• study Japanese every day no more than 20 minutes, no less than 5 (more than 20 and I burn out)
• clean the kitchen to my husband's standards EVERY SINGLE DAY
• count calories
• go for a thirty minute walk every day
• clean my house
• never ever read Perez Hilton
• don't track strings from my sewing room all over the house and church
• keep up with conversations, don't say awkward things, be cheerful and kind even when I don't feel it
• return emails that come to my cell phone within the day they arrive
• read theology
• be friendly to people on the street

• fried rice with kim-chee in it
• at least one banana every single day, often two
• curry
• homemade pasta sauce from ear to ear, on pasta, of course
• toast with cream cheese or peanut butter or pasta sauce and shredded cheese. Love my oven toaster!
• cookies the church ladies give her when my head is turned
• ice cream on Mondays when Ken's not here
• chicken with green and red peppers and onions
• miso soup with a spoon...we're still working on spoon skills
• french toast or pancakes
• homemade bread
• noodles with fish soup

• Cadbury mini eggs, my all-time favorite
• Reese's pb cups (the Japanese don't get pb + choc)
• PB M&M's
• Brach's chocolate stars
• Cadbury's with Almonds (can find every type of Cadbury bar except that one so far)
• Brach's chocolate covered peanuts
• buckeyes
• anything Godiva
• Nestle milk chocolate chips straight out of the bag
• Nestle Treasures, but only the caramel and pb ones
• Butterfinger Chips like in the old days when they came in a paper covered box. Do they still make those?
• A big Easter bunny, ears first
• Reese's easter eggs, cups not pieces

• the old Einstein's before the Lousiana was added to it. Are they even still open? I miss Scrabble and Heather's photos and the feeling of walking in and seeing all my friends.
• my maternity hospital. I love going and seeing my midwife and all the staff. I'm looking forward to staying there again because the food was gourmet quality and the atmosphere is so warm.
• the creek behind my house.
• Hanging Rock Church Camp, particularly the woods where Ryan, Ben and I cut a trail.
• Jane Addams Bookshop in Champaign
• the Hare Krishna temple in Chicago that serves the best vegetarian food I've ever eaten after every service
• the art room at my high school where I spent three hours every day my senior year. I'll probably never be that productive ...

• bake bread at least once a week
• save money by only buying the necessities and then trying to get them on sale
• have a baby in August
• finish all the sewing projects in the drawer in my sewing room
• read Christian Theology and The Christian Theology Reader and keep notes
• go home for a visit, which means...
• get the baby's American citizenship and passport
• study Japanese every day
• plant an herb garden and cook and bake with the results
• start drawing again

• In summer, goya champuru
• miso-ginger tofu and cabbage stir fry
• I have almost perfected a Japanese/Chinese dish with chicken, green peppers and onions that has a spicy glaze sauce.
• Japanese style curry made with store bought roux
• A Japanese dish with chicken, negi onions and konnyaku which is one of the strangest foods ever. Made from the root of the devil's tongue plant (and no I don't know what that is either) it's this gray chewy block of stuff flecked with black and completely devoid of its own flavor.
• Pancakes
• Buckwheat noodles (not from scratch)
• Ken really likes a recipe I have that claims to be Thai and has chicken/tofu meatballs with negi and ginger, rice noodles, cabbage and shimeji mushrooms in a spicy soup of coconut milk and Nampla.

• We missed our flight because our bus got stuck in traffic. By a sheer miracle we got to the counter two minutes before the flight departed and were able to change to another flight that day without actually buying another ticket.
• All of which meant that we were stuck at the airport for NINE HOURS. Crimeny.
• I almost cried as I watched the lady take away the basket of free croissants while we were checking in to the executive lounge. We learned that they only serve those until 9 am. Cheap bastards.
• Eihime suddenly has a mind all her own along with her own iternerary, her own walking path and her own list of things that make her scream, me trying to make her go the way we need to go being at the very top.
• When we finally got to Wakayama, I had a ferocious Braxton-Hicks contraction (ya t...

• I wish my well-intentioned friend hadn't cooked us lunch with garlic in it before my digestive system started functioning again after being sick 2 days ago.
• I wish my daughter hadn't tried try claw my eyes out every time I dozed off during what should have been our nap time.
• I wish my sister hadn't sent me a message on myspace about how she was "infuriated beyond words" upon reading my post about not being able to come home.
• I wish H wasn't dealing with the passing of an influential person in her life today.
• I wish Dug could take a few weeks off, hit the lottery, and bring Mary to Tokyo.
• I wish I weren't so disappointed that I didn't get any messages online except the selfish beyond words one from my sister.

