Perfect Timing...

Just as I was looking forward to the internet finally arriving at my house (June 1, if the router/modem or whatever it's called arrives by then), I realized that my computer may not make it until June 1! It's got a mind of its own lately, possibly rebelling from the move? First of all, it won't turn off. When I select "shut down", it acts like it's going to shut down, then restarts itself. Now, it doesn't even wait for me to click shut down before restarting itself. Sometimes it likes to do it when I am in the middle of watching a movie or importing a CD to iTunes. Better still (if you measure the amount of "better" based on how irritated you get), it now takes 20 minutes to go through the process of restarting!
We have a plan in place and I shouldn't have to wait too much longer after June 1 for a functional computer.

I don't have a whole lot of other interesting news to report... my main friend is moving soon and then the minimal social life that I have now is sure to diminish even more. I was invited to 3 BBQs over the long weekend and all 3 of my take-alongs were huge hits (Crunchy Asian Salad, Strawberry Jell-o Pretzel Salad and ingredients for S'Mores). I ventured (as a passenger) almost to London to go to Ikea on Monday. And tonight, I'm going to the "best restaurant in East England"...or so I've been told. I'll be the judge...it better be good, because I'm ditching my usual Wednesday night friends and skipping 5 pound curry & a pint night (5 pounds is the cost, not the amount of food) to go to this restaurant.
Until next time...

I've been one-upped!

Interrupting the blog drought...
On Wednesday, I had a pretty low-key day planned. A whole lot of nothing. I had just gotten a converter David ordered that I needed in order to make my American tv play in color and in the right size through the British cable system. I called for reinforcements from David's future office (and bribed them with a homecooked meal) to come hook it all up on Tuesday. So I was looking forward to just enjoying color tv on Wednesday. I have a hard time just sitting and watching tv, so I wanted to make something... slippers. I didn't want to knit slippers. I wanted to crochet them! I tuned-up my limited crochet skills while I was home in Feb/March and crocheted a baby blanket. (Maybe I'll share pictures when I finally have home internet). But when I made that, I had my mom there to start me off and show me what to do. No such luck here, so I had to do them all by myself! I made one slipper on Wednesday. It looks like a slipper. It just doesn't look like one of my slippers. Finished the other one on Thursday and they match, but they're a bit too big... might even be too big for David (don't think he'd wear them anyway since they are pink, pink and pink!). But you know what? They're slippers and I made them in two days! I was so proud of myself...
And then on Thursday afternoon, David called me. He had excellent news! He made Master Sergeant. That's pretty special because it was his first time testing and not a whole lot of people make it as fast as he has! He won't get promoted until July 2010, but it's still exciting...even though it makes my slipper-making seem less momentous!

I'm really hoping that I'll get home internet soon. Step 2 in the 3-step process is happening on Tuesday. Don't know when step 3 will happen!

Blogging from Beneath the Piles

And more piles to come!

Our first shipment of household goods arrived yesterday. I loved my house so much more when it was EMPTY! ;)
People kept saying that opening your TMO shipment would be "like Christmas." I feel sorry for those people. Could their Christmases really possibly be so dismal and depressing? Yesterday's shipment was more like a really bad inheritance or something. Maybe tomorrow's shipment will be more like Christmas...after all, I will be reunited with my yarn, books, clothes & scrapbook stuff! The shipment that came yesterday was David's from Aviano/storage so I had the movers put most of it in the garage and in an extra bedroom. He can open it all up when he gets here. Which, really, is the least he could do, seen as how I found the house, and will be unpacking, washing and putting away all of the other stuff...including FORTY-THREE drinking glasses in his shipment yesterday. Our Okinawa shipment is arriving tomorrow. And our stuff will be battling for position within the kitchen!
Luckily, my across-the-street neighbor introduced herself this morning (I met her husband yesterday) and said that she's trying to organize a street-wide garage sale in 2 weeks. She said, "Should I bother passing you a leaflet or will you be too busy?" I told her I'd love a leaflet! I have a lot of (David's) stuff that I'm willing to part with, ha ha. I'm sure some of mine can go too, although most of the stuff we sold at the Chibana Flea Market back in Dec. was mine!

