From the Mac store in Tokyo

We are online from the Apple store here in Tokyo on Ginza, which is the expensive fashion area. Apparently after designers unveil their designs in Paris they come here next.  Of course we are up for seeing anything, but fashion did not interest us as much as when the guide told us there was a Mac store, and we went straight here.

We have now joined up with the tour group (we were on our own until yesterday evening). Our guide is really nice and this tour is going to be great! I have photos but I think they would frown on my trying to plug my camera into this MacBook Air. 

So, holler to our all-Mac community group! We took some pics for yall. (I can:t find the apostrophe on this Japanese keyboard...sorry!)

We are here in Tokyo

It's actually been more than 24 hours now since we landed, it is late Monday night here. I think it is early Monday in the U.S.
So far:

• 13 hours on a plane - I am too old for this! Despite taking sleeping pills, I still could not really sleep. I watched: June (2nd time), some 30 Rock episodes (never seen before - good show), Becoming Jane, and Echanted (cute, but Oscar nominated? Really?? Why??!!!).
• We got lost pretty much immediately upon leaving Tokyo Station. Ended up taking a cab.
• The people here are so helpful! The cab driver worked so hard to get us to the ryokan (thank the Lord Christian can speak some Japanese), and then when he got us to the sister site, he and the ryokan lady helped figure out how to get to the right building. And pretty much no one here accepts tips, so they just do this to be nice.
• The ryokan the first night was amazing! It was completely traditional with tatami mats, we wore yukatas and slept on futons in a room with rice paper walls. We got to use the traditional Japanese baths twice and it was so relaxing. In the morning, the lady brought us traditional Japanese breakfast with nori and rice, curried veggies, miso, green tea (always green tea, everywhere), and some pickled things I don't know the names of. It was very filling and delicious!
• It is only Day 2 and I am about done with Japanese curry. No more of that, thanks.
• I now have a better understanding of women who struggle with weight/body issues. All the women here are tiny, have flawless skin, and dress way more stylish and sophisticated than anyone in Dallas, especially me. I feel huge, ugly, and frumpy just walking down the street. Good times.
• Millie - I got you a pressed penny at the Tokyo Station Snoopy store.

OK gotta go, internet costs 100 yen/minute (about $1). Love ya'll!

Stockpiling Malt O Meal

So, I have acquired some Chocolate Malt O Meal via various methods. One is this web site that my brother-in-law sent to me. I ordered 4 boxes, and even with shipping it was around the same as it used to cost in the store.

Then, when we drove out to Tool, TX to pick up some used plastic drums to use in our vegetable oil filtering, we stopped at a Brookshires there and they had it! Apparently it is still in some rural areas, just not urban areas like ours.

I have taken a photo of my stock pile. I think this should last me a few months.

Baby pictures!

This weekend, we went to see my family, just for dinner, and got to hang out with my niece!
All that time she did all these cute things, and we only got 2 good pictures.
That's because I was taking pictures and I am not very good at it.
She has a new trick: she will put both her arms straight up in the air like "yay!". So, we started doing it too, every time she did it. We started this in the van, she was in the middle seat and Christian, my brother and I were in the back seat.
She would look and us and raise both her arms, and then all three of us would raise our arms in the air and say "yay!". She thought this was pretty funny. She started doing it randomly. We would be talking and have to stop and raise our hands in the air and say "yay!". It was pretty hilarious. We were laughing so much.

I have also posted pictures of Amelia's second birthday. I can't believe she's two! And one picture of her new little brother, Max, in the photostream on Flickr as well.

Perfect timing!

5 business days until we go to Japan! We'll be leaving on Saturday. I checked online and we have hit the cherry blossoms blooming time exactly! They started blooming yesterday and should continue throughout the time we're there. This is awesome news for my first trip to Japan!

In other "perfect timing" news, when we went to collect waste vegetable oil for our car to run on, we got permission from the owners of the seafood restaurant next to our usual Chinese food restaurant to start collecting their waste veggie oil too. This expands our sources to 2 restaurants and will really help, as we plan to ramp up our veggie oil collection soon due to rising gas prices.

Happy Easter!

Plate of Suffering?

Ok, so I am listening to that book The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter by Peter Singer and Jim Mason in audio format at work. This book is insane. These people will stop at nothing until we are all vegans who grow our own food in the backyard and forage. Don't get me wrong, I am a vegetarian and I love animals. I don't think animals should be subjected to the things they describe in this book. I am also very pro-environment, obviously. But seriously, these people are crazy.

This is a direct quote regarding why it is terribly wrong to ever eat shrimp or any fish:
"the suffering for every plate of shrimp could be more than that of a single, larger animal"

I was actually planning on making shrimp for dinner yesterday evening. When I heard that, I told Christian, "We will be having Plates of Suffering tonight for dinner".

