Last of the travel pictures

Okay - Here are the last pictures I have to share with you...

The Birthday boy and his wife...



Harland, Teresa and me looking grand before the Cirque De Soleil show. Which was admittedly very cool. We were in the front row!!


Where else can you see Celine Dion and Harley Davidson in one spot??


And then two parting shots taken from the airplane window on our way out of town!!

Hoover Dam & Lake Mead

Hey everyone.... Had a good weekend. Yesterday I was busy - I was getting trained in CPR for infants and adults. So there you go, I can now CPR anyone!

Okay so here we go - Here is a picture of Harland, Teresa and me at the Grand Canyon. It is the last picture to show you before we move on. I'll quit boring you :)


Then here are some pictures at Hoover dam. You can see the lake and how much smaller it is than it used to be better in this picture.



Here is a picture of Harland's Great Uncle, his Great Aunt and his Dad.


Then we went to the Lake Mead and this is the harbor. There were giant carp - the size of ducks.




Tomorrow I'll post that last few pictures of Vegas.
Hope you are all well.

Grand Canyon

Here are a lot of pictures from the Canyon.
At the skywalk they have some buildings of the Native people of the area.


This is a picture of the canyon.


Here is a formation they call the Eagle.


This trail is closed - perhaps for obvious reasons. There were no guardrails or fences. Which was really cool.


You can take cool pictures over the edge.


You can even park your baby on the edge and take pictures. I don't recommend it. These people made me so nervous. Holy Moly... so dumb.


And here is us on the Skywalk, not that you can tell. It is a sad fact you can't take your camera on there. I guess they don't want the people to look down on a camera graveyard. The Skywalk was awesome and if you are not scared of heights you should head on over ASAP!

Vegas Day 2

Actually this title is a little misleading...
Because day 2 we drove away from Vegas to go to Grand Canyon West.

So say "Bye Bye Vegas"...


And Hello to the Desert.


Here is Lake Mead (this it the lake held back by Hoover Dam - Hoover Dam pictures will come in a few days on here, I am saving them for later). We had to go through Lake Mead National Recreation Area to see this. The website is www.nps.gov/lame ...couldn't they have come up with a better abbreviation than LAME? It is anything but. Click here to see for yourself!! My only regret is I didn't make my in-laws stop at the visitor center so I could get a stamp for my National Park Passport book. But we were anxious to get to the canyon... and on the way back it was not open.



See that white ring along the bottom of the picture? No not the line on the road, that is to designate the shoulder of the road... the one at the bottom of the lake. You may have to click on the picture to see it larger. Geez Louise. That is the amount the lake has lost. It is a lot smaller than it used to be. If you can't see the white line... you'll see it in a few days when I post the dam pictures! (by the way it is fun to say "I'm taking another dam picture!" hee hee, I am, maybe 12 years old in my sense of humor).

Then we went through a Joshua Tree forest. I am confused as to what this area is, if it is part of the Joshua Tree Forest that is part in California, or if it is part of the Mojave Desert or just a random Joshua Tree Forest. Anyone knowledgeable about this area? Susan? Anyway it is along the roads to Grand Canyon West and is even on their map (Click Here) so there.





Anyway - I spent so much time on the Joshua Tree debate that I am tired and Harland is hinting it is time to go to bed (by actually going there himself) so I only have time to show you pictures of the Dirt Road before I head to bed.



Good night! See you tomorrow for the next installment.

I'm Back!!

Some of you know that I was heading for all parts west for a long weekend. I got back last evening. I didn't want to advertise on the blog when I was going in case someone wanted to rob us. Of course all they would get would be some fine kitchen gadgets (like my favorite orange spatula) and some yarn. Not even that much yarn. :)

Anyway, we flew out to Los Angeles and then rode to Las Vegas then took a trip to the Skywalk at the Grand Canyon. Now I can add a few more states to the list since I have never been to Nevada or Arizona before.

Okay, so the trip may take a few days by blog so bear with me and know that the next week will be picture laden. Okay - so first stop - LA to see Harland's grandmother (in the middle).


