Saturday: cats

 Cats aren't allowed on LEGO instruction books, so imagine my surprise when I came down this morning to this:

I moved them off to the side and Tornado took possession.

Friday: morning, pizza

This morning was odd.  My children barely spoke to me.  They were both content doing their own thing, so I listened to two podcasts and then continued with my audiobook.  It was lovely and sad all at the same time.  

I made pizza tonight with the pizza dough and it was delicious!!  I'm glad that I had been doing it with the pizza kits from Crust 54 for a while though; I knew what to expect once it came time to actually make the pizzas.  I knew that I needed all the toppings chopped and ready to go.  I knew about how much cheese to put on, etc.  I made all the dough into pizzas and seemed to be just the right amount for tonight's dinner and tomorrow's lunch, which was 143g of the sourdough discard. 

Honestly, this went so well that I kind of want to try making bread soon.  I had been planning on waiting several months before trying bread to figure out pizza dough, but maybe I won't.  We'll see how busy the summer ends up being.

Thursday: Lego, dough

 Joshua came up with a new game today.  I was expecting it to be decent, but it was actually quite fun!  He made a small Lego item, in this case, a boat.

Without showing us the boat, he took it all apart and put the pieces into a bag.  We drew one piece at a time and had to make a boat.  We ended up with a power boat.

I also started making some pizza dough today.  Liz had kindly gave me some of her sour dough starter.  I've been debating asking for some for a while, but finally realized that everyone likes the "make your own" pizzas a lot more than store bought pizzas.  So the goal is to make pizza dough regularly.  Liz has a lot more experience and suggested some rough measurements for feeding the sourdough, but I'm not there yet so I weighed everything out.  Ok, I think I'm all out of order in this paragraph.  I took out half the current sourdough starter, as I'm supposed to.  I feed the rest of the starter and put it back in the fridge.  With the discard, I started making pizza dough.

And, 12 hours later, it had doubled in size like it was supposed to!  I had looked at it after a few hours and couldn't tell any difference, but maybe it was still warming up.  I folded it, per the recipe, and put it back in the fridge for tomorrow.  I might have more dough than I need, but I'd actually like to make Friday's dinner and Saturday's lunch. I can also freeze it if I have too much.

Wednesday: problem?

I might have a problem.  Lipton Decaffeinated Unsweetened Iced Tea Mix may (or may not) be discontinued.  I had a hard time finding it a year or two ago because it was always out of stock at Meijer, so I bought a case.  I just started my last jar, so I starting looking for a good place to find it again.

All the comments say that it is discontinued, but may come back mid 2025 per Lipton.  One jar can get me through several months, so I'll look again in a bit.  Otherwise there are a few options I could switch to but they all seem more expensive (and more concentrated?) or caffeinated.  Stay tuned; I'm sure I'll be really happy or really sad in a few months.

In other news today, we finally made it to a Tulip City Rock and Mineral club meeting.  The end feelings were...medium.  The junior meeting was a bit shorter than I expected, but both kids came home with a really nice fossil.  Then the kids joined the adults for the guest presentation - I'll be honest, it was a bit boring.  It was on how the club can join with Ottawa Parks and Rec to promote rock things.  Now, if we were active members then this might have been interesting.  But...the speaker talked quite a bit about Hemlock Crossings, which is one of the buildings that has a nice nature center with a big room for events.  And about five minutes discussing the parking lot.  We've been to Hemlock Crossings; to me it seems like a normal parking lot.  Furthermore, Joshua wasn't feeling amazing.  He had a headache that he couldn't quite shake.  

All in all, we want to give it another try.  It has potential and it had great snacks.  It's just hard doing things the first time.

Tuesday: rice cooker

I think I've mentioned that the rice cooker and I have a love/hate relationship.  Ok.  That's the backstory.

I asked Isaac to turn on the rice cooker today at 5pm because I'd be with Joshua.  He sent me a text while were driving home asking some questions about it.  I gave my phone to Joshua and asked him to send a text to Isaac: as long as the rice cooker is set to cook, it's good.

