Merry Merry!

Hello everybody! It's been a wonderful year this year and we have been blessed with many good things - much travel, good memories and best of all great friends and family!

Christmas passed this year without much ado, but we got to see our friends 4 days out of 5 (or something like that) and that was quite fun. Jaime got a case of the flu (we think) over the holiday, but that didn't stop her from playing some serious Guitar Hero and mastering "La Grange" from ZZ Top...well - I wouldn't say she "mastered" it, but she channels and harnesses the power of her Dad every time she plays, so it's like she is the master of it. Charlie plays Guitar Hero every day, for at least a good hour. That's all we seem to do lately. Sleep, eat, Guitar Hero. Good times. We even got our friends hooked...poor saps...but they seem to enjoy it as well.

Today Jaime is at work (with probably only 15 other people on the NASA campus) for a half day and Charlie is hanging with the stink-pups. Tonight is a New Years Eve party at the Wilke's house (John and Beth and Syd) - COME ONE COME ALL!!

If you're out tonight, drive safe and drive sober.
Much love and Happy New Year!

...see you in '08.

Jaime's Motto

Get Your Mind Right.

Back in the U-S-S-A

Well, after a 21-hour travel day yesterday, I finally made it back to good ol' Houston. It was a lot of fun while I was in Munich - great people, great food, good fun.
I should be headed back sometime in January for Round 2 of the 1E mission launch attempt. I miss it already. Maybe next time I go there will be snow on the ground? That would be lovely!

***NEWS-NEWS-NEWS***
On 12/9/2007 my sister Faith gave birth to her first child, Noah Steven Turner. He weighed in at a tiny 7 lb 12 oz, 20" long, full head of hair. Mom, Dad (Shawn) and Baby are doing wonderfully. Now I'm an Aunt on my side of the family (4 times over for Charlie's side already)!

This weekend I will be headed home to MN to visit my sister and her family - what a whirlwind of a month! I leave on Friday morning and return to Houston on Sunday night.
CONGRATULATIONS TO FAITH AND SHAWN!!
http://www.shawnandfaith.spaces.live.com/

Deutschland!

Hallo meine lieblings!

I've been in Germany for a week now and it has been pretty fun. I arrived last Friday (11/30) to the Munich International Airport, got my swanky, black Opel hatchback (only 226 km on it! brand new!), turned on my Tom Tom for a little GPS guidance and headed toward the town of Pasing (or thereabouts) to my hotel. The Gaestehaus Im Forum (http://www.gaestehausimforum.de/) is the hotel/apartment area that a bunch of us people are staying at, which is great. The people are really nice and I really like my room. It has a kitchen and everything in it, which has come in really handy!

(view of bed/living room, kitchen area, view of double doors looking out onto the rooftop patio I have, which overlooks the little square here).

We hit the Kristkindlmarkt in the Marienplatz of Munich for some Christmas Market goodness, another small market at the Seehof Castle not too far from here, took a quick road trip to Garmisch to check out the skiing there, saw the Olympicstadion, and have had some great dinners (Hofbrauhaus, Paulaner Brewery) and yes, I've even had some bier (Helles?). Garmsich was really pretty and after probably 15 years of not skiing (at least!), I think I'll try to hit the slopes with my hubbie if he ever comes out to visit - after launch and around Christmas.

(Natalie, Spicer, Me in a sleigh at the market)

(Me, Spicer, Natalie in Garmisch on a mountain I can't remember)

Unfortunately today we did not launch the space shuttle for STS-122/1E, the reason I'm here in Germany in the first place. :( BOO! We'll try again tomorrow, so everyone send good wishes by way of the Kennedy Space Center!

That's all for now - peace.

ps: I miss my man and my puppies.

pps: Faithie is still pregnant and last I heard was having contractions at 10-minute intervals. C'mon little Noah, no guts no glory! Love you Faifer!

Run, Part II

Per Jaime's special request, here are my race photos:
http://www.yoursportingimage.com/Thumbs.asp?BibNbr=marshik&event=1512&Locate=Locate

Veterans' Day 25K

As I'm sure you're all aware, Sunday was Veterans' Day. Although we were trying to make it a tradition to throw a Veterans' Day partay, we were not able to do it this year for a few reasons. So instead I (Charlie) ran my first 25K (~15.5 miles) run in the Theatre District in downtown Houston on Sunday morning.

Jaime and I were at a friend's birthday partay the night before, so I was only able to get a little more than three and a half hours of sleep the night before. Considering this, I was able to impress myself three times over:

1. I made it out of bed and to the race!

2. I finished the race (and earned a superfly microfiber pullover by doing so)!

3. I came out with a respectable time (in my mind at least)!

Here is the video of me crossing the finish line- I'm the topless guy with the beefy build:

It turns out that this is currently one of the top ten downloaded videos on the net right now. Good ol' net...

It's hard to pick up, but the crowd is actually going crazy when my name is announced- I think the were having problems with the mic or something. I've heard rumors that there were even riots after my performance- 2003 UofM hockey championship style.

Anyway, my chip time* was 1:57:54.2, which is 7:36 per mile. ~7:15 per mile is kind of my marathon goal pace, but I'm more than 20 seconds higher than that at the moment, so it's a long shot. But if I do it in the Houston Marathon (which I am currently registered and training for), then I would qualify for the Boston Marathon. How cool would that be? My time was good enough to get 9th of 59 in my age-gender group and 137th of 1600+ overall, so I'm pretty happy with it.

