Hero Material and I celebrated our first anniversary last week. We went to the restaurant where we had our wedding reception. It's one of the most expensive restaurants in the city, but the food is always marvelous and the service sublime.

Hero Material made the reservation, etc. Actually I was surprised that he pre-empted everything because I wasn't sure what to do about our wedding anniversary or anything else like that. (Let's just say that I was a little frazzled about the pregnancy and morning sickness in November and early December.)

Thankfully my morning sickness went away, and my tummy felt fine that day. Yay!

Here are the photos.

This is a view of the city from our table.

Table setting with a complimentary rose from the restaurant. You can see Hero Material's champagne and my OJ.

Us at the restaurant — we had a corner table with a lovely view. In Japan, the tables closest to the most windows are considered the best. I was in a black strappy dress, but since it was so cold, I also had the pink cashmere shawl around me. (If you've been following my blog, you probably remember that Hero Material bought me one on our honeymoon in Thailand.) It was soooo warm and soft against my bare shoulders, arms and back.

Food…! Everything was super delicious. I gobbled up everything. (Sorry about the fish picture…I took a big bite before taking the picture because I couldn't wait…!)

The manager told us that our meal was completely comped. We were very surprised, as we had expected to pay some portion of the cost. (The hotel where we had our ceremony had sent us a coupon we could use at the restaurant, but I was pretty sure the price of our meal would be more than the amount covered by the coupon.)

Anyway, there was a lot of bowing and thank-you's and congratulation's and so on. I'm not sure if we can go back next year for another leisurely meal with a small baby, but I sure hope so…! I totally love that restaurant!

I can't believe 2010 is over, and it's officially 2011. I've been super busy, mostly with holiday stuff, of course.

Christmas is not a big deal in Japan, but Hero Material and I celebrated on Christmas Eve at Mario's Bistro. Very yummy Italian dinner. Unfortunately the restaurant was a bit smokey from a lot of smokers, and we couldn't linger as much as we'd like because the cigarette stench gives me a major headache (which then makes me nauseous, which is not a good thing, especially for a pregnant woman!).

Then I tried to stay warm. I know it snowed a lot in America, and it was the same in Japan. Thankfully we didn't get any snow in our city, but it was freezing. Burrr…..

New Year's was lovely with home-cooked meal and so on. On the fourth, Hero Material and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. It was really romantic. I'll post some pictures soon, I promise!

The biggest goal for me this year is to stay healthy. This is more important than before since I'm pregnant. And the second biggest goal is figuring out how to do what I need to do (spending time with Hero Material and balancing work and writing) with the new responsibility called motherhood.

I hope everyone had wonderful holidays. Here's to another fantastic year.

Sorry for the late update! I've been less than glowy for a while. (I think the pregnancy glow is a myth!) But I'm finally okay now. :)

2010 has been a difficult year for many people. If I listed challenges and so on, I think I could probably end up with a novel. Instead of just thinking about difficulties, I wanted to think about good and positive things, so that I can end the year on the high note.

Because no matter how hard 2010 was, I have so many things to be grateful for.

• I'm grateful for my family and friends who are always there for me.
• I'm grateful that Hero Material and I have gainful employment and that we can provide for our first baby when s/he comes next June.
• I'm grateful for the support network of industry professionals and other writers and readers I have. They've been instrumental in keeping me sane.
• I'm very very grateful for my readers.
• I'm grateful that I'm in relatively good health.

What are you thankful for this holiday season?

October was a great month — personally and otherwise. I'm pregnant, and my baby's going to be born in mid-June. And yes, I found out that I didn't gain as much weight as I thought. I know it's shallow, but it made me feel better. :)

Yesterday I met a friend of mine who's pregnant with her second child. She told me my doctor is really famous, which I didn't know since I chose her for her excellent English. Then my friend added, “She's also very good at performing abortions.” It's a totally cultural thing, and she didn't mean anything malicious. She was doing her best to reassure me that my doctor's a renowned expert in every aspect of pregnancy and that I should feel 100% anshin (peace of mind and spirit) about my first pregnancy. But it just sounded so hilarious, I burst out laughing. (So did Hero Material when I told him.)

As for non-personal news, I can't share any yet. But I'll definitely update everyone as soon as I can.

