Ikyotochan

I’m planning to do a six month time frame starting in March 2009. My posts will be at http://thenewnew.blogspot.com/

Sent out a few more.

I’ve made stop and go progress on this, but I’ve decided I’d rather have more concrete and measurable goals.

Had an awesome stoop sale, where I cleared out a bunch of stuff and made $90. Hurrah!

I wrote a ton of postcards from Burning Man to friends in the outside world when I found out there was a post office. I managed to get about 10 sent, and then I joined the “official” post office where I could pretend to be disgruntled and take actual bribes. It was awesome and totally encouraged random encounters.

I’m getting the stuff together to simultaneously clean house and try to finance a vacation from non-day job money.

I’m enjoying using it so far, though I might buy some Sea Pearls as a back up. I’m also planning on making homemade pads…but now that I’ve started and used up all of my old products, I’m happy to keep going forward with this.

This one was filled with lots of wacky words for a penpal of 5 years or so.

Sent a birthday package today with a handmade card and a little note.

Wrote a postcard to a co-worker although I see her every day since she saw me writing one and wished out loud that she could get one.

Shot off a quick postcard to a friend.

I have fallen behind, but still want to catch up. Sent two postcards today to friends who I met as pen pals, but now have met in physical space as well.

This may seem like a weird goal, but I don’t particularly like shopping very much, and it is hard to find sneakers that fit (low arch, narrow heeel). I wasn’t going to the gym or hiking since I needed shoes, but now I can!

I got in my application, and I should hear back by April 6th. Keep your fingers crossed!

I did put up enough new things at my Etsy page to muster a decent application. Now I just need to get a few bits of information from my partner in crime to fill out the paperwork bits.

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=6880
This one caught my eye because of my love of ice cream!

I opted for e-file using TaxACT Deluxe, which set me back a little less than Turbo Tax, but still did most of the work for me. I am getting a little refund thanks to taking Continuing Ed. classes that apply to my field (sadly my Japanese classes don’t apply). I will have to consider the tax implications if I stop though.

I went to a fugu banquet with a bunch of co-workers when I worked in Japan. Before then I thought that fugu was mostly about machismo, but man we ate it 6 different ways that were all really tasty. The strangest one was the fugu ovary dish that was kind of like a poached egg, and my favorite dish was one that was a hot pot with fugu cooked in broth.

I asked about fugu deaths, and it turns out that more people die in Japan every year eating mochi (sweet rice cakes) than fugu. According to my friends there are less than 10 fugu deaths a year, and all of them are instances of home-cooking by unliscened cooks (to prepare fugu in a restaurant chefs get certified).

I’m planning on sharing the booth with 2 people if I get in, but before we put in our application I need to update my Etsy site to include new products and pictures.

I had donated to groups before, but never through Kiva.org. Today I made small loans to:

Davi Rose
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=5844

Lillian Waithera Mwangi
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=5305

This is especially exciting for me since I used money from my small hobby business to help others’ businesses grow.