 It’s helped to wear vintage clothing that are more Japanese-traditional in form, since our bodies don’t have references for those. Thus our card illustration this year — We spent some more time in Japan, and discovered that we kind of fit into the clothing bought and gifted to us there, more or less off the rack! ... What is happening to us? Still maintaining our sizes and weights; we appreciate your support!! As for Fatso-the-NotDog, he seems to have figured out how to fly if he can get Bif to create air currents for him and his magical paper crane. (If it doesn't work, he'll simply chew it up, right?) Maki is wearing michiyuki (kimono coat) as dresses and Brian is wearing umanori-hakama (split trousers. named for their function: horse-riding) and haori as he dances around with fans, creating loft for Fatso-the-dog to fly (because being carried by a paper crane may not be enough …) :D |
2019
It's largely been a maintenance year — nothing radical has apparently changed … but nothing is the same! The biggest and most obvious thing is that we'd lost a lot of weight between us last year, and this year, we have managed to maintain that loss … crossing fingers, but the jinxing spells so far haven't been working :D
With our smaller bodies, our brains have been slow to understand that we need to move differently. Maki has fallen a few times in a serious manner — once directly on her face onto the metal edge of a sidewalk (could have been so much worse!) in which she had to go report the accident to the police, and another time popped her shoulder and cracked her elbow in front of a luxury building which hadn't spread salt out on a cold icy pavement. So she now sports more scars and aches than last year. Not an improvement, but perhaps she will believe that she has a different body size and stuff. She complains that when she plans to bump into people on purpose, she nearly always misses — simply because she's not as big as she used to be! Bad Maki ...
We traveled to Japan this autumn to see Mom and relatives at the farm and beyond, and to celebrate American Thanksgiving on foreign shores in a land where ovens are not standard installations in houses :) We drove half the length of Japan to locales where Maki's relatives are concentrated … ! Seeing other creatures who look like Maki is a little surreal!
Various friends have moved from one municipality to another; this year it seems the distance is between states and countries, not just down the road a bit! Brian has been driving large real dogs, smoker rigs, spare luggage, people, etc. around the country to aid and abet. Good thing he likes driving and traveling; and his weight loss has made travel of all kinds — not just passive plane travel — easier and more pleasurable. He also gets to celebrate holidays and events with others who care about such things (instead of with a blasé and forgetful Maki … )
Perhaps we were affected by seeing the older and contemporary generations with children and many readying for the next phases of their lives. Our cooking has become somewhat simpler, and things she couldn't eat before are now things with memories attached to them. If you visit, expect to sample some of our nouveau in-house cuisine, and that it may be different from what you remember :D
Follow our antics on Facebook and on Instagram (we post different things on each); these are where we post most things going on in our lives; please keep in touch, eh? :D
- Some postscripts:
- 2020 is the year of the Rat / Mouse — since Dad's father mis-registered his birth, we are unsure which Dad was ... so we 'll assume this is his year, too :)
- From the Oatmeal, for having sponsored a new card game. We know you saw it last year and the year before — hey, *TOOT TOOT!!*
