Mrs. Top Gun gets her nails did- At COCOK'S!

I am a total snob when it comes to getting my nails done. And when I say 'snob' I literally mean I will throw a fit if my nails are not done the way I asked them to be done! Hey, if Mr. Top Gun is going to fund my twice monthly trips to the salon, then you bet your butt my nails better always come out looking absolutely gorgeous! When I learned of our move to the island, I immediately went into panic mode... No, I didn't panic about TMO or packing up our house, or leaving family and friends behind for a life across the ocean. I panicked about LEAVING MY MANICURIST. Yes, that's right. I had a minor heart attack at the thought of leaving Texas and thus leaving my favorite nail salon and longtime manicurist, for a place called Japan??? Who would even think they have nail salons in Japan, right? Well, I thought that until I heard from a friend who had already arrived on the island about a place called Cocok's....

Now, I was skeptical at first and decided to get an entirely new set of gel nails done before we left the states- just in case I had to search for a nail salon here! Well, as I looked down at my nails last night (after I had been chopping parsley, garlic and cilantro for my chimmichurri marinade tonight,) I realized that my time had come. It was time to book an appointment at Cocok's. So, I call the salon and am scheduled for a 1200 appt. today! There lies a problem though... yesterday, I noticed my a/c in the car wasn't cooling AT ALL so Mr. Top Gun met me at the car place and we dropped it off. I was supposed to have it back last night, but I never got a phone call, so we knew something was up. Turns out, the compressor is out and I may not have a car until tomorrow :( So, Mr. Top Gun offers to pick me up and take me to the salon on his lunch break. What he didn't tell me was that he felt like bringing a friend over to our place when he came to get me...

Cue him walking in the door and I hear this: "Hi, I have company. Are you decent?" RUNNING UP THE STAIRS... BEDROOM DOOR SLAMS... Thanks for the warning, I guess? I was half-way dressed but needed to get to my laundry room to fetch my shirt from the dryer, and the boys were down there! So, I wait for them to come up to the third floor and then I run down stairs grab my shirt and gracefully walk back up the stairs in my heels to greet Mr. Top Gun and his friend. We leave the house, and the boys drop me off here:
What color you want? You pick color!

* This is supposed to sound like the girls there*
My Japanese nails!

I am now a devoted fan and client of Cocok's! They are the best here, and I didn't even have to tell the girl how I wanted my nails shaped (squared,) she just did it! I also was served some delicious tea while getting my nails done and enjoyed the breathtaking view of the ocean. I then came home and went out on my upper deck and tanned for awhile. In fact, I think I made the F-15's zooming by take notice of my brightly colored bikini... they literally flew over my house RIGHT OVER THE UPPER DECK the entire time I was up there! Hey, even if they weren't looking at me- I'll say they were :)

An evening with a good friend and a trip to Jusco

Today was a crazy busy day for the Top Gun's, and I mean CRAZY busy! Mr. Top Gun had work related duties to attend to (which apparently meant he spent part of his afternoon eating cake and hanging out in the squadron bar...) Hmmm... this sounds like a fun day to me :) In between him being gone all day and me running around the base and my trip to the Commissary to replenish our pantry, we both had energy levels of zero by the time we saw each other this evening. Oh, and might I mention that I managed to lug an entire HOUSE full of groceries up my ever so long flight of stairs? Yeah, and I did so with sweat dripping off my face and my tank top almost falling off outside while I bent over to get the darn bags! Needless to say, our home is now fully stocked with all the goodies I need to make my gourmet meals for Mr. Top Gun! I only wish I had my fiesta ware and my china and my stemware now :( Hopefully the express shipment shall be here in another week or so. Stay tuned for that update!

After I got home from the Commissary, I received the BEST phone call ever... One of our very close and very dear friends happened to fly in last night and wanted to know if we would have dinner with him and show him around! Yeah!!!! Mr. Top Gun and I have been friends with him for a few years, and he is also a flyboy. So, we took him to the garlic house! He loved it and was immediately hooked on that delicious garlic pizza! See, I told you it was THAT good. After dinner, we decided to take a trip to the JUSCO here since Mr. Top Gun and I have been wanting to go, and now was the perfect opportunity to do so. To clarify, JUSCO is the Japanese version of a HUGE shopping mall. It has tons of food places inside and four floors of different clothing stores, an electronic department, toy stores, kids places and the downstairs is a huge supermarket! Here are a few pics from our "Adventures In JUSCO Land!"

