This week has been pretty nice! I was able to go and visit a number of friends in addition to just sort of chilling out and taking it easy. I'll be back through the state one more time on Memorial Day to catch up with one last friend and say goodbye to a few others before taking off.

Here's a pic of my Granny.

My kid brother finally got hitched!
What could be better than that you ask.
Decorating his car of course!!!

(I know it's spelled wrong, that wasn't me)

My Mums!



ALSO,
BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND...

The Story Of The Story Of My Camera..

Things to remember when viewing this file.
* The file is 1.04 mb and my take a moment to download.
* It plays with either windows media or divix.
* My parents are so cool I would have just given the camera to them if they'd have asked.

The last couple of days have been pretty busy. My brother is getting married this weekend and since I have time off I volunteered to lend a hand in setting things up. 46 banquet tables and 350something chairs later the U-Haul was loaded and ready ready to truck on out to the reception site for unloading.

Believe me when I say there was nothing gentle about the ride. That poor poor truck, I think we might have broken it.

On a much more enjoyable note, I was able to help build the dance floor for the wedding!

CanMan, MadChatthew, Holly and I all played canasta the other night. CanMan didn't want me on his team cause it's been a while since I played and he he thought I wouldn't be any good, so MadChatthew took me as a partner. CanMan was partially right, but it turns out that MadChatthew was good enough to compensate and managed to capitalize on their one mistake and carry "US" to victory.

A picture speaks a thousand words,
MadChattew and I are "US", CanMan and Holly are "Them".

Why the long face?

Molly's a city dog who was getting her first real taste of the country dog life, and I'm telling you she didn't want to get back in that truck when it was time to go.

I'm leaving Japan today, in exactly 93 mintues to be exact. Two years will change a lot of things in a man and I'm interested to relfect on the changes I've seen take place in myself. I had a few close friends here, and leaing them was hard. It's not like when I left Bemidji or Brainers, although that was hard too I knew I'd be back eventually to check in on things. Not so with Japan. We exchanged email addresses and did the handshake man-hug thing and tried not to dwell on the idea that we'd never see eachother ever again.

When I arived at the comand, I was new to the police field, and then somewhere between the 30 man bar brawls, dead bodies, child abusers, more dead bodies, child molesters, rapists, and trying to keep living bodies from becoming dead ones my friends and I suffered together and grew together until one day I looked in the mirror to find that the balding pot-bellied computer geek had been replaced by someone a bit leaner, a bit harder and a bit balder.

I'm through with police work for a while now as my next command is going to be oriented in a slightly different direction. I'm learning the local language already "Shokran Gazillan " and plan to become as fluent as possible throughout my time there. I have this sinking feeling that I'm going to spend more time there than I am supposed to, but right now I'm content to sit back and enjoy the ride.

Valleyfair is going to be open while i'm back in the states!!!
"WHOOOOO'S COMIN WITH ME?!"

Also, my camera broke yesterday while I was taking some shots of Landmark Tower. It's a few years old, and I'm debating now whether to get it fixed and keep it around for a bit or just bite the bullet and get a new one. The pictures (I hope) should be recoverable and will make a nice addition to the "Studying Japan in charcoal and chalk" site that I'm hoping to put together.