Oh Henry!

My best friend delivered her first baby last weekend.

Henry Evan Holmes was born at 7:24pm on Saturday June 17th, 2006.
He is 18 3/4 long and 5 pounds 13 ounces.
His mom says, "He is sweet and smiley and very relaxed & good natured."

I talked to Sara today. Henry is home and doing great. He has had his first car ride, doctors appointment, and tomorrow will be his welcome to the world barbque! He loves eating, sleeping and smiling. As we were talking, I could hear him making noises asking for her attention back! Wow!

It's decided, I'm going home at Christmas. He will be 6 months old! I can't wait to meet Henry!

Stuff It!

stuff (stuf) n. [ OFr estoffe] 1 the material out of which anything is made 2 essence; character 3 matter in general 4 cloth, esp. woolen cloth 5 objects; things 6 worthless objects; junk 7 [Colloq.] ability, skill, etc. –vt. 1 to fill or pack; specif., a) dermy b) to fill (a turkey, etc.) with seasoning, bread crumbs, etc. before roasting 2 to fill too full; cram 3 to plug; block -vi. to eat too much

That is the definition of “stuff” according to Websters’s New World Dictionary. My definition is the picture below. That’s my stuff. And I have too much of it. To be exact, I have 33 boxes of stuff. I don’t even know what it is that I have anymore.

I’ve received the inventory list-- I’m not joking. My parents recently went through all my stuff and organized it into boxes, made a list, labeled it, took pictures and put it into storage. I’m too scared to look at the inventory list. I don’t really want to know what’s in those 33 boxes. I know I have baby stuff, school stuff, high school stuff, Muppet stuff, college stuff, India stuff, Namibia stuff, Saudi stuff, stuff my grandmothers left me, stuff my grandfather has made for me and stuff I’m sure I won’t remember at all. Thinking about this stuff doesn’t excite me at all. It terrifies me.

The thought of going through this stuff and consolidating it makes me sick to my stomach. I hate making those decisions about what is worthy of keeping and what isn’t. Right now I don’t remember what’s in those boxes, but as soon as I start going through them….the memories will come flooding back. Do I need to hold onto that stuff to keep the memories? Or will the memories always be there if I don’t have the stuff anymore?

Why is it that I have all this stuff and is it really important to my life? Does this stuff define me, or my future? Will this be the stuff that I fill my house with? Will I become a slave to this and even more stuff? How much more stuff will I be adding to this list when I move from Japan? I don’t imagine taking much stuff with me, that’s the beauty of my situation, I can leave most of my stuff here. But I’m sure I’ll get sentimental and decide that some of this stuff is worthy of exorbitant shipping costs.

Only recently I’ve been able to carry less stuff when I travel. But people still make fun of me. I always have stuff on my back, stuff in my car, stuff on my bike, stuff in my bag, etc. I’m always carrying stuff. I’m the queen of stuffing one more thing into my bag. I can make stuff fit, it just needs a bit more stuffing!

Stuff is comfort. Stuff protects. Stuff saves. Stuff is security.

But I want to live with less stuff.

My Stuff
Originally uploaded by Sistak.

Rice Report II

Saturday, June 17th, 2006


This is how exciting my life is these days. I'm sitting at home on a Saturday taking pictures of the rice for my study breaks!

What has the world come to?

Saturday, June 3rd, 2006

This sunset was too good to pass up. And look, the rice is getting so big. It's so beautiful!

Chocolate at the Chugakko

Today was another sports day. All my kids were off playing basketball, volleyball, soft tennis, table tennis, badminton, and soccer. But there are a few kids who don't join sports clubs. Their options include: brass band club, science club or home-making club. Sometimes I wonder what club I would have joined in junior high school if I'd known I'd have to do it EVERYDAY. I probably would have done basketball. Hmm?



Early in the day I visited the local gym to watch the boys basketball game...they won!! Yeah, my school is awesome! Plus their uniforms were the coolest on the court!

