Good Eatin'

Wow, I haven't blogged in what seems like ages.

Our yard sale was kind of a flop last weekend. I think Sara made around $20... Brian and I made around $9. Nothing to get excited about. We still have a full garage of stuff. I couldn't believe how much baby stuff Sara has. So many things that Natilee never even wore.

Work has been busy, though. It's so hard to think that Brian and I have been married for almost two months... And that we've been back to work for about a month and a half since the honeymoon. Our house is still a mess... But with both of us working 40 hours a week and doing copious amounts of laundry and other house chores, it's a little difficult to get some things put away. I still have wedding stuff lying around. And I have so many ideas for some of the things that I don't want to put it in a box somewhere and never get around to making something. I have a huge wedding shadowbox mapped out in my head that I can't wait to make.

Tonight for dinner I made meat balls and garlic mashed potatoes with green beans, greek pasta (store bought) and cottage cheese as side dishes. My meat balls came together beautifully. I used ground beef, egg, garlic powder, onion powder, Italian bread crumbs, organic tomato paste and sauce, a little bit of salt and a little bit of ground pepper and Tony's creole seasoning. It was so good. I have this thing about me where at times I eat my foods separately... Which is what I mainly did tonight... And by the time I got to my meat balls, I could barely finish the first one... Oh well... That just means I'll have lunch tomorrow. ;)



Bella's been doing well. She pretty much only hides behind the couch when we have company over... Stranger danger? Cognac feels the need to randomly goose her, too. It makes no sense considering he didn't really do anything like that when Bella first came here. So... Bella in front of couch + Brian on couch wearing shorts + Cognac running up and goosing Bella = Bella freaking out and Brian with freshly made scratches on his aforementioned bare legs. Sigh...

Anyway, here are some pictures!



Isn't she gorgeous?



Remember that spider from my last post? Brian and I think we know what it is... We think it's a Banded Garden Spider (Argiope trifasciata) Also, in that last picture our spider, lets call him Manny, had a missing leg. Manny has moved out of the tailgate to one of the rear wheels... And he has grown an eighth leg that is all one color. I'll need to get some pictures as soon as the rain lets up...


Now I'm off to watch some Monk.

"Good Lord Show Me The Way"

I'm currently listening to Alison Krauss. That should explain my post title.

Well, Sara forgot the backdrop for Natilee's pictures. And Natilee is teething and was pretty crabby anyway. So, Sara and I are going to try for later on this week to do Natilee's pictures.

And I ended up getting sick on Friday. So, I was unable to walk in the relay. Thanks, Jon, for walking with Brian.

My Mom, Sara, and Robert came over to my house on Saturday. Robert and Brian ended up going and seeing District 9 and then came back to play some video games.

We didn't end up having a yard sale. Sara had way too many boxes of things for the yard sale and she didn't have enough time to go through them before Saturday. So, we're shooting for next Saturday.

Brian discovered Saturday morning that a spider had constructed a web in the back of the '84 El Camino (tailgate). So, I got this picture:



I did get a couple of good shots of Natilee enjoying a popsicle while she was over on Saturday...





Saturday night we ended up having to call the police. Just after Sara left with Natilee, someone came to our front window and pounded loudly (and fast) on our front window three times. Then ran off. At first I thought it was a couple of boxes in our livingroom because that's where we have the yard sale items... But it wasn't. Brian had been in another room and came out and into the kitchen because he thought it had been something that fell in there. I told him it sounded like something hit the window. He opened the front door and saw fresh finger prints on our window. So we called the police, and since the station is a minute from our house, they were over in about two minutes. They checked over our cars and wrote down the information and gave us our claim/disturbance report number. We don't know who or why someone would feel the need to do that. I'm just glad that Natilee wasn't in the house because it could have scared her.

Bella's getting along better and better. She's getting more and more comfortable with the house. And she's even feeling confident enough to get up on the cat tower and play with the kitty toys. :)

A Mixture of Things

Brian and I have got a busy week ahead of us. Tonight we went to Meijer and did our grocery shopping for this next week. Brian and I have made a menu for our dinner and lunches for the next week. We've decided that Tuesday will be our shopping day.