A vending machine filled with candies!!!
Mr. Donut! "If it has Donut in it's name, you know it has to be good!" *Actual quote from our fellow flyboy friend* The HUGE ferris wheel in American Village. This is basically what the Japanese think America is like, and the village is actually a bunch of stores and restaurants that are more Americanised.

The SANRIO store!! I loved Sanrio as a kid, and love it even more as an adult! Mr. Top Gun bought me handmade chopsticks, since my hands are little and the regular sized chopsticks are awkward and cumbersome to me. They have Hello Kitty on them and are super cute! Oh, and they were 250 yen... Which is... $2.50!!! A steal!

Neighbors from hell

You know that old saying: "Fences make great neighbors?" Well, I for one must wholeheartedly agree with that! Too bad our fence would have to be four stories high, or I would seriously ask the owner to consider it!!! Let me give y'all some background on this situation...

When Mr. and I moved in, our neighbors to the right of us had just moved in as well. Both Mr. and neighbor boy are flyboys, and so me both figured we would end up being great friends. Yeah, that NEVER happened. A few days after moving in, we get a knock on the door and it's neighbor flyboy asking if we want to come over to his party. We declined, since we had been unpacking household goods all day long, and just wanted to relax together. Perhaps we should have accepted his offer, because the entire evening was spent listening to drunk people yell, hoot, holler, scream, cry and one unbelievably LOUD drunken phone call from him to his wife on his patio... The next morning our cars had beer bottles, plastic cups, ping pong balls and cigarettes on them. We asked them to clean up the mess, and they ignored us. I spoke with our housing agency and they ignored them. CRAP.

Fast forward to a few months later. Mr. Top Gun is back from his deployment, and I have begun to feed the stray cats. The other neighbors on our street, as well as the landlord who has his office in part of our 'garage' have also jumped on board. The cats are happy, and we feel good about helping out stray animals. Well, the other day I went outside to feed the cats their lunch, and I noticed some blood and a little bit of vomit on the concrete. I brushed it off thinking that perhaps the cats had gotten into some trash, or a little fight. It is mating season, and the Tomcats can be heard howling and fighting at all hours of the night around here. Does that bother me? Honestly, I could care less. There isn't a darn thing anyone can do to stop these cats from making noise, so just get the hell over it!

Sunday morning, Mr. and I were headed out to run some errands, and in usual fashion, I went out to place the food in the bowl for my cats. As I bent over (in a very pregnant fashion, mind you,) I couldn't help but feel these eyes literally burning a hole into my head... Those eyes happened to be the eyes of our not so friendly neighbor and his ahole friend from across the street. I immediately went inside to inform Mr. and he ran out to investigate. As we jumped into the car, I KNEW something was going to happen as soon as we pulled away from the house. Gut feeling. Horrible, nauseating feeling. I didn't realize that Mr. knew something was up as well, because he decided to take a lap around the block to see if we could catch them on our property. As SOON as we pulled around the corner, they ran over to the house. Mother F-ers!!! I don't think I have ever seen Mr. drive so fast to get around that corner, because by the time we pulled back into our driveway? We caught the neighbor RED HANDED!!

He had literally just poured this foamy liquid on top of the food, and ran back over to his car, pretending to work on it. I jumped out of the car, ran towards him and muttered a not so nice word, then proceeded to throw the poisoned food all over him. Mr. gave him a very stern talking to, and all the guy could do was shake and apologize... Wuss. We all duked it out for a good 45 minutes, so I'll spare those details for now. The bottom line? We both told him we weren't going to stop feeding the cats. There is no law in Japan prohibiting this, and under the Military laws which apply off base either. I told him he could feel free to knock on the other neighbors doors and tell them he has been poisoning the food they have been putting out, or I will do it for him. So, I told them. Now the neighbors around us know all about the cat killer. I even told the girls at the nail salon, because they have an adorable cat that they take care of. They are telling people they know. Take that, ahole!

