Two weeks from today is one of the most important dates for American citizens. It's time to cast your vote for the next President of the United States. Mark it on your calendar, look up your polling place, or check out a sample ballot online.
I am glad we're 2 weeks away because I'm finally getting exhausted hearing about it in the news. Obama's ahead. No McCain's ahead. None of it really matters until you cast your ballot. Take a stand and be counted - VOTE.
No matter what the outcome, this has been the most historic elections we have ever seen. I wasn't sure if enough Americans could actually vote for a black man as President or have a woman Vice President (or President). Now no matter what, we have made history this year. It's simply amazing. Now get out there and vote. Don't make me come after you!
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Friday, September 19, 2008
One Last Time - Let's Hear it for Summer
We're heading to Smith Mountain Lake, VA this afternoon for the weekend and one last shot at waterskiing/wakeboarding for the summer. I'm excited to be getting up on skis again after my recent successes. Usually I look back at the end of summer and ask myself what I've accomplished and come up short, but this year I did things! It goes back to being a kid and having the whole summer off to hang out at the pool, visit grandma in Texas, spend a week at the beach with my other grandma, etc. As an adult, it's much harder to get that "summer feeling" back, but this year we went to Maine, Smith Mountain Lake, Elk Lake, and Texas (Mike's tri). I finally learned how to water ski and Mike did a tri and a half marathon. We did an egg toss, got soaked in hurricane Gustav a few weeks ago, and got poison ivy on a recent walk at Lake Frank. We also saw Mama Mia on my birthday and a Jimmy Buffet tribute band in July. It's been a busy summer and we had fun. Now we're going to the lake for one last hurrah before it gets colder and the leaves turn colors and fall off the trees. What am I going to do this winter - I better get busy planning!
Hurricane Ike
Mike's Aunt & Uncle, last I heard, still didn't have power but they sustained limited damage to their house. They are lucky, but things are still pretty bad down there. I've been reading the Houston Chronicle on line to stay informed and it's just starting to get a little bit better but I heard they're trucking 2,000 lbs of ice from New Jersey (why New Jersey, isn't Georgia or Oklahoma closer? I don't understand why some of the closer states aren't shipping ice). It stinks (literally) for them. I hope it gets better soon.
Hurricane Ike
Mike's Aunt & Uncle, last I heard, still didn't have power but they sustained limited damage to their house. They are lucky, but things are still pretty bad down there. I've been reading the Houston Chronicle on line to stay informed and it's just starting to get a little bit better but I heard they're trucking 2,000 lbs of ice from New Jersey (why New Jersey, isn't Georgia or Oklahoma closer? I don't understand why some of the closer states aren't shipping ice). It stinks (literally) for them. I hope it gets better soon.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Ike's Fury
Ike turned and headed north. Mike's Aunt Valerie and her family live in Spring, TX - just a little north of Houston. My email buddy, Paul, lives there too (he works for Mike's Uncle Steven). We are thinking of them and everyone else in that area. The footage is just amazing and scary. We're hoping for the best. Our prayers are with Texans today.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Hurricane Weather
They're prediciting Hurricane Ike will head smack into South Texas - not good. I've got plenty of relatives near Corpus Christi because Mom grew up just south of there in Kingsville. Let's start praying that Ike is a category 1 or tropical storm when it makes landfall later this week.
Go away, Ike.
Go away, Ike.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Stand Up 2 Cancer
Be sure to tune in TONIGHT as the major networks join forces to broadcast this "groundbreaking" show. From their website, "...Over 50 of the most renowned personalities in TV, film, sports and music will come together to make history. In an unprecedented television event, NBC, ABC, and CBS will simultaneously devote 1 hour of commercial-free prime time to raise funds for the fight against cancer."
Look who's appearing on the show: Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson, Meryl Streep, Christina Applegate (recently diagnosed with breast cancer), Lance Armstrong, Jack Black, Kirsten Dunst, America Ferrera, Halle Berry, Hilary Swank, Forest Whitaker, Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Fergie, Miley Cyrus (for you youngsters), Carrie Underwood and more...
www.standup2cancer.org
I've already set my Tivo.
