On Monday night, I picked up Jon from work to go to dinner at Stella's. I received an e-mail coupon to use at Stella's for a buy one, get one free dinner, so Jon suggested that we we go out to dinner on our anniversary and use that coupon. We had just celebrated our anniversary the day before, but I love Stella's! So we drove to Stella's and eventually found some free street parking (Stella's doesn't validate parking until after 6). After we walked through the rain to the restaurant, we found out that Stella's was CLOSED for remodeling or something!!! They will reopen in September. UGH!!! This is the second time that's happened (last time, I think it was for my birthday and they were having some company party). So since I was in the mood for Italian food, we headed over to Olive Garden instead (which was good, but Stella's chicken parmesan is much better).
At work on Tuesday, my department had a picnic over at one of the parks nearby. One of my bosses has season tickets to the Mariners, but she couldn't go last night so anyone who wanted to go could put their name in a hat to win the tickets. Well, I won the tickets, so Jon and I went to the game last night (Mariners v. Yankees). We sat in the Avaya Terrace Club area (section 245).
Last time, I was in the Terrace Club was shortly after my birthday in 2001. My tickets were for the game on my birthday, but it was pushed back after 9/11. Those seats were in section 227. Those were nice seats and I had a great time at that game (if I remember correctly, the Mariners beat the Rangers 16-1 and that was the night of the Seattle Mariner towel giveaway. It really did look cool when everyone in the stadium twirling their towels around).
Anyway, that was a game back in 2001. Last night's game was just as fun - though no towel giveaway. Plus, The Mariners beat the Yankees! My winning streak continues (it seems that for a while now, any sporting event that I've attended, the home team has won).
And Jon, though he hates baseball, said he had a good time! He said he enjoyed booing A-Rod (I had to explain why people were booing him to a coworker). I didn't really boo A-Rod specifically (because it's been at least 5 years already and I really didn't care if he left), but I did boo the Yankees as a team.
:-D (I think it's funny that this article's first line is "maybe this is the week the booing stops." That article was written 4 years ago! I think people just boo now for the fun of it, not because they actually hate the guy. Maybe.) And we had about a dozen Yankees fans behind us!
We also had a cute 8-month-old baby in front of us that smiled at us with his cute little smile. :-D
This morning, I think Oliver was a bit angry with all that's been going on. First, on Saturday, he's stuck in the pink room for several hours; then on Sunday, Jon and I leave for several hours on Sunday to go to the play; then Monday night, we went out to dinner and got home late; and finally, last night, we go to a baseball game and are gone for several hours. So this morning, he angrily scratches the couch looking at us the whole time ('cause he knows he's not supposed to do that) and when Jon and I try to leave (Jon actually left the same time as me this morning), he kept running up to the door and wouldn't let us open the door to leave!
Sophie was just quietly hanging out in the house this whole time. Though when we finally were able to get out the door, both kitties came over to the window to look out at us. I wish I could just stay at home all day....
Sister: My sister got out of the hospital on Saturday around 11 or so. She had a stint put in, and she has to wait until her infection goes down before they can do a lithotripsy. Hopefully, that will happen soon! She had 3 large kidney stones in her left kidney. My nephew, Daniel, told Trina that he had to go to the bathroom all the time after he had his stint put in.
Mother: My mom has her 4th chemo treatment tomorrow. After this next treatment, she is to have a MRI done to see where they are at. The doctor had told her that she would probably have 2 more treatments to try to shrink the tumor as much as possible before they do any type of surgery.
Grandmother R: Though I haven't mentioned this before, my grandmother has moved out of her apartment and is moving in with one of my aunts.
Job Hunt: I'm going to start to send out my resume sometime this week. Hopefully, I'll hear something from someone soon.
Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband of 7 years. I am so happy to be married to you. :-D
And just so you know, I don't have that Seven Year Itch. ;-D
Yet another busy, but fun, weekend.
On Saturday, we had a luau themed party at our place. Thankfully, the weather people were wrong and the day ended up being really nice. The food was quite yummy - thanks to all who contributed some food! We had some smoked pork shoulder, BBQ'd steak, pasta salad, fruit salad, poi (not so yum), chicken long rice, lomi lomi salmon, coconut pie, key lime pie, a cake, and various other items. Everyone was given a lei and a sticker with their Hawaiian name on it. And, of course, we had also had some decorations put up, along with some tiki torches.
