Sox? NO! Socks. And Bagels.

Craig's Indians lost to the Sox in the ALCS yesterday - and though this isn't to celebrate the Red Sox's win, it's kind of a strange coincidence.

This week is the pledge not to do drugs week at Mia's school; each day has some fun activity - so today was "sock it to drugs", wear a crazy pair of socks day. I dug up a funny pair from last year's Halloween costume.
Tomorrow is "turn your back on drugs" day - backwards shirts.

In other news, I'm supremely lucky to live near a professional baker - she makes & decorates kick-butt cakes for occasions, and she also loves to bake breads, etc. We had a conversation or two about bagels at the bus stop recently, and how much I miss them and realize I'll never have a decent one on Okinawa - and today she showed up with a foil-covered plate. Hm.

Inside were little hockey-puck-sized bundles of heaven! SHE MADE BAGELS! A quick shmear of the cream cheese she put on the plate and my eyes rolled back in my head with the first bite. She then handed me a bag containing two. She said, "I need to bake them a bit longer, and figure out how to get the hole to stay open, but I think for a first effort they're ok - what do you think?"

I think it's Jew porn, that's what I think:
I'm going to tie her up and keep her in my kitchen. And if anyone else thinks they're getting some, well - they're nuts. THEY'RE ALL MINE.

More Prayers....

http://media.signonsandiego.com/fires/

San Diego is on fire. Again. Almost 5 years to the day from the last huge one, and these fires are much worse. I'm thinking of you all in San Diego County - LA too! I hope you're all safe and with loved ones and that this all ends soon. It's very hard to watch it from here and not know if everyone's fine - but I have to say I'm happy we're not inhaling all that smoke again.

With these concrete buildings and the rain & humidity, I think fires will be pretty unlikely in Okinawa.

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.

Asshat

Thanks to an article my friend Anastasia sent me, I visited the Starbucks Oracle. You put in what you normally order at Starbucks, and it spews out your personality traits. Pretty funny - sadly rather accurate on a few counts. (Though here in Okinawa there ARE two closer mom & pop coffee shops that I like better these days!)

My grande nonfat wet cappuccino yielded:

Personality type: Asshat

You carry around philosophy books you haven't read and wear trendy wire-rimmed glasses even though you have perfect vision. You've probably added an accent to your name or changed the pronunciation to seem sophisticated. You hang out in coffee shops because you don't have a job because you got your degree in French Poetry. People who drink Grande nonfat wet cappucino are notorious for spouting off angry, liberal opinions about issues they don't understand.

Also drinks: Any drink with a foreign name
Can also be found at: The other, locally owned coffee shop you claim to like better

Fall Is Here

Ah - the wonderful month of October is upon us. Halloween is approaching, and from what I have gathered the Okinawans LOVE this holiday. Here's a shot I took the other night of a local dive shop. I love the pumpkin - but even more, I love the rainbow afro wig in the gear box! Wonder what that's for....
Today I had lunch with Casey at a local "Sushi Go Round", Ichiban Tei. SO cool. You've all been to a place like this - with sushi on boats or some sort of conveyor belt:
Each plate is color coded to represent how much it costs. Most of the menu is here:
You pile up plates, and at the end they come over with a battery operated laser gun of sorts - picture that thing you use to bleep bar codes to register for your wedding or for baby stuff - and run it over all your plates. "beep beep beep beep" and then they hand you a credit card-sized plastic thing and you bring it to the register. They put it on this plain looking box and it READS it and poof - your total pops up on the register screen! Incredible. I completely dorked out in this place (as you can see by all these pictures - Casey laughed at me pretty hard).

So another cool thing. They give you a glass of water, and a mug for tea. But - no tea. No tea pot. Hm. I ask someone, who points at the spigot on the side of the counter:
Sweet. Ok - now I have water - tea bags? Oh - those are in the drawer in the box under the chopsticks:

I know I know - laugh all you want. I think this stuff is neat. Here's another shot of an order of salmon with salmon roe:

Mmm.... Oishii!!

Lastly, I headed to Murasaki Mura Village for the second time today with my other photo buds and cohorts - Kelli & Erin. What fun, I'm definitely taking Mia there on one of her SIX AND A HALF DAYS OFF SCHOOL in November. Anyway - we brought along Lily (one of Erin's daughters), of course - the photogenic baby queen. So I leave you with these lighthearted and beautiful shots of the princess and my wonderful happy thoughts for the rockin' CLEVELAND INDIANS - who just might end the ALCS tomorrow by beating the Red Sox. GO TRIBE!

This Morning At The Breakfast Table

"Mom - what's this piece of paper?"

"That's a flyer explaining the box top program."

"What's the box top program?"

"Well, there are certain foods that we buy, and if the box is marked as such, we save the top and turn it in. Then we contribute money toward your school."

"But I don't want to buy my school!!"

Snorkeling Pictures

Bless those Neathery people. They have an under-water digital camera. Here are a few shots - the first couple are from right here by our very own half a block away sea wall area, snorkeling around on Friday afternoon. Then on Saturday we went to Maeda Flats - huge area up north, but the tide was rather low so the water was shallow. We'll go exploring again very soon - we have to get our time in because the air and the water will get colder soon.

It's so much FUN! It's the closest I'll get to diving with Mia out here, but that's ok, I love doing this with her - she's always so into it she doesn't want to leave.

Here's my kid - assuming a position she's going to be in for the next hour.
Here's me! This is straight out from the sea wall:

Anne swam underneath the kid to get this one
These guys are so bright blue I'm pretty sure they glow in the dark:
Butterfly fish (one of the few names I know, I gotta get me a reference book...)

Cool stripey fish & sea urchins:
This is a great one Anne shot of a stonefish. I think you can figure out why that's what it's called. It does have venomous spikes, you don't want to step on it.
I don't remember what this is, but it's everywhere - really cool colors. I think there's some kind of snake under it. These next few are from Maeda Flats - an area about 25-30 minutes north of us.
These last ones oI shot one of Mia & Anne. That kid won't even take her head out of the water to listen for photographic direction. Sheesh.



Let me also report that the weather has been spectacular this past few days- downright San Diego-esque. 78 and less humid! Perfect for snorkeling and I actually OPENED MY WINDOWS today! I am so happy there's an end to summer... they tell me I'll be "cold" soon. I'll believe it when I see it. More pictures soon - I won't ignore the blog this week.