The Family Treehouse

Come on up the ladder. Don't be scared. This Treehouse has been around for a long time, through all kinds of storms and bad weather and never has it faltered. That's right. Now just climb on in and make yourself at home. The ladder rungs look old and worn, but that is just from the constant stream of visitors over the year. They won't break. Trust me.

What you see around you is a smattering of our family history, our life on this earth, past present and maybe even the future. What some folk might decide to keep in a tickle trunk or hope chest for future generations to view on quiet holiday evenings, we have deemed appropriate to place in this treehouse, available to anyone with an interest. Feel free to look around you. The door to our Treehouse is always open so if you run out of time today, you can come back any time. We will always be here. And as time passes we will be adding new mementos to our vast treasure trove. So you might find something new the next time around.

The Family Album  

It is always nice to keep your family photo history in an easy-to-view photo album. Since these albums went digital in the late 90s we have decided to put ours up on the web for the entire world to enjoy. Why stay local when you can go global at the click of a button? So kick back, put your feet up and enjoy what you see On The Coffee Table. A mug of steaming cafe latte, made fresh from the Cambucks Espresso Machine is only moments away.

New Years Greetings Cards

Every year we like to make a new handmade New Year Greeting card. They all revolve around the 12 animals of the Chinese calendar or the Eto, in Japanese. We have a lot of fun making them and we hope you enjoy receiving them. If you would like to see what we have done to date, please do. After all, we make them for people to see!

News Flash Archives

From time to time, unprecedented special events occur in our tiny, personal world. It may be the birth of a new family member, the death of a loved one, a flood, fire, earthquake (lots of these in Japan), or something so entirely bizarre that it was worthy of reporting on.If you are interested in news and events from our lives, please feel free to pick through the archives and browse to your heart's content.

As an example, take a look at the The Roach Hunter Annual Report sitting there, underneath the left over bag of dried squid lips. During certain parts of the year, we do suffer from visits by unwanted "friends". If you have a morbid desire to see how many "comrades" we have "liberated" to date, read the report. But beware, it isn't pretty. Life is a war zone.

Life in This House

Just a wee bit of graphic humor depicting some of the common elements in our life. Most of you probably won't get the jokes because they are "inside" ones. But it might be worth looking at them to see just how poor my artistic skills really are. They are almost as bad as some of those political cartoons that you see in the newspapers.

Halloween 2000

Well, to tell the truth, I wasn't able to get my hands on any good pumpkins to make my annual Jack O' Lanterns. However, some folks in the neighborhood were kind enough to pose for a few shots. I think that this more than makes up for my lack of pumpkins and candles, don't you?

Come For a House Tour?

Now that you have enjoyed our tree house, are you ready for a REAL tour? Yes, we live in a fairly old Japanese house. Lots of roaches, mice in the walls, cold in the winter (very cold), hot in the summer (very hot). But we wouldn't change it for anything! Well, maybe for a fully insulated, ultra modern technology ... yurt! Come on! I'll take you on a tour. Watch your head.

Grazie Mille! (Si Figuri)

I visited Italy in December 2000 and shipped home 20kg of Stravecchio Piave cheese. It is so darn good that I couldn't resist. Well, it got lost and we waited and waited. Finally a month later Michela found it in the original post office. It had gotten larger so it was overweight and we couldn't send it all. Her family kept one and we got the rest.

Enjoying Italian Caffe New Story

We are getting heavily into Italian Coffee these days. ORO is one of the better ones for our Starbucks Home Barista. Lavazza is another. If you would like to see how delicious we find this ORO coffee, please do. Have a demitasse of ORO Espresso on us.