February 2010
1 post
a little winter update
Hi, Tumblr. It’s been a few months. Fall went by fast. Returning to school was intense and challenging. Those first papers, mid-terms and finals were nerve-wracking. But our whole class survived, and learned a few things along the way about language and brains and data collection methods. And now I’m half-way through the second quarter and have my own client, and spring break is right around...
January 2010
1 post
December 2009
1 post
November 2009
1 post
October 2009
2 posts
Pizza for a year!
I just won a 500$ gift card to a pizza shop. There goes my diet lol. And tumblr has an iPhone app apparently. Happy Diwali.
Dan
September 2009
3 posts
Money-proof Your Marriage
The following is an article from USAA banking services that I think is awesome. Obviously there’s a lot of things that need to be communicated before getting married, but no one ever mentioned this one to us as clearly as this:
“Five Smart Strategies for Handling the Biggest Financial Merger of Your Life
Successfully merging your money when you marry isn’t as easy as slipping...
Homeschooling Book
I highly recomend checking out this book if you have time. It’s called: “Write these laws on your children” by Robert Kunzman. It is such a balanced perspective that I must share it. What are you reading? :)
-Dan
Summer (trips)
Dan started work this week and is enjoying the challenge and stimulation of being busy again. I’m happy that he got full-time shifts for October and that so far he doesn’t have to work any overnight shifts aside from one this Friday. I’m sure he’d welcome thoughts and prayers for job stability and for the wisdom and compassion needed to work with the kids and teens. He...
August 2009
6 posts
Win and Lose
So I didn’t get the first job that I was looking into… but we did score big time on this:
Regular price is 400. We got it for… 270! It really is an amazing piece of machinery. We also got iphones:
Christina got white and I got black. They are AMAZING! We got to go on the lake too and here a pic of Christina taken w/ the new iphone 3GS.
-Dan
setting up in seattle
well, we’ve been back for just over a week, and we’ve set up a lot… in between running around in circles trying to get things done that just aren’t working out as fast as we had hoped.
we signed the lease for the apartment, and we’ve done lots of dollar store and goodwill shopping, and have found cheap appliances at fred meyer (a local store) and some other places,...
Dry Dock - Tokyo
Right before we left for Seattle, Christina and I went to a cute little bar called Dry Dock in Tokyo. Thought i’d share the pics!
Delicious Beer, friendly people. It was a good last place to visit before we left for good. I’ll miss Japan a lot!
-Dan
we're "home"
i’ve missed fruit salad. :-)
-christina
jump
tokyo was a good time. we’ll post pictures soon. pacific standard time here we come!
-christina
July 2009
4 posts
yesterday we gave some calvin students (who are here on a summer internship) a brief tour of hikone. the poor kids just got here and are in “quarantine” for a few days at a hotel ‘cause their host families are afraid that all americans have the flu. :-P it was weird to hear all their reactions… like “wow, look at how tiny all the chip bags and cereal boxes are. ...
click for summer photo album →
for any non-facebook users. :-)
it's an odd feeling...
— packing your whole life into a few pieces of luggage. it somehow feels good to downsize and let go, but also feels very weird to say goodbye to all the little things you’ve used for two years…
-christina
June 2009
2 posts
july plans
our last month in japan is filling up really quickly. we have some kind of farewell/goodbye event scheduled every weekend. we’re also going to squeeze in some last minute dental cleaning, hair straightening, etc. we’ve started a small list of touristy-type things we want to see or do before leaving, but realistically we’ll have to leave some of those things until we’re...
little by little
checking things off the list. we just sold our sofa and tv set. (thanks katie and michael. :-) ) still looking for someone to take the moped off our hands. and i think everything else is going to my successor who i’ve recently been in contact with. dan just got the contact information for his successor, too, so we both get to play “senpai” and hand off 2 years worth of...
May 2009
4 posts
in the market for a car
two years without one has been great! we’re hoping to avoid using one as much as possible. buses and “zip car” options should take care of a lot of our transportation needs this next year. but i think that setting up life as an adult in another country will require wheels. at first we were looking at financing a car, and had worked it into our little budget for the year, but...
it's arrived
welp, the pig flu invaded shiga prefecture today. all the big sports tournaments are cancelled.
classes tomorrow??
-christina
a baby bichon?
so we really are thinking of getting a bichon frise. they are a bit more allergy friendly than other breeds. they are small enough to live in an apartment, but they aren’t as prone to being yappy as terriers and other small breeds. they are supposed to get along very well with all ages; kids through to the elderly. i’m sure she’ll get lots of socializing with the retirement...
April 2009
3 posts
UW
Wow. We’re going to Seattle!!! UW was my first choice and I just got off the waiting list. So much planning in the near future. But I am so thrilled! For the curious, here’s some photo links of campus:
Campus photos and video clips: http://depts.washington.edu/mediarel/galleries/
Apparently they love their sakura as well: ...
10% unemployment rate →
wow. 8.5% in march, projected to be over 10% by the end of 2009. that’s a scary number to come back to.
-christina
click for dog yoga article →
apparently dan was on to a trend with all the dog yoga posts. :-] the slideshows linked in the article are pretty darn funny. o my goodness, as soon as we’re employed back in the states, a puppy is the first thing on our list! i’m envisioning neighborhood walks, though, not yoga. ;-)
christina
March 2009
5 posts
Beautiful artwork
Here are some pictures from a pair of artists that have been deconstructing and reassembling old and new japanese styles of art. I think they are beautiful yet hysterical!
