Two more things worth noting today:

1) Allergy season has begun. It's not in full swing yet, but it's here. Time to go stock up on incredibly expensive tissue paper handcrafted from the fur of baby unicorns.

2) Ewan starts kindergarten tomorrow. He technically could have started last April but they wanted to keep him home for another year to give him another year of English exposure. That didn't work out so well, really, given that Liam and all their friends speak Japanese, but it was worth a shot. They want him to start in February of this year rather than April because that will give him two months to get used to going while Liam is still there to be a big brother comfort (which probably means totally ignoring him in favour of playing with the older kids, if I know anything about siblings), because from April, Liam will be putting on his big boy pants and going off to elementary school.  I know.

I've got my plane ticket purchased and my hotel in Helsinki booked, and so now I am filling up the next two months with random travel planning that makes no sense. I catch myself mentally packing my suitcase and have to make myself stop doing that already, you moron, because surely it makes more sense to wait until just before, take a look at the extended weather forecast, and go from there?

I've also been ignoring looking at things to do in Warsaw in favour of things to do in Helsinki. This one might actually make a bit of sense, as I will have longer in Warsaw than Helsinki so my sightseeing schedule will not be as tight. In Helsinki I've got two full days, one evening, and a morning to see All the Things, meet some cousins who live an hour outside of the city, stuff myself with pulla, and work out how much licorice I can carry on the airplane without exceeding the luggage weight limit.

I would also like to try to go to a shop called NOMO Jeans, where you can get jeans made from scratch for you. I so badly want to do this. All the jeans/pants here right now are either skinny with low waists, or super skinny with super low waists. Sometimes in hideous floral prints. My issue with these kind of pants are twofold:

1) While I don't want a waist that comes up to my armpits, the low waists are not my friend. Quite aside from the unflattering muffin-top issue, I spend a fair amount of time at work sitting on the floor with kids and dancing around and unless I'm wearing a shirt that comes down to my knees, the low waists plus shirts that ride up even just s smidge inevitably mean I flash some skin at the kids. And while it is perfectly acceptable to wear shorts so short they are practically a belt, it is NOT ok to flash even a tiny bit of midriff, even if it's just because you were contorting yourself so as to try and stretch so high you can touch the sky, can you try to touch the sky, let's all reach up up up! Children who just a moment ago were actually tucking their long socks into their underwear just because they can will run up and helpfully tug my shirt down. So, to sum up, unflattering and impractical.

2) I can't wear skinny jeans. Literally. I've accidentally grabbed them before, thinking they were the regular version, and been unable to get them up past my ankle. Laura says the secret is to go for a few sizes larger than your usual, but as I'm already at the biggest size on offer, that is not an option. Buying expensive personally tailored jeans seems like an easier option than trying to lose 10 kg in an attempt to fit into the skinny jeans available.

I'm beginning to suspect that my sleep schedule is not going to get back on track until I actually fly out to Warsaw and use the time difference to beat it into submission. It's just so hard to get out of bed in the morning unless Masami is actually outside my door, waiting to drive me to the kindergarten. Every other day goes something like this: "It's 9 am. I should really think about getting up. *pokes head out of covers* Nope, still too cold."

It's kind of a miracle I made it out of bed at all on Saturday, really. It never actually got around to warming up. I'd made plans back when it was warmer out to go out for dinner, and I'm glad I went, because it was a) delicious, b) fun, and c) warmer, but I had to give myself a bit of a pep talk first.

Sunday was not much better, but again, I had plans already. Crazy Lady from my gym had invited me to a...well, it turned out to be a short tutorial on how to bake brownies (using pancake mix instead of flour and baking them in the microwave, both of which caused me to develop an eye tic), but she wasn't sure how to describe it so just told me that it was free and involved chocolate, so of course I said yes. Well, actually, she described it initially as a chocolate decoration tutorial, which I was rather excited for, but it turned out that once the nice lady demonstrated how to make brownies (why? why does one need a pancake mix? It's basically just flour and baking soda, how hard can it be to make your own? And while I understand that baking with the microwave is a thing, and the brownies were really quite nice, I'm going to stick with proper ovens, thankyouverymuch, now get off my lawn.) we just drizzled some melted chocolate on the brownies with a spoon and attempted to decorate them ourselves. I would have rather liked an actual tutorial on how to make pretty chocolate decorations, but it's hard to argue with a free event that nets you brownies, I suppose.

At the gym today I noticed that Stinky McMulletMan got a haircut. It's still sort of mulletish but is overall a great improvement. He's actually kind of cute and works out very hard and it shows to his advantage, but none of that can make up for the following negative factors:

a) his unfortunate taste in workout clothes

b) the gd mullet (and then later I saw a pre-teen boy with a full-on mullet OH GOD IS IT MAKING A FASHION COMEBACK? NOOOOO!)

c) the stink

I mean, I know that at the gym there is a certain level of freshness that one is simply not going to be able to maintain, but this guy smells so bad I can literally taste it. The smell also lingers after he has left. No amount of pleasing biceps are going to be able to compensate for that.

