My husband can't use a phone!

OK, so my hubby, whom I love and adore, cannot, I repeat, CANNOT use a GD phone! He picks up our handset, presses talk, then the number, then stupidly presses talk again, thus hanging up. Then he wonders WHY it is not ringing on the other end??? So today, he wants to check our voicemail. I tell him, *123. He does it... "It isn't ringing!" he says. "Did you hit talk?" I ask. "Well, you didn't say that!" WTF!!! I'm sorry, I thought you had used a phone before. Then he starts going into how I say you should hit talk. I said don't hit talk twice... otherwise you just hang the frick up on yourself. Then in his infuriating way, starts to logically state why he is still right about pressing talk twice. "Well, you gotta press it to start to dial, then you gotta press it again when you are ready to hang up." ASS!

Japanese Post Office

OK, living near a nuclear power plant, as we do, we recently received a 9000Yen check. I saw the damn thing and wondered, how the heck do we cash a Japanese check? Well, that is easy, you go to a Japanese Post Office. Now the Japanese Post Office is the epitome of Japanese efficiency. There were a total of 7 windows. The last three were for insurance/money orders/check cashing/etc. The bright, cartoonish and colorful signs and posters were muted while standing in comparison to the drab, professional and colorless Post Office furniture/people. In an American Post Office, you might have 2 people standing behind the desk, one of which MAY be taking customers. Here, ALL SEVEN windows were operating and there were several people in the background also with a job to do. The first 4 windows were for the usual postal services. The last three windows (5-7), you had to take a number, which wasn't the numbered tickets as we are used to in the states. No, this was a receipt-type printer hooked up to a pixelated board, which, when the next number was called, the Post Office Clerk would press the button, and Voila, the computerized voice would yell out the number and ask you to step up to the clerk. You would initiate the transaction, then reseat yourself until the clerk called you back to finish your transaction.

My Celebrity Look-alikes...

<

Out of the mouths of our Grandparents

We recently (like yesterday) got Vonage. Now, this is great in two ways. 1) We are more closely connected to our friends and family, as it is not an international call for us or them anymore, and 2) It is less expensive, because it is not an international call for us or them anymore. I emailed everyone our new phone number (Deleware area code, vice a Japanese country code, thank you very much!). However, I could not email my grandparents because, like many of our older generation, they do not have the internet (GASP!) and are just as happy without it (double GASP!).
What is funny, however, is that when I called my grandparents to give them our new Vonage-provided U.S. phone number, my grandmother thought it was a type of cell-phone service, and my grandpa had no clue what I was talking about. I explained to my grandparents, that no, it was NOT a cell-phone provided service, but a phone call over the internet. She got that. My grandpa, still didn't have a clue what I was talking about.

Shake, Rattle, and Roll!

I've been through a couple of earthquakes before. Usually, though, I wasn't quite sure it was an earthquake until the news or the USGS confirmed it. Last night (or this morning, actually, 0007 to be exact), Ant had just crawled into bed. We heard the windows squeak, then the bed lurched. I thought, at first, that it was Ant moving in Bed, but then the bed continued to shake for a good 30 seconds. This was the first earthquake that I've experienced that I KNEW was an earthquake, right from the start.

This is where the earthquake's epicenter occurred. It was 5.5 on the R/S, right across the bay from where we live in Misawa, Aomori prefecture.

The new 'Gates!

They appeared right on time on iTunes this fine Sunday morning. I immediately downloaded and sync-ed them to my AppleTV. Rewatching the mid-season finale's before we watch the mid-season premiers.
SGA Return Pt. 2 was excellent. RDA seemed to call it in, though. However, it could have been that his character just seemed out of place in Atlantis vice the SGC. Too bad we didn't see more of the fall-out to the team's bucking orders. Maybe seen RDA give Sheppard a good ass-chewing followed by an atta-boy...
SG1 The Quest Pt. 2 was also good. I loved Teal'C's whole "what about Puff" line. I love that Carter punched Baal out! haha... the Humanizing of Vala (I've loved her character from the beginning).

Trying very hard to stay positive....

So, why am I so upset lately? I've always wanted to live abroad. I am living abroad. Stationed in Japan, a very cool country. One thing about visiting the States, my old command made me realize, is I miss the States...
But I am homesick. I miss Hawaii, 'cause I hate the cold and because I knew where everything was. I miss my house. I miss my doxies having tan bellies. I miss American food, hearing English wherever I go. I don't necessarily miss my old command, I don't think I would be happy being stationed there again. Too many changes.
I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I hate what I do. I am not doing my job. I am not a linguist! I am babysitting. I am mad that TPTB won't send linguists to Analyst school because they MAY not use their language, but have no problem sending us to a place where they KNOW we won't use our language.
Therefore, to deal with my ennui, my borderline depression, I have decided to do a few things for myself. First, I will work out everyday, without fail. Second, I will continue where I left off 6 months ago in learning Japanese. Third, I will refresh myself with Mandarin. Fourth, I will take better care of my Sailors, I will be a better Navy Chief. Fifth, and most important, I will remember that I have a hubby and a family who love me.

D.J.'s 5th Birthday

Today is my youngest Doxie's B-day. He turned 5 today. My little boys are getting older. I remember coming home on 13 March 2002 and meeting Zaar-dog. My little 11 week old boy... then meeting a 9-month old Deej back on 6 March 2003. Now, they are both 5. It is just another day to DJ, though. He doesn't even know it is the day he was born. That there was a time he didn't exist.

Stargates!!!!!!!!

13 April 2007, the last 10 episodes of Stargate SG-1 and the last half of season 3 for Stargate Atlantis will premier on Sci-Fi (or as more and more of us Gate Geeks like to call it, Skiffy). Now this means, being in Japan, and unable to get Sci-Fi, I will hopefully be able to download the two shows via iTunes and sync up my AppleTV sometime Sunday and watch it on my bigscreen TV.

My Anniversary

I've been married for 7 years today. Hard for me to fathom. It seems like only yesterday that we were getting ready for the wedding in Hawaii. I remember thinking... we will do this at 10, that at 10... it seemed so far away. Now, it is staring us in the face. It is cool... I love him. We are good together, and he is my best friend. What could be better?