There's No Place Like Home

What a crazy couple of weeks. I enjoy traveling and all, but it's good to be home and it's nice knowing that I'll be staying put for a few months. Mid-August took me to Kathleen's wedding and to Seattle for a week. I was home for a week and then was off to Kyle's wedding and to Maui. Fall break is in a few weeks and I have big plans for it. Thankfully, none of my break plans involve an airplane.

Pictures? I'll get to it. I have a lot of pictures from Seattle and not too much from Maui. The weddings were quite different, but they were both totally worth the trip. Mijares...uh...Balagtas' ceremony was the longest that I've been to and Kyle's was by far the shortest. Picture/trip posting will have to wait as I sense that I am in a kind of rambling kind of mood. I'll save it for when my brain returns from wherever it happens to be right now.

Need to shower, check on Lance, and knit before bed. Over and out.

Procrastination

[Note: This picture has absolutely nothing to do with tonight's blog, although I'm sure I could center my rambling's on the pair of socks that I completed last spring. They were the first pair of what I hope will be many more to come. See, I told you I could write about my sock and I could go on, but I'll spare you. Anyway, the sock's making an appearance because I felt like having a picture to accompany the blog. However, I didn't have an appropriate picture and decided to take the opportunity to show off my sock. Sorry, back to the blog.]

So when I first switched to blogging on Blogger after a few years with Xanga (and a few good months of regular blogging), I noticed that I was having a difficult time blogging regularly. My blogging was sporadic, at best. At the time, I speculated that my inconsistent blogging was due to one of two reasons:
1) I had begun to associate the computer with being at work and therefore did not want to turn on the computer at home, or
2) I had really been using blogging as a way to avoid studying during grad school and now that I had graduated, I didn't have anything to avoid so I therefore didn't blog.
Well, tonight I discovered the answer to that question. My sporadic blogging was due to Reason Number 2. When I was consistent with blogging, I was really just avoiding the unpleasantness of studying. I was procrastinating. And since after grad school I didn't have anything to put off, I didn't blog.

So how did I come to this conclusion? Because as I write this, I'm supposed to be writing a letter of recommendation. My evening was filled with laundry, cooking, and packing, and I'm bloody tired and would love to go to bed, especially since tomorrow's gonna be a doozy. So am I being responsible and writing the letter? No. I'm having a difficult time with it, to be honest. It's not like I don't want to recommend the person that I'm writing the letter for. It's just that I'm a little stuck right now. And what was the first thing I thought of (other than "Dear god, I'd love to go to bed.")? I thought, "I know! I'll blog!" So tonight's blog is brought to you by our dear friend and enemy, Procrastination.

Y'know, my sophomore year in high school my english teacher kept harping about the honors kids being procrasinators...what a pain...crap, it's almost midnight...

Not Phallic

Yes, the ginormous jar of pickles has returned to my house. All hail Costco! I love these pickles, they're so large and juicy and yummy. And this huge jar is actually cheaper than some of the smaller jars. Granted, some of those smaller jars are worth the price. For instance, Vlasic has some deliciously spicy pickles. However, there are also a bunch out there that my pickle critical taste buds find inferior to the yumminess of this large jar from Farman's. This jar has actually been sitting on my shelf for quite awhile. I told myself that I was not allowed to enjoy these pickles until I finished the two jars of not so scrumptious Safeway pickles that I bought when my husband suggested that my big pickle jar took up too much space in the fridge. I didn't want to buy the Safeway pickles, but for some reason I just couldn't find any other pickles when I was at Safeway that day. Anyway, so it took me awhile to finish those Safeway pickles, because they just weren't yummy enough to eat as a snack so I actually had to pair them up with a pickle friendly meal (i.e. a sandwich). It also didn't help that I was secretly purchasing the Big Papa whenever Safeway had them in stock. But yes, I finally finished the Safeway pickles and now my Farman's Home Style Kosher Dills are hanging out in my fridge until one by one they are plucked out of the jar and onto my plate. In fact, I think I'll have one right now...

And yes, I did find that the return of the big pickle jar to my fridge was exciting and important enough to blog. :)

The Last Day

I have sad news to report. Very sad news. Today is my last day of summer vacation. The kids don't come back until Friday, but I return tomorrow. Where did my vacation go? It went by so quickly. I didn't do nearly as many things as I wanted to do. In fact, what did I do? Oh yeah...I worked. Yes, I worked during my vacation. Does anyone else see how wrong that statement is? It's like being back in high school and having evil AP teachers assigning huge massive projects to do over the break. One year, my class walked into our AP history classroom to see "Vacation Homework" written on the board with several time consuming junk for us to do. We tried to point out to our teacher the oxymoron behind "Vacation Homework." She laughed long and hard. Anyway, I digress. I worked this summer and worked and worked and worked. Why did I work? Long story short -- I'm a damn fool. I covered for three (well, four if you count me) speech pathologists and for some reason every single family in my school's district decided to refer their kids over the summer.

