Koon-dogg and the Sollosi Christmas Miracle

This just in:
In an unexpected turn of events, our little nut-job, Kirby, gets to stay with her best friends ever in life Derek, Erika and little V Sollosi for the holidays! They graciously offered to spare her from the kennel for two weeks and we're dropping her off to a happy home tonight! It's a Christmas Miracle for K-dogg! Wheeeeeeeee!

She's been bathed and sprayed with doggie parfum, ready for her Holiday Camp filled with love, pets and baby smells. MMMMMM, baby smells. I know she's in for a real treat!

My Work Bestie, Lauren (yes, I used the word "bestie", thank you Lauren for that one) has offered to check in on Kirby after the Sollosi's drop her back at my place so they can enjoy their Christmas in Philly. Another blessing!

Are we a fortunate family or what?! Yes, yes we are! I am moved by our friend's generosity and kindness - it never ceases to amaze me how blessed we really are.

Have fun little K-biscuit and BE NICE, Santa's watching!

ps: Samdogg gets jipped and has to spend the holidays with us in cold-A-Minnesota. Someone should buy her a warm sweater or vest...

Packing and Swine

In a couple days we'll be headed on the road to Ye Olde Minnesota for the holidays, which include oodles of family visits and hopefully getting to see some friend-type people along the way. It's butt-A-cold there, so this type of weather allows me the full use of my winter clothing, including (but not limited to): sweaters, mittens, hats and penguin jammie pants from what I think must have been high school (thanks Aunt Lisa).

One of the hardest parts about making the trek to another climate is packing, I think. Especially in winter. Bigger clothes and more shoes (shoes for style, shoes with grip) = bigger suitcases. We are making the 1200 mile trek the old fashioned way, driving, so no worries here about airport lines and 3 oz bottles or wrapped presents...or large amounts of baggage and extrey fees. Bonus! The Sam-in-ator will be coming with us this time, while Kirby gets the kennel treatment this go 'round. Almost 2 weeks we will be gone - crazy!

In addition to the fun festivities of packing and hauling our buns to MN, I think I just might be coming down with some sort of sickness. Could be The Swine, could be The Regular, could be the Saag Paneer I ate for lunch. All I am saying is that a bunch of people at work (or their kids) are sick and well, Mama's voice is getting raspy, eyes are a little bloodshot and my nostrils are leaking. Sexy! I'm like a leathery old smoker lady with allergies. Hopefully not too leathery :)

So tonight's task will be making the packing list (including 4" heels - c'mon people!), getting out the luggage and then sitting on the couch watching the taped version of "Sing Off" from last night. Oh yeah, and probably some sort of hot tea and a dog to snuggle me on the couch. And Christmas music. And cheese.

We're a total joke....

So, this blog was supposed to be a great way to keep in touch, but we stink at it. We are a joke to the world of blogging.

I'm going to try to recite what's been missed in the past three months...or so:
1. We went to DC for Charlie's surprise birthday, it was awesome. DC was great and so was seeing our dear friends the Tobins (and their baby girl Andrea Ann). Will try to post pix soon.
2. Saw Kings of Leon in concert at the Toyota Center - awesome! Love love loved it!
3. My parents came to visit us here in Texas for a week. We went to Fredericksburg and visited the Hill Country wine country. We hit 3 of the twenty-some wineries and really had a good time. Will try to post pix soon (see a theme here?).
4. We went to MN the following week/end to visit. Had a great time with our friends and family. Saw Ryan McVizzle for dinner and Solera (hadn't been there since our wedding 4 years ago), mmmm. Went to the apple orchard with my sister and family/friends to pick apples and then had a great bonfire at her place! Saw Charlie's family too and that was really great! Will try to post pix soon (catching on yet?).
5. Charlie went to San Diego for drill in mid-November (no pix).
6. I worked a Space Shuttle flight.
7. Charlie went to NASA JPL for a work class for a week in early December.
8. I took my very last final exam ever in life on Thursday and am now done with school!

...and now for the holiday travels. We'll be in MN for just over a week with the Samdog seeing family and friends.

Back to your regularly scheduled blog-reading...

Back in the Swing

Back home, yippee!! Last weekend I spent with Mar and mostly chillaxed. This week at work was really hard as far as motivation was concerned, but I made it through somehow. Last night we went to Joudy & John's nice, big new pad for happy hour and dinner, a few people drank too much and thank goodness I was DD!

I played football for the first time in over a year with the guys this morning, even Fatty. My friend Tito even showed up, as a newcomer. I think he had a good time :) I got some sun, enjoyed the BEAUTIFUL weather here in Houston right now and sweat. Mmmm, sweat.

At the moment I am watching class at 1.5x speed and drinking one of my favorite drinks, "Fizzed" by Apple & Eve. It's a 8 oz can of pure fruit juice and sparkling water. They come in packs of 4 and the flavor I am drinking is orange mango. All natural and NO SUGAR ADDED! Delicious. You should try them out for a soda substitute.

Next week Charlie and I are going on a surprise vacation for his birthday. I made it! ...well, it's not a surprise any more because I really wanted his input, BUT...we're going to Washington DC - it'll be Charlie's first time and my second - Thursday thru Monday. I get to see my BFF Jenny T, Jim and Baby Andi and their new digs as well! Our plan is to take in the Nation's Capitol as much as we can in 4 days and just soak in the history and magnificence of it all. We need a vacation badly! I am excited to get away for an impromptu weekend.

Next we will be heading back to MN to see the fam and new babies. Date TBD, but I am hoping October!

Missed the Episode

While in pa roosky, I missed the first episode of Season 6 of So You Think You Can Dance. When I get home it will be one of the first things I watch - yay! Thanks to facebook, however, I found this video that I literally sat in my hotel bed and watched, while grinning and clapping like a dodo.

I can't help but love it and hopefully you'll agree:


I'll be home soon :)

Scammed by the Shashlik Man

Today was my last day in Moscow, so Chris and I took a leisurely tour on foot. We once again went to the Cosmonautics Museum (metro: VDNKh), but this time they weren't closed, so we got in! It was a pretty neat place with lots of spacey stuff to see, including oodles of Yuri Gagarin paraphenalia. I very much enjoyed my time there! Afterwards, we were hungry so we stopped at the VVC (used to be called the VDNKh) next door for some shashlik. Before we could eat though, we wandered a bit and I noticed the giant ferris wheel from Moscow's 850th Birthday (12 yrs ago) just asking to be ridden. 10 bucks later, I was mounting an open-air ride to the top of this monstrosity. Holy crumbs it was high up! I wondered aloud a few times why I had chosen to ride the open-air trolley, but in the end the view and the fresh air was absolutely worth it! The pictures don't do it justice I don't think, but it was pretty cool.

Now it was time to eat. We stopped at a shashlik vendor on the side of one of the walkways. I couldn't read the menu, so chris and I pointed to the one shashlik skewer and said that was it. Then the guy asked if we wanted salad: No. Potato? Sure. 15 minutes later, Fantas in hand, the guy dropped tons of food off at our table. it was like a whole skewer of potatoes and the whole skewer of meat - which was like 1-1.5 lbs between the two of us. After we ate the meal, which was fine - nothing to write home about (how ironic) - we went up front to pay the bill. 2600 rubles. Umm....surely there was a mistake. That's 90 dollars! We said, no way this is right and the guy came back and said yes it is. He pointed to the thing on the menu that said you paid for the meat by the gram. Nice. In addition, the potatoes cost 20-some dollars out of that 90...what a joke. So, Chris pulled out his 1000 ruble bill and we told the guy we didn't have that kind of money. We just didn't. He kept pointing to the bill amount and demanding that. We kept saying NO WAY and we don't have that amount...We were so mad!

