Lavender Lily

woooooooooooot

2011-06-01T10:19:00.002+09:00

Today is my Blogoversary. My TEN YEAR Blogoversary.
I was working on a redesign to celebrate, and to try to kickstart me back into blogging, but I had a browser crash and lost my work. I'll try to get up a new format soon.
I have had a doozy of a week, and it's only Wednesday. If I can muster up the motivation to actually write about it...wow.
But, um...happy Blogoversary to me!

break out the world's smallest violin

2011-04-14T22:33:00.003+09:00

So, it's been almost a month since we left Japan. A week here, a week there, a week somewhere else, and I'm pretty well burnt out on staying in other people's homes. They might extend the "Voluntary Military-Assisted Departure" (NOT an "evacuation"!!!) for another 30 days, or they might bring us home within the next couple of weeks. My understanding of the situation is that the base seems to think that it would be safe to bring us back, but the decision isn't up to them, it's going to come from higher up, sometime in the next few days.

I want to go home. Despite the fact that there are still aftershocks, and the situation at the reactor hasn't been fully sorted out yet, I still want to go home. I can't stand having my family split apart like this, I can't stand sleeping in beds other than my own (Tempurpedics spoil you), I can't stand having Brandon out of school and both boys away from their friends and all of us away from our regular routines. I want to plan my meals and do my grocery shopping and cook in my kitchen. I want to have the birthday party that I originally planned for Jackson - with his friends and his Daddy. (The one we had with his cousins was fun, but it would have been better if everyone who was originally supposed to be there, had been there.) I want to bring the boys to swimming lessons and go to the playground across the street and I AM SO UPSET THAT WE'RE MISSING SAKURA SEASON. I want to take my kids to the base's Easter Egg Hunt, I want to decorate eggs at our dining room table next to the window overlooking Tokyo Bay, I want to tend the container garden on my balcony, I want to go out for ramen, I want to visit my favorite shrine in Kamakura, I want to get lavender ice cream at Kurihama Flower World, I want to sit down for dinner with my kids AND my husband.

I just really, really, really want to go home.

2011-03-17T17:38:00.002+09:00

I am breaking that promise to myself. I am flying home on Sunday night and I actually am hoping that we get to return. It's just stuff...it's just stuff...it's just stuff...

stick it out

2011-03-15T00:26:00.001+09:00

Some of my friends are flying back to the States as the deployment that was almost over is extended indefinitely...it's a tempting thought, to get away from the aftershocks and the rolling blackouts and the gas rationing and the food shortages at the Commissary that happen for no other reason than that people think there's going to be a shortage, panic, and buy five carts full of food. (Self-fulfilling prophecies, dummies.)

But I won't be going back to the States. Because once I go to Narita and step onto a plane that's bound for American soil...I am never coming back. That is something I decided long before the quake, and it's a promise to myself that I have no intention of breaking.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

we're okay

2011-03-12T09:39:00.003+09:00

It's completely illogical, but experiencing an 8.9 earthquake (actually it felt like a 6 or so where I am) and 100+ aftershocks actually calmed me down quite a bit. I had such a bad morning of crappy neighbors and crying to my husband on Skype about how I can't stand living here anymore, and then BAM! I have to stay calm for my kids, which surprisingly enough, wasn't difficult at all. I pulled my evacuation kit out of the laundry room and put it next to the door, just in case, and sat on Facebook for the rest of the afternoon/evening. It was such a comfort to be able to be in constant contact with both my friends here in Japan and my friends back in Hawaii. Once I knew that everyone here was safe, I turned my attention to Hawaii, and freaked out about them for a while. (Tsunamis were my biggest source of anxiety when I lived there!) Now that I know that everyone there is safe, I'm marveling at just how huge this all was.

This is a video of the indoor pool on base, where we have swimming lessons, I hope you all can see it: https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150092747686056&comments

Here's some news about the US Navy in Japan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJfEXUrvrsc

Here's a constantly updated list of all of the quakes in the region; there have been more than 100 aftershocks since the first major quake, and they'll probably be going on for quite a while: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Maps/region/Asia_eqs.php

As for what it felt like: you know how it feels when you're on a subway train that's swaying a lot, and it gives a sudden jerk that almost knocks you down? It was exactly like that, for like 2 or 3 minutes straight. I was under the table with the boys but I'm sure that if I'd been trying to stand, I would have fallen down. The towers are built to sway so they don't crack, so really, it felt exactly like being on a very unsteady train. I have friends who had lots of glasses and dishes break, but the only damage we had was to a Mega Blocks model of Iron Man, and the gumpaste Iron Man I made for Brandon's last birthday cake. It was a bad day for Tony Stark.

you've got to be kidding me

2011-03-11T08:55:00.004+09:00

I made the decision a couple of years ago to stop being passive-aggressive. I’m really good at it, but having been on the receiving end of some particularly undeserved passive-aggression, I decided right then and there that I just didn’t want to be that guy anymore.

Last night a neighbor put a passive-aggressive note on my door that I honestly don’t think I deserved. And I just feel sick about it. Literally, physically sick. Why can’t people just be polite, and honest? Why can’t they just ring the damn doorbell? Why doesn’t anybody ever think about anyone but themselves?

I’ve been saying for years that I feel like the only person in any given neighborhood who gives a damn about not disturbing my neighbors. I’m constantly telling my kids not to jump, not to push furniture across the floor, not to drop heavy things that will make a loud noise, not to talk loudly in the hallway. I bought my son a drum set, because he really wants to learn how to play, but I’m also spending more than the drum set cost to build a sound-isolation stage in his room so as not to bother the neighbors too much.

But I put on my headphones and sing along while I’m doing the dishes, because I’m f'ing miserable to begin with and I despise doing the dishes, and singing makes me feel better - and I get a passive-aggressive note on my door. From someone whose children run around the hallways screaming all afternoon, every day after school, banging on the walls and the doors and leaving bikes right in front of the elevator. From someone who leaves trash out in the hallway, sometimes for days at a time. I was bothering them. Of course, how silly of me. I sang in my kitchen. I was thinking about myself for once. Sorry, folks, won’t happen again. Back to putting your needs first.

endurance

2011-02-13T21:45:00.003+09:00

One of the most valuable things that I learned while preparing for / engaging in natural childbirth is endurance. One of my favorite quotes of all time is something that John Mayer tweeted a year or two ago: "True endurance doesn't begin until the moment you find carrying on to be completely unfathomable." What that means, to me, is that you go until you really, honestly can't do it anymore...then you steady your breathing and keep on going. This is true of pushing a stroller up a hill, running on a treadmill, staying in control of yourself through a particularly strong contraction, and simply living during a deployment.

It's hard. It's really, really hard. There isn't anything I have to do now, with my husband away, that I wouldn't normally have to do anyway; but for some inexplicable reason, there is extra pressure. I couldn't begin to tell you where that pressure comes from, but I feel it. It means that there's an even heavier tightness in my chest than usual, it means that my temper is even shorter than usual, it means that all I want to do is sleep. It means that we go out somewhere, anywhere, pretty much every day just to get out of the house and avoid the daily drudgery of folding the laundry and doing the dishes AGAIN. It means that I go ahead and let the boys eat hot dogs or ramen for dinner because I just can't muster the energy to cook something more involved. It means that we're late for school in the morning because we can't get out the door in time; it means that I'm up all night because I forget to go to bed without someone here to remind me.

It's hard. It's really, really hard. Steady your breathing, and just keep on going.

why i stopped blogging

2011-02-11T21:41:00.005+09:00

So I purchased a blogging app for my phone, thinking that maybe that would help me post more often. I've seriously considered switching over to Tumblr exclusively, because let's face it, their iPhone app is all kinds of awesome. But for some reason, I just don't feel right about giving up my "real" blog.
I know that I really should pick some kind of focus for this blog, some kind of main topic. I've never really had one, and I never really felt like I needed one, but the blogosphere has changed a lot since I first started blogging - for one thing, there was no such thing as a "blogosphere" in 2001. Random, unrelated observations, musings and rants are fine for Tumblr, I think, but if I want to keep this blog (and I do!) then I really should pick a focus and stick with it, more or less.
I used to just write about whatever was going on in my life, but I can't do that anymore. First of all, my life is boring. Imagine how awesome it would be to live in a completely foreign country. Now forget everything you just imagined because my life is nowhere nearly that exciting.
Also, there are things I'm just not allowed to write about. Now, it's not like I would write about ship's movements or top-secret information about the layout of the base anyway, but that doesn't mean that there aren't people out there, right now, skimming blogs like mine in the hopes that one of us will slip up and reveal something that we're not supposed to. Personally, I'm so paranoid that I really don't think there's much chance that the person who screws up will be me. But just knowing that somebody with malicious intent is probably reading this makes me very, very uncomfortable.
I mean, just look at that entry I posted a while back about all of the places I've lived. A few mentions of "base housing" here, an offhanded "where the Obamas stay when they're in Hawaii" there, and suddenly, over the course of the next month or so (which was completely devoid of new posts), I gain a dozen new *anonymous* followers. And, you see that map over on the left side of the screen? Yeah, I check that, and yes, I have been a bit disturbed by the locations where some of my hits are coming from.
So I can't help but think that maybe, just maybe, if I stick to only posts about knitting, or baking, or underwater basket-weaving, that the terrorist information scouts will skip over my blog and I can stop being freaked out by the whole thing. I just have to figure out what topic I can speak intelligently and interestingly about.

hi

2011-02-09T19:43:00.004+09:00

I have so many ideas for this blog. So many things I want to do, so many things I want to say. I want - I need to start writing again, so I can feel like myself again. I need it. But there's just so much that needs to be done, that I'm having a hard time taking the first step. Maybe I just did.

buying up all of the Duncan Hines

2011-01-21T12:15:00.002+09:00

I bought 12 boxes of cake mix today. Yes, I have become THAT GUY.
In my defense: I am legally required to buy my ingredients at the Commissary. Being a legally-approved home-based bakery business (have I mentioned that yet? ;), I am required to acquire my ingredients from "approved distribution channels". This, however, is purely because I live overseas. It's kind of the opposite of the way things work in the States - I'm like 99% sure that you're not allowed to buy things at Commissaries that you're going to resell. So I stand behind all of the things I said about the Crazy Flour-Buying Bandit back in Hawaii.
But I guess the moral of this ~~story~~ rambling collection of sentences is that I'm a legal business now! Finally.

a hat for cora

2011-01-15T16:07:00.002+09:00

I just finished this hat for my new baby niece, Cora, who was born yesterday.

I made the hat last week and added the flower today. I did the whole thing without a pattern, without even a sketch - I just cast on at the top of the hat and started knitting. I should probably start taking notes when I do that, so I can write out the pattern in case anybody else every wants to try making it. Next time, I promise!!

What's in that Can? Holiday Edition: The Answer

2011-01-14T17:15:00.002+09:00

Well, we have a new record: not one single guess. Serves me right for not really blogging anymore. (I'll explain that soon, promise.)
The answer is strawberry. How they came up with the name "Snow Squash" for strawberry-flavored soda, I'll never know. I will say that it does have somewhat of a squash-ish aftertaste to it. It isn't quite as weird as it sounds, I swear.

What's in that Can? Holiday Edition

2010-12-25T15:30:00.002+09:00

This is a special limited-edition flavor of a certain soda. I honestly could not tell what the flavor was until somebody told me; it tastes more and less like the real thing than that flavor usually tastes, at the same time. I guess it's just a different take on that flavor than I've ever encountered before. It's good, but unusual.

Okay, here's the other side of the bottle. It may or may not help you figure it out.

I really think they missed an amazing opportunity to call this "Santa Fanta". I mean, really.

places i've lived

2010-09-27T10:21:00.004+09:00

I lurrrrve Yes and Yes so much that I'm answering Sarah Von's call for lists of everywhere you've lived here on my blog instead of in her comments. Because, let's face it, at this point, any content is good content.

My parents' house on Long Island. Old house, built in the 1920's I think, the floors creak and the heaters whistle. There's a huge maple tree out front; it's the last big tree left on the block because everyone uses all kind of chemicals on their lawns that slowly killed the rest of the trees. My mom's philosophy on lawn care is: "If God wanted the grass to be green, he'd make it rain." I'm sure the neighbors love them.
The dorm. I lived in apartment 3C of the Furness Dorm at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. The main building of UArts is Hamilton Hall, a big neoclassical building on Broad Street with big white steps and pillars and a huge open hall with offices off of the sides and a couple of classrooms in the building somewhere. Tacked onto the back of Hamilton Hall is a building that used to be an insane asylum. That's the Furness Dorm. There were only two dorms at that time, I think they have more now. There were four of us in a room intended for 3; you could totally tell which three of us were carefully matched and which one was thrown in at the last minute.
My sophomore year I moved into an apartment BY MYSELF, about a block away. It was a horrible mess, and I still think back with regret about how AWESOME an apartment it was and could have been if I had just taken the time to clean it up and put some nice things in it. But it was home and I loved it and I lived there for 3 years.
Next I moved down to New Orleans (West Bank). Brian had already been down there for about a year when I graduated and joined him. The first place we lived together was a beautiful one-bedroom apartment with high ceilings and a loft. It was gorgeous, but too small for us. And really expensive to keep air-conditioned, thanks to the high ceiling and tall windows.
After we got married, we moved into base housing (in Belle Chasse). Brand new; we were the first ones who lived there. It was laid out like a Philadelphia row home, but bigger. We had an end unit, so we only shared a wall on one side. We had three bedrooms but only needed one; it was amaaaaaaazing. There's always a down side, though; the yard was a swamp. Oh, and we were a New Yorker and a Philadelphian living in the deep south. That's never a good thing.
From New Orleans, we moved to Hawaii. First we lived in an apartment in Kailua. It was two blocks off the beach, and ten minutes from the driveway to the parking lot at the Marine Corps Base Commissary. (It was considerably closer to the beach than the house where the Obamas stay when they're in Hawaii. They stay closer to the Marine Base.) The cons? It was a one-bedroom shack on top of a garage. The family who rented the house that the garage belonged to was AWFUL. I won't even get into it here because it would take forever to explain it all. But they were loud and rude and did way more laundry than one would expect from a family of four. (We had to share the washer & dryer with them.) Also there was no air conditioning and the oven wasn't properly insulated - I burned myself on it once. The outside of it. After it had been turned off for an hour.
The base housing we lived in in Hawaii was my favorite place I've ever lived. If only we'd had that house, in the location of our apartment in Kailua, it would have been perfect. Again with the high ceilings, but Hawaii isn't as hot and humid as New Orleans, and also, we didn't have to pay the electric bill this time. Built-in garage; yard full of weeds where nothing else would grow (grrrr); unit attached on only one side again - but quiet neighbors this time; playground across the street; walking distance to drug store, ice cream, Starbucks, Jamba Juice, Taco Bell, and the bank. (And Target, which opened one month before we left, sigh.) Gorgeous beaches a short drive in any direction. Very close to the hospital where both of my babies were born. No neighbors behind us, just the golf course.
Now I live on the 5th floor of a 9-floor apartment building (8 apartments per floor) that looks exactly like the rest of the apartment buildings on base. We're right in the middle of everything, across the street from the Commissary (grocery store) on one side, the Elementary school on another, the gym on a third side, and Tokyo Bay on the fourth. We have a gorgeous view from our living room window; or at least it's gorgeous when the weather is nice. Most of the time it's just gray. Three bedrooms, 2 baths (one with a shower, one with a tub), decent kitchen, pretty big living room/dining room area. It's harder to keep the kids' toys out of the living area when there aren't stairs to carry them down from their rooms so there's stuff EVERYWHERE. I kind of hate having to take the elevator to take out the trash and walk 3 blocks to the post office to check the mail, but I do like the apartment. I like the way I've decorated it - crazy colorful and bright, with lots of big, colorful wall decals. Living in Japan, though? Eh, I could take it or leave it. There are things I miss about America and things I'll miss about Japan when we leave. I'm finally used to it, though.
Next...? Who knows.

a picture poem

2010-09-18T00:00:00.008+09:00

Dirty

Flirty

Wordy

Nerdy

Purty

Purrrrty

Squirty

Skirty

Shirt-y

QWERTY

Curd-y

Gertie

Hurt-y

Berty

Birdie

Thirty

more wacky niche photography

2010-08-30T16:42:00.004+09:00

I'm in the middle of a completely ridiculous project. I'm modifying an old digital camera to shoot infrared. The first step was to fix it - the lens cover was stuck, so the camera wouldn't turn on. I'm proud to say that I FIXED THAT SH*T. I fixed it hardcore! A little plastic gear had broken and a tiny piece of it was blocking the rest of it from turning. So my husband dropping it into water that was deeper than it was rated for isn't what broke it after all. (Which I already kind of suspected, since it mostly worked after that, although the memory card was corrupted.) What broke it was...my son. Yep, when DH got a new camera, he gave the old one to our 4-year-old son, and within a couple of hours, it was broken. A shock-proof, drop-proof camera. Broken. Almost immediately.

I've been doing a lot of research into infrared photography so that I can take pictures in the dark when we climb Mount Fuji next year. (If you do most of the climb at night, you can watch the sunrise from the summit.) I've determined that what I need is an IR-sensitive camera and an IR floodlight. (Figuring out how to attach a flash shoe to the top of a point & shoot camera so I can mount the floodlight to it is a whole different project.) Some people have speculated as to whether it would be possible to convert a flash to IR, but I don't think they've really thought that through, for two reasons. 1. If there's no IR light until the instant you take the picture, how are you going to compose the shot? (If you have an IR light source, you can compose using the LCD.) And 2. How is the autofocus supposed to function if no light is reaching the sensor until the flash fires? So like I said, IR floodlight.

As for the camera, all digital image sensors are sensitive to infrared light. So much so, that they put infrared-blocking filters in front of them so that visibile-light pictures aren't ruined. Plenty of video cameras have a "night shot" feature, where this filter is moved aside from the sensor, but still cameras....well, don't have this feature. There is one Sony Cybershot that can do it, the top-of-the-line bridge model from 2007. It still costs $1000. So the solution is to remove that IR-blocking sensor and replace it with a filter that allows infrared light through.

My Dad is sending me some scraps of developed, unexposed slide film that I'm going to use as a filter over the image sensor. (Unexposed, developed slide film is totally black, so it doesn't let any visible light through, but it does let IR light through.) First, though, I have to figure out how to access the processor. But you know what? I'm pretty confident that I can figure it out, and if I can't, then no big deal. After all, the freaking thing wouldn't turn on at all an hour ago. So if I completely fry it, it's no big loss.

The thing that really makes me laugh are all of the legal disclaimers on the websites that sell IR-Pass filters for DSLR's. They'll modify your camera for you, or they'll sell you the filter so you can do it yourself, but they warn you that not only will you void your camera's warranty (duh), but you'll be putting yourself at risk of electrocution. "Because of the high voltage present". In a camera. Apparently it can kill you. (So they say.) A battery. In a camera. I'm sorry, but what? Who would open up a camera and start taking it apart without taking the battery out first, anyway?

PS, if anyone knows where I can get a tiny vinyl decal (about 1" square) of an owl, and/or a raccoon, and/or any other nocturnal animal, please let me know. :)

another glorious summer day of sitting inside

2010-07-26T12:54:00.005+09:00

I would like to go to the 100 yen store today. I really would. I'd like to take the boys for a walk around town, maybe have a picnic at Mikasa park ("the park with the waterfalls", as my kids call it). Or even just walk over to pick up my car - Brian left at about 4:30 this morning to fly to Palau, so the car is parked over on the other side of the base where he works.