I also got my sweet new ride yesterday! And today marks my 3 week "anniversary" of being here. I'm pretty happy with all that I've managed to get accomplished, although I still don't know how to find my way to base & back home without the help of Debbie's "TomTom"/Garmin. I'll be looking to purchase my own in May. I've already spent too much money for April!

Well, I'm going to head to the commissary before leaving base for the day. Planning to make some cookies for my neighbors, tomorrow's movers and some of my other good helpers!

Breaking the Rules

So, it's after 6pm and I'm on the computer. But technically, I made that idea in Central time and it's not 6pm central time yet. Also, I think I can ask for forgiveness since I don't have much other computer time throughout the day. I don't want the guys at Bob Hope Community Center (where they have a 30 minute time limit) to think (know) that I'm a total internet addict.

But I thought it would be kind of me to update here with a quick entry. (I'm at the base library, where they have a 57 minute time limit). Next week, I will be in my house and I won't have internet set up yet, nor will I be driving back and forth to base every day to check my e-mail, so I figure I can make up for this after 6 internet sneak-on after Easter.

I am alive and well and living (sort of) in England! Isn't that the title of something or other? Alive and well and living in Paris?

House-I think I love my house! I haven't seen it since Saturday and house-hunting is all kind of a blur (and I only looked at 2 houses!) but what I think I remember of it is nice. It's in a town called Thetford, about 25 minutes away from base (but the fact that there is base housing in this town and others that are 25 minutes away makes me feel a bit better about that distance). The house meets my basic requirements: "near" a train station and more than one bathroom. It also kind of makes me feel like a movie star, because it has a blue door just like in Notting Hill and a closet (cupboard?) under the stairs just like in Harry Potter! So I love it! There are 5 bedrooms. Not sure exactly why we need 5 bedrooms, but after almost 4 years with 2, I guess I just got a little crazy. We'll have a bedroom, a Rebecca-room (or maybe 2?), a David-room, a guest room, and I don't even remember seeing a 5th bedroom, which leads me to believe that it might be so small that it will be reserved for our FMO (mil. provided) wardrobes/free-standing closets. Even though I somehow managed to find a house with a closet in the master bedroom!! It also has a shower not just a bathtub. And it has a bathtub. A beautiful "garden" (see how I am beginning to use proper vocabulary for my surroundings?) in which I hope to one day grow my very own herbs and maybe even some little veggies. I bought a book about container gardening several months ago and it seems like something I might be able to manage. My house has a two-car garage in which 2 cars actually fitting would be a miracle. However, I think it is quite possible that 1 car and my 16 rubbermaid bins full of personal classroom items will fit. Possibly best of all, my house is right around the corner from my friend and former colleague. We taught together in Okinawa and she helped me with the house-hunt. We were both pleasantly surprised to learn that there was a house in her neighborhood that might suit my needs. My house needs to pass a little inspection tomorrow, and if it does, I should be able to move in on Tuesday or Wednesday, which is good, because I am being booted from lodging on Wednesday. I could stay longer on my own dime, which is, of course, not something I'm interested in doing. Once I get in my house (which will require me to find my way back there), take some pictures, get my household goods (3 separate shipments!) delivered, internet and cable provider set, and electronic items all hooked up, I will be sure to post pictures. So please don't expect any pictures for a while! Really, I'm only very slightly overwhelmed.

Car- So my two main problems with finding a car are 1- I am cheap. and 2-I haven't a clue how to drive a car with a "manual transmission". We went looking today and at one car lot, there was ONE automatic in the whole place! It was a Mercedes that just doesn't fit in with my cheapness. We stopped at another one where I saw some decent "wheels" and are taking a guy from David's future office who has some car knowledge. If he knows anything besides where the key goes, what the gas pedal does, and how many wheels it's supposed to have, he will know more than I do. I really want a Volkswagon Golf or a Volkswagon Polo. The lot did have a Golf, but it was a darn "5-speed" which is apparently the same thing as a "manual transmission" which is code for "something I don't know how to drive". But maybe if I express enough how much I would like a VW Golf/Polo that is automatic, one will materialize by tomorrow at 0930.
Once I get a car, of course that means I will have to drive it. Good thing I have my driver's license. Only missed one question and you're allowed to miss 6. I keep telling myself that passing my driver's test is a good thing and that means I don't need to be too terribly nervous on the roads, and that I have an advantage as I have been driving on the left side of the road and the right side of the car (right?) for nearly 4 years already. But it's still a little bit frightening. Especially since even if I were an absolutely amazing driver, I would still have absolutely no idea where I am going.