In the end, and mostly because we didn't want a run-in with any police-type guys, i fished out a magic 1500 rubles from my pants (tricky) - and that was literally all we had. We ended up giving the guy 2550 of his 2600+ ruble bill. I hate to think what might have happened if we didn't have that much. UGH. I guess we should have asked "how much", but from the prices I saw on the sheet, I never would have thought 90 dollars of food was headed our way. AND, the guy knew better - he totally scammed us.



Anyway, I'm safe and sound and ready to come home tomorrow. I don't feel so well at the current moment (headache, sore throat), but by tomorrow I should be as good as new :)

Next update from Houston! Mwah!

Spasskaya Bashnaya

Tonight after my last day (half day) at work, us four fun kids went to see the International Military Music Festival (http://www.kremlin-military-tattoo.ru/en/) on the Red Square here in Moscow. There were like 1000 participants from various countries of the world, with the majority of course being Russian bands. There were horses (and horse poo), shaolin stunt dudes, traditional Russian folk dancer kids (amazing!) and of course lots of marching bands from the various country military wings.

Finland was a bust, the folk-dancing kids and shaolin guys were my favorite and the best part was: after 2.5 hrs of the show on Red Square, all the bands came in to play together for the finale. 1000 band people, doing their thang. They played Hey Jude, Yellow Submarine (don't know what it is with The Beatles) and another familiar song. In the background sang a choir and at one point (previously, now that i think of it) the Russian National Ballet danced to a song. They ended the night with the William Tell Overture and fireworks exploding over St. Basils Cathedral and the Kremlin wall. It was a pretty amazing sight to see!!

At the end of the evening, we left and had dinner (a very fast one!) at an Italian restaurant about 4 blocks away from the square. Had a White Russian drink and some pasta, now I'm eating some ice cream at home. It was/is also Pooja's birthday (09/09/09), so we wished her well. Happy Birthday Pooja!! I had a great night, glad I went to this thing and am now home, ready for nite nite.

Uno mas dia para mi...

That is jaime-ese (or "Jaimese" if you want to get fancy) for "One more day for me..." at work in Moscow! ...and there was much rejoicing!

Tomorrow I work a 1/2 day for my final day at work, then 4 of us (me, Chris, Pooja, Todd - all coworkers) are going to the International Military Music Festival on Red Square (http://www.kremlin-military-tattoo.ru/en/). This past weekend, the entire city celebrated "Moscow City Day", to ring in the city's 862nd birthday. Yikes! That means a lot is going on in the town, including this music festival. I think they end each performance with fireworks, but we'll see. Something has been exploding in the night sky over here the past few nights, so I hope it is that.

In any case, it's a new and interesting (i hope!) way to end my 3 week stay here in Moscow - I mean, how many times will I be able to say that I was in Red Square watching a military festival?! Not many - so carpe diem!

More updates to come after tomorrow's adventure, then Weds is a full day of freedom in Russia (doing TBD) and then Thursday I come home. Can't wait!

My Diet in Moscow

Every day for the past two weeks my diet has consisted of the following items in some combination:
Orange/Apple juice, fruit flavored yogurt (pear, cherry, mango, berry, kiwi, peach), hard boiled eggs, cherry tomatoes, small cheese wedges, noodles and tomato sauce, grapes, bananas, pizza, chocolates and ice cream.

Ah ha! You thought I was being all healthy until I mentioned those last three! Well, I am doing quite well in my diet, it just takes some thought and the Sedmoi Continent (7th Continent) grocery store. I also brought with me some Oodwalla bars, fiber bars and dried fruit bars for snacks, which have been supplementing my snackiness immensely. I have not eaten out as much as I thought, since I am working some funky hours for dining, but have managed to have some sushi (good), italian food and georgian food once as well. Mostly though, I'm brown-bagging it.

I am ashamed at what I'm about to say: I will admit that I miss my chai tea lattes from Starbucks. How very "Americansky" of me.

Moscow Nights

This morning I slept in and putz'd around the apartment until work. Nothing much to report there.

After work Steve, Pooja and I (all coworkers) went to Ogni to eat some sushi (num!), and then took a cab to a night club called Parisian Nights (i think), nearby. We had a few rum and cokes, plus the obligatory shot of wodka and danced to some serious 90s techno and Ace of Base (when all we wanted was a little shot of "Boom Boom Pow!"). It was a a good time filled with a bare-chested, fake boob lady on the stage, a scary drunken russian man cornering Pooja and I at our dance floor-side booth (we escaped unscathed, before we _think_ he might have almost hurled on our table), a russian gross man dancing with first me, then Pooja - he liked to twirl us on the dance floor - and a nice russian lady saying a whole paragraph of words to me in pa roosky then kissing me on the cheek with a grin on her face...i don't know what it meant, but she was a very nice lady.



'Twas a good night. Made it home safe and sound - none the worse for wear.
G'nite!

Short & Sweet

This morning we (Pooja and I) went to a bridge that crosses the Moscow River and overlooks the Kremlin and the Cathedral of Christ. It is tradition in Russia (Moscow?) when you get married to go to a bridge, place a lock with your wedding vows/date/names inscribed on it on the bridge and then throw the key in the river. Pooja read in a Time.com article that instead of locking the locks on the bridge itself, that the city had constructed a tree on this particular bridge for just such a purpose. Well, we saw the bridge, the landscape views, but no tree! It was a bummer, but a neat little escapade anyway. We ended up on this peninsula on the river, found a neat club "Rai" with some cool mirrors on the entrance and then walked along the back side of the famous old Red October Chocolate Factory. Nothing spectacular, since they're turning it into upscale loft apartments, but a nice place for pictures.



We then headed to Stary Arbat to see the street vendors, of which there were surprisingly few, and ended up having a small breakfast (a baked pudding and thick hot chocolate drink) and chatting instead. A quick run thru the street and then back to the hotel for work.

The end!

Kremlin Part II & A Dead Guy

Today I went with a new coworker here (Pooja) to visit the inner-sanctum of the Kremlin walls - the cathedrals. These buildings are enormous, old and beautiful! In one of the cathedrals were so many tombs/stone caskets, it was outrageous! All were set up on the floor with protective metal and glass shrouds on them, inscribed with the names and dates of each Tsar or important person contained within - some I saw were dated in the 14th century. Inside the Kremlin compound were also the largest cannon and bell ever made. Neither were ever used in practice, but there they were, glorious and proud for all the tourists and Kremlin-ites to see.

After that tour, we decided to get into the line to see Lenin's tomb - the inside! The tomb is only open on select days from 10a-1p, so we were fortunate to be there at the right day and time. The do not allow you to bring in any cameras, cell phones or bags - you go through a metal detector, they search your purse (if you havven't checked it in the baggage room) and then you can go in. What is interesting about Lenin's Tomb is that 1. it's a really quick sight-see if you have the chance (like 30 mins total from line to tomb to out) and 2. they don't actually let you stop and look at his person (see #1). Pooja and I walked into the tomb from the bright sunshine and headed down into the black marble or granite walled bowels of the tomb. As our eyes adjusted to the very VERY dark staircase, we were met by a Militsia (police) guy about every 15 feet pointing you in the right direction or not moving at all. The place was crawling with military protection men. The walls of the tomb are completely unadorned with inscriptions, plaque, images or any other decoration. Black walls and a few lights. Very somber. The whole room is dedicated to one thing only: Lenin's body encased in a large glass box. Lenin rests in the center of a decent-sized room, on a platform surrounded by a 15 foot "buffer zone". We climbed the stairs to the right of the platform and I stopped to get a good look. At that moment, one of the military men snapped his fingers 3 times and gestured for me to keep moving. "Oh!" I exclaimed...and continued to walk really slowly around the tomb. Lenin looks...dead. But intact. I don't believe the conspiracy theory that it's just a wax figure of Lenin laying there - his dead ears looked too creepy and wrinkly to be fake in my opinion...but you never know.



