(Long belated) pictures of my apartment (and my ball and chain)

Even I am speechless

So once in a while you happen on something on the internet that just makes your week. Or your year. And this is seriously one of the funniest, funniest things I have ever seen. Ever.

I pasted the photos here for those un-techno saavy people that read my blog (dad), but you can get the source here.







By the way, the language that its being translated to (in case you don't know) is Japansese....so perhaps I can teach my kids how to say "Don't mess with that biotch." What do you think?

Turns out a British girl from a small town called Norfolk found this in her local bookstore. Why can't I have the good fortune to come across a treasure like this??

Read this article

http://www.theotherjournal.com/article.php?id=97&cview=1#cmt

You know how I said that I had a hard time explaining my travels - in particular, my travels in Gambia? This wonderful writer, who is a friend of Kathy and Haali, has taken so many of those unspeakable moments in Gambia and put them into words, with the added depth of his own experience.

Whenever I think I am forgetting, writing like this brings me back.

I'm being adopted

Ok, so I have an absolutely mushy heart when it comes to cats, as you all know after I said I wouldn't adopt Lily and then proceeded to - what? - adopt her. So now there is this cute black and white stray, all skin and bones, who keeps coming up to me and meowing plaintively and staring up at me with these big green eyes. She even comes up the stairs to my second floor apartment and scratches at the door to be let in. I definitely can't adopt her, and I won't. But in order not to tease her, I have been keeping my distance - that means no petting, no loving, no feeding. The poor little thing comes up to me with smooshy eyes and I have to lightly push her away.

Lesson learned: Never go outside in Japan. There are too many stray cats to break your heart.

In other news, Tomomi saved me from a night of depression last night by showing me pictures of her and Yoshi when, to quote her, "he was skinny!" Its his birthday this monday, and I am going to buy him something soccor-y. Also, today my lesson plan centered around teaching the parts of the human body - face, eyes, neck, legs - to my second graders. I told my students that I had a boyfriend, and that he was very cute - in fact, I suggested, let's draw my boyfriend. Well, these were the directions I told them to do:

Draw one big face
Draw one neck
Draw two shoulders
Draw four arms
Draw four hands
Draw one big stomach
Draw eight legs
Draw eight feet
Draw five eyes
Draw three noses
Draw four mouths
Draw four ears
Draw two hairs

Lets just say, Gary might not have appreciated 120 kids drawing him like a freaky alien. However, the kids loved it, and so did I. So this goes out to Gary: Baby, I love your four arms, no matter what anyone says...