Hopefully soon, I'll have some time to upload the pictures I took and provide a link for everyone to see them. :-D
I think everyone had a good time. I think the only ones that didn't have a good time were Oliver and Sophie. We put them into the "pink room" with their food and litter box so that we could keep the french doors and the front door open. I felt guilty for keeping them in there, but I didn't want them to go outside especially since there were two doggies at our place - Oliver hates dogs and he would get really freaked out if he saw one. Anyway, so they stayed inside that room for several hours until everyone left. They were very happy to get outside of that room!
On Sunday, Jon and I went to Fall City to the Snoqualmie Falls Forest Theater to see The Taming of the Shrew. It was a nice little place to go. We showed up and got our play tickets and our dinner tickets. We eventually went on a mini hike down to the theatre area, where thankfully they handed out seat cushions to everyone, along with the program and some bug spray. They also had some food and drink items to purchase for $1.00 a piece. I was soooo hungry and I didn't have any green money, so I had to use .70 in silver coins and .30 in pennies to get a little bag of popcorn. My wallet feels a bit lighter today. ;-D
The play was really funny. I enjoyed it quite a bit (though even with the seat cushions, the seating was really uncomfortable and my back was just killing me).
The only other time I've "seen" Taming of the Shrew was the 10 Things I Hate About You version - and they seem quite a bit different from each other. I don't think I ever read this play in high school.
I would love to go back there to watch another play again next season.
After the play, we had some dinner. Jon and I shared our dishes - we had salmon with a sherry cream sauce and steak with a peppercorn sauce, along with some garlic mashed potatoes, fruit and dessert. Both dishes were quite yum. Then after dinner, Jon and I wandered over to the scenic viewpoint to look at Snoqualmie Falls. We were a good distance away from the Falls, but it was still quite pretty. I really need to go to a closer spot to the Falls since I haven't been there in several years, and I love waterfalls. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so I wasn't able to take any pictures. :-(
Luckily, it didn't start to rain until after we got home. It was actually another nice day until we got home, then it started to POUR.
When we got home, I think we were both exhausted from being busy the whole weekend that we both laid down on the couches and didn't move for quite a while. We laid there and watched the news on Hurricane Katrina and a tiny bit of the MTV Video Music Awards. Around 9:30, we decided that we were old and that it was bedtime.
And next weekend, we're going over to Spokane for a few days! I am so looking forward to my 5 days off from work. It is definitely something that I need or I might just go crazy (or at least more so than I am now).
My family has such luck with their kidneys. A lot of people in my family, including me, have had a kidney stone. My aunt and cousin were born with just one kidney. My sister is now going through a kidney stone and may need to have a lithotripsy. I'll know more later. This is her second kidney stone - she had her first one when she was pregnant with one of her children (I can't remember which one). One of my coworkers is going to have surgery on one of her kidneys on Tuesday to get rid of kidney stones that aren't coming out on their own. Then later, she'll have surgery on the other kidney. What fun! I learned yesterday that another coworker had a kidney stone last year. It seems to be a popular thing.
Anyway, the first coworker told me things I should take - calcium (right before going to bed), magnesium, and B6 - and of course, drink a lot of water and try to limit sodium intake. I've been trying to do the latter. It has been almost 13 years now since I had my kidney stone, so I seem to be doing an o.k. job at it. I hope anyway.
"All we have is this moment, right here, right now. The future is just a fucking concept that we use to avoid being alive today. So, be here now."
- From Six Feet Under (not sure what season or what episode - I found it while reading comments people have made following the series finale)
Last night after watching the series finale of Six Feet Under, I went in search of this song called "Breathe Me" by Sia. I liked the song and it fit with what was happening in the show. However, iTunes wouldn't let me purchase the song by itself; the song could only be purchased by buying Six Feet Under Volume 2: Everything Ends. I listened to the 30 second clips of the other songs to determine if the whole CD would be worth purchasing. The other songs seemed like something that I would like, so I went ahead and purchased the CD. For the most part, I like the songs. Of course, I've listened to the other songs maybe a couple times, but I've listened to "Breathe Me" a lot. This song and the first song on the CD called "Feeling Good" by Nina Simone, I will always associate with Six Feet Under.
