Miscellaneous

So, what I have I been doing this week?  I must be busy because I haven't been able to do much blogging!  Let me check my photo files though I don't think I've been taking many pictures either...

Actually I missed the unveiling of the quilt my patchwork group made for a friend for her 60th birthday because I was in Detroit at the time...  I think the birthday was really in September which goes to show how hard it has been for this group to get together!  There was always somebody that was busy (usually Mrs. Furui... and as we gather at her house, she needs to be there) or who couldn't come (the quilt recipient! who of course didn't realize we were planning a party just for her).  October came and went and I was the only one who wouldn't be around the first week of November and the next possible date was sometime in December so the surprise party got held while I was gone (with my blessings).  Of course that made the surprise even a bigger surprise because the friend's birthday had come and gone way back in September with seemingly no interest from her patchwork group!  She was definitely surprised!!!  This is the quilt we made based on all the songs our friend wrote for the kindergarten.  (Someone sent me a photo while I was in Detroit.)

We are still dealing with John and have good days and bad days.  My vet came out again yesterday and helped us a bit and then she took John back with her to the clinic so that he could be shampooed.  That's not a job that we're probably going to be able to do for awhile though in the clinic atmosphere he seems rather docile.  When I went to pick John up in the evening he was very happy to see me and kept running to sit on my lap for safety as the vet is very strict with him as she put him through some training exercises.  Hah!  John only cuddles up to me when everyone else in the room looks authoritative!  I guess I really need to ramp up my severe voice and attitude when I am with him otherwise he just ignores me (at best.)

Let's see...  after I got back from Detroit Marlene and I went out for coffee so that I could report on my wedding dress shopping with Leiya.  We had cafe latte at the coffee shop in my town. 

Marlene asked the barrister to make an anniversary latte in honor of her daughter's first wedding anniversary (take a photo and send it to her daughter). 

Cute!  The barrister got the spelling on ANNIVERSARY right (I think) but the 1st came out a 1th.  Good try!

I continue to read a lot and listen to a lot of audio-books.  I had a shock this week when listening to an audio-book on Alzheimer's that I'd thought would be interesting...  Around chapter 5...  CHAPTER 5! I realized I'd read/listened to this book before!  I went back to my Goodreads account and checked when I'd listened to it.  In April!  Of this year!!!  It's not like I read the book 5 years ago or something!!!  That's sad!!!  Maybe I'd better continue re-reading the book to put the suggested preventive programme into effect....

And recently I'm also knitting but maybe I'll wait to reveal that until I get the sweater to more of a recognizable shape...

Thanksgiving

I hope all my American blog friends had a good Thanksgiving holiday.  Tetsu and I got together with some good friends and their families for the holiday though we celebrated on Friday rather than on Thursday.  (Japan has a similar "Thanksgiving" maybe more like Labor Day in the States, where thanks are given to workers and thus Friday is the day off.)

It takes a bit of work to have a real American Thanksgiving in our part of Japan and it wouldn't even be attempted without the Yamadas opening up their home and kitchen for the day.  Marlene has an "American" kitchen with a full sized oven and hers is the only oven large enough to roast a turkey!  That's usually not a problem in Japan because...  No turkeys!  Turkey and turkey meat have yet to get to Japan except for some expensive import delicatessens and in recent years... Costco!  Yes!  Costco stocks frozen turkeys direct from the States and a couple of weeks ago Marlene and Keiko, (another long time friend) drove the three hours to go to Costco and buy Thanksgiving food.  Costco is too far away for Tetsu and me but it is nice to have someone in our group be a Costco member (Keiko) that enables us to buy a turkey.

I think Marlene and Keiko came home with black olives and dill pickles and canned pumpkin for pumpkin pies...  At least I know that those essentials can't normally be bought in Japanese supermarkets...  Marlene asked me to pick up some canned cranberry jelly while I was in Detroit and that was my American contribution plus I made salad and a green bean casserole.  Let's see...  Stuffing and carrots and potatoes also got made by Marlene and it turned out that she ended up making the pumpkin pies too because Keiko found herself in bed with a fever the day before Thanksgiving and she sent her family to the feast and slept her Thanksgiving Day away!

The Yamadas slaving away over the turkey while the rest of us try to look busy.