Anyway, after shopping tonight we came home and I made homemade egg salad for sandwiches. I should have taken pictures because it was delicious. I used 5 hard boiled eggs, mayonnaise, mustard, thousand island dressing, pepper, and curry powder. Yumm-o!

Bella is getting better around the house. I'm quite pleased with her progress. The vet gave me kitty prozac to give her for the next couple months, and I honestly don't want to have to give it to her. I didn't need her freaking out because I'm trying to shove a pill down her throat. Georgia, however, has taken a few steps back with her behavior towards Bella. Brian, Bella, Georgia and I were laying on our bed the other day. Bella was not in anyway too close to Georgia... Brian was petting Georgia and she was really enjoying it. Out of nowhere Georgia attacked (which means she swatted at her several times - no claws out kind of attack) and then chased Bella into our livingroom. Bella retreated behind the couch. Georgia has since done it again. Bella is getting braver, though.

I came home from work today and all three of them were laying out in the open in the livingroom. So, awesome.

Getting back to Bella for a minute, she's out and about more and more. Tonight for the first time Brian got to see the trick that I taught Bella to do; catching cat snacks in her mouth while I toss them to her. :) Hopefully I can get video some day.

Cognac is doing pretty good with Bella, too. I haven't heard him hiss at her in days. He pretty much just follows her around now trying to smell her butt. He's very intrigued by her.

Cognac was all over me tonight and he was very curious about my camera. Which resulted in this picture:



And just because she's precious, here's a picture of Bella that I took a few minutes ago...



Coming up this Thursday my cousin Sara will be coming over. She'll be bringing my Goddaughter, Natilee. Sara loves the pictures that I take and asked if I would take Natilee's 6 month pictures to help her save money. So, hopefully I'll have the time to post an entry and include a few of those pictures.

On Friday Brian and I will be walking an hour for the Relay For Life. I'll also try to get some pictures of that, as well.

Saturday we'll be trying to sell a few items we don't need at a "last minute" yard sale. Brian and I would like to get rid of a few things without having to throw them out. Brian's parents and my Mom will be over, too. It should be a good time.

And sadly... A family cat of mine, Bocephus, was put down today. It was bittersweet. I'm sad to see him go. He was 19 years old. My Dad noticed last night that Bocephus' mouth was swollen. And noticed this morning that it looked like a tooth was infected. He got him to the vet this morning. They ran blood tests on him and discovered that his kidneys could not withstand the anesthetics to put him out to remove the tooth. She said he had a 50/50 chance of waking up. My Dad, whom always has a hard time making the final decision, decided that it would be best to put him down so he wouldn't be in pain any longer.

We got Bocephus when I was 4 years old. I remember being afraid of him because he was a black cat and I remember Robert had to coax me out of the car to come inside. Bocephus turned out to be my best friend when I was little. I carted him practically everywhere in our house. And he became very protective of me as a child. He hadn't been himself in the last few years due to his old age, but he certainly lived a long full life. He had been abandoned and was found under the hood of a car at the old HPS office building in 1990. I will miss him so much.

Currently, these are the only semi good pictures I have of him on this computer...

Well...

What have I been up to? I haven't posted a blog is soooo long.

Actually, a lot has been going on.

I was recently sick and not working for a couple of days due to a head cold. I must say, that was not fun... Not fun at all. I'm feeling much better... I only sound a little nasally today... So, WHOO HOO...

Last Friday Brian and I attended a Whitecaps game outing with my brother Robert. Every summer HPS provides a free game. All you have to do is show up. The Whitecaps lost, sadly. But it was still a good time. Here are a few pictures...







On Saturday this past weekend I ventured to my parents house in Hastings and picked up my cat, Bella, to take to the vet and then bring her over to her new home. The first couple days have been rocky... Mainly because Bella can be a nervous wreck sometimes. But she's doing better, even though she managed to get into the crawlspace under the house twice and cut her lip. So, our basement is completely blocked off for the next couple of months until Bella calms down. (The basement was where the cat box was...) Bella needs to learn that the upstairs is safe... Not the creepy crawlspace under the house... She's getting more comfortable every day, though. :)


Bella, with her poor cut lip.

