Happy Birthday Bailey!!!!

Today is Bailey's 3rd birthday and unfortunately I can't be there to celebrate with her, but I did her send a nice treat to make up for it. I realize she isn't going to know that I sent it, but at least she will get to enjoy it. I sent her a birthday cake in the shape of a bone, which is super cute.
Here is one of the last pictures Mike and I took with her before we left STL to come back to Houston and get ready for the move. Jan (Mike's mom) had to take a couple of pictures because she would not sit still, but then again, Bailey never really liked to sit still when people were around.

However, I did manage to get her and Murphy to sit still long enough to take this picture!

Then we went out to play in the snow, which Bailey is getting use to.



Below is a great picture of Bailey, as you can see, she is just like Mike. She steals the control and then falls asleep while watching tv! Before I had to give her away, I decided it was ok if she sat on the couch, since she was never allowed to. After I let her do it once, I would come out of the bedroom and find her sleeping on the couch. Silly dog!


I get reports from Jan about Bailey and it looks like she is settling in nicely in her new home, which is in Indiana, where there is lots of snow. The Cobbles say it is funny to see her play in 10+ inches of snow, especially since she digs her face in it and then comes up. They have figured out Bailey's flaw, which is...stealing socks! Good thing their dog, Tink, likes to steal shoes, so it works out.


Here are some pictures they sent us. Bailey is on the right in the first one. They also found out that Bailey likes ice cream!



I admit, when I opened them up, I did start to cry because I miss her and she was the one person/dog I spent most of my time with. It has been hard not to have her around, but I know it is for the best since she needs lots of room to run around and play. I must also admit, I do have her picture on my nightstand as opposed to Mike's picture or a picture of the two of us. Mike, of course, laughs at me, but knows it was hard for me to give her away.

So here's to Bailey, my crazy goof ball. These last two pictures make me laugh because it is classic Bailey. After being outside, she would run inside and go into the bathroom and jump in the tub. She didn't want to take a bath, but did want to drink water from the spout and then paw at the water. I have video of it and it's funny. Next was one of Bailey's many spots to squirrel watch. She would race between the balcony and the bedroom in hopes of catching them!



Happy Birthday Bailey!

Sunday at Odaiba

Sunday Mike and I spent the day at Odaiba, a man made island about 30 minutes from where we live. We took the monorail, which goes in a loop and under the rainbow bridge here. It was cool since we would look out the window and see the drivers driving by on the road. Here are some pictures of the water and bridge as we headed there.



While there we had lunch at this turkey place, which was good, as you can see. Mike nabbed the camera as I was enjoying my turkey leg!

We, I mean I, did some shopping while there. I found some cute scarves for $5 and bought a red and gray one. Then I also found a really, really cute white winter coat, which was great and on sale. YAY. While shopping, I saw this sign at one of the stores and thought it was great. They really want you to buy when its on sale, so happy price!

This place even has a statue of liberty and a great view.



While there we visited 3 floors of an arcade and a place where you can test your strength against various athletic tests. It was cool. Mike and I also went to the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation where they had a special exhibit on food. Of course we went to see it and learned quite a few things. We also enjoyed the rest of the science museum. Mike was bummed that the little kids didn't let him play with all the cool stuff! After we left the museum, we were walking back to catch the train and stumbled upon Snoopy the Smurf. Unfortunately, even this statue is taller than me. RATS.

As we kept walking, we walked past this hippo outside a building. This building was not a zoo, so we weren't sure what was going on. Never a dull moment in Tokyo.

This place is great and has many other things to see, but we didn't have enough time.

Sake bottle # 3

My quest for good sake continues. Over the weekend, we bought another bottle of sake in hopes of finding a really good one. This one was about the same price as sake bottle #2, so we figured it would taste just as well. Here is the bottle

Up close on the bottle - Not sure what the first word says, but the second word means "one" as in the number.

So we heated it up as usual in our trusty little carafe and tried it. This one was not as good as bottle #2, and it became cold quicker than the other one. The taste was ok, not great by any means and was a bit sweet no matter whether it was hot or cold. Both Mike and I agree that bottle #2 was better. We haven't this bottle but I am confident that we will. On to finding bottle #4!

Simulation Golf for Happy "Over-rated" Day

Happy Over-rated, I mean Love, Day to all....

