BYOT

Sapporo

2009-03-10T18:21:00.002+09:00

Ok so surprise, surprise once again I am lax on posting. I went to the Sapporo Snow Festival with my friend Darlene for a few days in February. To say it was awesome would be an understatement. It was not too cold and not so warm the snow was melting. It was the end of the festival so between the timing, the killer yen rate and the economy the crowds were not bad. YAY for us. Slipping and sliding on the ice with 3 million of our closest friends would not be my idea of a good time.

So to start off, I was invited out by a friend the night before and he claims to be a pumpkin (my nickname for the guys who have to be back on the ship by midnight), he is not a real pumpkin but he goes to bed early. So Darlene, Ned, his friend Adam and I head out. We started late because I was helping Ned with some things and had to finish packing. We grab dinner and go bowling. Good times were had by all but the early to bed night ended early in the morning. So around 2am we crash out at Darlene's so we can leave at 0530 and get on the bus on base. That was great, the bus picked us up and took us straight to the airport. Off the bus and were literally handed our tickets. Checked in at the airline counter, grabbed breakfast and shortly thereafter we were on a plane. First Haneda airport tripped me out. I am used to airports that are near water, San Diego, San Francisco, shoot even Sacramento flies over rivers and rice fields as you land, but Haneda is on the water. I could see whitecaps from the terminal. It just seemed so odd to me.

From Sapporo 2009 - Randomness

The flight was fine, I was a little unnerved by the nose and then belly cam on the plane though. I really do not want to see what I may potentially crash into shortly.

So we get to Sapporo, Chitose really, get off the plane, grab the bags board our awaiting bus and off we go to Otaru. I was really looking forward to Otaru. A friend of mine had been there the winter before and told me some things and it just sounded cool. It is a quiet, port town with canals and just a great atmosphere. Of course Darlene and I quickly found the Otaru brewery, it isn't a problem it's a gift. We had some good and different beer as well as yummy food. Otaru is known for their glass blowing so we saw some gorgeous glass. We did not have much time but we wandered around and just took it in. I loved the place and convinced Darlene we needed to go back the next night for the candlelight snow festival. So back on the bus we went.

The bus then took us to the hotel where we checked in and napped (we did not sleep remember). After a couple of hours we got back on the bus and went to the Sapporo Brewery, hey in the States I travel by way of Margaritaville in Japan it is breweries and good ones too. There we had yakiniku, which is basically cook your own food at the table. It was very good. It was all you can eat and drink for 90 minutes. I think they were trying to brainwash us into joining the Communist Party through good meat and booze. I mean look at all the red stars everywhere.

From Sapporo 2009

It was a lot of fun and very good. Then it was back on the bus, to go back tot he hotel (are you tired yet). From there we headed to the ice festival in Susukino, which is a nightclub district in Sapporo. It was cool. The sculptures were really neat and a lot of fun to wander past. It was snowing the whole time but not too bad. We stopped in at a bar to have a drink, well really to use the bathroom and ran into some people we knew from work. So we drank with them and chatted. By the way I was drinking dark ales, and while there I had 4 of the best darks I have ever had, one even gives Guinness a run for its money, I know sacrilege.

From Sapporo 2009

Then it was back to the hotel. Yes we were exhausted.

I woke up early but let Darlene sleep. She wasn't even stirring when I was ready to go so I took off. I thought she realized I was serious when I said I would do that. I hit the festival before it officially opened. That was so worth seeing. The sculptures are built, for the most part, by the Japanese Self Defense Force (JSDF). So they were out there, some in camis, cleaning off the sculptures. I want to be the guy with the bullhorn barking orders.

From Sapporo 2009

I was able to get up pretty close and the volunteers were more than happy to take a picture for me.

From Sapporo 2009

After Darlene joined me we went to the top of the TV tower, which was cool to see the view and the sculptures from so high up. We then wandered the festival. It is about 12 blocks long. We were accosted by children pretending to speak English (they only really knew what they were asking and the simple answers to their questions) but it was fun. They played games with us. The sculptures were just amazing.

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Get your own

A little after lunch we had finished walking the festival so we headed back to Otaru.

We went to a different part of Otaru and walked back toward the canals. We shopped and just wandered. I found corn, baked potato and sweet bean flavored Kit-Kats as well as caramels in every flavor. The beer ones are a little beery but I was told the meat ones taste like meat. I do not know if the person I gave the corn ones to will actually eat them or just save them for the sheer humor. I finally got a good cup of coffee at a cafe we stopped in to snack. Then after more wandering, we still had time to kill before the sun went down so of course we went back to the brewery to try more flavors of beer. The brewery sat on the water so we were able to watch them string and light the candles floating in the canal as well as the ones on the banks. It was really neat. Then we walked the canal in the candle light as we made our way back toward the train. The festival is called the Otaru Snow Gleaming festival or Yukiakari-no Michi. It was very beautiful and I would have loved to wander longer but we needed to head back so we could see the snow sculptures, lit up.

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Get your own

Once we were back in Sapporo, Darlene was beat so I went off to see the sculptures lit up alone. I managed to walk the major sculptures before they shut the lights off. It is amazing how different they are lit up. Some were much more dramatic.

On the last day we found the Chocolate Factory and had some very good chocolate. That is also where I met my good friends Bach and Mr. Lincoln. Lincoln was definitely a little jealous of Bach. But hey what can I say, musicians are just hotter. Then we boarded the bus and then the plane. It was great having a trip where they did not make us go to certain places in certain orders but at the same time all of the transportation was provided for. But that was my whirlwind trip to Sapporo. Sapporo was ok, but thank goodness for Otaru, I would love to go back there.

Here is the random I encountered as we traveled

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Get your own

Enoshima Island

2008-12-27T16:57:00.003+09:00

Today I ventured off alone to Enoshima Island. It is not far from where we live and I love going places alone. People talk to me when I am alone and it just makes it more interesting. I met a family who was heading to the airport after spending time with their son who is stationed here. I also talked on the train to a man who was curious about me and surprised I was alone, he was a little old guy who spoke poor English but it was hella better than my Japanese.

First there are pigeons big enough to eat in Kinugasa. Seriously, I d not think these bad boys could fly, they just live on the train platform.

From Enoshima 12-27-08

Then, I was off. The day was perfect and beautiful and I could see Fuji very well which was the point. :)

From Enoshima 12-27-08

Some of the vistas from the island were also great

From Enoshima 12-27-08

So I missed the entrance to the observatory on my first lap around the island so I paid to take the escalator straight to it. I was inundated by ads the whole way, now for some reason I really want a coke and some Meiji dairy products.

From Enoshima 12-27-08

The observatory was worth the 500yen

From Enoshima 12-27-08

And I must add the kickass cat rockin the scarf

From Enoshima 12-27-08

and the cool dachsunds in their dresses

From Enoshima 12-27-08

Christmas 2008

2008-12-26T22:23:00.002+09:00

Another Christmas in Japan. We spent Christmas eve in Tokyo looking at the lights 'cos we all know I love lights. We found the luminaries at the Imperial Palace which was totally cool. Unfortunately we were late and they had already put ut a number of them. Check out the pics.

Smashmouth

2008-10-30T21:22:00.002+09:00

I went and saw Smashmouth for free on base tonight, the show was over an hour and lots of fun. I had a great time and was right in front of the stage for most of the show. No pics cos I took the crap camera but hopefully I can get some of the great pics my friend took. The Steve Harwell, lead singer, is much hotter than he was when I was in college. Much to the hubbs joy I did not get to relive the glory days and one of my few claims to fame and get another kiss from Harwell. We hoped the kiddies would clear out and we could talk to them, a friend I was with said it has happened in the past, but no such luck. ok off to bed I am tired, those damn kids made me feel old and they didnt even know the music

What do you mean no one want to volunteer

2008-10-24T18:24:00.003+09:00

I saw this story and could not stop laughing. A couple of weeks ago a polar bear fell into his moat and he is rather happy down there. The part that makes me laugh is not that they are waiting for him to climb out but that they are doing everything they can before they sedate him. The reason? Someone would have to go into the moat to make sure he is really sedate and they don't have any volunteers. What you don't want to jump in the moat with a possibly asleep polar bear? Why not? CHICKEN?

http://www.wisn.com/cnn-news/17787134/detail.html

Hakone take 2

2008-10-19T15:08:00.003+09:00

Yesterday I went back to Hakone and Lake Ashi. It is just an absolutely beautiful place. Yesterday I went with the Good Time Trekker club. It is a group of Japanese men and women who conduct tours with a group from the base in English. They are fun and I have been out with them before, it is just a wonderful experience to have them tell us about things. Yesterday we were doubly blessed by beautiful weather. Please check out my Picasa Gallery because I got many beautiful pictures of Fuji and other things but mostly Fuji.

From Hakone and Fuji

Adventures in Billpaying

2008-10-09T19:27:00.002+09:00

We have many options on how to pay our bills here in Japan. In the States we basically had 2 sometimes 3 and now with web bill pay 4. So in the States it generally was auto-deduct from an account or send a check. In California, I could pay at some liquor stores but not many and it was never clear. Then with Web Bill pay I could pay through the bank but it was still similar to writing a check.

Here in Japan I have a variety of choices and then more as an American with base access. Ok so most Americans use a company with GI in the name that I distrust for that reason alone. They get your bills and send the money from your account and it is entirely hands off which is why most Americans do not know what they pay. I can also pay some utilities and rent in the base exchange but it is in dollars with a generally poor exchange rate.

Now the Japanese options. We have your typical auto-debit, which again I am not comfortable with especially since I can't dispute without a translator, The bank, but I do not have an account and my favorite, the Konbini. I pay my bills at 7-11 or any of a number of other stores. It is great I walk in get a soda and pay $200 worth of bills. Considering there is one so close to my house it is just great and I never have to worry.

There is another option which is where my adventures happen, the Post Office. I have to pay one bill at the Post Office, there is no other option for me. It is not a big deal except the machine only lets you pay in Japanese, it is also an ATM and that works in english. So in the 9 months I have been paying the bill, I have succeeded doing it 3 times without help. My agent has paid it for me twice on seperate occasions because the machine rejected my documents or I could not figure it out. The postal worker has helped me twice, once it took him 20 minutes because we were doing it right, it just didnt like the form. The best time was this month when they didn't send the form and I tried filling one out. The post guy managed to communicate that I needed a bank to use the form. So I went to see my friend who helps me and she was too busy which led me to the translators at housing. Well they tried and got confused so they called and the company is mailing me the form they always do. I got the impression that even the Japanese don't pay their own bills or at least not at the post office. oh yeah and I do know how to use the machine, in fact I walked the hubbs through it once over the phone when I was not feeling well.
So yeah I have tons of ways to pay my bills and i still cannot pay the gas bill on time.

Well it finally happened

2008-10-08T19:58:00.003+09:00

i was sitting in a meeting and I finally felt a Japanese Earthquake. It was very gentle and rolling, quite different from the ones in California. It was also not nearly as noisy as I am used to. Now I know why none of the other ones so much as woke me up. It was only a 4.6 but it lasted for a long time, seriously. I was in a meeting and it resumed and a few of us were looking around going, we're still moving and we were on the ground floor.

2008-10-05T15:51:00.002+09:00

Things have been crazy. School started, 1/3 of our staff is new and almost an entirely new admin staff and well life has been hella crazy since August. Work and sleep that is all I have had time for. I did take a trip up to Yokohama one night and dropped some serious change on a Pentax K20D at Yodobashi. If it isn't at Yodobashi it probably doesn't exist. So I took it to Hakone with my buddy nitch one Saturday and Kamakura on another Saturday. Those pics are in my Picasa album at

Hakone

for Hakone. Or Kamakura

Kamakura 09-13-2008

But the Good Stuff was a couple weeks ago in Kyoto and Osaka. The hubbs was in the area so I took some time off work, hopped on the bullet train and I was off. Osaka was fun, tons of food, lots of places to go and a city under the city. We walked until our feet hurt. We spent Saturday in Kyoto. Where we looked at Temples and Shrines, some traditional art and just wandered and got lost. It was loads of fun, we saw some Maiko on their way to work and had some good food. We also went to the aquarium in Osaka and the Castle.

Coming Soon

2008-09-30T22:37:00.000+09:00

Yes I took this picture and there are many more. I will write soon, this is just a tease

Job update

2008-07-30T05:59:00.002+09:00

I totally forgot cos as you can see I have been very busy. The company that pays me (I am a contractor contracted to the govt, no ones actual employee) lost the contract for my job. One of the largest American contracting firms won it, CSC. It looks like it will be a VERY good thing. If picked up, and it is looking good, I will be an employee and all that entails to a worldwide firm. I have no details but things are looking good yay!!

2008-07-29T21:39:00.002+09:00

Are we there yet? Oh hell no we are not to the present yet. We get back from Fuji and again I am young I do not need a break. Which is good because it is finals week for my first term of grad school and I have a ton of work to do at work. Somehow I get it all done and now hubbs wants to go to Yokohama. We went up to Chinatown in Yokohama and wanted around. We had a dim sum lunch and found out they love the pandas. Everything was Pandas so we shopped and took some pics and you can check those out.

Now we are up to the present which is good because it is late and I get up early. I hope to God I just get to do nothing and relax this weekend, maybe clean the house it needs it. I just want to sleep.

Fuji-san

2008-07-29T21:11:00.003+09:00

Well we are getting closer and closer to the present but we are not there just yet. So the day after Disney I am back at work upgrading the network with a guy sent in from HQ. It was cool I finally have a solid knowledge of how the crazy place is setup. Then if that wasn't enough or you know I am young no recuperation needed here. Saturday hubbs wanted to climb Fuji. ok well it was the last weekend we KNEW he would be home and available possibly the last weekend he would be available during climbing season ever, so away we went. And hey I got my new overnight pack from REI on monday so lets break it in by climbing a vertical mile. WOOHOO!!!

Ok the saying is "a wise man climbs Fuji once in their life, only a fool does it twice." Oh hell no! It was Hell!! The joy we get is to say not only did we do it but we made it to the summit. We left at 2am to drive 3+ hours. At a little before 6am we were dropped off at the 5th station at below 7841 elevation and reached the peak 7+ hours later at 12388 elevation. To say it was hell is an understatement. The only reason we made it is because i am so damn stubborn (I was in agony and barely able to move by the 8th station) and I did not want to be the reason we did not make it. We had to be at the top by 1:30pm or turn around no matter where you are and at 12:30pm we were sooooooo close. Well we made it with 15 whole minutes to spare. Bought some crap, cos that is what you do in japan and then we headed back down. At 5:30pm we hit the 5th station and stumbled onto the bus, nasty dirty sweaty, covered in ash and my big toe covered in one giant blister. Like I said it was hell. I wanted to do the overnight hike but now I am like hell no, it is too dangerous to climb in the dark, besides there was still snow which means it still gets very cold at night.

So after the fact I find out how dangerous it is. The area is known for suicides, people go there to die. Compasses do not work there because of other magnetism. Hypothermia is a common cause of death. An oh yeah the thing we saw as we left that really hit home was the rescue teams gearing up and the guy counting every person who came up to the 6th station. I also found out that most people's reactions are like mine, now why the hell they do not tell people I do not know. So here is my public service announcement - Climbing Mt Fuji is sheer HELL!!!

Of course the whole way up and down you have scantily clad Japanese men and women literally running up or down the mountain. Was I impressed? Hell yeah! BUT do I really care? uh no congrats you can run up a mountain, I'll just trudge along, i still made it to the summit.

Here are the pics :D

Fuji 2008

You have to go to the site and click through the big pics to really feel the enormity

What do you want for your birthday?

2008-07-29T20:37:00.002+09:00

I WANNA GO TO DISNEYLAND!!! And so we did. Hubbs was out the day before but had leave for my day through a few more and after bringing me konbini cake (gotta love 7-11) and flowers (that still looked great after being out of water for 3 days) we headed to the Tokyo Disney Resort for 3 days. We took the train up there and like Disney in CA having their own freeway exit, well Disney Tokyo has its own train station. Once there we went to Bon Voyage (the giant Disney store outside the park)went downstairs and gave them our bags. For 500Y (yes roughly $5) they took our bags and delivered them to the hotel. And off we went for a fun filled day at Disney Sea. It was awesome. I cannot describe how cool the place was. Between the two parks we took roughly 500 pics and 90% of them are keepers. The park is water based and each land has an aquatic theme. The rides ROCKED!!! Especially 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the center of the Earth. It was just a tone of fun and we were constantly moving. it was hotter than Hades but for the most part the park is planned for that, it is on the water so yeah 85 degree and 100% humidity WOOHOOO!!! We saw people walking around in Yukatas and jenpai and we thought they actually looked like they were dealing with the heat better. And the ones wearing geta on their feet and not limping by the end of the day got major respect from me. I spent most of the day just in awe and having the best time. It was so comfortable to be at a Disney park and although we did not understand much of what was said we knew the drill. We did decide though that it is not for a Disney novice who does not speak Japanese, that would have made the experience nerve-wracking I think. Of course from time to time we would meet someone who would drop into perfect English and even confuse us by having better English than some Americans we know.

