10 August 2006

Tomomi, Sakura and I have safely arrived in Chard, Alberta. Our new mailing address is:

General Delivery
Chard, Alberta
T0P 1G0, Canada

Our phone will be hooked up on 16 August 2006--my first day of work. We don't yet have Internet access at home, but we're going to work on that. Our only commercial choice is $30/month 56K dial-up. I've heard a rumor that a concerned parent in the community might donate a wireless router to the school. In that case, we should be able to get signal from home, seeing as how we're about 50m away. The school has a high-speed connection.

We have some household essentials, and are getting along reasonably well.

In my haste, I left our camera in dad's car. So, I won't be posting any pictures until it arrives. Sorry, Keiko. Tomomi and I will post lots of pictures soon.

Sakura is now about 9-10kg, and ~70cm. She can sit on her own, but her balance is not perfect, and she usually falls over in a couple minutes. She is not yet crawling, but she has achieved mobility through rolling. When she is supported at the arms, she can take a few steps. Again, balance is lacking. We're working on it, though.

Chris, if you're out there, I discovered this morning that plastic collars can't hold together an 80lbs dumbbell. No animals were harmed in this discovery.