Sought: Wal-Mart shoppers who trampled NY worker - Yahoo! News

It disgusts me that this happened in the United States. Are we really so commercialized that we can kill someone trying to get to a sale? What has happened to people? It is a f@cking sale!!!! Nothing is that important to buy!!!

What a bunch of idiots....this is exactly why I don't participate in Black Friday....nothing on sale could be worth dealing with this stupidity.

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Three Years Ago on In My Words...In A Pinch

Gobble, Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!! I know I am a day early for the folks in the States but lucky us, Thanksgiving is already here!!! (Sad for us, the parade and football games won't be on until tomorrow).

This means the beginning of none stop holiday music on the radio and in the stores....whooeee!!! Fortunately for me, I am practically done with my Christmas shopping...

Hope this finds everyone healthy and happy and enjoying the holiday with family and friends.

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One Year Ago on In My Words...A Fix I Could Live With

Amazing Toilets

I have to say that Japan has some kick ass toilets. They do everything but the dishes these days and we could really use some like these in the States.

I meant to blog about this before but didn't get a chance and thought that I better get it up there before I forgot again. This toilet is one I used in a public restroom in a nice hotel that we were attending a Japanese wedding and reception at. I loved that there were English instructions as well.

Now the toilet itself was just like a ton of others I have seen here....a lot of nice places pay the extra money for their toilets so they all the bells and whistles...okay, maybe not whistles but you can have a 20 second flushing sound, which I am assuming is to hide any other sounds the user might be making themselves.

You can find ones here that have sprayers (for front and back), warmers (for the seat) and that even put the seat up and down automatically. I don't know if they have ones that dry your bum too but I wouldn't be surprised at all if they do. All toilets here have the option for a big flush or a small flush depending on necessity at the moment.

So I thought I would post a picture of a cool Japanese toilet with its instructions so you could just see how awesome they are for yourself. I wish I could have one back home in the States but my understanding is that they are VERY expensive...
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Three Years Ago on In My Words...What Happened to the Classics

Birthday Thanks

Thanks to everyone that made my birthday so much fun this year. It is hard to be away from all your family during the holidays and special occasions that are so important in our lives, and you guys all made it so much better for me, you don't even know.

I am awestruck sometimes how friends can fill in the holes in our lives when family is far away...you guys did it amazingly for me this month. I don't know how to thank you enough.

The 80s party with all the November girls earlier this month was a blast and then our little dinner yesterday on my actual birthday was literally the icing on the cake. I already have the beautiful piece of art hanging in my office.

Thank you!!!

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Two Years Ago on In My Words...Cell Phone Recycling

Congratulations Are Due

One of my close girlfriends here just had a baby this week. That is part of the reason I have not been on the blog much. She went into labor on the 18th in the evening and J was delivered by C-section on the afternoon of the 19th weighing at 9lbs 2ozs. He is VERY cute and seems to be a quiet and content baby. I hope that he is an easy baby for them since this is their first.

Right when she was in labor the dad's mom was flying in for a visit, so I ran down to the airport to pick her up and bring her to the hospital. We stayed the night at the hospital and didn't get home again until the next day around 12 noon. At that time, we didn't know how long things were going to take and with jetlag, lack of food and sleeping in 10 minute segments on a waiting room couch, his mother was ready for a rest.

We were able to go to our respective houses for about 3 hours before heading back to the hospital for the delivery. The baby is healthy and happy and all is right in the world (at least for a few minutes). They might be coming home tonight or early tomorrow...and I know they can't wait.

Congratulations guys, you are going to do great!!!!

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One Year Ago on In My Words...Caching at Zakimi Castle

Cultural Group

This September I joined a cultural exchange group where we get together and everyone takes turns sharing something about their culture with the others. I even became a board member of this little organization. We do a lot of charity work, luncheons and get togethers so I have been able to keep myself very busy (not including all the things I have on my own personal To Do list).


The whole organization has about 300 women in it, and it is broken down into smaller cultural groups. My group has met twice so far. We are getting ready for a big Christmas luncheon/bazaar so we have been meeting for food, fun and time to work on our projects.


The first meeting was at my friend's house and we had some great food and worked on 1/2 of our project. Our second meeting was at a community center near Naha where we had more great food and worked on our projects some more. I thought I would post some pictures of the great food, and our projects.


One part of our project are these really simple bracelets (that I don't have pictures of), but the second part are these really cool flower arrangements that are made from preserved flowers. They last for 3 years but look and feel like fresh flowers. One of the ladies in our group owns a flower shop that specializes in these arrangements and she so graciously showed us all how to make a small arrangement that we can sell at the bazaar.

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Three Years Ago on In My Words...Time Flies

Birthday Blast

Yesterday, I and some of my friends, had a birthday blast to celebrate all the November birthday girls. It was so much fun. We had tons of food, everyone dressed in their favorite 80's garb (sorry no pictures on this public site), and we played Name that Tune, did some karaoke, and definitely danced our butts off.

