Safe and Sound

Carina is alive and well and having a temper fit in my apartment. After seeing her a few days ago, our friends put a live animal trap out with food and toys in it, and my cat was a sucker and walked right into it. She is not pleased.

This is a picture of her trying to eat Tinker. Or maybe that's an exaggeration. She was just meowing. But now I know exactly how many teeth she has.

Humans ruin all her fun. She was enjoying her freedom, and now she's stuck inside again. But the rodents of Okinawa are happy and so is Kristin!

Deep Breath!

First, a cat update. I have been so upset about Carina getting lost that I haven't been able to find anything positive to blog about. Every time I logged on and saw the photo of her all happy thoughts went flying out of my head. On top of the fact that Rina is an indoor cat living outside, she is lost in an unfamiliar neighborhood and a Category 5 typhoon hit the island two weeks ago. It's been stressing me out to the point where I'm losing sleep. But yesterday I got the news that Carina has survived the typhoon and has taken up residence in my friend's yard, so she seems to be doing well. She's probably eating lots of birds and thoroughly enjoying herself. That makes me relax a little.

In this photo, Carina is relaxed a lot.

Aside from worrying about the cat in the typhoon, I have also been insanely busy. I was the "Matron" of Honor in my best friend's wedding last week. The title made me feel old and frumpy. I have come to the conclusion that being in other people's weddings is much more stressful than being the bride in my own wedding. As a bride, I could delegate all stressful jobs to someone else. As the Matron of Honor, I was the one the stressful jobs got dumped on. I think the only job more stressful is being Mother of the Bride. Rebecca's mom is worthy of sainthood. Luckily, I don't have to worry about that for a looooonnnngggg time. The wedding was absolutely beautiful, and I had a blast. Here is a photo of the happy couple.

Okay fine, here is a serious photo of them. Congratulations to Rebecca and Andy.

Yes, he is an Air Force Officer, and No, the Enlisted Navy wife does not approve. But hey, we can't all have my good taste.

I also entertained my friend Megan all last week. She flew in from Utah especially to see me. She brought her 18 month old son with her, and I got to practice parenting skills. At least, I practiced parenting when he was happy and didn't have a smelly diaper. Here is a photo of him trying on my shoes:

Unfortunately, I don't think they go well with his outfit.

It has been a busy few weeks but I will try to update more often now! Have a great day!

Good luck rodents

It finally happened...

Her name is Carina

She has been unleashed upon the world. Small rodents, other cats and dogs across Okinawa, watch out. She's a mean one. Apparently, she clawed her way through a window screen. I must admit, the Marine Corps would probably want this cat because she definitely knows how to improvise, adapt and over come. She also is a master of intimidation. She will hop on the couch in front of the dog, lay down, outstretch her paw... and flex her claws at him. The look of total fear on the dogs face is nothing short of priceless.
At any rate, she is out and roaming free and she has so wanted to be. Unlike when Kristin lets her out, this time she seems determined to stay out. She is somewhere around our friends house and refuses to come near anybody. I can only assume the terrors she has unleashed upon the neighborhood animals. I can picture her sitting on a fence line tormenting some dog that is tied up just out of reach of her or stalking some small animal only to pounce, bop it on the head and run away. So, if you happen to be running around Okinawa and see her, try and pick her up. My wife would appreciate it.

I Just Can't Help It...

It's another spider blog. I know, it seems like my whole life revolves around insects and dogs.

I was totally looking forward to coming home to Colorado where it is too cold and too dry for many bugs to survive. There aren't dinner-plate sized spiders here, invisible mosquitoes, or mutant roaches that just won't die. But! In my absence, the spiders seem to have launched an invasion of my room in my parent's house. I have killed a spider almost every day since I have been home. I have a rule that spiders are not allowed in the vicinity of my bedroom. In Colorado, that means they die if they enter my room, my bathroom, or hover too close in the hallway. In Japan, that rule pretty much extends to the entire apartment. The apartment is small enough and the spiders are big enough that I feel threatened even if they are at the far end of the living room. My rule was justified the other day when I went to say goodnight to my mom and found a spider crawling across her in bed. I rescued her, and then doubled my efforts to keep my own room spider free.

