Entry for March 01, 2007

Geez the time sure does fly by quick!! Melissa's visit will be over in a little more than a week!! I tell you six weeks sounds like a long time but it is gone before you even know it. We have been keeping busy trying to show Melissa around Misawa and around Aomori Prefecture. Next week Dave took a couple days off so we are planning to take her to see the big Buddha park in Aomori. Her and I are leaving for Tokyo on Sun the 11th. We are going to spend 2 days down there just to see the Imperial palace gardens and a few other things like the Ginza.

Lots has happened.... We bought a laptop which is very exciting for us. We have been meaning to for a long time since Dave is TDY so often and we travel so much. Dave also got a new position at work. He got an instructor position, so he will be teaching Crew Chiefs some of the courses they go thru annually to refresh their skills. I am really excited about this. He wont be on the flight line...which means he wont have dirty hands and greasy clothes... and he will work set hours and have weekends off and holidays off too. I am looking forward to him being home at the same time every night and even maybe having him home for lunch sometimes. Eeeeeee.

I don't know what this means for our leave though. We have been planning to visit home in November but I am not sure how they will work leave in the MTF. We will see... But I really think this will be great for us.

Everyone has been so quiet lately... I hope everyone is still alive out there.

LOST IN TRANSLATION!!

WE arrived home last night. THANK GOODNESS!! We had a good time but it is really great to be home. It took over six hours on the train to get there on Friday. When we got in we ate McDonald's and then went to Odori Park. They had already cleared out the snow sculptures but it was still really beautiful. We went up the TV tower which is basically just a small replica of the Eiffel tower. It was really cool to see the city from up there. Sapporo is really huge. Over one million people. Hardly anyone spoke English though and it was tough to order food and stuff. In Misawa most menus and shops have English ... Not in Sapporo. We ate at the TV tower at some funky organic restaurant place. It was good. Then we went back to the hotel and passed out. We spent Saturday seeing the sights. Sapporo has a really great history and it was really great to see the buildings from the 1870's that Americans designed and they are still up!! Surrounded by a modern city. Dave was in heaven at the Sapporo beer factory which was the main reason for our visit. The tour wasn't in English so we just looked around and then went to get some beers. HeHe. There was one really cool part of the tour that had all of their old advertisement posters. They are really neat. I bought a few post cards and will scan and put them in the photo album . Check them out.

We had a great time but are really glad to be home. We pick Wendy up from the Kennel tomorrow morning. Thank goodness I really miss her!!! Today I am cleaning house and doing laundry. FUN. No I really don't mind laundry and cleaning.

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Enjoy your Monday if you get it off!!..

Entry for February 15, 2007

Boy have we been busy!! Seems like the days aren't long enough. We went to a fancy smancy French Valentine's dinner last night. The food was very seafoodie but it was ok and we didn't die from the huge shrimp with its head still on in our salads..... I will never look at shrimp the same again!!

We are leaving tomorrow morning for a weekend in Sapporo. We are riding the train for 6 hours to get there. We have to go through a underwater tunnel for awhile of the trip which makes me very uneasy! Dave and I are going to watch a movie or two to pass the time so hopefully I wont be thinking about being under the ocean in a tunnel on a train. whew...gag.

We sent Wendy to the Kennel this afternoon and I am feeling pretty guilty. I hope she does OK so that I feel better about leaving her for the summer while I am in Michigan.

Well, I better go finish packing. Everyone have a great long weekend!!

Entry for February 09, 2007

Well, its been a week already!! WE have kept pretty busy even though leaving the house means using the shuttle because Dave has the car all day. Today we are going up to get our tickets to Sapporo then we are going to lunch. Tomorrow though Melissa and I are going to the Hirosaki Snow Lantern Festival. It should be a hoot. Dave has to work so he isn't going with us.

Next week we have lots planned. I will try to blog next week more.

P.S. this pic is from Swan they have really great food