Sea Life Park

Hey all!

Things are going over here. Just going. Getting out of my job at the end of the month for two reasons. One, they treat everyone terribly, and two I'm starting an internship in January. John will be home in a day or two for the holidays and a couple months after that. They're home for a good chunk and then deploy in a little bit so after the good chunk there will be a few small underways and then they're gone for a super long time. Christmas is soon and he will be home. Woohoo.

So I don't think I never mentioned my internship. I applied to it and didn't bring it up because it's awesome and if I didn't get it, I'd get lots of questions and blah blah blah. That's never fun. Well I found out about it a few days before the wedding and I'm excited.

I applied to an internship with Sea Life Park and I got Hawaiian Experience.

"Hawaiian Experience

Interns in the Hawaiian Experience get to assist with husbandry, training, and shows involving our dolphins, sea lions, and penguins. Interns may also assist with basic husbandry of our Monk Seals and help trainers during our sea lion interactive program. If you are interested in shows and have a love for sea lions this is the internship for you!"

This is part of a letter I got

"Most of you have been selected for an marine mammal training internship. You will be
divided into three areas in the park that work with different kinds of animals. The picture to
your right is in the area the Hawaiian or HOT interns will be in. You may also notice the
strange creature to the left of the page; this is Kekaimalu, the wholphin. You’ll all
get to learn a fair bit about her! She is located in the Cove area, as are the penguins
you see above. Not to worry Aloha interns, I didn’t forget about you! You will be
seeing lots of dolphins like the ones pictured Below. All of the interns will get the
chance to meet some type of animal so Education, Reef, Vet Tech interns don’t be
too worried. Below you will see a photo of the turtle lagoon, this is just one of many
photographic opportunities you will have here at Sea Life Park. Reef Life Interns will
get to work with our beautiful turtles, or Honu, stingrays, sharks, and fish.

Speaking of fish, be prepared to spend plenty of time with some of the most
important fish in the park, the food! We have specialized diets for our animals and
preparing their diet is just one of the necessary components to becoming a trainer
or husbandry personnel at a marine animal park. You will get hands on experience
learning about diet, and preparing the fish for the animals in the park. You will be in
fish prep for a decent amount of the week, but not to worry you will still get to see
those amazing mammals or turtles every week too! If you have an issue with
smelling fishy, you may want to rethink this internship, because there’s no way
around it…. Fish prep is essential! "

And now you most part of what I know! What fun! I have orientation on January 4th and 5th and get to learn more and also see some of the shows. 

It's full time from Jan to May so no time for a job that I now hate. It'll definitely be keeping me busy!

Yay Sea lions and Penguins and Seals and Dolphins, oh my!

PUG

So I need to gush a little.
I've officially found a store that is absolutely amazing. Unfortunately it's a tad pricey,  but with sales and an extra pay check it's been doable. It's PinUpGirlClothing.com.  I wish it had a shorter, easier name, but that's the store. They have amazing dresses and they all fit so well! The bags are glorious, the shoes are fantastic, and the owners/designers are super super nice.

Proof:

Isn't it gorgeous!? This is my absolute favorite so far! The cherry swimsuit in the honeymoon pics is also from the site. Everything is so awesome. It's so hard to choose.

Oh! They also sell gift certificates (under gift cards on the main page)... so for anybody that ever buys me a gift for any reason a gift card from PUG would be extremely acceptable.

Hmmm...
Since my hinting is pretty obvious (not necessarily for Christmas since it's already December but who knows)
As of now measurements = 41, 33, 43 which translates to a Large in the stretch or XL in non stretch. Under each individual outfit there's a sizing tab. Stretch bengaline is perfect in L but other things like the Eva or Bad Girl should be my largest size and therefore probably XL haha! The tops are adorable too, and the jackets. The only things I'm not too keen on are the t-shirts and the bedding. I'm not big into skulls or leopard haha!

Love you!

Article on the cruise

USS Cheyenne Hosts Dependants Cruise
By MC2 Ronald Gutridge,
COMSUBPAC Public Affairs

Release Date: 11/19/2010

PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii – Friends and family boarded the Los Angeles-class submarine USS Cheyenne (SSN 773) for a trip from Pearl Harbor to Maui, Nov. 19. 

 There was an article written about the cruise.

Hot Curlers

On a completely unrelated to traveling note, I bought my own set of hot curlers and I'm very excited.

Lets see, I bought these:

Dependents' Cruise

This Friday I went on a Dependent's Cruise, which is also called Family or Tiger Cruise. Supposedly. I could be wrong, but I heard all three so I'm gonna go with it.

It's basically where a certain number of dependents can sign up to ride the submarine for a bit. I think we had a limit of 24, but I'm sure it varies every time. Basically family members can ride along, usually wives but there were a few kids and maybe one dad with us. This sort of thing doesn't happen very often, for example the Engineer's (a LCDR) wife never had the opportunity to do it and they've been in a good long time. The Cheyenne did it maybe 5 years ago, if I heard correctly. It was neat.

We left around 8, I think. Let's go with 8. We left at 8. Michelle, Nick (Michelle's son), Ruby, and I were set up with harnesses to stand on the bridge while we took off. The bridge is the spot on top the sail where the Captain and a few others stand when they leave and arrive places. It was very cool. Everyone got to go up there once to see what it was like. I took a ton of pictures, as you can see on Picasa.

When I got down I was given a packet. It had a little welcome book, photo of the cheyenne, a decal, and a paper of things I had to do. I had to check off certain things that I did or saw in order to become an honorary submariner. It was a cute way to be able to check off different things we were allowed to learn about the boat. I also got to crawl inside a torpedo tube. That wasn't on the list...but it was fun!

 





















We spent the day on the boat, and were served lunch in the Wardroom as well. The food is delicious! Let's see. In addition to tours and certain activities (like learning out to flush their toilet and getting into the rack) the boat showed off a few shenanigans, too. Mainly a lot of us stood in the Control room when we went under and also the boat did different angles, fwd, back and side to side to show us what it felt like. It's so weird to stand crooked. I have pictures to try to portray it. The screen is covered because of the info that was on it.

My favorite part of the boat was the sonar room. I really liked hearing the recordings of what different types of whales, dolphins, and even shrimp sound like! Shrimp are just crackles, but it was cool. I heard the water grubbling when we went under, too. I was definitely fascinated by all the sounds.

At the end of the day we climbed off the Sub onto a rafty boat to stay in Maui for the night. I didn't rent a car so John and I hung out in Lahaina for a day. Thankfully he was allowed off the boat, but only until 2 the next day. It was nice to see him for a little bit even if we did sleep in until 11 and only have a few hours together. After he left I wandered around the little town by myself and did a little Christmas shopping. I got at least one person finished! Well one more, I already had a few done before the whole trip.

