Every christmas/year-end, my supervisor (well, officially ex-supervisor, but she's now like the JET supervisor advisor because she's the only one with the experience) will invite me to her house for a party. this year was no exception. i made red ruby for dessert. it was much easier than i'd thought! the only labour-intensive part is dicing the water chestnuts up. i followed an internet recipe and didn't test it beforehand. big mistake! it turned out way too sweet. should have halved, or even quartered the amount of sugar recommended. well, now i know. i also entertained her son a bit. he's...4? 5? now, and - forgive me for being blunt - he's a little spoiled, i think. but well, first-born and only child for now with doting grandparents, so i can understand. he'll be getting a sibling sometime early next year, so that might help him grow out of it sooner.

my letter plan didn't go smoothly. at first, things were looking great; i spent my free periods on friday writing it, finally completed it after several drafts, and even made it in good time to the post office. just before i joined the queue, i made the decision to check it again at the very last minute. good thing i did, because i realized that i'd gotten one of the kanji of the recipient's name wrong! sending a letter with such a huge error would have been an unimaginable faux pas. so the plan now is to rewrite the letter and send it on monday. sad thing is, i'll have to correction tape the new year's card, because it was one that i'd made during the JET workshop. the post office people tell me that it should take 3 days (barring unforeseen circumstances), so i'll still make it in time for new year.

i've got a 5% off coupon for the supermarket. thinking of going into the next town, but also feeling lazy. will probably go after hanging the laundry out. primary goal is to get a replacement toothbrush, and probably some vegetables.

-random thought of the day: Big cooking plans this coming week!-