Nah, I guess my summer wasn't so bad, well other than I didn't really have any days off. I did have most afternoons off to play with Lance. And there were some fun things this summer. Joseph got married and now he has someone to keep him in line. Oh, the picture is from the wedding. The pictures that I tried to take of Joe and Rahel during the reception and stuff didn't come out. Anyway, so that was one fun thing this summer. Oh, and Girls' Night was fun. We just made yummy pizzas and talked but it was quality girl time with none of those troublesome boys around.

Anyway, now the summer's almost over. I'm spending my last day off with Lance. We're going to the movies, Wal-Mart, and the library. And then it's back to school tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to going back, but I am excited to see what the new year will bring. We have a lot of new teachers and I'll, of course, have new students. Oh and Matt will be a part of my complex this year so that should be fun. I also noticed that work was more fun last year than my first year so hopefully it'll be even more fun this year. I think it's because I more or less know what I'm doing, I'm comfortable with the people that I work with, and I've finally discovered the secret to therapy. Although it is important that the kids have fun and that they learn during therapy sessions, it's just as important that I have fun, too. So I feel like playing Go Fish, then we're playing Go Fish.

Here we go again...

The Library

I love the library. The people who invented the public library system are genuises. A system that allows people of all socioeconomic classes access to books, music, movies, and even the internet for free? Brilliant.

While I was waiting for a librarian to find my CDs and books earlier this week, I entertained myself by watching a mother and her two young children. She was inquiring about getting a library card for her son and the librarian who was helping her explained that her son couldn't get a card until he was able to write his full name on the card. He was able to write his first name but couldn't yet write his last name so he didn't get a card that day, but watching them brought back memories of my first library card.

My parents introduced me to the library at a young age. I spent many days in the cool, air conditioned building with my parents, looking for books to take home. I really wanted my own library card so I learned to write my name for the sole purpose of getting my library card. My dad taught me and I practiced and practiced. As soon as I was able to write my name in the little box on the card, I went to the library and happily received my own green card to borrow books on. I was still really young, so all of the letters on the card were really shaky and not at all straight. And while I was able to write the letters of my name, many of them were formed incorrectly -- the "a" was formed with a circle and a line that weren't quite connected and the "n" didn't have the initial line, just the curvy part. I even put a hyphen between my first and last names. The red library card came out when I was a teenager. As I signed my name in grown up cursive, I was really sad. Luckily the librarian let me keep my old, green card and I still have it in my room at my mom's house.

Woo hoo!

Look what came in the mail today! Woo hoo! I was hoping that it'd come when Lance was gone because I knew I'd need a pick me up to get me through the week. I just ordered it on Friday and it's already here. Yea!

The Power of the Ring

Over the years, I think I've been fairly tolerant and open to Lance's interests. I've played basketball with him, went hiking and geocaching with him, and have embraced his video games. And while I've been open and willing to participate in his interests, the one thing that I haven't taken a liking to is ESPN Radio. I'll watch sports with him and I'll be interested enough in it to ask questions, but I just have not understood the fascination with ESPN Radio. Why in the world would you want to listen to bunch of men (there really aren't that many women on this station, I've noticed) pratter on endlessly about sports? Why in the world would you want to analyze a player's performance and then argue about it for hours on end? When Lance turns it on, I usually protest. Since he's generally the one driving, I generally lose the battle and am forced to listen to babble. I try my best to tune it out, but sometimes it seeps in and I feel like I'm being tortured. It is perhaps the one thing that we have an ongoing "discussion" about.

Now a few months ago, Lance left a copy of his ESPN Magazine on the couch. We were about to go out and I was sitting on the couch waiting for him. Bored, I picked up his magazine and started flipping through it. I came across an article promoting Michael Greenburg's book. Now for those of you fortunate enough to not know this, Michael Greenburg is the co-host of the popular morning ESPN radio show, Mike and Mike in the Morning. Remembering that Lance used to listen to this show years ago when he was up studying at midnight (it airs from the East Coast), I decided to read the article. I am ashamed to admit that I was entertained by the article. A few days later, Lance and I were browsing in Borders and he decided to go look for the book. Thrilled that Lance wanted to read a book, I bought it. We came home and over the next few days I was amused at the sight of my husband reading, laughing, and (I kid you not) tabbing funny portions of the book. I was also a little jealous. That stupid article was really funny and I really wanted to read the book. I eventually got my chance at the book and am sad to report that I really enjoyed it.

