Better Than Expected

Everyone was suitably pooped after yesterday's adventure, so we layed low today and hung out with grandma eating pizza and enjoying sangria.

A major goal of the day was laundry, the least exciting yet most satisfying part of traveling, and I had a look at some old boxes in grandma's closet that contain old albums and books and journals and letters. I'm gonna need at least a week to properly go through those things. And a tad more bourbon. Some of those letters I saw through the neatly sealed ziplock bags are from over 20 years ago and from people who write sensational letters. It's gonna be better than any Netflix series I could imagine.

Grandma caught up on some business with the boys.

Ollie dog got so much attention and tons of treats from the boys.

He's such a good dog.

Eri and the boys love grandma's house because it's so cozy and charmingly decorated. Everything on the walls, all the little curious items on the shelves, even the chairs, they all have a story. And the boys love the stories.

Kenzo and Osamu love going shopping with grandma, too. The stores here are different than in Sendai and there are so many curious things for sale. Kenzo found the Halloween decorations especially interesting. There was a weird Halloween wreath with creepy skulls on which I commented, "Our neighbors would stop talking to us if we put that up!"

All this after a sorta lazy morning where Kenzo and I made a quick trip to the pool. He loves the jacuzzi.

He made the rounds of all the pools around our sunbathing home base, and when he would come back and check in he took a quick break to lay down. I was finishing up a cold brew coffee and people watching when Kenzo said, "Papa, I like this place. I think we should stay." I know he meant the hotel, not the country.

Osamu ate an apple the "real" way for the first time ever, and he did a pretty good job. Better than expected.

Comments

lookin tired/feelin good

I can't even read the clock right. Eri: "You're going to soccer, right? Aren't you a bit early?" Me: "Yeah! We usually leave at this time and get there right on time. We gotta go! Let's go guys!" Soccer club starts at 10 a.m. The boys know that when the long hand on the clock gets to the 8 (9:40) it's time to go to the bathroom and get our socks and shoes on and head down to the car. The big hand was on 8. The problem that Eri saw was the short hand. It was 8:40, not 9:40. I'm going nuts. Slowly . Rapidly. An hour later, after I slowly enjoyed my coffee and disposed of the last beetle (yes, all four beetles have now gone back to the earth) and cleaned his bug box to make room for new bug acquisitions and the boys chilled out on the sofa watching TV, we set off. While the boys played soccer I headed across the parking lot to grab them some juice boxes for a job well done. This is not standard procedure, but Kenzo made his comeback today after ...

Experiences I Will Never Know About

Eri and I were checking out one of Kenzo's school notebooks tonight. This page has so much going on, and I love all of it. It made me realize something that I can easily forget - he's a person. He has a life separate from mine, lives each day having experiences that I will never know about, and has thoughts and ideas that I can't nor should get in the way of. "Thank you for doing everything," she said. Eri walked with me this morning as I went around the neighborhood and delivered planter box maintenance information and schedules to various folks. We stopped at the first house and I rang the doorbell and handed the old lady the three-page information sheet I had made and copied and we exchanged greetings and then I realized this is going to take forever if I ring every single person’s doorbell and chit-chat with them. I’ve got 20+ more of these to hand out. So we started just sticking them in people's mailboxes and made better time. Most folks aren’t home an...

Friends and Co-workers

Taking a random Wednesday off from work means Thursday is going to be extra busy, and today was that. I was in meetings for a little over five hours and just barely managed to reply to emails that needed attention and attend to tasks that require daily steps forward. I have it so good because the people I work with are my friends. We even talked about this today in a meeting about our team culture. We do a solid amount of professional development and core values driven discussions. Officially, I am the manager, so my position has a certain nuance. For example, I know I'm not part of conversations that team members have amongst each other. And that's fine. It's natural. I trust everyone, as I would trust any friend, that they all have the best interests of each other and our organization at heart. They never let me down. The first meeting of the day was a two hour book study session. My team is passionate about growth, so we choose a book regularly, make a schedule, and meet...

This'll Just Take a Minute

Search This Blog