A Game of Numbers

3 - hours spent pressure washing things this weekend

511 - blogs I've written since coming to blogger! (512 if you count this one)

7.5 - hours of sleep I was supposed to get last night

4 - hours of sleep I think I actually got

154 - photos I posted from Hawaii (on Facebook)

1.5 - hours of actual work I've done today

9 - days until I leave for Missouri

21.5 - my cats weight, in pounds

1 - day until GLEE LIVE!

100 - days until Milwaukee

2 - number of sore arms I have from kicking ass this weekend!

6.5 - pounds of pork butt I slow cooked using a traditional Hawaiian Recipe this weekend - YUM!

Hey Hun... barf

I've always had moments where I see a pretty girl and think God, I'd love to have her hair or Man, she dresses so cute, wonder if I could pull off that look.
Often times I look at these girls knowing that I am who I am (and feel good about who I am, most of the time) and can't help but feel a little bit envious, for whatever reason.

I really like girls with tattoos - but don't feel like I could pull off a sleeve myself

I often wish I had hair like hers:

or even just something simply wavy like hers:

I don't often find myself wishing for blonde hair, but I can say I've thought about it.
... and even though I don't think Katy Perry has a voice worthy of mentioning, I do admire some of the looks she can pull off:

Unless, however, after admiring a girl upon walking into a hardware store, because she has awesome colored hair and looks a bit edgy, she calls me "Hun" as I walk out.

That happened to me yesterday - stopped in the hardware store to get some stuff for work, see this cashier who has a look I want and is pretty cute in general, walk part her to do my business at the back counter, walk out, hands full of stuff and I say do you need to see my receipt? and she replies You're good, hun.

Ugh.  Way to completely ruin my admiration of you.

At this point it's needless to say, but I will anyways: I can't stand when people I don't know call me Hun or Sweetie/Sweetheart.  I'm not your hun, bitch.

The Wizard Of Oz Ballet

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Last night I was able to cross something off my bucket list; I went to a ballet!  I don't have any pictures because photos weren't allowed... but I did find this online, which is some of the cast:

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I went with my best girlfriend, Pam and it's safe to say we both enjoyed it.  It was definitely something different for me, but I'm pretty open to all forms of art - I was surely impressed with the dancing in this ballet.  I kind of feel like this was more of an 'amateur' performance - and I only say that because there were a lot of children, in which I felt the dancing would have been a lot more skillful had it been all adults - but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

I look forward to attending another ballet at some point in my life!

Places I Want To Go

Paris, oh la la
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Sydney, Australia
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New Zealand
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Brazil
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New York City (while I've been before, I really want to go with Steve, we'd have a simply wonderful time together)
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Maldives
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Chicago (same notes as NYC)
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Venice, Italy
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Niagara Falls
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I could go on for days and days about all the places I want to go.. these are just a few.  Looking at all these photos in one place, it's clear to me that I have a thing for water :)

Random v.11.02

So... thanks to those who commented, I found out that blogger was down late last week.  My bedroom post was unpublished when I went back to look and I was super confused...it was missing some photos as well -  so, I've reposted it, but it had no comments on it - so if you left one, I didn't get it.  If you haven't seen the post, click HERE to find it.  Not saying you have to go re-comment.. but if you had something awesome to say... you probably need to go say it again, because I love reading awesome.
The post I had scheduled for yesterday (Maui Photos) was in my list twice, both scheduled to post, one missing photos and verbiage.  So I had to fix that so that you could see all the photos... so so silly.  Pretty sure I got all the comments to that post just fine!

I had to take my kitty to the emergency vet on Thursday - I woke up for the day and went to go feed him, only I couldn't find him...turns out he was laying by the back door lifeless... I started bawling.  I woke Steve up and had him come down to try and talk to Boomer.  LONG story short, he has pancreatitis.  EXPENSIVE vet bill later, he is at home where I am trying to care for him and nurse him back to health.  He is on a special bland diet and he had some pain meds that I had to give him... He goes back in tonight for a follow up, less expensive, visit.  I'm hoping all the blood work comes back in his favor.  He finally slept in the bed with us last night, first time since Wednesday night.  Boomer has really put me on a roller coaster ride of emotion.
I had to take Thursday off for that little guy, the vet visit wasn't super fast, then I had to get him meds and give him the meds... so the day was a waste as far as work was concerned.

Then on Friday Boomer and I had a sort of lazy day, for the most part... he was lazier than I was... but I still managed to get in a nap.  I didn't sleep well on Thursday night wondering if he was okay or why he wouldn't come upstairs.