As you can see from the pic, we had a cake that looked like a Rubik's cube and it was tasty. I don't know if I have laughed as hard as I did last night in a very long time. A few of us adventurous ones went out in town after the house party and made fools of ourselves in public (not really but everyone wanted to take pictures with the 80's girls).

I danced to 80's music forever at the party and then when we went out, I danced some more to 2000's R&B at the club. It was a great workout and made me feel less guilty for eating a piece of the puzzle (cake that is).

My birthday is really not for another week or so but it was fun to celebrate and not think about the fact that it marks getting another year older....haha.

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Two Years Ago on In My Words...Too Much

Beautiful Moon

Tonight we have a beautiful full moon. It is glorious looking. Seeing a full moon for some reason always gives me perspective on how small we are in this big universe even when we all think it revolves around us.

I also love the full moon because it is noticed and I know that no matter how far apart my family is right now, we can all see the same moon and that makes us all a little bit closer.

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Two Years Ago on In My Words...She's Off

Mission For Fitness

Well, I am back at it again. I finally got so fed up (part of this is due to seeing a horrible picture of myself) and I am back on a program. I only started yesterday but I am determined to stick with it. My food has always been pretty healthy (as long as there is not Halloween candy in my house) but I have needed to get with a portion control and definitely some exercise (consistent exercise that is) for a while now.

I found this cool site through a friend that lets you map your runs/walks and then if you add it to your training log when you do the walk or run that you have mapped, it tells you a lot of info about your workout as well as your "green stats". I sent the URL to my sister since she is a runner these days and I think she will find it completely useful as well. The weather has been bad here (downpours with wind) so I have not been on a walk since discovering this cool site but I have mapped several of my standard walks so I can just add them to the training log when I do them....it is so cool to know exactly how far I have gone too. My pedometer is supposed to tell me that but I don't think I have my stride length set correctly.

I would love to be feeling and looking better before the holidays are over (really before that but I am trying to be practical) because when it does get a bit cooler here, I do want to be able to wear my "winter" clothes without having to buy new ones.

Anyhow, part of my committment to my program is to broadcast that I am doing it so I will feel obligated to stick with it since everyone will know. My sister has recommitted to her program as well and we will get things back on track with the support of each other. I know that even with only a day and a half of doing this, I am already feeling better about myself and that is always a good sign.

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One Year Ago on In My Words...Anyone Want Anything To Drink?

Calendars, Etc

I got the refill calendar for 2009 in the mail the other day and I have already put all the year's birthdays in...now I am just waiting for things to come up that I will have to put in it as time goes by. I know you probably think it is weird to be excited about a calendar but I am always thrilled to have a clean slate to start with and organizing is my thing...always has been, probably always will be. I also got the calendar that J's side of the family made this year. It is beautiful. They did a great job on it and I can't wait for the new year to start so I can hang it in my kitchen. I know they are excited about it too.

I finally got the oil changed in our car and checked a few other things off the To Do list. I made Pho/Kwiteo (Vietnamese/Thai beef noodle soup) on Friday and have been eating it and sharing it with friends for two days now. I just filled the pot back up with water tonight, because I have some more noodles to finish off before I can call it quits. You have to soak the noodles in water before you can cook them and once they are soaked, it is a waste to not use them. I also have a certain amount of thin sliced meat defrosted that has to be used. Generally it works out that I run out of veggies, noodles and meat all about the same time and that is the notice that it is done. It is a great soup though so I don't mind eating it for several days and I never feel like I am eating badly when soup is on.

The weather has been perfect soup weather for the last two days. Rain and wind that makes you want to stay in and eat soup and watch movies (of course, I am watching Season 4 of Lost online but same difference). I have started a new book and it always feels good to have reading to do before bed so all in all, I have to say life is good...or that might just be the soup talking....haha.

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Two Years Ago on In My Words...She's Coming

Updated Reading

Besides joining a Virtual Library through my Facebook account, I have also finally updated my reading blog with my October reads...check it out if you have time....

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Two Years Ago on In My Words....Irked

Happy Bday J

Just wanted to wish my better half a great birthday. He is my sunshine, my only sunshine.

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Three Years Ago on In My Words...Thievery

Internet TV

I started watching the 4th season of Lost on the Internet today. I was looking for the 14th season of ER but couldn't find a reliable source so I gave up and started watching Lost from a site I trust (not completely since I am running my browser in Sandboxie).

I have watch two episodes so far and they have already sucked me in. Minus the fact that I have to sit at my computer to watch it, is not a bad set up. So far the quality is awesome and of course the big bonus is that they are free.

It is now 10:45pm and I have to get ready for bed....as much as they tried to cliffhang me into another episode. I guess now, I have even another reason to be on my computer all the time....haha.

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Three Years Ago on In My Words...Broken

Christmas Shopping

I am almost done!!! A few odds and ends and it will be finished and I might even get it all in the mail on time this year.

I haven't even started on cards yet but I still feel like I have accomplished a lot. Now I need to start wrapping and making tags...

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Two Years Ago on In My Words...Strange but Comforting