We left there after 3 minutes of actually being in the mausoleum and headed across Red Square to the GUM ("goom") - a high-end mall. We did some quick window-shopping and ended up buying a pastry and mystery fresh-squeezed juice from the fancy grocery store inside. Pooja got a flaky chocolate pastry and i got one with apples and almonds on top. Mmmmm. Her juice was yellow (grapefruit, we found out) and mine was bright purple (beet, i discovered). My beet juice (last picture) wasn't too bad actually, but needless to say it didn't sit very well in my tummy. I felt nauseus for the next couple of hours. Oops!

I feel much better now, all recouped. Headed to bed now, tomorrow we're going to wander around Stary Arbat, a new bridge and maybe something else...

Stay tuned!

More Moscow

***UPDATE: All Moscow posts now have picture slideshows, so scroll back down!***

The other day we went to the VDNKh ("vay day en khah"), the Memorial Cosmonautics Museum (which was closed, but neat sculptures outside) and then the Agricultural wonderment place right next door. I'll try to find out the name of this joint and fill it in here later. ***UPDATE: Name is the VDNKh and PIX!***



Today was my last day off in Moscow since the STS-128/17A mission launched this morning (Moscow morning), yay! Chris and I went to Tsarytsino and saw the amazing grounds of the Imperial summer home of Catherine the Great - though she never lived at the place (see link for details)! Beautifully architected buildings and grounds, quite the sight to see! We also went to Novodivechy Convent and Cemetery which we walked around the outside and inside. Really neat buildings and again, hte architecture here is phenomenal!

I must say that there was an ABUNDANCE of weddings going on today - probably every Saturday in the summer. It was interesting to see their dresses - a lot of creams - and to note that the bride, groom and "wedding party" traveled with them to take all their pictures. The biggest difference was that this wedding party was comprised of people dressed like they were going to their friend's weddings and also included family, from what I could tell. No matchy-matchy, just a band of friends and family tagging along to share in their experience with them. Seriously, I think we probably saw at least 20 brides today. Beautiful day for a wedding (or at least wedding pictures).

Lastly we trekked back to Red Square and went inside of St. Basil's Cathedral. It is a collection of 9 teensy-weensy churches all in one building. Cool stuff, though construction was going on in many of the areas. One quirky thing to note: The first, ground-floor church we went into had a lady in a smock (looking like one of the maid people) standing on a little wooden stool PAINTING (touch-up style) the mural on the wall! What the heck people? That kinda defeats the purpose of the "old style" and history of the cathedral if you ask me...so bizarre! I wonder if they do that in a lot of places? Something to think about :D

All in all it was a great day (beautiful weather again!) and I am glad the shuttle slipped enough that I could be here to have another day off. I will upload pix soon - I hope :) ***UPDATE: PIX!***

Quickly Now...

Quick update:
-Launch scrubbed (bummer!) so I took today (Weds) off. It was my first day off since arriving in Moscow.
-Woke up at 0630, back to sleep until 0741. Lolly-gagged until 930 when I was finally out the door to sightsee solo.
-Navigated the streets and subways of MOCKBA by myself, successfully, with no wrong turns. Yay!
-First stop: Victory Park (Metro: Park Pobodi). Walked around the grounds for a long while amazed by the humongous monuments. Didn't do the museum for time's sake. Amazing place!
-Second stop: Pushkin Museum of Private Collections (Metro: Kropotkinskaya). The most impressionist artist's work I have ever seen! An amazing collection of Manet, Monet, Degas, Picasso, Renoir, Dali, Matisse, and more! So many artists, so many works from each. Phenomenal! My favorite was an Odilon Redon, titled "Rebirth (Spring)" - check it out sometime!
-Third stop: Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Metro: Kropotkinskaya). I must admit I enjoyed the private collections better, but there were some outstanding pieces in this museum! I saw at least three mummies (and even a jaw and toe!) and other artifacts (so MANY) dating from up to the 30th century B.C. (i think)!! The sheer volume of their collection of truly OLD artifacts is dumbfounding!
-Fourth stop: Kremlin State Armory (Metro: Borovitskaya). Actually I got off a metro stop too early I think and couldn't quite figure out how to cross the vast ocean of road that lay before me. So I backtracked and used a perehod (under-street crosswalk thingie) and popped up right next to the Kremlin. At some point I'll take a tour of the rest of the inner-Kremlin grounds, but today was for the State Armory only (no time!). A-mazing! Jewels upon gold upon jewels upon magnificence. There were crowns and thrones and armor and weaponry and carriages and outfits and...well, you can google it too :) It was a very interesting place! Plus, it came with a free self-guided audio tour which was awesome. *Note: I also stopped outside the Kremlin and read a book in the warm sun today for about 30 minutes while I was waiting for my Armory tour to begin. What a lovely thought...sigh.
-Fifth stop: Red Square (Metro: Kitai Gorod). I have been here before a couple times (a few years ago and the other day), but today I thought I'd stop by on my own without pressure to leave on someone else's time - PLUS the weather was super gorgeous today, so it was worth it to hang out for a while. I took some pix of St. Basil's Cathedral (going to try to get in there before I leave if possible), Lenin's Tomb, the Kremlin walls and the State Historical Museum. They are preparing for a huge parade/celebration in September on the square, so there was construction/scaffolding and work going on all around.

After Red Square it was time to head home. Got back to the hotel (after only slightly getting lost in the next street over from my hotel) at 1800, ate some leftover spaghetti carbonara, cherry tomatoes, cheese wedges and ice cream. Mmmmm. Now I'm watching "The Life Aquatic (with Steve Zissou)" and am going to bed. Pix to come, so hold on to your hats!



Back to work tomorrow and hopefully for the shuttle launch on Friday. Today was a good day.
-Jaime out.

Tomatillo!

After a grueling two weeks in New Hampshire, I came home to this plant growing in the middle of our backyard. Turns out that something (bird, rabbit, or armadillo?) was nice enough to install a tomatillo plant for us and it's already fruiting. For size comparison, Sammie (who was 55lb at her last vet visit) is, as always, on her best behavior posing next to it. Now to find some tomatillo-utilizing recipes.

Pa Roosky

Zdrastvwechay (booyah phoenetics)! Today is day two for me in Russia, arriving yesterday afternoon. Technically, I guess I've only been in country for 24 hrs. After arriving yesterday at 11a local, a few people met up at 5p to go have Indian food for dinner. At a place called Maharaja, the Chicken Andraki is what I had and it was good. Really expensive, but good. After that, the group of us walked to Red Square for some photo ops (none from me, actually), saw St. Basil's Cathedral (I will try to go inside someday soon), the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and some old ladies dancing in the street to their boombox with 80's style hairpieces. It was pretty funny :)

I crashed out last night, woke up every hour to check the time and wonder exactly what "2:07 am" meant, then finally awoke at 6:00am to get ready for the day. Chris ("Buckles" as I call him) is over here for work on a 3 month tour, so we went a-travelin' this morning before work. First we went to Sparrow Hill which is southwest of the city center, right across from the University of Moscow - a huge, beautiful building. We hiked up this hill which is also home to a ski jump across from an olympic stadium (i think). She ain't too steep, but MAN am i winded from the climb up the hill! There was a fog over the city this morning and it's still overcast and sometimes sprinkle-y outside, but the weather is cool and lovely. Ahhhhhhhhhh. None-the-less I was pitting out all over the place in my rain jacket. Now my feet and my person stinks. Pleasant!

After Sparrow Hill we took the metro back toward the city center and stopped at Sculpture Park which is across from Gorky Park. I didn't know Gorky Park was an amusement park - I had associated it with the Sculpture Park right across from it...huh. I liked Sculpture Park a lot - walking amongst old sculptures from around Moscow and seeing some interesting spectacles. PLUS, there is the Peter the Great statue in the Moscow River (I think that's what it is) adjacent to the park and it's HUGE! Neat as well, so we got to see that also.

