Kalamazoo Trip

 A week in Kalamazoo Michigan with Tony's family for Passover, March 2013.  We stayed with Fran's cousins Jo and Judy's houses.  We visited freezing Lake Michigan, the Frederick Meijer Garden in Grand Rapids, and just hung out with family.  Grandpa Don bought Maiya her first loom on this trip.

Passover Seder 2011

It's been a number of years since we've done Passover Seder at our house.  Tony's Mom aka Granny Franny and Don came to visit for a few days in April.  Fran made Grandma Shereley's Vegetarian Matzoh ball soup.  We also celebrated our sister in law Nina's "39th" birthday (I was the only one who didn't get the joke haha).  We were glad to also have Tony's godsister Beth and her family come as well.  A highlight for me was when Maiya read some of the Haggadah.

This is turning out I'm not so much writing anything.  By the end of the day, I'm really just too tired to try to put words together.  More, I'm just doing photo essays and captions for 2011. Well, so be it. Peace. Shalom. Out.  NaBloPoMo#9.

More Letters from Daddy (#23)

A few more "Letters from Daddy."

October 4, 2010
Dear Maiya, Good morning.  Did you sleep well?  I did.  Mommy didn't cough all night.  That's great. Let's go to the park after school today.  Love, Daddy

October 12, 2010
Dear Maiya.  I think you are cool.  I love you.  I will see you after school at El Marino. Love Daddy

October 18, 2010 *This one is Maiya's favorite.
Dear Maiya, Hello. Hello. Hello.  It's off to work I go and you school--see you at 4:32! Love, Daddy

October 20, 2010
Dear Maiya, Ohayo gozaimasu!  Good morning young one.  Did you sleep well?  Did you dream? Did your body and mind rest?  I slept like a baby - ga ga goo goo!  Stay dry today and enjoy your muffin and machaca burrito.  Oishi, neh? Give Mommy a hug and a high five for me.  Let's go to the library today after school and get a book on club houses.  Tony "Daddy" Osumi

November 5, 2010
Dear Maiya, Good morning Love.  How did you sleep?  I slept all night and didn't wake up at all.  What are you bringing to Share Toy Day? Gaga? Sarcastic Cat? Your plastic light saber handle we got from the hardware store? When I pick you up after school, tell me.  Tonight for dinner I'm going to make gohan--rice.  White steamed rice with a fried egg on top with chopped up hot dogs and tsukemono.  Do you know what tsukemono is?  I think you spell it this way in Japanese:  つけもの.  Can you read that?  Have a great, fun day.  Be brave and strong. Love, Daddy


November 9, 2010
Dear Maiya,We have a DVD to watch after school.  We also have to take it back after we watch it.  Or maybe Daddy will take it back later in the night.  Oops! I forgot to say good morning.  "Good morning!" What fun stuff are you doing at school today?  Will  you be chasing some kids or playing soccer?  Be like Invisible Girl Mai Mai and do teamwork.  Love and hugs, Love and kisses, Love and tickles, Daddy


November 15, 2010

Dear Maiya, Good morning.  It's Monday.  Time for work and school.  Yay!  Yesterday was a cool day. seeing you on the basketball court hustling and dribbling and passing and shooting and trying your best was exciting.  Having grandma and grandpa there made it even cooler.  Next week let's invite Uncle Bill and Aunty Keiko.  I'll see you at school in the afternoon.  I'll bring a basketball.  Let's not forget to read a chapter of 100 Dresses.  I wonder what the contest will be about.  What do you think?  (Heart) and (Kisses) Daddy.


NaBloPoMo#23

More Maiya Video: Talking to Rod? (#18)

Here's a video back in January 2010 of 4 1/2 year old Maiya talking on the cell phone to Rod (Tony's audio friend) one morning while getting ready for school.  But the funny thing is that it is not a working phone, so Maiya is not actually talking to Rod, but to herself, but it sounds completely believable as a conversation.  Then when she gets off the phone, she is talking to me about what Rod said.  Got to love a kid with imagination... (NaBloPoMo#18)

Saying Goodbye to Larry's House (#7)

Well, today was our last day at Grandpa Larry's house.  Larry's house is in escrow and should close this week.  Tony and Hector went up yesterday and moved and gave away all the furniture.  Today, we drove up and packed up the rest of the kitchen, bathrooms and loaded up what was left of the garage.  

