Halloween Festivities

It's always lame when Halloween's on a Sunday, but this year (err... last year) we made the best of it. On Friday night, Camille and I threw a joint Halloween costume party.

 

Kurt and I were Jake Jabs and a leopard/cheetah? (Not sure what that print is.)

Jeff and Kim were Dwight and Angela from the office. Jane was their contractual child.

James was a mad doctor and Camille was a witch. Jacob was a sleeping pumpkin.

Steve and Alisha were pirates.

I didn't get pictures of everyone else's costumes! :(

The spread was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.

The boys, of course, played MarioKart. Silly boys.

The next night, we went with our friend Sam to a haunted corn maze. We had SO much fun! I had fun screaming/laughing/jumping up and down/clapping my hands whenever someone would jump out and scare us.

Waiting in line.

We made a new friend!

On Halloween, we (read: I) dressed the dogs up and handed out candy (to the, like, 6 trick-or-treaters. Halloween just isn't what it used to be. :( )

Ruby was not having it. She was a bunch of grapes.

I had to capture Swift to get a pic of his hat. He was a ram!

He didn't mind the "wool" part of the costume, though!

Swift looks like he's laughing at Ruby's misery.

All in all, it was an awesome Halloween weekend!

Au Revoir, Petit Chou

Sometime after I got back from October, my dad called for a family conference call between him and all of us kids. He told us that Chou chou's condition, which we already knew was deteriorating, was growing quickly worse. She was already blind in one eye and sight in her second eye was failing quickly. Her sense of smell seemed to have been greatly dulled. She didn't seem to be hearing very well either. She hardly ate any food, preferring to lay out on the deck in the back yard in the sun. The consensus was unanimous--she needed to be put out of her misery. She'd lived almost 13 years and had been a wonderful dog, and we hated seeing her suffer. My parents didn't have to take that difficult step, because a few days later after I work, I got the text, "Chou chou passed away. More details in an email." When I got home, I found the following note from my dad in my inbox:

"Yes, Chouchou died peacefully this morning around 10:30 am.  I didn't want anyone to have to deal with it during the work or school day, so I held off until now.  She has slept most of the last three days and nights, almost without stop.  She never whimpered or 'fussed' about as if she was in pain of any kind.  This morning we found her sleeping on the marble entry floor.  She was still breathing when I checked her at 10:00 before coming up here to do some work.

We are all sad.  We have so, so many wonderful memories of great times with her!  She was a delightful pet, even through the wettings, etc., but never a bad dog or ill-tempered in any way.  We will miss her without a doubt.

I wrapped her in a sturdy blanket and buried her in the back yard.  I cleaned her cage, washed her bowls and took them to Goodwill.  The woman there asked me what happened to my dog?  I could hardly answer her.  It caught her by surprise to see an old man cry.

Love,

Dad"

Even though I'd been expecting it, it was still hard to hear. Chou chou was my personal dog--I got her when I was 13 years old. We picked her up on the day after Christmas. She was a birthday present, but wasn't able to leave her parents till then. She was the sweetest thing, who would never growl at you unless you tried to take away a her precious pig ears. She put up with just about everything, tailing pulling, ear tugging, from Collin when he was a little boy and then my nephew Chris. When people came over, she'd wag her tail so hard her whole back side wiggled. When her hair was long, she looked like a mop. We taught her commands in French (since Steph was taking french in high school at the time), such as "Vien ici" and "Levez-vous." She once jumped up on the dinner table, after we hurriedly left to get to play practice, and ate all of my mom's casserole. As she got older she had trouble going down the wooden stairs without slipping, and so would stay up there until someone came to get her. She loved to sleep with me and usually ended up taking over my pillow by the end of the night. Pretty much every day when my dad got home from work, he'd greet her by saying, "It's a good day to die, Chou" or "Death to small white dogs!" while petting her. I called her Chou, Ma petite Chou, and Chou poo magoo on the loo. I hope everyone gets to own a dog like her in their lifetime.

I'm going to miss my mop!

Swingin' Cruise 2010: Thanks, Gergely

Our port the next day was Belize City, in, you guessed it, Belize. Kurt went scuba diving (I can't *sniff*) and Alex wanted to stay on the ship to win tournaments and trophies, so Allison and I decided to venture to shore by ourselves for a bit.

 This was our longest tender (boat ride from the ship anchored off shore to the port) at about 20 minutes. I guess the water stays really shallow for a long ways off the coast of Belize City.

Belize City had this touristy, fenced-in port area with shops. We just wandered around the shops, finding interesting things like pipes shaped like ... human anatomy and a really cute doll that Allison wanted to get for her baby girl (who's going to make her big debut any day now!). The doll was crazy expensive though. In the end, I got some rum cakes for our friends who were watching our dogs, and Allison bought candy. She likes to get candy in foreign countries (on Roatan Island we made a special trip to the grocery store, lol).
The next day, which was our last port day--sad; we were at Cozumel, Mexico. This is where Kurt and I were supposed to go on our honeymoon (remember that very long story?). As usual with our other ports, we didn't have any excursions planned prior to stepping off the ship, but we quickly booked a morning snorkeling trip (for way cheaper than the cruise ship would've charged us).

