I was able to sleep in a little bit, because we had an OB appointment at the Nadeshiko Clinic. I set the alarm for about 7:40 (the planned wake-up time was 8) and was eating breakfast when Eriko woke up. I did a little work on the computer as I needed to write a status email. We ate our separate breakfasts and headed over the 520 bridge to Kirkland (a little before 9). The mood was civil but not so comfortable. I headed back to Isilon and arrived in plenty of time (about 9:40) for my meeting (at 10). Unfortunately, I had to find parking (and grabbed a latte) so it was about 10 by the time I actually got in the building. The staff meeting was good and interesting. I had another meeting with my team afterwards and then it was time to pick-up Eriko. I was a little rushed, having left the office at 11:35, but I made it in-time (noon) to pick-up Eriko. In fact, I was there a few minutes early and went inside to use the bathroom. She was waiting outside the bathroom for me a few moments later. A really cool thing happened at Nadeshiko – Eriko talked to her nurse about us and got a nice sheet of paper describing common communication problems between Japanese and Americans. It was specifically tailored towards the Japanese wife and American husband. When Eriko showed this to me (after we arrived home), we were both very relieved – this was not just our problem! Lots of people had this problem. I went back to work and excitedly told my co-worker about the information we had acquired. He was also very interested (as he is currently dating his ex-wife, who is Japanese.) Back at home, Eriko and I spoke about our new world quite a bit, and she shared the discovery with her mother via Skype. She also told me that she drove the Jetta around the block! We spent some time playing with a baby playpen that my co-worker Edgardo gave us before heading off to bed.

This is going to be a combined entry. I fell behind on my note taking and can’t do the individual days justice. On Thursday, the big highlight was the symphony. Eriko and I took the bus (#13/#2) there, arrived on time, and enjoyed it quite a bit. I was a little irritated on the way there, but eventually I got over it. I fell asleep at the end of the first part (which is the way I like it) and got entranced by a few idle members of the symphony on the last part, which kept me awake. On Friday, I came home early; I wasn’t having a productive day and staying longer didn’t hold any interest for me. That may not have been a good move, however, as Eriko wasn’t in a good mood and soon after we managed to both get irritated at each other – which lasted the entire weekend. From Friday evening until Sunday evening, Eriko didn’t say more than a few words to me. I, of course, had quite a few to say to her, but they seemed to fall on deaf ears. Ah, the challenges of taking two individuals and putting them together with no real escape from each other. Especially Eriko; when I’m able to overcome my own emotional involvement in the situation, I can’t help but admire (and cringe) at the place she has found herself in – a foreign country, no friends/family, newly pregnant in a new marriage, and married to me. Any of those individually would be enough to drive a normal person crazy. On Saturday I was able to get out of the house and spent some time helping Zack move from his apartment to his new shared house. He lives closer to me now but I don’t know whether or not I’ll see him more often… Sunday I used the computer, watched Starship Troopers (on TV), ran a few errands (to get out of the house), and tried not to upset (or get upset at) Eriko. In the evening she was finally starting to talk more, although she clearly has no desire/strength for anything more than the most trivial of conversations. I spent the late evening working on this journal entry, trying to focus on Japanese, and procrastinating by reading a textbook on (mathematical) Optimization.

I woke up at 6 again. I was more tired this morning than yesterday; I had a little trouble sleeping in the late morning and was tossing and turning. After eating breakfast, I watched a lecture on my media player. This one was about pre-execution, a cool optimization technique for speeding up processors by reducing the effect of branch & load stalls. I got a little tired a few times and had to pause it and collect my wits, but it was a pretty good presentation so I was pretty engaged for the most part. I did email my boss (via the blackberry) a bit on the couch before leaving. I arrived at work about 8 AM, which is a nice time. I was a little distracted in the morning (although I cannot recall by what) and didn’t really start working until about 8:30. I was fairly productive in the morning but worked on a few various issues. I came home for lunch, which was nice, but Eriko was pretty quiet. We got into a discussion about what she dreamed of doing (acting) and I must have said something wrong, because soon she was quiet and it was time for me to go. The afternoon was fairly smooth; I had coffee with Scott and Shai (monthly 1 on 1’s) and had good discussions with both. I then got pulled into a meeting discussing outstanding issues and then I worked on diagnosing one. Aaron called me about 5:15 to let me know that he arrived with the Jetta. Since he works in Redmond, he offered to pick it up from the mechanic and drive it over, which was very nice. He was waiting for me in the passenger seat (which was cool) and I drove the car a few blocks down the street so we could eat some dinner. We went to Blue Water, a favorite of Aaron’s, and both ordered steak burritos. Aaron ordered a beer and I got a soda. The food and conversation were good and as an added bonus, the owner brought us out 1/2 margaritas to sample. The restaurant recently obtained its beer & liquor license and the owner was clearly in a courting mood. We drove to the condo where I parked the Jetta and we said hello to Eriko. I was pretty stuffed and needed to take a short rest before proceeding (via the Miata) to Aaron’s house. I was able to pet and spend some quality time with Bailey, who seemed to remember me. It was really nice to see her. She seemed to be doing very well and I really enjoyed the few minutes I saw her. I visited with Carol and Aaron and they gave me some oranges and homemade beer to take home. Aaron also described some intended modifications to his basement and let me taste a bad batch of his homebrew. It was nice to see them (and especially Bailey). Back at home, Eriko was in a pretty quiet mood. She wasn’t feeling so well and so we just sat on the couch. Finally, I got up to go the bathroom and she went to the computer to watch an episode of an anime she downloaded. I helped her when I came out and she really had a good time watching it; I forget the name but it was something she had watched (for the first time, at least) when she was 12. I watched most of it too, but also began writing journal entries and completing a software upgrade on my laptop. Eriko took a shower and I worked on the computer (personal & work email).