No pics yet, as they won't be posted for another couple days. But when they are, I'm sure I will have some unflattering snapshots to share.

Until then...

*If you're not familiar with chip time: in many races, you tie a little chip to your shoe that registers your time when you run past mats placed in various places throughout the course. Not only is this able to ensure that nobody cheats by skipping laps, but it gives you a more accurate race time since not everybody can be at the front of the pack when the race starts; your time doesn't start until you cross the start line.

Armadillos Abound

Recently we have discovered that our puppy Sammie has a special bond with armadillos. Since we've had her, she has always been able to sniff out piles of armadillo poo in our backyard. She then proceeds to roll into it, which is a great time for everybody- she'd even convinced Kirby to try it once, but I think that was a one time deal for K-dog.

But even more recently we have caught her randomly going nuts for no apparent reason at all: pacing the house, whining, trying to look out all the windows, etc. It turns out that she's been sensing the presence of her arch-nemesis, the armadillo. So we've been opening up the backyard to her, at which point she proceeds (often with a confused Kirby on her heels) to sprint into the darkness. When we're quick enough to grab a flashlight and shine it out there, we often find them chasing small, armadillo-shaped animals. It seems that Kirby has started to get into the act as well, spotting the little guys from her post in the second-story windows.

So we were able to snap a few photos of the little nocturnal 'dillies (as we call them) who've been digging up our mulch beds.

Halloween 2007

Yesterday was the holiday of Halloween, as most of you should know. Even with limited time and resources available this year, we were still able to pull off a decorated home to celebrate the occasion. Charlie and I even carved pumpkins at the eleventh hour, but we still made it.

We had a quite a few kids show up, including one group of at least 15 little grubbers! The majority of the kids were very polite and said "Trick or Treat!", but there were a few ungrateful, poor-mannered kids, who weren't nearly as fun to give candy treats to (eg: "Put the candy in the bag!").

My favorite part of the evening was when an innocent, blonde, 5-year old girl dressed as a Princess with her Barbie treat bucket said of our door decorations: "I like the blood on your door!" That cracked me up!

Below are pix of our house...note: we hope to improve greatly next year!

Enjoy!

Jaime's Pumpkin (above)

Charlie's Pumpkin (above)

Tha Latest Haps

As many of you are hopefully aware, there is a space shuttle mission going on right now. This fact keeps Charlie and I pretty busy these days, often working long hours for "the man" only to come home to relax with a couple hours of good old-fashioned classwork. Ahhhhhhhh, sounds very zen-like, I know.
It is all for a good cause, no doubt, but it sure does seem daunting sometimes. I have 2 years of school left before I graduate with my MS in Astro-super-nautical Engineering and Charlie has only a couple classes left before his MS in Electrical Enginerding. Boy, I can hardly wait already for school to be done and I know Char-lez feels the same way. Today happens to be one of those busy, long days.
While I was working over this beautifully sunny Houston weekend, it will come as no surprise to anyone that Charlie re-wired our living room to accommodate mounting our entertainment speakers on the wall (yay!). After much ado with some floor joists and a 2' long drill bit, he successfully got his project completed today. Good thing he's so smart, because MAN, that's a lot of work for one guy to get done. He prepositioned some wiring, too, for the patio speakers we don't have yet and don't have a plan for...at least the wires are in place so he doesn't have to do it all again :)
After this mission lands, I go to work for the Space Station program for 7 days straight (I think I have a day off before that stint begins?), have a couple days in the office, then we both head back to MN for Thanksgiving with our families. It will be really good to see Charlie's family again! The week after we get back from Thanksgiving I will be in meetings all week and then on Friday 11/29 I head to Munich, Germany for work. I will be there (in theory) for the first week and a half of the next shuttle mission scheduled to launch in early December. If the stars align just right, Charlie will be joining me in Munich for xmas and a mini-vacation until ~12/29 when we'll return to TX.
...at least that's the "plan" for now. Hey, spending a month in Germany isn't all that bad, right?
In addition, I talked to my good friend Ryan Weston from trampoline today and the National Trampoline Team is getting ready for the 2007 World Championships in Quebec City (http://www.trampolinequebec2007.ca/index.php?module=SiteNews). It makes me nostalgic for yesteryear when I used to do all that fun stuff too. Maybe a comeback is in my future!...HA! I'm sure my coach Dima would get a kick out of that, not to mention the T&T Program as well...and my family. But I digress...I wish them the best in that competition and will be thinking about them in the next couple of weeks most especially. Bonne chance mes amis!
-Jaime out.

Travel Tips ala Marshiks

- Keep your voice down when in public. There is never a need to shout, unless there's an emergency. No one wants to hear your casual conversations.
- Things abroad (rooms, seats, elevators) are not too small. You are, perhaps, too big.
- When feeding a city mascot, it is never appropriate to throw a peppermint candy at it, in lieu of real food.
- Sidewalks are for accommodating all people, not just the group you are traveling with. Please be considerate.
- If the place you are visiting does not regularly offer an item that is commonplace in your own town, they are not stupid and they are not wrong. You should also not feel the need to demand this item. It is rude as a guest in another country to suggest that someone should change the customs in that country because you refuse to respect their existing ones.
-Traveling is for experiencing the wonders of a new place and different culture. If you are not prepared to experience something new, please stay home.
...To be continued, I'm sure.

