Car Is Back

I was able to get a ride from my friend yesterday to pick up my car from the shop. It seems to be running like normal but the brakes feel a million times better, there is no pull to the side, and the windshield looks like new.

Next month, I'll have to pay the annual road tax and when I do, I'll have them fix the stupid sticker situation on my windshield but in the meantime, I am just glad to have my car back.

Now I need to run my friend's car back to her house and walk home...it will be good exercise for me and the weather is cooperating today.

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One Year Ago on In My Words...Mystery Bump

Bunco Success

I had my bunco party last night. Even though I didn't get every little chore done I wanted to get done beforehand, I did get the main and noticable ones out of the way. The house looked good and we had plenty of room.

I made Yum Nua (Thai Spicy Beef Salad), Massuman curry (Thai mild curry from the southern region), and then for dessert Khao Neao Mamuang (Mango with sweet sticky rice). I had Chai yen (Thai tea) and a couple bottles of wine as well. Everyone liked the food and some even took leftovers home so I didn't have to worry about running out. The mango dessert could have been better but overall the food was a success.

The gifts were a hit (rice baskets from Thailand) and the weather was awesome so we had all the windows and sliders open and one table was set up on the deck and everyone loved it. Too bad this weather won't last....warm and sticky is on its way..in fact just this morning the humidity is much higher...

I had a ton of fun last night and I think my guests did too. Now I can start focusing on a few other things...

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One Year Ago on In My Words...Almost There

Flowers

Saturday, I spent a few hours at our local DIY and got myself a flat and 1/2 of flowers. They had a gardenia and a jasmine for 680 yen each and then I bought a bunch of little perennials for some of my pots near the door. I also plan to plant a herb container to augment what I have growing naturally in two of the owner's beds here.

So I plan to get some breakfast in a few minutes and then get out back and weedwack our back yard. I have a luncheon I have to go to around noon but then I will be off on some more errands and duties before my bunco party tomorrow night. I don't know if I will get the flowers and herbs planted before bunco but if I don't it is no biggie...the yard will be dark by the time we get started anyhow...

I just can't wait to have a little bit of spring around the house where I can see it (our flower beds are out front and we can't see them from inside the house). At least one of the big pots is going on our deck...

I am keeping the jasmine in the house until after bunco...who needs air freshener with that beauty around?

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One Year Ago on In My Words...Water, Water and Wasted Plastic Bottles

At The Shop

I had a friend help me drop off my car at the shop yesterday. Every two years here, all drivers have to have a safety and maintenance inspection and purchase a special kind of insurance. This helps the govt make sure that cars on the roads are up to standards and are not polluting more than they do naturally. Japan has very strict emission codes (something we could learn a thing or two about in the States). I never mind doing the inspection or insurance but it does take some time.

The garage will have my car at least until Monday. I asked them to call me when they knew for sure what it would need to pass inspection. Turns out that I need front brake pads and an alignment (which doesn't suprise me because it has been grabbing to one side when I brake), and it needs a brake rebuild (which I think means a cylinder rebuild) in the back. I also have a chip in the windshield (which was there when we bought the car) that has to be repaired before it will pass. I will talk to them today and make sure that they also check the charging system because every once in a while it will sound like it is having issues in that department.

Overall, when I am done, I will have a car that I can rely on, and hopefully will have no mechanical worries for another 2 years. In the meantime, I have a loaner from a friend to drive for the weekend and one more thing checked off my list.

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Three Years Ago on In My Words...Bad Idea

IMHO

it is rude to tell people about an event/party/get together if they are not invited....

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

Thanks For This Thursday

Continuing project...this week's thanks are:

I am grateful for my mom. Unfortunately for her, she had to be the heavy my entire childhood and I know that was hard on her but I am a directed, and independent woman because of her. She is my friend. I can turn to her with questions, or opinions and always get a new perspective on things. She made some hard decisions in her life when I was little just to give me a better life and I am so thankful for that. She pushed me to be a better person and look outside of myself. I have learned more from her than I can even remember. She always finds the beauty in things.

I am thankful for my education. While it has cost a pretty penny and I probably haven't gotten my money back out of it yet, I will never feel that learning is a waste. I hope to be learning until the day I die. We can never be too educated in this life and that doesn't mean all education has to be book or school learned. I realize that my education has opened doors for me, and kept them open in a world where doors are so often slamming shut on people. I hope that I can use my education to improve upon someone else's life, even if it means just convincing them to continue their educations. I know that my education has broadened my horizons both literally and figuratively. I hope to do the same for another.

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Eighteen Months Ago on In My Words....Interesting Finds

Golf Clubs

I have got them in the car so I can be ready to hit some balls at a moment's notice....that has got to be a good sign right?

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Three Years Ago on In My Words....Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Nothing Is Easy

Yesterday I got pissed off at IE because no matter what I do the Link folder in Favorites always comes back and it makes itself show on my toolbar and it also moves my Google toolbar around. My spyware blocker sees it coming in even though I have used every registry edit option out there to keep this thing from coming back.

So I decided to switch to Firefox....which is okay. The fonts and size of fonts are not my favorite and I am not used to the whole tabbed thing but I am learning.

There are three things missing though that really bug me....

1. No word wrap for long urls....hello, Firefox has known about this issue since 2006 and still they do not have a fix...well when CSS3 becomes the standard I guess they will be forced to deal with it.

2. There is no "apply" button in the internet options area...so you can't try something out without exiting out of the area you are in.

3. There is no way to block third party cookies....this one bugs me a lot as well.

So while I have searched all over Blogger and Google today to find a solution to the word wrap issue (my biggest peeve), I find that there is not going to be a solution, at least not for a while. This SUCKS because now my Testing Blogger blog looks like crap in Firefox (of course it always looked like this, I just didn't know). I might have to change templates just so I don't have to deal with seeing it look so crappy for now....this really does piss me off.

Get with it Firefox....this should be an easy one to fix.

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

Stinky Lotion

I recently tried a bottle of Suave Cocoa butter with Shea lotion on the recommendation from my mom that Shea butter lotions are great for your skin....well they might be, but this one in particular turns on me. Not immediately, but as soon as I start sweating at all, I start to stink like I haven't washed under my pits in a week. This is very uncomfortable for me because I am kind of phobic of BO on my own body (don't mind it on others much).

Now that wouldn't be a complete issue if I lived somewhere else but here, sweating is a way of life and I can't have it turning into stinking sweat within ten minutes of getting out of the shower....that will just not do.

I don't know if it is the shea or the cocoa butter that is doing it but I know that I am not going to use that particular one again. I was trying to finish out the bottle but yesterday I got fed up with it, so it is out of here....I am using Nivea for now...when it is gone, I'll try something new again.

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Three Years Ago on In My Words....Trips and All The Chaos

Dreams

I had a very strange dream about J last night that might turn into a story later. I woke up from it around 4:30am and felt terrible (sometimes happens when I have bad dreams about him), but amazingly enough I remembered most of the dream, even the details, at 7am when I got up so I wrote an outline of things so I can flesh it out later if I so desire...we'll see.

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One Year Ago on In My Words...Time is Flying

Making Headway

Okay, so we have narrowed down that my project issues are genetic...haha. I am doing much better at breaking things down now that I know it is not just me...

I have finished the Okinawa kanji squares, I just need to write my name on them and give them out to those that I am giving them to. I am still working on the wave ones...I have 5 done but the cutting is hard so I can only do a few at a time before my hand gives out. I obviously need to stitch the ones I am keeping for myself.

I put our tiki torches out and took inventory of the big pots I brought with me so I can get some flowers and herbs planted and pretty things up outside. I will probably need at least a flat of flowers from our local DIY store. I cleaned all the windows I could reach without a ladder the other day on the outside...this will take much more time since we have a wall of glass on every room in our house, including the bathrooms. Fortunately, I don't have to clean them often.

