Since it's been chilly these couple of weeks, we've been using a kerosene heater at our office. However, oil price has been rising so we made it a rule to turn it on only when we really need to, in order to save money.

One day, as I sat silent without turning on the heater though I felt pretty cold, Cow worried and asked me, "isn't it too cold for you?" Aha. People get worried about others when the other person is silent. Did you get that, Obaba?

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In fact, we use kerosene heaters at our home, too. And it seemed that Tono has spilt kerosene on my leather boots by accident, when he tried to refill the tank. He confessed so, as I got home. It's the first words I've heard from him in 6 months.

He said he'd pay the cleaning bills or the damage, but I told him "never mind," cause it wasn't such a problem. According to what JoOusama told me later, Tono seemed to have been pretty much freaked out that I might get pissed off.(^ ^;)

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Well, my leather boots have oil stains on them now. Tono said he'd pay for the cleaning bills, but I decided to try cleaning on my own because I didn't want to waste money.

As I went searching the internet right away, I found that oil stains can be "made less noticeable" by "patting the oil stains with a wringed out towel dipped in a mixture of warm water and a slight amount of mild detergent for dish washing". I think I'll try this. I'll report how it's turned out later, so don't miss it!

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Tokyo had an exceptionally snowy weather yesterday. Annually, we don't experience much snow in Tokyo which is located on the Pacific side of the Japanese archipelago, even in the midst of winter. Usually, it only snows about once or twice in one season.

But it snowed all day yesterday. And I got a cold ... . Though it's not that I got a cold because it snowed. Anyway, I'll have to call off my boots cleaning.

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The cause of my cold which I usually seldom do catch, was neither the exceptional snow in Tokyo, or the succession of chilly days for the past couple of weeks. The most possible cause to be thought was JoOusama.

Since this absolutely insensitive queen blocked our shower drain, with all sorts of hair from normal ones to short ones, I got chilled to the bones while I had been struggling with the drain when I took a bath, not actually knowing it was blocked.

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JoOusama who hasn't even imagined that she was the cause of my cold, came to me and said in a soft coaxing voice, "I can make you some Amazake if you want to have some,".

Oh, I know. You just wanted to have it yourself.

You just wanted me help you out with the leftovers 'cause there'll be too much for you to finish it on your own. I know exactly what you're thinking of.

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I've been putting off my guitar practice for a couple of days, since I wasn't feeling very well. But I've grown a lot better now, so I decided to start my practice again.

I plugged in my amplifier, connected the cables, turned the switches on and swung down my hand. ? How come there's no sound?? The cord is plugged in, the connections seems to be all right ... uh-oh. I forgot to put on the headphones ... .(- -;) Spokesman at FRISK, how would you like this for the next version of your TV commercial?

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My commuter pass is expiring. I gotta get an extension.

Thanks to my partner Cow who has worked well since the end of last month, we seem to see our way a little bit this month. So I'm thinking of having a 3-months'-extension of my commuter pass. I've been purchasing 1-month passes up to now, but if I paid for 3 months at once, that could save me about 1900 yen in total.(^-^) Good job, Cow! I guess I'll take this occasion to have him promoted to Mr. Cow from just plain Cow.

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Last Saturday, I saw an Odakyu "Romancecar" as I was waddling my way home. It was nothing like I've seen before, with a beautiful body that was quite in the air whether it was to be called blue or light purple, and a luxurious sort of smell.

A woman near me let out a cry of excitement, as everybody around started to take pictures with their cell phones or digital cameras. As I tried to pull out my digital camera, I noticed that I didn't have it with me. Today of all days ... .

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We had snow in Tokyo again. But it had stopped during the night and we had some sunshine today.

Though I wasn't so sure about the weather today, so I decided to carry over the boots cleaning to tomorrow, since the forecast was telling that tomorrow was going to be clear. Besides, tomorrow is a holiday which means I got another day off! hurrah, hurrah! (^ÅÕ^)

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I came across an article that said trainig for expanding your left fingers is necessary, in order to pick up the proper left hand form in playing guitar. So I started training right away, using my pass case that was close at hand. I held it between my left fingers inside the pocket of my jacket, every day to and from the office.

I've tried 2 weeks and it feels like pulling-off has become much smoother than before. Looks like it's workin'. I'll try keepin' it up and see what happens.

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Well, about the boots cleaning that I have been putting off. I finally tried.

So how did it come out? Hmm, it doesn't seem to make that much difference ... . Maybe it was a bad idea to use a sponge instead of a towel. I feel like I failed to make the stains "less noticeable" because I've wetted the whole toe, not just around the stains ... . Right. I'll try again say ... next week, making sure that I use a towel instead of a sponge this time.

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I took a terrible tumble ... .

I was jogging my way to the library for some exercise, but before long my feet got tired and I tripped over a concrete tile on the sidewalk, falling face-down on the ground ... . I thought I landed on my hands before my body hit the ground, though my mittened hand was curled up and I fell flat on my stomach smashing my curled left hand ... . What a pumpkin ... (- -;)it's pretty pathetic. Denting ... a little.

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Influenced by the recent successive issues of the "pesticide poisoned frozen jiao-zi", many people have come to cook jiao-zi in their homes.

Whatever the catalyst, I think it's good that Japanese mothers came to cook food at home instead of relying on frozen food. Cooking needs love. It does take some time and effort, but that's what makes it taste much better than those mass-produced frozen food. Moreover, I bet children won't forget such taste of Mom's cooking. Keep it up, Mommies!

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Cow's been playing an online game. That site recently started service in North America. So I got an account to see what it's like.

