Test of the FPO Postal System

Jennell,
It is Monday morning here in the Midwest. I have just dropped off a card in the mailbox to be sent to your FPO I am curious to see how long it takes to get to your school. Let me know when it gets there.

I am sure that you have been very busy with the new school year and getting settled in the new place (nice place, BTW), locating a car, and working with Josh. But we sure do enjoy your reports from Japan and the school and the base. So, do you think you could find the time to update us again?

We hope and pray that all is going well for you there.

start four pics down. b 

water melon and these are great apples for pie, which has been promised by my wife! 

peppers, basil, kohlrabi, cayene peppers and marigolds to cut down on pests. 

Can't ya just hear the snap you'd get biting into this? We did! It is from our garden and tree in the back yard! Had it for lunch! Ummmm Ummmm good! Nothing like a mid western tomato! huh mom?  

Hurricanes and Typhoons

Looks like lots of us are in for some fun weather today! We have a typhoon on the way and I hear you guys have a hurricane. Both seem pretty wimpy. Here are some sites for those who are interested:

hurricane: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

typhoon: http://www.cfay.navy.mil/typhoon_update.htm

School is cancelled for us tomorrow so I should be able to catch up a little on my blogging. :) Hasta la vista!

Airfare to the Sean/Daniela wedding

Bill & Valerie - I was looking online, and Spirit Airlines has an airfare for $107 RT from O'Hare to Fort Lauderdale. That's if you fly on Thursday and Tuesday. Also, Delta has $131 flying on Friday and Monday. That's about as cheap as it gets.

Grandma got stressed today...

Grandma had a chemical stress test today, which turned out to be not that big of a deal. They gave her some meds by IV for four minutes, then took 8 minutes worth of pictures in a machine that looked a lot like an MRI only not closed in. She started to get freaked about that, but no one paid any attention, so she went along with the program. Then we left to get something to eat (it was now noon) and came back for another 6 minutes in the machine for the "resting" pictures. The 74 year old cardiologist (who was British and got shot at during the invasion and blitz in England when he was nine years old) and the technician both said it didn't look like there was anything earth-shattering, but we have to wait for the report and the appointment at Dr. Liporace on Thursday for final results. Anyhow, it was tiring, as she got home around 2 pm. I took a nap!

Results

If anyone reads this who is able to respond please do so ASAP. I am at work this evening but am anxiously awaiting news on Mom's test results. I should be able to check the blog several times tonight so go ahead and post.

b

Wedding Plans

Dani, Valerie and I would love to make it to your wedding, but we do not know if it will be a possibility. The two months notice does help but I have to wait to see my schedule for the fall term.

Even if we do not make it our prayers will be with you.

b

Sunday in South Florida

This is Carolyn, along with Grandma, on Sunday evening. We are reading the blog, and viewing the aquarium pics from Okinawa. Very cool. We especially liked the sharks. Grandma decided that it would be no fun to be in the water with all those creatures. It's also fun to read all about Jennell and Josh's adventures on "mainland" Japan.

We have been enjoying Becky's company here for the past week or so, but she is preparing to return to AK for a day or two and then off to Oregon to school. She has been getting her eyebrows waxed and other important activities that MUST be done before one enters their sophmore year of college. I (Carolyn) have spent the weekend helping Daniela prepare for their wedding. Aunt Joanne and I helped make pew bows and other necessary items for the ceremony, which is scheduled for Oct. 22. It is pretty official, since I saw the invitations are already printed, as are the napkins. It's in print, now! It looks like it will be a lovely occasion, complete with all the trappings of a Wellington Club wedding. Today I'm told they chose tuxedos at the mall. I guess I should look for something to wear for myself..... shopping, oh, joy!

Grandma rode shotgun on the COP car Friday night, on the 6-9 pm shift (18:00 - 21:00 to all you military types) with Al Crippen. He's the gentleman who is deaf as a post, but very nice. That is what Grandma says, anyhow. I have never personally heard him say anything! Nothing unusual to report from that guard shift, but all is well in Maralago Cay. (The rabbits are fine...)

Grandma is staying overnight with me tonight. I'll take her home Monday morning. On Tuesday she's scheduled for a chemical stress test, to see if we can determine what is causing some dizziness and breathlessness that is plaguing her. It would be nice to get a handle on why she gets these spells of not feeling well. They come and go at a whim. Right now she feels fine, but she says my house is too cold. So here she sits with a quilt wrapped around her - in South Florida! Imagine!

Joe is on vacation this week. He'll be taking a trip around the house on a ladder. His idea of a good time. I, however, will be slaving at the office over a hot computer. Dani has given him some assignments to keep him busy, like putting together the arch for the wedding. He's thrilled.

Well, enuf of this chattering. I will show Grandma the blog whenever she is here, so she can join in. Have a good week everyone.

August 19, 2005 – Friday

Today was my first day at Yokosuka Middle School. After nine years of pretty much the same stuff, it was very strange to be at a different school and not knowing what to expect. The meeting started at 07:30. They had tables set up in the library with several books (about middle school) and another welcome basket. I was excited to get a YMS shirt and a school calendar, as well as some other little supplies to get started with in our classrooms. The meeting started with introductions of the mentoring team and the principals. It seemed strange that the principal wasn’t the one leading the new staff orientation, and even stranger that she and the AP left after chatting a little about themselves, their families, and how they got their new assignments. Then the mentor team split us into three groups and took us on a tour of the school. We’d seen most of the important places before, but they took us into the Home Economics room which has six mini kitchens and to the many different computer labs. We also saw the cafeteria and learned that we don’t have any lunch duty!

After the tour, the information specialist (aka librarian) taught us about some of the acronyms we would come across in the school and showed us some of the important parts of the school website. When she was finished, we all piled in the van and headed over to lunch. When we returned, the mentor team told us about our formal evaluations and the importance of making sure we were meeting the standards. Several times during the day, they also encouraged us to join the union…I guess that is big here. At about 13:30, Mary came back over to answer questions. When we ran out of questions, she asked that each of us drop in and chat with her and Willette so they could get to know us. I thought that was really nice. When they were finished, we were allowed to go work in our rooms.

My new room is really nice. Since it is not a Science room, it has carpeting. It also has tables, but I think I am going to trade those in for desks. I don’t want to start off with tables, and I figure that if I want tables later I can always just push the desks together. I found the textbooks and I am really excited! I will be teaching World Geography. Basically we study each continent, the landforms, locations, etc. I was not happy to see that someone before me ripped out pages from different book of the resource materials and just made a pile. UGH! I’m going to need binders. J LOL!