Oops...  I guess I'm not looking busy.  Toshi is giving me advice about my iPhone...  Let's see...  this year there were 13 of us at the Yamadas... and we had a jolly time and ate to our full!  We even remembered to send Toshi home with a Thanksgiving obento for bedridden Keiko!
 

John and autumn

After my Detroit visit I'm back to regular Nikko life..

Regular life though hasn't been so regular however because of John...

I've hesitated writing about John because things haven't been going so well with us...  We are sort of on the balance of whether we are going to be able to keep him or not.  He is cute and loving and playful sometimes but other times he is moody and ferocious and tries to bite.  We are wearing gloves all the time when we are around him because we never know when he is going to turn on us...

All is not bad but it could be a lot better and we were beginning to question if he was ever going to get used to us and change.  And if he doesn't change then can we really keep a dog who attacks whenever we turn our backs on him...?  And this is all about this tiny smidgen of a dog!!!

My neighbor who has four dachshunds has come over to give advice and let us know of dachshunds personalities to begin with (rather possessive, quite aggressive).  Around the same time the ladies from my English class were over and they saw for themselves how John barks and growls and one friend went home and told her husband who just happened to go to my vet the next day with his own dog... and he mentioned that he had heard that we were having trouble with John.

Within a hour my vet had called me and arranged to come to my house (half an hour away!) to see what could be done and evaluate the situation...  John wasn't particularly receptive to her either and she could see that the situation had deteriorated since we brought him home...  However no one ever claimed that John was an easy dog and she and her family had spent nearly nine months getting him used to them and socializing him.  So I guess once out of the clinic atmosphere John has gone back to his wild self...  which was how he had been when his former owner collapsed...  (Makes you think that maybe John's behavior had something to do with the owner's stress levels and stroke.)

At this point, we are being VERY STRICT with John to let him know who is boss, and the vet has offered to make regular house calls hoping that together we can get answers to John's underlying problems...  (and ours...  I'm now afraid of John!  Well...  sometimes...)  John responds to Tetsu much better than he does to me which is a change because our animals have always chosen me over Tetsu.

In an effort to get John more used to us and to get him out of his circle and out and about we took him with us in the car on a day trip.  That was somewhat successful but ended badly. 

We went off to look at the autumn leaves.  "Cute dog!"  John was happy to explore with us.

Exploring results in a lot of leaves and underbrush attaching itself to John's fur...  Hmmm...  This is going to be a chore to get off him as he doesn't want to be brushed...

The day was gorgeous!

We discovered a river and gorge.

I don't know how many pictures we took of the colors reflecting in the river.  Just beautiful!

Such pretty colors!

I am not completely the enemy in John's eyes.  He will go off and about with me on walks every day and this day he was fine just walking with me. 

Actually a very nice picture of the two of us.  John was in a very good mood.

However putting back in the cage in the car resulted in growls and snaps...  Until the next stop when he was happy to go out and about again.

This was repeated throughout the day...  Happy to go out and explore, cute and friendly...  Growling and attacking the bars when put back in the cage.  And he didn't want me looking at him (Tetsu was okay) so I'm sure not going to try to hold him in the car!

It was quite a long day for John and maybe we overtired him.

We got home after dark, made another jaunt around the neighborhood and then he went berserk again when fed and put in his circle for the night.

"After all we try to do for this dog!"

Expecting much from John seems to be a waste of time and just makes us frustrated.

Last days in Detroit

I'm winding up my account of my Detroit visit... 

Tuesday, Tony was on duty at the hospital all night so we had to say goodbye to each other early in the day.... 

BUT!  I tried my best to be a good future Mother-in-Law by making him an obento for his evening meal in the hospital.

A lot of left-overs there in his obento but I was working in an unfamiliar kitchen (Leiya needs new cookingware!!!) and without my usual condiments.  ("What!  You don't have sesame oil?!"

We had a good lunch before taking a tour of the Detroit Medical Center.

 A big hospital complex.

The gardens of the hospital are beautiful enough that this could even be a place to have a wedding!

Inside was like a maze...

Leiya and I spent the rest of the day discussing wedding ideas and then we had dinner with Tony's family (without Tony!)  We also did a bit more dress shopping for me and I found a possible dress though it is rather an autumn color... 

