life #8

handsome hunds!

2006-10-30T21:44:00.000-08:00

hedwig is with me and ludwig is snuggling his nose into the box behind with brown doxie. they are less than 3 weeks old here so they don't have any noses yet. so sweet!!

our neighbors are doing a fantastic job of providing us a fence. we only have a tiny bit to do. and once the pups get a bit older, they'll probably go with gabe to work and with him on his evening walks. they won't be bored!

french quarter fest rocks!

2006-10-30T21:29:00.000-08:00

we def just happened upon this free event in april and loved it. streets closed for musicians, jackson square filled with old ragtime... pure bliss. we will be back every year!

and a year passes by...

2006-10-30T20:45:00.000-08:00

officially then, i am horrid at communication. here i am, alive and well (ahem?) and trying desperately to find lovely tulips online for bulk delivery. nothing like a little procrastination to spur the creative juices of blogging. in fact, i believe that i started blogging in order to avoid studying in grad school. lol.

yesterday i got a nice 9-miler in with gorgeous sunny skies, low humidity-felt like seattle in summer. a perfect day for a run and i was pleased with my time. i averaged 7:30 miles without being tired or sore at the end (prob should have gone a bit harder, eh? yea, i don't know either.) and i only suffered one major meltdown (double blisters on both of my arches and this damn muscle cramp that would NOT go away). but in the end, i only walked for 3 minutes altogether and this factored into my average time. good deal!

ANYWAY, the real point is to show off one of our little puppies. mini dachshunds that we will get to pick up after thanksgiving. eeeiiii! brother (ludwig) and sister (hedwig) both black and tans.

WEDDING:
yes, i will try to provide some info/links regarding upcoming party. i am getting so excited now! gabe is a very good bride and did all of the invitations (and i do mean every aspect of them) while i was gone in denver-all i had to do was stamp them! lovely boy... we even managed to get registed at belk and jcpenney since his folk want to have a shower. fortunately, we will both be going to the shower so at least i will know someone there! the most exciting part for me is that my dress came in and i was scared it was going to be hideous, but, viola, it is perfect. thank goodness! so now i am not worried about too much because we are going to have fun no matter what happens. even if the place burns to the ground or the food is awful, we are never off course for long in the french quarter!

here is the skeleton for the evening in case i put the wrong addresses on the list or you lost your invitation already or i forgot to mail your invitation and you want to come anyway :D

13 January 2007

St. Louis Hotel Courtyard
Rue Bienville, French Quarter (head down Bourbon from Canal and take a Right on Bieville)
New Orleans, Louisiana

1830 ceremony
1900 reception

http://www.neworleansweddings.com/overview.html
http://www.nola.com/entertainment/
http://www.gambitweekly.com/

that seems to be all the essentials with a bit of an idea as to what is going on in the city... hats are encouraged (any type will do) as i will be sporting a lovely 50's costume. we'll be staying in the quarter at least friday and saturday nights and perhaps thursday as well? not sure yet. gabe and i are leaving sunday morning for hawaii and monday is MLK day for those wanting a long weekend away (and an extra day to recover).

we carved pumpkins on sunday and i took gabe to his first oktoberfest. i think both activities were a blast and i must say that gabe's dancing is really coming along... esp when drunk... esp with oom-pah bands...

luvs.m

and yes, we will be in seattle for thanksgiving, but unfortunately we will be leaving before the seattle marathon. that was definitely a short-sighted plan on my part. next year!

2005-12-28T19:06:00.000-08:00

a day on the slopes at crystal mtn... it is impossible to top mt. rainier!

getting closer to galileo!