Cell Phone-I haven't had a cell phone in almost 4 years, but people keep looking at me like I have a 3rd eye-ball when I say I don't have a "mobile number". So that's also on the to-do list. All I want is something that rings and has numbers, and I'm not doing a plan, I'm doing a pay-as-you-go.

Anyway...that's the story of my life the past week and one day. Hopefully it won't take too long to get my shipments all delivered, set up and internet hooked up in my house!

TTFN

March Madness- rethinking my strategy

Last year, David and I wanted to fill out brackets and compete against each other (we are very competitive), but we forgot about printing the brackets until the first game was over.
This year, I remembered just in time and filled out my bracket. I sent a blank one and a copy of mine (so he would know I wasn't cheating) to him and he filled his out and sent it to me. I am the official scorekeeper. I don't know what the prize for winning is, but I hope it's not that good, because I am not going to win. David started out really strong (only missed 4 teams in the first round), and is still doing okay--he had picked 3 of the final 8.

I just did our up-to-date totals, and noticed that all 4 #1 teams are in the semi-final. The other 4 teams are all 2nd or 3rd seeds. Unfortunately, I didn't take any of that into consideration while filling out my bracket.

When I choose my winners, I ask myself a series of important questions, and ignore those seed numbers off to the side.
My questions are:
1. Have I been to this campus?
2. Do I have a t-shirt from this school?
3. Have I seen one of this school's teams play in real life?
4. Do I have a personal connection to this school?
5. Have I been to this state?
6. Can I name this school's mascot?
7. Do I know and/or like this team's colors?

Whichever school gets the most "yes" responses is the one that I pick to win. Very sensible, no? You may think it's silly, but this actually worked with over a 65% success rate in the first round. 22 out of 32 teams isn't too shabby!

A few instances of this working successfully in Round 1:
Louisville vs. Morehead State: 1. No/No 2. No/No 3.No/No 4.No/No 5.Yes/No 6.No/No 7.No/No That's 1 Yes for Louisville vs. 0 Yes for Morehead. So I picked Lousiville.

Duke vs. Minnesota: 1. Yes/No 2.Yes/Yes(well, a sweatshirt) 3. Yes/Yes 4. No(but after I went there for a football game, I wished I had!)/Yes (this was one of my top-choices for college) 5.Yes/Yes 6.Yes/Yes 7.Yes/Yes Total: Yes for Duke=6 Yes for Minnesota= 6. Luckily, points for my questions are weighted just in case of tie. Question #1 is a biggie...so I go with Duke and...Duke wins!

You might be thinking that the fact that the 2 teams I chose to win actually won has more to do with the fact that they were seeded #1 and #2 than with my 7-question system. But then how would you explain this?
Clemson (#7) vs. Michigan (#10): 1. No/No 2. No/Yes(sweatshirt) 3.No/Yes 4. Yes (one of the cars assigned to my assigned lot at Carthage had a Clemson window cling in it)/No 5.No(maybe? I don't know what state this is in?)/Yes 6.Yes/Yes 7.Yes/Yes Total: Clemson-3, Michigan-5. Not only did Michigan win, but they got me 3 bonus points.

Before you adopt my system and bet the farm in next year's bracket, be warned...it is not fail-proof.
When I chose #14 Cornell to beat #3 Missouri, David questioned my logic. I explained that while I had answered "no" to the first 3 questions for both teams, I answered "Yes" to #4 for Cornell. When I was 10, we went on the Disney Cruise, and the family assigned to our table had a daughter who was going to be going to Cornell. I remember really liking her, so of course I had to pick Cornell to win. That one didn't work...
2 other major failures for me in the first round were Ohio State & Wake Forest. They sure look great on paper...I have been to both campuses, have t-shirts from both schools, have seen both teams in real life, know their colors, mascots, and Ohio State was actually my 2nd choice college and I was *thisclose* to going there.
I think it was really a freak accident that these teams lost...David had picked them too (probably based on something silly like seed or recent performance) and he lost those points.

