P.R. Picture Update 2

On Monday we headed to Old San Juan. Here are some pics.

Puerto Rico Update 2

On Sunday we, J.R. and I - he made it in on Saturday, made the 1.5 hour drive to visit the Arecibo Observatory and the Camuy Caves.

The Arecibo Observatory is home to the largest radio telescope in the world. We visited the information center, saw the obligatory informational movie on the telescope, and took awesome pics. The telescope was featured in the movie Contact with Jodie Foster.

After the observatory we headed to the Camuy Caves. The caves were pretty neat. After you watch the obligatory movie, once again, you jump on a trolley that takes you all the way down to the cave. You get out and a tour guys walks you through the cave explaining what everything is - a rock over here, a rock over there, bats, bat poo, etc. Overall, it was a pretty neat tour.

Getting out of that area of the country was not so neat. The roads were very narrow and they would zigzag all over the place on the edge of a mountain. Sometimes the road would go down to one lane, scary stuff!!

We made it save and sound to the hotel. That night we went to Mi Casita Restaurant were they serve Puerto Rican food. J.R. had the Mofongo - a dish made of crushed plantains mixed with pork rinds. The mixture is then stuffed with meat and served. That is one of the things I like about J.R. he is always willing to try something new. I, on the other hand, stuck to the save and traditional white rice, beans, sweet plantains, and chicken soup. Yummy!

P.R. - Picture Update 1

View from my room.

Puerto Rico Update 1

My trip last night was good. Because of the unstoppable rain in Houston the plane was late 30 minutes leaving.

Something I don't understand is - Why would an airline going to a Latin American country over sell seats? (Usually airlines over-sell tickets in hopes that if some people do not show up the plane will still be full). The airlines would save themselves a lot of aggravation if the would just understand the Hispanic mind. We will show up!!! Not only will we show up, but we are taking our whole family with us. Yesterday's trip was no different, there were moms with kids, aunts, and grandmas carrying their huge colorful plastic bags with the red handles. I can only guess what they have in them. My old Tias do the same thing when they visit from Panama. Once my Tia Caca brought boxes of generic Kelloggs in one of her colorful bags. She was on a "special" diet and had to eat the corn flakes everyday.

The trip was fine. It did seem longer that the 4.5 hours it was supposed to take. I love traveling, but I hate the plane ride. It has been over a year since the last major airplane catastrophe and we are due. I just think that would be one of the most horrible deaths. If the plane would explode in mid-air (30,000 feet or so) it would not be problem, I would die instantly, but most plane crashes happen within 20 minutes of take off or landing. You will most likely feel everything. Anyway, enough about that. Happy happy thoughts.

I actually drove to the hotel last night and, yes, you guessed it, got lost, but at least I know where everything is at now.

This morning I got up and had breakfast by the beach. I had to work all day, but was able to move next to the pool in the afternoon.

So far the trip is good. J.R. gets here tomorrow.

A Nice Day

I had such a nice day yesterday, well, considering that I had to work from 3am to 6am (Tues) and again this morning (Wed).

My day was really nothing special, but it all started when I picked up Baby Girl from my mom's house (she had spent the night there because I had to work in the morning and I NEED, desperately, to get my beauty sleep). When we got home we decided to make some soap. I did not know soap was so easy to make. Wow, I think I found a new hobby. We got little squirting critters and put them in the soap. They are so cute. Baby Girl was so excited and she helped every step of the way. How much fun.

After the soap making we made cupcakes and bunny cakes (cupcakes, but in the shape of bunny heads). Baby Girl picked chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Yummy.

After all that Baby Girl was all yucky and covered with frosting, so we put the new made soap to good use by giving her a bath. I love making soap already. The little critters on the soap squirt, how much fun is that!

The night was topped off by the commercial-free premier of Nip/Tuck. Wow, this season is going to be awesome.

I am heading to Puerto Rico tomorrow (work trip). I should be able to blog from there since the hotel has DSL. According to the hotel website you can get connected on the beach!! Should be fun. I will keep you guys posted.

Gmail...

If you are one of those crazy people that is planning to give up your first born just for a chance to have your own personal Gmail account, well, today is your lucky day, or not, depending on how you are looking at it.

I have a million invitations that I do not plan on using, so if you would like me to send you an invite just email me at justascribble@yahoo.com.

