Misc.

Odds and ends today. Let's see. Do you want to hear pet peeves or happy things or questions first? Ok. Pet peeves.

On Sunday Tetsu and I didn't go to church because Tetsu had an end of the fiscal year meeting with his convalescent home's board of directors and I had to attend the neighborhood general fiscal meeting. A few weeks ago we had a similar end of the year general meeting at the church and in the past I've attended PTA general meetings, jr. high club general meetings etc.

I find these not only boring but a waste of everyone's time. I know they are not supposed to be motivational seminars or anything but could we have a little eye-contact? The hour long meetings consist of being handed a ream of paper (in the neighborhood meeting's case about 20 pages) and then the papers are READ ALOUD word for word, number for number! I mean we are talking about columns of numbers for the year's budget and accounts. And each number, decimal point, date, activity, and any other pertaining fact including telephone numbers are read aloud by the moderator or someone he chooses. And everybody stares at the papers. And no one else says a word the whole time. And when it is all read we clap to say we approve and go home.

I came to Japan after reaching adulthood so I've never owned a home in the States, never attended a PTA meeting, never been a church member while living in the States, so for all I know this is how it is done everywhere. Is it? I can't recall my parents ever attending a meeting or complaining about them. I think there was a congregational meeting once at my mother's church while I was visiting but it was done in like 15 minutes and I doubt that papers were passed out and read aloud... I could be wrong.

Tetsu said it was the same at his meeting on Sunday too but he takes it all in stride. That's the way it's done. I would think someone could hand out papers a week or so ahead of time, tell everyone to read them, come to the meeting if you had questions or suggestions and then finish up the meeting in a couple of minutes or get on to more important things.

Interestingly, I am the only one in any of the meetings that can't read the dumb papers to begin with so I am the only one who really benefits from having everything read aloud I'm the last person who should complain...

Happy things.

I went to the nursery school yesterday and had a last class with the 5 year olds who will be going into elementary school next month. They gave me a lovely little poster of themselves and showered me with smiles and hugs.

Computer questions.

There are a couple of regular commentators to my blog that are on no-reply (Brendalou?) but I've gone ahead and sent an e-mail reply to them anyway and the e-mails don't come back like they sometimes do when I make an address error when I write to my kids or someone. Usually, if an e-mail doesn't go through it comes back. How about these no-reply e-mails? (Brendalou, are you getting my replies?) And I was also told that someone was trying to comment but they couldn't but I don't know if that's my fault or their computer. What do you think? Last question. Occasionally someone wants a pattern of something I've shown, but I don't know how to put a hand drawn pattern on my blog besides just photographing or scanning it and pasting it in. But that doesn't make a page to the right dimensions... Any suggestions about putting a page or file link or something into a post?

Baby ball

It is nice to be sewing small projects. Yesterday I waded through a drawer and pulled up a pattern from at least 23 years ago! I made Takumi a patchwork ball when he was a baby and since then I've made this a couple of times for other babies (I think Leiya even made one when she was in 6th grade to give to her teacher who was expecting.)

Isn't this a cute soft ball? These are so go great for introducing toss and catch to a baby. Soft, easy to grab, colorful. I'm seeing a baby this week so I got out my scraps and my batting ends and sewed this up quickly.


And my kitties had to try out my scrap and crumb basket while I was at work. Everytime I walked by there would be another cat claiming it as a nap area!

Cooking class

As I mentioned, spring vacation has begun and so I have a slightly less busy schedule than usual. Even the last couple of classes before spring break, the kids are asking as they walk in the door,

"Can we play a game today? We don't want to study."

That's fine with me. A few games make for a nice break for me too and doing something unusual is fun for all of us. So at the kindergarten and nursery school I brought cookies and we did a little role playing. I made up a "house" with a table and chairs and a tablecloth from home. I set up my tray of cookies and had each child come to my "front door" and knock. They were invited in and offered cookies and they got to pretend they were visiting me. Sort of fun and no matter what English they've learned (or not learned) it's always fun for a child to get a cookie!

On the home front we've played Monopoly in one class and SET in another. And for Monday's 5th graders we did some spur of the moment cookie baking. These are Chocolate Oatmeal cookies and though a little too sweet for most Japanese kids, they were still pretty good and I guess my 5th graders had a good time making them.