So we were there from open to close then we went looking for the bus to the hotel. we found it. We get to the hotel and check in and show them our luggage ticket. Not only was our bag there (score!) but it was already delivered to our room and we were checked in, no worries and it was 11pm (DOUBLE SCORE!!). The Japanese have travelling down, seriously. So the luggage is delivered, the hotel has toothbrushes, combs, slippers, pajamas and all the stuff you expect, so you could show up with the clothes on your back and a change and be good to go. Of course considering you pay per person you should get something. Our room slept 4 and we only paid for 2.

Next day bright and early and off to Disneyland. It is very similar to Disneyland, CA but Thunder Railroad kicks CA Thunder's ass. It was just AWESOME!!! We went to the Mickey Mouse Revue which is the only one in the world. It opened at the opening of Disney World and then instead of being recreated in Japan it was shipped here in pieces and was here for the grand opening 25 years ago of Disneyland Tokyo. it was funny they tried to turn us away because it was all in Japanese. It is times like that i really wish we knew how to say something like "of course it is and it would be very rude for us to think otherwise" in Japanese. In truth the history of Mickey in Japanese is still obviously the history of Mickey and while the words are different the tunes to all the songs they sang are the same, no translation needed. It was just an awesome day and to top it off they had an Electrical Parade, that made me uber happy as the hubbs and I were at the last Main Street Electrical Parade in CA. Oh I loved it and we got a seat right in front of the ropes just like when I was a kid.

Ok the quick things, I had wanted to write this sooner before I forgot things but I have been sooooooooo busy as you will see from my posts.

A lot of people speak English very well, but not everywhere.
There are maps and schedules in English
The food and drinks are reasonably priced. 200Y for a bottle of water that is 150Y from a vending machine is good for me. And one of our counter lunches was 2500Y ($25) for the 2 of us. The buffet we hit was that each but it was all you can eat and hella good
All the art is in English, not Japanese (weird)
They only have 50-60% of the voice acting translated on the rides
All signs have 2 - 3 languages on them. Always English which is also usually bigger, clearer and listed first
Lines everywhere not just for what you expect but for the perfect picture spot too or to get a pic with a character.
The people are very polite, most of our character pics don't have us in them BUT we could have done it, every one took a turn.
Finding food that is not totally weird to us Americans was hard but doable (the English map helped ALOT), I just do not do corn or seafood on pizza.
A lot of the souvenirs were reasonably priced, yeah my 25th anniversary mickey in a yukata was 4000Y but the tin of cookies for people at work was only 1000Y and lots of other little things for 1000Y or less.
Ok my hands hurt from typing and I have fuji stuff too, oh yes there is more.

There are 4 galleries. DisneySea, Disneyland, Ikspiari (the mall area at the resort) and fun stuff like every flavor of popcorn we saw.

Disneyland Tokyo July 2008

DisneySea July 2008

Disney Ikspiari July 2008

Disney Fun Stuff June 2008

Tanabata

2008-07-29T20:08:00.003+09:00

Going back in time to the weekend of July 7th. I took a friend and her kids to the Tanabata festival in Shonan-Hiratsuka in the same prefecture we live in. Tanabata is a Chinese story of a Orihime, the princess who wove cloth for the gods, and Hikoboshi, the simple human farmer who loved her. Of course there was strife and they were seperated and the seventh day of the seventh month is the one day a year they can be together. Look it up it is a sweet story. Here are pictures:

Tanabata 2008

My friend Katie also has some great pics on her blog (

2008-07-08T21:35:00.002+09:00

I am late but I have been very busy. I enrolled in Grad school and between classes, school wrapping up at work and hubbs being home I have been quite busy. I had midterms last week and turned in a 20 page term paper yesterday. I got As on the midterms W007!! I was really nervous about it.

Ok so last month the hubbs and I went to Nanadaru on the Izu Peninsula. It was beautiful, I honestly do not know what to compare it to. It is one of the wonderments of God and I posted a ton of pictures in my Picassa album because I cannot choose which ones to post. It was about a 3 hour drive but we took a tour, so it was a cozy bas ride. We went to Joren Falls first. Then on down to Nanadaru, which is seven waterfalls. It was breathtaking. Afterwards we relaxed in a hotspring.

Tons more pictures

Nanadaru June 7-2008

More updates to come:
Yesterday I went to a Tanabata festival with a friend.
For my birthday we are going to Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea
Then the next weekend we climb Fuji-san.

Then we sleep. We are cramming a lot in because the man is about to head out again and we start the craziness over, it has been nice having him around.

Lots of pictures and catching up

2008-05-29T18:05:00.003+09:00

View Album

Get your own

Yesterday I watched the Kitty Hawk leave for what should be the last time. She is the oldest ship in the US Navy (besides the USS Constitution) and the last diesel fueled carrier. She will be replaced this Summer by the George Washington

Some pictures from around Yokosuka

The local rose garden for mom at Verny Park

Kamukura during Sakura viewing

Sakura in Yokosuka

So that is my catch up post I hope you enjoy the pictures

Some fun pix

2008-05-23T23:01:00.006+09:00

It was a beautiful day and a nice night so I went out tonight. I found a new obnoxious brimmed hat that i can actually pull off, I cannot believe I miss that cowboy hat I bought as a joke a few years ago. I am sure pics of the new one will appear at some point it is cool but not as cool as the $5 walmart special.

tonight a girlfriend and I shopped and had ice cream corn and ice cream actually

We also have killer kiwis at the grocery store (unfortunately or is it fortunately ) a sign blocked us from the full frontal assault of the killer kiwi

It is not water but it comes from water and looks water like so do not be confused

Here are some billboards from one of the Tokyo train stations I frequent, it is the connection for everywhere i want to be and the beer is fine too

This one is just immature but I have friends who will like it, if you don't get it good, but it has to do with the kind of brakes it says it has. At 6am I thought it was funny.
Also immature but who cares, not how I would describe a CD case

2008-05-20T21:13:00.000+09:00

I read media corrections, it is fun and interesting and sometimes funny. I get them as a news feed so I just scan them and read the ones that seem interesting. This one however is downright funny.
http://hamptonroads.com/2008/05/corrections-virginianpilot-0

The headline read: Norfolk-based sub heads west toward Gulf

Well I hope those are some strong submariners or else they found the Northwest Passage and are keeping it a secret

2008-05-18T10:54:00.002+09:00

Ok since I have been a slacker here is the run down, actually I have not been slacking just very busy.

So in March, I went to Tokyo for a conference. Met my counterparts from all over Asia, my "boss" and the people from the company I contract with. I had a great time and learned a lot. I definitely got the feeling that any minute they are all going to find out I am a fraud. Well I got along really well with one of the guys I met and he was there for the 2nd week (yeah all of IT in DODDS pacific did not pack up for a week they split us in half). I had a bad week the next week, the hubbs left for a longer time than usual, got extended, work was rough, there was rumors of lockdown because that idiot killing a cabdriver, and because of that my husbands trip was changed from a few weeks to indefinite. So yeah BAD week had to go out so the guy from work invited me up to hang out in Tokyo and meet the other half of my cohorts. I did and had a great time and went back again on Saturday to hang out with a few people. So the week got better, had fun and made some friends.

In April, I went the the Kanamara Matsuri. Which is the Festival of the Steel Phallus. I took one of the guys I know and met up with a friend from college. It was a lot of fun and just funny. Marco took us too the best sushi place EVER and it was cheap. At some point that month I was told that I had to earn my Altiris Certified Engineer (ACE) with 2 or 3 months. It was a pretty tall order considering, I am still learning my job, school is winding down and they suggest you use the software for 6 months before testing. Tog et the ACE you have to pass at least 2 tests, one on a product I use everyday and one I have never seen. Well I crammed and cracked down and had it within 30 days. I totally blew away my company, one person even called me "scary." It was in the way of other things I want to do like learn some programming languages and Japanese.

Now it is halfway through May. The hubbs is back for the summer which is cool. I enrolled in Grad School, University of Maryland University College. It is online but fully accredited and i will be getting a Masters of Science in Information Technology with an emphasis in Information Assurance. I am learning VBScript and wrote a pretty cool program for work that I hope others can use, it will seriously help with some things we do. I also started going to the gym, I hate the traffic after work so I wake up and try to go before work. It is nice and makes the whole day feel better. Next weekend we are going sea-kayaking and meeting some friends in Tokyo. We will also be going to an open air hot spring in a few weeks.

Ok so that is my update. See I have been busy and that is my excuse

2008-04-22T21:56:00.002+09:00

Damn it has been over a month since I have updated? I will try to soon. In the last 2 months Hubbs and I celebrated our 4th anniversary, I have been to Tokyo multiple times, met my work counterparts at a conference, been to kamakura, went to a Fertitlity Festival with a friend from college, applied to Grad School, passed the cert for my Altiris Certified Professional and I am sure there is more. I will try to update this weekend while I study for my next cert, which will make me an Altiris Certified Engineer.

Kawagoe

2008-02-21T17:08:00.002+09:00

We spent Saturday in Kawagoe. I was pretty miserable with a cold but the trip was great. It is about 2 hours from here by train and called Little Edo. There are many shrines, a castle and lots of historical buildings. Kawagoe really works for the tourism dollars. Right now it the YOKOSO! Japan campaign and as a part of that the 500Y bus pass is 300Y for the day. There is a tourism desk at the exit to the Kawagoe train station where an English speaking agent gave us an English guidebook, map and directed us to the bus stand. We hopped on the bus and got off on the first stop. It was Kitain Temple. Kitain Temple was built in 830 but burned in 1638, only the gate survived. When it was rebuilt parts of the original Edo castle were brought in and are the only remaining pieces.

At the temple we saw the Gohyaku-Raken which are 538 stone statues of Buddhas disciples and each one is different. They say if you walk through at night and touch each one you will find one warm one, if you come back during the day, that will be the one that most resembles you. I thought that on a day like that, your hand would go numb and they would all start feeling warm.

The temple was interesting, the views of the garden were gorgeous, sorry no pictures were allowed. There were many neat things in there but living in a world where we can barely speak the language and cannot read it makes museums interesting and dull at the same time.

After that we wandered on. We found Kawagoe castle it was built in 1457 and did allow pictures so here are some of the ones we took. Actually it is Honmru Goten which is the home of the Lord of the castle and all that remains of the castle and was built in 1848.

Then it was on to Kurazukuri, which is a street lined with fireproof storehouses that are now shops. They are beautiful and black, lining both sides of the street.

In an alley just past this store we found a little Udon restaurant. It was very good and they gave us a bottle of Soy Sauce, or it may be soup base I have not tasted it yet. This was one of the places we saw that was not geared toward Western tourists, there were pictures on the menu but even the numbers for the prices were in Kanji. I had to ask the waitress how much something was and she got this confused look, I think she was thinking that if I could not read it how could I know it if she said it. But she said it slowly so I counted it out and made sure we weren't ordering a $20 bowl of Udon. It was very good.

We also saw a museum of their major festival and I want to go back for that it looks like fun. Besides who wouldn't want to go to a Festival where 2 story tall floats pulled by huge ropes have dance off competitions

See all the photos at my Picasa album

Kawagoe

SNACKIES!!!

2008-02-07T19:31:00.000+09:00

First things first how the hell did I get moved to a place where it rarely snows yet I had a snow all weekend, a snow day monday, snow while walking the dogs and a prediction of snow ALL WEEKEND!!! WTF?!!!

Ok now for my own lil Konbini Life. Konbini is Japanese for Convienence Store. And I live right by one of the millions of 7-11s.
We find interesting things there so I took the lead from one of my favorite blogs, Konbini Life, and took a huge variety of food, fixins for Udon, bento boxes of tempura or sushi, sweets, whatever you desire the Konbini has it.
This is my first Konbini goody. I bought it 'cos I wanted Chocolate AND I LOVE the name. There are also Crunky ice cream bars. It is a lot like a Crunch bar but different.
Kit Kat is something special here. Lots of flavors. Too bad I can't seem to find the pic of the one from Super Bowl Monday. This one was Green Tea flavored and it was yummy. It is a normal Kit Kat with Green Tea in the filling.
This is a Choco bun as I call them. The Choco is right and I do not know the name for it. They sell all sorts of these but in the evening you can get Choco in all its gooey yumminess. It is a steamed bun, served hot and damn good. I think the outside is more of a rice than a bread but I really do not know. I also had one the morning we moved in because we had no heat and I was waiting for the rental agent. It was hot and steamy and I think had pork in it, like a giant dumpling. Choco is much better though :D

When there are no Konbini or you just want something to drink, there is always a vending machine about. This is a mecca for vending machines. We saw this group of them in an alley, the glow was angelic and I swear I heard angels.
Here's to a hopefully snow-less weekend

Super Bowl Monday

2008-02-05T19:46:00.001+09:00

Since I had a snow day, I was home to watch the game. I was bummed the Giants won not because I am a Patriots fan but because I am a Chargers fan and wanted Junior Seau to get a ring and I wanted to see Eli "I'm a whiny bitch and too good to play for the Chargers" get stomped. But hey it was a fun game to watch.

I woke up early to get the trash out and then cozied up to watch the game. It started at 8:30am here. It was on Japanese TV and it took until halfway through the first quarter for me to remember to hit the button on the remote that makes it English if available. Since it was Japanese TV and I think a public station there were no commercials. Instead we just saw replays, the crowd, the players milling about, great plays in history and heard the announcer talk about halftime. It was different, that is for sure. There was also no halftime talking heads so I got to watch the whole halftime show which was neat. I bet my neighbors thought I was crazy because the houses are close together and I yelled at the TV more than once in the 4th quarter. At halftime I headed down to the konbini (7-11) to get some snackies. I had a digiorno in the microwave but I needed caffeine so off I went. I got a Coke zero, a funky kit kat (don't ask me the flavor) and some potato chips (I am amazed I managed to grab normal flavor because they all looked flavored).

Today there is still snow on the ground. You can barely tell it snowed on base but the closer you get to our house the more you get. There are still snowmen around and kids having snow fights. I did take the pups on their walk, we did not go far before Elsa started shivering pretty bad and they had road sludge on them, I am not looking forward to the mud from the thaw. It is slowly melting though because it is not very warm. I was told that was the most snow the area had gotten in about 7 years.

Yesterday I did get some cabin fever yesterday and headed out. I went to AVE, which is in many ways like walmart. I found some cheap expandable shelves for the linen closet. They don't bolt in you just adjust them to the right size and wedge them in. So far so good and it made a huge difference in the closet. I will definitely be getting more. We are lucky because our closets are considered Western, which means the ones in the bedrooms have a clothes bar. Otherwise they are deeper than American closets and have a shelf in them up high or in the middle. This makes them very versatile but also means we need to add shelving to keep them organized. We came with some small bookshelves which I have put in closets but I am looking for what works best for each closet and utilizing the space to make it the most efficient. The real fun will be this weekend. I am getting my first full check and a girlfriend and I are going shopping. I have not really done any real just for fun shopping since we got here. I have lots of normal things to get, like a radio and a clock because ours don't work here, but I am looking forward to just a fun day out.

Since yesterday the game has been on at least 2 more times, once late yesterday and once in late afternoon today. I guess it was on at a good time no matter who you are or when you work. :)

Snow Day

2008-02-03T18:57:00.000+09:00

Tomorrow is Super Bowl Monday and my first ever Snow Day. We got quite a bit and there are pictures to follow. We had to go out to base and my feet got soaked and frozen because I did not have proper shoes. Thankfully we were not out long. It was also hubbs first experience with snow, beyond going and visiting snow. The pupps enjoyed it. I figure this one is best told in pics and video so here it goes...

One of the hills on base today

Below is our neighborhood and hubbs lookin like a dork, always throwing up the horns

My trash is cleaner than my house

2008-01-28T06:24:00.000+09:00

1-27-2008 4:24PM

To put trash in the trash it must be clean and dry. It must also be sorted into burnables, nonburnables, Recyclables (PET plastic, cans and glass), plastic packaging (yes that is 2 different kinds of plastic) and then Group Collection. Plastic packaging is ramen cups, chip bags, plastic bags and other generic plastic, it must all be wiped or washed clean and dry. Recyclables is what is called PET plastic, plastic bottles and items with the recycle logo and Pet under it, aluminum cans and glass containers, again it must be clean. Group Collection is your paper recyclables, boxes from cereal and a variety of other things too numerous to mention. Burnables is your food trash and items that can burn but not clean paper. Non-burnables are items that do not fall into all the other categories. Of course I consider anything burnable you just have to find the right temperature. They each go in a specific kind of bag and if you get it wrong they will tag the bag and leave it. I am happy to say that in the last week (different trash everyday) I have not gotten a tagged bag. Of course hubbs has not had time to read all the info so I keep having to pull trash out and putting it in the right bag.

Why is there a hole in my floor?