I was able to visit a friend I haven't seen in a few days due to schedules and we got caught up. I need to get some flowers sent to another friend that is having surgery in the morning in WA. In fact, she is probably in surgery right now.

I have done some updates on two of my blog templates and will probably do more soon but for now, I like what I have done and am happy to leave things as is.

I feel like I got some things accomplished today even though I didn't hack out the whole list and I didn't get any one full project completed...I guess I am in project remission though and that is a step in the right direction...haha.

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30 Months Ago on In My Words...Image History

Losing Its Appeal

I went out geocaching the other day after dinner. It seems like it has gotten a lot more complicated to geocache here than I really want it to be. Some caches here are hidden near or in the water and can only be gotten when the tide is out which means coordinating the tide schedules (terrible for me to deal with). Others are camouflaged micros in very busy areas that really don't take me to a new place, but seem to be a test of the hider's ability to stump everyone and cause us to seek caches only in the rain or at night in order to not be seen. Then others are hidden amongst trash in dark scary caves that homeless people live in making finding them almost impossible.

It has been ages that I have gone to find a cache in a nice hidden away place that doesn't require me to beat off habu snakes, or tourists and still shows me something new. It makes the sport very frustrating for me. A lot of the fun has been taken out of it for me. I do it because I want exercise and to see something new. I don't do it so I can drive up to a little spot on the side of the road and find a cache 5 feet from my car, unless the spot is cool and I wouldn't have seen it otherwise.

One other issue is that if a cache is not hidden properly, it is found, quite frequently, by either tourists, landscapers or others not playing the game. Many times because NO ONE here thinks to put a Japanese translation page in their caches, they are tossed in the trash. So many coins, and travel bugs have been lost in just the last few weeks because of this....this makes me not want to put any of my travel bugs out there.

Now all of this is not on the hiders alone...the nature of this place adds to it. The parks here are very manicured...so finding a hiding spot that won't be weedwacked every 6 months is very hard to do. This place is also very crowded so it is hard to find a spot where there isn't someone else already sitting enjoying the space. Creatively camouflaged micros are sometimes the only option.

Okay, that is my bitch session for the day. I want to go out geocaching today but my frustration from the other night, might just lead to me to find other things to do instead...grrrrr.

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Two Years Ago at In My Words...Typical

New Square Prototypes

Here are two jpegs of the designs for squares I want to make for my quilt. I made these designs so I could figure out what will end up looking the best. I already have the material...just finishing up the prep work so I can get started....





I think the wave will need some detail stitching on the white part...maybe even in a light blue...

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Three Years Ago at In My Words....The Somewhat Downside

Not Motivated

I am fighting the procrastination bug big time. I did finally manage to get to a store I have been meaning to visit for over a week, today. I got what I needed, now I just need to mail it. I was telling my mom via email this morning how I am getting bogged down because I can't just let something be a task....if I have two yardwork items to do, it becomes a project rather than just two items. Because it is elevated to project status, I tend to not start unless I have a huge block of time to tackle it in. I like to be done with it rather than have it sitting around half done (although the way I have been tackling projects subconsciously lately, you wouldn't believe this about me).

So, instead of repotting a few house plants today and then weedwacking the yard tomorrow and then weeding the front yard the next and planting some spring flowers and herbs the next, I just keep putting the whole thing off as a "yardwork project" until I have everything I could possibly need from the store and the weather to tackle it all at once....this can mean that it doesn't get done. I refuse to live this way anymore.

Right now, I am experiencing the 4pm drowsies....so I need to get off the computer and doing something physical so I can get past it. I have windows to clean outside and that would be another one that I have turned into a project rather than just doing a few at a time....grrr...sometimes my personality conflicts with my reasoning....and then none of us are happy.

Update- I did get some exercising, geocaching, yarding, and window washing in...none of it is complete but at least I made a dent in a few things...I guess I had a break-thru because doing a bit rather than all didn't kill me.

Thursday Thanks

Continuing project...this week's thanks are:

I am grateful for my sister. She is my closest friend. I can tell her anything and not be judged. She is my secret holder. She motivates me and drives me to be more like her. She is fun and alive and makes me get out of my shell and live it up. She is beautiful inside and out and brings out the best in people when they are around her. The room lights up when she comes in. My childhood would have been boring without her. She helps me to keep perspective and focus.

I am thankful for my health...for a few weeks I haven't felt that great (most likely a bug I picked up traveling) but I seem to be okay now...it is amazing how you can feel less than 100% and it can change your entire perspective. Then when it hangs around longer than you expect, it really starts to knaw at your brain and the worrying does you no good either. I am glad to be worry free, sleeping more peacefully and able to get back to my regular life.

Observations

Yesterday I did a bit of errand running and hopefully got some things done. I did fine the fabric I am going to use for two more squares I am making for my quilt. I'll have enough to make a few extras of each so I'll put those up for grabs when they are done. I know my friend K wants some of them.

I updated the ToDo list this morning and I noticed that every time I try to type strike to put in the cross out html....I misspell it....every time. Don't know what the deal is but it pisses me off.

I talked to the local authorities about the speeding on our road the other day, but I don't know if it will make a difference. Until someone gets hurt or killed, I am sure no one will do anything.

I need to do some geocaching since I have a coin that needs to be put out.

I had a very weird dream last night about my husband's work...very strange indeed. Can't go into it here because that would blow some of my anonymity so you know how that is.

I managed to sleep (kind of) in until 7am this morning...don't know what the deal is but 6 am seems to be my body clock time to get up, even if I read in bed until 12 at night.

I am reading a book that is only okay right now...actually, I am reading two books but I thought the second one would be a quick fast read so the first one was put on hold. If you want to get technical about it, I have a third one I started ages ago in my night stand that I need to finish too....oh well.

I have been doing my brain age training on my Nintendo DSLite in the evenings...it still tells me my brain is 56 years old...I am wonder if I have a younger brain in the mornings.

I spent an hour at the 100 yen store last night on my way home from my friend's house. I got some things to mail out but also some things for the house. We could learn so much from the Japanese on economy and efficiency...it is amazing. I could sit in one of those stores forever thinking up ways to use the stuff in there. I even found some little screen repair things I am going to try out in the office screen. We'll see if they work. I did find some big soup bowls. They aren't matching to the ones I have already but they are blue, white and black so they will go with all my other stuff. If I ever come across my other ones, I'll grab them up.

The sun is out and I am meeting some friends for coffee at the Starbucks that opened a few weeks ago less than a mile from my house.

New Furniture

Okay, I promised I would post a pic of the new furniture I bought when I got it situated. This is a pic of our dining room looking from our living room area towards our kitchen. The two chairs stacked on each other on the right are not there anymore...I found homes for them in another part of the house. The table expands to seat six and it is countertop height. All of the furniture is made out of mango wood and is pretty heavy and hard.

I Found Them

I guess I never blogged about this before because I did several searches and couldn't find this one...but ever since we got here, I have not been able to find a pile of giftcards that I had. I knew I put them somewhere safe but in my organizing way, I couldn't find them any where. I mean it was to the point that I started a Word doc on my computer to keep track of the places I already looked for them just so I would stop looking for them repeatedly in the same spots (which all seemed like logical spots). This reminds of me of when I "lost" all our foreign bills when we moved back to the States last time because I stashed them someplace safe. It took me months to find them too and I just happened upon them one day.

Same thing today. I was putting some coupons away and found all the giftcards in my coupon organizer (you had to know I had one of those, right?). When I think of it now, I am not sure why I put them there and not one of the logical places I already looked but I am happy to have found them...J will get a laugh out of this one when I tell him.

