Category: News (Page 9 of 29)

There are many days I take my camera and just don’t “see” anything I want to photograph. Then there are days like today when I forget my camera and find many things I want to photograph. For example, the African man walking just ahead of me for a mile of my walk. He was doing a karate workout while he walked. He would spin and kick several times and then begin walking again. At one point he stopped in front of a shop with a large window and tried to take himself down. It was most amusing! Also, I would have loved to photograph the beautiful clothes in the Escada window right now. I have decided that if I were to wear expensive designer clothes they would have to come from Escada. I really like most everything they have in their windows. With no camera today here is the photo.

Sumo Fans

Today was a national holiday, Coming of Age Day. Many people get a holiday from work to celebrate all young people who are turning 20. Many girls dress up in kimono and visit a shrine. Since I haven’t seen this we went to Meiji Shrine. Here are the photos:

The girl above was a westerner, maybe American, accompanied by a Japanese man and woman. Our thought was that she might be a student living with them or on a cultural exchange. It was so funny to see girls so traditionally dressed and still obsessed with their cell phones.

I just don’t keep track of when new music is being released. Here in Japan I am reminded often because a big poster is right in front of me It took up most of the building.

Lupe, Lulee, Lujean, Luella, Lubeaner…all names for this beautiful girl. Also known as Kristina! (Lupe was her name in high school Spanish and since Andrew was in her class he started calling her Lupe at home. It stuck and so did all the variations). Thanks for driving me to the airport this morning!

James and Ruth’s children attend the same elementary school that my three youngest attended. This afternoon James and I took the kids to the playground at the school. It’s interesting that the same playground equipment is still there. I guess I expected it to be different because the PTA was always raising money for additions to the playground. I guess I thought that they would have replaced everything by now. They have just added  a few new pieces. We had fun playing tag and running around.

Mark was blessed by his dad today. All of our family members that were in town came and so did Ruth’s family. I think I counted 37 people to see Mark blessed.

After a New Years Eve party at Ruth and James where everyone stayed up until it was New year’s in Times Sqaure, so 11:00pm in Kingwood we slept in. Then we went to East End park for a hike. It was a beautiful day!

Today has been a fun day. We started off with donuts and a bike ride back to the lake to visit Maggie a huge and ancient magnolia tree on the shore of Lake Houston.  All of the kids loved stopping and playing in the leaves and throwing sticks into the water.

After to lunch we traveled in Tiny (the maroon 12 passenger van) to the Main Event. The Main Event is a wonderful smoke free, family friendly bowling alley near The Woodlands.

Then we came home and prepared for our New Years Eve feast, a buffet of appetizers and wonderful treats. Everyone made something. The kids decorated the house with balloons and streamers. After welcoming the New Year we all settled down for a long sleep. A busy, but very fun day.

Rorey and Mark. Rorey is seven months and Mark is seven weeks and they are just about the same size.