You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July, 2008.
A snippet of conversation between myself and my husband while waiting to see The Dark Knight at the Imax last night….
Me: “What is that guy doing?? Ohh…. he must be delivering their pizza. Did you know that now you can order a pizza at the snack bar and they will bring it to you before the movie starts?”
DH: “Cool”
M: “Kinda reminds me of that place in Austin.. only they had tables..and a full menu. What was that place called?”
D: “Kinda like that place here in Knoxville… over at Bearden”
M: “Yeah… what was that place called… something Cinema… ohh… crap.. what was it called?”
D: “I don’t know”
M: “Something like dinner cinema or … or was the title food related?”
D: “Food Cinema? …. Cinema Eats?”
M: “No. Stop… You know if you hadn’t said anything I would have……”
D: “Escargot?”
M: blank stare
Our photographers have our Trash the Dress pictures up on their blog. I can’t wait to get the CD so I can share our favorites with you. Until then…..
Enjoy!
When you go to the beach, lake, or pool, are you more likely to lower yourself gradually into cold water or to take a determined plunge and get it over with? I’m a gradual girl. I like to know what I’m getting into before I find myself in the deep end.
How is this like (or unlike) your approach to other tasks or ordeals? I guess it’s similar to how I approach tasks. Slowly and cautiously. I do alot of research before I make big decisions and/or purchases, etc. I’m not a big fan of surprises, so I feel being over-educated is a much more secure position than to be “flying by the seat of your pants” or “winging it”. This is probably why I can’t cook without a recipe.
When someone gives you flowers, are you more likely to let them turn completely brown and gross before throwing them out, or to discard them the moment they take on that sick-flower look? Oh I keep those things until they are so dried and brittle a stiff breeze would turn them into dust. As a matter of fact, I still have several flowers that the Engineer gave me when we first started dating and 1/2 of my wedding bouquet is dried, sitting in a vase, in my bedroom (it’s the only place where I can keep the cats from eating it) .
How is this like (or unlike) your approach to other gifts, purchases, or relationships? I do keep alot of stuff for a long time (sometimes much longer than the typical ‘use by’ date). I’m not one for throwing good/useful things away. This goes for gifts as well as relationships. It’s hard to create of life of good things, so I feel that if you are blessed enough to be gifted/receive good things, you should do everything you can to keep them safe.
Think of your favorite movie (or a movie you really like, if you can’t think of a favorite). Some people say that the reasons you love your favorite movie are related to what you value in romantic relationships. How is this true or untrue in your case? Wow… I guess it’s pretty true. I’m a sucker for a good romantic comedy (and really regular comedies too! I’d see a comedy over any other movie any day). Humor was/is in the top 2 of my ‘must haves’ from any relationship, espeically a romantic one. One of the many great qualities in my relationship with the Engineer is how much we laugh. We laugh often and alot and most of the time over the some of the oddest things. Without humor, romance is empty. Viva la haha!
So big announcement.
I GOT A NEW CAR!!
2007 Merlot Nissan Murano
Well.. kinda new. It’s a 2007 Nissan Murano with very few miles (ie less than 15K). The Engineer and I have been discussing getting a new car since my car was pretty much paid off and I had a hankering for something else (read: bigger, taller, and more ‘me’). After months and months of research, begging and pleading with the husband, and seeing three people in my office get new cars (no… I’m not coveting…), I finally started ‘looking’ online. We didn’t think we’d really be in the ‘market’ until around Christmas, but we wanted to make sure we were in touch with current market’s prices. What I wasn’t expecting was to find not only a car that we could both agree on, but one with all the possible bells and whistles that a girl could want!
So, I found the perfect car in Alabama, and due to some work issues, my oh-so-perfect husband drove, ALONE, 4 hours each way to trade in the Sonata for the Murano.
I’m so EXCITED! We’ll be breaking it in this weekend on our road trip to my class reunion.
Watch out world.. I’ve got heated leather and a sunroof and I’m not afraid to use them!
Now I’m off to call the window tinting guy….
Ok.. maybe not just yet.. but potentially coming tomorrow. Don’t want to jinx it!
w00t!
Me + Today = PISSED OFF
I’d love to go into further but to protect the innocent, I won’t. However, know this. You… who pissed me off. You know who you are. I’m not going to get over this. I’m not going to forgive or forget. I will make sure that from this point forward, you KNOW that I don’t like you and that I’ll do everything in my power to make you look like the dumbass that you really are. No more kid gloves, no more defending you. Nope.. not me, no more. You’re on your own. And when you fail (because you will.. you will fail miserably), I will be standing there over you like a bad dream, gloating.
In closing, you can go to hell douchebag, and take your hand basket with you.
Best wishes (and don’t forget the sunscreen.. it’s hot in hell)
S
Ok.. after weeks and weeks, I’m finally getting around to writing about Day 4 our our Honeymoon.
