after Ike passed / 台風アイクの被害

電気が復旧して一週間。電気が無いときのほうがキャンプみたくって、のんびりしてて悪くなかったかも・・・？　でもさすがに１週間の停電には参った！冷蔵庫の中の物すべてゴミ箱行き。仕事も自宅勤務なのでつらかった。
It's been about a week since the power came back after the hurricane Ike passed through Louisville. It was nice to get to go to bed once it got dark, but throwing everything out from the refrigerator wasn't great nor the work situation with the computer... It wasn't easy to spend the entire week without power for sure.

倒れそうな感じの電柱。a power pole was bearing standing...

アパートの前。外に出たら木の枝が山積みに・・・ After things got calm down, this is the first thing I saw outside of my apt..


お隣りさんの庭もこんな風に。The yard of the next door neighbor...

Invasion of the Japanese monster / 「どーも」なハローウィーン

今日偶然ターゲットに買い物に行くと、ハローウィーンのものが☆　毎年カワイイデザインが楽しみのターゲットのハロウィーン。今年はなんとNHKのどーもくんがいた！これには驚き　(*ﾟﾛﾟ)ﾊｯ!!

しかもどーもくんピニャータまで売ってる。アメリカ人の子供が英語で「どーものピニャータ買って〜！」とねだっていたのが面白かった・・・

This year, the Halloween at Target was invaded by the Japanese monster, Domo!! How cute!! They even have Domo piñatas!! It was funny to hear American kids saying "hey! Domo piñata!! I want one!!!"


あまりの可愛さに買ってしまったよー　本当は甥っ子たちへのギフトのつもりが・・・写真を撮りたくて包装を取ってしまう（バカ・・・）ビージェイからは「あげるはずだったのに〜！」の非難ごうごう。また買いに行けばいいじゃん！！

Initial intention was to give them to nephews... Well they were too cute and I couldn't resit the urge to take pictures of them. When Beejay found out about that the chocolates were unwrapped for the photo shoot, only thing I could say to him was "well, we can buy more for them..." Sorry Brandon and Ryan...

cooking red bean rice with Le Crusest / ル・クルーゼでお赤飯

誕生日にママさんがル・クルーゼを買ってくれた。早速お産したばかりの友達のために（初めて）お赤飯を炊く事に。お祝い事だし、生活のパターンがかわってきっとドタバタしているから、ご飯持っていくと喜ばれるんじゃないの？とのビージェイの提案もあり、お赤飯にチャレンジ！

問題は材料。お赤飯ってずーっと小豆で作る物だと思ってました（苦笑）ネットでレシピを見て初めて「ささげ」というマメを使うのが分かったのは良い物の、アメリカで売っているの？と心配に…　英語ではred cowpeaとよばれるらしいんだけど、どこで売っているのか不明。とりあえず韓国食品店に行ってみる。「ささげ」として売っているマメはなかったけど、それっぽい「紅豆」というものを購入。

My mom bought me a Le Cruset pot for my birthday. I've decided to cook osekihan (red bean rice for celebration as red and white are color for cerebration) with my new pot for a friend who just had a baby about a week ago.

So this being my first time cooking this dish, I wasn't sure if I'll be able to get the right ingredients. Supposedly I needed to use red cowpeas (direct translation from Japanese)... Where am I supposed to get it???? ...well at a Korean grocery store here in Louisville, I didn't see "red cowpeas" but found something very similar. So these are the main ingredients.


しかしっ！

ル・クルーゼのHPで見つけたお赤飯のレシピではなぜか上手くかない．．．火力の違い？オーバルじゃなくってマル型にすれば良かったか？どうしても炊きムラが... 試行錯誤の結果、完璧とまではいえないけどお赤飯がおいしくたけたよ♪

After researching for the right recipe and trying things out, I did it!! Although it's not "perfect", it was certainly yummy. :D

まだ１％ほど炊きムラがあるので練習が必要ですが、初めての割には上出来！？

ちなみに鳥の唐揚げも作ってもっていきました〜。
Also I cooked Japanese style fried chicken.

ラッキー♪／Lucky Me

{Poraloid SX-70 from 70's}

POLASTYLE.COMに掲載されていた、このカメラで撮った写真に魅了されて以来、気になっていたSX-70.偶然にも亜試しに行ったフレアマーケットのようなお店で、低価格で発見！　嬉しさのあまりに「あっ〜！」と言ったのみで、声が出てこなかった…　ちゃんと使えるけど、試し取りしていたらフィルムがきれてしまったので、買いにいかなくてわっ。…生産中止になってしまったポラロイド。まだ売っているといいなあ〜

This was something I've been wanting for a while. Not only it's authentically neat and nicely designed, I have seen photos with amazing color palette taken by this model on this site. I snagged this vintage camera at Tickled Pink which I read about on one of the local weekly paper. Lately I haven't been a big fan of thrift store shopping for various reasons. But this store was a lot different from any other ones. It was more like a vintage/second-hand store, I guess. I'm pretty sure that I will go back there occasionally to see if they got something neat like this Polaroid.

The camera is in excellent working condition, but I just ran out of the films... argh! Which reminds me and makes me sad that Poraloid is no longer producing the films. What a shame!





{Bastardino the Cactus Friend, by Tokidoki}

しばらく欲しがっていたコレ。地元のレコード店で偶然にも発見！いい歳しておもちゃ買って・・・　まだまだ成長してないなぁ〜

It was a rare finding at the local music store, Ear X-tacy. I have been contemplating whether to get this particular one from an online store for a little while, but didn't feel like paying for S&H.

I'm still buying toys at this age. I guess I've never grown up...

Bell of Louisville

(↑はルイビル観光名物（？）のベル・オブ・ルイビル。これに乗ってきましたー）

１ヶ月ほど前の古い出来事ですが．．．蒸気船に初めて乗ったよ。オハイオー川を２時間の旅でした。暑かったけど、おもしろかった〜。招待してくれたビージェイの同僚に感謝!

(photo: Bell of Louisville. This is the one we rode)

This was over a month ago... I got to ride on the steamboat for the first time. The trip was about 2 hours on Ohio river. It was a lot of fun. Thanks to Beejay's co-workers who kindly invited us to join them!


外で景色を見てたら、蒸気が水になって小雨みたいに降ってきたよ〜

Water came down like rain after the steam got cool down in the air when we were out on the deck.


カゲロウって初めて見たよー。バッタの一種と勘違い…　いっぱい飛んでた。これはビージェイの肩に止まったのをパチリ。

It was a Mayfly which I found it out later. There were many of them flying around on the river. This dude was brave enough to land on Beejay's shoulder. Of course, Beejay was freaking out a little... funny...


蒸気船と同化してしまった哀れなカゲロウも…　ち〜ん
One unlucky Mayfly turned blue.


蒸気船からの夕焼け。きれー。beautiful sunset from the boat.