2008-01-28T05:33:00.000+09:00

1-27-2008 3:33PM

Actually why are there 2 holes in my floor. There is one in the kitchen and one in the laundry room. They are good sized squares. I assumed the one in the kitchen was a hatch to get under the hatch and never opened it well it has a plastic insert but it is not down in the ground so it isn't exactly cool, well it is but that is because it is cold here. Hubbs says it is to hide from the Nazis. I had to point out that the dog would not fit. I asked one of my coworkers and he told me the real story. Kitchen hole is for dry storage like onions and tomatoes. Laundry room one is for cleaning stuff. I like it because the dogs cannot get into it so I don't have to worry about them breaking into something they shouldn't. He also said they should pull out so you can access under the house and he stores typhoon supplies down there. Of course our talking about it made him wish he had, had them put in the house he just built so he is going to ask his carpenter except he wants one with hydraulics so the laundry supplies pop up out of the floor. Other nice touches are that ever room has a ent for when the summer humidity and more importantly mildew starts. We have an AC/heater in every room. And wonderfully enough on a cold cold morning, heated toilet seats. There is also a bide (however you spell it) but the water is not heated so yeah I would not even try it until summer.

Adventures in Grocery Shopping and life without a car

2008-01-26T15:04:00.000+09:00

1-26-2008

So we are car less and were going to try to remain that way except that hubbs time to report is too early most of the time and he sleeps on the ship. Hopefully by the time I get to posting this I will have fixed that and gotten us a car. My boss does not care when I work and the school cares less as long as the work gets done. So I will go in early and get home earlier and at best that is three less bus fares and at worst it is 4. The bus is 240Yen each way so that for the both of us is close to $10 a day.

So I had to do some grocery shopping and decided to take a cab home. It went off without a hitch, thankfully my cab driver knew where my neighborhood is and spoke decent English. It cost me 2500Yen (about $25) but they take credit cards which is good because I had less Yen on me than I thought. It was not too bad and I can generally buy a little at a time but I needed the basic stock up supplies. The day before I carried a 20lb bag of dog food on the bus. We went looking for a car too. There are some for sale on base but they are over 10 years old and cost $2-3000. I was told where the used car district is in town so we went looking. My coworker had said it was too far to walk so we took the train and walked the rest of the way. It turned out it was halfway between the station and our house so we walked the whole way home, couldnt even catch a bus once we were headed back. We saw a lot of cars but none of them were what we really want. There is a Nissan Cube and Suzuki Wide kei-car for sale on base. I plan on calling the owners tomorrow. It looks like we will finally be getting the money owed us BUT it looks like we have not received any OHA and we are on month 2. Thankfully I can cover the rent from my job so I am getting us a vehicle, it sucks having hubbs sleep on the ship.

Last week we took the train to HOMES which is like a Home Depot/Sears/Target and bought things we need for the house and hoofed it all back on the train. We also ate at Denny's It was quite yummy. We have one near the house and I don't doubt we will visit it. I had the best BLT I had ever had and I am not normally a fan of BLTs of course I really wanted a sandwich and it was toasted and warm, it was very cold outside.

When we have a car we still won't be using it much. Just trips to places where we know we can park. Home, Base and the shopping around HOMES. I actually enjoy the train and the bus it is quite relaxing.

I hate Setellite

2008-01-18T11:00:00.000+09:00

1-17-2008 9:00pm

Whoever thought up satellite dishes needs to be shot. First off once again a "free" perk of the military is more trouble than it is worth. Last week I received a satellite dish (in pieces), decoder and whatever else I need sans cable to get AFN, EXCEPT INSTRUCTIONS!!!!! Or at least coherent ones. I just spent 90 minutes just assembling the damn thing. The instructions look like they are from a rejected writer for Ikea. SO now I am ready to mount it but need another set of hands. So ok complaint one you know what Satellite dish means? It means when the bolt slips it will slide across the dish and shoot across the room. No instructions means every piece you put on is upside down, backwards or needed to be added after another piece. I love that there is a help phone line and email and website EXCEPT that the links on the site are impossible to find, no one tells you what band your rig is AND it is pretty damn conceivable that if I am setting up AFN, I just moved and have neither a phone nor internet oh yeah AND the tech support is stateside. That is really helpful because stateside service members do not get AFN which means if I had a phone I would be paying long distance charges to talk to them. There is also no bracket, I had to go out in a foreign country where I have no car, no language skills and find a store, the department and then the right product. Thankfully for that I had a coworker take me who has been here almost as long as I have been on the planet so that was great. BTW he also hates satellite. Did I mention that I have to have a cable running from the dish to the decoder to my TV? Yeah I am not happy about that at all. I do not know how that will work or how long it will last. I may only end up using it to hear about Typhoons and then unhooking it.

All of this for like 8 channels, one of which is the Pentagon channel so it does not count. The other channels show the same stuff over and over and over and when they aren't repeating they are showing miltary propaganda. Kids you need atleast a 2.0 to graduate a DODDS high school, don't shake your baby, Sexual harassment is wrong, make sure you have your paperwork on those war trophies and Joe lost his chair in the move Thank God for full replacement insurance. I honestly think once again that some person living on a hill thought of an idea and the concept is great but they obviously do not use the service because the execution sucks buttocks!!

I honestly would not be going through all of this if the Japanese did not have such wacky ways of doing things. Today is Friday, I started trying to get cable and internet on Monday. Phone call one they said go to the website or agent and get the contract. Tuesday go to the website and there is no contract so I fill out a request for service. Wait fo a call......... Tuesday afternoon get the call and am told I have to go to the agent. After work I do that and am told I have to wait for them to call again. Waiting........ Thursday afternoon I finally get the call. We discuss options and I tell him what I want, get the prices, we should be ready to go right? WRONG!!! setup appointment for Saturday the 26th (yes a week later) I work for a living so yeah saturday is the only option. Will I have service then?? NO! That is for me to sign the contract and for them to find out what they need to do to get me service. Then on February 2nd (my best friends wedding day) I will FINALLY get service. If I do I have a blog post just for her :) SO yeah until then it will be email from work and MASH reruns or whatever else I want to watch on DVD.

I did get the dish into the room where it will be going on the balcony finally. I set it down and Elsa (the smart one) bolted for the opposite end of the room whereas Gaven tried to turn it into a fort. Oh I love my puppies but I have to agree with Elsa, run, run, run away very fast. AFN is evil. I am to the part where I need an extra person so I may call in some friends or I may wait for the husband to return from being seasick.

hairspray and effeminate men

2007-12-31T23:15:00.000+09:00

SO it is New Years Eve. We have 45 minutes to go in 2007 for you westerners here it is Heisei 19 and about to be Heisei 20, Heisei is the current emperor and he is in his 19th year of reign.

I was sick all weekend but I am feeling better, just congested so we went out, hey I have tomorrow to recover. Yeah it is freakin cold out there, the wind is like ICE and I have no voice, it has been dropping off more and more all day.

So what did I learn today? Young men here no about teasing, bleach and hairspray than even your most trapped in the 80s Southern hairstylist. Alot of them also look like chicks. We saw a band play at a festival down on the waterfront. They were good (well as far as we know) and the lead singer was a riot. He was a total ham and well I want his hair. Ok if I could have spikey funky hair with no work. These guys were everywhere they had bleached hair, teased hair and basically more style in their hair than any of the women.

Well we wandered around and had some yummy ball things, I forget what they are called but it is basically fried dough with a little piece of squid in the middle coated in a ginger sauce and fish flakes.

Unfortunately it was very cold and we got bored and my voice is now completely gone so we came back befoe midnight but hey that means it was easier to get a cab back to the hotel.

Akemashite omedeto gozaimasu!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

2007-12-25T13:01:00.000+09:00

Japanese Santa at More City Mall in Yokosuka

I have been meaning to update but things have just been hella crazy. Let's see what has happened in the last 10 days. Our house fell through, Tuesday afternoon. The owners pulled out after a week of us wasting time because we HAD a house. So on Tuesday we find out but the agencies are all closed on Wed. Thursday we saw some places, we honestly did not like any of them. We were however going to take one because dammit we need a home. Well I was walking out the door to check out the area around the house on Friday and I got a call from one of our agents, Tsuda-san who was the agent on the house we lost and we really like him. He had a place for us it is brand new, meets our quaifications and the owners are ready for us and the dogs to move in. They sound like they have none of the hangups the previous owners did. Now I just have to like the house, well hubbs has duty so off I go. Love it, it is perfect, sign hubbs name on the dotted line and now I wait again. That was Thursday, the housing office is closed until Wednesday morning so I still have the contract and hope it all works out. I feel better about it this time.

Saturday we went out to the house to check out more of the area and so hubbs could at least see that. It is great, there is a grocery and lots of shops, a produce store in the house across the street. The train is less than a mile away and the bus is just down the street. We need to figure out the bus. The trains are easy though so we think the bus will be too and the housing agent thinks it is a straight shot.

So today is Christmas and hubbs has duty so yesterday we went to Tokyo to celebrate Christmas eve. In all honesty we are both beyond Christmas at this point and it just keeps getting in the way. The base is shut down for 4 days (where we cant do anything) and the country will shut down between the 26th and 29th and remain that way until the 3rd (so if we can et the house nothing can be delivered). So yeah that sucks. On top of the fact that the lack of people to process paperwork means the Navy currently owes us ALOT of money, we think we are pushing $2k at the moment if not more, that does not include all of the housing money we need to round up. Thankfully we are doing well so when the money comes in and the hotel is paid, we should have a nice chunk of change.

Ok now for Tokyo. We went to Tokyo via the train. We saw Akihabara, Ginza and Roppongi Hills. It was all packed and not my style at all, just too many people but it was cool at the same time. Personally I think I need me one of the $5000 massage chairs, Sharper Image aint got nothing on these babies.

First we hit Akihabara, Fry's aint got nothing on this place. It is the Geeks heaven. There was lots of anime stuff and enough electronics to make your head spin. It was pretty cool but with no money to spend and everything being so expensive, nothing totally peaked my interest. I do have to say the household appliances are pretty crazy cool though.

This is Akihabara see the sea of people down the street, by the bridge? The road was closed and it was wall to wall people.

We also saw this awesome BumbleBee from Transformers.

After awhile we wandered off to Ginza which is the fancy part of Tokyo. We hit the Sony Gallery and saw lots of top name stores. My favorite was Coach because it reminded me of my cousins :) Christmas is very big here but more like Valentine's day, or so I have been told. There were decorations everywhere. Here are some pics hubbs took. Even the Japanese were picture crazy.

oh yeah and if you want a moosehead to hang on your wall but dont want the dirty job of obtaining a real one, just buy this realistic plush one.

From Ginza we went on to Roppongi hills in search of food since a 1200 yen bowl of ramen is a little out of our league. It was like a super mall on crack and the lights were gorgeous. My favorite was the Banana Republic Christmas trees, it had BR ornaments all over it, oh yeah commercialism at its best.

Here are some more pictures :D Unfortunately none of the ones of Tokyo Tower came out.

Things I have noticed

2007-12-15T18:57:00.000+09:00

Even the basic cheap, prepaid cellphones has more bells and whistles than I can shake a stick at or ever comprehend the point of. Some are cool, like besides voicemail the phone itself can record as voicemail. Some are weird like a diary or spending log, but the log is in japanese

Cars are not as small as people in the States think. Yeah you will not see a Surburban or an Excursion but you will see vans, Station wagons and SUVs, no pickups. We have seen cars as big as Chargers, Jeep Commanders and a HUGE SUV called a Harrier, yes like the jet. We still do not want a car but may need to get one. If we do we want a small SUV or hatchback, something one dog crate can fit in. Most likely a Nissan Cube or something else that resembles our Element, there are lots of versions here. If we get the house we want, it is on a narrow road and I will become a superstar at parallel parking.

Shopping malls here kick the malls in the States buttocks. We visited 3 today. 1 was connected to 2 other buildings with bridges over the city streets below. Each mall was geared toward a diferent group of people. We found the wealthy one with its Coach Store and other big names and then the other two were more up our alley. I got a small wallet/pouch today for Yen, so I can keep the money straight because it is a bit crazy with all the coins.

I have no idea how far we walked today but it was quite a bit. Just going to get the dogs at the kennel, walking them and going back to the hotel is about 2 miles. I do that every day and then a ton more because I get bored at the hotel. Tomorrow after walkies we are hopping on the train to check out the neighborhood we are hoping to move to. The Housing people have to deem it suitable for us, so we are waiting.

Before I leave tonight I will leave you with some pictures, these are things we found in a vending machine.

Dr Pepper bottle

Yummy corn

Things that take getting used to

2007-12-11T09:00:00.000+09:00

Ok first off everything has instructions and they are in Japanese. Well duh we are in Japan right? But we are also on an American military base in an American hotel. That being said the toilet and the bath have instructions. I have to take a pic of the faucet in the toilet, I cannot even begin to describe it, it has 3 dials.

To turn on the water the faucets go down not up. All the faucets in our room are like a typical kitchen faucet with a single arm yo would push up to turn on the water and turn left or right for hot and cold. Ours are identical except it is down.

The driving on the left thing. Yeah I keep looking the wrong way to cross the street. Hubbs has stopped himself from getting in behind the wheel when we get picked up and it is just a bit unnerving. It makes us REALLY not want to drive.

Japanese, yes the language. We know some we know the polite phrases, you know Thank you, excuse me and I'm sorry. We use them all the time with Spanish speaking people with no issues. I speak broken spanish when I need too and do not feel at all stupid, yet here I have yet to utter a Japanese phrase for fear of being laughed at, looked at like an idiot or being refferred to as a stupid gaijin. Even though it is DAMN obvious I am a gaijin.

Japanese commercials are hilarious. I mean where else would you see a giant beaver hocking laxatives, well we think it was a laxative.

ok that is all for now, hopefully today we will venture beyond the gates

We made it to Japan!

2007-12-08T09:05:00.000+09:00

so at 6:20 am Japan time I woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed even to my surprise. Oh the joy of better living through pharmeceuticals well actually it was herbs but yeah. I figured it was time to get up as I had popped the melatonin and something else I cannot pronounce around 10pm and was out in minutes. So now that I have slept let me tell you about the ordeal that kept me up for the 45 hours prior.

So I wake up Weds morning at 8am. Do the thing get on the plane in the afternoon and get to Seattle, that is where the fun begins. We were loaded with stuff so we hae the lil cart thingy, the crates dont fit so we cram Elsa in with Gaven and stack them. Not 5 minutes later Elas's crate falls and cracks, a good crack too, a no way in hell my baby is flying to Japan in this crate crack and it is 8pm and we are still at the airport. The directions I had to the station for the shuttle to the hotel were wrong so we went up 2 floors, across a bridge and back down 2 floors when we could have just crossed the street. Oh yeah and ELsa is pissed at us the whole time and Gaven was just dazed.

Got the shuttle and head to the hotel. They now want to charge us more for the dogs and act like they are doing us a favor because they dont take dogs over 20 lbs, that girl got the riot act and yeah I paid the price I was told whn I called to confirm. It is 8:45pm, the pet stores close in 15 minutes I was not having any of that from er AND I hate to fly, oh yeah and I was damn hungry. So she draws me a map to the 2 big pet stores and Target. I tell hubbs to feed and water and hang out and I will get the crate. Go back and have them call me a cab. The directions were wrong (OF COURSE!!!) thankfully the cabbie, while not knowing where it was thought the directions were wrong and headed down a different, similiarly named street, on the way to where we thought we should go. I spotted PEtsmart, he waited and I got the crate. Get it back to the hotel all on only $20 cab fare with tip, go to put it together AND THERE ARE NO BOLTS IN THE PACKAGE!!!!! Thankfully we had a crate with bolts to take apart. We go to the hotel restraut get dinner to go and head back to the room, it is now after 10. We decide to be up at 2:30am, to guarantee we are at the AMC desk at 4am, ummmm yay?

Well needless to say my insomniac self could not sleep, hubbs had wanted to stay awake but that did not last, I may have dozed over the last 2 hours before the alarm went off. So off we go, no wait for the shuttle and he wisks us off. While unloading the shuttle (oh yeah we have 1 big upright suitcase, a seabag, a good sized duffle, a small duffle, laptop case, backpack,2 dogs, carryon suitcase of paperwork and a partridge in a pear tree, so yeah 7 bags and 2 dogs) I go to get carts and see a skycap he looks at me and goes"AMC?" I said yes and he loaded us up and got us where we needed to be. Which is good because we would have never found the place. So we get through the massive line (we were last at 4am) and get setup, the girl didnt tag the dogs and didnt know what to do with them other than demand $206 CASH to fly them. Thankfully hubbs knows his ATM pin, I couldnt use mine in GA so I have no idea. There were no other dogs around and they said to have them back by 6:30 so I ignored the fact that there were no tags. We took them out, Elsa would not potty to save her life and had not since San Diego. Gaven on the other hand is all about claiming and roc, tree and bush he sees. At about 6am we head up and there are more dogs AND they have tags, so I told a different worker, and she got them tagged. We left them at 6:30am as we were hearing we were one hour delayed. There were 14 animals on the flight, they do this every week so I took a leap of faith since they do not inform us when they are on the plane. The same woman who tagged them guaranteed me that she insures they all stay together and all get on the plane and she was very nice about it and not cocky like I am sure my neurotic questions could have warranted a cocky answer. SO I went with that. When we got to the terminal it was pretty full, more floor space was taken than seats and EVERYONE was asleep, so we plopped down and hubbs conked out and I crochetted until it was a decent hour and I started texting some people. Talked to my friend Amanda for awhile and then WE WERE DELAYED FURTHER! So now our 9:40am flight that we were told to be there at 4am for will not be in until closer to noon and hopefully gone by 1300. ummm yay? Oh yeah and kids are arriving so it is getting noisy which is undersandable but so are inconsiderate people who did not notice the entire gate full of sleeping people so it got loud. They did give us food vouchers, but when Burger King is the only place around they will run out of food, at least they ran out of breakfast, thankfully I wanted lunch.

