Monday, June 29, 2009

Olivia's first baseball uniform

When Grandma Kann delivered this outfit in March from Aunt Patti and Uncle Bob, we thought the Twins would have to be in World Series before she would be big enough to be able to fit into it.

So imagine our surprise when she started to outgrow her three month old clothes and we pulled out her new threads from the closet. Guess who will be wearing it during the All Star Game next month, and to her first and last Dome game in August (if she doesn't outgrow it by then). Don't worry, she has another Twins t-shirt she can wear.



A one minute and 14 second photo shoot

This is what we go through to capture a few of Little O's quick smiles. Make sure you turn up the volume because it recorded quietly. Enjoy and promise not to make fun of Michelle's many voices (including the seagull from The Little Mermaid). It was either post this on my own terms, or wait for Michelle to post it when I'm out of town. This director's cut was never intended for public release.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

When Mommy dresses Olivia


Her Green Bay Packer socks were in the wash ....

Father's Day fun


For his first Father's Day, Benny decided to wear Olivia as a lamp shade.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

And the actual retail price

¥680. Congratulations Melinda! Just think if you had rounded up, there may have been a crisp ¥1000 attached to your prize.

Your prize will be in the mail (as soon as the judges meet again to select a prize from the vault).

Listen up Grandma Volkmann

Olivia says "I want YOU to have a Happy Birthday!"


Hope you like my birthday suit, I picked it out especially for you.

And Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there - especially Great-Grandpa Wille, Grandpa Cliff and Grandpa Roy, Uncle Rick and Uncle Jon.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Come on down!

You're the next contestant on The Price is Right!

You are bidding on an delicacy found in the produce section, shipped from the USA. Fresh fruit is often seen as a luxury, and is a popular gift brought to a host's house from the guests.


So in a game we're calling What, did you buy them at Starbucks?, contestants will take a guess at the cost of a bowl of cherries (in Yen). The contestant closest to the actual retail price without going over will win a fabulous prize.

This contest will close at 11:59PM CST on June 23.

Congratulations to our previous contest winner, Melinda of Stafford, VA for guessing correcting in Time that Smile.

Most fruit in the store (local store or on base at the commissary) is seasonal and is shipped in from the states (at the commissary) or from neighboring countries (at the local markets). The last two weeks have been especially exciting since we've been able to buy cherries! Most fruit that comes from the states seems to be about a week old, and isn't as fresh as the produce out in town (although it usually is a little cheaper on base).

One of the biggest struggles I face here is dealing with the one habit I got from my parents that I haven't been able to kick - fruit addiction. If I could only stick to three servings a day, imagine how much Olivia would have for college in just the three years we'll be on Okinawa.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

When Daddy dresses Olivia


Daddy disclaimer: We were walking straight home after the beach to the bathtub. There was NO point in changing all the clothes out if they are all coming off in 10 minutes anyways. Besides Dad wanted to make sure that Olivia stayed warm on the stroller ride home so she didn't catch pneumonia.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Olivia-free evening

We aren't lucky enough to be able to take advantage of Grandma's baby-sitting services. But we still want to have date nights, so Benny and I have been checking out different options.

I have a list of high school girls who are certified through the Red Cross and come highly recommended from some ladies in my book club. I need to interview these girls and start booking them for Friday and Saturday nights.

But until then Benny and I have been taking advantage of the "Give Parents a Break" program at the on-base daycare.

Once a month, the on-base daycare is open for 5 hours on the weekend, either in the afternoons or the evenings. In May, we dropped Olivia off at noon and picked her up at 5 p.m. While she was experiencing the quality care (so our time was worry-free), Benny and I had lunch at our favorite Indian restaurant and watched "Slumdog Millionaire."
When we picked up Olivia she had just fell asleep. What a great program.

Today we are again signed up for the program. This time we drop off Olivia at 5 p.m. and pick her up at 10 p.m. It's my turn to plan our evening and I'm debating a few different options.

Dinner out at a restaurant is a definite. I'm thinking this sushi restaurant near our house that everyone praises.

And then what? A movie night? I wanted to see "The Hangover" but the earliest showing isn't until 9 p.m. We could go see "Angels and Demons" at 6 p.m.

Or is lame to see a movie again? Should we try to do something active? Something we can't do with Olivia?

Maybe we should check out this place called Round One. My co-worker said her husband and her had a blast there when they had a date day.

This situation falls into the category of "so much to do, so little time."