At 15:00 I left to meet Josh back in the room, but decided to see if he was in the Library. He was at the computers, as I figured, e-mailing his friends. When I asked, he said that he hadn’t caught up on the work from yesterday and hadn’t started anything for today. I told him to go back to the lodge and get started. I went to the Fleet Gym to look at sneakers (mine split on the bottom and are hurting my feet) and see if I could find out about Cable TV. No luck with the TV info and after looking at shoes briefly I decided to wait to try them on when I got shoes for Josh. When I left, I stopped in at the travel office and asked about how much it would cost to go to another country. She couldn’t give me any prices for October, so I guess I’ll have to wait on that.

When I got back to the room, Josh was not working. I told him to get started and he pulled out the Civics. I decided to call around and ask about cars. Someone told me that a girl name Naomi has a lot that we could visit. I called her and she has no cars available…what kind of car lot is that?!?!?!?! This is getting really aggravating! She did offer to come over and show me some cars on the internet. They are all going to be auctioned tomorrow morning and she could bid for me. I don’t like that idea because you have to take what she buys (you tell her which ones to bid on and how high to bid) and trust that she makes a good decision. We looked at several kinds and found a Miata that was fifteen years old. She wouldn’t get that one because it might have problems. I figured it would be cheap…she refused. I did like one of the Toyota RAV4’s, so she was planning to bid for me but didn’t hold out much hope because my high price was too low. Oh well…I don’t know what to do. Maybe I should rent a car and go visit other lots away from the base. The most frustrating thing about the car search is that even when I find one, it will take at least a week to be able to get it because there are so many different places to register it.

When Naomi left, Josh and I went back to the room. Josh asked me what he would get if he did his schoolwork. He didn’t seem to like my answer…“an education!” He thought I would say that if he finished I would buy him shoes. Hmm…yeah, that’s a precedence I want to set! When I said no, he stopped working and went to sleep. I thought about smothering him with a pillow, but managed to hold myself back. I finished my book and went to bed.

Saturday, August 20, 2005

This morning we had our big field trip to Yokohama. We met at the Wendy’s at 08:30. I would have like to have slept in a while longer, but somehow the people here seem to be dead-set against that. We then took a maze of trains to get to Yokohama. Mike was trying to teach us how it all worked and what to do, but I found myself just following the crowd. I’m sure that my first train trip alone will be interesting because the train system is not easy.

We got off the train and visited Chinatown. Why? I’m not sure. It was pretty much like Chinatown in New York and San Francisco. We saw a temple there that was interesting, had some ice cream, and then we walked back to get on the train to go to Yokohama. Basically we went through the Japanese town as a bunch of Americans with our digital cameras snapping pictures…how’s that for irony??? Yokohama is the second largest city in Japan. It was very pretty. There was a huge Ferris wheel – and I do mean huge! Mike took us over to the mall and we ate lunch at Garlic Jo’s. They had garlic pizza that was very, very good. After we ate, some people decided to stay at the mall and go shopping. Not having any desire to do that, I came back with the other group. The trip back was much shorter.

When we got back to base, the Kitty Hawk was just arriving. There were people on the side waiting while the ship pulled into the port. All of the sailors were lined up on the top deck. I watched that for about 15 minutes before realizing that the boat was moving at a snail’s pace and it may take years for it to finish. I walked the rest of the way back to the Lodge to see if Josh was there working diligently on his work. C’mon, a girl can dream! He wasn’t there, but arrived a little while later. He worked on his Civics until he couldn’t stand the music coming through the wall, and he asked if we could go to my classroom to work. That seemed like a great idea to me because he kept telling me he was reading while he was lying on his bed under the covers. We worked there for a while and then came back to go to bed.

Sunday, August 21, 2005

This morning was our big trip to the 100 yen store. I got up and made Josh wake up so that he could finish his work today and get caught up. We walked over and had breakfast at the Seaside. I then left to meet Evelyn and Debra so we could wait for Caroline to pick us up. We made great time getting to the store and chatted for a while waiting for it to open. There are five floors full of stuff that costs 100 yen (about $1). It was amazing! I spent about $70 and got all sorts of good junk. It is such a strange experience to walk into a store and not be able to read what each thing is. It drove me crazy not having any idea what most of the things were. I could figure out quite a few things, but the rest of them baffled me. The worst part is that I have no way of figuring out what they are. At home, when I was confused about something I could ask people or look it up on the internet. Here I am simply out of luck since I can’t even read what they call these things. I’ve also found that translating things online is nearly impossible because the characters are different. I guess I just need to make friends with some Japanese people who will take me shopping.

After five floors and two trips back to the car to unload stuff, we went to TGI Fridays for lunch. It was really good, and just like home. The best part was when the waitresses sang Hoppy Boiday to a girl at the next table. After lunch, it took us about an hour and a half to get back to base because the traffic was so bad. The company was good, so it didn’t matter.

When I got back, Josh had started some of the work but was nowhere near finished. He can totally do the lots of the work on his own but likes to have company while he works. Whatever…as long as he finished, I’m happy. He was invited to a Quinceniera (fifteenth birthday party) for a girl here on base. He has to rent a tux and take waltzing lessons. I had to call and talk to the mother to say it was okay for him to take part. That should be interesting. He has exactly 20 days to earn the money for the tux and I told him I would give him $4 a day towards the total. I explained the plan to the mother and told her that it was okay with me if he went, but that he was going to have to earn the money by doing his schoolwork. She thought that was great, so it looks like he is going to go. I am going to have to go watch him waltz…that’s gonna be interesting! He kept working on the schoolwork and seems to be intent on getting caught up tonight. We shall see!

Here is a picture of Alex I took a couple of weeks ago. He was driving us to the Deep River Water Park for a day of fun in the sun. We slid and splashed for a good time that day, then he went to work. 

Welcome Back

A Big Blogging Hug to John and Carolyn!

I, for one, am glad to see that you have made it back to the LamPolDwy blog. Jennell's exploits have got this thing rolling again. Jay can still post and ought to tell us about his sojourn into the Orient. Now all we have to do is to get a Polacek or two on here. Joanne has made comments on other peoples post but has yet to come onlne with her own. There are those of us who would love to know what is happening with Geo & Jo and Becky in FL and Carrie & Christian in AK. Or even what happens with Becky in OR.

