It's a Slow Week

In the title at the top of the page it says this blog may be random, and I'd like to start off tonight's with something certainly random. The other morning I heard banging and I thought people next door (we're in a 4-plex, but are on an end) were moving out. I looked out the window and didn't see anything though, so wasn't sure what it was and just shrugged it off. It was raining out, so the girls and I were laying in my bed (gotta love that!) watching cartoons. It was about 8:30-9 am and I knew we'd end up having a lazy day.

We got up and headed downstairs, and when I opened the vertical blinds in the kitchen that leads to the front lanai (or patio as I called it before moving to Hawaii) I saw this. So yeah, talk about random! That's a guy's hand/glove you see there. I jumped back and hit the kitchen table. The girls were fascinated and just stared out the window. I immediately grabbed my camera, how could I not, put it on manual mode (so the flash wouldn't go off-didn't want to friendly Japanese maintenance guys to know I was taking their picture) and clicked. Just then two more guys came and were talking to the one in the hole. We all waved at each other and they continued doing whatever it was they were doing. They must have been draining or cleaning something, because water was being pumped out into the front yard from that meshy blue hose. They were outside for a couple of hours coming and going; my guess from other houses. I opened up the slider door as they were packing up and leaving, and the girls said, "Konnichwa!" to them. The three men bowed in return and waved back. Too cute! Keanna asked me why they bowed since they weren't on a stage, so guess we need to work on the bowing thing some more...she needs a refresher!

A week or two ago my new friend Julie was talking about finding a mall about 30 minutes north of here. I told her I was up for a field trip, so we went together. Our kids got along great and she and I hit it off. We belong to the same message board and that's actually how we met. Yesterday was her birthday, and while the girls were playing out back and I was trying to change the drill bits out in Bob's drill I heard the girls talking and said, "Hi Noah!" Julie and her son, Noah, were walking their two dogs. So we started chatting and she came inside. Keanna was having a really good time walking the dogs around on their leashes in our backyard. That's amusing to me since our backyard is about the size of a shoebox. Anyway, we were talking and she invited us over for dinner. I didn't want to impose for dinner, especially since it was her birthday! But she insisted so we walked back to their house with them. We talked a little about family recipes since she made the sauce for the pizza. I told her about my mom only using Pastene tomatoes for her sauce, and we laughed about the fact that mom packs them in her suitcase when she comes to visit us...no matter where it may be. I'll let ya know if she lands in Tokyo with her usually seven or eight cans.

I invited Julie and Noah over tonight for dinner, and after our conversation last night I found out they don't really eat cake or brownies, so I improvised and stuck a candle in her mac and cheese as we sang "Happy Birthday!" Mom, I used your recipe, but used penne rigate instead of elbows. We introduced them to apple sauce on top as well, and Julie liked it...enough to have seconds even! Well, either that or she was being very polite!!!

Afterward the kids played and eventually we got the Wii started up. We all played Mario Kart for a little while, but the big hit of the night was the fishing game of Wii Play. As you can see, it was their favorite!