put on a video which managed to get the youngest spell bound. And we snuck out the back door.

Uneventful trip through town to the ferry. We arrived on Sakurajima in plenty of time to check in, get our numbers on our shirts and our chips on our shoes and watch the opening ceremonies. In Japan you always need to have the speeches before an event, the mayor, the head of the event committee, that sort of thing. My ankle was feeling pretty tight after the warm up but it has been tight for the first three or four kilometers of every run recently so that wasn't a big deal. A couple of trips to the washroom later and we were lined up and ready to start. We lined up according to what finish time we figured we could make. Apparently everyone else took half an hour off their probable finish time. Our first two K were pretty slow as there was no moving through the wall of people in front of us. Kilometers three through five had us slowly moving up. That was when I got the wave ahead. See in my mind I was leading us through the tangle of people so that we could get up to speed. The Mrs. just saw me wanting to get going. I kept turning around to find her and make sure we were together. However, at the five K mark she just waved me on. So I went. I am not very good at participating without trying my best. It is just who I am. The bonus was that from that point forward because we had started so far back and made such poor time I was passing people all the rest of the way. Which gave me a total boost. I even managed to catch the two guys who over took me after kilometer 8, before we got to the end. However, one guy did pass me with less than a kilometer to go and I didn't manage to track him down. However, I did manage to finish just under 1:45. Pretty darn happy with that. My last couple of Ks were definitely under five minutes. My last may have been sub four and half. The Mrs. finished in 1:53 and change. And looked pretty fresh to boot. I on the other hand was gasping and had to have help removing the chip from my shoe. Well the volunteer offered and who was I not to accept.

Post race we ate our free meal, it was a standard bento and was more than satisfying. We also went for our free onsen. However, with the rest of the 5000+ people going for their onsen it was less leisurely bath, more conveyor belt type factory style bathing. I at least got to soak in the hot pool. The ladies side was so crowded the Mrs, just had a shower and got out. First time I have ever spent longer in an onsen than the Mrs. After that we caught the ferry and then street car back to Kagoshima Central station. We picked up some treats for all those stuck at home and caught the train back to Ijuin. We didn't call and instead walked the four k home. Gluttons for punishment.

All in all a great day. It was kind of like a date, no kids, adult activity. I don't know if I need to run 21.1 k ever again. My left achilles is really bugging me now and I think it will be worse tomorrow. But it was still fun to have done it and I think the Mrs. may found something she enjoys.

Oh yeah, when we got home the boys were napping and the daughter was still in her pajamas. This is at 4:10. Slow day at home.

Love out.

More school stuff.

2011-02-24T02:27:00.000-08:00

So the middle child had a school visitation day today. The Mrs. did the honours. Apparently, it had something to do with the doll festival and from the pictures something to do with a group of superheroes/bandits. Good times.

I stayed home with little miss, "my throat has a tickle and I don't want to go to school", and the super trooper. It was a beautiful day day and me and the little guy got to the park to play with his new sand box toys.

He can't wear the knapsack unless the belt is tied around the front. Stylin in his o sagari mono (hand me downs). We managed to get some good sand castle building after a nice run around after the soccer ball. I am telling you this kid has a father with world cup aspirations. The older boy came running up to the park after we had been there about forty minutes. He got in on the sand castle building before a little grounders.

The Second.

2011-02-21T06:44:00.000-08:00

So we celebrated a little second birthday action here for our youngest today. Scary that. Our third child is now two. Combine this with my mom being retirement age as of March and I guess that puts me and the Mrs right in Middle age. Holey moley.

We had cake a la my Mrs. and everyone enjoyed it. The cake was cut in two so that we could also get some candle action for my nephew whose birthday was a few weeks ago. After two trys with the candles everyone was satisfied and we all got to dig in.

Below the son is modelling the backpack he got from his grandma.

His aunt bought him so sandbox toys. His mother made him a cake, his dad wrote this blog about it. I did also give him a great hug and this is me singing the loudest at his cake ceremony.

That is punk older brother stealing his cousins candle blowing thunder. There was a do over and the little guy didn't seem to mind doing it up again the second time around.

In other recent news, well lets see. In a personal accomplishment I broke through the one hundred barrier in a round of golf (96). One of those things that seemed important until I managed to do it. I wonder how many times I have to learn the "life is a journey, not a destination" lesson before it sinks in. Fortunately, I have enjoyed the golf journey so far and hopefully will continue to enjoy it with my family as we wind our way through life. I think I just need to be mindful of not worrying so much about the destination. So other than that, there is the upcoming half marathon with the Mrs. next weekend. Not super trained up but I told her today that if I had to stop at some point she should go on without me. Will keep you posted. The daughter is recovering nicely from a gash she gave herself a week ago. Fairly deep but no stitches. The older boy just had his hair cut. Previously I think he would have been best described as motley. Now he definitely has a cute vibe. I am itching to get my hands on the littlest's locks but we probably have to wait for warmer weather. Other than that we have made two batches of salsa recently, which totally reminds me of me. (inside joke, sort of) Starting to feel like we are winding things down here. Less than a month till mom arrives. The daughter brought home the note with the schedule for the last days of school. (the school year ends in March and then starts again in April). So yeah spring is in the air and I am loving it.

Love out.

Gakushu Hapyou Kai.

2011-01-28T20:45:00.000-08:00

or "Day to come and see what we learned in school".

The son's is second row from the bottom, second from the left.

So today I was up for attending the son's kindergarten performance. Very cute as these things tend to be for kindergartens. And a surprising reminder that the Japanese school year is fast drawing to a close. Here is some video of the little guy in action. The editing leaves a lot to be desired.

To cut or not to cut.

2011-01-24T02:06:00.000-08:00

Wow was that an ordeal. A little background.

When the daughter arrived home from school this afternoon the Mrs. was out. The daughter was terribly excited with the prospect of cutting her hair and having bangs. So excited in fact that after her math homework this was the topic she chose for her every other day journal entry. Or course she had it all written out before her mom arrived home.

Enter the Mrs. In her defense she is leery of taking any steps that might make school attendance more challenging. Imagine the "I hate my hair and I am not going to school" scenario. So the Mrs. raised the prospect of some of these issues before getting down to the business of cutting. These issues of course had never occured to the daughter so now she is torn. There is the excitement and anticipation of the new look, along with the fact that she has done the pre-emptive journal entry; counterbalanced with the possibility of being noticed and ridiculed at school. So half an hour of tears and back and forthing and I had had enough. I guaranteed her 100% that everyone at school would love her hair and call it cute. Sure I went out on a limb but I think the guarantee was pretty safe. Talking to other parents in the class the daughter is kind of idolized. Apparently there were a bunch of boys at the beginning of the year who were afraid to talk to her because she was so "cute." And there has yet to be an episode of playing with friends that ended in anything other than a "how soon can we play together again." So I don't really foresee any problems. However, I do take my guarantees pretty seriously. I sure don't look forward to my first back fire.

However, check out the pics. I wasn't wrong.

The flu season.

2011-01-20T18:07:00.000-08:00

As the title suggests there has been a slight lack of interesting stuff here recently. The little guy had a week of up and down fevers but no other symptoms. Now the older boy is in his second day of bed rest. He is coughing, sneezing, mild fever. The problem is that he is weak with sickness. Not that he is weak right now, it is just that sickness seems to have a much greater impact on him than the other two. He is the one who will cough himself to the point where he throws up. He is the one who spikes the crazy fevers. He is the one who freaks the Mrs. out when he gets sick. So I am spending a lot of time just hanging out with him in our room. Lots of fluids and videos. He is loving it. If only we had more videos. Well I just started working on the more videos problem. My apologies to those of you who make their living off of copyright.

In other news I am going into my second week of having a cough. Every so often I manage to bring up something but mostly it is just a nagging dry cough. No other symptoms and I don't feel sick. I am putting off going to see a doctor but it definitely isn't getting better on its own. So it looks like a trip to the doctor lurks in my future. The real question is who do I go and see. Is it off to the ear nose and throat doctor that we like or do I look for an internist? Well I am sure of one thing. Either I will die or I will get better?

Other recent developments include the possible pushing back of our return to Canada. It is now looking like the 9th of May will be our take off date from kagoshima. We may take a side trip to Niigata during our layover in Tokyo. This would put us back in Canada around the 12th or 13th.

Oh, I forgot, yesterday I had kind of an interesting activity with the daughter. In the afternoon I went up to the school to see all the grade two students demonstrate their jump rope skills. They also played their pianica's (a cross between a piano and a harmonica.)

This was followed by a dodge ball tournament. First the classes played a round robin. Then each class played against their mothers (and me). It was a fun afternoon, even though the kept asking all the "mothers" to come here or all the "mothers" to do this. I tried to take it in stride. I was the only dad there.

This evening the Mrs. is heading out to meet up with some high school chums. The same chums who flew over to our wedding. It was supposed to be families but I will be home with the boys. You could call us sick, sicker and on the mend.

Love, 'cough, cough' out.

Under Construction.

2011-01-13T20:53:00.000-08:00

So we start today with a local new years festival.

This was a giant Demon built out of bamboo. We arrived late so I didn't get to see what the thing actually looked like before they lit it. However, here is a picture of one I found on line. No striking demon resemblance but very burnable.

Now at home I have been on a building kick recently. First we made a bead necklace. Then we made a jigsaw puzzle. Both of these were documented in my last post. From these I moved onto this cat.

I don't know what was driving me but I just felt like trying this out. There were lots of mistakes and trial and errors along the way but in the end it got coloured and I was pleased with the result. Coincidentally the daughter had the option of bringing something she made over the winter break to school on the her first day back. Honestly, I had not heard anything about this. She took the cat and was very proud of herself. I was feeling pretty good too.

So while making the cat I promised the son that I would make him a dinosaur. I learned a lot while making the cat so the dinosaur turned out a little better, at least in my opinion.

They are both made from stiff paper, quite a bit stiffer than construction paper. I used regular paper for each original piece and then fiddled with the cuts until they were in just the right place. Then I traced the model onto the stiff paper. I was pretty surprised at how well it all worked out. I was going to colour the dinosaur but after two pretty full days of working on it I was done. And the son got to take it to school and show his friends. I don't know how long they will last but they are infinitely recyclable. I am still considering making an alligator as that was my neices request.

Ringing in the New Year.

2011-01-08T00:05:00.000-08:00

So I guess you could call this an update post.

To start with before new years we had a dump of about 25 cm here. The snow stuck around for about five days and almost stopped the Mrs. and me from getting in a long run. It did not however stop the kids from having a good time.

Of course with the snow comes the cold crappy weather of January. I am telling you it could be Grand Forks in April. And without central heating it means staying in the one room with a space heater. It also means shouting at any kid who enters the room or leaves the room without shutting the door. Our oldest is easily the biggest offender. So what do we do when it is cold and crappy. We hang out in doors.

The last couple of days the oldest boy has been sick. So I have activated my crafting gene and whipped up two activities. Activity one was making a paper bead necklace. Basically you make long isoceles triangles (no I will not explain which type of triangle that is) out of coloured paper. You then roll them around something thin and cylindrical and glue down the last bit of the tip. After stringing together three bracelets for the little ones the daughter finally got to make her necklace.

She is still wearing it today, so that is a win. The next project was started this morning and completed this afternoon. a) We started by taking pictures out of a magazine and making a collage. b) Then we cut up the collage to make a jigsaw puzzle. Part a) was easy and fun. Part b) gave clear definition to why there is a saw named after a puzzle. It is the other way around. You make this type of puzzle using a jigsaw. Using a dull exacto knife is time consuming, frustrating, and not particularly effective. Next time I will use stiff paper instead of cardboard.

Other than that the kids are back to school next Tuesday. I am looking forward to getting our routine back up and running. Lots of people with free time stuck inside together is not always a recipe for fun. Sometimes but not always.

ps. We also went and picked up the pottery we made back in November. It was glazed by some professionals and looked pretty good. While we were out the Mrs. got to making some homemade bread. Here is a picture of our current works of art.

(pot by me, buns by wife)

Kinpozan (the Mountain)

2010-12-29T01:32:00.000-08:00

So today I took the two oldest to climb a mountain. The Mrs. stayed home with the snotty little one (not his personality, he is just very mucusy [not to be mistaken with couscousy, a tendency to be a little dry and flavourless]).

So we three set off on a little winter adventure. As we drove south grey clouds were skudding across the sky. Trees bent and strained as I tried to keep the car on the road. Perhaps I was too preoccupied with the weather as we missed our turn. A pleasant gas station attendant was more than happy to point out the error in our ways. "Way back there" would probably be the closest translation. So after doubling back we found the right turn (it should have been a left) and started up the mountain. One more double back later and we had reached the parking lot at the top. Totally empty. We walked up to the temple and passed this tree.

We call trees like this "mother trees". It has never been overtly discussed but when hiking we are almost always on the lookout for Mother trees. We really enjoy finding them.

The view from the top was really beautiful. This is the sea of Japan side. If you look way to the right that is where I do most of my fishing with the father in law.

There were little shrines all over the place. Some religious discussion but very muted.

