Exciting news!

I've been holding off on this post for a while because I wanted to do it just right (you know - with pictures. and the permission of the parents).

My good friend from high school, Alex, and his lovely wife, Kat, just had their first child last week. Baby Emma is beautiful!

Here are some pictures!

The proud parents. They look so happy. And tired. And happy.

Dr. P and Emma. Notice the professional handhold there on Emma's head.

Baby Emma sleeps.

Also, here's a shot of the baby sweater. I'm not sure how close to being done I am (not very, I think). The good news is that it is the 0-6 months size.

Disney Land

Yesterday I went to Tokyo Disneyland for the first time. I had an opportunity to go with my 2-year-old friend Nagu, and his 6-year-old cousin Yu-kun, and that is hard to pass up. The park was a BIG hit with the kids, and we all had a great time. I haven't been to the American parks in a while, so I can't make a good comparison. And it was a Saturday, which would make things more crowded. But the crowds were UNBELIEVABLE. For example, this is a picture of the inside of a souvenir shop:


Here are a few more pictures of our adventures:

Presented without comment

Photo from espn.com.

Children growing up

I just had an admittedly very short phone conversation with my favorite Japanese baby. He said my name, said "hello" (in English, which he might have picked up on his travels), I believe he asked me what I was saying, and then he said "bye bye." It is hard to describe how cute it was.

The last week has been so busy

That I just didn’t get to the requisite weekend update portion of the blog last weekend.

So, a special combo for you: last weekend, plus the first part of this weekend (all rolled into one! With chocolate sauce!).

I kicked off last weekend with a visit over to see the best dog ever. We even got to take the dog swimming, which was great. I didn't take any pictures of the swimming, but here's one from a bit later in the evening.Saturday during the day, I did a little volunteering project at Treehouse. Treehouse is an organization here in town that provides a “wearhouse” for children in the foster care system. Four times per year, kids can come and “shop” for both new and used items of clothing, school supplies, Halloween costumes, toys, holiday presents, backpacks, summer camp items, shoes, etc. Best, it is all free for those kids and their families. How wonderful is that? If you’d like to make a donation, you can do that here.

Anyway, Saturday night was a busy night. First I had a delicious dinner with SYL and Kris. And then Kris and I divided up the cocoa we bought a few weeks ago (surprisinginly, raspberry was not the most popular flavor). After that, I went to a goodbye parting for my friend Yuko. This was a dessert-themed party as well (parting is such sweet sorrow, no?). Here are some pics from the party, starting with the happy couple themselves.Sunday, I went to knitting. Amy’s shawl is done (see above). My baby sweater is, well, not knitting itself. Maybe I’ll put a picture up here when I actually have something to show. Or when the baby turns five.

Monday night I had a break-the-fast dinner at Scott and Meredith’s. So yummy! Dinner featured Scott’s famous challah plus a delicious chocolate cake created by Meredith.This weekend has been a little less crazed. Today I went to a pumpkin patch/corn maze. It was a great day to do this, and, I must confess, this was my first time in a corn maze. This year, the farm had cut the maze in the shape of an airplane (or so they said – it’s awfully hard to tell if this true when you’re in the maze).Finally, we found our way out and proceeded to the pumpkin portion of the day.And then we narrowly escaped an attack by the Great Pumpkin, lumbering across the fields to get us.

Softball

Yesterday I played softball with a group of folks around Tsukuba. Most of the players were from countries where baseball is not played, and many players had never played a game before. I did a brief "baseball 101" lecture to try to get them up to speed with the rules, but things like force-outs and tagging up are quite difficult to explain.

It was a really fun time. We didn't keep score, but my team won in spirit. There are some pictures here.

Some excitement

I just found out that an article I submitted has been accepted for publication. This will be my first publication.

The Changing Face of Yokohama

Apparently Yokohama has change a lot since I lived there (2001-2002). They just found a monkey in the street (the article is in Japanese, but there is a picture).

On an unrelated note, last week I interpreted at an origami class at my apartment building. Here are some pictures.


...UPDATE: the monkey article indicates that it could actually be a lemur.

