Have lofty goals

Mokuhyou ha takaku

Feeling better, even though I've totally slacked off on the exercise. Meditation is...on and off. I keep falling asleep before the YouTube video ends, which I've decided is perfectly acceptable. Journaling is going well. I started mid-March and I'm on page 42. I think I'm having slightly fewer "OMG TOTALLY FORGOT" moments, but I'm also having longer periods of "OMG I HAVE TO DO XYZ AND I TOTALLY DON'T WANT TO BUT I HAVE TO AND I REALLY REALLY DON'T WANT TO BECAUSE IT'S HARD AND I DON'T WANT TO CALL THAT PERSON AND GET THAT THING THAT I NEED TO DO XYZ AND OMG I HAVE TO DO XYZ" so I'm not sure if I'm actually any more efficient.

Here is this year's overly ambitious to-do list, to be accomplished sometime between April 28th and May 6th (but I am working and the kids have school on May 1st and 2nd).

1. Wash cashmere knits: From November to February (and sometimes March) I live in Uniqlo cashmere over Heat Tech thermals (with or without a button up shirt or blouse layered between the two). I have four long sleeved pullovers, a short sleeved turtleneck, and a sweater set. I'll hand wash them with detergent for delicates. (There's just something not quite right about dry cleaning something that cost less than $100.) The laundry net will let me only dry two at a time, so I'll have to do two a day.

2. Gardening: We had landscaping done and so I don't have nearly as much space to make overly ambitious plans only to let the yard fall to a weed jungle garden. Still, I want to have nice flower pots in front of the front entrance and maybe the new shed. So, I need to:

Empty old soil from flower pots, sieve, place in black trash bags
Get new potting soil and cute plants
plant flower pots with fresh plants to last for a couple of months

3. Run at least three times: I've totally lapsed in the exercise department. Shock therapy might be necessary.

4. Color hair and pedicure: I've already bought the box hair color. Haven't decided if I'll paint my toenails my usual navy blue, or something more understated.

5. Get a repair estimate on my work bag: I bought the thing about eight years ago. It now has small rips and the edges are badly worn. I did some googling, and the company does repairs for a price, so I want to take pictures and drop them a line and see if repairs would be worth the time and money. I think the cutoff would be half of what I paid for the bag in the first place.

6. Tiny Vader photoshoot: because I want to tell the story of what became of the rose/ silky red boxers.

Stingy!

Kechi!

For the past 4 years or so, I've bought tomatoes called "rosso rosso." They are a cooking tomato shaped like pumpkins. They suit the Pumpkin Palace garden because they are hardy, taste good both cooked and fresh, and look interesting.

This year, I went online to pre-order them and found that they were only sold in sets of 6 plants, 4 of which were a variety I wasn't really interested in. I kind of hemmed and hawed and thought about getting ordinary tomato plants from the local home improvement center. One day I found a dried up, shriveled rosso rosso tomato on the ground. There were seeds in it, so I tried burying it in an empty pot of potting soil.

A few weeks later, this is what I have.

The plants were about 400 yen each last year. Think I should start a business?

We harvested.

Shuukaku shimashita.

The watermelon was tiny, and there was only one that was fully ripe, but the fact remains that we grew a watermelon in a container outside our dining area, and that it was just as sweet and juicy as any watermelon we have bought at the local supermarket.

Later than usual

Itsumo yori osoi

Yes, I'm still doing Jillian Michaels, sort of. It's more like 3 or 4 times a week than the 5 or 6 times she recommends, and I end up walking in place with a grimace instead of doing whatever incredibly strenuous move her assistants with 2% body fat do while smiling. I'm doing Week 3, and I am still here. Unfortunately, so is my muffin top. And my weight has essentially stayed the same. To quote Elphaba from "Wicked," "something has changed within me, something is not the same," but it seems to be within me and not something you can really see, subjectively or objectively.

Well, it's the first week of July, and there are only about 3 tomatoes and not a single one is showing so much as a hint of red.

My bitter gourds are thriving, though.

And it's giving me bitter gourds. I've counted at least 4 in various stages of development.

I have also counted at least 5 houses on this block doing this "green curtain" thing, so this neighborhood is going to be up to its neck in bitter gourds. They're not one of those vegetables that are dinner table regulars like tomatoes and cucumbers, so I can already see the bitter gourd crop surplus ending up in the garden trash with the weeds and deadheaded blooms...

Still here

Mada iru

So, still doing Jillian Michaels. You're supposed to do one 20 minute workout 5 or 6 times a week. It was more like 3 or 4 times a week, but I'm still here. Again, I'm not sure I like her persona in the DVD. I am also unsure about running in place type movements for cardio, since I am working barefoot on my hardwood floor. But the idea of doing intense strength training mixed in with cardio makes sense, and so does having different workouts with increasing levels of intensity. I'm doing week 2 (of 4) now.