This is where my husband is. Jerk.

The problem is, it's around a million degrees outside, with approximately one thousand percent humidity. About 14 seconds after you walk outside, you're completely drenched, and it's dawned on me that this can't be entirely due to sweat. No, I strongly suspect that more than half of it is CONDENSATION. Yes, that's how hot and humid it is: condensation forms on the human body, which, in case you've forgotten, clocks in at 98.6 degrees.

How hot is it? So hot that my sunglasses shattered. No, really.

I walked into the air conditioning, they were fine. I walked back outside and put them on, they looked like this.

Even my 4-year-old compared the air outside to steam, which is a completely accurate analogy. If you ask me, it feels like walking through a very large plume of car exhaust, continually and without that glorious feeling of relief when you emerge into the comparatively cool air on the other side.

Our air conditioners are cranked to "Hi", the dehumidifiers are running at maximum power (pulling several gallons of water out of the air every day) and I STILL can't breathe unless I'm sitting directly under an a/c vent.

Can it be April again? I'd take the cherry blossom migraines over this any day.

hi! remember me?

2010-05-23T19:19:00.004+09:00

I don't blog much because my life is pretty boring when translated into written word. After... how long has it been now? Almost 8 years? ...of blogging, I refuse to devolve into the kind of mind-numbing schlock that I wouldn't read myself. I went grocery shopping today. Potty training is frustrating. x days until DH comes home. Boring. And there's OPSEC (operational security) to consider, anyway.

I started a cake blog. Not much of a blog, really, but an online portfolio that I can direct people to. I did this when I competed in a cake decorating contest here on base. I came in 3rd, almost by default. I could have placed higher had I done something flashier rather than trying to showcase my own personal style, my technique, and, you know, the theme of the contest. I made some contacts, though, so it wasn't a total loss. I also won a $25 gift card and everyone who participated got a 1 qt non-stick Emerilware pot (with pouring spout), which I can actually use. So, you know, all for the best.

We've been in Japan for a year now, but it seems like a lot longer. We're finally adjusted, I think. It almost kind of feels like home. I'm a lot more comfortable driving off base now, and we have lots of friends. That's really the only thing that's making it bearable - the community. It just doesn't exist at this level at stateside duty stations. You have to stick together. You deal with crap when you live overseas that just isn't an issue when you're stationed in, say, Chicago.

For instance: I recently read a packet of information about how to prepare for the possibility of an evacuation. Living on an overseas base, we all have to have an evacuation kit ready in case of acts of nature, or war - evacuating is a much more complicated prospect when you're in a foreign country. I evacuated from New Orleans once (Hurricane Ivan, 2004); it involved packing up the car and driving to Dallas. (Basically a fully reimbursed vacation.) Here? You have to have a bag packed at all times with your passports, a full inventory of all of your belongings, and 3 days worth of food, water and clothes. Because presumably, it may take them up to three days to get you on a plane out of the country.

Being an imaginative person with documented anxiety issues, I can think of at least 3 action-movie-caliber reasons why we might have to leave our home in a hurry. One would be a Roland Emmerich movie (tsunami), one would be Michael Bay (war with China or North Korea), and the third (and to my deranged mind, most likely) would be directed by whoever did the Bourne movies. I'm not at liberty to explain further. OPSEC, ya know. (Wink wink, I'M KIDDING. Or am I?)

Unrealistic movie plots aside, time is measured in seasons again. Not so much spring/summer/fall/winter, as "steam heating season"/"air conditioning season"/the hellish month or so in between at either end. The weather here truly is such that, if I had the option, I would have the heat turned on one day and the air conditioning the next. But I don't have the option. I have units that can be set to "Off/Lo/Med/Hi". In the winter, they put out hot air (too hot, and dry). In the summer, they put out cold air (too cold, and not dry enough). In between, we have a space heater, a steam humidifier, and...um...open windows. And complaining. Lots of complaining.

But, hey - less than 3 months until our trip to Tokyo Disney! ZOMG!

the caffeine (withdrawal) made me do it

2010-04-23T13:51:00.005+09:00

The vending machine in my lobby stopped stocking Max Coffee this week, as did the one on the way to Brandon's school. I exhausted my personal supply yesterday (I bought all THREE cans they had on the shelf at the Commissary earlier this week) so this morning I tried to make my own using instant coffee and sweetened condensed milk. It came out surprisingly good, but I learned something. It seems that the name "Max Coffee" actually does mean something, because apparently there's an unusual amount of caffeine in there. Which would explain not only the name but my doctor's shocked and concerned reaction when I told her I drank two cans every day. I don't know for sure how much caffeine is in it, but I can tell you that despite drinking a cup of normal coffee instead of my usual morning can of Max Coffee, I ended up with a screaming caffeine withdrawal headache today.

They say you should never go grocery shopping when you're hungry, but you should also never go to a department store when you're disoriented from a nauseating headache and feeling generally grateful that you never got into the really hard stuff, because you'd surely never survive any withdrawal more severe than this. Especially when you're shopping at a store where the modus operandi is "if you see it, buy it, because it will probably be gone tomorrow." I ended up buying a $45 pair of pants (NEX price) that *almost* fits me (because I'm damn well going to be losing some weight before we go to China); two pairs of leggings to wear under a dress I haven't bought yet; a bunch of new makeup - practical, everyday stuff as well as two shimmery iridescent eyeshadow pencils and nail polish in both teal and lime green; and a small boatload of toys that have been designated as "potty prizes". Oh, and the packing tape that I went there to get - 4 rolls of it. You'd think I'd gone to Target.

Well anyway, I'm home now, freezing my @$$ off (because "heating season" is over - apparently Mother Nature didn't get the memo) and drinking a Pepsi. And promising myself that I won't go shopping anymore for a while.

ETA: I feel compelled to clear Max Coffee's name. It doesn't appear to have been caffeine withdrawal after all, as the Pepsi seemed to make the headache worse rather than better. It was stunningly similar to the headaches I got when the cherry blossoms first appeared, but they've been gone for about a week now. So either I'm allergic to something else as well; I have a sinus infection that's causing very little congestion (the pain is definitely concentrated in my left sinus), or I have some kind of exotic head disease that causes blinding headaches once a month or so. Hmm. Thank God for Aleve.

philosophical question. kind of. i guess.

2010-04-22T15:52:00.003+09:00

There is a kind of fun, niche photography that I'd like to get into. Yes, another one. No, selective focus/shaped bokeh, fisheye and plastic lens (which I don't have yet but I'M GOING TO GET ONE) aren't enough. There's another niche that is seriously awesome.

I'm talking about 3-D!!!!!!

There are two options for ways to do it. (I'm not even considering mounting two different cameras on a spacing rod or whatever they call it. I want to take 3-D pics of birthday parties and the Great Wall of China, not a vase of flowers in a controlled studio setting.)

Cheap 35mm 4-lens lenticular camera. (We're talking like $20.) Send film to Snap3D.com for processing and printing. Prints cost a few dollars each but do not require a viewer or glasses. You are paying for every print on the roll without knowing how the shot came out, but the results are REALLY cool.
Stereoscopic (2-lens) lens for my DSLR. $163 including shipping, and comes with a viewer. The 3-D effect is also viewable by crossing your eyes (I figured out how to do it in like 5 minutes) and you can also use digital stereoscopic images to make your own Viewmaster reels. Which is also REALLY cool. You can get lenticular (no glasses required) prints made from digital stereoscopic images, but it is (considerably) more expensive than getting it done from film. On the other hand, you'd only be paying for the ones you really want. On yet another hand, the upfront cost for this method is a lot higher than a $20 camera and some film. But on a fourth hand (what kind of creature is this, anyway?) you can shoot as many pictures as you want until you get the focus and the exposure and the composition just right.

I should also mention that I'd like to get one or the other before we go to China (probably this summer) and there's a lot of other stuff we have to get for that trip. A lot.

So, which option would you choose?

the answer: round 7

2010-04-18T08:34:00.004+09:00

The guesses we got this time were blueberry, blackberry and boysenberry. Good guesses all, but let's think about this: if the answer were something as obvious, and normal, as berry ice cream, would I have posted about it? Probably not. :)

It's lavender.

I had a lavender chocolate bar once, and I kind of hated it. It was like eating a (distinctly fragrant) flower. But if there's one thing you can count on when it comes to Japanese food, it's that the flavors are going to be well-balanced. This ice cream was actually really yummy. The lavender-and-plain-white-cream swirl (pictured in the previous post) was even better. (White ice cream in Japan usually isn't vanilla - it's just, well, sweet-cream-flavored.) I'm thinking of going back just for the ice cream. Mmmmmmm. (ps, View that picture full-size to see how absolutely superb my macro lens is.)

There's a completely different variety of purple ice cream in Kamakura. I haven't tried it yet, so expect another edition of "what's in that cone?" the next time I go there. :)

what's in that can? round 7 - what's in that cone?

2010-04-13T17:17:00.005+09:00

This is ice cream that we got at Kurihama Flower World. Personally I'm not too big a fan of getting something to eat if I don't know what it is, but kids could care less. They don't think of ice cream in terms of flavor - it's all about color. Boy, was Brandon disappointed the time he got green tea ice cream. But I digress. This is purple ice cream. What flavor do you think it is?

(PS, it was DELICIOUS. And I don't usually like this flavor.)

Magical Flower Snow

2010-04-12T11:59:00.006+09:00

Thanks to my newly confirmed allergy to one of my all-time favorite flowers, over the course of a few short days, my reaction to cherry trees went from "Ohhhhh, look how many there are! It's so beautiful!" to "WHY did they have to plant so many so close together? Puffy pink groves of EVIL!!!"

Still, when we passed by the trees on our way to pick up some dumplings and tempura and have a picnic dinner by the fountains at Mikasa Park, it quickly became apparent that we simply HAD TO stop and take some video clips. To quote Brandon: "Mommy, I think it's snowing over there!"

I really wish my camera took HD video like Brian's does. :( Pout pout pout. (I would have borrowed his for this, but he went and took it with him on the ship. Pshaw, what could he possibly have to take pictures of in Jakarta? Pfffft.)

By the time we got back on base, it was dark out, so I was able to get some long-exposure shots of the petals falling...

...and some with the flash.

I probably should have pulled out the Lensbaby for this one but I just didn't think of it. It was cold and late and Brandon was tired and whiny. ("I'm too tired to waaaaaaaaaalk...)

Once again, I'm REALLY glad that we got out and enjoyed the good weather...a day of beautiful weather is like an oasis here. There's never more than one in a row! Yesterday we wore t-shirts and no coats at all. (Until the sun went down and the cold wind started to blow.) Today? Winter coats. I could see my breath! And it's raining. Again. Phooey.

more pictures than you can shake a (blooming) stick at

2010-04-06T17:16:00.021+09:00

My enjoyment of my first sakura (cherry blossom) season in Japan has been dampened a bit by the fact that I seem to be allergic to them. I had a mild sinus headache lurking in the background for a week or so, and then all of a sudden one afternoon (after spending the morning in the park taking birthday portraits of Jackson) it exploded into something very similar to a migraine - I literally had to take a Zofran (left over from my bout with H1N1) to stop the headache-induced nausea. The next day, I was fine - until I went outside. Bam - another killer headache. That's when I remembered that back in my Philly days, I used to get sick during the spring. I used to get sick all the time, so that isn't really saying much, but I remember this one time that I bought a bouquet of all my favorite flowers at the corner store, and the whole week that they were in my apartment, my nose was too stuffy to be able to smell them. That's when I started to suspect that I was allergic to either cherry blossoms or oriental lilies. Well, I carried oriental lilies in my wedding with no problem; and now during cherry blossom season, I'm getting headaches that could slay a dragon. I think the mystery has been solved.

Well anyway, I started taking a Claritin every morning and I'm back to the nagging background sinus pain. It's annoying but at least I'm able to function.

Despite all this, I'm still enjoying the beauty. The blossoms peaked a few days ago - Saturday, actually. It was the first truly gorgeous day we've had so far this spring, and I'd been planning on taking the train to Kamakura anyway. I'm SO glad I took the risk and took the boys somewhere by myself. (It helped that it was somewhere that we've been a few times before!) We had ice cream, I had a McDonald's shrimp burger for dinner (always a day-maker), and I got a lot of cool shots with my Lensbaby.

Today, Brandon's preschool class took a field trip to the park to take their class picture. The stage the blossoms are at now is my personal favorite: when the slightest breeze sends them floating through the air and they start to cover the ground like some kind of magical flower snow.

If it hadn't been such a tiring field trip, I would've brought the boys back out to the park after school to take another round of portraits. But by the time we all headed back to the preschool from the playground and the picnic lunch, almost every single one of those kids was half asleep on their feet, including (and especially) mine. I guess I should have gone anyway, because there's rain in the forecast tomorrow. Again. Ugh.

Despite what that series of Lensbaby photos might lead you to believe, the vast majority of the pictures I've taken in the past couple of weeks have been closeups of cherry blossoms - some with the Lensbaby, some with my absolutely superb 50mm macro lens. Here's a few of my favorites, but just a few, because even I don't have the patience to look through all of them again right now.

I kind of wish the sweet spot on this one had come out sharper, but it's hard to manual-focus on something while your 2-year-old is trying to push you out of the way to grab said object.

I'm having trouble thinking of a good way to wrap this up. Let me fall back on what I learned in first-year writing. In conclusion, I have taken many pretty pictures of cherry blossoms ("sakura") this year, despite the evil, evil pain that they cause in my head. I expect that I will take many more pictures as they continue to fade, and that I will take pretty much exactly the same pictures again next year, although hopefully with better weather and therefore better lighting. The end.

top 5 things I like about Japan

2010-03-28T12:16:00.008+09:00

5. McDonald's Ebi Burger - Shrimp formed into a patty, then breaded. Amazing. And the sauce is super, super yummy. They don't have it at the McD's on base, which is a super bummer. I'm also a pretty big fan of the green apple Coke I get at McD's - you can add one or two "bonus flavors" to any drink that you get from the soda fountain. They have lemon, melon, and green apple. All you have to do is press a button.

4. Meiji HiMilk - I love all of the vaious Meiji chocolates - "Black", Milk, and HiMilk (I have a bar of White but haven't tried it yet) - but HiMilk is my favorite. Well, my favorite bar, anyway. I'm also a big fan of their chocolate-covered macadamias. The almonds are good, too. Oh, and the Kinoko No Yama? Addictively awesome. (I've also found them in caramel flavored and banana flavored, but the regular chocolate ones are my favorite so far.)

3. Max Coffee - Made with sweetened condensed milk. Tastes like a bottled Frappuccino, if bottled Frappuccinos actually tasted like coffee. Somebody keeps on buying up all of the cans off the shelf at the Commissary, but I can also get them, albeit for a little more change, from the machine in my building's lobby. Hot or cold.

2. Tempura kabocha squash - You may remember that I made a kabocha pie a while back. This is WAY better. Usually a restaurant will only give you one slice of kabocha with a tempura plate. But if you go to the ready-to-eat section at the back of Daiei (the "Japenese grocery store", as Brandon calls it), you can get as many pieces as you want. Holla!

1. Cherry blossoms - Yes, the only non-consumable thing in this list. (They do make cherry-blossom-flavored goodies, but I think they're gross.) There ARE other non-edible things that I like about Japan, but they don't make the top 5. The blossoms are taking their sweet time blooming this year. The base Cherry Blossom festival is today and they're still somewhat hesitant. I can't blame them; it's pretty damn cold today. It's also gray and yucky, which accounts for the pictures I took today not being as good as they could have have been, had it been a nicer day. But still, the picture of the day: cherry blossoms.

Honorable Mention: the 100 yen store. 'Nuff said.

Mother of the Year: point & counterpoint

2010-03-27T22:20:00.002+09:00

Point:

Brandon (age 4) recognizes The Beatles (and John Mayer) upon hearing one of their songs, even if it's a song he's never heard before.
Brandon has also pointed out a picture of Jimi Hendrix on a magazine cover. That's right, folks, my preschooler can recognize Jimi on sight.

Counterpoint:

Brandon, going down a slide on his belly and getting a friction burn on his arm: "Crap! Crap! Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap!!!!"

real entry to follow in the near future

2010-03-19T22:21:00.003+09:00

I have many goals for this deployment. Basically they boil down to taking better care of myself, and this apartment. Better time management. Better eating habits. More exercise. More cleaning.

Brian left me with a brand-new MacBook and a container of Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey.

I'm starting to suspect that he's secretly a chubby-chaser who actually enjoys living in a messy apartment. Just a theory, here.

squeeee!

2010-02-25T16:19:00.005+09:00

I received this email from Lensbaby today:

Yay! Yayayayayay!!!

Today I also finally received the star filter and fisheye attachment I ordered a few weeks ago. (Almost a month...it felt like forever!!) I haven't had too much opportunity to test out the star filter yet, but it seems to be pretty good. I got a Hoya for $11, I really can't complain. :) The fisheye attachment is...well...really great - for $30. It has pretty extreme circular vignetting (the picture is a circle with black all around it), which is probably partially attributable to it being a 52mm attachment mounted to a 58mm lens (via an included step-down ring). The fisheye effect itself, though, isn't all that extreme, especially compared to what you would expect within this level of vignetting. Obviously the effect would be better with a wider-angle, 52mm-filter-size lens. (I'm using it with the wide end of my kit 14-42, 58mm filter size.) But honestly - who the hell makes an extreme-wide-angle-lens with a 42mm filter size? "I'm just not sure how well this plan was thought through," to quote a favorite movie in my house. It's fun, though, and I've gotten a couple of decent shots with it already. For example:

You can see how the bookshelf in the back, on the right, has a slight curve to it, but it isn't as obvious as I'd like. I still like this shot, though. :)

Shipping some time next week are my 50mm f/2.0 macro and my 25mm f/2.8 pancake. I'm a little annoyed that Amazon is shipping the lenses separately, since I had them shipped to my ShipitAPO address, which charges about $12 per package in addition to the USPS shipping costs. Although it's not quite as ridiculous when the items are expensive. Last time I had an Amazon order forwarded, it was $30 worth of kitchen equipment that shipped in two boxes. So, $30 worth of shipping/forwarding charges. For $30 worth of merchandise. Apple also just sent out our order in three boxes - MOFOS!! (I have a few choice words for Apple and their non-APO/FPO-shipping policy, btw. It's almost as irritating as Amazon's absolutely infuriating list of non-shippable items.) But again, it's easier to stomach the shipping/forwarding charges when they're a relatively small fraction of the total price.

I'm also still waiting for my Gary Fong Puffer Pop Up Flash Diffuser, which shipped First Class, which takes 6 weeks as opposed to 6 days for Priority (Grrrrrrrr), and my Lowepro SlingShot 100, which I had sent to my parents to avoid the forwarding fees. (Really, Amazon? You can't ship me a BACKPACK?? Really?)