Butchart Gardens & the rest of Victoria

On Saturday we went to the gardens. They are about 40 minutes outside of Victoria by city bus. Although Dr. P was concerned that everything would have been killed off by the cold nights, the flowers were still blooming apace, with only a small trace of fall color. Apparently, the garden is actually quite nice year-round. And in December they even have an outdoor skating pond! There are several different gardens. Our favorite was the sunken garden, terraced inside an old limestone quarry.

Then there was the dahlia garden – with every possible variety of dahlia under the sun.

And the Japanese Garden.

And the Italian Garden.

There were also beautiful flowers throughout, lining the pathways between these gardens.Also, totem poles.

And lots of bees.

We had a lovely sunset walk around Victoria, followed by a super-yummy Italian dinner. On the way back to our great little hotel, we also got to see the Parliament building all lit up.

On Sunday we went to the Royal BC Museum. The museum was really neat, with lots of exhibits about the environment and the First Nations Peoples.

Also, in Canada they have funny bike racks.And then we rode the boat back. And I didn't even get sick.

Victor, Victoria!

Our first day in Victoria went well. Namely because I didn’t get sick on the boat. But everything that happened after that was nice, too. It’s also a very beautiful day here, after a rainy few days in Seattle.We’ve walked around the town a lot. It’s a bit dangerous, since there are bears everywhere (this is Canada, after all).The flowers are everywhere and still in bloom. There are also neat old buildings everywhere. Because this is a tourist town, there are also lots of shops selling Canadiana (is that the counterpart to Americana?). On that note, if these are Canadian mounties, I think we might need to pay more attention to border security on the northern border. Just a thought.Tea is also big here. We had a very nice afternoon tea at the Empress Hotel. We drank the special “Afternoon Empress Tea Blend” and ate our little treats as we looked out at the beautiful harbor.Tomorrow we are going to Butchart gardens.

Sunday

I had a pretty good Sunday. I started things off with a run with Meredith. We are training for the Seattle Half Marathon – and I just found out that the B-Hatch will be running with us as well. So that should be fun. Except, perhaps, the part where we have to run. Also, the part where we have to run up the hills.

After my run (and a shower, thank you very much), I headed over to the library book sale with my library book sale posse (Lisa, Jen Em, Owen [Jen Em’s boyfriend], and my new friend Elias). We were a big enough group that we could have beaten up (or at least boxed out) anyone who was reaching for books we thought were ours. And that might have been necessary, had we come on Friday night or on Saturday morning. See, this book sale is crazy. It’s the sale for all of Seattle’s public libraries. It happens twice a year in this big, empty airplane hangar.On Friday and Saturday, the line to get in snakes around the building and people camp out with barbeques and the like. We in Seattle take our books seriously. But on Sunday morning the scene was considerably more mellow. The booksale was also a little picked over. But, the upside was that Sunday is half-price day, so I managed to get fifteen books for $6.25. Can’t beat that! And I did get some books that are definitely exciting.

To regain our strength after the booksale, we went out for Thai food. Though the place was a bit noisy, the food can’t be beat. And I hadn’t seen a set-up like this since we were in Thailand.Okay, truth be told, at this point I came home and took a little nap.

But, when I awakened, I headed off to my knitting group. We met at the cutest little teahouse on Queen Anne hill – and I had the yummiest cinnamon tea there. As for the knitting, my baby sweater is coming along. Okay, just kidding, my baby sweater is not coming along at all. I did knit one gauge swatch from which I learned that I need to adjust things if I want the sweater to be large enough to fit an actual baby (the minimum requirement for baby sweaters, I hear). So I’ve stalled out in the knitting department for the moment. But my friend Amy continues knitting her lace shawl like mad.In other news, fall is definitely here. It’s turned a bit rainy and cold, and the tree outside our living room window is changing.Tonight I am heading to the airport to pick my mother up. She’ll be up here for about a week. The highlight of her visit will be our trip to Victoria. I’m excited about going to Victoria, having tea at the Empress, seeing Butchart Gardens, etc. I am less excited about riding the boat for 3 hours to get there. Oh well.