Travel Blog!

I've finally set up a travel blog to post my adventures in India on. You can find it at http://travel-amanda.blogspot.com.

Enjoy!

Potential Book Abort

I've been reading this book for book club over the last few days, trying hard to finish it before our book club meeting this evening, but of course I didn't make it. I have about a quarter to a third of the book left. When I got to book club, one of the first things they asked when I mention that I wasn't able to finish it yet, is whether I had reached "the surprise" towards the end. I could quickly determined that since I had no idea what they were talking about, I probably hadn't reached it yet. So they carefully skirted that part while talking about the book, which was kind, but I wasn't too concerned. I was well sucked into the book already and couldn't wait to finish it anyways, so I figured even if they did tell me it wouldn't stop me from wanting to read it. So then we decided to watch part of a documentary on the person whom the book is about, and Brenda kindly warned me that at the end of the portion we were going to watch, it would give away what happens at the end of the book. So, curious me, I decide to just watch anyways. Well, now I'm not so sure it was a good choice. The majority of the book is just a well written novel about two people and their relationships with each other and others, like lots of good novels. But it turns out the end has all the makings of a horror flick. Now I'm scared to read the end of the book because I know how horribly it ends, and I feel like I don't want to have to hear/read it again. But at the same time, I'm kind of glad I know now how it ends so at least I won't be quite as horrified upon finishing the book (assuming I can make myself finish it at all) as I would have been if that's how I had found out first.

I blew a kiss to the moon
And the moon laughed at me

2 Weeks, 2 Days, and Counting...

It's getting close! And I've got lots to do still! Time to get my butt in gear and get some stuff done instead of working all the time. I need to get a travel blog ready to go still too.

Quietude

I need to work on some of the things in this article: http://zenhabits.net/2008/09/sound-of-silence-how-to-find-some-quietude-in-your-life/

Anyways, I'm feeling happy and kinda quiet right now. I have a crockpot bubbling away with some tasty split pea soup in the kitchen. My apartment is mostly clean again, finally. And I feel relaxed.

Well... until I remember that I need to finish making my bed still before I can go to bed, but oh well, that shouldn't take too long.

I'm not really looking forward to work tomorrow, but at least I had a relaxing day without work to help me unwind. Now if I can just figure out how to keep that state of "unwoundness" and relative calmness throughout the week. That's the goal. And to start, I plan to get up early every morning this week, instead of hitting snooze a million times every morning.

Contra Camp and the Drive Back Home

Contra camp was awesome! I drove up on Friday, leaving work at about 10:30 a.m. and heading out of town by around 11:30 or so. I got into Fairbanks in time to head to dinner at Lemon Grass with Brad and then get ready for the evening's in-town contra dance at Alaskaland (aka Pioneer Park). Contra was fun as always. Then the next morning Brad and I packed up my car with our stuff and after a few last minute errands we headed down to the Lost Lake Boy Scout camp for Dance Camp North, the Fairbanks area contra camp.

Once we got to the camp, we set up our tent with a veritable nest of pads and blankets in the hopes of staying warm in sub-freezing night time temperatures and then got down to the business of dancing, going on walks/mini-hikes, dancing, napping, dancing, reading, dancing, canoeing, dancing, and hanging out with friends. Brad stayed nice and warm in our nest of blankets both nights. I was a bit cold the first night so I piled a few more blankets on top and added a few layers on myself and was nice and toasty the second night. All in all, the weekend was a whole lot of fun, even if I did wear myself out pretty well.

I decided to drive down the Richardson/Glenn Hwys on the way back today, instead of driving about an hour back to Fairbanks and then down the Parks Hwy, as it sounded like it would take about the same amount of time either way. I am happy that I finally got the chance to drive the Richardson/Glenn! It was a beautiful drive, and the pictures above hardly do it justice.

Now I'm going to go crawl into my nice soft warm bed and try not to think about going back to work tomorrow.

Hiking & Camping

4th of July 2008

Summer Fun with Tally

My Brother's Graduation

Picture update time!

So, the next few posts will be slideshows of picture albums from the summer... I finally took all the pictures off my camera and realized I hadn't done so since just after my trip to California/Las Vegas in late April. 4 months and 345 pictures later... and I'm finally compiling the picture albums that follow.

