1 year Anniversary

Yesterday was my 1-year anniversary. Justin said, "Am I going to get in trouble if I don't know what your 1-year anniversary is?" Silly boy. No, of course I don't expect him to remember that my braces came off one year ago yesterday. Nothing really to celebrate. I still have to wear my retainer and I have one more ortho appointment but other than that...it's been an uneventful year regarding my teeth.

Lately my theme song has been Chris Farley and Patrick Swayze's Chippendales dance: Everybody's working for the weekend. I look forward to the week ending it's really sad.

Speaking of butt crack - I got a free magazine subscription as a gift and I picked This Old House. I own a house but not an old one. I do most of the repairs so I figured it'd be good to get advice from the experts. Justin thinks because I do all the plumbing repairs in the house it's ok for me to show my crack. I don't agree for various reasons. He doesn't do any repairs and his crack is always showing. Guess it can be a lonely club sometimes. But now we've got This Old House to help me so I can show him that they don't have crack to be a good plumber.

Finally Saturday!

Finally, the Saturday I've been looking for. No plans, no where to go and nothing to do. It's like a clean slate! So here's what I'm going to do:

Mail a very important gift.

That's it! I know, it's totally lazy of me and I know Justin won't stand for it because he's been asking me for the past 3 days, "So what are you doing this weekend?" I'm pretty sure he doesn't have anything up his sleeves but I'll make sure to add 'shower' to my to-do list just in case.

It's Friday...Again

This is the second Friday in a row where I've woken up and asked "is it Saturday?" to Justin, myself or Scully, who never answers. But the answer I always get is "no". I need it to be Saturday all the time.

Yesterday we were over an hour late to work due to an accident on an already congested freeway. But so was half my company who live on my side of town.

But the day ended better than it started with me finishing our taxes. I know I'm strange but I do enjoy tasks like that especially when I'm getting money back. But then I get angry because that's how much extra the government is taking out of our paychecks throughout the year. Whatever Spent & Approved War-Spending - About $600 billion of US taxpayers' funds.

So the loan we gave the government will be coming back to us and bikes are on our list. Justin's really excited about getting a bike. It hasn't taken over his yo-yo obsession but I'm hoping for an equal split of obsession.

Hey David...Remeber Me?

New Book! New Book! New Book!

Can you tell I'm excited? Once the new book is out, he'll be touring the US. No plans for Las Vegas but California is close by.

Do you think Justin's excited to meet him again?

Hodge Podge

I'm wearing a mint green sweater without thinking about the date today.

We had a few friends over for Justin's birthday on Saturday. We played Rock Bank for the first time and had fun. I would have taken photos but Justin misplaced our memory card somewhere in the house. Those things are TINY.

Last weekend while Justin was out of town, I painted our guest bathroom. I even replaced the faucet. Yes, I did. The best part...it was so easy! It doesn't leak, it looks awesome and I love to turn it on. I'd show you photos of before and after but...

Besides my bathroom redo, I've got a bunch of sewing/craft projects in the planning stages but I NEED to finish them. Work is draining my ability to get anything done. I assume that happens to everyone but it makes me feel lame for not finishing projects.

We finally saw No Country for Old Men. I liked it. Justin felt it was unresolved but I liked it that way. And we also saw The Music Man (original version, none of this Matthew Broderick crap). Can you believe Justin has NEVER seen this movie. And he still hasn't because he fell asleep. Ok, I put the movie on at 1 am so that would explain it, but he still wants to see it.

What did everyone do this weekend?

Awesome-ness

Wanna know why I rule?

While we were gone on our round-the-world trip I won the companies drawing for $50 (for the 4th time!). I just picked up the money to pay for my Girl Scout Cookies.

So basically, the 7 boxes I ordered, were FREE.

That's why I rule!

Part Two

We made it to London around 10am ready to go. As I expected, our room was tiny. The bathroom reminded me of my basement apartment bathroom - very small. We did the standard touristy things.



Outside the National Gallery in the center of London


"Big Ben kids...Parliament"



Outside Westminster Abby. Theerrr's Parliament in the background.


BBC 1...BBC 2...BBC 3...BBC 4.


My friends Eddy and Patsy. Well, their clothes. Still pretty cool. I earned that coffee mug as a news anchor. Did I forget to tell you I studied broadcasting? I was flawless!


$1 to make a call. Good thing I had no one to call.


Eurostar! Going 184 mph to Paris.


Angelina's in Paris. Drinking chocolate and real cream. So good.

