According to the comments, my public (all one of him) demands a boot update. So far the prognosis is cautiously hopeful. The cobbler was less than helpful, all "no, I can't do that and I don't know anyone who can!", so after staring at her blankly for a moment, Yukie had the bright idea of asking at a shoe store instead. I suggested Regal Shoes, which was just upstairs, and rather an up-market sort of store with lots of leather. We hoped they'd be able to suggest a better cobbler, but instead the salesman looked at the boot, said they could definitely stretch it (enough? This I do not know.) and that they would do it. For free. Despite the fact that neither Yukie nor I have ever bought a pair of shoes from there. Now THAT is some (non)customer service. They'll be ready in a week, but it might be closer to a week and a half before I can make it down there to find out what happened.

Besides that, my day was very tea-filled. Yuka and I went out to LaLaport, the shopping mall in the middle of nowhere, and I got some of the Celestial Seasonings valentine tea (chocolate raspberry nom nom nom. I plan on stocking up as much as I can while they're still available), then stopped by Lupicia for more tea purchases. I only got one kind this time, chocolate orange, because it smelled so darned good. We stopped for some bubble tea (I think I found the only place in the Shizuoka region that sells bubble tea. Go me!). I would have preferred hot, but iced was all they had. Still, I was happy to be munching on the delicious tapioca pearls again. Later we stopped at Starbucks to try some of their new tea lattes. They've finally introduced an Earl Grey latte, although I don't think there's any vanilla syrup in it, so it's not quite a London Fog.

After we swung by downtown to drop off the boots, we headed out to another mall, which I do not think will be open for much longer. I like malls with no people in them, but stores tend to view the matter rather differently. Also, everything was on sale and the stores all still had their winter stuff, unlike LaLaport which was all new spring wear. This does not bode well. I did get lots of socks and a beautiful red silicone whisk for use in my new Staub pot.

I didn't really do that much shopping, thankfully, and I think I'm all malled out for a while, at least until I run out of tea.

There may be hope yet for the boots. I'm going to take them to the cobblers tonight to see if stretching is an option. Overall, though, this week has been a reminder of why I never buy stuff online that isn't t-shirts or books or cheese.

I realized the other day that this new computer (eta: one week from today) will be my first new computer ever. The ones I had in university were old clunkers that were basically typewriters with a solitaire function, and then I used internet cafes until I bought this one off of Andrew. I'm 32 and I've never had a new computer.

Know what else I've never had? A full time job, I don't feel particularly deprived, though.

New computer has been ordered. Possibly twice, although I only got one confirmation email, so I suspect I'm safe. I decided that waiting was not going to do any good, and I'd rather get the new one while the old one is still up and running. I figure it'll make it easier to transfer everything if it turns out that I'm not very good at using the external hard drive for anything other than the storage of tv shows.

My Fluevogs came today. Overall I am impressed with the speed with which they were delivered. I'm a little less impressed with the fact that my calves are far too big for them. What? I can handle Japan telling me I'm huge, I'm a little less ok with Canada chiming in on that. Also, I now have a very beautiful pair of very expensive, unreturnable boots that I cannot wear. I plan on ignoring the issue for the rest of the night and dealing with it on the weekend. I'm meeting up with Yukie tomorrow and I think I'll ask her if she or anyone she knows would be interested, or if she knows the best way to go about selling stuff like that. I will follow this conversation up by drinking a lot of beer.

In less depressing news, I had a successful class tonight with my first Howl's Moving Castle project. I asked the girls to make up a word search using vocabulary from the first three chapters and they dove right in with enthusiasm. I figured it could go either way so I'm very happy with this. So far I haven't got any coherent lesson plan thought out, but I've got a few ideas for winging it, and hopefully by the time we finish the book I'll have a handle on how to teach novels.

Except that from now on I'm forcing them to stick with classics that come with tried and true study guides.

I asked for some computer advice from various people today, and while I did get some helpful advice, mostly what I took away from it was "Yes, I shall be buying a new computer. Possibly as soon as this weekend!" Honestly, even if my computer lasts for another year, I'm not sure I can take the strain of wondering when it is going to crash and burn.

