October 26th, 2006 08:54 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Mist" by Force of Nature.
Feeling: sleepy

Yuka now owns a 1972 Yamaha R5 motorcycle. 350 CC, 2-stroke, twin engine. 13,000 miles on it and the paint is in amazing shape. I'm excited. I can't wait to learn to ride the thing. I'm already jealous of her. I had to drop my truck off at Ford for servicing and I noticed that I'd left the hitch pin on the back bumper and it miraculously managed to stay on there. I put it back on before leaving.

The Airiel show at The Metro went really well. I was honestly nervous for this one. This was a huge venue and we'd worked so hard to promote the show. From what people told me, the sound was amazing an we were really loud. That last part isn't new, but from what I heard of John's drums during the sound check, I wish I could have been in the audience to hear what we sounded like on that stage. We're playing in Minneapolis on Saturday. Gonna be a long day since Yuka and I are going to the Halloween edition of Panic on Friday.

I haven't been doing much gaming at all. My routine has been to run errands with Yuka when I get home, work out, cook dinner, we watch a movie and then pass out. I don't mind this whatsoever, of course. ^_^ I feel like I hardly get to see her. She's met two Japanese women through her online journal so I'm glad she's getting out of the apartment to explore Chicago on her own. Yesterday was her first bus ride.

I'm really looking forward to next weekend. I want 2 days of chilling out at home. I want to pack the last of the boxes away. I want to unlock that damn light saber in Dead Rising. I want to download and play the rest of the game demos that have come out on XBL.

Yuka's green card arrived and........it has her listed with her maiden name and not her married name. (=_=) Not sure how this happened, seeing how her Visa and her Social Security both have her listed as Yukako Y. Wrenn. These two items were processed using the SAME FORMS that produced the green card, so I'm not sure who fucked this up. But seeing as how the immigration office in Texas sent us 5 identical welcome letters as well, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that something got screwed up. The upsetting thing is that the person I spoke to on the phone said that we have to mail the green card back to Texas and we might not get it back for 6 months. I have to find out how that affects her ability to get a job and a driver's license. That's kind of important, you know? Yuka got a tip from a friend in New York that we should speak to the offices of our Illinois senators. Apparently it's the super-secret way to expedite stuff like this. Sounds good to me.

October 17th, 2006 10:00 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Liquid Paper" by Airiel.
Feeling: sleepy

Had a very relaxing weekend at my parents place over the weekend. Yuka carved her first jack-o-lantern and it was fucking amazing. Check it out. I made the one with the ghost and the uh, one in the middle that looks like it was made by a 5 year old. I was going for retro, ok?.

The cold water pressure problem has FINALLY been resolved in our apartment. Yuka described what the repair guy did via AIM. I'm still not sure if the machine he used was pulling our pushing pressure through the pipes. All I know is I took an awesome shower this morning, the toilet fills up in about 30 seconds and even the hot water works better in the bathroom sink. It's awesome. I'm so happy.

October 12th, 2006 09:38 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Kiss Me Slowly" by Airiel.
Feeling: tired and wired

Hello, journal. How have you been?

Things have been pretty stellar lately, except at home. Wait. Hang on. That sounded wrong. Things at home are absolutely fantastic, except for the fact that we've had little to no cold water pressure since Tuesday night. This is problematic because a) it now takes 30-90 minutes for the toilet tank to fill up and b) you have to shower in freakishly hot water. I think I still have shampoo in my fucking hair for the 2nd morning in a row. I called AP Gold and left two voicemails about this problem yesterday and got no response. I called the emergency pager when I got home from work and got no response. I called the emergency pager at 6:30 AM and finally got a call from Mr. Gold himself. Answering the phone with a head full of shampoo helped motivate me to get my point across. So, supposedly he's sending the repair guy over this morning. It would be nice if my wife could shower, you know? It would also be nice to flush the turd I left in the toilet because the tank won't fill up after having taken a piss 30 minutes earlier.

Sorry if that was more than you wanted to know, but I'm a bit pissed.

Ok, now onto other business. Airiel is playing an 18+ show a The Metro on Saturday, October 21st. That's pretty fucking exciting. If you print out this ticket, you'll get in for FREE if you get there before 9 PM.

