Giant snails!

Ok. I love snails. I used to collect them with Dusty and Britt when we were littles. We kept a few as pets and fed them lettuce and would eventually lose them. Lucky for me there are masses of snails here. They're actually Giant African Land snails! Its pretty awesome. I haven't seen many big ones but the other day, while he was walking Apollo, Dustin found a good sized one. The biggest one I've ever seen.

I know they get bigger than this but I was pretty excited. It was gross but that didn't keep me from poking at it's eyes. Leave me alone...I like touching their eyes.

The snails tend to come out when it rains. And it pretty much rains every day here. It was pouring the day Dustin found the big one and the sidewalk was literally covered in little baby snails. It was so cute. We had to stop walking to the car at one point so that Dustin could stack 3 snails on top of each other with the biggest one on the bottom. It was silly.

The Lakeside Collection

I found out about The Lakeside Collection from Dustin's Nana back in November when we were visiting Arizona. I looked through the catalogs she had and was amazed that everything was so cute and cheap. She let me have one of the catalogs and when we moved her and got our computer back, one of the first things I did was order some things for the house. It was verrry cheap. Like this bench I got:

I put it by the front door so when we come in we can sit down and take off our shoes so that we dont track in dirt and grass. Smart, right? Well, it would have been if it wasn't such a piece of crap. It was cheap for a reason. It's made cheaply. Lakeside Collection is like the Wet Seal of home goods. It's pretty terrible. I built this bench which was easy until I realized that the screws didn't actually screw into anything. You just sorta place them into the already made holes. Lame. The whole thing is made of really cheap, flimsy wood so noone is allowed to sit on the bench. It actually bends under the tiniest bit of pressure! Its really bad. Pieces are starting to come off now and that's without us even touching it! But I like the way it looks right now so I'm not getting rid of it just yet.

I feel so used. We also got two 6 foot long towels which we were really excited about. Also cheap. They are in no way absorbent. You try to dry off and they just push the water around on your skin. After I washed them the first time they almost fell completely apart. Now they are covered in little fuzz balls.

The moral of the story is: Don't buy anything from The Lakeside Collection unless you enjoy wasting your money on poop!

The Little Mermaid

I remember as a kid acting out The Little Mermaid every time I took a bath. I was Ariel and Prince Eric (hottie) was nonexistant. And I would splash water all over the bathroom floor as I "swam" to "shore" and screeched what few words I knew to Part Of Your World. Good times.

March 26, 1990

The Little Mermaid's "Under the Sea" Wins Oscar for Best SongThe baritone vocalist Samuel E. Wright — who won the role of Sebastian solely through a taped demo of the song he had sent to producers — sang this jubilant finger-snapper inspired by the Caribbean style of Calypso music. The song, composed by Disney Legends Alan Menken and Howard Ashman, is also a rousing highlight of the Broadway musical version, though because Tituss Burgess, who plays Sebastian, is a tenor, the key of the song was raised from B-flat to D

Prayers for a pug

These are the Zimmerlys. Beth and Jason. We like them alot. They are very good friends and pretty to look at.

They have a dog. His name is Pugzy. Everyone loves him. EVERYONE. He is fat and cute and fun to laugh at when he gets tired and falls alseep while trying to keep up with our dog Ariel.

He is also Ariel's best friend.

A few days ago I got an email from Miss Beth telling me that our dear Puggy isn't doing too well. Here's part of the email explaining what's wrong:

This has been a very emotional week, our poor little Puggy Pugz went to the vet b/c we decided we wanted a second opinion about his bladder infections and stuff. So, we are there expecting to hear that he may need to go on the special food to break up possible kidney stones, and we find out that he has calcium crystals lining his urethra and swimming all over his bladder causing a large blood clot. I could have broken the last vet in half. He said he would save us $70 dollars and didn't think Pugz needed an x-ray. I will be sending him this x-ray with a long letter explaining how he almost killed my little dog. So far we've spent $350, best case scenario we will spend another $800 on a surgery here in town, if she can't get things to work properly prior to opening him up, we will need to go to Boise and spend a bit more. It's a LOT of money, but he's only 2 and seems to be fine otherwise, so we're going to do what we can. Besides, he's Puggy Pugz- need we say more?

