I hate the hot weather. I love the cold weather. I have kept on saying that to people.

This morning I received a phone call from the maintenance company guy. He remembers about my preference.

The first thing he mentioned made me laugh.

He said “I know you don’t want to switch from the cooler to the heater, right?”

I said “oh yeah, you got that right.”

But the guy continued saying that he could not allow me to keep the cooler all year around. Since it has been cold already, they have to switch it as soon as possible. Otherwise, the water in the pipes on the roof will get frozen. That can damage the cooler. 

Thus, I needed to accept to switch and scheduled the work day for that. Reluctantly.

Here on this land, the temperature swings. It gets very hot even in winter from time to time. In such days I will miss the cooler. I don’t think I will use the heater during winter.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

One week ago my husband had a lab test. His lab test result was all fine. We were so glad for his good result.

Today my husband had a doctor’s appointment regarding to the lab result.

The doctor was not at the clinic. Actually the doctor was 200 miles (three-hour drive) away from the clinic. My husband talked with the doctor through the monitor screen. The nurse started checking my husband’s vital signs and input the data into the computer. Then the nurse hooked up some cables to my husband’s body. The doctor could see all the data online through the monitor. After a couple of minutes’ chatting, the health checkup was done.

It was his very first experience of the online doctor’s checkup at the clinic. According to the nurse, this online doctor’s checkup has just started this year. My husband was their eighth patient who accepted the online checkup.

***

An interesting coincidence happened this evening. I happened to see the online program where the presenter talked about the online doctor’s checkup in Japan. So, it has been spreading around the world.

I think it is a great system for some patients who have a hard time to actually go to the clinic. It is also good for somebody like me who is a people-phobia, so that they won’t need to deal with a whole bunch of people in a clinic or a hospital.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

My in-low informed me of the kids’ drawing contest. It is Soft Toy Drawing Competition sponsored by IKEA.

This is a drawing contest for kids. The qualified little artists are 0-12 years old. After little artists submit their drawings by the deadline, they proceed to the next step, voting.

There will be six winners in this contest. The winners’ drawings will transform into real soft toys and the toys will be sold in their stores.

My daughter enjoys some creative activities every day. She didn’t have any difficulty to select one drawing to submit.

I submitted her drawing online.

We really hope her drawing will be one of the lucky winners and see the soft toy will be enjoyed by many kids around the world. It will be cool.  

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Today I took out a new bottle of my first homemade miso. It is a miso made from black beans. This bottle was the one I didn’t put a layer of salt.

On the black surface I saw two small white dots. Due to my old aged vision, it got blurred in a close look with my grasses. I took off my grasses and stared at the white dots.

It was shocking to know the dot was a mold.

That being said, I remember that I have read some information about a mold in homemade miso. They suggested we can simply get rid of the mold part, and the remainder of miso should be fine. 

I followed their suggestion and removed the mold part.

On my second homemade miso that I recently made, I didn’t add a layer of salt on the surface. The reasons are I wanted to reduce the amount of salt. Besides, I thought our dry air environment would make a mold free condition.

This was a good lesson for me to learn “Overconfidence can be dangerous”. I am going to add a layer of salt on my second homemade miso.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Today there was Gem And Mineral Event held at the local community college.

I was not planning to go there, but I had a strong feeling that my family spirits wanted me to go there. Whenever I need a confirmation from them, I ask them to show me some signs.

First I asked them to show me through my pendulum. I asked them to move it to the yes direction (my yes direction is the clockwise), if they want me to go there. My pendulum swang clockwise strongly and widely.

I also asked them to gather to my left shoulder if they want me to go there. Soon, my left shoulder got super warm.  

You might wonder why I am so reluctant to go there. The reason is simple. It is because I am a severe people-phobia. I want to avoid going to any places where many people gather.

Anyway, I followed my family spirits’ advice. I gathered up all my courage and went there.

I wanted to buy a massage wand for my Thai massage, which I recently learned through the online course.

Right after I entered the event room, at the very first booth, I saw several massage wands. One of them exactly matched with my vision that I wanted to buy. I asked the vendor about the price. The price was pretty reasonable. So, I bought the massage wand.

After my first purchase, I was just browsing around every booth. On my fifth or sixth booth, I found one rock.