Chocolate-Oatmeal Cookies
(A)
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 cup oatmeal
(B)
200gm. chocolate or 1 cup chocolate chips
1 can condensed milk
1 Tablespoon margarine
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Mix (A) ingredients together

Combine (B) ingredients in pan (be careful not to burn)

Pat (A) into flat pan (save 1/4 of mixture)

Pour (B) over all

Top with remaining cookie mixture

Bake 25 minutes at 350 degrees (170 degrees C.) Burns easily

Cool and cut into bars

Last night's 5th and 6th grade class were invited to come early so that we could cook an American meal together. These are my quiet kids that I can't get to say boo. First problem, two of the three kids forgot! So much for looking forward to a special English class! I wondered if they just hadn't understood my invitation, but since one girl did show I guess it wasn't me. We called the other two students and one came running, but the boy didn't realize until after the class was over but he came to apologize.

The American dinner was the same as I'd done last year with that 6th grade class... Cherokee Casserole, Potato Soup and Rice Crispies Cookies. I'm doing Cherokee Casserole with one more class this week so I'll post the recipe then. Casseroles are unheard of in Japan maybe because many Japanese housewives don't have ovens. Also because a casserole can't compare to the typical "many dishes in small amounts and lots of different flavors and textures" meal that Japanese favor.

Same horrified faces when I made the girls sample the olive but in the end both students ate quite a lot though most of the cooking was done in silence except for my endless monologue and questioning (no answers). Sigh. I wish they would LOOK like they were having fun! Interestingly, all three are planning to continue next year though I had assumed at least the 6th grade girl would be quitting since she will enter jr. high school from April. And no. They didn't want their pictures taken again last night...

Noah's Ark BOM finished

The Noah's Ark BOM is finished! Boy, March has been a good month for sewing.

For the border I just did a simple back stitch of the Genesis 9:16 verse. I played around with fonts on the computer until I found one I liked and then printed it out and traced it. Of course then it was deciding how to put the words around the quilt. Does the phrase start at the top and wrap around the bottom? Are the words too hard to read if they are upside down? How do you balance the phrase around the four sides?

It worked out. I even found a piece of rainbow fabric to use for part of the binding. I don't know where that came from since I don't have an inch more.

And I took some liberties with Lynette's pattern and added a cat! I just love the kitty next to Noah... but he was the only animal that didn't have a mate! You know I'm always trying to squeeze room for one more cat so I added a companion for him on the ark.

BOMs always seem like they go together quickly... I know I spent over a year on this but it was so nice to come to the end of the year and have 12 blocks ready to do my bidding!

Surprise

We woke up to snow this morning... So much for expecting flowers today... So I have more scenery pictures just because it was very beautiful.


That is basically the same picture I took yesterday. Can't see the plum blossoms through the snow.


More plum blossoms wondering if they're supposed to bloom or not.

A bamboo grove with an excellent example of gradation.


A lonely power shovel waiting to work in the fields.


Morning light.

I did sew (quite a lot) yesterday. I've put away the Feathered Star until I figure out what to do about quilting lines and borders. I added the last strip around the whole quilt but it is a lighter color than the the other fabric. It can't be helped. I didn't have any more of the first light fabric... And I don't have any more of the medium fabric (in the lattice) either which might have been nice for a wide border. So... I either decide that this quilt is finished or go find a completely different medium colored border fabric. I'll take this to Thursday patchwork next week and see what my friends think.

I also put together the Noah's Ark BOM. I think if I were doing this again I'd make the frames around each embroidery block wider. Of course I could have taken these all off and put some new ones on, but I didn't want to get too far away from what Lynette was suggesting. BUT.. the extremely narrow frame made it very difficult to sew and my seam allowance turned out very wobbly. Today I'll work on a border for this too.

Plum blossoms

Spring break has started in Japan and I think the kids have two weeks of vacation. The new school year will begin the first week of April and everyone is hoping that the cherry blossoms will be in full bloom for the entrance and start of school ceremonies.

My garden is still brown and grey (though I do have a lonely cluster of daffodils blooming in a corner) but the plum trees are starting to show their blossoms. Many white plum trees that look they are covered with pop-corn. Some pink plum trees that are the most beautiful, and I think the darker pink color of the peach trees will begin blooming pretty soon. Japanese revere the delicate cherry blossoms but the bolder plum trees always seem more striking to me.

Japanese cuisine

Brenda Lou asked me recently if I grew up eating Japanese food or if I just learned to eat anything while I've lived here. Hmmm. No. I didn't grow up eating Japanese cuisine though I probably had more opportunities to try it than most people.

