Costa Rica 2009

A Flickr set with all our pictures and videos.

Costa Rica 2009

Christmas 2007

Every Christmas we've been together, Hiroko and I have held a big Christmas-day bash for all our friends to come to our house. This is because we know a large amount of people who for whatever reason don't have family to spend the holiday with. It's always a fine time. This year was particularly special because we have the new house, and Ren is now a member of our family.

Also shortly before Christmas we had a big night out, where we dined at a fondue restaurant and went to Christkindlmarket. Both were a great time. Hiroko in particular had an unexpectedly great time at Christkindlmarket, despite the deeply bitter cold the night we were there.

We look forward to many Christmases like this one, to come.

Here is a set of pictures from Christmas. A couple from Christkindlmarket, and a few from Christmas dinner. They're sparse because this was during the time when Ren went crazy in the presence of the camera.

Mammoth Cave, 2007

On Thanksgiving day, my mom agreed to babysit for us for two days, giving Hiroko and I a chance to get away for a "date" together. We stayed at a bed and breakfast in Louisville the night before, ate at a fancy restaurant, and had a great time at a piano bar.

But the next day was Thanksgiving. I'd spent a couple weeks trying to find something for two unattached young people to do on a day when everything, everywhere, was shut down. We finally settled on Mammoth Cave. To our surprise, it was quite busy. I guess a lot of other people had the same idea. In particular there were a few Asian families who we talked to who agreed that they were off work and, having no holiday to identify with, had nothing better to do.

Hiroko had never been in a cave before, and I haven't been to Mammoth in years. We had a great time. I don't recall which tour we took, but it was a relatively long one through a constructed entrance. Everything was very interesting. If you're in the area, don't miss it.

Here's a photo set.

Hello again, ROAR!!

Hello again all monkeys, roar! It has been long time since I blogged, and you must be wondering what's going on in wild world of Mr. Lion. Roar. I have petitioned nature and house channels to do a special on me, but they not interested, roar. Hey, roar, how cool am I?

Lion ladies watch out, I am on the prowl, ROAR!

Back in June, Hiroko and little monkey had to go to Japan for a while. They took plane, roar. This is thing for flying in the air. No thank you, roar! I always land on feet, but...still.

While they were gone, it was bachelor time around the house again. I got a little crazy, roar. Here is me playing video games and eating Hiroko's tea candy, roar:


Also, I got a little crazy with the eating, roar.

And...umm...no comment on this last picture. Roar. Oh, I'm going to need that ibuprofen in the morning. So hard to get open with tiny stuffed paws. Roar!

But just so you know, it wasn't all fun and games. I also helped Bob paint living room and kitchen. I have steady hand, roar. Here is me doing the cornering. Roar!

Despite the good time Bob and I had with the house to ourselves, we are glad that Hiroko and Ren are home. After all, I need to be fed. ROAR!

Father's Day 2007

Wrigley Field - Father's Day 2007 - Priceless
Originally uploaded by melmanintex

This is a picture from my father's flickr site. Hiroko and Ren were in Japan for Hiroko's father's funeral, and my parents visited me for the weekend. so we all got to go to the game for Father's Day.

It was the only game I saw this year. I was excited to see Rich Hill for the first time (and Maddux pitching in Wrigley again), but he had one of his worst outings and the Cubs fell to San Diego.

Pictured here is the three of us, with the ghost of Harry Caray about to beat my father with his microphone. I've blogged about the statue before.

By the way, Go Cubs Go!

My baby just wanted to let you know: don't worry, the Cubs are going to win it.

Craigslist house ad

When I'm not busy losing money on the stock market, I have a part-time hours-a-week hobby not selling my house. I thought some might be interested in my recently placed Craigslist ad along those lines. It's got a flyer embedded within. If you're interested in a too-large condo with a bad layout and desperate needs for improvements to the floor, windows, kitchen, and bath, this place is for you! Come on by anytime; I'll be the guy on my knees sobbing and begging you to make me an offer, any offer.

Preview of Coming House Photos

Today I go to the official inspection of the new house. If everything goes well, we'll sell our current place and move in real soon. There will be lots more pictures to come on Friday. For now, there's a (badly taken) pic of one of the stained glass windows (original!) and a picture of the decorative front room fireplace. The dude in the second picture is the current owner.

Pictures of Japan (not mine)

My friend Paul in California went to Japan to visit his friend and sister. Here are pictures he took of his travels.

Watching Da Bears

My parents came into town last weekend. It was their first chance to see Ren. Mom was very pleased with her ability to feed and play with a baby for a while. It was a whiplash-visit over the 3 day MLK weekend, cut off even more because they got worried about inclement weather and took off on Sunday afternoon. I figure they spent just a little more time in Chicago than they did driving back and forth from their home in Lexington.

One cool thing that went on was I got to actually go to a bar, and have a beer, which I haven't done in six months (as I was not drinking during the pregnancy). I took my Dad to hook up with some guy friends and watch the Bears/Seattle playoff game, which the Bears won in incredible fashion in overtime.

Here's a small picture set of the guys at the bar. Most everybody at the table is a Soka Gakkai youth leader.

I wrote a little more about my parents here at my blog for my daughter.

New Year's 2007

"A person who celebrates this day will accumulate virtue and be loved by all" -- Nichiren, "New Year's Gosho"

New Year's Day is a big day for Soka Gakkai Buddhists. Other religions have the births (and rebirths) of their respective superstars and stuff, but we've got nothing like that. So there it is, we celebrate New Year's in style, with new resolutions, celebrations, experiences, and song.

