Saturday, May 26, 2007

Good Start to the Weekend

My office closed a little early yesterday for the holiday weekend, which was nice! I haven't been feeling great lately, so I came home, plopped myself on the couch, and watched "Gone with the Wind" all the way through for the first time. I've seen the beginning part before, but never the whole thing. For some reason I thought it was like seven hours, but it was only four. Definitely worth the time investment.

Then we picked up pizza and went over to my friend's house to visit her new three-week-old baby. He was super-cute and snugly!

Tonight we are having my mom and dad over for a barbecue to showcase the skills we learned in the class we took last month. Should be fun. We're heading out to the store now to get our supplies!

Thursday, May 24, 2007

The Lowdown

Before I go into today's vacation highlights, was that a freakin' awesome episode of "Lost" last night or what??! I can't believe we have to wait until February for more! Steve and I are planning to re-watch seasons one and two over the summer, since we have the DVDs. Hopefully we'll gain some more insights and get closer to solving the mysteries!

Today's vacation highlights will be short and sweet. First up: shopping. The shopping was good, especially for jewelry. Other things were not priced quite as inexpensively as I imagined. I bargained a pretty excellent price on a mystic topaz ring, but changed my mind at the last minute. I ended up buying a Mexican fire opal ring and Mexican fire opal earrings. I also got some very unique beaded earrings that are sort of shaped like a lady wearing a dress. I guess photos might be useful here, but I don't have any right now. Maybe I'll take one when I wear them next.

The accommodations: We got upgraded to a really nice room with a balcony. That was enjoyable, except that our neighbors were out on their balcony most of the time smoking. Having a window really makes all the difference, as I have previously cruised without one and felt like I was in a cave.


The food: It was good. However, I would say that the quantity was more impressive than the quality. The buffet area featured very diverse and plentiful offerings. The dining room food was good too. We were seated at a booth with another couple our age from Las Vegas who were celebrating their honeymoon. They were lots of fun! Here's a picture of the fancy midnight buffet on one of the formal nights:

The ports: My favorite was Puerto Vallarta. We were docked there the longest, and were able to do the most activities there.

Mazatlan was fun as well. I think they probably had the best jewelry shopping in their "Golden Zone." We spent a few hours at Senor Frogs there, and that was obviously a good time.

We only had a few hours in Cabo, and I think that was a good thing. We both found it to be very boring. Not a lot to do other than get plastered in the sweltering heat. Cabo had the most beggars on the streets. You could not walk five feet without someone asking you to buy a whistle or a silver bracelet or even drugs!! Yes, we were propositioned twice there! I think we should have done an excursion through the cruise in Cabo, cause we really were not impressed with what we saw. I should also add that every single person we've talked to who's been there absolutely loved it, so perhaps we just caught it on an off day?! Just so Cabo doesn't get mad at me for this poor review, here is a picture of Steve with some festive lizards there:

The weather: It was extremely windy and a bit chilly when we boarded in Long Beach. The next day at sea was overcast and the waters were choppy. It was the same on our last sea day on the way home. Other than that, it was sunny and about 90 degrees.

All in all, I found the cruise to be a great value, and I would definitely vacation with Carnival again. I'm sure everyone's probably totally bored of my vacation talk, so I think this will do it unless I think of some other fascinating point I left out.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Las Caletas

Today's vacation highlight is Las Caletas!

In Puerto Vallarta, we boarded a catamaran and headed to the beach. The crew was fantastic! They were so entertaining and kept the drinks from the free open bar flowing. Here we are enjoying some local Pacifico brew:


We cruised up the beautiful coast and saw tons of cool things on the way, including a whale, a few dolphins, stingrays and pelicans:


Las Caletas is now sort of a resort, but it used to be the home of famous director John Huston. It's right near where he filmed the movie "Night of the Iguana." I've never seen it, but it's on my Netflix queue now, as like every single person mentions it when talking about Puerto Vallarta.

When we got there, we were greeted by more free, open bars (!) and a lovely buffet of delicious, authentic Mexican food. On the beach, we had several hours to do whatever we wanted, including snorkeling, kayaking, lounging in the hammocks hung in the trees, tanning on the beach or playing with the critters that make their home there. One such critter is Tango, the monkey:

Some info about Tango: He is five, has three wives, likes to eat worms and is afraid of people wearing sunglasses! Tango is such an interesting guy!