 \




P.S.
In Maui I got to see the Banyon tree thats the size of an entire block! It looks like multiple trees, but it's all connected. It's so very cool

Honeymoon and other things

Well it's been almost exactly 2 months since I've last posted something. The wedding definitely made my life go all out of whack. Well the wedding and the new job and being gone for a few weeks. It's been rough getting back on track. When I think I'm almost there something comes up and I miss my activities again. I have yet to go to a full week of kick boxing. I missed Tuesday for a work meeting, then the following Tuesday I had to get new suspension on the front of my car, and today, Tuesday, I'm sitting around waiting on the Appliance guy to look at the washer/dryer because it leaks. Thankfully the latter is getting billed to my landlord.

I suppose we should catch up. Work is alright. I'm finally on part-time hours so I get four days to do everything else I need to do. I don't really have much to say about it. Work is work.

The wedding went smoothly. The majority of you were there and/or have already seen the pictures on facebook. The weather for it was great. I'm glad because we really wanted to have the cocktail hour and pictures outside.

Ok there's not much to say on that, too. You were there. It's done, it went smoothly, and I'm now married. Woot!

The Honeymoon was fantastic

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We went on a 4 night Disney Cruise to Nassau, Bahamas and Castaway Cay. The cruise was amazing. I catch myself missing it nearly every day. They definitely pamper you. Nearly everything is included and everyone is so incredibly friendly. The atmosphere is amazing. It really was relaxing and a lot of fun. We got pictures with Belle and Donald Duck. Turns out Donald Duck is John's favorite and it was one of the cuter photos. We didn't spend too much time ON Nassau because we signed up to scuba dive during our visit and it was fantastic. The water was so warm. Supposedly the bottom temperature was 85 degrees so we went in without wetsuits and didn't even notice.

The next day we went to Castaway Cay, which is a Disney owned island. My calves were so sore from a little gym time and then diving afterwards that I had trouble walking! Thankfully we had plans for swedish massages at their open air cabanas. That was absolutely marvelous. It was just what we needed. After the massage we went on the stingray adventure where you are given the chance to feed them and then swim around with a large amount of them. It was so funny! The one got my finger, but you can barely tell. It was nothing compared to when little miss decides to attack me and that's not a big deal either.

I would definitely recommend that, if given the option, you go on a Disney Cruise. It was wonderful.

Universal wasn't so great. I mainly blame the hotel. We decided that since it was a honeymoon we could pay the price to stay at one of the resorts. It seemed like a really good idea. It was walking distance, had a boat shuttle, the key was an included fast pass, you can get packages sent back to your room, and you could pay for things with your key. All of that seemed like fun perks and kept you from having to carry extra stuff throughout the day. All you needed was your key, right? Well I wouldn't recommend ANYONE stay at the hotels. For the $$$$ price, you don't get many things included. They nickle and dime you for food. It doesn't even have a complimentary breakfast! So on top of paying more than a Best Western, you're paying for food that BW would have given you for free.

We should have just stayed at an outside hotel. Most hotels have shuttles to the park. They take a little longer,  but aren't problematic. With the extra money saved from the "resort" we could have BOUGHT the fast passes and probably still had money left over. We wouldn't have had to pay for breakfast. Many of the stores had an option to pick up packages at the gate in the front AND with the resort, we could only send the packages back on the first day because they didn't get delivered until the next day anyway so the park pickup is actually more convenient. Being able to charge things to the room key and thus not carry other cards was useless because it was a $100 limit. On the first day we were forced to pay for our FOURTY DOLLAR BREAKFAST (that's a whole different frustrating story involving annoying waiters and bad communication on their part) with our hotel key because the credit card machine wasn't working and we didn't want to carry a lot of cash at the park. That left us with $60 for merchandise and food for the whole day meaning we had to carry to other cards anyway. $60 may get you through most days, but John intended on buying something at Jurassic Park and I intended on buying things at Harry Potter World which we were going to that day.

It was very frustrating. The whole time we had to watch what we did at the hotel or buy at the park because on day two we had to carry what we got with us. That would have been more of a hassle, but we didn't want much at the second park anyway so it was ok.

I did spend a lot of time missing the Disney Cruise though because as soon as we got off the boat we were in the land of mean people. Those Mears shuttle people (how we got to our hotel and back) are VERY cranky. OH that's another thing! I looked and looked online for something about shuttles and Leows never mentioned it so I booked through Mears. Turns out they do have shuttles, they just don't bother telling you until you get there.

The actual park of Universal was fun. The Harry Potter world is rather small. All the stores are so tiny you have to wait in line just to get in and then you're crammed in. The line to the Hogwarts ride had no fast pass so it was an hour wait. That ride was very very awesome though so it was worth the wait. I hate the ones that have you waiting for an hour and leave you bored and disappointed.

Another neat thing, though, was that the Universal Studios park turns into a giant Halloween/Haunted Park thinger at night in October. It costs extra to go to, but decided it would be fun and it was! It opens at 730 and dear lord, the line to get in is LOOONGGG. It was terrible. John and I were both pretty cranky by then because of our hotel and John forgot the ticket for that part so we ended up having to turn around and go back. It turned out to be a very lucky mistake though because when we got back to the park with the tickets the line to get in was shorter and we came across a couple who was leaving and they gave us their fast passes. Our keys didn't work for this special event bit. Those fast passes were an absolute blessing. We were able to do so much with them and the lines were much longer than any I've seen. It might be comparable to Disney on Christmas. It was fun to do something Halloween related since we usually aren't able to nowadays. We ended up really enjoying it. A couple of the rides were still open at night, while others had their back studios turned into Haunted houses. In addition to that they had various parts of the streets turned into haunted alleys so we often walked up on zombies with chainsaws. I can see why it's so popular!

I definitely enjoyed our honeymoon, minus the Loews fiasco. I definitely wouldn't recommend staying at a resort, it really isn't work the money.

Hat

Work has me busy busy busy, but since I know a few people working with, fighting, or raising awareness of/for cancer I thought I would share this adorable hat.

A lady came into work today wearing this and it's just so cute!
Cap with detachable bow

EMI Deadline

Wedding Announcement!

Whoever is planning on staying at East Mountain Inn the night of the reception only has until September 17th to claim one of the held rooms. They are only 8/30 filled and if someone at the desk says otherwise, ask them to double check with someone else. I've already been told that someone couldn't get a room and there's no reason for it so some sort of miscommunication must have happened.


You have until September 17th!