Lazy Day

Today has been a totally lazy day for me. The only thing I have accomplished besides watching movies that I need to return, is coloring my hair. I hope to get a square of my quilt stitched but we'll see if I can even knock that out or not. I don't know what the deal was but I figured I would not fight it and just enjoy a day of doing almost nothing...

Now I do have to go because I am hungry and that can't wait for another day.

Thursday's Thanks

I was reading today, about a girl I don't know, that has cancer. She is a mom, and has beaten cancer two times, but now it is back and might be back to stay. I have never read her blog before (I was directed there by someone else) but it struck a cord with me and really made me think. Her blog is in my reader now and I am sure that I will be adding her to the list of Internet "friends" that are made through the communities we all have when we put ourselves out there on the Web. Note that, because I tend to stay pretty anonymous on the web, my community (minus those that know me in real life) is probably pretty small and non-substantial but it is still there.

So anyhow, she asked us what we are grateful for and this got me to thinking. I have a ton to be thankful for, much of it is small everyday things, but the bigger things are probably things I take for granted everyday and don't really even think about. Those are the things that I would incredibly miss if they were gone for even a second of my life and probably need more attention than I give them. They are things that if they weren't in my life at some point, would have changed the person I ended up being. This is a good exercise for my brain because I think I need a good dose of reality and perspective. I tend to sweat the small sh1t and I need to think about all I have got and realize that those small things that I can or can't control on a day to day basis are not the things that matter. The things that matter are bigger than that.

So each week, on Thursday, I am going to put up a post that talks about what I am thankful for. I have so many things that if I tried to put it all in one post, it would be huge and the thanks would get lost. So if I spread them out over the weeks, it will keep the posts at a readable length but also give me a chance to focus on the things that I am grateful for over time. Bear with me, since these might get a bit sappy....

I am grateful for my husband, who is also my best friend. We have a lot in common while still being different enough to keep it interesting and we love each other for those differences as much as we do for the things that are the same between us. We stablize each other, keep each other sane, and in the here and now. I would not have grown into the woman I am without him in my life the last 16 years.

I am thankful for the spring weather (even if that means days of rain as well as sun). It makes me feel alive when I go outside and breathe in the air. It motivates me to get exercise, enjoy the outdoors and tackle projects. It makes my skin feel good. It tells my brain that everything is cyclic and we can always start again.

I am grateful for the Internet because it allows me to stay in touch with my friends and family when I am far away (which seems to be how I always am). If we lived in another country 20 years ago, phone calls and letters would be our only option. And while letters were cheaper than they are today, phone calls were not. These days, I have email, blogs, IM, VOIP, texting, letters, and phone calls, and that makes it so much easier to still feel like I am apart of something that is not near.

What Was the IOC Thinking?

These stories are making me so sad....the three YouTube videos (one program) are somewhat sensationalized but that doesn't take away from the fact that there are serious problems in China right now and the fact that all eyes will be on them is not going to be easy for their government to deal with....seems though, that they are not choosing to deal with it in a good way...instead they decide to demolish homes and hope that all the the sad or poor people will just not be seen rather than trying to actually fix things.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6hwhDnlNUY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVtdzVPCvCk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMBFCr673H4

I saw a segment on NBC Nightly News tonight that made me cry. They were destroying some of the ancient areas of the city (note these are historic areas as well) and those that were displaced were crying. There was an elderly man in a wheelchair with tears in his eyes and it just made my heart break. The stats stated that 13,000 people were being diplaced per day and that the number is expected to be 1.5 million by August of this year.

I just don't understand why they have to do this. It makes me not want to watch the Olympics this summer.

Mishka's March Reading

I updated my March reading list on Mishka's reading if you want to check it out.

Birthday Wishes

For me, today is my sister's birthday...of course, for her, it is not until tomorrow but I going to wish her a happy one now and hope she has sweet dreams and a great day tomorrow even though it will be a Monday.

Happy Birthday Sis!!! You are the best and I miss you like crazy....come visit me (I'll pay, you just need to get the time off)!!!!!

I LOVE YOU

Moving

Well, I spent almost all day yesterday moving furniture around. I am sure my back, leg and arm muscles will thank me later for it.

I tried moving a bookcase out of the tatami room so I could put the curio cabinet that the new hutch is displacing there, but it looked terrible so the book case went back in, along with all the books I moved.

I had to move the old dining room chairs to the laundry room so I could start unpacking the new dining room chairs. I have not even started with the new dining room table. I have the boxes stacked in my garage for recycling.

I managed to put four things in the paper for sale/giveaway and the giveaway ones are already gone. I meet the girl today at 11am to drop them off. Hopefully the sale items will go as quickly so I can have some space to work with.

Today, I have to get the banquet table out of my office and put the old dining room table in there (it is a dinette really and it will fit better). Then I can unpack the new dining room table and get it set up.

The new hutch looks lovely in its new home and I have put in the stuff that I want in there....and while it looks like I have room for more, I have to remember that I didn't bring all my stuff here and I don't want it to be overcrowded when we move back...just means I'll have to be selective in my purchases...and I need to get the pictures out of what I already own that it is in storage.

I'll post pics as soon as I get everything situated.

Snail

Last night it was sprinkling when I got home after we had a pretty nice day over all. I went through the house closing windows so that rain would not get in. I had used the bathroom at my friend's before leaving her house so I never went in the bathroom that has the toilet in it before heading to bed.

I woke up at 7:30am to use the bathroom and found that it was pouring outside and not only that, it was blowing towards the one window in the room. The OPEN window....Needless to say, the floor, the bathmat and the toilet were all completely soaked. I had to go to another room to get a towel for the floor, and when I came back (note, I did not have my glasses on or my contacts in), I noticed a dark spot on the toilet seat. As I moved closer so I could see it, I realized it was a little snail making his/her way across my toilet seat because it was soaked as well. I thought for a minute of flicking him/her into the toilet itself but decided to be nice, and picked it up and put it outside. I guess the screen we have on that window is not a completely tight seal....

It's Here

Our new furniture was delivered today but it is not unpacked or set up yet...you'll have to wait for pictures until I get that done, but since I have a party happening here at my house on the 14th, I am very motivated to get it done and move on to other projects....

I just wanted to announce that it was here....

Caved In

Okay, yesterday, after discussing it with J, I caved in and purchased the new dining room set and the hutch (yes, it was still there when I went back). So I need to call the guy that delivers and see when I can get it here and how much it is going to cost me (it just won't fit in our little cube car).

I have to move things around again (not the TV stand) but the couches because I think they are too crowded looking right now. I have to move a curio cabinet I have in the diningroom, into our tatami room so I have room for the hutch...I think it will fit well. The fish might have to move down a bit and one of the plants will get moved too but oh well...we'll see how it goes.

J is not big on crowded spaces. He would rather not have a lot of stuff filling up each crack so I need to make sure I don't over do it, especially since I still have some things on my list of things to get before we move.

This also means that I need to get my folding 6 foot table in my office on the market as well as the 4 solid oak dining room chairs so that I have room for the new stuff. I'll probably just sell them in an free newspaper that goes around here that is in English, rather than trying to sell them at a flea market or something.

I'll put our current dining room table in the office where the 6ft table is and that will give me some room in there (the dining room table is smaller).

I really need to do a flea market but the yen rate is bad right now so I will hold off for a bit. If it comes back up to even (100 yen to the dollar) I will get to it as soon as I can.

Fragrances

Somebody tell me, what is the purpose of fragranced soap, shampoo, and conditioner? While it smells great in the shower, as soon as you get out, you put on lotion and hair products that cover it all up anyhow....or is it just for the shower?

