- Having lunch in the Sony City building looking at the Tokyo Tower in the distance. #surrealmeal #
Twitter Updates for 2011-01-19
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This time I’m headed West
Tomorrow I’m going on a business trip to Tokyo for the week. It’s kinda exciting since it’s my first time but it is always tough to be away from my family (they don’t like it much either).
Two things come to mind about the trip. First, I’ve been taking Japanese lessons for almost a year. My confidence is rather low on my language abilities, though. I’ll have to force myself to use what I know when I can. If nothing else, I’ll keep my ears open in the hopes that immersion solidifies a lot of the vocabulary that I’m having trouble learning.
The other thing is what happened the last time I travelled internationally. Like with London, I wouldn’t mind an extra week in Japan, but coming back when expected is my preference.
Alexander may be great, but he’s small at the moment
With our oldest cat, Mocha, dying on Monday, there was much talk about getting a new cat (mostly from my son, Brian). Previously, we had said that there would be no new pets and that we would consider a cat at some point in the future. After re-evaluating that decision, I realized that the kids never really had that “new pet” experience and so didn’t resist the “investigation” (surfing rescue websites, reading about different breeds, etc.) that they began.
Not surprisingly, a trip to the local rescue “just to look” resulted in a new member being added to the family. May I please introduce Alexander the Great (Alex, for short):
We’re trying to get him aclimated as easily as possible. He’s been spending almost all of his time in my daughter’s room but has been exposed to the other cat (Bella) and the dog (Patrick). Patrick is the problem, though. He’s big (~100 lbs) with his head roughly the size of Alex himself and at only 8 weeks, Alex isn’t sure how to handle that. The current set-up is Patrick kept downstairs and Alex having free reign though, so far, only staying upstairs. There shouldn’t be a problem, but may take some time for Alex realize that he won’t be a chew toy. There’s actually no risk of that but he doesn’t know that.
Twitter Updates for 2011-01-15
Twitter Updates for 2011-01-12
- @justkristin, @dalvenjah, thank you very much for the flowers. Mocha would have liked to chew on them. http://yfrog.com/h3b9pkj #
Twitter Updates for 2011-01-11
- Big chunks of my home directory got nuked. Good thing I have multiple backups. #
Goodbye, Mocha
Becky gave me a call today at work to let me know that one of our cats, Mocha, was behaving very oddly and had himself ‘stuck’ in a corner, crying, panting, and not terribly responsive to any interactions. Fortunately, I had already addressed the most important things to accomplish at work, so I was able to come home early. By the time I arrived, he was clearly not going to rebound so we said our goodbye’s and waited for the inevitable.
He was our first ‘child’ with us adopting him the Summer of ’94 shortly after we got married. He was a member of the family even before there was a family. Both kids grew up with him and we all have fond memories of his endearing style of aloofness. A few years ago, we joked that due to the relative ages, all four of our pets then might die somewhat close together. With our dog, Casey, dying last year on Brian’s birthday, it’s not so funny.
So now, we’re down to two. The big dog is healing and bounding around more than I would be if I had stitches in my butt just a few days ago. The other cat, Bella, is probably happy that there’s less competition.
Thanks, Mocha, for the memories. I’m glad he was able to enjoy one last Christmas (he always loved the tree).
Twitter Updates for 2011-01-06
- I just finished the second pass on the yearly budget. Should the numbers really be going up? #
It’ll be a long two weeks
Our dog Patrick had surgery today to remove a growth. The problem is that it was at the base of his tail on the underside (you know, right next to the functional end of the digestive track?). Since he’s 97 pounds and hates to be constrained, we can’t use a collar on him so we’ll just have to watch him for the next two weeks while he heals and the stitches can be removed.
Tonight, he’s still loopy from the anesthesia so it should be quiet. Tomorrow is when it’ll get interesting.
More doughnuts
A few days ago we made donuts for the first time. Since those turned out so well, we decided to give old fashioned (my favorite, btw) a try.
They need to be the right thickness otherwise they can be a little doughy in the middle but they were another success.
Good thing that starting tomorrow I’m limiting my daily calories to 1500 and going to the gym five days a week.
