The One with E&T's Wedding Day 1

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

I set my alarm for 6am to give myself an hour to shower and finish packing and head to the airport for my 8:30am flight from Burbank to Oakland to Seattle (somebody please tell me why there isn't a direct flight on Southwest from LA to Seattle? Get on that Southwest!). I had just poured myself a ginormous bowl of frosted mini wheats and sat down at the computer to enjoy breakfast and sort through my mass of morning emails when I clicked on the email Southwest had sent me 40 minutes previously and oh what joy to read: Please note - your flight has been cancelled. SPAZ OUT!!!!!!!

I poured my cereal down the disposal and we were off to the airport faster than lightening. Everything worked out though. I got on a slightly earlier flight to Oakland took the same connecting flight to Seattle. Alls well that ends well.

Check out this beautiful view we saw as we were taking off from Burbank! BE-A-UTIFUL!

There was an open seat between us so Fox wiggled and climbed around and probably bothered our neighbor to no end.... sorry 'bout that! But hopefully he hammed it up enough to not be a problem.

Fox bit me! I couldn't get it to focus on the teethmarks, but it's the indentation on my arm by the freckle. Squinting helps :)

We got to Oakland and had a layover so I fed Fox and he got all messy. Mmmm. Peas.

My BOGO Auntie Anne's pretzel coupon worked and I got a cinnamon and pizza pretzel.

This man entertained us with his ukulele. It was like being back in Hawaii for a minute ;)

"All my bags are packed. I'm ready to go!"

Fox's 14th airplane arrived right on schedule. Yeah. 14th. He's a traveler to boot!

I sat in the back so that if Fox started fussing I could easily stand up and move to the back and rock him around. Then the back filled up with 45 smelly teenage boys who were in a band. Luckily, they were all totally enamored by Fox and thought he was the coolest baby evah. I agree :)

My mom, Allie, and Aunt Katy picked me'n'Fox up from SeaTac then we made our way to the Redmond Target so I could get Fox a booster seat and a gift card for Eric & Tanya. Then we went to Yummy Teriyaki for lunch. It sure is yummy! Then we came home and I unpacked and tended to Fox while everyone else went shopping or to get their hair did.

I fed Fox. Or rather, he fed himself cheerios. He really likes cheerios.

The groom to be. He better get used to this!

Malm made Cincinnati chili for dinner and it was a party! So much family came over! I didn't get pictures though. Shame shame.

After dinner we went out on the zipline in the backyard. Eric's a crazy boy risking his life the night before he was to be wed.

I was so pooped so I retired early. Tomorrow my little brother's getting married!

What's that saying? I'm not losing a brother, I'm gaining as sister!

The One with Rachel Wants to Go On Vacation

Monday, July 25, 2011

Rachel knows when we're about to ditch her. She plops herself all up in our suitcase in a physical protest.

Sorry Rachel, we've learned from multiple past experiences that you do not travel well.

The reason for ditching Rachel? I'm heading home to Seattle to see my little brother get hitched! Home sweet home here I come.

And this is just too precious not to share: Mr. Fox fell asleep in the crook of Chris's arm tonight.

Is it just me, or does Fox look like such a big boy now? Where is the time going??

I've said it before and I'll say it again (and probably many more times!): I love my boys!

The One with Pompeii

Sunday, July 24, 2011

In keeping with one of my 27 Before 27 bucket list items which is to read a book a month, I finished Pompeii by Robert Harris yesterday. (It's so nice to read something besides Harry Potter or Twilight! Go me!)

And FYI, I read The Book Thief by Markus Zusack for the month of June. 2 down. 10 to go.

SPOILER ALERT - divert thine eyes if you haven't read it and want to - but I just want to know, is the person she marries and lives happily ever after with the Jew who was living in her basement? It didn't specifically say but that's who I'm rooting for!

So anyways, back to Pompeii, I'm not going to post a review like I said I might in my bucket list because I'm not very good with words and summarizing. Chris, on the other hand, writes amazing book reviews which he posts on his blog (though recently he's been reading a lot of boring political governmental schtuff.... love you babe!) so click here to read his review of Pompeii. But perhaps if and when I feel so inclined, like right now, if I'm moved enough by the book, I'll blog something about it!

