First pedicure of the season is MUCH better than first cockroach of the season.

Ah, that first day of spring where a girl spots the first cockroach of the season, scuttling about the sink.

And that, my friends, is why I have mixed feelings about no longer freezing to death.

Oh well, at least I learned what a fantastic and effective killer dish detergent is.

Pictures.

I admit, I was a bit apprehensive about going to see the Noh performance today. Pauline went to one and said it was one of the most boring experiences of her life, but I figured it was worth a shot.

Clearly, Pauline had a totally different type of experience, as we ended up picnicking under a wisteria ceiling with lots of beer and a puppy. Sure, there was Noh happening over on an outdoor stage, but who can pay all that much attention when there are puppies who give high fives on command?

Wataru introduced me to his friend, who, when she found out I live in Hamamatsu, asked if I know a woman called Midori S. Why yes, yes I do. She's the one who actually started up the Friday kindergarten lessons (and then absconded, leaving me to deal with the lack of AC. Thanks so very much, Midori.). Then she asked if I know Masami. Because apparently, Masami knows everyone in Hamamatsu. It's kind of eerie.

As if this wasn't enough of a "it's a small world", Midori's arrival with her two young daughters caused the children who were picnicking next to us to go nuts, as they go to school with her oldest. They started playing over by our side of the picnic area, although they were all rushed away a few moments later when one of the young boys decided it would be funny to rush up to one of the guys who was with us and stick his finger up his nose.

He wasn't wrong, although I'm sure it was a lot less amusing for the guy who had the random kid finger up his nose.

So! Who among you can read the following sentence without wanting to go all stabby on me?

What a beautiful day for a picnic. I ended up wearing a tank top for most of the day.

*ducks the ensuing barrage of flung snowboots*

But yes, it was a perfect day for a picnic, although it is beginning to look like rain clouds are moving back in. There was lots of good food, two cakes, a pinata, the tiniest BBQ you've ever seen, and many good presents, although none as interesting to the birthday boy as a pop-up book about trains.






Blowing out the candle:


He wasn't really interested in the pinata. I don't think he understood the concept of "candy inside", or he'd have been attacking that thing with anything he could find, up to and including the other kids.



All the kids who had some cake ended up looking cyanotic:



Nom nom nom:

I？ Am awesome.

I finally called the Sky Perfect people and cancelled my satellite service. I just haven't been watching tv (well, not on the actual tv) lately, and the occasional Discovery Channel binge is not enough to warrant the continued cost.

The bit that makes me sound like a crazy person is where I am going to take the money I save and apply it towards an extended gym membership. Really, I haven't become a crazy gym bunny, I just think it would be nice to be able to swim on the weekends. And by "swim", I mean "use the hot tub".

A test cake requires a test run (or taste test, whatever), and judging from this morning, this cake fulfills all the requirements of a small child's birthday cake: it got him hella excited ("Train cake! Train cake! Train cake! Cut? Please? Train cake!") and then left him a sticky, crumby, food-coloured mess. Two thumbs up!

I look awfully happy for someone with no nose. Perhaps I've just realized that no nose = no hayfever?

Liam's birthday party is next week, so I decided to do a test run of his birthday cake, never having done up a cake to look like something other than, well, cake.

I'm pretty pleased with it, and it turns out it's ridiculously easy. Things that will change next weekend:

1) I will remember to put parchment paper in the cake pan, so that the entire cake comes smoothly out of the pan and not just half of it. This will give me more cake to work with and I can make the back part taller.

2) I will make a nice thick (blue) buttercream icing. I didn't want to waste my precious precious butter on a trial cake, so I just made a glaze of white chocolate and cream, which is why it is so runny and thin.

3) I'm thinking oreo wheels.

I'm not sure about other decorations...it might just be a solid blue train.

ps. I just sent Masami this picture, and she is gratifyingly impressed. She says that Liam's initial reaction to the picture was "Train cake! Oh wow!"

There's a butter shortage. What is this, World War II?

I'm ahead of the game. There was a lull in the rain this evening, and I finished work nice and early, so I headed off to the shoe store and bought myself some rain boots. Sadly, they are just plain black, as all the patterned ones made my eyeballs bleed. They do have a bit of sparkle to them to show that these are not your grandmother's wellies, though.

AND the grocery store had sugar on sale, so really, I've accomplished half of my weekend plans already.

Mental note to self: next time you're in a store selling rainboots, actually buy some and don't just think about it.

That can be my plan for the weekend....buying rainboots. That and baking supplies, as I am low on white sugar, brown sugar, flour, eggs, and butter, which leaves me with a whole lot of no baked goods.

Behold, the weekend of lazy. All I've done the entire weekend is sleep until noon on both days and go out for dinner on Saturday. Saturday dinner did result in me getting home at 3 am, though, which rather excuses the sleeping until noon thing.

Oh, and I baked cookies. That counts for something, right?

No one cried yesterday. It was like a really early Christmas miracle.

I know that one is traditionally supposed to look forward to Fridays, but I'm sort of dreading tomorrow. It's April, which means Free Trial Month at the kindy, which means that the teachers send ALL the two year olds over our way (and probably do a little happy dance in their empty classroom for the next 40 minutes.) Last I heard there were ten of them, although that may have changed.

Ten. Ten two year olds. At once. At least one of them will cry uncontrollably the whole time, and we will be lucky to make it as far as the ABC song part of the lesson plan. The bright side is that in May when only half of them join, five kids will seem like a breeze.

In order to make room for this new class of wee people who are barely out of potty training (here's hoping no one pees on the floor this year), we have had to combine the three year olds with the four year olds to make one big class of kids with completely different levels and abilities. Yay! What fun!

At least I had the good sense to change the vocabulary. We've been studying animals, and while it is extremely cute to watch the kids waddle around pretending to be penguins, the three year olds like to pretend I'm a tree when we get to the koala card. It's cute and all, but have you ever had five little kids jump on you all at once? I usually end up on the floor, shouting "kangaroo! kangaroo!" in an attempt to get them off me.

Vegetables. That's the vocab for me. I'm pretty sure I'm safe with carrots.

My Japanese teacher will be so pleased. Today I marshaled my language skills and informed the front desk at the gym that I'd forgotten my rings and necklace there earlier, and managed to be reunited with them.

Luckily I stopped on my way to check the dictionary, because I had the nagging feeling I didn't have the word for "ring" just right. Thank goodness I did, because I'd hate to think what kind of looks I'd have gotten if I'd marched up and announced I'd left my fingers behind.