The teams I chose for the semi-finals and National Championship are out now, so my total is only 58 points for the whole tournament. David currently has 86 pints and has a potential to earn another 16 points this weekend if Louisville & UNC win. And another 28 if Louisville wins it all. Maybe there's something to his system after all...

Do you fill out a bracket? How are your teams coming along?

It's been a while...

I remember when I was in "daily blog mode". That was when I did things and had interesting thoughts. If I blogged daily now, I would announce things like:
"stayed in my pajamas until 3 today" and "switched from my snowflake pajamas to my moose pajamas today" and "was sore from too much Wii Fit today" and "finished a book today".
When we first got here, we were on the go all the time... shopping, going to restaurants, seeing people we hadn't seen for a while. And then the novelty of us being here kind of wore off and David left and now I just hang out at home!

Last week, I broke the monotony of days at home and went to kindergarten for 2 days! There is no room for monotony when you are surrounded by 20 5 and 6 year olds! I never went to kindergarten as an official kindergartener, but I have been going to Ms. Kobe's kindergarten for 26 years or so! She got a kick out of telling everyone at school that she'd known me since I was a baby, and now I'm a teacher but still trying to earn my kindergarten diploma from her (She gave me a preschool diploma for my college graduation...but I still have some hours to do in her classroom before she will bestow upon me the ultimate honor!) I led some of the lessons while Ms. Kobe did report card assessments at her one-on-one; it was fun to be back in the classroom!!

Now I'm back to what has become my normal routine...and still in my pajamas.

Giving Up

It's Lent time, and for me that means giving up something. Even though I don't abide by all of the other religious guidelines (going to church, knowing what the other religious guidelines are, etc.), I always "participate" in Lent...no meat on Fridays, and doing without something I really really like. I don't know why, but I always try to pick something that will be really, really hard for me to do without. In the past, I've given up meat, chocolate, SHOPPING, RESTAURANTS (David hated that one, but we saved a LOT of $$!). I thought it would be just crazy to give up shopping or restaurants while I'm here in the land of shops & restaurants for such a short period of time, so I had to think of something new. I picked something REALLY REALLY difficult... I gave up the internet after 6pm! Crazy! So far I've made it through 2 evenings and when I'm not running in here to check my e-mail, see if any new blog entries have shown up on Google Reader, browsing knitting projects on Ravelry, or playing PathWords on Facebook, I can actually accomplish other things! Like reading an actual book or crocheting a baby blanket, realizing that the baby blanket is not turning out quite right, and starting all over. Now that I can't just abandon the blanket in favor of the internet when frustration starts to set in, I might just finish it in time for the baby shower!

I also gave up something else...something big...on Ash Wednesday. That was the day that David left. :( He has made it safely to the frosty north...waaaayyyy north and is trying to adjust to the negative 32 degree temps. One day down, 364 to go! So of course I am missing him, and in the past few days I started really missing something else too... my JOB! Which is just plain outrageous...I love lying around the house and being able to do little crafty projects (so far I've made a few cards, knitted a hat, made progress on the knitted baby dress, re-learned to crochet, crocheted about half a blanket, started over, sewn a little doll). I love sleeping in and putting my pajamas back on after I take a shower (or not having to shower at all). I love being able to go to the gym in the middle of the day rather than after work or early in the morning. But yesterday, I started really really missing being a teacher! I even dug out two teacher books and started reading them again!

And the Oscar goes to...

