Goodbye to 2009

Wow, another year has come and gone! This New Year's eve, mama and papa decided to spend a quiet evening at home with me instead of hosting their traditional nabe party. They put an O-kazari on our door today. It's a traditional Japanese New Year's decoration.

Mama also switched the pictures in the Roots calendar that we received from E-chan in Osaka. Some of the pictures in the calendar may look familiar!



I still love to bark at the TV, much to mama's and papa's dismay. The TV commercial that gets to me the most is one for Contac. You can see the video of the commercial here. I get really excited and almost jump through the TV when the samurai uses his katana. I also love barking at the Contac guy on the left. As soon as I see that guy, I jump up and down and don't stop barking until the commercial is finished. I even know the music for the commercial because no matter where I am in the house, as soon as I hear the beginning of the commercial, I stop what I'm doing and run to the TV. Mama and papa can't figure out why that commercial bothers me and I'm not going to tell them. I bark at Otosan on the Softbank commercials a lot too.
I'm loving my new bed. Papa used to come home and I would get up and follow him around. Now, with my new bed, I've become somewhat of a couch potato. Even when papa comes home from work, I stay in bed and relax.

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!

Hot and Sour

Papa tried his hand at Chinese food tonight. He made chicken chow mein and hot & sour soup. Both came out pretty good! Mama even had seconds of the soup! Papa thinks both of them can use some improvements but as a first try, we think it was not a bad try. Papa was surprised at how easy hot & sour soup is to make. This recipe was the basis of his soup but papa made a few changes which he says are secret until he perfects it. The chicken chow mein recipe (which he also modified but keeps secret) can be found here. In both cases, he thinks the flavor should have been deeper. He used the whole bag of mein that his family sent from Canada (which turned out to be too much for 2 people) but the flavour was so good! He has 2 more packages of mein to work with. As you can see, I was also busy supervising papa's cooking...actually, I was waiting for him to drop something delicious for me to eat :-)



Just 2 more days of work for papa and then he can spend December 30 to January 4 at home playing with me!!!

All I want for Christmas is...

...a new 58 degree Cleveland CG15 wedge...wait a minute...huh??? That's not what I wanted, but that's what papa got for me. What kind of a present is that for a JRT??? I told him I can't use it so he said he would use it for me. Hmmmm...somehow I think I got the short end of the stick...or club in this case...


I got my real Christmas present a few days ago. Mama and papa got me a new bed!!! I love it! When papa comes home from work, I don't go to the door to meet him anymore...I just stay in my warm bed until he turns on the heater :-)




Even though Christmas day was a regular working day in Japan today, papa took the day off and took me for a really long walk. We went to Ebisu Garden Place to see the Christmas tree and the huge Baccarat crystal chandelier. There were tons of people there and we had a lot of fun walking around and soaking up the Christmas spirit. When I got home, I was a little tired so I just plopped myself down on the floor and slept for an hour. Mama made me a special Christmas dinner! In addition to my regular wet and dry food with chicken, I got 2 of my favorite things - carrots and cabbage!!! We opened our Christmas gifts tonight after dinner. Papa's sister got me a hoodie with my name on it (my name is Roots, not 1973 Athletics...)! Thank you Auntie S, Uncle D and Cousins A and A!!!

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

The other day at work, papa experienced the BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) on his Microsoft laptop for about the hundredth time this year. How do people put up with Microsoft Windows. What a terrible excuse for an operating system. This is the reason papa bought an Apple iMac at home...he says it's the best purchase he's ever made...


We've been getting cold weather lately...nothing like the North-East part of the US where I hear they expect 30 cm of snow this week, but we've started dropping below 10 degrees. I still love playing tug-o-war with papa. It's my favorite game. I especially love slobbering all over the blanket and then watching papa grab it and quickly let go because the blanket is all wet!
I also like playing fetch with papa. We play fetch with my blanket but it's so big that when I run with it, sometimes I step on it and trip myself. It makes papa laugh and he says I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer...whatever that means...

The Good Shepherd...

Papa has almost perfected his recipe for Shepherd's Pie! The ingredients for the meat are just about right and he has almost figured out how to make the world's best mashed potatoes. This is the finished product and it is amazing...







...at least that's what he says. Jack Russell Terriers in this house are not permitted to eat Shepherd's Pie. It has something to do with fat dawgs not being cute or something like that...

I don't think he realizes just how active I am! I was the brains behind the dish. I spent endless energy supervising papa to make sure he didn't make a mistake...

And once the hard work of supervising was done, it took a lot of energy to find a place like this and then settle in...

