Saturday, May 28, 2011

Confusing weather reports

How can the forecast on Wunderground.com say that the current condition is winds of 8.0 mph and there is a 30% chance of precipitation when the satellite looks like this?




I believe that says wind gusts of 120 mph in the upper corner - not 8 mph!!!!

Actual weather forecast from the website:

Weather at a Glance

Weather Station: Stearly Heights, Okinawa

Mostly Cloudy
Temperature: 77.8 °F
Feels Like 80 °F

Wind(mph) 8.0

Tonight:

72 °F
Chance of Rain
30% chance of precipitation
Typhoon Songda

Typhoon Songda and bread

Yes, I must be getting partly Japanese to mix such diverse topics in one post, but there is a correlation (sort of).

So we've been waiting all day for what was once "Super Typhoon Songda" to hit our tiny island.  At one point it was supposed to hit us directly at about a category 4, now it seems it's going to swing to our west slightly and be a mere category 2 (96-110 mph winds).  We've been sitting at TCCOR-1 (tropical cyclone condition of readiness) all day in anticipation of the storm.  Poor Stevie has been on hold all day waiting to be called back into the hospital.  He was on call yesterday and is the guy for Sunday so he must go back if the status bumps to TCCOR 1-C. 



Of course, that doesn't mean the weather has been bad.  In fact the kids and I were outside playing for a while until the grueling humidity had us scurrying back into the A/C.  Then about 1:00 I was feeling restless and since there was still no rain and very little rain, I took the kids shopping at the PX.  What else do you do when anticipating a great storm???

Which leads me to the bread part of the title... One thing I do tend to do when trapped inside is to bake and this morning I thought some homemade bread sounded good.  For some reason I had a wild idea that it would be good if you could make bread in a slow cooker (I left my bread machine in storage in Virginia) so I went to the computer, tapped in "slow cooker bread" and *bingo* tons of recipes popped up!  Who knew?  I tried it, it's super easy, and it was wonderful with Italian bean soup for dinner!



Yummy warm, chewy bread!

PS - They just now called to tell Stevie he's due back to the hospital.  Now he has to be on call until Monday morning...bummer!

Friday, May 27, 2011

That's One Big Head!

I stopped in at our favorite fish market the other day to pick up some fish for dinner and we found this on a cart in front of the stall...



Those were some big ole tuna - would have been neat to see the whole fish!

Sad Day

I know that military life includes a lot of moving, but saying good-bye is never easy.  Today we had to say good bye to our great friends Liz, Don and Lydia (and Molly the dog and Speedy the cat).  They're returning to the mother land but will be missed dearly by all of us.  They've been like family to us here and my heart is missing a piece right now...

Toasting the move at "Pizza Heaven" aka Il Piccollino

BFFs



They're "winning"

Monday, May 23, 2011

Another beautiful day at the beach

Sunday's weather included gorgeous blue skies, just enough heat to merit getting in the water and low tide at just the right time.  The culmination?  Another awesome day snorkeling and picnicking at the beach.  The only dark cloud - it was Liz and Don's last time as they move this week.

Amazing water!

Stevie and London snorkeling

Emmy and Lydia playing in a tidal pool.

This is the way I have to start off snorkeling- checking for any bad things before I get in!

See... I do get in eventually!

Me and Emmy

Can you see the coral shelves under the water?

Me and Liz, photo by Emmy

Best friends

Stevie and Don snorkeling

There were tons of brittle stars this time - must be breeding time?

Hanging out on the beach

Cannon being "seaweed man"

The gang


Aren't they sweet?
 After the beach, we went to Thai in the Sky - a yummy Thai restaurant with a fantastic view.

The view from Thai in the Sky

Dining at Thai in the Sky

In the Honey Badger on the way home.

In the Honey Badger on the way home.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

More 100 Yen Goodies

I haven't been to the 100 Yen store in a while but I had to pop in yesterday for a few things.  Here's the best thing I found:

These are "Mr. Clean"-type sponges, which isn't funny,



but the packaging is!!!



Do you wake sparkling or does the sponge???

Snorkeling

After kicking off the season on Mother's Day Sunday, we returned with more of the neighborhood gang this past Sunday to pursue more fish.  It was a great neighborhood outing, but unfortunately the weather was not so great.  Overcast skies and cool temperatures kept me out of the water, but some more die hard enthusiasts did jump in to swim with the fishies.


Mike, Kelly, Matt and Dave (who was so cold he was purple!)

Liz and Cannon (see his strait teeth???)

Fortunately, Kelly brought her underwater camera case so now you (and I!) can see what's in the depths.  Photos courtesy of Ranger Rick, aka Don.

Lion fish and box fish

Lion fish (I try not to think about Cannon swimming so close to these!)


Cool green coral and a sea urchin

Funky leopard sea cucumber

Don and the kids collected a bunch of hermit crabs and soon found out that they love Doritos!