Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Loss of a Hollywood Friend

I am really sad about the death of actor Heath Ledger. I have really loved his acting since I saw The Patriot and A Knight's Tale is one of my favorite movies. Every webpage that I click on that has an update or a picture of him makes me want to cry. I believe that he had such potential and was really coming into his own as an actor. I was so excited when he was named as The Joker in the next Batman movie. I still look forward to that film, but it will be very sad to see him in his final role.

Friday, January 18, 2008

A Day Off

Today is Friday and it is my day off. Because I work every third Saturday, I get every third Friday all to myself. Charley started back to classes yesterday, so I truly have the day to myself. I had to go grocery shopping today, but that was about it. I wasn't in any rush this morning, so I lounged in The Sac for a while and finished reading my book, Queen of Sorcerey by David Eddings. I've got the next book in the series and I'll probably make a cup of tea and get started on that one in a few minutes. I did finally go to the store and got my shopping done. We didn't have much food in the house so I had to buy a lot. Now the fridge is full of fruit and other tasty treats, so I feel better.

Though I am enjoying my day off, I will admit that I was really happy to get back to work this week. It was nice to come back de-stressed and feeling on top of all of my projects. Monday started off with a SRT meeting, which was a bit tedious, but mostly productive. I was glad to get back to my story times too. I really missed all of my little kids, so it was good to see them again after a pretty long break. I feel refreshed and I hope that the feeling stays with me for a while. I know that it will get busy with various projects soon, so I will try really hard to stay on top of the stress. One nice thing about this particular weekend is that even though I have to work on Saturday, I will still have a 2-day weekend because we are closed on Monday for MLK Day. I don't feel as much pressure to get the housework done because I will have all day Sunday and Monday (another day all to myself since Charley will have work regardless of the holiday).

I may try some new recipes this weekend. I'll let you know what I try and if there is anything that you should try too! I think I'll go to my book now. I am really enjoying this series. I read it several years ago and only remember fragments of the story so it is enjoyable once again!

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Back Home

It is a wonderful feeling to walk back into your home after being away for any extended period of time.

We checked out of our room at 11 am on Wednesday and had quite a bit of time before we had to leave for the airport. We checked our bags with the bell captain and went for a walk. We hit the International Marketplace and I finally found a few pieces of jewelery that I wanted. We still had lots of time to kill, so we took a cab to the Ala Moana mall and went to Barnes and Noble. During all of our wanderings in the downtown area, we couldn't find a book store and we were both craving some reading material. I found a couple of books and Charley found some Stephen King that he hadn't read. We decided to have lunch at the mall, so we went to Ruby Tuesdays. I had my last pieces of fresh pineapple with my salad bar order and we both enjoyed a fresh pomegranate lemonade - so tasty! We headed back to the Marriott and read for a while to pass the afternoon. Before our shuttle to airport came, we decided to get some ice cream, so we headed to the Coldstone Creamery around the corner of the hotel. The diet starts up again when we get back!

We left Hawaii at 9:30 Wednesday night and arrived in LA around 5 am. We arrived at our hotel, a stone's throw from LAX, around 5:45 am. Charley went to bed almost immediately because he had a meeting at 8:30 am and would have to get up by 7:15 to get ready, grab a cab, and arrive at the school in time for the meeting. He didn't sleep much on the plane and he had to be fresh for his meeting. I stayed awake for a while - I was kind of wired from all of the travelling. I ironed his shirt for the meeting, read the newspaper, and ordered some room service. Our food arrived at 7:20 and we enjoyed a deliciously expensive meal of pancakes and hash browns. Charley got himself showered and dressed and as he was about to head out the door, he realized that he didn't have his cell phone. We are fairly certain that he lost it on the shuttle from the airport to the hotel, but sadly, it is probably gone forever. Charley went to his meeting and I went to bed. I slept for a glorious 5 hours.

Charley's meeting went really well. This meeting was for his job at the LBC, which officially begins in May. He was meeting with a school that is interested in Artful Learning, and I am really proud to say that the meeting went really well. The school is likely going to sign a 3-year contract, which is more than was expected when he went into the meeting. Needless to say, Charley was completely exhausted when he got back, so he went right to sleep. That evening we ordered Chinese food and just chilled out in our room. We both slept well, though probably not long enough!