I feel different, but I do not look different, and I do not weigh different. I take that back. I weigh slightly more than when I started. I have decided to tell myself that this is increased muscle mass. Because attitude is everything.

In other news, see my bitter gourd plants? Remember what they used to look like? I gave them a bit of fertilizer last weekend. I think they really will create a shady green curtain.

(She) doesn't miss much!

Yoku mite iru!
I have conjunctivitis. Viral, bacterial or allergic, I am not sure (and neither is the ophthalmologist I saw this morning. And while Japanese medical care does have its drawbacks, I am not going to complain about how I woke up on a Sunday morning with an eye puffed out so badly and stuck together so tightly it could not be opened without using my fingers, and was seen by an ophthalmologist, prescribed medication, and left the pharmacy with said medication in my hand by 11 a.m. the same morning, and only about 4000 yen, or $50, poorer for my trouble). This morning, I could not get my left eye open without using my fingers. It's slightly better now, after 2 doses of oral antibiotics and eye drops, but not much. I'll figure out what to do next after a good night's sleep. In the meantime, I will not let this get me down. Actually, it is getting me down, but it won't take me down without a fight. Or something. Anyway, I'm going to be bright and cheerful and upbeat for my internet friends, imaginary or otherwise.

We went to the 2 local malls to see the Pumpkin Princess's Mothers' Day pictures.

You may recall this image from last year.



I am still not sure what the pink circle over my head is. I have received suggestions that it is a halo. The artist said it was my ponytail holder.

This year, we have this

and this.

Can you see I'm wearing glasses in both pictures? And can you make out the necklace with white flowers on it the Pumpkin Daddy got me for White Day in the bottom picture?

In (somewhat) quake related news (of course you knew I had to say something about the quake in this post), the Pumpkin Family planted bitter melon in containers

and the Pumpkin Daddy hung gardening net in front of the patio door. The idea is to get the plants to grow in front of the patio door, creating a green curtain that will make shade in summer (and help us put a dent in the amount of electricity used by the AC). We made the choice of bitter melon because of its robust, large leaves (as opposed to something like morning glory) and its disease resistance (as opposed to something like cucumber).

That's all 151 cm (4' 11" 1/2 or thereabouts) of me you see in the photo, so you can see how ambitious (and also potentially effective) this plan is.

There's only one container in the photo, but a couple days later, we added another one just like it on the left hand side of the patio.

Of course, the potential drawback is the possibility of a big bitter melon harvest. Anyone know any good bitter melon recipes (other than Okinawa-style stir fry with tofu and egg?)

Slightly better

Sukoshi ha mashi.

We celebrated Fathers' Day a week late with sushi.



The Pumpkin Daddy is really getting into the paternity leave thing. Last week, he took the Pumpkin Princess to the neighborhood park and did some spontaneous community service, picking up trash.



The boy in the yellow shirt lives a couple houses down the street from us. He was practicing soccer lifts but decided he wanted to be a good citizen too.

Yesterday, I got my rear outside and weeded the garden for 10 minutes. For my trouble, I got six mosquito bites and the garden looks like a garden that hasn't been weeded in a while. This is a slight improvement from before, when it looked like a greener version of the set for Little House on the Prairie.

I found a tomato starting to turn red.



Lovely sunflower that no one remembers planting. Probably sprouted from a seed that fell from one of last years'.



Rather dissociated in content, but at least I no longer have Michael Jackson on top of my page.

Things learned so far

"Koremade wakatta koto"

Things learned so far

So it's my first season of gardening (the three years or so of growing herbs on the veranda doesn't count). June is almost gone and I've learned a few things.

1. Plants will probably grow taller than the support poles you buy for them. When in doubt, buy the longer poles, unless you want to have to improvise...badly.



I do have an excuse...I wasn't planning on growing morning glories. Our neighbor gave the pot to us, sans poles, and I used what poles I had. The vines wrapped themselves around the bamboo poles, we blinked, and the poles were suddenly too short.

Then again, those poles are too short for the tomatos as well. And yes, that's duct tape I used. Hey, at least it matches the color of the bamboo.

2. If you want to have cilantro for cooking all summer, you probably should plant or buy (probably the former, since the gardening stores don't have cilantro plants after late May) once a month.



At least I'll have seeds to plant...

3. If you plant one kind of flower at once, they will bloom at once and they will die at once. (No photo for this one, it's just too sad)

4. If you want to enjoy edameme with cold beer while the idea of cold beer is still appealing, you should probably plant them before the last week of June.



I've heard they're pretty hardy and grow fast, so I haven't given up entirely. I'm hoping I'll have a harvest sometime late September.



I think this looks OK...impatiens and tomatos grow well together.