A new cell phone

Yesterday Mrs. Ochiai spent most of the afternoon helping me buy a new cell phone. This is a long story...

I have always been sort of anti-cell phone. I don't like the way people hang onto their cell phones like it is an umbilical cord to society. For years I resisted owning a cell phone.

Of course Takumi and Leiya wanted cell phones when they were in school and about the time Leiya hit jr. high and Takumi hit high school, more and more young people carried around cell phones as a matter of course (and I heard many stories of irresponsibility!) Takumi bought his own cell phone when he was in high school paying for it with a part time job. Leiya we kept at bay saying when she went to high school she could have one though many of her jr. high friends were already carrying them around. (And now elementary school kids have them!)

But Leiya decided to go to the States for high school and I thought that meant I was saved from buying her a cell phone.

"You PROMISED!"

Well, I did but since she was only going to be in Japan 4 more months, I didn't see the point.

Around the same time, Tetsu's convalescent home adopted the policy of all employees carrying cell phones and though he too resisted, he felt it was "time". He and Leiya went to the cell phone shop and bought two phones on some family plan... And after four months, when Leiya went to the States, her cell phone was passed on to me. That was nearly 6 years ago...

But I have never liked my cell phone.

For one thing, it wouldn't do anything in English! Some of my friends' cell phones did English and they didn't even use the function! Why didn't mine? But it didn't. So that put a damper on learning how to use it... I could sort of call... I could sort of answer in-coming calls. I could sort of do text messaging...

A couple of years ago I threatened to throw away my cell phone. The only reason I ever opened it was to get the same text message that Tetsu sent me every night.

"Will be late. You go on to bed. Love you lots."

I rarely heard from anyone else. But by this time Tetsu felt the cell phone was a necessity and then this year my crosswalk position asked I always keep a cell phone handy in case of emergencies. Okay. I am a cell phone owner but with little interest.

Tetsu came home last week and said he'd gotten a message from the cell phone service saying that our old cell phones would no longer be operable and that we needed to change to a new style. He had already gone ahead and received a new cell phone from his office. He had talked with the service and told them they might as well give him another cell phone for his wife (me) on a private account. Anything would be fine. Free best. She didn't care about cell phones or use them.

WAIT A MINUTE!!! If I'm going to get a new cell phone I want to think about it a bit. It was Mrs. Ochiai who influenced me. She is always using her cell phone and talking about it's wonders... In fact she had long ago said if ever I should want to buy a new cell phone (she would look at my old one with disgust) then she wanted to be included in the purchasing process.

"Tetsu, I'm going to ask Mrs. Ochiai to help me pick out a cell phone. I want to know why people have fun with their cell phones! I want to enjoy my very own this time."

Tetsu thought this very strange. What is there to enjoy about a cell phone?

Mrs. Ochiai researched the cell phone industry on Thursday. (She visited three shops.) Yesterday, armed with the right questions and my own cell phone quirks (I'd like English please... How about usage when I visit the States?) I purchased my very own cell phone. PINK!!!

Okay... the rest of this post is for Leiya.

Leiya! My new cell phone is pink! It is called Besky and it is CUTE! How can a cell phone be cute? Well... First off I can change the key board if I want... There are different shaped buttons for easy use I guess. Sort of like playing paper dolls....

"Let me see... Maybe I will use the round buttons today!"

Granted, how many times does one want to change the key board, but I can! And the changeable keyboard lights up in seven different colors! Cool~!

And then... Even though the cover looks solid, it isn't! It somehow has hidden away lights and they flash a different configuration every time I open and close the phone. There are 10s of different little figures that show up on the cover each time my cell phone gets used. Dogs, cats, ducks, hearts, monkeys, clovers etc. etc. (As well as the time). I never know what I'm going to get next! Now THAT is CUTE~!

Okay... Telephone calling... E-mail... C-mail... Camera... Infrared information exchange... A step counter... A TV! Even a way to pay for purchases by passing the cell phone over a store register... Obviously I haven't figured out how to do that yet, but I will!

After purchasing, Mrs. Ochiai and I spent another hour in Starbucks while she went over the instruction book and tried to explain the different functions. And when I got home Mrs. Ochiai sent me (e-mail) a site for reading the instruction book in English so now I don't have any excuses NOT to learn how to be an expert cell phone user.