I am employed

Well today I spent the day at work. Yes, WORK. I also spent the day at the Humane Society. Hmm... How does that work? Hah by being an annoying blogger and making it obvious.

On Monday I was offered the job of part-time Adoptions Counselor at the HI Humane Society. I went in today at 9 and stayed till 4:30 learning the ropes and shadowing. It went rather quickly. It's basically working at the desk and running all the adoption procedures, including handing tiny puppies to their new mommies! I did that twice today :-). A lot of it is paperwork and dealing with customers, which is just like my past jobs. The really nice thing is that I'm comfortable there already with both the place and people. I also like that it's not SALES and it's nonprofit. So I can help people get what they came in for, help the animals, and not have to be constantly pushed to make make make money because that's the only thing that matters. I always hated that. No matter how good you did in a retail store, you could have done better.

Hopefully I do like the job. As of now I do, but we shall see. The pay is great and while it's part-time, that's actually really good for my current situation. Makes the 2.5 weeks of wedding leave not a big deal as well as some of my gym classes. Basically it's more relaxed of a schedule so all the other things currently going on won't cause issues. And did I say the pay is great? WAAAAAY better than my most previous place of employment... Ick.

Adorable

New Things!

First off.
I bought a ring on Etsy and it came today! I'M SO EXCITED!
It's like the dolphin ring I have and love, but it's a bunny!

LOOK HOW CUTE










This is one of those things I would categorize as irresistible. I go on etsy often and either put things off a while to contemplate (majority of wedding things) or just say no and put it in favorites. Well this ring is not one of those. I started sharing the link because of it's cuteness and got very worried someone else would buy it! Normally that's ok, but not this time. This ring was just much to cute for me to now have. It was also a pretty good price, so that helped. I checked the mail every day and it came today! Yay!

As for other things..
My kitchen is starting to look rather splendid. Look at all these fun things! The canisters and spice rack are from my registry. Both are even better than I imagined. In fact, I went back onto my registry and added the spice rack again! It's so neat and they can stack! The utensil holder is something I wanted but I hadn't seen the design. I'm very happy with it. It's already proved it's worth! Lastly is my teapot. It's so pretty :-) I bought it for myself at the NEX the other day.

OH
Before I post those pics, look what I did with my old teapot after a bit broke and stopped it from doing what it was made to do!

Sweet Potato Chips

Hey there!

Apparently I've been in a new recipe mood. I found a website titled "How To Make Potato Chips in the Microwave" so I decided to try it out today. Only instead of potatos and garlic or other spices, I used sweet potatoes with a little brown sugar and cinnamon! While they aren't are crispy as one might expect, they're still might tasty! I'm not sure if I should have left them in longer or not but in the end, if the taste good that's all the matters, right?

On another note, I have eaten dragon fruit twice now. It's quite possibly the brightest food I've ever eaten! It's tasty as well, but then aren't most fruits?

Weight Watchers

I just found a wonderful site! As I'm pretty sure I've mentioned, I've joined Weight Watchers. One of the hardest parts is figuring out recipes. I know how but it's tedious and I like to figure it out before making it. It's practically impossible when you don't have serving amounts either. I've been trying, but it's tough.

However yesterday I found SkinnyTaste.com which is titled also as Gina's Weight Watcher Recipes and there are tons of types of recipes and so many look tasty! Thhttp://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7434860901764225500ey all have point values and will make life much simpler.

Today for lunch I made 8 Zucchini Pizza Bites and they were very good!

Definitely took a bite or two to adjust to the change in crust but the cheese and pizza sauce really helped my pizza craving. It says it makes 4 bites for 2 points, but zucchini is 0 pts and the sauce and cheese made around 8 (probably could get 10 out of it) with my thin organic zucchini which really helps you feel fuller. 3 pt lunch for 8 pizza bites and two slices of pineapple! How wonderful.





And yes I said Organic... I watched Food, Inc. Bad things happen when you watch that movie. I'm also having difficulty eating chicken. I can't buy from Tyson anymore. They grow chickens in two days! Those chickens grow to be exactly like the people in Wall-e and can barely stand. It was very depressing. It does, however, convince you to buy from locals and get food from companies that treat their farmers better. That's the main point of the video: to show how they treat the farmers and how it could effect you. That's the reason I watched it but in order to show the factories and how they work, they threw in chicken handling and yeah...

Oh on that note I was told to look up Oahu Fresh so I'm going to go check that out.

Try those pizza bites!

P.S. Sorry about the layout change from adorable to boring. The old one was randomly deleted so I had to change it.

Hawaii Five-0

I hope Hawaii Five-0 succeeds. I officially know that many of the people that work on it are very nice and deserve it.

A week or so ago my mom sent me a link to extra-casting.com, particularly to the one for Hawaii Five-0. I had looked into being an extra for Pirates of the Caribbean but originally they were only looking males. The most recent call I heard was for size 4-6 models with large real breasts or professional dancers with great swimming abilities. I know the latter would be for mermaids. I'm not small enough. I only just heard about that one today.

But anyways, I went ahead and sent in my skills and a head-shot. They wrote back for a full-body shot and then called me soon after I sent that in. I was to come in Wednesday and be a tourist! What fun! It did get postponed to today, Thursday, but that's fine. So yes. I am officially an extra for Hawaii Five-0. The scenes we shot were for the second episode that's supposed to air in late September, probably early October.

The casting call was at 7:30am. I definitely got very very little sleep. I got there around 7 to avoid traffic (and just because I always leave to early) and talked to a few people. I ended up making friends with the head guy of the base camp. I didn't know what he did, he was just cool haha. We kept chatting throughout the day. He sent me to the catering tent to wait for the paperwork and other extras. There was a breakfast buffet for everyone to eat. I didn't take anything for a few hours.

We did paperwork around 7:30 and ended up waiting around and chatting to one another until 9. Life as an extra is a lot of "Hurry up and wait" which is also Military life so it's no weird thing. I talked with a few of the other girls there and an older lady. Nearly everyone I met had a name I never heard before and don't remember well. Well, except Fred. haha but he comes in later.


After those few hours or so we were shuttled over to the international market to be extras. We were split up into two groups, and I was put in group A to be extras during part of the chase scene. This is when I was paired up with Fred. There's a picture of him with some guy on the Picasa site. Lol. The some guy was a fellow extra, just one I hadn't met. We were told to stand at the hot dog stand and then walk and react to the chase. Something simple. There were over 5 retakes, I think. I didn't count. It was fun.

