We’re still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic which has cause some large life-changes, such as working from home, remote learning, no dining out, etc. But there are quite a few small changes too, which I thought were interesting. Or maybe not interesting at all. Anyways, here are some:

• I keep the mailbox key in my bicycle bag instead of my car.
• I have only worn long pants once. That was for mosquito protection while doing some yard work.
• I haven’t worn regular socks or shoes in a long time. It’s either running shoes/socks, or my Birkenstocks.
• I now take my showers in the evening. It feels so good to climb into bed nice and clean! I used to take my shower in the morning in order to wake up and get rid of bed-head. But now I can be a bit more lax with my “grooming”. Also, I ride my bicycle or go for a run in the evening, so a shower is necessary.

Today’s photo is of the tree that hangs over the neighborhood mailbox. It’s what prompted me to think about how I keep the mailbox key on my bike instead of my car.

I hope you had a good day and are hanging in there!

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こんばんは。How’s it going?

As my oldest son gets closer to graduation, it’s finally dawning on me that he’ll be leaving the house in just five or six months. So that means a lot of things that I’ve done each day for many years will come to an end. For instance, I won’t be making tamago-gohan for him for breakfast anymore. I also won’t be picking him up from school. And the dinner table will have an empty chair. All of these make me a little sad.

But of course I am also excited to see what the future has in store for all of us so I will keep looking ahead with a positive attitude. がんばれ

I hope you had a nice day!

またね〜

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Escape room, bowling, pool, and darts. Plus karaage for dinner, mahjong, and watching Venom on the Chromecast. Fun day!

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こんばんは。How’s it going?

Here in central Texas, the weather turned nasty with rain and chilly temperatures. But the dreary day was neutralized by a delicious, spicy dinner! We had a Korean-style pork dish, spicy eggplant and jalapeño, honey tomatoes, spinach with sesame, and steaming miso soup. The perfect meal to heat you up.

I hope you had a nice day. Stay warm!

またね～

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こんばんは。

Today’s photo is of the sticker I put on my new power bank. Do you know what movie that sneaker is from? If you guessed The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou you would be correct!

I bought a new power bank because Bay’s battery went kaput and I gave him my Anker power bank. It was good, but it was too heavy and kind of overkill on my power needs, but perfect for Bay. While I was in China, I found that my Anker pack was just too heavy and bulky, but my Mom’s much smaller power bank was great. So I opted to get a smaller capacity 10,000 mAh Oprout power bank (with enough flat surface space to decorate with sticker) and it suits me fine. If I need to, I can even put it in my jeans pocket.

Anyways, so far so good!

I hope you had a nice day.

またね～

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こんばんは。How’s it going?

I’ve been practicing ukulele quite a bit lately, but my fretting wrist hurts a lot. I think it’s a combination of two things. First, my wrist when I play ukulele is at an awkward angle and thus causing unnecessary strain on my muscles and other connective bits (tendons?). Secondly, the watchband that I switched to a couple of months ago may have been too tight and restricted movement. It’s odd, but because the watchband is so comfortable I don’t realize that I’ve been wearing it too tightly.

But I really need to work on holding the ukulele in the correct position, with wrist straight and bending my fingertips more. When I use this technique, there’s no pain, but once I go back to bending my wrist a lot, I can feel it hurting.

Anyways, I’ve been learning City of Stars from LA LA LAND, and also Sleepwalk by Santo and Johnny. They are both really fun! And I’ve been recording my practices on my phone, but the quality is pretty bad… both my playing and the video. But it’s a fun experience.

I hope you had a nice Sunday!

またね～

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こんばんは。Howzit?

Today I took my Subaru Crosstrek in for its 12,000-mile service. You know what? I love my Subaru and the dealership treats me so well. My whole experience there has been excellent. Today’s maintenance was performed in about half an hour, which was so quick that I barely got started working before I had to close my laptop and head home. But the Subaru experience and brand matches my personality nicely. With the other cars that we’ve owned (Toyota, Honda, and Nissan), I’ve never felt anything special about them. But Subaru is different… I guess that is the power of customer service and brand. Plus the quirkiness of Subaru is cool. I like it!