This shrine had a big sign posted just before it. The basic mythology is that a boy who loved fishing went out one day and drowned. His mother climbed the mountain to pray for her son. This cave was the place where she prayed. Since that day, her tears have continued to drop from the roof of the cave. I wondered if they drop in during the dry season. That is if there is a dry season.

Next we went to a cool lookout and managed to take a timed shot. Yeah me, I got in the picture. This is the Kinko wan bay side. On a good day the crater of Sakurajima would be spewing ash from right between the kids heads.

After much tramping around, we headed back down the mountain and went for noodles.

Then as usual we found a cool park to play at before heading home.

Todays big win was bringing home some omiyage (treats from a trip) for mom. It was a long adventure and there wasn't actually all that much hiking but we had fun. Probably the last hike of 2010. Hopefully 2011 will be full of adventure too.

Best wishes to all for an exciting, adventurous and fulfilling 2011.

Youii Otoshi wo Mukaete Kudasai.

The night before.

2010-12-24T22:37:00.000-08:00

Well it is a return to the good old days here. Last night the Mrs. and I made dinner and I actually pulled out the camera to snap some pics. The dinner involved some home made shake and bake, (I used some cinnamon) to coat the chicken. There is a major connection between fried chicken and Christmas here in Japan. I think it is a marketing thing by KFC. So instead of ponying up the big cash and wondering how my body is affected by MSG we made it ourselves. Of the forty mini drumsticks (large hot wing size) there were only 5 left after dinner. So that was a hit. The spaghetti was my classic meat sauce. Also quite well received. The Mrs. was on for the veggie platter and dipping sauce. She also garlic-ed up the bread.

By the time the adults sat down my Mother in law had added some dishes with a slightly more Japanese flavour. However, by then I was lounging quietly trying to estimate what time I would be in bed by.

The kids were all in their beds by 10:30 and I think for the most part they were asleep by 11:30.

We woke this morning to find that Santa had visited and there was much ado. The daughter received the eraser making set. Originally she was disappointed because it is a little difficult to do but with some dad help we have now officially made a clover eraser and she is satisfied with her santa request. The older boy received a remote control car. The antenna on the controller is now half the length it is supposed to be but the toy still works. How many times can you tell a five year old to be careful. The little guy got a block balancing game which can also just be blocks. I didn't get his official statement but witness report that he seemed neither disappointed not overly excited. Next year.

Well it is time to settle down with a beer and a book. Currently watching toy story 3 in Japanese. Good times.

Ps. these pictures are from the community Christmas party. Some pretty wicked cakes if you ask me.

The Festive Holiday Spirit.

2010-12-18T15:00:00.000-08:00

I almost titled this post the Christmas Spirit but I didn't want to offend any of my readership. You know how it is.

So anyways yesterday was a pretty great day here. We started in the morning with the neighbourhood Christmas party. The Mrs. and I took the three kids over to the little community hall next to the park. I didn't know what to expect as the Japanese treatment of holidays can sometimes be a little off. However, this event was awesome. The basic concept was to get the kids of the neighbourhood together with some of the older folks in the neighbourhood. They started off with a cake decorating session. There were nine groups of 2 or 3 kids and one elder. Each group was given a roll cake, some whipped cream and an assortment of decoration candies. Then they decorated their Christmas cake. Christmas cake is a Japanese specialty. A classic Japanese christmas meal is a romantic dinner of KFC and christmas cake. Fried chicken and a white frosted cake equals santa.

Anyways after decorating they sliced it up and everyone got to eat part of their creation. At our table the youngest didn't do much decorating but he enjoyed his slice. The daughter was at our table and did a major portion of our decorating. The son was at a different table and was sent scathing looks by his father each time he snuck a decoration or took a furtive finger full of frosting (okay it was whipped cream but I loved the alliteration).

After the feasting everything got cleaned away and I did my best at avoiding being volunteered to entertain the kids. It was touch and go for a moment when the wife asked me to teach everyone a christmas song in English. However, I hemmed and hawed long enough for the people from the library to arrive. They presented two sing along songs (in Japanese but accompanied by finger puppets) two books, and one story told with picture cards. None of these were winter or Christmas related. Fair enough.

To finish off they give out some gift packages and then had a kuji. This is where the kids pick a number out of a bag and then get the present associated with the number. Everyone got two picks so our kids were mostly satisfied.

Post party the older two had made plans to play at the park. So after a quick walk home and some lunch they were off again. However, they were told to be back by 3:00 as we wanted to go into town and see a movie. I managed to get a run in and by 3:08 we were on the road, minus the baby who was having his afternoon nap. Both parents felt a little guilty about leaving him behind. But we dealt with it and moved on.

The kids both napped in the car for the half hour ride to Chuo station. Otherwise the drive was uneventful. Upon arrival we split into two groups. The Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 group consisted of me and the kids. The shopping and having some leisurely alone time consisted of the Mrs.

The movie experience, aside from the $22.00 adult ticket price, was great. The son sat in my lap for the last half (its a little scary) and the daughter felt like she was trying to rip my arm out. We shared a big popcorn and everyone had their own drink (I know I would never choose melon soda). We took a pee break with about half an hour to go so now I have to wait for the video to see the three minutes I missed. The movie ended at 6:38 and I had told the Mrs. that we would meet her at McD's between 6:30 and 6:45. Fortunately, getting their was pretty much a straight shot. We rode the elevator ride from the sixth floor to the basement. After a (cannot think of appropriate adjective ) dinner at McD's we got back in the car and headed back home.

All in all it was a great festive, holiday kind of Saturday. Some quality family time together. And when we got home the baby was pretty happy to see us. Turns out when he woke up he wouldn't take sympathy from his grand parents or aunt. Instead he turned to his 4 year old cousin for the soothing hug he needed. After that he just played as usual till we got home.

Good times.

love out.

Sports day.

2010-12-16T00:46:00.000-08:00

Just a quickie to say that our latest movie is up on Youtube (or should be up by the time you North American's read this).

Our movie can be found at this link.

However, I have another link of a whole day of a high school sports day compressed into two minutes.

Totally Bisho Nure.

2010-12-13T15:22:00.000-08:00

Recently I have noticed a real cultural shift in my kids. Occasionally they will have trouble explaining something in English. The title of this post is what the daughter said today in explanation of why she wasn't wearing he usual shoes to school, they were totally bisho nure. I asked her to explain herself in English (in my defense I did understand her Japanese, I was just probing the incident). She paused for a few seconds and then responded that her shoes were "wet... very wet." I commented back that they were probably "soaking wet" and we headed off for school.

This topic actually came to mind a few days ago in the bath. I was getting out of the bath and the son and daughter were still in. I asked them if they wanted me to put the cover over. If you do this then it makes kind of a cave/grotto effect and they enjoy it. The son response was great he said, "Boku drown suru my mimi gets baikin". Basically he was going for, "If I submerge my head then I will get another ear infection." He didn't know the English, submerge or the Japanese Shizumu. And his only ear infection explanation has been in Japanese from his mom when he went to the hospital last week for the ear infection he had. The Japanese word for ear infection is something I don't remember but it is a long word that doesn't include the words ear or infection. I can't remember it so the son had no chance.

The son pops out these mahze go (mixed language) statements all the time these days. It is very endearing.

In other news the Mrs had her 37th Birthday on the weekend. She baked a cake and we had te-maki sushi for dinner.

The next two pictures are almost the same however, the son's expression in both is just priceless.

Finally we have the four varieties of cereal (two bags of each) that the Mrs. managed to pull in for filling out the form on the back of a cereal box and sending it in. Fortuitously this arrived on the day she a) had just complained to the mother of one of the son's friends that she never wins anything and b) had her birthday.

Cereal anyone.

A study in Contrasts.

2010-12-07T20:16:00.000-08:00

So the boys are more like this

The daughter however seems to be more like this.

Recently the son has been (un)fortunate enough to have a friend with a DS to spare. He is fully into gaming. Whether it is on the DS, online with this computer, or using the play station at home he is fully integrated. Now being entirely susceptible to the draw of gaming myself I have great sympathy. However, as a parent I still have to ask the question, where do I draw the line between an entertainment and over use? I have never managed to draw the line for myself. This is a problem.

The daughter was running with all of her classmates in the yearly grade wide distance run. We went out and practiced for this a few times. During the practices there was lots of walking and she really played up the fact that she wasn't very good. Then she finishes 12th out of 38. Which was an improvement on the 19th she had managed during PE class. Her results were great, but beyond that there was how she managed herself leading up to and during the event. A few times she tried to get all worked up about doing something where people would be watching. I talked her down a few times but I don't think her heart was ever really in it. Best of all, in the end everything went fine. It is amazing how far she has come since arriving in May. I know she still feels like everyone is watching her all the time because she is different but she is handling it way better. I am very proud of how far she has come and how hard she has worked.

On a different note we are looking forward to Christmas here. The fathers group has scheduled a Kite Making with your dad session. Christmas morning 9:00 to 12:00. I was going to skip it out of principle but I figured that was foolish so we will be at the school making Kites on Christmas morning. When in Japan, eh. Of course this means we will be able to take part in kite flying competition in early January. Kind of a New Year's thing.

Shichi-Go-San again.

2010-11-26T19:12:00.000-08:00

You might remember way back in 2008 when we previously dressed up for the seven-five-three festival here in Japan. There was much more hair work done that time.

Well I have to go and do other stuff. Lets just call this a picture post.

Love out.

Events.

2010-11-22T16:42:00.000-08:00

So recently we have had a couple of family events. The first event was a family dinner with one of Sayoko's best friends, Shan Shan. She was at our wedding and lives about 5 minutes away by car. Shan and her husband have three kids, the oldest being in the same grade as Kiyomi. Her name is Kanako. The two girls get on famously. The also enjoy excluding the boy so he enjoys trying to annoy them. It is a nice complement.

Their youngest is four months old. Riko chan.

It was a really nice dinner hanging out with friends and even though I had a running practice (more later) the next morning we drank quite a bit. The really excellent part to this dinner was the fact that this week, out of the blue, they called us up on Saturday afternoon and invited us over again. They were having another family over for a fall barbecue night and they were sorry for the last minute invite but it was all last minute. This party topped the first one, in that for me, hanging outside as three dads roasting meat, talking about late 80's NBA (the third dad is a huge b-ball fan) and commiserating with each other about the various trying aspects of marriage was awesome. My Japanese has really come along and it was great to just hang out with the boys. The dinner was excellent too and I was sad I had to limit myself to three beers (I did have a fourth but that was the end.)

The reason I limited myself is that I had a race the next day. I was competing in the Ijuin Eki-Den with the Myouenji team(we live in Myouenji). When I was originally approached to be on the team I declined because the race was the same day as the Bazaar at Kiyomi's school. As part of the fathers club (Oh Zora Kai, Big sky group) I had already signed up to help make and sell french fries and cotton candy. However, the head of sports for our community happens to also be a member of my softball team and finagled it so that I could do both. At the first practice when asked what I wanted to run I foolishly offered to run a longer 2.46 K leg instead of running as the over 30 competitor in a 1 km leg. Foolishly in that they ended up putting me as the anchor leg. The coach figured as I would be late arriving from the Bazaar it was best to put me last. Well long story short. We came second. After years of dominating the event the Myouenji A team (yeah we had a b team too) came second this year. I only lost my leg by 1 second and we lost by over a minute over all so it wasn't all my fault. But the guy who ended up running as our over thirty competitor had a record time for that leg and if he had run the last leg with me running his shorter 6th leg we would have been much closer. I am trying to let it go. Of course there were two different gatherings involved with the Ekiden and I consumed lots of food and drink. At both gatherings we settled down after the students had left and continued our revelry. Good times.

I could talk about the drinking parties that have crept up in November but I wont. Instead I will move on to our latest kiking trip. This time we climbed Mt Kanmuri (Nishi Dake on most maps) near Ichiki-Kushkino.

This is us at a little shrine on the way up.

Note me holding the youngest as we hike. He is getting to be a good work out. Both the Mrs. and I lamented leaving the baby hiker back in Canada. By the time we get back we won't be able to use it much.

The views from the top were awesome. The pictures don't do it justice because the contrast between sea and cloud was lost due to the haziness. Some other hikers told us that the view on that day was amazingly clear so perhaps this is the best we could get.

Instead of climbing all 541m to the top we actually drove most of it and parked at the temple and shrine that are way up the mountain. It was about a half hour hike from the parking lot. Pretty reasonable and we did not run into very much whiny ness at all. On the trip back down we took a different road and at the bottom of the hill we went to see this giant statue.

This next picture is my favourite. Mountain, statue and kids. It really says it all.

After the statue we went to a park and the kids played for about an hour. It was a good park. No I didn't take any pictures. Everyone was asleep by the time we arrived back home (I was only a little dozy). To tie it all back together, we got back just in time to take the late invite phone call to the second party. We told them we would be late as I had my last ekiden practice at 5. Good times.

Love out.

