Real Food; days 12-15

These fews days have offered up my hardedst days so far. I was on vacation in Whistler BC for these days. I new going into this vacation that I didn't want to be totally crazy about what I ate, but I did want to try to stick with the 30 day plan, here is what I did. I made sure that I made and took with me some great snacks: homemade beef jerky, homemade cracker jacks, grain free crackers, dried fruit, and grain free granola. I also offered to make dinner for all my friends on evening, a yummy stew. I did eat out while we where there, if it was possible I tried to not eat grains and eat as many real foods as I could. There were some things that I ate that had grains because you can only get them in BC, plus I have a few snacks that I bought that I will enjoy after these 30 days are up. All in all I think it went pretty good.

2 months!

In two months Kristen and I will be in ITALY!!! I'm getting so excited! I think I might have finally finalized our itinerary, meaning we can start to book our hotel/hostels.

Today I'm looking at my favorite website when planning European trips, my best friend Rick Steves website. Today I am looking at all the stuff I want to buy, I love the idea of buying thing specially designed for stuff, like the shower caddy. It hold 3 little bottles, has elastic loops for a razor and toothbrush and a convenient hook so that you can hook it in the shower with you plus it is mess so it drys super quick! I don't really need it but it sounds super cool!

Soon I will have to start planning on the 4 outfits that I will bring to last me our 2 week trip; what doesn't wrinkle or show dirt and other fun stuff like that.

My biggest hurdle will be getting Kristen to pack just 1 carry on bag!

Busy Morning

This morning was busy with things I needed to do.

First up: I had to check-in for my flight to Spokane tomorrow. Yep I'm going to visit the Fam for the first time this year. I can't wait to get to the heat and no AC at my mom's house! Maybe we will stop by Costco on the way home and I will buy her a window AC. On Sunday I'm going to go and hang out at the Red Lion pool with some friends from work who happen to be going to SpokVegas to enjoy the heat (it takes all kinds). John and Nicole just bought a "pool". Mom says it is the size of a hot tub, to me that doesn't make it a pool. I think I will be chillaxing in there with cutie Elisabeth, who I hear LOVES the "pool" although to her it probably is an olympic size! Then the rest of the time I will being helping my mom stain the back deck!

Second piece of business: I had to buy tickets for my friends and myself to the So You Think You Can Dance Tour that went on pre-sale this morning. Got 4 tickets on the floor! Hopefully it will not be as crazy loud as it was 2 years ago where I was still a little deaf 2 days later!

Thirdly: I have been making sure that everything is all in place and we don't run out of anything here at work while I'm away.

Fourth: I should probably look up bus schedules to get to the airport tomorrow, I'm super bummed that the new light rail isn't open all the way to the airport yet!

Tonight I have to finish straightening up my apartment so that Terry doesn't think I'm a slob when she comes to feed Maggie. Then I should probably pack.

Photo Book above!

Travis wanted to order my Vegas 30th B-day book that I made to commemorate the awesome time my friends and I had celebrating my B-day. When I went to see if he could indeed still order it I found that I could have it posted here so Hells to the Yeah I had it posted here! I hope you all enjoy!

You have got to be kidding me!

I'm looking for a hotel in Rome that is by the airport, because our flight out is early and I don't want to pay 50 Euros for a taxi ride. So I'm starting my search on Travelocity and they have listed under a "good buy" the Hilton for $416 a night!!!!

Who the crap is that a "good buy" for?!?!

Italy here I come!

Yes!!! Today after months and months and months of planning Kristen and I finally bought our tickets to Italy!!!

Vegas here we are!

It was once again time to head to Vegas for some much needed fun in the sun! This trip saw Melissa, Carmel, Chris and I heading off for Sin City, time to drink and party!

Here are the 4 of us on the plane, we all had to work today so we don't get to leave until about 8pm.
Even though Melissa said she was tired we still knocked back 2 drinks each, this is after the prefunk drink I made for the shuttle ride to the airports, we were all feeling no pain!