(yes I realize this is a picture of my Chinese side of the family in a Japanese restaurant. Grandma likes sushi, what can I say?)

The next day we drove to Vegas.

Here is a picture of the road on the way. Pretty boring really. And HOT. The hottest it got along the way was 119 degrees. But that is hot enough for me. I actually have alot more pictures of the drive there... but I'll spare you. Just imagine variations on this theme.

Our hotel was the first place you really come to that looks Vegas-like. Off to the left there is Southpoint. It was a pretty good hotel, very clean, has movie theater, bowling alley, equestrian center etc. But it charges for the fitness room. Which I think is stupid. It's the only negative thing I have to say about it. It even has a pool that has chilled water in it, so it is refreshing.


That night we went to Bellagio and saw the fountains:



And inside they have really cool glass sculptures... and long stem roses that are about 5 feet long. Holy cow, I have never seen roses like that.

And this is Paris Hotel that I took out of the car window, right when Harland's Dad started to drive, but I kept the picture because it looks kinda cool.

And here is a picture of the Luxor that I took when we were in a traffic jam. You can see the taillights of a car driving the opposite way... which I thought was a neat touch.


And that is all for tonight folks... Harland has to get up at a ridiculous hour all week this week for some training he has to go to.

10% !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There need to be about 50 more !!!'s up there.

So I finally reached the 1st weight watchers goal. The last three weeks have been painful without any change - but this past week I stepped up my exercise (see tomorrow's morning's post) a bit and so I think that is the reason I met (and surpassed) this goal. By losing just 10 percent of your body weight, you can lower your cholesterol and reduce your blood pressure!!

So I just had to tell you all. Now I just need one more 10% and I'll be in the healthy weight range ('cause y'all I was officially obese - according to the BMI charts when I started. Just barely, but I was there - now I'm merely overweight).

2 more pounds and I'll be the lightest I have been in 3 years, friends.

Hope you are all healthy and happy and are sharin' my joy.

Burke Lake Park

We went to Burke Lake this morning. Click here for their website.

It is a nice little park with a huge man made lake. It looks a lot prettier in person than the picture on their website. It has a dirt/gravel path all the way around the lake which is about 5 miles or so. You can bike, run, canoe, kayak, etc. there. There is a playground for kids, and volleyball courts too. Also there is a little fitness trail and a nature trail. It's free for Fairfax County residents.

Almost the whole 5 mile path is in shade. Burke Lake Park is one of the 10 best fitness trails in the nation, According the Hiking Assoc. of America. It was really a nice morning, not too hot outside. There were a lot of a runner there along the path. Harland and I just walked.

I highly recommend it and I bet we'll go again soon.

Rest in Peace, Mouse

Okay we finally got Mr. Mouse. He liked brownies, melted ice cream and crumbs. His love for peanut butter was renowned. It, in fact, was his last meal.

We finally got him with a super mouse trap idea built by my hubby. Three mouse traps in a row, taped together with peanut butter baiting the middle one.

I feel bad about him, but he had to go, and he didn't listen to me. I told him if he stuck around it would not be good for him. Where is the pet psychic when you need her to talk to animals?

The Mouse in my house

Okay some of you know about the mouse. You know, the one a few weeks ago I wished would just go away and not come back? Well, it hasn't gone away. Mouse is still here.

So the apt. people put down poison, in three weeks it hasn't eaten it. I complained and they put down glue traps! which I think are horribly inhumane (in fact many states have banned them). I could not bear the thought of a live mouse being stuck in this thing panicking until we find it then we have to kill it or throw it away alive, which just freaks me out to no end. It's basically torture. Some mice even rip off fur or skin trying to get out or actually do get out ripping things.

But the mouse has to go, they carry diseases and buggies and all kinds of nasty things. And he is living in the kitchen. Every morning I tell him he better leave. But he hasn't listened.

So we set some old fashioned traps. He ate the peanut butter off of them. He just mocks us.

Anyone has any hints? Tricks? Advice? Sympathy?