Turning Points

2010-11-15T16:39:00.000-08:00

It is a pretty amazing time here. Things are happening. Just yesterday Kazi started to really parrot words. He copied his great uncle by saying "Shochu" the local potato liquor that practically everyone drinks. He called both his sister and brother by name. During the day he was looking at his tummy and saying "ka - ii, ka - ii." It took an explanation from the Mrs. that he was pointing at the picture on his tummy and saying, "kawa ii" or "cute" in Japanese. So he has the wherewithal to know that something can be cute and that it is positive and he wanted to share with me that his shirt was cute. Honestly, this change has really taken me by surprise. With the other two kids it really felt like I would come home one day and they would be walking or talking. That is what happens when 60-70% of your waking time is spent thinking about work. Being here with really nothing to think about has given me the chance to watch my son change from a baby to a toddler. I am so excited to spend the next 5 months watching him learn to speak and to hear the different ideas he has come out.

And speaking of ideas his older brother is having some doozies these days. Just this morning while we were driving to school we were talking about driving. He said if he was driving he would crash into all the cars. (Yesterday he played a version of mariocart at a friends house and I guess there was a lot of crashing) So I replied that I wouldn't let him learn to drive if he was going to crash. He parried with once I was dead he would be able to do what he wanted. I said I would be watching him even when I was dead. To this he responded he was looking forward to being reunited when we were spirits (I don't think he has the word for heaven in his vocabulary currently, I know I don't use it). I thought this was a pretty big idea. So I got into the whole thing about lets enjoy living together, we don't know what will happen in the future, basically I was only superficially listening to what he was saying and as usual was driving my own agenda. And this brought us to the conversation I really wanted to talk about. Kohei asked me why we don't have little devils and angels (white angels and red angels is what he said) on our shoulders telling us what to do. One of the videos the kids watch here has a Donald Duck cartoon where he is lead astray by his shoulder devil. So then we got into what those shoulder guys really mean. I tried to explain about having choices and there may be two options and you can't decide which to do. So in your head you will think about the reasons for doing one thing rather than the other. I don't know if he was satisfied by this but we had arrived at school by then and he had moved on to the excitement of possibly being the first to arrive at school, which today he was.

It is so cool to see Kohei attaching meaning to life and connecting the various ideas he comes across every day with the rest of the ideas in his life. As I write this I realise I need to do a better job of listening and asking questions in situations like this. Hopefully I can be the same kind of teacher to my own children as I challenge myself to be with my students. So that is what I learned today for the umpteenth time. More questions, less answers.

All in all life continues to be great everyday, though we miss our Canadian friends and family a lot. Everyone is well.

Love out.

Hiking for Four

2010-11-06T00:51:00.000-07:00

So we left the littlest gaffer asleep at home with the reli's and head off for a short hike. Today's destination was the sister mountain to our first real hike. It is called Yahazu Dake (302 m). It is not a listed Yahazu Dake however so I cannot provide a link, darn it. However, I do have pictures a plenty.

The sign at the parking lot says it is a fifteen minute hike. It took us about 25 minutes and both the kids, though at points whiny, never gave any hint of being ready to give up. The parental conversation revolved around how starting off with easy hikes is good and there is no need to push it and then turn the kids off of hiking. Like I will be able to stick to that.

Of the two mountains we have hiked this was the one not recommended by Kohei's teacher as it is too steep. However, it is clearly the better hike. Trail is well marked and quite wide. There are some rope railings set up in the steep stretches. And the view at the top is panoramic taking in both the sea of Japan to the west and Kinko wan (kinko bay) and Sakurajima to the east. It was a sort of hazy day so the pictures aren't the best but you get the idea.

Also at the top were some killer big spiders. We watched one in the process of taking in a fresh catch. We saw it move in. Grab the little bug with its pincers. Then we saw it use its hind legs to pull out the silk and wrap the critter up. It was cool and the kids were fascinated. They actually wanted to take it home. I had to explain that there are spiders like this everywhere near our house. Kiyomi actually pet the spider a couple of times. There are literally pet opportunities everywhere that child looks.

Sorry about the spider picture but I am not experienced with manual focus on our little point and shoot and I didn't have a tripod.

Is that Dinner?

2010-11-05T17:19:00.000-07:00

Yes, your eyes do not deceive you. It is a dinner post. Amazing I know but true. I am back.

Yesterday the delivery man made a stop at our house and dropped off our latest purchases from the foreign buyers club. So we are back in the basics. Yes, nacho chips, granola and lasagna noodles are the staples of my life. 6 bags of nachos, 8 packages of granola and 4 boxes of lasagna. We also got some garlic powder, bay leaves, pickled jalapeno slices and olives. Basically it is all stuff we cannot find here or we cannot find it at a reasonable price. The chips won't last but the pasta should go a couple of months and the cereal should see us through the new year.

So with all that handsome goodness on hand I figured it was time for me to whip up some dinner. I am usually good for at least one dish every other night but tonight I took on the whole task. First I made the Dunnet style guacamole. I think I over did the yogurt but it was still good. The avocadoness was very mild which was a small shame. The salsa was pretty good and though it was a little spicy (very nice) the kids still managed to eat some. The best was when the guac and salsa were mixed together. Freak-tastic ©. The other finger food was the satsuma imo fries. Satsuma imo are the purple sweet potatoes favoured in this part of Japan. Sliced, oiled, and seasoned they were baked for about 40 minutes. Awesome. Next up was some Nasu Miso. Now I know that I should have just done the nasu in the miso and been satisfied with what looked to be a glorious dish. However, I had to go the extra yard and add some cubed fried tofu and some moyashi. Unfortunately, I didn't scale up the sauce ingredients so though the nasu was flavourful the tofu was pretty mild. The kids still gobbled it up. This evenings main dish was hamburg steak. Basically hamburgers without the buns. Even I was impressed with the overall flavour of this evening burgers. Minced onions and mushrooms along with pepper, salt, cumin, coriander, the previously mentioned just arrived garlic powder, three eggs and bread crumbs came together very nicely with the mixed ground pork/beef we had. Fried in a non stick frying pan then ended with the nice crispy outsides and juicy rich insides that burgers so richly deserve. I feasted on chips and dip and sweet potatoes before the burgers had even started frying so you can imagine how stuffed I was when all was said and done. Haven't been on the scale this morning.

Finally here is a shot of Yoshiteru watching some TV while I make dinner. He enjoyed the snack food but in the end Junko had a fish dish ready to add to his dinner. When you reach seventy you are allowed to be a little set in your ways.

Love out.

Halloween arrives early in Japan.

2010-10-29T05:53:00.000-07:00

Trick or Treat.

Just before lunch today the Mrs. informed me that the kids had been invited to a Halloween party this evening. Okay... I guess we need some costumes.

(T.O: Kaz is still coughing and sneezing) The witches costume is actually a hold over from Sachon's post college, pre-David days. So that was easy enough to put together. However, the boy was lacking. My glorious wife thought maybe he could be a cowboy. Put him in my good hiking hat and he could carry his toy gun. I immediately nixed the idea as it required no inspiration from me and we didn't have any chaps. Looking around the house I noticed the mostly empty box that the good beer comes in. I quickly transferred the last of the beer to the fridge (quick thinking on my part) and got to work. With some scissors, white paper, most of a roll of tin foil, some pencil crayons and most of a roll of tape we were done.

So after dinner and some last minute directions from the Mrs. (it is an orange house with a green roof somewhere near here on the map) we were off. Now by this point I had managed to squeeze a few more details from my betrothed and determined it was an English Language school English party. Originally the plan was to drop the kids off from 7:30 to 9:00 but the boy and girl were both too chicken to go it as a pair so I offered up my services. Grudgingly. It was everything I expected.

The teacher/owner of the school is a Chinese woman from Hong Kong who has lived in Kagoshima for the last 17 years. She is married to a Japanese man and has some elementary age kids. She was very nice. As expected I was asked to say a few words of greeting at the beginning. Then there were the usual excruciatingly painful games, "What is this picture?" (half the kids aren't listening, a quarter don't show any signs of comprehension). A third of the way through the games the boy decided he was done. Not fun. Also his silver cap was a total thermal trap. I had to open up the top like a fully popped pan of stove top popcorn. It helped. We made it to snack time. After that I gave another little speech about Halloween in Canada which Kiyomi did a very game job of translating. I answered some questions and then gave my little inspirational speech about learning English (ironically I give it in Japanese so people know what I am talking about). The junior high girls were paying attention. With that done we gave out some treats and called it a night. It is a great blessing that I do not teach Eikaiwa any more.

The costume should get some good play here for the next week or so. Oh I forgot. Kohei's robot pose in the second picture almost made Sachon wet herself. She went off. It is a good pose.

Love out.

Working Man.

2010-10-27T16:25:00.000-07:00

So just a quick one today. First a little lay out. The washroom in our place has about 8 feet of hallway leading directly away from it. This short hallway meets the main hallway of the house in a T. They main hallway runs down the middle of the house and every room is reached via this main hallway.

This morning as I stepped out of the washroom after my daily ablutions, who should I be met by but the youngest son standing at the junction of the T. To preface this he was up a lot last night coughing. He has had the on again off again cold for the last 8 - 10 days. Last night he threw up a little bit so we brought one of the bathing bowls (Sen Men ki)　into our room just in case we had a late night accident. Anyways, I step out of the bathroom and there is the little man standing in the hallway. His expression is neutral, kind of blank and he is holding the senmen ki at his side. His hair is a little tousled and his eyes are a little puffy. He kind of has that blue collar worker heading off to work in the morning look. So I say to him in my best morning voice, "Oh High Oh Go Zai Masu" which is good morning and give him a little nod/bow. In return he gives me a deep bow all the while not changing his serious expression or taking his eyes off of me. Then he continues on his way down the hall and out of site.

It is just priceless to see him growing up. When your kids start to respond in kind, to do the appropriate thing when prompted, it is both heart warming and wrenching. It means they are growing up. But it also means they are growing up. Sniff.

Love out.

16th Century Chic.

2010-10-25T02:12:00.000-07:00

So last weekend was the Myouenji Mairi. It basically is a celebration of the battle of Seki ga Hara. In the end I didn't learn more than three of the song verses. However, every time we got back around to those verses I sang them whole heartedly. It turns out the people wearing armour were not expected to sing. Dang it.

Now lets talk about the armour I was wearing. We started off by putting on what basically felt like pajamas. Then they do the arm coverings. This if followed by a sort of apron which covers you from waist to almost knee (if I were a samurai 400 years ago it would have probably been below my knee). Then they buckle you into the torso portion. Imagine a giant garlic press. Next they strap on the shin guards and shoulder plates. By this point you are feeling pretty packed.

Of course you have no idea. Now you learn what the long white sheaf of fabric that you purchased with your tabi (one toed socks) is for. It is called a sarashi. They basically in teams of two, seal you in with this as a belt. They start by cinching it tight and then proceed to twist it into a sort of braid, all the while smiling and asking if its too tight. There is nothing to be done for it so you just answer no. I thought this might be the worst of it. I was wrong. Imagine someone takes an impression of your face and then fashions an iron mask of the lower half for you to wear. Now imagine they do it for someone much smaller than you but still strap it on to your face with the straps for an iron helmet that is also too small for you. Yeah, it was kind of like torture on a small scale.

It wasn't too bad to start with but after a 25 minutes slow march down the main street of town it was starting to be a major pain. This inspite of my kids running along beside me trying to get me to look over and recognize them. They were great. For the last week we were specifically instructed that the whole eyes forward serious thing was important for the spectators so I took it too heart and tried my best to play the part. The kids took their roles pretty seriously too and at the after party (more later) every commented on them saying "Daddy, daddy" the whole way along the route. So where was I, right 25 minutes. I am starting to think I might not be able to take this when we start crossing a bridge and I realise we are like 200 meters from the temple we are bound for. I feel something like relief. Then the parade stops. We wait ... and wait. It gets slightly darker... we are still waiting. I am thinking there is a traffic mix up or some other group that is parading in front of us is late and we have to wait our turn. We wait some more ... it gets darker. I am basically in agony and the best part is the teacher-helpers who aren't wearing armour are all walking around asking if anything hurts. Now they know full well that we are all basically dieing and there is nothing they can do about it but they ask anyways, of course the answer has to be no. What am I going to say, my mask is killing me and I want to take off my helmet. The answers would be no and no. In Japanese the word is "Gaman", it means to hold on or hold out. So I did. It was dark so no one could see me close my eyes and grimace in pain. How long could we wait. Then there was an explosion and it all became clear. We were waiting here for the fireworks they had mentioned three days ago to start. After a few minutes of fireworks (it felt like hours) we started marching again. We got to the temple and after negotiating 2 sets of stairs without looking down we finally had our helmets taken off and the masks lowered to our chests. It was like finally surfaced after being 200 m deep in the ocean with 100 m worth of air. The ceremony in the temple which we had practiced for the last week and they had warned us would be incredibly difficult was a walk in the park after finally getting that damn helmet and mask off my face.

We drove back to the staging area/community center in a little bus. Everyones' faces said the same thing. Thank whatever higher power you believe in that that is over. Back at the base we quickly changed out of our gear, wrote the date, our names and addresses on the list that came with our armour for posterity's sake, and then sat down and got ready to eat and drink. There were some speeches and then everyone who had worn some armour got up and did a self introduction. The basics of mine were name, thanks to guy who got me involved, man was that every tough, however sharing it together made it not so bad. It was well received. After that we received our completion certificate (framed), our bento, and a cup. Finally we could relax, drink some beer and reflect on the conscious decision we had all made to participate. Many people pledged to go again next year. Maybe their helmets fit better.

