Grandpa Walt's Bday

Dad turned 79 on Valentine's Day.  Here we are celebrating lunch with family and some Panda Express.  Everyone except me seems to go there quite often, I actually had never had it before.  It wasn't bad.  I made an organic sweet potato mochiko dessert that turned out pretty yucky.  Don't know what happened, it came from the Senshin cookbook.  Anyways, I must have done something wrong, or my stove runs too hot  Anyways, we had a nice time.  The kids are growing up so fast.  They made foam photo frames.  

Making Valentine's

Maiya designed Valentine's cards for her friends at school.  Unfortunately, we waited until 9pm the night before we needed them, so we were up late addressing envelopes and cutting out hearts with origami paper.  Despite the late start, we had fun making them together.  After Maiya went to sleep, I attached the cards to little flower pots with strawberry seed pods, rather than give candy.

Here is me & Maiya actually on Valentine's Day.  I had bought matching t-shirts for me, Tony & Maiya.  They have a phrase that says "Many Hands Help Lighten the Load," the proceeds of which went to Haiti earthquake relief.  Unfortunately, Tony's didn't fit, but we took some self-pictures wearing the shirt.  

That afternoon, we took Maiya to Uncle Bill's for the afternoon, then went to Toshi Sushi in Jtown for a delicious and healthy lunch date, then to see the "Making of Stand Up for Justice" the film NCRR and VC made about Ralph Lazo in 2004 for high school students, now available with Special Features.  Some of the interviews that Tony and I shot, back in 2002, made it into the DVD, including an interview clip of me dressed as  a 1940s Nisei reminding me of my grandma.

Making Valentine's

So, when did Valentine's become Halloween? Maiya got so much candy and stuff for Valentine's Day from preschool. I couldn't believe it. She got to eat 1 piece of candy, one of those little chalky hearts, and Tony put the bag away somewhere, and she seems to have forgotten about it. Same as Halloween. Anyways, here are Maiya and Tony making Valentine's cards for her class. Tony carved out hearts from potatoes and they stamped them on the card.

On Valentine's Day, I had a really busy and exciting day at work. We had a visit from the former governor of Iowa, and his wife, who is a champion for family literacy and technology. I'll blog and post pictures about it later. On Valentine's night, we stopped at Uncle Bill's house, then went to Marie Callendars for dinner. I got a pretty good chicken pot pie and a delicious apple waldorf salad, Tony got soup and sandwich, and Maiya got the macaroni & cheese kid's plate. Afterwards, Tony was sneaking banana cream pie in the kitchen... $5.99 on all pies until the end of the month.

I'm off today. It's raining. We made sugar-free cranberry-orange-carrot pulp muffins this morning. I think we're going to go to the library. Tonight I have a JACS meeting/dinner and Tony is taking Maiya to Talpa's with "the guys." That's it for now.

Happy Valentine's Grandpa!

The day before my dad's birthday, which happens to be Valentine's Day, Maiya and I drove out to visit my parents on my day off. We went out to celebrate Mom's Belated Bday and Dad's Bday by going to a Japanese restaurant. Maiya was a little nutso that evening. We also got to visit my friend Kaz and her daughter Sklyer Mariko who live right down the street from my parents' house. We had a nice time hanging out and playing with the girls. When we left, Maiya gave Skyler and the dog Summit a hug.

Great Leap Fundraising update: The LA Marathon is this Sunday. It's not too late to sponsor us--in fact it would be great if you would sponsor Tony! I've gotten about 30 sponsors so far, thanks to generous friends, family, and 20 of my LTSC coworkers. But Tony is just getting started... Tony's going to be riding 23 miles in the Bike Marathon. Let us know if you'd like to sponsor him!