Here's the caveat to the entire story... Most of our friends assumed the neighbor was a Japanese person who simply didn't want the cats around. Japanese may have different views on animals, but they aren't THAT cruel! Most of them put out food and water for the cats. The kicker is... The 'neighbor' is an Officer. He flys. He is married. We know who his Commanding Officer is, and if we find him doing this again, we are taking pictures and I will go have a nice chat with the Colonel. The other neighbor is not an Officer, but he is NASTY. He is a coward, and has stayed in his house and will make a point to NOT walk towards Mr. or myself if we see him outside. I know he is fearful that he can get into deeper trouble than his friend can, because Mr. Top Gun is a Captain. Regardless of people's ranks, NOBODY needs to be purposely trying to kill animals. My cats have since returned and are happy to have food back again. I, however, have stepped up my vigilance in watching these idiots. This is NOT happening again.

Go to Crazy Shenanigans for a give-away!!

****Give-away going on at... CRAZY SHENANIGANS!!**

So, I am posting this to let all of my blog buddies know that Jen over at Crazy Shenanigans is doing her 2nd give-away!! Here is what she is giving away:

The winner will receive...

Book 1: Dead Until Dark

& Book 2: Living Dead In Dallas

Here are her rules:

The giveaway ends next Saturday, August 15, 2009 at 8:00p.m. eastern standard time. Now how to enter: You get 1 entry for commenting, 1 entry for being a follower and 1 entry for posting about my giveaway on your blog (leave a link to it on this entry so I can go see it).

The Top Gun's visit the Garlic House!

Tonight, Mr. Top Gun and I dined with fellow friends at the locally famous Irin Kirin restaurant, or as it is commonly referred to as "The Garlic House." We had been wanting to try it since we arrived on the island, and tonight we had the opportunity to do so- what an experience it was! I was so surprised that with the copious amounts of food Mr. Top Gun and I ordered between us, our bill only came out to $38.00 U.S Dollars. And boy did we get a lot of food... our table was covered with our dishes and the dishes of our friends. It looked like we were eating our last meal!

We all left with very, very full and extremely happy bellies, and the best part about this was that everyone ate garlic and smelled like it so when I gave Mr. Top Gun a kiss, it was like no big deal. After we got home and I was walking up the stairs, I noticed that we both smelled like a garlic factory! I immediately grabbed our clothes and threw them in the wash, then I proceeded to take another shower and washed my hair *again* to get rid of the smell. Oh well, it was so worth it!! I hope we don't wake up tomorrow smelling of garlic and end up sweating it out while we run errands... yuck.

This is the roasted garlic in a cast iron pan. The corn on the bottom was fresh and delicious!

This is the whole garlic, fried and then served with a mayonnaise type aioli sauce and another sauce with garlic chips on top of it. Delicious!
This is THE BEST garlic pizza- EVER!!! Our table ended up ordering 4 of these and we all shared them. This is one of my new favorite foods here, and it is very addicting and superbly delicious.

This was my tuna and avocado salad with garlic and cheese. OMG. How insanely delicious this was! Mr. Top Gun had one bite, and then I shooed his hand away from my dish. It was that good! The tuna was sushi grade and caught that day, and the creaminess of the cool avocados and the sauce they made from garlic and the mash of avocado was to die for. It definitely was the healthiest thing on the menu...
It's the Garlic House!!!

Thirsty Thursday... On Friday?

Please excuse my tardiness in posting my Thirsty Thursday drink! I am still trying to adjust to being a day ahead of the rest of the world, along with attempting to NOT run around like a crazy space cadet... So, this weeks drink is plain and simple and absolutely perfect for any hot and humid day! I Know my lovely blog buddy over at Running in Stilettos can appreciate this drink like me :) Unsweet- NOT SWEET, with lots of ice and a lemon! I also like to add a mint sprig to mine as well.

To make one and one-half quarts of iced tea, put a quart (that's 4 cups) of fresh, cold water in a teapot or pan or whatever and bring it to a boil. * I use Brita filtered water to make my tea* When the water comes to a boil, pour it over 5 small tea bags in a heatproof container. Set the container aside and allow the tea to steep for at least an hour, then remove the tea bags. If you like sugar, you can make a simple syrup and add it to you tea, or just use good old fashioned sugar! I don't drink sweet tea, but my Dad does and he says the simple syrup works the best in iced tea. Know why? Adding sugar to cold tea is bad (apparently?) because the sugar won't really dissolve in the coldness of the tea, and you'll just end up with a nasty looking 'pile' of sugar at the bottom of your glass.

