Monday, October 22, 2007

Some Photos & Some Happenings

First of all, I'd like to say that our thoughts are with Nick - his loyal and gorgeous 7-year-old basenji, Clyde, passed away quite suddenly on Friday evening after a very quick onset of a kidney problem. Our thoughts are also with Bonnie who will be rather lonely now. Rest in peace, Clyde - and enjoy all those big juicy steaks, places to run & play, and countless other doggie butts to sniff in heaven.

Here in Okinawa the Bowmans are doing just great. Largely because - wait - did you hear that? It's a dog barking nearby - and maybe a child laughing - why did I just hear that? BECAUSE OUR WINDOWS ARE OPEN! You read correctly, the air conditioning is OFF (Craig asked, not so tongue-in-cheek, what we're going to DO with all the utility money we'll save!) and the windows are open and it's downright delightful. That'll put anyone in a better mood! It'll certainly mean we're more likely to get out & about for general adventures and picture-taking and buffoonery, shennanigans, and other sorts of miscreant activity. The weekend was fabulously full of all of the above!

Thursday evening was lovely, and we decided to take a walk on the sea wall after a yummy dinner on base. Time for another cool sunset shot - the clouds let some orange rays through, pretty neat:


So cool out there that we had to WEAR A JACKET! I know, I'm seriously in awe that I even typed that. I found this particular one Mia is wearing at the local San-A department store - gotta love it!

At the north end of the Sunabe Sea Wall, there's a little place called the Hearth Cafe - they put together the words "heart" and "earth" to form the name, and I think it's sweet. The food - incredible. I've had a shrimp avocado and cream cheese sandwich on walnut bread that was to DIE for. Anne tells me the rice bowls are delicious. But their coffees & sweets are fabulous too - here's the kid about to dig into some ice cream:
And here is a plate of hearth toast next to my caramel cream latte - that toast is buttered, toasted, and served with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, and maple syrup. Oh jeez. And I had a chocolate cake that was pretty darn wonderful as well - with some berries.

After dessert it was pretty much dark out. Since we had the Canon with us, we started playing using the sea wall as a tripod. We left the shutter open for a few exposures and here's what we got:

Really cool how the ocean looks so soft, because the waves were moving the whole time.
Friday evening the Neathery fam talked us into pitching in (a glorious $2.50/hour for our kid) to get a babysitter and we all headed to Somchai, a Thai restaurant nearby. Derek is in the Army, and has traveled to Thailand several times. I took their word for it when they told me this was some of the best Thai food ever; better than some food they'd eaten in Thailand for sure.

We ate like kings and queens and LOVED it. Hands down the best Thai food I've ever had. I'm going for lunch tomorrow - I will bring my camera to show you the happy goodness that is produced at Somchai. We had a fabulous evening - I have to say, that Neathery family is just our kind of bunch, such fun.

Saturday morning I had a couple of great shoots and enjoyed the company of my wonderful cohort Meredith and assistant Erin. Poor Meredith was excited to escape her home where her boys, 1 and 2 1/2, passed lovely hand foot & mouth disease to each other and were generally miserable and keeping their cooties under lock and key for over a week. I was so happy that not only were they doing better, but that she had the chance to escape!

Then I went to Mia's soccer game for the 2nd half, and then we came home, changed up and I took Mia to a doggie wash benefiting the Okinawan American Animal Rescue Society (OAARS). We presented Ms. Owen, the treasurer of the organization, with the $100 donation from Mia's birthday party. She was thrilled, and explained to Mia that the money goes toward taking care of the doggies and kitties and other animals that come there and need shots and other medical attention. She was just happy she got to pet animals and hold leashes for a while. It ends up that Ms. Owen is a kindergarten teacher at BHPS and her class is across the hall from Mia's class! Today she brought by a thank you note for Mia - hand decorated with stickers & stuff - so sweet!

Sunday we decided to walk around Gate 2 street area (behind Kadena Air Base) and play with the camera.




Then we hit a park up on a hill on our way back - had a pretty nice view:
And a roller slide that massaged my bootie. Lovely. And yep - I chopped the hair again - and I'm so happy with the cut! I should've done it weeks ago.
All the pictures can be found here.

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