World Resort Saipan

... A couple of hours after Suka got to work, she called me to tell me that her Japan visa was ready. They said up to five business days, so that was pretty quick. I ran out there in the middle of the day to get it and stopped by DFS to show her on the way back to the coffee shop.

After work, we picked up Judy and ran home for me to start cooking. Yes, this dinner for friends was me introducing a group of Korean-Chinese to an American cooking nice Italian food. I had bought fresh ...

... Expressions. I had met Allison, the owner, and her husband Anthony on the way back to the States on New Year's Eve. Expressions sells the kinds of luxury items you can't get anywhere else on the island, things like microbrew beer, Italian pesto, French chocolate and cheese, a nice selection of wine, and all the stamping, scrapbooking, and card making supplies you could want. I specifically wanted to buy some nice Parmesan and crackers to go with the Balsamic jelly ...

... for one watch in particular and their prices on the Oris line in general were pretty amazing. Suka really wanted me to get one of the watches, a dive watch that was second on my list of watches I was keeping an eye out for. After dinner we went back and got it.

I had been non-committal about buying it until I did the price checking and thoguht about whether I wanted to spend the money. Suka apparently had anticipated that I would buy it because ...

... set up a table for mimosas right when they came in, both a nod toward celebratory champagne for the occasion and toward the rash-inducing plants they just ran through. Just as the sun was setting and Suka and I were about to go out looking for people, the last five came in. All in all, the spread wasn't bad and everyone made it in without assistance. I call that a success no matter how much they griped. It turns out that the bright ...

... arrived! They want a ridiculous amount of supporting documentation. There are a couple of things that we'll have to talk through because they're not the way Saipan works. And I don't have any sort of phone receipts for all our Skype calls, but I may be able to produce a partial call log. At least they only want copies and not some certified version of my lease. And there's a bunch of other stuff. Much of it I have or can get ...

Things went smoothly. I even got to the airport a little early, just barely beating three buses of tourists. I got my upgrade to Japan. I was notified a few days ago about the upgrade from Minneapolis to Boston. The long flight will be in the hands of the Narita airport staff. We sat around the airport cafe as usual until Suka decided she needed more ...

... pin) and sat around their lobby reading until the lunch buffet opened. Suka took me to lunch at their buffet for my birthday. She wouldn't tell if she arranged it then or had called in advance, but the whole staff sung happy birthday to me and I got a small cake with a candle. In typical Saipan fashion, my name was misspelled, but it's part of the charm. Now I'm in the coffee shop writing this and trying not to fall asleep from a full stomach because I need to work and do laundry.

... the northernmost rope, so I followed Rose. Except I didn't have enough air to make it back that way. Fortunately, Rose was diving with a high pressure compact tank and had enough air for us to buddy breathe for awhile. I wasn't in any danger because I could have always surfaced to finish the dive. Suka had bouyancy problems when we got back to the rope. While Rose was helping her, I headed in on the rope with my last ...

... claimed illness out of disgust for his indecision on a relatively simple matter. With the timing of it, however, she was embarrassed to ask or to just take it. Wolf picked me up at the apartment at 3:15. The trail was set by Alan, Stephanie, and another. The first part of the trail was very familiar, starting at the On Home from the Wedding Hash (roughly the map pin, I think, but the clouds make it hard to find) that he and I set together and going to and following the ...

... they cut it out or have a picnic like they did at DFS Guam, but the DFS Saipan management felt that everyone needed the recognition and morale boost. Hard Rock was a reduced-cost option. They solicited local businesses for gift contributions and gave out literally hundreds of donated gifts to staff in a big raffle. Suka won a one month membership to Curves (yes, there is one on Saipan), which she surely doesn't need. Working two jobs, she lost ...