Book Club Day

I'm still waking up at about 3am, but this morning I went back to sleep and didn't get up until 6am. Pretty soon I'll be sleeping all day. ha ha

I forgot to mention that yesterday MaryBeth and I grabbed a pair of shears and headed over to a part of the base housing that is about to be flattened. We cut hydrangeas for the kitchen table. The colors aren't as bright in the photo as they are in real life. They have a purple tinge too. The bushes are everywhere. It is making me yearn for my next yard to have some of these bushes.

I have many photos to add, however, blogger isn't working with me. We went to the mall in Shimodo today. Small mall by our standards, but it was great. Japan is a land of small breasted women. Clothes would have fit, if certain parts of my body were not being smushed most unpleasantly. I did, however, find the cool socks that a couple of girls at HP were wearing last winter. I asked where they had gotten them and in a snotty little tone one told me "Japan." They are really thick like leg warmers, but they're socks. We also went to another 100 yen store. Those places are fun. I'm not sure you can tell, but we think Brock and Grace have these weird plastic Japanese hair things on their heads.

We ate at the food court. Although there was a trusty McDonald's, I went ahead and ordered who knows what. well, I know it was some kind of noodle and chicken thing. Didn't seem too dangerous. The chicken balls actually tasted better than the KFC we had the other day. Hmmm.

MaryBeth got some meat cubes that actually comes out still cooking. She kept stirring until the meat was fully cooked. Weird. After lunch, we looked around the mall some more. Good news, the people up north actually dress better. And the shoe stores had cute shoes!

I painted Grace's nails before we loaded back into the car to take her to dance lessons at the youth center. We left Brock there because he has basketball practice. MaryBeth will pick him up before we head out to dinner and book club.

We went out to Ohashi's, a Japanese version of a taipas restaurant, so everyone got 2 or 3 things and traded. It was really good. MaryBeth is back left, Janet her neighbor is across from her. Carol is in red. She just became a part of the military world when she got married a year or so ago, and this is her first base. Talk about trial by fire. Barbara is on the left and Jenny is on the right. They are both new arrivals to Misawa. We are all sitting on the ground on little cushions. There is a hole cut beneath the table and all of our legs hang down. Oh, and MB got a ceasar salad with egg (uncooked, thank you) on it. She is an adventurer I can tell you that much!

I also took a photo of MB's license plate. The Japanese have come up with a way to identify foreigners. They put a big Y (Yankee) on their plates. I'd like to see an entire system based on the principal of identifying troublesome drivers. Think about it R - redneck, odds are good they'll own a gun, C - carpool mom, good chance taking pharmaceuticals while driving big suburban, O - extremely old person, will drive 20 miles under the limit no matter what.

After dinner we went to "Marcie's" wife of the base commander. There were about 13 people at book club. It was fun. Apparently some of the ladies were determined to be there for the sole reason it was at her house, guess MB will really know if they ever show up again!

We got back to her house at about 8:30, and the children showed great dispay that we were back so early. MB took that as a sign we should leave again, so we walked over to her friend Carol's and hung out over there for about an hour. Now we are back, kids in bed, and I've stayed up later than I have the last 4 days!