 We got to snorkel at three different spots for a total of 3 hours. It was pretty sweet. We bought a reusable, non-digital, water-proof camera but haven't developed those pics yet. Basically, the reef wasn't like you see in the movies. There actually wasn't a ton of reef. But there were so many fish! We saw all kinds of pretty tropical fish, a couple of rays, a jellyfish, and a few barracuda. Creepy.

When we got back to shore, it was only 11 am and we didn't have to be on the ship till 4. So we decided to do a little bit of self-guided island exploration on a scooter. It was so much fun! We drove all around the island.

 Found a little ice cream/popsicle shop we visted. Twice. I got lime both times. Mmmm...

 Checked out some Lamanite--I mean Mayan ruins.

 And found hole-in-the-wall, off-the-beaten-touristy-path shops to get yummy authentic Mexican food. In the morning, we got fried shrimp tortas that were awesome (for $2 a piece). I didn't get pics of those. And here's Kurt enjoying some fried shrimp (apparently he hadn't gotten enough of that yet) tacos for $1 a piece. He was happy.

Like any good cruise ship, we had towel animals waiting for us every afternoon. This was my favorite, because they even had him hanging from the ceiling. Although he looks like a weird, alien, demon monkey.
The next day was our last. Poo. It was at sea. We got up early and snagged some chairs on the deck. Read, ordered some sodas, grabbed food from the buffet, and watched the contests down by the pool. The boys even participated in one and won.

 Don't mind my strange tan lines. That's what happens when you juggle between 3 different suits in 7 days.

 Our last dinner. We savored it. The food was awesome.

 Yay for our cruisin' buddies!

 Every night the boys ordered two entrees. This is to document that.

 Our waiter Lucas, on the right, and his assistant Albert, on the left.

The next day we did not disembark at our assigned time. Instead, we played card games on the deck (which we did pretty much every night, which almost caused some marital problems since it was boys vs. girls) until they forced us off. It was strange to see the ship so empty. 

It was hard to leave, but the four of us are already planning our next cruise together!

Happy Friday!

TFGIF!

(Figure out what that first F is and you get ... a virtual pat on the back.)

This has been pretty much the longest week of my life.

I was convinced all day yesterday that it was Friday,

despite little clues that it wasn't.

Like my calendar.

Or the garbage out front for pick up.

But it has finally arrived!

Huzzah!

And even though I've gotten about 3 hours of restive (is that a word?) sleep a night this week,

nothing can kill my good mood.

Because:

a) It's Friday (have I mentioned that yet?)

b) It's going to be 60 degrees today!

c) Kurt's last day in public accounting was yesterday (more details on that)

d) I woke up with several scenes in my head for my YA fiction book.

Also, I'm hypomanic.

But I'll take what I can get!

I hope your Friday is as good as mine.

Honestly.

And if it's not, watch this adorable video, and you'll be smiling in no time.

(Shibas are the cutest!)

I love Kurt.

(lying in bed last night)
Me: Why am I so weird??
Kurt: Maybe you ate paint chips as a kid.
Me: Why do you love me?
Kurt: Because you ate paint chips as a kid?
Me: Why would that make you love me?
Kurt: Maybe I ate paint chips as a kid too.

Swingin' Cruise 2010: Mint Chocolate Ship!

Just a note: we are not really swingers, and neither are the Wilcox's. It's just an inside joke run a-muck. As most of our inside jokes with them are. I figure most of y'all know that, but who knows who might be reading this. 

So, in October we went on a 7 night, Western Caribbean cruise with our friends, Alexson (aka Allison and Alex). We had an awesome time with them and already decided that we're all cruising together again in the future. This was both mine and Kurt's first cruise and we loved it! Definitely not the only way to travel (as some people feel) but we'd love to do more in the future. I mean, all food included in your booking price, and seeing 4 countries in as many days? Not too shabby.

Our first day was at sea and I didn't take any pics. That night was Formal Night. Here is my mint chocolate chip sistah and me lookin' stylin'. At least, Allison is, and I'm trying.

 Kurt had the bright idea to take pictures out on the deck. Yeah, it was a bit windy for that.

 The next day we visited Grand Cayman.

 Public accounting wouldn't be so bad if you lived on a tropical island ...

 Somewhat lost ...

 Big Black Dick. He was a famous pirate, me thinks. Yar.

 We said goodbye to the Wilcox's for the afternoon as we went to swim with the stingrays. It was so cool! They have crazy skin (smooth yet sandpapery) and come up to you like puppies. We didn't get any pics because we hadn't bought a waterproof camera yet (dur).

 Had to get us some jerk chicken. Kurt loves that stuff. I decided to try it myself, and it is delicious.

 Check out that water!

The next day was Roatan Island, Honduras. We didn't have any idea what we wanted to do when we got off the ship, but ended up going ziplining. It was a blast!!

Here I go again! Here I go again on my own!

 That's Kurt.

Stay tuned for the rest of the trip...