2005-12-28T18:12:00.000-08:00

a huge congrats to my friends from surrey satellites for their successful launch of a technology tester... i'm keeping my fingers crossed for the continued good fortune of the mission :D

merry christmas! and i best say happy new year while i'm at it too! i do hope that all are enjoying the holiday and feeling the true spirit of the season. i spent christmas morning organizing closets, running, and packaging hot meals for folks in need. i had a magical christmas eve too... the music, the candlelight, my $3 skirt... it really created a lasting impression for me. i def had a piece of magic and i feel so lucky :D i stayed in mississippi for christmas because i hate to travel twice to seattle within a month and i have a ton of work to do. indeed, i went home for thanksgiving and got to go skiing (amazing!) but then got super sick (crap!). and i have to apologize to everyone in seatown because honestly, i just couldn't get out of bed. i only got up for thanksgiving dinner because i'm sure me mum would have had a fit otherwise... and i didn't go to see my family in order to sleep the entire time! i am starting to feel better now so i won't complain too much. and, knock on wood, i think that the staph infection may actually be gone. muh. only took like 10 rounds of drugs.

so i found this running race that is taking place on saturday and i might just go for it! lol. i'm not so much a runner but maybe it will be fun :D we are having ridiculously brilliant weather (~70f) but i do believe it is supposed to rain on saturday. what could be better than running in the rain? hey, who's up for tahoe in march? i guess i need to look at plane tix too. so much scheduling to work out and not enough facts to make a functional go at it.

anyway, i am too tired to ramble on with much vigor. i had to think really hard for 9 hours today and i am totally zapped. man, i've got the travel bug. i need to go somewhere. does anyone have any ideas? i am up for a grand adventure i think.

i love you all as much as i ever did and miss you even more! your accomplishments and friendship are truly awesome and i hope all is well.

xoxo.m

ps- super belated birthday wishes to dinesh and erika! 21 days late... oooh! ;-)

you guys aren't going to believe it, but i haven't shaved my head or dyed my hair. i know, i know-i feel so outstandingly boring! well, not precisely, but it is a bit strange. i think i will just grow my hair out to the ground :D

2005-11-16T06:17:00.000-08:00

welcome to medieval life... the 'new normal'

from the great beyond

2005-11-14T15:16:00.000-08:00

she's back! from the hell that is surviving a hurricane... having your life turned upside down... losing many friends... watching more people lose it all... it has been 2.5 months since a gal named katrina came to town and it is a mess folks. i am just now on the brink of putting my life back together and i am one of the lucky ones. i have seen so many good things and so many bad things-the amplitude of the sine curve is amazing sometimes. the best part is that i have a job and my house is in the midst of mostly minor repairs and i have gained many friends. i'm starting to manage to avoid spontaneous crying episodes although i have been putting off a visit to my friendly fema official...

the one thing i am thankful for is that time keeps marching on whether i am ready for it to or not. and the only thing that got me through many days were the cute and caring emails from friends halfway around the world-you really cannot know how much your quick emails meant to me in the face of total darkness and despair. i used to think that i was very strong and independent, but this disaster reminds me that i need love and support too. i have felt an acute lonliness that i have never yet know and i hope to never experience again. and the navy has been outstanding to its civilian personnel in ways that most of us could never repay.

things are far from 'normal' and will not be so for several years. that's okay-i just don't think about it too much. i have some things that i need to work on and i think that this storm just helps me to see that quicker than i might otherwise have. it is a situation unlike anything else and one that you cannot fathom (which is a good thing) but in other respects it is just like everything else-change and adaptation are the only constant things in life. we just are lucky enough to experience this to the extreme!

i just wanted to say 'hi' to everyone and let you know i was okay. in the time since katrina i have become an expert roofer (thanks to hurricane rita), shot 3 different types of handguns, cried in front of people that i do not know, provided a shoulder to cry on to more people that i do not know, been helped by people i have never seen nor will ever see again, realized that i should be a home remodeler because i rip out sheet rock like a fiend, and come to understand more about human compassion than i ever hoped to know. so, thank you all from the bottom of my heart for caring enough to ask how things are and remind me that you care. bless you!

luvs.m

ps- HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRISTI! luv you!

sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy

2005-06-14T12:50:00.000-07:00

-Thich Nhat Hanh

2005-06-05T15:26:00.000-07:00

a little more hair and +

aggregates

2005-04-04T12:19:00.000-07:00

it goes without saying that lots of very small, very exciting things add up to very great returns rather quickly! i can see that i have not updated some lovely changes...