Look who's appearing on the show: Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson, Meryl Streep, Christina Applegate (recently diagnosed with breast cancer), Lance Armstrong, Jack Black, Kirsten Dunst, America Ferrera, Halle Berry, Hilary Swank, Forest Whitaker, Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Fergie, Miley Cyrus (for you youngsters), Carrie Underwood and more...
www.standup2cancer.org
I've already set my Tivo.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
10 Years
Yesterday, Mike and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary - yay, us! August was a good month for us - a one year cancer anniversary and this. We had a low-key day after work with dinner at Raaz (Indian) at the Rio and then a movie. We were supposed to go to Elk Lake, PA again with friends, but something happened with them and we ended up not going so our weekend plans have shifted. We thought dinner and a movie was a nice way to celebrate after going to Maine the week before.
Maine was truly great. We drove up Saturday to Portland, ME and spent the night. We tooled around Portland on Sunday before driving up to our final destination: Bar Harbor/Acadia National Park. It's so hot down here in August and we tried to get our minds around 55 degrees at night before we left, but we still weren't ready for the fall-like weather. After finally finding a hotel in Portland, we put on warmer clothes from our shorts and headed into the historic and restaurant-heavy Old Port part of town. It was cool. We had dinner at the Portland Lobster Company on the pier. We sat outside (with our coats on) and enjoyed the live band and some local food. Mike had some lobster bisque since we were in Maine. After dinner, we wandered around taking pictures and such. We found a 6 foot section of the Berlin Wall sitting on one of the piers - I walked right by it at first and then we realized what it was. Simply amazing to see.
On the way up to Bar Harbor, we stopped in Freeport - the LL Bean "mecca". We had gone to LL Bean at midnight the night before just because we had heard they were open 24/7. I wasn't overly impressed because I thought the clothes wouldn't be as expensive as they were. I was thinking "outlet" when it wasn't. We did hit the LL Bean outlet on Sunday (a separate store that's not open 24/7) when we returned, but there wasn't anything I was interested in. However, we hit the jackpot at North Face and each bought winter coats for $40! Those coats sure came in handy the rest of the week as the temps dropped down a couple of nights that week.
Bar Harbor is great. We loved this tiny town right next to Acadia. We stayed at a B&B, a 10 minute walk from town (we didn't realize how close it was for 2 days and drove into town to hunt for parking). Our B&B was nice and quaint. The inn owner was very quirky, but his wife wasn't so bad. During our tour of the facilities, he stated that they don't usually have a tv, but they had made a special exception for the Olympics and had placed a 13" tv in the living room downstairs. Our host stated we were only to watch the Olympics and nothing else. I thought Mike was going to run out the door! "R" just had a very particular manner of him, kind of like an old-fashioned dad. For example, R offered to have coffee and tea waiting outside our room every morning but we were not to bring our mugs downstairs to the breakfast area because he would have new ones at each table. Fine. Our first morning, we selected our table and then went to the dining room area to see what coffee and teas were available. We didn't take the mug from our table because we were just looking and R instructed us not to take a new mug from the counter because we had our own at the table. He was just so particular, precise and anal. It drove us both a little crazy. We spent most of week just hoping we wouldn't run into him, but the location was great and the B&B itself was nice.
We had lots of lovely meals in Bar Harbor and a fantastic lunch overlooking the harbor in Southwest Harbor on the other side of the island. We met lots of dogs and lots of people. We attended a local improv show that was really funny. We took pictures of sunrise and sunset on Cadillac Mountain, which is the first place on the east coat where you can see the sunrise. We got up at 4:45am that day to get there. For some reason, I thought it would just be us up there but there were about 100 of our closes friends that morning to usher in the new day. I was kind of disappointed in the people talking about being loud because I think you should quietly appreciate the sunrise instead of goofing off and stuff. Maybe I'm old - or just grouchy that early in the morning. We walked across a sand bar at low tide to the neighboring island (with some of the same people who were up for the sunrise). We saw lots of little boats and quite a few yachts. We took 2 whale watch cruises because we were fogged in on the first trip and couldn't see anything past the boat. The 2nd trip was a success and we saw 3 whales! It was really cold out there - I'm glad we had our new winter coats!
