Today is my 29th birthday. Happy birthday to me! :-)
Sharron gave me two awesome presents! One is a print by Tim Wistrom called “On the Rocks.” The other is the Hawaian shirt I’m wearing in the picture. I love them!
Monthly Archive for May, 2006
Ok, Sharron and I managed to get out to the home store and pick up our lantern on Saturday. They ordered us a new one, but it was a little damaged on one side. We got them to give us 20% off and we bought it anyway. :-)
Here is a picture of me, Maddy, the lantern and the flower beds. Hopefully, the scale will be obvious now. The lantern cost about $45.
On Saturday, Me, Sharron, Hiromi (one of Sharron’s English students), Ryan, Chris and his wife Chisato, went to a restaurant call The Black Tea Room. It was about 20-30 minutes from our house and was another Japanese bar-b-que type place. The location is simply beautiful. It’s right next to a river and you can walk around the grounds. We didn’t have a lot of time, but from what I saw I could spend a good long while just wandering around. We ordered two sets of food. One was a beef and chicken combo and the other was a spiced beef with raw river fish combo. Everything was excellent and having two native Japanese speakers along definitely helped out. What we got to start was a small setting of hors d’oeuvres that consisted of a few unrecognizeable things, some tofu, a shrimp (complete with head), some bamboo and a flavored brandy. I liked the shrimp and brandy. Dinner was much better. The meat came raw and you grilled it on the built in table grills. Very tasty, especially the spiced beef. The raw fish was also excellent (think sushi without the rice). We also got a complete fish that had been skewered. I was a little apprehensive, but decided to try it anyway. It was very light, slightly salty and delicious. Everybody thought I was crazy I think, but I liked it. We also got rice and miso soup. Japanese staples I think. For dessert, a bean curd cookie type thing and fruit. Skip the cookie. Trust me.
This week, Sharron and I finally finished weather proofing Maddy’s dog house. This was one of our lingering projects. We’ll eventually get them all done, but it’s slow going sometimes. The other thing we’ve been putting off is finishing the patio. We have a good reason for that though, we still need to buy more stones to complete it. :-)
I thought this was an interesting article on lifespans on Yahoo.
Outside anyway. :-)
Sharron and I spent all of her Yen on Friday at a home store. We bought 2 evergreen trees, more grass seed and some dirt. We also ordered our Japanese stone lantern as they didn’t have any in stock. We then went to the base and bought 14 flowers. We were going to work on the yard all weekend, but sadly it rained on Saturday. We worked pretty hard on Sunday and were able to get everything done. :-)
In the back corners of our yard there are now quarter circle flower beds. Each with a tree in the back. We also cut all the grass we have with the weed eater and weeded the spaces on the sides of the house (there were some 6′ weeds growing!). Once we get the lantern in, hopefully Saturday, I’ll take some pictures.
Our next project is to de-rock the yard and to buy a Japanese Maple tree to plant in the front yard. Surprisingly they’re only about $15 here. :-)
Since we made such a push to get all the yard work done on Sunday, we’ve both been exhausted this week. This was bad for me as I had to take a fitness test this morning. By my calculations I got 74.95. I need a 75 to pass. Here’s hoping they round up!
I recently checked the AUM webpage to see if my grades had been posted. It looks like I got an A on my independent study class. If that is true that I am officially graduated with a Masters in Business Administration. Now all I need is a diploma to prove it! :-)
Every 4 or 5 years, an enlisted member of a US armed force such as the Air Force has to re-enlist. This means that they are committing to stay in the armed forces for another 4 or 5 years. Officers have to certify that this is an official event. They can either simply sign the paperwork, or they can turn it into something more, and have a ceremony. The ceremony is quite simple, it’s one of those “repeat after me” type events. A good officer will also give a short speech and say some nice things about the member. On Friday, one of the master sergeants that works for me re-enlisted. I was not the officer that performed the ceremony though, that honor fell to his son. His son works in the group that I used to work in, is a C-130 pilot and is 29 years old (only 1.5 months older than me). This was the first re-enlistment he had ever performed. This was probably the last re-enlistment his father will have. It was a very special occasion and I was proud to be present. It was very neat to see a father be re-enlisted by his son, especially with the first and last circumstances.
Starting Saturday morning, Sharron has had a head cold from hell. We first thought it was allergies, but it’s been acting more like a severe head cold and has knocked her out for the last 4 days (and today too probably). It’s been terrible as I’ve bought all sorts of medicines and nothing seems to work. On top of that, she can’t sleep so her body’s not recouperating as it should be. It’s terrible to be in this position as I’m trying hard to make her better, but nothing I’m doing is helping. I have to just sit with her while she’s miserable. :-(
To make things worse, Maddy pooped in the house last night. She gets scared and runs away when she’s bad and when Sharron went to put her outside, Maddy bit her. The wrath of Sharron is not a force to be taken lightly and Maddy might have to pay the price. It’s terrible as she has been such a sweet dog, but she’s been irratable lately and this makes things just that much worse.
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