Good to hear that Peter and Hitomi got to Hawaii OK - sounds like they had a nice short flight. Its actually pretty funny, because Peter knows two other couples who also went to Hawaii on Friday (purely by coincidence), including one girl who does some work at Orbitune and who is staying at the same hotel as them-that's just a bit bizarre; it's not like there's only 2 hotels in Waikiki or something!

Venus has been very clingy since her Daddy left - its pretty cute, but a bit pathetic. She also went on a retaliatory spree up in the bathroom - decimating my toothbrush and strewing my Anna Sui stuff all over the place - its very lucky for her that she didn't hurt any of it, or my toothpaste, which I caught her cradling in her paws. Weird girl!

We chilled this morning, did some pilates (which she tried very hard to push in to), and then today I had my first language exchange, which wasn't too sketchy actually. His English was really good, and I felt bad b/c my Japanese is SO crap (maybe something I should have considered before taking on the article?) but I did warn everyone in the email I sent out, so there you go. We just went to a cafe and spoke in English for a bit and then went through my Japanese text book a little bit - it was good to actually have to speak to someone, since never needing to practice is my biggest problem. Part two of this experiment continues on Monday, part three later in the week. I think for the next one, I'm going to suggest we do the basic my name is/i study this/i live here small talk in Japanese, since that's all the stuff I sort of know, and then go on to the more complicated things in English, otherwise, we exhaust my entire repertoire in five minutes or less (pathetic I know!).

We met in Shinjuku, near the Krispy Kreme that opened just before we went to Hawaii. It's ridiculously popular! I'd heard rumors of lines, but this was nuts - about a hundred people waiting outside for their donuts! I mean, I know they're good, but get the people some Tim Hortons!

(that big clump of people on the left side of the picture are all waiting to get in)

I came home and made Bulgur wheat with garlic and onions and lemon pepper - it was so good! I don't think I've ever had it before, but it looked intriguing in the box at Nissin, and I'm pretty happy I picked it up! Oishii desu.

Then I hunkered down with my laptop and bad 2:30-4:30 am in Canada TV to work on querying some more. I got a letter submitted to Listen Magazine about vaulting, so I'm happy about that. Tomorrow I teach, at a cafe with plugs no less, so maybe I can get another one done tomorrow... Bets on how many I have to send out before I get a taker?

D