ok…we’re having guests over tonight. first thing to do for that? clean the guest bathroom! we haven’t touched the guest bathroom since moving in. i’d think that everyone else feels the same no? who likes cleaning the toilet, sink and shower? i don’t think many.

it was standard fare until i started to remove the old toilet seat. the left bolt and screw came off ok. it was a little rusted from the reservoir water – but it was fine. the right side however was melted together from the rust. i took me taking apart the entire toilet seat before figuring out that the nut was plastic and was easily pulled off.

now we have a sparkling clean bathroom for everyone!

tonight we will have hiro, asako, kajita, yoko, masatoshi, erichan, kenji, aya, kane, and mitsy here to celebrate the 4th of july! happy 4th everyone!

tonight is theoretically the ‘last’ night we’ll eat out. not exactly true – we’ll eat out again…but we need to push ourselves to clean up the kitchen so that we can start cooking at home to save some okane for the future kitchen!

we ate at a relatively new restaurant in torrance called ramen california. we had an apetizer of raw oysters and some tsonga tomatoes. we also had a glass of cabernet and an MGD. for the entree we had some ramen. nope…not your typical ramen (shoyu or miso or shio). these had some micro vegetables and some grilled chicken. not bad i’d say – very healthy and light.

rie was mentioning that often a chef from japan is hired by a restaurant for say 3 months to train the local cooks. after his tenure, he returns to japan to perhaps consult for another venue. maybe we got to taste the best of the restaurant? we’ll see if this holds true if we visit again.

the other night, we installed a towel hanger, toilet paper holder, and curtains. it was strange that the previous owners didn’t have a towel holder installed. maybe they removed it before selling? anyway, we bought a nice set from ikea (this is only temporary…when we do a real bathroom renovation…NO IKEA!). busted out the trusty drill set and fit some bits in and made some pilot holes for the screws. after a few turns of the phillips, we had ourselves some towel holders. gone are the weeks of putting our towels on hangers in the closet to dry! we also installed curtains on the bedroom windows and the office. easy!

next up? hmm…a lot of things! i think we’ll concentrate on cleaning up the kitchen and adding some lining to the cabinets. it’s time to put an end to eating out every night. stop the bleeding so to speak!

last night we came back from finishing up moving out of rie’s apartmment and a nice 5 mile run at the beach to find a line of ants from the bedroom closet to the trash can. apparently, i had left a wrapper in the trash with some left over sweet bread (pan). they eventually found the sweets and started swarming the left overs. what can we do to eliminate this ant problem?

today we began cleaning our house. it wasn’t occupied completely before we bought it and though it wasn’t terribly dirty. there is still a lot of work to be done from the previous owners and the dust and trail left from construction.

we started by cleaning the kitchen – full ajax treatment to the counter tops and sink. we even got on the countertop to wipe down the ceilings and walls of the caked oil from cooking. the kitchen looks much much better!

next we cleaned the master bath. tile cleaning, sink job, and changing the toilet seat. we also added drawer liner – it adds a nice touch and makes the room feel clean.

tomorrow we will clean the wood flooring in the master bedroom. it is our hope to sleep our first night there. to clean the floor, we were recommended to use this product. look for a review of the product very soon!

*click on photo for link*

we also did quite a bit of work removing the old junky blinds in the kitchen. after working the screws out of the old blinds clips, we got our leveler, a pen, and a phillips screw driver to place the tabs for the ‘new’ blinds. another addition completed. keep up on future updates. sure to continue for 30 years and beyond.

30 minutes away from successfully updating the iPod touch to 3.0 version software. what are the differences? i think they’ve added ’spotlight’, which is similar to the mac os x spotlight – a quick search tool of everything within the device. they’ve also added the ‘cut and paste’ function. i’m very surprised it was not included in the first version. is it worth the $10? we’ll see…

as for apple products, i’m completely sold.

get it here…

what: wedding ceremony and reception
who: rie and jay
when: february 13, 2010
where: o’ahu, HI, halekulani

save the date! invitations to come soon!

aloha,
rie and jay

a few days ago, several thousands of dollars moved from our checking account to our mortgage lender – we made our first mortgage payment. never before has a payment for something meant so much. our responsibilities are high now and every decision we make will be that much more important and will have that much more of a lasting effect on our lives.

gone are the days of spending money on luxury items…such as going out for lunch or buying that video game. to an extent, we need to still spend money to enjoy the fruits of our labor – but the main goal is to get ourselves secure for the future!

this is a book i bought in japan at a bookstore in ginza. rie helped me pick it out. so far i’m on chapter 3 and it’s really helping me with my nihongo. i also bought a few other books to help out but they did not seem to teach as smoothly as this book has done. i first started after borrowing a ‘let’s learn hiragana’ book from my friend. i later ordered a ‘let’s learn katakana’ book from amazon. progress has been slow but lately my intake has improved. partially due to my recent visit to japan and since riechan speaks as her native tongue.

yesterday, we spent the day at the tetsumoto’s to celebrate yugo’s 3rd birthday. he got all the presents a kid could wish for. yoko and george, yugo’s parents, hosted as they always do with awesome food and drink. we never leave without having fun and being full. we got to meet a lot of new people too. the best part of the party was the striking of the piñata!

たんじょうびおめでとうゆうごさん！