We've been out flyering and putting up posters and handing out tickets and visiting radio stations pretty much every day since we found out about this show last Tuesday. I'm a little tired. Oh hey, it's snowing. Awesome.

We're heading down to my parents place this weekend. Gonna check out the rest of the wedding presents and Yuka is gonna learn how to make pancakes. Score! hahahaha Life is good.

October 2nd, 2006 13:28 hours CST
Currently listening to: the movie trailer for "Man of the Year".
Feeling: loved

Cory's mom asked me yesterday "so, how's the married life treating you?" She's the first person to ask me that since Yuka arrived. Before, I would just say "well, ask me in October after she's been here for a bit." Now I can say "I'm loving every minute of it." It's a wonderful feeling being able to come home and see her, knowing that I don't have to take her to the airport soon to send her back to Japan. It's relaxing.

Cory and Lisa gave me their wedding present to me at practice yesterday. It's a meat cleaver that we asked for from Crate and Barrel. This thing has got MURDER written all over it. Hahahaha. Seriously, I'm scared to have this thing in the house. It's heavy and sharp as a razor. Yikes. It's nice to know that I'll have a perfect weapon if we ever do have a zombie outbreak. :P

Ok, here's a recap of Yuka's arrival:

Tuesday, September 19th - I was nervous all day. Knowing Yuka was getting on a plane with her parents (their first plane ride) and also Chobi (her 12 year old cat. DEFINITELY her first plane ride) was really making me tense. I knew I wouldn't really relax until I saw all 4 of them at the international arrivals area of O'Hare the next day. Airiel has a show at Subterranean this night and I was really wanting to cancel since I was also shaking off a head cold.

The show at Subterranean went extremely well. The Annuals, from North Carolina, really surprised us. They took forever to setup, but their set was dynamite. Snowden, from Atlanta, was next and they blew me away. I was so glad that I was able to get them a gig in Chicago, let alone with us. Really nice people and I hope they become huge. We played a great set and had a really good time. It was a big crowd, especially for a Tuesday, so that also made us feel good. I decided to skip on the after-gig festivities and get some much needed rest.

Anyway, after doing last minute cleaning and grocery runs, I made it up to O'Hare with my own parents right behind me. Yuka's parents had already made it through customs and they were fine. Yuka showed up and she and Chobi were also OK. I breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Yuka dropped off her immigration papers and it seemed like everything was cool. We stopped by "our" apartment to drop off the extra bags that her parents brought with them. We exchanged some gifts and let Chobi out in the bedroom. She seemed fine and hid under the bed for a while. We checked my in-laws in to the hotel and then we all went to Miller's for some dinner. You could tell that we were all exhausted because we were falling asleep in our chairs right after eating.

Chobi was doing quite well. She practically slept on our heads the first night.

We met up with the parents for breakfast and then walked up Michigan Avenue. The weather was perfect. We ended up taking an architectural boat tour of the Chicago River and also Lake Michigan. I finally got to hear the story in detail of how the Chicago River's direction was reversed and also how the flood started in '91. Airiel had another show that night the parents went back for naps and Yuka came with me to the sound check at Dark Room. We met with the parents and my sister at North Side for dinner. They were all going to come to the show but decided they were too tired.

The show was really fun. I was so happy to have Yuka there. I had told her about Dark Room tons of times and now she was finally with me. We played a great set and were super loud. We had a great crowd again too. Lots of new people and we got a bunch of myspace hits the next day. I did a really good job of not getting drunk. I drank probably half of what I normally do at a Dark Room gig. :P

Thankfully, we slept in for a bit on Friday. We went to Yuka's parents room with the gift bags and candy and started putting things together. The bags were really cute. Dad followed me and Yuka to the airport to help us pick up Chachi, Aya and Ogawa-san. Took a long time for them to get through customs, but it was great to see them. You could tell that Ogawa-san really liked Chicago already. He took pictures right away. He had some crazy translation software for his PSP and I kept hearing an electronic voice from the back seat saying things like "do you have any local beer?". Hahahah.

