Kokochi

Happy Birthday to Ian!

It was my pleasure to host a sushi dinner for my brother Ian's birthday on Saturday. Along with the kids, and the Yarringtons (friends from our Tokyo days who now live in Saratoga), we had a fun time eating, drinking, playing, and chatting. I have to say the highlight was the amazing cake Rachel made with a Tintin "Destination Moon" theme. Ian and I grew up with Tintin, and I really wanted a special cake for Ian. However, I'm not so great at baking, and Rachel is a star, so I asked her to help me out. In spite having an exam the morning off, Rachel came through brilliantly with the most magnificent 8 inch high vanilla cake with caramel filling, and a gorgeous marshmallow "moon" frosting. Wow. Thank you, Rachel! Tyler and Andy being fuzzy-head goofballs. After dinner lounging around... Julia and Lauren made a "house" with Tesla's kitchenette. I came in to take a picture. I love how each have their own "pose" and how formal Lauren stood up! Next is Andy's running action picture. The food...oh my. We had a lot. In addition to my sushi and inari, Miyo and Izumi contributed super yummy salads and appetizers. The table was full of food! Tesla has been fighting a pretty rough cough so has been cranky and tired, but she enjoyed hanging out with the older kids. Even with all of us, we were only able to eat less than half of the cake. More to share the next day : )

one way to use spam

I got a few laughs out of this. Thanks, Beau!

"identify brontosaurus crockery shabby taunt"

sharing a table

At our local cafe. I was going to get food to go, but Tesla pulled a chair out. It was pretty much the first time we sat like 2 individuals at a table, facing each other as we ate our sandwiches. Can't wait 'til we have conversations too!

Internally...

Every once in a while I check what search words bring folks to Kokochi. I used to keep a list as some were hilarious and quite out of context. But recently, I'm happy if I get a few pics up of Tesla, let alone sift through stats. I did check today though. And most times, new folks come to Kokochi from a search on words linked to my "old life" as in when we went out to the weird and quirky things that San Francisco offers. Or saw amazing things and I posted about them. In contrast, lately - as in the last 2 years - it's really all about Tesla, which isn't what folks are looking for.

Kokochi has become my personal memory book that just happens to be public out of old habit. Honestly, the biggest impetus to blogging nowadays is the feeling I get when I go back into archives for one reason or another, and have this wonderful chronicle of Tesla. It's such a treasure, so I continue.

I've always been the kind to think, "If there were a fire, I'd grab my cats and photos." Now, I don't have to worry about photos since they're online. Tesla will be able to run soon in such an emergency, so I just need to focus on my cats :)

Anyway, this got me thinking about sharing about other internal stuff on my mind vs. Tesla's daily activities. So here's a short-list:

• Been feeling again how little creative & thinking time I have, and wondering what the consequences are. I'm happy, but what part of myself am I losing?
• Going to Tokyo for business in a few weeks, and bringing Tesla again (her 4th time). Each time is completely different due to her age, and this one will be the toughest, I think (thank goodness Rachel is joining me to help on the plane). However, it will also be the most rewarding because she can respond to things. The main goal is have Tesla remember my mom who will fly over in August to care for Tesla when we go to Burning Man without Tesla. That will be the first time ever that both of us will be away from Tesla for more than a night.
• My cousin is getting married, and I really want to attend. But it's in Erie, PN, and our schedule dictates that we'd have to travel like mad on a Friday, have fun on Saturday, and travel again on Sunday. With a toddler. Now I know what that means, and I'm very sad to admit attending might not be the best decision.
• Tesla will be 2 on July 5th. But mama will be at a spa with her 3 other high school girlfriends. Us all have not been all together without men by our side since high school, and this is so overdue! I know next year's b-day will be big because Tesla will be able to express what she wants, so this year, I'm going to have a small lunch for her a few weeks early so I can have my weekend with my girlfriends. So excited!! And Tesla won't know the difference [although she can read about it here later on Kokochi, heh].
• I have a website I really want to start. I want to post about neat stuff on the Japanese internet. This site would not be about me at all. It's something I'm excited about because it would force me to regularly explore a branch of the internet I don't spend time on that is exploding with cool stuff. However, "cool" does not mean the geek, manga, "this is so weird" sorta stuff that seems to be what usually gets introduced on the English internet sites. I want to focus on the everyday, sometimes female, design/home sorta stuff....because I want to :) I'm hoping this will be my creative outlet. However, I've been waiting for the time to dig in, and it just isn't going to happen, so I'm slowly facing that I will have to do it even though I have a million other things on my plate.
• I don't blog about my cats anymore, and that saddens me. For the same reason I blog about Tesla, I need to re-include my cats. I love them.
• 88 days until the burn. This year will be like our honeymoon!