Brian and I have also been extremely busy with just normal house work and getting organized. I estimate the house won't be where we want it to be for the next month. I guess these things take time. We're also managing our own budget and shopping only once a week. Which is helping with saving money. :)

I'm also trying to get things changed to my new name. Which is taking a lot more time than I wanted it to...

But, life goes on...

We Are Home.. And It Feels Good

I didn't really have the time to type a day-to-day journal type blog entry... I really only had the time to type my last two posts while on the cruise.

I'm incredibly happy with being home though. Brian and I spent around 19 hours in airports. The traveling part kind of sucks... But once you get to your destination, vacation is pretty awesome...

Anyway, the cruise was phenomenal. We got to see some awesome things.

We cruised through / to:
The BC coastline
Juneau, Alaska
Skagway, Alaska
Glacier Bay
Ketchikan, Alaska

The food was fantastic. I didn't know that food could taste so good. The food on the Lido Deck was amazing... And somehow the food on the Rotterdam Dining Hall was even better. My favorite was the lasagna.

While on the cruise we didn't get to see any bears or punch any in the face... (previous blog.) No moose, either.

We did however see whales, Orcas, Bald Eagles, and the noses of Sea Lions skimming the water. The one time Brian and I left the camera in our room we saw a baby whale playing with its mother... And it jumped out of the water...

The ship was gigantic... It had several large areas to eat, two pools, two tennis courts, a large auditorium, a movie theater, a large jewelry store, a casino, an art gallery, a library, an extensive dvd collection, and more.

Now I'll be posting some pictures...


This is the Marjorie Glacier in the Glacier Bay. Want to learn about about Glacier Bay? Click Here.


This is a picture I took of the ship while we were docked in Skagway.


Brian and I. I bought that hat in Skagway. If you ever go on an AK cruise, bring at least one hat. It was so windy at times that this was the only way to keep my hair down and out of my face.


Beautiful water.


Mirror fun!


There were a lot of refective surfaces on the ship.


Kisses.


I love this shot.


Brian and I in Skagway.


Haha.


My Dad is a huge railroad/locomotive buff. And naturally, I am too being raised by him. Most of the train pictures I took were for him because I knew he'd be elated. And he really enjoyed viewing them. As soon as he saw this one he said, "Oooo! Narrow gauge!" I know what it means, but if you don't click here. Which means, my Dad has got a pretty good eye.


Judging by the stamp, I'm going to say this track was put down in 1970.


Me next to a train.


Towel animals! There was actually a book to buy where you could learn to make them.


This is me... I think we were cruising to the Glacier Bay area. It was particularly windy that day...



This is what we could get of the whales picture-wise. It'll have to do I s'pose.


I never felt so small. Being next to the giant mountains and glaciers was surreal.


There were two Orcas swimming together when we were exiting the Glacier Bay area. We learned that they are in the dolphin family even though they are nicknamed as a Killer Whale. For more info on them, click here.



This is a sea lion nose skimming the surface of the water. Sadly this is all we saw of them. The ship cruised by a nursery that housed several mother sea lions and their many pups... But it was a protected area until the pups are older so we couldn't approach it.


There's a bald eagle perched on the square shaped structure by that little dock... It looks like a little speck. I'll have to attach an enlarged version later on...


This is me standing by a wooden man and his gun in front of a Tongass store in Ketchikan.


Brian and I chilling in our room. Notice how relaxed we are... No stress. And yes, he's wearing a Godzilla shirt.


Me picking a monkey towel's boogies. This little guy was so cute. He had so much detail.

I'm going to have to go ahead and rescind my previous blog statement where I mentioned that I wasn't too impressed with Vancouver. After the cruise Brian and I went on a 3.5 hour tour of Vancouver. It's actually quite lush and beautiful. They have acres upon acres of amazing gardens for the public. We went to Stanley Park there. To get an idea of how big it is, click here, to see the aerial view.


This is a picture of a few of the totem poles in Stanley Park. The one of the left is the more traditional looking totem pole.