After that we sat around while group B started a scene and we broke for lunch. Yum! This was catered as well, and it was deliciously done. Lunch was 30 minutes and then we shuttled back for group B to continue. A girl I met, Christy, and I walked around and watched during these scenes. We chatted with the Production Assistant, Daryl, who is quite nice and watched one shot from behind him. They then wrapped that shot up and moved to another and we moved, watched, and walked around. We ended up getting pulled back into the shot where they catch the guy, so that's cool. Now you have two chances to try to spot me, and I uploaded a quick pic of me in the outfit I wore to make it easier.











Daryl the PA





I'm very exhausted from the day. I'm still sore from kickboxing (something I only just started on Tuesday and still need to sign up officially for a 2nd class), had 3 or so hours of bad sleep, and stood all day. So yeah, I'm stiff haha. And my jaw started acting up and even stretched today so my head is pounding. This couch is so insanely comfortable.
















Overall I did have a lot of fun. I've grown to be a very chatty person. I think I've been influenced by certain relatives with the last name of Watkins... I made friends with the guy who runs the base camp (where all the trailors and meetings and catering tents are), chatted with a ton of different extras, chatted up the Production Assistant, told Scott Caan that his dog was beautiful, and all of this simply to be friendly haha. At the end when I had to get my paper signed Scott was in his trailor and his dog went in and I got excited. I guess he recognized me as the one who specifically told him that she was beautiful and he winked at me. Haha it was cute. A few minutes later the door opened again (I was right next to it) and both the main stars were inside. Well the doggie had her head stuck out and someone else left. The door almost slammed on her face! I caught it, lol which led to Alex O'Loughlin start talking to me so I was able to ask if she was a girl or a boy. Scott Caan just stood there shirtless. Lol, I guess he's not a chatter. I was just entranced in the dog. She had some border collie but was a mix of other things. She was black with patches of that dark grey with darker grey spots. It's really hard to describe, but it was definitely very very cool to pet the beautiful dog while a pretty attractive Aussy actor is talking to me! Haha. I would definitely say the day was a success!


I would definitely do it again. I did have a lot of fun. I have always loved working on productions so I'm not really surprised haha.

PICTURES!



















P.S. I forgot to mention this, and since I've been asked twice since I've posted this I figure I'd better!
Because of this I'm now in their system and may (probably will) be called upon to do it again. The other extras that have done this said that that's usually what happens. Fred was an extra for Lost and it's the same production company (or at least many of the same people) so he was actually called and asked to do this show. Woo hoo.

...8-9-10 Ready or not, here I come!

Today I played a game of hide and seek with The Black Pearl from Pirates of the Caribbean. It's here for the filming of Pirates of the Caribbean 4.
It was hanging out at Barbers Point since February, but I never got around to going. I thought I wouldn't be allowed to, or that it would be hard to find, so I never went. On Saturday, at a dive shop on the way to the shooting range, people were talking about how it recently moved. Therefore I decided to find it.

I got directions from Maddy who had noticed that is was now very close to where she lives. She told me it was near the Windward Mall so I that into my garmin and went on my way. Once at the mall, I stayed on Kam Hwy since it's the only road that stays along the water. Well, at least on that part of the island. It was only another 10 or so minutes before we found the pearl! I was tempted to stop at a the Friends of Heeia State Park to see if I could see if from there, but had passed the parking lot before I decided. Almost instantly the Pearl graced the horizon. It was RIGHT THERE. So we looked for parking. It's docked at a local boat docking area, but if someone parks there who isn't allowed there, they will be towed. We saw a lot of people getting towed. I turned around in the parking lot and parked along the street.

 

 The "A" is Windward Mall

The view from a little beach on the side of the road.

The closest you can get to it! I liked seeing the details.

Cannonball hole!

I usually hate skulls on clothing and skeletons in general, but these are such neat details!

 Chinaman's Hat is the little island on the far right.

Hawaiian Humane Society

Bear with me, I'm currently watching Legend of the Seeker so my distraction might make me forget what I was typing.

I was about to title this Humane Society, but this specific one is not connected to the Humane Society of the United States. I started volunteering the HHS in April. It gives me something to do with my time since I can't find a job. At least it's useful. I mainly work with the cats but recently started helping with the small animals as well. A few weeks ago I was on my way to the Cat House and noticed that all the bunnies' and guinea pigs' cages were gross. Poor things. I decided to spend the day cleaning them so they didn't have to live in filth. It was fun to play with each bunny though. They're so cute and soft!

I've been looking at their website and watching the job postings. I found one that I could actually do and went for it. It was in admissions so I volunteered there for two days to see what they did. It was a good experience. I learned more about the shelter, including where things are and how things work. I didn't realize how much I knew until someone asked me about something the other day and I knew the answer. It was exciting, haha.

I had an interview on July 1st. It was a preliminary interview that led to a second interview in front of a panel of people. This one was specifically about the position. It went well. I answered everything honestly. It's a tough job though so I ended up not getting it. Besides dealing with animals, a large workload, and sad people, you also have to deal with mean people who are upset about an animal being gone or taken away from them. There are various other situations that can involve mean people. I assume I didn't get the position because of that. While I would do well in the compassionate part, I'm not very tough.

Oh well. At least I had the shot and got the experience out of it. I asked if they would keep me in mind in case another position opened up. We shall see how that goes.

While I was volunteering yesterday I talked with the Volunteer Coordinator. She asked if I would be interested in becoming a mentor. This is basically an elevated volunteer position, so no money is involved. I can't seem to find anything that actually pays me. Either way, it seems like a good thing. I'll check out a meeting about what they do, etc. It'll be good on a resume, if anything. It also might help me move up to get a paid position there eventually. I would be helping new volunteers learn what they need to do and be there if they have questions. It's a small leadership role. It could be fun. I like working there afterall.

Well, that's what's been going on. I have had a few job interviews but that's the only time it got somewhere or was a hopeful job. One of them expected ridiculous things. It was a front desk job and basically told me that while I'll probably only be schedule 8 hrs a week they don't want me to have another job because they want me to be available to come in whenever they ask. So 8 hrs a week, on call the entire week AND they expect me to not have another job. That's just ridiculous. If they don't call me in and I only work the 8 hours a week, there's no way I'd make a useful amount of money. I just think their expectations are stupid.

And that's that.
Not much else has gone on. Just gym, volunteering, errands, and cleaning. Oh fun fun.

Fruit Dip

8 oz Cream Cheese (technically Weight Watchers Cream Cheese)

1/4 Cup Marshmallow Fluff

3 Tbsps sugar free Raspberry Preserves (I used Polamer)

= Tasty fruit dip! 2 tbsps = serving. Apx 12 servings.

Green Smoothie!

Hey there!

On Friday, the day after my birthday, I recieved a birthday card from Momma, one from my Grandparents, and something from Jill. They all contained things that I get to go shopping with. I love having reasons so go shopping!

