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April 25, 2006
Lucky Strike
Today was the combined team outing at Quicken Loans. Both the web marketing team (which is my team) and the IS development team (the engineers) went to Lucky Strike bowling alley in Novi (really nice place, by the way). We got to leave work early to get there at 4pm. I think the point of it was to treat the IS team and have the teams to mingle and get to know each other better. So each team had to have a couple marketing people and a couple engineers. I think it worked out pretty well.
And let me tell you, I have NEVER bowled SO well in my entire life! I usually SUCK at bowling, as evidenced by the last time my team went bowling just a few months ago. I bowled 3 games and got respective (and respectable) scores of 126, 135 and 156 (holy shit!). I've never gotten a 156!! Not only that, but I got 3 turkeys (a turkey is a strike 3 times in a row, like a hockey hat trick)...two turkeys in the last frame of 2 games and one when Lisa dropped out of our game and I had to bowl for her. WOW!!
In a way, it was more for my team members to get to know the IS team better. I myself work with them so much that I knew all but one guy. Those that I don't work with all that much I know just because we all go to lunch together a lot. It's a little strange to me because I've realized recently that there are two distinct personalities or cultures for either team. And even though I'm a marketing person, I'm way more comfortable with the IS people because my personality, my likes and sense of humor is more in line with them. I'm not even sure how to describe the culture of my own team. I just know that I fit in more comfortably with the geeks because that's who I am at heart, even if I can't program for shit. IS people tend to be sci-fi fans; they tend to be "early adoptors" with new computers, software, and techie gadgets like palm phones and mp3 players; they also like (and can quote) British humor like Monty Python and Hitchhiker's Guide. That's me and Don for sure.
Anyway, I noticed most people thinning out and going home as my team was finishing up the 3rd game. I ended up hanging out with my buddies Zack and Gillian (G.G.) and a couple other engineers, Kevin and Christina. Christina had had about 3 or more drinks and was pretty sloshed, so we made her sit around drinking water so that she could sober up when it came time to drive herself home, otherwise, Zack would have insisted on driving her home himself. So while she drank water, the rest of us hung out and sort of finished up a 4th game by throwing balls in goofy, creative ways...between the legs, doing funny twists, 2 balls at once, etc. We ended up being the last ones there at the bowling alley. Plus, they were playing some good 80's songs and it was making me feel happy. Zack got a kick out of me singing and dancing goofy to the songs.
After we couldn't bowl anymore (we only had the lanes for a set amount of time and my fingers were getting pretty raw), we went downstairs to the arcade to play one of those Dance Revolution games. I'd never played it before, but it was pretty fun, even when I fucked up. Ha! Gotta love JPop!! I think we did that for about an hour (what a workout!) and by the time we were done, Christina was good and sober.
I like hanging out with those guys. I feel like I'm in my element, more than when I'm with my own team. Not that I don't get along with my team, I'm just more comfortable around the engineers. Hell, I married one! I think that was a really fun time...I hope I get to hang out with those guys again soon. Zack keeps telling me about how much fun the IS team had at their Christmas party doing karaoke. I keep telling him we gotta do that. I would do that with them and have a blast, especially if we did a bunch of cheesy 80's songs! Engineers are cool people!
Posted by Amy at 10:00 PM | Comments (2)
For the Birds
You guys aren't going to believe what we found last night! Don wanted to grill up some bratwursts on the grill today, so on my way home, I picked up all the goods at Kroger's. When I got home, he was out on the deck about to warm up the grill. He calls me out there and the first thing I see is a bunch of straw, twigs and junk piled in the grill, enough to fill the entire space inside, even underneath the grate where the burner is!
At first we thought it was some neighborhood kid pulling a prank on us by stuffing this junk in there, but after I thought about it a minute and took a closer look, we realized it was an immense bird's nest! I even saw a little robin's egg in between the layers. I'm not sure if it was still a viable egg or not, but we had to get rid of all of it and there was no good place to put the egg. Besides, I figured once we'd handled it, the mother wouldn't want it anymore. Even if I'd put it somewhere else, the mother wouldn't know where to find it. Sounds cruel, but such is life.
