Mother/Daughter/Friend Banuet

The Theme was Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Baseball-themed cupcakes

The guys served and made popcorn

Pam and Miss Anderson did Abbot & Costello's "Who's on First" routine

These young ladies sang a song Ron Hamilton's song "Happiness Came Looking for Me"    

We did a hard-boiled egg toss.  

Darla Hillman was the guest speaker. Her hubby pastors a church in Virginia. 

Christin Gets a Haircut

After my DIL Christin picked me up from the Airport, we drove into DC for her hair appointment.  She has naturally curly, beautiful auburn hair which is also very thick.  She found a salon that specializes in curly hair.   We got there for her 3:00 pm appointment.  It is called Fiddleheads Salon

The stylist first determined what style Christin wanted and explained how it would be done.  She has such thick hair and had never cut it really short before. 

Taking a "before" picture

She cut off two ponytails of about 12 inches in length which we will donate to Locks of Love

The back length was done.  It felt like a poodle's fur.  

The pile on the floor was as much as what was on her head. 

After the shampoo she sat under a hair dryer diffuser for about 20 minutes.  The cut is really beautiful, so much lighter on her head now and very cute.  

The pillow in the lobby  :-) 

May 19, 2016 to USA

The sign on this construction sight said "NOBODY GETS HURT!"

The Jefferson Memorial at the Tidal basin 

A bus named Cavallo--similar to my maiden name Cavalli

Thank you for the Freedom to write this Biblical truth on the back of a truck "Jesus is the Only Way to Heaven"

These odd characters were displayed outside a thrift store in DC

Flight to Maryland

May 19, 2016, 7:50 a.m., Japan time.

I left home about 5:00 a.m. for Itami airport and caught the above flight to Narita airport in Tokyo.  At 11:00 a.m. the direct flight  to Dulles International in Virginia took off and landed there at 10:40 a.m. on May 19, EST--a 12 hour flight and I got to re-live Thursday.  :-)

The flights themselves were smooth and uneventful which was nice.  The first one was an hour and I got to sit in seat 6A--which would be business class.  Here's a photo of my seat.  Would have been nice if this was on the Tokyo flight, but it was not. 

 Seat 6A on ANA

Flying over Eastern Tokyo

The plane to DC was ANA and decorated in a Star Wars theme.  The music as we boarded and landed was also Star Wars.  Very nice plane, flight and cabin crew.  5***** for this airline.

Over Lake Michigan

 Mid-West plains--flat forever

I got to DC about 30 minutes before the Johnson family from Aomori, Japan.  They were coming back for their first furlough with three children in tow, oodles of baggage and Sara was pregnant with #4.  Their family did not know she was expecting so it was a big surprise.  That's little Ethan in the orange shirt helping push the cart with his uncle, Paul's brother, and mom Sarah in the back.  

 Sarah Johnson and her sister

White Dishes

Yamazaki Bread has an annual spring campaign.  Buy their bread, collect the points (20 or 25) and receive a dish made by a French company.  So for the past 18 years or so we have done that and there is a big collection of these simply beautiful plates.

The first set is the top left dessert dish.  Each year is a variation of the previous one.  Some edges are plain, some not, some are a deeper bowl, some not.   These plates represent a lot of bread eaten over the years.  

The 2016 plate is up front, a shallow bowl with a plain edge.   

Bulbuls in the tree

These Bulbul birds literally ate all the multitude of berries off the tree these year, usually in teams of 8-10 flying in and out at a time.   The one below got caught red-handed.  Alas, not one for humans to taste.