getting better?

So after several days of fever, The Mighty Mo was gettin a wee bit better.
After waking up at a reasonable morning time and having breakfast, Ton woke me up around 7, just right for doing my jumps and workout.
Kazuko-baba had spent the night and was helping with breakfast whilst I sweated away in the living room before having my own food.
Then we unpacked Ton's tight new ride (her favorite part being the helmet, which she wanted to wear all day) AND The Table.
Man but do I love me that table! Back when Ikea stuff was build by Swedish hands, in Sweden. And it uses the SAME allen wrench and the same four basic bolts to flat-pack the whole damn thing.
I absolutely guarantee I am the only guy in Japan paid a couple grand US to get a 40 year-old Ikea table shipped around the world!
So after getting the table set up, the weather started breaking; last night's utterly miserable SLEET melted away as the sun broke through the gray clouds.
So we all piled onto the bus and headed to Mitsukoshi for the Eatalian Festival. As expected, it was a mob-scene, with sharp-elbowed grandma's paying no heed as they moved from free sample to free sample; Parmesan to ham to olive oil to wine...we picked up some awesome olives (first time in my life I will admit that olives taste good, so I had to buy a pack), P got a couple panecotta desserts and a sandwich, and I searched for some balsamic that could beat the white stuff I bought last week. I failed, btw.
We then took a break at the kids room, where there was an actual MD on duty, for free. (You Americans can make fun of bloody Socialists all you want; it is AWESOME that a major department store puts an MD on duty every Saturday afternoon for free consultations, just because they think it's The Right Thing To Do For Society.) The Mo-nster was starting to show a bit of a rash after having a fever for several days, so we all agreed it is most likely Roseola. Ton had it twice; pretty much all kids under two get it, no idea why or how, nothing to do but wait for it to go away.
Headed down in the basement to pick up dinner fixings. Another reason I Love Japan: department store basements. Even given that I am PCPing, I grabbed several awesome Japanese veggie dishes and some Korean umeboshi kimchi which sounds wrong but is SO. GOOD and we taxi'd home for dinner.
So glad that I could help P with the kids; gave her a bit of a break AND had a great day with the family.

taking a break @ mitsukoshi kids room


taking a break @ mitsukoshi kids room
Originally uploaded by renfield

the table!


the table!
Originally uploaded by renfield

Original Ikea, bought in Sweden nearly 40 years ago when I was born there. And now it is mine!

mighty steed reborn!


mighty steed reborn!
Originally uploaded by renfield

week 6 results


Week 6
Originally uploaded by Peak Condition Ren

Forgot to post/mention this, and I will have week 7 up in a few more days, but anyway things to note here:
1) need to trim down the manly chest hair as there is ALOT more muscle definition going on than meets the eye
2) the ink also hides some cool arm muscle stuff -- will need to post other photos some day, but needless to say I have all kinds of ridges and things on my shoulders, upper back, etc. Even the tops of my thighs have muscles creasing skin and sticking about. Really neat stuff!
3) The 6-pack is SO CLOSE I can feel it, literally. When I wake up at 5:3am and do my jumps and 8MA before breakfast, on the last set of crunches, after jumping and on an empty stomach, I can sort of see them and definitely feel them.
So within my grasp, I am loving it! Focus, baby focus!

sleeping comfortably?


sleeping comfortably?
Originally uploaded by renfield

two from the jikka


two from the jikka
Originally uploaded by renfield

P's parents sent us:
1- a traditional warrior helmet display for Boys Day
2- 30 kilos of rice