This is Why We Don't Go Shopping

Last weekend Peter and I both were in the mood to spend money. This rarely happens, but when it does we should not leave the house with our wallets. Last time, we ended up with a new computer. This time, it was furniture. A carpet for our bedroom. A new computer desk. And an entertainment center. But the entertainment center was only $40 so it hardly counts!! The act of buying it all drained our mutual desire to spend money, so when they offered delivery and assembly for $40, we turned it down. It seemed ridiculous to pay as much for delivery as we did for the actual piece of furniture. To make a long story short...we should have paid the fee. I have been assembling furniture all week. Peter and several of our friends helped too. We actually wore out our screwdriver set. I took some photos now that it's all finished. First, the old set up, so that you can appreciate why the new furniture is exciting.

Notice how the TV doesn't actually fit IN the entertainment center. I would also like to mention that the cabinet on the left side has to be pried open with a knife. But hey, it was free, and you get what you pay for right? That is the old desk and kitchen table too (also all free).

Here is the new furniture - complete with a semi-normal dog sitting in front of it.

The entertainment center. Helping to build this was the most use I've gotten out of my engineering degree since I graduated.

And the desk. I built a large part of this myself.

Finally, this is one of the hazards of being a small person. This is me IN the entertainment center.

Round Two

The cat's favorite spot is a rug on the floor of the bathroom. Last night Rambo slept on it. Round Two goes to the dog.

Today we bought him a new bed. It is sitting in the living room next to his old bed at the moment. There is also a rug and a mat by the door. And a blanket that fell on the floor. Rambo chose to sleep on the tile. Why do we spend money??

Today Peter and I realized that we have lived in the same house for over a year. That's a new record for either of us in the last five years. The shortest time we've lived anywhere was three weeks in California.

This is our neighborhood. I was taking photos of the sunset over the ocean and turned around for this picture. You can see the sunset reflecting in the windows.

Sibling Rivalry

We have a cat and a dog. The cat is Carina. She was born in Colorado and raised in a college house populated by six girls, an assortment of boyfriends, and five other cats. On weekends, she endured a two hour car ride home to visit my parents and their assortment of pets - another two cats and two dogs. She is a dominatrix. She even intimidated my parent's doberman. This is Carina:

Don't mess with her.

A little more than a year ago, Peter and I adopted a dog. Such a cute little mutt puppy. We noticed that he was a little shy, but we didn't realize HOW shy until we got him home. He was born wild and was found scavenging for food on a construction site. Well intentioned people saw the construction workers abusing him and "rescued" him. They caught him in a racoon trap. He hates people, hates loud noises, and is terrified of the world. The first few months we had him he wouldn't come out of the corner and would start shaking every time we looked at him. His name is Rambo.

Here is Rambo looking particularly pathetic after a bath.

Our pets met for the first time in December, when we brought Carina back from Colorado with us. At first they avoided each other. Then we found them sleeping near each other and began to have hopes for friendship:

But lately, we have been noticing some signs of sibling rivalry. Like when Rambo began to be afraid to walk past the cat in the hallway. Or the time when I found Carina chasing him around the living room. Or when Rina started sleeping in Rambo's bed:

This week it all came to a head when Carina decided to use claws to impose her will, and Rambo snarled. Our meek dog snarled! Then we walked in the bedroom and noticed the distinct smell of cat pee....Carina had tagged Rambo's bed. Repeatedly. So much so, that when we picked it up, it dripped on the floor. Needless to say, the bed went into the trash, along with the rug under Rambo's food bowls (lion shaped, to give him courage).

The removal of bed and rug traumatized Rambo more than the smelly damp bed had. He has come a long way from the terrified puppy that we adopted, but he doesn't deal well with change. He paced around our bed all week. He went off his food. He wouldn't settle down at night. He has been having nightmares. This reaction is ironic, because he rarely uses his bed. I AM his bed most nights. But he didn't like the change. Last night he finally ate...for the first time in four days (although a roll of tape did disappear this week, maybe that was what held him over). But he also woke us up last night because he was wimpering so loudly in his sleep.

He was probably dreaming of the cat. Carina definitely won this round. The poor dog didn't have a chance. Neither did we, for that matter.

Happy Pi Day

For those of you who aren't nerds, geeks, or number freaks, March 14th was an unofficial holiday celebrating the number Pi (π). Pi is an endless number starting with 3.14159.... and used to solve math problems involving circles. Since March 14th is abbreviated 3/14, it was dubbed "Pi Day." Happy Pi Day!! I was not aware that this was a holiday until I showed up to teach math yesterday and was berated for not bringing circular goodies to class with me. Apparently I flunked at both nerdiness and cool teacherness.

In other news, this is my mom's response to the Pokemon car photos I put up last week:

Mom found this car in Arizona. This beats the Pokemon car.