On Friday morning, we got up early and had to make our 9:15 plane from LAX to BWI. The flight was good and I'm really happy to say that all of our flights went well on this trip. There weren't any delays. We didn't lose any luggage. And even though our last flight was in the regular seating area on the plane (we couldn't upgrade to get those extra 6 inches of legroom this time), the trip was comfortable, and went by pretty quickly. We got into Baltimore at 4:55pm and were worried about Friday night rush hour traffic. I drove and I'm happy to report that we didn't hit a bit of traffic! There were lots of cars on the road, but there weren't any accidents and we flowed along quite well! We stopped for a quick bite to eat, since we don't have any food at home! And we were walking in our door at 7:20 pm.

We were so happy to be home. And our kitties seemed quite pleased to see us too - well, as please as cats can seem anyway! We unpacked and spent some time snuggling with Ulysses. Shiloh took a while to come out, but since she finally did, she has usually been in my lap or Charley's. I have had to contort my body to accommodate the cats sleeping on our bed for the last 2 nights. I don't mind though - I'm just happy to be home!

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Hawaii - Day 9 - The Last Day

I'll enter some final comments in a day or two. Right now, I'm exhausted and ready for a bite to eat! We're in Los Angeles now and will be heading back home tomorrow. Here are 2 final, and very appropriate pictures, of our visit to Hawaii. We loved it and hope to be back again some day!



Day 8

This was my favorite day of the whole trip! We rented a car and headed up to the north shore. It is so amazing how the landscape and vegetation changes so dramatically when you get out of Waikiki Beach. The island is only 30 miles from north to south and 60 miles from east to west, but because of traffic, poor road conditions, and lack of roads in certain spots, it takes a long time to navigate the whole island! On this day, we decided to visit a bunch of different places.

We went to the Dole Pineapple Plantation where we tried our hand at the world's largest maze, which took us about an hour. We only found 6 of the 8 stations that we were supposed to find! The hedges are around 8 feet tall and there are over 3 miles of paths in the whole maze! After the maze we treated ourselves to a Dole Whip, which is not ice cream and not sorbet. It is somewhere in between and is full of pineapple tastiness!!







Next, we went to the Waimea Falls, which featured an Audobon Nature Preserve. I took a bunch of pictures there and here are my favorites:

The Nature Center:















A Cannon Ball Tree (each round ball weighs about 10 pounds!)



The Men's Hut



The Women's Hut



Waimea Falls







Our final stop of the day was the Kona Brewing Company which took a bit of driving around and getting lost to find, but it was well worth it when we found it! We beat the dinner crowds because we were eating our traditional "linner" and some really tasty beverages. I had a "gingerade" which was non-alcoholic and tasted a bit like a really gingery lemonade. Charley and the Pool's tried some of the various brews and we all gorged on a delicious meal! Here are some pictures from our view on the deck of the restaurant.







Banyan Trees

The Banyan Tree - how I loved to look at them! So beautiful and gnarly and amazing! Here are few of my favorite shots:





Hawaii - Day 7 (an extra!)

Both of Charley's presentations went well! The first one had a large audience, which was nice to see. The second one, on the LBC, only had a handful. In fact, the other folks attending were also presenting during that session, so it was a bit disappointing. Charley, Ken, and Jonelle all did great with their presentations and were all quite happy when they were finally done! We decided to celebrate by going to Duke's, a restaurant that honors Hawaii's legendary surfer, Duke Kahanamoku. The restaurant, which is right on the beach, had excellent food and beautiful views. Here are a few shots that I took of Diamond Head, the most famous volcanic crater in the world!





Hawaii - Days 3, 4 & 5

Charley's conference officially starts on Saturday, the 5th of January and goes through Tuesday, the 8th. He has to present on Sunday and Monday. As a result, he goes to the conference in the mornings and I head to the pool or to the beach. I have been working on a tan and have been successful at getting a bit of color! We didn't do too much on these days, so I will post a few pictures of the views from the hotel.

We are staying at Waikiki Marriott Resort and Spa. The first 3 floors of the hotel have shops, restaurants, the pools, and meeting rooms. Most of Charley's conference is happening in these meeting rooms, so he doesn't have to go too far. Our hotel actually features 2 towers, the Keolohilani Tower, which is named afer the guest cottage of Queen Liliuokalani and the Paoakalini Tower, which is named after Queen Liliuokalani's summer home. Both towers offer breathtaking views. We are in the Paoakalani Tower and our view is away from Diamond Head.

