George's Birthday!

I'd like to take a few minutes to write about the person I love the most in this world, my husband, my Panda, George. He really is a wonderful husband, an even better best friend and a great father to our doggy Cheyenne. His birthday was this past weekend and fittingly, he deserved a birthday party!

The services the base offers really are terrific. I went to the Outdoor Recreation Building to have my bicycle fixed. They assembled it, put the tires on, pumped them up, put the pedals on and tested it that it still worked. While I was there I saw they rented a party pack. I decided then and there to throw George a birthday party in the grassy area near our apartment. I rented a tent, 2 tables, 15 chairs, a grill and a giant ice chest for $55, including delivery. I sent out a Facebook invite to our friends here on the base, and the party was on. Lucky for me, George's b-day fell on a Friday this year so it's easy to organize. I considered making it a surprise party but decided that would take too much effort. :)

Friday finally rolled around. George flew that morning and afternoon so I was pretty much on my own to get all ready for the party. I cleaned the house and started making the food a day in advance. They delivered the tent, grill etc. around 3 and guests were due to arrive around 6. I have wonderful neighbors, really, I can't brag about them enough! They are each fantastic! The reason I brag about them is that I had 3 come down and help me set up the tent, which was a fantastic help. I looked at the bag with the poles, rods, metal thingys and tent cover itself and decided we were no longer going to have a tent because I figured I'd never be able to get it set up. Adam was home that afternoon and came down to help me out, then Caitlin and Jane joined us as well! We had it done in about 30 minutes, and I'm not even sure it took that long! Thanks, especially to Adam for being the brains of the operation and figuring out how the whole structure worked! Jane ran to the store for me and got tablecloths, because trust me, these tables had been very beaten up. And Caitlin was an excellent tent holder. She knows what I mean. :)

We ended up with way more food than we had imagined we would have. We bought 24 hamburgers, 24 hotdogs, 6 brats, wings, a crock-pot full of Santa Fe Soup (more credit to Aunt Joy), a veggie tray, chips and salsa, and all the fixings for the burgers and ha-gogs (as George would sometimes say). I decided at the last minute that the tent looked bare and because I hadn't even really thought to get balloons (what's the matter with me?) I made George a very pathetic, very last minute, but made with love, "Birthday Banner". I got it hung up, and guests began to arrive.

George's sign and some of our guests/friends/neighbors.




We had a really great time! Overall at least 40something people came by to wish George a happy birthday! We stayed up chatting with friends and cleaning up until 1am! I'd call the event a success. We had absolutely zero food left. All of the burgers, hotdogs, brats and soup were eaten! We had a few carrots left from the veggie tray, but the rest of it was gone! We did have a tons of sodas and beer left over, which are STILL, eight days later, sitting in a cooler in my living room. We have nowhere else to put them! Hahaha!

Oh! I didn't mention George's birthday cake! I made my very first attempt at baking my first homemade cake. I've made homemade icing before and I've made homemade cake batter before, but never together for the same dish. George requested a yellow cake with chocolate frosting, so after some searching I found a recipe that fit this criteria on the Wilton website. After my attempt at decorating a pie for the 4th of July (see previous posts) with cake icing (what was I thinking?) I felt I could give it another attempt on George's birthday cake. It certainly didn't look professional, but I think it was a great try and I'm sure the next time I do it, it'll look even better! The cake itself was a little dry but the icing was some of the best I'd ever tasted! (If I do say so myself).

The cake! (Stupid candles)


We had a bit of a glitch with the candles! I went out of my way to find nice candles for his cake and bought the wax letter candles that spell out 'Happy Birthday". I placed them in the cake and then tried to light them. We seriously tried for 20 minutes... but never could get them to light!!! We took the cake under cover to do it, tried everything we could think of, but the wicks had finally given out because they wouldn't stay lit! Oh well, I held up a lighter when we sang and let George blow that out! A minor mishap, but what can you do?




For the rest of the weekend we kind of took it easy! We were pretty exhausted from the week and Friday's festivities so we just hung out around here. On Sunday we went to Fussa's Tanabata Festival. There was food, performers, swarms of people, drinks, music and just general festival stuff. We walked around for an hour or two, saw a very short magic show, tried lots of food on a stick, and explored the area.

George at the very entrance to the festival. I wish I had taken more pictures once it was crowded!



As we were getting ready to leave the festival, a man grabbed George's arm. He was a much older man, maybe 75-85ish range. Through his very broken English and our even more broken Japanese we gathered that he:
1. Asked George if he was from our base. Yes.
2. Asked what branch he was in. Air Force.
3. Asked George if he was a communist. No.
4. Man tells us that he is a communist. Okay...?

The man had a more negative stance than we cared for, and never offered a smile. I finally grabbed George's arm and said, "Are you ready? We need to go." It made us both uncomfortable. We don't really know what he was saying and perhaps he was not a communist and was thanking us? Ha. We have no idea but didn't care much for the experience!

At the festival we ate chicken on a stick, steak/sausage(?) on a stick, and George had a pita pocket of some sort, with chicken and lettuce. All of it was pretty good. Some of the other things we saw there were baked potatoes, lots of fish, cucumbers on a stick, pickles on a stick, bananas dipped in chocolate on a stick, and liquor being sold on the street, which I assume means they lack liquor licenses here. (?).

We walked back towards the base and went to a Chinese restaurant along the way to have a proper dinner. While we were there we could hear the fireworks going off from the festival, so along with 2 of the 3 employees of the restaurant, we stepped outside to watch them. We gazed at them for a few minutes then went back in to finish our meals. George got a spicy chicken-fried rice dish and I got "chicken soup casserole" which really was Ramen noodles, with a warm broth, chicken and vegetables. It was really good.

George received a new bike from me for his birthday, as well as a travel book about Japan (can you believe we didn't own one?) and a book called 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. We've already gone through and are marking off the places we've seen. I have more than George does right now, but I'm sure with all of the traveling he does with work, he'll have way more than me in a few short years!!! And we're looking forward to seeing a lot of those places together!

Anyway, the point is, on Sunday we went for a bike ride together! We rode to a restaurant that is like a mock Steak-n-Shake (oooh I miss that!) and had lunch then rode all the way around the base, around the flight line (which is pretty cool) and back home. We calculated it to be about 6 miles, which was plenty long for my first bike ride in say, uh, 4 years? My behind hurt more than anything, but my knee took a very close second. I had to keep stopping to take a break! OH! We had another Fuji Sighting! YAY!

It was a wonderful weekend, and I'm glad I got to spend it with George. With all the traveling he does, being in the "real Air Force" instead of our pilot training bubble makes me appreciate each and every day with my husband that much more. It's such a great feeling to know that we are together on this incredible adventure in Japan. There is no one else I'd rather experience this short life I have with, and am so grateful that he feels the same way. So Happy 25th Birthday George, I love you!!!