Hope springs eternal

Spring is always a beautiful time of year. Everything is just a little more comfortable, there are nice smells in the air, and there is a sense of hope and rebirth. Even in our front yard and neighborhood, there are lovely blossoms and buds of things to come.

Nature can be so fragile and gentle, blossoms last for only so long, and sometimes nature can be so powerful and violent, as we witnessed with fret in Japan last month. This spring's sakura cherry blossoms will surely be even more beautiful in Japan and bring some hope and peace to those around them.

Feeling angsty

Last night, we accidentally caught a glimpse of Idol and were mortified that some kid was attempting to cover a Nirvana song. I just listened/watched the whole thing and wow, nothing has ever made me cringe and want to pull out all my hair like this... ever! I was literally pulling my hair and soothing myself saying, "no, no, no...".

The thing is, Nirvana wasn't about singing or even playing music well, which is why it's so upsetting to first see someone try to mimic it and then to have J.Lo judge it. AND then on top of it all, the whole reason why this kid sang the song ("Smells like Teen Spirit" which is also like the cheesiest one to cover) was because he had to sing a song from his BIRTH year. Ok, my dear friends of my generation, do you not want to cry/throw up now?

If you must see it for yourself, I found the video on a an article entitled "'American Idol' desecrates Nirvana's 'Teen Spirit' as expected".

Sorry, just had to get that out of my system. I'll never speak of Idol again, unless someone tries to cover PJ Harvey or Radiohead.

Is okonameyaki romantic?

Happy Valentine's...

Snow snow snow!

It being a whole new year, I thought about starting a whole new blog, but for now I'll keep this one chugging along. The snowstorms were relentless this year, it seemed like we'd never see it melt away. Kitty braved it and after some initial fear and wonderment, grew to love running through the snow and digging for treats (our neighborhood has a lot of discarded chicken bones and open cans of cat food lying around for some reason). Here are some highlights...

Enjoy the holidays!

Happy Holidays and here's to a great 2011!

Last bits of Fall

I usually get some good foliage shots, but this year fall got away from me.

Brazilian TV gets me

Check out my Brazilian TV cameo! They came by our shop to shoot some things and interviewed me but luckily they cut that part out. Apparently Brazilians never wear hats so they're fascinated by our need for them. They also call hats, chapeu like the French.