I woke up at 6 (with the alarm). I slept pretty good. I made myself a bowl of cereal and worked on my Japanese homework (I shouldn’t have waited until the last minute, but it was good to finish). I got into work pretty early (a little after 7) and got to work pretty fast. I started a discussion (with the rest of the leads) about employee retention. It was a good topic to bring up and I enjoyed discussing it. I also started a discussion with my team regarding the usefullness and comfort of our morning meetings. As it turns out, I decided to postpone them slightly so everyone would be able to make them without trouble (and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the majority of people found them very useful). The morning went well and lunch was nice. I had a little bit of an afternoon before I had to leave for class. I made a few phone calls (to the owner of the Jetta, my buddy Aaron, and the mechanics – to authorize the work). I left work a little early and had coffee with Zack and gabbed about his girl trouble. It was nice to see Hideki and we talked about computers (requirements for a PhD, reasons why high-speed was needed, etc.) before going through the day’s lesson. After class, I went back to work and got a few things done (there was some last minute crisis which caused me to be a little late). Dinner was good and then Eriko talked to her mom. I did a little organizing and washed dishes. Then I watched the remaining three episodes of Gundam Seed Destiny, which didn’t end so well (but I was glad to finally complete the series). Eriko and I took showers and it was time for bed.

Halloween. I woke up at 6:30, via the alarm (scary!) and ate a bowl of Toasted Oats. My media player was low on batteries (and I wasn’t in the mood), I didn’t want to turn on the light for fear of bothering Eriko (so I couldn’t study Japanese), so waking up early wasn’t super productive for me. I did spend a little time making sure the software on the laptop was up to date, and I left for work early. At work, however, my early arrival did not translate into increased productivity although I did get a few a things done. After a lengthly meeting, I came home early (about 11) and Eriko and I headed to Redmond to check out the free car. Eriko packed lunch, which was yummy, and we ate in the car (with me nibbling at stoplights). We arrived at AutoSys and I spied a black jetta with the hood up and what appeared to be a battery charger attached. Sure enough, that was the car. Gary helped me out with records and answering my questions and Eriko spent some time sitting in the car, noting the flaws, and (I imagine) imagining herself in it. I attached the power pack and started the vehicle, but we were unable to drive it since it was blocked in. After a few phone calls to Anne (the vehicle owner) and Aaron (my buddy, Anne’s son-in-law) Eriko and I were back on the road (and I was eating more lunch). Back at work, I got hit with a major let-down – my new employee (of two weeks) decided to leave the company. I made an effort to retain him, but when it was obvious he was not going to stay, I asked that he leave immediately. That put a bit of a bummer on the afternoon for me and I didn’t get much more work done; I left a little early and complained to Scott. Eriko warmed up dinner when I arrived and it was yummy! We watched a little TV while eating. I sent Rob an email (telling him the unfortunate news about the employee) and he quickly called me. We talked for a while, with some (minor) complaining. I then finally managed to convince Eriko to watch ‘Twilight Samurai’ with me, a movie loaned to me by Hideki (my Japanese teacher). I thought it was really good, except the lighting was a bit dark. Eriko also seemed to enjoy it. I then proceeded to wash the dishes and Eriko took a shower.

