再び床下へ

今年の初めにCrawl Space（床下）へもぐり
断熱材をパイプに巻いたばかりですが、
つい最近、その断熱材が少し取れかけているのを発見。
寒くなる前に修復しないと！と思い、
週末、再びCrawl Spaceへ。

2度と入りたくなかったのですが、
パイプがまた破裂するような事になったら
もっと大変な事になるので。。。

今回は簡単な修復だけだったので
前回よりもずっとラクだったのですが、
這いずり回ったおかげで、
足はアザだらけ、体のあちこちが筋肉痛です

Language Barrier

I work for a japanese company and since we are in US, about half is japanese and half is non-japanese. I've heard some Americans have complaints here and I had a chance to hear it on my own yesterday.

It just so happened that Japanese workers tend to get together on their own and they don't invite non-Japanese. For example, they all go out together to eat/drink; or someone has a private party and all Japanese are invited but not non-Japanese. Americans are not so happy about being excluded.

One American worker asked one Japanese worker why they were not invited, and this Japanese person answered it wrong. She explained that the company was not paying for a dinner; she was paying for herself. It sounded like Americans are cheap, equals they cannot afford paying for a dinner/drink so that's why they are not invited.

That is not the actual reason! I heard once from my boss (japanese) why they don't go out with Americans. It's because of the language. He told me he cannot have a good relaxing time if he had to speak English. Japanese workers (most of them) do not want to be forced to speak English outside of the office!!

I kinda understand that. For me, it was my decision to come to this country; but for most of japanese people working here, they were sent by the parent company. So they were forced to study/speak English... I can see why they do not want to use their head while having a good time eating/drinking...

But I also understand that we should not exclude Americans when having a party. That's discrimination!

So I come between those two groups. I am not on either side actually. But I hope that I can give American people a good reason why they were not invited... I'm not sure how much they understand how difficult for foreigners to communicate with language other than their own...

アップルサイダーレビュー パート２

自分用の覚え書き

1. Northville
ここら辺では１番の人気。週末に行ったらものすごく混んでいて、長蛇の列で結局断念。２度目に行った時にやっとサイダー＆ドーナツをゲット。サイダーは、正直、一口目はまずかったです。感想は「アルコールっぽい」。アルコールではないのに、なぜ？その後、普通に飲めたけど、でもやっぱりその他のサイダーに比べたら、今一だったと思う。なぜあんなに人気なんだろう？

2. 名前不明（ファームのグランドフィナーレにて）
唯一、オーガニックアップルサイダー。結構期待していたけど、私にはちょっと甘過ぎました。もうちょっとりんごの酸味があった方がベストなんだけど。。。オーガニックという事で取りあえずはOKだけど、来年は買うの辞めようかな？

クリスマスにはまだ早い

ハロウィーンが終わったばかりです。
と思っていたら、私がよく聞いている
ラジオ局では、もうクリスマスソングを
流し始めています

週の半ばは、１０曲中１曲程度が
クリスマスソングだったのが、
今週末は、全てがクリスマスソング

気が早すぎます。
普通は、サンクスギビングが終わってから
クリスマス一色になるのですが。。。

クリスマスソングを聞くのは好きですが、
さすがに今からでは早すぎます。

それらはクリスマス時期に
限られているからこそ
気分が盛り上がって、
「クリスマスだー！」という気分に
浸れると思うのですが。。。

ちなみに車にはいつも大量の
CDを積んであります
たぶん５０枚ちかく？

ラジオを聞かずに、自分のCDを
聞いてればいいだけ？！

Miniature Goat

Since one of goats at the farm died a couple weeks ago, they got new miniature goats!

Morgan↓



Delila↓


And here is Violet who just lost her sister, Basil...


They are the cutest!!!

初あみぐるみ

編み終えたあみぐるみ達です。
どれものっぺらぼうなのは、
顔を描くための刺繍糸がないから

うさぎ↓


亀↓


今回の作品は、

「あみぐるみの本　編んで、見て、触って、飾って、癒されるかわいい仲間がいっぱい！」という本を使って編みました

Fuss about the holiday party..

For the very first time, my company decided to have a "holiday party" this year. This is a new president's suggestion; and it's so japanese that the upper management could not say no even though there is no budget for it! (Japanese really cannot say NO?!)

It's just a dinner party. Formal attire is required, but not really necessary to wear an evening gown or tuxedo. But somehow, there is already some fuss about this party.

First of all, attendance.
Everyone is invited and is expected to be there (sort of), but one girl is refusing to come. She claimed she lived too far; she would not go home and come to the party because traffic would be bad. She also said she had nothing to wear. Of course these are just excuses. She sure has lots of time to go home, change and come. She just does not want to come. So she gave people some lame excuses. I think it's fine. I get it that she does not want to come. But for some other people, it was not acceptable somehow. They try to convince her to come; offer her a ride; told her she could just wear a nice pair of pants and a shirt...

Secondary, what to do at the party.
Maybe this is due to a cultural difference between american and japanese. Japanese people (not all) keep telling that we should have some games at the party. One suggested a bingo game. When americans heard that, it's like "No way!!". Americans are expecting to have a nice dinner and mingling with people. It is absolutely nuts for them to play games at a nice party! Some are expecting nice music and dancing... then of course japanese are too shy to dance in public, so they wouldn't.

I don't know what is going to happen. Maybe some people play games, then maybe some other will dance. I volunteered to be in a committee, so I have to help to figure out... oh well...