I had a busy week this week with teaching, because it was the final week of the term for my college Math class. I have grades to do next week, but other than that I'll get to take a little breather for a couple of weeks. I also got called in twice this week for substitute teaching. I taught Special Ed, Band, and Art. I learned that I am NOT cut out to be a Special Education teacher. I do not have the patience to wait for the kids to behave or the lung power to Make the kids behave. I also reaffirmed my lack of musical ability in band. The students were lucky - I didn't demonstrate any instruments. I just sat back and enjoyed the free concert. Art was my best subject of the week. I just sat back and colored along with the students. Here is my project of the day:

The assignment was to draw a school bus. Oops.

I have also learned through substitute teaching that I do not speak either Chinese or Japanese. Not that this fact discouraged any of the students from speaking to me in these languages. They were probably calling me names. Now you know what languages to use if you want to call me names.

The Color of the Ocean

When we moved to Okinawa from Colorado, I was worried that I would miss the mountains. But instead, I just traded mountains for ocean. I have never lived near a beach before. Here, I can see the ocean if I stand on my front balcony and look between buildings. I can walk there in less than five minutes. And one of the things that I notice the most about the ocean is it's color. Every day it changes. Two days ago, the ocean was a really light sea green, and the sky was almost white. Yesterday, it was dark blue against a lighter blue sky. Today it was slate gray, and the sky was cloudy. I can't wait to see what it will look like tomorrow.

Odds and Ends

On Saturday Peter and I went Japanese Shopping. This means that we randomly picked a building that looked commercial (sometimes it is hard to tell), and walked in to see what they sold. It is very hard to tell from the outside what we will find inside, so Japanese Shopping is always an adventure.

This store had a very large grocery store on the ground floor, and a mix of clothing departments on the second floor. A Japanese Super Target. Unfortunately, there were no cameras allowed, but I wish I could have taken some pictures of the groceries. The produce section was completely alien to us. The only things we could identify were the "exotic" American staples like corn on the cob and strawberries (which were $5 for about a dozen). We also recognized Goya (bitterfruit), which is well named. We learned the hard way to avoid that one. We spent a long time trying to guess what the vegetables all were. They also sold both ready made sushi platters and the ingredients to make your own sushi. The most exciting food we found was a display of LIVING shellfish.


On Sunday we had Game Night. Smithifer recently blogged that she knows that she is getting old because she eats meals with recognizable food groups and falls asleep in front of the TV. We have taken frumpiness one step further and have dispensed with all electronic entertainment. We now amuse ourselves with a board game party every weekend, that starts off with a balanced meal, progresses through dessert and a PG board game, and ends around 10pm when we all pass out. From exhaustion, not alcohol consumption. This week was Uno. I was the one that had so many cards in my hand that I had to start stacking them in piles on the table. It did not end well.

Japanese Humor?

Japanese society appears to be rigidly formal. They have three or four degrees of formality for every basic phrase, which makes learning the language hard. They are polite and hardworking, and for the most part their public image comes across as stern. I find it intimidating. Then I came home and find this parked in front of my apartment:

That's right. It's a Pokemon car. Complete with ears:


And a tail:
It also has a speaker on the front that speaks in a Pokemon voice when a button is pushed. It speaks Japanese, so I have no idea what it says, but my neighbors thought it was awesome. They were really excited when I brought my camera down, and walked around pointing out all the features (especially the mouth, nose, and speaker). They even brought out camera phones which made me feel less like a tourist.

I'm glad the Japanese have a sense of fun too.

Oh How Far We've Come...

I have spent the past three days substituting for 7th and 8th grade classes. I don't think I realized how far I have come since my middle school days. I still have my insecure moments, and my less than professional moments, and my completely airheaded moments. I don't think my self-image has progressed much from my high school vision of myself. Yeah, I graduated college and got married and moved to a foreign country and had lots of jobs, but in my mind "adults" are my parents' age. However, to middle schoolers, I am the supreme authority on everything. I am an adult. I am respected. And I see the difference that ten years can make.

This is me in my Freshman year of high school with two of my adults: Mom and Grandma.

I passed a student project in the hall today. It was a poster titled "How Babies are Made."

WARNING!!
STOP!!! DO NOT READ PAST THIS POINT UNLESS YOU ARE AN ADULT!! THERE IS SENSITIVE MATERIAL THAT SHOULD ONLY BE READ BY MARRIED PEOPLE!!
WARNING!!

How Babies Are Made:

1) Two adults "get together." WARNING!! STOP!! NOT UNTIL AFTER MARRIAGE!! ADULTS ONLY!! WARNING!! STOP!!

2) Sperm fertilize the egg.

3) Nine months later, a baby is born. WARNING!! BABIES CRY A LOT!! BABIES ARE ONLY FOR ADULTS!! U MUST BE MARRIED!! WARNING!!!

There was another poster project next to it: "The Stages of Life."
According to this poster my age group (19-30) is the Young Adult group.
The life goals of Young Adults are "building stronger relationships with close family." If we don't build our relationships strongly, we are lonely.

Crying babies might be one of the side effects of building stronger relationships. After all, an awful lot of "Young Adults" have small children.