Spoilers below, so read at your own risk.
AMAZING. I have never cried so hard at a tv show before. That last half hour or so was just a big tearjerker. I love that they showed what happened to everyone in the future and how and when they died - a fitting end to a show all about death. I love that the name of the finale was called "Everyone's Waiting" - a perfect name for the finale.
I think it was funny that Brenda was with Billy at the end going on about something or another (someone thought that maybe he was going on and on about Claire and Ted). I thought it was just so sweet that Ruth died after seeing Nate smile at her. I gasped when Keith was shot. I thought it was also sweet that David died when he saw a young Keith. And I think the song really went with the final part of the episode. I must find that song now!
I think I may have to watch it again because it seems like there was a lot I missed when they were showing the future. Plus, I still haven't seen the 2nd and 3rd seasons, so I need to rent those sometime.
One of my coworkers was talking about how much she likes Launch. I told her I used to listen to Launch a lot a few years ago - around the time I was studying for the bar, but not since. I thought I would give it another try since I forgot to charge my iPod. I will definitely be listening to it in the future if I ever forget to charge my iPod again - or even when I want to listen to music I don't have on my iPod. The only thing that irritates me are all the ads - apparently, you can pay $4.99 a month to have Launch be ad free - but it really isn't worth it to me.
Also, we were talking about "Top 40" music, and that some people hear "Top 40" music and automatically think it sucks - and well, most of the songs do suck (of course, some people will think that they all suck).
Anyway, I thought I would go see what is in the Pop Top 40 this week to see if there are any songs or artists on there I like. There are a few songs on there that I do like:
"Don't Phunk With My Heart" by The Black Eyed Peas
"These Words" by Natasha Bedingfield (which Jon likes too)
"Cool" by Gwen Stefani
"Feel Good, Inc." by Gorillaz
"Speed of Sound" by Coldplay
"Best of You" by Foo Fighters
"La Tortura" by Shakira and Alejandro Sanz
The Kelly Clarkson songs
The Green Day songs
And though it isn't a great song, whenever I hear "Don't Cha" by the Pussycat Dolls, I can't get it out of my head. They seem a bit like The Spice Girls. Jon also likes "Pon de Replay" by Rihanna.
And also on the Adult Top 40...
Some of the same songs as above, but also...
"Breathe (2 A.M.)" by Anna Nalick
"Collide" by Howie Day
Saturday morning, I got up around 7:45 and went outside to do some yard work. I pulled weeds for a while - trying to get rid of the blackberry "weeds" coming from the neighbor's yard into our own was just so much fun! Around 10, I thought it was late enough to mow the lawn and use the weedwhacker. My arms are so sore after weedwhacking the yard. :-( But our yard now looks somewhat o.k. for the luau this weekend! :-)
As some of you know already, Jon and I went out on Saturday night with Paul, Ally, Work Adam and Kendra. It was supposed to be our first time meeting Ally, but we had met her the night before when Paul and Ally came over to our house to borrow a guitar. On Saturday night, we went out to Buca di Beppo for dinner, then later we went to The Garage for a couple games of bowling. The chicken parmesan at Buca di Beppo's was really good, as were the green beans and the garlic mashed potatoes.
At The Garage, I played horribly. My HIGH score was 67 or something crazy like that. My dad would be so proud! ;-D I still had a good time though. The waitress was a bit bitchy, but it still was a nice place to go bowling. The shoes looked new and not at all gross like a lot of bowling alley shoes are. :-)
Though I didn't do so great, Jon was on a roll in the 2nd game - he got 3 strikes in a row! Someone then asked me how bowling is scored, and you would think that having grown up with a dad that LOVES bowling I would be able to explain how a bowling game is scored, but you'd be wrong. In case anyone who went is still curious on how to score a bowling game, then go here.
After The Garage, we went over to Red Robin for some dessert, which was yum, but I couldn't eat it all after being so full from dinner.
