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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Hermann and Norman

The other day we took Norman for a day at Hermann Park Conservancy.  Despite the rather stuffy name, it really is just a park.

But they do have this really shallow fountain where dogs sometimes play

and make friends.

What a lovely day at the park!

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A Day at the Beach

Over Spring Break weekend, we decided to take a little trip down to Galveston for some beach fun.

It was Norman's first time at the beach and he was not too sure about waves at first.

He eventually loosened up a little and had a great time.

As you can see, Norman was pretty tuckered out by the time we headed home.

Here's to long weekends!

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Norman Sees a Movie

We really like to see outdoor movies at Discovery Green.

This time around, we figured Norman was old enough to partake in the fun.

We had to give him lots of exercise before hand to keep him calm for a 2 hour movie.

He did some people watching.

But mostly he just gnawed on some of the 500 sticks we collected for him (next time we will remember to bring a chew toy...)

Oh yeah, and the movie was Spiderman 2.  Meh.

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Rodeo with DP^2

The Houston Rodeo is one of the biggest events of the year and we always make a day of it with Dave and Dana.

DP^2 are thinking about leaving Houston, so this was probably our last year to enjoy the rodeo as a foursome.*  Here's Eddy and Dave enjoying the ride on the metro.

Dana and I had a great time at the petting zoo.

The guys always love the beekeeping exhibit.

And of course we always get some sort of deep fried confection.

This year was nutter butters. I think Dave particularly liked them.

* We wanted to go to the rodeo with the real Dave and Dana, but we waited to long to get out tickets and the last weekend was all sold out. Then Dana had to work on Friday, so they couldn't go with us at all! Just goes to show you shouldn't make an annual tradition with us. If you suddenly are unable to go one year, you run the risk of becoming subject to our art skills.

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