Also, if you really love me, you will buy me a new computer carrying case in the 13 inch size.

My computer appears to be dying. This afternoon it froze, then a sign popped up that informed me in no less than four languages that I needed to restart the computer. So I did. And then I sent Flash a message that was basically "bwuh?" and he said that I should start looking for a new computer. I just ran the hard drive check and it is all red letters and "DRIVE NEEDS REPAIRING", which generally does not bode well.

And I just realized that there is no point in backing up anything to my external hard drive, as I'm pretty sure it's incompatible with newer computers. I mean, that's why I have it in the first place, Andrew got a new computer and couldn't use it. Boo. I guess I'd better start saving everything to cd, then.

Sigh, sigh, sigh. Andrew took me to the Mac website and told me what computer he'd recommend (MacBook Pro. Shiny!) He also said the school could advance me a loan so that I wouldn't have to pay the entire thing out of pocket, which is something, at least.

And now I'm off to spend the evening burning through my blank cds. What fun!

Did you know that you can make jewelry out of old Scrabble tiles?* Well, probably not YOU you (certainly not me), but these nice people over at Home Studio on Etsy can. I was browsing the internet for something else and got distracted, and the next thing I knew I was thinking things like "Ooh. I do need something for Masami's birthday..." and then a week later I owned some new pendants. Funny how that happens. I especially love the cheap overseas shipping, as most places try to charge a small fortune (which is why almost everything I buy that is not from Amazon gets sent to my mother and repackaged.)



See? Cute!

Also cute: Liam! He finally came back to the school on Thursday, which was my first time to see him since before the holidays. Did he run up to me and give me a big hug? Or say hello? Or say anything? Not so much. He did wave enthusiastically through the window, then run into the classroom and wordlessly hold up the toy airplane he got at the airport. Good to see he's still the same old obsessive munchkin.

Less cute: Ewan has found his screaming voice and has worked out that using it gets him attention stat, no matter how trivial the matter is. Ow. He pretty much doubled in noise over a week-long period.

Still speaking of Ewan, it is nearly time for his birthday, which means it is nearly time for the Very Hungry Caterpillar cake! I did a test run of the recipe I'd like to use this weekend, and I'm glad I did. The cake is very yummy, but now I know I'll need to double it. I also need to either find or buy red food colouring...I HAVE some somewhere, but it appears to have disappeared sometime between Halloween and Christmas. If it has rolled under the fridge, it is staying there until the day I move out, so I suspect I will need to just pony up and buy another vial.



Mine won't look nearly as nice, but hopefully it won't be a big mess, either.

*Maybe you did, since Flash says he's seen some in boutique shops. It's probably not surprising that there aren't any over here, given the general lack of Scrabble.** But hey, at least we have Croc cell phone holders! John tells me this is a good thing. I have my doubts.

**Need. Scrabble. If anyone finds a set at a garage sale or something, would you mind sending it over? We have Scrabble Junior and Upwords, but I have enough high level students/returnees that a real Scrabble game would be a good thing to have in our game cupboard.

January heat waves are way more fun than January cold snaps. It's 11:30 at night and it's still 15 degrees indoors, which is a full five degrees warmer than it got in here at midday last week. Oooh, it feels good.

I've been on a bit of an internet spending spree this month. And not my normal couple of books from Amazon here, block of cheese from FBC there spree, either. Most of it is justifiable (at least in my head.) The tank top from Lululemon was unnecessary, I will admit, but the sports bra is pretty much the best invention since sliced bread and it is important to stock up on the basics. The boots from Fluevog were definitely a splash, and until they actually arrive and I can try them on and they fit, I will worry about spending all that money on something I've never tried on, but a) I've been looking at boots in Japan for two years now and haven't found anything and b) if they don't fit, I'm pretty sure I can sell them on the streets of Tokyo for a profit. The third major purchase, however, inspires no uneasy feelings of "did I really need this?", because yes. Yes I did. I'm talking about a 24 cm, round, grenadine red Staub soup pot. It came today and I was tempted to skip work to make soup in it. Until now I've been using an extremely cheap pot that I got at Apita. It has a tendency to heat up too quickly and burn things, whereas the Staub, I am assured, will practically make the soup itself and then clean up afterwards. I am already roasting carrots in preparation for its inaugural soup making voyage tomorrow.