Me eating "World Famous" ice cream and gazing up at the huge red cedar I was standing next to. (It was the best ice cream I'd ever had.)


We had a beautiful hotel room on the 22nd floor. It was a corner room, too. So we got an amazing view of Vancouver.


This was part of our view. That beautiful tall brick building just behind, to the right, of the bronze colored building is what they refer to as the Daily Planet building on the show Smallville. Just a fun fact. ;)

I'm kind of blogged out. I hope you enjoyed my pictures.

July 10, 2009

July 10, 2009

I am currently sitting with Brian on our veranda suite deck. We have docked in Juneau, Alaska. The temperature is about 70 degrees. It's all ocean, houses, trees and mountains from what I can see. Brian and I woke up this morning at around 5:00 a.m. We meant to get up at about 6:00 a.m. this morning, but forgot about the Alaska time change. The captain had made an announcement earlier yesterday that at around 6:00-6:30 in the morning we would be by a popular whale sighting area. Brian and I woke up to an amazing sun that had risen shortly before us. The nights are very short here. The sun sets a little after 9:00 p.m. Then it rises at about 4:30 a.m. We kept our eyes out for whales as much as we could. And even the ship was playing some kind of noise that Brian and I think would attract the whales. For over an hour we kept watch. Eventually we heard people making noises of excitement... And we were a little too late. The only picture we could get is of a whale tail just above the surface of the water. Still not used to the time change, Brian and I actually headed back to bed. We awoke shortly before 10:00 a.m. and made it to a lounge like area (close to the size of an auditorium) for a presentation on Alaskan wildlife. It was quite interesting learning about bears. We learned that if we get attacked by a black bear, that we should try to punch it right in the face. And if we get attacked by a grizzly bear that we should play dead. The woman giving the presentation was telling us about a woman that had gotten attacked last year by a grizzly bear. She had played dead and when the bear no longer seemed interested in her, she got up to run, only to have the bear attack her again. The woman then went on to another animal. Curiously I voiced out, “Did she die?” Which made Brian laugh. I would like to assume that the woman didn't die, but... we'll never know, I reckon.

After the presentation we went out to lunch on the Lido deck. The food is good everywhere here, no matter what deck you're on. And the dessert... Outstanding as well.

After our lunch, Brian and I came back to our room. My phone beeped. I had a voicemail from my Dad. (He was telling us to watch out for polar bears – which in the areas of Alaska we'll be traveling will NOT have any polar bears...) Apparently he had left me the voicemail almost 24 hours prior. Since we were at sea the whole day yesterday, I couldn't make a call or send a text message, even though I had a good amount of bars to do so. So, I made a call home and talked with my Mom... Then my Dad... then my brother, Robert...

After our calls, the ship was docked, so we ventured some tourist hot spots in Juneau. It is gorgeous. There are mountains all over. I bought a necklace with silver flakes in it for myself. And then I bought these two tubes with real 24k Alaskan gold in it for my brothers as gifts. I'm sure they will like them.

We went to dinner at the Rotterdam Dining Hall. Everything is elegant there. I had a seafood platter and then ribs for dinner. It was fabulous. Brian had another form of salmon. He's been eating it as often as he can. Brian and I went back to our room after dinner to find towels in the shape a dog (?) on our bed.

July 9, 2009

I've been typing in a word document when I have time on our cruise... Sorry for the errors.

July 9, 2009

Well, we departed on July 7th from Grand Rapids airport. Robert dropped us off. Surprisingly I wasn't nervous at all even though I had never been on a moving plane before. I think I pretty much used most of my nerves for the wedding. I didn't even take a Xanax.

Our first flight was on a small 18 passenger plane. We flew to Toronto. It was my first flight. It was fine lifting off. The only thing that was uncomfortable was that my butt was under constant vibration because I was seated near the engine. We got to Toronto in about an hour. The Toronto airport was very disorienting. It was pretty big.

Our second flight was from Toronto to Vancouver. That flight was around 5 hours. Brian and I were incredibly tired for this flight. The plane was nice, though. We had built-in TV screens at our seats. So, on the flight to Vancouver I watched Monsters VS. Aliens and He's Just Not That Into You. By the time we finally landed in Vancouver it was about 12:24 a.m. (3:24 a.m. Michigan time.) Brian and I had a very small amount of sleep on the flight.