I have issued new invitations to Becky and Carrie as well as my two boys. Joanne, I need your email address so I can issue one to you as well.

Oh, heah, Carolyn & John, you do not have to travel to Japan to have somethig to post, we are interested in you and your life even if it is in Florida.

JOHN'S out of the fog and onto the blog

Whew after days of tring to figgure what e-mail and password- I'm back. Oh yes friends I tender plans of blogging with the best of them. Now all I need is a life to bleather about;. be right back.

Carolyn's blogging again!!

Nothing real exciting to report. Just wanted to experiment getting back on the blog. My username had escaped me, but has been recovered. So I will be able to pontificate, bloviate, and further annoy everyone with my thoughts. Tomorrow I will join Daniela to make preparations for the October 22 wedding. I will keep you all updated, as I'm sure you are sitting on the edge of your chairs.....

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Evelyn and I went to the public transportation briefing today. We learned all about how to buy tickets and transfer from one train to another. Most importantly, however, they gave us a card that says, in Japanese, “I am lost, please help me get to Yokosuka Naval Base.” I’m thinking that will be a useful piece of paper! After the brief, Evelyn and I went to school to look for cars on the internet.

I think I forgot to write that yesterday, while I was at school, I ran into Victoria Mah. She is one of the other new teachers, and she is on my team. She really wants to teach Science, but got hired to teach either Social Studies or English. She found out recently that she was going to teach Social Studies. When I heard that, I wondered if switching with her would be an option. I’d much rather teach Social Studies than Science because I’ve actually taught that before! In the office, she said something again about hoping to switch to Science someday, and I asked is she thought it would be okay for us to ask to switch classes. She said she had been wondering the same thing, but had been hesitant to ask since she wasn’t sure how I felt about teaching Social Studies. We decided to ask Willette, the new AP what she thought since Mary was gone for the day. Willette thought it would be a good idea and that Mary wouldn’t mind us asking.

So today I tried to call Victoria and have her meet me at the school so we could talk to Mary. I couldn’t get a hold of her so I went in myself, figuring that the sooner we asked, the better. She is so nice! She hugged me when I walked into her office (I’m going to have to tell her not to do that!). We chatted for a minute and then she asked what I needed. I explained that although Victoria and I were so happy with our current spots and thrilled to be in Japan, we had been talking and realized that each of us might be better suited to teach the other person’s subject. Mary said that Willette had mentioned the possibility and that she had been thinking about it. She said that she didn’t see any problem with that and really just wanted everyone to be enthusiastic about what they were going to teach. She told me to let Willette and Jan know about the switch and to tell Victoria that it was okay. Woohoo! I am now the seventh grade Social Studies teacher!

Once that was settled, I called Josh. He was supposed to call me when he woke up, but he didn’t. He said that he would come over so we could do math. We got through the two lessons and then he said that he still hadn’t done any of the Civics. I told him to get his book and bring it back. He left and I didn’t see him again until 21:00. He hadn’t done any Civics or the English for the day. I just love these daily battles! I seem to be loosing this week. Hopefully when we get off the base, things will get a little easier since there won’t be as many people around to entertain him. It is becoming clear that the 90 day thing isn’t going to be enough. Guess we’ll have to figure something else out. I went to the legal center today to see if they had any advice, but you have to make an appointment or come to the walk-in time. They don’t do appointments after 15:00 so I’ll go on Tuesday after school during the walk-in hours.

The car search doesn’t seem to be going too well either. The cars on base are mostly minivans. I am hoping to go off base more this weekend and find something out there. I really need to find something before Friday and we move into the house. We shall see! For now, I’ve got to go to sleep so that I am bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for our new teacher orientation tomorrow. :)

Blog Note

This blog has the ability to accept comments on postings from members of Blogger. It is fun to post these notes and to read them. Look back on old posting to check for new comments.

Contact Information - Finally!!!

School Address (everyone gets mail there):
Jennell Lambert
C/O Yokosuka Middle School
PSC 473, Box 128
FPO, AP 96349-0128

School Phone: 011-8146-816-5165

Cell phone number: 011-8190-649-5701 (with free incoming calls)

Home Address (needs international postage): Kanagawa-ken, Yokosuka, Mabori Kaigan 2-38-5, Japan, 239-0801

Home Phone: I don’t know yet…I’ll find out next Thursday

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Since there weren’t any other important things scheduled for this morning, several of us decided to go to the cultural relations briefing. It was very interesting. They started by discussing religion and how religion is not a daily part of Japanese life. Although Shinto and Buddhism are the main religions, a typical person in Japan doesn’t choose one or the other. Many will have their wedding in a Shinto shrine, but be buried after a Buddhist funeral. These same people will often send their children to Christian pre-schools. After religion, they talked about Japanese history, government, emperors, and prime ministers.

Next we learned about kimonos. They used to wear up to 12 layers (about 60 pounds). A new silk kimono costs $3,000-$30,000! I guess I won’t be getting one of those anytime soon! Single women have long sleeves and married women have shorter sleeves. Most importantly, you ALWAYS have to put the left side over the right side, unless you are lying in a coffin.

The language portion of the brief was also very interesting. I’d like learn to speak some Japanese and supposedly it isn’t all that hard unless you want to learn to read it. We learned about bowing (always return a bow, never make eye contact while bowing, bow as low as the bow you were given or lower if the giver was an elder). Next was business card etiquette (give and take them with both hands, never write on the card, don’t bend them or put them in your pocket). We were also schooled in public transportation (never eat on a bus or train, don’t call out in public or wave to your friends, don’t use a cell phone). The whole class was very interesting and I was sad to miss the part after lunch.
Instead, I had to go to my Start Paperwork meeting. They had good news for me…my agent waived the agent fee because she is the owner and gets the owner’s fee. She also did not require a second security deposit even though she knows I will have a dog! Woohoo! I only have to pay three months of rent to move in…and my advance came today, so I am all set! I am signing the contract next Thursday and moving in on Friday. Of course, my stuff isn’t here so “moving in” won’t be too terribly difficult! They will be bringing me some loaner furniture, so the house won’t be empty. The guy who does sets up the loaner furniture kept calling my name and I didn’t realize it because he was saying, “Miss Lambertsan.” He must have called me about 7 times with me looking right at him before I figure out that he meant me! I guess it will take a while to get used to that whole respect thing!