I watched some of the Oscars last night. I flipped to the Oscars during commercials of the Amazing Race & then watched for a little while after, then "listened" for a little bit after that. There are a lot of movies I've missed! Since I haven't seen a whole lot of movies lately, there was only one that I really felt strongly about...Wall-E!! I really wanted Wall-E to win & I was really excited when Jennifer Aniston even said "Waaaall-Eee" when she announced the winner! David & I love Wall-E & Eva and feel the need to pronounce their names like they do in the movies (and to give other names a robotic-spin, too... "Daaaavv-eee", "Beeeee-ca", "Mo-beee", etc.)
I'm sure I'm not the only person who was irritated by the fact that the camera man felt the need to pan over to Brangelina (do people still call them Brangelina? I've been sort of out of the pop-culture loop) while Jennifer Aniston was presenting the award. I mean really, there are thousands of other gorgeous celebrities in the audience, why not give some of them screen time and let Jennifer Aniston have her moment? Even David said something about how wrong that was! We both are for "Team Aniston" rather than Team Jolie-Pitt. I also kind of wanted Amy Adams to win for Best Supporting Actress even though I haven't seen Doubt, but just because she was Princess Giselle in Enchanted and I LOVE that movie!! But she didn't.

Okay so back to the movies... As I said there are lots that I've not seen yet and want to: Doubt, The Reader (even though David saw it and said I wouldn't like it), Curious Case of B.B. (even though my friend Kathy saw it and said to skip it...and even though I am anti-Jolie-Pitt), Changeling (even though I am anti-Jolie-Pitt), Revolutionary Road (because seeing Kate Winslet & Leonardo DiCaprio together again will remind me of going to see Titanic 6 times in the theater with my crazy friends!), Milk (loved the writer's speech)

Today we went to see Slumdog Millionaire and it was GOOD! I think every car in the parking lot was going to see that movie. David thought it was kind of teenage love story-ish, but I didn't really think that at all...I thought it was rather thought-provoking. I loved the cheating aspect of it because it reminded me of another one of my favorite movies, The Emperor's Club.

I wish teachers...

There are a lot of things I wish teachers had/got/could do. For instance, get paid more, get more respect for all the work we do (last week a friend told me she wanted to be a teacher so she could leave work earlier and have more time at home...sure, she could choose to leave work earlier, but then she'd be working during that extra time at home!). I wish teachers had a longer lunch break (I'm jealous of my dad who can go to the gym, run, work-out, and shower on his lunch break...but I don't think he eats...so I'd need just a little longer.) I wish teachers didn't have to worry about metal detectors (read 19 Minutes...good book!) or buy their own construction paper.

But yesterday, at the mall (I've completely gotten over my aversion to the mall now), I saw something that made me wish a whole new thing for teachers:

I wish teachers wore scrubs!! How perfect would that be?!? Why on earth hasn't anyone thought of this before??? I don't know the exact reasons that nurses wear scrubs, but I'm guessing it has something to do with long hours, moving around a lot and quickly, and the risk of being splaterred on with a variety of materials, including body fluids...all of which are common for teachers, too!
Plus scrubs are so darn cute! While it is highly unlikely that I would ever wear a sweater with a big ol' apple & worm appliqued right in the middle of it, I probably wouldn't mind a scrub top printed with apples & little worms with glasses all over it. Pair that with a pair of super-comfy looking drawstring pants in a rainbow of colors, and I would LOVE my job! I looked at a scrubs website and found that one color is actually called "Kindergarten Blue" and another "Apple Green"...now if these things are not meant for teachers, I don't know what is!

Shop til you Drop

The day after we got here, we went to the mall. I had been looking forward to it for MONTHS since the only place I'd been shopping was the BX/base exchange. The BX is not my favorite place to shop because a)there are very few cute things and chances are everyone else has them too and will undoubtedly wear them on the same day that you do and b)they pride themselves on giving us low prices... on like DKNY jeans or something that are normally $120 and marked down to $75...to me this is not a deal, because I would never pay $120 or $75 for a pair of jeans. Give me a $30 pair of jeans marked down to $15 and I'd be happy.

But, despite my deep desire to go shopping, when we got here, it turned out that shopping really wasn't my thing. I went into JC Penney and David went downstairs to buy jeans. I stayed upstairs to buy jeans. 20 minutes later, David comes up with 4 pairs of jeans. I had tried on about 30 pairs of jeans and hated them all. They were either way too big, way too small, a little too low-rise, had ugly sparkly things on the back pockets, or I didn't like the color of the stitching. Maybe I was a little picky...but my new theory is to buy TWO pairs of the same pants whenever I buy pants, one to hem for wearing with flats and one to hem for wearing with heels, so that means I need to really love any pair of pants I buy. We went to NY & Co. and tried on another pair or two, but by then I was just tired, depressed and convinced that I had morphed into some strange shape while I was away, destined to never wear another pair of jeans again.

