How Do You Get It To Rain In Sasebo?

Why schedule a softball tournament of course!! Thats the case here for the 5th straight time. Every one this year has been rained out. Its been really nice here too, except for this one weekend when the ships were all in and we had enough teams to make a decent tournament. Bummer
On the flip side, no tournament meant bowling, there were alot of people this week so more people had a chance of winning money. I got my first ever back to back 200 games and I think I did good enough to at least get my entry fee, if not more. So good for me....at least the rain cant effect everything.

** Publisher's Note (25June2006) I found out today that I got 8th out of 20+ people which was good enough for a cash prize.

Softball (19June2006)

The ships came back in and I was happy to see some new teams playing. We played the USS Harpers Ferry tonight. It was a little warm out and I guess it helped out with our batting which has been ice cold as of late. We scored 2-3 runs an inning after the first and only allowed them one good inning of scoring. Final score 15-7.

Season Record: 31-6.

Saturday, June 17th

Today started early due to a 5K race that I told some friends I would run. Its been a good while since my last road race (2004 Army Ten miler) and was kind of looking forward to it. Warming up, one of the television reporters whom I am friends with asked if I wanted to do an interview for the local news. Eager to be on TV (again) I agreed. Simple questions and I didnt get as nervous as I did when I was interviewed for the vet clinic. But it went well. The race was for a local Japanese orphanage and since they had no fundraisers of any kind the Navy Surface League held this race to raise money for them. It was a good cause, and they turned over a good chunk of change. As we started I got behind my friend who I knew was going to beat me, but I knew if I stayed with him for a while I would do well enough to meet my personal goal. And that's what I did for the first 2 miles, then either he sped up or I got tired, I drifted back a little ways and was unable to catch back up with him. I didn't get my exact time because the last 100 yards I turned into a dead sprint trying to catch another guy in front of me, and I would of had him if it wasnt for a spectator who yelled "He's gaining on you!!" That keyed him to turn on the jets and stay closely ahead. It was 22 minutes and some change, but still good, I estimated around 24 minutes for a finish so I was happy with that time.

Having nothing else planned for the day we just decided on a little bowling action. The two guys I ran with went and had lunch at the bowling alley and threw three games. Chris took first in the bowling tournament last week so in the second game when I beat him I was pretty happy about it. However he came back and beat me by 40 in the third game and beat me over all by 27 pins. I think I'm getting better...


Ever watch celebrity poker? I've been watching that on days off once I'm done with my homework and have gotten into the Texas Hold'em game. So I didnt want to pass up the cahnce to play in a real one that MWR was holding here on base. I had about 15 friends in it with me out of 49 total people. It was pretty popular as there was a long waiting list in case someone didnt show up. They made the games quick so we didnt spend too much time in there. I started off good and won a couple of hands early off. But my luck ran out in about an hour and eventually lost the table. The top seven people went to the final table for their chance to win a TV. Chris was in the running and ended up taking second place. Not bad. It was a good end to a long day, I slept well tonight

General Update (11Jun06)

Sorry for the lack of entries this past week and a half, been pretty busy:


I turn in promotion points the end of july so I need to obtain as many as possible for that turn in. I took on three classes this term, rather than the original two which all end the day before I go on leave. Economics, Sociology, and Ethics in Criminal Justice should keep me busy. I've decided a NEW approach and get the homework done during the week instead of waiting until the weekend and then end up rushing through and not doing near as well as I should. I don't know why I didnt think of that way sooner. To go along with that I've been in the gym everyday trying to get my PT score up as much as possible as that score is included with my points turn in. The higher the score = more points, so thats a no brainer.


Work is going great. I almost have my secretary able to run things by herself so when I leave for home the month that I am gone she won't need to call me while I'm in the states. The vet is getting alot of clients seen during the week and we have had alot of positive feedback since bringing him aboard. My Japanese has improved a little from our end of the day conversations that usually include me asking how to say different phrases. I even signed up for a self-improvement language class through the army and am taking tutorials in my off time. The classes so far are basically flash cards that children would use to identify different things. But I get to hear the words as well and thats a big help.


Despite being blessed with wonderful weather we've had about 5 softball games since I last wrote. All but one was a win and that was to the fire department again. That night was the worse one we have had all season scoring only three runs in the loss. The second game of that double header we only had three runs as well, but fortunately we only needed one since the other team couldn't find the mark and got shutout. Season Record: 29-5


Friday Night there werent any games scheduled so some of my teammates and other friends went and participated in a Bowling Tournament. When I first got here I used to bowl alot, almost every weekend but since haven't found the time. So I wasn't expecting a big showing. It was a 9 pin no tap tournament meaning you only needed 9 pins on your first ball to record a strike. So while everybody's numbers were elevated we still had some intense rivalries going. After the second game it came down to one of softball teammates ad I vowing for what we thought was 6th place. After beating him by 14 pins we found out that another lane had gotten two more bowlers ahead of us which dropped us down to 8th and 9th. Out of 18 bowlers that wasnt bad for not bowling once in 2006. It was a good way to spend a Friday night.

For those of you who didn't know, or havent heard yet, I will be back in the states July 30th through August 26th. The DC area then the Kansas area. Hope to see as many of you as I can!!