First off I e-mailed Tetsu.

"I bought a cell phone!!! PINK! I am going to learn how to use it!"

Tetsu couldn't believe I'd really done it. And when he came home he took one look at me...

"You sure look pleased with yourself..."

I took my cell phone with me on this morning's walk (5541 steps...) And here is a cell phone picture. Pretty good... pretty good...

I'm more sympathetic to umbilical cord cell phone users... You can't get me away from my cell phone today!

CATS!

Toi is a real pain. He goes about life as he pleases... taking the best sitting spot, eating everyone's food, perfectly happy about how things revolve around him. In the mornings he and Patora get locked up in the laundry room (to keep the two of them from eating the other cats' food) and Patora goes completely crazy.

"Let me out of here!!!!"

Patora eats detergent boxes, paces back and forth on the washing machine so much that most days she runs the machine for me (if she hit two buttons consecutively the machine starts). She meows herself hoarse and bangs at the door knob trying to get out.

Toi? He settles down peacefully on a towel or some dirty clothes and naps amidst all of Patora's noise. And when I come in to let them out, Patora streaks by me while Toi leisurely yawns and stretches and sometimes just shifts position and goes back to sleep.

"I don't care. I'll come out later."

It sounds like Toi is a very laid back cat... and he is. Humans? Take them or leave them... Patora? He seems to like her. But the other cats?

"Let me at them!"

Already Velvet has psyche problems because of Toi's bullying. Vel is not allowed out of the sewing room because I've determined he is the peeing culprit. He does not like Toi and I guess wherever Toi has gone Vel feels the need to place his mark. Or when they happen to meet head on (and fight) then Vel pees right then and there... Sort of like a skunk.

And now Toi is starting to attack Cleo so Cleo lives up in the sewing room with Vel. I don't when this started regularly but the other day there was a MAJOR confrontation between Toi and Cleo. Toi would not let go! What a lot of noise and fur flying! I had to dump water on them to get them separated.

And Cleo came out the worse... His poor ear got torn! So now Toi (and Patora, she doesn't like Chip) has been banned to the cat house.

I really have too many cats. And YES, they ALL have been spayed and neutered!!!

Seascape

Okay... So much for pondering.

Yesterday was Wednesday and the busiest day of my week. I'm supposed to be at the kindergarten by 9:30 so I leave the house by 8:45. At 8:35 I got a phone call saying the children had another program today and that my services wouldn't be needed after all.

So, what does a woman with an extra 4 hours do? Long overdue housework? A little menu planning? No~~~! Sewing of course!

This project has been in the back of my mind since I bought Karen Eckmeir's book Accidental Landscapes. I made one at the end of the summer and was pleased with the results. Yesterday I got out a few blues and put another one together. It only took a couple of hours and truth be told the binding was the most tedious part.

I did a little experimenting and added some lace (look closely). By the way, that is supposed to be a beach scene... The only "drawback" to these landscapes is that they turn out small... Maybe 12 by 14 inches. I suppose they could be made larger but I follow directions and this is the size they turn out. It's a good size for a fabric picture... just not really "quilt" proportions.

This is another quilt made without anyone in mind. Maybe I'll send it to Takumi. He could put it behind his aquarium. Takumi! Do you want this? (Okay... Let's see if my son reads my blog...)

Reasons

Sometimes I wonder what I'm doing everyday... I work. I am sort of a housewife. I take care of animals. I make quilts. It seems like I should be doing more, especially in the patchwork department, and I'm not talking about quantity. I turn out a lot of quilts of all sizes. It makes for a lot of pondering and the end result is very fulfilling. It's nice to see those finishes.

But why am I making quilts? Sometimes the only reason I'm making them is to use up fabric. This seems like a dumb reason to me. Sometimes the reason is because I want to see if I CAN follow the directions or use the challenging fabrics.

"That's a new technique... Can I really make that quilt?"

Like solving puzzles I want to see IF I can do it. Another reason is because I am gratified by the praise I get... from friends nearby and blog.

These don't seem like good reasons to be making quilts. It all seems so selfish.

