Hot Flash Pedicure Chinatown

I realize that my title is random, but I had a really hard time sticking to a single topic in his blog post.

SO, my hot flashes need to be gone before I can start the Clomid. The Clomid won't work if the Lupron is in my system still. I called the nurse today to schedule an appointment with my doctor. She asked me if I was still experiencing any hot flashes and I was like, "I can't really remember... I had a busy day." So after I hung up with her and then had a hot flash like five seconds later. Seriously?!?

I have a phone appointment this Friday to talk to my doctor and I'm going to refer to my notebook with all the questions. I'm nervous that I'll take the Clomid either too early or too late and mess up my chance to get pregnant one of my three months. I hope there's some sort of blood test that they can do to tell me when I should start. I just don't want my inability to remember when I've had my most recent hot flash mess me up.

So maybe April 1st will not end up being my first Clomid day... I hope the next doctor's appointment will bring some reassuring answers.

Had a bit of a stressful day at work, so Caitlin and I went and got pedicures. Seriously, I LOVE pedicures! I never had one before I lived around these high fulootin northern Virginianers, but NOW I'm seriously addicted. It was the perfect thing to get my mind off of work.

Oh yeah, Doug will be home on Monday!!!!!!!!!!!


Here's one of his latest emails, so you can be jealous with me:

Last night, I decided to visit Chinatown, since I’m trying to cram as much as I possibly can into the next several days. The experience was definitely memorable – first, I walked to the river and took a “water taxi”, which would probably be more appropriately named a “water bus.” It is a long wooden speedboat with very low benches that you hop on at one of the various stops on the river, and then you proceed down the river at a speed that seems well beyond safe. A series of blue tarps strung to hand-drawn pulleys on the sides of the boat prevent you from getting too wet. The ride is a little unsettling, but at ten baht (33 cents) to get across town, it’s cheaper than a taxi or even the BTS skytrain.
 
Once I arrived at the proper stop, I realized Chinatown was not within easy walking distance, so I braved my first tuk-tuk – little three-wheeled contraptions with a driver in the front and a bench seat in the back, powered by either a small motorcycle engine or a large lawnmower engine. Tuk-tuks are named such because the engines make a “tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk” sound when they’re riding across town. They are also renown for being rip-offs, and this tuk-tuk was no exception – a Thai who spoke remarkably good English told me that for 20 baht, his tuk-tuk driver would take me to see some touristy sites and then to see some “Thai Fashion”, and then ultimately on to my destination of Chinatown. 20 baht is extremely cheap and I know going into it that it’s similar to a timeshare scam, but I go ahead anyway because I want to see it and it’s cheap. I got to see some really cool Buddha statues and temples. “Thai fashion” was, as expected, the hook – a tailor pays this guy to get tourists onto tuk-tuks and into his store so he can sell low-quality tailored suits and shirts. I was able to turn it around and found out that the wife of my salesman worked as a maid for one of the people at the US embassy, and subtly suggested to him that being extremely pushy with me might result in my “good friend” at the embassy finding a new maid, and I was immediately free to leave. The tuk-tuk drove me to my destination with no further sales stops.
 
Chinatown was intense – I think it was moreso since it was an extremely foreign culture inside of another extremely foreign culture. I have a friend at the embassy here who is a native of China, and he warned me that Chinese people are much more rude than Thais and will try harder to rip you off. Sure enough, the first street vendor I visited tried to rip me off by saying the price of the food was 15 baht and then when I gave him a twenty, he said “nooo… fifty baht”, to which I responded that I was not a farang (foreigner) and that I wanted my five baht or else I would call the police. He gave me my five baht and doubled my order for the “mis-understanding.” Sadly, most of the shops were closed by the time I got there, so I will have to visit this Saturday to see some of the famous woodwork that can be purchased for cheap in Chinatown.

Better get back to some REAL work!

Doug

Greetings from Thailand!

Doug is about to becoming an unknowing and probably unwilling author on this blog.  I mean, his name is on it and all... and he forwards his website www.dougandjenny.com to here as well!  I wanted to share some of his neat experiences in Thailand.

Greetings from the Other Side of the World

Just thought I would let you know that after 19 hours of sitting on an airplane, I am finally in the Kingdom of Thailand! The last few days (two for you, three for me) have been a bit of a whirlwind. To start it off, the merger of United and Continental Airlines’ database systems occurred on Saturday, the day I was flying out; to complicate matters, the plane we were scheduled to go on had technical troubles the day before, so they assigned our flight a new plane – these two variables combined resulted in most of the aircraft apparently being assigned the same seat. It was a nightmare. We were more than an hour late taking off.

I had a layover in Tokyo, Japan. You can still see some of the wreckage from the earthquake and tsunami last year. Airport security in Japan is a little funny – they still have a deeply-rooted social class system, and the people doing the security checks obviously felt extremely uncomfortable about inspecting my luggage; they asked my permission each time they unzipped a pocket on my backpack and didn’t really poke around much, then apologized profusely for the delay and inconvenience. It was a stark contrast to the TSA, who all appear to be aspiring OB/GYNs or proctologists.

I arrived a little before 1AM. The weather in Bangkok was 85 degrees and extremely humid. You start sweating as soon as they open the aircraft doors and continue sweating until you’re indoors for a solid half hour. My hotel room is bigger than my first apartment and is paneled in cherry and bamboo. The hotel sent a limo service for me, and I tipped the driver 150 baht (the national currency). 150 baht translates into about five US dollars, but it’s a lot of money here! You can eat out for lunch on about 200 baht a week, or buy a freshly-beheaded whole chicken at the outdoor market in front of Sukumvirit park.

Thais are used to the heat, and are known to wear down jackets if it gets below 70-75 degrees. I keep my room at the lowest the thermostat will go to, which is about 66 degrees Fahrenheit if I’m reading it right. The cleaning crew will almost certainly don parkas and snow boots for my room.

Anyway, I have to get back to embassy business, but wanted to let everyone know I was doing OK.  

VOLUME II: Tales of Action and Intrigue from Siam

Unfortunately, we’ve had a local network outage that will take about an hour to resolve, so in the meantime, I can assault entertain you with more stories from Bangkok.

After work last night, I went to one of the largest malls in Thailand called MBK (Maiboon Krong). It is eight stories tall, and has about 2,500 stores. Many of them are traditional mall stores that you might expect, but parts of it are more like a “market” feel, with very small booths packed into a tiny space. The food is also great – in malls like this in Thailand, you are given a small electronic card when you enter the food court that you swipe when you order food from various merchants, and then pay when you exit. Most places will specialize in a single food, so you visit one vendor to get curry, and then another vendor to get a drink, and another vendor to get dessert. I had a large meal of red curry with chicken and a strawberry smoothie with mango sticky rice for dessert, at a grand total of 300 baht (about ten dollars). Including my hotel, I’m easily able to live on less than $100/day, which is pretty remarkable for such a big city.