David and Rusty had arrived, along with my aunt Alice and my brother-in-law, Jeremy. The 14 of us went to dinner at Fogo De Chao. I'd always wanted to go to this place and I'm glad I picked it. It was AWESOME. It really reminded me of restaurants on Japan. Unique, fun and energetic. Good place for a big group like ours. We had a passion fruit sorbet for dessert that was excellent. After a crazy cab ride back to the hotel, David, Rusty, Jeremy, Jenny, Ogawa-san, Chachi, Aya, Yuka and I went to the lounge at the W hotel for drinks. Remembering Ogawa-san's PSP, I ordered him a Goose Island beer, which he seemed to like.

I took Yuka to to Sin'e Qua to get her hair and make-up done. I quickly drove over to Kinko's to finally get these blasted place cards printed out. We'd had a bad experience with the Kinko's near my office the previous day. Grrrr. We made it to Club Lucky just before noon and the cake arrived soon after. I had ordered the cake from The Bleeding Heart Bakery. Michelle, the woman who runs the place, arrived with the cake and it was covered with fresh sunflowers that she had bought from the farmer's market that morning. ^_^

The reception was a really great time. I got to see friends that I've known since I was 4 years old. Everybody had a great time and I have to tip my hat to Paul Philips, the owner of Club Lucky. He really made the whole event smooth as glass. I HIGHLY recommend working with him if you have the chance.

Yuka's parents stood up and Hidekazu read a little speech that he had prepared, ending it with "please come to my sushi bar in Japan". That was the most English I'd ever heard him say and it was perfect. Hehehehe. My parents also stood to say a few things and my dad cut his poem short because he was really getting choked up. We didn't have any speakers, but we put on the DVD of our wedding ceremony and people really got a kick out of it. I was a little relieved that we had no audio, because I was nervous about people hearing my wedding vows in Japanese. :P

It was pouring rain when we loaded my truck with the wedding gifts. Chris did a tequila screamer with Cory, which just cracked me up. It was even more funny this time because Yuka and my parents witnessed it.

My family members and other friends met up with us at Rodan. Again, this felt like a party in Japan. Cool venue, awesome food that seemed to keep coming out of nowhere and good friends.

We had a little breakfast party on Sunday morning at the Club Quarters hotel. Nobody seemed too hung over, which was good. Naturally I loaded up on pastries and gave myself a nice sugar crash to deal with. We drove Yuka's parents to the airport. Luckily they got behind a Japanese man in the security line and he got them through the security scanners without incident. That was a big relief to me and Yuka. My family members were all on their way home as well. We made plans to meet for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Yuka is already excited.

We joined up with Aya, Chachi and Ogawa-san around Michigan and Chicago. I took them to Water Tower plaza for some shopping. They had already bought some stuff and were having a good time. Despite the perfect weather, we opted to skip the Hancock Tower lounge and go to Wicker Park for more shopping. I got some awesome mod pint glasses from Urban Outfitters and also go some shirts at American Apparel. I hadn't bought clothes in a while and I really needed some.

We made a quick trip to the grocery so that our Japanese friends could but souvenir candy. We had a great little party at our apartment and ordered an awesome pizza. We watched episodes of How Do You Like Wednesdays and, ate pizza and drank. It was super fun.

We said goodbye to them at the airport the next day and went straight to Mitsuwa to buy a Japanese rice cooker and lots of groceries. The rice cooker is totally awesome. Yuka used the cooking software on her DS and made a delicious Japanese stew. We also had miso and rice. It was heavenly.

The cats are getting along well now. Yuka did a great job of letting them hang out for short periods while I was at work. Now they're actually keeping us up at night because they're chasing each other around the apartment. I still can't believe that Chobi is here. It's too cute. She's so tiny and she gets to places that Stella can't because she's too fat. Hopefully that will change now that she has playmates during the day.

I'm getting Yuka a cell phone today. I hate that it's such a pain in the US to get one and then have to pay for services that are basically free in Japan. Hopefully we can find her a phone on T-Mobile that she likes. She loves the chocolate phone on Verizon, but since I'm on T-Mobile and she can't send emails from it without subscribing to a bunch of extra crap, it's not much of an option anymore. I wish it was, though. It's a neat phone.

Anyway, I'm a happy guy. My beautiful wife is here and we're cooking and watching movies and taking walks through the neighborhood. Life is good.