After the meeting, I came back to meet with Josh, who of course wasn’t here. He’d left a note saying that he was in the Library working on Civics. When I got there he had his CD player on and was e-mailing his friends. Hmmm…I asked if he had done any and he had not. UGH! We walked over to the school to do math, since technically he can do Civics on his own. After that it was time for me to go to dinner. I left Josh working on the last part of the math assignment with strict instructions to finish that and the Civics test by 19:00 and meet me back in the room.

All of the new people and our sponsors met for Mongolian barbeque at the officers club. You go through this line with lots of veggies (my favorite) and then lots of meat. You choose what you want to throw in the bowl and they charge you based on how much it weighs. If you can guess the correct cost, within $.05, your dinner is free. After they weigh it, you can put on your own concoction of sauces and then they cook up the whole thing for you and bring it to your table. It was really good! Theresa, my sponsor, and I both only put in meat and then experimented with the marinades. We all tried out our next Japanese table manners and failed on pretty much every aspect! We didn’t match our eating pace and finish all at the same time. We didn’t take a bite of each kind of food in “triangle order.” We put soy sauce on the rice, even though it is only for dipping. We didn’t all finish every morsel of food. And some people even gave up on chopsticks entirely and used a fork! Oh well…it isn’t as if it isn’t obvious that we aren’t Japanese. Despite the horribly rude behavior at the table, I had a great time…until I got back to the room and found that Josh hadn’t finished ANYTHING he was supposed to do today! Oh joy!

Yokosuka Middle School

Thought you might like to see my new school. Click on the link to visit the school web site. :)

Josh's e-mail address

I just realized that Josh isn't listed as a contributor. He may want to play too now that he is across the world. His address is jedlam@yahoo.com. If you don't hear from him for a while it may be because he isn't doing schoolwork, but right now he has access. :)

Not too rattled!

August 13-14, 2005 – Saturday and Sunday

Well, um, I’m sure I did stuff this weekend, but I can’t exactly say what it was. Saturday morning I got up and went to the food court for breakfast and internet access. By the time I finished, it was time for lunch, so I grabbed a sandwich and headed back to the lodge to check on Josh. He was headed out to the pool, so I decided to go look at cars with the high school meeter-greeter and one of his new teachers. We went to an off-base car lot where the owner spoke English. Unfortunately, he only had about 10 cars and most of them were bigger than I want. He said that he could get a car from the auction, but that if he bought it and I don’t like it, I am stuck. That doesn’t sound like a good idea, so I guess I have to stick with the on-base car lot. I am thinking of looking for a Miata, but I also like the Toyota Rav 4. The used cars here are almost all older than 1995 because the Japanese have to pay huge taxes when their cars get to be 10 years old. We don’t have to pay the same amount because we are part of the military, so everyone buys the used cars. The mileage is usually pretty low (most have about 50,000 miles) and they are in good condition. The lot on the base seems to have a pretty good turn-over, so I’ll probably keep watching there. When we got back on base, we stopped by a furniture auction at the elementary school. Since I can’t get into the house for a while it didn’t make sense to buy anything so we left. I went back to the lodge and to read for a while and watch television. The TV on base is very annoying! There are about 10 channels and most of them are news. The other ones randomly show shows from ABC, NBC, and CBS. I’ve fallen asleep watching the Today show almost every night. I walked over to the NEX (Navy Exchange) furniture store to look at their selection. They have pretty good prices, so that will be an option when the time comes. I saw a pretty rug that I think would match my couch. I also went across to the regular NEX and bought a pre-paid cell phone. That way I can connect with Josh without walking back to the Lodge every time.

On Sunday morning Josh and I went to the Seaside for breakfast, but they had nasty food (not the regular buffet). I decided to go to the Fleet Gym for food and computer but Josh was supposed to go play paintball. The people he was going with ended up not going so we decided to meet back in the room to catch-up on schoolwork. When I arrived, the lobby was full of new teachers who had just gotten back from driving practice. Ooops! I’d missed my one chance to drive before taking my driving test on Monday morning. Oh well…Josh and I started the first English assignment and got pretty far before Josh refused to read one of the pages. Dunno what his deal was, but he opted to stop working and forfeit his food money for the day. I went over to the school to get work on the computer and try to decipher which medical plan is the best option. After a few hours, Josh called and asked if he could come do math with me. He met me at the school and we did four math lessons (we have to average two lessons a day in Math and English in order to not work on the weekends and still finish in 90 days) since he hadn’t done the Math on Friday and this was the one Saturday we had to do school. I’d like to know how his brain works and why it makes sense to him to do four lessons at once rather than two at a time. Whatever…we got caught up. By then it was too late to eat anywhere except the bowling alley. We grabbed some food and then came back to finish up the English assignment and Josh read the offending page. When English was finished he decided to go to sleep rather than do five multiple choice Civics questions in order to get back his food money, CD player, wallet, and computer privileges. Strange boy!


August 15, 2005 – Monday

Today was a big day! Debra, Evelyn and I were scheduled to take our driving tests at 09:00 and Mike was planning to pick us up in the lobby of the lodge at 08:00. By 08:35 we were starting to get nervous, so we decided to start walking (the driving instructor said that if we were late for our appointment, they would go on without us and we wouldn’t be able to schedule another test until the next week). On the way, Mike showed up and apologized for being late because he was watching golf. It’s a good thing he showed up because we would never have found the office in time. When we got there, the people ahead of us said that they were running behind. Finally we got called into the desks in the back office one at a time to enter our information. I went in last, but got called to go for the test first…with two other people! Evelyn and Debra were still getting checked in.

When we got to the car, the Japanese instructor held out the keys and we all took a step backwards, none of us wanting to go first. Stephanie, a new high school teacher gave in and said she would go first. We all hopped in and the instructor told her to go. He held up a blank clipboard, about three inches in front of his face, the entire time she drove. Her turn lasted a long time. Suddenly the instructor said, “Stop!” We couldn’t figure out what the problem was. We sat for a minute until he said, “Switch now. Fast.” So I hopped out and switched places with Stephanie. The guy kept the clipboard in front of his face and told me to go. Driving on the other side of the road messes with my brain! When I got to the end of the road, there was a bus stopped and waiting for me to turn left and get out of his way. I was really glad he was there so I didn’t accidentally turn into the wrong lane, but the instructor freaked out. “Don’t hit the bus!” I didn’t see the need for concern since I was stopped at a stop sign. As I turned the corner, carefully avoiding the bus, he pointed to the curb and said, “Don’t hit the curb.” To which I couldn’t help replying, “Picky, picky!” The guy actually smiled! I had to make two more left turns, and on the last one, it happened. I turned on my blinker and, to my great surprise, the windshield wipers went on! Ooops! That seemed to be the biggest mishap, so I passed. Now all I need is a car! We went back to the office and got our little plastic cards (no picture), but they have given me a middle name. I am now Jennell NMN Lambert. I think they just wanted me to have an acronym of my very own! I am thinking of getting monogrammed towels – JNMNL. :) Evelyn and Debra also passed and neither of them could figure out the reason the tester held the board in front of his face. I think I’m going to ask him if I see him around the base.