Let me know how you like this new system of viewing my pictures please! And note that you can click on either the post title or on the slideshow itself to get to the actual photo album and peruse them at your own pace and in a larger size.

I'm going to India!!!

November 2008 through January 2009 of my life will be spent in the city of Kochi (also known as Cochin), in the state of Kerala, in the country of India. (And in any surrounding areas and/or countries that I can manage to get to in three months time.)

WooHoo!!! I'm so excited!

It's for work, actually. I will be doing a good bit of the same work that I do here in Anchorage, including teaching/helping/answering questions of the staff, reviewing their work, and just generally working on U.S. tax returns for mid-size to large companies. In India!

Here is a Google map of where I'll be located. Feel free to zoom in and out and see the whole picture.


View Larger Map

Moving!

I'm finally moving out of my tiny little studio apartment into a 1 bedroom apartment! Yay for more space! Next weekend is the big move in/clean the old apartment timeframe, although I might be able to start moving in sooner if they finish fixing and cleaning it. I started packing today. 2 boxes of books and 1 box of dvd's so far. I've got about 1 more box of books and then 2 medium sized boxes to start filling with other stuff. Then I'll have to get more boxes.

Time to get back to work!

Guitar and iRobot

I have new toys! :)

I finally bought myself a new guitar. It's a grand concert style acoustic, which means it's a little smaller than a standard guitar and therefore has a slightly less deep sound to it. It's also called a folk style guitar. I love it though and have been doing my best to play it as much as possible. It'll be awhile before I'm any good at playing again, but hopefully not too long.

I also bought myself an iRobot Roomba! For those who don't know, it's a robotic vacuum cleaner that will vacuum the floor while you do something else, or even while you're away at work! I finally got to test it out today as I wanted to watch it the first time to make sure it wouldn't get stuck somewhere. It's a lot of fun to watch, actually, as it has a rather random pattern and does circles sometimes and gently runs into things and turns around and such. It did a pretty good job though and was amazingly quiet! And, even more important, it didn't stir up much dust, so I was able to be here while it was going and not sneeze the whole time!

Food allergies!

So... I learned last week that I'm allergic to some foods. Based on some blood testing, it seems I am rather allergic to the following: milk (cow), casein (protein found in cow's milk), gluten, eggs, peanuts, soy, and beef (surprise!).

Well, the beef is easy to leave out of my diet, as I had never included it to begin with! The others are much harder to eliminate. The plan is this; I'm supposed to eliminate all these things from my diet for 3 months and then I can slowly reintroduce them one at a time and see how my body reacts. I highly suspect that I'll be able to add many of them back before too long, and possibly all of them eventually (excepting beef of course, as I have no real desire to add it in the first place). So that's the plan.

Now for reality... as Patrick so kindly put it, I'll be eating a lot of potatoes! I'm still trying to figure out what else I can eat. :) I did go grocery shopping today at Carrs (normal grocery store) and managed to find a lot of good things though that fit the diet, including pasta (rice pasta - gluten free), cheese (goat cheese! and sheep cheese!), veggies, beans, rice, almond milk, and plenty of other random but relatively normal things. So we'll see how it goes.

Two things that I have happily discovered so far...

1. I can still eat Thai green curry!!! (Just w/out tofu - chicken is good though!)

2. I've already found a cream cheese substitute - goat cheese! It's perfectly spreadable like cream cheese, tastes similar, and can probably substitute for it in my favorite potato leek soup as well. :)

I'd love to hear any suggestions if anyone has any. If it takes more than 20-30 minutes to make though... it's likely to get ignored. *wink*

Memorial Day Weekend

I spent Memorial day weekend in Fairbanks, and enjoyed slightly warmer weather, a good hike, plenty of sneezing from seasonal allergies, and hanging out with friends. Overall it was a very good weekend, and rather relaxing, even if I did have to drive 5.5 hours each way. I'm still sore from the hike up Angel Rocks on Saturday though, which is pretty sad.

Apparently you can blog in the future now!

Click on the title or here for more information on blogging right now in the future. :)

Anyways, no need to future date this post, but it looks kinda cool.

