190 Hey there friends! I hope that you're having a happy weekend. My wife and I enjoyed a quiet day at home with the baby. The only significant thing that we did was to go to the grocery store. We will enjoy the evening watching some stuff on television. My biggest project of my (soon-to-be-completed) spring break was to trim the hedges in my side yard. After working quite hard on three seperate days, I finally finished cutting them down to a respectable size. When I was finishe...

Hello friends. Well, we've got the koinobori up. Koinobori are fish-shaped windsocks from Japan. If you hang them outside, it means that you'll have a strong and healthy boy. I still have some landscaping do do around the pole, and I need to improve the way that we secure the rope, but I think that they look pretty well out there in our yard. Here are the koinobori on a not-so-windy day. We took this picture yesterday. I am working on doing some of the landscaping ar...

Hey there, I have a few projects planned for spring break this year. One of my main projects is to trim the hedges on the north and east sides of my house. I have been "blessed" with about 20+ yards of hedges that have been unkept and are terribly overgrown. It is one of my goals for this vacation to get those god-awful things trimmed down to a respectable height. The tough part is that there is a lot to do, and the hedges are awfully pointy. (My arms are all scratched-up!) Over ...

Hey there everybody. How is it going? Today is one of those lazy weekend days that I like so much. I woke up late, and then I spent the day playing with my wife and baby, and watching television. The most ambitious thing that I did was to assemble a play center for the baby to sit in and play. Tomorrow I will be back in it (at work.) I will have to make sure that all my arrangements are in order for those god-awful state-mandated tests that we have to make the kids take. Those thing...

Hello friends! I hope that you're having a happy day. I am enjoying a day off from work. Since we had to work extra hours over the last two days for Parent-Teacher Conferences, today's break is our compensatory day. I sure needed it! Running around between three schools and rushing in and out of conferences is exhausting. I had two goals for myself today. Both of them required me to sit "on hold." The first goal was to contact the INS to check on my wife's permanent green card....

Hey there friends. I hope that you've had an enjoyable Monday. Mine was okay. I had an ordinary day at work, followed by a trip to K-mart with my wife and my baby. After that we watched some TV, I danced, and here I am. Oh yes... There is one thing that I need to mention. I placed the seeds for what will be my future garden in a mini-greenhouse. I hope to have some good sprouts for late-March/ early-April when I start my garden. (I will most likely start it during Spring Break.) ...

Hey Hey! It is Friday. I hope that all of you are resting well after a busy week. After coming home I was treated to some nice home-made pie, as well as some yummy "PI-GYO" for dinner. After dinner, Kazuko and I played a game of "Kero-Kero King." (Kero-Kero King is a kind of frog-golf game for the Play Station that is sold in Japan.) It has been pretty fun so far. *For those of you who are wondering: PI-GYO is a combination of pizza and Chinese dumplings (pot-stickers.) A delic...

Today my wife Kazuko made some monogrammed bibs for baby Kenny. She used some towels that we have at home, but don't use. She cut them in bib shape, hemmed up the edges, added snaps, and sewed his name into the bottom. The two that she made today look really good on baby Kenny. (Kazuko is becoming a regular Martha Stewart-type!) Kenny will definitely put his new bibs to good use. He drools a lot! Here is what they look like:

It is Sunday morning. We are enjoying the day here at home. It is both raining and snowing outside. It is an interesting mix. This morning, I was watching the McLaughlin Group on public television as I do on Sunday mornings. As I was watching the show, my wife noticed that baby Kentaro seems to really like that show. -I noticed that he seemed to be keeping an eye on the show last weekend, but I didn't really think anything of it. He watches it very intently, and talks to the screen. T...

Hey there friends. I hope that Presidents' Day has been treating you well. We have had a good day here at our house. The first thing that I did when I woke up is get working on my income taxes. A few weeks ago, I bought "Turbo Tax" to do my taxes on my computer. I think that it took a little bit longer than if I had just done it like I usually do, but it was really good at helping me get deductions that would be too complicated to find otherwise. Word to the wise: if you haven't done you...

Hello there my friends. I hope that you're having a happy Valentine's Day Saturday. We're doing fine here. Kazuko is at the hairdresser, getting her hair cut. Apparently she is going to have it cut short. -That will keep the baby from pulling it all the time. (He likes to grab stuff.) We'll get a picture of her "new look" in here some day. While Kazuko is out, I get to watch baby Kenny. He is in his baby chair, watching me type this. He seems to be enjoying himself... Little Kenny...

Hi there friends. I hope that you all had a good day! I am making a pit-stop here at home. After I finish writing this weblog, I am going to go out and run some errands. I will also run to pick up dinner. We're having a fancy dinner tonight... Burger King! On the way home from work today I stopped by the barber to get a haircut. I suppose that it turned out okay. That is a really hard part about moving. Since we moved to Monticello, I haven't had my hair cut by the same person twice...

Hello there friends. I hope that you're having a happy evening. After work I plowed my driveway. It is good and clear now. I hadn't plowed for a week because I didn't really have the inclination to run to the hardware store to buy a new belt for it. Now that I have, it cuts through the snow like nobody's business. In the evening, my wife and I had to take baby Kenny to the doctor. He has been coughing and wheezing for a couple of days. The doctor said that he has "bronchilitis," (n...

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...