And yes, I am pouring an awful lot of money into this camera. Hopefully this (very large) batch of lenses and accessories will be sufficient for a while. (Although I'm already well aware of what I'm going to want next...9-18mm ultra-wide, anyone? Maybe with a higher-quality fisheye attachment for said lens, for some extreme fisheye effects? Or maybe just a Lensbaby fisheye optic? Or how about higher-quality replacements for my kit lenses? Or a more versatile (albeit slower) zoom to take the place of both of them? And what about that ultrafast Leica? Or........)

vacations, camera lenses and a train cake

2010-02-15T21:00:00.009+09:00

We've restructured our long-term vacation plan. Australia has been relocated to Christmas 2011; we figure an extra year to save up would be beneficial. I also think it would be a much better idea to take a really expensive vacation with a 3.5-year-old, rather than a 2.5-year-old. The terrible twos are hitting HARD. Tokyo Disney is still this summer and Kyoto next summer; China has been moved up to sometime this fall. (China is a much, much, MUCH less expensive trip than Australia.)
Since we won't have to put our ENTIRE tax refund towards the vacation fund this year, there will be money for other things. I'll give you an example. Me: "Well if we're going to China this year, then I'm going to be needing some better lenses before we go." Brian: "Well, yeah." Me (inner dialogue): Wooooooooooot!
I had my first "customer" come by and pick up a cake today. I got a call from an acquaintance last week; she was supposed to be making a cake for a friend today, and something had come up and she couldn't make the cake. I figured, well, here's my chance to put up or shut up. Pretty much every major thing that's ever happened in my life wasn't something that I had meticulously planned; an opportunity fell in my lap and I did my best to make the most of it. Besides, if I did this cake, I'd be helping someone out of a jam. So I said sure, I can do that.
So here's a 10" round, yellow cake with buttercream icing (& filling), with a frozen buttercream transfer of Thomas the Tank Engine. I made the gray a little too dark, but it wasn't quite as dark as it looks in these pictures, I swear!
Wow, my new camera really picks up on all of the imperfections and really magnifies them, doesn't it? I think I'm going to go back to using my point & shoot to document my cakes. It takes good shots, has a great macro capability, and it just doesn't seem to highlight flaws quite as much. :) (Smooth icing: my new nemesis.) Although I must say, I do really like the bokeh (blurred background) on that last one.
Well, the long and the short of it is that the "client" really liked it; and I'll be seeing the acquaintance who I was helping out tomorrow, when we will discuss my "donation".
Also, here's the giant candy heart that I made for the Valentine's Day potluck at Brandon's school. I'd never covered a shaped cake with fondant before, I've only done rounds. I thought it would be hard but it was so freaking easy. I had some serious cake mojo that night. It took me 20 minutes to cover and decorate this cake, and that's including the first time I rolled out the fondant and it stuck to the mat. (I am SO getting a big-ass silicone sheet. I've HAD IT with Wilton's crappy plastic mat.)
Did I mention that the Terrible Twos are hitting us hard? They really are. Holy crap.

Happy Valentine's Day, from Brandon and his classmates

2010-02-11T14:10:00.009+09:00

is this how we're teaching our boys to dress?

2010-02-06T22:08:00.001+09:00

These are the "Dressy Styles" for Easter this year at Children's Place. Really? Distressed jeans? I'm slightly baffled as to why they sell distressed jeans for children in the first place...but to promote them as part of the "Dressy Styles" line? Really? I mean, I've put my kids in jeans for portraits, but that was in the full knowledge that this was a casual outfit. And they were new jeans, completely intact.

Do we really need to pre-distress children's clothes now? Are they that lazy nowadays that they don't even fall down and rip their jeans on their own anymore?

taking the time to sit down and blog, to avoid doing the dishes

2010-02-04T13:37:00.014+09:00

Holy crap, I'm a bad blogger. Here's a summary of what's been going on:

The boys and I were horribly ill last week. We're fairly certain that it was H1N1, as Brian was the only one who didn't get sick, and he was the only one who got the vaccine. I've never been so sick in my life, and that includes my bout with food poisoning a year ago. (I didn't go to the hospital for that, although I probably should have, so I don't know if it was salmonella or e.coli or something completely different, but I got it from a raw chicken and it was horrible.) That was intense and painful and drawn-out. This was intense and violent. We're talking, there was a burn in my esophagus from all the stomach acid, that made me feel like I was choking for almost a whole week before it healed. Jack finally started eating again - really eating - this Tuesday. We all got sick last Monday. Needless to say, he's lost some weight. :(
Brian's on the ship again. Two weeks this time, then two weeks home, then another two months out. Boo.
We're saving up for a trip to Australia next Christmas. It is stupidly expensive. It costs the same to fly from Tokyo to Sydney as it does to fly from New York to Sydney, despite being considerably closer. Somebody explain that one to me. The cost of our ENTIRE TRIP to the Big Island was less than the cost for ONE of us to fly to Sydney and back. And since I am NOT going to Australia without seeing the Great Barrier Reef, there's also the airfare from Sydney to Cairns and back. So I've had to find some room in the budget to put aside a significant amount of money every month - and I did. I cut our weekly grocery budget by 40% - yes, you read that right - simply by reestablishing my old practice of planning out the weekly meals, making a shopping list, and sticking to it. (Only going to the store once a week has helped a lot, too, as have simple tricks like buying frozen juice concentrate.) So either it really is that easy to shave $100 off of one's weekly grocery bill, or I was really being stupidly wasteful.
I got a new camera for Christmas. I've been slightly obsessive lately about researching lenses and accessories for it. In the process, I came across the micro 4/3 system. I was vaguely aware of it when I was shopping for my DSLR, but the least expensive one was $900 (most are over $1000) so they were pretty much off my radar. A new Olympus micro 4/3 came out available for pre-order this week for $599. And I WANT IT. This is my new obsession: I stare at pictures of it, and read and re-read the specs, and imagine traveling the world with this camera in my pocket. If we weren't already saving up for multiple vacations, culinary school, a new (used) car for Brian (when we get back to America), and (eventually) a down payment on a house, I'd put this on the "save up" list, but that list is already kind of over-saturated at the moment.
On the more realistic camera wishlist front, I really f'ing want a Lensbaby Composer. And a BUNCH of other lenses and filters and such.
Brandon is going to tap class now, and enjoying it very much more than ballet. He's also getting really good at making up songs, and he's really learning his letter sounds. A couple of weeks ago, he helped me roll croissants, and he was pretty good at it.
Jackson is talking, kind of. It's usually pretty easy to understand what he's trying to tell you, even though he uses the same five words to mean just about everything. He's in the stage of every little boy's development where they watch Pixar's Cars at least once a day. We're also really into Meet the Robinsons in our house lately.
Since I've also been really bad about uploading new pictures to Flickr, here's a few of my favorites from my new camera. (The ones without my kids in them, at least.)

cakes, cakes, cakes...

2009-12-17T21:16:00.004+09:00

Um, I haven't posted in over a month. Whoops. I really haven't forgotten about all of you out there in blogland; but all of my thoughts seem to fit into 140 characters or less, so they get tweeted. Also, and I've said this before, it's a lot easier to tweet from my iPhone than it is to blog. And now that Brandon knows how to use my computer, most of the time my phone is the only way I'm going to get on the internet.

I've been thinking that I should merge my blog posts and tweets into one feed, and I figured out how to do it, but I'm not so sure that Blogger would let me post that feed instead of the direct one. If that makes sense. Until then, though, keep checking that sidebar if you want to know what I'm thinking/feeling/doing.

I do have some things to share with you, though. I am way, way, way behind on posting about cakes. Most of them were tweeted, but I'd like to go a little more in-depth about them.

Since we're playing catch-up, we might as well start with the baby shower cake I did in September. It's a cookies & cream cake with from-scratch white chocolate fondant and marshmallow fondant decorations. Little fondant candies, doughnuts, gingerbread men, chili peppers, flowers and butterflies are pouring out of jars labeled "sugar" "spice" and "everything nice", swirling around the cake on a rainbow ribbon, and culminating in a baby girl sleeping inside of a flower. Because "that's what little girls are made of", right?

Next came the brownie "burgers". (Actually I think they were a day or two before the baby shower cake? They're after it in iPhoto for some reason. Whatever.) Emily sent me a link and told me that if I were ever going to cater a birthday party for her, she'd want these cupcakes. So I brought them to the Hail & Farewell for her husband (and her!) when they transferred out in September

Everyone lost their minds over these things. I don't really understand what the big deal was; they were so easy, and I've seen them done a lot better. The only thing I added of my own was the "cheese" and the "lettuce". They're both fondant. The lettuce was done a few days in advance so that they'd dry in the ruffled shape, and the cheese was done at the time of assembly so that it would still be soft. The ketchup and mustard are all-butter buttercream. The Commissary was out of white sesame seeds so the "buns" don't look as real as they could have, but then again I think sesame seeds on yellow cupcakes is kind of weird anyway. I have no idea what these tasted like because I didn't have any - I'd had food poisoning the week before and the thought of eating cupcakes, brownies, or a brownie inside of a cupcake was just NOT appealing to me in the slightest.

Here's a cake that Brandon decorated by himself. He loves to work with "icing that's like play-doh" (aka fondant), probably because it's play dough that he's allowed to eat.

Here are the cupcakes I made for the cakewalk at the Harvest Festival that Brandon's preschool had. They're applesauce spice cake (recipe on the side of the box of Duncan Hine's spice cake mix) with maple-cinnamon buttercream. They smelled sooooooo good.

The one in the front left was supposed to be a ginkgo leaf. I'm really disappointed in how those ones came out, but I like the rest of them. I finally mastered the 1M swirl! Yaaaaay.

This is an apple piecake that I made for the Harvest (day-before-Thanksgiving) Potluck at Brandon's school. I had a ton of maple-cinnamon buttercream left over, so that's what I used for this. Marshmallow fondant leaves and apples.

Best use of fondant leaves to cover up a sloppy, not-properly-lined-up basketweave "seam":

For Brandon's actual birthday (on Thanksgiving), a 6" cake was added to the Thanksgiving dessert spread. This was my first attempt at a frozen buttercream transfer, and I LOVED it. I loved doing it, and I love how it came out!

The Gravedigger Cake. Oh, man. The work that went into this thing! Here's the chocolate panels from one side:

Chocolate was definitely the best way to get that detail - for me, at least. I've been working with chocolate a heck of a lot longer than I've been working with icing. None of this was piped, btw. It was all done with paintbrushes. (Traced onto wax paper taped over a reversed photograph. So the side touching the wax paper became the front; nice and smooth. The frozen buttercream transfer for the AT-AT cake was done the same way, only piped and then frozen.)

Here's the cake before I added the flag/candle and gumaste Brandon.

I'm not happy with how the flames turned out. I should have probably done them out of fondant so that they'd have been smoother.

Here it is with Brandon falling off the back. The gumpaste flag was molded onto an extra-long skinny candle.

It was an enormous amount of cake for such a small party. Some of it got taken home by guests, but some of it went right into the trash. :(

Here's another Brandon cake, his entry for this year's Interfaith Baking Contest.

And here's my entry:

A lot of baking goes into a topsy-turvy. Each tier has three layers, each a different size. Here they are, stacked up and thawing after coming out of the freezer.

I think the best way to tell the story of this cake is to post the description I submitted to John Mayer:

"The other cake is the topsy-turvy Christmas tree that I made. I've been waiting for an excuse to try one for quite some time now. I knew, however, that even if I made it as small as physically possible (which I did), it would still be way too much cake for my family of four. So I decided to bring it to my husband's Command Holiday Party. We're relatively new to this command (transferred here in May), and every command Holiday party we've ever been to has been a potluck, so we had no idea that this one was CATERED. So I walked into a *catered event* carrying, not only a cake, not only a tiered cake, but a bright green, ostentatiously conspicuous, topsy-turvy cake. I almost died of embarrassment, but as it turns out, the catered desserts were fairly unappetizing, and everybody was glad that I'd brought something better. Made with love!!!"

The bottom tier was Chocolate Candy Cane (devil's food cake with mint buttercream & crushed candy cane filling; glazed with mint-chocolate ganache and then iced in vanilla butercream.) The middle and top tiers were Almond Sugarplum cake. (Almond butter cake with a "sugarplum" filling of my own invention, inspired in a general way by Alton Brown's sugarplum recipe.) I don't really know how the Sugarplum cake turned out in the end because I never ate any of it. I don't think anybody did. It was too much cake even for a big party. I actually don't know what happened to the leftovers, I was told that it fell over after a certain amount of pieces had been cut off of the base. Which, to be honest, I expected.

I was actually fairly unhappy with those last two cakes, to be honest. (By which I mean, MY last two cakes. I think Brandon's tree was adorable.) They were ambitious, and impressive in their own way, and they went over VERY well. But the icing wasn't smooth and the piping, simple though it was, was really sloppy. I wanted - needed - a chance to practice the basics.

Ask, and you shall receive. This cake was requested by the "room mother" of Brandon's class. (Well, she asked if I could make a cake. I came up with the design myself.) The Teaching Assistant for his class is transferring next month, and today was her last day with the 2-day class. Each of the kids gave her a flower, and then we gave her this cake.

I'm finally starting to get the hang of the reverse-shell border. Kind of.

The roses had me in tears. The icing I'd made myself wasn't stiff enough and they were just flopping all over the place as I was trying to pipe them. So I had to go with the backup can of Wilton decorator frosting. I don't like having to use it, because it has trans-fats in it...but guess what? You need the trans-fats. Ever since they started making Crisco with no trans-fats, you can't use all-Crisco buttercream to make roses. The petals end up feathery and cracked. 50/50 butter/Crisco works for some people, but not for me, because my hands are too hot and it melts in the bag and gets too soft for roses. (It's fine for everything else, though.) So I went with my usual compromise of pre-made, kill-you-slowly icing for the roses, and icing-that's-ever-so-slightly-less-unhealthy for the rest of it.

So, that's what I've been working on for the past season, at least as far as decorating. I hope you've enjoyed this journey through the last 4 months worth of cakes. I'm planning something special for Christmas Eve, so stay tuned!

this kid is tired

2009-11-15T22:07:00.006+09:00

Okay, so, no, I generally don't post pictures of my kids. But you can't see his face in these, and I honestly think it's one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

I couldn't recline the seat because Brandon was sitting in the back of the stroller (it's a sit-n-stand, so when Brandon's sitting, they're back-to-back) and refused to stand instead, and I guess Jack was having trouble getting comfortable sitting up straight, because he assumed this position, in his sleep.

I repositioned him after I took these pictures, btw.

he gets the ability to pick up days-old conversations from me

2009-11-11T12:56:00.003+09:00

Me, tucking Brandon into bed: "It's about time to send out birthday party invitations. Have you decided who you definitely want to invite?"
Brandon: "Um...I can't think!"
(a day and a half later, literally out of nowhere)
Brandon: "Mommy! I remember now! Sophia is a good guy."
Me: "...So, you want to invite her to your birthday party?"
Brandon: "Yes. She's a good guy."

in which i reference two completely awesome movies

2009-11-04T11:43:00.004+09:00

I just watched a message board that I frequent, and enjoy, implode. One of the key, valuable members left because she was attacked by a couple of trolls who misunderstood her personality and sense of humor.

Man, did that bring back some memories. Things that I was already thinking about, because it's Election Day. Let me explain...no, will take too long. Let me sum up. (Princess Bride reference, y'all!)

I used to spend a lot of time...too much time...on a message board - really more of an "internet community". We all met on one message board, got tired of being treated badly by a few people on that message board, and struck out to form our own community. In time, it evolved that a few of the members were, well, dominant. Some were just prolific and opinionated posters. Some were just plain domineering. I know I can't have been the only one who felt as though I couldn't disagree with them, because I would be attacked. Attacked for disagreeing. Have assumptions made about my character, because I disagreed. So I left, in a flurry of misunderstanding and hurt feelings.

How does this relate to Election Day? Well. Let's go back about a year and a half. John Edwards had just dropped out of the Democratic primary. I was bummed because he was the candidate I had been backing. I expressed my disappointment, and stated that I thought the Democratic Party was shooting itself in the foot, because I did not believe that the American people would elect either a woman or a minority. I wanted to be wrong - and I stated that quite emphatically - but I just didn't think that the country at large was ready. This, apparently, was an unacceptable, an unbelievable, a racist opinion to have.

Why did I have that opinion? Because of the things I had seen, the people I had met, the things I had experienced. I don't think it's conceited or self-serving to say that I had probably met, and lived among, Americans from more walks of life and more parts of the country than anyone else in that community. Sure there were some who had traveled extensively, around the country and around the world - but not many had lived among the rednecks like I had. And what my experience had taught me was that for a larger portion of America than any of us were comfortable admitting, a female or minority President was just. not. acceptable. And I came to this conclusion after living amongst the kind of people who are decent and noble enough to actually join the military - not just slap a made-in-China "Support the Troops" ribbon magnet on the back of their SUV (right next to the Confederate Flag sticker and the full-rear-window Bible verse) and call themselves "Patriotic". What about the rest of them? How much worse must they be?

For a moment, for one ever-so-brief shining sliver of a moment, I thought that I had been proven wrong. Because Barack Obama won the election. But you know what? I wasn't wrong. I was completely, 100% right. This country was not ready. Because the ignorant, the hateful, the "Conservatives"...well, we've seen the way they've been behaving for the last 12 months. And everyone else? Well, we're letting them get away with it, aren't we?

People look around at the things Glenn Beck says and the ignorance at the Town Hall meetings, and they say..."what the hell?" And I say, "did anybody really NOT see this coming?" Really?? Really??? None of this stuff is new. Having a black President just brought it all to the surface. I think it's time for everyone to take a deep breath and calm the f*** down. It's time for the White House to actually get something accomplished, it's time for the "Conservatives" to consider the *meaning* of those Bible verses they keep on brandishing around like weapons, and it's time for everyone to stop, think, and remember that just because we're Americans, that doesn't mean we should be running around acting like dumbasses in front of the rest of the world. With great power comes great responsibility. And really, what WOULD Jesus do?

sigh

2009-11-01T16:20:00.007+09:00

In case you've ever wondered what pseudostrabismus looks like, here ya go:

See how it looks like his left eye is turning in towards his nose? But look at where the light is reflected in both eyes: it is exactly the same. Basically the bridge of his nose is somewhat flat, and wide, and some of the whites of his eyes are covered up. He looks like his eyes are crossed, but they're not.

This was the conclusion I came to after seeing the opthamologist. She wasn't ready to rule out intermittent strabismus, though. It's hard to tell with a child so young, because he can't really participate fully in the tests. He can look into a machine, but he's not going to be able to tell you what he sees. Plus, if his eyes only cross some of the time, then if they don't cross while he's at the doctor's office, then she won't see it, right? So we're going back again in 3 months to be evaluated again.

In the meanwhile, though, I've been paying very close attention to Jack's eyes and looking at lots of pictures. Most of the pictures where he looks cross-eyed, either the light reflections are symmetrical, or the picture is too blurry to be able to tell. (Or only half of his face is lit, so there IS no light reflection in the crossed eye!) So my conclusion was...inconclusive, but I was pretty sure that his eyes are normal.

Then I took this picture.

It's still hard to tell, because if the light reflection *is* symmetrical, half of it is hidden. But his eye does definitely look more crossed than usual in this one. It might very well be a symmetrical light reflection. I really can't tell. But this picture went into the "bring it to the doctor" file, for sure.

ETA: There's also this one.