Next up for me today is work from 12-5, then dinner. Hope to get some of the "famous" pizza from near the TsUP ("soup", not " 'sup?") which is the mission control center in Moscow, today for a late lunch. Mmmmmm. I think I'm going to be lacking protein this trip, so I'm going to try everything I can to eat it in some form when I can - even if that means pizza! I have some basics from the grocery store near the hotel, so I'm sure I'll be eating just fine this trip :)

For now, I'm going to get ready for my first day at work and will write more later!

ps: I only brought my point-and-shoot camera, so I'll try to post some pix when I have some free time later. So far, not too many pix - we'll see how I do this trip!

**UPDATE: PIX!***

Whales in New Hampshire

We had a beautiful day today with blue skies, a slight breeze and gorgeous sunshine (including the super red faces with sunglasses lines to match)! The temperature was a perfect mid-seventy or so...ahhhhhhhhh, so nice! We boarded the Granite State Whale Watching vessel, a two-story boat, from Rye Harbor Marina and set off on our 4 hour whale watching adventure!

We ended up seeing over 30 different whales, which generally were traveling in pods of 2 or 3. At one point our boat was surrounded by whales on every side - of course, they stayed relatively distant from us. There were some really close encounters with the whales, including: 1. A Humpback doing a pirouette-turny-thing out of the water, showing off its tummy and waving a fin at us right off the bow, like 10 feet away, and 2. one of the Fin Backs swimming right toward our starboard side and then about 20 feet away from our hull, turned toward our stern and swimming away. The whales we saw were Humpback and Fin Back whales. Note: The Fin Back whale is the second largest animal on the planet, next to the Blue Whale. PHENOMENAL! I took entirely too many pictures of seemingly the same thing. I'll post them all in an album shortly, but for now just a couple of my faves :)

This has been such a great vacation (more on that after the trip is over)!

Sweet Potato Soup Recipe

A bunch of people have asked me to post the Sweet Potato Soup recipe. Follow the link to the ever-wonderful Bon Appetit parent website, http://www.epicurious.com/. I found the recipe from one of my magazines, apparently from aught-six.

Few Items to Note
1. Measurements: I am not a fan of precise measurement. I like to experiment a bit, and while I don't usually stray too far from the recipe, I recommend using your best judgement and making the food in a way that makes you happy. More rosemary? Yes please! Less butter? Sure, why not.

2. Sweet potatoes: For the mashed sweet potatoes, in case you don't have any "leftover" for use in this recipe, you can take 3 good sized sweet potatoes, peel the skins off (tried it w/ the skins once, no good), then slice the potato into rounds about 1/2-3/4 inch thick. Lightly sprinkle some oil on a baking sheet and spread the rounds out in a single layer. Bake for 20-25 mins at 400 F or until tender. Once tender, take out of the oven and mash them up. No seasoning required.

3. Chicken broth: I use free-range, low-salt organic chicken stock from the store and use at least 4 cups. I think in my last batch I used 6 cups total. Basically, I would recommend starting with 4 cups and adding more based on the consistency you like. It probably also depends on how much potato you stick in the recipe. Again, eyeball it to a place that makes you happiest.

4. Pancetta or Bacon?: I have used pancetta twice in this recipe and bacon once. I ate most of it before it actually got into the soup, every time. Pancetta is less greasy and more salty than bacon. I generally didn't use very much, if any, butter with the pancetta drippings. If you use bacon, you'll have to discard more of the pan drippings and won't need any butter at all. Plus, I recommend a thick-cut bacon if possible.

5. Croutons: I start out by pan-frying the sourdough cubes in the leftover grease/buttery goodness, with lots of rosemary (love that stuff and frankly, it's coming out of my ears here at the house). Then I either bake them to get them all-over crispy or I broil them. Just make sure to keep an eye on them so they don't burn in the oven.

6. Consistency: I highly recommend puree-ing this recipe in your blender after it is all completed, then back to the pot for more heat or from the food processor to the bowl.

Enjoy!

Latest and Greatest

Well well well. Yes indeedy, it's been a month and a half since I've written. Charlie is really slacking, I know.

The haps with the craps is:
1. Faithie's baby Brandon is doing well, yay! (see last post)
2. My first lead shuttle mission, STS-127/2JA just finished a 17-day long journey from Earth, to the International Space Station, and back on Friday. Booyah! It was a blast, the whole thing. I'd do it again in a heartbeat for sure.
3. My brother and sister in law (Andy & Melissa) just had a bouncing baby girl yesterday - Welcome little Mia! We can't wait to meet you...hopfully this Fall (?)
4. Lieutenant Junior Grade Charlie is in New Hampster for the Navy until next Tuesday & he'll have been gone a whole 2 weeks. I go to visit him this weekend for a rousing good time of watching woodchucks eat crabapples, seagulls making noises, WHALE WATCHING (oh yeah baby! jealous?? boom!) and in-season Maine Lobster. Mmmmmmm.
5. I finished my summer grad school class today by turning in my Final paper. Technically I have two classroom sessions to watch, but without any homework due ...and my paper being finished...not likely to happen. One more class left ending in December and then I'm donesky. D-O-N-E, gradutated.
6. I got a membership to Massage Envy for a year and I am pumped iz-up. One guaranteed massage a month is what I'm gifting myself with my work bonus this year. Woohoo!
7. I'm making sweet potato soup (with pancetta and fresh rosemary and homemade croutons) all the time up in this piece. It's delicious, easy to make and quick. Num!
8. Speaking of fresh herbs, our gardens are doing pretty well. I can't tell what's happening with the tomato plants (we got some fruit, but not too much...hmmm), but the herbs are growing really well! I have more basil than i know what to do with and the thyme, sage and mint (3 kinds) are growing quite nicely. Our peppers are doing decently as well. I love to eat what we grow!!

That is the last month or so summed up as snug as a bug in a rug. Shouldn't be too incredibly long before the next post arrives either. I mean, don't hold your breath or anything, but ...it should be less than a month coming :)

Aunt Again!

Faithie just called me from the hospital 5 minutes ago:
Brandon Evan Turner
6 lbs TBD oz, 21 inches long.

No time for medicine (again), 1-2-3 pushes and he was out!
C'mon people! Who's amazed?? I am!

Faith, you are an amazing sister. A wonder-mother, birthing machine!
Congratulations Faith, Shawn & Noah on your new family addition and to Faithie for not having to be pregnant any longer! Can't wait to see you all :)

We love you!!

Skeeties

For some reason, this season has more mosquitos than I can remember since moving to TX in aught-one. There is an abundance of them everywhere I go, which includes (but is not limited to) my backyard, the inside of my car, the trail by my house, and my living room.

Yes, Minnesota really probably wins the trophy for most mosquitos (and biggest ones), but I do not remember them being as irritating and blood-thirsty as the bad boys we have right now. I have bites on the tops of my toes, backs of my knees (the worst!) and today, one little guy even took a chomp out of my lady nether-regions. Seriously.

Why this year is so bad, I do not know. What I do hope is that by some twist of fate their numbers will dissipate and I do not have to keep slathering myself in DEET or some other outrageous chemical that is likely to seep into my system and wreak havoc.

I hope you are all keeping 'skito free.

(scratch, scratch, scratch)

SYTYCD

So You Think You Can Dance? Oh yes baby, it's on! I love this show!
First to go for the ladies? I think it will be Asuka.
For the dudes? I don't know yet.

...more on this exciting topic next week after the dance/vote premiere on Weds 6/10!!

Sweating Again

I ran today people, 3 miles! After almost 4 months of no running, my fat A finally did it! The miles tracker is back on!!

Total of 46/142 miles expected (for my 1 mile/day average).