Now, I'm not sure how the birds got in there to build it, but we couldn't leave that stuff in there and frankly, they had invaded our space. I know, you'll probably retort by saying we're invading their space by building a home and pushing them out, but there are plenty of trees and other areas to build a nest...why'd they have to pick our GRILL of all places? However, I was very careful removing the nest. I wanted to be sure that if there were any live baby birds in there that they wouldn't be harmed. Luckily there weren't, but if there were, I probably would have called the humane society or Critter Control to have them safely removed. I took out what I could with my hands (in gloves) and Don vacuumed out the remaining debris. Unbelievable! What a mess.
Posted by Amy at 08:00 AM | Comments (1)
April 24, 2006
Wikipedia is Cool
I gotta say this Wikipedia thing is really cool. If you don't know what it is, it's basically an online encyclopaedia where you can look up virtually anything and even edit an entry if you find an error. There was a study done somewhere that said that Wikipedia is slightly more accurate than the Encyclopaedia Brittanica because everyone (not just a few select people) acts as an editor.
It's also really useful because you can buy the software and use it. We use it at work for our Marketing department to upload documents and information that everyone needs to have access to. My brother Koset even uses it as his Web site. He has photographs of his friends and family and writes about anything and everything he has an interest in. I love it because it's like a pleasant walk down memory lane seeing all the pictures from the past.
I've found entries for a WIDE range of subjects ranging from Detroit Country Day (my high school) to an entry about Daleks from Doctor Who. There's EVEN a whole Wiki site for anything and everything Star Trek called Memory Alpha and one for Star Wars called Wookiepedia! How cool is THAT?!!
The only thing is that editing a page in wiki is not like any other formatting language. Though it's simpler, it does take a little getting used to. But once you do, it can be HIGHLY addicting and you'll find yourself just looking for anything to create a page about.
Posted by Amy at 08:00 PM | Comments (2)
Charly del Lago Pictures
Hey everyone! Don has posted pictures from our Florida vacation on his site. Since I forgot to pack our digital camera, they were all taken with Don's Treo 650, so apologies that they're not the highest quality. At least we had something to take pictures with.
Charly also has a few pics on his site as well that he took with his camera. Hope you enjoy them!
Posted by Amy at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)
April 20, 2006
Twinkie Defense
A friend of mine at work gave me this list of Asian personas. I am SUCH a "twinkie!" Hahaha!! Read on:
Twinkie
- Besides your nationality, there is little to distinguish you from white people SO true!
- Your significant other is not Asian and never has been Yup! Don's a white guy!
- You have few Asian friends, if any
- You are embarrassed at family events because you cannot speak your language and everyone has to switch to English to communicate with you I end up tuning out my relatives when they keep talking in Thai.
- You think Hello Kitty is dumb and do not know what Sanrio is
- You are the only Asian on this list that does not know what Bubble Tea is Yeah, what the hell is it?
- You drive a Ford or some other domestic car and if you drive a Honda, it is stock Ha! I drive a JEEP!
For more funny Asian personas, click here. Though this probably isn't as funny to any of you since virtually all my friends are white. Ha! It's funnier if you're Asian and/or understand something about all the different types of Asians that are out there.
According to Kim Gillman, Bubble Tea is to Asia what coffee or pop is to us Americans:
"Bubble drinks are usually cool, refreshing, and a sweet drink with tapioca pearls sitting on the bottom of a clear cup. Sometimes the drink is made with fresh fruits, milk, and crushed ice to create a healthy milk shake. You can also find drinks that are made of powdered flavoring, creamer, water, and crushed ice. And if you like it like the Asians do, the cool drink usually includes a healthy tea, infused by a flavoring."
Posted by Amy at 08:00 AM | Comments (0)
April 17, 2006
Visiting the Shorkeys
I went to my new dentist this evening...a guy in Howell who deals with a lot of TMJ cases. I was told he's really good at it. I didn't talk to him today...just got a routine cleaning. I have an appointment with him about my TMJ in a couple of weeks.
