Adventures in Life

Let's see...what have I been up to lately? I have been reading a lot and working on my quilt. I started a quilt right before I became sick. Then I stopped working on it for a while. I have actually been quilting for two days now. It is coming right along. Once I finished the top of the quilt it started to actually look like something, rather than random blocks of material sewn together. I finished the back yesterday and started quilting all of the layers together. It is really a throw (about 4 ft by 4 ft), but it is a nice size...especially for a first time quilting project. The book that I purchased to teach myself how to quilt has 6 lessons in it. I decided to skip the first 5 and get right to the throw (do you really need quilted pot holders?) Actually, after thinking about it, I might use my scraps to make some potholders for my Grandmas.
Gabe and I went to a movie last night. We watched Knocked Up. It was not nearly as funny as I had hoped. At least we both saw the movie for only $8.00 (we had a buy one ticket get one free coupon). I would definitely call it "a renter".
I am currently in the middle of attempting to plan a trip for some of my optometry school friends. We are thinking about meeting in Iowa (it is a relatively central location). If we do make it happen, I am excited about going to the Field of Dreams (the location where the movie was filmed). Hopefully we will be able to play some ball...I pretty much suck, but it would be a lot of fun.

Posted by at 3:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Boards scores are in and I passed! Now I am just waiting on my license, which I should receive sometime around the beginning of July (hopefully). I called Gabe to tell him and he said that we should celebrate. I told him not tonight, I am still on my "meat is bad" kick. I am guessing that once I feel 100% better I will like meat again, but until then I am just a wanna be vegetarian. We are going to attempt to get our dogs back this weekend. It was our plan last weekend, but I became ill. I am looking forward to getting them back.
I found this article to be interesting. A town in Massachusetts has created their own paper note to be used in lieu of the Dollar at participating local businesses.

Posted by at 1:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

Warning: the following entry is not comprised of the most appetizing subject.

I realize that my blogging has been lacking the past few days, but I have a good excuse. Thursday morning I woke up not feeling so hot (well, actually I was running a fever so I was hot) and I began throwing up a lot. I have forced myself to eat saltines and drink a lot of Gatorade...I really should take out stock in that company (our fridge is filled with it right now). I have managed to lose about 8 pounds in three days from this wonderful illness. I have thrown up so much that my entire torso is killing me and it is very painful to laugh or sneeze. The couch has pretty much been my home for the past few days. Gabe and I have watched a lot of movies including Cars, Clerks II, Man of the Year, The Departed, Ghost Rider, John Tucker Must Die, a lot of movies on TV, the entire fifth season of Scrubs, and more movies that I can't remember right now. We started watching Over the Hedge, but I couldn't handle it...there was just too much food in the animation. I haven't been out of the apartment or watched the Food Network for about five days now. Every time I see food on TV I throw up, so Rachael Ray has not been part of my viewing pleasure. Actually, I haven't thrown up for a day or so at this point so yesterday evening I tried eating some vegetable soup (my mom suggested chicken noodle, but the thought of meat makes me want to throw up). I kept down about a third of a can. Things are looking up for me. I have even moved off of the couch to type a blog entry. I am feeling better, I am just really sore and tired. I hope that Gabe doesn't catch this...it sucks!
For those of you keeping track the spine came out of my foot on Thursday (the 14th) around 11:20 p.m. The skin was growing over it so I took my thumb nail and decided to peel it back again. I started pressing on the raised area around the spine and it eventually came out with a lot of pus. I cleaned it up and slathered on Neosporin. It is looking great.

Posted by at 1:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Happy Father's Day!