Saturday was a pretty icky day outside as far as weather goes, but I got together with my cousin to talk engagement photos (I'm going to be the photographer for those)... we went and had a pedicure, went to lunch at panera, then went to a purse store in downtown Anoka.  It was a much needed break from the stress of dealing with my cat and worrying about him.  Shannon and I managed to pick some locations and picked out a date to do the photos (with a backup date, in case of bad weather)

Sunday, Steve and I got some shit done around the house... and in the yard.  It's safe to say, we kicked ass.  He mowed the lawn, I took a shovel to all the grass clumps we had growing in the cracks of the sidewalk, then we threw down some fertilizer on the grass (which also kills the dandelions, and we gots lots of 'em)... The next day the weeds were wilting and the lawn already looked better!  We also installed some motion senor lights on the garage - one of the things about the house is some of the stuff doesn't quite make sense to me.  The outside garage lights are controlled from inside the garage - which... makes sense .. kinda - I'd like to be able to turn on the lights from inside the house though, you know, for those dark winter mornings and I can't see anything as I walk out to my car.  So, one of the things we bought at Home Depot on our shopping spree - motion lights!  We actually got 2 of them as there were 2 fixtures that needed replacing.  Anyhow - we got 'em switched out and now we have light when we walk outside!  Not as exciting as the summer light is upon us.. but it will be super exciting as the daylight hours begin to fade.  Ugh, I don't even want to talk about that yet... it's barely spring.

Yesterday, I had to take another day off work to drive 3 hours with Steve to attend a funeral for his grandma.  She was 96 years old!  How awesome is it to make it to that age?!  I got to meet Steve's grandma once last summer - but it was pretty obvious how amazing she was.  As I sat there and listened to all of her friends, family, and people whose lives she touched in a very special way, I couldn't help but get pretty emotional.
It really got me thinking about how I want to be remembered and the impact I want to have on peoples lives... I want people to stand at my funeral and talk about me in a positive way.  It really has me deep inside my head - How can I be a better person?  Is this really a big deal; am I overreacting?  Let it go.
I don't think I've ever mentioned faith, God, or church in any of my posts; maybe one day I'll blog about it... it's a pretty confusing topic to me.
I'm just glad I had the honor of meeting one of God's most amazing people put on this Earth.

So, it was a long weekend as far as not working, but it was a pretty exhausting weekend as far as everything goes!

Back to work now...

Hawaii: Maui

I don't really know where to begin or end this post - I'm just going to upload photos and give some brief explanations about them; in short, Maui is amazing.  

I love how every drink in Hawaii is served with a flower :)

 The absolute BEST restaurant on Maui - Mama's Fish House, worth every penny

 Sunset

Our little rental car (note to anyone traveling to Maui, f you rent a car and want a convertible, you WILL get a Mustang convertible... just FYI, they have NOTHING else.

Surfboards :)

 Cheeseburgers In Paradise 

 Sand Writing...

 We went to a Luau - it was by far the happiest and most memorable time I had in Hawaii.  You're greeted with a fresh, real flower lei that smells divine!  The employees walk around with trays of Mai Tai's that actually taste good!  I'm assuming they use some sort of mix, because we tried a mai tai at every single place we went... and none were good except for the ones at the Luau.

The uncovering of the luau pig 

 The Luau Show - absolutely AMAZING dancing!

 The Road to Hana sights and views:

Black Sand Beach 

 See?  Black Sand on my feet!  There were signs posted all over saying not to swim because of sea creatures (Man o' War, jellyfish, and other dangerous things - this made me sad as I really wanted to recreate this video, which naturally, because it's in B&W, I feel like it takes place on a black sand beach)

 Black Sand Beach from afar

 Rounding the corner to a red sand beach

Seriously - isn't the water color amazing!? 

Red Sand Beach 

 Molokini - where we went Whale watching

We were very lucky to see a lot of whale breach's - but were unable to get any good pictures (I didn't take my camera out on the boat as I was terrified that I'd lose it in the depths of the ocean).  We also heard a pod of whales in competition for a female... it was a pretty surreal experience!  

That, my friends, is a whale's tail.

 The little triangle piece - that's passion fruit - my new addiction

 We shouldn't be so happy on a plane ride home, but ... we had just finished a great vacation together AND... while at the Honolulu airport, I was able to talk to some local grocery stores and find out where I can buy passion fruit in Minnesota!  ♥