Sorry folks.

Besides spending a wonderful couple of days running back and forth between my family and Sweetie's family, getting ready for Christmas, enjoying Christmas, eating food, and wrapping and opening presents - I've gotten sick.

Today was a great day, but I had the energy level of a slug.  I could barely help get things ready for Christmas dinner at Sweetie's aunt and uncle's house.  I even crashed for a while in his cousin's room in the afternoon, but was still a slug this evening.  Thankfully, everyone was nice about it, and I wasn't the only one feeling sick.  But now, I'm exhausted, I ache all over, my head and ears feel like they are going to explode, and my nose alternates between dripping snot and feeling completely dried out. Pretty fun huh?

I know people will argue that you can't get sick from being cold, but I would point out the empirical evidence that I have not been sick once in Maui, and after I spend three days here - boom! sickness.  It's not right. 

I hope you all had a warm, merry, and healthy Christmas.  That's about all I can manage right now, but I mean it sincerely.  Despite my fat, fluid-filled head, I had a great day. Tomorrow should be good too.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I hope you all have a day full of good cheer, good company, and good food.  Stay warm, eat well, and enjoy the holiday!

Happy Halloween folks!

If there is ever a day I miss being in my old workplace, today would be the day.  My old co-workers and I take Halloween seriously, and it makes for a fun day at work.  Cobwebs and spiders all over the place, witches and scarecrows, and waaaay too much candy on hand.

We've had witch-theme Halloween, pajama-theme Halloween, dress-up-like-the-slacker biologists-theme Halloween and (the guys’ favorite) brothel-theme Halloween.  Add to that a huge potluck as an appetizer to gobs of candy, and it’s just more fun than one office should allow.  We take a picture in front of our office after lunch.  Since I used to work in a touristy spot of town, it was pretty funny to watch the tourists tell their kids “Wave to __(insert clever costume here)___!!”   We’d wave back from the porch yelling “Yup! That’s all we do! We wave! Go away now.”

Of course, more often then not, I was on my own personal costume mission: To dress up as each of the seven Endless.  Who more inspiring for Halloween then the Sandman crew?  I have been Death (twice), Destiny, Delirium, and Dream.  Despair may be a bit tricky (perhaps with a good Sumo wrestler suit).  This is my on-going homage to Neil Gaiman, so to speak.   Plus, Death is probably my favorite character ever written, so she’s a fun one to imitate.

I am in a new house this year, so I have no idea how many trick-or-treaters we will get this year.  Hopefully a lot, as we have two huge bags of candy.  And what can you do with leftover candy, but munch for hours watching old “Twilight Zone” episodes on DVD?  How many hours, you ask? Don’t ask.

Happy Halloween everyone! 

Happy Mom's Day to all you awesome Moms out there.

Most especially special wishes go to MY MOM! She always supports me, is somewhat psychic in her ability to understand what is going on with me (and when I am about to call her), works harder than most employed people I know, is super sweet, and basically all-out rocks!

Have a great day everyone!

You Are Somewhat Like Your Mom

Believe it or not, you and your mom are pretty darn similar. It may not seem like it at times, but you and your mom have a lot of common ground. Over time, you'll probably get closer ... especially if you emphasize the things you like about each other.

I hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day. Single, coupled, married, dating, or hermit, I hope that the day was a pleasant one.

I sent and received some fun e-cards yesterdays. I called my mom to tell her how much I love her. And I had a secret plan to bake something special for my Sweetie for our Lost-watching night. I was very excited about this and told my mother what I was planning to do in a loud whisper, even though my guy wasn't home from work yet. I went to the store on Monday and got the ingredients I needed. After we ate dinner (that he BBQ-ed) I ran to grab a mixing bowl and start mixing away.

Alas, I had forgotten, again (not for the first or second time) - our oven is NOT working! I wept mock tears of frustration as I had to admit that I had planned something that would not work out. How could I keep forgetting? Who knows. (see past statements about my horrible memory) We have not had a working oven since November. I can go on and on about the crap service of the appliance shop and our past property manager, but that doesn't help. We call and call and no one can seem to get over here to fix it. So, I have been limiting my cooking for months to things I can steam, boil, fry, and stir-fry. But several times in the past few months, my brain completely blanks out - I plan a dinner, go the grocery store and buy everything on my list, come home, look over at the stove and "Oh sh**!" I remember we have no oven. Thanks goodness for crock pots! Saved one chicken recipe in a jiffy (well, a slow-cooking jiffy).

So, there I was last night - dismayed to realize my grand plan for a Valentine's Day surprise was sunk. I was sad, but I wasn't going to feel too bad about it. And I didn't worry that I didn't have anything else for my Sweetie. I figured we would be low-key this year. Last year, I flew to Maui from the mainland for Valentine's Day. I brought a card and a CD and a little chocolate treat. My Sweetie had been super-busy with work. While he was happy to see me, he hadn't planned anything for Valentines, so we just made dinner and hung out.

This year, I thought, I would play it low-key myself. No big expectations. So, wouldn't you know - Sweetie went all out this time around?!