The cross is a lot more subtle, but the light reflections definitely look asymmetrical to me. See how in his right eye (on the left of the picture) the point of light is towards his pupil, but in his left eye, it's towards the white of his eye? (Click on the picture to see the super-zoomed version I've been studying all evening.) I think this is the most convincingly crossed picture I've seen so far. It's just so tough to be sure, because he obviously does have the wide nose bridge, the first picture I posted proves that. But he might also have an eye that actually crosses a little from time to time. *Sigh* I just hope they have the capability to provide Vision Therapy here. Because if they don't, and he needs it? Oh, you'd better believe I'm demanding to be sent somewhere that does.

complete this sentence

2009-10-30T12:31:00.003+09:00

"Thanksgiving Dinner just wouldn't be Thanksgiving Dinner without __________________."

So, yeah, I already have my menu pretty well planned out, but I want to make sure I'm not missing anything. We have a friend coming over, and he's bringing his Japanese girlfriend with him - he wants her to experience a "real American Thanksgiving". It's flattering, and ever so slightly terrifying. I want it to be perfect.

So...what one dish is absolutely essential at Thanksgiving? Lurkers, it's time to de-lurk. I need as many answers as I can get. :)

"his tooth fell down"

2009-10-30T08:58:00.005+09:00

Brandon was up and walking around at 2AM last night. I got him back into his bed and asked him why he was up, but I couldn't really understand what he was trying to tell me. I asked him again this morning, and I'm pretty sure that this is what happened: he had a dream that he was in the kitchen, feeding Jackson. In his dream, Jackie fell down and knocked out a tooth. Brandon woke up, and was thinking about it, and got worried about Jackson so he went to the kitchen to make sure that he was okay.

Now ever since we've moved here, Brandon has had a tendency to be moody. He likes to play alone in his room, and he DOES NOT want Jack to be in there, ever. They fight over toys and get on each others' nerves. But in the end, this is the kind of kid that Brandon is: he had a scary dream - not about monsters, or getting lost, or Daddy never coming home - but about his baby brother getting hurt. And when he had this dream, he didn't cry in his bed, or come to me for comfort - he went looking for his brother to make sure he wasn't alone and hurting. He loves his brother more than anything, enough to get out of bed in the scary dark.

I have a good kid.

blurbs

2009-10-26T13:11:00.006+09:00

Jack may have strabismus. He may have pseudostrabismus. It's hard to tell which it is, but his right eye looks like it's turning inward some of the time. We'll find out when we go to the opthamologist on Thursday whether he's actually cross-eyed, or if it just looks that way because of the shape of the bridge of his nose. (FYI - while researching this usually Asian trait [pseudostrabismus], I came across a blurb stating that there is Asian DNA floating around the Lithuanian gene pool due to Mongolian invasions. So since the Mongols invaded Lithuania, and the Moors invaded Sicily, my children are truly world-wide mutts.)
I have a call in to the developmental screening people at the elementary school, re: Brandon's stutter.
The first few days on Yasmin were hell, I felt SO MUCH worse. I'm starting to feel better now. Time will tell if it does the trick for the PMDD. But I can tell you right now, it makes my skin really dry.
It is rainy, and windy, and COLD. Like 60 degrees. To a family who spent the last 4 years in Hawaii, 60 degrees and raining is almost unbearably cold. Winter is going to be rough for us this year, LOL.
This is going to be the first year since...well, EVER...that I don't have a Halloween costume. I wanted to do Ratatouille - wear a chef coat and put a Remy toy on my head, holding my hair - but the Nex Depot only had chef coats in L, XL, and XXL. Boo. I wanted to do this one last year, too, but I ordered a chef coat from a website that never shipped it and eventually canceled the order like 6 weeks later. Maybe it's just not meant to be. (I ended up throwing together a Foofa costume last year.) Since my kids are being Batman and Robin, I might have to bust out a quick Catwoman costume...I have cat ears somewhere...

guest list dilemma

2009-10-24T14:36:00.003+09:00

It's time to order supplies for Brandon's birthday party, and I don't know how much to order. Because I have no idea how many people we're inviting.

Here's the thing: part of me wants to invite everyone in Brandon's class, because I don't want anyone to be left out. The other part of me counted the names on the sign-in sheet the other day and protests this plan because there are 18 kids in his class. And there are at least 5 other kids who AREN'T in his class, who we want to invite. And after all, there's going to be a "party" at school for everyone whose birthday is in November. (Although we're not allowed to bring homemade goodies for that. Grrrrr.) But how do we decide who to invite? I mean, when I ask who he wants to invite to his birthday party, there's 2 or 3 names that always come up. But when I ask about other kids - "Are you friends with x? Are you friends with y?" - he always says "yes". I don't know what these kids talk about when they're in school. I don't want anybody to feel bad because they weren't invited to the Monster Truck Party.

To complicate things, the party is the day after Thanksgiving. I don't know how many people go home for the holiday, but I can't help but feel that this might have an effect on attendence rates.

So what would you do? Invite everybody? Or just the ones who Brandon chooses? Is he old enough to choose his own guest list like that, if it means leaving people out?

FTR, the cake I'm planning, according to the charts at Wilton.com, will serve 70+ people, although I doubt that - those charts are based on teeny slices. So there will be enough cake no matter what. But pizza for 23 kids and their parents is an awful lot of pizza...

it's the most wonderful time of the year

2009-10-18T14:43:00.001+09:00

Well, ladies and gentlemen, today I sat down and planned out my Thanksgiving menu, and started on the incredibly complicated process of figuring out exactly how I'm going to manage cooking a FULL Thanksgiving feast as well as preparing for Brandon's birthday party. (Brandon's birthday falls on Thanksgiving this year, and due to a series of odd circumstances, his party is most likely going to be the next day, rather than the weekend before as I originally wanted.)

I'm trying a couple of new recipes this year, as well as roasting the turkey (we normally fry, but can't this year because we don't have a yard!), and putting together both Brandon's enormous Gravedigger cake, and a smaller one for the family to eat on his actual birthday. I tried to figure out the order in which to do it all on a piece of paper like I usually do, but it quickly got too complicated. So I wrote out (a summarized version of) each step of each recipe on individual index cards, which are now in order, in a pile about 2 inches high. I am sure I will be tweaking the order for the next several weeks.

I also just did one of my favorite things to do when preparing for a big cooking event: I made my Master Ingredient List. I go through every recipe I'm going to make, and write down every ingredient, along with the amounts required. Then I go back and add them all up. I divide this list into 3 or 4 weeks worth of shopping lists. It's an excellent way to make absolutely certain that you have enough of everything.

Adding an admittedly-too-large birthday cake into the mix really bumps up the amount of certain ingredients that you need. For instance, I'm carving Gravedigger out of 1 1/2 9x13 sheet cakes (and a cake baked in the bottom 2 inches of a loaf pan), with the 1/2 of a sheet cake that will be left over used for the small family cake. Unless my figuring is way off, that's 4 boxes of cake mix. Since I do the "add a box of pudding and an extra egg" variation to make it firmer, that's 2 large boxes of pudding (or 4 small) and 16 eggs. SIXTEEN. And two cups of canola oil. That's just for the cake. Not to mention the 2 cups of crisco, 4 sticks of butter and 4 pounds of powdered sugar for the double batch of buttercream. And the pound of chocolate and 2 cups of heavy cream for the ganache filling - and to tell you the truth, I'm not 100% certain that will be enough.

Again, that's just for the cake. (Which of course I will be baking in advance - as soon as the turkey moves from the freezer to the fridge, the cakes will be taking its place! But like I said, I spread the shopping out over a whole month, so I have to include the cake ingredients in the master list.)

So without further ado, here are some highlights from this year's Master Ingredient List:

10 1/2 cups of chicken broth (I make Emeril's green bean casserole, which involves making the mushroom soup from scratch. You end up with a lot of extra soup, and it is DIVINE.)
about 5 tbsp of salt (recipes from Bon Appetit call for coarse kosher salt, ones from Clean Eating call for sea salt - I'll probably just use sea salt for all of it since I have some nice Maui sea salt in my pantry)
3 1/4 cups of half & half
10 sticks of butter
5 1/2 cups of sugar (much less than usual, since I'm not making the cakes from scratch this year)
5 envelopes of gelatin
7 3/4 cups heavy cream
5 cups whole milk
35 eggs

Yes, that's 10 sticks of butter, almost 8 cups of cream, 5 cups of whole milk and over 3 cups of half & half. That's a lot of butterfat. Paula Deen would be proud, I'm sure.

one last rant, then I'm done for this month...I hope

2009-10-18T08:11:00.006+09:00

I already tweeted about this last night, but if there's anyone out there reading this who's desperate to find some relief from their child's sleep problems - ask yourself this: how bad is it, really? How old are they? How many times a night do they actually wake up? Are they able to put themselves back to sleep most of the time? If your child has sleep apnea, or some other genuine sleep issue, you have my sympathy. Let's band together in solidarity to tell the people who feel oh so sorry for themselves because their 6-month-old is "still" waking up once or twice a night, to SHUT THE F*&$ UP. Welcome to the real world, and count your blessings.
Also on the "things that would bother me if somebody said it to me right now, even though nobody has (yet)" train of thought...if there is anyone out there right now who thinks that "Lucky" by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat applies to your life, even though you have never been away from your boyfriend for more than 24 hours - please come see me so I can smack the shit out of you. I hereby claim this song for Navy Wives everywhere. Particularly ones whose husbands are deployed on ships, and who live on an island. Lyrical applicability, people.
One last thing: back injuries are God's way of saying, "I don't think I was testing you enough. Try to handle THIS, mofo!!!!!"

Well like I said, hopefully that's it for this month. Apparently I have PMDD, because my doctor gave me meds for it. Didn't bother to ask me a SINGLE diagnostic question, but...I guess he can't be expected to diagnose something he's never even heard of. Thank goodness I have sufficient medical training to diagnose myself. (SARCASM) But anyway, maybe I won't even have any irrational rants next month. Fingers crossed, right?

I love my gov't insurance...when I can use it with civilian doctors

2009-10-16T16:25:00.005+09:00

I went to my doctor today because I threw out my back on Sunday morning. I knew that he wasn't going to be able to do anything for me, and I was 100% right. The best he could do was offer muscle relaxers, but since I am still nursing...nope. Motrin, motrin and more motrin.

While I was there, I asked about the PMDD, and...well, here's the comment card I just submitted online:

"I came to my PCM with suspicion that I had a certain medical condition (PMDD). He had never heard of it. He looked it up on the computer and, after asking me NOT ONE SINGLE QUESTION to determine whether or not I actually had it, he proceeded to prescribe me a medication which is SIMILAR to one that is FDA approved for PMDD, but not THE SAME. He said, "It's the same thing," and I took his word for it. But it only took a quick internet search to see that it is NOT. (Yasmin as opposed to Yaz - different dosage of estrogen.) Don't get me wrong, he's a really nice guy, I just don't feel that my concerns were treated with the seriousness they deserved. He did, however, send me over to immunizations to get a flu shot. When I asked if he thought it was really necessary, he said, "Oh yes, especially this year." I am baffled by this comment, since the seasonal flu vaccine that is currently available doesn't protect against H1N1, even I know that.

After waiting 30+ minutes in immunizations, I went to the pharmacy to pick up my Yasmin. I was told it wasn't ready yet, and after waiting for another 25+ minutes somebody finally actually *looked* for it and found that it had been ready, on a shelf, the whole time. Nobody said "sorry for the wait" or anything to that effect. They just put the bag on the counter, and that was it.

By the time I got home, Central Appointments was closed for the weekend, so I have to wait until next week to *TRY* to get an appointment with a different doctor. (The Tricare Online appointment-booking system? Absolutely worthless.)

I spent over 2 hours at the clinic today and all I have to show for it is a flu vaccine I hadn't intended to get, and a medication that isn't an FDA-approved treatment for the condition that I'm still not even sure that I have. Not a very impressive first experience at your facility."

ETA: Yes, I know that Yasmin has been shown, in studies, to help alleviate PMDD, but it's not FDA approved for that purpose, and I don't like going off-label. Also, given my history with side effects from bc pills, I'd feel a lot more comfortable with the lower dose of Yaz. More on this story as it unfolds...

Republican-baiting...because it's just so EASY!!!

2009-10-12T14:02:00.006+09:00

I've been thinking about what it would look like if I were to make a pie chart of how my waking hours are spent. A huge chunk would be "trying to put Jack to sleep." Another would be "being patient while Brandon stutters", and a third would be "checking Facebook for news from Brian." Also making appearances would be "Tweeting about things that annoy me" and "humming Elmo songs under my breath". A small sliver, tiny yet still definitely visible, would be "arguing with Republicans on Facebook." It happens about once a month - when my (self-diagnosed, as-yet-unconfirmed) PMDD is acting up. Because my main symptom is a complete lack of patience - and if I fly off the handle when my kid gets water all over the bathroom counter, then you can be SURE that I won't stand for people saying stupid shit about...well, anything.

Here's an example from the other day. Names have been omitted to protect the ridiculously ignorant.

*********

VF: You Republican assholes miss the point, as usual. Of course Obama deserves the Nobel Prize. He's a beacon of hope after all the horrors of Bush.

HEY F, HES RUINING THE COUNTRY BIG GUY MCAIN PALIN 12

Sat at 8:36am

MG
false
stupid hippie

Sat at 8:47am

Kerry KN (me)
You know, whether he deserves it or not...whether you agree with him or not...he's still THE PRESIDENT. Remember when saying something bad about the President meant that you were "un-American" and "on the side of the terrorists"?? How much you wanna bet it's the same people who said that 4 years ago, who are disrespecting the President now?

Sat at 8:52am

hes a democrat hes dumb and hes a hippie and doesnt care for everyone hes a selfish bastard

Sat at 8:53am

Kerry KN (me)

What an intelligent response!

Sat at 8:54am

MG
yea because your response was a work of genious
i honestly think i have become a lot dumber having read that bull shit ignorant paragraph

Sat at 8:55am

yeah FUCK PEACE AND PROSPERITY.Iraq & Afghanistan foreva

Sat at 9:00am

CJ
OUCH... I'm gonna go hunker down and watch me some Fox News here in the bible belt after that post, Uncle V!

Sat at 9:03am

F, who is this kerry

Sat at 9:06am

PP
yikes! u are arguing about a Peace Prize....genious indeed!

Sat at 9:09am

Kerry KN (me)

Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. All I said was that the President, by virtue of BEING THE PRESIDENT, should command a certain amount of respect. Why, exactly, does that offend everyone so much?

Sat at 9:10am

because democrats ruin the country

Sat at 9:13am

V - the only problem I have is that Obama hasn't had the chance to DO much yet. This award seems mostly based on promises! When Jimmy Carter received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, he had decades of actions to back up his words. I hope Obama can come through with even a fraction of his promises, but I think the award may have been a bit premature.

Sat at 10:12am

CD
I'm with ya Kerry. Everyone doesn't have to jump down her throat, jeez.

Sat at 10:19am

... wow, some typical repub comments above. ignorance is bliss (if you're a repub, that is). at any rate, idiots don't decide who gets the nobel prize (after all, they got to run the country for the past 8 years) - no one deserves it more than obama.

Sat at 11:47am

AP2

Who is KP and does his keyboard not have a "shift" key or punctuation marks? The democrats aren't ruining anything. The country was already ruined and the democrats are trying to FIX it. If you think you can do better go run for office or something but don't be so effing rude on facebook.

Sat at 11:48am

chaney palin 12'

Sat at 11:55am

SL
... might be helpful to your audience if you learned how to spell cheney correctly.

Sat at 12:03pm

AP2
Well, maybe that's how his parents spell it.. because that seems to be his only source of political opinions. Oh, how I miss Cold Spring Harbor. Go read a book.

Sat at 12:17pm

heyheyhey my own personal views im a proud repub palin would have been the sickest vp in history

Sat at 12:22pm

SL
... 'sick' being the operative word.

Sat at 12:31pm

************

It was nice to have some other people jump in and get into the nitty gritty of it; I removed myself from the conversation after a certain point, as a matter of principle. I think that once you've shown the person to be an ignorant jackass who can't even formulate a cogent though...well, it's best to just let their ignorance hang in the air.

Notice, also, how I never expressed a political opinion, AT ALL. For all these people know, I could *gasp* be a Republican myself. All I said was that the President deserves a certain level of respect. Because even if you don't like him or agree with him, he's still the President.

When I asked why my statement offended them so much, they could easily have mentioned the fact that I implied that they were hypocrites, and dumb ones at that. Did they? No. "Because democrats ruin the country". That's why suggesting that they show some respect for THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA offends them. Because he's a Democrat.

They made my point for me. They didn't take offense to my having called them stupid hypocrites - because it's true.

complaining time...in bullet form

2009-10-03T20:11:00.006+09:00

- I have a ridiculous cough. It's absolutely dreadful. Bordering on debilitating.
- I'm not getting enough sleep.
- My bad (left) knee and bad (right) hip are acting up...I don't know which side of my body to favor. And my back HURTS.
- I find it difficult to drum up the energy to make dinner every night. It doesn't help that my kids don't eat my cooking.
- I'm writing this on a new iPhone app I'm trying out. It doesn't do bullets.
- I'm pretty sure I have PMDD. My demon-from-the-bowels-of-hell time of the month is creeping up on me. I think that last baby knocked something loose, because I never even had any PMS to speak of before, let alone the cyclical multiple personality bs I've been dealing with lately. I thought cutting out caffeine would help...doesn't seem like it so far.
- Have I mentioned that my husband's on a ship and I'm alone with the kids?
- I really, really, really want to sleep in tomorrow. Obviously not gonna happen.
- Jack seems to be taking after big brother with the sleep apnea. Figures. They're opposites in so many ways, except for the reflux and the tongue tie and the sleep apnea - you know, the medical issues that make *everyone's* lives more difficult, but especially their own.
- I don't think I can do italics in this app, either. Oh, I'm really starting to "soar like an irate eagle" now...
- The only toddler-sized ballet slippers available in black from my favorite dance catalog - which are billed as "unisex" - have a floral-print lining. Yes, my boy has started going to ballet class, I DARE you to say something mean when I'm around to hear it. (Incidentally, when I mentioned this on Facebook, the only person who made a gay joke happens to be a Fox News staffer. This seems oddly appropriate to me for reasons I can't quite articulate.)
- The ITT office on base (Information, Tickets and Tours) has fliers with directions to different places - driving directions on one side, train directions on the other. While studying the fairly complicated directions to Ikea, I realized -they tell you how to get there, but not how to get back. Reversing the directions doesn't do me much good when I have no idea how to get back to the highway, and won't have anyone with me to help.
- Said driving directions (which are copied from the Ikea website) say to get off the highway and "head for the Ikea tower". So is that a right turn, or left? Really f'ing helpful, thanks.
-Driving to Ikea, thanks to tolls, costs 3 times as much as taking the train. But if you bring your car, you can actually BUY stuff. And it doesn't take 2 hours to get there. And you don't have to wrangle 2 kids on two trains and a shuttle bus. But it costs about $14 - each way.
- We finally got around to watching the 2nd & 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean movies a couple of weeks ago. They were so dumb that they ruined the 1st one for me, too. Bummer.
- Even I find this amount of complaining off-putting. So here's a happy thought: kittens playing in a field of daisies. That is all.

doing his best to drive me insane, since 2005

2009-09-25T09:00:00.007+09:00

Brandon has been talking about his birthday party for months. MONTHS. His Monster Truck party. His Gravedigger cake. For months. We've been collecting Monster Jam party supplies bit by bit as we see them. I sketched out a Gravedigger cake...actually, no, I planned out a Gravedigger cake, in great detail, on graph paper. I bought the supplies to make a raised platform for the cake (3" high, half the height of the wheels). Because yes, it was going to be a 3-D cake. My first attempt at carving. I was excited.