It was also around this time that Lance discovered that podcasts for Mike and Mike in the morning were being posted on the ESPN website right before he left for work in the morning. He got really excited and began downloading the podcasts to listen on the drive to and from work. One day he came home, excited to share a portion of the broadcast that he thought I'd enjoy. I listened to it and couldn't stop myself from laughing. Was it possible that I actually enjoyed a program on ESPN Radio? It was a fluke.

Now that it's summer, Lance has been staying up later and listening to the first part of Mike and Mike in the morning. Some nights I'm up with him (I'd be up with him more if I wasn't working ESY but that's a blog to save for later), so I listen to it with him. And gosh darn it, I enjoy it. A lot of times I don't know what they're talking about so I have to ask Lance but darnnit, I like listening to it.

For the last few months, I've suspected that my wedding ring has magical powers and is brainwashing me into believing that sports are fantastic. Now don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed casually watching sports in the past. However, my interest has generally been limited to UH sports and to whatever Lance was making me watch at the time. But this morning I actually contemplated downloading Mike and Mike in the Morning to listen to at work. Somebody help me, the Ring is brainwashing me. Over the past year and a half it has convinced me that not all Jack in the Box food is disgusting and that some video games are worthy of being obsessed over. And I've been alright with that. But now it has gone too far. It is conspiring with Lance to trick me into thinking that ESPN Radio is something to be listened to instead of something to be turned off. The only way to combat its powers is to summon all of my k*spiciness. Where are my knitting needles?

My First Sweater

Okay, so it has no sleeves. Alright, it's not a sweater. It's a tank top. But I'm calling it a sweater b/c anything that's knit is a sweater in my head and calling it a sweater makes me feel accomplished. Anyway, the purple tank top is finally done! Hurray! I've been working on this sweater off and on for a little under a year. It would've been done sooner, but other projects kept calling out to me. In between starting the sweater and finishing it, I think I finished three hats, three scarves, and a pair of socks. Is that it? Oh, and

I'm also deep in the middle of Lance's blanket and I was (I just finished yesterday) at the tail end of a fourth scarf. I think that's it...

Anyway, after finishing the sweater, I immediately put it on and danced around the house. The bloody hot house in the bloody hot sweater. I thought I was smart for choosing to knit a tank top b/c I figured that it'd be cool since it's a tank top and it has no sleeves. I failed to account for the thick yarn. Good grief. Wearing a sweater in Hawaii in the summer when it's humid b/c it's gonna rain is a bad, bad idea. Dancing around in it is an even stupidier idea. Anyway, I'm telling you this to account for the (ahem) horrendous picture of me. Also, my photographer was not focusing on taking the picture b/c he was too busy thinking that he married a crazy person. Oh and he was busy thinking about how he was gonna imitate my happy knitting dance when we went to Popo's the next night. He got rave reviews from the relatives. I sometimes suspect that he's just using me as material for a future stand up comedy act.

Finally

Okay, okay, I'm sorry. That was a long time of blog neglect. I finally posted the second day of our DC/Penn trip. I kept doing it in parts so I actually started the blog a long time ago. I posted the pictures on April 1, which is why the date for that blog is April 1. Whoops. :)

I'm sad to report that our desktop has fizzed out. We lost everything, including all of our pictures that we hadn't had the chance to print out which were, sadly, most of them. Anyway, that's it for the trip posting, I guess, until Lance takes our computer to someone to see if we can retrieve our pictures. That's his summer homework.

DC and Penn: Day Two

Day 2 started way too early in the morning with breakfast at 6:45. We were on the road by 7:30 and started our day by sitting in traffic. Traffic into DC from Maryland was not so fun, but I passed the time by sleeping. Thankfully, I didn't miss too much, as the scenery was not great. It was weird to see so many trees without their leaves. Where was spring? Lance took this beautiful picture of the Washington Memorial. We saw this memorial so many times during the trip, but oddly enough we didn't actually visit it. Oh, an interesting bit of information about the Washington Memorial: The Masons started building the Washington Memorial, but they ran out of money about a third of the way into it. The government took over and you can actually see the point on the memorial when the building of it changed hands.