Beth has asked that I pray for the little guy and I shall because I love him and I love Beth. And I ask anyone else that reads this to also keep Pugzy in their prayers. You may not know him but he would greatly appriciate it. Plus, he has such a cute little squishy face.

Here he is getting a belly rub from good friend, Pete.

Sleeping with Beth.

This is how he looks most of the time. lol He loves Jason very very much.

Of course I saved the best picture for last! Hutch and Pugzy share a very special bond.

Bolt

We bought Bolt today and just finished watching it. We didn't get the chance to see it in the states before getting here and then also didn't have time to see it here. Since it's Disney we took a risk and just bought it before we even knew if we would like it or not.

I'd say we liked it. Possibly even loved it. Maybe even ADORED it. I nearly cried during at least half of the movie. It was so cute. And sad. And funny. It was fantastic. John Travolta did a really good job at not sounding like a middle aged man. He actually sounded like a cute little dog. Weird, I know. But as I was watching I kept forgetting that it was John Travolta. I just got really sucked in. Plus we got 100 more points on our Disney Movie Rewards account. That's always a plus. We're up to 2150 which isn't too shabby.

If you haven't seen Bolt and you like cute and funny Disney animation, you should probably go see it. Or better yet...buy it and THEN see it. And then give me your movie rewards code if you don't want it.

This movie made me extra sad because I miss my little Ariel. :(

Okinawa World!

Be prepared for a lot of pictures of Dustin. I was in charge of the camera yesterday.

We finally went to Okinawa World! I've been wanting to go there since I first found out about it over 2 months ago. Its similar to Ryukyu Mura which we visited last month. You can see pictures of it on my myspace. They're basically cultural parks with traditional shows, parades and dances. They both have craft villages where there are replicas of old Okinawan houses. In each house is a different craft. Pottery, clothe weaving, and glass blowing are just a few. You can also make some of your own. At Ryukyu Mura they charged extra for that. I don't know about Okinawa World. We just looked around and took pictures.

The one huge difference between the two parks is the ginormous cave underneath Okinawa World. That was the main reason I really wanted to go. I have never been in a cave before so I was really excited. Dustin has been in a few caves so he wasn't jumping outta his seat like I was. But he was still happy to go. I tried taking pictures inside the cave but my camera really sucks and I couldn't get any shots that weren't complete garbage. You can go to http://jasonkimball.org/photos/okinawa/?album=2&gallery=36 to see some pictures of the cave that someone with a good camera took if you're interested. It was really amazing and I dont think any pictures would do it justice.

We also got the chance to see another habu and mongoose show. We saw one in Ryukyu Mura but this one was much better I think. Okinawa World is a lot bigger and has a lot going on. The habu show was in the Habu museum. And in case you didn't know, the habu is an extremely poisonous snake that lives on the island. There is an anti venom if you get bit but it only works once. So if any of us silly Americans get bit, we get the anti venom and then get shipped back to the states. Not cool. And there are apparently a lot of habu here. I've only seen them in museums and such which is fine by me. They freak me out cause the last thing I'd want is to be forced to live in stupid America while Dustin is here.

The mongoose is the habu's main nemesis. The Japanese brought the mongoose here years ago to take care of the habu problem. I guess it helped cause there's a lot less snakes here. But that's not saying much because there's still a crapton.

On to the pictures!

Freaking big hibiscus flowers! They're so pretty though. I love the tropical flowers here even though I'm allergic to all of them. By the way, this is the only picture of me from this trip.
Pretty Dustin. Sometimes he thinks I'm just taking pictures of scenery. He should know by now that his big face is my favourite scenery of all time.

Entrance to Okinawa World

Dustin took this one. He wanted to climb those stairs.