Turns out his office is RIGHT across the street from Don's old office ISMI. Don does the networking and computer repair for Dr. DiStefano's (the dentist) office. Dr. D also knows Nick Suino, Jay Sandweiss, and Jessica (who's also his patient). They all tell me really good things about him. Can't wait to meet him.
Anyway, after my appointment, since I got out a little earlier than expected, I gave Jessica a call. She's only a minute down the road. I was afraid it would have been a little inconvenient dropping in on her on a moment's notice, but she was home and said, "Sure! Come on over!" As soon as I pulled into their driveway, I saw Jessica, Brian and Derek all outside. They met me as I got out of my car and as soon as I did, Derek (the cutie) opens his arms WIDE open for me to hug him and pick him up. I was so excited that he was so happy to see his auntie! And just then, Don called and said he was coming from Brighton and would meet us there. Only took him about 10 minutes.
When he got there, he'd brought a coffee cake and a bunch of brownies for everyone. Yummy! Derek liked them too, in between showing off all his choo choo's. HE IS JUST SOOOOOOOO CUTE!!!! So happy all the time, so friendly with everyone, and so rambunctious!! And what a manly little guy! He's wearing this camouflage shirt and I saw him scratch his crotch at least a couple times. HA HA!
He started singing and bobbing his head, sort of dancing around. If you click on the picture, you can download the video, but you MUST have Quicktime to view it. First he sings, then you can hear me in the back trying to get him to do it again. OMG, HILARIOUSLY CUTE!!!
Posted by Amy at 11:00 PM | Comments (1)
April 16, 2006
Charly del Lago Day 6
Today was our last day at Charly del Lago in Ft. Myers, Florida (NOT Ft. Wayne, Indiana). Don and I started the day a little earlier...woke up about 10am. Well, actually, I woke up about 8am cause I had to sleep on the couch. Last night was one of those nights that I couldn't win out against Don's snoring. I got up and went back into the guest room so I could spend a couple hours cuddling/sleeping next to my honey.
Charly had to take the jeep to Sears, so Don spent a little time downloading some MP3s from Charly. Then we went on another bike ride at the Lakes Park behind the condo. I think we made the loop twice. It was a beautiful sunny day...no continent-sized clouds in sight. After that, we came back to the condo and heated up the leftovers from last night's grilling. We'd grilled enough food to feed about 7 people, but we were the only ones eating last night since Charly and Renee had to take care of Tara. But they came back around 1:30, so we all ate lunch together. Then Renee and Charly took off to do some more errands.
Don and I went to Target to go get a few housewarming things for Charly. While we were grilling last night, we realized he had some of the bare necessities, but not all. So we bought him a hair dryer for his guests, a pot (since all he has is one pan and one sauce pan), some dish towels, a couple of oven mitts that could double for hot pads, placemats, and an ice cream scoop. What more could you need? Ha! Charly was pretty happy. It was our way of thanking him for being so incredibly hospitable...letting us stay at his fabulous condo with all the amenities (especially the pool!) and most especially for letting us use his jeep. That was a majorly great thing to have something to drive around in. Without it, we would have rented a car, but that gets expensive and it's kind of a hassle. THANKS, CHAR!!!
Later on, we came back to enjoy as much of the sunshine as we could before leaving. We got to the pool around 3:45 or so. I had to even out my tan. I think we were out there a couple of hours. Took a last dip in the pool, then headed upstairs to get cleaned up for dinner. Renee suggested this AWESOME restaurant called Sunshine Cafe. They do steak and seafood. Don and I ordered the shrimp and scallop scampi. OMG it was fiendishly delicious! Great suggestion, Renee!! I finished off my dinner with the raspberry creme brulee. I always say there's always room for creme brulee, but this time I actually could not finish it by myself. Good thing I have Don to help me! We had a great time at dinner...Charly and Don were both playing with the cameras on their Treo phones--I finally realized just HOW many pictures Don has of me! Most of the time I don't even know he's taking them! He just keeps clicking. (BTW, that's us at the restaurant.) Charly and Renee were playing artistes. The restaurant has paper table cloths, like Macaroni Grill and they give you crayons to draw. Renee drew a beautiful purple flower and Charly drew this cool tropical paradise scene with palm trees, the ocean, a sailboat and a dock. It was cool. Maybe he'll post it on his blog.