I spent a chunk of yesterday designing the invitations. I decided to incorporate some of the other things he ~~likes~~ is obsessed with, and had Gravedigger jumping over the Mach 5 (live-action movie version) and the Batmobile (original 60's version). With flames in the background - green flames. I even found a font that not only has flames, it has the same kind of flames that are on Gravedigger's hood. He liked it at first. He liked it a lot. As soon as he saw it, he ran and grabbed his Gravedigger, Mach 5 and Batmobile toys and reenacted the scene. "Look, Mommy! Gravedigger is jumping over Speed Racer and the Bat-no-meel!"

Then all of a sudden, last night around bedtime, he changed his mind. "No Monster Jam. Batman party!" And the Gravedigger cake? Nope. Batmobile. And the invitation? Nope. He didn't want Gravedigger jumping over the Batmobile and the Mach 5. He wanted Gravedigger hiding behind the Batmobile.

W.T.F. ????

I managed to get him to agree to the original invitation by photoshopping a picture of him into it so it looks like he's driving Gravedigger. Which was always part of the plan anyway. (The picture he chose makes it look like he's leaning out the window, with his arm up in the air...holding a slice of pepperoni. Which is actually a fairly subtle way of working in another one of his favorite things.)

But the cake...that's still in negotiations. As is the general theme. At least with all three vehicles on the invitation, we'll have some more time to hash it out. Two months to go. (And yes, I do have to do this all two months in advance, if I have to order stuff on the internet, it's going to take some time to get here!)

it's my birthday, by the way

2009-09-18T11:33:00.004+09:00

I haven't been blogging much. I assume that you have noticed this. Personally, I don't like reading blogs that are the same complaint over and over again, so I don't want mine to be like that. I'd rather just not write.

There's a light at the end of the headache-ridden tunnel, though. I've been thinking about how miserable I've been since we moved here, and I asked myself - what's different? I mean, aside from having freakin' moved to Japan? And I realized: caffeine. I went almost my whole time in Hawaii almost completely caffeine free. I actually went *completely* chemical free for a while - no synthetic chemicals went in or on my body for at least 2 years. And then I moved here. And I was jetlagged. And I was eating fast food way more often than I should have, and drinking soda with it. And then I moved into a building with a vending machine in the lobby, with ice cold bottles of Coca Cola and neat little cans of "Super Max" coffee (which tastes just like a bottled Frappuccino, if bottled Frappuccinos actually tasted like coffee). And so I fell off the caffeine wagon. And I can tell you, caffeine really is just like any other drug, because I've definitely been acting like an irritable, depressed, mentally unhinged drug addict.

So now I'm struggling through this massive caffeine-withdrawal headache but I'm feeling a little happier. Except, of course, for the Ghost of Deployments Future that's hanging around until next Tuesday, when it will be replaced for two months by the Ghost of Deployment Present. I can only hope that being caffeine-clean-and-sober will help me get through that without *completely* losing my mind.

what is this, mutiny of the children?

2009-09-08T15:14:00.005+09:00

So there's this area at the Commisary where they have a bench and a TV that's always playing kids' movies. Brandon begged to sit down and watch the show today, so I let him. As always, I reminded him to STAY ON THE BENCH. On my way past him to get in line to checkout, I leaned over and told him to sit up instead of lying across the bench. Like 3 minutes later I went back to pick him up...and he wasn't there. I couldn't see him anywhere. I called out and he didn't answer. I looked up and saw the big inflatable Halloween display rocking, so I climbed over the divider (leaving Jackie behind in the stroller, mind you) and turned the corner, where I saw Brandon running away from the Halloween display and towards one of the chest freezers at the edge of the frozen section. I ran over and picked him up around the waist and said, "you are in BIG trouble."

When I got back to the stroller, there was a 7 or 8-year old girl with us, she had apparently followed us over from where I had grabbed Brandon. "Hey!" she said, "You aren't being very nice to him."

Let me pause for a moment to let that sink in.

My almost-4-year-old DISAPPEARED IN A PUBLIC PLACE, because he decided to do something that he knew damn well he wasn't supposed to do. So I picked him up, carried him back to the stroller, and told him he was in trouble. I didn't hit him, hurt him in any way, or shout in an overly loud voice. I think I kept extremely calm, given how panicked I felt. I did raise my voice, obviously, but in my "I am talking loudly so you know I'm serious" voice, not my "OH MY GOD I'M SO ANGRY I'M GOING TO EXPLODE!" voice.

And an 8-year-old girl decided to take me to task for being mean.

I hope that my response sunk in. That it was absolutely none of her business. That he ran away from where he was supposed to be and I didn't know where he was - what he did was very very bad. And it's very disrespectful of her to tell an adult what to do with their child.

I'm still dumbfounded. I mean, really.

maybe it's because we listen to Backyardigans in the car

2009-09-05T19:16:00.004+09:00

So I was putting sheets on Brandon's bed. August Rush was playing in the other bedroom, and Backyardigans was on in the living room. And I thought to myself, wait a minute, why is Backyardigans on in the bedroom? I hear Uniqua. So I walked in, looked at the screen and saw a little girl singing and I thought...that has to be the same little girl. It is.
So, uh, what does that say about me, that I can recognize the singing voice of a cartoon character from the next room? Probably that I watch too much Noggin.

the answer, round 6

2009-09-03T08:46:00.003+09:00

Well, somebody got the answer exactly right this time! I don't think it counts, though, since Emily lives here in Japan (for now, anyway), and seems to know more about Japan after...one year?...here than I ever learned about New Orleans or Hawaii in 3 or 4 years.

It's azuki beans. Says Wikipedia, "In East Asian cuisine the azuki bean is commonly eaten sweetened. In particular, it is often boiled with sugar, resulting in red bean paste (an), a very common ingredient in all of these cuisines; it is also common to add flavoring to the bean paste, such as chestnut." In Hawaii, they use it as a Shave Ice topping, although I admittedly never tried that. I still haven't ever eaten azuki beans...Jackie ate the whole sandwich. Actually he ate half, fell asleep with it in his hand, then woke up and ate the rest of it. Now I know what to get for him when it's time for a treat!

tiny fondant doughnuts

2009-09-03T08:30:00.012+09:00

Yesterday I came up with a method for making 1/2" iced donuts out of fondant. I need them for a cake I'm making next week. I came up with this method through the immensely complicated process of thinking, "hey, I wonder if that would work". It's really quite simple.

First you make a little ball out of chocolate fondant, and squash it down a little.

(Sorry for the iffy lighting, I was doing this after the kids were asleep.)

Then you roll out a small piece of white or pink fondant and use the large opening of tip #5 to cut out a circle.

You put the circle on top of the flattened ball.

Now you press the small end of tip #5 into the middle, making a rounded hole.

Voila!

You could probably pipe sprinkles onto it with various colors of royal icing and tip #1. And I would probably do that if the doughnuts were the only thing I was making. But I'm not looking to put THAT much effort into it. ;D

Other things I'm making out of fondant for this cake include gingerbread men, "wrapped" candies, chili peppers, flowers, butterflies, shamrocks, hearts, stars and a big rainbow ribbon. And a baby wrapped in a pink blanket. Can you guess what the theme is?

what's in that can? round 6

2009-08-29T19:40:00.003+09:00

Buying baked goods in Japan is a lot like reaching into a box of Bernie Bott's Every Flavor Beans. The savory stuff looks exactly like the sweet stuff, and if you can't read the labels, there's really no telling what you're going to get. One time I bought a cellophane-wrapped piece of baumkuchen (a kind of cake that I understood to be sweet and kind of creamy), only to find that it tasted like black pepper.

That said, today we picked up treats for the boys at 7-11 on the way home from sushi at More's. Brandon got ice cream, but I wanted to get something smaller and less messy for Jack. I settled on a sandwich of mini pancakes with an indeterminate filling. We could tell what it was as soon as we opened it, although it still needed to be tasted to determine whether it was sweet or savory. Jackson LOVED it. What do you think it is?

time to kill, time to quilt

2009-08-24T08:03:00.008+09:00

For the last two weeks, I was bringing Brandon to swimming lessons every day. And for the last three weeks or so, I was re-reading Harry Potter. I finished reading on Thursday, and swimming lessons ended on Friday. The thing about reading such a long series, especially one that's so engaging, is that when you finish, you just kind of look up and think...okay, what now?

So now, with no daily activity to attend and no Harry Potter to read, I all of a sudden have nothing to do. I actually cleaned my kitchen yesterday. I have stainless steel counters, so cleaning them - really cleaning them - involves clearing them off and scrubbing with a Brillo pad. It took all morning. I even ran the self-clean cycle on my oven. I don't think it was 100% effective, though, since it didn't run quite as long as it's supposed to - Japanese power is slightly different than American, and it's an American oven, so the oven timer isn't accurate, it's a little faster than it's supposed to be. I haven't cleaned up all of the ashes yet, though, so I don't know for sure how effective or ineffective it was.

I spent most of Saturday working on Jackson's quilt. The whole thing is an exercise in futility, since he despises blankets. He absolutely cannot be covered up by ANYTHING while sleeping. This is a problem, since it is obscenely hot and humid, and the air conditioner is correspondingly strong, and we don't have a thermostat - it's either too sticky to sleep, or too cold. We had to move Jack's bed so that it's no longer in the direct path of the arctic chill, but still, he has trouble sleeping in his room.

But anyway. The quilt. A room just isn't a room without a comforter or a quilt, whether it actually gets used or not. So I decided to make one for him. This might be complete madness; I'm not much of a quilter. Actually, I've never made a quilt before. There is an excellent reason for this: I don't do precision. I don't cope well with tedious tasks. As a matter of fact, tedious things make me have to pee. (Don't ask me why, I don't know, it's just always been that way.) This is why I don't, generally, sew. I mean, I have a sewing machine, and I wouldn't want to go without one. I can do alterations and I make curtains every time we move. Basically, my sewing is motivated by a desire to save money; a feeling of, "oh, I could do that" - not a love of the craft itself. Cake decorating and knitting, I enjoy enough and care enough about to put in the effort to be precise. (Or at least to attempt precision.) But sewing, not so much. I don't have the patience. So I don't quilt.

But I decided to do it this one time, because I know what I want and I already had a bunch of fabric I could use. (I don't sew much, but I do have a fabulous fabric stash. Go figure.) So I bought a few more prints (apples for AppleJack - get it?, palm trees b/c he was born in Hawaii, birds because he loves birds, etc), carefully planned it all out on graph paper, and started cutting on Saturday morning.

By the time I went to bed on Saturday night, this is what I had:

I still have to put the border on it (multicolored polka dots on a white background) and then put it all together with the batting and the backing. And I have to find batting. But I think it's pretty good for a non-quilter's day's work.

Today...I clean the floors. And go grocery shopping before the enormous aircraft carrier pulls in to port and all of the sailors on board go to the commissary and buy all of the food.

pirate cupcakes

2009-08-23T11:42:00.001+09:00

At Brandon's swimming lesson on Thursday morning, I was handed a flier that said that Friday's lesson would be a Pirate-themed "family fun day". A short lesson would be followed by time for families to join the students in the pool, and then there would be a potluck.

Now of course I could have just brought regular old cupcakes. I could have done that, if I'd been anybody other than me.

If I'd had more time to prepare - say, if this was a pirate-themed birthday party that I had spent a few weeks planning - I would have obtained a toy pirate coin (to make impressions in the fondant) and some gold luster dust, and topped mini cupcakes with little gold fondant coins. But I can only get luster dust through internet-order (does anyone know of a cake supply shop in Kanagawa? I'm willing to take the train), and I had less than 24 hours to work with.

I whipped up a batch of marshmallow fondant, because I knew that would be more efficient than using buttercream - I mean we were talking about 4 dozen mini cupcakes here. I rolled it out, used my smallest biscuit cutter to cut out rounds, and attached them to each cupcake with a dab of icing. (Confession time: I used a tube of white Wilton decorator icing. And boxed devil's food cake mix. Both things that I would never do if it hadn't been a last-minute project.)

I found a pirate flag graphic on the internet, scaled it down to 1" square, printed it out on cardstock, and cut out the skull and crossbones. One cupcake at a time, I laid the two pieces down on the fondant rounds and brushed over it with some chocolate "paint" (Special Dark baking cocoa, powdered sugar, vanilla extract and milk - there's probably a better way to do it but I was improvising). Then I peeled up the stencils with tweezers, blotted them with a tissue and laid them down on the next cupcake. It didn't take that long at all, believe it or not.

Overall, I felt that they were "good enough for the last minute". To me, they looked like something a housewife would bring to a school picnic - which is fine, because that's what they were - but I have a long way to go before I get to the point where I can make a living doing this, I guess. I think they would have come out better if I hadn't been rushing.

Arrrrrrrrgh!

I am asking for opinions, which, to be completely honest, I will probably ignore

2009-08-22T14:53:00.004+09:00

If this was your bedding set:

and you had a blank white wall behind your bed (no headboard), what would you put on that wall?

This (in the same colors as the bedding, not the ones shown):

This (again in matching colors):

or (and I know this is out of left field), this:

little-known parenting phrases that I've uttered today

2009-08-22T14:40:00.002+09:00

"Dip the chicken nuggets in the ketchup, don't just eat the ketchup with your fingers."

"Please don't hit me with a hammer."

"Where's your underwear? You can't walk around with no pants on."

having a daily activity eats up my blogging time

2009-08-18T09:50:00.004+09:00

So I haven't been blogging much lately. So sue me.

I've been busy. Brandon is in week 2 of swimming lessons; every day around 11am, we make our way over to the pool at the BOQ (Bachelor Officer Quarters) for 45 minutes of songs, games, and bobbing under water. Well, Brandon does that stuff, anyway. Jackson and I sit at the side of the pool with our upstairs neighbors who are doing the same. (Turns out there's a family on the 6th floor with two boys around the same age as my boys. We met at story time at the library and coincidentally ended up in the same swimming class.)

It's tough sometimes to keep Jack from jumping into the pool - he really, really loves being in the water - but he does usually seem to understand that this particular pool is only for big kids. I did bring them both to the other pool (the one with a kiddie pool) after class one day last week, and while Brandon refused to practice the things he was learning in class, Jackson immediately imitated me when I started blowing bubbles in the water. It's a shame I wasn't able to take a parent/child class with Jack - I really wanted to, but what would Brandon be doing while I was in the pool with Jack? He's not quite old enough to be trusted to sit by the pool and read a book for an hour.

We've even started driving rather than walking. My sit-and-stand stroller is getting downright painful to steer, what with the 65+ pounds worth of children sitting in it and the center of gravity being so ridiculously far away from the handle. Plus, it's just been so darn HOT. I mean, one day last week we walked out to the 100 yen store in town after Brandon's lesson was over, and by the time we got back to our building, I literally had droplets of sweat on my arms. Like in a Gatorade commercial. I can't remember that ever having happened before.

So, despite my assertion that I would not drive anywhere that I could walk to in less than 20 minutes or so, I've started driving to swimming lessons. I've even been driving to the post office and grocery store (remember that the store is about a block away from our building), purely for the practice. We did take the car off base the other day, but Brian drove. I'm not quite to that point yet. It's not that I don't think I could do it - it's just a pretty big leap of faith to take, and I'm more scared of parking garages than anything else - parking a car is considerably more difficult when you're not sitting on the side you're used to steering from.

Brandon is still #2 on the waiting list for preschool - the same spot he was in when I signed him up in May. The economy is to blame - really. They put a halt on orders over the summer - meaning, they didn't write orders for anybody to move, anywhere. To save money. Only the people whose orders had already been written were able to move over the summer. So many, many less people than usual have transferred, and not a single student has withdrawn from the 2-day-a-week preschool program.

After all the work we did to get him using the potty in time for school, he might not be going. Stupid economy.

I had a teal car when my favorite color was purple, so now that teal is my favorite color...

2009-08-08T17:19:00.004+09:00

So, despite the fact that we don't really need a car, we decided that we wanted one. We checked out the lemon lot (ahem, I mean, "MWR Used Car Lot") a couple of days ago and didn't see anything that really jumped out at us. I had decided a while ago that if we were going to get a car, then ideally, I wanted a Toyota Raum. Of all of the colors I'd seen it in (most of the ones around base are silver), I wanted a purple one, because we wanted our Japanese car to be as bright as possible.

I was thinking as I walked to the post office yesterday morning and saw the silver one that's always parked next to the Chapel, "I wish there was a purple one on the lemon lot".

We went to the food court for dinner, and as we walked past the Commissary on the way home, we were talking and forgot to turn down the parking lot aisle that leads to the sidewalk. So we decided to just keep walking and take another look at the lemon lot.

And wouldn't you know - a purple Raum. 11 years old, some dents and scratches - which I actually prefer, because I know it's going to get some more from me - for less than used Raums usually go for. So we bought it.

Note the nifty sliding doors. ;D

(This car here is exactly the same car, except we paid a bit more than this. And that one has a CD player - mine has a tape deck! Woohoooo!!)

I like that it's a car you can only get in Japan, I like that it's small and easy to park (well, it will be once I get used to driving from the other side of the vehicle), I like that it has sliding doors (really, I'll never go back to regular doors! I can't! I won't!) and I like that I can easily fit a stroller in the back. Or shipping boxes picked up from the post office. Or purchases from Home's or Ikea or...wherever.

Not that I'm going to be driving to Ikea anytime soon. I went there with a friend a while back and there are so many highways and toll booths...it made my head spin. Japanese roads scare the bejeezus out of me. It's going to be a little while before I attempt driving off base. But I can now, and that's the important thing. It feels like a whole new world, like the base is, well, my base, my jumping-off-point - not my whole world.

And my car is purple. Purple! Woot!

I'm really on a roll now!

2009-08-07T15:16:00.003+09:00

More about cake decorating - yippee! I'm sure this is just fascinating for all of you, but there isn't much else going on with me right now. :D

I was having trouble with roses. The base was just wobbling back and forth and not staying put on the flower nail...lots of trouble. I remembered that they tended to come out better for me if I used the canned Wilton decorator frosting, so I went out and bought some...and the petals were, indeed, coming out smoother, but the base was still not staying put for me to put the petals on it! So, once again, I turned to the Wilton forums. And the answer was so ridiculously simple: use Hershey's Kisses. Apparently there are plenty of professionals who use this trick.

For me, using Hershey's Kisses a few times allowed me to focus on my technique in doing the petals, and I realized that I'd been doing it ALL WRONG all along - I was doing too much of an in-and-out motion and not nearly enough up-and-down.

But the best part, is that using the Hershey's Kisses showed me what I was doing wrong in making the bases - I was making them too skinny, so of course they were flopping over! Now I know to make them wider and more kiss-shaped, and they're working perfectly for me now.

So if you're having trouble with your Wilton roses, my advice is: Hershey's kisses. They're not, for me at least, a permanent solution...but they're an amazingly simple learning tool. Amazing.

The two in front are built on Hershey's kisses, the one in back is all icing.