It was shining to me. I asked the vendor if she could give me some discount. She cheerfully offered me some discount. I was surprised at the final price, because it was much lower than I thought.

The vendor told me they paid more than the price they offered me. I happily accepted their discount offer and purchased the rock.

It is a heart shaped rose quarts. The size is about 4 inch x 4 inch (10 cm x 10 cm).

I am very happy this rock has come to my family. Maybe this rock was the main reason why my family spirits wanted me to go the event.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

I have two mattresses that we currently don’t use. I have kept them inside the house for these couple of years.

We tried many different ways to give them away to somebody who wants for free of charge. At first I thought they will be gone quickly, but it wasn’t that easy.

Today I made a several phone calls to the local thrift stores and the landfill. I found two options available for us.

The first option is the landfill. If we bring them to the local landfill, they charge the minimum fee of $10. I thought it was not bad. However, there is one issue. We don’t have a pickup truck. I don’t think they will fit into our car.

The second option is a donation to the local thrift store. I found out one of the stores have a free pick up service to the house. Their website states they will take only a good conditioned one. Luckily ours are in a very good condition. I believe they will happily take them away.   

I reserved the pickup day in next week. I am looking forward to it. I will be relieved when these two huge items are gone from our house.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Today I made my second homemade miso.

As my first one turned out a little salty, this time I lowered the percentage of salt.

My first one I used 300 gram of kouji, 300 gram of black beans, and 150 gram of salt.

This time, my second one, I used 600 gram of kouji, 600 gram of soy beans, and 250 gram of salt.  

I look forward to sampling my second one in next autumn. I hope it will turn out to be my favorite.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

It was a nice sunny day today. My daughter wanted to play outside. She asked me what kind of things I did to play when I was around her age.

In my childhood days I seldom played inside the house. I liked to play outside. In our neighborhood there was a playground that was open for kids. It was not a fancy park; there was no slides, swings, or sandbox. It was just an open ground with overgrown weeds.

My friends and I gathered at the ground almost every day after school. We played baseball or dodgeball. I loved to run around on the grass field with my friends. When I tripped over, I loved the smell of the fresh green grass and the dirt.

Other things I used to do was to play with my older brother on the street in front of our house. Our parents bought us a Takeuma. It is a Japanese traditional toy for kids. It is made by a pair of bamboo poles. Each pole has a footrest. My brother and I were good at riding takeuma. We used to race running by takeuma very fast on the street.

Similar to takeuma, we also created our own toy; a Pokkuri. It is made by two empty cans. We made a hole in the can and passed a rope through the hole. We can ride on the cans with holding the ropes. When we walked with pokkuri, it made us taller. It also made a funny sound while walking.

***

I had a nice synchronicity. I mentioned about my younger days’ toys to my daughter this morning. And in the afternoon, I received an email from my Japanese friend. She talked about the local private market she visited. She saw somebody was selling his handmade takeuma in the market.

I thought it interesting. When I was thinking about a takeuma, my friend saw a takeuma in the market. We both thought about our younger days together, even though we are physically in a very far distance away.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

For these past couple of days, I have been suffering from the pain in my jar and the deep inside of my ears. The pain is in both sides; right and left.

At first I concerned about the inside of my mouth; molars and gum. But I don’t have any pain in my gum or molars. I can eat and chew normally. So maybe, the issue is not from the inside of my mouth.

The pain occurs when I open my mouse wide. I remember this type of pain in my childhood days when I had a cold and a swollen throat. But I don’t have a cold at this moment. I don’t have a swollen throat.

I mentioned it to my husband and my local friends. All of them said it is probably due to the changing season. Indeed, we recently had a drastic weather change; it got very cold all of a sudden.

If that is the cause for my pain in my jar, once my body gets used to the cold weather, it should calm down. It might be one of the process of detoxing.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪

Yesterday we bought some new winter outfits for my daughter. One of them was an overall dress. It was well designed and very pretty. I wanted to have a similar one for myself.

I searched around my materials and found one similar fabric. It only has one yard and it was not enough to make an overall dress, so I made a simple skirt for myself.

It took me about two hours to finish the skirt.

My daughter likes me to create something. She was doing her own creation activity, such as drawing and crafting, besides me.

So today we both enjoyed creating something new.

Next time when I purchase enough fabric, I want to make my overall dress.

♬ Any feedback? (^^♪