My mother did not cook Japanese food (she didn't cook much at all!). And my grandparents lived in the Midwest where there weren't any Asian grocery stores especially in those days. (Though my grandfather pioneered the use of soy sauce in the States.) But in my childhood we lived in the suburbs of Los Angeles and every couple of months we would make a jaunt to Little Tokyo just to look around the little shops and eat a tempura dinner. I remember thinking that miso soup was such a delicacy!

Our family was good friends with another Japanese/American family and though they didn't eat much Japanese food either, they had a Japanese grandfather who lived with them. When my grandfather would visit California the two families would get together and for Thanksgiving and the two grandfathers would speak to each other in Japanese. We'd have the traditional turkey dinner with mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie... and sushi rolls with eel! I guess you could consider that pretty strange. I was rather proud of myself for being able to eat eel and would brag to my high school friends.

My father loved traveling and in my childhood we traveled to many countries all over the world in the summers so I learned that one was supposed to try almost anything. Japan probably had the strangest combinations but I remember Thai food as being so spicy we could hardly eat at all. Sour cream herrings in Norway, Mole (mo-lay) in Mexico, escargot in France. My father insisted we eat them all.

When I came to Japan I was offered soup that had fish eyes floating around in it (I screamed and the hostess "fished" the eyes out for me.) and odd smelling things with unusual textures. For example mushy potatoes called sato imo which are actually taro root that Hawaiians eat. Also natto which are fermented soybeans that smell to high heaven and are slimy and sticky and are the dickens to wash out of whatever bowl you've eaten from. Slimy seems to be very popular in Japan. Slimy seaweed, slimy greens, slimy fish. But all very good actually. Smelly is another one maybe because of the many types of fermented food.

Just the other night I cooked up smelt and I remembered first being served smelt. The family I was visiting just placed a plate of little fish in front of me that were bulging with fish eggs. Gulp. How do you eat these things? The little girl in the family who sat across from me just popped one in her mouth, head first and chattered to me with the fish tail wobbling as she talked. I remember so clearly thinking,

"If this child can do this then I can too." and I bit off the fish head and ate the dinner like a pro.

And that's how I ate this little fishy too!

Crosswalk duty

As you may remember, I am a crosswalk guard for my neighborhood. Every morning, the elementary school children congregate in their respective groups and with the oldest child being the school group leader, the children walk single file through the neighborhood, across a fairly busy road (but only one lane each way), down the narrow sidewalk, back across the road where there is a light and into the main gate of the school. Mothers are asked NOT to drive children to school nor pick them up, but on rainy days some mothers will give in and take their child's group in the car. The children are supposed to walk like little ducks, following the leader (in order to stay out of the way of bicycles going in the opposite direction to the jr. high school) and not too much chatting is supposed to go on. There are 4 groups in my neighborhood made up of between 4 and 7 children to a group. The walk takes about 15 minutes.

7 years ago when Leiya was in the 6th grade and the leader of her group, there was an odd person living in our neighborhood that I felt was dangerous. I decided to walk Leiya's group past his house every morning and see them safely to the corner. And while I was there, I decided I might as well see the other groups to the corner. And while standing at the corner I realized that even though there was a crosswalk, the cars didn't stop to let the kids across! All over Japan there are little plastic yellow flags that are ripped and torn and are stuffed into stands at the corners for people to use when crossing the streets. A car is supposed to automatically stop if the driver sees someone holding a flag, or if the pedestrian even holds up his hand. (You often see little grandmas barreling out into traffic with their hands held up as if they've sent up an invisible shield around them stopping them from getting hit. A lot of car breaks screeching when an obaachan suddenly scuttles across the road in perfect confidence that she holds authority over all traffic.) So, since I was at the corner already I grabbed a plastic flag and stopped traffic until all the kids were on their way out of the neighborhood.

Over the years sometimes other neighbors will join me for crosswalk time and we chat while waiting for the kids to go along. Most often I am the only one out there because other housewives are using the time to tidy their houses and hang out the laundry. I've never given priority to housecleaning and laundry. It only takes a half hour of my time and I get a few extra steps on my pedometer. The dangerous person no longer lives in the neighborhood so there really is no reason for me to be out there but the cars still don't stop for the kids. I guess until someone tells me to mind my own business or the city puts in a traffic signal I will continue to do crosswalk duty.

The little plastic flags are supplied by local corporations as a community service and though bright, they don't last very long. Sometimes vandals will just come along and break them, sometimes the wind whips them out of the flag stand. Mostly the cold winter causes the plastic to become brittle and the flags crack and rip. The kids don't really use the flags much anyway and I'm the only one that tries to get a pitiful shred to hang flat so that the drivers can see. One of my friends and I were looking at the broken plastic flags a couple weeks ago and she mentioned that the plastic wasn't really very good. The flags need to be made of nylon or something. But since they are donated, we can't really suggest that someone spend more money making these, and as I say, I'm the only one who really uses them.

WELL! I don't have any nylon around, but I have fabric! I could make my own flag and carry it to the crosswalk every morning! That is what my STOP block turned out to be! A crosswalk flag! I made two blocks, machine stitched each one and then bound them together. I stuffed one of the broken flag handles into it and tacked it down with a button. VOILA! An American crosswalk flag! Even if they don't read English I think the drivers will get the message.

Slightly embarrassed, I took my crosswalk flag to the crosswalk this morning and got a lot of snickers and smiles from the kids on their way to school. GREAT! My flag does more than just stop cars! It brightened a few children's day! It may give a few drivers something to talk about too.

"Crazy American lady with a handmade stop sign..."

This week the neighborhood kids made me a bunch of origami flowers and wrote me a letter thanking me for seeing them off every morning. Yep, I guess I like being a crosswalk guard.

Excavating

I don't know if this can be considered ancient but Saturday and Sunday I dug my feathered star blocks from a back drawer and sewed them together. I have no idea when I made my first block but I know that I was already working on hand piecing them before I entered the blogging world! So some of these blocks have been around since before the fall of 2006!

Mrs. Furui and Mrs. Harada and I were goint to make feathered star quilts together and Mrs. Harada finished her one star wall hanging. Mrs. Furui is still in the cutting/piecing stage (she is going to be upset to know I'm working on this again!)

My original goal was to piece a block a month but after making 12 blocks I put them away in a drawer where they stagnated. I got involved with other things for awhile and then brought it back out in April 2008 in order to put in the lattice. BUT... when it was mostly sewn and laid out I decided that I didn't like the fabrics I'd chosen!!! Too bright and the lattice overpowered the blocks! So the quilt got taken apart again and has been fossilizing in the drawer ever since.

Last summer I bought a lot of light colored blue fabric in the States but didn't get around to thinking about this quilt until Saturday morning. So those fabrics have been buried in a box for 7 months too. But once I get on a roll I really get with it and for the past two days I've lived upstairs with Velvet and have been cutting and ironing and sewing. I have used up almost all of the very lightest fabric. I think I need to put one more narrow strip to even out the corner blocks but I'm not sure I even have enough fabric for that... I don't know what I'm going to do about borders or quilting except that I plan to hand quilt this. I guess this is going to be another 4 year quilt...

Graduation

This week has been graduation week for kindergarten through high school in my part of Japan. On Tuesday I went to the kindergarten ceremonies.

This is my friend and student and she was telling me about the trials of getting herself ready for her daughter's kindergarten graduation. Most mothers wear black or at least somber colors. A few mothers will go all out to wear a kimono but it involves a lot of work. Mrs. Matsumoto's kimono is her mother's but she said she had to have the sleeves shortened in order for it to be an appropriate kimono to wear to a formal event (for her age). That alone cost quite a lot and then she was told she needed to buy a suitable obi (belt) and under-kimono. And I'm not talking about hundreds of dollars. Add a zero. In the end she resewed one of her mother's under-kimonos and found a lovely obi at a recycle shop. (We went looking together and there were SOOO many beautiful kimonos for a piddling!) She had her friend dress her but often it is necessary to go to a professional kimono dresser to even get into and tie the obi in the fitting knot in the back.

At the elementary school graduation, all the 6th graders wear their up-coming jr. high school uniform as a sign of formality (and the mother's are in black again). I talked with one of my English students on his way back from graduation on Thursday and he was wearing the black high collar traditional uniform seen throughout Japan. When I first came to Japan so many students were wearing this traditional black outfit that I thought there was a national funeral going on! (picture from the internet)

And on the way back from kindergarten graduation I stopped in to a bakery and found these little filled breads on sale. They say things like "Congratulations" and "Happy Graduation". I think they are filled with chocolate cream.