Boo Buckets

I'm sure we're the last to know about this thing, but on Saturday afternoon while taking a luscious 3-hour nap, we received a ring on our doorbell. Too lazy to disturb our naptime, we waited until we were awake a couple of hours later to go see what the fuss was all about.

On our doorstep was a cute green pumpkin filled with goodies and a note. We were "ghosted" or "Boo'd". One of our neighbors had started the apparently popular tradition of "Boo-ing" fellow neighbors and we were lucky recipients of a gift! The note said we had 24 hrs to make 2 Boo's and distribute them to 2 neighbors anonymously.

Surprised and excited, we ran out to the store and bought supplies to make our own Boo's. See pictures below (SOON) for our finished products. Jaime's is the green bucket with the witch, Charlie's is the black bucket with the scary house.

Contents of each bucket included: Candy of course, squishy red goo-filled balls with floating bugs in it (ewwwwwwwwww), fake mice that roll on their own when pulled back, a cute ghost or bat tealight candle holder, black cat or spider tealights, and a few decorative items.

Late that night we snuck out of the house and placed the treats on neighbors doorsteps, though we decided against ding-dong-ditching people since it was pretty late. This idea, while not new, was very fun to partake in and next time we'll be prepared for next year!

Free Day - Vevey & Villeneuve (10/16)

Our final day in Switzerland was absolutely gorgeous again weather-wise. Thank you for the sunny days and cool temps!
- Bus ride to Villeneuve (not much there at all worth mentioning) on our free Riviera bus pass
- Vevey on the other side to bum around town with nothing to do but shop, eat and hang out by Lake Geneva!
- Dinner as a group for the Suisse farewell at La Vielle Ferme (the old farmhouse). Awesome food with fresh local mushrooms and a pastry as an appetizer, pork roast with plum sauce and ice cream for dessert!

All Switzerland pix can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/marshiks/2007_10_18_Switzerland

Gstaad and Gruyeres (10/15)

- Train ride to Gstaad, walk along the river
- Bus ride to Gruyeres
- Fondue lunch and double creme dessert at La Maison des Traditions. Ohhhhh, so much cheese...
- Cheese factory tour and more cheese snacks
- Sunset and picnic dinner alongside Lake Geneva just the two of us
- Chocolate and bedtime

Zermatt and the Gornergrat Mountain (10/14)

- Zermatt town by train
- Gornergrat bahn (the Matterhorn railway, 45 mins to the top) to the highest point of our trip, the top of the Gornergrat mountain 3089m (10,134 ft), where we could see 29 peaks over 4000m high. Breathtaking! http://www.gornergrat.ch/
Also we had the best views of the Matterhorn - what an amazing mountain.

- Bus-time, bus WINE, nap-time.
- Dinner at a local restaurant as a group, Le Cavernaux des Vignerons it was okay.

Bern, Bear Pits and Interlaken (10/13)

- Capital city of Switzerland, Bern city tour and the clock tower.
- Bear Pits and the infamous lifesaver incident of 2007
- Interlaken, cows and bells (Summer Cows, in fact), paragliders and that damned interesting dog
- Stairways are tough business...for the aged and striped-of-sock
- Dinner at La Locanda, a provencal, italian restaurant - pumpkin ravioli, mushroom risotto and chestnut mousse

Switzerland, Italy, France...Oh My! (10/12)

Bonjour!
Yesterday was another busy day on the tour bus. We took a bus ride over the St. Bernard pass to Aosta, Italy and then on to Chamonix, France. On the way, however, since we have a huge bus filled with overly concerned people, there was much excitement. If you've never driven on a mountain road, it is filled with hairpin turns and switchbacks galore, as you wind your way up and down the mountainside. One side of the bus was inevitably on the "cliff" side and boy, were those people excited!...Excited with fear and screaming, that is. Our bus driver Jose is very good at his job and can weave a tour bus in and out of anywhere, which we found out most importantly after our stop at the top of the mountain on the St. Bernard pass (Napoleon crossed there with 40,000 troops at one time). There was road construction going on and bobcats and cranes all over the road. Jose had to squeeze our huge tour bus by these giant tools of construction, only by about a few inches or so. Our fellow bus companions even asked Charlie how much room we had on "his" side of the bus...as though we were teetering on the brink of some kind of destruction. *Sigh* About 1.5 hours on the bus through the beautiful mountains of the Swiss Alps took us to a small town of Aosta, Italy. We had lunch at an outdoor bistro - pizza and super rich, super yummy hot cioccolatta (plain and hazelnut), saw some very nice Roman ruins, then boarded the bus for Chamonix, France.
Chamonix was absolutely beautiful, surrounded by mountains and lush green forests. We saw the town a bit and had some more hot chocolate and cappuccino, plus some nummy gelato (Jaime's was passionfruit, Charlie's was pecan).
Once we arrived back in Montreux after our 2 country tour, we cleaned up for dinner at a local restaurant, Le Rouvenax. It was a kind of trendy Italian restaurant. It was packed for dinner, so we sat at a cozy bar-height table and had pastas and wine for dinner. Don't ask about the Yeti-walk...

