Come back wagon!

Ok. I fell off the face of the world for a bit, so here's what has happened.

Friday: I gave myself the day off. I decided I wasn't doing anything. No cleaning, no laundry, no cooking, no going anywhere or doing anything. Hell, I wasn't even going to get dressed. So, of course, that's the day my family wants to see me. And, of course, my laziness was noted.

Saturday: I didn't get back on track. That's the thing about falling off the wagon... it's really hard to get back on. House work began to pile up. But we did go to church because the masses on Sunday were canceled because of the air show. It was... horrific. It was packed, people were hungry and Hobbits were tired. We survived.

Sunday: Got up ridiculously early because Shaun needed to be at work for the big air show and he couldn't park anywhere close. So, being the sweet wife that I am, I got up at 3 to drive him there. The Hobbits were not happy. It went down hill from there. I had planned to see the air show... but one of my tires on the stroller was flat, Hobbit wouldn't stop crying unless I was holding him which meant I only had one hand. Only having one hand makes normal things, like getting dressed and going to the bathroom, suddenly very tricky. When he finally fell asleep and I wasn't going to be the one to wake him up to go for a walk to see loud jets and loud people. I decided there was always next year. I managed to survive the rest of the day.

Monday: I closed the curtains. I was embarrassed about the state my house was in. That wagon I fell off of is now miles away.

Today: I caught up to the wagon. I got most of the laundry done and most of the kitchen cleaned. I felt comfortable enough to open the curtains again. Hobbette's new favorite word is cookie. And she knows where I hide them. I can't go to the kitchen without nearly tripping over her in her effort to get in front of me so she can point at the cupboard I hide them in and yell "Cookie!" She gets two for her afternoon snack and you should see the grin on her face when shouting "Cookie!" actually gets her a cookie. So, now she tries it all the time... In the morning, when I make lunch, even immediately after she eats her cookies. The crumbs are still on her face and she's shouting "Cookie!" again. Good thing she hasn't made the connection about ice cream yet.

Lamen

I went to my first class in "survival Japanese". It was a lot of fun. I learned a lot. Such as you need to know all three ways of writing Japanese in order to read anything, like books or newspapers, because one method is used for Japanese original words like teriyaki, another is used for the Japanese version of foreign words like personal computer, and the last is the Chinese symbols that they originally used and still use today for things like some nouns and all names.

It was a bit confusing. Our instructor told us we weren't getting into the reading part of it she just wanted to make us aware of it. If we wanted to learn to read we'd have to go to the advanced survival course that they just started. Perhaps next month I'll be learning to read Japanese... who knows?

Today we just learned basic "Hi. My name is... How are you? Where are you from?" type of stuff. It was pretty cool. I don't know what it is about Japanese but I get way more excited about it than I ever did going to my Spanish class in high school. Maybe it's the immediate chance to use what I learned... We learned a phrase to say after a meal that our instructor said would make restaurant servers proud of us. I wanted to eat out for supper. Shaun's working. Perhaps another day...

I also learned that I've been saying ramen wrong. The Japanese language doesn't have an 'r' sound in it. They pronounce it lamen (the 'l' sound is a softer version of 'r' if you think about how your mouth makes the sounds...) We all laughed when we found that out.

I can't wait for next week's class!

Cooking

Tonight I had an adventure in cooking. 

Remember when I said we went shopping at a Japanese grocery store a little while ago? Well, I picked up some local produce. A goya looks a little like a cucumber but is actually a melon. They call it a bitter melon. And they aren't kidding.

I found a Japanese cook on YouTube and have been trying some of her dishes. The one I tried tonight is called Goya Chanpuru. It was pretty good. Except for the goya part. That thing made my tongue hide behind my tonsils. I recommend eating the bitter melon one slice at a time with a spoonful of other stuff. A big spoonful of other stuff.

I didn't even try to feed it to Hobbette. She ate everything else with zeal though. 

A few nights ago I made miso stir-fry with summer vegetables. That, too, was a big hit. But as I was making it a thought occurred to me. Eggplant is one of those vegetables. I know I've eaten it before... but I couldn't tell you what it tastes like. And as Shaun put it, "Even after supper, I still couldn't tell you what it tasted like..." I don't think it has a flavor of it's own. It just soaks up the other flavors without really adding anything to them. 

I've made a few other dishes that have all turned out well. I started with recipes whose ingredients I recognize and could find easily but have slowly been branching out to include things that I've never seen before... like the goya.

My sister wants me to try fermented beans called natto. They smell horrible. Maybe I'll pick some up the next time I make a trip to the local grocery store.

Pictures

As promised: here are a few pictures of life.

 The costume parade... Business in front... party in back. And I just now realized that their hair may be plastic...

 This cracked me up. Love the person with the swan head and tutu.

 Finger painting! What a silly grin she has.

In the fort we made.

Calm

Things have started to calm down a little and settle into a routine. In other words... boring. I really can't imagine anyone finding my laundry filled life interesting but I did promise I'd keep my family up-to-date on the happenings.
So, for Labor Day we did nothing.
Well, I guess not nothing. Since Shaun got the day off I had him take care of the kids all day while I did laundry. Lots and lots of laundry. The need to do laundry kind of sneaked up on me. I was suddenly a sock short of a pair. A shirt short of an outfit. A diaper short of a diaper change... You get the idea. I think every stitch of fabric in my house is now clean. To keep it that way, I'm making my children run around naked! Muhahaha! The heat is only an excuse! The real reason they run around the house in only diapers is because I'm lazy!
But seriously the heat is becoming bearable. The house is comfortable (with all the fans running...) and Hobbette doesn't get pink in the face when we walk to our car anymore. I even feel comfortable swaddling Hobbit at night now. Who knows how long it will last though. It could just be this wonderful breeze we've had for the past couple of days. Without the wind I'm sure it would be just as muggy and sticky as ever.
I guess this means I'll have to start dressing the children again...

Mass take 2...

Going to church is still in it's experimental phase. This time we decided to try the 12:30 Sunday afternoon mass. There were definitely fewer people there to give us dirty looks when Annabel started squirming... And the crying room was being used for it's intended purpose!
But the door was propped open because Father wasn't using his microphone... And it ran right into Hobbette's afternoon nap...
So, there's pros and cons to both mass times. I think we'll try the morning one again now that Hobbette has adjusted her nap time to only one in the afternoon...
The rest of the day was pretty mellow. Relaxation was the name of the game.

Groceries

Today we went shopping for groceries at a Japanese store! I'm sure everyone knew I was a tourist. I was running around with a dumb grin on my face going "Ooo! Look at this! What do you think this is?! Isn't this package of little dried shrimpies the cutest?!". Oh, yeah. I'm a goof.
I went with a list, looking for a few things that weren't at the base grocery store and found most of them but it was clear I had not properly prepared for the trip.
I have no idea why I assumed the product brands would be the same as those I could find at home... Or why I would assume they would be labeled in English... Most of the items it was clear what they were. The problem came with unidentifiable powders. Seasonings all look the same if you can't read the label. Potato starch was also difficult to identify. Lesson learned. Find the Japanese equivalent on Google Images and memorize the labels before going shopping.

We also went to the park. Hobbette had a blast. She ran around like a ninny wanting to climb everything, touch everything, slide and swing on everything all at once and couldn't decide what to do first. I think even Hobbit liked it. It was nice and breezy giving us an opportunity to cool off a little. Overall, it was a pretty cool day.