5:28 p.m. Cow is struggling with his accounting software. Says he has to type in the figures all over from the start because something has gone wrong.

Serves him right. He must have been careless as usual. As I was whispering behind his back, I realized I'd forgotten to bring any bills with me today. I was going to stop by the supermarket near the office for tomorrow's lunch on my way home, and there's only two hundred yen in my coin purse... Serves me right.

The End

Caterpillar

2:19 p.m. Japan is being hit by a cold wave as many other countries on the northern hemisphere. While we're expriencing temperatures below zero in a while here in Tokyo, places like Aomori, Niigata, or Nagano is having extraordinarily heavy snowfall. Have just learned that the temperature has dropped down to minus seventeen degrees in Seoul, Korea.

Cow who agrees to the pre-ice-age theory rather than the now too familiar global warming, insists we're entering another ice-age which is supposed to return every twenty thousand years or so. Exaggerating.

The End

Caterpillar

3:35 p.m. It's Setsu-bun today. That means we can throw beans without worrying about having a reputation to be lunatics. I've been to the nearest shrine to take part in the annual bean-throwing to collect small paper bags containing lucky beans, some sweets, and additionally, coins, though it turned out that I was a bit too late. I'd learned the hard way that the party was over before I even reached the shrine, when I saw bunches of children and elderlies coming back in my direction holding those paper bags, comparing their prizes.

As I returned to the office, Cow grumbled that he had to buy peanuts instead of the usual soya beans because there weren't any soyabeans sold at the supermarket. I've heard somewhere that people buy peanuts instead of soyabeans these days, to help mothers feel less reluctant of the whole bean-throwing event since peanuts with shells are bigger and easier to clean up than soyabeans. Ridiculous.

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Caterpillar

2:01 p.m. Cow hasn't been feeling well since yesterday. He was wrapped in a blanket, shivering in front of the kerosene heater late yesterday afternoon. I assumed he must have caught a chill.

As I got home around ten, JoOusama emerged from the living room door with warm air, wearing a mask and a stole wrapped around her shoulders, only to announce that she's got cold. The two people whom I spend most of my time around both have cold at the same time. What a coincidence. Talk about a small world.

The End

Caterpillar

4:42 p.m. We're having the London Olympics qualifying game for soccer on TV tonight. It starts from nine, so must finish everything before supper. Our under twenty-three national team is currently in the top positon in the region, and if we win this game against the Syrians, it would confirm us a ticket to the Olympics this summer. On the other hand, if we lose, it would drive our U23 boys into a difficult position. Must be all set and ready in front of the TV by nine sharp.

Though I've got a lot of things to finish up before that... I really should quit fretting and start. Move, Cat, MOVE!

The End

Caterpillar

2:32 p.m. The U23 boys have lost the game against Syria. Too bad but their defence wasn't working, especially during the first half, thus the own goal. The team also lost concentration in the last ten minutes, thus, the second goal. I almost felt sorry for Gonda, the goalie, though it's a relief he knows what he's doing.

Cow seems to have recovered, by the way. And spilt kerosene on the floor when refilling the heater's tank. Office smells of kerosene since then. As they say, it's no use crying over spilt kerosene, no, milk. What counts is how you recover.

The End

Caterpillar

2:28 p.m. Who said it's going to be warm today? It's definitely not warm. You don't call it warm when you have to squat in front of the heater every two minutes to warm your hands.

Have heard from a neighbor that the first graders in the nearby primary school are having gakyyu-heisa (literally, closed class, a countermeasure to keep students tied at home to prevent influenza from spreading). It's rumored that nearly half of the class already got the flu. Why don't we close our office for a couple of days, too? To prevent the flu from spreading? Though am very much alive.

The End

Caterpillar

4:33 p.m. It seems Cow has been taking his lap-top apart again. It was naked to the bone by the time I got to the office. Poor thing. Don't think I've heard it's been having any troubles, though. Except a minor one that it gets lines across the screen when launching, especially on a cold day. Cow has been warming the computer up in front of the heater before powering it up for the past couple of months, ever since he realized such trouble seem to appear only on cold days. It could be caused by condensation, possibly.

Anyway, he's cleaned the dust off from all the parts. Have been watching him fumble with a few screws not remembering where he'd taken it from, and am afraid if the lap-top would work like before when we launch it the next time. Hope it will.

The End

Caterpillar

2:19 p.m. Cow's lap-top has revived. It started up without any trouble. Plus, according to Cow, the screen didn't show any lines when booting. So it turned out that either the cleaning or the tightening of the screws have solved the trouble. Though you never know. It might appear again tomorrow. We'll wait and see.

