The Blues

(1) I was talking with my sister on the phone the other day and she was telling me adorable stories about my niece. One night, my sister put the Baby down to sleep.  As my sister walked out of the room, she heard my niece quietly practicing words to herself.  "B..b...b..lue.  B..lue...  Blue."

(2) BIGBANG, a Korean pop band, put out this music video entitled Blue about a week ago.  It seems someone besides my niece has been practicing how to say 'blue' as well.  I really like this song and find it wonderfully appropriate that kpop is keeping up with the current trends of my niece.

(3) The Samurai Blues played this morning (5:30 EST) and lost to Uzbekistan.  Sad day.   I was hoping for a good successful game for my boys.  Instead, most of the team will have to take their jet lagged little selves back to their various teams with only a second place finish in their group for this round of the World Cup qualifiers.

Source: Tumblr.
Photo credit: Koki NAGAHAMA

Source: Tumblr,
Photo credit: Koki NAGAHAMA

In any case, it was nice to have them back home for a few days.  I always forget how much I miss them in their roles as JNT representatives rather than Bundesliga spieler, etc until they're back in Japan.  But by the time I've rejoiced in having them back in Japan, they've already played and left again.  Such is the life of a fan in a time zone 14 hours behind.

(4) It's the last day in February. I was supposed to hear from the NSF if I was going to get the Japanese internship by the end of February. I was really hoping for that internship. Now I have to learn to deal without it. Singing my blues on repeat above.

(5) The day started out with some fabulous thunderstorms and heavy rain. I normally love rain. However, since Kato-san is currently out of commission, that meant I walked 30 minutes to work in the pouring down rain. On the other hand, this is the gorgeous view that greeted me last night when I left the lab to walk home.