Holy Volcanoes Batman!

Today we headed to the Hawaii Volcano National Park. On the way we visited a couple of interesting spots. Our first stop was a rest stop because I had to pee. But aside from that, we stopped at the Southern Most spot in the United States. (Though there's some discussion in our family about the legitimacy of that as Mom and Dad have photos of the Southern most spot in the Florida Keys). The tip of the island was beautiful. The surf was enormous. At the point the surf was coming from the west and the east and meeting in the middle at the point. It was windy as all get out too. The water was turquoise blue and clear as anything. Crazy people were jumping off these 30 foot cliffs into the water below. Not me man.

After the Southern spot we stopped at the Black Sand Beach at Punalu'u State Park. This particular park is famous for its sea turtles that come up and bask on the beach. And as luck would have it there were two turtles bathing in the sun. Beverly almost tripped on one that was laying out. She thought the turtle was a rock.

After that we had lunch at the "Most Southern Restaurant in the US". Fantastic home made bread...yumO.

Then it was off to the volcano. Volcanoes are monuments to Earth's origin, evidence that its primordial forces are still at work. Eruptions remind us that our planet is an ever-changing environment. Of course the Hawaiians believe the Goddess Pele lives in the bottom of this volcano and consequently pay homage to her so to not evoke her anger into another eruption. The Volcano National Park displays the results of at least 70 million years of volcanism.

We took the 11 mile loop around the volcano that stops at several points around the Kilauea Crater. The stops were steam vents in which REALLY hot steam was coming out. It was kinda freaky to be standing on an active volcano. We kept reminding ourselves that we were standing on an "active" volcano. We continued our tour and stopped at the Thurston Lava Tube. The Thurston Lava Tube allows you to see what the inside of natural lava plumbing looks like. After that we headed home.

I've started to come down with a little cold...but it won't stop me from eating at Roy's tomorrow night for my birthday. Yes that's right...I turn the ripe old age of 37 tomorrow. Ugh.

Did you know cockroaches can fly?

I didn't. But that story to come.

We made it to the big island. And I'll say again, its a big island. We got in yesterday after spending Christmas with our long time friends the Dionisio's on Oahu. Christmas day we headed to some friends of theirs for another feast. Let me just tell you I almost laughed out loud when we entered their house...it was a throw back from the 70's...and not NEW retro...this was literally the original retro. Let me see if I can explain it well enough. When we entered the house the first thing I noticed was a green...um excuse me...70's olive green green. And to top it all off...it was shag. The walls were the same color olive green. It was hideous. But wait...it gets better. They literally had an ORANGE couch and orange and green wallpaper. All together I felt like I should be singing Night Fever. But the food again, was fantabulous. My god can these Filipinos friends cook.

As the night progressed out came the band. Yep, band. The family is full of talented vocal types. So the band started and individually people got up and sang. Us Washingtonian's stayed put and just clapped when the songs ended.

We landed on the big island yesterday and were immediately greeted by humidity. Got in our rental convertible and headed to our timeshare. Too funny but the condo community we're staying in is the same condo that we "visited" last time we were here. Which is cool because this place rocks. There are 8 pools and a ton of sun.

BigBro, Seattle SIL and kids joined us yesterday afternoon. We all headed to Bubba Gumps for dinner. Now...this is where the cockroach story comes into play. We were seated at a nice table on the balcony. As I was leisurely sipping my volcano punch ( sipping being the operative word because it was a tough one ) a cockroach flew and landed on my arm and scurried down my arm and across the table toward my niece who screamed as loud as I did. First off...I had no idea that cockroaches could fly. Secondly, they have NO business being on my arm. I had the heeby jeebies the rest of the night.

Today, BigBro, Seattle SIL and the girls and I headed to the Point of Refuge. The legend is that when a person was accused of a crime or something, they had to make this enormous trek through very treacherous areas. If they made it they were absolved of their sins.

Keep posted. I'll be adding more later.

Mele Kalekmaka

Aloha! Hello from the Island of Oahu. Wow...is it beautiful here. Oddly it doesn't feel like Christmas. My typical Christmas is rain and cold weather...snow if we're lucky. This year I have sunshine and 80 degree weather. Its beautiful here.

I had a small run in here that I haven't had in a long time. I was out witted by a shower. Many showers in Europe and Saudi outwitted me, but I got smarter. Apparently that smart-ness is gone. Willy and Nora have a shower that I just couldn't figure out. I pushed, pulled, unplugged, plugged in, all but took the shower apart and I still couldn't figure it out. At last, I came out and asked. Mom had already had her battle with the beast, so she knew what needed to be done. I could get the water on, but couldn't get the shower on. Mom pointed to the bottom of the water facet where you have to pull the bottom washer and it turns on the shower. Der. I never would have found it.