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Sunday Gabe and I watched The Kovak Box. I will say that it had its moments. We thought about going to the zoo, but decided against it. I have had enough sun exposure for a while. We rented Cooking Mama for our Wii. It reminds me a lot of WarioWare Smooth Moves.
Monday I met Gabe for lunch. I drove out to his office and picked him up. Then I came back and watched Material Girls while he was at work. It definitely is not a Gabe move...I am not sure that it was even a Stephanie movie. In the downtime I am getting a ton of stuff done. We started watching Apocalypto yesterday. So far it is very interesting, but disturbing at the same time. We still have around an hour of the movie left. We are both having trouble falling asleep (that darn jet lag), so I have been getting up early with him instead of sleeping in. We are finally getting back to a more normal sleep routine since returning from our vacation.
Other than doing errands today I caught up our scrapbook. Well, sort of...I have one page from Gabe's graduation left (it requires a trip to Archiver's) and my graduation (I am waiting on a few pictures from friends). I am basically getting it caught up in time to start my Hawaii pages. I actually expect to receive the Hawaii pictures in the mail any day now. I might go to Archiver's in a little while.
I have found a way to multi-task on the treadmill. When I run on the treadmill I can't read or watch TV (each piece of exercise equipment at our apartment has an individual TV...you just plug in earphones and watch the cable station of your choice). Since the sea urchin injury I can't really run on the treadmill, but I can walk. So, instead of listening to music I read a book. This gives me time to read and work out. It is a pretty sweet setup. I am going to miss the workout room when we move.

Posted by at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

There is going to be a Harry Potter Theme Park in Orlando Florida in 2009. It is going to be at Universal's Islands of Adventure. ICO people...we should go!

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Gabe and I have been watching quite a few movies lately. I have also been reading several books from my "book list". I guess that is what happens when you no longer have a job or tests to study for. I have taken 4 Continuing Education (CE) classes to keep me busy. I actually do not need them since I just graduated, but I can always learn more about glaucoma and ocular allergies. As far as books go, I have finished 6th Target, Undomestic Goddess, and at least one more book that I can't remember the name of (must not have been that memorable) since May. I am in the middle of about seven books currently. Tonight I have been reading The Friday Night Knitting Club. Man, I wish that I could remember the name of the other book...it is really bugging me. Maybe it will eventually come to me. Any suggestions on good books to read? I am looking forward to the next Harry Potter...I hope that he survives.

Posted by at 1:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Thursday I didn't get much done...unless sleeping counts. We went to Hollywood Boulevard and watched Pirates of the Caribbean: at Worlds End. It was pretty good. I still don't think that it is good as the first Pirates movie, but not a disappointment. Yesterday I managed to catch up with the laundry and get a few things done (groceries were a must). Once Gabe returned home from work we went out to eat with Emily and Rob. Afterwards, we helped them pack. They are moving to Southern Illinois today. We should be able to visit with them when we visit my family. They are coming back next week for three days and we are going to dinner again. I must say that both Emily and I were very impressed with both Rob and Gabe's packing skills. They fit more in a moving truck than I thought would be possible. Today we have been taking it easy. We rented some movies and I had my glasses adjusted at the site of my last rotation. I would do it, but I don't have the tools and I didn't want to mess up my new frames. We went to Elm Fest downtown. Then we came back and watched Thr3e (it is not that great of a movie) followed by The Groomsmen. Basically, Gabe said we were 0 for 2 at picking out movies today. I thought that The Groomsmen was a comedy, but I was wrong. I am not sure what we are doing tonight. There may be a little Wii in our future (he just received a new game - Mario Party 8). There has been some exciting news...Gabe and I picked a tomato on Wednesday and today. Now I will hopefully have some bell peppers soon.

