BIG CHOCOLATE

"UFO Catchers" or "Claw Games" are very popular in Japan and you can find them anywhere.

Game prizes range from bite-size candy up to I-Pods. Seriously. The prizes here are much better than the ones that are offered in the States.

We rarely play the machines, since their odds aren't favorable AND it takes skill to win prizes from a catcher and that skill is something Chris and I both lack.

But every once-in-a-while my husband surprises me, like today when he won THIS:

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a 15-inch ruler provided for scale.

I was too embarassed to carry the bar out of the arcade, I made Chris do it.

Later, I asked Chris "How am I supposed to eat this huge chocolate bar?"

To which he replied, "With malice of forethought."

This is why I love my husband.

Pantyhose

I was very flattered when Ben Lee asked me to participate in his promotion ceremony.

I want to look nice and that means getting dressed up more than my usual jeans-and-a-tee. It means a skirt or a dress, and either of those mean pantyhose.

I hate pantyhose.

I don't have any pantyhose.

If I hate them, why would I have pantyhose?

Unfortunately, pantyhose are sometimes a necessary evil and cannot be avoided.

Did I mention I didn't have any pantyhose?

Did I mention I hate pantyhose?

So I had to go buy some and it made me cranky.

I can never find pantyhose in flattering shade that's close to my skintone.

The BX has NO selection of pantyhoses.

I couldn't mail-order the pantyhose of my preference in time.

I looked all over for pantyhose, getting angrier and angrier all the while.

Eventually, though, I bought some f*ing pantyhose.

Seriously. See?

Hakodate Trip

Hi Everyone!

We're back from our long weekend in Hakodate.

You can view the pictures on flickr.

Be sure to go to the end to find out about our "really gross food" experience. It's funny now, but it was traumatic (for me, anyway) then.

It was such a great trip. I wish I could have taken you all along with us.

Engrish: Milk Bubble Maker!

Question: How good could a two dollar frother be?

Answer:

Pretty good.

It took me a while to buy the frother I had seen at the 100 yen store, mostly because they kept moving its location around and also a little bit of overload and I would get distracted by all the other crap in the store, all of which could be mine for a 100 yen or sometimes a little more...such was the case with the frother.

It took a bit to pry the frother from its blister pack, mostly because I was trying to be careful of not breaking the damn thing (it looks a little wimpy) as well as trying to preserve the hysterical packaging with its copy full of culinary brio and a shitload of Engrish. Perfect. I needed some content for the blog, anyway.

To my surprise, the extricated frother actually felt pretty sturdy. The stand was a nice touch. Even the whizzy bit on the shaft seemed well-made enough that it wouldn't fling high-speed metal shards directly into my beady green eyes.

I put the mixy bit into the motor housing then and installed two AA batteries. I made some hot cocoa. It was Swiss Miss Fat Free--it's crap but I wasn't about to fuck up my really good Williams-Sonoma stuff. I then stuck the frother in and let her rip. The frother went ZZZZRRRRRRRRRR and it very effectively foamed my hot cocoa, albeit all over me and all over my kitchen. I ended up only having half of a cup of cocoa, but I just made another (also frothed to half-a-cup, but between the two halves, I got a whole) and laughed my ass off the entire time. And BONUS! The frother absolutely scared the crap out of the cat. I chased him with it, just to make sure his terror was legitimate.

Buoyed by such resounding (and entertaining) success, I then tried to froth Chris' left ear. But even with a little tenacity source (as the package states) it went BRRRZZZKKKKKZPLFTH and stopped dead in its whirly, circular tracks. A quick reboot and it was as good as new. Should have seen that coming, since the back side of the package states:

When attached to a skin or a dress, please wash with water.

It obviously didn't work because my husband WASN'T wearing a dress AND he had dirty ears.

Enjoy the pictures, you can click to get a larger, legible size.

PS: Be Sure to wash a mixer after use.

Housekeeping

I removed the links to my kimono and triathlon pages--they weren't seeing much traffic and I was not doing a good job keeping them up-to-date. The kimono page was too much work for so little return and the triathlon stuff, well, the actual months where I was training were interesting, but then it just became a whine-fest. No point in lingering on that.

Spring is trying to come to Misawa, it was a gorgeous early-spring day yesteday, you could just feel the newness of the season in your soul. It was one of those day where I really like being in Misawa, being in Japan.

Speaking of which, unless a miracle (or a large cash incentive) occurs, we will be leaving Misawa in September. 8 months -- a relatively short time if you think about it. I am pretty ambivalent about the situation, as part of me is ready to leave NOW and part of me wants to stay indefinitely. If we're really going to leave, I'd like to be back in the states prior to the start of the fall semester at Loyola, so I can finish up my Masters degree.

And Sly passed her Red Head certifications. Actually, "passed" is an understatement, she CRUSHED. Yay, Sly!

Nico

The folks in the office are taking turns visiting Kelly's dog.
She is the spaz-o-matic 6000 deluxe model.
I was afraid to take her out running with me, for fear I would be dragged all over the place, including across the flightline, which would result in BOTH of us getting shot to death.


I took some pictures of our visit. Of the 10 or so I took, only three turned out:

I had to bribe her with a treat to get this pensive shot. I call it Emo Nico!
(she's sad because she doesn't have the treat yet)I got my face licked just before I snapped this. Urgh.It took a few tries, but INCOMING! Look at her floppy ears!