We are staying with long time family friends the Dionisio's in their BEAUTIFUL house on a hill that over looks Honolulu. We know Willy and Nora from our days in Saudi. The Dionisio's are Filipinos and thus have a HUGE family. Last night the entire family was here. Aunts, uncles, family friends, and kids everywhere. We certainly didn't lack of food either. My god, I thought the Wraspir's cooked for small armies...but the Wraspir's don't hold a candle to these people. We ate so much food...it was truly a blessing. BURP!

Today we are heading to one of the family members house for an outdoor feast again. Yum..I love Filipino food...Love it.

Yesterday, mom and I took off to see Diamond Head and to stop at our favorite burger place here in Honolulu...Teddy's Bigger Burgers. They moved this year from a small... very small restaurant to the beach of Wakiki....

Monday we head south to the Big Island. Can't wait.

So Merry Christmas everyone. I'll try to drop a line again.

3 Days and counting...

In three days I'll be on my way to Hawaii, bummer huh? But more importantly I won't be writing any blog stuff until after the first of the year. So you'll have to survive without me.

In the past 4 days since I've announced I'm leaving, my work environment has become a haven of stress. Trying to dump 4 and a half years of historical knowledge into documentation. Ugh. Luckily I'm a documenting girl so I do have a lot already written...but there's so much.

So until after the first of the year, happy holidays everyone...or Merry Christmas...or whatever it is you celebrate.

Northwest Harvest Food Drive

A very large THANK YOU!!!!!

Thank you everyone who contributed to the food drive competition our company had. Yesterday was a frenzy of people shopping at Safeway. At one time we were over there and 18 out of the 40 people from our company were shopping for the food drive.

Our team of 8 donated an excess of $1000 worth of food. That a tremendous effort and one I'm glad to say that was well worth it.

Overall, Northwest Harvest estimated that our little company of 40 donated over $3500 worth of food. They had TWO van/trucks here to pick up the food. We out did ourselves. Just goes to show what can happen with a little healthy competition. = )

The executives of the company decided that EVERYONE was a winner and are going to cook lunch for the entire company.

But again, we couldn't have done it without your support and donations. So thank you. And may you have a fantastic holiday, because together we made a lot of people's holiday fantastic.

A new year and a NEW JOB...

I got a new job! I'm so very excited. I've been more than ready for a new direction and a new challenge...and that's exactly what I got.

I'll be working for Microsoft as a contractor in their Speech Server team.

What's speech server did you say? http://www.microsoft.com/speech/default.mspx Speech Server combines Web technologies, speech-processing services, and telephony capabilities into a single, integrated system. Speech Server enables companies to unify their Web and telephony infrastructure.

My job is a project management position. In this role, I will be in charge of creating strategic plans after the sale/deployment by gathering and filtering knowledge of Speech Server customers into product planning, marketing, sales, partners and other internal or external teams.

My last day of work here is Jan 6th...then its on to bigger and better things...oh and mo'money...lots mo'.

The Dreaded Interview Question

I've gone through my fair share of interviews lately. I'm starting to get a complex about not getting hired yet. But I also have enough confidence to know that the right job for ME will come around.

So far I've mastered most of the questions. But two questions came up yesterday that stumped me. I answered them, but afterwards wanted to put some more thought into them because I felt they were, aside from non standard interview questions (at least the ones I've gone through lately) but good questions to think about in general.

Question 1: Who do you look up to?
This one threw me. I hadn't really thought about people I look up to much. Politically there's no one. Spiritually there's really no one (God doesn't count). Professionally there's no one. So after pondering this question for a millisecond, I blurted out My mom. (Its really amazing how many people can pass through your grey matter in a millisecond). Then of course the follow up question was why. That was simple. She was basically me, just a bit older. We are two peas in a pod. In fact we have an internal joke about me being the apple that didn't even FALL from the tree, let alone fall far from the tree.

After I managed to get myself through the interview I thought about why I picked my mom. Why'd her name come up? And of course, she's my mom. But what about her did I admire. She was a professional woman who worked very hard for her career and managed to make her family her number one priority still. Everything she did, when growing up, the sacrifices she made, were for me and us kids. She's like the only over 50 woman I know who has more technical gadgets than me and usually keeps up with the Jones' in that arena. But overall, she's my best friend. I talk to her daily sometimes. She's my biggest fan, my biggest supporter, my biggest critic and my occasional loan officer. She's mom. She cooks like I cook. She bakes like I bake. She laughs at the same stupid jokes I do. She Some people worry about being their mom when they grown up. I don't have to worry about it....I'm already my mom. Oh crap.

