ALOOOOOOHA!

Between Aloha and Mahalo that's the extent of my Hawaiian vocabulary. 

Though I'm sure they say "fun" the same way we do. And fun is what my birthday part this year was full of.

I decided, on a whim, to have a Hawaiian theme. I throw myself a party every year and it turns out that I kind of like coming up with themes.  So Hawaiian it was.

Side note: I throw myself a part for a couple of reasons. One, I've had some pretty crappy birthdays when people/boyfriends have forgotten to put something together - even when I express how important birthdays are for me. And two, I'm a control freak.

Right, back to Hawaiian.

The weather didn't cooperate to give us the glorious 70 degree weather that I'm sure the Hawaiian islands have this time of year, but sunny and 40 we'll take.

I managed to find plenty of Hawaiian themed decorations, as well as borrow some from friends, that made the house feel like you were walking into a tropical paradise.

Okay not really, but I had some really fun decorations.  Including little umbrellas for the Mai Tai's I made.

Oh Mai Tai's how I love and hate you all at the same time. I didn't feel like I had too many, but since I can't actually remember how many I had, perhaps I did have "too many". But can you ever really have "too many" mai tai's? I think not.

This is the Mai Tai recipe I "followed". I didn't use spiced rum, I used a dark rum. Then we ran out of that I used Bicardi. What? You can mix alcohols as long as they're in the same family.

Moving along.

The BEST part of the birthday party, by far, was Puck.  Blueberry got a hold of him in the circus, (according to Blueberry's story Barnum and Baily Circus is now where Puck resides) and asked him to come for one more visit.  He sent an impostor.

P-Dot was in love.  She'd never seen such a strong, happy, large, pink duck before.  She thought he was the cat's meow.

Puck the Cake! Blueberry really pulled out all stops this year and totally raised the "birthday" bar. Now I have to get creative for her birthday in April.

Puck the Cake was a total surprise, and one that I will forever remember!  Its rare that Blueberry can surprise me and when she does....she doesn't hold back.

Puck The Cake was one of the BEST cakes I've ever had. I'm not a huge cake fan, but the cake...OMG...to die for. It was chocolate, of course - I mean why bother if it's not chocolate - and then it had a chocolate ganache layer - or two - and a Salted Caramel layer - OMG...so good.

Blueberry decapitated Puck the Cake. Apparently his head is made of rice krispie treats. I plan on checking that out tonight at NYE.  The cake was supposed to feed 15 people and brother let me tell you, we could have fed the town of Redmond.  SOOO much cake left. We'll have it again tonight, and the rest will come to work with me on Wednesday - as if there's going to be any left.

On top of the fabulous cake, one of my friends, the Yank, brought his ukulele and led the group in a very Hawaiian singing of happy birthday. I can say in all my years, I've never had a ukulele playing at a birthday party. (Thanks Yank. That was quite thoughtful of you...and clever.)

Ignore that this is a bad photo. My friend Mr. Not so Newlywed had my camera and all he kept saying all night is "I'm using up all your film."

Here are few of the usual suspects who helped me celebrate.  Some photos turned out so bad that, to save my friendships, I won't be posting them.

Of course The Pantry Goat and Blueberry were there to help me celebrate.

Mr. and Mrs. Not so Newlywed were there. PS - check out that rockin Flamingo in the background. Thanks ChickenLady for the Flamingo. It fit the decor perfectly.

PhotoGirl and the Yank - two of my favorite people. Thanks for the bottle of Bader Cellars wine, BTW.

ZOEY!  She belongs to Mr. and Mrs. Hot-lanta (They're from Atlanta so I just made up their nickname. Clever huh?) Zoey is the BEST little girl in the world.  She has the habit of making sad, woe is me faces that get her all shades of attention.

 

And last but not least, the gang.

Left to Right - Front row: Blueberry and me (I'm the one in the grass skirt in case you couldn't tell.)

LTR Back row: Mr&Mrs Not So Newlywed, Mr&Mrs HotLanta, Mr&Mrs Landlords, PhotoGirl, The Yank, his ukulele, Pantry Goat and Zoey (who really didn't want to be in the photo).