This morning, a woman was pushing a cart around with orange juice she would make from scratch in front of you – no water or sugar. It was 10 baht (about 30 cents) for 250 mililiters and was the most amazing drink I’ve ever consumed. It didn’t taste anything like orange juice or even any drink I’ve had before. I will definitely be splurging 30 cents in the mornings for this treat. I’ve also started carrying small scraps of meat from breakfast to give to the alley cats between my hotel and the embassy. Cats don’t grow to be as large here as they are in the United States, but they all have disproportionately large heads with big eyes, giving the everlasting impression of kittenhood. The residents of the city seem to like the cats and frequently leave table scraps on the sidewalk for them after dinner. Around 7PM, all the cats in the city come out of hiding and run to claim the scraps in their respective territories.

Tonight I am going to have a new suit and some shirts tailored for me at a local shop. The owner is said to be extremely eccentric and never forgets anyone’s name, even after several years. Most of the Congressmen who come to visit Thailand stop by this store, and he can recite their measurements from memory. Perhaps I will finally be able to get some dress shirts that fit properly instead of bunching at the waist.

I am starting to get used to the time change, but still woke up at 3:45 AM today. I will probably head back soon and take a short nap, because the heat combined with the jetlag has about put me into a coma for the day.

Wishing you the best from sunny Siam,

Something Fishy

Unfortunately, I am still waking up at 3AM, which is early even by early-bird standards. I cannot seem to program my internal clock to go forward a full twelve hours, with the unfortunate consequence of lethargy in the early afternoon – either that, or all the tasty food!

Yesterday afternoon, I decided to go to the largest aquarium in Thailand. There are brochures for it everywhere, and they definitely charge tourist-level prices for it; the farang (foreigner) admission fee is 900 baht, which is certainly more than what most of the street vendors live on per week. Fortunately, I was able to convince the cashier that I was a resident and get a huge discount, which is pretty impressive considering I’m a foot and a half taller than a native of Thailand and whiter than a snowball. The aquarium was fantastic – lots of interesting fish that are native to the warmer waters in Thailand, plus a house-sized aquarium that you could walk through via glass tunnels, which housed several large sharks. For an additional fee, you could don a dive suit and go in, but the sharks were quite large and had several rows of nasty looking teeth and looked hungry, so I decided not to pay to have shark wounds inflicted on me and just watched from the other side of the glass.

Along the way to the aquarium, a large outdoor Buddhist shrine took up the better part of the block, so I observed people worshipping for a while. Eventually, a native Thai came up to me who was a history teacher at one of the international schools and spoke English fluently, and she talked a bit about what people were doing and the symbolism of it. I laid a little flower wreath on the statue for good luck, and may see if I can find a cathedral tomorrow just so I can cover all my bases. One can never be too insured by deity when traveling overseas.

I tried Peruvian chicken, which was delicious – they brine whole chickens overnight in a vinegar and oil mixture and then grill it in front of you. It is very spicy, but dissolves in your mouth before you can swallow it. I ate half of an entire chicken for lunch, which is good, because after touring the aquarium, I couldn’t decide what to eat for dinner so I played it safe with some local mango ice cream. Being an adult is great, because you can dedicate an entire meal to ice cream. I have gotten a little more adventurous and tried some meat from a street vendor from an unknown animal. I guess it’s true what they say – “tastes like chicken!”

Unfortunately, I spent so long at the aquarium that I didn’t get to the suit-tailoring place. I’ll be working late at the embassy today due to a meeting with Washington DC, so I guess it will have to happen tomorrow. This weekend is the outdoor marketplace at Chatachuk, which is 34 acres of small shops that set up early Saturday morning and run until Sunday evening. You can buy anything at one of its 15,000 stalls, including tropical aquarium fish, purebred Siamese cats, hand-carved jade statues, and everything in between.

Anyway, I must get back to the grindstone. Hope all is well.

On Squashing Pennies

I ended up working all of yesterday, and didn’t get to go sightseeing. I will spare you a play-by-play of the minutes of fun one can have at a typical day at an embassy and keep this short. For the first time since arriving, I slept past 4AM, and am definitely feeling a bit more chipper today.

Money in Thailand, no matter the denomination, has the King’s picture on it. The King is revered in Thailand, and even stepping on money is a grave insult – thus you never find money lying on the ground, and the paper currency is usually in pretty good condition. Street vendors will avoid taking currency with a “dirty” hand; for instance, the nice lady that makes me my orange juice will not use her orange-stained hand to take money. When I visited the aquarium a couple of days ago (see Something Fishy…), they had the penny-squashing machines that will stretch a penny and stamp a logo from the destination on one side (and always seem to appear at tourist traps). While I collect squashed pennies and would’ve gotten one anyway, I was extremely interested to see how it would be handled in this case… would they really have a machine that defiled currency in Thailand? I waited with bated breath as I inserted my coins – would I be kicked out of the country for making a souvenir?

Fortunately, I will not be convicted of lese majeste any time soon; after depositing 20 baht, a small blank silvery disc was automatically dropped into the machine from a hidden reservoir and I got my squashed “penny”. Thailand finds a way to bring all the comforts from home, including a Ronald McDonald at every McDonald’s entrance giving the traditional Thai wai’ greeting with hands pressed together and head slightly bowed.

Out of My Comfort Zone

Since my last intrepid e-mail, I have moved a little further out of my comfort zone and experienced some truly singular events; as referenced in an earlier travelogue, I went to go get some shirts tailored at a fantastic shop called Rajawongse. This is the must-shop experience for men coming to the embassy, as evidenced by how many Department of State business cards Viktor Rajawongse has on display in his shop. I can proudly say that I am now there too, in good company with many ambassadors, both President Bushes, and Barack Obama. While I am not prestigious enough to get a photograph on the wall like the aforementioned celebrities, I did enjoy looking at the photos of President Bush (Jr) getting fitted for a suit. He looked like he was cracking jokes the entire time.

Of note is that the renown tailor is smack-dab in the middle of the red light district. I didn't realize this coming off of the BTS SkyTrain (similar to the DC metro, only suspended above ground about 60 feet - dad would love it, no doubt), since I was intently trying to find his shop; however, I definitely realized it coming out of the shop, as the vendor who set up shop was selling certain paraphernalia that might make a sailor blush. To make matters worse, I decided to walk back instead of taking the train back, and mis-calculated which direction the train had originally come from, so I walked about three quarters of a mile into the heart of the red light district. Jenny will be happy to know that I was propositioned several times by women who I suspect may have been men - the Adam's apple kind of gives it away. By the time I realized my error, my pace was somewhere between a brisk walk and a full-out sprint and I decided to just hop on at the nearest train station. Someone at work suggested I buy a compass.

It was not entirely bad, however - I found a nice old lady with one eye selling four spring rolls with sweet and sour sauce for 20 baht (less than a dollar). The spring rolls were gigantic and she cut them up and put them in a little to-go box with a wooden poker to eat them, and I ended up getting so full that I didn't need to eat anything more for dinner. I am making a killing on per diem on this trip, as I am allocated approximately $40 USD a day for dinner. If I continue eating like this, I won't spend $40 USD the entire month I'm here for dinner.