Love out.

If the hat fits.

2010-10-18T18:14:00.000-07:00

So last night I was fitted and it fit. So I will be marching in Myouenji Mairi. There are about 40 of us marching on Saturday and we all met up last night from 8 - 9. The guys who are in charge are pretty strict and basically treat this as if we are soldiers and in training. However, it is a little more than that.

1. We practice proper walking technique with all of our stuff for an hour a night for the next four nights. This includes carrying the iron armoured helmet on your right hand a foot above your shoulder. Practicing last night just carrying my hand like that for half an hour was pretty painful. Tonight we get the helmets.

2. During the parade we are not supposed to look left or right. We are supposed to be just like samurai. They say it really enhances the effect for the people watching the ceremony/parade.

3. There is a proper way to sit and stand. We practice that too. They mention that sitting stock still for 20 minutes, not quite cross legged, may put your legs to sleep. This means it may be challenging to stand up properly when the time comes. There was no mention of forgiveness for messing this up.

4. I have to memorize a song that we will all have to sing while we march in the required manor.

5. It turns out this is the song that Kiyomi was working on in school for about 3 months. She managed to get to stanza 8. There are 22. There may be a lot of lips moving but no sound coming out from one large samurai in the back of the pack.

The family here are all pretty excited so I am sure there will be pictures taken and probably some video. So everyone is sure to get a taste.

Love out.

Sunny Sunday.

2010-10-18T03:25:00.000-07:00

This is the view from the top of what we climbed on Sunday. It was majestic. I tried to find an option for creating a panoramic picture or movie but with my Japanese language OS it just didn't seem to be easy. So here is the view one at a time.

So yeah we were at the top of the look out tower at Kenko no Mori Park. We played Frisbee as a family for the first time and it was awesome. The two older kids are throwing and catching. It is the beginning of an era my friends. Mark my words.

You can see Sakurajima (the volcano) just over the bill of my cap. Sunday was an awesome day. After playing Frisbee, hiking up to the tower and a little walk around the park it was time for the playground. When that was done we played a little soccer with Kazi and then had fun at the hill.

Yup it was a pretty good weekend. Next weekend is the Miyoenji Mairi festival. I am going for a fitting tonight. If they can find a samurai outfit big enough I may be marching in the parade. Keep you fingers crossed.

Because its there.

2010-10-12T16:18:00.000-07:00

Monday past was Sports day in Japan. It is a national holiday and comes at the end of the Sports day season. With the whole day off and nothing in particular to do we decided to climb a mountain. This is the top of Moromasa Dahke.

The hike up took about 15 minutes when I did it on my own. However, with Kaz wanting to walk where ever it was flat it took us about 40 minutes on the way up. The trail starts by going through a farmers yard and passing his piles of cow manure. It then proceeds as a cement road running through a bamboo grove. After the cement ends it becomes a dirt road and the forest changes to cedar. This first part is not very steep. After the road makes a big left turn it becomes more of a dirt track and becomes quite steep. There is no scrambling but if it had been rainy the muddiness and fallen leaves might have made it quite treacherous. There is a small lookout about 2 minutes from the top but the trees have grown so much you cannot see anything but sky. The top is covered in long grass but there is one larger rocky outcrop to sit on and enjoy the view. We forgot our mosquito spray and the youngest is looking rather splotchy as a result. While at the top another group of climbers came up but they carried on down the back side. I hadn't tried this on my own so we didn't follow. We ate our onigiri and mikan and then headed back down. The return trip, carrying the baby the whole way, took about 20 minutes. In total we were on the mountain for about an hour and a half. A perfect start to our Japanese mountain climbing.

I am kind of hoping that this can become a habit for us. If we do end up making a habit of it I think I might do an English language blog about going hiking with kids in Kagoshima. It might actually be of use to someone.

In other news the daughter got a drastic hair cut last night. I had to intervene after the first few snips were made as there was a bit of hysteria in the bathroom. However, by the time Mom was done slicing Kiyomi was pretty darn happy about the effect and was really excited to go to school today and have everyone be surprised. I had to break the news that some people would not notice her hair cut. I mean 8 year old boys. Its a long shot.

Common sentiment is that she looks a bit like Amuro Namie.

I think she just looks great.

Post Partum Post

2010-10-04T20:05:00.000-07:00

So Chach and the gang left yesterday at about 6:30 for Kyoto. It was a little bitter sweet. We had a great time while they were here. It was crowded and noisy and busy. But it was great. So nice to have my relatives hanging out together. There were two or three nights where we sat around after dinner chatting. With Sachon and I translating there was some interesting conversation and some good laughs. The pictures are all from the week that was.

Over all I feel really good about how the week went. Between taking Kohei to school or picking him up and Gus napping or feeding it was tougher than I expected to get out and about. But we still managed to see the volcano, have an onsen, go to the seaside, get in a round of golf (just the boys), watch Kiyomi's sports day and eat every possible dish Allison could have wanted. Junko made yaki niku, okonomiyaki, and tempura. Yoshiteru managed to bring home fresh fish for Sashimi at least three of the nights. We went out for nagashi somen. Ours swirled around in a whirpool in the center of the table but it was still fun. We even got all cultural and made a stop at a shrine. This of course will pale in comparison to their next stop in Kyoto but it was a little taste of the Kagoshima style. There was a lot of beer consumed during their seven day stay and I definitely need to get my mojo back as far as eating properly and running are concerned.

In other news the weather has finally changed and it was a little under 15 degrees this morning. Thank goodness. I am hoping for an extended fall, maybe it can last till February.

As for the kids Kiyomi enjoyed her sports day and has a field trip coming up this week. She is still a little anxious about school but for the most part is getting braver everyday. Kohei continues to love going to school. He had a practice session today for the Ijuin Town Sports day coming up this weekend. All the kindergartners in the area take part in a giant dance in the middle of the track and field stadium infield. Definitely some video will be taken that day. It turns out I am also anchoring the four by 100 team of the 1st neighbourhood softball team on that day. (there are 9 neighbourhoods in Myouenji where we live and we live in the first neighbourhood, in Japanese it is called Ikku (first is ichi, neighbourhood is Kuu, together ikku). Hopefully I don't pull a hamstring or tear an achilles.

Big plans to get into some hiking this fall with the kids. Saturdays look to be the day of choice. Working on some targets in the nearby area. If they go well then we will start to search further a field.

Well time for lunch.

Love out.

This Week in Sports

2010-09-17T02:46:00.000-07:00

So I ran ten k today, almost. Apparently there will be a lap around the track when I actually do the race. Three freakin hills on the route. One of which is more than a kilometer in length. I don't think this is the kind of course I will be breaking forty minutes on. Today, working pretty hard, it took me 51 with out the extra lap so that would put me at 53 for the actual ten k. Now I do have about three months till the actual race and I really have just started back but holy shnikkees. To grind 13 minutes off of what I did today. It just seems totally unreasonable. I need to find a flat course race some time in March. Or possibly something back in Canada come june or july. The good news is that this is the second day in a row of running and I did an hour of yoga this morning.

In other news the box arrived. We ordered a bunch of stuff from the foreign buyers club here in Japan and it arrived yesterday. So today we are having nachos and salsa with the doritas, jalapenos, olives and brick of cheddar that came in the mail. We have to wait until Sachon and Kiyomi come back from checking out Piano lessons. I think I can I think I can. The salsa turned out pretty well and sachon made the guacamole so I am sure it is tasty. I just need to find a grater for the cheese. Damn the things you take for granted. If I manage to get a picture took before the ravenous ranks descend upon the food I will up load it. No promises.

Going golfing tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Love out.

2010-09-08T16:24:00.000-07:00

And then there was one. With the start of all day (9:00 - 2:00) kindergarten for Kohei this week we are officially down to one kid on school days. Yesterday the Mrs and I went shopping for running shoes and even though we took the little tyke it wasn't so bad. Between the two of us we managed to keep him occupied and try on shoes. Happy day.

It turns out I really need the shoes as I seem to be gaining ground in the old mass department. Apparently massive amounts of free time without the need to look for work or do much of anything else is not the healthiest life style. Who knew? Fortunately the kids routine is pretty set so I can try and build exercise and purpose into my life around this. It should work. Guitar lessons are still a possibility. I was thinking about a gym pass this morning. I also may take it upon myself to prepare a dish every night for dinner. I made a really nice Thai Curry last night basically from scratch. People enjoyed it. I enjoyed it a little too much. I am pretty sure that is the other side of the fitness equation. Portion control. Basically when I am not exerting much energy every day there is very little need for the 2000+ calories I am used to. Not that I plan to start counting but I just have to leave the seconds and after dinner snacks out of the equation. Basically I need to drop about 20. Then I will be at a good weight for next springs running season.

In other news the youngest was mauled by a dog. Well, okay, he was bit on the right side of his mouth by the little shitzu we live with. He cried a bit but had finished with the water works before Kiyomi, who was practically hysterical after seeing it happen. He is doing fine here two days later and seems to be healing well. Here is a picture from the day after. The one on the right is from just now.

One more reason I don't like yappy little lap dogs. In the second picture the little tough guy is holding the bat I bought yesterday. At the sporting goods store I decided to get a bat and ball to play with at the park. Kohei seemed to enjoy trying it the other day at Kindergarten so I thought what the heck. Well was that ever a stroke of genius. Last night before dinner we went to the park to try it out. Total success. Two other neighbourhood kids and a mom joined in our make shift game and we played baseball for about 45 minutes straight. Both kids were whacking the heck out of the ball and even though they didn't seem to get all the rules and the bases were hard to find as they were just scratched in the dirt it was a blast and no one wanted to go home for dinner.

Finally this is a picture from dinner a few nights back. Te maki sushi. Good stuff. Hope everyone's well. And thank goodness you guys are all blogging like mad.

Signing off from Glass House Central.

Love out.

Vistors from a Near.

2010-08-31T19:26:00.000-07:00

So we start off with a picture the kid made of her arm with the ten teki(iv). This was early on when she was really afraid each time she got poked. It got better as time went along. The final results came back today and her numbers are good. She can go to school on Monday. Thank goodness.

In other news the relatives from Yokohama were down for a couple of days. These are Junko's younger brother and his family. So Sayoko's youngest cousin is about five years older than her oldest nephew. They are in the back of the picture at the top. This next set of pictures is Kohei, Kazuaki and myself hanging with them one evening. It was raucous.

Our final picture of little miss Sicky with her mom. This was yesterday so she was still officially sick and couldn't play inside. Life was tough.

I meant to take some pictures of my pizza from last night. I am resigned to having crappy crust while I am here. Just no option for getting the hot base before transferring the pizza onto it. However, the crowd is eating it up so I shouldn't complain.

This weekend coming up is the neighbourhood sports day. I think I have been entered in numerous events. Lets hope the body holds up.

Love. Out.

More news.

2010-08-26T04:19:00.000-07:00

Well the current hope is that Saturday will be Kiyomi's last day in hospital. Her liver something or other numbers are coming down and the hope is that by Saturday they will be close enough to normal that she can come home and start acting like herself again. Fingers are crossed. The little trooper is pretty sick of being in hospital. We are keeping ourselves pretty busy during the day but it isn't the same as being at home and playing with your siblings and cousins. Asides from the video that can be found here,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K3Px_Lugas

we also studied some Japanese today and read most of "the BFG" by Roald Dahl. Fortunately the third book of the Harry Potter series arrived in perfect hardcover condition from Amazon Marketplace Japan two days earlier then the earliest expected date. So for $5 including shipping we are starting on the Prisoner of Azkahban tomorrow. Man do I love the internet. Sorry about the lack of pictures. However, I think the video out put should more then keep you satisfied.

Did anyone else notice that I have started using our names in the blog. Yes all dreams of making this a commercial venture died within the first couple of months. So the silly habit just had to follow.

Hope you're all well and Congratulations Joey. Your rock.

Update

2010-08-20T03:53:00.001-07:00

So my full time job is turning out to be kind of fun. I am up to chapter 9 in the second harry potter book. We are working on a little stop motion animation project. And a clown came to visit the childrens ward today so we even got a magic show and a balloon bear. The fever is subsiding and the doctor seems pretty excited about the prospect of her betterness come tomorrows blood test. Much like Kohei three years ago she is just having a worse than usual reaction to contracting the epstein-barr virus. I have also made my apologies to the Mrs. sheepishly. Kaz is looking for some attention. Gotta go.

Don't freak out.

2010-08-18T04:57:00.000-07:00

I lost the battle of wills and Kiyomi has been admitted to hospital. She will be getting essentially the same treatment she would be getting at home. Only now one of her parents has to be at the hospital 24 hours a day. If I am not mistaken (which I may very well be) then Kiyomi will recover from her infectious mononucleosis within the next two weeks. My guess would be that it would have been about the same amount of time were she to have stayed home. We will never know. Time to put the boys to bed. On a positive note, I will not be nursing Kaz so his days as a baby may be drawing to a close. On the other hand it may be a long night.

The Illness

2010-08-16T00:04:00.000-07:00

Well one thing is for certain. This kid is a fighter.

Or she may die.