 

So until next year - which is tomorrow - I say Aloha. Which turns out means hello and goodbye in Hawaiian.

Christmas Eve Tradition comes to an end

I've spent the last hour searching for a photo of Dad and me leaving for our Christmas Eve Tradition.  I can't find the photo and it's breaking my heart.

Sometime ago I swung by Mom and Dad's house on Christmas eve.  Dad cornered me and said he hadn't shopped for mom yet and would I go shopping with him. A little pissed at him I agreed.

We left and mom made out like a bandit.

Thus started the tradition.

Over the years the tradition evolved to it being planned and Dad and I would go to lunch. A little father/daughter time. 

It evolved again to where Dad would buy me a gift. Something HE bought just for me. Not something mom bought and put his name on it.  Each year I thought long and hard about what this gift would be. I tried, every year, to make it something dad would know something about. That was the hard part.

The early years I was simple. A bottle of my favorite perfume. A sweater. Easy stuff.

Then as I got older it became more challenging.  Coming up with something from Dad was not an easy task.  One year I got hiking boots. Another year I got knives. And yet another year I got a food processor.

But see the thing is, it was never about the gifts.  I would often tell Dad I didn't need anything and he'd pester me until I came up with something. 

It was about spending time with Dad. And he spending time with me.  I knew he looked forward to it, and so did I. 

Today I won't be shopping with Dad. Wow! That hurts to type.  I knew today would be difficult and have tried to put things out of my mind, but the truth is, I want to remember. I want to think about all the crazy adventures he took me on in search of the perfect gift for mom.

We spent hours one year driving to the other side of Tucson looking for lounge chairs he wanted for the back deck so mom could lay on them and read.  We drove and drove and drove.  Getting to the store he saw them at (cuz God forbid they be at any other store) and turned out the store was closed on Christmas Eve.  So we did what any normal family would do. We drove to a TRUCK car wash and had lunch at a greasy spoon diner.

Cranky at the time, but I'm thrilled now we did it. Because I can not only feel the sadness of the loss but smile at the crazy side of Dad determined to find what he "remembered" from months ago.

I'll miss Dad more today and likely tomorrow.  But I can feel some sort of comfort in knowing that he loved those days we spent together as much as I did.

And since I can't find the photo of dad and I leaving for our day, I'll leave you with one from the 80's (can you tell?).

Goals

Wow. I hadn't realized, again, that so much time has passed since my last post. I will vow to do better in the new year.

Can you believe it's almost the new year? I'm glad the world didn't end today (at least not yet) and that we get to see what the new year is all about.  I'm sure, like many of you, hope it'll be a better year.  This year had some major suckage going on in it.

Every year I come up with goals. No so much resolutions, as just goals. Resolutions, to me, seem a bit too brutal and it seems people are more willing to break resolutions.  So I stick with goals. 

Last year's goals I haven't checked in on lately, so let's do it today shall we?

1. Scrapbooking!
I wanted to get caught up last year, and I mostly did. But two big trips towards the end of the year coupled with a few other road trips throughout the year sidelined me for a bit. I'm now majorly behind. But I did at least keep mostly up on my annual pages I do.

I also wanted to stop buying so much scrapbooking stuff.  And I can say with pure conviction that I did not really follow through on this goal. I blame my enabler.

2. Photography!
I wanted to do Project365 again last year, and well, it just didn't happen.  I think I may have slightly burned out from doing it in 2010.  I did get out a couple of times last year with the PhotoGods, but not nearly as much as I'd like.

In addition to taking photos, I wanted to learn PhotoShop Elements a bit more. And I can say that I am way more familiar with that product. Though there are still several parts of it that still elude me.

3. Finances!
Last year my focus was saving. And while I didn't get started on it right away, I did get my 401K going and have been able to significantly contribute to that. Other savings I've not done so well at. I'm still trying to get 3 months of salary saved. Turns out, that's a lot harder than it sounds. With the Fiscal Cliff looming, perhaps I should work on this in earnest this year.

4. Health!
Healthy was the way of life for me last year. This was my major goal and focus.  I managed to lose 30lbs (not the 50 I was aiming for) and keep it off while not actively losing.  It was much more difficult to lose weight than I thought it would be. But alas, I found myself feeling better and doing things without getting exhausted as quickly. For that, I am thrilled this goal lasted.