I'll be in Fbks this weekend if anyone wants to say hi. It's graduation weekend, so I'll be a bit busy with family and whatnot, but I do hope to see at least a few of you for at least a little while. Give me a call! And if you don't have my number... email me. I might check it. :)

Weekend

Yay! I got myself a new camera, started a new crochet project, and went on a blind date! Those were the good interesting parts of my weekend. :)

17 inches in a day!!!

That's how much snow officially fell between Friday morning and this morning (Saturday). And it's April 26th. What happened to spring?!?

Pictures from Las Vegas & Disneyland!

Here's a link to my Facebook photo album of pictures from Las Vegas & Disneyland. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2009980&l=2b50f&id=64100227 Anyone should be able to see this, even if you don't have Facebook. Please leave me a comment if you can't see them.

Not much to blog about...

I'll be in So. Cal. in just a few days! Other than that, not much too exciting. Gregg's down there now and keeps telling me how nice it is. :P

I really haven't done much this weekend. I went for a walk around Kincaid park yesterday w/Melissa and Kevin and 3 dogs. Then I hung out with Kelly for awhile and talked about guys and life. I was lazy last night and just made myself dinner and watched a Cirque du Soleil movie and then went to bed at 10. Got up at 9 this morning and am still working on getting myself to the gym.

Breaking news!!!

The world must be really boring when the news gets excited that Obama lost 2-5 points in the polls.

(Thank you to Gregg for this enlightening point of view.)

Pear

I'm not a huge fan of pears, but this really kinda fits.

You Are a Pear

You are independent, intelligent, and a free thinker. You can accomplish great things, especially when you do them on your own. You are direct, honest, and sometimes even a bit brutal. There's not much that gets in the way of you and your ambition. While you are hard nosed, you do have a much sweeter side to you. It takes times for you to soften toward someone, but once you do, you'll be their friend for life.

What Type of Fruit Are You?

Travels to Come!

I'm outta here in just under 2 weeks!!! I'll be flying down to So Cal to hang out with Kate. We're going to be joined by Blossom and head over to Vegas for the weekend, see LOVE by Cirque du Soleil, hang out with some friends of Kate's (apparently of the male gender ;)), and have a great time. Then we'll head back to Orange and Disneyland! Then Kate flies back to Anchortown with me and has about a week and a half to get ready to be a ranger in the middle of nowhere called Katmai for the summer. Yay Kate!

Then in mid May I'm heading up to Fbks for my brother's graduation, where I'll also get to hang out with my parents and grandparents. It'll be wonderful to see them again!

Memorial day weekend I'm hoping to convince Melissa to drive up to Fbks (again) w/me and hang out with friends, since I won't get much of a chance to when I'm up there for graduation.

And I just bought super cheap mileage tickets to go visit my parents in Wrangell for a week around the 4th of July! I'm hoping the weather is good and we can go out on the water in the skiff/canoe/kayak a lot. Also the 4th of July in Wrangell is a fairly big todo, so there should be people to see and things to do in town as well.

Those are my plans so far. *grin*

I miss Juneau!

Apparently Google Maps has started their Street View project... in Juneau! Here's an ADN article about it: www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/352626.html

And of course check out www.googlemaps.com to see the beauty of Juneau.

Highs and Lows

Yesterday's State Extremes

State Highs: Klawock 45°F / 7°C Wrangell 44°F / 7°C Skagway 43°F / 6°C Annette Island 43°F / 6°C Kake 42°F / 6°C

State Lows: Nuiqsut -45°F / -43°C Deadhorse -45°F / -43°C Galbraith Lake -41°F / -41°C Anaktuvuk Pass -36°F / -38°C Deadhorse Alpine Airstrip -36°F / -38°C

This was copied from wunderground.com.

I love how the high and low on a single day in the state of Alaska can be as much as 90 degrees apart!

New Ringtone!

So I finally put a ringtone on my new cell phone, since the ones it came with were pretty crappy. And since AT&T gave me one for free, I figured I might as well. So I picked out "No Air" by Jordin Sparks. :) I like it.

Ever so slightly less work...