Also, unless the kid is potty trained I don't want it. I am having enough problems with my own child. Also, your first born must be cute and under 5. I am not taking any jobless 30 year olds!! ;)

Puerto Rico

I guess I am going to have to settle with being bathing suit passable since I am leaving for San Juan, P.R. next week. I was hoping to be able to loose some weight by then, but unless I loose a limb I don't think it is going to happen.

I am looking forward to going to P.R. Last time I was there it was a lot of fun, but I went with a bunch of people. This year I will be going alone. I think J.R. will join me during the weekend, but don't know for sure yet.

I need to wash clothes so bad. I still have not unpacked from our family vacation, so I have been having to go to the back of the closet (where I keep all the clothes that I don't like, but might come in handy some day). Yikes, I need to get things done. Later.

Oh, yes, Happy Father's Day to all the daddies out there.

Random Ramblings

Today is my 9th wedding anniversary. Yippie us!!

Madonna has decided to change her name to Esther. Something about the energy of another name, blah, blah, blah. Do these people have anything else to do with their lives?? News article here.

Who is this Ashlee Simpson chic?? At first I thought "there is no way that she can be Jessica Simpson's sister". Then as I watched MTV I realized that it is!! What the hell??!! I mean if the big sister could sing I would say "ok, talent might run in the family" but talent doesn't run the in the family, so what the hell? All they have going for them is that they are cute. The BIG marketing MTV guys have decided that they do not want people comparing the two, so Ashlee has gotten the obligatory hair color change and a tougher image. She is seen swearing and flipping people off. She also appears not to be a virgin like Jessica "alleged" to of been. Bad move MTV.

Forgot...5 days till the Nip/Tuck Season Premier.

I Need Some Magic...

Does anyone know how I can get 10 pounds off in a few weeks? I need a miracle. Does anyone know if those deals with the devil really work??

It turns out that my Puerto Rico trip has been pushed to earlier than expected. I might leave next week or the week after and I just don't look right. I look Houston ok, but not Caribbean great. Lately I have been thinking of changing my blog name to Chuncky Chic, but figured it would not do much for my self steem. I need help. Any suggestions will really help.

Thanks.

Enough is enough

How many products are "they" going to come out with that have 0 or are low in carbs?? I mean, every company has jumped on the bandwagon to get a piece of the action. There are low-carb drinks, low-carb bread - bread?! yuck, low-carb cereal, low-carb chips - blasphemy, and get this, now "they" have come out with low-carb gum!!! Yes, gum. It seems to me that if you are worried about how many carb grams there are in a tiny piece of gum then your weight is not the only thing you should be worried about.

I am just waiting for a marketing guy to come up with the "0 carb water". I bet it would sell, that is how insane this whole "low-carb craze" has gotten.

Home Sweet Home

We are finally home from our nine day vacation. I must say the whole trip was awesome, but I am glad to be home. By the end of the trip all the rocks started looking the same. Sorry that I could not blog, but in some of these places I could not even get my cell phone to work.

Here is a rundown of our trip:
Friday to Sunday - Got upgraded to first class - yippie for us!!! What a great way to start a vacation. We spent three days at my friend's house in Phoenix.
Sunday - Headed to Flagstaff. Stopped at Montezuma's Castle (cave dwellings). Explored Flagstaff - Awesome.
Monday - Went to Meteor Crater and Wupatki National Monument (Houses built by Indians). There is a natural blow hole at one of the sites. The hotter it gets outside the cooler the air that blows out, it felt like an air conditioner outside in the desert...Neat. Visited the Lowell Observatory...Amazing. We were able to look at a star cluster...Did I say amazing?!!
Tuesday - Drove to the Grand Canyon and spent the whole day there, did some hiking. It is really breath taking. We were also able to get some great sunset shots. Drove to Page, AZ.
Wednesday - Went to Antelope Canyon. Wow, I did not know it was that cool. It is awesome and amazing. Highly recommended. Drove to Utah.
Stopped in Kanab, Utah. Had lunch at the weirdest Chinese Restaurant and visited the Frontier Movie Town, yes, kinda hokey, but it gave us a brake from the rock watching. After all that we headed to Zion National Park.
Thursday - Hiking Day. Hung around Springdale, Utah...An amazing city. On my top 10 of favorite cities in the US.
Friday - Drove to Sedona, AZ.
Saturday - Drove around Sedona, AZ. and took some pics of all the "famous" rocks. We did not visit any of the Vortex, but I could feel some vibrations in some very special places ;) Drove to Phoenix to attend a my friend's neighbors party.
Sunday - Going home day. Plane ride from hell. The pilot gets on the intercom and says "we are in a 1:20 hold pattern, but we only have :45 worth of fuel, so if they don't lift the hold pattern we will have to go to San Antonio to refuel". Well, we headed to San Antonio and waited three hours in the plane. What a horrible way to end a great vacation.

