Happy Green Day...Showa Day...Whatevah!!!

Today is the first "official" holiday of the "Golden Week" that we have at the beginning of May. I went to Wikipedia and from them I got the explanation...plus some kanji ("Chinese characters") that I can't type on my "English only" keyboard.


Golden Week (ゴールデンウィーク, Gōruden Wīku), also known as Ōgata renkyū (大型連休, Ōgata renkyū) or Ōgon shūkan (黄金週間, Ōgon shūkan), is a Japanese term applied to the period containing the following public holidays:
April 29
Emperor's Birthday (天皇誕生日, Emperor's Birthday), until 1988
Greenery Day, or Nature Day (みどりの日, Midori no hi), till 1989 until 2006
Shōwa Day (昭和の日, Shōwa no hi), from 2007
May 3
Constitution Memorial Day (憲法記念日, Kenpō kinenbi)
May 4
holiday† (国民の休日, Kokumin no kyūjitsu), until 2006
Greenery Day, or Nature Day (みどりの日, Midori no hi) (from 2007)
May 5
Children's Day (こどもの日, Kodomo no hi), also customarily known as Boys' Day (端午の節句, Tango no sekku).
†: May 4 is called "kokumin no kyūjitsu", which is a generic term for any official holiday. It is an official holiday because of a rule that converts any day between two holidays into a new holiday.

So...today is April 29 and the boys and I are home....oh...the K-Man? No...he usually works on holidays...no rest for the weary! The mailman delivered a small package from my mom yesterday...in it was the book by Jill Conner Browne called "The Sweet Potato Queens' Guide to Raising Children for Fun & Profit" .....it is going to be vurrrrrrry difficult not to start reading that book!! I have so enjoyed her other books...they do make me laugh out loud!!! And...as I was looking at the chapters....I'm very interested in reading her take on "Housework Kills Plenty of People All the Time" (Chap. 26) and "More Play, Less Fray" (Chap. 27).

Now, it is 11:35-ish....the weather is absolutely beautiful...nice breeze blowing through my window....I have done 4 loads of laundry...put out the futons to air out (something I should do much more often, but....), I have chased a river crab that Koji was supposed to keep in the small aquarium, but it somehow escaped and was running (?) rampant through the kitchen. After I post this, my goal for the day is to look for our carp flags to hang in the yard for Boys' Day. You can see these wind-sox hanging all over the place. We drive by a school that sits next to a river...every year the people of that neighborhood hang the flags over the river...there must be 200 of them!! It really is cool to see...especially on a breezy day, the fish actually look like they are trying to swim up the river!! And that is why we hang them....the carp represent "strength" and we want our kids to grow up strong!!
I KNOW we have them....somewhere.....because I have these pictures as proof....


I'm thinking that Koji was almost 2, so Issei would have been 6....four years ago.

The boys and one of the neighbor boys...Just look at Issei posing...what a nut!!

I think I mentioned before that the azalea were in their absolute full-blown glory in our neighborhood....but also...so many other flowers.

Here is my contribution to the color.....

The peony plant that I have is blooming now!! There are three flowers and they are each one about 6-8 inches across!! Today, sadly, they are on their way 'out'....the petals are kind of foofing out and a couple petals have fallen off. For one week, they are so pretty!!!

Before, I mentioned to you about the car that we now have....I made a mistake...I told you that it was a Corolla.....well....actually, it's a Toyota Corona. It's a great car...a bit like one that an old man would drive, but....I don't care....that's part of the fun of it!!

But....but...I'm looking for a bumper sticker...or better yet, a part of a bumper sticker to put next to the name of the car that's on the trunk...can you imagine what I am thinking???

TeeHee!!! No matter what kind of car you drive, you have to make it yours!!!

Have a beautiful sunshine-y day!!!

Now...I'm off to dig in closets to find those damn carp!! (so thankful I'm not having to look for a small crab!!) Wish me luck!!