It might be a good idea, come to think of it, to take your computer apart and clean it up once in a couple of years. It could help the computer last longer. Well, can't help about the hard disk's duration, though.

The End

Caterpillar

3:37 p.m. Pasco, one of Japan's leading bread-making company is giving away silicone steamers in their spring promotion campaign. Cut out the points on Pasco products' packages, tape them onto applying forms and either send it to Pasco or bring it to the stores where you got the application forms. They'll exchange thirty points for a silicone steamer.

Have been secretly collecting points from bread packages at home, but have been let down this morning, to find that JoOusama had already eaten the last slice of bread, thrown away the package and mercifully put out the garbage for the garbage truck. For a moment, I was tempted to go to the garbage collection point to dig out the bread package, though dismissed the idea. I don't want to be burried in garbage for merely two points.

The End

Caterpillar

11:49 p.m. Struggling with Python script. Have been tackling whiles and fors and ifs and elses for merely to make a proper loop. Don't laugh. There's a start in everything and I'm just beginning to learn.

Besides, I'm a weekend Python learner, wobbly and helpless as a weekend snake tamer can be. So Don't laugh.

The End

Caterpillar

3:53 p.m. Just learned that Tetsuzo Sato who's been riding Espoir City has been injured so Yutaka Take wouls be riding for February Stakes next week. Hmmm. Would it make a change in Espoir's performance? Still, Transcend would be hard to beat...

6:45 p.m. Oh my God. Whitney Houston's dead?! Why? How?

The End

Caterpillar

2:40 p.m. Have been thinking eating curry with rice. Why did she have to die? News source says that she'd been drowned in the tub. Was she using drugs? They say she'd been clean after she'd got out of the treatment facility, but we all know it isn't that easy.

I met her beautiful songs in my low teens and was fascinated by them. The beauty, the clarity, purity in her voice was a god-send, I thought, possessing strength and passion inside. Those words in "Greatest Love of All" that had fallen out her lips literally pushed my back, encouraging me when I was in the confusing stage of my life. I was convinced there must be, at least, some grown-ups who could be trusted after all.

Is this really the end for her? Couldn't she have led a better life? So, I've been thinking, eating curry with rice.

The End

Caterpillar

3:04 p.m. The forecast says that it's going to be thirteen degrees tomorrow, then six degrees the day after tomorrow.

Temperature's gonna drop down fifty-five percent? I wish Soft Bank would take off the same rate from their basic charge.

The End

Caterpillar

1:17 p.m. Cow has overslept. The office was locked up with the shutters still pulled down when I came. I'd arrived just five minutes before a morning meeting with a client, and was almost in panic when I saw this. I whipped him up but my client had already arrived before we got the place ready.

Stupid Cow blames the national holiday (the Constitutional Memorial Day) for his losing track of time, that he thought it was Monday or Tuesday. Whatever. What kind of excuse is that, anyway?

The End

Caterpillar

2:05 p.m. Kona..yuki.. It's snowing! Though slightly. No wonder it's so cold.

Oh, geez. Printer insists that paper got jammed up though I don't see anything. Come on. I've got four meetings squeezed in this afternoon. Again, am not even gonna have any potty-break. But by the time it's all over, I think the barrier draws for Februrary Stakes would be announced. It's the only thing that could pull me through my long afternoon.

The End

Caterpillar

3:43 p.m. It was past eight when I'd got through all the meetings, so I saved the barrier draw as a savory treat for today.

Hmmm...Espoir City in the middle of sixteen horses, with Silk Fortune in 3rd post, Wonder Acute in 10th, and Transcend in 15th. Definitely should key Transcend. Musn't compromise.

The End

Caterpillar

1:17 p.m. Smart Falcon has been invited to the Dubai World Classics and is said to have accepted it.

The horse is fast, no doubt, though I wish he'd run in JRA grade one races. February Stakes must have been much more interesting if he did. In the current situation without Smart Falcon, I hate to have to admit it, but there's nothing to stop Transcend...

The End

Caterpillar

4:02 p.m. Oh, boy. What happened to Transcend? He did make a good start, didn't he? But somehow couldn't take the lead as usual. As is the case with front runners, it's a tragedy when they can't take the lead. By the time the horses thundered past the homestretch, Transcend had been swallowed.