En Suisse! Days 1 & 2 (10/10-11)

Hello all! We made it to Switzerland yesterday (10/10) after a bumpy, but otherwise decent flight. We only got to drive by the UN, since it is pretty off-limits for just stopping to take pictures, as you can imagine, but the flags were neat to see.
We toured a bit around Geneva on foot and it seemed quite nice. Very metropolitan. They have a 450 ft tall water spout that just blasts a spout of water out of the lake super high. It was huge.
After the hour drive on our tour bus to Montreux, we arrived at our "home" for the duration...Le Montreux Palace. It is a wonderful and beautiful hotel, both inside and outside. Charlie and I got an upgraded room because we're on our "honeymoon" (we'll tell about the 'newlyweds' comment later). It's really a nice room. Marble/granite floors and countertops in the bathroom, a high-tech closet and a two-flush toilet. Charlie is mostly excited about the "big flush" option. Maybe we'll have one in our home soon?
We took a small nap for about an hour, hour half, then met the group downstairs for dinner across from the Chateau Chillon, which we would visit today. I think the restaurant was called Le Taverne du Chateau Chillon. Good beef dinner and a glass of wine. Then it was off to bed. We were so pooped.
Today we got up after sleeping 10 hours (at least) and met the group downstairs for our daily breakfast. Fantastic meats, cheeses, juices and even some eggs. I was jones-ing for some soft-boiled eggs in those fun little egg cups, so I grabbed one. Unfortunately for me we got to breakfast a smidge late, so my soft-boiled egg was fully-boiled. Oh well, maybe tomorrow. Also, our guide told us we should try this mueslix-yogurt mix that looked like tuna, so we did. It was quite good, really sweet and had a tang to it. I asked Charlie if he thought it was laced with something fun.,.he declined to comment.
Once breakfast was done, we headed to the Chateau Chillon, about 10 minutes down the road from our hotel. We had a wonderful guided tour of the place and of course I took a million pictures. It was a nice tour and was Charlie's first castle tour, so I think he enjoyed it even more than I did!
After a quick break for lunch in Montreux (we had a chicken sandwich from the Migros, a local grocery store), we headed to Aigle to get a tour of another castle and wine museum. That was very cool. We had no idea that Switzerland was known for its wine too, but it is! There are vineyards all over the place here, and the wine is very good. Today was Swiss Wine Country time. The castle guided tour was also very fun to listen to, but I think we were all ready to hop on the tour bus and get to our wine tasting by the end of it. Our driver, Jose (yep, ho-zay) got us a little lost on the way, but it was fun. The local vineyard/winery we went to, Vogel Winery, was very generous with their tasting sizes, I think we had a total of 1.5 glasses of wine, trying 4 wines and enjoying them all. Que delicioso! As the sun set over lake Geneva and the vineyards, it was great sipping on the local wine and snuggling my husband.
A quick drive to another small lake was a good dinner of Schnitzel and french fries, some more wine and passionfruit-marscapone cream dessert...now it's time for bed as we have an early day tomorrow. Ciao!

Travel & Travel Some More

Today I get to go to MN for the first time since Christmas of 2006, I think. I get to see my Dad and my pregnant sister (and excited husband/family) for the first time since hearing the news way back when (yes Mom, you too - but you I've seen!). She's due in early/mid December and so by now her tummy is full of Baby Turner! She's super cute in her pictures she sends me, so I really can't wait to see her and poke at her belly in person...I hear pregnant people loooooooooooooooooove that, right? Maybe I'll even whisper a few things to the little Turnball in person. We'll see :)

Visiting Minnesota for another rousing round of rush-rush travel as usual, but the family baby shower should be fun (oh yeah, did I mention that's why I'm going?) and I look forward to seeing small-people items like little blue socks and squeezie toys. No wait, that's for dogs. No wait, it can be for babies too! Yesssss. Point for Jaime. My bestest friend Jenny would be so mad to hear that I'm comparing people and dogs. According to her, they're absolutely not the same! Just wait until her husband convinces her to get a dog...then she'll see.

Anyway, I'm off to MN for a late-night arrival tonight and then afternoon departure, evening-return to Houston on Sunday. Mom flies in to H-town on Monday evening to graciously watch our house and dogs (and work), and then Charlie and I leave for Switzerland on Tuesday for 9 days. Schew! Lots of travel, but fun Fun FUN!

That is all.
-Jaime

ps: I guess that was not all, but this should be all - Charlie will someday recount his surfing tales, just be patient :)

Day 8 in Hawaii (J&C) - 9/26

Highlights:
-Rainbow sighting en route to Hale'iwa (we saw at least 1 rainbow a day here!)

-North Shore SURFING at Sunset beach - Charlie only, Jaime chillax and take pix on beach.
**Since coming to Hawai'i, Charlie had wanted to learn to surf. He'd surfed in the beautiful bay of Galveston before (or was it Matagorda?), but never anywhere with clean water and bigger waves than a speedboat wake. Finally on our last day in Hawai'i he decided to take a lesson. He ended up taking it from a legendary surfing instructor/coach, Uncle Bryan of the Sunset Surrat surfing school. Uncle B was as nice and as patient as could be. Charlie and another man, Mike, were the only two guys in the class at 8:30am at Sunset Beach on the North Shore....charlie can explain more of his experience soon...
http://www.sunsetsurattsurfschool.com/


-Cholo's Mexican Cafe lunch in Hale'iwa
**Cute little mexican restaurant in Hale'iwa that people rave about. I have to admit that it was just okay, especially compared to the Mex/Tex-Mex we get in H-town. Jaime had a fish burrito (mahi mahi) that was delicious and Charlie had fish tacos (ahi tuna?).
-USS Bowfin
**Since we only got to see the USS Arizona at the beginning of the trip, we spent the last couple hours of our Hawai'i vacation back at Pearl Harbor, touring the USS Bowfin, a submarine. It was pretty cool, but man are those quarters cramped! There were some beds that I don't know how anyone would crawl into - kinda freaky. The terlets were neat and Charlie especially liked the flip-down sinks they had. Maybe we'll install one in our bathroom!
-Airplane ride home.
**After a wonderful trip in Hawai'i, it was finally time to say goodbye to the Aloha State. We caught another beautiful sunset at the airport, which is partially open to the outdoors, and then Charlie hopped on the 7:45pm and Jaime grabbed the 9:30pm flight to Houston (ps: Shrek 3 is pretty good - Jaime got to see it on the flight home).