The first thing I went after was a good blender. Unfortunately the one Mom got me a few years back has trouble crushing ice (contrary to what it claims) and the motor has started to make that motor dying, burning smell which is never good. It was time for a new blender.

John and I went out and got the 12-speed Oster blender with Food Processor attachment. I have been contemplating on a food processor, so a two-in-one is always good. Especially when considering storage space! This blender works very well and even has an easy clean option where, unless I'm blending dairy, eggs, chicken, or other contaminating things, all I need to do is poor in 3 cups of warm water with detergent and turn it on for 15 seconds and voila! Well, I have to rinse it, but for someone with no dishwater it's pretty fantastic.

It was cheaper at the Nex....
However this looks just as good!


I tried out a Green Smoothie. I tired making it before with the old blender, and it was tasty but it's a lot better with the crushed ice. I want you to read the following, if you're interested in a very healthy and very tasty smoothie, because I'm pretty excited about this one.

While at Weight Watchers, one of the woman told us that she researched the crazy green drink that Iron Man drank. Turned out it was a Green Smoothie and she explained how she made it and all the different bits of it. It's basically a fruit smoothie mixed with SPINACH. The spinach however has no taste. I was skeptical but wanted to try it, and it's awesome. I'm drinking one right now and I love it. I get 3 serving of fruit and 2-3 servings of veggies! I'm pretty much set for the whole day! And, for weight watchers, it only covers 4 points.

My current recipe:

1/2 Skim Milk - this can be replaced by water, soy milk, almond milk, or fruit juice
1 Banana
1 Cup Strawberries - I used frozen, but only because my fresh are being used for something els
2-3 Cups Spinach Leaves (the salad kind)
6 Ice Cubes
2-3 packets of Truvia - I like sweet...

It's wonderful! The woman who told us about it said she made it with a wedge of melon and something else. Haha. You can use any fruit. Bananas have more WW points for one serving, but I love what they do to smoothies so I'm sticking with those.

You may be skeptical, and it may look gross, but I would definitely suggest it.

And on that note... I'm finally losing weight! I've lost apx 9 lbs since I got home. It's great to FINALLY see the scale going down. Though, my pants keep slipping down, that gets annoying. haha

Birthday

I'm very behind in this blog. I apologize. I've realized that if I try to backtrack I'll probably just put it off longer or just get more behind! Either way, I know the majority of people who read this WENT to Michael's wedding, or don't know him well, so I hope that skipping that entry won't be a problem. :-). It was very beautiful though. It went well. I have pictures up on Picasa, so feel free to stalk.

Thursday was my birthday. I'm now 23! It's weird. When I go to PA, I feel old and boring but here in HI I feel really young haha. I guess it all depends on the situation.

The actual birthday was incredibly boring, which I expect. What was I going to do? I spent the day doing what I usually do. Cleaning, organizing, procrastinating, etc. Around 3 I hiked up to the guard gate to pick up an incredibly beautiful bouquet of giant white lilies! John had ordered them. I think he did it quickly because he realized his gift wasn't getting delivered in time. Haha, I haven't mentioned that suspicion to him. They're beautiful though so I don't care why I have them. They just make me happy.

At first I thought the only gift that arrived on time was the one from Vicki, John's mom. She sent two boxes a few weeks ago, and they came in Friday the week before. One was full of hand-me-down cake decorating supplies from John's grandmother. I need a reason to bake a cake! haha. I want to play.

The other had gifts. They turned out to be these incredibly beautiful tea cups. They don't have any labels, but they look suspiciously like the Kathy Ireland things that I have been admiring for quite some time. I absolutely adore them. One is a peacock, which looks amazing when on it's saucer and the other has two fishes. It's very koi-like. It fits well with Hawaii and all the asian inspired things :-).
















In the middle of the day, a box from Amazon arrived. It was a gift from Momma and it came perfectly on time. :-) It was great. There was a Josh Turner cd in there, my 4th one! I love his voice. This was along with a box of cake decorating things that I had wanted and an ipod holder for the gym that I pretty much needed. That latter got used the very next day :-). I'm very glad to have that now!

At the end of the day, Cayley came over. She bought brownie mix and came over to make me brownies for my birthday. They were delicious! She insisted on putting candles in a brownie so I can  blow them out. It was very sweet of her. She stayed for a while and we watched a movie on TV. John showed up around 9. It sounds late but 1.) He generally comes home around that time these days and 2.) He had duty that night so him coming home at all was unexpected and therefore exciting.


















The birthday ended well..

Yesterday John and I semi-celebrated my birthday again. We went to Oceanarium. I love that place. I, of course, had plenty of crab legs and made good choices about what else I ate! I didn't eat too much over my limit. :-). We also went to a going away party for a few guys in his division. There are 5 guys renting out a home in Kaneohe for $5000 a month. That place is HUGE. The maste bedroom was just 40 sq feet smaller than our entire apartment. It was very awesome. Though I don't think I'd like to live in it. That at this point in time. I couldn't imagine being in that gigantic place alone for most of the time. It would feel much more lonely than this apt feels.

Anyways. We ended the day with the movie. At first I wasn't too sure if I wanted to go. We've been seeing a lot of movies since we hate going downtown on weekend nights and that makes movies the only option. I did decide on going because I've been wanting to see Despicable Me. I'm SO glad we did! That movie was wonderful and made me smile a lot. I'm very glad I decided on going. Yay! It's definitely worth a trip to the theatre to see this movie.

Back!

So, I didn't intend on having the last post be at the top for this long. I wanted to update when I got home and push the other one down so it didn't get THAT much attention, haha. I need to get my 2nd External HD attached to my computer so I can get the wedding pictures up. I know you want to see them, and I know I need to send copies to Kristin.


I got back to HI on June 14th. The next morning it was apx 6 am, I was still very sick, and jet lagged. And it was 6 am. Well this may have been the day after, but that's not that important. Well I made hot tea for my sickness and accidentally spilled some on my laptop. Not a lot got on it, so I didn't think it was a big deal. Well it ended up ruining my keyboard and touch pad so I had to send my laptop in to get fixed. They fixed it and about a week later (including the apx 2 days of shipping there and back) I got it back. It was nice and quick, only when I got it back the network connection wasn't there. It couldn't find anything network related or an IP address, etc. I'm not THAT computer literate so I can't completely explain. Either way it was a new problem that I didn't cause and I had to send it back. I just got her back this past weekend (July 2nd) and it was set back to factory settings. This normally wouldn't matter because I have it backed up. Right? Right? Nope. I had it backed up onto my laptop, but that was erased as well. I was afraid of that so I decided to back it up to my external. I was still partially mad(as in crazy not angry)/jet lagged when I did this. I ended up accidentally agreeing to let it reformat my external, which erased EVERYTHING I already had on there. This is the external I use very often so it's all my projects and photos. So I stopped it immediately to increase the possibility of saving the info. Soooo no backup.