After we all had license in hand, we walked over to the school to meet our new boss (Mike said he had strict orders to tell us to see her today). She wasn’t available, so Debra and I went to talk to Theresa until she got back while Evelyn went to get her keys. Then we went down and met Mary very briefly. She shook our hands and told us how glad she was to meet us.

That task completed, I went back to the room to find Josh. He showed up not too long after I got back and we got started on the schoolwork. He was on a roll, so we did the entire English assignment and then walked over to school to do the math (apparently he likes my whiteboards as much as I do!). Since he was doing such a good job, I took him to dinner and then he did his Civics. We were both excited – he was all caught up for the first time in several days. He got his wallet, CD player, CDs, and computer privileges back. Then he decided that he wanted to watch Hitch, so I popped that in and started to clean up our very messy hotel room. Josh decided to put all of his clothes into the dresser and clean up his junk too…I figure he must want something, but in the meantime, this is working for me! He made me turn off the movie until he finished cleaning up, and then we watched the movie together. All in all, a great day – I’d like a few more please!

August 16, 2005 – Tuesday

Having no specific plans for today, Josh and I decided to sleep in. The plan was foiled when Mike called to tell me that our Living Quarters Allowances had dropped. I already knew that because I had gotten the e-mail and done the math to check and see if I was still going to be okay. I was, but he didn’t know that. UGH! So we got up and went to breakfast. Since we were by Community Bank, I decided to open an account there so that I could get yen when I need it. I met Josh at the school so we could to Math. After the first lesson, while Josh was doing the practice problems, I ran down to talk to Jan and get some help on my forms. As we were talking, there was an earthquake. I couldn’t figure out what was happening at first, but Jan told me what it was. It lasted for about two minutes and basically felt like we were on a rocking boat. Jan said that all of the buildings on the base are earthquake safe (dunno if I believe that or not) so people don’t go outside. There seems to be some difference of opinion for safety in an earthquake. Some people say stay in and others say go out. I guess I’ll have to check into that. Josh was very excited when I got back to the room. He said he almost ran down to find me when the room started shaking, but then was afraid that people would think him a wimp. Here is a link to the story about the earthquake (it was really far north of here, so it wasn’t as strong here): Earthquake Story
After finishing the second Math lesson, Josh and I walked back to the room and he did his Civics before we both got hungry for lunch. Although we just missed the bus, John (the high school meter-greeter) gave us a ride over. People here are so nice! We had lunch at Subway and Josh and I came back to work on English. I HATE English! The short stories we are working on are way too long and boring. They also expect a lot of writing. Josh is being very good considering the fact that we have to do almost two English lessons a day and that means a ton of writing. He actually got into the story he had to write today. And that makes two days in a row that he did all of his work! Woohoo!!!

I went over to the Commissary for some groceries. The milk here is good for more than a month…I don’t get that at all! It doesn’t taste weird, so I guess it is a good thing. Also, they sell my Thin Crisp Triscuits!!! After those happy discoveries I went back to the school do look into cell phones and Direct TV (I can’t stand the military TV anymore – but I don’t know what the other options are here). I love being able to go to my classroom whenever I want! That will be so nice when I need to get in on a weekend, and right now it is nice to have someplace to go besides the Navy Lodge. After visiting the school, I came back to eat and watch a movie. It’s so nice when Josh gets his work done early. Hopefully he liked having the evening to himself enough to make it happen again. Well, I’m gonna sign off so I can send some other e-mails and make some calls back to the US when businesses will be open.

The Barn at Skillet Creek

For those of us that have stayed at the Skillet Creek farm I have posted a few pictures.

Things have changed at Skillet Creek. For one thing it is no longer called that, it is the Wheeler's Campground now. Click on the title of this post to see their site.

Secondly the old barn has been sided and changed. It does not look as interesting but is more likely to be around for a while.

The lower level has been converted into a workshop with a large garage style door carved out of the stone foundation. (The foundations of Wisconsin barns are made of stone up to about four feet because the local termites will not go any higher.


The inside, though, still has some great workmanship. The beams are huge and contain no nails, only pegs.

Here are some pics of me in the barn smiling like a goof and admiring the old barn. The upper level is now used for a video parlor. I am sure a few years ago this made money but now most kids are bored of these machines.

This Blog

I am glad to see that this thing has picked up again, what with several of the people scattered over the world.

Okay, here is the deal with this blog (or at least part of it):

If you are a member of the Lambert, Polacek, Dwyer clan; or affiliated with it; you can be a member here. Only members can post. If you wish to become a member (and have your name listed at the top of the page) then you will need to drop me an email so I can invite you. I send you an email which you use to join. You will have to go to Blogger.com and join as a member there. Enter your name and stuff, it is cool. Your logon name has to be unique to Blogger, but no one sees it anyway. Your name as it appears can be different. I am willing to bet I am not the first one on Blogger to be "Bill" but I sign in with a different name.

Once you are a member you can post here and put pictures up and stuff like that. No charge, free, gratis. The easiest way is to click on the "I Power Blogger" icon like the one above. Then you sign in and post all you want. When posting there is an icon that looks like a little mountain scene that allows you to post pictures. I encourage you to use it.

Also, if you have comments, questions or complaints about this thing post them or let me know, I can fix them or tell you why I will not.

I find this a great way to communicate and to share ideas and photos. Keep up the good work. And let's all let Jennell and Joshua know how proud we are of them.

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Alex Lambert

I spoke to Alex today. He has been off school for the summer but it will be starting up again soon. He is pursuing his Cisco Certified Network Associate certification and will continue his studies on that at Morraine Valley Community College.

He reports that things are normal and has no interesting news to report. He was a bit occupited at the time I called him with his friends who were over playing computer games.

