Phys-ed day at pre-school

They have phys-ed regularly at pre-school but this day was special because parents were invited to come and watch. This series of videos show you the warm up, the activities, and the final ending.

Drinking champagne in the morning

I'd chilled it for the evening but we got home too late and too tired to open it up, so this morning Miku and I blew the cork on a bottle Moët and we toasted Yuzuru's successful dissertation defense. She did it!

There are still some revisions to due by the October deadline, but we've got Dr. Mom in da' house!

Miku's bilingualism leads to amazing Spanish abilities

This morning we were talking about a friend who lived in San Diego. Miku heard this and brought up Dora, who's cousin's name is Diego. Yuzuru and I were trying to figure out what "San" means in Spanish. At first I thought it was "city of" but then realized that "Los" means that. Yuzuru suggested "Saint" but that's "Santa", I think.

We were explaining to Miku that many cities have Spanish names and begin with San: San Diego, San Francisco ("I've been to San Francisco!" she exclaims), San Antonio.

Then we mentioned that some cities also have "Santa" names: Santa Fe, Santa Barbara, Santa Monica, Santa Cruz.

And of course, Miku adds "Santa Claus."

A Lion in my Entryway

When snowangels attack

A Grim Commute

Yesterday my train hit somebody, undoubtedly a suicide. I sit in the front of the train and clearly heard (and kind of felt) the impact. The train didn't stop as fast as I would have expected but thinking back on it, it doesn't make sense to slam on the brakes. The person is already dead and no reason to risk injuring passengers or damaging the train.

I was close enough that I was able to go up to the front of the train and eavesdrop on the conductor giving reports. They were pretty fast in announcing to us what had happened, and people not in the first car probably didn't hear it. We were delayed for about 20 minutes while they settled things.

When I got off the train I couldn't resist looking at the front. There wasn't any gore. There were some broken headlights and the windshield was cracked pretty bad. The person had stood right between the tracks and hit the train right in the middle. There were some panels broken and caved in and I think they may have been designed that way. There is a cattle guard and the break-away panels would reduce gore and maybe even bounce the body off. They didn't end up under the train and oncoming trains weren't stopped, so the body was thrown clear.

It was a strange incident. The sound was very clear, kind of a deep metallic "SNAP!", kind of like a rock that hits a window but doesn't break it. It was clear that we'd hit something and the mind races, first think we hit a rock (but then we aren't derailed) or a car (but that would have been louder and there would have been a bigger crash/screeching metal), a bird or rock on the window (too small of a sound). I didn't feel bad, really, as I wasn't responsible or anything, but I felt a little more involved than if I'd just witnessed it. I suppose witnessing it would maybe be even harder to deal with; I didn't see anything.

Anyway, just a weird event that marked my day.

Home improvement

We were very fortunate to discover that a friend of Yuzuru's family was getting rid of their old piano and were willing to give (that's right, GIVE) it to us. We had to pay for delivering and tuning/cleaning, but it's a nice machine. Miku loves to play the piano at her grandparents' houses and she play s it every day. I even was playing it the other night, reading from some music I printed out. Not concert quality, surely, but we had a good time.

This weekend is was in the mid-70s, just beautiful. Lots of chalk, barbecue, and fingerpaints int he Dora house. Yuzuru has given me 6 of 7 chapters, of which I'll proof this week. She hopefully will be done next weekend then. YAY!

You all suck

Actually I include myself there too. We suck for not posting!

We're home and getting back into the swing of things. Miku had her first day of preschool yesterday. She was stoked to find that her first year teacher is also teaching her second year class. We marked her height on the wall before she left for school and she grew over 3 inches between the first day of first year and second year. 3 inches isn't all that much overall, I suppose, but when you are only 36 inches tall, it's pretty big!

I'm at school today, writing and printing syllabi and getting my office cleaned up. Yuzuru interviewed a new teacher for the Japanese school and is very close to finishing her dissertation.

The trail mix is all gone. I should have bought an extra box of those little packages. Sure glad I got those pistachios though. I fell asleep on the couch last night reading a back issue of Harper's and snacking on nuts after working all day.

We miss you all and are looking forward to getting back to see you as soon as we can.

I'll let you know when I get around to posting pictures and videos. In the meantime, you can post too. Tiggs, this means you!

How do you know you've been away from family for a long time?

Today, at lunch, without provacation:

"I don't remember what Tiggs' face looks like."

'Nuff said

A week without posts!!

What's going on with everyone?!?!

I've got a few videos incoming. I think I've become addicted to Call of Duty on the XBox: I don't really want to keep playing it but I keep doing so, just trying to improve. THat's how I'm spending my days off, mostly. Take Miku to school, drop Yuzuru off at work, then I've got a few hours of open time till school's out. Lame, I know.

We haven't locked in our travel but it will fall sometime in the window of March 20-April 6. It might be just me and Miku depending on a few things over here. Yuzuru is almost done with her dissertation draft: I've got to read it for her as she finishes it up over the next month and submits it to her advisor. Assuming it is g good enough, she'll defend in July.

That's the update for now. Peas!

From the frontlines of 4 years old

hf ueu utrhbbmkkgymvm virov 8vh itkrrkmm


miku

EDIT by J-rod: After the first entry, written all by her, she wanted to add some pictures. So we have one of a lasagna elf (btw I made that lasagna) and the second of a demon, made in honor of setsubun, a ritual observance bringing good luck in the house and banishing the evil spirits (demons!) outside.

When I grow up I want to be...

Miku and I were practicing letters today and I noticed that Miku's "L" and "R" pronunciation isn't all that great. Don't get me wrong, I'm not being a huge stickler for it, but it's important to pay attention in a bilingual environment. For example, she says "L" without touching her tongue to the roof of her mouth, which reduces the overall strength of the sound.

But the bigger problem was "R". If you say it slow, that letter almost has two syllables "ah-err". Only problem is that Miku doesn't really have the second part and it sounds kind of like "ahh(r)". To encourage her, I really emphasized the two parts and said (now you say it with me): AAHHH-ERRRRR.

She cocks her head and looks and me and responds with "pirate"?

Yuzuru about fell off the couch.