Things are done a little different in Asia when it comes to Valentines Day. Here, women are suppose to buy men gifts including chocolate. Then, on March 14, it is White Day where men buy women gifts 3x as much as what they got including white chocolate. So while I was out this week, I spent some time looking at the chocolate selection at the store, debating whether or not to buy Mike some chocolate. After about 5 minutes, I opted out of it and decided it was against my beliefs. I don't care for this day and from the title of this post, you can see that I think it's over-rated! Anywho, when I came home and told Mike about buying him chocolate, he said "why would you do that, I don't like chocolate, you would eat them." I said "I know you don't like it and yes, I would eat them, but it was the thought that counts." So instead of chocolate, we went to the simulation golf bar instead.

Simulation golf is the one thing here that I know Mike LOVES and I bet he would buy one if he knew where to get it and he had a house to put it in. Simulation golf is just like playing real golf, except you aren't outside and you hit your ball at a giant projecter screen. For the most part, it reads the ball pretty accurately, but sometimes it is off. The platform you stand on even moves to adjust for slopes, etc.
We had a good time and were able to finish all 18 holes in our allotted time frame. Here are a couple of swing shots. Here you can see where Mike's ball hits the screen


Concentration face

Here is where you can see my ball hit the screen, towards the bottom.

Time for putting

And of course Mike had to take a picture of the score card. As you can see, I am still not a great golfer by any means. However, I did fairly well on Hole 8 and had really great shots on each hole.
I do like how Amanda goes through the whole blog and doesn't mention that I finished even par on the back nine. I'm still debating whether I can start to include these scores in my handicap - this was my best so far, either real or screen golf. And Amanda is getting much better. Many of her double pars came because the machine is not really set up to read her shot style. She likes to scoot it along the ground, and outside it would probably go 40-50 yards. The screen more often than not reads it as a mis-hit of about 10 (in one case 0.2) yards. We'll be able to test that theory once we make it out to a real course, hopefully next month.


It was fun and an activity that we will probably do frequently while here.

A sea of adventures

Today started out with my Japanese lesson, which went well. We managed to get on the topic of colors because the dialogue we were doing talked about the yellow train. So I learned the rainbow colors and when Fumi-san said that orange and pink are the same here and in the US, I said that is boring. Good thing I don't fantasize about pink like other girls. She also mentioned that they have some many Japanese names for these 2 colors, that it is easier to say pink or orange. Then she told me that green is named "midori" and I was like "oh like midori liquor." Of course, she asked me what that was and I was thinking, my mind goes to alcohol, wonder if that is a problem." So I explained to her that midori in the US is green, which makes it easy to remember it in Japanese. She laughed me! Then we continued on and were on the subject of calling people and which numbers I should use for emergencies. Well, she decided I needed to use the phone directory and ask for the number to a department store, all in Japanese mind you. So I call the number and ask for Matsuya Ginza and get the number. I had to listen to it twice b/c it was too fast for me. Then she made me call the number to make sure it was the right one and when they answered, I merely said "ok thanks" and hung up. Was not happy I had to do that, but she thought I did very well. whatever

Next I had to go grocery shopping for a few things and pick up the dry cleaning, which is conveniently located at the grocery along with a shoe/key repair shop. I couldn't find my ticket to pick up the dry cleaners and looked for it everywhere. I figured it is either in the trash or I placed it somewhere that I don't remember. Oh well. So did my shopping and then tried to get the clothes. She asked for my ticket and the only thing I could say was "lost ticket." Then she said a whole bunch of stuff I didn't understand and I said "lost ticket." Then she said "o-namae was," which I understood (yay japanese lessons) and told her my name. Then she said more stuff I didn't understand and asked for my number, which I gave her in Japanese. So she confirmed, I was who I was and then had to reprint the tickets, which I don't think she liked. Ooops. At the end, she did give me a 10% coupon, so it wasn't a total misfortune.