We walked a 6 mile loop on one of the carriage trails in Acadia and did a little bit of trail hiking around Jordan Pond in the park. It was beautiful and peaceful. I really enjoyed the park and wish we had either brought our bikes or rented them. I also wish we had hiked a little more because it was so awesome. We stood in the rain to see "thunder hole" do some thundering when the high tide rolled in, but it was more like "burping hole". We also stuck our feet in the ice cold water on the only sand beach in Acadia (also in the rain) just to say we did it.
On our way back home, we stayed in Portland again for a couple of days. This time we walked to the Portland Observatory tower that had been built in 1807. It was used as a communication tower for the busy port as the ships sailed in and managed to survive a devastating fire in 1886 that wiped out half the city. It had great views of the city and the port. We also took a sunset ferry ride for $13 each. We saw a beautiful sunset and some of the islands off the coast. It was a nice way to complete our Maine vacation before we headed back home the next day.
Maine was truly great. We drove up Saturday to Portland, ME and spent the night. We tooled around Portland on Sunday before driving up to our final destination: Bar Harbor/Acadia National Park. It's so hot down here in August and we tried to get our minds around 55 degrees at night before we left, but we still weren't ready for the fall-like weather. After finally finding a hotel in Portland, we put on warmer clothes from our shorts and headed into the historic and restaurant-heavy Old Port part of town. It was cool. We had dinner at the Portland Lobster Company on the pier. We sat outside (with our coats on) and enjoyed the live band and some local food. Mike had some lobster bisque since we were in Maine. After dinner, we wandered around taking pictures and such. We found a 6 foot section of the Berlin Wall sitting on one of the piers - I walked right by it at first and then we realized what it was. Simply amazing to see.
On the way up to Bar Harbor, we stopped in Freeport - the LL Bean "mecca". We had gone to LL Bean at midnight the night before just because we had heard they were open 24/7. I wasn't overly impressed because I thought the clothes wouldn't be as expensive as they were. I was thinking "outlet" when it wasn't. We did hit the LL Bean outlet on Sunday (a separate store that's not open 24/7) when we returned, but there wasn't anything I was interested in. However, we hit the jackpot at North Face and each bought winter coats for $40! Those coats sure came in handy the rest of the week as the temps dropped down a couple of nights that week.
Bar Harbor is great. We loved this tiny town right next to Acadia. We stayed at a B&B, a 10 minute walk from town (we didn't realize how close it was for 2 days and drove into town to hunt for parking). Our B&B was nice and quaint. The inn owner was very quirky, but his wife wasn't so bad. During our tour of the facilities, he stated that they don't usually have a tv, but they had made a special exception for the Olympics and had placed a 13" tv in the living room downstairs. Our host stated we were only to watch the Olympics and nothing else. I thought Mike was going to run out the door! "R" just had a very particular manner of him, kind of like an old-fashioned dad. For example, R offered to have coffee and tea waiting outside our room every morning but we were not to bring our mugs downstairs to the breakfast area because he would have new ones at each table. Fine. Our first morning, we selected our table and then went to the dining room area to see what coffee and teas were available. We didn't take the mug from our table because we were just looking and R instructed us not to take a new mug from the counter because we had our own at the table. He was just so particular, precise and anal. It drove us both a little crazy. We spent most of week just hoping we wouldn't run into him, but the location was great and the B&B itself was nice.