Exercise Log, Week 1

I'm taking a page from Yarnsticks and keeping a weekly log of exercise on my blog. I'll "label" it so that any time you want to see them all, you'll be able to click on the label below the post called "exercise log" and it will bring them all up. Okay so probably that feature is only helpful for me. In fact, I'm going to try and make this interesting to all, by including little stories... but it still may be boring.

Right now I am trying to get back into running. I'd really like to be able to run a 5K in October. I am hoping to find a local one so that maybe H and I can sign up and celebrate our (3rd) wedding anniversary with some matching race t-shirts. Hmmm. That is pretty dorky... but then... so are we.

So on Day 6 when I was out run/walking I was near the pond near my apartment and there were three Canadian Geese and one was making this pitiful honk every 10 or so seconds. It was really strange. The second time I came by the one goose was still making that honk when a whole flock (small flock maybe 10 at the most) flew down and they all started chatting. The 3 ones that had been alone were smaller, so I'm thinking maybe they were cranky teenagers whose parents had gotten up earlier and left for food or something. This morning they were all in a field nearby grazing on bugs and other yummies, but it was the whole flock.

Day1 - In the AM: walked 10 minutes, (Ran 1 minute, walked 2 minutes) X 5, walked 10 minutes
In the PM: 15 push-ups X 3; 30 crunches X 2

Day2 - In the AM: walked 10 minutes, (Ran 1:30, walked 2) X3, walked 10 minutes

Day3 - In the AM: Walked 4.7 miles around Burke Lake
In the PM: 15 push-ups X 3, 15 sit-ups X 3, 15 lunges (per leg) X 3, 15 squats X 3 (this I nicknamed as 'SPLAS' - which stands for Situps, Pushups, Lunges And Squats)

Day4 - In the PM: 23 minutes of Ab Yoga

Day5 - In the AM: walked 10 minutes, (Ran 1:30, walked 2) X3, walked 10 minutes

Day6 - In the AM: Walked 10 minutes, (Ran Day6- 2 minutes, waled 1:30) X 3, walked 10 minutes.

Day7 - In the AM: Walked 10 minutes, (Ran Day6- 2 minutes, waled 1:30) X 3, walked 10 minutes.

What's going on

1. So we have this loud upstairs neighbor and we can't sleep a lot so we wanted to move, but really, I am so tired of moving I could throw up. I think I have moved almost every year since I graduated college. Ugh. But it looks like I'm going to move again this year. We found an apartment here in our complex that is a bigger one bedroom and on the top floor of another building. So therefore... we are moving in August. It also isn't very much more than what we are paying now, and the layout of the apt. is so much nicer!!

2. I finally am mailing out birthday cards for like the last 3 months. I am so late. I don't know what my deal is, but I buy cards and I never mail them. I am so terrible about it. Also I need to write birthdays down on my calendar. I forgot to do that this year and that may be why. I am terrible about remembering all birthdays.

3. Got some travel books from the library about the Netherlands so I will be reading up on that this week.

And well, sadly that is it.

Have you seen this?

Okay, I admit I may be on the slow end of technology, so maybe you have already seen this, but it blows my mind, really. Photosynth. I can't really explain - other than to say that people who love photographs or computers (or if there are people out there who love both) will be impressed. I also saw a demonstration on some guy's laptop in an online video and it really is amazing how fast it is.



All this from the internet and it seems to load pictures so fast! I of course can not try it at home since we have a Mac... but this looks super cool. Oh and the video says 9 minutes, which seems long - but the last 2 minutes are a commercial... But be sure to watch the first 6.

Happy 4th of July!!

Well- It was mostly a relaxing 4th here. We got up late, we ate good food. We watched movies. We read. We folded clean laundry. I mean really, what can a person want more out of their 4th of July?

A clean Closet? Some Fireworks?