In Case You Were Wondering

For my location...

Length of Day 12h 13m (on 24 March 08)
Tomorrow will be 1m 34s longer.

Gorgeous...But Busy

I woke up today after a very rainy Easter, to a beautiful sunny, breezy, dry Spring day. I guess Spring did officially start the other day. I managed to take down my snowflakes off the window that I leave up for winter.

I also cleaned all my silver and did my bi-annual switch over to silver. It tells me that Spring is here and Summer is not far off and I am really looking forward to Summer this year in particular.

I have a little list of things to do, and I plan to get some of them tackled today if I can...hopefully I won't be inside too much and can fit a little bit of geocaching in as well. Days like this are the kind we live for. The birds are chirping and the wind chimes are dinging happily outside my office window.

One of the things to do was added by the workmen that were here for three days recaulking all the windows in this house (it is definitely a three day job when you consider how many windows we have), and they got caulk all over them so I need to clean them. Today is a great day for that, not too hot, but warm and dry enough that cleaning them will be easy. Oh, and cleaning my car....I can take it do a little gas station down the road from here and have them wash and wax it in their machine, then clean the windows, wipe down the interior and vacuum the whole thing for about 10 bucks (1000 yen). Can't beat that.

Hope you having a nice Spring day where ever you are as well.

Just Add It To The List

Well, I have been wanting, for a while now, to change my livingroom around*. We are kind of limited though, because every room in our house (including the bathrooms) have one wall that is completely glass. This means, no putting leather couches up against hot drying sunlight, and therefore limits the options. Since I have a 96 inch couch and 70 inch loveseat and a huge oversized chair and ottoman...we are talking some work trying to figure it out. Our livingroom, because of the tatami room and the dining room, only really has two walls and since I need outlets for some things, I can't put all the sitting spaces on the walls.

The easy fix I thought I would do (just switching the couch and loveseat) didn't work. I have now completely rearranged the whole room (which means getting out more cable so I can hook the TV back up to the satellite) and I am not sure if I like it much but it will have to stay for now. My husband will probably be pleased because I rarely move furniture around after I get it like I want it, and he likes to change it up some. Of course, he is not the one that connects all the electronics either so that might be why it seems easier to him...haha.

Oh, and in the midst of all this, I had to condition the leather since I had everything out and that added to the mix but it sure does look good now.

Update----First let me mention that rearranging the livingroom and treating the leather was never on my list of things to do but I am glad to have done them. That said, I don't know if I like the way the living room is set up and might be changing it around again next week. It depends on if the hutch/cabinet I have my eye on is still available and if it is, then I might not be changing it much. If it isn't, then I will move it around a bit....Right now, it seems a bit crowded....

*The loveseat was being sat in more than any other piece and I don't want it to look more worn than the others.

Finished Taxes

Okay, I finally sat down and finished up our taxes today. I had started them a few weeks ago but couldn't finish them until I got info from our rental company. I talked to a tax professional and because of the depreciation issue on the house we sold in WA, I also had to do amended returns for 2004 and 2005. So I guess knowing that I had so much to do still on it, I kind of stalled.

Well, we had workers here at the house all day so while I was waiting around, I decided to tackle the taxes and see what I came up with. I was able to get the two amended returns out of the way pretty quickly although since I no longer had the software for the 2004 ones, I had to fill out forms from the Internet and print them based on my PDF file for the tax pages I filed in 2004. It wasn't that hard once I found the forms.

When I had those two done, I could do the final stuff on our current year and while I am not getting as much back as I had hoped, I think we fared better than we could have. We were able to get a capital gains exception on both houses we sold last year rather than on only one. I did have to pay gains on the depreciation but if we had had to count one of the houses too, we would really have paid.

So that is my exciting day....aren't you all glad you checked in?

Post Secret

Lately, I haven't been able to read post secret's blog. It is just too depressing....

February Reading Update

Just wanted to let you know that I finally got around to updating Mishka's Reading with the February books.

Check it out if you have time and are looking for something to read.

Nekid as a Jaybird

She was cut yesterday. I think it was a bit of a shock to go from full winter growth to nothing but she seems to be comfortable with it now. This photo was taken shortly after getting home. I left most of her tail intact so it looks like she has it wrapped around her for warmth...but she really isn't cold. It is in the 70s here...she just looks so much littler to me when she is cut. Like a kitten almost...

Koi and Fan Quilt Squares

Okay, I finished the stitching on both of these tonight...and here they are in all their glory. These are the ones I am giving to the donation quilt along with the drum square I showed on here. I have not even started stitching on my own squares that are going in my quilt...and I have a couple of other ideas for squares that I want to do as well so it could be a project that stays with me for a while.




I left the link intact so you could check out the detail if you want.

Hoping Against Hope

Last night while watching a movie, I started hearing sirens. Because our house is located in what constitutes farm country here, we rarely hear sirens but this was a lot of sirens and they were coming down my street. Now, my street if you follow it to the end runs into the East China Sea and when I got outside, that is where all the emergency vehicles were parked. There were two fire trucks, two trucks with trailers (one with a boat, and one with a jetski), 3 cop cars and an ambulance. It was about 9:30pm at night. I put shoes on and headed out the door. Wanted to see what was going but also wanted to help if a search party or something was needed. By the time I got the three blocks in, there were lots of neighbors outside waiting to see what had happened.

Turns out that an elderly (and elderly here is completely different from elderly anywhere else...Okinawans live forever) who frequents the beach at the end of street for octopus and other staples, had not come home that evening and her family was worried. We stayed out there for over an hour watching the truck with the big lights scan the ocean and beach, snorkelers with rescue printed on their wetsuits suit up and run down to the beach. We thought perhaps she just didn't come home on time but was going to be okay.

Eventually a lot of the searchers came back up. Some of them left. One set of snorkler's came back for a surf board. The truck with the big light manuevered even farther down the beach. Then I started to see flashing lights at another beach down the way and realized that they had moved the search down the beach.

I came home without knowing what was going on. I have heard sirens on our street twice today. Finally I decided to walk down towards the water and see what I could find out. Apparently they haven't found her yet. The Japanese coastguard has a big boat off the beach searching for her and the helicopters are out as well. I hope they find her okay but I am thinking that it is not looking good now. I feel terrible for her family. The live in our neighborhood because she just walks to the beach in the evenings.

I guess if I see the black and white stripes in the next few days, I'll know it didn't turn out good.

Update on 3/14: I still don't know the outcome but today I have not heard any sirens and yesterday they were looking for her all day. Heard a rumor that she turned up at home but I don't know anything for sure.

My Vice

I am a member of the Stephen King Library. Have been forever. I got hooked on Stephen King when I was in junior high school after my mom read The Shining and told me how much it affected her. I had already ventured into some horror on my own in grade school but Stephen King is way more than horror, as any loyal reader will know.

I don't know what it is about his books, but he always sucks me in even in the first few words. He just has it down and I connect.

So, as a member of the library, I get the hardcover books as soon as they come out and at quite a discount off the jacket price. I received his latest in the mail on Monday and having forced myself to finish the other book I was reading yesterday, I was primed to get some reading in last night before bed.

As soon as I opened that damn thing, I was hooked. I didn't even get to bed until after 1am but still had to read because it had been something I was looking forward to all day long. I managed to only read for a bit before the need to shut my eyes took over but first thing this morning, I cracked open that book again.

I have no willpower...I could easily make some food, go out on my back porch in this great weather and lie on a towel and read all day long.....any other plans out the window. That is how much I love reading his stuff. Of course, because I am also a very fast reader, the book would be over in no time if I just took the day off to read.