You just never can tell. The doctors are saying it is probably infectious mononucleosis. Which means we have at least a few more weeks until she is into going out and about shape. However, it isn't the end of the world. Sayoko is going to take her to the local children's hospital to check her liver and spleen. It at least sounds plausible.

In other news the boys were hanging out in their baskets last night.

It was so cute with the little ones that big brother had to get in on the action.

This last one is Kiyomi trying to follow the conversation between her mother and Aunt. I had given up a long time previous so I thought her valiant for battling on.

Currently I am boiling beans for tonight's chili. Once again I will make a spicy and a not so spicy. Hopefully I bought enough tomatoes so that it is much saucier than last time. Still working on portion size to feed 11.

Love out.

Can you see it.

2010-08-15T00:34:00.000-07:00

The white thing in the back right of Kiyomi's mouth is what I believe to be a very swollen and infected Tonsil. We will be off to the doctor tomorrow. Pictures taken with the laptop. Just couldn't get any focus with our digital.

Update: The third picture is new as of Monday our time. We are off to the doctor's some time today.

Here is what you've missed.

2010-08-11T19:38:00.000-07:00

So it has been just over a month since I touched down in the land of the humidity blues. I arrived to find the daughter still in school and everyone else getting used to the heat. Some outstanding events so far. We had a dinner party in Ijuin with Sushi and such.

I believe it was actually a birthday party for the daughter and yours truly. Good times. This is a picture of the littlest one modelling the latest in bug catching fashion.

We have caught cicadas, butterflies, dragon flies and some kind of stinky bug. Good times. Most of the time we stick around here at home and just hang out. The kids do lots of playing and fighting. Good times. From oldest to youngest we have Atomu, Kiyomi, Kohei, Lilo, Tsubasa, and Kazuaki. Sometimes Nanamu comes to stay over and she becomes the second eldest.

So one day it was hot and we went down to the marina and swam off the back of Yoshiteru's boat. We tried to do it the next day but it was low tide and harbour was pretty yucky. So we took the boat out for a spin and swam in the open ocean. It was pretty fun even if I did get a good sunburn.

I am in the middle of a beautiful swam dive here. Really it should have been video. Next time, next time.

Another big outing was taking the kids on the giant Ferris Wheel at Kagoshima Central station. It was a prize for Kiyomi. She managed to read five pages of a book in less than half an hour. That is a Japanese book. She has come a long way. I am hoping that her anxiety will be way down when she goes back in September. One step at a time.

We also went for a visit to the Kindergarten Kohei will be attending. They had a little summer festival and we went and enjoyed cold stream noodles, sno cones and fireworks. The teacher was pretty worried about Kohei joining in September but after the festival it seemed like a lot of his fears had been allayed.

I am still not working although I am starting to sniff around at some offers. It is such a blessing to finally be back in the blog hunt. The reason I am finally blogging is that I bought a new USB cable so I can download pictures. Still lots to think about and lots to do but more and more life is starting to flow.

Love out.

D.

Game on.

2010-08-09T01:06:00.003-07:00

So I am blogging from home after having a quick skype session early today with two of my sisters. It is definitely game on. More to come this evening (or morning where you are)

Shopping

2010-07-12T21:34:00.000-07:00

Well we are just buying a Mac book here at bic camera in Kagoshima central station. The onlynfree Internet I have found is here on an I pad. Immay be sold. We should be up and running with the Internet and Skype at home by early August. So until then just hold tight. We miss you all and things are going well. However I need to buy a scale that works. Hot days make for lots of beer drinking. and it is hot and humid here. Not quite Africa hot but close. Love Out.

Three, two, one....

2010-07-04T21:25:00.000-07:00

Well it is my last night in town. Holey Moley. Just had a nice dinner with the family at Chach's place. Good times hanging out and chowing down. And tomorrow I leave for Japan. I don't really know what this next year holds for my family and I. The desire to look and plan ahead is driving me crazy. It is so ingrained in what I do and how I do it. But I am making myself a pledge to try and enjoy everyday for what it is. When I am with my family I want to be present and say yes to the things I am asked, Do you want to play? Lets go outside? Can we make ramen for dinner? Can we .... together? I really hope I can make that answer yes every time. Lets face it, I don't have anything else planned. And when I am not doing that I hope I will read, think and write. I want to listen to Podcasts and learn to play guitar. I want to study Japanese and learn to be a fisherman. And I do want to plan. I want to look ahead and see if I can make out where my life is going. And at the same time to stay present. Well life begins anew tomorrow. Just like it does everyday. Hopefully I will notice that and make the most of it.

I wish all you Canadians the best and I will try to make time to blog while in Japan. Keep you all in the loop.

Love out.

That's a Wrap.

2010-06-27T21:01:00.000-07:00

With basically three days left in town it is time to start wrapping things up. First off here is a picture of lovely Grand Forks from up on Observation Mountain. I hiked up here last weekend to try and break in my feet for the hike we had planned for today. It worked. I got myself some wicked blisters last week that had mostly hardened up by today.

Then today I went for a hike up Mt. Gladstone with two of my work colleagues. We also brought Duke, the part wolf part everything dog. It was a beautiful day. Not too hot, no rain, lots of bugs but overall just a perfect day in the woods.

This is me trying to emulate my little sister with her candid "look where I am" solo arms length shots. I don't think I have her skill but I am working on it. The peak way in the background just to the right of my head is, I believe, Old Glory. No wait, Old Glory is directly behind my big fat head. Nice work cocheese[sic]

The next one is looking south, you can see the south end of Christina lake down in the valley below.

Finally there is Ken Duke and Myself and John and Ken with Mt Faith up in the background to the right.. These shots are facing north.

All in all I couldn't have asked for a better day. The blisters are bad because I didn't have gators for the legs or snow seal on the boots. However, the company was awesome, the views amazing and the commune with nature fed the soul. Whenever I do these kinds of trips I always wonder why I don't do them more. When I return this is definitley on the list of things I really want to make part of my life.

Well this is probably all from home base GF. The next time you hear from me it will either be in Vancouver or over in Japan. Hopefully I will be a much better correspondent in the near future.

Love, Out.

19 Days

2010-06-17T21:05:00.000-07:00

And then I will be whisking my way across the Pacific to the loving embrace of my family. The wait is tough. When I talk to them on the phone it is so bitter sweet. I hear what they are doing but I don't get to live it. In recent news, the daughter is doing well and getting into the swing of school. The wife has made a decision on a Kindergarten and I believe the son will start on the 1st of July. However, that has yet to be confirmed. The hustle and bustle that plays in the background when I talk to them is both exciting and unnerving. It sounds noisy.

There is a song by Dire Straights, "So Far Away" and one of the lyrics says, "you've been in the sun and I've been in the rain, so far away from you." It always plays in my head when I am on the phone with them. I will have stayed up till midnight to catch them coming home and getting ready to make dinner. Or I will call after school to catch them just before they head out the door in the morning. Everything is always a little bit off.

And life is much quieter without them around. I am not used to it. I want my family. 19 Days.

Last night in Paradise

2010-05-19T20:01:00.000-07:00

This is what it looked like right before we I took the last trip to my new digs. The storage is literally bursting at the seams but that is what storage is meant to do. I think we definitely maximized our space usage there.

We also had a final dinner at our short time home. It was a mish mash of leftovers and what was in the freezer. As usual it was delish.

The Mrs. has been hitting us with some of our favourites over the last few days. It is like she is trying to hammer home the fact that I am going to miss her incredibly for the five weeks we are apart. With my mind on the various other things that moving your family to a new country entails I have had little time for the magnitude of our undertaking to really hit home. It is starting to now. I am officially packing up the computer after this blog and will not be driving our own computer again till I arrive in Japan. Well the clock keep ticking and I have miles to go before I sleep.

Love, Out.

Dinner and a Guest

2010-05-18T19:12:00.000-07:00

Can you believe twice in three nights. On Sunday we whipped some currish chili. Or some chili-ish curry. Then our friend came over and had dinner with us. She was a little under the weather from her previous nights festivities. Then the wife managed to wrestle the fact that is was her birthday. So we went and got a cake.

I had way too much cake but man was it good. Very very happy happy.

Then this evening we had a fabulous meal of cheesy fried potatoes and rice covered with fried veggies and ground beef.

I promised we could go and look at the river which is rising fast after dinner. So when I get out there what should the children have found.

This little guy.

Looking for a positive ID on what kind of creature the river has driven from its home. Thin not super long tail. Slightly rounded snout. Not interested in a carrot. Non webbed feet. Found near river.

2010-05-14T21:01:00.000-07:00

Well we had a pretty good day today. First a picture of the Baby. Look at him sitting up like the little man that he is. He climbed up on that file box all by himself.

Next up we have the kids play day today. The son got to invite one friend and the daughter invited three. We had hot dogs for lunch and then they played outside a whole bunch. We tried to keep them out of the house as much as possible and were mostly successful.

This next picture totally reminds me of the sister directly below me. The daughter and her friends have their little lunch party all by themselves. I admit I totally set it up this way but I can see the day coming.

Here are the girls with the baby right before I crashed out for my mid afternoon nap. They watched about 20 minutes of the Golden Compass before getting bored and heading back outside.

I woke up to find one of them had already been picked up and the second friend was in the process of heading out. Later on we had some friends over for dinner. Sorry about the lack of pics but it was a pretty laid back affair. We put on steak, baked potatoes, stir fried veggies, guacamole and ice cream cones. The friends added crackers with asiagio dip and rice cripy squares. It was a beautiful warm afternoon and the kids ranged all over while the adults sat and enjoyed some conversation and a lazy afternoon. Good times.

Feels like the First time.

2010-05-09T20:38:00.000-07:00

Well that was quite the break in Blogging. Still getting used to the new upload tool. However, I am enjoying the photo collage to start the post. Today was Mother's Day and we did up a nice breakfast for mom after she came back from her run. She also had the luxury of sleeping in today.

In other news it is eleven days and counting here before we pack up and leave the Cottage. Didn't get any real packing or organizing done this weekend but hey, we still have one weekend left so it will just be busy. The youngest is recovering for what we suspect was a bout of Roseola. His fussiness is moving on and he is back to walking around and picking stuff up. One of his favourite game is to turn off the TV while his brother and sister are watching a video. It has officially begun. If my siblings and I are any indication it will never stop. Hope you and yours are all well.

Oh yeah, Dinner. We had mashed potatoes with cheese and white fish mixed in. It would have been fish cakes if we had started earlier or been more motivated. We also had broccoli and asparagus pan fried with garlic. A green salad and rice rounded out the meal. The little guy at a tonne of it and came back for more. A sign of a truly great meal.

Have a good week.

Dancing in the Living Room.

2010-04-11T19:24:00.000-07:00

That is what is happening while I type this. We have "I've got a feeling." pounding out from Youtube. The kids are ripping it up while I lay this down. Mazeltoff!!

So that is what have we been up. The youngest is spending quality time being insanely cute and demanding his thrice daily feed. It is nice to have him gobbling up the solid food. Always progressing towards being a big boy. The kids enjoyed the Easter chocolate on Easter and well into the next week. As usual the boy managed to make his last longer and rubbed it in his sisters face.

Lets talk about dinner this evening for a second. We had burritos which isn't particularly interesting. What is interesting is that I managed to get the daughter to eat not one, but two burritos with spicy meat. Initially she balked at the spicy food but then I basically said, quit your whining and try it. And she did. And she liked it. It wasn't super spicy. And it had all the other good stuff like guacamole and shredded cheddar. We also had some a nice brown bean concoction whipped up by the Mrs. So yes, milestone action. The daughter eats spicy food. Story at 7:00. (its 7:00 right now so you see what i was going for there). Otherwise week two in the new place is going well. Good weekend with some nice bike riding and playing outside. We played by the river today. I arrived back home to find the remains of a picnic and some serious playing going on.

Could it be.

2010-04-03T22:30:00.000-07:00

It is possibly the end of an era, maybe more of an epoch really. The Easter Bunny doubt has started to creep in. The oldest is seven going on seventeen these days and there was some distinct doubt being spouted in the back seat on the way home from "How to Train a Dragon." which was very exciting and though formulaic enjoyable. Shout out to Chris, the best trailer was for a movie called the last airbender. Anyways, back to doubt. With the last tooth that was lost there was some serious investigation. Notes were written to the tooth fairy and the hand writing on the response notes was matched with parents writing to see if there was any conclusive evidence, none was found. However, Easter is taking a beating. She knows that parents hide the eggs for the hunt but is still not certain how the chocolate enters the house. I have to admit that I am not really as down for the subterfuge as many of my parenting peers seem to be. I mean in our daily walks to school we are debunking organized religion these days, how can I look myself in the mirror if I am trying to hold on to the Easter Bunny. This may be one of those paradox's I just have to live with.

