Shellbacking

A letter from Dave, (From last week)

We had our Shellbacking ritual today, where all the people who have not crossed the equator get hazed. It was pretty tame compared to stories of how I heard the ceremony being done in the past. We just got PT’d a lot and yelled at for no reason. It was all in good fun though. I’m now a shellback instead of a pollywog and will get a cool certificate that I’ll be able to show you later. We were basically woken up at 5am, and brought to the ready room. All officer pollywogs had to wear a white t-shirt with our name written on it and the word Pollywog on the front and back. Then for about 3 hours all 80 of the 192 wogs were in the ready room just having people yell at us. The prior shellbacks could draw buttons on your shirt, and then push the buttons to have you do things. I had a button that whenever it was pressed I had to say “pull my piggly tail” and another that when pressed I had to sing Barbie Girl. It was pretty funny, some people get way into it.

After the Ready Room stuff, we get taken to the Hangar bay where you have to do PT and crawl through smoke filled tunnels and whatnot. Then they bring you up onto the flight deck using one of the big elevators, which was a neat thing, because normally no one is allowed to ride them. On top of the flight deck they spray you down with firehoses full of saltwater. Then you have to swim through a trough filled with seawater and neon green dye before standing before “King Neptune’s Court” and they determine if you are fit to be a shellback. By the end of it, you’re covered in dirt and grease and soaked with saltwater. Whatever, it’s a Navy tradition so I’m happy to have done it.

After all the shellbacking stuff, I took a shower which felt great, ate some lunch, then came back to the room for a re-rack (going back to bed after having woken up in the morning).

Butler's Cafe

Annie, when you visit, I we should go here.
Butler's Cafe

Hello, Friends.

Hello, Friends.

I realize it's been a while since my last update. It's surprising how busy you can become without a job! Over the past week or so I've been hanging out, doing things, a lot of not exciting-ness. I've been reading a lot. It's actually absorbed my life. My friend Laura introduced me to the Sookie Stackhouse novels. There are 9 total, each about 300 pages. Just long enough that you can read it all in a day. So that's what I've been doing to the detriment of other things. I even got an email from Dave saying my emails were impersonal. Sorry boo, i've just been reading! It's better than watching tv, right? (The thing that's annoyed me about the series is the name: Sookie. What!? I feel like the author chose the name because of it's oddity. The other main character's name is Bill. So plain-old-Bill and severely-weird-Sookie. Ugh.)

Finally, Laura has run out of books to lend me. So after ordering the remaining books off Amazon, I have time to devote to life.

I've been going to the gym most mornings. Except last friday when it was POURING rain and it took me 30 min to get to the train station - only about 1/3 to base. Then I gave up and turned back.

I've been working on Hamlet! Which has been fun! I'm writing some information for my mom's theater company Their production of Hamlet opens July 16.

I leave for vacation in Australia tomorrow! Laura and I will be there for 9 days. We've got some winery tours lines up, and even a chocolate factory tour! Yum. I'd been hoping to go to Ayer's Rock, but it's about the distance from Washington, DC to Alaska. Therefore tickets were $700 to get there and back! Nothankyou!

So now I must use the next 10 hours to:
1) Clean my whole house so that when I come home I won't be stressed.
2) Pack. For Winter. It's like 100degrees outside and I can't comprehend packing sweaters.
3) Finish some analysis for Hamlet.

My Poor Gardenia

This morning I went outside only to notice that some mall creatures had feasted on my gardenia! At least I can say it was not I who killed the Gardenia.


UPDATE: Culpret discovered. Some cheeky caterpillars! What jerks!


This guy was hanging out on the wall. Bryce and I enjoyed him.

The Sign

This was a sign posted on a vending machine we encountered at the Nijo Castle.



By all means, please tell me what it means!?! I asked my conversation student, Osami, what it could mean. This was his response: I'm also not sure the meaning of the sentences in English in the picture. But I could understand its meaning from Japanese in it.
Maybe it means like the following... (please correct it! I also don't have confidence..)
"Please make sure not to bring a PET bottle or similar thing into the park.
If the PET bottle is being capped, you can bring it along with you in the park, however, if not, please don't do that. Thank you in advance for your understanding." (PET is a type of plastic bottle)

Lucky Dragons

A slide show the CO's wife made for all the guys. Dave, when the Skipper shows it to the squadron, pretend it's the first time you've seen it!

Obviously, this would happen while you're in Japan...

A severe wind storm breezed through Olive Branch, MS early this morning (late in the evening for those on Eastern Time). The Wrigley's home was hit pretty badly, but Tom and Samantha's was left untouched (which is good, since they have two wee ones!). Most roads are closed due to debris, power is out city-wide. Even local tv stations aren't broadcasting - woah! The Wrigley's will need a new roof (at least in part) and new carpeting, who knows what else. Sam's already put in a claim with USAA but its difficult being 8 time zones away.

We're anxiously awaiting Tom's cellphone pictures.

Also, Willow, Emily's cat, was readily found, but Lucy, Dave's 18 year old feline, has yet to surface.... Could this be the end of Lucy!? (This cat has been "on the way out" for as long as I've known Dave.)