11am a flight crew shows up, but we had not seen a plane we are all hoping they just know something we don't. Then the plane arrived at some point and no one deplanes, we are debating if they are empty and were just stuck in Dallas due to weather, then we see 3 pilot types leave and hope that is the case. People start lining up, we start to laugh, what is the point. So at some point they start boarding so away we go, good news, we got the exit row and it is only 2 seats across. Bad news no seats in front of us and no room in overhead bins. We stow te entertainment bags and check the ever precious paperwork, never leave our site bag, then AFTER it is gone they tell us it will be unloaded with the normal baggage. Well fuck! but it is too late now. While we had leg room and could stand up without hitting our heads we did not have working overhead lights and the headphone jacks were hella staticy, unbearble staticy. I had my new Ipod and hubbs had his gameboy so away we went.

The flight was smooth and uneventful. Hot towels, 2 hot meals, the first of which was VERY good at least mine was and hubbs ate his so it must have been better than SOS. The movies were ok, and the one I wanted to watch (Evan Almighty) was bearbable even with the static and the crappy projection. Why is it I always sit where the projector is crap, it was out of focus but I could see the one in the next section up. I occupied myself with dozing while listening to The Golden Compass on the IPOD as I was conserving the battery for movies when I REALLY needed them later, could not read because we had no light. I got maybe 30 min sleep. The lady next to me was sleeping like a champ almost the whole way.

Now the fun begins. Getting off the plane they do it based on pets/family/rank and final destinations. So once our group came up we were already gathered so we got off quick. Then we hear it, "have your travel orders ready". Thankfully this is not common but not uncommon either so they kept my passport and our IDs to find the bag. No bag. I see a lady who works there looking at tags, I pull ours out and look at the bag next to me "SHIT!!!! it has our number and it is not our bag" When the guy gave us the tag, he gave us one and then said oh wait, Yokota and switched it, too bad he had tagged them wrong. I tell the employee she tells the Air Force guy,I tell him how important the bag is, he mutters something about :Seattle strikes again and that would be what the lose" and tells me to hang tight. So we wait and wait and of course besides the only bag we care about and the fact that we have not seen the dogs, I have not seen another bag yet. Yay I see one, and it is destroyed, can this get any better? SO slowly and quite far apart I gather 2 of our 4 checked bags. AF guy comes back and asks about the carryon and I tell him no dice, tell him what the guy who took it did with the ticket swap and the other bag going to Okinawa, describe it and show him a similar one, yes everyone there had one like it. So he heads off. While he is gone, the vet explains quarantine to me (12 hours) WOOHOO!!! And I see another bag. Then AF guy arrives with my bag, I shout "hallelujah!" thank him and rush off to get hubbs who is trying to describe our transpo and paperwork issue with someone, the guy with our IDs comes running through yelling our name, I catch him hand him the orders, grab hubbs so he can straighten that out and go talk to transpo guy. Who gets an oh shit look because he did not know of an animal transport, even though we had a reservation. HE starts making calls, hubbs comes back so I go back to the dogs, yeah they arrived at some point before I got the magic suitcase. Hubbs finds the final bag and tells me the van is here YAY!!!! We load up and off we go for the 2 hour drive toYOkosuka with our barely English speaking driver but we are together and intact.

BUT WAIT THERES MORE!!!

SO driving from Yokota to YOkosuka was cool. We had go through Tokyo. First thing, mind you I was pushing 48 hours and pretty much no sleep at this point, when the van driver hopped in on the right side I freaked a little. Then I remembered "oh wait that is where the steering wheel is" and then driving on the left was a trip. The signs were confusing, not jst because I could not read them but because they were very different, they had maps on them with roads going every which way. We were in it for a couple of hours and, there was too much going on and I am even more committed to not driving. The architecture was beautiful. There were alot of ferris wheels and to see so many Christmas lights was trippy. It was night time so we did get to see the city with the lights on, it was beautiful. I cannot even describe it, I have never seen anything like it and sometimes we were stories above the street with highways crisscrossing every which way. There were alot of ferris wheels all lit up in a very seizure inducing way.

Ok so we get to the base, I cannot find my ID. The gate guard was laughing at me, in a friendly way, I am sure he knew we were fresh meat and I had to have it to get off the plane. The guy at the airport had put it in my passport so I had not seen it and did not remember giving it to him. Hubbs told me and pulled it out and the guard smiled, and waved us through. Get to the kennel it is 9pm and of course it is closed. Go to the Lodge, they call security and they basically say we are SOL but will call the ship to get an answer. Well long, blurry story short, no answer hubbs' Chief shows up, takes the dogs and hubbs. I go to sleep. He got the dogs settled at his house in their crates and the hubbs checked in at the ship. The Kennel opens in an hour so here we go again, they better have our reservation.

That is all for now

jete ne!

The great PCS roadtrip 2007

2007-11-13T12:26:00.000+09:00

So Thursday morning I got up hella early and drove north to Virginia Beach, VA. I had almost no sleep and was exhausted before I hit Columbia, SC.

Goodbye GEORGIA!!!!

Goodbye SOUTH CAROLINA!!!

Goodbye NORTH CAROLINA!!!!

I pulled through, it was uneventful and the pups and I got to the beach. The hotel was one step above crack whore hotel but they didnt hassle us about the dogs and it was cheap. Friday they once again tried to keep hubbs from continuing on our journey but I had copies of the "missing"

paperwork. I finally got to meet my friend Sharon, whom I have talked to online for over 3 years as well as her husband. She tried to kidnap my doggies but it wasn't happening. Weather in VB SUCKED and we just wanted to hit the road. We did go see some lighthouses though at Fort Story.

The drive out of VA was rather pleasant. The leaves were damn pretty.

We also saw a fairly large cross on the side of the road but it was nothing compared with what was to come.
We also passed a sign for Blacksburg and Christiansburg, VA. It made us ask the question, do black people live in Blacksburg and must they be removed from the Christians in Christiansburg? Yes that is the sick twisted humor we have but at the same time when in the South we often found ourselves wondering if that had ever been true.
There was also a Waynesboro, VA whic made us scream in terror because we are not headed back to GA for quite some time.

Monday evening we arrived in Bristol, TN.

It was damn cold there. We had dinner with the husband and wife I grew up next to back home. She practically raised me. It was great seeing them again and friggin hysterical to find out that they aren't fans of the east either.

Here are some signs that made me giggle.

Algood

BuckSnort

THIS IS SPARTA!!!!!!

I Liked the factory

Welcome to Graceland!!!

Tuesday we headed off to Memphis, TN. Unfortunately my girlfriend who lives there was out of town but it was cool, we saw Graceland (the outside) and cruised Beale Street. I loved Memphis and would love to go back and spend more time.

Wednesday night found us in Oklahoma City. Man that was a painful drive, it just felt hella long. We ate at a yummy chinese buffett and saw my friend Amanda and her family. I havent seen her daughter since she was a week old and I had never met her husband. It was great and alot of fun. OKC is where the architecture style changed to a style more like what I am used to seeing, it was comforting.

Gaven liked Amanda and her family. In fact he spent the night waiting for them to come back.

Here is a slideshow of OK, it is not much

Thursday (my goodness I have been on the road a week) we headed to Albuquerque. My not-so-cousin gave me a good place to get some real Mexican to try and it was YUMMY! We thought we had finally gotten west of the Waffle House Empire, had not seen one since Amarillo. Well there is one at the hotel in Albuequerque. It was our longest day on the road but not as dull as the day before. Somewhere in Texas, Hardee's changed into Carl's Jr, which made me smile. We stopped at the Largest Cross in the Northern Hemisphere and the Cadillac Ranch.

We finally got near the end of our trip. Hubbs I learned loves to take pictures of rocks. We stayed in Williams, AZ which is an awesome little town outside the Grand Canyon. We spent a day at the Canyon. I got food poisoning but thankfully we were on the way back to the hotel. The next morning I still felt like crap but I wanted to get on the road, to get home. So after 11 days on the road we made it to my mother's house. I recovered after a few days and then we headed south to San Diego. So now that is where we are until December. Here are the pictures and the story so people can quit their whinin. :P

Miscellaneous in Arizona, including one of the few living animals we saw. We saw lots of wildlife but little of it was breathing.

Here is the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest. It was BEAUTIFUL and something well worth the detour.

And finally the Grand Canyon

Friends and Augusta

2007-10-16T09:56:00.000+09:00

Tonight as I realized I was bored and had a TV without a tuner and a DVD player without cables to hook it up I started making calls at 8pm, which is major taboo in my world. I made my calls in order of proximity to my house and after 2 calls had procured a set I could get tonight. It made me realize how awesome the people I have met here are.

I have experienced a lot of neat things since I moved here, things that I am just not accustomed too. I think I learned more about friendship in the last three years than I have in my 25 years prior.

I have had friends drive 3 hours to tow a friend of mine they didn't even know who was broken down on the side of the road, just because I asked. They have helped us fix furniture, put in a fence, plant trees and bushes, sent their teenagers to do my yardwork when hubbs was gone and countless other seemingly small things that were huge to me and hubbs. In just the last week, people have stopped by to dig holes and plant shrubs, fix my mini blinds (cos I am lame), fix my driveway, fix my closet doors, hang out in my attic with me cos it scares me, move a TV for me 10 feet cos I cant lift it, find AV cables for me at 8oclock at night cos mine got packed and I am bored, and shown up totally unexpected (even had to ask for directions) just because they wanted to see me one last time before I leave and I have been too busy to get together. It just means alot to me. I hop I am half as lucky to find such great people in Japan.

so yeah I thought I would tell the world.

In the next week I have to finish painting (but I have no stuff) and clean the house (again no stuff) but I am not worried as I know I will be taken care of, the Lord will provide all I have to do is ask. It is a wonderful feeling

revisited by my favorite word

2007-07-30T08:40:00.000+09:00

Renege. Just have to say page 517 of the last Harry Potter. Racial slur my ass, that is all

too damn early again

2007-07-29T19:38:00.001+09:00

So yeah I am having a very unusual form of insomnia for me. I get bored at night so I go to bed decently early, 10 or 11. Then I wake up around 6 and can't get back to sleep. I guess this is better than being up until 4 and sleeping until noon but damn it confusing me and it makes my days feel so long. So I dont have to be at church for 2 hours, so I am off to study. ummmm yay! I guess

Oh what a day

2007-07-29T08:32:00.000+09:00

So this morning my friend Tom came over to help me tame my back yard. I have been feeing bad about not doing too much to get the physical house ready for the move and hubbs has been doing ALL the outside work. I am still working on getting off all the meds I was given erroneously so was sick most of the week but come this morning I was feeling decently enough. Which is good 'cos I have almost no way of easily contacting Tom, at least not to say, "don't come." Well it was wet at 8 am but he was here right on time and away we went. We moved quick and got alot of shit cleared out of the yard. In 2 hours we had what I thought would take us all day, finished. Now I can plant some shrubs to hide the monolith that has appeared behind my house.

Oh and now for the part that my friedns who new me forever ago (yes I am feeling old lately) will find fucking hilarious. Me + machete = I suck. Yes I cannot do any damage when swinging a machete at weeds. Oh wait it gets better. It rained on and off until about noon. By dinner time I was going try and get a fire going in the pit. Me + hatchet = I suck. Yes I could not swing the hatchet hard enough or accurately enough to splinter up a piece of dry wood to make dry kindling. So yeah I suck and the strong me that once was has become a weak lil bitch. I can't think of what else to call myself. I mean I used to be tough and strong and now, well I get pampered too much or something because I swear I bet if anyone would have seen me with that hatchet they would have died laughing. So there you go I am pathetic and I am putting it out there for the world to see, but no one saw it and I can delete this later. Oh the power I wield :P

but the Jack Daniels Roast I made kicked serious buttocks. I will have to use that marinade recipe again and figure out what else I can drown in it. I am going to miss my grill when it leaves me in a couple months

River of Life

2007-07-23T21:45:00.000+09:00

The run down

5 days
over 100 12-17 yearolds
not nearly enough adults
1 hotel

Oh yeah can you feel the fun yet?

16 work teams
like 6 porches built
9 houses painted
16 yards cleaned up
some really awesome food, they made me fat
One guy who could end up being on my list of favorite people, but then again maybe not
Just all around a ton of fun for a good cause and purpose.

The part people care about:
meeting random people to avoid the same people I have been eating and sleeping with for 3 days.
Deciding walking into a church service through the front 30 minutes late with a guy who is not my husband would be a bad idea. Then again if it had been my husband people would have fallen over dead as he has only been in church twice in the last 3 years (one my baptism and the other was on the way to the lake, we weren't backtracking for him). It was a good choice. I had more fun shootin the shit with him anyhow.
Anyone who did not know me thinking I had a thing for him, made me giggle. Yeah maybe if I was younger and not married but otherwise it didnt cross my mind but it was a lil flattering.
The world found out that I only love Mitchell for his tools. But oh what tools they are :)

Now the best part:
Different woman in my bed every night.
Being in a bath tub with 2 guys
Being in a bathroom with 6 guys and another chick
hiding under the stairs with 5 guys.
shoulder rubs
Almost pitching a guy off the balcony.
Waking up to different rays of sunshine every morning

I am sure I will come up with more but that is all at the moment. I am still tired and I feel like ass but it is all good. Did it change me? It takes alot to change me. I did like however for once staying local. I do not like the idea of going to other countries to do mission work when there is so much that can be done right here.

I had ENTIRELY way too much fun and some of it I am sure was inappropriate for a church retreat but it was good times all around. And get that DAMN SONG OUT OF MY HEAD!!

My Ordeal

2007-07-14T11:34:00.000+09:00

Ok back in May hubbs was denied orders because I am supposedly sick. A lot of phonecalls, faxes, doctors appointments and scrambling later we managed to get me cleared by the hospital in Japan. This was all due to a misdiagnosis. On May 21st I was cleared and hubbs applied for orders. At the end of June/beginning of July he received orders to Japan. WOOHOOO!!! Now that is the back story. Here is where it gets fun.

We went on vacation in the middle of June. He did not have “hard” orders when we left but I made the docs appointment anyway for overseas screening. When we got back my screening was the next Wednesday, June 27th and we had until Friday July 13th to get everything complete. And so it begins.

Go in on the 27th and this lady who has been a pain to me for months acts like she is God as far as my screening is concerned and then proceeds to tell me she can’t do anything because we are Navy. This lady is the EFMP coordinator at a JOINT command yet she acts like she does not have reason to help Navy family members. No big deal, the doc signs and coordinator gives the almighty stamp. I argue with both about tests I KNOW I need done and they tell me no. Thursday I learn an important paper was left out. I call the EFMP coordinator. She is not in, she does not work on Fridays and screenings are only on Wednesday which is July 4th. I schedule the screening for Wednesday July 11th, just in case. I also scheduled my own tests because no one would listen. I continue calling Friday, Monday and Tuesday and got nowhere. I talked to the coordinator’s supervisor a few times and that did not help either. Thursday, I got frustrated and went down to the hospital. The nurses there had seen me quite a bit since May when all this started. I told them my latest issue. One of them helped set me up with my tests and the shots I needed to get. They could not get anything done about the screening; it was just one headache after another. Friday they had me get one test. Monday I went back and had it read. Tuesday I had a health exam. Wednesday I had the screening. Now mind you the hospital in Japan has accepted me so this is mostly a formality. The doctor does not feel comfortable signing off on some things and I think “ok I can respect that.” He was confused by the wording as he had never seen the form before. This was at 8 or 9AM. He did not however tell me that he had not checked whether or not I am suitable for overseas. I found that on my own at 6PM! If I had not looked at it, I would have sent in the paperwork incomplete. I took it back to the hospital, first thing in the morning with some further supporting evidence, most importantly documentation that the gaining hospital had accepted me. That was not enough so I went back later with further documentation that afternoon. I was told come back in the morning for the paperwork. Friday morning I returned around 10:30AM. My paperwork still was not completed and I was asked to not return until I had been called. I guess my camping out for the last 9 business days was not appreciated by him, the nurses and I got along fine. At this point I had also contacted Navy Personnel in Charleston, SC and Tennessee and had been given the distinct impression that this was the doctor being overcautious or overzealous. At 2PM on Friday I received a call that it had been completed. I picked it up and we now believe it is all complete, hopefully the sage will not continue.

Pictures from the Masters

2007-04-09T09:44:00.000+09:00

2007 Masters

Here are the pics I took during the practice days. I had a great time and hope I some day get to go back and walk on those fairways, maybe even as a spectator. Otherwise I am content to know that I did it, even if just once.

