big few days

We went down to the (PILs's) summer house for the weekend, left Fri night after J got home from work. Decided to try the local roads instead of the highway, and got every single red light for about 40kms straight. J said we would stop at a supermarket along the way to get some supplies, but it was after 10pm before we got to our destination - we were so sure the supermarkets would be shut, but lucked out with one open. J bought up while I waited in car with sleeping K (and sleeping R). When he got back in the car, I said that he should go into the house first and lay out the futons so that I could just run in with K and not wake her up too much. He slapped the steering wheel and let out an expletive as he said "I forgot the keys". We had just driven nearly 2hours, and were 5 minutes away from the house. I did the only thing I could do - laugh! We tried the house just in case his parent's were there (they weren't) or there was a spare key hidden somewhere (there wasn't) then decided that we would head back to pick up the key and come back again - another 2-3hours of driving! Since K was asleep, it didn't really make much difference, except that everytime I was about the nod off in the car, he would turn around and ask a question or make a comment about the car in front or something. Oh well. Finally got to the house (with the key!) at about 1:40am. K woke up and took a while to settle again. Then I couldn't sleep anyway. I think I got about 4hours sleep before K woke up at the crack of dawn. Normally at home, I just let her run amok because really there is not much she can get into, But at the house, it is like one big amusement park (read = danger zone) for K, so I had to be up to supervise her too. We still get to relax a bit(J usually does all the cooking etc on the weekends)but it was a big weekend with lots of playing in the blow-up pool, running around the garden with R, walking down to the fishing port etc etc, so I was buggered by Sunday night.

Tomorrow, a friend is coming over with her daughter who is 3 months older than K to visit. I am usually the visitor - no one ever comes here. And when they do, I spend days before hand SLOWLY cleaning the place up (i.e. I tidy the area near the genkan, then procrastinate for an hour, then I might hit the kitchen, only to wipe the benches before I start thinking about something else and end up on the sofa watching the 2pm drama on tv (which is "鬼嫁日記" or "The Housewife from Hell Diaries" with Goro, comedian from Garage Sale in it. I quite enjoy it, even though I think I have seen the whole series twice already....)oops, double bracket here, see, I am pretty good at getting OFF track....)

so, the friend tomorrow, I met her while I was doing tea ceremony lessons - she was preggars when I joined, then I got preggars, and saw her at the same hospital I was going to, at the preggar's yoga classes. She got a shock to see me there, as I hadn't told my tea ceremony teacher or the others that I was "with child" yet. So we gave birth at the same hospital, and used to catch up with a few other mums from the same hospital for the first several months or so after all the kids were born, then we moved, and I haven't really seen her (or the others) for ages. So she is coming all the way down (nearly an hour by local trains) to see us tomorrow and we are excited!! yay!

Then have another friend coming over Wednesday afternoon with her kindy aged daughter. So with all these visitors (yes, only 2, but as I said, noone ever visits,so I am psyched!) I hit Costco today to get some goodies. Actually, J has been a member for years, and until now, we used to go every other month or so and get stuff, and it was fun going once in a while and buying up big! But we recently moved close to a costco - only 20mins drive away, so I started getting the urge to go there to just buy a few things....like the yummy cakes or muffins, or a frozen lasagna that I could simply pop in the oven tomorrow when friend comes. So I joined up for myself today! yay! But for some reason, everything I wanted, they didn't have it today. There was no frozen anything that could be used for lunch tomorrow, so I am going to have to make a quiche up I think instead (gonna start on the pie crust after I finish this) and I also wanted to buy K this bathing suit that had floaties in the top of it which I saw a few weeks ago when I went, but they were not there any more!!! I was also looking for some unagi (eel) if they had it, to try to beat this dull feeling both J and I have in this heat (夏ばて - why does it sound so stuid when you try to translate it into English?), but it was really expensive there, so I ended up getting it at local supermarket anyway. All in all, a bit dissapointed in becoming a fully-fledged member. Oh, and K cracked a willy-wonker as I was trying to get through the check-out, but that was more my fault for taking her out when it was nap time (I stooopidly thought she would sleep as we went around the store - I was gonna Ergo carry her on my back, but the excitement of Costco obviously got to her too, and she was wide awake, but TIRED!!!and getting grumpy)
We enjoyed the hot dog though.

Right, off to the kitchen with me I guess - pie sheet here I come.