He did mention that he still uses his email address at akin42@yahoo.com so maybe an email would encourage him.

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Bringing the kid up right!

Here is a picture of Jeremy and Boppa. We are SOX fans. I am wearing a Sox hat and Jersy that Marlana gave me for my birthday. Jeremy is wearing a Sox jersy I bought him with KONERKO and a large "14" on the back. Paul Konerko (1st base) is one of my favorite players on the Sox this year right after Tadaheto Iguchi (2nd base).

I do not want my grandson to be one of those sissy Cubs fans. He is starting out life right, as a SOX fan!

More Kid Pics

Okay, now you are gunna have to put up with lots of kid pics, now that I know this thing works.

Tuesday we went for a bike ride in Lisle on the Illinois Pararie Path. This was taken as we got ready. Notice the look on Jeremy's face as he looks at "Boppa". He is showing me how the pedal goes round and round. He is ALL BOY! Things with wheels, wheels and balls are the pinnacle of life.

What white space?

I took your concern over the white space to heart. I played with the template a bit but decided that the best solution was to start with a new one. I have not modified this one much yet other than to include the counter bug.

Do you like it? Yes? No? I can work on it if you like or we could live with it as is....

Anyway, I am so glad to read of your exploits and see the pictures. Hey, maybe I will try one now.

Hey, it works! A picture of my Grandson, Jeremy, taken last June. Maybe I will post more, I have LOTS of them.

Kewl, a return to the blog

Thanks for posting, we lead lives of quiet desperation and love to live a REAL interesting life thru you two vicariously. Keep posting and putting on pictures.

There is a new way to post pictures on Blogger now, I will find the link. It is a part of the Blogger thing, I have tried it and it works well. Now I remember, do you see the picture icon above the typing area, witha a scene on it, just click that. It will let you post the pics.

What is Joanne's new email address, I will invite her to post here.


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This one is for Grandma!

This one is for Grandma!
Originally uploaded by pkypnts.

Grandma was worried about the bathrooms here. Tell her to relax. This is the one in the mall and it has its own stall with a door and there was a seperate bathroom for men and women (just like we are used to). Also, on the other side of the room there is a regular toilet.

There are more pictures of the house and descriptions at http://www.flickr.com/photos/93529188@N00/

August 12, 2005 - Friday (((What's with the white space???)))

Today we had to go to the safety briefing to learn about driving in Japan. We’ve been working on memorizing the “international” driving signs all week – of course the international signs look nothing like anything in the US and the people from Germany said that they are different international signs than they learned over there. Go figure! Anyway, from 08:00-15:00 we watched videos of people getting hit by cars, cars running over motorcycles/mopeds, and the results of drinking and driving. In between the gruesome videos the instructor talked about what we would need to know for the written test. The whole day could have been much shorter if they had just said, “Stay sober and drive slowly.” I passed the written test and was able to schedule my road test for Monday at 09:00. Evelyn and Debra chose the same time, and since they test three people at a time, we will all be together.

After that we walked over to the school to check in and then went back to the Navy Lodge. Amazingly, Josh had done the math AND civics assignment for the day, and was waiting for me to arrive so that we could do English together. (We had a heart-to-heart on Thursday night that seems to have made an impact – for the moment.) We didn’t get to finish because at 17:00 we had an appointment to see our house one more time. We borrowed a tape measure and waited for the agent to arrive. She is great! Unlike most of the other agents, she speaks excellent English. That is a major plus because she is also the owner, so any problems we have will be addressed by her. Her father was American, so the family is more tolerant of the American customs…like hanging pictures on the wall! Most of the owners don’t allow you to hang anything up without permission. The permission must be given to each individual picture rather than in general. We took lots of pictures and measure all of the rooms.

Have I mentioned that I love the house??? I can’t wait to move in and get all of my stuff! Unfortunately when I called the Inbound Personal Property Office, they said it would be here by September 17th. I don’t know what happened to the September 2nd date I was given by the outbound office in Miami. Oh well! The housing office here will loan out furniture for free while you wait for your own things to come, so I plan to move in as soon as my pay advance comes. In Japan, you have to pay your security deposit (two months rent if you have a pet) and first month of rent, as well as an agent fee and an owner fee, each equal to one of rent. That is a total of five months of rent to get into a house! The agent and owner fees are nonrefundable and non-reimbursable (unlike my rent), but there is a possibility that I may only have to pay one fee since my agent owns the house. I’ll find out on Wednesday at my SPW (Start Paperwork) Appointment. (The acronyms are driving me crazy! They are worse than the Japanese language because no one expects you to know Japanese and everyone just takes for granted that you know what all the letters stand for! UGH! People keep promising to give me a list of important acronyms but it has yet to show up.)

After taking lots of pictures and measurements, the agent brought us back to base. Josh got through the gate again without having to do the visitor paperwork, so we are going to try to redo that in order to allow him to come on base more later. He is only officially allowed to come on the base for 60 days a year, but we have been here for almost a week and he hasn’t had to sign in or anything, so that should work in our favor later. I haven’t done anything about getting him more than 90 days, but he keeps telling me to work on that. I was really surprised! I figured he would want to go home as soon as possible, so I asked why he cared if he could stay and he actually said he likes it here! That was nice to hear. The other teachers have all said what a great kid he is and how he gets along with everyone. He really likes Duke (Debra’s husband), the entertainer. The joke is that it takes a village to raise a child and poor Josh’s village is full of teachers now.

When we got back to base, Josh met up with his friends to go to a movie and I went with all of the new teachers to go to dinner at the mall off-base. Wow! It is huge! Rather than a food court, the second and third floors are mostly restaurants. We ended up going to a place where you cook your own food in the middle of the table. It was really good and lots of fun. Unfortunately, after we were finished with dinner we were too tired to wander around the mall so we walked back to the Navy Lodge. The walking thing is getting a little old since it is so warm here, but I’m okay with it since it is walking with a purpose. ;)

Josh wasn’t in the room when I got back and didn’t get back by 22:30 which is the on-base curfew for kids his age. His excuse was that he was still in the movie. Hmmm, wonder if the military police would buy that excuse? Somehow I doubt it!

Let's blog!!! (Scroll down past the white space)

Hey all...I think we should try this again! Here is what I have been up to for the past few days (I've been keeping a journal like everyone said, so it's a bit boring, but it'll satisfy your curiosity). Forgive the errors, please. I can't think straight anymore today. Also, I posted some pictures at http://www.flickr.com/photos/93529188@N00/ if you want to check them out.

