Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Kitty sitter

From August 7th to the 16th, my boyfriend and I will be heading to Alaska. This leaves us with the dilemma of what to do with Suzu the kitty. In Japan, it's very rare to ask friends or even neighbors to look in on your animals or plants. It would constitute meiwaku (causing trouble) for them and people don't do it.

Plus, I don't have anyone to ask. In comes the cat sitter!! Cat's in particular don't like to leave their environment. So we searched online and found some pet sitters... and then we even came upon some cat sitters. Who specialize in taking care of ONLY cats! (This was exciting because a lot of the other pet sitting services were really full up with reservations.) So she is coming to meet Suzu and see where things are on Monday! Yay!!!

I mean, who wouldn't want to come watch my Suzu?

 She's just SO cute! :-)

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Looking less impressive...

Now my basil that was going like gangbusters looks a bit less impressive today.

At some point you have to thin it out to get it to grow into really yummy basil that you can eat. I had to do that today. Now it looks a bit sad, but I'm sure I'll get over it when the remaining plants get big and large enough to EAT!!! Yummmm... I wonder what I should make first. :-)

Friday, July 23, 2010

Beating the heat... !?!?!?!?!?

I'm still new to this "hot" climate business. Though it gets hot in Alaska, especially in Fairbanks. It's not the oppressive, tiring, sweat-soaked heat of hot PLUS humid climates.

My first experience with REAL heat (the hot and humid kind) was when I moved to Missouri to attend university. They are not messin' around there! There is a need for the heat index when you live in a place with heat and humidity.

I now find myself in a place that is at least equally as hot and humid as Missouri. There are bigger problems now. There is no central air in Japan. Correction, no central air in homes in Japan. Also, there is so much asphalt and so little greenery that it feels like you are baking from above and below when you are outside. (Thus, I really try to limit my outside time.)

I am such an amateur at beating the heat that I need some serious help! Does anyone have any idea how you can still enjoy sunny days, without being miserable and baked from the heat? Any ideas would be VERY helpful! :-)

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Farmer Alisha!!

In Japan, if you live in a city there is no room for a real garden. But I REALLY wanted to have a bit of garden. So... I am growing basil! I've never started basil from seeds before... this is what is looks like. :-)

 It's growing like gangbusters!! I have to weed out a lot of them (I might try transplanting some too.) on Friday - my first OFFICIAL day of summer vacation!

Here's another pic, I'm really rather pleased with the results.
I should also mention that it's been under 2 weeks since I started it!! It already smells all basil-y as well. Yum! Can't wait to eat some pasta with fresh basil!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

The Reception.

The reception was a blast! My youngest brother made an epic best man speech!! (He can't remember all that he said... but that's beside the point.) The food was fantastic. The cake gorgeous. The groom's cake was delicious! (My wedding cake got stolen!!) All in all it was a great end to a lovely celebration.
This is the one picture with me in it. And my brother's too for that matter. We had a great time. We were just so busy having fun that we didn't have time for pictures.

The brothers. Overly serious faces just don't really suit them. :-)

Yummmmm... appetizers! Everyone was SO hungry by the time we got to eat.

New family!! Brothers and sisters. Lots of smiles all around!

Bride and the girls! Getting ready to dig in.
The food!! Yummmmmm.... it was SO delicious.

Boys "dancing" and screaming the words with the songs! Hilarious... :-D There's a funny picture somewhere of Garret (youngest brother) doing the faux splits. VERY funny!

Wedding!

Being in a wedding means that you don't get to take very may pictures. So, I have some pre-wedding and post-wedding pictures, but I don't have any during wedding pictures. Which means there's a lot missing... but that couldn't be helped as I didn't have a mini-sized camera a la James Bond to hide in my bouquet.

This is Kate, the bride pre-dress. Note her lovely hair, veil and basketball shorts! :-)

This is my mom in her lovely mother-of-the-groom dress. I did her hair! :-) Since the day was a bit tense it required a bit more patience in order to complete that task. Plus, I'd only arrived two days before and had an 18 hour time change!
Now this is Kate with the white dress! Awww... isn't she lovely. It was the perfect dress for her as well. Nice and princess-like. :-)

Other bridesmaids!! The dresses were great and looked nice on everyone. The color was also great. Well done Kate for choose nice colors!
Flower girl!! She was so cute. She had cheese hidden in her basket to help bribe the much younger (just over a year) flower girl to walk down the aisle. Luckily, the cheese wasn't necessary.
Christine!! Maid of Honor and unofficial photographer... taking a picture of me, taking a picture of her. :-)

There are no pictures of me in the pre-wedding set. I am not very good at getting other people to take my picture. There's at least ONE in the reception set! :-)

Rehearsal!

So, in Alaska the rehearsal dinner is always a bit relaxed. My brother's rehearsal dinner was at a microbrewery. The food and company were great...
Brendan and Ethan (groomsman) mid-sentence. Not sure what they were talking about. :-)
 
Then there was the bride and her sister. Christine (sister of bride, closest to the camera) is a riot! We had a very silly time at the dinner and probably ate far too much!! But that's what weddings are all about, right?
 
Now, three of the men in the wedding are HUGE Liverpool FC fans. My brothers and John, brother of the bride, decided to be all matchy, matchy and wear their shirts on the day of the rehearsal. I believe the hi-five was required after having a shot... :-)

 
Mommy and me. We were both dressed a bit nicer because we had some really nice beads we wanted to wear. I actually ended up wearing mine with my dressed. It was spur of the moment accessorizing, but I definitely wanted to have one with both of us wearing the beads. Shimon's mom had made them especially for us!

Hello, you may have forgotten...

but my name's Alisha. And once upon a time, I really did try to keep up with my blog. Alas, it seems that life has been happening an awful lot lately. BUT it is now officially summer vacation and I'm going to do a bit of catching up.

What has happened in the last few months? Let's see....

I started a new job in April. I teach at two junior high schools. The make up of the schools are extremely different. One is a relaxed and fun place to work. The other is less fun (administration-wise), more uptight and less welcoming, but the kids are great and if I focus on them I really like the job. Sometimes that is a bit hard.

In June, I had an extremely short trip to Alaska (was on the ground 3 days!) for my brother's wedding. It was fantastic! I had a great time (though short) visiting and celebrating the happy occasion. It was also the first time I was a bridesmaid. :-) Being in Japan has eliminated many opportunities for that honor, but I couldn't pass up on it this time.

After returning from the wedding, it's been absolutely crazy busy with school. Had finals to give almost as soon as I arrived back in Japan and have barely had time to breathe since.

The wedding photos will be posted next!