Toy Story

It is not a good idea to attempt to manage the toy closet (ie, chuck stuff out) in between watching installments of Toy Story. Skip to 2:15



Not when your kid talks about how the poor toys are going to be burned....



I happily explained that ours would not be going in the burnable trash, that's not allowed in rubbish-mental Japan, but would be nicely buried where some achaeologist of the future will dig them up and and they will be treated like treasure.

Thank goodness my kids don't know the word 'landfill' (skip to 40s)



The other thing you must not under any circumstance do, is use personal pronouns to refer to them. A few weeks ago, I brought Jamma Lammy downstairs to toss, having finally had enough of her. She was a gift ages ago, a girl-shaped alarm clock that sings an annoying song. I don't think we've ever used it as an alarm clock - it's too annoying, and we could never seem to coordinate the feat of having working batteries in both the doll and clock parts of the device. But then each kid in turn 'discovered' her, and had to keep her, occasionally pressing the button that makes her sing and then say "Alright!" over and over again in that way kids do with toys that are supposedly 'interactive' (meaning they just make noise when you press the buttons, so the kid does it over and over again like some kind of drug) So it kept hanging around until the next clear-out.

Then I made the fatal mistake of referring to it as 'her', that I was going to throw 'her' out because 'she' is not very useful, we never use 'her'. Cue sad eyes around the breakfast table. Poor Jamma Lammy.

So, part of the solution is to give some things away.

A little girl we know in Beppu will probably be thrilled to inherit our entire zuzu pet collection, plus accessories. I hope her parents don't kill me.

Kristin, you should know that next time Sasha wants the Littlest Pet shop plus pets and accessories, she is going to be allowed to take it home.

I know a little girl called Pinglet's mother does NOT want more toys, but I hope an elegant evening purse with a few items of costume jewellery that were too nice to throw out will be fine. I guess I'll ask first if she want the old Puri-kyua outfits.

There are two energetic little boys in Oita who will have endless fun with the Fisher-Price toys.

One more little girl in Usa marked herself as a victim of our 'charity' by expressing a love of ponies the other weekend. I hope she likes the pony princess dress we throw in as well. I'm sure her brother will LOVE mowing the astroturf on the deck with our noisy toy lawn mower.

And GW, what do you say to some Bratz dolls, or Barbies?

Thank goodness I know so many people with little kids!

Bonus Jamma Lammy vid:

Calm, clean and quiet

Curry cooking on the stove, kitties curled up or stretched out on the sofa, fan whirring on the other side of the room, treating me to a little flutter of cool air every now and then. Not even the birds are tweeting on this hot morning, leaving me with quiet and peace.

And a living room floor that is STILL clean two hours after I vacuumed! Amazing!

I think I like Friday mornings. Friday mornings are quickly becoming my 'sit at the computer and pretend to work while reading stuff suggested by the gods of facebook' morning. This is a daily habit I have been weaning myself off for a month or two now. With my eager, interested morning mind in top gear I tend to click on everything, and before long have ten tabs open all with thrillingly fascinating or important issues that I must read right now! And of course, nothing else gets done that morning, so I've quit it, but quietly allowed myself to do it on Friday morning (of course I also tidy up, do the dishes, do some laundry and often start getting dinner on as well, but hey, that never ends! By 'doing nothing' I mean not getting on the de-cluttering, class prep, essay checking, yard work or whatever other pressing jobs need doing.)

Today is Father's Day. Not in NZ of course, where it's in September, or in Japan either, where it's on Sunday. But our Father is working on Sunday, and going drinking with a friend on Saturday night (harrumph! I thought it was my turn!) so tonight it is. Curry is on the menu of course, what else? But with a bit of twist tonight - hot Java curry for the mince, and I made a second curry with chicken and a really mild roux. I'm also going to make stuffed ball zucchinis and garlic butter scallops. With sashimi and beer added, and some champers for me, it'll make a nice feast, and no doubt the Father will put something on TV, and that'll be our night.

I've got most of it cooked, so I have a little bit of time after work to shop for a present, eek! What to get! And pick up the booze and sashimi. So it's off to work now, not a particularly taxing job this afternoon, what with having done the same lesson yesterday so I know what I'm doing. And while this bunch can be annoying sometimes with sleepiness, not listening and not following instructions, I'm so used to it that I think I'd be put out if they suddenly all turned into star pupils.

But it's a hot, hot day, and the air conditioning isn't on yet, so we'll all be sleepy, and aching to get out of there....I'll be dreaming of cool champagne and hot curry and watching the clock tick, tick, tick...

June

Rainy June. But not today, beautiful weather today, sunny and warm with a light breeze.

Sounds just like the start of a Japanese school PTA letter. Which means the next paragraph will contain the real business.

Okay, here's the next paragraph. Sorry, nothing to add. Or rather, I really don't want to list all the things I've done but haven't updated on the blog yet, like convention, undokai, parties, bbqs, blah blah blah.

And I certainly don't want to bore you with yet another break-down of my busy schedule, even though it's my personal obsession. And I'm still looking for more work! I'm know I'm mad, but the madness has a purpose.

Ahhhhh.... I know.

I'll blissfully rhapsodize over tomorrow. Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya tomorrow, you're only a few hours away now, and I have nothing scheduled. Well, until 2pm anyway, and not counting getting up at 7 to make Erica's lunch to take to kindy. Apart from that I am going to try to squeeze extra ipod game time, extra novel-reading time, extra movie-watching time and perhaps extra sleep into the six hours I have guaranteed with nothing to do (which of course means loads to do but I'm just ignoring it), and the rest into the other six, where I'll juggle swimming lessons, uniform shopping and making dinner.

With any luck I'll turn up at work on Thursday morning and have a panic attack about the stuff I have to do before the weekend, when I have plans to take the kids to a Reubens exhibition in Kitakyushu, visiting friends on the way.

Now, back to looking for photos and starting that convention post...