Another decision of mine

After talking to many of my friends, I have to say I've decided that many navy wives have a way of sucking every last bit of happiness out of you. I guess it must be because most of us are bored, jobless, and spend most of our time locked up in our houses. Okay, I just started including myself in that statement and I don't feel like I am part of this group
Anyway, my assumption is that they get a sort of cabin fever. They make themselves somewhat crazy and invite ideas in their head of things that don't exist and also apparently loose all judgment.
Of course I am not going into details, but I am definitely tired of this already. I've heard of too many times when "friends" get mad about something minor and go berserk attaching the person they've decided they don't like.
I can't wait to go back to the states and get normal friends (and by normal I mean weren't crazy enough to marry and navy guy and won't go crazy anytime soon). I am also sad that a few screwy people mess up the image of us all.
Don't even get me started on the officer's wives that mess it up for the rest of us too...

Flowers

I took some new pictures today of my garden & I'm including some older pictures too.

The truth

Okay, after all those cute pictures, here is a real truthful picture of Mocha.

The girls goofing around

So, FINALLY, here are the pictures from the girls getting together in the states. Sorry it took so long.
I had a GREAT time with you gals. I am so glad we had time to get together.

I have an addiction

... to taking cute pictures of Mocha and sharing them for everyone to see.

http://www.slide.com/r/QFtGBkPYwz-GUMctkAftJT7cyvSO6tAp?
previous_view=mscd_embedded_url

I seem to have a lot to say

Okay, so I've probably been writing posts faster than you can read them. If that is the case, then just look to the list of previous posts to the right -------->>> and click on the one you want to read.
Yes, I am also aware that I haven't talked about our trip to the states or posted the pictures. Give me time; I'm getting to it.

My decision

I've realized today that I really need a hobby. Yesterday, a woman that I work with was selling a lot of StampingUp stuff for really cheap and I bought a bunch for scrapbooking. (I don't do card making, sorry). When we were back in the states I realized that I should get back into painting too. I really enjoy painting all those little wooden things. Who knows what I'd do with them when I was done, but I just need something to do. Knitting is fun, but it just isn't that exciting to me and not something I can spend a large amount of time doing. My project now was started last July!!
Step one- get a dining room table. THEN I can work on collecting craft stuff.
Anyone have some craft stuff they want to donate to me? :)

New layout

I am sorry if you don't like our new layout. I am playing with new things. There is a new option that lets us put our own image in the titlebar, but no matter how small I make it keeps stretching out and driving me crazy. I hope they will come up with a fix for it soon. For now, you just have to deal with it!!

Here is the deal with the car

When we bought the skyline we knew it wasn't in the best shape, but it was cheap ($700) and we needed a car. Of course, we didn't think that the new tires were going to be so expensive. It doesn't shock me that it is broken now. It is nearly 15 years old and has had more owners than the average American vehicle. Cars owned by Americans in Japan get quite a beating. It really sucks that we are loosing that money, but that is the way things go. Lucky for us, we already bought the new car.
The deal we've been going through now is that we were told the Japanese inspection (done every two years) had already expired. There is a whole long process attached to renewing it. Well, I found out today that was not true, but it does expire very soon so we will just finish the process on Monday after the brake pads are replaced (tomorrow). The new car was $1500 and in MUCH better shape. The funny things is that we bought it from the lemon lot, but it is not a lemon. That s just what they call the used car lot in Yokosuka. Weird, huh?
Anyway, a lot of details were made clear to me today and everything is pretty much sorted out. If we want to drive the Toyota starting tomorrow, we can!!

Oh, I forgot to tell you

We are junking the Skyline. The autoport told us that the radiator needed to be overhauled (whatever that means), the waterpump needed to be replaced and it needed new hoses too, I think. Anyway, it was going to cost us over $1000. We only spent $700 on it and were going to sell it for that much. The woman (an ET3 I think) that was gong to buy it is married with a very young daughter. Plus, the inspection was going to expire in October and it would never pass! Fortunately it won't cost us much, but we are loosing a lot of money on it.
We get our new car back on friday but can't drive it until monday when we take it to get the Japanese inspection. Then we will FINALLY have a car to drive.

Blah

Sometimes when I come home from work I just want to nap even though I am not tired. Then I don't want to get up when my alarm goes off and then I don't do anything the rest of the day even though I know I have to. This is an issue I noticed after we moved here, especially when Danny wasn't home (he has to take the home-to-work bus tonight, won't be home until 1830 and I leave shortly before then because I have a lesson at 1915 and won't be home until 2100). What do I do about this?
I've willingly joined a women's bible study, but it starts to feel like an obligation rather than a fun activity (especially when I won't see Danny AGAIN until I get home at 930 and he has duty the next day). This is why I don't do activities and it sucks. I have issues...

Awww...

How cute is this?

Well,

... replacing the thermostat and washing the radiator out didn't solve the problem. Great.

More about the car

Danny drove the Skyline into work today and dropped off at the autoport during his lunch break. After he explained what has been happening(the water boiling right out of the reserve) they think the thermostat is broken. He authorized them to fix that, but nothing more until talk to them again. Hopefully that is all it takes.