On a different front we have successfully sold our home, packed up our junk and got the hell out of there. We are still moving in to the new place. An alarming amount of our stuff is moving in with us. The storage is almost full but it looks like it will take the rest of the stuff we planned to pack in there. I am worried about the stuff we didn't plan to pack in there and now look like we are going to try to. Here are some pics of the new place.Living room shot.Close up of the three for Auntie Joey who asked. We will try for head shots some time soon.Still not unpacked kitchen and dining room.The son photo bombing another picture. This time of the kitchen facing the other way. Nice enough but small.
Tooth brushing time in the new bathroom.The kids are loving the bunk beds. I took a trip back in time and we played pirate ship on them. I honestly can remember doing that when I was like five years old. Maybe only Auntie Joey will remember that. Down stairs at the Keith Road house.
Here is where the Mrs. and I bunk down. King sized glory. Thank goodness I will be spending a year in Japan. The Queen will be super sized by the time we get back. Otherwise it would be pretty hard to down size.
This is the final picture taken at the old house. Caption, " do you want crackers or cookies?"

Happy Anniversary.

2010-03-27T22:12:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it. My blogversary was on Thursday. The burger meal evening. It has now been two years of blogging. I wish I had something more monumental to say. I have really taken a hit recently on the blogging. Lets hope it picks up after the big move (not the one across town, the one to Japan).

T- Minus 5 Days.

2010-03-27T21:54:00.000-07:00

Well faithful reader, the landslide of detritus continues from our house. The thrift store, library and dump were the lucky recipients today. Most of the dump stuff actually ended up in the reuse center and was being put into other peoples vehicles as fast as I could put it down. It was pretty heart warming to arrive at the dump thinking I was going to make a serious deposit and then to only have a few fatally broken things end up actually ending up there. Gotta love giving stuff you don't want a second life. In our case it was a third or fourth life for a lot of it. Tomorrow is the couch and the second dining room table we have.

On the storage front we have probably filled about 500 of the 800 cubic feet of space we have been allotted. With three beds, four bikes, two desks (legs removed) a bar fridge and a barbecue left to store it is going to be close. Lets put it this way, if there is an earthquake I am not worried about anything falling over.

Now to get down to business. Though we have eaten a meal every night this week, this evening was a nice chili burrito affair, we have but one picture. It is the Thursday evening meal. I came home from work earlyish and the Mrs. took her break and went shopping. She arrived back with fixins for burgers and fries. I did the honours and I was truly honoured by how well those patty's cooked up. Once again we have to say that you can't beat the quality of meat at the Overwaitea up here. For those of you playing along at home, yes those are yam fries. Very yammy.
After dinner we all sat down to watch a movie in the rearranged house, computer is now by the kitchen, living room is pretty much empty. The kids settled in to the big chair together and ate their ice cream bathed in the blue electric glory of dessert and a movie. Good times.

Dinner and a Tissue

2010-03-21T21:16:00.000-07:00

Sick boy # 1.

Sick Boy # 2.

Pizza # 1.

Pizza # 2.

Well we are wrapping up our extended spring break here much the same way we started it. Two boys down for the count and the house in a state of confusion. Only now we have sold our house and are packing for the move. The older boy has had this brutal cough but doesn't cough much when he is sleeping. Which he thankfully is doing now. The youngest sprang into action with a nice fever today but he has been out of sorts for a day or two so we saw it coming.

As for dinner on this last night of freedom I went for pizza again. We used some home made (not by us) maple flavoured elk sausage and though the sausage was great its sweetness didn't really accent the pizza in the way I was hoping for. Then for dough this evening I went with 100% white flour. The Mrs. used up the last of the whole wheat flour making bread a few days ago so we are down to white and seeing as we have a sack and a half left we really should use it up. I mean it still has nutritional value. Just not as much. It also lacks a little in the flavour department but hey.

And finally we have the one picture that was taken from our most recent trip to the coast. Our free fun day which went into the crapper as the boys started to get sick. Funny story but we are standing in line at American Customs waiting to get the wife's visa, we were going to visit my mom and her hubby at their vacation place, and the middle son pukes all over me while I hold him. I catch most of it in a free hand. One of the customs guys let us use the washroom that is not for public use and we ended up just heading back home. You gotta love kids.
This picture was taken in John Lawson Park. Anyone remember that dolphin.

Now here is a coincidence, we just finished watching The Cove. Wow.

Almost

2010-03-15T08:04:00.000-07:00

Well the youngest showed his first real interest in walking today. Amazing. He is almost 13 months old and up to now has not had the least inclination to give it a whirl. Sure he likes standing up while holding on to stuff but the letting go and flying off into the stratosphere, nope not his gig. I think he prefers to be carried around so I have taken to calling him little prince, a fairly rough translation of this into Japanese would be, Koji. With the "o" sound held a little bit longer. No we are not going for a late name change.

Mokatte iru.

2010-03-13T16:29:00.000-08:00

Which basically means I'm making money. This is what we were doing today. We managed to sell almost everything that was meant to be sold. Okay, okay we gave a lot of stuff away and there were a couple of people who filled up a box for two dollars but overall people ponied up for the stuff we no longer have a need for. Case in point. We sold 7 chests of drawer/dressers today. We only bought one of them and that was at a garage sale so we are definitely up in that department. We sold a lot of stuff that had been handed down to us. We also got rid of a lot of stuff that we had garage saled to begin with. Toys were pretty popular today. Considering the bags of toys that we have received over the years from various folks it only felt right to give most of them away for a song. The madness definitely started early, 7:40 to be exact. The wave crested at 8:00 and I struggled in the rip tide for a while as various groups made their various piles of loot. By 9:00 the sea had calmed and we were left with about half of what we started with. I thought it was over but by 1:30 the scavengers had picked the remains pretty much clean. Just to refresh your memory we have the before picture from two nights ago. Then today.What was the wife doing in the mean time. She was selling the big stuff inside and baking cookies. We have to use up the sugar and white flour so she made a plan and stuck to it.
It looks like we will not have the trampoline much longer so the kids got in some quality playtime today. I put together a little bit of video. So here it is.

Early Start

2010-03-11T20:17:00.000-08:00

Well lets start with dinner. After a busy day with early birds arriving to check out garage sale items (two day early, can you believe it -- more on this later), the pizza ended up coming out a little late so the Mrs. made veggies and dip to tide the crowd over. The crowd was pleased as you can see above they were vieing for optimal position in the bowl. Below our youngest diner is enjoying some of natures harvest.
The regular was up for pizza tonight although the Mrs. threw in a nice twist. She got the big green olives from extra foods. The kind you choose yourself and then put in a little plastic container. So salty and meaty. So good.
The kids had the usual ham and pineapple goodness.
This evenings dough is worth mentioning. I used one cup of whole wheat with two cups of white. Then prepared the dough two different ways. Two of the crusts were hand spread using the technique that sister R brought back from Italy with her. The other two were dusted then rolled with rolling pin. The rolled crusts were nice and uniform however the pulled crusts were fluffier and fuller. The rolling pin crusts made larger area pizzas but the thrown ones weren't that much smaller. I think the one whole to two white is the highest whole to white ratio I can do and still manage to throw it. Anything higher and if I throw the dough it ends up with rips. So we are still learning lots. I do need to add a third flavoured pizza to my rotation. I don't really want to cook a meat for it but I am also not a big lover of vegetarian pizza. I think the bacon cheeseburger pizza with ground beef, onions, cheddar and maybe some bacon might be the answer. Or we used to make a bbq chicken pizza which was pretty nice. Then again there is the feta, spinach and tomato pizza which we have done on occasion. I just need to work on one of these so when we have guests and have to make more than four pizzas I can add another flavour into the rotation.

Now we still have the garage sale update. As of close of business today we have sold the trampoline, ping pong table, rototiller, guitar case, tree sprayer, kids john deere tractor, wheel barrow, black couch, one dresser, various kitchen implements, five movies and possibly my golf clubs. Almost managed to sell the bedroom set but the guy backed out at the last minute. Apparently his wife didn't think they were dark enough to match the bed frame. Picky picky.

Did I mention the garage sale doesn't start until Saturday. Early birds have taken a lot of the good stuff but there is still lots to go. If you look at yesterdays blog you can see the difference a day makes. Things are starting to come together in the old garage.

There is still lots of organizing to do tomorrow but at least stuff is mostly in the right spot now and everything is accessible. I sure hope we get enough young families through here as the toys we are getting rid of are pretty awesome. I am definitely going to have my salesmans cap on come Saturday.

What I will not have to sell is our video collection.
Yes they are cassettes but if you double click the image and take a closer look you will see how many true gems there are in the collection. The guy who picked up the ping pong table today actually said, "you wouldn't happen to have adventures in babysitting would you?" and I said no because I recommended it to the people who bought the tiller and tractor this morning. However, as the daughter pointed out they took stuart little 2. So there it was and now it has found a new home. Videos are 2 for a dollar or 5 for two dollars. Can't go wrong at that price and I hope everyon takes home five. I will miss having them but I have to say there is something very cathartic about getting all your worldly belongings down to a 10 x 10 storage area.

Wish us luck for tomorrow.

ps. Does anyone want a set of Encyclopedia Brittanica circa 1980. Beautiful books, almost totally useless today. I wonder if they can be recycled.

Gearing Up.

2010-03-10T18:18:00.000-08:00

So this is what one would classify as the current state of the carport (here after called the garage, no one has a carport sale)We have yet to move out the kitchen items that will be up for grabs but the rest of the non furniture items are outside. The couches, dressers and chairs will all be shown in the living/dining area. I just don't have the room to store them outside and the day will be busy enough without having to move dressers and such.

Our stack of, to put in storage stuff, in the living room has begun to grow. I measured out the 10x10 spacing on the floor and put down some tape markers. Currently it looks pretty good but with all the odds and ends and what not I am sure the space will quickly disappear.

With the desk and the TV table as part of the storage I am pretty sure we will be able to pack it to the rafters. Then the bikes and ugly non stacking stuff can be put underneath. The real dream would be to get it all into a five by ten but that is probably a bridge to far.

Here is the youngest, we were startled by his initial call only to look behind the chair and see him sitting in the pasta pot. We all had a good chuckle.
As for dinner we went out. I know, stop the presses. But it was Wing Wednesday and some plans to go for dinner at a friends place fell through (young kid wouldn't mix well with our sort of sickies). So we ponied up the cash and enjoyed a frustrating 40 minutes of trying to eat around a baby squirming.

Beauty and the Beast.

2010-03-08T21:23:00.000-08:00

So the beautiful home lasted for three days. Then today we started getting ready for next weekends garage sale. Today was toy day and we basically took all the toys out of the basement. The keep pile would easily fit in one largish box. The garage sale/give away pile was enormous and took about ten trips up and down the stairs to move into the garage. So yes we have no bananas but toys for those aged 1-5 we are overflowing with. We even went so far as to pack all the farm animals into a bag that is attached to the farm house. I am telling you there is some amazing garage sale goodness coming someones way this Saturday, 8-2. Of course after the organizing and before the up and down stairing I had to get the carport into ship shape. Things are definitely looking like they will come together for Saturday. Everything that isn't sold or given away will be taken to the dump. I am really hoping one of those scavenger types arrives at 2 and offers to take the rest of it away for nothing. The answer will be yes.

So to recap, by Sunday morning I am hoping we have boxes of clothes and beds in our bedrooms. Nothing else.

Tomorrow is tools and clothes day. With the tools organized then the rest of the garage will be fillable and with the clothes done we will be able to start moving dressers out. I worry that no one will want any of our crap and I will end up carting the lot of it to the dump. However, a friend offered up his utility trailer so I will not have to make quite so many trips. Now that is a big yeah. The Mrs. has decided the official price for anything without a tag on it shall be described in two parts, 1) make us an offer, 2) no offers will be refused. She basically wants to give everything away by donation and I am holding out for enough money to pay for the classified ad that will run Wednesday and Friday.

The awesomeness that was our living dining kitchen is now filled with boxes again, some empty, some full. I also priced out storage today. They aren't giving away space but it won't break the bank.

Well I hope you and yours had a great day.

Night.

Are we Moving?

2010-03-05T21:51:00.000-08:00

House is gonna be great. Here are some pictures of how our house looked today. It looks so nice we really want to live here.The white surfaces are known as counters. Apparently we have lots of them. I hadn't realised until today.
We have a very open living/dining/kitchen plan. There is lots of space.
Here you can see a home office and a tv area fit easily into our living room.

Well after a marathon attempt to get our house up to sales shape we finally finished today about 10 minutes before the first prospective buyers walked through. It was tough what with all the painting, rearranging, decluttering, taking apart of furniture and what not. However, with the final touches done and the carport looking seriously packed we left our home so someone else could come and see if they wanted to buy it. And they did. They lowballed us before lunch and then came back with the real deal in the afternoon. We hemmed and hawed for a few seconds and then gave our heads a shake. After a call to the bank and a little discussion with the realtor we got the take hold date moved back to April 1st and now we are starting to think about packing up. So if the house passes inspection next week the deed is done.

Now we are starting to talk about options from here on out. The plan that is getting the most play right now has the rest of the family flying off to Kagoshima on April 3rd with me following at the beginning of the summer. I will try and couch surf with some colleagues for the remaining months and the kids will get to start the school year with their Japanese peers. Still have to wait on the house inspection but the buyers seemed pretty motivated and I don't think there is anything glaring enough to sour the deal. Its an old house but for the most part it gets the job done.

Best case scenario has us down in Van next tuesday to thursday to pick up passports so we can book the flights. So you never know, dinner may be on at mom's after all.

