Hello there friends. I hope that you're having a good day. I am doing fine. I do however seem to have a bit of a cold. I hope that it gets better before it gets worse. After a long day of Parent-Teacher Conferences, I came home to a nice dinner and a videotaped American Idol Results Show. It was nice to watch a results show on video because we didn't have to suffer through the commercial-break cliffhangers. As my wife and I predicted, Jasmine from Hawaii made it to the next roun...

Hello there friends. We have just finished watching Group 4 perform on American Idol. This week was interesting. There were a lot of pretty girls on tonight's show. I was entertained with the singing too. It seemed like the judges were getting on each other's nerves a bit tonight. I wonder how much of that is an act, and how much is real. The Contestants: 1. Suzy Vulaca- She sang the song "Un-break my Heart." She is a cool-looking girl, with an appealing understated confide...

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.) ...

Hi there friends. I hope that you're having a great Monday. It is a little dreary here in Minnesota, so I am a bit sad to come to work today. This is the first (and probably the last) time that I will put something in my blog that was written by someone else. But, this message that greeted me in this morning's office e-mail is definitely interesting enough to share. Subject: nutrition and health For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition ...

Hi there friends. I hope that you're having a great Monday. It is a little dreary here in Minnesota, so I am a bit sad to come to work today. This is the first (and probably the last) time that I will put something in my blog that was written by someone else. But, this message that greeted me in this morning's office e-mail is definitely interesting enough to share. Subject: nutrition and health For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition ...

I have some friends over right now and we're watching the Academy Awards. Some time during hour-one, they had a tribute to Bob Hope. During the tribute, they showed his various appearances at the award ceremony. The last part of the tribute video showed an aged Mr. Hope rising from his seat in the audience. It seemed like he was in attendance. My friends and I were shocked! We considered for a second: Waaaaait! We all thought that he had died last year. A few seconds later we ca...

Lately I have been in the mood to watch some Japanese television shows. At home we have a channel called "TV Japan." TV Japan runs Japanese shows 24 hours a day, but they don't seem to air the more-interesting shows that are available in Japan. It is really good for sumo, the news, and a show called "TV Champion," but little else that's interesting to me. With this in mind, my wife and I took a trip to Saint Paul to rent a video of a program called "Sanma no Karakuri Telebi." It is a p...

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...

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...

As I write this weblog, I am listening to the newest Liz Phair album. I must say that I listen to this CD more than any one than I have listened to in at least 2-3 years. When I read reviews of this album, the words that jump out at me are "sell out," and "new pop-image." I haven't really read any good things about it. I have been a Liz Phair fan for a number of years. I have a number of her CDs (not all of them,) and I always turn up the radio when one of her songs comes on. To me, ...

One of the day's top articles was written by a fellow who calls himself "JeremyG." In JeremyG's article, "The Quest for the Top Begins," the author bemoans falling out of the top-ten most popular blog sites. In his weblog entry, JeremyG gives his opinion on the top-ten weblogs on the site. Mine -being number four- was not exempt from critique. I don't think that that guy appreciates my weblog. Apparently he sees it as being boring, uninspired, and simple. It is quite possible that ...

Hello there. Lunch time! I was reading other people's blogs here on my computer. Someone wrote an article for his "Quest for the top..." He critiqued all of the top-ten weblogs (point-wise.) Apparently my weblog didn't fare so well. It was written that: #4 JamieBurnside. Wow, what a scam. It's my direct suspicious that this guy has about 30 family members who read his blog every day and vote "insightful" for every post because they love the cute baby pictures. It's sort of li...

Hello there everybody. We've just finished watching the results show of American Idol for this week. LaToya and Amy won (as I predicted.) I have a feeling that Amy will be really successful in the top-twelve. I predict that she will be one of the last two. She seems to be the type who will really develop as the competition goes on. Poor Leah seemed awfully upset to not make the top-three. She'll be okay. She'll make the wild-card show and get voted-in or chosen by the judges. On t...

Hello there friends. Happy Tuesday to all of you! My wife and I have just finished watching another exciting episode of "American Idol." We were pleased that this week's episode was a lot better than last week's episode. Here is what I thought about the performances. Who am I? I am a thirty-one year-old elementary school teacher from Central Minnesota. What does my opinion count for, and why am I writing this? My opinion counts for nothing, but this is my way of "playing alo...

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: