Black Sunday

Yesterday I mentioned that we were going to line up early this morning to get the $20 gift cards again. Nope! We didn't hear our alarm, and I'm glad we didn't because I had a nice, comfortable sleep! And we even had our heater on, which made it better!

Well, Joey pressed something unintentionally on the AC remote (which is in Japanese) and it started blowing hot air. But he started pressing buttons again, so it's back to the regular cold air.

We put our Christmas tree and hung our stockings up last night! Joey bought the tree and decorations last year (pre-marriage), so I think I'll have to buy a few more decorations to add a girl's touch. I love the holidays, don't you?

Black Saturday

Okay, so I really don't know if they call it "Black Saturday", but you know what I mean.

We sat in line early again at the BX, and got $20 gift cards, each! WooHoo! We were #66 and #67 out of 100 people. I think we're going to be crazy again, and sit in line tomorrow morning too. I like free money! Who doesn't?

Remember how I said my dad stopped giving my sisters, my mom, and I shopping sprees on Black Friday and the day after Christmas? Well, he started them up again! I'm jealous. So dad, want to send some money our way so we can go shopping here? Remember, we are your favorites!

Black Friday

How many of you are crazy Black Friday shoppers? Before I loved Black Friday! When I was younger, my dad would spoil my sisters, my mom, and I rotten with a shopping spree on Black Friday and the day after Christmas. But we grew older, started working, and started making our own money ... and my dad soon figured out his girls are expensive! I would still go shopping, sometimes by myself because I'm cheap and I love sales!

But moving to the island and the BX/PX being the only American stores that cater to Black Friday sales, it's crazy! The 1st 100 people in line at the BX/PX get a $20 gift card. Since Joey and I are weirdos, don't have kids, and want free money, we headed over to Kadena's BX at 4:00 am ... and it didn't open until 7:00 am. But of course, there were over 100 people in line already, plus the other hundred lined up at the other entrance in the back! We live far and didn't want to drive back home, so we stayed in line, in the freezing cold ... just because!

We didn't see any items on sale that really caught our eye, so ended up just buying items regular price ONLY because they had them in stock and we never knew when they would get them again if they sold out.

After getting really grumpy and frustrated, due to the lack of sleep and hunger, and trying the move between the crowd, we headed back home after lunch ... only to take a mini nap and head back to the BX at 4:00 pm to get these scratchers that might be a $100 gift card and because there was a 25% sale off all Coach purses between 6 pm to 7 pm.

But good news ... no, GREAT news! The gas station on base finally lowered the gas prices from $4.06 to $2.43! It took about $20 to fill up my tank, that's almost half of what I normally spend!


Well, off to sleep! Why? Because Joey and I are still crazy after what happened today and are going to line up earlier tomorrow morning to try to get a free $20 gift card (with no intention of buying anything in particular) after waiting in line in the freezing cold.

Thanksgiving 2008

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you have a warm, fun-filled, loving, tummy-ache day! There are so many things that I am grateful for this year:

1. Joey - the greatest husband in the world
2. Family - they are my rock, my family - plain and simple
3. Friends - they fill me with laughter
4. I'm done with school - woohoo!
5. I get to live on the beautiful island of Okinawa, Japan - stress-free, care-free, paradise
6. Not having to work this year - maybe next year? maybe not, I'm having too much fun!

We spent the day with friends who live on base. The food was wonderful! Juicy turkey, yummy desserts! Fun games of Taboo (girls vs. guys - the girls won, of course) and Rock Band.

I brought some snacks cause our host made plenty of food - letting me take home left overs. Yay for not having to cook this weekend! I made some pecan tartlets and a chocolate/peanut butter munchie. They are not necessarily Thanksgiving food, but I wanted to make them, so I did. Want the recipe? Keep reading!