i bought a miata! sold the truck in 2 days and found the perfect car to buy in the same number of days. contrary to popular belief, the trunk is pretty good on my wee sportscar. i got a lawn mower in it this weekend and i also managed to get a wheelbarrow home as well (not in the trunk though). and the convertible... ah, need i say more with weather that is mid-70's and full of sun? nah.

leadingly, this weekend was fab-u-lous so i started a (slightly larger than originally planned) project to make a patio off the front of the house so i can sit in both the front and the back... it started out being about 10 ft x 5 ft and has ended up closer to 22 ft x 10 ft. ummmmmm, yep. it is going to be great! hopefully i will finish it before i turn 25 :D .

my good friend cathy eloped a couple weeks ago to a courthouse in exotic gulfport (about 15 minutes away) so we had a bit of a girl's night out this weekend. it was great! we had so much fun just watching other people and i think it did us all a bit of good to get out and away from our yards for a little bit. :D haha-the gardening gurus!

i am also getting some of my house put very slowly together. the kitchen is practically done and now i have branched into the living room and the master bedroom. simultaneously. not such a good idea when you are as scattered as i am but c'est la vie. plus the garden. anyway, i estimate that in about a year i will be settled. :P in the meantime, i have good incense which is almost like being settled.

i am so excited for nick-o's wedding! i can't wait to see everyone! yay! it's so weird to be "homesick" for france and europe and all the awesome people. i think we need to have some type of reunion every year... or maybe someone could just get married every year. yea, maybe we should plan that out.

anyway. that is the bare essentials of what i know for right now... of course there are always lots of projects to dream about and books to read and paintings to be started and poems to be written... so you know that i am always having fun-i just hope everyone else is too!

hugs and kisses.m :D

half-size

2005-03-05T18:05:00.000-08:00

what's up! yay! i'm home again and it is so nice to be here... dude, i have so much that i want to do/organize so i decided to fix the colors on my blog. that's what i call productivity, baby :D

i found this totally wikid import store in gulfport and, gasp!, i found the perfect armoire that just happens to be on clearance-what luck! it is beautiful and will fit perfectly. i didn't buy it today because i wanted to come home and take measurements (again) just to be sure that it will fit. i guess i will buy it sometime next week after i figure out how heavy it is going to be... i may have to enlist some help... well, maybe. i bet i can do it with a hand-truck.

since this armoire is probably the last really big item that i need to pick up, i think it is time to sell le truck. the price of gas is just going to go up and although it is cool to have, i would like to be more reasonable. i'm thinking miata, baby... ahhh. so, anybody want to buy my truck? i found a black miata in the paper today that looked enticing... oh, i need to find out their mpg and stuff though first. and i also need to see if i can fashion my surfboard to it... nark.

tomorrow is fast sunday and it looks like i have a lot on my plate to sort out. last week was a little heart-wrenching in that a lot of things that i had put away, suddenly came flying out of the cupboard quite unintentionally. and as much as i would have liked for things in the past to have played out differently, it comes down to the very simple fact that past actions are totally unchangeable in the present. i really thought that i was okay with it (and i do accept the way things currently are because that is how i have been operating for a little while now), but it appears that the things (people/experiences/relationships) that i value have not changed as nearly as much as i had originally thought. this is strange because one week ago, everything was going smoothly as i was preparing for vegas and then, bam! everything goes nuts :D what is that saying about letting something you love go and if it returns then it is yours to keep? unfortunately, that is quite the risky proposition since the butterfly most likely will not have anywhere to return to once it has sorted out the center of its universe... well, i guess in that situation another center will have to be envisioned and created. rar. suckiness.

my nose hurts! both sides are just hosed! i hope we get a good stretch of rain here soon or i may never be able to blow my nose again. right. this is not gross-it is just a simple fact of life. and blood is a funny thing-it is so slimy and gelatinous and i wonder if everyone's blood tastes the same? not that i really want to find out. in fact, THAT is pretty disgusting :D

ah yes, so now i am on to this book about string theory and it is proving to be rather interesting. i wish i was a physicist-maybe i will just re-do my education and finish my phd in physics. lol. maybe not! but i do love learning about it. anyway, i'll let you know more about string theory as i get more into it...