Anyway, after that, we came home and looked at a bunch of pictures. We started out on Commander Mahonious' blog looking at all his awesome photography (WHAT a talent!), then we went through Charly's HUUUUUGE picture collection. It started out that Renee wanted to see the picture of Don and Charly with their Jeep Grand Cherokees that they bought a day apart. Same model, same color, same license plate number with only one number difference: SHY 282 and SHY 283. Charly couldn't find it because he files them all by date (not a smart thing to do!) so while he was trying to find it, we'd get sidetracked looking at other stuff--great pics of his Grandma and Grandpa, old party photos, etc. Finally, Don logs onto his computer at home remotely and found the picture. He made a believer out of Renee who I think was beginning to think the Jeep picture was a made-up legend or something.
EEK! It's already 1:20am and we have to get to sleep. Gotta get up around 8am to pack and leave for the airport around 10:30 or so.
It's been a fantastic vacation...I got my sun and Don and I both got to relax and not think about work (at least not much). Too bad it has to end. But I'll be happy to get home to my kitties. I miss them terribly! I just hope we'll be able to go to Japan with Nick and Pam in September. That will be great fun! And I'm sure I'll need another break by then! Whew! Hope you enjoyed reading all about my adventures at Charly del Lago! Bye for now.
Posted by Amy at 01:25 AM | Comments (1)
April 15, 2006
Charly del Lago Day 5
Today was a much better day in terms of weather. It was beautiful, sunny and clear. We went to (where else?) Taco Bell for lunch and drove around again. We took US-41 south down to Naples to go explore the beach there. It was a bit further than we thought it would be...ended up being about a 45 minute drive, with all the lights and traffic. As we drove into Naples, I could immediately tell that it was a VERY hoighty-toighty place...very upscale. Houses looked extremely expensive. Especially the houses along the beach. They were built along the canal on stilts, each with a private dock. I swear it looked like Venice. Ha! Venice in Naples...*snickers*. The beach was pretty nice, but we didn't have our suits to go swimming. Just as well, though. The shore was filled with tons of red seaweed and you kind of had to dodge walking on sharp sea shells. And it had these funny little birds that would trotter down quickly when the waves were low, grab any kind of food they could (tiny fish or anything that came in a shell) and then run right back up the beach as if the wave was gonna get them. They were really hilarious to watch.
We drove back to Ft. Myers to the condo (another 45 minute drive), got our swimsuits and went back down to the pool. By then it was already about 4:30 or 5pm and the sun wasn't as strong, but I figured it was better than none. So we sat around the pool for a couple hours. I wanted to take a dip, but there was this family of 6 that came in and pretty much commandeered the entire pool. Their kids were all over the place, running back and forth, making all kinds of noise. Especially the daughter...probably about 5 years old. And she kept WHINING! UGH! It was like that bit that Denis Leary does about his kids trying to talk to him while he's on the phone:
Kids: dad, dad, dad, dad, Dad, Dad, DAd, DAd, DAd, DAD! DAD! DAD! DAAAD!! DAAAD!! DAAAAADDY!! DAAAAAAAAADD!!
Denis Leary: WHAT??!!!!! WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT?!! I KNOW I'M NOT SUPPOSED TO SAY BAD WORDS TO YOU BUT YOU'RE FUCKING MAKING ME SAY IT!!!
They finally left after about an hour and a half. That's when we got in the pool. The water felt like 85 degrees or more. It was SO nice!
We decided after that we would do some grilling on the barby tonight. We went to the Publix and got a bunch of stuff and grilled up some steaks and chicken legs. Yummy! Don made a salad and we boiled some corn and made fresh baked rolls. It was nice to make our own dinner on such a warm day. Too bad Charly and Renee couldn't join us. They were over at the river house taking care of the girls and Tara who had gone to a party and overdid it JUST a little. She'd had about 5 drinks in the span of 2 hours. Needless to say, she was paying homage to the ceramic god tonight. Charly came home about 11pm and after Renee went home to take care of her dog, we got into the hot tub and man! That was ONE HOT hot tub!! It was as warm if not a little bit warmer than I like my baths! And I like it HOT!! We only stayed in it for about 10 minutes before Charly had to go to bed. He seemed exhausted, what with staying up late with us a few nights in a row, but not being able to sleep in like us. Besides, that tub was just way too hot!
