Today we bought a tricycle for our little boy.  We brought it home, and put it together.  Once I got it together, we learned that the tricycle is too big for our child.  His feet don't reach the pedals. We'll put it away for a little while.  I hope that he'll be tall enough to use it by the time that it snows.

A few months ago, our local grocery store expanded its international offerings.  Among the new foods brought in were some prepackaged Indian dishes.  I bought one, ate it, but wasn't impressed.  Since I really like to eat Indian food (and the Japanese variant: "Curry rice"), I gave the prepackaged stuff another try. The second time it was really yummy.  It is a fried cheese in red sauce dish.  I had it for the second time as tonight's dinner.  Here's what it look...

Over the past week or so, BBC America has been introducing some new shows. (I think that their scheduling is based on fiscal years, rather than on "fall lineups".) Capitalizing on the rising profile of Gordon Ramsay, BBCA has started airing a show called "Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares Revisited". (If this show had already been airing, I certainly missed it.) It airs for the first time each week at Tuesday 9 Central, with plenty of repeats. Being a big fan of "Hell's Kitchen" on FOX, I decid...

Last night while my wife and I were grocery shopping, we found some baby back ribs.  We decided to buy them, as they were really inexpensive.  We would try cooking them Korean-barbecue style. We marinated the ribs in: soy sauce, sake, sugar, onions, garlic, sesame oil, pepper, and sesame seeds.  With that, we had made Kalbi .  I brought them outside and cooked them on my grill.  They were very good.  Now we have one more delicious meal that we can prep...

Today my wife and I were at the hospital for an ultrasound.  We found out that our second baby (who will be born in November) will be a boy.  We will have two little boys at home.  The good news about that is that we won't have to buy any clothes for a while.  The difficult thing is that it'll be tough to decide on a name for this one.  Kentaro (the name of our first son) was easy to decide.  We'll have to put a lot more thought into the name of the second ...

So I was sitting on the couch, watching a baseball game.  My phone rings, and I pick it up. As soon as I answered, some guy with a southern accent starts ranting and raving about me stealing his newspaper.  He claims that he's my next door neighbor.  I told this guy to just come over and get the paper. Just for kicks, I argued with the guy for a few minutes.  I played along with his joke too for a while until it got too repetitive.  Then I let him go. This guy w...

This afternoon my wife, my son, and I returned form our week-long vacation to the Black Hills. It was an awful long drive from central Minnesota, all the way across South Dakota, but I really enjoyed it. (South Dakota actually flies by with that higher speed limit! The Minnesota leg of the trip was the long part.) Nearby Rapid City, we had some fun at a place called "Old MacDonald's Farm." Kenny is CRAZY about animals lately. He spends all day every day playing with his hard plastic animals. ...

For those of you who regularily read my weblog, you've probably noticed that I haven't posted for a while.  My family and I took a trip to the Black Hills in South Dakota.  We saw lots of interesting things there.  I will write a log about our trip once I get the pictures off of our camera. Here is a blurry scan of an "Old West-style" picture that we had taken.  (My wife won't let me take it out of the frame to get a better scan.  That's okay.  You can get the fe...

Over the past few weeks/months, I have been working on an upstairs bedroom for me and my wife.  (We intend to turn our old bedroom into a play room for the kids.)  I tore off wallpaper, scraped off glue, primed, and painted two colors (bergundy and touched-up a little white).  We put up some curtains this afternoon, and we were ready to move our stuff up there early this evening. After weeks of work we finally had our bedroom.  We moved the mattress upstairs.  We...

Over the weekend, my wife, my son, and I went to Chicago and Wisconsin Dells.  In Chicago: we visited some friends, picked up my wife's passport, ate LOTS of Japanese food, and visited a Japanese grocery store.  In the Dells: we went to the deer park, we went to Storybook Gardens/ Animal Park, we went swimming, and we visited "The Wonder Spot." It was a nice trip.  I enjoy driving to Chicago and visiting Wisconsin Dells.  My biggest surprise was a drive to downtown Chicago...

This morning while I was getting dressed, I heard something familiar coming from the TV in the living room. My son was watching the NOGGIN channel. Between programs, they play a variety of different things that are fun and interesting for the kids. Today, I heard the familiar theme and door knock of the "Dekoboko Friends." "Dekoboko Friends" are animated characters from a Japanese children's show (that my son watches daily. "Okaasan to Issho") The "Friends" knock on a door after their the...

Today when I returned home from teaching a class, my wife greeted me with some interesting news. Apparently our little boy can recognize a few letters. My wife told me that while in the bath, our baby identified the letters A , O , and W . I didn't really believe it at first, but sure enough, he named the letters when I showed them to him. (The pronunciation of "W" is kind of funny.) I was surprised that he had been paying attention to letters that much. ****************************...

Recently our little boy has been crazy about animals.  All day long he carries one of his many plastic animals.  Everything he says seems to have something to do with animals too.  He is always talking about: moose, zebra, giraffe, elephant, sheep, goat, and horse.  (He is really good at finding pictures of animals in his environment as well.) Yesterday we decided to take baby to the zoo so he can visit some of his beloved animals.  He had a really good time at the fa...

Tonight, FOX television aired the first episode of the summertime series: "Hell's Kitchen".  Sixteen contestants (few with restaurant experience) are competing for a chance to own their own restaurant.  Since the contestants have basically no experience, their chef training is being conducted by British import Gordon Ramsay.  Gordon -a highly-acclaimed chef- is a harsh critic of the contestants, and demands perfection.  I wouldn't like to be in that kitchen listening...

Today for the holiday, my wife, my son, and I went out for a picnic.  We had some chicken, and some Korean sushi.  It was nice.  While we were at the park, poor Kenny ended up hurting himself.  Baby fell off of the bench on the picnic table, cutting and scraping his forehead on the cement.  The benches are a bit far away from the table for a baby. After we dusted him off and cleaned him up, he was ready to go again.  He only cried for about four minutes. ...