Hey there friends! I hope that Monday was a good start to your work-week. My wife, my baby, and I just finished watching the shortest mini-series, "The Littlest Groom." In the end, this girl named Mika won. She won a 2 karat diamond ring, and a Medeterranian cruise. They seemed like a good couple with a lot in common. There is a possiblilty that they may stick. I wonder how many of those reality-show romances ever stick. I can't imagine that ALL of them end up bad. Is there a we...

Hello there friends. I hope that you're all having a happy Sunday evening. I just got back home from playing a round of indoor-golf with my friend Andy. That was a fun spur-of-the-moment way to spend my afternoon. My score wasn't so good (I suppose that Andy did alright... at least better than me,) but I had a lot of fun. I really like to play golf, regardless of how poorly I play. The highlight of my day was sinking a rare chip-in for a birdie. Since I played so horribly, that'...

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...

In college, I worked toward (and received) a degree in something called "Russian Area Studies." I studied the Russian language, history, and culture. It was a pretty interesting thing in which to receive a degree, even though it didn't exactly lead to employment immediately after graduating. (That said, I use my Russian language daily as an ESL teacher, so at least I can say that I use what I learned!) What really impressed me about Russian Studies was the history. There were so many col...

I don't think that I am being contraversial if I were to say that gay marriage/ civil unions/ whatever is a divisive topic. I would also feel safe to say that social liberals would be more likely to support of this type of thing than social conservatives. Let me also clarify that social liberals are more likely to vote Democrat, while social conservatives vote Republican. Being such a divisive issue, I can't understand why any socially liberal groups would push this hot-button issue dur...

Hello there my friends. How are all of you today? I hope that everything is going well. I am writing this from my work. My kindergarteners have gone back to class, and I am about to get ready to go to one of my other schools. In two of the buildings where I work, my classroom is in an interior room. (Only one of my classrooms has a window with a view.) As I was teaching this afternoon, I heard voices from the other room talking about freezing rain. Apparently it started raining out...

Well, we watched the American Idol results show. Camille and Matthew vere voted through to the top twelve. I was pretty surprised that Matthew was able to pass through. He is lucky that he got so much face time on the audition shows, otherwise he would be forgotten by now. Sometimes those preliminary shows can make it or break it for the contestants once people start voting. (As in Noel really messed up by saying that he'd cut his brother's throat. ...Just imagine if that girl who savage...

Last night at home my wife and I did my thing as usual. We ate dinner, we watched "American Idol," after Kazuko went to bed I played Dance Dance Revolution, and I watched "Seinfeld," and "Frasier." As the night passed, I noticed that my house was getting progressively colder. By the time "Frasier" came on, our house was freezing-cold. I decided to check out our heater. It turned out that the pilot light in our heater had gone out. I spent the next hour or so trying to get it lit again...

Last night at home my wife and I did my thing as usual. We ate dinner, we watched "American Idol," after Kazuko went to bed I played Dance Dance Revolution, and I watched "Seinfeld," and "Frasier." As the night passed, I noticed that my house was getting progressively colder. By the time "Frasier" came on, our house was freezing-cold. I decided to check out our heater. It turned out that the pilot light in our heater had gone out. I spent the next hour or so trying to get it lit again...

Hello there. My family and I just finished watching group two on American Idol. I was pretty disappointed with this group. Last week's show was absolutely fantastic. I was worried that every singer in the competition would sound so good that nobody would lose. I wonder what happened tonight. Randy and Simon were especially critical of this group (and rightfully so.) Randy really has his teeth out this season. Paula seemed really upset and on the brink of tears twice during the show. ...

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 friends. I hope that you're having a nice day. I enjoyed day 2 of my three-day weekend. They're such a pleasure, aren't they. Today my wife suggested that we go outside to build an igloo. I thought that was a FANTASTIC idea. I hadn't tried that in many years. Once Kenny fell asleep, we brought the baby monitor outside and started piling-up the snow in the yard next to the garage. We made a pretty big mound. After we piled up enough snow, we started hollowing out the pile. ...

This evening my wife and I watched "Lost in Translation." Kazuko (my wife) said that she really liked it, I thought that it was alright. Maybe after a bit of reflection I will find that I liked it more and more. The movie is about two people in different stages in their life, who meet by chance in a hotel in Tokyo. The male lead is dealing with issues of being a 50 year-old man amidst a midlife crisis. The female lead plays the role of a recent college graduate, married to a man who is to...

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...

Hey there friends. I was thinking about a topic for a blog today. After a bit of contemplation, I decided to write about something that I haven't written about before. I have written a lot of articles about: my job, my family, television shows that I like, my house, baseball, video games, Japan, sumo wrestling, and a few on politics. I haven't ever written an article on one of my bigger interests: pro wrestling. I started watching wrestling regularily in 1980. Between then and now...