With 223 days and 319 miles left to run in 2009, in order to make my year starting goal I will need to run 1.5 miles per day to meet my goal. Or, 3 miles every other day. OR...well, let's face it...I won't be running more than 3 miles at any given time. Especially in the summer hizeat of the dirty Souf.

Kirby ran with me too today.
She sweat her tongue off. That's my dogg!
One.

Gardens and Honeybees

So it's been a long time coming, but we finally got started on our food-growing endeavor. We built some raised planters in the yard (we have crap for drainage), complete with pop-up irrigation for each box. There are four 4'x4' boxes and one 2.5' sided hex. We've planted a bunch of tomatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers, strawberries (with more on the way), squash, mint, sage, basil, cilantro, and thyme. Hopefully we get at least some food out of it before the bugs, birds, and K-dog eat it all. Jaime also put in some coo Kangaroo Paw plants. I don't have a good pic of them at the moment, so hopefully we will soon.



In other news, upon returning home this afternoon, I was greeted in my living room by about 20 or 30 honeybees, which was great! They were getting into our house through our light fixture in the living room (pictured, post bee-fix 2009; note the impressive duct tape work). Never had any bees in our house besides the ones & twos that fly in through open doors, but now we can hear them in our ceiling. It's especially creepy when they get agitated every now an then and you can really hear the hive humming away. Really weird. So we called a beekeeper guy who's going to come out tomorrow and see what it would take to remove them. But I'm pretty sure we'll be hacking into our ceiling and following up with some reconstruction. Awesome.

Bulbs Day Three (or is it Four?)

Today my eyes are doing markedly better than yesterday. Perhaps Sunday was my day to TANK, instead of Monday. This would be excellent news! Progressing faster than predicted :)

They are both still light sensitive, but since today has been relatively gloomy and overcast, I am winning out. Lefty doesn't ache as much as she did yesterday and certainly, both seem to have better constant vision over yesterday. I'm taking my drops per schedule (2 sets of drops every 4 hrs) and in fact, 4pm signals the next round of droppage.

I didn't go to work today, tried to hem some pants, hemmed them too short, need to re-sew at a later time, had Annie's Shells & Cheese for lunch and took a nice long bath.

Tomorrow I think I might try to go to work! Charlie will drive me, never fear people!
Let's hope tomorrow is even better than today in the bulb department!

Bulbs Day Two

Today I woke up and my eyebulbs are still a little stingy, especially the left one. Ol' Lefty had a harder time of the PRK than Righty, it seems. They do actually suggest that if you're getting both eyes done with PRK that you do one at a time, to ease the recovery stage. I decided that wasn't a course of action I wanted to consider. It's already going to be a few days off of work, so as far as doing this multiple times...unh-uhhh!

I can sense that my eyes are healing because my overall vision has its moments of improvement, but overall it is getting a little worse as the circle of corneal happiness rebuilds itself. C'mon CORNEAS, hurry up! ;) I can imagine each little corneal cell growing and marching toward the center of my eye like little soldiers, going to defend the integrity of the whole. March, march, march!

It's bright as all get out today, both from the sunlight and the sensitivity of my eyes to the light. Right now I'm in my room with the shades and curtains drawn , pissed that I didn't close the bedroom door before I sat down to write this entry - there is light in the living room as well. Lame. My eyes are sensitive to the light, so they sting a little and water, which makes my nose run and this endless cycle is starting to get old. In fact, I've enhanced my computer settings for those who are visually impared and am using the "high contrast" version to make it easier for me to see. Sweetness! I'll try to stop being such a Nancy about it all and be happy my bulbs are on their way to recovery.

Hopefully tomorrow will be the worst of it. Keep your fingers crossed!

Bulbs

It's been a while since I have posted. I'm sort-of posting in "the blind" at the moment :)

As most of you know, I have been wanting to get my eyebulbs fixed for quite some time and as of a month ago, I decided to go ahead and schedule my LASIK procedure for 4/24. I was extremely nervous about someone poking around in my eyeballs, but ready to go for it anyway.

On Monday 4/20 I had my pre-op with my eye doctor (Dr. Izzard), got my eyes dilated, checked and rechecked. He said I should be good to go, pending my surgeon (Dr. Koch at Baylor College of Medicine, awesome guy) approval of my corneal maps. On Thursday 4/23 my eye doc and surgeon both called me multiple times in the afternoon to discuss my pending bulb-slicing and zapping (while I was at work, mind you). It turns out that my corneas were something like 1/100th of a millimeter too thin to perform LASIK on, per my surgeon. If I did LASIK, risks to my cornea are increased and my vision could likely be unstable post-procedure, rendering the procedure useless and maybe causing more damage to my eye. My eye doc explained to me that in addition to my surgeon being exceptional at what he does, he is also generally pretty conservative - which is why he recommends him to all his patients. He also mentioned that since I am "borderline" for LASIK, I could find someone to perform the procedure on me if I wanted, but he and my surgeon were recommending instead, PRK (Photorefractive Keratectomy). Of course, I decided to take the advice of my eye doctor and surgeon and go ahead with the PRK. Conservatism with my eyes?? Yes please. Dr. Koch also mentioned that after some more corneal mapping tests upon my arrival at the medical center, it could be that I was ineligible for PRK based on the shape of my cornea. Not likely, but possible. He wanted to make sure I was prepared. Oh yeah, my eyes are apparently dry normally too (I didn't really know that or notice), so I had to lube my bulbs every hour the night before the procedure too. SUPER!

So, a little off-kilter and nervous from the late-breaking change in procedures, I prepared myself for a 2:30pm arrival at Baylor for the procedure. Upon arrival to the center, I did my few corneal mapping tests, got cleared for surgery by Dr. Koch and proceeded to get outfitted for the procedure. They cleaned my face, put a hair net on my head, put gauze over my ears to catch any eyedrops that fell from my eyes while on the table, and stuck a sticker over each eye to remind them which one was which (Left PRK, Right PRK).



Here's the difference between LASIK and PRK, at least in "Jaime" terms:
LASIK: A flap is cut in the cornea, flapped open, lasers zap the inside, then the flap is replaced. Recovery time is very fast, vision results near immediate. Eyes generally more dry than before procedure.
PRK: The epithelial layer of the eye is scraped away from the top of the cornea, then lasers zap the cornea to reshape it so the light is better focused and vision improves. A protective contact lens is placed over the eye for 5 days, the end. Recovery time is slower and vision results not immediate. Eyes less dry than with LASIK, post-procedure.

Anyhoo, after the hairnet was securely in place, they took me to the laser room, laid me on my back on a dentist-chair looking surface (only totally flat), administered a topical anesthetic to my right eye, covered my left eye, strapped my head to the table, squished a pillow around my head to secure it in place, taped my eyelashes (top and bottom both) down, put a speculum (I call it the "Clockwork Orange") on my eye and I was ready to go. They walked me through each step of the procedure, which was extremely comforting...especially given the fact that my eyes were open and I had to watch them poke and prod and swab at them and shine giant BRIGHT FRIGGIN' LIGHTS in them the entire time. Good stuff!

First, they stated by removing the epithelial cells from my cornea. They put a metal ring around my cornea and dropped some kind of liquid on my eye. Then, they took a rotating brush type thing (think your Oral-B rotating toothbrush with the little round head, except it didn't articulate but rather just spun in a circular motion) and scrubbed the epithelial from my cornea. I was smiling this whole time because all I could think of was to laugh at them toothbrushing my eyeball :D. They commented on how relaxed and "even smiling!" I was. Of course, only I would be smiling while people scraped layers of eyeball from my eye. Nice, Jaime. After I was good and scrubbed, they wiped my eye to get the cells and moisture from it. Next was the actual laser part, where I had to stare at this point of red light while it pulsed purple light all over my eye and burned my cornea away. It does smell a little like burning tissue, but nothing gross really - as long as you're prepared for the slight odor. This whole process took at most 5 minutes per eye. To be honest, the worst part was them ripping the tape off of my eyelids/eyelashes on each eye. C'mon people! I just paid you to burn my corneas, the least you could do is be gentle when removing the tape :)

My vision was significantly better immediately after the procedure, but hazy and definitely not crystal-clear. According to Dr. Koch, my vision will get increasingly worse for the next few days and around Monday it should tank to its worst, as the cornea is regenerating healing cells from the outside of the circle, in and trying to recover. After that, I should see improvement steadily.

