Of course, the problem with "too much" baking is that it leaves you with these sort of "dilemmas"...do I want pie for dessert tonight, or blueberry squares?

I may have to flip a coin.

I will stop posting bizarre youtube/Obama/whatever links when people stop making them. Don't hold your breath, is what I'm saying.

Cheveda sent me this link, which is less bizarre and more geeky English fun. How many words can you get?

It's midnight, which means the weekend is officially over (also that I should be getting to bed soon.) It was pretty good. Very low key, as usual. Friday we had insanely nice weather...warm and mild like you would not believe. Then the temperature dropped like a stone overnight and it actually snowed on Saturday.

This means I'll be hearing about it for the next week, as whenever I ask the students "how's the weather?", they will reply with "It SNOWED on Saturday!" and I will sigh and explain that "how is the weather" is asking about the current state of the weather right now, not the ten minute very exciting snow flurry three days ago.

Saturday and Sunday proceeded to be cold cold cold. Right now I've got the living room up to a cozy 13 degrees Celcius WITH the heater on at full blast, so it's going to be a bit of a shock when I finally pick up the nerve to leave this room and go to bed.

Yesterday I made these bars, only I had to substitute blueberries as there seems to be a frozen raspberry shortage in Hamamatsu. It's not nearly as horrifying as the butter shortage of last year, though, so I'm not too worried. The term "breakfast bar" is somewhat misleading, although I did have two for breakfast this morning. Hey, if you can't have cookies for breakfast on a Sunday, what good is the day for? Despite their lack of breakfast practicality, the bars are really really good, and if you find yourself with a surplus of berries this summer, I recommend you try them.

Today I managed to not be entirely unproductive while still managing to stay in my pajamas until after 5 pm. By "productive", I mean I made a lemon meringue pie, fried rice, and spaghetti sauce (not all at once), washed approximately a gazillion dishes, and swam 20 laps at the gym. Not too shabby for a cookie-for-breakfast Sunday.

I'd honestly never thought about this before, but is there a whole series of Presidential action figures? Or is this just further proof of Obama's general appeal?

Himari drew this lovely, colourful picture of Masami and me. My reaction was as follows:

"Awwwww, that's so swee...wait, why am I the fat one?"

Doughnuts, abortion, potato, pohtahto.

So, not a dull day at the kindy today. Liam tagged along for the ride there, so we got a detailed commentary on everything we passed. Once there, he demanded to get out and see the flower pots they have that are shaped like trains, and since it was an open day, Masami decided to take him indoors for a little tour while I headed off to class.

Then we had a fire alarm. That was fun...I didn't know if it was a drill or a real fire or what, although after we'd all collected in the gym and they proceeded to quiz the children on what to do next instead of ushering them outdoors, I gathered it was a drill. Masami and Liam were still there, for which I was grateful. Had it been an actual fire, my bus pass and cell phone would have been consumed and I'd have had no way to get out of there once the smoke settled. As it was, we wandered back to class.

In my third class of the day, we were practicing gestures...swim, dance, hop, etc. We were doing "kick" and I noticed one boy was really getting his leg up there. So I commented on it. "My, you certainly can kick high!" Naturally, his response was to show off by doing it again and even higher, which is the point at which he managed to kick himself in the face and I collapsed in hysterical giggles.

Seriously. It was one of the most impressive things I've ever seen.

Success! I have managed to teach Liam how to say "pretty please with a cherry on top?" Well, sort of. Our early exchanges would go like this:

Say "please".

Pees!

Pretty please?

Pitty pees?

Pretty please with a cherry on top?

Cherry on top?

So now when he wants something and I ask if he can ask nicely, he goes "pees? Pitty pees? ...cherry on top?" Today Andrew gave him a bit of his bread and he wanted more, so he asked "cherry on top? cherry on top? cherry on top?", looking very winsome the whole while. Masami's facial expression could be best described as a cross between "Well, at least I'm lucky enough to have someone I trust to look after him while I work" with "Great, now my kid thinks "cherry on top" is a valid way to ask for things. Sigh."

I think I have a new camera. I know, that was quick. But I found one I like, and it's on sale ENDING THIS WEEK HURRY UP HURRY UP HURRY UP DON'T THINK JUST BUY IT OMG BUY IT NOW!, and really, I'm not that picky. Thanks to the stellar exchange rate, it's actually cheaper to buy it in Canada, so I'm probably just going to employ Mr. Credit Card and then have the camera delivered to my parents house. If the April thing works out*, I'll pick it up then. Which means I'll be cameraless for cherry blossom season, but really. We've all seen cherry blossoms before, right?

Plus I've got my cellphone. Boy, do I ever. One side effect of looking at cameras was that I also walked by a lot of new cellphones. Remember last year when I was talking about wanting a new phone? Yeah, still dreaming that dream. Mine just won't die, despite being dropped on the pavement more than once. Normal people manage to drop their phones into the toilet at some point. Not me. I just can't bring myself to upgrade as long as it's still working, and it just won't die. I thought modern technology was designed to support a wasteful, consumerist lifestyle?