• facebook
• Perez Hilton (I don't know why either...)
• NPR
• Japan Probe
• food blogs
• sewing blogs
• myspace because all my friends aren't on facebook yet
• jcrew sale page

• walked around all last night wearing a pair of tights as a scarf
• started saying the Japanese "ne?" at the end of her sentences of baby gibberish (meaning "you know?" or serving to ask for agreement from the listener)
• regressed to eating the corners of her cardboard books again...sigh...
• insists on holding the spoon herself and then turning it upside down en route to her mouth
• dances to and conducts whatever classical music we have on the stereo
• this is really bad, but ate an entire McPork sandwish the other day after Ken bought it for her against my wishes
• Adds "sh" to the end of the two words she says that end in a long i sound. In Japanese, "hai-sh" and in English, "bye-sh"
• starting saying hello again after a hiatus of about five months

• Seoul to visit my friends and eat super awesome food
• Nepal, if it ever gets nice and stable. I don't really want to travel in dangerous places any more. I'm getting old. My father-in-law loved Nepal and went every chance he got. Plus, the curry shop in our town is run by Nepalese people.
• Europe. I don't care what country. Just Europe. High on the list, though, are Belgium, Denmark, Slovenia, France, and the Czech Republic.
• The National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. since we started listening to their services every week over the internet.
• Champaign, Illinois. Funny, living here where you can pretty much find everything you could possibly want, I just want to go back to rinky dink Champaign where I already know the coffee shops, vintage clothing and used bookstores that I love.

• root beer
• sour cream
• Mexican peppers
• masa de harina
• cheese, especially cheddar, gruyere, queso oaxaca, and it would be fun to have colby jack
• Reese's peanut butter cups
• fresh herbs (getting impatient waiting for my own to start growing)
• different kinds of flour, especially whole wheat
• stroopwaffels
• Arby's
• peanut butter
• chocolate chips
• Quaker oats
• maple syrup

• the way Eihime answers every yes or no question by vigorously nodding yes. Here's a list within a list of the best questions:

+Are you thirsty? Yes, wait, that yes meant no. +Are you hungry? Yes, yes, yes!!! +Do you like the toast with tomato sauce and processed cheese mommy made for you because she's too sick to cook? Yes. +Do you love mommy? Yes. +Is daddy a dumb butt? Yes.

• lunch with friends
• Eihime made it through the entire church service without having a fit, especially helpful because it was my Sunday to play the piano
• Waking up next to a smiling baby, knowing that homemade bagels were downstairs waiting to be toasted (back when I still felt like eating)

• that I can't go home to visit this year either
• how much chocolate I've been eating
• the way Japanese clothes fit--too loose and too tight in all the wrong places, like they were made for my exact opposite
• that my baby won't let me catch her vomit and instead nods her head vigorously mid-puke
• all the invitations to add stupid applications on Facebook
• Christians who bitch about universalizing health care in the US
• waiting at the OB/GYN for two hours every time when I have an appointment
• the way I walk. I'm trying to make my toes point forward instead of out and it's giving me backaches
• how passive I still am
• decaf instant coffee is the only decaf in Japan so I never get to taste freshly br...

• Children's book: The Three Questions
• Book from my Childhood: Winnie the Pooh series
• Winter clothing item: knit leggings
• Bakery bread: two foot long sausage wrapped in baguette with dijon mustard that I get every Wednesday after my Japanese class
• Bread that I've baked: so far, the Ekmek from Turkey that I made from my new bread book
• Thing I've sewn: smock from a 1960's pattern with Strawberry Shortcake fabric that my sister sent for Eihime
• Restaurant in my area: Kumari Curry
• Inexpensive chocolate: Ghana
• Thing that's hard to find/expensive in Japan: Peanut Butter
• Writer: Annie Dillard
• Christian Book: The Courage to Be by Paul Tillich

• large wire cooling rack
• waffle maker
• gingerbread man cookie cutters
• This American Life TV Season 1
• Masa de Harina
• a tortilla press
• spring-form pan
• my second favorite coffee mug from my dad's house
• my fabric from Africa
• writings from my childhood
• the linoleum blocks I carved in high school and college
• my kids books