I have to put in antibiotics and steroids into my eyes for the first week until the contact lenses are removed (Weds, I think) and then I'll have to administer drops for 4 months on a regular basis (4x/day 1st month, 3x/day 2nd month, 2x/day 3rd month, 1x/day 4th month). They also gave me a whole boatload of pain killers to take if I needed them and frankly, I was worried that I would need them based on the blogs I had read about people post-procedure.

Ninnies. I slept fine last night with an "advil-equivalent" they make me take for the first 3 days. Today I am more light-sensitive, I think it feels like a small piece of something is in my left eye (right eye is the pimp) and they are super dry so I'm lubing them all over the place. Either way, I'm doing quite well and actually really happy I did PRK vs. LASIK. The more I think about them cutting into my eyeball, I get super creeped out.

I know this is the longest post ever in life, but I thought I would let you all know how it went, how it felt, how I'm doing. Went: Great. Felt: Weird. Doing: Super! Vision recovering: Okay (near and far sight is "off" at the moment). Work: Returning Monday or Tuesday if I can, gonna play it by ear.

Love you lots!
-Me and my enhanced bulbs.

Friends and Photography

So, my good friend Beth asked if I would help her take some pictures for her 8-yr old daughter Sydney's first communion. Excited to take pictures, but nervous about doing a "photo shoot" that would actually matter to someone, I went for it.

Bad news: It was windy, mosquito-y, super cloudy, all the parks were caught up in pre-Easter/Car Show/"reserved" festivities, Syd had a super-white/no-spill/no-dirt dress on...

Good news: Beth's friend graciously offered her aunt's (?) house for the shoot and Sydney is exceptionally photogenic, so really, my job was easy.

With some sage advice and calming words from my family and friend Sarmad (thanks again for help in editing these pix, you're the best!), we did the shoot. Despite the fact that I was sweating bullets (more from nerves than the weather) for super pit-out times and I thought I had a camera malfunction with a spec of dirt, all went well. Mostly, it was really fun!

Here are some of my favorites.

I'm so glad I have a support system (and guinea pigs) that allows me to pursue a passion of mine and learn to be a better "photographer". Next time will be even better (thank you "lessons learned!"). Later!

Music Obsession

My favorite band of the moment is Kings of Leon.
I've let it be known (ahem, Charles Raymond) that if I could see them live in concert at some venue in Seattle, I would be the happiest girl in the entire world.

C'mon people, this is serious! "Use Somebody"? Hot.
KINGS OF LEON. Sexy and awesome. Purrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Baby JT!

My bestest friend Jenny T went into labor this morning and had a bouncing baby girl at 5 lb 8 oz, 19" long. She was about 4 weeks early, but everything worked out just fine. Jim returns from the Netherlands tomorrow to see his lovely wife and new (unnamed) baby girl. I bet he's excited! I'm so proud of her and how much of a trooper she is - that's my girl JT!

I can't wait to go see their new bundle of joy, waiting to find out when it would be okay for me to visit...Fairfax, here I (am soon to) come!

Love you guys! Mwah! Mwah! Mwah!

Good Things

Charlie has safely returned from his 2 week trip to Russia, SUPER YAY! He brought chocolate, so really it was a magical reunion. Hopefully I will eat some...um...now. Yes, chocolate now. Like "Equal Rights NOW", only for chocolate. Delicious, melty (but not TOO melty), delectable chocolate.

I had the best Sunday ever. I slept in, with my husband and the baby dog, it rained all day, I ate eggs and sun-dried tomato chicken sausage (mouthful) for breakfast, took a 2 hour nap with my husband, had a large mug o' Marshik Chai, watched the shuttle Discovery launch safely into orbit, ate tomato-basil soup and more sausages for dinner, and am now watching the Sunday usual shows.

Not bad, not bad at all. In fact, GOOD. Great even!

I do feel a bit ooky - under the weather, ALMOST, but really just sorta "not right".
Easy, people, I can hear what you think. We'll see how I am feeling tomorrie.

Anyhoo, glad to get this shuttle mission underway, and elated to have Fat Mar home with me. Fatness!

I Love Dancing With The Stars!

This show is UNSTOPPABLE!
I wish I could personally be on Dancing With the Stars, but for now I will settle for watching all of the hapless dancing virgins put their best foot forward.

I am sitting on my couch at home, clapping my brains out with a huge grin on my face. I love the cowboy, Jewel's husband (what's-his-name, Ty?) and he's my favorite so far because he was so out of his element and he tried SO HARD! Good on ya Rodeo King!

Next, Shawn Johnson did really well. Yes, she's a gymnast but that's not why I like her. In fact, despite my past life as a trampolinist, I am generally not inclined to like gymnasts at all in things outside of gymnastics, but she was wonderful. Well done!

L'il Kim's face and body (holy booty!) look messed up, enough said. What ever happened to the "China Doll" days (anyone? hello?). Maybe it was because it was during the pre-prison years...but I digress. Her dance was fine. Enh.

Steve Wozniak had the greatest attitude about his dancing, which I commend him for. He did, however, bore his partner to tears with his nerdiness during their training. He wanted to "represent" the nerds, but I think they (the nerds) would appreciate it if he never did that again. Ever. Sorry Steve.

Maksim Chmerkovskiy is HOT, holy crap. Denise Richards is a crybaby. C'mon girl, grow some chops.

I also think it's funny that my other favorite dancing show, So You Think You Can Dance, is the farm team for the next generation of professionals on DWtS. Hey, when you've got it, you've got it!

That's all I can remember. More than you wanted to know, but there it is.

First to go in my opinion? The chick from the Go-Gos (We've Got the Beat, running around our bunk beds, Faith!), Belinda Carlisle - snoozefest and ZERO confidence!

If you're ever interested:
http://abc.go.com/primetime/dancingwiththestars/index?pn=index

Two Blog Entries, Two Days

This must be some kind of record!
Today I even made a complete sentence here, so consider yourselves in awe of my mastery of the written word. I have had a good and productive weekend. PLUS, no homework for class (just studying for the midterm on Thursday) so I'm pumped. PUMPED I tell you!

Let's see...Saturday I watched 3 hrs of class, then finished two baby blankets that I have been working on for eons and truth be told I am pleased with the outcome (pix to come later). I went with Beth to "The LJ" (Lake Jackson, her hometown) yesterday afternoon to have lunch at Appleways and visit her mom at the local Quilt Show/Fair...which put my own blanket "handiwork" to shame. I'm a sham! Anyway, there were some awesome quilts there - those ladies go absolutely nuts with that stuff - and I also got to see Beth's mom Linda (she's ADORABLE!) show off some of her craftsmanship with stained glass. I am so impressed, that I am seriously thinking of commissioning a piece from her. Stay tuned for all that!

Once I got home from LJ, I played with the doggz and then watched The Red Violin, a movie gift from a friend. If you haven't seen it, you should really watch it (or "Netflix it" as my Mom says). It was a great movie!! Then it was nite nite time and I slept like a rock.