Here's a picture set, including lots of pictures of the celebration. There are also some before/after shots. These include this great picture of Martin, the Region Young Men's Division leader, with myself and Yasuko. Martin's doing Gajokai today:


And this picture of my good friend Derek, heading Gajokai for the afternoon. Derek trained me to become Gajokai and still epitomizes for me what it is to be a Gajokai: responsible, reliable, supportive, attentive. Here you see him with the "fine sword" of Gajokai! "Iron, when heated in the flames and pounded, becomes a fine sword." -- Nichiren


And finally, an auspicious day. Today I "graduated" from the Young Men's Division to the Men's Division, in preparation for Ren's birth. This means I abdicated my Gajokai leadership position. Here is a picture of me turning over my keys to the center, which I have guarded for two years. I've opened and closed the center hundreds of times (including both of the last two New Years) and gained so much good fortune from doing so. I look forward to these keys going to the next young man -- may he grow into the program as much as I have!

Fun with Yasuko

My awesome mother in law Yasuko is in town. You can see pics and read some about it at my blog for my daughter. I thought I'd mention that among the gifts, yasuko borough summer kimonos (jinbei) for gifts for a lot of people. Here's a picture of me wearing my top.

After the gifts on Wednesday, we took Yasuko to eat at Joy Yee's in Chinatown, and then drove up Michigan so she could see the Christmas activity on the Magnificent Mile.

Also last night, in celebration of a difficult work week and not having to get up in the morning, I set up Battlelore. To my surprise, Yasuko took a great interest. She help me sort the pieces and board, and I explained the rules to her as best I could, given the rulebook is 80 pages long and we speak different languages... But I know the colors and numbers, so I could explain a lot. She got to roll all the dice. She definitely at least understood the magic (lore) deck, the deck for determining what the armies do (command cards), and who was attacking who. I even tried to explain the support rules, but the language barrier dropped. I played both sides, but at the end the side she was sitting at won, so she declared victory over me.

Yasuko also promised to teach me a version of Japanese chess. I'll keep you posted.

Last Free Weekend

Hiroko's mom Yasuko is about to come to town for the birth of Ren, so this is our last free weekend as a couple before we begin the new era as a family. Hiroko celebrated by going out to breakfast and dinner together, and watching a movie at home. We've never felt closer and it's like there's a sort of honeymoon sense about the relationship again. It's a funny thing, since I'm recovering from a cold, and having minor physical ailments with one eye and knee, and work is crazy, and she's got all these physiological issues. But despite that I'm overwhelmed with a stream of joy and security.

Speaking of generating joy, since Hiroko can't go down the stairs, we've moved our Omamori Gohonzon to the bedroom. For those who don't know, the Omamori is a tiny version of the Gohonzon meant primarily for travel. Having it here means Hiroko can chant where she's most comfortable, in bed.

She also plays Chuzzle all the time. And I mean ALL the time. I guess we all have our game loves. My mom plays Sudoku. My dad just plays solitaire. Joe used to play the Playstation version of Civilization 2 for hours and hours.

I'm totally in love with Battlelore. Even the small things I thought I didn't like about the game, I like after playing it a bit. The core game engine is pretty simple and open to randomness, but the possibilities and additional complexity are endless, while remaining fun. It's a very expandable game system and I look forward to diving deeper and deeper into it. I finally got a chance to show it to Mike. He also dug it a lot. When I get the chance (presumably, months from now) I'll go looking for more opponents. Really, it's a blast.

Guess it's cool my kid is just around the corner, and I can talk about having fun with my wife, and playing games.

Pics from my dad

Check out a few pictures my dad took.

Mr. Lion and Me

This is my favorite photo, and the one that appears in my profile. It's a picture of myself late on the wedding day with my best friend, Mr. Lion. He's been with us since I met him at FNCC in 2004 and brought him back to Illinois.

This picture was taken by Laura Hamm-Goetchell, our wedding photographer. She was great.

Goodbye, Gajokai

I joined the Soka Gakkai and became a buddhist four years ago. I'm a happier stabler, more productive person because of it. Moreover, I believe to some small degree, the world has become a better place.

Since day one, I was in a program called "Gajokai", which is Japanese for "teeth of the castle". It's a volunteer program for young men to do security and service at the community centers where we practice. Two years ago I got put in charge of running the program for Chicago, which means handling the local community center, and a few other off-site events, such as our annual participation in the Pride Parade, etc.

Every day for two years I've sweated making sure the center gets opened and closed, and making sure there's always someone behind the desk to greet people, keep the environment clean and friendly, answer questions and phones, maintain the schedule, and a gazillion other tasks. I've done this on a rotation of about 15 guys (plus 20 more assistants) covering about 50 shifts a month. With nothing driving us but pride, we've kept it together, and also generated growth, development, camaraderie, and prayer.

I have got so much out of the experience, and of the hundreds of hours I've mopped and cleaned and planned and sweated, it was all worth it. Conspicuously, I learned critical job skills (management, customer service) and met my wife through the program. Inconspicuously, I've grown by becoming comfortable with using my life as a platform to care for and develop those around me. Plus somewhere along the line I got a lot of lessons in humility.

I'll be leaving the program behind, hopefully in good hands, in about 10 days. There was a time when it could be my number one focus, but now I've got a family to take care of. That's a whole new horizon, but the steady faith and steady practice that Gajokai has drilled into me makes it a challenge I'm sure I can handle.

Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. Bob.