In less spendy news, it's still cold, and I just discovered that I can't have the heater plugged in while the rice cooker and the oven are on without blowing a fuse, so for the next hour there is going to be a lot of huddling and blanket clutching.

OhgodohgodohgodohgodohgodCOLDSNAPwhimper.

I'm wearing three pairs of socks. You'd think that would result in toasty warm feet. You would be wrong. So very, very wrong.

At least it's warmer at work. Warmer, and comes equipped with chubby babies and cameras.

Check out my newest toque, courtesy of Tomoko.

So, it's now been a week since I got back. I still miss the maid, and the cheap taxis that would whizz us around town to various happy hours and fine dining establishments, but I guess I'm glad to be back where I can take a nice deep breath of fresh air and the hot water pressure is actually strong enough to wash the soap out of my hair in less than ten seconds.

The weather hasn't been too bad, except for a couple of windy days where I thought I might blow away and freeze all at once. Indoors is another story, but I'm wearing lots of warm thermal underwear AND I found my beautiful fingerless gloves, so I'm all set. I'm just trying to ignore the looming approach of the dreaded February and the cedar pollen. I have some medicine this year that can be taken as a preventative, and I'm trying to decide when I should start. I don't want to start too early and then run out two weeks into the actual allergy season, but if I wait too long I'll have to endure more horrific sneezing than I really want to live with. Stupid winter. Stupid trees.

I finally got my bike tire fixed on Thursday. It got a flat the day before I left for Shanghai and then they were closed until Wednesday. I tried to take it in then but it turns out they take very long lunches so I had to wheel it home again. There was a tack in it and at least three puncture holes and it turned out to be cheaper to just replace the entire tire rather than trying to have it patched up. After she did all that, the decrepit condition of the rest of the bike drew a "tut tut" and she whipped out a screwdriver and a can of oil to take care of business. Sadly, I had to go to work so I had to stop her, but lord knows the poor thing needs a spa day.

I'm working up the nerve to buy boots online. I really do need a new pair of black boots (so of course I'm looking at a pair in wine. That's just how my mind works.) I've never ordered anything online where the size matters quite so much...t-shirts don't count. Girly size in a large, check. And if it doesn't fit, well, the total cost of the shirt plus shipping rarely exceeds $20. The boots, on the other hand, are quite a bit more, and if they don't fit, I don't get reimbursed for the shipping or the duty fee I'd have to pay. On the other hand, I was downtown today and looking at what is available here and it's definitely worth the investment. Provided, of course, they don't run out of my size while I dither.

Swine flu has finally struck, and it hit Liam. Poor baby had to be rushed to the hospital yesterday, but thankfully they got his fever down and then sent him home that same night. It's Masami's birthday today and she just posted a picture of a train shaped cake with the note "my? birthday cake" on Facebook. Heh.

It's nice to not be suffering from jet lag. It's rather less nice that the warmest it has gotten indoors is 13. I didn't miss that. I really, really didn't.

Made pretty good time yesterday. Even though I was stopped at customs so that the security guard could ruffle through my suitcases (not very efficiently, if you're going to go through my stuff, at least make an effort to look for contraband) I still managed to make it on the 1:15 bus to Hamamatsu (there was a bit of running involved) and even the holiday traffic didn't slow us down too much and we arrived only 15 minutes behind schedule. Once home I decided to treat myself by turning the heater on even though it was midday, then barricaded myself in the living room.

Mattie, I did not buy the scarf. We were too busy having every single last skin cell exfoliated at a Korean bath house to return to the maze of shops where I found it, which is probably just as well. Going out in Japan usually results in all your clothes smelling like nasty smoke, so I'm not sure that I could have brought myself to wear it out and sully it. I was rewarded, though, by the news that Fluevog is having a sale, so hopefully the email people will get back to me about sizing issues before it ends and I can get new boots, instead.

Today is back to normal life. Well, mostly. I'm going to have to skip the gym in order to carry out a grocery shop/unpacking expedition, but then it*s off to work and by tomorrow things will be back to normal.