After getting my suit tailored and turning down some nice working "ladies", I met up with some guys to catch a movie at one of the several local mega-malls. As odd as it sounds, the movie experience was also recommended as a "must do", but that's because you can see movies out here "First Class". For 450 baht (about $14) you can get a large overstuffed electronically-reclining seat with footrest and massage with a blanket, all-you-can-eat popcorn and drinks, and entrees brought to you by your own Thai butler. The popcorn comes in four flavors - salty, caramel, sweet (kettle corn) and ginger (the caramel was definitely the best). You have a little button on your armrest that summons your butler to get you more popcorn or even steak with a nice Chianti if you want it. The First-Class theatre can only hold about forty people because the seats are so much larger. Before the movie starts, you sit in the First-Class lounge that has a huge buffet and interesting fruity juice that is a combination of coconut and raspberry and ends up tasting like blue cotton candy - they escort you to the theatre and start it when everyone is seated and reclining and has plenty of snacks to get them through the previews, which are about 40% longer than the preview time in the USA because they have to show all the movies coming from America and then all the movies coming from Thailand and Japan and India. They're all subtitled in the local language so the Thai don't really care - they'll watch everything.

This morning (currently 5:38 AM my time) I will be going to the large Chatuchak weekend market (http://chatuchak.org/) that I referenced earlier for some bargain hunting. I was advised to arrive very early to beat the crowds (about a quarter of a million people will show up today) and the heat.

Shopping in the Oven

The weekend was fun. I managed to do some interesting things but still relax. We do not have the abominable Daylight Saving Time in Thailand, so no setting the clocks forward here. I am now only +11 from Eastern time, which is actually less convenient when you’re trying to schedule teleconferences with people in Washington DC – when it’s +12, it’s easy enough to just swap AM/PM in your head.

On Saturday, I got to the outdoor market nice and early, as suggested by a coworker. He was absolutely right – even though many of the shops weren’t open by the time I got there, I was able to get my bearings much easier than if I had come when everything is fully open at 10-11AM. Without all the people milling around, I picked out a few landmarks that would help orient me through the maze of shops – and mazes they are. There are so many thousands of shops that it seems like there’s no order to anything, but after a while, you start to recognize that the people selling counterfeit purses are all clustered together, across from the people selling second-hand t-shirts and sneakers stolen from tourists at the Buddhist temples (where you are obligated to remove your shoes). There are literally hundreds of stalls selling the exact same souvenir trinkets, hoping that they will be the first ones you see – because of this, I decided that I would walk for several hours and just browse before buying anything.

Now, all of these shopping stalls are crudely covered by corrugated  tin roofing, to protect the shops during the upcoming rainy season. The shops are not simply in long rows – rather, they are in bunches of hundreds, and if you walk the main walkways, you’ll miss most of the stores. You have to walk through these tiny one-person-wide alleys between the shops to see everything. These alleys have small troughs that run parallel to them that allow for “draining” – of rinse water, fat runoff from the food stalls, and when someone decides they don’t want to walk all the way to one of the five bathrooms that is supposed to service this market of a quarter of a million people over about 30 acres. All of this combined with the sun beating down on the tin roofing at 95 degrees results in what can best be described as “Hell’s Urinal.” You kind of get used to it after a while, and even get your appetite back. I ate some fantastic Tandoori chicken wrapped in naan, and cooled off with a local favorite – drinking chilled coconut water directly from the coconut (the coconut is submerged in ice water, and when you buy it, the guy chops off the top with a machete and puts a straw in it for you).

I am happy to report that I bought myself lots of goodies, and none for you guys – only kidding. I tried to pick out an eclectic mix of souvenirs that suit your personalities, and got hand-made items where possible. Along with the mass-produced junk and the interesting trinkets, there were also a myriad selection of animals to choose from – both for pets and for eating. Surely the term “puppy mill” was invented to describe the conditions of the dogs here, as they were frequently crammed in cages with no room to move, and I felt especially bad for the long-haired huskies who were panting in the heat. Kittens were placed in bird cages whose wires were too far apart, causing the kittens’ legs to constantly drop through the bottoms of the cages. There would be so many kittens in the cage that the “stuck” ones on the bottom would have to wait some time before they weren’t being walked on to hoist their arms and legs back into the cage. There is very little oversight of the animal industry here, both in breeding pets and in zoos – Westerners are frequently shocked when they see Asian zoos, because the animals frequently look dirty or miserable.

I actually enjoy going to the “rougher” places that aren’t polished for tourists – you learn a lot more about how the locals live, and gain a better appreciation for how lucky we are to live in the United States.

Getting Around

Last night was laid back. I just walked around a bit, and re-visited the MBK mall that I went to last Monday to eat some of the delicious red curry again. I could just get some from a street vendor, but I’m pretty iffy on eating things that aren’t grilled or fried in front of me. I was already feeling a little under the weather; I suspect the fried rice with ham I ate for lunch, so I wasn’t in the mood to spin the wheel on intestinal cramping for dinner.

On Friday, I had a need to take my first taxi. Getting a taxi can be a bit challenging in Thailand, as the literacy rate and familiarity with English is directly proportional to one’s social status and income level. Some taxi drivers cannot even read above a third-grade level in their own language, let alone understand English. Furthermore, unlike the USA, taxis are not well regulated here; if you are going far, you typically have to open the passenger-side door, explain to the illiterate driver where you want to go (usually consists of naming landmarks around your destination until the driver seems to understand), and then asking “meter work?” A common scam is for tourists to get in taxis and then once you’re on your way, the driver tells them that the meter is broken and then he quotes a price that is between 40-80% more than what it would’ve been metered. Frequently, you never get that far because when the taxi driver understands where you want to go, he’ll shake his head once, or make an “…eeeehhhhh” sound, which means that he doesn’t want to take you – perhaps it is towards the end of his shift and he doesn’t want to drive away from home, or the traffic is bad, or he doesn’t think he can pick up another fare at your destination, but it’s extremely important to get this confirmation before you get in, or else the driver may just drop you off at a random point along the way once he’s had enough.

I went through half a dozen taxis before one wanted to take me from the embassy housing area back into Bangkok, a drive of about 15 minutes with no traffic, but seeing as there is always traffic, a reliable 40 minute ride. The traffic was horrendous getting back into the city; Thai drivers like most of their counterparts in other Asian countries, do not follow conventional traffic laws. It is not unusual to see drivers going the wrong way on one-way streets, nor is it unusual to see three lanes delineated by the traditional white highway lines turned into four or five, because people just start driving halfway on the shoulder or just create a new lane by edging between two cars in different lanes. Most highway traffic is driving close enough that one could easily reach out and touch the mirror of a car in another “lane.” Anyway, the traffic finally got to my cab driver, who pulled over at a random point and uttered the most famous English phrase in Thailand – “same same”, which means “close enough.” It was definitely not close to where I had asked to be dropped, but fortunately for me, it was close enough to a train station that I could ride the rest of the way back.