Pecan Tart

For crust:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup softened unsalted butter
3 oz softened cream cheese

For filling:
2/3 cup chopped pecans
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons melted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg

Directions:
Mix ingredients for crust. Make teaspoon sized round balls and mold into mini tart molds. Mix ingredients for filling and fill each tart with a teaspoon of mixture. Bake at 325 degrees for 25 minutes. It makes about 25 tarts.

Puppy Chow

Ingredients:

1 12-ounce box of plain Chex cereal

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup smooth peanut butter

5 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

plenty of powdered sugar

Directions:

Heat chocolate chips, peanut butter, and butter in a 1-qt. saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently until melted. Remove from heat. Add vanilla and stir. Put Chex cereal in a large bowl and pour chocolate mixture over cereal. Gently mix the chocolate mixture and cereal with a spatula, and coat evenly. In a large resealable plastic bag, fill with powdered sugar and Chex mixture. Shake bag well until coated. Spread on wax paper to cool. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. (And yes, it does get messy!)

Jingle Bells ...

I love Christmas! The holidays just make me happy, seeing all the lights and decorations, and especially Christmas songs. I'm even happier because we're done shopping for all the presents! All I have to do is mail them.

So earlier this evening, I was in the family room playing games just singing Christmas songs out loud ... by myself. Joey was in the computer room doing whatever he was doing. 30 minutes go by, and I'm still singing - or at least trying to carry a tune while making up lyrics for parts of songs I forgot. Then Joey comes into the family room, hooks his external hard drive to the TV, and plays 15 Christmas songs he downloaded for me to sing along too!

Who has the sweetest husband in the world? I do! I love him more!

Anniversary Gifts

Liza: Hey babe, look. These are the types of gifts you're supposed to give on certain anniversaries. (Pointing to a list of traditional and modern anniverary gifts).

Joey: ...

Liza: See, for our one year, it's either a 'clock' for a modern gift, or 'paper' for a traditional gift.

Joey: Oh, so you can get me a big screen TV with a clock in it. OR you can get me a big screen TV wrapped in wrapping paper.

Liza: ...

Okinawa Hai

Okinawa Hai is a website composed by a group of military spouses on the island. I love this website! It helped answer a lot of my questions prior to moving to Oki, because Joey's answers were naturally one-worded-guy-answers. Also, all their posts gave me insights of life on the island, which made me more and more excited to start a new life here.

A few days ago, one of the posts was titled, "Top Fifteen Reasons You Know You Were Stationed in Japan (or Asia) AND in the Military".

You can read their top fifteen, but since some don't apply to me (yet), I've modified their list with some help from the comments listed from that post.

Liza and Joey's

Top Ten Reasons We Know We're Stationed in Japan and in the Military:

1. Your family has at least one ever-so-tacky but delightfully, comforting mink blanket.
Okay, this first one technically doesn't count for me and Joey, but my dad (retired Navy) did buy a few of these when he was deployed, and they are the best blankets for those winter nights. I think Joey and I will have to buy some soon, very soon!

2. You have patiently explained to those back home more than once, "You can use a regular stamp."
My mom is the only one who has actually sent us care packages. But, for those of you who would like to send us stuff, just remember, it's like sending mail stateside. Even though we're overseas, we use the military post office.

3. You find yourself bowing unconsciously instead of saying the ever trite "Hi".
I was just telling Joey the other day that I'm always bowing. And now, I always mix up "Hai" and "Hi". They're both pronounced the same, but "Hai", meaning yes or okay, is said faster and sharply. For example, I go into Family Mart (like a 7-11 store) and say "Hi = Hai" when I walk in, and when I pay, I bow and say, "Hai Hai", when they tell me how much I owe.

4. Someone stateside asks if you've seen the latest episode of (blank), seen the newest commercial for (blank), seen the new music video for (blank), heard the new song of (blank), etc.
We live off-base, and haven't signed up for the American TV channels, all we have are 6 Japanese channels. We would watch them online, but some websites are "out of the local viewing area - United States", i.e. CW, ABC, NBC, and TLC. The one English radio station here plays all types of music in random order, so we would hear hip hop, punk, country, pop, rock, and R&B all within 30 minutes.