August 6, 2005

Japan is awesome! I really like it! The plane ride over was extremely long! I did manage to sleep for a few hours and then on an off, but all of the stuff I brought to do on the plane was completely useless because I was too tired to do much of anything but stare at the little TV attached to my seat. When we got to Narita Airport on Saturday afternoon we waited about 15 minutes to get our passports stamped (woohoo, my first stamp!) and went downstairs to get our luggage. We threw it on a cart and walked past a guard who had a big table. He looked at our passports and our bags as we walked by him. I couldn’t believe that was all! I thought somebody would go through our bags at some point – it would have taken forever since we had two HUGE suitcases, one medium sized suitcase, one small suitcase, two duffel bags, and a backpack.

As we walked out of customs, we were greeted by Mike Adair. Evelyn Calhoun had also just arrived. After Mike found us and introduced us to Evelyn, he went to wait for Duke and Debra Butler-Alexander. Evelyn has been teaching in DODDS for 18 years over in Germany. She is really nice and even though she is just as confused about Japan as I am, she has been a great help since she knows how the system works. We commiserated in the airport about not having any keys and what a very strange feeling that is as an adult. Duke and Debra arrived and I found out that they are new to DODDS also. We loaded up the luggage and ran out of room for Duke and Debra, so they took the bus to base.

While driving the hour and a half from the airport, I was way too tired to notice, or care, about what was passing by the window (although I vaguely remember seeing Tokyo Disney and Space Mountain). My first impression was that Tokyo was like pretty much any other big city, Yokosuka was very pretty, and the base was very ugly! We got to the Navy Lodge at about 6:00 pm (excuse me that’s 18:00 hours), dumped our stuff in the room, and almost fell asleep. We hadn’t had any real food for a long time though so we forced ourselves to get up and go eat. Josh kept falling asleep at the table and they took forever. When we finally finished, we stopped at a little convenience store for cereal and milk, came back to the room, and crashed. We were so exhausted that we slept right through our first earthquake! We were actually a little disappointed about that the next morning when everyone was talking about it and we had to admit that neither one of us felt anything at all.


August 7, 2005

On Sunday we had the day to ourselves. We woke up, ate cereal, and decided to explore the base on the bus. While sitting at the bus stop we noticed a sign saying that bus service was cancelled due to the Friendship Day activities. Bummed out, we came back in to figure out how to buy computer time so we could email everyone and let them know we had arrived safely. While we were there, Evelyn came down. When we finished with the computer, we decided to explore the base on foot. The Friendship Day activities were just beginning. Basically it is a day when the Japanese are invited to visit the base and see certain parts of it. They could tour the ships and there were bands, a car show, and lots of other activities. We were going to tour the ship, but the line was way too long. Instead, we ended up in the Fleet Gym which is a beautiful facility. It has all of the latest workout equipment, aerobics rooms, a food court, two amazing massage chairs, a travel office, and many more nooks and crannies full of cool places. When we were finished checking that out, we followed the crowds toward the car show and food booths. We grabbed some lunch and wandered around for a while before deciding we were going to go back to the room and cool off. When we finally got back and laid down for a while, we realized that if we stayed there we would fall asleep, but that it was a beautiful day for the pool. Evelyn decided to join us so we headed over that way. We swam for a couple of hours, went down the water slide, and wondered how many of the kids there were going to be our students. After basking in our anonymity we went for dinner at Subway and walked home. On the way, we found the library and free internet, and then it was back home for bed – at about 19:00. Mom and Dad called at about 22:30 and neither of us was going to answer the phone, but I guess Josh couldn’t stand it because he picked it up and talked to them for a few minutes. The next morning he e-mailed them and said they shouldn’t call us so late! LOL

August 8, 2005

Monday morning Josh and I met with the other new teachers for breakfast. The meter-greeter came and so did a few other teachers. One brought his 14-year-old son and Josh, of course, had a new friend. As the adults got ready to go to the housing briefing, Josh said that he was going to go play basketball with the other boy. We agreed to meet back at the room in the afternoon and I left for the briefing. The housing people supposedly speak English but use so many acronyms that I could only understand about half of what they were talking about. The entire process is pretty confusing, but one of the other teachers has been here for a couple of weeks and she has it all figured out. Once our heads were thoroughly spinning, they dismissed us and Mike took us over to the school to do some paperwork.

We met Jan, the resident DODDS guru, and she told us what to do. We spent about an hour writing the exact same information on about 50 different forms and then decided we needed a break. Mike took us on a tour of the school and we got to see a typical Science classroom. All of the classrooms are big, and they have tons of cabinets. Apparently no one has ever come close to filling them up. There is an In-Focus machine, TV, DVD player, and three computers in each classroom. Instead of the double chalkboards, like I used to have at SRCS, the front of the room has three sliding whiteboards (with more shelves behind them). The Science classrooms all have a huge supply closet, tons of Science equipment, and tables with stools (not sure how I feel about the stools – we’ll have to see how that goes). After seeing the classrooms, we were all very excited. Then Mike showed us the supply room! Oh my goodness!!! There are rows and rows of shelves full of school supplies that we are allowed to take whenever we want, as long as we don’t hoard the stuff in our classrooms. Wow!

We went back to work on more forms and Mike explained how to use our Living Quarters Allowance (LQA) wisely. I guess if you do it right this year, you can get some extra money back in the future. I was blown away when I found out that my LQA is $37,700 per year! I’ll be able to get a really nice house with that and I am so excited!!! After we had a better understanding of how that all works, we went to lunch at the Officer’s Club. Apparently all DODDS teachers have a rank equivalent to a military officer, so we can take advantage of perks offered to them too. Next, we went over to get a bank account at the Navy Credit Union and then back to school for more paperwork. When I had done as much of that as I could stand, I walked over to the housing office to look through the housing binders and set up a few appointments. There are 27 binders, but only one of them has houses that allow pets! Of those, about half only allow small pets or outdoor pets. That was a bid discouraging, but I set up two appointments for Wednesday and Thursday.

Finally it was time for dinner and Josh and I met up with Victoria, a teacher from Germany who arrived here about 10 days before us. She has looked at more than 20 houses and said she would help Evelyn, Molly, and I figure out where to look and which agents are best. She was very helpful and even told us about a great house that she would set up an appointment for all of us to go see. Since I hadn’t managed to stay awake past 19:30, I was impressed to be out until about 20:30 before going to the room to crash.


