See You Soon / SpiderGuy

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: See You Soon - This is the only picture I could find of this arch; I know I have a few of the other side but my Aperture library is still in disarray. The arch marks the entrance to the Mikasa Park area of Yokosuka. You have to go through this arch to get to the secondary gate of the base. As you leave the park area (and therefore also as you leave the base), the inscription that is visible says "See you soon". I saw it when I left base briefly today (to bring our fish back to the pet store - Brandon loves them so much that abandoning them to die was just not an option), and it made me sad. I never wanted to live here and I was literally counting down the days until we could leave; but I didn't want to leave like this.

Tara: SpiderGuy - My son's interpretation of Spiderman. With earmuffs and a kimono.

Indicator Lamp / Suburban Sunset

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Indicator Lamp - I've never been good at feeling earthquakes. I think I feel movement when there isn't any, and I don't feel anything when there is. There have been literally hundreds of aftershocks, but most of them are small enough that I haven't really been feeling them, although sometimes I think I feel movement and it turns out to just be my own heartbeat reverberating through my body. But ever since the sun went down on Friday and I turned the lamps on, I realized that this chandelier lamp is the best way to tell if the earth really is moving, because even the slightest movement is amplified first by the dangling nature of the lamp, and then again by the way that the light is spread across the wall. And yes, that is a rubber duckie with a Santa hat on. I actually have no idea why it's still out.

Tara: Suburban Sunset - Taken from my bedroom.

Ominous

Kerry

Kerry: Ominous - I took this picture from my balcony about 3 hours after the first earthquake. The water was starting to actually look turquoise, which usually only happens right after a major storm. (I guess a major earthquake shakes the water up almost as much as a typhoon.) The wind is starting to pick up and the clouds turned black before the sun went down - great, just what we need, a storm on top of the tsunami.
ETA: The tsunami didn't reach us here in our part of Tokyo Bay. We were very, very lucky; we didn't even lose power here on base. Others were not so lucky. Don't worry about me, pray for those up north who lost everything.

Tara: I had a picture ready for today, but it's really insignificant to what Kerry is going through right now. Today I'd rather keep the focus on Japan and everything everyone there is going through. Love and thoughts to Kerry, my friends in Japan and to all the people that are affected by the earthquake and tsunami.

Rare Cheese Flavor / What kind of express?

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Rare Cheese Flavor - Yes, this really is "rare cheese" flavored orange juice. (Well, 51% juice. Maybe the other 49% is cheese.) I bought it. It's been in my fridge since yesterday. I haven't been able to psych myself up to try it yet.

Tara: What kind of Express? - I saw this in a dollar store and it took me way too long to realize that that was an "s" in "Fast" and not an "r." Also, I just noticed that I've inadvertently given my photos this week a WTF? theme.

Arc Light / That's Easy!

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Arc Light - At Ikea I found these awesome glass vases that, if you put six of them together, form a circle. They come in six different colors, so naturally I got one of each. Today I finally bought some flowers to put in them. I had wanted *white* sweet peas and tulips, but I do like how the pink and purple turned out. I put a candle in the middle of the circle and it's really lovely how the light glows through the different colors of glass. From above, though, it just reminds me of a multicolored, flowery Iron Man chest. Iron Girly Girl, maybe?

Tara: That's Easy! - I work with my kids using educational workbooks. This was found in one of Maggie's books. Not sure what she's supposed to do here since it's kind of already done.

Stained Glass / Balls Out

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: Stained Glass - I was blown away when I cut up this orange; I've never seen one before that was sectioned in this way. I'm not thrilled with how this picture came out, but I was only able to take one shot before my son came over to the table and demanded to know why I was taking pictures of his orange, because he was hungry.

Tara: Balls Out - I'm not sure the car balls are helping to make this pink car more manly.

No I Don't / What's Outside?

Kerry . Tara

Kerry: No I Don't - I've never quite been able to figure out the point of this poster. It appears to be something along the lines of "If you think the Spice Girls are hot, you should try our Blazin' Cajun Burger! It puts those ho's to shame." The fact that cajun food was trendy around the same time as the Spice Girls adds credence to that theory. The problem is, there is no way that this poster is that old. It just hasn't aged enough. It looks brand new. So I think that the underlying message here is actually, "Hey you, pull your ass out of 1997 and come eat another f'ing burger, you fat sack of loser."

Tara: What's outside? - Every month of Maggie's first year, I would take a picture of her sitting with a big stuffed bunny so we could see how much she was growing. Now I take a photo of her with the bunny every year around her birthday. I was only able to get a few shots in before she got bored and jumped up to go look out the window for awhile. Gavin would have gotten slightly annoyed but would have stayed until I was finished taking pictures. Maggie has more of a, "I'm gonna do me, so deal with it." type of attitude. I don't where she gets that.