A Few Things

Laugh of the day: Lena was sitting on the floor at the kotatsu doing homework this morning, and felt something brush against her leg. Thinking it was a cat, she reached out to touch.... A cockroach! While she stood on the sofa eeking and freaking and literally crying, the rest of us tried very hard not to laugh, and the cats and I chased the cockroach until I caught it under the bug spray can. Yes, wrong side, I know, but I left it there to deal with later... only to find the can knocked over later. Kind of hope the cats got it, kind of don't, since we sprayed it a lot last night when we first saw it.

(shudder: a cat rubbed against my legs just now!!! Creepy!)

Lena's hissy fit was probably only marginally less ridiculous than Kanji and me squealing and trying to hide behind each other when we first attacked it last night - and it flew at us!!!

But not nearly as funny as Kanji trying out the brand new 'one spray per day' (eg, every 12 hours: no, we have not worked out how that works yet) and spraying himself in the face.

He's not having a good week. He got caught not stopping at a Stop sign. Twice. At the same intersection. sigh. They've been fixing up the roads between our house and his shop for years, and this intersection was finally totally finished, painted and perfect. What better time to set up a sting? I've been stopping at it for ages, because I've noticed the police on that road numerous times - it seems whenever there is roadworks, people think there are no rules any more and do what they like, so the cops follow them there and catch them. Apparently Kanji had not noticed though!

***********************

Just did something I have not done for years, and never in this house. Carried a warm, freshly washed and DRIED load out of the laundry to fold. Ever since the shocking failure of my last drier, which took six hours to dry one load into a crumpled heap because all it did was blast hot air on the just-spun load, I've had to do without. So it was a mixed blessing when the machine started to play up, and a piece of happy luck to find a combination machine on sale for 88,800 (they are usually about 150,000). Now all I have to do is try not to use it too much!

***********************

Three new recipes tonight, mixed results. I added grated carrot to my corn fritters - that worked! I love corn fritters with sweet chili sauce. And added moyashi to latkes. Or, mung bean sprouts to the potato cakes we used to have that we called mock whitebait fritters. Bean sprouts make much better fake whitebait! I also tried crumbed pumpkin slices, Lena's idea after I tried crumbed zucchini a few weeks ago, which she loved. Fail. I tried doing them in the oven and added too much oil. Anyone have any idea how to re-make too-oily crumbed pumpkin into something?

At Fadies to get the chili sauce, I saw.... drumroll please....

Babich Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. 1980 yen. ($25). And yep, you just know I'll fork out for it! I only just, with a great show of will power, that I managed to not buy it tonight, knowing it would just sit there taunting me all week. Now I am seriously thinking of how many other ways I can cook mung beans and tofu for dinner tomorrow and Friday so I can afford it!

***********************

It's a new Wednesday. Bye-bye laid-back Wednesday, although with swimming starting later the afternoon felt longer. I added juku for Amy from 7-9, after her swimming lesson, so she needed a snack. Now I really do only have Friday left!