Sunday July 13 , 2008 Chillin in the house

Hey ya all we slept in till 6am. WOW ! Did that feel good. Heck I sound like we have a new baby in the house and we are adjusting to that dreaded sleep schedule and routine of sleeping through the night. haha
Anyhoo, today we just decided to hang out a bit and enjoy our home. We had nice phone conversations with both our kids and it was good to catch up with them and find out what is happening back home in the USA and in IL and MN.
Kalen is contemplating life and missing her boyfriend Mike who is doing traveling Shakespeare throughout Montana. Graham got the painting job and will start tommorrow. He too may have a bus boy job at a Duluth restaurant. Anything to pay off the bills he racked up while in Sweden drinking that expensive beer.
We watched out the window as a delivery man tried to drop off a package for some folks at the bottom of the bluff. It is gift giving season here and people give gifts the month of July to folks who have helped them out. They have all kinds of gift boxes of meats, alcohol, snacks, desserts... in the stores which are kind of like our meat and cheese boxes that company send catalogs out for at Christmas time. CJ and I then took another new route and walked through the park and past the pool which is now open for the summer and was being enjoyed by many families. Parks are the places to be here on the weekends when the whole family is together. Kids even have school on Saturday mornings here and cram schools as well after regular school during the weekin the afternoons. John told us that they are trying to change that as it is becoming a bit too much for all involved. School is out soon for a month only.
Saw some ladies leaving a restaurant that I caught bowing to each other before departing, another women painting, some futons hanging out to air in the sunshine and a mom with a full load on her bike doing errands with her kids. Wow that looks like alot of work to me. I am glad my kids are grown and I don't have to balance them and my grocery bags when and if I get a bike while trying to climb up the steep hills around here.
We finally made our way down to the Homes store for another round of grocery shopping and some more furniture browsing after we passed by the high end shopping district which was very crowded with people on this weekend day.
At the homes store we were happy to find a dining table and chairs and also a rack to hold all our electrical boxes for TV, computer,Phone and a coffee/tatami room table. Yeah we can now eat off a table and not on the floor. We are just about done. Only need a bike or two, office desk and two more futons or a bed. We have yet to decide for sure what we will get. I am going the futon route as of now.
Ran into my friend Chu and told her how happy we were with our futons and thanked her once again for all her help. We too met two more young men salesman who I nicknamed Tiger and Lion. Toru could speak English quite well and he talked of how they don't have midlle names like we do only a first and last and so I gave him the name Tiger. He laughed. Then when Takakgi came back he told him about it and so I gave him the name Lion. So now whenever I go back to shop there and see them I will call them Lion and Tiger :-) They had a good laugh and kept bowing to me. It was fun.
CJ was such a trooper by hanging in there and helping me to find more house goods we needed as he hates to shop. He then waited outside with our big boxes and bags while I went in and got more groceries. We rented a taxi to drive us up the hill and home with our load of stuff. While waiting for the taxi a couple came through the parking lot with two very big dogs and I was wondering how they were going to fit them in the grocery cart. But thankfully, they went the other direction and down the path next to the canal for a walk. I do wonder though, if they take them into the grocery store? Back home we made spaghetti and salad for supper, which I could not eat well with my chopsticks so I ended up giving in and using a fork. Talked with my folks a bit and filled them in on the happenings here and tried to get CJ's mom, but no one was home. Called it an early night and hope to get a good rest before CJ starts his regular 1st week of work tomorrow. He says he feels like he has been on vacation for a month or more and now it is time to get to work and prove himself. He is excited to get things going here.
By the way we had to sign in our housing contract that we will not wear shoes in the house and so CJ is on the hunt for some BIG cushy slippers as his high arches hurt from walking on the hard wood floors. We have already started a list of things he needs to get when he goes back to the states in late August. He will definetley need to bring back his BIG suitcase.
My little toad friend keeps hopping out to see me at night at the top of my stairmaster.
Who knows, maybe I will count frogs in my sleep tonight instead of sheep or "dead" crows ?
Sayonara
Karla and CJ