Next, I had my first hair cut appointment here, which I was a bit scared about. Mike goes to this salon and said the guy studied in New York for a long time, and knows what he is doing. So I show up and am ready. We start with the shampooing of the hair, which I always love. They put the normal towel around your neck and then I got a towel that went over my legs and another that went over my chest. Guess they didn't want to get my clothes wet??? After my hair was washed, I got a massage and it was great. The guy rubbing on my shoulders said "very hard shoulders" and I replied, "yes I know." This means, I obviously have been doing waaaayyyyy too much house work and am in need of a break and gives me a reason to go get a massage. Good thing I found 2 in Roppongi that have great reviews. Let's hope Mike sees eye to eye with me on this request. Time for hair cutting, Yuri (the stylist) asks what I want and I tell him 2-3 inches shorter, thinned out, cut my bangs, layered. In the end, my hair came out better than I expected even though I had to ask him to cut my bangs a bit more. I like the cut, but it isn't has short as I would have liked it and I am not sure he gave me as many layers as I wanted. He also didn't chi it as well as he could have, so it is a bit puffier than I would like, but tomorrow it should be flatter. In some places it looks longer than other places, so we shall see. Good thing about it, is that I got 20% off because Mike referred me and I continue to get this discount if I schedule my next appt. within 3 months. So I scheduled one for 2.5 months from now, right before we leave on the honeymoon. However, he will have to cut it shorter since I will want minimum hassle with it
while honeymooning. Let me know what you think even though it looks the same!



previous count
Japanese language - 5
Amanda - 3

Now
Japanese language - 8 (2 for dry cleaning situation, 1 for midori)
Amanda - 4 (1 for calling the store)

Sake #2

I continue my quest of sake and this is bottle #2 that we actually bought. I have had sake a couple of times in between this one and the awful first bottle, but they were at restaurants or bars, so I don't know anything about them. We purchased this bottle at the liquor store and had no idea what it said other than the name!

Here I am getting the cups and mini carafe ready to start the heating process. We picked up this set back in May when we took a trip down to Hiroshima/Kyoto/Nara. The carafe has the famous torii (shrine gate) that looks like it floats on water during high tide, painted on it.

Sake is suppose to be warm, so I had to heat it up. From what we have read, this is the way to heat it up. It is suppose to get to a 104F and then its ready to drink. Good thing I bought a thermometer with our wedding gift cards and brought it with me. Mike put it in to check the temperature.

And we had success. Kompai!


This one was more successful than the last bottle seeing as how it is actually clear! It really didn't have a flavor I could pin point. It definitely tasted better hot. As it started to cool, it wasn't as good, but I still drank it. I think I am on the right track!
Now for Mike's thoughts...
It tasted sweet and it's better when it's nice and warm.

Blonde moment

Blonde moment indeed - I messed up the time of my 2nd cooking class today. I thought it was at 1:15, giving me the morning to find an apron. Well, I get all my things together, walk over to the place, open my planner to find out that I have missed my class, which was at 11:15am. I was 2 hours late. RATS. The teacher saw me and was like "you missed my class, they are eating now." They were eating and it was the Japanese menu, so I was super bummed. There was also like 2 Americans/foreigners, I am more bummed that I didn't meet them and make friends. RATSx2 I had to reschedule for 2 weeks from now, so that week of blog posts should be good since I will have 2 cooking classes that week. Unfortunately that week I will also be a bad Japanese student and cancel my Japanese lesson to go to cooking class. tehe Anywho, I had to pay a small materials fee for missing the class. They are all about conservation and not being wasteful, which is good. Bad part is, Mike is definitely going to make fun of me for missing class and crack some joke about how I have nothing to do, so how could I miss the few things I do have planned. It should be a good time.

In honor of missing cooking class(though I am really bummed), I decided I would re-make one of the dishes we made last week, shrimp au-gratin, for dinner. It was a success, even though we did have a few problems. The white sauce was not as thick as I would have liked it, so maybe I have to stir the rue longer before adding in the milk. I don't have individual ramicans, so I made it in a square cassarole dish, so hopefully it will be ok. Here is the right out of the oven picture. Let me know how you think I did from the previous picture. I am hopefully getting Mike to write something after dinner. All I know is that I cheated a bit as it came out of the oven and ate a pasta shell, hmmmmm.


Amanda told me to blog about her dinner. I tried to write "It was good", but then she got mad at me. So, "It was good, but it needed more sauce". I don't think she'll like that any better, but at least it's more. I don't exactly know how au gratin is Japanese cuisine, except there was shrimp in it. I guess the important thing is it was much better than anything I could cook for myself, so I'm very happy. And full.