Last Summer, we went up almost every weekend, packing up and cleaning up the house.  We went back and forth in trying to decide whether to sell, rent or turn the house into a vacation rental.  While we were spending time in the house, it reminded me of my family's condo in Mammoth and many years of happy memories.  Maiya and I enjoyed going down to the "beach" at Lake Gregory 1/2 a mile away while Tony worked at the house.  It's been a year and a half since Larry passed away, and almost 3 years since he got sick, so saying goodbye to his belongings and his house has been a long process.  

Kind of a sad day.  The house is empty now--but our garage and our memories are full.  

Photos taken on my new Canon PowerShot S95.  NaBloPoMo#7.

Tony Does 26.2 for Great Leap!

Big Congrats to Tony for finishing his first LA Marathon in 7:11!  He's been walking for almost a year now, and he had decided a month ago to walk the marathon to help raise money for Great Leap.  I think he'll write about his experience walking through what he called "colonial LA." We left the house at 5:30 am to drop Tony off at Dodger Stadium.  Maiya and I went to breakfast and gorged ourselves, went home, did laundry and hung out.  

Then about 1pm, Nobuko came over and we drove to Santa Monica.  It took about an hour to get there, but mostly to drive a few blocks just to park the car.  We made our way through the traffic of people waiting for friends and family members, went down to the beach party, which was just about over.   

Then back upstairs back to meet Corazon, Great Leap's manager who ran the marathon, too!  Corazon had been training so we were so proud and excited to see her!

Others who registered under Great Leap were the amazing Lisa Okamoto, Sharon Yamato, and Don Johnson (who we don't actually know).

Another hour in traffic getting out of Santa Monica.  Whew.  For dinner, Tony ordered Johnnie's Pastrami and onion rings, and I split a chili-cheese fries with Maiya.  Shortly after, Tony fell asleep and was out for the night.  We're so proud of him!

Distance	MAR
Clock Time	07:29:18
Chip Time	07:10:59
Overall Place	20379 / 22538
Gender Place	12387 / 13339
Division Place	1485 / 1556
Age Grade	30.2%
Pace	16:26.6
5K	0:46:21
10K	1:38:03
15K	2:25:03
20K	3:15:25
25K	4:05:54
30K	4:59:19
35K	5:52:54
40K	6:49:25

Goodbye to Uncle Meg

Uncle Meg, Aunt Janice and Cousin Tina with Maiya in 2005

Tony's Uncle Meg passed away on Wednesday due to heart failure. He kept a low profile over the last few years due to problems with his health, but in his earlier days he was very supportive in the fight for redress, involved with the UCLA Asian American Studies Center's Amerasia Journal, as an employment and labor law attorney doing social justice work, and serving on the Little Tokyo Service Center Board for almost 30 years.

My first contact with Uncle Meg was actually a few years before I started dating Tony, when he served on a panel for the Future of the Nikkei Community Conference that I co-chaired in 1992, my introduction into the JA community.

Tony has lost his dad, godmother and uncle in the last 10 months, all of whom had diabetes, which makes me really sad. My condolences to Aunt Janice, who was married to Uncle Meg for 39 years, his daughter Tina, Uncle Bill and Tony.

There will be a public presentation/viewing for Megumi Dick Osumi this Wednesday, December 23rd from 2pm-8pm at Fukui Mortuary in Little Tokyo.

Saying Goodbye to Val

Fran with Val @ her 60th Birthday party in 2007

This is a hard post to write. Tony's godmother Valerie passed away yesterday, just 2 days after we heard that she was sick. My heart goes out to her only daughter Beth, only grandaughter Erin, and son in-law Brian. But also to Tony and Fran, Tony's mom, who has been best friends with Val since junior high school. Fran was able to fly in from Idaho on Wednesday and spent the night with Val, but had to go back to Idaho on Thursday. Tony and Maiya were able to see Valerie on Wednesday night.

Tony might have some stories to share about Val. In the meantime, a few "F" words I can think of to describe Val:

feisty.

funny.

fierce.

feminist.

fun.

frank.

friend.

fran.

family.

We will definitely miss having Val in our life.

Val, Beth, Erin & Tony on Maiya's 3rd Birthday in 2008

(#18)

Larry Osumi: A Brief History

Written by Tony and read by daughter-in-law Nina, with grandchildren Danika and Chris at Larry's Memorial Service on 3/5/09
Grandpa Larry was born 64 years ago on December 29, 1944 in Mount Clemons, Michigan. His parents, Yoshio (Terry) and Chie spent the previous two years behind barbed wire in Arizona at one of America’s concentration camps.

