Tokugawa Grandpa

7:33 PM on my Philippe Starck-inspired desktop clock.

I'm hungry. I'm feeling dirty. Not quite losing my mind. Everything's fine. I'm kidding.

I'm just hearing that Tracy Bonham song in the back of my head. It has nothing to do with me. Well, it has a little to do with my situation.

This little Tokugawa man on top of my monitor was given to me by Chikki from her Japan trip. Helps me relax a bit. My little Tokugawa Grandpa.

Sponge

This is Shankee. His real name is Christian. He's one of the youngest cousins in my Mom's side of the family. I don't know how Christian became Shankee but you know how kids are, inventing their own vocabulary. They make up a name or a word and soon somebody adds something, or someone says it differently, and pretty soon you end up with one which everybody gets used to but nobody really remembers how anybody arrived at that specific name.

Anyway, with a brain like a sponge, television, and so many cousins looking after the kid, he picks up stuff from here and there. His vocabulary is steadily growing. Curious though, instead of learning to say "mama" or "papa," his first words were "Sponge Bob."