good bye 2009

the day before yesterday, chiekos parents and her sister's family came to visit.

they brought a feast with them. such good food here in japan.

all kinds of salads and meat and sweets and fruit.

i was so full, but i had to keep eating.

yesterday ray was 6 weeks old.

he was smiling up a storm for us.

and also yesterday,

casey and chieko had a party for friends and coworkers.

it was fun and of course, like parties everywhere,

there was a ton of yummy food.

again, i ate.

today casey, chieko and doug went out to do some errands while i stayed here with ray, (you know how much this bothers me, NOT!!)

they came back with coffee and doughnuts from mr. donut.

i have to say,

japan has better doughnuts.

this morning i read ray one of his books,

brown bear, brown bear,

what do you see?

as you can tell, he really enjoyed it

we are staying in tonight,

the weather outside is frightful.

i hope you all have a safe and fun new years eve and

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

december 28, 2009

cute, cute, cute

this was a different christmas...

santa did stop by, but

casey was working, we were waiting for doug.

we decided to wait to open presents.

casey, chieko, ray and i went to a christmas party at one of their coworkers homes, when casey was got through with work.

it was nice and there was lots of food.

casey chieko and ray opened their stockings when we got home.

they were kinda empty this year, (santa is sorry)

doug arrived safe and sound on saturday and even though he was tired, we open our presents and had a glass of wine. then it was off to bed.

i am still spending most of my time watching ray and feeling guilty (not THAT guilty) about not doing more for chieko, but she always says "watch ray?" when i ask what i can do.

chieko's family is coming for a visit tomorrow. i think they are just staying for the day.

it will be nice to see them again.

december 23, 2009

sad news, aunt bette and uncle tite both died. 3 days apart. they were 88 and 89. we cousins always loved going to visit them. i remember steam baths, watching lawrence welk beforehand and staying to watch carol burnett afterwards. an easter sunrise service and chocolate bunnies when we got home, going to the dolphin for dinner, just the 3 of us. sleep overs, waking up to the smell of bacon and coffee. i think uncle tite had bacon and eggs every morning for breakfast. aunt bette always made fried eggs for the dogs too. i remember the garden and bags of apples in the fall. peanut butter in the bird/squirrel feeders. the deer head in the living room. when we moved to west barnstable, i used to ride my bike to their house almost every day, with casey. he would play and i would have 10:00 coffee with them. coffee in the glass, stove top coffee pot. stop and shop on thursdays and lunch at woolworths. beagles and recycling before anyone else did it.. so many other things i will always remember..

snowy

it snowed the last couple of days and looks very christmasy. i would post some pictures, but you know....

i am still spending most of my time enjoying the company of casey, chieko and ray. i made dinner once and have washed a few dishes... made some coffee. i am not much help, but chieko keeps telling me that she likes to be able to do other things while i sit with ray. i am not complaining a bit. i hope she really means it.

yesterday casey and i went to the beach to look at the waves, during the wind, snow, rain. they were gigantic and crashing in all directions. it wasn't too bad walking from the parking lot to the beach, but boy was it cold walking back to the car. after the beach we went to the electronics store to get a new usb(?) cord so i can keep myself online. casey's old one had a broken clip so if i wasn't careful moving my computer, it unplugged. i was looking a camera's and was really tempted to buy one, but casey told me i could use his if i wanted to, so i didn't get one (yet). next we stopped at the bread store. what a great shop. all home made breads and sandwiches. scones and donuts. it smelled so good walking in and i was hungry. i got a hotdog wrap thingy and casey got a sandwich, we ate them in the car on the way home. we also got some little cheese flatbread crisp things, delicious and a loaf of walnut something else yummy. a croissant, a hushpuppy type thing, a sausage type roll and the bake shop specialty bread, a crescent shaped crispy outside soft inside temptation. we shared them at dinner along with soup that chieko made. i had my first quail egg. i was afraid, but it was fine.

chieko made some yummy dishes with daikon radish yesterday. she and i had them for breakfast and some leftovers with dinner, too. i was so full.

i went to bed early and woke up at 4. chieko was feeding ray so when they were done, she went back to bed and i sat watching him sleep. casey is up now watching a football game on slingbox. he is holding ray and i am going to make some more coffee.