(plate of suffering)

What I am reading

Since discovering I can get books from the library, I am planning on reading more. Christian also go us a few new books at Half Price Books this week.
What I am reading right now:

The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter
by Peter Singer and Jim Mason
I am listening to the audio book while I am at work. This book is freaking me out with all the horrible stories about things done to animals in factory farms. I am not sure I can get through it. Even though I am a vegetarian and I buy only eggs from cage-free hens, this still makes me worry.

Fun fact: An egg carton or food package can carry the label "Free Range" in reference to hens or cattle if the animals get as little as 5 minutes outside their cages per day. To be truly free ranging, the carton or package should say "cage free". This means the grower does not use cages at all.

Babyproofing Your Marriage: How to Laugh More, Argue Less, and Communicate Better as Your Family Grows
by Stacie Cockrell, Cathy O'Neill, and Julia Stone
I brought this book to work to read during lunch, and my boss' boss saw it. He said "Is there something you need to talk to us about?". I laughed at him. This book is yet another in a series of books I have been reading kind of talking about how hard it is to have children. It actually has the opposite effect of what Alun was suggesting - it makes me NOT want to have children because it sounds so traumatic to the marriage. But, I think these things are good to consider.

Liz introduced me to this site which is supposed to help me rate the books I read. The site itself does not feel very usable to me, I have trouble navigating it.

My exciting life

The most exciting thing that has happened to me lately is that my dad, after seeing the picture of the weird buzzing object, identified it as the doorbell. He suggested I go outside and unscrew the doorbell button. I did that when I got home last night, and the button popped out, the light came back on and the bell rang once, and the buzzing stopped! It was very exciting. It was so peaceful last night without that noise. I think that also means that our doorbell had basically been ringing for 2-3 straight days. That can't be good. I wonder if that will make our electricity bill higher.

A product endorsement
Because I had a coupon and it was on sale, I bought Orville Redenbacher's Natural Buttery Salt & Cracked Pepper microwave popcorn and I love it!! It is so delicious I made myself sick on it. But that could also have to do with fluctuations in my stomach medication right now.

A product lament
It's official, Chocolate Malt O Meal is no longer available in the DFW area. I have searched at all the stores I know of, and no Chocolate. I bought Original, but even with brown sugar it really doesn't compare. If you live in another area where you can still purchase Chocolate Malt O Meal hot cereal, I will totally PayPal you to mail it to me!

A good book
I just realized that 1) my new route home from work goes right by one of the library's branches, and 2) I can go online and have any book in the DFW library catalog sent to that branch and held for me to pick up.

So, I am reading China Ghosts: My Daughter's Journey to America, My Passage to Fatherhood by Jeff Gammage. I am really enjoying it so far. We have always been interested in adopting. Whether or not we ever will, it is interesting to hear a guy describe how he feels about it and specifically from China.

What is this thing and why is it buzzing???

I came back from my retreat last night pretty tired, Christian is still at his conference for the next few days. When I got back, I noticed a loud buzzing and grinding noise in the empty house that would occasionally vary in pitch and loudness. It is coming from this object:

I did try fixing it by hitting it repeatedly with a stick, that did make it get quiet temporarily and the buzzing changed pitch. I took its cover off and looked inside, there was nothing in there that I recognized, except that it appears to be wired directly into the wall, and there are electrical shock warnings printed in the inside.

My theory is that it might be the doorbell, since the doorbell has mysteriously stopped working. But, I have no idea why it is making so much noise. Is it about to blow up? Should I be worried? I didn't think it was a big deal, except that it is outside our bedroom door, and being alone in the house all night I kept waking up whenever the sound changed, and being scared.
You know, the kind of illogical fear you have when a sudden noise in an empty house wakes you up. So I had a kind of fitful, nervous sleep last night.

My plan is to continue smacking it with various objects to change the tone and pitch of the noise until Christian comes home.

This weekend

So, this weekend I am headed to a Celebrate Recovery Leader's Retreat and Christian is headed to Austin for SXSW Interactive. This is the conference he attends every year and then tells me that he is never going to attend it again, because it is no help at all. But, then it's free so he goes anyway.

My trip is really only overnight, so I will have time to be a little lonely on Sunday. Although I have some massive cleaning planned. I am OK with the CR retreat not being very long because I know it is mainly going to just generate massive guilt for me when they ask me to do more, when I know I am already maxed out. However, it is progress for me to be able to admit that I know this will happen and to know that I am maxed out.

We do have things going on over here with our family, but they aren't the kind of things I can really blog about. Mixed audience and all that. I've sent an email to those of you who need one. Thanks for praying!