Che Chem Ha is a Mayan cave that is set into the side of a mountain in Belize. It’s located in the Mayan Mountain region of Belize, about 30 minutes from San Ignacio. The cave was thought of by the Mayans as the path to the Mayan underworld. The Mayans would offer grain, animals and sometimes people to the “Gods of the Underworld” in hopes of rains, fertility, and/or lush pastures. Because of this, the cave has many artifacts (pottery/drawings) that are 1000s of years old. Susan Hoffman wrote a great review of her trip here. Also, if you’re a fan of the History Channel, they have a show called “Cities of the Underworld“. One of their episodes is the Maya Underworld and they actually go to Che Chem Ha. Our guide was the guide who was on the show. Pretty cool huh!!??
I want prefaces the rest of this post by saying that like Tikal, Che Chem Ha was not one of our ‘must see’ places while we were on our honeymoon. Unlike Tikal (which we knew we’d be attending before we left the U.S), we had no idea we were even going to go to Che Chem Ha until the day before the trip. We really thought we were going to another Mayan ruin site, Xuanantunich. So, this trip was quite literally, not what I signed up for.
With that said, you all know from the Tikal post (you did read the Tikal post.. right!?!?!?) that I’m not fan of hiking. I’m also not in the best shape (‘chicken or the egg’ issue here). So the morning we were to set off to Che Chem Ha, I had some doubts. At breakfast, our resort host mentions that it’s about a 1.25 mile hike and that the best part is that it’s all downhill on the way back (this tid bit of information should have been my first clue). The guy who discovered the cave, William, will be our guide.
When we get to Che Chem Ha, it is noticeably hotter than the previous day (the day we hiked Tikal). It’s also more humid, and quite frankly, I’m tried from the 5 miles of hiking I did in Tikal and I really wasn’t looking forward to this hike. There was shade.. that was a plus. So off we go: the guide, his friend from Nepal, two people from another resort and the 6 of us staying at MRR. The hike starts in a field and is farily flat. After about maybe .25 miles, the hike starts to take on an incline. Again, remember it’s probably 96-99 degrees outside with 70+% humidity and our guide is in some kinda hurry. The incline begins to steepen (at this point, I’d say you’re at about a 6 or 7 on the treadmill), and our guide, for some crazy reason, picks up the pace!!! I’m huffing and puffing and my newly minted husband is nowhere to be seen (he was helping lead the pack… darn those long legs of his!). So at some point, I feel like my lungs are going to explode. Every breath of air is hot, and there is nothing to cool you down. Even your sweat was hot!
We stop for a moment to catch our breaths and I finally catch up with the group. I casually ask if we’re almost there when the guide says “Yes… we’ve got about .25 miles to go, but it’s the hardest part”. For the record, I’m not tall. I’m maybe 5′6″ flat footed. I have a longer torso than I have legs, so a normal step for some is a pretty big step for me. What our guide failed to tell is that the next .25 miles is the hike UP the mountain. The trail consists of nothing but 45 degree switch backs. My legs are already burning from the 1 mile uphill hike and the previous days activities, and now, you want me to climb a mountain!?!?!?!? Some of the switch backs aren’t even on the trail, so to speak. They are more like really BIG STEPS in the side of the mountain. We get started and once again, I’m so far behind the pack, I’m not sure I’m going to make it. My heart is beating at what I’m sure it just two beats short of cardiac arrest and I can’t catch my breath. I’m hot, cranky, out-of-shape, and not in a ‘caving’ mood. And my husband is nowhere to be seen. The guide instructs everyone else to go ahead and then walks with me behind the group. I keep insisting that he go on, but he’s nice and says that the “cave can wait”. By the time I get to the cave, I’m maybe 3 minutes behind everyone else. My husband, with his perfect timing says “where have you been? I thought you were behind me the whole time”. I glare at him (inside the words *$&#$@ are begging to come out).
“I’m done hiking”, I say to my husband. “I hate hiking, it’s hot, I can’t catch my breath, I’m tired of wearing shoes that require socks (this one day will be it’s own blog), my water is still frozen, and I don’t even want to go in this cave. I’m done… do you hear me….DONE”. (the last part was said in more of a seething manner, through my teeth).
He laughs (can you believe that!!! HE LAUGHS) and reminds me that this is the last day of hiking before we head to the island/beach. GRRRRR!
Now, if you are in shape, love to hike, love caves, can stand the heat and humidity, or any combination of the previous mentioned, Che Chem Ha is for you. The cave is a dry cave (no water runs through it anymore) but it’s very muddy. It’s also not very cool (only about 10-15 degrees cooler but with about 98-99% humidity). So that put the cave around 78-80 degrees that day. Once we got to the cave, it was very interesting. There where, as William said, 9 levels of Mayan ‘Hell” to explore. Some levels ran into others (with narrow passage ways between them) and others required step ladders to reach. We explored all 9 of them.
