Here we are over a month later. Lots of things have happend: my computer has been fixed, I went to Thailand with my son for two weeks (too cool of a trip - we will be going back in June or July to show it to my husband)....

I am finally caught up with my work - so I went stumbling and found this cool site:
This site describes in detail how to dye yarn with Kool Aid. I always thought that "stuff", the Kool Aid was poison - the taste, the smell and the really bright colors. This site makes it clear to me : There is a use for Kool Aid and it is dying yarn - bright colors are great for yarn!!!!
Check-out the site at :
http://www.snowangels.com/sketchbook/?page_id=418

I will be trying to get some of the Thailand pictures up in a few days..... ( I took 3 memory sticks for the camera and got them almost full......).

Soda machines - the Japanese have two or more everywhere

Here is a little about life on Okinawa, Japan. Some things stood out when I first arrived on the island. One of the dominant things were the Soda mashines: Well we thought, that there is a lot of them in the US, but the Japanese have us beat!!!! There are at least 20 of them within a 5 minute walking radius of my apartment building in a very residential neighborhood. The Japanese just love them. The coolest thing about them is that they are mostly filled with tea - green tea, hot tea, cold tea, black tea, lemon tea, apple tea etc. - and with coffee drinks - milk coffe, expresso, black coffee, hot coffe, cold coffee etc. The mashines often have hot and cold items in the same mashine. The hot items are really hot - even in the winter. They usually have a red button or a red label. That is how us non-japanese reading people identify them. The tea and coffe seldom is sweetend and sometimes even bitter. There are a few sodas and energy drinks along with water in the mashines. The fanciest mashines are coke mashines that have a TV screen in them - the TV shows a cute coke comercial over and over again.

Overall nobody has to go thirsty here, all one needs is a 110 Yen.....