Barbie's new beau has a flaw

What an event! This morning at approximately 8:20, I received a telephone call. On my Japanese cell phone.

From the United States of America.

Holy smokes! That's the first one, and according to Melanie, it was easy as pie. What a treat to have my cell phone ring and hear her voice at the other end of the line.

It isn't perfect - there was a little bit of a delay, and call quality was medium, but seriously? For my cell phone to get a call from her cell phone, thousands of miles and an ocean away, at about fifteen cents per minute? It was pretty darn good. Email me if you want the name of the calling card company she used - you buy the card online and they email you a toll-free number and PIN right away.

Oh, and the title of this post? It's what I think would come out of a round of the telephone game, if the starting phrase was what I made for dinner tonight.

Any guesses?

Moving forward

Lucky for me, my buddy Gaia (forgot to ask if I can use her name) is free for the festival this week. Yay! Look forward to lots of phallic photos early next week...mwahahaha.

Speaking of fertility...in the midst of the Plague last week, Josh and I had our first appointment with a gynecologist to start sorting out our pregnancy problem. It was tough to talk to a doctor about anything besides the demons screaming out of my digestive system, but we had waited months for this appointment and didn't want to let it go.

The doctor was really great; a young woman who has been in Japan about as long as we have. She ruled out a couple of things that had worried me - PCOS, or poly-cystic ovary syndrome, can prevent pregnancy but wouldn't cause repeated miscarriage, for example. We told her our story, and she walked us through a couple of possibilities. Then the lab technicians took about a gallon of my blood, and a teaspoon of Josh's, grr. I had an ultrasound as a matter of course, and we'll meet the doc again at the end of April.

Fingers crossed for something simple, please. Something easily diagnosed and treated, and a baby in 2010.

(Don't) Need a festival buddy!

Update: Got one! See above.

Help help help!

I have this extra ticket to a fertility festival next weekend and no one is free to come! Won't anybody join me for the short bus ride, crazy sake drinking, rice-ball-throwing, phallus-themed festival?

I have to return the tickets by Tuesday for a refund, so this is a limited-time offer. Anyone in Yokosuka can email me if they want to join (sorry, no kids are allowed) and maybe I'll make a new friend in the process. The festival is all day April 5.

Ahem.

Well, that was ugly. Truly. And we don't need to get into that. So to focus on the positive, I'll just tell you everything I've eaten since Tuesday night.

Saltine crackers
Half a piece of wheat toast
More Saltines
Tiny bowl of spaghetti with olive oil
Small bowl of Cheerios
Saltines again
Veggie burger
Another couple Saltines

It's Friday night now. I've lost five pounds and I'm off to drink some more Gatorade.

Bleeeaarrrgggh

I got it. This sucks.

Laid up

My house is a petri dish. Poor Josh had a really rough night on Sunday, and we spent the better part of Monday in the ER. He's better during the day (especially with IV fluids plus some sleep-inducing anti-nausea meds) but still pretty darn miserable all night. Fingers crossed that antibiotics will kill whatever nasty Korean bug is doing this to him.

So not much going on around these parts, these days. I have made some exciting strides in knitting but I can't share them until I give my new project to its intended recipient. Hint: she's a baby who no longer cries when she sees me! Photos and updates to come.

For now I'm off to procure some more crackers, bananas, and Gatorade. And vitamin C - I hope I don't get whatever this thing is.

Home again

Josh is back! Eight days went by pretty quickly for me, although it may have dragged a bit more for Mr. Takes Tokyo. This week in Korea was actually a week on a ship, followed by a couple of hours in Korea. Poor thing. Since this is how I show my love, I've been cooking all day.

So far I've made fresh avocado and veggie sandwiches, homemade barbecue sauce, fifteen bean soup with mushrooms and savory leaves, spinach and artichoke dip, and ice cream sundaes with peanut butter…though there’s a chance I didn’t actually give him any of that last one. We’ve got a couple days off together in a windy, rainy Spring.

UPDATE: A few hours after I posted this, Josh started feeling ill. A few hours after that the vomiting began, and it hasn't let up all night. Way to cook, there, Emily. I'm still fine, so I'm taking him to the doctor this morning.