Glass blowing. It was cool to watch all these guys work together to make the pretty Ryukyu glass. The glass here is something they're proud of because of all the gorgeous rainbow colours they make. I will get some one day when I have money. Then I will take pictures and show everyone.

Here's a glass Stitch. Obsession.

Part of the crafts villiage. And a small Okinawan child.

This is where we ate lunch later that day. Here's an example of the pretty colourful glass they make on the island.

See that littl girl behind Dustin? I was actually trying to take a picture of her so I can kidnap her later.

Oh yea. There was a brewery here also. Of course.

Habu sake. I guess this is another way of getting the venom out. And yes, they drink the venom in booze. They come in bottles with the snake still in it and it's super duper expensive. It's like tequila with the worm in it...but on crack.

That's my hand holding the cute little pig toy. Dustin likes it.

For some reason he wasn't happy about any of the stuffed animals I made him pose with.

Giant gift shop area. Dustin's looking at a table of shisa statues while loudly drumming on his legs.

Roar! Shisa made of pretty flowers.

How many pictures do I have of Dustin sticking his head through things like this? Too damn many.

Have you ever seen a snake swim? It's pretty cool.

Dustin was in love with this guy. He kept petting it and telling me to look at it's face and legs and how cute it was. Geez, I thought he was gunna cry cause he wanted to take it home so badly.

Lots of sleeping Habu. I wasn't feeling so comfortable at this point. I'm thinking maybe Sammee shouldn't come to the Habu Museum.

These are bats. At least thats what we say they are. The sign said they were flying foxes. I don't think so. Haha, you can see Dustin's face in the reflection.

My reflection and a nice boa. I'm less scared of the big snakes. Maybe because they won't kill me.

Dustin realized his deep love for turtles on this trip.

He also digs lizards. He was very pleased to be touching all these animals. Me...not so much.

And, in case you were wondering what a mongoose looked like:

We ended the day with mini corndogs and Oswald cartoons at home. Then we fell asleep at about 5:30 because us oldies can't hang for too long.

He's just too cute

I'm sorry. I can't help it. Apollo is just really cute and I love taking pictures and video footage of my children. I really like that he sticks his nose into the camera lens.

Both waiting for the other to make the first move.

Apollo just went for it when he got tired of waiting.

This is what lead to Dustin passing out on the floor:

Would you like some pulled pork in your mouth cause I know I would!

Friday night we had a hankering for some BBQ meats. So after I made Dustin put pants on we headed on over to Camp Shields to one of our new favourite restaurants called Nap's. I think they have them in the states but neither of us have ever seen it. So far Dustin's been there 4 times and I've been there thrice. The first time Dustin went was with PMEL for a going away party or some hollabahloo. He came home and would not shut up about how amazing the giant plate of pulled pork nachos he had were. So of course I was all, "Bitch, take me there tomorrow!" And that's how it all began.

We started the night with me taking pictures and Dustin's posing antics with his fruit punch which he always has to get. Apparently its the fruit punch of the gods.

I gots some sweet tea because I'm southern like that. Didn't you know? I love that the drinks come in little jars with handles. And the little Japanese girls working there are super good with always refilling your beverages.

Then I let Dustin have the camera.

I decided not to dress up and put on makeup for Nap's. Now I'm thinking that was a mistake.

The BBQ sauce here is AMAZING. There's 4 or 5 different kinds and they bring it out to you in recycled cardboard as shown here. Its fantastic.

Tara caught unawares. Not cool. Game on.

Foods here! Dustin got lots of messy ribs.

I got a pulled beef wrap. Not as good as the pork. I'll know better next time. I also got a side of Bama Beans. Now when I ordered, instead of calling them "baaaama" as in "Ala-bama", I pronounced them "bah-ma" as in President Barack Obama. It just sounded right in my head.

Dustin caught unawares with sauce on his face. Point 1 for Tara.

And so I end this post and the night with this blurry picture of the delicious sweet tea I drank. Anyone that comes to visit us can be sure that they'll be dining at this fine establishment.

Except Brittany because she's a stupid vegan.