Karakuchi, Wan-Wan and Sticking Our Heads Through Stuff

Eddy and I have been hankering to go back to Japan lately--craving Japanese breakfast, talking about ticket meals, looking longingly at our waving kitteez. Thank goodness Houston has a Japanese Festival each year. It's not nearly as wicked cool as the St. Louis version, which is just amazing beyond words. But it did satisfy our desire for karakuchi.

We also saw some ikebana demonstrations

and some kamishibai

When we were listening to kamishibai we learned that in Japan dogs say "wan-wan" so we are trying to teach Norman. Finally, we partook in the much-loved Japanese tradition of sticking your face through cut outs.

Sticking one's head through stuff is an important Asian tradition, both in Hawaii and Japan.  I swear.  

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Eddy Finally Does Some Yard Work

I've been working hard for months to get our yard in shape.

Where has Eddy been during all of this?

Well, the other day, he finally pried himself from the couch and did his own project: the front yard.*

As you can see the front yard was shamefully overgrown with weeds.

In fact, we had vines actually twining around dandelions. You can't get much more symbolic than that. So one day Eddy picked me up in Dr. Scott and I immediately noticed a weird smell. Turns out, the back of the car was packed with sod!

That night, Eddy worked right up until bedtime (which is just after 8:30 pm...) on resodding the worst parts of the lawn.

You'll see the final results when we debut the new front yard!

* To be fair, he also laid the new patio in the back yard. But the rest was me, all me! Muahahah!

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Houseboat (ahem, Partyboat) Facelift

Eddy keeps trying to remind me that the Houseboat is now called the Partyboat but until we have a blowout bash there, I just can't believe it.  In the meantime, we did some aesthetic work outside. There were some long overgrown flower beds (you know, like the entire rest of our yard...)

So one afternoon, I ripped them up and redid them.

Now they are home to some bushes and grasses we are repurposing from the front (overgrown) flower beds.

Recycle, reduce, reuse!

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