2007-04-09T08:41:00.000+09:00

So today I see one of the sound guys from CBS at the Masters. He is older so I assumed he would have some pearls of wisdom about the industry. Was I right? HELL NO!!! This guy is the epitome of why I decided I would rather do random sound jobs than work in the industry. He has a very large fuzzy and I asked him how long the mic was in it, using my hands as an estimation. HE HAD NO IDEA!!! HE DIDNT EVEN KNOW WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT! He said some guy "built" it on Manday and he just new how to replae the batteries. Well congratulations Bob you can drop a 9 volt into the box when the light turned red. He actually thought it was a speciall designed contraption it was in fact identical to the fuzzy windscreens we used in college on a pistol grip and probably a long shotgun maybe 12-18 inches long. When I said boom work is hard keeping your hands up, he looked at me like I was crazy and said "why would you do that we keep it down low and point." I gave up at that point.

But yeah thank you Lord for once again pointing out to me why I left LA and don't really want to work in the industry again. I do however miss my press pass.

Day 3 of the Masters

2007-04-05T09:58:00.000+09:00

Today I didnt have to work until later so I went in early to walk around. I can now say pretty confidently that I have walked all 18 holes of the Augusta National, I may have missed a couple but I will be checking that out to be sure tomorrow. Today was the Par3 contest. After reading about it I am actually kind of bummed that I could not watch it. I still have not seen Tiger or Michelson. The highlight of my day was Fuzzy Zoeller hitting his ball in a bunker and laughing with the crowd. I saw lots of other players too but none that I knew even after their name was said, hey I dont really follow golf, I just like it. My friend is a police officer, he is in charge of guarding the sacred leader board, and he has seen all of the big wigs. Tomorrow my goal is to try and get in to see the official tee off, or is it honorary, either way it is being done by Arnold Palmer. Woods and Michelson don't tee off until after I am at work so maybe someone famous will come by and say hi. Of course for all I know they already have and I am just oblivious. They all look alike, some are cute and flirt with me (which is cool) but most look like or remind me of my cousins and when they flirt with me it is weird. I am focusing on dropping my pseudo southern accent and talking like a Californian but it is hard with the think accents sitting to my left and right. I love seeing all the shirts with locations, so many remind me of home unfortunately people are just showing off where they have been, not where they are from. Some arent though and I tag them right half the time.

I did call one of my cousins last night. I just wanted to call and brag to someone who would get it. thankfully he did :) It was nice to talk to him but I was damned exhausted and pretty self centered I think. I totally forgot to ask him how everyone is doing, if he has seen our other cousins new baby and all that. Yeah I suck. Well it is Masters week in Augusta and they do say that during this week there is no world outside Augusta. I guess I proved that right.

I have no more great insights for today. I am trying to think of some but my brain is refusing to function and just wants to sleep. I have to figure out what I am wearing tomorrow as we are expecting a 20 degree temperature drop.

Unfortunately there will be no more pics as cameras are no longer allowed.

Masters, Day 2

2007-04-04T08:22:00.001+09:00

ok so today is day two at the Masters. I work long hours but I have time before the day starts to take the long way to the stand and enjoy the course. I even get to take a camera in Mon-Wed so I am and I am taking advantage. I bought some swag and am collecting the plastic cups.

Yesterday I saw the joy and giggled when I saw a line and line stansions (like at Disneyland) for the mens room and when I went into the ladies room it was empty. oh the irony, oh the joy and I just wanted to scream FEEL OUR PAIN BITCHES!!!!!

Today I saw a guy with a REAL USC shirt. I was all Trojans BABY!!! He was happy I knew and thought the Gamecocks were BS, I have to agree. I also saw a guy with a City of Stockton hat so I asked if it was Stockton, CA and it was. The guy then tells me he is the mayor, I of course presume he is full of shit, so I looked it up http://www.stocktongov.com/citycouncil/Mayor.cfm and yeah that could be him.

I wanted to buy Pops a shirt but as much as I love him, it is not that much. The cheapest was $55 and the ones I liked were $80 and they went up to like $200.

Unlike most events, the food is cheap (I can ring up lunch for a family of 4 for under $20) and the people are nice. They aren't pushy or bitchy. they are really pretty calm. Lets see what happens when the match starts.

So yeah I am exhausted an my mind no worky. I have pics, proof that I really was there and some pics of players but now I need to go finish the laundry so I have clothes tomorrow

why I shouldnt be home alone

2007-03-22T02:13:00.000+09:00

I have a medical condition, one I do not talk about in specifics to even my closest friends, I can only think of 5 people who know. So today I was looking up support groups and didnt find much for local but I found an online group. There was a pinned story about pregnancy and the strength of these women just made me cry. Many men and women without children said don't do it but the stories of those who did and how wonderful they are, just made me cry. Many also said their disease was not passed on to their children which gives me so much hope. Not that I want kids now but the idea that I could but really shouldnt, made me very sad.

I did also call people about renting the house. I looked at 3 places and talked to 2 of them. They are all identical so now all I need to do is decide between my friends firm and the lady who sold us our house. I am getting references. If good it is leaning toward the friends firm because one of their references is a friend from Church.

WOOHOO!!! My nose started running I feel safe taking my sinus drugs for this damn headache

I need to go clean the kitchen

Lately the bad seems to outnumber the good

2007-03-07T04:48:00.000+09:00

ok so I am deciding to write this all down. I am in hell Augusta is hell my one last safe bastion of peace was sullied by someone who chose the need to invade my personal space. Lets start at the beginning

Bad: a few weeks ago I learned they will be building a commercial development behind my house, I found out from the backhoe driver taring out the trees that were my fence.

Bad: This new orders system sucks ass

Bad: to finish school (Diploma in Computer Programming), I will have to basically go out of business, the classes I need are only offered from 10AM - 3PM

Bad: a class I really want to take and is important in the industry is at the same time as a class I am required to take.

Good: Java, the class I want, is taught by a teacher who sucks. They announced one of the best teachers will be teaching it at night in a couple quarters, I am willing to pay for it.

Bad: Mom calls panicked because stepdad is acting more off than usual. He ends up in the hospital again after I told her about the nurse care line.

Good: he was in one day, it was a combo of fever and dehydration.

Good: I am working constantly

Bad: I m working constantly

Good: hubbs and I celebrated 3 years of marriage. He planned a trip to get me away for a night. We were going to stay at a nice hotel, get massages and go to the ATL Aquarium.

Bad: cellphone fried.

Good: cellphone under warranty and I still had my old cell.

Bad: hotel computer system screwed up, we didn't go to the aquarium.

Good: we rolled with it and still had a good time.

Good: Stressful out of the ordinary church service went well

Bad: someone at church went into my purse and stole my digi camera, leaving the camera bag.

Good: the church will replace it but I feel bad about that however i cannot afford to replace it. It was a nice camera my mom bought me and hubbs for all the help while stepdad was sick.

Good: I have a wonderful husband that loves me and I love him

The quarter is ending so I have a ton of shit to get done including a number of programs to write.

Oh yeah and we still have no clue where we are going and what hubbs will be doing next

Oh the things we learn

2007-02-11T12:30:00.000+09:00

Tonight I went out with some friends and we were sitting in a restaurant eating when I said the word "renege" which I pronounce renig. I was telling a girlfriend that she needed to renege on her plans and get her butt to work on a project for school instead. I guess this drew looks from the African American family behind me and 2 of the guys with me explained how it is a racial slur. Well I grew up using this word and my father would have never allowed me to use a racial slur. Well needless to say I felt pretty bad. So being the nerd that I am I came home and looked it up. Well it is not a racial slur except in the "overheated imagination of the south" as one great blog put it. It does not have its origins in slavery nor does it refer to the spades cards in card playing but it does have a card playing definition. Here is the definition for all to see, thanks to dictionary.com

re·nege [ri-nig, -neg, -neeg] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation verb, -neged, -neg·ing, noun

–verb (used without object)

1.	Cards. to play a card that is not of the suit led when one can follow suit; break a rule of play.

2.	to go back on one's word: He has reneged on his promise.

–verb (used with object)

3.	Archaic. to deny; disown; renounce.

–noun

4.	Cards. an act or instance of reneging.

[Origin: 1540–50; earlier renegue <>renegāre, equiv. to re- re- + negāre to deny (cf. negative)]

—Related forms

re·neg·er, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source

re·nege (rĭ-nĭg', -něg', -nēg') Pronunciation Key
v. re·neged, re·neg·ing, re·neges

v. intr.

To fail to carry out a promise or commitment: reneged on the contract at the last minute.
Games To fail to follow suit in cards when able and required by the rules to do so.

v. tr.
To renounce; disown.

n. The act of reneging.

[Medieval Latin renegāre, to deny; see renegade.]

re·neg'er n.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source
renege

1548, from M.L. renegare, from L. re-, intensive prefix, + negare "deny" (see deny).

WordNet - Cite This Source

renege
noun
1.	the mistake of not following suit when able to do so [syn: revoke]
verb
1.	fail to fulfill a promise or obligation; "She backed out of her promise"

Wiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!

2006-12-23T01:34:00.000+09:00

Yet another whirlwind trip through So Cal is over and done with. This time it was 12 days instead of the obligatory 4, that we tend to make quite often. The drive to Charlotte was not bad at all but it was dam cold. There were chunks of ice floating in a foutain that we drove by at 9am in the morning. The flight out was uneventful but hella long, the airline decided against informing us of a 2 hour layover but not a plane switch. Well the stewardesses made it very clear they wanted us off the plane so off we got. The rest of the trip in was nie an peaceful.

Well That was Friday. Saturday morning we were off to Ontario to meet up with an old friend, I have known her over 20 years. eek!!!! But we had a great lunch and saw her gorgeous little girl. She is a very sweet little baby. Then we wandered the Ontario Mills, killing time to go see one of my bestedest friends. That night we spent with her family at a Peanut Brittle making party, yes I said Peanut Brittle making party. Yes it sounds lame but it is oh so very fun. Trying not to get burned by molten lava, I mean melted sugar. Breaking thermometers, generally mocking the spreading ability of people you barely know. Like I said good times to be had by all.

Sunday we were off to see Pops. We watched some football, had some In and Out and started our epic Wii search. Monday we wandered around the LA area looking for a Wii and other shopping. That night was karaoke with the infamous FOXSWAN. There was the great computer crash of 2006 but it was still alot of fun. We saw the calendars and I must say they are well worth the money. I had trouble getting past the sheer imagery that February brought to my mind. Yes ladies they are single and straight (or so they claim) but gay or straight I would let my friends date them. I did however find out that Fox does not know the dreidel song but he does accept the blame for the fact that the Jews killed Santa. It was a great time and I think hubbs had a genuinely good time, not to mention Fox is a very good sport about all my teasing. I had to tell him that he would have to worry if I was nice to him. Once again Swan was a wonderful host, too bad we are now the owners of a $35 street sweeping ticket. I did remember but didnt think we would sleep in. I figured of the 4 years I lived in OC (the crowning jewel of street sweeping tickets) I did not get one so it was no big deal. Little did I know that was just the beginning of a hellishly expensive day. While cruising down the I-5 back towards to SD a ginormous boulder flew over the center divide and smashed the windshield. The thing must have been 8 inches across, at least that was the size of the non-shattered part of the windshield.

We limped on down to turn the car back in. That is still a pain in our butts and quite unresolved but we shall see soon if we owe or if our insurance will cover it.

So we wandered around town seeing various friends and family for a few days. Mom also came down with my stepdad for a few days, which was awesome. We went to my family annual Christmas party where many of us preceeded to drink to much and tell my cousin he is a fool for not being married to his long time girlfriend. It got a lil cruel but it is cos we love her and he would be an idiot to let her get away. We stayed up talking and carrying on until 4 or 4:30 AM. We crashed on the couch and 2 hours later the Wii search began again in earnest. We hit every Target, Circuit City and Best Buy in the 40 miles between where we were and where we were going. Well the lines were all horrendous as everyone knew there would be Wiis that day. Well at one mall hubbs made a wrong turn so I told him to drop me off so I could check Gamestop and he could go on to Best Buy. Well I walk up the ramp and quite unlike the shining holy grail there is a empty store with no line in the cold and rain. So like any good American, I start a line where none existed not knowing whether or not it would even pay off. 2 hours later it did as they had 6 units and I had the first. Of course the greedy bastards at this particular GameStop demanded that we buy a $50 piece of crap expansion thingy. Well apalled and angry as I was I still bought it and then promptly returned it at the mall across town by where we were staying.

The trip home sucked. A nasty stormed blew into Denver (which shut it down for 2 days), another one into Dallas and I think one in St. Louis. Well we were delayed for about 2 hours in San Diego which was no big deal but some people were real assholes about it. Let me stand up and say it now (if anyone has read this far) THE AIRLINE PERSONEL ARE NOT GOD OR EVEN GOD-LIKE IF THEY COULD CONTROL THE WEATHER THEY WOULD NOT BE WORKING AT AN AIRPORT!!!! Yelling at them does not help, being rude to them does not help but your getting annoyed and huffy when they make smart-ass comments back at your rudeness only makes you look more like an ass and make them feel better. I had one such jerk behind me in line, he kept getting out of line to yell at the poor woman working and telling her she needs to get someone else to come help her. Don't you think that if she had someone they would be there or do you think the woman liked seeing the ever-growing never ending line of angry people in front of her. Then this same a-hole pushed his way ahead of us to get off the plane at the connection like he was the only one scheduled to make his connection. My only solace with it is that I bet his bags were lost. Well we made our connection, actually got into Charlotte early and ahead of schedule. Too bad that connection efficiency meant our bags did not make. We left Carlotte with a Wii but no bags and made the long drive. Late the next day the bags arrived but the communication between the airlines was so poor that I may write a letter. I also think that 24 hours from the time the bags missed the connection to the time we received them is unacceptable. But that is the world of the new airlines.

So now we are home. We have some games and 4 sets of controllers for the Wii. We are all set for a Wii Christmas and a Wii New Years Party

Raven Simeone

2006-11-24T13:13:00.000+09:00

Do I know her? no Have I met her? no. Do I generally care about her? no. I just want to say that from what little I know of her I think she is a good person and not a pain in the ass star. Being from Southern California, I generally do not care about famous people and was fairly accustomed to seeing them. Well she was on my flight from LAX to Atlanta. I had heard whisperings but then again I really didn't care. Well, I am sure you are wondering where I am going with this. Well I went to get my bags off the carousel with 50 billion other people and there she was standing in front of me. No biggee, she is short I could still see the carousel. Well she had the cutest little dog and was very sweet about people walking up to her. The coolest part was that she got her own bags. It was getting REALLY crowded so her friend was getting the bags and she moved back, so I moved forward. This is what struck me most about her. She was moving her bags back but I was in the way. She very politely said "excuse me" so I stepped aside so yeah. On the decent famous people meter she gets 2 big thumbs up.

Ramblings from the airport

2006-11-24T04:45:00.000+09:00

I really should start doing a blog on all the airports I have flown into, out of and through. Seriously there seem to be millions and I do have favorites.

So here I am at LA International Airport on the busiest travel day of the year. Well all the news reports of LAX showed these hideous and horrendous lines and traffic, well not at Delta at 10:30 this morning. I left the Antelope Valley on a shuttle this morning at 9am. We hit my terminal somewhere around 10:30. There were no lines and no pressure, I walked straight up to the check-in kiosk. Then I couldnt figure the darn thing out, it had instructions flashing on the screen to fast to read except the passport instructions and it didnt read my passport. Then I dropped off my bags. I think my boarding pass had a code on it that tagged me for full search. So yup I got the full blown pat down and inspection. Sorry boys there was no serious girl on girl gropage like they show on the news. She didn't even graze my breasts, which I am not sure if I am glad about that or upset. I mean I don't have a thing for women but are my breasts not good enough for the gropage we see on TV? I did get to see a guy in a cast get the inspection and they inspected his cast, which was interesting to me. All in all the worst day of the year to travel has so far been easy, by 11:15 AM I had done to walks of the Concourse, one to find my gate and another to peruse food options and shopping. Now I am sitting at a power outlet to conserve the precious battery power of my laptop. I also have 3 wi-fi links but none of them are letting me in, even though one says it is for public use. Those bastards!

I now ave 2 good hours until my plane leaves and a little less until it boards. But you can bet your tuckus I am not leaving this golden power outlet until my hunger is so ravenous, I want to jump the guy across from me and eat his McD's I would rather eat human flesh than McD's mmmmmmm flesshhhhhhhhh

Hmm maybe I should hop on that flight to Paris, I missed the one earlier to Buenos Aires, the person announcing that couldn't pronounce it and finally just said Peru. Buenos Aires is in Peru right?

Ok so my thesis on airports will start like this. LAX is not my fave by far. The bathrooms have not been updated to accomodate roll-on size carry-ons and the hooks and stands have not been reinforced so you can keep your laptop or purse off the floor. They did have auto-flush toilets which was nice. This concourse (Delta) has very few choices for food and shopping. There is a McD's, a sandwich shop, a CPK and like 3 bars that claim they serve food, but calling the selection bar food would be an exageration. I looked at one "menu" and there were 3 things on it. There are 2 shops. your typical newstand shop and a kitschy krap southwest shop, being from the Southwest and considering it crap I did not give it more than a walking glance. The newshop was typical, I heart LA stuff, some See's Candy(I might go back for that) and newstand stuff but the only bottled drinks are water. That is common in alot of airports lately, but not a big deal because they have vending machines and soda only vendors. Well not at LAX. It sucks. The check in was pretty smooth even though the attendants were inattentive, brusk and your typical CA rude which I am just not accustomed to anymore. Even though I got the full random search the security screening was smooth but I wouldnt want to do it when they are busy. The organization is poor and the area needs to be redsigned for the new standards.

