13 April 2012

Raining Cats and Dogs

Its raining crazy hard outside, at least for California. Last night we had a record-breaking storm in terms of lightning strikes and rainfall.

I'm always amused by what counts as hard rain here in the SF Bay Area. Growing up in Florida, I know a little bit about heavy thunderstorms. This ain't it.

06 April 2012

Hark! What yonder light...

The girls are showing a lot of interest in academics at their new school.

They go to Japanese immersion school. It switches between Japanese and English by subject. The girls have shown tremendous progress since they started the new school a few months ago. They recognize characters in both languages and Alisa is starting to put letters together into words. Their ability to speak in Japanese fluently has skyrocketed.

I'm proud of my little buggers. There's another bragging father story below.

We have a big gallery as our front room, whose ceiling lofts up more than 20 feet. Its splayed with vinyl covers of albums that have been dear to me or Hirono. Arranged beneath the colorful emblems of King Crimson, Accept, Judas Priest, and Emerson, Lake and Palmer are a handful of string and percussion instruments. There also sits the recorder collection and, center piece, keyboard surrounded by amps and cabinets.

Cut into the heights of the gallery is a staircase leading up to a lopsided landing with railing overlooking the instruments. On the landing sit the two girls, legs dangling over the edge. Their pink and orange pajamas were highlighted by a sharp spotlight that shined directly in my eyes below.

So I quoted Shakespeare to them, Romeo and Juliet. Hark! What yonder light... After a few sentences Alisa was hooked. Now she wants me to read the story to her. I told her it would take a week of nights and there are no pictures; but, she is undaunted.

I'll be floored if she sits through the story. You never know.