I know I must sound like some kind of freak but his stories are always just so good, and these days if there is horror in them, it is a new kind of horror. Gone are the days of vampires, and clowns in the drains....now the horror usually resides either in the book or in the character and the reality of it all is the anticipation that keeps the story moving along without knowing it is going to get you.

So try as I might, I will get some things accomplished today but I can't promise that there won't be a part of the day spent on my deck with the fountain running, the sun shining and me smiling at my 609 pages of pleasure...if I could only make it last.

I Won!!!

It didn't actually change what I pay in taxes but at least I made my point...they lowered the value down to what we paid for the property instead of their inflated figure they had....whoooeee!!! So nice to be vindicated.

Perspective

Okay, this is going to be a rambler so if you want duck out, I completely understand.

There is this thing about me that I have noticed in recent years that I may have always had and just didn't notice or just noticed because it just appeared. Regardless, it has come to my attention that I believe that in sharing something with someone else about myself, I change the way that person perceives me from that point forward.

I think I have started keeping a lot of things to myself because I don't want that permanent imprint to be there, unless it really is something that is permanent. Meaning, if I tell someone something about my history or experiences, that is fine because it is factual and happened and is part of who I am permanently, but if I tell them about something I am feeling or thinking about at that moment, it is not permanently part of me...just momentarily part of me but I am afraid it will be part of me in their mind forever more. Does that make sense?

Obviously there are things that I don't mind making a permanent part of my memory for others, like how I feel about saving the environment or cruelty to animals but I guess it is more the internal fears or questions that worry me will cloud a person's perception of me in a way that I can't stand. Sometimes I even find myself keeping anger to myself because I don't want to imprint them with me as being an angry person or a fly off the handle kind of person or a person that is not cool and collected.

I remember as a college student, who has kept a journal from the age of 12, that my mother asked if anything ever happened to me, could she publish my journals. Now the idea of being published is fabulous...I would love to be a paid writer, but I was scared that someone would read those things (which are all marked by date and time) and think that I felt all of that all the time, rather than just in that moment. This is kind of the same thing.

The other day, one of my friend's nicknamed me Oracle on the bowling scoreboard. I didn't get it and asked what it meant. She said because I know everything. I know, of course that she didn't mean this in a mean way, but all of a sudden I started to wonder, do I come across as a know it all? I do like to be informed on things....in my life, it is best to be informed (those of you that actually know me, will agree this is so) and I like to help keep my friends and those I love informed as well if I can but I don't want to be thought of as a know it all....that is for sure. I guess it seems like a negative thing to me but probably to others it is not.

I shared some things with my sister the other day, and then I started to think about it today that now she probably thinks of me in a different light. I know deep in my heart that this is probably not true that she just thinks of me the same as she always has as her big sister and none of it was a big enough deal to really dwell on for long anyhow but there is still that nagging little part that worries about it. Weird huh? Because I know things about her that are very similar to what I shared with her and none of that changes at all how I look at her so why should I think it would change how she looks at me?

Those are just two examples of what I am talking about overall here. I feel like even with friends and family, I am keeping more of myself close to the cuff so I don't leave a permanent imprint that I didn't intend to leave....at the same time, I feel like if I don't share myself, especially in the moment, will I end up leaving an imprint at all?

The thing is, because of my belief system, this life we have is the one and only final run, no rewinds, no do overs. As humans, we tend to think we need to have meaning to our lives (I don't know that any other animals think this way), and perhaps that is a good thing. It instigates us to make a difference and try to do some good. But at the same time, it fills us with this feeling like we don't amount to something if we aren't creating Pulitzer prize books, or curing cancer. Do cheetahs care about if they have made a mark on the world? No, they live, die and the world moves on....they can have a short life or a long life and the only difference will really be on how many offspring they ended up having.

As a human, I am stuck wondering if I am making a mark on the world, even a little one, and if that is enough to count my life as worthwhile. Should I be doing more? Should I worry about the permanent imprint a rash comment or outburst might cause or should I be focusing on the big picture and the fact that I am here for a very short time and should be enjoying this life I have for what it is worth and just try to help those around me enjoy theirs too?

For those of you reading this and going "ahah, she is having a mid life crisis"...don't think you have everything figured out just quite yet. Number one, I am not in mid life (in my thirties)....I plan to live a very long time (assuming I don't get hit by a bus), so this is in no way my mid life, and number two, I think that this age is a great time to think about these things because I still have tons of time to make changes if necessary and still affect the outcome.

I don't want to be a clique, so I hope that sharing this part of me has not left a permanent clique imprint on you.....(see, I am still worried about it).

Makes My Back Ache

This is my friend's dog....his name is Matix and he sits in the strangest positions. It is hard to get him on camera because he is afraid of the flash but I did manage to get this shot of him the other day...and this is not even the worst of his positions...

Seventh Generation

I have happened upon a socially and environmentally responsible company that I am proud to do business with. According to their website (link also in title), they have been around for 15 years but I only just found them. I use their toilet paper but will be on the look out for other products that they put out so I can make a small change in whatever way I can to make this earth a better place for those that come after me.

They have a blog that I have added to my reader so I can get an idea of what other options might be out there. I might end up linking them on my blog as well, but for now, I will be happy to just read and educate myself.

I have put a button my sidebar to the company website so you can check them out anytime you want. I know that at least a few of you will find this as interesting info. In the meantime, here are some astounding facts found on their label that might help persuade some of the naysayers...
"If every household in the US replaced just one-4 pack of 400 sheet virgin fiber bathroom tissue with 100% recycled ones, we could save:

• 1,450,000 trees
• 3.7 million cubic feet of landfill space, equal to over 5,500 full garbage trucks
• 523 million gallons of water, a year's supply for over 4,100 families of four
• avoid 89,000 pounds of chlorinated pollution.

Recycling paper prevents unnecessary landfilling of valuable resources. In addition to saving trees, producing recycled paper uses less water and energy than paper made from trees."

Update- had to remove the button on my sidebar because they redid their website and no longer have gifs or jpegs to use as buttons....unfortunate but true.

Itunes

I hate that iTunes is not intuitive if you need to move your music to another harddrive, file or spot on your computer...I should be able to point the whole damn program to the new folder and it should just say okay rather than making me point every single damn song to the new folder.....grrrr.

Taxes

Well, I started our taxes on Thursday around 2 in the afternoon and pretty much finished them up around 8pm....I had a question to ask a tax person today so I had to wait to get that done this morning. I have to file two ammended returns for depreciation I didn't take for our rental (I can only do 2004 and 2005) because we are going to have to pay capital gains on the depreciation even if I didn't get it so I might as well get some of it...

I also don't have the final paperwork from our current rental company for the house so I just estimated for now and will wait to print it and get it done completely when their stuff gets here...got to have those numbers match.

I am thrilled though with all the massive amounts of things we did this year that they aren't going to be completely impossible for me to do and we should come out getting some back...not as much as I would have liked, but at least some.

Quilt Squares

On Wednesday, we did the exchange of quilt squares with most of the people involved in this quilt. There are some really cute ones out there. I guess I have some stitching to do, huh????

I still need to finish up my fans and the koi for the quilt we are donating so I won't post pics of them until I am done but I am excited to see what the finished product is going to look like.

I still have a few squares that I want to make for myself (and a few that have asked me) but those will have to be a bit later, because I have a lot on my plate this week and can't get out to get fabric. I want to do a Japanese motif wave, and then also one with the kanji for where we are...there might be a few others I can think of too...

Answering Machine

I found out the other day, quite by accident, that a couple of my friends have ones that work just fine here and they are also American made (not really but at least sold in America). So I decided to get an American phone/answering machine and see if that would be my answer. When we lived here last time, you couldn't use American phones because the frequency was the same as the emergency services, but this time, the phones are at a different frequency so they sell them all over the place.