Security CheckPoints:
Now ATL their security point is huge and kick ass, if I do sayso. It is like the entrance to disneyland or the line at Fry's. There are so many lanes that they should never get to long and there is someone directing and telling you where to go. Of course I saw many people not listen when the lady was clear in instructions and there were times where I could see she was speaking clearly IF we had been familiar to the airport areas.

San Diego well I don't like it, again the area needs to be redesigned But mostly I dont like it because they were rude to me and are lacking signage that says things like "Take Laptop out of bag" So since I didnt know they were pissed and angry and just very rude to me.

I have no recollection of Birmingham, Chicago-Midway or Pensacola so it coulndt be that bad.

Other Notes:

Atlanta kicks ass, lots of food and things to amuse me when I am waiting. They also have the train so you don't have to run to another terminal.

Dallas-Fort Worth had great food, that is all I remember is this restraunt with the best Albondigas I have ever had.

Phoenix was boring but did have free internet, as does ATL I think. LAX has no internet unless my wifi is hosed up again. I think Birminham had free too.

hmmmmmm ok that is all for now until I get bored and right more. I should be working on that term paper but I just don't care about it.

2006-11-22T05:47:00.000+09:00

SO I am about to go home. I fly out tomorrow, I am packing and running errands in hopes that my mom will be ok for awhile. Stepdad is doing well but his lack of vision is very upsetting to him. He can see but he is seeing double so yeah no fun. The IV will be done tomorrow and mom will be home through the holiday so hopefully they will work out a schedule, or grandma will come up now that there is no fear of him eing contagious, little did I know but grandpa has never had the Pox even though he has gone through 4 kids who have. So yay! for LAX on the busiest day of the year to ATL the busiest airport in the country that has lost my luggage more than once. No one even loves me enough to drive me down there. ok for real I dont want anyone to go through that hell for me. I will take the bus.

As we were cleaning the garage we found alot of my old stuff. One was a very nicely packed box that I know has a lot of momentos in it but I did not go through it. We found the grail we were searching for which was another tub of antique banks and glassware that was not wrapped it has now been repacked and moved to a safe yet undisclosed location. :)

What got me writing today was a smaller box, plastic and slightly larger than a shoebox. It is full of paper and going home with me. It is full of card and letters from about 1996-1999. Just 3 years but full of memories. It reminds me of the friends I had, the best friend I have taken for granted and a friend who may have been a love but neither of us ever said so. It was a wonderful thing to find. Just full of memories. People I havent heard from in 10 years and I admit that is mostly my fault. People who were dear friends who suddenly weren't and I still don't know why. A letter from my sister saying we would be married and have kids by now, well she isnt and neither of us do. Then my best friend who I had forgatten cared so much for me and did really nice things for me. It's weird how things change and I just forgot. To those I still talk to, thank you, to those I forgot, I am sorry and to Roo, I love you, you are a real friend.

Bat out of Hell Meets Bat Out of Burbank

2006-11-13T08:23:00.000+09:00

Well I am in California for a week and then some. My stepfather is ill and mom needs help, so duh dudda duh! here comes super-daughter. Ok well I had no choice, I dont care what anyone says. I fI hadn't come I would be the asshole child that I despise when I have to deal with others in similar situations. So here I am. Week one is complete, the old man is getting better but we have another week of IVs. So Mom gave me a break to get out of Hell, as I lovingly refer to the Antelope Valley. There are 2 ways out one leads to my Hometown and the other to LA. Well the pass is closed to go back to Dodge, the place I got the hell out of. So I started bugging my LA\College buddies to see who still loved me and would tolerate me for an evening.

I was greeted with open arms by the dynamic super duo FOXSWAN. They said yeah come on down we'll have dinner and then try to steal you from you husband as a swoon over us and our awesome singing. Who can turn down that kind of invitation.

So I drove down the hill and my adventure began. Mom, being paranoid and not wanting to realize I am closer to 30 than 16, insisted I leave earlier because she didn't want me driving the 1980s throwback of a car in the dark. So needing a wedding present for some friends I agreed. I looked up malls online and decided on The Grove. Dumb me didn't look closely at the surrounding streets so as I am driving I realize I am in the heart of Hollywood, and there was a Premiere being setup. Now tourists would think COOL! me being from there and having seen it all before said "oh shit! I am surrounded by stupid tourists." But I got the The Grove safely. It was like shopping at Crate and Barrel on Main Street in Disneyland, it was definetly weird. The Farmers Market was pretty dang cool though.

So I left, almost got back on the 101, or hit the divide pylon (shhhh don't tell mom). I thought I was lost and called Swan. While talking to him I realized that if I had stayed at the Holiday Inn Express that I was looking at last night, I would have realized I was also looking at a sign for the street I was looking for. So my dumbass went off to find the abode of Swan.

Here is where the fun begins.....

So I get there a Swan almost doesn't recognize me but better than that was Fox who was obviously smitten with me. He wouldnt stop staring at me. He is lucky that the power of the ring compels me because who could deny that look.

After Dinner and more oggling from Fox it was off to go see the World Famous FOXSWAN Well Ladies I have to say it was worth the trip from Georgia. I was amazed, enthralled and even a little confused by sheer manliness that FOXSWAN emanate while acting incredibly gay.

There was also bowling but that was just sad and pathetic. I got to see a few other friends from school which was totally awesome. It almost made me miss Cali, but no it just made me miss my friends and antics, I still don't really miss LA.

I had a great time it was well worth the drive. I feel bad for having to wake up Swan for directions but he was so confused I had to chuckle. He also has the greatest roommate ever, I wish I had had rommates like that.

Another week and a half here in hell. Then home before I come back to San Diego. Somewhere between here and there, I need to procure us a car and find a way to meet up with FOXSWAN again so hubbs can meet them.

Oh yeah and Ladies they are single. And while I am not sure about Fox,
I am pretty sure Swan likes the ladies.All in All Good times were had by all.

2006-07-09T05:30:00.000+09:00

Today I was working on a computer and no sooner had I walked into the clients home and tried to open the case, that I had a gash caused by metal so deep that I knew I needed to get to the hospital. The client felt really bad but there was nothing they could have done and it was nothing I hadtn done a hundred times and not once had the plastic piece popped off and caused the metal it covered straight into my wrist.

Of course it was my right wrist and I drive stick. So I called Eph and as calmly as I could asked if he was in town and when confused he said yes I told him I needed him at my house i needed a ride to the hospital. The pain had not set in yet and somehow I got the truck back to the house. The pain started about 2 miles from home and it was getting worse. I got it parked and talked to my neighbor, in part to let her know what is up and to keep my mind off the pain.

Eph showed up and just like any hero in a pimp cadillac wisked me off to the emergency room. Thankfully through all of this I had a towel from the client and had managed to keep enough pressure on it that it barely bled. When I got there, there was a short line but only one admitting clerk. The guy in front of me looked at me with the towel on my wrist and told me to go ahead. He also said they were BSing. So I asked the lady at the non-open window if she could help me I was bleeding, knowing good and well she wasn't open. That got the other guy away from the open window, where after I explained my situation I was informed that I had an actual emergency unlike the cases of strep and flu she had been seeing all day.

I got to the admitting nurse pretty quickly, who before removing the compress asked if she was going to get sprayed because she didn't like blood. It made me laugh. At that point I was in hella pain, shaking and yeah just not good. She took a quik look and put a sterile dressing on it. Not before taking my BP to which I had to ask "you're doing it on the left right?" and she responded "no I want to see how far it sprays." She also told me had I been committing Suicide I was going about it right, that is when I realized had I been cut a lil deeper it would have been serious as you could see the veins under it. I also did not suffer any tendons so my hand is mostly functioning.

So after a quick wait we were called back into the suture room where a little man who obviously enjoys pain "treated me." I am actually glad hubbs was not there he may have hurt this man. He didnt move the cart/table close enough so I was leaning to have my wrist on it or he was pulling me over it. He didn't warn me that the iodine would hurt, that was when the wimpering started. Then he pulled out what we both thought was a suture kit with no sign of anestetic. Thankfully it only contained suture tape. Then when he was explaining care to me he snapped at me when I asked a question. After all was said and done I realized I had more questions. thankfully then another doc, who had a sense of humor, came in to give me my tetanus shot.

So now I will be spending some time as a lefty. I cant drive the truck and even typing this has made it start to ache. I was supposed to clean the house today and since I can't get it wet I will not be doing that. Just bringing in 1 bag of groceries bugged it some so I dont think I will even be picking things up. Ugh I am frustrated but it isnt that bad and it could have been much worse.

Oh the things they say

2006-06-27T00:41:00.000+09:00

I was asked at least 3 times at six flags if I had called my parents and asked if I could come home later than planned. Which if I am correct I was the 2nd oldest person there, not by much but yeah I was still older.
I was asked which high school I went too.
and my personal favorite was What year I was in college. I told her I graduated 5 years ago. Her response: "You don't look that OLD!" I just said thank you but I really want to say sheesh graduating 5 years ago means I am still not yet 30 (which I am sure by her standards would make me ancient).

Ok that is all for now. I gotta find a way to be awake.

Things I forgot about the trip

2006-06-27T00:12:00.000+09:00

We got back to the Church around 2:30am Saturday morning. I was scheduled to be back at the church at 8am. Thankfully I had the sense at 10:30pm to call Keith who does sound but he was also performing but he had the number of the other sound guy. Double thankfully I had asked Joe (the other sound guy) to please show up on time Sunday in case Heaven forbid something happened to me. It is a good thing I did too because even though Keith called Joe, Joe's phone wasnt working and didnt start working until he was on his way into the church.

Now for the Aftermath:
By the time I got home and fed the puppies and called hubbs it was 3am. I set the alarm for 8:00 but didnt hear it until almost 9. My meds make me a zombie when I dont get enough sleep so I stumbled through the get up routine, my eyes were bloodshot my body ached. I felt like shit basically all the signs of a serious hangover from having the perfect amount of fun the night before without the joy or calories of actually drinking. I made it to church, stopped by a friends house to wake them up. Walked in saw one of the guys in his boxers and a similar stupor. He said "yes its her" I said "just making sure you are awake" and stumbled out the door and up to the church where I gave Joe a great big hug cos I have never been so happy to see his truck.

After church I was invited to a friends for dinner. I told them I would try and sleep but if I couldnt I would be there. Well I couldnt so off I went. Then back to the church to have some fun with the youth. Then some poker.

The ultimate sign you shouldnt have gotten out of bed in the morning: it takes until 7pm to realize your panties are inside out and it takes until almost midnight to realize your bra is too. Yeah I am no longer able to function on too little sleep. I think that officially makes me old.

The poor dogs must feel totally neglected by me. They are clinging to me like glue today but I still couldnt sleep in. Dang phone kept on ringin.

The trip from hades

2006-06-26T11:59:00.000+09:00

Oh my goodness I went on my first adventure with the youth group from my church and boy was it an ADVENTURE. We went to Six Flags over Georgia and it was crazy fun. I even managed not to swear, which in and of itself is hella impressive considering I put my sailor husband to shame some days. Just as we were all getting off a coaster there was lightning in the sky and they shutdown the park. It wasn't a big deal as the park was closing in an hour. And that is where the fun began. 3 of the groups were together but the 4th had lost his cellphone. So we were keeping an eye out for him. While looking for him the rain started coming down and the thunder was getting worse. We found him and all went in to eat. While we were eating the sky just opened up and buckets of water started falling. The 2 drivers went out to get the vehicles closer so we wouldnt get too soaked. I guess while opening the Van lightning struck the pole next to it and our fearless leader felt a little more electricity than you want while opening a car door. When he got in it the Van didnt even try to start, no click no nothin. While all of this is going on, those of us in the park are trying to keep track of bored teenagers, hustle to the bathroom, eat, cleanup, get kicked out of the restraunt because the park closed, hide in a gift shop. They tried kicking us out of the gift shop but we told the guards what was happening and managed to get a reprieve on our expulsion from the park. There were lots of phone calls and our drivers having to come and go between us and the car getting more and more wet. We kept getting told different stories, your typical everyday lack of communication as can be witnessed at any place of employment. At one point we did get kicked out but thankfully they had a place we could huddle and be dry. At that point I was just waiting for them to turn us out. It was a total lawsuit waiting to happen not to mention very dangerous. At one point, when we were still in the park, I went to the bathroom with 3 others. There must have been a strike not far from us. The light and the noise actually scared me enough to scream/swear (if you consider DAMN! a swear word) and the girl who was with us screamed like I had forgotten girls can scream. At that point I was doing what I could to not only stay inside but keep the kids back in too. So yeah it was an adventure. Thankfully we all handled it really well and no one throttled a kid. I did snap at one but that was when she asked "Are we all gonna die" I went into total adult mode and snapeed my head to her and growled "we dont say things like that" I was so pissed and annoyed that I guess I missed the security guard who had been helping us say "nobody dies at six flags." Then they finally got the lazy, inept, lying, confused, or uninformed mechanic to get the jump and we were on our way. This fun started at 9pm and we left around 12:30am which is absolutley ridiculous. All of that to get a jump, not to mention the "rumors" I heard passed among the kids about what was going on, trying to keep them calm, getting them to understand that we had no control and we would let them know whaen we do and the frustration the adults were dealing with.

All in all it was actually a good trip just the 3 hours it took to get out of the park and the 2 hours to get a jump sucked serious ass.

2006-04-15T10:17:00.000+09:00

It is Good Friday. I went to services tonight and heard two of my friends sing a great song. Since I am not a great singer (I doubt I am even decent) I just love when I hear other people sing and do it well.

Tomorrow I will get up early to go help with the church Egg hunt and band practice. I look forward to band practices, I really like the guys in the band and it is just nice to hand out with people my age who my husband doesnt work with.

Last week my dad and his wife were here with my cousin. It went well. We toured around the CSRA and went to Savannah. I loved Savannah. My girlfriend Kym will be in next week and I want to take her to Charleston and Savannah. I asked the guys I know about cool places to go and they couldnt tell me anything local.

In 2 weeks we are going on a trip. Hubbs does not know where we are going and I wont post it just yet. I am dying to tell him but I dont know how long I can keep it secret. It is hella cool though and he will love it.

The heat is kickin in here, the humidity is not here yet but when it is I think hell will feel like a quick dip in the pool. But that is ok I just need an excuse to say "hotter than the hinges of hell"

One hell of a week

2005-09-24T12:02:00.000+09:00

And it ain't over yet sister

Well Monday I realize the local JC hasn't told me when I can register yet but they haven't contacted me about registering. So after trying to call multiple times I get the Dean of Admissions and he says come down to work it out but we will work it out. I knew it would be a madhouse and I have a ton of stuff to buy for UMCOR So I go and oh 2-3 hours later all is supposedly good and I am setup to take a friggin English comp exam cos I guess my bachelors degree just isn't good enough for them. Prior to that I had been to the church, to the bank and basically sat on my hands while the bank took 20 minutes to find out they could not get me a Visa check card which is the EXACT opposite of what they told the church. Then I had a client whose computer I was bummed to find out was so hosed that there wasn't much I could do besides make it a bit more stable so they could reload it. The I went to the college. Then I started my shopping spree. I started at a Walmart across town and started buying the items for what I hoped would be 400 healthkits for UMCOR. The kit consists of:
" 1 hand towel (15" x 25" up to 17" x 27", No kitchen towels)
" 1 washcloth
" 1 comb (large and sturdy, not pocket-sized)
" 1 nail file or fingernail clippers (no emery boards or toenail clippers)
" 1 bath-size bar of soap (3 oz. and up)
" 1 toothbrush (single brushes only in original wrapper, No child-size brushes)
" 1 large tube of toothpaste (expiration date must be 6 months or longer
" 6 adhesive plastic strip sterile bandages

and we need all BUT the toothbrushes. Between Monday and Thursday I went to 4 walmarts in 2 states and 3 counties at least twice each and at least 2 of them 3 times. I went countless dollar stores, Kmarts, drugstores and grocery stores trying to fill the list. The clippers and combs were the hardest part.

Tuesday I went to the college, took the test and started shopping again until I got a call from a good client. So I spent a total of 4 hours with him before some more shopping and finally getting home. Yes I skipped the FSG meeting It was just too much.

