Waiting On the Rain

I had hope/planned on getting some veggies in the ground this weekend, after prepping our first-ever garden last weekend. Unfortunately it was raining all day, and will do so again tomorrow. That will have to wait until next weekend I guess, or perhaps Wednesday, when we have a day off for a national holiday (Showa Day -- look it up if you care). The clouds and mist make for a nice gloomy atmosphere though, and gave me an excuse to lay on the couch for a while and watch the Red Sox take out the Spankees in extra innings.



We had to get up pretty early this morning and go to the doctor for Chieko's third checkup of the pregnancy. Everything is looking good, and her morning sickness seems to be abating slowly, though she still has moments of extreme discomfort. The highlight of this visit was that our fetus has sprouted arms and legs! Cool -- it's not just a fuzzy blob on the uterus-cam anymore. During our past two visits I have waited while the doctor gives Chieko her checkup, and they give us an ultrasound pic after. Today I got to go in and see the monitor, where I could see the baby's heartbeat. Cool, again.

We've been going to the doctor every two weeks, but after our next visit Chieko will only have to go once a month. It seems like the government is pretty generous with financial aid for doctors visits and cost for the actual delivery. I'm not entirely sure how it breaks down, but it'll be good blog fodder as we progress (if that sort of thing interests you, of course).

What else? The past week flew by; we're still busy as hell and will be for at least another week. I'm putting on a Neil Young concert at school on Thursday for my semi-annual mini-workshop that we're required to do. I'm selling it as Neil Young really coming, but of course it'll be me dressed up and trying not to muck up Neil Young songs on my guitar. I completed my costume tonight with the purchase of a Neil Young-esque hat that I picked up at a local used clothing shop for about $6. I bought a flannel shirt for the costume there last weekend (for the same price) and saw the hat then, but wanted to check out a few other places before I pulled the trigger. I also scored a crappy cave man-style wig online a few weeks ago for about $10. I need to give it a hair cut to rein it in a bit, but it'll work, and now I have a re-usable Neil Young getup should I find myself needing to impersonate him again in the future. I'll put up some pics once I get things in order.

I also have plans to go to a legitimate concert on Tuesday night. I'm seeing Neal Casal (how appropriate), who is the guitarist for the Cardinals (of Ryan Adams and the Cardinals). I'm not that familiar with his stuff actually, but it's one of those rare instances of live (western) music in Kanazawa, and about five minutes from our house to boot, so I really need to go.

I think that's about it. I'm going to attempt to get up around 5 tomorrow and catch round two of Sox/Yankees, but that's very iffy. I might have to settle for tuning up the audio on my iPhone and listen to it in bed.

Hope your weekend is less rainy than mine. Good night.