Nothing could be funner than to be a red light runner in the...morning

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Yes, I am aware that funner is not a word but, it rhymed! You know...nothing could be finer (feener) that to be in Carolina (caroleena) in the morning...yeah, um...it's a Daffy Duck cartoon.

Anyway, I've learned since we've been here that I will be coming back with at least two bad habits. The one that has the least amount of consequences is slurping your soba right out of the bowl and then picking the bowl up and drinking up what's left. Mmm mmm! The worst thing that could happen there is if you're doing this at the table with your mother. You know you're going to get the fast-as-lightning smack to the back of the head.

The second thing I'll leave here with is an impeccable ability to run red lights with the best of 'em. On Okinawa red lights are more of a...how should I say it? They're more of a suggestion. It's always good to count to 3 when your light turns green. You have to give those stragglers some time to finish racing through the intersection in their little cracker boxes they call cars.

I was thinking of trying red light running while slurping soba from a bowl just to liven things up a bit. What do you think?

What's in a (dog's) name...

On Friday we added a new member to our family. I was perusing www.okinawayardsales.com/ and found the cutest little dog! He's an Oki mix. That's short for Okinawan mix. That's the Japanese version of a Heinz 57, a mutt...whatever you want to call them. His birthday was actually on Christmas so he's one year old. He's been to obedience school and he's great with kids. He knows a lot of basic commands and won't snatch things out of your hands. He's the polar opposite of Millie, God rest her soul. :( He is so good with Jenna. She can play tug-of-war with him and hand him his bone...whack him on the head and do pretty much what any other 4 year old does to a dog. He doesn't do anything. He loves it!

Probably all of you know that we have a cat. Sidney's pushing 15 come April 1st. We brought The Dog in and he was less than pleased. The loud, low-pitched sound that came out of him was pretty impressive! They scrapped really good once. Poor Sidney was 4 paws off of the floor when he grabbed the dog's neck. He spun around him like the Tasmanian devil. It was hilarious!

The Dog (previously known as Roger) has now been given a Japanese name. Now he's Yoshi which means good luck and joy. It was the favorite one of three that I liked the most. The scary thing about it is I told my best friend, Jenn we were going to give him a Japanese name and she said he looks like a Yoshi. Hmm. That was too weird! Like she said, "great minds think alike!"

I'd like to buy the world a Calpis...

Well, we've found what seems to be our favorite drink on the island. It's called calpis and is an uncarbonated soft drink manufactured by Calpis Co., Ltd. headquartered in Tokyo.

It was first marketed on July 7, 1919. It quickly became popular in pre-war Japan as its concentrated form meant it kept well without refrigeration. The polka dot packaging used to be white dots against a blue background until the colours were inverted in 1953. It was originally themed on the Milky Way, which is in reference to the Japanese festival of tanabata on July 7, a traditional observation seen as the start of the summer. Calpis was first sold on this day.

Calpis has a light, somewhat milky and slightly acidic flavor, similar to plain or vanilla-flavored yogurt. Its ingredients include water, nonfat dry milk and lactic acid. It is produced by lactic acid fermentation. It is sold as a concentrate which is mixed with water or sometimes milk just before consumption. A pre-diluted version known as Calpis Water (カルピスウォーター), or its carbonated variety, known as Calpis Soda（カルピスソーダ, are also available. It is also used to flavor kakigori (shaved ice dessert) and as a mixer for cocktails and chuchai In English-speaking countries the beverage is sometimes called "Calpico," because "Calpis" may sound like something else that doesn't sound so nice. I edited it for you. Quite frankly, the first time someone told me what it was and asked me if I wanted to try it I was shocked at what I thought they had said. :)