And here's a Victorian Rose, which has curved petals because it uses a different tip - the technique is exactly the same.

update that nobody will care about

2009-08-07T12:05:00.004+09:00

Following some posting on the Wilton forums, I solved my leaf problems by: 1, adding piping gel to my icing - luckily they had some at the NEX, I got the last tub! And 2, spreading open the tip with my spatula. Not perfect, of course, but a lot better. I'm getting there:

Of course now I'm even MORE annoyed with my instructor, because 1, she said the piping gel was unnecessary and not to bother with it; and 2, she inspected my tip and declared it to be sufficiently open - she said it didn't need to be spread any farther open. Sheesh.

I've gone too long without a rant

2009-08-06T07:24:00.001+09:00

I've spent much of today reviewing Wilton Course 1. I bought all of the books and supplies for all four courses months ago, but never got around to actually doing them. I took a Course 1 class back in November. The teacher was...subpar. We only had 3 classes instead of 4, we only did one cake, and they charged twice as much as most people on the mainland pay for a Wilton course.

So anyway. I've been reviewing. I haven't lost as much of it as I thought I had, so that's good. I've been working hard on my shells and they've improved, and I think I may have finally gotten the hang of swirled drop flowers. (Can't do them directly onto a cake, though, as I have to anchor the tip pretty hard into the surface I'm working on. Guess they'll be strictly a pipe-it-onto-parchment-and-let-it-dry thing for me.)

Then I moved on to leaves. The Course 1 student kit comes with leaf tip #67. On the first day of class, though, the teacher told us all to buy leaf tip #352 and use that one instead, because "leaves come out nicer" with that tip. I'm not sure I agree; they're flat leaves, without the center vein like tip #67 has - like most leaf tips have. But the thing is, it's really hard to bring a leaf to a point with tip #67. It's impossible not to with tip #352. It's a cheater tip.

So, yeah, that means that rather than teaching us how to do it properly, she told us all to buy the tip that would do it for us. Never mind that the necessary technique to properly make a leaf with tip #67 would allow us to use all of the other dozens of leaf tips out there - as long as we had nice pointed leaves on our final (and only) cakes, we'd all be satisfied that we'd learned something. Because we were all beginners and didn't know any better.

I'm starting to suspect that she didn't know how to make a leaf properly. So she couldn't teach us.

So now that I'm trying to teach myself, and I have no idea what I'm doing wrong, it would be really nice to have someone who knows what they're doing looking over my shoulder and saying things like, "This is what you're doing wrong..." and "Here's a hint..." - I mean, isn't that what I paid $40 for back in November? Well, that was money well spent.

Other than that, it's actually going quite well.

sigh I've tried so hard to shield him from consumerism, and commercials...

2009-08-04T14:03:00.003+09:00

Brandon, jumping up and down excitedly: "Mommy, I want to play with Bendaroos. We buy them, and I play with them. There's six colors! I can make a circus, and a zoo, and a parking lot! And...and a white lion! There's lots of things I can make!!!"

the answer, round 5

2009-08-02T11:28:00.002+09:00

The first time I tated Mitsuya Cider, I couldn't quite place what it reminded me of. It's kind of lemon-lime-y, fruitier than 7-Up but less sweet than Sprite. But there was something else, something that I've never heard or read mentioned in descriptions of this popular Japanese soft drink...
It's bubble gum. It tastes like bubble gum. And I like it.

what's in that can? round 5

2009-07-27T07:47:00.001+09:00

Mitsuya Cider is a popular Japanese soda - you could find that much out by googling it. But what does it taste like?

And...go!

Sent from my iPhone

we interrupt this crafty blog for an introspective moment

2009-07-24T08:37:00.007+09:00

I've been blogging mostly about crafty stuff lately for a couple of reasons. Mostly it's because I don't have much else to write about. I used to post a lot of one- and two-sentence entries, but those short thoughts get tweeted now. I've always had a tendency to be succinct, so Twitter is a good match for me. Plus it's a lot easier to tweet than to blog from my phone, and I'm often just too busy - or lazy - to sit down and type.

The other thing is that staying connected to my crafty side is keeping me sane. And I don't write much when I'm not particularly happy; this has always been true. What I'm implying here is that, to put it nicely, I'm not quite adjusted to living in Japan yet.

Now, everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY who's lived here says something to the effect of, "We hated it at first, but that was just because we were closed-minded, but once we got over the culture shock and opened our minds we LOVED it." But I can say with all honesty that that's not it. Not at all. It isn't a closed-minded thing. And this really isn't a "methinks the lady doth protest too much" moment, either. Really. There's actually very little about the culture that's completely foreign, there's so much Japanese influence in Hawaii. I like leaving the base and seeing things. I like taking the train. I love Japanese food. It would be nice to be able to read signs, but really that doesn't bother me all that much. Not being able to talk to the locals doesn't bother me at all; let's face it, I'm not exactly the type to strike up a conversation with a stranger, anyway. The only thing that really bothers me is little things like not being able to find my favorite cereal, or get a decaf iced caramel macchiato. (Starbucks in Japan doesn't have decaf espresso.)

No, it isn't closed-mindedness, and it isn't culture shock - not really. It's just the simple fact that this isn't home. Spending time back in the States made it worse, because I had forgotten how completely at home I've always felt in Philadelphia. Even after seven years away, even with all of the things that have changed there, it still felt exactly the same. That is to say, it felt like home. This is not home. A month ago, I missed Hawaii, because it's beautiful and the weather is gorgeous and that's where I had my children - I have amazing memories there. Now, I miss Philadelphia, because I've remembered that it's where I belong.

When we were waiting in line at immigration in Chicago, I felt this incredible lightness; a kind of giddiness, almost, and I started singing "America, F*ck Yeah" under my breath. I thought I was just overtired from the flight and happy to be on the ground again. It wasn't until we stepped off the plane in Tokyo, two weeks later, that I recognized that lightness for what it was - the absence of the heavy, sinking feeling that I feel in my chest, always, while we're so, so far away from home.

Brandon is ecstatic to be back. He was beside himself with excitement as soon as we got back on base. To him, wherever we live is "home". Maybe what we've been trying to teach him has sunk in - wherever we all are, together, that's home. Maybe I should listen to my own advice.

Or maybe "home", to him, is where the Monster Trucks are.

the earrings I'm wearing today

2009-07-18T20:44:00.005+09:00

Today is my brother-in-law's wedding. Congratulations Keith and Kim!

The bridesmaids are wearing purple, so I decided to wear green with bluish purple accessories. I want to coordinate in family pictures, but I don't want to match - I don't want to look like I'm trying to be a bridesmaid, you know? (This also meant that my 1st choice for a dress to wear was out - it was eerily similar to the style of the bridesmaid dresses.)

These are the earrings I made to wear:

I was originally going to use one of those pre-made wire teardrops, until I realized that they're sealed and you can't thread beads onto them. So I made my own. The one on the left is slightly misshapen near the top left, but I think they're fine.

They look particularly nice when my hair is down, the color of my hair sets off the color of the earrings really well. I'll try to remember to post pictures of me wearing them once I have some.

ETA:

blossiming branches tunic top

2009-07-17T08:22:00.005+09:00

Today is my BIL's rehearsal dinner. I bought this top to wear a long time ago. I ordered it from The $15 Store, an Amazon Marketplace vendor.

(I wanted it in this indigo color, but they didn't have it in my size, so I got it in dark gray.) I loved it the moment I pulled it out of the envelope, except for one thing: the rhinestones. Those hideous rhinestones. Like an inch long and PLASTIC. I mean, obviously plastic. You could see from across the room how cheap they were. I was really glad I'd only paid $15 for it.

The rhinestones had to go.

But without them, it just didn't look dressy enough. It was casual. And casual just wouldn't do for an event of this magnitude. (No sarcasm, I mean that quite sincerely.)

I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it, but I couldn't find all of the beads I needed at the Ben Franklin near my house - and the Mapunapuna location is the one with the big bead section! Crystals, semi-precious stones...but no bugle beads? WTF? I decided to check out Bead It when we went to the Kailua Town Festival. But then, it turned out, the festival was two days after our pack-out...in other words, we were still cleaning the house. I am still really, really upset that I didn't get to go to the festival. Among other things, I was going to buy lots of "I Heart Kailua" merchandise. But the pertinent information right now is that I never got to make my "one last trip" to Bead It.

I ended up ordering from my old standby, Harlequin Beads. I ordered 4 different colors of bugle beads because I didn't know which one would best match the top, and I wanted the beads to be the same color as the top. (The "black diamond" Swarovskis that I had managed to find at Ben Franklin were an eerily accurate match.)

I did eventually find a bead shop (called "Parts Club") here in Yokosuka, on the...7th floor?...of More's City (behind the Yokosuka-Chuo train station). They have a truly fantastic selection of crystals. I mean, holy crap. But anyway.

This is what I eventually came up with:

It sparkles quite nicely. :) Maybe a little more spring-y than summer-y, but I think it's a nice nod to the fact that I live in Japan now. (Even though we missed the cherry blossoms this year!)

And the earrings I made to match:

Also on display tonight: the tie I made for Brandon out of the pocket square that came with Brian's tie.

I think it's hilarious that I am the only one out of the four of us that isn't wearing teal. Seeing as how it's my favorite color (it's the color of the water in Hawaii) and I wear it 98% of the time.

the amazing coral reef cake

2009-07-10T20:00:00.043+09:00

The coral reef cake was by far my most complex cake to date, and possibly my best, but since I made it a mere 2 weeks before we moved to Japan, I never wrote a proper entry about it. So I'm saving this to be posted while I'm on vacation - on the 10th, 3 months after Jackson's birthday.

I spent weeks working on this cake. Months, really, if you count the planning. This is the original sketch:

I did a couple of revised sketches, but not much changed. Mostly the final sketch was just more detailed. I decided to do fondant instead of buttercream because I was worried about a buttercream cake getting damaged during the drive to the party, not to mention that I wasn't sure how well it would hold up outdoors. I wasn't able to find any birthday candles shaped like surfboards so I changed gears for the top - I decided to stick with the overall concept a little better and do lettering that looked like skywriting instead.

The candle (just a regular old "1" candle - plus a candle shaped like an exclamation point) ended up on the smash cake. (The candles, incidentally, did not get lit. We tried, but it was just too darn windy.)
.

I originally planned to do a 10" cake for the guests and a 6" tier for Jackson's smash cake - hence the 2-tiered design. But when we booked a pavillion at Bellows AFB for the party we realized that in order for it to be worth it, we'd have to invite a lot of people. Then I realized that one 10" tier wouldn't be enough for all of those people. So I added a 4" smash cake to the plans.

The plan was to do the tiers in two different flavors. The bottom was going to be chocolate with chocolate ganache filling. The top was going to be banana-flavored cake, with coconut buttercream (as in, made with half shortening and half coconut oil) and macadamia nut filling. Jack's smash cake was a combination of the two - banana cake with ganache. (The kid is crazy for bananas, but he's too young for nuts.)

I was going to use essentially the same recipes that I used for the Cassie/Jim cakes. (Well, the same chocolate cake, and the butter cake recipe that I used for the layers in the tiramisu, but with banana flavor instead of almond.) Both had stood up really well to being decorated - I had even covered the chocolate cake with fondant and it held up fine. But that was an 8-inch cake. This cake, a 10-incher, didn't turn out quite so well. I think I took it out of the oven too soon, because it just kind of collapsed.

I did my damndest to fix it, I propped up one side with half a cake circle, and it seemed to do the trick.

I actually got to the point that I covered it with fondant. Ah, the fondant. From-scratch, delicious, white chocolate, perfectly colored fondant.

And then this happened.

Well. That just would not do.

My mother (my parents were in town) thought I was crazy to make such a big deal out of it. I mean after all, it's just a cake, right? No, no, no. I've been planning this cake forever. Everybody knows that I'm passionate about cakes - everyone is waiting to see what I've been working on. I can't show up with a cake that looks like this. I can't make the cake I've been planning with a bottom tier like this. It'll never support a top tier.

But I don't have enough fondant to cover another 10-inch tier. I was distraught.

Then Brian made the most obvious suggestion ever: go to Ben Franklin and buy a box of Wilton fondant, and make another cake.

Duh.

So I went to Ben Franklin and got a box of fondant. And I stopped at Safeway on the way home to get ingredients for another cake - eggs, sugar, butter. I got home and we ate dinner - have I mentioned that all of this was happening on Jack's actual birthday? We ordered a pizza for dinner, because he loves pizza.

I ended up running back out to the store again to get flour, or something, I don't remember, and I baked another banana-flavored butter cake, since it was a proven recipe that hadn't failed me yet. (The 6-inch top tier had come out great.) I filled it with ganache, because I really wanted chocolate to be represented. (Also I thought it was a good idea to have a nut-free option.) I mixed the Wilton fondant half-and-half with the homemade stuff and it didn't taste bad - not as delicious as the from-scratch stuff, but it was definitely edible.

And then when the boys had gone to sleep, I got started on the decorating. The tedious work of making the coral - pipe out a few inches, go back and poke little holes in the slightly-crusted royal icing with a toothpick. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Finding spots for all of the little fish. (Actually I think I ended up placing the fish first and then piping the coral around them.) It was so tedious, and so wonderful. This is the part I really love, this is the fun part. It's a shame so much BS has to go into getting to this point.

I haven't talked about the fish yet, have I? I didn't want just a bunch of random, colorful fish, I wanted Hawaiian reef fish. During my ridiculously long planning stage, I whiled away the endless hours of Jackson-bouncing by surfing the "Hawaii Underwater" group on Flickr. I downloaded countless pictures of colorful, interesting-looking fish, and narrowed it down to, I don't know, 8 or 10. I made sure to include the freaky eel that I encountered in Hanauma Bay, and the blue fish that I remember so vividly from Ke'e Beach on Kaua'i - I didn't have a snorkel mask, and I didn't need one, all I had to do was look down and see a school of these bright blue fish swimming around my legs. This is a very special memory for me so I had to be sure to include it on the cake.

The fish were all hand-crafted out of marshmallow fondant. I bought all kinds of candy molds to use as push-molds, and they just didn't work out - not detailed enough. The only mold that ended up working for me was a play-doh mold of what I can only assume is supposed to be an anchovy - it's part of the pizza-making set. I used it for two of the kinds of fish - the humuhumunukunukuapua'a and the dark brown/black one with white spots. I used the molded fish as a starting point, and did LOTS of further shaping to get them to look the way I wanted.

All of the rest of the fish were done completely by hand, starting with a little ball, and making liberal use of my fondant-and-gumpaste-sculpting-tool set.

When they had dried, I painted them with icing color (most colors were the gel kind, the purple on the jellyfish was luster dust dissolved in clear vanilla).

Also re: the jellyfish: I did the bodies in fondant - lots of people thought they were gumballs - and the tentacles were royal icing that I piped right onto the cake. The anemones were piped onto wax paper and moved to the cake when they had dried. A couple of them broke a little, and I brought some royal icing with me to the party to fix them when I set up the cake, but I just never got around to it. There was too much to get done.

The dolphin on the top tier was an attempt to cover up the seam in the waves. I didn't do a very good job with the wave overlay, it's decent but I should have smoothed it onto the cake better before I started cutting, and the seam is awful. Even with the dolphin there, you can see it. As I often say about my own work: Kerry Vincent would be appalled.

The top tier didn't quite sit right on the bottom tier, but that's not my fault; I'm not the one who cut the dowels. I knew it was going to be a problem that they weren't exactly the same length, but by that point I just didn't care. This was a pretty darn stressful cake to make (all things considered). If I'd done a bottom border on the top tier, you wouldn't even have noticed the little gap - but that wouldn't have worked with the concept. So I dealt with there being a little gap there. No biggie.

The smash cake didn't come out so great. I mixed up a bowl of aquamarine buttercream, but didn't smooth it onto the cake right away - Jack probably woke up or something, I don't know, something distracted me - and I didn't think to cover the bowl of icing. So it was partially crusted and dried out when I went to smooth it onto the cake. Whoops. *Sigh*, well they can't all be winners, right? I so did not have the time, patience, or ingredients to whip up yet another batch of buttercream (and I didn't think to add some glycerin), so I just used the sub-par stuff. Good enough for a smash cake, I guess.

So that's the coral reef cake. Not too many people ended up showing up to the party, so it was way too much cake. The 6-inch tier wasn't even touched, it ended up getting brought to playgroup the following week - there was no way we could eat it at home, considering that we had 10 inches of super-rich (collapsed) chocolate cake to eat. But the cake was a hit, and I'm proud of it.

Apple Pie Cake

2009-07-07T18:58:00.009+09:00

I will tell you about this cake. I will show you pictures of the process. But I will not post a recipe. I'm saving it for the cookbook I may someday write, decades in the future. It's that good. I don't want somebody out there in internet land stealing my recipe and winning their county fair with it. Really, it's that good.

Brian's command had a Hail & Farewell today, and as usual, I wanted to bake something. Being that it's July, I thought that an apple pie would be appropriate. The problem is, I suck at making pies. I particularly stink at crusts. But I'm good at cake. So I thought...why not a pie cake? Like, a layer cake, with a crustless pie for the filling? It was worth a shot, right?

Here's the apple pie layer, ready to go in the oven.

I put the layer of parchment paper into the springform to make sure it wouldn't stick. Probably not the best idea I've ever had, because the liquid leaked out the bottom of the pan. Maybe that would have happened regardless, but now I have a lovely mess at the bottom of my oven to clean up. Anyway.

Here's one of the cake layers, spread with cinnamon buttercream and ready for assembly.

And here's the pie layer, out of the oven and out of the pan. It didn't immediately fall apart, which was encouraging. I have the hardest time getting my apple pies to set properly...actually I don't think I've ever made a properly set apple pie! So I aimed for making this one extra gelatinous, mostly to avoid it squishing out the sides of the cake or causing the layers to slide apart. So like I said, it's out of the pan and not falling apart.

But is it a semi-solid, gelatinous mass?

Yep, yes it certainly is. In the future I'll try to cover the apples with more of the liquid so that the layer is smooth on both sides. Kind of like an apple pie jello mold, I guess.

Here's the pie layer, turned upside down onto the bottom cake layer.

There was cinnamon buttercream between each cake layer and the pie layer. Doesn't this look just yummy???

And here's the finished product, iced with whipped cream and decorated with blue whipped cream and more cinnamon buttercream.

I haven't been doing any decorating since the move, so what little skill I had has slipped somewhat. I was never much good at figure piping anyway, so the apples are...questionable. Whipped cream is hard to decorate with, hence the funky borders.

The taste profile was a little off, given that there are only two kinds of apples available at the Commissary, and they're both sweet. (Orin and Fuji.) Apple pies really need tart apples. I compensated somewhat with lime juice but it really would have been better with Granny Smiths and/or Galas.

At any rate, the cake was a hit. I got a lot of compliments and a lead on a birthday cake "job" next month. ("Job" in quotes because it's for a friend, I don't count that as "work", I consider it just being a good friend.)

I'm just happy that another one of my wacky ideas worked out exactly as planned. Wow, maybe this really is my calling. ???

happy birthday, america!

2009-07-04T21:50:00.010+09:00

it never ends, does it?

