Monday July 30, 3:58 p.m.
The weekend was a family-&-friends affair as my brother's family came over on Saturday for dinner with a whole ton of Chinese takeout. My sister-in-law and I had a long talk...or it would probably be more accurate to say that I listened to her talk about how her niece is starting to turn into a spoiled brat because of overmollycoddlying on the part of her relatives. Sometimes, I think my sister-in-law can be a bit tough on her own daughter, but after hearing about her niece, perhaps she is on the right track after all.
Then, yesterday, I went over to see an old friend of mine out in the wilds of
Mississauga. The Wild Guy, being one of the members of our old group, also joined. He contributed a large amount of salad while I brought the pop and munchies. I hadn't seen my old friend in about a decade or so. He's an old
Japan hand and his wife is from
Nagano Prefecture. I also met one other fellow with his family whom I hadn't met in years as well, so it was just as much a reunion as it was a BBQ party. The menu was sausages from a place called
Starsky's (a huge supermarket built on the remains of an abandoned
Canadian Tire) which both my friend and The Wild Guy raved about in no uncertain terms. Plus, the wife whipped up some turmeric rice on the side. The other fellow and his family couldn't stay too long since they had other plans and they lived all the way out near
St. Catherines. The Wild Guy once again went on another highly intellectual rant about politics and business, but our host and I have known him for years and years so we didn't have too much problem about it, although I started to fade near the end.
The Olympics are now in high gear. The two countries that I'm most concerned with:
Japan and Canada have started off on different notes. Canada has only garnered
one Bronze medal so far while Japan has amassed 11, and is currently 3rd in the medal count. My adoptive country has even gotten its
first Gold medal, thanks to a virtuoso performance by one of the women judo-ka in the 57-kg. category.
I did another morning gig at the school. The teacher I was subbing for is nice but she's a bit of a stickeler. And I've got another all-day supply gig on Wednesday.
