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| Took Yume in July to the world famous Jelly Belly Factory in neighboring Fairfield, CA. |
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| She started her visit by picking a "boog" out of The Gipper's jelly-bellied nose. |
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| There's jelly bean art aplenty in the factory lobby. |
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| Our tongues were ready to feed our Jelly Bellies! How about yours? |
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| Ever since Japan, Yume and I have engaged in a number of Scrabble battles both to make use of the neglected game that sat in a dusty box of my closet, but also as a fun means of expanding her vocabulary. It's been more fun than I would have thought, and we keep it up to this day. Here, I've decided to commemorate the first in a series of Scrabble games between her and I (and others) for posterity. After a set of prelim games to get her re-familiarized after a year's absence (during which she managed to tie me once 93-93), I won the above game 192-77. We played standard 7-tile Scrabble, used her English-Japanese dictionary as a guide, and employed a rule to help cut down on the length of the game that says, "Once tiles touch two different sides of the board, each player is granted one final turn apiece." Her remaining tiles are on the bottom rack; mine on the top. |
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| Yume and I played against Mom and Dad for this one (using team rules). We won (based on the same game-end rules as before) 144-101, thanks largely to my play of "ZEBRAS" for 54 points! Dad's (top) and Mom's (bottom) remaining letters are on the left racks; Yume's (top) and mine (bottom) are on the right. |
Later, Yume and I beat Mom and Dad again (103-62). For this game, we house-ruled blanks so that each player could make them into anything they wanted. Clockwise starting at the top are my, Mom's, Yume's, and Dad's remaining letters.
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| Last week, we all went out for Yume's first bowling experience in America…! |
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| Dad was up first… |
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| Tossing his "family-patented" curve… |
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| …a little too much curve~ :p |
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| Then Mom took a turn… |
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| …reminiscent of a mother hen laying an egg~ :p |
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| Yume and her cherry red bowling ball was next… |
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| …but could she pick up the spare? |
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| Maybe… |
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| YES! |
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| My turn… |
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| "HADOUKEN!" |
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| "Stay on target…" |
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| "Stay on target…!" |
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| Okay…a lone pin standing… |
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| "SHINKU-HADOUKEN!" |
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| Pin: "Wagh! Wagh! Wagh!" Voice-over: "KO!" |
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| Yume: "KIKOUKEN!" |
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| Voice-over: "PERFECT!" |
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| Yume: "Great idea to go bowling, Mom!" |
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| Me: "Ditto. Thanks!" |
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| Then, the other day, Yume and I were looking at our shadows in the pool and a reflective idea washed over us. |
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| Snatching up my iPod camera, and with a little bit of photo editing elbow grease, these pictures came to life. |
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| The flex. |
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| The double FU! |
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| The joined heart. |
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| The hi-5. |
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| The helloooo kitty. |
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| The pointer. |
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| The victory pose. |
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| The thumbs-up. |
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| Until next time! |
Enjoy summer!
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