2009-07-01T12:54:00.003+09:00

So we finally got all of the boxes unpacked. There's still some organizing and a LOT of decorating to be done, but we're unpacked. And guess what? It's time to start packing again. A week from today we're flying to Philadelphia for my BIL's wedding. I am really, really looking forward to the trip. I am really, really NOT looking forward to the flight or the jetlag.

2 hours on the bus from the base to the airport. (Roll call 1 hour prior, with a chance of a mad dash to the train station - the bus is Space Available if you're not traveling on orders. Which we're not. So there's a chance we could be left high and dry and have to take the train...) 3 hours at the airport. 11 hours, 40 minutes on the plane from Tokyo to Chicago. 3 hours at the airport, again. 2 hours, 10 minutes on the plane from Chicago to Philadelphia.

We only get a week and a half before we get to do the whole thing again in reverse. (Except that Chicago to Tokyo takes a full hour longer than Tokyo to Chicago. Why? I don't know.) At least on the way there we start at dinnertime and the kids will probably sleep for a few hours. (No whammies, no whammies...) The return trip? 10am, baby!! Woot.

Pray for me. Holy Jesus, pray for me.

what am i, an asshole magnet?

2009-06-26T12:00:00.002+09:00

Today is a really yucky day. Hazy, humid and gross - but not raining. So I brought the kids to the playground before going grocery shopping.

Brandon likes the "giant playground", but it's designed for older kids. He's able to manage it, but Jackson needs a LOT of help with it. I mean I literally have to climb with him and hold his hand. So naturally I prefer to go to the "small playground" nearby - designed for little kids, nothing too difficult for Jackson to manage, no gaps big enough for him to fall through, etc. Brandon really does love the Giant Playground, though, so I promised we could go there for a few minutes if we went to the Small Playground first.

Jack had never worn Crocs to the playground before - he usually wears his Robeez knockoffs, which are more comfortable for him, and harder for him to pull off, but also a lot more slippery when trying to, say, climb a slide. So consequently, he managed to climb up the slide all by himself for the first time. And naturally, he wanted to keep on doing it over and over again, with varying levels of success.

When it was time to move on to the Giant Playground, I was hoping Brandon would have forgotten and we could go straight to the grocery store - there were some much bigger kids there and I'm never comfortable when Brandon is playing in the same space as much older children. No such luck, though, he insisted, and I had promised, so off we went. Brandon hooked up immediately with a kid around his age, and I set to following Jackson around.

After a couple of minutes, we were joined by a kid who was around the same size as Jack, but judging by his speech and motor skills, was probably around 2. When I say that he joined us, I mean that he was following Jack around like a shadow, practically touching him, getting in between me and Jack and making it very difficult for me to stay close enough to keep him safe. He followed us down the slide, and then when Jack inevitably started trying to climb back up the slide, well, he followed along with that, too.

This was the big kid playground, though, and the slide was coincidingly bigger. Jack isn't that good at climbing slides yet - not even the small ones. I don't think it's ever a good idea for more than one child to climb a slide at the same time, even when they're both very good at it - but for someone else's child to be following my rank amateur? Incredibly unsafe.

So I turned to the little boy and said, "please don't get so close. If he falls, you'll get hurt." I turned back to Jackson and put my hand under his bottom to give him a boost and help to keep him from falling. Next thing I knew, the other boy was even closer to Jackson, and had his hand on Jack, too. I gently moved his hand and said, "no, please don't" - in the gentlest, politest way you could ever imagine. I was about to ask him where his mother was - because, honestly, this was getting ridiculous - when I heard a voice shout, "Excuse me, don't talk to my child that way!" Mother of the Year had apparently looked up from her engrossing chickenhead conversation on the side of the playground and was rushing towards me.

I was honestly confused, and trying to figure out whether I had done or said anything out of line, so I didn't say any of the things that this woman deserved to hear. I took the apologetic, confused approach - because that's honestly how I was feeling at that moment. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to come across that way, I just didn't want him to get hurt." This was 100% true.

"I think he just wants to play!" (She thinks. See, if she had been paying attention, she'd know that this was true. It was.)

"I understand that, but he [meaning Jack] is a lot younger than he looks and he falls down a lot. I didn't want him [the tag-along shadow child] to get hurt."

Not a word about how her child was creating an unsafe situation, not only for himself, but for MY child. Not a word about how he had been touching Jack. Not a word about how, if she had been paying attention to her toddler, she would have heard the first thing I said to him and realized that I was trying to keep him from getting hurt. (Because heaven knows that if Jack had fallen, and her child had gotten kicked square in the nose - which is what would have happened - then she would have held me personally responsible, because after all, I was right there.

Nope, not a word about any of that. I apologized again for coming across the wrong way, stated again that I just didn't want him to get hurt, then found Brandon and left. Between the irresponsible, quick-to-blame-others mother and the older boy who was repeatedly shouting, "I'm older, bigger and faster than you!" at the younger kids - I just didn't want to be there, and I didn't want my kids in that situation, either.

The thing that makes me a bit of an odd parent, I guess, is that when Brandon protested leaving, I sat him down on the back of the sit'n'stand and explained to him exactly why we were leaving. I never feel the need to dumb things down for him. "The big kids were playing too rough, and there was a mean mommy who wasn't watching her kid and who yelled at me when I tried to help him. We don't play with people like that." The really messed up thing is that I think he understood, because he stopped complaining.

it's the inability to boycott that really got me

2009-06-19T12:30:00.005+09:00

I just had an incident at the Navy Exchange. Again.

I wasn't planning on going. I was just going to go grocery shopping at the Commissary. But by the time we all got out the door, it was 11am and time for lunch. So we had pizza at the food court. And then I thought, hey, why don't I pop into the NEX real quick and pick up some new floaties? We haven't been to the pool yet but I want to go, and we don't have any floaties anymore, we didn't bring them with us when we moved. So we popped in and I found a couple and I looked for an open register.

I got in a line with two people in front of me. When it was my turn, I put my items down on the counter, and the cashier held up her hand and said, "I'm closed."

Huh?

If you're closing, you tell the people getting in line, "don't get in this line, I'm closing after this person." I've never been a cashier but I've certainly been shopping enough to know how things work. "You can move over to the next register," she said. So I picked up my floaties and walked over to the next register...where she was already ringing up somebody else!

"Excuse me, I was next." I was a little surprised at my vehemence and my apparent inability to conceal my annoyance. I'm usually much better able to retain control and, at the very least, a sugary-sweet, obviously fake, kill-them-with-kindness veneer of polite behavior. But this came out a little louder, and a lot more annoyed, than I usually allow from myself in public.

"He's been waiting a long time." Apparently the customer she was helping at the other register had been a few people in front of me in line, and had been waiting for a price check on a pair of pants. (I did not find this out until later.) And that's why she had moved over to the other register, the one I had waited on line at - to help a few people while she waited for the price check. Or something like that. I don't really know, apparently she didn't feel it was necessary to explain what was going on, other than, "I'm closed, move over to the other register" - in other words, get on the end of the line. Again.

I was not about to do that.

I left.

I was halfway to the Commissary (Brandon crying for the floaties, of course) before I thought the better of it and turned around. I told the employee checking ID's at the front door that I had to speak with a manager. While I was explaining the situation to the employee, the customer who was stupid enough to try to buy a pair of pants with no price tag came out and started yelling at me. As if I was complaining about him, as if it had anything at all to do with him. It didn't. As I explained to him, and the employee at the door, and then the manager - if you're only going to take two customers at a certain register, don't let the third person get in line. May I add, there wasn't anybody else waiting at the other (presumably original) register when my turn came up. (Because there wasn't a cashier there!) She could have taken the priceless pants guy ahead of me, at the register where I was standing, and then rang me up. But she didn't. She told me to get on the end of the line that had now formed behind jackass pants man within a matter of seconds. (Because it was lunch time and there were maybe two registers open.)

Pants Man's parting shot, "She did her job."

I beg to differ.

The manager asked where my merchandise was; he offered to ring it up himself. I said, "no, I'll come back later when different cashiers are working." (Accepting would have severely diminished the effect of my having stormed off, don't you think?) What I should have said was, "Yeah, right. All I was buying was pool floaties - I can get better ones, and cheaper, off base at Livin or Home's." Curse my slow-reacting brain.

I told him that I didn't know if it was a language thing, or a culture thing, but I've been to enough stores to know that when a cashier is closing a register, they tell the customers that they're closing and not to get in that line. (Or at the very least, they say, "This man has been waiting for a price check, so I'm going to take him before you, okay?") They don't wait until you have your stuff on the counter, then hold their hand up and say, "I'm closed." Then walk away. At least f&*@ing explain what's going on, for f*&*'s sake!! Am I that unimportant that I'm not even worth an explanation? If she had bothered to explain what was going on, I wouldn't have flown off the handle the way I did. I really think that's what bothers, and bothered, me the most - the utter lack of regard. I complained to one the Commissaries in Hawaii for the same attitude once: the idea that "Customer Service" means taking care of this customer, right here, just the one right in front of me, and to hell with the rest of them.

I was so shaken up that I went to the Commissary and bought all of the ingredients for the slow-cooker turkey chili I want to make...except for the ground turkey. Curses. And then when I was standing in front of the cans of beans, dumbfounded because there were four brands of dark red kidney beans but no black beans (turns out they were in a different section, goodness only knows why), I suddenly thought to myself, "I want to go home." And I started to cry.

It isn't the "otherness" of living in a forgein country. It isn't the language barrier or the inter-cultural misunderstandings. That stuff is fine, honestly. It's being tethered to this base, to this one grocery store and this one department store, with no other options. Oh, sure, I can go shopping off base - but if I want American-sized besheets? Strawberry-banana Juicy Juice? Hormel turkey pepperoni? Special K Chocolatey Delight? I have to get it on base. And if they don't have it...which they don't...well then I'm screwed. So we have plain white sheets, because the selection is nonexistant (you'd think that, knowing they're the only place in the whole damn country where you can get American sized bedding, they'd make even an infinitessmal effort); Jack doesn't get his favorite juice, Brandon doesn't get his favorite snack, and I don't get my favorite cereal.

In Hawaii, if the first Exchange or Commissary didn't have what I needed, there were any number of different stores I could go to. Stores on different bases. Civilian grocery stores and department stores. Malls. Drug stores. Even the evil Pearl Harbor Commissary that made me have panic attacks the minute I walked in. But here? There are no other options. There's no ability to say, "screw you, I'm not coming here anymore." There's no boycotting. They have you by the balls. And they know it.

the answer: round 4

2009-06-18T14:47:00.002+09:00

Somebody finally got one! Congratulations Kerri! Yup, it's grape jello. Think drinkable yogurt, except it's drinkable jello. If I'm remembering right, it had little bits of solid jello in it too. (As usual, Brian was the one who drank it. He's much more adventurous than I am.)

Kerri, I was going to buy a prize for you at the 100 yen store today, but I forgot. :( I'll remember next time.

So, folks, that's what you get when you guess right: some kind of random inexpensive Japanese merchandise. Sent parcel post through the FPO system. If that isn't an incentive to participate, I don't know what is.

what's in that can? round 4

2009-06-14T20:05:00.002+09:00

When you look closely at this picture, you'll probably think the same thing Brian did when he saw it in a vending machine at the train station in Yokohama: "Wait, is that...? No, no, it COULDN'T be!". It is. Really.

short thought, but too long for twitter

2009-06-12T19:14:00.000+09:00

We got our driver's licenses today. Just because. We don't plan on
getting a car here in Japan - we really don't need to.

Brian: "This is the first time I've gotten a purely hypothetical
qualification - like, you COULD do this - but I'm not going to."

Me: "Oh, I have lots of those. This is number 3, at least."

Sent from my iPhone

cross-cultural conundrum

2009-06-05T11:52:00.005+09:00

Situation: you live in a country where tipping is considered rude. You live on a US Military installation. You bring your child to the salon on base to get a haircut. The girl who cuts his hair does a truly excellent job, but she is a resident of the host country - where, remember, tipping is considered rude. Do you leave a tip? If so, how much; and do you leave dollars or the host country's currency? The haircut cost $10.

an ode to my iPhone

2009-06-03T09:42:00.007+09:00

Brian and I had a small disagreement as to whether or not I will bring my iPhone with me when we fly back to Philly next month for his brother's wedding. On the one hand, if I accidentally take it out of airplane mode and it starts transferring data over 3G instead of wifi, then we get slammed with international roaming rates.

On the other hand, it's so much more than just a phone, or even just a Facebook-and-Twitter device. It's a camera. It's an iPod (although I admittedly don't use it as one.) It's a calendar, a to-do-list, an address book, a calculator and an email checker. It tells me the weather and what time it is and what time it feels like (when I'm jetlagged). I use it for my shopping list, to check my bank account, and to track packages, calories and, uh, cycles. It's a digital book reader, an alarm clock and a photo album. I plan on getting an app to keep track of my knitting. I use it to play Solitaire, Minesweeper, BubbleWrap, and a number of different music games and quizzes that Brian downloaded when he bought his iPod Touch yesterday. (Still have to get Bejeweled!) It translates English into Japanese kanji and finds Japanese train routes; and it converts meters to feet and yen to dollars. (Although of course I won't have to do those last four in Philadelphia!) In short, it does EVERYTHING. I've had it a month and honestly don't think I could live without it. I've become completely dependent on the computer in my pocket.

"Look," I said, "all I have to do is put it in Airplane mode, then turn wifi back on."

"But what if you mess up?"

"I won't." I can't. I need this darn thing.

the answer: round 3

2009-06-02T10:21:00.004+09:00

This one was kind of tough because it was unclear what was actually in the cup. It's a clear cup with a red/dark pink label on it, so it's three separate layers, dark brown, light brown, and whitish.

Keith had the closest guess with coffee pudding. It's actually coffee gelatin. Now I don't mean some super sweet coffee-flavored jello - I mean black coffee with a gelatinizing agent added. Then a layer of gelatinous coffee with milk, then a layer of very sweet, vaguely caramel-flavored whipped cream, then caramel and nuts. There seem to be a lot of gelatinous desserts in Japan. I would almost say that they seem to prefer gelatinous over creamy, except that there's ice cream EVERYWHERE. (They call it "soft cream".)

On a related note:

Not really sure what a Coffee Jelly Frappuccino is. I guess I'll find out tomorrow.

so. that's 8 years.

2009-06-01T08:32:00.005+09:00

So, today is my Blogoversary. I don't have anything special planned; for a while I had entertained the idea of revamping my design to commemorate the occasion, but let's face it, I haven't exactly had all the time in the world lately. I did change my tagline the other day, though.

You know how when you get to a certain age, birthdays don't really mean that much anymore? I'm starting to get to that point with blogging. I've been doing it for so long that the Blogoversary doesn't seem like such a big deal anymore. Maybe it's just that I have so much going on right now in the real world. But really, it's just such a part of my life that it's completely second nature to me; I hardly even notice that I'm doing it.

In other news, I would really like to post the answer to round 3 of "What's in that Can?" but I'm waiting to get more than one guess. (Thank you, Tara.) I KNOW people are visiting, but it seems I've got a bunch of lurkers. Even when I post content specifically designed to be interactive - nothing. Come on, people! What's the fun with no wacky guesses? Be creative! De-lurk!

what's in that can? round three

2009-05-29T19:43:00.002+09:00

Okay, so this one isn't a can, but I was so surprised when I dug into it that I knew I just had to include it here. I got it from the refrigerated section at 7-11 the last time I picked up a quick dinner there, and I just had a *feeling* about it, the kind of feeling that says "this probably isn't chocolate pudding; you should take a picture of it for your blog." I was right; it's definitely not chocolate pudding.

Any guesses? Okay...go!

Sent from my iPhone

well, I'm back.

2009-05-28T08:29:00.005+09:00

It's been so long since I've written a proper blog entry, and so much has happened, that I don't really know where to start.

I live in Japan now.

As soon as Jack got adjusted to being here, he started teething again. Fantastic. Brandon is doing great; he's at a really interesting age. Sometimes he just makes you want to rip your hair out, but at the same time, he's finally verbal enough to tell you everything he's thinking, and often it's pretty damn funny.

I'm potty training both of them at the same time. Seriously. Neither of them is making progress any faster than the other.

Our apartment is really nice. The floor plan is great, the square footage is supposedly more than our housing in Hawaii (although I don't think that includes the garage, which we used as a playroom - or the yard, of course) and the location is PERFECT. Right now I'm looking out the huge dining room window/sliding door (takes up the entire wall) at Tokyo Bay; on the other side of the building is a short (like 2 minute) walk to the Commissary/Exchange/Food Courts (the one with Taco Bell and Starbucks, and also the one with Dunkin Donuts) and the new building that will house the library, Fleet & Family Support, etc. Standing in front of my building, facing the Commissary, across the street to your right is the elementary school (the preschool is a small building on the Elementary School grounds). Across the street to the left is the big huge state-of-the-art gym, which has a special room for moms with young kids - like 3 or 4 elliptical machines and a big padded area with toys for the kids to play with. Across the street from the gym is the Chapel, and about a block away is the Post Office and the other food court (the one with Subway and Cinnabon). McDonald's and the bank are another block down the main road towards the Womble Gate (also called the "back gate", or, as I learned yesterday, the "Mikasa Gate" by local Japanese citizens). Right outside the gate is Mikasa park, which is beautiful, and there's a 7-11 a block away (convenience stores are a fantastic place to get cheap, quick, fresh, DELICIOUS Japanese food).

If you turn left at 7-11 and walk along the water for about 15 minutes you get to Home's (like Home Depot) and Livin (just bought out by WalMart). If you go one block to the right from 7-11, you get to Blue Street, the main drag in Yokosuka. At the end of Blue Street is Yokosuka-Chuo Station, on the Keikyu Line. If you turn right at 7-11 and walk all the way past the Main Gate, you'll get to the Daiei Mall, and past that is the JR Yokosuka Station. Both lines will get you to Yokohama and then Tokyo; I believe the Keikyu Line eventually makes its way to Narita Airport (it takes like 2 hours).

But back to my apartment! It has tile floors so it's really, really echo-y right now. We had a major Ikea quest on Monday (Keikyu Line from Yokosuka-Chuo to Yokohama, JR Yokohama Line from Yohomama to Shin-Yokohama, free shuttle bus to Ikea) and now we have a big corner sofa, a very colorful striped living room rug, chairs in both boys' bedrooms, a rug in Brandon's room with streets and stuff on it (for playing with his race cars and Monster Trucks), and a whole mess of bedroom furniture still in boxes. We still have the Navy loaner furniture until our Household Goods shipment gets here; so when our new beds get here next Tuesday (bought them from the NEX across the street) it might get a little crowded. But it'll be worth it, because the loaner mattresses SUCK and we are getting a Tempurpedic. Woot.

I miss my kitchen stuff. I have a single pan from the thrift shop, and two pots - an All-Clad multicooker that I bought at the NEX (which is HUGE) and a little enameled aluminum pot from the 100 yen store (which is TINY). I've been buying only the utensils that I didn't already have, so I have a very large Oxo flexible spatula, a Y-peeler and new kitchen shears. I never thought I'd say this, but it was a blessing that the movers forgot to open the flatware drawer, because we had to mail it all to ourselves and at least we have it now.