5. You find yourself standing erect at the beginning of a movie or when hearing the National Anthem played in the background.
I have never watched a movie on a base, or stayed on base long enough to hear the National Anthem play at night, until now.

6.You wish the military could insert a bar code under your skin instead of having to show your military ID card anywhere you go on base.
Back home, showing my military ID whenever I would go to the military bases wasn't a hassle. But now, I feel I should staple gun my ID to my forehead instead of having to pull it out of my wallet so often.

7. You slurp your soup, and don't need a spoon.
Even when I ate at a Japanese restaurant in the States, I would use a spoon. Here, no need.

8. You have no problem paying 4,000 Yen for dinner, but not $40.
4,000 Yen = $40, for those who don't get the joke. Since it's just Joey and I, we rarely spend so much on food for the two of us. But there's an odd feeling that paying in Yen is cheaper than paying in Dollars, even though it's the same amount.

9. You think going 80 km/hour on the expressway is fast, but its only 50 miles/hour.
The highest speed limit on the main roads are between 40 km/h (25 mph) and 60 km/h (37 mph).

10. You look for landmarks when heading somewhere new, rather than street names.
There are barely any street names (except for on base), only for main roads. For example, I know that Kadena's (AF base) Gate 1 is at the stoplight with the Esso Gas Station in the opposite corner on the 58.

Happy Birthday to Me

I celebrated my birthday this weekend and had a blast thanks to the greatest husband, Joey. There have been things I've wanted to do and places I've wanted to see for a long time, but have never gotten around to doing them. So, Joey surprised me the whole weekend by taking me to those places.

The one place I knew we were going to was Cocok's, the 'it' place on the island to get your nails done. It's an hour and a half appointment, which includes an oil leg massage and beautiful, hand painted designs on each nail. They also served Okinawan donuts (to celebrate their three year anniversary) and a nice cold drink, which was calamansi juice, making the experience even better! Although, I have to admit, it wasn't up to my full expectations. I thought we'd be sitting in the massaging chairs with a jet foot spa, like the ones back in the States, but instead leather lazy boy chairs and a foot basin.

Joey also took me to Tobaru Koen Park that has a giant roller slide! There are a few parks that have these types of slides and are fun for all ages. We took cardboard to sit on as we slid down, upon the recommendations of others, to go faster and to avoid butt burn. It helped somewhat, but Joey and I still felt warm and tingly afterwards.
I've been wanting to go to Arin Krin, a garlic restaurant, ever since I landed on Okinawa, and I finally went! Joey surprised me for dinner and took me there, and oh my goodness, the food was great! It's a good thing Joey and I are married already, because we had stinky garlic breath later, but I loved it!
For dessert, we went to Blue Seal, an ice cream parlor. I usually get frozen yogurt while Joey gets an ice cream filled crepe. Since it was my birthday, I decided to get one too. Yummy!

Joey got a Blueberry Cheesecake Crepe with Cheesecake ice cream. I got a Chocolate Banana Crepe with Chocolate ice cream.

We went to the BX, as usual, and saw that they finally received a shipment of Rock Band 2 for the PS3, so we bought it. My favorite part is the singing. And since I haven't heard most of the songs prior to Rock Band and Guitar Hero, and can't sing, I would mostly screech and yelp to match the pitch. But it's fun! I think Joey's deaf now.

We finally got a house phone number, with a California area code, so people back home can call us without the international long distance charges. And, we got new cell phones and new cell phone numbers! Joey got the black/black phone and I got the White/Turquoise phone.

To end my birthday weekend, Joey bought me a dulce de leche cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory. Thanks Joey for a great weekend, I couldn't have planned it better myself!

Happy Birthday to Me!