I got home and the rice was cooked properly, but Isaac and I quickly talked about how rice cookers worked.

Ben came home and checked the rice cooker.  What?  He knows I have problems with the rice cooker, but it was still an odd move.  Well, it turns out that Joshua had actually sent the text to Ben.  So, out of the blue, Ben receives a text about the rice cooker.  He just gave me a thumbs up.  I laughed so hard thinking about him receiving that text out of the blue.

Monday: still hot

Today was still hot, although tomorrow is looking a lot better.

One of Isaac's chores for the week is to trim our mulberry tree.  It's a chore he enjoys.  However, at 3pm this afternoon he tried to go out and trim it.  I quickly put a stop to that, reminding him that the rest of the week will be a little cooler and better for tree trimming.

Karate has a/c and the fans were on, but I still ended up taking my jacket off.  I think this is the first time I've ever done so due to heat, but we were only 1/3 of the way through the class and I was getting significantly warmer than normal.

Saturday: hot

Nathan stayed the night, although he got to our house late last night and left again mid-morning.  It was still lovely to see him.  We got donuts for breakfast and ate them on the deck.  However, by 8:30 we went inside because it was getting hot.

The rest of the day was pretty normal; some Legos, some games, some work.

a month ago: Memorial Day weekend

While Japan blogging has finished, I'm still not caught up.  Lastly, we have Memorial Day weekend.  

We went camping at the Conference Grounds again with friends. The weather turned out very nice.  It wasn't super warm, but warm enough that it was comfortable outside with a sweatshirt.  (Until evening, but then we had a fire going.)  Isaac had a crazy long Algebra 2 final exam that he had to take.  He could take one page at a time, but needed to finish about 18/26 pages over the weekend.  He worked hard without complaining, but we finally started setting a time limit for each sheet and that helped to speed him up.

There was still a lot of time to have fun.  Isaac did a ton of scootering.  Both kids played with friends.  Joshua more so than Isaac, but Isaac did too.  There was a ton of sugar.  The kids weren't interested in mini-golf this year, but both did the fun run Saturday morning.

vacation Monday: cat cafe and home

We met Travis and Scarlet at a nearby train station and rode to Takeshita Street again to go visit a cat cafe.  It was a nice cafe with nice cats.  We felt a bit taken advantage of because we bought a pack of twelve tokens for cat food, but then each cat food cost two tokens.  I'm sure that it was in the fine print, but it was a bit annoying.  The drinks were good too, and we got there right at the beginning before many people were there.  We were only allowed to be there for thirty minutes, and if we were there even a minute longer we would be charged an additional fee.  Thirty minutes was plenty, but watching the clock wasn't the nicest.

Anyway.  Here are the pictures, because there were a lot of smiles.

There was a brief stop at a candy store and then we meandered back to our hotel.  We stopped for a few minutes by a random sculpture.

We ate a very fast lunch at the 7-11; we had to check out by noon but otherwise we'd have to lug all our luggage around with us.  We got to the checkout with a few minutes to spare.  And then, sadly, we taxied to the airport.  Oh, let's briefly talk about taxis...it seemed like every time we were at a red light they filled out a log.  I looked it up and that's what it was - a log.  It surprised me a little bit, because it was hand-written which means that if the information is being used for anything it needs to be input manually.  I'm sure there is more than I'm understanding though.

Somewhere at the airport we also stopped at a restroom and there was a map of the available stalls !  There were several interesting methods throughout Japan on how to tell if a stall was available, but this was by far the coolest.