On Sunday, I thought for some reason, it would be a great idea to go clothes shopping. It turns out that it was not - most of the stuff that I liked were either once again for maternity, for bigger women or if they did make sizes that could actually fit me, they were all gone because of all the back to school shopping. I did manage to get a couple shirts at Target and a few shirts for Jon, but no pants - which is what I really need.
Later that day, was the BBQ over at Paul's. I had a good time and all the food was yummy - even that fruit salad that Brad brought that had sour cream in it (sour cream in a fruit salad just didn't sound right). I really liked the pasta salad that Michelle brought, as well as all of the green salads. Yummy!
After quite a few people had left, Ally was singing and playing guitar with Jon and Paul. She sang a song that she wrote, and I thought it was a good song and I really think she has a really good voice.
I can't believe it's already Monday. Weekends go by way too fast. I cannot wait until Labor Day when I'll have a 5 day weekend.
In my effort to watch the movies I borrowed from my parents, I watched another movie. I watched Cold Mountain the other night. It was an o.k. movie. The ending was kind of expected. Either the movie was a bit predictable or it just seemed like the ending was how the story should go - any other way would've seemed cheesy.
Some of the war scenes were well-done. I thought Renee Zellweger did a good job. Nicole Kidman and Jude Law were o.k. - though I'm not sure I really believed their romance.
In the end, it was another C movie for me.
I'm finally getting around to watching the movies I borrowed from my parents a while back. First up, The Aviator.
It was an o.k. movie. I'm apparently one of the very few that didn't think this movie was a masterpiece. The movie was a bit overrated, in my opinion. I think I agree with the New York Times reviewer Manohla Dargis
who said, "Martin Scorsese's biography of the famously eccentric empire builder Howard Hughes is visually sumptuous if disappointingly hollow."
There were times that I wish they would just get on with the story already - it was a very slow paced movie and long (almost 3 hours). However, after saying that, I thought that the ending was rather abrupt. What was I supposed to gather from that ending? That he finally completely went crazy? Do I think that only because I know he went completely crazy? Also, whatever happened to the Spruce Goose? I honestly didn't know until Jon told me a little and I looked up more information on it later. And it turns out he was married (perhaps 3 times), but I never got that from the movie. These are just things I would like to know. If they didn't want to film that info - they could've at least given some of the info at the end of the movie.
Unlike the NYT reviewer, I did think that Cate Blanchett did a good job portraying Katharine Hepburn.
In all, I'd probably give this movie a C. It was just o.k.
I was just re-reading some blog entries and came across my entry about my laparoscopy - which was one year ago today. I hadn't realized that it had been that long. I'm hoping to go back to the fertility doctor sometime this fall to discuss what we should do next. I'm afraid that the doctor will say that IVF seems like the only option and I know we can't afford that - when it is something that has no guarantee that it will work.
It scares me that it is a possibliity that we will not have children of our own. It bugs me when it happens to others so easily. It bugs me when people expect it will just happen for them with no problem (as is true of an individual in my vanpool; though to be fair, I probably felt that way once upon a time). It bugs me when people who have children who neglect them or abuse them. These things bug me because of all the stuff that my husband and I have gone through in trying to have kids and I know we will both be good parents - it just shouldn't have to be this hard!
I have been thinking about adoption, but I really want to have children of my own if we can. My grandmother (dad's mom) told my mom the other day that all we need to do is start the adoption process and that's when I'll become pregnant. Maybe it will - maybe it won't. If we do end up adopting, I will care for and love that child as if I had given birth that child myself. He or she will be our son or daughter.
If we end up not having children at all, I will try to come to terms with that. Though after reading Empty Womb, Aching Heart, I realize that the hurt will always be there even when I'm at the end of my life.
Hopefully, everything will work out - whatever way it happens.
After 3 1/2 weeks, I have finally finished reading Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. This book is about 2 English magicians in the early 1800s who are trying to restore magic to England after its long absence.
I had a really hard time getting into this book - there were times that it was interesting to me and I wanted to know what was going to happen, but there were also times I was so completely bored with the book, as apparently was Jessa Crispin of Blog of a Bookslut.
I really think what would've kept my interest throughout the entire book was if the author had been shortened the book by 200 pages; anyone reading the book still could have got the gist of what was going on. Although it isn't one of my favorite books, I am, however, curious about the movie, and I will probably have to watch it at some point.