Our day was really hectic. Once we got into the city, we picked up a local expert who gave us a tour. He was really good and was chock full of information. Huh, I guess if you're going to be a "local expert" then you gotta be stuffed to the brim with information. Anyway, one of our first stops of the day was to another memorial. This time it was the FDR Memorial and it was one of my favorites. Like many of the other memorials, they had engraved a bunch of quotes on the walls/floor. The FDR Memorial had a lot more than some of the other memorials, but then again, he was in office for a long time and therefore had tons of opportunities to say memorable things. Then again, he was also in office for a long time because he said memorable things. Anyway, I took a picture of one of my favorite FDR quotes:

Visiting all of these memorials that were dedicated to honoring the many great men of our history actually made me sad. We used to have so many great leaders leading our nation and now...well, now we have Bush. When I was in my last semester of my undergraduate studies, I was lucky enough to take a fabulous US History class with a fabulous teacher who really made me think. One day she asked the class if we thought that the government should be allowed to restrict the rights of thousands of people based on nothing more than their skin color (this was in 2001 when the government was pretending that the Bill of Rights did not apply to their citizens who were Middle Eastern...oh wait, that's still going on). Being opinionated, I raised my hand and said no and that our nation would be taking a step backward if we allowed the government to do so. Anyway, I saw this quote at the memorial (but for some reason, I don't have a picture of it):
"We must scrupulously guard the civil rights and civil liberties of all our citizens, whatever their background. We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization."
I read this quote and I laughed out loud. We have taken so many steps backward as a nation under Bush. What would these great leaders of our nation think of us if they were still alive?

After visiting the FDR Memorial, we headed to Arlington Cemetary. I'm not sure if I would be comfortable paying respects to my loved ones amongst tourists, but I guess if you're important enough to be buried at Arlington, then you're gonna be important enough to have a lot of visitors.

Arlington Cemetary was the home of one of Robert E. Lee's family members. The story is that the Union started using it to bury Civil War soldiers basically to piss him off. Apparently, he had met with President Lincoln before the Civil War (to possibly head up the army from the North) and agreed with the President on everything -- except for slavery. And as a result, he headed up the army from the South instead. The family member who had owned the property failed to pay taxes on it so ownership of the property went to the government. The Union, feeling slighted by Lee, decided to bury soldiers there.

Anyway, there was a lot of walking in the cold, but we got to see the sites of the Kennedy graves and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Changing of the Guard:

The guards are patrolling in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier 24 hours a day, not out of fear that someone will vandalize the tomb, but out of respect for the soldiers who gave their lives. We got to see the Changing of the Guard and watched as a school group presented a wreath.

After spending a lot of time in the cold, we headed back to the bus and went to the World War II Memorial. This was another impressive memorial and one of Lance's favorites. They had a wall with gold stars on it for every American gave their lives in World War II and they had a wreath/pillar for every state in the United States. We took a picture of Hawaii's, but some of Lance's students are in front of it. I'd prefer not to post pictures of students without their permission, so here's one of me and Lance (the one way on the other side says "Pacific"):

After the War World II Memorial, we said goodbye to our local expert and headed to lunch. We went to some kind of Naval military area that I can't remember the name of right now. They had this really yummy sandwich place. You had to order your sandwiches by filling out this form and they had tons of stuff to choose from. Ooh! And we even had pickles with it! I shared my love of pickles with some of Lance's colleagues. I guess they finally realized what a weird wife he has. The Navy place also had a ship that was also a Musuem, kind of like the ones they have in Hawaii. Lance really enjoyed looking around and playing captain. They also had their cannons all over the place. Heh, heh, heh...

After lunch we went to Mount Vernon. We had to pass through Alexandria to get there and about halfway through what looked like a main street of the town, I realized my big mistake. The street was lined with shops, shops that were potential yarn stores. Why didn't I realize this sooner? How many yarn stores were there in that first part of town that I had missed? I was quite disappointed with myself, but y'know, I was distracted. Distracted by what? By bagaong. Bagaong? Yes, bagaong. On our hour long trip to Mount Vernon, I realized that although I have grown as a person since my intermediate school days, a part of me really hasn't changed over the years -- 13 year old Me found obnoxious 13 year old boys annoying and 25 year old Me still finds obnoxious 13 year old boys annoying. One of my young companions on our trip discovered that the phrase, "Like bagaong?", resulted in laughter from the other teenagers. The best part was that this phrase, along with with the phrase, "Helloooo-ohhhh", was said over and over and over again for the entire hour or so it took us to get to Mount Vernon. The teenagers laughed again and again (I kid you not. They still found it funny after an hour of it). Even better, he was sitting right behind us. By the end of the trip, some of the younger boys (y'know, the dorky followers who were trying to be "cool" and impress the girls on the trip) started saying, "Like bagaong?", to themselves as they walked around.

