Photos by DJ

Photo of the Day update

Don't really have a story today, just some recent daily photos.  The weather has been gorgeous, so today we went down to the playground.  There was a hawk checking us out.  They're pretty aggressive, one tried to get a bag from my husband while he was getting in the car not too long ago, another took off with one of the boys' toy cars.

 

Yesterday I woke up to this.  I don't think it needs an explanation.

 

Finally, we've entered the 21st Century and got not only digital cable, but also one with a DVR.  Wow!  Were we really missing out.  Our son has taken the most advangage of being able to record shows and discovered that he can even record more than one show at a time.  It is nice to not have to miss a show.  Better yet, being able to rewind what you're currently watching!

Pinewood Derby

Just finished our first Pinewood Derby.  What a lot of fun, and a lot of work.  Our car became a family effort, but those efforts paid off.  We took third in the den and got the award for "Most Realistic Looking" car.

 

First Coats of Paint

  

Making Weight

  

  

On your mark. . . 

Out on the Town

When I did my photo today, I didn't think about the photo I took yesterday.  My son has gained a new interest in creature features: Godzilla, Ray Harryhausen, Ultraman.  Being here in Japan, he's been able to find all kinds of creatures in the local stores.  His first though, was Godzilla, that he bought when we vacationed here last year.  It was laying on the floor, so I decided to shoot it:

 

I say I didn't think of yesterday's photo, because last night we were in Tokyo.  I snapped this picture through the window of the Shimbashi station, looking over towards Ginza--at least that's I assumed what I was looking at considering the signs. The window had some stripping in it so it was like shooting through a fence.

 

 The last time he was in Tokyo with Daddy, our little guy saw a clock tower that looked like the same that was in the Godzilla movie and on one of the commercials here.  He was so excited.  They forgot to get a picture of it though, maybe next time.  We seem to go into Tokyo a lot, it's a fun adventure.

We had scouts again on Wednesday.  The boys play games before each meeting and at this one, they played Twister.  Who knew a game that we used to play at kids, could still be so popular.

 

Finally, I'm still amazed at the amount of floral life that is still alive here, even in the dead of winter.  These cabbage plants, for lack of better description, are all over and in various shades going from a nice cream to a deep purple.  I was out with my macro lens, and tried to snap these ones with the water droplets.  It's hand-held so not as good as it should have been.  I need to get over to the school this weekend with the tripod and do a better job.

 

 

 

Hobbies

The theme this week is hobbies, a pretty easy one for me since I seem to have too many hobbies.  I've actually done a little of them all this week too.

 

Knitting, I learned to knit when I was little.  But, I didn't learn very well since all I can do is one stitch.  I'm quite the scarf maker.  I also finished my first "cocoon" today too--that multi-color thing.  I started it in August, but never got around to finishing it until now.  Now I just need a baby to photograph.

 

Music has always been a part of my life.  I started playing piano when I was five, but quit after just a year.  I've since taught myself, but it's not very good.  My main instrument is the flute, I've been playing that since grade school.  I'm very excited as my kids are very much interested in music too.  Can't wait for them to start learning.

  

Paper is my passion and probably my number one love.  I am now a digital scrapper, but can't put the paper away.  Here I am working on some Valentine hybrid projects.  The templates are from the Sweet Shoppe.  The kit is by Genevieve Sass.

  

Not a hobby, but my friends from the weekend and Monday.  I had quite the cold this week and am SO happy to be over it.  Thank you Vicks! 

Dinner Tonight

We had a nice dinner tonight.  A Sherry Vinegar Chicken that was yummy!  We've been doing really well lately in trying out new recipes.  Its been nice having a bit more variety.

 

Yesterday at scouts, the boys played marbles.  We had a teacher come and teach the boys and show off his marble collection.  Wow!  There were a ton, and many of them rather special, including some glow-in-the-dark ones that got a huge response from the boys.

  

Here in Japan, we have some rather fun vending machines.  When waiting for the train or walking down the street, it's fun to try and guess just what is in the machine.  These drinks for instance, have no idea what they are, but they sure look cute.

  

Again, the topic for POTD at 2Peas this week is technology.  What comes to my mind is how much technology has changed in just recent years, especially when it comes to data storage.  I remember having to record my records and cds to cassette tape so I could listen to them in the car or on my Walkman.  What about the old 5 1/4 inch floppy disks?  So in thinking of technology, my hard drives and even bettter, my iPod which contains our entire CD collection! How far we've come.

  

   

Can't Get Enough

The 2Peas theme this week is technology which should make the picture taking pretty easy this week.  I thought I'd start off the week with the piece of technology my boys can't seem to live without: the PS3.  It was the biggest boy who wanted this the most, but we all seem to be benefiting from it.  The Blue Ray discs are very cool, so even I can enjoy.  It is sure a long way from the Atari I had as a kid.

I love IKEA

When we moved here, we came with no furniture.  It's all in storage in the states.  That didn't worry us though, as there's an IKEA near-by and we knew we could easily furnish our house that way.  (Most of our stuff is old and needs replacing anyway.)  I LOVE this table and it was supposed to be my craft table since we don't have that much space for one.  It has since become our dining room table though and I don't think it's going to be replaced anytime soon.  It's actually rather nice to have a table that we can just fold up and put away!  Makes cleaning that much easier and gives us some extra room too.  Guess I'm going to have to wait for another IKEA trip before I can get my table back.  This won't be the last IKEA post either; most of the rooms are still works in progress though.

Playing Catch-up

What a crazy week!  I got my pictures taken, just didn't have a chance to post them.  So let's begin.  It's been really cold this week and the frost in the morning has been really interesting--at least to me.  I got up early this morning to try and get some shots.  There wasn't as much as previous mornings, but still some.

 

Hubby went into Tokyo yesterday and got this shot.  It's in Harajuku which is supposed to be quite the happening place in youth culture.  He didn't see anything too unusal, so we're hoping to go back. This is the entrance to one of the main shopping streets.

 

A VERY small selection of hubby's tie collection.  He teaches and wears a different tie each day--usually a novelty tie of some kind or another.  E-bay has been helpful in increasing the collection.

 

Going with the texture theme of the week, I thought this park bench was appropriate.  Poor thing. 

 

My boys read every night.  Their reading selection isn't typical though, they like to read non-fiction, mostly animal books.  Their favorite right now is an animal encyclopedia.  My oldest has gone through and tabbed all his favorites.

  

Finally, one of our favorite dinners: chicken curry.  We added a bit of shrimp to it this evening.  Mmmmm.

 

What's the Weather Today?

  I don't understand Japanese and our English TV station doesn't do very well with weather forecasts, so most days we have no idea what's going on.  It doesn't bother us though, in fact we're going on three years now without worrying what the weather will be day-to-day.  If I wake up for the day and it's darker than normal, it's cloudy.   If I hear the trees rustling it's windy.  If I look outside at the man-hole cover and it's wet, I can bet it's raining!  After beautiful weather for weeks now, I woke up this morning with it being very dark and yup, the man-hole cover was wet.

I went out for a walk during a break in the weather, since I missed the past couple of days.  I love living in wooded areas.  Coming from the desert, it's just not that exciting.  I felt sorry for this poor leaf that is still trying to hang on.

Crime Scene

In addition to everything else, I was "volunteered" to be a Cub Scout Den leader when we got here.  It's not a bad thing as I was planning to help out anyway.  Today we had our weekly meeting and had a couple of agents come and talk to us about law enforcement.  The boys loved it and had fun with all the stuff.  The first thing the did was get fingerprinted.  We now have cards of the boys' prints.