it's really odd that obon started on friday, right? almost like it's not a holiday at all. and how does this holiday thing work, anyway? it's not on the calendar so how do we know it's obon? who figures out what time it is to go home? i have never understood this holiday (as far as time goes, i get the gist of the actual holiday. ghosty!) it throws me off *and* we aren't visiting relatives this year so i just feel kinda trapped. i shouldn't complain, though, at least the weather has been bearable.

today i made a banana cake. this is only a big deal because i have actually bought bananas many times to make this stupid thing. back in july sasha caused property damage with the toy car the kids have. the thing is, i wasn't even here (was in osaka) and yet yoshi expected me to make a cake, prepare an envelope of money and take it to the neighbor and apologize/grovel. what kind of damage, you may ask? a teeny tiny crack in the plastic bumper of one of their cars. i haven't seen it, and i assure you i look every time i pass by. the neighbor said she didn't want money, and wasn't angry about it (but apparently did come to the door to let us know about it) so um, yeah, i don't know what i was supposed to do about it. however, yoshi felt all this angst about it, imagining that these particular neighbors weren't acknowledging him whenever he drove by in his car or whatever. i had to tell him that they weren't all that friendly unless you met them on the street, anyway. hard to tell (especially with the wife) whether these people even realize they have neighbors anyway.

so. the cake. the incident happened in early july. i buy some fairly ripe bananas, but the kids eat them up. i buy more, kids eat. etc. i buy nasty brown spotted bananas, kids eat them up. well, except for tommy. his banana broke 3/4 of the way down and he wanted me to fix it. uh, sorry kid, no can do. he cried and screamed about it and the bananas hit the compost bucket. buy more yucky bananas, but waited too long and they rotted too far and started to mold. eeewwww. buy more bananas, don't want to bake in the heat so i put them in the fridge. still, waited too long and buh-bye bananas. (ugh, i'm getting tired of typing the word banana.) so, today, i finally made that damn cake. the kids were pretty excited (i actually made two cakes) and have been begging for cake all day.

last night yoshi took some money to them, but they brought it back late at night. as in, the kids were in bed and the lady rang the bell late. bitch. i have made this cake, and i suppose i'll take it over tomorrow, but i really don't know if it will make any difference....