To really understand the prevalence of “same same”, one must visit Thailand, as it has become something of an international joke, complete with t-shirts. I have heard the “same same” response to the following questions during my visit:

-          “Will this battery work in my phone?”
-          “Is my masseuse female?”
-          “Are you sure this is chicken?”
-          “Is this really an iPad? Because the Apple logo is upside down and doesn’t have the trademark bite in it.”
-          “Is this a bootleg copy?”

One does not want to hear this response to things that truly matter, such as something associated with electricity, gender, or your GI tract.

Anyway, I need to finish up some work before my culinary adventure at 11:00 AM known as “lunch.” 

Mystery Meat Adventure

Yesterday afternoon, I picked up my new shirts from the tailor, and boy am I sold. It is undoubtedly the first time I have worn a dress shirt that actually fits me. There is no annoying bunching of excess material at the waistline or sides, and it is long enough for my frame that it stays tucked in even when I scoot around in my seat. I am going again tonight for my suit coat fitting.

Since I had a hike to the seedy part of town where the tailor is, I decided to dine on entirely street-vendor food – besides the food carts that run nearly the entire length from my hotel to the red-light district, there are several enclaves in parking lots or cul-de-sacs that are filled with people selling food. I armed myself with $5 (about 150 baht) to spend, and set off.

First was a stand selling fresh fruit. I picked an easy one of fresh strawberries. They were good, but not nearly as good as Higson’s strawberries in June. The bag was pretty big, so I was eating these and walking for the better part of a kilometer.

Next was a stand selling what appeared to be crepes – I asked the vendor what they were, and he explained “hot dog.” It was five baht, so I don’t have anything to lose, and tried one, and it was delicious! A lot like a corn dog without all the bready stuff – just a sweet thin pancake wrapping a hot dog. I actually have a hankerin’ for one of these right now.

Once I finished the hot dog, there was a mango stand. I bought a sliced mango with what appeared to be a small bag of sugar. I ate several mango slices (they’re in season, and just dissolve into sweet mushy goodness in your mouth) before trying the “sugar” packet – boy was I wrong. As it turns out, the packet was salt and some kind of spicy herb. I basically salted my mangos to an inedibility, so I had to declare the rest a lost cause. I did try eating one, and I am here to tell you salty mangoes are gross.

A bit discouraged, I finally came to the meat stand – I have seen these all around, but have been kind of scared to try anything because the only recognizable item is the whole fish that has been battered and baked to a crisp and is staring at you with blank, lifeless eyes. I selected three skewers at random, and ended up with “chicken parts”, “beef spheres”, and “something that may have been pork.” I ensured that all three were cooked in front of me and hot before taking them, to at least slightly mitigate the possibility of getting sick. “Beef spheres” won out, but I was a bit put off by the pieces of tendon and bone that were in one of them. It was kind of like meatloaf on a stick.

My stomach was feeling a little perturbed by now, so I played it safe with some won-tons on a skewer. I don’t know what was in them, but it was some sort of meat with curry and wasn’t too bad. The consistency is what kind of made it icky, almost like a chunky pudding.

Now, at this point, my stomach knew that it was being conned and was doing cartwheels in protest, so I decided I was done. I had spent three dollars at this point and was really full, but then I passed a home-made Thai doughnut stand, and just had to stop for a strawberry-filled doughnut. Fortunately, there were no animal parts to report in the doughnut, and it was probably the best doughnut I’ve ever eaten.

I am happy to report that I am not feeling sick today, and thanks to a small dose of Imodium, there are no ill side-effects from my culinary experiment. I’d better get going, since my fitting is in half an hour, so I’ll leave you to the rest of your day and bid you adieu. 

Working too Hard

Unfortunately, I was at work until 10:00 last evening, so I didn’t get to do much sightseeing. My stomach definitely appreciated the reprieve, but I am itching for adventure. I will fortunately get it tomorrow, as I am taking off around noon to fly down to Phuket (pronounced pooh-quet). I am really excited! I am still trying to decide if I’m going to do the ocean kayaking in the limestone caves, or ride on an elephant through the jungle on Saturday, and then Sunday will be a beach day. I fortunately was able to get my hotel points in Bangkok awarded early, so I could then turn around and use them in Phuket to avoid paying for a hotel. I ended up booking a five-star on the beach, but just two days there used up all the points I will accrue with thirty days in Bangkok, but judging from the photos of the resort, it’s worth probably worth it. Due to my flight, my travelogue may be delayed tomorrow.

I thoroughly enjoyed my tailored shirts so much that I decided to get a suit made. I went yesterday afternoon between meetings to my first fitting. My longer frame combined with my posture from having a bad back make most suits look big on me, so it will be nice to not have a jacket that gives the appearance that I’m wearing NFL shoulder pads. The first fitting was kind of fun – the jacket is just a rough cut-out without the arms or anything, so it looks like you’re wearing a vest. They stick a bunch of pins in it (yes, this made me quite uncomfortable, but they didn’t poke me) and mark it up with chalk for what needs to be adjusted and cut off. Then they take the arm pieces and pin them on to get an idea of how much they will need to adjust for your arm length. It was a pretty lengthy process and I was frankly glad to be out of my prototyped suit full of needles. I will go back today for the second fitting, and then start getting ready in earnest for Phuket.

Made it!

I am safely in Phuket after a less-than-optimal flying experience with budget airline "Air Asia." I significantly underestimated how long it took to get from the airport to the hotel (about an hour and a half), which was compounded by the fact a tour bus had not been able to handle one of the downhill hairpin turns into Phuket town proper and was skewered by someone's balcony (photo attached); however, all is not lost, because I was upgraded to a nicer room since I was late in arriving and my other room had been taken.

Kayaking

My kayaking trip yesterday was a blast. I didn't get seasick, which is a miracle - okay, not really a miracle, since I took 6 Dramamine throughout the day. I still feel a little fuzzy.

My group had about 25 people in it. We all rode on a large motorboat for about an hour and a half to where the islands are, and then hopped on inflatable kayaks to visit various "Hongs", which are the hollow center that some of the islands have. We would kayak through a cave entrance, and after about 250 meters of darkness, arrive in the actual Hong. It is pretty hard to explain and do any justice to the incredible experience - photos make it a bit easier, but my photography skills are lacking. I shot some video that I will put up on YouTube when I get back to Bangkok and have a stable internet connection.

Some of the caves are pretty narrow - in a couple places, you had to build up some momentum and then lie down in the kayak because there was only a couple feet of clearance. My guide joked that I might still end up getting hurt because I had a "long white nose instead of a proper small Thai nose" when we had to lie down for a particularly narrow portion of a cave.

Towards the end of the evening, we entered a cave, stopped, and turned off all the lights. It seemed weird that the guides would do this, but then they stirred the water with the paddles and the water lit up! There are tiny bio-luminescent plankton in the water, and they glowed the color of fireflies when you jostled them. This was really cool, hard to describe, and impossible to take pictures of.