Crazy crazy day but it is probably now time for bed. Later

Damn Computers

2010-02-28T00:26:00.000-08:00

So my blogging has kind of gone for a shit. There are many contributing factors but the largest is the fact that my computer no longer wishes to recognize my camera. At least most of the time. So this means I have to take the memory card out each time I want to download and get the pics directly off the card. If our camera didn't have to be taped shut because it was dropped within the first few weeks of us having it then that wouldn't be such a hassle. So yeah technology is getting in my way. That and the busy-ness of life. Our house is officially on the market today. With the possibility of people coming to see the place I should have been more motivated to get stuff done today but in the end I wasn't. We are packing books and trying to declutter. I need to find a new source of boxes. All in all I think it is going pretty well.

Here are some candid kid shots. They are pre-dinner. The daughter wasn't feeling up to much. Thus the hide behind the apron.The son was being helpful moving a chair back from his room (fort building) so that we could use it for dinner. Is it just me or does he look way older than he should.So this evenings dinner. Don't try to kid me I know that is what you're really here for. Well I don't plan to send you home disappointed. It was chirashi sushi, coleslaw and shake and bake chicken. Followed by dessert. Man my wife does a great job of looking after us. Huge props to the lady in my life.Why the big dinner you ask? Well we had a second birthday dinner for the littlest one today. Originally we planned to celebrate with some friends but they had something come up and we had some semi-sickies here so it didn't work out for having people over. Just meant more for us in the end. And in the more for us department the middle child managed a new record for chicken drumsticks. Seven. If the youngest ever develops a taste for human food we might be in trouble. Below is the second candle opportunity. The cake was a store bought angel food covered with whipped cream and blueberries. Very nice. The video is of the actual candle blowing out ceremony. Notice why flames and babies don't mix.

Well that is all to report from here. With one day of regular Olympics to go, I am sad, satisfied and kind of looking forward to spending less time in front of the computer. Hope all you Vancouverites have gotten your fix. Love ya.

Our Olympic Experience

2010-02-22T22:01:00.000-08:00

Was great, however with the camera in the car there is no photographic proof we were ever there. We saw a hockey game and a medal ceremony. We mingled with the masses downtown on a sunny Friday afternoon. We rode sky train and chatted with some out of towners. It was fun and kind of cool but with the kids in tow it was also a lot of work.

However the birthday party on Sunday was all good. Nothing quite like your first cake experience. Some siblings were heartily missed but they definitely a get a pass with the "busy" cards they are holding. Hope you like the pics K and J.

2 Down

2010-02-12T23:23:00.000-08:00

So we now have two bedrooms painted and ready to show. We have scaled back and packed up everything that does not need to be in the kids bedrooms and they are ready for prospective buyers to come and walk through. I still have some door painting left but everything else is in the shape it needs to be. I think the yellow in the first room is quiet enough that it will not disturb someone. And compared to the before I think it is miles better.

It is slowly, agonizingly coming together. The key thing to keep in mind is that as long as I keep moving I will get there.

Mystery Blog

2010-02-11T19:54:00.000-08:00

Well I was sure I had taken some video reviews of a dinner a few nights back. I also got some video of the boy sleeping and then a picture of the dinner. Mysteriously they are all gone from the camera today when I finally get a minute to blog about them. Darn it. Well lets see what else do we have for you. The middle son is going for a play day on Saturday at his friends Vlad's house. Now you if you know anything about Japanese you will know that two of the english sounds that give Japanese fits are the "v" sound and the "l" sound. My wife is not particularily charmed with this particular friends name. However, we worked through this and I think things are fine now. Starting to get excited about coming down to the Vancouver games. And lets face it. If we are going to throw our tax dollars away on this party and mortgage our future for it we may as well enjoy it while its here.

On a different note, they sent out an e-mail today in my school district that they are going to close two rural elementary schools. Even though we already have a four day school week to cut costs we are still going to be in the whole next year due to lack of funding. I guess there just isn't any money in the budget for education.

Double Bill

2010-02-04T20:33:00.000-08:00

Well fearless reader, you have are about to receive the pleasure of not one but two dinner reviews. Hold on tight.

BUTTER CHICKEN

Well after the boarder had butter chicken on Tuesday night my wife and I discussed the pros and cons of making butter chicken. We internet searched a couple of recipes and it looked rather time consuming so I thought it was all for naught. Wasn't I wrong. After arriving home on wednesday evening from my dentist appointment what was a met with but a harried wife (three kids while trying to make a dish for the first time with no real instructions) and an amazing meal. I loved it and it was even better today at school for lunch. Turns out my better half had brought home a whole chicken, parts had been separated, and she decided that it was butter time. Here is what the rest of the tribe thought.

SMOKIES AND SALAD

Then this evening I arrive home to a classic weekend starter. Smokies and spaghetti salad. The coolest part of the dinner was that the son had made his own bun at preschool today. It was pretty good bread but I was later told that there were three tablespoons of sugar in the dough. That must have been what gave it that pastry quality. After dinner it was Peanut Buster Parfaits (2 dishes for the four of us, definitely shareable) and now we are at bath time.

Not wanting to jinx myself I have to say that the first week of this semester has been amazing. I know we are still in the honey moon phase but so far are I am not just staying above water but definitely swimming with the tide and catching the occasional wave. Not wanting fate to smite me I am trying to stay humble and appreciative. But things are pretty good.

Pork Stir fry.

2010-02-01T19:11:00.000-08:00

So that is what the young'ns had to say about the pork stirfry this evening. I hurried home from the arena to get cooking and by the time the herd had made it back, dinner was practically on the table. The wife had cubed, salted and peppered the pork before marinating it in a little cooking sake. I wok-ed it up an then poured the ginger, garlic, honey, vinegar and soy sauce mixture over it. Then the veggies were fried, (onions and carrots first, after they lost their edge I added the green pepper, celery and green onions). The cooked meat and sauce were poured back in the wok and that was cooked with lid on for five more minutes. A little bit of corn starch to thicken up the sauce and it was ready to serve. We had grapefruit for dessert. We purchased a 40 lb box on the weekend (neighbours fund raiser, good fruit) so we are making liberal use of it.

That is all.

Freshening things Up.

2010-01-31T19:31:00.000-08:00

So the whole what and how to blog thing definitely feels like it needs some freshening up. I think the key maybe making the transition from film to video. The three reviews from the kids and mom was a really nice touch to the last blog. So I am going to try and go for that from now on. Even if I don't get a picture of dinner I can get a reaction video any time. And with the rest of the family involved they will probably help with the remembering to get it done. So we will see how it goes. Have a good week.

Busy Burger Day

2010-01-30T19:38:00.000-08:00

So we had burgers with fries this evening. The wife was in bread mode today and with the little bit of leftover dough she made hamburger buns. These were some filling quality hamburger buns so it made for a real meal. The burgers were grilled outside and they turned out perfectly. You acna see the stripes on the bad boy above. I did the fries in the oven with some salt, pepper and basil. Then wife-ola squashed up some avocados and made guacamole. With a bottle of Ma's 2009 Valpolicella it was a little piece of heaven here tonight. The con-noise-uers can snub their noses but for us simple folk it works just fine. And as with everything else in life the price was right. Below we have some reviews of this evenings meal.

The son is just loving that line. I don't know where he picked up sweet momma but it is coming out of his mouth left right and center. Oh I finally figured out where the "you're going to make me pee," line has come from. Po says it in Kung Fu Panda. Well there is a storm brewing in bathroom. I gotta get on it.

Later

Tako Yaki and Pizza (different nights)

2010-01-29T20:37:00.000-08:00

So last weekend, while I was away, the family went and had a cultural night and made Tako Yaki. This is basically a doughnut/pancake ball with a piece of octopus inside. Lacking octopus the family went with squid. A fair substitute. I had some leftovers on Sunday. Not restaurant quality but I would come back again. Small video explanation below.

This evening we had a playday and dinner date. I was up for pizza while mom fashioned some veggies and dip. This is a karate pose. There has been lots of quality over exuberance lately. I think if people just paid the kid more attention when he wanted it there would be way less conflict in the house. Unfortunately he has some pretty stiff competition with his little brother and big sister. Good luck kid.
Here is the daughter with the play date friend. Notice the son photo bombing the shot. This kind of sums up the play date. We started at the pool and then came home for pizza and dance show. That is what necessitated the costumes.
Finally we have our dinner. The pizzas shown are pizza number four and five.
I have to say I am losing the thread on blogging about dinner. By my estimation there are two main factors.

1. Life is just too crazy. With trying to get the house ready to sell, finish one semester and start another, worry about being the bargaining chair for my local at a time of great uncertainty as to what that will entail in the next year I am swamped. There is also the huge demand that having three kids who all want personal attention whenever I am home brings. So yeah really busy.

then there is reason number 2.

I think I am gearing up for a mid life crisis. Questioning the meaning of my job and my life. I mean I am good for a bunch of that at the best of times but this is constant. I am really hoping that the trip to Japan proves that a change is as good as a rest. I won't bore you with the details. In any case way too much thinking is happening after 8:00 at night these days. It might just be that with so much in flux in my life I am re-evaluating. The conclusion I have come to recently is that you cannot know what your life is supposed to mean. However, if you eliminate the things you feel you shouldn't be doing then maybe what is left, in a Sherlock Holmesian manner, is what you are meant to do and you shouldn't question it too much. That is where I am at tonight.

Mex-Italia

2010-01-18T19:06:00.000-08:00

So it was tacos and pasta this evening. Simple sustenance for the savage soul. The tacos were powered down but unfortunately the pasta was not a hit. Not enough flavour, or too much of the wrong flavour lead to an unsavoury savour and landed the noodles in disfavour. I ate mine. It was a skating afternoon and the daughter had a breakthrough day. She didn't master a triple toe loop or anything like that. What she did do was work really hard practicing all the moves for the whole practice. When she came home there was a bout of tears, some complaining that she was hungry right now and various other post practice hystrionics that people in this family know only two well. After we got some sugar in her and had settled down to dinner she noticed that her thigh muscles were really sore. I think we have a right of passage here. The first time you practice so hard that you are sore later that day. I am getting misty just writing about it. The cool thing is that she really is improving. You can see it coming in leaps and bounds, or leaps and spins, it is figure skating after all. Well that is Monday in the books. Yes!

Saturday Round Up.

2010-01-17T01:41:00.000-08:00

Okay so technically it is Sunday morning but I am still not in bed so I am going with Saturday night. We have had a couple of dinners and some work done around here this weekend so let me catch you up.Friday night I got my pizza on. You can see here in the first photo that the kids were not happy about something. I think there was dissension over which movie should be watched or something along those lines. However, the post pizza politics were much more amicable and the evening went off pretty well. This Mrs and I dined or our classic salami (salsa salami this week) and vegetable pizza. Big chunks of zucchini were the star attraction.

Then this evening we had a plentitude of dishes cooked up for our gustatory pleasure. The first dish below was a noodle soup created by the daughter. We renewed the cook books from last week and she finally got to make something. She was a little disappointed at the lack of heartiness but she didn't fry the onions or mushrooms at the start and we didn't have any soup powder on hand. It was still nice. Very Japanesey in the subtleness of its flavours.

The Mrs. went to town with some panfried salmon in miso. This was a flavour revolution. From the soup to this was like dial up to high speed. Instead of a regular salad we had the family favourite veggies and dip. I am really starting to dig watching the kids with their own bowls of dip just powering down the veggies. The son had big love for the salmon too. The wife also cooked up the last squash from our fall harvest and put on some rice to close the deal. It was outstanding. I thoroughly enjoyed every bite of it. This is the youngest during preparation. He had had a big day crawling around and investigating things in the house. We are already getting ready for the sadness that the end of his crawling baby phase will bring.
However, life must go on. And on it went this weekend. I managed to get two coats of primer down in the entraceway and bathroom. White is bright. Both areas are so so much lighter than they were previously. And being done with the hideous salmon colour in the bathroom is truly a blessing. I only have to paint the bathroom door tomorrow and then phase two of home improvements will be done. For comparison I have brought back the before pictures. The after pictures are only after one coat of primer so things are looking even better now that we have two on. The question is whether to get a tint in the finishing coat or to just get some white and let the next owners decide on their colours. That is a tough call.

Bath time for Bonzo

2010-01-11T18:28:00.001-08:00

Well we didn't catch any dinnery goodness today. Fortunately I had these pics left over from bath time last night.

Apparently the Ghost of Class pictures past is coming back to haunt me. The middle son apparently cannot make a normal face in a picture these days. Fortunately, this affliction wears off some time around grade nine. So if the youngest has it as well we are looking at twelve torturous years of picture taking. Serves me right for the number of pictures I highjacked over the years.

Say Good bye.

2010-01-10T18:34:00.000-08:00

To all the wall paper on the main floor of our house. With the help of a handy dandy rental steamer it is all officially gone. And getting ready for sale season has begun.