Source: http://www.kozyndan.com/main.html
-Dan
click for spring photos →
hey fam, the cherry blossoms are just starting to bloom. the new school term starts on april 7th, so work is slow for me, but dan is planning an elective english class for one high school, which means he’s quite busy. the weather is teasing us and bouncing back and forth between early spring and late spring weather. we got a few snow flurries today, yuck. i’m running anxiously to...
pouting and watching america's next top model.
tonsillitis is not cool. there goes my long weekend. i’m crossing my fingers that dan’s immune system is strong enough he doesn’t catch whatever i have…
-christina
desk job ouch
here’s a few ways to excercise and strengthen your core and spine. ;-)
http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/improve-your-posture-1
also, it’s cool that womens health is online, too.
-christina
February 2009
12 posts
style
in the hedonistic world of my personal fashion sense, “gap” is giving way to a new kind of style. the “zara” kind. basics still have their place in my wardrobe. but i’m a grown-up now. i’m allowed to buy something because it looks “designer.”
http://www.zara.com/#/en_GB/trends/
interesting tidbits about design at zara: their stock is...
stand up desks
i bet all my students wish they could use this: http://www.standupforlearning.com/StandUpForLearning/More_Info.html study standing up if you’re fidgety, and study sitting down if you’re tired.
apparently some schools in MN are doing a study to see if it helps concentration at all.
-christina
fashion
i found this blog/site while searching for party fashion ideas: http://www.collegefashion.net/ it’s been updated a few times since i “RSSed” it. i don’t have money to burn at the moment, but i thought it was cool that they posted a list of promotion sale codes for clothing websites, including my most favorite store ever: gap.
so today they posted a list of fashion...
strawberry mochi (ichigo daifuku)
with azuki bean paste is very yummy.
-christina
the earth was shaking...
the earthquake went off just a few minutes before my alarm this morning. it was a baby earthquake (“light” on the richter scale) — epicenter about 85 miles north of us http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2009debw.php#details . no one has even mentioned it at work. i guess i’m the only one who’s all excited and what-not that i actually felt this...
HDR
HDR is High Dynamic Range. In short it’s a new picture editing technique that is growing in popularity around the internet. I learned how to do it and thought i’d post my latest pictures. But first let me share the process. You need
camera
photo-editing software
tripod (optional yet near impossible w/o one)
First take three pictures on low, regular and high exposure:
Finally,...
mid february bliss
high of 61!!! and sunny!! the laundry is outside not in the middle of the kitchen!!! and the shower got bleached for the first time in months…
perfect saturday productiveness. :-D now i need to get outside before february comes back! (snow next week? :-P )
happy valentine’s day!
-christina
Mr. Darsey was never so cool! →
-Dan
big homeschool family
interesting new york times op ed about large families: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/fashion/08bigfam.html?pagewanted=1&8dpc&_r=2
apparently they are getting a lot of attention these days.
MTV is even casting for a show about large families: http://www.mtv.com/ontv/castingcall/index.jhtml?castingId=1603708
i guess my 5 kid family growing up doesn’t fit the MTV definition of...
tea in the states
justin just shared this link, and i know i’ve complained about going back to the states and not finding cheap-ish good green tea, so i’m super excited.
http://www.amazon.com/Kirkland-Signature-Japanese-Green-Tea/dp/B000WB1YSE/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
yay costco for getting Itoen-brand japanese green tea!
on a down note, i just got my first grad school rejection from the UofMN-Twin...
a** over teakettle
I read this idiom in a book the other day and loved it. It must be a Southern expression to “fall a** over tea cup.”
I want this book: http://books.google.com/books?id=MdENdlKWZ8AC&pg=PA100&dq=ass+over+teakettle&client=firefox-a the list of idioms starts at page 11, if you want to skim it.
My daily idiom lexicon is clearly lacking…. ;-)
-Christina
January 2009
16 posts
Original Experience Essay. I was asked to write a...
I sit at a table across from my friend Elliot. Some electronic house music plays from some corner. We are surrounded by hundreds of bottles, cans, glasses, mugs, steins, and every other imaginable beer paraphernalia. The air smells of incense and the ever-present pot of the japanese stew, oden. The room gives a muffled shake while a subway rolls somewhere overhead. Our bartender is a cute college...
25 random spams
Sarah Maher wrote a new note: 26 articles of randomness about myself. Brittany Scott wrote a new note: Peer pressure won. Sorry, self. Jonathan Kilburn wrote a new note: 25 More random things about me Jenn Olthoff wrote a new note: Okay fine…25 random things… Katie Jardine wrote a new note: 25 Random Things Jeremiah Lee wrote a new note: I’m a 12 year old: Myspace survey. Katie...
the japanese guru
I like this article http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/gadgets_and_gaming/article5587346.ece
It explores the interesting cultural tendency for Japanese people to follow a strange fad that doesn’t have any scientific backing.
As a whole, Japanese people love gurus — popular celebrity-type figures who make claims ranging from “your blood type determines...
Everyone get this book!
It’s called “Eat this not that” Amazon search it. it’s amazing!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28862370/from/RSS/?pg=1#TDY_MH_20WorstFoods2009
Worst foods of 2009. I just bought it!!! It’s amazing! It’ll change how you shop (in the US).
-Dan
Battlestar Galactica called... they want their bar...
wow!
http://www.homehouseclub.com/bars/?contentid=466
-Dan