Anyway, off to enjoy my last little bit of beach before I head back this evening.

Crap.

Apparently Thailand has topless beaches.

Doug was very shocked to say the least.  He thought that the poor girl lost her swimsuit in the waves... that was, until the rather obese and wrinkly 80 year old woman came walking by topless as well.  Painful.

A little more than halfway there.  Doug will be home in 14 days.

Some Optimism

So, I had been trying to email my doctor to come up with a short extension for my plan for treatment, but either she was being unclear or I was because I got so confused! Anyway, I finally scheduled a phone appointment with her and we talked for about 30 minutes today. She was at work at 6:30 on a Friday night when she called me. (I happened to be at work as well, but that's just because I don't have a life... and Doug is out of town this weekend.)

Apparently, my Lupron shot wears off almost a full week before I thought it was going to, but not soon enough to matter for Doug's travel dates. I am going in on Monday or Tuesday this next week to get a ONE month Lupron shot. I think all of the crazy emotion I've been feeling this last little while is my hormone levels changing from my three month shot wearing off. I'm down to about three hot flashes a day instead of more than a dozen. That's good because I think it shows that my system is trying to return back to normal.

We also were able to schedule a follow-up ultrasound in a couple of weeks to make sure that this shot is actually working. If my second shot has worn off by April 1st (meaning no hot flashes), then they will start me on the Clomid again. Clomid isn't a super strong fertility drug, but it should (hopefully) bring my fertility up to what it would be if I didn't have endometriosis.

Of course, there was a disclaimer once again (although now I take them more seriously) that my system may need a "jump start" with some birth control after the Lupron if my brain and ovaries have somehow forgotten how to communicate and need a little push.

So that's my health update! I feel so high maintenance! :)

As far as the classroom, things have been going pretty good. The no-talking mornings were actually pretty nice this week and I'm actually sad to see them go on Monday. I've joked with the other teachers that my kids probably all scared of me right now. I've been acting like some crazy two-headed monster. Every morning I greet my students at the door with a smile and a "Good morning!" :) In the room though if one of them talks, the scary Mrs. "S" comes out. "I said NO TALKING!" and I have this kind of mean/serious look. Sometimes I have to go out into the hall to smile without them seeing me, so I still am taken seriously.

I've been really worried that my students will not enjoy school anymore with this new two-headed monster-ness. Today in my compliment bucket (We do weekly compliments for each other.) there were four different compliments from students all having to do with them liking my smile or how I greet them in the morning. It was nice to know that I haven't crushed their spirits.

Their behavior as a class is SOOOOOO much better after our talks last week. Seriously, I rang the bell this morning to get their attention and they all stopped IMMEDIATELY and listened to directions. The Spanish teacher happened to still be in the room and looked like she was going to faint from disbelief. :)

Doug will be back Saturday night and I get to enjoy him for a WHOLE week before he is off to Thailand for a month. His boss who has traveled extensively and is still happily married offered to let him borrow his sliding scale of travel gifts for the spouse. He has apparently figured out a "tried and true" formula for how much you need to spend on gifts for your wife in relation to how long you will be traveling. I should probably get something good for a full month, right?

Random Mumblings

Recently...

-Doug is traveling. For 6 weeks. I've made it through 3 weeks so far. Reception is spotty so we don't get to talk much. I've been really proud of myself for being disciplined and going to sleep before 10 pm (most of the time). I've woken up EVERY morning at 5 am for work. Every night since he been gone, I've woken up randomly around 2 or 3 am. I just couldn't get to bed again this time. It's lonely.

-School started. 26 kiddos so far. The majority of this group loves to talk. But not about school. I'm working hard to change this into something productive. The beginning of the school year with a new class is like training a puppy, scratch that... litter of puppies. It's going to take time and it's a lot of work. I love them to death, but I miss the familiarity and discipline of my last dog, I mean uh class. Did that make sense?

Of course not. It's now 4 in the morning. I'm pretty sure I have these same feelings every single year.

What else, well...

-The carpet is in and the basement is basically done. It looks really good. The furniture is being delivered next week. For some reason, I haven't been able to get excited about it. It just makes my empty house feel emptier these days.

-I got to go to the temple with my sister Heather and her family this last weekend. Their stake was having a temple day. My parent's stake is having one this weekend. I haven't been to the temple two consecutive times this close together since I got married... over 6 years ago.

-Got the hospital bill or rather "Explanation of Benefits" in the mail yesterday. The whole thing cost over $20,000! I paid $30. Are doctors paid a salary or do they get bonuses for performing expensive surgeries? ...Thankful for good health insurance.

-I'm still on this darn birth control that my doctor prescribed to help with the endo. Having to take this dumb little pill every day is rather disheartening. I keep on telling myself that this is a means to an end and that I should be able to see the end in sight, but when I look at how much longer I have, it seems like an eternity.

-I think it must be messing with my hormones. I feel emotionally dead inside at times and other times I have to hold back sobs after hearing a story on the radio or watching a movie. Seriously, this last weekend I had to hold back tears while watching "The Living Scriptures: Nephi Builds a Boat." I'm not kidding. I feel messed up.

In an attempt to be happy, I've bought the ingredients for monkey bread and I'm taking it to school tomorrow to share with the teachers. Feeding myself and others yummy food will hopefully help me be happy. I'm really trying here.

Welcoming Another Honda to the Family

Old 2004 Honda Civic Hybrid

So Doug has been looking to buy a car for a while now.  His reasoning being that my car has issues and we didn't want to be in the same situation as we were before desperately looking all weekend in the rain for a car.

Back in 2007 when we came out to Virginia, we both had jobs that required commuting and needed two cars ASAP.  Doug found a 2004 Civic Hybrid and bought it privately from some guy in DC.  He figured that it would be a smart buy to save on gasoline.  Not too long afterward, he started feeling a teeny tiny shake whenever he accelerated the car up a really steep hill.  That shake progressively got worse over the four years we had the car.  I have been the one driving it the past two years and I have HATED it.  Every time I would accelerate, even if it wasn't on a hill, the car would go dldldldl.  That's the best I can type the shaking noise.  The car never actually had issues with reliability, but it always made that horrible sound.  We figured it was either going to die on us soon because it was transmission related or need a $4000 battery replacement because it had over 100,000 miles on it.  We probably will never buy a hybrid again.

So, back to car buying... Doug had been to the Honda dealership down near his work a couple of times to test drive a few cars and he basically liked them all, but they didn't have all of the features he was looking for.  Unfortunately with the situation in Japan after all of the earthquakes and tsunamis and such, it makes it difficult to get the car you want.  They offered to put Doug on a waiting list 30+ people long for the 2012 Honda Civic.  The problem was that they were only getting cars in randomly and they didn't have any choice as far as the color, the interior, or other features.