Speaking of workout clothes, though, there was an old man dressed entirely in orange. Orange t-shirt, orange weight belt, orange sweatpants, orange shoes. Now THAT is how one does an unconventional workout look.

My proposed trip to Europe is now a done deal. Non-refundable tickets have been purchased and I'm spending time on Agoda, looking for hotels. In a moment of brilliance, I asked Stu if he would mind taking my Friday night high school kids into his junior high class at the same time and he agreed. (He is likely going to regret this come March 22nd, but by that point I will well on my way to Helsinki, so hah.) I'll be in Warsaw from March 22nd-April 2nd visiting Chevy and then will go to Helsinki until April 5th. This plan gets me back to Nagoya on Saturday morning with an entire weekend to recover from jet lag, which is a departure from my usual plan of getting back as late as possible and then suffering through Monday.

Everyone keeps gasping "Warsaw? In March? Won't it be cold?" Probably, but please take that up with Stu's friend in Scotland, thoughtlessly arranging their wedding without asking me when I would have preferred to take a vacation.

Last night I was talking to one of my high school students about movies and I mentioned that I was going to see the latest Bond film this weekend, at which point he immediately dismissed Bond as "old". I asked if he meant the actor or the character and after thinking for a moment, he replied "both". I managed not to call him a whippersnapper, but it was a near thing.

As it happens, the movie deals partly with the question of whether or not Bond is, in fact, getting too old for this shit, and if the whole concept of his brand of espionage is also outdated. Spoiler alert, the answer is no.

I still haven't bought an oven. I did, however, realize that I can order one from Amazon.com for about the same price as getting one here, which means I have the option of getting the Breville, which gets the best reviews. I'm still ambivalent, though, given the (slight) voltage difference. On the other hand, I went to Bic Camera again today to check out the Japanese options and oh god, so many buttons. Also, it appears that many of the digital ovens only go up degrees in increments of 10. What of all my cookie recipes that call for 176C? What of them?

Fortunately for my wallet, I realized that the proposed consumer tax hike will be happening NEXT spring, not this spring, so I have a bit of a breathing period in which to also get a new tv. Not that there is anything wrong with my current tv, but it is one of the old boxy types and doesn't hook up to my computer, something I've sorely missed these last few years. So I would like to get a new one, but between the oven and my proposed trip to Europe this spring, it is probably best to put that purchase off. I know I'll be starting a part-time job soon, but it's only four hours a week. It pays good, but not THAT good. (Unless you are working there full-time, in which case it apparently pays well enough that you can take a three day weekend and use it to go shopping in Hong Kong.)

I know I should be out and about, enjoying these last few weeks of allergy-free bliss, but it is cold out there and so I am wrapped up in blankets, heater on, and decaf earl gray with rum in it firmly in hand. Once again, I am rocking the Saturday night.

I'm leaning towards this Cuisinart toaster oven. It has marginally less buttons than most of the Japanese ones I've been eyeballing and I'd probably be able to get an English users manual with it, too. I was worried about the plug/voltage difference, but Stuart says he has a Kitchenaid stand mixer and it works just fine, plus I found this when I was searching for it on a Japanese site:

It is direct import goods from U.S.A., but is available in peace because it has been checked the operation in Japan (power supply 100V)

I think that means it's ok?

So, it's been a while. I was very busy on my vacation, napping with large dogs and buying expensive handbags and recovering from all that with hot tea and rum. And then I went to Tokyo and discovered why one should not drink champagne cocktails, at least not when it involves mixing the champagne with brandy. Really, what more is there to say about that?

I figure I can get one more trip to Seoul in before Paul and Laura head back to Canada (and promptly adopt a great dane, because everybody who met sweet Léa immediately wanted one, myself included, although I regretfully concluded that I wouldn't be able to even get one in the door of my apartment). There is a chance they'll be in Canada house hunting during the week I have off, but I airily informed them that I'd come over anyway and water the plants and invite the dogs back over for an extended visit. This was greeted with skeptical eyebrows.

Now I'm back to work and suffering from Winter Bedtime Syndrome, which basically involves sitting on the warm cozy couch and trying to talk myself into making the dash to bed. Inevitably this results in me staying up far, far too late and then sleeping in ridiculously late the next day. (Simply sleeping on the couch is not an option unless I want to wake up in a great deal of pain the next morning.) This week it has not been too bad as there was no kindy on Wednesday, but next week I need to make more of an effort. I don't have a lot of faith in my ability to do this, though. The spirit is willing but the flesh is buried under three blankets and a snuggie and is quite comfortable where it is, thankyouverymuch.