They had a couple more Crosstreks on the lot today, including this metallic blue one:

This is the color I originally wanted, but when I saw the “Cool Gray Khaki” color, I just had to have it! I haven’t regretted my decision once. But look at that red WRX STI next to the blue Crosstrek. That is one sexy car! I’d love to take one out for a spin. I bet it’s fun, but can it compare to a motorbike? Probably just a different experience I suppose. Vroom!

Later in the afternoon, I went to my local library to vote. I was so surprised to see how long the line was! It’s not even election day, and not the first day of early voting, and yet it was the longest line I’ve ever seen – even more than a presidential election! The line went pretty quickly, and I got my vote in, received the sticker, and headed back home and back to work.

And finally, dinner! Mariko prepared some fried rice for us before heading to work, so we feasted on that and some wontons that I steamed/fried like we do our gyoza. To kick it up a few notches, I diced some Scotch Bonnet peppers that my mom gave me. These peppers are soooo hot that I made sure to wear gloves while dicing them. But they did add a really nice fire to my meal.

Another yummy dinner.

I hope you had a nice Wednesday!

またね～

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こんばんは。How’s it going?

Today I received my new glasses in the mail, which was a nice surprise because they were scheduled to arrive on Saturday. Yay! In the photo above, they are the ones in the middle.

I am pretty happy and excited because this is the first time for me to use glasses with progressive lenses. For the past year, I’ve been alternating between distance glasses and reading/computer glasses, which was ok, but a bit inconvenient. But now with these new progressive lenses, I shouldn’t have to keep switching! The big difference now is during driving. When I used to drive, I’d just use my distance glasses, but that meant the dashboard area was kind of blurry. But now the dash and center console is sharp and readable. It’s great!

Even though the progressives are convenient, I am going to keep using my reading/computer glasses for when I am in front of the big monitors. That’s because the progressive lenses’ focus area is not large enough to cover a huge portion of the computer screen. However, I think I can retire my old distance glasses, or maybe keep them in the car just in case.

FYI, I have been buying my glasses from Eyebuydirect.com for a few years now. They are super inexpensive, but I’ve been very happy with the quality. If you want to give them a try, please use this link, which includes my referral code.

I hope you had a nice day!

またね～

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こんばんは。How’s it going?

Tonight we had everyone’s favorite meal: karaage (Japanese fried chicken). White rice, karaage, and miso soup are perfect for a cold day like today… it warms you up and lifts your spirits! The rain and chilly weather are such a shock since last week was so warm and nice. But I guess each day of bad weather means we’re a day closer to summer 2019.

In other news, I went for my annual health screening at work. It’s a basic checkup, with a blood test to check on cholesterol, glucose, etc. And my health is actually improving for the most part! The bad cholesterol has gone down, the good cholesterol has gone up, and blood pressure is in a good range. In fact, everything was trending towards better health, with the exception of one measurement – I gained 1 pound. I blame the karaage.

I hope you had a nice day!

またね～

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こんばんは。How’s it going?

Today Bay took his driving test and passed! So now he has his provisional drivers license and can legally drive by himself and have one passenger with him.

Instead of using a driving school, I taught him myself using the “Aceable” parent-taught program. It was a lot cheaper than the regular driving schools, but you need to have some discipline (and nerves of steel at first) to go out and practice consistently and keep records. I used Google Calendar to keep track of all the hours we spent, so it wasn’t too difficult.

I’m not sure if Koa and I will do the same thing or if he’ll go to a driving school. We’ll see!

Speaking of Koa, he had a percussion concert in the evening. They sounded really good for their first live performance of the pieces, and they have another month to prepare for their show up in Indianapolis, so I think they will do awesome up there.

I hope you had a nice Monday!

またね～

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