We decided to go to the Honda dealership way out in the boonies where we bought our Accord used almost two years ago.  It turns out that they have like the biggest inventory in the area because they have a smart conservative owner AND well... they're out in the boonies.  :)  They had FOUR 2012 Civics on the lot!  One of them had the leather seats and was the right color, but didn't include the navigation system, but it was really close enough AND there was no waiting list here.

We took it for a test drive and Doug absolutely loved it.  The car had blue tooth and paired right up with his phone and started playing his favorite soundtrack from the movie Inception.  It was perfect!  The dealer had already added this extra "appearance package" that we weren't interested in, but thought we could haggle it out of the end price.

SO, we finally found THE car, we just needed to haggle a little, right?  WRONG.  Our salesman said in the nicest way possible that there was absolutely no wiggle room at all.  They had barely gotten the car on the lot and it had several potential buyers.  We still tried to see if they would pay to add a remote start onto the car and that was a no as well.  We were pretty turned off by their unwillingness to negotiate, so we left for lunch to talk about it.  I figured the salesman would offer us something before we left, but he only offered us lunch at the dealership so we wouldn't leave.

After lunch, we were on the way back to the Honda dealership when we drove by a Toyota dealership.  We went ahead and turned around and decided to test drive a few cars.  We've always been Honda loyal, but the Toyota line has a great reputation as well.

We started with the 2011 Toyota Corolla. which is the equivalent for the Honda Civic as far as size.  This is just my personal opinion, but I thought that the inside of the car looked a little cheaply made. (Hopefully I'm not offending any hardcore Toyota fans.)  The salesman knew right away by our faces that we were not impressed with the Corolla, so he put us in the much bigger and luxurious Camry.  We drove the Camry and it was really nice.  The sticker price was about the same as the Honda Civic and Toyota was offering free oil changes for life!  Doug tried for a while to pair his phone with the bluetooth in both cars, but for some reason they kept rejecting his phone.  Silly as it sounds, it totally put him off from really loving the cars.

We were really close to buying the Camry and decided to go out and sit in the car to talk about it.  I could tell by Doug's face that he wasn't as thrilled with this car as he had been with the Civic, but he kept on saying, "This car makes more fiscal sense. We SHOULD buy it instead."  I told him that we were not buying a car that day unless he was ABSOLUTELY thrilled with the purchase.  You shouldn't spend that much money on something that you aren't absolutely thrilled about.  The Toyota salesman gave us the keys and told us to take it for another drive with just the two of us.  I really thought that Doug was going to buy the Camry.  (I think the salesman did too.)

NEW 2012 Honda Civic

Doug drove straight over to the Honda dealership just to LOOK at the Civic one last time to decide if it was something that he could live without.  I was quite embarrassed because we were PARKING a TOYOTA that we were TEST DRIVING in the customer parking of the HONDA lot.  It even had the big sticker in the window and the license plate on the front dash.

Doug walked right over to the Civic we had test drove earlier, opened up the door, and sat inside the car.  He put the key in the ignition and his phone's blue tooth chirped at the car remembering it once again,  He got this big smile on his face and it was then, before he even said anything, that I knew we were purchasing this car TODAY.  He told our salesman to get it ready and we would be right back... we had to drop off the Toyota we had been test driving and get back our old car. :)

They still didn't budge on the price of the car, but gave us a much higher trade in value than we thought we would ever get with the obvious issues on our hybrid.  In the end Doug got exactly what he was looking for.  A comfortable commuting car that gets good gas mileage and is reliable.

My commuting car is now the Accord and I'm super excited.  When we bought it two years ago, I was really shopping for ME even though Doug was going to be the one driving it.  For the first time in my life I have.. like.. a little pride in my vehicle.  I may actually wash this car. :)

Schedulitis

Define: Schedulitis:

• A disease which primarily affects those on a strict schedule.  It is primarily troublesome for those that were raised in a home setting with no real schedule and have the genetic predisposition to be at least five minutes late to everything.  Positive side effects include having a solid eight hours of sleep a night, getting sick less, and enjoying higher mental functioning.  Negative side effects include waking up before freakin' five o'clock in the morning and not having enough time to fully blow dry hair.

Doug and I started commuting probably about two months ago.  My husband is all about sticking to a schedule.  Something that I never did my whole life before him.  So for all of those that want to know about my extravagantly scheduled life, I will go through my daily schedule because you care...

4:58am - The alarm goes off. (We probably left at 5:32am one day, so it was bumped up.)

5:30am - Pull out of the garage

6:00am - Doug drops me off at my school.  (Only a 30 minute commute!)

...Work for Doug and I...

3:15pm - Doug picks me up. (We're home in 45 minutes to an hour because of traffic.)

4:15pm - Make Dinner/Pack Lunches

5:00pm - Dinner

...Watch a TV show, computer time, reading, or chores...

8:00pm - Read

8:30pm - Lights Out!

It's actually gotten to the point where I wake up about 2 or so minutes before the alarm goes off.  Sometimes this schedule stuff makes me feel crazy.  Like it's against my nature or something.  I wonder if this will change with time or if it will always make me feel this way.  I'm pretty sure that not having a schedule would be against Doug's nature.

Some great things about commuting:

• Extra talking time in the car
• No waiting for the car to heat up in the winter
• Curbside pick-up
• Gas savings/Car maintenance savings
• I don't have to drive.

Not-so-great things about commuting:

• Doug's road rage toward just about any vehicle in front of him.
• Learning to be on time.

Thankful for...

...my husband.

This is NOT going to be one of those posts about how amazing or sweet or romantic my husband is.  When I read those posts from other bloggers I wonder, REALLY?  I love my husband, but come on!  He's not perfect.

I'm missing him right now during his week of nights.  I've seen him awake maybe 15 minutes a day since Sunday.  So... I'm just going to write about Doug, how's he's unique, and most importantly... how he makes me want to be a better person.

In completely random order from whatever comes to my mind while I'm typing this:

1) Contrary to blogger husbands out there, he's not really a romantic.  He's very practical like me.  When he got me flowers this Valentine's Day, I secretly hoped that he had a coupon to pay for them.  I'd rather him spend our money on more permanent things (or permanent memories, like a trip to Hawaii!).  That's just how we are.

2) He is always ON TIME and sticks to a schedule.  This is VERY contrary to the home I was raised in.  When he's here, we go to sleep every night at 9pm and wake up at 5am.  I always get 8 full hours of sleep.  Since I've been married to him, I've been happy and healthier.  I credit a lot of this to the fact that I'm now on a regular sleep schedule.  Except that right now, he's working... so I'm up blogging about him way too late.

3) He's consistent.... and stubborn, but it's good.  When he's says he going to do something, he ALWAYS does it.  I'm more consistent because I'm with him.

4) He's thinks differently. When I can stop talking for more than 5 minutes and Doug actually decides to talk (both are rare occasions), he says really thought provoking things.  The stuff he talks about opens my mind to new ideas and perspectives.  He makes me want to become a better listener and better person.