Anyway, my torture finally ended and we arrived at Mount Vernon. The place was amazing and huge. Washington's home was kept in pristine condition, but we weren't allowed to take pictures to preserve the integrity of the house. We could, however, take pictures of the outside of the house. The main house was surrounded by a bunch of other buildings, including a spinning room! They had a special room to spin fleece in yarn! And guess what! There were sheep at the house! Sheep!



After Mount Vernon, we returned to Alexandria for dinner and for a ghost walk/tour. This time I made sure to keep my eyes peeled for a yarn store. Lo and behold, I found one! I excitedly started simultaneously pointing at/hitting, hitting Lance, and screeching, "Look! Yarn store!" I was shocked when I found out that our restaurant was within walking distance of the yarn store and I jokingly suggested to Lance that we skip dinner to go to the yarn store. Imagine my surprise when Lance actually went up to our tour guide and asked him if we could meet the group at dinner. We raced to the yarn store, bought some yarn, and raced back to the restaurant. We actually made it in time for dinner! I credit our speedy walking/running and my amazing display of restraint in the yarn store. It helped that the store was having what looked like a stitch 'n bitch and I didn't really feel comfortable in the store. I did, however, manage to get some pretty yarn that I'm planning to turn into a pair of socks.

After dinner, we went on a ghost walk/tour of Alexandria. It was super cold and Lance and I had already killed ourselves racing to the yarn store and back, so going on a ghost walk was perhaps the last thing that I wanted to do. It was cool walking around the town and seeing their homes and stuff, but the tour really wasn't worth the freezing. We finally got back on the bus and headed back to the hotel. Thankfully the kids were tired and the bagaongs and the hello-ohs stopped for the day.

Slumber Kat at home with two of our purchases from the trip: A Yankees hat for Lance and yarn (!!!) for me.

Here's a close up of my new yarn. :)

DC and Penn: Day One

Our trip started the Honolulu International Airport where we met our traveling companions (way too many kids, some parents, and some teachers) for the next week or so. It was chaotic. I, personally, would be concerned if I was a parent and I overheard one of the teachers say, "Oh, I don't know who I'm chaperoning." But then again, that's just me. Thankfully, the teachers figured out who all the kids in their groups were and we all moved over to the gate. At the gate, we saw another school group waiting. They were a school orchestra returning to the mainland from Hawaii. Glancing at the other people waiting at our gate, it was apparant that they were not happy to be stuck on an airplane with two school groups. Luckily for them, the other group was not on our flight.

We boarded the plane and I was surprised to discover that I was not sitting by my husband. Strange, but Lance managed to trade seats with another student, so it was all good. I met some of Lance's students, most of whom were friendly. I felt bad for one of his students, though. She was stuck at the end of the group with me and Lance.

After a long flight, we arrived in Houston. We flew in late and had no time to spare to catch our connecting flight to Maryland. We rushed off the airplane and hurried towards the gate. As we were speed walking, we heard them call for the final boarding. One of the teachers yelled, "run" and our group starting running towards the gate. We made it just in time to be greeted by snippy flight attendants. It was unclear if they were snippy because our relatively large group arrived as they were ready to shut the doors or if those were just their overall dispositions. Lance wasn't sitting next to me again and I realized why. We were sitting in alphabetical order and our last names are different. It suddenly occurred to be that perhaps this hyphenated last name could be a problem. As our plane took off, I fell asleep.After 12 hours of traveling (I forgot how unpleasant travelling to the east coast was), we arrived in Maryland. We met our tour guide, Bob, and finally got on our way.First off, we went to eat lunch at the Old Post Office. It was a neat place, with a food court, shops, and a museum. To enter, we had to pass through one of the many security areas of our trip. I don't think I've ever had to pass through so many security checkpoints in so little a time before in my life. Anyway, Lance and I ate lunch and then went to the top of the tower to look at the museum. This was the view from the top:

Here we are on the bus, ready to begin our fun-filled, educational trip. I think we were going to lunch.

Look what we passed while we were walking! The pressure of taxes loomed upon me even while we were on vacation. Okay, okay, I got it. I need to do my taxes.

After lunch, we walked to the Smithsonian American History museum. I was thrilled. I love American History. If I had discovered my interest in the subject a little sooner, I might have majored in history instead. Anyway, this was my favorite exhibit:

We only had a couple of hours in this museum. Actually it turns out that time was in short supply throughout the trip. There's just so much to see in DC and Pennsylvania that our trip really needed to be longer.