Poor statue.


Outside the Louvre. No time to go inside.


Inside the Notre Dame.


Outside the Notre Dame. It was cold in Paris.


Eiffel Tower. No time to go up. Maybe next time.


Cool photo looking up the tower.


Done with Paris and trains and the subway train that got re-routed while we were waiting for it. Ended up walking back to the hotel about 2 miles. Not a fun way to end the day.


Penny Lane!


Tower of London. Lots of bad things happened here.


Pondering Stonehenge. Or maybe the sun was in my eye.


Our long journey home with our British goodies; Vimto and Walkers Roast Chicken flavored chips. Both were very good and so was our flight.

I realized at lunch I'm officially old

Glasses that I haven't worn in a year.
Eye cream.
Taking NPR's advice on a good place for lunch.

Check, check and check.

So my eyes have decided to crap out on me lately. I think they've said, "hey, we're not young anymore so remember those glasses you sorta needed when we were younger? Ya we need them now".

I'm actually thinking it's a combination of things like the ridiculous lighting situation at work. Half the office has no lights on - think caves or basements - and the other half sit like they are on the sun. Guess which side I'm on. I should just wear my sunglasses. I might get less stares with those on instead of my glasses and hearing, "You wear glasses?" I'll start responding with, "I do?!"

And it's really dry here. Not good for eyes. I'm not crying (even though my work does make me want to cry all.day.long), my eyes are dying for some moisture.

Speaking of aging eyes, I've got wrinkles that have just decided to pop up around them! Does it all go down hill from here? Guess my years of squinting at the computer screen pretending I didn't need glasses has caught up. I bought some eye cream and have been eagerly using every night. We'll see if that expensive crap works.

I was in denial about my age even with the wrinkles and the need for glasses but not anymore. I realized I'm old(er) because of NPR today at lunch. I've listened to NPR for years. I don't want to hear how you think I'm lame because of it - whatever, we've all got our lame things in our lives and now that I'm old(er) I can say stick it!

Thursday is restaurant review. We heard of a BBQ place near work. Justin wanted to go because it sounded good. I agreed. We went today and it was good. Until some older people (older than me now) walked in and was talking to the cook. All I heard was "we heard about you on NPR!"

My life is over.

Ok, just kidding! I've only been 30 for 2 weeks and it's not bad at all. I can basically do what I want. I had ice cream for dinner the other night. I hear my mom and sister do that all the time. I don't see what all the excitement is about though. It's just ice cream. I was hungry an hour later. It was really dumb, lesson learned.

And isn't it about lessons learned through out life?

So I'll go on listening to NPR. I'll keep using my sunscreen (MIL loves me for using sunscreen. I know tan fat is better than white fat but no wrinkles kicks all their asses combined.) and eye cream and I'll get a new prescription for my glasses. I'm 30 and I like the surprised look when I tell people that. Lesson learned.

*going to get Scullers from her Cali vacation this weekend. I should have the rest of my photos up at the foell.org gallery when I get back for those who are interested.

Part One

Just some of our Thailand photos:


We stopped in Tokyo for some goodies.


View from our room in Pattaya. Yes it was that hazy and humid.


Getting ready to go boating. The waves were rough and the winds were high. Oh and 3 people got sick and the boat wouldn't start. But we made it back.


Red Bull in a medicine bottle. It cost us $.33!


Eating yummy Thai food.


Justin's food was smoking!


Wat Po with some of the wedding party.


Adit, Paveena, and Adit's mom Sarita at the Ring and Mehendi Ceremony. No clue what happened but it was really a greeting line. Party #1.


Henna time.



The Baraat (Indian procession to meet the Bride). Party #2. We made it to Party #3 later that night (basically a really big wedding reception) but I felt sick so we left early.


After the ceremony. Justin, Adit and I waiting to depart for the Doli (to pick Paveena up...again). Party #4 about to start.


Walking through Paveena's neighborhood on an Elephant. All the white people have seen "When Animals Attack" so we stayed away.


Successfully picked up Paveena and Adit's crew, including Justin, carried her to the last reception. More dinner, dancing and boozing.


See the glow? It was humid.


Justin, as he looks in his natural state.

Stay tuned for part two.

London in Eight Days

We actually have a few days left here. I'm just waiting for Justin to get up so we can head up to Liverpool to visit the hometown of The Beatles. Internet is expensive here. Actually I just looked at my credit card bill and I spent $111.00 on 2 shirts! So I'm really watching what I spend and if it's something I can get at home, I don't buy it.