We had extra time at the airport because I'm always a bit paranoid about flying, but getting our bags checked and through security was a breeze.  So we had two goals: 1) finish up the money on the swica cards and 2) find a mochi gift for the person whose luggage we borrowed.  (The swica cards are the main method of payment for the trains, but many stores also take them.  Ben had put quite a bit of money on all of them at the start of the trip, so we tried to buy a lot of souvenirs using them.  It was especially nice since Joshua and Isaac could also pay for things using them.  Anyway, by the time we got to the airport they all had about $10 or less on them.)  The only store in the airport that would take swica cards was the 7-11 and it was busy!  So Ben and Isaac selected assorted treats and purchased them...and then they went back a second time once Ben realized how much was still on each.  I could fit almost everything in my extra backpack, except for some pizza flavored chips.  Joshua wanted to eat those right away, so it worked.  At this point each card had about 150 yen on them...just enough for four drinks from the vending machines.  We ended up with <11yen on all the cards, which is about eight cents (or less, for some of the cards!)

The plane ride went well.  The flight left around 3pm and I think I slept a significant portion of the flight.  I think Joshua did too, although we had forgotten about the reading portion of his homework.  He had to read two chapters before watching Dog Man, which he zeroed in on as soon as he sat down.  He finished the chapters after Dog Man and may have watched another movie; it's a long ride and with intermittent sleep I don't really remember what happened.

And, after another short plane ride, a very fast shuttle ride, and a car ride, we were home!  (And while I am really, really glad I spent the time on these blog posts, I'm also really, really glad they're done.)

Thursday: mice and pool parties, but not together

Last night I commented to Ben that I thought my mouse was dying as it suddenly was doing a lot of double clicks instead of single clicks.  My plan had been to look for a new one in the morning, but Ben said, "oh!  I have a new one right here."  So I was able to change it out AND get the old one in the yearly electronics recycling that went out today.

We had a pool party this evening.  The group was 'guys that lived together in college', but most of the wives knew each other pretty well too.  There were fourteen kids between the five families and most of the kids stayed in the pool the whole time, with the exception of coming out for dinner and dessert.

Wednesday:

 This morning Isaac and I volunteered at Kids' Food Basket, which meant Joshua didn't get out of the house.  While I'm not a stickler for the "you need to get out of the house every weekday" rule, I do try to enforce it.  Joshua decided to combine going outside with writing a poem on the driveway.

"I am chalk.
I can't go for a walk.
It's up to you if I can talk
For I am chalk.

The sky is getting dark.
I can 't hear a dog bark.
The rain is starting.
I am fading."

Horizon always comes into the kitchen when I'm making dinner, hoping for a treat.  (He rarely gets one.)  Today he hung out on the black step stool for a surprisingly long time.  I wanted to put more dishes in the dishwasher, but also didn't want to move him.  Needless to say, dishes didn't get in the dishwasher but I did remember to put sheets on the bed.

vacation Sunday2: SkyTree

Although it was late when we got out of TeamLab - it really did take the 3-4 hours that on-line suggested - we decided to go to Sky Tower.  This was one of the things we really wanted to do and Travis wanted to see it at night.  So off we went.

The Sky Tree is the third tallest structure in the world, as of 2024, and was the tallest for a while starting in 2011.  (Wikipedia)

Getting to the tower was a bit odd; we went the the fourth floor in a shopping plaza and then outside for a bit and then back inside to the tower.

We walked all the way around (360deg) and the view looked similar from everywhere; buildings as far as the eye could see.  For several minutes I thought that the grey thing was an overhang just blocking the view to the horizon but I was completely wrong.  To be fair, the greater Tokyo area is the most populous area with 41 million residents.  (Wikipedia)

The river showed up especially well at night time.  If you look closely you can also see the Ferris Wheel that we saw at Disney.

The highest point that we could reach!

A glass floor to see how high up you really are.

Everyone was getting rather tired by this time.  We started to look for food, but had poor luck.  /they were either full (Kirby restaurant) or needed cash (street food).  We finally found a pork katzu restaurant that was good.  Not as good as the other place, but decent.  The waiter looked at us very strangely when we asked for water, but the tea that was served (Oolongcha) at all the meals was not to anyone's liking.  Travis texted us a few minutes later and noted that in some believe that water with a meal will make it harder to digest your food.  How this is different from the tea, we weren't really sure.