So I think I'll be able to work a bit less for at least a week or two. (A bit less being defined as somewhere around 60 hours/week instead of 70.) Which means that I might possibly be able to start putting my apartment back together. :) It also means I might be able to get my laundry done... speaking of which, I need to get that started.

Reality Check

Posting in my blog would require having time...

I'm going to Fairbanks for the weekend though!

Working 'til midnight on a Saturday should be a crime

So why'd I do it? It seemed like a good idea while I was still at work. I was on a roll and figured I just needed to get it done while I was in the mood for it. I guess I lost that mood pretty quickly after I left at midnight. Now it's 45 minutes later and I'm trying to wind down so I can go to sleep and get up at a decent hour and go back to work. And this is what I've done all week, except the times are shifted a bit... I normally leave work at about 8 and get to work at about 8. Which even that schedule leaves 2 hours to wind down after work, 8 hours to sleep, and another 2 hours to wake up and possibly make it to the gym before going back to work. And for some reason I haven't totally gone crazy yet. Or maybe I have and just don't know it. I really hope the rest of this return goes according to plan so I can skip town this coming weekend and go to Fairbanks. I need a break, and I'm apparently not going to get one if I stay here.

New Phone Number!

Hey everyone! I have a new cell phone number! The old number is being disconnected, so please help me make sure you all get my new number! For obvious reasons I won't post it on here, but if you post a comment on here, or email me, I'll make sure to call or send you an email with my new number. My goal is to go through my list of phone numbers and call or email everyone, but I've been too busy to get to very many people on the list at all. So don't feel bad and help me by bugging me about it!

Water Water Everywhere

So yesterday the washer in the apartment upstairs overflowed. Fortunately nothing of mine seems to have been damaged, as long as my down comforter comes back from the dry cleaners alright. The ceiling is rather damaged, however, as I have a 4 and a half foot diameter bubble hanging from my ceiling, along with other obviously wet spots that were dripping on my bed yesterday and last night. All the water that was in the bubble drained into a pan sitting on the floor below it, but the pan wasn't big enough apparently and so it overflowed on the floor (that was all today) while I was at work. So maintenance brought another fan in to dry that up. There is very little of my carpet actually touching the floor right now, as it is all being bouyed up by the air from the fans.

So I'm sitting here, a full day and at least 6 hours later, still listening to the heavy duty high powered fans trying to get the carpet dry. I might at least get to sleep on my bed tonight, instead of the couch, although I'll have to watch for falling bits of ceiling. I think I'll brave the bits of ceiling, however, as I did not sleep well at all on the couch last night. My neck is still a bit sore from it.

Monday they are supposed to fix everything. So my place will pretty much have to stay in a state of disarray until they deal with everything, since I'm sure they'll make a mess in the process.

I was at work today for about 10 hours. I'll probably go in again tomorrow for awhile just to escape my apartment (and of course because I have too much to get done at work). And since it's nearly 11 and I'm bored and annoyed, I'll probably just head to bed. Hopefully I can sleep with all this noise...

Ode to Leap Day

So apparently I like to post in two's lately, with the second being an article. At least I'm reading?

Anyways, here's an article about leap day that I found interest.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/28/AR2008022804152.html?hpid=topnews

Long hours? Understatement of the century.

So I worked 14 hours today (that may be a new record) and I've already worked a total of 49 hours since Monday morning (that'd be 4 days). Tomorrow I plan to cut short so Kelly and I can go see "The Other Boleyn Girl". Probably about 8 and a half hours. Then at least another 8-10 on Saturday. So I should get a total of 65-68 hours in this week. Last week I made it to 60.5.

Heh, it's like a race or something. I've gotta go to bed now.

Total Lunar Eclipse tomorrow!

Here's a link to info about the total lunar eclipse that's happening tomorrow!

This is where life gets monotonous...

So, between tons of work, the occasional dancing (1 or 2 times a week), and the occasional other happening, my life is definitely settling down. Which means I'm starting to get bored. I need to figure something out, and soon, so I don't actually get bored, because boredom is never a good thing.

P.S. If anyone knows of a cute decent guy to send my way... by all means feel free! I'd love the company! (Ok, no I'm not desperate, just getting bored.)

