4 generations


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Originally uploaded by renfield.

Took Tonchan up to Ibaraki to see great grandma Sakayori. She had a stroke last year and has been in rehabilitation. We took the subway up to the Tsukuba Express, took a little feeding break at the station, and then went to see grandma and great grandma.

jew food revisited

Mama made some old-time favorites for dinner: noodle kugel (with raisins!) and meatloaf. Quality.

jen again


DINNER
Originally uploaded by piroko_kuroda.

Jen's back for a night after her Sake tour. She and Mama cooked and went shopping all over the place. I worked late, came home, and ate.

amandana

Amandana makes all kinds of cool stuff. And their English web site is spot on:
Loyalty of people with competency

We want our users to have fun using our product precisely because it is just a simple calculator.
Comfortable moments for your daily life.

Absolutely. And of course, be warned that no matter how good the remote control is:

powa to da pepul!


powa to da pepul!
Originally uploaded by renfield.

We gotta take da fight to da man! Raise ya fist and shout "We ain't gonna take it! Powa to da pepul!"

stroller debut

Put Tonchan in the Combi (thanks Mona!) and took her down to the dry cleaners. It was a warm and sunny morning, with a bit of wind. She mostly slept.

fun chair


fun chair
Originally uploaded by renfield.

Bouncy Baby Bjorn chair from Papa, and cool socks from Auntie Em and Uncle D!

tonchan arm

I'm only getting to the dojo once a week to teach on Tuesdays, but I'm getting a different kind of workout taking care of Tonchan. Lots of forearm strength training, stance balance, and of course the never-ending trials of patience and finding calm in the storm of stinky diapers and gimme-milk-now! screaming.
Most other stresses in life pale in comparison.

snork


m_snorkel2
Originally uploaded by renfield.

My dad snorkeling in the waters of Hawaii...or some other old dude in a wetsuit. Can't really tell, honestly.

m & a

M & A came over to play with Tonchan. We goofed off and then had dinner at David's Deli. Thanks for the stroller!
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the ladies


敬子ママ
Originally uploaded by piroko_kuroda.

Keichan and Chiepon came over to see Tonchan, so with Mama, Jenchan, and P, I was the lone Y chromosome.
Chiepon came with armloads of food so we pigged out, and Tonchan slept like a log for hours before eating, then getting a bath.

more tonchan

Jenchan took some photos of Tonchan.

crowded

Big turnout for class, plus four people watching class, so we were a bit squeezed for space. Managed to go through some kata and basics, started with the "hands and feet" theme but managed to devolve into "if you wanna fix your feet, try adjusting your hands" because it's all connected.
We ran through shin, yu, and enyo trying to understand how it's all the same basic moves whilst trying to avoid killing each other. 10 on the floor plus four by the door is too many people in the dojo at once!

seafood

Mama's in Kyoto, and we had a box of frozen seafood sent from Momo's mom, so we feasted on amaebi and unagi and ikura. Mamechishiki for ya: ikura is a Japanese word that comes from the Russian word for roe.
Wow.

krispy kreme

How many Krispy Kremes are too many?
Three. Three is too many.
However, if you are going to eat three, make sure to heat them in the microwave for 20 seconds at 700 watts.
And now excuse me will I bounce off the walls for the next 12 hours.

suitengu and sushi


稲荷寿司
Originally uploaded by piroko_kuroda.

Went to Ningyocho Station, walked down Ameyokocho shopping street, drank some amazake and bought some tofu products, then bought some sushi at the original inarizushi place. Finally we hit Suitengu Shrine and gave back all the Safe Birth stuff we got when P was pregnant, and got a bunch more stuff, then bought some sukiyaki korokke, came home and pigged outl

tonchan mamechishiki

Mame = bean and chishiki = knowledge. Mamechishiki is "beans o' knowledge", aka useless trivia/facts. So here's some mamechishiki about Tonchan:
  1. She loves the sound of running water. She could be crying and screaming and turning bright red, but hold her next to a running faucet and she goes quiet and mesmerized.
  2. Her favorite place is between the washer and dryer when they're both running; warm, repetitively noisy, and the sound of running water abounds (see #1).
  3. She cannot sleep unless her hands are up near her head.
  4. She's been alive for over five weeks and since she was born her feet have never stopped moving.
  5. Warm bath good.
  6. Warm socks bad (see #4.)

first official practice of 2007

Assembled the whole dojo at the Tokyo Budokan (not the Nippon Budokan in Kudanshita, but the Tokyo Budokan in Ayase) and had the Shinnenkeikokai -- First Official Practice of 2007.
After some words from Gosoke, we ran through the basics and then split up by rank and trained for a couple hours. I have the 4th/5th dans so we worked on all the niggling little details; feet, knees, hips, hands, elbows, shoulders...using the upper and lower body together as one unit, focusing on the enemy and reacting to him...lots to work on this year!