Back Yard Garden in WY

Evening temperature is getting down to 40s in Wyoming and day time temperature is stagnating in 70s. Our short growing season for Wyoming is about to end.

Drew and I created three 4'x4' raised beds for vegetables this summer. We started seeds early in our basement with our indoor greenhouse. Usually we cannot transfer vegetables on the ground till June 1. Unfortunately we got very cold windy days this year and we could not transfer any vegetables on the ground till mid June. I was not too optimistic towards this year's harvests since our short growing season became even shorter because of the cold days in June.

Thank you for the raised beds and an indoor greenhouse I guess - actually our vegetables really did well! We have harvested nearly 12 Yellow Squashes, lots of Swiss Chard, 2 Banana Peppers, 1 Red Pepper (peppers don't do good in Rock Springs - we harvested none last year.), 6 Red Radishes, a handful of Green Bans, and 50 small Tomatoes! Amazingly 30% of our tomatoes turned red this year. None of our tomatoes got turn red while they were outside last year unfortunately and we had to pick them while they were still green.

Yes, it takes a lot of works to grow vegetables in Wyoming. When you look around the native land and saw only sage brushes as far as you can see, it is not a good sign. We have to make good soils and have to irrigate the garden well. Then some sorts of protections are needed against strong wind and low night time temperature. Since elevation of Rock Springs is 6200 feet, night time temperature could drop dramatically.

It is still possible to grow vegetables and flowers in Rock Springs. It may take extra cares but we think it is worth it. Cooking vegetables from your own back yard for dinner brings such a joy and a satisfaction. We will certainly do this again next year!

Beautiful Dedication

Speaking of a dedication, my step aerobics instructor, Ashley, from Rock Springs Recreation Center was teaching 60 minutes Step aerobics till two weeks before her baby’s due date.

Her tummy got so big once she was in 8 months and we assumed that she could not even see her steps well. She however kept teaching the class twice a week. Amazingly she was kicking our butt in the class! She could keep going and going for full 55 minutes every time with some pretty demanding step cycles. This is nothing but a dedication forks!

Ashley is about mid twenties and this is her second child yet I think her commitment was very respectable. Ever since we were told that she was going to teach the class till her delivery day, we did not have any excuses to skip the class anymore. If Ashley could teach the class twice a week with her 7 month baby in her tummy, off course we can; well, we must handle the classes, right?!

We are so thankful for her to keep us moving hard till almost her delivery date. Thank you Ashley; you have been an inspiration for all of us. Congratulations on your baby boy! We are looking forward to seeing you in your class sometime soon.

2008 St.Patrick's Day

St Patrick’s Day was always a fun day for me since I was in college. Everyone had an excuse to get a grass of green beer or Guinness with friends regardless you are Irish or not. People were usually very happy on this day (no family visits obligated or no church visits on this day…no wonder!) My best St. Patrick’s Day; however, was the March 17, 2008. Yes, that was the day that I met my husband, Drew.

My friends, Tzutai and Aaron, took me to their friend’s St. Patrick’s Day party in Reno. Drew was the one actually hosting the party at his apartment. I still remembered the moment that I met Drew. He had a long hair (pony tailed) and was wearing a black-flamed really geeky looking glasses. His apartment was clean and simple but was very warmly situated. His living room was filled with his friends – probably around 30 people. They all seemed to be really excited to be at Drew’s party. I could not help but thinking that Drew must be really cool and fun person in order to be surrounded by so many great friends like them. I was envious towards Drew’s girl friend of that time since I was still searching for my right man. I was envious in real good way; like “there was a girl who can have a great man like Drew in this world but at the same time there was a girl like me who could not find a good relationship whatsoever. What could be the differences between her and I?”

I would never imagine that I was going to spend my life with Drew that day. It has been 8 years since and Drew and I are now married for 6 years! Life….full of surprises. So what happened after St. Patrick’s party?! Well, there were no big dramas. Drew and I started to hang out with our mutual friends from time to time and at mean time Drew and his girl friend just did not work out and they broke up. We were friends for months. It was so much fun to hang out with Drew and I even did not think about our “relationship status”. I did not care if we were friends or dating or what…..it was simply heavenly to be with him and his friends.