Sick all week

I was sick with the flu all week. I woke up with a fever Monday morning and it fluctuated up and down thru Wednesday night. Thursday I woke up with a below normal temperature and I've been getting better since. I'm still working on getting my energy back, but I'm feeling pretty good today.

In other news, my Valentine's date was wonderful. We went to Bears Tooth Grill for appetizers before the show and then Club Paris afterwards for a more substantial dinner. The food was good. The show was awesome though! It was flamenco, "Carmen: El Baile". The flamenco dancing was amazing and the very traditional live music was excellent. :)

Then last night we went to see Definitely, Maybe, which is a really cute good movie. Afterwards though I had to let this guy, Josef, know that I wasn't interested in a long-term relationship with him, which he seemed to take well enough, but I still hate to tell people those kinds of things. I'm too nice I think sometimes.

Anyways, that's my week. Today a few girlfriends and I are going to see Hairspray! :D

A date!

So... I have a Valentine's date! And with a week to spare too! ;) Anyways, he's a cute sweet guy named Josef. We've only been on 2 dates so far, but he's a lot of fun to talk to and fun to hang out with.

Food!!!

So tonight after work I met up at Super Suppers with a number of other people from work. We spent the next 2 hours putting together dinner entrees for ourselves that the firm then paid for. I love my job! Anyways, so I now have a freezer packed full of a dozen 2-3 serving meals (and these are good sized servings). Yay!!! No more grocery shopping for a month! Well, except maybe salad and milk and avocados (if they look decent) and a few other perishable items. ;)

Frozen in Grand Central Station

This is a really cool video... check it out!

http://www.break.com/index/200-people-freeze-in-grand-central.html

Dancing

Here's a link to an interesting article. I thought it rather thought provoking.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15679626

Post #200!!!

This is officially the 200th post on this blog.

YAY!!!


P.S. And as a side note... I have, in the course of one month, posted over half as many entries as I did in the entire year of 2007.

Now I've probably jinxed myself...

Mom's Visit

My mom, and Marcus (her cute schnauzer puppy), visited this weekend. We had a nice relaxing time together. I took her to REI and Titlewave, where she found a nice jacket and gloves and then some used books. Then we checked out the new version of Middle Way Cafe. (Yay!!! It's open finally!!!)

We also browsed through JoAnn's and found some very nice sheer curtain fabric to put in my window to lightly block people's view of the inside of my apartment, while still letting light in. My mom is really good at coming up with cool ideas, and it really looks fantastic. And the best part is that it was done entirely without sewing, cutting, or anything! Just a little measuring, a few knots, and a few window suction cup hooks! I'll have to take a picture of it this weekend (when I'll hopefully be home while it's light outside) and post it on here.

Otherwise we relaxed, watched a few movies, read a bit, and watched a documentary about the Great Wall of China. Marcus loved playing in the snow... he didn't realize how much deeper it was here than at home until he jumped in and nearly disappeared! We all had a good time. We had nice weather too, or at least nice sunny weather with really cold temperatures. But now they're down in Palm Springs soaking in the hot sunny weather.

The snow is back...

So I guess I didn't need to worry about all the snow disappearing again. It nearly did, but then it dumped a few more inches on us. And it's snowing again now. I suspect I'll have a couple inches of snow on top of my car come morning.

My mom arrives tomorrow and will be here all weekend. :D I still have no idea what we're going to do, and she hasn't been any help with suggestions, but I guess we'll figure it out as we go. I did suggest ice skating, but she thought that might be a bit cold (which I have to admit I fully agree).

Our snow is melting!!! :(

First I just wanted to note that I posted the below lyrics because I love the song and I think it has some awesome lyrics. Some of them seem particularly applicable to my life right now, while others definitely don't... but don't read too much into any of it, cause I'm not. I definitely love the song though.

Anyways... it's 11:45 p.m. on a Monday night. Tomorrow is going to suck like nothing else because I really do have to get up early and get to the gym before work, while still making it to work by at least 8:00 a.m. Then I have jury duty from 9 to 10 and again from 1 to 4. And on top of it all, it's about 43 degrees outside and all our snow is melting!?!?! :( I'm not terribly thrilled about that. It's prettier when it's all white and not slushy and icy. But I guess I do live in Anchortown now, not the frigid north, which is probably a good thing.

