LOST

4 8 15 16 23 42

今晩、ロストが始まる。去年の春からずっと待っていたのだ。

ジャックとケートはどうなるのか？

マイケルは皆を助けるために帰ってくるか？

ロックがボタンを押さなかったけど、島はどうなるのか。

アザーズ (Others) はいったい何ものだ！

ギャー。

全く、待ちきれない。今日は授業があるけど、おそらく、集中できないだろう...

ヤードセール

In Japan, there are scattered flea markets where individuals can sell their wares. But I have never seen anyone sell anything in front of their own home like they do in the US. Yard or garage sales seem to be a rarity in Japan, maybe because most people don't have a yard or garage to speak of.

To be honest, we don't have much of a front yard either. And we don't have a garage at all. But that is the price of living in a townhouse community. But we do have a community yard sale where residents can bring their old stuff and try to sell it to an unsuspecting public. Well, this was the first time M wanted to participate. We've been living in our house for more than 6 years now and she had gathered unused things together--hand-held blender, a couple of purses, an earthen tea pot, a Japanese tea cup set, some plates. We were wondering if we should ask friends if they wanted anything, maybe take to the local thrift shop or maybe the Salvation Army. But when we got the notice for the community yard sale, she wondered if the stuff we had was good enough to sell, and I said, "There's only one way to find out."

She got so excited. Apparently, she had always wanted to have a yard sale and she spent every night for a week, getting things together, going on e-Bay (at my suggestion) to look at prices of similar things. She wiped, and polished and priced about thirty different items. I added a famous classical Chinese painting reproduced in 1959 by a reputable Chinese printer, which I priced at $55--it was just sitting in a cabinet collecting dust.

At 7 AM on Saturday, the day of the yard sale, it was drizzling. I called the coordinator and she told me that if it was still raining at 8AM, the sale would be cancelled until the following Saturday. I could have gone either way--I mean, it is me who ends up hauling the goods back and forth, going to the bank to make sure we have change, calling to the coordinator for more info, et cetera--but M looked so anxious that I couldn't help but hope the rain would stop. And at 8 AM, it did stop.

So we packed up the car and took our wares to the outskirts of the community, across the street from the local high school. Many others had already started setting up "shop" so we ended up at the very end of the block. But that wasn't too bad. We were under some trees and whenever it sprinkled off and on, others joined us under the long leafy branch we were under.

Now, I'm not sure how to measure success at these yard sales, as I had never done it before either, but we had a number of people drop by and we were able to sell a few items. Most of the stuff we put out was priced between $1 to $3 dollars, and we sold roughly half of the things we brought, including the Chinese painting for $47. M was dying to go to the other sellers and buy stuff--she is a sucker for these kind of things--but I reminded her that it would be rather pathetic to return with as much stuff as we had brought, and she sighed in agreement. When we got home and counted the money--a little less than $100 earned--she was even more excited and began telling me how smart she was for not buying anything from the other sellers. Yes, dear, it was very insightful of you. *sigh*

Anyway, we had a nice Saturday yard sale adventure. Just another bonding experience for the Riceball family.

I should add that one buyer asked if she could buy the light sweat shirt M was wearing--the original Onigiriman sweatshirt M is wearing above. I said it wasn't for sale, but that she could buy one at the Onigiriman shop at CafePress.com, along with the Onigiriman baseball cap. Hahahahhahaha. I will go for the cheap plug anytime, anywhere... even here!

Thanks: Much appreciation for the words about the DVD burner. I will be getting one soon. I just bought an external hard disk as well--Seagate 250GB.

西田さんのお宅

　三月の末、金曜日のフィットネスのメンバーの西田さんと田中さんが日本へ帰ります。送別会というか、土曜日に西田さんのお宅でディナーパーティがありました。田中さんたちも本田さんも藁谷さんもいらっしゃいました。話が弾んで楽しい時間を過ごしました。

母上様、歌人なりけり

知悦のお母さんは歌人です。朝日新聞の「アサヒタウンズ」の短歌欄に特選、おまけにトップになりました。

たうんず短歌　選と評

【特　選】
曾孫らの中に入られ友になりゲームのボタン吾れ持て余す

八王子　望月みやゑ

お正月いかにもにぎやかな家族の風景。ひいおばあちゃんも一緒に、ということなのだが･･････。「友になり」のあたりも表情ゆたか。良い歌が多い月でした。

評　米川千嘉子　

「アサヒタウンズ」 2006年2月16日 より

ようこそ!