So I will put my 900 mHz Sony cordless phone away for a while (probably in the same place I have my ATT digital answering machine), and will use my new Uniden phone w/answermachine and two handsets for now. I am currently only charging the one handset for now so I can see how the reception is in this house (the other phone can't be used everywhere because of our thick concrete steel reinforced walls). If I can use it all over, then I'll find a spot for the other base station and charge the second handset up as well....this new phone is 5.8GHz so it might be a much stronger signal...we'll have to see.

The reason for this rabbling post is that I wanted to announce to the world that I have an answering machine at home now!!!! Yeah!!!!!

Finished Taiko Drum Square

Even though I have had the applique done for a while, I still needed to do the stitching before taking a picture of the final product. My name is stitched on it as well but I blurred it out. That was probably the hardest part (not the blurring, but the stitching) because I was doing it without any thing to direct me (no lines). I think this one came out the best of the three square designs I did. It has the most color and the most detail. I'll finish stitching the others and get pictures of them up there as well.

PS I left the link to the larger photo so you could see the detail if you wanted.

Toenail Woes

GROSS WARNING!!!! I am warning you, my toenail woes are a bit gross...

A while back, I rolled over my big toe on my right foot with the back motion on the vacuum. At the time it hurt like a bitch but I didn't think much of it. Well, apparently, it damaged my toenail quite a bit, but only on the left side. When I took my polish off a few weeks ago, you could see some discoloration on my toenail but it looked like it was going to be okay eventually.

Now it has started to grow out and because a new healthy nail is growing under it, the part that is damaged is starting to lift off. Problem is, it is only on half of my nail so the right side of the nail is completely fine all the way from cuticle to edge. This poses a problem. It is not like I can just cut the damaged part off and not leave a jagged edge that might get caught on something. I have tried filing down the edges to keep them from snagging but since I don't trust it and I can't have the entire thing just get ripped off my toe, I started wearing a piece of tape over it. I am hoping that it will keep it from getting snagged but will not keep it from continuing to grow so at some point I can cut the damaged part off.

So I look like a bonehead with a piece of tape on my big toe but since it is nice, I mean really nice weather today, I can't not go in sandals...so bonehead I will be I guess for the time being. My friend is trying to get me to go to a pedicure with her soon (which I have never done before) and I really think I should wait until the new healthy part gets long enough that I can take the damaged part of...no point in paying to paint the damaged part, especially if I am going to cover it with tape...haha.

Free Rice

My record having only played once so far is 160 grains and some of those were guesses...how high can you get?

Breakage

My french press that I have had forever (my sister bought it for me when I first got married), finally died. Today, when I went to plunge the grounds down, the whole screening part moved up the stick...there isn't a way to fix it and since it is 16 years old (I haven't used it the whole time), I can't get replacement parts for it.

I have ordered a new one from the same company on Target's website today and it should be here in a few days. I'll drink tea or coffee from the vending machines. I don't have coffee every morning but the french press has been used a lot since the winter started.

My friend from Taiwan is bring me a water heater similar to the one that she has lent me for the last 6 weeks so that she can have hers back. It warms up about a teapot of water but if you forget about it or take some of the water out, the weight difference will turn it off...only in tea drinking countries would they come up with such a great thing. Anyhow, I am excited to have my own because I have been using the heck out of hers every morning for either tea or coffee.

My Soup

Using this one as my new header on Finding My Happy Medium

Just found out that someone has been stealing my pics and putting them on their site as their own...will be modifying all my pics to small and removing the link to the bigger version...sorry but I can't put up with this kind of jackassery....

Yardwork Kick Butt

Well, I got out there and got more than I thought I was going to do done. I was just planning on weedwacking our little patch of backyard (easier than bring out the mower) but I found these awesome choppers in our yard bin that I had forgotten about and that gave me ideas.

First I took out too large branches of the plant that grows in our garden off the bathroom that has the tub in it. They were getting too big and needed to go. I threw them over the wall to gather later. Next I went out the side gate and cut back all the vines coming over from the neighbors. I planned to cut down these little sucker trees that we have growing along the fence but when I got over to them, not only were three of them too big for me to cut, the way they were spaced, they started to look intentional so I will talk to the rental company first. I also discovered now that they are bigger that they are papaya trees....so if they are intentional, I will be thrilled to have them in the yard.

I swept up leaves and debris and bagged it up, and then I weeded before I hit the backyard with the weedwacker. Finally I raked and bagged up all the stuff and hosed off our back step (that was covered with grass from the weedwacking).

My arm muscles hurt a bit today (shows how weak I have gotten), but I know it was for a good cause and now when I open the blinds in my bedroom each morning, I see a nicely cut yard, instead of the mess I had going.

Eating Soup

Okay, the soup has gone really well but I still have tons of it. I am hoping to have a few more friends over today for lunch and be able to put it away for good. For sure, I'll be eating it for lunch and dinner. I'll try to get a shot of one of my bowls full before it gets eaten...they are 100 yen bowls that I love. I want to get more of the bowls but I haven't found them in a while at the store (I got them when we lived here last time). On Friday morning, I was able to find "paper" bowls to use in case I ran out of mine (I only have 4 of these really big soup bowls) but I ended up being able to wash them as people came and went and we never had to use the "paper" ones.

Along with my soup, we had a birthday party for one of my friends at the bowling alley on Friday. My bowling sucks, especially since I haven't done it in ages but I did okay on Friday night. At least I broke 100 in the last two games...haha. We had a lot of fun, being goofy and laughing. I have some great video of the girls but I wouldn't be that mean to put it on the web...although I did threaten that. Some of it is very dark too because at 9pm they turned off the lights and turned on the black lights.

Anyhow, this week has completely messed up my eating log for Finding My Happy Medium, but on Monday, I am starting with a strict program anyhow. Not changing my food too much (although Valentine candy will be out), but I will be getting some exercise in even if I have to do it in the rain and cold. I want to be fitter when it gets warm so I can go to the beach without feeling like I am going to scare away the tourists. I already eat pretty healthy (minus the Valentine candy) but I am not currently getting enough exercise in and that is going to change tomorrow.

So it is back on the bandwagon in many areas for me....still have the taxes to knockout and plan to get some yardwork in today but I also have decided to do some hanging plants in the yard this spring and I'll have to get started on that pretty soon as well.

Making Soup

I am making one of my favorite Thai/Vietnamese soups on Friday for a bunch of my friends. I basically told them when the food would be ready and people can come and go as they please and to what fits their schedule for the day.

This is the soup I made when my mom came out to visit and since we are having the weather that matches "winter" for us (high 50s at night and low 60s during the day), I figured this would be a good time for it. I hope that everyone likes it.

I got the filing done just in time to get the living room cleaned up and presentable, and I'll get some errands and cleaning done tomorrow so I won't be stressed at all. I'll pick up the last fresh ingredients on Thursday afternoon or early Friday morning so they are nice and fresh. I need to pick the basil out of my yard and get it washed and prepped and double check that I have everything I need for the soup on hand....I'll definitely need more soup base after this round, that is for sure.

Filing Is Done

and the sun is out...if only for a second....the sun, not the filing...haha. I even went through the pile of instructions and paperwork from our new house. It feels so good to have a cleaned out system and know that it is not done half-assed this time.

I can now officially get started on our taxes (although I am waiting for paperwork from our rental company still).

In the meantime, I have some yardwork, shopping, and cleaning to do tomorrow because I am having friends over for Thai soup on Friday. Tomorrow also involves some errand running so hopefully, I will get it all in....