[Note: The following two pictures were supposed to be w/ the other American History museum picture and I actually did upload them in the correct order. Blogger, for some reason, wants to post it in this order.]
Well, we didn't have very long in the American History Museum, but we made sure to check out:

Kermit the Frog! Very cool. They also had Dorothy's ruby slippers, Lance Armstrong's bicycle, and Seinfeld's puffy shirt. We took pictures, but I only posted Kermit because he is by far the coolest.

They also had my friend from Sesame Street, Oscar the Grouch:

Lance and I walked to the Smithsonian Natural Science Museum. We got to see really cool stuff like the Hope Diamond:

and a bunch of other minerals and gems. Lance got to see a bunch of bugs, while I went to the bathroom. Apparantly these bugs were living and there was a huge roach on exhibit. He took pictures for me/to gross me out. We didn't get to stay very long in this museum, though, because we had to hike back to the American History museum to meet the rest of our group.

We visited many memorials this first night (and it was cold). We visited the Washington, Lincoln, Vietnam War, and Korean War memorials. The kids were fairly respectful at both the Vietnam and Korean War memorials and they were not bad at the Washington and Lincoln memorials, but you could tell that they weren't quite getting the significance of the memorials. It's not that the kids were dumb; they were just kids. Visiting the memorials was an awesome experience for them, but I hope that many of them return to visit the memorials as adults, so that they truly understand the importance behind them.

Anyway, here we are at the Lincoln Memorial. It was interesting because if you looked at the statue of Lincoln from the side, then you could see Robert E. Lee's face in Lincoln's. It was kinda creepy, actually.

After a very long day, we finally headed to Maryland to our hotel and completed our very long first day.

Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania

I am sick again. Whoopee. I think I have a hard time adjusting to Hawaii weather or something because I keep getting sick right after I come home from the mainland. I'm always fairly healthy while I'm on my trips, but I immediately get sick when I return home. Oh well, at least I don't get sick while traveling. Anyway, so I was gonna be all smart and blog my trip backwards so that people who read my blog wouldn't have to read it backwards. Does that make sense? Think about it and it will. Anyway, so I was gonna be all smart and blog it backwards and draft it and then upload it all at once. But then I realized that I would probably just end up confusing myself and who would want to read a really long blog? So I decided to just blog it and then hope that those who don't read my blog for awhile would realize that if they wanted to read about my trip in order then they would have to read my entries backwards. Oh dear, I'm confusing myself. Anyway, I'll start with day one.

One year...

Wow, it's been one year of being married...amazing how fast time went by. Our anniversary was on Sunday, but we haven't done much to celebrate it. In fact, the top layer of our wedding cake is still in our freezer, waiting to be eaten. We came home from DC and Philly Sunday evening and I fell asleep in the middle of dinner so we didn't eat the cake. And now I'm sick, so we still didn't eat the cake. We'll eat it by the end of the week, though, sick or not. And we're going to try to eat lunch at Pacific Beach sometime this week. :)

Anyway, it's been a wonderful year. I love my husband and I love being married. We have so much fun together. Even doing things like washing the dishes is enjoyable, as long as we're doing it together.

I guess I don't have a lot to say about my first year of marriage other than it's been wonderful. That's enough, really. It's been wonderful.

The Big Papa and the Hot Mama

I have a slightly unhealthy obsession with pickles. Well, maybe not unhealthy. They're technically vegetables, right? And vegetables are good for you. Anyway, a few weeks before Christmas I started to wonder if there was a "Pickle of the Month" club in existence somewhere in the world that could send me a special pickle a month. I mean, I'm sure that there are enough of us pickle lovers to warrant a club. So I searched on the internet and lo and behold, there was! I actually found two such special clubs. I was contemplating signing up for one if not both of them, when Lance caught me and put a end to my dream of pickles being delivered to my doorstep. Anyway, one of the clubs was sending these out:


The Van Holten pickle. There were four different types, two of them being the Big Papa and the Hot Mama. Anyway, I went to Safeway a few weeks ago and was thrilled to discover a brand new item in their deli case. Yes, the Big Papa and the Hot Mama! So of course I bought them both and happily took them home. I decided to try the Big Papa first. Mmm...delish. Now, I'm a huge fan of pickles and have eaten my share of large pickles. My stomach was usually able to handle it, except for that one time at Knott's where my stomach was a teensy bit upset, but that was on an empty stomach. I'm much wiser now. Anyway, so my stomach can handle large pickles, but this was the hugest pickle that I'd ever seen. So I wisely decided to cut the pickle in half and save the other half for later. So I sat down on my couch and ate my very delicious pickle. It was so good that I decided that my stomach could totally handle the other half of it. So I ate it. And I enjoyed it. And then in the middle of the night I woke up with the worst stomachache that I've ever had. The worst. I thought I was going to die.