Wed back to the college the freakin registrar says I cant register AFTER I WAITED IN LINE OVER AN HOUR!!!!! If I had known I would have seen the Dean of Admissions in the first 10 min I was there. He straightens it out and I HAD TO WAIT AGAIN!! for the registrar I guess the Dean couldn't register me. So she registered me and I got all that done then MORE SHOPPING!!!!!!! At this point I had about 200 of everything except the combs, handtowels and clippers. I am sick of shopping so people in my Wed night Bible Study decided to go shop. One found clippers in I swear the only store in town I had not been too (and it was cash only). 2 more went to Sam's Club to get the hand towels, I knew they were cheaper there but I don't have Discover and couldn't afford the cash. I stayed at church with 3 others and sorted the combs since the packs I bought came with 2 unusable combs in each pack. While shopping Wed I get a call from an irate customer who thinks I did not fix his PC, well I did but in saving the OS it did lose some functionality since his wife did not want it formatted. I calmed him down let him know I would take care of it, scheduled time to pick it up Wed. After church I pretty much finished the shopping EXCEPT those pesky combs. Oh yeah and I ran the choir rehearsal in there too.

Thursday was an easy day compared to Wed. I got up and went to WW on the way I stopped at Walmart and they had refilled the combs I had previously pillaged so I pillaged again. Went to WW weighed in I am just 2 weeks from lifetime. WOOHOO!!!! Go out to clients house in BFE and wife is not home, so I wait, still not home. I called him, he had her call me and she said she will be back in about an hour and a half. I turn around and go to the church drop off the rest of the goods give everything one last once over. I could not think of ANYTHING else to do to prepare SO I go out to lunch. I ate very slowly then drove BACK out to BFE she is still not there. I had some Bible study to catch up on so I sat and read. 45 min later STILL not there. I really didn't want to make a 3rd trip out. So I call her she says she is 10 min away so I wait. She finally showed up I grabbed the PC and left. Got home and thankfully it was a beauty to reload it all went perfect! Great!!

Fri I SLEPT IN!!!!!!!!! I got to sleep till 9 and a lil after 10 I called the client, took my time dropped off the PC, went to WALMART (I swear they should know me by now) bought me jeans that fit. WOOHOO!!!!! Drove to base did my shoppin at the Com-misery and came home. I was home by 2 and I did jack the rest of the day, some Bible study some posting but just relaxed.

Tomorrow I have to getup at 6 and be at church at 7:45 to make the kits. Then I have to finish my Bible Study before class Sun evenin. It is still all a lil crazy but it could be worse :)

2005-09-06T05:39:00.000+09:00

I am looking for the quote but Michael Brown Director of FEMA gave a run down of why he is qualified by listing the disasters that have occured since he entered the office.

Woohoo this yahoo got some great on the job training. One thing he listed was the California Wildfires. I assume he meant the wildfires of October 2003. Lives were lost and acres burned while FEMA sat with its collective head up its ass and made the US Marines at Camp Pendleton and USMCAS Mirramar PROVE they were capable of helping in the aerial firefight. I mean their experience putting out fires on their bases means nothing. They also took their sweet ass time getting resources into the area from all over the state and country. Not to mention the fact that they would not let anyone fly after dusk even though there were still 2 hours of light in the sky AND some of the aircraft was designed to fly at night. Yeah that lil bit on his resume makes me fucking ecstatic and feeling so safe that he is the head of FEMA. oh yeah I forgot to add that people died during that fire because they called for help and they were told to sit tight no reason to evac or help is on the way when the help never came or it was too late, sound familiar? What a fucking joke

2005-09-02T11:44:00.000+09:00

yeah I am a news whore I watch it constantly and this situation hasnt changed that. Why does this hurricane seem to have such a slow relief effort? Last year it seemed like it was practically instantaneous but these people now aren't getting much. why are the churches the first to respond? What is going on? Where is our government? I mean I know it is bad but is it sooooo bad that there is nothing our government can do? I mean we were able to drop food on bombed out cities in WWII why cant we drop MREs on people on rooftops? Why arent these centers getting help? Where is their relief?

I wonder what the long lasting affects of this will be on our nation and government. Will Bush lose what lil support he has left as he takes the blame for yet another fuck up? He will try to push it off but I see it as a chain of command and he is at the top. Will the Republican party suffer? Are we going t go back to a Democrat majority. In the past we have done well with that in the past.

Good news I heard they are doing chopper drops of fod and water in New Orleans. About freakin time. Also good to hear most of the looting is people who are getting what they need to survive. Bad news is thousands who were turned away from the superdome are at the convention center. There is no relief or support there and officials wont go there because they are outnumbered. At least they got food and water drops but that is bullshit, they are outnumbered. Get the people on buses make sure you have enough and then give them stuff once they are onboard.

Hurricane

2005-09-02T11:19:00.000+09:00

Things are crazy. The news from New Orleans is scary but I know that it is just a few being evil bastards. the majority are decent peple who just need help. I wish there is more I could do to help. I am trying to be a major player in my church with getting together flood buckets for UMCOR.org Hopefully I can get some goods donated too but I am sure the local businesses will be getting hit by alot. We will try to get our buckets together and delivered to another church who will deliver them to the distribution center in Lousiana.

Thankfully it sounds like everyone I know seems to have faired well. There is one person on the website I hang out on has yet to be heard from. We hope and pray they are ok.

I hope the government is really helping these people as much as they can. I just dont beleive it when I see all these people stranded in New Orleans. It sounds like even in Mississippi and Alabama things arent really happening. Of course with all of the violence I am not inclined to want to help them either.

A big part of me wonders if the Levy system was really as good as it should have been. I mean they were ready for a Cat 3 but it is the Gulf. Why didnt they have contigency plans? What is going on there? Why the hell are we seeing all of thee damn press conferences and no action? Is this another one of those situations where the media is twisting things and only showing us the worst possible OR is nothing really happening? Why are news crews giving out water? These poor people dying and dehydrated when they are surrounded by water. It is terrible and scary I just feel fr them and wish I could do more

Gas

2005-09-02T11:02:00.000+09:00

WTF is wrong with people. Yesterday we had a run on gas here. People fillin up who have no reason. Shit there was a disaster we know fuel will go up but if we have a fuckin run on gas it is going to make it shoot higher. Gas went up from 2.45-2.50 to 3.29+ overnight. It is ridiculous this is not what we need right now.

It is about time

2005-08-23T03:43:00.000+09:00

Thunder has been ringing through here for over an hour. There is a severe storm a few miles away. we have rain now so it doesnt seem so pointless to me. Weather in the South confuses and befuddles me. It rains when the sun is shining. Lightning is almost a nightly occurence lately but no rain. The rain is great as long as we get enough to bring down the temp otherwise it just adds to the humidity and gets hotter

Another cool thing about GA. Lightning bugs. They kick ass. I saw my first ones last week, it never occured to me to look for them. It is frickin rad. I need to hang out with some of my friends kids and go catch them with them. All my friends (who were with me when I saw them) thought it was hilarious. I honestly didnt think they really existed. I thought it was just something cool that Disney put in movies and rides. Is my californian shinin through?

WTF am I old?

2005-08-22T12:17:00.000+09:00

ok I know damn good and well I am not young and spry or whatever. But I am not old. I am 26 for cryin out loud. well one of hubbs work buddies was talking to me about My Space yesterday and looked very confused when I knew what it was. I AM 26!!! NOT 95!!!! I mean shit Friedster came out when I was in college and I only graduated 4 years ago.

hmmm it is 11:30 I should try and get some sleep. I wonder what my aversion to sleep has been lately. I am tired I took my meds to help me sleep about 2 hours ago but I dont want to go to bed. I think it is just the fact that I am so accustomed to staying up. I should go curl up with hubbs and watch a movie. I just dont know. ugh

myspace

2005-08-22T11:11:00.000+09:00

Recently someone from the past added me as a friend on here so i started looking again for old friends or just people I knew. i cant beleive how many people I found. Somedays it makes me wish I have done something cool and interesting with my life to tell people. But no I had alot of fun after high school but nothing note worthy. As I go through the pics of people I think it is amazing how little somethings have changed. I need to post some new pics of myself now that I am that much closer to the weight I was back in the day. It also surprise me how many people still live so close to Ontario. In some ways I am jealous. I mean if after graduating 7-10 years ago they still have something there to go back to. Not me. I have Ruben but that is it. I am thinking I would like to see many of them again, may even try to find a way back for the 10year. We shall see. I thank God I have my husband and I love my mobile life. Someday I am sure I will grow tired of it but for now may the Navy send us to some kickass places.

2005-07-27T21:25:00.000+09:00

How sad and pathetic. I admin a little bulletin board of about 100 people. Well I have a job this morning in a little over an hour so I should not really be nosing around on there. Well the host of the site in their infinite crappiness is down so we are down. I have no clue what to do with myself. hmmmm maybe I should go eat breakfast and watch the news. Then I will have something to talk about on here

Yesterday I went shopping and I am happy to say the 80s are alive and well in Augusta, GA. Goodness I saw alot of people wearing crap I wouldnt have been caught dead in, in the 80s. Tight ass jeans, bangle earrings, cock-eyed pony tail on the top of the head. It was damn frightening. I bet these girls thought they were being hip too. gag I wanted to gouge my eyes out.

Harry Potter

2005-07-24T00:41:00.000+09:00

Yup I too have an opinion on Harry Potter. Well not really just simply that a book that has kids lining up at bookstores at midnight like it is the hottest movie is not all bad. The books are long books and I know when I was 12 I wouldnt have ever read them. Shit if a person raises their kid correctly I am sure they can see the diference between right and wrong and that these books are fantasy just like the fantasies these kids may have in their head about the school being closed for a snow day in Southern California or having a teacher never give homework.

My Big rant is these MORONS who are burning the books. First of all, you dont BURN BOOKS!! It is wrong, Hitler burned books and they burned books at schools in the 50s, like Catcher in the Rye and Tom Sawyer. Many classics have been burned. My biggest annoyance of the burning of books is that quite simply YOU HAVE TO BUY THE BOOK to burn it. Doesn't that just help the popularity of the book because sales are up and put money in the pocket of the writer and the stores selling it? Wouldn't it be quite a bit more effective to boycott the books and the stores that sell them? or the publisher? Goodness I just dont get what some people will do. I wish that when I see these stories someone will run through the picture with a very large very free stick and beat some sense into these morons.

2005-07-20T11:08:00.000+09:00

Broke down and bought some office stuff today. Pretty much blew what little profits I have had in the last week BUT I needed a paper shredder, a fax (printer/copier) and a paper shredder. Business is good. I am learning quickly on how to be better at it. Got a new setup at my desk. I think I will like it, now I just need to see if I can get my wireless KB and mouse to work on a KVM.

Grandma sends me books

2005-07-11T09:00:00.000+09:00

Ok so I love to read it is an addiction my entire family has. So when Grandma started sending me books now that I am across the country I was ecstatic. Well I forgot one thing, mom and grandma both LOVE Romance novels. So I am getting through the first one and I start noticing the story (which was good) started to get deeper and deeper into the relationship and using words like manhood and member. Oh goodness thankfully there was a plot to this book and it was good, I think it is called No Place Like Home. It actually made me tear up at the end. But damn when your grandmother writes Romance Novels as a hobby dont forget those are the kinds of books she will send you. I think I will send her back a list of how I feel about the books when I send them back so she knows not to waste her money on sending me stuff that is too borderline housewife porn. Thanks Grams

On another note you should also never send your pastor and email without checking out the email address it is coming from first. oh yeah I realized hours later I had sent my pastor and email about baptism with the email addy ***@damnthem.com Hubbs is having a field day with that one

2005-07-11T06:16:00.000+09:00

Well so far so good. The winds are picking up and we can see the outer part of the storm moving closer and closer to us. I love the Weather Channel. Watching those guys getting beat up in the wind and telling people not to do this themselves. Like they are more safe than any other moron who would got out in a storm. It is just crazy. It wasnt as good as some of the ones I watched come ashore last year but still damn funny nonetheless. No I am not some heartless neanderthal that revels in the devestation but if somebody is going to put themself in harms way for the sake of "news" damn straight I am going to watch. It is good entertainment. Especially when it is live and you get to see all the screwups and flubs. An hour later they will re-air it all again but it will be nicely edited so no one can tell.

2005-07-10T09:07:00.000+09:00

ok The first storm has passed and it was pretty nasty, rain sideways and all and very little visibility lots of kick ass lightning though. We shall see what tomorrow and Dennis brings

yet another client

2005-07-09T23:38:00.000+09:00

ok I am testing another client this one is free not as cool as blogjet but $0 vs $40 makes it an easy choice

ETA woohoo it worked we have a winner. :)

Testing BlogJet

2005-07-09T12:51:00.000+09:00

ok lets see if I like this and if it works

The storm is definetly getting worse. It is hilarious because the worse it gets the more people I see. I dont know why this has amused me for so long maybe I am just lame. That is ok I can deal with being lame. I actually took a night I would normally spend playing my latest game, since I dont get to play much lately and spent the evening backing up files and watching this cam. Damn you Noelle for telling me about it. This is reality TV though and not that BS stuff you see on TV. This is real and I love it. it is ok I know it is dumb. It just makes me wonder, I am terrified of Hurricanes. I am from California and I will take an earthquake anyday over a hurricane or a tornado. I dont care that you get warned in advance. An earthquake is 6 seconds on a rollercoaster, they are rarer than you think and unless it is a 5.5 or higher you can barely feel it outside the epicenter. I think that is why I am afraid of hurricanes they last days and it is like slow moving evil you just sit there and watch it coming towards you helpless. As far as tornadoes yeah they are there then they end but shit you can lose your house and your neighbor doesnt. In California be it earhtquake, fir or landslide chances are if you got fucked you arent alone. Well misery does love company.

It is almost midnight and I just saw 3 kids on bikes go by. Hello parents Hurricane and IT IS MIDNIGHT!!! Shit it still makes me want to go to Key West. I want to have a hurricane party. Of course with the way this year has been going I am sure one will come up the Eastern Seaboard and I will feel more of what we will get this time.

2005-07-09T12:26:00.000+09:00

oh dammit everytime I hit enter it posts hmmmm wonder if I can fix that. ok back to this great cam I have been watching for hours. oh yeah it is so great. the lights are back on and of course the people i was listening to have run away. Dang there are alot of people out. So this is my first hurricane, thankfully we dont live on the coast and it isnt coming up the Eastern Seaboard but it is my first hurricane none the less. Damn I wish I could find a better client too. ok continuing that search I want to be able to enter decent page breaks

2005-07-09T12:21:00.000+09:00

Shweet it worked so now I can drone on and on like I know what I am talking about. :)

2005-07-09T12:20:00.000+09:00

ok I am testing out my client is this working? It used to be very straight forward and dumb proof so I am checking

damn it has been forever

2005-07-09T11:47:00.000+09:00

Welll I am sitting here being a freak watching a live webcam on Key West as a hurricane approaches, yes it is like a train wreck. I figured I would post didnt realize it has been ages since I have.

Well damnit I cant type and watch the picture that is no fun

Ok well since April yeah life is good. We like it here in Augusta even though it can be hot as sin, not hotter than hell cos well I hear that is a dry heat but the nasty sticky sinful fucked your brains out kind of sin. Yeah it is a bit gross :P

Business is good, well good enough.

So yeah I am watching this cam at http://www.liveduvalstreet.com/live-duval-cam.htm and it is sweet it has sound and shit. I cannot beleive that a cat4 (well now cat3) hurricane is heading towards these people and they are out drinking. they are walking around with flashlights the cops are all holed up you can see the wind is blowing and I cant see them but it sounds like they convinced the bar to open outside of the view of this cam. Everything is all boarded up.

We arent expecting much here just rain. Of course the farther west this thing goes the farther it will be from even getting anywhere near us. We shall see

ok that is all for today I am in search of a blogging client so I dont have to log in to do this shit, then maybe someday people will think I am cool and my blog will be on the news like I know what the fuck I am talking about.

My new computer

2005-04-16T05:20:00.000+09:00

Is Friggin shweet. Well it looks sweet at least and it is too.
Hubbs fried his processor which is quite impressive especially considering all he did was flash the BIOS and since I own a business I get a new computer and we have a trickle down. He gets my old one and i get his old one for work stuff too (yes I need at least 2 computers one for working on other peoples virus infected machines and one that works right). So it all works out cos my old beater computer gave up the ghost after this move (Toy was a ripe old 7 years old).
So I got one of those new 64bit Athlons and the A8N SLI board from ASUS which is like the top of the line, one of their newest. An SATA HDD which is also new technology and a PCI-Express video card also new. It is sweet. I am never one to get the new stuff. I actually have a wireless USB network adapter that is not compatible with this new board. Which kind of sucks but I think it is awesome cos I have never had something like that happen before, usually my computer is too old. When I got the new drives I made sure they were black and put them in my old black mod case and as luck would have it the mobo is black too. I through in my blue LED fans and hooked up some other lights and I have to say besides having the kickass gaming system I now also have a pretty sweet vanity mod compter. Hubbs is jealous.
Total deal:
Mobo: Asus A8N
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3000+
CD/DVD: Lite-on Dual Layer DVDRW
HDD: SATA Maxtor 7200RPM 160GB
IDE Maxtor 40GB
IDE WD 80GB
PowerColor ATI Radeon X600 w/256MB

too late again

2005-04-14T13:52:00.000+09:00

Yup once again I am up to late. I told hubbs about 2 hours ago I would be in bed in a few minutes now he will be up in 3 hours and I am not even there yet. Elsa is curled up under my desk sound asleep on an old shirt. Usually she is giving me dirty looks long before now. I have a meeting in the morning I REALLY need to be awake for as it is one of the advertising people I am using. I am just not ready to sleep. Dam Myspace and reuniting me with an old bud. I am happy to say she is getting married after being with the same man for 8 years. I admit at first I was worried but they were in school then now they are older and wiser and more power to them, they are obviously great for eachother. ok off to sleep with me really. I will need to get me some Dew in the morning just to wake up. Of course the DP for dinner is probably why I am still up at this hour. I had such a long day today too. Well night time to wake up Elsa and get the evil doggy eye for disturbing her I bet she will be so pissed she will either ignore me and go straight in her crate or do a great big F-U and curlup in the middle of the bed and refuse to move. Good thing she doesnt realive she only weighs 25lbs so I can move her.