Well this is what the before pictures look like. Yes the wall paper is all stripped out. Now it is time to fill holes and cracks, sand and smooth and get ready for the primer. Up first is the bathroom. We are definitely getting rid of the peach. I am thinking something lighter. Like a really light yellow/white. With white trim around the mirror and window.
The kitchen entry will be tied in with the rest of the house in a light brown or tan. The advice I have received it to stay away from anything with a red tint in it as that always ends up with a pinkish hue. Nice in a cheek, not so good in a living/dining.What you do not see in this next picture is the paper wall boarder that ran around the room transitioning the light green into the dark green. This room will most likely also get the tan/brown treatment. The look we are going for is uniform, clean, and light enough to paint over easily. Have had two realtors through and they were both very friendly. They had very different perspectives through which they saw the house. Differing takes on what should and shouldn't be done to the place. It has been really informative to have the two of them come through. Really hope the third guy gets back to me so that I can put these first two visits into perspective.

For dinner I whipped up a whole mess of pork stir fry. First mistake was listening to the Mrs and chopping up all the pork. Could have really used about half that much and would have been just as good, if not better. Second mistake was using the big fry pan and not the wok. Not as easy to mix and stir. Couldn't do as much with the veggies. Mistakes aside it was a nice dinner. I put a little sweet chili sauce on top of mine but everyone else enjoyed it as was. I had seasoned with salt, garlic powder, basil, vinegar and soy sauce. I also hit it with a little okonomiyaki sauce right before taking it out of the pan.
There was a little debate about the seaweed flakes on the salad this evening. The wife was trying to spice things up but the rest of us just wanted tomatoes and cucumbers with balsamic vinegar. Back to the grind stone tomorrow. Only seven teaching days left in this semester. Yee haw.

Boys Night

2010-01-08T19:36:00.000-08:00

Not that we had any special night, it was just the wife was taking the pics and the daughter had already finished. So yeah just us boys.

I think we all look pretty much the same. Da Boys. Well onward and upward. Lets talk about dinner.

We made wraps this evening. There were two types of filling for the wraps. There was a curry tofu filling and a bean and pepper filling. The bean and pepper went better with salsa and guacamole. I had the tofu filling just with rice and cheese. They were gooey and a little sloppy and just great. I had three in total and am now feeling quite full. Although... when the wife offered up the idea of cracking open a bottle of red wine I was in. We also had two bags of chips this evening. Dill pickle for the boy, sea salt for the girl. I had a huge amount of both. Well after the fact, and with me quite oblivious as I was getting my blog up and listening to some "This American Life", the kids talked mom into making another set of "Mug Cakes." These are some crafty little cakes you make in a small mug in the microwave. We had some last night and they were tasty yet a little tough. This evenings fare however was springy, chocolaty and reminded one somewhat of pudding and somewhat of cake.

And the daughter managed to get in the show. You had to know she would.

It was a banner day here. Library, shopping, filling holes with drywall compound, talking to possible realtors, swimming at the pool, renting a wall paper steamer. I cannot be overly critical with the fact that I didn't get a run in. Tomorrow will be here soon enough. Moving to Japan in the Summer is starting to get pretty darn real.

Meaty Goodness.

2010-01-06T17:45:00.000-08:00

Well the great meals just keep on coming. You will remember our friends the soup and coleslaw from last nights dinner. Today's new comer was some fried up ground beef with assorted veggies. This was generously heaped over a bowl of rice and then quickly devoured. I am now working on some chips and salsa and may make a snack run as I get up for some evening work. Almost at the weekend. Tank is almost dry. Must soldier on.

Hey, its Tofu-esday

2010-01-05T20:31:00.001-08:00

That is what I just said to my wife as I sat down to write this blog. Man is she ever on the ball. I of course did not notice the connection between dinner and day until just now. It was a busy evening so I was not involved in the sauce or the cooking. However, I did get my share of the eatin done. The purple cabbage colelslaw came up to its usual standard but I have to give highest praise to the soup. It was a turnip and squash soup. It started with some sauteed mushrooms and onions and grew from there. There were a few small chunks on turnip and some corn nibblets but mostly it was just thick bisquey goodness.

Well here at hump day I am looking forward to getting through the back end of this week and on to the weekend where the real work awaits.

Falling over ourselves for pasta.

2010-01-04T21:49:00.000-08:00

It was pasta with lentils in a tomato sauce this evening. There was also chicken and assorted veggies in the sauce too. It was quite tasty. The salad was spinach, red cabbage, and romaine lettuce. I had mine with the vinegar, oil and onion dressing. The garlic bread was a baguette sliced lengthwise and toasted with fresh garlic rubbed over it with some butter. Pretty darn good.Most of the family looked like this eating their dinner. The son put away a tonne of garlic bread. He had to be coaxed into eating the pasta but in the end he finished his bowl. The baby ate most of his food but he got a fairly hot mouthful to start with so he was a little leery. The daughter was over here on the chair.She took a great whack to the back of her noggin at the end of skating practice. She has a nice sized egg and a pretty good headache. Brings it all back. She also gave up an interesting tidbit. One of her friends talked her out of one of her Christmas gifts. There was some pretty heavy social politics involved. I made her make the phone call after dinner and her friend is apparently bringing it to school tomorrow. Notch that up to another life lesson. Hopefully we are slowly building the strength of character necessary to make it through life. Time will tell.

Pork Sushi.

2010-01-03T22:22:00.000-08:00

Well they came in two different dishes but they were both eaten at the same meal so I think the title will stay. The tonkatsu were pan fried instead of deep fried so hopefully they were a little healthier than would normally be expected.The maki sushi was delightful as usual. We had tuna salad as the main filling tonight but I personally went heavy on the avocado and cheddar cheese combination. The kids were all about he umeboshi (pickled plum). We had two guests for dinner. It was a warm family Sunday evening dinner. And now it is time to get back to work.Some quick picks of the Chia Head that the family managed to snag in this years christmas gift exchange. Have to mention that the wife is totally yucked out by it and each time she walks past it she wants to smash it and dump the remains in the garbage. Her constant talking about it is starting to get to me and I am getting kind of a weird vibe now. What do you think?
It is starting to sprout. I don't know if this will help or hinder its survival. Time will tell.

Shake it, shake it baby.

2010-01-02T18:49:00.000-08:00

Well we shook and booked. No we shaked and baked. Well the rhyme doesn't work in the past tense but anyways there was breaded chicken drumsticks for dinner tonight. Originally it was just going to be roast chicken with vegetables but the grocery store had no "legs with back attached"so we got drum sticks and went for it.End result, success. Baked for about one hour at 400. Then I broiled it two minutes a side right at the end to brown up the potatoes and crisp up the chicken. Juicy, and tender yet crisp and cooked. Now that's how I like it. The Mrs and the oldest both ate modestly but the middle one had four drumsticks and seconds of everything. End result, pretty empty pan. When he eats, he eats. Maybe we cut down on the snacks today but he was shovelling it back. Even had seconds of the pasta salad. Leftover pasta from lunch with carrots, celery, green onions and a creamy yogurt and basil dressing (we are officially out of our home dried dill. Dang it.) This bowl was also empty by the end of dinner. With the quantities we are currently consuming I can foresee a time of great famine for the parents. I'd say when the youngest hits like 9 it will be hard to get a fork in edgewise. Something to look forward to.

Below is the son photo bombing some family pictures. He does it well.The daughter wishes me to point out the locket she got from her friend in the picture below. She tortured some photos we have an now her mother and myself are nestled nicely into the tiny inside picture frames. Time to go and read "I had trouble in getting to Solla Sollew" and "Bartholomew and the Ooblick." I have so much love for the Seuss these days. I keep thinking I haven't read them and then when I open the book it all comes rushing back. Glorious.

Final Supper

2009-12-31T18:29:00.000-08:00

... of 2009. We decided to take the year out in style and went for ... can't stand the tension.... drum roll please.... Pizza! (shouted like the greek "Opa"). Yeah to put this year to bed it seemed like the obvious choice. We also had veggies and dip. Finger food or snacky food as the wife likes to call it. The kids enjoyed their final feast while watching a film. Notice the lack of eye contact with the camera.I got some hot chorizo sausage for the adult pizza tonight but the flavour didn't really come through. That said, the green peppers, mushrooms, olives and red onions brought a flavour tsunami crashing into this meal. So the meat was extraneous. Although it does add a nice touch to the picture.
Here is the Mrs. eating her dinner. Note the veggies and dip, a little runny this evening. I would love to add two or three tablespoons of sour cream to the dip but then you have most of a tub of sour cream left and it seems like it would go to waste.

On a blogging note it has been a pretty week couple of months here. Just haven't had the routine going. Weird nights and minimal motivation. I am pretty conflicted of how I will proceed with the blog in the new year. Haven't spent a lot of time thinking about possible options but I have definitely lost the thread on posting about dinner.

Well things are falling apart behind me. I have two kids in tears. As mom used to say, having to watch your kids fight is definitely the worst.

Happy 2010.

Daily Assorted.

2009-12-19T18:47:00.000-08:00

Well we had a sort of dinner mash up this evening. In front we have the salmon brussel sprout and corn stew from a few nights back. At the top we have some pan fried carrots and potatoes. To the left we have a cheese, onion and chicken omellette. I have used my mustard liberally to add a little more yellow to my palette. For dessert we all had a gingerbread cookie. The son and I had the cookies that were covered in jelly beans and smarties. The daughter ate the one she had made as an effigy of herself. The wife had a modestly decorated one. Says a lot about who we all are.

Here below is the family forging on with their feast.
It was a busy day around the homestead. What with calling and singing happy birthday into the phone every ten minutes there was barely time to get anything done. However the bedrooms have been rearranged and now all three kids beds (that includes the crib) are in the small bedroom. And that is it. No toys, no book shelves, no dressers. It is a place of sleep period. There is a comfortable chair for feedings and bed time book readings but that is it. All the toys have been moved down stairs and it really feels like we are gearing up for the big fixer upper/mover outer. Still a long way to go but it feels like it has begun.

So 2008

2009-12-19T10:24:00.001-08:00

Well we went back to the well. I thought the singing was a cute touch. Funny how the novelty isn't anywhere near the same a year later. Oh how quickly we become jaded.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Spirit Arrives

2009-12-18T20:52:00.000-08:00

Well the holidays have commenced. It was make cookies day here and the cookies are legion. Amazingly the toppings managed to last. At the start it looked like we wouldn't have enough but once everyone stopped snacking and we started rationing the number you could put on a cookie everything worked out. Not that I did any of the decorating or baking. I was more of a support staff.

I would have had dinner pictures but we didn't really have dinner. We had perogies, mccains mini pizzas, leftovers, guacamole, salasa, salad and chips. Not to mention treats, cookies and other assorted snacks. Very happy with the fact that I got a run in today. Hoping not to let the last eight months of staying fit all go to waste over the next two weeks. It will be hard.The boy continues to get more interesting every day.

Santa Sunday

2009-12-13T18:31:00.000-08:00

Well here is us hanging with Mr Claus. The kids all got scored some loot and got to watch "Cloudy with Meatballs" as part of the bargain. They had all seen the movie once or twice but still stayed in their seats enjoying it the whole time. I think they may have been giving away plot points to the patrons around them but I was at the back with the wife and baby so I can't say for sure. In any case it was a pretty special day as usual.

For dinner we had chicken strips with rice and veggies and dip. The Mrs. had to actually scold the son for not eating his chicken strips. He just wouldn't stop putting back the veggies. The Mrs. also made a version of humus only we added cilantro and probably didn't add very much salt. It was great with the veggies as well. With one week till winter vacation I am just trying to keep my nose above water. I think I can, I think I can.

Birthday Wishes.

2009-12-12T21:06:00.001-08:00

Well we had a birthday today so we were busy all day with getting ready. It started with some serious stirring as we tried our hand at making a castella. The hand whipping has us promising to get a hand blender by the fall of 2011. We also talked about getting a good mixer. Yes we are planning to seriously settle down. After that was done the kidlets and I went out shopping. We got some prezzies for mom and some fixins for dinner. Upon arriving back home the Mrs. took an afternoon off for herself. Her last directions as she left were to bake the loaves at 325 for 50 minutes starting at 3:15. So at 3:30 I turned the temp gauge to 325 and set the timer for 50 minutes. What I didn't do was turn on the stove. So at 4:20 I looked in the oven to see some seriously deflated loaves. That were still moist. After barking at the kids for turning the oven off I realised I was the bad guy and turned it on. The loaves pictured below would have easily blocked all views of the little shelf behind them if they had been baked properly. It was a body blow for the wife when she returned to these shrunken sad looking loaves. They still taste good but I messed that one up good.

Trying to recover from the bread debacle I had stuffed the pork roast with an apple, celery, onion, garlic, and cilantro stuffing. There were other spices, salt and pepper and bread combs added as well. This was then roasted with yams and onion slices for about 2 hours. It was delicious but really really late. Once again the extra hour for bread put everything behind schedule.
At seven when we finally sat down to eat the kids had already polished off a whole round of brie and crackers. They had also had some sparkling blueberry drink and an "almost" greek salad, perked up with a bunch of cilantro. It was a long eating up and down evening but I think the birthday girl would give it more thumbs up then thumbs down. Although she lives and dies with her bread. Well I have the rest of my life to make it up to her and probably will spend most of it trying. Here is the kids helping me bake bread, stuff a roast and decorate cupcakes while their mother is out for the afternoon.