Catching up! : )

Well, well, well, it seems Fall is indeed here to stay. And some days it nearly seems down right winter-ish! : ) A few days the sun comes out and shines, but it still feels like Fall to me. Snapped this pic, when Noah was out in the backyard playing the other day. The boys have been going outside and playing a ton still. Though somedays it's been even too cold to even warrant a good ol' play ha ha ha! : ) Branden has also been still bike riding with his friends about 3 times a week still. He told me they went climbing trees and rolling in leaves last week! Ha ha ha! And he said he also enjoyed riding his bike through the leaves because the leaves made a crunch sound! :D Kids, I sure do love my kids! And have been enjoying watching them just be kids!

Last week, I indeed went bowling with my girlfriends! Oh man, we had a blast! We met up at 10 am on Wednesday morning, we were the first customers of the day at the bowling alley! We played 2 games! Noriko-san, and Rieko-san were both pretty good bowlers! And very fun to bowl with! If you see the screen, Noriko-san went first, I wanted to go last, lol, but was chosen to go second. And Rieko-san went last but not least. My first game I got like an 85 and my last game I got like a 91. Very normal to average scores. I am not the best bowler on the earth that is really for sure! :D But yet I am not the world's worst bowler either. However, I do like bowling a whole lot! : ) Meanwhile Rieko-san was clearly off the charts! She was such a good bowler. It was like WOW! Her first score was 145 and her 2nd game was like 165 or something like that. If your score was higher then a 120 point game you could get a free prize! Well, that clearly *wasn't* happening with me, har har har! : ) But Rieko-san won this Christmas mug cup! You can see the bowling balls in the background along with this cheesy pink and blue table. A total bowling alley picture for sure! Ha ha ha. After bowling, we went to lunch! We went to a pasta and dessert restaurant, only ladies ate here, not one single guy in here. It was a really good place and the desserts were so delicious. We all had a lunch set. It came with soup and salad, pasta and drink for 1150 yen. And for an extra 300 yen, you could pick a dessert. Of course, we just had to order the dessert! *wink wink* Which the 3 of us did, lol. We all had dessert, I chose a rare cheesecake with blueberry topping, oh it was so good, so rich and creamy, it was a boderline sin, to eat something that truly delicious. After lunch they went to the yochien to pick up both of their own younger daughters. And I meanwhile went home and then went to pick up B from elementary school. I am glad, I do get away with my girlfriends once a month without kids. This gives me a chance to let my hair down, so to speak and unwind. And have girl chat. Besides the twice a week chit chats I do get at the swim school anyway with kids in tow, is always nice too though. Yup, lonely....I am definitely not! Ha ha ha. Good to have good friends! : ) We are now thinking next time we should go to karaoke. :D

Last week the pigs indeed flew yet again! And they brought us our order! They sure do have speedy shipping, ordered on Sunday got it on Thursday. It's always only been a 4-5 day wait. Have always had the best time ordering from them! I also enjoy the easy ordering in English. Phew. : )

Nothing all too fantastic, but the basics. No frills here : ) Snack stuff, like chips for chips and dip. popcorn to last the winter and a big honkin' jar of mixed nuts. Better then eating sugary snacks, I'd say. : ) What else....Black olives for Thanksgiving and the other is for Christmas. Bacon, 2 packs of that. We do love our bacon around here. A huge amount of sliced processed cheese, this makes some mighty fine grilled cheese sandwiches or grilled ham and cheese too! And also great for omelets. What else.....lean ground beef is for hamburg and other stuff. Tortillas and those delicious yeasty dinner rolls. Basic, basic, basic told ya....nothing exciting in there, lol. Just being really conservative with the essentials. : )

On Saturday the FBC order arrived. Ordered the same day we ordered the Flying pig (Sunday) and only 15 minute difference when we ordered online, and we got it Saturday. A bit slower to ship stuff then Flying Pig we think, but not too outrageous or anything, normal shipping still. Could be that Flying Pig is just superly fast and that's why we take notice. In any case am happy to have gotten our FBC order, because we do love FBC too and love their English ordering too, easy for me. : )

Turkey roasting pan, and while I may be conservative all year long and buy Japanese potato chips all the time and do love them. For Thanksgiving, I do buy Ruffles, so we can use them for our dip! Yumm! I have been staring at said chips since Saturday, the restraint I have to not open the bag, ahhhh! I have been trying so hard, ha ha ha!

And I could quite possibly be the only person who loves canned peas, well actually not really or they wouldn't carry them. So, others must secretly love them too. Anyway, I love fresh veggie for everything. But for peas, not sure why, even I do not know the answer, but I love a good canned pea. LOL. I had to order myself 3 cans. And the huge bag of red cheddar is for the enchiladas I will be making soon and so is the 24 pack of corn tortillas as well. American mustard gearing up for my turkey sandwiches I think, since I do one side mayo and one side mustard, ha ha ha. And the small box of mini candy canes. : ) The tiniest smallest order, sniff, sniff, lol. But am really happy with what we got!!! : )

Saturday evening Branden helped me prepare dinner. He chopped veggies and I watched cautiously close but honestly his chopping is getting really good. : )

A whole lot of veggies here. : ) We made yakisoba on Saturday night. : )

Snapped the pic and then a few more stirs and mixes and it was done.

On Sunday, we went to the Subaru dealership in Narita. Here is a pic of Noboru taking a test drive.

A very cute car, cushy thick seats and some handles in the back, lol. : )

The interior looks good, And why was I in the back seat? No car seats in the test drive car and I stood in the back seat with Noah.