I slowly awoke from my dream, in which the MG had been converted into a hybrid vehicle, to find Eriko waking up. I then rolled out of bed and joined her in the living room (being sure to make noise so that I wouldn’t scare her.) The clock read 7 o’clock, but we had yet to turn back out clocks – so we woke up at 6 AM! That was great. ;) I went around the house changing most of the clocks and Eriko started eating some food. I made us both bowls of “Toasted Oats” (Cheerios clone) and we ate. Eriko thought the cereal could use a little sugar, but it tasted fine to me. ;P Soon after eating, she became tired and went back to bed. I worked on the computer, completely the migration I had begun the night before – now my finances database is in the debit/credit accounting format as taught by my accounting textbook. Most of my tools are now broken and I haven’t wrapped my head exactly around the method I will need to conveniently track bills & the budget (besides my current setup, which are separate tables and not what I want). Seeking to avoid too much noise, I moved to the couch and finished watching (via my handheld media player) a CSE colloquia. This one was pretty good, although the presenter wasn’t very eloquent and that made it difficult to listen. Eventually I was able to get past that and I enjoyed the end, especially since the presenter was so passionate (and frustrated) – the talk was about electronic voting presented by Andrew Neff of VoteHere.com. Eriko emerged from the bedroom and made herself some ramen for lunch; I ate some leftover pizza. Eriko watched this anime we had downloaded (via bittorrent, which took 3 days.) We did some channel surfing and some couch sitting before Eriko decided she was bored. She decided she wanted to play some ping pong, so we left for Jillian’s (billards/sports bar) where I knew there were some tables. Eriko called Zack while we were in the car and we invited him and Katie to join us (they would be delayed due to existing plans, but thought they could). We got a great parking space, traded my id for some paddles and balls, and headed upstairs – to find a bunch of excited football fans congratulating themselves and shouting ‘Raiders!’ were the ping pong tables were supposed to be! Sure enough, they had been moved out of the way. We returned the equipment and tried to play some air hockey, but the puck was stuck. The service was really bad and by the time the attendant got around to helping us (she told me to wait) I had already started kicking the table to see if it was stuck. Sure enough (it popped out), but now we looked like fools and all of our time was used up. Eriko and I were dissappointed. Eriko decided she was hungry and we went in search of food. The front desk-lady (whose service was poor) directed us to the downstairs sportsbar, the downstairs sportsbar directed us upstairs, and finally I decided we should just leave (since Eriko wanted chips). We headed back to Queen Anne (my intended destination was Blue Water Taco) and parked when Eriko decided she wanted popcorn instead. Luckily, we were in front of Blockbuster, so we retrieved some popcorn and an anime she really liked. We also stopped off at Safeway and purchased some groceries (including potato chips). Back at home, Eriko began watching her movie and eating popcorn while I worked on modifying my financial tools so I could enter the daily receipts. Zack called and announced that he was unable to find any ping pong joints in the area and we both decided that we’d have to try again some other time. ;P After the movie, Eriko decided to take a nap and I started watching a new lecture. Soon I noticed I was having trouble following and decided to “rest” instead. An hour or so later, I woke up to some drool. ;P I recieved a phone call from Aaron who passed on the phone number of his in-laws, who have a 1993 Jetta (which has a few issues, but has four doors and is an automatic) that they are willing to give away. It turns out the vehicle needs a new alternator and is currently at the shop – which wants it out of there by Tuesday. I called and left a message for Jean and explained to Eriko the situation. I called Katrina and wished her a happy birthday; we had a nice conversation (for about 10 minutes) until her cellphone battery ran out. Jean called back and explained a few more caveats about the vehicle – the driver’s side lock doesn’t work, the instrument panel is out, the air conditioning is disconnected… and of course, we need to decide by tomorrow since the car has to be out of there by Tuesday. I made plans with Eriko to drive out to Redmond during lunch to check out the vehicle. For $500, it could be a great deal – or a waste of $500. I wish dad were around to help me out. Eriko slowly woke up on the couch and I watched episode 47 of Gundam Seed Destiny (which was lame). As soon as I got up from the computer, Eriko sat down and called her mom. They talked for about one hour and I finished up watching another lecture. This one was about Hancock, a programming language developed at AT&T research lab for dealing with large volumes of very specific data. The lecture was quite boring; there wasn’t enough time to convey exactly why a new language needed to be created rather than a set of libraries developed and as such, I didn’t enjoy it very much. I read a little in my Japanese book, I picked out my clothes for tomorrow (and placed them in the living room, so I can dress without waking Eriko), and I began writing this journal entry (on dad’s old Sony Viao, as Eriko was still talking to mom). I realized that taking notes and entering journal entries later is very difficult and procrastinating just makes me not want to do it. I would much rather make the entry at the end of each day, but that is going to take some discipline. After Eriko’s phone call, I ate some Toasted Oats and she ate some Tongari Corn (General Mills Japanese corn cones). We spent some time on the couch together, enjoying a lazy Sunday night, and then it was time for showers.