PICTURES AT: http://picasaweb.google.com/marshiks/2007_09_26Day8Hawaii

MAHALO HAWAII!

Day 7 in Hawaii (J&C) - 9/25

Highlights:
-Diamond Head Crater hike & Running Descent '07
**In a nutshell, we had precious little time to hike this crater/mountain before our submarine tour later that morning and as usual, we were running 'behind'. So, we hiked to the top (posted signs say to allot 60-90 mins for the 1.5 mile roundtrip hike) in about 20 minutes straight up the hairpin turn mountainside and then we thought it would be fun to run down the .75 mile. We did it in 5 minutes. Let me tell you, going down was waaaaaay easier than climbing up! Oh yeah, then we ran back to our car another .25 mile. Yay sweatiness!...you'll note the sweat in the pictures from the top.
-Atlantis Submarine dive http://www.atlantisadventures.com/oahu.cfm
**Awesome 48-person passenger submarine. Saw turtles and lots of fish, including a white-tipped shark. Coo. Colors change the deeper you go and by 115 feet (our max depth), everything looked funny, including our gum!
-Koko's Cafe lunch (Hale Koa) & Tropical Itch back scratcher
**Charlie got hammered off of a fruity tropical drink, with Bourbon, Rum and other goodness in it. For grins, they gave him a wooden back-scratcher to keep. Nice! Made for a lazy afternoon.
-Beach hangout
**See above comment about the Tropical Itch
-Penguin sighting & turtle fighting
**The mongo hotel complex next door (Hilton Hawaiian Village...?) has everything you can imagine, including penguins from S. Africa and regular ol' turtles. Their were 2 turtles who were rumbling in the preverbial Bronx. They circled each other face-to-face and then ATTACK! One bit the other one's neck skin/fat and they thrashed through the pool of water for a bit. It was cool...and a bit like being on tropical safari.
-Duke's dinner in Waikiki...mmmm Opa fish dinner, delish!

PICTURES AT: http://picasaweb.google.com/marshiks/2007_09_25Day7Hawaii

Day 6 in Hawaii (J&C) - 9/24

Highlights:
-Ultralight Trike rides (Dillingham Field) http://www.paradiseairhawaii.com/
**This was the bomb. Charlie will write more about his experience soon.
-LOST sightings (tv show filming nearby)
**Apparently they film the tv show lost near Dillingham Airfield on the North Shore of O'ahu. We flew over the beaches where they film all of the footage and even stopped by their hangar to see the airplane wreckage from the show. Cool.
-Hiking on trail (lame for waterfall sighting)
**We attempted to hike a 3 mile trail to a "hidden" waterfall and pools, but ended up just hiking around instead since the trail wasn't clearly marked...or marked at all. At one point we thought we heard the waterfall, but it might have been the wind. Either way, the hike was good, just not what we thought it would be. Dang, I wanted to see that waterfall!
-Chinaman's Hat viewing en route to the PCC in 'Laie
**Funny looking island (looks like a "China man's hat") on the Windward side of the island.
-Polynesian Cultural Center Luau & Show www.polynesianculturalcenter.com/
**The luau and evening show were pretty cool. We knew exactly what to expect (Mormon-run center, so very family-friendly and no alcohol) going in and it was quite nice. Poi is gross and not to be eaten as a standalone food. Only a palate-cleanser. Ick. But we tried a bit of everything and it was quite good. People raved about the purple sweet potatoes, but ours were dry. Either way, it tasted like a sweet potato, maybe a little starchier, only purple. The evening show was 1.5 hrs long and fun to watch. Lots of native dancing and singing, it was pretty cool.
Note to anyone who travels...ever...anywhere: When you're in a group situation (like, say, eating at a luau with 500 other people), it's never cool or appropriate to complain non-stop about the cultural things that are happening (like the dancing and exhibits for your entertainment), just because you forgot to eat anything all day long and "are not eating that gross native food". Please, people, keep your narrow-minded and selfish comments to yourself. It ruins the mood of the other people around you who are willing to try something new and experience a new culture.