For the next 11 hours we were in the Vancouver terminal. It was boring and uncomfortable. I managed a nap here and there. And I think Brian managed a 15 minute nap. Despite it being early in the morning in Vancouver, there were quite a few people. At around 5:00 a.m. their time people started showing up more. There was a group of Middle Eastern men, several donning turbans, talking so loudly that Brian and I couldn't manage a nap at all.

At around 10:30 a.m. Brian and I made it to Bay 12 where our shuttle bus would be picking us up to take us to the cruise ship. Unfortunately, Carnival was having an Alaskan cruise at the same time. So, we were mixed in with more and more people.

We drove around 40 minutes through Vancouver. The bus driver informed us during the drive that 40% of the people living in Vancouver are Asian. And you could tell. There was Asian writing on most shops and businesses. And I think I saw three different Starbucks Coffee shops on the way, too. Honestly, I wasn't too impressed with Vancouver. There was construction literally everywhere on almost every street. And the gas prices in Canada are so much more outrageous than the US. So people were walking.

We eventually got to the pier. And from there they pushed guests for BOTH cruises into the same area and didn't separate us out until the end. I felt as if we were quarantined, too. The workers pushing us every which way were not too polite. After about an hour, we finally got through and were free to go to our ship.

At this point, Brian and I had been up for just over 30 hours. We were tired and didn't feel like dealing with anyone. They served us a meal on the Lido deck as soon as we arrived. Then informed us that our stateroom would not be ready for about two more hours. So, Brian and I were pretty restless. That was what we wanted most so we could sleep. We hung around near the elevators on the Lido deck and walked a little before our room was ready. We sat down and slept almost the whole time before we had to do the emergency practice drill; complete with life vests.

After the emergency drill we went back to our room and slept for a little bit longer. Then we managed showers. Since I recently had gotten my hair cut and it no longer takes an hour or more to straighten it, I decided for the dinner that I would wear my hair straight. Since I don't personally own one (because my hair was so long and it was time consuming) I decided that I would use the hair dryer that was available in our stateroom. After about 15 seconds in use, sparks flew out and then three pieces of searing hot metal spring fell out onto the floor. So, I decided not to use that again... I managed to get ready. Dinner in the main dining room was casual dress, so we went there. It was a gorgeous room. Complete with chandeliers and a big portion of the ceiling had lights twinkling so close to the roof that it looked like stars. Our waiter, his name sounded like “Whit Whit,” was awesome. And the food was fantastic.

After dinner, Brian and I came back to our room and managed to see a portion of the sun setting. It was pink and purple hues.

This morning we woke up and decided that we would explore some of the ship. We woke up at around 8:00 a.m. (their time) and went to the Lido deck for breakfast. I had some froot loops and some fruit and Brian had some smoked salmon with cream cheese and capers on a dry bread. We couldn't find a table to ourselves for breakfast so we were seated next to an older couple. Brian told me that when I got up to leave to get fruit that the older woman was going on and on to her husband about how disgusting smoked salmon was.

We managed to get online briefly here later on in the day in the Explorer's Lounge. The internet wasn't entirely that fast and I think it took me about 8 tries refreshing the page to get my facebook to load. And it took me about three times to just update my status. We were online for mere minutes and it cost us around $12.00.

Still feeling tired from traveling, we slept for a good portion of the afternoon. Since we have a veranda suite, we get movie rentals for free. (Currently we have Bolt playing.) So, we've rented a couple of discs here and there and just had them playing. We are loving the peace and quiet here in our room. We figure we have a whole week to explore the ship more and more.

We've taken mostly pictures inside the ship today. As we're traveling more north and the temperature is a little warmer in the morning it has caused a lot of fog. Almost to the point where we can barely see 10 feet out in any direction.

After our dinner tonight we got back to our room and there was towel in the shape of a sting ray (complete with computer print out eyes – which I have saved and put on my phone for laughs) on our bed. Next to it were a couple pieces of chocolate.