Not to mention how active I am after dinner...
Of course, all of the above activity takes up about 3 minutes of my day. The other 23 hours and 57 minutes of the day I run around the house, bark at birds, attack the TV and vacuum and drive mama and papa crazy. I'd post pictures but papa says I can't sit still long enough to take a decent photo. He has to wait until I take my 1 minute nap to snap a picture. Most pictures papa takes of me look like this:

Fine Cuisine

We had a pretty nice weekend with fairly warm weather. Papa locked me out today because I love to bark at the Dyson vacuum...






Tonight, papa made some fine cuisine for dinner...ok, well, maybe not quite so fine...but delicious all the same. He made some North American soul food! Buffalo wings and cheddar cheese filled potato skins!













Papa finally broke down and bought a Xbox 360 this week. He doesn't sleep much anymore...between playing Xbox and reading The Lost Symbol, papa barely has time for me :-(

Thanksgiving in Japan

Mama's parents came over for dinner yesterday for turkey! It sure looked delicious, although I wouldn't know because no one offered any to me :-(
They had turkey, stuffing, roasted potatoes and a variety of veggies. Maybe next time I can score some turkey...
Tonight, mama and papa had turkey risotto for dinner. Yummy!!!

Today, papa went to play golf since it was a national holiday in Japan. He went to play at Rainbow Hills in Chiba. The back 9 was pretty good and papa shot a 47. Too bad the front 9 was a 56...papa was not happy...he thinks he needs a 64 degree wedge to improve his approach shots...I think he needs lessons, more concentration and a better teacher...
But at least he had the time tonight to fix up his golf balls and put a Roots paw print on them!!!

Back by Popular Demand

Yes, I am still around even though I haven't written for 4 months. Papa neglected to help me write my blogs. Too busy playing golf...

2 days ago was mama's birthday so today, papa took her to Sushi Mizutani to celebrate. The restaurant only seats 10 people and the "omakase menu" is set daily by the chef. Sushi Mizutani has 3 Michelin stars, the highest rating possible, but papa thinks it deserves 5 stars. The sushi was superb, among the best in the world. It is now papa's favorite restaurant. The owner/chef was friendly and knowledgeable, and there are no words to describe how delicious the food is. So many subtle flavours mixed to perfection. Soy sauce was not necessary because the chef flavours the sushi for you using his own mixture of soy sauce, mirin and sake. The rice he uses is a little harder than in other sushi restaurants which is perfect because it prevents the rice from getting mushy and mixing too much with the fish. The harder rice allows you to fully taste the fish without being diluted by the rice. The price is about what you would expect from a top rated sushi restaurant but it is well worth it. For anyone who loves sushi, then Sushi Mizutani is a must.

Papa still loves his iMac (when mama lets him use it...). In fact, he loves it so much that he installed it on his Dell laptop...don't ask how...

He recently bought a Time Capsule to backup the iMac as well as a Magic Mouse. He loves them both. He calls me apple-head but I think he is the real Apple-head.




I was close to getting a sibling. Papa wanted to get another JRT...but then he realized that 2 Jack Russell Terriers are 10 times the trouble :-)

He saw these 2 and was so tempted...

We Jacks may be a handful, but we are very protective...

...and cute!!!

Papa has been on a gourmet roll lately! He still thinks he missed his calling as a world famous chef. Some of the recent dishes...

Beef Nachos

Korean Karubi Udon

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Fettucine Carbonara with Steak Diane and White Asparagus

Spinach & 3 Cheese Tortellini

Sweet & Sour Pork

For papa's birthday, mama took us to Karuizawa to play golf and enjoy being out of the city. I made a new friend...he doesn't say much though...









As always, I've been really busy lately. Life is so hectic sometimes...

But with the weather getting colder, make sure you all keep warm...

A few weeks ago, mama and papa went to see a rugby match in Tokyo featuring the New Zealand All Blacks and the Australia Wallabies (not a very cool name in my opinion...apologies to all my Aussie friends). Papa wore all black to the match and was happy when NZ won. He is now a big rugby fan (even though he still has no clue what the rules are). He also thinks football players are a little wimpy now. He saw the rugby payers hitting each other the same as they do in football but without the pads. Those rugby dudes are tough...and the All Blacks are the toughest. Papa was finally able to see the Haka which was awesome!!!

Papa taught me a new game called "hide and seek". I think I've become really good at the game!

Last weekend, mama and papa went to Club Q again where their friend Q-chan made a Thanksgiving turkey. Looks yummy!!!

Mama and papa received a gift of pears last month from friends who live in Utsunomiya and are related to papa's late Auntie Pat. The pears are bigger than my head!!! Papa calls me pear-head now.

Mama made me some chicken a few days ago. Papa still says I'm a spoiled little puppy but he's wrong...I'm not a puppy anymore...I'm a dawg!!! A dawg waiting for leftovers and scraps...