PICTURES AT: http://picasaweb.google.com/marshiks/2007_09_24Day6Hawaii

Day 5 in Hawaii (J&C) - 9/23

Highlights:
-Charlie's 29th Birthday!!!
-Hanauma Bay snorkeling and chicken runs
**We drove to Hanauma (ha-na-oo-ma) Bay for some great snorkeling. It was a bit choppy that day, but otherwise very fun. It's starting to feel like we snorkel on every trip we go on (Costa Rica, Jamaica, Hawaii...), although it will be a bit harder to snorkel in Switzerland. Brr! As for the chicken runs, there are chickens all over this island, like it's third-world style. They would run super fast past our beach towel on their way to...or maybe their way FROM being dinner. Yeah, that's it. Good one.
-Halona Blowhole
**This is a hole in some rocks on the edge of the beach and just up the road from Hanauma Bay. When the waves hit it just right, water spouts from it like a geyser. Although, we only saw sprays of it, I bet it looks neat as a giant spout.
-"From Here to Eternity" beach and sea turtles, plus "Digger" the dog
**We stopped at a small fishing shrine just behind the Halona Blowhole lookout, on a nearby cliff. we have pictures from the top of this uber-windy cliff, with beautiful views all around us. Down below we noticed a small inlet that people were using for a beach. There were sea turtles swimming in it with the people & it was so neat. We decided to trek down the cliffside to check it out. Turns out that this beach is the same beach from that sexy "love scene" from the movie From Here to Eternity. We thought it was special. In addition, there was this crazy little dog feverishly digging itself a hole in the sand. It's owner would throw a teensy bit of sand in after the dog, who was completely inside of it's sand bunker by now, and it would "bark!" and then crazily dig out the little chunk of sand the guy threw in. Awesome.
-Keoni's Thai for dinner in Waikiki

PICTURES AT: http://picasaweb.google.com/marshiks/2007_09_23Day5Hawaii

Day 4 in Hawaii (J&C) - 9/22

Highlights:
-North Shore snorkeling at Sharks Cove, Charlie shark bite
**Our first use of our new snorkeling equiment that we brought from home. Charlie just rented swim fins from the military base for the week. The stuff worked out great (thank you sale at Academy Sports)! Choppy water, but still saw some fun fishies. We snorkeled for 2 hrs straight and didn't even know it. So fun! Charlie got out of the water early, though, when he noticed he was streaming blood from his finger. Since he can not confirm the cause of the laceration, it is assumed that it was a shark bite, naturally, since we were in Shark's Cove. Duh.
-Roadside chicken stand lunch ....mmmmm.
**On our way back to Waikiki, we had lunch at a roadside chicken stand. So delicious and so tasty smelling. Mmmm. We also had Hawaiian Shave Ice (no, not "shaved"). We got it with the ice cream in the bottom. Holy crumbs. So good!

PICTURES AT: http://picasaweb.google.com/marshiks/2007_09_22Day4Hawaii

Day 3 in Hawaii (J&C) - 9/21

Highlights:
-North Shore quick tour (surfing mecca)
**Charlie got released from work a bit early this day, so we decided to move out of the Pearl Harbor bachelor housing and on to bigger and better things in Hawaii. Vacation officially starts this day! We drove up to the North Shore to check out our potential snorkeling, beach spots for the vacation. We hit Shark's Cove first and then Turtle Beach. Except we didn't see any turtles.
-Sharks Cove (for snorkeling)
**See above.
-Waimea Valley Audubon Center with waterfall swimming & tadpole-toe-eating, peacocks
**Since we still had some daylight left (sun sets promptly at 6:30pm), we checked out the Audubon Center. They have a waterfall you can swim in at the very back of the park. While en route to and from the waterfall, we encountered much beautiful scenery and lots of friggin' peacocks and other birds - including a Turducken (John Madden would have been proud). We swam in the waterfall and a nice lady took some pictures for us. Ironically, we saw the same lady and family (4-5 kids, plus mom, dad and grandma) at Hanauma Bay a couple days later. It was cold swimming in there, but absolutely beautiful.
-Beach sunset viewing & turtle sighting at Turtle Beach
**On our way into Hale'iwa for some dinner, we stopped to catch our very first Hawaiian sunset on Turtle Beach. Midway through the romance, Charlie spotted some turtles on the far end of the beach and went to investigate. Once he confirmed turtle-age, Jaime joined him in the romantic turtle-viewing area. Little did she know that the universal symbol for "turtle barrier" was a thick red rope lying on the ground. She proceeded to step right on in the verboten circle and encroach upon the sleeping turtle's personal space. A turtle-protection volunteer ran toward her shouting at her to "please step away from the turtle, ma'am" and so she did. No, there were no signs. Just a red rope lying on the ground. Whoops! Anyway, sea turtles are awesome, snuggly creatures. I wish I could keep one.
-Hale'iwa Joes for dinner
**A starving charlie and jaime then drove into Hale'iwa town for dinner at Hale'iwa Joe's on the marina. Good food, great view.
-Hale Koa Hotel relocate
**We moved our crap (so much of it) to the new hotel, which was surprisingly nice for a military hotel. If you qualify to stay there, we recommend it highly - oh yeah, it's tax free!
-Aloha Festivals street party in Waikiki
**After an exhausting day driving and moving and ...eating, we decided to hit the last night of the Hawaiian Aloha Festival. It's their yearly cultural celebration and this night was the street party. Par-tay! Enhhh. It was fine. There were live bands, booths and food. We hit the tail end of it, maybe the last 45-60 mins and I have to say that Waikiki wasn't as packed as I thought it would be. At least not for a street festival. We saw some good bands (okay, maybe just one) and some terrible karaoke-style, talent-show bands, but it was still decent to see. We were pooped...AND we slept in the next day until 7am!