He was very excited to give me his gifts. He started by coming home with flowers. I'll have to take a picture and post them here. They are beautiful, and I put them on the dining table so we could look at them while we ate dinner. And he was not done. During the course of the evening, he ran back to the room THREE times to bring something out to me. Crazy. The man went crazy. He brought me a CD (Norah Jones - we listened to it before Lost started - very nice). And he brought me a very cool book called "Catching the Big Fish - Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity" by - David Lynch of all people.

But, the creme de la creme of all gifts?? He brought me chocolate from Mackenzies Chocolates!! AHHHHH!!! He picked out a bunch of chocolates in a box for me (he had been in California a week ago), including THREE Santa Cruz crunches. MMmmmmmmmm. These chocolates are soooo good.

So, of course, the year I play it cool and low-key, my Sweetie goes all out and crazy. Funny, huh? A big big thank you to my guy for the ultimate thoughtfulness. The fun of it all was seeing how much fun he was having, and I hope he knows that I know how very lucky I am.

P.S. - I added a picture of my flowers!

We got our Christmas tree today!

Very exciting.  My sweetie and I went to a Christmas tree lot today in Kahului and picked out a smallish tree to bring home.  There is something surreal about buying a Christmas tree in shorts and flip flops.  Gotta love Hawaii! 

We spent quite a bit of time searching for just the perfect tree - full, not too big, fragrant, not too smooshed, nicely spaced branches.  The woman at the lot had to take us over to the reserve trees across the lot.  And there we found it!  A spunky little Douglas fir that, at $10 off, was in our perfect price range.  Yes, trees are a little more expensive over here since they have to be shipped over.  Our handsome fir came from Mt. Hood, Oregon. 

We threw it in the van and brought it home.  We had to go to four different stores to find a tree stand.  Most places were sold out.  The woman at Lowes told me "I don't know what people do with them.  We sell out every year."  But finally, we have our tree in the house, standing straight and ready to be decorated.  I'll try and post pictures when it's done.

One question - I have, on occasion, been known to name my Christmas tree.  My sweetie thinks I'm a bit daft.  Yes, I know it is an inanimate object.  And yes, I know it will eventually be chucked out.   I just thought it was fun to name it!  Am I nuts?  And if you have any suggestions for names, please leave them.

We got our Christmas tree today!

Very exciting.  My sweetie and I went to a Christmas tree lot today in Kahului and picked out a smallish tree to bring home.  There is something surreal about buying a Christmas tree in shorts and flip flops.  Gotta love Hawaii! 

We spent quite a bit of time searching for just the perfect tree - full, not too big, fragrant, not too smooshed, nicely spaced branches.  The woman at the lot had to take us over to the reserve trees across the lot.  And there we found it!  A spunky little Douglas fir that, at $10 off, was in our perfect price range.  Yes, trees are a little more expensive over here since they have to be shipped over.  Our handsome fir came from Mt. Hood, Oregon. 

We threw it in the van and brought it home.  We had to go to four different stores to find a tree stand.  Most places were sold out.  The woman at Lowes told me "I don't know what people do with them.  We sell out every year."  But finally, we have our tree in the house, standing straight and ready to be decorated.  I'll try and post pictures when it's done.

One question - I have, on occasion, been known to name my Christmas tree.  My sweetie thinks I'm a bit daft.  Yes, I know it is an inanimate object.  And yes, I know it will eventually be chucked out.   I just thought it was fun to name it!  Am I nuts?  And if you have any suggestions for names, please leave them.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I hope you all have a day full of good cheer, good company, and good food.  Stay warm, eat well, and enjoy the holiday!

Happy Halloween folks!

If there is ever a day I miss being in my old workplace, today would be the day.  My old co-workers and I take Halloween seriously, and it makes for a fun day at work.  Cobwebs and spiders all over the place, witches and scarecrows, and waaaay too much candy on hand.

We've had witch-theme Halloween, pajama-theme Halloween, dress-up-like-the-slacker biologists-theme Halloween and (the guys’ favorite) brothel-theme Halloween.  Add to that a huge potluck as an appetizer to gobs of candy, and it’s just more fun than one office should allow.  We take a picture in front of our office after lunch.  Since I used to work in a touristy spot of town, it was pretty funny to watch the tourists tell their kids “Wave to __(insert clever costume here)___!!”   We’d wave back from the porch yelling “Yup! That’s all we do! We wave! Go away now.”

Of course, more often then not, I was on my own personal costume mission: To dress up as each of the seven Endless.  Who more inspiring for Halloween then the Sandman crew?  I have been Death (twice), Destiny, Delirium, and Dream.  Despair may be a bit tricky (perhaps with a good Sumo wrestler suit).  This is my on-going homage to Neil Gaiman, so to speak.   Plus, Death is probably my favorite character ever written, so she’s a fun one to imitate.

I am in a new house this year, so I have no idea how many trick-or-treaters we will get this year.  Hopefully a lot, as we have two huge bags of candy.  And what can you do with leftover candy, but munch for hours watching old “Twilight Zone” episodes on DVD?  How many hours, you ask? Don’t ask.

Happy Halloween everyone!