Anyway, it was a good day for vacation. The top picture is definitely my idea of a vacation...sitting by the pool, getting some sun, listening to some good tunes. This (below) is Don's idea of a vacation: sitting by the pool, getting some sun and reading a good book. (He made me take this picture with exactly this viewpoint.)
So needless to say, we're having a GREAT time! Hopefully tomorrow, we can go out on Charly's boat or maybe I'll go back to the pool and tan my backside to even things up a bit. Too bad there's only one day left. The only thing that'll make it good going back to Michigan is if the weather up there is almost as nice as it is here. But that's highly unlikely. Ok, it's late now. I'll post again tomorrow. Nite nite!
CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT DAY 6.
Posted by Amy at 01:16 AM | Comments (0)
April 14, 2006
Charly del Lago Day 4
Yesterday was pretty cloudy, so we didn't do a whole lot of outdoor activity. We got up late again, around 11am again. Paige and Josie were over to see their daddy. They went swimming in the pool, or as Josie said, "twimmeen!" I sat with them for a little while watching some British kids show on Animal Planet while Charly dealt with the guy delivering his furniture.
Then we dropped off the girls at the river house...Paige had fun playing in my purse and finding quarters and making me tickle her knee on the way. We picked up Don Roy from the hospital. It was the first time I'd seen him since he got cancer--poor guy's only in his late 20's! He'd lost his hair and one testicle to the treatments. Charly jokes that his head looks like Yoda and Don Roy says, "I DO look like Yoda. That's cool!" What an amazing attitude! haha! That is truly the most important thing when you're trying to get well. I believe that if you're positive and determined to get through it, you absolutely will. I think that's what keeps my mom going whenever her heart starts pooping out on her. GO MOM!! She's AWESOME!!!
Anyway, after we picked up Don Roy and dropped him off at home, we went to Hop's for a late lunch. The waiter there was kind of a dumbass. He was supposed to bring us the sweet rolls right when we got there, but didn't for about a half hour. He was slow. But the food was pretty good. Don and Charly had really yummy looking hamburgers. My TMJ was bothering me so I knew I wouldn't be able to eat a burger. I had meatloaf. Not too bad. Good mashed potatoes though...made from Redskins. Yummy! After lunch, it was off to Target to pick up a few things.
When we got home, Don and I decided to sit by the pool. But because it was so cloudy, we didn't get as much sun as I would have liked. I think we were out there a couple hours and only got about 45 minutes total worth of sun. The clouds were huge...one even was the size and shape of Australia and even though it was kind of windy, they moved really sssllooooooowwwwww. We took a dip in the pool and it was actually warmer in the pool than it was sitting by it. Durn it, I gotta get some more sun before I go back!
After that, we went to dinner at Tokyo Bay Japanese steak house. Dan Laursen and Tom Shumm came with us and it was Don's sister company ISGFL's turn to take us out to dinner. There were 3 girls sitting at our table who were about 19 years old and we kept trying to tell Dan to buy them a drink or pick up their dinner tab so he could get a date. They were kind of hot and one of them was having a birthday. But Dan and Tom chickened out. Too bad. Anyone girls out there who want a date? No commitments, just a date. These guys really need to get out more!