2005-04-13T10:54:00.000+09:00

I have been busy. Last week hubbs updated his BIOS and managed to fry his processor. Don't know how he did it but it is a special kind of gift he has. So we took some spare parts and built him a new computer.
I have had 3 clients this week. Which is great. But with that cane the realization that I need a second computer and not just a dual boot. So I am getting a kick ass schweet system that should last me awhile and hubs is getting mine and I get the crap he built as my toy. It is still better than my old toy that fried in the move.
Last Saturday we drove into Atlanta to check out the Auto Show. It was ok not near as cool as LA's but still good. We were able to narrow the field of new vehicles down to 3 or 4 SUVs. The most likely winner will be an Element. I know they are ugly as sin but hear me out they are VERY practical. they are big and romy outside without being a monstrosity and the inside is all rubber so I do not have to worry about dog hair. Also the rear seats old up int the walls so there is plenty of space to haul lumber and stuff for the house.
So yeah move to Georgia and get a truck the only question is where do you put the gunrack in a civic.
I started looking around on Friendster and MySpace more today. I cannot beleive how many people I found that i know. Old roommates, a boyfriend from high school and lots of other people. That is cool I hope to be able to get in touch with some people since I have obvioously sucked at it my whole life. :)
Now if only I can get a feed into there so I dont have to always repost this shit, we shall see.

2005-04-03T13:19:00.000+09:00

Today we took our first trip into Charleston. Put up the new gate in the kitchen with the dining table chairs pressed up against it. Right after we left Hubbs realized he forgot the directions. It was his job to find out how to get there this time. We had not been gone 20 minutes and both dogs had made it out of the kitchen. So we opened the gate and left again and hoped for the best. Before we could see the city we stopped at the Naval Base and got hubbs some uniform stuff since it is the closest base to us. Then we wereoff. Charleston is nice. We went to Margaritaville, got me another Tshirt for my collection. There was no cafe so we walked and stopped at the first place that smelled good. It turned out to be greek and it was Delish. Then we walked around and splurged on a Carriage tour. That was fun and very worth the money. We saw the Waterfront area and some beautiful homes. We also saw some gorgeous churces and old graveyards. We will be going back at some point probably multiple times. I want to spend a few days there and we may take the inlaws when they come see us in a few months.
When we returned home the dogs had been fairly good. Only one mess to clean up and one torn paper (I had picked up EVERYTHING or so I thought). they got hubbs uniform bag and gnawed on his hat but no real damage. They were very glad to see us home.

Today I got my first call on Rent-A-Geek. That was nice. Didnt get the customer but that is ok. I know the advertising is working.

2005-03-09T13:37:00.000+09:00

Tomorrow I am getting my day at the spa. Hubbs got it for me for our 1 year anniversary. So tomorrow I will have a massage, manicure and pedicure. Thursday I leave for California to go see dad and some cousins. We are taking our 9th annual father daughter ski trip. They dont know I cut my hair up to my shoulders or that I lost 20 lbs it will be great. My goal for my long weekend is to not gain any weight while I am gone, it will e hard but I am up to the task :)

2005-02-23T11:15:00.000+09:00

Well the business is ready to go. I just need to get the tools together to actually work but I am officially in business in the state of Georgia. I need to get a client and a price structure and once I get going I can get start spening some money to get us off the ground.

I think I royally screwed up with Legion. I accidently sent the whole group an email saying I am sick of them. When in truth I am just sick of the childish way they act when they get together. It pisses me off, they can be so childish. It doesnt help that I am in a terrible mood and I bet that is why I was so vocal about my anger. It is probably hormones I just want to punch a freakin wall. Nothing seems to make me happy at the moment not my dogs or my husband or the shows I watch on Tuesdays. I am screaming inside. I bet it is a mixture of hormones (my first real menses in 4 or 5 years) and I am getting off my anti-depressants. Ugh I hate it when I am like this. But he tis my life. I hope I manage to get off these drugs and dont need to stay on them. I want to be normal again, but then again I was doing really well on the Lexapro except that my moods were so mellow I was barely even excited when hubbs came home. I hope I start to have emotions again even if PMS does affect me more.

2005-02-03T13:26:00.000+09:00

Ugh I am frustrated as all hell right now. I just want to work. I miss my old job. I liked seeing people everyday. I miss it I am done with my "vacation" but unfortunately I will be like this awhile longer.

Here is my rant:
Ugh I am soooo very frustrated. I am looking for work although I joke about it I tend to look for work everyday. If I am not looking I am trying to come up with new avenues. I am highly skilled and I have experience. I am even willing to take less than half I am accustomed to as I know I am no longer in San diego even though I know in San Diego I was grossly underpaid for my skillset. I am not asking much I am asking for more than I make on unemployment. So far I have not found ANYTHING in the field I am licsensed in. I did get one jaw drop when I laughed at how much I could have gotten at a job (it wasnt an interview) because it was less than my unemployment. Today some "manager" at a computer store who needed techs told me it was a longshot since I dont have certifications. Certifications in my mind are for people who dont have experience. In truth I hav some very poignant thoughts about people who have certs but I have no desire to offend anyone at this point. Techs look at my resume and say no certs and Finance people look at my resume and say she is a tech. Freakin A I know more about both than most people AND I am willing to pay my dues to a extent. grrrrrr I am just frustrated I know no one out here and have no clue how they hire since nothing I have done warrants an interview. Well except from the company that wanted me to sign a contract and fax them my SS card without speaking to me or answering my questions. Then when I get someone to answer them HE HASNT EVEN SEEN MY RESUME!!!!!!
*sob* I want to work I am good at what I do. Sh.it webby has never met me and she is a days drive away and she will hire me. Why cant these morons give me a chance. I feel like I am right back where I was 2 years ago when I got denied a good job because they thought I may not be able to handle a large monitor. AHHHH!!!!!
ok sorry /rantoff

2005-01-04T11:45:00.000+09:00

Man my head hurts today. I swear my dog is going to give me a complex she is so sweet and cute and well the definition of the mellow dog but man she always looks sad. I guess that is the beagle in her. I love her she is freakin adorable I would love to get trained with her so she can be a therapy dog. That would just be awesome. ugh my head really hurts no more to write tonight.

2004-12-30T11:30:00.000+09:00

Well I did it. Today I went to my first weight watchers meeting. I have struggled with my weight my whole life but always said as long as I stay below --- I am happy with me. Recently I have become acutely aware of the fact that losing weight may help my health and well being where I know NOONE I could meet some people, plus a recent trip to the docs showed that I was far too close to ---. So here I am and I went. I hope to lose 55 lbs. But I am willing to settle for less I am just not sure how much less. We shall see.

2004-12-27T14:06:00.001+09:00

The coolest new toy I have places in lil smileys so I can use emoticons without too much work. So now I am sleepy and I now cannot get them to work so off to sleep I go

It does

2004-12-27T14:06:00.000+09:00

Well I guess it does I need to write more I have been saying that for years but I really do. So I am trying new toys well I need to redo this PC and make it worker friendly so I am sure I will add that as a component :)

This is a test

2004-12-27T14:04:00.000+09:00

yes another test I want to see if the new blogging tool I added works. Does it?

Goodness

2004-11-23T09:22:00.000+09:00

Well it has been awhile since I posted but hey we have been very busy. The house is pretty much good to go. Although I wouldnt want company tomorrow we could pull it off. We have spent a lot of money on furniture but we needed it so it has been ok. Friday We get a new dining table and chairs as well as a matching bakers rack, this should help with some storage issues. In a few weeks we should also get a new Bureau which is good as of right now we have no where to put stuff.

The dogs are adjusting good and I am ready for my first Turkey day away from home ever. I miss my aunt, and I am going to miss dueling turkeys but I have hubbs and we will be fine. I am making baked apples for my desert and a pumpkin pie for him. I have never made any of this stuff before so we shall see how it comes out.

Next week I start taking Gaven to obedience classes. He needs some work so we can control him better. The dogs are not fighting except when playing and we tend to wear them out by bed time every night but Elsa is completely untrained and well although it is obvious Gaven has had some training he chooses when to remember it. We figure Gaven will be the biggest handful so he gets training first. The car is taken care of and I am now legal in Georgia, at least for now. The taxes here are very different from California so it is confusing. I also found out today that I qualify for unemployment so I have to start job hunting so I can get my check :). A part of me doesnt want to go back to work but more of me really wants to.

2004-11-15T06:21:00.001+09:00

our new home

2004-11-15T06:21:00.000+09:00

Elsa, the corgi-Beagle mix, in her new home, our couch :)

2004-11-15T06:20:00.000+09:00

Gavin Playing our new Pembroke Welsh Corgi

2004-11-15T06:09:00.000+09:00

Wow it has been 14 days since I last wrote. Well I have been a lil busy. Well we got here and found a house it closed the first week of this month. Our stuff was delivered the next day and our dogs arrived a week later. So things have been busy. We love it here. Hubbs is on leave so he is going to help me finish unpacking and getting things done and then I get to start looking for a job yippee skippy. Truth is I would love to go to work this not working thing has gotten old fast. Next week I also have to get the car registered and apply for unemployment. I will probably do all of that tomorrow. Hmmm I wonder if I can post pics. yay I figured out how.

Things are pretty nuts around here. All of the appliances need to eventually be replaced and we don't have much in the way of furniture but we managed to get a sweet deal on an entertainment center and bookcase from a place that is going out of business so that is great. We found the Super Walmart and Sam's Club and although I tend to despise their practices towards employees I do have to admit the prices are good and we do need the money to be saved.

the dogs are absolutely wonderful and sleeping right now under my desk but I guarantee as soon as I moove it will be Gaven the Energizer bunny-butt followed slowly and cautiously by his sister Elsa :)

2004-11-02T07:06:00.000+09:00

Ok I have been nervous to write for fear of jinxing anything but here goes. The house inspection went fairly well. It is a 20 year old house that has never been upgraded so it had some 20 year old issues. My wonderful wonderful realtor seems to have worked it all out though all of the improvements will be made and taken care of except for half the roof. We are ok with that part of the deal. We are set to close late Thursday afternoon. I am ecstatic and cannot even beleive it. We have even started talking to a dog rescue and instead of one dog we will be getting 2 lil bundles of joy to love. I am soooooo excited. Everything else is falling into place I am just dying to start looking for work again. But also very excited to have a home and doggies for it.

Today I had to deal with Army medical and oh boy was that a joy and a half but thanfully I was finally able to figure out how to get my medicaion refilled. I have an appointment to review the meds this week.

I will continue the updates as much as I can.

2004-10-29T11:51:00.000+09:00

Well we are in the closing process of a house. YAY!!!! I love it :) It is a quaint 3 bed and 2 bath ranch house on a 1/4 acre of land not far from base with some gorgeous trees. The things I do not like are minor compare to the things i do like. It was the 2nd house we saw, the first being udder crap and the next 5 or 6 being so-so. We loved the 2ndhouse so we put in an offer because it looks like a good deal in a good neighborhood and we didnt want to lose it. Compared to the other houses we looked at it was priced low so we think it needs to be sold ASAP. So tomorrow is the home inspection. Will is still here, Hubbs goes back to work tomorrow and I have a shitload of work todo but in 2 weeks we should have a home :)

2004-10-27T15:18:00.000+09:00

ugh I just lost everything I wrote and it was a shitload

ok the short version.
Friday was my Grandfathers Funeral. It was nice to see everyone and enjoy the time with them. The service itself was terrible but Gramps didnt want one so I am sure he is in heaven laughing his ass off cos the sermon sucked. For future reference regurgitate, masticate and sheep should not be mentioned in a sermon at least not together. I was so lost. Thankfully afterwards we all reminisced about how much it sucked. Seeing everyone was nice and meeting the new family was also great. I got to visit Grandmas grave as well and I am glad the 3 of them are so close together. Yes we are sad at his passing but like Martha (his fave waitress and friend at Dennys) said t is purely selfish. Now he can sidle up to the bar on 2 good legs with one arm around Betty and one around Grandma and buy the 2 loves of his life a keoke coffee abd tell a great story, all without the pain. Afterwards we went out to dinner with all 25 Roberts' (as the preacher said we were) and it was great. I had a Keoke coffee in rembrance of grandpa and found out they are actually damn tasty. Oh yeah and besides getting our name wrong he also said Gramps fave hang out was Dave and Brewsters not Busters. I am sure I will write more later too but that is all for now.

The next morning we left on our trip. The firsty day we made it to El Paso and in doing so passed fewer Walmarts than I passed everyday on the way to work. Driving into El Paso the Texans through way to many signs at us. There were so many rules shit one sign was so wordy you couldnt read it as you drove by. The was also one that said Observe Signs Its the Law but I swear some said Obsessive signs its the Law. Well in a day and a half we got outta texas (thank gawd) and had little Police trouble. we decided they take Sundays off. Monday took us from Dallas to Atlanta yes it was nuts but we did it. Sat to Elpaso, Sun to Dallas, Mon to Atlanta and today we rolled in about 2pm (yes we left late). Today was frickin crazy or stupid I dont know which. so we get in and go to the Soldier Service Center since we know that is where the army checks in maybe they could give us directions, since we didnt get a sponsor to tell us anything. So the guy at the helpdesk can barely find a map, he sent hubs to Pers where some woman looked at him like he had 2 heads since he was out of uniform, she sent us to the wrong lodging place and then when we got to the right one the help they gave us was a list of hotels in the area. shit they could have given hubbs that 2 weeks ago when he called so we could have reservations. Well thankfully we found a place and it is nice and will has a bed cos he sure as hell wasnt sleeping with us. I am glad he came with us cos the drive would have been hell without him, I think it would have taken us 5 or 6 days without him.

ok I am going to try and post again sorry this is short the other one was so great. ggrrrr argh

2004-10-20T06:00:00.000+09:00

The week has been crazy. Saturday with mom and Don (lunch, zoo, dinner). Sunday with Dad. Monday with Gram and Grandpa for lunch then Hubb's best freinds family for dinner. I should use today to get ready and do stuff I may not be able to do later this week due to my other grandfather's passing but now at 2pm I havent eaten and I just dont want to. I havent showered or eaten, but hubbs will bring me lunch when he is done with his errands. can I just say ugh? Thankfully I was finally able to cry because I sure as hell felt like a heartless bitch. I guess it is the not being used to having hubbs around or maybe the medication or even both I just wasnt able to until he left. ugh ok I must do something today. I think we are meeting up with friends soon but I dont want to. we will see.

Gramps :)

2004-10-20T05:46:00.000+09:00

So it has been a busy work which was unfortuantely made a lot less busy by the death of my grandfather. He passed away last night and as I sit here typing this we should be sitting in his room talking to him but God saw fit for it to be another way. Dad says they are trying to have services before I leave but we shall see. They all understand that I am not changing our plans too much. He was gramps, not my real grandfather but the only paternal grandfather I ever had. He came into my life when I was about 6 and it gave my grandmother such joy when I started calling him grandpa. Nothing in my life was ever simple and neither was my relationship with grandpa and explaining it to people. Unfortunately if services are not soon Hubbs and I cannot afford to delay our trip. He cannot delay at all and if I choose to it will double our moving costs as well as result in me driving crosscountry by myself. Truthfully I dont want to go anyway. I loved that man and I was so looking forward to seeing him and he hasnt seen hubbs in 7 months but I know he knew I loved him. I would do anything for him and continuosly felt guilty for not doing enough and he loved me for it. Thankfully now the pain is gone, his suffering and sadness is gone, his worry for being a burden on us and his loneliness for outliving 2 wives and then moving 3 hours away at the twighlight of his life. It is all gone. And he is in a better place and I thank god for that. Goodnight grandpa I will see you again someday many years from now but I will join you and grandma and we will all be together again.

Right now as I finally cry since I have been unable to I am thankful for many things. I am thankful for his love and the love he gave my grandmother. I am thankful he stood witness to some of the great moments in my life (college graduation and marriage) that my grandmother could not see from the same perspective. I am grateful how he embraced our family as our own and how he cared and loved us all as his own flesh and blood. I am grateful for the stories even when told ad nauseum for the 100th time because without them I would not know of the war and how he was recalled, he survived polio and learned to walk again, he lettered in baseball in high school and almost went pro but his father would not allow him to play on Sundays. Or that even in her 50s or 60s my grandmother was afraid to let her parents know that she had spent a night in a hotel with a man she was not married to even though as I was told many time nothing happened. I loved this man as my own and I was his granddaughter and to that I am thankful for the love and the light that he brought to my life.