Dock Jock

The temperatures were 10 degrees lower today, and that was a wonderful thing. However, we all got really sweaty and tired, so a trip to the lake was needed. Auntie Diane hooked us up this time (love having friends with waterfront). Anna is diving off into the lake in this picture.
Our beloved Olympic mountains in the background. The sunset was beautiful over Wildcat Lake.
Hay Arnold showed up for a quick dip. It's just so relaxing to be lakeside.
Auntie Diane (our hero) enjoying the post-dip cool. William went off the slide tonight a ton of times. Cousin Anna is William's co-star here.

HOT DOG

Western Washington is hitting triple digit temperatures, and thankfully, we are 'hooked up' for fun with Kristen. William got to swim in Lake Tapps, with Rainier in the background. The mountain is looking like the freezing level has been at 16,000 feet. It is more bare than I remember in recent history. You can see it in the background on this pic, but because of the haze, you have to look for it.

William screwed up his courage and went down the slide and into the lake. This is his second (and last) slide down. The first one he was balking, and all of a sudden, gravity overcame friction, and sploosh. He came up sputtering. He must've not had time to hold his breath. Pretty funny stuff. I talked him into doing 'one more for dad.'

Hi Dad! Here's your 'hot dog' cooling off!

Hiking with Marilyn

My sister loves to hike. She lives near Lewis and Clark State Park, our closest park to where we grew up. She asked if I wanted to go on a hike, and would I prefer 7 or 7:30. She meant in the morning. Groan. But, Wm and I were good little campers, and went on the hike with her. I thought this would be so much funner if it was the 'Trail of the Beer,' with beer sunk in the creek to keep cool. :)
I love all the little bridges over the creeks. I don't like the mosquitoes that go along with it, but for the record, both Wm and I escaped without any bites. And, we didn't even have mosquito repellant. I think the mosquitoes are just lazier in the U.S.
I opted out of Loop C, and sat and waited for Marilyn and William to show up.
The old growth and 'nursery trees' were fun to see. William kept looking at the numbers, and Marilyn would look on the map to determine what we were supposed to be looking at. There was no wild life at where it was posted wildlife to see. Now, if it were a Beer Trail....
Saw this slug. It looks like a combination of a banana slug (native, good slug that only eats decomposing debris) and a European garden slug (thinks your garden is a buffet) on the tail. So, I took a pic to document a mollusk we saw. Maybe it should be called 'Trail of the Mollusks,' but only if it were a really wet and slimy trail. :)

Never Alone

As many of you know, Caroline and William are visiting family and friends back home in the US. For a variety of reasons, I needed to stay in Japan. We were all kinda sad to be separated for three weeks and we all did what we could to make each other feel comfortable. Caroline did a magnificent job in stocking the fridge for me, making room in the fridge for my beer mugs and really cleaning the place up. I am doing my best to keep on top of the cleaning and laundry to ensure that Caroline provides the best impression to the closest thing we have to in-laws that are visiting next week.

William's contribution makes me warm and giggly every time I sit down to eat. I'm not sure if it was a school project that he utilized for the purpose or if it was purpose built, but there is a life size cutout bust of William at the head of the table to keep me company while they are away.

I sometimes have this creepy feeling that I'm being watched...

Phil Er Up

William is glad to be 'home,' although when we went by our house today, he didn't recognize the street or the house. I think the different cars threw him off.

Several times a few weeks ago, he'd said he missed his friend, Phil. Today, they got together and played, and played, and played.

Wm said his favorite day back home was today. Now, Aunt Diane and Uncle Arnold have a cow, calf (getting pretty big, but he's very tame), pigs, chickens, hens that lay eggs, cats, dogs, large garden, raspberries, blueberries for eating, etc. He LOVES it here. So, to say that today was his favorite was amazing.

Ah... William isn't the only one basking in the warmth and fun of familiar friends. I totally enjoyed my 'Diane Day' and lunch with Florence. They are both insightful, fun and intelligent ladies with a wicked sense of humor. They 'fill up' my need for comfortable, funny friends.

Water Win-Win

William loves playing in the water. After dinner, he loves to rinse the dishes, or whatever else is available to play with. Recycling is mandatory here, and you have to wash your plastics. He loves plastic bags the best. You get really good soap foam in them! This night it was a mayonaise jar, and he noticed how the force and weight of the water can sink the lid, and how the jar will spin, if the water pushes it that way.

So, William gets to do original research, and I get some items rinsed. That's a water win-win. There is one down-side. The splash zone is a little farther than I'd like. Our floor is needing mopping every night. Of course, it gets it once a week... maybe...