Now, about the lemon. The purpose of lemon is not merely to make the glass look attractive. For most serious iced tea drinkers, lemon is a necessary ingredient. For me, it is paramount to my iced tea being perfect!

You want the recipe for the perfect iced tea? Here are some of my own personal tips!

• For iced tea, I've always used Lipton, and also think that Luzianne makes for great iced tea too.
• Try to have a glass or fiesta ware type pitcher- the cheap plastic ones and even metal are ok for parties (decorative) but they can make your iced tea taste metallic and plasticy... yuck!
• Fresh tea is the best tea. If you keep it in the fridge for days, or on the counter top *eek!* it will become cloudy and taste yucky. Just make enough of what you need, then make fresh tea when you need it next.
• After I brew my tea (I use a Mr. Coffee Iced Tea Maker,) I immediately place it in the fridge to chill it down. I don't add ice to it until it is nice and cold- the reason for this? If you add ice to the tea before it is chilled, the ice will melt resulting in watery iced tea. In short, the ice dilutes the tea!
• I like to use cubed ice (smaller cubes) in my tea and if I can get it, I LOVE CRUSHED ICE! I then add a nice lemon slice and sometimes a sprig of mint.
• If you like your tea stronger, let it steep longer. If you like it milder, steep it for about 5 minutes. I usually use about 5-6 of the regular iced tea bags and I prefer the decaf ones. I have enough craziness in my life, and I don't need the jitters!
• Last, ENJOY!!!!

Shenanigans at Casa De Top Gun

So, during this oh so lovely typhoon which has been roaring outside since last night, I have had the pleasure of doing the following things (in no particular order...)

*1- I managed to get the internet guys over to my home and set up our temporary wi-fi in the house. They also set up our Vonage, so now I can call home whenever! For free!

*2- Cook homemade red beans and rice for dinner last night, and managed to slice the thick ham steak into good chunks with a plastic knife. Yeah, my household goods are not here yet, so plastic cutlery is de riguer in my casa for now!

*3- While wiping down my stove top with a lysol cloth, I decided it would be a really cool idea for me to JAM MY LEFT RING FINGER INTO THE SIDE OF MY STOVE.

*4- Managed to jam my finger, thus leading to me falling onto my tile floor in a pile of tears and sobs, all the while Mr. Top Gun lazily sat on the couch and yelled out: "What did you do? Where are you, are you ok?"

*5- My finger has swollen up to the point that I fear I shall not be able to wear my gorgeous diamonds. I will find a way to wear my wedding bling- I don't leave my house without them! Oh, and my finger is a lovely shade of deep purple and blue right now! Awesome.

*6- Been told I won't make my appt. tomorrow at flight medicine, due to this storm and then was told the base is back at TCCOR 4 and all appointments shall stand.

*7- Mr. Top Gun left for work this morning and came home infected with SmallPox! He then handed me some lovely informational brochures and told me to read them, because for the next 30 days he is contagious??? Yes, I cannot touch the arm where he received his injection (15 pokes!) or I will get sick. The BEST PART ABOUT THIS ONE? HE HAS TO DO HIS OWN LAUNDRY FOR THE NEXT MONTH!!! I can't touch his clothes or towels, or anything that his injection site may have touched.

*8- My home is now a Bio-Hazard zone. I must keep plastic bio-hazard bags on hand for him to dispose of the bandages when they fall off. I must also pour bleach into the bags to kill the virus on the bandages... Awesome!

*9- Last night I watched Mr. Top Gun drop his glass of milk, followed by the entire bag of oreos he had in his hands. This was then followed by a loud scream, and him doing what appeared to be some type of a shuffle with his feet... All due to what he said was a small little roach looking bug that crawled onto his arm while he was picking up the oreos from the kitchen counter. I then had to clean milk up while he hunted down the bug, and this transpired after I jammed my finger!

*10- I then found this GEM on the internet last night while unable to sleep due to these 80mph winds! And oh, what a smile it brought to my face :)

Ya'll know that Mrs. Top Gun LOVES her some George Strait! And this song has even more meaning since it happens to be my Grandpa's favorite Hispanic song (originally sung by Vicente Fernandez.) I am a very, very happy little mexican girl right now upon this discovery! I can't wait to get his new CD!

"The King" Sung by the King of Country Music, Mr. George Strait!

*ENJOY!!*