5) He's a hard worker.  The other night I was talking about how, "We DESERVED this vacation."  He turned to me immediately and very seriously and said, "We EARNED this vacation... People don't DESERVE anything."  I know that sounds kind of harsh and it got rid of my entitlement mentality real quick!  ...but the more I've thought about it, the more I've started to agree with it.  He doesn't expect anything to be handed to him.  He always expects that he will need to work for it.

6) He's very realistic, but has high expectations for himself.  He makes big goals and expects himself to achieve them.  He never settles for just okay and it works out well for him.  I'm a dreamer and I've always been a dreamer.  Big, unrealistic goals are my thing.  Creating high expectations for myself has helped me to actually achieve some of my big goals.

um...  10) He makes me be more independent.  ...and honestly sometimes I hate it.  When Doug's grandpa passed away, his grandma was completely lost.  She didn't even know how to pump her own gas.  He has made sure that I know how to run all of the finances.  I take care of things that usually my dad only did growing up.  Sometimes I wish he would just take care of it, but after I've taken care of whatever it is, I feel good about myself.

I'm glad he chose me.

New Toy

Doug's been looking at S2000's since... well forever ago. I think his dad took him to a car show when we was around 17.  He sat in a yellow S2000 and fell in love immediately.  In January of last year, Honda announced that it would be discontinuing the S2000 in 2009. He decided at that point to start an extra savings account to put money in every month for a "fun car" purchase.

He's been looking online through craigslist and autotrader to find the S2000 that was the right price, the right mileage, and hopefully the right color. The right color would be yellow.  Why yellow?  For those of you that know my husband, you may know that he is colorblind.  Basically everything he sees is in gray scale like an old black and white TV, except for the color yellow.

Doug found the listing for a yellow S2000 on craigslist Friday morning this last week.  We went to go check it out yesterday... and it was perfect! We put a deposit down on the car and he's picking it up this Friday.  He's really excited and basically at the point of shock and disbelief.  Here is a picture of the actual car.

For those of you that are wondering what I think about this purchase, I want you to know that I actually encouraged and pushed for it.  Doug has been working like crazy for our family.  He has been putting back significant amounts of his paycheck every month for my dreams the last 5 years that we have been married.  It has been his dream since he was a teenager and as far as I am considered, he has earned it with all his hard work.

I know that it only has two seats and I definitely have plans for a life that involved more people in our family than will fit into 2 seats.  We have 2 other reliable cars with enough seats, so I think we'll be okay for a while.  For right now I have a husband that is literally floating on top of the world.

My first plans for the car... driving to Washington DC this next weekend to go to the 44th Annual Smithsonian Kite Festival.  Then we're off to Hawaii on Monday for the next 9 days.  It almost seems too good to be true!

Columbus Day Weekend

Doug and I basically did nothing this long Columbus Day weekend, but it was nice to just have an extended amount of time together. Saturday, we met my parents at Five Guys to celebrate Doug's graduating from school. We saw a lot of friends that we haven't seen in a while that are in my parents' stake and it was nice to catch up. It was also nice to have a big double patty bacon cheeseburger (on my dad's tab) as a graduation present for Doug. Yes, Doug graduated from his training for work... finally! He was second in his class and I'm really proud of him for all of his hard work! Unfortunately for me, this doesn't quite mean that he's finished with his apartment. He now has some on the job training until December... but the end is in sight.

As you've read in previous blog posts, I've been having some car troubles. Last night Doug was loading up HIS car so he would be ready the next morning to leave for work. When he was unlocking the car, he happened to notice that the locks were kind of slow coming up. He got in his car to start it and his battery was DEAD. We jumped it with my car and took a late trip to Walmart in his car to buy a battery and installed it right there in the parking lot. (Walmart parking lots at night are scary places.) I had called my parents earlier to let them know that we might need a car if it was a more serious issue, but it turned out that it was only the battery. As I was hanging up the phone with them, I let them know that they might want to be on alert if something went wrong in the morning and we needed a last minute extra vehicle.

Fast forward to this morning... Doug car started up without an issue and he was on his way at around 5:45am. I was ready and out the door by about 6:15am. My car started up just fine and I headed out of the development. Just as I was pulling out of the development, my car decided to rev the engine, but not actually move forward. (I'm pretty sure this has something to do with the transmission.) The guy behind me, decided to start honking his horn at me and made me feel really bad. I was able to pull out of the neighborhood and turn around in the Squircle to head back. (I wrote about the Squircle here.) I pulled my car into the garage and called my family to have Chris take me to work. I was not going to take chances and be on the side of the road again.

My little brother, once again, needed to take me to work. I got there only 5 minutes after my students were in the door and had a nice day for the most part. The art teacher at my school lives a couple houses down from me and was willing to bring me home today. We left right at 3:00pm, yes that is about 5 hours earlier than I usually leave! All of my teammates were standing in the hallway in absolute shock as I walked out the building! :) I got a name and number of a mechanic in my town from my home teacher who happens to be located RIGHT next to my neighborhood. I was able to drop it off around 4:00pm and walk the short distance home. I'm just waiting on the call to see what in the heck is wrong with my car.

I'm hoping it's not too expensive of a fix!

Gift Card Date (Yes, ANOTHER one!)

As a teacher, I am very lucky to have the classroom parents I do. They usually like to get me gift cards as thank you's during the school year. Today, Doug and I got to have another gift card date before the school year starts. I blogged about my last gift card date here.

We started the morning at a fancy pants place in Ashburn called the Amenity Day Spa. Let me start this off by saying that Doug and I are NOT fancy people... The people there were like sipping champagne and talking about rich people stuff. It cost $65 per person for a 30 minute massage! (but I was using a gift card so I guess it didn't matter) We came in and they started us in the "relaxation room" with a drink of our choice and tons of forms with weird questions to fill out. The lady took us on a mini tour and showed us the changing rooms where we were given robes and fancy slippers to change into.

When we came back to the relaxation room to wait for the masseuses, Doug announced to me that he felt ridiculous and uncomfortable in the robe. :) They gave us our massages in the same room. Doug had a female masseuse and I had a male one which I thought it was weird that they didn't do it the opposite way, but we both enjoyed the massages. It was a 30 minute deep tissue massage which actually hurt a bit, but afterward it felt really good. The whole robe thing was a little uncomfortable, but I guess I could get used to it if I had $150 bucks to blow when I wanted a massage.

As we were leaving I told Doug, "He massaged my butt!" He just laughed at me and let me know that they do that. It was quite the surprise to me! I kind of wished that he would've warned me going in.

After the spa we went to the Dulles Town Center where I was finally able to get the Aeropostale people to remove the ink tags off the jeans I bought there almost 2 weeks ago. Not a store that I usually shop at, but they had a buy one get one free sale a little while ago and I had a coupon on top of that. I had to dig through all of the size ZEROS to find a 10 that fit me. Size 0, who wears that? When I joked with the cashier about all of the size zeros, he informed me that their usual clientele are younger (and smaller too, I guess.)