I haven't gotten involved in charity quilts except for the Prayers and Squares quilts that I make for people I know who are in need of one. My production is pretty sporadic and I don't think I'd be able to commit to a certain number of quilts a year etc. I even notice that when making a quilt, if I don't have someone in mind, my heart isn't in it and it is a boring sewing process not an act of giving. The piecing and quilting go much faster if I know so-and-so is going to receive the quilt.

It's a quandary. I am happy to see the many quilts that get made but embarrassed that they all belong to me. What would I be doing if I wasn't making quilts? Watching TV...

Why do you make quilts? Am I the only one who feels like I'm having too good a time just making?

Kindergarten Sports Day

I spent about a half an hour at the Mifumi Kindergarten Sports Festival yesterday (rescheduled from Saturday). Lots of children... 130? Lots of parents and grandparents and siblings. And in the case of THIS kindergarten, lots of 6th graders!

The Sports Day takes a lot of preparation and a lot of equipment. The children are introduced individually and stand on a simple "podium" of sorts. They do relays and dances and chalk lines are drawn in the dirt so the children know where they are to stand or run etc. There are balance beams and walls and ladders to climb, nets to crawl under. There are costumes and balls and tunnels and drums. About 30 teachers do the directing and guiding (inevitably some child doesn't know which way to go) and comforting (some skinned knees) and running to the bathrooms ("I've got to go NOW!") with a little one who can't wait. The 6th graders are the equipment team and they are responsible for the muscle work of carrying equipment and drawing lines and setting up the next event. They are all alumni and are invited back to help, given box lunches and introduced to the crowds. The Sports Festival becomes a sort of class reunion for them!

Another interesting rule of Mifumi Kindergarten is that the parents aren't allowed to take videos of their children. Most Sports Festivals have parents following their child around with the video cameras and in some places it looks like a televised interview with tens of parents vying for a good shooting spot. Mifumi asks a professional video photographer to set up cameras and take a video of the day but parents are asked to watch their child NOT through a video camera lens. (Cameras are okay.)

All the flags were hand painted by the children as were their t-shirts. Most of the music for the various events is live too. That teacher is looking out a window over the piano watching the progress of the events and playing fast or slow according to who's up for the next event. (And don't you like the baby hanging on the young mother's back?)

Kindergarten Sports Festival bring back some of the best memories of my children's younger years.

Carpentry finished!

Tetsu spent another day out in the yard hammering. And now I have.... Doors on my cupboard!

Well, he has solved the problem of the cats getting into the cupboard. I don't think this solves the peeing problem but I'll work on that one.

This took a lot of figuring for Tetsu... The left side door opens on hinges. The right side slides away behind the sink.

Let's see.. What else is there? The little thing on the floor was my attempt to keep the cats away. It is an air freshener that supposedly puffs citrus freshener whenever someone walks by. The theory was that it was going to keep the cats away. It didn't work.

The grill hanging on the side is my dish drainer! The big dish drainers (there are such things in Japan) didn't fit anywhere and lived eternally on the counter... And that's all the counter there is in this kitchen! The grill can slide over the sink too so I double my space.

And this is the original set of shelves that Tetsu was making for the kitchen that ended up in my sewing room. Not too much in there yet but Chip likes it.

Tetsu is satisfied that he fulfilled his promise to get me a cupboard with doors. And I must say it looks pretty good!

Rainy day

Yesterday was a rainy day and unfortunately the kindergarten Sports Festival had to be rescheduled for Monday. Mrs. Furui and I had been planning to attend but suddenly we were faced with a free day. What to do? Patchwork!

Actually, applique. I bundled up most of my recently purchased applique tools and went to Mrs. Furui's house where I demonstrated the used of the applique sheet, the craft iron, the stiletto, and showed her how I'd learned to use double freezer paper, and ironing starch. Mrs. Furui is pretty much of an expert at applique anyway but she was interested to see how the use of the tools could result in a perfectly prepared applique block that only needed to be sewn. Mrs. Furui finished preparing her August block for A Tisket a Tasket and I worked on and completely finished my October block.

And Mrs. Furui gave me the prettiest book called "A Prayer for Little Things" by Eleanor Farjeon. It is an old book, originally published in 1945 and the illustrations are adorable. Mrs. Furui found a version in Japanese and English and gave it to me as an early Christmas present. If you see it in a bookstore give it a look.