For the past few days, I have been walking around on a sore heel.  The inside part of my left shoe (at the heel) wore out, and the hard plastic parts of the shoe started scraping at my heel.  It hurt.  I'd had enough. Today during my lunch break (which is over in about three minutes), I ran to the shoe store to get some new shoes.  They certainly are more comfortable than my old, worn-out ones. Bye bye old shoes: Hello new shoes:

Yesterday my wife and I found a new thing at the Asian grocery store.  Instead of the usual frozen sanma (pike mackeral), they had some fresh.  Yay!  That's one of my favorite fish (served grilled with shredded daikon and soy sauce on the side.) My wife cooked up a good sanma dinner tonight.

Today I took my family to Twins fest.  It was fun.  We got to walk around on the field at the Metrodome.  Our older son got to run around.  We saw a few players.  Good time. Little boy at lunch time. Our oldest son got a Twins hat. After the Twins fest.  We went to the Asian grocery store. I came across this interestingly-named product. "Cock" brand- Special Fish Sauce.  I know that they mean "chicken", but the name still makes one gi...

Well, my exhaustive "coverage" of American Idol begins tomorrow, when the fifth season kicks-off with a two-hour audition show.  Before that however, I have a few photos to post from recent days. We received a package from Japan today.  In the package, there was a cell-phone strap for me.  I put it on my phone.  The writing on the strap says "Buyuzan".  Buyuzan is a professional sumo wrestler who hails from my wife's home town.  My father-in-law is close to some ...

Today my wife and I took the boys to a small zoo in the central part of our state.  On the way home, we stopped off for a little shopping.  One of the places we went to was Barnes & Noble.  (I wanted to buy a CD.  "Teegan and Sara": "Jealousy" ...I think...) As soon as we walked into the store, our oldest son exclaimed "choo-choo".  He wanted to play with the Thomas the Tank Engine train set that they have at Barnes and Noble stores.  (Just like he knows that...

The other night my wife, my son, and I enjoyed a nice Korean barbecue (bulgogi) dinner.  Yum!

Today my wife and I took the boys to the zoo.  In order to keep our one-month-old warm, my wife had to hold the baby under one of my jackets. (Her jackets are too small for a passenger.) She has the baby under this gigantic jacket.  She looks like George Costanza when he wore his new Gore-tex jacket at the liquor store (when he broke a few bottles). After the zoo, we went to the Asian grocery store.  Our older son always enjoys looking at the meats and ...

My wife and I needed to return a video to the Japanese video store in Minneapolis.  Since we were in town, we took advantage of it and had dinner at one of my old haunts in Saint Paul.  We ate at "Porkys", a 1950s/60s style drive-in. In my opinion, the best thing on the menu at Porky's is the fried fish sandwich.  (It is probably the best fried fish sandwich that I know of.)  My wife and I had that, while our older son had the children's chicken leg set.  (He ate that...

Last night my wife, my boys, and I went Christmas shopping.  (It was our first time out this year.)  We were able to get something for everyone on our list (except one).  It was a good time out.  For shopping ease, I'd definitely recommend a Tuesday night in a snowstorm.  (Actually it was only snowy on the way home.) Before shopping we had dinner at Bonanza.  My older son LOVES that place.  He can eat spaghetti there, and he's a spaghetti-eating machine. ...

Today we received a package in the mail from my wife's sister. She sent satin jackets for my son and me. Daddy and baby in jacket. Baby's "Dinosaur" jacket: The back. Little baby slept through it all.

After my wife and my son went to bed, I watched a bit of TV.  At about the time that I was set to go to bed, my wife called me from upstairs and said that she can't get the baby to sleep.  She has had a rough couple of days (two kids at home, me at work), so now I am sitting up with baby for a while. We watched two episodes of "Mary Tyler Moore."  (We have one more that we can watch tonight.)  He's being good in his bouncer for now, but I am sure that he'll be up for a cud...

Here are some of the last batch of photos that I downloaded from our camera. Most of the pictures of Akinori were "overexposed".  I suppose that's what happens when we stand too close when we take pictures.  Here's one that turned-out: Kenny likes to play around the baby's cradle, especially when the baby is in it.  I laughed when I saw this picture. Kenny is experimenting with the nose cleaner. Dinosaur is getting its nose cleaned too.  ...

Thanksgiving dinner is over.  We had a nice meal.  Everyone is relaxing at my house now.  I am taking this time to post a few photos that I pulled off of my camera. Yesterday's "Dilbert" comic strip was really funny.  This particular strip got a big laugh out of me.  If you haven't seen it, here it is:  Baby Aki and me, on the couch. We gave Aki a bath the other day.  He really liked it. Kenny likes to play with his brother's nose. ...

Yesterday I wrote about a series of bad things that have been going on with me.  One more was added.  Yesterday while at work, I became increasingly ill as the day went on.  I must have picked up some sort of stomach virus.  The past 24 hours have been pretty ugly for me.  Fortunately, I seem to be pulling out of it now. Baby pictures: Aki is yawning. Aki is awake. Two brothers.  Kenny is interested in his little brother. Fun. H...

Lately it has been one thing after the other... The day before yesterday my wife and I had to bring our newborn baby into the hospital to help him recover from jaundice.  A day under the lights cleared that all up, but it took a long time for the discharge doctor to show up, and my wife spent most of yesterday in the hospital. The pilot light in our heater kept going out.  Apparently there is a leak in the gas line that feeds the pilot light.  We had to have that repaired.&n...