We had lots of lovely meals in Bar Harbor and a fantastic lunch overlooking the harbor in Southwest Harbor on the other side of the island. We met lots of dogs and lots of people. We attended a local improv show that was really funny. We took pictures of sunrise and sunset on Cadillac Mountain, which is the first place on the east coat where you can see the sunrise. We got up at 4:45am that day to get there. For some reason, I thought it would just be us up there but there were about 100 of our closes friends that morning to usher in the new day. I was kind of disappointed in the people talking about being loud because I think you should quietly appreciate the sunrise instead of goofing off and stuff. Maybe I'm old - or just grouchy that early in the morning. We walked across a sand bar at low tide to the neighboring island (with some of the same people who were up for the sunrise). We saw lots of little boats and quite a few yachts. We took 2 whale watch cruises because we were fogged in on the first trip and couldn't see anything past the boat. The 2nd trip was a success and we saw 3 whales! It was really cold out there - I'm glad we had our new winter coats!
We walked a 6 mile loop on one of the carriage trails in Acadia and did a little bit of trail hiking around Jordan Pond in the park. It was beautiful and peaceful. I really enjoyed the park and wish we had either brought our bikes or rented them. I also wish we had hiked a little more because it was so awesome. We stood in the rain to see "thunder hole" do some thundering when the high tide rolled in, but it was more like "burping hole". We also stuck our feet in the ice cold water on the only sand beach in Acadia (also in the rain) just to say we did it.
On our way back home, we stayed in Portland again for a couple of days. This time we walked to the Portland Observatory tower that had been built in 1807. It was used as a communication tower for the busy port as the ships sailed in and managed to survive a devastating fire in 1886 that wiped out half the city. It had great views of the city and the port. We also took a sunset ferry ride for $13 each. We saw a beautiful sunset and some of the islands off the coast. It was a nice way to complete our Maine vacation before we headed back home the next day.
Friday, August 8, 2008
I'm Alright!
It has been a LONG day, but I'm finally home and still CANCER FREE on my one year anniversary. Everything basically went well (but YOWZA did that first IV stick hurt like $*&#$&*)$). She did much better on the second try but it was too late, I got light-headed and had to sit in the chair until I could get up to walk out of the room. They scared my a bit before they told me the good news. I had just told Mike my theory that if just Dr. Dunleavy came into the room, everything was good. If the team came into the room, not so good news. Moments later, in walked my NP, Dr. Wilson (THE GUY), and another colleague. Dr. Wilson relayed the news so nonchalantly that I almost didn't catch what he said. He also said the scar tissue has shrunk even more since last time. Then they said, "See you in December." Great to hear it and relieved it's over.
Once I heard the good news, I kept picturing that dancing groundhog from Caddyshack with Kenny Loggins singing, "I'm Alright." I felt like boogying right alongside Mr. Groundhog. I was even going to try to post a picture of the cute little guy, but it's late and I'm going to bed.
Since I left NIH, I've spent a lot of time in the car between driving to Bethesda, home, National airport, Arlington (happy hour), Rockville (shopping because they lost my brother-in-law and his girlfriend's suitcase), back home, Rockville again (dinner), National airport (to pick up my mother-in-law), Iwo Jima monument in Rosslyn, the airport (they lost my mother-in-law's suitcase too). In the end, we recovered all suitcases and just arrived home at midnight. Whew, I am so ready for bed but I wanted to post the news before I got a bunch of frantic calls tomorrow that I couldn't answer because we'll be on the boat.
Once I heard the good news, I kept picturing that dancing groundhog from Caddyshack with Kenny Loggins singing, "I'm Alright." I felt like boogying right alongside Mr. Groundhog. I was even going to try to post a picture of the cute little guy, but it's late and I'm going to bed.
Since I left NIH, I've spent a lot of time in the car between driving to Bethesda, home, National airport, Arlington (happy hour), Rockville (shopping because they lost my brother-in-law and his girlfriend's suitcase), back home, Rockville again (dinner), National airport (to pick up my mother-in-law), Iwo Jima monument in Rosslyn, the airport (they lost my mother-in-law's suitcase too). In the end, we recovered all suitcases and just arrived home at midnight. Whew, I am so ready for bed but I wanted to post the news before I got a bunch of frantic calls tomorrow that I couldn't answer because we'll be on the boat.
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