Until yesterday... maybe it was because I re-read Confessions of a Shopaholic the other day... I was ready to shop again! First we went to Target (well, first we went to Eat at Joe's Crab Shack) I wanted to look at the shoes first, since all I brought here were running shoes. Here's my impression of me walking through the shoe section at Target yesterday, "Ugly. Ugly. Ugly. Ugly. Ugly. Weird. Ugly. Ugly. Ugly." Shoes at Target are hit or miss, and I guess yesterday was a big miss. I tried on jeans that were way too low-rise. You can tell that jeans are way too low-rise (for a fairly conservatively dressed adult anyway) when the back pockets are placed so that rather than being on your tush, they go halfway down the back of your thigh. David thought maybe I needed a larger size. I refrained from breathing fire on him and allowed him to get me the larger size, knowing full well that I was not suffering from some sort of body image distortion, but rather some trendily (and strangely) made pants. But I obliged and tried on the larger size, which obviously didn't work either. I settled for a cute green shirt with a navy blue and green scarf (on sale!) and we headed to the mall.

I went back to NY & Co., because it's one of my favorite stores AND it gives a military discount. There was a shirt in the front display that I had thought was cute last time I was there, and now it was almost 1/2 off! I picked up a few full-priced items and then I saw it... A WHOLE ENTIRE WALL of $9.99 items! That was just what I needed...I picked everything I thought was cute and headed for a fitting room. The jeans...same jeans that I tried on a few weeks ago...I tried those on again too, and what do you know? They looked great. Everything looks better when it's on sale for $9.95!! I ended up getting 2 pairs of jeans, 6 tops and a belt all for the same price as the 2 pairs of jeans would've been had I paid full price. I SAVED $184.29! I felt like that CouponMom that I saw on Oprah a few weeks ago! And it turns out I don't hate shopping after all!

It's me, Moby!

Hi People! At least I think it is people that read words on this box. I usually see my people sitting here. Especially the Girl People that came here a few days ago. I know that that Girl People likes to sit here and read this box, so yesterday I decided to sit on this sitting thing and warm it up for her before she woke up. I did that because I am Moby and I am nice and that was a nice thing to do. The Girl People even said, "Moby, You are such a nice boy!" before she sat down and that made me smile my kitty smile because I am Moby and I have a beautiful kitty smile. I am Moby and I love to smile.