I still have stitching to finish up on my quilt squares before I can post pictures of them and I also want to get some movie watching in since I have several on loan from a friend and two Netflix ones that I need to get to...oh well, the list never gets smaller...haha.

Rash Attack

I have a rash under my chin and on my neck on the left side. It is typical contact dermatitus for me but I don't know what I got it from. Usually I only get it from poison oak or ivy....but I think I might have gotten this from my poinsettia plant I have in my kitchen. I was pinching off some leaves on Wednesday and I am thinking that maybe I don't like the sap for some reason. I have never had a reaction from poinsettia before and I am not allergic to latex or anything like that so I am not sure what is going on. I wish I knew for sure that it was the poinsettia so I could just beware but since I don't know anything for sure, I could be running into whatever is giving it to me again and not even realize it.

I have two other spots (one next to my left eye and one on my left hip) but they aren't as big or irritating as the two on my neck. They are already starting to dry up because I have been taking benedryl at night and putting caladryl clear on during the day but they are still red and irritated looking and it makes me not want to see people. It is also making me look like I have a huge double chin.

I have not seen any people since Saturday night and I probably won't see anyone until tomorrow night if I can help it. I really do have a lot of will power when it comes to the itching, and I wouldn't even be that uncomfortable with it if it wasn't on my body where I can't really cover it up....sucks.

Anyhow, that is my life. So I have been indoors for two days working on stitching my quilt squares and filing....the weather sucks so I don't mind being inside too much right now. Enough babbling....

The To Do List February

Well, since I feel like I have been making some headway in my taskings, I thought I would put up my list from the beginning of this month and see how it looks.

1. Taxes
2. Filing
3. Quilt Squares
4. Pillow covers
5. Photos for Gma
6. Yardwork
7. Wireless network
8. Cutting hair
9. Washing car
10. Bleaching teeth
11. Reorganizing harddrives
12. Scarf for Sonia
13. Color hair

As you can see, along with my daily crap, I still have a ways to go but at least I am tackling things....

Amy's Enchiladas Are Awesome

Okay, for heathly and low calories this stuff is awesome. I don't know if Chicken and Mindsprite can eat this on their Weight Watchers plan, but I hope they can because this one is great.

It has no gluten either so Jo, this one is for you as well. It has the best taste for a microwave meal that I have experienced in a long time. Beats most that I have tried. My friend's daughter turned me on to them and they are organic as well. There are several different ones but this one pictured is the one I had for lunch today and really enjoyed.

Just thought I would share the discovery.

Hybiscus

Pillow Covers

I made these the other day for my friend K to put over her current throw pillows on her couch. She has lived in Hawaii forever so is very big into Hawaiian prints and such and they are just so very her. I leave one side unsewn and I just put velcro in it so they can be taken off and washed....I made 4 of them total.

Getting It Done

I started tackling the huge filing and tax project the other day after I got the livingroom cleaned up from the quilting and pillow cover project. I decided to separate everything first and then tackle the little parts instead of getting overwhelmed in the bigness of it all.

I got a lot of the filing done yesterday before I had a few friends over for lunch. I even got most of the year end pulled out and separated into what gets shredded and what just goes in the trash. I am determined this year to do a thorough job of it and really get rid of stuff that we don't need and so far, I am doing well.

Today, I tackled the banking/investments pile. I had to go through the prior year stuff on the investments and retirement accounts because I was keeping everything, and I really don't need to do that. I managed to trim it down quite a bit. Then I started organizing the bank statements. I have been very bad and have not reconciled our main bank statements since the end of February 2007. So I had almost a year of statements to go through and check. Now, probably for most this would be a quick thing to do but I have a method and my method is a bit time consuming.

First, I have to take the statements and check off things in the checkbook as they show up in the statements and then add to the checkbook any dividends that I might not have known about. After I do that, I take the checkbook into the office and input everything from the checkbook into the MSMoney program we use. After I do that from the checkbook, I take the statements and reconcile the MSMoney against it. This is a way for me to triple check the numbers against each other and it keeps me straight on the money.

Needless to say, I managed to reconcile the checking, savings and market saver at our main bank. Tomorrow, I have to do the investments and the small savings accounts we have at two other banks. I am proud of myself for getting this huge hurdle out of the way, even though it was there because I was not doing it all year long like I should have been. I am one step closer to being able to do my taxes soon. I still don't have all my documents in the mail yet but I am sure they are on the way now that January is over and by the time they get here, I will be ready to start.

Musubi

Okay, I don't know if this is what it is called in Japanese but I learned about it from some friends that lived in Hawaii for a long time. They are these great little nori (seaweed) sandwiches (for lack of a better word) with rice and various fillings. The one I went for was the Spam and egg version so that my first try would not be a complete surprise. It was very yummy and I am definitely going back for more, as soon as I can figure out what are in the other versions (meaning I need to learn my Japanese). You can get them at the local convenience stores. You warm them up in the microwave (they'll even do it for you at the store if you want). I am so happy to have found these and now I have another little thing I can eat without feeling too bad on the run if I have to.

This is mine in the picture on one of my sushi plates with my tea in the background...yummy lunch all around and Popi, I am getting in some Spam...our hidden family secret...haha.

Helping Out

I helped my mom switch over to the new layouts on Blogger and spruce up the blog a bit. I put in a picture to the header I took during the winter last year so she would have a wintery feel. I'll change it up for her as needed since getting the header right does require a bit of work these days.

Anyhow, if you want to check it out, her blog is called Haha's Perspective and it is here. Let us know what you think.

Reading Updates

I updated Mishka's Reading with my January reads. Check it out when you have time if you want.

Lame But True

Now that I check the blogs I read via the Google reader so I am not to miss an update, I find it very irritating when a blog doesn't have full feeds. I hate that I have to click over to read the full post even if I am not going to comment.

I know that people do this so that you will go to their blog itself and they get the visits on their counters and even on their ad income but it still peeves me that I can't read the full post in my reader.*

Oh well, that is my peeve for the day...

*Chatty brought up a good point. Some people have to do it because of cyber stalkers. I didn't think of that....sucks that there are people out there that do that kind of thing and force others to have to be so careful.

Ebi Filet

I had never even heard of this, but if you read my fitness blog at all, you will know that on Friday night, I ended up at McDonald's (because the people I was with wanted to eat there). I decided to try this sandwich because I thought it might not be as bad for me as some of the other options (and it wasn't), and because it was different. McD's is known for having regional food depending on where their stores are and this apparently is one of the regional things for McD's in Japan.

It is a shrimp filet sandwich. Called Ebi Filet. It was very good and I felt better about eating it over my other options (Big Mac's have never tasted as good as they do in Asia, but they still have a ton of calories). I was thrilled to get home and find out that the sandwich was not that bad on calories and that I now have another option to a grilled chicken sandwich when I eat at McD's (which is rare to none).

New Fish

I have been busy, busy, busy but I did get a chance to photograph one of my new inhabitants. I got two of these and then three new mollies on the last purchase. The mollies were being shy so I'll have to post pics of them later. All are doing well, no sickly ones this time.

Adventures in Drying

For the last few months, I have noticed that I have to run the dryer for a full 60 minutes twice to get stuff to dry (even if the load is not huge, this is the case). I figured it had something to do with the voltage or the age of the dryer but when I told my friend K about it the other day, she said I should check the exhaust hose.


I had looked at it in the past and thought it was a bit large for the amount of distance that needed to be covered to reach the outvent but I figured that professionals put it in, so they must know what they are doing, right? Wrong...


