Thanks, Houston Fire Department!! And no, no one gave us free meatballs.

Where Globe-Trotting meets Beach-Combing
Thanks, Houston Fire Department!! And no, no one gave us free meatballs.
This is Mari, Isaac and a little girl reporting live from the elevator at Ikea. The doors closed as we entered and hitting the Door Open button to wait for Chris and her mom resulted in a screechy breaking noise and all the buttons going dead. The fire department is coming. Do we get free…
Three wonderful Thanksgivings in Japan are tough to beat. I made my specialty—cranberry sauce—for each. For the first we joined lots of new friends and headed to the Sharps’ home, where I was offered my first employment in Japan in the form of one of my favorite English classes. The next day we moved into…
Last night we bought another used car for Chris, bringing our week of start-up purchases and over productivity in Florida to a close. Today we loaded up the Picky Pelican (that would be my 4 runner) and hit Interstate 10 for the 512 mile drive to Chris’ parents’ house in Houston. We are probably about…
It’s 5am and Isaac is sleeping soundly. Chris and I, however, have a bad case of jet lag and have been up since Isaac’s 2am snack. Le sigh. I tried to sleep but I kept mentally decorating our house. That’s right—our HOUSE!!! we met with a realtor Saturday, found exactly what we wanted and submitted…
We spent our third and final Japanniversary showing Issac the sights in Kyoto. October 29. Three years. So much has happened since we arrived staring at each other in terror as the plane landed at Narita Airport. And so much has happened this year alone: getting sick in Cambodia and detained in Vietnam, a buy…
How to spend a final weekend in Japan with friends I will miss a ton? Fortunately Tokyo always delivers: it’s Fashion’s Night Out Japan 2011!Mary researched this special performance by Kyoto maiko. “One more thing checked off my Japan bucket list!” she said afterwards. The musician sang and played her shamisen while the maiko, who’ve…