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A few odds and ends of the last week or so. We had Loren and Betsy Schrenk and their son Matthew visit us last weekend. Akihiro suggested that they stay in a hotel instead of our home. With limited space and privacy, that was a good decision. We look forward to having a bigger home where it is easier to keep guests! As it was, we found a little hotel near our home and then we just provided breakfast for them.

The early part of last week I watched some of the little Klaus kids so Jana could get packed up for their trip to America on Thursday. Can you imagine getting a family of 10 ready to travel and be gone for about 6 weeks!? Well, they made it off ok and now we are in charge of their dog, Jack. He gets walked and fed twice a day, so it makes for good exercise, riding my bike over there and then walking him. We have learned, though, that if we are careful, we can take him by bicycle. This makes walking him go a little faster--not only does he have to walk/run faster, but he can't be as tempted to sniff everything along the way! Here's a picture of Jack in his cage--very happy to see me because he knows he gets to go for a walk..and later, the river path where we walk him.

Otherwise, I've done a bit of cooking for Marie who broke her arm, worked in the storage unit of our "new" old house, scavenged a few goodies from the house and cleaned them up, went to a showroom with our architect to pick out stuff for the new house, etc. On that note, it is funny to see the showroom people's face when they hear about an American size oven (twice as big as the biggest Japanese residential oven!) I think the biggest one at that showroom will be very nice--I can fit a 9X13 in it!

We've been getting lots of good fresh veggies from Ehnle's and other peopler recently and I stumbled across a really good dip for cucumbers today--miso and wasabi flavored mayonnaise--sound good?

Oh--I almost forgot! Our book is published! Too bad I don't know what the title is! Anyway, it is kinda fun to finally see the finished product. Here is a picture of the cover. Now they are wanting us to write a book about giving presentations at international conferences. We've got to think about that one!

I was hungry driving home from a ladies meeting at the Tokyo church (where, by the way, I got rid of lots of my stuff from the old house--yippee!!!!!!!). I spied the McDonald's (Macdonaldo in Japanese letters!) and felt a craving for a double cheeseburger rise. So, I tried out the drive through. I saw the dabulu chizu ba-ga on the menu and told that to the voice on the other end of the speaker. She said something to me that I didn't get but I just said "hai" (yes). So, I drive up to the window and she asks for 100 yen ($1). Hmm...didn't think they were that cheap...but oh well, maybe it's like the dollar menu. She graciously hands me the receipt with two hands and disappears. Her smiling face appears with a tall vanilla ice cream cone. Her smile faded when she saw my downfallen face. Ah...machigaimashita! (I made a mistake!) I repeated the dabulu chizu ba-ga and she immediately understood! I was too flustered to quick buy the cone as the supervisor came to rectify the problem on the register. Pretty soon a very apologetic girl appeared with my burger! I snarfed it down--ahh, tasted just like America!

It was a hot day here in Japan! 36 degrees celcius--my brain is too hot to translate that to Fahrenheit--sorry! I spent the day at Ehnle's harvesting some of their garden goodies and helping one of our Sunday school kids clean the church. Ehnle's left today for America for 5 weeks, so we get to harvest their garden stuff. The next two weekends three out of the four ministers in Japan will be out of the country, so Akihiro has it set up so that he can preach in one church and broadcast to the other church at the same time.

Yesterday we went to see two of the houses that our architect designed. He especially wanted to show us the bamboo flooring that one of the houses used. It looks like light wood and is like flat hardwood flooring, but is supposed to be really durable and comfortable (temperature wise and comfortable to stand on). He says it is the same price as the other floorings, so I guess we are going to go for it. The lady of the house where we went said she likes it, so that was a good sign. The architect said we need it especially since we aren't going to have any tatami (rice straw mats)--something that really makes a house "Japanese". We didn't think it practical for our house, so didn't choose to use any, but hope to use it somehow via a rug or something. He also showed us some washi paper wall paper that has flecks of bamboo in it. It too is not more expensive, and looks pretty Japanese, so I think we will go for it.

Monday I got my souvenier shop pretty well washed and organized, so I am ready for our next visitors! I made the mistake of stacking some drawers of dishes and they went crash! Well, there is more than one way to get rid of dishes!

Tomorrow is our third year anniversary--seems impossible that it was three years ago that I almost ran down the aisle to marry the man who has become my best friend. We are going to try out a special tofu restaurant nearby to celebrate and thank God for his many blessings!

We had a wonderful anniversary dinner at Ukai Tofu. The gardens were beautiful and the food very good! My brother encouraged us Sauder cousins to take more pictures for grandma's ceiva screen, so maybe I'll do better at taking my camera places and posting more pictures.

We started our meal with a sesame tofu with a dab of wasabi.

Then for a sampler--eel sushi, scallops with miso dressing, black beans, and a breaded potato-like veggie.

I think the tempura was next--white fish and a green pepper. Speaking of tempura, Akihiro has been bringing home some wonderful small white fish from his fishing trips before his work and they are just delicious prepared this way! Kinda like bluegill, but better!

Next was the fried tofu with various toppings--dried fish flakes and soy sauce, myoga (a spicy veggie) and another mixture of stuff.

There was also sushi, but in the usual style, so I didn't get a picture. Then came the main course--tofu balls in a clear seaweed flavored soup with these good little lilly pad like plants. Doesn't sound so good, but it was!

Then we had rice with tiny dried fish on top. Last we had black sesame ice cream and sweet beans with mochi (rice cakes).

It was night when we left and the gardens were pretty then too!

A wonderful way to celebrate our anniversary!