Things-I-Love Thursdays #2

It's been a rainy week, plenty wet to dampen even the brightest mood, but I've been okay, helped greatly by the 4-day wknd plus the additional 1.5 days I took off yesterday and today.  What a perfect segue to the first thing I'm loving:

1.  I LOVE my job.   I'm the only member of my department, besides the secretary I share with the rest of my section, which means there's not a whole of need for accounting for my time or my whereabouts.  It's the kind of program that no one ever notices, unless something goes horribly wrong, so I can pretty much do as I please as long as things stay on track.  No suspenses, no deadlines, no stress at all, and my schedule is super flexible.  I'm free to take off during the day to do dr and dentist appts w/ the kids, attend their school functions, have lunch w/ them.  Because my department works independently of all the other sections, with no real deadlines, I can take time off w/out worrying that others are being burdened by having to do my work while I'm gone, or that I'm preventing others from getting their work done b/c my work is missing.  There's nothing in my department that will suffer in my absence or that can't wait until I return.

2.  I love the brazen bamboo attempting a coup in my backyard.  I have a nice, thick stand of bamboo separating our yard from the neighbor's, and in the last 3-ish weeks, crazy shoots of bamboo have started exploding from the ground all over the backyard.  That stuff grows FAST, shooting up over 2 feet in less than a week!  Unfortunately, I'm going to have to hack most of it down as it's busting through my garden tiles, literally tossing them aside as it springs up, but it's fun to watch how fast it grows and seeing the random places it pops up.

3.  I love our new kitten, Nyan-chan, curled up purring on my lap.  It's been over ten years since we had a cat and I'd forgotten how sweet and cuddly kittens are.  She's also a lot fun to watch when she plays, jumping, pouncing and flipping all around, chasing anything that moves, including the cursor on my computer screen!

4.  I love curry, which is weird, because I HATED curry before I moved to Japan, couldn't even stand the smell of it.  And then, I was introduced to CoCo's Ichibanya.  Everyone around here absolutely raved about CoCo's curry, how addictive it was, insisting I'd love it.  The first time I had it, I really wasn't impressed.  It wasn't bad, but I really didn't see what all the fuss was about.  A few days later, I had the most incredible craving for more CoCo's and I've been hooked ever since.  Add some cheesy-garlic nan on the side........pure bliss.

Happy Thursday everyone, it's almost Friday!!!