... for Kyohei from me (definitely for me too).
Even though he says I look like an eggplant, I got us two tickets to this show. Too bad it isn't until March. I can post this on here because I am confident that my husband rarely checks my blog.
Question: Should I
1) tell him about this for Christmas
2) Surprise him in March. As in, "what do you want to do for dinner?" Me: "get in the car."
This is going to be crazy-awesome. 
For years Kyohei has always told me my face looks like an eggplant. Can you believe I married this guy?
The other day, he opened the refrigerator and said, "Oh Sarah! What are you doing in there? Oh wait..."
Then he produces an eggplant from the shelf. hardy har har har har....
Just to further the debate on whether or not I resemple an eggplant, we took this shot.
I am as amused as I look.
Life hasn't been all doom and gloom and bloom (flower shop) for me, though it kind of seems like that lately.
Last week, I went with my Turkish teacher and fellow classmate to the Corn Maze in Micanopy.
It was aMAZingly more fun than I thought it would be. There was a Florida Agriculture-themed miniature golf course, a hay ride, cow feeding, and of course, the ridiculously huge cornmaze lit by the light of the moon. What a great American tradition our Turkish teacher got to experience, ha ha.
Yesterday, my friend Tara (ex-flowersop) invited me to come along to the Blues Festival in Palatka.
Angie, me, Tara
Palatka is SUCH a small town. It takes about 1.5 minutes to breeze through it on my way to the beach. I'm happy to report that I am NOT under Tremidous Stress.
I love living in Florida.
This town had some serious murals downtown.
There was a zero percent chance of me not taking stupid pictures with them.
This corndog made the whole trip worthwhile. If you read this blog, you know I'm a really big corndog fan. I eat these little pieces of paradise wherever I go. I've had my fair share. I can say, with no hesitation, that this was THE BEST CORNDOG ever! It was hand-dipped in corn batter (which was light and buttery) by some carnival people from one of my favorite states-Ohio. Oh my gosh.... just thinking about this corndog....
We had a pretty fun time drinking and trying to avoid the locals, but the fest was kind of a disappointment. We thought there would be way more people and a lot more music. There was not. UNTIL, we found this one bar. With a statute of the Blues Brothers in the entrance, we knew we were on to something.
Rocking our red Solo Cups and enjoying some good live music (finally!) Turns out the people of Palatka aren't all that bad. I'll be back.
Kyohei and I were watching a special about Vietnam Vets on the History channel last night. All the ads during the commercial breaks were aimed at Veterans as well.
We learned that Applebees is running a special where all Veterans can eat there free tomorrow.
"Wow! Free!?!" Kyohei says.
"Is your restaurant giving Veterans any discounts on Friday?"
"No"
"Why? Because it is a Japanese restaurant?" I taunt.
"Yeah, we are going to wait for Pearl Harbor Day. Then we will charge them all double."
[eye roll]
I've often joked with my friends & coworkers at the flowershop that there should be a sitcom about us. There was always something crazy, dramatic or hilarious going on. I couldn't even make up half of it. This week past week it feels like our season has been cancelled.
Diane passed away on Monday after her battle with pancreatic cancer (her obituary is so perfectly her). This is the second friend I've lost on Halloween. I was pretty depressed all week. I wore black. I need my rituals, even if no one else knows I'm doing them.
Keli gave her two-weeks notice. We had our last day of working together on Friday (I had off on my regular job). I was the one who recruited and hired her. She really turned out to be a great employee.
Cappy, my best friend, went on strike to demand our paychecks on time. Instead of actually just paying her, the owner and she got in a fight. Now she is never coming back. What a complete f*$#ing A$$ that guy is.
Now the only person who works there is completely inexperienced. I feel like he might walk out this week. There is no way one person experienced or not will be able to handle the shop alone for 7 days a week. Impossible.
I guess the flowershop was always more than just a job. It was a community. It was an identity. It was a place apart from the nonsense and banality of academia. It still feels like home. I also really like arranging flowers.
Will I have a job to go to next weekend? And now, with everyone gone, do I still want to work there?
Stay tuned.
Boo and double-boo to China. Thanks for undermining our sanctions and sponsoring the systematic torturing and murdering of your neighbors. I guess it's OK as long as it lines your coffers, right?
BEIJING (Reuters) – China will invest 45 billion yuan ($7.1 billion) over the next five years to expand Dandong port, a key trade link to isolated North Korea, state news agency Xinhua reported.
Dandong, which lies on the North Korean border, will be able to handle more than 100 million tonnes of freight annually once the expansion is complete, compared with 60 million tonnes at present, the report said, citing a government statement.
The Dadong expansion project will ''cement its role as a transport hub in Northeast Asia that connects the Korean Peninsula with Eurasia,'' Xinhua said.
Impoverished and squeezed by international sanctions for conducting a series of nuclear and missile tests from 2006, North Korea has reached out to Moscow and Beijing for help to fill the gap left by the drying up of South Korean and the US economic assistance.
Over the past 16 months, leader Kim Jong-il, who in the past rarely travelled abroad, has visited China four times and in August made his first trip to Russia in nearly a decade.
Kim's visits were mainly aimed at winning economic support, and have raised speculation he may finally be opening one of the world's most closed economies.
China has sought to draw North Korea closer with incentives, and bilateral trade hit $3.1 billion in the first seven months of 2011, an 87 percent increase from the same period last year, according to Chinese customs statistics.
Despite having a terrible cold, I still managed to have a little bit of fun with my friends and family.
Mimi's "birthday"/ anniversary of her adoption day was last weekend. Kyohei got her and Chitah those little dog treats that look like cookies and cupcakes. Because of the sprinkles they enjoyed their treats outside.
Kyohei found out about the fair coming to town. He wanted to see this American phenomenon, because he saw it in Heroes. ha ha ha. Luckily, Cappy and her family were going too.
from the TV show Heroes
The rides were fun but....
I went for the corndogs!!
Here are our Republican candidates tribute photos:
Michele Bachmann
Rick Perry
The best was getting to meet these sea lions. They are so cute!
Look, there is a sea lion on my head!
It's taken me way too long to post these, but here are some photos from his week with us in Florida.
The first day, we went snorkeling with manatees. Yes, I live in the coolest state ever!
After a pretty relaxing trip out to the springs, we didn't see any manatees, but the snorkeling was fun!
BUT then, we saw a mother and it's calf-- how cute. We didn't get any underwater manatee shots, but the baby came right over to us. How cool. I love manatees!
A bird caught a fish
Then I started to pretend that I was a nature photographer:
Another day we went to the beautiful Sunken Gardens in St. Petersburg, FL
And more nature in Gainesville:
Grah! Gators!
Bat house:
Steakhouse with Kyohei
Saying goodbye at the airport
About my new Sponsor Child. My account was just activated and I found out that her bday is Jan. 28, just two days after mine! How cool. I sure have a thing for my fellow Aquarians 
Also, she lives in the Manila Metro area, which is the major airline hub in the Philippines (I stopped through there when I went to Cebu). This means, that if I ever want to visit, it will be super manageable trip from Japan.
What luck!
