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you know, I would post a lot more on this thing if the silly blog host or whatever it is caller would download FASTER!!!! I just don't have time for this... Precious minutes are wasted! Argh!

Oh well, happy hanukkah to the world, only 6 days into it, and of the thousand posts I should have posted, here are a couple:

1) Roasting a Chicken.
Why does everyone but me know that when you roast a chicken it goes UPSIDE DOWN in the pan? This seems like vital information I should have gleaned somewhere, before the age of 36. I remembered (too late, of course) my mother mentioning "shaking the hand of the turkey" to tell if it is done, so there I was, standing in front of a hot oven (yes, me) thinking "how can I shake its blasted leg if it is SITTING on it?" And having Steve confirm, on his arrival home, that I had made a tragic mistake and cooked it the wrong way. Lesson learned. Don't roast chickens.

2) A Diplomatic Christmas Party.
Yep, had the fabulous bonenkai (end of year party - amazing how that all fits into one word in Japanese) at the Canadian Embassy, got all spiffied up and wore my most ridiculous high-heels and push-up bra, and had a lovely time... Until the end... When I had to "Uh, Alyssa, I haven't seen ---- for a while, can you check the ladies room?" be the lucky discoverer of an unnamed diplomat from an unnamed country (NOT Canada!) passed out in a pool of her own vomit in the ladies room... If you have been to the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo, you may be aware of the lovely, fabulous, AWARD-WINNING restrooms. I may even have pointed them out to you. Let me just note that they must have won the award for looks, and not for practicality. Or at least, they weren't considering the difficulties one is faced with when one finds someone passed out, in a pool of their own vomit, locked behind the stall door that goes all the way to the floor. How to extricate such a person in such a situation? A fine question, and one I shall not answer. I will just say that all is now well, and I did not clean that bathroom. Not that I clean any bathrooms.

3) Life In General.
Is good. Christmas is coming, cookies have been baked, candy will be made sometime this week, and we will be spending Friday at Tokyo Disney - Sam finishes school on thursday. We are meeting our friend Michiko in Kyoto on Sunday for 3-4 days, and then the madness of christmas will be upon us!

I'll try to post more. Maybe once we get the new computer all figured out, things will work better.