*Masami was taking pictures of my classes today to send to Potential Sub in an attempt to lure him here. I told the kids to look smart and well behaved...they ended up looking slightly stunned.

One drawback to my new heater is that it doesn't seem to like working with my kitchen appliances. Since I've currently got both the rice cooker and the bread machine going (mmm, carbs) and I don't want to risk blowing a fuse, I'm sitting here all unheated and generally dressed like a crazy homeless person. I've got my long thermal socks, warm fuzzy house socks/slippers, fleece pjs, thermal undershirt, fleecy pj top, toque, and these beautiful mittens that were knitted by a talented friend. I've then wrapped myself in a giant woolen blanket.

Still, better than cockroaches, yes?

Just a few updates:

I finally heard back from the eye people last month. Apparently the address I'd emailed was an old one, which is why it took so long. However, when I clicked the updated site address they gave me, I ended back up on a page that looked, to my untrained (and defective) eye, exactly like the one I'd used to contact them in the first place, right down to the email address. So...no idea what is going on there. At any rate, in order to get the surgery, I'd have to be in Canada for three months, so hah.

Liam has finally mastered the pronunciation of my name! Huzzah! He has this tendency to say your name at random, with a questioning sound, which meant that on Christmas Day we did this a lot:

"Alisa?"

"Liam?"

"Alisa?"

"Liam?"

"Alisa?"

"...Liam?"

"Monster trucks go SMASH!"

"Fascinating."

And in happy, happy news, I've managed to figure out my new heater. Turns out it only heats the room by a degree or two, but unlike gas heaters or air-con units, it actually heats the whole room and does so without making it stuffy. I am currently enjoying a nice balmy 14 degrees and trying to work up the courage to venture into my unheated kitchen. I may have to bribe myself with vodka and cake.

I cannot find my camera cable. This is irksome, although not as bad as it could be, given that I will be getting a new camera shortly. And no, I still haven't figured out any features I want beyond "shiny".

"Bouncy" would be good, too, although this is the first time I've ever dropped a camera and broken it, so I guess that's not a feature I'd need to use too often.

Dad sent me a link to various camera reviews, but I haven't progressed to being actually serious about shopping yet. Instead, I am googling "Hello Kitty Cameras" in an attempt to find the most ridiculous one out there.

I like the review that comes with this one:

Some Casio Exilim 720's have gotten dressed up by their cruel, older sisters in wuss gear. Rebranded the Hello Kitty Camera, the device still takes 7.2MP pictures, but it's been covered in pink and stickers and evilness. AND during startup, the camera makes weird, gross Hello Kitty noises and shows weird, gross Hello Kitty pictures. For those into weirdness, the Japan exclusive will run you $400. Go pick one up while your friends plan the intervention/your long-term disappearance.

This one, however, is clearly superior:




Things are starting to progress on the month off dealie. Last month I wrote to Andre to get the ball rolling, and he responded with "Yeah, I think I'm going to just sail around Fiji some more before heading to Australia." Now, it's hard to argue with that, but I did call him some unladylike names upon first reading that email. Luckily his nephew is interested in doing a month out here, so we appear to have a Plan B. So far it's looking like April is the month. I am cautiously optimistic that this will work out, by which I mean "mentally packing suitcase" and "freaking out about making apartment livable for complete stranger". Um. I wonder how much a good cleaning service costs?

Is it January 16th yet?

How I Spent My Winter Vacation:

It occurs to me that I have spent most of my New Year's Eves not nearly drunk enough. Clearly, this is something I need to work on in the future.

We stayed up until midnight and ate noodles for luck and longetivity, and even Baby woke up to join us. Well, he didn't eat noodles, but I'm sure he wished he could have joined us. He seems fascinated by food.

Now the menfolk are all drinking beer and watching soccer while Keiko is upstairs doing domestic things and Hiromi is trying to get Takahiro to sleep (or, more to the point, to STAY asleep. Kid! You have most of your life to not nap! Take advantage of it now while you still can!) It always strikes me as unfair that it's the menfolk who get to sit around drinking all day. I mean, I could join them, but I'm not all that interested in soccer.

Aside from my two days of excitement in the big cities, I've just been staying put and reading reading reading. That mammoth book on London that was supposed to see me through the week? Yeah, finished that. I'll probably head home on Saturday. I think I'll take the local train, as the shinkansen is likely to be crowded beyond capacity and it irks me to pay that much money to have to stand in the aisle. At least the local train, even if it starts out crowded, will at some point thin out enough to offer me a seat.

I'm looking forward to going home, if only to check my mailbox for belated Christmas presents and New Years cards.

Hope everyone had a happy New Year's Eve. May the Cow be with you this year.