We have American TV; we get the AFN (American Forces Network) channels and some cable networks. - Comedy Central, Food Network, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Nickelodeon, Noggin, etc...no Disney, though. :( (Although there are a couple of Disney shows on AFN Kids...yesterday we saw Johnny and the Sprites.) The funny thing is that for most of those networks (maybe all of them, I don't know yet for sure since we've only had cable for 3 days now) we seem to be getting the Australian broadcast of them, so the shows are actually on at normal times. Aside from a few station identification commercials with Australian accents, it's all the same.

Well. Brandon is piling up empty Ikea packaging and jumping off the couch onto a big pile of cardboard, so I should probably get going now. He wants to go "to the town" today, but it's a crappy windy day, so I think we'll be staying on base - but we do have to get out of the apartment today. It was gorgeous yesterday, and we were stuck here all day waiting for the Ikea delivery. Figures. Today is totally a "stay-at-home-all-day-on-the-new-couch-drinking-hot-cocoa" kind of day, but I don't think the kids (or I) could take another day all cooped up.

I'll write more when I think of more. Sayounara.

the answer: round 2

2009-05-28T08:23:00.004+09:00

This one is Brian's favorite, and I've been tasked with finding it at Daiei or some other local Japanese store and buying it by the case. I've never tried it, but this is how Brian describes it: "It's like if you took apple juice, added a spoonful of applesauce, and shook it up." I don't think I would like it, personally, but he loves it.

what's in that can? round 2

2009-05-23T20:35:00.001+09:00

the answer: round 1

2009-05-20T09:14:00.002+09:00

The app that I downloaded to post here decided to stop working. Maybe
it will suddenly start again and the same post will show up here 6
times. But I'm doing this by email now.

We had a lot of good guesses, but it's canteloupe juice. It's one of
the few things I've tried so far that doesn't taste like it's
artificially flavored.

I have another one to post, but I want to actually find out for sure
what it really is first. Because I can't tell. Stay tuned.

Sent from my iPhone

What's in that can? Round 1

2009-05-15T19:20:00.002+09:00

Japanese vending machines are an adventure when you can't read Japanese. Truly like a box of chocolates. I know what's in this can/bottle because I've tasted it; but BEFORE I tasted it, I had no idea. Can you tell what it is? Leave your guesses in the comments!

I think I'm going to make this a regular feature. If you can read Japanese, don't spoil the fun; although I wouldn't mind at all if you shot me an email to let me know what the heck this actually says.

Normal blogging to resume when we get normal Internet access; it might be a while.

first post from my iPhone

2009-05-05T09:09:00.002+09:00

I saw some blue sky yesterday, and I realized that that was what I had been missing. Moving here after 4 years in the tropics feels like waking up at the end of The Wizard of Oz, going from Technicolor back to sepia toned - except that everything is gray. Maybe there are beautiful sights to see off-base, but so far, I'm unimpressed.

I'm with the kids in the Lodge playroom while Brian is at the housing brief. It's a lot like the one at the hospital, except cleaner. I'm saving this to post later, since I get no reception here at the Lodge; when we're in our room I use our network with the free Internet connection.

I hope we're able to find a house really, really soon, because I despise living in a hotel. Jack doesn't seem to think much of it, either. If you want my advice about moving overseas with a 1-year-old, it would be: don't do it. Just don't.

That's all for now, I will try to post more when I have a chance. I'll keep on tweeting.

on the move

2009-04-26T02:24:00.003+09:00

Even though there is internet access at the hotel, I don't know how much time I'm going to have to blog, so I'm putting my twitter feed in the middle panel above the entries, because Twittering takes less time and I can do it from my cell phone. Until we get to Japan and my phone doesn't work anymore.

Moving really IS like having a baby. I've written about this before, but I just have to add: when the time comes, it doesn't matter whether you feel ready or not, when it's time, it's time. All you can do is step back and let it happen. (Assuming that the movers are the ones packing up the boxes, as is the case with military moves, THANK GOD.)

Well anyway, since I'm stuck in the hotel with the kids for the morning, I'm going to take advantage of the free internet to get caught up on my Shutterfly albums (haven't shared an album with the family in a month or so). Maybe I'll even get around to writing about the coral reef cake sometime soon.

it's a very polite rooster

2009-04-22T07:45:00.004+09:00

Jack actually slept in this morning - which means that he slept until about 7. Brandon was up at 6, which is earlier than he usually wakes up, so I stayed in bed and let him play in his room. By 6:30, though, he was ready to get up and start his day. Normally, he would call out "Moooooooommy, where aaaaaaaare you?" - but not today.

Today, he made rooster noises.

So I was awakened from a gentle snooze by a continuously repeated "HOW DO-A DOOOOOOOOO! HOW DO-A DOOOOOOO!"

And Jack just kept right on sleeping. Lucky little bear. Keeps me up all night and then sleeps in while I have to get up with his brother. Kids today, harumph.

here's something random

2009-04-15T08:20:00.005+09:00

I ordered this:

And this:

Because I can't just get my free iPhone and then leave it black - I had to get SOMETHING to make it a little different. (And to keep it from getting scratched up, because let's face it, this is ME.) And I can't just use plain white earphones with it, or - God forbid - the pink w/flowers headphones (goes with my iPod cover) or lavender "marshmallow" earphones (matches my Shuffle) that I already have. I had to get earphones that COORDINATE. Because honestly, what's the point otherwise?

LOL. I'm ridiculous. But seriously, half of the things I see in clothing stores that I really like, I pick up and realize, I can't pull this off anymore. I'm too old for this, I'm somebody's mom, I'm not 22 anymore. But brightly colored Apple electronics and matching earphones? I can rock that, without looking too ridiculous.

(My pink custom headphones and teal custom earphones are both from ifrogz.com. Check them out, the options are almost mind-boggling; you can even get FUR now, no kidding. I'm also a huge fan of the "Tadpole" iPod cover for kids - Brandon has an orange one and I just ordered a red one for Jackson; not because he has an iPod, but because he loves to chew on Brandon's, and I'd rather he chew on his own empty one than ruin an iPod! ETA: And I'm sure he'll be watching Blues Clues on MY iPod for the entire flight to Japan.)

Well. I'm weeks behind on the all-of-our-stuff inventory, so I should get on that while Brandon is in quiet time...

coral reef cake, part one

2009-04-13T16:15:00.002+09:00

I want to write about this cake. I want to tell you all about it. I really, really do. But I am so stupid busy that, for now, this will have to do:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AasnLJi0ZtGOU

the birthday boy woke me up at 5am again today

2009-04-11T00:38:00.002+09:00

Jackson is one year old today. I could write a lot of cliches about how he lights up my life and I can't remember what our lives were like before him, and it would all be true, but it would still be cliches. I could write about how much of his first year was lost in a haze of anxiety attacks and undiagnosed PPD. But that's just too unhappy for my post on my baby's first birthday.

No, I'm going to write about Jackson himself. How he is an unabashedly emotional child. This means that he will scream, and rage, and throw downright violent tantrums (and he is SO STRONG that it really HURTS when he hits you!); but it also means that he has an amazing capacity for joy and love. He has the brightest smile and the sweetest chuckle of a laugh. He is wildly affectionate and gives big, sloppy open-mouthed kisses to me, to Daddy, to big brother, to his toys, to the bathtub...anything that makes him happy.

When I was researching double strollers, I came across several mentions of how a side-by-side stroller is better than the "stadium seating" kind, because the kids can see each other, and interact; and sometimes, if you're really lucky and they're in just the right mood, they might hold hands. My kids? Regularly - regularly - lean over the center divider and rest their heads on each other's laps. Brandon delights in tickling Jackie Bear because his laugh is just so infectious. And when he looks at you with that sweet, all-consuming, all-trusting baby love in his eyes, it's enough to make you turn to absolute jelly.

And that's my little boy. My enormous little boy (the size of a 2-year-old, with thighs bigger than his brother's), who loves to play the drums, poke things with sticks, and eat things in stick form (ex, bananas and cheese sticks); started walking the day he turned 8 months and is already trying to jump and walk up the stairs; does the "baby booty shake"; loves all Blue's Clues but prefers Joe to Steve; eats paper; simply adores going in the water at the beach; who came into this world purple and with the cord wrapped around his neck twice, and weighed a tenth of an ounce shy of nine and a half pounds, because he pooped all over me before they could weigh him. By some definitions, he's already been a toddler for four months; by all accounts he is one today.

I know that he has no idea what's in store for him come May 1st; none of us really do. But I know that he'll be okay, because he is such an exceptionally loving, and loved little boy. Like I always tell my kids: "We're all we've got, and we're all we need."

Happy Birthday, Jackson Dylan!

I am careful about people I don't know seeing pictures of my kids; but I kept this one video public on Flickr because it has gained some popularity among Music Together teachers as an amazing and perfect example of the "Moment of Discovery". So here's my little rockstar, at just shy of 3 months old:

blah blah moving blah blah party

2009-04-07T12:57:00.001+09:00

I am boring lately. I am sorry.
We made it through the first major deadline: bulk trash pickup day. There's essentially a furniture store in my front yard. Somebody came by and took the dressers, nightstands and bookcase last night (the night before bulk trash pickup is prime time for trash picking!), and somebody took the grill and half of the cube dresser a little while ago, but the rest of it is still out there. The couch has been replaced in our living room by two beach chairs, and the bedroom looks like a tornado hit it - clothes everywhere, since there's nowhere to put them away - but it feels good to have gotten it all out on the lawn in time. Funny story, the power went out last night and we carried some the larger pieces down the stairs by candlelight before it came back on. Good one, God.
Jack's party is on Saturday and I feel woefully underprepared for it. I haven't even found cups yet. Cups, people! Kind of important. Oy.
Invited 45 people. Have heard from 21, one way or another. I can't really blame the people who haven't responded, because knowledge about how to respond to invitations is almost entirely absent from our culture; but there's a big difference between hamburgers and chicken sandwiches for 18 and hamburgers and chicken sandwiches for 41: the difference between making some food, and making more than twice as much food. So in the interest of educating the public: "Regrets Only" means that if they don't hear from you, they'll assume you're coming. "RSVP", however, stands for "Respondez, S'il Vous Plait", which is French for "Please Respond". In other words: one way or the other, they want to hear from you. If you're coming, tell them. If you're not coming, tell them. If you receive an invitation that says "RSVP" on it, you are obligated to respond. Some people only respond if they're coming; some people only respond if they're not - so if you don't respond, there's no way for the person who invited you to know what you mean by it. Can we do a "The More You Know" commercial about this or something? Society starts to break down when we aren't all operating under the same rules. I'm not angry, really. Just exasperated and confused as to how much food to buy.

no time for anything other than bullets nowadays

2009-04-01T05:11:00.006+09:00

They didn't give me touch-up paint, at least not right away; they insisted that somebody had to come out and do the painting for us. But the guy did give me some paint when he was here this morning. He said I did a pretty good job of patching up the holes from the TV. If you look at the wall from the right angle (like from the top of the stairs) you can see where the texture doesn't quite match up, but I've definitely seen worse.
Apparently we've been living here long enough that the house is due for a full repainting after we leave, so supposedly we don't really have to worry about the smaller holes from hanging pictures, etc. I don't think we're going to take any chances, though.
Written on the calendar this Sunday was "start using up pantry items". I've had a fudge kit in the pantry since Christmas (you know, condensed milk, marshmallows, chocolate chips, sugar - just add butter) and I finally made it last night. Just following the schedule, you know. Yummy.
I ordered two two-packs of the Sprout Spout. I already have the Gerber sippy tops for water bottles, and they work quite well, but what I really need is ones that fit the wide-mouth juice bottles. (Now, YES, I know that plastic water bottles are ridiculously wasteful; I bought these to carry with me for emergency situations, not to mention how much easier they will make things when we fly. No empty sippies to carry and I don't have to worry about potentially spilling juice or water all over myself while filling a sippy cup at the outset of an 8.5 hour flight!*) I saw a 3-pack at Toys R Us that has two for water bottles and one for juice bottles, but I don't need any more water bottle ones and I didn't want to pay $7.99 just to get the one I needed! So I found it online and ordered from the manufacturer. I especially appreciate that they charged me common-sense shipping charges - $3.50 for USPS. I can't even begin to tell you how many websites would have charged me $20+ to ship me stuff that would fit in a 5x7 envelope.
*I will still have to bring sippies for the milk, which I generally acquire from a coffee shop. Wish me luck on that one, I've had issues with it in the past.
Speaking of ordering stuff, I ordered a book from Shutterfly, like ages ago and it still hasn't gotten here. I was starting to get pretty nervous about it so I wrote to ask for help tracking it (it was transferred from UPS to USPS a week and a half ago and so tracking information is no longer available) and they told me that since it's been more than 10 days since they shipped it, it's considered "Lost in the Mail" and they overnighted me a new one. So if the other one DOES get here - before we move - then we'll have two copies. Which would actually be kind of cool, since it's a picture/story book called "Brandon and Jackson Were Born in Hawaii", with pictures of the house and all of the places we like to go, so that the boys can remember their first home. It would be kind of neat to have two copies.
There is a point to this. I may despise Shutterfly's new website, but their customer service is exceptional as always. This is actually the second problem I had with the same order - 2 8x10's (free with purchase of the photo book) arrived completely trashed. Both problems were caused by the Post Office and both times, Shutterfly promtly sent out a replacement. I guess that's why I've been with them for 7 years. (I am ridiculously loyal. Or just a slave to habit.)
My check card expires at midnight tonight. Which of course means that they SHOULD have sent me a new one like a month ago. I can't remember ever having gotten one, but figured I must have lost it - because that's totally something I'd do. So I called to ask them to send me another one, and here's the thing: they sent it on the 24th. Of March. So, a week ago. And then the guy told me that it usually takes 7-10 days to arrive. My response: "So...is it generally the policy to leave your customers without a valid check card for up to 3 days?" In the background, Brian was saying, "Aha, you've got one of them thinking women here!" So I'm basically just stuck waiting for the card to arrive. I had to do a lot of shopping today, since tomorrow, I won't be able to. Because, you see, I needed those beads.
I bought beads because I recently bought a really nice top to wear to an event this summer. (This one, but in grey - I actually wanted the indigo color pictured, but they didn't have it in my size.) Really nice, that is, except for the extremely tacky, huge plastic rhinestones on the collar. Of course I cut them off, but the top looks too plain now. So I bought nice beads to embellish it myself. And then I bought some beads to make some earrings...and managed to talk myself out of the really pretty huge glass beads that were my favorite colors, for $18...but just barely. Bead shops are dangerous, yo.

some bullets so you don't feel neglected

2009-03-27T03:12:00.003+09:00

29 days until the movers come. I think I'll really start to panic when we get down to numbers that Brandon understands; I'm pretty sure that the highest he can count is 17.
Since they opened up the new housing, it will be possible for us to walk to the self-help warehouse and try to get some touch-up paint. It's time to actually fill in those holes in the wall and so I'll be needing a lot more than just the dixie cup of paint that I've been told they give out. Cross your fingers for me that, at the very least, they'll tell me what brand and color I need to buy.
Also since they opened up the new housing, it's possible to walk to the airport. Not that I would, I just find that kind of interesting.
Also, new playgrounds. We'll try to hit some of them on our way to the self-help today.
The convenience store across the street from the self-help has donuts and "iced cappuccinos" from a machine that taste exactly like a Dunkin Donuts Coolatta, except not slushy. I'll try to resist. I actually don't think it will be that hard today; I started off my day with 10 minutes of yoga, which is generally pretty helpful as far as making good nutritional choices throughout the day. It was...interesting...to try to do yoga with Jack climbing on me and pulling my hair - every time I pushed up into upward-facing dog, his face was about an inch from mine, with a big goofy smile - but ya gotta figure that something is better than nothing, right? I certainly feel more awake than usual.
Did I mention that it's 29 DAYS??? F@$%!!!!!!!!!!

that's an entire Olympiad, or election cycle

2009-03-22T01:58:00.003+09:00

Today, I would like to bring your attention to one of the tickers on the left side of your screen. The one that says, "I have been pregnant and/or breastfeeding for 4 years." Continuously. I don't really have much else to say to elaborate on that, except that I love being a Mommy, but I don't think I'll be all that sad when I'm done with the all-consuming-Mommy-mode phase of my life. It's been going on for plenty long enough.

humuhumunukunukuapua'a, in fondant

2009-03-21T05:41:00.002+09:00

humuhumunukunukuapua'a

If you said that I was going a little overboard with the coral reef cake, you wouldn't be wrong.

(And yes, I did need to make these three weeks in advance! I don't know how long it's going to take them to dry, if they ever do.)

I told off the mother, too

2009-03-20T12:57:00.001+09:00

Today, I asked a boy who looked to be about 8 or 9 years old if it made him feel like a big man to bully a 3-year-old. He looked me square in the eye and said, without a trace of irony, "yes".

uplifted by cult comedy

2009-03-19T05:55:00.004+09:00

Every day, when I change the number on the whiteboard next to the computer (which now reads "37 DAYS until we move out of the house"), I think of this song. And then I think of Gob on Arrested Development doing his magic act. And then I laugh.

Lavender Lily

woooooooooooot

break out the world's smallest violin

stick it out

we're okay

you've got to be kidding me

endurance

why i stopped blogging

hi

buying up all of the Duncan Hines

a hat for cora

What's in that Can? Holiday Edition: The Answer

What's in that Can? Holiday Edition

places i've lived

a picture poem

more wacky niche photography

another glorious summer day of sitting inside

hi! remember me?

the caffeine (withdrawal) made me do it

philosophical question. kind of. i guess.

the answer: round 7

what's in that can? round 7 - what's in that cone?

Magical Flower Snow

more pictures than you can shake a (blooming) stick at

top 5 things I like about Japan

Mother of the Year: point & counterpoint

real entry to follow in the near future

squeeee!

vacations, camera lenses and a train cake

Happy Valentine's Day, from Brandon and his classmates

is this how we're teaching our boys to dress?

taking the time to sit down and blog, to avoid doing the dishes

cakes, cakes, cakes...

this kid is tired

he gets the ability to pick up days-old conversations from me

in which i reference two completely awesome movies

*sigh*

complete this sentence

"his tooth fell down"

blurbs

guest list dilemma

it's the most wonderful time of the year

one last rant, then I'm done for this month...I hope

I love my gov't insurance...when I can use it with civilian doctors

Republican-baiting...because it's just so EASY!!!

complaining time...in bullet form

doing his best to drive me insane, since 2005

it's my birthday, by the way

what is this, mutiny of the children?

maybe it's because we listen to Backyardigans in the car

the answer, round 6

tiny fondant doughnuts

what's in that can? round 6

time to kill, time to quilt

pirate cupcakes

I am asking for opinions, which, to be completely honest, I will probably ignore

little-known parenting phrases that I've uttered today

having a daily activity eats up my blogging time

I had a teal car when my favorite color was purple, so now that teal is my favorite color...

I'm really on a roll now!

update that nobody will care about

I've gone too long without a rant

*sigh* I've tried so hard to shield him from consumerism, and commercials...

the answer, round 5

what's in that can? round 5

we interrupt this crafty blog for an introspective moment

the earrings I'm wearing today

blossiming branches tunic top

the amazing coral reef cake

Apple Pie Cake

happy birthday, america!

it never ends, does it?

what am i, an asshole magnet?

it's the inability to boycott that really got me

the answer: round 4

what's in that can? round 4

short thought, but too long for twitter

cross-cultural conundrum

an ode to my iPhone

the answer: round 3

sigh

sigh I've tried so hard to shield him from consumerism, and commercials...