Chie with members of her Friday morning fitness salon.
「花見フィットネス・サロン」の前の金曜日のメンバー
左から山田さん、西山さん、佐藤さん、斎藤さん、所長、吉武さん

このポストの日付は、一番最近の更新を指摘する。

Warm Winter

Man! it's freakin' 65 degrees today! Can you believe it? I guess winter has passed us by, here in the DC area...

怖かった

おにぎりまんの話： 十一月の末、ある月曜日の朝、胸が痛くなって目が覚めた。

「ウォ～。何なんだ、これは」 と思った。

先月、ちょっと手がしびれていた時もあったけど、「まさか」と思ってこの心痛を無視しようとした。今回も胸痛を無視して学校に行った。授業で講義をしながらずっと胸が痛かったけど、朝の鋭い痛みはなかったから、大丈夫かな、と自分に言い聞かせようとした。が、うちに帰って寝ようとしたら、その鋭い痛みがまた始まった。殆ど眠れなかった。

朝起きたら、むすびちゃんと話したら、「ちゃんとお医者さんに見てもらった方がいいんじゃないの」という結果になって、しぶしぶ病院に行った。

病院で症状を説明してから、ＥＫＧ（心電図）をやってもらった。その結果を先生が話してくれて、結局は、ＥＫＧによると心臓には異状はなさそうだ。

「じゃ、この痛みは？」と、僕が訊ねたら、

「こうみたいですよ」と先生が頬っぺたを膨らませた。「要するに、大腸にガスが溜まっていて、腸が膨らんでる。異様に膨らむと、それは痛いさ」と。

ホッとすべきか、赤らめるべきか。ハァ～...

その後、ＣＶＳに行って、GasXという薬を買って帰った。溜まってるガスを分解してくれるはず薬なので、ガスが解されたら下の方へ光の見えるところまで流れるだろう。ハァ～。

この結果を漫画にしてみた。拡大するにはクリック。

終わりが良くば、すべて良し...

UPDATE: 分かったかどうかは分かりませんが、上の相手はむすびちゃんです。

Universal's Island of Adventure

オルランド国際空港到着、中央ターミナルへモノレールを乗る知悦。 Arriving at Orlando International Airport, the monorail takes Chie to the main terminal.

First day: Island of Adventure. いろんなキャラクターに会った。

We meet all kinds of characters. ポパイとオリーブ・オイルと仲良くする知悦。 Chie makes pals with Popeye and Olive Oyl

はっきり言って、一番面白い乗り物は先ず3Dのスパイダーマンであった。バック・ツ・ザ・フューチャーに似てたが、よりそごかった。 I must tell you that the best ride of the whole vacation was "Spiderman". It was a ride similar to "Back to the Future" but with better effects. It was 3-D, and the other effects included heat and water from the villains trying to stop spiderman during the ride. Do they have "Spiderman" at Universal Studios in LA? If not, you gotta come to Florida to ride it.

イソップとその息子にも会った。 We also were chumming around with Aesop and his son.

オイ、後ろのピスは何だ！ (OK, what's with the rabbit ears!?!)

フービルの皆さんはクリスマス・ソングも唄ってくれた。 People of Whoville perform Christmas carols! (I guess no one told them that Christmas was over....)

失われた町の恐竜にも挨拶。 We also met some dinosaurs and entered the Lost City.

「食われると思った」とリオが... I thought it was going to eat me. This wasn't even a part of the "Jurassic Park" ride!

しかし、一番怖かったのは、アフロ・ヘアのおじさんだった。 But the scariest thing we saw was a weirdo with an afro.

Actually, Leo stuck his finger in an unauthorized electrical socket.

帰りにモータウンのレストランに寄って、一杯飲んだ。Kenはマイケル・ジャクソンがグラミーショーで「ビリー・ジーン」を歌った時に着てた服。 On the way home, we stopped off at Motown, a theme restaurant that specializes in Motown memorabilia. Ken is standing in front of the costume Michael Jackson (is he Motown?) wore at the Grammy awards when he performed "Billy Jean". (Don't they have this displayed in New York, too?)

Some images on this page are the copyright of Universal Studios. All rights reserved.