Despite this, the next day I decided to try the Hot Mama. This pickle wasn't as large at the Big Papa, but I cut it in half anyway. I didn't regret eating the whole Big Papa the day before (that's how yummy it was), but I certainly wasn't going to risk having that horrible stomachache again. Anyway, so I sat on my couch and bit into my pickle. Good grief, the Hot Mama sure lived up to her name. It was the hottest thing that I've ever eaten. But oh so yummy. I ended up soaking my tongue and lips in a cup of water when I finally managed to finish my half. I finished the second half of the pickle the next day, but the pain wasn't as bad because I made sure to soak my lips and tongue periodically.

You'd think that after the pain that these pickles put me through I would've stayed away from the Van Holtens. But no, I went back to Safeway in search of them. I did, however, only buy two of the Big Papas, instead of one of each. I'm a little scared of the Hot Mamas, but maybe I'll revisit them during the break. I did, however, learn from this experience. I cut my Big Papas in half and ate them on different days.

One More Day!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I really did have to add that many exclamation points to the title. One more day to Spring Break! Woo hoo! I think I look forward to breaks more now than when I was a student. I have big plans for my break and although I generally do not outline goals for myself (because inevitably things come up and goals do not get met and then I get sad), I decided to make a list of goals for the break because these are things that I really want to get done. I figured if I post them on my blog, then I'm a little more inclined to do them since they are publicly stated.

My Spring Break Goals (I was gonna write them SLP style, but then decided blah to that idea)
1. Learn to (and knit) a pair of socks
2. Start working on my friend's scarf (good, I can do this on the plane)
3. Start working on graduation leis
4. Revisit my tank top
5. Work in ends of Beckey's scarf
6. Work on Lance's blanket (okay, this one's a given since I'm already working on it, but having a goal that I know I will accomplish makes me feel better)
7. Go find that yarn store in Waikiki
8. Scrapbook at least 2 pages
9. Make copies of all of my professional wedding pictures
10. Make prints of the wedding pictures to give away
11. Get my wedding rings cleaned
12. Clean my kitchen
13. Go fishing with Joy
14. Do not tear up or throw a fit the day before school starts nor on the day that school starts

Good grief, I just realized what a long list this is. Totally doable. Anyway, I just realized that I sometimes make "to do" lists if I have a lot to do during the day. I guess I do outline goals for myself sometimes. But daily "to do" lists generally get completed more frequently than "long term" lists so they don't count. I also just realized that 6 of my goals are knitting related. I think reading that book inspired me to be crazier. Y'all can keep all your opinions about my sanity to yourself, just feel sorry for my husband.

Freak out

So I had to go to the doctor yesterday and I'm not all that much better. He changed my meds, so hopefully that helps. Anyhow, he wanted to change me to a medication that I'm allergic to. I was on it two years ago and the first time I took it, it was fantastic. The second time I took it, I had this nasty reaction to it and had to be sent home from extern due to swelling. Anyway, so on the way home yesterday, thinking about the medicine made me think of the last time I had a rash.

The last time, it was hives. It was about a year ago and it was the week of the wedding. I was stressing because there was so much left to do and so little time to do it and because one of my bridesmaids had flaked out on me so that the only time I actually saw her was on the day of the wedding. But anyway. Okay, so then I realized that it was this exact time last year that I started really freaking out about getting married. I'm even pretty sure it was the exact day, too. It was the last week of school before spring break and was therefore a little more than a week before the wedding (on a side note: 2 more days to spring break, woo hoo!). I remember I was on my way to my second school to therapize kids and I started having a panic attack. It suddenly occurred to be the enormity of getting married. I was positive that I was marrying the right fella but it suddenly dawned on me that, wow, I'm getting married. I had to call Nicole as I was driving to my second school because I started having an anxiety attack - complete with profuse sweating and shortness of breath. Many of my friends and family members, although they knew that Lance was the right one, were amazed that I was getting married at such a young age. What was interesting was that many of my friends' parents were concerned that I was getting married so young, many of them because they were afraid that their own children would follow suit and get married, too.

