speaking of ikea

Checking for a lamp I thought I had seen, I stumbled across these adorable ghost nightlights! If they really are rechargable, I'm so going to have to get some (maybe blue and red...but then I'll feel bad for the green one...). I had my eyes on these Candeloos but I think the ghosts have them beat hands down! (Not to mention, there's a huge difference between $50 and $9.99!)

I love this guy

As you may have guessed, we've had a lot of discussions about parenting this year. And while of course you want your kids (or nephews or nieces or close family friends of the under-5 variety) to like things you like, and reject things you don't, we've already agreed that you can only take that so far. (There's a reason they came up with that whole "lead a horse to water" saying.) And we also agree that we can't stand parents who express themselves through their children and shove their kids in front of them like props in an obvious, look at how cool we are to have such "cool" kids move. But it's a hard thing to put into words. That is why I love, I mean LOVE this blog entry from the new-to-me Being Daddy site. If you have kids, want kids, think you just might have kids, know someone with kids, take care of kids, etc etc etc, it's an absolute must-read!! Not only could I never have said it better, I don't think anyone could have.

kiki!

Long-time readers will know that I've been a big fan of Kiki's Delivery Service for (gulp) over a decade now. For years, every time we were at the NJ Kinokuniya (sadly now closed, and the replacement bookstore isn't half as good) I'd look at the original Kiki novels and wish I could read them. Finally, last year, the first installment was translated and published in North American by Annick Press (where you can read a brief excerpt), and then finally, last month I got off my ass and ordered a copy. I'm giving it two thumbs up -- if you're a fan (not necessarily a Miyazaki fan, but a Kiki fan) you'll definitely want to read the original stories. And the translation is very good, at might not be precise but it reads really well and that counts for a lot as far as I'm concerned. The cover art is off-putting (the original book design was so nice!) but they did at least retain the original illustrations for the interior. Now I just have to hope they decide to translate a few more!

A funny aside -- in 1992 we were in London for UKCAC, and while walking around one day came across the London office of Yamato Transport. We loved the logo and scored some stickers of it from the nice office ladies (for years I kept seeing t-shirts of it in Japanese magazines, but never got hold of one!). It was years and years before we knew that there was a connection between Yamato and Kiki!