Southern Swing

Mike was home long enough to show me how to wind the plastic cord on the weed eater spool before embarking on 'Southern Swing' with the 7th Fleet. I'd love to meet the person who dreams up these deployment names. Southern Swing sounds like a dance my nephew Jeremy might have invented during his college days.

His travels this time will take him to several interesting countries, including one that neither of knew existed. Maybe it went by a different name the last time I crammed for a geography test. At any rate, I'll keep you posted on those port visits as they occur. I think we all have a general idea of the direction in which they're heading.

The Navy encourages families to "not just survive but THRIVE!" during deployments, a mantra no doubt coined by that clever person who names deployments. My plan for thriving includes exploring as many gardens as I can using "The Flower Lover's Guide to Tokyo" as inspiration, learning how to play Taiko drums so I can rationalize buying one at a shrine sale, visiting lots of shrine sales so I can find an old Taiko drum to practice on between lessons (it's a vicious circle), and poking my nose in every convenience store and 100 yen shop on the Miura Peninsula. Oh, and Tara's going to teach me how to knit so I probably need to check out all the yarn shops.

But don't worry. I am not going to let THRIVING get between me and making ice. All hobbies have their accoutrements, don't they? You give a kid a putter and the next thing you know he needs irons, woods, a golf bag, special shoes, tees, a gadget for replacing divots, one glove, lots of balls, etc. So it is with Ice Making: The Hobby. The ice schop I found at the 100 yen store last week will certainly make transferring cubes from the automatic ice-maker bin to ziploc bags faster and more efficient. And while I was there I picked up some more of those nifty plastic zippered cases. We thrive best when we're organized.