so, a couple of days after my previous post, i spilled wine in my precious macbook air. i suck. so, anyway, i have been missing my computer and fainting over the repair costs (taking it to the apple store will cost nearly as much as just buying a new computer!) and waiting for a wireless keyboard to arrive. finally, the one yoshi ordered came and i can use the computer again! so far it seems only the keyboard is affected, though it *is* wine so who knows what's going on inside. we should probably have it inspected somehow. or, just save up for a new computer. again. *unhappy face*

anyway, we had visitors that week, B and her two lovely girls came over for a play date. i tried to BBQ, but the charcoal i had would NOT cooperate, i actually had to run out (and leave B with 5 kids!!) to get some of the good stuff. i think it was worth it, though, because we had hamburgers (hot dogs, too!) which were pretty fantastic!

then, the kids and i took a mini-vacation just before obon. my work schedule at the juku was all messed up, but in the end we straightened it out (and, only one more class next week!) and on the 10th the kids and i drove to yufuin in oita-ken. we were lucky to have a free night at the youth hostel, though i was pretty tired by the time we got there (sasha HATES long car trips) and just tried to relax and prevent the kids from bothering the other patrons! the food was great (but, of course, the kids hardly ate anything, so i had plenty to eat! blech--it was good, but i got so full) and the room was comfortable. being in yufuin, the youth hostel has an onsen and we were able to have a private bath. that was very nice. the next morning sasha and i went again to wash and comb her hair (such a job!) and then after breakfast, we went to kijima kogen, mainly for the pool they open in the summer, but also for some of the rides.  even hiro isn't quite tall enough to go on all the rides, but they did get to go on a fair amount!

after lunch (and a couple more rides) we got in the car again to drive to gaijin wife's house!  rachel also came over with her girls and you would think that having 9 kids in the house would be chaos, but it actually worked out rather well.  it helps that rachel's older two are just old enough to be responsible (and mostly quiet), but young enough to want to play.  rachel told me before hand that each of them had divided up the kids and decided what they were going to do with them before hand!  smart girls!

so GW, R and i had a bit too much to drink and talked far into the night.  it was awesome.  the hangover the next morning, not so much.  i felt pretty useless, but i did manage to get all my stuff together and then we went to the beach with R and her daughters.  sadly, GW had obon visitors coming (sorry, GW, i didn't realize the weekend before obon would actually be a bother, for some reason i thought the weekend after would be busier!  i blame my head, i never remember when obon is!!)  after lunch at the beach, my kids were pretty exhausted and i finally lost my patience with them, while trying to pack up and get back to the car.  they fell asleep almost right away, which was nice, and we actually got home at a decent hour.  i got most of our crap out of the car and that was the end of our holiday!  many thanks to GW for letting us stay over, and for inviting R over for some weekend fun.