This is William, with his dogs Oso and Shakira, at the cave entrance.
This is the cave entrance from inside the cave.
We ran into some old friends again:
CAVE SPIDERS! Really people.. they were harmless.
I personally don’t really care much for the whole ‘pottery in a cave’ thing. I’m more interested in the architecture and art, which is why I preferred the Tikal trip to the Che Chem Ha trip. However, it seems like everyone else on the trip though this was one of the coolest things ever. Yes, there was a ton of pottery laying about. William and those who assisted in the preservation of the cave have done a marvelous job keeping everything in tact.
There were lots of partial pots all over the floor of the cave
This is me standing on a ladder (made of rebar.. all of the ladders were made of rebar, which is almost impossible to climb with muddy shoes) taking pictures of whole pots sitting on a ledge. That was the last voluntary ladder I climb (there were several we HAD to climb. The whole muddy shoes/wobbly ladder bit was too scary for me)
Whole pots. Very cool!
More whole pots
Painted pottery. I think it’s a bird if I remember correctly.
Once we got to the bottom of the cave we spent some time talking about what the Mayans might have done there (human/animal sacrifices, etc) and how the dark effected the Mayans and why they treated caves as passages to hell. We even spent some time with out headlamps off, in the complete dark, just listening and thinking of what it must have been like to have no modern technology (aka flashlight) and to have to climb down into this cave. It must have been effin scary! Afterward, it was time to climb back out of the cave and head back to the resort. Total trip took maybe 4 hours.
All in all, it was a good trip. Was it the best?? I don’t think so, but then again, I’m a big baby when it comes to exerting too much energy. I’d say that the cave itself is great, but the hike up there is a pain in the *&!. It ranks as SUPER STRENUOUS on my energy exertion meter. Be prepared to get dirty since there is no way to avoid the mud in the cave (the husband and I were filthy). If you go in May, be prepared for the heat!
I’m glad we went, but man… I was glad to pack those hiking shoes in the bottom of my suitcase!
Up Next: San Pedro Part 1and maybe some wedding pictures!
Ahhh.. Friday.
Yesterday we met up with our Photographers to participate in a Trash-the-Dress session. For those of you who don’t know what that is, see my previous post. We were originally suppose to take our pictures in/around the fountains and pools at The World’s Fair Park; however, when we arrived (5 minutes late.. as usual) there were a million (ok… maybe a couple hundred) kids there to participate in some church event. There were moon bounces and cotton candy stands all set up. It was a little too much distraction (and crowd) than what we had anticipated. So I recommend we head to the fountains at Volunteer Landing (a river walk on the south side of downtown that boarders the TN river). I had done some sorority stuff there and knew about the fountains and thought it would be a better, more secluded place (read: less risk of getting caught breaking the rules). Well.. it worked out marvelously. We had a fantastically fun time (really.. I knew it was going to be fun, but who knew it was going to be THAT fun!?!?!?) and now we wait… again…. for pictures.
So as soon as our lovely photographers get us those pictures, I’ll be blogging about the whole session (including the wonderful, yet unexpected crowd that we ended up drawing… opps!)
Now… Friday 5’s Enjoy!
What was the last meal that caused you to be ill? Oh.. crab cakes from a restaurant in the Rocky Hill area. I think it was the homemade caper tartar sauce that did it but ewwww. I still won’t eat crab cakes, tartar sauce, chocolate cake (the last thing I ate, which was the first thing that came up) or at that restaurant.
Are there any places you never dine anymore because of a bad experience hours after the meal? Just that restaurant previously mentioned above, which sucks because the Engineer really loves to eat there.
What’s your prescription for dealing with a food-caused illness? Lots of water (dry heaves are worse than actually throwing up), bed rest, and lots of trashy TV (reality TV usually works well). Oh, and the usual chicken soup and crackers.
When friends tell you about coming down with food-caused illnesses, do you avoid the places they name, or do you figure it’s a dice-roll wherever you go? Usually it depends on our history with that restaurant. If we’ve had some iffy experience and someone we know gets ill, we usually will avoid the place for a while. If we’ve never had anything but a stellar experience, we’ll usually go back.
After numerous citations, a very, very popular restaurant that you’re quite fond of is shut down by the health department until it can get everything up to code. When the health department gives the restaurant the o.k. to reopen, do you go? Again, it depends. We’d probably try it out again without high expectations, hoping that it measures up to the previous experiences we had. However, we will base everything on that one visit, so if they aren’t up to our standards right after they open, it’s highly likely we’d never return.
