i know, not very clever. however, i didn't get very much sleep last night. too much caffeine i think. silly me. i was reading (harry potter, of course) and finally laid my head down after midnight. but couldn't sleep. *sigh* i do suffer from insomnia from time to time but the last few years have been alright (except when extremely pregnant) because the kids exhaust me so. but i must have had too much tea in the afternoon and evening because i just couldn't sleep.

so of course, i felt the earthquake very early this morning. i was very nearly asleep, too. i heard a rumble and a slam and then the house seemed to shake for a very long time. it wasn't very big, though (as you can see in the image above) and though my heart was racing, it was obvious nothing bad was going to happen.

there seems to be a lot of earthquakes recently, in japan and elsewhere. i hope that these (mostly minor) quakes eases any pressure so there aren't any major earthquakes any time soon.

in other news, we are stuck at home today, because the big family car is having shaken done today. how do we explain shaken? it's kind of like a bi-annual road tax and car inspection that costs lots of money. the older the car, the more it can cost, which is a factor in japanese people buying new cars every three or four years. from what i've read and what others have told me, it's a total money-making racket, mainly for garages and service stations. it basically takes a whole day and although anyone can do it, no one has the time (plus, if you need to have something fixed you need to go get it done before passing inspection. the garage or service station will fix up the car before going to the inspection site) so we take our cars to someone who will charge us an arm and a leg to do it for us. *sigh* well, can't be helped, and must find ways to amuse children. might be time for me to bite the bullet and get the playdough out for all of them....i've already taught them how to do forts but it's frustrating for tommy and the other two don't have patience for him. *sigh* maybe if it doesn't rain we can do splashing this afternoon. wish me luck for the rest of the day!