Question 2: In one word describe yourself? Then why that word?
One word? Just one small little word? How on earth could I describe this person that has taken years to create? Years of work, blood, sweat (well anyone who knows me knows not that much sweat), grief, etc all into one word. Again, thousands of words passed through my mind in a millisecond. But the one that I blurted out was "Energetic". But then when I thought about how I approach project management, energetic really does describe it – er ah - me. In fact, just about any job or task I approach I do so with gusto.

When I got back to work, I asked my friend S what she would have used to describe me. She didn’t have to even think about it, she said “SelfAware”. Which is, I think actually two words, but if you put them together and not put the space between, its one word. She went on to say that she has not met someone who reflected inwardly as much as I do. I was immediately proud of the fact that not only was she accurate in her description, but that I have taken the time to reflect inward.

So how would you answer these questions? Who do you look up to? How would you describe yourself in one word?

Updates to my life.

I love peanut butter. In case you didn't know that about me.

Aside from that, life in the JennW household has been anything but boring. I've been on 5 interviews this month already. My ration of interview to hire is very low. In fact, non existent. = ) But I'm sure that some job is out there just waiting for me.

Friday I interviewed for a position at Microsoft that would be a fun job. It would certainly challenge me in so many ways. I went back and forth this weekend as to whether I would take the job if it was offered. It doesn't have as much project management in it as I would prefer. But the team and the job itself would be a good time.

The interview this morning was for a company called ScreenLife. They manufacture the DVD games called SceneIt! http://www.screenlifegames.com/sceneit.aspx The job is my PERFECT job. Its exactly what I'm looking for to advance my career. The job has been opened for several months as the team is looking for "just the right person". I sincerely hope I'm just the right person.

Hawaii is coming. Just 11 days away and I'll be on my way to the Big Island. Stopping every so briefly in Phoenix AZ to change planes...yah wish me luck, I have a 45 minute turn time in Phoenix. If I make it my luggage won't. The exciting thing about the Hawaii trip this year is the volcano is erupting more than normal. They just had a 44 arce piece of land fall off into the ocean displaying more lava than normal.

This weekend was a pretty boring on. I spent most Saturday morning re-organizing my recipes. If you really know me you'll know I have over 600 recipes I've collected that aren't in cookbooks. Tired of not understanding my organizational method that currently existed, I decided to just alphabetize them. In fact, just to give you a glimpse into my freakish life, I have a bowl of small pieces of paper that have a recipe on it. Each week I pull a recipe from the bowl and that's what I try that week. So far its yielded some GREAT recipes...and has definitely yielded duds that I'll never fix again. This week was Rachel Ray's Spanish Rice and Beef. Good, but I like my dad's better.

A Very Dudley Christmas

Hello All,
Its 20 days until Christmas... incase you can't do the math. Which means 24 days until I turn another year older.

This weekend was the "Very Dudley Christmas" show. Love these guys. They did a fantastic show at the Sunset Tavern. Aside from the boys coming out wearing Santa hats, they did sing their Christmas classics...mixed with the other good stuff.

But this show was EXTRA special. I took a photo with the lead singer. You know, the man I'm going to marry. Yah, I finally got up enough nerve to get a photo with him.

Day after the ARTIC BLAST

So first and foremost, the news people in this area should all get academy awards for drama. Man...they called our inch to 2 inches of snow we got last night (and mostly in the higher elevations) the Artic Blast. Which reminded me of one of our News personalities several years ago who was up on the main pass between Western WA and Eastern WA. It was starting to snow lightly, and it was quite beautiful. His commentary was something like this...and I'm not joking, Mike can verify he was watching the news with me..."It looks peaceful enough now, but in hours these cute little snow flakes will become FLAKES OF DEATH".

Yes, we got snow. Yes, its beautiful...but my god, do people check their intelligence at the door when it comes to driving. It should be stated that Seattle drivers (no offense to the California folk here ) but most people up here are transplants from CA and apparently don't know how to drive in the rain, sun or god forbid snow.

I get to go see my future husband tonight. The Dudley Manlove Holiday show is tonight. Can't wait to see the boys of summer do holiday.

LET IT SNOW! LET IT SNOW! LET IT SNOW!

Yes, boys and girls, its snowing in Seattle. What that means really, is the city is about to shut down. We have about 1.5"s on the ground and its finally sticking. = ) Yipee....I'm about to head home to avoid the crazies on the road driving. Maybe tomorrow will be a snow day.

Its funny really how something as simple as snow can turn mature adults into giddy 12 year olds who hope for a snow day!

I'll keep you posted. Its supposed to keep falling for several more hours...of course the same weathermen who said it wasn't likely to accumulate said it will continue for several hours. So whatever.