Japan for the uninvited

There is a toolbar that I downloaded for the internet called Stumble-upon. You have an account and it remembers your preferences and interests. Anyway, I found this page called Japan for the Uninvited. It has a collection of interesting things about Japan. Pretty cool! Find the box about Japanese pizza and you'll see all the weird things they put on 'em.

Kyodo-no-mori Ajisai Matsuri

I've got to go to one of these places: Hydrangea Festival

Our poor cat

So, anyone want to hear a story about how I accidentally almost seriously hurt, if not killed, our cat last night? It is a pretty short story...
I was doing laundry last night. I had just taken a load out of the dryer and put it in the living room. Then I went back and put the wet clothes in the dryer, grabbed a dryer sheet and started it up. As soon as I did there was this terrible sound coming from the dryer. It sounded like I had put a pair of shoes in. My load was very small, so I was really worried. I opened the dryer door and guess who shot out of the dryer and upstairs! Yup, Mocha. She probably jumped in before I put the wet clothes in the dryer. Danny was standing right next to me and he didn't know she was there either.
Mocha used to like climbing in the dryer, but I don't think she will anymore!
So, it wasn't a near death story, but I was really afraid I hurt her (she went around a few times before I turned it off) before I thought it was funny. Don't worry though, she is okay. Just not very bright.

Update on car

After the car cooled down I went to go check it out. Turns out the radiator was completely empty!!! There is a bunch of dried brown goo inside the reserve and the radiator cap looks rusted. On the reserve tank it was obvious that water had been coming out the top of the tank. Danny will have to take the home-to-work for the next few days and I will have the autoport check if there is any cracks in the radiator or holes in a tube.
I learned from my honda and carrying a half gallon of water in my trunk at all times!

Car problems

I drove the car to the grocery store just an hour ago. Danny had the ac on when he was driving it home this morning and when I drove it I noticed a strange smell. I didn't think anything of it until the way back. I turned the air off and still noticed a smell. When I was stopped at a light I saw steam or smoke coming out of the engine. Not very much, but it doesn't look good and smells terrible. I checked the temp of the car and it was normal, but the oil gauge looked low. We just had the oil changed a few months ago (not long enough ago to warrant an oil change, but I think it may be leaking.) Danny has been driving it, so I haven't even seen the car long enough to notice anything. If it is leaking, where would it be leaking from? How much is that going to cost?! ... we are trying to sell the crappy thing...
If its not the oil, anyone else want to take a guess at what it could be? I am waiting a few hours and then I'll go look at it once it cools down.

Too much to say

I am two weeks behind in posting on the blog. Luckily for me, majority of our readers already know everything we did while we were in the states, but I know I'll have to post a lot of details for anyone else who doesn't know or just for journaling purposes. Mostly I guess you're all waiting for pictures. Most of the time I am at the computer is during work and although I have my camera here with me, I don't have the cables to hook it up. I also want to review them and edit them before I make them into a slideshow.
Suppose I could start with yesterday and last night. Danny was the one that was really worked up and beyond peeved so I guess I could try to make him write about it, but I don't think that would work. Checking in at Narita (Tokyo) was so easy, but the United desk in SeaTac is messed up. Their self check-in counters are a waste of time and the people don't act like they know what they're doing. All we wanted was to check our bags and get our tickets, but it couldn't be that simple. I guess the United representatives were looking for something special in Danny's passport (which I thought was a job for customs)and assumed that we had our tickets already. Checking our bags in shouldn't have been hard, but somehome it became that way. Danny and I just didn't understand what they were doing wrong and he was ready to scream at them.
It tooks us a little while to get through security and they moved the boarding gate without us knowing (no big deal, it was only 3 gates down). They guy in front of Danny on the plane kept reclining his seat too far and almost broke his computer a few times. Once we got back to Japan we had to wait about an hour for the Narita express which was about $40 each and took about 1.5 hrs to get to Yokohama. Then we had to switch trains and then grab a taxi back to the house. This prooved to be fairly difficult for me, but we were sure happy to walk in the front door. I got a nice bath last night and we finally got to sleep in our own bed. Didn't get to ask Danny this morning, but I think we both slept pretty hard.
That was majority of the bad stuff that happened to us over the last two weeks. I'll get to the good stuff when I have pics.

our return to Japan

We finally made it home! It was a VERY long day, but are now at home trying to relax. I'll fill you all in about the excitement later. For now, I am going to go take a bath.
We'll miss everyone. Thank you for being there for us.
Love, Lori and Danny

Hello :)

We are still in the states until wednesday (we'll be bck in Japan on thursday evening), but I wanted to take a moment to say hello to everyone we haven't seen recently. We are having a great time visiting. The return to Japan will come with mixed feelings. Vacation has been nice. We'll have so much to tell when we return. Please remember to check the blog often after thursday.
Happy mothers day to all the mothers out there.

yup, we made it

Well, if you haven't figured it out... we are here!!
Contact us before the 17th. Thats when we leave.

Countdown

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