Adventures in the Emergency Room

Friday night we were heading to the store to get birthday party supplies because, well, we were having a birthday party. Above the local grocery store is where are the good party supplies lie so that is where we were going. Kaori energetically ran off to lead the way however just before she got to the stairs she tripped. Nightmares all over again because Cole did the exact same thing when he was 1 or 2 years old. Fortunately, at that time he had his head turned so when he fell against the first step he just got a bruise (albeit nasty and long lasting) on the cheek. Kaori fell directly mouth first into the first step. Lots of bleeding and crying ensued.

We took a taxi to the nearest hospital but the doctor on site said they had no facilities to do plastic surgery. What? Plastic surgery? Maybe that would be useful down the road but right now we just want to get our girl stitched up. No, they couldn't/wouldn't do it. They gave us a phone number to call to find a more suitable hospital. Well, in talking to us they knew our Japanese was verrrry limited and indicated that the hotline was Japanese only. That didn't exactly fit. I asked if he would call for us. Luckily he did. A few minutes later we were back in a taxi headed to another hospital where evidently they did have "plastic surgery" capabilities. Turns out plastic surgery just means stitches(?). Near as I can tell that is what it means because that is what they did. Kaori also had to have a dentist push her teeth back into place and bond them there. Shots in your mouth are a bad deal. Shots in your little girl's mouth are even worse. By about 100 times.

Today the swelling has gone down and the coloration is good. Kaori looks much better. She has been such a trooper throughout this whole thing. She doesn't like taking her medicine but still does. Time heals all wounds.

All Set

The kids are all farmed out to friends for playdates next week. All my travel arrangements have been made. Robyn is all set to takeover the household until I get back. All systems are go. Well, not really. I'm woefully undertrained for this marathon. Good thing I'm only planning to run it for fun and not to race it. Imagine that, running 26.2 miles for fun. For all my U.S. and Canada readers (I'm sure there are so many) you can watch the marathon live online at www.wcsn.com. Since I'm expecting even less face time there than in the Japanese movie I'm going to be in, it might be a little boring for you.

Until next week!

Minor Musings from an Expat

Australia and New Zealand have stopped using pennies. I for one think this is a good move. I think they are too expensive for what they are worth and would much rather that prices got rounded to the nearest nickel (or even dime). At the end of the day I think retailers and consumers alike would come out even and even if I lost a couple pennies with each transaction I wouldn't mind.

The U.S. is moving to an all digital television network next February. I'm sure electronics companies and retailers are thrilled by this news because all analog TV's will have to be replaced by digital ones or have a converter attached. I don't especially mind this happening, I guess it's progress. I suppose it's a good thing that our TV went belly up last year.

These countries have not have not officially adopted the International System of Units (metric system) as their primary or sole system of measurement: Liberia, Myanmar and the United States. To me it seems like the U.S. should join the bandwagon and convert to the metric system. What is holding it back? I think either laziness and/or arrogance. Neither of which are good qualities. I mean really, every other meaningful country in the world uses it, why should Americans/American companies and those working with them have to go through a system of conversions in order to function. I think a cold turkey move to the metric system is the only way to go.

We received an letter from the IRS yesterday announcing an economic stimulus payment to up to 130 million households. Households will be eligible for up to $600 or $1,200 if couples file together and another $300 for children. Let's say $1,000 for 100 million households and that is $100 billion. That's a lot of cha-ching. I'm not an economist so I have no answers but I do have questions, like will enough of that get spent to stimulate the economy out of recession? If all of it is spent would that even be enough? Since people weren't expecting to receive this anyway, is there a better use for the money? Like it could be used to pay off a portion of the national debt for example. I don't know and I don't know.

Just a few items that are filling my head on this day.