Melissa taking quick cat nap before we head down to the casino!

Here is Carmel spinning the big wheel for a free prize! Luckily we all just missed out on winning tickets to Lance Burton, we all won $10 in free play!!

Oh look at that cute group chillin' at the Wynn

Here is one of the main reasons for our trip to Vegas, Bette Midler!!

Carmel drinking a Sophie before the great Bette show!

Holy Crap I just won $75.25!!! I love you Mermaids game!!

Amazing umbrellas at the Palazo

The strip at night!

I love snow again!

I have now changed my travel plans about 4 times...

I finally got a flight out tonight!! Christmas time is about to start!

12/18/08

So today started out nice. It was snowing and my walk down the hill to catch the shuttle to work was beautiful. It had that lovely hushed quiet that you only get with snow. I didn't even mind to much that I had to wait 45 minutes to get a shuttle, I actually had to flag one down but that was okay because I was going to fly home to start Christmas vacation this evening.

Lovely

My day started to go down south when I happened to check the weather report for Spokane and saw that they had a record snowfall of 17 inches in 24 hours. I started to get worried that my flight might get cancelled when I saw that most of the morning flights were indeed cancelled. I wasn't too worried yet because my flight wasn't until 9 that night and the storm was suppose to let up mid morning. Around 2pm my flight was listed as delayed an hour and I was okay with that it was fine arriving later than I expected. When I left work the flight was still the same so I was hopeful. I was able to take the work shuttle downtown only to discover that no buses were going up the hill and I would have to walk in the cold and wind. I decided to call and see how my flight was doing and was saddened to find out that it was cancelled. Then I was pissed to learn that the first flight that I could get on was Saturday afternoon at 3:10!!! Damn it I want to start Christmas now not 2 days from now!!! Now I'm trying to decided if I want to try my luck tomorrow at the airport and see if I can fly out standby. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Travis is happy because now I'm going to be on the same flight that he is. He also doesn't understand why I'm mad that I have to wait till Saturday. I planned to leave after work today so that I could have the most time back home during my favorite time of year, so it bums me out that I have to wait. Plus I'm not the most patient of people.

Let me just say that the walk back up the hill was not as enjoyable as the walk down was. 1. it wasn't nearly as pretty. 2. it was much colder, my face was frozen! 3. I was irritated I wasn't going to be going home.

Not as lovely

Here I am chatting with Travis as I trek in the cold.

FUCK SNOW!

I'm so irritated my flight was cancelled and now I can't start my vacation until late Saturday afternoon! The only person happy about this info is Maggie.

update

Departure Seattle (SEA) 08:55 PM Delayed 10:35 PM

Arrival Spokane (GEG) 09:50 PM Delayed 11:30 PM

White Christmas? Yes. Home for Christmas? Who knows

I have no idea if I will be able to get home to ML tonight to start my Christmas vacation! Seattle is in a snow storm (Winter Freeze) and Spokane is getting DUMPED on, 17 inches in 24 hours (I don't know what their icon is yet)!!! So far my flight is not cancelled, but most flights are. I really don't want to have to go to the airport tonight to find out that my flight is cancelled. If it is going to be cancelled I would like it to happen before I try to get to the airport! I hope I can get to ML tonight so I don't have to try to deal with getting on a flight tomorrow with all the other people who's flights were cancelled today!

What I'm thinking right now

I’m tired today. The bus was late this morning, so I had to stand out in the cold for about 20 minutes waiting for it! Then the shuttle that I take to work left early so I missed it making me 15 minutes late to work, grrr. I have to go to an 8 hour work day/training in about an hour, meaning that I will be here till after 7pm tonight. After work I have to run to the bead store to pick up some stuff so that I can finish a necklace that someone ordered, go and buy some cat food so that Maggie doesn’t starve, do some more cleaning so that I don’t leave my house in a mess when I go to ML for the holidays. Tomorrow I’m going to a poetry reading, my friend Jim is doing a reading, and I’m really only going for him cuz poetry is just not my thing. After that I need to make 60 cookies for a cookie exchange the next day! There goes another bag or two of chocolate chips!!!