London is a complete 180 from Bangkok. It's so nice and friendly. Traffic jams are replaced with subway delays and hookers are replaced with pubs.

It's hard to say if I'd go back to BKK. I need some time to think about it. London on the other hand, I'm totally coming back to. There is still so much we haven't done. But so far it's been great.

Yes, I've had some great Thai food, British food (guess that can be hard to believe) and we had some Lebonese food last night. Yes, I've taken lots of photos including photos of Justin and I in our Indian outfits. Don't worry, we'll post them up for all to see. On our way back from Paris Justin took a photo to show how I was feeling at the time. You'll be able to tell which one.

Well it's time for a traditional English breakfast. We'll be home Tuesday night. Don't worry work friends, we'll be in the office Wednesday at 7am!

The Longest Wedding Event EVER

It's Saturday Morning here(11:00am)and the final wedding event was last night. Adit rode down Paveena's street on an elephant (seriously) to pick her up. The temple marriage was simple compared to all the other events we've been to here. It's like they are royalty because cameras are always flashing. It's really impressive.

It's been a crazy but amazing event (all 4 of them). I'll post more when Justin fixes his space bar-it's stuck-hard to type.

Overall we've had an amazing time here in Bangkok. Shopping is CRAZY here. We went to one mall - 5 levels. 1 level all cell phones! People love their cell phones here. More shopping today. We leave tomorrow night for London. Hopefully I'll get some photos up once we get there.

Have a good Friday night...I did!

Thailand here we come

In case you come here and wonder where I am -- I'm in Thailand. But I'm sure I've told you and everyone I see.

I'm mostly packed. Just need to do my trik tik itin and wrap it all up. Justin is taking one suitcase. Lets just see if he starts packing his souvies in MY suitcase.

I'm debating on getting my second shot today. I don't want to get it on my birthday because that would suck. Maybe I'll wait until I get home.

I did pack some snack foods in my suitcase including soup just in case I'm totally grossed out. I do have a limit when it comes to Asian food. 2-3 times a year is enough for me. So the next 3 years will be covered in this trip.

Well, since this post is boring, I'll leave you now.

Happy Birthday Elsa!

You Say Goodbye and I Say Hello!

My twenties didn't suck too bad. I got married, graduated college, got my first "real" job and got laid off from that "real" job. I actually had a dream last night that my old HR lady from that place came to where I work now and fired me. And for some reason I believed her except she didn't give me a box like everyone else got last week.

We had a lay-off day last week. I knew I was on the chopping block. Once I saw the girl next to me was gone, I grabbed my personal file and a few other things and just waited.

Then I got the notice; "Can you come into my office?" I didn't want to go in there empty handed so I grabbed a notepad (always ready for notes) and a pen and smiled my way to that office. I figured if it was going to happen it'll be a big relief. Then I remembered I have the BIGGEST vacation of my life coming up and having no money would be bad. (We've saved up plenty...don't worry.)

I walked in and sat down. "Shut the door." Oh crap. This means business. But before he started talking I realized something: A)If I was going to be let go, it wouldn't be by him. 2)there was no one else in his office (i.e. my BOSS). So I was eager to hear what he had to say.

I'm not laid off. I got a job. Surprised and somewhat sad who they let go, but I was excited to finally have a job description. What a huge relief.

Speaking of the BIGGEST vacation of my young life...I was asked the other day at lunch if Justin and I get really excited before a big trip. I said yes and no. Yes for obvious reason. No for stupid reasons. Gotta get Scully taken care of, gotta get all my travel documents and shots. What to take (dress for 2 climates!), what kind of outlet thingies do I need? Oh and the biggest, flying over water for oh, 12+ hours, multiple times. So I'm stressing over that. Justin just says "if we're going to die, we'll die together." So reassuring.

But I just have to look at the big picture. Planes fly all the time and nothing happens. It's just a really long flight and I need to get over that. So I'm thinking about all the things I'll be doing mostly in London. Bangkok will be exciting but that time will be taken up with wedding events. But I would like to go fabric shopping in BKK. Imagine all the fabric! Same thing in London. Fabric stores everywhere!

Here's an inside of what we'll be doing:
Fly to BKK
Spend time in Pattaya
Wedding in BKK
Fly to London
Go to Paris (Chunnel), Liverpool and Bath
Take the Magical Mystery Tour, visit the BBC (totally dorky but I LOVE the BBC) and Stonehenge and all the other touristy things in London (too many to list!)
Fly home

Done. 2 1/2 weeks of adventures to cover us for at least 2 years. I'd say that's a good way to say goodbye to my twenties and hello thirties.