To be in Dallas or not to be...

You guys are not going to believe this. A couple of days I blogged about how I was so busy getting ready for our vacation but had to work. Well, yesterday my boss calls me and says that he needs me in Dallas ASAP. I got a car, made the 4 hour trek, and checked into my hotel (Renaissance Dallas Hotel - I did not like it very much). Once I got there I called the guy I was going to be working with, he did his stuff, and we started testing. We were there for about 15 minutes and nothing was happening. He puts me on hold to do his stuff and then comes back and asks me "Where are you at?" I told him I was in Dallas. He says "Well, the point code says you are supposed to be in Houston" I tried to remain calm "What?! I just drove four hours to Dallas from Houston!!" We called my boss and he could not believe it either.

Geez, since Dallas was getting hit by a huge storm at 8:30pm I decided to get out of there at 8pm. I was glad I did because as I was driving out of town the sky got scary dark and the wind was blowing so hard that 18 wheelers were swerving. Crazy stuff.

So now I am not only home busy (laundry, packing, etc.) but also have to do the work I would of done yesterday in Dallas. Sucks!

Funny Things People Do

This is a funny, funny link (see link then keep reading). I was, and still am, rolling on the floor laughing. When I think about it the giggles come back - link here.

What could possess a person to do that to themselves?? I would rather throw the bathing suit away and keep myself pride than sell that damn swimsuit for $2.99. It just goes to show what people will sell on eBay.

Busy

I am so busy this week!! We leave for vacation on Friday...I think, well, Baby Girl has developed a stomach virus and an ear infection, so she is on antibiotics, how much fun is that! She throws up every time she eats. Anyway, back to my story, we are supposed to leave Friday and I have lots to do. I was hoping to have these few days off but my boss calls me today telling me that he needs me to work tomorrow and Thursday...yuck!! This will be work from home so it is better than driving around, but it is still work.

So, where I am going you may be wondering. Well, this year we have decided to go to Arizona and Utah. I have been chosen to be someone's God Mother (Life Counselor, I rather say) so we are combining the trip. We will be flying into Phoenix (115 degrees this weekend...yippie) hanging out the whole weekend and then heading north. We are planning to visit Sedona, Flagstaff, The Grand Canyon, and then driving into lower Utah and taking in some of the sights. It should be fun, but feel kinda weird about it now with Baby Girl not doing so well.

Last year for our family vacation we went to Aruba...awesome!!! I really want to go back. In 2002 we went to Italy and visited 5 cities. We are thinking of going to southern Italy and Greece next year for our 10th wedding anniversary. I just love vacations.

Ok, must go and get some things on my list and then come home and do laundry. So much fun.

My Weekend...

Friday...some friends and I got together in Downtown Houston. We meet everyone at Cabo. After Cabo we headed to Sambuca. Yes, it is true what they say, the place is full of "working girls". I was skeptical at first, but at 1:00 they start closing in on their prey and it becomes very obvious at that point. After that we headed over to Frank's for beer and pizza.

Saturday...We got up pretty late, hung around at the house, then went to have lunch at P.F. Changs - on the new section of The Woodlands Mall. The new section is AWESOME, there are tons of new stores and it even has an Anthropologie!! One of my favorite stores. After all that we headed to my friend Claudia's house for a "greet and meet". We finally got a chance to meet her daughter Martha. She is such a cutie.



Sunday...We packed the car and made our way to J.R.'s family reunion in Texarcana, Texas (yes, I know what you are asking yourselves, why Texarcana?! Honestly I don't know).

Monday...Made our way back home and jumped in the pool.

That is about it for my long holiday weekend. How was your weekend??

Life

This afternoon J.R. calls me and tells me that he is stuck in traffic. He tells me to go to the traffic website to see what is going on. I get on there and see that there is an accident. I tell him this and hang up. It always amazes when there is an accident at 1:30 in the afternoon. I think there is no traffic why is there an accident?! I continued to think about this and get angry until J.R. gets home two hours later.