This morning I woke up at 7:30am and was raring to go for a busy day. Then I realized I lost an hour (when I hopped in my car) and was pissed. Oh well, by 9:00am (true time) I was on my way to grocery shopping. I took my sweet ol' time shopping and 1:30 hr later I was done. I saved $17 in coupons, which made me really happy since I don't usually buy items that they give coupons out for (read: organic, produce, "healthier" fare). Yay me! After shopping I went to the garden center, picked out some flowers & potting soil & then planted them. This is a big feat for me, so let's hope they don't die within the week - I. Must. Water. Them. ...ugh!

"I can do it. I can do it. I can do it."

I made a Panzanella salad (from Ina Garten's Parties book) with my fresh veggies and even made a chocolate cake (from the box, ew, but necessary). I am going to attempt to make cake balls this evening, I'll let you know how that goes. THEN, I let the dogs run thru the sprinklers, which they loved, pushed a baby snake (probably poisonous) off of my patio after Sammie barked at it for like minutes straight, composted all of my kitchen goods, vacuumed the first floor and picked up some crud around the house.

Next up, finishing cake balls (if I can), debating on whether I should shower or not (likely not) and watching Mama's shows tonight. I plan on throwing in some Midterm studying along the way here somehow and even eating dinner.

Wow, long entry. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaanyhoodle-doodle (thanks Mom for the fancy words), that's all I've got.

Maybe not: One last thing, I finished the Twilight Series of books this weekend (thanks Jen!) and am all vampired up! I need something else to read now, what could it be??

What. Is. Up.

Quick update:
Charlie Russia.
Jaime Home, Jaime Lonely.
Dogs Alive.
Kirby Grouchy, Sammie Bitey.
Weather Warmy, Jaime Sweaty.
Work Busy, Shuttle Launchy.
Jaime Hungry, Jaime End-y.

Monday Monday

Happy Birthday to me last Friday and a HUGE thank you to everyone who wished me well :)
I will blog more about it later, but in sum:
Surprise bday party for me at my house ("Mad Hatter Tea Party") after a scrumptious dinner at Signature Bistro (mmmmm, Chilean Sea Bass). See pictures on Erin's blog or here.

My dad even drove down, which was amazing to see him!! Saturday I watched class (lame) and chilled, then went to see Taken with Charlie and Dad, followed by Luna's.

Sunday was the Oscar party:

Valentines Day

...was a wonderful day! After a rousing "Birthdays Party" at the Sholl's - a joint venture to celebrate all of the Feb/Mar birthdays we have amongst our friends, not to mention that Erin's birthday is actually on Friday the 13th of February - where the po-lice came to bust up the party due to noise infractions (awesome!), I slept in a little. Charlie went to play football with his friends, got home around 1:00pm or so, we had lunch of mac & cheese and sausages then napped until 5:30pm. The day was dreary and rainy, so it was perfect nap/cuddle weather. The dogs even joined in the fun...

We woke up and cooked a dinner Charlie had researched and planned, the menu consisted of the following - mind you, all of this was fresh and none pre-prepared!:
*Chimney Loin Tuna - Tuna Loin marinated in soy/wasabi/honey, then covered in sesame seeds and seared - delish!
*Carmelized Pancetta Salad w/ Red Wine Vinaigrette - all homemade over a bed of salad greens
*Mushroom Wheat Berry Pilaf - Brown rice, wheat berries, crimini mushrooms, fresh thyme & rosemary all in pilaf
*Fresh Green Bean Casserole - think the kind with those Durkee onions and cream of something soup...only all of the ingredients were fresh, from the homemade fried onions to the blanched green beans to the mushsroom-cream sauce.
*Chocolate Covered Strawberries - Dark & white chocolate mixture over delectably ripe strawberries!

I would eat it a hundred times again, it was so good!! Mmmmmmmmm. PLUS, we knew every single ingredient we were putting into our bodies, you can't beat that! Charlie did a great job planning an innovative, delicious meal. I am very lucky :)

Following dinner (which was at 9:30pm), we watched Boondock Saints on the BluRay then hit the hay. I hope you all had a Happy Valentines Day!

De Neue Post

Well well well. My trip to the Netherlands to visit Jenny T (and Jim!) was successful and amazing! What a great week I spent with my BFF, so fun! I got the chance to relax, chit chat some serious girl talk in small cafes in local towns, saw some awesome windmills in the butt cold weather, watched an adorable swan (we deemed him male, calling to his female counterpart across the frozen tundra of the little river), had coffee in Amsterdam, swam at the NATO base, drank at an Irish Pub in Maastricht and...just had a great time! The JT's flat is great and they were awesome hosts!

Now I'm back to the US and back to the daily grind. Thank goodness it's almost the weekend, and a long weekend at that. I do miss Europe and all her glory.

I had coffee with a friend after work today, which made the "grind" seem less grind-y. It was a most welcome exchange of two brilliant minds (...so much is funny about that). Really, it reminds me that the people you know can make life better! Skadoosh!

Babies, Babies Everywhere!

Congratulations to Derek & Erika Sollosi on the birth of their first child, Veronika Helen. Pictures of the new Sollosi addition prove her to be as cute as a button, especially for a teeny, tiny pink thing :) I'm very excited for the both of them and I am sure Kirby would be equally as happy to welcome in their newest addition...though I'm sure she wouldn't know what to do with her (Sammie is the nurturing type).

This starts the first of the many babies to be born this year, to friends of mine. I think including Derek & Erika, I have 6 friends who are having babies this year so far. It's still early, so who knows how many more are to come!!

For those of you who are inevitably wondering, I do not plan to be with child this year. School now, babies later...so much for my "first baby before 30" plan. And no, it's NOT STILL POSSIBLE - I repeat: School now, babies later :)

Drama

I don't think I can do drama shows anymore.

Every week I watch Grey's Anatomy and Brothers and Sisters. I love those shows to pieces. Tonight I also watched the end of Private Practice.

Everyone dies in these darn shows, or nearly so. Inevitably I weep and cry and sob some more for the sadness they must feel and the sadness I feel for them. The loss of a loved one is ridiculously difficult, from family to friends to even pets. It makes me think of my own mortality and that isn't something I frankly care to give to much thought to. Too final. Too disconcerting for me at this point in my life. Someday I will come to terms with my mortality and the mortality of my loved ones, but today is not that day.

It's gotten so bad I even cry at The Biggest Loser. Biggest-Friggin'-Loser. At least I'm not the only one. You know who you are!!

So I will continue to cry at television shows, movies, commercials and all things sad, endearing, kind, compassionate and so forth, since I feel that at least most of my crying comes from a healthy place in my psyche. Maybe next week will bring brighter days for my entertainment viewing, though I'll make sure to have a shirtsleeve handy just in case my mascara starts to run...

Marathon Man

Today Charlie ran in the Houston Marathon, doing the half marathon. The weather was absolutely beautiful today, about 60 degrees at race start and then sunny and a slight breeze for the duration of the race. He came in at a whopping 1:44:48 hr chip time for 13.1 miles for a pace of 7.94 minutes/mile. He finished in place 617/8434 Total (top 7%), and 63/465 (top 13.5%) in his division (Male 30-34). Craziness! I'm so proud of him, he did an outstanding job!

Kudos also to my friends: Erin, Tarik, Todd, Carla, Kimmie (all in the half), and Nujoud (her first full marathon!) for finishing strong!! I'm proud of all of you - what an accomplishment!!

Get ready for next year!

Mom and the Like

Hey there world!
My mom visited the Marshik residence in TX last weekend and it was lovely! So great to see her and be able to spend time with her. She was in Dallas for work and drove down to spend the weekend with us. She arrived Friday night, when of course we hit up Luna's mexican restaurant to celebrate with some good food and margaritas. Saturday we got pedicures - I got purple polish on my tootsies and proceeded to smear the "dried" polish on my big toes (yes, both toes) after jamming my fat foot into my heels, LAME! - and then went shopping for some minor stuff. Sunday we made some food (green curry thai and blackberry clafouti...mmmmmmm) and bummed around. The biggest point of the weekend was to hang out with my Mommy and I did so. It was awesome!! Sadly she could not visit us again thsi weekend since work sent her home, but hopefully I will see her soon. She's home safely with my Dad after being gone a week nad I know she's happy to be with him again. They're pretty cute like that :)

Work has been insane lately, I mean crazy busy. I can't figure out where the time goes, but it doesn't ever seem like there's enough to go around. Mind you, I have my limits on how much time I can spend at my place of work, so the fact that I left after working 42 hrs this week on a "half day" today, doesn't really help the fact that I still have stuff to do. Oh well, work will be okay without me for a while.