Ok, off to bed now. Really just wanted to post that song and complain about the weather. :)

Tattoo by Jordin Sparks

No matter what you say about love
I keep coming back for more
Keep my hand in the fire
Sooner or later I get what I'm asking for

No matter what you say about life
I learn every time I bleed
The truth is a stranger
Soul is in danger I gotta let my spirit be free
To admit that I'm wrong and then change my mind
Sorry but I have to move on and leave you behind

I can't waste time so give it a moment
I realized nothings broken
No need to worry about everything I've done
Live every second like it was my last one
Don't look back got a new direction
I loved you once needed protection
You're still a part of everything I do
You're on my heart just like a tattoo
Just like a tattoo
I'll always have you (I'll always have you)

Sick of playing all of these games
It's not about taking sides
When I looked in the mirror didn't deliver
It hurt enough to think that I could stop
Admit that I'm wrong and then change my mind
Sorry but I've gotta be strong and leave you behind

I can't waste time so give it a moment
I realize nothings broken
No need to worry about everything I've done
Live every second like it was my last one
Don't look back got a new direction
I loved you once needed protection
You're still a part of everything I do
You're on my heart just like a tattoo
Just like a tattoo
I'll always have you (I'll always have you)

If I live every moment
Won't change any moment
Still a part of me in you
I will never regret you
Still the memory of you
Marks everything I do, oh

I can't waste time so give it a moment
I realize nothings broken (yeah)
No need to worry about everything I've done
Live every second like it was my last one
Don't look back got a new direction (don't look back)
I loved you once needed protection (no, no)
You're still a part of everything I do
You're on my heart just like a tattoo

I can't waste time so give it a moment (i can't waste time)
I realized nothings broken
No need to worry about everything I've done (no need to worry)
Live every second like it was my last one
Don't look back got a new direction (don't you ever look back)
I loved you once needed protection
You're still a part of everything I do
You're on my heart just like a tattoo

I can't waste time so give it a moment (i can't waste time)
I realized nothings broken
No need to worry about everything I've done (no need to worry)
Live every second like it was my last one
Don't look back got a new direction (don't you ever look back)
I loved you once needed protection
You're still a part of everything I do
You're on my heart just like a tattoo
Just like a tattoo
I'll always have you

Just like a tattoo
I'll always have you

My week in review...

So I know it's not the weekend yet, or even Friday, but it's close enough and it's about time I blogged again anyways. So here's some of the highlights from the week.

Tuesday evening I went over to Olin's place and had dinner with him and his roommate. The food (mostly cooked by Olin's roommate) was excellent, the homemade mead was interesting and not bad, and the company was hilarious. Olin is entertainment enough on his own, but combined with his crazy roommate, there is no end to the fun conversations. Due to this, time flew and it was around 11 p.m. when I finally got back home.

Yesterday was boring, or at least nothing happened beyond the usual work, yoga, and be lazy at home. But today after work I headed to Banana Republic (on Melissa's suggestion) and got some awesome deals on work clothes! I only spent $170 on 3 dress pants and 5 nice shirts. Yay!!! Now I need a bigger closet and need to stop buying clothes for awhile. :)

The other cool thing this week is that I have made it to the gym every single day since I got back in town last Friday night. :D I'm trying to make it a habit to go to the gym first thing in the morning before work, and so far so good. I did miss Wednesday morning due to the late night the night before, but I went to yoga after work instead. Woohoo! I definitely feel better because of it, and I'm happy with the results on the scales too. Oddly enough, what got me started is that I actually lost weight on the cruise, got down to where I prefer to be, and I intend to stay there! Wish me luck. Because come about mid-busy season I'm really going to need it.

Anyways, that's my week so far. This weekend should turn out to be fun if the plans end up happening. I'll tell about it afterwards though.

First day back at work

Today was my first day back at work in approximately 3 and a half weeks. It felt nice to be useful all day, and always have something to do. It was also nice to work out before work. I'm going to try to do that every weekday. Just a quick workout generally, about 30 minutes on the bike and then crunches and stretching. Eventually I might add more. Someday I need to start doing the weight circuit, but I'll take it slow for now. Just getting to the gym in the morning at all is an accomplishment, so I'll stick to making that happen for now.