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Yesterday Gabe and I slept in until around 9:00 a.m. (Hawaii time of course). Then we headed down for breakfast. We thought that breakfast was served until 10:00 a.m., but we were both wrong. They only serve breakfast until 9:30 a.m. The pearl to take away from all of this is that there is way more food to choose from if you actually get to breakfast around 7:00 a.m. After eating we did some last minute shopping and hung out in our room until noon. We checked out of our room and checked our baggage, and then we stopped for lunch at LuLu's. We made our way to the Waikiki Aquarium. It far surpassed our expectations and with every paid admission an audio tour wand is included. I could have sat and watched the tank of predators all day. The jelly fish were pretty cool too. We walked back to our hotel and waited on the shuttle to pick us up. Our flight was at 7:30 p.m. so we left around 4:30 p.m. and arrived at the airport around 5:30 p.m. Once we arrived our 7:30 p.m. flight (which had already been changed from a 7:45 p.m. flight) was delayed until 9:00 p.m. So, we were going to miss our connecting flight. Our 9:00 a.m. connecting flight in Dallas was changed to the 10:10 a.m. flight. Plus, we were upgraded to first class. Well, our 9:00 p.m. flight out of Honolulu did not actually leave until 9:35 p.m. We arrived in Dallas around 9:45 a.m. and we had to shoot all the way across the airport. We made it to our gate with about 2 minutes to spare. We basically ran through the airport (or at least as much running as you can do in a pair of flip flops and a sea urchin spine in your foot). We arrived in Chicago around 12:30 p.m., but our luggage did not. It did however arrive on the next flight and were back home around 2:30. We did manage to finish The Good Shepherd and we are over halfway through Hoodwinked. So far it is really cute. One thing that I forgot to mention about Hawaii is that there are hitchhikers everywhere. My mom will be proud to know that we didn't pick any of them up. Today we have been relaxing. We returned some things to Target (film we didn't use, a hat that I didn't end up needing, and some mosquito repellent that the guide book said we would need in the rainforest that it turns out we didn't need after all). We stopped by the library and now I am in my pj's and we are going to watch a movie or two. In between movies, I have around 1000 pictures to organize. One more cool thing about Hawaii...we saw a ton of rainbows. Now I know why their license plates have rainbows on them.

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Today we started out at Hanauma Bay and we did some snorkeling. The snorkeling is supposed to be great, but I think that the park at our hotel on Big Island was just as good, if not better. We saw some really colorful fish. We dropped the snorkeling film off to be developed. Next we went to Diamond Head Park and hiked through the crater. It was a long and hot hike over very rough terrain. We made it though, and we even have the certificate to prove it. We had lunch at Wolfgang Puck's and then we showered and headed out again. I had my pearl inspected to make sure that the mounting was stable and we picked up our film. Some of our pictures are pretty good. Then we headed to Duke's Canoe Club for dinner. Duke was the original surfer, among other things (humanitarian, Olympian). Now we are relaxing on our lanai. We have a spectacular view of the ocean (our room is parallel to the beach). We just finished watching a 30 minute firework show, and we had front row seats from our lanai. The traffic is crazy. People were stopping along the road to watch the fireworks and plugging up the flow of traffic in the process.

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We left Big Island this morning. We had breakfast at Island Lava Java Cafe. Gabe and I each had 100% Kona Coffee. Most places around the island and elsewhere sell 10% because it is much cheaper that way. Pure Kona is expensive. I didn't like it much, but I am not a coffee drinker. Gabe said that he thought it was smooth. After breakfast we went back to the hotel and grabbed our luggage. On our way to the airport we stopped off at Hilo Hattie and bought a few souvenirs. The airport in Kona is completely open air without any "true" gates. Big Island is almost worth the experience just to see the airport in Kona. Now we are back on Oahu. I would like to come back here someday. It is much more relaxing than Big Island. I did something really fun at the International Market Place. I picked out an oyster at the Pearl Factory. They open the oyster after a little ceremony and then you can choose to have it mounted if you desire. I had mine mounted on a pendant. The oysters were already dead (I asked). We just walked around Waikiki the rest of the evening and came back and sat on our lanai. This really is a relaxing place.

Posted by at 1:22 AM | Permalink

Last night we went to the Luau. It was fun. The entertainment and food were a little better than our first luau on Oahu. Today we decided to take it easy. We had breakfast and went snorkeling. Our hotel's beach is one of the best snorkeling locations (Keahou Bay) and you can do it right off of the beach. The fish were plentiful and colorful. They had no fear and would swim right up next to you. My favorite was a huge puffer. A rainbow fish came in a close second. After lunch, we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe, we attempted to go to a coffee plantation, but they were closed. Instead we just relaxed. We decided to go out to eat and to a movie, but by the time we were finished with dinner the only shows left were the 9:30 p.m. (2:30 a.m. for me because my clock hasn't truly reset yet). Instead we went to Wal-Mart and walked around. It started raining after noon, or we probably would have snorkeled more today.