The next morning Leiya dropped me off at the airport before she headed for work and I spent a few quiet hours reflecting on my visit and exploring the airport... 

Um...  Is that a Pandora shop right there in the airport?  And is that a Michigan Pandora bead?  I guess I've got to have it as a reminder of my trip and as I have a California bead representing where Takumi lives I surely need a bead representing where Leiya lives too!

Pajama party!

The wedding dress was decided.  And what more does a bride need?

"Now.  Do you want to decide on a veil?" said the clerk.  "A veil is very important."

Maybe...  A veil might be important (or not if the girl decides she only wants flowers in her hair or something) but veils are also very expensive.  I gasped at some of the prices of veils that we had been trying on just to "jack up the dress", (ie. get the whole look of the bride.)

"With the amount of tulle used in these and the sewing involved, I could MAKE a veil for you!"

"Okay Mom.  Why don't you make me a veil..."

A bit easier said than done but then again... how hard can a bunch of tulle drawn up to a clip or comb be?  Yeah, I could try to get fancy with lace or beading or ribbon but a straight veil should do it and I could think about adornments later or if at all...

Leiya and I went to Joann's and found tulle and even a Butterick pattern (that really wasn't necessary).  Tulle isn't even very expensive so we bought a lot and got to plotting and planning.

Monday morning, Leiya and I stayed in our pajamas and thought about veil length and how it could be attached to a comb etc.  No blusher for Leiya (that piece that falls over the bride's face...  I'm learning new vocabulary here!). 

A simple straight veil with a few soft corners.  We laid out our pattern and cut.

Okay...  gathering up the cut tulle...  We already have a veil of sorts.  How about this?

 Nope...  Maybe too long?  It covers up a lot of the pretty dress...

We cut out again this time giving up on the pattern and using an oval table top.  How about this?

Too much tulle?  We cut down the piece a bit so that it would just sit on whatever up-do Leiya chooses to do with her hair.

Well...  so far veil construction isn't very glamorous...  But mother and daughter had a lot of fun thinking about it.  The tulle all came home with me in my suitcase.  I have six months to make a veil!

Leiya's wedding dress!

Tony has been waved away from reading today's post as I am revealing Leiya's wedding dress today.

Sunday arrived and Leiya made the decision to go back to one of the three salons we had visited the two days previous.  That alone decreased the possible dresses to three...

This time just Leiya and I went back to David's Bridal and Leiya re-tried on the three dresses (and a couple more).  As she pondered and considered, I looked at Mother-of-the-Bride dresses.  (There is a whole section of those!)  Actually I had thought I would just wear a black dress that I already had at home.  I find it difficult to shop in Japan (my arms or legs or something are too long) and the prices are much too high for me to seriously consider anything but casual clothing...  I probably wasn't going to go dress shopping for myself in Japan but with only two more days in Detroit it seemed unlikely I'd find something suitable to wear to a May wedding...  Anyway, Leiya got to watch me try on dresses for awhile, but I if nothing else I decided I didn't want to wear something long or something beaded or something slinky...  I may have to do with my black...

And FINALLY Leiya made her dress decision!

"I think this is the dress I want."

"Are you saying "Yes!" to the dress?" asked the lady who had helped us for the past two days.

 "Yes.  This is the one."

At which point Leiya was given a chalk board that said "I said Yes at David's." and the clerk rang a bell loudly alerting other groups of shoppers that a dress had been chosen, and Leiya was asked to walk a bit around the room and model her chosen dress!  A big event this wedding dress shopping in America!

I admit...  The dress Leiya chose was my first choice too and I teared up when taking pictures of her holding the chalkboard.  And Tony's mother said this was her first choice too when we told her later of Leiya's choice.  And for that matter, we had sent Tetsu some pictures of the many dresses Leiya had tried on and he had expressed a fondness for this one too...  Did his comment sway her decision?

Yeah!  The wedding dress decision has been made and I managed to be in on the whole process and contribute to my Mother-of-the-Bride role.  Unfortunately, the rest of this wedding planning is getting left to Leiya and Tony and Tony's family...  I wish there was more I could do to make the event exciting and joyful...  Ahh...  There is one more job I may be able to take on...  Can you guess?