I cleaned out my closet of all the clothes that don't fit anymore. As you can see ---> over on the sidebar I am almost to my first Weight Watchers goal of 19 pounds. I hope I'll be there by next Wednesday. I knew I didn't want to talk much about it here on the blog, but I do have to say I am so happy! I now weigh less than I did when I got married. How exciting is that? I'll have some new goals next week and will post them so all of you who read the blog can keep an eye on me.

Anyway I just thought I'd share. There is a lot less clothes in my closet. There is still some time before the ones in there don't fit anymore. I saved a lot of my skinnier clothes along the way... well at least my favorites... in hopes that someday I would fit back into them and that someday looks to be fairly soon. At least by next summer!!

Oh - and Fireworks? Well I didn't want to go to the Capital (not a big crowd fan nor a traffic fan) especially since I don't have tomorrow off. So then we were going to go to a local high school but when we got there they had canceled due to the weather earlier in the day (we had terrible thunderstorms, with hail in some areas and a threat of tornadoes.)

So then when we were driving back we saw that from the highway near our house you could see fireworks so we decided to stop off at Trader Joe's Parking lot. And man, from there we could see all the fireworks from the area! We saw 10-11 different firework shows from the towns around us. Well actually - one of them, I swear, was on the Shenandoah mountains. You could just barely see these little itty bitty fireworks from atop a ridge in the distance.

So while I didn't get the true firework experience - and I didn't get any pictures for my blog - it was still pretty cool, especially when you would see the grand finales of several places at once. It was hard to tell which way to turn your head since they surrounded us.

Now it is time for bed. Would someone tell all the people in the apartments around us to stop firing firecrackers?

Happy Independence day!!

Birthday present to oneself

So, a friend of mine once told me that she gave herself a birthday present every year once she started working. She said it was so she was guaranteed a present that she loved. I'm pretty much guaranteed a present I love anyway, because I have great present givers surrounding me.

I mean, have you seen what Susan's making me over here? Holy freaking cow, a quilt! And in Orange even, my favorite color!! Doesn't totally freaking rock? I don't even know how to talk about it without squealing like a five year old girl at the idea of getting a Pony.

And my parents and Harland always get it right.

But just to tip the Birthday presents scale in my favor I've adopted the birthday present for oneself. I always try to make it small... last year I got a manicure and pedicure with my friend Lenka.

This year I decided to buy this sweater pattern from Knitpicks - The Vanilla Pullover
I have to say that I wasn't sure if I was going to be happy with the cotton yarn. But I LOVE it. The yarn is so incredibly soft, not like the worsted weight cotton I've been making dishcloths with - plus this DK yarn is so light!! I am very excited, it feels like a very light chenille, it is Awesome. Anyway - the yarn and the pattern was less than 20 bucks and it is going to make a fantastic summer lightweight sweater.

I'm so excited. I've never made a sweater, so we'll see how long it takes me. And maybe I'll need some help when I get to the end. Especially when it comes to sewing the seams.

Here is what I have so far of the back:

Happy (30th) Birthday to me!

Okay so I've been 30 for over a day now, and it's not so bad.

So far.

I had a lovely weekend, we went to my parents and had a nice relaxing time. We went to Lancaster, PA for a while (H. had never been there) and we also went to Millersville University (where I got my undergrad) and walked around. It was in between summer sessions so it was pretty dead. But it hasn't changed as much - which is nice.

Then my dear parents took us out to dinner, and then afterwards we went and played some mini-golf which I really enjoy and don't get to do very often. There is a really nice mini-golf course near my parents' house.

I didn't win, (Dad did) but it was a decent 2nd place. Then came cake time, which is personally my favorite time on birthdays.


Dad played a little trick and got some trick candles... the kind that keep lighting over and over again.

But joke was on him - see all the smoke? The smoke alarm went off.

Note that we are drinking champagne with our cake. Now that is what I call a birthday. If you know me at all you know I am a lover of champagne.

So it was a good time, we even had a chance to pick black raspberries this morning before I left... and I think right now I'm going to eat some of the fruit of my labors. Quite literally. Tomorrow I'll post some knitting news. My aunt Patty has stated I haven't been posting enough, and so I'm going to step it up a little. :)