Oh sh**. I think I'll go cry now.

Speaking of Adit's Wedding

I was talking to Justin yesterday about Adit. He's good about sending emails saying "you need to do this and that, blah blah." But when you ask a question, the answers are somewhat cryptic. As a Groom I feel he should have all questions sent to his best man for answering since he's probably busy planning an overseas wedding and all. But that's just my opinion. He gave us a run down of the wedding events and this is what it looks like:

- Wednesday, 2008 7:30 P.M Ring and Chunni Ceremony followed by Dinner and
Dance

- Thursday, 2008 Departure of Barat & Serhar
Bandi: 5:00 p.m Sharp& Will Proceed to the Hotel until 2:00 am

- Friday, 2008 Anand Karaj 11:30 a.m (Ceremony)Lunch 12:30 P.M at Gurudwara Shri Guru Singh Sabha Proceed to Indian Party House for Dinner and Doli 7:30 P.M


Confused? Me too. But I was glad to receive that bit of information so I started doing searches. But what to search on? OK, the ceremony first. What not to wear. Apparently clubbing clothes aren't acceptable - darn, I was hopping to sport my tube top. Actually, since it's a religious ceremony, church clothes are called for. Who would have known. And I get to wear a head scarf and NO shoes! I'm totally down with no shoes. I love it already!

More research lead me to read it being acceptable wearing traditional clothes. And it's not just Sari's my friends. There are many choices here but would it really be acceptable by my friend's family?

I asked the groom. Cryptic answer came, "Call my mom." Justin said, "We spent 6 years at each others houses, she knows me so she'll know you."

And with so many events, what is the dress code to each? We have no idea. So I placed a call to the Grooms mom. Of course she did know me and she answered all my questions.

Semi-formal, Formal, church clothes, semi-formal. The best part, she seemed really excited when I said I'd like to dress accordingly to the ceremony (in a Salwar Kameez). So, I've picked one out - special ordered from India.

We only know semi-formal. See below.



Lets hope we look better formal.

Shots Suck

Thanks to Adit's wedding in Thailand next month, we had to get our shots. And thanks to our anxiety of shots (both Justin and mine), I passed out completely. Good thing I was sitting down. Poor Justin was trying to talk me back but he couldn't take it. He ended up on the floor with his legs up on the counter at the health department before his shots.

Once the smelling salt got me back, my blue lips went back to normal and I saw my husband on the floor. What was going on here?!

We are such babies.

Lucky me, I go back in one month for a booster. The nurse promised to have an ice pack and the smelling salts ready for me. And Justin promised not to go with me.

Family Cruise 2008

Starring Mom and Dad, Chris and Angel, Heather and Joe, Jessi and Justin.

Us waiting at the terminal while they found a "broken pencil" in my dad's carry-on. 10 points for the person who knows what a "broken pencil" is.

You too can exercise on vacation by running 10 miles on a cruise ship. It's only 60 laps. Easy!


It was only 99% humidity in Guatemala. It felt like 200% on a bike going uphill to see waterfalls.


Don't let your brain go to mush on vacation. Take a class! I learned how to make towel animals. Cute aren't they?


I knew I got my "boozing" gene from someone.


My sister, the iced tea.


Ok, there she is with her Joe. Or is it Joe and me and "oh there's Heather?"


On the boat in Honduras where we should have stayed. But Justin needed that trompo.

Incase you didn't know...

Las Vegas is terrible. For the third time during a holiday season, we've had packages stolen from our house. This time, the person came into our back yard and took it! I'm not in the holiday mood now even though my tree isn't done with decorations and my house doesn't have the lights up. Who knows if I'll put them up now. I don't even want to wrap anything or buy anything else.

The only thing I want to do is get new locks on the house and a security system and never have things delivered to the house.

Oh and MOVE!

Justin called it "Seasons Stealings." I think its appropriate.

**
Update: I called my shipper and they are overnighting my order for free...to my work address. Lesson learned. Holiday spirit back on.

Random Weekend Info

For the first time since living here in Las Vegas, we saw tons (and I really mean like 6 of them) of famous people in a 30 min time frame. After all our shopping on Saturday, my cousin drove in from North Carolina for the night. We headed over to the Palms 9 restaurant. We'd never been there but I'd heard great things about it.

