I feel like this month has officially lasted... FOREVER. I don't think October is ever going to end. I keep seeing the dry-erase calendar on the fridge and it still says October. I want to re-write it. My iCal still says October. I keep thinking it must be time to flip ahead and why isn't Jimmy doing it automatically yet? I am cranky and perpetually in need of a nap. My patience is running even thinner than usual lately. I must be coming up on my third trimester.

I'm still riding the "this crib situation sucks" train. I've determined that to ship the crib from my friend to me would cost almost $65. And then Wal Mart went out of stock on it. I don't have the money to buy it right now anyways, but that just irritates me. The two other stores I can order it from online (Target and Babycenter) both want more than Wal Mart wants for it. I went to a baby shower this weekend and all of the moms there were talking about how useless and overrated the changing table is. I'm trying to remember, am I just crazy? Up until Amaris was like a year old and we retired the changing table (mostly because we'd badly mistreated it and it was no longer in one piece, quite literally) I am pretty sure I used that thing several times a day. Useless? Really? I don't think it was. I have been adamantly looking to find one for baby girl. Now I am wondering if I am being frivolous. I already have a changing pad, and the only surface it has to sit on currently (the government loaner chest of drawers) is far too high up to safely (and comfortably) change an infant's diaper.

And why is it that everywhere I live, I end up having drainage problems? Like, seriously, what is it about me and clogged drains?? It's really starting to piss me off. When we moved into our first apartment, there was some weird something about the plumbing in the bathroom, I can't remember exactly what the issue was but it was stupid. And then the sink had no garbage disposal, so I had to get used to throwing away all of my usual "sink garbage". Then we moved into an apartment in Port Hueneme that had a garbage disposal. But for some reason is ALWAYS clogged on us. We seriously had the maintenance guy over to fix it so frequently that I started to think I should offer him room and board. We moved out to our house in Camarillo and the shower NEVER drained properly. You'd take an average shower and by the end of it you'd be standing in 3-5" of soapy, dirty water. It was GROSS. The shower had to be literally scrubbed every time anyone was done using it, and to scrub it you had to wait like an hour so that it would be drained first. That was bad pipes and couldn't be fixed. Our on-base house in Port Hueneme after they decided the houses in Camarillo weren't worth fixing and may as well be demolished was really nice and I don't recall any notable drainage problems there. Of course we only lived there like 5 months. Our house in San Angelo had slow drains periodically in the master bathroom. I rolled my eyes and probably said something about de ja vous the first time it happened.

Here at this house, things have been fine, up till last week when my garbage disposal decided to become completely worthless, and the kitchen sink started "throwing up" everything that I put down there. You run the water for more than a minute or so and the sink starts filling up. I am so irritated. I've run the disposal at least 20 times, used the plunger, and yesterday used a Drano "foaming pipe snake". No dice. There is no keeping a sink clean when it has this issue. And apparently there is no fixing such a sink, either. It is so frustrating. I should call maintenance but I know by the time they get out here to clean it I will have done one of the following:

1. Fixed it myself
2. Jumped off the balcony in despair
3. Given up on cooking and cleaning and filled the sink with all sorts of filth, and then topped it with a big tarp in utter embarrassment

I'm in frequent pain latley and getting really tired of constantly being kicked in the crotch or jabbed in the ribs. I really don't remember Amaris being so violent in-utero. I hope that baby girl is getting out all of her pent-up frustrations now and that she'll be born a very calm, peaceful version of herself. And that she will stay that way.

Hmpf. It isn't taking much lately to make me bitter.

I have successfully corrupted Mark just the right amount. He laughs with me at the Mac/PC commercials. We discuss why Apple is better. (God, I love that man.)

The other day, against all better judgment, we finally bought the iMac we had been coveting for the past couple of years - the very computer that caused us to jointly decide to skip birthdays this year, so that we could gift it to eachother on Christmas. It is beautiful.

Even Amaris likes it. (Almost as much as she likes her slippers. And being a nudist.)





Happy Columbus Day! Mark has today and tomorrow off to celebrate Columbus Day. I'm not sure exactly how we are "supposed" to celebrate this holiday, but my goal is to go to "American Village" (which I am pretty sure is Japan's way of making up for us having Chinatown, Little Tokyo, etc back in the 'states.) and explore the pretend American culture. That seems appropriate, right? American Village has a huge slow moving ferris wheel and I am told that if you ride it at night you get a beautiful view of the island.

Yesterday we went to a tug of war festival in Naha and that was pretty cool... Well, from what I could see. Apparently the rope is gigantic and such. But there were so many people that the rope was pretty much unviewable - unless you are Mark, who insisted on grabbing hold of the rope and "helping," later on he climbed on top of it and "rode" it, but I missed that because he was so swept up in the crowd. By the time the rope was the main event, we'd had lunch and Amaris was tired and bored and ready to leave. But up until then we had a fun time exploring the area - lots of shopping and such. We saw Habu Sake for the first time, which was totally creepy, and I literally had nightmares about Habu snakes last night.

