balloon


balloon
Originally uploaded by renfield

Within an hour of taking this photo, I accidentally let the balloon go. Oops. Ton kept looking up at the sky going "Balloon?" Sorry honey, it ain't coming back!

onigiri @ the park


onigiri @ the park
Originally uploaded by renfield

Went to the park for a bit and Ton got hungry so we had an onigiri...and then another one. She ate all the nori off the first one, then all the nori plus all the salmon of the second. And half a bottle of Calpis.

happy birthday mama


happy birthday mama
Originally uploaded by renfield

absolute.carnage.

Nikkei has the biggest single-day fall since '87 and has the worst week ever. In history.
Not unrelated, so did I.

Volatility is just insane these days. The daily battle to manage delta and vega really is a Greek tragedy. It gets bloody, and there are victims. When things go negative, numbers are in red. Nice symbolism.

meat

Toddy-chan and I did some serious carnivorous damage at Gyukaku in a late-nite dinner bingefest of beef and pork.
I like the idea of being vegetarian, but, and I quote: "Meat tastes good. Porkchops taste good."
And as usual, plenty of late-nite smack talk to go with our fleshfeast.

"the usual"


"the usual"
Originally uploaded by renfield

Sunday morning with the Tonchabeast. Took her to the Robot Slide Park and after an hour of running and sliding(video here and here) and almost-2-years-old-ness, she needed sustenance. Started walking and as soon as we got near the 'bucks she points and goes "Ice. ICE. ICE!" Meaning she wants an ice soy chai latte. Up to the counter and she points to the chocolate scones frantically, signing for "eat" and give me the "give me this or I will hate you and grow up to marry a loser just to spite you" look.

She then proceeds to eat half the scone...and all the chocolate chips (video), artfully picking each one out of the encasing scone, crumbs flying everywhere. Every time I reached out to help she batted away my hand with a "No touching!" but then when she had picked all the chocolate out, she signed for more and politely asked "More please." So I'd crumble off a another piece of scone, revealing another vein of chocolate chips for her to mine.

Just as she got bored and was done eating, declaring "Sosama" (she can't quite say "Gochisosama") and trying to stand up out of the high chair, P arrived and I took off to the instructor's seminar.

bsg4. sniffling. in the rain.

Feeling a bit...Hemingwayish.
Still getting over my cold (thanks Tonchan, who is totally and completely fine thanks lovely).
Watched several episodes of BattleStar Galactica 4 until far too late after having a lovely pork chop dinner at Oak Door with TheManDan.
So got not enough sleep.
And it was raining.
Been raining.
Still raining.
Autumn is upon us so I am actually wearing my suits these days. Just cool enough to need to jacket but not cold enough to break out the winter wear. Actually completely lovely weather if it were not for. The. Rain.

gyokufukai


gyokufukai
Originally uploaded by renfield

Celebrated Gosoke's "kanreki" aka 60th birthday, in proper style on the 7th floor of Mitsukoshi Department Store. Lotsa food, bad speeches (including mine), photos, and beverages.

Afterwards got dinner with Elvis and talked smack as we are wont.

gosoke birthday


gosoke birthday
Originally uploaded by renfield

hat and bag


hat and bag
Originally uploaded by renfield

sitting with spiders


R1011655
Originally uploaded by renfield

Attended the annual Dogen Sangha zazen retreat in Tokei-in this year. Once again I was the ogre (making sure everyone did everything and generally keeping things running) and once again t here was many a spider. Many.

stinky

(Note: if you don't have kids and/or don't want to read about my child's bowel movements, skip this post.)

So recently Tonchan's starting to get the concept. She often gets really pissy about putting on her diaper (then again I love running around the aparmtent naked, too...who doesn't?)
When she does her thing in the morning, I or P will sign for diaper change and point at her diaper and say "stinky" and she usually goes "no...no..." until she's totally done and ready to get changed. Then she points at her diaper and goes "stinky."

So this morning she pointed at me as I was going into the toilet and with a big smile screamed "STINKY! POOPING!"

Wife, what are you teaching my child?

money lending license training and exam


money lending license training and exam
Originally uploaded by renfield

I will be here all day...

And I was. Seven hours of pure Money Lending joy. Good news: the last hour we were basically told the answer to every question on the exam. So if you were still awake (a tough call for some) then the test was easy. If I got more than one question wrong it's because the RedBull I chugged a couple hours ago was wearing off.