After three years in Michigan, the family of five, including older brother Megumi Dick and younger brother, Bill, moved to Chicago for 6 months. In 1949 they returned to Los Angeles. For a year they all lived in a one-room garage near Sawtelle Blvd. With savings from a gardening route and a loan from a tanomoshi (a Japanese community rotating credit group) they moved into their family home in West LA.

Growing up, Grandpa Larry went to Brockton Elementary, Webster Jr. High and graduated from University High School. Growing up in WLA he played baseball for Crescent Bay Optimists, went camping with the Boy Scouts and delivered the Rafu Shimpo newspaper on his bicycle. Like many of his generation, he went to dances, cruised Van Nuys Blvd, ate hamburgers at Bob’s Big Boys, tacos at Ketchi’s Stand, and swayed to the romance of Johnny Mathis.

Later he pumped gas and checked your oil at the Shell gas station on Federal Avenue and Santa Monica Blvd. It’s here he earned enough money to buy a new 1965 burgundy Ford Mustang for just under $2900. Ahead of his time, he used a parachute as a car cover. It was also at the Shell station that Grandpa Larry was introduced to Fran, a nice Jewish girl from Venice who he married in 1966 and had two children, Tony and Chris.

Now a family man, Grandpa Larry attended LA Trade Tech College and earned a certificate as an Electronics Technician. Working in the industry for almost 40 years, he spent the majority of his years at three companies: Electro in Saugus, EAC Electronics in El Monte and Chino and most recently, with Medtronics doing quality control and testing.

Grandpa Larry was gifted in the garage. For years he did his own car repairs. Whether rebuilding his flathead Ford in high school, changing clutches, brakes, or bearings, he never met a Pep Boys he didn’t like. For a time, he even knew which Pick-A-Part had the best taco trucks.

Grandpa Larry was also handy around the house. In 1984 he moved to Crestline, which is in the San Bernardino Mountains, below Arrowhead. He was always upgrading his baseboards, bull-nosing the hallways, building retaining walls and forever vacuuming. He was always vacuuming. It was like his rug was his canvas and his Hoover upright was his brush. For some reason, the man loved to vacuum.

Grandpa Larry had three main passions: 1) Going out to eat with family. 2) Going out to eat with friends. And 3) going on road trips to visit relatives, so he could eat again.

Beyond food, he enjoyed fishing the High Sierras, especially Convict Lake and his boyhood haunt, Green Creek. A typical trip included Grandpa Larry, Bill and Tony camping for two days and spending the third night in Carson City eating pie and prime rib at the Ormsby House. Video poker was his game and with a cup full of nickels he was always chasing that elusive Royal Flush.

2008 was a rough year for Grandpa Larry. Complications with diabetes led to kidney failure and congestive heart failure. He lost weight, stopped driving and moved to a walker and finally a wheelchair. In January 2009, he fractured his hip and declined further. On Monday, February 23rd he passed away from cardiac arrest. All along there were phone calls and visits from friends and family. Thank you.

Visiting with Family (#28)

Last month, Granny Franny and Zeyde Don came to visit for the weekend. We had dinner with Tony's Grandma Shereley's friends, Uncle Izzy and Aunt Sarah and their daughters at Soup Plantation. We also went to the Farmer's Market and house hunting on Sunday afternoon. That evening, a bunch of family came over for a get together on Fran & Don's last night. We ordered LA Vegan Thai takeout. For some reason, we don't have pictures of Beth, Brian, Erin, Valerie and my parents. Maiya had fun with her godcousin Erin, they were in the playhouse in the dark while the daddy's screamed and shook the playhouse and lit up the night with their cell phones. Fun stuff.

Granny Franny and Maiya playing blocks

Don & Uncle Izzy

Fran, Aunt Sarah and Patty

Fran checking out the chili wreaths at the Farmer's Market

Maiya sampling the plums and Asian pears
Asking Cousin Danika to read "Momotaro"
Maiya's cousin Chris

Visiting with Aunt Gail, cousin Robin and family

Celebrating Fran's 60th

BTW, today, for Buy Nothing Day... we bought a house!
Or, at least we made an offer on one.  Details to follow.