Hello there. I hope that you're having a nice weekend. It is Sunday evening now, what happened to the time? My wife, the baby, and I didn't do much this weekend. We stayed at home. It seems that baby Kenny is a little bit sick. He is congested, in a bad mood, and has a slight fever. We'll bring him in to the doctor tomorrow. I was able to take a few cute pictures of the little guy. He will turn three months-old this week. Kenny doesnft look to be in the best mood today. He ...

Hello there friends! I hope that all of you had a nice Tuesday. My day went by really quickly. The kids at school were good. They got a lot of work done, the seemed to have learned a few things, and I went home happy. They're such angels (in general...) Coming home, I took a few pictures with Kenny. After all of that, I did a quick shovel of my driveway. (I don't have to take a running start to get my car into and out of my driveway like I did this morning and this afternoon.) After...

Hey there friends! I hope that all of you are having a happy weekend. Today was an ordinary Saturday. I slept in, and then I woke up and thought about what to do next. I decided that I wanted to look back at some of my videotapes from the second season of "American Idol." (After watching the first few episodes of AI3, I seem to have "caught the bug" again.) On the second floor of our house we have three bedrooms. One room is for guests/ our summer bedroom, another room is being groome...

Hi there friends. I hope that you're having a happy day. I enjoyed my day. I was able to go into work late this morning. We had a two-hour delay because of the weather. The even better news is that we will have the same delay tomorrow. It is nice to end the week with two grueling six-hour workdays. I wish that my high school would have closed down this often. Snowdays were an awesome break from life on a cold winter day. Now they're time to clear away snow and stay warm. Just bet...

Hello there. I hope that everyone's week is going well. I am coming off of the thrill of watching two consecutive days of "American Idol." Next week there will be three days in-a-row of episodes. I am really looking forward to watching Monday's episode where they show only the good auditions. Then after that, weeding occurs. It didn't seem that there were that many impressive singers in the Hawaii auditions. We'll have to see how they do in the later rounds. In other entertainment ev...

Hello there. I hope that it is going fine for all of you. Not much to say today. Everything went as expected. I went to work, I came home, I shoveled snow. Kazuko and I watched American Idol, we went grocery shopping, we danced, and we watched "Seinfeld." Actually come to think of it, it was a pretty good night! I really enjoyed the last guy on "American Idol" tonight. If you don't remember, he was that Chinese civil engineering student who sang "She Bangs." He was pretty funny. Ev...

Hell there my friends. Overnight Sunday and during the day Monday, Minnesota was covered in snow. (In Duluth, they had over 20 inches ~53cm of snow!) -If I get home early enough tonight, I will take a picture of the "aftermath." The good news about all of this is that my dad gave me a two-cycle motor power shovel to deal with the snow. It was pretty easy to clear off my driveway and walkways after the heavy snow. I will have to go out again tonight to deal with drifts and with what the...

Isn't it boring when people talk about the weather? Even if it is, let me tell you: it is awfully cold here in Minnesota! Today, we saw a temperature of -15F (-26C.) It is awfully cold outside! We haven't had many really cold days like this in recent years, so it gives us good memories of days past. Over the weekend, Kazuko, Kenny, and I visited a resort whee a friend's family owns a cabin. It was awfully nice. In tomorrow's entry, I will have some pictures of our happy time up there....

Hello there. I am at home now, relaxing with my family. Everyone else is REALLY relaxing -as in asleep. But it is nice to be here. Work was fine today, but it is a bit hard to be ready to go after a long holiday. Thank goodness my kids are so good! They made coming back to work easier. After work I took Kazuko's mother to Wal-Mart in Buffalo. I figured that that would be a good place to buy some presents for her grandchildren. She got a few shirts, some puzzles, and a bath book. Of...

Hi there. I hope that everyone had a good beginning of the work week. I survived my first day back. I was especially pleased today with some dialogue from some plays that I am acting and recording with the kids at school. Bringing a video camera into class seems motivating for the kids. (We're doing plays about an Indian legend about how the sky got to be so far up, and one about a giant who steals crops from a family in Chile.) After I got home, I enjoyed some nice shrimp curry for di...

Hey there my friends. It is finally the end of a long week. It was a strange week. I wasn't any busier than usual, but I feel more tired than I usually am at the end of the week. Coming home tonight I was able to eat a nice "Karaage" (fried chicken thighs) dinner after cleaning the hedgehog cages. fter dinner, I fell asleep on the couch. When I woke up at 8:30 PM I noticed that everyone else in my family was already in bed! Not necessarily what one would consider a "crazy night." ...

Hey there! Yesterday I had to make a quick trip to K-Mart to buy some diapers for baby Kentaro. He is growing quickly through the various diaper sizes. While I was at the store, I found a number of winter flannel shirts on sale that I really liked. There were a number of pretty nice shirts in the 10-15 dollar price range. I looked through the various items to pick one out for myself (I like wearing flannel shirts.) Sadly, since it is late in the season, the vast majority of shirts were...

In Japan, it is a tradition to send New Year's greetings in the form of post cards. At the beginning of each year it isn't uncommon to receive a large stack of greetings from friends, relatives, and well-wishers. When my wife and I lived in Japan, we adhered to the tradition of sending and receiving these New Year's greetings. Since moving to the United States we still continue to send and receive these messages, although not in as great of volume as when we lived in Japan. Now my wife and ...

Hello there. Happy New Year! With the new year comes the end of New Year's break. The kids and teachers come back to school. Even though I was sad to end my vacation, I was pleasantly surprised at how happy I was to see the kids when we got back. (I would still rather stay home with my wife and baby though!) The kids are very industrious and attentive right after break. I have gotten a lot done with the kids during the first couple days. Of course I don't think that this will last fo...

After I wrote my last blog entry, Kenny started smiling. Here are a few video captures that we took while he was sitting on my lap. Cute, huh?