I forget all about the accident until I see the news. It turns out that a lady was talking on her cell phone while her two, 4 and 5 year old, daughters where in the back seat. All of the sudden she turns around to talk to the girls and runs off the road and into an 18-wheeler that was parked on the shoulder fixing a flat. The impact is so severe that her 5 year old, that is in a car seat, is completely thrown clear and dies instantly. The right side of the car is completely taken off. You can read the story here.

As a mother my heart goes out to her. I think, what did she turn around to tell the girls? Did she yell at them? (she was on the phone after all) or did she turn around to see something cute they were doing? I guess I will never know.

This whole accident made me think of how fragile life is, what a short time we have here, and how we all need to tell people in our lives all the time how much they mean to us. After all, you just never know when it will be the last time you see them.

Gmail

Ha, ha, I came around this link by mistake. It is called Gmail Swap and is a place where people can enter a plea or offer something to swap for an invitation to join Google's Gmail.

I think it is pretty funny what some people offer up as trade. Read them and see, it is a good laugh.

I guess I better start feeling pretty lucky since I have TWO gmail accounts. Maybe next time I get an invite I will take one of the guys at Gmail Swap up on their offer.

Funny stuff...I just checked eBay and you can buy a Gmail account for around $40.

My Weekend Recap

My weekend actually started on Thursday this week (since I was out of town Mon-Wed I got Thurs. and Fri. off). On Thursday we picked up Baby Girl early from school and headed to see Shrek 2. We just loved it! a very nice film for the kids.

Friday was Baby Girl's last day of school. She also had her first recital!! She has been taking music for three months (well, it is more like a music appreciation class). She was the youngest child in the class and she looked even smaller next to all those big kids (she is only 2.9 years old). She was into it for the first couple of songs, but then started to cry...My poor baby. She joined us and we watched the other kids finish their performance.

We also got in the pool for the fist time today! The water is still a little chilly.

Saturday was my brother-in-law's graduation day, so we went out to eat and later we went to his graduation party.

On Sunday we went to blogger Karen's son Christian first birthday party. The party was a lot of fun and it is always fun to see her family.

Oh, I forgot to mention...I finally broke down and bought a new camera. I ended up getting a Canon G5. I guess I was tired of having everyone yell at me when they attempted to take a picture with my old piece of S*%$ camera (I had a Sony DSC-P9).

This week I seem to be off (knock on wood), so I need to get my house clean before we leave for our family vacation.

Withdrawal

It has been over 24 hours and I am having withdrawal really bad. I am glad that I have decided to do this, but I now this is just the beginning and I have a long way to go.

Last night I went to bed at around 11pm, I usually go to sleep around 1am, but I guess since I did not have my usual pick me up my body was just tired.

I came to the realization that I needed to do something about my problem when my pants started fitting me a little bit snuggly. I also noticed that my habit was getting more expensive and that I was doing it with no one around. I would go to the store, usually a Walgreens, and instead of getting a regular Hershey's bar I would be drawn to the more expensive Cadbury or Lindor Chocolate Truffles. I would also go home and enjoy my just purchased goods all by myself. I hate to admit this, but there were times that I would eat the chocolate in the car!!!

My habit had been getting worse and worse with each passing day. There were times that I would rather have a hit of chocolate or dessert over eating anything else. I knew I had a problem when I broke my one Coke rule and had two in one sitting.

I don't know how long I can go without having a relapse. I just hope that is enough time for me to loose a couple of pounds. Wish me luck!

Home Again...

Yippie for me...I was able to get out Tijuana a little early. I was supposed to spend the night in san Diego, but decided to come home instead.

Tijuana is such a nice place, the weather rocks, and the beach is awesome. I keep telling J.R. that he needs to come with me one of these days. There is an incredible golf course where I usually stay - Real Del Mar. I am not a golfer at all. J.R. did surprise me one Christmas with Golf Clubs, he is just too funny, I just looked at him and said "where is my real gift?".

I have never played golf, but I have gone to the driving range. I usually suck. One time I even hit a guy! I hit the ball and it bounce back and forth between the dividers until it escaped, it had a mind of its own. Seconds later I heard an "ouch!". I look to my left and see a guy a few spaces down holding his chest. I was so embarrassed! All I could do was apologize...I thought he was going to sue me. Anyway, that was the last time that my hand touched a club. I Just thought you guys should now.

Anyway, back to Tijuana/San Diego...Get this, the price for a gallon of gas is $2.50!! Geez, we think we have it bad.