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.