take care! many hugs! many smiles!
m

einstein

2005-03-03T23:05:00.000-08:00

dude. i was just relating how cool einstein is yesterday and what do you know, bam! he pops up again today. this morning at breakfast i had the opportunity to learn about W. that is not the crazy W that is attempting to run our country at the moment, but the W in W*e^W=x. it's a pretty freakin cool thing and it took me a minute to get back into theoretical math, but i did enjoy the challenge. and it is neat because although it does have many of the same characteristics as the more simple e^u=x, it is different in 1/e because they will both be approaching 0 but the former will do it from the negative side and the latter will approach it from the positive side.

i spent the late lunch hour learning about the Hubble constant and the acceleration of the universe. now, THAT was freakin fantastic! i don't remember learning about the Hubble constant last year, but that doesn't exactly mean that we didn't cover it :D i am such a great student! hehe.

oh, right, and einstein fits into the puzzle because of his theory of relativity which has to do with things moving through space. see, the universe can expand faster than the speed of light because it is not constrained by einstein's theory because space IS space, it is not moving through space.

other than that, i discovered the marvel of modern OTC medicine! those heat patches that you can buy really do work wonders! i have used them all day on my hip (and taken 3 very long, hot baths) and i can finally put some weight on it. yay! i also got a pair of heels since i am used to wearing those everyday and i only brought flats on this trip anticipating all the walking i would be doing... craziness. i also got m&m stuff for my girls at work and an m&m bear for my mum and i think that is all. it was so nice and sunny that i just sat on a ledge for a bit and watched everybody go by-a nice day of rest.

i also decided that i do not know anything. as usual, i live by a certain set of assumptions that given a certain circumstance a, then i would proceed by living in way b. but everytime i make that statement or even manage to formulate it in my head, then the situation arises and it turns out that b makes no sense at all and the whole thing goes out the window. so, i guess that means that the only way to survive is realize that everything you thought to be true, is false, and therefore you really shouldn't think at all! ha! just kidding of course (on some level). anyway, sleepy time for me-i have a lot more learning to do tomorrow and my head needs a rest now :D

xoxo.m

ps-i can't wait to go home and make something. i am feeling full of 'art' and i am just itching to put something on paper or canvas or material or... something!

seeing red

2005-03-02T21:23:00.000-08:00

it is a good thing that i donated blood last week when my iron count was amazing because after all these bloody noses, i don't know that i have any left! the funniest is when BOTH sides start at the same time. all i can do is roll my eyes and try not to laugh (increases the blood flow). fortunately my blood-clotting skills are superb :D

today was excellent. i woke up promptly at 4:30am because that is what time (in the central time zone) i wake up without an alarm clock. so i worked out because i really could not think of anything better and boy was it beautiful outside! i love the desert and you just cannot beat a sunrise... ahh. unfortunately, one of my hips has been having issues and of course today the other one literally almost went out. something odd with the joint i guess. which is too bad because i was psyched to go skiing tomorrow. i'll see in the morning but given the current condition, it may take a minor miracle. i also saw an ad for sky diving and i don't know why i didn't think about that earlier. i guess i'll put that on the list of to-do's for next time i come here :D

do you know who is cool? lionel richie. well, um, i don't actually know if he is cool in person and i don't actually know anything about him, but his music rocks. you know who is really cool is albert einstein. now HE is cool. and the beatles have a good song too- "penny lane". i threw a penny into a fountain today while i was listening to that song. it would have been rude not to i think. and yes, i realize that the song has nothing to do with pennies but it works for me :O

ah, yes, i figured out how to post pictures today. that was exciting since i don't really have storage space on the web and since this blog isn't really a website... but the program that blogger is associated with lets you do it for free so i was excited to try it out (duh, can you tell?!). but i want to figure out how to make them not be an in-line post. should be easy enough-just need to look at the html behind this thing... and change the colors... tomorrow kids. i need to sleep before i need some drugs for this hip (what, am i like 86 or something? dude.) and you can bet that i do not want to go cruising down the strip in my care bear jammy's (although they are too cute :D ).

night night!

hugs.m

2005-03-02T15:22:00.000-08:00

viva las vegas!