But the rest of the day I spent with the home-making club. I had been invited to eat lunch with the home-ec teacher. She made somen, cold noodles, and brought sesame tofu, japanese pickels, and bread. All delicious!

I added, what seems to be my speciality these days, dessert! There has been an on-going discussion with the ladies that sit near me about the possible uses for tofu. I keep telling them of all the exciting ways I use tofu, and they can't believe it! So today was the day to show off!

I made my new favorite recipe, chocolate tofu mousse! Admittedly it's not nearly as good as the real thing, but it's a great healthy alternative! And the texture is convincing!

Just in case the mousse wasn't a hit, I decided I better make an old stand-by--chocolate chip cookies! I roped some of the home-making students in to help me. They seemed to enjoy it. They stood by the oven and chanted the countdown...and the ate all the crumbs. I also served them up some of the mousse, they were licking the bowl! That was a good sign. The home-ec teacher decided we should charge the teachers for our treats! One item= 100Y, two item=150Y.

My two helpers delivered the cookies and chocolate mousse to the staff room and very politely demanded that each teacher pay up before taking anything! It was so cute! The teachers that hadn't overheard all the tofu discussions quickly went for the mousse. The teachers with the inside scoop grabbed up the cookies instead. But I didn't hear any complaints! And the one teacher that kept chanting "I can't imagine" at the thought of a tofu dessert admited it was delicious and said, "I can imagine now."

Overall, a successful day of internationalizing!

6 hours, 6 people, 6 desserts

The bakers and judges started arriving a little after 6pm to put the final touches on the delicacies, make the mousse and open the wine to give it plenty of time to breathe.

In preparation for the big event, we had all fasted. Watching the mousee being made and staring at all the desserts was almost unbearable.




The first course was Jimmy's famous chinese pork and mustard. As side dishes I made baked corn and asparagus sauteed with garlic. We also had some delicious P3 bread. And we started in on the wine, of course.

With 6 desserts to be tested and tried, we had to go light on the dinner course. But that didn't stop us from finishing everything!




The judges took their job very seriously and asked each baker questions about ingredients, recipes, quantities and what country they prefer to import their chocolate from.

The dessert list, in order of consumption:

• 
  Banana chocolate cake-Jimmy
• Choco Berry Tarts-Kirsten
• Triple Choco Brownies-Scott
• -BREAK-
• Cheesecake w/strawberry sauce-Jimmy
• Apple Triple Berry Crisp-Kirsten
• Chocolate Mousse-Scott
  
  

At break time, we took a walk. It was getting to be too much and we had to start getting the blood flowing again. After getting some fresh air and stretching our legs, we came back strong and finished the last three desserts.

Some recipes are public, some are top secret! Several include strange and secret ingredients that only participants and judges will ever know about. But all of them were absolutely incredible!!

This is what happens when you mix wine and sugar. Everyone goes a little crazy!

Toyama's "Who da best?" Bake-off

Toyama's best bakers will gather this weekend in Nyuzen for the year-end BAKE-OFF!

The bakers come from far and wide: Tonami, Toyama, & Niikawa. The judges are Niikawa's own culinary experts (names will be released after the event to ensure no pre-bake bribery).

The baked line-up is also top-secret!

Who are the bakers?

They've received marriage proposals, offers to be the private bakers for communist leaders and they each have a lifetime supply of free toothpicks for their refind skills in the kitchen. They've been baking since Regan was president. They first premiered together at Toyama's JET Fest, under less than perfect baking conditions. And this weekend, they make their second and final appearance together!

When each asked about their baking inspiration, they said:

"Sugar, it's a miracle drug. The chicks dig it."

"I'm in love with my oven mits. I'd wear them everyday but I can't open my staff room door with them on."

"D..d..d.ddddding! The sound of my timer sends chills down my spine. It's better than...."

WARNING: High caloric intake, gastro problems, and sugar-induced highs followed by low lows are a small price to pay for the delicacies that will be sampled this weekend.

Apologies in advance, tickets to this premier event have been sold out for months. Reserve now for next year!