I hate that there are certain stores for certain types of people and you don't know it until you go in and a salesperson intercepts you and kindly "hints" to you that this ISN'T the store for you. (I tend to get reminders like this frequently.)

Anyways, we also got to stop by Borders for me to trade a duplicate book that I accidentally bought. We found this great Calvin & Hobbes Sunday Edition book for Doug that actually has the rough sketches next to the final ones which is pretty cool. Last time I was there and asked for my teacher discount the lady flat out asked me how old I was. When I showed her my badge, she told me that she thought I was 15. Yeah, I may be younger, but 15??


On the way out, we stopped by a Kirtland store and actually bought a painting to go in the breakfast nook of the kitchen. This is quite the big accomplishment for me because I am such an indecisive person. They had a HUGE sale going on and there was a picture that I really liked a while ago, but passed up on because of the price. We got it for $20! (and on gift cards too!) It should go with the Americana kitchen theme that I hope to do, but haven't actually bought anything for yet.


We then headed over to Red Lobster where Doug got the Neverending Shrimp Platter and I got some Lobster Pizza. We love the cheesy biscuits there! I have to recommend the lobster pizza. I don't really like seafood all that much, but Doug loves it, so we try to go a fish place every once in a while. The lobster pizza was only an appetizer which made it cheap, it was big, and sooo good!


What a fun day! Doug said that one thing that he'll miss once I stop teaching (besides the paycheck) is the fun gift card dates that we get to go. Sorry for the long blog post. I was so excited about our day.. our usual Saturdays consist of going to my parents house to hang out all day and watch TV.

Weekend at Grandma's

Doug and I went this last weekend to see his Grandma. It's been really busy lately with Doug's training, so we were glad to finally get out for some peace and quiet. Doug's little sisters Allie and Katie are staying at Grandma's for the next three weeks. (So maybe it wasn't that peaceful and quiet...) We had lots of yummy food and grandma gave me some ideas for the masses of tomatoes I have coming out of my garden. Doug and I love going up to Grandma's house. The food is amazing AND Grandma has a porch swing! Grandma has a story to tell about EVERYTHING in her house. It's always fun!

Doug grew up near his grandparents, so we went by his old house and elementary school. We walked in the woods behind his house, played on the playground at his elementary school, and found fossils in an old stream that he visited as a kid. Doug just loves reminiscing the old times. (I can confirm this with the boxes that we have down in the basement with all of his childhood toys!)

While the girls and Doug were on the playground, I took the opportunity to take a bunch of pictures with the new camera lens that my sister got me!

A pretty flower!

Doug and Katie walking in the woods behind his old house.

Doug showing a fossil to Allie.

Whenever Allie saw these digging things at the playground she asked Doug if kids could dig and find money in there. Doug answered, "Sometimes, if they're lucky!" He then snuck over to the car when she wasn't looking to get some change and dropped it in the dirt. She looked like she had just won the lottery when she found a nickel in the wood chips!

Digging for money!

Katie!

Allie on the teeter totter.

Allie really wanted to get on the monkey bars, but didn't really have the upper body strength required. She stood there for a while swinging on the first wrung with her feet on the platform until Doug offered to take her on his shoulders to the other end.


Doug was playing just like a little kid. Katie and him got on the teeter totter... and almost broke it, so they went over and started jumping off the swings!


We're borrowing the girls this coming weekend to possibly go down to DC and visit the National Zoo or White House. I'm hoping that the weather forecast cooperates with us!

Medieval Times

Doug and I went to Medieval Times in the Arundel Mills Mall this last weekend. If you haven't heard of it, basically it is a dinner plus a show with horses and sword fighting and all of that stuff. We're not really into all of the sword fighting stuff, but I had heard good things about it. We had some discount coupons that made it $30 a person rather than $60 a person, which was nice. We had a blast!

They started out by having us raise our right hand and left hand in the air and explaining to us that these were our utensils. Doug doesn't touch his food so this made things interesting. We were in the section that cheered for the blue knight and Doug and I were pretty loud. The knight even threw a flower to me!

I definitely recommend this if you have a good coupon like we did!

Here are some pictures:

The arena

The rose that the blue knight threw to me.

Doug at the entrance.

This is what the outside of the mall looks like.

A quick snapshot of Doug and I before the show.

I'm off to Utah for the next week starting Friday, so I probably won't be blogging much. I hope you all have an excellent Fourth of July!

Sumo Doug and Jenny

Our next door neighbors are party fiends. They have three kids and whenever they have a birthday party it is major business. Two weeks ago, their son turned 7 and they had a huge party which included an inflatable obstacle course, customized tool aprons for all of the kids, a cotton candy machine, and more. We had a blast, but I never went back home to grab my camera, so we don't have pictures.

Doug helped by running the cotton candy machine. He was quite the hit at the party. There were lines of kids asking for cotton candy. One of them even asked Doug if he worked for the circus! :)

So last night, their daughter turned 14. They rented the inflatable sumo suits with the wrestling ring. Doug and I went ahead a tried them out. I could barely move in the thing. Whenever Doug knocked me down it took two people to get me back up and standing.

We're glad we have such interesting neighbors!

Doug and I looking tough!

Before I kicked Doug's butt.

Our neighbor Gustavo helped me out a bit by tackling Doug as I laid helplessly on the ground.

Doug spinning me around till I fell.

Getting out of the fat suits.

Summer is coming...

I know I haven't posted in like a week, but I am still alive. It's the last week of school... finally! I'm working my students till the end and even taking grades the second to last day of school. I have tons of journals to grade, my Achille's heel in teaching.

I've been spending every other weekend with Doug in Annapolis. It almost feels like a mini vacation every other weekend. This weekend, Doug attempted to go crabbing, but it didn't work out. Maybe next time... I don't think we were in a good location for it. I didn't really do any of the work, I just sat of the dock and fell asleep with my feet in the water and took pictures of me squishing far away things with my fingers. It was nice.



We also went to this AMAZING Amish market in Annapolis. I had never been to one before and it was really neat. I'm actually interested enough that I'm going to do a little research into the Amish. We got the most amazing strawberry rhubarb and berry pies. We also bought some jam for family members. Some 8-9 year old little girls rang us up for the jam. They were really nice and very responsible for such a young age! Its actually called the "Pennsylvania Dutch Farmers Market" and its in the corner of this picture with the big lighthouse.


I miss seeing him every day, but it is starting to get a little easier, well kind of. It still sucks. We'll be living this way until his class is over in November and maybe afterwards because the commute is so bad. Right now moving is not an option with the market the way it is.


Summer is coming up and I still don't have a job. I'm looking into doing part time tutoring, but I need to find tutorees first. It's kind of nice, but I don't like my time to be wasted so I'm trying to figure out useful things to do during the summer. Possibly painting a room in my house each week or something like that. I've been working on organizing Doug's stuff in the basement and have actually gotten rid of the terrible pile.

We have our tickets to Utah. It was pricey, but we're going. We'll be there from July 3 - July 12. All we need to do now is find someone to babysit the aquarium and the cats while we are gone.