January 13th 2008

Back to the present for a moment. We had two days of visiting with some of my family here in Ontario. We got to see my grandmother at `The Meadows` yesterday and she looked well for her 84 years. Then today Aunt Ina and her two boys Riley and Arlan came over for dinner. We almost had Will (one of our other cousins) over too but it was too far and too late for him to make it. We had stew for dinner and played a few rounds of Dog-opoly, which is a version of Monopoly with dog names and terms. How weird is that? Well, actually i guess it isn`t all that weird since there is Simpsons Monopoly and in Japan Ulala and i own a Japanese version where all the names have been changed to places in Tokyo and area. Oh well, beats reality TV anyway.
Ulala, Grandma, me.

Playing Dog-opoly.



Earlier in the day, before our guests arrived, Mom, Ulala, and i went around and checked out a few possible locations for the wedding. It was pretty cold but we saw some potential places. We have to look at a couple places in Toronto next weekend when we are in the city too. It`s hard to decide wether to have it in the city where it is convenient for guests (many of whom are coming from out of town) or to have it outside the city where there are nicer outdoor locations and it will be cheaper but less convenient. *sigh* So much planning. And we will be in Japan for most of the planning time! While we were scouting locations we saw lots of geese who seem to be running late in their Southern journey due to the warm week we`ve been having here.



And tomorrow we bring home the new puppy!!! His name is Guinness (David named him) and we`re all very excited, including Ulala, who has never really played with or cared for a puppy before so she has been diligently reading her puppy-training book. I`ll be sure to post more pictures of the little guy`s first day home tomorrow. This picture is from when Mom and David went to pick him out a couple weeks ago: