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.

Cancoon

Like "racoon", only it's not.
...don't worry, I am aware that only I find myself funny.

Tomorrow morning I leave to meet up with Mom, Dad, Faith, Shawn, Noah, and TBD Turner #2 in Cancun for a "Strandmark" family holiday. Tomorrow evening Charlie will join us pretty late (he has Navy tomorrow morning, so he's meeting up with us later) and get in on the fun.

This will be most of our first times to Cancun, as Faith & Shawn have a timeshare there and have been multiple times before with Shawn's family. I am excited to go see Chichen Itza (sp?), the Mayan ruins that are now a 7th Wonder of the World. Yippee!! Snorkeling and chilling with my family will be ultra fun too.

The ladies have a spa day (couple hours) planned for Monday, where I plan to get a facial and a nice long massage. Mmmmmmmmmmmm...massage. I feel relaxed just thinking about it. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... The rest of the time will be spent beachside sipping on pina coladas and other fruity deliciousness. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm...deliciousness. *Which reminds me that I'm starving at the moment.*

What about our dogs? Well, Stinky Dogg is with Derika (as I often call them) living in the lap of love and luxury for the next week and over xmas too, while Baby Stink is hanging out with her wang out at Cory & Erin's with her best friend Cosmo. Then it's off to the kennel with the Baby Stinkle for good times when they leave for PA for the holidays.

Yes, our dogs smell. But we love their stink...and coming home to an empty house tonight was rough without it. Already I'm missing my dog wiggling herself in half at the first clank of the garage door, anxiously (that's the key word, by the way) awaiting the ever so slow turn of the doorknob where out of seemingly nowhere Mom and Dad (that's us, by the way) emerge from that place beyond the door. What fun! What joy!...Where's a toy she can show us? Where is it? Where is it?! OH there it is!! Good girl...Stop jumping Sammie! Good girl...Daddy's girl.
...and so on. This I already miss. Soon enough, however we will return home to doggies and delightful wiggliness.

Now it's off to Cancun for some sun and relaxation. See you on the flip!

ps: For those who know me, this tidbit some will find amusing: I am leaving my SLR and my computer at home. Yes, I am feeling just fine. No, I'm not pregnant (why do people keep asking me that) and my eyes are working just fine thank you :D


ONE MORE THING:
Charlie took his last Final Exam of all time (we hope!) on Thursday. Next comes the graduation papers and poof! MS EE from USC. That's my man. CONGRATULATIONS you lucky guy - you earned it!