I'm starting all over. It's really not too bad. I have the documents I saved from my desktop, so I can get to those. I just have to reinstall programs and drivers and that's no fun.

Hopefully we can restore my external. I had a friend try through John's computer but it kept freezing. Now that my laptop is back, we're going to try again.

fingers crossed!

So yeah. That's where I've been

Hint Hint! It's almost July! haha

 Have you ever gone to The Animal Rescue Site , it's one of my favorite websites and stores. You click daily to donate food to animals. The sponsors donate, so you all you have to do is click! Also they have a huge online store and each item is attached to a quantity of bowls of food that get donated if you buy it. It's awesome! I just got kitchen towels, a spoon rest (both things I've been needing/wanting), and an adorable paw print satchel purse! I love it. Well, I haven't seen them in person yet since we got them shipped to Hawaii, but I'm very excited to get them when I get home.

They have other sites, too. They're all linked at the top so you can browse around for your favorite charity. Well, maybe not favorite but your favorite of the bunch. There aren't infinite options! I like the Rainforest one, too, they have great shopping options :-).

Alright I need to shower and actually go see a friend. Hooray!

I need to write about Michael's wedding, but I'm going to wait until later. It was beautiful though! Kristin was stunning and everyone smiled the whole time, it was great.

PA is boring

Well I've been home for 2 weeks and have exactly 2 weeks to go. I'm rather bored. There's not much to do here and very very very few people to see. Well the one person who actually cares to see me has gone off to Israel! What fun! I expect postcards... haha.

Mainly all I've done besides watch a few seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is wedding plan. I've met with the DJ, one cake baker, the florist, and went to church on Sunday to check it out. It's so pretty. I have two more cake meetings this week and then on Thursday it's off to MD for Michael's wedding! I'm looking forward to that.

I had a Bridal Shower last Saturday put on my Jillian and my mom. It went pretty well. It seems like nearly everyone had a good time and that's great. We had tasty food, a doggie guest, and a game to play. It was nice to see everyone again. The majority of everyone had to drive from Philly or the outskirts of it to get here, and I'm very glad they did especially since they all went back and I probably won't see them again until the wedding. It was a good get together.

Ellie and Xander visit!

Well I've been home for two nights now, going onto my third. It's VERY cold here. I'm not a fan of the 50 degree rainy weather, not at all. I've done a little shopping around for various clothes and wedding stuff. Yesterday I had my first official, in person, wedding meeting and that was with the DJ. It went pretty well. I spaced out on an important name so with that and a few other things, I have some DJ homework to do! haha.


Today was very nice. I've been here a few days and the first friend to see me isn't even from around here! Ellie and Xander drove up from Maryland this morning to visit me. It's about a 4 hour drive without stops but they didn't mind. She's only available for 5(or so) days before the Marines send her to Cali for desert training. Then she'll have more leave but is going to Colorado to get married and then ships out to the big desert in the east.


It was absolutely great to see them. They didn't have the time to spend the night so they made it a day trip. We went to the mall and got her some special shoes for engagement/wedding photos and I found a dress for my bridal shower. Both very cute and actually very easy to find. It was exciting that we didn't have to stress out a lot about them. Before all this we ate at Peking Chef, which was delightful as always. I love their dumplings. Well we shopped and wandered and chatted for a bit before driving back to my house so they can leave. It was quite the perfect visit, though it would have been nice if they could have stayed. It's a very long drive to do both journeys in one day.


Tomorrow is Momma's birthday. My main plan is to meet with Men's Warehouse about tuxes and then come home to bake and decorate a cake. Hopefully it turns out well! I'm not very skilled at icing a cake.

Postcards

Will you send me a postcard from wherever you live? It can be a "boring" place, that's fine! I'm having mom send me one from Dallas! I want ones from everywhere! I'm sure most of you are family and have my address. If not just ask me :-)

Love,
Meredith

Anxiety!

You know what's annoying? Anxiety. I seem to always get it whenever I'm doing something new, traveling, or other random things. Currently I've been anxious all week because I go home soon. I hate traveling and especially with the 9.5 hr flight with a 2+ hr drive coming up. Bleck. I'll be landing at 5:30am MY TIME but 11:30 EST. I'm hoping I sleep the whole flight. At least there are no layovers this round.

That's why I always start packing a week ahead of time. I'm too anxious about the trip that I get a strong need to do something about it so I start packing. Hopefully I don't forget a lot.

Dixie has a sitter who has a key and a parking pass in her hands now. Food and litter is stocked up and even brand new toys. She's my precious little girl, but I think she'll be ok. I'll miss her. Besides the main sitter, Kevin will stop by to play with her and once Cayley is home from Texas, she'll be around a lot as well. This will give kitty lots of attention and also give my condo a lot of traffic.

I'm mainly going home for Michael's wedding on June 5th. Hooray! But after John's entire schedule changed I changed my flight to go home earlier. I think I'll miss Hawaii, but it'll be nice to visit at home.

Once I'm  home the day after I have to meet with the DJ and then throughout the week I also meet with Men's Warehouse, East Mountain Inn, the florist (actually this is the week after), and I have to set up a cake testing appt. Yum! John likes sweet but since my change in diet and exercise, I don't eat the same things. But chocolate is still always a winner. We shall see what works best.

I'll be home a whole month. It's going to be weird! I'm looking forward to going to Kohls! And eating pizza and chinese food, which is very different here, and other various things like Back Mountain Creamery- YUM.

Hmm. So I don't really know what else I'd say about it.
I guess I'll see most of you in June!

Wedding Website

New Wedding Website

I switched domains so I had to redo most of it. A lot of it has just been copied and pasted and then I put in lots of photos. I like photo galleries.

I still have to go through and make sure the new pages make sense but that's the new one!

SEA TURTLES

Today I went to Ko'Olina with Tracy and her 2 yr old daughter Hannah and Patti with her three kids 20, 17, 11. I think. I made up the last two, but I think they're fitting. I played with Hannah the whole time haha.

We went to the lagoon near Paradise Cove. We had some trouble finding parking but once we did , it was great. There were turtles! There was one guy sleeping at the far end and then three in the water. We didn't realize there were three of them for a while. They were very friendly and swam right up to all of us, many times. I even was able to pet one while it swam by me. They were so neat!

Many more sea turtle pictures

P.S. My camera has NO zoom!

Woo-hoo!

