This weekend

Generally speaking, I need to lighten up a little if I want to hear anything (good) at all from my family about this blog. I seriously hope to inspire a few inquiries into some of the more serious issues and opinions I've been writing about with greater and greater frequency, but realize that it's the day-to-day stuff that a lot of you are most interested in...go figure (besides, I don't want to sound like a raving maniac all the time).

Wow! I just had some grapes. Huge, dark purple, seedless and so sweet I'm having a sugar rush.

This has been a pretty casual weekend so far. Taka had a really busy week (not getting home until around 9-10 most nights), so we've mostly just been relaxing. I made green Thai curry for dinner last night. It was great! I wish I could take full credit for it, but I can't. The roux and most of the dried herbs where from a box (imported from Thailand). I generally add quite a bit to what's called for and do things in different order from the instructions. That doesn't always work, but last night's version was very tasty. It required wiping sweat from my bald head more than once (I really do shave it!). I need to try and figure out how to do this from scratch...some of the ingredients are gonna be tuff though. I can grow lemon grass and basil, but don't even know where to find kafir lime leaves.

Another family in the building moved out yesterday. They had a boy about 1 1/2 yrs. old and another child on the way soon. My bet is that a couple with one or two children and one on the way will replace them. Sometimes I feel like I live in the maternity or pediatric ward of a hospital. Judging from some of the kids around here, it could even be the pediatric ward of a mental hospital. The good part is that every time people move out of this place, a grand effort is made at making it look a little better. That, I like very much.

Taka was hinting that she wants to go out for dinner tonight. If she can motivate herself off the sofa and I can motivate myself off this computer, then we're thinking about a trip to Ginza and maybe a little Indian food tonight (we eat mostly Japanese during the week, but weekends can be pretty international). A friend told me about a place she likes, and I thought we'd check it out...if that doesn't work, we'll head to the place we went to last time (non-dairy vegetarian okay). Now I just need a mantra to give me the willpower to avoid the Apple Store!

Whoops! Nix all that. A major thunderstorm just passed through (or at least the worst of it has passed). I even shut down the computer for an hour. It was pretty intense...so naturally I had to go outside and watch. Unexpected and plan-changing, but pretty cool for all of that. There is now a small pond just behind our balcony.