August 9, 2005

On Tuesday we met for breakfast before our Area Orientation Briefing. The intent of the AOB seems to have been to scare us to death about terrorism and crime and thugs in the Navy. A lot of it didn’t apply because it was directed at the members of the military. The rest of it didn’t seem to be in English because they were using all of the acronyms. The teachers all sat together asking each other what the acronym meant and taking turns shrugging our shoulders. Apparently the Navy officer in front of us had enough of that and finally started whispering the meanings over his shoulder. Then things were much clearer. We did lose it, however, when they began talking about the OHA and the MIHA, which they sound out rather than saying each letter separately. Anyway, that whole thing was pretty useless and extremely boring. We were very glad when it was over. During lunch we tried to go to the school to get our classroom keys so that we could see our own rooms. They told us to find Satosan, the supply guy. Since he was sleeping, we tiptoed away and decided not to start off on the wrong foot with such an important staff member.

After the meeting, I went back to the room to meet up with Josh who had been assigned some Science and Civics. He hadn’t done anything – shocking, I know! I told him that if he finished the Science assignment before 18:00, he could come house-hunting with me. I guess he thought I would change my mind, because he didn’t work too hard between 16:00 and 18:00 while we were both in the room. He was pretty surprised when I left him there whining about how he hadn’t been off base yet.

I met up with Evelyn, Molly, and Victoria to wait for the housing agent to pick us up. The house we were scheduled to see was one that Victoria loved, but she thought it was too small for her family. The rest of us just basically wanted to get out an see ANYTHING and realized that if Victoria had even considered it, it would be nice. It was gorgeous! When we arrived, I was excited to see that the entire yard is fenced and there is a small patch of grass. Just inside the front door, there was a tiled area where we all took off our shoes. There were cabinets right there for storing many pairs. We walked in and I fell in love with the house instantly! The dining room and kitchen have a view of the ocean – not beach like Florida, but still nice. There is a road in between the house and the water, but when the house was closed up the cars on the road couldn’t be heard. There is one tradition tatami room downstairs, complete with sliding Japanese doors (I have to duck to enter the room). Right now the tatami is covered with carpet, so I could decide later if I want to make it a more traditional Japanese room. Since there is also a living room, I think it would be cool to get some Japanese furniture in there. Upstairs there are three bedrooms – well, there are officially four, but one is about 3 feet by 5 feet! Two of the bedrooms regular small-sized rooms and the other one would fit my waterbed easily. That room also has a balcony. There is a toilet and sink upstairs, which I have learned is a luxury here in Japan, but no one has a shower upstairs.

Basically I knew immediately that I wanted to take the house, but unfortunately so did Molly. We were kind of at a loss about what to do about that, so on the way back to base we told the agent not to rent the place to anyone but Molly or myself and decided to sleep on it. I was really torn about what to do, but I felt like I couldn’t give up the house because there were so few options where pets were allowed. When I got back to the room I helped Josh with his Science and went to sleep praying about what to do about the house situation.

August 10, 2005

On Wednesday morning we met for breakfast at our regular spot – the Seaside All Hands Club (where the only edible meal is breakfast). It’s still not hard to wake up and be there by 07:00 which still aggravates Josh. I personally think it would be nice to wake up early since I have to leave for work at about 06:10, but I would probably not be too excited to keep going to be so early. After eating and planning the day, we got ready to go to get our official IDs. On the way out the door Molly pulled me aside. She said that she had thought about it and was going to keep looking for houses, so I could go ahead and take the beautiful place! J I was so happy! God is good!

After we got our IDs we were all happy to be “official.” Mike took us over to the school to finish up paperwork and get classroom keys. I found Satosan and he handed me a pile of keys. Whew…I feel like a grown-up again! And better yet, I got a key to the building!!! WOOOHOOO!!! We can come and go whenever, even weekends!!! I went upstairs to check out my new room. It’s great! The last guy hasn’t moved out yet, but I’m sure that will happen soon. I worked for a while and then had to go look at a house. (I had the appointment and figured it would be easier to go make sure I’d made a good decision than it would be to cancel the appointment). The house was small and yucky, and the agent didn’t speak a word of English, so we came right back. I picked up Josh and we went to the school to work on math. He likes to do the problems on the awesome whiteboards in the front of the room. Whatever works! He also likes to slide down the entire hallway on the rolling chairs and made me promise to race him after he finished his math work. He beat me bad, but I don’t think I’ll tell my students that!

After that, Josh went to meet some friends and I met my sponsor, Theresa, for dinner. She is very nice! She took me to see her house, which is very close and new, but not as nice as my soon-to-be house. Then we went to dinner in a tiny Japanese restaurant that served kabobs. She orders several different kinds and we shared. It was delicious! She is my kind of gal – no veggies in sight! J As we ate, she told me some more about the school and I found out that she is on my team and so is Victoria (the one who helped me find the house). Seems like a good group. Theresa told that the standards based teaching basically boils down to finishing the textbook, which I was glad to hear. I also asked if I would have to turn in lesson plans like you learn about in college and she laughed. The news just gets better and better! After dinner I was exhausted. Theresa took me back to the lodge and I went to sleep.

August 11, 2005

Thursday morning I’d decided to skip breakfast, but Josh woke me up to tell me it was time to go, so we both got up. With nothing official scheduled, Josh and I went back to the room to do schoolwork. He decided that he wanted to go to my classroom to work on the whiteboard, so we walked over there. We did the next two math lessons and he left. I did paperwork for a while and met him at the lodge in time for my 11:00 house-hunting appointment. Josh got to come (since his math was finished) and it was his first time off-base. The agent this time was very nice and very talkative. She almost spoke English. ;) She showed us a big house that was very nice, but had no view of anything. The bedrooms were all too small for the waterbed. It was just another confirmation that I had picked the right house. We went back to base to eat at Mean Gene’s – home of the Bite Me Burger! Afterwards, we rode the base bus back to the lodge and Josh got started on some Civics. I went over to officially sign up for my house and chatted with the other teachers in the housing office until Josh came over to complain about the schoolwork. He doesn’t want to do it! Go figure! I told him to bring it over and I would help him. He said he didn’t need help and left. When all of my appointments were set up I went back to the room to check on him, but he was gone. Hmmmm…whose idea was this anyway? I left to come here and finish this so that I could post or email it. Guess I’ll worry about what to do with him tomorrow!