My People That I Used to Live With came here to see me on Thursday. They brought me my very favorite thing and that is called Big Rolling Boxes. Oh boy do I love getting inside those Big Rolling Boxes. My People always bring those things because they know how much I love them. I couldn't even wait until they got all of the other people stuff out before I jumped inside. My Man People even gave me a ride when I was sitting in one of the Big Rolling Boxes! That was a really fun thing called a blast! My People went to sleep and I really wanted to go to sleep with them, because I am Moby and sleeping with people is what I do very very well. But I really wanted to stay inside one of those Big Rolling Boxes. So I just waited until my People were already sleeping and then I went in to join them and of course, I had to say "It's Me, Moby! I am here to sleep with you, so wake up okay? And then we can go to sleep!" People do not like to sleep like me. I am a cat and I sleep a lot, but I also wake up a lot. People sleep like this: Sleep. Sleep a lot. Sleep a lot longer. Then wake up one time. I do not like to sleep like that. I like to wake up a lot and maybe find other People in the night. I have lots of good places to sleep here so I like to move around a lot. But I really love to sleep with my People and lay on them and sometimes step on their heads while they are trying to sleep. One of the best things about being Me, Moby, is sleeping with My People!
After two very long people sleeps and too many kitty sleeps to count, MORE people came here! I am Moby and so I have a lot of People. All the People love to come here and say what a big cat I am. That's me, Moby. I am a big cat with a lot of People and a nice kitty smile who is very good at sleeping. There were so many People here. I can't believe they all just wanted to come here at the very same time to see me! My sister Morgan gets a little bit scared when all the People come, but she likes my Girl People and the Man People That I Used to Live With who came here on Thursday and she loves my Lady People that takes good care of us every day very much. But the other People, she gets kind of scared because she is called a scaredy-cat. Morgan went into our Lady People's room and stayed there the whole time. I am not a scaredy-cat. I am Moby and People love to come see me, and I love to see them. The People That Are Not Big are a little bit scary though. If I were a scaredy-cat, I would be very scared of the People That Are Not Big. Since I am Moby and I am not a scaredy-cat, I am only a tiny little bit scared. They like to chase me and touch me and they talk very loudly. So when lots of the People That Are Not Big get here, I hide under the chair. I do not like to hide in my Lady People's room because then I cannot hear all the people talk! I love to spy on the people talk. It helps me learn new words so I can write in this box when my Girl People lets me do that.
When it was just me and My People left, Morgan came out of our Lady People's room and we played bowling. That makes my Lady People scream a lot. It hurt Morgan's ears, but we were both very tired after all of the exciting events of the day, so we just stayed in our cat beds. Then all of my People left! The house was so quiet, and Morgan and I didn't know what we should do. So we just stayed in our cat beds until our People got back. I wonder where they went. When they came back, they wanted to go to sleep. So of course that meant I had to get out of my cat bed and go help them go to sleep. I am Moby, and sleeping is one of the things I am very very best at. And helping is the other thing. So when it comes to helping people go to sleep, I am a very very expert at that!
Now it is the afternoon and my People are all awake. But it is time for me to go to sleep! I hope my Girl People will let me make more words in this box sometime soon. Until then, I will be being me, Moby, and doing what I do and that is called: sleeping, eating, sleeping, snuggling, laying in the sunshine, sleeping, looking out the window, sleeping, and sometimes playing. Don't forget to leave a note for me, Moby!

America is sparkly!

When our long flight from Yokota to Seattle was almost over, I looked out the window of the airplane and said, "Oh my gosh...look at America! It's sparkly!" I thought it was night time in Seattle because there were so many lights on, but the Customs agent said "good morning" as we walked through his station. It was about 6:00 a.m. in Seattle, 11:00 p.m. in Okinawa, and we'd been on the go for about 17 hours.

Here's the first thing that shocked me about America... they use pennies there! In the past 3 and a half years, I've grown used to paying for something that rings up $3.12 with three dollar bills and a dime. If I paid for something that was $3.13, I'd have to pay with a three dollars, a dime, and a nickel and get no change. The Starbucks guy probably thought I was strange when I said, "Ooooo, pennies!"

When we landed in Chicago, we got to see snow in the grassy areas around the runway! And we could see our breath when we got out of the plane and stepped onto the (?? I'm at a loss for words... the thing that you walk on to get from the plane to the airport).
When I got out of the car at my mom's house, I got to stand in a snow-dusted driveway! It was so exciting! But now, I've seen the snow, touched the snow, and felt the cold...so I'm already ready for it to warm up!

No Vampires Here!

