all martha-ed out

my two days of visits went well, and it was so nice to have people over. Anyone ever in the vacinity, please drop in!

K had lots of fun playing with friend's daughter R-chan(or is it L-chan? transliterists, what are your thoughts? Can i choose as i see fit? I go for L-chan on this one) on Tuesday, although since they got here at about 11:30am, K was having soooo much fun that she forgot to nap. So when they left about 4pm, it didn't take long for K to get grumpy. She ended up falling asleep in my arms as we were skyping my folks just before 5pm. Classic. I decided to let her sleep (like I really had any say in it) and took R for a walk, with K in the ergo, then put her on the bed for more napping. She woke up after about an hour, but was still obviously sleepy, so I thought a shower would freshen her up, and tide her over at least until normal bedtime, which it did. She was still a bit tired today though, so I put her down earlier than normal for a nap, at about noon, then she slept a good 2 and a half hours, waking up just before our friends came over for a cuppa this arvo.

Yesterday I made a quiche using this recipe for the pie crust, and this recipe for the Brocolli filling (although I did add mushrooms and bacon). The filling was very very yum-yum, but I failed miserably on the pie crust. My symptoms - crumbly crust, which apparently means I overworked the dough. I also think it may have something to do with the fact that I can't work out the US measurements (yes, I realise that you can change the units on Zaar Recipies but then you end up with something like 15.67ml of blah blah blah), so I might have added too much butter to start with, then ran out of flour when I realised I had added too much butter, so couldn't even tweak the dough. Oh well. I am having another attempt this saturday in my quest for the perfect quich pie crust. Did I really just write that - god my life is boring.

Today I made lasagna for dinner - I know, I must be going through a yo(洋)phase this time. I used a recipe off the internet very loosley, with mince, onions and mushrooms in a jar of pasta sauce, but made my own white sauce (the only thing made as per the recipe), and used red cheddar cheese and mozzarella cheese, as well as some parmasan for sprinkling on the top. (gaijin wife...I will still accept your lasagna recipe if you ever want to send it my way!) and I thought it tasted good, but J said it was lacking a bit. He *always* says that though (rolls eyes) , so I just told him that just because all Japanese food tastes like soy sauce, doesn't mean that western food needs to have an overbearing flavour to it, and he should learn to appreciate subtle flavours (or starve - his choice really, hehe).

tomorrow we are going out to play - have to be out of the house before 10am to catch a train. God help me. In this heat, I can barely even sleep at night, and that is WITH acey on in the next room (not in the room we sleep in).

and finally some great news - I got two fantastic packages in the post today. One was the book LOSING KEI which I won on Nay's blog, (yay, I finally got it...bit of a mix up at this end, oops, with not realising the postie has tried to deliver the book while I was out one day, as the message card they leave was tossed in amongst some pizza-la campaign fliers so I almost lost Losing Kei, but all is well now, and I am really looking forward to reading it - thanks Nay, and Nay's mum for sending it!) and a friend from home send over a care package of magazines! yay! So I can find out now that Brangelina are expecting a baby - ok, the mags might be a *bit* old, but hey, English lit. Gotta love it!