Ever since the millennium St. Patrick’s Day….a lot happened. Drew had graduated from University of Nevada with MS in Nutrition and then he got a job from State of Nevada. After a couple of years later I had finally finished my graduate degree and then Drew decided to change his career. We got married in Reno at May of 2002 and decided to head out for Penn State to obtain Drew’s second graduate degree. Then, super tough 4 years in Pennsylvania came alone. Working days and nights…four years straight; life is much sweeter now so I won’t talk about those days. In four years at Pennsylvania, my friend Tzutai and Pepe; Akiko and Ryan; and Steve and Julie got married. Tzutai got two baby girls and Akiko had a baby boy and a girl. Drew’s sister Melissa got a baby boy and now they were back to Austin, TX from Chicago.

Now Drew and I are in Wyoming. We both have a good job that we really enjoy here in Rock Springs. We built a cozy house and are surrounded by good neighbors. Our cat Caesar is happier than ever. Tzutai and Pepe had moved to Florida and Mariko and Joe are finally coming back from Japan. A life goes on and on…. babies come and old souls had to go away.

Drew’s Dad, Phill, passed away in February after 6 months of fight against a lung cancer. I have known him for 8 years. I wish I had spent more time with him. I believed that Phill gave us a lot of lessons in life especially in his last 6 months. I believed that he kept telling me to embrace what I have now in life; try not to be caught up with hopes and dreams that have not been reached yet. He also taught me that I should not plan everything too ahead because a life was simply spontaneous. Thank you for your smile, your kindness, and your patience for last 8 years, Phill. I will truly miss you.

St. Patrick’s Day is always a day for me to look back at my life. I traced back to the day I met Drew usually. Look, how far we came since!! It is a good time to give myself a compliment. It is also a good time to unwrap myself from the too many expectations in life. It is great to have dreams and plans in future but I have a tendency not to enjoy a journey to get to my dreams. I could be very frustrated by how to get to my dreams or how quickly I can get there. People said, “A life is a journey, not a destination”. Indeed, tough how easy to forget about it! I guess I must force myself to stop and reassure where I really am. Why don’t I create a day to think about a journey once in a while with a green drink in my hands?! Green beer, margarita, grasshopper, or even green tea latte works! I will make sure that I enjoy the journey instead of ….now you know what I want to say!

ENGLISH & JAPANESE

Just so let you know......that you will see both English and Japanese blogs on my page.

Some of my families and relatives don't read English but they also wanted to know what I wrote on my page.

If you visit my page and saw wired symbols (if your computer does not support Asian characters, you will see the random wired symbols instead of Japanese Characters), please follow a either steps:

• For English Reader: just ignore it and screw down the page. You will find my English blog.
• For Japanese Reader: if you live outside of Japan and would like to read Japanese, please download the Asian language support files from MS Office; or simply using encoding tool (main tool bar: view-encoding) to read Japanese.

Thanks!

日本に住んでいる家族、親戚、そして友達のみなさんへ

あけましておめでとうございます。
２００７年も忙しさにかまけてご無沙汰してしましたが、みなさん　お変わりなくお元気でお過ごしでしょうか？楽しいクリスマスとすばらしい新年を迎えられたことを願っています。

私たちはワイオミングでの２度目の冬をむかえています。ロックスプリングスは緯度としてはサンフランシスコより少し上くらいなのですが、高度がたかくほぼ１９００メートルあるので、もう寒いこと風の強いことといったら！１２月になると昼間の平均温度は３度からマイナス１０度、夜の平均温度は０度からマイナス２０度になります。そこへきて、　普段の日でも風が５０キロとかで吹くのでもうたまったもんじゃないです。始めて肺が凍りつくほどの寒さをけいけんしました。息をするのに肺がきりきり痛いんだよ、あまりの冷たさで。うちの猫さんのシーザーも気をつけないとすごく寒いよるには、湿った鼻がペットドアーの鉄の部分にくっついてしまうんだよ。つくずく暖かいいい家があってよかったと思います。

ロックスプリングスは全米でももっとも有名なスキーのメッカに近いのですが、何しろ降った雪はあっという間に氷化して道路も高速もつるっつる！冗談ではなく、アイススケートリンクの上を運転しているようなんだよ。かの有名なジャクソン、ワイオミングまでは３時間半、冬のオリンピックで有名なユタ州のパークシティーまでは３時間、コロラド州のリゾートまでは６時間ほどで車でいけるのですが　あまりの道路状況のひどさに恐ろしくて　去年も２回しかスキーにいけませんでした。やはり地元の人が冬はどこにもいけないよ、といったらそのとうりなんだね。