Anyway, so as I was driving home yesterday and fondly (no really, it was fondly) reminiscing about my last breakout of hives, I was amazed that all this happened a year ago. A whole year has passed since the craziness of the wedding planning. Nuts.

Anyway, so I finally took some pictures of my wedding album to go along with this blog entry. Of course I got confused as I was uploading them and uploaded them in the wrong order, but oh well.

The fold out of the first page. 

The album has all these neat pages that fold out. This picture folds out to show other images of the ceremony. 

The cover of our album. That's the neck of one of my bridesmaid's, in case you were wondering. 

The album comes in a neat pouch. 

Knitting in Longs

I love knitting. The thrill of creating something, the feel of the yarn, the calmness associated with knitting. It's such a tranquil experience.

I recently took a break from knitting. It was only a week or two, but it was a break nonetheless. See, I'm working on two projects right now, and I was getting a little bored with them. One is a tank top that I've been working on forever and the other is a scarf for my cousin. I messed up on my cousin's scarf about half way in and I needed to completely start all over, changing to a better quality yarn. Anyway, I was bored with the scarf since I essentially had to do half of it all over again and was feeling a little uninspired. And then there was the video game that Lance bought me for my birthday that I've been a little obsessed over. Like really obsessed. Like Lance obsessed. Maybe he put a spell on my wedding ring that slowly tricked me into thinking that video games are great so that I'd leave him alone while he was playing them. Hmm...something to think about.

Anyhow, this weekend I bought a wickedly entertaining book. It's called Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. It's terribly funny and I think every knitter should read it. Ha, I think Lance should read it. It'll help him realize that my love of knitting isn't so crazy. Actually, the book made me realize that I'm not crazy enough about knitting and maybe I should get crazier. Good thing I don't live in a place where yarn stores are plentiful. Anyway, so I just finished the book and it helped inspire me to pick up my knitting needles again. I'm working on the scarf again and it's going a lot faster now that I'm really concentrating on it.

I've been sick for about a month now, but now my asthma's really started to act up. I finally gave in and made an appointment with the doctor today. I left school, swung by my house to pick up my knitting (b/c what else was I gonna do during the wait?), and went to the doctor. He prescribed stuff to make me feel better and I went to Longs to pick them up. I had to wait again at the pharmacy so what was I to do? I looked in my bag and...ta da! My knitting was in my bag waiting patiently for me to pick it up. And so I did and had a very nice time knitting in Longs. I never know what to do while I'm waiting to get my prescriptions filled and I generally end up browsing/buying. I think from now on I should bring my knitting. I'd probably save some money that way. I try to bring my knitting with me to places when I know that I'll be waiting for awhile but sometimes there are unexpected waiting times. Maybe I should bring my knitting with me at all times to account for these unexpected waiting times. Hmm...there's an idea.

Week's End

Thank goodness the week is over. It was a hard week, an emotionally draining week. Work has been crazy for weeks and I need a break. I know you're not supposed to "take it home with you" but how can you not? How can you tell a parent something that no parent should ever have to hear and not go home emotionally drained? I used to think that when it was my time to have a kid, I would want a girl. But, y'know, after working with kids who have so many challenges in their life, I'd feel blessed to just have a healthy kid.

Anyway, weekends are fantastic. They rejuvenate you and help you get through the week. Well, except for last weekend but as a result of that I had a tantrum last Sunday. Anyway. Where was I going with this? Oh yeah. Weekends are great. We finally got our wedding album today and it looks fantastic! And the parent albums are so cute and I'm looking forward to giving it to them. And since we have our album now, we also have the proofs of the pictures that we really liked and all of our negatives.

I'm seeing Trina tonight and that should be fun. Oh! And Jaime's home! Yea! We're going out tomorrow and hopefully it'll be sunny. Or at least not rainy. It's good to have her home. Where was I going with this blog? Oh yeah.

Weekends are great.

24...25

Another year has come and gone and now I'm (as so many rude people have pointed out) a quarter of a century old, half a decade to 30, and half way to 50...I have evil friends and family. Anyway, this was a really yummy chocolate haupia cake that my mom bought for my and my cousin's birthdays. Can you see what Cake Kat is doing? :)

My reflections upon my 24th year are similar to my 2005 reflections, since we're only a month into the new year. Anyhow, 24 was a great year, probably one of the best. I've just realized that the first three months of the year are my reflection months. Next month is our 7th anniversary and our 1st wedding anniversary so I'll be reflecting on the first year of marriage next month.

Oh, heh, heh. Side note: Joy gave me a marshmallow shooter for my birthday. You've been warned.