A Very Wrigley Visit

This week, the Wrigleys are here to visit! Sam, Jenny, and Emily flew in on Monday - Five days later, they are finally able to stay awake until 9pm. Dave and I drove to the airport to pick them up, got lost, were late, it was a regular adventure. Dave's parents and sister were able to spend some time with him (24 hours) before we drove to Yokosuka and dropped him off at the carrier (again). Yesterday, we took the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) to Kyoto, where we walked for miles and miles. Emily and Jenny came home with blisters. We spent the afternoon there today and made the 4 hour adventure home in time for dinner - left over chicken pot pie, which is always better the next day.



Jenny, Sam, and Emily were accosted by grade school students dying to practice English and get as many signatures as possible. Here, their teacher takes a group picture, while Em signs away. Now Dave's not the only one who's autograph will be famous!


The Nijo Castle - the first shogun's house. It is especially famous for it's nightingale floors. Built to warn of sneaking intruders, the wooden floors sound like nightingales singing. The noise would have alerted the household to an approaching person(s). No Ninja attacks here.



Nifty lantern in the Gion district, famous for Geisha. We spent an hour hanging conspicuously about but, alas, saw no geisha.


Folded paper hung over a tori gate., Gion distrect.


Blue crane in Gion.



Kinkakuji - or Golden Pavillion/Temple. Covered in 24k leaf gold!

Port Calls :)

Dave's home for a few days! Woot! Me and some other wives drove to Yokosuka to meet our hubbies coming off the ship. We left at 755am, and because of traffic, didn't get there until almost 10am! (It's usually about 30 min away...) We missed the ship pulling in, which would have been nice to see, especially since they "Man the Rails." All the sailors get dressed in their nice whites, and stand in formation around the perimeter of the ship. Ohwell, next time...


We braved the rain... Dave and Tyler were the last guys off the ship (it seemed).



:)

Booface's "Birthday"

Two years ago, on June 7, 2007, Dave and I left the apartment in very early. We drove 3 hours to Austin, Tx, found an obscure park. At this park, Austin Boxer Rescue was holding an Adoption Day. There were about 10 different boxers there, all needing homes.

That was the morning we met Drake. He was a little underweight and his coat was pretty raggedy. But he was brindle, male, and had floppy ears. We decided he was the dog for us. It was 2:28pm.





Booface, last Adoption Day. Since we don't know Slider's real birthday, only that it's sometime in January, 2006, we celebrate the day he joined our family: his Adoption Day.

Even though we aren't with Sliderboo this year, we still made cupcakes to celebrate his adoption day.

New Addiction: Etsy.com

Some of you are already aware of the existance of Etsy.com. I however was not. But now that I am, i feel my eyes have been opened.

Etsy.com is all handmade-homemade objects for sale. It's glorious. It's organized. Check it out and join my club.

Promotion!

Letter from Dave:

Saw one of my calendar squares is our little boo-san. Everyone thinks he’s a nice looking dog. Love you boo, look forward to seeing you in a couple of days.

:(

I miss our boo-face :(



In other news, Dave officially was promoted on Monday. Yay, Dave! Did you know: technically, he should be promoted on the same day he was commissioned? In his case, it's graduation day, an easy day to remember - and event to which i was NOT invited... I digress. But because every school graduates or commissions on different days, if every one were promoted on the day they were commissioned, there could be problems. Now your best friend out-ranks you, but only for a few days, but has just ordered you to (fill in the blank). So to maintain continuity and prevent power-trip issues, everyone is promoted on the same day. I believe there's also a fall and winter "day" too.

Congrats, LT. Now where's that O-3 paycheck??

Please move your car, here's a gift.

Gift giving is BIG in Japan. Today, my landlord knocked on the door. She handed me a paper on which she'd asked her English teacher to help her properly compose a letter. "

Wrigley Family,

Would you do me a favor?
On June 3rd our gardener will plant a tree next to Casa Jardin (C). So, his big car will pass this parking lot.
Would you move your car in from of the door on that day?
I'm sorry to trouble you. (whited out exclamation point)
Thank you very much.

Iijima Family

Too cute. She also brought be a box of "Japanese sweets" from Machida. But as I've mentioned before, a gift isn't a gift unless it's properly wrapped. I referenced the scene from Love Actually.



Isn't that nice?!

Also, I finally put up some of the Ikea sticker's I bought a while back. They're in our entry way, since it's so bare in there.



Spiffy. We'll see if the stickers stay up during the pending rainy season's humidity. Speaking of rainy season, the rice paddies are out! We've gotten a lot of rain recently and now the fields are flooded to grow the rice. Exciting.

More Bazaar

Laura and Heather, inside the big tent - "junk" tent, as some called it. I prefer to call it the "great deals on gifts" tent.



Making Heather shop at the 50% off table.... This girl bought two baskets full of silk things! ;)


Furniture was also available. This was the entry I fell in love with.... Next time... The Bazaar will be back in September... Just in time for Dave to go with me (!!!) You better believe he's excited.



Collapsible Home-Bar. Folds down to 2x3ft. Awesome. It even made ME want to have one.



China cabinet that heather fell in love with... marked down to $1740 from $2400. She didn't buy it though (good job, Heather!)