BTW, we have NO DISHWASHER here. They're too small for the most part, anyway. I'm tired of doing dishes by hand. Maybe this post should be called 'water whine-whine.'
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School Observation

I finally got a chance to go see William at school. They wear aprons to protect their clothes while doing art and other projects.
They are working on a tanabata tree picture where they cut out stuff, and glue them on.
Then, they drew on stars and a picture of themselves.
Like a good child, he is wiping off his hands.
This is William's picture. He has drawn himself with blue eyes. Notice he's made one of the stars a comet. He is so into space and what happens there. Often he draws spirals that are the milky way, but not this time. In Japanese school, you do what the teacher tells you to do. If you compare to the picture below (the example) it is even in the correct color order, which they tell them to do. William's natural art is far more abstract. His natural art is more like his Grandma Sue's (a real artist, we display her artwork in our house). The good news is, even though his creativity and perspective has been squelched, we now know what his art is supposed to be!
Teacher's example.
They also had a presentation on wearing sunscreen. They had it translated in English. I was 'representing.' I was the only native English speaker there. I DID NOT laugh when the interpreter said you'd look like you had 'shagging skin.' Usually there is no interpreter, so I understood why nobody else showed up. Maybe they were at home, 'shagging skin.' :)

The following is what the beginning of their day is like, saying 'Good morning,' and singing their morning songs.

Tanabata at Home

After putting American flags in our yard when decorating for the 4th, I decided that I should decorate a tanabata tree to show our Japanese neighbors that we won't miss an opportunity to party!
William was all about making the ornaments. It's amazing what you can do with tape. This lame bird (I think it looks like a pteradactyl) is one of my crane attempts. Tim says that I was showing the 'evolution' of the crane.

I bought a tanabata kit at the store, so we had string and origami paper and directions. I'm so glad they come with drawn directions for those of us who can't read!
After I figured out what folds I was missing, I started having better luck with the cranes. I made a total of 10. BTW, we had friends and neighbors put up wishes on our 'tree' (bamboo fake plant) as well. I wished to lose some weight. We'll see if Japanese wishes work as well as American ones! My problem is, I LIKE Japanese food! I've been gaining weight here! Just as long as it doesn't take 10 cranes to lift me when we leave, I'll be happy... (joke!)

Tanabata Presentation

Tanabata Festivals are held in Japan on July 7 or August 7. It is the time that two star-crossed lovers in the Milky Way can meet. Japan has fireworks, fireworks displays, and festivals on this day(s).

William's Preschool presented Tanabata trees (bamboo trees) with paper decorations to 2 fire stations. What's kinda funny, is that this bamboo will wither and die in about a day, and then turn brown and become highly flammable. I noticed it came down EARLY on July 8.

The banner says something to the effect of, "I will not play with fire. I will be safe with tanabata fireworks, and only play with them around family and with water nearby."

The decorations usually are long paper items.

This is supposedly the Princess who can meet her lover on this date only.
You also get to write a wish on a piece of paper.

This little girl wrote on the yellow paper that she wants to be a Princess.




















This is William's class with his teacher, Taniguchi Sensei is getting the children ready to do the presentation.

William raising his hand and promising to not play with fire. He is saying it in Japanese, so does it count? :)

Look at this smile. Does he have his fingers crossed behind his back? :)

Encho Sensei talking to the kids. She's the lady who started the Seika Kindergarten.

New Kegerator Regulator

As you may recall from much earlier posts, the battle to get CO2 for the kegerator was a challenge since the Japanese won't fill a US bottle with CO2 and a US regulator won't fit directly on a Japanese CO2 bottle. The solution was a Japanese regulator graciously given to me by a local bar owner. As you can see, the regulator doesn't have any gages. US regulators usually have two gages, one to see what the pressure in the bottle is to tell you when it is getting empty and the other to see what pressure you are delivering to the keg. I probably could live without the delivery pressure gage since you tend to tweak that in based on how the beer is coming out, but I really wanted a bottle pressure gage so I could predict when the bottle was going to run out and make sure it didn't do so during a party.

So, I bought a US regulator and hemmed and hawed on how I would get it to work on the Japanese bottle. I finally took some measurements and realized that the only difference was the large nut that attaches to the bottle since the stem diameter was identical. I disassembled both regulator supply stems, swapped nuts, and put the US regulator on. I was so happy to be able to finally see what the bottle pressure was.

Since the regulator is a bit bigger, it took some moving around to figure how it could remain visible, yet not be in the way. I ended up turning the bottle 180 degrees around. This morning, I noticed that on this other side of the bottle, (that I apparently never looked closely at) is a built in bottle level gage! (See the blue and red gage with the yellow indicator built into the bottle valve assembly.) So, I guess all I really gained by this whole evolution was to get a locking regulator. Caroline and I laughed for quite a while on this one. I need to do a better job of searching out the Japanese solution before trying to squeeze a US solution onto the problem. :)