After enjoying the beach, we participated in a nature hike up the hills at Las Caletas. We got to see some pretty interesting plants, like some orchids growing out of the sides of the trees!

We headed back to the port on the catamaran after a fabulous afternoon:

Before boarding the ship, we had a nice time checking out downtown Puerto Vallarta. If you ever find yourself in the area, I would definitely recommend a visit to Las Caletas!

Monday, May 21, 2007

Towel-gami

I'm having a hard time getting used to being on land! I constantly feel like I'm swaying. And that was exacerbated by the earthquake we had yesterday afternoon!

I don't really feel like spending two hours writing a summary of our trip, so I think I'll try to mention some highlights over the next few days. Today's highlight is towel folding!!

On Carnival, the cabin stewards are trained in the fantastic art of towel folding. Our steward surprised us a few times with these cool critters:



I thought they were so fun, I dragged Steve to a class they had on the last day to teach towel folding. It was great! here are some of our creations:




And I bought a book, so if you ever come and stay at my house, you might have a little towel critter waiting to greet you!

Sunday, May 20, 2007

I'm back!


We're back from the cruise! Here's a picture of me sipping a margarita at Senor Frog's in Mazatlan. I'll post more when we're more settled in!

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Pizza Time

Just wanted to give a shout out to my friends at Metro Pizza! It’s a little hole-in-the-wall down the street from my house. It’s strictly for delivery/pick-up. It’s in a very gross little shopping center and I never in a million years would have expected that I would enjoy the establishment as much as I do.

Their prices are fantastic! Tonight we ordered two medium two-topping pizzas for $16 (that’s total, not each) – And they came with a two-liter bottle of soda! Metro leaves coupons on our doorstep all the time. They never collect them and the coupons never expire. Our neighbors have told us that they pretty much just make up whatever price they want when they call in: “Um, I have a coupon here for a large for $10.”

Anyway, Metro is so tasty and so prompt with its delivery! If you are local and are looking for some cheap, delicious pizza, I really recommend giving them a call.

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Early Bird

So, why am I blogging before 6 a.m.? I just can't sleep! I don't know if it's vacation excitement or work anxiety. I have a lot to do before we leave on Sunday.

Today I've already scrapbooked two pages, written a thank-you note, made a Mother's Day card, made coffee, started a load of laundry, cuddled with my kitties and watched part of yesterday's "Martha."

Speaking of Martha, here's a photo of my completed tissue paper bouquet. Ugh, it was stressful to make! I am actually quite disappointed in Martha; the instructions were disgracefully unclear.


We had a really good weekend. We did TONS of yard work. A bunch of our plants died in the frost this winter, so we planted some new roses, impatiens and fuchsia. I also planted some veggies. This year we have "celebrity" tomatoes, miniature red bell peppers, pumpkins, zucchini and cucumbers.

Also, I made bread on Saturday. I used the famous "no-knead" recipe that's been circling around the Internet lately. It was quite good! I don't have a photo, because Steve and I ate the entire loaf with some olive oil dip for dinner on Saturday.

We saw the musical "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" after that. It was a great show and really hilarious! I recommend that everybody see it if you have the chance.

Well, perhaps I'll go jump in the shower and get moving!

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Martha at Michaels

I treated myself tonight with a trip to Michaels. Martha has been hyping her new product line there, and I wanted to check it out for myself. I must say that she did not disappoint!

She has a whole aisle devoted to her stuff, and the presentation is lovely. I wanted everything, but unfortunately I needed nothing. I ended up buying a kit to make a bouquet of tissue paper flowers.

Here's a summary of my personal highlights:

-- Glitter! Really fine, pretty glitter in a lovely array of colors. And in big containers! Usually glitter this nice comes in teeny, tiny expensive containers.
-- Felt embellishments. I thought the strawberries were particularly cute.
-- Neat containers to use when presenting food as a gift, like special cupcake boxes and cookie bags.
-- Party kits to help make a pretty, festive table when celebrating.
-- Dainty eyelet stationary.
-- A variety of shadowboxes, including some petite little ones.
-- Great storage containers (a little expensive, though).
-- Fantastic patterned scrapbook papers and gigantic albums with paper to fit.
-- Perfect wrapping and tissue papers.

... and so much more! I can't wait to actually need some supplies!

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Someone recommended the tilapia at Costco to me. I bought some to make tonight and it was really good! I just cooked it up in a pan with some olive oil and Lawry's seasoned salt. Simple, quick and delicious!