I may have more to add later, but for now, I'm going to sign-off.

diaper play

Tesla is definitely showing interest in potty, diapers, and potty-related words. She appears to be trying to figure it all out. She watches anyone doing their business when possible, even lying on the floor peeking below the door when guests close the bathroom door and lock it so she can't waltz in to watch.

Lately, her new thing is bringing ALL her diaper gear out in the living room (diaper basket, changing cover, and diaper cream) and putting diapers on her favorite doggy, babbling the whole time about something that sounds like poopoo.

Boot girl

Tesla is quite obsessed with her ladybug boots these days. They are too big for her to wear outside, so we let her do as she pleases inside. She wakes up and puts her boots on still wearing her jammies. I can tell how the things are going to get super cute and funny as she starts acting out her thoughts and desires.

capturing a millisecond

Can you tell what we were all doing? Chez M & J's after dinner and wine.

Got me an Advanced Archive Widget!

One thing I really wanted with the updated Kokochi template design was to shorten my ever-growing archive list. It was getting too long and cumbersome. I've always admired Anil's niftier archive style. Since Dav has been super busy, I asked if Beau could do it, and he graciously said, "sure!"

What I didn't realize was Beau asked Anil about it, found out Anil manually did it, got Brad Choate to draft code, then tweaked it to make it work chez Kokochi. Wow. This is why I love working at Six Apart...great teamwork and help all around even for personal stuff. A big shout-out to Beau for taking the time to install the Advanced Archive Widget, and thanks to Brad and Anil too!

in our DVD player

We listen to music off of a MacMini, and rarely via a CD, so this combination in our player is understandable, but still funny to me:

* A Battlestar Galactica DVD from season 3

* "More of Harper's Favorite Songs, 2008" that Tesla got at Harper's b-day and has fun "real" songs (vs. specifically for toddlers)

* Potty Power, a DVD about "big" kids going potty that Tesla is totally into now.

Strawberry...was COLD!

It was a very different year at Strawberry. Weather-wise, that is. The same warm, fun, and super kid-friendly community was there. And we even got to camp next to the same gracious couple we met last year. Great music too. But the weather was, well, wet and cold vs. last year's hot sunshine that encouraged play in the lake. The rain wasn't just misty gentle rain; it poured for hours. Luckily we were in our RV, and although we spent ALL Saturday huddled in the RV, we didn't mind too much at first. Compared to others in their tents, we were fine. But after a brief break Sunday morning when we got our hopes up and enjoyed the festivities outdoors, when it started to pour again, we decided it was time to go home...early. Couping Tesla indoors for many more hours just wasn't ideal.There were plenty of hours where it wasn't raining...and I've got a few pictures to show our fun at Strawberry. We will go back for sure, and I'm glad to have experienced how the festival came together and still had a great time in spite of the rain. Folks were out there watching the performers in the rain, people shared food and drinks, and as we tried to leave and realized our battery had died (since we listened to the festival radio so much from inside our RV), our neighbor installed a new one and refused to be reimbursed. So although it wasn't the best circumstance, I still feel it was worth it. Tesla too just loved being outdoors and seeing so many kids running around.

It's nice to be home though. Lots of laundry, and recovering...Dav is a bit sick which sucks. But even the time stuck in the RV was rather special. We got a lot of reading done, and it just felt snuggly as a family. Wet and cold, but overall good weekend!