We had to sit in the lounge but it was probably the best place to be. While hanging out, my cousin Josh and friend, Chuck, saw some basketball player. I have no idea who it was but they were EXCITED.

Not 10 minutes later, Big Pussy from The Sopranos and some other peeps came in (a comedian maybe). Then Mario Lopez (aka Slater) breezed by us and sat right behind us with a bunch of chicks. Sweet.

Then (yes, one more), Kid Rock came in. His hair is really stringy. Needless to say, my cousin and friend were impressed.

Also a first for us, we bought a Christmas tree. Justin doesn't remember that we had one our first year, but he went with it so I'll consider it a first. I LOVE it and our house smells so good. I also made some ornaments (marbleized) for it.

So tonight I'll finish decorating it while sipping cocoa and mini marshmallows that Justin made (yes he made marshmallows). We are total homemakers.

I knew he had it in him

It's amazing what one can do in 2.5 hours. Since the run I've been lazy. I'll admit it. But last night, I got home from work and cleaned my house. Not because we have company this weekend (well, mostly) but because things had been driving me nuts!

Actually what kicked it off was Justin. He's not the type to initiate cleaning but on Tuesday (sick day, and he was really sick), he organized the pantry! Guess he knew how annoyed I was about it. Or it could be the fact that he was sick of me buying canned vegetarian refried beans thinking we were low. (I tend to go through 2 cans a week.)

Either way, when I came home and saw him organizing the cupboards next to the fridge, I was shocked. He didn't say anything except, "I'm making my way around the kitchen." Naturally I thought he just started. But when I opened the pantry to get items out for dinner I was floored! He told me what shelf was what and where to find things. Oh, and we don't need anymore chicken and beef broth (a staple in my mind and you can never have too many) or refried beans. I just laughed and secretly thought I could easily fit 2 more cans in there.

I was so happy he started something without me asking! I knew he had it in him.

He didn't finish his project but we had plans to finish it last night. The plan was to hit up the British store and get some malteasers for his ice cream, go home and finish organizing the kitchen cupboards. Once we started, I couldn't stop. He stopped to make ice cream but I kept going. I figured if I gave myself until 8pm then I could relax. And that's what I did.

His little act of kindness/annoyance/boredom or whatever he was feeling made me happy. Maybe all the organizing shows I watch got through to him. Either way, I knew he had it in him.

Crappy Run...Literally

My second attempt at the Las Vegas Marathon was Sunday. Vowing to never do a full again, I did the half. 13.1 miles; still a lengthly distance and still difficult. But when you see the 6 mile marker, you're almost half-way done. So it's a good mental boost.

I knew I'd be on my own since Justin is faster than me and has done maybe three training runs at my pace. And my other partner injured herself as did her husband (who was to run with Justin) so they stayed back and took it easy. So we were on our own.

A few things I did differently with this run that cost me:

1. I didn't take the two nights before it seriously like I did with long distance runs while training for the full marathon. Nothing greasy, no beer, lots of water, sleep and stretching. I just thought, "eh, I've done 10 milers with no prep, I'll be fine!"

2. No headphones. I thought, "eh, I'm running in a big crowd, I don't need them!" The most boring part of the race was the second half. Why is that?

3. Not taking any precautionary meds with me. When I did the full, I had a few Advil and some Immodium in my pocket for emergencies. I didn't even have pockets this time! Stopping 4 times at the scarce port-o-potties was not fun or time saving.

4. Only hitting the restroom once before the race. See above.

Things I did differently this time that was rewarding:

1. Since my husband ran and we've got connections, he was able to put the medal on me when I crossed the finish line. That was sweet.

2. I wore pants not shorts. So I didn't freeze.

3. I had the endurance to run from water station to water station. Or from port-o-potty to port-o-potty. However you look at it. On the full, I was done at mile 20. And when I was done I mean done, I didn't want to take another step.

4. I didn't sleep the day away. I slept maybe 30 minutes and hung out the rest of the day. And I came into work today!

Do I have a sense of accomplishment? Maybe. I'm not really sure because it was a crappy run and I know I could have done better. But I finished. I guess there will be other runs out there, but I won't let people talk me into them either. I love the idea of doing races like that, but it's the training that I feel takes over my life for 6 months or longer. I'd rather casually train for something longer than 6 months so it doesn't seem so daunting.

Yesterday, when we got home, we watched the recording of the event, Justin asked, "I don't know how you did the full."

Honestly, I'm surprised too.