Thursday, February 22, 2018

Note to self

Bibouroku

A blog post from a year ago reminded me that I was depressed this time last year. Maybe next year I'll remember this and take steps to prevent it (or at least catch it early).

So here's another reminder to myself:

Finishing a consultation gig early but not wanting to drive back to your office even though you have work to do is perfectly fine. Spending 500 yen on a Starbucks latte so you can sit in a sofa for an hour or so to get that work done was great idea. It was smart of you to remember that you'd probably never get it done at home (kids/ housework/ miscellaneous distractions, you know the drill). That's why you've packed lunches the past couple of weeks, so that you can spend that 500 yen you aren't spending on overpriced convenience store lunches on something more useful. Like sofa space away from home. Oh, and coffee.

However, in the future, try to remember you don't like Starbucks decaf lattes. Deal with the insomnia and go for the regular latte, or order one of those cutesy seasonal sweet frothy things in interesting colors. 

Oh well. At least the cup was cute.


Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Murder in the laundry room

Sentakushitsu satsujin jiken

I was taking pictures of Tiny Vader and Tiny Storm Trooper with their new washing machine, and the Pumpkin Prince said,

"It's Darth Vader. He wouldn't do laundry nicely."


"Oh, is that so? Well, what do you think he would do?"

"I think he would do this."


Oh dear.

"And I think there would be a witness. Hey, I think you should take the picture from above."

"Like this?"


"Yes, like that. And I think he would tie up all the loose ends."


"Like this. Oh, wait, I think he would use something better. Like this."


"There would be signs of a struggle, of course. Like this."


My son needs:

A. to watch less violence on T.V. and YouTube
B. extensive checking of his manga reading
C. intensive therapy
D. all of the above

Sunday, February 18, 2018

Bare minimum requirement

Hitsuyou saiteigen

IMG_20180218_112157

The week's make-ahead is six dishes, and one of them is steamed broccoli...I also have my usual soy eggs and shredded carrot salad. The one on the bottom left is ground pork with ginger and mushrooms stir fried in sesame oil and soy sauce. I could add a little broth and tofu to it, or maybe put it on toast with cheese for a quick breakfast sandwich.

My mom has the flu. She didn't want to go to the doctor's, which I get and would have respected if I hadn't been so sure it was the flu and I was afraid of my dad getting it. Managed to convince her let me take her to the local clinic open Saturday afternoons and have the test done and get the Relenza inhaler. The pharmacist was super nice and counseled her on how to do it and asked if she wanted to do it right there, and she did. The whole process took about an hour and a half at the local clinic and pharmacy. Mom paid 20%.

You can pry universal health care from my cold, dead fingers.

Thursday, February 15, 2018

Planning

Keikaku

The Pumpkin Princess didn't get into that competitive six-year college prep school she wanted. I'm glad she tried. She writes better than I did at her age. I'm also kind of glad she didn't get in. She would have been blown away and gotten depressed or something. She isn't naturally smart enough to get by in that school without major effort. I think she is smart enough to get by in the best schools with major effort, but she doesn't make major effort on her own. She only makes enough effort to get by. Which is one way to live, except she seems to think she's making major effort. I am torn between trying to let her figure this out on her own, or calling her on it. I didn't while she was preparing (or not preparing, depending on how you look at it) for the entrance exam.

The local JHS where I went and she's headed is kind of boring and depressing (see also: Year of Requirement) but there aren't any major issues like violence and crime. It'll do. The area private schools are not worth the time and money. (Don't get me wrong. They're good schools. I have friends who went there. It's just that they lived a lot closer to said schools when they did, and are not worth commutes of an hour or more.)

We're talking about choosing extracurriculars that will help her get her into the school were the cool, smart kids go (i.e. the same high school as her mom.) I want to get back into teaching her English, if she'll let me. We'll see if she wants to make a major effort to get the things she wants. And if she doesn't, that's all right too. She can work on being happy with what she can get with the effort she wants to make.

Because I think in the end, that's what life is about. Being happy with the things you can get, and the things you can give people, with the effort you are willing to make.


Monday, February 12, 2018

Three day weekend

San-renkyuu

Three day weekend!

One visit from sister and husband!

One exercise session!

One pair of white jeans taken in at the waist!

One photo session with Tiny Vader and Tiny Storm Trooper!

Two half-hour English lessons with the Pumpkin Princess!

Six make-ahead dishes!

IMG_20180212_150013

(soy seasoned chicken breast, boiled bean sprouts, boiled cabbage with olive oil, tuna salad with carrots and dried/ rehydrated daikon horseradish, kinda sorta Korean pork stir fry, steamed broccoli. I did too many side dishes last week, so I toned stuff down this time partly to adjust for the shorter workweek. Chicken breast can either be eaten as is, added to prepackaged supermarket salad mixes, or be made into sandwiches.)

Four-day workweek!

Tuesday, February 6, 2018

Sunday, February 4, 2018

The cold soaks into my body.

Samusa ga mi ni shimiru

Too cold to run, for me, anyway. And also the Pumpkin Daddy. I stayed indoors. I did that YouTube exercise video that cased me immense pain two weeks ago once, and it wasn't nearly as bad.

I wonder what happened to the cold tolerance I had when I lived in the American Midwest? When it snowed last week, I wore my warmest down coat, a shirt, a sweater, and full length pants over thermal underwear (both top and bottom), thick wooly socks, and knee-high rubber boots. I basically chose my wardrobe to survive a three-minute walk from my parking space to my building.

Did the make-ahead thing again. Vegetables are expensive because of the terribly cold weather we've been having, so there are a lot of bean sprouts (which are produced in a factory from imported seeds) and carrots (which were probably harvested last season and refrigerated).


Kinda sorta Korean fried chicken, boiled cabbage seasoned with sesame oil, shredded carrot salad, kinda sorta Okinawan konnyaku stir fry, okara, bean sprouts seasoned with sesame oil, kiriboshi (shredded and dried) daikon cooked in dash with carrots  and aburaage, soy eggs, nappa cabbage stir fried with glass noodles, and shredded carrot stir fry with egg. (Not shown: a large container half-full of soy sauce flavored fried chicken, which was Sunday's dinner. I made extra hoping for plentiful leftovers to eat during the week, and it turned out everyone liked it so much, I ended up with a lot less than I expected. Which, I guess, is the highest compliment I could possibly receive, so it's all good, isn't it?)

The make-ahead thing at least partially fulfills my aspirations of upping my breakfast game. I throw a few items on the plate beside the kids' toast slices, and it looks like I put some effort in it (well, I did put effort in it, but the effort was made on Saturday and Sunday, as opposed to a weekday morning). The items are also my weekday box lunches and additional side dishes for the weekday dinners the Pumpkin Daddy prepares for us. I don't mind cooking, and if it means my family is eating healthier, well, then, why not?

Let's see if I do better on the exercise front as well!