5. Write more!
This one was a miserable failure. Especially if you look at the first sentence is just about every blog post this year. Sheesh.  I do love to write, and whether you think I'm good at it or not, I really don't care.  I am going to try to focus my blog more this coming year and really put some heart into some blog posts. I have a HUGE list (thanks to NaBloPoMo) and I'm going to make a significant effort.

I can't say I'll make any more of an effort to be grammatically correct or spell any better. You'll just have to deal with it.

So 2012 had 5 goals.  You won't be too surprised to hear that 2013 goals are very similar to those goals.  But with added verve (is that a word?)

Courtesy of the Internet.

2013 GOALS!

1. Read more.
I did have a goal of last year, and just about every year, to try to read 50 books in a year. That's tough.  I am sitting at 43 right now and will most likely get 44 done this year.  I'm going to aim for 45 next year.  And I'd like at least 30% of those to be not so fluffy books.

2. Scrapbooking
Oh the old scrapbooking goal.  My major effort this year is to control my scrapbooking purchases. I know. I know. I've said it before. But I have a plan. Over the next several days as we wind down this year, I'm going to be staging my pages. (Seattle SIL has an all day scrap planned in January so it's twice as useful) and once all the photos are staged, I'm going to see what's left.  At that point, I'm going to make some decisions about what to keep and what not to keep. Me thinks I have a ton of paper, in particular, that seemed like a good idea at the time, but really isn't.

My ultimate goal (stop laughing) is to not really have ANY paper on hand and just purchase paper WHEN I have the photos. No "just because it's pretty" purchases. That's what's gotten me in this situation.

I will however, reserve the right to purchase items that are "needed" to enhance any pages.

3. Photography.
This year I'm doing Project365 again.  I think I'm ready to give it another go.  I've got a list of themes, and two partners in crime (Joan and Packing Laurie) who are going to give it a go with me.

In addition, I've purchased a system from Becky Higgins called Project Life. It's a much easier way to scrapbook your life. And since 99% of the photos I take during Projenct365 is about what I'm doing or what I'm eating, I figured it's a perfect combination.

I'd like to get out and do some real shooting at least 6 times this year with the PhotoGods (all of them or any combination of them).

4. Finances
Someday I'd love to not have this as a goal, but alas here we are.

The big one is to get the credit cards paid off again. They aren't significant, but a cruise and then San Diego added too much to those darn things. This won't take but a couple of months. 

After that, it's all hands on deck to get that 3 months worth of salary saved!

And of course, continue with the 401K stuff.

5. Health
Learning from last year, I'm going to set my goal to lose between 30 and 40 lbs.  I know at least 30 is doable.  So let's see if we can push it.

In addition, I'm continuing the Couch to 5K efforts. My goal next year is to wog (jog/walk - Thanks Julie for this) one 5K each month. The Boss and I are already signed up to do the Resolution 5K in Redmond on the 5th of January.  I'm going to be making my list here shortly for the rest of the year.

The ultimate goal is to actually jog the Race for the Cure in June this year.

6. Blog More.
This goes without saying.

So there you go. My 2013 goals.  I figured since the world didn't end today I might as well come up with my goals.

San Diego 3Day...finally

Howdy there neighbor. It’s me. The long lost blogger…sheesh I can’t believe how long it’s been and frankly I couldn’t even tell you what’s been going on. So let’s start with something I know I haven’t blogged about…the San Diego 3Day.

 

The first impression I had of the San Diego 3day was, unfortunately, shock.  They call this 3Day the “Boob Crawl” and for very good reason. The amount of alcohol up and down the route was astounding.  One of our team members said that in one day (or maybe before lunch one day) she counted 48 places along the route that were handing out alcohol of some sort. Right out of the camp on day two the walkers are greeted with mimosas or bloody marys. Then throughout the route they get jell-o shots, shots of tequila, lemonade with vodka, vodka soaked gummy bears and more.  

 

I was a bit bummed about this part of it.  It seemed to really be counter to what the 3day message was all about.  And the number of walkers that we saw “stumble” into camp each night was higher than I think it should be. 