Looking out of our balcony, we can see the ocean to the left and the mountains to our right. There is golf course to the right, before you get to the mountains. The Sony Open is being held about 15 minutes from here - the islands are all well-known for their beautiful golf courses. In fact, Charley read somewhere that the golf course that we can see from our balcony received 100,000 phone calls every Monday morning between 7 and 7:30, with folks trying to get tee-times for that week. Can you imagine!

Enjoy these shots from our balcony and a few of the hotel's open-air middle sections that feature the shops and lush gardens!

To the Left - Beach:











To the Right - Mountains & Golf:





It's Long Way Down!







The Interior of the Hotel:





Hawaii - Day 2

On our second full day in Hawaii, we decided to visit the Waikiki Aquarium, which was only a 10 minute walk from our hotel. The aquarium included a bunch of small tanks that featured the various local sea creatures. We loved watching the giant tank of jelly fish that had a black light and made the jelly fish appear pinkish in color. It was neat to see them moving about and colliding with one another. We also had a good time watching the tank of sharks, which included several different varieties, but our favorite was the black-tipped shark which was tiny but ferocious looking, all the same! Of all the creatures that we saw, my favorite was the sea dragon which looked a bit like a sea horse and a bit like a dragon fresh from the pages of Harry Potter or Middle Earth. They were small, but so cool to watch!

Because of the glare of the tanks, I couldn't get too many decent pictures, but here are few that came out.

The Monk Seals



The Sea Dragon


Charley's conference officially starts tomorrow, so we decided to lay low tonight. We ate dinner in the Italian restuarant that is in our hotel, called Arancino. I had the most delicious appetizer of fresh papaya and prosciutto - so yummy! We had pizza for dinner and Charley had tiramisu for dessert. I'm not a fan, but he really enjoyed his dessert! When we were done, we asked to have our remaining pizza boxed up. This took a really long time and after a while, our server came out to sheepishly tell us that one of the staff members didn't realize that our remaining pizza was supposed to be boxed up and actually ate a few of the pieces! She brought us another whole pizza, so we're set for lunch for the next day or two!

Saturday, January 5, 2008

Hawaii - Day 1

Aloha!

We arrived in Hawaii at 6 pm on the 2nd of January. Charley has a conference here - this is the best place in the world to have a conference - especially when spouses can come along! Our flights here were just fine - no problems. In fact, we really lucked out because we were sitting in the Economy section, which is glorious in and of itself (an extra SIX inches of leg room!) - and we were in the first part of our section so we didn't have anyone in front of us. We had the TV right in front of us and we actually had even more leg room! The flight from LAX to Honolulu was really nice! We slept a bit and tried not to watch the movie (Rush Hour 3), but overall the flight was nice and easy.

They had a "Halfway to Hawaii" contest where they gave you a bunch of figures like airspeed and wind and all that and you had to guess what time it would be in Hawaii when we were halfway there. Yours truly was the big winner!! I was only 3 seconds off the actual time. To be honest, I SUCK at math, and this was truly a guess, but I'm not going to complain! I won a big pack of macadamia nuts - nice prize!

We made it to our hotel by 7, got checked in and bite to eat and headed to bed! We were exhausted! We had left our apartment at 3 am, East Coast time and arrived at 11 pm, East Coast time. So, we were wiped out!

Charley's conference doesn't start until Saturday, so we have a few days to do some toursity things. We decided to visit the Honolulu Zoo, which is only a block from our hotel. Oh, I forgot to mention the gloriousness that is our hotel! We are on the 31st floor of the Waikiki Marriott - we have an ocean view and we can see the whole of the city of Honolulu. It is a great room!! On that first morning, I saw 3 different rainbows!

Okay, so back to the Zoo - the Zoo is just a block away and we didn't visit it the last time we were here. This was such a fun thing to do! They have the typical types of Zoo animals - lots of chimps, a couple of tigers, elephants, and tons and tons of birds. There was a bird sanctuary that we really enjoyed visiting! My favorite animal in the whole zoo was actually in the bird sactuary. It was a little mountain cat called a serval. The zoo also had a little story time area, so I had to have my picture taken there! I didn't have a book, so I used the newspaper!

Here are a few of the pictures that we took on this first day:

The Rainbow:


The Zoo: