Hey there friends. I hope that you've had a happy weekend. As usual, it seems to have passed by so quickly. Our lazy Sunday is winding-down. After sleeping in, I had a happy day spending time with my wife and the baby. I was also able to watch Day 1 of the Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka. Last night, some friends came over to our house for dinner. We had steaks, played Dance Dance Revolution, and we sang karaoke. We also were able to see how our babies interacted with each other. The...

Hi there friends! It is finally Friday. I am looking forward to a weekend surrounded by family and friends. Last night my wife and I took the baby along for dinner at Bonanza in Saint Cloud. Success! We had a good meal, and the service was good (as usual.) We both had steak and all-you-can-eat shrimp. The last time we went there (in December,) our meals didn't turn out so-well. I was a bit apprehensive before going back, but fortunately we were able to put the past behind us and wer...

About six weeks ago, the Michael Jackson trial was pretty big news. I think that he was worth at least one segment every half-hour on most of the national news providers. Then Janet Jackson shows her boob on national television, Martha Stewart has her trial, Howard Stern gets censored, Mel Gibson releases the Jesus flick, and the Academy Awards came and went. With all of those other "distractions" it seems that Michael Jackson has fallen off of the radar. I wonder how long it will be f...

Hello there friends. I hope that all of you are enjoying your Friday! My day is going by pretty quickly. As an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher, I see various small groups of children in three different schools throughout my day. On most normal days, I run through my ESL curriculum, as well as help kids with their homework. Those days seem to go pretty well. I am teaching, the kids are learning, everything is swell. Today has been an diversion from that pattern. I hav...

Happy Early Valentines Day to all of you out there. Since the holiday lands on a Saturday, we here at schools across America will have to observe the holiday on Friday. Working at an elementary school, one can almost cut through the electricity with a knife. The kids are all hopped-up on chocolate, and the good-will that only a Valentine can bring. I really like the way that kids are allowed to enjoy the holidays when they're this age. Since I work as a specialist, pulling kids out of c...

Hi there friends. Have you been having a nice evening? I have been having fun. After watching "American Idol," my wife and I spent some time playing Dance Dance Revolution. That was fun. By the way, what did you think about tonight's American Idol? I was pretty sure that Diana and Fantasia were going to win. I am surprised that Matthew got third place. (I voted for Diana.) Anyway as I said in my headline, I have some experience of playing Scrabble with kids. You see, I work as an...

Hi there friends!  Have you ever heard of Culver's? Culver's is a chain of hamburger restaurants that originated in Wisconsin.  Their specialties are things called "Butterburgers," and their milkshakes.  Currently, Culver's is only located in the Midwest (they've only recently come into Minnesota.)  The food at Culver's is awfully good.  I recommend it for any of you who live up here, or are traveling through. Over the past month or two, I have had frequent craving...

214 Hello there everybody!  The weekend is almost over.  I hope that everyone enjoyed it, wherever they were. This weekend was a fun one for me.  My parents drove here from Duluth, Minnesota to enjoy Mothers' Day Weekend.  On Saturday we went to a few garage sales, followed by a nice dinner at a Korean restaurant (my wife's favorite.)  Today, we met grandma for lunch at Cattle Company (steak restaurant.) On the way home from lunch, my family stopped by Wal-Mart ...

203 The other day as I was changing our baby's diapers, I had a thought. Our five month-old baby's diapers are decorated with images of Sesame Street characters, Barney, Mickey Mouse, and like that. I wonder whose benefit those pictures are for, the babies or the parents? Of course, the pictures are for the parents' benefit. My brilliant marketing idea would be to put jokes, classified ads, household hints, racing forums, stock tips, rock stars, whatever on the diapers...

Well, just got the news that the President is doing a news conference tonight. That stinks. I was looking forward to watching my favorite television program tonight. Of course the broadcast networks are going wall-to-wall with it. I wonder whether the President on television draws better ratings than regular programming. With cable and public television, the general public could have access to whatever the President will try to do to untarnish his image in order to get himself re-elect...

Hey there. I hope that you're all having a nice day! I have been enjoying myself today. The thermometer on my garage reads 70-degrees (~21C.) It was a nice day for a walk. My wife, the baby, and I strolled down to K-mart (department store) and Cub Foods (grocery store) to do a bit of shopping. I was a bad boy today. I didn't get any yardwork done today. That'll wait until tomorrow. My biggest accomplishment of the day was renewing my driver's license at the county office while m...

Hey there friends! I hope that you've had a happy Saturday. Kazuko and I had a good day. After sleeping in, Kazuko, Kenny and I went to have lunch at the Hong Kong Buffet in Elk River. After lunch, we bought the materials that we will be needing to install the pole that we will use to install our Koinobori (Japanese fish streamers.) I bought some cement and a mounting tube to put the pole into the ground. In about three days (once the cement has finished setting) I will post a p...

Last night while we were sleeping, little Kentaro ran off to India. Apparently while he was gone, he converted to Sikhism. All day long, he has been insisting that we call him Ikhtiar Singh , as that is his new name. My wife and I are thinking that this is "just a phase," and it will simply pass with patience. If it isn't just a phase, I think that we'll just call him "Ikky" from now on. Here is Kenny's -I mean Ikhtiar's- new look: Just kidding... as I was undressing...

177 Hello there friends. I hope that all of you had a happy weekend. My wife, my son, and I spent the weekend in Duluth, Minnesota. We were up there to visit my parents on my Mom's birthday, as well as meet some of my friends to play some paintball in Superior, Wisconsin. Here in Monticello (where we live,) the temperature is warm, the snow is gone, the birds are back, and the grass is turning green. Three hours away, by the shores of Lake Superior, it was cold and sleeting. Ther...

176 As I was responding to another article about America's un-culture, I began to go off on a train of thought about how people behave when they're abroad. I was thinking that there are some pretty safe ways to tell where a group of people are from when they're abroad. Now since these are stereotypes, they are not necessarily the rules. My "rules of thumb" on how to determine where the tour groups are from: Germans often wear black and have smallish eyeglasses. Americans speak...