Before moving I got a Bed Bath and Beyond gift card,  I then learned there wasn't any here and spent it at home. That wasn't an issue because what I wanted was small anyway.

Well, guess what? In the Fall we're getting one! And not only are we getting one, but we're getting one in PEARLRIDGE! That's the mall right down the hill from me! I'm excited. So if you're ever at a loss for a gift.... gift cards are fantastic. :-P haha. I love gift cards. I love shopping but always worry about spending money and gift cards force you to. It's wonderful haha. I think John and I had a discussion about that. At first we think "Oh gift cards are the easy way out" when we're shopping but then when we think about what we want, we get pretty excited over gift cards haha. Nerds...

This will also make any possible BBB registry exchanges easier. We're also registered at Amazon. I was a little worried because I know how often people just run out and grab things, but in addition to the ease of putting anything we want on the list (like games!) nearly everyone is from pretty far away and we live pretty far away so shipping things out here instead of getting them at the wedding is very ideal. We shall see.

Unfortunately we still have no Bath and Body Works. I finally have my oil burner up and running. At first I only had the oils because the burner was with John on the way to HI. Then I couldn't bring the oils because movers and mailers get upset because it's oil so they won't ship it. Finally my mom brought it with her so now I have those. Then it took me a while to look for and find the oil burner. Finally did that but no longer had my dozens of tealights. Just got those and oh no! No lighter or matches! I haven't been very organized with this, and this is a pretty boring story but oh well. I finally have it up and running and my house smells of Lilac, it's quite wonderful. I was burning Vanilla Coconut earlier and it was quite nasty. When I worked at BBW I always opened up the candle or oil and smelt it, but when it started burning it was terrible. I'll have to find some more oils, or order them online. That's how I got them to begin with. Buy two oils, get the burner for free! Flower scents are definitely best, but no lavender! Yuck!

Hmm. What else?
I LOVE volunteering at the Humane Society. It indulges the cat lady inside me, haha. On Tuesday I walked in and immediately a Russian Blue claimed my lap while a yellow kitty sat next to me and played with the strings on the apron. It was pretty cute. Soon after a calico kitty wanted to play so I had one on each side of me playing with the strings while the RB was lounging on my lap. Being a crazy cat lady would be fun. It was also quite wonderful anytime someone adopted a cat. It's so great to see. Sweet Owl was still there, the poor thing. She's more friendly but still rather sad and scared so she won't leave her cage. We have three open cat rooms and one with each cat in a cage. Those are for the cats that are either on medication, cats that aren't used to other cats or don't like them, or cats that still need help being social. So sweet little Owl won't leave her cage. She was almost adopted but hissed and scratched when trying to get her in the box. I want to take her home and pamper her... haha. Dixie would be very upset though. Dixie is such a great kitty, I'm glad she's the one I come home to! haha.

Ahh the house smells of lilac again, it's wonderful.

I finished the Cake decorating course!

There it is! The cake is oddly shaped.. Oops. The hardest part was actually icing the cake! The flowers came out amazing, but the actual iced cake is kind of messy. Oh well. That was the first try. I'm very proud of the roses, that's for sure.

Drew and Jamie part 2

Hey there! I suppose I'll split this into the visit and then into a little update.

The second visit was very nice, as to be expected. This time they had a lot of experience with Hawaii and were a bit more adjusted to my time zone.

I picked them up pretty early to drop them off at the Arizona Memorial. I figured that since all the books warn against bags and petty theft that it would be best to take all their bags and not join them for this trip. I went to a friends to finish a movie while they jumped on the boat to see the memorial.

Once they were done I picked them up and we drove to Haleiwa. I found the address for Matsumoto's Shave Ice and figured that would be a fun stop. That's the one that has ice cream and "Azuki Beans" red beans boiled in sugar in the cone before the shave ice. I wanted to try it and thought they'd appreciate the special hawaiian treat. It was tasty! We then went on a hunt for beaches and Giovanni's Shrimp Truck! We stopped on Sunset beach and passed a few others on Drew's list. I did find the Shrimp Truck again and it was just as delicious as the last time.


After our bellies were filled to the top we drove to Ahupua'a O Kahana State Park to hike the Kapa‘ele‘ele Trail. This trail wasn't as kept up as many of the others I've been to so at points we kind of guessed which way to go. It did have a lovely view and we ended up having to walk along the beach to get back to my car. It was a neat thing to see.

We then drove to my apt to relax and so Drew and Jamie could shower up and repack before their plane flight home.

It was a nice day. It was really nice seeing them.

Drew and Jamie part 1

Hey there. Drew and Jamie have made the trek to Hawaii! It's very exciting. They're here for an island cruise and are on Oahu today and next Saturday. As always, Drew had the day planned which was very nice. He found some great things!

I met them at Diamond Head around 9 am. I got there a little early and picked them up at the sign so I could take their bags in my trunk and drive them up to the start of the hike. The hike was as beautiful as ever, and it was a lot easier than it was the first time I did it! I'm very proud of myself. The exercise and diet may not have changed my look, but it's changed the way my body works. I wasn't anywhere near as exhausted and in need for breaks, which just made the hike a lot nicer. I made sure that once we hit the top I got a few pics of Drew and Jamie for them. :-). I didn't bring my camera this time, just the camelback and keys.

After the hike Drew had us go to Ono Hawaiian Foods in the outskirts of Waikiki. It was absolutely delicious! It's this small whole in the wall place that has all sorts of food resorts, including one for #1 place to get Hawaiian food. It was very good. The Kalua pig was the best I've had so far! We got there soon after it opened so we didn't have to wait in line, thankfully. Turns out they even have signs regarding waiting in line, so it seems like lines for often. I will definitely take futures visitors there. I think dad would want to go. It's about as authentic as you can get if you're looking for Hawaiian food. It was very delicious.

The next thing on the agenda was a walk over to Leonards to get Malasadas. I had no arguments when I saw this on the itinerary! Yes, my cousin made himself an itinerary. I love it :-). We got 6 of them and different flavors so they can try. I ended up with two Malasada Puffs which are the delicious Portuguese donuts with a filling- my filling of choice was custard and chocolate. Yum! They were very delightful. I haven't had many of these at all, so I was looking forward to this part of the trip. Drew and Jamie are definitely doing well when it comes to getting the full Hawaiian experience. Especially since they started the day with a walk on the beach! What better way to start a day?

We finished off the visit with a tour of Iolani Palace. Thankfully my GPS took me on the route that made me spot the wonderful parking lot underneath City Hall that I had completely forgotten about. Parking is so terrible, so I was very excited when I saw it and remembered that it was near the palace. The tour was quite pleasant. I really liked the throne room. I've been in a lot of old buildings and castles but I didn't realize, until today, that I had never really seen a throne room with a throne inside. It was impressive. I learned a good amount about the culture and now I can pronounce Lili uokalani!