snow

i still have no pictures... i have been waking up really early, sometimes i find chieko with ray and if he has been fed, i tell her to go on to bed, i can watch him. this morning the room was empty, everyone in bed sound asleep. it is quite cold here and when i looked out the window i found snow. the last couple of days there has been snow on the mountain top, but only rain and hail here. there have also been rumblings of thunder. one last night that actually shook the house. i love thunder.

most of my time has been spent hanging around the house, reading, staring at ray, playing games on the computer, holding ray, watching some tv on the slingbox.... staring at ray some more. i still feel like i should be more helpful to chieko, but she says she likes being able to do laundry and cook while i keep watch on the baby. i works for me, but i feel guilty. i think i am making dinner tonight.

stealing from casey (again)

so you know i forgot the camera, casey took this picture of me with baby ray today.

this is what i have been doing... chieko feeds him, i burp him and take a nap with him.

it is very tiring!! for both of us.

sometimes we walk around the house, looking at pictures

i am not homesick, i can't even think about leaving.

hello japan

the trip to japan was really quite uneventful. that is a good thing. my flights were on time and mostly smooth. it was windy in boston so the takeoff was a little bumpy, but that was all.

the flight to tokyo was long of course. i had a window seat. two men shared the row. the older man on the aisle slept for most of the flight and i thought i would never get to go to the bathroom. finally middle seat man got up and so did i. middle seat man was nice, (but he had bad breath) he showed me how to work the remote for the tv and got my attention whenever the nice flight attendants wanted to give me food or beverage. casey had said all nippon was superior to other airlines. i have to say, the flight attendants were very attentive, they were constantly coming around with hot drinks, cold drinks, snacks. i don't think they sat down during the entire flight and they were always smiling and pleasant. i had ordered vegetarian meals and they were delicous, really delicous. i had veggie lasagna with salad, bread, some green beans and tofu. maybe there was something else, but i forget. the second smaller meal was noodles with veggies and a roll along with some sliced fruit, applesauce. again, very tasty. this in addition to snacks. i got to choose which movies i wanted to watch, or play video games ( i didn't). i watched edward scissorhands, when harry met sally, the lake house and the coco chanel story. i read some, did some sudoku and tried to sleep some. i did doze for short stretches.

i had no problems with customs or immigration, i didn't think i would... but man, my suticases were heavy. i was sweating like a madman trying to hoist them onto a cart, the big suitcase weighed 68 pounds. i have no idea how much the smaller bag weighed, plus the 2 carry ons. whew...

i had checked on the website to see how much overweight bags were, to decide if i should bring another bag or mail some stuff. it said it would be $25.00 for overweight bags and i figured that was my cheapest option. at the ticket counter in boston, one of the checkers told me that it was going to be $150 for the bag. i said oh, i thought it was only $25. she said "to japan?" like i was out of my mind. the guy who was originally helping me punched it into the computer and said "narita?, she's right.. $25.00." yay... of course i had no choice, i would have had to pay the $150, but i liked the $25 much better.

i spent my 4 hours in tokyo drinking milk tea, people watching, listening to podcasts on my laptop and dozing. more reading and sudoku and it was off to komatsu where casey was waiting on the other side of the glass watching me, once again stuggling to get those heavy bags onto the cart. unless i do some crazy shopping here, i will be able to fit my second bag and one carry on into the big suitcase and not be nearly at the weight limit, ( even with a baby in it). no i am just kidding, i will put him in the carry on.

i am spending lots of time staring at and holding ray. he is a dolly. i forgot my camera.

2 days

well, i have today and tomorrow to finish getting myself ready for my trip to japan. i am going to try to get everything done today, so that tomorrow i can do the things i am forgetting i need to do today.

i got up at 5 this morning, just woke up and decided to go ahead and get out of bed. i folded some laundry, made jesse's lunch and after doug got up at 5:45, i made the bed and started cleaning the bathroom. i like to have the house clean whenever i go away, so that when i come home everything is neat and tidy. of course doug and probably nitzy, will still be here NOT cleaning while i am gone. i know my mom will pick up and i have asked debbie for a cleaning session after doug comes to japan.

so for the rest of this day i will dust, vacuum, wash the floor and finish cleaning the bathroom. then i will wrap christmas presents and really try to sort out my office!!

jesse thinks..

that sweet baby ray looks like

blue steel

from zoolander.

i did not see the movie,

but i can see what he means,

hahaha