Thursday, May 13, 2010

My mis-adventures with Shadow


Many of you know about Shadow the cat. She and I have a love/hate relationship. I love, and she hates....but I digress. When Justin is here, things go pretty smoothly. She goes her way, I go mine. She doesn't pay me any attention (until Justin pays ME attention and then I get "the glare") But when he's gone, she is forced to acknowledge my presence. I give her what she wants most in the world...FOOD!


We have been doing our little dance where she pretends to like me to get food for almost a week now during this current TDY and getting along pretty well ... until the other night. One of us almost didn't make it out alive. In the light of day, I can see the comedic value in the story (which is why it's making the blog) but that night?? Well ... NO!


Picture this: It's about midnight. I'm comfy. Sleeping soundly. And I'm awakened to this...this...NOISE. At first, I laid there motionless. The room was dark. Everything was quiet except for these screeching, screaming noises coming from downstairs. I didn't know what it was. My mind was racing. The CAT was the furthest thing from my mind. So I crept down the stairs and what do I find?? Shadow, standing at window by the front door, her face pressed into the glass, screaming at the top of her lungs...and on the other side? Another HUGE cat ... doing the exact same thing. They are nose to nose. Separated only by double paned typhoon strength safety glass.


At first, relief washes over me. It wasn't some screaming banshee that had crept into my house to do ... whatever screaming banshees do. And it wasn't the world's loudest burgular. But it was the two loudest cats on the planet!! So I continue down the stairs, yelling for them to be quiet. Imagine my threats not working!! So I begin to bang on the glass to get the stranger cat to go away. No luck! So I risk life and limb and pick Shadow up and take her upstairs and hope that she has the memory of a gnat and that the other cat will give up and go away quickly. No luck. Back downstairs I go...chasing Shadow as she screams the whole way to immediately press her nose back against the glass again. So I then lower the blinds to the window so that the cats can't see each other...we now have bent blinds! I am probably now the most hated neighbor in all of Terrace Heights...My final plan was to just pull the blankets over my head, say something under my breath about how she may be a set of mittens by morning, and fall back asleep. What do you know - that one worked. At least for me. I think she and the other cat screamed all night! Ahhh...the mis-adventures with Shadow. Things like this never happen when Justin is here!!

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Pennies, pennies...no where??


Did you know that they don't use pennies overseas? Well, maybe you did. But I didn't. So therefore, I thought it was a very cool fact that I would share. Apparently the Department of Defense decided that it costs more than what a penny is actually worth to ship them overseas to use as currency so if you are purchasing something and you would need to pay or be paid in pennies, your total would be either rounded up or down to the nearest nickel.
For those of you who know me well, you know that this throws off my entire day when I total my register at the store and it's off by two cents because there was a 15% off sale and I had to round up or down. I hate it when things aren't exact!! :)
But I can say this...
Dear Penny,
I won't miss you. Finding you deep down in the recesses of the sofa cushions. Trying desperately to reach you in the great abiss that is the cracks between the car seats. All those times that I've sucked you up into the vacuum cleaner. Nope. There is no love lost between you and I.
Sincerely,
Misty

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Random




Dragon Boat races




Yesterday Justin and I drove down into Naha to watch the Dragon Boat races. It is a huge festival that is part of Golden week. When I googled what the races were actually about, here is the story that I found (sorry to the newspaper that I'm plagiarizing this from!!!)




The Naha Dragon Boat Races date back to the 13th Century in China and are based on a tale of the imperial servant, Kutsugen. Although Kutsugen was a devoted servant of the Chinese Emperor, there was also a bond and mutual friendship between the two. Because of this strong relationship, many vassals grew jealous and began spreading the rumor that Kutsugen had betrayed the Emperor. Kutsugen was horrified by this false accusation and committed suicide by throwing himself into a river. The Emperor was saddened by this tragedy, so he decided to hold a dragon boat race in his friend¹s memory. As the Ryukuan Kingdom actively engaged in trade with China, their histories are intertwined. After hearing this story, the King of the Ryukyu Islands, was very moved and wanted to hold dragon boat races on the island that would become known as Okinawa. To this day the dragon boat races are an extension of the Chinese influence on Okinawas heritage.




The same but different ...

Really?? Even here? Half way around the world in JAPAN, I have to deal with **shudder** Rebel fans?? Is it wrong that when I saw this, I was torn between knocking on their door to ask them where they were from and the urge to retaliate?? ;) Someone should send me a Bulldog flag STAT so that I can sneak up during the night and replace it!! ha ha ha!!

I'm going to have to start taking a different route to work and to the BX. I see this almost daily. I get all fired up!! It's good to know that I still bleed maroon and white I guess =)

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Shopping in Japan

As i've gotten more and more comfortable with my surroundings, I've started doing a little bit of shopping off base. Yesterday, my friend Melissa and I were in "MaxValu" and she noticed that even in Okinawa, you can shop for a bargain -- Here are two bottles of the same chili spice ... only one is "Topvalu" brand. It's a lot harder to compare ingredients here than it is in the states to see if it is really the same, but it LOOKED the same, and the Kanji on the bottle was the same. And it was like 30 yen cheaper. Guess which one we bought?? :)
For those of you who know me well, you know what a direction follower I am. Especially when it comes to cooking. I hate when I ask people for a recipe and it calls for a pinch of this and a dash of that. Well, this experience is going to loosen me up in that arena. LOL I bought some gyoza dumplings yesterday and tried to cook them today. Here were the directions ....
Everything is that way. So when I end up with food poisoning, you'll know why! Ha! The dumplings turned out okay. I actually burned them a bit. Next time I'll have a better idea of how to do it. That's why I bought more than one package!