Anyone who thinks what our government is doing to "fix the economy" needs to live at an overseas military base and experience true bureaucracy in every aspect of their life from where they will live, what kind of house they are assigned, vet care, car care, health care, etc and then let me know what you think.

Last weekend was the Okinawa Marathon and 10K.
I was waiting to post about it until I got the pictures from Lucky. I'll have to add the pictures today or tomorrow when I get the disk. I ran in the 10K along with Marcy, Holly & Joey. I've done a few 5K's but this is the longest "race" so far. I had high hopes of training for it and that fell by the way-side. However, all the interval training I've been doing with my EFC class really helped and I finished the race. I did walk a little bit but it's only because mentally I can't get over that I can physically run that far.... I've never been the "athletic" type. I finished in 1 hour 12 minutes and 17 sec. After the race I was glad it was over. I guess I didn't experience all the "endorphins" everyone talks about until Tuesday. Now I'm thinking of picking another goal and training for it. Nothing longer than a 10K though.... not for awhile anyway. It gets so hot here, if I do want to train, I'll have to get up at the crack of dawn. I don't know if I have that in me.
This week I"m going to square away our trip to Tokyo & Kyoto - train tickets, hotel rooms, etc. I also need to order a few warm clothing items. Hopefully I'll be able to find some good sales!

Wow - it's Wednesday already.
I just can't catch my breath. Life is passing me by quickly these days. It's not like it's "passing me by", I mean, I'm always doing something but I don't have enough time to do all that I need to do and all that I WANT to do so the needs beat out most of the wants. Anyway....
Friday night we went to the club and met the guys after they announced the Turkey Shoot Award winners. We hung out there until about midnight because we wanted to see Trash who was flying in from Vegas that night. Always good to see Trash Saturday we had the boys b-day party. The weather was beautiful! I started getting nostalgic, thinking that this is the 3rd birthday we've had for the boy in Japan! In military terms... that means it's time to move! I was looking around at the kids, most of whom have celebrated 3 birthdays with him, and I was thinking about our friends that used to live here that don't anymore. The fire truck came to the party and William couldh've cared less. It came because we asked them to come, not because there was a fire or someone got hurt.
Saturday night we had a wives naming in "The Zipper". This consists of all the wives in the squadron being invited to the bar to tell stories about those that are getting "named". It's always a fun night, full of laughs and good times. After the festivities, I was, again, getting nostalgic... taking it all in. I was reading the "wall of fame" and counted 29 people that have moved since we arrived. This summer, about 8 more families will be added to that list. I also started to take stock of my life on this island and think about how NOT NORMAL it is. Here I am, 38 years old (oops... I'm 37), sitting in a fighter squadron bar with a bunch of women in ridiculous red dresses having a party. THIS IS NOT NORMAL!!! It sure is fun though

Why is it that, every time I take my sheets off the bed to wash them, I can never manage to get them back on the bed until about 10 PM, just before I'm going to bed? I find it really annoying and I have no one else to blame but me. I stripped the bed at 8:30 this morning and straight in the washer they went. They were in the dryer by 1 PM and here it is 10 PM and I'm going to make the bed now.
ugh...
I'm hosting our wives "coffee" tomorrow night with Marcy & Brenda. Wine, Champagne and Chocolate - yummmmy!
On a personal note, today at EFC (Extreme Fitness Challenge) I rand the 1.5 mile in 16:37 which is about 1:20 faster than I ran it 3 weeks ago! The key is the music... I need to make sure I have some fast songs on my ipod. I hate running it on the track. I think if I could run a route on the road I would run faster. It's hard for me to get over the fact that I have to run SIX times around.