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Olivia's Red, White and Blue Debut


Olivia's debut tour dates have been announced, with stops in Minneapolis, Savage, Oakdale, Burnsville, Guttenberg, Garnavillo, Iowa City, Cedar Rapids, and San Francisco!

Scroll over to Aug 16 to see the arrival in Minneapolis, and departing the Midwest on Sept 2.

We'll put the dates and locations on the calendar as the promoters solidy the venues. Right now we're planning on staying at the Kent B&B in Savage for the MN dates, and the Kann's on Kale in Guttenberg.

See you in a little over two months!

Monday, June 8, 2009

Three months old


Olivia said she wanted to learn Karate where it originated. Cowabunga!


And Miss Olivia, in the study, waiting for her pipe and slippers before she reads a little Where's Elmo? to cap off the night.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Take Me Out to the Hyakyu Game





First I have to give my friend Jim credit for the title and the closing.




Page 2.


It was the first time I've arrived at a ballpark an hour early since the Cubs game last summer at Wrigley... but there was no batting practice. We knew we were going to sit in the outfield, that's where where all the cheering happens. Traditionally the home team's fans sit in right field, and the visitors in left. It had been raining most of the day, and the rain stopped just before we arrived at the ballpark.

Where you are trying to dodge ticket scalpers outside of an American ballpark, you are trying to pick out the best scents of what delicacy you will partake outside of the Japanese ballpark.



We chose a type of okonamiyaki (it looked much less messy on the grill), that once placed in the take out tray, is the most delicious, messy, Japanese baseball goodness you could have. You don't have to buy your food in the stadium, you can buy it outside the park and bring it in with you. Or pack your own lunch/dinner or bento box. Or if you get hungry during the game, you can stamp you hand, get some more okonamiyaki, and bring it back in. And you can do it all without missing any of the game since the stadium was fairly small and the vendors are literally right outside the exit. We didn't save enough room to even try the grilled corn (although I know Iowa corn would have won in a heartbeat - but to still taste sweetcorn is a dream I've had since last July). The vendors outside the stadium had more a market than a food court - you could get anything, from kitchen knives to fresh flowers.















I don't care what people say, it's still baseball without the hot dogs and peanuts... but what about the beer?

I wasn't looking for the hot dogs, so they could have still sold them at the stadium. I was too full from our tasty treat. The only place I remember seeing hot dogs at in Yokohama was at IKEA, but the breakfast binge didn't leave room for hot dogs (sorry honey). You could still get beer at the vendors. There were two vending stand in in right field, one for souvenirs, and one for food (manned with two people in nothing more than an 8 x 8 ft trailer). But why go to the vendors when the beer would come to you, in easy to spot beer women. They were hard to miss, they all wore florescent colors that I swore most of us wore in the late 80s (some into the 90s).





You could spot them across the stadium. (It made me think that it was easy for management to ensure none of their folks were sitting idle, but I wouldn't expect that from the mostly dedicated Japanese work ethic). And I'm not going lie, it didn't hurt that most of the beer girls were young and good for the single guys to look at (without getting myself into too much trouble). Jim and I managed to do our own little taste test amongst the Japanese beers. Among the three, Yebisu won, followed by Kirin and Sapporo.



(As delicious and the airline peanut sized snack looks, it's dried fish and almonds. Not so delish.)


But why we came of course was for the game... (the video came from our camera and not the flip).

Every time your team is up to bat, you are on your feet cheering and making noise. Most of the time these cheers are chants that all the fans know, and are let by a man who gets on a box like the marching band conductor and leads the cheer. His supporting cast includes the flag bearer and a trumpeteer. Most players received support like this when they were batting:



But not Murata-san. When he stepped up to the plate, his supporting cast in right field would start a different ritual. I was waiting for him to part the clouds... but I had to settle for Murata-san hitting a single.





Another difference was the call to the bullpen. Most pitchers come jogging out of the bullpen in the States, but in Japan, they gave them a ride in a Toyota MR2.



One final difference, something the NFL and NBA have caught on, even the NCAA, but MLB has yet to pickup: cheerleaders. Here they are doing the Yokohama Bay Stars song (part of the lyrics: oh, oh, wow, wow; Yokohama Bay Stars):




Cause it's ichi, ni, san strikes you're out... and the Bay Stars lost to the Nippon Fighting Hams, a lot to a little.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Special Delivery


My sister Colleen had one suggestion for my mom's birthday present: Send Olivia.

