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.