Overall, it was an o.k. book. I just don't think it was as great as some reviews have said.
The weekend started with my parents informing me that they were going to comver on Friday with my brother Ryan. Chad decided to stay at home. My parents picked me up from work and it was the first time I had seem my mom since she had started chemo. She was wearing a little hat, but when she took off her hat, I could see that she has lost a lot of her hair.
That night, we had a little BBQ for dinner and watched some tv, though later on Jon and Ryan went to go play DND with Jon's four DND characters.
The next day, Jon, Ryan, and I went to Wild Waves/Enchanted Village for my employer's family fun day, while my parents walked down by the piers before my dad went off to a bowling tournament in Everett.
Wild Waves/Enchanted Village was very hot and very crowded. The lines were so long for all of the rides that it seemed we didn't get to go on as many things as I would have liked or to go on them as many times as I would have liked. I went on the Timberhawk twice (once with Jon and Ryan tried who seemed to hate it) (it's a wooden rollercoaster; Lumberjack Falls; Bumper Cars; Sack Slide; The Wild Thing (love the loops!); and Konga River twice. We didn't try any of the water slides, though I wanted to try Zooma Falls, but no one would go on with me and it seemed like a group activity. I liked all of the rides though the Timberhawk was extremely short, as was Lumberjack Falls. With Lumberjack Falls, we got soaked and it felt good with that heat. After the ride, we watched another boat go down Lumberjack Falls and on the bridge above the ride, you can get just as drenched as if you were on the ride. We were dry within 10 minutes even after being drenched twice.
Later in the day, there was a Longhorn Barbeque catered dinner. We didn't eat too much because we weren't that hungry, but of what we had was yummy!
When we got back to my house, we were hungry then, so we just had another BBQ before my parents left to go back to Spokane (my dad had to work the next morning). Speaking of my dad, I don't think he'll want to stay at my house again. Despite trying to make the "pink room" as kitty free as I possibly could (he is allergic to kitties), it seems I wasn't successful in that because he was having some issues.
The next day we were having my in-laws over to be guinea pigs in Jon's 2nd attempt to perfect smoking a pork shoulder. It seems that things worked out a lot better than they did in Jon's 1st attempt. I didn't try any because I really don't like that kind of thing, but of those that tried it, they said it was good. So it seems the 2nd attempt was a success.
It was a busy weekend and the next 3 weekends will be just as busy - with a BBQ, Bowling, a Luau, our 7th Wedding Anniversary, Dinner Theatre and a trip to Spokane - it all should be really fun! During our trip to Spokane, we are going to go to Silverwood. It looks like it will be a lot more fun than it was the 1st time I went several years ago - they have a few more interesting rides.
I stayed home from work today, and while I was laying on the couch, I decided it was about time that I watched The Graduate that I recorded a while back, as well as a movie called The Dive from Clausen's Pier with Michelle Trachtenburg (Dawn on Buffy). Don't read below if you don't want any spoilers.
The Graduate: It was not exactly what I expected and I really didn't expect the end. I didn't really believe that the daughter (Elaine) would want to be with someone her mom slept with. And Dustin Hoffman's character seemed a little psycho too - a bit of a stalker. It was just a weird movie. And although I like Simon & Garfunkel songs, it was really irritating to hear the same ones over and over again - sometimes playing it, then stopping for a few minutes, then starting again. Kind of irritating. So, in all, I'm not sure if I liked this movie or not - it was o.k. - I'd give it maybe a C.
The Dive from Clausen's Pier: I recorded this movie off of Lifetime because I had bought the book a while back at Costco, but I haven't got around to reading it (except for maybe a couple pages). I thought I would wait until after I had read the book to watch the movie, but I wasn't sure when I'd get around to reading it and my DVR was getting a little too full so I watched it.
Anyway, the movie, as it seems a lot of Lifetime movies, was a bit cheesy and the acting, even from Michelle Trachtenburg, seemed really bad at times. She also seemed too young for this role, but, again, I haven't read the book yet, so maybe she's supposed to be that young. Plus, it just seemd like the movie jumped around to much; I felt like I was missing parts of the story that would make this story more believable. Hopefully, I'll get those parts of the story in the book. I would give this movie a D.