We came home and hung out. Don introduced some really expensive Scotch to Dan and Tom, though it's cheaper down here for some reason than it is up north. We listened to and watched a lot of heavy metal music videos and Tom got sloppy drunk. That's him in the picture. We watched the Pamela Anderson Roast (you could see her boobs through her shirt...ACK!) and Jimmy Fallon's intro to the MTV music awards. He was parodying a bunch of other popular artists and it was hilarious. So about 10 seconds after we took this picture, Tom laughed so hard he fell off the chair. OMG, it was HYSTERICAL! I wasn't even drunk and I was having such a fun time!! This was the first time I'd ever hung out with Tom and I realized how absolutely funny this guy is!! Especially when he gets sloppy drunk. We got to listen to his commentaries on heavy metal bands, guitar riffs, and his imitation of heavy metal singers. HAHAHAHA!! I'll post the video clip we took of him doing it as soon as Charly sends it to me. So, of course we didn't end up going to bed until about 1:30 or 2am. And now it's past noon on Friday and I haven't taken a shower yet cause I've been writing this in my blog. Time for lunch so I gotta get cleaned up. Perhaps my next entry will be more fun. I'm hoping we can hang out more with the ISGFL folks tonight, being a Friday.
By the way, Charly told me I had to post this picture on my blog. This was taken the first night we got here. We went to Total Wine (a HUUUUGE wine shop). I saw this giant bottle of Vodka and had to get silly, so Charly took a picture.
Holy CRAP! It says that the weather in Ann Arbor is sunny and currently 68 degrees. It's supposed to get up to 80! Nice! But I'm still glad to be down here in Florida cause I'm out enjoying it instead of working. I'm on vacation...nyah nyah nyah nyaaahh nyah! Two more days left! Woo hoo!!!
Here is the video of Tom doing his impression of a heavy metal singer. You MUST have Quicktime to view this.
CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT DAY 5.
Posted by Amy at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)
April 12, 2006
Charly del Lago Day 3
Don and I took it easier today...slept in (aaaaahhh!) till about 11:30. Got dressed and went to (where else?) Taco Bell. We borrowed Charly's Jeep and took an exploratory drive around town. We somehow managed, without trying, to find Tara's house, though we didn't stop in. She was probably busy and we didn't want to drop in unexpected. We drove down the road that follows the beach. That's where the putt putt golf places were. We stopped in at the Jungle Golf putt putt where Don took this picture of me. Each hole was a par 2, but there were a few we managed to foul up. One hole it took me 5 strokes to finish! But on the bright side, we both got a hole in one on the same hole. I ended up winning 43-48. Then we drove by the restaurant we went to last night on the island (Sanibel Island, I think). Though it took us a long time to get off the island cause there was a really long backup. But it was nice having the Jeep to get around in, especially since Charly was busy today.
After that, we came home and borrowed Charly's bikes (Charly's a generous guy!!). We took them out to the Lakes Park behind the condo for a nice ride. I think the trails were only a few miles long, but we stopped in an area kind of off the trail. I'd been bugging Don to show me some aikido/jujitsu moves, so he pulled us off in this clearing. I'm pretty sure he chose this spot carefully so that no one on the trail would see us and we wouldn't be watched. Most especially, we wouldn't be like the kung fu dork showing off to everyone passing by. Some of the moves I wasn't sure would work for me just because of my size and stature...maybe they would with a lot more practice. But I always find that there are some moves that work better for me than others partly because of my size/stature and partly because of how they make sense to me, like how well I understand them. Some moves I just "get" more than others.
I think right now, we may go sit by the pool and maybe wait till Charly comes home for dinner. Tonight, I want to go to a seafood restaurant and get some crab legs. I've got a hankering for it and it seems fitting that we're so close to the ocean that we shouldn't leave here without having had a seafood dinner.
CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT DAY 4.
Posted by Amy at 06:30 PM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2006
Charly del Lago Day 2
Don @ the Caldwells' river house
Wow! We had a full day. We started out by walking about the lakes in the park behind Charly del Lago condo. The trails felt really hot, like around 90 degrees or more. But it was nice! I love the heat!! The park is a really nice nature preserve--there are a ton of little tiny lakes filled with wildlife, mostly some interesting birds...egrets and other birds I can't identify. There's also a little train that people can ride around the park. It's only about 2 feet high, but I think it could hold about 15 people or so. Pretty cool. Didn't get to see any aligators though. That would have been great. Maybe tomorrow. Who knows?