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During breakfast today Gabe booked a helicopter flight so that we could see flowing lava. Our tour departed around 9:30 a.m. and we flew over a lot of old lava flow. Our pilot was great and gave us a lot of information along the way. We even flew over a restricted area where the Army "blows things up" as Kiwi, our pilot, put it. We actually saw missiles ready to be launched. Luckily, today was not a training day, or we obviously would not have been able to fly over the area. I was able to see orange lava traveling down to the ocean. Then we were able to see red lava flowing into the ocean and the steam that came up once it hit the water. It was a really cool experience. Then we went around the countryside looking at waterfalls and valleys. We flew down 4,000 feet into a valley and had lunch. That was awesome. Luckily our pilot has been flying for 36 years and even flew in Vietnam. He had logged over 22,000+ hours. So, I felt pretty safe riding with him. He would get us so close to things that if I would have stuck my hand out of the window I think that I would have been able to touch them. He flew through the valley (it was like a video game) and we came back to the airport. It was a 3 hour helicopter ride and it was phenomenal! It is a great way to see the island. We were able to go places that are not accessible by hiking or car...only helicopters. We came back to the hotel and did some laundry. Now we getting ready to go to a luau. It should be a lot of fun. P.S. The sea urchin spine has still not left my foot yet.

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Today we drove around the southern portion of Big Island. We went to the southern most point in the United States right off of South Point Road. Afterwards, we hopped back in the car and started our drive to Volcanoes National Park. We ate at a restaurant called the Lava Rock Cafe in a town called Volcano Village. Then we headed to the park. We drove around Kilauea's caldera and stopped off for the hikes along the way. I really liked walking through the lava tube. It is crazy to think that we were hiking through a tube where lava had once flowed. The lava tube is actually located in a tropical rain forest now. There is a ton of diversity on this island. We also drove down the chain of craters road. It is exactly what it sounds like, a lot craters. We stopped off along the way and hiked to see some petroglyphs. Once we made it to the bottom of the road we hiked to where the lava flowed over the road in 2003. As you can imagine, the road is no longer in a usable condition. The lava flow that occurred was incredible. It is 60+ feet thick in some areas. We hiked on the lava to see the steam where the lava enters the ocean. The water there is a mere 2200 degrees. We did not see any flowing lava though. It was another 8 mile hike. We decided against it. On the way home we stopped at Taco Bell (another one of my favorites) and ordered dinner. Things cost about 50% more at Taco Bell here compared to what we normally pay.

Posted by at 8:55 PM | Permalink

We slept in today (we got up around 7:00 a.m. Hawaii time) and had breakfast. We walked around the beach a little (we are right on Waikiki Beach). We packed our bags (somehow we are up to four now) and headed to Subway for a quick lunch before checking out. We brought the food back to our room and enjoyed the view from our lanai. After dropping off the rental car, we checked in at the airport. We were at a fairly small terminal and checking in was a breeze. We watched more of The Good Shepherd. The movie is nearly three hours long. We might make it through it before arriving back on the mainland. The airport in Kona was even easier to navigate than Honolulu. There are no "real" gates. You walk from outdoors directly to your plane to board/deboard. It is completely open air and there are 2 baggage claim carousels. It is tiny and a breeze to travel through. Our first impression of Big Island was not the same as Oahu. We landed with lava all around us. Kona has a lot of lava. Our resort is nice and has a lot of grass, trees, and flowers. Sitting out on our lanai we have a view of the ocean. We went to Huggo's to eat dinner. It was a Rachael Ray pick. We had the macadamia nut ice cream dessert. It was huge and delicious.

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