A coworker of mine (Staci) has invited me to her book club. I have a feeling that this book club will work out a lot better than the last one I was in. The first meeting is on Sept. 11, and we're reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. I started reading this book before but stopped for some reason. I think it was because another book came out that I wanted to read, and I never got back to reading that book - not because I wasn't interested in the book.
Anyway, I'm excited about this new book club. I only wish I was involved in the book club this last month when they read The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffeneger. I really enjoyed that book.
On Saturday, I went to go watch the Blue Angels as I try to do every year. This year, Michelle, Brad, Adam and Jon joined me; we went to Colman Park and got there around 10. We had a little picnic and watched as much as we could see of the hydroplane races. There was also another air show before the Blue Angels show. As usual, I really enjoyed watching the Blue Angels. The whole time down at the park was fun. We sat around and ate some food, got a little sun (got a little sunburned actually), talked about various stuff, and I read my book for a little bit. And, of course, Brad created a little bit of excitement by asking this woman about her daughter who he thought was older than she really was. The woman was a little bit pissed off.
Anyway, after the Blue Angels, we headed back and decided to stop off at the Arboretum. We wandered around there for a while before heading back home. The arboretum was really nice to walk around in - I probably should do that more often.
After the arboretum, Jon, Michelle and I went down to U-Village for some food. I ordered some pad thai from Zao Noodle Bar and took it over to the Blue C Sushi place where Jon and Michelle were going to eat.
I actually liked the pad thai - it probably is one of the better pad thai dishes I've had in a long while. I also tried a couple dishes at the Blue C Sushi place - the sesame noodles, the chicken katzu, and the Japanese Cream Puff - all of which were yum.
Regarding the Blue Angels: next year, I want to go on one of the Blue Angels cruises through Argosy. I think it would be nice to see the Blue Angels on a boat, but we'll see if that actually happens. It is a bit pricey ($45-$75 per person)
On Sunday, I went to go see a friend's house out in Lynnwood that isn't quite finished yet, but I got to see the model home. I thought the house was nice, though I'm not sure I'd want to live in Lynnwood. Afterwards, we went out to lunch at Canyons and I ordered this chicken fajita salad - and it was huge - but it still only had maybe 5 pieces of chicken in it. The salad was definitely not worth the price. After several times of going to Canyons, I don't think I want to go there anymore - it just seems overpriced and not that good.
Later on that night, Jon and I went over to Adam's for a BBQ with friends and had some hot dogs. It was nice to sit outside and chat - until the mosquitoes started to bite me. Of course, one of them had to bite me right where I have a sunburn on my leg, so when I forgot about the sunburn and I scratched my leg, it REALLY hurt. :-(
On Saturday, I thought that since I haven't bought any new clothes in a while, I would go shopping. I went over to Northgate Mall and to Target. I found absolutely nothing! :-(
I tried on skirts (I really, really look bad in skirts). There seem to be a lot of shirts that have little bows on them (I'm usually not a fan of bows). Camisoles seem to be really popular right now (and I didn't like any of them that I saw - though I don't think I would look good in them anyway). And no one seems to want to sell sandals anymore - I've been looking for a good pair of brown sandals ever since I broke my last pair back in September of last year (ONe of the sandals broke when my sister and I arrived at the Gorge for the Dave Matthews Band concert).
Later that day, we had some friends come over to try Jon's smoked pork shoulder. Since it didn't end up being done by the time everyone came over, we ate hamburgers instead. The pork was finally done around 10 or later (I can't remember exactly when). Jon plans to smoke some pork again this weekend.
Sunday, Jon and I went out to breakfast with Paul & Adam after the three guys moved Paul's washer. We went to Flo-Anna's Diner. Then I decided I would go see Wedding Crashers. I thought it was an o.k. movie - it had its funny moments and it was very predictable (as most rom-coms are), but I still thought it was an o.k. movie. Plus, I really like Vince Vaughn. Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson did make a good comedy duo, so hopefully, they will make more movies together.I would give it a B.
Apparently some people are upset about the use of Purple Hearts in the movie (it was maybe mentioned on screen for a total of 5 seconds).
After the movie, I started to read "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" again, but it is definitely going to take me a while to get through this book - though it is becoming more interesting.