We found a taxi to take us back to the hotel and it was the longest taxi ride ever.  Joshua literally couldn't keep his eyes open, so after fighting to stay awake for five minutes I told him to go to sleep.  Isaac ended up falling asleep.  What should have been a thirty minute ride took about forty-five minutes because the taxi driver didn't take the toll road and hit every. single. red light.  We would go a block and then wait two minutes.  It was ridiculous.  But we made it to the right place and everyone quickly went to bed.

Tuesday: rock climbing

Today we visited the new rock climbing gym in Holland.  While we are loyal Scrapyard members, but there were some nice things about this new gym too.

*The mats weren't as cushiony.  It made me even more scared to fall...but really, I don't like falling period.

*The routes were more spread out.

*They use a circuit method instead of V scale.  It isn't really much different, but it did work well for Joshua.

*It was really empty when we arrived.  They have some morning hours, which I do like.  (It was actually almost too empty.)

*The holds and walls are new, so their texture is still rough.  This can be nice and not nice all at the same time.

*It was air conditioned.  While this can be nicer, Scrapyard opens up the garage doors for fresh air when it is nice out; rock climbing gyms tend to have very poor air quality due to all the chalk dust, so the fresh air is better.

It was a nice gym, which makes me feel a little guilty.  However, the first time at a gym can be extra nice because it's all new routes that haven't been tried before.  Scrapyard has a nice community though, and Isaac is part of the climbing team which makes all the difference.

Also, I can't believe that we have two rock climbing gyms within ten minutes of our house when most of the country doesn't have one within an hour.

We caught a bird in our garage for a minute.

We worked on decluttering the garage for an hour.  It's a bit hard to tell that we made any progress, but we definitely did.  I'm not sure whose wise idea it was to do this in the summer.

Isaac made dinner tonight!  And when I say he made dinner, he made all of the dinner.  I only found the recipe for baked oatmeal that I use and I scooped out the oatmeal at the end because I know how much everyone should have.  He even cleaned up the kitchen after himself!  Joshua added to the dinner by giving me a Lego carrot.

Monday: busy day

It was a lovely day and we had several plans.

Isaac cleaned out his treat box; Joshua and I took advantage of it and snagged several snacks that he didn't want anymore.

We went on a walk with Cheryl.  I had a great time, but the kids had bug problems.

In the afternoon we went strawberry picking.  Luckily Jonathan and Elizabeth were happy to join us; neither of us would have gone without the other.  The strawberries are delicious!  The weather was better than expected; there was a nice breeze and it was partly cloudy.

Isaac found a mutant strawberry.

Sunday: turns and Father's Day

We went to church this morning and there is construction on the way, which requires a detour.  

We took seven left turns* and one right turn to get there.  The imbalance seemed really odd to me since church is about 1.25 miles from our house.

It was also Father's Day!  I have lots of great dads in my life.

Ben is a wonderful dad for many reasons, but today it was because he patiently helped Joshua be the bad pirate as we played Treasure Island this afternoon.  Joshua has wanted to be the bad pirate for a while, but it's a role in which other players can't help as much.

*A turn being defined as an intersection, not a spot where the road is curvy.

vacation Sunday1: back to Tokyo, teamLab borderless

Travis and Scarlet went back to Tokyo super, super early!  I think they chose the 6am train because Scarlet wanted to do some of the Tokyo things that we did earlier.  We stuck around a bit more.  The hotel breakfast was delicious and staying for that was totally worth it.  And then we took the 4.5hr train ride back to Tokyo.  

We had a lot of luggage, but it was workable - everyone had a backpack and a carry-on sized suitcase.  I had an additional blue backpack that fit well on the carry-on handles to carry some of our extra souvenirs.

The train ride was...fine.  At one point Joshua told me he wasn't feeling well and that's always scary in public places, but he rested a bit and started to feel better.  For a snack we had these triangle things that were all over the place; Ben said they were a dallop of flavored red bean paste in a square of dough folded over into a triangle.  The red bean paste was good, but it was a lot of dough that didn't have a yummy part with it.  Mount Fuji was clear again!

Getting to our hotel was a bit of an adventure; we were definitely out of the main area.  We needed to carry our luggage up and down steps at the train station and the hotel room was small with three beds.  This is what I was expecting most of the hotel rooms to be like.  There wasn't really even enough room to lay out our suitcases and walk around.  However, we didn't really need it to be much bigger either, so it worked well.

There didn't seem to be a ton of restaurant options nearby, so we went to a 7-11.  This is a normal thing to do, so it is definitely a cultural experience.  Everyone was a bit hangry by this time, but we survived.  There were a bunch of microwaves so that Ben and I could heat up our food; Isaac and Joshua got food from the food warmer.  It was good.  It wasn't great, but it filled us up and we were happy again.

We went over to the other teamLab installation next.  Our taxi driver dropped us off in a fine spot, but it was in the basement off a shopping plaza and we had a bit of a hard time finding it.  The picture below only works on a phone.  When you're just walking through the hallway the words are stretched out and 3D.  This one, as a whole, as a lot more artsy and less focused on movement.  I think I liked the other one a bit better, but this one still had some really cool moments.

We started off with a ball run where the balls and surrounding lights all changed color over time.

All of the walls were interactive and regularly changed.  This added to the feeling of not really knowing where you are and if you've hit all the mini installations...borderless.  It was nice and not so nice at the same time.  Below there were groups of butterflies that if you touched them they fell to the ground.

We made our own ocean creatures.  Scarlet's escaped a half hour later and we saw it in a different hallway.

I made the green, blue, and orange fish, all filled with circles.

Joshua made a smiley-face jellyfish.

Isaac made a submarine shark.  It was a cool idea, but the shark outline still showed up and he was disappointed about that.

Ben made the stripped shark in the middle.

This was a peaceful room.  A place to sit.  Water when we were there, but it changed over time.

This is the same room as above, but the cool part is that we had a color version and the outside hallway had the black and white version.

On our way out of this we walked by a wall.  EXCEPT THERE WAS A HOLE!  Ben took a video of it and it was just clever projection, although it doesn't show up well in the video.  We were all amazed at how much it messed with our minds.

We were at the Tea Room, which was billed as a must-do experience.  However, everything was Macha flavored and I'm the only person in the family who enjoys tea and Macha.  (Honestly though, Macha is a weird flavor.  I put it in my mouth and don't like it, but then a second later I decide that I do like it.  Every time.)  I enjoyed two servings of macha ice cream and my tea while everyone else enjoyed the cool things that happened to the food.

When you set down your ice cream, a branch grows from it.  When you set down your tea, a flower grows in it and then when you move your tea the petals all come off.

They had the same light rope installation as the previous teamLab.  This was a really, really cool installation, but a bit disappointing to see it again.  However, Scarlet found the app that controlled the lights and so we were able to add some "trees" and "light fields" and "fires" to the lights.

There was a really cool room with globes of lights.  The lights changed color slightly, but not enough to change the overall white look

This is in front of a one-way mirror.  As we were entering the exhibit it was funny to watch the people near the wall pose very un-self-consciously.   They had forgotten there were people behind the mirror.

There were a few other smaller rooms - one included people displayed on walls of 'smoke'.  So you could walk right through them!  The people were traditional Japanese images, which was interesting but I didn't understand any of the history.

Then a lilypad field.  I guess not lily pads, but white plates on sticks and the projection changed as you walked through the field.  

We were getting towards the end when we ran into a large room.  It had blue lines on the floor and I won't tell you how long it took me to figure them out.  They followed movement patterns of the people walking around.  So Joshua made a really tight circle, and then Isaac and Scarlet joined to make a few other patterns.