Family Values: What Do You Think?

Just after I was chatting with a female friend on-line about being "traditionally minded" vs. "career minded," I read this NY Times article. It's on the long side, so you may not have the time or patience to read it all, but whether you read it or not, tell me: what do you think about work/life balance and gender roles in the USA? Is everything fine? What's wrong or right with this part of our system (or lack of system)?

I don't often try to start discussions here, so I don't know if anyone is up for it, but I'm very interested in your opinion, so if you have a minute, please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

In other blog news, I don't know what happened to my picture.

タイヨウのうた

昨夜シカゴのダウンタウンに行ってきました。夏の間シカゴ文化センターで国際映画があり、毎週の水曜日いろんな国の映画を無料でみれます。昨日の映画は日本のタイヨウのうたという映画でした。仰は出張で一緒に行けなかったので沢山の友達を誘いました。一度見てから誘えたらもっと説得力はあったんだろうけど詳しいことわからなくて「日本の映画一緒に見ないか」としか言えなくて断られてばっかりでした。結局友達と二人で見ることになったけど行かなかった人は失敗したと思います。最高に最高なとっても良い映画でした。　私は一回映画を見てしまえば、もう一回見たがらない人なんだけど、この映画なら是非もう一回、二三回でもまた見たいと思っています。　　　

Walker with a Side of Rice

There's no easy answer to the question of when Izumi started walking. It could have been yesterday or last week or two weeks ago. All I know is that suddenly--how can something be sudden when it's been happening in front of my eyes for months?--when she falls, she gets back up on her feet and tries to walk again. And I shouldn't call it trying, because her legs-wide-apart-knees-up-high gait gets her places! While she's at it, somehow her stumping makes a sound on the floor that would lead one to think she's heavier than Koji though she actually weighs just half as much. At the rate she's been eating rice lately, maybe she'll catch up soon (or not; I guess she doesn't actually get that much of it in her mouth!).

Harry Potter has Left the Building

For the last few weeks, I couldn't decide if I should order my copy of Book 7, pictured here, from Amazon for delivery to my home on Saturday, July 21st. Or maybe I should go to one of these book-release parties at midnight? But who would go with me, who would watch my kids, was I really that into it? I didn't know and therefore I just couldn't decide how to put my hands on the book, or even if I really needed to have it right out of the gate at all. (Note for anyone who is familiar with the Myers-Briggs personality test: yes, I am a strong "P").

How fortunate and timely that Jenny and I just happened to be at Super WalMart in Galena at 11:10 pm Friday night when someone announced, "Those here for the Harry Potter book, please come and put your name on this list". Well. For the price of a mere 50 minute wait, there was no way I was going home without that book!

So I got the book at midnight (but we didn't get any hard iced tea, as we tried to pay for our purchases at 12:02 am and that was two minutes past the deadline for buying alcohol in Jo Daviess County. huh?) and felt just a little bit cutting-edge. I'm not sure what was so cool about buying the same book that lots of other people around the world were buying at the same moment...

In any case, though I was tempted to immediately crack it open, I actually held off until Sunday morning. Jenny and I had a moment of calm when the kids and dads were at the pool and babies were napping, so I dug in. Good start! Then, Aogu was willing to "chauff" (pronounced "showf") us home from Galena, so I had a three hour window to make progress.

This morning at 1:30 am, I finished. And it was sad, not the book's ending so much as the ending of the book. Are you following? This is the same feeling I have when I finish any book series (and that's been a fair number of times as I'm a sucker for a good series, why would I want one book when I can have three or five or seven even?), like I'm saying good-bye to a pack of great friends.

I can certainly go back and re-visit him at any time, so Harry's not dead, but he's definitely left the building. And as for me, I need a nap.

Improving Sushi

Do you like sushi? I'd like to think that I do but after reading this article from the NY Times, I'm not so sure that I've actually had a chance to experience it properly. Trying what the author suggests sounds like a lot of fun, so if anyone wants to join me, let's go! Give me a week or two of lead time so I can get a babysitter, though...

Groupie AND Mama?

If I thought it were possible to be a groupie and continue to mother my children with any level of competency, I would consider following U2 Zoo around. Of course, the actual U2 would be better, but I don't have the time or money to jet around the world (for that matter, I don't have the patience to wait for them to get out on tour!) after them. Meanwhile, U2 Zoo is "the Midwest experience," and I ought to know because I saw them live at the Brookfield Zoo Tunes series today.

You may scoff, "a tribute band? That's dumb!" but I tell you, they were really good! The lead singer not only resembled Bono in looks but in vocals, too. I felt like I was at a U2 concert for free, and not only that, I got to hear a lot of songs from The Joshua Tree instead of all that new stuff (you know, whatever new stuff they would be trying to promote, that is, if they were on tour. Which they're not). Cheryl Lynn was the more ardent-looking fan, so she got a free shirt, but I don't begrudge her. Honest, kelly green isn't my color, or something.

I took pictures, but you know how it takes awhile for those to travel from the camera to the computer to the blog? Yeah. Someday I'm going to do something about that. Meanwhile, I don't know, Milwaukee Irish Fest, anyone?!

My New Favorite Show...

is The Singing Bee. It's 100% corny, but I have to like it because it's karaoke at its finest, where as the host says, "You don't have to sing it well, you only have to sing it right". Should I try out?!

WILL You LEEve Us Alone?

Just kidding, Will! It was our great privelege and pleasure to see Will for the second time in less than a month. He was in town this week on business, so we met him for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. Of course I can't put up the pictures we took there since they're still in the camera, but I can show you the interesting mailbox we spotted on Michigan Ave as we were driving to RFC (picture lifted from Kathleen's blog, and I feel OK about it since we just got to see her and Brad the other weekend...if you want to see a picture, of course you'll have to go to Jenny's blog, July 8th post to be exact).

This post doesn't make much sense, but it's 1 am. Remind me, why did I drink coffee at 9 pm?

Scammer

We don't get to see Rich & Jenny every day, but if you check the last few posts on Jenny's blog, you'll know what we've been up to recently and see pictures of us much sooner than if you just wait for me to put it up here (remember that I'm still back on Day 1 of our trip to LA...).

Thanks for doing my work, Jen! I owe you!