I can't remember if I've mentioned Japanese mosquitoes before. They're tiny little things...so tiny that they're hardly noticable until well after they're gone. But I am apparently much more allergic to their bites than I am to American mosquito bites. I get huge welts and tend to look like a victim of abuse for weeks afterwards. In Colorado, my parents live high enough that there aren't many mosquitoes. I must be tasty though, because at least two of them found me. Now one of them is dead. The other should probably be put on the endangered species list, because I doubt there are more than two living at this altitude.

Speaking of altitude, I spent the weekend up on top of a mountain near Rocky Mountain National Park. Our friend Meg has a cabin up there and I went up to help give it a fresh coat of paint. I felt like I owed the cabin a little TLC since that's the place where Peter proposed. It is a small log cabin that the family built by hand. Here is a photo of the view at the cabin (unfortunately I couldn't find any photos of the cabin itself because I'm always standing on the porch when I take photos - I'll keep looking and update later if I find one):


It is rustic enough that the only bathroom facilities are an outhouse behind it. I have no problems with the outhouse, however Meg likes to tell a story about the time she went to the bathroom and discovered a packrat living behind the toilet. It was dark, and she "discovered" the rat when it startled and came flying out of the outhouse at her. After hearing that story, I always approach the outhouse with caution. Especially at night. I make a lot of noise and bang the side before opening the door. Well Saturday night I made my usual rukus and then opened the door to see legs disappearing under the toilet seat. My first thought was "dinner plate spider!" and my second thought was "mutant cockroach!" Even after I remembered that Colorado bugs are much smaller than Japanese bugs, there was no way I was going to use the facilities with an unknown insect lurking under the toilet seat. So I took the toilet seat off and chased the bug around the outhouse. It was a cricket. I won.

Enough about bugs already!! I'll write more soon!

A New Cast of Characters

This blog is not complete without pet stories. Since I am lacking firsthand stories about my own pets, (who are happily hanging out at a friend's house in Okinawa) I am going to talk about my parent's pets instead.

This is Sienna:

She's a 100 pound doberman who can't sleep without her Blankey. She holds Blankey in such high regard that she will mope in the laundry room when Blankey gets a bath.

Sienna also thinks she is a lapdog:

This is Sienna trying to fit in my dad's lap. She is a bit large to be a lapdog.

My parents have two cats. Their names are Neptune and Romeo. They like boxes.

They like boxes so much that my mom leaves boxes around the house for cat beds.

Neptune is a very small cat.

But he has very large paws. In fact, he has an extra toe on each foot. He is a skittish cat. He's afraid of almost everything (but not as bad as Rambo!).

Romeo is not afraid of anything. He loves everyone.

I just realized that all these photos have pets sitting on my dad. Apparently he makes a nice pillow. But the pets do sleep other places too.

This is Neptune sleeping in the fruit bowl.

Have a good day!!

The future is today...

I just wanted to let you all know that tomorrow is here right now. Twenty years ago having a phone you carried with you, your own computer or a personal navigation system were only for the rich and famous. Today alone I have sat in a car that spoke to us and told us where to go, talked to my wife via a cell phone (somebody's SECOND cell phone I might add), and also drove in a car while me and another guy both had laptops in our lap. The whole situation made me laugh and I thought I would share it with you all. I miss you all and hope to see you soon.

Home Again Home Again!

I'm back in Colorado for the summer!!

This is Pikes Peak and Garden of the Gods - taken by my dad.

On Tuesday I had the longest three hour plane trip ever. I left Okinawa at 11am and got in to Colorado at 1pm three flights later. I didn't sleep the night before so that I could sleep on the flight over the Pacific. But then the guy in front of me put his seat back so far that he practically had his head in my lap and I couldn't move, much less sleep. So I have been sleeping a lot since I got here. And spending money. And eating greasy American food.

But seriously, you don't realize how convenient American shopping is until you spend five hours walking around a Japanese store looking for salt and pepper shakers and then come home with a pair of flipflops two sizes too small. I went to Barnes and Noble and spent roughly $60 in less than five minutes of shopping. After that I cut myself off, but I couldn't tear myself away from the books so I spent another couple hours reading in the store. Then I went to Hobby Lobby and was so overwhelmed by the craft selection that I couldn't make any decisions.

Driving is an adventure again too. I drove roughly three blocks to my best friend's house (it's on the far side of a hill and I wasn't sure I'd be able to make it to the top of the hill without being adjusted to the altitude). In the process I stalled the car, managed to turn the windshield wipers on instead of the blinker at every turn, and had a really really hard time staying on the correct side of the road. But me, the car, and the squirrels all survived.

I'll check in again soon!