Well Olivia heard this birthday wish and schmoozed her way into the nearest flat rate postal box when my back was turned (for only a second, I swear).

Fortunately the customs office heard her cooing from inside this box and returned her to us.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Monday, June 1, 2009

The Trip that Wasn't

Like my trip to Disneyland on the day before New Year's Eve 2006, I couldn't sleep.

All I could picture was clips from Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of our Fathers, or recreate the stories I heard about Whitey Fox, a Marine who survived many landings, including Iwo Jima.

My friend Jim (an architect in the Navy) and I flew up to Tokyo and caught the train to Atsugi last Thursday, about an hour and three different train lines later. Our mission: to join our fellow CEC offficers on the mainland for a trip to Iwo Jima on Friday. We jumped into a cab at the train station and 710 yen later we were at the front gates to NAF Atsugi.

Jim checked the forecast ahead of time: heavy showers. So we packed our camoflouge gortex jackets and trousers. But we thought the cabs would be able to take us onto the base, like they do here in Okinawa. Not quite. I even picked up my civilian rain jacket to get to my shoes before leaving Okinawa.

So we mosied through the front gate and asked for directions for the Navy Lodge, since we weren't going to catch a ride. Thankfully the advertised 1-2 mile walk in the rain only turned out to be a 1/2 mile long.

We got directions to the best ramen and gyoza restaurant in town. After walking 15 minutes (this time after buying an umbrella - can't wear the camoflauge gortex out in town), we made it to the restaurant. It was only 100 meters from the train station we got off at (don't know the name but the building was black). We celebrated our safe travels with a kompai (cold Kirin beer) and came back to the Navy Lodge full and about 2 pounds heavier with my water logged pants.

After waking up on the hour every hour and hoping it was time to get up, the alarm finally went off at 5am. We donned our uniforms and rain gear and headed out for the walk to the air terminal to meet our group that drove over from the other bases on mainland Japan.

We were a bit puzzled when we walked in and were told the only flight to Iwo Jima was a "Japanese only" flight. After looking at eachother with a confused and concerned look, we were relieved to hear we were at the Japanese Defense Force air terminal (the American terminal was 300 meters away).

We arrived at 6:40am, 20 minutes before our required arrival time and joined in on the breakfast burrito festivities. Before we knew it, 7:30 came and went... but not before the announcement came to the group of 20-30 people waiting for the flight, "sorry folks, flights cancelled due to heavy rains". I didn't know the Navy didn't fly in the rain... but before I expound on my assumptions, we realized it was better to be stranded in Atsugi than Iwo Jima with its extremely limited facilities.

So what do you do with a free day in Atsugi (remember, it's raining)?
A. Checkout the IKEA in Yokohama
B. Go to the 4 story mall with 370 stores and compare it to the Mall of America
C. Go to the Yokohama Bay Stars baseball game
D. All the above

We were craving the cinnamon rolls, coffee, and a dry climate. But we were a little confused with the "walk towards the IKEA sign visible from the train station and you'll be there in 7 minutes" when were was no such sign in sight. After a few lost in translation moments and 25 minutes later, we found ourselves at our favorite blue box store. Who wouldn't want to see how a Swedish store with all its space maximizing trinkets set up in a country with limited space like Japan? Turns out it sets up the same as California and Switzerland (Jim saw the Swiss IKEA) and Japan. And the almond cake, cinnamon rolls, and coffee were delicious.


As we walked out of the IKEA looking for a cab to take to take to the train station, we thought a bus stop must be around here somewhere.... oh wait, IKEA had a free bus from IKEA to the train station. Genius.

We thoroughly enjoyed the vertebrae bridge between the train station and the mall. The mall was pretty slick, but the architect in Jim came out as he noticed all the design features and was quite impressed.

But before we could buy too much loot for our carry-on bags (as you can see, Olivia was the big winner),it was time to head to Yokohama Stadium. We heard the Japanese play baseball in the rain (as long as it is not heavy rain), and they start their games at 6pm.


So we went to the game, enjoyed the food and cheers... yada, yada, yada, it was 9pm and time to catch the train back to Atsugi and hit the rack (our dogs were barking). The baseball game was an adventure in itself - another story for another time.

So we were bummed that our trip to Iwo Jima was cancelled, hopefully we can do it again some other day. But when life throws rain at you, take a big leap and splash in the puddles.

The answer is D.