a quick note from Thailand

I'm in Thailand! I arrived late Sunday night with Anneka, Lance, Jared and Jane. We've been here 3 days now and are having lots of fun. I'll post more about our adventures when I get back. Some of the highlights, so far:
--elephant ride
--thai massages (only $9/hr!)
--food
--Yo-Yo candy
--chocolate covered cashew nuts

Some of the drawbacks to our trip so far:
--pouring rain yesterday and all clouds so far
--crazy taxi driver from Ao Nang to Khao Lak
--smells of sewage

We're leaving for a 3-day liveaboard dive trip tomorrow morning! It should be fun and I'm hoping for more sun.

randomly generated photo

Tami has asked that I post the 4th picture inside my 4th photo folder. So here it is. This is a beach in Tulum, Mexico (couple hours south of Cancun). I was here the beginning of July 2005 when I took a week of vacation from temporarily ending my job at AHLA and starting at a new job at Nippon. I was only at that job for a year and I'm back at AHLA. Anyway, Seth and I were at this beach and we were amazed at how beautiful it was and how there were no people to see anywhere. I wouldn't mind going back here. I wouldn't mind being on vacation right now, but knowing that I will be in Thailand in less than a month makes me happy!

long beach, ca

I was in Long Beach, CA last weekend for a get-away weekend. I originally planned the trip around the marathon that was happening there, but I hurt my hip over the summer and couldn't complete my training and so I couldn't do the marathon. (I'm just now finally able to start running a little.) Leslie, Tish and Brett all came down there with me to hang out. It was fun to spend time with family. Anneka hung out with us for a day and we explored Long Beach together. This is down by the marina. We luckily had really nice weather.

We thought Leslie should get these sunglasses.

The marathon had an expo on Saturday that we walked through. They had little give-aways of energy bars and drinks and had clothes and shoes for sale. But then we saw people walking around with 1/2 gallon containers of Odwalla juice. We found that booth right away and got the same thing. We couldn't believe they were giving away so much juice. We all agreed that this was the best give-away. It was so good.

We had yummy mexican for dinner with the lovebirds.

We went to church with Anneka in Santa Monica on Sunday and then went down to the beach afterwards. It was pretty windy, but still nice to be on the beach for a little. We also spent time with our friends Krista and Jen, but we didn't get any pictures. It was fun to catch up with them, too, since we hadn't seen them for over 10 years.

another story

I think this is funny, so I'm going to share it. I just received a call at work from an engineer that works in a mill in Alabama. This is what he said, "Did you just call me?" I said, no. He says, "Oh, that's strange, I just had a voicemail from a girl named Ann and it said to call me back. It was a happy voice and I thought it must have been you." So, I said, sorry, not me. And then he says, "Darn, I guess that means I don't have a hot date for tonight."

And then he said that he wanted to ask me about something else anyway and then I gave him that answer (nice cover-up). Oh man, I can't believe this guy. Let me tell you about him a little more, I think he's in his early 40s and smokes non-stop. I met him earlier this year when I was at his mill completing a study, for him. While I was there, he kept making comments that I had to laugh off, but really were inappropriate. Like, you look just like my ex-girlfriend, I can't get over how much you remind me of her. And another one about my arms being toned and then him asking me if I work out. Just because there aren't a lot of female engineers that work in paper mills doesn't mean he can just say whatever he wants to me, especially since when I met him I told him I was married. None of the guys that work here get hit on by female engineers, at least not that I know of, maybe they do and I just don't know about it. There is one engineer who is dating a secretary from a mill in Columbia. I just hope I don't have to go back to that mill....

motorcycles and roses

I was in Portland on Saturday and hung out with my friend, Craig. He rides a sports bike and he and his friend were doing a "taste" of racing at the raceway in Portland. Which allows amateur riders to have some time on the raceway in-between some races that were going on. I haven't ever been to anything like this before and being the judgemental person that I am, had always thought that raceways were pretty trashy. I was wrong. I was impressed with the guys and girls out there riding. They go so fast! I thought I would have been more scared for them and luckily, I didn't see any crashes. I tried getting them in a video and took this one, so you can see what it was like (these were the "taste" guys, not the pros). I don't even know if they were in it because it was so hard to tell who was who.

They even almost talked me into going on a ride in one of the sidecars. They race, too, but they had another taste thing for being able to sit in the sidecar. I decided against it when I walked by the area where all the sidecar drivers were hanging out. They looked too scary...maybe next time. Plus, I would probably get motion sickness, so I would need to take some medicine first.

We also stopped by the rose gardens, since I haven't ever been to them before. All the roses were in bloom and were so pretty. There was only one color of rose that smelled very strongly, which surprised me. Shouldn't all roses HAVE to smell good?

julie's big 18!

My "little" sister Julie turned 18 on Friday. It's wierd. I remember changing her diaper. Oh well. Leah and I drove down to help her celebrate and Corinne and Nathan came up from Vancouver, too. It was only the girls that got to go to DQ to get blizzards and french fries, in a true 18th birthday party fashion. Even mom came with us. We had so much fun and laughed so much while we were there. I think the other people there thought we were crazy, but we were ok with that. We decided to take a bunch of pictures and you'll see there is a theme in them, after the first one.

We also stopped by the new Great Wolf Lodge, it's pretty close to where my parents live. It was impressive, they had some really nice features, but they also had some pretty cheezy things, too, like fake trees with faces, alongside a realistic looking wolf. I think they should have just stuck with the realistic animals/plants. The water park that is inside looks pretty nice, too. But, you have to stay there to go inside of it. In the huge lobby area, they have a bunch of couches and coffee tables with games for people to play. We were going to stay around and play a game, but we had to get back home. I think we should have our next family gathering there in the lobby and see if they even notice.

Happy Birthday, Ju!

jeff hanson

I saw Jeff Hanson play at chop suey last night. He is such a unique musician and I love his sound. He has a few songs on his myspace page, you should take a listen. You'll become addicted...I have already listened to those songs over and over again since last week. And now I have his latest cd, madam owl, so I can listen to it over and over again....I like getting new, great cds. Bart came with me and we both really enjoyed his set. I especially liked the songs he played with the band. I think it's because there was more background, so his voice wasn't so prominent. That was the only kind of weird thing because when he talks, he has just a normal voice but when he sings it is really, really high. Anyway, I don't know anything about singing voices, I just think it's nice to have something that sounds different and good at the same time. I took a short video of one of his songs...my battery ran out.