I started packing last night, 1. because I love packing, 2. because I have a lot going on this week and 3. I really love packing! I really want to be ready to leave after work on Thursday because it might snow again and then getting to the airport will turn into a nightmare because Seattle drivers are retarded and don’t know what to do when snow and ice happen. I love that I don’t have to pack much because I leave some clothes at my mom’s house ie, track pants, long sleeved shirt, winter jacket, shoes. All I need to bring are some PJs, an outfit to wear to Christmas Eve service, underwear, a pair of jeans and a nicer shirt. Because what do I wear when I’m chillazing around ML? Track pants and long sleeved shirt.

Whoa I’m very chatty today.

Photo books, photo books, photo books!

Last Friday Jim called me to tell me that Oprah had an offer for a free $29.99 20 page photo book (you have to pay $7.29 for shipping) from Snapfish. So I of course dropped everything and signed up with 3 different email accounts so that I could get the most for the 1 per household. Wait my mom and grandma totally wanted to make a photo book with my pictures! So I have just finished up my 3 books. I made one about my cousin Kristen and my trip to Europe in 2006, "Mom" made one about our trip to St. Louis in 2004 and "Grandma" made one about the parties that I have thrown or been to in the last couple of years. I can't wait for them to arrive. Hopefully they will arrive before I leave Spokane after Christmas so that I don't have to pay to have them shipped to Seattle.

After using both Snapfish and Shutterfly I must say that I like Shutterfly way better. Shutterfly has better layout and I like they red eye fix feature much better. Although Snapfish has cheaper shipping they were 6.99 where are Shutterfly was 11.99. I now all comes down to the quality, I know that Shutterfly is great, I will let you know how Snapfish is.

Upgrade

In the middle of our cruise we got the most amazing phone call! Would we like to be upgraded to a Deluxe Veranda Suite free of charge? Hell yeah we would!! Here is a tour of our new room. We thought our old room was spacious this one was out of control!

Sorry I look drug addled

Let's Zip!

We went on the most amazing excursion while we were in Ketchikan we went Ziplining!!! I had to talk my mom into it but we both had an AWESOME time! I want to Zipline everywhere I go!

It all started with a crazy ride the side of a hill to get to the Zip area.

Mom and I enjoying our ride!

I look so rockin' in my helmet!

Here I come!

This is my new boyfriend Justin he was our awesome guide he made our trip so much fun!

Mush!!

While we were in Juneau we went on a dog sledding excusion.at there summer musher camp. It was so much fun and you could really tell that the dogs loved pulling the sled. When we arrived the dogs were going nuts waiting for us to get in the sled so they could get to pulling!

Welcome to our room!

Before we left for our cruise I was a little nervious about the size that our room was going to be. You alyays hear about the rooms being super little, but I happy to report that our room was a decient size, we didn't have any problem with the size.

These beds were so comfortable and cozy.

Who wants to eat?

Here is a selection of some of the food that was consumed!

Seafood Crustini & Surf and Turf

Afternoon Tea & Tastey Sweet and Sour Pork

Baked Alaska & Bread Pudding

I LOVE Cruising!!!

Here we are on first day of cruising! We have just eaten our first meal of many on our vacation. I don't know if I can explain how much I Love cruising!! First of all it was a week long vacation (who doesn't love that), then it is all you can it any time you want to eat, plus while you are on your way to your destination you aren't stuck sitting in the back seat of a car or a tiny seat of an airplane you can lounge in your room, play some shuffleboard (I'm not good), join in a quiz game show (and come in 2nd place), gamble (I lost $10), eat (I did a lot that), or many many other things.