Instead of Transcend, came Testamatta who started from the sixteenth post. He zapped the outside and earned himself a win, with Silk Fortune(3) and Wonder Acute(10) in tow. What I had was trifectas of 15-10-3,5,11 and 10-15-3,5,11. Thus, I lost my first grade one of the season, after my long-awaited end of granny's mourning period.

The End

Caterpillar

3:06 p.m. Have been thinking why, oh why, Transcend has miserably lost February Stakes. He finished in seventh place, by the way. And I've recalled that I'd cut out Victoir Pisa from my betting tickets of Arimakinen, because his condition was terrible at the time of Japan Cup, and I thought it was impossible for him to recover in such short time. My decision was based on what I called "the curse of overseas expedition," with horses that went overseas going out of shape after they've returned, not to mention the examples of Espoir City or Hiruno D'amour.

Now that I look back, I remembered that I've boasted after Arimakinen, Transcend would also fall victim to the curse sooner or later. Why had I forgotten about that?

The End

Caterpillar

3:21 p.m. There's this amazing Japanese electronic organ player called Ms. Maru who plays music from famous role playing games like Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy (also famous themes from motion picture soundtracks). She seems to be an ordinary worman working in some company, but her performance is something you should see once. Especially, her footwork.

It's something worth watching. Cow's been into watching her on YouTube lately. Perhaps he's through with AKB48 now.

The End

Caterpillar

1:24 p.m. NHK is doing a program on Alzheimer's and dementia tonight. Have set my HDD recorder to record it. Obaba had dementia as an after effect of her hemorage and I've been interested in the circumstance surrounding the disease, such as whether it is treatable, or how one should take care of your old folks when they get demented.

Though Obaba has already passed away and there's nothing I could do about her, parhaps I might be able to help someone else if I had more new information. Who knows, it might even help myself one day.

The End

Caterpillar

3:07 p.m. I was scanning through Yahoo!JAPAN news when I came across an interesting video. It's a video of an infuriated squirrel who barely escaped a rat trap.

My, he was furious! Right after the trap has clamped shut, the squirrel, eyes narrowed and ears pulled back, seemed to stop functioning. I remember that expression from my gerbils I used to have. They used to wear the same expression whenever they were extremely surprised, or, well, shocked.

The End

3:04 p.m. Japanese seem to be generally accepted as kind and polite in the western world but this guy sure is nice. An American who bought a Revoltech figure at Ebay for $2.25, was surprised to find totally unexpected things filling his delivered package, that he posted some photos titled "The Best $2.25 I have spent on eBay."

What a great idea to use snack packs as cushions! And it's always happy to know that it was one of us who came up with such considerate and impressive idea.

The End

Caterpillar

2:07 p.m. Am going to the annual reunion of my junior-high. Thanks to some of my classmates who took the role on themselves as the party organizers, it's been held annualy for the past several years. It's a rare occasion for me to "socialize" in a group of people my age, so I try to attend it as much as possible.

Feel like am waisting my chances, though. I think I speak with a lot of people, but usually can't recall what I'd talked with them about or even to whom I'd talked to, by the time I get up next morning.

The End

Caterpillar

1:42 a.m. Ave 'in to re-union. Vwry, very fuuunn. Drank beer after beer after beer after beer... Feelin' fffanlastic, but also a bit tired so am goin' to sleep. Good night, folks.

The End

Caterpillar

2:51 p.m. Windy and cold today. And from the condition of my nose, I can feel the cedar pollen drifting in the air at full force. Yes. The allergy season has arrived.

However, my nose isn't either running or blocked. True, I have a slight sniffle, but that's all though am not using the oil I'd mentioned a couple of years back. Could it be that my body condition has changed? If so, it must be Natto (fermented soy beans) that's done the trick. I've been eating it about two or three times a week since last spring. Hmm, another discovery here.

The End

Caterpillar

3:16 p.m. Forecast is predicting at least 3cm of snowfall tomorrow, even here in Tokyo. They say snow is going to start falling around midnight, and is expected to go on until around noon or early afternoon.

Gosh. I've got a morning meeting tomorrow which already means that I must get up and leave early. Considering the snow, I'll have to leave earlier since you never know if the trains and subway won't be delayed. Sounds so depressing...

The End

Caterpillar

1:24 p.m. Although the forecast had said it would turn to rain in the afternoon, looks like it's still snowing as far as I can see through our glass door.

1:27 p.m. Several teenaged girls in school uniform has passed by. Girls, girls. It may be your style, but I really don't think it's such a great idea to wear your skirts so short to the point of exposing your thighs on a snowy day like today. Besides it makes me feel even colder when I'm already shivering in this office.

The End

Caterpillar