Now You See Me, Now You Don't

Kind of a mish-mash of completely uninteresting things here for you. I continue relishing the reality that I'm living in a house now, and all the opportunities to do mundane things that doing so affords. We had a day off yesterday for, of all things, the autumnal equinox. I'll take it. I spent the better part of midday washing and waxing our car, which was in dire need. I loved spending hours detailing my car back in the States, but living in an apartment sans hose for the past few years, haven't had the opportunity. Of course yesterday's activity was prefaced by some serious time roaming the aisles of the local automotive supply shop.

And since things always work out this way, it promptly started raining once I had finished. Fortunately we didn't do much driving yesterday, so the majority of the cleanliness was preserved and afforded some nice, fat, leftover raindrops this morning. I'm jonesing to take pictures, if you can't tell.



I've also made the unilateral decision that we are going to get a Christmas tree this year. My wife laughed considerably when I informed her of this, at which point I had to point out the fact that she had broken her foot climbing the stairs. It will have to be a cheesy plastic affair, but it will bring a little much needed holiday spirit to my life. I tend to get a bit crabby around Christmas, not just because we have to work, but because I miss the whole atmosphere of the holiday, the food, the family, the lights. The merriest place in Japan around Christmas time is KFC. And while there are a lot of lights and holiday displays at shopping malls and the sporadic house, it's just not the same. So there it is: Christmas tree.

What else is going on here? Chieko will get her cast off in two weeks, though I have to say she's grown pretty mobile with her crutches. She can also get around the house with ease, and without crutches, now that she has the cast.

What else? I stepped on the scale tonight for the first time in a while and was a bit surprised to see that I'm down to 66 kilograms. That's territory I usually only approach in the morning, hungover, when I'm both dehydrated and have an empty stomach. So that's cool! I've lost 19 kilograms (40+ pounds people) since I changed my wicked ways about 2 years ago. Feeling groovy.

And I'm afraid that's all I've got to offer you tonight. I'm going to iron and then either read or study some Kanji before crashing. I've been slowly, sporadically getting into the Kanji (the Chinese characters used in Japanese). I really do want to learn them, but god, it's a pain in the ass. So I'll probably end up reading, in English. Good night.