So lately my Friday 5’s have been a little late. This last week, I was traveling on business and got stuck, on an airplane for 3 hours, in the mother of all storms in Chicago. I don’t have much luck flying into Chicago O’Hare so the incident didn’t surprise me (I absolutely HATE that airport), but I didn’t get home until around 1:30 am on Friday. Getting through work Friday was interesting (lots of coffee involved).
This past weekend I managed to exorcise 80% of the dust out of our house. For the record, blinds that have not been dusted since the day you moved into the house are NASTY. The two cats don’t help. However, after alot of plugging and chugging the Engineer and I got the house in some order. The office still needs a good top-to-bottom cleaning, as does the guest room, but everything else (including the Master bedroom and bath!) is sparkling clean. I heart my clean house, but man… cleaning it is a pain in the butt! If only we could afford to hire a house cleaner (note to self, find house cleaner who will accept payment in Cheetos and Diet Mountain Dew).
Some fun news: Our “Trash-the-Dress” session is Thursday. I have no idea when we’ll get pictures back but as soon as I do… w00t (read: I’ll post some).
And Finally: Last weeks Friday 5’s
Enjoy
What are some recurring dreams you’ve had? Even after being out of school for over a year, I have the dream that I went to the first day of a class (or often, never to the first day) and then I don’t go back to the class. After about 1/2 a semester, I decide I really need to go to the class again, only to find out I have no clue what’s going on (usually the class is some Bio- or Organic Chemistry class), I don’t know where the classroom is located, or I’ve missed an assignment or test and I’m in jeopardy of failing the class. Then I proceed to stress out over what I’m going to do to fix this. This usually involves some kind of music montage of me running around campus trying to drop the class or get professors to let me make up the work.
– Somehow I think this stems from skipping too much class in college, but for the record, this never happened to me in real life. Everyone knows music montages are done during the editing process.
What is the significance of dreams in telling you about yourself? I agree with J-Art on this one. I think your dreams are just a jumble of daily activities/thoughts/conversations/etc. that your brain is trying to process and ‘file’, so it really doesn’t mean too much. I do think that if you have things really weighing on your mind, that they pop up in your dreams. IE: When I watch scary things on TV before I go to bed, I have a tendency to have scary dreams. I’ve had to stop watching 48hr Mysteries because of this.
How do you feel after you’ve had one of THOSE dreams? A little silly, sometimes tired, but usually confused as to how the other main character ended up being the object of my affection (the other main character is usually someone off-the-wall, unusual, or inappropriate).
What was the last dream you remember? Again.. I have to stop watching TV drama before bed. I had a dream about some guy moving into the neighbor’s house (he had to kill the neighbor to ’steal’ the house). Then, he would kill anyone who found out he was in the neighbor’s house, but in unusual ways (ie with a bow and arrow or a plastic fork). Then he stole my car, and I caught him and he was hunting me down (possibly to run me over and kill me with my own car).
* I know.. really!! I have an over-active imagination *
When did you last dream about something that later happened as you dreamt it? Oddly enough, I get these dreams from time to time. It’s more like deja vu, and it’s never anything big or dramatic. It’s usually when I find myself in traffic or in conversation and then it’s like “ohhhh weird. I have totally seen this before”. That’s typically when I connect the dots. But I’ve never woken up from a dream and thought “That’s going to happen”. I wish I’d dream about the lotto numbers. =)
You know work is busy when I don’t get alot of time to post during the week. I wasn’t around my laptop this weekend so you’re getting Friday on Monday.
I hope to get back on track soon. Thank You notes and household chores have been cutting into my blogging time. I’m going to have to find a way to remedy that.
Enjoy
If a traveling food show were to visit your neighborhood, what are some unique, regional foods it would spotlight, and where would it go to get them? That’s tough. Kville isnt’ really known for anything unique really. We do have a few great BBQ places and when in town most people head over to Calhoun’s.
On an American cable show, a celebrity chef surprises people by challenging them to a contest featuring their own specialties (he usually loses). If he challenged you to your specialty, what dish would you prepare? If he challenged someone you know, what would that dish be, and how might the competition turn out? I really don’t cook anything special. I think we’d have to have a mixed drink ‘cook off’, where I would prepare one of my many fruity beverages. If he challenged someone else, I would think it would be Tracey from work and her fabulous pies. She’d totally win.
What are your feelings about cooking shows on television? Some I like, some I hate. While the topic is a factor in my taste, the host makes all the difference (yeah to Alton Brown, boo to Rachel Ray).
What kitchen gadgets have you purchased because you saw someone using them on television? I don’t usually purchase “As seen on TV” items, but my mother does and I usually get some of what she buys. Lately it’s been the “Debbie Meyer’s Green Bags“. I think they’re OK but my mother swears by them.
You get to (or have to, depending on how you feel about it) host your own food show on television. What will it be called and what’s it about? It would be called “Sweet Tooth” and it would be like a Cooking 101 for all things baking and candy making. YUM!