PICTURES AT: http://picasaweb.google.com/marshiks/2007_09_21Day3Hawaii

Day 2 in Hawaii (J&C) - 9/20

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Hawai'i - is there any other way? While Charlie was busy being a Navy man, I was inside my hotel doing homework and watching class - yessssssssssss! I did take a quick break to do a few laps in the lap pool nearby, but then it was back to the grind...or so I thought. Charlie called about 1.5 hrs earlier than expected for me to come pick him up from work, so that was a very pleasant surprise! With our newfound "extra" time we decided to hit the USS Arizona Memorial just down the road. We entered in record time, and as a side note: the ticket-counter lady commented on my wedding ring and how pretty it was - it went a little something like this:
Lady: Is that your wedding ring????
J: Yeah, it is.
Lady: DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG, Diamond Jim! DAAAAAAAAANG!
C: She's pretty lucky, isn't she?
Lady: DAAAAAAAANG, Diamond Jim! You don't spare NO expense!
...the key here being that Charlie's new name is "Diamond Jim". Love it!

Let me tell you, folks, that it is a beautiful testament to the lives that were lost on December 7th, 1941. We watched a brief historical video on the events surrounding that day (from the previous Japan/American relation hardships up to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the recovery efforts), then took the boat out to the monument itself. It was very sobering, but beautiful and extremely peaceful. I was moved to tears .

The day concluded with us having dinner on the patio at Sam Snead's Tavern, a nice restaurant on the golf course. It was to bed early again, as 4:45am rolls around pretty fast - especially when you're on vacation!!

We'll see what tomorrow brings!

ps: For the USS Arizona Memorial, we had heard many things about it being hard to get into with long, LONG lines and so forth. Maybe it was the time of year, but at around 2:15pm when we showed up, we got tickets right away to get on the last boat (leaving at 3:00pm) for the day. It worked out perfectly and we recommend hitting the "after lunch" version of the tour since getting there right when they open only means LONG lines!
pps: We may have little-to-no internet access after we leave our hotel tomorrow, so the blog entries may cease until we get home...just an FYI :)

PICTURES AT: http://picasaweb.google.com/marshiks/2007_09_20Day2Hawaii

Day 1 in Hawaii (J&C) - 9/19

Aloha everyone!
I finally made it to Hawaii after a decent 8 hr flight (thank you Continental Airlines). I will have you all know that mid-way thru the flight someone thought it might be fun to tamper with the smoke detector in the bathroom, so a PSA went over the sound system 'reminding' people that it is a Federal Offense to tamper with them...neat. By the way, for any flight, especially 8 hour ones, remember to wear socks and not flip-flops on the airplane. I think I have frostbitten tootsies.

Yesterday I was greeted at the airport with balmy weather and a cool breeze. Yay Hawaii! Charlie pulled up in his swanky red mustang convertible and swept me off my feet for a tour of the base here. It's pretty neat. They have pirate ships and everything! I love the U.S. Navy!

Most notably was our encounter with the baby squirrel-monkey-ferret on the street. Yes, "squirrel-monkey-ferret" is the scientific name. While driving on base, I noticed a very peculiar looking, but ADORABLE little animal, with a larger version nearby! "Stop!" I shouted, and we pulled over to the side of the road. Nestled near the curb is a sweet little animal with a fun tail, about the size of my whole hand. It was wandering aimlessly in the middle of the street, so we wanted to make sure it made it safely to the other side. He was very accustomed to people or just didn't know any better, so the little tike walked right up to us (with mom watching from across the street) and didn't even care. Well, after a few mins (and a few pix), he was still precariously roaming the street, so Charlie took action. He grabbed the little guy by his adorable fluffy tail and escorted him to the nearby bushes where Mom was. He was my favorite part of my Hawaiian experience so far. I love it here.

Mostly, since I was still on Houston time, we unpacked my stuff in the hotel room (very nice) and then went to eat at Don Ho's in Honolulu. Apparently someone was having an elaborate birthday party there (Happy Birthday Uncle Lory!) so we got to enjoy those festivities as well, including the "Young at Heart" dance troupe consisting of 3 older family couples shakin' it on the Don Ho stage.

Charlie's squeaky flip flops were hurting his feet, so he walked the dirty Honolulu streets like a bum after dinner until we could get to the car. Bold, but gross. Anyway, we made it back home and went to sleep, ready for another day in O'ahu tomorrow.
ps: It turns out our furry friend (baby squirrel-monkey-ferret) was a Mongoose. Who knew?

Hawai'i, Here I Come!

Hoop-hoop!
After much ado about this trip, tomorrow is finally the day I get to go to Hawai'i. Ahhhhh yes.
Only a short 8 hour airplane ride (let's hope it's more of a bore than a "ride") until I get to set foot on the beautiful island of Oahu.
Can you feel the breeze? Bask in the sunlight with me if for only a brief moment...delicious warmth and luxurious "vacation sun" resonate from everywhere...can't wait. Not to mention I get to hang with my main man C-Murda again.
Yes, I'm crazy (as Jenny likes to point out) - crazy for Charlie! I miss that fool and am so very excited to see him again, especially if it means he's going to be wearing his fancy uniform. Ladies look out, he's a ladykiller!

Anyway, I don't have much to say except that while I am a little nervous for the flight (haven't flown for 8 hrs straight in years!), my anticipation and excitement for seeing Cholula Charles rules all. Yay vacation!

Miss you all - jaime

Hawai'i, week 1

Aloha all.

Today completes my (Charlie's) first week in Pearl Harbor. Everything is going pretty well. I'm employed at the shipyard where they currently have a few submarine projects going on. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to take any pictures of the subs or of any of the other navy ships around here, but I'm sure you can picture what they look like. I also got to go aboard a real deal submarine on Friday. It was pretty cool. Maybe next time they'll let me drive it.