クリスマスはうちの夫のドリュー（今後土竜と書きます）の妹のメリッサに招かれて、彼女と近い未来の夫のエリックと　彼らの息子のマイルズが住んでいる　テキサス州のオースティンという町を訪れてきました。土竜のお父さんとお母さんも来たんだよ。もう知っている人も多いと思いますが、土竜のお父さんは６ヶ月ほど前に肺癌を言渡されて以来、抗癌治療を受けながら癌との闘いの日々を過ごしています。土竜のお父さんも思っていたよりもずっと元気そうで、みんなでクリスマスを過ごせたことをよろこんでいたようです。クリスマスの夕食には　アメリカ典型的のターキー、マッシュポテト、スイートポテトとグリーンビーンズを作り、ワインで乾杯しましたが、メリッさが菜食主義なので、ターキーは鳥のターキーではなく豆腐ターキーでした。大きな町のお店では豆腐ターキーを売っていて、お豆腐をかんぺんのように硬く直径１０センチくらいのボール状にかため、中に野菜の詰め物が入っているんだよ。多分、ワイルドオーツとかトレイダージョーズで売っていると思う。それを、しょうゆとしょうがと酢で味付けしてオーブンで焼くんだけど、これまたすごくおいしくて感激でした。土竜のお父さんとお母さんは　典型的な肉食人種なので、豆腐ターキーには手もつけなかったけど（笑）。まあまあよいクリスマスでした。

テキサスからの帰りにデンバーで大雪にあい、２日もデンバーの空港で立ち往生するはめになりました。冬の厳しい地域に住んでいる限り、冬の旅行は大変です。１１月から３月までは私たちが冬眠しているとでも思っててね。では、皆さん、またブログを書きますので、どうぞ、このアドレスをブックマークしておいて、たまに訪れてみてください。それでは、世界中に散らばっている家族、親戚、そして友達のみなさん、２００８年が皆さんにとって素晴らしいく幸福で健康な年になりますように！　

Christmas at Austin, TX

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I now have about 12 hours left in 2007 and I am trying to post my first blog in 2007; I am glad to be able to post at least one blog within this year.


So, we visited Austin, TX over the Christmas to be with Drew's families. Drew's sister Melissa, her husband-to-be Erich, and their baby boy Miles (15 months) had moved back to Austin from Chicago over the summer and we all got invited to Austin. As most of you guys know, Drew's Dad has been battling with a lung cancer for last 6 months. He was able to travel to Austin and we all had a good Christmas there. It was nice.


Austin was a cool city; there were lots of parks and a green belt which was running through the city. People enjoy jogging, walking, and biking along the river (a lot of active people in the town). We took multiple walks with Melissa's dogs and Miles on the stroller. The weather was so nice and I was super excited to be able to walk around! In Wyoming I am not able to get out of the house since November. It has been single digit during the day and minus double digits at night. Rock Springs is the coldest place that I have ever lived. Only thing that really saves me from a seasonal depression at Rock Springs is a sun; at least we have a blue sky and a shining sun......I can exist (but not too long!).


Another cool thing about Austin was a Wholefood market. There is a headquarter of wholefood in Austin. The Wholefood sells many organic produces and lots of carefully-selected-good -products. We visited the Wholefood on Christmas Eve and the store was packed with last minutes Christmas shoppers and filled with holiday goodies. Especially I loved their bakeries and liquor section. There are so many beautifully decorated cakes, chocolates, and cookies in the bakery and I was lost myself in the sweet wonderland for a while. Wegmans in State College, PA, also had the GREAT bakery but the wholefood's one was three times bigger than Wegmans. Since I missed Wegmans so very much, it was simply NICE to be at the Wholefood. One of my happiest moments is going to a progressive grocery store during the holidays with my Mom. I wish my Mom was at the Wholefood with me. We could spend all day there. Here is the Wholefood site, check it out if you are interested!

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/

Wish your wonderful new year from Wyoming. Stay cool and safe on the new years eve and HAVE FUN!!!


Best wishes,