After that, we came back and sat by the pool for an hour or so. Got my tan line going with my new Victoria's Secret bikini that I got on sale. Gotta love that. Charly's new girlfriend stopped by briefly and he brought her down to the pool to meet us. I told her I had to come back with a tan or it wouldn't be worth the trip. She said, just don't get burned. After she said that, I looked at my belly and had a brief moment of panick because my tan line was stronger than I expected for the first day of tanning and I was worried that I WAS starting to burn. But after we got back and took a shower, I realized I was ok. Though I think Don may have a slight bit of sunburn, but not bad.
After we got dressed, we hung out for a little bit to recover from the sun. I came up with another good one...told Don that since my site is Priori2ude, he should register Prioridude. Ha ha!
Later, Charly's friends Heather and Paul came by for dinner. We had to wait for Renee (Charly's girl). We went to a place called Chloe's on the beach. Nice place, but not many customers tonight. We had a nice steak dinner and a good long conversation about where everyone was from, how we all met our honeys, etc. Then after dinner, we took a nice romantic walk along Ft. Myers beach in the bright moonlight. Man, was it bright! Our shadows showed up really distinctly...I think it was a full moon. And the stars were out. I always love being able to find the constellation of Orion. I don't know why, but it's really comforting when I can find it. Makes me feel like I'm in a really good place when I see it--like your favorite blanket or a PBJ sandwich. I don't know how else to describe it.
And now we've come back home. Gonna watch a little tv before I hit the hay. But I'm gonna sleep good tonight! Whew!
CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT DAY 3.
Posted by Amy at 11:12 PM | Comments (0)
Charly del Lago Day 1
We had a good flight coming down here. It was kind of short, though we left a bit late. The lady at the counter was about as ditzy as the lady I talked to to get the ticket. We ended up leaving about 20 minutes after we were supposed to take off cause we were waiting for a few old folks to get off the plane...they needed wheelchairs and it took them a while to get them. Seems to me if you know you have 10 people getting on the plane who need wheelchairs, that you'd need 10 wheelchairs waiting for them when they arrive!
Anyway, we actually got in on time cause Northworst always builds time into their flight schedules so that if there's a delay, you still arrive on time. We took a ride in Charly's beautiful new Caddy rockin to his tunes. Woooo! On the way, Charly told me about how his mom (Hi Marty!) reads my blog "religiously," as he put it--yesterday, I found out that our waiter at Creekside reads my blog too. I'm finding out that I really have a following! Kind of makes me nervous--I wonder if it's better when I think I only have about 5 readers. Kind of like at work when I write the weekly RSS article--our site is partnered with Yahoo Real Estate, so I probably have a lot of readers I'd rather not think about. Ha!
Anyway, We stopped at Wendy's, got some dinner, and stopped off at Tara's house to see the girls, who are bigger and cuter than ever. Josie's a little monkey girl and Paigie is a spunky little gal who is already picking up her dad's snarky sense of humor. We watched the sun go down (which is when Don took this picture of me with his phone), hung out, watched a little TV and then got back to Charly's condo, which is sooooo great! Click here for pictures. It's more like a 5-star hotel! The view is great looking over the park and lake and it's got a gym, a great pool and hot tub and the guest room has it's own private bathroom AND balcony! WOW! Speaking of hot tub, after Charly took us on a tour of the place, we went down to the tub and had a nice hot soak talking about life, love and happiness. SWEEEEEEET!
Don and I didn't get to bed until about 1am, but we slept really well! I woke up about 8:45 and lounged in bed for a while. But with Don's snoring in my ear, I figured it was time to get up and shower. I want to enjoy the weather here and start having some fun, baby!! Even at 10am, it's warmer here in Florida than it is at the warmest part of the afternoon in Michigan. We're going to go over to this salad bar place for lunch and then we'll see what happens then.
CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT DAY 2
Posted by Amy at 10:48 AM | Comments (0)
April 08, 2006
Tired
It's already been a busy weekend. Last night after work, we went to the 32nd annual banquet for the dojo. Not the most exciting event, but it's a good chance to hang out with a lot of our martial arts friends. It was at the Holiday Inn on Plymouth Road. I wasn't expecting it to be very fancy, but the food was pretty darned good. I also met the sensei that runs the dojo near my office--he teaches a friend of mine from work. Small world! Dr. Herbert Wong, one of Mr. Scott's teachers, was there and he always gives an insightful speech, then some of our students and instructors give a few martial arts demonstrations. There's always a Chinese lion dance--but the people that perform it pretty much suck. Plus they're always really LONG. If I never have to see another one of those, it'd be too soon. As far as other entertainment, they tried to have Karaoke, but that kind of failed miserably. No one wanted to get up and sing except for the little kids and a few Kung Fu people. But once Chris Solano, our resident Elvis, got up and did some songs, those of us who were left got up and danced. So it wasn't a bad night. But we were tired--we didn't get home until almost 1am.
Then today was the dojo open house. They put out lots of interesting pictures of people from the dojo--some from as far back as the beginning of the dojo. Cool! There's also weapons and artwork on display which is kind of cool too. We got to watch some rare footage of Mr. Walter Todd, another of Mr. Scott's teachers. He was tossing around Mr. Scott and Mr. Z--it was pretty interesting.
Right after that, we had to go to my Mom's house. My sister had come over with the kids and since I hadn't seen them for a long time, I though we should go visit. Rosie, Oak and Gino were there too. I tell you...I love all those kids to death, but man are they LOUD! I get there and they're already screaming at the top of their lungs! Ugh! So much energy in them--it wears me out. But we had more Thai food. And PJ, so cute...he says to me "Come tomorrow! Come tomorrow!" And Tessie wouldn't let go of my leg as we were trying to exit the door, the little goofball!
I'm just glad that we're going away on a nice week-long vacation in a couple of days from now. Tomorrow, Don's going back to the dojo to participate in Dr. Wong's seminars. I usually like to do them too, but two of them are kung fu style which I'm not really interested in and besides, I want to spend tomorrow packing and getting ready. I've got some laundry to do and I want to do a little cleaning before we leave since Pam and Nick are coming over for the weekend to look after the cats while we're away. I can't wait!! I wish we were there right now. I'll make a few entries when we're there and take a few pictures. Ta for now!
Posted by Amy at 10:10 PM | Comments (0)
April 07, 2006
Sign Language
Oh I am SO excited!! I've been wanting to learn to be fluent in sign language so that I can speak to Mary and Amanda and I just found out that this woman, Christy, who's on my team at work knows sign language. She gave me a link to this Web site that shows you with video how to sign a SLEW of words (click on the picture to go to the site). Plus, there's a link in the site that leads to another Web site where you can take online courses to learn sign language.
So I'm going to take the online course and Christy and I are going to plan a regular lunch where we only talk in sign language. This is going to be so much fun! Then maybe when we go to Meaford, Mary and Amanda can join us at the campfire and we can all sign together. They usually don't/can't because it's too dark for them to read anyone's lips. So maybe I can get them to join us then. Yay!!
Posted by Amy at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)
April 03, 2006
Married to the Mob
Our friends Nick and Pam are planning to go to Japan in September. Nick's going to do some training with some Japanese martial arts masters and invited Don and I to go with them to Japan to do some training as well. Now, we haven't decided whether or not we're actually going to go, though it would be a great experience. Japan is a fascinating place and training in person with the masters would be amazing.
But it got me to thinking...I've already got my passport, but Don's has expired. So if we went, we'd have to renew it. Besides, there's talk that in 2007, you won't be able to cross the border to Canada without a passport. And seeing as we usually go to Meaford, Ontario every July 4th weekend, he'll eventually need to have one.
So I went online and downloaded the forms for renewing a passport. (By the way, it takes a few months to get it renewed.) I filled out the forms for Don, got him to write the check for the $67 fee, included his expired passport and addressed the envelope. All I needed to do was for Don to have his passport photo taken. We went to Kinko's on Saturday after Karate class and THIS is how it turned out! Ha ha!! Now, I love my husband very dearly, but this is a TOTAL mug shot! I hate to say it, but he looks like a criminal. I'm going to mail the envelope with the passport form and everything in it tomorrow, but I just HAD to scan the picture before I did. hee hee!
Posted by Amy at 10:58 PM | Comments (1)