I had big plans for Saturday including driving to Waikiki, checking out the beach and surrounding area, maybe giving the surfing a try, watching an airshow, and a few other things. Instead I was awakened at 3:00am feeling like crap and having my big toe feel like it was shattered. Being in too much pain to sleep, I ended up wallowing in my pain for the next five hours until the navy medical clinic opened up. I headed over there fully expecting them to tell me I had a fractured foot or something, but after looking at my blood test and x-rays, the doc told me I had gout, and not just any gout, but The Gout! I know my 29th birthday's coming up next Sunday, but I didn't realize I was old until that diagnosis. I also had no idea The Gout was that painful; I could barely walk and dreaded every time I had to get off the bed. So after a few hours at the clinic, they sent me home telling me to take Motrin (of course*) for the next few days and it should go away. So I bought some Advil PM and slept until Sunday morning, decalring Saturday a wash.

(*For those of you who have not served in the military recently, Motrin is the prescription for everything that ails you from compound fractures to bullet wounds to poison ivy.)


Sunday morning I decided to head out to check out the spots I planned for Saturday. Unfortunately my Sebring convertible had other ideas. Since it was a beautiful day (as usual), I decided to cruise around with the top down. It got stuck about half way down and I had to get Thrifty to come out with a new car for me- I now have a Mustang convertible. So after about three hours of that nonsense I finally got on the road. I made it around most of the east side of the island and it was beautitul. I'm sure once Jaime gets here, we'll get some much better photos to share. This will occur on Wednesday afternoon, and I can't wait!

Snake Alert - Part Deux

Yep, another snake sighting.
3 feet long, black water moccasin (sp?), 2 " thick.
She was curled up on our gutter downspout run-off block, chillin'. I shoo'd the girls inside (nice protect dogs, they didn't even notice it) after seeing it flicking its tongue to smell us and I got out the 15' bamboo snake-pokin' stick. Armed with the pokin-stick in my left hand and pooper-scooper pole (with teeth on the end for spearing dog poo, or in this case, snakes) in my right, I tried to usher it toward the pathway fence.
No good.
The wiley snake slithered toward the patio and curled up between the fireplace and the patio. So I stood as far back as I could and gave 'er a few pokes until *SNAP!*, it bit the pole! I hopped up on the patio table and remotely poked at it until I realized it was going nowhere. I scooted down off my perch and angled myself toward my patio door & poke-poke-poked again. *SNAP!*
No good.
Finally after tapping it on the head several times it decided to move. This time toward me.
No good.
I freaked out, dropped the pooper-scooper and took my pokin-pole with me to the patio door. I swiftly ran inside, slammed the door shut and hid behind the glass pane. The girls and I watched Miss Snake (only girl snakes bite with such visciousness, right? :) slither across the patio and out of our yard.
Good.

Fantastic Finds at Casa Marshik

Along with the other wildlife we seem to discover at our house, animals just seem to materialize like crazy. While mowing the lawn yesterday, Charlie found this fun guy on our back fence (Kathy, this should look familiar to you).

It turns out it's a harmless Garden Spider, beneficial for its insatiable hunger for bugs. This spider can eat something like 200% of its body weight in bugs a day - which helps us out considerably. While particularly disgusting to look at and HUGE (~40 mm from leg to leg, about the size of Jaime's middle finger), we welcome her to our humble home. As long as she stays outside and never makes a guest appearance anywhere near where she's not expected!

In other news, after Jaime came home from the store and right before heading to a friend's house to watch some college football, she noticed a mysterious creature scratching at the neighbor's back gate. She thought it was the neighbors dog who recently dug his way out from underneath their gate (and we had to gallantly save from the mean streets of League City)...she was mistaken. It was, in fact, yet another random dog in the neighborhood - sans dog tags or collar. She scooped him up and took him in to our animal-friendly home. "Little Man" or "Boy" as we called him, was quite a gentleman and we knew he must have some people parents around somewhere worrying about him.

Like the good samaritans we are, we strapped an extra collar to his little neck and went scouring the neighborhood for his owners. Door-to-door we trodded on in the 90+ degree heat, with nary a "Yeah I know that dog!" or "He's mine!" in sight. We had a party to get to and Charlie had to finish packing for Hawaii, so we brought Little Man back to our house. We called Animal Control to let them know we had a random dog found by our house, they came out and we decided to keep him instead of shipping him away...just in case his owners were looking for him. So, back in the house he went. Kirby and Sammie were muy curious about the little guy and even got him to play a little bit., which was quite interesting to watch considering he is only maybe 7 lbs and the others are 45-55 lbs (Fatties, we know)!

Needless to say, before we went to our friend's house, we made some "FOUND!" signs for the doggie and posted them around our neighborhood for people to call.

When we returned home from the party, no one had phoned. There were no messages. We kept him crated overnight, which he was clearly not used to because he barked all...night...LONG. Brutal. There was no sleep to be had - truly horrible. This morning we got up on little more than 4 hours of scattered sleep and drove Charlie to the airport for Hawaii. On my return home, much to my joy, there was a note tacked on our front door. Sure enough, our neighbors not 5 houses down had left their dog (without collar or tags) outside and he dug right underneath their fence. They were grateful, though not very receptive to the comment I made about "keeping a tag on your dog, just in case something like this happens". Whatever. Little Man/"Miller" as his real name states, is safely back home after a sleepover at the Marshik Motel.