Now I'm home, resting (very sore from boot camp on Thurs and the hike), and figuring out things before the FRG game night at 6.

It was really nice seeing Drew and Jamie. It's even better that I see them again next Saturday! What fun!

-Meredith

I want it

Cross your fingers that I at least get an interview. It's hard enough to even get a response on this island. No one allows call backs so my applications just disappear into the middle of nowhere.

I would love this one though.
http://www.hawaiianhumane.org/hhsjobs.html

hmmm

<<< Look an owl!

ok, that's all I really have for you today. John's gone officially sooo there's that. Haha. 

Drew and Jamie are visiting on Saturday and Saturday (but not inbetween) so I'll have stories after that. 

David Gallo shows underwater astonishments | Video on TED.com

David Gallo shows underwater astonishments | Video on TED.com

This is VERY cool. Octopuses and Squids are so awesome! The end is the best

Gorgeous Porcelain

So at the Nex they have these tea sets and salt and pepper shakers and other various tabletop things that are absolutely beautiful. I really want to invest in the set but it would be a pretty penny, I'm certain of it. I just found a website that, I'm 99% sure, is the same company. I don't know the name off hand, but the items look so similar that it couldn't be something else. Unfortunately the set I want isn't on the site, but you can still look to see the gorgeous things they have to offer. I love almost all of it!

Gorgeous Tabletop Sets!

110th Submarine Birthday Ball

April 11th will be the Submarine Forces 110th Birthday. Every year there is a ball for that, as well as a Navy ball but apparently Submariner's don't go to that one since we have our own. I'm not sure what the deal with that is, but the Navy ball would have been in the fall.

In Pearl Harbor, the base is so big and there are so many Submariner's that the ball had to be split up between officers and enlisted. Ours was this past Saturday and John and I had a lot of fun. We got a hotel room at Hale Koa so that we wouldn't have to drive all the way back. It was a good idea, we were exhausted! I'm not really sure what else to say about it. It was lucky that the guys were in port for the weekend since they're starting to be in and out a lot. There was dinner, which was delicious, and they introduced all the Captains of each boat. There was also a centerpiece competition, but we didn't do very well. I'm not surprised. They put the Ensigns in charge and none of us have been to a ball before so we didn't really know how much people put into each one. Next year will be better. If they put the new Ensigns in charge, I'll just make sure John tells them what they're up against! Haha.

Overall is was a good social night. I love our Wardroom and all the women associated with it. We really lucked out with the people on our boat, especially the wives.

USS Cheyenne SSN 773

A Very Merry Unbirthday

Well yesterday we celebrated John's birthday. Part one of his birthday anyway, since he'll be busy on his actual birthday. I chose to do it this early because I already knew he would be available and didn't want to have to worry.


We woke up early to drive up to Haliewa (North Shore) to go on Hawaii Shark Encounters! It wasn't a surprise like I had hoped it would be. Last week we saw sharks while diving and he started talking about not wanting to go on this tour anymore so I told him that that's what I had planned but there was still time to cancel without having to pay for anything. After thinking about it and realizing we'd be able to see more and see them closer up without worrying about scaring them, he decided we'd still do it. So we drove up there yesterday for an 8:30am appointment. It was very cool. We got on the boat and went on a 20 min ride. This took us about 3 miles from coast where the water is 600 ft deep. There were 12 people total that had signed up to go on this trip so they had 6 people go in at a time. We were in the first group and it was very cool! Oh sidenote: they had masks and snorkels sanitized for those who didn't bring their own. But yes we went in first with 4 other people and saw a lot of sharks! More than 5, I'm certain of it but I never counted. We saw Sandbar and Galapagos sharks and even one Barracuda. The Barracuda was the only one that made me nervous. The sharks are sleek and beautiful while the Barracuda was pointy and you could see his teeth and he definitely could have fit into the cage if he wanted. Thankfully he stayed further away than the rest of the bunch. I know the boat has seen him before so they knew we weren't in any danger.

See him there? Creepy! Well you probably can't unless you click on it to see the larger size. Oh well.

Aren't they so neat? I enjoyed it a lot and John did too so it was a good start to the Unbirthday.

The next few hours we went to lunch, showered, and he played some video games while I napped. I was exhausted! I'm tired a lot lately- it's annoying.

At 5 we had reservations at Ruth's Chris, which is DELICIOUS. I've never been there before, but we'll definitely be going back. John thought it would just be the two of us going out to dinner until he saw Bryan Harris there, his friend and roommate from the Academy. John asked what he was doing down here (we were in Waikiki) and I turned and said "He's having dinner with us!" John was impressed, surprised, and glad to see his old friend. He was also glad to see the single malt scotch that Bryan brought for John haha. Ruth's Chris opens at 5 so we told them we were there for the Reservation but still were waiting a little while they opened. It was expected and perfectly fine since not everyone in the party was even there. While we put in our name I saw Stacy and Kyle Haubold coming up and told him to go greet them as well! Haha. They're also friends from the Academy, and Groton as well. John was very pleased to see his friends that he's been too busy to see. Shawn and Kris Kellogg also showed up as well as another Sub friend, Evan. It was a good party of 8 and I'm very glad everyone was around and able to make it. It made for a great night and a great birthday. It's good that John got to see them all again. They're all so busy!

Oh and Ruth's Chris is the best place to go for a special occasion! They're so nice and the food is amazing. They also gave john fancy bacardi 151 strawberries covered in chocolate and set on fire for his birthday! It was very tasty! I'm glad they did that, and they gave him a card with a gift certificate. That was unexpected. We'll definitely go back again for other special occasions. We saw a couple there for their anniversary and there were rose petals on their table for that. I definitely recommend this place, and it's a chain so you don't need to come to Hawaii to go!

The rest of the pictures are on Picasa :-)

Cake Decorating

Well, I've finally signed up for Wilton Cake Decorating classes at Ben Franklin Crafts. I wanted to do this when I lived at home, but I didn't find out about it until I was leaving a few weeks later. I only just discovered that the crafts stores here DO have it! I thought they didn't. I'm pretty excited. I'm doing course 1 (logically) which is on Sundays for 4 weeks. It should be fun.

Oh! Maybe if I get really into this I'll end up getting a caddy, like a decorating nerd. Isn't it neat though? John made fun of it... lol

SSN 773

Sooo I have a picture for you! It's from 1995 though, but you may still like it!

There you go, that's it for today. I lied. I found another.

Ok now I'm done.
Enjoy