When Chris graduates in May of 2013 we want to take a trip to Florence to celebrate. I'm hoping to make it over to Rome and Venice and Bologna too. And now I want to add Pompeii to the list!

I've always been into natural disasters in a weird way. Terrified of them too, no doubt, but fascinated nonetheless. Tornadoes. Hurricanes. Volcanoes. I guess my lack of knowledge on the subjects makes me want to know more. Once upon a time I even wanted to be a meteorologist. I think that lasted one summer and then it was back to veterinarian. And whatdoyouknow, I'm neither :) Boy my train of thought is all over the place tonight! Basically, I read Pompeii, and now all I want to do is watch anything and everything that has to do with volcanoes! And I want to go to Pompeii and see it with my own eyes! Pictures and words and BBC documentaries don't do it justice I'm sure.

To quote the preface on page 210 of Pompeii, which was taken from "Dynamics of Volcanism": The surface of the volcano ruptured shortly after noon allowing explosive decompression of the main magma body. The exit velocity of the magma was approximately 895 mph (Mach 1). Convection carried the incandescent gas and pumice to a height of 17 miles. The thermal energy released during the AD 79 eruption would have been roughly 100 times that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb.

Can you believe that??? The magma flew out at 895 mph - 17 miles high! Snap! I bet people thought it was the end of the world. That's what I would have been thinking. Pompeii got the worst of it because the wind was blowing in that direction.

Volcanoes were such a foreign, unheard of phenomenon that there weren't words to describe what was happening. Luckily a man by the name of Pliny wrote down as best he could the events as they unfolded. Here are some artists paintings of the "manifestation" as Pliny called it:

Here's what Mt. Vesuvius and the surrounding area looks like today from satellite:

It's like a big pimple just waiting to be popped!

Every once in awhile Mt. Vesuvius gives people a scare and threatens to erupt again. Scientists say volcanoes like Mt. Vesuvius erupt every 2000 years. That means it's set to go off again any time now. Do the 3.5 million people living around the disaster waiting to happen know that?:

Until recently it was thought everyone in Pompeii died from suffocation. But now it's believed that everyone burned up instantly from 482 degrees surges from the volcano. Men, women, children, and animals alike remain in the exact placement as they were when they died. So macabre.

And there's your history lesson of the day.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go watch Pompeii: The Last Day on Netflix.

The One with the Dolly Parton Concert

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Our power is being shut off from 8am-12pm today for "maintenance"... so I gotta blog about last night's main event before we go back to the stone age!

My friend Kelsey had some extra tickets to the Dolly Parton concert and since her husband so kindly bowed out she offered them to some girlies for a fun (much needed!) girls night out. I picked up said girlies and we drove to the LA Zoo to catch a ride to the show.

With our tickets in hand, we waited (next to the portapotties no less) for the bus to shuttle us over to the Hollywood Bowl.

The wheels on the bus go round and round. Round and round. Round and round. The wheels on the bus go round and round. All through the town.

A short ride and not too much traffic later, we arrived!

I'll be the first to admit I am not a fan per say of Dolly. I mean, I only know like two of her songs and I had no knowledge of her story or background. A little Googling cleared that part up for me. I do, however, love me some country music AND I've always wanted to go to the Hollywood Bowl AND it's on my bucket list of 27 things to do before I'm 27 to see a concert. Check!

What can I say, I like hot pink flowers.

As we walked up the hill to find our seats I snapped this picture of an old aerial view of the venue. It's shaped like a hot air balloon!

Apparently the thing to do is bring your own dinner and munch before the show starts. We brought the most random assortment of junk food from peanut butter M&Ms and Twizzlers to chips and salsa and Peppermint Patties.

While the other girls visited the loo I meandered up to the very top to see what I could see. And what a site to behold! The Hollywood sign is perfectly positioned behind the top of the Bowl.

As much as I could fit in my camera lens:

Definitely the coolest venue I've ever been to.

The house was packed! And I'm pretty sure we were the youngest people in attendance with a gap of 40 years between us and the next :)

The show started right on time at 8:30pm. I don't know how she stands upright if you know what I'm sayin'...

Dolly was a hoot and has an amazing country voice. She was so funny and has a very optimistic outlook on life. Between songs she would share small tidbits and stories about her life and growing up and even made fun of her extreme looks. Dolly Parton for President!