Last winter I wrote about my evil sock. All innocent looking in cream and pink argyle, it is one of the itchiest socks I have ever worn. And it isn't both socks, just one of them. Now the season for toasty socks is approaching again and I am eyeing my wool sock bin. I see lots of favorites that promise a winter of warm and happy feet. Then I see the evil sock and its innocent twin. I observe them carefully wondering which one is really the evil sock and wondering how I am going to tel...

I've been planning to make dinner on a weeknight for two weeks now. Hubby either takes me out for dinner (as neither of us has enery to eat or clean up after) or I am falling asleep at 8 pm after getting home around 7. The gym? Forget it! But I made a potato cream soup today. Sauteed onion, garlic and mushrooms and then added microwaved potatoes and carrots to speed up cooking time. Added water and boiled it for a bit. Stopped the pot to go for a 10 minute jog with hubby (this was sh...

Ack.......!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yep, that is how I feel right now. I don't know what it is about me but I have a tendency to get myself in over my head. Must be some sense of overwhelming self confidence that I probably shouldn't have. Feels like the energy rut I've been in is cycling out and I've got a lot of better focus. I'm teaching a math course and the whole teaching math thing is new for me. I'm working hard at it and I guess it's going ok, but this is probably NOT the job I sh...

Maybe I unknowingly clicked some buttons. Dunno, but my recent articles are anything but. Puzzling Any ideas?

I was doing pretty well on this for about four days. Day 5 was a non post day so that I could go do stuff instead of sit around. Then tragedy struck. My hard-drive crashed completely. It happened gradually in dribs and drabs so I was able to back up all my documents except for my precious links in my favorites folder. It could have been worse. It could have been the big bang, and the repair shop upgraded the hard drive to 60G! Good for my little laptop. And since my computer ha...

The is a product or brand of beauty products in Japan called Asian Beauty. The spokesperson is Chen Tsui, the actress from "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon." Obviously, the woman is gorgeous and a good choice by the marketers for a front person. What I hate about the commercial is that it usually shows caucasian women being jealous of her, giving her snide looks or getting the flap of Chen Tsui's coat in their faces. There's a series of commercials along this line. My question is this,...

A picture I took of ayame when I went to Kamakura in May

On another thread I was talking about praying mantiss and then got onto suzume bachi. A giant hornet 2.7-4 cm long, and very poisonous. Now if you're feeling adventurous or would like a little bit of that suzume bachi power yourself you can try out this drink at this site Link 34 % alcohol and 3% suzume bachi extract. Kanpai!

During a night session photography class, a praying mantiss landed on me. It was, I think, a BIG sucker! About as long as my forefinger! While shooting, I had the sensation of something crawling on my ankle and used my left foot to scratch it off. Then some flurry of grey, blurred movement in the dark and something is on my pants. I try to brush it off, but it wont go, fearing the worst (and I really don't have any specific in mind for worst, just, you know "the worst") I screamed a...

Been ages since I blogged. I check out the forums pretty regularly but haven't really had anything to contribute. A lot of articles seem interesting, but don't really need y 2 cents so I don't deposit. Then there's that whole blog angst, "what should I write?" etc. So I return to my blog as a place where folks and friends back home can check on what's going on over here. Finally health is on the upswing. Amazing what a little minor surgery can do for ya. I probably would have gone to...

In other news, I had a strange allergic reaction to a sock. It is a sock I have worn before without problems. My foot was super itchy (top) and I took off my sock and my foot was red as a watermelon. I thought I had maybe burned my foot by having it too close to the heater, but the bright redness of the foot subsided within 30 minutes of taking the sock off, so that pretty much rules out a burn. I am going to christen that innocent looking pink and cream argyle sock the Evil Sock. Sadly, ...

I have been getting on really well with hubby lately. I probably didn't think hard enough about how to express this to him. Instead, I said, "Honey, I feel really in harmony with you right now." Basic error, was that I forgot to translate this into Man and spoke Woman instead. He gave me a puzzled look, narrowed his eyes and said, "Do I have to do anything?" Sigh....

I was just thinking, "if only I could be..." then it hit me. Be what? More disciplined. Not a procrastinator. More certain about what I want to do in my life. Yet, someone told me last year that I set the bar pretty high for myself. Okay. So that means? What? I don't think that I'm a bad person and I have a lot of good qualities. I think it comes down to what I heard as a child. "That was okay, but you could do even better." A couple of years ago I actually had to ask my parent...

If I'm going to be be on time for soccer, I should probably leave now. Thanks god for soccer socks which are long and that means that I don't have to worry about shaving my legs. Then again my team-mates couldn't care less I'm sure. I could whip through dishes and be out the door by 7:30. I feel sick though because the post-office called me and asked me questions about the money order I sent A WEEK after I sent it. I know I have the angry tone for speaking Japanese down to a T, but I hav...

I like incense. Maybe not the cloying stuff sold back home, and not the particulary the stuff burned at the shrines or in front of family shrines or in old ladies' houses. Usually, if I mention incense, one of my Japanese friends pulls a face and mentions that they don't really like it becaus it smells like an old lady's house.Yesterday friend introduced me to a great incense store in Omotesando. From the outside, it looks just like a hip, modern art gallery with funky, artistic lights ma...