 

Still, the 3day Walker Stalker part was a blast.  Stalking in a different city is very different. Not knowing the roads threw us a few challenges and caused us to break a few traffic laws. But laws don’t count on the 3Day.

 

 

 

Opening was a bit outside San Diego, not far, (nothing seems to be far there) and was the standard 3Day rah-rah opening. I'm not a huge fan of the new way they are doing the Survivor Circle these days. They used to showcase 8 Survivors in a raised platform in the center of all the walkers. When the Survivors walk in and climb the stairs to the platform it's pretty powerful stuff. Now they have the Survivors up on stage and it's just not as powerful. 

 

 

 

 

I didn't get a Mustang from the car rental place. Got a crappy Eclipse, but it was still a convertible.  Blueberry and I decorated it and we were off.

 

 

 

The walkers walked primarily along the water, which made it extra hard to stalk them. So many beach houses that we couldn't every really see the walkers. So we found places to park and cheer.

The MomUnit and QueenPopUp were also on the route with us occasionally.  They slept in and joined us later in the morning usually. It worked out well - up until they asked where we were.  I had no idea half the time. 

 

Here are some of my favorite 3Day people we saw on the route.

The Hooker Mobile followed us everywhere I swear. They had a minivan and were blasting the tunes.  Then they'd hop out and start dancing for the walkers. They were awesome.

Jello-o shots anyone?

 

This gal was hilarious.  She was dancing like a crazy person then kept saying things like her back hurt...gee I wonder why.

And lastly, here are some of our team. We picked up two new team members along the way. Seattle SIL had a tent mate she hadn't met until the 3Day (her name was also Jennifer so we knew she'd be way cool) and then a gal they picked up during Opening (I believe her name was Tammy).

Here they come!

Princess Lori, me, Seattle SIL and Blueberry

Seattle SIL at closing. Think she was glad it's over?

Left to Right: Tammy, Queen PopUp (kneeling), Princess Lori, Seattle SIL, Jennifer (kneeling), Princess Carla, Blueberry, me and the MomUnit.



San Diego Wild Safari Park...or whatever it's called

I'm just finishing up blogging about my San Diego trip that now seems like a lifetime ago. 

On the last day of actual vacation time (we really went to San Diego so Seattle SIL, and other princesses could walk in the San Diego 3 day - I'll get to that shortly) we went out to Ramona.  Why Ramona? Good question. Other than it was yet another Diner, Drive-Ins and Dives cafe out there we wanted to try. And oh boy am I glad we did.

Not only did we have a massive cinnamon roll, but we had a fantastic breakfast.

 

 

After gorging ourselves on unhealthy items, we hopped back in the van and headed the short distance to the Safari park.

I have vague memories of going to the park a hundred years ago with Grandma and Grandpa Wraspir. I remembered the tram and seeing animals in their natural (ish) environment, but really didn't remember much more than that.

The Safari Park has really done a great job, I think, at maintaining a lot of room for the animals to roam free. Most do. Some are still pinned up, but their pins seem quite large and comfy.

I LOVED the lions.  They were sleeping, of course, except Mr. King Lion glanced my way. And I swear he was thinking I'd make a good hearty lunch.

 

We saw gorillas and a baby gorilla - so dang cute.

We saw Cheetas.

 

We saw Flamingos!!!

 

We saw giraffes.

 

 

We saw rhinos!

 

 

We saw zebras!

 

We saw elephants, and an elephant baby. Though in typical elephant / Jenn fashion, all I really got were photos of elephant asses.

But my favorite of all were the tigers! 

One tiger was just hanging out resting, minding his own business. (Note, not sure if it was a boy or girl tiger, so we'll just call it a him for simplicity).

Brother Tiger decided to come out and see what was going on.

He started stalking the other tiger who was minding his own business.

And eventually bothering brother tiger..

The brother tiger was all, "I was sleeping here!"

And then he was all, "And now I'm gonna kick your ass."

It was all so exciting to see big cats actually moving and not just sleeping.

The park was awesome. I loved seeing all the animals and seeing them thrive in a zoo environment. I'll leave you with a couple of my favorites.