This weekend I have a 3-day weekend thanks to the MLK Jr. holiday on Monday. Tonight is a carb-loading party to prep for the Houston Marathon on Sunday (Charlie, Erin, Nujoud...and some others? are running, i'm just going along for the pasta), then on Sunday I'll be getting up at the buttcrack of dawn to go watch my friends and hubbie run their little hearts out (Charlie and Erin for the 1/2 marathon this year, Joudy for the full) and then go home and finish homework.

OOH, one more thing: I got my motorcycle helmet today, so Charlie took me for my first, inaugural motorcycle ride on his Buell!! I looked like a waxy Q-tip head, with my bright yellow helmet, and it was cold outside (45 degrees) but it was SO MUCH FUN!! I liked being a rider and after only a few times hitting my helmet on the back of Charlie's as he shifted gears, I was in the "rider zone". I can't wait to go again :)

Aught Nine

It's 2009 and I'm ready for a great year! I set a few goals for myself that I started today and am tracking on the right side of this blog (some at least):

1. Run 365 miles in 2009. For anyone that knows me, I can't stand running. This year I am going to try on a better attitude and put forth a cankle to defeat this grumpiness and actually achieve something in the arena of physical fitness. TODAY: 2 Miles (though I only ran like 1.3 miles of it and walked the rest...I'm still counting it!)
2. Swim once per month. My fitness stinks. I take the elevator instead of the stairs. I used to be an Olympian (almost). My cholesterol total is 200 and high cholesterol runs in my family. I think it's time I took better care of myself physically and I like to swim, so...strap on the goggles and get to it Jaime!
3. Graduate. This is my final year of Graduate School at USC. Just 3 stinking classes until I am finished and have my Masters Degree in Astronautical Engineering - hot damn!
4. Take a more active role in raising our two dogs. I usually leave all but the snuggling of dogs to Charlie, so in an effort to not be a douche and actually be a responsible human-being, I will be more active in the rearing, discipline and care of said animals. TODAY: Took Kirby on the run with me.
5. Make more friends. Let's face it, I'm sort-of a pain in the rump when it comes to friends. I'm extremely critical and picky when it comes to people I hang out with, so my friend pool stands at a whopping 3 people or something silly like that. I will do better this year in being more open-minded and ACCEPTING of other people's unique qualities, characteristics and quirks...and not complain to my husband about how they annoy me...as much. I will do better. <-- This one is hard to measure, but I have to make the effort!

I wish everyone a productive, fulfilling and memorable 2009. Remember to be kind to the Earth as you do it and especially be considerate & respectful to eachother. On these, we can all do better!

Catching Up

It's been a bit since I've written, so let me sum up (and by sum up I mean "be long-winded on some parts and extremely brief on others"):
Cancun:
Charlie and I had a great time in Cancun with my family. We stayed at my sister's timeshare at the Royal Sands and it was such a nice place. Every day we got up, went to the pool or beach, drank (White Russians for me, thank you), ate and relaxed. Twice we went on excursions during the day. The first was to go ziplining at Selvatica and we had a blast. This was the second time Charlie and I had done it (Costa Rican honeymoon adventure was the first), but the first for my Mom, Dad and brother-in-law Shawn. Faith and the baby stayed home (both were sick anyway, but when you have a 1-yr old someone has to stay home!) and we missed them, but maybe next time Faifer will get to come. So, Selvatica. We strapped on our gear and wizzed thru the tree tops. At one point Charlie, my Mom and I got to go upside-down. That was awesome! Post zipping we took a short 1-mile bike ride down to a cenote (sinkhole) and had fun jumping off a cliff and ziplining into the water. Shawn and Dad both belly/back-flopped off the zipline and even got bruises ...ouch. Charlie attempted a back flip off of the zipline and ended up face-planting, but I give him big props since I was too chicken to even try that. I went off the zipline platform backwards, didn't let go in time and still gracefully entered the water...where my top flew off and I had to maneuver in the water to hide my shame...ha! Good times for everyone. After the bike back we had lunch and then went back to the hotel. Our other excursion was to the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza (or chicken pizza as our guide called it). We had a 2.5 hr bus ride to and from the place, drank some beer and had breakfast on the bus then had a 3 hr tour of the ruins. MAN, they are spectacular! I could have spent days and days marching around that place and climbing around the ruins...but we only had 3 hrs. I highly recommend going to see them if you're ever in the area - magnificent! (pictures to come). After the ruins, we had lunch watching some small-town dance troupe clog their way into our hearts (while smacking gum and giving us the bored eye) and then went to another cenote (or c-note as my dad says). It was super fun, but by the end of the day we were exhausto. We ate really well (mmmm fresh guac and pico) and had good times with my family, yay!!

MN:
Three days after we got back from Cancun we pranced off to MN (read: flew) and spent the holiday with Charlie's family. We stayed at his Mom's house (thank you Mary) and used it as our home base for the week. Christmas Eve when we got in, we drove my Mom's car (thanks Mom, for the whole time!) to Tina's house and had a great xmas eve dinner with Charlie's (and Kyle's) family. For me, it's really great to see his family since we don't often get the opportunity to. Holidays are hectic, so usually it's an in-and-out sort of job. "Hi, How are You?, Thanks, bye!" kind-of deal...which blows. But this time I felt like we got to spend more quality time with his family, so it made all the difference :) Charlie and I got hammered (at least I did) on xmas eve, so we stayed at Tina & Kyle's house, woke up late, had breakfast ala Kyle and Zacc (amazing!) and then headed to Mary's for a quick change. We lazed around for the rest of the day until we got to go to my parent's house for Christmas Day dinner with my family. Mom and I showed off our Salsa dancing skills (thanks to Pepe from Cancun) and we were all the rage. I could tell everyone really wanted to be in our dancing shoes that night! Faith allegedly has a video of our antics, that needless to say will end up on You Tube or something ridiculous like that ;) Over the next few days we got to see his friend from the Guard, Ryan, and his fiancee Krista (the "McKoski's" as they call themselves) and hang out with the Marshik clan a bit more. Our last night there we ate Benihana for lunch (I cleaned my plate of 10 scallops, chicken fried rice, apps and all...plus a sushi bonus!) then The King and I Thai (great thai place in Mpls) for dinner. Our server was phenomenal! We hit Keegan's and then Nye's afterward, where I drank too much (of course) and got the ribcage-collapsing hiccups...and made a few drunk-dial phone calls. Poor Beth. We left for home the next day, as the Vikings were making the playoffs by the hair of their chinny-chin-chins.

New Years:
Erin & Cory had a shindig at their house for NYE and I got all fancied up. I actually bought 4 dresses the day before NYE at EXPRESS on sale (super score!) and chose the black one to wear. Beth punked out and wore pants, but I was happy to see Erin and Alicia lookin' mighty-fine in their fancy duds. Yay team! My dear friend Tomas gave me a recipe for Coquito, which is basically a coconut-rum concoction that I drank. It was pretty thick, so I iced it down and had a few glasses. Num! We danced to a few songs and then once Wilke passed out we decided it was time to go beddy-bye as well. We crashed at the Sholl household, where Cory got a stomach bug and was up all night (Boo :(, poor guy!).

Great times all around & pictures to come later!
...balls, that was a long post.