our almost-free vacation part one

I felt that just a little blurb in my last entry was not enough to describe just how freakin' awesome our trip to Hawaii was. The other bonus is that I no longer feel obligated to email pictures to everyone. So here's some of the highlights:

Our room was great but who cares? I had no desire to spend any amount of time there, but the view was pretty okay. Not exactly an "ocean view" but I spent some time spying on one of our vice presidents playing golf one morning. And a little tipsy, too.

We spent our first day there just hanging around the resort. Jonathan spent most of the day snorkeling and had a blast. It came at a heavy price however...he sunburned his back horribly. Meanwhile, I entertained myself at the beach and the pool and visited with some honu turtles that come to the beach every day.

We also went to the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park a couple of times. The first time it was during the day and all you could see was steam coming up out of the crater of Mount Kilauea. We went again on our last night (this time to Pu'u O'o, the heart of the current eruption) and got to see the lava flowing into the ocean. We were pretty far away, but the park had set up a telescope for people to get a better look. It looked like 2 or 3 waterfalls of red molten lava pouring into the ocean creating big billows of steam when the tide came in. I'm posting some video we took, but it doesn't to it justice. Truly a moving experience I will carry with me the rest of my life.

I'm not sure if you can hear the audio, but on the video I had just asked one of the park rangers the age of the ground we were standing on. He said it was about 18 years old...ten years younger than me. Crazy. There were tons of people there that night and most of them were standing there silently, watching new earth being created before their eyes.

Fishing was second on Jonathan's Must Do list, after the volcano. We went one day with a shop manager buddy of mine. No sooner had I gotten up out of the chair, Doug sat down and reeled in a 70" spearfish. Whatever that is. Anyway. Jonathan and I were only slightly jealous but got a big kick out of seeing him get so excited about it, smoking cigarettes and calling his dad. I took some video when they pulled it from the water and didn't expect to see it get beaten to death. I would post it, but I'm sure I would hear about it from my mother so I'll spare her the lecture.

Okay, that's enough for now. The laptop is getting too warm on my lap. More later!

better than Indiana Jones' comeback

You know, it took me a really long time to figure out what my blogger username/password combination was. That's what I get for going well over a year without writing in this thing. It was entertaining reading some of my old posts (and deleting some of the ones that should have never been brought into existence).

I think I should thank my old friend Stephanie from high school for inspiring me to try to write again. This afternoon was one of those days when I tooled around on YouTube, read the newspaper from my hometown, and checked out who died recently on Wikipedia. I found her blogger page and figured I should try once again to login myself.

Yes, I have attempted to break into my page on several occasions, to no avail.

I can't believe that I haven't written anything in here since February of last year. The real tragedy here is that my profile and whatnot has changed little. I added a couple of books as my favorites and deleted "exercising" from my long list of supercool hobbies (which was a lie, anyway).

Things aren't all that much different from the last time I wrote, though. Fasten your seatbelts and stow your traytables, here comes a few highlights from the last 16 months:

1. Most of that funky green carpet is gone. Jonathan did an incredible job of laying hardwood floor in the living room, dining room, and hall. I like it when the cat gets scared and starts to spin out on it when he's running.

2. Speaking of mangy creatures in my house (no, not my husband...oh you saw that one coming did ya? My many fans are so smart...) yes, we still have the cat despite the many homocidal temptations we've had. His favorite pastimes still include chewing shoelaces and plastic bags and quickly puking them up. His new thing is sharpening his claws on our mattress while we sleep. Not cool. But we still love that stupid thing.

3. I probably wrecked my car at least twice since I last wrote. So now I have a new one. Love it. Not the payments. My employees make fun of me because I am not entirely sure how many collisions I have been in. Eight or nine? Maybe?

4. Went to Cancun last year for vacation. Went to Hawaii this year. Now before you start thinking we are big high rollers, know that we went to Hawaii on my company's dime. Sweet. Turns out I'm a pretty decent manager and I won a spot on my company's yearly incentive trip. Seeing Kilouea erupting into the ocean at night was truly indescribable. The big island is half volcano, half lush green jungle sprinkled with gorgeous waterfalls.

Everything else is pretty much the same. I've gotten hooked on The Sopranos, so I watch a little less Star Trek (see? I can be cool.) I still love Vietnamese food, but I also eat at the Waffle House twice a week. Work is still work, but I'm better and a little more confident/competent at my job so my stress levels are noticably lower. So now perhaps I can stop in every once in awhile and keep my family and friends updated. And hopefully not ramble on and on about work.

Ooooo...forgot to mention I cut my finger in half right after Christmas. Oh yeah. Combine holiday stress with a dull exacto blade and you will spend half a day in the emergency room. Good times.