I Must Be Addicted to the Stuff

Dinner tonight:

• Gorgeous Wife= California Pizza Kitchen Frozen Margarita Pizza
  
• The Baby = Morning Star Vegetarian Non-Quite-Chicken Nuggets
  
• Ralph-Sensei = RAW FISH!!!!!
  

I don't know what's come over me.  Ever since my first time trying Sushi and Sashimi at Hatsuhana, I've been craving the real deal.  I used to enjoy a good California roll once in a while, but now I LOVE raw Sushi.  We were at Publix getting groceries tonight and Gorgeous Wife said to go get whatever I wanted for dinner.  When I saw that the Sushi chef was at her station making it fresh, I already knew the answer: Marina Combo!

The two pink and white things are salmon, the two darker ones are 

tuna, the shrimpy-looking thing is shrimp, and the other thing is eel.

All described by Gorgeous Wife as "fish chunks."

It was great.  If you ever go to the Rock Springs Publix in Apopka, the Sushi chef is usually there from 4-7pm from what I can tell, and she'll make anything to order.  

*    *    *

One of the great things about living in Central Florida (and there are many) is being so close to the Kennedy Space Center.  In an earlier post, I wrote about Japanese astronaut Takao Doi and JAXA, and the Kibo module that they were delivering to the international space station.  Today on CFN 13 I saw that NASA was rolling Space Shuttle Discovery over to the Vehicle Assembly Building to get ready for mission STS-124.  This mission will transport another piece of Kibo into space, and JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide will be aboard the orbiter.

Can you believe Akihiko Hoshide is almost 40?  He looks 22!  

Another argument for exercising and enjoying a little Sushi once in a while.

The Shuttle launch is expected to take place on Saturday, May 31, so I won't be able to take my class outside to watch.  We will do some activities on the day before the launch that will educate them about this mission, so hopefully they will remember to go outside and watch the launch themselves.  The mission is expected to last 13 days, so I will be in Japan for the last three or four days that the Discovery crew is working on the shuttle. I'm looking forward to seeing how the Japanese news media covers the mission and shuttle return.  I'm sure that there will be great interest in the mission, as it is Japan's greatest contribution to the International Space Station to date.

During my visit to Japan I will be staying with a Japanese family in their home for a weekend.  The JFMF Basics book suggests that I bring a gift that represents my region with me.  I thought about this a lot, and at first I was thinking about getting something cool from Disney World, but they already have two Disney parks in Japan.  However, no one else in the world launches Space Shuttles besides Central Florida!  So I acquired these mission patches for the two Kibo missions so far and a general ISS patch.  I don't yet know how I'll use them, but they will figure into my gift somehow.  

As soon as I prepare my gift, I'll post it!

Ralphadelphia Students: 

New question coming tomorrow!