On the writing front, I'm trying to go through All's Fair 1st beta comments — alas, there are more issues than I'd expected — and do NaNoWriMo this month. I'm trying not to do to much — my brain's turned into mush and I tire easily these days, even when I'm just reading a book! So I'm trying to do little bit at a time and rest frequently so that I don't feel exhausted.

(Other than being tired easily, foggy-brained and sleepy, I'm doing pretty well. No morning sickness or anything like that. So I count myself lucky. :) )

Hope everyone has a lovely and productive November!

In case you haven't seen my announcement on Twitter or Facebook, I'm pregnant. I went to see my doctor last Friday, and she confirmed it. (Hero Material went with me just in case I needed some moral support and translation help, but he didn't have to do anything except wait outside since my doctor spoke good English.)

EDD is June 25-ish.

So on Friday, I immediately ordered a copy of What to Expect When You're Expecting.

On Saturday, I looked for pre-natal vitamins. Guess what? I couldn't find any at the local pharmacy. So I decided to order via the net. Then I read about how a lack of folic acid can create birth defects. So I told Hero Material that our baby is going to born wrong because I didn't take pre-natal vitamins in the last 4-5 weeks. Stress much? He had to calm me down by saying how we probably get enough from our diet since we do eat an awful lot of vegetables and salad every day. That wasn't enough for me. So I spent $20 on a regular multivitamin (only 100 pills; yes, vitamins here cost their weight in gold) to tide me over until the pre-natal vitamins arrive from the States.

Anyway on Sunday I got my copy of What to Expect When You're Expecting. It was pretty cool until it said I should exercise every day because it's good for the mom. I'm thinking, “I really don't care that much to exercise EVERY DAY.” Then it went on to state that it makes for a smart baby. Then I'm thinking, “OMG, d*** you!”

They had me. I mean…how am I going to resist the “If you don't exercise, your baby may not born as smart as s/he could've been, and it's all your fault!” implied in the text?

So I'm on my 4th day of walking and light weight training. Holy cow, I've never exercised this regularly except when I'm trying to lose weight. It's weird to realize that the scale weight is going to go up even with the exercise and good nutrition. Of course, I am eating enough for two full-grown rhinoceroses at the moment. Hero Material made me a huge salad for lunch today, and I told him, “Man, that was good! I'm going to have to have that again!” He said “Sure”…not realizing that I meant “again” to be “right now.”

P.S. I'm not a saint, so I indulge in a cookie when I'm craving something sweet. It's not an American-size one though. Each yields two bites, max. I'm also limiting myself to no more than two cookies a day.

September's been pretty productive.

I finished Step 5 for All's Fair, and now it's all with my 1st beta.

A Goddess to Love was supposed to be done by today, but for some reason, I couldn't seem to get in the right mood for it, and I kept nodding and not making the changes I know I need to make. Maybe it's because I spent like more than two months on revision…? Anyway, I'm letting it sit a little longer.

I also had a chance to talk with Agent, and I started outlining / arcing a new story. I don't know much about it except that the heroine is an assistant / nanny, but since I'm the one writing it, a lot of people are going to die. (Don't worry, h/H get their happy ending!) Actually I think the body count in the new nanny project is going to be greater than the one in All's Fair, which features assassins as heroine and hero, plus a Russian mafia boss.

Who said romancing a nanny was safe?

I've listened to multiple workshop tapes from 2010 RWA. Many of them are excellent and inspiring. I highly recommend getting the whole set if you can. It's cheaper than buying each workshop separately.

I also had a chance to watch some really good low budget Asian horror drama. The plot's pretty straightforward, and the supernatural elements are pretty familiar (to Asians, that is!), but I loved how they managed to create awesome mystery and tension by continually escalating the stakes and intensifying the internal and external conflict of all the characters. I just couldn't stop watching. Thankfully it had only sixteen episodes. (Some dramas go for over 50 episodes.)

As for reading, September has been a lackluster month. Jeannie Lin's Historical Undone was good, but the rest of the books I started were mediocre, clumsily written / plotted, and/or just boring. A couple of them got hyped quite a bit, so I'm sure that didn't help.

Fortunately I just got Sin Undone by Larissa Ione, who has yet to disappoint. So that should make up for September. :)