Three Weeks of Summer Break Gone...

Good Lord, I haven't felt like writing lately. I don't know why. I love writing. Maybe it's the heat. Or the kids always being home - or with me, at least, wherever we are. Maybe the long hours of daylight. My favorite time to write was after dinner but before Tater came home. With summer here, that is all out of whack! We're part vampire here, so we're up all hours of the night, and then sleeping in until 9 or so. We should get a handle on that.

Since school got out, here's what we've been doing:

Brownies went to Disney Sea: It was OK – don’t need to go back.

Went to a Chopin piano concert with Hiroko: Nice, but lots of yawning.

Noodle & I went to a Brownie Family end of the year picnic: Tater had a situation at work.

Saw Harry Potter: A bit disappointing.

Went to dinner at a little Italian restaurant to celebrate the girls in the club with June Birthdays: Yum.

Friday night had dinner here: Fun but I didn't like the new salad I made.

Saturday Noodle & I went to Enoshima Aquarium with Hiroko: Fun.

Sunday Noodle & I took an MWR tour to Tokyo Summerland with Rachelle & Torrey: Fun but overcast and not-so-hot.

...and Today, we ran around Machida shopping and eating at T.G.I.Friday's: Gap & Cajun Chicken Salad. Yum.

We've been a tad busy, but not really, compred to if we had school to attend. The rainy season has been very mild so when we haven't been doing that grocery-list of activites above, we've been at the pool. It did rain one day. I spent the entire day, from morning till dinner, organizing my recipes. I need more rainy days. For photos, files, closets...we'll pack out in October. I need to be organized.

I have something on my mind, but can't articulate it now. I need time to think. Until then, please keep my best friend, Jen, in your prayers. She has hit a rough patch.

Saturday Schizophrenia

After Rain and Gray Skies for several days, we woke up to Sunshine this morning! (The more and more I ponder my love of sunshine, the more I understand my adoration of Southern California.) I puttered and laundered until the sun reached my backyard and then took my book and basked, like a lizard, in the full glory of the sun. Until I got too hot. (And I didn't want to put on my bikini, due to my extra 15 pounds and my crazy-ass neighbors - separate, but equally annoying issues.) Then the clouds rolled back in, and we are again in the midst of the Kanto Plain Rainy Season. ICK.

From October to May I read NO (yes, NONE, ZERO, ZILCH) books. I was busy. A horrible, horrible atrocity, I know. But since April I have happily read...7? 8?...or so books. I rekindled the frenzy with"The Lovely Bones" and "The Tao of Pooh", then I had to read "Glorious Appearing" because it came out. I took a useless, sexy novel to Hawaii (so useless, that I don't even remember the name or plot!), and finished it there, then read "Summer Sisters" by Judy Blume on the plane ride back, then read "Angels and Demons" and "The DaVinci Code" by Dan Brown in quick succession, and then devoured the "Three Sisters Trilogy" (more sex and sizzle) by Nora Roberts. I am making up, all at once, my winter-reading dry-spell. My only problem now, is trying to decide if I should read "Anna Karenina", which I have been trying to read now for 4 years, because Oprah has chosen it for her most recent selection, and I could probably scam off her notes, or read "The Dogs of Babel" (Carolyn Parkhurst), which I picked up in the bookstore because it looked interesting, or "The Rapture of Canaan" (Sheri Reynolds), simply because I haven't read it yet. OH, the indecision!!!

An on a separate, but equally schizophrenic note, I have sound blaring at me from every corner of my house tonight. D and Matt are 8 feet away, in the playroom, playing X-Box, which is howling and screaming in game-language; Tater is in the living room watching Crime TV, which I CANNOT believe I'm not also watching, because, lets face it, I'm a Crime Junkie; and I'm at the Mac typing an entry and listening to my music library -right now playing Michelle Branch, singing "Sweet Misery"- how apropos. Noodle and Twist are up in my bedroom watching "Ice Age", which I can't hear, but neither can I go up there to escape the chaos...

Maybe another glass of Shiraz...

Disney Sea

I have been majorly distracted by the last few weeks of the school year. We have had Parties, and Field Trips, and Ballet, (Oh MY!)...Talent Shows, and Finals, and Meetings...English Classes, Bridging Ceremonies, and Dinners. Oh, and Mac and Tater caught a nasty Fever-Chills-Sore Throat Virus last week (she almost missed the last 4 days of school, but dragged herself up just in the nick of time for the Last-Day-Bowling-and-Pizza-For-Lunch Party. Whew!)

The last day of school was to be today, but thanks to President Bush, we're all at home (for the rainy season began last week) playing X-Box, watching reruns of "Friends", channel surfing, and computer-tinkering.

So. Now. Noodle is a 4th Grader and a Junior Girl Scout, and Dillon is a Sophomore, [and I am just another year older...].

Us Girls topped off the End Of The School-Year Chaos with a trip to Disney Sea yesterday, compliments of the Brownies. We had a GREAT time, and the rain actually held off for the day. Rachelle, Torrey, Noodle and I hung out all day together, riding the "Indiana Jones" Ride 4 times, and the "Journey To The Center Of The Earth" Ride 4 times as well. We ate lunch in Ariel's Grotto, saw the Mystic Something-Or-Other Rainforest show (which looked a lot like the Broadway production of "The Lion King", but a lot wetter), rode the Carousel, bought stupid souvenirs, ate Strawberry Popcorn (but passed up the Cappuccino Corn), did the Japanese version of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea (no thanks), and a few other not-so-memorable rides.

At the end of the day, we were exhausted but happy. And thankful we had the two best friends a girl could ask for to spend it with us.