After our test drive and 2 hour stay at the car dealership, we went to lunch at Saizeriya. A really cheap and good Italian restaurant chain in Japan.

On Sunday night I made niku jaga. Niku jaga basically means meat and potatoes. Most people I have ever heard of, makes theirs with beef. Even me, when I think of niku jaga I think of beef and potatoes. However I make ours with pork. : )

A bit of sesame oil in the frying pan and I started to fry up the sliced onion in the pan. The sesame oil really gives it a great flavor. I learned and watched my MIL make it, and then omitted the stuff I didn't like. And a very tweaked version.

Really nice onions stir fried and now a bit soft.

Just like with regular niku jaga where you need to find the thinnest beef possible. I also find the thinnest pork possible and cut off any funky bits. Like this ring of fat, I cut off every piece. Left with a very lean thin piece of pork.

Lots of lean pork.

I stir fry my pork in the remaining bit of sesame oil. And though with beef, all you gotta do is make sure the pink has gone from the beef before you boil. For the pork I make sure the pork is completely cooked before I add the water. 1TBS mirin, 1TBS sugar.

1/4 cup soy sauce. And I boiled on a semi high heat before lowering the heat to a medium heat. If I was using beef it might be done in say 20 minutes. But again with pork, I cook longer to make sure it's thoroughly done. I usually cook mine for a good 40 minutes on a medium heat. Meaning as soon as it has a strong boil I drop it down to a medium to high heat. Lid covered the whole time except when I check on it. I do not add any dashi which contains fish broth of some sort. I am really not a seafood lover at all, sorry I just am not. Sure I like shrimp and lobster :D But fish sauce and the likes, I don't use. So, I make my niku jaga without any dashi at all. Again though, if you have 1 million women in Japan, you can honestly end up with 1 million different recipes for niku jaga. Ha ha ha. So, yeah...we do have a very basic niku jaga thing going on at our house. No fish based, just truly meat and potatoes, with soy sauce, sugar and mirin and sesame oil add to the flavor. Now my MIL she adds the sesame oil and she uses the dashi though and she also uses beef. : ) So she might not care for my basic meat and potatoes recipe. But that is okay, we do around here. : )It's one of Noboru's favorite winter time dishes, besides the nabes of course. : )

And everyone I know uses one veggie or maybe two to their niku jaga. We always add fresh green beans to ours.

And after the green beans were cooked and right before dinner time! : ) The smell in the house? Wonderful. Oh the reason I don't cube my potatoes, is because with the double cooking time since I use pork, my potatoes would be mush if I diced them. So yeah there is logic in why I don't dice them up! There's a good reason. : )

A nice simple very basic meat and potatoes meal! The meat was honestly fall apart tender because the meat is so thin to begin with, the onions were so soft the potatoes were yummy. The broth of this is amazing. We could eat this at our house every other week. We probably will... with the chilly Fall weather and winter approaching. : )

We have the cars we want narrowed down to 2. With all the research Noboru's done on it. I take my hat off to him for that, btw (by the way). We have it narrowed down to the, Daihatsu Mira, which was given the award for the car of the year, Japan in 2007. And the other choice is the Subaru Stella. Noboru is leaning towards the Stella. That is the car we went and test drove on Sunday. This car is very safe. As you can see in this brochure. This car is one of the safest cars around. See the test dummy kids on the left in the pic? It does have some of the highest ratings. And Noboru likes the fact that it is so safe.

See the skeleton of the car, for lack of better word here for the Stella? It basically has an enforced roll cage type frame on the top of the car and everything so if we ever had a roll over, we would indeed be safe. God forbid we never encounter anything like that though.

Not only does it have front air bags it also has side air bags. And the gas mileage on the Stella, is apparantly fantastic! Anyway that is where we are at... up until this point so far! We are somewhere between deciding on the Subaru Stella or on the Daihatsu Mira. I like the Mira and also the Stella and would be happy with either. But Noboru likes the Stella so far out of all that he has researched. Hmm. More study and talks needed before we decide. But at least we have it narrowed down to 2 cars so far at least! : ) So at least some progress has been made. : ) Also, Noboru wants a yellow plate car, however he wants our yellow plate car to have a CVT transmission (don't ask me, ha ha ha). Daihatsu offers a CVT transmission but only for the most expensive model, the X model, which is what Noboru would have to buy since he is so stuck on the CVT transmission thing. Meanwhile for Subaru, the CVT transmission in standard in all their cars! So that is the good thing about Subaru since we want a yellow plate car and he still wants the CVT thing. One more thing....most yellow plate cars are only 3 cylinder like the Mira, but the Stella is a 4 cylinder (again don't ask me, it's what Noboru has been looking into not me : ). Yet another reason to sway us more towards the Stella, he says. Anyway no clear cut decisions about the car as of yet, but we are getting closer. Only thing is and this is sorta funny but bare with me....I can't help but think of the line Marlon Brando gave when he said......Stella!!!!!! It just keeps popping up in my mind. If I did get that car...and someone asked "what kind of car do you drive Gina." I would probably turn around and say in my best Brando impersonation...I drive a ..."Stella!!!!" LOL! Ahhh anyway still deciding but that is sorta funny. : )

Also, Branden came home with a letter from the school last week. He apparantly didn't do so well on the eye exam at school. He didn't flat out fail. Yet his test results gave the one giving the exam reason enough to flag Branden! So, while there is no definite yes or no for right now. There is a possibility he might need glasses, you guys. : ( So, anyway, I will be taking Branden to an actual eye doctor some time this week to get checked. Not just at the glasses shop, is what I mean. Because I wanna be for sure either way. Anyway, please have a lovely week you guys!!! : )