Happy Birthday Rebecca!

All the pictures can be found here.

Rain, rain go away...

Ishikawa orders 10,000 evacuated due to heavy rain

Heavy rain drenched wide areas of Japan on Monday, with downpours causing a mudslide and a train derailment in Shimane Prefecture and prompting Ishikawa Prefecture to order more than 10,000 people in Kaga to evacuate.

In Unnan, Shimane Prefecture, heavy rain triggered a mudslide that crushed a home, burying two people. They were rescued but one of them, a 38-year-old woman, remains unconscious, while her 77-year-old father sustained slight leg injuries, Shimane Prefectural Police said.

In Matsue, also in Shimane, a mudslide near Nagae Station on the Kita-Matsue Line caused a two-car train to derail after it ran into mud on the tracks at around 10 a.m., according to Ichibata Electric Railway Co.

The mud caused the first car of the train carrying some 30 passengers to tilt 45 degrees. But there were no injuries, the railway said.

In Kaga, the front dumped 200 mm of rain from 6 a.m. Sunday to 7 a.m. Monday, threatening to cause the city's rivers to flood the surrounding areas.

The Ishikawa Prefectural Government Monday morning ordered 10,100 people at 4,200 households to evacuate the areas close to these rivers.

The Meteorological Agency said the seasonal rain front is engulfing large areas of the country, stretching from the eastern area surrounding Tokyo to the Hokuriku region to the Sanin coast in western Japan facing the Sea of Japan.

The agency said the front is expected to bring heavy rain to a wide area from Monday to Tuesday.

Story from the Japan Times.

Only 10 days left!!!

A few random videos

A typical day at ESS club

Lena's Vagina Monologue

Maya and Chris

Okayama Naked Man festival

Lick, Drink, Lime

Lena's birthday song

A trip to Aquas

We're STARS!!

If I were to steal a baby (I wouldn't actually steal your baby Chris) this would be the one.

CHESS 2006

To see the rest of the 180 pictures go here.

The POWER of a Blog

A Canadian man traded his way from a red paperclip to a free house.

Read the story here.

This is what happens when you pair a bored ALT with a bored exchange student

Tom started a blog!! Please check out Hamada Guy!!

and no, I didn't influence his name choice.

JAGS Hamada Exhibit

Tom and I visited the JET Art Group Shimane 2006 Changing Perspectives exhibit at the Hamada Children's Museum. Foreigners from all over Shimane submitted their art. I made a squid and an octopus, by far the most superior art in the show!! haha

My babies and I.

Tom admires Katy's gorgeous crocheted blanket.

Donna's crocheted tree made from used grocery bags.

Travis' paintings.

Nathan's mixed media.

Tom with my display. I set up a small draw box for whoever wanted to enter and win the octopus and squid.

Fun Times on the Gonogawa River

Who's a Naughty Girl?

I'm a naughty girl!!

I had my Imagestation account deactivated due to innapropriate images!!! I had no idea which images were offensive so I contacted them via chat and found out that my Naked Man Festival pictures were "offensive due to nudity".

So congratulations Shimane guys, your asses are so ugly they got me in trouble!!

It's all fixed now, but I had to delete the album.

I guess "cultural experience" counts for nothing if you have a big hairy gaijin ASS. They had no problem with my sumo wrestling album...but I guess those guys weren't grabbing each other!

The long wait is over!

I've FINALLY received information about my successor and I'm just so excited!!

I sent her an email and want her to write back NOW but I'm sure it's like 4 in the morning in the states. I have so much to tell her.

She sounds like a lovely person who will fit in nicely.

*leaves to check email again....*

My friend Kathy started a blog. Check it out and leave comments so that she is encouraged to write more.

Happy Birthday!

My nephew Wylie turns 2 today!! Here are some pictures my Mom took on her recent visit to Calgary.








This is my friend Kathy's baby, Cameron. He and I are going to be roomies in Aug.

Mighty (Mutant) Mouse

This post is dedicated to Nathan because I know he especially enjoys my posts about amigurimi.

Meet my mutant mouse. He turned out wayyyy bigger than he should have been, but he's still cute!

I made another blanket

I finished this during Golden Week but haven't gotten around to photographing it till now. It's the perfect lap blanket. Doesn't it look smashing on the back of my little couch? Very 1978 I think.