I finally decided to pull the dryer out and find out if I could fix my issue on my own. Turns out, I could. I took about 3 feet off the hose and also took out a huge clump of lint that was up against the outvent. Now the dryer is drying in one turn of the clock rather than in two. I am sure I will have to clean it out again soon but I am hoping that the purchase of new towels was the main culprit in the fast fill up and that I won't have to clean it out too soon.

Drums Are Mostly Done

Well, I managed to get the drum body cut out and ironed on my third and final square for the quilting project. I have to do some detail stitching on it before I can add the drumstick but it should come out looking pretty nice when I am through.

We found another fabric store and this really cool kitchen store yesterday when we were out exploring. We had soba at this shop near the Ginowan 100 yen store that was awesome and I managed to find a few things to pick out from the store (big surprise there...haha). We also went to eat at this Thai place (that doesn't have a Thai person working there) that wasn't half bad. It wasn't the most authentic I have had (although that would be hard to do since the most authetic I have had is in Thailand or at my Thai friend's house), but it was still pretty good. I had a red curry chicken with rice that was yummy.

We have a few things that are coming up in the next few days to keep us pretty busy around here but I am sure that K and I will find time to laze around as well. I need for it to stop raining so I can get some yardwork kicked out as well as some exercise...the sidewalks are super slippery for walking fast (much less lunges) when it is raining or has rained recently.

We are getting a Thailand shipment in at one of the gift stores we frequent so I guess I will be checking that out next week and then there is a Sophi sale too that will be interesting to see. I don't know that I will get anything for sure but I would just like to at least look as what the options are.

Okay, have stuff to do....

Koi Are Done

Well, I am done with 2/3 of the basic quilting project....I have finished cutting out and ironing on the koi pieces to my blue background. I need to get with one of the other girls that has done this before because I know we are supposed to put our names on the square but I didn't know if she said just to write them on in permanent ink or if we need to stitch them on....

I'll post pics of the two squares I have as soon as I finish up some of my stitching on them.

New Art

I purchased this print from Kanda's BOQ gallery here (the link goes to the Tokyo gallery) last night at a meeting we had at the gallery. I wasn't expecting to buy anything but this one in particular really grabbed me because, like my Andrew Wyeth's, it has a story to it. I am sure there is a full story, but for now, I am content to look at it and imagine a story of my own.



I hope that some of my family can get over to the Portland Museum of Art to see some of this artist's other work. His name is Hiroto Norikane. He is supposed to have a collection there but I don't know if it is current or not.

He has some other pieces that I loved (and might have to get at future dates) and I also found another artist (Kunio Kaneko) that does wood block that I loved as well. This gallery runs auctions throughout the year as well so I am hoping to cash in on some of those. I would love to purchase some of the smaller prints as gifts.

Vomit Eater

I am sitting here trying to catch up on my morning email and comments when Chase (after woofing down her food) decides she needs to hurl. She does so, on the hardwood floor and as I start to get up to clean it up, she eats it all again.

I guess the first time was just not enough for her....

Fans Are Done

I picked three different squares to do for the quilt and I have finished the fans (they were the easiest to do). I am doing a little bit of stitching on the one I am keeping for myself as well as the one I will be donating to the charity quilt since everyone has to do their own stitching.

This is detail stitching on the "wood" part of the fan to make it a bit less 2 dimensional. I'll post a pic of it when I have completed the stitching for mine. I'll probably do the outline stitching too on the one we were donating since I don't know that anyone else will be up for it, but I'll have to check first to see if they want us to do that (who knows if they have a color of thread issue or not). The detail stitching I am doing by hand. I learned to do embroidery from my grandmother when I was a kid and amazingly enough still have some of those skills although I haven't embroidered in a while. I do cross stitches too but that is a different ball of wax....I just thought....I probably could use embroidery thread too instead of the regular thread I am using....duh!!! Oh well, I'll do it on the next one...haha gues that is the good thing about making 20 squares of each design, huh?

Making Changes

I decided I was sick of our template on the Finding My Happy Medium fitness blog so I changed things up a bit....might get around to doing the same thing here....would like to load my own header to it and I think that playing around with the other one has given me some ideas of what I can do.

I have had this template since I started this blog so it is definitely due for a change....I even change my myspace more frequently than that...haha.

Project Update

Along with other things I accomplished today, I managed to get all my fabric washed and ironed again. I also designed my squares and purchased the Wonderunder to start the construction of squares. We are now each making 20 squares of each design so mine better be easy or I am in for some work.

I am also in the process of making 4 pillow covers for my friend K's livingroom. She really loves Hawaii and we found this cool print when we were shopping for our quilt material so we decided it give it a shot. I have made them before my own throw pillows (I have Christmas ones I put over my regular pillows so I don't have to store a whole pillow). I use velcro to close them so they are also washable...they should be cute when I am done. I'll take a picture.

My back is pretty much back to normal....I am not weight lifting on it yet but other than that, I am back to exercising (except I failed today). I better get going so I can get to bed and get up and get started on things bright and early tomorrow. I would love to knock my squares out and at least two of K's pillows before too many days go by because I do have filing, taxes and a hoard of other things pressing on my To Do list....

Done Messing Around

Okay, today I am finished with messing around, procrastinating my life away.

I managed to get up at 6:30am (which is a feat when you don't have to get up that early), and went for a 2 1/3 mile walk. It started to sprinkle on me a bit while I was doing it but nothing I couldn't handle. I did my loop that takes me down near the beach and then back up through this cute park, and home through the sugar cane fields, mum farms and bull homes. It felt great to smell the ocean (not so much the bulls) and get some exercise in after having to take it easy for over a week now.

K and I were able to get a bit of the fabric we wanted for our squares yesterday. I found everything but the background for two of my squares. We are meeting a couple of the girls for coffee this morning and then hitting the shop again to see if we can get inspired. I will bring the fabric I have to match up and hopefully I'll come home with the right amount and can get started with my stuff. We found a really cool fabric for the Koi...it is going to be so cool.

I have some other errands to run as well but I hope to get some more exercise in this afternoon if I can. I don't want to overdo it on my first day but I also want to grab the inspiration while I have it and not let it slip away. I am tired of feeling fat and looking tired and worn out....time to get it into gear. I know from experience that just by working out, I will feel a million times better about myself, have more energy, get more things accomplished and definitely be less stressed. I also know that all of those things make me feel more positive and that comes through in your posture and face as well so there is really no reason to not get with it.

Memory and Friendship Project

Some of my friends here (girls I have known for a while and those from our bunco group) are attempting a friendship/memory quilt this winter. The idea is that each person picks an idea for a square and then makes a bunch of that same square and then we get to get together and give each other person one of our squares, so you end up with however many different squares to make a quilt from. Unlike the one pictured here, ours will be Japanese themed. We are also making one for auctioning to charity.

The process of making the square is relatively easy (no stitching required). You find a pattern you like and then hunt down fabric that will work with your pattern. Then you traces a pattern transfer the pattern onto the fabric and apply wonderunder to make it stick to the background, so all you are doing is cutting and ironing to make the square. Once you have all your new squares from your friends, it is on you to do the stitching around all pieces of fabric to secure them down in a fashion that will be uniform throughout the squares you now have. So to make the squares for everyone is really not that hard. I am signed up for three pretty simple squares (fans, taiko drum, and koi fish). I think it will be pretty fun and I have always wanted to see the process of making a quilt, in case I ever wanted to make one on my own in the future.

Oh, and to get the finished product, you need to actually do quilting or pay someone to finish the quilting part of it. I am hoping to get someone to show me how to do it so I can do it on my own when I am ready....but we will see.

I know I really don't need another project on my head but this is pretty simple and I only have to do the cut out and ironing part to meet everyone else's deadline. The finished project is then on me to do. So I can take my time on that if I want. We are planning to exchange squares near the end of February....