It is dreadfully cold today (Fairbanksans close your eyes for this) all of about -5 degrees. I swear it feels colder still. My car didn't like me this morning when I turned it on. Fortunately I remembered to plug it in tonight, so as long as I remember to flip the switch as soon as I get up in the morning (to turn the power on), it should like me a bit better. And it's supposed to be warmer tomorrow... up to somewhere in the mid 20's. That will be very nice. And Olin invited me over for dinner tomorrow. Yay!

My New Bed

Here is my new bed... new comforter, new pillows, new sheets, even softer and warmer than ever!

A few more photos from the cruise...

Ryan and I in the Bahamas, with the cruise ship in the background.

A cruise photo taken on formal night. Aren't we cute?

The free version of the above photo.

Our official photo from the horseback ride.

Tech Woes

So I used to like iTunes. It has a great organization system and of course it makes uploading to my iPod very easy. Until you want to make a few changes and accidentally delete all your purchased music! And even worse, I apparently can never get it back without paying for it again since I didn't burn it or save it on a separate hard drive. But of course, since I have an iPod, I'm stuck with iTunes if I want any music on my iPod. Damn monopolies. Anyways, if anyone has any suggestions of how to get my purchased music back, or of any other software they suggest, or even other portable music players, I'd love to hear of them. I intend to do a bit of my own research when I have time. Of course the only time I really want to use my iPod is at the gym, so I suppose I could live with it for awhile.

I did find an awesome internet radio site: Pandora. It's by far the best of any I've tried so far.

Training in Nowhere, TX

So I'm in a little place that's called Grapevine, TX for training for work. It's only claim to fame is that it's near the Dallas/Fort Worth airport, and it's only saving grace is that it has a rather large outlet mall. Otherwise it's the middle of nowhere, TX. The hotel is pretty nice though, and the training has been pretty good so far. I seem to be a bit reclusive this week though. Normally I'm much better about meeting and talking to lots of new people, especially because it's training and networking is one of the most important things you can do as an accountant. But I seem to have lost my talent this week. I think part of it is that I'm tired. This is partly due to jet lag (although 3-4 days into it, I can hardly claim that anymore), and also due to staying up late and not being used to long days. Hopefully this will get me ready for long days at work again, because they are coming far sooner than I'd like to believe. But at any rate, the training has been pretty good, and I got to do a little shopping.

Across the Universe

A friend (Michael) and I went to the Bear's Tooth theatre this evening and saw a movie called "Across the Universe". It was pretty interesting. It's labeled as a drama/musical/romance by IMDB. I think I would label it a drug-induced/beatlemania/war/romance. Like I said... very interesting. It generally takes awhile after seeing a movie for me to decide for certain whether I actually liked it or not, and this one is no exception. But the more I'm thinking about it, the more I think I did kind of like it. It left me with a happy feeling afterwards, which is key in a good romance, and definitely laughing due to the absurd volume of Beatles music used throughout. And since it was a beatlemania film, it had to be drug-induced. I'm convinced that watching it while on drugs would make it far more entertaining, although I don't intend to test this theory.

At any rate, it was good to get out of the house and it was also good to have a reason to finish packing quickly, which I had to do when Michael called about an hour and a half before the start of the movie. But now the packing is more or less done and will be finished half-blindly at about 3 a.m. tomorrow morning when I stumble around and try to get myself to the airport. In the meantime, it's time for a few hours of beauty sleep.

Since I'm on a roll so far this year...

Here's a comic Kate sent my way: Hugging Trees

As for trivial news from my life, I have finally unpacked my bags from the cruise. And good timing too, seeing as I have to repack them very soon for a week of training in Dallas, TX. I leave early Sunday morning, so I have to be packed by Saturday evening. For those who may be interested, I'll be back in Anchorage late Friday night a week from now, unless the airlines determine otherwise.

Workaholic - and I'm not even working right now!

Check out today's Dilbert! It's a perfect example of my job. *grin*

Happy New Year!!!

Here's a link to some of the photos from the cruise.