No matter, Amaris had a good time hanging with her favorite couple of Cassidys - apparently that is a highly popular name, as two of our friends here in Okinawa have daughters named Cassidy. Amaris enjoys both of them. And she enjoys saying "Cassa-ee!" - so much that whenever one of them is brought up, all we hear about from her is "Cassa-ee!" over and over again until she falls asleep and/or forgets about the mention. So she had a fun time hanging out with them at the tug of war thing yesterday.

And Ronald. And just so you know, that Ronald is NOT in front of a McDonalds (Makoro Donoro's, if you're Okinawan). He was chained to a bench outside of a store that sold all sorts of ethnic novelty foods. Everybody can go ahead and expect MRE-style Taco Rice for Christmas from us this year. Taco rice is the shit. And it is extremely popular in Okinawa. For good reason! They have it packaged like astronaut (or US troop - whichever you are in the mood for) style food packages for sale there. Holy awesomeness.

Clearly from the photos above, I am still in pajamas. I need to remedy that.

But before I do that, please enjoy this photo of the fizzing crazy shrimp cocktail we had with our lunch yesterday at Sam's Anchor Inn.

About a week ago, we were perusing the exchange, trying to find necessary things for our new apartment (dishes, pots, pans, microwave, etc), and while walking down the video game aisle, I spotted two WiiFit Boxes just sitting there, lonely and quiet. Wide-eyed, I beelined to them. I scooped one of them up and clutched it. Yes, clutched it. Right to my round pregnant belly. And while I stood there trying to weigh my options and decide what to do about such a find, a man walked up next to me and scooped up the remaining box. I clutched my find even tighter.

I've NEVER seen a WiiFit in stock anywhere. Ever. I've looked. I've seen the Yoga mat, the accessories... But never the WiiFit itself, in all it's glory. Still clutching the box, I turned and walked away to find Mark and seek his approval.

He is a sucker for video games, and caved with very little pushing and prodding. Muwahahahaha. The WiiFit was mine. When the Japanese cashier rang it up, even she acknowledged the precious nature of this purchase, and laughed and said, "oh, is this for me?" in her broken Engrish. I laughed and said, "I know, right?"

The WiiFit came all the way home, and to my utter dismay I realized that we are without the Wii. I had totally forgotten. Our Wii is packed up in a crate somewhere waiting to be shipped to us here in our new digs in Okinawa. Cold, lonely, collecting dust. I waited several days till Mark got a hold of TMO, thinking that surely our household goods must be "here" already and waiting for us to request them. My back was delighted with that idea. Air mattresses are only comfortable for so long, and then it becomes NECESSARY to have your own bed back. We are approaching that time. My pregnant body has had enough from the Coleman.

When Mark finally reached them, TMO (to further my dismay) reported that they have not received our shipment yet, and don't know when we should expect it.

I almost cried.

The WiiFit is STILL in it's box. Every time I see it there in the corner I feel disappointed. Every time I lie down on the squeaky, creaky air mattress, I die a little.

Someone hold me.

I love my camera. After much research, I bought at the beginning of the year a Kodak Z712 for myself. It is wonderful. Picture quality is great, zoom is fantastic, etc, etc, etc.

But it's kind of big. And it plows through AA batteries like they're going out of style. And many times Mark has asked while we were out somewhere, "Where is your camera when we need it??"

It just isn't a purse camera. It's fantastic for parties and for trips and such, but for everyday purposes, not so much.

Yesterday we went to Target. You'd think that by now we'd realize that Target is the black hole of all spending. And with our purse strings as tight as they currently are, you'd think we'd have a little restraint.

But I got to thinking that I'll be going about 3 years with no Target trips. And there are things we need before we go to Okinawa. So I got cocky with Mark's redcard. And we splurged on an Olympus FE-340, among other random items that we'd have eventually needed anyway - a new portable DVD player for Amaris (since she broke her last one), and... Okay, ipods. I'll admit it. We bought ipods yesterday. Stupid, I know, but we've been talking about doing it for months now. Anyways back to the camera, quit thinking about my stupid and frivolous spending! I'm still tinkering with the settings and figuring out how to take indoor pictures with the flash without making things yellowy and weird, but the camera is cute and pink, and fits very comfortably in my purse. And it has a battery life of longer than 10 minutes. Oh! And it has a 5x optical zoom (which is obviously not as awesome as my Kodak's 12x, but for a pocket-sized camera, it's fairly impressive!) and is 8.0mp.

Win.



We bought AA batteries for the big camera, by the way. I'm just too lazy to load them up. And, it wouldn't really be smart to load them up right now anyways since they'd just be sitting in the camera dying a quick death while I had nothing to snap photos of.

Today we bought Amaris a Cabbage Patch Newborn, and she's learning how to treat babies. She's hesitant, but showing promise.


She has also decided that her bear's new name is "B". She had until now always called him Beau /Bo/Boo (she has trouble with the "r" sound), but yesterday she shortened it to just "B". And now all bears are "B". Or maybe she's calling the bear "Bea" and it's short for Beatrice. Which would give me a slight identity crisis because up until now I'd always thought that "Bear" was a boy.

I miss Jamba Juice. And Presto Pasta. And Ralph's pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. And hye roller sandwiches. I'm hungry. And totally unmotivated to feed myself.