A Fabulous Dive

Yep. Absent again. But I came back to show you THIS.

Turn on the sound and enjoy! Gearing up for the kiddo's birthday, I shall post pics from that, promise.

This blog gets neglected...

when things get busy. Sorry.

I have photos of a pottery village trip, the incredible Naha tug-of-war, and some amazing dive shots from my trip to the keramas. But right now, I'm working on the stuff I get paid to do - and my paying clients would be less than thrilled if I didn't have their stuff done on time so that I could be posting my personal stuff.

It's coming! Promise! While you wait... 2 stories.

I just had to call the housing agency to have a maintenance person come out. He came today to fix a broken drawer and look at a couple of things. When he was finished, he commented on our piano. I asked, "Do you play?"
"Skoshi..." (a little).
"Please, sit!" I turned on our digital piano - which, I might add, even this guy agreed was pretty good for a digital jobber.

He just played me the most gorgeous song, almost without error. Wow! Now that's not something that would ONLY happen in Okinawa - but it's rather unusual to have a housing maintenance guy sit and play an intricate Japanese song for you on your piano.

The second story - Mia of course. She is miss INDEPENDENT now, and walks to the bus on her own in the morning and then home again in the afternoon. It's about 1 1/2 blocks up the road, and it's really not a big deal - but last week it was raining one day and I went to grab her. She got off the bus with a scowl, and said, "Why are you HERE?" Uh - because I figured I'd bring a raincoat for ya so you wouldn't get soaked. You're welcome! Jeez.

So a couple of nights later, Craig remembered what happened and said, "Mia - why don't you want Mommy to come to the bus stop to pick you up sometimes? You used to love that."

She thought for a minute and said, "Well - because I can do it myself. And I can do stuff I can't do with you when you walk with me."

"Like what?"

"Well.... " long pause, "Like petting the doggies and kitties on the way home." (Dogs, whatever, but the ferile cats out there?! Yikes. But hey, she was honest, right? We got a good laugh out of it.) Thankfully the cats mostly run off before she can reach them anyway.

Ok, I had enough time to edit photos from the dive trip.

And I wanted to share this story on Athena's blog. She's a photographer in Hawaii (a very talented one and you should call her if you're there because she rocks) and she helped us do something very special for a very special friend. I can't wait to hear Edith's take. Thanks, Athena!!

Have a great day - PHOTOS SOON - I'm not going to promise, because I have FOUR shoots to edit for work and my personal stuff comes last - but you know, soon. And I just planned a 3-day trip with a girlfriend to KYOTO in November for changing leaves. I can't WAIT!

Keramas Dive

What a great holiday weekend topped off with a trip to the Keramas for three dives. WOW. There's really not much more to say.

Just some to SHOW....

There are more, but I MUST SLEEP.

Anne being zen at the bottom of the ocean.

I borrowed my new buddy Val's Canon PowerShot with its dive case, and had a bit of photographer fun under the water today! (I'm SO getting one now. With a flash diffuser - that would've made a huge difference.) Here are some clown fish protecting their anemone. (LOTS of that going on down there...)

Lots of giant clams to see.
How many clown fish do you count?
Do you see it? look closely and you can see its EYE.....
It was a really large octopus! I was rather impressed with myself for spotting this one.

One of my buddies, Kicker, found this little moray and played with him for a moment.
But - on the 3rd and last dive, I had one of my dreams come true. I swam with CRUSH! (aka, a giant sea turtle) Here's Anne having a look and a pet - they were so docile and really didn't care that we were there.

Anne's camera (the new waterproof to 10m Olympus point & shoot with a case that has a flash diffuser) is amazing and she got some mind-blowing shots today!

Not the least of which was this one. Which will definitely be framed on my wall. THANKS, Anne! And thanks for an amaaaaaaazing dive day, Kicker, Snuff, Brandon, Karen, Anne & Derek.

Diving As Of Late

Thursday I dove with some friends in the morning and then again in the late afternoon. The surf was rough (trust me, my body has the bumps & bruises from the coral to show for it) but oh my was it worth it to go out and see the amazingness! Thanks to Anne for the photos from her awesome Olympus underwater camera! She got a case for it and now the photos are even BETTER (see the last cuttlefish shot - holy cow!).

(I know, these are small - but it's ok - you get the point) Here I am ready to enter the abyss from the Kadena steps:
Here's a photo Derek (Anne's hubby) took the next morning on a dive (this guy is almost neon, isn't he?):


Awesome trigger:
Anne & me - yay!

Flippin' D the birds....
This little clown fish was bathing in the anemone. Cutest thing ever!

Peeking from behind a cool yellow plant.
Under a rock formation, Derek found this HUGE fish (seriously, like 1.5' high) - is it an idol? Does anyone know?

I snapped this one of Derek & Anne with the sunset in the background when we came up. Sweet!
And this masterpiece. Anne took it snorkeling yesterday. Doesn't it just look like this is from a magazine or something? WOW!
Photos of Mia's last day of session 3 swim class to come (she's now in Level IV! She treads water! YAHOO! - first day of level IV is today, so now I'm off to wake her up and make her eat breakfast. Sigh. My big girl!), and also some shots of a trip to Sesoko Island. STUNNING. Can't wait to go back in the water! I'm going to buy a case for my p&s Canon.. over $300, but at least it isn't the $1500 it'd cost for the SLR case. Worth it to have memories of the incredible sea life just outside my door!