Last night, David & I went to Arin Krin, the garlic restaurant.
It's been coined the garlic restaurant because, well, just about everything on the menu has garlic. Baked garlic, garlic chicken, garlic fried rice, etc.
I've heard people talk about it and now that we're down to our last days on the island, I was determined to eat there. I like eating. I like garlic. So how could I miss an opportunity to try it out?
At home, it's not unheard of to head over the state line to Chicago for dinner. Or to drive across the county just to get some yummy yummy food at El Taco Real. The whole island here is 78 miles long and less than 18 miles wide, and everything is fairly crowded together, so long distance driving has become sort of foreign to us. Plus when you put a couple hundred thousand people on an island this small, there's bound to be some traffic. When I told David where the garlic restaurant is (over halfway to the airport...*gasp*) he was reluctant to go. I wanted to make reservations for Saturday, but he didn't want to sit in traffic. We decided to go on Monday. It took us about 30 minutes to drive down there and there was very little traffic, so score one David point for Arin Krin.
Arin Krin is sort of an izakaya, or dim sum style. Usually people will go in a large group, order food to pass around the table, and order more as the night goes on. Not us. We went, just the two of us, and ordered SEVEN items right away. I explained that we could order, eat, and order more if we were still hungry, but David wanted to do it his way. And it didn't turn out so bad...I wrote down what we wanted on a piece of paper I had in my purse (when you're eating 7 out of 70-something menu items, it's hard to memorize your order!) and we emptied 5 out of the 7 dishes!
We had Tuna & Avocado with Garlic & Cheese Salad, Garlic Pasta, Beef & Broccoli with Garlic, Gyoza Roll, Deep Fried Garlic, Garlic Pasta, Garlic Pizza, and Fried Pork & Kimchi.
The Garlic Pasta was the first thing brought to the table and it made a delicious first impression! The pasta was just tossed in an oily garlicky buttery sauce and there was tons of sliced fresh garlic in there. A couple cloves at least.
I believe the Beef & Broccoli with Garlic was the favorite for both of us. Oh my goodness it was so good! Again, chunks of garlic.
The Fried Pork & Kimchi was for David. He won a Kimchi eating contest when he was stationed in Korea. So proud. I took a bite, but I'm not really a fan of the kimchi flavoring, so I let David finish that one off himself.
The Tuna & Avocado with Garlic & Cheese Salad was so cute. It was not tuna like from a can, it was sashimi (?) style tuna...raw and tossed with creamy avocado, topped with this crunchy sprinkle garlic and served right in the avocado skin. I didn't taste or notice any cheese. We both enjoyed it.
I wanted to try the Deep Fried Garlic. I've heard that people like it, and I figured David would be into it because it was fried. It turned out, David wasn't interested...he suggested taking it off of our order when I gawked at the 7-item list. I insisted that it stay on (my rationale was that we probably won't see that item on many other menus). David tried it and loved it! If we hadn't gotten the Beef & Broccoli with Garlic, this would have been his hands-down favorite. I think we ate an entire head of garlic deep fried. There was a sauce to dip and then a garlic & salt sprinkle to dip it in.
The Gyoza Roll was David's least favorite of our selection, and had we not gotten the Kimchi, it would have been my least favorite too. Serves me right for daring to order something without "Garlic" in the title! They weren't bad though...they were HUGE, more like the size of a taco than a dumpling!
The Garlic Pizza was yummy too... crust like an Italian pizza, white sauce (or maybe no sauce at all?) and loads of garlic. I'll be having Garlic Pizza for breakfast. Yum.
I was hoping we'd go to the Big Dip afterward for ice cream, but after eating all of that, David said he wouldn't even be able to handle a "little dip".
So we just headed home, which is now a Japanese hotel room with FREE and lightning fast internet. No room at base lodging...but no internet in the rooms there either!

Shopping List-part 3

Shoes!
My mom said to limit the number of shoes I pack in my suitcase since they take up more room....and I limited it quite by accident:

They're all in there somewhere. Or maybe in one of the many many other boxes that look just like these.
I do have 3 pairs of running shoes... the ones that are old and I just walk around in them (will wear those on the plane), my newest ones that I currently wear, and a pair that's not new anymore but not new yet either which I decided to bring in case it is still snowy and my shoes get wet. I also have a pair of flip flops, but something tells me I won't be using those very much.

I couldn't resist buying myself a little welcome home present...some cute blue shoes!

Black, White & Blue - by BeccaAgain on Polyvore.com

Black & Blue - by BeccaAgain on Polyvore.com

Shopping List- part 2

The theme for the next shopping list is DENIM:
Skinny black jeans.
Jeans. (Both David and I need new jeans...and I'm trying a new pants-buying strategy. When I find a pair I like, I'm buying 2 pairs...one to hem for wearing with heels and one to hem for wearing with flats.)
Grey jeans. I have some grey pants, but I love the faded look of grey jeans.
A light denim jacket. Already have a dark one.

Possibly a cute yellow shirt...might have to opt for a different color because I'm not sure yellow is right for my coloring. I'll have to try one on!


Yellow & Black - by BeccaAgain on Polyvore.com


Yellow & White - by BeccaAgain on Polyvore.com
The accessorizing here is pretty daring for me...I rarely remove my Timex Ironman sporty watch!

Grey & Yellow - by BeccaAgain on Polyvore.com
I have a cute pair of grey shoes...but these are so much cuter! love the bows & sparklies!