2005-03-02T14:53:00.000-08:00

old swimming buddy from washington, gary (currently of atlanta), came to see me swim in auburn, alabama

2005-03-02T14:44:00.000-08:00

enjoying a little mississippi sea wolves hockey action with co-worker josh (pic taken by his lovely wife samantha)

2005-03-02T14:43:00.000-08:00

the progression that starts with no hair...

2005-03-02T14:42:00.000-08:00

my house and my wee truck!

are you ready?

2005-03-01T23:13:00.000-08:00

kids! howzit! since i am no longer living in france, a new page must be turned in the book of blogs... i have a lot of work to do to get this thing stylin' and get y'all up to speed, but i'll do my best :D

i am here in vegas and leaning against these pillows that are just the most fantastic thing ever! holy buckets, mate! some things are overrated: sleep is sometimes, having a boyfriend is, working definitely is, but these pillows! sheesh, these are just about the nicest things ever.

ah, anyway, it's been awhile...

i bought a house randomly one day and last week i moved in! it's a great little thing with loads of light and windows and i am very happy there. it has lots of good energy and it is such a positive little thing-my truck even fits in the garage! yay!

of course, since i was not planning on buying a house, i bought a surfboard off of ebay the day before that... fantastic though. i am stoked and it turns out that there are several other cats at work that surf (one is my super big boss billy and the other is a new guy to n2, bob, who does surf board repairs for free and he gives me pommelos everyday) i am excited to go but now i just need to find a wetsuit in my size for not too much money. me=poor.

what else... well, i had some training in xml which was really cool and pretty soon here i am going to start training for dba certification. i'm also fixing to start vb and refreshing my java skills. that is more where i am headed in my job for right now and that is exactly where i want to be. i need to sharpen these skills to add to my gis repertoire and then i can polish my rs skills and satellite knowledge-it's a long road but i'll get there eventually.

dude, i just took a shower and got a huge bloody nose. vegas must have a much different climate than mississippi (ding, ding, ding-you've won the grand prize!) so i'm just glad i wasn't typing! lol.

uh, swimming is kinda taking a hit right now... everytime i go to the er i am just wiped. i had a meet in auburn, al and my old swimming buddy and his family came to say 'hi' from atlanta-it was just too cool! i swam probably better than i expected to after having been in the er the week before, but still not where i need to be. and then moving, and now traveling-argh! ah, well, c'est la vie. i'll get there...

i seriously almost missed the plane here. i forgot about rush hour traffic in new orleans and walked into the airport at 7:30 with my flight leaving at 8:00-nice! oh well, i made it :D

you know, aside from all these events, things are okay. i have been struggling a little because of all the recent upheaval and i am not so good at being in flux. i really need to have a stable environment so that i have an anchor to tie to while i am off flying around in the sky. however, i do think that it has also been a 'good' uncomfortable phase because it is the refining fire that keeps my life in order and my priorities straight within my personal, professional, and spiritual worlds. i guess my ego is so much in flux all the time that i am always defining and redefining who i am and where i am going. i am striving to be comfortable with my ugly parts because i know that those who truly care about me do not see the ickiness that i do-it's just finding those true friends that can be the challenge! the part that has truly redefined how i approach life has been to have thankful heart. i believe that everything is a blessing even if it seems opposite or difficult in the moment. i am here for only this time and i am thankful for the time that i have to be 24. it means that i will make a lot of mistakes and it also means that i have so many opportunities for growth! and since i must be on about life #8, i gotta make the most of it :D

i hope you are all doing well and following your dreams... or maybe, you are just starting to figure out what your next dream is... either way, do have fun because it is only in the journey that we truly live our lives-the destination is only the means to the end!

take care! many hugs and big smiles! i miss you all but i keep you close in my heart!

luv.m

here are my new coordinates:
9926 Honalo Place
Diamondhead, MS 39525
228.255.8567

all gifts, packages and cards are greatly appreciated and much anticipated! oh! and hurricane ivan is officially not a threat anymore :D lol.