today went fairly well, all things considered. no one broke bones or fell out a window, and that's always a good thing. the kids only watched two videos, one time each (my kids know how to push the play button on the DVD player(s) and will watch the same thing over and over and over). the videos were mainly background noise anyway, and since they're in english i don't mind much. lots of paper play today, involving origami paper, drawing paper and breaking of crayons. is that universal? do all small children break their crayons into little pieces and take off the paper? or are my kids weird? haha

yes folks, it's still rainy season here. i'm beginning to suspect it's never going to end. before you know it, it's going to be september and the autumnal rains will move in. great. just like i never left western washington! the heat is different, i will give you that. but the rain? *sigh*

i just hope it's clear tomorrow morning. as a person whose first major (choice) was astronomy, i am looking forward to the total eclipse tomorrow (only about 80 or 90% here in fukuoka, but still! how cool!!) i don't have any special lenses or filters for my camera, and to be honest i'm not sure if i should let the kids witness it, as they might look up at it and damage their eyes. i can't fully remember if a partial eclipse is as dangerous as a total. ah well, i've never witnessed a solar eclipse before so even just a darkening sky will be interesting to me!! hope it won't be too cloudy so i can see something...