Non-stop talking

I am rubbing my eyes and yawning as I write this. Yesterday our good friends, the Erickson's, came in from Washington state for a day with us. Sandra and I stayed up talking until 2:30 am! And we talked practically non-stop in the car as we did sightseeing touristy things too. We are probably going to have laryngitis tomorrow.

17 years ago, I took my kids to a neighborhood park and happened to see two little blond boys about Takumi's age playing on the swings. I asked if they lived nearby and they went running across the street to get their mother who joined us and thus began a close friendship. There was a little sister close to Leiya's age too and Sandra and I hit it off right away as did the husbands. For the next year and a half, we often did things together and one time when the American grandmas were visiting in Japan at the same time we all went off to a public bath which was a great adventure for everyone (I was especially proud of the grandmas).

But the Erickson's returned to the States a couple of years later (leaving us their furniture and their cat!) and we attempted to keep in touch by mail. Hmmph. Sandra isn't so great at keeping in touch. She'd send Christmas cards in February if at all. But the family did drive down to California one summer so we were able to see each other once 10 years ago.

Kids grow up. Husbands change jobs. Mothers get involved with friends and hobbies and life in general and 5 years would go by when we didn't really communicate. Out of the blue the younger son would call and say he was visiting Japan and wanted to come visit for a night. A few more years would go by and he'd call again and say he was now married and had a baby and was working in Japan. And then a couple of weeks ago the message arrived saying that his parents were coming to visit Japan and would like to see us! And that's what we did yesterday.

The Erickson's had to rent a car and husband Mark did a great job of driving on the narrow left-hand side roads. We met up in town and Sandra joined me in my car (Mark following) and drove the 30 minutes back home non-stop talking. We dropped in at a senbei (cracker) shop and enjoyed sampling senbei and talking. The whole family joined my evening English classes and chatted with my students and Tetsu finally came home so we all enjoyed a late dinner and more talking. And as I say, Sandra and I stayed up half the night filling each other in on the years.

I was most worried about the Ericksons' reaction to our menagerie but thankfully Baby Eden just loved cats! And Toi especially seemed to find Baby Eden very interesting. So the kitties kept the baby happy while the rest of us talked some more. I think some cat did open the guest room door in the middle of the night and another ate one of Sandra's bags, but since Baby Eden was kept occupied everyone was very forgiving.

Aren't these a cute bunch of pictures? No. None of us are baby abusers. Baby Eden closed herself up in the cage herself! Baby Eden really thought the kitty cage was a wonderful place to play and crawled in and was quite happy opening and closing the door and letting Toi come in too when he was investigating the pink creature in his cage.

This morning (minus working Tetsu) we drove up to the beautiful lake and waterfall in the outer mountains of Nikko and of course it was chat, chat, chat all the way up and all the way back!

The Ericksons have gone on their way to their next stop on their vacation and I'm ready for a nap.

Small projects

Between cleaning house I've been doing some sewing and crossing things off my to do list.

First I made some more luggage tags. These are easy to do and because they use a bit of plastic to hold a card they don't look handmade (except for the strange job on the buttonhole stitch. That was definitely amateur.) I've sent these off to Leiya's friend for her birthday.

Then I decided that I really had been slacking on Prayer and Square Quilts. I still have two pinkish flimsys in a drawer but I really ought to have a stack of these ready for tying. The trouble is that I'm a little tired of making the Around the World pattern though it is very fast. So I thought I'd try my hand at something else quick and easy. Looking around the website I thought the Heartstrings quilt would be good but actually since I'm working alone, it took quite a while to make 24 heartstring blocks. Probably my strings are too narrow or something. And I don't think my choice of center fabric was very good. Much too busy. The result may be too showy for a Prayer and Square quilt (though cheery that's for sure).

Question. What is the easiest and fastest quilt you've ever made? I mean I know I could just cut a couple fabrics into big 10" blocks and sew them together, but I want something that takes a bit more effort. I'm going to go back to the Prayer and Square website and look around but if you have any suggestions I would love to know.

It's a dilemma. For a prayer quilt, something that can be quickly made up is important. But it needs to be beautiful and comforting too. And considering the cost, it might be nice if I could just make it up from left over fabric that might not get used elsewhere. Trying to balance these three criteria is the challenge...

And lastly... What do you think I'm making with this block? I've gone wonky with this and I'm working on another identical block...