Redecorating

As part of the making a baby room or nursery (for those of you who love gooey cute words) we've had to relocate some of our artifacts.

That includes this awesome Egyptian piece of Itsuki's that now crowns the headboard of our bed.

Too get rid my nightmares of a 30lbs glass frame crashing down on our heads at night, we handcrafted the followling little holders and the local hardware store. These puppies chewed up a good 3 hours, but look pretty sweet from my highly refined sense of home design!

If you'd like to pick up a couple of these for your own home, please send your orders (and cheques for $150) to G-Dog's Home Design & Pancakes here in Japan.

The Zoo

Too keep Rainbow from ransacking our apartment, we invested in a state-of-the-art home security system called a "crib". Some of you may not be aware of this, but this new "crib" technology is available to parents around the world, apparently it is widely used!

While we were building it I had a chance to see first hand just how secure it is. I misread the directions and built myself into a corner, so to speak.

Anyways, there was no way I was going to fit through the slats in the walls, so i figure if I can't get throught them rainbow is safe too.

Luckily, the ransacking is not supposed to start until atleast 3 months after birth, so we can enjoy our home until then.

Due Date

Many people have been asking "When is the baby due?" We've made an appointment for 5:30 PM on Friday November 17th. When we were scheduling we thought it would be great if we could do it on a Friday evening, because then we'd have the whole weekend together. We also checked with Rainbow's schedule and Rainbow seems to be free on that day.

Rainbow? Rainbow is the PB (Pre-Birth not Peanut Butter (although that would be pretty cool too if our baby was all PB!)) name we have given to our baby. By giving a baby a PB name you remove the troubles of having to disguise the sex of the baby for those who do not want to know. (Unless like me, you accidentily blurt it out to your mother without thinking even though she doesn't want to know).

Day Trip to 1413m

Yesterday we climed to half the hight of Mt. Fuji! "Why" do you ask, did I take my pregnant wife up a mountain? Hmmm... let's just say I didn't think we'd be going that far! We did want to do some nature walking, but ended up a little over our heads.

Anyways, the weather was beautiful, and I've never been able to see Fuji this well before so we were pretty stoked!http://photos.buffmuthers.com/gallery/v/graham/ is where you can find all the pictures. Just click on the "Fuji's Yamanaka Lake" album link when you get there.

The Upper Class Home

It's never been so clear to me as today, when I came home to the sprawling green of our new large house plant, that what defines ones social status more than anything (even avoidance of the 100 yen shop) is a large house plant.

Sure everyone has a little cactus or mini-potted shrubberiesk leafy-thing or two occupying some of the shelves of their apartment, but it's when you intentionally go out and look for something green to live in your house, that takes up as much space as a human (albeit in this case a midget), that you finally can say "Wow, I'm living life crazy in the fast lane!"

Once you have a large house plant, the next thing you know you'll be wearing leather pants to work, driving a Ferrari, and possibly even ironing your shirts before leaving the house. While I'm not quite there yet (certainly not the ironing part) I feel I am stepping forward into the larger world that is, large-house-plants-in-home! I encourage all of you to try the same.

Picnic News!

Well the much awaited contiuning segment to G-dog's "Yeah I'm finished my thesis" rant is here now!

Itsuki and I had a little picnic two weeks ago, in a nice little park about 20 minutes from our place. The thing that is most special about this park, is that it has grass! (as apposed to 98% of all other parks in Japan, as well as every public school ground in the country) Anyways, after chowing down on some nice little rice snacks, and sausage treats we had a wonderful little mid-afternoon siesta.

For those of you didn't know, and who couldn't see it in the Bali pics, or perhaps were to afraid to ask, yes my wife's belly is rather large. No, she didn't eat that much in one sitting (although on many occassions she likes to claim she has) she is carrying our little baby around!!!

We're super stoked, and busy with preparations as the time remaining that we can go on romantic evening dates to the opera and ballet (not that I've ever been kind enough to do that) is winding down! Keep on reading!