No Gills Yet - But She Does Have A Bus Pass

Yep - my baby starts kindergarten this fall. And after registering her for Bob Hope Elementary School (Home of the Pandas), we had to get one of these! Thankfully, she's just about the last stop on the way in and one of the first on the way out - so she won't be sitting on the bus for long.
They have a video camera and a human bus monitor on there, so no funny business. (I'll have to make sure Mia waits until she arrives in class to beat up on people.) As you can see, she gets picked up at 8:05 am (not too bad) and returns home at 3:30. Awesome! She's super excited for this part of her kindergarten transition. Kids on base have to walk.


Saw this while driving to swim class yesterday:

I know, I know - my Japanese will NEVER be as good as their English, but the misspellings and translations will just never get old. Yesterday at San-A (local everything store, kind of like Jusco) I saw so many t-shirts that made me laugh out loud! They love Grateful Dead bears here. I am going to buy myself a Dead t-shirt or 10 at that store when I can because they're hilarious.


Here's the kid diving into the 12' deep end. She's learning a lot this swim session - I love her teacher, she challenges them and Mia's really showing improvement. Ms. Sea Turtle is no Mr. Mike, but hey - what can I do?

Just proof that we're in the flight line - this was taken last night about 3 blocks from our place - can you guess which direction? It's pretty cool though. If you stand on our roof you can wave to the pilots and they wave back. Yeah, they're that close.

As Punishment, You Must Don Hello Kitty!

Hysterical...

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/292488/1/.html

Great weekend!

Wheeeeee!!!! This is Mia descending the water slide on Foster, where she takes swim lessons. Yep, definitely sucks to be her.

As for the rest of us, it's festival season (or as Mia and Leah put it "festible"). Eisa/Obon is at the full moon in August (which falls on the last weekend) and it's one huge party until then! We hit the summer carnival at nearby Sunset Beach in Chatan with Hector, Kristina, Lars & Leah (Hector works with Craig, he actually did at Miramar too, so we met them while we were still in San Diego.) Leah's 5, so instant friend for Mia, and Lars will be 2 in February. He's adorable. We had a fantastic time, left at around 6:30 after gorging on some of the best food ever, and made it home to sit for a while and chat until the fireworks started with a great view right out on our balcony. It's good here.

So basically.... you have not had good food at a carnival unless you've done so in Japan:

This was one of OH so many wonderful food stands - I wished it wasn't so hot and I was a bit more hungry. Mia & Leah (and even Lars) won all kinds of tchotchkies at the booths and had a ball. All the pictures here:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=d0hm29f.2fvcow5r&x=0&y=-fy9tyj
Great music, great company, and great fun.

Oh - and by the way - no fiberoptic cable until September because they're so backed up. -sigh- And so we wait!