Hmmmmnn. All the chat conversation are in English, as expected ... . But it could be good practice for English learners, all right.(^ ^;)

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Cow often seems to be seeing his customers out on business these days. The other day, Cow's old man came to me again. Perhaps he'd been worried about his son who wasn't in all afternoon. He said to me something like this.

"Oh, so he's at his customer's. But isn't he late? Maybe he's not gonna come home tonight." Hey, no way. The time is still 5:40 p.m. Daddy.

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This site is basically run on me and Cow's division of labor. I do all the writings and most uploading while Cow's only job so far, has been modifying this "Murmur" .

Speaking of "Murmurs", I remembered that it wasn't modified last Sunday. Hey, Cow! I've just praised you and now look what happened. Don't you push your luck just because you've gained a little money! I've promoted you to Mr. Cow but I'll take that back and make you just plain Cow again from tomorrow.

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I got a terrible stuffed nose. I haven't recovered completely from the cold I caught the other day. And because of that cold, I've been blowing my nose for more than a week ... .

Since I've kept blowing my nose for over a week, my nose got scraped. I had been putting on some ointment called Mentholatum for my nose had burning pain, but now I've run out of it. (- -;)

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A transistor radio started to appear on "my fridge" from a couple of days ago. It has to be JoOusama to do something like this. I didn't want electromagnetic wave around my fridge, so I removed the radio off my fridge and on to the table.

For a while, the radio went back and forth my fridge and the table locked in a tug-of-war between me and JoOusama, until finally I found it by the window over the sink yesterday. I win this time, HA-HA.

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Do you know The Tokyo Shock Boys? They are a Japanese group known for their extreme stage performance. In one of their performances, a member drops tears made of various things besides real tears from his eyes. I remeber seeing him on TV before, saying that this performance was born inspired by uncontrollable tears coming out as he blew his nose when he had a cold.

Tears seem to come out from my right eye, too whenever I blow my nose lately ... .

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Having exhausted both ointment and cold medicine, I purchased a new bottle of ointment and combination cold remedy with an additional pack of garbage bags.

I thought I handed the money to the clerk as she said, "that's 2,520 yen all together," but then I noticed that she had suddenly freezed. ?? Wondering what happened, I dropped my eyes on the palm of her hand and there was my coin purse ... . I immediately collected my coin purse, paid the money an ran out the pharmacy. Am I all right?

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We have pretty much sunlight in our office as long as it's sunny. We could even go without heater during daytime which is good to me to save heating costs and I'm grateful.

Sometimes it gets so warm during the day, that I nod off while working with the computer. But just then, a newspaper guy comes in and I get up with a jerk, looking for my glasses, glasses ... isn't that Yasushi Yokoyama's joke? Looks like I screwed up ... .

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I caught Tono going out this morning.

Wh .. what are those outfit ... . Hat came down over his eyes that were covered with dark sunglasses, while the remainig half of his face was masked. He looks like Mister fishy anyway you look at him ... . Well, regarding the fact that he has hay fever, he might be getting ready for complete protection before the coming of hay fever season. But even so, I wonder if he's ever been stopped by the police for a checkup in such outfit.

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Last week I took a terrible tumble to the library, and signed out 3 books.

One of them was a paperback by J.R.R.Tolkien, my favorite writer well known for "Lord of the Rings". I started reading with excitement however, it seemed to be a written copy of his lecture in 1939. A number of analogies were made, though for me unfamiliar to British culture in those days, it turned out to be gibberish. I've been reading in the subway to and from work, but I usually end up sleeping before I knew. (- -;)

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Obaba brought me a bottle of coke saying, "this is for you". It seems like my aunt has left it on Saturday when she visited Obaba.

The 500ml bottle of coke was a delux version packed in a red box, and there seemed to have been a limited time toy giveaway with it. Since Obaba wanted to know what in the world this object was, I spent 30 minutes to explain it to her, but the only thing she seemed to have understood was that "it was a drink" ... . Hmmmnn. Well, good enough for Obaba.

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I have to take Obaba, who somehow managed to understand that the "delux coke" was a beverage, for a medical check by the end of March ... .(- -;)

In the place where I live, old people aged 65 and above can have a free medical check once a year. 87-year-old Obaba has this checkup every year. I don't know why, but I've been in charge of taking her for this checkup, ever since I moved to this house ... . She looks much healthier than me, though.

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My aunt brought us a whole apple pie from a confectionery shop called Noliet as a gift, when she paid us a visit the other day.

This Noliet, is quite famous often picked up on TV or in magazines. They sell good sweets there, especially chocolate related ones.(^-^) Though I feel that the taste has changed since when they've opened. As someone would say it was "a regal French who speak out one's mind" at first, while recently it's like "a considerate and discreet Japanese".

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Spending more than a week, I eventually finished reading the Tolkien paperback. I started reading the second book with the bells on. The remaining 2 books were also Tolkien books (edited by his son, precisely) and these were two-volume harcovers as thick as an inch, respectively.

However, the first 30 pages of volume 1 were of commentative explanations. Gibberish again and I read slow. It was titled "Unfinished Tales" (hope I finish). (^ ^;)

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It took several days to conquer the first 30 pages of the "Unfinished Tales". You might say that I should skip the boring part, but I want to scan through all the printed letters at least once, and I'd feel regretful if such part was left unread.

So now, I'm happy reading in the subway though another problem came up ... . My bag became inexcusably heavy. What's more, I seem to draw derision from other passengers when I'm standing and reading a B5-sized hardcover in a packed subway ... .

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